administration. That state took "time by the forelock," and at once nominated Jackson for the next president. He resigned his seat in the United States Senate to conduct his campaign for the next election. This raised at once personal animosities, ambitions and partisans, which easily disturbed the peaceful administration of the government. Jackson was not a man to soften any personal prejudice, or yield any personal ambitions; Adams was not a man to yield any conscientious conviction or swerve from any duty. Two strong men could not well be more unlike in character, education and purpose in life. One was educated, broad, generous, high-minded; the other was natural, concentrated, passionate, generous to his friends, and vindictive to his supposed enemies. They agreed in party affiliation, but Jackson's defeat put him upon his military spirit, and he marshalled his forces for a battle.

Mr. Adams was the first man made president, who had no personal part in the revolution. Yet he was born of its spirit and true to its principles. No man ever understood better its fundamental principles, or gave them a heartier devotion, or a grander illustration in his life. No man ever threw upon them a clearer light from a great intellect and a noble heart.

Mr. Adams was the second president from the northern states, his father being the first. The four others were from Virginia. Three southern candidates ran against him and no northern one.

The removing and appointing power of the president is very great; yet Mr. Adams "made but two removals, both from unquestionable causes; and in his new appointments, he was scrupulous in selecting candidates whose talents were adapted to the public service." He appointed some federalists to office, but was severely censured by his southern democratic friends for It was his intention invariably to make ability and integrity the qualifications for office.

In his first message, Mr. Adams made several important recommendations: "The maturing into a permanent and regular system the application of all the superfluous revenues of the Union to internal improvement;""the establishment of a uni

form standard of weights and measures;" "the establishment of a naval school of instruction for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers;" "the establishment of a national university," which had been recommended by Washington.

In all these recommendations, he was looking to the permanence, progress and character of the nation. He was not simply playing president for the glory of it, he was nation building He was a national man; had studied national affairs in this country and Europe, in history and in the nature of men, all his life, and now ripened, conscientious and large-hearted, he was applying his knowledge, patriotism and humanity, to the conduct and development of the national character and resources. He was too clear-seeing, downright and genuine to be understood by the average politicians and people of his day, unless they were those who came into daily intercourse with him. He would not truckle; he would not conciliate to the loss of self-respect; he would not yield to partisan wrong; so he was misunderstood, maligned, abused, by multitudes in high places and low, incapable of appreciating his disinterested, manly and dignified character. In that early day he wanted to protect and encourage American manufactures; wanted a system of internal improvements; wanted a civil service based on merit; a uniform system of weights and measures, a subject which he had deeply studied, a written report of which had gained him great credit in Europe; wanted a naval academy and a national university, all of which are level with the best thought of our time. On these things, and many more, he was simply fifty years in advance of his age. Indeed, his was the colossal mind of his time, enriched beyond any of his countrymen in political learning, and fired with a noble patriotism.

During Mr. Adams' administration, the Marquis de Lafayette visited the United States for the last time. Congress desired to send a ship for him, but he preferred to come in a less formal way. He arrived in New York on the fifteenth of August, 1824. His reception in New York was sublime and brilliant in the extreme. He proceeded from New York on a tour through the United States, which was everywhere a pageant

and an ovation. The people gathered en masse from hamlet, village and city to welcome and honor him. Every possible form of demonstration was made to assure him of the love of the American people for their nation's benefactor and guest.

On the seventeenth of June, 1825, the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, he assisted in laying the corner stone of the Bunker Hill monument, which now stands a grand granite story-teller of that great event.

On the seventh of September, 1825, he took his leave of a grateful people, in the president's house at Washington, in the midst of the officers of the government, civil and military. President Adams addressed him in golden words which will never die, and he responded in a tender, felicitous and impressive farewell, which unborn generations will read with tearful eyes. He then threw himself into the arms of the president and gave free vent to sobs and tears, the whole assembly joining with him. As he left the president he said, in broken accents, "God bless you," and then reached out his hands for the embraces of the assembly, and for a little while the "hero was lost in the father and friend."

In a little while the boat was ready that was to convey him down the river to the Brandywine, which frigate Congress had provided to take him home.

When the boat reached Mount Vernon, Lafayette went in silence to the tomb of Washington. "All hearts beat in unison with the veteran's bosom as he looked for the last time on the sepulcher which contained the ashes of the first of men. spoke not, but appeared absorbed in the mighty recollections which the place and the occasion inspired."

He

After this he returned to the boat, which proceeded to the Brandywine, where the secretaries and escorts took leave of him, and he went on board and departed from the country he had loved and had offered his life to found and make free.

While Mr. Adams was president, July 4, 1826, his father, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, gave up this life, in the midst of the festivities of the nation's jubilee.

His mother had died in 1818. Mr. Adams was deeply moved

by these events. He had a profound regard for his great and honored parents.

Mr. Adams' administration closed as it began and was carried through, with the utmost purity, dignity and political wisdom. It was devoted to a pure public service and a zealous and patriotic development of the national resources and charFrom the beginning it was opposed by unscrupulous, vindictive and partisan men and measures, which, in the light of after developments, only set forth his worth in a richer light. By falsity, malice and unscrupulous personal ambition, the people were deceived in relation to him and the purity and wisdom of his administration, and so he was remanded to the quiet of Quincy at the close of his one term of service as president. Now it is known to all unbiased students of history that our country has had no wiser or purer administration than that of John Quincy Adams.

REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS.

Mr. Adams remained in retirement only about a year. In the autumn of 1830, it began to be talked that the people of Plymouth county would like to have the ex-president represent them in Congress. Impossible, thought some men, who stood more on dignity than patriotic service. Would he accept an election to the House of Representatives? asked a great many. Some thought it would be improper; some thought it would be degrading; some thought it would be a noble thing to do. So was the public mind divided. But in due time he received the nomination, and said in a letter of response: "I am not aware of any sound principle which would justify me in withholding my services from my fellow citizens." So he was elected, and in December, 1831, took his seat in the lower House of Congress. And his reputation did not suffer by this patriotic acceptance of a post of heavy labor, but was immeasurably advanced by it. He exhibited a fund of knowledge, so vast and profound; a familiarity so perfect with nearly every topic which claimed the attention of Congress; he could bring forth from his well-replenished store of memory so vast an array of facts, shedding light

upon subjects deeply obscured to others; displayed such readiness and power in debate, pouring out streams of purest eloquence, or launching forth the most scathing denunciations, when he deemed them called for-that his most bitter opposers, while trembling before his sarcasm, and dreading his assaults, could not but grant him the meed of their highest admiration. Well did he deserve the title conferred upon him, by general consent, of "The Old Man Eloquent."

He was at once made chairman of the committee of manufactures; then a most important committee, as it involved the question of tariff, which separated the north and south. The northern manufacturers wanted their goods protected against a ruinous competition, while the southern planters wanted free trade. The difference was so great, and the discussion of it so violent, that some feared it would break up the Union. Mr. Adams on this committee urged moderation upon both sides; and with his profound knowledge of the whole subject, and all the interests involved, he was able to keep a living harmony between them, by adjusting the tariff to the diverse conditions of the whole country.

He was able to be the great pacificator on this vexed subject. In 1835, the people of Texas, then a province of Mexico, took up arms against the Mexican government. In essence, it was a rebellion. The inhabitants of Texas were, for the most part, emigrants from the south and southwestern states of our Union, and some of them emigrants for their country's good. Mexico had abolished slavery, so that Texas was free territory. These emigrants from the southern part of the Union, desired to reëstablish slavery in Texas. It was easy to find an occasion for war against their adopted country, for this purpose. The plan was to get up a war, declare independence, get help from the United States to maintain it; annex to the United States, and so become a slave country again. And the plan carried in every particular.

General Jackson, president at that time, sent troops to the border, ostensibly to see that the Indians did not assist the Mexicans. A call was made on Congress for a million of dollars to