Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams by William H. Seward (easy books to read txt) 📕

measure of his reign has been wrong. It seems they don't like Pinckney. They think he is no friend to that country, and too much of a French Jacobin. They wanted to work up some idea or other of introducing another in his place, but our young politician [Footnote: J. Q. Adams.] saw into them too deeply to be duped. At his last visit to Court, the King passed him without speaking to him, which, you know, will be remarked by courtiers of all nations. I am glad of it; for I would not have my son go so far as Mr. Jay, and affirm the friendly disposition of that country to this. I know better. I know their jealousy, envy, hatred, and revenge, covered under pretended contempt."

While President Adams cherished no partialities for Great Britain, and had no desire to promote her especial interest, he was compelled by the force of circumstances, during his administration to assume a hostile attitude towards France. The French Directory, chagrined at the failure of all attempts to induce the government of the United States to abandon its neutrality and take up arms in their behalf against the Allied Sovereigns, and deeply incensed at the treaty recently concluded between England and the United States, resorted to retaliatory measures. They adopted commercial regulations designed to cripple and destroy our foreign trade. They passed an ordinance authorizing, in certain cases, the seizure and confiscation of American vessels and cargoes. They refused to receive Mr. Pinckney, the American minister, and ordered him peremptorily to leave France.

Mr. Adams convened Congress, by proclamation, on the 15th of June, 1797, and in his message laid before that body a lucid statement of the aggressions of the French Directory. Congress made advances, with a view to a reconciliation with France. But failing in this attempt, immediate and vigorous measures were adopted to place the country in a condition for war. A small standing army was authorized. The command was tendered to Gen. Washington, who accepted of it with alacrity, sanctioning as he did these defensive measures of the government. Steps were taken for a naval armament, and the capture of French vessels authorized. These energetic demonstrations produced their desired effect. The war proceeded no farther than a few collisions at sea. The French Directory became alarmed, and made overtures of peace.

Washington did not survive to witness the restoration of amicable relations with France. On the 14th of December, 1799, after a brief illness, he departed this life, at Mount Vernon, aged sixty-eight years. On receiving this mournful intelligence, Congress, then in session at Philadelphia, passed the following resolution: -

"Resolved, That the Speaker's chair should be shrouded in black; that the members should wear black during the session, and that a joint committee, from the Senate and the House, be appointed to devise the most suitable manner of paying honor to the memory of the Man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Testimonials of sorrow were exhibited, and funeral orations and eulogies were delivered, throughout the United States. The Father of his Country slept in death, and an entire people mourned his departure!

On assuming the duties of the Presidency, the elder Adams found the finances of the country in a condition of the most deplorable prostration. To sustain the government in this department, it was deemed indispensable to establish a system of direct taxation, by internal duties. This produced great dissatisfaction throughout the Union. An "alien law" was passed, which empowered the President to banish from the United States, any foreigner whom he should consider dangerous to the peace and safety of the country. And a "sedition law," imposing fine and imprisonment for "any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government of the United States, or either house of Congress, or the President."

These measures are not justly chargeable to John Adams. They were not recommended nor desired by him; but were brought forward and urged by Gen. Hamilton and his friends. Nevertheless upon Mr. Adams was heaped the odium they excited. The leading measures of his administration - the demonstration against France; the standing army; the direct taxation; the alien and sedition laws - all tended to injure his popularity with the mass of the people, and to destroy his prospects of a re-election to the presidency. The perplexities he was compelled to encounter during his administration, may be conceived on perusal of his language in a letter dated March 17, 1797: -

"From the situation where I now am, I see a scene of ambition beyond all my former suspicions or imaginations; an emulation which will turn our government topsy-turvy. Jealousies and rivalries have been my theme, and checks and balances as their antidotes, till I am ashamed to repeat the words; but they never stared me in the face in such horrid forms as at present. I see how the thing is going. At the next election England will set up Jay or Hamilton, and France Jefferson, and all the corruption of Poland will be introduced; unless the American spirit should rise and say, we will have neither John Bull nor Louis Baboon."

In 1800, the seat of government was removed to Washington. In taking possession of the President's house, Mr. Adams bestowed a benediction on it, which must ever meet with a response from all American hearts - " Before I end my letter, I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house, and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!" A description of the house and the city, at that time, is furnished in a letter from Mrs. Adams to her daughter, written in November, 1800: -

"I arrived here on Sunday last, and without meeting any accident worth noticing, except losing ourselves when we left Baltimore, and going eight or nine miles on the Frederick road, by which means we were obliged to go the other eight through the woods, where we wandered two hours without finding a guide or the path. Fortunately, a straggling black came up with us, and we engaged him as a guide to extricate us out of our difficulty; but woods are all you see, from Baltimore, until you reach the city, which is only so in name. Here and there is a small cot, without a glass window, interspersed among the forests, through which you travel miles without seeing any human being. * * * * * * * * * The house is made habitable, but there is not a single apartment finished, and all withinside, except the plastering, has been done since Briesier came. We have not the least fence, yard, or other convenience without, and the great unfinished audience-room I make a drying-room of, to hang up the clothes in. The principal stairs are not up, and will not be this winter. Six chambers are made comfortable; two are occupied by the President and Mr. Shaw; two lower rooms, one for a common parlor, and one for a levee room. Up stairs there is the oval room, which is designed for the drawing-room, and has the crimson furniture in it. It is a very handsome room now; but when completed, it will be beautiful."

The presidential contest in 1800, was urged with a warmth and bitterness, by both parties, which has not been equalled in any election since that period. It was the first time two candidates ever presented themselves to the people as rival aspirants for the highest honor in their gift. Both were good men and true - both were worthy of the confidence of the country. But Mr. Adams, weighed down by the unpopularity of acts adopted during his administration, and suffering under the charge of being an enemy to revolutionary France, and a friend of monarchical England, was distanced and defeated by his competitor. Mr. Jefferson was elected the third President of the Republic, and was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1801. One of the last acts of John Adams, before retiring from the Presidency, was to recall his son from Berlin, that Mr. Jefferson might have no embarrassment in that direction.


CHAPTER IV.

MR. ADAMS' RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES - ELECTED TO THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE - APPOINTED U. S. SENATOR - SUPPORTS MR. JEFFERSON - PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND BELLES LETTRES - APPOINTED MINISTER TO RUSSIA.


John Quincy Adams returned to the United States from his first foreign embassy, in 1801. During the stormy period of his father's administration, and the ensuing presidential canvass, he was fortunately absent from the country. Had he been at home, his situation would have been one of great delicacy. It can hardly be supposed he would have opposed his father's measures, or his reelection. Yet to have thrown his influence in their behalf, would have subjected him to the imputation of being moved by filial attachment rather than the convictions of duty. From this painful dilemma, he was saved by his foreign residence. He came home uncommitted to party measures, untrammelled by party tactics or predilections; and thus stood before the people, as he could wish to stand, perfectly unshackled, and ready to act as duty and conscience should direct.

Arriving in the United States with distinguished honors gained by successful foreign diplomacy, Mr. Adams was not allowed to remain long in inactivity. In 1802 be was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts, from the Boston district. During his services in that body, he gave an indication of that independence, as a politician, which characterized him through life, by his opposition to a powerful combination of banking interests, which was effected among his immediate constituents. Although his opposition was unavailing, yet it clearly showed that the integrity of the man was superior to the policy of the mere politician. But higher honors awaited him.

In 1803, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, by the Legislature of Massachusetts. Thus at the early age of thirty-six years, he had attained to the highest legislative body of the Union. Young in years, but mature in talent and experience, he took his seat amid the conscript fathers of the country, to act a part which soon drew upon him the eyes of the nation, both in admiration and in censure.

The period of Mr. Adams' service in the United States Senate, was one in which the position and the interests of the country were surrounded by embarrassments and perils of the most threatening character. The party which had supported his father had become divided and defeated. Mr. Jefferson, elevated to the Presidency after a heated and angry contest, was an object of the dislike and suspicion of the Federalists, The conflicts of the belligerent nations in Europe, and the measures of foreign policy they severally adopted, not only affected the interests of the United States, but were added elements to inflame the party contests at home.

In 1804, Bonaparte stepped from the Consul chamber to the throne of the French Empire. All Europe was bending to his giant rule. Great Britain alone, with characteristic and inherent stubbornness, had set itself as a rock against his ambitious aspirations, and prosecuted with unabated vigor its determined hostility to all his measures of trade and of conquest. In November, 1807, the British Government issued the celebrated "Orders in Council," forbidding all trade with France and her allies. This measure was met by Napoleon, in December, with his "Milan Decree," prohibiting every description of commerce with England or her colonies. Between these checks and counterchecks of European nations, the commerce of the United States was in peril of being swept entirely from the ocean.

During most of this perplexed and trying period, Mr. J. Q. Adams