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

- A sure and necessary object for the security of American independence."

This occasion must have been one of great interest to the patriarch John Adams, then more than four-score years of age. Nearly forty years before, he had said of his son: - "He behaves like a man!" That son, in the prime of his days, had recently been called from foreign service, where he had obtained accumulated honors, to fill the highest station in the gift of the Executive of his country. The people of two continents would now unite with the venerable sage, in repeating the declaration - "He behaves like a man!" The patriarch stood upon the verge of the grave. But as the sun of his existence was gently and calmly sinking beneath the horizon, lo! its beams were reflected in their pristine brightness by another orb, born from its bosom, which was steadily ascending to the zenith of earthly fame!

John Quincy Adams took up his residence at Washington, and entered upon his duties as Secretary of State, in September, 1817.

During the eight years of President Monroe's administration, Mr. Adams discharged the duties of the state department, with a fidelity and success which received not only the unqualified approbation of the President, but of the whole country. To him that office was no sinecure. His labors were incessant. He spared no pains to qualify himself to discuss, with consummate skill, whatever topics legitimately claimed his attention. The President, the cabinet, the people, imposed implicit trust in his ability to promote the interests of the nation in all matters of diplomacy, and confided unreservedly in his pure American feelings and love of country. Perfectly familiar as he was with the political condition of the world, Mr. Monroe entrusted him, without hesitation, with the management of the foreign policy of the Government, during his administration.

In the autumn of 1817, the Seminole and a portion of the Creek Indians commenced depredations on the frontiers of Georgia and Alabama. Troops were sent to reduce them, under Gen. Gaines. His force being too weak to bring them to subjection, Gen. Jackson was ordered to take the field with a more numerous army, with which he overran the Indian country. Believing it necessary to enter Florida, then a Spanish territory, for the more effectual subjugation of the Indians, he did not hesitate to pursue them thither. The Spanish authorities protested against the invasion of their domains, and offered some opposition. Gen. Jackson persisted, and in the result, took possession of St. Marks and Pensacola, and sent the Spanish authorities and troops to Havana.

Among the prisoners taken in this expedition, were a Scotchman and an Englishman, named Arbuthnot and Ambrister. They were British subjects, but were charged with supplying the Indians with arms and munitions of war; stirring them up against the whites, and acting as spies. On these charges they were tried by a court martial, of which Gen. Gaines was President - found guilty - condemned to death, and executed on the 27th of April, 1818.

These transactions of Gen. Jackson caused great excitement throughout the United States, and subjected him to no little blame. The subject excited much debate in Congress. A resolution censuring him for his summary proceedings was introduced, but voted down by a large majority. In Mr. Monroe's cabinet, there was a strong feeling against Gen. Jackson. The President, and all the members, with a single exception, were disposed to hold him responsible for having transcended his orders. Hon. Wm. H. Crawford, who was in Mr. Monroe's cabinet at that time, in a letter to Mr. Forsyth, says: - "Mr. Calhoun's proposition in the cabinet was, that Gen. Jackson should be punished in some form, or reprimanded in some form."

Mr. Adams alone vindicated Gen. Jackson. He insisted that inasmuch as the Government had ordered him to pursue the enemy into Florida, if necessary, they were responsible for the acts of the American general, in the exercise of the discretionary power with which he had been clothed. Several cabinet meetings were held on the subject, in July, 1818, in which the whole matter was thoroughly discussed. Mr. Adams succeeded at length in bringing the President into the adoption of his views, which Mr. Monroe substantially embodied in his next annual message to Congress.

The intelligence of the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, excited the highest indignation in England. The people viewed it as a violation of the rights of British subjects, and an insult to their nation, and were ready to rush to war. Lord Castlereagh declared to Mr. Rush, the American Minister, that had the English cabinet but held up a finger, war would have been declared against the United States. But so able and convincing were the arguments which Mr. Adams directed Mr. Rush to lay before the British Ministers, in defence of the proceedings of Gen. Jackson, that they became convinced there was no just cause of war between the two countries, and exerted their influence against any movement in that direction.

On the 22nd of February, 1819, a treaty was concluded at Washington, between the United States and Spain, by which East and West Florida, with the adjacent islands, were ceded to the Union. The negotiations which resulted in the consummation of the treaty, were conducted by Mr. Adams and Luis de Onis the Spanish Ambassador. This treaty was very advantageous to the United States. It brought to a close a controversy with Spain, of many years' standing, which had defied all the exertions of former administrations to adjust, and placed our relations with that country on the most amicable footing. In effecting this reconciliation, Mr. Adams deserved and received a high share of credit.

The recognition of the independence of the Spanish South American Provinces, by the Government of the United States, took place during Mr. Adams's administration of the State Department. The honor of first proposing this recognition, in the Congress of the United States, and of advocating it with unsurpassed eloquence and zeal, belongs to the patriotic Henry Clay. Mainly by his influence, the House of Representatives, in 1820, passed the following resolutions: -

"Resolved, That the House of Representatives participate with the people of the United States, in the deep interest which they feel for the success of the Spanish Provinces of South America, which are struggling to establish their liberty and independence.

"Resolved, That this House will give its constitutional support to the President of the United States, whenever he may deem it expedient to recognize the sovereignty and independence of any of said Provinces."

Mr. Adams at first hesitated on this subject. Not that he was opposed to the diffusion of the blessings of freedom to the oppressed. No man was a more ardent lover of liberty, or was more anxious that its institutions should be established throughout the earth, at the earliest practicable moment. But he had many and serious doubts whether the people of the South American Provinces were capable of originating and maintaining an enlightened self-government. There was a lack of general intelligence among the people - a want of an enlarged and enlightened understanding of the principles of rational freedom - which led him to apprehend that their attempts at self-government would for a long season, at least, result in the reign of faction and anarchy, rather than true republican principles. The subsequent history of these countries - the divisions and contentions, the revolutions and counter-revolutions, which have rent them asunder, and deluged them in blood - clearly show that Mr. Adams but exercised a far-seeing intelligence in entertaining these doubts. Nevertheless, as they had succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke, and had, in fact, achieved their independence, Mr. Adams would not throw any impediment in their way. Trusting that his fears as to their ability for self-government might be groundless, he gave his influence to the recognizing of their independence by the United States.

In 1821 the Greek revolution broke out. The people of that classic land, after enduring ages of the most brutal and humiliating oppression from the Turks, nobly resolved to break the chains of the Ottoman power, or perish in the attempt. The war was long, and sanguinary, but finally resulted in the emancipation of Greece, and the establishment of its independence as a nation.

The inhabitants of the United States could not witness such a struggle with indifference. A spirit of sympathy ran like electricity throughout the land. Public meetings were held in nearly every populous town in the Union, in which resolutions, encouraging the Greeks in their struggle, were passed, and contributions taken up to aid them. Money, clothing, provisions, arms, were collected in immense quantities and shipped to Greece. In churches, colleges, academies and schools - at the theatres, museums, and other places of amusement and public resort - aid was freely and generously given in behalf of the struggling patriots. Many citizens of the United States, when the first blast of the trumpet of liberty rang along the Ionian seas, and through the Peloponnesus, sped across the ocean, and, throwing themselves into the midst of the Grecian hosts, contended heroically for their emancipation. Among these volunteers, was Col. J. P. Miller, of Vermont, who not only gallantly fought in the battles of Greece, but was greatly serviceable in conveying supplies from the United States to that struggling people.

The deep sympathy which prevailed in every section of the Union, was soon felt in Congress. Many public men were anxious that the Government should take some important and decisive step, even to hostilities, in behalf of Greece. Eloquent speeches were delivered in the House of Representatives on the exciting topic. Mr. Clay electrified the country with his stirring appeals in behalf of the land in which was established the first republic on earth. Mr. Webster submitted the following resolution to the House of Representatives: -

"Resolved, That provision ought to be made by law, for defraying the expense incident to the appointment of an Agent, or Commissioner, to Greece, whenever the President shall deem it expedient to make such appointment."

In support of this resolution, Mr. Webster made a most eloquent speech, of which the following is the conclusion: -

"Mr. Chairman - There are some things which, to be well done, must be promptly done. If we even determine to do the thing that is now proposed, we may do it too late Sir, I am not of those who are for withholding aid when it is most urgently needed, and when the stress is past, and the aid no longer necessary, overwhelming the sufferers with caresses. I will not stand by and see my fellow-man drowning, without stretching out a hand to help him, till he has, by his own efforts and presence of mind, reached the shore in safety, and then encumber him with aid. With suffering Greece, now is the crisis of her fate - her great, it may be her last struggle. Sir, while we sit here deliberating, her destiny may be decided. The Greeks, contending with ruthless oppressors, turn their eyes to us, and invoke us, by their ancestors, by their slaughtered wives and children, by their own blood poured out like water, by the hecatombs of dead they have heaped up, as it were, to heaven; they invoke, they implore from us some cheering sound, some look of sympathy, some token of compassionate regard. They look to us as the great Republic of the earth - and they ask us, by our common faith, whether we can forget that they are struggling, as we once struggled, for what we now so happily enjoy? I cannot say, sir, they will succeed; that rests with heaven. But, for myself, sir, if I should to-morrow hear that they have failed - that their last phalanx