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

grounds, therefore, there is no cause of complaint against him, and upon no other will I remove him. If I cannot administer the Government on these principles, I am content to go back to Quincy!'" [Footnote: King's Eulogy on John Quincy Adams.] Being in Baltimore on a certain occasion, among those introduced to him was a gentleman who accosted him thus - "Mr. President, though I differ from you in opinion, I am glad to find you in good health." The President gave him a hearty shake of the hand, and replied, - "Sir, in our happy and free country, we can differ in opinion without being enemies."

These anecdotes illustrate the character and principles of Mr. Adams. He knew nothing of the jealousy and bitterness which are gendered, in little minds and hearts, by disparities of sentiment. Freedom of opinion he considered the birthright of every American citizen, and he would in no instance be the instrument of inflicting punishment upon the head of any man on account of its exercise. High and pure in all his aims, he sought to reach them by means of a corresponding character. If he could not succeed in the use of such instruments, he was content to meet defeat. The rule by which he was governed in the discharge of his official duties, is beautifully expressed by the dramatic bard: -

"Be just and fear not. Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy COUNTRY'S, Thy GOD'S, and TRUTH'S. Then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, Thou fall'st a blessed martyr!"

In the truly republican position which Mr. Adams took in regard to appointments to office, and which, it is humiliating to believe, was one means of his subsequent defeat, he but faithfully imitated the example of "the Father of his country." When Gen. Washington occupied the presidential chair, application was made for the appointment of one of his old and intimate friends to a lucrative office. At the same time a petition was received asking the same station for a most determined political opponent. The latter received the appointment. The friend was greatly disappointed and hurt in his feelings at his defeat. Let the explanation of Washington be noted and ever remembered: - "My friend," said he, "I receive with cordial welcome. He is welcome to my house, and welcome to my heart; but with all his good qualities he is not a man of business. His opponent, with all his politics so hostile to me, is a man of business. My private feelings have nothing to do in the case. I am not George Washington, but President of the United States. As George Washington, I would do this man any kindness in my power - as President of the United States, I can do nothing."

The period of Mr. Adams's administration, was not one which admitted of acts calculated to rivet the attention, or excite the admiration and applause of the multitude. No crisis occurred in national affairs - no imminent peril from without, or danger within, threatened the well-being of the country! Quietness reigned throughout the world, and the nations were allowed once more to cultivate the arts of peace, to enlarge the operations of commerce, and to fix their attention on domestic interests - the only true fountain of national prosperity. But though lacking in some of the more striking elements of popularity, the administration of Mr. Adams was preeminently useful in all its measures and influences. During no Presidential term since the organization of the Government, has more been done to consolidate the Union, and develop its resources, and lay the foundations of national strength and prosperity.

The two great interests which, perhaps, received the largest share of attention from Mr. Adams' administration, were internal improvements and domestic manufactures. A special attention to these subjects was recommended in his messages to Congress. And throughout his term, he failed not to urge these vital matters upon the attention of the people, and their representatives. He recommended the opening of national roads and canals - the improvement of the navigation of rivers, and the safety of harbors - the survey of our coasts, the erection of light houses, piers, and breakwaters. Whatever tended to facilitate communication and transportation between extreme portions of the Union - to bring the people of distant sections into a more direct intercourse with each other, and bind them together by ties of a business, social and friendly nature - to promote enterprize, industry, and enlarged views of national and individual prosperity - obtained his earnest sanction and recommendation. To encourage home labor - to protect our infant manufactories from a fatal competition with foreign pauper wages - to foster and build up in the bosom of the country a system of domestic production, which should not only supply home consumption, and afford a home market for raw materials and provisions, the produce of our own soil, but enable us in due time to compete with other nations in sending our manufactures to foreign markets - he yielded all his influence to the levying of protective duties on foreign articles, especially such as could be produced in our own country. The wisdom of this policy, its direct tendency to promote national wealth and strength, and to render the Union truly independent of the fluctuations and vicissitudes of foreign countries, cannot be doubted, it would seem, by those possessing clear minds and sound judgment, of all parties.

Under the faithful supervision of one so vigilant as Mr. Adams, the foreign relations of the Government could not have been neglected. The intimate knowledge of the condition of foreign nations, their resources and their wants, which was possessed by himself and by Mr. Clay, the Secretary of State, afforded facilities in this department, from which the country reaped the richest benefit. During the four years of his administration, more treaties were negotiated at Washington than during the entire thirty-six years through which the preceding administrations had extended. New treaties of amity, navigation and commerce, were concluded with Austria, Sweden, Denmark, the Hanseatic League, Prussia, Colombia, and Central America. Commercial difficulties and various arrangements of a satisfactory character, were settled with the Netherlands, and other European Governments. The claims of our citizens against Sweden, Denmark and Brazil, for spoilations of commerce, were satisfactorily consummated.

"As time advances, the evidences are accumulating on all sides, that the administration of John Quincy Adams was one of the most wise, patriotic, pacific, just, and wealth-producing, in the history of the country; and no small part of that benefit may justly be ascribed to the aid he received from his Secretary of State. Mr. Adams himself was a great statesman, bred in the school of statesmen, and all his life exercised in the business of state, with recognized skill, and approved fidelity. The seven years immediately preceding the administration of Mr. Adams, was a period of great commercial embarrassment and distress; and the seven years subsequent to his entrance on the duties of chief executive, was a period of great public and private prosperity." [Footnote: Cotton's Life of Clay.]

While Mr. Adams was thus seeking to foster and encourage the industrial and monetary interests of the country, he was not forgetful of the important claims of literature and science. President Washington, during his administration, had repeatedly urged on Congress the importance of establishing a national university at the capital; and he had located and bequeathed a site for that purpose. But his appeals on this subject had been in vain. In Mr. Adams's first message, he earnestly called on Congress to carry into execution this recommendation of the Father of his Country - insisting that "among the first, perhaps the very first instrument for the improvement of the condition of men, is knowledge; and to the acquisition of much of the knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and the enjoyments of human life, public institutions and seminaries of learning are essential."

In the same message Mr. Adams recommended the establishment of a national observatory. "Connected with the establishment of an university," he said "or, separate from it, might be undertaken the erection of an astronomical observatory, with provision for the support of an astronomer, to be in constant attendance of observation upon the phenomena of the heavens, and for the periodical publication of his observations. It is with no feeling of pride, as an American, that the remark may be made, that, on the comparatively small territorial surface of Europe, there are existing upwards of one hundred and thirty of these light-houses in the skies; while, throughout the whole American hemisphere, there is not one. If we reflect a moment upon the discoveries which, in the last four centuries, have been made in the physical constitution of the universe, by the means of these buildings, and of observers stationed in them, shall we doubt of their usefulness to every nation? And while scarcely a year passes over our heads without bringing some new astronomical discovery to light, which we must fain receive at second hand from Europe, are we not cutting ourselves off from the means of returning light for light, while we have neither observatory nor observer upon our half of the globe, and the earth revolves in perpetual darkness to our unsearching eyes?"

It is humiliating to reflect that neither of these recommendations received an encouraging response from Congress. The latter suggestion, indeed, excited the ridicule of many of the opposers of Mr. Adams, and "a light-house in the skies," became a term of reproach in their midst. In this, however, it must be confessed, their ridicule was greatly at the expense of their intelligence, their public spirit, and their devotion to the highest interests of man. There are few reflections more mortifying to an American citizen, than that while so large a portion of the resources of the national Government have been exhausted in prosecuting party measures, rewarding partisan services, and promoting sectional and personal schemes, little or nothing has been devoted to the encouragement of the arts and sciences, and the cultivation of those higher walks of human attainment which exalt and refine a people, and fit them for the purest and sweetest enjoyments of life.

It was during the first year of his administration, that the attention of Mr. Adams was called to a proposed Congress of all the Republics on the American Continent, to meet at Panama. The objects designed to be accomplished by such a Congress have been variously stated. It has been believed by some to have been called for the purpose of opposing a supposed project, entertained by the Allied Powers of Europe, of combining for the purpose of reducing the American Republics to their former condition of European vassalage. Be this as it may, the Panama Congress, among its objects, aimed at the cementing of the friendly relations of all the independent States of America, and the forming of a kind of mutual council, to act as an umpire to settle the differences which might arise between them.

The United States was invited to send representatives to Panama. Mr. Adams, as President, in view of the beneficial influences which in various ways might flow from such a meeting, accepted the invitation, with the understanding that the Government of the United States would take no part that could conflict with its neutral position, in the wars which might then be in existence between any of the South American Republics and other powers. The acceptance of this invitation was announced by Mr. Adams in his first message to Congress. This was immediately followed by the nomination of Messrs. Richard C. Anderson and John Sargeant, as commissioners to the Congress of Panama, and Wm. B. Rochester, of New