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

an unbroken series of disastrous' alliances, and exterminating wars - of assassinations, conspiracies, revolts, and rebellions, until both parts of the confederacy sunk into tributary servitude to the nations around them; till the countrymen of David and Solomon hung their harps upon the willows of Babylon, and were totally lost amidst the multitudes of the Chaldean and Assyrian monarchies, 'the most despised portion of their slaves.'

"In these mournful memorials of their fate, we may behold the sure, too sure prognostication of our own, from the hour when force shall be substituted for deliberation, in the settlement of our constitutional questions. This is the deplorable alternative - the extirpation of the seceding member, or the never-ceasing struggle of two rival confederacies, ultimately bending the neck of both under the yoke of foreign domination, or the despotic sovereignty of a conqueror at home. May heaven avert the omen! The destinies, not only of our posterity, but of the human race, are at stake.

"Let no such melancholy forebodings intrude upon the festivities of this anniversary. Serene skies and balmy breezes are not congenial to the climate of freedom. Progressive improvement in the condition of man, is apparently the purpose of a superintending Providence. That purpose will not be disappointed. In no delusion of national vanity, but with a feeling of profound gratitude to the God of our fathers, let us indulge in the cheering hope and belief, that our country and her people have been selected as instruments for preparing and maturing much of the good yet in reserve for the welfare and happiness of the human race. Much good has already been effected by the solemn proclamation of our principles - much more by the illustration of our example. The tempest which threatens desolation may be destined only to purify the atmosphere. It is not in tranquil ease and enjoyment that the active energies of mankind are displayed. Toils and dangers are trials of the soul. Doomed to the first by his sentence at the fall, man by submission converts them into pleasures. The last are, since the fall, the conditions of his existence. To see them in advance, to guard against them by all the suggestions of prudence, to meet them with the composure of unyielding resistance, and to abide with firm resignation the final dispensation of Him who rules the ball - these are the dictates of philosophy - these are the precepts of religion - these are the principles and consolations of patriotism: - these remain when all is lost - and of these is composed the spirit of independence - the spirit embodied in that beautiful personification of the poet, which may each of you, my countrymen, to the last hour of his life, apply to himself, -

'Thy spirit, Independence, let me share,
Lord of the lion heart, and eagle eye!
Thy steps I follow, with my bosom bare,
Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky.'

"In the course of nature, the voice which now addresses you must soon cease to be heard upon earth. Life and all which it inherits lose their value as it draws towards its close. But for most of you, my friends and neighbors, long and many years of futurity are yet in store. May they be years of freedom - years of prosperity - years of happiness, ripening for immortality! But, were the breath which now gives utterance to my feelings the last vital air I should draw, my expiring words to you and your children should be, Independence and Union forever!"

A few weeks subsequent to the death of ex-President Monroe, Mr. Adams delivered an interesting and able eulogy on his life and character, before the public authorities of the city of Boston, in Faneuil Hall. In drawing to a conclusion, he used the following language: -

"Our country, by the bountiful dispensations of a gracious Heaven, is, and for a series of years has been, blessed with profound peace. But when the first father of our race had exhibited before him, by the archangel sent to announce his doom, and to console him in his fall, the fortunes and misfortunes of his descendants, he saw that the deepest of their miseries would befall them while favored with all the blessings of peace; and in the bitterness of his anguish he exclaimed: -

'Now I see
Peace to corrupt, no less than war to waste.'

"It is the very fervor of the noonday sun, in the cloudless atmosphere, of a summer sky, which breeds

'the sweeping whirlwind's sway,
That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.'

"You have insured the gallant ship which ploughs the waves, freighted with your lives and your children's fortunes, from the fury of the tempest above, and from the treachery of the wave beneath. Beware of the danger against which you can alone insure your-selves - the latent defect of the gallant ship itself. Pass but a few short days, and forty years will have elapsed since the voice of him who addresses you, speaking to your fathers from this hallowed spot, gave for you, in the face of Heaven, the solemn pledge, that if, in the course of your career on earth, emergencies should arise, calling for the exercise of those energies and virtues which, in times of tranquillity and peace remain by the will of Heaven dormant in the human bosom, you would prove yourselves not unworthy the sires who had toiled, and fought, and bled, for the independence of the country. Nor has that pledge been unredeemed. You have maintained through times of trial and danger the inheritance of freedom, of union, of independence bequeathed you by your forefathers. It remains for you only to transmit the same peerless legacy, unimpaired, to your children of the next succeeding age. To this end, let us join in humble supplication to the Founder of empires and the Creator of all worlds, that he would continue to your posterity the smiles which his favor has bestowed upon you; and, since 'it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,' that he would enlighten and lead the advancing generation in the way they should go. That in all the perils, and all the mischances which may threaten or befall our United Republic, in after times, he would raise up from among your sons deliverers to enlighten her councils, to defend her freedom, and if need be, to lead her armies to victory. And should the gloom of the year of independence ever again overspread the sky, or the metropolis of your empire be once more destined to smart under the scourge of an invader's hand,[Footnote: Alluding to the burning of the city of Washington in the war of 1812.] that there never may be found wanting among the children of your country, a warrior to bleed, a statesman to counsel, a chief to direct and govern, inspired with all the virtues, and endowed with all the faculties which have been so signally displayed in the life of JAMES MONROE."


CHAPTER XII.

MR. ADAMS TAKES HIS SEAT IN CONGRESS - HIS POSITION AND HABITS AS A MEMBER - HIS INDEPENDENCE OF PARTY - HIS EULOGY ON THE DEATH OF EX-PRESIDENT JAMES MADISON - HIS ADVOCACY OF THE RIGHT OF PETITION, AND OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY - INSURRECTION IN TEXAS - MR. ADAMS MAKES KNOWN ITS ULTERIOR OBJECT.

Mr. Adams took his seat in the House of Representatives without ostentation, in December, 1831. His appearance there produced a profound sensation. It was the first time an ex-President had ever entered that hall in the capacity of a member. He was received with the highest marks of respect. It presented a singular spectacle to behold members of Congress who, when Mr. Adams was President, had charged him with every species of political corruption, and loaded his name with the most opprobrious epithets, now vieing with one another in bestowing upon him the highest marks of respect and confidence. That which they denied the President, they freely yielded to the MAN. It was the true homage which virtue and patriotism must ever receive - more honorable, and far more grateful to its object, than all the servility and flattery which power and patronage can so easily purchase.

The degree of confidence reposed in Mr. Adams was manifested by his being placed at once at the head of the Committee on Manufactures. This is always a responsible station; but it was peculiarly so at that time. The whole Union was highly agitated on the subject of the tariff. The friends of domestic manufactures at the North insisted upon high protective duties, to sustain the mechanical and manufacturing interests of the country against a ruinous foreign competition. The Southern States resisted these measures as destructive to their interests, and remonstrated with the utmost vehemence against them - in which they were joined by a large portion of the Democratic party throughout the North. Mr. Adams, with enlarged views of national unity and general prosperity, counselled moderation to both parties. As Chairman of the Committee on Manufactures, he strove to produce such a compromise between the conflicting interests, as should yield each section a fair protection, and restore harmony and fraternity among the people.

So important were Mr. Adams' services deemed in the Committee on Manufactures, that, on proposing to resign his post as Chairman, to fulfil other duties which claimed his attention, he was besought by all parties to relinquish his purpose. Mr. Cambreleng, of N. Y., a political opponent of Mr. Adams, said, "It was not a pleasant duty to oppose the request of any member of the House, particularly one of his character. He did so with infinite regret in the present instance; and he certainly would not take such a course, but for the important consequences that might result from assenting to the wishes of the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts. He had reached the conclusion, not without infinite pain and reluctance, that the harmony, if not the existence of our Confederacy, depends, at this crisis, upon the arduous, prompt, and patriotic efforts of a few eminent men. He believed that much might be done by the gentleman from Massachusetts."

In the same tone of high compliment, Mr. Barbour, of Virginia, said, "that to refuse anything that could be asked by the gentleman from Massachusetts gave him pain, great pain. He said it was with unaffected sincerity he declared, that the member from Massachusetts (with whom he was associated in the committee) had not only fulfilled all his duties with eminent ability, in the committee, but in a spirit and temper that commanded his grateful acknowledgments, and excited his highest admiration. Were it permitted him to make a personal appeal to the gentleman, he would have done so in advance of this motion. He would have appealed to him as a patriot, as a statesman, as a philanthropist, and above all as an American, feeling the full force of all his duties, and touched by all their incentives to lofty action - to forbear this request."

These complimentary appeals were well deserved by Mr. Adams, and show most emphatically