John Quincy Adams | Page 5

varied, and active life must lead to such an unpleasant array of human
faces (p. 010) as those which are scattered along these twelve big
octavos. Fortunately at present we have to do with only one of these
likenesses, and that one we are able to admire while knowing also that
it is beyond question accurate. One after another every trait of Mr.
Adams comes out; we shall see that he was a man of a very high and
noble character veined with some very notable and disagreeable
blemishes; his aspirations were honorable, even the lowest of them
being more than simply respectable; he had an avowed ambition, but it
was of that pure kind which led him to render true and distinguished
services to his countrymen; he was not only a zealous patriot, but a
profound believer in the sound and practicable tenets of the liberal
political creed of the United States; he had one of the most honest and
independent natures that was ever given to man; personal integrity of
course goes without saying, but he had the rarer gift of an elevated and
rigid political honesty such as has been unfrequently seen in any age or
any nation; in times of severe trial this quality was even cruelly tested,
but we shall never see it fail; he was as courageous as if he had been a
fanatic; indeed, for a long part of his life to maintain a single-handed
fight in support of a despised or unpopular opinion seemed his natural
function and almost exclusive calling; he was thoroughly conscientious
and never knowingly did (p. 011) wrong, nor even sought to persuade
himself that wrong was right; well read in literature and of wide and
varied information in nearly all matters of knowledge, he was more
especially remarkable for his acquirements in the domain of politics,
where indeed they were vast and ever growing; he had a clear and
generally a cool head, and was nearly always able to do full justice to
himself and to his cause; he had an indomitable will, unconquerable

persistence, and infinite laboriousness. Such were the qualities which
made him a great statesman; but unfortunately we must behold a hardly
less striking reverse to the picture, in the faults and shortcomings which
made him so unpopular in his lifetime that posterity is only just
beginning to forget the prejudices of his contemporaries and to render
concerning him the judgment which he deserves. Never did a man of
pure life and just purposes have fewer friends or more enemies than
John Quincy Adams. His nature, said to have been very affectionate in
his family relations, was in its aspect outside of that small circle
singularly cold and repellent. If he could ever have gathered even a
small personal following his character and abilities would have insured
him a brilliant and prolonged success; but, for a man of his calibre (p.
012) and influence, we shall see him as one of the most lonely and
desolate of the great men of history; instinct led the public men of his
time to range themselves against him rather than with him, and we shall
find them fighting beside him only when irresistibly compelled to do so
by policy or strong convictions. As he had little sympathy with those
with whom he was brought in contact, so he was very uncharitable in
his judgment of them; and thus having really a low opinion of so many
of them he could indulge his vindictive rancor without stint; his
invective, always powerful, will sometimes startle us by its venom, and
we shall be pained to see him apt to make enemies for a good cause by
making them for himself.
This has been, perhaps, too long a lingering upon the threshold. But Mr.
Adams's career in public life stretched over so long a period that to
write a full historical memoir of him within the limited space of this
volume is impossible. All that can be attempted is to present a sketch of
the man with a few of his more prominent surroundings against a very
meagre and insufficient background of the history of the times. So it
may be permissible to begin with a general outline of his figure, to be
filled in, shaded, and colored as we proceed. At best our task is much
more difficult of satisfactory achievement (p. 013) than an historical
biography of the customary elaborate order.
During his second visit to Europe, our mature youngster--if the word
may be used of Mr. Adams even in his earliest years--began to see a

good deal of the world and to mingle in very distinguished society. For
a brief period he got a little schooling, first at Paris, next at Amsterdam,
and then at Leyden; altogether the amount