John Quincy Adams | Page 9

the backing of clear consciences. Washington came kindly to
the aid of his doubting successor, and in a letter highly complimentary

to Mr. John Quincy Adams strongly urged that well-merited promotion
ought not to be kept from him, (p. 024) foretelling for him a
distinguished future in the diplomatic service. These representations
prevailed; and the President's only action as concerned his son
consisted in changing his destination from Portugal to Prussia, both
missions being at that time of the same grade, though that to Prussia
was then established for the first time by the making and confirming of
this nomination.
To Berlin, accordingly, Mr. Adams proceeded in November, 1797, and
had the somewhat cruel experience of being "questioned at the gates by
a dapper lieutenant, who did not know, until one of his private soldiers
explained to him, who the United States of America were."
Overcoming this unusual obstacle to a ministerial advent, and
succeeding, after many months, in getting through all the introductory
formalities, he found not much more to be done at Berlin than there had
been at the Hague. But such useful work as was open to him he
accomplished in the shape of a treaty of amity and commerce between
Prussia and the United States. This having been duly ratified by both
the powers, his further stay seemed so useless that he wrote home
suggesting his readiness to return; and while awaiting a reply he
travelled through some portions of Europe which he had not before
seen. His recall was one of the (p. 025) last acts of his father's
administration, made, says Mr. Seward, "that Mr. Jefferson might have
no embarrassment in that direction," but quite as probably dictated by a
vindictive desire to show how wide was the gulf of animosity which
had opened between the family of the disappointed ex-President and his
triumphant rival.
Mr. Adams, immediately upon his arrival at home, prepared to return to
the practice of his profession. It was not altogether an agreeable
transition from an embassy at the courts of Europe to a law office in
Boston, with the necessity of furbishing up long disused knowledge,
and a second time patiently awaiting the influx of clients. But he faced
it with his stubborn temper and practical sense. The slender promise
which he was able to discern in the political outlook could not fail to
disappoint him, since his native predilections were unquestionably and

strongly in favor of a public career. During his absence party
animosities had been developing rapidly. The first great party victory
since the organization of the government had just been won, after a
very bitter struggle, by the Republicans or Democrats, as they were
then indifferently called, whose exuberant delight found its full
counterpart in the angry despondency of the Federalists. That irascible
old gentleman, the elder Adams, having experienced a (p. 026) very
Waterloo defeat in the contest for the Presidency, had ridden away
from the capital, actually in a wild rage, on the night of the 3d of March,
1801, to avoid the humiliating pageant of Mr. Jefferson's inauguration.
Yet far more fierce than this natural party warfare was the internal
dissension which rent the Federal party in twain. Those cracks upon the
surface and subterraneous rumblings, which the experienced observer
could for some time have noted, had opened with terrible uproar into a
gaping chasm, when John Adams, still in the Presidency, suddenly
announced his determination to send a mission to France at a crisis
when nearly all his party were looking for war. Perhaps this step was,
as his admirers claim, an act of pure and disinterested statesmanship.
Certainly its result was fortunate for the country at large. But for John
Adams it was ruinous. At the moment when he made the bold move, he
doubtless expected to be followed by his party. Extreme was his
disappointment and boundless his wrath, when he found that he had at
his back only a fraction, not improbably less than half, of that party. He
learned with infinite chagrin that he had only a divided empire with a
private individual; that it was not safe for him, the President of the
United States, to originate any important measure without first
consulting a lawyer quietly (p. 027) engaged in the practice of his
profession in New York; that, in short, at least a moiety, in which were
to be found the most intelligent members, of the great Federal party,
when in search of guidance, turned their faces toward Alexander
Hamilton rather than toward John Adams. These Hamiltonians by no
means relished the French mission, so that from this time forth a
schism of intense bitterness kept the Federal party asunder, and John
Adams hated Alexander Hamilton with a vigor not surpassed in the
annals of human antipathies.