Both his father and mother were the most zealous promoters of the cause of their country in the struggle with Great Britain. When the father of Mr. Adams repaired to France as joint commissioner with Franklin and Lee, he was accompanied by his son John Quincy, then in his eleventh year. In that country he passed a year and a half with his father, and enjoyed the privilege of the daily intercourse and parental attentions of Doctor Franklin, whose kind notice of the young was a peculiar trait in his character, and whose primitive simplicity of manners and methodical habits left a lasting impression on the mind of his youthful countryman.

After a residence of about eighteen months in France, young Adams returned to America with his father, who assisted in forming a constitution for Massachusetts, but was soon called upon again by Congress to repair to Europe, as a commissioner for negotiating treaties with Holland and other powers, but particularly with Great Britain, as soon as she was disposed to put an end to the war.

He again took his son with him, and sailed in a French frigate, which in consequence of springing a dangerous leak, was compelled to put into Ferrol, in Spain. From that place Mr. Adams and his son travelled by land to Paris, where they arrived in January, 1780. For a few months Mr. Adams sent his son to school in Paris; but in July, the same year, he took him with him to Holland, where he was called to negotiate a loan for the United States. He placed his son first in the public school of the city of Amsterdam, and afterward in the city university of Leyden. In July, 1781, Mr. Francis Dana (afterward chief-justice of the state of Massachusetts), who had gone out with Mr. Adams as secretary of legation, received from the continental Congress the appointment of minister to the court of the empress of Russia, and John Quincy Adams was selected by Mr. Dana as a private secretary of this mission. After spending fourteen months with Mr. Dana, he left him to return through Sweden, Denmark, Hamburg, and Bremen, to Holland, where his father had been publicly received as minister from the United States, and had concluded a commercial treaty with the republic of the Netherlands. He performed this journey during the winter of 1782-'3, being only sixteen years of age, without a companion. He reached the Hague in April, 1783, his father being at that time engaged at Paris in the negotiation of peace. From April to July his son remained at the Hague, under the care of Mr. Dumas, a native of Switzerland, who then filled the office of an agent of the United States. The negotiations for peace being suspended in July, Mr. Adams's father repaired on business to Amsterdam; and on his return to Paris he took his son with him. The definitive treaty of peace was signed in September, 1783, from which time till May, 1785, he was chiefly with his father in England, Holland, and France.

It was at this period that he formed an acquaintance with Mr. Jefferson, then residing in France as American minister. The intercourse of Mr.

Jefferson with his former colleague in Congress, the father of Mr. Adams, was of an intimate and confidential kind, and led to a friendship for his son which, formed in early life, scarcely suffered an interruption from subsequent political dissensions, and revived with original strength during the last years of the life of this venerable statesman.

Mr. Adams was, at the period last mentioned, about eighteen years of age. Born in the crisis of his country's fortunes, he had led a life of wandering and vicissitude, unusual at any age. His education, in everything but the school of liberty, had been interrupted and irregular. He had seen much of the world-much of men—and had enjoyed but little leisure for books. Anxious to complete his education, and still more anxious to return to his native land, when his father was, in 1785, appointed minister to the court of St. James, his son, at that period of life when the pleasures and splendor of a city like London are most calculated to fascinate and mislead, asked permission of his father to go back to his native shores. This he accordingly did. On his return to America he became a member of the ancient college of Harvard, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he graduated in July, 1787.

On leaving college, Mr. Adams entered the office of Theophilus Parsons, afterward chief justice of the state, as a student of law, at Newburyport. On a visit of General Washington to that town, in 1789, Mr. Parsons, being chosen by his fellow-citizens to be the medium of expressing their sentiments to the general, called upon his pupils each to prepare an address. This call was obeyed by Mr. Adams, and his address was delivered by Mr. Parsons.

After completing his law studies, at Newburyport, Mr. Adams removed to Boston, with view of commencing the practice of his profession at the bar. His time not being fully occupied, Mr. Adams employed his leisure hours in speculations upon the great political questions of the day.

In April, 1793, on the first intimation that war between Great Britain and France had been declared, Mr. Adams published a short series of papers, the object of which was, to prove that the duty and interest of the United States required them to remain neutral in the contest. These papers were published before General Washington's proclamation of neutrality, and without any knowledge that a proclamation would be issued. The opinions they expressed were in opposition to the views generally prevailing, that the treaty of alliance of 1778 obliged us to take part in the wars of France. But the proclamation of neutrality by General Washington, sanctioned by all his cabinet, including Mr. Jefferson, was shortly made public, and confirmed the justice of the views which Mr. Adams had been (it is believed) the first to express before the public on this new and difficult topic of national law.

In the winter of 1793 and 1794, the inflammatory appeals of the French minister to the United States, Mr. Genet, caused much excitement in the

public mind. Among those who co-operated in support of the administration of Washington in resisting Mr. Genet, none was more conspicuous than Mr. Adams, whose essays in favor of neutrality were read and admired throughout the country.

His reputation was soon established, as an American statesman and political writer. Before his retirement from the department of state, Mr. Jefferson recommended him to General Washington, as a proper person to be introduced into the public service of the country. The acquaintance between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams which had been formed in France, had lately been renewed, on occasion of a visit to Philadelphia in 1792; and the promptitude and ability with which he had seconded the efforts of the secretary of state in enforcing neutrality, no doubt led Mr. Jefferson thus to recommend him to General Washington.

The publications of Mr. Adams above alluded to, had attracted the attention of General Washington. He had in private expressed the highest opinion of them, and had made particular inquiries with respect to their author. Thus honorably identified, at the early age of twenty-seven, with the first great and decisive step of the foreign policy of the United States, and thus early attracting the notice, and enjoying the confidence of Washington, Mr. Adams was, in May, 1794, appointed minister resident to the Netherlands, an office corresponding in rank and salary with that of a chargé d'affaires at the present day. The father of Mr. Adams was at this time vice-president of the United States; but the appointment of his son was made by General Washington, unexpectedly to the vicepresident, and without any previous intimation that it would take place.

Mr. Adams remained at his post in Holland about two years. He was an attentive observer of the great events then occurring in Europe, and his official correspondence with the government was regarded by General Washington as of the highest importance.

Toward the close of General Washington's administration, he appointed Mr. Adams minister plenipotentiary to Portugal. On his way from the Hague to Lisbon, he received a new commission, changing his destination to Berlin. This latter appointment was made by Mr. Adams's father, then president of the United States, and in a manner highly honorable to the restraint of his parental feelings, in the discharge of an act of public duty. Although Mr. Adams's appointment to Portugal was made by General Washington, and President Adams did no more than propose his transfer to Berlin, yet feelings of delicacy led him to hesitate, before he took even this step. He consulted his predecessor and friend, then retired from office, and placed in a situation beyond the reach of any of the motives which can possibly prejudice the minds of men in power. The following letter from General Washington, is the reply to President Adams's inquiry, and will ever remain an honorable testimony to the character of Mr. Adams :

"MONDAY, February 20, 1797.

"DEAR SIR: I thank you for giving me a perusal of the enclosed. The sentiments do honor to the head and heart of the writer; and if my wishes would be of any avail, they should go to you in a strong hope that you will not withhold merited promotion from John Q. Adams because he is your son. For, without intending to compliment the father or the mother, or to censure any others, I give it as my decided opinion, that Mr. Adams is the most valuable public character we have abroad; and that there remains no doubt in my mind, that he will prove himself to be the ablest of all our diplomatic corps. If he was now to be brought into that line, or into any other public walk, I could not, upon the principle which has regulated my own conduct, disapprove of the caution which is hinted at in the letter. But he is already entered; the public, more and more, as he is known, are appreciating his talents and worth; and his country would sustain a loss, if these were to be checked by over-delicacy on your part. "With sincere esteem, and affectionate regard,

"I am ever yours,

"GEORGE WASHINGTON."

The principal object of Mr. Adams's mission to Berlin was effected by the conclusion of a treaty of commerce with Prussia. He remained at that court till the spring of 1801, when he was recalled by his father, and returned to America. During the last year of his residence in Prussia, he made an excursion into the province of Silesia, which he described in a series of letters that were afterward collected and published in a volume, and have been translated into French and German, and extensively circulated in Europe. In March, 1798, while he was at Berlin, he was appointed by the president and senate, commissioner to renew the treaty with Sweden.

The advantages enjoyed by Mr. Adams, during his residence on the continent of Europe, from 1794 to 1801, he did not fail to improve, and they were of great importance in extending his political knowledge, and in their influence upon his character and feelings. He contemplated with the eye of a careful observer the great movements in the political world which were then taking place, and which included many of the most important events of the French revolution. A combination of peculiar circumstances enabled him to hold an important and truly American course between the violent extremes to which public opinion in America ran, on the great question of our foreign relations. It was also fortunate that he was absent from the country during the period when domestic parties were organized and arrayed against each other. His situation secured him from the necessity of taking part in those political contentions in which he must either have been placed in the painful position of acting with the party opposed to his father, or he would have been obliged to encounter the natural imputation of being biased in support of him by

filial attachment. From this alternative Mr. Adams was spared by his residence abroad during the whole period in which our domestic parties were acquiring their organization; and he returned to his native land a stranger to local parties, and a friend to his country.

In 1802, Mr. Adams was elected to the senate of Massachusetts from the district of Boston; and signalized that fearless independence which has ever characterized his political course, by his strong, though ineffectual opposition to a powerful combination of banking interests, of which the centre was placed among his immediate constituents.

In 1803, he was elected by the legislature of Massachusetts, a senator of the United States. There was a federal majority in that body, but Mr. Adams was not elected by a party vote. He was considered a moderate federalist, but, when elected, was unpledged, either as to opposition or support, to any men or measures other than those which his own sense of duty should dictate to him to be supported or opposed.

His conduct in the United States senate was such as might have been expected from his position. He neither had principles to permit, nor passions to drive him into indiscriminate opposition or blind support. He supported the administration of Mr. Jefferson in every measure which his judgment approved. With the democratic party in the senate he voted for the embargo recommended by Mr. Jefferson, believing that the hostile decrees of France and England against American commerce called for retaliatory or restrictive measures. For his course in this particular, Mr. Adams was censured by the legislature of Massachusetts, in a series of resolutions passed by that body, which also, in May, 1808, elected Mr. Lloyd as senator from the period of the expiration of Mr. Adams's term. Not choosing to represent constituents who had lost their confidence in him, Mr. Adams resigned his place in the senate of the United States.

The support of a man holding the position and possessing the talents of Mr. Adams, was peculiarly acceptable to the administration of Mr. Jefferson, at a crisis when a defection in the ranks of the democratic party wore an alarming aspect to those in power. His course was, however, severely censured by his former political friends, the federalists of Massachusetts, who considered his support of the embargo, and other measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration, as an act of separation from the federal party. His father had previously indicated similar views to those of his son, and finally became a zealous supporter of democratic men and

measures.

Previous to retiring from the senate of the United States, namely, in 1806, Mr. Adams was called to the chair of rhetoric and oratory in Harvard college, and delivered a course of lectures on the art of speaking well; an important art to the youth of a free country.

But Mr. Adams was not destined to remain long in retirement. Soon after the accession of Mr. Madison to the presidency, he appointed Mr.