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Show OLD MASTERS The Adams Family !By C. C. G. THE race that has produced more distinguished distin-guished men, that possibly has had more to do with the shaping of the history and the destiny of our country than any other is the Adams family. Their genealogy leaves in doubt whether those in America came from a titled ancestry an-cestry or not. I do not discount the value of a lineage from ancestors who by their achievements won distinct recognition, for that imposes upon their descendants descend-ants the necessity of keeping "full high advanced" ad-vanced" the prestige of the races; it causes men to have a distinct self respect and makes it imperative im-perative upon them not to fail when duty calls foi courage and sacrifice and steadfastness for the right. Nevertheless it is not an absolute essential, for many who bear titles are no honor to the title while others unaided forge out for themselves immortal names. The question is not "Was he of royal stock?" but rather "Can it be said he was innately royal in brain, in heart, in achievement and character?" Napoleon in his haughty estimate of greatness never tried to trace his lineage from mighty Roman Ro-man ancestor but claimed that within himself rested the germs which his own sovereignty called into active life and enabled him at last to be able to dispute the claim of superior greatness great-ness with every Roman except one. When Hermes gave his final counsel to Sisyphus Sisy-phus after promising him "Honors and feast and gear" everything he coveted he cautioned him to "Hold them as perfumes on an altar burned. The altar stands, the perfumes fade in smoke. The three will ask thee Was the altar pure? Not, were the perfumes sweet? ' Writing of the Adams family one can but note that the ambition of some of them was equal to that of the great Corsican, but without any caution from Hermes the thought seems ever present with them that the perfumes will fade in smoke, that the essential thing is that the altar must be kept pure. In an article like this one only a few of the great family can be named. The first one and perhaps the very greatest of them all was Samuel Adams. In many respects he was the very foremost 1 man in America. When the stage was finally be ing set for the great tragedy of the revolution and the prompters were taking their stations to begin to 'call the tremendous acts, then about the first man to stand forth to make a figure which will shine on the memories of men for all time was Samuel Adams. His engraving as it comes down to us shows what a thoroughbred he was in face and hand and figure he stands out like a I knight of the age of chivalry. J He was one of the Henry Adams family; ho was eudcated in the Boston Latin school and at I Harvard college, but he left college to engage in J business, though his parents desired him to enter I the ministry. He took up the business of his J father who was a brewer, but the college honored his scholarship when as candidate for the master's degree in 1743 he showed of what ma- terial he was made and what would come of him in his discussion of the thesis. "Whether it be lawful law-ful to resist the supreme majesty if the commonwealth common-wealth cannot otherwise be preserved." That was the first outward sign of Oio heroic and gifted soul within him. When he took up his father's business he was called "Samuel, the malster;" I I i, when ho was elected tax collector ho was called "Samuel, the publican." From the first he made a name by opposing British rule in the colonies. In May, 17G4, ho drafted the instructions to Boston's representatives representa-tives which were the first public protest against the right of Parliament to tax the colonies. Ho was elected to the legislature from 1765 to 1774 and during that time was the writer of most of the remarkable state papers of that remarkable time. The circular letter from Massachusetts to the other colonies written by him particularly enraged en-raged the king and the legislature was ordered to rescind but refused ninety two to seventeen. He demanded the removal of the king's two regiments from Boston after the massacre of March, 1770, and tho people stood by him. When in 1772 the king had ordered the judges to tho courts to receive their salaries from the crown and not from tho colonies and the people of Boston Bos-ton asked the governor to convene the legislature and he refused, Mr. Adams proposed that the town appoint committees of correspondence and in a short time eighty towns had chosen their committees. This led to the lnter-colonial committee, com-mittee, the founding of the colonial congress and the Declaration of Independence. He was the most adroit political manager in America, not excepting Thomas Jefferson. His appeals were for the people but there was nothing of the demagogue about him. He, with his cousin John, was a delegate to the first Continental Contin-ental Congress in 1774; he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence in 177G; he became Lieutenant Governor of the state in 1789, and Governor later. His decision to support the new federal constitution in the Massachusetts convention con-vention of 1788 was said to have carried the rati-fications rati-fications by the narrow majority of one hundred and eighty-seven yeas to one hundred and sixty-eighty sixty-eighty nays, which his descendants hold as the most important service that he ever rendered his country. His cousin John Adams declared him to have been of "incorruptible integrity, the very soul of the revolution'' and that the appointment of Washington as commander of tho army was due to him". Later Rufus Choate pronounced him the "matchless orator." He died in Boston, October 2, 1803, and the common expression used by New Englanders is "Samuel Adams, the patriot." He seems to have been the one man that was selected to lead New England up to the point of war and then to steady his whole country while the war lasted. And when he died "he sank to rest with all his country's honors blest." John Adams. John Adams was born in Braintree, Mass , October 19th, 1735. He was married in 17G4 to Abagail Smith, who was a daughter of Reverend Rever-end William and Mrs. Elizabeth Smith of Wey-mo Wey-mo th, and who was about as famous a woman as her illustrious husband was a man. She was his counsellor and in a measure his guide through life for old John had a quick and furious temper that needed the steadying hand of u great woman like his wlf John Adams graduated from Harvard college in 1755; taught school and studied law for two years; was admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1758, and began to practice in Boston. lie was employed em-ployed as counsel together with Jeremy Gridley, the head of tho Boston bar and James Otis, the orator, to present a petition to Congress that tho courts might proceed with business though no stamps were to be had and he was chosen one of a committee to draft instructions to tho representatives rep-resentatives of the town. In 1770 he was chosen a representative of the general court and held the H place soveral years though his practice as a law- , H yer was a larger than that of any other in the province ( H He early became conspicuous as an adviser H and a leader of tho Patriot party. He was one H of tho five delegates of Massachusetts chosen to Q tho Congress of 1774 at Philadelphia; was a mem- ber of tho Provincial Congress on his return, BEH and in 1775 was again chosen as delegate to tho flflfl second Continental Congress. The war had ul- H ready begun at Lexington. Now England had an army of 15,000 men beseiging the British in Bos- ton. Congress was prevailed upon to assume tho H command and expense of tho army and General Washington was chosen commander-in chief. And in all this Adams was the leading spirit, il aggressive and never-resting. Jefferson desig- H natcd him as "tho column upon whom Congress H depended." Upon him developed the presidency 'H and the burden of tho war, a leadership which H won for him tho encomium of "the clearest head H and firmest heart of any man in Congress and H the Martin Luther of the American revolution." H Ho went abroad as minister in 1778 to France H and for the next ten years was engaged as min- ister to France and Great Britain. It was through his efforts that two millions of dollars were bor- , rowed in Holland for the revolution. He was 9 vice-president with Washington from 1789 to 1797 jH and president from 1797 to 1801. He ought to H have succeeded himself but because of the divi- jH sion of feeling consequent upon the French rev- B olution he was defeated for his second election, H then retired upon his large farm home in Quincy H and passed his declining years there until his B death on July 4th, 182G, a few hours after the H death of his former associate and friend, Thomas H Jefferson. H He is described us a man of greater learning H and force than any of his contemporaries but ho H had a quick temper and when aroused was almost H ungovernable; and he had what was character- H istic of nearly all the Adamses, a great deal of H self esteem. Of his abilities and his patriotism H there is no question. Next to Samuel Adams he M was the greatest man in Now England, and he M and Samuel Adams did more to shape the course M of this country in the days when it' was break- jH ing away from Great Britain and after the vie- H tory was won, than any other two men that can H be named. H John Quincy Adams. D John Quincy Adams was tho son of John H Adams and his famous wife Abagail. He went H abroad with his father when he was ten years H old and derived much of his education in courts H and capitals, and served as private secretary to JH the minister to Russia when in his fifteenth year. IH He entered Harvard college when nineteen years H of age and graduated in two years. Ho studied H law for three yoars, opened an office and began H practice, but in 1794 was appointed minister to H The Hague by Washington, and in 179G minister M to Portugal. By tho written advice of Washing- M ton, his father on becoming president made him M minister to Berlin. On his way ho was married M in London to Louisa Catherine Johnson of Mary- M land. M He resided several years in Berlin perfecting H his knowledge of the German language and ne- H gotiating treaties of commerce with Sweden and H Prussia. Returning to Boston he was elected a H member of ty Massachusetts senate in 1802, and H to tho Unitcu States senate in 1803. President fl Madison appointed him ambassador to Russia. H While in that capacity ho was joined by Clay H and Gallatin on tho commission which negotiated" H the Treaty of Peace at Ghent, December 24th, B 1814. He remained in London as minister of the H United States but returned to become Secretary H of State for President Monroe in 1817. Ho was H electeu to the presidency in 1824 and served one I HaHHHKaKnNMHHGB9HH0 B term. Upon his retirement ho was chosen to H represent his district in Congress which he en-H en-H tered in December, 1831, and where ho continued H until his death, February 23rd, 1848. M Ills service in Congress was perhaps the most Hj notable of all of his career. An anecdote comes H down that when in Congress the great Tom Mar-H Mar-H shall of Kentucky in a prepared speech sought H to annihilate him. It was a wonderful speech Hj but as Marsha sat down Adams arose and began H in substance i ko this: "When a lad I had the H honor of listening to the arraignment of Warren H Hastings by Richard Brinsley Sheridan and I H thought at the time it was the most marvelous H exhibition of oratory, the most fearful arraign-H arraign-H ment that man had ever listened to. Seven years H later I heard the last and awful arraignment of H the same person by that masterful orator and H statesman, Edmund Burke, and when it was H finished I was sure that no such arraignment had H ever been presented to any court. Little did I H think that in my old age I should bo placed in the H dock as was Warron Hastings and that I should H be arraigned not by a Sheridan, not by a Burke, H but by a a (then slowly pointing his linger to-H to-H wards Marshall) a Mr. Marshall of Kentucky." H It is said that Marshall bore the fierce on-H on-H slaught for fifteen minutes and then he left the H capital. As he wont down the steps a man cornel corn-el ing up the steps heard him with a volley of fright-B fright-B ful oaths for a beginning exclaim "Who supposed M that that old baldheaded Yankee freak knew H everything in the world?" H Another notable performance was when ho presented a petition to Congress from some so- M ciety with which he had no sympathy and when B there was a disposition to cough it down he de- H liverod an apostrophe to the right of petition in fl a free country which thrilled the house. M Ho died at his post, sank back in his seat was can led to a side room, and ceased to H live the next morning, ire was perhaps the great- H qst scholar of all the Adams family and while not B so great in some respects as either his father or H his great uncle he had more general knowledge H than either of them and is remembered still in Congress as "the old man eloquent." fl It has been said of him that, "As compared H with his father John Quincy Adams had more fl learning perhaps but John Adams had more H genius. In energy, spirit, firmness and indomit M able courage John Quincy Adams was his father's H equal, his self command and political prescience B and oven capacity for hard work was superior. M Both will live forever as representatives and em- M bodiments of the spirit and ideas of New England B during periods in which they figured." Charles Francis Adams. fl Charles Francis Adams was a son of John H Quincy Adams and was born October 18. 1807. B He was married September 23rd, 1829. to Abagail B. Brooks. He lived a long time in Europe with m his parents and became master of several langu- M afjos. Returning ho graduated from Harvard col- H logo in 1825 and studied in the office of Daniel S Webster in Boston. Ho was admitted to the Suf- wM folk County bar in 1828; he was nominated for H the vice-presidency of the Froesoil Republicans H on the ticket with Martin Van Buren in 1848; m he was elected to Congress in the third district H of Massaschusetts in 1858 and re-elected in 18G0. H He was appointed by Pres. Lincoln minister H to England in 18C1 and remained their until 18C8. H In that office he showed more essential greatness flj and skill than was ever exhibited in the office H before or after. He was in a trying place. The H nobility and the rich merchants and manufactur- H ers of Great Britain wore pro southern. They H were building privateers, fitting them up and H sending them outside to some obscure port where H ' they could receive guns, ammunition and sup- H plies and in moro than one case crews. He had but just reached England when Cor, -uodoro Wilkes rounded to the steamer Trent and took from her Mason and Slidell, the accredited representatives repre-sentatives of the southern confederacy to England Eng-land and France respectively. The storm created in England when the Trent arrived was something fearful to meet. Some of the nobility could hardly refrain from open insults to our minister min-ister and the slights cast upon him upon every side were enough to break the spirit of any ordinary ord-inary man. Ho moved serenely among them, insisted in-sisted on his country's rights and it went on until un-til finally when one ship intended as a privateer was about to sail he went to the Premier of England Eng-land and told him that if that ship did sail as had the Alabama and Shennndoah it would bo held as an act of war by this country. When tho success of the Monitor was made known in England, Eng-land, English uppertendom grew very respectful to him and when finally the news of the death of President Lincoln reached England tho profound impression that it made subdued Great Britain and elevated Charles Adams to his rightful place as minister of the Great Republic. He had all of the elements in him of the greater Adamses; he was cooler in temperament than either his father or his great uncle but he had tho courage to do his duty and he never stopped to question tho way that duty ran. Tho above are sketches of tho representatives of one family through three generations. There fire plenty more of that family that were eminent but tho four selected were of the highest typo and they make an array such as no other family in any country can equal, and what they did and what they were exalted their native land and especially es-pecially their native New England until now a man from Now England is a man willing to defend de-fend the sovereignity of his own section because the Adamses named above lived. |
