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Show V . i- a j.wuJLi,.w j By ELMO SCOTT WATSON T!.' T' T HAS become almost ri; ; "V axiomatic that genius 111 I does not transmit Itself A? 15i flnt' t'in' tlie sons of 1 M Kreft' men ral'e'y ever, Wy' ; 53 turn out to be great. V - vbAkjpJl Certnlnly that has been i'iSSf "S 'rUe 'n Amer'ca as 'n Y-qSi; other nations, although I qp we have had a fv fam-t fam-t I Hies which, over H period of years, have contributed several Individuals In-dividuals of distinction. Two of these which come readiest to mind are the Lees, who during the Revolution produced pro-duced a statesman and a soldier, both of more than ordinary ability, and during dur-ing the Civil war a really gTeat mll- Itary lender; and the Harrisons, who produced a Revolutionary war statesman states-man and two Presidents. But if It is necessary to find an exception ex-ception to prove the rule it may be found, perhaps, in the statement made by some one that "American history is nil cluttered up with Adamses." For 'in America there Is one family, and only one, that generation-after generation genera-tion has consistently and without in-. in-. terruption, made contributions of the highest order to our history and civilization." civi-lization." Those are the words of James Truslow Adams (who, by the way, Is a Virginia Adams and not related re-lated to the Massachusetts family of whom he writes) In the prologue to his book, "The Adams Family," published pub-lished recently by Little, Brown and company of Boston. ' The Adams family was established in America about 1G36 when a certain Henry Adams, probably because of a combination of religious and economic reasons, decided to leave England and try his luck In the New world. By chance he settled at a place caJled Braintree in Massachusetts. He married mar-ried and had children, who In turn married and handed down the family name. This went on for four generations gener-ations without producing any man of distinction until we come to John Adams, a farmer and shoemaker in Braintree married Susanna Boylston, daughter of a family prominent in the medical history of the colony. "With the fifth generation, In the person of John Adams, historian, publicist, pub-licist, diplomat, I'resident of the" United Unit-ed States, the family not only suddenly sudden-ly achieves national and international position, but maintains it in successive generations for two centuries. Was it due to some mysterious result from the combination of Adams and Boylston Boyls-ton blood far beyond the ken of science sci-ence even today; or to some unfathomable unfathom-able synchronism between the peculiar qualities of the Adamses and the whole social atmosphere of the next few generations, a subtle interplay of unknown forces ; or to mere chance In a universe in which atoms rush and collide chaotically? Fascinating as is the problem, it is Insoluble. All we shall see is that without warning, like a 'fault' in the geologic record, there Is a sudden and immense rise recorded in the psychical energy of the family." i The stage was set for the first great Adams, John, to play his part In American history when the dispute between be-tween England and her rebellious colonies col-onies sent him to the Continental congresses, con-gresses, where clear heads were headed head-ed to see that independence was inevitable in-evitable and union of the colonies essential. es-sential. While most Americans think of the Revolution mainly In terms of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and a few others of spectacular deeds, the true history of those times could not be written without the name of John Adams. It ,was he who had much to do with bringing congress to the point of declaring de-claring independence; his was the master stroke which caused the adoption adop-tion of the New England troops around Boston as a Continental army and iwhich checkmated Intercolonial Jealousies Jeal-ousies by placing George Washington, p. Virginian, in command; he deserves Ithe principal credit for establishing the American navy, and he furnished piany of the political Ideas on which the new nation based its government. The international career of the AMBASSADOR CteAXJ&J , '"t ? Adamses began when John Adams was sent to France as one of the American commissioners his son, John Quincv Adams, going with him to begin his education in European schools, and after a brief stay there and a brief return to this country he went back to England as one of the commissioners commission-ers to arrange the terms of the.treaty of peace and later to become American Ameri-can minister at the Court of St. James. His career as vice president and finally final-ly as President completes the pattern of the life of this first great Adams. In John Quincy Adams, the second generation kept up the standard set by the first and even advanced it. Before Be-fore he was seventeen years of age he was private secretary to the minister to Russia and to his own father In Paris and in London. On his twenty-seventh twenty-seventh birthday, after his graduation from Harvard, President Washington sent him as minister to The Hague and later to Portugal, Prussia and Russia. Then followed a term of teaching at Harvard but he was soon called back to public service on the peace commission of 1S15. Next he emulated his father by becoming minister min-ister to England and came home in 1S17 to serve President Monroe as secretary sec-retary of state. John Quincy Adams was a master diplomat, having learned his lessons in the. European school of international interna-tional relations. He brought Spain to terms in Florida and his conciliatory actions offset the rash deeds of Jackson Jack-son without blunting the force of the American policy. To him, according to Historian Adams, belongs most of the credit for the Monroe doctrine, though it has come down in history bearing the name of the Virginia Pres-dient. Pres-dient. Like his father he failed of reelection re-election to the Presidency, but his great years came during his service as congressman from the Plymouth district dis-trict when he stood almost alone in defense of constitutional government during the period of the slavery dispute. dis-pute. Finally he died at his desk, worn out in the service of the republic The third generation of Adamses did not produce another President, but it did keep up the family tradition of 1 diplomatic service to the nation, and I if there were any way to evaluate comparative worth of national and international in-ternational service it might show that the contribution of Charles Francis Adams was Just as great as were those of John and John Quincy. Originally Orig-inally a Democrat, he turned Whig in defense of freedom and union. After a career as editor and congressman, his great opportunity came when Lincoln Lin-coln and Seward sent him to the post his father nnd his grandfather bad held minister to England. There he successfully checkmated the Confederate Confed-erate attempts to secure recognition, and when his firmness forced Lord Russell to forbid the English-built rams to leave the shipyards for Confederate Con-federate service, he sealed the doom of the southern cause. And as a member mem-ber of the Alabama claims commission commis-sion his conciliatory spirit tempered FRATTCIS ADAM'S the excessive demands of his colleagues, col-leagues, convinced Great Britain of the fairness of the American cause and won a just settlement. The fourth generation is remarkable for the fact that the Adams genius was scattered among four sons, which accounts perhaps for the fact that no one is so outstanding as had been representatives rep-resentatives in the previous generations. genera-tions. Only one, John Quincy, turned to politics and he, having chosen the unpopular Democratic party, had little chance to rise to prominence. Charles Francis was first a writer and then a business man. He became president of the Kansas City Stockyards association asso-ciation and later president of the Union Pacific railroad. He led his state in railway regulation, but he was never very well satisfied as a business man and later returned to writing. Perhaps the greatest of the four was Henry Adams who won his distinction in the Held of literature. His book, "The Education of Henry Adams," has been called "the most thought-provoking autobiography, though it was not so intended, that American has produced." pro-duced." Nearly as famous is his "Mont St. Michel and Chartres." Crooks Adams dabbled in law and In writing history without making any profound impression upon either. In his "Epilogue," the Adams historian his-torian carries the record of this remarkable re-markable American family down to the present when he writes: "On September 20, 1S24, John Quincy Adams wandered among the tombstones of the family burial plot at Quincy musing on the past and future of his line. 'Four generations of whom very little is known' he wrote in his diary, 'than is recorded upon these stones. There are three succeeding generations of us now living. liv-ing. Pass another century and we shall all be mouldering in the same dust, or resolved into the same elements. ele-ments. Who then of our posterity shall visit this yard? And what shall he read engraved upon the stones? This is known only to the Creator of all. The record may be longer. May it be of blameless lives !' "The century has passed. We have seen the generations, and today a third Charles Francis, a son of John Quincy's grandson, John Quincy, Is head of the family. A Harvard graduate, grad-uate, like all his family since John ; for thirty years treasurer of the university; univer-sity; a lawyer, like all his family; a famous yachtman who defended the American cup against the British ; a man true to the family tradition and honored in his community, he sits in the cabinet at Washington as secretary of the navy which was founded by John. "John Quincy's wistful hope has been fulfilled: 'The record may be longer.' " ( by Western Newspaper Union.) |