and his hatred of all that was ignoble and unworthy. If he
despised a low standard, at least he held his own standard high, and
himself lived by the rules by which he measured others. Men with
vastly greater defects have been much more kindly served both by
contemporaries and by posterity. There can be no question that Adams
deserved all the esteem which ought to be accorded to the highest
moral qualities, to very high, if a little short of the highest,
intellectual endowment, and to immense acquirements. His political
integrity was of a grade rarely seen; and, in unison with his
extraordinary courage and independence, it seemed to the average
politician actually irritating and offensive. He was in the same
difficulty in which Aristides the Just found himself. But neither (p. viii)
assaults nor political solitude daunted or discouraged him. His career
in the House of Representatives is a tale which has not a rival in
congressional history. I regret that it could not be told here at
greater length. Stubbornly fighting for freedom of speech and against
the slaveholders, fierce and unwearied in old age, falling literally
out of the midst of the conflict into his grave, Mr. Adams, during the
closing years of his life, is one of the most striking figures of
modern times. I beg the reader of this volume to put into its pages
more warmth of praise than he will find therein, and so do a more
correct justice to an honest statesman and a gallant friend of the
oppressed. Doing this, he will improve my book in the particular
wherein I think that it chiefly needs improvement.
JOHN T. MORSE, JR.
July, 1898.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
Page
Youth and Diplomacy 1

CHAPTER II.

Secretary of State and President 101

CHAPTER III.

In the House of Representatives 225

Index 309

ILLUSTRATIONS

John Quincy Adams Frontispiece

From the original painting by John Singleton
Copley, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Autograph from the Chamberlain collection,
Boston Public Library.

The vignette of Mr. Adams's home in Quincy
is from a photograph.
Page
William H. Crawford 107