critical period of our Civil War. America remembers
him best in this position. His firm old face with its white chin
whiskers is a worthy portrait in the ancestral gallery.

Although the political history of this country may conclude its
reference to the Adamses with these three famous figures, yet all New
Englanders and all readers of biography would be reluctant to turn from
this remarkable family without mention of the sons of Charles Francis
Adams, two of whom have written, beside valuable historical works,
autobiographies so entertaining and so truly valuable for their
contemporaneous portraits as to win a place of survival in our permanent
literature.

A member of the Adams family still lives in the comfortable home where
the three first and most famous members all celebrated their golden
weddings. This broad-fronted and hospitable house, built in 1730 by
Leonard Vassal, a West India planter, for his summer residence, with its
library finished in panels of solid mahogany, was confiscated when its
Royalist owner fled at the outbreak of the Revolution, and John Adams
acquired the property and left the pitch-roofed cottage down the street.
The home of two Presidents, what tales it could tell of notable
gatherings! One must read the autobiography of Charles Francis Adams and
"The Education of Henry Adams" to appreciate the charm of the succeeding
mistresses of the noble homestead, and to enjoy in retrospect its many
illustrious visitors.

To have produced one family like the Adamses would surely be sufficient
distinction for any one place, but the Adams family forms merely one
unit in Quincy's unique procession of great men.

The Quincy family, for which the town was named, and which at an early
date intermarried with the Adamses, presents an almost parallel
distinction. The first Colonel Quincy, he who lived like an English
squire, a trifle irascible, to be sure, but a dignified and commanding
figure withal, had fourteen children by his first wife and three by his
second, so the family started off with the advantage of numbers as well
as of blood. At the Quincy mansion house were born statesmen, judges,
and captains of war. The "Dorothy Q." of Holmes's poem first saw the
light in it, and the Dorothy who became the bride of the dashing John
Hancock blossomed into womanhood in it. Here were entertained times
without number Sir Harry Vane, quaint Judge Sewall, Benjamin Franklin,
and that couple who gleam through th