-expulsion from the House--indictment before the grand jury
of the District of Columbia. In vain did they declare that he should "be
made amenable to another tribunal, [mob-law] and as an incendiary, be
brought to condign punishment." "My life on it," said a southern member,
"if he presents that petition from slaves, we shall yet see him within the
walls of the penitentiary." All these attempts at brow-beating moved him
not a tittle. Firm he stood to his duty, despite the storms of angry
passion which howled around him, and with withering rebukes repelled the
assaults of hot-blooded opponents, as the proud old headland, jutting far
into ocean's bosom, tosses high, in worthless spray, the dark mountain
billows which in wrath beat upon it.

"Do the gentlemen from the South," said he, "think they can frighten me by
their threats? If that be their object, let me tell them, sir, they have
mistaken their man. I am not to be frightened from the discharge of a
sacred duty, by their indignation, by their violence, nor, sir, by all the
grand juries in the universe. I have done only my duty; and I shall do it
again under the same circumstances, even though they recur to-morrow."

"Though aged, he was so iron of limb,
None of the youth could cope with him;
And the foes whom he singly kept at bay,
Outnumbered his thin hairs of silver grey."

Nor was Mr. Adams without encouragement in his trying position. His
immediate constituents, at their primary meetings, repeatedly sent up a
cheering voice in strong and earnest resolutions, approving heartily his
course, and urging him to, perseverance therein. The Legislatures of
Massachusetts and Vermont, rallied to his support. In solemn convocation,
they protested against the virtual annihilation of the right of
petition--against slavery and the slave trade in the District of
Columbia--gave their entire sanction to the principles advocated by Mr.
Adams, and pledged their countenance to all measures calculated to sustain
them.

Large bodies of people in the Eastern, Northern, and Middle States,
sympathized with him in his support of the most sacred of privileges
bestowed on man. Representative after Representative were sent to
Congress, who gathered around him, and co-operated with him in his holy
warfare against the iron rule which slavery had been enabled to establish
in the national Legislature. With renewed energy he resisted the mighty
current which was undermining the fou