ce what we preserved in war; it is for us to look at all
things with a view to the common country and not to the exigencies of
party politics; it is for us ever to bear in mind the higher
allegiance we have sworn, and to remember that he who has once been a
soldier of the motherland degrades himself forever when he becomes the
slave of faction. Then at last, if through life we ever bear these
lessons freshly in mind will it be well for us, will it be well for
our country, will it be well for those whose names we bear, that our
bones also do not molder with those of our brave comrades beneath the
sods of Gettysburg, or that our graves do not look down on the
swift-flowing Mississippi from the historic heights of Vicksburg?

JOHN ADAMS (1735-1826)

John Adams, second President of the United States, was not a man of
the strong emotional temperament which so often characterizes the
great orator. He was fitted by nature for a student and scholar
rather than to lead men by the direct appeal the orator makes to
their emotions, their passions, or their judgment His inclinations
were towards the Church; but after graduating from Harvard College,
which he entered at the age of sixteen, he had a brief experience as
a school-teacher and found it so distasteful to him that he adopted
the law as a relief, without waiting to consult his inclinations
further. "Necessity drove me to this determination," he writes, "but
my inclination was to preach." He began the practice of law in his
native village of Braintree, Massachusetts, and took no prominent
part in public affairs until 1765, when he appeared as counsel for
the town of Boston in proceedings growing out of the Stamp Act
difficulties.

From this time on, his name is constantly associated with the great
events of the Revolution. That be never allowed his prejudices as a
patriot to blind him to his duties as a lawyer, he showed by
appearing as counsel for the British soldiers who killed Crispus
Attucks, Samuel Gray, and others, in the Boston riot of 1770. He was
associated in this case with Josiah Quincy, and the two
distinguished patriots conducted the case with such ability that the
soldiers were acquitted--as no doubt they should have been.

Elected a member of the Continental Congress, Mr. Adams did work in
it which identified him in an enduring way with the formative period
of republican institutions in America. This must be remembered in
passing upon his acts wh