JOHN ADAMS.

PEOPLE are mistaken who suppose that we have in America no old families. We have perhaps as many as other countries, only the torrent of emigration, and the suddenness with which new fortunes are made and lost, conceal the fact from our observation. The Adams family, for example, which descended from Thomas Adams, one of the first proprictors of Massachusetts, has gone on steadily increasing in wealth and numbers from 1620 to the present time, and the family estate still comprises the lands originally bought by the Adams who was grandfather to the second President of the United States. John Adams died worth one hundred thousand dollars. His son, John Quincy Adams, left, it is said, twice as much; and his son, Charles Francis Adams, late minister to London, is supposed to be worth two millions.

John Adams was born October 19, 1735. His father, who was also named John, was a farmer in good circumstances; and, following the custom of such in Massachusetts, he resolved to bring up one of his sons to the ministry, and sent him to Harvard College. In those days distinction of rank was so universally recognized that the students at Harvard or Yale were recorded and arranged according to the rank and dignity of their parents. I suppose the son of the governor would have taken precedence of all the rest, unless there chanced to be in the college a scion of the English aristocracy. John Adams, in a class of twentyfour, ranked fourteenth. On state occasions, when the class entered a room, he would have gone in fourteenth. His grandson tells us, that he would not have held even as high a rank as this, but that his mother's ancestors were persons of greater consequence than his father's. This custom of arranging the students

in accordance with the supposed social importance of their parents prevailed at Harvard until the year 1769, after which the alphabetical order was substituted.

Upon leaving college, he did what almost all poor students did at that day, kept school for awhile before entering upon the studies preparatory to his profession. He tells us, in his diary, that on commencement day he attracted some attention by his speech, which led to his being appointed Latin master to the grammar school of Worcester, and that three weeks after, when he was not yet twenty years of age, a horse was sent for him and a man to attend him.

"We made the journey," he says, "about sixty miles, in one day, and I entered on my office."

When the time came for him finally to choose a profession, he discovered in his mind a decided repugnance to that of the ministry.

"I saw," he tells us, "such a spirit of dogmatism and bigotry in clergy and laity, that if I should be a priest I must take my side and pronounce as positively as any of them, or never get a parish, or, getting it, must soon leave it. Very strong doubts arose in my mind whether I was made for a pulpit in such times, and I began to think of other professions. I perceived very clearly, as I thought, that the study of theology and the pursuit of it as a profession would involve me in endless altercations and make my life miserable, without any prospect of doing any good to my fellow-men."

The truth was that he had ceased to believe some of the doctrines of the orthodox church of New England, and had become what was then called a Deist, and what is now more politely termed a Unitarian; to which faith he ever after adhered.

His father had now done for him all that he could afford, and as it was a custom then for students and apprentices to pay a liberal fee to their instructors and masters, he was somewhat embarrassed in entering the profession of the law, which he had chosen. In his dilemma he went to one of the lawyers of Worcester, whose performances in court he had admired, stated his circumstances, and offered himself to him as his clerk and pupil. The lawyer replied, after considering the matter for a

few days, that he might board in his house- for the sum allowed by the town, and that he should pay him a fee of a hundred dollars whenever it might be convenient. The young man jumped at this offer and was soon established as school-master and lawstudent. In due time he was admitted to the bar, and, returning to his father's house, endeavored to set up in the practice of his profession.

His father lived then at Braintree, a small and obscure town fourteen miles from Boston, where there was very little chance for a young lawyer. For some years his gains were small and his anxieties severe. It was not until after his father's death that his circumstances were alleviated, and he was enabled to marry. His marriage was one of the most fortunate ever contracted in this world; for not only was the lady one of the most amiable and accomplished of women, but, being a member of a numerous and influential family, she brought to her husband a great increase of business. He was then twenty-nine years of age, full of energy and ambition, and gradually made his way to a profitable practice.

The first office the future President ever held was that of roadmaster to the town in which he lived. He was next intrusted with three offices at once, namely, selectman, assessor, and overseer of the poor; the duties of all of which he discharged to the satisfaction of his neighbors. It was during the Stamp-Act agitation of 1765 that he began to emerge from the obscurity of a country lawyer. One of the odious and tyrannical measures of the royal government was to close all the courts in the colony, which put a sudden termination to the business of the lawyers.

"I was," says Adams in his Diary, "but just getting into my gears, just getting under sail, and an embargo is laid upon the ship! Thirty years of my life are passed in preparation for business. I have had poverty to struggle with; envy and jealousy and malice of enemies to encounter; no friends, or but few, to assist me; so that I had groped in dark obscurity till of late, and had but just become known and gained a small degree of reputation, when this execrable project was set on foot

for my ruin, as well as that of America in general, and of Great Britain !"

But, while he was indulging in these gloomy apprehensions, he was astonished to receive a letter from Boston, informing him that that town, by a unanimous vote, had appointed him one of its counsel to appear before the governor in support of the memorial praying that the courts be reopened. This measure of closing the courts of law was not long persisted in; but the honor conferred upon John Adams, by so important a place as Boston, brought him into increased prominence, and opened the way to more valuable business than had previously fallen to his share. It led soon to his removal to Boston, where he continued to reside down to the period when he was called to the service of his country in the Revolutionary war.

One of the most honorable actions of his life was defending the British soldiers who participated in what is called the "Boston Massacre." An altercation having arisen between the soldiers and some of the town's people, it ended in the soldiers firing upon the crowd, as they alleged, in self-defence. Being put upon their trial for murder, John Adams braved the obloquy of defending them. It was honorable to the people of Boston that they should have recognized the right of those soldiers, odious as they were, to a fair trial, and respected the motives of their favorite in volunteering to defend them.

When the first Congress was summoned to meet at Philadelphia, John Adams was one of the five gentlemen elected to represent the Colony of Massachusetts. It was sorely against his will and his interest that he accepted the appointment. In the debate which preceded the Declaration of Independence, he is said, by Mr. Jefferson, to have excelled all his colleagues. There was a boldness, decision, and fire about his speeches which carried conviction to many wavering minds. When the great measure was passed on the 2d of July, 1776, he went home, and wrote that celebrated letter to his wife :

"The day is passed. The 2d of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated

as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.

"You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this declaration and support and defend these States. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even although we should rue it,

trust in God, we shall not."

which, I

The reader will observe that he speaks of the second day of July as the one which posterity would commemorate. It was indeed on that day that the great decision was made by Congress; but, as the Declaration of Independence was formally approved and signed on the fourth of July, that day has ever been observed as the birthday of the Republic.

With his services in promoting the Declaration of Independence, the great part of Mr. Adams' life ended. He was, soon after, appointed to go abroad as one of the ambassadors representing the infant nation at Paris; but never was there a man less at home in a court, or less adapted by nature for a diplomatist. He neither understood nor respected the people among whom he lived, and whom he was required to gratify and conciliate. At the same time he was curiously destitute of all that we call tact, while he was possessed with a vanity the most egregious that ever blinded a man of real worth and ability. He offended the French ministry; he perplexed Dr. Franklin, who was one of the greatest diplomatists that ever lived, as well as one of the most honest and simple; he excited the ridicule of the French people. In a word, he was out of place in France, and rendered his country little service there and less honor. Returning home some time after the conclusion of peace, he was called once more from his farm, at Quincy, to serve as VicePresident under the new Constitution. This office he filled with