blished himself in Boston, and took part in the public affairs of the day. In 1794, he was appointed by Washington Minister to the United Netherlands, and remained in Europe till 1801, employed in the several offices of Minister to Holland, England, and Prussia, and in other diplomatic business. At the close of his father's administration he was recalled, and, in 1802, was chosen, from the Boston district, a member of the Massachusetts Senate, and soon after was elected a United States Senator for six years from March 4, 1803. While Senator, he was, in 1806, appointed Professor of Rhetoric in Harvard University,-an office which he filled with much ability till 1809,1 when he was appointed by President Monroe Minister to the Court of Russia. In 1813, he was named at the head of five commissioners appointed by President Madison to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain, which was signed at Ghent, in December, 1814; and soon after he was appointed, by the same President, Minister to the Court of St. James. After having occupied that post until the close of President Madison's administration, he was called home, in 1817, to the Department of State, at the formation of the Cabinet of President Monroe. Mr. Adams's career as a foreign minister terminated at this point,—a career that has never been paralleled either in the length of time it covered, the number of courts at which he represented his country, or the variety and importance of the services rendered.

In 1824, Mr. Adams was elected President of the United States. His administration was distinguished for its ability and economy; and the Presidential chair nas been occupied by no man of greater learning, more thorough acquaintance with all our foreign and domestic relations, purer patriotism, or higher integrity of character. At the close of his Presidential term, in 1829, he retired to his family mansion in Quincy; but he was soon after elected member of the United States House of Representatives, and took his seat in 1831. Many of his friends doubted the wisdom of this step, and feared it would detract from his former fame rather than add to it. But their doubts were soon put to rest; for, signal as had been his services to his country for a long life, he was yet to put the crowning glory upon them all, by standing forth in the House of Representatives, amid abuse, reproach, and threats of expulsion, as the firm, able, undaunted champion of the right of petition.

During the years 1836 and 1837, the public mind in the Northern States became fully aroused to the enormities of American slavery,-its encroachments on the rights and interests of the free States, the undue influence it was exercising in our national councils, and the evident determination on the part of its advocates to enlarge its borders and its evils, by the addition of new slave territories. Petitions for the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia and the Territories began to pour into Congress from every section of the East and North. These were generally presented by Mr. Adams. His age and experience, his well-known influence in the House of Representatives, his patriotism, and àis intrepid advocacy of human freedom, commanded the confidence of the people of the free States, and led them to intrust to him their petitions; and with scrupulous fidelity he performed the duty thus imposed upon him.

The Southern members of Congress became alarmed at these demonstrations,

1 His Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory were published, in one volume 8vo, in 1810.

and determined to arrest them, even at the sacrifice, if need be, of the right of petition, the most sacred privilege of freemen. On the 8th of February, 1836, a committee was raised by the House of Representatives, to take into consideration what disposition should be made of petitions and memorials for the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, and to report thereon. On the 18th of May, the committee made a long report, through Mr. Pinckney, re commending, among others, the adoption of the following resolution :

"Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers, relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery or the abolition of slavery, shall, without being either printed or referred, be laid upon the table, and that no further action whatever shall be had thereon."

Notwithstanding the rule embodied in this resolution virtually trampled the right of petition into the dust, it was adopted by the House by a large majority. But Mr. Adams was not to be deterred, by this arbitrary restriction, from the faithful discharge of his duty as a representative of the people. Petitions on the subject of slavery continued to be transmitted to him in increased numbers. With unwavering firmness, against a bitter and unscrupulous opposition, exasperated to the highest pitch by his pertinacity, amidst a tempest of vituperation and abuse, he persevered in presenting these petitions, one by one, to the amount sometimes of two hundred in a day,-demanding the action of the House separately on each petition.

His position amid these scenes was in the highest degree illustrious and sublime. An aged man, with the burden of years upon him, forgetful of the elevated stations he had occupied and the distinguished honors received for past services, turning away from the repose which age so greatly needs, and laboring, amidst scorn and derision, and threats of expulsion and assassination, to maintain the sacred right of petition for the poorest and humblest in the land, insisting that the voice of a free people should be heard by their representatives when they would speak in condemnation of human slavery, and call upon them to maintain the principles of liberty embodied in the immortal Declaration of Independence, was a spectacle unwitnessed before in the history of legislation.1

It is impossible, in the limits prescribed to these pages, to enumerate the numerous and important measures in which Mr. Adams took a prominent part in the House of Representatives and elsewhere. The brave and eloquent old man lived to see his labors for the right of petition crowned with complete success: in 1845, the obnoxious "gag-rule" was rescinded, and Congress consented to receive and treat respectfully all petitions on the subject of slavery. In his voluntary and eloquent defence of the Amistad negroes, too, before the Supreme Court of the United States, at the advanced age of seventy-four, he was completely successful, and had the pleasure of hearing the decision of the court pronouncing their liberty.

For a full account of Mr. Adams's labors in the House of Representatives, consult that admirable book, "Life and Public Services of John Quincy Adams, by William H. Seward." Rev. Joshua Leavitt, editor of the "Emancipator," was at that time in Washington, and published in his paper fuller accounts of that memorable session of Congress than I have elsewhere seen; and it is to be hoped he will yet give them to the public in a convenient form, as materials for our country's history.

Bu nis eventful and useful life was now drawing to a close. On Monday, the 21st of February, 1848, while at his post in the House of Representatives, and rising to address the Speaker, he was struck with paralysis, fainted, and fell into the arms of the member who was next to him, Mr. Fisher of Ohio. Every thing was immediately done for him that could be by anxious friends, kindred, and skilful physicians; but all was of no avail. He lingered till the evening of the 23d, when he expired, leaving behind him the enviable reputation of being one of the ablest Presidents of the United States, and the most learned and eloquest champion of freedom in the House of Representatives.1

THE GOSPEL, A GOSPEL OF LIBERTY AND PEACE.

Friends and fellow-citizens !-I speak to you with the voice as of one risen from the dead. Were I now, as I shortly must be, cold in my grave, and could the sepulchre unbar its gates, and open to me a passage to this desk, devoted to the worship of Almighty God, I would repeat the question with which this discourse was introduced: "Why are you assembled in this place?” And one of you would answer me for all: Because the Declaration of Independence, with the voice of an angel from heaven, "put to his mouth the sounding alchemy," and proclaimed universal emancipation upon earth! It is not the separation of your forefathers from their kindred race beyond the Atlantic tide. It is not the union of thirteen British Colonies into one people, and the entrance of that people upon the theatre where kingdoms, and empires, and nations are the persons of the drama. It is not that

"In the history of American statesmen, none lived a life so long in the public service; none had trusts so numerous confided to their care; none died a death so glorious. Beneath the dome of the nation's capitol; in the midst of the field of his highest usefulness, where he had won fadeless laurels of renown; equipped with the armor in which he had fought so many battles for truth and freedom, he fell beneath the shaft of the king of terrors. And how bright, how enviable, the reputation he left behind! As a man, pure, upright, benevolent, religious-his hand unstained by a drop of human blood; uncharged, unsuspected, of crime, of premeditated wrong, of an immoral act, of an unchaste word,-as a statesman, lofty and patriotic in all his purposes; devoted to the interests of the people; sacredly exercising all power intrusted to his keeping for the good of the public alone, unmindful of personal interest and aggrandizement; an enthusiastic lover of liberty; a faithful, fearless defender of the rights of man! The sun of his life, in its lengthened course through the political heavens, was unobscured by a spot, undimmed by a cloud; and when, at the close of the long day, it sank beneath the horizon, the whole firmament glowed with the brilliancy of its reflected glories! Rulers, statesmen, legislators! study and emulate such a life; seek after a character so beloved, a death so honorable, a fame so immortal."—Seward's Life, page 337.

Since the first edition of this work was put to press, there has been published "Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adains, by Josiah Quincy, LL.D.;" and a more interesting and valuable piece of biography has not, in my estimation, appeared in our country. This life, and the "Life of Amos Lawrence," should be read by every young man who, in entering upon manhood, desires the best exam. ples to aid and cheer him in life's great duties.

this is the birthday of the North American Union, the last and noblest offspring of time. It is that the first words uttered by the genius of our country, in announcing his existence to the world of mankind, was-Freedom to the slave! Liberty to the captives! Redemption! redemption forever to the race of man from the yoke of oppression! It is not the work of a day; it is not the labor of an age; it is not the consummation of a century, that we are assembled to commemorate. It is the emancipation of our race. It is the emancipation of man from the thraldom of man!

And is this the language of enthusiasm ? The dream of a distempered fancy? Is it not rather the voice of inspiration? The language of Holy Writ? Why is it that the Scriptures, both of the Old and New Covenant, teach you upon every page to look forward to the time when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid? Why is it that, six hundred years before the birth of the Redeemer, the sublimest of prophets, with lips touched by the hallowed fire from the hand of God, spake and said :-"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound"? And why is it that, at the first dawn of the fulfilment of this prophecy,-at the birthday of the Saviour in the lowest condition of human existence, the angel of the Lord came in a flood of supernatural light upon the shepherds, witnesses of the scene, and said:" Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people"? Why is it that there was suddenly with that angel a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" ??

What are the good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people? The prophet had told you, six hundred years before: Liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound." The multitude of the heavenly host pronounced the conclusion, to be shouted hereafter by the universal choir of all intelligent created beings:-" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Fellow-citizens fellow-Christians! fellow-men! Am I speak ing to believers in the gospel of peace? To others, I am aware that the capacities of man for self or social improvement are subjects of distrust or of derision. The sincere believer receives the rapturous promises of the future improvement of his kind with humble hope and cheering confidence of their final fulfilment. He receives them, too, with the admonition of God to his con

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science, to contribute himself, by all the aspirations of his heart and all the faculties of his soul, to their accomplishment. Tell not him of impossibilities when human improvement is the theme. Nothing can be impossible which may be effected by human will. See what has been effected! An attentive reader of the history of mankind, whether in the words of inspiration, or in the records of antiquity, or in the memory of his own experience, must perceive that the gradual improvement of his own condition upon earth is the inextinguishable mark of distinction between the animal man and every other animated being, with the innumerable multitudes of which every element of this sublunary globe is peopled. And yet, from the earliest records of time, this animal is the only one in the visible creation who preys upon his kind. The savage man destroys and devours his captive foe. The partially civilized man spares his life, but makes him his slave. the progress of civilization, both the life and liberty of the enemy vanquished or disarmed are spared; ransoms for prisoners are giver and received. Progressing still in the paths to perpetual peace, exchanges are established, and restore the prisoner of war to his country and to the enjoyment of all his rights of property and of person. A custom, first introduced by mutual special couvention, grows into a settled rule of the laws of nations, that persons occupied exclusively upon the arts of peace shall, with their property, remain wholly unmolested in the conflicts of nations by arms. We ourselves have been bound by solemn engagements with one of the most warlike nations of Europe, to observe this rule, even in the utmost extremes of war; and in one of the most merciless periods of modern times, I have seen, towards the close of the last century, three members of the Society of Friends, with Barclay's Apology and Penn's Maxims in their hands, pass, peaceful travellers, through the embattled hosts of France and Britain, unharmed and unmolested, as the three children of Israel in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar.

War, then, by the common consent and mere will of civilized man, has not only been divested of its most atrocious cruelties, but for multitudes, growing multitudes of individuals, has already been and is abolished. Why should it not be abolished for all? Let it be impressed upon the heart of every one of you, impress it upon the minds of your children, that this total abolition of war upon earth is an improvement in the condition of man entirely dependent on his own will. He cannot repeal or change the laws of physical nature. He cannot redeem himself from the ills that flesh is heir to; but the ills of war and slavery are all of his own creation. He has but to will, and he effects the cessation of them altogether.

Oration at Newburyport, July 4, 1837.