John Quincy Adams The Critical Years 1785-1794

113407

John Quincy Adams

The Critical Years:

1785-1794

by
ROBERT A. EAST

BOOKMAN ASSOCIATES, INC.
NEW YORK 3

Copyright 1962 by Bookman Associates, Inc.

To

Elsie and Frank

PREFACE

When John Quincy Adams spoke of a "critical period"
in his commencement address at Harvard College in July,
1787, he justified later historians in their use of the phrase.
The young graduate said that the problems facing America
in this critical period demanded public faith, and he argued
that a country's greatness is related to the maintenance of its
credit.

That young Adams was undergoing a critical period of
his own in these years may be seen in his private history. It
is a story of trial and error and controversy in the life of a
young man on his way to greatness. Only a few months after
making his nationalistic commencement address he became
opposed to the federal plan for national reform itself. (When
reminded of this long afterwards, he was to label it a lesson
in humiliation.) Several years later his controversial news-
paper writings on the "rights of man" were to help precipi-
tate political factions on a nation-wide scale. Other of his
early writings supported a distinctively American viewpoint
on the turbulent subject of foreign affairs.

In that portion of his life herein reviewed, personal and
public problems were frequently related. Many of his expe-
riences reflected problems of American society of that day,
and sometimes his attitudes on public issues were a reflection
of his private concerns. Definitions of purpose became clari-
fied for both himself and his country only in the face of
difficulties. ^ / ' * >

Our story takes^up John Quincy Adams' career after he
returned from Europe in 1785 as a youth of eighteen. We
follow him through nine years until at the age of twenty-
seven he was sent to Holland in 1794 on a diplomatic mis-

7

8 JOHN QUINGY ADAMS: The Critical Years

sion by President Washington. Periods of long residence
abroad thus preceded and followed his residence as a young
man in America. His experiences at home, however, returned
him to Europe as a publicly recognized man.

The years under review are those of John Quincy's edu-
cation at Harvard, of his study of law in Newburyport and
early practice in Boston, and of his emergence as a notable
contributor to the American press. They are years also
marked by illness, by frequent depression of spirits, and by
a love affair, by the writing of romantic poetry as well as
of political prose, and by clubbing and roistering and at-
tending the theater. A most revealing circumstance was the
abandonment of his "literary" journal in the last six years,
for this had been a deeply cherished project begun shortly
before his return from Europe. Out of his confusion he
found self-expression in taking those courageous stands on
public affairs which were to characterize him for the rest of
his life.

These were unusually difficult years also because he was
in the process of becoming great under the most difficult
of circumstances being the son of a great man, and of a
great mother, too. The ideas of the father were loyally sup-
ported by the son to the point that his own are sometimes
almost indistinguishable. He had inherited the whole Amer-
ican Revolutionary ardor of John and Abigail Adams, but
also their conservative code of political and personal be-
havior.

How well John Quincy Adams fared under this double
burden in early manhood the reader may judge for himself.
In the story of the nine years which follows, however, lot
the scars as well as the triumphs be noted. His critical period
of life furnishes examples of both.

Let it be acknowledged also that it was his incredible in-
dustry and honesty in recording his thoughts and experi-
encesand of his descendants in preserving the records
which make this story possible,

Preface 9

This study, begun over a decade ago, has been variously
encouraged. Once, when browsing in a bookstore (also a
favorite pastime of young John Quincy Adams), I found a
copy of the Letters of Mrs. Adams bearing the name of my old
teacher, Evarts Boutell Greene. This I took to be a good
omen. The release of the microfilm of the Adams family
papers was an inestimable scholarly boon. The work itself
was lightened by the interest of my friends. The manuscript
was read in whole or part by R. Leith Skinner, M.D., of
Greenwich, New York; by my son-in-law, James E. Mooney
of Worcester, Massachusetts; by Reinhard Luthin of New
York City, eminent biographer of Abraham Lincoln; and
by Professor Joseph Dor f man, distinguished economic his-
torian of Columbia University.

To my good friend and colleague, Professor Irving Ray-
mond of Brooklyn College, and to his wife, Henrietta Dana
Skinner Raymond, I am deeply indebted for critical read-
ing and skilled literary assistance.

Among other colleagues at Brooklyn College, John Hope
Franklin kindly read the manuscript; Morris Roberts fur-
nished literary criticism; and Hans Trefousse and the late
Solomon Frank Bloom gave steady encouragement.

The reader will please understand, however, that none of
these good people is to be held responsible for any errors
in this work. I claim full responsibility for these, myself.

Permission to quote from the microfilm of the Adams
Papers was given through the courtesy of Mr. L, H. Butter-
field for the Adams Manuscript Trust. Use of the microfilm
was made possible through the facilities of the Columbia
University School of Library Service, and the courtesy of its
curator, Miss Darthula Wilcox.

The journal of Alice Tucker was read through the kind-
ness of Mr. Gordon Hutchins of Punkatasset Farm, Concord,
Massachusetts.

The historical repositories I have been privileged to use
include the libraries of Brooklyn College and of Columbia

10 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

University; the New York Public Library and the New York
Historical Society; the American Antiquarian Society of
Worcester, the Massachusetts Historical Society of Boston,
and the Public Library of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Publication of this volume was assisted by a grant from the
American Council of Learned Societies.

As I said on a similar occasion many years ago, I urn above
all indebted to my wife, Elizabeth Paddock East, in prepar-
ing this work. The words are an inadequate expression of
gratitude to her, as is the dedication to our children.
New York City Robert A. East

April, 1962

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I. RETURN TO BRAINTREE 15

"Such sentiments as a young
American ought to entertain"

II. WINTER IN HAVERHILL 32

"I have not to reproach
myself with Vice"

III. HARVARD COLLEGE 50

"The passions of the mind"

IV. GRADUATION IN CAMBRIDGE 71

"A nervous style of eloquence"

V. LEGAL STUDIES IN NEWBURYPORT 88

"Health is all I shall ask"

VI. ROMANCE ON THE NORTH SHORE 105

"What bosom burns not
with poetick fire?"

VII. THE RIGHTS OF MAN IN BOSTON 131

"A blasphemous doubt of
Tom Paine's infallibility"

VIII. THE LAW AND THE DRAMA 148

"Like Dogberry in the play"

IX. NEUTRALITY AND L'ENVOI 170

"I am on the bridge between
wisdom and folly"

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS 195

NOTES 199

INDEX 243

There was, in truth, in J. Q- Adams,
a great deal o human nature.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR.

CHAPTER ONE

RETURN TO BRAINTREE

"Such sentiments as a young
American ought to entertain"

A reader of the New York Independent Journal of July
20, 1785, would have found many references to the recent
American Revolution along with the usual news items of
human interest. In addition to being informed of the hang-
ing of a notorious counterfeiter, and of a husband who repu-
diated all debts contracted by a wife who had "eloped" from
his bed and board, the reader might have observed that the
American Congress was meeting in the city. He could have
considered an offer of "CASH" for certain of its depressed secu-
rities. He would have learned that debtors of a dissolved
war-contraccing firm had to make payment immediately to
Alexander Hamilton, attorney-at-law, or be sued. An ob-
servant reader could hardly have failed to mark another
name made prominent by the Revolution, although in a
very different connection:

And on Sunday arrived his most Christian Majesty's Packet, Le
Courier de TAmerique, in fifty-six days from 1'Orient, com-
manded by Fournier, in whom came passenger, the son of the
Hon. John Adams, Esq., Minister Plenipotentiary from the
United States of America, to the United Netherlands.

The reference was of course to John Quincy Adams, a
young man who had just turned his eighteenth birthday
aboard ship. Originally he had come from the country town
of Braintree on the Massachusetts South Shore. In 1779 at

15

16 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

the age of twelve, together with a younger brother, he had
reluctantly accompanied his father on a diplomatic mission
to Europe for a second time. An earlier voyage to France
had only recently ended and the boy had wanted to stay
home to prepare for Harvard. He had been persuaded to
sail again by his mother, although she had long ago warned
him that "the great theatre of the world" upon which he
was entering so young was full of "temptations and vice." l

Wonderful indeed was the maternal influence exercised by
Abigail Adams! She would have preferred that her eldest
son find an ocean grave than become an immoral or grace-
less child, but had exhorted him to remember that these
were the times "when a genius would wish to live." 2 The
thought applied equally to herself. This eloquent daughter
of a country minister and his well-born Quincy wife in
eastern Massachusetts, had become the very embodiment of
the heroic matron in the American Revolution. She was the
adored and adoring wife of John Adams, a sturdy farmer's
son of the region who had gone to Harvard and become a
lawyer, a learned patriot, and the model for her sons,

John Quincy Adams had spent six romantic years in Eu-
ropehis brother became homesick and soon returnedas
a companion to his father and as a clerk for the American
envoy, Francis Dana. He had studied languages, politics,
and stage performances all the way from Cape Finisterre to
St. Petersburg and London, and studied also at the Univer-
sity of Leyden and under private tutors. The returning
youth was a prodigy of culture and learning, somewhat awk-
ward in his Latin and in need of much more work in Greek
and perhaps mathematics. 8 Even more was he a prodigy in
morality, with which his parents had assiduously taught him
to identify patriotism. 4

The young man had become uneasily aware of the ques-
tionable effects of long foreign residence, even though his
mother and sister had joined the family abroad after the

Return to Braintree 17

war. He had become more familiar with French than with
his own language. 5 A foppish grandson of Dr. Franklin's
seemed to him to have become more like a Frenchman than
an American. It had been shocking to hear lovely, young Mrs.
Bingham of Philadelphia say, "J'aime beaucoup mieux
1'Europe que 1'Amerique," although he charitably attrib-
uted this to the fact that her husband had grown rich from
war-time privateering, and presumably for that reason was
enjoying Europe to an exceptional degree. 6

The decision to return to America had been John Quincy's
own, although it should be noted also that his parents were
sceptical about the state o morals at foreign universities.
He looked forward with some dread to the long years and
new experiences of "formal" study, first at Harvard where he
hoped to enter the Junior class and then to the years pre-
paring for the practice of law. Yet he was sure that in Amer-
ica, with a share of common sense, he could eventually make
his own living and thus be "independent and free." 7 He
already had a high respect for the economic verities, and was
no doubt fully aware of the family feeling about the sacri-
fices made by his father in public service.

His was a courageous act for a youth, even for one who
had for several years been fully conscious of having entered
into manhood. 8 He confessed to himself that he was ambi-
tious, although he hoped that his subject was laudable." 9
Dana had already noted that the young man seemed to feel
"a certain superiority about himself." It is worth recording
that the young man tended to neglect such criticism at the
time! 10

This opinionated but sensitive youth resembled his mother
in features, but he had learned to strike a pose like his bel-
licose fatherhead cocked, one eye half-closed, his right
hand in his pocket. He was fully aware of the responsibility
of being his father's son, even though he was not naturally
endowed with all the latter's strength. In person he was not

18 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

elegant, being in this respect like his father, rather short and
plump; but he was used to having his hair fashionably
groomed and carried a sword like any European gentleman,
a custom laid aside soon after his return, 11 Indeed, his man-
ners must have been somewhat formal and European. When
writing his mother, he had learned to address her very prop-
erly as "Dear Madam." Only years later did he regularly say
"Dear Mother," the salutation that she preferred, 111 He was
nevertheless coming home with high hopes for an American
cultural renaissance in which he intended to participate. Lit-
terature was already a passion with him and he had recently
begun to keep an elaborate journal. 18

Whatever o courage and sel-importance John Quincy
Adams brought back from Europe was going to be very im-
portant for his survival in America, He was about to be
exposed to all the enervating influences of the native land
he had never wanted to leave. First in a series of shocks was
the heat of American summer, such as he had not known for
years and towards which he showed some of his mother's
nervous sensitivity. 14 There was also to be a steady challenge
to his self-esteem, which a few years later was to come near
causing tragedy. Within a year the appearance of this young
cosmopolite was so changed that in addition to loss of weight
his dirty linen and long fingernails aroused mirth and com-
passion in a female cousin when she saw him at college. 11 *
Finally, this habitual companion of older people was about
to be exposed to the company of numerous young persons,
with all the problems of passion and of "sensibility" which
this implied. In the struggle between sense and sensibility,
John Quincy Adams was to be saved only by pride and prej-
udice in that corrosive American society for which he so
ardently yearned.

The "tedious" voyage of eight weeks on Lc Courier which
John Quincy took in 1785 would seem to have been a per-
fect time for nostalgic reflection, as he bade farewell to a

Return to Braintree 19

brilliant European society. If this was so, there is no evi-
dence of it in his meticulous journal. On the contrary, it is
full of observations of weather and trade winds of the south-
ern route from 1' Orient, of considerations whether a light-
ning chain at the masthead was large enough to be any good,
and, above all, of judgments on the character of his ship-
mates. The most sentimental observation on the entire voy-
age is that recorded on July 4, in which he apostrophized
his native land. "I wished very much to arrive in America
before this day, which is the greatest day in the year for
every true American, the anniversary of our Independence.
May heaven preserve it. ..." He concluded with a quatrain
of patriotic verse. 10

Earlier in the voyage he had committed himself to a stran-
ger form of patriotic expression, the more revealing because
it showed him in his precocious role of moralizer. One of
the ship's oflicers was an egotistic Frenchman whom young
Adams suspected of having lost all tender feelings because
of the life he had led, and who moreover had made the
shocking statement that he cared not what would happen
to the whole universe, once he was dead. What was even
worse, he had during the war married an American girl.
John Quincy gravely reflected, "It does not give me pleasure
to see my Countrywomen form such connections but as he
will never settle in America, the harm is not great." 17 One
might almost conclude from this that he considered it pref-
erable for a sailor to have a girl in every port, than to have
him permanently contaminating America through marital
fidelityl In any case, an almost unbelievably idealized con-
cept of America emerges from his odd reflection.

It would be entirely wrong to conclude, however, that the
returning native was a naive young man, ill-equipped to
recognize the raw character of men and affairs in the turbu-
lent republic which was sighted on July 16 above the Jersey
heights of the Neversink River. Idealization of country did

20 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

not blind him to faults which he was sure existed in America
as elsewhere; and he had not been long ashore when he was
writing of a distinguished visitor that she probably was leav-
ing the country with a lower opinion of American virtues
than she had held on her arrival. 18

Nor was he simply a moral prig. His youthful journals, for
all of their maxim-book character, are enlivened with flashes
of dry humor, and however straitlaced his private reflections,
his egoism did not detract from his sense of humanity or
love of the society of his fellow men. It is noteworthy that
while in New York City, he occasionally went back to Le
Courier so long as the packet remained in port to dine with
the captain and ship's officers. He also tried to assist one of
his less desirable fellow passengers, a quarrelsome and eccen-
tric person of dirty appearance and mysterious habits, when
the latter's trunk was seized by the customs officials. He had
originally observed that this poor fellow had a "good heart."
But when he found that his rather simple attempt at influ-
ence had failed in clearing the subject, he merely recorded,
with obvious approval, that "in this country the laws are
supreme to everything/' 10 Apparently this had not been his
experience with the European customs.

After two busy, warm weeks in New York* occasionally
enlivened by a swim in the North River, young Adams wrote
his father, newly established in London as minister to Great
Britain, that "in this place I hear nothing but politics/' 2t)
This was unquestionably true in one sense, although it left
out of account the remarkable social life of a quite non-
political sort that he was also beginning to enjoy, despite
some difficulty he was having in adjusting to the manners of
Americans. As in the fable of "The Miller, His Son, and
Their Ass," he said that he was finding it difficult to please;
he had to avoid exciting people's derision by showing too
much formality, or giving offense by showing too little. 1

Politics could not have been avoided even if John Quincy

Return to Braintree 21

had so desired since he had brought despatches to many im-
portant persons, including John Jay, the Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, with whom he at once renewed his boyhood acquaint-
ance in Europe. 22 There were also old friends of his father
among the officials and members of the Congress, especially
the Massachusetts and Virginia delegates, with whom he
now became acquainted. Among these were the affable Rufus
King, and young James Monroe who apparently developed
a real liking for him. 23 Mr. Jay invited him to stay at his
home, but Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, the President of
the Congress, was so insistent on his taking an "apartment'*
at his house that he felt constrained to settle there. He some-
times attended the President's formal dinners with as many
as twenty-five men of affairs present.

Politics were indeed in the air. There were rumors of eco-
nomic and political crises and talk of the "universally con-
sidered" necessity that the states give commercial power to
Congress. However, it is interesting to note that President
Lee himself vigorously opposed this, one reason being his
hope that such persons as John Adams could get favorable
concessions abroad, even on the difficult subject of pre-war
debts. 24 Men like Secretary of Congress Thomson, who was
many years John Quincy's senior, drank tea with him or
took evening strolls on "the batteries/ 1 no doubt to listen
to his youthful but informed accounts of European affairs,
or stories of his much admired Jefferson and of Dr. Franklin.
A congressman from Virginia urged him to study law in the
South under the celebrated Chancellor Wythe. This would
be good for the Union. General Henry Knox at his lovely
home outside the city was "vastly polite." It was all very
flattering and politically very interesting, and helped to
delay his departure for Boston.

There were other interesting distractions, however, in
the affairs of polite society, especially those involving young
American ladies. Young Adams now entered upon a brief

22 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Y>ears

social career which he obviously enjoyed wholeheartedly,
although New Yorkers in their manners seemed to him to
resemble Europeans too much.- 5 He entered upon a contin-
uous round of tea drinking and entertainment which fur-
nished exceptional opportunities for the study of the female
character, that most fascinating of intellectual pursuits. It
was the beginning of what was to be his principal avocation
in the years ahead the enjoyment of feminine company in-
variably followed by devastating analysis. The critical study
of his fellow beings was not new to him, of course, but its
possibilities in the female department were now vastly ex-
tended. One obstacle to admiration was the painful fact that
almost all of the "finest girls" in and about New York had
been pro-British during the war. 20 His "New York" journal
is enlivened with his opinions of the young ladies he met,
some of whom were 'Very fine," "amiable in character/ 1 or
"perfect beauties"; but more often "great talkers," "too much
the coquette," or "too affected" for his taste*

His interest in the fair sex did not cease even at church.
When at service in St. Paul's Chapel, while he always care-
fully noted the text, he also carefully noted the young ladies
and their beaux. On an overnight trip to Jamaica, Long
Island, he met the interesting female relatives of Colonel
William Smith, a former aide-de-camp of Washington. The
Colonel had recently joined the Adamses in London as secre-
tary to the American legation and presently was to be the
successful suitor of sister Nabby Adams. Of the Colonel's
own four or five young sisters, only Sally was really hand-
some in John Quincy's opinion. He was to become better
acquainted with this attractive girl in the future. Indeed,
she eventually married his brother Charles.

Back in the city he sometimes found it difficult to escape
from President Lee's "musical evenings/' as he sought
younger and more attractive company, 27 One group, with
whom he sometimes met at a private home of an evening,

Return to Braintree 23

featured a young lady who sang with particular grace, even
if not in a clear, strong voice. She sang a song of her own
composition, "One fond kiss before we part," with the accom-
paniment of a harpsichord played by the most skilled of the
ladies in town. What John Quincy particularly admired was
that the soloist performed without requiring to be urged "as
some Ladies do." At the end of the second performance, "she
sung so prettily that when I returned home, instead of con-
tinuing my Satirical lines, I immediately began upon the
most insipid style o panegyric; but a few days will cure
me," he laconically added. True enough, he soon began to
lose enthusiasm for the singer and to find that she was not
free from that affectation which he had found some ladies
mistook for grace. He does not tell us whether the oft-
repeated song had begun to pall.

One evening another young miss, who had a sweetness in
her countenance which he said he preferred to beauty,
showed him a catalogue of satirical verses on the belles of
the city, entitled "A Receipt for a Wife." He did not think
it witty, but was again moved to become "poetaster" and to
try his own hand at something similar. The results were
rather mixed. Although he could see that he had "no talent
at all at versifying," he wryly confessed to a partiality for
his own efforts, probably fair and honest self-criticism. It is
possible that the "Receipt" also gave him the idea for his
own celebrated poem, "A Vision," which he was to compose
several years later.- 8 His deep interest in satire was partly
due to the agreement he and sister Nabby had made before
he left England to keep each other informed in their letters
about the "characters" they encountered. 29 Indeed, John
Quincy was to do this so exhaustively as far as young Amer-
ican ladies were concerned that eventually his sister was
moved to protest against his strictures. He was too prone to
make quick judgments about people, she said. 30

His lament was fast becoming, "When shall I see a beauty

24 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

without any conceit?" 31 But he was riding for a fall A cer-
tain young lady, bearing one of the great family names of
colonial New York, seemed at first meeting to be a great
talker who actually said very little. Such superficiality, he
graciously acknowledged, must necessarily be pardoned in
a lady. Two weeks later he found himself liking her some-
what better, and even walked with her on "the Mall" in
Broadway. The next day when he took tea at her home he
endeavored to excuse himself for not having waited on her
before, but was merely told for his pains that he would have
done better to have made no apology at all! Several days
later he made a cutting remark about the young lady in his
journal, which was no doubt a sop to his wounded vanity,

It was now well into August and high time for John
Quincy Adams to leave the pleasures of New York and to
set out for Yankee land and home. Since he had arrived in
the country too late to make the Harvard Commencement in
July, there had been little need for haste. It was possible
to take a packet to Providence, but friends advised him to
make the trip overland so as to form an opinion of the
country and to make useful acquaintances* He also had
many letters to deliver in Connecticut, especially those of
Colonel David Humphreys, a native son in France. John
Quincy traveled in company with a young friend, Le Ray
de Chaumont, who had also just arrived from Europe, The
young Frenchman had carried a petition to Congress from
the merchants of France and had a letter from John Adams
introducing him in Boston. He and John Quincy must have
had similarly sophisticated tastes since they recently had
been reading Aesop's Fables in French together, 32 Chaumont
had a two horse chaise while Adams had bought a rather
expensive horse for Chaumont's servant to ride* It turned
out to be an unreliable beast that had a tendency to fall
down, but after a second start the two friends finally got off
on August 13. John Quincy's horse continued to stumble

Return to Braintree 25

and refused to work in the chaise, while Chaumont's horses
frequently got galled. Since the weather was abominably hot
and the roads invariably poor, in these respects it was a bad
trip. 33 John Quincy found the weather especially trying.

The route followed was the main road through Stamford,
New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield to Boston, with occa-
sional stops between towns or, more accurately, cities, since
many Connecticut towns were getting incorporated as they
prepared to cope with new problems of the post-war era.
Some of these places were of the greatest interest to the
young ex-expatriate. New Haven, of course, had a college to
visit, headed by the "curious" Dr. Stiles. He was very polite
but called to mind Jefferson's characterization that he was
an example of the deepest learning without a spark of genius.
There were other distinguished men to be met en route.
Notable was the eminent Colonel Jeremiah Wadsworth of
Hartford who had made a large fortune as agent for the
French forces during the Revolution, and to whom John
Quincy had already delivered in New York some business
information on behalf of the Marquis de la Fayette. Wads-
worth, who invited the young travelers to dine, lived in a
"very elegant manner." 84 In Hartford, also, there was an
old fellow scholar and boyhood traveler, Jesse Deane, the son
of the apostate Silas, John Quincy stoutly averred that he
would have been ashamed to miss him.

On Sundays, no doubt, the young travelers found ample
evidence that Connecticut deserved its national reputation
for psalm singing. On the other hand, in one place at least,
changed times had brought to the "land of steady habits" no
less than a dancing master, and formal balls at which a visitor
might see a few genteel ladies who were "favoured by na-
ture/ 1 85

The most thrilling experience of the entire trip was the
discovery of a literary renaissance centered in Hartford.
There John Quincy went into a bookseller's shop this had

26 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

been a favorite practice of his in Europeand purchased a
new publication he had heard was of high caliber, The Con-
quest of Canaan. This ponderous epic poem of America had
been written by a Connecticut man, the Reverend Mr, Timo-
thy Dwight. The affable Colonel Wadsworth also made him a
present of M'Fingal, a comical, poetic treatment of Revolu-
tionary Toryism by the celebrated local, Mr* John Trumbull,
This gentleman had once been a law student of John Adams
pere, who was the model of the patriot in the poem. After
Trumbull received a letter from John Quiney, lie sat in con-
versation with him for two hours, in the course of which they
discovered a mutual lack of partiality for Voltaire.

Young Adams considered these poems extremely impor-
tant, the ''two pieces in which American's have endeavoured
most to soar as high as European bards/' a<} M'Pingal 3 he had
heard, was generally agreed to be equal if not superior to But-
ler's Hudibras. Of the other no criticism had as yet appeared,
doubtless owing to its recent publication. In the course of
the following winter in snowbound Haverhill, Massachusetts,
John Quincy was to devote many a social evening to reading
aloud The Conquest of Canaan to assembled company, and
to spend long hours analyzing its contents for the dubious
benefit of his journal. These works, he was sure, were glorious
achievements, a justification of American culture* if admit-
tedly open to some criticism. They were a source of great
pride to the returning American who had plenty of ink in
his own blood.

The trip was now approaching its grand climax as Yankee
land unfolded with its blunt-mannered but familiar people. 87
Springfield was reached and passed, despite even poorer
roads; and on August 25, by dint of an early start they made
the final forty-two miles to Boston, arriving at lodgings on
State Street at nine o'clock that night John Quincy recalled
that this last day of his trip was St. Louis's Day in France, a
time of a very un-American sort of celebration. The next day

Return to Braintree 27

was one of the happiest he had ever known. He met friends
of his childhood and some of his dearest relatives, including
his younger brother Charles who had sailed with him to Eu-
rope so long ago. No one without his experience, he recorded,
could conceive how much pleasure there was "in returning to
our Country after an absence of 6 years, especially when it
was left at the time of life that I did, when I went last to
Europe." 38 How much interest his countrymen, other than
his relatives, took in his return is unfortunately not clear. At
least one Boston paper had copied the news of his arrival in
New York, but another had rather obviously ignored it. 39

Braintree, seven miles distant on the South Shore, was the
ultimate goal, but first he delivered a letter from the enter-
prising Marquis de la Fayette to Mr. Samuel Breck, another
prosperous war-time agent of the French forces in America.
This presumably was on the same business that the Marquis
had addressed to Colonel Wadsworth a joint-stock scheme
for organizing the American whale oil trade with France. 40
Then he took off in the chaise on the gala last leg of the
journey, accompanied by Chaumont and the French consul,
first visiting gouty Governor Hancock at Dorchester, Lieu-
tenant Governor Gushing and his lady, and then Mr. aijd
Mrs. James Swan, the latter gentleman still another business
agent of France, From there John Quincy went on alone,
first to the Warrens at Milton and then to see his "honoured
Grandmamma'* at Uncle Adams 1 house. (For some reason he
recorded that he was sure that she greeted him as warmly as
anyone else.) Finally he arrived at his Aunt and Uncle
Cranch's in Braintree. There he was introduced to their
roomer, Mr. Tyler, a young local lawyer.

Alas for the irony in human affairs 1 Had John Quincy
Adams only known, he would have hailed this last acquaint-
ance as the real answer to the literary part of his American
Odyssey. Royall Tyler was to become more successful in dem-
onstrating the literary glories of his native land than all of

28 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

the pretentious Connecticut Wits together. He was to be the
author only two years later of 'The Contrast," a dramatic
satire on British manners and the first genuinely popular
work by an American playwright. The irony was all the
greater since John Quincy was to see a good deal o Mr. Tyler
in the busy month that followed, for this congenial neighbor
was the favored suitor of sister Nabby Adams or at least had
been until Nabby had been whisked off to Europe by her
parents the year before. John Quincy even innocently read
bits of her letters aloud for Tyler's benefit, despite the sad
truth that the "engagement" had already been terminated on
a unilateral basis in London where Nabby was being exposed
to the dangerous charms of Colonel Smith. However, this
news had not yet been received in Braintree*

Why should our thoughts to distant countries roam
When each refinement may be found at home?

the indignant Tylor was to ask in "The Contrast/' Nabby's
problem of having her parents interfere with her love life
foreshadowed the romantic difficulties of John Quincy Adams
himself a few years later. 41

The long trip was now over. The Braintree home of John
Quincy's yeoman ancestors and of much of his boyhood had
been reached at last. The next day being Sunday, he duti-
fully fell into old habits and attended Mr, WibercPs familiar
meetings in the North Precinct Church, both morning and
afternoon. The effeminate old bachelor preacher was to get
hold of him as soon as possible to ask a host of questions,
mostly concerning the women of the countries he had visited,
because, as he sarcastically said, he always asked about the
best things first, 42 There were surprisingly few new faces in
the congregation except, of course, for the youngsters, His
cousin, Billy Cranch, who was his own age and already at
Harvard, he found greatly altered, but was told that he, too,
had changed as much. Finally in late afternoon, accompanied

Return to Braintree 29

by the attentive Mr. Tyler, he went to see his old home on
the farm at the foot of Penn's Hill. It looked so lonely and
empty that he could not bear to stay long; but he character-
istically paid a visit to the library which he found in fairly
good order. The memory of the place moved him to write a
nostalgic letter to his mother, although she had told him
several times that she wanted no sentimentality in his letters
from America. 43

His own conduct and modesty throughout this trying pe-
riod greatly pleased his Aunt Mary Cranch, who was charmed
with his appearance. She was sure that he had been "formed
for a Statesman," like his father. But his manner must have
been a bit overwhelming, for Aunt Mary rather oddly added
that his keen "penetration" into character was so amazing
that she was glad she had nothing to hide! So at least she
wrote his mother. His excessive curiosity was to be noted by
another relative. 44

On returning to Boston the next day, the young "states-
man" became more acutely aware than perhaps he had been
of the commercial problems disturbing his fellow country-
men. He learned the horrid news of the business failure of
Mr. Samuel Otis, another war-time contractor and the son-in-
law of Uncle Isaac Smith, with whom he had dined only two
days before. He gloomily reflected that it would not be long
before every merchant in Boston would fail, for they seemed
to be breaking, one after the other.

The days immediately following must have been equally
depressing. Next morning John Quincy attended the State
Supreme Court and heard Chief Justice Gushing he was as
dignified, he said, as Lord Mansfield in England charge the
grand jury in a case involving post-war neglect of public edu-
cation exhibited by so many towns. Then he took the trip
to Cambridge where he laconically noted that brother Charles
had acquired "additional importance" since entering Har-
vard. The next day was devoted to exploring the college,

30 JOHN QUINCV ADAMS: The Critical Years

where he found the library good but not really excellent, He
did admire some very fine portraits by Mr. Copley, Boston's
famous expatriate artist whom he had met in England.

At last came the all important interview with dignified
President Willard, to whom John Quincy bore a letter from
his father who had been in correspondence about him. After
a perfunctory examination in ce train classical works with
which he was not well acquainted he later rather resentfully
said that he had not read "certain'* booksthe President ad-
vised him to return in the spring and then offer for the Junior
Sophister class. So that phase of his trip ended in a certain
personal deflation, despite the opinion of one of his relatives
that Harvard should have felt honored to have had him apply
there! 45

Lighter spirits soon reasserted themselves. While driving
one of his female cousins to Braintree soon afterwards, John
Quincy sang strange songs and indulged in such antics that
she was sure that people thought him a "cra/y creature." 4(J
Back in Boston the day after his rejection at Cambridge, to-
gether with friend Chaumont and the inevitable French con-
sul, he attended the Concert Hall where a "forenoon" ball
was held from one to three in the afternoon, and where "all
the beauties of Boston seemed to be assembled" in "one
bright Constellation." So he could not have been too de-
jected. His final activity with Chaumont, who was now pre-
paring to leave, was to play a game of billiards.

Soon it was time for sophisticated if somewhat deflated
John Quincy Adams to leave also- He had to take a trip of
about thirty miles to the little town of Haverhill in northern
Massachusetts to arrange with Reverend Uncle Shaw for sev-
eral months of tutoring preparatory to offering again at Har-
vard. In die course of making that journey he passed through
Concord and Lexington, and was moved to deep patriotic
reflection, that these little known places had been rendered
forever memorable by the blood of the first martyrs in "the

Return to Braintree 31

glorious cause of American Liberty." The tribute was accom-
panied by a learned observation which no doubt was natural
for a traveler to make, that posterity would revere this spot
more than the Dutch did the place where Egmont and Hoorn
had been martyred. This was, he studiously recorded, at
Brussels. 47

When John Quincy had been about to leave France in
April, his father had written Cousin Samuel Adams about the
prospects of the long-absent youth. Sam would recall how he
once had led the child about Boston Common teaching him
to hate the British troops and to applaud the town militia:
John Adams had expressed the hope that his son would again
be instructed by the kind of political company that would
"inspire him with such sentiments as a young American
ought to entertain." 48 From the record of the long journey
home which John Quincy Adams had now completed, it
seems fitting to conclude that such feelings had never left
him; that he was a very paragon of Americanism, one in
whom foreign experience, despite its cultural impact, had
merely sharpened national consciousness.

CHAPTER TWO

WINTER IN HAVERHILL

"I have not to reproach
myself with Vice"

The winter of 1785 in Haverhill was a setting worthy of
Whittier's youth. If the residents o Reverend Mr. John
Shaw's home were never exactly "snowbound," they did ex-
perience a season of remarkable vicissitudes of weather, be-
ginning with the great rains of October when the Merrimac
rose even higher than during the freshet of '45. There fol-
lowed freakish snowstorms with intermittent thaws and the
savage onslaughts of the coldest weather ever known. 1 Young
John Quincy Adams was afraid one day in early December
that the cold had ruined his horse, and a month later he was
wishing for a thermometer such as he once had in St. Peters-
burg so that he could compare the local temperature with
that in Russia. Such weather, and especially the heavy snow
which he dreaded because of its "dull lifeless sameness," 2
could hardly have added to a peace of mind already disturbed
for a number of reasons*

There were other aspects of the residence of the Reverend
Mr. Shaw which would also have appealed to Whittier. It
was a religious household, primarily of happy people, but
with its full share of human drama that year, both without
and within. The minister's wife, Elizabeth, a younger sister
of Abigail Adams, was to be remembered years later by her
nephew as worthy of canonization. She was withal a romantic
and spirited creature if what critics said was true- and appar-
ently even saints can have criticsthat she preferred white

32

Winter in Haverhill 33

bread to brown at teal 3 However, the Reverend John Shaw
of the First Parish Church could not have afforded his slender
wife 4 many such luxuries even if he would, being in a pro-
fession so abominably paid that he eked out a living only
with the aid of boarders and students. Among these was
young John Quincy Adams himself from October, 1785, to
March of the following year. Mr. Shaw is said to have been a
minister of the Calvinist system, his preaching evangelical. 5
His wife's nephew thought his preaching satisfactory if not
really admirable. 6 Some of the townspeople, however, refused
to come to meeting when Mr. Shaw was in the pulpit, an old
custom on the part of the religiously disgruntled. Such ill-
will hurt the good man deeply.

The Reverend Mr. Shaw, for all of his goodness, was in
personal affairs "no chicken," as Fielding might have said
and John Quincy knew his Fielding well enough to have
identified the reference. 7 Shaw told John Quincy bluntly that
he was presumptuous for his age, when his student in the
classics wanted to argue about matters of theology. Indeed, he
"thought it a little strange, that at 19 a youth should make
such positive decisions, in opposition, to persons much older
. ..." 8 He criticized young Adams* "uncharitable" way of
thinking because he challenged the ideas of persons who had
made a lifetime study of theology. 9 In the first instance John
Quincy was contrite, acknowledging his reputation for being
obstinate, dogmatic, and pedantic; but on the second occasion
he was more belligerent than ever. He wanted to know why
any authority, simply because of age, should persuade him
that black was the color of white, although he admitted that
he judged colors "only as they strike my senses/' 10 This quali-
fication was probably a concession to the teaching of John
Locke, for in recent weeks he had been puzzling over the
Essay Concerning Human Understanding^ a work he knew
would be required when he applied to the upper Junior class
at Harvard.

34 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

The gist of the dispute lay in young Adams' contention
that the self is the ultimate motive for all human actions. He
refused to accept the idea of everlasting torment for actions
beyond human control, or any notion that to him suggested
an imperfect deity. Small wonder that he irked his Calvinist
unclel He had gone so far in his private thoughts as to con-
clude that a liberal attitude in religious matters could not be
expected from a pulpit; and that while the clergy criticized
the "palpable absurdities of the Romish church"- he himself
had been at pains to remark them in Europe "they fall into
others equally ridiculous and the never failing source of texts
from Scripture is continually produced." u Part of the diffi-
culty, he was persuaded, came from unscholarly translations,
a thought prompted by a recent discussion he had had of
Channing's Universal Salvation "with one of his uncle's criti-
cal neighbors.

More suggestive than the actual subject of the dispute was
the date of its eruption. It came towards the end of John
Quincy's tutoring period, after four months at the Shaw resi-
dence. It revealed an irritability and restlessness that had
steadily been growing upon him, producing strong opinions
on many subjects, Trying personal experiences both at home
and in the town were no doubt contributing factors.

In this connection it should be remembered that John
Quincy had been steadily engaged in a "cramming" program
of study, primarily in reviewing his knowledge of the classics
in the hope of being admitted to Harvard with advanced
standing in the spring. This program had begun with a
month of work in Greek grammar, a study which he utterly
detested. He then read the New Testament in Greek except
the Gospel of Mark from which he anticipated no trouble;
also Homer's Iliad and the Cyropedia of Xenophon, the lat-
ter a "crabbed piece of work' 1 with which he wrestled for two
months. Latin review was fortunately more enjoyablethe
Ecologues of Virgil, the Odes and Satires of Horace, and then

Winter in Haverhill 35

several plays of Terrence. These at least appealed to his po-
etic instincts. They also gave him a wonderful opportunity
for moralizing on the subject of ancient compared with mod-
ern times. In this contrast he favored the modern, primarily
because of its superiority in religion. During the last three
months of the program he devoted Saturday afternoons to
reading Watts' Logick, with its baffling study of syllogisms,
and to the work of the "Pyrhonistic" Mr. Locke. This was
more or less the assigned reading already undertaken by the
Junior class at Harvard. 12

All this preparation was done in what must have been a
rather crowded house, and one likely to have been either
overheated or freezing cold. In addition to his aunt and uncle
and presumably their children, his youngest brother Tommy
was living there. One and sometimes two female boarders
were also present. In his chamber overlooking what would
have been the village green in summertime, 13 John Quincy
attempted to keep a rigorous schedule of about ten hours of
study a day, but found this almost impossible. It was hard to
get started early by reason of household noise. He then fell
into the habit of rising late, between eight and nine o'clock
perhaps also a result of European influence and hence ac-
complished less in the morning than at night. When he con-
scientiously tried to do with fewer hours of sleep, he found
that it could not be done, 14

Though this carefully ruled household normally retired
after prayers at nine o'clock in the evening, John Quincy
customarily worked at his desk until midnight or one A.M.,
concluding his day by making entries in his journal or writ-
ing letters. Once he "burnt his fingers, stubbed his toes" and
retired at two o'clock. Probably flickering candles dimly lit
the chilly room. His friends became deeply concerned over
his health. 15

By the first week of January his eyes had become so sore
that one day he could neither read nor write except, presum-

36 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

ably, to make a journal entry to that effect. The soreness was
an early warning of a weakness in his eyes from which he was
to suffer over the years, an ailment perhaps reflecting an in-
tense emotional strain he was undergoing, or perhaps caused
by an inheritance on the maternal side. 16 With such a routine
of work he had not unnaturally lost weight after arriving in
Haverhill. 17 By the middle of January he was looking for-
ward eagerly to the end of his period of tutoring, although
for other reasons than his studies.

All this might have made "Jack" a very dull boy, indeed,
had it not been for a social life somehow sandwiched in be-
tween study hours albeit on a reduced scale from what he
had previously known. On Sunday evenings it was customary
for country ministers to have company. Occasionally John
Quincy read poetry aloud of an evening to the ladies. Among
the selections was Dwight's Conquest of Canaan, the patriotic
epic he was digesting for his journal. From the journal itself
he once read aloud his critical comments upon the follies of
young ladiesl He also sang French songs for their amuse-
ment. 18 Then there were local residents who invited the
neighbors for tea and sometimes even for whist, although
John Quincy himself had turned against cards as too wasteful
of time for men, if not for ladies. The Whites, who had a
three storied mansion on Water Street, with whom his cousin,
Eliza Cranch, was visiting, were the most prominent and hos-
pitable of the local gentry. A number of younger people in
the neighborhood also had an occasional romp of an evening,
playing "cross questions," "drop the handkerchief," and other
games. 19

Above all there were opportunities for conversation with
neighbors and with visitors coming from the nearby com-
mercial towns of Newburyport and Salem. Although these
talks were often insipid, there were more serious discussions
on religious subjects, or dreadful complaints about the "de-
cay of trade" and the dangers of paper money. On at least one
occasion, John Quincy expressed scepticism about such "com-

Winter in Haverhill 37

monplace" economic observations, in light of what he thought
was the absence of any real distress. Despite the "groaning"
of the merchants he had heard it "whispered" that times were
actually getting better. 20 But as has been suggested, he was
becoming argumentative on many topics. Tommy said to him
one day, "I think, Brother, you seem to differ most always
from everyone else in company." 21

One source of change and comfort to the opinionated
young scholar was the occasional company of his cousin, Mr.
John Thaxter. This fledgling lawyer of Haverhill had been
a tutor of his youth while Thaxter was studying law with
John Adams. He had also been a companion of John Quincy's
on the trip to Europe in 1779. Thaxter must have been a
pleasant source of reminiscence, but at the present time he
was of special interest. Despite his continual debating of the
wisdom of marriage and the silly deportment of lovers, Thax-
ter was reported to have become attached to the "beauty" of
the town.

Once or twice there were sleighing parties. Then, after the
first of the year, assemblies for dancing, which scandalized the
Baptist preacher and various other good folk. In the eyes of
cosmopolitan young Adams these critics were simply envious
persons who disliked seeing others amuse themselves. Em-
ploying specious excuses, such persons, he thought, merely
wished to meddle in the affairs of other people, "which man-
kind in general are too prone to." 22 Dark hours for dark
deeds, seemed to sum up the suspicions of the narrow-minded.
Unfortunately for the cause of the dance some of the partici-
pants lacked "prudence." A few days after one assembly, dur-
ing which a "misfortune befel one of the Ladies," a "scanda-
lous Advertisement" was found one morning fastened on a
signpost, causing more disagreeableness. At the next assembly
John Quincy himself did not dance all evening. 28 Perhaps it
was another manifestation of his growing uneasiness and dis-
content.

It had been unfortunately true from the very beginning of

3g JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

his Haverhill residence that John Quincy had occasionally
shown signs of depressed spirits-a new experience to him, he
said. 24 This was, after all, the first period of rest he had known
since his return to America only three months before. Such
spirits were perhaps a natural reaction for a sophisticated
youth who after six years of foreign travel had been en-
tombed in a little New England town. His stay had also been
disturbed from the first by his interest in the pardonable but
dangerous study of female character, no longer based on
casual meetings wtih a variety of young ladies such as he had
briefly known in New York, 25 but on daily association with
an attractive household companion. Finally, soon after arriv-
ing in Haverhill he had witnessed a local tragedy arising out
of mental illness, a subject that always fascinated him but
which also helped to put him in a darkened mood. 26

One of the first beauties he had met in Haverhill was the
daughter of a prominent neighbor, a young person who the
previous winter had "distress'd her Parents" by being seized
with "a melancholy." The girl had recovered in the spring,
and while she still showed symptoms of her disorder by a
great curiosity as well as by absent-mindedness, she now ex-
hibited an unusual flow of spirits. 27 This paradox aroused
John Quincy's deepest interest and sympathyquite unneces-
sarily it would seem since the girl was soon to enter upon
what apparently turned out to be a. very respectable married
career. It evoked from him a theory of mental health:

When a scale is weigh'd down on one side, it is extremely diffi-
cult to lighten it immediately just as much as is necessary to make
the balance just; the danger is that the other side should in its
turn weigh down. 28

"To make the balance just." It was an ideal that young
John Quincy was also trying to set for himself, with indiffer-
ent success in Haverhill. A balance between passion and rea*
son was to be a most desirable guide for his own immediate

Winter in Haverhill 39

future. Within three weeks he was admitting to himself "a
degree of Melancholy which may be owing to my having been
so much confined these three or four days, but I rather imag-
ine proceeds from another cause. When our Reason is at vari-
ance with our heart, the mind cannot be in a pleasing state." 29

This was a new aspect to melancholy. Meantime a most
depressing event happened almost before his eyes. One eve-
ning at a neighbor's there was present a lady who because of
illness had for two or three months "been deprived of her
Reason." This must have made for rather strange company
but no stranger than the aftermath. About half an hour after
the lady had left with her husband, the latter rushed back to
say that she had disappeared from home. It was feared that
she had "gone to the river" since she had attempted this twice
before. The whole neighborhood was aroused to find her, but
to no avail until the next day when, indeed, it was too late,
for the lady had finally succeeded in drowning herself. 30

Such shocking news affected people in different ways, al-
though in the Puritan world the idea of death itself was al-
most gloomily venerated. (No lest zestful person than Abigail
Adams herself frequently acknowledged that preparation for
death is the chief business of life. 81 ) Some persons in Haver-
hill resignedly said that the tragedy merely demonstrated
God's inscrutable wisdom. John Quincy himself tried to phi-
losophize away the lady's loss of reason on the grounds that
it might at least make other people sensible of their own; but
even he confessed the next day that his spirits had never been
so depressed. The suicide cast a pall over the whole nighbor-
hood, even postponing the advent of dancing assemblies.

Occasionally there were other local tragedies such as the
accidental death of a young friend of Tommy's. But the worst
of all emotional suffering was a disturbance raised by the pres-
ence of a lady boarder, a miss of seventeen named Nancy who
had lost her parents and had been residing with the Shaws
for a year. While still abroad John Quincy had heard from

40 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

his sister about this girl, and the first time he met her he was
strangely affected. "She appears to have something peculiar
in her character," he thought, and he was wild to know what
she wrote about him a few days later to his cousin Lucy
Cranch in Braintree. Her critical faculties also made an im-
mediately favorable impression when she scored off a neigh-
boring minister, no less, for not paying enough attention to
his wife! John Quincy ordinarily qualified any admiration he
might have for such outspokenness, especially in religious
matters that is, in other people than himself and especially
on the part of young ladies. But in this case he gave whole-
hearted assent, agreeing that the minister's looks alone were
enough to "chill one on a hot day/' and that he acted more
like a Dutchman than an American. 33 Here was an interna-
tional touch, reflecting the broadening influence of his recent
travels!

At times there were two female boarders at the Shaws, who
interspersed their residence with visits to neighbors. The
elder was his cousin Eliza Cranch. At twenty-one she was not
exactly a beauty but a very sweet girl of vivacious imagina-
tion which, happily, she had not indulged in reading "un-
meaning novels or unmoral plays." Now John Quincy knew
all about these diversions and agreed with the best opinion
of the day that they were the principal cause of the loss of
female virtue. Cousin Eliza had come from Braintree pri-
marily to visit Peggy White, who had a new harpsichord
which they intended to study together. By accident or design
her visit coincided almost exactly with that of John Quincy.
He regarded her almost as a sister; she kept not only an ad-
miring but a very sharp eye upon him. Indeed, it was Cousin
Eliza who had immediately sent out the alarm to Aunt Abi-
gail in London that Nancy's presence in the Shaw household
created a "dangerous situation" for Cousin John. The female
Cranches seem to' have made it their special duty to keep

Winter in Haverhill 41

their cousin Adamses from entanglements in love. However,
Eliza herself had several unfortunate affairs, including one
even at Haverhill.

Undeniably disturbing was charming Nancy. She, too, was
not exactly a beauty, but she had "one of the most expressive
Countenances, I have ever seen; her shape is uncommonly
fine and her eye seems to have magic in it." This girl was
simply "bewitching." She also had a kind heart, he was sure,
only one insensible of the pain she caused when she led her
admirers on by declaring that her heart was free. She had
been in company in Boston too young, and had obviously
known too much admiration. Like Eliza she read a good deal
but unfortunately "not with so much advantage, as she
would, had she not been drawn so young into the stream of
Dissipation." It was a common fault in the upbringing of
young ladies in America, John Quincy said, a situation not
tolerated in Europe. 35

Such then was the kind of girl who deeply affected this
Puritanical young cosmopolite a sprightly, attractive co-
quette who not only read novels but had been exposed to the
"dissipated" society of Boston! She probably also was a bru-
nette since he was not attracted by blondes at least not at
this time.

Within a month of his residence at Haverhill, that is to
say the month of the detested review in Greek grammar, poor
John Quincy found himself in a state of emotional turmoil
in which he wrestled with himself manfully.

I have heretofore more than once, been obliged to exert all my
Resolution to keep myself free from a Passion, which I could not
indulge, and which would have made me miserable had I not
overcome it. I have escaped till now more perhaps owing to my
good Fortune, than to my own firmness, and now again I am
put to a trial. I have still more Reason, than I ever had, to ex-
press my feelings; but I am also persuaded that 1 never was in
greater danger. 86

42 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Such a disclosure of passion would seem to afford but one
possible interpretation of the difficulties being experienced
by this tormented youth. However, a simple explanation
would be misleading. Words like "passion" and ''dissipation"
have overtones for the modern reader which were not neces-
sarily true for the eighteenth century. They also suggest that
the diarist was for all of his conscientiousness not only in-
clined to be romantic but even melodramatic. One suspects
that he sometimes entertained himself with thrilling words;
but that is not the principal point. John Quincy concluded
the above statement about his passionate situation with what
at first seems a puzzling remark. In fact it is illuminating.
"One Circumstance there is which gives me hope; and if it
takes place, will put an end to my danger fe my fears." What
danger was he really talking about?

The probable answer is that his salvation would lie either
in Nancy's soon leaving the Shaw's, or in the eventuality of
one of her beaux making her a formal proposal. Certainly the
"danger" that young Adams had in mind was that he himself
might be so moved. In other words, the real danger was a
hasty declaration of marriage truly a threat to a young man
situated like himself. Let us remember that to a moral person
like John Quincy Adams, the eighteenth century expression
"passion" was synonymous with the idea of marriage. Hence
a conflict of "reason" or "prudence" with the heart meant a
struggle to keep open a career which might be spoiled by a
hasty or otherwise undesirable alliance.

He had already drummed this kind of caution into himself,
a caution based on worldly observation and one deeply cher-
ished by the Age of Reason. Only a month before he had
attended the wedding of a Boston lady with a British officer,
a match foolishly approved by the lady's Anglophile father.
Not only was there a lack of money but the participants had
known each other for only three months. Such a match he
had reflected at the time was "too often the emblem of a sud-

Winter in Haverhill 43

den passion." 37 So it was with the most evident relief that he
presently heard the news that Nancy was going to visit a be-
reaved neighbor's family it was the family of the recent sui-
cide which had affected Nancy deeply. He could not conceal
from himself that this news gave him pain, yet he wished that
she would stay away as long as he himself remained in Haver-
liill. He had been reminded by someone that very evening
of the misfortune under which a youth must labor who does
not subdue "the tender passion." But he added, "I needed
not the caution." He almost worked up a tirade on the sub-
ject, and concluded:

May it be my lot, at least for the years to come, never to have
my heart exclusively possessed by any individual of the other sex.
A man courting appears to me at any time of life, much below
his natural dignity; but in a youth it is exceedingly absurd and
ridiculous. 88

Some of this sounds as if it had come directly from the
mouth of the ubiquitous Mr. Thaxter. But whatever the
source, a crisis had plainly been reached and passed. By De-
cember 6 he was in much better spirits, hoping that the gloom
which had oppressed his mind for some weeks was by now
entirely dispelled. He was sure that he now had nothing to
fear "from a Quarter, which has given me a great deal of
anxiety." When two days later he encountered Nancy at a
neighbor's he thought he had never seen her "coquet it"
quite so much, and critically began to wonder if he had not
overrated the girl. He loftily resolved to avoid showing her
cither affection or resentment, as "passions that prejudice
the mind."

Unfortunately, Nancy returned home a week later. Soon
John Qtiincy was again lamenting the shortcomings of young
ladies who were interested in "high flown Romance" and in
reading novels and plays instead of history, especially that of
their own country. But he clung grimly to his aloofness. Al-

44 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

though he admitted to his mother on December 28 that the
Shaws' female boarder had many amiable qualities could
Madam Adams have made a pointed inquiry from London?
-he assured her that she need have no fear for her "young
Hercules/' 40 On New Year's Eve he reflected gravely on past
events, particularly asking himself if he had been sufficiently
improving his use of time. He recorded with evident self-satis-
faction that however errors may sometimes have misled him,
in this as in preceding years, "I have not to reproach myself
with Vice." 2

The affair might thus seem to have been decisively settled.
However, a price remained to be paidon the installment
plan. Later he came to learn that he was being "suspected'*
and to feel an increasing coldness towards Nancy. The deluge
of moral admonitions which his parents had poured upon
him as a boy no doubt very wisely when he was alone in
Europe began to bear slightly bitter fruit in America. This
was not the result of his having been "prudent" in conduct,
but because to a mind trained like his such decisions always
called for elaborate justification, often leading to an exag-
geration of issues and to excessive suffering. While he was
aware of the danger of falling from affection into critical re-
sentment, it is doubtful if he was as yet fully aware of the
price he would have to pay for making decisions based on
both worldly and moral reasons.

Early in January he began to feel confirmed in a painful
opinion and to think himself to be in an intolerable situa-
tion, "to be suspected and spied, and guarded, all from a
chimera arising in a person's brain." His alarmed relatives
were undertaking precautionary measures! He gave them
credit for having good intentions but compared their strange
activities to giving a well man a dose of physic. The truth is
that Aunt Eliza had recently discovered a poem John Quincy
had written to "Delia" and immediately had jumped to the

Winter in Haverhill 45

conclusion that he was seriously interested in Nancy. If Aunt
Eliza had read the satire carefully it is difficult to see how she
could have made such a mistake. But from that moment she
had kept John Quincy under the "closest observation." As a
result of such officiousness he was soon being made to retire
an hour later than usual, besides experiencing the vexation
of being "suspected." 42 He was only too thankful that his
residence was rapidly coming to an end. It was the day after
making this observation that he lambasted critics of dancing
and all people who were prone to meddle in the affairs of
others.

Fortunately for his peace of mind, Nancy again left the
household a week later to board with a neighboring family.
One can only guess at the reason. Young John Quincy again
drew a deep breath of relief, and immediately proceeded to

dissect the poor girl*s character.

-%

Her going away has given me pleasure, with respect to myself;

as she was the Cause of many disagreeable little circumstances
to me. There was a time, when I was sensible of being more
attached to Her, than I would wish to be; to any young Lady
to whom I was not in any way related; but it was of very short
duration; indeed her character is such, as acquires a person's
affection, much easier than she preserves it. 43

He sagely concluded that Nancy would have to acquire
prudence. When he saw her again one night at dinner, he
reflected that he had never known a young lady of whom he
had thought so differently at different times. Two weeks later
he was debating the question whether it is possible to love
and despise a person of the opposite sex at one and the same
time, and concluded that it is often so. But real love, he
thought, is a very different thing from fleeting affection for a
coquette whose character is so contemptible because it is
founded on vanity. It must have been about this time that he
told his Aunt Eliza a cock-and-bull story, reassuring her on

46 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

his inability to be interested in Nancy because he had once
been smitten abroad by a young lady who, he claimed, re-
sembled Cousin Eliza.

When John Quincy met Nancy for the last time before he
left Haverhill he was later to meet and even to call on her
several times but always punctiliously he found her very
formal. In turn he made a cool entry in his journal. "I was
not displeased at it, and returned it as much as I could, where
a person will not be upon terms of friendly intimacy, I wish
never to be behind hand with him [sic] in Ceremony/' 45 So
now, the blame was all hers.

By ironic coincidence on the following day the last Sunday
sermon he heard preached in Haverhill was on a text from
"Solomon's Song." The properties of the "dove'* were shown
to coincide with those of the church of Christ, and "some
good practical observations drawn." At the afternoon lecture
on the same subject, the visiting preacher, who spoke with-
out notes and with little previous study, became extremely
vociferous and took to "screaming" whenever he became
"embarrassed." What effect all this had on the properties of
the "dove" the diarist does not record. He was now much
more concerned with the behavior of the preacher. Perhaps
a similar observation might have been made of his own re-
cent embarrassment over his own "Solomon's Song/'

Time was now flying. News had come that certain lectures
at Harvard were to be given earlier than expected. John
Quincy Adams packed his trunk, paid a few visits, mounted
horse at seven A.M. on March 14 and arrived in Cambridge a
little after sunset, a journey of over thirty miles. The next
day he was examined before President Willard, four tutors,
three professors, and the librarian. This presumably was the
entire Harvard faculty if friendly Dr. Waterhouse was pres-
ent. 4 John Quincy construed some lines of Horace and
Homer, parsing words wrongly in each author. There fol-
lowed questions on Watts' Logick and, of course, a consider-

Winter in Haverhill 47

able number on Locke's Understanding, 'Very few of which
I was able to answer." Questions were also asked about the
shape of the earth and similar matters, "some of which I
answered, fe others not." There followed an inquiry whether
he had studied Euclid and arithmetic, and then the grand
finale turning a piece of English prose into Latin.

Perhaps there was a humorist on the board of examiners,
although this would have been out of character for staid Pres-
ident Willard. 47 The selection to be translated somehow ex-
actly fitted the case of this sophisticated young moralist who
had learned to play cards and dance, who had seen innumer-
able operas and plays abroad, and who enjoyed reading Field-
ing and Sterne, It might also have been written for a young
man who had only recently been defending the giving of
"assemblies" in Haverhilll

There cannot certainly be an higher ridicule than to give an air
of Importance, to Amusements, if they are in themselves con-
temptible 8c void of taste. But if they are the object and care of
the judicious and polite and really deserve that distinction, the
conduct of them is certainly of consequence.

Whether humorously intended or not, the assignment was
soberly and no doubt correctly translated. Fifteen minutes
later, following consultation, President Willard said, "You
are admitted, Adams," and told him to report to the college
steward. After furnishing bonds, which were arranged for by
Dr. Cotton Tufts of Hingham, a distant connection and more
or less a business agent for the Adamses, John Quincy was
assigned a room on the third floor of Hollis Hall. He then
tried to settle down to the work of the upper Junior class.
This was impossible to do at once because on the very first
evening the Sophomore class had a "highgo." Some of its
members got drunk, and sallied out and broke the windows
of three of the tutors before staggering back to their cham-
bers. "Such are the great achievements of many of the sons

48 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

of Harvard, such the delights of many of the students here/'
observed the newly admitted Junior. For all of this, John
Quincy Adams had finally entered upon that portion of his
career which he was always to remember as the best thing
that ever happened to him.

What kind of a person was this opinionated young man
who had experienced the breadth of Europe as well as the
narrowness of a small New England town? Who could arro-
gantly dispute with his elders in theology and yet rise above
the charms of a village coquette? How did he relate his ideas
about men and society to the process of education, which he
was now about to enjoy on a formal scale for almost the first
time in his life?

Some of these questions John Quincy himself tried to an-
swer several months after entering Harvard, in a somewhat
confused address before a literary society he had been invited
to join. 48 As might have been expected he attacked the idea
that education is in any way connected with happiness in the
ordinary sense. In a ''perfect state of nature" he thought that
man would be even happier for never having heard of New-
ton. (His father had apparently felt the same way when he
had tried to teach him calculus!) Both happiness and unhap-
piness seemed to him to be local matters, irrespective of gov-
ernment or civilization. He had seen "more sprightliness,
more cheerfulness and contentment" in one of the "most des-
potic monarchies on Earth" than in any other place. Pre-
sumably he referred to France, since his boyhood letters from
Russia would scarcely suggest that country. People there
knew nothing at all of freedom and so could not possibly miss
it, he said.

He thought that there was no accounting for tastes in hap-
piness among various peoples. The Indians of North Amer-
ica, he observed, took pleasure in torturing prisoners. Those
in the West Indies enjoyed themselves by lying under trees.
In the Far East where men were of naturally "warm" consti-

Winter in Haverhill 49

tutions, the height of felicity was found in "being forever
buried in the Embraces of perpetual Virgins, without ever
finding their Vigour impaired." "May we not therefore con-
clude, that civilization does not increase the sum of happiness
among Men?"

What then is the function of education, according to young
John Quincy Adams? Obviously, to raise the status of the
individual from his natural and no doubt "happy" condition.
Since all men are naturally violent in their passions, educa-
tion and civilization seek to curb these by appealing to the
more exalted virtues, which are based upon duty. Youth, he
admonished his fellow students who were no doubt aghast
at his world outlook, is the time for the improvement of the
heart and the understanding. They should remember above
all else that education "inspires the soul with those exalted
and divine Sentiments which form the Patriot and the Sage."

So the newly admitted upper Junior at Harvard was not
looking for "happiness" at all, but for those qualities that
make for a better civilization patriotism and wisdom. Natu-
ral happiness and natural man, exeunt! He had passed them
by in Haverhill.

CHAPTER THREE

HARVARD COLLEGE

"The passions of the mind"

Having hitherto escaped Cupid's darts, through a little
resolution and some good luck, John Quincy Adams expected
to be safe for fifteen months at Harvard while he made study
his mistress. 1 That natural man and educated man are fun-
damentally opposed to each other was now an article of faith.
He identified education with virtue, and believed in the cor-
ollary proposition that man is primarily distinguished from
brute creation by the "passions of the mind/' 2 Like the great
moralist, Dr. Johnson, whom he faintly resembled but only
slowly came to venerate, he cared little for bucolic pleasures
when he could be with his fellows at beloved Cambridge. He
always suffered an unusual amount of "heartburn" when he
spent vacations at nearby Braintree, 3 although this may have
been partly due to a weak digestive system when confronted
with Aunt Mary Cranch's whortleberry puddings and apple
"pyes." 4

From the moment he entered Harvard as a Junior with
advanced standing in March, 1786, until his graduation in
July of the following year, young Adams was utterly en-
thralled with the place except, of course, for having to get
up to make six o'clock chapel! 5 While his enthusiasm was not
one of unqualified academic admiration, it was a genuine
mixture of scholarly and fraternal affection. He took special
delight in the companionship of his fellow students, as was
perhaps natural for one who had had to pass so much of his
life in the company of older persons. He was himself con-

50

Harvard College 51

scious of being several years older than he thought a person
should be at college. This situation he blamed on his Euro-
pean travels. 6

The consciousness of being older he was aged twenty
when a Senior as well as being traveled and learned, was to
raise a serious problem for him at college. He had a feeling
of superiority, especially towards his tutors. 7 Although he was
far from being alone in his dislike of the latter, a certain
arrogance of manner unquestionably characterized young
John Quincy Adams. His parents had long tried to correct
this although his mother thought it his only faultl Such arro-
gance had recently cropped up at Haverhill in his opinion-
ated criticism of the theology of his Uncle Reverend Shaw. 8
To persist in such contentiousness could do him infinite
harm, his relatives thought. When confronted with family
warnings, primarily from his mother via Aunts Shaw and
Cranch, he protested that his attitude towards his instructors
had always been respectful. To be sure, he recalled how once
he had barely been able to keep from laughing while con-
versing with an "ignorant" tutor; and he was to assert after
graduation that his sharply critical opinions had been no
secret to the faculty. 9

Yet John Quincy clearly tried to respond to the admoni-
tions of his mother. She pointed out that it was natural for
tutors to be young and inexperienced since "sallaries" were
so low. His efforts to control his arrogance achieved consider-
able success, according to both of his aunts. 10 Indeed, he actu-
ally ended his days at Harvard with an uneasy sense of having
been reduced in his opinions about himself and his prospects
to a level nearer truth. 11 No doubt this was a salutary result
in some ways. Unhappily it also suggests that a loss of self-
confidence may have been added to the burdens of this intro-
spective youth while acquiring an academic education, It
should be remembered that almost all of his education prior
to entering Harvard had been by private instruction.

59 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

The last and sole quarter of John Quincy's Junior year
was devoted to completing those Latin and Greek texts he
had been brushing up at Haverhill, together with a series of
lectures in natural philosophy, and recitations in Euclid and
metaphysics. His Senior year had a much simpler curriculum.
There was no study of languages at all, recitations only in
metaphysics and mathematics and sometimes in divinity,
with occasional public lectures including a repetition of those
in natural philosophy. 12 More important requirements for
Seniors were the occasional "forensics" on metaphysical and
political subjects which were read in the college chapel. Pub-
lic "exhibitions" which resembled commencement perform-
ances were also held there several times a year.

The entire Senior year was obviously designed primarily
to train students in the art of public debate and address. Simi-
lar opportunities were also given to John Quincy Adams in
the preparation of orations and forensics for the meetings of
the two literary societies he had been invited to join soon
after his arrival: the "A.B." and the Phi Beta Kappa. Except
for the mastery of books required for recitations before his
tutors, in addition to whatever reading he did on the side,
his education in the last year consisted almost entirely of
writing and declaiming on controversial subjects. He revelled
in the literary and mental exercise this sort of activity en-
tailed, if not always in the execution.

The social features of college life were for John Quincy
Adams clearly subordinate to the intellectual, but very de-
sirable diversions from too much study. There were occa-
sional dinners or teas at the home of President Willard and his
hospitable wife, or at that of jovial Professor Williams who
gave the lectures in natural philosophy and was the father
of the agreeable Jenny. The students themselves sometimes
served tea at "clubs" in their chambers, and even held dances
there of an evening. Since these affairs were strictly stag, one
must assume that the boys danced jigs together. Occasionally

Harvard College 53

John Quincy smoked a pipe as did his father, perhaps for
reasons of sociability rather than strict enjoyment. He de-
rived real pleasure from playing the German flute, an instru-
ment he had bought soon after his arrival in Cambridge and
on which he had been taking lessons. He had to reassure
sister Nabby that his playing did not injure his health. 13 He
joined the Handel society at college and also participated in
family concerts at Braintree during vacations. There his
cousin Eliza Cranch played the pianoforte with a skill no
doubt greatly improved as a result of her instruction in Hav-
erhill, while Billy Cranch, a classmate, scraped the fiddle
accompaniment. 14

Nor was "Cupid" entirely foiled by an academic calendar.
During an extraordinary eight weeks' winter vacation, begun
in early December because of the heavy snows and a shortage
of wood, the students were turned loose on the neighborhood
or sent home. John Quincy and his good-natured chum,
James Bridge of Pownalborough, Maine, boarded at Profes-
sor Wigglesworth's in Cambridge. There they made the ac-
quaintance of the amiable Peggy Wigglesworth and of her
eighteen year old cousin, the satirical Catherine Jones, 15 a
young lady who alternately attracted and repulsed John
Quincy but who was to remain his close acquaintance for sev-
eral years. There was also an older "young lady," a Miss El-
lery of Newport, much more charming in disposition, who
was visiting at the nearby home of his old friend and patron,
Judge Francis Dana of Cambridge. Although John Quincy
was very proud of the work he was able to accomplish during
that winter recess he read Montesquieu, a volume of the
Idler, and works on chemistry, elocution, and algebra 16 -~ he
was now able to renew his study of the female character. It
may be noticed in passing that he had also had at least one
letter from his old friend "Delia" in Haverhill, 17 that much
maligned young lady acquaintance of the recent past.

All this was not important, however, compared with the

54 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

academic purposes of college life. There can be no doubt
about John Quincy's devotion. He had scarcely become estab-
lished at Harvard before his Aunt Mary was reporting to his
mother that he did not leave his studies long enough to main-
tain health. Cousin Eliza Cranch soon afterwards found him
in his chambers in a high state of dirt and quite negligent of
his person, but apparently very happy. He was so devoted to
his work his mother heard that he seldom even went to Bos-
ton. A full year had passed at Harvard before he missed a
single lecture, a remarkable record considering the indiffer-
ent behavior of most of his classmates. But his assiduousness
worried his relatives. His frequent ill health, including stom-
ach trouble and spells of dizziness, they attributed to too little
exercise. 18

In addition to conscientiously preparing recitations, John
Quincy laboriously transcribed all his lectures and copied
into his journal his many orations and forensic debates. It
is a wonder that he was able to do anything else but write.
Apparently he did not even take time out to admire the view
of the Cambridge pastures and distant Boston from his up-
stairs room in Hollis Hall. 19 At least he never mentioned so
doing. However he took notice of practically everything else
for his journal, whether it was an occasional drunken student
falling down stairs or the "high-goes" of undergraduate cele-
brants. He himself seems never to have joined the latter.
While he usually sympathized with his fellows in their activ-
ities, he was no carouser or troublemaker. For one thing,
as his mother had warned him, he had to be a model to his
two younger brothers both of whom were also at Harvard
during his Senior year. Both obviously regarded him with
deep respect, good-natured Tommy and charming, irrespon-
sible Charles, although the latter was averse to being "lec-
tured" by his older brother.

In oratory and disputation, John Quincy's activity was
really astonishing. As a potential lawyer, he was aware of

Harvard College 55

special need of practice in public speaking, something which
remained an ordeal for years. In addition to preparing a
speech, one had to learn how to make the voice effective,
how to keep from moving one's feet too much, and how to
employ related bits of histrionics. His laborious attempts at
these affairs may well be imagined. On one occasion at least
it was hilarious. He himself told with obvious enjoyment
how, soon after his admission as a Junior, on declaiming
"All the world's a stage" one night before the entire college
in chapel, his description of the learned justice "with fair
round belly" caused general laughter. 20 His own plumpness
was the cause, perhaps made ludicrous by his manner of dec-
lamation. It is no wonder that he was to lose weight before
his college career was over. 21

His college addresses have been termed conventional exer-
cises on time-honored academic subjects and, presumably,
of little interest. 22 While it is true that the subjects were
seldom new and John Quincy sometimes had to defend
points of view of which he did not really approve, his ad-
dresses do reveal something of his habits of thought and
methods of analysis. Since he invariably made it known in
his journal whether or not he approved of the argument he
was maintaining, his real attitude is usually clear. Later on
he sometimes even repeated these oratorical sentiments when
confronted with real problems. By and large, John Quincy's
literary efforts throw considerable light on those "passions
of the mind" he cherished as an undergraduate.

During his fifteen months at Harvard, which included
generous quarterly vacations, he wrote and read a total of
seventeen orations and forensic disputations, not counting
his commencement address. Seven of these were delivered
before the "A.B." society and three before the Phi Beta
Kappa. Two were given at the public "exhibitions" and con-
sisted of a forensic and a conference type of debate. The
literary society pieces, those written for the "A.B." and the

56 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Phi Beta Kappa, were read in students' chambers or in the
quarters of the college Butler who was vice president of
PBK. All the others were delivered in the chapel. Of the
latter the "exhibitions" were by far the most important. In
addition to the College Overseers, relatives of students and
other outside visitors could attend these affairs. If the vis-
itors could stand the ordeal they could then write to any
fond but absent parents such as John and Abigail Adams
in London telling them about the impression made by their
son.

What did these literary productions reveal about John
Quincy Adams* thinking as a college student? Of course he
dutifully defended the notion of immortality's being a rea-
sonable idea, although he did so largely on the grounds that
it was in line with what had always been the expectation
of most peoples. 23 For an individual to realize his highest
potentialities, he was sure that one must learn to substitute
duty for passion. 24 Even marriage for fortune can be de-
fended against marriage for love, he argued, because the
former may result in lasting benefits whereas "lust" can
become satiated. 25 An unnatural example of romantic trag-
edy is that of Desdemona in "improbable" "Othello"; 26 but
he also argued that young ladies have the right to be "for-
ward" in making efforts to avoid the terrible fate of becom-
ing "old maids." 27 In overcoming difficulties in life, industry
next to "innocence" the most amiable quality in man is
indispensable even for geniuses; yet persons born without
great abilities cannot do "anything" simply by labor. 28 Just
as the general character of people is influenced by general
physical causes, so the individual's character in sensual mat-
ters may be attributed to his physical make-up. 29

None of these analyses seems particularly startling, unless
it is that of the role of poor Desdemona (many years later
he was to develop the thesis that she had caused all the

Harvard College 57

trouble by marrying the Moor against her parents' wishes);
or John Quincy's concept of the physical "character" of
man. More revealing were his ideas on the problems of
society, particularly those relating to government and pol-
itics.

One of his most persistent convictions was that of the
moral character of civilization, for which he considered en-
lightened religion to be the principal inspiration. It was his
belief that there had been good, practical improvement in
human affairs since the advent of Christianity. He could not
forget the savage butchery of ancient times. In most parts
of the earth it also seemed to him that there was progress in
human affairs. 30 This young Puritan scholar may never have
been a social optimist, but in several of his early speeches
at Harvard he expressed some of that confidence so charac-
teristic of the Age of Reason. He must have become partic-
ularly well acquainted with that point of view when he had
lived in France.

Then in the late summer and fall of 1786 came news of
civil disturbances in backcountry Massachusetts. For John
Quincy Adams as for so many of his generation, Shays' Rebel-
lion was an intellectual as well as a social shock* (Its effect
was so pronounced on his father in London, that he was
moved to complete a book on the dangers of popular forces
in government that was to plague him the rest of his days.)
The rebellion did not, however, turn John Quincy Adams
into a reactionary. He continued to be highly suspicious of
the "aristocratic" Order of the Cincinnati, whose members
had been officers in the Continental Army, and to consider
himself a better republican than most of his classmates at
Harvard. 81 However, the riots did sharpen his apprehension
of the doctrines of egalitarianism and increased his scepticism
about popular movements of any kind. They also strength-
ened his sense of the utility of law and lawyers, which the

58 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

rioters and other persons were bitterly attacking as a contrib-
utory cause of the social and economic distress in Massachu-
setts.

Word of the uprising of hundreds of men against the Court
of Common Pleas in Northampton in early September 32
had confirmed the fears long held by many persons about
the dangerous direction of domestic affairs. Threats to issue
paper money and to adopt ingenious tender laws had been
increasing in recent months in Massachusetts as elsewhere. 33
The desperate need for national revenues was at the same
time being unconscionably held up by the refusal of New
York State to accede to a national import. In London, news-
paper jibes about the state of American affairs had reduced
John and Abigail Adams to exasperation and despair. John
was extending his property holdings in Braintree as the best
form of security for the troubled times, although beginning
in January, 1787, he began to order additional investments
in American government securities when he learned that
Europeans were secretly buying. 34 The difficulty of collect-
ing taxes in Massachusetts was attributed by cousin Sam
Adams to the insidious influence of old Tories, still trying
to destroy faith in the Revolution. As early as July, 1786 the
outspoken Stephen Higginson, prominent Boston merchant
deeply concerned by New England's lack of foreign markets
and the chaotic state of the public credit, informed John
Adams that domestic matters were fast approaching a crisis.
When it arrived, every man of property and influence would
have to "give the Tide a right direction/' he said. 35

"The devil I am afraid has got among us," wrote Charles
Storer to Abigail Adams on August 15. This former aide of
John Adams in England, an admirer of Nabby and a great
favorite of Abigail's, had recently returned to America and
had become filled with the greatest pessimism because of
the "anarchy" in interior Massachusetts. He had also been
horrified at the recent Harvard Commencement to hear an

Harvard College 59

open discussion of "delicate" political subjects. There were
some "truths," in his opinion, which were better left con-
cealed. 36

While such domestic troubles were brewing, and no doubt
for that very reason, the Phi Beta Kappa at Harvard bravely
undertook one warm night in July to debate, "Whether civil
discord is advantageous to society"? This was the occasion
of John Quincy's maiden appearance before the society and
he "had" to speak for the affirmative. Nevertheless he made
an interesting argument. While concurring that civil dis-
cord is a "fiend of hell," he held that detestable principles
may sometimes have beneficial results, just as, to reverse the
argument, good intentions may have bad consequences. He
argued that base passion, though regrettably not restrained
by reason, must have been given to man to assist him in
defending his cause.

In other words, controversy can be a good thing. Too much
calm may be the forerunner of danger for nations as well as
for ships. Were it not for continuous opposition, intriguing
men would always have their way. Taking the example of
Rome, John Quincy denied that it had been the strife be-
tween the patricians and plebians which had brought on the
evils of political usurpation. Civil discord, if kept within
bounds, could be a useful thing, he asserted. 87

Obviously, this was a trumped up argument and only nar-
rowly missed violating John Quincy's profound misgivings
on the subject of "passion." Yet when he first heard on Sep-
tember 7 of the uprisings at Northampton, while he imme-
diately condemned the malcontents for being at faultfor
getting into debt and being idle he philosophized in his
journal rather closely along the lines of his Phi Beta Kappa
address of the previous July. "Such disturbances if properly
managed may be productive of advantages to a Republican
Government, but if they are suffered to gain ground, must
infallibly lead to civil war, with all its horrors." He likened

60 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

the disturbances to deadly drugs which if properly tempered
can become highly medicinal.

This was the closest that John Quincy Adams ever came
to showing any appreciation of Shays' Rebellion. Subse-
quently he simply condemned it as social anarchy. Neverthe-
less, in a brilliant flash it revealed how reluctant he was to
abandon a point of view, even one based on special plead-
ing; or, perhaps to speak more truly, it showed how reluctant
he was to discard his own admirable reasoning. It certainly
demonstrated how readily the rationalizing power of the
intellect could be confused with true "passions of the mind."
There is even a suggestion in his philosophizing of that
weakness of which a close friend of the family, General James
Warren of Milton, was soon accused. The general, who had
been sulking in fancied political neglect, was said to permit
his personal views to be rationalized into sympathy for the
rebels. 38 The allegation was his political ambition. The most
tender-hearted of the Adams' clan had once remarked that
Warren's "all or nothing" attitude was worthy of a "Cae-
sar/' 39

From September until the snows of winter the excitement
raised by Daniel Shays and Job Shattuck continued. Local
developments were fully recorded in John Quincy's journal
because the college was used at one time as emergency head-
quarters for two companies of militia. There were also ru-
mors that the rebels might attack the court in Cambridge.
A martial spirit quickly developed around Boston as young
gentlemen volunteers formed companies, but John Quincy
Adams was not among the college students included. Indeed,
he was to reflect gravely the following Fourth of July on the
extent to which a martial spirit had in consequence become
fixed upon the public. No doubt his European experiences
had made him peculiarly aware of such dangers.

If John Quincy had any deeper suspicions about the polit-
ical implications of Shays 1 Rebellion at the time, he must

Harvard College bl

have kept them to himself. A year later he was to refer quite
frankly to the "monarchical power" in Massachusetts. 40 Cer-
tain other persons were not so circumspect. In October, 1786,
Benjamin Hichborn, an old-time Whig merchant of Boston,
wrote John Adams in hurried secrecy that should the con-
vulsions in Massachusetts continue, there was a determina-
tion in the minds of men of greatest influence to change the
form of government throughout the continent. Five months
later Hichborn referred to popular suspicion about Gov-
ernor Bowdoin's being a "Frenchman" in league with the
"British/' but much adored by Stephen Higginson, John
Lowell, Theophilus Parsons "and that set." Although Hich-
born was sure that Hancock would be re-elected governor,
he said that Nathaniel Gorham a man of dubious political
principles still had expectations.

An even more lengthy and explicit analysis of the situa-
tion had been made by Samuel Osgood in November, in con-
nection with the larger problem of federal reform. In case
of civil war, he wrote, there was a strong likelihood that men
of property would attach themselves to the military element.
Many persons were already prepared to risk anything for a
change. Osgood thought that British influence emanating
from Canada could be traced among the insurgents in Mas-
sachusetts, with the design of establishing a monarchical
government in America and placing one of George Ill's sons
on the throne. 41

Meanwhile the Harvard Seniors went on with their debat-
ing and the problems raised by the rebellion were reflected
in their discussions. At the first college "exhibition" on
September 26, John Quincy and Billy Cranch had very
juicy "parts" in a forensic, on the relationship between equal-
ity and liberty. John Quincy argued that the question was
really the desirability of a pure democracy. Declaring that
nature has created an inequality among men, he condemned
democracy as the most dreadful of tyrannies, and cited the

62 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

present state of the country as proof that too great a degree
of equality is prejudicial to liberty. The effect that Shays'
Rebellion had had on his thinking, at least for purposes of
debate, would seem to be self-evident. As to what Cousin
Billy said in reply there is unfortunately no record. How-
ever, his mother wrote sister Abigail that both boys had
good compositions although neither had spoken loudly
enough; that four hundred ladies and gentlemen had at-
tended; but that if the boys ever again had parts that neither
she nor Betsy Cranch could stand attending the affair. 42

A few days earlier, at a Phi Beta Kappa meeting, several
members had read a forensic on "Whether internal tranquil-
ity is a proof of prosperity in a Republic"? The Shaysites
were obviously making the Harvard Seniors happy, if no
one else! Two months later, amidst rumors that the insur-
gents were descending upon Cambridge, John Quincy ad-
dressed the "A.B." on the causes of the "present evils" and
gave the usual answers: a decay of public virtue, and a
tendency to luxury and dissipation since the heroic days of
76. Soon afterwards came the remarkable snows of Decem-
ber and the extraordinary eight weeks winter vacation at
Harvard. By the end of that period the insurgents were
either all captured or dispersed, and new topics for debate
were being sought by the students. For John Quincy a new
interest had in the meantime developed in various young
ladies of the town, as already noted. While this interest did
not take his mind entirely off scholarly matters, it presum-
ably did contribute to a diminution of his interest in the
troubles of the Commonwealth.

The second half of John Quincy's Senior year, which began
with a slow resumption of classes in February, was marked
by several minor intellectual trends on his part. His liking
for the mathematical branches of science had steadily grown
upon him. The series of twenty lectures on natural philos-
ophy given by Professor Williams in the spring, while regret-

Harvard College 63

tably not new, fitted in with his interest in fluxions, levers,
transits of Venus, and shocks from electrical machines. He
found astronomy especially fascinating. This was a forecast
of a life-long interest in science which was to benefit his
country half a century later.

Another newly appreciated interest was ancient history.
In the fall he had absorbed the Abb Millot's Elements of
History, and more recently had been reading Montesquieu's
History of the Romans. The subject was now further un-
folded in his re-reading the fascinating pages of Gibbon's
Decline and Fall, of which fortunately he had his own copy.
(Such books could only be borrowed from the college library
two at a time, every other Friday.) Gibbon he considered a
philosopher rather than an historian, and regretted his occa-
sional preference for an epigram to a serious reflection. 43
John Quincy never did like epigrams. Nevertheless, Gibbon
was to remain for many years a favorite author to whom he
could always turn for solace and inspiration.

The burden of reciting to tutors, which he had always
considered a waste of time, was greatly reduced in the latter
part of the year when afternoon classes were dropped. 44
Indeed, in the last quarter of the year classes seem to have
been disbanded altogether so that Seniors were free to do
just about as they pleased, which apparently for most of
them was little or nothing. Such also were John Quincy's
intentions, as he airily informed his Aunt Mary when he
was in Braintree on vacation in April. However when he
returned to Cambridge he found immediately that he had to
go to work on the commencement oration which he had
been selected to deliver. He wrote his father in June that he
was just beginning to have an opportunity to look after his
health, which had suffered from his constant application for
many months. 45

The general quality of subject matter for forensics and
orations in the last two quarters seems to have declined

64 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

somewhat, at least for the Phi Beta Kappa. The principal
discussions in that society were now about young ladies and
love. John Quincy himself participated in two of these
weighty debates. Perhaps it was a natural aftermath of the
long winter recess, for other students as for himself. Several
of the class forensics in metaphysics were on more prosaic
subjects, such as "capital punishment" and the "effects" of
Christianity. At a meeting of the "A.B." society in April,
John Quincy also developed the interesting thesis that mod-
ern civilization has lost the veneration for music and poetry
of olden times. 46 It will be remembered that he had a per-
sonal interest in both subjects. He had occasionally engaged
in "rhyming" as well as in playing the flute throughout the
year.

The really big event in the spring, however, was the pub-
lic "exhibition" on April 10. Once again John Quincy had
a very favorable part, the second time on three occasions
and a sign of high academic standingor of academic fa-
voritism, in some people's eyes. He was assigned the task of
defending the profession of law against physic and divinity
as being most beneficial to man. This was done by a "con-
ference" method, and he was wishing the whole conference
"to the devil" before his preparation ended. Since the legal
profession was currently under heavy public attack, his part
was doubly important. Putting the law on a par with divin-
ity for discussion was a daring idea in itself. According to
his Aunt Mary he was "greatly applauded" on this occasion;
and a young lady spectator sweetly averred that in his com-
position he had displayed the triple qualities of scholarship,
candor, and delicacy. John Quincy himself was obviously
pleased with what he considered the approbation of the
audience. It was the best thing he ever did as an undergrad-
uate and may well have won him his commencement honor. 47

There was a refreshingly vigorous and hard-hitting tone
to this oration, if one makes due allowance for the decorous
style of the day. Despite the young author's sense of "deli-

Harvard College 65

cacy," he scored off the other professions with palpable hits.
He pointed out that the lawyer in living on the follies and
vices of mankind is not so very different from either physi-
cian or preacher. If a lawyer makes a mistake his action is
much more clearly apprehended than that of the physician!
As society becomes more complex, he argued, only lawyers
and the courts can protect the liberties of people. Even
under tyrannies this was true, as proved by the Parlements
of Paris; whereas the clergy is often an instrument of oppres-
sion, this well-traveled young man observed. However the
goals of all three professions are equally high: they respec-
tively defend "health, liberty, innocence." Any man, he said,
can render his profession useful if he unites talents and
virtue in his work. 48

If Reverend Uncle Shaw had come down from Haverhill
to attend this "exhibition" he might have gently winced
once or twice at his wife's nephew's remarks. Fortunately
there is no evidence of his having made the trip. Indeed,
Uncle Shaw remains a rather mute and shadowy figure in
the records of the Adams family. According to his wife, more-
over, John Quincy had acted so agreeably on a trip to Haver-
hill a few weeks previous as to convince them both that
the "only" error they had ever detected in him here Aunt
Eliza agreed in numbers with sister Abigail! had been en-
tirely removed. This referred of course to the delicate sub-
ject of the sophisticated young man's having disputed arro-
gantly with her husband the year before. She now playfully
characterized John Quincy as having a "facetious disposi-
tion." He had so happily and freely discussed all his pleas-
ures and amusements with her that she was sure he had
nothing he need "wish" to hide. This was a reference to his
old problem of "Delia" at Haverhill and to his affairs of
the heart. Romantic Aunt Eliza was by way of becoming an
expert about such matters. Indeed, they had constituted her
principal avocation since girlhood. 49

A similar picture of this much improved young man had

66 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

recently also been furnished by his other maternal aunt.
Mrs. Cranch assured sister Abigail that John Quincy had
acquired the affection of his class as well as the approbation
of his teachers, despite his contempt for all dignity based
on pomposity. The only reason that his relatives had ever
had to worry about him, she said, had been because of his
talent for satire. However Abigail's advice and that of Nabby,
and no doubt that of his relatives in America, the Cranches
and Shaws, had had a beneficial effect. 50 There apparently
had been no dearth of good advice!

One of the most delightful bits of evidence of John
Quincy's gift for "satire/' as well as his attitude towards the
college officers, was a poem he wrote in March of his Senior
year. It was entitled, "Lines Upon the Late Proceedings of
the College Government." It probably got into general cir-
culation; it certainly deserved to. The circumstances related
to the behavior of some members of the Junior class who
greatly irked by the 'distribution" of parts for an "exhibi-
tion" had proceeded to get drunk and to raise cain. 51 John
Quincy's sympathies usually lay with such offending stu-
dents; he had once even argued that it was no crime to get
drunk. 52 Members of his own class had quarrelsome reputa-
tions also. They not only had strained relations with their
tutors but were always disputing with President Willard
about academic matters. Soon they were even to be protest-
ing against the class's holding a public commencement.

The poem described the "trial" of the offending Juniors
who were faced with the possibility of being dismissed to
private study, i.e., "rustication."

The government of college met,

And Willard ruled the stern debate.

The witty Jennison declared

That he had been completely scared.

"Last night," says he, "when I came home,

I heard a noise in Prescott's room,

Harvard College 67

I went and listened at the door,
As I have often done before.
I found the juniors in a high rout;
They called the President a tyrant;
They said as how I was a fool,
A long-eared ass, a sottish mule,
Without the smallest grain of spunk;
So I concluded they were drunk."

After the "testimony" of other tutors and professors, the
"trial' 1 concluded with the sage rebuke of President Willard:

"The rulers, merciful and kind,
With equal grief and wonder find
That you should laugh and drink and sing,
And make with noise the college ring.
I therefore warn you to beware
Of drinking more than you can bear.
Wine an incentive is to riot,
Destructive of the public quiet.
Full well your tutors know this truth,
For sad experience taught their youth.
Take then this friendly exhortation I
The next offense is rustication."

The offending youths had been let off with a reprimandl
Despite his undeniable talent for satire, John Quincy
Adams was both academically successful and no doubt greatly
"improved" as he came to the end of his college career. One
would have supposed him to have been quite happy. Unfor-
tunately he was not. For him, as no doubt for so many others,
the very thought of leaving college was depressing. It had
come to mean so much in his case that he could only lament
not having returned from Europe sooner. Ill health also
continued to inconvenience him. Gunning and fishing at
Braintree during the April vacation had not prevented the
usual case of heartburn, and another spell of dizziness soon
after his return to college. He was busy in the latter part of

68 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

May in preparing his commencement address, but the gen-
eral tone of college life had sadly declined for all Seniors.
Skylarking, carousing, and a lack of routine did not agree
with John Quincy Adams, either then or later. 53

A more subtle and therefore more disturbing problem
pertained to his hopes for the future, to his private ambition
and anticipation of success in the years ahead. On this score
his college experience had given him no real answers. It had
even raised serious questions. Because of his everlasting
penchant for self-criticism, and the continual admonitions
of his family, not even his recent experience as a much
applauded public speaker could completely bolster up his
ego. And he still had the commencement ordeal ahead.

The first serious doubts about his effectiveness on the plat-
form had arisen after his first "exhibition," the previous
September. He had heard some student remark that his
forensic was the "meanest" ever delivered in chapel. It had
cut him to the quick despite the panegyrical things he had
heard from others. 54 He loved that word "panegyrical." Ad-
verse criticism was doubly distressing because he had just
been confessing to himself of being very ambitious, but at
the same time miserably admitting that he obviously lacked
certain qualities necessary for success. He declared, in the
words of Hotspur, that if it were a sin to covet honor he
was the most offending soul alive; yet he could not convince
his associates that his deserts should equal his expectations.
If only he could be content with small distinctions, although
he confessed that he despised men of that ilk. 55 Such gnawing
self-doubts must always have been with him as he wrote and
declaimed his way through that Senior year at Harvard.
Such devastating self-analysis could not have been a passing
reflection.

Something even like a morbid state of mind had revealed
itself the following March, when he heard that his old patron
of St. Petersburg days, Judge Francis Dana of Cambridge,

Harvard College 69

had been taken with a stroke. Now referring to the judge
as a "second father," John Quincy bitterly upbraided him-
self for once having neglected his admonitions, presumably
on the subject of arrogance. All that he could unhappily
say in self-defence was that he had finally checked some of
the failings to which the judge had long ago called atten-
tion. 56 Such self-reproach reinforced the warnings he had
been continually receiving from his family. Incidentally, his
concern over Judge Dana's condition was deep and lasting.
Both he and his brother Charles "watched" for several
nights while the judge was critically ill. John Quincy passed
his watch in reading "insipid" novels, a type of light litera-
ture with which he seems to have kept en rapport.

The "exhibition" in April may have been reassuring, but
the prospect for commencement raised new doubts. Both
young Adams and his gifted classmate, Nathaniel Freeman,
had been assigned "English" orations, i.e., not given in Latin,
and the choicest parts. While writing his piece, John Quincy's
consciousness of "having no talent at rhetorical composition"
gave him much anxiety. He particularly dreaded comparison
with the formidable Freeman and the "disgrace" that might
be reflected upon himself. 57 Unfortunately, time was to prove
that his fears, however exaggerated, had an element of truth
in them because suspicions of favoritism were to influence
some people's judgment at commencement. 58 The prospect
was an additional factor in depressing the young graduate
who, by all the rules, should have been reasonably happy.

The "passions of the mind" were now threatened with
erosion from idleness at Braintree as time dragged on while
he waited "dully" for commencement. Unlike his father, he
apparently never did any farm work or other heavy physical
labor. Part of his time was spent in writing for his journal
long character sketches of his classmates, a laboriously ana-
lytical task upon which he had been engaged throughout the
spring. He read another frivolous novel, also "the Beggar's

70 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Opera/' which he disliked, renewed his acquaintance with
some young lady friends and went out walking with an agree-
able new one. He also became deeply concerned about en-
abling an impecunious classmate to return for his degree.
While dining at the convalescent Judge Dana's one evening,
he met the witty and learned lawyer from Newburyport,
Theophilus Parsons, with whom arrangements were being
made for him to study in the fall. The prospect of this also
greatly distressed him. He dreaded returning to the stage of
"general society" which he had already met "with disgust"
and once quitted in favor of Harvard. 59

While amusing himself one idle day in July by reading in-
scriptions in the burying ground at Braintree, he saw and
pursued a large snake. It caused him to wonder if it could be
the guardian of someone's bones? G0 Yet only a few months
earlier he had been addressing a literary gathering at college
on the subject of superstition which he had denounced as
showing lack of reason! To do this young philosopher justice,
however, he had concluded those remarks by candidly admit-
ting that few of us are guiltless in this respect. 61 He had ob-
viously remained aware that there are some kinds of human
weakness which stubbornly resist the "passions of the mind."
Even the reduction of his conceit as an undergraduate had
been accompanied by increased apprehensions about the fu-
ture, for he was a highly imaginative human being as well as
an industrious scholar. In both respects his college achieve-
ment was to be more fully revealed on commencement day.

CHAPTER FOUR

GRADUATION IN CAMBRIDGE

"A nervous style of eloquence"

Although John Quincy Adams was a very proper young
man and to be one of the honored graduates at the approach-
ing Harvard Commencement, he had been going about say-
ing, "Oh Lord! oh Lord!" and hoping that it would rain.
Like his classmates he had favored a private commencement,
and rain would at least spoil the wigs of those dignitaries who
had insisted on the traditional public ceremony. 1 The prac-
tice of having undergraduates continually demonstrate "laud-
able emulation" by competing for public favor in "exhibi-
tions," had long caused an undercurrent of bitter resentment
among them. 2 Moreover, young Adams, the son of a promi-
nent public figure, had a touchy political topic on which to
address the audience. He also dreaded comparison with a par-
ticularly gifted classmate who was to deliver the other princi-
pal oration o the day. 8

Yet the commencement seemed to turn out well despite all
his apprehensions. For one thing it was not too warm a July
day. In fact it was the coldest commencement day on record.
People going along the Common in Boston that morning ac-
tually clapped their hands on their sides to keep warm. 4 In
the late afternoon after the conclusion of the ceremonies
another kind of pleasant record was set. In the chambers of
John Quincy Adams and his cousin Billy Cranch in Hollis
Hall, a mighty repast was spread for guests under the bustling
supervision of Mrs. Cranch. She had been planning it for
over a year. For two days benches were being installed, while
wagon loads of supplies had poured in from Braintree. Two

71

72 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Negro servants and all of the Adams' retainers from two ten-
ant farms were on hand to assist. There were two whole
rounds of beef prepared a la mode, four hams and four
tongues, peas and salad, cider punch and porter for over one
hundred guests, with wine and cake for four hundred more.
The feast must have helped to make up for the Spartan-like
"dinner" served at noon by the college. Even Governor Han-
cock and the college professors dropped in for congratula-
tions, and no doubt a sample. John Quincy recorded in his
journal that another such day would ruin him. This referred
to the congratulations, however, not to the food. 5

After all such festivity, the unpleasant publicity about the
day's affairs came as something of a shock. The commence-
ment proceedings unfortunately produced some spirited news-
paper commentary. The wrath of the humorless Boston Ga-
zette on July 23 was aroused by the lampooning account of
the ceremony given two days earlier by the rival Massachu-
setts Centinel. One indignant witness denounced the latter's
"scurrility" in attempting to "pluck the laurel" from the
brows of the youthful performers. 6 The particular cause of
this outburst had been none other than twenty-year-old John
Quincy Adams himself. Such embarrassing publicity was his
introduction to the hazards of public favor, and in this in-
stance it was made in strong words.

The writer in the last Centinel who has published the bombastic,
inflated and ridiculously partial account of the exhibitions of
the young gentlemen who took their degrees last Wednesday at
Cambridge-to say nothing of the other parts of his truly puerile
performance, has dropped a sentiment which in this country
should never be exposed to public view without behing hissed
off the stage as soon as it appears. In noticing one of the youthful
performers, he speaks of him as being warmly attached to the
republican system of his father-as if there was anything extraor-
dinary in a young man, or in any body being warmly attached
to the laws and constitution of his country. 7

Graduation in Cambridge 73

The indignant author of this article signed himself "ARIS-
TIDES" and was the kind of a contributor especially prized by
old Benjamin Edes, the bold Whig editor of the Gazette. Its
motto was, "A Free Press Maintains the Majesty of the Peo-
ple." The author went on to say at considerable length that
republicanism is naturally the best kind of government since
it defends the poor and weak against the rich and strong, "un-
suspecting ignorance" against the arts of "presuming superi-
ority/' all without the "vindictive violence of the sanguinary
despot, and the titled insolence of aristocratic power." "Is it
remarkable then," asked "ARISTIDES," "that a young man,
whose family and fortune have been distinguished and ex-
tended by this very system of republicanism should warmly
support its pre-eminence?"

These stirring words were no doubt ostensibly intended to
defend John Quincy against the "scurrility" of the Centinel,
the motto of which was, "Uninfluenced by Party we aim to be
JUST." They also revealed how sensitive was the area upon
which his commencement oration had touched. He had
spoken "Upon the importance and necessity of Public Faith,
to the well-being of a community," and had emphasized the
necessity of preserving the public credit in dark and trouble-
some days.

John Quincy had even applied the expression "critical
period" to the times, thereby furnishing the stuff of which
"history" is made. The topic had not been of his own choos-
ing but was one to which he had been assigned. A month
earlier he had written his father that the subject was indeed
a noble one and badly in need of treatment since public faith
was in a sad condition, He had noted, however, that he had
been "led unaware into political ground." 8 Nevertheless he
had done his best after careful composition and many re-
hearsals, and had won the applause of most of his hearers.
But he also had aroused the derision of some persons, not to
mention the envy of others. This personal rancor had been

74 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

amusingly compounded in the GentineVs high-toned account.
Even in the article by "ARISTIDES," however, there were
overtones which were intended to do something more than
merely "defend" the young graduate. In view of current rum-
blings in the public press, the remarks of "ARISTIDES" surely
implied criticism of no less a person than John Quincy's own
father, the American minister to Britain. The article had con-
cluded with a vague but disturbing statement, that "it, is truly
singular to see certain people whose whole importance has
been created by the partiality of their countrymen, affect to
decry the merits of a democracy, because, forsooth they can-
not be noblemen."

The apparent explanation is that old John Adams, in the
wake of Shays' Rebellion in the closing weeks of 1786 and
obviously still at white heat, had finished the first volume of
his A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the
United States of America At first sight this had been hailed
with praise by the Gazette, 10 which was reprinting portions of
it, but whose editorial sympathies must now have been cool-
ing. Embarrassing accusations were beginning to be heard
that the elder Adams had become an admirer of the English
type of government and was squinting at "aristocracy." An
article had appeared in the Boston press on the very day of
John Quincy's graduation, reprinting a story from Philadel-
phia which had concluded, 'The gentleman who favours us
with this article, asks, whether Mr, Adams' work can so prop-
erly be called a Defence of our constitutions, as an encomium
upon the British government?" n Within a few more weeks
the work was being labeled in some quarters as "political
poison." A full scale attack upon its author, however, was to
be delayed until 1791 when Thomas Jefferson "innocently"
precipitated a major controversy with John Adams. His wife
had humorously warned him that his book would lead people
to accuse him of wanting to set up a king in America. 1 *
Such scattered remarks in the summer of 1787 suggest the

Graduation in Cambridge 75

deteriorating political atmosphere to which John Quincy
Adams was exposed as he made his public bow. His audience
must have been thoroughly aware of the delicate situation.
It should not be forgotten that this was the summer when the
Federal Convention was meeting behind closed doors in Phil-
adelphia, when newspapers were still powerfully influenced
by the aftermath of Shays' Rebellion, and when political ru-
mors of all kinds were commonplace. Family, fate, and the
zeal of the press were all at work on young John Quincy
Adams.

Let us return to that cool but clear and pleasant commence-
ment day. The audience was large and impressive, 13 Accord-
ing to custom His Excellency, Governor Hancock, together
with the Lieutenant Governor, the President of the Senate,
and other public dignitaries, had been escorted to Cambridge
in the forenoon by the Sheriff of Suffolk County and by a
company of Horse Guards. Received by the Fellows of the
Corporation and by the professors, they had conferred with
the Overseers in Harvard Hall and had then paraded to the
Meeting House where the young gentlemen graduates spoke
their pieces. So many other distinguished visitors and alumni
were also present that altogether it was enough to make any
performer's knees quakel Of course, a "nervous style of elo-
quence" was an accepted mode of address in those days and
not peculiar to young Adams as he spoke in eighth place out
of eighteen events. His facial contortions were also regarded
as remarkable by his relatives, 14 In the class of '87 which had
fifty-one bachelor candidates, young Adams was being gradu-
ated "second in the scale of rank/' Moreover, his selection to
give one of the two "English" orations was an indication of
highest academic honors, 10

Following these youthful demonstrations, the audience had
repaired to College Hall where a dinner was provided "which,
although less elegant than on some former years of public
tranquility, and far less expensive, was not less satisfactory

76 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

to those sons of science, who meet for literary entertainment,
and not for luxurious feasting." In the afternoon they all
went again to the Meeting House where the candidates for
the M.A. performed. All degrees were thereupon duly con-
ferred, the bachelors first. Two honorary doctorates were also
recorded, one for Thomas Brand Hollis, Esq., L.L.D., a bene-
factor of the college and a close friend in England of John
Adams; the other for His Excellency, Thomas Jefferson, Esq.,
L.L.D., the American minister in France. According to one
report, 'The whole business of the day was conducted with
the greatest regularity and harmony. The performance of the
young gentlemen gave the highest pleasure to their friends;
and to all who have been concerned in their education; and
left on the mind of a numerous and splendid assembly, a deep
impression of the advantage which may be derived from a
truly liberal education." 16

The account of the proceedings in the Centinel on July 21,
however, exploded a ' 'harmony " which was in fact more ap-
parent than real. That paper must have had its best reporter
on the job; he discussed the commencement in a style that can
only be called scintillating. 17 While he congratulated the pa-
trons and graduates on the performance, he urged the uni-
versity to rid itself completely of "scholastic jargon" in the
nature of "fulsome syllogism/' a type of exercise much dis-
liked by the students. He also said of President Willard, pos-
sibly with more truth than propriety, that his valedictory
"deserved merit not only from the matter, but from the brev-
ity"! 18

Each of the contesting graduates was handled with this
same air of superior understanding. A poem spoken by Mr.
Harris showed a "degree of formality"; fortunately this
"young son of Apollo" displayed a "modest abordr The fo-
rensic disputation between Messrs. Fiske and Chandler was
meritorious but involved a "common fault." Such contestants

Graduation in Cambridge 77

were advised in the future to stick to "Argumentum ex ab-
surdo, fc ad Hominem." An address by Mr. William Cranch
was ''far from being destitute of merit." Mr. Cranch had
spoken "Upon the impossibility of civil liberty's long sub-
sisting in a community, without three orders in the Govern-
ment, vested with such powers as to be mutual checks upon
and balances to each other." This was, of course, more or less
the substance of John Adams' Defence of the Constitutions
just beginning to get public notice. Young Mr. Cranch was
said to have ''read with attention the vindication of the Amer-
ican constitutions, and paraphrased upon some of the princi-
ples in an ingenious manner. If he appeared to some persons
to have adopted many sentiments of the author, without suf-
ficient examination, they may impute it to circumstances
both rational and natural. Mr. [John] Adams is undoubtedly
a great man." Then came the inevitable punch line: "He is
likewise the orator's uncle"!

The climax of this remarkable piece of reporting was re-
served for the end:

The two principal performances were the Orations by Mr. Adams
and Mr. Freeman. The first of these certainly declaimed upon a
well chosen subject, in a manly, sensible and nervous style of
eloquence. The publick expectations from this gentleman, being
the son of an Ambassador, the favourite of the officers of the
College, and having enjoyed the highest advantages of European
instruction, were greatly inflated. This performance justified the
preconceived partiality. He is warmly attached to the republican
system of his father, and descanted upon the subject of public
justice with great energy. Mr. Adams's indisputable superior, in
style, elegance and oratory, is the graceful Mr. Freeman. It was
thought almost impossible for him to exceed his accomplished
rival who spoke before him but to Freeman every thing was
easy. They were both considerably agitated when they arose, and
seemed to recover a decent confidence after the same interval. . . .
In short, these young gentlemen discovered those qualities that

78 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

must ensure them eminence, and we hope, for the sake of their
country, they may be rivals in the cultivation of those talents
through life.

Certain of these phrases are worth underscoring. Young
Mr. Adams was identified with his father's public station and
his "republican system," which was, of course, what outraged
"ARISTIDES." As a person John Quincy was called the ''favour-
ite" of the officers of the college, which kind of praise would
be hard for any student to accept and which was a kind of
distinction particularly vexatious for this Harvard class. John
Quincy himself called it the "most invidious circumstance
that could have been mentioned" and utterly denied that
there was any truth in it. 19 His advantages of European in-
struction were also pointed out, another delicate point since
he was anxious to avoid being labeled "foreign." Finally he
was declared a remarkably accomplished youth, but young
Mr. Freeman was his "indisputable superior, in style, ele-
gance and oratory" to whom "every thing was easy." This cer-
tainly took away most of the luster.

What John Quincy himself thought of the comparison was
very simple. He said that he liked and admired Freeman but
felt neither superior to him nor particularly inferior al-
though it must be confessed that he had long been dreading
public comparison with him. Aunt Shaw rather ungallantly
thought that only the young ladies would have preferred
Freeman. John Quincy soon began to think himself a mere
"cypher in creation," but whether this was on account of all
the embarrassing newspaper publicity does not appear. 20 His
father wrote him his good opinion of the speech some months
later, having just received a copy in London, saying that it
was manly and spirited and that if John Quincy lived and
died by its sentiments, "I dont care a farthing how many
are preferred to you, for style, elegance and mellifluence." 21
From this language, one concludes that John Adams p&re had
surely seen a copy of the Centinel for the previous July 21.

Graduation in Cambridge 79

In any case his son had already informed his mother of its
substance.

Two other opinions about the oration are notable. First,
the Reverend Mr. Jeremy Belknap, the distinguished his-
torian of New Hampshire, Harvard alumnus and Overseer,
and good friend of the Adamseshe had been a spectator at
the graduation promptly wrote John Quincy of his admira-
tion for the speech and requested a copy for publication in
the Columbian Magazine. 22 (This was a new literary venture
in Philadelphia for which Mr. Belknap had recently refused
the editorship and in which he was writing an allegorical
novel about America from month to month.) It was a strange
coincidence that in the aforementioned July 21 issue of the
Centinel, immediately following the colorful commencement
description, there had appeared a long "blurb" about this
new magazine in which its growing reputation and popularity
was mentioned. An advertisement of it had also appeared in
the same issue. After some interesting correspondence, John
Quincy's permission to publish finally was secured and the
oration on "Public Faith" duly appeared in the September,
1787, issue of the Columbian.

Secondly, there appeared in the Boston Centinel in Sep-
tember 23 an ironic communication from "THE STUDENTS,"
burlesquing in horrid terms alleged partiality with regard to
academic honors at Harvard. The language of this piece, for
all of its spoofing character, expressed some genuine discon-
tent about the prevailing system of scholastic distinctions.
The climactic reference to Adams and Freeman in this piece
was painfully laudatory and was obviously intended to be
funny, no doubt in view of the uproarious newspaper pub-
licity in July.

Reverend Mr. Belknap's request throws considerable light
upon the budding interest in "Old John's" son, and likewise
on John Quincy's own attitude towards public favor. His
concern on this point was honorable, but rather futile. The

80 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

name of Adams was plainly one with news value, quite apart
from the intrinsic worth of the oration. In his first reply to
Belknap's query, on July 30, John Quincy agreed to furnish
a copy only if his name did not appear and if the English
poem read at commencement by a fellow graduate should
accompany it. This was in accordance with the proposal of
Belknap.

Unfortunately, and rather surprisingly it would seem, John
Quincy 's fellow graduate refused to appear with him in print.
Nevertheless Mr. Belknap wrote again urging young Adams
to comply the copy had already been received and his argu-
ment was distinctly flattering, to put it mildly. He admitted
that nothing is more amiable than modesty in a "young Gen-
tleman of acknowledged Genius" but thought that this
should yield to proper solicitation.

And why should the name be suppressed? A name which calls
up every grateful and affectionate feeling in the breasts of Ameri-
cans? Without ye name, your Alma Mater will be deprived of
half the honor wch [sic] she deserves, but if that be added, the
friends of Liberty and Virtue will have ye farther Satisfaction to
see ye features of the Parent in the son, and may I not add your
Country will have a pledge of a succession of abilities in the same
Family still to aid her Cause and espouse her Interest.

When John Quincy replied a second time from Braintree
on August 6, giving reluctant consent to publication, he re-
vealed his sensitivity to the idea that public favor might un-
deservedly be bestowed upon him. "And if my father has
been so fortunate as to render services of importance to his
countrymen, that is certainly no reason why they should be
prejudiced in favor of his son." He stipulated that no men-
tion should be made that there had been any difficulty in ob-
taining his speech, since this would merely convey an air of
false importance. "Apologies of this nature never have any
influence upon impartial persons, and these are the only char-
acters I am fearful of offending." Perhaps his most significant

Graduation in Cambridge 81

comment, however, was the explanation of his concern lest
the people who had been at commencement, the proper
judges of the various performances, might be displeased to
see him appear in print alone and consider it a breach of de-
cency. 24 In view of what had already appeared in the Centinel
and in the Gazette., it is readily understandable why he should
have been deeply concerned on this point. But even more un-
pleasant publicity was about to follow, to the special enjoy-
ment of certain persons who had attended the commence-
ment.

The open letter addressed "To the OVERSEERS of an UNI-
VERSITY" by "THE STUDENTS," appearing in the Centinel on
September 15 is surely as amusing a document as can be
found in the history of higher education or in any other kind
of history, for that matter. It was humorously sensational, but
mysteriously vague as anonymous communications were apt
to be in the eighteenth century. In it the name of proper
John Quincy Adams was again thrust into print, and again
as the butt for "humor."

The lampoon opened with lofty expressions of apprecia-
tion to the Overseers whose "laudable intentions appear to
us to be perverted by the partiality and prejudice of a few
individuals, or individual." "THE STUDENTS" loftily excepted
their worthy president from this category. They said that
when they first entered college they had expected that effort
would duly be rewarded; but, alas! they had found just the
opposite: "the hopes of competitors, who have been fired
with noble emulation to obtain the palm, are lost; forever
lost. Is it just, that the very creature of ignorance, inattention,
intemperance and debauchery, should rise upon the ruins of
merit, and assume an unprecedented importance?' 1 Was it
partiality, or bribery, at work? they darkly asked.

"THE STUDENTS" lamented that the "creature of secret influ-
ence" had kicked them down from Parnassus "to make room
for his own favourites, or ? at least, assigns us an insignificant

82 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

station." They begged that "the hydra of C t [com-
mencement] may be permitted no longer to poison the foun-
tain of justice, or disturb its waters." They claimed that a
"comparative view of the characters of those who have lately
received a private distinction at the University, with some of
those, who will soon be crowned with its most distinguished
honours, fully demonstrate the drift of our argument par-
tiality in the extreme." Then came the pious conclusion.

But, thanks be to Heaven, the revolution of an anniversary,
which calls us to depart from our Alma Mater, is productive of
the most happy effects. It is then, our illustrious President, aloof
from prejudice, callous or ignoble influence, rewards intrinsick
merit. Could the caprice of an individual have dictated the dis-
tribution of honours, at such a period, the publick probably
would not have been delighted with the manly and eloquent
strains of a Freeman and an Adams Nothese reputable youths,
it is likely, would have been pushed behind the scene, and their
abilities, as yet, unknown to their friends and the publick.
O temporal O mores!

This silly rag did make some sense in terms of the dis-
turbed character of student life at Harvard in those years, a
situation which was shortly to become riotous, 25 It seems ob-
vious that the "accusations" by "THE STUDENTS" were pri-
marily directed against their tutors or against a particular
tutor, but which particular one is not clear, certainly not
from the testimony of John Quincy Adams' college journal
in which the description of all of them is severe. Student rela-
tions with their tutors had become very bad; the latter were a
young lot, certainly not above criticism in their behavior.
They treated the students like "brute beasts*' according to
John Quincy Adams, who was not wholly without objectivity
in the matter nor even without a sense of humor on the sub-
ject of college discipline. In turn, a favorite sport of drunken
students was to break the tutors' windows. On one occasion
the tutors had been hissed out of the dining room, accom-

Graduation in Cambridge 83

panied by a shower of potatoes. Tutors unfortunately were
disciplinarians as well as teachers, and while college rules
were strict the penalties were so ludicrously light as to en-
courage further disorders. In such circumstances rumors
about the rankest kind of prejudice and favoritism were nat-
urally not unknown, bred in an atmosphere of tense feel-
ings. 26

John Quincy's contempt for most of his tutors would seem
to have relieved him of any charge of being their "favourite."
It is therefore difficult to see why the Centinel in its opinion-
ated account of the commencement on July 21 should have
labeled him "the favourite of the officers of the college" un-
lessapart from any intended humor or mischief-making
this referred to college officials other than tutors. Possibly
some such complicated situation as this did exist and had in-
fluenced President Willard with regard to commencement
honors. John Quincy had clearly been an exemplary student.
Nevertheless, while acknowledging his favored treatment on
this and several other occasion, he not only denied his ever
having been a "favourite" but said that the college officers
had always known of his critical opinion of them. 27

Moreover, in the general student feeling against public
performances during the year, as well as against the type of
commencement then in vogue, John Quincy had also taken
the popular view.^ 8 There apparently had been nothing like
tests or academic ranking of any kind during the students'
undergraduate experience, except for these occasional and
detested "exhibitions." 29 President Willard, a stickler for de-
tails of deportment and an old fashioned scholar, favored
such a system. He refused to give up a public commencement
on the same grounds. Without such demonstrations he be-
lieved that there would be no incitement to what he called
"laudable emulation." 80 It will be remembered that "THE
STUDENTS" had spoken sarcastically of their once having been
fired with "noble emulation." The class of '87 had actually

84 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

petitioned twice against there being a public graduation cere-
mony, once to the Corporation and a second time to the Over-
seers. 31 The expense to the graduate in those hard times seems
to have been one of their reasons. But the general argument
must have been against a type of ceremony in which the schol-
ars would again have to compete for favor, in this case for
commencement applause.

John Quincy had even interviewed President Willard on
the subject of the class' dislike for a public graduation, but of
course to no avail. Not only was "emulation" involved but
President Willard so he told Adams privately feared the
resentment of Governor Hancock if he were not given a
chance to show himself off on such a notable occasion. 82 The
egotistical governor continued to be the bete noir,e of the col-
lege. He had finally resigned as treasurer but had not settled
his long overdue accounts. Moreover the times were shaky
and Hancock's political power was a source of uneasiness to
many citizens.

The "STUDENTS" protest appeared about the time that the
September Columbian Magazine was published in Philadel-
phia. The August issue had expressed regret that the "in-
genious Oration delivered by Mr. Adams arrived too late for
the present number. . . ." It contained thirty items other than
"Public Faith" including such things as "A Description of the
Natural Bridge in Virginia," "The Foresters, an Historical
Tale" by Reverend Jeremy Belknap, and "The New Plan for
a Federal Government proposed by the Convention." This
issue must have reached Boston within several weeks. On
November 7 the Centinel reprinted from the magazine the
whole of the Adams' oration, describing the youthful author
in full dress as the "son of his Excellency, the American min-
ister." Perhaps its editor, Major Ben Russell, was trying to
make amends for the previous mischievousness of his paper.

Such was the colorful introduction of John Quincy Adams
to the public. It had come about as it did partly because he

Graduation in Cambridge 85

was John Adams' son and as such reflected upon by a zealous
press but also because his graduation had taken place at a
time of considerable undergraduate distemper. He had been
thrust into exceptional public notice because Alma Mater
had thought well of him, thereby occasioning some jealous
ribbing by certain self-styled "STUDENTS," with whom he
otherwise seems to have been on generally good terms. 33

One other question remains to be discussed about John
Quincy Adams on his graduation day. What did he actually
say?

The keynote of his speech 84 introducing it he properly,
but no doubt truthfully, said that he felt "terrors hitherto un-
known" was the necessity of maintaining the public credit.
His high praise of England's example must have further dis-
turbed the Edes crowd, if they bothered to read the address
at all. He noted that the situation of Massachusetts for some
months past had been truly alarming. There was a lack of
circulating medium, the "violent gust of rebellion* ' was
scarcely dispersed, luxury and dissipation were choking out
useful virtues, bonds of union with the sister states were
shamefully relaxed, and the sails of commerce furled.

"At this critical period, when the whole nation is groaning
under the intolerable burden of these accumulated evils,"
what could have been the cause? Could there have been a loss
of honor and patriotism? Some hope, he thought, still arose
from the example of the distinguished patriot who headed
the government in Massachusetts. (This of course was the
grossest flattery. Governor Hancock had in truth discreetly
retired the previous year when the domestic situation had
really got threatening.)

John Quincy condemned as base and foul the doctrine that
nations are not subject to the same laws of honor as individ-
uals. He likened this idea to the principle "which impels the
hand of the lawless ruffian, and directs the dagger of the mid-
night assassin." Survey the history of civilization, he said, and

86 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

you would find that "public credit has ever been the founda-
tion upon which the fabric of national grandeur has been
erected/' Read especially the history of Rome whose great-
ness was due to her "unalterable attachment to the laws of
justice, and punctilious observance of all the contracts in
which she engaged." In modern times Great Britain exhibited
an example of national honor for the admiration and imita-
tion of the American states. "The punctual observance of
every contract and the scrupulous fulfillment of every agree-
ment are the only props which have supported the sinking
reputation of that ill-fated kingdom."

American women were appealed to for patriotic inspira-
tion by this admiring son of Abigail Adams. He significantly
warned his classmates, whenever called upon to defend their
country against the "sword of invasion or against the dagger
of oppression/' to retain severe republican virtues^". <?., to
entertain no monarchical notions! Above all they should re-
member that all the distresses of the Commonwealth were
connected with the loss of "national" credit. He said that if
everyone would resolve to keep public promises, then happi-
ness would return, commerce would increase, American man-
ufactures vie with those of Europe, and American science en-
rich the world. The radiant sun of the union would rise
again. The muses, disgusted wtih the "depravity of taste and
morals" which prevailed abroad, would migrate to America
and produce historians and poets to sing her glories. He
prayed that honor and integrity might ever distinguish the
American states "till the last trump shall announce the dis-
solution of the world, and the whole frame of nature be con-
sumed in one universal conflagration."

It is evident from these eloquent and burning words that
the education of John Quincy Adams had extended far be-
yond the walls of formal schooling which, indeed, in his case
had been rather limited. Two "daggers" and one "midnight
assassin" suggest his deep love of the drama, not then to be

Graduation in Cambridge 87

had in Boston but acquired by foreign travel and from im-
mersion in Shakespeare at a tender age. They probably reveal
also a fondness for the "Gothic" and "sentimental" novels of
the day with which this young scholar seems to have been
well acquainted. 35

The political philosophy of his oration, on the other hand,
is deeply rooted in history and morality, not unlike that of
his father's writings. Indeed the whole tenor of "Public Faith"
suggests that the Reverend Mr. Belknap was a keen observer
as well as a flatterer when he detected "ye features of the
Parent in the son," and when he predicted, for the benefit of
his country, "a succession of abilities" in the Adams family.

CHAPTER FIVE

LEGAL STUDIES IN NEWBURYPORT

"Health is all I shall ask"

John Quincy Adams* mother and father and indeed all his
relatives had long worried about his health because of his
tendency to overstudy and to neglect exercise. 1 As a youth he
had been troubled with headaches, and more recently like his
mother with spells of "swimming in the head." He had a re-
current illness every spring. His eyes had a tendency to be-
come sore, and he frequently felt unwell apparently from an
acid stomach. 2 Extraordinary dreams and insomnia had be-
gun to affect him, although he continued to have a "great
propensity'* to sleep late in the mornings. 3 Perhaps he was
the kind of person who worries too much about himself. A
doctor with a "mean" view of human nature once told him
that his symptoms were not worth mentioning. 4

Such a record of general illness could not have been so
very unusual even in the eighteenth century, and certainly
not for such an intense young student of the law as John
Quincy Adams had become in Newburyport, Massachusetts,
after graduating from Harvard in 1787. As the eldest son of
John Adams he expected a great deal from himself, and was
sure that others expected even more. His very graduation ad-
dress had been sought for publication in addition to provok-
ing controversy in the Boston newspapers. 5 He had been
promptly warned by that person dearest to him against think-
ing too well of himself. "Excellence is comparative/* wrote
his proud but admonitory mother, who characteristically
made a classical reference to conquering Hannibal. She em-
phasized his need for moderation and above all for exercise,

88

Legal Studies in Newburyport 89

"to brace the nerves and give vigor to the animal functions,"
thus furnishing a simple maternal diagnosis of the dual na-
ture of his complaint. 6 It did not sound particularly alarming.

Nevertheless at the end of his first year of apprenticeship to
the law John Quincy was to suffer a serious crisis in health
which necessitated some months of recuperation and at least
a year for general recovery. 7 The crisis was to come almost
immediately after he had given a public discourse on the dis-
turbing subject of ambition for young men, an oration
spoken at the request of the Phi Beta Kappa society of Har-
vard in September, 1788. 8 A morbid note of philosophical
aloofness was to characterize his remarks as he rather insipidly
extolled the virtues of the ordinary pursuits of life, or in liter-
ary activity free from the "envenomed shafts of rancorous
envy/' His chaste definition of the worthy lawyer was to be
one who disdained "the base and servile arts of chicanery
and intrigue" on behalf of "injured innocence and truth."
Such words were rather tame in comparison with the vigor-
ous defense of lawyers which he had made as an undergradu-
ate the year before. 9

All this may not have been resignation from a moral point
of view, but for an ambitious young law clerk noted for satire
and the son of virile old John Adams, written in the turbu-
lent political year of 1787-88, it must have sounded suspi-
ciously like diffidence. He was to preface his whole puerile
performance, moreover, by warning against exaggerated
hopes lest an awakening from "fantastic dreams" should in
turn be succeeded by a mind settled in "sullen despondency."
His experiences of the preceding year afford a partial ex-
planation why such a defeatest attitude was to overtake him.

It had been with very uneasy feelings that John Quincy
Adams had contemplated the study of law, begun the previ-
ous September in the office of that "great lawyer," The-
ophilus Parsons of Newburyport. 10 His first three weeks in

90 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical "Years

the North Shore commercial center of Massachusetts had
been marked by extraordinary industry, eight hours of study
a day in the office and four more in writing forms at his lodg-
ings. He confidently swore surely a rare thing for him that
the devil would be to pay if he did not learn a great deal of
law in the three years ahead. "Health is all I shall ask," he
amended, although by this he may have had in mind the sad
effects of a recent Saturday night's frolic! He had not actually
become intoxicated, but had been left so indisposed that he
could neither read nor write nor even attend meeting on
Sunday, and he was still suffering considerably on Monday.
Apparently it was the first serious hangover he had ever had,
and was ample testimony to the enlivening company of young
law clerks and doctors' apprentices and in striking contrast
to his sober college days. Yet a few days later he was out danc-
ing until three A.M.! n

These were the beginnings of the variegated social life
through which John Quincy sought to relieve the tedium of
the study of law. When his nerves were in a disagreeable trim
several months later he noted that "not even dissipation has
been able to help me." 12 However, to do him justice, he never
again that year indulged quite so far in wine. He was also
trying hard to be prudent in expenditures he already had a
good reputation in that respect although under the circum-
stances his money naturally disappeared rapidly. 13

Life as a law clerk was obviously not to be without its pleas-
ures, yet for John Quincy Adams it was frequently marked
by depression. 14 He soon began to have gloomy thoughts
about those years of preparation for which he sometimes
thought he had little inclination. Although he had finished
the second volume of Blackstone's Commentaries by Novem-
ber 16, and the fourth only a month later, he continued to
lament his slow progress and to ponder his future. "The ques-
tion, what am I to do in this world recurs to me very fre-
quently; and never without causing great anxiety, and a de-

Legal Studies in Newburyport 91

pression of spirits. My prospects appear darker to me every
day, and I am obliged sometimes to drive the subject from
my mind to assume some more agreeable train of thought."
He began to abhor ambition. "Fortune, I do not covet. Hon-
ours, I begin to think are not worth seeking. . . ." 15

Disquietude frequently invaded his innermost thoughts in
those early months in Newburyport. One evening he experi-
enced a depressed feeling different from anything he had ever
known before, one which filled him with the deepest dread
until he succumbed to a sleep plagued by extravagant dreams.
Even in philosophical matters he was unable to relax. A few
days later he became involved in a discussion with his fellow
clerks on the old subject of self-love, and doggedly stuck to
his earlier conviction that there was no such thing as "dis-
interested benevolence/' He could not honestly admit to find-
ing any such motive in himself. 16

In the latter part of December and during January his
general health was better, although he was often critical of
himself for what he thought was a lack of diligence. Early in
February, however, a few days after the suicide of a young
acquaintance, his nerves got into an unhappy tone and his
spirits were again depressed owing, he thought, to too intense
study and writing. This sometimes lasted until one or two
A.M. It was unfortunate that a man had to be either a fool
or an invalid, he lamented, as he considered easing up on
work. 17 Improvement followed shortly, however, and by early
March he was happy to have finished "my Lord Coke" after
ten weeks of heavy work, and soon was feeling pleased with a
second reading of Blackstone, although his progress was
"slow, too slow." 18 This was, relatively, his happiest time of
the year. Yet he was soon brooding again in his journal, say-
ing that

the prospects of life which are before me are by far the most fre-
quent employment of my thoughts, and according to the different
temperature of my spirits, I am sometimes elated with hope, some-

92 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

times contented with indifference, but often tormented with
fears, and depressed by the most discouraging appearances. 19

These uneasy reflections were to be incorporated into his
Phi Beta Kappa address in September.

Early in May his regular spring "troubles" commenced,
initiating still another phase of depressed spirits. Once again
illness was accompanied by pessimism, and sometimes even by
"terror" as he contemplated two more years of study before
entering a badly crowded profession, attended by no per-
sonal fortune. The only good he could draw from his physical
condition was that at least it made him get up earlyl 20 Soon
he was not sleeping well again. He began to take long eve-
ning walks alone, despite the fact that it had been his custom
throughout the spring to take such exercise in company. His
imagination became overly active. "I look forward with ter-
ror; and by so much the more, as the total exemption from
any great evils hitherto leads me to fear that the greatest are
laid up in store for me." This morbid introspection extended
even to his imaginative sharing in the agony of the death of
a child. Since misery is found among virtuous as well as among
unprincipled people, what can one expect? this "virtuous"
young man asked himself. 21

Despite the continuance of many social activities including
his weekly club, and at least one serenade of the ladies which
lasted until three or four in the morning, John Quincy only
temporarily pulled out of the doldrums by taking a trip. This
was to welcome home his beloved parents from their long
sojourn abroad and to help them get settled in the new "man-
sion" in Braintree. The house had originally been distasteful
to him. 22 Could this have been due in part to the fact that it
had been bought from that brilliant young playwright, Roy-
all Tyler, who had once hoped to take sister Nabby Adams
there? 23 Nevertheless it was apparently a most happy time of
reunion. There were boxes of fascinating books from Europe

Legal Studies in Newburyport 93

to be unpacked, days of gunning for birds on the marshes,
and opportunities for taking in events at Harvard including
commencement.

It was with great regret that John Quincy prepared to re-
turn to Newburyport after five weeks of "vacation." Despite
the loss of so much time he cautiously resolved henceforth
not to confine himself so closely to the law but to give more
attention to lighter studies. It was a futile resolution. Soon he
was industriously at work preparing his Phi Beta Kappa ad-
dress. After completing this in the first week of August, his
eyes became troublesome. 24 Continual interruptions during
the month that followed renewed regrets for his loss of time,
particularly in view of the "brevity and uncertainty" of life
which a funeral brought to mind. His evenings walks now
became longer than ever. He had begun to find that visiting
was too coldly formal, believing that he was "not upon fa-
miliar terms in one house in town," and confessing that in
such circumstances he did not wish to be extensively ac-
quainted. Sister Nabby wrote from New York to remonstrate
against his anti-social attitude. 25 In view of the active social
life which he had earlier led in Newburyport, this was a most
significant revelation of his unhappy condition.

At this point, on August 23, just two weeks before he de-
livered the Phi Beta Kappa oration, his journal abruptly
breaks off to be shortly resumed for another month of irregu-
lar entries. His only explanation for this remarkable change
in habits was that an "indisposition" now prevented him from
"writing." 26 This apparently included some other kind of
writing than that of keeping a journal, for he had said on
August 9 that he was then closely engaged on a matter which
had been "accumulating" two months. The reference prob-
ably was to a literary matter and something of this nature
apparently had had to be abandoned.

It is clear, in any case, that even when John Quincy had
been visiting in Braintree in July that personal difficulties

94 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

had been growing upon him. For example, he had found old
Parson Wiberd's sermons more than usually boring, and re-
ligious matters at this time were very important to him.
When he was in spirits, he admitted to himself that he did
not feel completely discouraged about his prospects, but his
twenty-first birthday had brought forth the gloomy reflection
that he had not strength to stand on his own feet, and that it
probably was just as well not to know what the future would
bring. More Phi Beta Kappa material! The weather had been
unusually hot and fatiguing while he had been at Braintree,
and there had been too many insects for the bathing that he
normally enjoyed.

It was the Harvard Commencement on July 16, however,
which had first given him really serious concern about him-
self. Perhaps he had been thinking of his own triumph on
that occasion the previous year. His spirits had been so ex-
hilarated by the day's events that he could hardly sleep that
night, but they were profoundly depressed the next day. "The
bow string by being too much extended cannot regain its
usual position without an intermediate relaxation," he wrote
introspectively in his journal 27 From this time on he was in
grave difficulties, only temporarily checked by the prepara-
tion of the oration he had recently been invited to make.

Despite the year's record of misgiving, it is clear that John
Quincy had made some real progress in the mastery of books
basic to the study of law, in addition to many scholarly works
in history and ethics. 28 His unhappiness must therefore have
related to the larger area of his total ambition, as this in turn
was related to his experience of life. When exploring this
area in the Phi Beta Kappa oration, he was to make no men-
tion of government or politics as a proper goal for an ambi-
tious young man. Yet he himself had been deeply absorbed
in recent months in the struggle in Massachusetts over the
ratification of the Federal Constitution, not to mention the

Legal Studies in Newburyport 95

fact that he had been steeped in a political atmosphere almost
from the cradle.

One explanation of this curious hiatus lay in the astound-
ing fact that he had been Anti-Federal during that struggle,
and had even been surprised to learn in March, 1788, that
his own father approved of the Constitution! 29 His attitude
may have been due in part to the strong republicanism which
had emerged from his European experience. Perhaps it was
also due to his admiration for a fellow boarder at Mrs.
Leather's on Market Square in Newburyport, Dr. Daniel Kil-
ham, a man of "sense and learning/' "I hope the name will
not scare you/' he once playfully wrote his mother. This fel-
low Harvard graduate, a bachelor about sixteen years his
senior, who had started out in life to be a doctor but had
ended up as an apothecary, was a sturdy Anti-Federalist and
outspoken delegate from Newburyport to the Massachusetts
legislature. 30 Perhaps he was also a good man with whom to
discuss problems of healthl

John Quincy was to record when he heard the news that
ratification had finally carried in the state convention at Bos-
ton in February, 1788, that his opinions on the subject had
never been passionate or violent and that he was now "con-
verted, though not convinced." 81 However his earlier journal
entries clearly indicate that his Anti-Federalism had been
deeply held, and that the drawn-out struggle over ratification
had contributed to his depressed condition. Several of his
friends and eventually even sister Nabby hinted at their dis-
approval of his views. 32

In all this, it is important to notice that he had been at
odds with his law teacher, Theophilus Parsons, the legal sage
of the Essex County conservatives since the days of the Revo-
lution. Parsons was exceedingly pro-Constitution. "Nor do
I wonder at all that he should approve of it, as it is calculated
to increase the influence, power and wealth of those who have

96 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

any already. If the Constitution be adopted, it will be a grand
point gained in favour of the aristocratic party," John Quincy
had stubbornly declared in October. He hated to believe that
"free government is inconsistent with human nature," and
had approved of Dr. Kilham's independent spirit, which had
made him unpopular in the town, in opposing the submis-
sion of the Constitution to a state convention.

The struggle over ratification had excited strong opinions.
A military man was heard to say that he had been an enthusi-
ast for liberty in 75 but that he now found it all a farce. 33
By late December John Quincy actually thought the country
on the eve of a revolution. "Whether it will be effected in
silence and without a struggle, or whether it will be carried
at the point of a sword is yet a question. ... I fear [the Con-
stitution] will be adopted." He suspected the parish preacher
of Federalist propagandizing.

News of the ultimate triumph of ratification arrived on
February 7. There was a noisy celebration in Newburyport
to greet the returning delegates, as "the mob huzza'd." It
probably was not just a coincidence that a few days later John
Quincy noted that his spirits were now by way of improve-
ment. 34 If the theory is correct that politics really meant a
great deal to him, only now did he begin to make a partial
recovery from what had been an exhausting experience. But
his good opinion of his "master" and oracle in the law, The-
ophilus Parsons, must have been sadly diminished. The to-
bacco-chewing Parsons, one of the returning delegates, made
merry in the office by entertaining visitors with an account of
all the tricks which had been employed in the convention to
baffle the Anti-Federalists. As John Quincy saw it, Parsons
made the "science of politics" one of "little, insignificant
intrigue and chicanery." 35 These were to be the identical
words employed in the Phi Beta Kappa address to denounce
the "servile arts" unworthy of a lawyerl

Legal Studies in Newburyport 97

Ironically, John Quincy himself was to become acquainted
at his father's house in July with the Reverend Samuel West,
an old college friend of John Adams. West had been the man
selected to persuade John Hancock to leave his sickroom in
order to offer his famous amendments at the ratifying con-
vention, an action not wholly unconnected with Federalist
"intrigue." But young Adams merely found the Reverend to
be a most interesting and talkative old gentleman. 36

His own fingers having been badly scorched and his sagacity
rudely shaken, his cynicism about politics naturally reached
a new high. The Massachusetts spring election of 1788 was
pro-Hancock, but with the "wrong" people supporting the
governor. John Quincy dourly recorded the fact without ven-
turing a cause. "The revolution that has taken place in sen-
timents within one twelve month past must be astonishing to
a person unacquainted with the weaknesses, the follies, and
the vices of human nature," was all he said, 37 ignoring the
obvious explanation that there had been a political bargain.

Nevertheless, John Quincy was now somewhat "Federal"
himself, sufficiently so at least as not to please the formidable
Mercy Warren of Milton, an old friend of the family whose
husband was still under a political cloud from Shays' Rebel-
lion. 38 Perhaps another cynic would have been inclined to
have made young Adams himself something of an object les-
son in the art of political accommodation 1 However that
might be, the political situation of the entire Adams family
could not have been too happy at this time. John Adams pere
had only recently returned from England without having
played any part in the work that had made the new Con-
stitution possible, unless, indeed, it had been by having writ-
ten his book in defence of American state constitutional prin-
ciples. 89 Of course there were vague rumors beginning to
circulate about his being vice presidential material, helped
along in the difficult state of Pennsylvania by his old friend

98 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

and correspondent, Dr. Benjamin Rush. However, the des-
picable Hancocklike Adams he had originated in Braintree
was also in the running.

Small wonder that the baffled and unhappy young law
clerk left politics strictly alone in his September address at
Harvard, save to notice that statesmen are remembered for
"noble defeats" as well as for victories, and for an oblique
criticism of the role of military "heroes," which probably re-
flected his old animus against the Order of the Cincinnati.
Yet his sister was to write him so truly only three weeks later
that "The happiness of our family seems ever to have been so
interwoven with the Politicks of our Country as to be in a
great degree dependent upon them." 40

Fretting about his slow progress in the law and upset by
political developments, John Quincy in 1788 increasingly
sought solace in literary composition, but also with unsatis-
factory results. His difficulty here was doubly compounded
because he was attempting to use an eighteenth century lit-
erary device to cope with another problem, his relations with
the ladies. In the field of character study and especially in the
female department, he considered himself an expert since he
had been at it for several years. Seemingly, in his own opin-
ion, he knew a great deal about women. He considered them
easier to understand than men! "It requires a much longer
acquaintance to form a just opinion of the character of a man
than of a woman: the distinguishing traits are deeper and
much more numerous. . . ." 41

In treating of this and other philosophical questions his
journal had proved disappointing. It had tended to become
more and more of a diary instead of a repository of creative
writing. He sometimes asked himself if he should not put a
stop to all "this nonsense." 42 One difficulty with making his
journal an instrument for the freest expression was the dan-
ger that he could not keep the volumes secret. He had learned
this from bitter experience, one instance being when his

Legal Studies in Newburyport 99

brother Charles had been guilty of prying and meddling. 43
In consequence, no doubt, the later journal entries are obvi-
ously more carefully guarded with respect to the most sensi-
tive matters than they had been in his Haverhill days, a mat-
ter of regret to the reader as well as to John Quincy himself.

To write poetry had always been his dearest ambition. It
was a safer medium to employ than the prose of his none-too-
secret journal. He said in January, 1788, that he had begun a
hundred times to write poetry. "I have tried every measure
and every kind of strophe, but of the whole I never fmish'd
but one of any length, and that was in fact but the work of a
day." 44 This presumably referred to his satire on "Delia,"
i.e.., Nancy, written in Haverhill two years before. 45 He was
now to try on a more ambitious scale a "design of drawing a
number of female characters," perhaps on the model of the
"Receipt for a Wife" that he had read in New York on first
returning to America. 46 The first of these stanzas appeared in
his journal on March 28, the second on April 8, each satiriz-
ing a young lady of his acquaintance under the fictitious
names of "Lucinda" and "Belinda." The satire on "Delia"
was to be converted and bestowed on a certain "Narcissa,"
another young lady acquaintance in Newburyport. These
were the beginnings of a long romantic poem later to be en-
titled "A Vision." 47

There was a grave danger of artistic failure in his thus giv-
ing expression to his feelings, even in an age noted for its
formalized expression the danger that the experiment could
not come off until he had had some sort of deep experience
in love himself. Nevertheless, this is what John Quincy Adams
in ignorance set out to do between January and March, 1788.
His inability to complete his plan may have become apparent
to him by mid-summer when he was continually aware of
some such problem "accumulating" upon him.

After all, he must have been deadly afraid of a premature
love affair such as he had narrowly escaped with "Delia" in

100 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

the winter of 1785-86. John Quincy was unquestionably a
person whose passions were naturally ''strong and impetu-
ous" as his mother had long since warned him. 48 This fact,
together with his upbringing and the formalities of eight-
eenth century behavior, must have accounted for his excep-
tional emphasis on self-restraint. Despite all this he presum-
ably did fancy himself in love at least once during this year.
He wrote the initials "M.N." encircled in a heart in his al-
manac diary for 1788, 49 only to find the young lady, presum-
ably little Mary Newhall, "disdainful," as his scornful char-
acterization of "Narcissa" in "A Vision" was to reveal. The
humiliation must have been doubly galling to such an ex-
ceedingly egotistical young man. Meantime he must have
unhappily kept on trying to write satirical stanzas and no
doubt was looking for "Clara," the embodiment of feminine
loveliness in his poem.

It was not that he lacked materials for study of the female.
On the contrary, the year had been enlivened by a round of
social activities, of dancing, card-playing, and sleigh rides, of
"kissing games" and singingthe last two he admittedly de-
spised. In all these activities a variety of attractive young
ladies had participated. Yet he apparently chose to intellectu-
alize all such relationships, possibly because, as he once con-
fessed, it was difficult for him to be sociable on short acquaint-
ance with unmarried women 50 and possibly also because of
his rejection by "M.N." Consequently a long list of female
character studies ensued in his journal for 1788 but with no
evidence of any permanent attachment. Miss Knight, Miss
Sally Jenkins he seemed to like her quite well despite her
"acquiline" nose Miss Putnam, and many more. Each was
found well-endowed in some respects but each had her short-
comings, often by being "affected," or addicted to reading
novels, or subject to woman's principal limitation, which was
a deficiency in education. John Quincy actually took pride in
being able to "shame" young ladies given to the art of flat-

Legal Studies in Newburyport 101

tery, yet he also knew the keen embarrassment o being
"laughed at" by girls. 51

So the young ladies all became problems to be resolved in
his journal. Few were not mercilessly analyzed there. One
curious exception occurred. At a tavern dance in January, fol-
lowing a sleighing party, he danced with the eldest Miss
Frazier and with two other girls. Both of the latter he care-
fully described, but of the first he said not a word. The excep-
tion probably meant nothing much at the time. As late as
August 13, when he passed an evening at Selectman Moses
Frazier 's, he said of the young misses that they assumed an
importance above their years, and as they were handsome he
would "rather look at them for five minutes than be with
them five hours." So he had not at this time recognized
' 'Clara" at least not in the person of fourteen-year-old Mary
Frazier. 52

Law, politics, literature, and possibly love all had proved
more or less disappointing to John Quincy Adams in 1788.
One remaining prop of his self-esteem was also challenged if
not over-turned. His "reasonable" religious beliefs became
subject to a new kind of questioning. The torrent of religious
fundamentalism, a part of the continuing Edwardian revival
opposing the doctrine of free will, and known to John Quincy
in its derivative form of Hopkinsianism, bore heavily against
him. Worst of all, his best friend Thompson was "seduced"
by the evangelical gospel during the summer. 53 The weekly
meeting of the club, which John Quincy so greatly enjoyed,
had to change its evening to permit Thompson to go to lec-
ture.

The instrument of this new torture was the Reverend Sam-
uel Spring he was graduated from Princeton in 1771 a Con-
gregationalist with the zeal and enthusiasm of a Presbyterian.
John Quincy had first gone to hear him in November, 1787.
Reverend Spring stressed "disinterested benevolence" be-
cause he said that selfishness originated in sin, and he threat-

102 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

ened eternal torments for all persons who did not experience
saving grace. 54 This sort o teaching John Quincy considered
nonsense, not finding the least sign of disinterested benevo-
lence in himself, and no doubt refusing to acknowledge ever
having "experienced" salvation.

Nevertheless, throughout the year John Quincy had fre-
quently attended the Reverend Mr. Spring's services because,
he confessed, he found them more interesting than some held
by other preachers. By late July, however, he had become ex-
ceedingly irritated by what he thought was the Reverend's
self-interested proselytizing in which "passions" were being
paraded as "principles." By August he was bitterly denounc-
ing the sect as promoting a "bigoted, illiberal system of reli-
gion" which, professing to follow "purely" the dictates of the
Bible, in his opinion contradicted the whole doctrine of the
New Testament and went against the idea of a God of mercy
as well as against reason. 55 But good friend Thompson, whom
he had once described as an "amiable, worthy youth" with a
clear head and a sound heart 56 but whom he now denounced
as a person of "violent passion" and "unbounded ambition"
had become thoroughly ensnared. Could Thompson have
been an object lesson for the Phi Beta Kappa address? The
day following this vehement outburst against his friend, John
Quincy's eyes again began to trouble him.

It was in such a state of general irritation, to which his own
troubled ambition and affections had led him, that on Sep-
tember 5 he addressed the Phi Beta Kappa society in Cam-
bridge, in self-effacing platitudes. Ironically, one of the sched-
uled speakers had to be excused at the last minute on grounds
of ill healthbut it was not courageous John Quincy Adams
who thus cried off, no matter how wretchedly he may have
felt. (When first agreeing to perform he had made the quali-
fication in his journal, "if I can possibly attend." 57 ) For the
second time in a year he spoke before an unusually distin-
guished audience, now of course including his parents. In

Legal Studies in Newburyport 103

addition to the college officers and members of the society,
Governor Hancock "happened" to be there with the admiral
and some other officers of the French squadron which was in
Boston harbor. The governor was always fond of such exhibi-
tions for more than literary reasons, and perhaps more than
a little curious about young Adams himself. The French
officers also had reason to know about John Quincy who had
lived so long in their country, and the French consul came up
to compliment him after the affair.

Primarily warning in his lofty address against the passions
serving as a guide for ambition in young men, and urging
lives of quiet service far removed from the "crowd's ignoble
strife," unhappy John Quincy Adams had only one vigorous
affirmation to advance. The most virtuous ambition, he de-
clared, lay in literature and science. These would not only
benefit mankind but would exalt the reputation of America,
thus refuting the "insulting" and "presumptuous" attitudes
of superiority by Europeans. He boasted of one of the most
illustrious of Americans because of his recent achievement in
these fields. This was Thomas Jefferson, Esq., author of the
recent Notes On Virginia. However this identification of
his much beloved older friend from Paris days was given
only in a footnote to the address. When the curtain finally
dropped on the "theatre of human life" John Quincy was
sure that cultural distinction would be what a grateful uni-
verse would applaud. And, he might have reiterated, for pa-
triotic as well as for literary reasons. This was the only "pas-
sionate" note he struck.

Just one week after making this heroic performance, John
Quincy visited a doctor in Newburyport to obtain an opiate
to quiet his nerves and to enable him to sleep. The humane
physician, he had hopefully said in his oration, "administers
not only the restoring preparation to the languishing body,
but the balm of consolation to the wounded mind." A week
later he went to his Uncle Shaw's in Haverhill in a vain effort

104 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

to recover his health. Aunt Eliza wrote a letter of reassurance
to his mother, but confessed that John Quincy's "nervous
system'* seemed "much effected." He was taking "the bark"
that Dr. Swett had recommended as well as some special tea
of Aunt Eliza's own brewing and was slowly responding to
her maternal care. Since he was the best man to take his medi-
cine that she had ever known she was going to reward him
by taking him out riding and visiting. She also revealed that
he had not been well since leaving Braintree in July. "What
did you do to him?" she quaintly asked. Had they given him
too strong coffee or told him some "woeful Story"? She sig-
nificantly underlined the latter. 59

Ten days later, finding it utterly impossible to study on
returning to Newburyport this was much against his Aunt's
advice John Quincy went home to Braintree for a long pe-
riod of recuperation. Aunt Eliza, now revealing her full con-
cern to his mother, warned that he must be very careful about
diet and exercise and that all study would have to be laid
aside for the present. She prayed that his blood would flow on
regularly and the roses soon return to his cheeks, but she
frankly admitted that he had "alarming complaints." 60

So "young Hercules" had finally been brought to bay by
the hydra-headed monster of despairing ambition. Even his
republican idealism had led him astray. His self-communica-
tive journal had also had to be abandoned. Some new direc-
tions of interest and new means of expression were clearly
demanded for his immediate salvation.

CHAPTER SIX

ROMANCE ON THE NORTH SHORE

"What bosom burns not
with poetick fire?"

In the early period of his recuperation from insomnia and
nervous afflictions at Braintree in the fall of 1788, John
Quincy Adams took a lot of exercise. He tramped the fields
and marshes, gunning with brother Tommy until he was
tired. Frequently he rode his horse. He also helped in the
work of erecting shelves and arranging the great collection
of books recently brought from Europe by his father. Other
kinds of interests were more slowly resumed. The ministra-
tion of religion he found disappointing in the sermons by
old Mr. Wiberd but a visiting minister proved to be more
engaging. A resumption of intellectual activity was begun
with reading in Gibbon's Decline and Fall; a work which had
long given him great pleasure, although he had never quite
approved of that historian's attitude towards Christianity. On
November 3 when he tersely recorded "getting well/' he had
been reading Cicero's De Senectute } rather elderly philo-
sophical fare for so young a man but apparently soothing in
his present state of mind. 1

Two weeks later he confided in the brief diary that he still
somehow maintained, ''My health happily recovered," an
overly optimistic calculation of the degree of his recovery.
However, his mother had meantime left on a trip to New
York where daughter Nabby was "expecting" again. This was
probably also a sign of confidence in her son's recovery. Soon
it was Thanksgiving and the coming of the first snow of the

105

106 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical years

winter. Early in December John Quincy left Braintree for
Newburyport, presumably to consider the renewal of his legal
studies, although on the very day of his arrival there his diary
mentions ' 'dancing. " 2 However, after three weeks, during
which he spent a good deal of time visiting in nearby Haver-
hill, he returned again to Braintree. There he had two more
months of outdoor sports and social affairs, as well as light
intellectual fare in cultivating "the muse." No doubt Dr.
Swett of Newburyport had recommended the former; the last
was natural therapy for a convalescing amateur poet.

On the last leaves of his almanac diary for this critical
year, 1788, there are several quotations such as he was fond
of copying down. One of them queried:

Perfect he seems & undefiled with sin,
But is this Saint without, a Saint within.

If this doleful bit of doggerel meant anything at all with re-
gard to John Quincy's state of mind at this time, it suggests
not that the young Puritan had been suffering from anything
that might reasonably have given rise to an uneasy conscience
certainly he had not yet been guilty of being a Boswell be-
yond having kept a remarkable journal 8 but rather that
morbid conscientiousness may have contributed to his recent
distress. In similar vein, on the fly leaf of his new almanac
for 1789 there was written down, "There is small choice in
rotten apples/' However this gloomy reflection was followed,
among other things, with Prince Hal's colorful line, "A fair
hot wench in flame-colour'd taffeta." 4 So not all of his reflec-
tions were to be gloomy, at least not in the immediate futurel
Indeed, the "scale" was now to be weighed down on "the
other side," 5 and possibly over-weighted.

John Quincy's permanent return to Newburyport in
March, 1789, after his mother's return to Braintree and his
father's departure to New York to be inaugurated as vice
president of the new nation, began a year of unremitting so-

Romance on the North Shore 107

cial pleasures during which the study of law seems to have
been deliberately relaxed. Whatever had been the exact na-
ture of his illness in the past six months, the remedy univer-
sally prescribed was the avoidance of too many " worldly"
cares. Society and sociability were obviously indicated.

Back in October, 1788, at the very beginning of John
Quincy's illness, his old college chum and fellow law student,
James Bridge, had written him a kindly "get well" letter in
which he had playfully reminded him that no thoughts "are
more concerned with the Flesh than those excited by the
Ladies." Bridge had recommended that John Quincy should
take some account of them and had thereupon furnished an
amusing analysis of several of the Newburyport girls, plus
the description of a recent comical serenade by "the lads"
which had lasted until three A.M. 6 A similar prescription of
light-hearted diversion was made some months later by the
practical Billy Cranch, who responded to cousin John
Quincy's request for a remedy to relax the mind, by advising,
first, to reason gloom away, but if that failed to seize upon
some trifle to divert one's thought. Cranch then related a con-
versation he had just had with excited little Betsy Foster con-
cerning a copy of John Quincy's satirical and romantic poem
about the local girls, entitled "A Vision." 7 An interest in
girls was obviously not a bad prescription for melancholy.

Although his weekly club of fellow law clerks and doctors'
apprentices that "little chosen flock" 8 continued to be an
important diversion for John Quincy after his return to New-
buryport, his essential concern was with "the Ladies." There
was a continual round of sociable evenings at Judge Brad-
bury's, Colonel Wigglesworth's, or Mr. Moses Frazier's, with
the young ladies always in attendance for dining, cards, or
dancing, and for parties in the "grove" when the weather
grew warmer. John Quincy's daily walks were of course con-
tinued, usually with other young men but sometimes in
mixed company. The signs of his illness dropped off; occa-

108 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

sional fatigue or drowsiness usually followed late hours at
dancing or serenades; and he said in April, 1789, that scarcely
anything of his complaints remained except for occasional
"spasms." 9

Life for the Newburyport law clerk seemed to have settled
down to the old routine. Inwardly, however, his muse had
taken new wing. His introspective journal had, of course,
been abandoned months before. It was during this period of
convalescence that he first sent to the public press some ex-
amples of his literary wit and poetry. These were also con-
tributions to a little renaissance of literary sentimentality
then taking place in Boston and the North Shore towns.

The sour soil of belles lettres in Boston had been dubiously
enriched in late 1788 by the establishment of the Herald of
Freedom, a bi-weekly newspaper unusually receptive to lit-
erary effulgia. In January, 1789, the ambitious Massachusetts
Magazine was founded by that worldly wise and patriotic
printer, Isaiah Thomas, who saw no inconsistency in the si-
multaneous publication of salacious broadsides and of sober,
useful literature. 10 The appearance of this magazine coin-
cided in January with the publication, also by Thomas, of
the so-called "first American novel," The Power of Sympathy:
or, the Triumph of Nature by William Hill Brown. This was
a florid literary extravaganza dedicated to "the young ladies
of America" which included titillating references to a recent
scandal in Boston, a horrid tale of seduction and suicide. 11

The entire Boston press almost simultaneously broke into
a rash of romantic poems and sarcastic essays, the latter in-
variably on the theme of the deceptive wiles of women, some
of it downright vulgar. A veritable battle of the sexes en-
sued! 12 Also included were literary puzzles in the form of
poems which furnished clues through classical references to
the names of local nymphs, done in the most insipid manner.
These so-called "rebuses" may have been the eighteenth cen-
tury's equivalent of modern crossword puzzles, but they were

Romance on the North Shore 109

also presented at the time in the guise of advertising "Colum-
bian" prowess in the "arts and sciences."

For that recuperating young satirist, twenty-one-year-old
John Quincy Adams, at once nationalistic and literary and
romantic, all such nonsense must have been a wonderfully
diverting interest while he was slowly resuming his legal
studies. He became a mighty composer in his own right of
puzzling rebuses, of which at least three were published in
the Massachusetts Magazine in 1789. 13 On another occasion,
as "Celadon" in the Boston Herald, 1 * he achieved a short-
lived fame as a magisterial and puckish critic of female liter-;
ary "genius," thereby evoking a scad of rebuttals and remon-
strances. While his name as a contributor of these and other
offerings never appeared publicly, he unquestionably gained
quite a private literary reputation among his friends. In any
case he must have gotten a lot of innocent amusement out
of it.

Possibly this sort of thing was not so innocent on the part
of all contributors. The game of character identification and
analysis must have sometimes seemed perilously close to char-
acter assassination. Indeed it began to be a public complaint
that scurrility scribbling of all kinds was reaching a record
high. A new work on libel was currently being advertised in
the newspapers! The Essex Journal of Newburyport even ran
a series of "Mirror" portraits in the spring of 1789 under
such insinuating titles as "Prudence," "Curiosius," and the
like. It would appear that John Quincy Adams in late April
contributed one of these ponderous satires himself. 15

Even more sensational was an "Enigmatical list" of young
ladies which was also published in the Journal that day. 16 It
offered character clues to various of the local Newburyport
belles in quite the best Boston manner. In some way or other
young Adams was deeply involved in the tempest of protest
which blew up in the local teapot, although the whole thing
smacks of a jolly rag perpetrated by devilish young law clerks.

110 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Apparently it was he who submitted a grave, admonitory com-
munication to the Journal under the signature of "Lelius" on
May 6, self-righteously identifying the author of the "list" with
one of his fellow clerks. He declared that the author was more
conspicuous for idleness than for literary ability, and said
that his time might be better employed in studying the cause
of justice than in slandering his female acquaintances. 17 Per-
haps John Quincy was writing about himself, tongue in
cheek! Of course, there were literary neophytes other than
himself around town. On several occasions Alice Tucker,
daughter of the minister in Newbury, had to listen to a "con-
ceited coxcomb" read his poems to her. 18

All of Newburyport was up in arms over the sensational
" Enigmatical" descriptions. Much of the Journal for May 6
was devoted to vociferous criticism of such ungentlemanly
tactics. It was loudlyalmost too loudly asserted by "Eu-
genio" that the "villain," "abandoned wretch," and "ruffian"
who had produced the "malicious effusions" was one who
would have been better off reading "Galen, or Coke on Little-
ton." Members of "a certain club" were advised to be "better
employed in their usual noise and intemperance, than in
striking their heated Craniums together, and by the concus-
sion producing fire to blast the reputation of our fair," pi-
ously called "the loveliest work of God." 19

Unless John Quincy and his fellow club members were
simply having a "game" as well as great sport with the "co-
terie" of local nymphs, he was but one of many local citizens
who disapproved of innuendos on young ladies being made
public under cover of poet's license. In that case, however, it
is doubly ironical that his own satirical writings about the
local girls should soon have gotten into private circulation.
Perhaps his satires were already being bruited about, like
Shakespeare's "sugred sonnets" among his private friends.
Only a few weeks before he had had to make some kind of
an "explanation" to poor Rebecca Cazneau, that unfortunate

Romance on the North Shore 111

friend of Alice Tucker, about whom he had already written
a wicked satire as a part of his "Vision":

Belinda next advanc'd with rapid stride
A compound strange of Vanity and Pride
Around her face no wanton Cupids play,
Her tawny skin, defies the God of Day.
Loud was her laugh, undaunted was her look,
And folly seem'd to dictate what she spoke.
In vain the Poet's and musician's art
Combine to move the Passions of the heart,
Belinda's voice like grating hinges groans,
And in harsh thunder roars a lover's moans. 20

His talent for making such critical verses on young ladies
of his acquaintance went back at least to his Haverhill days,
as his sarcastic "Epistle to Delia" (i.e., Nancy) of December,
1785, proves. 21 As for the delightful task of putting the ini-
tials of female names into verse, he had composed two acros-
ticsone presumably kind and one unkind and "both un-
true" on the name of Catherine Jones back in January, 1787,
when that disturbing young Newburyporter had been visit-
ing in Cambridge. 22 The ''kind" acrostic had gone like this.

C ould all the powers of rhetoric combin'd
A ssist to show the beauties of her mind,
T he poets efforts would be all in vain,
H er mind is fair without one single stain.
A 11 the soft Passions which improve the heart,
R eign in her breast, and every thought impart,

I n such a breast no foible can reside,
N o little art, for prudence is her guide.
E ach moral beauty, which adorns the soul,

J oin^d to each grace completes her soft controul.
O f siren charms, the poets often tell,
N o goddess e'er employ'd them half so well;
E nvy itself, must drop a tear to find,

S o i'air a face, with such a beauteous mind. 23

112 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

John Quincy subsequently made an acrostic on the name of
Mary Frazier, and doubtless on many other girls during his
Newburyport residence. Some of these apparently got into
print along with his other writings.

An almost endless amount of similar nonsense and literary
high jinks was appearing in the Boston newspapers that year.
One might conjecture that some of this originated in New-
buryport. Perhaps that was the place from which "Julia," a
young lady in the country, reproached "Delia" in the Boston
Herald in December, 1788, for preferring the amusements of
the town and delaying her stay. Several months later when
"Julia" arose to the defense of her sex, which had been taking
such a merciless going over in the Boston press by "Gyges,"
"Horatio," and "Civil Spy," she contributed some observa-
tions on human nature in "our small village" by coolly dis-
secting the characters of "Narcissa" and "Maria/' 24 pseudo-
nyms also employed by John Quincy Adams about Newbury-
port girls. A few days before, "Belinda" had published a
scornful reply to "Mr. Civil Spy" in which she scathingly re-
ferred to a member of a family of "rising greatness" which
was looking for a coach and coronet as befitted a "Peer of the
American republick." One thinks of Abigail Adams ordering
a chaise with coat of arms inscribed for the Adams family be-
fore returning from England the previous year! 25 One re-
members also that John Quincy had started off his "Vision"
with a particularly vicious satire on poor "Belinda." 2e

Meantime, in January and February, 1789, the first two
numbers of Mr. Thomas' Massachusetts Magazine had ap-
peared, with "charades," an "enigmatical list of young gen-
tlemen of Boston," and puzzling "rebuses" furnished by
"Julia and Emma" and others. The epidemic of fulsome "re-
buses" which now ran riot in the local newspapers invited
public identification of numerous nymphs. The whole thing
had delightful overtones for young people as one "rustic"
poet made clear,

Romance on the North Shore 113

What's meant by a REBUS

Come tell me, I pray,
Says Dolly to Enos,

While raking of hay.
Let me BUSS you again,

And again, says the youth,
And that will explain,

What's a RE-BUS in truth. 27

Such whimsical matter was grist for the literary mill of
John Quincy Adams. The "rebus" especially appealed to his
talents. 28 The one he wrote on "Maria" (i.e., Mary) Frazier
which appeared in the Massachusetts Magazine in May, 1789,
may be taken as a sample, not that it had any particular sig-
nificance either as poetry or so far as the girl went at the time.

Take the word by which silver fac'd Cynthia's nam'd

An animal always for Industry fam'd

An object which most men with ardor pursue,

With a colour which gives to fair Iris a hue.

Add a substance to these, which for hardness is known

And say that her heart is worth more than a throne.

Then take the light Goddess, capricious and blind,

A pleasing and useful employ for the mind.

The friendship, which Nations in Treaties profess

And what for a friend we should ever possess.

A country encircled, by Ocean around,

And the part which receives the impression of sound.

Join the City which once o'er the universe sway'd,

Then tell me the name of a beautiful maid. 29

His solution, also in verse, appeared in the same magazine
several months later. It was composed of the first letters of the
"clue" words and of course spelled "MARIA FRAZIER."

The rage for "rebuses" gave John Quincy another idea. As
"Scipio Africanus" in the Boston Herald for February 27,
1789, 30 he published a mock rebuke to those persons who
like himself this of course was Dart of the humor were con-

114 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

cealing the names of their loves in the form of "rebuses." He
gravely asseverated that he, for his part, wanted to proclaim
openly his love for "Dinah," thereby proving that "the force
of sentiment depends not upon the tincture of the skin." This
latter was a slam on poetic comparisons between "white skin"
and "innocence within," then much in vogue with amateur
versifiers like himself. His would-be humorous performance
was in fact a parody or foreshadowing of the "Clara" portion
of his long poem, "A Vision," and read, in part:

My DINAH's charms no vulgar poet claim,
No servile bard, that clips the wings of fame,
To vile acrostics, tunes, unmeaning lays,
Or in a rebus centers all his praise.
The partial gods, presiding at her birth,
Gave DINAH beauty, and yet gave her worth;
Kind nature ting'd with blackest hue her skin,
An emblem of her innocence within.
A jetty fleece adorns her lovely head,
Her sparkling eyes are border'd round with red,
Her nose is flattened by the hand of love,
By Cupid's self, descending from above.

The last two lines of this burlesque are precisely those which
he was to use in closing "A Vision":

Thy choice alone, can make my anxious breast,
Supremely wretched, or supremely blest.

One can only conclude from this sad performance that had
young John Quincy Adams lived two centuries later, he
would have been publicly pilloried for triple prejudice on
grounds of race, color, and creed. He apparently had them
all. 31

While "Scipio Africanus" did not go entirely unnoticed, it
caused nothing like the uproar that followed the publication
of his "Celadon" contribution to that paper on March 10.
The appearance of "Celadon" the name implies a casualty

Romance on the North Shore 115

of romantic warfare 32 ~ was carefully noted in John Quincy's
diary the next day with the quizzical observation, "Laid to
me," something he acknowledged as true many months later.
The following evening at Mr. Russell's in Boston he was still
recuperating at nearby Braintree he heard an "Attack on C.
& Poetry" which revealed the considerable public reaction, at
least among his friends.

What he had done in a long mocking essay was to make a
pretended defense against the complaints of "Gyges," most
vulgar of all the scribblers, of those "learned Ladies'' who had
recently contributed to Mr. Thomas' Magazine. Tongue in
cheek, he declared that they had reflected no small honor
upon their country, and he had then proceeded, with lofty
superiority, to criticize their various offerings, graciously ad-
mitting that it was quite natural for young ladies to have
young gentlemen as the "most prevalent" objects on their
minds. On the whole, he declared, their offerings excited such
hopes for "Columbian science" that the imagination could
scarcely conceive of the wonderful future ahead! He himself
was so "fired with the thought" as to break into poetic rhap-
sody:

Proceed, ye fair, pursue the glorious end

Oh! may success your efforts still attend!

Behold the laurel and the myrtle join'd,

In sweetest union happily combin'd.

While beauty's fingers sweep the sounding lyre,

What bosom burns not with Poetick fire?

What morbid miser would not give his gold

To hear his beauties in a Rebus told?

Who would not sigh to have his virtues made

The pleasing subject of a soft charade?

What youth aspires not to behold his name

Borne on enigmas, to eternal fame?

Proceed, ye fair, pursue the glorious end,

And bright success your efforts shall attend.

Tis yours alone to please with varied charms,

116 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Whose wit entices, and whose beauty warms.
In you alone with wonder we may find
The loves, the graces, and the muses join'd.

CELADON 33

Here again the conclusion, with its emphasis on "you alone,"
is reminiscent of the conclusion to "A Vision." Apparently it
was a part of John Quincy's stock in trade.

Within three days the replies were coming in. "Don Quix-
ote" facetiously asked just when "this fire broke out/' and
advised with mock gravity, "Allay, thou potent sorcerer!
allay sublime Celadon! thy wonder working wand let thy
pen sleep quietly in thy inkhorn, so shall thy memory never
upbraid thee with the follies of thy youth." Another critic
replied in poetry, lamenting the poor champions of feminine
genius who had stepped forth in Thomas' "Museum."

But Celadon, cruel, employed satire's pen,

To clip the bright laurels the "champions" had won.

"Horatio" ironically lamented, "O, had I the pen of Cela-
don!" and slyly queried whether it would not be shattering
to discover that "Julia and Emma" had been educated in
England and possibly assisted by one who had "seen the acad-
emies of France," probably a poke at young Adams because of
his foreign education. "Sancho" said on March 31 that "Cela-
don" must have a "Tyger's heart" like Shakespeare's? to be
so cruel. All of this had a large element of good natured spoof-
ing in it. But the communication of "Laconic" on April 3
sounded like the view of an outraged feminist, for it angrily
called "Celadon" and others "peurile scribblers" whose bark
like a puppy's is heard but not felt. 34 The controversy lin-
gered on. By the end of the year the nom de plume "Celadon'*
was being employed by someone other than John Quincy
Adams, someone of considerably less delicacy, and whose
coarse satire he thoroughly disliked. 35

What did John Quincy's composition of these and other

Romance on the North Shore 117

"Fugitive Pieces," as he called them, reveal about the young
man's romantic relationships in Newburyport? His principal
poetic production of that period was of course "A Vision,"
which he had begun in early 1788, the concluding portion
of which he had parodied or anticipated in the "Scipio Afri-
canus" satire in February, 1789. A copy of "A Vision" was
surely in circulation among the young ladies by June, 1790. 36
The presumption is that by his elimination of one girl after
another in his strictures on the eight characters which make
up the bulk of the poem, he revealed himself as being con-
tinuously in search of an ideal female personality. This he is
eventually supposed to have found in the lovely sixteen-year-
old Mary Frazier, enabling him to complete his "Vision" by
writing a rhapsody to "Clara." 37 However, since the Frazier
infatuation apparently came to a head only in the spring of
1790, this theory would suggest that "A Vision" was not com-
pleted until that late date.

But supposing, as the "Scipio Africanus" performance sug-
gests, that the "Clara" portion of "A Vision" was written
much earlier? In that case, either John Quincy actually fin-
ished his poem before he became deeply interested in any
particular girl, and was merely indulging in a literary tour de
force> or he first identified "Clara" with some other "blue-
eyed blonde" than Mary Frazier. However poetically unsatis-
fying the first suggestion might seem, it is possibly the true
explanation and may even throw light on the artificial char-
acter of the poem's conclusion. He unquestionably did utilize
some earlier writing for another part of the production, for
the "Narcissa" portion contains much of his old "Epistle to
Delia." Perhaps "Clara" also was a type rather than a spon-
taneous creation. In other words, from time to time certain
girls may have looked very much alike to the poet.

As for the second supposition, the record of his "rebus"-
making together with other things 3S does suggest that John
Quincy had been rather deeply interested in several other

118 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

girls before his attention became seriously fixed upon Mary
Frazier. Some of his contemporaries certainly thought that
"Clara" was originally someone else. When Betsy Foster dis-
cussed her copy of "A Vision" with Billy Cranch in June,
1790, declaring that she was charmed with it but quite fright-
ened of the satirical author, she "read" several of the char-
acters and said that the one on "Miss Jones was very beauti-
ful" She also hoped that Miss Frazier had "profited by the
advice," although she understood that John Quincy "now"
saw her "in quite a different point of view." Cranch, who
probably knew a good deal about his cousin, expressed him-
self as "not displeased to find that she discovered so good a
Judgment." 39

When John Quincy 's most intimate friend, James Bridge,
heard from him in September, 1790, of his feelings for Mary
Frazier he was simply bowled over, even though he knew that
Adams had lately been giving her particular attention. Bridge
immediately fell into elaborate apologies for having expressed
the opinion that the "Goddess" was cold and badly spoiled,
adding that it probably was natural for one so beautiful to
have become vain "in that region of flattery Newbury-
Port." 40

The case for John Quincy's earlier interest in Catherine
Jones is thus fairly convincing. He had not been originally on
too favorable terms with her, as he tells us in his journal, and
had written a "double" acrostic about her while he was still
at Harvard, as already noted. Later his opinion admittedly
changed and the "rebus" he wrote but apparently never pub-
lishedin October, 1789, revealed

That name, which gives a nymph beyond compare
Whose mind is lovely, as her face is fair. 41

Moreover Catherine Jones had become deeply interested
in him, enough to make his friend Bridge affect envy in Feb-
ruary, 1789. Bridge and Miss Jones had had occasion to speak

Romance on the North Shore 119

of John Quincy and "Katy spouted away upon her favourite
topic with so much tenderness 8c warmth of friendship that
I was in doubt whether to be vexed or pleased/' 42 On Octo-
ber 3 of that year James Putnam, another close associate, re-
porting airily on "the beauties of Temple Street," said that
he had given John Quincy's best wishes to "Maria" (i.e.,
Mary, but which Mary is not clear) and "to the rest your
compliments at large." He added, however, that "Katherine"
had arrived, the "same best girl & has improved by absence--
she speaks of you as the best of the sex she observes with a
degree of warmth which almost exceeds the tenderness of
friendship," 43 It has already been noted that as late as June,
1790, it was taken for granted by some persons that Catherine
Jones had been the original of "Clara" in the circulating
manuscript of "A Vision."

Of John Quincy's earlier interest in a girl named Mary
Newhall there also can be little doubt. He had put her initials
in a heart drawn on the flyleaf of his diary for 1788; and it
has always been agreed that she was "Narcissa" in "A Vision,"
i.e., the girl who had been disdainful of his affection and for
whom he vengefully predicted an unhappy future. Mary
Newhall was also one of the three girls who had a "rebus" by
John Quincy published in the Massachusetts Magazine in
1789, and one of the four whose "rebuses" were copied into
his book of "Fugitive Pieces." Two of the other girls so hon-
ored in his private book were, of course, Mary Frazier and
Catherine Jones. The fourth was Harriet Bradbury, the too
affectionate "Corinna" of "A Vision," and a much closer
friend of several of the other lads than she ever was of his.
However, when John Quincy's "rebus" about Harriet ap-
peared in print in September it was accompanied by a "pas-
toral ode" undoubtedly also of his composition. This was
addressed to "Emma: Or, the Rose," and had a charmingly
plaintive conclusion.

120 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

All beauteous maid, angelick fair,
Oh! save a soul from deep despair,

And draw the thorn from love:
Tis thine to pour the sovereign balm,
Bind up the wound, dissolve the charm,

And ev'ry pang remove.

All these literary strivings, including his known composi-
tions about Mary Frazier herself, reveal a picture of John
Quincy Adams as a very susceptible young law clerk, one
rapidly proceeding down the primrose path of sentimentality
to an ' 'attachment" of some kind. He had indeed always
denied that his character was phlegmatic in romantic matters
as his appearance must have suggested. He had long been sus-
pected by at least one friend of being as capable of strong
attachments as any person he knew. 44 A little tragedy there-
fore lay in store for romantic John Quincy, in the unhappy
culmination of the Frazier affair in the fall of 1790 when he
was miserably trying to settle down to practice law in Boston.
There was also to be a decline of his poetic interests there-
after. In April, 1791, a chastened John Quincy was to write
one of his brothers:

The Magazines will I believe never present you with any more
Rebuses, Acrostics Elegies or other poetical effusions of my pro-
duction. I must bid a long and lasting farewell to the juvenile
Misses. It is to the severer toils of the Historic Matron that I must
henceforth direct all the attention that I can allow to that lovely
company. Happy if they do not exclude me altogether from their
train: and command me to offer all my devotions to the eyeless
dame, who holds the balance and the sword. 45

Just how had the final culmination and demolition of his
"Vision" come about? To complete the tale it is first necessary
to take up the narrative of that last year in Newburyport.

John Quincy 's summer in 1789 had been briefly broken
in its round of parties and "chowders" and it is to be hoped,
some study only by a visit to the Harvard Commencement

Romance on the North Shore 121

in July. He picked up a diploma for his brother Charles who
had hurried off to New York. In September John Quincy also
made a visit to Gotham to visit his parents for a month. There
he saw stage plays and met many officials of the federal gov-
ernment in both their official and unofficial capacities. 46

His return to Newburyport in October was highlighted by
President Washington's triumphal visit, a gala affair. John
Quincy himself had a major hand in preparing the local wel-
coming address, a task that must have strained his imagina-
tion since he had once observed that the subject of eulogizing
Washington was well-nigh exhausted! Despite his seemingly
high spirits he was still occasionally threatened by "the an-
cient quarrel between the powers of drowsiness and me," and
sometimes had "nervous twitches" which reminded him of
the constant need for exercise. He also got the "Washington
cough" which was going around, but fortunately not the in-
fluenza which was so prevalent in Massachusetts in Novem-
ber. 47

Social activities now, if anything, increased. The first as-
sembly ball of the season in Newburyport was on November
24, and others followed every two weeks thereafter. These
John Quincy usually enjoyed. His visits to the household
of the Fraziers became particularly numerous, although he
found his visit there on November 9 "somewhat dull and
silly." By December 21 he apparently was suffering from
heartache since he wrote the word "dull" and then drew a
heart after it in his diary. Four days later he recorded the
intriguing Christmas entry, "Love Letter." 48 But who the
favored one was does not appear. Presumably he was still very
much the unattached young man. 49

The spring and early summer of 1790 were roughly a con-
tinuation of the previous year with the usual round of enter-
tainment and a few legal matters. He also participated in a
"forensic disputation" on the subject of the unalienability of
citizenship at the Harvard Commencement in July, thereby

122 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

earning an M.A., or "second" degree, as was the easy custom
of the times. A few days before this he had been admitted as
an attorney in the court of Common Pleas for the County of
Essex. A week later he engaged an "office" in Court Street,
Boston, actually the front parlor of one of his father's houses.
He went to Boston reluctantly, fearing the "temptations to
dissipation" in that place, but Newburyport was overcrowded
with able lawyers and Braintree offered little in the way of
prospects. 50

In Boston John Quincy boarded with the family of Dr.
Thomas Welch, an old friend and confidential agent of the
family. The very day after engaging his office, however, he
retraced the forty miles to Newburyport where he spent the
evening at Mr. Frazier's. On August 9 he opened his office
but soon found himself in low spirits, although he was meet-
ing many old friends and taking sociable walks of an evening
"in the Mall." On September 29 he again returned to New-
buryport, spending evenings at Bradburys' and Fraziers'. Ob-
viously he was finding it hard to leave!

Back in Boston he addressed his first jury in October and,
according to his own account, was "too much agitated" and
cut a very poor figure. (He never had had any confidence in
his talent for extemporizing.) His report of this sad" event
seems almost to have given apoplexy to old John Adams in
New York. The latter immediately jumped to the conclusion
that John Quincy had had a "downfall," and, although he
later wrote him several letters of encouragement, rather un-
kindly told him that his "diffidence" and "tremor" had been
remarked upon when he had opened at the bar. It was kindly
brother Charles who wrote John Quincy a fine letter of
reassurance and common sense and tried to play down his
apprehensions. 51

Scarcely two weeks after this fumbling start at the law, on
October 29, John Quincy's diary contained the interesting
entry, "M.F. came to town." The truth is that Mary Frazier

Romance on the North Shore 123

of Newburyport had been "visiting" at nearby Medford.
John Quincy himself had been there on several occasions
during the past week, as had also another old friend, the
ubiquitous Miss Jones! Four days later he recorded, "Con-
versation with M.F." These are the first occasions in his writ-
ings of any extroardinary reference to Mary Frazier, the
"Clara" with whom he had finally fallen in love. The next
day he found the club at Mr. Elliott's "very dull" and got
"no sleep." He attended the first assembly ball of the season
and said that it was "agreeable enough." But on November 8
he was still "perplexed," and three days later was "in anx-
ious expectation." 52

On the thirteenth day of November he noted in his diary,
"Letter from my mother. ALB." That forbidding letter
meant the end of the Newburyport romance of John Quincy
Adams and the end of Mary Frazier as the realization of his
"Vision." As he abruptly terminated the affair he lost a fair-
haired girl said to have had only one rival for beauty in all
New England. She was to be remembered for both beauty
and charm by some people for many years after her death,
only twelve years later. She was to be remembered by John
Quincy Adams also, even in his old age, according to a letter
said to have been written by him in 1840. He had once
written about her, or someone similar, in his "Vision":

Come, and before the lovely Clara's shrine,
The mingled tribute of your praises join;
My Clara's charms no vulgar poets claim,
No servile bard that clips the wings of fame,
To vile acrostics tunes' unmeaning lays,
Or in a rebus centers all his praise.
The partial gods presiding at her birth
Gave Clara beauty and yet gave her worth;
Kind Nature formed of purest white her skin,
An emblem of her innocence within;
And called on cheerful Health her aid to lend,

124 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

The roses' colors in her cheeks to blend,
While Venus added, to complete the fair,
The eyes blue languish and the golden hair;
But far superior charms exalt her mind,
Adorned by nature, and by art refined,
Hers are the lasting beauties of the heart,
The charms which Virtue only can impart.

And the conclusion:

On thee thy ardent lover's fate depends,
From thee the evil or the boon descends;
Thy choice alone can make my anxious breast
Supremely wretched, or supremely blest. 53

A major factor in this little tragedy was that the Age of
Manners was opposed to long engagements; a "declaration"
was supposed to be followed by early marriage. 54 This John
Quincy was not prepared to carry out. Dependency upon his
parents had been a long-standing grievance, never more so
than at this period of starting on a dubious law career while
his thoughts were turning to matrimony. His father had
always preached economic independence to his son, although
both parents had warned against early success, and had even
expressed dire forebodings about the difficulties which malice
and envy would put in his way. 55

John Quincy felt, however, that independence had been
unfairly delayed in his case by his long years of residence
abroad. As far back as the critical summer of 1788, sister
Nabby had tried to reassure him on this point, vainly at-
tempting to combat the depression then growing upon him
by saying that dependency was a very natural thing, and
that it had not been his fault that he had been in Europe
when he might have been advancing his education more
rapidly at home. 56 He himself had reminded his father in
Angust, 1790, of the peculiar circumstances which had re-
tarded his career. Now, in October, temporarily viewing

Romance on the North Shore 125

politics with disgust one of the interests which his father
was feverishly urging upon him he again identified his un-
happy lot with those "sacrifices" to the public welfare which
had "deprived me of my fundamental support, and have left
me exposed to the most humiliating neglect from all the
world around me." 57 So he nursed a bitter grievance.

Unfortunately the entire Adams family at this time was
in a high state of anxiety about finances, although one would
suppose that their government securities, at least, must have
appreciated greatly in recent months. In addition to John
Adams' eternal lamenting about the miserable salary of a
Vice President and the poor returns from his several "es-
tates," 58 the problem of daughter Nabby became particu-
larly pressing. Her husband, the impressive Colonel Smith
whom her parents had once regarded as so "solid," had be-
come a perpetual source of worry because he had no regular
employment.

Moreover, Nabby had recently added a third infant son
to the roster of family dependents. "Heaven grant that she
may add no more to the stock until her prospects brighten,"
wrote Madam Abigail to John Quincy on August 20, giving
him a stern admonition never to form a connection until he
saw his way clear to supporting a family, at the same time
indignantly denying his playful insinuation that she had
been trying to interest him in a wealthy girl. 59 Not long
afterwards sister Shaw romantically rhapsodized over delight-
ful rumors in Haverhill that Abigail's young "Hercules" had
been conquered in love by a sixteen-year-old. She reminded
Abigail how wonderful it was for a young girl to find a
"faithful friend," but added fuel to the flames by wittily
congratulating her on her new grandson. "There will be
statesmen in plenty, if Mrs. Smith goes on from year to year
in this way." 60 How Abigail must have longed to box the
ears of her loving but silly sister.

Finances were no laughing matter. John Quincy had al-

126 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

ways been exceedingly careful about his own accounts, even
earning the praise of the family treasurer. He was therefore
deeply concerned about Nabby's prospects even though de-
pressed himself. Moreover in September his father had
bluntly emphasized the financial crisis by saying that while
he meant to assist John Quincy as long as might be neces-
sary, "I only ask you to recollect that my Circumstances are
not affluent; that you have Brothers and a Sister who are
equally entitled. , . ." 61 The implication was overwhelming.
All that his father could suggest for his idle time, while wait-
ing for cases to appear, was to study politics at town meeting,
to try to figure out how to make the "estates" pay better and
mirable dictu how to study Latin authors more effectively.

His mother's torrent of good advice for his proper con-
duct had continued throughout the summer, although she
once half-apologized for "moralizing": there is a tide in the
affairs of men; you must learn to cope with jealousy; never
let a woman be indebted to you for poverty; marriage is
chargeable; and so on. He had countered what he had amus-
ingly suggested was her worldly attitude on marriage by
proudly asserting that he would never marry for wealth. He
had then played into her hands, however, by simultaneously
declaring that he would never "connect a woman to desper-
ate fortune/ 5 62 That was all the assurance she really needed.
In September when she said that she had heard from Tom
that John Quincy was in love had she really known nothing
of it before? she again warned him to keep free from entan-
glements, playfully adding that it might help to improve his
careless toilet but no more. 63

His resentment about his depressing and lonely situation
had reached a pitch by October 17. But his mother's master-
ful reply, written from a sick bed on November 7 the fatal
letter that was received on the thirteenth was adamant on
the subject of love. Common report had reached her that he
was attached to a young lady. Since he had no means to

Romance on the North Shore 127

warrant his entering into a formal engagement and since he
had told her that he had no idea of connecting himself at
present, he was in danger of making himself miserable for
life as well as being most cruel to the young lady herself by
continuing his attentions. "Perhaps I ought not to have
delay'd being explicit so long." Her strength, she declared,
would not permit her to say more; but she had said a plenty.

So the axe of parental disapproval fell, and the affair was
abruptly ended. John Quincy replied a week later, express-
ing anxiety for his mother's health and saying that he had
been a child to complain of his 'situation. As for the young
lady, "I wish to give you full satisfaction by assuring you
that there shall never more be any cause on my part for the
continuance of it. The Lady will henceforth be at the dis-
tance of 40 miles from me and I shall have no further oppor-
tunities to indulge a weakness, which you may perhaps cen-
sure," but which, he pathetically added, "if you knew the
object, I am sure you would excuse." It was his only cry of
anguish, and the most human thing he ever said on the sub-
ject.

Several weeks later John Quincy wrote again to ease his
mother's mind, stating that he was perfectly free and would
remain so. "I believe I may add I was never in less danger
of any entanglement, which can give you pain, than at the
present." 64 His decision had been made with a strange
finality. He had not only buried his love but had jumped
on the grave with both feet.

Yet he had written his friend Bridge as recently as Septem-
ber that "all my hopes of future happiness in this life, center
in the possession of that girl," or so Bridge had quoted him
in his reply. 65 When he once bitterly reminded his mother
of what he had suffered at the "monition of parental solici-
tude and tenderness," she soothingly acknowledged the "sac-
rifice" he had made. 06 A similar diagnosis was held by his
Aunt Eliza who some years later told of how she could have

128 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

shed "tear for tear" when she saw him struggling with his
passions in making his sacrifice to "Situation & filial Duty." 67
It was an acknowledgment of self-denial in which he heartily
concurred.

Nevertheless, regardless of his parents' attitude and maneu-
vering, it is clear that it was also in keeping with John
Quincy's own character for him to have made a prudent
decision. When he had first confessed to sister Nabby of his
attachment back in April how ridiculous to believe that his
parents did not know about it during the summer he had
admitted that reason and prudence would oppose their in-
fluence; and he had promptly reassured her in his very next
letter of his discretion in the matter. Indeed it was Nabby
herself who had then sweetly warned against the danger of a
"too wise maxim of Prudence" in effacing early romantic
impressions. Perhaps she had in mind her own miserable
experience of having been thwarted in love. 68

Had not John Quincy himself proudly told his mother
in August he was plainly driven to it that he would never
commit a woman to desperate fortune? He had also rather
oddly written his father in the critical month of September
on the danger of early matrimonial connections, saying
sagely that "a foundation must be laid before the super-
structure can be erected. I hope I am in no danger from this
quarter." 69 Such worldly restraint in so delicate a matter,
even in the eighteenth century, and so reminiscent of John
Quincy's reasoning on a faintly similar occasion four years
previous, casts the shadow of a doubt as to how completely
in love he had been, or at least how truly candid he was
with himself.

At any rate he was to stay away from Newburyport for
a long, long time and seems never to have even considered
renewing the Frazier connection, although Mary herself
remained single for many years until according to legend-
after John Quincy himself had married. Indeed when he

Romance on the North Shore 129

was considering marriage in England in 1796 and his mother
of all people! defensively and "patriotically" suggested
that "Maria" might still have some "claims," he answered in
the negative with something like polite anger. When they
had parted, it had been with "a mutual dissolution of affec-
tion" and with the tragic promise that neither would ever
marry anyone unworthy of the other. For her own sake, he
now loftily said, he hoped that she would keep the bargain
as well as he had. 70

It is probable also that he had been disappointed in Mary's
own attitude, perhaps on the suject of "waiting." She was
no doubt influenced by the solicitation of her family and
friends of course including the helpful Catherine Jones.
This explanation, for what it is worth, was the one advanced
long afterwards by Adams himself. 71 It certainly would seem
that Mary was looking for something like a showdown, and
very probably had come to Medford in October for that pur-
pose. James Bridge had jocularly said of her intended visit
there, before he knew of John Quincy's real feelings, that it
seemed as though John could not escape "the coils" even by
moving to Boston. 72

Five months after this little tragedy of November, 1790,
when John Quincy briefly attempted to resume his old prac-
tice of analyzing female character, he strangely criticized the
quality of prudence! He acknowledged that it was a rare
and valuable virtue in young ladies, and that his own taste
was "naturally depraved," but he denied that prudence and
discretion would ever possess any peculiar charm for him.
"Should my Heart ever yield itself to the voice of Love, I
hope my Judgment will approve, though it must never pre-
tend to direct the Passion." 73 Such reckless language, for it
was diametrically opposed to all his earlier distrust of "pas-
sion," suggests that he had been through a bitter experience
of something like rejection. It also suggests a confused at-
tempt at evading responsibility for having acquiesced in a

130 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

prudent decision himself. A few days before he had been
out walking with his old friend Phillips who was well-
informed of the romantic goings on in Newburyport and
who now expressed wonder at his "apostacy." 74 So he was
suffering no doubt from a broken heart, but very likely also
from wounded esteem. In any case he was sadly perplexed-
he symbolically lost his cloak at a New Year's Eve party
and in need of new interests. It is significant that he was
soon "writing for the printer's boy." 75 It was an Adams'
habit in times of stress as his own brief literary career had
shown.

There is no evidence that he had a recurrence of serious
illness at this time. His experience may even have been bene-
ficial, if bitter, medicine for his excessive sensibility. How-
ever, his Aunt Eliza later said she knew that his health had
suffered; and in January, 1791, his mother was writing her
sister Mary at Braintree to thank her for her kind care of
John Quincy. "He wanted it I believe." She said that he
worried over lack of legal employment and that he would
have to have more patience. 76 John Quincy soon left on a
trip to Philadelphia where the Adamses had recently moved
to the new seat of the federal government. His mother, who
had been ill herself on and off for the year past, noticed that
he had lost much of his vitality and again attributed it to
his fretting over lack of practice and to his dislike of eco-
nomic dependency! 77

To give John Quincy Adams his due, however, on the
trip home by packet from New York in March he noticed
among the passengers "the prettiest Quaker girl" he had
ever seen. 78 Perhaps his later complaints about having
"blunted sensations" as a result of his disappointment in
love were to be somewhat exaggerated. However that may
have been, his days of dalliance were clearly over. His days
of public contention were now to begin.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE RIGHTS OF MAN IN BOSTON

"A blasphemous doubt of
Tom Paine's infallibility"

A grandson of John Quincy Adams once wrote that pol-
itics was the "systematic organization of hatreds," and that
in Massachusetts it had always been as harsh as the climate. 1
This accurately reflected the views of his forebears, who in
particular took any criticism of a member of the Adams
family as almost an appeal to human depravity. Their atti-
tude stemmed primarily from their extraordinarily low opin-
ion of human nature. John Quincy went so far in 1791 as to
speak of "that state of individual imbecility in which man
is supposed to have existed, previous to the formation of the
social compact." - Despite the optimism of the Age of Reason,
their opinion was confirmed even more by certain develop-
ments following the American and French revolutions.

To an Adams, fearing tyranny in case of a breakdown of
the compact, everything obviously depended on the proper
organization of government, strengthened by whatever assist-
ance morality and education could bring to checkmate the
evil consequences of passionate human nature. To many
other persons such an attitude suggested that the Adamses
apparently considered themselves exceptions to the rule; or
it raised the suspicion that they were ambitious people try-
ing to pose as new American aristocrats, probably as a result
of their long residence in England.

The role of political parties as an auxiliary device for
handling political differences between men had once been

131

132 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

appreciated by young John Quincy Adams. In June, 1787,
viewing the turbulence in local affairs, he had written that
it is impossible for a free nation to subsist without parties
which, unfortunately, were not yet formed. The following
year, however, after his discomfiture on the issue of the Fed-
eral Constitution, he sarcastically remarked of the shifting
situation in Massachusetts, "We have not yet got sufficiently
settled to have stated parties; but we shall soon, I have no
doubt obtain the blessing.'* 3

It was ironical that only three years later John Quincy
himself helped to precipitate political cleavage on a national
scale by becoming the precocious spokesman for a new Amer-
ican conservatism. The issue which he seized upon in June,
1791, in his "Publicola Letters" had been created by the
"rashness" of Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary of State,
through an "innocent" endorsement of the American edition
of Tom Paine's The Rights of Man. This work, an answer
to Edmund Burke's strictures on the French Revolution,
had been reprinted in Philadelphia in the first week of May.
The Adamses correctly interpreted the wording of the en-
dorsement as implying criticism of the political pontificating
of the Honorable John Adams, Vice President of the United
States of America. John Quincy vigorously rose to his father's
defense despite his earlier admiration for Jefferson.

As a highly effective newspaper controversialist in 1791,
John Quincy at the age of twenty-three stood in striking
contrast to the sickly if courageous youth of three years be-
fore. Yet he still had occasional trouble with his eyes and
suffered from morbidity of spirits. After returning to the
study of law in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in March, 1789,
he had resumed a remarkably active social life which had
culminated in a romantic attachment. This he had ulti-
mately put aside at the expense of personal happiness, thus
re-affirming the highly disciplined life that he had so long
accepted. 4 Years before when as a boy John Quincy had

The Rights of Man in Boston 133

gone abroad a second time, against his wishes, his implacable
mother had written him, "The habits of a vigorous mind
are formed in contending with difficulties." 5 If by "vigor-
ous" she meant combative, as she plainly did in the heroic
sense, her eldest son's life at least was to be a testament to
the correctness of her theory, especially from the time of
the "Publicola" affair.

When John Quincy returned to his law practice in Boston
in March, 1791, after visiting his parents and the new seat
of government in Philadelphia, time hung heavily on his
hands. There was a conspicuous lack of clients. Despite fre-
quent dining out, attending of assemblies, and reading at
his office, ofttimes at night, there was ample leisure for sad
reflection about his recent, untimely venture into love. He
copied out bits of the romantic poetry of Shenstone into the
blank leaves of his diary. 6 Beginning on April 1 he fitfully
tried to renew the elaborate journal he had abandoned when
he became seriously ill in 1788, but succeeded in making
only a few entries. 7 There was an eclipse of the sun he viewed
from Beacon Hill but which hurt his eyes because he had
no glass. He took to re-reading history, and set about making
resolutions includingafter reading Cicero -"Never to be
perf.[ect]." 8 It was all very bitter and dull.

The last entry in his abortive effort to revive his journal
that spring had to do with a subject that was to be the turn-
ing point in his public life. It was also a subject which was
to siphon off some of his excess energy. One evening in April
at the home of Mr. Foster, the room was so crowded that he
had no opportunity of conversing with the ladies, so he fell
into conversation with several men. He found that Mr.
Sargeant had been reading Edmund Burke's pamphlet on
the Revolution in France. "He made some judicious remarks
upon the subject and appeared to agree in the opinion which
I had entertained of the Work." 9 John Quincy's hand prob-
ably already itched for a pen to add his comments about a

134 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

country he knew so well and about its revolution concern-
ing which he had long had misgivings.

Indeed he had been thinking for some time about "ven-
turing upon some speculations in our Newspapers," as he
had confided to his brother Tom. He had intended to write
on some topics relating to the American ''national" govern-
ment which was still only precariously settled. To this end
he had already started to collect books and newspapers. 10
Apparently the pen which had previously served as a solace
was to do so again during this intolerable spring. After all,
he was an Adams. As his sister had once written him, their
"destiny" seemed "inescapably" tied up with public affairs. 11
When John Quincy subsequently "apologized" to his friend
James Bridge for having taken to politics, he asked forgive-
ness for "Publicola" on the grounds of his "situation and
connexions," 12 It might also be noted that at his mother's
suggestion his father had recently put him on a regular
allowance. 13

John Quincy *s desperate plunge into political controversy
began on May 24, a day significant also because the "V.P."
was in town. His diary contained tHje important word,
"Wrote." The "V.P." was of course his father, the Vice
President, who had recently returned from Philadelphia
with Mrs. Adams who was unwell. No doubt the "V.P." was
hot with wrath because of Jefferson's recent "endorsement"
of The Rights of Man. Jefferson's note to the American
printer had contained some pointed remarks "to take off a
little of the dryness" about the political "heresies" that had
recently sprung up in America. He said he hoped that a
reprinting of Paine's pamphlet would help to contradict
these, although he later protested that he had had no idea
that the printer would use his note. John Adams had openly
expressed his detestation of Paine's work and he was gen-
erally understood to be the author of the ponderous "Dis*
courses on Davila," a recent series of newspaper articles more

The Rights of Man in Boston 135

or less continuing the conservative tone of his Defence of
the Constitutions. Since Jefferson confessedly had "Davila"
in mind as principal among the "heresies" of the times, an
ominous atmosphere had arisen in official Philadelphia which
was greatly disturbing to President Washington, to whom
Paine had unfortunately dedicated his pamphlet 14

As for old John Adams himself, he seems by 1791 to have
generously assumed that he was becoming a lightning rod
for the whole Washington administration, the success of
which he identified with the survival of the federal experi-
ment itself. Hence he had become doubly suspicious of any
personal criticism. He even congratulated himself in July
as serving as whipping boy for Hamilton during the rage
of opposition to the "glory and success of his bank." In both
public and private affairs John Adams had had reason to
become aware of the economic benefits which the new gov-
ernment had effected under the leadership of the gifted
secretary of the treasury. 15

Between May 24 and July 5 John Quincy Adams worked
busily on as "Publicola" a Roman cognomen signifying "a
friend of the people," but in this instance perhaps more
properly referring to the consul who had helped suppress
the Catilinarian conspiracy. His diary has almost daily en-
tries of "wrote" and "writing on." During this time he gen-
erally stayed at Braintree where his mother was ill, trying
to keep up his physical stamina by frequent bathing and
walking. But when he had finished with the last number
he found himself thoroughly exhausted for the rest of the
summer. His articles first appeared, beginning on June 8,
in the enterprising Columbian Centinel of Boston, under
the editorship of the friendly Ben Russell. They then spread
throughout the newspapers of the land. "Publicola" was
hailed as the "American Burke." It was immediately assumed
by Jefferson and others that John Adams himself was the
author. Some crude vilification of the vice president resulted,

136 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical If ears

thus adding fuel to the flames, all of which the Jeffersonians
promptly blamed on "Publicola" for not having let the con-
troversy smolder.

The beginnings of an unfavorable reaction to the French
Revolution soon followed in the American press, although
not for this reason alone. With the few exceptions of such
persons as John Adams and his eldest son, that tumultuous
event had been almost universally approved in America in
its early stages. An unfavorable reaction to Edmund Burke's
"apostacy" was now also to some extent revised. All this,
however, was at the expense of a division of American polit-
ical opinion that was eventually to break into open political
warfare in 1793, when the "rights of man" became a factor
in American foreign affairs. It was "Publicola" who began
the first counter-offensive against the new version of the polit-
ical doctrines of the Age of Reason, soon to be identified with
the power of the French revolutionary imperium. 16

To many Americans, especially those persons who had
never been willing to face the political and economic real-
ities that had accompanied their own Revolution many
were likewise suspicious of the centralizing activities of the
new federal government the ponderous writings of John
Adams had long been regarded with irritation. The coura-
geous stand of "Publicola" was precipitated as a by-product
of this situation, although John Quincy himself had asserted
as early as October, 1790, that "In France it appears to me
the National Assembly in tearing the lace from the garb of
government, will tear the coat itself into a thousand rags/'
He had not thought that the sweeping activities of a "tri-
umphant democracy" was a good omen for "an equitable
government of laws." 17

As far back as 1787, within six months of the publication
of the Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the
United States of America, the political ideas of old John
Adams had been considered as "poison" in some parts of

The Rights of Man in Boston 137

the American press because of their alleged aristocratic bias.
Such an inference had even accompanied some newspaper
comments on his eldest son's graduation at Harvard that
year. 18 The strong note of caution in the political thinking
of John Adams had been sharpened by Shays' Rebellion,
but it was implicit in what he had been preaching since '76
with respect to the need for proper governments. Of course
his view of human nature may not have been quite so jaun-
diced at that early date. Some ' "checks" in the political process
he had always considered necessary, particularly in the way
of strong executives and two-chambered legislatures. Among
his political enemies in 1791 he numbered not only the
"Stone House" faction of Hancockian demagogues in Mas-
sachusetts, together with the remnants of the Shaysites, but
also those Pennsylvanians who since 1776 had advocated a
single chambered legislature and other specious forms of
political democracy. The latter had originally included old
Dr. Franklin with his easy tolerance of human nature and
fondness for the French school of doctrinaires. Indeed Adams
suspected that Franklin's ideas had been an indirect source
of inspiration for the omnipotent pretensions of the French
Assembly in 1790. 19

Old John Adams had come to feel so strongly about put-
ting brakes on human nature in politics that in addition to
writing the Defence and the "unpolished" but highly cher-
ished "Discourses on Davila" he had ventured in 1789 and
1790 to press his ideas upon such republican stalwarts as
Roger Sherman and Sam Adams. He had learnedly argued
with them that the new American government was really a
"monarchical republic" like that of England, except for the
hereditary principle, and that the executive would even-
tually have to be made an integral part of the legislature
thus presumably favoring "balance" at the expense of
"checks." All history proved, according to John Adams, that
only the aristocracy of mankind has ever prevented the on-

138 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

slaught of despotism. Though governments should of course
be republican, the term itself was "fraudulent," and was
always in danger of being distorted to the point where people
would prefer monarchy. The events in France had excited
these extreme ideas together with Adams' prediction that
the developing struggle in Europe would be nothing more
than "a change of impostors and impositions." 20 Years later
he was to boast that he had been the only leading American,
not excluding Washington, to predict so early the true
course of events in Revolutionary France. 21

Consequently a certain unpopularity of John Adams in
America was quite understandable, to put it mildly. The
strongest weapon in his arsenal of historical arguments was
none other than the British constitution itself. 22 Yet Tom
Paine had had the gall to say in his Rights of Man that the
English did not even have a constitution because it was not
written down on paper in the way the French were doing
it and of course in the way Americans themselves had done.
Thomas Jefferson had endorsed all such nonsense and slurred
John Adams at the same time for "political heresies"!

The vulnerability of the Adamses to charges of aristocratic
tendencies and English notions had been amusingly revealed
by a satire appearing in a Boston paper in 1789. It stemmed
from the discussion in New York as to how to address Presi-
dent Washington and other officials of the new union. The
battle of "titles" had been a brief but comical episode in
the organization of the government. Pompous John Adams
had been particularly suspected of entertaining high-flung
notions. In the Columbian Centinel for August 22, 1789,
there had been a contribution by "A REPUBLICAN" purport-
ing to furnish parts of a poem written by a gentleman "for-
merly of Boston" on the subject, "Resist the Vi

Gads! how they'd stare! should fickle Fortune drop
Those mushroom lordlings where she pick'd them up,
In tinker's, cobler's, or b - - k b - - - - r's shop.

The Rights of Man in Boston 139

Be grateful then YE CHOSEN! mod'rate, wise,
Nor stretch your claims to such preposterous size,
Lest your too partial country wise grown
Shou'd on your native dunghills set you down.
Ape not the fashions of the foreign great,
Nor make your betters at your levees wait.
Resign your awkward pomp, parade and pride,
And lay that useless etiquette aside;

The faithful guardians of the country were implored to

Resist the VICE and that couragious pride
To that o'erweening VICE so near ally'd.

The poem concluded with praise of Washington, and the
lament,

Successors we can find but tell us where

Of ALL thy virtues we shall find THE HEIR?

Abigail Adams was relieved to learn that this slander on
her husband, the "Vice" President, was not the product of
the pen of an embittered female. (Doubtless she had in mind
Mercy Warren of Plymouth who had unsuccessfully solicited
a federal job for her husband.) Abigail considered the author
a brute to have attacked her for allegedly favoring routs
and plays, which she said she had never attended in America
but had of course attended abroad. 23 As for the political
charges, her husband was not without defenders. The Cen-
tinel itself immediately carried a reply. Editor Ben Russell
was a staunch Federalist, but also a man of broad vision who
was always looking for exciting newspaper material. In an
article by "TOGATUS" in his next issue the "dunghill" refer-
ence was deplored as impudent and malicious. The writer
condemned the leveling of "arrows of obloquy" at a man
"on whom the eyes of the whole continent" had been "de-
servedly fixed." 24

The flare up over titles had reappeared in the spring of

140 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

1791 at the time of the general attack in American news-
papers on Burke's "phillipick." An editorial from London
was reprinted in the Centinel on April 2, saying that the
"plain" people understood some matters better than Burke
and that perhaps "THE BRIGHTEST MEN ARE OFTEN THE GREAT-
EST FOOLS." The French people, it was said in a later issue,
had good reason to abhor almost anything distinguished by
titles. "RUSTICUS" in the Boston Independent Chronicle on
April 28 attacked a defense of Burke in Philadelphia and
hinted that possibly some of the "old leaven/' or a few "apos-
tates from their original creed," would like to see a limited
monarchy established in America. The reference to John
Adams is unmistakable. The radical Federal Gazette of Phila-
delphia on May 19 called for a veneration of the "Rights of
Man." The "endorsed" American edition of Paine's pam-
phlet had meantime come out and the Gazette itself had been
reproducing it. The Gazette left it to the "would-be aristo-
cratic few to propagate the abominable political heresy, that
civil government was instituted for the purpose of enslaving
men, and for the creation of kings, bishops, lords, and
dukes. . . ." It hailed the secretary of state for retaining his
"manly republican sentiments" and sneered at a detractor
who had recently sneered at him. In Boston a satirical edi-
torial from Philadelphia was reprinted on May 26 on the
subject of "TITLES," ending up with the patriotic exhortation,
"Goddess of Liberty! kick down these gewgaws/'

Two of the most direct attacks on the vice president were
aired in Boston and Philadelphia on June 18. Since both
articles had been printed elsewhere some time before, they
cannot be attributed to the effect of the "Publicola" articles,
as Jefferson was later to insist had generally been the case.
On the other hand there is no proof that they were part of
the "abuse" that resulted from Jefferson's "endorsement" of
Paine, of which John Adams so bitterly complained. The
first attack had been published in the Poughkeepsie Journal,

The Rights of Man in Boston 141

originally submitted there on May 21 by a subscriber who
attributed it to a foreign correspondent. It said that while
John Adams should be given credit for his learning, it was
plain to see that he was attached to "aristocratical and
monarchical principles." His "Davila" was said to re-assert
the need for balanced government, but also to uphold the
idea that distinctions of property, aristocracy, and monarchy
4 'have their foundation in the original constitution of our
nature/' 25

What angered John Adams more than anything else was
a satire in a Connecticut paper which was republished in the
Boston Centinel on June 18 under the heading "Antifederal
Abuse." He said that this was the first time he had heard
of the "Lye." It was based on a story of the vice president's
alleged stingy action in "rewarding" with a dollar some
workers on a bridge while returning home with Mrs. Adams
in a coach from Philadelphia in May. There was also a
pointed reference to the vice president's well-known com-
plaints about the small size of his salary. By implication this
satire compared the "poor American sons of the hoe and
broad-ax" to French peasants doing corvee, saying that in
some people's opinion these "Yahoos" were expected to re-
ceive pleasure by "feasting their rustic eyes on him who had
shone at European courts, even at the British that model
of perfection. . . ."

What! that children of the third generation may be able to say
(when wooden spoons and shoes will be in fashion) by way of
exultation, My father's father's father laid the last board on such
a bridge, and had the honour to lead the horses (and with his
hat on too) of the grandfather of the present, puissant, con-
summate, and most honourable Duke of Braintree and he
smiled at him so pretty.

The Centinel gravely added that such abuse of so distin-
guished a patriot needed no comment. "Its cloven-foot is

142 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Yean

sufficiently visible." But it was wonderful newspaper copy! 2e

Confronted by such spirited journalism, the task of John
Quincy Adams as "Publicola" clearly called for something
more than an academic defense of his father's rambling schol-
arship. Entering upon the newspaper forum, the liveliest
stage of controversy of the time, where manners had been
sadly eroded by a generation of irreverent revolutionists
headed by the redoubtable Thomas Paine himself, John
Quincy had need of plenty of partisan wit to make "Pub-
licola" a formidable antagonist. His success in so doing was
a tribute to something more than to an acquaintance with
the best scholarship of the eighteenth century.

Despite occasional awkwardness, "Publicola" revealed the
deft phrase and cutting expression of one who for years had
disciplined himself to write terse criticism of men and events.
It also revealed a young man who had recently learned the
bitter, conservative truth that in life it is necessary to cut
your coat to fit your cloth. In opposing the thrusts of Paine,
the supreme romanticist of the age, John Quincy necessarily
fought with the weapons of conservatism. In the Puritan
context to which he had been bred this meant preaching
moral principles reinforced by dry humor. Without the
latter he would have failed. Moral principles alone would
never have enabled him to challenge successfully the scin-
tillating author of The Rights of Man.

This does not mean that John Quincy Adams was in
the same class with Tom Paine as a pamphleteer, but only
that his newspaper writing had certain pungent qualities
that made a real appeal to the public. When Jefferson first
identified "Publicola" as the work of the elder Adams, the
careful James Madison disagreed on the basis of information
that had reached him, but also because "there is more method
also in the arguments, and much less of clumsiness and
heaviness in the style/' 27

To say that young Adams ' 'answered" Paine is also not

The Rights of Man in Boston 143

quite correct. The first question he asked was about Thomas
Jefferson himself. By what right had that "very respectable
gentleman," the secretary of state, set out to adjudicate what
were "political heresies'? When had Americans set up an
"infallible criterion of orthodoxy" or practised "slavery of
the mind" under the "sanction of a venerable name"? Did
the secretary of state consider Paine's pamphlet the "canon-
ical book of political scripture" containing the "true doc-
trine of popular infallibility"? Was Mr. Paine to be adopted
as "the holy father of our political faith" and his pamphlet
to be considered a "Papal bull of infallible virtue"? Surely
that "friend to free inquiry upon every subject," i.e., the
secretary of state, would not be opposed to further inquiry
"consistent with the reverence due his character." 28

In short, although John Quincy did not make the accusa-
tion directly or even mention Jefferson by name, he did sug-
gest in the most ironic terms that the free-thinking secretary
of state was inclined to be a "heresy hunter." Indeed, the
whole of "Publicola" suggests that misrepresentation of lib-
erty was being made by friends of the secretary of state.
Small wonder that in one of the first and best known of
the replies to "Publicola," that of "AGRICOLA" in Boston on
June 23, bitter resentment was expressed on behalf of the
secretary. "Your attack in your first paper upon Mr. Jeffer-
son, was very warm indeed; and as the author of your pro-
duction is concealed, it was very unmanly." 29

Despite his own success in making pungent observations,
John Quincy scorned Paine for his literary cleverness. The
Rights of Man he termed "historical, political, miscellaneous,
satirical, and panegyrical" the last an old favorite word of
John Quincy 's. He said that Paine tried to turn "sallies of
wit" into "maxims of truth" and to be more interested in
"flippant witticism" than in sober reasoning. 30 Flippancy
in an author had always irritated John Quincy Adams and
now he was trying to cross swords with a master of the art.

144 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

In one place he complained that it was impossible to do
justice to the wit of Paine as the latter had brilliantly done
with Burke in employing the famous epigram, "loaves and
and fishes/' Paine seemed to prefer epigrams to arguments,
he said, thereby exposing the absurdity of his pretence at
"reasoning." 31

Irritability with facile and flippant criticism on such a
serious subject was a leading characteristic of "Publicola."
But the major problem he raised pertained to moral stand-
ards in government and to the immoral behavior of men
who spurned the law. John Quincy attacked the fatuous
pretensions of the French Assembly and Paine's own irre-
sponsible demand for a similar revolution in England. "The
principle that a whole nation has the right to do whatever it
pleases, cannot in any sense whatever be admitted as true/'
It was his fear that liberty might become "the sport of arbi-
trary power, and the hideous form of despotism . . . assume
the party-colored garments of democracy." In the name of
the "unalienable rights" of the majority, the rights both of
minorities and of individuals could be extinguished, he
said. 32

In support of this attitude, John Quincy cited the British
constitution and the traditional nature of the common law.
These seemed to him to be the backbone of the American
political system despite the abuses and corruptions which
had necessitated the American revolt. 33 Respect for an or-
derly delegation of powers also led "Publicola" to defend
the English system against the French, along lines previously
laid down in John Adams' writings. It also opened "Pub-
licola" to the charge by "AGRICOLA" and others of being
Anglophile. Apparently assuming that the elder Adams was
the author of "Publicola" (as had already been openly as-
serted in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette) "AGRICOLA" de-
manded to know, "Pray, Sir, who made you, as an American,
the guardian of the British government?" And it led to the

The Rights of Man in Boston 145

direct charge that "your whole labor is pointed to this one
object the introduction of a mixed Monarchy into the
United States/' 34

As an earnest young student of law, John Quincy Adams
preferred Blackstone, whom he had spent three years in read-
ing and re-reading, to Tom Paine as an authority on the
British constitution. In a rather amusing way this revealed
what he thought was basically wrong with Paine's theories.
The latter had a lifelong obsession, shown as far back as
Common Sense, that the leading fact in British history was
that William the Conqueror had been a scoundrel! "Pub-
licola" dryly noted that "Mr. Paine always refers the origin
of the English Government" to William of Normandy. 35
Similar ignorance, John Quincy thought, was displayed in
Paine's curious prejudice against "game laws" in England,
on the ground that they operated unequally among the peo-
ple and were no doubt reminiscent of the abuses committed
by the French nobles. To an old gunner of birds on the
marshes of eastern Massachusetts such as John Quincy Adams,
this was an exaggerated argument. All American states had
such laws and he thought them to good advantage. The
argument on this point in "Publicola" might have been
directly inspired by an entry made in John Quincy's journal
many years before: "I went with my gun down upon the
marshes; but had no sport. Game laws are said to be directly
opposed to the liberties of the subject: I am well persuaded
that they may be carried too far, and that they really are in
most parts of Europe. But it is equally certain that where
there are none, there never is any game. . . ." 36

Witticism and ignorance supporting immoral pretentions
of the majority to do whatever it pleased was the political
spectre in Paine's writings that John Quincy Adams held up
to abhorrence. Finally he asked most significantly in view
of his life-long concern with foreign affairs what trust could
be put in treaties with any nation subject to Paine's ideas? 37

146 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

He congratulated the thrice happy people of America who,
as he pointed out, had with difficulty survived their own
"critical period," but not by abandoning fundamental prin-
ciples; who had a legislative system representing an equality
really existing among them and not one based upon "the
metaphysical speculations of fanciful politicians, vainly con-
tending against the unalterable course of events, and the
established order of nature." 3S

Some years later old John Adams was to speak of the fiery
ordeal through which he had passed when once "suspected
of a blasphemous doubt of Tom Paine's infallibility, in
consequence of Publicola's eloquence and Jefferson's rash-
ness." 39 It was an understatement on all counts. His son
John Quincy had been more than eloquent as "Publicola";
he had been publicly mean for the first time in his life, and
at the expense, moreover, of a man he had venerated since
the days of his boyhood acquaintance in France. As for com-
ing through the ordeal, John Quincy's eyes were affected to
the point where on August 29 he was "almost blind." That
same day he also recorded, "my father unwell." 40

One wonders what effect the reception of an unbelievable
letter from Jefferson a few days later may have had upon
the recovery of father and son? On August 30 Jefferson wrote
John Adams at great length, going even beyond his original
rashness in blaming "Publicola" for all the unfortunate
publicity that had arisen to make a breach between them. 41
This letter was never answered, possibly because John Adams
continued to feel unwell, but more likely because he did not
think it worthwhile. Time surely confirmed him in his atti-
tude of scornful silence and made him doubly glad for the
impassioned eloquence of his son.

Yet a certain lesson may have been learned. John Adams
sarcastically wrote a political confidant in September, 1791,
about securing a residence in Philadelphia. He hoped that
the house would be "Democratical" enough but not too ex-

The Rights of Man in Boston 147

pensive for a "simple Duke'*! Less than a year later daughter
Nabby was lamenting that "Poppa" had temporarily given

up wearing a wig. 42

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE LAW AND THE DRAMA

"Like Dogberry in the play"

Despite their implacable New England character, the
Adamses developed an interest in the theater which was
blossoming at the time of their return to America. Accom-
panying President and Mrs. Washington they occasionally
attended plays in Philadelphia. Abigail with her special ad-
miration for the French stage was properly critical. 1 A needy
actor even wrote the Honorable John Adams in April, 1792,
beseeching money, patronage, and favor. This unfortunate
man had found himself financially embarrassed partly due
to the death of a child while on his way to joining the old
American Company in New York. He had a scheme for show-
ing the patriots of America on the stage in "transparent
paintings'* as large as life, accompanied by eulogies and
music. 2 One would like to think that the vice president was
to be one of the patriots so honored and that he furnished
the "little money" so eloquently requested.

The sympathetic interest of young John Quincy Adams
in the "gentle agitation" stirred in Boston that year by the
plays of a new American Company in the guise of "moral
lectures," is readily understandable. John Quincy had been
steeped in Shakespeare from childhood. His mother had
kept the plays of the Bard in a closet of her bedchamber.
By the age of ten he was already familiar with many of
them, although such characters as Falstaff, Nym, and Ancient
Pistol were then quite beyond his comprehension. 3 The
Bard was forever on his mother's lips, or at least in her let-

148

The Law and the Drama 149

ters, foremost among those poets so generously quoted by
"Portia" in the expression of her ardent affections, or in
giving moral and patriotic instructions to her children. The
very first night that the Adams boys and their father reached
Port Ferrot in Spain in December, 1779, they had gone
ashore to attend a play, and they had continued to do so
every night during their stay. 4

Theatrical entertainment had been endlessly repeated for
Master John in Paris, St. Petersburg, and London during
the next six years. The Russian ballet became familiar to
him as did the offerings of Drury Lane and Covent Garden.
He knew the French and Italian actors in Moliere, Racine,
and Voltaire, to say nothing of Mrs. Siddons, the "Divine
Ferron," and other celebrities in English productions of the
whole Shakespearean repertory. Light comedies and farces
also abounded. Such an international favorite as "Love & la
Mode" was a staple offering. John Quincy attended the
Italian Comedy in Paris with the Hon. Thomas Jefferson,
and no doubt the Theatre Fran^aise, perhaps in company
with his distinguished mother after she came over in 1784. 5
Madam Adams had been equally delighted and shocked in
Paris by her first sight of dancing girls, clad in the thinnest
gauze and "showing their garters" in the most diverting
manner. She had been moved to grave moral reflection when
she considered "the tendency of these things." 6

In many leading American cities and even to some extent
in Boston a revival of interest in the drama had taken place
after the American Revolution. Such old stage favorites as
"Miss in Her Teens" had been supplemented in New York
in 1787 with the amazingly popular and patriotic "The Con-
trast" by Royall Tyler. This talented young playwright had
once practiced law in Braintree, Massachusetts, and had only
narrowly missed becoming a son-in-law of the Adamses. Per-
haps he even had been moved to write his satire as a result
of that experience. 7

150 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

It may be that the older John Adams was never quite such
an admirer of the stage or of Royall Tyler either, for that
matter as some other members of his family; but his eldest
son became a life-long devotee and student of the drama,
although not of actresses after the age of fourteen! 8 In the
dispute which arose over the exhibitions given in a building
in "Board- Alley" in Boston in 1792, John Quincy came to
the defense of the players when they were being hounded
out of town. However, it must be confessed that his argu-
ment was based not upon the players' intrinsic worth to the
community but on more prosaic and legal grounds, that the
law prohibiting their offerings as well as the action taken
against them was unconstitutional. In this as in so many
other things his personal feelings were subordinated to
"principles." Strong bias did lead him, however, into taking
a position in which he was embarrassingly wrong. He rashly
accepted the silly rumor that old Governor Hancock had
abetted an act of violence against the players.

It was ironical that public controversy should have thus
ensnared John Quincy in 1792, since he professed to have
been trying hard to avoid it. Earlier in the year his chief
public concern had been the mundane matter of improving
local government. Of course it was a year of exciting federal
elections during which his father's fortunes were reviewed
ad nauseam by the entire family; and John Quincy himself
still basked in the reflected glory of his recent political writ-
ings. His admiring friend Bridge jokingly reproached "Dear
Publicola" for his "apostacy"' in having taken to politics, a
career that Bridge had always predicted he would follow. 9
Yet John Quincy sturdily professed an abhorrence of public
attention lest it should injure his rise in the law. He wrote
his father that he was apprehensive of becoming politically
known before he could establish a professional reputation. 10
He had now reached the age of twenty-five.

Why then, late in the year, did he plunge into print again

The Law and the Drama 151

over such a minor issue? No doubt the theater meant a great
deal to him, perhaps more than he realized. Although he was
not in regular attendance in the fall of 1792, two years later
when a new and much better theater had been organized in
Boston with himself as one of the sponsors, he was to attend
three and four times a week. 11 Its seemingly non-political
character also appealed to him. When he apologized to his
father in December for trifling away his time in discussing
theatrical questions and in translating articles on French
politics for a local paper, he gave the excuse that his pen
having lain dormant for nearly a year and a half might best
be revived upon subjects not of the first importance. Certain
topics were closed to him. Reasons of delicacy, he said, pre-
vented him from publicly airing his filial indignation over
election slanders against his father. 12 Belles lettres, of course,
had long since proved an unsatisfactory outlet for his ener-
giesnot to mention that his vein of romance had run thin. 13
Finally he had immediately bristled in opposition to what
he must have considered an almost personal challenge on
the subject of the theater laid down in the public press by
the Attorney General of Massachusetts, the Hon. James Sul-
livan. Not only had John Quincy himself been an accomplice
to "breaking the law" by occasionally attending the theater,
but Sullivan was considered to be a deadly enemy of his
father and himself.

The antipathy of the Adamses at this time for that sturdy
Revolutionary patriot, James Sullivan, probably stemmed
from the fact that he had backed the despised Hancock for
the vice presidency in 1788, apparently even to the extent of
taking a trip south for that purpose. To John Adams his
old Revolutionary associate Sullivan was now like a pesti-
lence to be avoided, a "savage" false and faithless whom old
John swore he might "cross" sometime if he did not mend
his ways! John Quincy had been warned almost hysterically
when he set up his law office in Boston that summer to

152 JOHN QUINGY ADAMS: The Critical Years

beware of Sullivan lest he do him a mischief, and accord-
ingly had been exceedingly prudent in all relations with
him. 14 Admittedly the most popular civil lawyer in Boston,
and a model of deportment and industry despite his fits of
epilepsy, Sullivan was serving in the second year of what
was to be a long and distinguished career as attorney general
of the state. Not only had he taken the first official action
against the players with that "intrepidity of face peculiar to
himself/' but had had the temerity to defend the right of
majority rule in matters of state. This he had done in the
Boston Independent Chronicle on December 13, 1792, over
the signature "A Friend to Peace/* 15 Defending the voice of
the majority was like waving a red flag in front of young
"Publicola," who promptly responded in the Columbian
Centinel under the pen name of "Menander," the Athenian
dramatist and poet. 19

Many citizens of Boston had long wanted a theater. A
very considerable number, however, led by redoubtable
Sam Adams and "Old Honestus" Ben Austin, opposing aris-
tocratic habits and "moral degeneracy," stood firm on the
old colonial statute which had prohibited theaters. This law
had been renewed in Massachusetts in 1785, a year during
which a "Vauxhall" type of entertainment together with
some amateur theatricals had appeared in Boston. Agitation
on the subject nevertheless continued. Sponsorship of a
theater project was made by "Candidus" in the Centinel in
1789 on the grounds that it would be good for business and
also give young people something to do besides carouse! 17
The following year the managers of the old American Com-
pany, who already had theaters in three northern cities in-
cluding Providence, presented a petition to the Massachusetts
legislature for leave to open a playhouse. This petition, how-
ever, had been denied. 18

The matter came to a head at a Boston town meeting in
Faneuil Hall on October 26, 1791. A large majority voted

The Law and the Drama 153

to petition for a repeal of the state prohibition. A minority
of over three hundred moved a counter petition. 19 Political
confusion reigned on an issue that cut across ancient loyal-
ties. Dr. Charles Jarvis, a popular leader, quarreled with old
Sam Adams who for once in his life could not get attention
at a town meeting:

To blast a wicked stage his voice he raised,

And yet that thundering voice could not be heard. 20

Thus was he satirized by one of the Hartford Wits.

Nevertheless, "the mighty Samuel" and moral principles
prevailed in the state legislature the next January, despite
the Boston petition and a remarkable speech by the eccentric
John Gardiner. The proceedings were promptly published
by Isaiah Thomas in his sympathetic Massachusetts Maga-
zine. Gardiner, a man of long foreign residence like John
Quincy himself, and a one-time friend of "Squinting Jack"
Wilkes in London, had been enabled to return to America
in 1783 through the efforts of James Sullivan, no less, among
others. 21 Although Abigail Adams had once called Gardiner
a "madman," he held to the same views as her son in matters
pertaining to literature and the theater. 22

Meanwhile the local journals had taken up the issue in
earnest. The mighty Boston Gazette, always jealous about
the rights of the people, published a grave warning that
three dollars for a seat in the pit of a theater might be but
a trifle to speculators in scripts, but not to honest men! It
said further that "STRANGERS" were threatening to damage
"CITIZENS" the "new" American Company had been import-
ing a number of English actorsand that though "NOISE and
HISSING may possibly gratify the dissolute, and abandoned/'
it would ever be condemned by "the considerate, and virtu-
ous/' This last was a reference to the town meeting which
had treated Sam Adams so rudely. According to the Gazette

154 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

it had lasted for hours during which "many very ingenious
& animated arguments ensued." 23

Despite the law and the attitude of the legislature, con-
struction of an ''Exhibition Room" in "Board- Alley" was
begun in 1792, financed by a number of local citizens includ-
ing Dr. Jarvis and several merchants. The building was a
remodeled livery stable situated on a muddy short-cut be-
tween State and Summer streets and, strange to say, only a
short distance from where James Sullivan had recently
bought land on which to build himself a house. 24 The theatre,
which had a pit, rows of boxes on three sides, and a gallery,
accommodating altogether about 500 persons, was finally
opened in August. Even before it was finished the English
actor Charles Stewart Powell had arrived from the "Theatre
Royal, Co vent Garden," to join the new company, and had
begun to give "concert plays" in Boston's Concert Hall. The
first exhibitions in the new "Room," however, were of the
Sadler's Wells variety tumbling, tightrope walking, a "danc-
ing ballet/' and the "Gallery of Portraits." John Quincy
Adams termed it all "miserable stuff." 25 After about two
months of this sort of entertainment, real plays began to
appear. John Quincy intended to see "The Beaux Stratagem"
on October 3 and did get to see "The Miser" and a panto-
mime a week later. "The best bad, the worst inexplicable/'
he caustically remarked. 26 On October 20 there was another
town meeting on the subject of the theater. On the thir-
tieth John Quincy saw "Hamlet," "a play called a moral
lecture," in which Powell surprised him by the excellence of
his performance; but "Love la Mode" they always gave
double features in "Board- Alley" he thought miserably
done.

Matters were now moving rapidly towards a crisis. On
December 5 the players were "routed by the governor" who
had already complained to the legislature about the situa-

The Law and the Drama 155

tion and had demanded that the reluctant Sullivan take
action. Since no grand jury would indict and since complaint
by an informer was lacking, this was done by arresting an
actor during a performance, catching him in flagrante delicto
so to speak. This not unnaturally caused a riot by the audi-
ence. Although no one would appear in court next day
against the players, they thought it prudent to shut up shop
for the present in "Board-Alley." 27 Young Adams bet an
acquaintance a beaver hat on December 13 that the anti-
theatrical statute would not be repealed in two years. 28 The
fact is that for all practical purposes it was done the next
spring. Incidentally, December 13 was the same day that
Sullivan wrote in the Chronicle to explain the administra-
tion's attitude towards the players. The day following, John
Quincy himself started writing and as "Menander" first ap-
peared in the Centinel on December 19.

John Quincy made three principal points in his rebuttal
to Sullivan. (1) "In a free government the minority never
can be under an obligation to sacrifice their rights ta the
will of the majority. . . ." (2) ". . . the conduct of those citi-
zens of Boston, who from a cold and deliberate opinion
that the law prohibiting theatrical entertainments is uncon-
stitutional, have attended the exhibitions in Board-Alley,
is not unjustifiable." (3) ". . if they had not Hibernian
blood enough in their veins to turn State witness against
themselves, they had enough of American spirit about them
not to avoid by any subterfuge a legal investigation."

The first point about protection against majority rule was
a carryover from John Quincy's argument the previous year
against Paine's The Rights of Man., and his whole detesta-
tion of French Revolutionary doctrines. The second point
voiced his understanding of the individual's right of private
judgment. The third was plainly an expression of contempt
for the reasoning of that "Hibernian," James Sullivan, a
son of Irish redemptioners, who had suggested that the pro-

156 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

testers should make a test case of themselves in order to
bring the matter to court. Young Adams had obviously been
re-examining his stock of convictions about American rights.
Indeed, he had recently been steeping himself in works on
American history, 29 but at the same time obviously retaining
certain ' 'un-American" prejudices. He noted in his diary
that at his club where "Menander" was the topic of conversa-
tionthe authorship was wrongly attributed to Dr. Jarvis
the expression, "Hibernian blood/' was disapproved. 30 The
implication is obvious.

The second of the "Menander" articles in the Centinel,
on December 22, directly attacked the legality of the pro-
ceedings against the players. It transferred the major blame
from Sullivan to Hancock who was accused of having acted
unconstitutionally in first calling the subject to the attention
of the legislature. While the ex officio character of the war-
rant used by the attorney general was roundly denounced,
this too was attributed to the haste which "the passion of
an important personage gave to the whole affair."

That passion, Sir, if common report may be credited proceeded
so far, as to sanction other measures, where the substance and the
forms of law were equally disregarded. It is well-known that on
the Friday evening after the interruption of the entertainment,
a number of people, were unlawfully collected, with the professed
intention of pulling down the building where the performances
had been exhibited. That they declared they had the express
permission of the Chief Magistrate to put their design in execu-
tion is beyond a doubt; and this permission, it is said was given
at his own house, where they went in a body to request it.

Thus had Governor Hancock been guilty of countenancing
popular fury, according to young "Menander"!

John Quincy Adams never made a worse mistake in his
whole life than in this instance of letting his passion run
away with the sober facts. Madam Adams proudly wrote
about the second "Menander" number, saying wittily that

The Law and the Drama 157

the governor had certainly burnt his fingers and that as soon
as the general court convened he would surely have the gout
as was his habit in time of trouble. Old John Adams in New
York, however, was properly sceptical. While appreciating
hearing about the "History of Tragedy, Comedy, and Farce,"
the old gentleman had too much common sense to think that
Governor Hancock had given encouragement to the rioters
to meddle with the playhouse or the board fences; if the
mob said so, the mob had lied. 31 And such, indeed, proved to
have been the case. The rioters had in fact been checked,
rather than encouraged, by the governor.

So "Menander" now had to write an apologetic third
piece. 32 The Gazette had meantime come to Hancock's de-
fense with a blistering attack upon those "idle scribblers
under fictitious signatures" who were trying to tear down
good government in favor of one "more congenial to their
views of a mixed monarchy" (Who but an Adams could have
been indicated?) The "atrocious falsehood" of "Menander"
was said to have been made worse by his methods of insinua-
tion, "like a coward, and an assassin. . . ." 33 Another article
in the same issue sarcastically asked where the rights of the
minority were now, in view of the action of a recent town
meeting which had denounced counter-petitions as irregular.
The article sneeringly requested that those who chose to
exercise the "Rights of Man" might at least have the liberty
the constitution gave them, of petitioning the legislature
against a repeal of the act prohibiting theatrical entertain-
ments. This was something like turning "Menander 's" argu-
ment against himself.

What could John Quincy Adams say? The despotic action
of the town meeting he simply ignored; 34 but he had to eat
humble pie in admitting that he was happy to find that the
report against the governor was without any foundation.
However he pointed out that he had "cautiously avoided"
stating this as a positive fact. As to the epithets of "coward"

158 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

and "assassin," these he called the usual terms employed by
the humble friends of "great men." He said that he had had
no intention of fixing false charges upon the chief magistrate,
but that this did not do away with the larger question as to
the propriety of the whole proceeding in which the governor
had been engaged.

With such a defiant "apology'' did young "Menander"
conclude his sorry career, marked first by crudely insulting
Sullivan and then by repeating unfounded rumors against
the governor. But his doting mother, while acknowledging
that his father had been right in doubting the libel against
Hancock, still thought that two of the three "Menander"
atricles were in a "masterly style" that of December 19 and
the other of unknown date because the tell-tale date is blotted
out! 35

This unfortunate affair reveals John Quincy Adams in
late 1792 to have been in a most unhappy and confused state
of mind. A matter not of the first magnitude, as he himself
had termed it, 36 had first enticed him into print and had
then become the occasion for permitting spleen to under-
mine his judgment. It is significant that on the day before
the first "Menander" article appeared, he had confessed that
a weight of anxiety lay heavily on his mind. He had been
reading Livy, lamenting that time was fleeting but protest-
ing, "Yet for what am I to blame? " The old bitter thought
had been growing upon him that his situation in so many
ways was not of his own making. No doubt he was seeking
excuses for having sent his first "Menander" communication
to the press, though he was man enough to reproach himself
for whining. 37

It is not to be wondered at that a person in such a state
of mental turmoil should have committed errors of judg-
ment. Confusion in his sense of values must have excited
such irresponsible passion. To explain how this confusion
had come about, let us review his twelve months past. The

The Law and the Drama 159

year had actually started off rather well, but had grown in-
creasingly distasteful to him.

The aftermath of the "Publicola" incident in 1791 had
left John Quincy physically exhausted, his eyes remaining
sore until September; but one suspects that the incident had
given him enormous satisfaction. Within a month, more-
over, he was writing in a rarely optimistic vein to his younger
brother, Thomas Boylston Adams. He had been surprisingly
pleased by his performance in October at the Court of Com-
mon Pleas. "I found my satisfaction in myself growing much
stronger, and acquitted myself more to my satisfaction than
I had ever done before." 38 This was high praise indeed from
an old practitioner of "nervous eloquence," one so eternally
critical of himself. He even hoped to improve his capacity
for forensic contention. For fifteen months this had been
one of the greatest sources of his anxiety and apprehension.
Thomas Boylston knew of his fear on this score and how
fatal it could be in the legal profession. The future profes-
sor of oratory at Harvard and future author of two volumes
on that subject 39 was apparently beginning to feel that he
was making some progress along the rocky road of public
speaking.

Another reason for this brief outburst of confidence was
an extemporaneous speech he had recently delivered before
a committee of the general court. The subject was the incor-
poration of the North Parish of Braintree into the separate
town of Quincy. This important but troublesome affair had
come to a head after fifty years of agitation, and now was to
engage his attention for several months. Although he said
that "like Dogberry in the play" he had bestowed all his
"tediousness" on their honors, the incident obviously had
not gone off badly. 40

Despite renewal of his usual bouts of doubting and dull-
ness, another local matter also attracted his attention at this
time. In a town meeting held in Boston in December, 1791,

160 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

he had been chosen a member of a committee to report on
measures for reform of the town police. This was a part of
the larger question of reforming the whole town government,
perhaps even of the town's becoming incorporated. To John
Quincy's astonishment his nomination for a place on the
committee had been made by Dr. Jarvis "Dr. Demigog"
to his critics one of the local politicians detested by the
Adamses. On being questioned the doctor surprisingly said
that the country was under great obligations to John Adams
and that it was proper to pay some notice to his sons. Also,
John Quincy seemed to him to be a sensible young man. 41

This was the beginning of a split in town affairs that helps
to explain some of the confusion over the question of the
theater in the months following. Together with a dispute
over an appointment to the state Supreme Court, the split
temporarily drove a wedge between Hancock, Sam Adams,
Ben Austin and some of their nominal supporters. "Old
Honestus" Austin now took the lead against reforming the
constabulary in opposition to both Jarvis and Sullivan. In a
tempestuous town meeting in January it confirmed John
Quincy in his "contempt of simple democracy as a Govern-
ment'* Austin became so insulting in his manner that a
street fight resulted the next day. Ben Russell, stalwart pub-
lisher of the Gentinel, pulled Austin's nose and spit in his
face thereby bringing on an action for assault and battery. 42
It is interesting to note that when the suit was settled a year
later, John Quincy was to report the nominal jury settlement
as a victory for his friend Russell. In a long newspaper con-
tribution he was to excoriate Austin as a local Jacobin. 43

This question about the police kept John Quincy occupied
with committee meetings in early 1792, but actually he got
very little satisfaction out of it. Not only did the final com-
mittee report displease him, since it cut out the part he
considered most important, 44 but Austin and his followers
at the stormy meeting had overthrown what remained. When

The Law and the Drama 161

he later thought over the events of this unhappy year, John
Quincy gloomily concluded that he would do well to keep
clear of politics altogether. All of his views seemed to be as
unpopular as his conduct had been on the subjects of the
police and the theater. His father then tried to comfort him
by saying he rejoiced that his son had taken such positions,
not that he wished him to be unpopular but that his views
were right. In any case, a setback in his political career would
give him time for his profession. 45 Apparently his father
always took for granted his son's ultimate political career.
How John Quincy must have wished that the same could be
said for his legal practice!

Even in this respect, in early 1792 he seems temporarily
to have enjoyed more business than heretofore. He even
argued several cases in court, winning, one in January but
losing an important one in April. He also settled several
matters out of court including the affairs of an estate. A
little business even necessitated his taking an overnight trip
to Worcester. But soon he was again "busy with nothing."
His sole public activity now was to serve as one of the clerks
of the market, a kind of office primarily concerned with
dining and drinking. Melancholy grew upon him. By mid
April, the day after he lost the Titcomb case, he was "very
unwell" and lamenting with all his old time fervor about
his insufficiency at the law. That day he resolved again to
resume writing a journal, a practice given up during his
illness in the fall of 1788. It was a resolution, he glumly said,
which he had adopted the year before and "perhaps for the
fiftieth time/' 46

"Why continue with a journal?" he querulously asked him-
self on that unhappy day. Trivial events, scarcely rising
above insipidity, together with painful occurrences and mor-
tifying reflections, were surely not worth recording. The last
year had not been without its instruction, but the "difficul-
ties, and perplexities under which I laboured twelve months

162 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

since" still continued, and were increased by the considera-
tion that "I have now gone through another annual revo-
lution in my progress to the grave, without advancing a step
in my career, as it relates to this world." Yet he saw no use
in complaining and resolved to try to do better.

His journal was dropped again after a few days, only to
be briefly resumed a month later with a brave effort at self-
exhortation. He denounced his lack of application and the
childish opinion that "extraordinary genius" is incompatible
with plpdding. (This criticism was directed at some of his
fellows but the "genius" referred to must have included his
own!) Since he could scarcely hold any expectations of pur-
suing a public career either from his present situation or
from that of his country, and since his thoughts of under-
taking a "useful literary performance" would interfere with
his profession, he concluded that he must continue to make
the law his first interest. 47 Yet only a few days earlier he had
called "these sandy desarts of legal study" an "unnatural
cultivation." 48 It is clear that both politics and literature
continued to be secretly cherished ambitions.

It is only fair to bear in mind that such self-deprecation
by John Quincy Adams was only one man's opinion, that of
his severest critic. These were secret thoughts and plainly
exaggerated. They were made also during a bitter period
following a serious set-back at the bar. Nevertheless, it seems
significant that it was general reading rather than legal
studies which attracted him in the months that followed.
After his parents' return to Quincy in May, he spent his
weekends there and principally employed his "idle" time
in reading literature. He read Milton and Pope that summer,
supplementing these authors with numerous works on Amer-
ican history, such as the Reverend Jeremy Belknap's History
of New Hampshire, Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts-
Bay, and Winthrop's Journal. Later in the year he read a
good deal of Jonathan Swift, including the Tale of a Tub.

The Law and the Drama 163

He seems to have preferred satire as that unhappy year pro-
gressed. 49

As for his repeated "failures" to renew his journal, we
should note in John Quincy's favor that he never had failed
even during the period of his worst illness to record at least
a line or two each day in his almanac diary. This was an
achievement remarkable in itself. Moreover his life in this
year of confusion, as well as at other times, must be eval-
uated not only in the light of his pessimistic reflections about
his lack of professional success, but in the sum total of all
his activities. On the social side, these activities had con-
tinued to be as heavy as ever, although with increasing em-
phasis on male companionship.

Foremost among his social engagements had been faithful
attendance at his club, a meeting of eight or ten young men
with an occasional older person. The club met on Saturday
evenings at one of the member's home. Vinous conviviality
and lively conversation held sway. An eighteenth century
English institution, the club must have been an idea that
John Quincy had picked up abroad. Surely none could have
been more regularly attended than his. After he left Boston
in 1794 it speedily degenerated into a Saturday night tavern
affair. 50

Foremost among his rakish associates at the "Crackbrain
Club," or visiting for an occasional chat at his office, were
sons of local men of affairs. There was the facetious Tom
Crafts, son of a prominent judge and politician; Nathan
Frazier, Jr., a cousin of the beautiful and 'lost" Mary; John
Gardner, Jr., and the Sargent brothers, all sons of local mer-
chants. From these and other boon companions they nick-
named each other "Starveling," "The Fat Knight," "Sir
John/* "The Squire," "Longwharf" and so forth John
Quincy seems to have learned unnatural, raffish talk. 51 These
were his boisterous friends for evening walks, for supping at
Julien's, or for bowling and drinking at Birds the latter in

164 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

John Quincy '$ overly-heated imagination probably the local
equivalent of the fabled Boar's Head Tavern! Not only was
he their leading spirit but he seems to have gained their warm
affection, as had also been true with certain members of his
old club in Newburyport. John Gardner was an especially
admiring friend, somewhat in the same way James Bridge had
been earlier. 52 One fellow named Hall was especially note-
worthy because a meeting at his home usually meant heavy
drinking. John Quincy invariably regretted these particular
bouts and swore to avoid them henceforth.

Although the club meetings were of increasing importance
to John Quincy, they were still infrequent affairs compared
with his many teas and "evenings at home" in Boston. These
were old pleasures dating from the moment he had arrived
back in America. Of peculiar interest at this time, however,
was his rather negative reaction to the young ladies he met
on such occasions, or at assembly balls during the winter.
Many prominent families of Boston, including Gushing,
Gray, Amory, Breck, and Higginson, had one or more eligible
daughters with whom he became well acquainted. If he had
a favorite among them in the spring of 1792 it was probably
Sally Gray with whom he occasionally held a private conver-
sation. This might even be called his "Sally Gray year"; but
it was a mild affair at best He recorded on May 24 that he
had talked with Sally upon a subject "once very interesting";
but he laconically added, "at present indifferent." 53 And that
seems to be about as far as it went.

Romance was still a baneful topic. As he remarked, follow-
ing a party in February, "nothing could a charm impart."
Female society was only tolerable, and it did not tend to im-
prove. Perhaps he was not too popular with the ladies him-
self, with the possible exception of Miss Gray. At one assem-
bly in the fall he actually could not get a single partner to
dance, and at another he got but one. 54 Nevertheless, these
were exceptional occasions at the close of a most depressing

The Law and the Drama 165

year. Like Job he had even suffered an affliction of boils on
his face.

The aftermath of the Frazier affair unquestionably still
rankled. Indeed, John Quincy was to describe its effects
strongly several years later. Perhaps he even met Mary on
several occasions in Boston since one of the homes he occa-
sionally visited there was that of a certain "Miss Frazier," pre-
sumably some relation of the Newburyport family. 55 How-
ever, there seems to have been no attempt by John Quincy to
renew the Mary Frazier affair at this or at any other time,
although he had become an almost daily associate of her
cousin Nathan, with whom he sometimes reproached himself
for being "imprudent" in conversation. 56

If the young man suffered the pangs of love in 1792, it
apparently was love of a varied kind if the remnants of his
poetical strivings may serve as evidence. In his private book
of poems there are two "Elegies to Miranda" which relate
to this period. 57 The first is of little consequence. It was
addressed to "Miranda" on her birthday wherein she is ac-
claimed the acme of all perfection, but one whose heart
"never can be mine." The second elegy is much more sug-
gestive for an understanding of its author in this troublesome
year. It is a humorously ironic lament about his proneness to
fall in love! It is a satire about his ability to be attracted by
females of all descriptions, regardless of person, manners, or
even color.

Imperious Beauty's ever varying forms,

By turns assume their empire o'er my heart,

Each new attraction, my fond bosom warms,

Now nature's bloom, and now the grace of Art.

Be she fair fifteen or some fearless widow who "her ripe
charms displays," the fair coquette, or even the prude who
treats one with disdain, he declared he could love them all.
Whether learned or vulgar they made their appeal, he said,

166 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

for " 'Tis simple Nature, and can be no sin." One stanza was
reminiscent of the "theme" of "Scipio Africanus":

All colours please me, black or brown or white

For 'black though comely* was the wise man's flame;

A fair complexion yields me vast delight,

And yet, how just the nut-brown maiden's fame.

And then the anguished conclusion:

Blame not the Bard because the objects change,
But Oh! Miranda, lend thy generous aid

To fix one heart, that fain would cease to range;
Tempt him with beauties that will never fade.

If the poem is taken to mean anything at all in a personal
sense, all that can reasonably be concluded is that John
Quincy Adams in 1792 was revolving wildly between various
objects of his affection. That he should have truly wished
that there was someone like ''Miranda" is readily understand-
able. That there was not may have been a part of his unhappi-
ness. But the "Bard," as was his wont, was unwilling to blame
himself for his own condition.

For whatever reasons, as the year progressed his melan-
cholic moods increased. The heat of summer as usual de-
pressed him, although he did manage to do a lot of bowling
as a supplement to his daily regimen of walking. There was
also frequent convivial supping at Birds Tavern. He sullenly
asked himself, "Time misspent, but why should it be other-
wise?" He even failed to go to his beloved Harvard in Sep-
tember for the annual Phi Beta Kappa "exhibition" at which,
we recall, he had been the stellar attraction just prior to his
illness in 1788. That had been a year in many ways unhappily
similar to this. Soon he was miserably confessing to himself
that he had done wrong not to have gone.^

The almost daily walks that he took in the evening or at
night, sometimes after his club and as late as one or two A.M.,
also brought experiences that seem to have heightened his

The Law and the Drama 167

growing tension. These walks were a form of the exercise so
necessary to maintain his health and were invariably taken
on the Boston "Mall," usually with a friend but sometimes
alone. The great mall ran the length of the Boston Common
from the old Burying Ground to the Public Granary, then
into the little mall, or "Paddock's Walk," or into a path be-
hind the granary which crossed obliquely to Beacon Street
and ran westward up that side of the Common, terminating
in the region facetiously called "Mt. Whoredom." 59

For some strange reason beginning in August, 1792, these
nightly walks on the mall developed reactions of repugnance
and even of danger in young John Quincy Adams. Perhaps
in referring to extraordinary experiences he may have been
overly fond, as was Dr. Watson, of words such as "adventure."
When he lamented "dissipation," for example, it invariably
meant no more than his having drunk too much wine. Yet
some of his experiences in the mall were admittedly odd. On
August 27 following his walk he noted, "N B & avoid!" A
week later, "Walking in the Mall all the Eve g . Fortunately
unsuccessful." Four days after this he went walking with
Daniel Sargent but "parted accidentally, and I got fortunately
home/' A month later he recorded another sort of titillating
experience, "Disconcerted madame in walk in the MalL"
This was after he and some of his rakish friends had dined
and perhaps wined together too well. 60

No doubt such cryptic utterancesthey were to be even
more frequently recorded the next yearare capable of vari-
ous interpretations. At the least they do suggest occasional
excessive concern in connection with these nightly strolls.
There can be little doubt that poor John Quincy was in an
unusually tense state of mind in the fall of 1792. In October
he suffered several bad nights of sleeplessness reminiscent of
those of October, 1788. 61 Perhaps like some Puritan Boswell
another young gentleman famous for recording his thoughts
and experiences John Quincy was being subjected to all the

168 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

dangers from footpads and other designing persons who com-
monly beset gentlemen on their nightly perambulations in
the eighteenth century. Perhaps the mall in Boston was not
so greatly different from that in St. James's Park in London.
In any case, John Quincy Adams plainly feared it, despite the
vicarious thrills it may have given him.

So the theater controversy in the fall of the year must have
been a very welcome if "trifling" diversion to this generally
unemployed and badly upset young man. But it is evident
that he was not in a judicial mood for the proper appraisal
of this or any other emotionally charged issue. It should
further be remembered that he was incessantly being exposed
in the latter part of this year to the torrent of his father's sus-
picions about political "treachery." These included the mach-
inations of Clinton of New York to replace him as vice
president Alexander Hamilton had warned as early as June
of thisand the malicious talent which Thomas Jefferson was
displaying for the spirit of "faction." 62 The political enemies
of the father were natural objects of attack by a loyal son.
Among those local enemies were the unspeakable Hancock
and his first lieutenant, Attorney General James Sullivan. It
was certainly revealing how John Quincy had concluded
there was significance in Governor Hancock's decision to vent
his "peevishness" on the players on the very day that the re-
sults of the federal elections in Masachusetts became known!

At the beginning of 1792, John Quincy had humorously
summed up his unprofitable business situation and his in-
ability to get along in local affairs by quoting his beloved
Shakespeare, saying with Ancient Pistol, " 'si fortuna me tor-
menta, il sperare me contenta' " 63 By the end of this trying
year, although he was more deeply involved in "Shakespear-
ean" things than ever, his sense of humor had pretty well
evaporated. As he sourly wrote his father shortly after the be-
ginning of the action against the theater, "All the actors are
now gone," **

The Law and the Drama 169

However he was just as wrong in thinking that the players
would not soon be back as he had been in "accusing" the
governor of abetting a riot against them. He had wagered
wrongly on both counts and had lost a beaver hat, at leastl
What he had accomplished by his passionate efforts was
scarcely to be described, to borrow one of Dogberry's words,
as "suffigance." But he had clearly demonstrated another step
forward in his development as a controversial participant in
the hurly-burly of public affairs.

CHAPTER NINE

NEUTRALITY AND L'ENVOI

"I am on the bridge between
wisdom and folly*'

The unsuspected and surprising news reached John Quincy
Adams on June 3, 1794, that President Washington had de-
termined to send him abroad as minister resident at The
Hague. He had never sought public office and knew that his
father had never sought it for him. A few days later, however,
he did ask him whether he had had any prior knowledge of
the appointment. His father's satisfaction at the appointment
was in fact much greater than his own. John Quincy said that
he rather wished it had not been made at all! 1

Within several days he began to suffer bouts of serious ill
health, even necessitating his being bled. These bouts con-
tinued throughout the early part of the summer. Sailing was
put off until September because of unavoidable delays. 2 In
July he had to make an official visit to Philadelphia. There
his father warned him to attend to his dress a little since "No
man alive is more attentive to these things than the Presi-
dent." 3 This was not the first time in recent years, however,
that John Quincy had been warned about his careless appear-
ance. He suffered continuously on the trip south; as always,
the heat of the summer affected him. The prospect of leaving
the country was also depressing. He hated to think of parting
from friends, although as a matter of fact the companionable
Tom Crafts had left for Europe only a few weeks before and
at least four other members of the "Crackbrain Club" in
Boston were to follow there shortly. In addition to reasons

170

Neutrality and L'Envoi 171

of sentiment, John Quincy felt it a duty to live in one's own
country, and anticipated returning as soon as possible. Above
all he feared that his leaving would be a serious check to his
career in law that finally had begun to develop after three
long years of waiting. 4

So, in 1794 John Quincy Adams at the age of twenty-seven
was to leave his native land somewhat as he had done as a
lad fifteen years earlier as an act of duty and against his per-
sonal wishes! Now as always his private life seemed to be
sacrificed to his country's needs. He would go at the Presi-
dent's behest and would serve at pleasure, but he himself had
not sought the appointment.

Nevertheless the situation had been of his own making. In
the year preceding his appointment, despite all his desperate
devotion to the law, John Quincy had made himself one of
the foremost controversialists in the American newspaper
press on the subject of foreign affairs and French relations.
He had written first as "Marcellus" in April, 1793, and then
as "Columbus" and as "Barneveld" in December '93 and
January '94. Many of his articles, originally appearing in the
Boston papers, were reprinted in New York and elsewhere.
Although he wrote under pseudonyms, his authorship be-
came well known. His mother, the irrepressible Abigail, even
coyly but unsuccessfully tried to get Senator George Cabot of
Massachusetts, already titular head of a nascent "Essex
Junto," to have "Columbus's" writings published in Phila-
delphia. Cabot had expressed a hope the previous summer
that John Quincy would take up his pen against "Citizen
Genet"; but he was not now impressed with the need for re-
publication. 5 Genet had already bowed out.

Public distinction if not a foreign appointment must have
been something that John Quincy craved, possibly even more
than he himself knew. In his long lamentation of May, 1792,
he had mentioned the lack of prospects in his country's serv-
ice as well as in his profession. 6 Nor had all of his public con-

172 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

tributions consisted of "anonymous" writings or of commit-
tee work for the town. In January, 1793, he had made some
remarks at a town meeting in Faneuil Hall that had attracted
favorable attention, even though he was on the unpopular
side of the issue. 7 Certainly his love of public controversy
reached a new high that year, despite all his apprehensions
about its effect on his legal career. Shortly after the first "Mar-
cellus" number appeared in the Centinel in April, 1793, he
fretfully recorded in his diary, "I am on the bridge between
wisdom and folly/' 8 This may have been an expression of
anxiety on some other score he had several matters to worry
him as we shall see but it probably showed apprehension
caused by his having again yielded to his love of print. He
probably felt a good deal like his father who, between out-
bursts of delight over his son's public writings, would assev-
erate that there was no future for a lawyer in a printer's
office. 9

It seems to have been true for 1793, as for the year immedi-
ately preceding, that public controversy not only was cher-
ished by young Adams for its own sake contentiousness was
plainly growing upon him but it had become a real necessity
as he champed on the bit of fancied idleness. Not until 1794
did his law practice improve to the point where he could dis-
pense with an allowance from his family. Curiously, this im-
provement came in part owing to the kindness of his old
"enemy," James Sullivan, whom recently he had been abus-
ing so badly in the press. 10 Even at that juncture, however, he
was yet lamenting that his practice amounted to so little.

Meantime the tempo of his private life seemed to have be-
come more strident and unsatisfactory than ever. It is inter-
esting to note that he had again begun to put on weight. He
sometimes worried about his legal work, but his greater con-
cern was with his life of clubbing, roistering, keeping late
hours, and occasionally drinking too much wine with ill ef-
fects the next day with all kinds of "dissipation/ 1 in short,

Neutrality and L'Envoi 173

that wasted time and led to inefficiency. It always seemed to
be his luck to get some business the day after one of those
nights! Despite his general record of devotion to serious mat-
ters he was continually engaged in self-recrimination and in
making resolutions to do better. On New Year's Eve in 1793,
for example, he deliberately stayed away from his friends
only to have them come to his lodgings to drink champagne,
so that, as he disgustedly recorded, he "ended the year with
folly/* n

The mightiest effort he made to reform himself was shortly
before the arrival of the unexpected news of his appointment
to The Hague. In his diary for May 13, 1794, he had noted,
"temperance compulsive." He commended a "new regimen"
to himself a week later, but with the gloomiest forebodings.
He forced himself to come home early to "self-inflicted em-
ployment" and to "new application," finding himself within
a few days reduced to the point where he was dangling be-
tween "hope and fear." Perhaps such desperate self-discipline
included an effort -his annual spring effort to revive his
journal or possibly to turn his hand to some new kind of writ-
ing. But whatever it was he came perilously close to grief. Al-
though he had been fairly prudent at the club on May 31,
after taking supper at Hall's he again fell by the wayside and
arrived home late at night with his heart "unfit for examina-
tion." 12

Fortunately, only three days afterwards the news came of
his appointment to The Hague. Surely this was a saving act of
providence if there ever was one, despite all his half-hearted
protests to the contrary. However it was to turn back into
Puritan channels the main stream of his life-long hopes for
literary distinction. For the first time since his illness in 1788,
he now by a mighty effort of will did successfully revive his
journal, 13 to be continued for the rest of his life as "memoirs."
Its old motto was more significant than ever: "La molsse est
douce, et sa suite est oruelle." It was like an echo from a child-

174 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

hood reproach against idleness: "I make but a poor figure at
composition, my head is much too fickle, my thoughts run-
ning after birds eggs play and trifles, till I get vexed with
myself." 14

While John Quincy had been struggling through those
early years of "painful suspense and tedious expectation" at
the law, 15 an unusual amount of latitude in conduct had no
doubt been a very natural thing, encouraged as it was by the
bitter memory of things lost or at least never renewed. On
hearing in 1795 of his younger brother Charles' marriage to
someone he himself admired and goaded by a singularly inept
remark by his father, John Quincy wrote his mother a most
revealing letter. He fiercely lamented the struggle he had
once had to go through as a result of his "prudential sacrifice"
in giving up the lovely Mary Frazier in 1790. He had done
all this at a cost to himself, he said, that he alone knew, in-
cluding the price of "blunted sensations." He acknowledged
that he had lived through the ordeal and had "never intended
not to." But he declared that his success had been "perhaps
principally due to facilities in its execution which might have
failed, and which were more serviceable to my intentions than
flattering to my pride." 16

Here is one explanation of the occasional "dissipation" he
had so uneasily enjoyed in Boston. Had he not bitterly re-
solved in 1791 never to be perfect? 17 Mild as such "facilities"
must have appeared to many persons in the eighteenth cen-
tury, to this young Puritan for Puritan he was despite all his
European experience such activities unquestionably repre-
sented a grave danger. Not only were they allied to idleness,
but the evils of loose companions had already been amply
demonstrated by his charming but luckless brother Charles.
Tavern-drinking in particular had been a life-long abomina-
tion to his father, who certainly was no teetotaler since he
enjoyed a tankard of hard cider each morning before break-
fast. There was also his mother's unfortunate brother to stand
as a family warning. 18 For a time such "facilities" may well

Neutrality and L'Envoi 175

have seemed necessary for survival to young John Quincy
Adams; but i so, he had never been proud of them. As he
later wrote to a friend from abroad, he had never been cut
out to be a "rake." When he had been thrown into that char-
acter he had performed the part with "as little grace as en-
joyment." From the "damnable" attractions of some of his
friends and his own perennial failures at reformation, he
then found himself happily in Holland "once more my own
man again," in firm control of those habits which he had "in
some measure lost" in Boston. 19

This private quarrel between prudence and folly con-
tinued to agitate him all the time he was writing in 1793 on
the need for prudence in the conduct of foreign affairs. The
two problems were somehow connected in his thinking! A
parallel is at least suggested in "Columbus No. II," in the
remark that "parties are to the public body, what the passions
are to the individual." 20 His character had begun to harden
perhaps it even became too hardas he sought to assert him-
self more effectively in both private and public matters.

One of the most revealing personal items he ever wrote in
his diary was his confession on March 12, 1793, that at a dance
that night he "made intentionally an offensive reply." 21 This
had unpleasant implications. In public affairs it recalls the
offensive tone in his recent "Menander" articles, and it fore-
shadowed the invective in his newspaper writings a year later.
His satire had plainly begun to turn to spleen. Cutting and
caustic remarks, so characteristic of his mature style of com-
position, were to become blatant in the "Barneveld" articles
against James Sullivan, beginning in the Boston papers in
December, 1793. 22 These ultimately were to bring precau-
tionary warnings even from his proud parents, but surely they
demonstrated a new skill at partisan abuse. However, no such
personal characteristics can be detected in either the "Mar-
cellus" articles or in his statesman-like Fourth of July oration
that year, the latter delivered in a lofty tone of non-partisan-

176 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

shipunless indeed "statesmanship" can somehow be identi-
fied with that hardening of the private affections of which he
was later to complain so bitterly. 23

Alternations between indulgence and regret were now so
continual with John Quincy Adams as to become as monoto-
nous as they were disturbing. He had started off the new year
with his customary round of dining and assemblies, and with
only an occasional self-reproach. But on March 31 he was
injudicious at his club and subsequently became ill. Yet he
succeeded in avoiding another drinking bout and even with-
drew from a party the next day when he found himself in
bad company. 24 Henceforth he seems to have found less pleas-
ure in mixed affairs than before. But sometimes he still at-
tended affairs with young ladies, particularly those that in-
cluded Sally Gray, or at least until he rudely spoiled their
friendly relations by refusing to take Sally home from a party
one night in June. 25

Other social activities were unabated. He was continually
dining out with male companions. In addition to occasional
visits to the theater, which was briefly revived in Boston that
spring, there were also the dutiful meetings at church and
visits to Quincy over the weekends. More interest and excite-
ment attended his nightly strolls and his convivial club. For
example in the evening of April 23 he was involved in a "fool-
ish adventure" in which however "discretion prevailed/' Just
what this refers to is unfortunately not clear. Two weeks later
he tried to console himself for an "error" by committing a
"folly," leaving himself with the most painful reflections. Yet
he considered himself a "sport of chance" and would not ad-
mit that it had been altogether his fault. A walk at two A.M.
in the mall several nights later was rather "fortunate than
otherwise." On May 27 he was "guilty of extravagance" at
Birds Tavern; and the next day "silly again," apparently in
conversation during a walk in the mall. On another walk on
June 4 he recorded that he was prudent; but on the twentieth

Neutrality and L'Envoi 177

in the mall he was "not so wise as sometimes. Home this eve-
ning almost despairing/' 26

Some of these remarks suggest that John Quincy had be-
come almost pathetically self-conscious about a tendency to
speak too freely. "Too tonguey" would have been the Yankee
expression. An occasional lack of prudence in speech had in-
deed troubled him for some time past, along with a tendency
to feel "silly." Perhaps he had developed an embarrasing pen-
chant for using "macaroni" expressions as a part of that new
rakish behavior so unbecoming to him. When he met several
young men and women out walking one evening in June he
"made a lamentable mistake again"; and on July 5 he parted
in the mall from his old friend Gardner "very foolishly." But
embarrassment arising from loose speech could have been
only a part of his anxiety. A few days later he again experi-
enced some kind of an "adventure" in the mall, but again
suffered no harm. 27 And so, to a lesser extent, did his difficul-
ties continue throughout the fall. One can only guess at their
meaning. On a lamentable night in November he said that
he indulged "beyond all hazards" and was left two days later
still "trembling" for the wages of his sins. 28 Such activities
were soon to be interrupted, however, by his preoccupation
in writing "Columbus," and then "Barneveld."

Yet one of his most curious personal experiences came at
this very time. In early December, at eight o'clock in the eve-
nings of three days running, he had appointments of some
kind in front of the porch of the Brattle Street Church. Pre-
sumably this was the one which then stood in the vicinity of
present day Scollay Square. Each night he was "fortunate"
that there was a lack of "correspondent punctuality"; he was
"luckily unsuccessful" and escaped "unhurt." 29 For whom
could he have been waiting those cold nights in the winter's
snow? He was to have a similar experience at another mys-
terious appointment in the evening of March 4, 1794, but
which he said was "very well" with him. Three days earlier,

178 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

it may be noted, on one of his evening walks in the mall he
had again met with several adventures, one of which he said
was "really affecting." 30 Since this obviously had to do with
some unfortunate creature, it suggests that being solicited by
a streetwalker may have been one of the things that he meant
by "adventure." In such a topsy-turvy fashion did his esca-
pades and lucky escapes continue.

So, too, did his lamentations and resolutions continue.
When he dined at Hall's one February evening in 1794, he
said that he could not possibly "have done worse." In late
March he recorded the unhappy conviction that life in this
state was "no blessing," and sternly asked himself why he did
not maintain his spirit "while under sentence." Two days
later he despairingly cried, "When will the vulture leave my
bosom?" On April 1, following some keen disappointment-
perhaps over hopes which had excited these outbursts he
declared all his expectations fruitless. Soon he became in-
volved in a "double folly" at Hall's, only to try and brace
himself for another go at reformation. He was still miserably
asking himself on April 22, "Anticipations for futurity
what?" 31

His principal diversion in these troubled months of early
1794 had been an almost day to day attendence at the newly
built theater which had opened in "Board-Alley" in Febru-
ary, and of which he was one of the financial patrons. It be-
came an oasis in a desert of desolation, helping to quench his
inordinate thirst for diversion, although not always in fullest
measure. One of the last performances he saw was on May 26,
"The Virgin Unmasked," the old Fielding farce about mar-
riage which he tersely dismissed as the "worst play I ever saw
or read." 32

It is doubly clear, then, that in the spring of 1794 just
prior to his last Herculean attempt at reform and prior to
the salutary appointment abroad, the young man had been
suffering an almost intolerable disturbance of spirits. This

Neutrality and L'Envoi 179

may have been due in part to worry about his law cases and
almost certainly to his indiscretions. Possibly involved, too,
was bitter disappointment over the failure of President Wash-
ington to appoint him Federal Attorney General for New
England. There had been some foundation for such hope, 33
and if news of this had somehow leaked out then ambition for
public distinction had also been a "vulture" that was tearing
at his liver. He scarcely could have been his father's son had
it been otherwise, as his Aunt Mary Cranch had long ago
observed upon his return from Europe. 34

Yet he had always denied that ambition had prompted the
writing of any of his newspaper articles. On one occasion he
said rather grimly that he hoped at the very least what he was
doing was for the benefit of his country; and it was one of
his favorite maxims that it is an individual's right and duty
to express himself on momentous affairs. Indeed, it was by
quoting this self-justifying assertion, together with an expres-
sion taken from John Quincy's 1793 Fourth of July oration,
that James Sullivan was to open the first of his "Americanus"
numbers in rebuttal to "Columbus" that fall. 35

The emphasis in the "Marcellus" newspaper articles the
first of which John Quincy published over the name of the
famous Roman general in Boston on April 24, 1793, must
have been written before news of Washington's proclamation
of "neutrality" was likewise on individual duty. 38 As already
suggested, John Quincy's concept of international relations
was closely related to that of personal morality. This he em-
phasized in referring to the need for people to refrain from
the "avariciousness" of privateering to help preserve Ameri-
can neutrality following the arrival of Citizen Genet and in
stating that the rights of nations "are nothing more than an
extension of the rights of individuals. . . ." This idea, akin to
his old argument in "Publicola," he related to the Christian
teaching of the Golden Rule. In international as in private
affairs he wanted morality to be the basis for conduct.

180 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical If ears

As for American treaty obligations towards the French,
while John Quincy reluctantly admitted that it was the law
of nations that such obligations do survive revolutions, he
thought that French activity in the West Indies, placed by
"nature" so far from France, had been so abominable as not
to warrant American intervention in their behalf. To help
the French subject the islands to still greater oppression
would be to subvert all moral and political decency. Also in
being guided by self-preservation to avoid involvement in
war, America was merely obeying the higher law of nature
which is paramount to all human legislation. It was the same
law of self-preservation that he was applying to himself, no
matter how unsuccessfully, in these troubled months.

This argument that the natural state of nations is a state
of peace for reasons of self-survival, John Quincy had derived
from the teachings of Vattel, the famous French author of
The Law of Nature and of Nations. He had once personally
known Dumas, the editor of Vattel, as his pupil in Paris and
had even lived in the Dumas household for a time. While
still a law clerk in Newburyport he had carefully noted that
Vattel preached an international gospel of "Do as you would
be done by" and "Honesty is the best policy/* which sup
ported his view that the law of nature, together with common
sense and honesty, is the true basis for international con-
duct. 37

By a mere coincidence, John Quincy's mother had written
him from England only a month after he had made these
observations in 1787, saying that in the general flames of war
which then threatened Europe she hoped and prayed that
America would have "wisdom sufficient to keep out of the
fire," being already a sufficiently "burnt child." 88 While
Madam Adams' observations dealt rather cavalierly with
the diplomatic facts of the American Revolution, her bias
and good sense had surely been absorbed by her son together
with the teachings of Vattel and other authorities.

Neutrality and L/Envoi 181

The immediate reply to "Marcellus" by "A DEMOCRAT" in
the Independent Chronicle in May, 1793, likewise invoked
morality if not natural law. 39 The clever efforts by "Marcel-
lus" and others at "smoothing over matters" were said to be
pro-English and not productive of true neutrality at all so
far as our friends the French were concerned. As announced
by Citizen Genet, the French had recently thrown open their
ports to American shipping, something the English had de-
nied them after the Revolution, to say nothing of their never
having surrendered the fur trading posts. As for the observ-
ance of the "sacred" French treaty of 1778, "A DEMOCRAT"
wanted to know how American security holders would have
felt if such a concept of honor had been applied to paying off
the old public debt? A similar question was raised in the
Gazette by "Marcellus, jun.", while "PLAIN DEALING" asked
"Marcellus" insultingly how America could "sneak" out of
her French engagements? He denounced those "reptile" up-
starts in Boston whose social origins two generations back
were lost in a "stench," but who having acquired a little
money were now contemptuous of the "Rights of Man." A
few weeks earlier the Chronicle had carried the lofty defini-
tion of an Antifederalist as an independent citizen who was
totally detached from lucrative expectations in government,
whether from appointments, bank dividends, or funded
stock. 40 The implication of much of the criticism of "Mar-
cellus," in short, was that a double standard of morality was
being invoked for foreign affairs.

However, there was less of morality than of patriotic states-
manship in the oration that John Quincy made at the request
of the selectmen of Boston on the Fourth of July that year. 41
The critical sentiments of his "Publicola" letters and of his
first "Marcellus" communication must have encouraged his
choice as speaker. But his acknowledgment that the Ameri-
can Revolution had first taught the French to cherish the
cause of liberty and to discover for themselves that the "con-

182 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

sent of the people" is the only legitimate source of authority,
could scarcely have pleased all admirers of his earlier writ-
ings. He admitted the horrors of the guillotine, "smoaking
with the blood of a fallen monarch/' and of the wars which
the French Revolution had unleashed; but he accepted as
inevitable the ultimate triumph in Europe of liberty based
on social equality. The absurdities of feudalism were top-
pling and all such governments must eventually fall, he said.
Surely such politics even on the Fourth of July in 1793 were
somewhat equivocal. According to his brother Charles, who
had become vociferously anti-Jacobin, John Quincy had pru-
dently steered between the Scylla and Charybdis of public
opinion. Charles was polite enough to allow that no doubt it
had been his "duty to offend no one"l 42

The ostensible theme of his oration had been the causes of
the American Revolution. These he attributed to the acts of
an adventurous British ministry. With the perfidious encour-
agement of its American sycophants, he said, the ministry
had abandoned the monopolistic commercial policy of its
predecessors, which was tolerated in America as the price of
protection, in favor of a system of internal taxation and tyr-
anny to support political corruption. John Quincy said that
Americans he called them descendants of people who had
fled to the "new world" to escape oppression in Europe had
even "anticipated" tyranny in their ardent defense of liberty.
But he supported the larger thesis that seeds of liberty in the
old world itself would be nourished by the example of Amer-
ica, the "first-born offspring of Freedom."

Small wonder that Benjamin Edes of the "Old Whig"
Boston Gazette immediately sought the privilege of printing
John Quincy's oration. 43 On the other hand, the Independent
Chronicle either scornful or stunned by the whole affair, did
not even mention that celebration of the Fourth that year.
However, the Columbian Centinel, staunchly loyal to Fed-
eralist policy and loyal also to good newspaper copygave a

Neutrality and L'Envoi 183

rousing description of the day's affairs: the firing of guns in
the morning, the ceremonies in Universal Hall, and finally
the "ORATION" delivered at noon by John Quincy Adams in
the Old South Meeting House. The oration was said to have
been "for purity of style and rectitude of principle" equal if
not superior to all previous addresses on the Fourth. At the
liberal entertainment that followed at the Green Dragon Tav-
ern, one of the fifteen toasts was drunk to the hope that every
nation might have a Washington with a "sword of Marcellus."
This was followed by three cheers and three guns. 44 The cool-
ness of "Marcellus" towards France in foreign affairs had
obviously not been completely obliterated by the non-parti-
san address. But some of the Federalist politicians present
must have begun to wonder just what sort of a person this
not-so-young Adams was!

To give John Quincy credit, or at least to credit his human
nature, the oration on which he had worked so hard and re-
hearsed so earnestly, and which at first had seemed to him full
of brilliant sentiments, had become dull and commonplace
by the time of delivery. 45 However the applause had undeni-
ably pleased him. But some of his sweeping generalizations
were to prove anything but dull in the controversial months
ahead. His boast that the American Revolution had borne a
character "different from any other civil contest that had
ever arisen among men," was to be ironically quoted against
him in James Sullivan's first "Americanus" number in De-
cember. 46

The summer and fall of 1793 saw the mounting fury of
the controversy over the actions of Citizen Genet. As early
as August the Washington cabinet had resolved to ask for
his recall, following the escape, despite Genet's assurances,
of the French privateer The Little Democrat from Phila-
delphia. The cabinet was also outraged by the public insults
in which the "Citizen" had indulged while challenging the
authority of President Washington on the subject of neu-

184 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical If ears

trality. The President's official warning on September 7 that
he would revoke the commission of exequatur of any French
consul who tried to assume powers of admiralty on French
"prizes'* in American ports, as Genet was urging all consuls
to do, furnished the final issue. In October the French vice-
consul in Boston, Duplaine, seized by force from a United
States marshal a vessel brought in as a prize, and promptly
had his exequatur revoked. Since public opinion in Boston
favored the consul an indictment could not be secured, to
the glee of Genet who in the meantime had again publicly
protested the President's authority by denying his right to
issue a revocation. 47 Genet's irresponsible conduct was of
course the way things were being done in revolutionary
France.

Like his father but unlike most other Americans, John
Quincy Adams had from the first looked with a jaundiced eye
upon the mounting enthusiasm for Jacobinism in America.
In January he had courageously avoided attending a "Civic
Feast" in Boston which was chaired by none other than old
Sam Adams. 48 As "Lelius" in the Boston American Apollo on
March 29 he had rejoiced in the nominal jury verdict in the
case of assault and battery brought against Ben Russell, editor
of the Centinel, by that local expounder of liberty, equality,
and the rights of man, "Old Honestus" Ben Austin, the
enemy of lawyers. 49 Although enthusiasm for the French be-
gan to wane in some American quarters with news of the be-
heading of Louis XVI and the outbreak of the "Terror," the
applause for Genet had been accompanied during the sum-
mer of 1793 by the formation of numerous "Constitutional"
and "Democratic" societies. Anti-British feeling also had
mounted since June with news of the orders in council for
the seizing of all American foodships bound for France. Meet-
ings of protest by merchants had been held in Boston and
elsewhere. 50
As a lawyer, John Quincy Adams became interested in sev-

Neutrality and L'Envoi 185

eral cases in 1793 involving admiralty proceedings, including
the attachment of a ship in July for the protection of the
sailors' wages. In such matters he had become "very busy" in
examining books upon the law of nations. Despite what
would seem to have been his special interest in protecting
the rights of workers, he was "posted" on August 10 on the
masthead of the French frigate La Concorde in Boston harbor
and threatened with death along with other "aristocrats" and
supporters of neutrality. He expostulated in his diary, "De-
famed; proscribed; what next?" 51

What next, indeed, but stories of rioting in New York and
other places, together with the expression of fears by some
people that Citizen Genet would soon be making the laws of
the United States! The whole Adams family was in a high
state of indignation at news of still more privateering, now on
behalf of both England and France, and at other acts of in-
subordination towards national authority. This was being
put to a real test for the first time. 52 John Quincy might have
taken up his pen even earlier to denounce such activities had
it not been for a long-drawn out spell of influenza which he
suffered in September. Also the scourge of yellow fever in
Philadelphia had meantime put a damper on national affairs.
He apparently did make several false starts at writing, but it
was not until after the Duplaine incident in Boston that he
submitted his masterful "Columbus" letters to the Centinel.
While writing the first number to appear on November 22,
he deprecatingly asked himself if his effort would really bene-
fit his country! 53

John Quincy wrote as "Columbus" to expose the follies of
Genet, that "beardless foreigner" and "Petulent stripling"
it is said that John Quincy had once known him as a school-
boy in France who had openly defied all rules for ministerial
conduct and even had tried to play off the authority of "the
people" against that of Washington. 54 The danger of such
foreign intervention in American affair$, resulting from do-

186 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

mestic divisions, was precisely the "noxious weed" shades of
his old commencement address which he declared the Con-
stitution had sought to root out by giving control of foreign
affairs to the Union. See how the liberties of Sweden, Geneva,
Holland, and Poland had recently been lost, he said. Internal
factions, like passions, might sometimes be necessary; but like
passions they could be a source of misery as well as enjoy-
ment, requiring "continual restraint and regulation." Here
again private and public standards coincided, for John
Quincy Adams plainly considered passions to be a danger to
both. 55

To this young student of the law of nations perhaps Genet's
greatest crime had been his scornful rejection of such "worm-
eaten" authorities as Grotius, Pufendorf, and Vattel whose
teachings Genet thanked God he had forgotten. Closely con-
nected with such heretical ideas was the sweeping denial that
"sovereignty" could ever be surrendered by "the people" to
the executive of any government or nation hence Genet's
claim that President Washington did not have the authority
to rescind Duplaine's exequatur. In answering all such non-
sense, "Columbus" vigorously defended the actions of the
venerable President declaring, however, that he was totally
unconnected either with him or the American government
by a learned exposition of the constitutional powers of the
presidential office. 56

The achievement of "Columbus" was intrinsically very
impressive, quite apart from its popularity with the Feder-
alists in Boston and New York. It once again underscored
the morality theme of "Marcellus" but with plenty of addi-
tional patriotic fire unchecked by the non-partisanship of the
oration on the Fourth. The sallies were cleverly expressive
and the whole style was lighter than anything that John
Quincy had done before, including "Publicola." It was natu-
ral that Attorney General James Sullivan, himself a mighty
contributor to the press on popular issues and a previous tar-

Neutrality and L'Envoi 187

get of John Quincy's pen, should have been aroused to pre-
pare a series of replies under the signature of "Americanus,"
beginning in the Boston Independent Chronicle on Decem-
ber 19. 57 By that date four of the five "Columbus" numbers
had already appeared but "Americanus" started off slowly,
taking up his opponent's articles one at a time.

On the day that "Americanus No. Ill" appeared, Decem-
ber 26, John Quincy in turn began a series of unnumbered
rebuttals under the new signature of "Barneveld." Curiously,
these also appeared in the Chronicle, perhaps at the solicita-
tion of its editor. (Several years later John Quincy said that
the editor would never forgive him for having put a little
truth in his paper. 58 ) The sixth and last number of "Ameri-
canus" appeared on January 6, 1794; the fourth and last num-
ber of "Barneveld" did not appear until January 16. 5& The
order of publication is important to notice. While John
Quincy had the first and last words in the controversy, Sulli-
van's series overlapped both those of his opponent. It also
overlapped two quite different styles of expression. Where
"Columbus" had been thoughtfully if vigorously critical,
"Barneveld" was downright insultingly so. Indeed, the latter
finally ended not unlike the unfortunate "Menander" in the
previous year, in something of a state of embarrassment to
the reader if not to the author. 60

The Hon. James Sullivan had begun his argument by
ironically quoting John Quincy twice, as already noted: first
as to the true character of the American Revolution and sec-
ondly on the citizen's duty of self-expression. 61 It is therefore
clear that young Adams' authorship of "Columbus" must
have been known almost from the start. Sullivan's argument
was similar to that of Citizen Genet, but more cogently ex-
pressed. He agreed that all "authorities" on the law of na-
tions were passt because they had all written before the
American Revolution, that glorious event which John Quincy
Adams himself had declared to have a unique character and

188 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

to have in turn inspired the French. Before 1776 all govern-
ments had been tyrannical but now "the people" were su-
premel Not even the popular Washington could do things
against their sovereign will, according to "Americanus." Such
criticism was strangely like certain newspaper strictures which
had been raised against "Publicola" back in 1791: that the
President was a "man of the people" and that the Adamses
had seemingly forgotten the real reasons for the American
Revolution. 62

It is not hard to believe that one reason "Barneveld" im-
mediately showed so much spleen in his rejoinders to "Ameri-
canus" was because he suspected from the beginning that the
detested Sullivan was the author. Surely John Quincy sus-
pected it, even if he did not know it for a fact. In the odd,
apologetic paragraph in the last number of "Barneveld" on
January 16, he flatly stated that he did not know with whom
he had been contending; but he had written his father on
January 5 that Sullivan was "said" to be "Americanus." 63
One can therefore only suppose that he was employing tech-
nical language in his last number. By that time even his
parents thought he had gone too far in his castigation of the
opponent they knew was Sullivan. "Americanus" had age to
respect if nothing else, warned Madam Adams. 64

To explain clearly what "Barneveld" was really getting at
is an almost impossible task, for he plainly overshot the mark.
In his first article he arrogantly accused his opponent of dis-
cussing "authorities" on international law either out of igno-
rance or "wilful falsehood." The "American Eagle," he
boasted, disdained to shine in such plumes. (Madam Adams
rather inelegantly thought that the contest henceforth should
be labeled one between "the Eagle and the Snake." 66 ) The
discussion all presumably related to the question of the sov-
ereignty of the people, and whether sovereignty can be trans-
ferred. However "Barneveld" spent much of his time simply
denouncing what he said were the self-revelatory tactics of

Neutrality and L'Envoi 189

his opponent: his complaining about things of which he
knew himself to be guilty, and his saying that his motives
were good because he knew that they were false. 66 In short,
"Barneveld" from beginning to end accused "Americanus"
of being a practitioner of reverse psychology.

All this was accompanied, moreover, with accusations of
"confusion/' of "incoherence/ 5 and of "contemptible" ideas
which John Quincy said he found in his opponent. In the
third isue of "Barneveld" he even declared that he had as
little opinion of "Americanus's" veracity as the latter ap-
peared "to have himself," and referred to the "copious source
of his inconsistencies, his absurdities and falsehoods/' This
was pretty sharp language even for an eighteenth century
pamphleteer.

What angered "Barneveld" most of all and led to some of
his strongest expressions was the allegation that a false quota-
tion had been made in his first number. A false quotation,
indeed! Thin-skinned "Barneveld" said that "Americanus"
obviously did not know a paraphrase when he saw one; 67
but he was bitter and angry at the accusation. This may have
accounted for his savage description on January 2 of his "false-
reasoning" opponent: "No half-fledged spurless chickling on
a dunghill, could strut and crow, and flap his wings, with
more insulting exultation." So eloquent had John Quincy
Adams becomel

To all such abuse "Americanus" rather mildly and humor-
ously protested that while he had not affected either elegance
of style or "hard, unintelligible words" in his writings, nei-
ther had he descended to vulgar expressions by calling his
opponent ignorant, false, or even a scoundrel. 68 As has been
pointed out, "Barneveld" did insert in his last number an
apology of sorts, after his mother had gently reminded him
that even Dean Swift was said to have read his pieces to "an
old woman" for criticism. 69 He concluded with considerable
pomposity that he would not bother to answer insinuations

190 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

against him, being willing to submit himself to the "JUDG-
MENT OF MY PEERS" and requesting only the privilege of not
resorting to "personal abuse." And making this remarkably
inept statement he added the bland assertion, already noted,
that he did not know with whom he was contending. If he
had been justly charged in any particular, he said that he
owed an apology to the public but none to "Americanus."
This must have been what his mother had in mind two days
later when she noted with satisfaction that her son had "cor-
rected himself."

Old John Adams had meantime written from Philadelphia
that he hoped "Barneveld" would not render himself cheap,
although he rejoiced that that "blockhead" Sullivan had re-
ceived the "flagellation" he deserved. A few days earlier, after
delivering himself of the opinion that Sullivan was "the least
of a Gentleman of any one in Boston," he had also expressed
the hope that John Quincy would not forget that he was
one. 70

What did the public think of all these pleasantries? One
communication in the Chronicle on January 2 furnished glee-
ful material for the Adamses in their letters to each other for
some time to come. This unknown critic had hailed what he
called the manly arguments of "Americanus," as contrasted
with the petulance and affected wit of his opponent. He also
labeled John Quincy's writing a sort of "literary plagiarism"
from Junius this had been quoted in "Columbus No. I"
and said that the "juvenile writer" who showed the "aspira-
tions of family pride" ought not to be protected by that "high
station conferred on his Sire by a free and generous people"!
For such caustic comment, John Quincy said that he was in-
debted to the "saturnine genius of the Chronicle"] and his
mother identified those lines with the pen of "Americanus,"
who "whines and cants like the Hypocrite he is. . . ." 71

Even some of John Quincy's friends, however, received his
pieces without exactly clamorous praise. He suspected that

Neutrality and L'Envoi 191

they, too, were jealously disposed to "check the aspirations of
the writer"! The public in general, he dourly thought, was
like a lady with too many admirers. 72

A more judicious contributor to one of the Boston papers
was inclined to suspend judgment on both writers until it
might be seen what hopes of public reward they might have.
John Quincy was said to have been accused of the "crime" of
being the "Son of a man High in Office/' while Sullivan had
acquired a reputation of being a "humble seeker" of office.
Surely this was criticism not too severe on John Quincy. But
on January 9 a more scathing critic demanded to know what
that "rude Boy" who signed himself "Barneveld" meant by
his abuse of men of genius and learning? He was asked if he
remembered the Fourth of July oration which he had de-
livered with such "affected skill," and whether he had ever
read his sire's famous letter to George Wythe of Virginia in
1776 on the subject of liberty? Declaring that both sire and
son had changed, he warned "Barneveld" that "billingsgate"
should never be confused with satire. 73

The unkindest cut of all came a week after the last of the
controversy. A correspondent in the Chronicle addressed a
poem to "Columbus alias Barneveld" on a certain subject to
remind him of his father. The subject, from which an elo-
quent extract on liberty was quoted, was old John Adams'
pre-Revolutionary Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal
Law. The correspondent added, ironically, that all printers of
"Columbus" or "Barneveld" were requested to reprint the
extract. 74

Yet if "Barneveld" had done little more than reveal a very
impassioned young man, "Columbus" undeniably had been
an enormous success. The time would come, exulted Abigail
Adams, when its author would be sought as "a Jewel of great
price." Although her husband was afraid in January to ask
President Washington directly whether he had read "Colum-
bus" or not, they had been having several "interesting and

192 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

affectionate" conversations together about which he unfor-
tunately could give no hint. Old John was still fairly roaring
with delight a month later over Abigail's witty letters on the
subject, saying that if their selfish young "rogue" in Boston
had any "family pride" in him, "his Pa" renounced and ab-
jured all responsibility for it! But he advised John Quincy
to stick close to the law for the present since unfortunately
there were doubts of his great services to his country's being
recognized. 75

Although the spring of 1794 was a season of private misery
for "victorious" John Quincy Adams he even distinguished
himself one night at a town meeting 76 -~ it was in general a
happy time for his parents, separated though they were by the
continuance of Abigail's indisposition to leave Quincy. The
tide of Jacobinism had temporarily ebbed, and the trouble-
some Jefferson whose soul was "poisoned with ambition" had
finally resigned from the cabinet and left Philadelphia.
"Good riddance of bad mare," old John Adams uncharitably
commented. Although that "born rebel" Sam Adams had
succeeded the late, unlamented Hancock as governor of Mas-
sachusetts, this was at least in some measure his due. The Fed-
eralists in New England were scarcely showing wisdom by
associating with the "Old Tories" in the spring elections, but
otherwise things seemed to go rather well for the Adams
family. 77 Of course there were some personal problems.
"Silly" Charles had wanted to get married. Tommy who had
just been admitted to the Philadelphia bar had aroused his
mother's indignation in his first jury address by allegedly
making remarks derogatory of female character! 78

Nor had the President forgotten John Quincy Adams. Al-
though a judicial appointment had not materialized, appar-
ently to that young man's great sorrow, on May 26 Secretary
of State Randolph informed the vice president of Washing-
ton's intention to appoint his son to The Hague. John Adams
immediately sat down to write his "dearest Friend" the news,

Neutrality and L'Envoi 193

to enable her to recollect herself and to prepare for the event.
To Abigail also came a letter from Martha Washington, min-
gling condolence and congratulations but praising the abili-
ties and future prospects of the meritorious youth about
whom she had heard from no less an authority than Wash-
ington himself.

There was also a letter of great joy for John Quincy from
Aunt Eliza in Haverhill. She knew that he had obtained "the
Palm" by following the path of virtue, but she expressed her
heartfelt sympathy for the agonizing sacrifice of love to duty
she knew he had once had to make. The whole matter was
elegantly summed up by old John Adams himself when he
wrote his son that the appointment was "Proof that Sound
Principles in Morals and Government, are cherished by the
executive of the United States, and that Study, Science and
Literature are recommendations which will not be over-
looked." 79 It sounded almost like the awarding of an honor-
ary degree.

Amid such general rejoicing there seems never to have
been a doubt in anyone's mind about John Quincy's accept-
ing the appointment. His father almost in the same breath
with which he informed him of the event began to give him
advice for his "cautious" behavior abroad, particularly in
view of the intricacies of Dutch politics. 80 Everybody seemed
happy; everybody, that is, with the apparent exception of
John Quincy Adams himself. 81 On top of illness and depres-
sion of spirits he had to take passage in a leaky old tub be-
cause no other vessel was available from Boston. Fortunately
he had Thomas Boylston Adams along. As the brothers sailed
on September 13, two close friends of John Quincy accom-
panied them as far as the lighthouse: Nathan Frazier, Jr., a
cousin of the once-beloved Mary, and Daniel Sargent, Jr.,
Mary's future husband. There was something ironic as well
as symbolic about the parting.

Within a few months, on his own word, John Quincy

194 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Adams was to experience enormous relief from the unsatis-
factory kind of life he had been living in Boston. 82 He was
also about to enjoy a greater portion of that economic inde-
pendence he had always cherished, despite the check to his
practice of law. In addition to having a salary he now pos-
sessed a handsome sum of money which had been presented
to him on sailing by his father. 83 He was also on the way at
last to finding himself a wife. After nine increasingly difficult
personal years at home, he was fortunate to be taking voyage
again.

He was nevertheless leaving his country as a publicly recog-
nized figure, in contrast to the juvenile hopeful who had re-
turned from Europe so long ago. If the years in between had
not all been happy, in them, he had done some remarkable
things that had attracted wide attention. In the face of per-
sonal difficulties, he had developed those assertive qualities
so necessary for his self-expression and so useful for public
affairs. This son of distinguished parents had made his own
mark in the critical years he was now leaving behind him.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS

I. Abbreviations frequently used in footnotes

APM Adams Papers Microfilm, followed by reel numbers (e.g. }
APM 13 refers to the microfilm of the first volume of the
journal that John Quincy Adams began in January, 1785,
shortly before his return to America). This is a micro-
film of the Adams Family Papers deposited in the Mas-
sachusetts Historical Society. The microfilm, consisting of
hundreds of reels, has been issued in four parts, and is
described in accompanying brochures in the possession of
repository libraries.

JA John Adams

AA Abigail Adams

JQA John Quincy Adams

AA2 "Nabby" or "Abby" Adams, an older sister of John
Quincy Adams, named Abigail after her mother.

AAS "Nabby" after her marriage in 1786 to Colonel William
Smith.

CA Charles Adams, a younger brother of John Quincy Adams,

TEA Thomas Boylston Adams, the youngest brother of John
Quincy Adams.

MC Mary Cranch, an older sister of Abigail Adams, married
to Richard Cranch of Braintree.

ES Elizabeth Shaw, a younger sister of Abigail Adams, mar-
ried first to the Reverend John Shaw of Haverhill.

Memoirs Memoirs of John Quincy Adams Comprising Portions
of his Diary from 1795 to 1848. Edited by Charles
Francis Adams. Twelve volumes. Philadelphia, 1874-
1877.

Writings The Writings of John Quincy Adams. Edited by
Worthington Chauncey Ford. Seven volumes. New
York, 1913-1917.

195

196 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

LNET Life in a New England Town: 1787, 1788. Dairy of
John Quincy Adams } While a Student in the Office of
Theophilus Parsons at Newburyport. Edited by
Charles Francis Adams, Jr., with the assistance of
Miss J. C. Watts. Boston, 1903.

"H.C." "Harvard College. 17864787" in Historical Essays by
Henry Adams. New York, 1891. This contains numer-
ous extracts from the journal kept by JQA while a
student at Harvard. It is substantially the same article
which first appeared in the North American Review,
Vol. 114, January, 1872, pp. 110-147.

II. Other source material

The Works of John Adams. Edited by his Grandson, Charles
Francis Adams. Eight volumes, Boston, 1856.

Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife. Edited by his
Grandson, Charles Francis Adams. Two volumes. Boston,
1841.

Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams. With an Intro-
ductory Memoir by her Grandson, Charles Francis Adams.
Fourth edition, revised and enlarged, with an Appendix con-
taining the Letters Addressed by John Q. Adams to his Son
on the Study of the Bible. Boston, 1848,

Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams,
During the Revolution. With a Memoir of Mrs. Adams. By
Charles Francis Adams. Boston, 1875. This is principally a
compilation of the two foregoing works, for the years 1774-
1783.

New Letters of Abigail Adams, 1788-1801. Edited with an Intro-
duction by Stewart Mitchell. Boston, 1947.

Poems of Religion and Society. By John Quincy Adams.. With
Notices of his Life and Character by John Davis and T. H.
Benton. Auburn, 1850, This edition contains an incomplete
copy of 'A Vision/' The original edition of 1848 had it not
at all.

"The Journal of Elizabeth Cranch, October 5, 1785-March 4,
1786" In the Collections of the Essex Historical Institute,
Vol. 80, No. 1, January, 1944.

Bibliographical Aids 197

III. Special works

John Adams's Book, Being Notes on a Record of the Births, Mar-
riages, fc Deaths of Three Generations of the Adams Family,
1734-1807. Compiled by Henry Adams. Printed for the Bos-
ton Athenaeum, 1934.

A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in
the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals,
and Book-Plates. With an Introduction by Worthington
Chauncey Ford. Printed for the Athenaeum. Boston, 1938.

IV. Selected Adams biographies

Bemis, Samuel Flagg John Quincy Adams and the Foundations
of American Foreign Policy. New York, 1949.

Bobb, Dorothie Mr. and Mrs. John Quincy Adams. An Adven-
ture in Patriotism. New York, 1930.

Bowen, Catherine Drinker John Adams and the American Revo-
lution. Boston, 1949.

Chinard, Gilbert Honest John Adams. Boston, 1933.

Clark, Bennett Champ John Quincy Adams, "Old Man Elo-
quent." Boston, 1932.

Morse, John T., Jr. John Quincy Adams. Boston and New York,
1898.

Quincy, Josiah Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. Bos-
ton, 1859.

Roof, Katherine Metcalf Colonel William Smith and Lady. The
Romance of Washington's Aide and Young Abigail Adams.
Boston, 1929.

Seward, William H. The Life and Public Services of John
Quincy Adams, Sixth President of the United States. With the
Eulogy delivered before the Legislature of New York. Au-
burn, 1849.

Whitney, Janet Abigail Adams. Boston, 1947.

V. Selected secondary works

Adams, Charles Francis, Jr. Three Episodes of Massachusetts
History. Two volumes. Boston and New York, 1892. Volume

198 JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

two contains a social history of Braintree, with many valuable

references to the Adams family.
Amory, Thomas C. The Life of James Sullivan with Selections

from His Writings. Two volumes. Boston, 1859.
Buckingham, Joseph T. Specimens of Newspaper Literature:

With Personal Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Reminiscences. Two

volumes. Boston, 1850.

Crawford, Mary Caroline The Romance of the American Thea-
ter. Boston, 1913.
Cresson, W. P. Francis Dana, A Puritan Diplomat at the Court

of Catherine the Great. Toronto, 1930.
Currier, John J. The History of Newburyport, Massachusetts.

Two volumes. Newburyport, 1906-1909.
Hazen, Charles Downer Contemporary American Opinion of

the French Revolution. Baltimore, 1897.
Lipsky, George A. John Quincy Adams, His Theory and Ideas.

New York, 1950.
Matthews, Albert Harvard Commencement Days, 1642-1916.

(Reprinted from the Publications of the Colonial Society of

Massachusetts, Vol. XVIII.) Cambridge, 1916.
Mayo, Lawrence Shaw "Jeremy Belknap and J. Q. Adams,

1787," in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical So-
ciety, Vol. LIX, 1925-1926.
Morison, Samuel Eliot The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray

Otis. Two volumes. Boston, 1913.

Three Centuries of Harvard, 1636-1936. Cambridge, 1936.
Seilhamer, George O. History of the American Theater. Three

volumes. Philadelphia, 1889.

NOTES

Chapter One

1. The account of his persuasion is given in Samuel Flagg
Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of Ameri-
can Foreign Policy, p. 11. The boy had wanted to enter An-
dover as preparatory for Harvard. To do his mother justice,
she had passionately wanted to accompany her husband and
elder children abroad, according to Janet Whitney, Abigail
Adams, p. 150. The pages of Professor Bemis' valuable work,
which includes a brief account of JQA's early years, as well
as those of Mrs. Whitney, are enriched with material from
the Adams Papers in the Massachusetts Historical Society.

2. The quotations in this and in the preceding sentence are
from AA to JQA, June, 1778, and January 12, 1780, in Let-
ters of Mrs. Adams, pp. 95, 96, 111. The first letter was on
the occasion of his first voyage to Europe. The moral au-
thority of imperious Abigail Adams was evident throughout
her life. Even in old age, she could reduce her teenage grand-
sons to tears by reproving them for some trifling misconduct.
See C. F. Adams, Jr., Charles Francis Adams (Boston and
New York, 1900), p. 10.

3. JA to Benjamin Waterhouse, April 24, 1785, In John Adams,
Works, IX, 530. His mother also acknowledged that he was
deficient in "many branches of knowledge." Letters of Mrs.
Adams, p. 219.

4. His mother's constant exhortations for him to cultivate vir-
tue and to restrain passion, venerate religion, etc., were in-
variably identified with the idea that these things affect the
greatness of nations as well as the individual himself. See
Letters of Mrs. Adams, pp. 95, 96, 114, 115, 154. His father
had been especially concerned about his son's morals and
"innocence" in 1782 when JQA was in St. Petersburg, a sen-

199

200 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

timent echoed by his mother some months later. Ibid., pp.
426, 427, and 147.

5. Memoirs, I, 19; JA to President Willard of Harvard, in Pub-
lications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. XIII,
pp. 114, 115.

6. Journal, February 26, March 5, 7, 1785, APM 13.

7. Journal, April 26, 1785, APM 13; also quoted in Memoirs,
1,21.

8. Henry Adams, A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy
Adams, p. 7.

9. Memoirs, I, 21.

10. The opinion of Francis Dana of Cambridge, Massachusetts,
who had been his "mentor" and employer in St. Petersburg
in 1782, is quoted in W. P. Cresson, Dana, p. 310. His father's
fears of JQA's airs of superiority when he should go to college
are in his letter to Professor Waterhouse, in John Adams,
Works, IX, 531. JQA's self-reproach for not having paid
enough attention to Dana's advice is in his journal for March
10, 1787, APM 14.

11. His shortness may be inferred from a humorous reference in
Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 233. His stoutness was evident some
months later, even after he had lost weight, as shown by a
good-natured reference in his journal for February 28, 1786,
and by the laughter he excited on one occasion at college, in
the journal for March 24, 1786. He mentions his sword in his
journal on September 15, 1785. (APM 13) That he had his
hair dressed while abroad is shown in Letters of Mrs. Adams,
pp. 185, 221. The imitation of his father's mannerisms (as
demonstrated by Reverend Mr. Wiberd) is mentioned in ES
to AA, November 6, 1785, APM 366. Some observers gener-
ously thought that he resembled both parents, but the weight
of evidence favors his mother, at least on the part of her cor-
respondents! A Frenchman once told her that if she had been
dressed in her son's clothes, he would have mistaken her for
him, Letters of Mrs. Adams, p, 309. For her part she thought
that he bore a strong resemblance to his father! Ibid., p. 186.

12. The change occurred after his mother had reproached his

Notes 201

brother, Thomas Boylston, for so addressing her in 1795.
Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 367. Apparently JQA then took the
hint!

13. His deep interest in literature and his pride in American
cultural achievements was to run throughout his life. See
JQA to JA, May 21, 1786, APM 368, and his references to the
Americans, Belknap, Dwight, West, et al, as important cul-
tural figures. His own literary efforts were to be considerable,
beginning with the journal itself in 1785. Many years later
he wrote that he would have devoted his entire life to lit-
erary activity had he been able to choose his own fortune.
Shortly after his death a small volume of his compositions
was published, Poems of Religion and Society. Other of his
early writings will appear in the course of this work, espe-
cially in Chapter Six.

14. "The weather is much warmer than I have for many years
been accustomed to: yet I hear everybody say that there has
been no hot weather this year." He also spoke of the "dog
days." JQA to AA2, July 17-29, 1785, APM 365. AA wrote
JA, December 29, 1792, APM 375, "I find the cold creates
as great an irritation upon my nerves producing a tremor, as
the heat does by relaxation." Although this was said at a time
when she was in generally poor health, it would seem to be
significant.

15. Eliza Cranch to AA, July 1, 1786, APM 368.

16. This and the other journal entries following in this chapter
refer, under date, to APM 13.

17. Journal, May 22, 1785.

18. Writings, I, 17n.

19. Journal, July 22, 1785.

20. Writings, I, 20.

21. JQA to AA2, August 1, 1785, APM 365.

22. On his bringing despatches, and the coincidental problem in
Congress of his reimbursement for having served as a clerk
to Dana in St. Petersburg, see E. C. Burnett, ed., Letters of
The Members of the Continental Congress (8 vols., Wash-
ington, 1921-36), VIII, 169n, The "problem" was not to be

202 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

settled for years, to the mingled amusement and disgust of
the Adamses, who thought that foreign servants were worthy
of their hire.

23. "Your friend Monroe inquired after you the other day and
wished that you would make me a visit which might give
him an opportunity of seeing you in New York/' AAS to
JQA, September 28, 1788, APM 371. Rufus King was particu-
larly close to John Adams, who had strongly sympathized
with King's father when he had been the victim of "patri-
otic" violence before the Revolution. It is also possible that
young King had once been considered a good catch for
Nabby, when he had lived in Newbury, Massachusetts. See
JQA to AA2, October 15, 1785, APM 366.

24. Writings, I, 19; R. H. Lee to JA, August 1, 1785, APM 365.

25. JQA to AA2, August 9-16, 1785, APM 365.

26. Journal, August 9, 1785.

27. One of the homes at which he visited was that of William
Constable, one of the newcomers in New York. See my Busi-
ness Enterprise in the American Revolutionary Era (New
York, 1938), Chapter Eight.

28. See Chapter Six on "A Vision."

29. JQA to AA2, August 1-6, 1785, APM 365, on the "Receipt,"
and on the agreement he and his sister had made to keep
each other informed, in the course of their correspondence,
about the "characters" they encountered.

30. AA2 to JQA, September 5, 1785, APM 365; also her reproof
to him on April 26, 1786, APM 367.

31. Journal, August 8, 1785. A copy of "Des Fables de PhMre"
had been compiled in JQA's handwriting in 1781. See APM
218.

32. JQA to AA2, August 1-6 and 27, 1785, APM 365. JA had
known Chaumont's father in France. See Familiar Letters of
John Adams to His Wife, p. 330. JQA was to have some con-
tact abroad with young Chaumont years later. The French-
man's family was to suffer in the French Revolution. Young
Chaumont had meantime become identified with the devel-
opment of his father's interests around Otsego, New York,
and had married one of the sisters of Tench Coxe, the Phila-

Notes 203

delphia merchant and early political confidant of John
Adams. See JQA to Mr. Le Ray, Amsterdam, November 23,
1794, APM 126.

33. Journal, August 15, 1785.

34. On Wadsworth and his partner, John Barker Church, "alias"
Carter, who together had constituted the great war-contract-
ing firm whose dissolved assets were being represented by
Alexander Hamiltonsee the opening paragraph of this chap-
terand whose wife was a sister of Mrs. Church, see my Busi-
ness Enterprise, especially Chapter Four. The business pro-
posal of La Fayette, an old friend and patron of Wadsworth,
was to encourage the sale of French manufactures in America
by letting American whale oil into France duty free. It was
a project which both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had
been interested in promoting, and was considered a sword
to be held over England in an effort to force her to relax
her restrictions on American West Indian commerce. An un-
successful effort to organize a whale oil company to take ad-
vantage of the French offer was attempted by Samuel Breck
of Boston, another war-time agent of France. The economic
significance of the project may be gathered from the letters
of Stephen Higginson to John Adams. See the Massachusetts
Centinel for September 14, 1785; also Higginson to JA, Au-
gust 8, 1785, APM 365, and July, 1786, APM 368. These
letters are a storehouse of information on New England's
trade conditions, and incidentally on the touchy political
situation.

35. In New Haven on August 19.

36. Journal, August 21, 1785. His father actually thought the
American poets inferior only to Milton! JA to JQA, March
19, 1786. The favorable comparison with Hudibras was a
"Whig" point of view. See Alexander Cowie, John Trumbull,
Connecticut Wit (Chapel Hill, 1936), esp. pp. 185, 211.

37. JQA to AA2, August 16, 1785, APM 365.

38. Journal, August 26, 1785.

39. The Massachusetts Centinel on July 30 had noted the news
of JQA's arrival; but the Boston Gazette on July 25 ignored
it altogether, although it had carried other news from the

204 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical If ears

New York papers for July 18, and ordinarily published in-
formation on the arrival of French packets there, e.g., on
September 5.

40. See footnote 34.

41. A separate volume could be written on the Tyler affair from
the Adams family archives. Mrs. Cranch, and apparently her
daughters, had come to find him particularly loathsome, and
her letters to Abigail Adams in 1785 and 1786 (APM 365,
366, 367) have almost endless references to Tyler, whom she
labeled "the windmill/ 5 As noted above, the unfortunate
Tyler was a roomer at the Cranches. Katherine Metcalf Roof,
in her undocumented Colonel William Smith and Lady, pp.
33-49, is extremely harsh on the female Cranches in this con-
nection. The incident is important here because of the atti-
tude taken by Nabby's parents, which foreshadowed JQAs
romantic troubles in 1790. See Chapter Six. Madam Adams,
while implying that Nabby's "1 - r" had neglected to write
her, loftily said that the decision to cast off Tyler had been
entirely Nabby's own. Her parents had been so fair as not
even to mention Tyler's name in her presence! Abigail said
that Nabby's delay in turning Tyler off had been due to re-
sentment of her father's criticismhe thought him an idle
scribbler and "popinjay." Meanwhile, in the summer of 1785,
Colonel Smith was delighting her parents because of his
"solid," "sensible," and "judicious" qualities. These were
Abigail's terms, but she said that her husband was also "very
happy" with him. The "solid" Colonel immediately demon-
strated his mettle, and accurately prognosticated the future,
by neglecting to mail the very first letter that Nabby wrote
home to brother John! Dr. Cotton Tufts of Weymouth, a
relative of AA by marriage and business manager for the
Adamses, was given the unpleasant job of telling Tyler off,
and subsequently of buying for the Adamses the house on
which Tyler had already made a large down payment. See
AA to JQA, August 1 1 and 23, AA to Cotton Tufts, August
18, and AA2 to JQA, September 5, 1785, APM 365. Mrs.
Cranch's letters are too numerous and discursive to mention

Notes 205

and almost to read. An interesting account of the affair is
in Janet Whitney, Abigail Adams, pp. 167-171. There is an
extraordinary letter of Tyler to JA, October 15, 1785, APM

366, which, among other things, congratulates him because
JQA had brought home no "European Frivolity of Man-
ners." This of course was written before Tyler had heard of
his dismissal.

42. It was the sarcastic Reverend Mr. Wiberd who had noticed
how JQA "aped" his sire. See ES to AA, November 6, 1785,
APM 366. On the former's character and pastorate, see
Charles Francis Adams, Three Episodes of Massachusetts His-
tory, II, 641 ff. For the general background in Quincy see
Daniel Munro Wilson, Where American Independence Be-
gan. Quincy Its Famous Group of Patriots: Their Deeds,
Houses and Descendants (Boston and New York, 1902).

43. JQA to AA, October 6, 1785, APM 366; but her own deep
emotion on learning of his safe arrival in America, is referred
to in J. Bridge to JQA, September 28, 1787, APM 370.

44. MC to AA, August 17, September 14, 1785, APM 365. His
excessive curiosity was noted by his Aunt Eliza, who con-
trarily thought that he resembled his father in the latter's
early days of marriage before he had asumed the "austerity
& dignity of the Statesman"! ES to AA, September 7, Novem-
ber 6, 1785, APM 365, 366.

45. ES to AA, September 17, 1785, APM 365. Actually, her hus-
band had been a little fearful about taking on the respon-
sibility of tutoring JQA for advanced standing, since it called
for "unusual preparation." The Shaws were obviously put
somewhat "on the spot/' JQA wrote his father on April 2,
1786 that he had been as well prepared the previous Sep-
tember as anyone in his class, but had not read "certain"
books, which was the way a college operated, he saidl APM

367. See also JQA to AA, May 15, 1786, APM 368.

46. Eliza Cranch to AA, September 5, 1785, APM 365.

47. Journal, September 14, 1785.

48. JA to Samuel Adams, April 27, 1785, in John Adams, Works,
IX, 532.

206 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Chapter Two

1. George Wingate Chase, Haverhill, Massachusetts (Haverhill,
1861), p. 436.

2. November 24, 1785, which was Thanksgiving Day in nearby
New Hampshire, although the holiday was not until Decem-
ber 15 in Massachusetts that year. This and other journal
entries in this chapter, refer, under date, to APM 13.

3. So says Harriet Nelson in her manuscript, "A Former Resi-
dent of Haverhill: John Quincy Adams/' p. 2. I am indebted
for the use of this to the Haverhill Public Library. It is not
clear whether Mrs. Shaw was familiarly called Elizabeth or
Eliza (apparently Betsey was her girlhood name); she signed
letters both ways, although more commonly the latter. I
have employed the latter, except for "Aunt Shaw" in more
formal address. For example, JQA referred to "Uncle and
Aunt Shaw" in a letter to Eliza Cranch, March 23, 1786,
Jacob Norton Papers in the Massachusetts Historical Society.

4. She once told Tommy, when he was growing tall and "thin"
that he was getting too much like herself. ES to AA, July 23,
1786, APM 368. Her sister Abigail, however, tended to stout-
ness, like JQA AA to JQA, January 17, 1787, APM 369.

5. Chase, Haverhill, p. 556.

6. Journal, March 5, 1786.

7. See the quote from Fielding in JQA's journal for October 5,
1785. Apparently Uncle Shaw also had a sense of humor. He
told the young folks a "curious story" one night, and advised
Eliza Cranch to put in her journal that a "roast apple" was
the first cause. The reference seems to have puzzled her. See
"The Journal of Elizabeth Chanch," in Collections of the
Essex Historical Institute, Vol. 80, p. 18.

8. Journal, February 4, 1786.

9. Aunt Eliza sympathized with her husband, and wrote AA on
March 18, 1786 (APM 387), after JQA had left Haverhill,
that he was too decisive and tenacious in his opinions. She
had warned him that young people were too apt to be sure
that they were always right. In public, however, he had been
polite and modest, and she missed him terribly. He had some-

Notes 207

times read to her in leisurely moments in the evening. As al-
ready indicated, JQA for his part remained deeply attached
to her throughout the rest of her life and, as soon as he be-
came financially independent, even arranged to send her reg-
ularly a little money for her son's education. Poor Aunt Eliza,
with her romantic temperament, re-married promptly, but
poorly, when Reverend Shaw died in 1794. She married the
head of an "academy," and then had to help take care of the
boys!

10. Journal, March 5, 1786.

11. Ibid.

12. Writings, I, 20n; also, journal for February 22, 1786, et pas-
sim.

13. Nelson, "A Former Resident of Haverhill," p. 1. She says,
however, that it was a large house, so "crowded" may be too
strong a word. Apparently the Shaws sometimes "farmed
out" their children to neighbors for their own good (i.e., the
children's), as was another old New England custom. ES to
AA, July 20, 1786, APM 368,

14. Journal, February 22, 1786, et passim.

15. Journal, January 9, 1786; John Thaxter to JA, January 7,
MC to AA, February 9, 1786, APM 367. Aunt Eliza said that
he was like "clockwork" in his habits.

16. MC to AA, July 10, 1786, APM 368, and ES to MC, April 21,
1793, APM 376, both mention eye trouble.

17. ES to AA, January 2, 1786, APM 367.

18. "The Journal of Elizabeth Cranch," loc. cit., pp. 11, 29.

19. The introduction and footnotes to Elizabeth Cranch's "J our ~
nal" give a wealth of biographical detail about some of the
local people. The Duncans and Whites were perhaps the
most prominent of these. See James Duncan Phillips, "James
Duncan and Son, Merchants, Capitalists, and Chain Store
Operators," in Collections of the Essex Historical Institute,
Vol. 89 (1953), pp. 19-56. JQA to Eliza Cranch, March 23,
1786, said to remember him especially to the Whites for their
many kindnesses to him in Haverhill. Jacob Norton Papers
in the Massachusetts Historical Society.

20. Journal, December 10, 1785; JQA to A A, December 28, 1785,

208 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

APM 366. His father had earlier written him not to dwell
too much on the gloomy complaints of the times gloomily
adding that he might soon not be able even to provide for
himself! JA to JQA, September 9, 1785, APM 365.

21. ES to AA, March 18, 1786, APM 367.

22. Journal, January 17, 1786.

23. Journal, February 25, 28, 1786.

24. He had had a disagreeable headache and was accused of be-
ing melancholy, a reproach he had "seldom known," just
before leaving Braintree for Haverhill. Journal, September
26, 1785.

25. Henry Adams, A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy
Adams, p. 49, speaks of this problem as confronting JQA at
this period in Haverhill, but curiously observes that while
he drew pictures of characters, "no trace of personal feeling
appears." He goes on, however, to mention the absence of
imaginative writing by JQA regarding travel, scenery, and
so forth, which presumably is what he referred to.

26. See his journal for October 10, 1785, where a word has been
blotted out of his original statement about "melancholy."

27. Journal, October 12, December 26, 1785; JQA to AA2, Sep-
tember 9, 1785, APM 365.

28. Journal, October 12, 1785.

29. Journal, November 3, 1785.

30. Journal, November 9, 1785, et passim. Cf. "The Journal of
Elizabeth Cranch," loc. cit. y p. 13.

31. AA to Cotton Tufts, August 1, 1786, APM 368; also Letters
of Mrs. Adams, p. 147 %

32. Journal, December 2, 1785.

33. JQA to AA2, September 7, 1785, APM 365; Journal, Sep-
tember 9, 12, 16, 1785. Her name was Nancy Hazen and she
apparently was an orphaned niece of General Moses Hazen
of Revolutionary fame. Some information about her may be
found in "The Journal of Elizabeth Cranch," loc. cit., p. 4
et seq.

34. Ibid., passim; E. Cranch to AA, October 9, and JQA to AA,
December 28, 1785, APM 366. See also the journal for Octo-
ber 20, 1785,

Notes 209

35. Journal, October 10, 20, 1785; JQA to AA, October 5, 1785,
APM 566. He also thought that American ladies were shock-
ingly neglectful of their teeth.

36. Journal, November 3, 1785.

37. Journal, September 24, 1785.

38. Journal, November 12, 1785.

39. On December 13, the day after, he wrote "An Epistle to
Delia/* a satire on the young lady, portions of which he was
later to incorporate into the "Narcissa" portion of "A Vi-
sion." The "Epistle" is in APM 233, p. 3.

40. JQA to AA, December 28, 1785, APM 366.

41. Journal, January 7, 1786.

42. The episode is related in detail in ES to AA, May 20, 1787,
APM 370. See also the journal for January 7, 1786.

43. Journal, February 9, 1786.

44. See footnote 42.

45. Journal, March 10, 1786.

46. Journal, March 15, 1786; also Writings, I, 20n, where he says
that he was examined on March 13, obviously an error.

47. Professor Waterhouse, at least, was known for his "quaint
wit." See Life in a New England Town, p. 125.

48. The address on "The advantages which are derived from a
liberal education" was the first he delivered before the "A.B,"
society (although it was marked "No. 2."). It is in his journal
under June 26, 1786. On May 20 he had dryly noted, on the
subject of "happiness," that a poem by Colonel David
Humphreys, which sister Nabby had sent him, was "some-
what poetical" in describing the happiness that "reigns in
this Country."

Chapter Three

1. This is a paraphrase of what he wrote his mother, May 15,
1786, APM 368.

2. Journal, October 19, 1786, APM 14. See also his forensic
address on "Immortality" in the journal, May 16, 1786, APM
13. July 1, 1786, divides APM 13 from APM 14, in the jour-
nal entries referred to in this chapter.

210 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

3. Journal, April 13, 1787. His attitude towards Dr. Johnson
was a mixture of admiration and contempt. He once char-
acterized him as a "brute" and a "cynic." Journal, July 15,
1787.

4. MG to AA, October 1, 1786, APM 369, tells of how heartily
the boys ate of her cooking during vacations. Her sister Eliza
also took great pride in the apple "pyes" she made, espe-
cially for Tommy. ES to AA, February 8, 1787, APM 369.

5. Journal, April 1, May 9, 1786; MC to AA, October 22, 1786,
APM 369, tells how the boys would pull the bedclothing off
JQA in the mornings, during vacations.

6. Cf, the remarks by Henry Adams in "Harvard College. 1786,
1787" in his Historical Essays, p. 90 (hereafter referred to as
"H.C."). JQA's continued feeling about his higher education
having been unfortunately delayed may also be inferred from
AAS to JQA, August 20, 1788, APM 371.

7. JQA to JA, April 2, 1786, APM 367; and Writings, I, 2ln.
He also resented the amount of time taken up in reciting to
the tutors, as well as at prayers. JQA to Eliza Cranch, April
7, 1786, Jacob Norton Papers in the Massachusetts Historical
Society.

8. AA to ES, July 14, 1786, APM 368, a reply to ES to AA,
March 18, 1786, APM 367.

9. Cf. JQA to AAS, January 14, 1787, APM 369, refuting charges
that he had satirized the college officers. But his critical atti-
tude is revealed in his journal, May 31, 1786, and in JQA
to AA, August 1, 1787, APM 370.

10. ES to AA, May 20, 1787, APM 370; CM to AA, April 22,
1787, APM 369.

11. Writings, I, 33n.

12. The essay by Henry Adams on Harvard College ("H.C.")
contains an excellent discussion of the curriculum, based on
JQA's journal. See also Writings, 1, 21-25, and 21n. Also the
journal for May 3, 1786; and JQA to AA, May 15, 1786, APM
368.

13. JQA to AAS, January 17, 1787, APM 369. On his smoking,
see Morse, Adams, p. 223; the journal for July 9, 1787, APM
14; and H. Packard to JQA, October 15, 1787, APM 370,

Notes 211

14. MC to AA, May 7,, 1786, APM 368; journal, July 17, 1786.

15. Journal, December 22, 1786, January 4, 14, 1787; JQA to
AAS, January 14, 1787, APM 369.

16. Journal for December, 1786, and January, 1787; also "H.C."
p. 96.

17. Journal, September 16, 1786.

18. MC to AA, May 22, 1786; Eliza Cranch to AA, July 1, 1786,
APM 368; AA to JQA, January 17, March 20, 1787, APM
369; journal, May 13, 1787.

19. His chamber is described in Richard Cranch to AA, July 5,
1786, APM 368. See also Charles Storer to AA, April 13, 1786,
APM 367.

20. Journal, March 24, 1786. But President Willard never cracked
a smile!

21. ES to AA, May 20, 1787, APM 370.

22. So thought Henry Adams, in "H.C." p. 89.

23. Journal, May 16, 1786, on "Whether the immortality of the
soul be probable from natural reason." All of his orations
and forensic debates are copied into his journal.

24. Journal, June 26, 1786. This, I take it, is the substance of his
address on "Education." See the conclusion of Chapter Two.

25. Journal, March 5, 1787, on "Whether love or fortune ought
to be the chief inducement to marriage."

26. Journal, August 24, 1786, on "Jealousy." He doubted the
validity of a character like lago, doing evil for evil's sake.
Years later his dislike for "Othello" worked into his thesis
of Desdemona's being a prime example of filial disobedience
by having married the Moor, and hence responsible for all
of the tragic consequences. See Chapter Six.

27. Journal, June 5, 1787, on "Women."

28. Journal, June 12, 1786, on "Nothing is so difficult but what
it may be overcome by industry."

29. Journal, October 10, 1786, on "Whether the diversities of
natural character arise chiefly from physical causes"; also the
journal for October 3, 1786, where he and Bridge had had a
private argument on "sensual appetites" and had appealed
to Mr. Burr, the tutor, who had supported JQA's opinion.

30. On Christianity, see the journal comments on February 17,

212 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

1786; also his affirmative address on "Whether the introduc-
tion of Christianity had been favourable to the temporal in-
terests of mankind," in the journal on April 3, 1787. His early
social optimism is evident in the address on "Education" on
June 26, 1786.

31. One of his first expressions of suspicion on returning to Amer-
ica was about Baron von Steuben, whom he met at General
Knox's in New York in the summer of 1785. JQA to AA2,
August 9, 1785, APM 365. Brother Charles was later to call
the Baron "almost immortal." See also the journal for July 4,
1787. On JQA's republicanism while in college, see Writings,
1,29.

32. Journal, September 7, 1786.

33. Particularly pessimistic views were held by Dr. Cotton Tufts,
the Adamses' business agent: e.g., Cotton Tufts to AA, July
6, 1786, APM 368.

34. Cotton Tufts to (AA), January 2, 1787; AA to Cotton Tufts,
January 24, 1787, APM 369. However, Tufts had been invest-
ing some of the Adams money in government securities even
earlier. See Cotton Tufts to JA, October 1, 1785, APM 366;
AA to Cotton Tufts, February 21, 1786, APM 367.

35. Samuel Adams to JA, July 21, 1786, Stephen Higginson to
JA, July, 1786, APM 368.

36. C. Storer to JA, July 21; to AA, August 15; to AA, September
12; to JA, September 16, 26, 1786, APM 368. The disturbing
matters at the commencement must have been such "for en-
sick disputes" as "Whether the happiness of the people con-
sists most in the constitution or in the administration of gov-
ernment?" and "Whether it would be for the advantage of
the United States of America to enlarge the power of Con-
gress?"; or perhaps the M.A. oration by Harrison Gray Otis
on "National Faith." See the Massachusetts Centinel, July
22, 1786.

37. Journal, July 6, 1786.

38. See my "The Massachusetts Conservatives in the Critical Pe-
riod," in Era of the American Revolution: Essays Inscribed
to Evarts Boutell Greene (New York, 1939); also Mercy War-
ren to JA, January 4, 1787, APM 369.

Notes 213

39. ES to A A, July 23, 1786, APM 368; also MC to AA, April 22,
1787, APM 369.

40. Writings, I, 32.

41. B. Hichborn to JA, October 24, 1786, January 16, 1787; Sam-
uel Osgood to JA, November 14, 1786, APM 369. On this
whole subject consult Louise B. Dunbar, "A study of 'Mo-
narchical Tendencies' in the United States from 1776 to
1801," in University of Illinois, Studies in the Social Sciences,
X, No. 1, Chapter Four.

42. MC to AA, September 28, 1786, APM 368. JQA's journal for
September 26, 1786, gives both parts of the forensic but it is
not clear if the second was Billy's. If so, then he, too, agreed
that the recent riots were due to false ideas of equality.

43. Journal, February 25, 1787.

44. "H.C." p. 90.

45. Writings, I, 29.

46. Journal, April 8, 1787.

47. Writings, I, 30; MC to AA, May 27, AAS to JQA, June 10,
1787, APM 370.

48. Journal, April 10, 1787. See also his reference to "Old Hon-
estus" and the attack upon lawyers, in JQA to JA, January
14, 1787, APM 369.

49. ES to AA, May 20, 1787, APM 370. She had shown an ex-
ceptionally keen interest in such matters since girlhood,

50. MC to AA, April 22, 1787, APM 369.

51. Journal, March 14-20, 1787. The poem as here quoted is
taken from "H.C." pp. 118421.

52. Journal, May 24, 1786.

53. Journal, May 24, June 8, 20, 29, 1787.

54. Journal, September 30, 1787.

55. Journal, September 29, 1786.

56. Journal, March 10, 1787.

57. Journal, May 21, 1787.

58. See the next chapter.

59. Journal, June 8, 10, 1787.

60. Journal, July 2, 1787.

61. Journal, November 12, 1786.

214 JOHN QUINGY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Chapter Four

1. MC to AA, July 16, 1787, APM 370. By contrast, his cousin,
Billy Cranch, was too busy helping with the preparations for
the feast to be morose! There is an excellent article bearing
on some aspects of the day's affairs, by Lawrence Shaw Mayo,
Jeremy Belknap and J. Q. Adams, 1787," in the Proceedings
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, LIX, 203-210.

2. See Henry Adams, "Harvard College. 1786, 1787," loc. cit.,
pp. 97, 98, 117 (hereafter referred to as "H.C."). JQA had
recorded in his journal, March 30, 1787, APM 14, that a pri-
vate commencement would be preferable because public dis-
tinctions of this kind created envy. "I am much deceived if
I have not lately perceived it, with respect to myself."

3. Journal, May 21, 1787, APM 14, saying that he dreaded com-
parison with Freeman, and that contrasts might be drawn
which would reflect disgrace upon him.

4. ES to AA, July 22, Lucy Cranch to AA, August 18, 1787,
APM 370.

5 MC to AA, July 14, 1786, APM 368; MC to AA, July 16, 22,
and ES to AA, July 22, 1787, APM 370. There were three
tenant families housed on the two farms in Braintree. See
Three Episodes of Massachusetts History, II, 692. The gener-
ally festive character of commencement time may be inferred
from a poem the year before in the Massachusetts Centinel,
July 22, 1786, ending:

Thus the loose crowd forbidden pleasures seek,
Drink Harvard dry, and so conclude the week.

But this part of it apparently was unknown to JQA!

6. Probably the account in the Centinel on July 21 is that re-
ferred to in the Memoirs, I, 22. The expression was that of
his Aunt Eliza Shaw. ES to AA, July 22, 1787, APM 370.

7. The Boston Gazette, July 23, 1787. On editor Edes and his
paper, see Joseph T. Buckingham, Specimens of Newspaper
Literature, I, 166 ff. This particular slam on the Defence
seems to have been ignored by the Adamses in their corre-
spondence, although before long JA was being informed by
Dr. Tufts about such criticism of his book in America,

Notes 215

8. Writings, I, 30.

9. AA to JQA, November 22, 23, 1786, January 17, 1787, APM
369. "The seditions in Massachusetts induced your Poppa to
give to the World a Book which at first he designed only for
a few friends. . . ."

10. April 23, 1787.

11. The Massachusetts Centinel, July 18, 1787.

12. Ibid., August 29, 1787; AA to JQA, March 20, 1787, APM
369. See also Chapter Seven.

13. A good, general account of the proceedings is in the Boston
Independent Chronicle, July 19, 26, 1787.

14. The "nervous style" was of course the descriptive language
employed by the Centinel on July 21. JQA's remarkable fa-
cial expressions are mentioned in ES to AA, July 22, and MC
to AA, July 22, 1787, APM 370. Mrs. Cranch, however, had
had her information by hearsay; she did not actually hear
the address. Either she was too busy preparing for the feast,
or she could not stand hearing her son and nephew "orate."
She had previously sat through a similar ordeal when they
had both performed, and had doubted whether she could
ever do so again! See Chapter Three.

15. Memoirs, I, 22. His father, by contrast, had graduated four-
teenth in his class, about half-way down. But "rank" played
a primary role in those early days.

16. The Independent Chronicle, July 26, 1787.

17. On the Centinel and its able editor, Major Benjamin Russell,
see Buckingham, Specimens of Newspaper Literature, II,
1-17. Russell had been an apprentice of Isaiah Thomas, and
a Revolutionary soldier. The Massachusetts Centinel (later
the Columbian Centinel), had only been organized in 1784,
and was an up-and-coming sheet. Its format had already had
to be enlarged.

18. C/. JQA's poor opinion of President Willard as a speaker, in
"H.C." p. 103.

19. JQA to AA, August 1, 1787, APM 370.

20. Ibid.; Journal, May 21, July 28, APM 14; ES to AA, July 22,
1787, APM 370.

21. Life in a New England Town, p. 125n.

216 JOHN (QUINCY ADAMS: JL nc

22. See Mayo, "Jeremy Belknap and J. Q. Adams, 1787," loc. cit.,
passim.

23. September 15, 1787.

24. Mayo, op. cit., pp. 206, 207, 208; Writings, I, 34 ff.; and Jane
B. Marcou, The Life of Jeremy Belknap, D.D., the Historian
of New Hampshire (New York, 1847), p. 157. The long quote
follows Mayo on wording and punctuation.

25. See S. E. Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, pp. 175-177.

26. Ibid., p. 179; also the journal comments of JQA in "H.C."
pp. 104-116, especially p. 106. One of the tutors, Mr. Reed,
seems to have been somewhat more favorably regarded, at
least by James Bridge, a close friend of JQA, See Bridge to
JQA, September 28, 1787, APM 370.

27. JQA to AA, August 1, 1787, APM 370.

28. "H.C." pp. 97, 98, 117.

29. Ibid., p. 90. See also Chapter Three.

30. Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard, p. 174; Albert Math-
ews, Harvard Commencement Days, pp. 363, 364.

31. Mathews, op. cit., pp. 363, 364.

32. Ibid., p. 364. On an earlier "insult" to Hancock, see Morison,
Three Centuries of Harvard, p. 156.

33. See Josiah Quincy, Memoir of the Life of John Quincy
Adams, pp. 5, 6, on his popularity with his classmates, and
general record at college.

34. The following is quoted and paraphrased from an original
copy of the September, 1787, Columbian Magazine, in the
New York Public Library. In view of the theme of the ad-
dress, it seems fitting to ask, whether he was aware of how
his family had been investing in government securities in
recent months. (See Chapter Three) The only answer is, there
is no evidence that he was.

35. In his journal, July 27, 1787, APM 14, he says, "In the after-
noon I read a novel, which arrived from England by the last
vessel. The title is Louisa, or the cottage on the moor. It is
light and airy like most novels. . . . The story is interest-
ing, and affecting. The incident of Danvers' carrying off
Louisa from Dover is theatrical, and related with more cir-
cumstances of probability than are usual in Scenes of that
kind. . . ."

Chapter Five

1. Letters of Mrs. Adams, pp. 327, 341; John Thaxton to JA,
January 7, JA to JQA, April 2, 1786, APM 367; MC to AA,
May 22, 1786, APM 368; AA to JQA, January 17, 20, 1787,
APM 369; Cotton Tufts to JA, June 30, 1787, APM 370.

2. He had once been troubled with headaches and "flushing"
in the face, according to AA to JQA, January 17, 1787, APM
369. On his spells of dizziness see ibid., also MC to AA, Sep-
tember 24, 1786, APM 368, and journal for May 13, 1787,
APM 14. A prescription of lime water for acid stomach is in
AA to JQA, July 18, 1787, APM 370. He had been repeatedly
unwell in the fall of 1786, and trouble flared up again the
following spring. See journal entries for March 31, April 12,
May 13, 28 (when he suffered the "usual consequences" from
a lack of exercise), 1787, APM 14.

3. Life in a New England Town, 1787, 1788. The Diary of John
Quincy Adams While a Student in the Office of Theophilus
Parsons at Newburyport, pp. 23, 68, 95, 132. Hereafter re-
ferred to as LNET.

4. Ibid.) pp. 65, 69.

5. See Chapter Four.

6. Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 341.

7. Cf. LNET p. 170; also the following chapter.

8. Journal, September 5, 1788, APM 14. There are copies of
this address in the Massachusetts Historical Society and in
the Harvard College Library.

9. See Chapter Three.

10. See his father's appraisal of Parsons, LNET, p. 126n. JQA's
feelings of apprehension are found in ibid., p. 14, also in
Chapter Three.

11. LNET, pp. 42, 46.

12. Ibid., p. 92.

13. JQA to Cotton Tufts, December 9, 1787; also Tufts to AA,
September 20, 1787, APM 370.

14. He had felt particularly unwell and depressed in November:
LNET, pp. 62, 63, 65; but took new resolution in December;
Writings, I, 37,

218 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: J. ne uv

15. LNET,p.n.

16. 76zd., pp. 68, 69.

17. Ibid., pp. 92, 93, 95.

18. Ibid., pp. 107, 111.

19. April 5, 1788, ibid., p. 118.

20. May 12, 13, 14, ibid., pp. 134, 135.

21. Ibid., p. 138.

22. Ibid., p. 127.

23. Perhaps it is a fanciful notion that JQA should have been
sensitive on this point, but his great admiration for literary
genius should be remembered, and Tyler had already scored
his brilliant New York success. Anyone interested in the tor-
turous story of the Adamses' acquisition of the Borland (or
Vassal) house in Braintree (upon which Tyler may have lost
his down payment, although he had sold off some of the land
and also had a "claim" that had to be settled) should read
the letters of MC and of Cotton Tufts to A A in 1787, espe-
cially those of May 26, June 13, and September 20. It had
originally been sequestered as Tory property and leased to
Richard Cranch he had been one of the state commissioners
in such matters then returned to the heirs under the terms
of the peace treaty of 1783 who in turn had sold it to Tyler.
Dr. Thomas Welch of Boston was finally employed to close
the deal, so as to keep John Adams' name out of it.

24. LNET, p. 161.

25. Ibid., p. 161; AAS to JQA, August 20, 1788, APM 371.

26. LNET, p. 165. The remaining entries, September 3-October
14, must have been written up later from the "almanac"
diary in which he continued to make brief daily entries de-
spite his indisposition.

27. Ibid., pp. 155, 156. The day after commencement he had rid-
den to Boston on a hard trotting horse, with the sun blazing
in his face.

28. Including Bolingbroke, Buffon, Robertson, Gibbon, Hume,
Vattel, and others. See his father's exhortation for him to
read works on ethics and morals, and Parson's advice to read
"ethic writers." LNET, pp. 64, 125n.

rsotes

29. March 5, 1788, ibid., p. 106.

30. Writings, I, 38; LNET, p. 32n; Myron O. Allen, History of
Wenham (Boston, 1860), pp. 145-148.

31. February 7, LNET, p. 93.

32. John Forbes to JQA, January 19, W. Cranch to JQA, Janu-
ary 22, AAS to JQA, August 20, 1788, APM 371.

33. LNET, pp. 46, 55, 68, 69, 72. On his republican attitude at
college, see Writings, I, 29; also Chapter Three.

34. February 10, LNET, p. 95.

35. 76 id., p. 96.

36. Ibid., p. 153 and note.

37. April 7, ibid., p. 119.

38. Ibid., pp. 125, 150.

39. I.e., Volume one of the Defence of the Constitutions of Gov-
ernment of the United States of America (London, 1787), in-
cluded in John Adams, Works, Vol. IV. See also Chapter
Four.

40. AAS to JQA, September 28, 1788, APM 371.

41. LNET, p. 109.

42. 7d.,pp.78,132.

43. Cf. "H.C." p. 90; journal, July 26, 1786, APM 13; LNET,
p. 72.

44. LNET, p. 88.

45. See Chapter Two.

46. January 25, 1788, LNET, p. 88. On the "Receipt/' see Chap-
ter One.

47. Poems of Religion and Society, p. Ill ff. See also the next
chapter.

48. Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 115.

49. APM 16.

50. LNET, p. 43.

51. Ibid., pp. 99, 159.

52. On Mary Frazier, see the following chapter,

53. LNET, pp. 105, 161.

54. Ibid., p. 105.

55. Ibid., pp. 159, 161, 162.

56. 7ZmJ.,pp.45, 61.

220 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

57. Ibid., pp. 159, 165.

58. He had been reading the Notes on Virginia on August 30,

1787. Ibid., p. 23.

59. ES to AA, September 21, 1788, APM 37 1. JQA also wrote his
mother the next day about his condition.

60. ES to AA, October 3, 1788, APM 371.

Chapter Six

1. Life in a New England Town, p. 168, and on Gibbon, p. 112;
diary entries for October and November, 1788, APM 16.

2. His diary gives no reason, but presumably this was the case.
He had discontinued his elaborate journal in September,

1788, and the "almanac" diaries (i.e., daily entries on the
blank leaves of his yearly Fleet almanac) give much less in-
formation.

3. APM 16. Another interesting quotation, in French, refers to
men so vile as to purchase love, etc.

4. APM 17. Such colorful expressions were apparently much
savored by the lads. A year later his friend, James Bridge, re-
ferred to one of the local favorites as "the hot wench." Bridge
to JQA, September 28, 1790, APM 374. This young lady was
duly satirized by JQA in "A Vision." The quotation itself is
from "King Henry IV, Part I."

5. See Chapter Two.

6. Bridge to JQA, October 10, 1788, APM 371.

7. Cranch to JQA, June 10, 1790, APM 373. Cranch refers to
the poem as "The Vision/' but I have employed the earlier
title, "A Vision," throughout this work. JQA labeled it so
in his "Fugitive Pieces in Verse/' APM 223.

8. James Bridge so described it in a letter to JQA, June 28,
1790, APM 373. For a contemporary description of a "club,"
see the amusing article in the Massachusetts Magazine for
April, 1789, p. 219.

9. References to fatigue and drowsiness are in the dairy, April
3, May 12, June 20, 1789, APM 17. He slept poorly on May
12, following an evening, presumably social, at Dr. Swett's,
On April 17 he wrote his mother (APM 372) that his health

was better than at any time since the previous September,
and that "scarcely anything of my complaints remains, ex-
cept the Spasms, which are not frequent, nor very trouble-
some/' Perhaps this referred to stomach cramps medical
terms were used loosely in those days since he had suffered
earlier from stomach and perhaps bowel trouble. See Chap-
ter Five, especially footnotes 2 and 3. See also the letter to
his father in June, 1789, about his ability to study having
exceeded his expectations (Writings, I, 40); and to his mother
on December 5, 1789, (LNET, p. 178), about his ancient quar-
rel with drowsiness threatening to break out again daytime
drowsiness resulting from insomnia? and to "a few nervous
twitches'* hinting of his need for exercise. Could "twitches"
also have been connected with stomach cramps?

10. See Clifford K. Shipton, Isaiah Thomas, Printer, Patriot and
Philanthropist, 1749-1831 (Rochester, 1948), pp. 43, 48. The
old literary Boston Magazine, with which JQA had been ac-
quainted while at Harvard, had expired with the November-
December, 1786, issue.

11. Shipton, Thomas, p. 48. Also Richard Walser, "More About
the First American Novel," in American Literature, XXIV,
No. 3, 1952.

12. E.g., "Gyges" in the Columbian Centinel for January 17,
February 11, 14, 25, 1789, replied to by "Bon Ton" on Janu-
ary 24, "Mentor" on February 21, and "Aspasia" on Febru-
ary 25, 1789. A popular risqud poem was "The Penance,"
reprinted in the Herald of Freedom on February 10, 1789.
Brown's novel is occasionally referred to, as by "Mr. Civil
Spy" in the Centinel on February 18, 1789.

13. In May, 1789, on Mary Frazier, signed "Alcander," sub-
mitted by a friend who called himself "Septimus," with the
solution in the August number; in June, on Mary Newhall,
and unsigned; in September, on Harriet Bradbury, signed
"Corydon," and the solution in the December number by
"Thyrsis." In the same September issue there also appeared
by "Corydon," a "Pastoral Ode" on "Emma: Or, the Rose,"
undoubtedly also by JQA. Could "Emma" have been the
young lady who, together with "Julia," had contributed to

222 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical tears

the Massachusetts Magazine for February, 1789, and there-
fore have been one of those ladies whom he had earlier criti-
cized under the pen name of "Celadon"? See below, espe-
cially footnotes 33 and 34.

14. The Herald of Freedom, March 10, 1789.

15. He mentioned "Mirror Leluna" in his diary on April 29,
APM 17. It presumably was a satirical character analysis of
one of the local young ladies. The simple diary entry sug-
gests that JQA was the author, for such apparently was his
habit in noting his publications. Unfortunately most unfor-
tunatelyno copy of this important April 29, 1789, issue of
the Essex Journal and New-Hampshire Packet appears to
exist.

16. He also mentioned the "Enig: List" in his diary on April 29.
This, of course, was in the Essex Journal for that day. He
presumably had had a hand in its compilation, although not
necessarily for publication. Could the characters have been
related to those in his "Vision"? An "Enigmatical List of
Young Ladies in Boston/' submitted by "Cardenio," had
appeared in the Massachusetts Magazine for March, 1789, p.
181, so it was quite a fashionable thing to do.

17. The Essex Journal, May 6, 1789. He mentions "Lelius" in
his diary that day. Undoubtedly it was he who used this same
signature in a political article in the Boston American
Apollo, March 29, 1793. See Chapter Eight. In the Boston
Herald of Freedom, March 20, 1789, there was an anti-Han-
cockian article signed "Lelius," although there is no reason
to think that JQA was the author.

18. The manuscript journal of Alice Tucker, 1784-1791, under
November 14, 1789, and January 30, 1790. 1 am indebted for
the privilege of reading this journal to Mr. Gordon Hutchins
of Punkatasset Farm, Concord, Massachusetts.

19. The quotation is from the communication by "Eugenio" in
the Essex Journal for May 6. There was still another article
on the subject, entitled "Remarks on the Fair Sex." The
same issue included a laudatory ode on the arrival in New
York of the Vice President of the United States, John Adams,
contributed by "Mr. F****."

Motes

20. The satire thus appears in LNET, p. 120. It may also be
found in any printed version of "A Vision," e.g., in Poems
of Religion and Society (1850 ed.), or in John J. Currier,
Newburyport, II, 540 ff. The original of "A Vision" is in his
book of "Fugitive Pieces in Verse," APM 223.

21. The "Epistle" and its date of composition are given in his
book of "Fugitive Pieces," p. 3. Twelve lines of that produc-
tion were subsequently transferred to his treatment of "Nar-
cissa" in "A Vision."

22. See LNET, p. 125.

23. "Fugitive Pieces," p. 8, APM 223.

24. The Boston Herald of Freedom, December 11, 1788, Febru-
ary 27, 1789.

25. AA to Cotton Tufts, January 1, 1788, APM 371.

26. The Massachusetts Magazine in 1789 and 1790 has many con-
tributions by a certain "Belinda," who possibly was the young
lady who had written in the Herald. However, such stock
names had wide current usage. For JQA's satire, see above
and footnote 20.

27. This verse was widely reprinted. I first ran across it in the
Poughkeepsie, New York, Journal, May 26, 1791. Who the
author was, does not appear.

28. See above, footnote 13.

29. Also in the "Fugitive Pieces," p. 6, APM 223.

30. "Scipio Africanus" is mentioned in the diary, together with
a reference to the Herald, under that date. APM 17. Here,
again, simple entry in the diary suggests his own authorship,
while its parodying of "Clara," together with the rhyming
couplet at the end, clearly identifies it with his "Vision." The
only possible other explanation of its authorship, and one
quite far-fetched, would be that someone had secured a copy
of the completed "Vision" if indeed it already was com-
pletedand was playing a joke on him. There was a reply to
"Scipio Africanus" by "Toby" in the Herald on March 6.

31. If his authorship of this is also doubted on grounds that it
shows "prejudice" unnatural to him, see his second "Elegy
to Miranda" in his "Fugitive Pieces," APM 223. In that later,
unpublished satire of 1792, he laments his ability to fall in

224 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

love with any woman, regardless among other things of the
color of her skin. See Chapter Eight. His critical opinion of
the improbability of "Othello" has already been noted in
Chapter Three, an opinion he expanded many years later
in a serious essay. See Rufus Wilmot Griswold, Prose Writers
of America (Philadelphia, 1847), pp. 103, 104. An article by
S. Swett, a son of JQA's old doctor, in the Newburyport Daily
Herald, September 22, 1864, says that JQA had a reputation
of having once published in a Boston paper a "pasquinade
on Jefferson's Black Sal," which possibly referred to an old
political smear, but may be what is acknowledged in the
Memoirs, VIII, 339. Similar charges may be found in Samuel
D. Ingraham, An Exposition of the Political Character and
Principles of John Quincy Adams (Washington: Printed by
Duff Green, 1827). Other "prejudices" of his may be gleaned
from George Lipsky, John Quincy Adams: His Theory and
Ideas.

32. Diary, March 10, 11, 1789, APM 17. "Celadon" was a minor
figure slain by Perseus in the war over Andromeda.

33. Herald of Freedom, March 10, 1789. Here again the name
of the article and the newspaper in which it appeared, are
simply mentioned in the diary. However, his authorship is
obviously conceded in JQA to John Phillips, January 27,
1790, in the Phillips Papers in the Massachusetts Historical
Society. One of the "rebuses" that had attracted his atten-
tion, and which seemed to have had some peculiar signifi-
cance since he mentions it in the "Celadon" article, was in
the Herald for February 24; but I have been unable to de-
cipher it except that the first name appears to be "DIAN."

34. The Herald of Freedom, March 13, 20, 31, April 3, 1789. The
Massachusetts Magazine for March, 1789, p. 130, expressed
the hope that "Emma and Julia" would not be discouraged
from sending further communications because of the "ill-
natured, illjudged, ungallant irony of a coxcomical news-
paper scribbler." In its September issue, p. 532, this maga-
zine in its comments on contributors speaks of "Celadon's
Ode and Rebusingenious, spirited, chaste," which refers to
contributions by JQA under the signature of "Corydon" in

Notes 225

the same issue. Thus the identification of "Celadon" with
"Corydon" would seem to be unmistakable.

35. In JQA's letter to Phillips, January 27, 1790, referred to
above, he disclaimed responsibility for the satirizing of mar-
ried persons, in which the new "Celadon" was indulging. An
example of the latter's writing is in the Massachusetts Maga-
zine, December, 1789, p. 764. JQA also plainly admits in this
letter of his once having written under the signature of "Al-
cander." See above, footnote 13. His ballad to "Phyllida" in
his "Fugitive Pieces" (APM 223), published in this magazine
in November, 1789, was also signed "Alcander." It tells how
his love persists even though "Phyllida" makes nature lose
her charms by comparison.

36. W. Cranch to JQA, June 10, 1790, APM 373.

37. It is not apparent what significance the name of "Clara" must
have had for JQA. However, it is interesting to note a poem
in the Boston Magazine for February, 1786, entitled "A
Dutch Proverb," which includes the line, "A slave I am to
Clara's eyes." JQA, of course, had a special knowledge of all
things Dutch. Could he possibly have been the author?

38. See his "Fugitive Pieces in Verse," APM 223, also footnote 13
above, and JQA to TBA, April 2, 1791, APM 374.

39. W. Cranch to JQA, June 10, 1790, APM 373.

40. Bridge to JQA, September 28, 1790, APM 374.

41. LNET, p. 125; "Fugitive Pieces," p. 5, APM 223. A principal
point of contention is whether Catherine Jones had any
claims to being "Clara" in "A Vision," or whether she was in
fact the loathsome "Almira." Although the problem of iden-
tifying the originals of the characters in "A Vision" is most
interesting, it is subject to exaggeration since JQA was also
illustrating various types of young ladies. Nevertheless, vari-
ous "keys" to the characters got into circulation in Newbury-
port, perhaps stimulated by the "Enigmatical list" in the
Essex Journal on April 29, 1789, (of which no copy appears
to exist).

There were nine such characters in "A Vision": unfeeling
Lucinda, loud-voiced Belinda, disdainful Narcissa, talkative
Vanessa, silly, kissable Corinna, novel-reading Nerea, old and

226 JOHN QUINGY ADAMS: The Critical Years

sneering Statira (omitted from the 1850 edition of his poems),
prideful and masculine Almira, and finally the lovely,
lovely Clara. The uproar his poem must have caused when
it got into private circulation may well be imagined!

There are three principal authorities about these char-
acters: John J. Currier, Newburyport, II, 540 ff.; the "Recol-
lections" of James Morss, in the Newburyport Daily Herald,
June 30, July 15, 1864 (the first reprinting of a letter said to
have been written by JQA from Washington, D.C., January
7, 1840); and the article by "Sfamuel] Swett" in the Herald
for September 22, 1864, which defends Catherine Jones on
the recollection of what Swett's parents had told him. There
was a reply to Swett by Mrs. James Morss, whose husband had
meantime died, in the paper on October 15, 1864. The
Herald had published a copy of "A Vision" years before, on
December 27, 1839-after it had first appeared in a New York
paper contributed by James Morss.

An article about JQA in the Herald on August 17, 1864,
refers to several visits JQA is said to have made there in his
old age, one of which is surely apocryphal. The Appendix to
his An Oration Delivered Before the Inhabitants of the Town
of Newburyport, at Their Request, on . . , July 4th, 1837
(Printed by Morss and Brewster, Newburyport Herald Office),
is also worth noting. See also LNET, p. 169, for Charles Fran-
cis Adams, Jr/s reaction to all the publicity in 1864 about
his grandfather's love affair,

42. Bridge to JQA, February 28, 1789, APM 372.

43. J. Putnam to JQA, October 3, 1789, APM 373.

44. Ibid., saying, "for however phlegmatic you may think your-
self you are as capable of as strong attachts as any person I
know." James Bridge to JQA, June 28, had said, "This I used
to impute to the want of passion on your side what you
would by no means allow, you may remember." APM 373.

45. JQA to TBA, April 2, 1791, APM 374. For statements about
his publications made years later, see Memoirs, VIII, 125, 339.

46. LNET, pp. 170-178.

47. Ibid., pp. 123, 178, 179. The Address to Washington is in
Writings, I, 43, 44, also in the Essex Journal, November 4,

Notes 227

1789. Identification of the "Cough" and the "late rage 1 ' of
influenza with Washington's visit, is called "antifederal" in
an amusing anecdote in the Essex Journal, February 17, 1790.

48. Diary entries, APM 17.

49. JQA to John Phillips, January 27, 1790, has a mock lamenta-
tion, saying that "We can indeed no longer boast, that 'each
nymph is kind'/' Phillips Papers in the Massachusetts His-
torical Society.

50. Writings, I, 46.

51. Ibid., I, 61, and note.

52. Diary entries, under date, APM 17.

53. For a description of Mary Frazier (born March 9, 1774), writ-
ten long afterwards, see The Recollections of Samuel Breck
with Passages from His Note-Books, 1771-1862. Edited by
H. E. Scudder (Philadelphia, 1877), pp. 120, 121. See also
John H. Sheppard, Reminiscences of Lucius Manlius Sargent
(Boston, 1871), Appendix, p. 31. Most of the latter material
is also in the New England Historical Society Register, Vol.
25, p. 210, giving genealogical information about Mary Fra-
zier and her husband, Daniel Sargent, Jr. They had been
married less than two years before Mary's death in 1804.
Sargent had once been a boon companion of JQA. See Chap-
ters Eight and Nine of this work. The Fraziers had been
immigrants to Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1685; a branch
of the family became established in Boston where Nathan
Frazier was a merchant at the time of the Revolution. His
son, Nathan Frazier, Jr., was another close companion of
young Adams, as also mentioned below. See Josiah G. Leach,
Some Account of Captain John Frazier and His Descendants
(Philadelphia, 1910), p. 6. These lines from "A Vision" are
taken from Currier, Newburyport, II, pp. 546, 547, except
that I have substituted "Virtue" for "Nature" in one place,
and "and yet" for "when they" in another, which are the
most important variations from the copy in APM 223.

54. See S. E. Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, I, 34.

55. E.g., AA to JQA, February 19, July 11, 1790, APM 373, and
JA to JQA, September 13, 1790, APM 374; also JQA to JA,
August 9, 1790, APM 374, about "envy" and "malice."

228 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

56. AAS to JQA, August 20, 1788, APM 371; and April 18, July
11, 1790, APM 373 and 374.

57. JQA to JA, August 9, and JQA to AA, October 17, 1790,
APM 374.

58. JA to JQA, April 16, 1790, APM 373, had admitted that, de-
spite criticism of the new national government, it had had
"all the Influence on public Property that could be ex-
pected." See Chapter Three on the Adamses' early acquisi-
tion of public securities. JA to JQA, September 13, 1790,
APM 374, mentions his estates, apparently in an effort to
take up the young man's attention.

59. AA to JQA, August 20, and his reply, August 29, 1790; also
AA to JQA, September 9, 1790, APM 374. The "rich girl"
was his cousin, Nancy Quincy, who had recently married.
JQA had once thought her too fat, as well as a prude 1

60. ES to AA, September 28, 1790, APM 374.

61. JA to JQA, September, 1790. He reassured him that industry
and honor would overcome malice and envy, as AA had also
written him on July 11, 1790. APM 374. His parents seem
to have been concerned lest he try for early success in unde-
sirable ways. Could this fear have been related to the news
of his infatuation?

62. JQA to AA, August 29, 1790, APM 374,

63. AA to JQA, September 22, 1790, APM 374.

64. JQA to AA, November 20, December 14, 1790, APM 374.

65. Bridge to JQA, September 28, 1790, APM 374.

66. JQA to AA, November 7, 1795, APM 380, and her reply,
February 29, 1796, APM 381.

67. ES to JQA, June 9, 1794, APM 377.

68. AAS to JQA, April 18, June 6, 1790, APM 373. In the first
she quotes what he had written about her reason and pru-
dence, and in the latter she acknowledges his letter of re-
assurance as to his discretion, prudence, and caution!

69. Writings, I, 58.

70. AA to JQA, May 20, and JQA to AA, July 25, 1796, APM
381 and 382. The "chaos" of his thoughts while undergoing
the ordeal of visiting Newburyport in 1837 is referred to in
the Memoirs, IX, 357-360.

Notes 229

71. According to James Morss' account. See LNET, p. 169. Surely
one of the "friends" had been Catherine Jones!

72. Bridge to JQA, August 30, 1790, APM 374, about Betsy Fra-
zier's being succeeded by her sister, Mary, as a visitor for the
winter at Medford.

73. April 4, 1791, during his brief effort to revive his journal.
APM 20.

74. Diary, April 9, 1791, APM 19.

75. Diary, December 13, 1790, APM 18. I have been unable to
locate this particular writing for certain. However, the Mas-
sachusetts Magazine for November, 1790, p. 695, has a poem
by "Lysander" entitled "FANCY Unrestrained By JUDGMENT;
Or, ANTICIPATION Greater Than REAL ENJOYMENT," which in
a treatment strangely similar to JQA's old "Vision" tells how
a blue-eyed golden-haired nymph had appeared before the
author when he fell asleep. The poem concludes

I look'd and wish'd, and look'd and wish'd again,
I sought her love and soon the boon attained,
Then asked her hand, her hand was quickly gained.
To crown my bliss, for marriage joys I sigh'd,
To give me these, the nuptial knot was ty'd;
I thought 'twas joy, but though it strange may seem,
I wak'd to pain, and found it all a DREAM.

Comparison of the entire poem with the theme and some
of the expressions in "A Vision," suggests that JQA may have
been the author. If so, one must suppose that the magazine
had been published very late to include a poem written near
a month after the termination of the affair with Mary Fra-
zier. There is also a "rebus" by "Lysander" in this issue which
I have been unable to decipher. So far as I know, JQA had
never previously written under this signature, and its sig-
nificance is not clear except in the usage of "A Midsummer-
Night's Dream." However, JQA's father had employed it as
a young man.

76. New Letters of Abigail Adams, p. 69.

77. Ibid., p. W.

230 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

78. Diary, March 13, 1791, APM 19. His last, sarcastic use of the
sentimental expression, "Celadon," probably was that in JQA
to TBA, June 23, 1793, APM 376. See also Chapter Nine.

Chapter Seven

1. The Education of Henry Adams, p. 7.

2. "Letters of Publicola II," in Writings, I, 73.

3. LNET, pp. 119, 120n.

4. See Chapter Six.

5. Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 111.

6. Including Shenstone's "Judgment of Hercules," copied into
the blank leaves of his diary, APM 19.

7. APM 20 has a few entries for April 1-10, 1791.

8. Diary, May 6, 1791, APM 19. During his futile attempts to
renew his journal (APM 20), he says, under April 7, that he
has little pleasure in reflection although "much leisure" on
his hands, and that whenever he journalizes, "I soon grow
disgusted with my own egotism."

9. Diary, April 10, 1791, APM 20.

10. JQA to TBA, April 2, 20, 1791, APM 374.

11. AAS to JQA, September 28, 1788, APM 371.

12. James Bridge to JQA, July 28, 1791, APM 375. As usual,
Bridge's letter was written on the 28th day of the monthl

13. AA to JQA, April 18, 1791, APM 374. He was to get twenty-
five pounds a quarter. On June 1, his father also gave him
power of attorney for handling his Boston estates. APM 375.

14. On this whole matter, see Writings, I, 65n; also John Adams,
Works, I, 454, and Jefferson, Writings (Ford), V, 354. On
Adams' immediate dislike of The Rights of Man, Tobias
Lear to Washington, in Washington, Writings (Ford), XII,
39n. Jefferson's explanation to Washington, May 8, 1791, is
in Jefferson, Writings, V, 328 ff.; and to James Madison, May
9, in ibid., V, 331. Jefferson and Madison took a convenient
political excursion away from Philadelphia, May 16-June 20,
visiting lakes George and Champlain and returning by way
of the Connecticut River. On June 28, Jefferson wrote Madi-
ison (Jefferson, Writings, V, 346), "Nobody doubts here who

Notes 231

is the author of Publicola, any more than of Davila. He is
very indecently attacked in Brown's & Bache's papers." Jeffer-
son's explanations to John Adams on July 17 and August 30
are in Jefferson, Writings, V, 353 ff., 380 ft; and John Adams'
to Jefferson, July 29, in Adams, Works, VIII, 506 ff. Inci-
dentally, JQA had once had luncheon with Tom Paine, in
New York, August 10, 1785. JQA to AA2, under date, APM
365.

15. JA to Tench Coxe, July 14, 1791, APM 375. With the in-
crease in the credit and property of the country he thought
that America had never been so "happy," and that she would
continue so if the French "delirium" should not turn Amer-
ican heads. JA to Colonel Smith, June 19, 1791, ibid. JQA
noted in his diary, April 1, 1791, that the first interest was
paid at the "Loan Office." APM 19. On the family's earlier
interest in government securities, see Chapter Three.

16. See Charles D. Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of
the French Revolution, passim.

17. Writings, I, 64.

18. See Chapter Four, especially the reference to the Centinel
for July 18, 1787, reprinting a story from Philadelphia com-
menting on Adams' Defence and incidentally defending a
different version of one of Dr. Franklin's illustrations per-
taining to "divisions" in government.

19. See JA to Jefferson, July 29, 1791, Works, VIII, 506 ff, com-
menting on his political enemies in Massachusetts and Penn-
sylvania. See also his remarks in the Defence on the ideas
held by some people in every state at the beginning of the
Revolution, for getting rid of senates and governors (Works,
IV, 299, 300); on Franklin's influence on Turgot, in popular-
izing the idea of a single assembly as in the Pennsylvania
Constitution of 1776 (ibid., IV, 389); and in "Davila" and
later remarks thereon, other references to Pennsylvania's
single assembly and to Franklin, and the evil consequences
of such ideas in France (ibid., VI, 274 and note). The "Stone
House" faction in Massachusetts named after Hancock's res-
idence in Boston is also mentioned in Amory, James Sulli-
van, I, 248,

232 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

20. See John Adams, Works, VI, 411, 415, 427, 431 et passim. He
even went so far as to suggest that the Boston town meetings
and Harvard College had had something to do with bringing
on hopes of a millenium, and setting the "universe in mo-
tion"!

21. See Works, VI, 323n; also Zoltan Haraszti, John Adams and
the Prophets of Progress (Cambridge, 1952), passim; but he
had on at least one earlier occasion expressed admiration for
the "virtuous" Rousseau. See Familiar Letters of John Adams
and His Wife, p. 349.

22. It should be noted, however, that in the Defence John Adams
had defended the division of powers in American state con-
stitutions not so much because it was the English system, as
because such a division had always existed in America, and
was founded in "nature and reason." Works, IV, 300.

23. New Letters of Abigail Adams, p. 26, and 24n, 25n. She did
subsequently attend plays in Philadelphia, however, in com-
pany with the Washingtons. See Chapter Eight.

24. The Columbian Centinel, August 26, 1789. In the same issue
there is a communication by 'An American," however, who
says that Americans of all ranks favor some titles, such as
"Honourable," etc.

25. The Gazette of the United States, June 18, 1791.

26. The story, reprinted in the Columbian Centinel, June 18,
1791, was "From a Late Connecticut Paper" which I have
been unable to locate; but it was based upon an article origi-
nally appearing in the recently founded (and soon to expire)
New Haven Gazette of May 18, 1791. Henry Knox had no-
ticed the article in both New York and Connecticut papers,
and had written John Adams about it on June 10. Adams'
denunciation of the "Lye" is in his reply to Knox, June 19,
1791, APM 375.

27. Madison, Writings (Hunt), VI, 56n, as quoted in JQA Writ-
ings, I, 66n.

28. "Publicola I," in Writings, I, 65 ff.

29. The Independent Chronicle, June 23, 1791.

30. E.g., Writings, I, 69, 78, 80, 103.

31. Ibid., p. 101.

Notes 233

32. Ibid., pp. 70, 71.

33. Ibid., p. 74.

34. The Boston Independent Chronicle, June 23, 1791.

35. Writings, I, 87, also 75. Thomas Jefferson had had somewhat
similar ideas about the "origin" of English government!

36. Ibid., p. 99; LNET, p. 23.

37. Writings, I, 73. The question was about Great Britain, whose
government according to Paine was a "usurpation." See also
ibid., p. 105, on the difficulties of making peace treaties with
a nation organized on the French principles of having every-
thing openly debated in the Assembly.

38. Ibid., pp. 79, 98.

39. Quoted in ibid., 66n.

40. Diary, under dates, APM 19.

41. Jefferson, Writings (Ford), V, 380 ff.

42. JA to Tench Coxe, September 13, 1791, and AAS to JQA,
July 3, 1792, APM 375.

Chapter Eight

1. Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 352.

2. John Verlin Godwin to JA, April 17, 1792, APM 375. So was
"Paradise Lost" at that tender age.

3. Henry Adams, A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy
Adams, p. 68; Morse, Adams, pp. 222, 223.

4. "Journal A," December 9-14, 1779, APM 4.

5. Journals and diaries, 1779-1785, especially APM 11.

6. Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 234.

7. See Chapter One, especially footnote 41.

8. Bobb6, Mr. and Mrs. John Quincy Adams, p. 32; also Bemls,
John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American For-
eign Policy, p. 18.

9. James Bridge to JQA, July 28, 1791, APM 375, quoting a
letter of JQA who had attributed his "apostacy" to his "sit-
uation and connexions."

10. Writings, I, 126.

11. APM 25.

12. Writings, I, 125, 126.

234 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

13. See Chapter Six.

14. JA to JQA, September 13, 1790, APM 374; Writings, I, 56,
57.

15. See Writings, I, 124, and the Chronicle for December 13.
Actually, Sullivan had been trying to be neutral on the sub-
ject. See the excellent biography by T. C. Amory, The Life
of James Sullivan, especially Vol. I, 270-274, on the theater
question. At the time of Sullivan's death, years later, JQA
was to deliver an impressive, official eulogyl Ibid., II, 320-325.

16. December 19, 1792. He had earlier noted, however, that Sul-
livan's attitude had been circumspect. Writings, I, 121.

17. August 12, 1789.

18. For the general story of the theater problem in Boston, see
Mary C. Crawford, The Romance of the American Theater,
pp. 107-113; George O. Seilhamer, The History of the Amer-
ican Theater, III, 13-20; and Morison, Otis, I, 37.

19. Writings,!, 116.

20. "The Echo No. V," as quoted in Seilhamer, American Thea-
ter, III, 16. John Adams gleefully quoted "The Echo No.
IX," the part relating to Hancock, in a letter to JQA, Janu-
ary 27, 1793, APM 376. See also JQA's reply, in Writings, I,
134.

21. See Amory, Sullivan, I, 270, 27 L

22. New Letters of Abigail Adams, p. 38n.

23. October 31, 1791. On Englishmen invading the American
state, see Seilhamer, American Theatre, II, 353, 354.

24. Amory, Sullivan, I, 267. "Board-Alley" was renamed "Haw-
ley Street" that year.

25. Diary, September 21, 1792, APM 21; Seilhamer, American
Theater, III, 18.

26. October 8, 1792.

27. Amory, Sullivan, I, 270-273. The Centinel had meantime run
a series of articles, beginning November 10, 1792, on behalf
of a "virtuous" theater.

28. Diary, APM 21.

29. Ibid., passim. See also below for his readings,

30. December 19, 1792.

31. AA to JA, December 23, JA to JQA, December 26, and JA

Notes 235

to AA, December 28, 1792, APM 375. The letter to JQA was
a reply to his letter of December 16, in Writings, I, 123.

32. The third, unnumbered "Menander" is in the Columbian
Centinel for December 26, 1792.

33. December 24, 1792. The language is reminiscent of Sullivan's
retorts to "Laco," in 1789. See Amory, Sullivan, I, 244.

34. However, he wrote his father on December 22, that all of the
"other party" had absented themselves from the town meet-
ing, knowing that they would be outvoted. Writings, I, 131.

35. AA to JA, January 7, 1793, APM 376.

36. Writings, I, 125.

37. Diary, December 18, 1792, APM 21.

38. JQA to TBA, October 28, 1791, APM 375.

39. Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, Delivered to the Classes
of Senior and Junior Sophisters in Harvard University. By
John Quincy Adams, Late Boylston Professor of Rhetoric
and Oratory. (2 vols., Cambridge, 1810).

40. JQA to TBA, October 28, 1791, APM 375.

41. Writings,!, 110 S.

42. /6id.,alsop. 115 ff.

43. "Lelius" in the Boston American Apollo, March 29, 1793.
The article was mentioned in his diary that day (APM 22),
and the implication, as well as the signature (which he prob-
ably had previously employed) and style, clearly suggest that
it was his own composition. The article was dated March 28,
and on the day previous his diary recorded that he "wrote
diligently this evening/' and on March 26, that he "read"
and "wrote" to little purpose. He had been reading "Junius,"
no doubt for style, as he did for his "Columbus" articles at
the end of the year.

44. Diary, especially January 11, 1792, APM 21.

45. Writings, I, 134; JA to JQA, January 27, February 19, 1793,
APM 376.

46. He lost the case on April 12, and was "very unwell" all next
day. Diary, APM 21. The journal that he started on that day
of illness, April 13, was continued less than a week, then
skipped to a few May entries. APM 20.

236 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

47. Journal, May 16, 1792, APM 20; also quoted in Seward,
Adams, pp. 55, 56.

48. Journal, May 4, 1792, APM 20.

49. Diary, 1792, passim, APM 21.

50. Daniel Sargent, Jr., to JQA, July 20, 1795, APM 380.

51. He referred to the club by that name in letters he wrote after
going abroad in 1794: e.g., JQA to Nathan Frazier, Jr.,
March 25, and JQA to T.S. and Daniel Sargent, Jr., May 24,
1795, APM 128. The "raffish" talk may be deduced from the
remarks he made in these clever but vulgar letters to his
friends. Many of the references are Shakespearean and too
esoteric to decipher, but even so it is astonishing that he
should have carefully kept copies of such letters. Perhaps he
was more egotistic than sensuous! The talk is called "un-
natural" here because of his subsequent repudiation of the
rakish role which he said he had performed with "little grace
or enjoyment," and which he attributed to the "damnable
attractions" of some of his Boston associates. See JQA to John
Gardner, July 15, 1795, APM 128.

52. John Gardner to JQA, September 26, 1795, APM 380, saying
that the hours he had spent in his company had been "the
most pleasant and certainly the most profitable that I can
recollect in my life."

53. Diary, February 23, 28, March 20, May 24, 1792, et passim,
APM 21.

54. Diary, November 8, 15, 1792, APM 21.

55. On June 12, he had escorted "R. & M. Frazier home'* from
Colonel Colman's. Diary, under dates, APM 21. On the flyleaf
of this diary the name Frazier is written three times, but the
initial of the first name is hard to decipher. It looks like an
"N", although one would like to think it an "M"l

56. E.g., January 30, 1793, APM 22.

57. APM 223. These elegies are at the end of the volume, with
no page numbers. The second is dated September 16, 1792,
although the diary would suggest September 20.

58. Diary, September 2, 1792, APM 21.

59. See the plan of Boston made by Lieut. Page for the British
troops in 1775, in the Memorial History of Boston (4 vols.,

Notes 237

Boston, 1881), III, iv. The Beacon Street, or "new" mall, was
not formally developed until 1815, but this map indicates
that two rows of trees were already planted there in 1775, al-
though it does not label these a "mall." See also Nathaniel
B. Shurtleff, A Topographical and Historical Description of
Boston (3rd edition, Boston, 1891), pp. 326, 368-372.

60. Diary, August 27, September 3, 7, October 3, 1792, APM 21.

61. Diary, October 15, 20, 1792, APM 21.

62. Alexander Hamilton to JA, June 25, September 9, JA to AA,
November 24, December 2, 3, 9, JA to JQA, December 5, 9,
1792, APM 375; also JA to AA, January 9, 14, 1793, in Let-
ters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife, II, 117, 119.

63. Writings,!, 115.

64. Ibid., p. 123.

Chapter Nine

1. Memoirs, I, 31, 32, 51, 52. This material is also in APM 23.

2. He was bled on June 18. Diary, June and July entries, APM
25. One reason for the delay was because of Secretary Hamil-
ton's temporary absence from office when JQA went to Phil-
adelphia. It also proved difficult to get sailing accommoda-
tions from Boston.

3. JAtoJQA, May 29, 1794, APM 377.

4. Writings, I, 193 ff.; diary, June 29, 1794, APM 25.

5. See "Isabella" to "Mr. Cabot," January 8, and Cabot to AA,
January 17, 30, 1794, APM 377.

6. See Chapter Eight.

7. JA to JQA, January 27, 1793, APM 376. His father called
him a "Faneuil Hall orator."

8. Diary, April 26, 1793, APM 22.

9. JA to AA, December 30, 1793, January 9, 1794, APM 376, 377.

10. Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of Ameri-
can Foreign Policy, p. 40n; Memoirs, I, 27.

11. Diary, December 31, 1793, APM 22.

12. Diary, May 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 31, 1794, APM 25.

13. June 14, 1794, ibid.

14. Memoirs, I, 7.

238 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

15. JQA to TEA, November 20, 1793, APM 376.

16. JQA to AA, November 7, 1795, APM 380. This was written
from a little Dutch seaport where he had been "cooped up"
for three weeks, waiting for wind and weather. His father's
letter, saying that he wished JQA could come home in several
years and get married, is under August 25, 1795, APM 380.

17. Diary, May 6, 1791, APM 19.

18. Kindly Charles Adams never seemed to have much luck in
companions. Even his "chum" at college was "rusticated"
for stealing, and he himself was once seriously involved with
some college rioters. Later in New York City he became an
adulator of General Von Steuben. There is a good deal about
him in Janet Whitney, Abigail Adams. William Smith,
brother of Abigail Adams, and father of a "little tribe" of
girls in Lincoln, Massachusetts, not only deserted his family
but seems to have been tried on charges of counterfeiting in
New York State in 1785. See Catherine L. Smith to AA, Oc-
tober 26, and MC to AA, December 10, 1785, and MC to AA,
March 22, 1786, APM 366, 367. On John Adams' drinking
of hard cider and his dislike of tippling houses, see Three
Episodes of Massachusetts History, II, 686, 789.

19. JQA to John Gardner, The Hague, July 15, 1795, APM 128.

20. See Writings, I, 158.

21. Diary, APM 22.

22. This was pointed out long ago by the editor of the Memoirs,
1,27.

23. He had told his Aunt Eliza of the "cold apathy" that had
taken possession of his breast. ES to JQA, June 9, 1794, APM
377. See also JQA to AA, November 7, 1795, APM 380, about
his "blunted sensations." Of course these are references to the
frigidity of his romantic feelings, but one wonders if such a
condition may not have tempered his feelings in general.

24. Dairy, March 30, April 2, 4, 1793, APM 22.

25. Diary, June 19, 20, 1793, ibid.

26. April 23, May 14, 15, 16, 27, 28, June 4, 1793, ibid.

27. June 28, July 5, 12, 1793, ibid.

28. November 26, 28, 1793, ibid.

29. December 1, 2, 3, 1793, ibid.

Notes 239

30. Diary, March 1, 4, 1794, APM 25.

31. February 6 (when he also escaped "one bad adventure" while
out walking after dining at Hall's), March 26, 29, 31, April
1,6,22, 1194, ibid.

32. May 26, 1794, ibid.

33. Memoirs, I, 28. Perhaps this is what John Adams referred to,
in his letter to AA, January 9, 1794, APM 377.

34. She had said that he would be "destitute of his Father's ambi-
tion" if he did not become a great man. MC to AA, August
17, 1785, APM 365.

35. Writings, I, 149, 178; diary, November 22, 1793, APM 22;
"Americanus No. I," the Boston Independent Chronicle,
December 19, 1793.

36. Writings, I, 135 ff. It appears from his diary (APM 22) that
he had begun to write as early as April 8, having been in his
father's company several days before, as was invariably the
case before he would begin to "write." He was reading Vattel
on April 1 1, and making as much headway as possible despite
many interruptions. Curiously, he did not mention "Mar-
cellus No. I" in his diary when it appeared in the Centinel
on April 24, nor "Marcellus No. II" on May 4, but he did
record "No. Ill" on May 11. Washington's proclamation was
not published in the Chronicle until May 2.

37. Life in a New England Town, pp. 33, 37. His identification
of private and public morality went back at least to his com-
mencement speech of 1787. See Chapter Four.

38. Writings, I, 7n; Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 343.

39. The Independent Chronicle, May 9, 1793. There was also an
interesting comment on "Marcellus" by "A Neuter" in the
Centinel on May 18. Articles which appeared in the Massa-
chusetts Mercury on May 22 and 31 were called "infamous"
and "scandalous" by JQA in his diary (APM 22). However,
it is difficult to identify them, unless they are heavily dis-
guised lampoons of John Adams, as "Beef-loving Jack."

40. The Boston Chronicle, April 25, 1793; the Boston Gazette,
May 13, June 10, 1793.

41. He received a visit and request from the selectmen on April
30. The address was published 3S An Oration Pronounced

240 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

July 4th, 1793, at the Request of the Inhabitants of the Town
of Boston in Commemoration of the Anniversary of Ameri-
can Independence. Boston: Printed by Benjamin Edes and
Son, 1793. It also appeared in the Newburyport Impartial
Herald, beginning August 3, 1793, submitted by "W.H."

42. Writings, I, 146. Charles probably got the Scylla and Charyb-
dis reference from toast No. 11 at the feast following the
celebration. See below.

43. Diary, July 4, 1793, APM 22. Edes was "very solicitous to
printing."

44. The Columbian Centinel, July 7, 1793. However, the Centi-
nel's account was copied almost word for word by Edes as an
appendix to the Oration, except for the omission of toast No.
13, that the "Hercules of Liberty" might cleanse the "Au-
gean Stables of Monarchy" in Europe.

45. Diary, July 1-4, APM 22; JQA to TBA, June 23, 1793, APM
376.

46. The Independent Chronicle, December 19, 1793.

47. Bemis, op. cit., p. 37.

48. Writings, I, 134, 135n; also JA to AA, January 31, 1793, in
Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife, II, 123.

49. See Chapter Eight.

50. Charles Warren, Jacobin and Junto (Cambridge, 1931), p. 53
and note; Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of the
French Revolution, passim; Bemis, op. cit., p. 44*

51. Diary, July 28, August 1, 10, 1793, APM 22.

52. TBA to AA, August 10, CA to JA, August 25, TBA to AA,
November 3, JQA to TBA, November 20, 1793, APM 376.

53. Diary, November 22, 1793, APM 22. Earlier attempts at
"writing" were on September 1 and October 28, although
subject matter is not stated.

54. The first three "Columbus" numbers, except the introduc-
tion to the first, are in the Writings, I, 148 ff. On Genet, see
ibid., p. 151, also Clark, Adams, p. 20. "Columbus No. I"
appeared in the Centinel on November 30, "No, II" on De-
cember 4, "No. Ill" in installments on December 7, 11, 14,
"No. IV" on December 18, and "No. V on December 21,
1793. The diary wrongly says December 25,

55. Writings, I, 156-160,

Notes 241

56. "Columbus No. Ill," in Writings, I, 160 ff.

57. "Americanus No. I" appeared in the Chronicle on December
19, "No. II" on December 23, "No. Ill" on December 26,
"No. IV" on December 30, "No. V" on January 2, and "No.
VI" on January 6, 1794.

58. JQA to AA, June 29, 1795, APM 128.

59. The four unnumbered "Barneveld" articles appeared in the
Chronicle on December 26, 1793, and January 2, 6, and 16,
1794. None of these appears in the Writings.

60. See Chapter Eight.

61. "Americanus No. I" in the Chronicle, December 19, 1793.

62. "Strictures on Publicola" in the Columbian Centinel, De-
cember 28, 1791.

63. The Independent Chronicle, January 16, 1794; Writings, I,
179. See also Dr. Thomas Welch to JA, January 6, 1794,
APM 377.

64. JA to AA, January 9, 14, 18, AA to JQA, January 12, 1794,
APM 377. JA thought at first that it would have been more
becoming if "Columbus" also had showed a little less indig-
nation. AA disagreed with him on this. It was not too "high
seasoned" for her, she said. Almost none of JA's intimate
letters on this subject appear in the Letters of John Adams,
Addressed to His Wife, II.

65. AA to JA, January 12, 1794, APM 377.

66. E.g., in the Chronicle, January 2, 1794.

67. E.g., ibid., January 6, 1794.

68. "Americanus No. V," ibid., January 2, 1794.

69. AA to JQA, January 12, 1794, APM 377.

70. AA to JA, January 18, JA to AA, January 14, 18, 1794, APM
377.

71. Writings, I, 177; AA to JA, January 5, 1794, APM 377.

72. Writings, I, 177. His father wrote his mother on January 14,
"Our Son will find the Envy of his Friends the bitterest Drop
in the cup of Life." APM 377.

73. The Independent Chronicle, January 6, 16, 1794.

74. Ibid., January 27, 1794.

75. AA to JA, January 5, 24, JA to AA, January 9, February 4,
March 11, 1794, APM 377,

242 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

76. JQA wrote in his diary, January 3, 1784, APM 25, "Tired of
always getting the victory. And to how little purpose!" On
the town meeting, see Writings, I, 183n. Brother Charles
wrote, "You must be your father's own son. ..."

77. JA to JQA, January 3, JA to AA, January 6, April 7, 27,
1794, APM 377.

78. JA to AA, January 6, TBA to AA, January 22, 1784, APM
377.

79. JA to AA, May 27, in Letters of John Adams, Addressed to
His Wife, II, 163; JA to JQA, May 29, ES to JQA, June 9,
Martha Washington to AA, July 19, 1794, APM 377.

80. JA to JQA, May 26, 1794.

81. There is no record of how his mother felt, however. One
wonders. She wanted both JQA and TBA to have miniatures
painted of themselves, with locks of hair enclosed, before
they left. She said she would pay whatever might be the ex-
pense. AA to JQA, July 20, 1794, APM 377.

82. JQA to John Gardner, July 15, 1795, APM 128.

83. His father must have been more affluent than in 17901 It
was an order on Dutch bankers for 5000 guilders. JQA to CA,
November 20, 1794, APM 126. One of the first things JQA
did was to arrange to have a little money paid regularly to
his Aunt Eliza to assist in the education of her son. He also
turned over his little fortune in 1795 for his brother Charles
to invest, at a handsome commission, soon after hearing the
news of Charles' marriage to Sally Smith. One can only as-
sume that this was still another act of kindness on JQA's
part, revealing a side to his character that was usually con-
cealed. As might have been anticipated, all the money was
lost within a few years.

INDEX

Acrostic, on Catherine Jones, 111

Adams, Abigail, mother, origins
16; maternal influence, 16, 199;
admonitions to son, 16, 29, 88,
123, 126, 127, 133, 189; warned
on Nancy, 40; on tutors, 51; on
"Maria/' 129; denies slanders,
139; illness, 134, 192; proud o
"Menander," 56, 158; on neu-
trality, 180; on "Americanus,"
188-190; mentioned, 18, 56, 58,
105, 112, 130, 134, 149, 191

Adams, Abigail ("Nabby"), sister,
admonitions to brother, 23, 93,
95, 128; reassures him, 124; and
Tyler, 92, 204; family problems,
125; mentioned, 58, 105, 147;
see also Smith, Colonel William

Adams, Charles, brother, compan-
ion to Europe, 16; superior air,
29; at Harvard, 54; guilty of pry-
ing, 99; writes brother a kindly
letter, 122; opinion of his ora-
tion, 182; unfortunate in com-
panions, 174, 238; "silly," 192;
marriage to Sally Smith, 174,
242; mentioned, 22, 69, 121

Adams, Charles Francis, Jr., grand-
son, quoted, 13

Adams, Henry, great-grandson,
cited and quoted, 55, 131

Adams, John, father, early appear-
ance, 205; early career, 16; to
Europe, 16, 20; property hold-
ings, 58; and Shays' Rebellion,
58; political situation, 95, 97; as
favoring aristocracy and titles,
137, 138, 141; political theories,
137, 231; political enemies, 137;

on Sullivan, 151, 190; men-
tioned, 31, 56, 74, 77, 78, 94,
106, 122, 132, 134, 135, 157, 170
ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY, appear-
ance and personal characteris-
tics, 17, 18, 20, 35, 36, 50, 70, 120,
170, 199, 226, 242; second voy-
age to Europe, 15, 199; return
to America, 15; social life in
New York, 22, 23; interest in
literature, 18, 23, 99, 173, 201,
208; journey through Connecti-
cut, 25, 26; reunion in Brain-
tree, 27; rejection at Harvard,
30; patriotic feelings, 31; theo-
logical dispute, 33, 34; tutoring,
35; irritability and depression,
37, 38; struggle with passion, 41-
43; re-examination at Harvard,
47; on liberal education, 48, 49;
problems at college, 50, 51; con-
quest of arrogance, 33, 51, 65,
69, 70, 206; poor health at col-
lege, 54, 63, 67; social interests,
53, 62, 69, 70; college orations,
56, 57, 65; reaction to Shays* Re-
bellion, 59, 60; fears for the fu-
ture, 68; commencement feast,
71; newspaper criticism, 72-74;
a butt for "humor/' 77, 78; rela-
tions with Belknap, 80; criticism
by "THE STUDENTS, 81-83;
commencement address, 85-87;
poor health, 88; legal and other
studies, 89, 90; morbidity of
spirits, 91-94; Anti-Federalism,
95-97; literature and the ladies,
98-101; and evangelicalism, 101,
102; Phi Beta Kappa address

243

244

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

(1788) , 103; illness, 103-105, 108,
121; recuperation, 105; resump-
tion of social affairs, 107; literary
high-jinks, 108-116; romantic re-
lations in Newburyport, 117-119;
M.A. at Harvard, 121; opens law
office in Boston, 122; Mary Fra-
zier affair, 123-129; interest in
French Revolution, 133; com-
poses "Publicola," 134, 135; ar-
gument of same, 142-145; inter-
est in Shakespeare, 148; rela-
tions with Sullivan, 151; argu-
ment of "Menander," 155; slur-
ring of Sullivan and Hancock,
156, 157; lack of legal practice,
158, 161, 162; practice picks up,
171; incorporation of Quincy,
159; reform of Boston police,
160; reading, 162; male compan-
ions, 163, 164; Sally Gray affair,
164; poetical strivings, 165, 166;
rakish behavior, 166-168; ap-
pointment to The Hague, 170,
192; ill health, 170, 221; private
feelings, 172, 173, 176; more
rakish behavior, 176-178, 236;
the theater again, 178; concept
of international law, 179; "Mar-
cellus" and critics, 179, 181;
Fourth of July oration, 182, 183;
and Jacobinism, 184; "Colum-
bus" and Genet, 185, 186; "Bar-
neveld" and "Americanus," 187-
190; newspaper critics, 191; sails
again for Europe, 193; reforma-
tion in Holland, 175.

Adams, Samuel, influence on
youthful John Quincy Adams,
31; suspicion of tories, 58; and
theater, 152, 153; chairs "Civic
Feast," 184; a "born rebel," 192;
mentioned, 137, 160.

Adams, Susanna (Boylston), "hon-
oured Grandmamma," 27

Adams, Thomas Boylston ("Tom-
my"), brother, at Haverhill, 35;
criticizes brother, 37; at Har-
vard, 54; arouses mother's
ire, 192; accompanies brother
abroad, 193; mentioned, 120,
134, 159.

Adams family finances, 58, 126,
212, 242

Adams family papers, 9, 195

Adams Manuscript Trust, 9

Aesop's Fables, 20, 24

Age of Reason, sentiments of, 42,
57, 124, 131

"AGRICOLA," quoted, 143, 144

"Alcander," pseudonyn, 221

Almanac diary, see Diary

American Antiquarian Society, 9

American Company, players, 152,
153; see also Theater

American Revolution, causes of,
182

"Americanus," writings of, 179,
186

Amory family, 164

Ancient Pistol, 148, 168

Anglophilism, John Adams ac-
cused of, 144

Anti-Federalism, of John Quincy
Adams, 95-97; defined in In-
dependent Chronicle, 181; sec
also Federal Constitution, Re-
publican principles, Monarchi-
cal tendencies

"Antifederal Abuse," quoted, 141

"ARISTIDES," quoted, 73, 78

Aristocratic ideas, of John Adams
attacked, 74, 137-139, 131; see
also "Mixed Monarchy"

Assemblies, dancing, 25, 30, 37,
106, 121

Austin, Benjamin ("Old Hon-
estus"), 152, 160, 184

"Barneveld," writings begin, 187;
offensive tone of, 175; analyzed,

Index

245

187-189; criticized, 191

"Beaux Stratagem," 154

"Beggar's Opera/' disliked, 69

"Belinda," literary figure, 111; po-
etic creation, 99, 112

Belknap, The Reverend Jeremy,
mentioned and quoted, 79, 80,
84, 87; History of New Hamp-
shire, read, 162

Bingham, Mrs. William, 17

Birds Tavern, frequented, 166,
176

"Board- Alley," theater site, 150,
154, 155, 178

Boars' Head Tavern, 164

Boston, Massachusetts, fears of
temptations in, 122; town meet-
ings, 152, 172, 192; reform of
police in, 160

Boston Magazine, 221

Boswell, James, comparison with,
106, 167

Bowdoin, Governor James, char-
acterized, 61

Bowling, 166

Bradbury, Judge Theophilus, home
of, 107, 122

Bradbury, Harriet, in "A Vision,"
119

Braintree, Massachusetts, 15, 50,
92, 104, 105, 149

Brattle Street Church, 177

Breck, Samuel, merchant, 27

Breck family, 164

Bridge, James, college friend, 53;
advice on girls, 107; quoted on
Mary Frazier, 118, 127, 129; and
"Publicola," 134, 150; quoted on
John Quincy Adams, 226

British Constitution, 138, 144

Brooklyn College Library, 9

Brown, William Hill, author of

The Power of Sympathy, 108
Burke, Edmund, on French Revo-
lution, 132, 133; his "apostacy,"

136

Cabot, Senator George, on Genet,
171

"Candidus," quoted on theater,
152

Cazneau, Rebecca, satirized, 110

"Celadon/* quoted, 115; criticized,
114, 116; authorship, 109, 115,
116, 224

Ghaumont, Le Ray de, compan-
ion, 24, 27, 30, 32

Cicero, read, 105, 133

"Citizen Genet/' see Genet

"Civic Feast" in Boston, 184

"Civil Spy," cited, 112

"Clara," 100, 114, 117, 118, 119,
123, 225

Clerk of the Market, 161

Clinton, Governor George, 168

Club, in college, 52; in Newbury-
port, 90, 101, 107, 110; in Bos-
ton, 163, 164, 176

"Coke on Littleton," 91

College Hall, Harvard, 75

Columbia University Library and
School of Library Service, 9

Columbian Centinel, Boston,
quoted an "Antifederal Abuse,"
141; see also Massachusetts Cen-
tinel

"Columbus," writings analyzed,
175, 185, 186

Columbian Magazine (Phila.), 79,
84

Commencement, see Harvard Com-
mencement

Commerce, see Economic condi-
tions
Commentaries on the Laws of

England (Blackstone), 90, 91
Commentaries upon Littleton

(Coke), 91

Common law, praised by "Publi-
cola/' 144
Concert Hall, Boston, 154

246

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Concord, Massachusetts, visited,
30

Connecticut, journey through, 25,
26

Conquest of Canaan, purchased
and read, 26, 36

Conservatism, new American, 132

"Contrast, The," by Royall Tyler,
28, 149

Copley, John Singleton, portraits
at Harvard, 30

"Corinna," in "A Vision," 119

"Corydon," pseudonym, 221, 224

Court of Common Pleas, Boston,
159

Covent Garden Theater, London,
149, 154

"Crackbrain Club," 163, 170; see
also Club

Crafts, Thomas, associate, 163,
170

Cranch, Elizabeth ("Eliza" or
"Betsy"), cousin, visits at Haver-
hill, 36; warns about Nancy, 40;
description of, 40; and piano-
forte, 53; attends "exhibition"
at Harvard, 62

Cranch, Mary (Mrs. Richard),
aunt, on nephew's "penetra-
tion"; on his improvement, 66;
her culinary skill, 50, 71; quoted
on "exhibitions," 62, 64; care
of nephew, 130; his similarity to
his father, 29, 179

Cranch, Richard and family, vis-
ited, 27

C>anch, William ("Billy"), cousin
and classmate, plays violin, 53;
in forensic, 61; commencement
address, 77; quoted, 107; men-
tioned, 28, 118

Cranch females, excessive concern
about love affairs of their cous-
ins, 40

"Critical Period/' referred to by

John Quincy Adams, 7, 73, 85
Gushing, Lieutenant Governor

Thomas, visited, 27
Gushing, Chief Justice William,

described, 29
Gushing family, 164
Dana, Judge Francis, envoy, 16;

quoted on John Quincy Adams,

17; ill, 68; host, 53, 70
Dancing, see Assemblies
"Davila," see "Discourses on Da-

vila"

De Senectute, read, 105
Deane, Jesse, boyhood companion,

25
Decline and Fall of the Roman

Empire (Gibbon), read, 63, 105
Defence of the Constitutions of

Government of the United States

of America, 74, 77, 135-137
"Delia," i.e., Nancy, 53, 65, 99; in

the Herald, 112; see also "Epistle

to Delia"
Democracy, referred to, 61; see

also Majority rule; Republican

principles

"DEMOCRAT," quoted, 181
Desdemona, see "Othello"
Diary, almanac, 105, 163, 220
"Discourses on Davila," 134, 141
Dissertation on the Canon and

Feudal Law, 191
"Divine Ferron," actress, 149
"Dogberry," quoted, 159, 169
"Don Quixote," quoted, 116
"Dr. Demigog," see Jarvis, Dr.

Charles

Drama, see Theater
Drury Lane Theater, London, 149
"Duke of Braintree," John Adams

referred to as, 141, 147
Duplaine, French consul, 184, 185
Dwight, The Reverend Timothy,

author, 25
Eclipse seen from Beacon Hill, 133

Index

Economic conditions, 29, 34, 36,

37, 58, 85; see also Paper money
Edes, Benjamin, editor, 73, 85, 182
Education, ideas upon, 48, 49
Egmont and Hoorn, Dutch mar-
tyrs, 31

"Elegies to Miranda," 165, 166
Elements of History (Abbe* Millot),

read, 63

Ellery, Miss, of Newport, 53
"Emma," see "Julia and Emma"
"Emma: Or, the Rose," quoted,

120

"Epistle to Delia," 44, 111, 117
Essay Concerning Human Under-
standing (Locke), read, 33, 47
Essex County conservatives, 95,

171

"Essex Junto," see above
"Eugenio," quoted, 110
"Exhibitions" at Harvard, 56, 61,

62, 64, 68, 71
Faistaff, 148
Faneuil Hall, 152, 172
"Fat Knight," nickname, 163
Federal Attorney General for New

England, hopes to be, 179
Federal Constitution, struggle over

ratification in Massachusetts, 94-

97
Federal Gazette, Phila., quoted on

Rights of Man, 140
Feudalism, must fall, 182
Fielding, Henry, writings, 33;

"The Virgin Unmasked," 178
Foreign policy of U.S., 136, 175,

179, 180, 185; see also Law of

Nations

Foster, Betsy, quoted, 107, 118
Fourth of July oration, 1793, 175,

183
Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, grandson

of, 17; and French politics, 137
Frazier, Miss, 165
Frazier, Mary ("Maria"), described,

247

118, 227; at dance, 101; writings
on, 112, 113; romance with, 122-
129, 174; mentioned, 117, 119,
120, 165

Frazier, Moses, home of, 107, 121,
122

Frazier, Nathan, Jr., associate, 163,
165, 193

Freeman, Nathaniel, commence-
ment rival, 69, 77-79

French agents, 25, 27

French Revolution, criticized, 136,
144, 182

French treaty of 1778, 180

"Friend to Peace," 152

"Fugitive Pieces in Verse," 119

"Gallery of Portraits," 148, 154

Game laws, 145

Gardiner, John, friend of theater,
153

Gardner, John, Jr., associate, 163,
164, 177

Gazette, Boston, motto, 73

Genet, Edmond ("Citizen Genet"),
characterized, 185; criticized by
"Columbus," 185, 186; men-
tioned, 171, 179, 183, 184

Gibbon, Edward, see Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire

Gorham, Nathaniel, political prin-
ciples of, 61

Gothic novels, 87

Gray, Sally, relations with, 164, 176

Gray family, 164

Greek grammar review, 34

Green Dragon Tavern, celebration
at, 183

Grotius, Hugo, 186

"Gyges," cited, 112

Hague, The, appointment to, 170,
173

Hall, associate, 164, 173, 178

Hamilton, Alexander, success of
Bank, 135; warns John Adams,
168

248

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

"Hamlet," a "moral lecture," 154

Hancock, Governor John, visited,
27; characterized, 84; politics,
61, 97; and theater, 150, 154,
156, 168; mentioned, 72, 85, 98,
103, 192

Hannibal, reference to, 88

Harris, Thaddeus Mason, and Har-
vard Commencement, 1787, 76,
80

Hartford Wits, 28, 153

Harvard College, hopes to attend,
7, 16, 17; examined at, 30, 45;
library, 30, 63; curriculum, 35,
52; student life, 47, 82, 83; tu-
tors, 51, 82, 83; criticism of
honors at by "THE STU-
DENTS," 79, 81-83; mentioned,
46; see also "Exhibitions," Phi
Beta Kappa society

Harvard Commencement, 1785, 24;
1786, 214; 1787, 7, 75, 76; 1788,
93, 94; 1789, 120; 1790, 121

Harvard Corporation petitioned,
84; mentioned, 75

Harvard Overseers, addressed, 81;
petitioned, 84; mentioned, 56,
75

Haverhill, Massachusetts, 30, 32,
36, 37, 103, 105

Hazen, Nancy, resident at Haver-
hill, 39; character and appeal,
40-46; note on, 208; see also
"Delia"

Herald of Freedom, Boston,
founded, 108

"Hibernian blood," 155, 156

Hichborn, Benjamin, merchant,
quoted, 61

Higginson, Stephen, merchant,
commercial and political opin-
ions, 58, 61, 203
Higginson family, 164
History of the Romans (Consider a-
tions sur les causes de la gran-

deur et de la decadence des
Romans, Montesquieu), read, 63

Hollis, Thomas Brand, honorary
degree, 76

Hollis Hall, at Harvard, 47, 54,
71

Homer, Iliad, read, 34

Hopkinsianism, 101; see also Re-
ligious opinions

Horace, Odes and Satires, read, 34

"Horatio," quoted, 112

Hudibras (Butler), 26

Humphreys, Colonel David, 24,
209

Hutchinson, Thomas, History of
Massachusetts-Bay, read, 162

Idler, read, 53

Independent Chronicle, Boston,
definition of an Anti-Federalist,
181; ignores Fourth of July cele-
bration, 1793, 182; mentioned,
152

International law, see Law of na-
tions

Italian comedy, 149

Jacobinism in America, 160, 184

Jarvis, Dr. Charles ("Dr. Demi-
gog"), and theater, 153, 154;
"Menander" attributed to, 156;
favors John Quiricy Adams on
committee, 160

Jay, John, 21

Jefferson, Thomas, quoted on Dr.
Stiles, 25; at theater in Paris,
149; Notes on Virginia, 103;
honorary degree, 76; endorses
Rights of Man, 132; critic of
John Adams, 74, 135; criticism
of "Publicola," 140, 142; at-
tacked by "Publicola/' 143; un-
answered letter from, 146; po-
litical character, 168, 192
Jenkins, Sally, described, 100
Johnson, Dr, Samuel, opinion of,
50

Index

Jones, Catherine ("Katy"), ac-
quaintance, 53; acrostic on, 111;
as "Clara," 118, 119; at Med-
ford, 123; mentioned, 129
Journal, problem of, 8, 99, 104,

108, 133, 161, 162, 173
"Julia," quoted, 112
"Julia and Emma," 112, 116
Junius, accused of plagiarizing, 190
Kilham, Dr. Daniel, his Anti-Fed-
eralism, 95, 96
King, Rufus, 21, 202
Knight, Lucy ("Lucinda"), 100
Knox, Henry, quoted, 21, 232
La Concorde, in Boston harbor,

185

"Laconic," quoted, 116
La Fayette, Marquis de, 25, 27
Latin review, 34
Law of nations, 180, 185, 186
Law of Nature and of Nations

(Vattel), 180
Lawyers, defense of, 64, 65; chaste

definition of, 89
Leathers, Mrs., landlady, 95
Lee, Richard Henry, President of

Congress, 21, 22

"Lelius," in the Essex Journal, 110
"Lelius," in the American Apollo,

184

"Leluna," "Mirror" portrait, 222
Lexington, Massachusetts, visited,

30
Leyden, University of, studied at,

16

"Lines Upon the Late Proceed-
ings of the College Govern-
ment," 66, 67

Little Democrat, incident; of, 183
Livy, read, 158
Locke, John, 33, 35
"Longwharf," nickname, 163
Louisa, a novel, read, 216
"Love Letter," mentioned, 121

249

"Love a la Mode," a farce, 149,

154
Lowell, John, lawyer, political

leanings, 61

"Lucinda," in "A Vision," 99
"Lysander," pseudonym, 229
Madison, James, identifies "Publi-

cola," 142

Majority rule, in "Publicola," 144;
in "Menander," 152, 155, 157
"Mall," in Boston, 167, 168, 176
"Marcellus," writings, analysis of,

179, 180

"Marcellus, jun.," quoted, 181
"Maria," in the Herald, 112; see

also Frazier, Mary
M'Fingal, copy received, 26
Massachusetts Centinel, Boston,
motto, 73; see also Columbian
Centinel; Russell, Major Benja-
min

Massachusetts Historical Society, 9
Massachusetts Magazine, founded,

108; and theater, 153
Meeting House, at Harvard, 76
"Menander," writings, 155-157; in-
sults Sullivan and Hancock, 156;
offensive tone of, 175
Milton, John, read, 162
"Miranda," see "Elegies to"
"Miser," a play, 154
"Mirror" portraits in the Essex

Journal, 109

"Miss in Her Teens," a farce, 149
"Mixed Monarchy," John Adams
accused of favoring, 157; "Men-
ander" accused of favoring, 157
Moliere, 149

Monarchical tendencies, 61, 86
Monroe, James, mentioned, 21, 202
Morss, James, cited, 226
"ML Whoredom," in Boston, 167
Music, address upon, 64
"Narcissa," in "A Vision," 99,
112, 117; referred to in the

250

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Herald, 112; see also Newhall,
Mary
Natural philosophy, lectures on,

62, 63

Neutrality, see Foreign affairs
New Testament, read in Greek, 34
Newburyport, Massachusetts, 89,
121, 128; see also Temple Street
Newburyport Public Library, 9
Newhall, Mary, as "Narcissa," 99;

as "Clara," 119
Newton, Sir Isaac, 48
Neversink River, New Jersey, 19
New York Historical Society, 9
New York Public Library, 9
New Yorkers, mannerisms, 22
Notes on Virginia (Jefferson), 103
Nym, 148

"Old Honestus," see Austin, Ben-
jamin

Old South Meeting House, 183
Order of the Cincinnati, 57, 98
"Othello," ideas upon, 56, 211; see

also Shakespearean references
Otis, Samuel, merchant, 29
"Paddock's Walk," or little mall,

167

Paine, Thomas, criticized, 138,
142, 143; see also Rights of Man
Paper money, threats of, 36, 58
Parlements of Paris, praised, 65
Parsons, Theophilus, lawyer, ar-
ranges to study with, 70; polit-
ical opinions, 61, 95; character-
ized, 89, 96

Phi Beta Kappa society, under-
graduate addresses, 55, 56, 69,
72; oration, 1788, analysis, 89,
98, 103; sources for, 91, 92, 93,
94, 96, 102; exhibition, 1792, 166
"Phyllida, Ballad to," 225
"PLAIN DEALING," quoted, 181
Poetical interests, 23, 64, 68, 99
Political parties, ideas upon, 131,
132; helps create, 132

Police reform in Boston, 160
Pope, Alexander, read, 162
Port Ferrot, Spain, 149
"Portia," see Adams, Abigail,

mother

Powell, Charles Stewart, actor, 154
Power of Sympathy, a novel, 108
Providence, R.I., theater at, 152
Psalm singing in Connecticut, 25
"Public Faith," commencement ad-
dress, preparation, 63; analyzed,
85-87; see also Harvard Com-
mencement, 1787

"Publicola," writings, composi-
tion, 134, 135; analysis of, 143-
146; and Golden Rule, 179
Pufendorf, Baron Samuel, 186
Putnam, Miss, 100
Racine 149
Rakish activities, 163, 167, 172,

173, 176, 236
Randolph, Edmund, Secretary of

State, 192

Rebus, a literary device, 109
"Receipt for a Wife," mentioned,

23, 99
Religious opinions, 33, 34, 35, 57,

91, 101, 102

"REPUBLICAN," quoted, 138
Republican principles, 86, 95
"Rights of Man," in American
politics, 7, 136, 181; and "Men-
ancler," 157

Rights of Man, attacked by "Pub-
licola," 143-146; mentioned, 132,
136, 138; see also Paine, Thomas
Rome, example of, 86
Roman church, criticized, 34
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, 98
Russell, Major Benjamin, editor,
84; friendly, 135; Federalist, 139;
fight with Austin, 160, 184; note
on, 215

Russian ballet, 149
"RUSTICUS," quoted, 140

Index

Sadler's Wells entertainment in
Boston, 154

St. James Park, London, 168

St. Louis's Day in France, men-
tioned, 26

St. Petersburg, Russia, visited, 16;
cold weather in, 32

"Sancho," cited, 116

Sargent, Daniel, Jr., associate, 163,
227; marries Mary Frazier, 193

Science, see Natural philosophy

"Scipio Africanus," poem in the
Herald, 113; authorship, 223;
mentioned, 117, 166

Securities, U.S. government, de-
pressed, 15; foreign buying of, 58

Shakespearean references, 55, 56,
57, 68, 87, 106, 110, 116, 148,
159, 163, 164, 236

Shaw, Elizabeth ("Eliza"), aunt,
characterization, 32, 206; roman-
tic disposition, 65; on nephew's
curiosity, 29; on "Delia," 44, 65;
on nephew's improvement, 65;
on his illness, 104; on his love
affair, 125, 127, 130, 193; men-
tioned, 45, 72, 78

Shaw, Reverend Mr. John, uncle,
characterization, 33, 65, 206; the-
ology, 33, 34; criticizes nephew,
33; mentioned, 30, 103

Shays' Rebellion, 59, 60, 97, 136

Shenstone, poetry of, 133

Sherman, Roger, 137

Siddons, Mrs., actress, 149

"Sir John," nickname, 163

Smith, Isaac, uncle, merchant, 29

Smith, Sally, described, 22; mar-
ried, 242; see also Adams, Charles

Smith, William, uncle, unfortunate
example, 174, 238

Smith, Colonel William, character,
204; source of worry, 125; men-
tioned, 22, 28; see also Adams,
Abigail, sister

251

Social Compact, 131

"Solomon's Song," thoughts on, 46

Spring, The Reverend Samuel,

evangelist, 101, 102
"Squire," nickname, 163
"Starveling," nickname, 163
Sterne, Lawrence, read, 47
Stiles, Dr. Ezra, characterized, 25
"Stone House" faction, followers of

Hancock, 137

Storer, Charles, quoted on "an-
archy," 58

"STUDENTS," newspaper com-
munication by, 79, 81-85
Sullivan, James, Attorney General
of Massachusetts, characteriza-
tion of, 152; eulogy on, 234;
kindness to John Quincy Adams,
172; and theater, 151, 155, 156,
168; as "Americanus," 179, 183,
186, 188; abused by Adamses,
151, 175, 190; mentioned, 153,
154

Superstition, address on, 70
Swan, James, French agent, 27
Swett, Dr. John, 103, 104, 106
Swift, Jonathan, read, 162; cited,

189
Syllogisms, study of, 35; criticized,

76

Tale of a Tub, read, 162
Temple Street, Newburyport, "the

beauties of," 119
Terrence, read, 34
Thaxter, John, cousin, 37, 43
Theater, interest of Adamses in,
148; closed in Boston, 154; John
Quincy Adams financial patron
of, 178

Theatre Fran^aise, 149
Thomas, Isaiah, printer, 108; sym-
pathetic to theater, 153
Thompson, Thomas, associate, "se-
duced" by evangelicalism, 101,
102

252

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: The Critical Years

Thomson, Charles, Secretary of
Congress, 21

"Thyrsis," pseudonym, 221

Titcomb case, lost, 161

Titles, argument about, 138

"Togatus," quoted, 139

Tories, blamed by Sam Adams, 58;
political influence of, 192

Trumbull, John, author, 26

Tucker, Alice, 110, 111

Tufts, Dr. Cotton, agent for the
Adamses, 41, 47

Tyler, Royall, lawyer and play-
wright, suitor of "Nabby," 28;
mentioned, 27, 92, 149, 150, 204

Universal Hall, Boston, 183

Universal Salvation (Channing),
discussed, 34

Universities, foreign morals at, 17

"Upon the importance and neces-
sity of Public Faith to the well-
being of a community," see
"Public Faith"

Vassal, or Borland, mansion, ac-
quired by the Adamses, 92, 218

Vattel, Emeric de, jurist, 180, 186

"Vauxhall" entertainment, 152

Virgil, Ecologues, read, 34

"Virgin Unmasked," a play, 178

"Vision, A," begun, 99; quoted,
111, 123; mentioned, 107, 114,
117, 118, 120

Voltaire, disliked, 26; and theater,
149

Wadsworth, Colonel Jeremiah,
merchant, 27, 203; host, 25

Warren, General James, visited,
27; and Shays' Rebellion, 60, 97

Warren, Mercy (Mrs. James), and
Anti-Federalism, 97; solicits po-
sition for husband, 139

Washington, President George,
visit to Newburyport, 121; and
Rights of Man, 135; and theater,

148; appoints John Quincy
Adams to The Hague, 170; fails
to appoint him as Federal At-
torney General, 179; and neu-
trality, 179; attacked by Genet,
184; and "Columbus," 191

Washington, Martha, letter about
John Quincy Adams, 193

Waterhouse, Professor Benjamin,
46

Watts, Isaac, Logick: or, The right
use of reason in the enquiry
after truth, 35, 46

Welch, Dr. Thomas, agent of
Adamses and John Quincy
Adams' landlord, 122

West, The Reverend Samuel, and
Federalist intrigue, 97

West Indies, and American neu-
trality, 180

White, Peggy, 40

Wiberd, The Reverend Anthony
of Braintree, characterized, 28;
sermons boring, 94, 105

Wigglesworth, Professor Benjamin,
boards at home of, 53

Wigglesworth, Colonel Edward,
home of, 107

Wigglesworth, Peggy, 53

Wilkes, John, 153

Willard, Joseph, President o Har-
vard, his manner of speaking, 76;
hospitality, 52; on Hancock, 84;
examination of John Quincy
Adams, 30, 46; and "laudable
emulation," 83; mentioned, 66,
67

William the Conqueror, 145

Williams, Professor Samuel, 52

Williams, Jenny, 52

Winthrop, John, Journal read, 162

Wythe, George, letter to John
Adams cited, 191

Xenophon, Cyropedia, read, 34

"Young Hercules," nickname, 44