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"The man who seeks one thing in life, and but
one,
May hope to achieve it before life be done;
But he who seeks all things, wherever he goes,
Only reaps from the hopes which around him he
sows
A harvest of barren regrets."
The subject of this narrative was a great-grandson of Henry Adams, who
emigrated from England about 1640, with a family of eight sons, being one
of the earliest settlers in the town of Braintree, Massachusetts, where he had
a grant of a small tract of forty acres of land. The father of John Adams, a
deacon of the church, was a farmer by occupation, to which was added the
business of shoemaking. He was a man of limited means, however, was
enabled by hard pinching to give his son a fairly good education.
The old French and Indian war was then at its height; and in a remarkable
letter to a friend, which contains some curious prognostications as to the
relative population and commerce of England and her colonies a hundred
years hence, young Adams describes himself as having turned politician.
He succeeded in gaining charge of the grammar school in Worcester,
Massachusetts, but, instead of finding this duty agreeable, he found it 'a
school of affliction,' and turned his attention to the study of law. Determined
to become a first-class lawyer, he placed himself under the especial tuition
of the only lawyer of whom Worcester, though the county seat, could boast.
He had thought seriously of the clerical profession, but, according to his
own expressions, "The frightful engines of ecclesiastical councils, of
diabolical malice, and Calvinistic good nature," the operation of which he
had witnessed in some church controversies in his native town, terrified him
out of it. Adams was a very ambitious man; already he had longings for
distinction. Could he have obtained a troop of horse, or a company of
infantry, he would undoubtedly have entered the army. Nothing but want of
patronage prevented his becoming a soldier.
After a two years' course of study, he returned to his native town,
Braintree, and in 1758 commenced practice in Suffolk county, of which
Boston was the shire town. By hard study and hard work he gradually
introduced himself into practice, and in 1764 married a young lady far
above his station in life. In our perusal and study of eminent men who have
risen by their own exertions to a higher sphere in life, we are not at all
surprised to find that they have invariably married noble women—ladies,
who have always maintained a restraining influence when the desire for
honor and public attention would appeal to their baser self, and whose
guiding influence tended to strengthen their efforts when their energies
seemed to slacken. So it was with John Adams; his wife was a lady of rare
abilities and good sense, admirably adapted to make him happy. Boys, be
careful whom you marry!
Shortly after his entrance into the practice of the law, the attempt at
parliamentary taxation diverted his attention from his profession to politics.
He was a most active oppositionist. He promoted the call of the town of
Braintree to instruct the representatives of the town on the subject of the
Stamp Act. The resolutions which he presented at this meeting were not
only voted by the town, but attracted great attention throughout the
province, and were adopted verbatim by more than forty different towns.
Thus it is seen that Adams had not studied hard all these years for nothing;
the price of success is honest, faithful WORK.
Of course his towns-people would reward him. Men who have ability,
unless some bolt is loose, will invariably gain success. Soon after this Mr.
Adams was appointed on the part of the town of Boston to be one of their
counsel, along with the King's attorney, and head of the bar, and James Otis,
the celebrated orator, to support a memorial addressed to the Governor and
Council, that the courts might proceed with business though no stamps were
to be had. Although junior counsel, it fell to Adams to open the case for the
petitioners, as his seniors could not join; the one owing to his position as
King's attorney, the other could not as he had recently published a book
entitled the 'Rights of the Colonies.' This was a grand opportunity for
Adams and he made the most of it,—boldly taking the ground that the
stamp act was null and void, Parliament having no right to tax the colonies.
Nothing, however, came of this application; the Governor and Council
declining to act, on the ground that it belonged to the Judges, not to them, to
decide.
But Adams had put himself on record, and this record established his
reputation. "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood,
leads on to fortune." The time came to Adams to distinguish himself, and he
was not found wanting. It was at this same period that Mr. Adams first
appeared as a writer in the
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