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parties referred to were still alive. They were published as a part of the
electioneering machinery against John Quincy Adams. They called out a
violent retort from Colonel Pickering, who had been secretary of State to
Washington and Adams, till dismissed from office by the latter; but though
Mr. Jefferson was also severely handled in them, they occasioned no
interruption to the friendly relation which had been re-established between
him and Mr. Adams.
Those two leading actors in American politics, at first so co-operative and
afterward so hostile, again reunited in friendly intercourse, having outlived
almost all of their fellow-actors, continued to descend hand in hand to the
grave. Adams lived to see his son president, and to receive Jefferson's
congratulations on the same. By a remarkable coincidence, they both
expired on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, in
which they both had taken so active a part, Adams, however, being the
survivor by a few hours.
Of Adams' personal appearance and domestic character in his old age, his
grandson gives the following account: "In figure, John Adams was not tall,

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scarcely exceeding middle height, but of a stout, well-knit frame, denoting
vigor and long life, yet as he grew old inclining more and more to
corpulence. His head was large and round, with a wide forehead and
expanded brows. His eye was mild and benignant, perhaps even humorous
when he was free from emotion, but when excited it fully expressed the
vehemence of the spirit that stirred within."
"His presence was grave and imposing on serious occasions, but not
unbending. He delighted in social conversation, in which he was sometimes
tempted to what he called rodomontade. But he seldom fatigued those who
heard him; for he mixed so much of natural vigor of fancy and illustration
with the store of his acquired knowledge, as to keep alive their interest for a
long time."
"His affections were warm, though not habitually demonstrated toward his
relatives. His anger, when thoroughly aroused, was for a time extremely
violent, but when it subsided it left no trace of malevolence behind. Nobody
could see him intimately without admiring the simplicity and truth which
shone in his actions, and standing in some awe of the power and energy of
his will. It was in these moments that he impressed those around him with a
sense of his greatness. Even the men employed on his farm were in the
habit of citing instances, some of which have been remembered down to the
present day."
"At times his vehemence became so great as to make him overbearing and
unjust. This was apt to happen in cases of pretension and any kind of
wrong-doing. Mr. Adams was very impatient of cant, or of opposition to
any of his deeply established convictions. Neither was his indignation at all
graduated to the character of the individuals who might happen to excite it.
He had little respect of persons, and would hold an illiterate man or raw boy
to as heavy a responsibility for uttering a crude heresy, as the strongest
thinker or the most profound scholar."
The same writer makes the following remarks on his general character:
"His nature was too susceptible to emotions of sympathy and kindness, for
it tempted him to trust more than was prudent in the professions of some
who proved unworthy of his confidence. Ambitious in one sense he

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certainly was, but it was not the mere aspiration for place or power. It was a
desire to excel in the minds of men by the development of high qualities,
the love, in short, of an honorable fame, that stirred him to exult in the
rewards of popular favor. Yet this passion never tempted him to change a
course of action or to suppress a serious conviction, to bend to a prevailing
error or to disavow one odious truth."
In these last assertions we do not fully concur. They involve some
controverted points of history; however, they may be made with far more
plausibility of Mr. Adams than of the greater portion of political men.
There is much in the life of John Adams worthy of careful consideration.
He rose from poverty to distinction; he was a capable man, capable of
filling the highest place in the estimation of his posterity, yet his serious
faults led to his political ruin. The careful perusal of his life will enable one
to understand the principles of the two great parties of to-day, modified
though they be, the fundamental principles remaining the same.

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