Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. | Page 2

THE
OUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 268
CHAPTER XI.
SECOND REPORT ON THE SMITHSONIAN FUND.--HIS SPEECH
ON A BILL FOR INSURING A MORE FAITHFUL EXECUTION
OF THE LAWS RELATING TO THE COLLECTION OF DUTIES
ON IMPORTS.--REMARKS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN
EXTENSIVE SERIES OF MAGNETICAL AND
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.--ON ITINERANT
ELECTIONEERING.--ON ABUSES IN RESPECT TO THE NAVY

FUND.--ON THE POLITICAL INFLUENCES OF THE TIME.--ON
THE ORIGIN AND RESULTS OF THE FLORIDA WAR.--HIS
DENUNCIATION OF DUELLING.--HIS ARGUMENT IN THE
SUPREME COURT ON BEHALF OF AFRICANS CAPTURED IN
THE AMISTAD, 302
CHAPTER XII.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
STATES.--HIS DEATH.--VICE-PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER
SUCCEEDS.--REMARKS OF MR. ADAMS ON THE
OCCASION.--HIS SPEECH ON THE CASE OF ALEXANDER
M'LEOD.--HIS VIEWS CONCERNING COMMONPLACE
BOOKS.--HIS LECTURE ON CHINA AND CHINESE
COMMERCE.--REMARKS ON THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY,
AND HIS DUTY IN RELATION TO IT.--HIS PRESENTATION OF
A PETITION FOR THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION, AND THE
VOTE TO CENSURE HIM FOR DOING IT.--HIS THIRD REPORT
ON MR. SMITHSON'S BEQUEST.--HIS SPEECH ON THE
MISSION TO MEXICO, 328
CHAPTER XIII.
REPORT ON PRESIDENT TYLER'S APPROVAL, WITH
OBJECTIONS, OF THE BILL FOR THE APPORTIONMENT OF
REPRESENTATIVES.--REPORT ON HIS VETO OF THE BILL TO
PROVIDE A REVENUE FROM IMPORTS.--LECTURE ON THE
SOCIAL COMPACT, AND THE THEORIES OF FILMER, HOBBES,
SYDNEY, AND LOCKE.-- ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS
ON THE POLICY OF PRESIDENT TYLER'S
ADMINISTRATION.--ADDRESS TO THE NORFOLK COUNTY
TEMPERANCE SOCIETY. --DISCOURSE ON THE NEW
ENGLAND CONFEDERACY OF 1643.--LETTER TO THE
CITIZENS OF BANGOR ON WEST INDIA
EMANCIPATION.--ORATION ON LAYING THE
CORNER-STONE OF THE CINCINNATI OBSERVATORY, 364

CHAPTER XIV.
REPORT ON THE RESOLVES OF THE LEGISLATURE OF
MASSACHUSETTS PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES IN EFFECT TO
ABOLISH A REPRESENTATION FOR SLAVES.--FOURTH
REPORT ON JAMES SMITHSON'S BEQUEST.--INFLUENCE OF
MR. ADAMS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NATIONAL
OBSERVATORY AND THE SMITHSONIAN
INSTITUTION.--GENERAL JACKSON'S CHARGE THAT THE RIO
GRANDE MIGHT HAVE BEEN OBTAINED, UNDER THE
SPANISH TREATY, AS A BOUNDARY FOR THE UNITED
STATES, REFUTED.-- ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS AT
WEYMOUTH.--REMARKS ON THE RETROCESSION OF
ALEXANDRIA TO VIRGINIA.--HIS PARALYSIS.--RECEPTION
BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.--HIS
DEATH.--FUNERAL HONORS.--TRIBUTE TO HIS MEMORY, 409

MEMOIR
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH.--EDUCATION.--RESIDENCE IN EUROPE.--AT
COLLEGE.--AT THE BAR. --POLITICAL ESSAYS.--MINISTER
AT THE HAGUE.--AT BERLIN.--RETURN TO THE UNITED
STATES.
John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams, was born on the
11th of July, 1767, in the North Parish of Braintree,
Massachusetts--since incorporated as the town of Quincy. The lives and
characters of his parents, intimately associated with the history of the
American Revolution, have been already ably and faithfully

illustrated.[1]
[1] See "Letters of Mrs. Adams, with an Introductory Memoir," and
"The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States,
with a Life of the Author," by their grandson, Charles Francis Adams.
The origin of his name was thus stated by himself: "My
great-grandfather, John Quincy,[2] was dying when I was baptized, and
his daughter, my grandmother, requested I might receive his name.
This fact, recorded by my father at the time, is not without a moral to
my heart, and has connected with that portion of my name a charm of
mingled sensibility and devotion. It was filial tenderness that gave the
name--it was the name of one passing from earth to immortality. These
have been, through life, perpetual admonitions to do nothing unworthy
of it."
[2] John Quincy represented the town of Braintree in the colonial
legislature forty years, and long held the office of speaker.
At Braintree his mother watched over his childhood. At the village
school he learned the rudiments of the English language. In after life he
often playfully boasted that the dame who taught him to spell flattered
him into learning his letters by telling him he would prove a scholar.
The notes and habits of the birds and wild animals of the vicinity early
excited his attention, and led him to look on nature with a lover's eye,
creating an attachment to the home of his childhood, which time
strengthened. Many years afterwards, when residing in Europe, he
wrote: "Penn's Hill and Braintree North Common Rocks never looked
and never felt to me like any other hill or any other rocks; because
every rock and every pebble upon them associates itself with the first
consciousness of my existence. If there is a Bostonian who ever sailed
from his own harbor for distant lands, or returned to it from them,
without feelings, at the sight of the Blue Hills, which he is unable to
express, his heart is differently constituted from mine."
These local attachments were indissolubly associated with the events of
the American Revolution, and with the patriotic principles instilled by
his mother. Standing with her on the summit of Penn's Hill, he heard

the cannon booming from the battle of Bunker's Hill, and saw the
smoke and flames of