from more glorious and powerful. If America shall suffer from misgovernment and oppression, she shall come from her sufferings renewed in spirit for a grander career. He had read history to learn that truth, right and virtue, in the long run, prevail; and that wrong and injustice turn upon and devour their propagators at last. He had rejected the prevailing theology because of its despair of human nature and its distrust of the Divine goodness. He had adopted a generous and hopeful philosophy of humanity. All this now came to sustain him in his own and his country's peril and distress; and not only to sustain him, but to make him a great leader, through darkness and war, to the light and peace beyond. It was not simply his intellectual strength and furnishing that made him the power he was in his times, but those great and humane, and hopeful, moral and religious convictions which almost led him into the ministry, and would, but for his rejection of some of the dogmas of the prevailing church, and which he carried into all the work of his life. He was a lawyer, and believed in law; a philosopher, and believed in truth; a moralist, and believed in virtue; and a religionist, and believed in God. All these combined made the basis of his statesmanship and the ruling power of his private and public life.

The opening of the war scenes of the revolution changed the course of Mr. Adams' life. He was a lawyer, and sought only to magnify his calling. He had ambition, but it was in the line of his profession. He saw an ample field for all his power; but now his occupation was gone. Boston, his chosen home, was a camp of war. The rights of his countrymen were trampled under invading feet. There was but one course for him to pursue; that was to put himself and all he had into the defense of the rights of America.

PUBLIC LIFE BEGAN.

Mr. Adams was now thirty-nine years old. General Gage, now acting in the double capacity of military commander and civil governor, had ordered the meeting of the legislature of the

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colony at Salem, instead of Boston. An effort was made to put John Adams on the council of the governor, but Gage, hearing of it, negatived it at once. The legislature met in Salem, June 7, 1774. Its members began at once the most active secret measures to defeat the plans of the governor. On the seventeenth of June, a motion was made that the doorkeeper keep the door closed against all passage in or out. One hundred and twenty-nine members were present. At once a resolution was offered in approval of the meeting in Philadelphia on the first of September, of the committees from the several colonies of America-the Colonial Congress, in fact,-according to the suggestion of James Otis nine years before, in relation to the Stamp The object of the meeting as stated in the resolution was: "To consult upon wise and proper measures to be recommended to all the colonies for the recovery and establishment of their just rights and liberties, civil and religious, and the restoration of union and harmony between the two countries, most ardently desired by all good men." This bold resolution, with others, was taken up at once. It was a surprise to most of the members. It was a move toward union, and dictation to England. They were consulting in defiance of their governor. There were spies in the assembly. One of them evaded the vigilance of the doorkeeper and carried intelligence to the governor. The governor immediately sent a messenger to prorogue the legislature. But the doorkeeper's orders were absolute and he would not admit him, but sent in word of his mission. The legislature took no notice of it. A few idlers and members had gathered on the steps outside, and to them the messenger read the governor's proroguing message; but the work inside went on. The resolutions were discussed and passedone hundred and seventeen for, and twelve against them. James Bowdoin, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams and Robert Treat Payne, were appointed to serve Massachusetts in the congress. When this great initiatory step was taken, the legislature dissolved according to the governor's order, never more to meet under royal authority.

THE COLONIAL CONGRESS.

The Colonial Congress was called to meet September 1, 1774. It was for consultation. It had no authority; it was simply a meeting of delegated citizens to talk over their grievances; to get acquainted with each other and the condition of the colonies, and try to act together in their endeavors to bring England to a better mind toward them. Massachusetts had asked for this meeting to get the other colonies to make common cause with her, to sympathize with, and share her oppression.

The first things considered were non-importation, non-consumption and non-exportation acts. It would hurt England to refuse to buy her goods, to cease to consume anything she made, to cease to sell her anything the colonies produced.

But their consultation produced quite other results than their acts! It stimulated their courage. It led them to speak out their feelings. "What is a king's promise?" asked young Rutledge, of South Carolina, in a defiant tone. "A constitutional death to Lords Bute, Mansfield and North!" cried Harrison. And so by brave words which the world did not then hear, as their consultations were secret, they opened their hearts to each other. On the seventeenth of September Adams wrote in his diary: "This day has convinced me that America will support Massachusetts, or perish with her." Yet the delegates were far from being agreed on anything. Many of them were fearful of offending the king and his governors. They generally loved and honored England. With patience, forbearance and wisdom they talked over their differences of opinion, and yet gave out to the world that unity and harmony prevailed among them. The unity was in their mutual desire to allay the lion's anger, and their wise readiness to stand by each other in their efforts to do it.

The Congress continued two months. It prepared with great care a petition to the king, and the acts of non-intercourse as threats and proofs of their resolution; but the greatest benefit of the Congress was the acquaintance of the leading men of the

colonies with each other, and the preparation for the final union made by this acquaintance.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH HIS WIFE.

This journey to Philadelphia was Mr. Adams' first visit out of New England. It was full of interest to him in many respects. During this journey began that correspondence with his wife on political matters, which has been of great interest to the world since their day. Mrs. Abigail Adams was a woman of rare mind who entered into all the great interests of the colonies with judgment and enthusiasm. He wrote to her of the questions discussed in Congress, and she to him of the stirring events going on in Boston and the colony.

The correspondence on state matters thus begun, was kept up through all their separation. After his public life began they were much separated, and the history of that life was largely written in his letters to her.

HIS ELECTION TO THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS.

He had been at home but a few days, before he was called to Watertown to give his counsel in the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, then in session. A few days later he was elected by Braintree, a member of that Congress, and continued so till the end of its career. He was thus in the heart of the activities of the time in Massachusetts. At this time some leading tory in Massachusetts, who called himself "Massachusettensis," wrote a series of able articles in a Boston newspaper, on the British view of the situation and in defense of the course of King George.

Mr. Adams wrote a series of articles for the Boston Gazette in reply, over the name of "Novanglus." Both series were widely read and studied in the colonies. The articles of Mr. Adams were afterward published under the title of "A History of the Dispute with America." They now appear permanently as a part of the history of the times in his works. His grandson and biographer, Charles Francis Adams, says of them: "No publication of the times compares with them in extent of

research into the principles of the ancient law, and in the vigorous application of them to the question at issue."

By the Massachusetts congress Mr. Adams was appointed to

THE SECOND CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

The winter of 1774 and 1775 was a fearful one to the people of Massachusetts. In April, 1775, the battles of Lexington and Concord were fought, which brought almost all the male population of the colony under arms to defend their homes against the soldiers of their king. Fearful was the agitation over the whole country. In the midst of this agitation Mr. Adams set out for the second Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The delegates were everywhere hailed with delight. Their journey was made an ovation. In New York, almost the whole city. came out. The whole of the militia were in arms. This day's ovation settled it that New York would go into the confederation of the colonies. They hastened on. The Congress met in a very different mood from that in which it parted the fall before. Lexington and Concord had united them. The spirit of the men of Massachusetts was now in the people of all the colonies.

Early in June Mr. Adams moved that Congress adopt the army around Boston as its own, and proceed to officer and supply it, and, in making the motion, said that though it was not time to name a commander yet, "I have no hesitation to declare that I have one gentleman in my mind for that important command, and that is a gentleman from Virginia, who is among us and very well known to us all; a gentleman whose skill and experience as an officer; whose independent fortune, great talents and excellent universal character will command the approbation of all America and unite the cordial exertions of all the colonies better than any other person in the Union."

On the fifteenth of June the army was adopted. Immedi ately after George Washington, whom Mr. Adams a few days before had pointed out as the proper man, was elected commander-in-chief. Two days after, June 17, perhaps at the very time the battle of Bunker Hill was being fought, he wrote to a friend: "This appointment will have a great effect in cement