States, was adopted, under a strong influence, on the minds of many of the members of the convention, of the arguments contained in this work of Mr. Adams.

Mr. Adams had early adopted the idea, that it was necessary, in order to insure the stability of a popular government, to separate the three great powers from each other. He had consequently earnestly enforced the importance of keeping distinct the executive, legislative, and judicial departments, and in order to prevent the legislative branch of the government from encroaching on the others, he proposed, that it should be divided into two chambers, each as a check upon the other. In this theory, he thought he saw all, that was essential to the perfection of a popular government. In the constitution of Massachusetts, he carried these opinions into effect; and this instrument which, as we have already mentioned, was drafted by him, was copied in its fundamental features, by many of the other states.

This division of powers was a principle to which Mr. Adams attached peculiar importance, and his letters to Wythe and R. H. Lee, as well as his work in defence of the American constitutions, show the unwearied pains he took to impress his countrymen with the same conviction.

At the close of the year 1787, Mr. Adams solicited permission to return after February of the next year, when the term of ten years from his first sailing in the foreign service of the country, should have been completed. This permission was granted to him, and at the same time, the following resolution was passed:

66 Resolved, That congress en

tertain a high sense of the serviceś which Mr. Adams has rendered to the United States, in the execution of the various important trusts which they have from time to time committed to him; and that the thanks of congress be presented to him for the perseverance, integrity and diligence with which he has ably and faithfully served his country."

Shortly after the return of Mr. Adams to America, the newly adopted constitution was to go into operation. Two persons were to be voted for, in the electoral colleges, for the offices of president and vice-president, without designation by the electors, whom they respectively preferred for each of fice. It was considered very desirable, throughout the country, that general Washington should be the first president, as nothing but his influence was thought adequate to carry the constitution-adopted by bare majorities in most of the states-through the trial of its first operations. In order to secure general Washington's election, a large number of the electors, favorable to the elevation of Mr. Adams to the second office, threw away one of their votes. He was accordingly chosen vice-president, by a number of votes, which though next, was considerably inferior to that by which general Washington was raised to the presidency.

Mr. Adams sustained the office of vice-president with great dignity and success. Although not a member of the executive administration, he lived in unbroken harmony with general Washington, and was, on all important occasions, regularly consulted by him. The most important duty of the vice-president, is that of presiding over the deliberations of the senate. In this untried position.

without precedent to guide him, and for a considerable part of the time, called to decide very many of the most important questions, by his casting vote: Mr. Adams was so fortunate, at the close of eight years, when he retired from the chair of that dignified body, as to be able, in his address, to say, that "he never had the smallest misunderstanding with any member of the senate."

In 1790, Mr. Adams published his discourses on Davila; of which the object was to counteract the increasing influence of the doctrines propagated by revolutionary France. In the division of opinions, that spread through America, on the subject of our foreign relations, Mr. Adams, with Washington, Jefferson, and almost all the statesmen of the strictly revolutionary age, endeavored to hold a medium, between the extremes, into which the community, under the lead of younger men, was rapidly advancing. The proclamation of neutrality, the great measure that fixed the course of the administration, was adopted by the unanimous consent of the members of general Washington's administration. On Mr. Jefferson, then secretary of state, had also devolved the duty, which he had discharged with singular ability, of resisting the extravagant assumptions of Genet. In his contemporaneous appointments of Mr. Jay to England, and Mr. Monroe to France, general Washington also seems to have acted on the principle, of holding the balance between the two parties, which were forming.

General Washington having refused to be a candidate for election, a third time, Mr. Adams and Mr.

Jefferson received the highest number of votes; and became severally president and vice president of the United States. Whatever feelings had mingled with the controversy, in the minds of a considerable portion of the community, it produced no coolness between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams. In a letter to governor Langdon, written after the result of the election in 1797 was known, Mr. Jefferson observes, that he had no feelings, which could revolt at taking a station, secondary to Mr. Adams. "I have been secondary to him," he continues, "in every situation in which we ever acted together, in public life, for twenty years past. A contrary position would have been novelty, and his the right of revolting at it." In his address, on taking the chair of the senate, as vice president, Mr. Jefferson said, "No one more sincerely prays, that no accident may call me to the higher and more important functions, which the constitution eventually devolves on this office. These have been justly confided to the eminent character, which has preceded me here, whose talents and integrity have been known and revered by me, through a long course of years; have been the foundation of a cordial and uninterrupted friendship between us; and I devoutly pray he may long be preserved for the government, the happiness, and the prosperity of our common country.'

On entering the office of chief magistrate of the United States, the first object, which presented itself to Mr. Adams, was the controversy with France. This was not only a subject of real difficulty, but it was peculiarly embarrassing,

in consequence of its having been the great subject, on which domestic parties had gone far to form themselves. Mr. Adams, the day after his 'inauguration, sought a confidential interview with Mr. Jefferson, and gave a strong proof of his inclination, both for conciliation with France, if practicable, on terms consistent with the national honor; and for harmony at home. He proposed to Mr. Jefferson to go out as minister to that country; regarding him not only as the individual most likely to influence the French government, but as the citizen, whose appointment would best satisfy those persons in America, who were favorably inclined toward France.

The state of the country, however, became such, as to counteract these conciliatory counsels. War, in a republic like ours, is a measure so strong, as to raise the division of opinions, on its expediency, to the extreme point of opposition. The conduct of the revolutionary governors of France was, however, such, as to rouse a very general indignation throughout the nation. President Adams was supported, in the stand he took against them, not merely by the federal party, but by a very considerable portion of the republicans. It is sufficient to appeal to the name of Patrick Henry, among those advanced in years; who publicly expressed their resolution to support the president, in his counsels for vindicating the honor of the country. It is probable that Mr. Adams would have been finally sustained and re-elected, but for the schism, in the ranks of his friends. There was great difference of opinion as to measures,

and but little cordiality in feeling, between general Hamilton and his particular friends, and Mr. Adams. In the policy to be observed toward France, general Hamilton and his friends favored strong measures, great military establishments, and prompt resort to war. Mr. Adams and those who shared his views, were determined to engage in war, only in the last resort, and entertained different ideas of the extent of the necessary defensive military preparations; and were favorable, in preference, to naval defence. Difference of opinion on these subjects, connected itself with equal variance of counsels of domestic policy. Important measures were brought forward, by the party of which he was considered the head, without his recommendation or desire. As the period of the next presidential election drew nigh, general Hamilton, in a pamphlet written with his usual power and ingenuity, denounced Mr. Adams, and avowed the intention of opposing his re-election.

Under these circumstances, his defeat followed of course. Notwithstanding this result, Mr. Adams was not without consolation, at the moment of retirement. He had given peace to the country, and had laid the foundation of a navy; of which, from his very entrance on life, at the age of twenty, in the whole course of the revolutionary war, and throughout his administration, he had been the steady advocate. The greater part of the naval force, which covered the country with glory in the late war, was equipped under his administration. It had already furnished the means of chastising the Barbary powers. Prudent, however,

even in the establishment which he had most at heart, he signed on the last day of his presidency, an act for the reduction of the naval force of the country.

Retiring to private life, he devoted himself to the cultivation of literary and philosophical studies. Henceforward he took no public part in political affairs. When, however, new difficulties arose in the foreign relations of the country, and Great Britain showed a dispotion to tread in the steps of France, by her aggressions on our neutral rights; Mr. Adams publicly ex'pressed his approbation of the measures, adopted by Mr. Jefferson's administration in their defence.

In 1817, Mr. Adams was a member of the electoral college of Massachusetts; and in 1820, he was deputed, by his fellow-citizens of Quincy, to the convention for revising the constitution of his native state; a revision supposed to have been rendered necessary, by the separation of Maine. Of this convention he was elected president; but declined the chair, in consequence of his advanced age. In addition to the tribute of respect contained in this election, the convention passed the following resolutions :

"Whereas the honorable John Adams, a member of this convention, and elected the president thereof, has, for more than a half a century, devoted the great powers of his mind and his profound wisdom and learning to the service of his country and of mankind;

In fearlessly vindicating the rights of the North American provinces, against the usurpations and encroachments of the superintendant government;

In diffusing a knowledge of the principles of civil liberty, among his fellow subjects, and exciting them to a firm and resolute defence of the privileges of freemen;

In early conceiving, asserting, and maintaining the justice and practicability of establishing the independence of the United States of America :

In giving the powerful aid of his political knowledge in the formation of the constitution of this his native state; which constitution became in a great measure the model of those which were subsequently formed:

In conciliating the favor of foreign powers, and obtaining their countenance and support in the arduous struggle for independence:

In negotiating the treaty of peace, which secured for ever the sovereignty of the United States, and in defeating all attempts to prevent it, and especially in preserving in that treaty the vital interest of the New England states:

In demonstrating to the world, in his defence of the constitutions of the several United States, the contested principle, since admitted as an axiom, that checks and balances in legislative power, are essential to true liberty :

In devoting his time and talents to the service of the nation; in the high and important trusts of vice president of the United States :

And lastly in passing an honorable old age, in dignified retirement, in the practice of all the domestic virtues, thus exhibiting to his countrymen and to posterity an example of true greatness of mind and of genuine patriotism:

Therefore resolved, that the members of this convention, representing the people of the common

wealth of Massachusetts, do joyfully avail themselves of this opportunity to testify their respect and gratitude to this eminent patriot and statesman, for the great services rendered by him to his country; and their high gratification that at this late period of life, he is permitted by divine providence to assist them with his counsel, in revising the constitution which forty years ago, his wisdom and prudence assisted to form :

Resolved, that a committee of twelve be appointed by the chair, to communicate this proceeding to the honorable John Adams, to inform him of his election to preside in this body, and to introduce him to the chair of this convention."

Although unable to assume the office of presiding in the deliberations of the convention, Mr. Adams occasionally took part in its discussions; and had the satisfaction, in the final result, to perceive, in the small number of amendments proposed, and the still smaller number of them adopted by the people, the most satisfactory proof, that the constitution of the state, which he had in his youth the principal agency in forming, was deemed by the people after forty years trial, essentially adequate to the wants of the community, without need of material alteration.

Mr. Adams lived to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing his son elected to the chief magistracy of the United States. . Rare as such an occurrence, under any circumstances must be, it is still more remarkable, when we duly consider the strong prejudice, which justly prevails in this country, against the hereditary transmission of office. It is unquestionably true, that the cir

cumstance that his father had been president of the United States, instead of promoting, would tend to prevent the elevation of any candidate to that office.

But the time and circumstances of Mr. Adams' death, are unquestionably not less interesting than any event in his life. It took place on the anniversary of the declaration of independence, at the close of the half century from that memorable era, in full consciousness of the character of the day; and with an allusion, in the last moments of life, to Thomas Jefferson, his illustrious fellow laborer, who also expired the same day.

Although we have almost wholly confined ourselves to Mr. Adams' political life and character, his literary reputation ought not to be overlooked. He was a sound scholar, versed in the ancient languages, and in many branches of general literature. His style of writing was forcible and perspicuous; and in the latter years of his life remarkably easy and elegant. He was the original proposer of the institution of the American academy of arts and sciences, a liberal patron of its library, and for several years its president. To his native town, he made donations and bequests toward the foundation and endowment of an academy and the building of a church.

In his person he was of middling stature; his manners were formed on the courtesy of the old school; industry enabled him to discharge honorably the almost innumerable duties that devolved on him after the revolution began; temperance procured him the blessing of a healthful old age ;—and a long life passed in obedience to the laws of