ney, Hampden, and Milton, its republican patriots ; for Shakspeare, Dryden, and Pope, its immortal poets; and for Addison and Johnson, its moralists; here he learned from Wilberforce the principles of political philanthropy, as well as the patience and perseverance to defend them, and studied eloquence by the living models of Pitt, Fox, Erskine, Burke, and Sheridan.

This, indeed, was a fitting conclusion to a precocious education by the patriots and philosophers of his own country, with practical observations in the courts of Spain and the Netherlands, of the weak but amiable Louis XVI., and the accomplished, but depraved, Catharine II.

John Quincy Adams now became fearful that the duties of manhood would devolve upon him without his having completed the necessary academic studies. He therefore obtained leave to return home in 1785, at the age of eighteen years, and entered Cambridge University, at an advanced standing, in 1786. He graduated in 1788 with deserved honors.

CHAPTER II.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS STUDIES LAW-HIS PRACTICE-ENGAGES IN PUBLIC LIFE-APPOINTED MINISTER TO THE HAGUE.

AFTER leaving the University, young Adams entered the office of Theophilus Parsons, who was then in the practice of law at Newburyport, and who afterwards for so many years filled with dignity and ability the office of Chief Justice of Massachusetts.

Adams completed the usual term of professional study, and then commenced the practice of the law in Boston. It may encourage some who are oppressed by the difficulties attending initiation in the profession, to know, that during the first and only four years of John Quincy Adams' practice, he had occasion for despondency.

66

I had long and lingering anxieties, (he afterwards said,) in looking forward, doubtful even of my prospects of comfortable subsistence, but acquiring more and more the means of it, till in the last of the four years, the business of my profession yielded me an income more than equal to my expenditures."

But the country and the age had claims on John Quincy Adams, as well as on his father, for higher

duties than "making writs," and "haranguing juries," and "being happy."

The American Revolution, which had been brought to a successful close, had inspired, throughout Europe, a desire to renovate the institutions of government. The officers and citizens of France who had mingled in the contest, had carried home the seeds of freedom and had scattered them abroad upon soil quick to receive them. The flame of Liberty, kindled on the shores of the Western Continent, was reflected back upon the Old World. France beheld its beams, and hailed them as a beacon-light, which should lead the nations out from the bondage of ages. Inspirited by the success attending the struggle in the British colories, the French people, long crushed beneath a grinding despotism, resolved to burst their shackles and strike for Freedom. It was a noble resolution, but consummated, alas! amid devastation and the wildest anarchy. The French Revolution filled the world with horror. It was the work of a blind giant, urged to fury by the remembrance of wrongs endured for generations. The Altar of Liberty was reared amid seas of blood, and stained with the gore of innocent victims.

The measurable failure of this struggle in France, teaches the necessity of due preparation before a people can advance to the permanent possession and enjoyment of their rights. The American colonists nad been trained to rational conceptions of freedom, by

lessons of wisdom and sagacity read them by their Puritan fathers, and by the experience in self-government, afforded during a century and a half of enjoyment of a large share of political privileges, granted by the mother country. They were thus prepared to lay deep and strong the foundations of an enlightened government, which, equally removed from the extremes of despotism on the one hand, and anarchy on the other, and granting its subjects the exercise of their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," shall endure through ages to come. But the people of France, shut up in darkness during centuries of misrule, passed at a step from abject servitude to unlimited freedom. They were unprepared for this violent transition. Their conceptions of liberty were of the most extravagant description. What wonder that they became dizzy at their sudden elevation! What wonder that blood flowed in rivers!-that dissension and faction rent them asunder-that a fearful anarchy soon reigned triumphant-or that the confused and troubled drama closed in the iron rule of a military conqueror the Man of Destiny! Let not this lesson be lost upon the world. Let a people who would enjoy freedom, learn to merit the boon by the study of its principles, and a preparation to exercise its privileges, under those salutary restraints which man can never throw off and be happy!

The odium excited throughout Europe by the excesses of the French Revolution, was heaped without

measure upon the American people. They were charged with the origin of the misrule which convulsed France, and filled the eastern hemisphere with alarm and were tauntingly pointed to the crude theories promulgated by French democracy, and the failure of their phrenzied efforts to establish an enlightened and permanent Republic, as conclusive evidence that self-government, among any people, was a mere Utopian dream, which could never be realized.

The establishment of a republican government in America, had not been relished by the monarchies of Europe. They looked upon it with distrust, as a precedent dangerous to them in the highest degree. The succor which Louis XVI. had rendered the revolting colonists, was not from a love of democratic institutions it was his hope to cripple Great Britain, his ancient enemy, and to find some opportunity, perhaps, to win back his Canadian provinces, which had so recently been rent from his possession. When the pent-up flames of revolution burst forth at the very doors of the governments of the old world—when the French throne had been robbed of its king, and that king of his life-when a Republic had been proclaimed in their midst, and signal-notes cf freedom were ringing in their borders—they became seriously alarmed. The growing evil must be checked immediately. Led on by England, the continental powers combined to exterminate at a blow, if possible, every vestige of Republicanism in France. Then commenced