Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the influence or even the request of his parent. It is not strictly correct, however, as stated by several biographers, that he was selected for the mission to Holland without any previous intimation of the President's intentions to his father. This is made evident by the following extract of a letter from John Adams to his wife, dated Philadelphia, 27th May, 1794, conveying intelligence which must have made a mother's heart swell with honest pride and satisfaction:

"It is proper that I should apprize you, that the President has it in contemplation to send your son to Holland, that you may recollect yourself and prepare for the event. I make this communication to you in confidence, at the desire of the President, communicated to me yesterday by the Secretary of State. You must keep it an entire secret until it shall be announced to the public in the journal of the Senate. But our son must hold himself in readiness to come to Philadelphia, to converse with the President, Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, &c., and receive his commissions and instructions, without loss of time. He will go to Providence in the stage, and thence to New York by water, and thence to Philadelphia in the stage. He will not set out, however, until he is informed of his appointment."

"Your son!" is the phrase by which the father meant to convey his own sense of how large a part the mother had in training that son; and to enhance the compliment, it is communicated to her at the desire of President Washington.

CHAPTER III.

MR. ADAMS TRANSFERRED TO BERLIN-HIS MARRIAGE-LITERARY PURSUITS-TRAVELS IN SILESIA-NEGOTIATES TREATIES WITH SWEDEN AND PRUSSIA-RECALLED TO THE UNITED STATES.

MR. ADAMS presented himself at the Hague, as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, in the summer or fall of 1794. Ten years before, he was there with his father—a lad, attending school-at which time the father wrote: "They give him a good character wherever he has been, and I hope he will make a good man." How abundantly that hope was likely to be fulfilled, the elevated and responsible position occupied by the son at the expiration of the first ten years after it was expressed, gave a promising and true indication.

On his arrival in Holland, Mr. Adams found the affairs of that country in great confusion, in consequence of the French invasion. So difficult was it to prosecute any permanent measures for the benefit of the United States, owing to the existing wars and the unsettled state of things in Europe, that after a few months he thought seriously of returning home. A report of this nature having reached President Washington, drew from him a letter to Vice President John Adams,

dated Aug. 20, 1795, in which the following language

occurs:

“Your son must not think of retiring from the path he is now in. His prospects, if he pursues it, are fair; and I shall be much mistaken if, in as short a time as can well be expected, he is not found at the head of the Diplomatic Corps, be the government administered by whomsoever the people may choose."

This approbation of his proceedings thus far, and encouragement as to future success, from so high a source, undoubtedly induced the younger Adams to forego his inclination to withdraw from the field of diplomacy. He continued in Holland until near the close of Washington's administration. That he was not an inattentive observer of the momentous events then transpiring in Europe, but was watchful and faithful in all that pertained to the welfare of his country, is abundantly proved by his official correspondence with the government at home. His communications were esteemed by Washington, as of the highest value, affording him, as they did, a luminous description of the movement of continental affairs, upon which he could place the most implicit reliance.

The following extract of a letter from John Adams, will show the interest he naturally took in the welfare of his son while abroad, and also afford a brief glance at the political movements of that day. It is dated Philadelphia, Jan. 23, 1796

"We have been very unfortunate in the delays which have attended the dispatches of our ambassadors. Very lucky, Mr. John

Quincy Adams, that you are not liable to criticism on this occasion! This demurrage would have been charged doubly, both to your account and that of your father. It would have been a scheme, a trick, a design, a contrivance, from hatred to France, attachment to England, monarchical manœuvres, and aristocratical cunning! Oh! how eloquent they would have been !

"The southern gentry are playing, at present, a very artful game, which I may develope to you in confidence hereafter, under the seal of secrecy. Both in conversation and in letters, they are representing the Vice-President [John Adams,] as a man of moderation. Although rather inclined to limited monarchy, and somewhat attached to the English, he is much less so than Jay or Hamilton. For their part, for the sake of conciliation, they should be very willing he should be continued as Vice-President, provided the northern gentlemen would consent that Jefferson should be President. I most humbly thank you for your kind condescension, Messieurs Transchesapeakes.

"Witness my hand,

"JOHN ADAMS."

Another allusion to his son while abroad, is made by the elder Adams, in a letter dated Philadelphia, March 25, 1796.

"The President told me he had that day received three or four letters from his new Minister in London, one of them as late as the 29th of December. Mr. Pickering informs me that Mr. Adams* modestly declined a presentation at court, but it was insisted on by Lord Grenville; and, accordingly, he was presented to the King, and I think the Queen, and made his harangues and received his answers. By the papers I find that Mr. Pinckney appeared at court on the 28th of January, after which, I presume, Mr. Adams had nothing to do but return to Holland."

During his residence as Minister at the Hague, Mr. Adams had occasion to visit London, to exchange the ratifications of the treaty recently formed with Great

* John Quincy Adams.

Britain, and to take measures for carrying its provisions into effect. (Alluded to in the above letter from John Adams.) It was at this time that he formed an acquaintance with Miss LOUISA CATHARINE JOHNSON, daughter of Joshua Johnson, Esq., of Maryland, Consular Agent of the United States at London, and niece of Governor Johnson of Maryland, a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The friendship they formed for each other, soon ripened into a mutual attachment and an engagement. They were married on the 26th of July, 1797. It was a happy union. For more than half a century they shared each other's joys and sorrows. The venerable matron who for this long period accompanied him in all the vicissitudes of his eventful life, still survives, to deplore the loss of him who had ever proved a faithful protector and the kindest of husbands.

In the meantime, the elder Adams had been elected President of the United States, in 1796. The curious reader may have a desire to know something of the views, feelings and anticipations of those elevated to places of the highest distinction, and of the amount of enjoyment they reap from the honors conferred upon them. A glance behind the scenes is furnished in the following correspondence between John Adams and his wife, which took place at his election to the Presidency.*

* Letters of John Adams, v. ii. pp. 242, 243. Mrs. Adams' Letters, p. 373.

« AnteriorContinuar »