design of distributing, as far as possible, the places in the cabinet, throughout the country. "I shall," said he in his letter to General Jackson, of March 1st, 1817, "take a person for the Department of State from the eastward; and Mr. Adams, by long service in our diplomatic concerns appearing to entitle him to the preference, supported by his acknowledged abilities and integrity, his nomination will go to the Senate." In reply to this intimation, General Jackson, in his letter of March 18th, observes: "I have no hesitation in saying, you have made the best selection to fill the Department of State, that could be made. Mr. Adams in the hour of difficulty will be an able helpmate, and I am convinced his appointment will afford general satisfaction." It was with something of prophetic feeling that General Jackson declared in 1817, "that Mr. Adams, in the hour of difficulty, would be an able helpmate." It was not a long time before the conduct of General Jackson himself was the subject of solemn investigation before the grand inquest of the nation. The letters of Mr. Adams to the Spanish Minister, justifying the conduct of General Jackson, against the complaints of Spain, came seasonably to the support of this distinguished citizen, and effected the vindication of him against every charge of a violation of the rights of Spain.

In

In the pursuance of the intimation of Mr. Monroe, as above described, Mr. Adams was called home from England and became Secretary of State. On this arduous office he entered, as General Jackson had foretold that he would, "to the general approbation of the country." He retained the confidence of Mr. Monroe and acquired that of his new colleagues. reference to all questions of the foreign relations of the country, Mr. Adams was the influential member of the cabinet; and is, consequently, more than any other individual composing it, entitled to the credit of the measures which, during Mr. Monroe's administration, were adopted in reference to the foreign policy of the government. It is not necessary that these should here be specified. One only is too important to be forgotten the recognition of the independence of the New Republics of the South. The credit of first effectually proposing that measure, in the House of Representatives, is due to Mr. Clay; that of choosing the propitious moment when it could be proposed with the unanimous consent of Congress, and the nation, belongs, in the first degree, to Mr. Adams. Nor is he entitled to less credit, for the successful termination of our differences with Spain. A controversy, of thirty years' standing, which had resisted the skill of every preceding administration of the government, was thus brought to an honorable close. Indemnity was procured for our merchants, and East and West Florida added to our republic. Next to the purchase of Louisiana, the history of our country presents no measure of equal brilliancy with that of the acquisition of this territory.

On every important occasion and question that arose during Mr. Monroe's administration, the voice of Mr. Adams was for his country, for mild councils, and for union. In the agitations of the Missouri question, his influence was exerted for conciliation. He believed that by the Constitution and the treaty of cession of 1803, Congress was barred from

adopting the proposed restrictions on the admission of Missouri. Of internal improvement by roads and canals, he was ever the friend, and moved in the Senate of the United States the first project of their systematic construction. To the protection of American manufactures, by a judicious revision of the tariff, he was, in like manner, friendly. To the cause of religion and learning he afforded all the aid in the power of an individual, not merely by the uniform countenance of every effort for their advancement, but by the most liberal pecuniary assistance to the college, founded by the communion of Baptists, in the Dictrict of Columbia.

Such were his claims to the last and highest gift which the people can bestow on a long tried, faithful servant. Various circumstances conspired to strengthen them, in the Presidential canvass for the term beginning in 1825. Of nine Presidential elections, one only had given a President to a non-slave holding State. Of the several candidates presented to the people at this election, Mr. Adams was the only one who represented the non-slave holding interest. The people of our slave holding States are sacredly entitled to protection, in their rights and feelings on this subject; but they ought, neither in prudence nor justice, to demand a monopoly in the government of the country. Of nine elections, one only had resulted in the choice of a representative of the commercial, navigating, and manufacturing interests. Had the choice been presented to the people between Mr. Adams and any other candidate singly, Mr. Adams would perhaps have been chosen; he having been, it is believed, in almost every State, either the first or second choice of the people.

In consequence of the number of candidates, no choice by the people was effected, and no candidate approached to nearer than within thirty votes of a majority. The three persons who received the highest number of votes for the Presidency, were Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford. For the Vice-Presidency, John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, received one hundred and eighty-two votes, and was consequently elected. The choice of the President, according to constitutional provisions, fell upon the House of Representatives, and, contrary to all previous expectations, an election was effected at the first balloting; Mr. Adams having received the votes of thirteen States, General Jackson the votes of seven States, and Mr. Crawford the votes of four States. The result of the election created great surprise, and in many quarters great indignation. The cry of corruption and intrigue was raised on all sides, and it was among the assertions of the time that Mr. Clay had sold the vote of Kentucky for the promise of place.

A committee of the House was appointed to wait on Mr. Adams, and notify him of his election to the Presidency; to this notification Mr. Adams returned the following reply:

"GENTLEMEN-In receiving this testimonial from the Representatives of the people, and States of this Union, I am deeply sensible to the circumstances under which it has been given. All my predecessors in the high station to which the favor of the House now calls me, have been honored with majorities of the electoral voices in their primary colleges. It has

been my fortune to be placed, by the divisions of sentiment prevailing among our countrymen on this occasion, in competition, friendly and honorable, with three of my fellow citizens, all justly enjoying, in eminent degrees, the public favor; and of whose worth, talents, and services, no one entertains a higher and more respectful sense than myself. The names of two of them were, in the fulfillment of the provisions of the Constitution, presented to the selection of the House, in concurrence with my own names, closely associated with the glory of the nation, and one of them further recommended by a larger majority of the primary electoral suffrages than mine.

"In this state of things, could my refusal to accept the trust thus delegated to me, give an immediate opportunity to the people to form and to express with a nearer approach to unanimity, the object of their preference, I should not hesitate to decline the acceptance of this eminent charge, and to submit the decision of this momentous question again to their determination. But the Constitution itself has not so disposed of the contingency which would arise in the event of my refusal; I shall, therefore, repair to the post assigned me by the call of my country signified through her constitutional organs; oppressed with the magnitude of the task before me, but cheered with the hope of that generous support from my fellow citizens, which, in the vicissitudes of a life devoted to their service, has never failed to sustain me-confident in the trust, that the wisdom of the legislative councils will guide and direct me in the path of my official duty, and relying, above all, upon the superintending providence of that Being in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways.' Gentlemen, I pray you to make acceptable to the House the assurance of my profound gratitude for their confidence, and to accept yourselves my thanks for the friendly terms in which you have communicated to me their decision."

On the 4th of March, 1825, Mr. Adams was inaugurated as President of the United States. At about half past twelve on that day he was introduced into the capitol, followed by the venerable Ex-President and his family, by the Judges of the Supreme Court in their robes of office, and the members of the Senate, preceded by the Vice-President, with a number of members of the House of Representatives. Mr. Adams, in a plain suit of black, ascended the steps to the Speaker's chair, and took his seat. Silence having been proclaimed and the doors of the hall closed, Mr. Adams rose and read an address, which occupied about forty minutes in the delivery. Great interest was felt on this subject, as those productions had usually contained the general principles upon which the Executive intended to administer the government. The discourse, from its importance, is worthy of a place in this volume, and is as follows:

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'In compliance with an usage, coeval with the existence of our Federal Constitution, and sanctioned by the example of my predecessors in the career upon which I am about to enter, I appear, my fellow citizens, in your presence, and in that of heaven, to bind myself by the solemnities of a religious obligation, to the faithful performance of the duties allotted to me, in the station to which I have been called.

"In unfolding to my countrymen the principles by which I shall be

governed, in the fulfilment of those duties, my first resort will be to that Constitution, which I shall swear, to the best of my ability, to preserve, protect, and defend. That revered instrument enumerates the powers, and prescribes the duties of the executive magistrate; and, in its first words, declares the purposes to which these, and the whole action of the government, instituted by it, should be invariably and sacredly devotedto form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to the people of this Union, in their successive generations. Since the adoption of this social compact, one of these generations has passed away. It is the work of our forefathers. Administered by some of the most eminent men, who contributed to its formation, through a most eventful period in the annals of the world, and through all the vicissitudes of peace and war, incidental to the condition of associated man, it has not disappointed the hopes and aspirations of those illustrious benefactors of their age and nation. It has promoted the lasting welfare of that country, so dear to us all; it has, to an extent, far beyond the ordinary lot of humanity, secured the freedom and happiness of this people. We now receive it as a precious inheritance from those to whom we are indebted for its establishment, doubly bound by the examples which they have left to us, and by the blessings which we have enjoyed, as the fruits of their labors, to transmit the same, unimpaired, to the succeeding generation.

"In the compass of thirty-six years, since this great national covenant was instituted, a body of laws enacted under its authority, and in conformity with its provisions, has unfolded its powers, and carried into practical operation its effective energies. Subordinate departments have distributed the executive functions in their various relations to foreign affairs, to the revenue and expenditures, and to the military force of the Union by land and sea. A co-ordinate department of the judiciary has expounded the Constitution and the laws; settling, in harmonious coincidence with the legislative will, númerous weighty questions of construction which the imperfection of human language had rendered unavoidable. The year of jubilee, since the first formation of our Union, has just elapsed; that of the declaration of our independence is at hand. The consummation of both was effected by this Constitution. Since that period, a population of four millions has multiplied to twelve. A territory bounded by the Mississippi, has been extended from sea to sea. New States have been admitted to the Union, in numbers nearly equal to those of the first confederation. Treaties of peace, amity, and commerce, have been concluded with the principal dominions of the earth. The people of other nations, inhabitants of regions acquired, not by conquests, but by compact, have been united with us in the participation of our rights and duties, of our burdens and blessings. The forest has fallen by the axe of our woodsmen-the soil has been made to teem by the tillage of our farmers; our commerce has whitened every ocean. The dominion of man over physical nature, has been extended by the invention of our artists. Liberty and law have marched hand in hand. All the purposes of human association have been accomplished as effectually as under any

other government on the globe; and at a cost, little exceeding, in a whole generation, the expenditures of other nations in a single year.

"Such is the unexaggerated picture of our condition, under a Constitution founded upon the republican principle of equal rights. To admit that this picture has its shades, is but to say, that it is still the condition of men upon earth. From evil, physical, moral, and political, it is not our claim to be exempt. We have suffered, sometimes by the visitation of Heaven, through disease; often by the wrongs and injustice of other nations, even to the extremities of war; and, lastly, by dissensions among ourselves dissensions, perhaps, inseparable from the enjoyment of freedom, but which have more than once appeared to threaten the dissolution of the Union, and, with it, the overthrow of all the enjoyments of our present lot, and all our earthly hopes of the future. The causes of these dissensions have been various, founded upon differences of speculation in the theory of republican government; upon conflicting views of policy, in our relations with foreign nations; upon jealousies of partial and sectional interests, aggravated by prejudices and prepossessions, which strangers to each other are ever apt to entertain.

"It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me, to observe that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights, has, at the close of that generation by which it was formed, been crowned with success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders. Union, justice, tranquillity, the common defence, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty-all have been promoted by the government under which we have lived. Standing at this point of time, looking back to that generation which has gone by, and forward to that which is advancing, we may, at once, indulge in grateful exultation, and in cheering hope. From the experience of the past, we derive instructive lessons for the future. Of the two great political parties which have divided the opinions and feelings of our country, the candid and the just will now admit, that both have contributed splendid talents, spotless integrity, ardent patriotism, and disinterested sacrifices, to the formation and administration of this government; and that both have required a liberal indulgence for a portion of human infirmity and error. The revolutionary wars of Europe, commencing precisely at the moment when the government of the United States first went into operation under this Constitution, excited a collision of sentiments and of sympathies, which kindled all the passions, and embittered the conflict of parties, till the nation was involved in war, and the Union was shaken to its centre. This time of trial embraced a period of five and twenty years, during which, the policy of the Union, in its relations with Europe, constituted the principal basis of our political divisions, and the most arduous part of the action of our federal government. With the catastrophe in which the wars of the French revolution terminated, and our own subsequent peace with Great Britain, this baneful weed of party strife was uprooted. From that time, no difference of principle connected either with the theory of government, or with our intercourse with foreign nations, has existed, or been called forth, in force sufficient to sustain a continued combination of parties, or give more than wholesome anima