Volume Ii Part 10 (1/2)

At first sight, it does not appear that Mr. Adams had any definite scheme of measures which he aimed to establish; there is no obvious unity of idea, or continuity of action, that forces itself upon the spectator. He does not seem to have studied the two great subjects of our political economy, finance and trade, very deeply, or even with any considerable width of observation or inquiry; he had no financial or commercial hobby. He has worked with every party, and against every party; all have claimed, none held him. Now he sides with the federalists, then with the democrats; now he opposes France, showing that her policy is that of pirates; now he contends against England; now he works in favor of General Jackson, who put down the nullification of South Carolina with a rough hand; then he opposes the general in his action against the Bank; now he contends for the Indians, then for the Negroes; now attacks Masonry, and then Free trade. He speaks in favor of claiming and holding ”the whole of Oregon;” then against annexing Texas.

But there is one sentiment which runs through all his life: an intense love of freedom for all men; one idea, the idea that each man has unalienable rights. These are what may be called the American sentiment, and the American idea; for they lie at the basis of American inst.i.tutions, except the ”patriarchal,” and s.h.i.+ne out in all our history--I should say, our early history. These two form the golden thread on which Mr. Adams's jewels are strung. Love of human freedom in its widest sense is the most marked and prominent thing in his character. This explains most of his actions. Studied with this in mind, his life is pretty consistent. This explains his love of the Const.i.tution. He early saw the peculiarity of the American government; that it rested in theory on the natural rights of man, not on a compact, not on tradition, but on somewhat anterior to both, on the unalienable rights universal in man, and equal in each. He looked on the American Const.i.tution as an attempt to organize these rights; resting, therefore, not on force, but natural law; not on power, but right. But with him the Const.i.tution was not an idol; it was a means, not an end. He did more than expound it; he went back of the Const.i.tution, to the Declaration of Independence, for the ideas of the Const.i.tution; yes, back of the Declaration to Human Nature and the Laws of G.o.d, to legitimate these ideas. The Const.i.tution is a compromise between those ideas and inst.i.tutions and prejudices existing when it was made; not an idol, but a servant. He saw that the Const.i.tution is ”not the work of eternal justice, ruling through the people,” but the work ”of man; frail, fallen, imperfect man, following the dictates of his nature, and aspiring to be perfect.”[12] Though a ”const.i.tutionalist,” he did not wors.h.i.+p the Const.i.tution. He was much more than a ”defender of the Const.i.tution,”--a defender of Human Rights.

Mr. Adams had this American sentiment and idea in an heroic degree.

Perhaps no political man now living has expressed them so fully. With a man like him, not very genial or creative, having no great constructive skill, and not without a certain pugnacity in his character, this sentiment and idea would naturally develop themselves in a negative form, that of opposition to Wrong, more often than in the positive form of direct organization of the Right; would lead to criticism oftener than to creation. Especially would this be the case if other men were building up inst.i.tutions in opposition to this idea. In him they actually take the form of what he called ”The unalienable right of resistance to oppression.” His life furnishes abundant instances of this. He thought the Indians were unjustly treated, cried out against the wrong; when President, endeavored to secure justice to the Creeks in Georgia, and got into collision with Governor Troup. He saw, or thought he saw, that England opposed the American idea, both in the new world and the old. In his zeal for freedom he sometimes forgot the great services of England in that same cause, and hated England, hated her with great intensity of hatred, hated her political policy, her monarchy, and her aristocracy, mocked at the madness of her king, for he thought England stood in the way of freedom.[13] Yet he loved the English name and the English blood, was ”proud of being himself descended from that stock,” thinking it worth noting, ”that Chatham's language was his mother tongue, and Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own.” He confessed no nation had done more for the cause of human improvement. He loved the Common Law of England, putting it far above the Roman Law, perhaps not without doing a little injustice to the latter.[14] The common law was a rude and barbarous code. But human liberty was there; a trial by jury was there; the habeas corpus was there. It was the law of men ”regardful of human rights.”

This sentiment led him to defend the right of pet.i.tion in the House of Representatives, as no other man had dared to do. He cared not whether it was the pet.i.tion of a majority, or a minority; of men or women, free men or slaves. It might be a pet.i.tion to remove him from a committee, to expel him from the House, a pet.i.tion to dissolve the Union--he presented it none the less. To him there was but one nature in all, man or woman, bond or free, and that was human nature, the most sacred thing on earth. Each human child had unalienable rights, and though that child was a beggar or slave, had rights, which all the power in the world, bent into a single arm, could not destroy nor abate, though it might ravish away. This induced him to attempt to procure the right of suffrage for the colored citizens of the District of Columbia.

This sentiment led him to oppose tyranny in the House of Representatives, the tyranny of the majority. In one of his juvenile essays, published in 1791, contending against a highly popular work, he opposed the theory that a State has the right to do what it pleases, declaring it had no right to do wrong.[15] In his old age he had not again to encounter the empty hypothesis of Thomas Paine, but the substantial enactment of the ”Representatives” of the people of the United States. The hypothesis was trying to become a fact. The South had pa.s.sed the infamous Gag-Law, which a symbolical man from New Hamps.h.i.+re had presented, though it originated with others.[16] By that law the mouth of the North was completely stopped in Congress, so that not one word could be said about the matter of slavery.

The North was quite willing to have it stopped, for it did not care to speak against slavery, and the gag did not stop the mouth of the Northern purse. You may take away from the North its honor, if you can find it; may take away its rights; may imprison its free citizens in the jails of Louisiana and the Carolinas; yes, may invade the ”Sacred soil of the North,” and kidnap a man out of Boston itself, within sight of Faneuil Hall, and the North will not complain; will bear it with that patient shrug, waiting for yet further indignities. Only when the Northern purse is touched, is there an uproar. If the postmaster demands silver for letters, there is instant alarm; the repeal of a tariff rouses the feelings, and an embargo once drove the indignant North to the perilous edge of rebellion! Mr. Adams loved his dollars as well as most New England men; he looked out for their income as well; guarded as carefully against their outgo; though conscientiously upright in all his dealings, kind and hospitable, he has never been proved generous, and generosity is the commonest virtue of the North; is said to have been ”close,” if not mean. He loved his dollars as well as most men, but he loved justice more; honor more; freedom more; the Unalienable Rights of man far more.

He looked on the Const.i.tution as an instrument for the defence of the Rights of man. The government was to act as the people had told how.

The Federal government was not sovereign; the State government was not sovereign;[17] neither was a court of ultimate appeal;--but the People was sovereign; had the right of Eminent Domain over Congress and the Const.i.tution, and making that, had set limits to the government. He guarded therefore against all violation of the Const.i.tution, as a wrong done to the people; he would not overstep its limits in a bad cause; not even in a good one. Did Mr. Jefferson obtain Louisiana by a confessed violation of the Const.i.tution, Mr. Adams would oppose the purchase of Louisiana, and was one of the six senators who voted against it. Making laws for that Territory, he wished to extend the trial by jury to all criminal prosecutions, while the law limited that form of trial to capital offences. Before that Territory had a representative in Congress, the American government wished to collect a revenue there. Mr.

Adams opposed that too. It was ”a.s.suming a dangerous power;” it was government without the consent of the governed, and therefore an unjust government. ”All exercise of human authority must be under the limitation of right and wrong.” All other power is despotic, and ”in defiance of the laws of nature and of G.o.d.”[18]

This love of freedom led him to hate and oppose the tyranny of the strong over the weak, to hate it most in its worst form; to hate American Slavery, doubtless the most infamous form of that tyranny now known amongst the nations of Christendom, and perhaps the most disgraceful thing on earth. Mr. Adams called slavery a vessel of dishonor so base that it could not be named in the Const.i.tution with decency. In 1805, he wished to lay a duty on the importation of slaves, and was one of five senators who voted to that effect. He saw the power of this inst.i.tution--the power of money and the power of votes which it gives to a few men. He saw how dangerous it was to the Union; to American liberty, to the cause of man. He saw that it trod three millions of men down to the dust, counting souls but as cattle. He hated nothing as he hated this; fought against nothing so manfully. It was the lion in the pathway of freedom, which frightened almost all the politicians of the North and the East and the West, so that they forsook that path; a lion whose roar could wellnigh silence the forum and the bar, the pulpit and the press; a lion who rent the Const.i.tution, trampled under foot the Declaration of Independence, and tore the Bible to pieces. Mr. Adams was ready to rouse up this lion, and then to beard him in his den. Hating slavery, of course he opposed whatever went to strengthen its power; opposed Mr. Atherton's Gag-law; opposed the annexation of Texas; opposed the Mexican war; and, wonderful to tell, actually voted against it, and never took back his vote.

When Secretary of State, this same feeling led him to oppose conceding to the British the right of searching American vessels supposed to be concerned in the slave-trade, and when Representative to oppose the repeal of the law giving ”protection” to American sailors. It appeared also in private intercourse with men. No matter what was a man's condition, Mr. Adams treated him as an equal.

This devotion to freedom and the unalienable rights of man, was the most important work of his life. Compared with some other political men, he seems inconsistent, because he now opposes one evil, then its opposite evil. But his general course is in this direction, and, when viewed in respect to this idea, seems more consistent than that of Mr. Webster, or Calhoun, or Clay, when measured by any great principle. This appears in his earlier life. In 1802, he became a member of the Ma.s.sachusetts Senate. The majority of the General Court were federalists. It was a time of intense political excitement, the second year of Mr. Jefferson's administration. The custom is well known--to take the whole of the Governor's Council from the party which has a majority in the General Court. On the 27th of May, 1802, Mr. Adams stood up for the rights of the minority. He wanted some anti-federalists in the Council of Governor Strong, and as Senator threw his first vote to secure that object. Such was the first legislative action of John Quincy Adams. In the House of Representatives, in 1831, the first thing he did was to present fifteen pet.i.tions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, though, from const.i.tutional scruples, opposed to granting the pet.i.tions. The last public act of his life was this:--The question was before the House on giving medals to the men distinguished in the Mexican war; the minority opposing it wanted more time for debate; the previous question was moved, Mr. Adams voted for the last time,--voted ”No,” with unusual emphasis; the great loud No of a man going home to G.o.d full of ”The unalienable right of resistance to oppression,” its emphatic word on his dying lips. There were the beginning, the middle, and the end, all three in the same spirit, all in favor of mankind; a remarkable unity of action in his political drama.

Somebody once asked him, What are the recognized principles of politics?

Mr. Adams answered that there were none: the recognized precepts are bad ones, and so not principles. But, continued the inquirer, is not this a good one--To seek ”The greatest good of the greatest number?” No, said he, that is the worst of all, for it looks specious while it is ruinous.

What shall become of the minority, in that case? This is the only principle,--”To seek the greatest good of all.”

I do not say there were no exceptions to this devotion to freedom in a long life; there are some pa.s.sages in his history which it is impossible to justify, and hard to excuse. In early life he was evidently ambitious of place, and rank, and political power. I must confess, it seems to me, at some times, he was not scrupulous enough about the means of attaining that place and power. He has been much censured for his vote in favor of the Embargo, in 1807. His vote, howsoever unwise, may easily have been an honest vote. To an impartial spectator at this day, perhaps it will be evidently so. His defence of it I cannot think an honest defence, for in that he mentions arguments as impelling him to his vote which could scarcely have been present to his mind at the time, and, if they were his arguments then, were certainly kept in silence--they did not appear in the debate,[19] they were not referred to in the President's message.[20]

I am not to praise Mr. Adams simply because he is dead; what is wrong before is wrong after death. It is no merit to die; shall we tell lies about him because he is dead? No, the Egyptian people scrutinized and judged their kings after death--much more should we our fellow-citizens, intrusted with power to serve the State. ”A lavish and undistinguis.h.i.+ng eulogium is not praise.” I know what coals of terrible fire lie under my feet, as I speak of this matter, and how thin and light is the coat of ashes deposited there in forty years; how easily they are blown away at the slightest breath of ”Hartford Convention,” or the ”Embargo,” and the old flame of political animosity blazes forth anew, while the hostile forms of ”federalists” and ”democrats” come back to light. I would not disquiet those awful shades, nor bring them up again. But a word must be said. The story of the embargo is well known: the President sent his message to the Senate recommending it, and accompanied with several doc.u.ments. The message was read and a.s.signed to a committee; the ordinary rule of business was suspended; the bill was reported by the committee; drafted, debated, engrossed, and completely pa.s.sed through all its stages, the whole on the same day, in secret session, and in about four hours! Yet it was a bill that involved the whole commerce of the country, and prostrated that commerce, seriously affecting the welfare of hundreds of thousands of men. Eight hundred thousand tons of s.h.i.+pping were doomed to lie idle and rot in port. The message came on Friday. Some of the Senators wanted yet further information and more time for debate, at least for consideration,--till Monday. It could not be! Till Sat.u.r.day, then. No; the bill must pa.s.s now, no man sleeping on that question. Mr. Adams was the most zealous for pa.s.sing the bill. In that ”debate,” if such it can be called, while opposing a postponement for further information and reflection, he said, ”The President has recommended the measure on his high responsibility; I would _not consider_, I would _not deliberate_; I would _act_. Doubtless the _President possesses such further information as will justify the measure_!”[21] To my mind, that is the worst act of his public life; I cannot justify it. I wish I could find some reasonable excuse for it.

What had become of the ”sovereignty of the people,” the ”unalienable right of resistance to oppression?” Would _not consider_; would _not deliberate_; would _act_ without doing either; leave it all to the ”high responsibility” of the President, with a ”doubtless” he has ”further information” to justify the measure! It was a shame to say so; it would have disgraced a Senator in St. Petersburg. Why not have the ”further information” laid before the Senate? What would Mr. Adams have said, if President Jackson, Tyler, or Polk, had sent such a message, and some Senator or Representative had counselled submissive action, without considering, without deliberation? With what appalling metaphors would he describe such a departure from the first duty of a statesman; how would the tempestuous eloquence of that old patriot shake the Hall of Congress till it rung again, and the nation looked up with indignation in its face! It is well known what Mr. Adams said in 1834, when Mr.

Polk, in the House of Representatives, seemed over-laudatory of the President: ”I shall never be disposed to interfere with any member who shall rise on this floor and p.r.o.nounce a panegyric upon the chief magistrate.

'No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee Where thrift may follow fawning.'”

Yet the future of Mr. Polk was not so obvious in 1834, as the reward of Mr. Adams in 1808.

This act is particularly glaring in Mr. Adams. The North often sends men to Was.h.i.+ngton who might have done it without any great inconsistency; men, too, not so remarkable for infirmity in the head, as for that less pardonable weakness in the knees and the neck; men that bend to power ”right or wrong.” Mr. Adams was not afflicted with that weakness, and so the more to be censured for this palpable betrayal of a trust so important. I wish I could find some excuse for it. He was forty years old; not very old, but old enough to know better. His defence made the matter worse. The Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature disapproved of his conduct; chose another man to succeed him in the Senate. Then Mr. Adams resigned his seat, and soon after was sent minister to Russia, as he himself subsequently declared,[22] ”in consequence of the support he had for years given to the measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration against Great Britain.” But his father said of that mission of his son, ”Aristides is banished because he is too just.”[23] It is easy to judge of the temper of the times, when such words as those of the father could be said on such an occasion, and that by a man who had been President of the United States! When a famine occurs, disease appears in the most hideous forms; men go back to temporary barbarism. In times of political strife, such diseases appear of the intellectual and moral powers. No man who did not live in those times can fully understand the obliquity of mind and moral depravity which then displayed themselves amongst those otherwise without reproach. Says Mr. Adams himself, referring to that period, ”Imagination in her wildest vagaries can scarcely conceive the transformation of temper, the obliquities of intellect, the perversions of moral principle, effected by junctures of nigh and general excitement.” However, it must be confessed that this, though not the only instance of injustice, is the only case of servile compliance with the Executive to be found in the whole life of the man.

It was a grievous fault, but grievously did he answer it; and if a long life of unfaltering resistance to every attempt at the a.s.sumption of power is fit atonement, then the expiation was abundantly made.

About the same time, Mr. Adams was chairman of a committee of the Senate, appointed to consider the case of a Senator from Ohio. His conduct, on that occasion, has been the theme of violent attack, and defence as violent. To the calm spectator, at this day, his conduct seems unjustifiable, inconsistent with the counsels of justice, which, though moving with her ”Pace of snail,” looks always towards the right, and will not move out of her track, though the heavens fall.

While Mr. Adams was President, Hayti became free; but he did not express any desire that the United States should acknowledge her independence, and receive her minister at Was.h.i.+ngton,--an African plenipotentiary. In his message,[24] he says, ”There are circ.u.mstances that have hitherto forbidden the acknowledgment,” and mentions ”additional reasons for withholding that acknowledgment.” In the instructions to the American functionary, sent to the celebrated Congress of Panama, it is said, the President ”is not prepared now to say that Hayti ought to be recognized as an independent sovereign power;” he ”does not think it would be proper at this time to recognize it as a new State.” He was unwilling to consent to the independence of Cuba, for fear of an insurrection of her slaves, and the effect at home. The duty of the United States would be ”To defend themselves against the contagion of such near and dangerous examples,” that would ”constrain them ... to employ all means necessary to their security.” That is, the President would be constrained to put down the blacks in Cuba, who were exercising ”The unalienable right of resistance to oppression,” for fear the blacks in the United States would discover that they also were men, and had ”Unalienable rights!”

Had he forgotten the famous words, ”Resistance to tyrants is obedience to G.o.d?” The defence of such language on such an occasion is, that Mr.

Adams's eyes were not yet open to the evil of slavery. That is a good defence, if true. To me it seems a true defence. Even great men do not see every thing. In 1800, Fisher Ames, while delivering the eulogy on General Was.h.i.+ngton, censured even the British government, because, ”In the wilds of Africa, it obstructed the commerce in slaves!” No man is so wise as mankind. It must be confessed that Mr. Adams, while Secretary of State, and again, while President, showed no hostility to the inst.i.tution of slavery. His influence all went the other way. He would repress the freedom of the blacks, in the West Indies, lest American slavery should be disturbed, and its fetters broke; he would not acknowledge the independence of Hayti, he would urge Spain to make peace with her descendants, for the same reason--”not for those new republics,” but lest the negroes in Cuba and Porto Rico should secure their freedom. He negotiated with England, and she paid the United States more than a million of dollars[25] for the fugitive slaves who took refuge under her flag during the late war. Mr. Adams had no scruples about receiving the money during his administration. An attempt was repeatedly made by his secretary, Mr. Clay, through Mr. Gallatin, and then through Mr. Barbour, to induce England to restore the ”fugitive slaves who had taken refuge in the Canadian provinces,” who, escaping from the area of freedom, seek the shelter of the British crown.[26]

Nay, he negotiated a treaty with Mexico, which bound her to deliver up fugitive slaves, escaping from the United States--a treaty which the Mexican Congress refused to ratify! Should a great man have known better? Great men are not always wise. Afterwards, public attention was called to the matter; humble men gave lofty counsel; Mr. Adams used different language, and recommended different measures. But long before that, on the 7th of December, 1804, Mr. Pickering, his colleague in the Senate of the United States, offered a resolution, for the purpose of amending the Const.i.tution, so as to apportion representatives, and direct taxes among the States, according to their free inhabitants.