66 ing Mr. McDowell, would have testified to the truth of his statement. Mr. Holmes, of South Carolina, was another of the eulogists. He lamented that death had taken from among them "the gravest, wisest, most revered head"one "adorned with virtue, learning, and truth;" and he called him "the Patriot Father, and the Patriot Sage." It did not, perhaps, occur to this gentleman, that as a few years before he disdainfully refused to be associated with this "Patriot Father, and Patriot Sage," in the Committee of Foreign Relations, it might be interesting to the public to know, how recently, and by what means he had discovered, that his was the gravest, wisest, and most revered head" in Congress. This same gentleman (Mr. Isaac E. Holmes), as representing the veneration felt by South Carolina for the great champion of human rights, and her grief for his death, followed his remains from the city of Washington to their final resting-place in Massachusetts! Having eulogized the great Abolitionist, and paid the last honor to his memory, Mr. Holmes returned to Congress where, while laboring to extend slavery to the Pacific, he pronounced the emphatic words, “I hold it (slavery) to be the greatest blessing that God ever conferred upon man.” To no member of Congress did the charge of giving "aid and comfort" to the enemy apply with more force than to Mr. Adams; yet Mr. Polk, in an official order, declared him to be "a great and patriotic citizen ;" and the official journal, robed in mourning, eulogized, as the "illustrious and venerable patriot and statesman," the very man who the editor had formerly affirmed was considered “ n general nuisance." Of course the whole press, of all parties and shades of party, was vocal in praise of the departed patriot; and one of the most profligate of the fraternity, who had ever thrown contempt upon all the objects most dear to his heart, thought it expedient to hold the following language: "Mr. Adams on all occasions we believe, has been open, pure, and uncontaminated, as single-hearted as a child, or an angel." American citizens in Great Britain, were publicly invited by the American Minister, lately engaged in conducting the Mexican war as one of Mr. Polk's cabinet, to pay honors to the memory of John Quincy Adams: "A patriot, always loving his country above all lands of the earth," and this notwithstanding he was a Mexican Whig." Public honors were paid to him even by the army in Mexico, although, if the assertions of some of its officers were true, he was a knave" and a "traitor at heart." A committee from the House of Representatives, of one from each State, attended the corpse from the capitol in Washington to the tomb in Quincy. The funeral cortege in its progress, was everywhere met by large concourses of citizens, municipal officers, and detachments of militia. The whole American people, as with one voice, acknowledged and deplored the departure of a great and virtuous patriot. When it is recollected that Mr. Adams had changed no one of the many opinions that had exposed him to odium, that in no degree had he departed from that straight-forward course, which had so frequently brought him into violent collision with the Democrats of the North and the slaveholders of the South-and that in his last days he had outraged popular patriotism by opposing an existing war, and attempting to cut off supplies from our victorious armies-surely the revulsion of public opinion in his favor is marvellous and unparalleled. Whence came it that the same unchanged, inflexible, and dauntless man, scorning and defying public opinion, and scorning and defying it to his last breath-and who but lately was the object of such general hatred, that the representatives of the people spent a week in laboring to consign him "to the indignation of all true American citizens"-acquired such wonderful popularity, that rival politicians hurried to strew flowers upon his grave, and to let all the world know how very much they loved and admired him. The cause is to be found, first, in the entire confidence of the PEOPLE in his integrity, and their admiration of his talents and moral courage; and secondly, in the deference paid by politicians to public opinion “right or wrong." The magnificent spectacle he exhibited when alone, unaided, and with but little sympathy, he received and gloriously repelled the combined assault of the Northern Democracy and the slave interest, won for him the hearts of the common people.* They looked upon him as a moral phenomenon-a public man who never flattered but often censured them--a politician who consulted duty and not "policy"-who feared God and not man—who talked as he voted, and voted as he talked-who went with his country and party when right, and against them when wrong-who was bold enough to be honest, and honest enough to be bold. This feeling in the community soon displayed itself. The year after his trial, he travelled from Boston to Cincinnati, and his journey was a triumphal progress. Even in the slave states, the tide had turned, and being expected at Wheeling, a crowd assem The following extract from a Pittsburgh paper of 1843, affords a striking illustration of this remark: "As a token of respect for Mr. Adams, all the works in the city were closed yesterday, that the working men might have a chance to bid him welcome. The silence of the engines, the machinery, and the workman's tools was a mightier tribute to Mr. Adams, than the roar of cannon, the strains of music, or the eloquent address." bled, not to insult, but to do him honor. The brave, frank, honest opponent was regarded with a respect never felt by the slaveholder for the fawning mercenary of the North. Mr. Adams had become the man of the PEOPLE, and was revered and beloved by them as their champion, the advocate of their rights. His great and acknowledged popularity, at length secured for him respectful treatment on the floor of Congress; and when the whole nation deplored his death, politicians of every name, and from every section of the country, deemed it advisable to unite in building his tomb. The facts which have now been stated respecting Mr. Adams, however interesting in themselves, would have found no place in these pages, did they not illustrate some great truths, having a direct and important bearing on many of the sentiments advanced in the present work. They reiterate the lesson long since taught, of the utter worthlessness of public opinion as a standard of right and wrong. The demoniac cries, “Crucify him, crucify him!” were preceded by "Hosannas to the Son of David ;" and the revulsion of feeling we have been considering shows that human nature is the same now as in the first century. Multitudes who, in 1848, did reverence to the "Patriot Father and the Patriot Sage," would have rejoiced ten years before, to have caught him in the slave region. We are taught in a most impressive manner, how exceedingly destitute are many of our public men of inde-、 pendent feelings and opinions. Whether Adams was a "miscreant traitor,” or “a great and patriotic citizen," was a question to be determined, not by bringing his conduct to the test of any moral standard, but by the present feelings of the multitude. When he was supposed to be unpopular, no vituperation was too coarse-when known to be very popular, no praise was too gross, although ridiculously false. The American people have by acclamation adjudged John Quincy Adams a PATRIOT, a judgment from which not one politician of any name has dared to appeal. This judgment sets aside, condemns, and repudiates almost every test of patriotism prescribed by the demagogues of the day. It has now been decided by a tribunal which these men admit to be infallible, that a man may be a patriot, nay, an "illustrious patriot" according to the official gazette, who openly repudiates the sentiment, "our country, right or wrong"*-who on a question of international law, sides with a foreign government against his own-who gives "aid and comfort" to the enemy by denouncing as unjust the war waged against him, and by striving to withhold supplies from the army sent to fight him—who mourns over the degeneracy of his country and doubts whether she is to be numbered "among the first liberators, or the last oppressors of the race of immortal man❞—who, notwithstanding all "the compromises of the Constitution," denounces human bondage as a crime against God, and proposes so to change the Constitution as to effect the immediate abolition of hereditary slavery throughout the American Confederacy, and pouring contempt upon the lying Democracy of the day, claims for the black man the same rights of suffrage that are accorded to his white fellow-citizen. Such is the character of a PATRIOT, as established by the latest decision of the American public; a decision in which every member of the vast tribunal, from Mr. Polk * In some verses written by Mr. Adams, shortly before his death, and entitled "Congress, slavery, and an unjust war,” are these lines "And say not thou, My country, right or wrong,' " |