The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-16 00:00:00

Two Celebrated Americans.

The following interesting particulars in regard to
Mr. Adams and Mr. Peabody we take from a
review of the " Leisure Hour," in the last number
of the Anglo-American Times :
The July number contains three articles—besides others
of general interest—of especial interest to Americans.
First in place and in importance is one on "American In-
dependence." This article brings prominently to the
front two of the chief actors in the great events which
gave birth to the United States as an independent nation,
George 111. and John Adams.
John Adams was the first American ambassador
despatched to St. James's, and he came as one of the most
prominen of his countrymen who had led in the war
against the king. He was presented on the first of June,
1785, by Lord Carmarthen. It was the Minister's inten-
tion to deliver his credentials silently and to retire, but he
was induced to alter his mind. Probably few gentlemen
could have been placed in a more embarrassing position.
Ho stood before the king invested with the privileges of
an ambassador, representing a nation which but a short
time before were rebel colonies against the very monarch
he then addressed, and ho himself a leader in what the
king considered a wicked rebellion against his lawful
authority. But John Adams was equal to the occasion.
He was not there to hurl any defiance at the monarch
whose yoke they had just shaken off ; he was there as a
minister of peace to reknit the fraternal bonds, And to bind
the two nations in commerce and good-will. " The ap-
pearance of a Minister" he said, "from the United States
to your Majesty's Court will form an epoch in the history
of England and America. I think myself more fortunate
than all my fellow citizens in having the distinguished
honour to be the first to stand in your Majesty's royal
presence in a diplomatic character, and I shall esteem my-
self the happiest of men if I can bo instrumental in re-
commending my country more anti more to your Majesty's
royal benevolence, of restoring an entire esteem, confi-
dence, and affection, or, in other words, the old good-nature
and the old good-humour between people who, though
separated by an ocean and under different Govarnments,
have the same language, a similar religion, and kindred
blood."

Mr. Adams appears to have been much affected as he
spoke, and his visible agitation moved the king who re-
plied :—" Sir, the circumstances of this audience are so
extraordinary, the language you have now held is so ex-
tremely proper, and tho feelings you have discovered are
so justly adapted to the occasion, that I not only receive
with pleasure the assurance of the friendly disposition of
the United States, but that I am glad the choice has fallen
upon you to be their Minister. I wish you, sir, to believe,
and that it may be understood in America, that I have done
nothing in the late contest but what I thought myself in-
dispensably bound to do by the duty I owe to my people.
I will be very frank with you. I was the last to consent
to the separation, but the separation having been made,
and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I now
say, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the
United States as an independent power."
obstinate in adhering to it.
Mr. Adams appears to have formed a high opinion of
George 111. as an accomplishedan:egnotvleemarnmn,o7aasswaegdodoedd
111. in the course he pursued
man in his domestic relations. But he speaks of him as
frittering away his time in the little things of life, as weak
We who have inherited
tlittle inclination to regard the memory of this monarch
with the leniency displayed in this article. Oa every
to
point the king was wrong. He was wrong in principle,
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del
he was wrong in practice, he was wrong in estimating his
powers of coercion, and ho was wrong in his opinion as to
what the separation would load. By his doggedness
he
forced on America the decisive course of independence,
entailed on his people a fratricidal War of seven years, ending
in disastrous defeat, an expenditure of 50,000 men, and
£129,124,000 added to the National debt. But, worse still,',
he left the memories of cruel acts and bloody wars. He
sowed tho seed which has produced such years of bitter-
ness, which has taught the American people to regard
England as their foe, and Franca as their friend. Nor
canhis
bi
memory be shielded from the effects of these fatal
blunders ascribing
them to the age in which he lived.
Hear what Chatham said :—" All attempts to impose servi-
tude on such men, to establish despotism on such a
mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal ; '
and Chatham's words were termed by the king "a tempest
of sedition."

Mr. Rutledge, commissioned by Congress to meet Lord
Howe, said "that England would derive greater advan-
tages from an alliance with the colonies as independent
States than she had hitherto done, and enjoy a greater
share of American commerce." There were leading states-
men both in England and America who foresaw the whole
results, but their opinions were scouted and themselves
termed traitors. For the result then of this most dis-
astrous chapter of British history George 111. stands pro-
minently forth as responsible and no amount of family
virtues, pleasing anecdotes,
and accomplished small-talk
can ever gild the fatal pag:
•

CHART-18 PRANcIS ADAMS,
our present Minister at this Court, is the grandson of the
bove John Adams. The interval between John Adams's
etirement from public life and his grandson's advent on
he stage was
worthily filled by the son of the former and
ather of the latter. Both the father and grandfather of
Charles Francis were born at Braintree, Massachusetts.
Both attained to the dignity of President of the United
States, and both represented their country at the Court of
St. James's. It is seldom that in successive generations
three men so distinguished have sprung from one line,
and it is the more remarkable in a country constituted like
the Union, where family influence has none of that over-
whelming weight that attaches to it in Europe.
Charles Francis was born at Boston on the 18th August,
1807. In 1821 he entered Harvard College, where he
graduated, and in 1829 ho married a young lady of his
native State. Ho was elected for the House of Repre-
sentatives by Massachusetts from 184143, and became
a member of the Senate during 1844-5. In 1848 he was
defeated for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. He
took his scat in the Federal Congress in 1859 for his
rative State, but on President Lincoln's assuming the
Government hewastnhoeminated Minister to Great Britain.
The events which followed are too recent to be for-
gotten, but neither
had to steer, the delicate and intricate navigation, till
most of us are in our graves.
peoplecountryof
wh norieh of Lis
a has
o h
li
own will fully know the
quick-sands
this
through
The choice of a Minister under such circumstances
was a matter of first-rate importance to the interests of
both countries. The folly of some of the leading journals
of England, was equalled only by that of some of the lead-
ing statesmen, and the difficulties of Mr. Adams's position
were increased to an inconceivable degree, by the ungene-
rous and grossly ignorant opinions put forward autlwrita-
tively as those of this nation. These views, though only
held by a powerful section of the Upper Ten Thousand,
served to create and keep alive the most bitter feelings of