The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1844-10-22
BANE AND ANTIDOTE.


BANE AND ANTIDOTE.
There few men whose writings afford the
antidote to whatever bane in them do those Of
Hon. John q. Adams. He has been so magnetically
drawn to two thirds of the circumference OF possible
political opinions and has written much and for
merly well, that we find healing basam for his
wounds to sound political doctrines for several years
past, in his expostons of political principle and
policy from 1907 to 1895. Like the spear Of Ach-
les his compositions have the quality Of healing the
wound they give.
OF late years he has been the eulogist of Great
Britain-has defended her in some of her very worst
measures; and by the tendency of his writings in re
la,ion 10 her whole conduct and policy held her up
as a model for the imitation Of other nations. The
tendency of all this is convert from republican
principles to monarcbical; to make US enamoured of
an established church-hierarchically constituted
to regard hereditary nobility the true expostors
of political wisdom-to familiarize MS with an enor-
national debt and TO induce us to regard it as
blessing and lastly TO degrade-as such political
constitution and such measures inevitably must-ths
great and free people into the pauper mechanism
the dependent serfs in reality Knocked with the
name of freemen-of the privileged classes thu.
created.
Formerly he panegerized our own institutions and
spoke Of them in terms Of raptuous euogy-his Ian
guage glowed this theme alternately with the fire
Of Demosthenes and rolled the glorious and alof-
e"o"'o."9a fo'"r &c TulIys page; but Of lot" -
ho hoe found mortal stoin in IT which be had not
discovered when he was upwards of sixty years of
age-nnd to which, by way of apprehension appre-
henson, do not find him devoting single leaf Of
his voluminous writings down to that period of his
life. Is he called upon to address his fellow-cit.
zens on that day which calls out frequently an ex
position of political prlncples-the 4th of July-we
do not find him probing what he now considers, and
has for some years past considered, the constantly
bleeding wound Of the Constitution domestic slave
y. II on any occasion, on such an occasion above
all is public man called upon to be fully candid
10 keep back no part Of the counsel Of political wis
dom; but TO announce the great truths Of political
and moral right with unfalling candor and COM
prehensve developement II is day from which
dates many of the political impressions and tene,s Of
our communty-on which the young especially are
indoctrnated in the political faith which abides with
them through fe-on which the middle aged and the
old are refreshed by renewal Of arguments 10 con.
firm them in The tenets Of their fathers and the sue
cess Of their institutions which to revive their
confidence in the hopes of an ameorated condition
OF human affairs arising from faithful practical ad-
herence TO the principles imbodied in the Consti,u.
tion-to its compacts and compromises as well as 10
its genera principles
ln harmony with this view OF ihings-of the obi
cations and the practice of our orators selected TO
make ora,ions on the glorious fourth-we find Mr.
Adams, as we have already stated, acting on public
occasions generally from 1907 to ls25-from the age
OF iory-two to that Of sixty. To spread out all the
proof of this, would require more Than one volume
dedicated to his biography We are now about 10
sdduce portion Of the proof, and we will take Mr.
Adams at the age Of hfty-hve-in the year 1921
hro years before he became candidate for The Presideney
Stand forth, ye champions Of Britannia, ruler Of
the waves Stand forth, ye chivarous knights of
chartered liberties and the rotten borougbs Enter
the lists ye boosters Of iRuenfpe genius Ye mighty
masters OF the palette and The brush Ye improyers
upon the soul pure Of the Elgn marbles Ye spawn
ers Of fustsD romance and lasciyious lyrics Come
and inquire what America has done for the benefit
Of mankind In the half century which has elapsed
since the Declaration OF American Independence
WIZ, he'' w" "o"o 'oi Nnt DcheHt OF mankind
when Tbemistocles was ssrcasticslIy asked NV
some great musical genus of his age whether he
knew bow to play upon the lutte, he answered. No
but he knew how to make great city Of small one
We shall not contend with you for the prize of mu
sic, painting, o. sculpture We shall not disturb the
ecstatic frances of your chemists, nor call from the
heavens the ardent gaze Of your astronomers we
will not ask you, who the last Pre-, ident of your
Royal Academy. We will not inquire by whose me,
cbancal combinations II was that your steamboat.
stem the currents Of your rivers and vsnqush the op
position of the winds themselves upon your seas We
Will not name the inventor Of the cotton gin for n,
lear that you would ask us the meaning of the word
and pronounce IT a provincial barbarism We Wi,
not name to you him whose graver defes the imta
tion oil forgery, aud saves the labor Of your erecp
noner by taking from your greatest genluses of rob
berry The power OF committing the crime He ia
now among yourselves, and since your philosophers
have permitted hun to prove to them the oompress-
b'ity OF water, you may perhaps claim him FOR your
own. Would you soar 10 fame upon rockets n,
burst into gjoy from a shell! We shall leave Won
to inquire OF your naval heroes their opinion Of Tho
steam battery and the torpedo 1t is not by the con.
Prom Mr.. Adams's extreme attachment, f., 49,.
era years past to combustble subjects. In. frs. IA.
Of soaring TO fame" by copstan, contact with ,h.n
appears to have been suggested TO him by th. ,cn
lence Of his own.