Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1846-02-14
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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

who for more than half a century has occupied n
high place in the attention, not of his own coun-
try alone, but of the whole civilized world. With
the most renowned names of our early history. his
own is intimately associated; with its diplomacy,
with the management OF its foreign affairs, with
its domestic policy, John Quincy Adams has had
NJ much to do as any other living man. Though
the son OF a President of the United States, and
once himself a President, he owes his widespread
fame and exalted position neither TO iUustrious
lineage nor official title, but purely and alone TO
his extraordinary ability in every department of
politics and human knowledge, and to the oriRi,
ma and eccentric career which he has seen fit 10
pursue. IL had been usual for a President Of the
United States, at the close Of his Executive term,
to retire altogether from public life 20 consider
his aspirations for power and distinction, fully and
finally satisfied to make way for other combatants
upon the political arena, and. wlapi in the mantle
Of dignity, to sit apart from the strife and turmoil
Of the crowd, and yield himself to the luxurious
repUse of memory and contemplation. Not so
with Mr.. Adams. HIS strong passions and fierce
love of excitement, were in no degree moderated
lay the progress of age and the transient gratiica
ton of a Presidential term. He would have suf.
tered in retirement the agonIes of Prometheus
chained to the rock, with the vulture of ambition
dcvoIring has heart. Laughing at the idea OF a
compromise IF dignity, he descended from the
Executive Char. a ID plunged headiong into the
boiling whirlpool Of party strife. He had no as.
~pirations To become n fixed star in the political
armament. He preferred the eIra'ic course OF
the comet, defy Ing the laws which governed
other summarizes, %hurrying with furious speed
from system TO system, and blazing with porleA.
tous light in every quarter of the II avens. All
eyes have been attracted by his extraordinary ca
reer, and the singular spectacle has been exhibit
ed. of an individual member of Congress divert.
ing attention from men of the highest official rank,
from Presidents themselves, by the force of his
own superior genius, and unaccountabIe eccen-
trIcity.
A wonderful combination Of powers has Mr..
Adams exhibited. Now we see hun IA statesman.
bold, sagaeious, experienced, and firm as any
whom this county has ever produced. Again.
4c becomes the man Of science, and one would
think that his whole life had been passed IN Co.
iege walls, and devoted to this single pursuit.
He explores the fields of rhetoric, and wins the
brightest laurels which have ever been achieved
by an American writer. Then, he bends for q
moment from graver pursuits, and enchsnts
some female heart by writing pretty verses for an
album. lie turns to History, and becomes a ii.
wing record of all that has transpired since the
creation Of the world. He enters the lists of
oratory. logic and debate, and where Is the adven
furious knight who has met the stalwart arm of
the grey Douglass, in that tournament, and come
back without a dropping crest, a broken lance,
and armour shiSered into fragments
There are however few great men exempt
from the common lot Of human weakness and in
trinity. Not unirequently, illustTious genius is
accompanied by glaring moral defects, as in the
example Of Bacon, and many living statesmen of
renown whose names will readily occur to every 1
intelligent reader. Still oitener, do these
~prodigies of mind exhibit a lack of wisdom and
common sense, thereby reconciling inferior ma.
lures, as a French wit sneeringly observed of Sir
Isaac Newton's Commentary on the Revelations,
10 the lofty triumphs which their intellectual su.
perfectly had achieved in other fields. We hum.
bly, conceive that if Mr.. Adams has aroused the
envy Of the dwarfsh herd by his magnificent men.
tal attributes, he has done all IN his power TO
ntone for the crime, by the unappeasable vindIc-
tiycness of his character, and the humilinting dis
plays he has made during the pres-nt session Of
Congress.
We find him, an Old man, with one foot in the
grave, holding up the frebrand Of war, though
calling it the olive branch Of rcconciliation. We
find him, who opposed the annexation of Texas.
cheering on with his tremulons breath the work Of
territorial aggrandIzemcni. Yet, in this we alIepe
10 ineon.iSency, for the object is the same which
he has pursued for years, with undated ZEAL
the supremacy Of the free States in the councils
Of the nation. To crown all, we find him trans
formed into a Theologian, and, with the Bible in
one hand, and the Sword in the other, oracuIarIy
eIpounding Holy Wit, and preaching lessons Of
blood from a Gospel Of Peace He has become
a modern Peter the Hermit, leading on a crusade
for a Holy Land beyond the Rocky Mountains
and ecnoirg with his protestant lips the passage
upon which the acquisitions Of the Pope were c1-
jepded, ASK Of me, and ! shall give thee the
heather for thine inheritance, and the uttermoa
plr,S Of the earth for thy possession"
No. one can deny To Nj. Adams originality in
ms Interpretation Of tho Inspired Word. who
before ever dreamed that, instead of tho triumpbs
Of Christianity, this prophecy predicted AID sane
toned the annexation Of land Or if il doe.
why may not England clam under il AZ well
as ourselves Mr.. Adams seems to regard cur
States as the children Of israel, aud the chosen
people Of God. Itm,y he so, for The Almighty
has given US a bountiful heritage, flowing with
milk and honey, the Canaan OF the whole earth.
But,like the l%sraeltes, We are cgnning to de,plse
our rich possessions, and to coyci additional ter.
rtory. If Mr.. Adams had EXTENDED h, plou.
researches a little farther into the Psalms. he
would have discovered that when The children of
Israel '~desPised their pleasant laod, and mur.
muied in their tents" the Lord, instead Of .'gi.
wing them the heather Tor their inheritance,
- I'VE them into toe hand Of the heaihea and they
nat hated them ruled over them"
We could wish that Inc venerable statesman Of
Massachusetts had finished his public career in 4
plauuer mere worthy of bis former tame. Tho
sIn Of his long day : now approaching the horl.
ron. Would that, instead u the red and fiery face
9Th which Al nou brraka nj fttnas fLro,.yh -.