The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-01-25

q
\ q months long, leaving Affairs . manal
3 thsmselves or his treacherous cabinet
! Denag0 then agsinst him.
81 He WA not successful % = diplomatic
abroad When he wss Vice. Presiden
: Washington doubted his fitness for any for
1. oign position In bis administration, he Va
|. mot great or prosperous He could not or
r ganize natien WE'LL. or manage his party
4 Yet it must be confessed that he won grea
! diplomatic victory in Holland, where he VA
!. called THE Wa shington Of Diplomacy."
II John Adams had great moral virtues ant
!. great vices. Able-bodied, compact. and Wig.
orous, though not always healthy, he hat
physical courage-in scholarly men, it 10 {
b great virtue, and rare He says he mean
. 70 be soldier, but doubted whether he shoule
be hero or coward There was no occa-
sion for the doubt There was not drop Of
the cowardly blood in those manly, impet-
uous veins He inherited what we cal
"spunk," and we all know he transmitted it
loud applause.) He had moral courage in
. heroic degree. He could not only face the
bullets Of British man-of-war, but he could
confront the wrath Of his own friends for
defending Preston in ITO, and bear the in
dignation and jesrs Of the Federal party in
l779, for his adherence to what he believed
to be the right Let him only be sure he
was right, and John Adams only feared to
be false to his conscience. When the judges Of
Massachusetts,, went under the golden chain
Of Britain in l773, and the government held
it low, in order to have them stoop more low
before the people, Adams said, "Impeach the
Judgesl' and the Court did no more BUSH
ness. Conscious of integrity, he never hes
itiated to take great responsibility, and to
take it alone.
| He was . conscientious man, and sought
the counsel Of that ''still, small voice" which
declares the law of the universe, the eternal
law, to whoever listens He could not un-
derstand that q kings command should rule
the conscience Of the subject He had a
clear conception Of justice Veracious, out
spoken, he had an utter hatred Of lies, dis
sembling and hypocrisy, in every form; and
not only in the abstract, but he hated liars,
hypocrites and:: dissemblers in the concrete,
as he needs must "a lie in the abstract does
not exist. He was terribly open, earnest,
ana direct, and could not keep his mouth
shut He knew this. Once he went with
some friends to see the great picture Of
Washington, at Faneuil Hail. Some one
remarked upon the firm well-set mouth, 1T
looks as if it could keep secret" So he
could, said Mr.. Adams but" with his
cane tapping his own bust,) that DIN fool
never could cloud laughter and APP
plause
He hated all stratagsm and trick, and
grumblcd at the slow and stealthy way in
which Franklin threw his line, and drew
out the glittering spoil. Diplomacy is
silent art" and John Adams was talker
He "wore his heart upon his sleeve" He
had not much decorum, no reserve. His
early rule was never to deceive the people,
nor conceal from them any truth essential to
their welfare He had great moral dslicacv,
and, becoming President, doubted if he
might retain his son, John Quincy Adams,
in the foreign post to which Washington had
appointed him. lie consulted Washington
on the subject who told him, 1T is right for
you to keep him there; it would be very
wrong for you to put him there
Mr Adams had strong temptations to ex-
cessive indulgence in animal passions; but
he never yielded to the temptation, and in
his old age he proudly writes. mo virgin or
matron ever had cause to blush at sight Of
me, or to regret our acquaintance" Here
he was greatly the superior Of Franklin, JET.
ferson Hamilton, nay, of Washington him
self These are great virtues. Few politi-.
SAAucS VA OtuCA u1CH. Cuu CUuuG 90 AIuCus
But he was ill-tempered, Sudden and
quick in quarrel" he was not Judge Of
character, but often suspected the noblest
men, and put credulous faith in the mean
and deceitful. Intensely ambitious of place
and power as he was he yet always sought
10 rule his desire by his duty But if he
sought only excellent things, the spirit of the
search was not always commendable; his |
motive was selfish his manner harsh. He was |
suspicious and jealous Of the noblest of men
before him in social rank and above him in |
power. He attributes mean motives to all |
men-often to the nobless in the land. He |
does this in his earliest letters and his latest.
A round headed man, he was constantly q |
fighter. This appears in his diary, and in
his newspaper articles, before the Revolu- |
ton and after it; even in his own autObio-
graphy written in his extreme old age. He |
was violent in wrath, which, when reused, |
nothing for the moment, stayed. He was
indiscriminate Us to the cause oft, 1t might |
be the members ofhis Cabinet at the seat of |
government, or his butcher at Quincy who
brought in his bill.
Impatient Of opposition, and greedy Of re-
suits, he was most intensely desirious Of hon
or and applause. AT Paris, in l7s2, he was
very handsomely complimented for his
success in Holland, and he writes in his jour-
nal-"A few of these compliments would
kill Franklin. if they came to his ears =
(Laughter) Franklin would have thought
Of him as schoolmaster thinks Of compli-
ment paid to one Of his pupils Great as his
vanity was, | think it never bent him aside
from his duty. Loving the praise Of man
he never once stopped for it; never once
hesitated to do even the most unpopular act,
IT he was sure he was right; and he never
bowed that head to escape the abuse that
same from doing the right thing.
Yet he was intensely arrogant Claiming
80 much for himself he abused his rivals
Of Samuel Adams and John Hancock, he
writes on one occasion They will be sure
Of all the loaves and fishes Of the National
and State Government, as they hope" A
most atroeous calumny. He speaks sheer
ingly Of John Hancock, as "a man without
head or heart-a mere shadow of q man,
and yet Governor Of old Massachusetts r
He did not like to hear the praise Of Wash
ington. One day, he dined with company
Of gentlemen in town adjoining this. At
the the dinner, clergyman wished to help
him on with his cloak He objected, but the
clergyman said, Il cannot do too much for
you, when think what you and Washington
have done for the country" washington
and me- growled out the old man, don't
let we hear you say that again! Washington
was doltr' 1t was momentary spasm
Of wrath, coming from that rash humor
which his mother gave him, or that came
from somewhere else. At other times he did
Justice to Washington, but always little
coldly, for neither liked much the other.
Certainly these are great vices but he had
such virtues that be can afford to have them
told, and -subtracted from his merits. He
was 50 fearless open, that it is himself who
furnishes all the evidence against himself
he defends Hancock, and says, IF he had
vanity and caprice, so had I-Rut these
little chickering's Of passion determine moth
ing concerning essential characters and
he said it right. They were vices Of the sur
face; the deep hearts Of the men, they
were pure and clean, clear down to the bot
tom
Mr. Adams had strong religious emotions,
but must mass over what had written IN