Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-02-03
MISCEILANY Y.
Private Life of John Quincy Adams.

| AT a meeting of the Pennsylvania His
torical Society on Monday last, DIR. VIM.
| NJ. Cornell read paper on the private
life of John Quincy Adams. DIR. Cornell
was originally clergyman, and settled in
/ Quincy. He was afterwards a medical
practitioner in Boston, and has recently re-
moved to Philadelphia. The follnwina
sketctI OF nfs paper IS given by the Phila-
delphia Press:
Mr.. A. was born in Quincy, (then Brain
tree) in Mass, July IL, 1907. His father
was John Adams the second president of
! the United States. His mothers maiden
name was Abagail Smith, the second daugh-
ter of Rev. VIM. Smith of Weymouth
Mass. Adams and Cranch, (the father of
Judge Cranch, late of Washington, d. Co.
visited at parson Smiths at the same time.
The gossip of the parishoners of Mr.
! Smith was, that Adams was not we'll re-
ceived as a suitor of one of the daughters
of the parson, while Cranch was. The
! principal objection to Adams was that he
was the son of a farmer, and, above all, he
was lawyer, which class of men were
considered unnecessary and useless in the
/ II
woe was pronounced IN the sacred volume.
Abagail knew that Mr.. A. was not ac-
ceptable to her father, nor TO his parishion-
ers. Still she would have him. When
her elder sister, Mary, was married to
Cranch, the father preached from the text,
Mary hath chosen that good part which
/ shall not be taken from her. When Aba
gail was TO be married, the parson told her
| she might select the text, from which he
would preach marriage sermon. Know
/ ing all the circumstance, she chose the fol-
lowing John came among them neither
eating bread, nor drinking wine, and they
said he hath devil Her letters to her
son, John Quincy Adams, since published
/ by her grandson, Charles Francis Adams.
had much to do in molding the character of
John Quincy Adams.
The house in which John Quincy Adams
was born is still standing at the foot of
Penn's Hill, in the town of Quincy, about
mile from the old mansion erected by
John Adams, which has been the residence
of two presidents of the United States, and
is now in possession of Charles T.. Adams
at present a member of Congress from the
district so long represented by his father.
| This house is a specimen of Puritanical
taste, standing sidewise to the street, two
story in front, and sloping back to one. 1t
might well remind Philadephian, of that
taste which laid out Boston in crooked,
narrow streets, zigzag lanes and sharp-an-
gled houses.
From Penn's Hill $50 called) near the
house, at the age Of ten years, Adams heard
I the canuon booming from Bunker Hill, saw
the smoke and flame of burning Charles
town, and watched the shells and rockets
thrown by the American army during the
siege of Boston.
/ Mr.. A. was remarkably man Of study.
He said. 90 If the days were forty-eight in
stead of twenty-four hours long, he could
employ them ALL"
He thought Sir Philip Sidney the au-
thor of the Letters of Junius.'
Mr.. AS ilial affection was strong espec-
tally for his mother. At her death he said,
This is one of the sorest afflictions to
which human existence is liable. The sill
yer cord is loosed.
Mr.. A. was an early riser. Often had
the speaker met him on returning home
/ fom his mornings walk more than two
miles from his residence. When seventy
five years old he preferred 10 walk rather
er than ride from bis residence into Boston,
distance of eight miles. He said, He
had noticed that those had the best legs
who used them most"
Like Stephen Girard, he always wore
shoes. He was friend 10 education. The
speaker related the case Of a young man