Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-08-25

love which rcconces TO being cu,done
lie could not look with compacency on those
who cxcelled him, and regarded another's bear
ing away the palm as a wrong to himself; he
never sat placidly under the shade of greater
reputation than his own and could try to ostle
aside the prcsumptuous possessor of recognized
superiority; but his envy, though it laid open
how deeply his sclf-love was wounded had
hardly tingc of magnity, and never led him
to derelictlons for the sake Of revenge. He
did his lame injustice when, later in life, he rep
resented himself as suffering from prosecutions
on account Of his early zeal for INDEPENDENCE;
he was no weakling to whine about injured
feelings; he went to his task bright, and CHEEKY,
and brave he was the hammer and not the an
Vlli and it was for others to fear his prowess
and to shrink under his blows. His courage
was uniiinching in debate and everywhere else;
he never knew what fear is; and had he gone
into the army as he once longed to do, he would
have taken there the virtues of temperance, de-
cision and intrepidity TO his latest old age
his spirit was robust, buoyant and Joyous he
saw ten times as much pleasure as pain in the
world and after his arm quivcred and his eve
grew dim, he was ready to begin life anew and
fight its battle over again.
In his youth he fell among skeptics, read Bo-
lngbroke's works five times through, and ac-
ouetoned himself ro~een fraol, onA ,bint
boldly; he esteemed himself profound meta
physician, but only skinned the speculations
of others though at first designed to be a
minister, he became rebel to Calyinism, and
never had any very fixed religious creed but
for all that lie was staunch man of New Eng
land and his fond partially to its people, its
institutions, its social condition. and its laws,
followed him into Congress and its committees,
and social life, tinctured his Judgment and
clinched his prepossessions; but the elements
in New England that he loved most, were those
which were eminenty friendly to universal cul-
ture and republican equality. A poor farmers
son, bent on making his way in the world. ut
twenty years old, beginning to earn his own
Bread pinched and starved as the master of a
stingy country school, he formed early habits
of order and frugality and steadily advanced
to fortune; but though exact in his accounts,
there was nothing nggardly in his thrift, and
his modest hospitality was prompt and hearty
lie loved homage, and it made him blinds to
those who fiattered him he gave his confidence
freely, and often unwisely; and while he watched
the general movement of affairs with compre-
henslve sagaclty, he was never a calm observer
of individual men. He was of the choeric
temperament though his frame was compact
and large yet from physical organization, he
was slngulary sensitive; could break out into
uncomfortable rage, and with all his acquisitions,
anger did not so much lead him to do wrong.
as to do right ungracously. No man was less
fitted to gain his end by arts of indirection he
knew not how to intrigue, was indiscreetly talk
ative, and almost thought aloud whenever he
sought to win an uncertain person to bis sup
port, his ways of cUurtshp were uncouth, so
that he made few friends except by his weight
OF character, ability, public spirit and integrity,
was unapt as the leader OF party, and never
appeared SO well as when he acted from himself
Hating intolerance in all its forms, an i'm
FASHIONED lover of civil liberty, as the glory of
man and the best evidence and the best result
of civilization, he, of all men in Congress, was
Incompatible as a dogmatist; essentially right
minded; loving TO teach with authority; press
ing onward unsparingly with his argument i'm
patient OF contradiction; unequalled as posi-
nSf ,RhaWpi2p qf,the EiGht. lie NOS, the MartjR
to utter his convictions fearlessy by an impulse
which forbade his acting otherwise. He was
now too much in earnest and too much elevated
by the greatness of his work, to think of him.
self; too anxiously desiring to aid, to disparage
those who gave it. In the feryor of his activity
his faults disappeared. His intellect and pub
lie spirit, all the nobest parts of his nature
called into the fullest exercise, strained
to the utmost of their healthful power. Com
bining more than any other, fairness of sight
and fXedness of belief with courage and power
of utterance, he was looked up to as the ablest
debater in Congress. Preserving some of the
habits of tie lawyer, he was redundant in words
and culmnative in argument; but his warmth
and his sincerity kept him from the aifectations
Of pedant a rhetorician. Forbearance was
no longer in season; the irrepressbe talent of
perseverng, peremptory assertion was wanted
the more he was borne along by his own vehe-
ment impulses the better now his country, hu-
manity, the age, the hour, demanded that the
right should be spoken out, his high excitement
had not the air of passion, but appeared, as it
was, the clear perception of the sublimity of his
task. When, in the life of a statesman, were
six months of more Importance to the race,
than these six months in the career of John
Adams ?-GeOrge Bancrotfs History Of he
Anierican Rerolaion