New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-17

|
last yearly visits to him at this place. That momeh,
was nexpressiby painful and struck me as if it had
been an arrow to the heart My father aud my
mother have departed. The charm which has always
made this house to me an abode of enchantinent II
dissolved: and yet my attachment to IT, ana 10 INC
whole region round is stronger than ever feit IL
before. feel il is time for me Ia begin 10 SCI "y
house in order and to prepare Tor the churchS III"
myself Other duties in the mean time devoive upon
me from this recent event, the full extent OF whch
prav that may know as do for the holy SPIRIT OF
grace to discharge them"
! Considerable space in the diary is devoted by
Mr. Adams to comments the various preachers
| whose dscourses he had listened to. often ac-
compancd by naive confessions of his own re-
! lgious feelings and experience. Thus, aitT
hearing sermon, which might as well be caied %
speech. from Mr. Little, Unitarian minister IN
Washington, in defense of the miracles recorded IN
the Scriptures he remarks " This is not the manner
IN which that subject ought to be treated. The
miracles of the New Testament appear to have been
| performed rs evidence of the divine mission OF
Christ: faith was 10 be founded on the mighty works
by which il was authenticated But now the order
of proof is reversed il is the doctrine OF the Scrip
lures alone that obtain credcnce for the miracles
Mr. Little read several extracts from Dudleian lee
ture of Mr.. Channng's upon this subject with great
commentator. They were very ingenious and clo-
quent but the drift of them to that there
is no reason for disbelevng the Scrptura accounts
of miracles or that the Creator should bind himself
to exclusive operation by general laws. This is very
true but it does not meet the question: which is not
upon the power of the Creator but upon the fact of
the miracles. The miracles in the Bible furnish the
most powerful of all the objections against its anthem
ticity, both historical and doctrinal and were it
tn rs suhlimp morals.
conceptions of the nature of God and its irresistible
power over the heart with the simple narrative OF
the life and death of Jesus, stripped of all the super
natural agency and all the marvellous incidents con-
nected with it, l should receive it without any of
those msgvings of unwilling incredulity as to the
miracles which find it impossible altogether to cast
off" The death of Mr.. Little took place not long
afterward, which gave Mr.. Adams the occasion TO
define his position III regard 70 of the leading re-
;giOus controversies of that day. This is event.
he writes, deeply to be lamented by his congreoa
ton, Of whom was one had constantly attended
on his minstraton for the last years. though
I had never formally joined his society did not
subscribe to many of his doctrines. particularly not
10 the fundamental one of lis Unitarian creed be-
leve in one God, but His nature is incomprehensbe
! TO me- and of the question between the Cnitarians
and Trinitarians have no precise belief, because no
definite understanding But Mr.. Litte's moral dis
courses were always good and sometimes admirable.
listened to them with pleasure and profit and shall
miss them if live to return to Washington" In the
midst of his public cares Mr. Adams ceased 10
indulge his love of letters and often intcTspcrses the
political comments in his diary with critical remarks
on the authors that had employed the leisure of
passing hour. On one of the terrible midsummer
DAYS OF lsZ7 lac thus writes while on a visit TO
Quincy:
The Gay was one Of the hottest that ever experienced
At D. H. the mercury the porch fronting the honSe
was OF lOlo. found myself utterly unable 10 write
ard after dinner threw myself on me bed from "ch
from my mothers bookcase the two volumes OF licOs
Junus, and read in desnory manner many 81 ms ms
notes Junus is writer OF great Io"er nut tne vM
taordinary curiosity excited by his mask has gwen mn
greater celebrity than he would ever have attained win
out it, His secret has hitherto been kept perhaps the
better for the multiplied and in many cases absurd at
like Dutch professor ancient classic, fixes upon
Dunning the author. Woodfa, who published the
almost that Sir Philip Francis the cul
prit and DR. WAREHOUSE is soacing his Old age with
volume Of ingenious nOnseluurs to prove that u vas
Lord Chatham The speeches and avOwcd writings OF
Lord Chatham bear the staup OF mind not unequal TO
Of higher order Were 1t a7certainet hai elief OF
these was TIC pontca assassin To s,notu of adt
zion for his talents snd should lose all OF my respect for
his morals Junius was essentially sophst. His re-
igion was niidclity his abstract ethics depravod his
temper bitterly malignant and his nervous system tmid
and cowardly The conceament Of his name at the time
when the effect of dishonest fear The per
pctuaton of could only proce ed from the conscious
liable The object of Junus, when he began
10 write, merely 10 overthrow the Administration
then in power He attacked them in mass and indvid
ualythelr measures their capacity ther characters,
public and prya charged them with every crime and
every vice Afterwards he followed his general assault
by singing out successfully the Dukes OF Grafton ana
! King himself He magnified mOlehls into mountains,
nlamed pn-scratches into deadly wounds and AT last
abandoned his i'll despair AZ the very time when he
might have pursued it with most effect But. while he
batterng the Ministry upon patry topics that had
1 hH Na1
cay and repeatedly on their side upon thc only SUBJECT
which their tate ana the destiny OF the nation alto
! gether depcnded-the controversy with America The
that he took in the early stage OF that CONNECT ana
his disappearance from the theaer of politics al the time
when IL rpenmg into the magnitude OF It's nature,
have marked JuDius III my Hlnd ~ man OF small
things "a splendid trier. a ponpons and shallow poll
cian Ills commentator Heron is Just deep enough to
admire his prOfundity I'll re- is some information con
corning the and things the time in Ierons notes
and dissertations with al abundance Of scottish sell
su0icency and prcudices His philosophical and crlti-
cal essay upon the rise and progress OF eoquence with
division into four periods has some merit, and might
lead profound investigation Of the subject but
his oyerestnate or the powers ana eoqutncr ol Jus,
and the sighting manner i'll which he ranks INN above
Edmund Burke, Is to me s9pleney ilolcuons IL mus,
Junus he is not alone
! The anecdOtc of preserving the Constitution " is
familiar to most readers but they may be curious to
! hear Mr. Adamss version of the affair, which oc-
Cured in Baltimore after his attending the funeral
| of Colonel Howard. L" 1t was near three o'clock in
the afternoon" lie says, when / returned to Bar
NUNS Tavern and from three to four received i'll
the large hall of the house, great number of visit
ors; then dined with the committee and a small
party of friends invited by them-about thirty. On
retiring from them, after dinner gave them for
toast The living and the dead, Charles Carroll Of
Carrollton ond John Eager Howard, and, returning
TO the great hail. received visitors from seven till ten
o'clock i'll the evening. They came i'll a continual,
unccasng stream, to the number, it could be scarcely
| less than, of two thousand. The hall was much
crowded nearly the whole time, though few if any,