The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-09-15
BroGRAPH1cAL REVIEW.
Memoirs of the late Lucian Adams,
Esq; Biographical sketches; Historic
al Notices &C.; Edited and Published
by the Rock island Union, Rock Is
and, Ills, Sept. IL, 1877.

We have seldom had the good fortune
to meet with more genuine, or a more
rich, racy, and readable production in this
branch of literature; and we mean by
this not only the indisputable authenticity
of the work-a point by no means to be
overlooked in newspaper nleGnoirS-but al
so the absence of editorial display, the truth
fulness of impressions, and the modesty
and good faith which pervade the entire
narrative of the distinguished services of a
fellow citizen, aud the summary of great
and strange events crowded into the his
tory of his brief and uneventful public
career-so far at least as could be ascer-
tanned by the extended researches and in
dustry of his biographer.
It is the Office of genius and learning to
illustrate other things and not itself, and
it is the characteristic of truly modest
man that he has lived for esteem rather than
for renown. 10 the present instance, as
his biographer justly remarks, though the
services rendered by the deceased to his
party were not less important because
they were transformations, nevertheless
such was the natural reserve of bis dispo-
sltion and his reluctance to be active in
public affairs that his sayings and doings
have heretofore been unwritten, and for
the most part must for ever remain so.
His parentage has so far been ascertained
as to render it extremely probable that he
belonged to the renowned adams family,
which supposition is strengthened by a
perceptible and characteristic likeness In
frigidity of manners and department to
the great Charles Francis Adams Of
Massachusetts.
The extreme difficulty of tracing
distinctly the line of descent in collateral
branches has nearly or quite prevented
any exact determination Of the relation
ship existing between the subject of these
memoirs and the puritan stock of New
England, and the point is dismissed with
the observation that after all. in modern
times, genealogy is considered to he rather
the work of the Antiquarian than within
the province of the biographer.
The time of bis birth and the year OF
his political demise are sufficiently well
established to answer every essential pur.
pose Of biography. though but very few in
, cidents of his public, and none of his
private life, have ever before adorned the
: pages of history. Still, through the faith
full abors and willing pen Of the gifted
, =, biographer we are brought to know the
period in which he lived, the influences IN
der which his character was developed anC
, matured, and the circumstances under
which, by political immolation, he wa
rendered in mortal.
,, Mr. Lucian Adams, I've quote from The
4 memoirs was born near the middle of tht
e nineteenth century of the Christian era, il
2 the classic land of Indian song
: Where roamed an Indian girl,
s Bright Al-f ia,
o And where flowed the waters of
! The blue Juniatts
. Where be received the first rudiment
# of youthful education his bi0grapheI doe
o not state, land perhaps was unable t
} ascertain but certain it is that he received
| part of his instruction at college, as VI
z find it stated that he graduated in 1882 a
e Jefferson College, Cnnonsburg, Pa, on
: of the many seats of truly classical cultur
!, and refinement for which the Keyston
It state is justly celebrated He also at
II tended law school 10 the state of Nev
Is York 1t not being convenient to enter q
/, once upon the duties of the legal proteS
" sion, his zeal and partizan fervor induce
him to enter actively into political If
during the presidential contest of 1865
presumably as a republican, though th
- memoirs are silent upon that point, an
becoming the editor of the Wo0Stea II
q publican, he made "a record as a briliar
re and vigorous journalist of which he ma
we'll be proud. The mere mention {
o. this circumstance will recall to the reco
70 lection Of our readers what sensation til
=, Wooster Republican produced, aud I'll
anxiety of all classes throughout tho cour
We try to obtain a copy in preference even
to metropolitan journals. Having achieved
10 national reputation as a political journals
~ and having rendered illustrious the nau
~ of Wooster where is Woosten?l he a
ne cepted the kind and well meant advice
II. the late Mr.. Horace Greedy to young me
ID of rare standing and promise, and can
-, aoest to Rock Island
His admiring biographer is particul,
ne to state that this migration westward o
I'd Cured in the year of our Lord one thou
OF and eight hundred and sixtv-nine, and
a. dates seem TO be by. far the most importal
+ incidents contained in the memoirs we al
er punctillious in giving them the prominen'
and order which they evidently occupie
ng IN the mind of the biographer. The ne1
=. ~ date mentioned is 1870, and the next sui
ck sequent to that is 1875. During this lor
II, dull waste of dreary years, $50 to 1875
in bis biographer finds the incidents of hi
~ tory few and uninviting, and consequent
1d the narration becomes obscure and unsa
isfactory. A candid scrutiny Of the bi
grapher'S language, and an honest al
tempt to reach has meaning, lead to the b
:" lief that this part of Mr.. Adams life WI
mostly passed as the amanuensis and Q
ia fee clerk of Messrs. Osborn & Curt