The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-05-03
SOME NEW BOOKS.
John Quincy Ada mss Letters.

I
The third volume OF The writings
81 John Qutncv Adams, edited by
WoRrniN0roN c. FonD (Macmillans).
covers Tho nist decade Of -ii,e nine
teenth century. The nrst letter Is
written from Quincy. October l3, 1901.
to Rufus King, American Minister at
London: the last from 81. Petersburg,
December 10, 1910. TO Robert Smith.
Secretary Of State. The writings thus
comprise the period Of the writer's SER
Vice in the Senate Of the United States
0s02-lsoD, Of his professorship Of
rhetoric and Oratory In Harvard tlsOS-
1900, and Of the frst year Of his in
cumbcncy Of the mission to Russia,
which was to continue for three years
more. There could hardly be a more
comprehensive conspectus of our poll
ties for the period than these employ
ments enabled him who filled them to
take. and II Ii superfiuous TO say that
the survey Is made from a highly in
dividual, subjective" point OF view.
The independence Of the Adamses Ii
manifested almost upon every page.
John Quincy certainly was not chosen
Senator from Massachusetts, with q
view to his supporting the JeYersonian
Administration. He was in fact Ideally
nence. He and Massachusetts had had
the advantage of the acquaintance de-
rived from his service for a single year
in the Senate of Massachusetts,,
throughout which service ne uniformly
took the unpopular side. Some years
later he wrote OF this period. rather
ruefully: Il attempted some reforms.
and aspired TO check some abuses. I
regret to say with little success. l
wanted the authority of experience. and
] discovered the danger OF opposing
and Of exposing corruption" At any
rate Massachusetts, sent him to the
Senate at Washington with full notice
of his want of amenability to party
discipline. Fisher Ames notes OF his
opposition in the State Senate to
the creation OF big bank. which
enlisted the sympathes and the sub
scriptions OF many OF the solid men
OF Boston, that his popularity Is les
sened by IT," lie was elected, all the
same. to tho national Senate as the
Federalist candidate. Already, in his
first letter to King, written after seven
years absence In Europe. he shows
himself as certainly far from a fac
tious opponent of the President. THE
dismissal of some public officers and
the appointment professionally OF some
others have given rise to considerable
controversy This has been
hitherto the only topic of material CEN
sure upon the present Administration"
and goes on to assure his correspondent
that ne is in no danger, the President
being completely satisfied with the
manner in which the London mission
had been administered. But the tone
of the letter is very different already
Ma hna aAs
eralist manner OF discussing the JET
fersonian policies. The difference be-
came much more marked almost from
The day when the writer Of the letter
took has seat in the national Senate.
The politics of those days ha., be-
come only with great difficulty con-
ceivable TO us now. Ii is equally diff
cult to conceive how completely the
fear of Napoleon dominated all Europe
in the years beginning with 1902 when
Adams took his seat in the Senate. and
how negligible to Europe at that time
was the United States as political
power. We could, to be sure, Cultivate
our garden'~ without much fear of
European molestation. But We could
not venture out upon the high seas
without the risk of being insulted or
robbed by one of the maritime belliger-
ents of Europe. This continual danger
may almost be called the theme OF this
entire volume. II was a question
whether we should choose to be insuited
and robbed by France or by England.
accord nyly as We endeavore to meet
the views OF the one or the other. The
Federalsts, whom Adams was supposed
20 represent. inclined toward subserv-
ence to England; the Jeffersonians
rla Of Mt ST
ferring subservence to republican or
consular or even. as II was soon TO be-
come, imperial France. The Louisiana
Purchase had just been concluded when
Adams entered the Senate There Is
evidence in these letters that he was
inclined to deprecate the manifest
tendency of that accession Of land and
people to Increase the political power
OF the South and West against that Of
the Northeast. Upon this question he
thought and felt with his section. He
particularly and even thus early re-
scented the political weight added 10 the
slave holding States by the increase
allowed In the population. which was
the basis Of representation, on account
OF the slaves who were VIGOROUSLY
neither represented nor meant to be
so that IL would have been as reason
able and equitable TO make an allow
arce for horses or oxen. Throughout
the chronicle Of those days the reader
il made 10 feel not only how wise AMI
timely were the two warnings in Wash
ington's farewell address, the one
against national partiallties or antip-
athies. the other against the encour-
agement of sectional as against national
feeling but also how extensively. how
almost universally, the admonitions
were disregarded. IT must really b.
owned that John Quincy Adams came
as near as any Senator OF his time 10
measuring up TO the standard of an
American statesman which was implic-
fly set up in he address He was.
for example, warmly interested in the
success of the Louisiana Purchase. al
though ne arrived in Washington just
100 late to vote for II.
One Of his earliest Senatorial acts
was To introduce a resolution that moth
ing in the proceedings OF the Anglo.
American Commission on Boundaries
which had concluded its labors in Lon.
don, May 10. 1903. should be construed
as impairing any claim to territory
which The limited States might hay,