Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-04-02
Fiue Minutes A Day
With Our Presidents
A Glorious Ex-Prcsidcnt
BY JAMES MORGAN

dent at all and went to work like any
other citizen.
Until John Quincy set this truly !
democratic example. people stu
looked upon presidents more like old
world kings han as new world SER
| wants and ex~-presidents were expect
ed to bear themselves like dethroned |
| monarchs. Forbidden to earn their
living and required to keep up a
compassionate state, two of our
earlier presidents were reduced TO
want In their retirement and did not
leave enough money to meet the cost
of burying them.
With his houses in Quincy and
| Boston mortgaged and the income
from his estate too slender for the
heard the ominous bark of the wolf
at his door as, in his gloomy fancy,
he closed 1t upon public life In his
sixty-second year. When some neigh
bors ventured to ask the next year IL
1t would be beneath his dignity to
| district in congress-, this great Amer
lean, who had been a senator, a min
| lister at the courts of The Hague,
Berlin, st. Petersburg and London, a
! secretary of state and q president,
replied that he was not above serving
the people as one of the selectmen OF
his town.
Washington was aghast at the
| sight OF an eX-president taking his
seat In the hurry burly of the lower
House only two years after leaving
| the White House. Without joining
, the Democrats or the Wings, without
any faction about him, John Quincy
| faced alone the jackson administra-
ton which a supplanted his own
and alone he met n swarm OF MS old
time critics on a level. Nor did he
ever ask any special consideration
/ r. H. hsoh honnru hR had worn.
because he had laid them aside.
Although not an anti-slavery &
| tator. he felt in duty bound to pre-
sent the various petitions he received
praying for the abolition OF slavery
in the District of Columbia or for the
overthrow of the system everywhere.
At first his action in the matter ex-
cited little attention. But as the
| abolition movement in the north
grew more aggressive. the southern
members grew more sensitive. IN It's
perplexity the stupid House, k an
ostrich, stuck it's head in the sand to
avoid hearing the rising cutlery ana
foolishly voted no longer to permit
the people to address their represen-
tatives on the subject.
That was n challenge to John
Quincy's sense of justice and love or
liberty and he boldly took 1t up.
Thenceforth through eight stormy
years he fought a hand-to-hand fight
with the slave interests of the south
and their allies, the moneyed inter-
ests of the north, which together
controlled both political parties.
Standing at bay, with his back 10
the wall, asking no quarter and never
sparing a head, he struck right and
left at the foes which beset him un-
til. at last, he beat them or ana
saved the ancient right of petition,
which he insisted should not be de-
80 i. II I-xITa-f fhn nnnrnCf a md
the most wretched. The pages or
our legislative history holds no other
picture so glorious as that OF this
lonely old man eloquent" his hands
shaking. his feet lettering. his voice
cracking with ge, standing his
day, year after year, as passion
blinded men assailed him from every
side.
Defying the speakers gavel and
the shrleks of rage rained upon ms
venerable head, he continued to rise
and flood the Laundering House WITH
petition against slavery. In the first
two months of 1928 he presented
more than 500 such papers, only to
have them '1aid on the table" A
still larger number was submitted by
him on a single day in 1910.
"Expel him! Expel him!" his
enemies cried in their fury. Ever
his assassination was threatened. On
one occasion he breasted a wild tenn
pest of debate for three days Wh1le
the members talked of nothing else
than the proper punishment to inlet
upon him. The old lion coWed MIN
with his courage. Although his CEN
sure was moved six times In he long
course of those bitter struggles, the
cowardly House finished from racing
the issue and no one of the motions
was brought to a vote.
At the outset John Quincy's
single-handed battle seemed hope
less. He grimly faced In his diary
the probability that he woul find
himself in his last days "forsaken by
all mankind" At one time most OF
the members of his committee re-
signed their places rather than asso-
ciate with him. Nevertheless under
his incessant pounding the majority
against the right of petition fell
session by session until it disappear
ed entirely in 1914. He had won his
long fight against the a rule and
his diary Is lit up with his rejoicing
in victory: Blessed, forever blessed
: be the name of God"
His life was crowned. His work
was done. Still he labored on. AL
! though he fell in a Boston street
under a stroke OF paralysis, he In
sisted upon returning to his duties
3 in congress-. where the members
| stood as he entered the hall and
| cheered him on his way to his seat
A year afterward, as he seemed
t about to rise to address the speaker
. he suddenly pitched forward upon
he floor. Speaker Winthrop was or
the point Of putting a question. bu'
1 was arrested by the startled outer!
of "Stopl Stop Mr.. Adams!"
The veteran had been mortallI
stricken on the field. Although III
fingered two days, he was not re
= moved from the capitol, but remain.
r ed in a little room off the old hal
of the House. There. still at his post
died this old and devoted servant o
i his country.
: Copyright, 1920. by James Morgan
published by special arrangement
3 with Tho Mcclure Newspaper Syn
n dicate).