Norwich bulletin., 1920-04-03

his town.
 Washington was aghast at the sight of an ex-president taking his seat in the hurly burly of the lower house only two years after leaving the White house. Without joining the democrats or the ,whigs, without any faction about him, John Quincy Adams raced | alone the Jackson administration 1 which had supplanted his own and alone he met a swarm of his old time critics on a level. Nor did he ever ask any special considerat tio1 for the nigh honors he had worn, because he 1 had laid them aside.
 | Although not an anti-slavery agi- 1 taior, he felt in duty bound to pre-
 sent the various petitions he received praying for the abolition of slavery
 in the District of Columbia for the overthrow of the system everywhere. At first his action in the matter eX- cited little attention. But as the abo-
 lition movement in the Nocth grew
 more aggressive, the Southern mem
 bers grew more sensitive. In it's per plexity, the stupid house, like an os- trich, stuck it's head in the sand to
 avoid hearing the rising outcry and I fooEshly voted no longer to-, permit
 the people to address their represent atives on the subject.
 \ That was a challenge to John | Cuincy's. sense of justice and love of liberty and he boldly took it up. I Thenceforth through eight stormy | years he fought hand-to-hand fight I with the slave interests of the south ! and their allies, money interests of 1 the north, which together controlled
 both political parties. Standing at bay
 with his back to the wall, asking no T quarter and never sparing a head, he
 struck right and left at the foes which
 beset him until at last, he beat then
 off and saved the ancient right of pe-
 tition, which he insisted should not
 be denied to the humblest, the poores and the most wretched. The pages e our legislative history holds no othei , | picture so glorious as that of thii ] lonely told man eloquent" his hand 5 shaking, his feet tottering, his voic' 5 cracking with age, standing his grount 5 like gladiator day after day, yea 5 after year, as passion blinded men as 9 sailed him from every side.
 : Defying the speakers gavel an, the shrieks of rage rained upon hi ) venerable head he continued. to ris ! and flood the floundering House wit l petitions against slavery. In the frs 1 two months of 1928, he presente e more than 500 such papers, only | Q have them laid on the table" l. - still larger number was submitted b v him on single day in 1s40
 ''Expel himl"' "Expel himH' hi enemies cried in their fury Even hi x assassination was threatened. On on . occasion he breasted a wild tempes y of debate for three days while tn
 members talked of nothing else tha
 the proper punishment to infict upo D him. The old lion cowed him with hi \ courage Although his eensure wa moved six times in the long course ( those bitter struggles. the cowardl \ house finished from facing the issu
 and no one of the motions was brougf
 to vote. At the outset John Quincy's single
 handed battle seemed hopeless. H
 grinly faced in his diary the prot
 ability that he would find himself i
 his last days 'forsaken by all mar
 kind" At one time, most of the men
 bers of the committee resigned the
 places rather than associate with hir
 Nevertheless under, his ineessaI pounding, the majority against u
 right of petition fell session by SC.
 sion until it disappeared entirely
 lS44. He had won his long figl against the gag rule and his diary
 AI up W1Ih HIS I0JOlSIuS III V1cLOr, r. Blessed, forever blessed be the nan [e of God
 It Ills fife was crowned. His work W: ar done. Still he labored on Althoue
 he fell in Boston street under Iy stroke of paralysis, he insisted upf I'd returning to his duties in cengres Id where the members stood as he el l. tered the hall and cheered him on h g. way to his seat. A year afterward, n he seemed about to rise to address u ID speaker, he suddenly pitched forwal IT up the floor. Speaker Winthrop W; to on the point of putting a question b ot was arrested by the startled outcry st Stop! Stop MT. Adams!"
 The veteran had been mortal " stricken on the field. Although ne fingered two days, he was not reno ne ed from the Capitol, but remained cy little room off the old hall of t if House. There, still at his post, di ey this old and devoted servant of | is country.
 it Monday: An Immigrants Son. |