The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-05-01
By JAMES MORGAN

II Of1N QUlNCI ALA MS dIOue Has
u solved the problem of eX-Presi-
dents. He forgot that he had
been President at all and went to work
like any other citizen.
Until John Quincy set this truly
democratic example, people still look
ed upon Presidents more like old world
Kings than as new world servants and
eX-Presidents were expected to bear
themselves like dethroned monarchs.
Forbidden to earn their living and re-
quired to keep up a Semi-PreSidential
state, two of our earlier Presidents
were reduced to want in their retire
ment and did not leave enough money
to meet the cost of burying them.
With his houses in Quincy and BOs-
ton mortgaged and the income from
his estate too slender for the support
of his family, John Quincy heard the
Ominous bark of the wolf at his door
as, in his gloomy fancy, he closed it
upon public life in his end year When
some neighbors ventured to ask the
next year if it would be beneath his
dignity to represent the old Plymouth
Rock District in Congress, this great
American, who had been a Senator,
Minister at the courts of The Hague,
Berlin, St. Petersburg and London,
a Secretary of State and a 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 exPresident 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 administration
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 consideration for the
high honors he had worn, because he
had laid them aside.
Although not an anti-Slavery agi-
tator, he felt in duty bound to present
| the various petitions he received pray
| ing for the abolition of slavery in the
| District of Columbia or for the over
throw of the system everywhere. AT
! first his action in the matter excited
| little attention. But as the abolition
movement in the North grew more
aggressive, the Southern member
grew more sensitive. In its perplex
|
stuck it's head in the sand to avoid
hearing the rising cutlery and foolish
| ly voted no longer to permit the people
to address their Representatives on
! the subject.
That was a challenge to John
Quincy's sense of justice and love OF
| liberty and he boldly took it up
Thenceforth through eight stormy
! l. l. = rs.-I.I
with the slave interests of the South
and thoir allies, the moneyed interests
of the Norh. which together controlled
! both political parties. Standing al
| bay. with his back to the wall, asking
10 quarter and never Sparing a head
! he struck right and left at the foes
which beset him until, at last, he beat
them off and saved the ancient right
of petition, which he insisted SHOULD
not be denied to the humblest the
| poorest and the most WhotChed. The
pages of 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 age, standing hi;
ground like a gladiator day after day
year after year, as passion blinded mer
ttSSiiitu MN HUH eve sue.
Defying the Speakers gavel ant
the shricks of rage rained upon his
venerable head, he continued to rise
and flood the Laundering House will
petitions against slavery In the frs
two months of 1928, he presented more
than 800 such papers. only to have
them laid on the table A still large
number was submitted by him on ;
single day in 1910.
"Expel him," "ENpel him." hi
enemies cried in their fury. Even hi
assassination was threatened. On on,
= occasion he breasted a Wild tompes
OF debate for three days while tn,
members talked of nothing else thar
the proper punishment to inflict upol
him. The old lion cowed him with hi
courage. Although his censure wa
moved six times in the long cours'
Of those bitter struggles, the coward
ly House flinched from facing tn,
issue and no one of the motions wa
brought to Il vote.
At the outset John Quincvs single
handed battle seemed hopeless. H
grimly faced in his diary the proba
bility that he would find himself il
his last days "forsaken by all man
klnd. At one time, most OF the mem
bers of his committee resigned thei
places rather than associate with him
Nevertheless under his incpssa n
pounding, the majority against tn
right of petition fell session by ses
sion until it disappeared entirely il
1874. He had won his long figh
against the gag rule and his diary i
lit up with his rejoicing in victory
blessed, forever blessed be the nam
of God"
His life was crowned His work wa
done. Still he Ia bored on. Although