Senate at first opposed, but finally assented to, and John Quincy Adams became the first representative of this Government to Prussia. The Senate had not objected to his transfer, but had divided on the propriety of the establishment of the Berlin Mission at all. But the treaties with Prussia and Sweden were about expiring, and these now became matters of some importance to this Government, and the President thought while not changing the grade of his son's appointment, he would be placing the business of rearranging the treaties into hands which he felt certain would obtain the most possible for his own country. It may be well to say here, however, that little came of the President's expectations in reference to these two treaties, as that with Sweden expired at once, and, after a time, also that with Prussia, although his son rearranged the treaty with the latter power, which continued in force for several years after his retirement from the Mission in 1801.

At London Mr. Adams was notified of the change in his destination, and instead of going to Portugal, late in October, he set out for Berlin. The illness and finally the death of the King, Frederic William II., prevented his full recognition for several months. The meantime he spent in an easy, idle sort of busy way; making acquaintances, playing games, attending court pageants, visiting the galleries of Dresden and other cities and never forgetting the theaters. But he now took occasion to renew his interest in the scholars and language of Germany.

He translated Wieland's Oberon into English verse, and its publication was only prevented by the appearance of Sotheby's version. In the latter part of 1800

he made a tour into Silecia, communicating the result of his observations in a series of letters to his brother, Thomas B. Adams, who had returned to the United States. In these letters he used the liberty, so freely indulged in in his Diary, of saying good, bad, and indifferent things about people, both great and small, whom he met; a thing which, at least in this case, doubtlessly gave him some uneasy moments subsequently. In the winter of 1799, his brother thoughtlessly allowed these private letters to be published at Philadelphia, by Joseph Dennie in his weekly paper, "The Port Folio." In 1804 they were printed in book form in London for profit by some unknown publisher, who represented them as "a faithful picture of the interesting province of Silecia, by the hand of a gentleman, a scholar, and a statesman."

They were also translated into German and French, and had a wide circulation in Europe. They entered quite minutely into the life and manners of the Silecians, manufactures, mines, agricultural, and other matters pertaining to their country. And although he wrote of public men and their acts with great freedom, the letters were true, and were considered highly valuable. Mr. Adams was pleased with the people of Silecia, and had he not been, it would have accorded poorly with his disposition to write badly of them. Still these letters did not escape severe criticism in England.

Mr. Adams was not completely accredited with his new credentials under the new king until the midsummer of 1798, and not until a year afterwards, July 11, 1799, did he finally conclude and sign the treaty for which he had been sent to Prussia. His

mission was at an end. The dissensions in the Federal party, and the bitter political strife at home, resulting in the defeat of his father and his entire withdrawal from public affairs, deeply affected him. He early notified the Administration of his disposition to return home. On the 4th of September, 1801, Mr. Adams reached Philadelphia, and soon afterwards leaving his family at Fredericktown, Maryland, visited his father at Quincy.

In 1828, Mr. Adams in a brief review of his life, and his first diplomatic appointment wrote in a letter:

"I had long and lingering anxieties in looking forward, doubtful even of my prospects of comfortable subsistence, but acquiring more and more the means of it, till, in the last of the four years, the business of my profession yielded me an income more than equal to my expenditures. I had, during three of the four years, not the slightest encouragement or expectation of being engaged in public life, and never was more surprised than when, about the 1st of June, 1794, I received a letter from my father, then Vice-President at Philadelphia, informing me, that Mr. Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State, had called upon him to say, that President Washington had resolved to nominate me to the Senate as Minister Resident to the Netherlands. From that hour, with two intervals each of about one year, I have been devoted to the public service. I have gone through a succession of public trusts, to the greater part of which I have been appointed when distant thousands of miles from the place where the appointment was made. I say it not for vain boasting, but as fact and example, which it is my earnest desire that all my children should follow. I have never sought public trust. But public trust has always sought me. And when invested with it, I have given my whole soul to the fulfillment of its duties.

"You may perhaps inquire what it was that recommended me to the notice of President Washington at so early a period of my life. It was the three numbers of Marcellus,' published in the 'Boston Centinel' in April, 1793, and the five numbers of Columbus,' in the same paper, in the winter of 1793 and 1794. They involved the discussion of interesting questions resorting from

the laws of nations, and which, at that moment, were of high importance to the system of our public policy. My education. and the previous course of my life had naturally turned my attention intensely to the laws of nations; and there were few persons in the country, certainly none of my age, so conversant with them, and with the controversies arising from them, as I had been. My Essays were, no doubt, the more satisfactory to President Washington, because they were devoted to the support of his Administration, and rather stemmed than followed the prevailing current of popular opinion."

Of the act of Washington which started him on his long and troublesome political career he wrote to his mother

"I know with what delight your truly maternal heart has received every testimonial of Washington's favorable voice. It is among the most precious gratifications of my life to reflect upon the pleasure which my conduct has given my parents. The terms, indeed, in which such a character as Washington has repeatedly expressed himself concerning me, have left me nothing to wish, if they did not alarm me by their very strength. How much, my dear mother, is required of me, to support and justify such a judgment as that which you have copied into your letter."

Mr. Adams again located in Boston for the purpose of resuming the practice of the law. But he was now a beginner again, and the prospects did not seem more encouraging than when he first entered the pursuit years before. His reputation and that of his family were strongly in his favor, perhaps. Still, against his father there was displayed no little bitterness at that time, and some effort was made to involve the Adams family in the spirit of ill-will toward him. Even the Massachusetts Federalists were not united and friendly. The loss of national power they attributed in some sense to the ex-President.

But, fortunately for John Quincy Adams, he had been far removed from the seat of the bitter partisan

contest which ended in the defeat of his father, and had not in any way been identified with it. He was committed to no party. With his father he deeply censured the unwise, evil, and suicidal course of Alexander Hamilton, and while he did not sympathize with the Democrats, or Republicans, as they were most generally called then, he greatly disapproved the conduct of the Federalists, with whom he was naturally and properly enough classified. The greater portion of the educated, respectable, and prosperous men of Massachusetts belonged to the Federal party. It was agreeable to Mr. Adams to maintain his understood relations with the Federalists, and it was undoubtedly his preference to lead a public or political career. While, perhaps, not fully sympathizing with his father against the Jeffersonians, he soon had a cause of his own, as he supposed, for ill-will towards Mr. Jefferson.

On resuming his law profession the District Judge for Massachusetts appointed him commissioner of bankruptcy. From this office Mr. Jefferson removed him, for the purpose of substituting one of his Democratic followers. Mr. Adams, to some extent, joined his mother in placing the worst possible construction upon this act of Mr. Jefferson. She took it as meant by Mr. Jefferson to be the last and lowest direct thrust at the father, and in this belief the Federalist friends generally joined. From this feeling Mrs. Adams never quite recovered, but, perhaps, sufficiently to forgive Mr. Jefferson for the act, after he had made a personal explanation. In a preceding volume of this work may be found the remarkable correspondence between Mr. Jefferson and Mrs. Abigail Adams, on this and a few other points. Mr. Jefferson held that