CHAPTER II.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AS A BOY IN EUROPE—A PICTURE AND STUDY-HIS FIRST PUBLIC SERVICE.

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S has been seen, John Adams embarked on the 13th of February, 1778, as a commissioner to France on the part of the United States, and with him went his son, John Quincy, then less than eleven years of age. In April they reached Paris, taking up their residence at Passy, and soon afterwards John Quincy was placed in a school.

I am here reminded of the Adams pronunciation of the name, Quincy, as if z took the place of c. In Boston the pronunciation quin-zy appeared to be the rule, perhaps. I called the attention of Charles Francis Adams, Sen., to this custom, and he replied that it had always prevailed in his family; but, when reminded that Webster, the lexicographer, a Massachusetts man, gave the preference to quin-cy, he seemed surprised, and intimated that he made no pretension as to the pronunciation of the word. It was a custom, and might or might not be very securely founded. Out of New. England, I think, quin-zy can seldom be heard in the use of the proper name, that pronunciation being, with much more care and accuracy, appropriated to the name of the disagreeable throat affection, quinsy, in which s readily and properly enough takes the sound of z, to which it should give

way in the orthography. It could be no more disgusting to me to spell John Quinzy Adams than it would to speak it.

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But to return to the boy at Passy. portunity offered at this time for him to become acquainted with the French language was not lost. While this was made one of his first studies, other weighty matters were not forgotten. His good disposition and vigor of body were fully tested.

The following part of a note to his father, which is found in Mr. Everett's Oration, before mentioned, will give some idea of the work on his hands, besides indicating who really stood behind the "master":

"As a young boy can not apply himself to all those things, and keep a remembrance of them all, I should desire that you would let me know what of those I must begin upon at first. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."

"I am, your dutiful son,

A dutiful son, indeed, who, at such an age, would undertake a task like that for the accommodation of

his parents! And whose conduct, to some extent, gave rise to the following very remarkable letter, to say the least, from his father to his mother, dated October 29, 1775 :—

"Human nature, with all its infirmities and depravation, is still capable of great things. It is capable of attaining to degrees of wisdom and of goodness which we have reason to believe appear respectable in the estimation of superior intelligences. Education makes a greater difference between man and man, than

nature has made between man and brute. The virtues and powers to which men may be trained, by early education and constant discipline, are truly sublime and astonishing.

"Newton and Locke are examples of the deep sagacity which. may be acquired by long habits of thinking and study. Nay, your common mechanics and artisans are proofs of the wonderful dexterity acquired by use; a watchmaker, finishing his wheels and springs, a pin or needle maker, etc. I think there is a particular occupation in Europe, which is called paper-staining, or linen-staining. A man who has long been habituated to it, shall sit for a whole day, and draw upon paper various figures, to be imprinted upon the paper for rooms, as fast as his eye can roll and his fingers move, and no two of his draughts shall be alike. The Saracens, the Knights of Malta, the army and navy in the service of the English Republic, among many others, are instances to show to what an exalted height valor or bravery or courage may be raised, by artificial means.

"It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children, and exalt their courage, to accelerate and animate their industry and activity, to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel and creep all their lives.

"But their bodies must be hardened, as well as their souls exalted. Without strength, and activity and vigor of body, the brightest mental excellencies will be eclipsed and obscured. "JOHN ADAMS."

In the summer of 1779 his father's diplomatic services coming to an end, as he thought, they returned to America, landing in Boston early in August. The Congress took a different view of the matter, and again sent Mr. Adams abroad, this time with a commission to negotiate a treaty of peace with England. About the middle of November, 1779, they again sailed for Europe in the same vessel that had brought them home. This time the company was considerably enlarged. John Quincy's early teacher, Thaxter, and

Francis Dana went out, the latter as Secretary of Legation to Mr. Adams; and besides these was Charles, a younger brother, also destined for school in Europe. Owing to the difficulties of the voyage they were landed at Ferrol, a port in the northern corner of Spain, a country friendly to the United States, and traveled overland to Paris, where John Quincy and his brother were soon entered in a boarding-school.

On the former trip, as has been seen, John Quincy made the first step toward beginning his wonderful Diary, but little progress was yet apparent. For many years, indeed, the Diary had a very precarious existence; and not until 1795, perhaps, did it become a certainty among Mr. Adams's other earnest purposes. From that time on to the end of his life there were but few trifling breaks in it. It is certainly little matter of surprise that this apparently worthless sort of scribbling was at times neglected by a youth like John Quincy Adams so favorably situated for occupying his time and vigor to much greater advantage. The examples of the past were not encouraging. The diarists who had gone before him had in the main failed to leave any thing either for their own betterment, or that of the world. Most of them had dealt in scandal and gossip and other men's business, or had taken up their time in recording the time of eating and drinking and sleeping, and such trivial and merely animal usages. Diaries of mental life, the development of great and good thoughts, with a systematic, useful purpose, are few and far between. Few men have been great or thoughtful enough to depart from the ordinary way, in this matter. How far John Quincy Adams succeeded in doing so remains to be seen.

Until the fall of 1780 he continued in school at Paris, and was then for a short time in Amsterdam. The following extract from a letter from his father to his mother, and dated December 18, 1780, will, perhaps, add some interest at this point:

"I have this morning sent Mr. Thaxter with my two sons to Leyden, there to take up their residence for some time, and there to pursue their studies of Latin and Greek under the excellent masters, and there to attend lectures of the celebrated professors in that university. It is much cheaper there than here. The air is infinitely purer, and the company and conversation are better. It is, perhaps, as learned a university as any in Europe.

"I should not wish to have children educated in the common schools of this country, where a littleness of soul is notorious. The masters are mean-spirited wretches, pinching, kicking, and boxing the children upon every turn. There is, besides, a general littleness, arising from the incessant contemplation of stivers and doits, which pervades the whole people.

"Frugality and industry are virtues everywhere, but avarice and stinginess are not frugality. The Dutch say, that without a habit of thinking of every doit before you spend it, no man can be a good merchant, or conduct trade with success.

"This, I believe, is a just maxim in general; but I would never wish to see a son of mine govern himself by it. It is the sure and certain way for an industrious man to be rich. It is the only possible way for a merchant to become the first merchant, or the richest man in the place. But this is an object that I hope none of my children will ever aim at. It is indeed true, everywhere, that those who attend to small expenses, are always rich.

"I would have my children attend to doits and farthings as devoutly as the merest Dutchman upon earth, if such attention was necessary to support their independence. A man who discovers a disposition and a design to be independent, seldom succeeds. A jealousy arises against him. The tyrants are alarmed on the one side, lest he should oppose them; the slaves are alarmed on the other, lest he should expose their servility. The cry from all quarters is, He is the proudest man in the world; he can not bear to be under obligation.'

"I never in my life observed any one endeavoring to lay me