from their home and most unjustly held in thrall; when he asked the Judges to excuse him at once both for the trembling faults of age and the inexperience of youth, having labored so long elsewhere that he had forgotten the rules of court; when he summed up the conclusion of the whole matter, and brought before those judicial but yet moistening eyes the great men whom he had once met there, Chase, Cushing, Martin, Livingston, and Marshall himself; and while he remembered that they were 'gone, gone, all gone,' remembered also the Eternal Justice that is never gone; the sight was sublime. It was not an old patrician of Rome, who had been consul, dictator, coming out of his honored retirement at the Senate's call, to stand in the forum to levy new armies, marshal them to victory afresh, and gain thereby new laurels for his brow; but it was a plain citizen of America, who had held an office far greater than that of consul, king, or dictator, his hand reddened by no man's blood, expecting no honors, but coming in the name of justice, to plead for the slave, for the poor barbarian negro of Africa, for Cinque and Grabbo, for their deeds comparing them to Harmodius and Aristogeiton, whose classic memory made each bosom thrill. That was worth all his honors; it was worth while to live fourscore years for that."

Fourscore years for that? Perhaps it was. At all events, history, verified by the present state of political quiet and national prosperity, and sustained by the judgment of men, places Mr. Adams at the pinnacle of his career in these brave deeds of his old age.

The Supreme Bench sustained the decisions below, and Mr. Adams and other friends of the poor Africans had the satisfaction of seeing them returned to liberty in Sierre Leone.

In 1844 an attempt was actually made by Charles J. Ingersoll, of Pennsylvania, to have the country pay seventy thousand dollars to the pretended owners of these Africans, to compensate their loss. The motion to do so in the House was laid on the table forever,

but this did not prevent Mr. Adams printing the speech he had intended to make against the resolution. This was one of the most caustic of all his able and critical productions. In it he showed that Mr. Ingersoll had knowingly reared a great part of his argument on a false date, and both Mr. Ingersoll and President Van Buren had reason to regret that occasion had ever been presented to Mr. Adams for writing this speech.

In his speech before the Supreme Court, Mr. Adams had severely censured the conduct of the Administration in the Amistad case, and now he took occasion to say that the order of Mr. Van Buren, for delivery of the negroes on board the Grampus to be conveyed to Cuba, was the most despotic ever issued in this country by a President.

On the 21st of December, 1843, Mr. Adams presented to the House a petition of Massachusetts, asking that the Constitution be so changed as to base representation in Congress on free persons only, and moved its reference to a committee of nine members. At this point, Henry A. Wise lost his courage, and, declaring that the South had been worsted in the fight, said that he would abandon the field and leave the dire responsibilities to the Northern agitators. Mr. Adams thanked God, he said, that the Virginian had retired from a position so utterly untenable as that occupied by the friends of slavery. The contest was nearly ended. The petition was referred to a committee, with Mr. Adams as chairman. Six reports were made by this committee, one written by Mr. Adams, and signed by Joshua R. Giddings and himself. But both Houses voted not to act on the pro

posal of Massachusetts.

This State also complained to Congress of the treatment her lawful agents received in the South, where all principles of justice were held as subservient to slavery. Every means was employed on both sides to agitate the public mind.

On the 17th of June, 1844, Congress adjourned, and in his Diary, Mr. Adams wrote this sentence to its memory: "The first session of the most perverse and worthless Congress that has ever disgraced this continent has closed."

On the 2d of December, Mr. Adams again took his seat in Congress, and was again appointed chairman of the Committee of Manufactures, but as no reference to manufactures could be found in the President's message, no attempt was made towards carrying out the objects of the committee.

On the 3d, Mr. Adams introduced a resolution providing for the rescinding of the gag-rule, for preventing the presentation of petitions on slavery. This resolution was now actually passed, on the same day, by a vote of 108 to 80. At last victory had come, and on reflecting of what had been gained after the long and trying conflict, Mr. Adams could only say: "Blessed, forever blessed, be the name of God."

His work was mainly done. The winter was passed in comparative quiet for him, age and infirmity relieving him of many public demands and annoyances. If slavery had lost in the contest against free speech, it still presented an unbroken and determined front to its foes. After years of opposition Texas was now formally added to the United States. Of this event Mr. Adams said: "The annexation of Texas to this Union is the first step to the conquest of Mexico, of the

West India Islands, of a maritime colonizing, slavetainted monarchy, and of extinguished freedom."

So intense and exaggerated were his feelings on this subject. The evils which did follow this event, Mr. Adams did what he could to avert; but while he held out bravely against war with Mexico, and all measures he deemed Southern and founded distinctly on the purpose of advancing the cause of slavery, there is no need here of attempting to lengthen out a story which has already virtually ended. The great conflict between freedom and slavery must, of necessity, pass into younger younger hands.

CHAPTER XXXI.

"WOE UNTO YOU, SIR HARRY VANE!"-" I WILL PUT THE QUESTION MYSELF"-THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE——

NOTH

THE JUBILEE OF THE CONSTITUTION.

OTWITHSTANDING the paramount interest which has attached to Mr. Adams's struggle in Congress for the right of petition, and against slavery, there were other events connected with his career in that body which, perhaps, equally deserve attention and admiration. Some of these remain to be told.

Without any ambition in that way Mr. Adams had become the most distinguished champion of freedom, and from a high point of view greatly instrumental in inaugurating the "irrepressible conflict" ending in the War of the Rebellion. But his work was mainly done. in his place in Congress. To stir the passions of men was not his desire nor delight. This belonged to another class of Abolitionists. To describe the hostility and hatred he met at every point, would be as wholly impossible at this remote period, as the picture would be utterly useless, even were it correctly drawn.

The unfavorable reputation he made with a vast number of his countrymen on this great question was in marked contrast with the general respect, even veneration, otherwise shown him. This fact may be well exhibited in a notable scene in the House described in the following manner by an eye-witness: