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the best I have. The irresistible dissipation of London is none. The weakness of the heart is only a plea for mercy; much more might have been done by me."

But he now made up much of his lost time by close application. Dinners and "puerile pawn-playing" were less frequent, but a part of his reading was in the line of dissipating light "trash." His Diary at this time is quite full and gossipy.

On the last day of 1796 he wrote:

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"The seven last months, passed at The Hague, have, on the contrary, been a time of as steady and constant application as ever occurred in the course of my life. I have, in a great measure, repaired, to my own satisfaction, the loss of my time in the dissipation of London. With my conduct also since my return from England, I am more content than I was there, and in the course of seven months, I can have nothing essential to regret."

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On the 6th of August, 1796, he received a letter from the Secretary of State apprising him that President Washington had appointed him Minister to Portugal, and advising him to hold himself ready for further instructions. William Vans Murray, who had been appointed to succeed him, did not arrive at The Hague until the middle of June, 1797, and soon after Mr. Adams started for his new post.

CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL WASHINGTON PROVIDES FOR THE SON OF HIS
SUCCESSOR-NOMINALLY A LAWYER AGAIN-
MR. ADAMS TAKES A SEAT IN THE

SENATE-GOSSIP.

N the meantime the third Presidential election had

IN

taken place. As the choice of the people became apparent Washington saw the annoyance Mr. Adams would experience in relation to the official position of his son. The desire to relieve his successor of embarrassment in the case, and at the same time secure the retention of John Quincy in the diplomatic service, led Washington, towards the end of his Presidency, to transfer Mr. Adams to a new mission. The Adamses had more than intimated the difficulty among themselves, and supposed that to maintain the honor of the father the son should resume his profession during the father's Administration. The position taken by the son is clear enough in his own words in a letter to his mother at the time. He wrote:

"The appointment to the mission of Portugal, I find from your letter, was, as I had before concluded, unknown to my father. I have already written you on the subject, and I hope, my ever dear and honored mother, that you are fully convinced from my letters which you have before this received, that upon the contingency of my father's being placed in the first magistracy, I shall never give him any trouble by solicitation for office of any kind. Your late letters have repeated, so many times,

that in that case I shall have nothing to expect, that I am afraid you have imagined it possible that I might form expectations from that event. I had hoped that my mother knew me better, that she did do me the justice to believe that I have not been so totally regardless or forgetful of the principles which education has instilled, nor so totally destitute of personal sense of delicacy, as to be susceptible of a wish tending in that direction.'

In reply to a letter from the President elect, on this subject General Washington wrote:

"MONDAY, FEB. 20, 1797.

"DEAR SIR,-I thank you for giving me a perusal of the inclosed. The sentiments do honor to the head and the heart of the writer; and if my wishes would be of any avail, they should go to you in a strong hope that you will not withhold merited promotion from John Q. Adams because he is your son. For without intending to compliment the father or the mother, or to censure any others, I give it as my decided opinion that Mr. Adams is the most valuable public character we have abroad, and that there remains no doubt in my mind that he will prove himself to be the ablest of all our diplomatic corps. If he was

now to be brought into that line, or into any other public walk, I could not, on the principle which has regulated my conduct, disapprove of the caution which is hinted at in the letter. But he is already entered; the public, more and more, as he is known, are appreciating his talents and worth; and his country would sustain a loss if these were to be checked by over-delicacy on your part.

"With sincere esteem, and affectionate regard,

"I am ever yours,

GEORGE WASHINGTON."

In May, 1796, President Washington had sent to the Senate the appointment of John Quincy Adams to be Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon, and in this the Senate concurred.

It being decided to establish a mission at Berlin at the outset of Mr. Adams's Administration, and this being of the same grade as that of Portugal, he chose to transfer his son to the former. This change, the

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

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