dency, the era of party and partisan conflict again set in, gathering strength and durability on to the present day. The issues before the country were changing; the policy hitherto generally pursued, and which, to a very considerable degree, terminated with his Presidency, was largely departed from in the new Administration, and in the distinct and solid party which gave rise to it. Questions and principles comparatively dormant heretofore now began to demand recognition. It was the beginning of a new order of things. In the new Democracy there were elements unsuited to his ideas of national policy, and his position was gradually well defined in the opposition. The question of slavery, then paramount, formed an impassable barrier between the dominant Democracy, with an almost solid support in the slave territory, and the Northern opposition. Matters of domestic and administrative importance also began to distinguish the ruling party, and form natural limits to popular unanimity. As a champion of some of the independent and transient questions, as that of Anti-Masonry, Mr. Adams now naturally found himself in the ranks of the organized opposition. From the time he entered Congress as a member of the House of Representatives he stood mainly with the Whigs, and towards the last of his life was indebted to them for his continuance in office. And toward the end, at times when hard pressed, he forgot his strong desire to be purely national, and, like a partisan ranger, fought for the honor of his section and of New England. While having strong convictions, he often doubted not only his sense of propriety, but also the soundness of his own judgment. He always distrusted his quick impulses and high temper; and especially did he display these traits to his disadvantage and regret in some of his many wordy contests in the public newspapers. He was a fearless defender of whatever he believed to be right, and often acted as if he was compelled to do what he did, as if fate directed him. He had all the traits which have distinguished martyrs in any great cause. His public and private morals were the same. His integrity was beyond suspicion. So accurate and exacting were his social, mental, and physical habits as to especially distinguish him. Like most men of great mental and literary resources, he sought no bosom friendships, and squandered no more of life in what is called society than his condition led him to think was necessary. Of the highest and most beneficial society, that of the wise, progressive, unselfish, refined, and good, through the medium of their writings, he never tired. He sought it in every direction, and besides bringing him rich returns in private delights, it was the true source of his success in the affairs of men, and in their feelings of admiration for him. While being mainly rigorous in his personal habits, he bent himself to the usual requirements of public life. He could sit long at the table, amidst all its unrefining odors and associations, and drink as much light liquors as any foreign diplomate or home-made toper; and for thirty years he was a tobacco smoker, spending as many years of his life in getting rid of the disgusting and unrighteous habit, and exhibiting the disagreeable fact that his moral and other clean, controlling forces were not readily or always master. Yet he despised intemperance and all other unmanly excesses," and, in common parlance, was a model among men in moral and intellectual matters. 66 What he deemed his religious duties, Mr. Adams performed with the utmost and most scrupulous exactness. His life was full of both verbal and actual prayers, and prayer was the burden of his song. His public life was the mirror of his principles and his private character; his theory and practice were mainly lofty and harmonious; and his greatest desire undoubtedly was to make these beneficial to his country and race. CHAPTER XXXIX. THE POET-PRESIDENT-SPECIMENS OF HIS POETRY, AND SOME OF HIS MOST STRIKING AND WORTHY SAYINGS "W AND SENTIMENTS. ANTS of Man," a poem in twenty-five stanzas, written by Mr. Adams in the winter of 1839, was deemed by some of his friends his best effort in poetry, although he thought himself that when he had finished "Dermot Mac Morrogh," eight years before, the Muse could do nothing better for him. The poem called "A Vision," written while he was a law student in 1790, one of his first, Mr. Adams always liked; and, indeed said some time in one of his self-appreciative moments, that it was not only the finest he ever wrote himself, but also about as fine as he had ever seen. He was a great admirer and an extensive reader of poetry, and his judgment on such a point ought to be of weight, even when he was the subject himself. Few men of his day, perhaps, were better acquainted with the poetry of his own age, and of the past. With many of the writers of poetry he was personally acquainted; the works and biographies of all who had risen to any public note he knew well; and one of his most attractive lectures was on Shakespeare and his characters. He was the only President of the United States who could write poetry either good or bad; and was, perhaps, the most wonderfully and admirably versatile literary man among all of his countrymen. THE PLAGUE IN THE FOREST. Time was, when round the lion's den, But by four-footed beasts instead. The bull, prepared with horns to gore, The cat with claws, the tusky boar, And all the canine breed. In social compact thus combined, He whispered to the royal dunce, One summer, by some fatal spell, (Phoebus was peevish for some scoff), The plague upon that city fell, And swept the beasts by thousands off. The lion, as became his part, Loved his own people from his heart, His peerage summoned to advise And offer up a sacrifice, To soothe Apollo's rage. Quoth lion, "We are sinners all, |