So an American father who desires his children to assume their proper place among the great force of American youth who are to perpetuate American institutions, might well bring them to the Capitol of the nation, and there in glowing words, and amid reminders of every decade of the nineteenth century and the latter part of the eighteenth, tell the story of liberty as shown in republican institutions.
He could also take his children to Mount Vernon for a day; there they might read together the history of that serene, majestic character whose eminence has carried him beyond national lines and made him belong to the world as well as to us—a citizen of all lands and of all ages.
History is best told by biography. Around Washington would be grouped John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. These men, without a precedent to follow, launched a new government, establishing all the departments of its great machinery with such wisdom, justice, and patriotism that what they did, what they thought and planned, but were not able to complete, is to-day the standard of patriotism and national achievement.
Then would follow that man whose life grows radiant in the strong search-light of history—John Quincy Adams; that Adams, who could truthfully say at the close of a long, brilliant, and useful life, in the words of an old Roman: “I have rendered to my country all the great service she was willing to receive at my hand, and I have never harbored a thought concerning her which was not divine.” With him would be his compeers, Madison, Monroe, Burr, Clay, Webster, Jackson, John Randolph, the elder Bayard, and Calhoun.
That father would not fail to make plain the stern patriotism of Andrew Jackson and Daniel Webster against the insidious treason of Calhoun and his coterie.
During the early days of President Jackson’s administration he gave a state dinner in honor of Jefferson’s birthday. On his right sat Calhoun, Vice-President of the United States, and up to this time the intimate friend and confidential adviser of the Executive. On Jackson’s left sat Webster, with the black brows of Jove.
The toasts of the evening had been ambiguous. Mr. Calhoun gave this toast: “Our union, next to our liberties the most dear; it can only be preserved by respecting the rights of States, and by distributing its burdens and its benefits equally.”
Webster nudged the President. Old Hickory sprang to his feet and gave the toast: “Our federal union; it must be preserved.” Every man drank it standing, Calhoun among the rest.
How near our country came to open rebellion is shown in the last hours of Jackson. A friend at his bedside said: “What would you have done with Calhoun and his friends had they persisted in nullification?” “Hanged them, sir, as high as Haman. They should have been a terror to traitors for all time,” said the dying statesman.
That father could tell part of the story of liberty in the life of the younger Adams. At the age of eleven Adams decided that he would be a Christian. He said: “Of this one thing I must make sure: I shall humbly serve God. If He makes me a great man, I shall rejoice; but this He surely will do: if I trust Him, He will make me a useful man.”