ILLUSTRATIONS
[John Quincy Adams]
From the original painting by John Singleton Copley, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library.
The vignette of Mr. Adams's home in Quincy is from a photograph.
[William H. Crawford]
From the painting by Henry Ulke, in the Treasury Department at Washington.
Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library.
[Stratford Canning]
After a drawing (1853) by George Richmond.
Autograph from "Life of Stratford Canning."
[Henry A. Wise]
From a photograph by Brady, in the Library of the State Department at Washington.
Autograph from the Chamberlain collection, Boston Public Library.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
CHAPTER I
YOUTH AND DIPLOMACY
On July 11, 1767, in the North Parish of Braintree, since set off as the town of Quincy, in Massachusetts, was born John Quincy Adams. Two streams of as good blood as flowed in the colony mingled in the veins of the infant. If heredity counts for anything he began life with an excellent chance of becoming famous—non sine dîs animosus infans. He was called after his great-grandfather on the mother's side, John Quincy, a man of local note who had borne in his day a distinguished part in provincial affairs. Such a naming was a simple and natural occurrence enough, but Mr. Adams afterward moralized upon it in his characteristic way:—