But a crisis in his senatorial career at length arrived. The commerce of the United States had suffered greatly by "Orders in Council," and "Milan Decrees." Our ships were seized, conducted into foreign ports and confiscated, with their cargoes. American seamen were impressed by British cruisers, and compelled to serve in a foreign navy. The American frigate Philadelphia, while near the coast of the United States, on refusing to give up four men claimed to be British subjects, was fired into by the English man-of-war Leopard, and several of her crew killed and wounded. These events caused the greatest excitement in the United States. Petitions, memorials, remonstrances, were poured in upon Congress from every part of the Union. Mr. Jefferson endeavored by embassies, negotiations, and the exertion of every influence in his power, to arrest these destructive proceedings, and obtain a redress of grievances. But all was in vain. At length he determined on an embargo, as the only means of securing our commerce from the grasp of the unscrupulous mistress of the seas. An act to that effect was passed in Dec., 1807. This effectually prostrated what little foreign commerce had been left to the United States.
In these proceedings Mr. Jefferson was stoutly opposed by the Federal party. Massachusetts, then the chief commercial State in the Union, resisted with its utmost influence the Embargo Act, as pre-eminently destructive to its welfare, and looked to its Senators and Representatives in Congress to urge an opposition to the extreme. What course should Mr. Adams adopt? On the one hand, personal friendship, the party which elected him to the Senate, the immediate interests of his constituents, called upon him to oppose the measures of the administration. On the other hand, more enlarged considerations presented themselves. The interest, the honor, the ultimate prosperity of the whole country—its reputation and influence in the eyes of the world—demanded that the Government should be supported in its efforts to check the aggressions of foreign nations, and establish the rights of American citizens. In such an alternative John Quincy Adams could not hesitate. Turning from all other considerations but a desire to promote the dignity and welfare of the Union, he threw himself, without reserve, into the ranks of the administration party, and labored zealously to second the measures of Mr. Jefferson.
This act subjected Mr. Adams to the severest censure. He was charged with basely forsaking his party—with the most corrupt venality—with the low motive of seeking to promote ambitious longings and selfish ends. But those who made these charges in sincerity labored under an entire misapprehension of his character and principles of action. At this day, aided by the instructive history of his life, and by a perfect knowledge of his patriotism and devotion to truth and principle, as developed in his long and spotless career, it is clearly seen that in the event under consideration he but acted up to the high rule he had adopted, of making party and sectional considerations secondary to the honor and interest of the nation—an example which no pure and high-minded statesman can hesitate to follow.
The Legislature of Massachusetts disapproved the course of Mr. Adams. By a small majority of Federal votes, it elected another person to take his place in the Senate at the expiration of his term, and passed resolutions instructing its Senators in Congress to oppose the measures of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Adams could not, consistently with his views of duty, obey these instructions; and having no disposition to represent a body whose confidence he did not retain, he resigned his seat in the Senate, in March, 1808.
Although Mr. Adams gave most of his days to the service of his country, yet he was fond of literary pursuits, and acquired, during his hours of relaxation from sterner duties, a vast fund of classic lore and useful learning. At an early day, he had become distinguished as a ripe scholar, and an impressive, dignified, and eloquent public speaker. His reputation for literary and scholastic attainments quite equalled his fame as a politician and statesman.
In 1804, on the death of President Willard, Mr. Adams was urged by several influential individuals, to be a candidate for the presidency of Cambridge University. He declined the proffered honor. During the following year, however, he was appointed Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, in that institution. He accepted the office, on condition that he should be allowed to discharge its duties at such times as his services in Congress would permit. His inaugural address, on entering the professorship, was delivered on the 12th of June, 1806. His lectures on rhetoric and oratory were very popular. They were attended by large crowds from Boston and the surrounding towns, in addition to the collegiate classes—a compliment which few of the professors since his day have received.
Mr. Adams continued his connection with the University, delivering lectures and conducting exercises in declamation, until July, 1809. "It was at this time, and as a member of one of the younger classes at college, that I first saw Mr. Adams, and listened to his well-remembered voice from the chair of instruction; little anticipating, that after the lapse of forty years, my own humble voice would be heard, in the performance of this mournful office. Some who now hear me will recollect the deep interest with which these lectures were listened to, not merely by the youthful audience for which they were prepared, but by numerous voluntary hearers from the neighborhood. They formed an era in the University; and were, I believe, the first successful attempt, in this country, at this form of instruction in any department of literature. They were collected and published in two volumes, completing the theoretical part of the subject. I think it may be fairly said, that they will bear a favorable comparison with any treatise on the subject, at that time extant in our language. The standard of excellence, in every branch of critical learning, has greatly advanced in the last forty years, but these lectures may still be read with pleasure and instruction. Considered as a systematic and academical treatise upon a subject which constituted the chief part of the intellectual education of the Greeks and Romans, these lectures, rapidly composed as they were delivered, and not revised by the author before publication, are not to be regarded in the light of a standard performance. But let any statesman or jurist, even of the present day, in America or Europe—whose life, like Mr. Adams's, has been actively passed in professional and political engagements, at home and abroad—attempt, in the leisure of two or three summers—his mind filled with all the great political topics of the day—to prepare a full course of lectures on any branch of literature, to be delivered to a difficult and scrutinizing, though in part a youthful audience, and then trust them to the ordeal of the press, and he will be prepared to estimate the task which was performed by Mr. Adams." [Footnote: Edward Everett's Eulogy on the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams.]
Mr. Adams's devotion to literary pursuits was destined to an early termination. On the 4th of March, 1809, Mr. Madison was inducted into the office of President of the United Slates. It was at that time far from being an enviable position. At home the country was rent into contending factions. Our foreign affairs were in a condition of the utmost perplexity, and evidently approaching a dangerous crisis. The murky clouds of war, which had for years overshadowed Europe, seemed rolling hitherward, filling the most sanguine and hopeful minds with deep apprehension. Russia, under its youthful Emperor Alexander, was rising to a prominent and influential position among the nations of Europe. Mr. Madison deemed it of great importance that the United States should be represented at that court by some individual eminent alike for talents, experience, and influence. John Quincy Adams was selected for the mission. In March, 1809, he was appointed Minister to Russia, and the summer following, sailed for St. Petersburgh.
In the meantime, our relations with Great Britain became every day more dubious. While striving, in every honorable manner, to come to terms of reconciliation, President Madison was making rapid preparations for war. The people of the United States, deprived by the non-intercourse act of the cheap productions of England, began to turn their attention and capital to domestic manufactures. At length the American Government demanded peremptorily, that the restrictions of Great Britain and France on our commerce should be abrogated; war being the alternative of a refusal. The French emperor gave satisfactory assurances that the Berlin decree should be withdrawn. The English government hesitated, equivocated, and showed evident disinclination to take any decided step.
"In this doubtful state of connexion between America and England, an accidental collision took place between vessels of the respective countries, tending much to inflame and widen the existing differences. An English sloop-of-war, the Little Belt, commanded by Capt. Bingham, descried a ship off the American coast, and made sail to come up with it; but finding it a frigate, and dubious of its nation, he retired. The other, which proved to be American, the President, under Capt. Rogers, pursued in turn. Both captains hailed nearly together; and both, instead of replying, hailed again; and from words, as it were, came to blows, without explanation. Capt. Bingham lost upwards of thirty men, and his ship suffered severely. A Court of Inquiry was ordered on the conduct of Capt. Rogers, which decided that it had been satisfactorily proved to the court, that Capt. Rogers hailed the Little Belt first, that his hail was not satisfactorily answered, that the Little Belt fired the first gun, and that it was without previous provocation or justifiable cause." [Footnote: Lives of the Presidents.]