I do not say there were no exceptions to this devotion to freedom in a long life; there are some passages in his history which it is impossible to justify, and hard to excuse. In early life he was evidently ambitious of place, and rank, and political power. I must confess, it seems to me, at some times, he was not scrupulous enough about the means of attaining that place and power. He has been much censured for his vote in favour of the Embargo, in 1807. His vote, howsoever unwise, may easily have been an honest vote. To an impartial spectator at this day, perhaps it will be evidently so. His defence of it I cannot think an honest defence, for in that he mentions arguments as impelling him to his vote which could scarcely have been present to his mind at the time, and, if they were his arguments then, were certainly kept in silence—they did not appear in the debate,[1] they were not referred to in the President's message.[2]
I am not to praise Mr. Adams simply because he is dead; what is wrong before is wrong after death. It is no merit to die; shall we tell lies about him because he is dead? No, the Egyptian people scrutinized and judged their kings after death—much more should we our fellow- citizens, intrusted with power to serve the State. " A lavish and undistinguishing eulogium is not praise." I know what coals of terrible fire lie under my feet, as I speak of this matter, and how thin and light is the coat of ashes deposited there in forty years; how easily they are blown away at the slightest breath of "Hartford Convention," or the "Embargo," and the old flame of political animosity blazes forth anew, while the hostile forms of
- ↑ See Pickering's Letter to Governor Sullivan, on the Embargo. Boston, 1808. John Quincy Adams's Letter to the Hon. H. O. Otis, etc. Boston, 1808. Pickering's Interesting Correspondence, 1808. Review of the Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams and the late William Cunningham, etc., 1824. But see, also, Mr. Adams's "Appendix" to the above letter, published sixteen years after the vote on the embargo. Baltimore, 1824. Mr. Pickering's Brief Remarks on the Appendix, August, 1824.
- ↑ Reference is here made to British "Orders in Council" of Nov. 22nd, 1807. They were not officially made known to the American Congress till Feb. 7th, 1808. They were, however, published in the National Intelligencer, the morning on which the message was sent to the Senate, Dec. 18th, 1807, but were not mentioned in that document nor in the debate.
