went down in a sea of blood. Missouri was the first state to be admitted which had grown up on the Louisiana purchase. Others were to follow. The south desired to carry slavery into all that territory and to carve it up into states devoted to its interests. The north wished to devote it to the freedom which the republic was founded to promote. The south had sent its best men to Congress, as was its custom in une days of slavery, when there was little to employ its best talent, out politics. The north was busy in its multiplied business affairs. It was Mr. Adams' opinion that the southern side of Congress was the stronger and much more persistent. It was perfectly united, and had a great interest as it believed to contend for; while the north had many opinions and no interests in the question but those of patriotism and humanity. William Pinkney, James Barbour, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, were then leaders in the debate on the southern side, while Rufus King, perhaps, was the only northern man then in Congress. equal to them in debate. Mr. Adams, as secretary of state, was simply a looker on in the public debate, except as he conversed frequently with the speakers on both sides. He recorded his conversations and opinions and the essential facts in the whole case. He was himself intensely opposed to slavery, so much so, that he felt that the makers of the constitution had made a mistake in compromising with it. He saw that it was imperiling and must ultimately destroy the union or be itself destroyed. The subject went into cabinet meetings. Mr. Calhoun did not think the Union would be dissolved, but if it was, the south would join with England and make their states military communities. Mr. Adams assured him that if the matter was pressed to a dissolution of the Union, it would be followed by universal emancipation; and a more remote result might be the extermination of the colored race in this country. Mr. Adams would defend the colored people against slavery on account of their weakness, "and if the dissolution of the Union must come," he said, "let it come from no other cause but this. If slavery be the destined sword, in the hand of the destroying angel, which is to sever the ties of this Union, the same sword will cut assunder the bonds of

slavery itself." It was his conviction that slavery could not long survive the dissolution of the union. He thought then was the time to settle the question of the extension of slavery, for he said: "Time will only show whether the contest may ever be renewed with equal advantage." And he wrote: "Oh, if but one man could arise with a genius capable of comprehending, a heart capable of supporting, and an utterance capable of communicating, those eternal truths which belong to the question,to lay bare in all its nakedness that outrage upon the goodness of God, human slavery,-now is the time, and this is the occasion, upon which such a man would perform the duties of an angel upon earth."

Again he wrote: "Slavery is the great and foul stain on the American Union, and it is a contemplation worthy of the most exalted soul, whether its total abolition is not practicable. This object is vast in its compass, awful in its prospects, sublime and beautiful in its issue. A life devoted to it would be nobly spent and sacrificed." His soul revolted at human slavery as containing every foul principle against which the American revolution was waged, and opposed to every good principle of the American republic. It violated the rights of human nature and the polit-. ical freedom our government was established to guarantee to its people. This discussion intensified his abhorrence of slavery and the bitter fruits it bore in the slaveholders themselves, and did much to give a strong anti-slavery tone to the rest of his life.

The debate resulted in a compromise, known ever since as the "Missouri Compromise," which admitted Missouri as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in the remaining portion of the Louisiana purchase north of latitude thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes.

Mr. Monroe's administration was so wisely conducted that it resulted in great prosperity to the country. The war was over and brought its good results to our commerce and the increased confidence of foreign nations; agriculture developed rapidly; manufactures increased and were protected and fostered by the government; political animosities and jealousies subsided, and the people began to feel that their government was founded to be permanent. Internal improvements were begun and the

people began to accept the lessons of experience and the wisdom of righteousness as worth more than ideal theories. In all these good attainments of Mr. Monroe's administration, Mr. Adams is to be credited with no small share of honor. He was the diplomat; his the great philosophic mind which did much to shape and give tone to the measures and spirit of the government. Adams was the thinker, Monroe was the practical executive of the administration. They complemented each other and did more and better together than either could have done without the other. The "era of good feeling" which they secured was first realized by the president and secretary in the unity and harmony of their deliberations. During Mr. Adams' secretaryship, the affairs of our government were put upon a better footing than they ever had been before.

THE PRESIDENT.

On the fourth of March, 1825, Mr. Adams was inaugurated sixth president of the United States. There was no election by the people on account of the many candidates. "Of two hundred and sixty-one electoral votes, General Jackson received ninety-nine, Mr. Adams eighty-four, Mr. Crawford forty-one, and Mr. Clay thirty-seven."

By the constitution the election was thrown into the House of Representatives, in which Mr. Adams received a majority of all the votes and was elected. John C. Calhoun was nearly unanimously elected vice-president.

Mr. Monroe's administration, by various causes, had nearly silenced the federal party, so that the several candidates for the presidency were essentially of the same party. The differences were chiefly local and sectional. They inaugurated a season of stormy strife in which personal qualities more than political principles, carried on bitter controversies.

Andrew Jackson, one of the defeated candidates, claimed at once that he was defeated by a bargain between Adams and Clay, the outward evidence of which was that Clay was made Jackson took his state, Tennessee, with him in his denunciation of Adams and Clay, and opposition to their

secretary of state.

administration. That state took "time by the forelock," and at once nominated Jackson for the next president. He resigned his seat in the United States Senate to conduct his campaign for the next election. This raised at once personal animosities, ambitions and partisans, which easily disturbed the peaceful administration of the government. Jackson was not a man to soften any personal prejudice, or yield any personal ambitions; Adams was not a man to yield any conscientious conviction or swerve from any duty. Two strong men could not well be more unlike in character, education and purpose in life. One was educated, broad, generous, high-minded; the other was natural, concentrated, passionate, generous to his friends and vindictive to his supposed enemies. They agreed in party affiliation, but Jackson's defeat put him upon his military spirit, and he marshalled his forces for a battle.

Mr. Adams was the first man made president, who had no personal part in the revolution. Yet he was born of its spirit and true to its principles. No man ever understood better its fundamental principles, or gave them a heartier devotion, or a grander illustration in his life. No man ever threw upon them a clearer light from a great intellect and a noble heart.

Mr. Adams was the second president from the northern states, his father being the first. The four others were from Virginia. Three southern candidates ran against him and no northern one.

The removing and appointing power of the president is very great; yet Mr. Adams "made but two removals, both from unquestionable causes; and in his new appointments, he was scrupulous in selecting candidates whose talents were adapted to the public service." He appointed some federalists to office, but was severely censured by his southern democratic friends for it. It was his intention invariably to make ability and integrity the qualifications for office.

In his first message, Mr. Adams made several important recommendations: "The maturing into a permanent and regular system the application of all the superfluous revenues of the Union to internal improvement; "the establishment of a uni

form standard of weights and measures;" "the establishment of a naval school of instruction for the formation of scientific and accomplished officers;" "the establishment of a national university," which had been recommended by Washington.

In all these recommendations, he was looking to the permanence, progress and character of the nation. He was not simply playing president for the glory of it, he was nation building He was a national man; had studied national affairs in this country and Europe, in history and in the nature of men, all his life, and now ripened, conscientious and large-hearted, he was applying his knowledge, patriotism and humanity, to the conduct and development of the national character and resources. He was too clear-seeing, downright and genuine to be understood by the average politicians and people of his day, unless they were those who came into daily intercourse with him. He would not truckle; he would not conciliate to the loss of self-respect; he would not yield to partisan wrong; so he was misunderstood, maligned, abused, by multitudes in high places and low, incapable of appreciating his disinterested, manly and dignified character. In that early day he wanted to protect and encourage American manufactures; wanted a system of internal improvements; wanted a civil service based on merit; a uniform system of weights and measures, a subject which he had deeply studied, a written report of which had gained him great credit in Europe; wanted a naval academy and a national university, all of which are level with the best thought of our time. On these things, and many more, he was simply fifty years in advance of his age. Indeed, his was the colossal mind of his time, enriched beyond any of his countrymen in political learning, and fired with a noble patriotism.

During Mr. Adams' administration, the Marquis de Lafayette visited the United States for the last time. Congress desired to send a ship for him, but he preferred to come in a less formal way. He arrived in New York on the fifteenth of August, 1824. His reception in New York was sublime and brilliant in the extreme. He proceeded from New York on a tour through the United States, which was everywhere a pageant