“The blooming youth of Boston—­May the maturity of the fruit be equal to the promise of the blossom.”

CHAPTER X.

Mr. Adams’s administration—­refuses to remove political opposers from
office—­urges the importance of internal improvements—­appoints
commissioners to the Congress of Panama—­his policy toward the Indian
tribes—­his speech on breaking ground for the Chesapeake and Ohio
canal—­bitter opposition to his administration—­Fails of re-election to
the presidency—­retires from office.

In administering the Government of the United States, Mr. Adams adhered with rigid fidelity to the principles embodied in his inaugural speech.  Believing that “the will of the people is the source, and the happiness of the people the end, of all legitimate government on earth,” it was his constant aim to act up to this patriotic principle in the discharge of his duties as chief magistrate.  He was emphatically the President of the entire people, and not of a section, or a party.  His administration was truly national in its scope, its objects, and its results.  His views of the sacred nature of the trust imposed upon him by his fellow-citizens were too exalted to allow him to desecrate the power with which it clothed him to the promotion of party or personal interests.  Although not unmindful of the party which elevated him to the presidency, nor forgetful of the claims of those who yielded sympathy and support to the measures of his administration, yet in all his doings in this respect, his primary aim was the general good.  Simply a friendship for him, or his measures, without other and requisite qualifications, would not ensure from Mr. Adams an appointment to office.  Neither did an opposition to his administration alone, except there was a marked practical unfitness for office, ever induce him to remove an individual from a public station.

Looking back to the administration of Mr. Adams from the present day, and comparing it with those which have succeeded it, or even those which preceded it, the acknowledgment must be made by all candid minds, that it will lose nothing in purity, patriotism, and fidelity, in the discharge of all its trusts.  He was utterly incapable of proscription for opinion’s sake.  With a stern integrity worthy the highest admiration, and which the people at that period were far too slow to acknowledge and appreciate, he would not displace his most active political opponents from public stations he found them occupying, provided they were competent to their duty and faithful in