But the country and the age had claims on John Quincy Adams, as well as on his father, for higher duties than “making writs,” and “haranguing juries,” and “being happy.”

The American Revolution, which had been brought to a successful close, had inspired, throughout Europe, a desire to renovate the institutions of government.  The officers and citizens of France who had mingled in the contest, had carried home the seeds of freedom, and had scattered them abroad upon soil quick to receive them.  The flame of Liberty, kindled on the shores of the Western Continent, was reflected back upon the Old World.  France beheld its beams, and hailed them as a beacon-light, which should lead the nations out from the bondage of ages.  Inspirited by the success attending the struggle in the British colonies, the French people, long crushed beneath a grinding despotism, resolved to burst their shackles and strike for Freedom.  It was a noble resolution, but consummated, alas amid devastation and the wildest anarchy.  The French Revolution filled the world with horror.  It was the work of a blind giant, urged to fury by the remembrance of wrongs endured for generations.  The Altar of Liberty was reared amid seas of blood, and stained with the gore of innocent victims.

The measurable failure of this struggle in France, teaches the necessity of due preparation before a people can advance to the permanent possession and enjoyment of their rights.  The American colonists had been trained to rational conceptions of freedom, by lessons of wisdom and sagacity read them by their Puritan fathers, and by the experience in self-government, afforded during a century and a half of enjoyment of a large share of political privileges, granted by the mother country.  They were thus prepared to lay deep and strong the foundations of an enlightened government, which, equally removed from the extremes of despotism on the one hand, and anarchy on the other, and granting its subjects the exercise of their right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” shall endure through ages to come.  But the people of France, shut up in darkness during centuries of misrule, passed at a step from abject servitude to unlimited freedom.  They were unprepared for this violent transition.  Their conceptions of liberty were of the most extravagant description.  What wonder that they became dizzy at their sudden elevation!  What wonder that blood flowed in rivers!—­that dissension and faction rent them asunder—­ that a fearful anarchy soon reigned triumphant—­or that the confused and troubled drama closed in the iron rule of a military conqueror—­the Man of Destiny!  Let not this lesson be lost upon the world.  Let a people who would enjoy freedom, learn to merit the boon by the study of its principles and a preparation to exercise its privileges, under those salutary restraints which man can never throw off and be happy!