To perfect his knowledge of the German language, Mr. Adams made a metrical translation of Wieland’s Oberon into the English language.  The publication of this work, which at one time was designed, was superseded by the appearance of a similar translation by Sotheby.

In the summer of 1800, Mr. Adams made a tour through Silesia.  He was charmed with the inhabitants of that region, their condition and habits.  In many respects he found them bearing a great similarity to the people of his own native New England.  He communicated his impressions during this excursion, in a series of letters to a younger brother in Philadelphia.  These letters were interesting, and were considered of great value at that time, in consequence of many important facts they contained in regard to the manufacturing establishments of Silesia.  They were published, without Mr. Adams’s knowledge, in the Port Folio, a weekly paper edited by Joseph Dennie, at Philadelphia.  The series was afterwards collected and published in a volume, in London, and has been translated into German and French, and extensively circulated on the continent.

Among other labors while at Berlin, Mr. Adams succeeded in forming a treaty of amity and commerce with the Prussian government.  The protracted correspondence with the Prussian commissioners, which resulted in this treaty, involving as it did the rights of neutral commerce, was conducted with consummate ability on the part of Mr. Adams, and received the fullest sanction of the government at home.

Mr. Adams’ missions at the Hague and at Berlin, constituted his first step in the intricate paths of diplomacy.  They were accomplished amid the momentous events which convulsed all Europe, at the close of the eighteenth century.  Republican France, exasperated at the machinations of the Allied Sovereigns to destroy its liberties, so recently obtained, was pushing its armies abroad, determined, in self-defence, to kindle the flames of revolution in every kingdom on the Continent.  Great Britain, combined with Austria and other European powers, was using every effort to crush the French democracy, and remove from before the eyes of down-trodden millions an example so dangerous to monarchical institutions.  The star of Napoleon had commenced its ascent, with a suddenness and brightness which startled the imbecile occupants of old thrones.  His legions had rushed down from the Alps upon the sunny plains of Italy, and with the swoop of an eagle, had demolished towns, cities, kingdoms.

Amid this conflict of nations, the commerce and navigation of the United States, a neutral power, were made common object of prey to all.  Great Britain and France especially, did not hesitate to make depredations, at once the most injurious and irritating.  Our ships were captured, our rights disregarded.  In the midst of these scenes, surrounded by difficulties and embarrassments on every hand, the youthful ambassador was compelled to come into collision with the veteran