men claimed to be British subjects, was fired into by the English man-of-war Leopard, and several of her crew killed and wounded.  These events caused the greatest excitement in the United States.  Petitions, memorials, remonstrances, were poured in upon Congress from every part of the Union.  Mr. Jefferson endeavored by embassies, negotiations, and the exertion of every influence in his power, to arrest these destructive proceedings, and obtain a redress of grievances.  But all was in vain.  At length he determined on an embargo, as the only means of securing our commerce from the grasp of the unscrupulous mistress of the seas.  An act to that effect was passed in Dec., 1807.  This effectually prostrated what little foreign commerce had been left to the United States.

In these proceedings Mr. Jefferson was stoutly opposed by the Federal party.  Massachusetts, then the chief commercial State in the Union, resisted with its utmost influence the Embargo Act, as pre-eminently destructive to its welfare, and looked to its Senators and Representatives in Congress to urge an opposition to the extreme.  What course should Mr. Adams adopt?  On the one hand, personal friendship, the party which elected him to the Senate, the immediate interests of his constituents, called upon him to oppose the measures of the administration.  On the other hand, more enlarged considerations presented themselves.  The interest, the honor, the ultimate prosperity of the whole country—­its reputation and influence in the eyes of the world—­demanded that the Government should be supported in its efforts to check the aggressions of foreign nations, and establish the rights of American citizens.  In such an alternative John Quincy Adams could not hesitate.  Turning from all other considerations but a desire to promote the dignity and welfare of the Union, he threw himself, without reserve, into the ranks of the administration party, and labored zealously to second the measures of Mr. Jefferson.

This act subjected Mr. Adams to the severest censure.  He was charged with basely forsaking his party—­with the most corrupt venality—­with the low motive of seeking to promote ambitious longings and selfish ends.  But those who made these charges in sincerity labored under an entire misapprehension of his character and principles of action.  At this day, aided by the instructive history of his life, and by a perfect knowledge of his patriotism and devotion to truth and principle, as developed in his long and spotless career, it is clearly seen that in the event under consideration he but acted up to the high rule he had adopted, of making party and sectional considerations secondary to the honor and interest of the nation—­an example which no pure and high-minded statesman can hesitate to follow.

The Legislature of Massachusetts disapproved the course of Mr. Adams.  By a small majority of Federal votes, it elected another person to take his place in the Senate at the expiration of his term, and passed resolutions instructing its Senators in Congress to oppose the measures of Mr. Jefferson.  Mr. Adams could not, consistently with his views of duty, obey these instructions; and having no disposition to represent a body whose confidence he did not retain, he resigned his seat in the Senate, in March, 1808.