“It was while Mr. Adams was Minister of the United States in London, that it was my personal good fortune to be admitted to his intimacy and friendship.  Being then in London on private business, and having some previous acquaintance with Mr. Adams, I found in his house an ever kind welcome, and in his intercourse and conversation unfailing attraction and improvement.  Accustomed as he had been from earliest youth to the society of the most eminent persons in Europe, alike in station and in ability, Mr. Adams never lost the entire simplicity of his own habits and character.  Under an exterior of, at times, almost repulsive coldness, dwelt a heart as warm, sympathies as quick, and affections as overflowing, as ever animated any bosom.  His tastes, too, were all refined.  Literature and art were familiar and dear to him, and hence it was that his society was at once so agreeable and so improving.  At his hospitable board, I have listened to disquisitions from his lips on poetry, especially the dramas of Shakspeare, music, painting, sculpture—­of rare excellence, and untiring interest.  The extent of his knowledge, indeed, and its accuracy, in all branches, were not less remarkable than the complete command which he appeared to possess over all his varied stores of learning and information.  A critical scholar, alike in the dead languages, in French, in German, in Italian, not less than in English—­he could draw at will from the wealth of all these tongues to illustrate any particular topic, or to explain any apparent difficulty.  There was no literary work of merit in any of these languages, of which he could not render a satisfactory account; there was no fine painting or statue, of which he did not know the details and the history; there was not even an opera, or a celebrated musical composer, of which or of whom he could not point out the distinguishing merits and the chief compositions.  Yet he was a hard-working, assiduous man of business, in his particular vocation, and a more regular, punctual, comprehensive, voluminous diplomatic correspondence than his no country can probably boast of; and it is thought the more necessary to note this fact, because sometimes an opinion prevails that graver pursuits must necessarily exclude attention to what used to be called the “humanities” of education—­those ornamental and graceful acquirements, which, as Mr. Adams well proved, not only are not inconsistent with, but greatly adorn, the weightier matters of the law and of diplomacy.  I could dwell with much satisfaction upon the memory and incidents of the days to which I am now adverting, but am admonished, by the length to which these remarks have already extended, that I may not loiter.” [Footnote:  Eulogy on John Quincy Adams, by Charles King.]

CHAPTER VI.

Mr. Adams appointed secretary of state—­arrives in the united
states—­public dinners in new York and Boston—­takes up his residence in
Washington—­defends gen.  Jackson in the Florida invasion—­recognition of
south American independence—­Greek revolution.