No one can read this extraordinary letter, and compare it with the actual character of John Quincy Adams as ultimately developed, without regarding that character as a fulfilment, in all respects, of the prayers and purposes of his illustrious parent.

The voyage of the American Minister was made in a time of great peril.  The naval supremacy of Great Britain was already established.  Her armed ships traversed the ocean in all directions.  Captain Tucker saw a large English ship showing a row of guns, and with the consent of the Minister, engaged her.  When hailed, she answered with a broadside.  John Adams had been requested to retire to the cockpit, but when the engagement had begun, he was found among the marines, with a musket in his hands.

The desired treaty with France had been consummated by Dr. Franklin, before the arrival of John Adams.  After that event, Congress decided to have but one minister in that country, and Dr. Franklin having deservedly received the appointment, John Adams asked and obtained leave to return home, after an absence of a year and a half.  During that period the younger Adams attended a public school in Paris, while his leisure hours were filled with the instructions casually derived from the conversation of John Adams, and Dr. Franklin, and other eminent intellectual persons, by whom his father was surrounded.  The improvement of the son during his sojourn abroad is thus mentioned by John Adams, just before his embarkation on his return to America.

“My son has had a great opportunity to see this country, but this has unavoidably retarded his education in some other things.  He has enjoyed perfect health from first to last, and is respected wherever he goes, for his vigor and vivacity both of mind and body; for his constant good humor, and for his rapid progress in French, as well as in general knowledge, which, for his age, is uncommon.”

John Adams now regarded his public life as closed.  He wrote to Mrs. Adams: 

“The Congress, I presume, expect that I should come home, and I shall come accordingly.  As they have no business for me in Europe, I must contrive to get some for myself at home.  Prepare yourself for removing to Boston, into the old house, for there you shall go, and I will draw writs and deeds, and harangue juries, and be happy.”

This calculation was signally erroneous, as all calculations upon personal ease and peace by great and good men always are.  He remained at home only three months, and during that time he had other and higher occupations than drawing writs and deeds.  He was elected Delegate to the Convention charged with the responsible and novel duty of forming a written constitution for Massachusetts.  In that body he labored with untiring assiduity, as in Congress; the constitution thus produced was in a great measure prepared by himself, and it is due to his memory to record the fact, that it was among the most democratic of all the constitutions which were adopted by the new States.  The younger Adams having returned to America with his father, had thus the advantage of seeing republican theories brought into successful, practical application.