Alexandria Gazette

J. Q. Adams.

Mr. Adams has been welcomed home by the Ladies of Hingham (Mass.) A handsome rural entertainment was given, and Mr. A. was presented to them, in a complimental speech, by Mr. Loring.

Mr. Adams replied in a brief and exceedingly pertinent address to the Ladies. He said the difficulty of speaking was affected by circumstances. He had found no difficulty in addressing two hundred and forty men in an assembly to which Austin had been made by his friend, but his emotions struggled in utterance under the circumstances in which he there stood before them. Grateful to his heart was it to be thus welcomed by his constituents, for, said he, I consider the Ladies of this Congressional District as much my constituents as their male relatives by whose votes I was elected. I know, said he, that it is asserted that women have no political rights. The petitions had been treated in the body of which he was a member as if they had none. In all history refuted this position. They had political rights, but he would not say it was their duty to exercise them, except in cases of great, pressing, public emergency. Their petitions, however, which he had presented to Congress, were all on the side of kindness, humanity, and benevolence. He would say of the Ladies what was once said to a Senator in Congress—no more, to his domestic affairs his wife was the Committee of Ways and he was the Committee of Wars.

In relation to his own affairs which had been spoken of in terms of sneers he reserved approbation. He said that he had claimed the right to be heard in Congress for successive days on the great question of human rights—the right of petition—the right of women to be heard by the tyrant. But he would not weary them by saying an account of the manner in which he had discharged his duties. The sub-treasury would not be interesting to them. In some day, however, to the Ladies, their rights he was determined ever to defend and trusted they would be maintained in Massachusetts if nowhere else.

Without detaining the company longer he said, after thanking them for their kindness and approbation, on apologizing for his brevity might be found in this large collection of ladies. He had found in the course of his life that it was a easy matter to address two hundred and forty men, but it had proved to him an arduous task to address, successfully, on women.

After these remarks were concluded rejoicings were made strenuously by the Ladies, and then followed an Ode which was composed for the occasion and sung with fine effect.

Several other appropriate speeches were made, among them—The Brave Old Turk.