The New England Weekly Review

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
The name of this man is no longer a familiar
thing on the lips of the American people. They
who once lifted up their voices to praise him or
to censure him are silent. He is forgotten.
New candidates for adulation and abuse are be-
fore the eye of the public--and his friends and
his enemies are now too busily engaged in an-
other strife of party to remember the man who
but two short years ago was the rallying point
of one great party--and the victim of another.
Yet, forgotten as he is, this country has not,
at this moment--and never--never, in the days
of her greatest glory, has had, a purer patriot,
a more virtuous citizen, or a more dignified and
praise-worthy statesman, than John Quincy Ad-
ams. His very enemies must allow him the
possession of rare and stern virtues--principles
worthy of the best days of the republic--an un-
bending integrity--and a persevering and even
painful attention to the duties of his high sta-
tion. Amidst the persecution and abuse to
which he was subjected--the fiery ordeal
through which the great and glorious spirits of
our country pass--he pursued the 'even tenor of
his way'--neither turning to the right hand nor
the left--scrutinizing friend and foe with the
same impartial severity--extending the offices
in his gift to men whom he believed capable of
filling them with credit to themselves and their
country, without party distinction or personal
motive. He acted for the country--not for a
party--and the lesson of Government which his
example affords, may be, safely, and we ven-
ture to prophecy, will be, hereafter made the
test and the standard, whereby to judge of the
purity of future Administrations.
Posterity will do justice to the late Chief
Magistrate of the United States. His memory
will be cherished as a holy thing in the bosoms
of the patriots of future generations. He will
occupy an enviable place in the history of our
times. The fame of the warrior is not his--the
earthquake murmur of battle has never rung in
his ear--the incense which burns in the pathway
of the conqueror has never ascended before him
--but a greater and loftier tribute--the reward
of a higher service, awaits him hereafter:--and
even now, he has the animating consciousness
that those who stood by his administration and
approved his doings, were patriotic in their
support, and sincere in their approval--that
they were influenced by no hope of reward or
aggrandizement--but solely by their earnest
love of country, and their admiration of virtue,
integrity and intellect.