ath of the Father of his Country,
candidly acknowledged the injustice of such criticism.

[Illustration: JOHN ADAMS.

(1735-1826.) One term, 1797-1801.]

The services of Adams were not confined to his early efforts in Congress
nor to his term as President. He did important work as commissioner to
France and Holland, and as minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a
treaty of peace with Great Britain. He obtained large loans and induced
leading European powers to make excellent treaties with his country.
Adams and Franklin framed the preliminary treaty of Versailles, and, as
the first American minister to England, he served until 1788. He
received the thanks of Congress for the "patriotism, perseverance,
integrity, and diligence" displayed while representing his country
abroad. When John Adams assumed the duties of the presidency, he found
the country comparatively prosperous and well governed.

The South was the most prosperous. Until 1793, its principal productions
were rice, indigo, tar, and tobacco. The soil and climate were highly
favorable to the growth of cotton, but its culture was unprofitable, for
its seeds were so closely interwoven in its texture that only by hard
work could a slave clean five pounds a day. In the year named, Eli
Whitney, a New England schoolteacher, living in Georgia, invented the
cotton gin, with which a man can clean a thousand pounds of cotton a
day. This rendered its cultivation highly profitable, gave an importance
to the institution of slavery, and, in its far-reaching effects, was the
greatest invention ever made in this country.

TROUBLES WITH FRANCE.

The matter which chiefly occupied public attention during the
administration of the elder Adams was our difficulties with France. That
country had hardly emerged from the awful Reign of Terror in which a
million of people were massacred, and it was under the control of a set
of bloody minded miscreants, who warred against mankind and believed
they could compel the United States to pay a large sum of money for the
privilege of being let alone. They turned our representatives out of the
country, enacted laws aimed to destroy our commerce, and instructed
their naval officers to capture and sell American vessels and cargoes.

[Illustration: THE COTTON GIN, INVENTED IN 1793.

A machine which does the work of more than 1,000 men.]

President Adams, who abhorred war, sent special ministers to protest
against the course of France. The