urning
home, entered the junior class at Harvard, from which he graduated in
1788. Washington appreciated his ability, and made him minister to The
Hague and afterward to Portugal. When his father became President he
transferred him to Berlin. The Federalists elected him to the United
States Senate in 1803, and in 1809 he was appointed minister to Russia.
He negotiated important commercial treaties with Prussia, Sweden, and
Great Britain, and, it will be remembered, he was leading commissioner
in the treaty of Ghent, which brought the War of 1812 to a close. He was
a man of remarkable attainments, but he possessed little magnetism or
attractiveness of manner, and by his indifference failed to draw warm
friends and supporters around him. Adams was re-elected to Congress
repeatedly after serving out his term as President. He was seized with
apoplexy while on the point of rising from his desk in the House of
Representatives, and died February 23, 1848.

[Illustration: JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

(1767-1848.) One term, 1825-1829.]

The country was highly prosperous during the presidency of the younger
Adams. The public debt, to which the War of 1812 added $80,000,000,
began to show a marked decrease, money was more plentiful, and most
important of all was the introduction of the steam locomotive from
England. Experiments had been made in that country for a score of years,
but it was not until 1829 that George Stephenson, the famous engineer,
exhibited his "Rocket," which ran at the rate of nearly twenty miles an
hour.

INTRODUCTION OF THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE.

The first clumsy attempts on this side were made in 1827, when two short
lines of rails were laid at Quincy, near Boston, but the cars were drawn
by horses, and, when shortly after, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was
chartered, the intention was to use the same motor. In 1829, a steam
locomotive was used on the Delaware and Hudson Canal Railroad, followed
by a similar introduction on the Baltimore and Ohio Road. The first
railroad chartered expressly for steam was granted in South Carolina for
a line to run from Charleston to Hamburg. The first locomotive made by
Stephenson was brought across the ocean in 1831. The Americans set to
work to make their own engines, and were successful in 1833. It will be
noted that these events occurred after the administration of Adams.

THE CHEROKEES IN GEORGIA.

Most of the country east of the Mississippi was being rapidly settled.