mmonwealth, in
1780. At the latter end of the same year, he again went abroad in the
diplomatic service of the country, and was employed at various courts,
and occupied with various negotiations, until 1788. The particulars of
these interesting and important services this occasion does not allow
time to relate. In 1782 he concluded our first treaty with Holland.
His negotiations with that republic, his efforts to persuade the
states-general to recognize our independence, his incessant and
indefatigable exertions to represent the American cause favorably on
the continent, and to counteract the designs of its enemies, open and
secret, and his successful undertaking to obtain loans, on the credit of
a nation yet new and unknown, are among his most arduous, most useful,
most honorable services. It was his fortune to bear a part in the
negotiation for peace with England, and in something more than six years
from the declaration which he had so strenuously supported, he had the
satisfaction to see the minister plenipotentiary of the crown
subscribe to the instrument which declared that his "Britannic majesty
acknowledged the United States to be free, sovereign, and independent."
In these important transactions, Mr. Adams' conduct received the marked
approbation of congress and of the countrty.

While abroad, in 1787, he published his Defense of the American
Constitution; a work of merit and ability, though composed with haste,
on the spur of a particular occasion, in the midst of other occupations,
and under circumstances not admitting of careful revision. The immediate
object of the work was to counteract the weight of opinion advanced by
several popular European writers of that day, Mr. Turgot, the Abbe de
Mably and Dr. Price, at a time when the people of the United States were
employed in forming and revising their system of government.

Returning to the United States in 1788, he found the new government
about going into operation, and was himself elected the first
vice-president, a situation which he filled with reputation for eight
years, at the expiration of which he was raised to the presidential
chair, as immediate successor to the immortal Washington. In this high
station he was succeeded by Mr. Jefferson, after a memorable controversy
between their respective friends, in 1801; and from that period his
manner of life has been known to all who hear me. He has lived for
five-and-twenty years, with every enjoyment that