, with large practical ability, but with a deep strain of
the man of letters which in this generation has outshone the other
faculties; strong-headed and hard-working students, with powerful
memories and fluent gifts of expression.

[Illustration: JOHN ADAMS.]

All these characteristics went to make up John Adams; but their
enumeration does not furnish a complete picture of him, or reveal the
virile, choleric, masterful man. And he was far more lovable and far
more popular than his equally great son, also a typical Adams, from
the same cause which produced some of his worst blunders and
misfortunes,--a generous impulsiveness of feeling which made it
impossible for him to hold his tongue at the wrong time and place for
talking. But so fervid, combative, and opinionated a man was sure
to gain much more hate than love; because love results from comprehension,
which only the few close to him could have, while hate--toward
an honest man--is the outcome of ignorance, which most of
the world cannot avoid. Admiration and respect, however, he had
from the majority of his party at the worst of times; and the best
encomium on him is that the closer his public acts are examined, the
more credit they reflect not only on his abilities but on his
unselfishness.

Born of a line of Massachusetts farmers, he graduated from Harvard in
1755. After teaching a grammar school and beginning to read theology, he
studied law and began practice in 1758, soon becoming a leader at the
bar and in public life. In 1764 he married the noble and delightful
woman whose letters furnish unconscious testimony to his lovable
qualities. All through the germinal years of the Revolution he was one
of the foremost patriots, steadily opposing any abandonment or
compromise of essential rights. In 1765 he was counsel for Boston with
Otis and Gridley to support the town's memorial against the Stamp Act.
In 1766 he was selectman. In 1768 the royal government offered him the
post of advocate-general in the Court of Admiralty,--a lucrative bribe
to desert the opposition; but he refused it. Yet in 1770, as a matter of
high professional duty, he became counsel (successfully) for the British
soldiers on trial for the "Boston Massacre." Though there was a present
uproar of abuse, Mr. Adams was shortly after elected Representative to
the General Court by more than three to one. In March, 1774, he
contemplated writing the "History of the Contest between Britain and
Ameri