istration will detain the historian, and
even the biographer, only a very short time. Not an event occurred
during those four years which appears of any especial moment. Our
foreign relations were all pacific; and no grave crisis or great issue
was developed in domestic affairs. It was a period of tranquillity, in
which the nation advanced rapidly in prosperity. For many years dulness
had reigned in business, but returning activity was encouraged by (p. 194)
the policy of the new Government, and upon all sides various
industries became active and thriving. So far as the rule of Mr. Adams
was marked by any distinguishing characteristic, it was by a care for
the material welfare of the people. More commercial treaties were
negotiated during his Administration than in the thirty-six years
preceding his inauguration. He was a strenuous advocate of internal
improvements, and happily the condition of the national finances
enabled the Government to embark in enterprises of this kind. He
suggested many more than were undertaken, but not perhaps more than it
would have been quite possible to carry out. He was always chary of
making a show of himself before the people for the sake of gaining
popularity. When invited to attend the annual exhibition of the
Maryland Agricultural Society, shortly after his inauguration, he
declined, and wrote in his Diary: "To gratify this wish I must give
four days of my time, no trifle of expense, and set a precedent for
being claimed as an article of exhibition at all the cattle-shows
throughout the Union." Other gatherings would prefer equally
reasonable demands, in responding to which "some duty must be
neglected." But the opening of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was an
event sufficiently momentous and national in its character to (p. 195)
justify the President's attendance. He was requested in the presence
of a great concourse of people to dig the first shovelful of earth and
to make a brief address. The speech-making was easy; but when the
digging was to be done he encountered some unexpected obstacle and the
soil did not yield to his repeated efforts. Not to be defeated,
however, he stripped off his coat, went to work in earnest with the
spade and raised the earth successfully. Naturally such readiness was
hailed with loud applause and pleased the great crowd who saw it. But
in Mr. Adams's career it was an exceptional occurrence that enabled
him to conciliate a momentary popularity; it w