of any body of the people whether large or small. He
was warned that his extensive schemes for internal improvement would
alienate especially the important State of Virginia. He could not of
course be expected to change his policy out of respect to Virginian
prejudices; but he was advised to mitigate his expression of that
policy, and to some extent it was open to him to do so. But he would
not; his utterances went the full length of his opinions, and he
persistently urged upon Congress many plans which he approved, but
which he could not have the faintest hopes of seeing adopted. The
consequence was that he displeased Virginia. He notes the fact in the
Diary in the tone of one who endures persecution for righteousness'
sake, and who means to be very stubborn in his righteousness. Again it
was suggested to him to embody in one of his messages "something
soothing for South Carolina." But there stood upon the statute books
of South Carolina an unconstitutional law which had greatly
embarrassed the national government, and which that rebellious little
State with characteristic contumaciousness would not repeal. Under
such circumstances, said Mr. Adams, I have no "soothing" words for
South Carolina.

It was not alone by what he did and by what he would not do that (p. 202)
Mr. Adams toiled to insure the election of General Jackson far more
sedulously and efficiently than did the General himself or any of his
partisans. In most cases it was probably the manner quite as much as
the act which made Mr. Adams unpopular. In his anxiety to be upright
he was undoubtedly prone to be needlessly disagreeable. His
uncompromising temper put on an ungracious aspect. His conscientiousness
wore the appearance of offensiveness. The Puritanism in his character
was strongly tinged with that old New England notion that whatever is
disagreeable is probably right, and that a painful refusal would lose
half its merit in being expressed courteously; that a right action
should never be done in a pleasing way; not only that no pill should
be sugar-coated, but that the bitterest ingredient should be placed on
the outside. In repudiating attractive vices the Puritans had rejected
also those amenities which might have decently concealed or even
mildly decorated the forbidding angularities of a naked Virtue which
certainly did not imitate the form of any goddess who had ever before
attracted followers. Mr. Adams was a complete and thorough Puritan,
w