ears of his career
were yet to be lived. He was to earn in his old age a noble fame and
distinction far transcending any achievement of his youth and middle
age, and was to attain the highest pinnacle of his fame after he (p. 224)
had left the greatest office of the Government, and during a period
for which presumably nothing better had been allotted than that he
should tranquilly await the summons of death. It is a striking
circumstance that the fullness of greatness for one who had been
Senator, Minister to England, Secretary of State, and President,
remained to be won in the comparatively humble position of a
Representative in Congress.

CHAPTER III (p. 225)

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

In September, 1830, Mr. Adams notes in his Diary a suggestion made to
him that he might if he wished be elected to the national House of
Representatives from the Plymouth district. The gentleman who threw
out this tentative proposition remarked that in his opinion the
acceptance of this position by an ex-President "instead of degrading
the individual would elevate the representative character." Mr. Adams
replied, that he "had in that respect no scruple whatever. No person
could be degraded by serving the people as a Representative in
Congress. Nor in my opinion would an ex-President of the United States
be degraded by serving as a selectman of his town, if elected thereto
by the people." A few weeks later his election was accomplished by a
flattering vote, the poll showing for him 1817 votes out of 2565, with
only 373 for the next candidate. He continued thenceforth to represent
this district until his death, a period of about sixteen years. During
this time he was occasionally suggested as a candidate for the (p. 226)
governorship of the State, but was always reluctant to stand. The
feeling between the Freemasons and the anti-Masons ran very high for
several years, and once he was prevailed upon to allow his name to be
used by the latter party. The result was that there was no election by
the people; and as he had been very loath to enter the contest in the
beginning, he insisted upon withdrawing from before the legislature.
We have now therefore only to pursue his career in the lower house of
Congress.

Unfortunately, but of obvious necessity, it is possible to touch only
upon the more salient points of this which was really by far the most
striking and d