e. When
invective fell around him in showers, he screamed back his retaliation
with untiring rapidity and marvellous dexterity of aim. No odds could
appall him. With his back set firm against a solid moral principle, it
was his joy to strike out at a multitude of foes. They lost their heads
as well as their tempers, but in the extremest moments of excitement
and anger Mr. Adams's brain seemed to work with machine-like coolness
and accuracy. With flushed face, streaming eyes, animated gesticulation,
and cracking voice, he always retained perfect mastery of all his
intellectual faculties. He thus became a terrible antagonist, whom all
feared, yet fearing could not refrain from attacking, so bitterly and
incessantly did he choose to exert his wonderful power of
exasperation. Few men could throw an opponent into wild blind fury
with such speed and certainty as he could; and he does not conceal the
malicious gratification which such feats brought to him. A leader of
such fighting capacity, so courageous, with such a magazine of
experience and information, and with a character so irreproachable,
could have won brilliant victories in public life at the head of (p. 231)
even a small band of devoted followers. But Mr. Adams never had and
apparently never wanted followers. Other prominent public men were
brought not only into collision but into comparison with their
contemporaries. But Mr. Adams's individuality was so strong that he
can be compared with no one. It was not an individuality of genius nor
to any remarkable extent of mental qualities; but rather an
individuality of character. To this fact is probably to be attributed
his peculiar solitariness. Men touch each other for purposes of
attachment through their characters much more than through their
minds. But few men, even in agreeing with Mr. Adams, felt themselves
in sympathy with him. Occasionally conscience, or invincible logic, or
even policy and self-interest, might compel one or another politician
to stand beside him in debate or in voting; but no current of fellow
feeling ever passed between such temporary comrades and him. It was
the cold connection of duty or of business. The first instinct of
nearly every one was opposition towards him; coalition might be forced
by circumstances but never came by volition. For the purpose of
winning immediate successes this was of course a most unfortunate
condition of relationships. Yet it had some compensations: it left
suc