t is for
the time reasonable and possible; it has not less need of the wiser
and cooler heads to discipline and control the great mass which is set
in motion by the reckless forerunners, to see to the accomplishment of
that which the present circumstances and development of the movement
allow to be accomplished. It fell to Mr. Adams to direct the (p. 245)
assault against the outworks which were then vulnerable, and to see
that the force then possessed by the movement was put to such uses as
would insure definite results instead of being wasted in endeavors
which as yet were impossible of achievement. Drawing his duty from his
situation and surroundings, he left to others, to younger men and more
rhetorical natures, outside the walls of Congress, the business of
firing the people and stirring popular opinion and sympathy. He was
set to do that portion of the work of abolition which was to be done
in Congress, to encounter the mighty efforts which were made to stifle
the great humanitarian cry in the halls of the national legislature.
This was quite as much as one man was equal to; in fact, it is certain
that no one then in public life except Mr. Adams could have done it
effectually. So obvious is this that one cannot help wondering what
would have befallen the cause, had he not been just where he was to
forward it in just the way that he did. It is only another among the
many instances of the need surely finding the man. His qualifications
were unique; his ability, his knowledge, his prestige and authority,
his high personal character, his persistence and courage, his
combativeness stimulated by an acrimonious temper but checked by a
sound judgment, his merciless power of invective, his independence (p. 246)
and carelessness of applause or vilification, friendship or enmity,
constituted him an opponent fully equal to the enormous odds which the
slave-holding interest arrayed against him. A like moral and mental
fitness was to be found in no one else. Numbers could not overawe him,
nor loneliness dispirit him. He was probably the most formidable
fighter in debate of whom parliamentary records preserve the memory.
The hostility which he encountered beggars description; the English
language was deficient in adequate words of virulence and contempt to
express the feelings which were entertained towards him. At home he
had not the countenance of that class in society to which he naturally
belonged. A second time he found