RANDE MIGHT HAVE BEEN OBTAINED, UNDER
THE SPANISH TREATY, AS A BOUNDARY FOR THE UNITED STATES, REFUTED.--
ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTITUENTS AT WEYMOUTH.--REMARKS ON THE RETROCESSION
OF ALEXANDRIA TO VIRGINIA.--HIS PARALYSIS.--RECEPTION BY THE HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES.--HIS DEATH.--FUNERAL HONORS.--TRIBUTE TO HIS
MEMORY, 409

MEMOIR

OF

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

CHAPTER I.

BIRTH.--EDUCATION.--RESIDENCE IN EUROPE.--AT COLLEGE.--AT THE BAR.
--POLITICAL ESSAYS.--MINISTER AT THE HAGUE.--AT BERLIN.--RETURN TO
THE UNITED STATES.

John Quincy Adams, son of John and Abigail Adams, was born on the 11th
of July, 1767, in the North Parish of Braintree, Massachusetts--since
incorporated as the town of Quincy. The lives and characters of his
parents, intimately associated with the history of the American
Revolution, have been already ably and faithfully illustrated.[1]

[1] See "Letters of Mrs. Adams, with an Introductory Memoir,"
and "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United
States, with a Life of the Author," by their grandson, Charles
Francis Adams.

The origin of his name was thus stated by himself: "My great-grandfather,
John Quincy,[2] was dying when I was baptized, and his daughter, my
grandmother, requested I might receive his name. This fact, recorded
by my father at the time, is not without a moral to my heart, and has
connected with that portion of my name a charm of mingled sensibility
and devotion. It was filial tenderness that gave the name--it was the
name of one passing from earth to immortality. These have been,
through life, perpetual admonitions to do nothing unworthy of it."

[2] John Quincy represented the town of Braintree in the
colonial legislature forty years, and long held the office of
speaker.

At Braintree his mother watched over his childhood. At the village
school he learned the rudiments of the English language. In after life
he often playfully boasted that the dame who taught him to spell
flattered him into learning his letters by telling him he would prove a
scholar. The notes and habits of the birds and wild animals of the
vicinity early excited his attention, and led him to look on nature
with a lover's eye, creating an attachment to the home of his