the
mind of the hearer to conclusions from which there was no escape.

Of the Whig members, Charles Francis Adams was the one person of most
note--due to his family and name. He was then thirty-five years of
age. He was born into a family of culture, and from the first he
enjoyed every advantage that could be derived from books and from the
conversation of persons of superior intelligence.

If we include the earliest period of life, the majority of mankind
acquire a larger share of knowledge from conversation than from
reading or observation. Mr. Adams had had the best opportunities for
development and improvement from each and all of the three great
sources of knowledge. With all these advantages he could not have
been included in the first ten on the Whig side of the House. His
style of speaking was at once nervous and oracular. His voice and
manner were not agreeable, and he had a peculiar violent jerk of the
head, as though he would separate it from his body, whenever he became
excited or bestowed special emphasis upon a remark. John Quincy Adams
had the same peculiarity which I had observed in 1839 in his
controversy for the right of petition. In political information Mr.
Adams was the best instructed man in the House.

In those days the slavery question in some form was the topic of debate
and of resolves by the two Houses. Among these the right of petition
and the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia were the most
conspicuous. In these debates and proceedings Mr. Adams was the
leader. When he became a member of the Thirty-sixth Congress and was
appointed upon the committee of thirty-three, he accepted a surrender
to the slave power, which would have given to slavery a perpetual lease
of existence, if institutions and constitutions could have preserved
it. The surrender to slavery, had it been accepted, would have
burdened a race with perpetual servitude and consigned the Republic to
lasting disgrace. It is to be said, however, that Mr. Adams but
yielded to a public sentiment that was controlling in the city of
Washington in the winter of 1860-61, and which was then formidable in
all parts of the country. The concession or surrender was accepted by
many Republicans, including Mr. Corwin of Ohio who was chairman of the
committee of thirty-three.

From 1840 to 1850 I was a member of the Legislature for seven years. A
large body of the people led by Robert Rantoul, Jr., William Lloyd
G