hing and inaugurated the reign of terror
and he has himself told us how it staggered him. The prospect of raising
such men as the lynchers to power by a revolution was a serious matter.
A man one day congratulated him on the anarchy, the mob violence, the
insults to judges, the closing of the courts and the tar and feathers
which the patriots and their congress were producing.

"Oh Mr. Adams, what great things have you and your colleagues done
for us! We can never be grateful enough to you. There are no courts
of justice now in this province, and I hope there never will be
another."

For once in his life your ancestor could not reply.

"Is this the object for which I have been contending, said I to
myself; for I rode along without any answer to this wretch. Are
these the sentiments of such people, and how many of them are there
in the country? Half the nation for what I know; for half the
nation are debtors, if not more; and these have been in all
countries the sentiments of debtors. If the power of the country
should get into such hands, and there is great danger that it will,
to what purpose have we sacrificed our time, health and everything
else?" (Works of John Adams, Vol. II, p. 420.)

I have made these lengthy statements and quotations for the sake of
reminding you that the man who was responsible for your existence and
also very largely for the existence of the revolution, faced with his
eyes open the very state of affairs which you say should in conscience
and good morals compel a man to surrender and give up. He faced a far
worse state of affairs than the Boers face, and he had less excuse for
his conduct.

He, however, did not follow your advice; and one reason may have been
that his wife, whose blood is also in your veins, would have despised
him if he had. I need not quote those beautiful letters of hers which
are in print, in which she declares not only her own unalterable
affection, but her willingness, to go down with him to disaster and
poverty and labor with her hands. Among all the men of that time I do
not know of one who was more uncompromising, more obstinate, more
determined as President Kruger put it, to make Great Britain "pay a
price that would stagger humanity," or according to your own theory,
more immoral, than your own great grandfather and his wife.

During the seven years fighting of the revolution Great Britain sent ou