rve peace
at home and abroad, develop the internal resources of the nation, improve
facilities for transportation and travel, protect and encourage the
industry of the country, and in every department promote the permanent
prosperity and welfare of the people--it was allowed to be nothing more
than the arts of an intriguer, seeking a re-election to the Presidency.
Yea, it was declared in advance, that, "if his administration should be as
pure as the angels in heaven," it should be overthrown. Did he exhibit the
plain simplicity of a true republican in his dress and manners, and
economy in all his expenditures, it was attributed to parsimony and
meanness! A majority of his countrymen had been deceived as to his
principles and character, and sacrificed him politically on the altar of
prejudice and party spirit.

Throughout his life he had ever been a lover of man and of human
freedom--the best friend of his country--the most faithful among the
defenders of its institutions--a sincere republican, and a true man. But
blinded by political prejudice, a large portion of his fellow-citizens
refused the boon of credit for these qualities. It remained for another
stage of his life, another field of display, to correct them of this
error, and to vindicate his character. It was requisite that he should
step down from his high position, disrobe himself of office, power and
patronage, place himself beyond the reach of the remotest suspicion of a
desire for political preferment and emolument, to satisfy the world that
John Quincy Adams had from the beginning, been a pure-hearted patriot, and
one of the noblest sons of the American Confederacy. His new career was to
furnish a luminous commentary on his past life, and to convince the most
sceptical, of the justice of his claim to rank among the highest and best
of American patriots. Placed beyond the reach of any gift of office from
the nation, with nothing to hope for, and nothing to fear in this respect,
he was to write his name in imperishable characters, so high on the
tablets of his country's history and fame, as to be beyond the utmost
reach of malignity or suspicion! The door which led to this closing act of
his dramatic life, was soon opened.

On returning to Quincy, one of the first things which received the
attention of Mr. Adams, was the discharge of a filial duty towards his
deceased parents, in the erection of a monument to their memory. The elder
Adams in his will, among