ow some twelve inches deep on
Pennsylvania avenue. I insisted on going onward; but Mr. Adams objected,
and bidding me good night somewhat unceremoniously, told me, almost in as
many words, that my farther attendance was unwelcome.

"As I left him, he drew his 'Boston wrapper' still closer around him,
hitched up his mittens, and with elastic step breasted a wintry storm that
might have repelled even the more elastic movement of juvenility, and
wended up the avenue. Although I cannot irreverently say that he

'Whistled as he went, for want of thought,'

I fancy that his mind was so deeply imbued with the contemplation of
affairs of state, and especially in contemplating the expunging
resolution, that he arrived at his home long before he was aware that he
had threaded the distance between the capitol and the Presidential
square." [Footnote: Reminiscences of the late John Quincy Adams, by an Old
Colony Man.--New York Atlas.]

Although elected to the House of Representatives as a Whig, and usually
acting with that party, yet Mr. Adams would never acknowledge that fealty
to party could justify a departure from the conscientious discharge of
duty. He went with his party as far as he believed his party was right and
its proceedings calculated to promote the welfare of the country. But no
party claims, no smiles nor frowns, could induce him to sanction any
measure which he believed prejudicial to the interest of the people.
Hence, during his congressional career, the Whigs occasionally found him a
decided opposer of their policy and measures, on questions where he
deemed they had mistaken the true course. In this he was but true to his
principles, character, and whole past history. It was not that he loved
his political party or friends less, but that he loved what he viewed as
conducive to the welfare of the nation, more.

The same principle of action governed him in reference to his political
opponents. In general he threw his influence against the administration of
Gen. Jackson, under a sincere conviction that its policy was injurious to
the welfare of our common country. But to every measure which he could
sanction, he did not hesitate to yield the support of all his energies.

An instance of this description occurred in relation to the treaty of
indemnity with France. For nearly forty years, negotiations had been
pending in vain with the French Government, to procure an indemnity for
spoliations of Amer