ch
a case? That old man sat in the chair in Faneuil Hall. Above him was the
image of his father and his own; around him were Hancock and the other
Adams, and Washington, greatest of all. Before him were the men and women
of Boston, met to consider the wrongs done to a miserable negro slave. The
roof of the old Cradle of Liberty spanned over them all. Forty years
before, a young man and a Senator, he had taken the chair at a meeting
called to consult on the wrong done to American seamen, violently
impressed by the British from an American ship of war--the unlucky
Chesapeake. Now an old man, clothed with half a century of honors, he sits
in the same Hall, to preside over a meeting to consider the outrage done
to a single slave. One was the first meeting of citizens he ever presided
over; the other was the last: both for the same object--the defence of
the eternal right!" [Footnote: Theodore Parker.]

Few men retain the health and vigor with which Mr. Adams was blessed in
extreme old age. When most others are decrepit and helpless, he was in the
enjoyment of meridian strength and energy, both of body and mind, and
could endure labors which would prostrate many in the prime of manhood. An
instance of his powers of endurance is furnished in his journey to
Washington, to attend the opening of Congress, when in the 74th year of
his age. On Monday morning he left Boston, and the same evening delivered
a lecture before the Young Men's Institute, in Hartford, Conn. The next
day he proceeded to New Haven, and in the evening lectured before a
similar Institute in that city. Wednesday he pursued his journey to New
York, and in the evening lectured before the New York Lyceum, in the
Broadway Tabernacle. Thursday evening he delivered an address before an
association in Brooklyn; and on Friday evening delivered a second lecture
before the New York Lyceum. Here were labors which would seriously tax the
constitution of vigorous youth; and yet Mr. Adams performed them with much
comparative ease.

His great longevity, and his general good health, must be attributed, in
no small degree, to his abstemious and temperate habits, early rising, and
active exercise. He took pleasure in athletic amusements, and was
exceedingly fond of walking. During his summer residence in Quincy, he has
been known to walk to his son's residence in Boston (seven miles,) before
breakfast. "While President of the United States, he was probably the
first man up in