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152 up the Union. Mr. Quincy dreaded the extension of slavery, and foresaw that the existence of that institution was likely to bring on a civil war; but ii was not evident then, as it is now. that a civil war in 1861 was greatly to be preferred to civil war or peaceable secession in 1805. As member of congress, Mr. Quin- cy belonged to the party of extivme Federalists known as the " Essex jun- to." The Federal- ists were then in a hopeless minority ; even the Massachu- setts delegation in congress had ten Republicans to sev- en Federalists. In some ways Mr. Quin- ry showed a disposi- tion to independent action, as in refusing to follow his with Randolph s malcontent faction known as the "quids." He fiercely oppn^^d the embargo and the war with England. But his most famous action related to the admission of Louisiana as a state. There was at that time a strong jealousy of the new western country on the part of the New England states. There was a IV.ir that the region west of the Alleghanies would come to be more populous than the original thirteen states, and that thus the control of the Federal government would pass into the hands of people described by New Englandersas "backwoodsmen." Gouverneur Morris had given expression to such a fear in 1787 in the Federal convention. In 1811, when it was proposed to admit Louisiana as a state, the high Federalists took the ground that the con- stitution had not conferred upon congress the power to admit new states except such as should be formed from territory already belonging to the Union in 1787. Mr. Quincy maintained tiiis posi- tion in a remarkable speech, 4 Jan., 1811, in which he used some strong language. " Why, sir, I have already heard of six states, and some say there will be at no great distance of time more. I have also heard that the mouth of the Ohio will be far to the east of the centre of the contemplated empire. . . . It is impossible such a power could be granted. It was ii"i fur these men that our fathers fought. It was not for them this constitution was adopted. You have no authority to throw the rights and liberties and property of this people into hotch-pot with the wild men on the Missouri, or with the mixed, though more respectable, race of Anglo- Hispano-Gallo-Americans, who bask on the sands in the mouth of the Mississippi. ... I am compelled to declare it as my deliberate opinion that, if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved; that the states which compose it are free from their moral obligations ; and that, as it will be the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, to prepare definitely for a separation ami- cably, if they can ; violently, if they must." This was, according to Hildreth, " the first announce- ment on the floor of congress of the doctrine of secession." Though opposed to the war with Eng- land, Mr. Quincy did not go so far as some of the Federalists in refusing support to the administra- tion; his great speech on the navy, 25 Jan.. 1S12. won applause from all parties. In that year he declined a re-election to congress. For the next ten years he was most of the time a member of the Massachusetts legislature, but a great part of his attention was given to his farm at Quincy. He was member of the convention of 1820 for revising the state constitution. In the following year he was speaker of the house. From 1823 to 1828 he was mayor of Boston, and his administration was memorable for the number of valuable reforms ef- fected by his energy and skill. Everything was i ivcrhuuled the police, the prisons, the schools, the streets, the fire department, and the great market was built near Faneuil hall. In 1829 he was chosen president of Harvard, and held that position until 1845. During his administration Dane hall was built for the law - school and Gore hall for the university library ; and it was due mainly to his exertions that the astronomical observatory was founded and equipped with its great telescope, which is still one of the finest in the world. In 1834, in the face of violent opposition. Mr. Quincy succeeded in establishing the principle that " where flagrant outrages were committed against persons or property by members of the university, within its limits, they should be proceeded against, in the last resort, like any other citizens, before the courts of the commonwealth." The effect of this nn-as- ure was most wholesome in checking the peculiar kinds of ruffianism which the community has often been inclined to tolerate in college, students. Mr. Quincy also introduced the system of marking, which continued to be used for more than forty years at Harvard. By this system the merit of every college exercise was valued according to a scale of numbers, from one to eight, by the pro- fessor or tutor, at the time of its performance. Examinations were rated in various multiples of eight, and all these marks were set down to the credit of the individual student. Delinquencies of various degrees of importance were also estimated in multiples of eight, and charged on the debit side of the account. At the end of the year the balance to the student's credit was compared with the sum-total that an unbroken series of perfect marks, unaffected by deductions, would have yielded, and the resulting percentage determined the rank of the student. President Quincy was also strongly in favor of the elective system of studies, in so far as it was compatible with the general state of advancement of the students in his time, and with the means of instruction at the dis- posal of the university. The elective experiment was tried more thoroughly, and on a broader scale, under his administration than under any other down to the time of President Eliot. From 1845 to 1864 Mr. Quincy led a quiet and pleasant life, devoted to literary' and social pursuits. He continued till the last to take a warm interest in polities, and was an enthusiastic admirer of President Lincoln. His principal writings are "History of Harvard University" (2 vols., Boston, 1840): ' History of the Boston Athenaeum " (Boston. 1S51 ) : Municipal History of Boston " (Boston, 1852) ; " Memoir of J. Q. Adams" (Boston, 1858): and "Speeches delivered in Congress " (edited by his son. Edmund, Boston, 1874). His biography, by his son, Edmund (Boston, lsi',7). is an admirable work. See also J. R. Lowell's " My Study Window." pp. 83-114. His wife, Eliza Susan (MORTON), b. in New York in 1773 ; d. in Quincy, 1 Sept., 1850, was a daughter of John Morton, a New ork merchant, of Scottish descent, and Maria Sophia Kemper, whose father was a native of Kaub, Germany. During the oeeupaiioti ,,f New York by the British, Mr. and Mrs. Morton lived in New Jersey, first at Elizabeth,