Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/121

 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS 101 it contributed not a little to his subsequent po- litical promotion. He was himself, as wo may judge, well satisfied to escape from the political commotion which he had raised ; for when, after various unsuccessful attempts to fill a vacancy on the supreme bench of the United States, he was nominated and confirmed as a judge (for the New England circuit), hi spite of the wishes of his father he declined the nomination, preferring to remain as ambassador at St. Petersburg, where he was now established with his family. He was well received in Eussia. His official duties were not very arduous. Part of his leisure he employed in writing a series of " Let- ters," since published, addressed to his sons, on " The Bible and its Teachings " ; a pious work, but not otherwise of particular value or merit. The disputes and collisions between Great Britain and the United States having finally terminated in war, through the influence of Mr. Adams the emperor of Eussia was induced to offer himself as mediator, and in July, 1813, Adams was joined by Mr. Bayard, and after- ward by Mr. Gallatin, those gentlemen having been appointed in conjunction with himself to negotiate a peace. Great Britain, however, re- fused to treat under the mediation of Eussia. She proposed instead an independent negotia- tion at London or Gothenburg, for which Ghent was afterward substituted. This proposition having been accepted on the part of the United States government, Mr. Adams arrived at Ghent in June, 1814, and after a protracted ne- gotiation of six months,' in which Jonathan Eus- sell and Henry Clay were associated, peace was finally concluded Dec. 24, 1814. No attempt whatever was made to limit the maritime pre- tensions of Qreat Britain, in resistance to which the war had originated, and against which Mr. Adams, in joining the administra- tion party, had so decidedly pronounced. The skill and eloquence of the American commis- sioners found ample scope in warding off the pretensions of Great Britain to portions of ter- ritory occupied by her, or at least to act as pro- tector to the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States. Some attempt was also made to limit our fishing rights, and Mr. Adams was now instrumental, as his father had been before him, in maintaining unimpaired our enjoyment of the ocean fisheries. Previous to proceeding to London to execute a new com- mission to negotiate in conjunction with Clay and Gallatin a treaty of commerce, Adams visited Paris, where he witnessed the return of Napoleon from Elba and the brief empire of the hundred days. Here his family joined him after a long and perilous journey from St. Petersburg, and on the 25th of May he joined Clay and Gallatin in London; in conjunction with whom, on July 13, 1815, he signed a com- mercial convention with Great Britain. This business finished, Adams still remained at Lon- don as resident minister. Upon the accession of Monroe to the presidency (1817) he offered Mr. Adams the post of secretary of state, to fill which he returned home, after an absence of eight years. The reestablishment of peace in Europe having removed former grounds of con- tention, a political lull had succeeded, and a new organization of parties now began to take place, especially on the subjects of protection to American manufactures and expenditures from the United States treasury for internal improve- ments. There still remained, however, to be disposed of, some questions of moment more immediately connected with Mr. Adams's posi- tion as secretary of state. Gen. Jackson, hav- ing been consulted on the subject by Monroe, had heartily approved of the appointment of Mr. Adams to that department. Adams no less warmly supported in the cabinet, against Mr. Calhoun's proposition of censure, the con- duct of Gen. Jackson in invading Florida, hanging Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and taking military possession of St. Mark's and Pensacola. Those proceedings he also sustained with no less zeal in his diplomatic correspondence with the Spanish minister an important correspon- dence, having reference to the boundaries of Florida and Louisiana, and the claims of Amer- ica on Spain for commercial depredations. Though as a senator Adams had voted against the Louisiana treaty, on the ground that the federal constitution gave no power to acquire territory, he now as secretary of state pushed American claims under that treaty to the ex- tremest lengths, insisting that this cession in- cluded not merely Florida to the Perdido, but Texas to the Eio Grande. Finally, hi consid- eration of the cession of Florida, the United States agreeing to pay $5,000,000 for it, to be applied to the extinction of American mercan- tile claims against Spam, Adams compromised matters by agreeing to the Sabine, the Eed river, the upper Arkansas, the crest of the Eocky mountains, and the parallel of 42 N. lat., as the boundary of Louisiana ; and upon this basis a treaty was arranged. This treaty was his principal achievement as secretary of state. After some hesitation, Mr. Adams finally yielded to the policy warmly urged by Henry Clay of recognizing the independence of the late Spanish American colonies. An elab- orate report which he made in his official ca- pacity on weights and measures secured him the credit of extensive scientific acquirements. Toward the close of Monroe's first term came up the great question of the admission of Mis- souri as a slave state, and the extension of slavery or its prohibition throughout .the un- settled territory north and west of Missouri. The Missouri compromise having at length, after violent agitations at "Washington and throughout the country, received the sanction of congress, Monroe, upon being called upon to sign the bill, submitted two questions to his cabinet : First, had congress the constitutional power to prohibit slavery in a territory ? and second, was the term "for ever," used in the prohibitive clause of the Missouri bill, to be un-