this assemblage of talents and wisdom, his labours as a statesman were pre-eminent; and the constitution indebted for many of her most excellent provisions.

In 1780, he was commissioned by congress to proceed to Europe, to conciliate the favour and obtain assistance from the powers on the continent, in our arduous struggle for independence. By his superior address he procured from the Dutch the necessary sums for carrying on the war, as well as concluded a treaty of commerce with the republic of the United Netherlands. He afterwards went to Paris, and assisted in concluding the general peace.

Mr Adams was next appointed the first minister to the court of Great Britain. During his stay in Europe, he published his celebrated Defence of the Constitutions of the United States, in which he advocates, as the principles of a free government, equal representation, of which number, or property, or both, should be a rule; a total separation of the executive from the legislative power, and of the judicial from both; and a balance in the legislature by three independent, equal branches. 'If there is one certain truth,' says he, 'to be collected from the history of all ages, it is this:

that the people's rights and liberties, and the democratical mixture in a constitution, can never be preserved without a strong executive; or without separating the executive power from the legislative.'

Mr Adams, after having twice filled the office of Vice President of the United States, was, in the year 1796, called by the almost unanimous suffrage of his fellow citizens, to fill the presidential chair, which had been vacated by the resignation of Washington.

This office he filled with his usual ability until the expiration of the term for which he was elected, when, like his great predecessor, he retired from office, after having faithfully served his country, and contributed to her happiness and prosperity, to spend the remainder of his days as a private citizen.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,

SIXTH president of the United States, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, Ju 11, 1767. At the age of eleven years, he accompanied his father to Europe, and before he had attained the age of thirteen, acquired most of her principal languages, and resided in most of her celebrated capitals.

In 1785, at his own request, he was permitted by his father to return home, and finish his education in his own country. In two years afterwards, he graduated at Harvard college, and commenced the study of the law in the office of the late chief justice Parsons.

In 1790, he was admitted to practice in the courts of Massachusetts, and fixed his residence in Boston.

In 1791, he published a series of papers in the Boston Centinel, under the signature of Publicola, containing remarks upon the first part of Paine's Rights of Man, which excited much public notice in this country as well as in Europe.

In 1793-4, he published various political essays which did honour to his talents, and drew upon him the notice of president Washington, who afterwards selected him for the important post of minister resident to the Netherlands.

From this period, until 1801, he was successively employed as a public minister in Holland, England and Prussia. And during his residence in the latter country, he concluded a treaty of commerce with that power, to the entire satisfaction of our cabinet.

In 1801, he returned to the United States, and next year was elected a member of the senate of Massachusetts, and in 1803, of the United States. He passed, altogether, six years in these two bodies, and engaged indefatigably and prominently, in the important questions which occupied their attention.

It was during this perplexing period of public affairs, that he nobly sacrificed the interest of party to that of his country, by which he has more firmly interwoven his name in the annals of his country.

In consequence of his appointment of first Boylston professor of rhetoric and oratory in the university of Cambridge, he resigned his seat

in the senate of the United States in the year 1808.

He had no sooner completed a most brilliant course of lectures on rhetoric and oratory, in that renowned institution, when he received, unsolicited, from president Madison, the appointment of minister plenipotentiary to the court of Russia.

In 1813, Mr Gallatin and Mr Bayard arrived at St Petersburg, empowered to negociate, jointly with Mr Adams, a treaty of peace with Great Britain, under the mediation of Russia. The Brisish government declined the mediation, but proposed a direct negotiation, which finally took place at Ghent, in 1814, with Mr Adams as its head on the American side.

This event is too recent and important, to make it necessary to say any thing further in praise of the abilities and talents of Mr Adams as a diplomatist and statesman.

At the termination of this successful mission, Mr Adams repaired to London, and there concluded, jointly with Mr Clay and Mr Gallatin, a commercial convention. Our government having appointed him, immediately after the ratification of the peace of Ghent, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to

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