By the great majority of those now living Mr. Adams is known only as having once been President of the United States and as belonging to a very distinguished3 family. His name is rarely mentioned. There was a time, however, when no other name was heard so often in this country, or which, when used, excited such violent and conflicting emotions. It can justly be said that for many years John Quincy Adams, individually and practically alone, by his services in Congress, sustained what Anti-Slavery sentiment there was in the nation. It was but a spark, but he kept it alive and gradually extended its conflagration4.
When Adams entered Congress opposition5 to slavery was at its lowest ebb6. It was almost extinct. The victory of the slaveholders in the Missouri contest had elated them most tremendously and had correspondingly depressed7 and cowed their adversaries8. As a general thing, the latter had given up all idea of making any further fight. Northern Presidents, Northern Congressmen, Northern editors, Northern churchmen, were the most ready and servile supporters slavery had. Anti-Slavery societies had been abandoned. Anti-Slavery journals had perished. Disapprovers of the "institution," with the exception of a few men of the Lundy stamp and the Lundy obscurity, were silent. There was one magnificent exception.
It was at that crisis that John Quincy Adams entered Congress and began a fight against slavery that, covering a period of seventeen years, literally9 lasted to the last day of his life. He was carried helpless and dying from the floor of Congress, where he had fallen when in the discharge of his duties.
The position of Mr. Adams, who had been elected as an independent candidate, was unique. He owed his official place to no political party, and was, therefore, free from party shackles10 in regulating his course. He took up the fight for the black man's freedom as one who was himself absolutely free. Most wonderfully did he conduct that fight. There was nothing in the eloquence11 of Demosthenes in Athens, of Cicero in Rome, of Mirabeau in France, of Pitt or Gladstone in England, that surpassed the force and grandeur12 of the philippics of Adams against American slavery. Alone, for the greater part of his service in Congress, he stood in the midst of his malignant13 assailants like a rock in a stormy sea. Old man that he was, plainly showing the in-roads of physical weakness, he was in that body of distinguished and able men more than a match for any or all of his antagonists14. He was always "the old man eloquent15." Says one of our leading historical writers:
"As a parliamentary debater he had few, if any, superiors. In knowledge and dexterity16 there was no one in the House that could be compared with him. He was literally a walking cyclopedia. He was terrible in invective17, matchless at repartee18, and insensible to fear. A single-handed fight against all the slaveholders in the House was something upon which he was always ready to enter."
Speaking of his effectiveness in congressional encounters another Congressman19 writes:
"He is, I believe, the most extraordinary man living. I have with my own eyes seen the slaveholders literally quake and tremble through every nerve and joint20, when he arraigned21 before them their political and moral sins. His power of speech has exceeded any conception I have heretofore had of the force of words or logic22."
At last his enemies in Congress decided23 that they would endure his attacks no longer. They took counsel together and agreed upon a plan of operations looking to his expulsion from that body. As one of his biographers, also a distinguished Congressman, expressed it: "It was the preconcerted and deliberate purpose of the slave-masters to make an example of the ringleader of political Abolitionism. They meant to humiliate24 and crush him, and this they did not doubt their power to do."
Mr. Adams submitted a petition, without giving it his personal endorsement25, asking for a dissolution of the union. That furnished the pretext26 his enemies wanted. They accused him of treason in countenancing27 an assault upon the union, although they were at the time engaged in laying the foundation of a movement looking to its ultimate overthrow28. The outcome of this undertaking29 was one of the most thrilling scenes ever witnesssd in the American Congress; or, for that matter, in any other deliberative assembly.
Preparations for the affair were made with great elaborateness. The galleries were filled with the friends, male and female, of pro-slavery Congressmen. The beauty and chivalry30 of the South were there. They had come to witness the abasement31 of the great enemy of their most cherished institution. They were to see him driven from the nation's council chamber32, a crushed and dishonored man. Not one friendly face looked down upon him as he sat coolly awaiting the attack, and upon the floor about him were few of his colleagues that gave him their sympathies.
The two most eloquent Congressmen from the South were selected to lead the prosecution33. One was the celebrated34 Henry A. Wise, of Virginia; the other "Tom" Marshall, of Kentucky. The latter opened the proceedings35 by offering a resolution charging Mr. Adams with treasonable conduct and directing his expulsion. He supported it with a speech of much ingenuity36. Wise followed in a fiery37 diatribe38. Both speakers imprudently indulged in personal allusions39 of a somewhat scandalous nature, thus laying themselves open, with episodes in their careers of questionable40 propriety41, to retaliation42 from a man who thoroughly43 knew their records. At this point we have the testimony44 of an eye-witness:
"Then uprose that bald, gray old man of seventy-five, his hands tremulous with constitutional infirmity and age, upon whose consecrated45 head the vials of tyrannic wrath46 had been outpoured. Unexcited he raised his voice, high-keyed, as was usual with him, but clear, untremulous, and firm. Almost in a moment his infirmities disappeared, although his shaking hand could not but be noted47, trembling, not with fear, but with age."
His speech was absolutely crushing. He met every point that had been urged against him and triumphantly48 refuted it. He handled his oratorical49 antagonists with merciless severity, depicting50 certain events in their lives with such vividness that the onlookers51 gazed upon them with visible and unmistakable pity. Said one of these men when he afterwards understood that a certain party was about to engage in a controversial debate with Mr. Adams, "Then may the Lord have mercy on him."
Mr. Adams was not expelled. His opponents frankly52 admitted their discomfiture53 and dropped the whole business.
It cannot be denied that John Quincy Adams, almost by his unaided efforts, preserved and sustained the life of the Anti-Slavery cause at a time when it was almost moribund54. He plowed55 the ground, cutting a deep and broad furrow56 as he went his way, and in the upturned soil such laborers57 as Birney and Garrison58 and Chase planted the seed that rooted and grew until it yielded a plentiful59 harvest.
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1 salmon | |
n.鲑,大马哈鱼,橙红色的 | |
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2 meritoriously | |
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3 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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4 conflagration | |
n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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5 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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6 ebb | |
vi.衰退,减退;n.处于低潮,处于衰退状态 | |
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7 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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8 adversaries | |
n.对手,敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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9 literally | |
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实 | |
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10 shackles | |
手铐( shackle的名词复数 ); 脚镣; 束缚; 羁绊 | |
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11 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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12 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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13 malignant | |
adj.恶性的,致命的;恶意的,恶毒的 | |
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14 antagonists | |
对立[对抗] 者,对手,敌手( antagonist的名词复数 ); 对抗肌; 对抗药 | |
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15 eloquent | |
adj.雄辩的,口才流利的;明白显示出的 | |
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16 dexterity | |
n.(手的)灵巧,灵活 | |
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17 invective | |
n.痛骂,恶意抨击 | |
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18 repartee | |
n.机敏的应答 | |
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19 Congressman | |
n.(美)国会议员 | |
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20 joint | |
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合 | |
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21 arraigned | |
v.告发( arraign的过去式和过去分词 );控告;传讯;指责 | |
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22 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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23 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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24 humiliate | |
v.使羞辱,使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
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25 endorsement | |
n.背书;赞成,认可,担保;签(注),批注 | |
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26 pretext | |
n.借口,托词 | |
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27 countenancing | |
v.支持,赞同,批准( countenance的现在分词 ) | |
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28 overthrow | |
v.推翻,打倒,颠覆;n.推翻,瓦解,颠覆 | |
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29 undertaking | |
n.保证,许诺,事业 | |
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30 chivalry | |
n.骑士气概,侠义;(男人)对女人彬彬有礼,献殷勤 | |
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31 abasement | |
n.滥用 | |
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32 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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33 prosecution | |
n.起诉,告发,检举,执行,经营 | |
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34 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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35 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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36 ingenuity | |
n.别出心裁;善于发明创造 | |
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37 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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38 diatribe | |
n.抨击,抨击性演说 | |
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39 allusions | |
暗指,间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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40 questionable | |
adj.可疑的,有问题的 | |
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41 propriety | |
n.正当行为;正当;适当 | |
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42 retaliation | |
n.报复,反击 | |
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43 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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44 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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45 consecrated | |
adj.神圣的,被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 );奉献 | |
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46 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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47 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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48 triumphantly | |
ad.得意洋洋地;得胜地;成功地 | |
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49 oratorical | |
adj.演说的,雄辩的 | |
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50 depicting | |
描绘,描画( depict的现在分词 ); 描述 | |
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51 onlookers | |
n.旁观者,观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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52 frankly | |
adv.坦白地,直率地;坦率地说 | |
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53 discomfiture | |
n.崩溃;大败;挫败;困惑 | |
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54 moribund | |
adj.即将结束的,垂死的 | |
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55 plowed | |
v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 );犁耕;费力穿过 | |
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56 furrow | |
n.沟;垄沟;轨迹;车辙;皱纹 | |
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57 laborers | |
n.体力劳动者,工人( laborer的名词复数 );(熟练工人的)辅助工 | |
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58 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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59 plentiful | |
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
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