He was a tea-drinker of considerable pertinacity, but was not equal to General Washington in this useful and exalted practice.

As a man of ambitions and bright prospects, Mr. Adams's greatest fault at the outset was late rising, and the apparent absence of some great principle guiding him at every small as well as important step of his life. He rose after the sun oftener than before it, and not unfrequently at eight or nine o'clock of mornings. No matter how golden thoughts were matured at the midnight hour, this practice would present any great man in a ridiculous aspect. There was, for sev eral years after entering upon the practice of the law, wanting in his personal habits the presence of those stern elements of self-control which ever actuated Washington and many other eminent men. But time improved these things; and no immoral stain ever rested on the character of John Adams.

Jonathan Sewall afterwards truly said that Mr. Adams wanted the education, the qualities of dissipation, to make him a courtier; he wanted the small talk and other trifling traits, to make him flirt with women. But he was very fond of the society of women for all that. At the age of ten or eleven, he began his small adventures, like most other live boys, among the girls, and with the exception of seven years, dating from the time of entering college, he maintained his "female" friendships until his marriage. But all of this was not in the way to fit him for a "society man," nor of a character to detract from the noble reputation of his maturer life.

Some extracts from Mr. Adams's Diary will materially illustrate this period.

"January 8, 1761. Last Monday had a passionate wrangle with Eben Thayer, before Major Crosby. He called me a petty lawyer. This I resented."

etc.

"This is the third time I have been before Major Crosby with T. The first time he was for John Spear; that action was demolished. The next time he appeared for Nathan Spear against Eph. Hunt and John Vinton. Those actions were demolished. The last time he appeared for Bayley against Niles, White, Hayden, These actions were all demolished. Thus I have come off pretty triumphantly every time, and he pretty foolishly. Yet I have managed none of these cases in the most masterly manner. I see several inadvertent mistakes and omissions. But I grow more expert, less diffident, etc. I feel my own strength. I see the complacent countenances of the crowd, and I see the respectful face of the justice, and the fearful faces of pettifoggers, more

than I did."

"June 20, 1761. This morning is very fine; the clear sky; the bright sun, the clean groves and grass, after so fine a rain, are very pleasant. But the books within this chamber have a much better title to my attention than any of the rural scenes and objects without it. I have been latterly too much in the world, and too little in this retreat. Abroad, my appetites are solicited, my passions inflamed, and my understanding too much perverted, to judge wisely of men or things; but in this retreat, when neither my senses, nor appetites, nor passions are excited, I am able to consider all things more coolly and sensibly."

In November, 1761, Mr. Adams was sworn to practice in the Superior Court, and makes this record of the event in his Diary :

"Brother Quincy and I were sworn before the Superior Court. It is now more than five years since I began the study of the law; and it is about three years since I was sworn at the Inferior Court."

"About this time the project was conceived, I suppose by the Chief Justice, Mr. Hutchinson, of clothing the judges and lawyers with robes. Mr. Quincy and I were directed to prepare our gowns and bands, and to tie wigs, and were admitted barristers, having

practiced three years at the inferior courts, according to one of our new rules."

"Before Sunrise. My thoughts have taken a sudden turn to husbandry. Have contracted with Jo. Field to clear my swamp, and to build me a long string of stone wall, and with Isaac to build me sixteen rods more, and with Jo. Field to build me six rods more. And my thoughts are running continually from the orchard to the pasture, and from thence to the swamp, and thence to the house and barn and land adjoining. Sometimes I am at the orchard plowing up acre after acre, planting, pruning appletrees, mending fences, carting dung; sometimes in the pasture digging stones, clearing bushes, pruning trees, building wall to redeem posts and rails; and sometimes removing button-trees down to my house; sometimes I am at the old swamp burning bushes, digging stumps and roots, cutting ditches across the meadows."

This mood was upon him in the fall of 1762, as it was often afterwards throughout his life.

In 1764 Mr. Adams made the following record of himself, one which would have applied equally well at any later period in his long life:

my

"I was of an amorous disposition, and very early, from ten to eleven years of age, was fond of the society of females. I had favorites among the young women, and spent many of my evenings in their company; and this disposition, although controlled for seven years, after my entrance into college, returned and engaged me too much till I was married.

"I shall draw no character, nor give any enumeration of my youthful flames. This, I will say. It would be considered as no compliment to the dead or the living. This I will say ;they were all modest and virtuous girls, and always maintained their character through life. No virgin or matron ever had cause to blush at the sight of me, or to regret her acquaintance with me. No father, brother, son, or friend, ever had cause of grief or resentment for any intercourse between me and any daughter, sister, mother, or any other relation of the female sex. The reflections, to me consolatory beyond all expression, I am able to make with truth and sincerity; and I presume I am indebted

for this blessing to my education. This has been rendered the more precious to me, as I have seen enough of the effects of a different practice. Corroding reflections through life are the never-failing consequence of illicit amours in old as well as new countries. The happiness of life depends more upon innocence in this respect, than upon all the philosophy of Epicurus or of Zeno, without it."

CHAPTER III.

MR. ADAMS AS A LAWYER-APPEARS FOR THE BRITISH SOLDIERS IN THE CASE OF THE "BOSTON MASSACRE""DISSERTATION ON THE CANON AND FEUDAL

I

LAW"-THE MAN AND HIS PROFESSION.

N the early part of 1768, Mr. Adams was urged by some of his friends to remove to Boston, which he did in that year, and took up his residence in a house called the White House in Brattle Square. Soon afterwards, as before intimated, with a view of securing him to the royal cause, through Attorney-General Jonathan Sewall, Governor Bernard offered him the position of Advocate-General in the court of admiralty, which position he declined, and wrote of it in the following words—

"Although this offer was unexpected to me, I was in an instant prepared for an answer. That I was sensible of the honor done me by the Governor, but must be excused from accepting his offer. The office was lucrative in itself, and a sure introduction to the most profitable business in the Province; and what was of more consequence still, it was a first step in the ladder of royal favor and promotion. But I had long weighed this subject in my own mind. For seven years I had been solicited by some of my friends and relations, as well as others, and offers had been made me, by persons who had influence, to apply to the Governor or to the Lieutenant-Governor to procure me a commission for the place. But I had always rejected these proposals, on account of the unsettled state of the country and my scruples about laying myself under any restraints or obligations of gratitude to the government for any of their favors.