FEINBERG/WHITMAN    LITERARY FILE  
Prose "The People and John Quincy Adams" (1848-49?), Deily Crescent. 
Proof Sheet.

Box 31 Floder 15

Includes A.MS. corrections and quotationsProse
1848-9 ? The People and John Quincy Adams: A.MS. on proof. (1p. 
          25 3/4 by 13 cms.)

Written in ink on a proof of 'The People and John Quincy Adams', 
mounted on a strip of yellowish paper, 31 by 15 cms., 27 words
and 6 corrections: 

         I was down in New Orleans, in 1848-9--an editor in the 
Daily Crescent newpaper office--this is a proof of one of my 
articles in paper

         (In line 20, where text reads, '...the Ex-President. There...
Whitman has in margin:)  , t  (indicating it should read, '...
the Expresident, there...'.)

         (After line 22, W writes in margin:)   lead

        (In line 27, W indicated a comma be deleted after 'struggles.')
        (in line 40, W crossed out 'to", before 'him' and writes in
[*[over]*]                                                                                                                                 629

margin:) of /

       (In line 63 W has a diagonal line through 'h' in 'history'
and writes in the margin:)  H

        (in line 66 W indicated that the period after 'years' be de-
leted and writes in the margin:) squiggle - / 
                                                                  


(Whitman was in New Orleans in 1848, but not in 1849.)I was down in New Orleans, 
in 1848-9- an editor in the 
Daily Crescent newspaper office 
- this is a proof of one 
of my articles in 
paper

The People and John Quincy Adams,
Some of our Northern contemporaries are [??]
ping entirely beyond the record in their eulogies of 
Mr. Adams. Taking as a text the generous testimonials 
which have been offered from all quarters,
toward the memory of the Ex-President, the prints
alluded to sneeringly by the people of the republic
with now finding out, too late, the worth of the departed; 
adding that his administration was overthrown 
because it was too honest, and, indeed, that 
the land was and is unworthy of the high virtue
which it condemned. The nation is depressed, in 
order to make Mr. Adams more exalted.

If the remarks had merely been confined to a
superlative laudation of Mr. Adams, there would
be no present need of response, even from those 
who do not concur in such excessive praise. But 
when the mass of the people are brought up as before 
a tribunal, and treated with a sort of cynical 
sarcasm, because they did not attach themselves
more closely to the Ex-President, there is full     
propriety, it seems to us, in a few thoughts like the 
following: [*lead*]

John Quincy Adams was a virtuous man-- a 
learned man-- and had singularly enlarged diplomatic 
knowledge; but he was not a man of the 
People. Never, at any time, did he heartily espouse 
the side of any of those hot struggles for the
rights of men, as opposed to wealth and conservatism; 
which the last years of the last century, and 
all the hitherto years of the present one, show so 
many of.  Is it wonderful, then, that he never was
a popular man ?  O, the people know well enough 
who stand by them.  Even if temporary circumstances, 
as they sometimes have done, lead the 
masses for a moment to frown on those who really 
befriend them, there is always a chosen circle, a 
body-guard, who faithfully make headway for the 
truth and its dauntless leaders.  Can any one say 
that Mr. Adams, or his defence, ever generated this 
sort of enthusiasm?  No: it was not [so] of him.  He
was "a gentleman of the old school," no doubt; 
but the old school, with all its polish and grace, had 
its sources too near monarchy and nobility to be entirely 
free from their influences.  Only master 
minds, radical minds that went to the roots of 
things, and scorned mere precedent, leaped over 
such influences.  The era of the beginning of our 
government shows many persons of this old school:
high and noble men they were, too--but yet of an
age now past away. Nor is it the time only that
has past away, its systems, its reservations, its 
dread of popular licence, its distrusts, its "lingering 
look behind" to the kingly power then just disavowed, 
have passed away too.  May the grave
close forever upon them!
Some spirits there were, of that age, towering not
only above it, but above the ages yet to come.  They  
need no eulogium.  For those of another class,
whose names have mention in our records, there is
another grateful remembrance in the American
heart--a remembrance fresh and loving for many a
future year.  

But History--after  crowning at the head one, 
whose august purity is above any classification, and 
whose greatness can only be enhanced and made
firmer by the progress of years  - History will in 
due time give places to the men of the first three
score years of our republic's existence.  By her 
stern fingers, swayed from no passion or party, there
will doubtless be formed various grades--not so
much that some need a lower station, as that others
deserve a higher.