Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/118

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98 ADAMS Alexander Smith to John Adams, to avoid recognition and conviction for mntiny in England. The island was visited only two or three times afterward during Adams's life. In 1825 a man named Buffett was permitted to settle there, and, being well educated, re- lieved Adams of the business of teaching. Lady Belcher, in her work on the "Mutineers of the Bounty " (London, 1871), says : " By the mercy of God and by the aid of his Bible and prayer book, which he had so earnestly studied, John Adams succeeded in establish- ing such a community as has been the dream of poets and the aspiration of philosophers." (See PITOAIRN ISLAND.) ADAMS, John, LL.D., an American teacher and philanthropist, born in Canterbury, Conn., in 1772, died in Jacksonville, 111., April 24, 1863. He was a son of John Adams, an officer in the revolutionary army from Con- necticut, and graduated at Yale college in 1795. Until 1798 he taught the academy in his native town; from 1800 to 1803 he wfls rector of Plainfield academy; from 1803 to 1810 principal of Bacon academy, Colchester, Conn. ; and from 1810 to 1833 principal of Phillips academy, Andover, Mass. He was during this period also one of the founders of several of the national benevolent societies. After being thus engaged in teaching for 36 years, he resigned and removed to Illinois, where he was instrumental in introducing some valuable modifications into the school laws; and when past 70 years of age he organized several hundred Sunday schools in different parts of the state. He published several essays on the training of the young, and left others in manuscript. ADAMS, John Conch, an English astronomer, born of humble parentage near Bodmin, June 5, 1819. He is a fellow of Pembroke college, Cambridge, England, and shares with Lever- rier the honor of having calculated the place of the planet Neptune before it had been rec- ognized by sight. He early showed great powers, and in 1841, while in St. John's col- lege, made his first computation of Neptune's place. In 1844-'6 he renewed his calcula- tions, and communicated the results to Profes- sors Challis and Airy ; but he did not publish them, and therefore Leverrier, who soon after attained and published similar results, has reaped the larger share of glory. The calcula- tions of both mathematicians were formed on the motions of the planet Uranus, which was drawn aside from its expected course by the attraction of Neptune. In 1858 Adams was appointed Lowndean professor of astronomy at Cambridge. ADAMS, John Qninry, sixth president of the United States, eldest son of President John Adams, born in Braintree, July 11, 1767, died in Washington, Feb. 23, 1848. The origin of his name was thus stated by himself: "My great-grandfather, John Quincy, was . x dying when I was baptized, and his daughter, my grandmother, requested I might receive his name. This fact, recorded by my father, has connected with my name a charm of mingled sensibility and devotion. It was filial tender- ness that gave the name it was the name of one passing from earth to immortality. These have been through life perpetual admonitions to do nothing unworthy of it." John Adams, having been appointed minister to France, took with him as companion his son John Quincy, then in his llth year. The voyage from Bos- ton to Bordeaux was tempestuous ; the travel by land from Bordeaux to Paris was rapid and fatiguing; but the young Adams, as appears from his father's published diary, conducted and sustained himself through both voyage and travels, and also during their residence at Paris, to his father's entire satisfaction. Placed at a school near Paris, he made rapid progress both in the French language and in his general studies. His health was perfect, and his father wrote to his mother that he at- tracted general attention wherever he went by his vigor of body, his vivacity of mind, and Ids constant good humor. After a stay in France of near a year and a half several months of which were spent at Nantes waiting for a passage home John Quincy Adams came- back with his father in a French frigate. "While at sea he taught English to his fellow passengers, the French ambassador to the United States, Do la Luzerne, and his secre- tary, M. Marbois. The following is an extract from his father's diary, under date of June 20, 1779: "The chevalier de la Luzerne and M. Marbois are in raptures with my son. They get him to teach them the language. I found this morning the ambassador seated on the cushion in our stateroom, M. Marbois in his cot, at his left hand, and my son stretched out in his at his right, the ambassador reading out loud in Blackstone's 'Discourse' at his en- trance on his professorship of the common law at the university, and my son correcting the pronunciation of every word and syllable and letter. The ambassador said he was astonished at my son's knowledge ; that he was a master of his own language like a professor. M. Mar- bois said, 'Your son teaches us more than you; he has point de grdce, point d'elogeg. He shows us no mercy, and makes us no com- pliments. We must have Mr. John.' " Char- acter is very early developed, and John Q. Adams retained much of this same style of teaching to the end of his life. After remain ing at home three months and a half, John Q. Adams, now in his 13th year, sailed again in the same French frigate, as his father's com- panion on his second diplomatic mission to Europe. Arriving at Paris in February, 1 780, he was again placed at school, where he remained till August. He then went with his father to Holland, where, after some months' tuition at a school in Amsterdam, he was sent about the end of the year to the university of Leyden. His father's secretary of legation, Francis !