Adams completed the usual term of professional study, and then commenced
the practice of the law in Boston. It may encourage some who are oppressed
by the difficulties attending initiation in the profession, to know, that
during the first and only four years of John Quincy Adams' practice, he
had occasion for despondency.

"I had long and lingering anxieties, (he afterwards said,) in looking
forward, doubtful even of my prospects of comfortable subsistence, but
acquiring more and more the means of it, till in the last of the four
years, the business of my profession yielded me an income more than equal
to my expenditures."

But the country and the age had claims on John Quincy Adams, as well as on
his father, for higher duties than "making writs," and "haranguing
juries," and "being happy."

The American Revolution, which had been brought to a successful close, had
inspired, throughout Europe, a desire to renovate the institutions of
government. The officers and citizens of France who had mingled in the
contest, had carried home the seeds of freedom, and had scattered them
abroad upon soil quick to receive them. The flame of Liberty, kindled on
the shores of the Western Continent, was reflected back upon the Old
World. France beheld its beams, and hailed them as a beacon-light, which
should lead the nations out from the bondage of ages. Inspirited by the
success attending the struggle in the British colonies, the French people,
long crushed beneath a grinding despotism, resolved to burst their
shackles and strike for Freedom. It was a noble resolution, but
consummated, alas amid devastation and the wildest anarchy. The French
Revolution filled the world with horror. It was the work of a blind giant,
urged to fury by the remembrance of wrongs endured for generations. The