nothing more for him. He had had everything apparently that an
American statesman could hope for. He had been Minister to
Holland and Prussia, to Russia and England. He had been a Senator
of the United States, Secretary of State for eight years, and
finally President. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the greatest
part of his career, and his noblest service to his country, were
still before him when he gave up the Presidency.

In the following year (1830) he was told that he might be elected
to the House of Representatives, and the gentleman who made the
proposition ventured to say that he thought an ex-President, by
taking such a position, "instead of degrading the individual
would elevate the representative character." Mr. Adams replied
that he had "in that respect no scruples whatever. No person can
be degraded by serving the people as Representative in Congress,
nor, in my opinion, would an ex-President of the United States be
degraded by serving as a selectman of his town if elected thereto
by the people." A few weeks later he was chosen to the House, and
the district continued to send him every two years from that time
until his death. He did much excellent work in the House, and was
conspicuous in more than one memorable scene; but here it is
possible to touch on only a single point, where he came forward
as the champion of a great principle, and fought a battle for the
right which will always be remembered among the great deeds of
American public men.

Soon after Mr. Adams took his seat in Congress, the movement for
the abolition of slavery was begun by a few obscure agitators. It
did not at first attract much attention, but as it went on it
gradually exasperated the overbearing temper of the Southern