Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 July 1884 — John Adams and His Son. [ARTICLE]

John Adams and His Son.

Old John Adams, proud as he was of his son, John Quincy, could not maintain that on every occasion he was a “chip of the old block.* Dr. Orville Dewey once visited old John Adams at his house in Quincy, and was presented to him by Mr. Josiah Quincy. The ex-President talked incessantly. The Italian author, Maehiavelli, was mentioned, whereupon the vigorous old gentleman discoursed about him for ten minutes without stopping, and in language so well chosen that Dr. Dewey thought it might have been printed without alteration. Ydry different was John Quincy Adams, to whom Dr. Dewey was introduced at the White House in Washington during Mr. Adams’ Presidential term. The Doctor said to his companion as they entered the mansion: “Now tell Mr. Adamß who I am, and where from, for I think he must be puzzled what to talk about with so many strangers coming to him.* He was introduced accordingly, after which his friend, an aged member of Congress, withdrew, leaving the President and the clergyman alone together. The President pointed to a chair, which Dr. Dewey took. What followed the Doctor himself relates thus: “I was a young man, and felt that it did not become me to open a conversation. And there we sat five minutes without a word being spoken by either of us. I rose, took my leave, and went away, I don’t know whether more angered or astonished.” Dr. Dewey was certainly unfortunate in his interview. Probably the President was tired out with receiving visitors, and waited for the young gentleman to start the conversation. About the same time Thurlow Weed saw John Quincy Adams for the first time; but the President snowed more activity. “I rose before the sun," says Mr. Weed, “and walked down to the bank of the Potomac, observing as I approached it a gentleman in nankeen pantaloons and a blue pea-jacket walking rapidly from the White House toward the river. This was John Quincy Adams, the President of the United States. “I moved off to a respectful distance. The President began to undress before he reached a tree on the brink of the river, where he deposited his clothes, and then pluged in head-first and struck out fifteen or twenty rods, swimming rapidly, and turning occasionally upon his back, seeming as much at his ease in that element as upon terra firms. “Coming out, he rubbed himself thoroughly with napkins which he had brought for that purpose in his hand. The sun had not, yet risen when he had dressed himself and was returning to the Presidential mansion.”— Youth's Companion.