Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: JOHN ADAMS. This gentleman, who was destined, in the course of Provi- dence, to act a conspicuous part in events which led to, and introduced the revolutionary struggle between Great Britain and her American colonies, and to become a leader of distinguished eminence in the civil concerns connected with that great event, was born at Quincy in Massachusetts, a short distance from Boston, on the nineteenth day of October, (O. S.) 1735. He was a lineal descendent, in the fourth generation, from Henry Adams, who fled from persecution in £ngland ; and, maternally, from John Alden, who was one of the Pilgrims who landed on the Plymouth-rock, and sought, with that worthy band of pious adventurers, an ayslum for civil and religious liberty, which was denied them in their native country. The first settlers of this country, having been long refused the enjoyment of their natural rights " at home," (as it was then called,) had, before they embarked, acquired a clear and definite understanding of what constituted those rights. This knowledge, they not only brought with them into this their new country, but carefully instilled it into the minds of their posterity. They came well prepared to claim and establish a full enjoyment of their civil and religious rights for themselves, and to ensure their transmission, secure and unimpaired, to future generations. No class of men probably ever lived, who more carefully instilled their own principles into the minds of their children, than the New England Pilgrims ; nor was there ever a class of men who more faith- fully performed the duty of instructors, in this respect, than they. They clearly foresaw that their immunities, however securely guarded by royal charters, might have to encounter attempts to wrest them from the possession of their descend...