It has been usual for Americans, like Britons, to value high char-
acter in public men rather more than high intellectual attainments.
History has proved it a sound attitude, for the qualities of character
exhibited by Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Lee, Cleveland, and
Wilson have been more useful to their countrymen than any dis-
play of intellectual subtlety or brilliance could have been. Sagacity
and judgment we need in our national leaders; but any mental en-
dowments beyond this are of less worth to the state than integrity,
courage, coolness, and magnanimity. So at any rate most Americans
would say, prizing nobleness of mind more than depth of mind.
Perhaps because of this general attitude the country, while recog-
nizing the greatness of John Quincy Adams, has been more inclined
to think of him as a great personality than a great intellect.

Adams made many mistakes and met many failures, but his
eminence in character and spirit has been evident to all who read
the history of the first half of the nineteenth century. No more in-
trepid, conscientious, and laborious public servant, no more hon-
orable, earnest, and devoted leader, ever sat in the White House or
lifted his voice in Congress. When, entering the Senate in Jeffer-
son's Administration, he displayed an independence which excited
antagonism on all sides of the chamber, the young man realized that
he would need exceptional fortitude. "The qualities of mind most
peculiarly called for," he wrote in his diary, "are firmness, perse-
verance, patience, coolness, and forbearance." These qualities he
proceeded to exhibit, for they were inborn. He was irritable, tact-
less, aggressive, and humorless; but he was also an unshakable bat-
tler for principle, a man whose high pride lifted him above all pet-
tiness, a patriot who thought of no interest but his country's, a leader
of inflexible scruple.

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