In the interval' from 1804 to 1812, Mr. Cunningham, a maternal relative, had drawn him into a confidential correspondence, in which, still smarting under a sense of injury, he had expressed himself with perfect unreserve and entire freedom as to the chief events of his presidential administration and the character and motives of the parties concerned in them. By a gross breach of confidence, of which, like other impulsive and confiding persons, Mr. Adams had been often the victim, those letters were sold by Cunningham's heir in 1824, while the writer and many of the parties referred to were still alive, and were published as a part of the electioneering machinery against J. Q. Adams. They called out a violent retort from Col. Pickering, who had been secretary of state to Washington and Adams, till dismissed from office by the latter; but though Mr. Jefferson , was also severely handled in them, they occa- sioned no new interruption to the friendly correspondence for some years reestablished between him and Adams. Those two leading | actors in American politics, at first so cooperative and afterward so hostile, again reunited in friendly intercourse, having outlived almost all their fellow actors, continued to descend hand in hand to the grave.

Adams lived to see his son president and to receive Jefferson's congratulations upon it. By a remarkable coincidence, they both expired on the 50th ' anniversary of that declaration of indepen- dence in which they had both taken so active a part, Adams, however, being the survivor; by a few hours. - Of Adams's personal appear- ance and domestic character in his old age, his grandson gives the following account:; " In figure John Adams was not tall, scarcely exceeding middle height, but of a stout, well knit frame, denoting vigor and long life, yet as he grew old inclining more and more to corpulence. His head was large and round, with a wide forehead and expanded brows. His eye was mild and benignant, perhaps even humorous when he was free from emotion, but when excited it fully expressed the vehemence of the spirit that stirred within. His presence was grave and imposing on serious occasions, but not unbending. He delighted in social conversation, in which he was some- times tempted to what he called rhodomon-; tade. But he seldom fatigued those who i heard him; for he mixed so much of natural; vigor of fancy and illustration with the store of his acquired knowledge, as to keep alive their interest for a long time.

His affections were warm, though not habitually demon- strated toward his relatives. His anger, when thoroughly aroused, was for a time extremely violent, but when it subsided it left no trace'! of malevolence behind. Nobody could see him intimately without admiring the sim-plicity and truth which shone in his actions, and standing in some awe of the power and energy of his will. It was in these moments that he impressed those around him with a sense of his greatness. Even the men employed on his farm were in the habit of citing instances, some of which have been remem- bered down to the present day. At times his vehemence would become so great as to make him overbearing and unjust. This was most apt to happen in cases of pretension and any kind of wrong-doing. Mr. Adams was very impatient of cant, or of opposition to any of his deeply established convictions. Neither was his indignation at all graduated to the character of the individuals who might happen to excite it. It had little respect of persons, and would hold an illiterate man or a raw boy to as heavy a responsibility for uttering a crude heresy as the strongest thinker or the most profound scholar." The same writer makes the following remarks on his general character: "His nature was too susceptible to emotions of sympathy and kindness, for it tempted him to trust more than was prudent in the professions of some who proved unworthy of his confidence.

Ambitious in one sense he certainly was, but it was not the mere aspiration for place or power. It was a desire to excel in the minds of men by the development of high qualities, the love, in short, of an honorable fame, that stirred him to exult in the rewards of popular favor. Yet this passion never tempted him to change a course of action or to suppress a serious conviction, to bend to a prevailing error or to disavow one odious truth." This last assertion involves some controverted points of history; yet this at least must be granted, that it may be made with far more plausibility of Mr. Adams than of the greater portion of political men. The pecuniary independence which previous to his retirement Mr. Adams had secured by a judicious adaptation of his expenditures to his income, more fortunate than Mr. Jefferson, he maintained till the end of his life. Although he had a large family, including grandchildren and great-grandchildren, dependent upon him, he yet died in the possession of a valuable landed estate. - See "Life and Works of John Adams," by Charles Francis Adams (10 vols. 8vo, Boston, 1850-'56), and "Life of John Adams," by J. Q. and C. F. Adams (2 vols. 8vo, 1871).