Anecdotes of public men; by John W. Forney.

354 ANECDOTES OF PUBLIC MEN.
relations. The volume before me, chiefly the product of his
brain, has been so long forgotten, and contains so many new
suggestions, at least to the present generation, that a glance
through its pages may be pleasant and profitable to the reader
of these Anecdotes.
The American progenitor of the Adams family was Henry
Adams, who fled in 1639 from ecclesiastical oppression in England, and was a member of the first Christian Church at Mount
Wollaston, the present town of Quincy, Massachusetts, and died
on the 8th of October, 1646. His memory is preserved by a
plain granite monument in the burial-ground of Quincy, upon
which John Adams, second President of the United States,
caused the following inscription to be carved:
"In Memory of
~eanrt %barn,
"Who took his flight from the dragon Persecution in Devonshire, in England, and alighted, with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston. One
of the sons returned to England, and, after taking time to explore the country, four removed to Medfield and the
neighboring towns, two to Chelmsford.
"One only, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand, remained here, who was
an original proprietor in the Township of Braintree, incorporated
in the year 1639.
"This stone and several others have been placed in this yard, by a greatgreat-grandson, from a veneration of the piety, humility, simplicity, prudence,
patience, temperance, frugality, industry, and perseverance of his ancestors,
in hope of recommending an imitation of their virtues to their posterity."
If we trace the descendants of Henry Adams we shall realize
how faithfully the ideas carved on the stony monument of their
great ancestor have been cherished. Three generations have
attested their devotion to these valuable precepts. I recollect
no American family that can point to so many great minds, all
formed, as it were, upon one model. The sons of the living
Charles Francis Adams, himself the son of John Quincy, are far
above the common standard, John Quincy Adams, Jr., being a