Late American Statesmen, No. II [pp. 95-119]

LA TE A4MERICAN STA TESMEN.
from what we learn in his diary, from what is told us by his contemporaries, altho there were periods in which anger got the
better of him in debate, there were no periods of self-abandonment in genial and confidential intercourse with his associates.
Except when roused by opposition he was cold, impassive, selfcontained, giving no exterior indication of the power boiling
under his iron-sheeted breast. The outlet was this diary. In this
respect it has no parallel~in the sphere of literature. Yet in the
scenes that are here portrayed it has parallels in the sphere of art.
In Gustav Dor6's illustrations of the legend of the Wandering
Jew, for instance, we have a series of pictures in some respects
not dissimilar. Dore's hero, fiery with perpetual youth yet
frozen with perpetual age, strides on from forest to village, from
village to city, from city to desert, every object in his path presenting itself to him with ominous mien. The village children,
impeding. through mere curiosity his stern march, seem to him
to gibe and flout. The men in the cities may obstruct his way;
and as with cold eye he gazes on them, their countenances seem
to him distorted with hate. Even the gargoyles on the ancient
towers grin in increased ugliness as they stare at him; when he
looks upon a torrent, it lifts itself scowlingly up to arrest his
progress, and the trees with grizzled beards and black talons
menace him on his march. Onward, however, he hurries with
unslackened step. His object is action. He clears the path
when he can, but when he cannot, he strides on in the new
line into which he is inflected. And with the qualification
that Mr. Adams, with his strong Christian convictions, acted
under the belief that he was directed by a providence of ultimate mercy and not of perpetual wrath; with the qualification
that in men who did not cross his path he could see good; with
the qualification, also, that tho he clothed those who crossed his
path with hatefulness, and would expose this hatefulness, he
would never proscribe them,-the objects he paints in his diary
have many features in common with the objects Dor6 paints as
standing in his pilgrim's way.
Illustrations of this will be found in almost every page of the
twelve volumes in which, with a fulness and freedom which cannot be too highly prized, the diary is presented to public inspection. Sometimes we have animosity exhibited in mass. Thus
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