They were known, however, to a few men who were
intimate with him. I was quite astonished one day when I
called on Dr. Palfrey, at his house in Cambridge in 1852,
and he told me Mr. Adams was entirely competent for the office
of President of the United States.
Mr. Adams was rather dull as a public speaker. He was apt
to announce commonplaces slowly and deliberately, as if they
were something he thought his audience was listening to for
the first time. But the influence of his historic name was
very great. His marvellous resemblance to his father and
grandfather made a great impression. When he said at Worcester
on the 28th of June, 1848: "I say, in words to which I have
a hereditary right, 'Sink or Swim, Live or Die, Survive or
Perish, I give my hand and my heart to this movement,'" it
seemed to the audience as if old John Adams had stepped down
from Trumbull's picture of the Signing of the Declaration
of Independence to give his benediction.*
[Footnote]
* I like very much the epitaph which his sons placed over him in
the burial place at Quincy. Every word of it is true.
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