That which I now give to
you I had engraved by his direction at London in 1815, shortly
after the conclusion of the treaty of peace at Ghent, on the
24th of December, 1814, at the negotiation of which the same
interests, the fisheries, and the bounty had been deeply involved.
The motto, 'Piscemur, venemur, ut olim,' is from Horace.
"I request you, should the blessing of heaven preserve the
life of your son, Charles Francis, and make him worthy of
your approbation, to give it at your own time to him as a
token of remembrance of my father, who gave it to me, and
of yours.
"JOHN QUINCY ADAMS."
"My son Charles Francis Adams."
[Footnote]
* See Ante, p. 131.
[End of Footnote]
The negotiations of 1815 and 1818 were under the control
of as dauntless and uncompromising a spirit, and one quite
as alive to the value of the fisheries and the dishonor of
abandoning them as that of John Adams himself. If John Quincy
Adams, the senior envoy at Ghent, and the Secretary of State
in 1818, had consented to a treaty bearing the construction
which is lately claimed he never could have gone home to face
his father.
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