Old Man Adams

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS--Bennett Champ Clark--Little, Brown ($3.75).

John Quincy Adams' mother loved him; apparently his wife did also, but there were few others. After reading Author Clark's biography of him it is easy to see why. Cold son of a cold New England father, John Quincy was brought up in a tradition of public service, in a day when the words had no commercial connotation. After the mill of Harvard and a law office, John Quincy Adams embarked on a diplomatic career, became successively Senator, Ambassador, Secretary of State, President. Short (5 ft. 7 in.), too fat for his height, at 49 "he was almost completely bald; his constant reading had subjected him to a rheumy affection of the eyes which gave him the appearance of continually having tears running down his cheeks. ... He was negligent, even slovenly, in his dress." He was Harvard's first (1806-09) Boylston Professor of Rhetoric & Oratory, the chair so long held by Charles Townsend ("Copey") Copeland who last month was ordered out of ancient Hollis Hall by his physician (TIME, Sept. 12). Like "Copey," he could stir youth with his public readings; like "Copey" he was crotchety and cantankerous on the platform. Only President's son to become President himself, he was even less popular than his father had been. Elected in spite of a popular majority against him, he owed his office to a close vote in the House of Representatives.

Embittered, like his father, by a stormy term of office, like his father John Quincy refused to take part in his successor's inauguration. Though in later life he became known to colleagues in the House as "Old Man Eloquent," his facility was hard come by. Once Senator Adams confessed to his diary: "On this occasion, as on almost every other, I felt most sensibly my deficiency as an extemporaneous speaker. . . . Sometimes, from inability to furnish the words to finish a thought commenced, I begin a sentence with propriety and end it with nonsense."

Biographer Clark considers Adams "the Great Independent of American politics. Excessively opinionated, dogmatic, egocentric, cold, yet at the same time honest, conscientious, patriotic and fearless, both his faults and his virtues made it difficult, almost impossible, for him to work in conjunction with others to the extent necessary to make part of a party organization. ... As we ... note his petty meannesses, his malice toward all of his associates, his claims to ill-treatment at the hands of all his contemporaries, his unctuous self-righteousness, his constant imputation of the worst of motives and conduct, we are moved to something like active dislike of the man. But . . . spotless probity . . . robust Americanism . . . fearless patriotism . . . high statesmanship."

The Author-- Midwest Jeffersonian Democrat, with little sympathy for Adams' politics, Biographer Clark remarks: "He was such an interesting old coot I had a fine time writing his life" (TIME, Jan. 25). He reports that there have been fewer biographies of Adams "than of almost any great American." Disregarding James Truslow Adams' The Adams Family (TIME, June 16, 1930), of which he made no mention in his bibliography, he says his is the first biography of John Quincy Adams in 50 years.

Like his subject, Biographer Clark is the son of a famed father. While the late great Champ Clark was Speaker, young Bennett practically grew up in the House of Representatives. Speaker Clark advised him to be a Missouri farmer. Instead he studied law in Washington, served four years under his father as House parliamentarian. In 1917 he went to War, rose to a colonelcy in the A. E. F. As much to Col. Clark as to any other man has gone credit for the initiation of the American Legion in Paris shortly after the Armistice. Back in St. Louis he practiced law, married, became the father of three sons. This year he turned seriously to elective politics by declaring for the U. S. Senate. White-crested James A. Reed, great Missouri Democrat, threw the mantle of leadership around Candidate Clark's hefty shoulders, helped secure his nomination in the August primary. Strong for Repeal, Nominee Clark reinserted the magic word Champ into his name for campaign purposes.

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