It can readily be understood, that the slaveholders looked upon him as an incendiary of the most odious as well as dangerous description ; whOe the demagogues of every name and party were zealous in manifesting their patriotism, by pouiing obloquy upon a man at once so dis- tinguished and so unpopular. The northern Democrats especially, were careful to improve the opportunity of testifying their devotion to the cause of human bondage, by the most unmeasured hostility to its mighty opponent.
Said the Albany Argus (the recognized organ of the New York serviles), " How discreditable is it to the country, that the Massachusetts madman is permitted not only to outrage all order and decorum in the House, but to scatter incendiary evil and excitement throughout the country."
The Richmond Inqwirer, then edited by the same per- son whom Mr. Polk afterwards selected to take charge of the official journal of the administration, announced that Mr. Adams was considered " a general nuisance, whom the voice of the House, if not of the people, must here- after abate."" The abatement intended was expulsion from Congress. A New York paper, alluding with appro- bation to this hint of expulsion, extended it to the few members who acted with Mr. Adams, and remarked " But we are apprehensive there is not enough firmness or patriotism in Congress to adopt so stern and decisive a mode of rebuking the audacity of the miscreant traitors."
The Charleston Mercury, the leading Journal in South CaroUna, in reference to Mr. Adam's course in Congress, declared (1837): " Pubhc opinion in the South, would now we are sure justify an immediate resort to force by the southern delegation, and even on the floor of Congress, were they forthwith to seize and drag from the hall any man who dared to insult them as that eccentric old showman, John Quincy Adams, has dared to do."