These dissatisfied members of congress, so Adams alleged, had proposed to have a meeting at Boston, at which Hamilton was to have been present. It was admitted that Hamilton disapproved of the scheme, and. yet his reasons for accepting Burr's challenge were cited as proof that he anticipated a civil war and the being called upon to take a leading part in it. Such seems to have been about the whole of this alleged plot, carefully concealed, as Adams admitted, from the great body of the federalists, and unknown even to the greater part of their leaders, including one so conspicuous as Ames. We shall have occasion at a subsequent period of Mr. Adams's life to refer again to this subject. It should be added now, however, that this revelation was among the reasons by which Adams pressed Jefferson to consent to the repeal of the embargo, for which he had himself voted, but which had provoked in all the maritime parts of the country, and especially in New England, a very violent hostility, and which could not be persisted in, as Adams thought, without leading to open and violent resistance, and so affording opportunity to the plotters against the integrity of the Union. Immediately after Madison's accession to the presidency, he nominated Mr. Adams as minister to Russia. Since the time that Adams, while yet a boy, had visited St. Petersburg as private secretary to an unrecognized minister, the United States had had no ambassador at that court.

The senate, not yet satisfied of the expediency of opening diplomatic relations in that quarter, though the same thing had been recommended by Jefferson, refused to confirm the nomination. However, a few months after, the nomination was renewed, and with better success. John Adams, who did not like being thus separated from his son, saw in this appointment only a sort of political banishment intended on the part of the Virginia politicians to remove a dreaded competitor out of the way. Yet in fact, by removing John Q. Adams from the immediate theatre of contention at home, it contributed not a little to his subsequent political promotion. He was himself, as we may judge, well satisfied to escape from the political commotion which he had raised; for when, after various unsuccessful attempts to fill a vacancy on the supreme bench of the United States, he was nominated and confirmed as a judge (for the New England circuit), in spite of the wishes of his father he declined the nomination, preferring to remain as ambassador at St. Petersburg, where he was now established with his family. He was well received in Russia. His official duties were not very arduous.

Part of his leisure he employed in writing a series of "Letters," since published, addressed to his sons, on "The Bible and its Teachings"; a pious work, but not otherwise of particular value or merit. The disputes and collisions between Great Britain and the United States having finally terminated in war, through the influence of Mr. Adams the emperor of Russia was induced to offer himself as mediator, and in July, 1813, Adams was joined by Mr. Bayard, and afterward by Mr. Gallatin, those gentlemen having been appointed in conjunction with himself to negotiate a peace. Great Britain, however, refused to treat under the mediation of Russia. She proposed instead an independent negotiation at London or Gothenburg, for which Ghent was afterward substituted. This proposition having been accepted on the part of the United States government, Mr. Adams arrived at Ghent in June, 1814, and after a protracted negotiation of six months, in which Jonathan Russell and Henry Clay were associated, peace was finally concluded Dec. 24, 1814. No attempt whatever was made to limit the maritime pretensions of Great Britain, in resistance to which the war had originated, and against which Mr. Adams, in joining the administration party, had so decidedly pronounced.

The skill and eloquence of the American commissioners found ample scope in warding off the pretensions of Great Britain to portions of territory occupied by her, or at least to act as protector to the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States. Some attempt was also made to limit our fishing rights, and Mr. Adams was now instrumental, as his father had been before him, in maintaining unimpaired our enjoyment of the ocean fisheries. Previous to proceeding to London to execute a new commission to negotiate in conjunction with Clay and Gallatin a treaty of commerce, Adams visited Paris, where he witnessed the return of Napoleon from Elba and the brief empire of the hundred days. Here his family joined him after a long and perilous journey from St. Petersburg, and on the 25th of May he joined Clay and Gallatin in London; in conjunction with whom, on July 13, 1815, he signed a commercial convention with Great Britain. This business finished, Adams still remained at London as resident minister. - Upon the accession of Monroe to the presidency (1817) he offered Mr. Adams the post of secretary of state, to fill which he returned home, after an absence of eight years.

The reestablishment of peace in Europe having removed former grounds of contention, a political lull had succeeded, and a new organization of parties now began to take place, especially on the subjects of protection to American manufactures and expenditures from the United States treasury for internal improvements. There still remained, however, to be disposed of, some questions of moment more immediately connected with Mr. Adams's position as secretary of state. Gen. Jackson, having been consulted on the subject by Monroe, had heartily approved of the appointment of. Mr. Adams to that department. Adams no less warmly supported in the cabinet, against Mr. Calhoun's proposition of censure, the conduct of Gen. Jackson in invading Florida, hanging Arbuthnot and Ambrister, and taking military possession of St. Mark's and Pensacola. Those proceedings he also sustained with no less zeal in his diplomatic correspondence with the Spanish minister - an important correspondence, having reference to the boundaries of Florida and Louisiana, and the claims of America on Spain for commercial depredations.