On Feb. 21, 1848, he had a second attack while occupying his seat in the house. He was taken to the speaker's private room, where he remained in a state seemingly of unconsciousness, though with occasional incoherent utterances, till the 23d, when he expired. His last words are said to have been, " This is the last of earth; I am content." - In addition to his voluminous speeches in congress, many of which were written out by himself, on various subjects, a great number of his acknowledged publications appeared in his lifetime. He left behind him a very voluminous diary, extending from his early youth to his death, one or two valuable fragments from which have already appeared. His journal, which is in the hands of his son, is regarded as a great political treasure. He wrote with great fluency, his manuscript seldom presenting an erasure, but he lacked altogether that idiomatic elegance, force, and simplicity so conspicuous in his father, instead of which his style is swelling, verbose, inflated, and rhetorical.

He lacked also, though not without powers of sarcasm, the wit and fancy which sparkled in his father's writings, and still more that spirit of philosophical generalization into which John Adams constantly fell, but which was totally foreign to the intellectual constitution and habits of the son. John Quincy Adams had more learning perhaps, but John Adams had much more genius. In energy, spirit, firmness, and indomitable courage, John Q. Adams was his father's equal; in self-command, in political prudence, and even perhaps in capacity for hard work, his superior. Both will live for ever as representatives and embodiments of the spirit and ideas of New England during the periods in which they figured. In some respects John Q. Adams was far more fortunate than his father. The brilliant period of his career was toward its close. The longer he lived the higher he rose, and he died as such men prefer to die, still an admired and trusted champion, with harness on his back and spear in hand. Yet his whole political career, taken together, hardly presents to the close observer a character so uniformly brilliant and unspotted, and so free from the taint of selfishness, as that of his father.

In personal appearance, and in general temperament and character, the resemblance between the father and the son was close. Both had very strong feelings and warm prejudices, though of the two John Quincy appears to have been the less vehement by nature, and also the better under control. Like his father, he was an economical housekeeper and judicious financier, and he died in possession of a handsome estate. - See "Life and Public Services of J. Q. Adams," by William H. Seward (12mo, Auburn, 1849), and "Life of J. Q. Adams," by Josiah Quincy (Boston, 1858).