[35] In a public address, Mr. Adams once quoted the well-known words of Tacitus (Annal VI. 39), _Par negotiis neque supra_,--applying them to a distinguished man lately deceased. A lady wrote to inquire whence they came. Mr. Adams informed her, and added, they could not be adequately translated in less than seven words in English. The lady replied that they might be well translated in five--_Equal to, not above, duty_, but better in three--JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [36] _Remarks_ of Mr. Cambreleng. [37] Mr. Van Buren. [38] See the _Debates of the House_, January 23d and following, 1837; or Mr. Adams's own account of the matter in his _Letters to his Constituents_, etc. (Boston, 1837.) See, too, his _Series of Speeches on the Right of Petition and the Annexation of Texas_, January 14th and following, 1838. (Printed in a pamphlet. Washington, 1838.) [39] "Acer et indomitus, quo spes, quoque ira vocasset, Ferre manum, et nunquam temerando parcere ferro; Successus urgere suos; instare favori Numinis; impellens quiequid sibi summa petenti Obstaret, gaudensque viam fecisse ruina." [40] _Clarum et venerabile nomen._ [41] The above lines are from the pen of the Rev. John Pierpont. VII. SPEECH AT A MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, TO CELEBRATE THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY BY THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, APRIL 6, 1848. MR. CHAIRMAN,--The Gentleman before me[42] has made an allusion to Rome. Let me also turn to that same city. Underneath the Rome of the Emperors, there was another Rome; not seen by the sun, known only to a few men. Above, in the sunlight, stood Rome of the Cæsars, with her markets and her armies, her theatres, her temples, and her palaces, glorious and of marble. A million men went through her brazen gates. The imperial city, she stood there, beautiful and admired, the queen of nations. But underneath all that, in caverns of the earth, in the tombs of dead men, in quarries whence the upper city had been slowly hewn, there was another population, another Rome, with other thoughts; yes, a devout body of men, who swore not by the public altars; men whose prayers were forbidden; their worship disallowed, their ideas prohibited, their very lives illegal. Time passed on; and gradually Rome of the Pagans disappeared, and Rome of the Christians sat there in her place, on the Seven Hills, and stretched out her sceptre over the nations.