THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
Goodbye 2011...Hello 2012
Years are the means of marking
time on the
calendar. We said “goodbye” to 2011 and
“hello” to 2012. Time flows in
relentless passage. Before one year can
hardly be reckoned with, another is upon us.
Much ink and an infinite number of words have been expended in
trying to
laud or decry time’s rapid passage. But
regardless of what we think or say about time, none of us has the power
to
either slow it down or stop it.
John Quincy
Adams, the sixth president of the United States
who served from 1825-1829, wrote this poem about time:
“Alas! How swift the moments fly!
How flash the years along!
Scarce here, yet gone already by,
The burden of a song.
See childhood, youth and manhood
pass,
And age with furrowed brow;
Time was—Time shall be—drain the
glass—
But where in Time is now?
This son of our second president, John
Adams, was seven years old when the battle of Bunker Hill was fought
during the
American Revolution. That day was carved
indelibly in the young child’s memory.
When he was eleven, his father was sent as America’s
representative to
France where the young boy attended school.
And, unbelievably, when John Quincy Adams was only fourteen, his
precociousness landed him in Russia where, at that young,
impressionable age,
he worked as secretary to the American ambassador in that country. At age fifteen, he became his father’s
secretary and was present as John Adams assisted with writing the peace
treaty
ending the American Revolution.
Returning to the United States, the younger Adams entered
Harvard where
he earned a law degree in 1787. He then
became America’s representative under President Washington to several
European
countries. Continuing his career in
foreign service, he helped write the peace treaty following the end of
the War
of 1812 (in 1814), sent by President Madison.
Then President James Monroe appointed John Quincy Adams
Secretary of
State in 1817. He assisted when the
United States negotiated to get Florida and helped to write the Monroe
Doctrine. In the election of 1824, the
decision had to be determined by the House of Representatives because
there was
not a majority in the electoral college.
Andrew Jackson and his compatriots accused John Quincy Adams of
making
deals to win the election. Nevertheless, even with the shaky beginning,
his
presidency saw the building of the Erie Canal, and laid the groundwork
for
educational advancement and the establishment of the Naval Academy, all
of
which came later. He was defeated by
Andrew Jackson in the 1828 election, but later ran for Congress, was
elected
from his home state of Massachusetts and served seventeen years,
helping to
establish the Smithsonian Institution and advocating freedom for
slaves, civil
rights, and free speech. He died at his
desk in his office at Congress on February 23, 1848.
With all of history that the
inimitable John Quincy Adams lived through (1767-1848), is it any
wonder that
he asked the pointed question in his poem:
“But where in Time is now?”
His question brings us to the same
pivotal consideration. “But where in
Time is now?”
We are in a time of great duress
in our
nation. Trust seems to be in grave
danger. Debt and uncertainty reign. Citizens, many of whom would work if they had
jobs, are jobless. Many other citizens,
too accustomed to government “hand-outs” and idleness, are just as glad
to
make-do from one government assistance check to another without
rendering any
worthwhile service either to their families or our country. “But where in Time is now?” reechoes through
the many decades from the time John Quincy Adams wrote these probing
words. The demise of 2011 and the dawn
of 2012 call us to consider our own responsibilities and directions.
True, we may not lead a life of
foreign service and domestic leadership as did the long-ago sixth
president,
John Quincy Adams.
But I’m reminded of the old adage that
carries great truth: “A chain is only as
strong as its weakest link.” We come to
2012 for some purpose. Could it be to
stand on convictions and strengthen the one small link that is our
niche in the
chain of time and events?
We have now—which will soon pass. But
now is important. All that we have and are
has been shaped by
what is past. All that we have and will
become lies in right choices and determined action.
Poet Alfred Lord Tennyson stated quite
succinctly the passing of one year and the dawn of the new in his “In Memoriam” (1850):
“The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the
true.”
Our times are more complex, more
complicated than those experienced by John Quincy Adams and Alfred Lord
Tennyson. But we, as they, have
opportunity to make a difference where we are, to “ring in the true.” The question remains: Will
I?
Will we? Tennyson put our
responsibility quite well when he wrote:
“That men may rise on stepping-stones/Of their dead selves to
higher
things.” The year 2012 gives us this
opportunity.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA
31061-2411.]
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