Principally, however, he was suited to his post by education, family,
and character. He had been taken as a boy to Russia during his father's
ministry at St. Petersburg, and later had been educated in England. His
father and grandfather, John Quincy Adams and John Adams, both
Presidents of the United States, had both, also, been American Ministers
at London. Intensely patriotic, but having wide acquaintance through
training and study with European affairs, especially those of Britain,
and equipped with high intellectual gifts, Adams was still further
fitted to his new post by his power of cool judgment and careful
expression in critical times. His very coolness, sometimes appearing as
coldness and stiff dignity, rendered him an especially fit agent to deal
with Russell, a man of very similar characteristics. The two men quickly
learned to respect and esteem each other, whatever clash arose in
national policies.
But meanwhile Adams, in April, 1861, was not yet arrived in London. The
Southern Government organized at Montgomery, Alabama, but soon
transferred to Richmond, Virginia, was headed by Jefferson Davis as
President and Alexander Stephens as Vice-President. Neither man was well
known in England, though both had long been prominent in American
politics. The little British information on Davis, that he had served in
the United States Senate and as a Cabinet member, seemed to indicate
that he was better fitted to executive duties than his rival, Lincoln.
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