A circumstance occurred at this time, which attracted the attention of Mr. Adams.  The Russian Minister of the Interior, then advanced in years, having received many valuable presents while in office, became troubled with scruples of conscience, in regard to the disposal he should make of them.  He at length calculated the value of all his gifts, and paid the sum into the imperial treasury.  This transaction made a deep impression on Mr. Adams, and probably led him to the resolution of never accepting gifts.  In order to act with that freedom of bias which he deemed indispensable to the faithful discharge of public duty, he endeavored to avoid, as far as possible, laying himself under obligations to any man.  When a certain bookseller once sent him an elegant copy of the Scriptures, he kept the book, but returned its full equivalent in money.

While sojourning at St. Petersburg, Mr. Adams wrote a series of letters to a son at school in Massachusetts, on the value of the Bible, and the importance of its daily perusal.  Since his decease they have been published in a volume, entitled “Letters of John Quincy Adams to his son, on the Bible and its teachings.”  “Their purpose is the inculcation of a love and reverence for the Holy Scriptures, and a delight in their perusal and study.  Throughout his long life, Mr. Adams was himself a daily and devout reader of the Scriptures, and delighted in comparing and considering them in the various languages with which he was familiar, hoping thereby to acquire a nicer and clearer appreciation of their meaning.  The Bible was emphatically his counsel and monitor through life, and the fruits of its guidance are seen in the unsullied character which he bore, through the turbid waters of political contention, to his final earthly rest.  Though long and fiercely opposed and contemned in life he left no man behind him who would wish to fix a stain on the name he has inscribed so high on the roll of his country’s most gifted and illustrious sons.  The intrinsic value of these letters, their familiar and lucid style, their profound and comprehensive views, their candid and reverent spirit, must win for them a large measure of the public attention and esteem.  But, apart from even this, the testimony so unconsciously borne by their pure-minded and profoundly learned author, to the truth and excellence of the Christian faith and records, will not be lightly regarded.  It is no slight testimonial to the verity and worth of Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation, the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom, integrity, and philanthropy, have recognized and reverenced, in Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the living God.  To the names of Augustine, Xavier, Fenelon, Milton, Newton, Locke, Lavater, Howard, Chateaubriand, and their thousands of compeers in Christian faith, among the world’s wisest and noblest, it is not without pride that the American may add, from among his countrymen, those of such men as Washington, Jay, Patrick Henry, and John Quincy Adams.” [Footnote:  Preface to “Letters of John Quincy Adams to his Son, on the Bible and its Teachings.”]