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MEMOIRS
or
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
COMPRISING P(MlTIOICS OP
HIS DIARY FROM 1795 TO 1848/
EDITED BY
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
VOL.VL
pbiladslpbia:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
1875.
'\
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429921
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, ^X
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII. (Coniinued.)
PAGE
The Department of State — Second Term ...'... 3
CHAPTER XIV. The Presidency 518
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JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
VOL. VI. — I
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MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
CHAPTER XIII. {Continued)
THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE — SECOND TERM.
June 2d, 1822. — General D. Parker came in, and detained me at an interview of more than three hours. Parker was brought in as Chief Clerk of the War Department by Dr. Eustis. He continued in that office through the period while General Arm- strong was Secretary at War, and afterwards while Mr. Monroe was the Secretary. He was afterwards appointed Adjutant- and Inspector-General, with the rank of Brigadier-General. At the reduction of the army last year that office was abolished, and Parker was made Paymaster- General in the room of Tow- son, who was suddenly turned into a colonel of artillery. But, the Senate having at their late session rejected the nomination of Towson as colonel of artillery, the President nominated him to his old post of Paymaster-General, whereby Parker was re- moved from it without any other provision being made for him. Both the President and the Secretary of War have reasons for disliking, and, as he evidently thinks, for dreading Parker, and the very day that he was worried out of office by the nomina- tion of Towson to his place, Crawford wrote him a note (6th May), unsolicited on his part, offering him a clerkship of a thousand dollars salary in the Treasury Department, which he declined. He showed me this note of Crawford's,^ and said he understood its meaning. It was saying to him : This is all I have to give, and this is at your disposal. This avidity of
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Crawford to secure Parker in his interest is easily accounted for. He knows that great use may be made of him against both the President and Calhoun. Parker is deeply exasperated at the treatment he has received, and says he has been so long out of all business other than the public service, that he knows not what will become of him. But he manifests no passion ; and he kept me during almost the whole of this day telling me, with an air and tone of indifference, what he knew, and intimating what he further could tell. He said he had had a very long interview with the President, in which he had ap- peared to be excessively sore upon an attack on him in' the New York Philosophical and Literary Repository in an anony- mous paper written by Armstrong. Parker asked me if I had seen it.
I had, and told him there was a charge in it against Mr. Monroe, in relation to the campaign of 1813, which, in my opinion, amounted to nothing less than treason. Parker said there was in that charge a reference to evidence in his pos- session; that as to Armstrong's inferences from which the charge resulted, he had nothing to do with them. The same facts were compatible with a course of conduct on the part of Mr. Monroe, correct or otherwise. But the facts were as Armstrong had stated them. Neither Armstrong nor Mr. Monroe possessed the documents which would show the fllll and detailed state of the case; but he himself did possess them very complete. He then gave me an account of his own situation between Mr. Monroe and Mr. Armstrong in 1813 and 1814. They were rival candidates for the succession to the Presidency. But when he observed this the other day to the President, he stopped him, and said, no; he was not a candidate for the Presidency. He had thought he had not due weight in the councils of Mr. Madison, and had supposed the cause of it was his being considered as a candidate for the Presidency. He had, therefore, to remove this cause, re- quested three of his friends in the House of Representatives, Mr. Pleasants, Mr. H. Nelson, and Mr. Gholson, to inform the Republican members of Congress that he was not a candidate. And as by some accident they did not give this notice, he had
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requested, in the ensuing year, 1 8 14, Mr. Lacock and Mr. Roberts, the Senators from Pennsylvania, to give it; which they had done. But in 1815, after the conclusion of the peace, and when the same difficulties no longer existed, he had, at the solicitation of his friends, consented to be considered as a candidate. Of this, however, Parker said he had known nothing at the time. In August, 18 13, Armstrong, being Secre- tary of War, had left the city and gone to the frontiers, where he remained until the next January, long after the session of Congress had commenced. Mr. Madison, the President, had gone during the summer into Virginia. Parker's instructions, as Chief Clerk of the War Department, were to consult the President and the Secretary of War by letter when it could be done; and in cases of emergency, when time could not be lost, to consult verbally the Secretary of State. Mr. Monroe, however, became possessed of all the military correspondence of the campaign. Mr. Madison returned to the city in October, and Parker called on him in the evening. He desired Parker to inform the Secretary of State that he wished to see him the next morning. Parker called accordingly at Mr. Monroe's house, and left word there, he not being at home, that the President wished to see him. But Mr. Monroe early the next morning left the city and went to Loudoun, whence he did not return for several days. Mr. Madison then went himself to the Department of State, and, directing all the papers of the mili- tary correspondence to be brought to him, ordered the whole of them to be sent over to the War Department. He was more in a passion than Parker ever saw him at any other period of his life, and gave it very distinctly to be understood that he thought that Mr. Monroe had been meddling with the affairs of the War Department more than was proper. It was to this event that the paper in the Philosophical and Literary Reposi- tory referred, and Mr. Monroe, Parker said, had intimated to him the other day that he should confer a new office upon him only on condition that he would give some written declara- tion to discredit Armstrong's statement in the Repository. It had altogether to him the appearance of proposing a bargain ; and yet Mr. Monroe had always known his determination to
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take no part in the controversies between him and Armstrong. When, after Armstrong's removal, in 1814, Mr. Monroe took the War Department, Parker soon perceived in him a reserve and distrust which ought not to subsist between the head of a Department and its Chief Clerk. He had then candidly exposed his feelings to President Madison, and told him that his general impressions with regard to Armstrong's adminis- tration of the War Department having been favorable, Mr. Monroe might naturally feel some reserve and want of con- fidence in him. He was willing, therefore, to make way for any other person to come into the Department in his place. The office of Inspector-General, with the rank of a Brigadier- General, was then offered him, and he had accepted it. Then the army had been reduced ; and he had been prevailed upon to consent to be transferred to the Pay Department ; and now Towson was re-appointed Paymaster-General, and he was dis- placed. He had been with Mr. Calhoun, who had told him that he was perfectly satisfied with him and his conduct, but had intimated to him that the committee of the Senate had been prejudiced against him. But upon Parker's showing decisive proofs to the contrary, by the signature of the Chair- man of the committee himself, Calhoun then represented that it was the President who was prejudiced against Parker, and had said that if he should give him a new place it would have the appearance as if he were afraid of him.
Calhoun's anxiety to make Parker believe that any other person than himself was the cause of his not receiving a new appointment sounds oddly to me, who knew from the Presi- dent himself that he had determined, upon a complaint of Cal- houn that Parker had treated him ill, to remove Parker and appoint Joseph L. Smith to his place, even if Towson had been confirmed in his appointment as colonel of artillery. I said nothing about this to Parker, but he appeared to understand Calhoun entirely. He said that afler Calhoun had avowedly taken Gibson as a witness to an inquisitional scrutiny about what he had said of his reports, it was in vain for him to talk of being satisfied with him or his friend. Parker said that he should now go to Massachusetts, and in the course of the
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summer endeavor to make some arrangements for settling in some business either at Boston or at Philadelphia, but he was determined to come and spend the next winter at Washington and see how things would then be managed. He said Mr. Calhoun was very sanguine in his expectations of succeeding to the Presidency, and believed he had a majority of Congress in his favor. And among the rest of his converts was General Scott, who was now gone to Richmond to ascertain whether by resigning his commission in the army he can obtain an immediate election to the Legislature of Virginia and then into the next Congress. He was in that case to be one of Mr. Calhoun's champions. And he was the author of a paper in the National Intelligencer attacking the majority of the Senate for their proceedings in the case of the rejected nominations. He said Scott had taken great pains to persuade him that Calhoun was friendly to him, and had several times repeated to him Mr. Calhoun had said to him how much he esteemed General Parker, and how fully satisfied he was with his conduct — all which, Parker said, he fully understood.
I said I believed that Mr. Calhoun was too sanguine in his calculations of success as a candidate for the next Presidency. There were in Congress three parties — one for Mr. Crawford, one for Mr. Clay, and one for Mr. Calhoun. They embraced indeed almost the whole. But the party for Mr. Crawford was the strongest, and that of Mr. Calhoun the weakest, of the three. And I had little doubt that the parties of Crawford and Clay would finally coalesce together. Parker said that he had heard Mr. Clay would come again, not only into the next Congress, but probably even to the next session of this Congress.
I said I doubted whether the Cabinet, as it is called, of Mr. Monroe would continue entire through the next session of Congress. Mr. Crawford or Mr. Calhoun, and most probably the latter, would be compelled to resign. Very probably the case might be my* own. For the attacks upon me at the late session of Congress had been from masked batteries, but they had been of the most deadly character, and, as they imputed to me as a crime that which I believed to be the greatest ser- vice I had rendered my country, I could not possibly foresee
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what the next charge against me would be. All I knew was, that it became me to be prepared for my political decease at a moment's warning.
Parker said that General Scott had told him he had read Russell's letter and my remarks upon it with Mr. Hay, and that they agreed in the opinion that I had the best of the argument. He said also that Tench Ringgold, the Marshal, had told him that the President had sent for him and asked him to make search among his (the President's) private papers for Russell's letter — telling him that I had noticed a passage in the duplicate and expressed a belief that it could not have been written at Paris at the time that it was dated. He said the President spoke of me at the same time in terms of great respect and esteem. Parker thought I might therefore rely upon the support of the President ; but I told him I must stand upon my own support or not at all. The President had enough to do to support the Secretary of War. He had already brought himself into collision with both Houses of Congress by sup- porting him. The President had little personal influence in Congress. He was now no longer the centre of hopes and expectations. He was independent of all. and had no lures for retainers or baits for ambition to hold out. Mr. Calhoun's friends had countenanced Russell's attack upon me, though Cal- houn himself had disclaimed it; but not a friend of mine, unless it were Eustis, had countenanced the attacks upon Calhoun, and Eustis had certainly not acted in concert with me. Parker said that if Eustis had been as strong as he was ten years ago he would have broken down Calhoun at the last session of Con- gress, and that he might yet do it at the next. The management of the War Department had been inefficient and extravagant, which was very susceptible of demonstration, and the intrigues of General Brown were sufficiently known — particularly with Colonel Atkinson. He, being a Georgian, had made them known at the time to Crawford, and Crawford had authorized a friend of Parker's to tell him from him that there was an intrigue for turning him out of office. Parker told me further that most of the late attacks upon Calhoun in the Washington City Gazette were written by Richards, once a captain in the
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army, and now an expectant of crumbs from the Treasury. I know Crawford has been taking pains to get an office for this man, against whom I have once or twice warned the President. Parker added that Child wrote the pieces in the Gazette against the National Intelligencer; that Asbury Dickens, one of the Clerks in the Treasury, had been called upon by Vandeventer to say whether he was the author of some of the pieces against the Mix contracts, and had denied being so.
This communication from General Parker has been altogether voluntary on his part.
3d. Cabinet meeting at noon — full. The President sub- mitted for consideration some letters from the island of Porto Rico, giving notice of several privateers fitted and fitting out from thence for the purpose, as they state, of capturing the vessels of all nations trading to the ports of the revolutionary party. The questions were, whether a naval force should be stationed to cruise in the Mona passage, and generally in the West India seas, with instructions to protect our vessels, and what the purport of those instructions should be. It appeared by one of the letters that several captures had already been made by the privateers, and one American vessel tried upon some petty charge of having a few articles of cargo not included in the manifest from St. Thomas. It was proved to have been an omission, not of the master of the vessel, but of the custom- house at St. Thomas. The Judge acquitted the vessel. Upon which the captain of the privateer told the Judge that if he liberated the vessel he (the privateersman) would take her again when she should sail, and would carry her into Porto Cabello. Upon which she was again seized, and condemned to pay one- third part of the costs ; from which sentence the American captain appealed. The Consul who gives this account observes that if they should condemn for breaches of their revenue laws vessels captured by privateers, no vessel will escape ; no regard whatever being had for those laws by any of the custom-house officers.
Mr. Crawford and Mr. Thompson expressed doubts whether instructions could be given to protect vessels against capture for the breach of revenue laws anywhere. I said it was evident
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that in this case the charge of infraction of the revenue laws had been a mere pretence. The capture had been by a privateer. When carried into port, the privateersman, of course, took every possible ground to procure the condemnation of the vessel, and, if he could not allege the laws of war, would adduce the laws of revenue. But privateers are not fitted out to protect the revenue laws, nor was the vessel in this case going to Porto Rico. Privateersmen, it was well known, were among the most lawless of mankind. These privateers from Porto Rico evidently belonged to that system of piratical depredation of which the West India seas have for several years been the scene. I thought, therefore, that the instruc- tions to the commanders of our armed vessels ought to be general, to protect our commerce, and not to suffer any of our merchant vessels to be captured unless in a very clear case that they were liable to capture. But the great object was to have the armed vessels there. The sight of their flag and of their guns would give more protection to the trade and save more vessels from capture than any instructions.
It was finally determined that instructions should be given generally to protect the trade, and that several of the public vessels should be ordered to visit the Mona passage occa- sionally, and to cruise in the neighboring regions.
The next question was about the sum of money to be ap- plied for the negotiation of a treaty with the Cherokee Indians, to obtain cessions of lands for the State of Georgia and indem- nities for claims of citizens of Georgia for property stolen from them. This brought up the question again upon the allowance of interest on the award of the Commissioner on the claims of citizens of Georgia against the Creek Indians, and Mr. Craw- ford immediately assumed in the broadest terms that if interest should not be allowed it would be a refusal merely arbitrary ; that the amount of the claims being admitted by the Com- missioner, interest upon it was due of course, and to refuse it would be an act merely of will, and not of justice.
Crawford was a Georgian, and was this day quite alone in his opinion, the evidence upon which the Commissioner ad- mitted the claims being not only all ex parte, but such as in
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no Court of Justice in the world would be admitted to estab- lish a claim to the value of a half a dollar. The articles lost were negroes, horses, and cattle; many of them lost nearly- half a century since; all perishable articles; specific restitution being the only thing stipulated, for which the United States have engaged to make indemnity; no proof having bee'n fur- nished that any of the individual articles were existing at the time of the engagement to restore them, and the whole being unquestionably valued in the award at more than double their real worth.
Mr. Wirt said that Uncle Sam would fare in this case as he did with most of his dealings — claims admitted without proof, estimated at double their value, and then interest for half a century upon the whole amount of the claim.
I observed that the compensation would amount in most of the cases to about six times the value of the loss. I added that, from the excessive valuation of the articles, I had no doubt that each claimant had, in fixing his estimate, taken into the account his damages consequential to the loss, as well as the value of the article. I believed the ninety thousand dollars admitted by the Commissioner would amply repay all the loss actually sustained. Perfect justice to every individual it was impossible to do, from the nature of the case. Some would receive more, and some must receive less, than they were entitled to, and, unfortunately, the honest and conscientious, who had valued their losses at their real worth, would have less than entire indemnity, and those who had most exag- gerated would be most profusely paid. But this could not be helped. Justice, on the whole, would as nearly be done as was practicable.
Mr. Thompson repeated, as his opinion, that interest ought not to be allowed; with which Mr. Calhoun concurred. Cal- houn said, however, that if interest should be allowed, the award must be sent back to the Commissioner for a re-exami- nation of the claims upon more rigorous principles of proof and of estimation.
I thought the award ought not to be sent back to the Com- missioner. That would only make a double labor, probably
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to come to the same result — with more dissatisfaction to the claimants, and no better prospects for the public. The whole of the award should be allowed, and I had no doubt would be full indemnity for the whole of the loss. Crawford made little or no reply, but examined the book of the awards, said he knew personally most of the claimants, and declared the valua- tion of the articles in almost every case to be at more than double what could have been their real value at the time of the loss. There were some cases, however, in which they were not overvalued. But, he said, he had always believed that the whole loss did not exceed in value fifty thousand dollars.
The President appeared to be much embarrassed in coming to a decision, and said it would certainly give dissatisfaction to the claimants if interest should not be allowed, and to the public if it should. Upon which I observed that in allowing the award of the Commissioner a full written statement should be presented, to be laid before Congress, showing the great liberality with which evidence had been admitted to prove the losses, and the excessive valuation at which they had been estimated, and setting forth the reasons upon which the allow- ance of interest had been refused. I believed this would be satisfactory to Congress and to the nation, and, if the claimants should press their demand for interest. Congress might make provision for the allowance of it. In the proposed treaty with the Cherokees, the question was at what sum the Commis- sioners should be limited as that which must not be exceeded in the engagement of the United States to assume the payment of similar losses. The sum in the Creek treaty was limited at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and Mr. Crawford pro- posed that the same sum should be the limitation in the Chero- kee treaty, though he admitted that the losses by Cherokee depredations had not been probably one-fifth part in value so great as those by the Creeks.
I observed that a limitation of a million, to cover an amount unascertained but known not to exceed a thousand dollars, would be a warning to all concerned to swell as much as possible the real sum to be allowed. I believed the limitation in the Creek treaty had been much too high, and a principal
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cause both of the profuse allowances of the award and of the further claims of interest.
The President postponed his determination upon the whole matter.
7th. Mr. Canning paid me one of his long two or three hours* visits, at which he introduced himself by showing me a letter from Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of Canada, inform- ing him that Samuel H. Wilcocke had been discharged from prison and had left Montreal for the United States. I told Mr. Canning that I was very glad he had been released, though not much gratified at having him as a visitor in the United States.
He spoke also of the recognition of the South American Governments, and intimated that, as no Ministers were sent to these Governments, the recognition of them on our part was not complete. He was evidently anxious to ascertain what we had done and were about to do in this respect ; but I did not think proper to gratify his curiosity.
Another subject upon which he spoke was the new instruc- tions which he had received to resume the negotiation con- cerning the slave-trade. He asked me if I had been informed by Mr. Rush that it was the intention of the British Govern- ment to renew the application for admitting the mutual right of search and capture. I said I had, and should be ready to receive any new proposals that he might make, adding, by way of a joke in earnest, that I hoped he would not press them much in hot weather. He spoke of the report of the com- mittee of the House of Representatives in Congress in favor of the right of search, and intimated that there were other members of the Administration less averse to it than I was. I assured him that he was mistaken, as there was no diversity of opinion in the Administration concerning it. He hinted that some, or one df them, had spoken otherwise of it to himself — which is not impossible ; but I told him, if they had, it was only by the complaisance of conversation, avoiding to come to a direct issue of opinion.
He said he had understood me to say that I never would sign a treaty agreeing to the principle of a mutual search ; but, as he had considered it merely as a strong expression of my
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individual opinion, he had not communicated it to his Govern- ment in a dispatch which might have been laid before Parlia- ment. I told him that I had no doubt I did say so — not with an expectation that it would be communicated in a dispatch, but merely to make known to him in the most explicit manner my impressions on the subject. I had no objection, however, on my own account, to its being known to Parliament. My individual opinion was of very little consequence, as, by the course of events, in less than three years there will be a total change of the Administration in this country; but I did not think there was one member of the present Administration more willing than I was to agree to the principle of search.
loth. General D. Parker and Major I. Roberdeau were here this morning. Parker told me that he proposed going to- morrow or the next day for Boston, and he wished while there to collect some facts concerning my political career. He said Dr. Watkins had requested him to collect them with a view to make some use of them to show that there had never been any inconsistency in my public conduct. He spoke of a memoir of my life in the Portfolio of January, 1819, and of a paper in the Democratic Press of the 5th of this month, neither of which I had seen. I mentioned to him a general outline of my polit- ical course from 1793 to the present time. He said that Mr. Fuller had told him of a conversation that he had some years since with John Lowell, who said that I had never been con- sidered a sound federalist, for that on my first election as a member of the Senate of Massachusetts I had, upon the choice of Councillors, proposed in a federal caucus to select a propor- tion of the opposite party by way of conciliation. This inci- dent had entirely escaped my recollection, but when mentioned I had an indistinct remembrance of it, and on recurring to my diary I found it noticed 27th May, 1802.'
Upon Major Roberdeau*s coming in, Mr. Parker went away. Roberdeau's object was to tell me that he had been to Rich- mond to endeavor to obtain possession, for the War Office, of the late Mr. Tatem*s papers ; and he brought me a letter from a person having apparently no sort of right to them, yet having * See volume i. p. 252.
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a pretension to something like an order for their delivery. I told Major Roberdeau that I could not authorize the delivery of those documents to any one. They had been left by Tatem with Mr. King, of the Department of State, with express in- junction to deliver them to no person but himself There was among them the identical copy of Mitchell's Map used by the Ministers who negotiated the Peace of 1782, and with the boundary pencil-marked by them. This map belonged to the public, and the Department of State was the place where it ought to be deposited. How Tatem had come by it never was explained. He had proposed to sell these documents to the public, but there had been some disagreement about the price to be paid for them. Tatem was now dead, and had left no legal representative entitled to claim the property. The con- clusion was natural that, being conscious they belonged to the public, he had placed them where they would be in their possession. Major Roberdeau replied that had been precisely his object, but he had supposed the War Department was the place where it would be proper they should be deposited. The papers that he had found at Richmond were of no value.
The President summoned a Cabinet meeting at one o'clock, which was fully attended. The project of a Convention with France was again discussed. There was some conversation about the terms gross avoirdupois weights which I had used, and which Mr. Crawford did not understand. He thought the term ** gross" was applicable only to the proceeds of merchan- dise as correlative to the terms *'net" proceeds. Mr. Wirt concurred in this opinion ; whence it is evident that the term "gross" as applied to weights is not universally used, and that its use in the Convention might hereafter give rise to questions; it must therefore be omitted, and other words substituted for it.
Mr. Crawford insisted also that the fifty-six and twenty-eight pound weights were never called fifty and twenty-five pound weights, although they are so in the ordinances of his own State of Georgia. But the main object of discussion was upon the Baron de Neuville's proposal of the separate article, that the discriminating duty shall be levied only upon the excess of importations over the value of the exportations by the same
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vessel. Mr. Calhoun, by a process of general reasoning, has brought himself to the belief that this article will operate en- tirely in our favor, and will in substance abolish the discrimi- nating duty entirely. He wished it, therefore, to be made essen- tially an article of the Convention, and not a separate article. The letter of Enoch Silsby to Degrand strongly objects against this y^^ article, as very unfavorable to our shipping generally, and especialiy to th^^ ^^ ^^e Eastern shipping interest. But the more these objections wert urged, the more Calhoun's passion for the article kindled, till at last he dbjected against the Convention altogether unless the separate article snGV**v be included in it. He thought the discriminating duty of three dollars and seventy-five cents, or twenty francs, per occupied ton, was too high, unless with the deduction provided for in the separate article ; and referred to Mr. Gallatin's opinion that we could not bear a discrimination of more than one and a half per cent, and our determination last year not to go beyond that. But I observed that Mr. Gallatin's opinions had since evidently leaned towards further concession, and I had little doubt that our shipping would, even with the duty of twenty francs, obtain a large portion of the trade. My objection always was to the admission of the principle, and I had much less reliance than Mr. Calhoun upon the operation of the separate article in our favor. The practical merchants on both sides evidently saw it in other lights. The Baron had proposed it either by advice from home or by consultation with French merchants residing here. They certainly thought it would operate in favor of France. Silsby was alarmed at it, even sup- posing it only a duty of three dollars. There was much con- ^ sideration to be given to the course of trade, and although the separate article offered a premium for a direct return of our vessels from France with cargoes, it could not be obtained but by sacrificing greater profits by a circuitous trade.
Calhoun still persisted with very plausible arguments on his general reasoning, and said, in reference to Silsby's letter, that it might injure that particular part of the country, but would equally benefit another ; upon which I said, with some temper, that I did not wish to injure that particular part of the country.
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The President proposed that the article providing for the diminution of the discriminating duty by one-fourth annually should commence the discrimination from the expiration of the two years, instead of one year afterwards, and the project is to be altered accordingly. There was enquiry made whether we could not consult practical merchants in some of the com- mercial cities before coming to a conclusion; but there is scarcely time, and there are objections to the thing itself No positive determination was made, but I am to alter the phra- seology concerning the weights and the article in which the diminution is stipulated, and then to send the project again to the French Minister. The President had intended to propose again the question whether he should send Ministers to South America ; but there was not time. He gave me two Baltimore newspapers urging that the measure should be immediately taken, and asked me to look over them.
I ith. General D. Parker was here again this morning, and spoke of his intended journey, of Watkins's projects, and of the article in the Democratic Press of the 5th. He intimated that Watkins, who was a man of honorable mind and of great sensibility, had thought that I had on some occasion checked his enquiries, which were really intended to serve me. He said also that Watkins had the idea of answering that article in the Democratic press by a publication in the same paper.
I said I had a due sense of Dr. Watkins's frier\dly disposition to me, and I had always so freely answered his. enquiries that I had certainly intended no check upon them. But some- body had told me some months since that Dr. Watkins was taking some measures to engage the Aurora, Duane*s paper, in my favor; upon which I had requested that Dr. Watkins would take special care to do nothing of that sort as with my consent, for that I had rather have Duane and his Aurora against me than for me. But Duane had lately been here, and, after his return to Philadelphia, had published that over- tures from three different sources, to propitiate him in my favor, had been made to him. What he meant, or to whom he referred, I know not, but I suppose Dr. Watkins is one of them ; but the mere suspicion of my authorizing any one to tamper for
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the support of Duane will do me more harm than he could do me good by a whole life of his friendship. As to Watkins's publishing in the Democratic Press, I had no objection to that, but Binns, its editor, was exasperated against me for having appointed the Franklin Gazette for printing the laws, and Binns himself was greatly discredited by the Republican party in Pennsylvania. Parker goes for Boston to-morrow.
1 2th. We had as visitors Dr. Tucker, Dr. Thornton, and Mr. William King, the Commissioner upon the Florida Treaty claims. The Commission meet again this week. Mr. King was exceedingly anxious to know how the Convention witb France stands, and repeated his unsuccessful enquiries con- cerning it more than once. He also gave me to understand that he strongly disapproved of Mr. Russell's letter.
14th. At the office I finished the draft of a projected Con- vention with France, which I sent to the French Minister with a letter proposing to confer with him on the remaining points of difference this day or to-morrow. Received his answer promising to call to-morrow.
15th. I received this morning a note from the President ex- pressing some anxiety for the conclusion of the negotiation with the French Minister. He came to the office at the time appointed, and we discussed in a conference of two hours the project I had sent him of a Convention. His first objection was to the quantities I had assumed as constituting the ton. The proposal of agreeing upon certain quantities of each article as constituting the ton for the discriminating duty was his own; but I had increased the quantities for some of our articles of exportation, and diminished it for some of those of importa- tion. We chaffered upon the articles of wine, brandy, cotton, tobacco, and rice ; but, as I thought the object not worth con- testing, I told the Baron it was impossible we should differ upon such trifles of detail, and finally acceded to his quantities in almost every case, obtaining, however, some concessions on other points from him. That upon which he made the greatest difficulty was, to admit the charge of brokerage as one of those to be equalized among the charges upon shipping, so that the discriminating duties should not exceed ninety-four cents in
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the United States, nor five francs in France. He said he should have all the brokers in France in full outcry against him, and would hardly dare to land at Havre. He said also that this was a private charge, with which the Government had nothing to do. Not more, I replied, than pilotage. The Government compelled our navigators to employ the brokers, and would not permit our Consuls to perform the service for them. The brokers were paid for these services when performing them for their own countrymen ; why should they be allowed to charge more to Americans than to Frenchmen ? It was only the ex- cess which they would be required to abandon, and that excess must be considered as a public charge, since it was compulsively levied by the authority of the Government ; and I reminded him of the controversy between Mr. Beasley and the brokers at Havre, in which there had been a decision of a Minister of State in our favor; though it was afterwards reversed by a judicial tribunal, and we were told that the Minister had tran- scended his authority.
He said that was Mr. UAine, and finally agreed to let the word brokerage stand upon my consenting to allow eight hun- dred pounds to pass for the ton of cotton. He objected also to the alteration I had made in his article for delivering up de- serting seamen. He had copied his article from that of the old Consular Convention, which authorized the arrest of captains of vessels and others belonging to them, as well as of desert- , ing seamen. I had restricted to these last the liability to be arrested and delivered up. I told him there did not seem to be the same reason for arresting captains and others, officers, or not sailors, and whose desertion could scarcely be a subject of apprehension. He assented to this, but wished that a time might be limited beyond which the deserters themselves should not be detained under arrest — by which his real object seems to be to mark a time to the extent of which they may be dc- tainable. He engaged to propose an article as an amendment to mine, which I promised him would be considered. He made great difficulties about accepting the reduction of the discrimi- nating duties by one-fourth yearly, commencing at the expira- tion of the two years for which the Convention is positively t6
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endure. He had proposed the reduction should be only of one-eighth yearly, and to commence not till the end of the third year. He said that he thought a sixth would be better than a fourth, an eighth better than a sixth, and a tenth better than an eighth. He now proposed, however, one-sixth ; but I told him this provision was the only thing that reconciled us to the heaviness of the discriminating duty, which would give great dissatisfaction to the people of this country ; and that the President, after consulting the Administration, had thought it indispensable to insist upon this part of the article, and, after all, it would commence only when the longer continuance of the Convention would be on both sides voluntary.
He appeared finally to acquiesce, though not explicitly, in the annual reduction of one-fourth. He expressed the wish to make the two separate articles separate also from each other ; to which I agreed. His last difficulty was, that I had in the concluding article expressed that the Convention was drawn up original in both languages. He said he was willing to do any- thing in that respect for which there was a precedent, but here- tofore there had been a pretension on the part of France of a preference for the French language. They no longer had any such pretension ; but as this express assertion, that both sides were original, was in no other treaty, he was afraid it might make some difficulty in France. I referred him to the former treaties with France, but although they were all signed in both languages, and all, except the Consular Convention of 14th November, 1788, expressly say so, yet all the rest, except the Convention of 30th September, 1800, say they were originally drawn up in French, and that says the signing in both lan- guages shall not be drawn into precedent. He seemed to doubt the propriety of declaring the copies in both languages original.
I told him it was certainly no novelty in French diplomacy ; and showed him the discussion between the French and British Commissaries previous to the war of 1755, in which the British Commissaries charge the French with having quoted the Treaty of Utrecht in the French translation instead of the original Latin; to which the French Commissaries replied that the French copy was original as well as the Latin.
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" Well/* said thp Baron, " ils avoient tort." He consented, however, after I had shown him this example, to insert the word " original" at the top of the treaty on both sides, as was done in our last treaty with Spain.
With regard to the separate article stipulating only the ex- cess of importations over the exportations as liable to the dis- criminating duty, I told him the consequence would be that not one French vessel would ever pay the discriminating 'duty in this country, for they all will carry away cargoes of as much or more value than they will bring. He said he believed the effect would also be that few or none of our vessels would pay the duty in France, but then their commerce would gain what their navigation might lose by it, and he was so satisfied that by consenting to reduce the discriminating duty to twenty francs the French Government had entirely given up the navi- gating question, that he wished to secure something for any other interest in its stead. It was, after all, only for two years, and in the course of that time the Sanford law, which, by the way, he thought rather indiscreet, would show all the results. He said they had now a similar law, and would have like returns, in France.
He also spgke of the complaint against Lieutenant Stockton and the letter of apology which he had requested on that sub- ject. I told him Lieutenant Stockton was now here, and had made a report of the affair to the Secretary of the Navy, a copy of which I should send him with a letter, which I hoped would prove satisfactory. He promised to send me a final draft of the Convention in both languages, with the modifications as now agreed upon by us, to-morrow.
1 6th. General Scott told us that he had just returned from Richmond, where he had been to ascertain whether he could be returned to the next Congress. He had received all pos- sible encouragement, but he found that the county in which his friend Archer lived would certainly be brought into the district ; and although there was probably no important public question upon which Archer and he would vote on the same side, yet he had been from college days his intimate friend, and he could not possibly think of opposing him. He said
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Archer was a Radical and inclined to be Jacobinical, and so, he was sorry to say, was the State of Virginia, though nothing could give him more pain than to differ in opinion upon any subject from the people of Virginia.
We entered into a very earnest discussion upon the question as to the power of Congress to make internal improvements in the country by roads and canals. He avowed his concurrence with the opinion of the President, that Congress had the power of appropriating money to make the roads, but not to make them ; which, I told him, was saying that they had the right to use the means, but not to enjoy the end. I asked him also several questions, till he said he did not like the Socratic mode of reasoning.
The Count de Menou brought me this evening the draft of a Convention in both languages from the French Minister. It is drawn up as we had agreed yesterday ; but he has copied the article concerning seamen from the old Consular Con- vention.
1 8th. Note from the President of the United States, urging me to sign the Convention with France. I sent to ask the French Minister to call at the office, which he did. I proposed to him an enlargement of the articles concerning the discrimi- nating duties, so as to make them applicable to merchandise other than the produce and manufacture of the two countries. But he declined agreeing to it ; said his instructions would not admit of it, and had very recently limited him expressly to the productions of the two countries only. I had found that he had fixed the weight of tobacco to the ton much too low, and Mr. Yard had urged that it should be raised from fifteen hun- dred to two thousand pounds. He insisted that he had returns from various places which made it only thirteen and fourteen hundred pounds. All the accounts I had consulted made it near two thousand, and one, much more. We agreed to have the copies of the Convention made out, leaving those quanti- ties in blank, to be filled upon further information. I drafted a circular to send to several Collectors in the neighborhood to ascertain the fact.
The Baron asked me when I should write to him on the
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complaint against Lieutenant Stockton ; spoke also of the case of the Apollon, and of the claim under the eighth article of the Louisiana Treaty, expressing the wish to settle all these ques- tions before he goes away. I promised him an answer in the case of Stockton, but proposed to leave the other affairs in statu quo. I spoke to him of the disturbance of our fishermen by French armed vessels on the coast of Newfoundland, and told him I should write to Mr. Gallatin on the subject. He said he had spoken to me or to Mr. Rush concerning it several years ago ; but that he would look into the subject, and was disposed to do anything in it for our accommodation.
19th. This subject of the fisheries is absorbing so much of my attention that it encroaches upon my other necessary occu- pations. But I cannot give too deep attention to it. " What in me is dark, illumine; what is low, raise and support." Going to the President's I met Mr.^De Menou, who was going to my office. He said the Baron de Neuville had heard the President was going to Virginia, and, as he was going himself soon to France, he wished before the President's departure to have an audience of him to take leave. At one o'clock I presented Mr. Manuel Torres as Charge d'Affaires from the .republic of Colombia to the President. This incident was chiefly interesting as being the first formal act of recognition of an independent South American Government. Torres, who has scarcely life in him to walk alone, was deeply affected by it. He spoke of the great importance to the republic of Co- lombia of this recognition, and of his assurance that it would give extraordinary gratification to Bolivar.
The President invited him to be seated, sat down by him, and spoke to him with kindness which moved him even to tears. The President assured him of the great interest taken by the United States in the welfare and success of his country, and of the particular satisfaction with which he received him as its first representative. The audience was, as usual, only of a few minutes ; and Mr. Torres on going away gave me a printed copy of the Constitution of Colombia.
I told the President of the French Minister's desire to have an audience to take leave, which he promised to give before he
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should go to Virginia. He also directed a Cabinet meeting for to-morrow at one o'clock to consider again the question whether Ministers shall immediately be sent to the South American Governments. On returning to the office, I wrote a paragraph to be inserted in the National Intelligencer to-morrow, an- nouncing the reception of Mr. Torres by the President, and prepared a letter to the French Minister on the complaint against Lieutenant Stockton.
20th. Cabinet meeting at one o'clock. Mr. Crawford, being indisposed, did not attend, and Mr. Wirt is absent from the city. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Thompson were present. The President proposed again the question whether Ministers should forth- with be sent to the Southern republics. The opinions of Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Thompson were both against the measure — Calhoun chiefly because there appeared to be no urgent neces- sity for it, and because there was no strong manifestation of public sentiment for it. He observed there were only two or three newspapers, and those not leading prints, that were clamorous for it, and in general the public acquiesced in the course now pursued by the Executive. Mr. Thompson's ob- jection arose from a doubt of the power of the President to appoint a Minister during the recess of the Senate.
I observed that my opinion had been that we should receive a Minister from the South American Governments before send- ing one. As this opinion, however, had not been much coun- tenanced, Idid not wish to hold it too pertinaciously, and with regard to the republic of Colombia there was less reason to be punctilious, as, having received from them a Charge d'Aflaires, the mere appointment of a person of higher rank to go there would be less of a departure from the regular order of estab- lishing diplomatic intercourse than it would be to be first in making any diplomatic appointment. I should not object to the appointment of a Minister on that account, and I thought a Minister to the republic of Colombia ought to be appointed now, or at the meeting of Congress. I supposed that a treaty of commerce might be negotiated with that republic, but I should not propose or desire to obtain by it any exclusive advantages. Mutual advantage and reciprocity are all that we
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ought to ask, and all that we can be willing to grant. As to running a race with England to snatch from these new nations some special privilege or monopoly, I thought it neither a wise nor an honest policy. Do what we can, the commerce with South America will be much more important and useful to Great Britain than to us, and Great Britain will be a power vastly more important to them than we, for the simple reason that she has the power of supplying their wants by her manu- factures. We have few such supplies to furnish them, and in articles of export are their competitors. Yet I was not appre- hensive that England would obtain from them any exclusive advantages to our prejudice. They had no partialities in favor of England : they were jealous of her. England would be in no hurry to send Ministers to them, unless prompted by our example and for fear of us. The British Ministry were em- barrassed by our recognition of the South Americans, as was apparent from a late debate in the House of Commons. The French Government were equally so ; and Zea had taken the most effectual means of compelling their acknowledgment, by letting them know that those who should acknowledge would have all their trade.
As to the question of appointment during the recess of the Senate, the words of the Constitution were against the exer- cise of the power ; the reason of the words is in its favor. At the close of the session of the Senate before the last, they had no such scruple of the power of the President to appoint during the recess ; for at the last hour of their session they passed a resolution recommending such an appointment. At their late session, however, a different doctrine did prevail with them ; and, as with it some temper had been mingled, it was very probable if an appointment should now be made they would pass a negative upon the nomination.
Mr. Thompson said he had no doubt they would reject it; that at the last session they had been unanimous in their •-opinion against the President's right. The President read a passage of a letter that he had received from Mr. Madison upon the subject. It mentioned that there had been an occa- sion ufK)n which the question had been thoroughly examined
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by the Executive, and determined in favor of the right ; but did not say when, nor under what Administration. Nothing definite was resolved upon; but the President desired me to converse further with Mr. Torres, and ascertain whether a Minister will probably be sent from Colombia here.
After Calhoun and Thompson were gone, I proposed to the President that the mission to the republic of Colombia, whether to be appointed now or at the meeting of Congress, should be offered to Mr. Clay. I thought it doubtful whether he would accept it — very probable that he would make no delicate or generous use of it — and that the comments upon the offer, both of his partisans and of others, would be various, and in many cases invidious. But, upon the whole, the effect upon the public would be favorable. He wanted the offer. The Western country wished it might be made to him. His talents were eminent; his claims from public service considerable. The republic of Colombia, and particularly Bolivar, with whom he has been in correspondence, will be flattered by his appoint- ment, or even by information that he had the offer of it. In the relations to be established between us and that republic, Mr. Clay's talents might be highly useful; and I did not apprehend any danger from them.
The President appeared to be well disposed to take this course. He said that Mr. Clay's conduct towards him and his Administration had not been friendly or generous, but he was disposed entirely to overlook that. He stood upon ground quite independent of Mr. Clay, and as he had never needed his sup- port, he had never felt the want of it. He would consider of the proposal to offer him the mission, and was not indisposed to it.
As to myself, Clay's conduct has been always hostile to me, and generally insidious. From the time of the Ghent negotia- tion I have been in the way of his ambition, and by himself and his subordinates he has done all in his power to put me out of it. In pursuing a generous policy towards him, as an enemy and a rival, I do some violence to my inclination, and shall be none the better treated by him ; but I look to per- sonal considerations only to discard them, and regard only the public interests.
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2 1st. I received a note from the President, directing me, after my letter to the French Minister about Stockton's seizures should be written, to see the Baron and show it to him, so as to arrange the matter to his satisfaction, to avoid a corre- spondence which might delay the conclusion of the Conven- tion. Now, this was undertow, through Crawford, or through Thompson, the Secretary of the Navy. De Neuville has worked through this negotiation chiefly by such means. He has wormed out of us a Convention which will give great dissatis- faction here, and far less favorable to us than I could have obtained but for this countermining. Crawford has all along hung like a dead weight upon the negotiation. A bad Con- vention was precisely the thing suited to his interest. A good one would have been highly creditable to the Department of State. He has invariably been for conceding everything, for agreeing to everything demanded by France; and now he is for making humiliating concessions upon the complaint against Stockton. Thompson has not the same motives, but there is a Secretary of the French Legation intimate in his family, and that gives access to the President through another whispering- gallery. Such is the way of the world ! Winding-stairs in every direction. I am sure the President has been beset by a back door, from this note. It came too late, however. My letter to the Baron was already dispatched — of which I am glad, for it is very obvious that after writing him a letter quite sufficiently apologetic, to send for him, show it to him, and ask him if that was enough, would be no other than an invitation to him to insist upon more.
I called upon Mr. Torres at Brown's Hotel, and found him anxious to return to Philadelphia immediately. He said he had no medical assistance here, and was not comfortably lodged. If there was, therefore, no objection on the part of this Govern- ment, he should be glad to go to-morrow morning. I said there was no reason for detaining him to the injury of his health, and the President would wish him to consult that altogether. He said he had again received instructions to propose a treaty of commerce, founded altogether upon prin- ciples of reciprocity. I told him that the proposal would be
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received with the most friendly consideration, and asked him if he had prepared his representation upon the subject He had not, but said he would send it to me from Philadelphia. He said a Minister would undoubtedly soon be sent to this country from the republic of Colombia. He thought it would be Mr. Salazar.
I showed him the paper sent me by General Smith, of Balti- more, containing the ordinance of the Congress, in which a dis- crimination of duties is made in favor of merchandise imported from Europe ; and, observing that this discrimination was dis- advantageous to the United States, requested him to write to his Government concerning it — which he promised he would. He said he was sure it was a mere inadvertence, not intended to operate against the United States. He had no doubt but that importations from the United States were under that article of the ordinance considered as articles imported from Europe ; but he would nevertheless write immediately, and was per- suaded all doubt upon the subject would be removed as soon as the case should be stated.
22d. I sent to the Baron Hyde de Neuville, requesting him to call at my office ; which he did. I told him I had received answers to my enquiries concerning the weight of tobacco usually going to a register ton of shipping, and would accept his offer of putting it down at sixteen hundred pounds avoir- dupois, which is one hundred more than he had fixed it. He chaffered about it for some time, but finally consented. I asked him if he had received my letter concerning the affair of Lieu- tenant Stockton, and its enclosures. He said he had; but intimated that my letter contained no offer of satisfaction, and said he should reply to it. He appeared rather out of humor with it, and half hinting that he should insist upon something more. I said I supposed he would not wish to exact from us anything humiliating. We had assured him that Lieutenant Stockton seized the vessels mistaking them for Americans; that, to avoid any such mistakes for the future, express orders had been issued to all our naval officers to seize no vessel under a foreign flag. Without self-debasement we could not do more.
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He said what he wanted was complete satisfaction, so that the English might not have the pretence that the French flag had ever been subjected to search.
From the .tone of his argument, I was confirmed in the con- viction that he had been in communication indirectly with the President on the subject. I proposed to him, however, and he agreed, to come to the office and execute the Convention next Monday at two o'clock. I took to the President a copy of the Convention as prepared for execution, that he might examine it between this and Monday.
24th. Last evening I received a long letter from the French Minister about the complaint concerning Lieutenant Stockton. He accepts for disavowal and satisfaction the last letter I wrote him, agrees to leave other subjects for future discussion, and to sign the Convention this day. This morning he sent a transla- tion of his letter, which Mr. Brent brought to my house. At one o'clock the Baron Hyde de Neuville, the French Minister, came with De Menou, and we executed four copies of the Com- mercial Convention in both languages. Two copies had been made by Mr. Ironside at the office, and two at the French Le- gation. Some small corrections were necessary to make them all uniform. The alternative was preserved throughout. Both copies were signed and sealed by both parties, and both as originals. In the examination of the copies, the Baron held one of ours, and I one of theirs ; Mr. Brent the other of theirs, and Menou the other of ours. Menou read the French copy, and Mr. Brent ours. We found the usual inconveniences of sealing the inside of the papers with wax, and in more than the usual degree, as there were two separate articles, each separately executed.
The Baron observed to Menou that this day was my festival day — St. John's day — the Baptist. He said his own name was John, too ; but from the Evangelist. As we sealed on both sides of the paper, it happened in one of the copies that by the turning of a leaf his seal and mine adhered together, so that they could not be parted. I told him it was de bon atigure — which he took as a compliment. We interchanged the copies, he taking one of his own and one of ours, and we the same.
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Mr. De Bresson afterwards came, and offered to take any dispatches for France. He goes as a messenger with the Con- vention, and said he expected to return here with the ratifica- tion before the commencement of the session of Congress in December. I made a draft of a proclamation of the President suspending the operation of the Act of Congress of the 15th of May and other discriminating duties upon French vessels and merchandise imported in them from the 1st of October until the end of the next session of Congress. But a question oc- curred as to the extent of the President's authority, upon which ^I must consult him.
25th. At one o'clock I presented the Baron Hyde de Neu- ville to the President to take leave. He was attended by the Count de Menou, Hersant^ and Laborie. He addressed the President in a set speech, in substance much the same as that which he had made two years ago. He said that in 1807 he had found a refuge in this country as an exile, and then he had formed a strong and affectionate attachment to it; that in 1815^ after the return of peace and order in his own country, the King, who, like his brother, had always felt the most friendly dispositions towards the United States, had cast his eyes upon him for his representative here, knowing him to be the sincere and faithful friend of both countries; that his conduct here had been invariably inspired by those sentiments ; that as his mis- sion to Brazil had not taken place, he had not received from his Government letters of recredence, and he came therefore now to take only a temporary, and not a final leave; that if a sincere and earnest attachment to this country, and a heartfelt respect for the virtues of its Chief Magistrate, could give him any claim to his good opinion, he was conscious of deserving it; that the Count de Menou was the person whom he should present as the Charge d' Affaires of France during his absence, and he would be the faithful interpreter of the same sentiments on the part of the French Government as those he had expressed.
The President answered without premeditation, that he was extremely gratified to hear the expression from ///;;/ / that from the King, his sovereign, the United States, as well as from his brother, had never received anything but kindness ; that we
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remember it, and will remember it ; that our most earnest de- sire is to be upon terms of the most perfect cordiality with France; that as for himself, we should always recollect his residence here with pleasure — his conduct had always been satisfactory, and such as to warrant the perfect sincerity of what he had now said ; that he, the President, rejoiced at the Convention which he had concluded with us, and hoped it would lead to the best understanding between the two countries ; that as to the discussions which had taken place with him, we had always considered him as maintaining the interest of his coun- try. We had been in similar situations ourselves; we con- sidered the earnestness which he had manifested as merely the discharge of his duty, and retained no unkind feeling towards him on that account. As to the affair of the seizure of the French vessels by Lieutenant Stockton, we much regretted it. The orders to our officers had only authorized them to cap- ture American vessels. It was a mistake. Orders had been since sent to all our naval officers to capture no vessel under a foreign flag, and we had made to France all the reparation in our power. With regard to himself, as he was going home, he would be assured that we wished him well ; and I should write to our Minister in France to the same effect. We should also take pleasure in communicating with the Count de Menou, who he had no doubt would continue to cherish and promote the most friendly relations between the two countries.
The Baron then took his leave with his suite, and, as I fol- lowed him from the drawing-room into the next apartment, asked me if he could have what the President had just said to him in writing. I said I would mention it to the President, and observed that it would then be necessary that he should also communicate his speech in writing. On returning to the President, I told him of the Baron's request, and the President said he would give the substance of it in writing as far as he could recollect it.
The Portuguese Charge d' Affaires, Amado, came to the office with the Consul-General, Joaquim Barroso Pereira, whom he presented to take his place, he having received permission to return to Lisbon. He also informed me that Mr. Da Costa,
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whom he had presented to me last March, was now gone to Brazil. He asked also when he could be presented to the President to take leave; upon which I promised to take the President's directions and inform him. The President approved of the proclamation to issue with the French Convention.
26th. Baron Stackelberg, the Swedish Charge d'Affaires, came and spoke of a note which I lately received from him, enclosing the copy of a letter to him from Count Engestrom declaring the determination of the Swedish Government not to admit a Consul of the United States at the island of St. Bartholomew. I told him I should answer his note, and hoped his Government would reconsider their determination. He re- curred to the reasons assigned by Engestrom, that foreign Con- suls were excluded from the island because it was a colony, and because during the French Revolution a Consul from France had been admitted there, and had proved very trouble- some by his turbulence.
I observed that neither of these reasons could justify the refusal to receive an American Consul at St. Bartholomew's ; that European Governments excluded foreign Consuls from their colonies because foreign commerce with them was inter- dicted. Where there was no commerce, there could be no need of a Consul ; but where commerce was allowed, the Consul fol- lowed of course — as much so as an army implied a general. Now, the Swedish Government not only allowed foreign com- merce with St. Bartholomew's, but in the treaty between the United States and Sweden that island was specially named. Its inhabitants, their vessels and their merchandise, were en- titled to the same advantages in the United States as those of Sweden, and the citizens of the United States were entitled to the same in the island as in Sweden. The province of a Con- sul was to secure in effect to the people of his nation the real enjoyment in foreign ports of the commercial advantages to which they were entitled by treaty, or by the laws of nations, and the people of the United States had, in fact, more com- merce with the island of St. Bartholomew than with the whole kingdom of Sweden. I saw, therefore, no more reason for ex- cluding an American Consul from St. Bartholomew's than a
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Swedish Consul from New York; and if American citizens were denied the benefit of an official protector in the island, why should the people of the island have the right to the support of a Swedish Consul in the United States ?
The Baron had little to say in reply to all this, and admitted that he had thought a Consul would be admitted, though he supposed the Government reserved to itself the right of grant- ing the exequatur.
Mr. Gales, of the Intelligencer, came to^ propose that the President's proclamation and the Convention with France, which were published in the paper this morning, should be printed over again the day after to-morrow, the publication of this morning, particularly the French part of the Convention, being full of errors. There is also a material error in the proclamation itself, for which I am myself responsible, the draft being incorrect. Neither the President nor Mr. Crawford had discovered it, nor did I till I read the proclamation in print — when it immediately struck me. I agreed with Gales that the whole proclamation should be reprinted, and I would correct the press myself; and that notice should be given in the paper of to-morrow that the publication of this morning was incor- rect. I took care also to have the error in the proclamation corrected in the City Gazette of this afternoon.
I called at the President's, and met there Mr. Thompson, the Secretary of the Navy. They were much concerned at a publication iif the Intelligencer of this morning, by Lieutenant Stockton, of the principal part of his letter to me in vindica- tion of his seizure of the French slave vessels. The Baron de Neuville is much disturbed at this publication, especially as ap- l^earing at this time ; and it worries the President. The Baron did not this day present the Count de Menou to me as Charge d' Affaires, as had been yesterday agreed between us. He sent word by Menou that he would present him another day, being now much occupied, and Madame de Neuville being ill.^
28th. Cabinet meeting at noon. Wirt only absent. The President unwell. The question for consideration was on the proceedings of the Senate, at their last session, upon several military nominations — of Colonels Fenwick, House, and Eustis.
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They were nominated to rank from the 25th of April, 1822, to the command of particular regiments. The Senate divided the questions, advised and consented to the first member of the nomination, and negatived the date of the rank. A desultory discussion took place on various questions arising from these transactions. Had the Senate a right to divide the nomination by the President into two parts ? To take two questions upon it? to confirm one and reject the other? Was it not equiva- lent to the rejection of the whole ? What was the first member of the nomination ? was it the simple nomination as colonel, or as colonel of the specified regiment ?
Mr. Calhoun thought it was the mere nomination as colonel, and likened it to a nomination by the President of a person as Minister to France upon which the Senate should advise and consent to him as Minister to England. Mr. Thompson thought at first that this was equivalent to a rejection of the nomination ; and I inclined to the same opinion. Calhoun considered the Senate as having undertaken to decide that the commissions should rank from the time of the new arrangement of the army last summer.
But upon further examination I found that the resolutions of the Senate explicitly confirmed the nominations, not only of the rank, but to the regiments specially designated ; and that they negatived nothing more than the date of rank. They designated no other date of rank, and clearly could not by the Constitution.
Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun for some time insisted that in the report of the Committee of the Senate, and in other pro- ceedings of the Senate itself, connected with the subject, they had undertaken to designate the time when the commissions should commence, and a different arrangement of corps. All, however, at last assented that the confirmation was of every- thing but the date of rank; and that the commissions might issue dated from the day of the confirmation.
The President once or twice intimated the wish to have the opinion of each member of the Cabinet in writing, as it was a Constitutional question, and Mr. Calhoun, to the last, urged the danger of the precedent on the part of the Senate, which
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he considered as an attempt to usurp upon the President the right of nomination itself. The President also expressed some- thing of a similar apprehension.
I finally observed to him that by dating the commissions from the day of the confirmation nothing would be conceded to the Senate. It will be merely assuming that they have con- firmed the nominations. The date of rank may be considered as a point unadjusted between the President and the Senate, and not essential to the appointment ; by which means a fur- ther and most unpleasant misunderstanding and altercation with the Senate will be avoided. If the President should finally decide to consider the nominations as confirmed, and date the commissions from the day of the Senate's confirma- tion, it would be best perhaps not to require written opinions from each member of the Administration ; but if he should consider the nominations as rejected, it will undoubtedly be necessary.
The President said he would reflect upon it, and come to his decision at leisure.
29th. Mr. Canning had written me a note yesterday request- ing to see me. I appointed this day at one, and he came. It was to take up the subject of the slave-trade. He said from the communications of Lord Londonderry to Mr. Rush it appeared that his Lordship believed that one main difficulty which had been made on our part to the arrangements proposed by Great Britain might be removed — that is, the trial by the mixed Courts ; and he hoped, therefore, that we should be willing to yield the other point, the limited and reciprocal right of search.
I told him that any proposition that he had to make upon that subject would be received with the most respectful and friendly consideration. He gave me, however, to understand that he had no proposition to make, and he evaded answering the question which I put, what was Lord Londonderry's pro- posed substitute for the mixed Courts. With some circumlo- cution he came finally to the statement that he expected a new proposition from us. This had so much the appearance of a trick, that it heated me. I said to him —
*• Mr. Canning, there is nothing I like so well as a straight-
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forward course. We have seen no cause to change our opinions upon any of the points which have been so fully discussed be- tween us. We have no new proposition, therefore, to make. It is one thing to make a proposition, and another to ask that a proposition should be made. When the Marquis of London- derry, therefore, gave notice to Mr. Rush that it was proposed to resume the correspondence upon the slave-trade, we cer- tainly expected that the British Government was prepared to make some new proposition to us. We are not prepared to make any to them. I could make none without authority from the President, and the President, I was persuaded, would authorize none without consulting all the members of the Administration."
He asked me then whether I declined discussing the matter further with him. I said, no ; I was willing to hear, and would faithfully report to the President, anything that he wished to say to me.
He took from his pocket some printed documents laid be- fore Parliament — correspondence from British officers at Sierra Leone, containing lists of slave vessels examined on the coast of Africa, under French and Portuguese colors, and actively engaged in the slave-trade — ^and he launched into a strong and general invective against the trade.
I observed that in the lists contained in the papers there was not a single vessel under American colors, and alleged this circumstance as a proof of the efficacy of the measures adopted by us to suppress the use of our flag in the trade, which is all that could be accomplished by our agreeing to the right of search and the mixed Courts. I remarked that it was evident from these papers that if we had, two years ago, signed treaties with Great Britain like those which she had obtained from Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, there would not have been one slave vessel the less upon these lists. Search and the mixed Courts, therefore, would have effected nothing for the suppression of the trade, which has not been effected without them.
He said that a main purpose for which they wished to obtain our assent to the principle of search was, that it might be urged
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as an example to France. I said that we should rather wish France to adhere to her principles in this respect than to give them up. He asked if I could conceive of a greater and more atrocious evil than this slave-trade. I said, Yes: admitting the right of search by foreign oflficers of our vessels upon the seas in time of peace ; for that would be making slaves of our- selves. We went over this ground again, as we had often done before, repeating on both sides the same arguments as before ; he particularly repeated that many persons in this country were in favor of conceding this right of search, and alleged the two successive reports of committees of the House of Representa- tives in its favor. I merely said that there were other views upon which those reports could be accounted for. I finally desired him to leave with me his Parliamentary printed paper, which I wished to take to the President, to whom I promised him to make a full report of this conference.
We conversed also upon the report of the Commissioners under the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent ; upon the Con- vention recently signed by me and the French Minister; upon the question of arbitration depending before the Emperor of Russia ; and upon certain charges made by the British Consul at New York, of which the merchants there complain, concern- ing which I had received in March a letter from Mr. Bayard, President of the Chamber of Commerce in that city. This letter in the hurry of business had been overlooked and for- gotten, and this morning I received a letter from Charles King reminding me of it. I gave Mr. Canning Mr. Bayard's letter, and told him that the charges made by the Consul at New York were not made by other Consuls, and that we did not allow our own Consuls abroad to make them, although they received no salaries. The merchants considered it a charge upon their commerce. If he could cause it to cease, it would render an application to his Government through Mr. Rush unnecessary.
He said, though it was properly the business of the Consul- Gene^ral, as Mr. Baker was sick he would attend to it. He said Lord Londonderry had understood it as our desire that the subject of the difference between the Commissioners under the
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fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent should be treated here, for which he had therefore been empowered ; but he had already- informed me that the British Government could not concede the points maintained by their Commissioner on this article as they had on the sixth article.
I said that my instruction to Mr. Rush had merely been to consult the British Government to ascertain whether they were disposed to make an eflfort to adjust this difference by a nego- tiation before resorting to the arbitration stipulated by the treaty. I had not expressed any preference as to the place of the negotiation ; though as the Commission had been held here, and as all the documents were in this country, there would obviously be a convenience in pursuing the subject here. But I was not prepared to take it up myself, and it would take weeks, if not months, of investigation to make myself master of it. I had not contemplated being charged with it myself, but that it should be referred to Commissioners, who might have no other public duty to absorb their time, and with powers to propose mutual concessions to the two Governments.
Upon our recent Convention with France Mr. Canning dis- covered some curiosity, and made some shrewd remarks. He said that although it purported only to begin from the 1st of October, yet, by the article stipulating to refund the duties levied upon the respective tonnage and cargoes by the existing laws, it would in effect begin from the time of the signature of the Convention. I said there might be a question whether the article for refunding the extra duties could be construed to apply to duties levied after the signature of the Convention. By its letter, it applied only to those levied before. He ob- served then that he believed one of the most difficult things in the world was to draw up the articles of a treaty, and par- ticularly to avoid stipulating more than is intended. And he cited the article which we have in arbitration before the Em- peror of Russia as a memorable example of this ; for the British Plenipotentiaries never would have agreed to the article if they had been aware that it was susceptible of the construc- tion upon which we now insist. I said it was certainly then the fault of Dr. Adams and Mr. Goulburn, who were intelligent
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men, and who were bound to see the purport of our proposed amendment. I added that we should not have signed the Peace without it; which he seemed inclined to doubt. I told him they had no right to carry away private property or to emancipate slaves. He said, banteringly, that if he were at war he would emancipate every slave he could find. ** Then," said I. ** I would never make peace with you till you paid for them. But who are you, to talk of emancipating slaves?" He said they had none. "And what are your West India islands? What would you say if we should land in Jamaica and eman- cipate your slaves?" "Ay, but." said he, "we do not mean to let you land in Jamaica." " Not if you can help it," said I. " Do no right and take no wrong, I have heard was the Eng- lish sailor's motto."
This conversation lasted about three hours, and as Mr. Can- ning went out the Baron Hyde de Neuville came in with the Count de Menou, whom he presented as Charge d' Affaires of France. He .began immediately upon Lieutenant Stockton's publication in the National Intelligencer on the very same page with the Convention, and complained of it bitterly. He said that at the moment of his going away he was very unwilling to complain, and he was highly gratified with the message that the President had sent him ; but that this publication, appearing on the same page in the same paper with the Convention, would have in this country and in Europe the appearance as if it had been a part of the bargain ; that it would prejudice the tribunals against the persons criminated in Stockton's letters, and take from them the chance of having a fair trial ; that he was con- vinced two of the vessels had been upon voyages wholly in- nocent, and that, although he was bound to take Lieutenant Stockton's word of honor that he had taken them for American vessels, there were circumstances leading strongly to the con- clusion that he was willing to take them, knowing them to be French.
I told him that the publication had been made by Stockton himself without the knowledge of any member of the Govern- ment; that he had done it only for his own vindication, he having been severely censured in the newspapers for having
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made those captures ; that he had only used the h'berty of the press, and that his pubh'cation had been much less exception- able as related to the French Government than that of Captain Edou, in the Moniteur last winter, against the President's mes- sage to Congress.
He said Edou's paper had not been published in the Moni- teur, and that Edou was not an officer in the service. Lieu- tenant Stockton, he thought, deserved punishment for publish- ing an official paper without the permission of his Government. I said that might be an offence against the discipline of the service, for which he was accountable to his Government.
He finally said he did not wish to write to me on the sub- ject, but hoped I should give him some explanation concerning it before his departure. He left me in rather an indifferent humor — this incident being very much of what the French call a contretemps.
July 1st. I received from Boston Jonathan Russell's reply to my remarks upon his letters communicated to Congress. It is published in the American Statesman, a newspaper printed at Boston, of which Henry Orne is the editor. The paper is of the 27th of June. Orne is a young lawyer of some talents, and a political adventurer of whom Mr. King has made a partisan for Crawford for the succession to the Presidency. Russell's reply is as full of falsehoods and misrepresentations as his letter from Paris. But he admits the interpolations in his duplicate. He attempts to represent me as having tricked him into the delivery of his letter at the Department as a duplicate ; and, having no sort of regard to truth, he has made up a plausi- ble tale of new accusation against me, to which I must again reply. It is a great mortification to me to have a large portion of the time which ought to be devoted to the discharge of my public duties absorbed in necessary self-defence. This is a miserable plot against me, devised by Clay at Ghent, and in which he has made a tool of Russell. Clay and Russell are the eagle and the worm of Herder's fable : Clay soars and Russell craivis to the top of the mountain. I began upon a rejoinder to Russell's paper this evening.
2d. Mr. Tazewell and Mr. W. King, two of the Florida Treaty
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Commissioners, called at the office to take leave. They have adjourned till September. Mr. King had some conversation with me concerning the difference between the American and British Commissioners under the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent. I told him of its present situation and prospects. The stipulation of the treaty was, that if the Commissioners should disagree upon their report, it should be referred to the decision of a friendly sovereign. But, as this must be attended with great difficulties, we proposed to the British Government to make a previous effort to adjust the affair by negotiation. To this the British Government have agreed, but with a notifica- tion that they are not disposed to yield upon the point made by their Commissioner on this article as they had with regard to the sixth — which seems almost equivalent to saying that it is useless to negotiate. I told King that I expected we should be obliged to resort to the umpire, and that it would be neces- sary to resort to some mode of obtaining his decision. I had thought of proposing that it should be by a commission of three persons, one to be appointed by the British and one by the American Government, and the third by the umpire, the Commissioners to sit in this country, and to make to the umpire sovereign the report, upon which his decision shall be founded. Mr. King approved very warmly this proposal.
6th. Mr. Canning came, and had much conversation with me respecting the disagreement between the Commissioners under the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent, and respecting the con- templated renewal of negotiation for the suppression of the slave-trade ; that is, to obtain from us the stipulation admitting the mutual right of search.
I told him I would enter upon this latter subject with him when he pleased, but hoped he would postpone it till cooler weather. As to the Commission under the fifth article of the Ghent Treaty, it would be occupation for the summer to obtain a correct knowledge of the points upon which the Com- missioners have disagreed, and, after all, we should probably be obliged to take the course stipulated by the treaty, of reference to a friendly sovereign. I mentioned to him what I thought would be the most convenient mode of making this reference :
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by the appointment of three Commissioners, one by the Gov- ernment of the United States, one by the British Government, and the third by the umpire sovereign ; the Commission to sit in this country, and the decision to be made upon the report of a majority of them.
Mr. Canning did not state any positive objection to this pro- posal, but it did not appear altogether to please him. There is a large trunk full of books, thirty folio volumes at least, reported, with the disagreeing opinions of the Commissioners. The ques- tion upon the construction of the first article of the Ghent Treaty was merely a question of the grammatical meaning of a written sentence. Nothing could be more simple, and a sovereign could decide it in person as well as by Ministers or Commissioners. But a complicated question about the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River, the geocentric latitude, charters of English Colonies, proclamations and Acts of Parliament, geographical surveys of North Amer- ican wildernesses, and ridges of highlands dividing rivers that fall into the St. Lawrence from those that fall into the Atlantic Ocean, it is impossible that a foreign sovereign absorbed in the cares of his own Government should have time or be willing to take upon himself the labor of acquainting himself with the merits of the dispute sufficiently to decide with justice, and in a satisfactory manner, either to himself or to the parties.
Mr. Canning proposes making a northern tour this summer.
8th. In the evening Mr. Calhoun was here, and afterwards General Scott, with Mr. Dick, the District Judge of the United States in Louisiana. They came while Mr. Calhoun was with me, and interrupted our conversation. The relations in which I now stand with Calhoun are delicate and difficult. At the last session of Congress he suffered a few members of Con- gress, with an Irishman named Rogers, editor of a newspaper at Easton, Pennsylvania, at their head, to set him up as a candi- date for the succession to the Presidency. From that moment the caballing in Congress, in the State Legislatures, in the newspapers, and among the people, against me, has been multi- plied tenfold. The Franklin Gazette, of Philadelphia, under the direction of R. Bache, G. M. Dallas, T. Sergeant, and Ingham,
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in concert with Rogers, opened immediately upon me, and has kept up ever since an insidious fire against me. Calhoun's partisans have countenanced it, and have been as busy as those of Mr. Crawford in their efforts to degrade me in the public opinion. Meanwhile, Calhoun has always professed to be a friend and admirer of mine, and to persons whom he knows to be my friends has said that he did not mean to be a candidate against a Northern man, and that he himself was decidedly for a Northern President. There was a time during the last session of Congress when so large a proportion of members was enlisted for Calhoun that they had it in contemplation to hold a caucus formally to declare him a candidate. But this prospect of suc- cess roused all Crawford's and Clay's partisans against him. The administration of his Department was scrutinized with severity, sharpened by personal animosity and factious malice. Some abuses were discovered, and exposed with aggravations. Cavils were made against measures of that Department in the execution of the laws, and brought the President in collision with both Houses of Congress. Crawford's newspapers com- menced and have kept up a course of the most violent abuse and ribaldry against him, and his projected nomination for the Presidency has met with scarcely any countenance throughout the Union. The principal effect of it has been to bring out Crawford's strength, and thus to promote the interest of the very man whom he professes alone to oppose. Calhoun now feels his weakness, but is not cured of his ambition. My per- sonal intercourse with him now is necessarily an intercourse of civility, and not of confidence.
nth. Five years have this day passed since Dr. Tillary, by way of felicitation upon my birthday, congratulated me upon being between fifty and sixty. I have now turned the half-way corner. They have been five memorable years of my life, and certainly the five most laborious of the whole. They have also been crowned with blessings, for which I am grateful to the Giver of all good. They have had their trials of many kinds, among which the severest was the decease of my ever dear and lamented mother. I am now in the midst of another and far different trial — a trial for my character before my country.
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It is but one of many which are preparing for me, and through which I must pass as it shall please Heaven. The caballing against me is so extensive, and so many leading men in every part of the Union are engaged in it, that the prospect before me is not hopeful. This particular plot will in a great measure, though not entirely, fail. Russell will be disappointed, and have the public voice against him ; but Clay, for whom Russell has performed the part of the jackal, will so far gain his point that it will form a theme for prejudice in the Western and Southern country against me. I have now the advantage of Russell entirely in my hands. But the management of my cause requires discretion and firmness, both in an eminent de- gree. My cause is the cause of truth and honesty and of my country. There is hardly a bad passion in the human heart but is arrayed against me. But in controversies of this kind success depends much upon the manner in which it is con- ducted. I have my own errors to dread more than the power of the adversary. A single false step would ruin me. I need advice very much, and have no one to advise me. I finished yesterday the draft of a rejoinder to Russell's publication in the Boston Statesman of 27th of June. But it replies only to his false statements of the manner in which his letters were brought before the House of Representatives ; and is already so long that it will with difficulty be crowded into one news- paper. I have so much more to say upon the subject that it will at least fill another newspaper, and I am apprehensive the public will grow weary of the subject before it can be fully laid open to them. I began this morning the draft of the sequel to my rejoinder.
1 2th. I was at the President's this morning, and he spoke to me of Mr. Russell's publication in the Boston Statesman of 27th of June, which he said he thought a very feeble thing. He also told me that since this affair had come to be so notori- ous, he had been recollecting the circumstances of his receiving Russell's letter, which had before passed away from his memory. He now recollected that on receiving it he had been surprised and embarrassed at its contents. He had shown it to Mr. Madi- son, then President, and consulted with him what he should do
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with it They were both of opinion that it ought not to be put upon the files of the Department and thus exposed to be at some day made public. The publication they thought could only produce mischief They considered Mr. Russell as a man, at the time of the Treaty of Ghent, very recently introduced into the public service, whose advancement had outstripped his consideration in the public opinion, and who had thought he could best promote his own views by attaching himself to the interests and by gaining the friendship of Mr. Clay. As to the proposal for continuing the right of the British to navigate the Mississippi, neither Mr. Madison nor he (the President) had ever thought there was anything objectionable in it. He had no doubt that the object of bringing forward Russell's letter in Congress was to produce a prejudice in the Western country, looking to future events ; but he thought it a very poor expe- dient, and that it would fail of producing the effect intended by it.
13th. I received dispatches from Mr. Middleton, our Minister in Russia, containing the decision of the Emperor upon the question submitted to him by the Governments of the United States and of Great Britain as to the construction of that part of the first article of the Treaty of Ghent which provides for the evacuation of our territories by the British forces with- out carrying away any slaves. The decision is in our favor, but is expressed in language needing explanation more than the paragraph of the article which was in question. I took the dispatches to the President's, and proposed to him that the decision should be published in the National Intelligencer ; of which he approved.
1 7th.* My rejoinder to Russell was published in the National Intelligencer of this morning. Mr. George Hay called upon me, and told me that he had read it through with attention, and approved altogether its contents. But he intimated that he thought no further publication by me would be necessary ; that it was impossible Russell should ever recover or redeem his character, and that it would be wasting time and words to put him down lower than he would be after this publication. I told him that this was my own impression ; that I was aware
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nothing I could henceforth say would affect Russell's character, and that so far as concerned him I should not wish to add another word. But his doctrines had not been thoroughly exposed. The public had not yet looked with much interest to that part of the discussion, and his sophistications had even found countenance and support in the public journals in various parts of the Union. I should, therefore, undertake a thorough examination and refutation of the doctrines of his letter, which would require two or three papers, each as long as the one this day published ; but, as the public soon grow weary of contro- versies in newspapers, I was not determined as to the mode of publication which I should adopt.
22d. The newspapers from the neighboring cities notice my rejoinder to Russell's publication in the Boston Statesman, gen- erally with approbation. Niles's Register says that one of his neighbors called it annihilatory ; but, as an enemy cannot be more than annihilated, a question occurs whether further pub- lication by me in the newspapers would not be superfluous. Admonitions to that effect come to me from friend and foe.
26th. I have been this day married twenty-five years. It is what the Germans call the " Silberne Hochzeit** — the Silver Wedding. The happiest and most eventful portion of my life is past in the lapse of those twenty-five years. I finished the letter to my wife. Looking back — what numberless occasions of gratitude ! how little room for self-gratulation ! Looking forward — what dependence upon the overruling Power! what frail support in myself! "Time and the hour wear through the roughest day." Let me have strength but to be true to myself, to my Maker, and to man— adding Christian meekness and charity to Stoic fortitude — and come what may. •
28th. About two o'clock Mr. Calhoun called, and took us in his carriage to Mr. Daniel Brent's. The weather was intensely hot, and the sun beaming unclouded, so that we were about two hours on the road. We found there Colonel Freeman and Mr. Pleasanton, Gales and Seaton, Mr. Pearson and his daughter, and Miss Brent, a daughter of William Brent's. We had a pleasant dinner, and a little, not much, conversation. We returned early in the evening to the city. Mr. Calhoun
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said much to me, on the way, of the opposition to the Admin- istration combined by Mr. Clay and Mr. Crawford, each having separate views of his own. He spoke also of the absolute necessity that there should be in this District an independent newspaper, to expose the intrigues of those gentlemen to the nation. The City Gazette is known to be under the manage- ment of Clerks in the Treasury. It has been several months incessantly scurrilous and abusive upon Calhoun, cautiously and equivocally so upon me, and, without avowing its devotion to Crawford, occasionally disclosing it in a manner not to be mistaken. Its editor is an Englishman, having no character of his own — penurious and venal — metal to receive any stamp, and, in his treatment now of Crawford and me, looking like one of the Tower stamped dollars during the late war — with George the Third's head struck over that of Charles the Fourth, and not entirely effacing it. The National Intelli- gencer is also in subjection both to Clay and Crawford, by the Act of Congress which Clay carried through, under which the printers of Congressional documents for every Congress are chosen by the preceding Congress. Calhoun thinks that this gave the Speaker of the House absolute control over the National Intelligencer newspaper, both as a rod over the heads and a sop for the mouths of its editors ; and he has no doubt it was Clay's object in carrying the law. By making them dependent upon Congress, it palsied them at least, as supporters of the Executive. They incline also from other motives towards Crawford, and, although uncertain which will be the strongest side, and therefore wishing to keep themselves neutral as much as possible, they will, while endeavoring to avoid direct commitment of themselves, lean as much as they can in favor both of Crawford and of Clay. An independent newspaper, therefore, is indispensable, said Calhoun ; and he asked me what I thought of McKenney's prospectus. I thought an independent newspaper would be very necessary to make known the truth to the people, but, I said, I was not acquainted with Mr. McKenney, and knew nothing of his qualifications for editing a paper, nor of his independence. His prospectus was well written, and opened an excellent plan as that which he
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should pursue. But he must have a heart of oak, nerves of iron, and a soul of adamant, to carry it through. His first attempt would bring a hornets* nest upon his head, and, if they should not sting him to death or blindness, he would have to pursue his march with them continually swarming over him, and beset on all sides with slander, obloquy, and probably assassination.
Calhoun thought this picture highly colored, but admitted there was reason to foresee a stormy career for McKenney. I doubt much, however, whether Mr. McKenney's paper will be independent. I think it originated in the War Office, and will be Mr. Calhoun's official gazette, as long as it lasts. Whether it will live through a session of Congress is to be seen ; but if it fulfils the promise of its prospectus it will pass through more than fire. It is to be an evening paper, twice a week, and the first number is to be published the 7th of next month. Mr. Calhoun evidently considers his future prospects, and even his continuance in the present Administration, as depending upon it.
Day. I have been deeply engaged the whole month in my controversy with Jonathan Russell. I received on the first day of the month his publication in the • Boston Statesman of 27th of June, and replied to it in part by a paper in the National Intelligencer of the 17th. I then promised another; but in taking up and discussing thoroughly the topics of his letter of nth of February, 1 81 5, from Paris, I have found it necessary to write three papers — each of them too long for publication in one newspaper. I have this day finished the first draft of the last of those papers. But the arrangement is yet to be completed, and some additions and some retrench- ments are to be made. But in the present stage of the con- troversy the public sentiment is almost universal against Russell, and very strongly expressed. A volume more in the newspapers would weaken instead of strengthening that im- pression; it would look like mangling a fallen enemy. I have no such inclination, and have no wish to exult over him. But the doctrines of this letter must be put down. I think of pub- lishing a pamphlet. The writing of these papers has so totally
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absorbed all my morning hours that my diary has been running the whole month in arrear.
August 3d. There is in the Argus of Western America, a newspaper published at Frankfort, Kentucky, under date of the i8th of July, an article, apparently editorial, headed "The Ghent Mission," which, both from its style and contents, I take to have been written by Mr. Clay ; but, if not, certainly from him indirectly. It is bitter upon ** the Secretary," and apolo- gizes for Clay's having agreed to the Mississippi proposition upon the plea of the new instructions. It abandons all Russell's pretences, and says that Clay thought the Government ought not to have given the instructions. Clay's conduct throughout this affair towards me has been that of an envious rival — a fel- low-servant whispering tales into the ear of the common master. He has been seven years circulating this poison against me in the West, and I have now no doubt that Russell's letter was brought forth upon suggestions originating with him. Russell has all along performed for him the part of a jackal. Clay seems to have fancied that I should have no means of self-vin- dication if Russell's letter should be brought before Congress, and this article in the Argus evidently betrays his vexation and disappointment at the result.
4th. There is in the Richmond Enquirer of the 2d instant, which came this day, a Jesuitical and most insidious article upon the diplomatic controversy. It begins by copying from the Charleston (South Carolina) Courier an article upon it, very severe upon Russell, with which it expresses concurrence in part, but cavils at some comment in it upon Floyd, and insti- gates Floyd to come out against it. Then it pronounces Rus- sell decidedly in fault in the quarrel about the duplicate, and with the same dogmatism pronounces that the proposition made to the British at Ghent seems to defy all justification; extracts all the part of the sham editorial article in the Frankfort Argus which charges the " Secretary," and calls upon me to answer it . but omits all that part of the same article which contains Clay's admissions of his having assented and subscribed to the propo- sition. The main object of the Richmond Enquirer's instigators in this affair is to blow the coals. They want to bring in Floyd
VOL. VI. — 4
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and Clay to fall upon me and help out Russell, for, considering him as already disgraced before the nation, they wish to up- hold him just enough to assist him in his notable attempt to disgrace me. At the first explosion of this affair they could not suppress their exultation at the prospect of two distin- guished Massachusetts men afoul of each other, and sure both to lose character by the result. But the burst of public senti- ment was so quick and so strong against Russell, on the publi- cation of his duplicate letters and my remarks, that in a few days the Richmond Enquirer gave out that I had seized with great ability upon this occasion to make myself a party for the next Presidential election, for which it declared I was before quite out of the question. The Richmond Enquirer is the organ of a great and predominating political party in Virginia. It is the mainspring for Mr. Crawford's election in that State, and indeed throughout the Union. It is the very Mrs. Candor of newspapers, and, under an affectation of impartiality and liberality, has been, and will be, managed with the most in- veterate hostility to me. I have concluded to publish the papers of this controversy in a pamphlet, and have prepared a paper to be published in the National Intelligencer announcing this intention.
6th. I sent this morning to Mr. Force, requesting him to call at the oflfice of the Department of State, which he did. I told him I proposed to publish a pamphlet containing the message of the President to the House of Representatives with the residuary Ghent Treaty documents, the message with the du- plicate letters and my remarks, Mr. Russell's subsequent pub- lications in the newspapers relating to this subject, and mine, with additional papers amounting perhaps to one hundred pages more. I asked him if he would undertake the publica- tion at his own expense and risk. He said he would, and I gave him a printed copy of the Ghent document message to begin with. He said he would commence the publication in a few days ; and I engaged to furnish him from time to time with copy as it should be wanted. Mr. Seaton, of the National In- telligencer, likewise called, and I gave him the paper which I had prepared, announcing my purpose of withdrawing the sub-
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ject from the newspapers and of publishing all the documents in a pamphlet.
7th. My paper was published this morning in the National Intelligencer. Mr. George Hay called upon me at my house and expressed his approbation of it, but said there was one passage in it which, upon a first, second, and third reading, he had not been able to understand. It presented at the first read- ing a sense which it was impossible should be intended. He had finally discerned its meaning, and then had wondered how he could have had any hesitation about it. The passage speaks of Russell's letter as having been " trumpeted before- hand throughout the Union, as fraught with disclosures which were to blast a reputation worthless in the estimation of its possessor, if not unsullied." I saw upon examining this sen- tence that there was something in it not perfectly clear, and that it would have been better to transpose tlie word *' worth- less," and say, ** a reputation in the estimation of its possessor worthless if not unsullied." I told Mr. Hay that I had been obliged to publish this paper without having the benefit of pre- vious revisal by a friend, and asked him if he would do me that favor for the next paper of the collection, for the accuracy of which I should feel more solicitude. He said he would. I mentioned to Mr. Hay the disingenuous manner in which the Richmond Enquirer had republished a part, and suppressed a part, of the article in the Frankfort Argus of i8th July. He said I should never experience fairness or candor from the Richmond Enquirer ; that paper would not resort to positive falsehood, but they would not give the whole truth.
8th. I received from Mr. C. A. Rodney, the Senator from the State of Delaware, the second volume of Chalmers's Collection of Opinions of Eminent Lawyers, containing the opinions of the attorneys and solicitors-general, at three several periods after intervening wars, that the Treaty of Neutrality of 1686 was yet in force, though not renewed nor specifically men- tioned in any of the treaties of peace; also the Advocate- General Sir James Marryat's opinion and argument upon it in 1765. Rodney has taken an interest in this controversy, as he told me, from his regard for the memory of Mr. Bayard, who
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was his fellow-citizen of Delaware, brother at the bar, rival statesman, and personal friend. He first mentioned to me the debates in Parliament on the Peace of Amiens, and a few days since I received a letter from him, speaking of these authorities in Chalmers's book, and also of a reference to and inference from them in a volume upon Commercial Law recently pub- lished by Chitty. He offered me the loan of the books — which I accepted.
loth. A woman by the name of Bridget Smith came to apply for a pardon for her brother, the man who is in prison at Boston for slave-trading. Miss Smith operated with the usual female weapon, a shower of tears. It seldom fails to disconcert my philosophy, especially when I see the spring is from the social affections. Here it was a brother, necessary for the comfort and subsistence of a mother. I promised to do my best to obtain his release, though in his own person he has very little claim to mercy or even to compassion.
1 2th. I received this day a dispatch from R. Rush, with a printed copy of the Act of Parliament passed the 24th of June last, opening the ports of the British Colonies in the West Indies, North and South America, and in the island of New- foundland, to the vessels of the United States. I took them to the President's, and mentioned to him the necessity of issuing a proclamation conformably to the Act of Congress of the last session, which I promised to prepare and bring to him to- morrow.
13th. I made a draft of a proclamation opening the ports of the United States to British vessels from their Colonies, and took it to the President. I found several difficulties in making the draft. The Act of Congress of 6th May last authorizes the President by proclamation to open the ports of the United States, on certain contingencies, to British vessels employed in the trade and intercourse between the United States and the British Colonies or islands in the West Indies, under such reciprocal rules and restrictions as he may prescribe, anything in the two Navigation Acts to the contrary notwithstanding. The British Act of Parliament of 24th June opens certain ports by name in the West Indies, in North and South America, and
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in Newfoundland, under certain restrictions of duties, and au- thorizes only the importation directly of articles the growth, produce, or manufacture of the United States. As the Act of Congress speaks only of the British Islands or Colonies in the West Indies, the first question was whether the proclamation can open our ports to British vessels from Newfoundland, North and South America, under the general denomination of the West Indies. If it cannot, it cannot meet the Act of Parlia- ment, and will be of no effect. I therefore made the draft opening our ports to vessels from all the ports opened to our vessels by the Act of Parliament, construing the term West Indies as used in the Act of Congress in its most extensive and general sense.
The next question was as to the reciprocal rules and restric- tions. It occurred to me that under that provision the procla- mation might exact countervailing duties ; but, as that might be thought to encroach upon the revenue-raising power, I thought it would be best to leave it to Congress. To counter- vail the restriction of direct trade, I limited the importations from each Colony in British vessels to the productions of that Colony. I left the draft with the President for his considera- tion.
14th. I called at the President's, and he returned me the draft of the proclamation opening our ports to British vessels from the Colonial ports opened to ours by the Act of Parlia- ment of 24th June, with a question whether the restriction of importations in the British vessels to be admitted to articles the produce of only the Colony from which they directly come would not be objectionable. He desired me to consider this, but said he would sign the proclamation as I had drawn it if I should conclude it would be best. He desired me also to show it to Mr. Calhoun, the only other head of Department now here, and to take his advice. I took the draft accordingly this e ing to Mr. Calhoun's, and read it to him, suggesting the q tions which had occurred to me in drawing it up. I left it him, and also a copy of the British Act of Parliament of June. He will return them to me with his opinion to-moi morning. I asked him to consider how a restriction upon
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articles to be imported in British vessels, not limited to articles of the particular Colony from which they come, but to articles the produce of the British West India Colonies, for vessels coming from them, and to North American articles, for vessels from the North American Colonies, would answer.
15th. Mr. Calhoun called after breakfast at my house, and returned the draft of the proclamation and the copy of the British Act of Parliament. He thought the restriction last proposed by me would be more expedient than that limited to the productions of the particular Colony from which the vessel comes. As to the question about opening our ports to British vessels from the North American British Provinces under the Act of Congress, which names only the West Indies, he ad- vised me to write to Mr. King, the Senator who, as Chairman of the Senatorial Committee of Foreign Relations, brought in the bill and carried it through that body; and to consult him as to the propriety of extending to the Act that latitude of construction. I wrote accordingly to Mr. King, mentioning the questions to him and enclosing the draft of the procla- mation and the copy of the British Act of Parliament. The proclamation must of course be for some days delayed.
1 6th. I this day received a letter from C. A. Rodney, the Senator from Delaware, with a new English authority against the doctrine that all treaties are abrogated by war. It is the opinion of Mr. Fox, expressed in Parliament in the debate on the definitive Treaty of Peace of 1783. And I this day finished the draft of remarks which I propose to publish in my collec- tion of documents upon the editorial article in the Argus of Western America, which I suppose to have been written by Mr. Clay. Force has begun the printing of the work, and sends me usually one proof-sheet of eight pages for revisal each week-day. This, and the necessary writing for the pub- lication, absorbs all my leisure time and all my faculties.
19th. Answered General Dearborn's letter, and received one from my wife, chiefly upon an attack against me in one of the Philadelphia newspapers on account of the negligence of my dress. It says that I wear neither waistcoat nor cravat, and sometimes go to church barefoot My wife is much concerned
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at this, and several of my friends at Philadelphia have spoken to her of it as a serious affair. In the Washington City Gazette, some person unknown to me has taken the cudgels in my behalf, and answered the accusation gravely as if the charge were true. It is true only as regards the cravat, instead of which, in the extremity of the summer heat, I wear round my neck a black silk riband. But, even in the falsehoods of this charge, what I may profitably remember is the perpetual and malignant watchfulness with which I am observed in my open day and my secret night, with the deliberate purpose of ex- posing me to public obloquy or public ridicule. There is nothing so deep and nothing so shallow which political enmity will not turn to account. Let it be a warning to me to take heed to my ways.
23d. Mr. Henry Johnson, the Senator from Louisiana, called upon me this morning, with Mr. Edward Livingston, of New Orleans. Livingston is elected a member of the next Congress from the State of Louisiana, and will probably be one of its most distinguished members. He is a man of very superior talents, whose career has been checkered with good and evil, with right and wrong, perhaps as much as that of any public man in this country. He is now going to Richmond, Virginia. He asked me whether I had received a copy of his report to the Legislature of Louisiana of a project for a criminal code, which he had sent me. I had, and was much pleased with it. I told him there were many of its opinions with which I fully concurred, and some upon which my mind was perhaps not so clearly made up.
Mr. Calhoun called, and I showed him the answer I had just received from Mr. R. King, returning my draft of a proclama- tion opening our ports to British vessels from their American Colonial ports. Mr. King approves of the liberal construction we have given to the term West Indies in the Act of Congress of the last session; and he thinks the more enlarged restriction of the articles importable in British vessels, of West Indian articles from the West Indies, and North American articles from North America, preferable to the narrower limitation of articles the produce only of the particular Colony from which
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the vessel may come. I altered the draft of the proclamation accordingly, to be published in the National Intelligencer to- morrow morning.
26th. The Washington City Gazette has this day come out for the first time with the Treasury stamp unequivocal upon its face. It has long been at market, apparently between Mr. Crawford and me ; really, sold to him years ago, but wishing also to make its price with me. Wyer told me not long since that Elliot, the editor, had asked him if I was his friend ; com- plained that I had given him no jobs of printing lately to do; said that my objections to his account for printing papers relating to the census had been only a misunderstanding; hinted that he could not afford to be my friend for nothing ; boasted that he had entirely put down Mr. Calhoun's preten- sions to the Presidency, and considered himself as thereby serving me ; with a distinct intimation that he could serve me as he had served Mr. Calhoun. I told Wyer that I had been obliged to cut down Elliot's account for the census papers for its extortion, and had then told him that I should give him no more work at the public charge; that he had not put down Mr. Calhoun, and if he had, it was not for the purpose of serving me; and that I should not purchase the services of any printer, either with public money or my own.
This was but a few days since ; and this day the Gazette shows its flag. It enumerates also the other newspapers which it considers as pledged to the same cause ; which is obviously to give them a signal of mutual intelligence. The organization of newspaper support for Mr. Crawford throughout the Union is very extensive, and is managed with much address. De- mocracy, Economy, and Reform are the watch-words for his recruiting service — Democracy to be used against me, Economy against Calhoun, and Reform against both. Calhoun is organ- izing a counter-system of newspaper artillery, and his Wash- ington Republican is already working powerfully in his favor. These engines will counteract each other, but I shall be a mark for both sides, and, having no counter-fire upon them, what can happen but that I must fall? This fall may be the happiest event that could befall me, and I but fervently ask that my
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mind may be disciplined to whatever may betide me, and sup- ported to the level of higher aims than any political fortune can reach.
27th. Mr. Calhoun called to make enquiries. He noticed the decisive manner in which the Washington City Gazette came out yesterday in favor of Mr. Crawford, and against me. He has long considered the Gazette as edited from the Treasury Department, and all the articles in it against him as coming almost directly from Mr. Crawford himself He says the course Crawford is now pursuing is precisely the same as he kept in 181 5 and 1 8 1.6, which he had great opportunities of then ob- serving, as he was of the same mess with two or three of Crawford's managing partisans. He says that Crawford is a very singular instance of a man of such character rising to the eminence he now occupies; that there has not been in the history of the Union another man with abilities so ordinary, with services so slender, and so thoroughly corrupt, who has contrived to make himself a candidate for the Presidency. He thinks it, however, impossible that he should succeed.
Mr. George Graham was at the theatre ; he has just returned from a long visit to Kentucky, and says that the people there have got into excessive ill humor with the General Government, and a universal passion for Mr. Clay to be the next President; though they are at the same time in a flame of internal com- bustion, with stop laws, paper money, and hunting down Judges, in which Clay is on the unpopular side, which at this time is the side of justice. At the late election, a decided majority of the State Legislature has been chosen for removing the Judges who pronounced the relief laws unconstitutional ; and in the elections for Congress the candidates opposed to the Adminis- tration were everywhere elected. Clay himself is one of them.
29th. The Richmond Enquirer of the 27th, which came this day, contains a letter from John Floyd, the member of the House of Representatives who moved last session for the Ghent documents and for Russell's letters to the editors of that paper, who had instigated it by a stimulant hint in their paper of the 2d. Floyd is a man having in the main honest intentions, but with an intellect somewhat obfuscated, violent
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passions, suspecting dishonesty and corruption in all but him- self, rashly charging it upon others ; eager for distinction, and forming gigantic projects upon crude and half-digested informa- tion. He has a plan for establishing a Territorial Government at the mouth of Columbia River, and, being leagued with Clay and Benton of Missouri, made his bill for that purpose the pretext for moving the call for the Ghent papers, and then for Russell's letter. Clay, who is at the bottom of it all, has, from the day after the signature of the Treaty of Ghent, been work- ing like a mole to undermine me in the West, by representing me as an enemy to the Western interests, and by misrepresent- ing the transactions at Ghent in a way to suit that purpose. Russell's letter of nth February, 1815, was concerted with Clay, who must have supposed that I should be precluded by my situation from making any defence, and that the poison would operate without the counteraction of any antidote. The mismanagement of Russell blew up their whole plot, and, Floyd's part in it being partly detected, he himself has been handled as he deserved in many of the newspaper commen- taries upon the whole transaction. The Richmond Enquirer, intent upon bringing out all possible opposition to me, and knowing the coarseness and insolence of Floyd's hostility, put forth a provocative to Floyd to come out, and he has come out accordingly ; at once crafty and ferocious ; pretending self-de- fence, as if I had injured him — falsely charging me with having asserted that ke had made himself subservient to Russell's pur- poses, and then imputing direct falsehood to that assertion — pretending to take no part in the dispute between Russell and me, that he may discharge his venom upon me with more effect, under the color of neutrality. The Washington City Gazette, in its allegiance to the Treasury, now copies every article against me, from all quarters of the Union, usually with the addition of a comment turning it against me and using it as a lift for Russell.
30th. Floyd's letter was published this morning in the National Intelligencer. I wrote a very short answer to it for publication in the same paper to-morrow morning. Among the absurdities with which Floyd's letter abounds is his at-
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tacking me in the newspapers with a charge that I am seeking newspaper controversy. I have confined my answer to a direct denial of having made the assertion which he imputes to me and declares false, and have fixed the falsehood unanswerably upon himself. The City Gazette of this afternoon has another insult- ing paragraph of high panegyric upon Floyd's character, purity of motives, and veracity, and asserting that his letter puts the dispute between Russell and me upon an entire new footing. This is followed by a paragraph hoping that I have not em- ployed Seth Hunt (as my enemies insinuate) to plot the de- struction of Mr. Russell's character for a reward in case of success. This alludes to a charge published in the New York Statesman, under the signature of "Ariel," charging Russell with having speculated for pecuniary profit upon information which he gave to commercial houses at the negotiation of Ghent. Russell having called upon the publishers for the name of the author of "Ariel," Hunt wrote to him and avowed himself as the author, upon which Russell prosecuted him, both by action and by indictment, and prosecuted also the publishers of the Statesman. Of all these transactions I have no knowledge but by the newspapers. There are other para- graphs in this day's Gazette equally insidious and base, inter- spersed with encomiums and defences of Crawford, written, as I have reason to suppose, by a man named Richards, of spotted character, whom Crawford, knowing him as such, has this summer taken as a clerk into the Treasury Department. I note these things as they pass, to indicate for memory hereafter the situation in which I am placed, the means used to ruin my character, the agents by whom the machinery is wielded, and the persons for whom this dirty work is performed. The thing itself is not new. From the nature of our institutions, the com- petitors for public favor, and their respective partisans, seek success by slander upon each other, as you add to the weight of one scale by taking from that of the other. I disdain this ignoble mode of warfare, and neither wage it myself nor coun- tenance it in my friends. But from present appearances it will decide the succession to the Presidency. 31st. My answer to Floyd's charge was published in the
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National Intelligencer this morning, and copied into the even- ing papers — in the City Gazette with an affected and mawkish paragraph of commentary, and with other malignant paragraphs against me.
September 3d. Received dispatches from Mr. Middleton at St. Petersburg, and from Mr. Forsyth at Madrid. Mr. Middle- ton gives the substance of a Convention which he has con- cluded with Sir Charles Bagot, under the mediation of the Emperor Alexander, for carrying into execution his decision upon the construction of the first article of the Treaty of Ghent, relating to slaves. Mr. Forsyth's letters relate chiefly to the troubles in Spain.
7th. I received some days since a letter from A. Gallatin, mentioning that he had seen Russell's duplicate, and my re- marks, and asking me to send him some other papers relating to the subject, and certain books. He says he has not deter- mined whether he will write upon it (for the public), and that if he does it will be with extreme reluctance. I answered his letter this day, and assured him that there would be no neces- sity whatever for him to publish anything upon this affair. There can be no better proof of the purpose for which the whole machine was set in motion than that, since the facts have been brought out, not one syllable has been said in any one newspaper against Gallatin for his part in the Mississippi navi- gfation and fishery proposal, though it was first offered and md was neither a favorite of mine nor the *ly successful in securing the interest for anced. There are newspapers which still ilways as my measure, and with the view to me. In the face of the evidence they im- tend that Bayard finally declared against it, wholly out of sight. The whole procedure ample of artifice by one public man to ruin mother.
nney came, the editor of the Washington vished to borrow a file of the New York \ from the month of May till this time. He tie a note repeating the request and asking
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also the loan of a report made by Mr. Crawford in January, 1817. I had not the latter, but sent him a file of the Advocate. The establishment and progress of this newspaper forms an epocha in the history of Mr. Monroe's Administration. Mr. Crawford's party was organized before the close of Mr. Madi- son's. He was a caucus candidate in 1816 against Mr. Monroe, and had then the address ostensibly to decline opposing Mr. Monroe, seeming to sacrifice his own pretensions in his favor, so as to secure a seat in the Administration under him, during which he has been incessantly engaged in preparing the way to succeed him. Among the most powerful of his agents have been the editors of the leading newspapers. The National In- telligencer is secured to him by the belief of the editors that he will be the successful candidate, and by their dependence upon the printing of Congress; the Richmond Enquirer, because he is a Virginian and a slave-holder; the National Advocate of New York, through Van Buren ; the Boston Statesman and Portland Argus, through William King; the Democratic Press, of Philadelphia, because I transferred the printing of the laws from that paper to the Franklin Ga- zette ; and several other presses in various parts of the Union upon principles alike selfish and sordid. Most of these papers have signals by which they understand one another, and the signal at Washington is given by the City Gazette, which has been re-secured since Irvine ceased to be its joint editor, and which from time to time gives notice of the newspapers which are successively induced to join in the train. All this has been going on successfully for some months past, with little counteraction of any kind till the establishment of the Washington Republican. That paper began by a suc- cession of seven numbers addressed to the people of the United States, in which the course of Mr. Crawford's manage- ment is very distinctly laid open, and its character vigorously exposed. It has already manifestly disordered the composure of Mr. Crawford's editorial phalanx. The Intelligencer has ventured a slight skirmish in his favor. The Advocate, the Boston Statesman, and the Richmond Enquirer have attacked McKenney with personalities and menaces. The City Gazette
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has said nothing of him till this day. On Saturday, Elliot acknowledged the receipt of an anonymous communication, styled ** Instructions to Office Hunters," and refused to print it without having the name of the author. This day it ap- peared under the title of " Extracts from Instructions to Polit- ical Beginners," headed By the words, Help! Help! Help! and then reprinting as ** From the Washington Republican of the 7th inst, edited by Calhoun and McKenney," a notice in that paper calling for payment of subscriptions. The instructions profess to be after the manner of Dean Swift, but they are imi- tations only of his vulgarity and venom, without any of his wit They are infamously scurrilous and abusive, not only upon Mr. Calhoun, but upon his mother-in-law. This is Mr. Crawford's mode of defensive warfare.
nth. I am yet proceeding with the proof-sheets of my pamphlet, the printing of which is nearly completed. In the National Intelligencer yesterday was republished from the Boston Patriot of the 4th a letter from Mr. Fuller, contradict- ing the assertion of Floyd, that I had procured him to renew the call of the House of Representatives for Russell's letter, from which Floyd had desisted. These papers I shall include in my publication. The Washington Republican this day replies to the National Intelligencer's defence of Mr. Crawford by a long article presenting a comparative view of the reductions of ex- penditure in the War, Navy, and Treasury Departments, show- ing that of them all the Treasury has the least pretension to boast of its economy. It has also an article in reply to a very foolish one of the National Advocate, which denied the exist- ence of any opposition to Mr. Monroe's Administration, de- clared that he had faithfully and zealously discharged his duties as President of the United States, but that he had a private account to settle with the Democratic party, which must now go on by the election of a suitable President for his successor. The shamelessness with which this principle is advanced, that the President, by faithfully performing his duty as Chief Magis- trate of the nation, has violated his allegiance to the party which brought him into power, and that therefore a successor to him must be chosen who will violate his duty to the whole
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nation by exclusively favoring his own party, is characteristic of the electioneering in favor of Mr. Crawford.
1 2th. Edward Wyer came, and renewed with great earnest- ness the promise he had made me on the 2d of this month, to see me again on or before the 15th. He told me this day that a person not friendly to me had told him that he had examined with the strictest scrutiny my accounts at the Treasury, with the expectation of finding in them something against me ; but he had been disappointed. They were perfectly correct, and he was very sorry for it. I asked him who it was ; but he de- clined telling me. I have long believed that this was one of the machines to be used against me for electioneering purposes, and that Mr. Crawford has had it among the ways and means of his Presidential canvass. The person who made this con- fession to Wyer I have no doubt was one of Crawford's sub- alterns, probably a Treasury Clerk, and Wyer, after telling it to me, to show how much secret information he could give, was afraid to tell me the name of the person, lest he should make enemies to himself This is one of- many incidents show- ing the system of espionage which Crawford keeps on foot over his colleagues, and the means which he is willing to use to depress them. My accounts were kept five years unsettled upon a cavil without foundation in law or justice. I was all but entrapped last winter into a report to Congress, which would have given a handle against me, which was prepared at the Treasury, and of which it was with the utmost difficulty that I obtained the rectification; and now I have it in proof that there is a person having access to all the Treasury docu- ments, mousing for errors in my accounts upon which to raise a popular clamor against me.
14th. The newspaper war between the presses of Mr. Craw- ford and Mr. Calhoun waxes warm. This day the City Gazette has three columns of brevier type of the foulest abuse upon McKenney, and upon Mr. Calhoun personally — first in a long editorial article, and then in copious extracts from the National Advocate and Boston Statesman. The exposure already made, and the development further threatened by the Washington Re- publican, of Crawford's practices and those of his partisans, has
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thrown them into a paroxysm of rage, and their only attempt to meet these charges hitherto has been by personal invective and menace. The Republican replies this evening with firmness and moderation to the National Advocate and Boston States- man, and reviews its own progress hitherto. If this press is not soon put down. Mr. Crawford has an ordeal to pass through before he reaches the Presidency which will test his merit and pretensions as well as the character of the nation. As yet, not much notice is taken of the Washington Republican and its disclosures, excepting by the fury of Crawford's presses. His party is so strong, and they have such a ruffian-like manner of bearing down opposition, that impartial and disinterested per- sons are intimidated ; browbeating is among the choicest expe- dients of his partisans. The progress of this conflict will be a very curious subject of observation, and its result important to the history of the Union.
17th. I received a note from the President, calling a meeting of the members of the Administration at one o'clock this day, with letters from Lieutenant Gregory, commander of the United States schooner Grampus, to the Secretary of the Navy, con- taining an account of the capture by him of the Spanish priva- teer Panchita, or Palmyra, from Porto Rico. I attended at the President's accordingly. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Wirt were also there, being the only other members of the Administration in the city. The letters of Lieutenant Gregory had been read by us all, and the President proposed the question whether any measure of the Administration would be necessary in conse- quence of this capture. Mr. Calhoun said he thought that from Lieutenant Gregory's letter the justification for the cap- ture of the Spanish privateer was rather slender; but I observed that according to my recollection of the laws it had been strictly legal. I then recurred to the Act of Congress of 3d March, 18 19, to protect the commerce of the United States and punish the crime of piracy, continued by the Act of 15th May, 1820. I read the second and third sections of the Act. The capture was made under instructions given by virtue of the second section. It authorizes the President to issue instruc- tions to our naval officers to capture and send in any armed
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vessel which shall have attempted or committed 2iny piratical aggression upon any vessel of the United States or any other vessel. Mr. Calhoun enquired whether any aggression by a vessel bearing a lawful commission could be denominated piratical. I thought there was no doubt it could, and the third section of the Act under consideration, which authorizes merchant vessels to defend themselves against aggressions of any vessel other than public armed vessels, taken in connec- tion with the second, which makes no such distinction, shows that the Act itself considers piratical aggressions as liable to be committed by public armed vessels as well as others. Mr. Calhoun understood them in the same manner. The President sent to the Navy Department for a copy of the instructions given under the Act of 3d March, 18 19, and when they were produced it was found that, although they fell rather short of the authority given by the Act, they yet fully justified the capture of the Panchita by Lieutenant Gregory. I mentioned the discussions at the Cabinet meeting when these instruc- tions were to be prepared, which were recollected both by the President and Mr. Calhoun. (See Diary for i6th and i8th March, 18 19.)* I gave Mr. Wirt the letter from Mr. Pedersen, the Danish Minister, claiming the delivery of the fugitive slave from St. Croix, requesting his written opinion upon two points — first, whether the President has Constitutional authority to deliver up the slave ; and, secondly, if he has, in what manner it can be legally carried into effect.
2 1st. The President went to his seat at Oakhill, near Aldie, Loudoun County, Virginia. Mr. Force came and took the last sheet of my proposed pamphlet, with the title-page, table of con- tents, and errata, all of which I have prepared, and which have occupied so fully since the ist of July all the time that I could spare from the indispensable duties of my office, that my diary has in the interval been running into long arrears. Between the 26th and 29th of August, having finished the controversy with Russell, I resumed my diary, and brought it up to the 6th of July ; but when Mr. Floyd took the field under a new mask, with a desperate lunge at me, under color of neutrality
» Vol. iv. pp. 298-303. VOL. VI.— 5
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I thought it necessary to strip the mask from him too. The editorial article of the Kentucky Argus is by or from Clay, and, as he fights under cover, I have adapted the defence to the attack. Force says the book will be published on Monday. I now dismiss it to its fate.' The Washington Republican and City Gazette — War and Treasury Departments — are yet in deadly conflict, but with such unequal force, all reason, argu- ment, and demonstration on one side, and all scurrility and billingsgate on the other, that the National Intelligencer has been compelled to step in to the relief of the Treasury — the editors, by some shuffling and equivocating paragraphs, pro- fessing the intention not to meddle with the controversy ; and now by a formal communication, signed ** A Near Observer," almost avowedly from the Treasury, and supposed to be writ- ten by Asbury Dickens, a favorite Clerk in that Department. This is the only attempt hitherto at answering argumentatively the Washington Republican. But Noah, the editor of the New York National Advocate, has discovered that some of McKen- ney's printed proposals for publishing his paper were trans- mitted, franked by the Paymaster and Adjutant-General, and charges this as a violation of the franking privilege and a fraud upon the post-office. McKenney this day admits that some of his proposals were thus transmitted, with a sort of farewell letter, to persons with whom he had corresponded as Indian Agent, privileged to frank ; but says that as soon as this was made known to Mr. Calhoun he disapproved it, and directed its discontinuance. The City Gazette makes a great outcry about this incident, which is of more importance as it shows the intimacy between the War Office and the Washington Republican, than in any other light.
23d. Mr. George Hay called, and mentioned certain recent publications respecting the notorious Newburgh letters, circu- lated in March, 1783, instigating the army to mutiny. The
' This makes a volume of two hundred and fifty-six pages, 8vo, bearing the fol- lowing title: The Duplicate Letters, the Fisheries, and the Mississippi. Docu- ments relating to Transactions at the Negotiation of Ghent : collected and published by John Quincy Adams, one of the Commissioners of the United Slates at that Negotiation. 1822.
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author of them has always been supposed to be John Arm- strong, a man variously distinguished in our later history, who has never explicitly avowed or disowned them publicly, but who, as William Lee told me, printed them while at Paris in a pamphlet, and distributed them among his acquaintances as his own. He then gave one of them to Lee himself. Judge William Johnson, in his recently published sketches of the Life of General Greene, calls in question Armstrong's authorship of these letters, as far beyond his ability, and attributes them to Gouverneur Morris. Since then, and within these few days, a paragraph has been current in the newspapers, seemingly, though not avowedly, from Armstrong himself, introducing a letter purporting to have been written by President Washington in 1793 to Armstrong. Mr. Hay asked me if I had seen it this morning in the Alexandria Herald. I had not seen that paper, but had seen it lately in other newspapers. Mr. Hay asked if I had ever heard of that letter before. I had heard there was such a letter, but have no distinct recollection when or where. The letter purports to have been written 23d February, 1793, and is now stated, on belief, as having been first published in 1803. It is a declaratory certificate, that, in writing his address to the army on the occasion of the Newburgh letters, General Washington did not regard Mr. Armstrong as the author of those letters, and, further, that he had since had reason for be- lieving that the object of the author was just, honorable, and friendly to the country, although the means suggested by him were certainly liable to misunderstanding and abuse. And the reason alleged for giving this certificate is, the belief that there might be times and occasions when the writer's opinion of the anonymous letters as delivered to the army in 1783 might be turned to some personal and malignant purpose. Hay said he believed that this letter was a forgery. It was impossible that General Washington should ever have written such a letter, or ever have certified that he had reason to believe that the object of the incendiary of Newburgh was just, honorable, and friendly to the country.* I told Hay I was afraid that he had ; as it
« This letter, bearing the date of 23d February, 1797, has been inserted in lh« Appendix to the twelfth volume of Sparks's Collection of the Writings of Wash-
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was unquestionable that Mr. Jefferson had nominated the incen- diary to foreign missions of the highest trust. As a member of the Senate, I had voted against that nomination, alleging distinctly as my reason that Mr. Armstrong was known to be the author of the Newburgh letters. Others voted against him for other reasons — no one alleged that; and the nomination was confirmed by the casting vote of the Vice-President. I told Hay that I still believed Armstrong to be the author of the Newburgh letters; that I believed it impossible that their ob- ject should have been just, honorable, or friendly to the coun- try; that I believed Armstrong to be one of the ablest writers and most unprincipled public men that this country had ever produced ; and that General Washington, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, George Clinton, the Senate of the United States, and the Legislature of New York, all of whom had at various times and in divers manners concurred in appointing him to great public trusts, had indulgently overlooked the depravity of the Newburgh letters, or attributed them to a youthful ex- cess of an ambitious spirit afterwards chastised by experience into honor and honesty. I had myself been willing for some time to cherish such hopes, but Mr. Armstrong's public life has been but too clearly marked with the stamp of the Newburgh letters; and I thought Judge Johnson*s suggestion, that they were written by Gouverneur Morris, very feebly supported by his evidence. Hay said he thought so too. But he could not believe General Washington had ever written this letter, and he mentioned reasons for disbelieving it : that no mention of it was made in Marshall's life of him; that his signature as printed in the newspaper was not like that habitually used by the General ; and that it was impossible he should have entertained the senti- ment expressed in it. Mr. Hay has, I think, particular motives for these enquiries.
T »-eceived dispatches from Mr. Rush, at London, and from 'orsyth, at Madrid. Mr. Rush sends a copy of the Con- )n lately concluded by Mr. Middleton at St. Petersburg.
article •' Newburgh Addresses." The argument for its genuineness seems jrtified by the tone of two earlier ones in 1791 and 1792, in the tenth vohime same collection.
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Mr. Forsyth gives an account of the convulsive political state of Spain. Mr. Calhoun called at the office, and I gave him Rush's dispatch to take home with him.
24th. Mr. Calhoun brought me back Mr. Rush's dispatch, and said there had been a good deal of parade in the transac- tions of this business at St. Petersburg — an observation which disclosed a feeling not exactly suited to the occasion. The Convention proposes that eventually an average value should be paid for the slaves carried away. Mr. Calhoun said, if that meant one average value for each slave upon the whole number, it would not be satisfactory nor just. The price of slaves in- creasing from North to South, the sufferers in Maryland and Virginia would be overpaid, while those in Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana would not be indemnified.
I said I did not suppose it would be necessary to strike one and the same average for the whole, but a separate one per- haps for each State where the losses had been sustained.
25th. The War Office and Treasury war continues to rage. There is a long reply to the " Near Observer" in the Washington Republican of this evening, and the City Gazette is filled with columns of abuse upon Mr. Calhoun and McKenney, and with republished scraps against me; for it republishes from every newspaper in the Union everything that appears in the shape of an attack upon me.
26th. The President sent me a letter from P. S. Duponceau, of Philadelphia, to General John Mason, of Georgetown, in- forming him of a certain Mr. Sanchez, from the Havanna, recommendo^ to Duponceau by a French officer, who served in the late war, at New Orleans, now at the Havanna. San- chez comes as a secret Agent from a number of the principal inhabitants of the place, who have formed the plan of declaring the island independent of Spain and are desirous of being ad- mitted as a State into the American Union. The object of the mission of Mr. Sanchez is, to enquire if the Government of the United States will concur with them in that object. The plan is represented as already so far matured that they want nothing but the assurance of being seconded from this country to act immediately. The President desired that Duponceau's
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letter might be passed to Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Wirt, and directed a meeting at his house to-morrow.
27th. Received a note from the President, calling the meeting of the Administration at one o'clock. At the office I found a dispatch from R. Rush, with the information that on the 12th of August the Marquis of Londonderry, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, committed suicide by cutting his throat with a small penknife — "with a bare bodkin." His mind was like the cable that drew up the frigate at the navy- yard upon the inclined plane — stretched till it snapped.
Attended at the President's at one o'clock. Mr. Calhoun only was there, Mr. Wirt being unwell and not able to attend. The proposition of Mr. Sanchez, as disclosed in Mr. Dupon- ceau's letter to General Mason, was discussed. There was also a second letter, explanatory of the first, and more strictly con- fidential. The question was discussed what was to be done. Mr. Calhoun has a most ardent desire that the island of Cuba should become a part of the United States, and says that Mr. Jefferson has the same. There are two dangers to be averted by that event : one, that the island should fall into the hands of Great Britain; the other, that it should be revolutionized by the negroes. Calhoun says Mr. Jefferson told him two years ago that we ought, at the first possible opportunity, to take Cuba, though at the cost of a war with England; but as we are not now prepared for this, and as our great object must be to gain time, he thought we should answer this overture by dissuading them from their present purpose, and urging them to adhere at present to their connection with Spaia.
I thought it advisable to take a different course; to give them no advice whatever; to say that the Executive of the United States is not competent to promise them admission as a State into the Union ; and that if it were, the proposal is of a nature which our relations of amity with Spain would not permit us to countenance.
Mr. Calhoun suggested that it would be proper for the Presi- dent to make it a subject of a confidential communication to Congress at their next session, and he objected that if much stress should be laid upon our relations with Spain, as forbid-
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ding our acceptance of the proposal, it might be considered as indirect instigation to the declaration of independence, in- asmuch as that would release us from the obligation of con- sidering it as involving any of the rights of Spain.
I replied that there would be no possibility of proceeding in the business by confidential communication to Congress : first, because there has not been one message with closed doors during the present Administration, nor, I believe, since the peace — the very notice of a secret session would raise an insatiate curiosity throughout the nation to know what could be its object ; and, secondly, the proposal was of a nature which would not admit of secrecy. The power of Congress itself to act upon it was questionable. It involved external war and internal revolution in its essential and inevitable consequences. It would neither be possible nor proper that such business should be transacted by secret sessions of Congress. The whole affair would be divulged in a week — perhaps in a day. All Europe, as well as America, would have notice of it, and the very communication of the proposal to Congress as a subject for their deliberations, by the President, might be taken by Spain as hostility to her, and give warning to Great Britain to take an immediate and determined stand against it. As to taking Cuba at the cost of a war with Great Britain, it would be well to enquire, before undertaking such a war, how it would be likely to terminate ; and for the present, and for a long time to come, I held it for certain that a war with Great Britain for Cuba would result in her possession of that island, and not ours. In the present relative situation of our maritime forces, we could not maintain a war against Great Britain for Cuba. Nor did I think that a plain, distinct answer, that our relations with Spain forbid our encouragement of a proposal to annex one of her Colonies to our own Union, could be con- strued into an instigation to revolt. It was a reference to a plain principle of moral duty, expressly applicable to the case, suitable to be acted upon as a motive, and honorable to the good faith of the nation. I would give them at the same time to understand that the Government of the United States enter- tain the most friendly sentiments towards the inhabitants of
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Cuba, and are fully aware of the common interests which point to a most intimate connection between them and the United States. But to advise them to cling to their connection with Spain would expose them to be transferred to Great Britain by Spain, of which there is double danger : first, by the present revolutionary government of Spain, to purchase support against the Holy Alliance; and, secondly, by Ferdirfand, to purchase the aid of Great Britain to consummate a counter-revolution in his favor. Now, by advising the people of Cuba to adhere to Spain we expose them to both these dangers ; and if the transfer should be made, they would charge the result upon us, and a heavy responsibility for the consequence would bear upon us for such ill-judged interposition.
Mr. Calhoun said he inclined to think there would be no immediate danger of a transfer of the island to Great Britain.
The President directed an adjourned meeting for to-morrow.
30th. I attended the Cabinet meeting at the President's. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Wirt were there. The letters from Duponceau to General Mason, and the proposals of Mr. Sanchez, were again discussed. The proposition is, that the people of Cuba should immediately declare themselves independent of Spain without any co-operation of the United States, and then ask admission to the Confederation as one of the States of the Union. By his first letter, Duponceau had understood the offer to be that they should come in as Louisiana had been received — to be governed first as a Territory, and afterwards admitted as one or more States. The second letter rectifies this error. They ask admission at once; as one State, with full interior sovereignty of its own. I doubted the authority not only of the Executive, but of Congress, to perform this. Mr. Calhoun thought the case of Louisiana had settled the Constitutional question. But a transaction which should make an island separated from this continent by the ocean at once a member of the Union, with a representation in both Houses of Congress, would certainly be an act of more transcendent power than a mere purchase of territory contiguous to our own. I observed, also, that we had not sufficient foundation for present- ing the proposal to Congress ii) any shape. We had nothing
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but Mr. Sanchez's word that he had authority from any one. We knew not from whom his authority came, nor how it had been given him. We knew not how far the project had been matured, nor what were its prospects of success. More in- formation upon all this would be necessary before we could take a step of any kind in an affair of deeper importance and greater magnitude than had occurred since the establishment of our Independence.
It was concluded that the answer to Mr. Sanchez must be negative as to giving any encouragement to the revolutionary movement; but Mr. Calhoun thought we should dissuade them from it. I observed that whatever answer we should give must be one which we must be prepared to see divulged. We must not expect it will be kept secret; whatever General Mason writes to Duponceau he will make known to Sanchez, and Sanchez to his constituents, whoever they may be. It is said that the project has been long in agitation, and is even much discussed publicly at the Havanna. The control of the secret will not be in our power, and even if it should be faithfully kept, we must answer as if it would not. There was a pro- posal that General Mason should separately answer one of Duponceau's letters — one for communication to Sanchez as our answer, and the other as suggestions to be made to him through Duponceau as from General Mason himself I thought this would make no difference ; so far as secrecy was the object, whatever should go from the Government would be known to go from the Government, however enveloped in forms. Mr. Wirt made a short draft of what he thought might be given to General Mason for an answer to Dupon- ceau, and which, after some discussion, the President said he would keep, and prepare a draft from it to be considered to-morrow.
October 1st. Received a note from the President, desiring the members of the Administration to meet at his house at eleven o'clock. Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Wirt were there. The President had prepared answers for General Mason to return to both Mr. Duponceau's letters. The substance of them was, that he was sure the Government as well as the people
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of the United States entertained the most friendly sentiments towards the people of Cuba, and felt the most lively interest in their welfare ; but that their relations with Spain did not admit of their forming any engagements, in the present state of things, such as were implied in the proposals of Mr, San- xhez ; and that the Executive Government would not in any event be competent to form them without the concurrence of Congress.
The more secret letter suggested, as General Mason's own idea, that it would be well for Mr. Sanchez to give information more explicit and precise of the authority by which he acted ; whence it came, who were the persons concerned in the project, how far it was matured, and what means and resources they had for accomplishing their purpose.
I suggested the expediency that General Mason should fur- nish copies both of Mr. Duponceau's letters and of the answers; to which the President said he would attend.
Mr. Wirt gave a written opinion in the case of the Danish slave, which was, that the President had power to deliver him up. I asked him where he found the grant of the power in the Constitution. He said it was in the general instruction to take care that the laws should be faithfully executed. I said that in his opinion that the President could not deliver up a pirate he did not admit that doctrine; where did he find it now? He said, laughing, that he took it from me. But his opinion as to the mode in which the delivery is to be effected was altogether nugatory. It presumes that the President might order the Marshal to take the man and deliver him over to the Danish Minister without ceremony; but he recommends that the Gov- ernor of New York should be written to, and invited to deliver up the man.
I said that I should ask to be excused from writing either the order to the Marshal or the letter to the Governor of New York ; for I was convinced that in the first case, if the Marshal should obey the order, the man would be taken out of his cus- tody by habeas corpus, and very probably he himself be prose- cuted in a State Court for false imprisonment, by the Manumis- sion Society; and in the second, we should have an answer
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from the Governor of New York, not 6nly refusing to deliver up the man, but subjoining a commentary upon the demand, which would be anything other than palatable.
Mr. Wirt said that this subject was quite as much political as legal ; and he wished the President would take other opinions as well as his. The truth is, that between his Virginian aver- sion to constructive powers, his Virginian devotion to State rights, and his Virginian autocracy against slaves, his two opinions form the most absurd jumble of self-contradictions that could be imagined. If the President has not power to deliver up a pirate, he cannot possibly have power to deliver up a slave. Mr. Calhoun agreed entirely with Mr. Wirt as to the power of the President in the case of fugitive slaves, but felt more the difficulty of carrying it into execution. Calhoun has no petty scruples about constructive powers and State rights.' His opinions are at least consistent. I have no doubt that by the Constitution the President has the power; but perhaps a law of Congress may be necessary, providing the process by which the power should be exercised. ^Despotism itself would be startled at Wirt*s opinion, that the Marshal, under a bare order from the President, through the Secretary of State, should have power to seize a man without judge or jury, pack him on board ship and send him out of the country like a bag of cotton. An invitation to the Governor of New York to do the same thing is not less absurd.
The President said he would take time to reflect upon the subject before coming to his determination. He left the city for his seat in Albemarle County immediately after the meeting.
5th. Mr. G. W. Erving called on his return from visiting Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison in Virginia. He is going shortly to Philadelphia. He gave me his opinion of the late Lord Londonderry, of the Baron de Neuville, and the Cheva- lier de Onis, not altogether concurring with mine. I think better of the two former than he does. It is not easy to esti- mate accurately the moral character of public men. Their reputation is always made up of a composition by friends and foes ; all discolored by favor and by hatred. There is a dis- » This remark appears singular in the view of Mr. Calhoun*s later history.
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position to believe rather the ill than the good that is said of them ; virtue is never presumed, and seldom credited, by or in political adversaries.
Mr. Calhoun brought me home from the funeral of Mr. Law. We had some conversation upon the quarrel between Colonel Cumming, of Georgia, and Mr. McDuffie, the member of Con- gress from South Carolina, Calhoun's protege, friend, and par- tisan. This feud has become a sort of historical incident. It originated in the rivalry between Crawford and Calhoun for the Presidential succession ; began by some vulgar abuse upon each other in newspapers, in consequence of which Cumming challenged McDuffie before the last session of Congress, and came here last winter during the session to fight him. The meeting was then postponed to thirty days after the close of the session of Congress, when they met, and McDuffie was shot in the back. They then returned to the war of newspaper ribaldry, till Cumming challenged him a second time. By double manoeuvring on both sides about the time, place, and circumstances of meeting, the second duel was avoided, and each party resorted again to hand-bills, posting, newspaper proclamations of imputed cowardice, and pamphleteering. The seconds, surgeons, and others have got involved in the dispute, and all have become the laughing-stock of the public through- out the Union, except in South Carolina and Georgia, where the parties are feasted and toasted "alive or dead.** Never was such a burlesque upon duels since the practice existed. Both parties were considered as unerring shots, and there was, before they fought, much ludicrous lamentation in the presage that they would both be killed. From the contradictory state- ments of both parties, it appears that it has been on the part of Cumming a deliberate and determined purpose of assassi- nation, founded on a confidence in his own shooting, joined to a belief of McDuffie's want of nerve to meet the occasion without disabling trepidation ; and, on the part of McDuffie, a faltering resolution, shrinking both from the fight and the refusal to fight ; dragged into the field against his will and without just cause, behaving equivocally upon it, making and snatching at pretences to withdraw from it, boasting of his
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own firmness against the evidence of facts, and covering his retreat by charging cowardice upon his antagonist. Calhoun does not talk of it with pleasure, but says Gumming isi subject to hereditary insanity from his mother. He told me that Gen- eral Jackson would certainly come to the next Gongress in the place of N. Gannon.
7th. Received a letter from George M. Dallas, of Philadel- phia, enclosing a copy of the oration which I delivered on the 17th of July, 1787, at Commencement, upon taking my degree of Bachelor of Arts. He says he found it among some of his late father's papers, but does not know how it came there. Nor do I ; but it is the copy which, at the request of the late Dr. Belknap, I furnished him for publication in a monthly maga- zine, then published at Philadelphia, and it was printed in the number for the month of September, 1787. I little thought of ever seeing the manuscript again ; but the delivery of the oration was one of the most memorable events of my life. The inci- dents attending it were of a nature to make a deep impression upon my mind. The appointment to deliver it was itself a high distinction. Yet it was but the second honor of the class, and he who took the first, the preferred rival, sunk at the age of thirty-five, to be forgotten. I re-perused this production now with humiliation ; to think how proud of it I was then, and how much I must blush for it now !
8th. Mr. H. Johnson, the Senator from Louisiana, came, and I read to him the copy received from Mr. Rush of the Conven- tion concluded at St. Petersburg last July by Mr. Middleton and Sir Charles Bagot, under the Russian mediation, to carry into effect the Emperor's decision upon the contested construc- tion of the provision in the first article of the Treaty of Ghent, against the carrying away of slaves. Johnson made the same objection against the assumption of an average value for the slaves as had been taken by Mr. Calhoun, who has probably suggested it to him.
13th. Heard Mr. Little preach the funeral sermon upon the death of Mr. John Law. His text was ist Corinthians xv. 26: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." This is the chapter in which the immortality of the soul and the resur-
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rection of the dead is argued to all the reason and urged to all the feelings of human nature with the deepest logic and sublimest eloquence of St. Paul. I am always profoundly af- fected by the perusal of this chapter. Mr. Little's comment upon it was sensible and temperate. Death and immortality are topics never unsuitable nor exhaustible to a teacher of religion and morality. He noticed but slightly Mr. Law him- self, though in appropriate terms ; and he spoke also of the decease of Mr. Young. They were both members of his religious society, and had both taken much interest in its formation, and in the erection of the church. He gave notice that there would be no afternoon service, but that the funeral of Mr. Young would be at four in the afternoon. At the close of the service Pope's ** Dying Christian to his Soul" was sung as an anthem, with the accompaniment of the organ, and with much effect. This ode is exquisitely beautiful, though most singularly compounded of five half-ludicrous Latin lines, said to have been spoken by the Emperor Hadrian at the article of death, of Sappho's fiery lyric ode, and of that triumphant and transporting apostrophe of St. Paul in the fifty-fifth verse of this fifteenth chapter of Corinthians : ** O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" From these materials, upon a suggestion and at the request of Steele, Pope wrote this truly seraphic song, to be set to music. In comparing it with the lines of Hadrian, I see the effect of the Christian doc- trines upon the idea of death. Pope contends that there is nothing trifling, or even gay, in the lines of Hadrian ; but his imagination leads his judgment astray. The heathen philoso- phers taught that death was to be met with indifference, and Hadrian attempted to carry this doctrine into practice by joking at his own death while in its agonies. Yet the thought of what was to become of his soul was grave and serious, and his idea of its future state was that of darkness and gloom. The char- acter of his lines, therefore, is a singular mixture of levity and sadness, the spirit of which appears to me to be lost in Pope's translation of them, given in a letter to Steele. I set down the lines here, with a translation of them as literal and as much in their spirit as I can make them.
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Animula, vagula, blandula, Hospes comesque corporis, Quze nunc abibis in loca ? Pallidula, rigida, nudula, Nee (ut soles) dabis joca !
Dear, fluttering, flattering little soul, Partner and inmate of this clay,
Oh, whither art thou now to stroll?
Pale, shivering, naked little droll. No more thy wonted jokes to play !
Pope insists that the diminutives are epithets not of levity, but of endearment. They are significant of both, and the repe- tition of them, with the rhyme of " loca'' and ''joca' in Latin verses of that age, decisively marks the merriment of affected indifference. In the process of the correspondence, Steele de- sired Pope to make an ode as of a cheerful dying spirit; that is to say, the Emperor Hadrian's "Animula, vagula," put into two or three stanzas- for music. This hint was Pope's inspira- tion. He made the cheerful dying spirit a Christian^ and cheerful death then became the moment of triumphant exulta- tion, and the song is, as it were, the song of an angel. I was deeply moved at its performance.
2 1st. Home between foUr and five o'clock to an early dinner, to attend the evening exhibition of ** Mr. Mathews at Home." The doors of the theatre were advertised to be opened at a quarter before six, and the performance to begin at a quarter before seven. We went near half an hour before the doors opened, and were standing, ladies and gentlemen in a crowd, waiting for admission to the audience of Mr. Mathews. When the door was at length forced open, the house was full to over- flow in the space of time necessary for occupying all the seats. The performances were " The Trip to Paris," and " The Dili- gence.'* Mathews, the sole performer, personated in the course of the evening ten or twelve characters, male and female, with varieties of voice and countenance scarcely credible. He has at command a distinct female voice, and the power of ventrilo- quism by which he maintains with ease a dialogue of several interlocutors. He has also extraordinary powers of mimicry, a talent perhaps intimately connected with that of varying so much the tones of his voice. His performance was divided into three parts, each occupying upwards of an hour; at the end of the first and second of which he withdrew from the stage for a space of eight or ten minutes. For the two first
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parts he had a table before him, at which he stood and dis- coursed, as if delivering a lecture; a chair behind him, in which he occasionally seated himself in personating particular char- acters, the costumes of which he assumed in the presence of the audience, by a movement never taking two minutes of time. He thus travestied himself as a French Professor, a German Professor of Craniology, and an old Scotchwoman tell- ing a story how the keys of the kirk were lost. In these parts he imitated the Scotch, the German, and the French pronun- ciation of English inimitably; and the caricature face of the broad-cheeked, wide-mouthed, heavy-moulded German, then of the long, lank, projected single-toothed Frenchman, with a powdered, pomatumed, frizzled toupet, and a head sunk into a perpetual shrug of the shoulders, and next of the smooth- tongued, oily-mouthed, coax-accented Scottish old woman, were in the mo^t exact congeniality with their several modes of speech. In relating the adventures of the passage from Dover to Calais, he introduced a dialogue between several of the supposed characteristic passengers, and described them under the operation of seasickness with great humor, and yet without indelicacy. In the third act, instead of his table he had a scene as of the door of a stage-office, and a French diligence standing at the back of the scene. He began with personating an English Boots^ a waiter at the stage-office; then came in, successively, in four characters taking seats in the diligence, and finally in that of the driver, Monsieur Poudre Meneur, with his blue-and-red uniform, his long-queued powdered hair, his jack-boots, and his wood thonged whip. His mode of with- drawing from the stage to change his character and dress was by getting into the diligence, and each time, when getting in, he gave a disputing dialogue between the person entering and those supposed to be already seated in it. One of his person- ages was a doll figure dressed like a boy, shut up in a box, from which he occasionally drew him and held with him a ridiculous dialogue. An old maid brought in another box, in which was supposed to be a lap-dog, the yelling of which, upon being supposed to be pinched, he imitated as exactly as all his varieties of the human voice. The whole entertainment
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was interspersed with occasional humorous songs, at which, during the two first acts, he had the accompaniment of a per- former on the piano, but worse than none — the musician being so rapt in ecstasy at the exhibition of Mathews himself as to be never in time for his own. This entertainment was wonderful and amusing, and continually laughable, and yet passed heavily off. Most of the hearers are weary of it before it is over. Its humor is all light ; its wit flashing away in puns, its ridicule often resolvable into mere absurdity. It is a picture of Teniers or of Jan Steen — imitation to admire, of that which in nature is only despised.
23d. At the office I received a letter from Cortland Parker, our Consul at Curagoa, with an account of an abortive expedi- tion against the island of Porto Rico, fitted out chiefly at New York and Philadelphia, under the command of a German officer in the real or pretended service of the repi^blic of Colombia, and named the Baron Holstein. One of his vessels was under the flag of the Netherlands, but those that went from the United States were engaged upon false pretences, and when the real object was discovered the captains refused to proceed. They went into Cura^oa, where the vessels were seized. They had rendezvous'd at the Five Islands, an appendage to the Swedish island of St. Bartholomew, whence I had some days since received the first advices of this expedition frorh Mr. Robert Monroe Harrison. Mr. Parker has sent me several printed papers found on board the vessel seized at Curagoa : being a declaration of independence of the island of ,
formerly Porto Rico ; a declaration of the Baron Holstein, as provincial Supreme Chief of the island; and proclamations in his name to the inhabitants of the island, and to foreign nations, announcing the revolution as completed, and promising pro- tection, freedom, and good government. One of these procla- mations is signed by Baptis Irvine, as Secretary of State. A precious Minister of the Interior !
24th. Mr. Canning called at the office, having the night before last returned from his summer excursion. He has been to Quebec, Montreal, and Boston. He brought with him a letter from the King of Great Britain, addressed to the United States of America,
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which, he said, being rather of an old date, he would request me to take charge of, to be delivered to the President, rather than ask a special audience for the purpose. It was merely a notifi- cation of the birth of a daughter to the Duke of Cambridge at Hanover. We had also a couple of hours of desultory con- versation upon various political topics, as well of general interest as of particular concernment between the two nations at this time. He spoke first of the measures recently adopted in Eng- land, and here, for opening the commercial intercourse between this country and the British Colonies in America. He observed that complaint had been made to him that by a circular letter from the Comptroller of the Treasury to the Collectors of the Customs, explanatory of the President's proclamation of 24th August last, the foreign tonnage and discriminating duties were levied upon British vessels from the American Colonies and upon articles imported in them. He said this was not only short of reciprocity to the provisions of the Act of Parliament opening the Colonial ports to our vessels, but laid the British navigation under such disadvantages as would make it impos- sible for them to pursue the trade in competition with ours. There was another restriction, too, upon British vessels from the Colonies, which had no counterpart in the Act of Parlia- ment; those from the West Indies being allowed to import only British West Indian articles, and those from North America only articles of their own growth or produce. As the object on both sides was to open the intercourse on terms of reci- procity, and as these regulations were so incompatible with it, he hoped we would remove them immediately ; and he remarked that the Act of Parliament authorized the King in Council to withhold the privileges of the intercourse from nations which should not grant the same privileges to British vessels in return. I told him we were aware of that, and that the proclamation had gone as far as the President was authorized by the Act of Congress of the last session to go, in meeting this overture. We had even given a very enlarged construction to the words of the Act by admitting vessels from North American ports under an authority to admit vessels from the West Indies. But the Act of Parliament did not grant to our vessels the
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advantages secured to them in the European British ports by the Convention of 3d July, 181 5. It admitted them only by a voyage direct from the United States, allowed them to return only to the United States. It admitted only certain enumerated articles, and charged them with duties almost equivalent to pro- hibition ; while it excluded the most important articles of our exports suited to the Colonial markets. Besides which, our vessels which had entered their ports in the West Indies under the Act of Parliament had been subjected to an export duty levied by the Colonial authority, distinct from the duties levied by the Act of Parliament, and were otherwise so shackled and trammelled that our own merchants thought it impossible for them to pursue the trade ia competition with the British, and we had received remonstrances against opening the ports at all, subject to the conditions required under this Act of Parliament. I mentioned to him the letters I had received from Mr. Hol- lingsworth, the Consul at St. Eustatius, with the enclosed opinion of the Attorney-General of St. Kitts, and promised to have them looked up and to show them to him. I told him also that I had written to Mr. Rush immediately after the procla- mation issued, mentioning the continued disposition of this Government to concur with the British in any measures neces- sary for settling this intercourse upon principles of reciprocity, and our belief that some further understanding between the two Governments concerning it would be advisable.
The next subject upon which he touched was the disagreeing reports of the Commissioners under the fifth article of the Treaty of Ghent. He said that before he left the city last sum- mer, he had written to his Government for instructions in refer- ence to what had passed between us ; he had not yet received his answer, and perhaps it might be now further delayed by the changes in the British Ministry consequent upon the death of the Marquis of Londonderry. I asked him if Mr. George Canning would accept of the office of Secretary for the Foreign Department in preference to that of Governor-General of India, to which he had already been appointed.
He thought he would. The place in India is more lucrative — that in England more brilliant and more deeply responsible.
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I said that from what I had observed of Mr. Canning's char- acter I believed that upon a question resolvable only by that alternative, he would without hesitation choose the place at home ; but I had supposed other considerations would be in- volved in the formation of his decision. Mr. Canning had been more than once distinguished in his relations with the Cabinet by adherence to his personal independence more than to his place. He was supposed to entertain opinions upon important objects of national policy clashing with those of other leading members of the Cabinet. Whether they could be reconciled, or whether they could be disposed of so that an Administra- tion could move in the harmony necessary for successful opera- tion under them, was an enquiry which I should expect would give more cause for hesitation to Mr. Canning than a mere question between money and glory. It was expected, if Mr. Canning should come into the Foreign Department, that the foreign policy of Great Britain would undergo some modifica- tion ; that the proceedings of the Congress at Vienna would be affected by it.
He said the Duke of Wellington was going to the Congress of Vienna; but the Duke of Wellington goes only to execute instructions, and the system must go from the Foreign Depart- ment. Assenting to this remark, he passed to the subject of the slave-trade, and enquired if we were prepared to resume that discussion. I said we were prepared to receive and con- sider any further observations which he might be disposed to offer concerning it. He said that in his late tour he had become satisfied that our compliance with the proposal of admitting mutual search depended personally and exclusively upon me. I assured him he had been misinformed, as he might hereafter have occasion to know. This topic was not further pressed, and he withdrew.
o^fVi rnKi'n^i- m^^eting at the President's at noon. Present, r. Wirt. The subject for consideration was >e given to Captain Biddle, who is going to ndian seas. Letters from Captains Spencc, w, who have been recently cruising there, he Navy, were read. The instructions here-
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tofore given to our naval officers, under the recent slave-trade and piracy Acts, were brought in by Mr. Homans, the Chief Clerk of the Navy Department. From the annoyance to our commerce of late by pirates of various descriptions, and from the capture of several of them, with real or colorable Spanish commissions, questions have arisen how far the instructions to Biddle should be modified ; how far privateering commissions from Porto Rico may be respected; whether a blockade of all the ports of Terra Firma, by mere declarations of Spanish officers at Porto Cavallo, should be recognized ; and whether Biddle should be authorized to convoy our merchant vessels to any of those ports. The Spanish privateers from Porto Rico began by capturing all vessels bound to or from any of the ports in Terra Firma, on the double pretence of a blockade of the whole coast declared by Spanish officers, themselves be- sieged in the only port possessed by them, and having only one old frigate and two small vessels to support it; and of the old Spanish exclusion of all foreign vessels from the ports of these Colonies. And in one case, when the Judge at Porto Rico decreed the restoration of a vessel carried in there, the captain of the privateer told him in open Court that if his prize was thus released he would follow her out of the port, take her again, and carry her into Porto Cavallo. The Palmyra, some days before she was taken by the Grampus, had made an at- tempt and pretension to examine and search an American vessel under her convoy.
The President now inclined to give instructions to Biddle to remonstrate, to the Governor of Porto Rico, and to the com- manders of any Spanish armed vessels with whom he may fall in, against the blockade, and to declare that it cannot be ac- knowledged by the United States as valid, but to avoid any positive act of force against it. But Spence and Renshaw both have remonstrated against the blockade to the Governor of Porto Rico, who answered them that he would report their remonstrances to the Spanish Government; but that it had been declared by the commanding officers in Terra Firma, over whose acts he had no control, nor could he revoke them.
I thought Biddle should be instructed to go into Porto
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Cavallo itself and there declare to the Spanish commanders themselves that the United States would not recognize their paper blockades, and also to convoy American vessels to or from any port not actually invested; and in no case whatever to permit the search or boarding of any vessel under his convoy. Calhoun was at first startled at this. He thought that to resist the search would be war, and doubted the power of the Executive to give such instructions.
I said it was the old question of Sterrett and the Enterprise, who, after fighting and compelling the Tripolitan cruiser to sur- render, let her go because he thought he could not bring her in as a prize. To authorize force in self-defence I believed the authority of the Executive under our Constitution to be entirely competent, and if a naval officer could be authorized to convoy at all, he must be authorized to defend the convoyed vessel as he would his own, against force.
Calhoun asked if we could authorize the merchant vessel itself to resist the belligerent right of search. I said, no; and that the British claimed the right of searching convoyed ves- sels, but that we had never admitted that right, and that the op- posite principle was that of the armed neutrality. They main- tained that a convoy was a pledge on the part of the convoying nation that the convoyed vessel has no articles of contraband on board, and is not going to a blockaded port ; and the word of honor of the commander of the convoy to that effect must be given. But, I added, if we could instruct our officer to give convoy at all, we cannot allow him to submit to the search by foreigners of a vessel under his charge; for it is placing our officer and the nation itself in. an attitude of inferiority and humiliation.
The President agreed with this opinion, and Mr. Calhoun dared his acquiescence in it ; and it was determined that the structions to Biddle should be drawn accordingly. Mr. Cal- )un asked me if Mr. Early, of Georgia, had called upon me. e had not. He had upon Calhoun, and upon the President is object was to represent that the Marshal for the District Georgia was now accumulating a fortune of at least thirty ousand dollars a year by working a number of African
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negroes who are in his possession as Marshal of the District, while at the same time he is making the most enormous charges against the public for the maintenance of the very same negroes ; that he makes it his open boast that he holds the office of Mar- shal for no other purpose, and that he intends to swamp the negroes — that is, to work them to death — before they shall be finally adjudicated out of his possession. Mr. Early adds that his cruelty to negroes is universally notorious, and that it is equally well known that he did commit the murder of the black man for which he was tried and acquitted. The principal wit- nesses against him were spirited away. Early declares himself to be of the same political party with the Marshal (Crawford's), but is so horror-struck at the character and conduct of the man that he feels it to be his duty to denounce him. Yet he does not incline to support his charges with his name, the Marshal being a man of such desperation that everybody fears him. Early wished that the District Attorney and Judge might be authorized to investigate the circumstances of the custody of these negroes, but I thought it very doubtful whether that would avail. The District Attorney had shown in a former case that he was not the man to grapple with deep and deadly villainy supported by wealth and standing in society. The President inclined to send a person to Savannah specially charged with the investigation. Mr. Calhoun intimated the propriety of dismissing the Marshal immediately from office, but the President said that could not be done while there was no avowed accuser against him. I received last year two anonymous letters charging him with the murder of the negro, but Mr. Tatnall and Mr. Cuthbert, both highly-respectable members of the Georgia delegation in Congress, took so deep an interest in his favor that he was re-appointed to the Mar- shal's office, though I did believe that the ineffaceable stain of blood was upon his hands. The President determined for the present only to direct that the accounts for keeping the negroes should not be paid at the Navy Department, and that further examination should be made hereafter.
28th. Visit of two hours at the office from Mr. Canning. He resumed the subject of the West India trade, and urged
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again for the admission of British vessels from the Colonial ports upon the same terms with regard to duties as our own. I repeated to him that the President could do nothing further before the meeting of Congress. He said he was afraid he should be obliged then to trouble me with a long note upon the subject. I told him I should then of course lay it before the President, by whom it would be deliberately considered.
He took from his pocket immediately, and gave me, his note, and with it an extract of a letter from Barbadoes, mentioning that orders had been received there from London to admit American vessels upon payment of the same fees as are paid by British vessels, and expressing some misgivings how it would all operate ; and a sort of imperious assurance that their vessels must of course be admitted into our ports upon the same terms as our own.
I observed that this would be more than was even implied in the letter as being extended to us, for that spoke only of the same fees, which included neither duties nor port charges by the necessary import of the term ; but that a different con- struction appeared to have been given to the Act of Parliament in other islands ; and I looked up and read to him the letter from Mr. Hollingsworth, and the opinion enclosed in it of the King's attorney, Woodley, at St. Kitts. I then asked how it would be possible for our vessels to stand any competition in the trade with theirs, while theirs should enjoy here every ad- vantage and exemption of our own liberty to import from all their ports West Indian, North American, or British European articles indiscriminately, admitted upon credit for the duties, and subject neither to duty nor restriction upon exportation, while ours were restricted to direct voyages, both to and from their ports and the United States; limited to a specific list of enumerated articles of importation, all heavily laden with duties; and with exclusion of the most important articles of our ex- ports, compelled to cash payment of all the duties, and pinioned with an export bond and ransomed with an export duty of four and a half or five per cent. How was it possible for us to throw wide open all the gates while they only half opened one door?
He said the expression was rather strong, but that the
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common object of the Act of Parliament, and of the Act of Congress, was to open the intercourse upon liberal terms of reciprocity ; that the Act of Congress in its spirit contemplated a corresponding indulgence to every such provision in the Act of Parliament. Whether yet further accommodations to the trade could be hereafter granted might be a subject of negotia- tion, or of further legislation, but in the mean time it appeared consonant to our own interest to yield a specific counterpart for every favor extended to our vessels by the Act of Parlia- ment ; and as that subjected neither our vessels, nor the mer- chandise imported in them, to any duties to which British ves- sels and the same articles imported in them are not also liable, in the spirit of both Acts, British vessels and their importations here are fairly entitled to the same advantages as our own, and if not now granted, would give them hereafter a fair claim for indemnity to the full extent in which they may be withheld.
I said that was what we could not admit. The Act -of Par- liament was an act of voluntary legislation on the part of Great Britain, passed with reference to her own interest, and requiring nothing of us as obligatory in return. We were in- deed disposed to meet it in a spirit of liberality, and even to go further; but we must judge of its liberality to us from the practical result of its operation, and not from the specific pur- port of its provisions. For real reciprocity and equal compe- tition we are prepared, but not for dispositions reciprocal by the letter and one-sided in their effect.
He said that the restriction of importations to West Indian articles from the West Indies, and to North American articles from North America, had no counterpart in the British Act of Parliament. The Act of Parliament admitted vessels from all parts of the United States with productions of any part. A vessel from Boston, for example, could carry the produce of Virginia or of Louisiana, and vice versa. But the proclamation considered the British Colonies in the West Indies as one country, and the British Colonies in North America as another. The British Government might as well discrfminate between the Northern and tire Southern States. The British Act con- sidered all the countries under the same Government as one.
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We divided the Colonies into two classes, and refused to re- ceive the productions of one class from the ports of the other.
I replied that this restriction, though not identical as a specific counterpart to theirs, was corresponding to it as to the effect. They admitted us only to enumerated ports. They admitted only enumerated articles. They loaded these articles with almost prohibitory duties, and excluded from them our prin- cipal articles of trade adapted to the market. Our counter- restriction is not by enumeration either of articles or of places, but by classification of both. The British Colonies in the West Indies and in North America are, to all purposes of commerce and navigation, countries as different from each other as Portugal and Sweden. They are under a Government totally different in relation to our intercourse with them from that of Great Britain. As a specific counterpart to their restrictions, we might admit them only to a few of our ports, we might admit only enumer- ated articles, and exclude rum or sugar from the list. Instead of this, we exclude West Indian articles from North America, and North American articles from the West Indies. The effect is a counter-restriction ; the difference is only of form.
He left the note with me, rather, he said, as a memorandum which he might perhaps wish hereafter to revise. He then asked if we had received the Convention concluded at St. Petersburg about the slaves. We had not; though we have advice of Mr. Charles Pinkney, the Secretary of the Legation, having sailed with it on the 17th of July. He asked if we had not received a copy of the Convention. I said we had, but it was from England, through Mr. Rush. I enquired if he was