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r

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

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MEMOIRS

OK

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

COMPRISINC PORTIONS OK

HIS DIARY FROM 1795 TO 1848.

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EDITED BY

CHARLKS FRANCIS At)AMS.

VOL. XL

X PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

1876.

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by

J. B. LIPPINCOTT ft CO.. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

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HARVARD UNIVbl LBRARY

JAN 2 01993

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXI; (ConHnue.'t.)

PAOK

Thp. Twp.nty-Sp.vp.ntii Congrkss 3

CHAPTER XXII. Trr Twenty- Eighth Congress 335

MEMOIRS

OF

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

VOL. XI. — I

MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,

CHAPTER XXI. {Continued.)

THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.

September ist, 1841. — Mr. Fletcher Webster called on me this morning, to enquire from his father whether I was satisfied with the note to the Spanish Minister, Argaiz, which had been communicated to me some weeks since, for my advice, so that he might send it. I said that if it was to close the correspond- ence on the subject it required no alteration or addition. It put the whole case on the decision of the Supreme Court ; and that was sufficient. It did not touch the merits of the question as between the two Governments ; and that was to be avoided if possible. But if Mr. Argaiz was to reply, and to press the claim for reparation, it would be best to suggest to him the inconvenience of a discussion which could lead to no result satisfactory to him or his Government, and which must neces- sarily become criminatory.

He said Mr. Argaiz had intimated that he should consider this note as closing the discussion.

At the House, Zadok Casey took his seat as the third mem- ber from Illinois. I prevailed finally upon the House to adopt my fourth resolution, offered on the 23d of June, instructing the Committee of Ways and Means to report a bill prohibiting the further investment of public funds in State stocks.

W. O. Butler, of Kentucky, made an hour speech against Webster on the McLeod resolution. Precisely at noon the House adjourned, after refusing, by yeas and nays, to adjourn

3

I

4 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY AD 4 MS, [Septcml>cr,

half an hour before, and concurring in an amendment of the Senate to the Post-Office Appropriation bill. The adjourn- ment was for a Whig caucus ; instead of which I went into the Senate-chamber and heard them debate the Fiscal Corporation bill. I left Benton prosing anti-bankism.

3d. J. G. Floyd finished his replication speech on his Mc- Lcod resolution, and was followed by Horace Everett, with a short outline speech. Boardman moved to lay the resolution on the table; whereupon Floyd called fdr the yeas and nays; and at half-past eleven the House adjourned, after an abortive attempt to adjourn over to Monday.

Colonel Hayne, of South Carolina, came to my seat to re- quest a conversation with me at some convenient time about a plan which he has formed for settling by a compromise the great slavery question, and which he wishes me to under- take. His views are pure and benevolent. I promised cheer- fully to see and hear him on the subject, without fixing the time.

In the Senate, my bill to prohibit further investments of United States public funds in stocks of the States was no sooner read than Woodbury and Sevier, the contractors of the bargain consummated by the sixth section of the West Point Appropriation Act of 1838, immediately started up, and one of them moved to lay it on the table. It was, however, referred to the Committee of Finance, of which Henry Clay is Chair- man, and I commended the bill to his care. He referred me to George Evans, a member of the same committee, who, he said, would have charge of the bill.

The Senate this day passed the Fiscal Corporation bill — twenty-seven to twenty-two — with a certainty that it will be vetoed by President Tyler. I was dallying in conversation with several members in the House when the vote was taken. I went in soon afterwards, and found them engaged upon the Fortification bill ; but immediately after they wgnt into Execu- tive business, and I came home.

4th. At the House, Boardman had moved yesterday to lay the McLeod resolution on the table, and the yeas and nays had been called. I had been urged by several members to

1841.] THE TWENTY SEVENTH CONGRESS, 5

speak on this question, and had hesitated whether I would or not down till I entered the House this morning. In my hesi- tation, I had made no preparation to speak, and had not one line noting the topics to be touched upon. I finally asked Boardman if he would withdraw his motion to lay the resolu- tion on the table.

Oh, yes, if I would renew it.

I said I could not do that, if any one should wish to reply to me.

Well, he withdrew his motion without condition.

I then rambled through a speech, without method or com- pass, till the Speaker's hammer came down, announcing that my hour was out. Several motions were made for permission to me to proceed ; but I declined. I scarcely know what I said ; but Wheeler, the reporter, told me he had ample notes, and would send them to me. He told me, too, that his " nubibus hie tumidus, fluctibus ille minax," was from an Ode of Horace.' When I finished, or rather «vhen my speech was amputated, Wise rose, and said he wished, as a Virginian, to defend Stevenson, whom I had lashed ; and I entreated that he might have liberty to proceed ; but he had spoken his hour on the question before the House, and they refused to hear him now. Boardman renewed his motion to lay the resolution oh the table, and it was carried, by yeas and nays — one hundred and nine to seventy. Wise then asked leave to offer a resolution calling on the President for copies of Stevenson's dastardly letter to Commodore Hull. He was told that it had been communicated to the Senate and was published in their docu- ments. The majority was for suspending the rules; but not two-thirds. Wise will hang his defence of Stevenson upon some other question, when I shall not be allowed or not pre- pared to reply to him. The House adjourned before twelve.

* On the 28th of the preceding month, Mr. Adams reports himself as having asked the Speaker what liad become of the McLeod resolution, and some one had replied it was " in nubibus.*' To his great surprise, he found in the report of the Intelligencer the next morning, as attributed to him, the passage inserted as it stands in the text. This was quite enough intensely to rouse his desire to trace the source of the quotation. It was not from Horace, as will appear hereafter.

6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,

David Levy, the delegate from Florida, against whom the Committee of Elections have reported as not a citizen of the United States, came to my seat to crave my assistance in his favor ; but his case, though hard, is desperate.

5th. Mr. Gould, Whom Mr. Henry brought with him and introduced to me last evening, has invented a plan of a com- monplace book, an improvement upon Locke's, and which he wishes to introduce into common schools as a part of the edu- cation of children. / Short-hand writing is a part of his system, and he read me parts of a dissertation upon his project, for which he wanted a recommendatory notice from me. I de- clined giving it. on the general rule that I have prescribed to myself; but said I believed it would be very useful if a prac- ticable system of such a manual could be simplified to the intel- lect and industry of common minds — which I doubted. I had occupied and amused a long life in the search of such a com- pendious wisdom-box, but without being able to find or make it. I had made myself more than one of Locke's common- place books, but never used any one of them. I had learnt and practised Byrom's short-hand writing, but no one could read it but myself. I had kept accounts by double entry, day-book, journal, and ledger, with cash-book, bank-book, house-book, and letter-book. I had made extracts, copies, translations, and quotations, more perhaps than any other man living, without ever being able to pack up my knowledge or my labors in any methodical order; and now doubt whether I might not have employed my time more profitably in some one great, well-compacted, comprehensive pursuit, adapting every hour of labor to the attainment of one great end.

6th. There are numerous nominations pending before the Senate, made at the commencement of or very early in the session, and upon which the action of the Senate has been and is yet suspended. Among them is that of Edward Everett, upon the charge of his being an abolitionist.

This morning, at the House, John W. Jones presented reso- lutions of a Democratic meeting in the county of Amelia, Virginia, against all the measures of the present session of Congress ; laid on the table.

i84l.] THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. y

Taliaferro moved a resolution that William Smith, who contests the election of Linn Banks, be allowed pay as a member during the present session, because the Committee of Elections have, at the request of Mr. Banks, allowed him time till the next session to take testimony to prove his election. Motion not received.

George W. Summers, Chairman of the select Committee on the Contingent Expenses of the House, asked leave for the committee to report at the next session, and stated some of the expenses of printing and stationery as very exorbitant. The resolution was adopted.

The report of the Committee of Elections against David Levy, returned as delegate from the Territory of Florida, then came up. Halsted enquired of Levy whether he desired to be heard by counsel. Levy then asked a postponement of the question till the next session, that he may have the means of proving by testimony that his father was entitled to the rights of a citizen of the United States on the transfer of the Terri- tory of Florida from Spain to the United States. He supported his demand in a speech of more than an hour, and Halsted, Stanly, Gamble, and Wise took part in the debate, till half-past one — when Pope moved to adjourn, and it was carried.

The reporter sent me his notes of my spefech of Saturday, upon the McLeod resolution — so wretchedly put together that it will take me almost as much time to write tliem out as if I had no notes at all.

7th. I have been not a little perplexed in coming to a con- clusion upon the case of David Levy, the delegate from Florida, on his contested election. There is no competition ; the ob- jection is that he is not a citizen of the United States. I fear he will not be able to prove that he is ; but it is perhaps equally hard to prove that to be a citizen of the United States is a qualification indispensable for a delegate from tlie Territory of Florida. The question was taken this morning upon his appli- cation for time till the winter session ; and it was carried — one hundred and twenty-three to- forty-four — the members of the House yet present being reduced nearly to one hundred and seventy.

8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,

Harris, of Virginia, together with W. A. Goodc, presented anti-session Democratic resolutions from Clarke County, in that State ; laid on the table. He complained that the House would neither hear, read, nor print them.

Owsley, of Kentucky, offered two* resolutions of amendment to the Constitution : one, to restrict the Presidential office to one term of service; the other, to make a majority of the whole number of members of both Houses paramount to a veto. Hopkins objects, and the resolutions are not received.

William Russell, a plain, sensible Ohio farmer, who sits at my right hand, presented resolutions of a Whig Convention of delegates in that State ; laid on the table. He told me he was in a state of extreme agitation at hearing the sound of his own voice in that hall.

Taliaferro offered again the resolution he had attempted to introduce yesterday, to allow pay as a member to William Smith, who contests the election of Linn Banks — because the Committee of Elections, at the request of Banks, had allowed him time till the next session to take further testimony, the balance of the evidence being at this time against him, and in favor of Smith. The resolution was now received; but the committee had made no report, and they had not the power to allow Banks time till the next session to take testimony, with* out the sanction of the House. I objected to the resolution, as not in order; but the Speaker said it had been received by general consent, and the objection was now too late. }}anks made a passionate speech, which nobody heard or heeded. Fillmore moved to lay the resolution on the table ; carried.

Ferris reported from the Committee of Foreign Relations a resolution requesting the President to consider the propriety of entering into negotiations with the British Government to procure the release of the citizens of the United States trans- ported to Van Diemen's Land for participation in the Canadian insurrection. This resolution was sliding down without a dis- senting voice, when I stopped the Speaker as he was putting the question, and remonstrated against it Holmes, of South Carolina, as usual, replied to me. Stanly moved to adjourn ; carried.

i84i.] THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, ^

8th. My poem on the Wants of Man is published in the National Intelligencer this morning, from the Albany Evening Journal, from a copy taken by Christopher Morgan and sent to Mrs. Seward, wife of the Governor of New York. I have given copies of it in my own handwriting to John P. Kennedy, of Baltimore, to Mrs. Dawson, wife of William C. Dawson, of Greensborough, Georgia, and to Mrs. Hunt, wife of Hiram P^ Hunt, of Troy, New York. I have promised copies to George W. Summers, of Kenawha C. H., Virginia, and to Garret Davis, of Paris, Kentucky. Alexander Randall, of Annapolis, Mary- land, John Greig, of Canandaigua, New York, and William H. Washington, of Newbern, North Carolina, have, with my permission, taken copies of it themselves ; and I consented, at Morgan's request, to its being published.'

Ferris*s Van Diemen's Land resolution was called up by Horace Everett, immediately after the reading of the journal, as the unfinished business of yesterday. Everett made a short speech, and said he had assented in the Committee of Foreign Relations to report this resolution, under an impression that it was offered in a conciliatory spirit, and with the hope that it might have that tendency; but, after Ferris*s speech in support of the resolution yesterday, his opinion concerning it was en- tirely changed, and he moved to lay the resolution on the table.

Ferris immediately entreated him to withdraw the motion, to give him an opportunity to explain ; which Everett did, on condition that he would renew the motion to lay the resolution on the table; which Ferris promised to do. His explanation was a mere hollow-hearted denial of all intention to inflame the irritation between the two countries, and an assurance that his intention was altogether conciliatory.

Fernando Wood, of New York, urgently begged Everett to withdraw the motion to lay on the table, and allow him to speak. Everett declined. The question to lay on the table was rejected by yeas and nays — eighty to eighty-one — almost

■ This poem proved by far the most popular production of Mr. Adams's pen in this line of composition. It has obtained a place in the volume entitled <* Parnassus," etiited by Mr. R. Waldo Emerson, during the very last year, but shorn of five of its stanzas.

i

lO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,

every member from the State of New York, Whig or Democrat, voting against laying on the table. Wood then made an in- cendiary speech, and John McKeon another, in the midst of which the morning hour expired, and Fillmore moved the orders of the day.

An amendment of the Senate to the Diplomatic Appropria- tion bill was referred to the committee of the whole on the state of the Union ; so were their amendments to the Revenue bill ; and these were immediately taken up, Barker Burnell in the chair. One of the Senate's amendments was, to strike out from the dutiable articles tea and coffee. Wise moved to add salt. Lost in committee of the whole, but carried in the House, by yeas and nays — ninety-four to eighty-eight Then, moved by Stanly, sugar — one hundred and five to seventy-five, and cotton— one hundred and five to seventy-eight. House in a snarl, and adjourned.

9th. Second Veto. Wise and Stanly.

H. R. U. S. Fillmore moved a call of the House; but Hopkins, for the same purpose, moved to adjourn, and asked the yeas and nays, to give the members time to come in. The vote was one hundred and fifty nays, including that of Hopkins himself. The unfinished business was the motion for recon- sideration of the votes of yesterday exempting from duty salt, sugar, and cotton — all reconsidered by yeas and nays — salt, ninety-five to seventy-nine; sugar, one hundred and one to eighty; cotton, one hundred and nineteen to sixty. Wise then withdrew his motion to amend the Senate's amendment by exempting salt; and Stanly withdrew his motion to exempt sugar and cotton. The amendment of the Senate exempting tea and coffee was concurred in — one hundred and seventy- eight to seven, of which my vote was one. There was an amendment of the Senate excluding all duties over twenty per cent, ad valorem, to which Fillmore moved an amendment, which was carried.

The House went into committee of the whole on the state of the Union, Samson Mason in the chair, on the amendments of the Senate to^the Diplomatic Appropriation bill : there was one striking out the item for a Charge d'Affaires at Naples;

i84i.] THE TWENTY'SEVENTIi CONGRESS. n

disagreed to, after a long debate, in the midst of which Robert Tyler came in, and the Speaker took the chair. R. Tyler then announced that the President had signed three bills, and then a message in writing. It was the veto to the Fiscal Corporation bill, which was immediately read. Jeremiah Morrow, of Ohio, then rose, and moved that the message be entered on the jour- nal of the House, printed for the use of the members of the House, and that to-morrow at twelve o'clock be appointed to reconsider the bill ; which was adopted unanimously.

Mason then resumed the chair of the committee of the whole, and McKeon finished a speech, which he had before begun, in favor of agreeing with the amendment of the Senate which struck out the appropriation for the mission to Naples. Gush- ing, Steenrod, Wise, took part in the debate. I urged the House to disagree to the Senate's amendment. Ingersoll fol- lowed, and Stanly made some cutting remarks upon Wise. Fillmore followed, but had said only a few words, when Wise crossed from his seat to that of Stanly, began by hectoring and finished by insulting him — whereupon Stanly called him a liar. Wise struck, or attempted to strike, him, and a fight ensued; a rush of members to the spot, whether to separate the com- batants or to take sides with them it was difficult to say. The Speaker took the chair, and roared, " Order I order I" but no order came. Many cried out, "The Sergeant-at-Arms 1 the Sergeant-at-Arms I" but no Sergeant-at-Arms appeared. After about five minutes of chaos. Wise appeared in his seat, addressed the Speaker, said he was perfectly cool, and most humbly begged pardon of the House, and told how he had gone over to remonstrate with Stanly, that words had en- sued, till Stanly had applied to him a word which he could not brook, and he had struck him. Stanly said he had no pardon to ask of the House; that lie had told Wise he was a liar, and would have chastised him severely if other members had not interfered. Ingersoll offered a resolution to investigate the rencontre — a committee of seven ; adopted.

loth. H. R. U. S. On the reading of the journal this morn- ing, the names of the seven members of the committee to in- vestigate the rencontre between Wise and Stanly, as Charles J.

12 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,

Ingersoll calls it, were announced by the Clerk — Ingersoll, Morrow, Everett, Caruthers, Saltonstall, Holmes, and Ferris. Everett asked to be excused, because he had expressed an opinion on the transaction yesterday ; but the House refused to excuse him. After the hubbub was over yesterday, I moved the House to go into committee of the whole on the state of the Union to take up the amendments of the Senate to the Diplomatic Appropriation bill ; done — Pope in the chair.

I took part in the debate, to disagree with the amendment striking out the Neapolitan mission, and to agree to the amend- ment making an extra allowance of three months' pay for this session to the officers of both Houses; succeeded in both. Then the committee took up the amendments of the Senate to the Smithson Fund bill, with which the House, at my motion, agreed ; and so the bill has gone through both Houses.

This morning there was much business done before noon. W. C. Johnson announced, with great satisfaction, that the sud- den and transient difference between Mr. Wise and Mr. Stanly had been entirel)' adjusted by the intervention of their common friends, to their mutual satisfaction, and that the former friendly relations between them are restored.

At noon Botts called up the Veto message and the recon- sideration of the Fiscal Corporation bill, and he pronounced a severe philippic of one hour upon President John Tyler, whom he accused of treachery and perfidy to the Whig party. He was answered in another hour speech by Thomas W. Gilmer, who was not less personally severe upon Botts, who resented it more in temper than in words. He referred to a bet of ten thousand dollars upon the last Presidential election, which Botts avowed that he had made; and Gilmer used the term "jockey," with indistinct reference to some horse-trading of Botts, not generally known to thtf House, but felt by him. Some time after, Alexander H. H. Stuart announced that this difficulty had been adjusted by the intervention of mutual friends, and read a written statement to that effect.

The debate on the bill was continued by Proffit and Lane, of Indiana, Mason, of Ohio, Isaac D. Jones, of Princess Anne, Maryland, Richard W. Thompson, of Indiana, till half-past six.

i84i.] THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. 13

when Gamble, of Georgia, moved the previous question ; which was carried, and the vote on the bill, by yeas and nays, was one hundred and three to eighty-»-not two-thirds. Bill lost. The last amendments on the Revenue bill and the Smithson Fund bill were passed, and the House adjourned.

Meeting at Mr. Webster's of the Massachusetts delegation. Bates and Choate, Senators, Adams, Baker, Borden, Burnell, Gushing, Hudson, Saltonstall, Winthrop ; absent, Briggs, Cal- houn, Hastings, Parmenter. More to-morrow. Home at eleven P.M. Impransus.

iith. The meeting at Mr. Webster's last evening was at his request. He stated that the Secretary of the Treasury, Thomas Ewing, the Secretary of the Navy, George E. Badger, of North Carolina, and the Attorney-General, John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, had called on him this day and informed him that they and John Bell, of Tennessee, had determined to send in their resignations of their respective offices (the latter, of Sec- retary of War) to President Tyler at eleven o'clock to-morrow morning.

Mr. Webster then, addressing me, said that, being thus placed in a peculiar position, and seeing no sufficient cause for resign- ing his office, he had requested this meeting to consult with the members of the delegation and to have the benefit of their opinions, assuring them that as to the office itself it was a matter of the most perfect indifference to him whether he re- tained or resigned it — a declaration which it is possible he believed when he made it. But he had prefaced it by stating that he saw no cause sufficient to justify his resignation. It was like Falstaff's recruit " Bjiillcalf " " In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go ; and yet, for mine own part, sir, I do not care ; but rather because I am unwilling, and for mine own part have a desire to stay with my friends ; else, sir, I did not care for mine own part so much."

I asked him what reasons his colleagues had assigned for their determination to resign. He said they were various. The Secretary of the Treasury, Ewing, thought he had been dis- respectfully treated by Mr. Tyler, and, further, that Mr. Tyler claimed some authority concerning the management of the

I^ MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,

Treasury, which Ewing thought contrary to law. Mr. Critten- den had personal relations with Mr. Clay which rendered his position now, as a confidential member of Mr. Tyler's Adminis- tration, specially irksome, and to which he thought he could no longer submit. Mr. Bell aiid Mr. Badger were sensitive to some part of the deportment of the President to them, which they thought manifested a want of confidence in them — at least Mr. Badger ; for Mr. Bell was not with the others when they came to him this day, and he had not stated what his reason for re- signing was. For himself, Mr. Webster said, Mr. Tyler had never treated him with disrespect, and he had no doubt it was his desire that he should remain in the Department of State. He gave a very brief narrative of the progress of the two Bank bills, and intimated his own belief that Mr. Tyler would have signed the second bill but for the publication of Botts's letter to the " Richmond CofTee-House."

Enquiry was made how that most intimate confidential inter- course between the President and the correspondent of the New York Herald was to be considered, coupled with the con- tinual ferocious and scurrilous abuse \n that paper upon all the members of the Cabinet, including Mr. Webster himself. He said Mr. Tyler had two indiscreet sons, and he believed that the exceptionable intercourse has been established and carried on through them. But the joint resignation of the four heads of Departments together was a Clay movement, to make up an issue before the people against Mr. Tyler.

We all agreed that Mr. Webster would not be justified in resigning at this time; but we all felt that the hour for the requiem of the Whig party was at hand.

At the House this morning a message was received from the Senate announcing that they had agreed to the resolution of the House to adjourn on Monday next, striking out the words "at eleven o'clock a.m." — with which the House imme- diately concurred. Charles J. Ingersoll presented a report from the committee appointed to investigate the attack and assault by Wise upon Stanly in his seat, which Ingersoll's resolution called a "rencontre." The report commenced with a written statement of the facts by each of the two parties, not materially

1841.] THE nVENTV-SEVENTIi CONGRESS. 15

difTering from each other; then the report concludes with sev- eral resolutions: i, that the whole report and the two state- ments of facts should be spread upon the journal of the House as a reprimand; and then other resolutions: that hereafter, if any member shall strike another, he shall be expelled; and if any one shall insult another, he shall be fined one hundred dollars; and upon this report IngersoU moved the previous question. I asked him to withdraw it, and he refused. I then moved to lay the report on the table, but withdrew it on a promise from several members that the previous question should be voted down.

I rose, and enquired to whom the reprimand to be recorded on the journal was meant to apply. IngersoU answered by a sneaking, insidious, inflammatory, equivocating speech, without naming either of the parties; finally said that every one might apply it as he pleased.

Stanly enquired of him whether the report was intended to apply the term "reprimand" to him, and he said he could not tell. He said the committee were all elderly men, and had agreed unanimously to the report; but three of them, Everett, Saltonstall, and Caruthers, disowned it ; and Caruthers said he had moved, or intended to move, and he did actually move, in the House, to add to the word "reprimand" the words "to Henry A. Wise." Warren moved as a substitute a resolution to expel Wise, who, with a forlorn and crafty affectation of hu- mility, said he hoped the House would not pass any vote of censure upon Stanly, and that for himself, he would submit to any judgment the House would pass upon him, for there was but one man in the House whose judgment he was unwilling to abide by, and that was me.

He thought by this insult to provoke me to an intemperate retort, which would divert the attention of the House from himself to me. I retorted only by disclaiming all personal hostility to him, and by opposing any vote of censure upon him. Alexander H. H. Stuart at last moved the recommitment of the report, with instructions to report a resolution that, as Wise had apologized to the House and settled with Stanly, the House would take no further order on the subject; which was

i

l6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [SepCoBbcr,

adopted, by yeas and nays — a hundred and four to fifty-six. Adjourned about three p.m.

1 2th. Mr. Webster told us last evening that the Postmaster- General, Francis Granger, desired and intended to remain in office; but he resigned this morning together with the four other heads of Departments, leaving Daniel Webster, Secretary of State, the sole remnant of the Harrison Administration, alone in his glory.

As I was going to church this morning, I met Miss Cutts, who put into my hands a note which she had received, re- questing her if she could, by any female diplomacy, obtain from me this day, before night, a copy of my verses addressed to the two Misses Bruce, written at the request'of Mr. William Cost Johnson, and given by me to him, with my permission to have them published, if he pleased, in the Southern Literary Messenger, a quarterly periodical published at Richmond, Vir- ginia. I found that the note was from John Howard Payne, a poetical, dramatic, and political adventurer, now here an ap- plicant for an appointment as Secretary of Legation to any of our foreign missions, a most familiar and intimate acquaintance of President Tyler's two sons John and Robert, and a con- fidential correspondent of James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald, a paper in which the most secret proceedings of the President and his Cabinet have, for the last six weeks, been divulged, with the most fulsome adulation to President Tyler, and the most unbounded and scurrilous abuse upon every member of the Cabinet. This paper has, at the same time, had almost daily notices of me, sometimes minatorial, but for the last ten days nauseously flattering. Some three weeks since, the Herald's correspondent, having heard of my verses to the Misses Bruce, promised Bennett a copy of them for publication the next week, and the next week said that he could not fur- nish them yet, but he should have them. Mr. Payne's note says that Mr. Cost Johnson had promised him a copy of the verses, but afterwards said that he had lost it. Miss Cutts came this afternoon for an answer to Mr. Payne's request. I told her that I would with much pleasure comply with it, but that I had given the verses to Mr. Johnson, with permission to

i84i.] THE TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, 17

dispose of them at his pleasure, and did not feel myself at liberty to give another copy without his permission. I have no doubt that Payne wanted the copy to send to Bennett, so that the Herald might get the start of the Southern Literary Messenger in the publication.

13th. H. R. U. S. There was no quorum, but the journal was no sooner read than John B. Weller, of Hamilton, Butler County, Ohid, a prince of the mock Democracy, now called Loco-focos, called up Ferris's Van Diemen's Land resolution. I objected to its being considered without a quorum, and said if a quorum could be obtained I should move to lay it on the table. Graham, of North Carolina, moved a call of the House; yeas and nays — fifty-two to thirty-three. The call was com- menced, but soon superseded, and there was no quorum the whole day.

Several resolutions were offered, but none received, except a motion by Horace Everett for the usual committee to be joined by one from the Senate to wait on the President and inform him that, if he had no further communications to make, the two Houses were ready to adjourn. Everett, Lewis Wil- liams, of North Carolina, and Aaron Ward, of New York, were the committee on the part of the House. A recess was then taken by the House — first till noon, and then till five p.m. — during which I came home and dined.

I returned to the House at five. In the mean time, several other members had gone off* in the cars. The committee on the part of the Senate to wait on the President were soon after appointed ; but they waited some time for the President to re- ceive them at the Capitol, and Lewis Williamis would not and did not go with them. About dusk, Thomas F. Marshall, of Kentucky, rose, and enquired of the Speaker if it would be in order for him to make a motion on any subject whatever. The Speaker said it would. He moved that five thousand copies of the Veto message be printed, and then made a speech of nearly an hour and a half, in his own peculiar style of eloquence, sublimated by no thin potations. Bitter invective upon John Tyler, extravagant commendatory vituperation upon Wise,

lofty sentiment, comprehensive views, and alcohol evaporating vol.. XI. — a

1 8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,

in elegant language, constituted this speech — ^at the close of which he withdrew his motion. Everett, from the joint com- mittee, soon after came in and reported, and about eight o'clock the Speaker adjourned the House without day.

14th. I met Mr. Henry A. Wise, who spoke to me and of- fered me his hand — civilities which I accepted and returned ; though I should not have oflered them after his openly point- ing to me in the House as the only man there unfit to be his judge, by supposed personal hostility to him, at the very moment when I was toiling to save him from all censure, and others were offering repeated motions for his expulsion.

I went to the Capitol, and took my seat in the House for the next session, calling FoUansbee, the Door-keeper, to witness it. Met there H. Everett, and Stanly, who was franking documents, and who thinks worse of Wise than I do. I took at the Clerk's office the supplementary document of Trist's dispatches. Mr. Henry Clay and Mr. Francis Granger paid me evening visits. Much interesting conversation with both of them, which I have not time to record.

15th. I took the revised manuscript of my speech on the McLeod resolution to the office of the National Intelligencer, for publication. It was so wretchedly travestied by the man who took the notes that I had as much trouble with it as I should have had to write it out in extenso. Mr. Gales promised to publish it next Saturday, and to send me the proof-slips to- morrow evening. Met Stanly at the office, who had just called at my house, and would call again to-morrow morning if he should postpone his departure till the afternoon. Gales told me that Mr. Webster was very unwell; and I called at his house, but he was not there. I found him at the office of the Depart- ment of State. I spoke of the call from the House for the aggregates of the Census, adopted early in the session, at my motion, and enquired if I could be furnished with a copy of it before my departure. I enquired also what was the present state of the negotiation with Great Britain concerning the case of McLeod. He said there had been no further correspond- ence since that which was published, till this day, when he had received from Mr. Fox a note, which he would show me if I

i84i.] THR TWENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. 19

•

would call at the office at two o'clock to-morrow, and he would then also give me an answer respecting the aggregate of the Census. We had much conversation upon the McLeod case, but upon nothing else.

1 6th. Edward Stanly, a member of the House from North Carolina, called to take leave. He has excellent principles, and a lofty spirit, with a quick perception, an irritable temper, and a sarcastic turn of mind, sparing neither friend nor foe. He is the terror of the Lucifer party, and Wise made that desperate attempt last week to scale him on the floor, by which he only succeeded in flooring himself Stanly*s spirit is not to be sub- dued; but the thunderbolt of heaven has fallen upon the Whigs, and he, with all the honest men of the party, is disheartened and perplexed. We have no hope but in the redeeming power of heaven to overrule for good the seemingly most calamitous events.

I called twice this day at the Department of State. The first time the Secretary, Webster, was not at the office; so I passed over to the Treasury Department, and saw Mr. Walter Forward, the new Secretary. I spoke to him upon two subjects, i. The Smithsonian Fund, of the history of which he is ignorant, and, from the civil, courteous, and wholly indifferent manner in which he received my communications, I presume he will care just as little as did his predecessors, Ewing and Woodbury. I told him what I had flone, and what I propose to do ; and he promised to send me a statement of the present condition of the fund, and the amount of the stocks of the several States which have been purchased under the authority of the sixth section of the West Point Academy Appropriation of 1838. And, 2, 1 spoke of the resolution of the House, adopted at my motion on the 23d of July last, calling on the Secretary of^the Treasury for a report upon the debts of the several States.

Mr. Forward appeared