John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

14. VI:15. We walked out this morning on the Boulevards to see the procession of the Confederates of the fauxbourgs St: Antoine and St Marceau and saw them pass— They were going to the Tuileries to be presented to the Emperor— There were about 3500 men and boys of the Fauxbourg St: Antoine, and 1600 of Fauxbourg St Marceau— All Labourers of the most indigent Class. They marched in ranks of 20 holding one another arm in arm, and shouting incessantly vive l’Empereur— After returning I went and paid visits to take leave at Mr Hottinguer’s. Mr Hubbard’s and Messrs: Carrette and Minguet’s— We then went to the Champ de Mars, and saw the buildings preparing for the Assembly of the Champ de Mai— Thence to the Garden of the Tuileries, through which we walked, and the Place du Carousel to the Musee Napoleon, where we entered and took a final view of the Antique Statues and Marbles on the ground floor— We came home and dined; after which we rode out to the heights of Montmartre where the entrenchments for the defence of Paris are now carrying on— As we returned home we stopped at the Count de Tracy’s, where we saw the Ladies, and General La Fayette. The Count himself was gone out.— The General promised he would call at my lodgings, and see me, to-morrow Evening at seven O’Clock. He said he was glad of having been elected a member of the Assembly of Representatives; because it gave him a reason for declining to be one of the Peers, as had been proposed to him— I said that if the War should take place as appeared inevitable, I intreated him to use his influence to prevent the repetition of such outrageous acts as the decrees of Berlin, & of Milan—for if such measures should be resorted to I really believed they would produce a War, between the United States & France— He promised me to use his best endeavours to promote a just and liberal policy towards America and said he would correspond with me through the channel of our Chargé d’Affaires Mr Jackson— He said he had seen this morning Mr Constant, who was quite uneasy, under the situation in which he has placed himself, and who has become an admirer of the Emperor Napoleon.