John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

8. VI: Called this morning at the Presidents and left with him the drafts of Instructions General and Personal to Mr Forsyth— In the course of the Morning Mr C. J. Ingersoll called upon me with two Notes from the President—one related to the Petition for a remission of a judgement of the United States against a man named Sarmiento, sometimes a Portuguese, Sometimes a Citizen of the United States, and sometimes a Spaniard— He has been for some years attached pro forma to the Spanish Legation as a Secretary— The judgment of the United States against him, is a bondsman for his Son, upon a breach of the Embargo Laws in 1809— About a 56year ago Ingersoll drew up and sent forward a petition for the remission of this judgment; which was claimed on the ground of his diplomatic privilege— The President took the opinion of the Attorney General upon it; which was against the privilege— Sarmiento was then here. His character not in the best repute; and the state of the Negotiation such as not to invite any peculiar indulgence to a Spanish intriguer. The remission of the judgment was refused— Ingersoll now applies for it again— He says that Sarmiento is at Madrid, and has great personal influence there— That he is a personal favourite of the king’s; and will be extremely useful to Mr Forsyth; one of whose objects will be to obtain pardon’s for a number of Americans who are in various Spanish prisons— The President’s other Note was to say that Mr Clay had been with him this Morning, and told him he had been informed the grants of lands made last year by the king of Spain in the Florida’s, and which we had understood were annulled by the late Treaty, were dated the 23d of January, one day only before the date assumed in the Treaty, subsequent to which all grants are declared to be null and void— The President says in the case an infamous fraud has been practiced upon us, and desired me to obtain some declaration from Mr Onis concerning it; unless the documents in the Department would answer the end— I immediately hunted up all Mr Erving’s late Correspondence, and found the copy and translation of the grant to the Count of Puñon Rostro, being an order to the Governor General of Cuba to put him in possession of the land— It is dated 6. Feby 1818. which may therefore be considered as the time when the grant was made—and so I considered it when we signed the Treaty, for I examined this very paper with a view to ascertain its date before signing the Treaty— But now upon a close examination of the paper itself, I found it was not as Mr Erving described it in his despatch a copy of the grant, but an order to the Governor to put the grantee in possession, and referring to the grant itself as having been dated, and announced to the Council of the Indies in December 1817. In fair Construction we have a right to consider the grant as not made, until this order was issued— Still if I had critically scanned this paper before signing the Treaty I should not have agreed to the 24th. January 1818 as the date before which all grants are conditionally confirmed— I should have insisted upon some months earlier— I came home and dressed, and went and dined, (with what appetite I might) with General Jackson at his lodgings—Messrs. Calhoun, Thompson and Wirt were there; but not Mr Crawford. The rest of the company were Officers, with Messrs. Edwards, Eaton and some others. General Jackson is to leave the City to-morrow Morning— Immediately after dinner, I withdrew, and called upon the French Minister Hyde de Neuville— I asked him whether in the Negotiation of the late Treaty with Spain, and at the signature, it had not been constantly understood by him and by Mr Onis, that the grants of land in Florida, said to have been made last Winter, by the king of Spain, to the Duke of Alagon, Count Puñon Rostro, and Mr Vargas, were null and void— He said unquestionably— He recollected specifically only the name of the Duke of Alagon, but Onis had also mentioned the names of the others, and invariably understood that the grants to them all were annulled by the Treaty— I told him it might be necessary that Mr Onis should give a declaration to that effect; for there was a rumour in circulation that the grants were dated the 23d. of January 1818 the very day before that assumed in the Treaty, subsequent to which the grants were annulled— I said that if the grants had been made before the 24th. of January there had been an error in the date proposed by Mr Onis and accepted by us, which it would be necessary to rectify, at the exchange of the Ratifications and before the Treaty shall have become binding upon Spain— That Mr Forsyth would therefore be instructed on exchanging the Ratifications to deliver a Declaration, that the Treaty was signed with the full and clear understanding on both sides that those grants were by it, null and void; and that they would be accordingly so held by the United States. And a declaration to the same effect by Mr Onis, might serve for the entire satisfaction of the Spanish Government, if they should have any doubts on the subject— He said the Spanish Government could have no doubts— They knew perfectly well that the grants were annulled, and Onis had himself written to his Government proposing a mode of indemnifying the grantees elsewhere— But he would go immediately to Onis, and had no doubt he would without hesitation give a declaration under his hand that he always understood those grants were to be null and void under the Treaty— I returned home, where we had a numerous evening party—Onis and his family were not here— They go into no Company; having received information, though not official, of the death of the Queen of Spain. De Neuville came late. In the course of the Evening he told me that he had seen Mr Onis, who would readily give a declaration that in signing the Treaty, it was with the understanding 57that the grants to the Duke of Alagon, Count Puñon Rostro, and Vargas, would be null and void under it. But he did not himself know the date of those grants, and as he could not suppose them to be before the date assumed in the Treaty, he wished me to write him a Note, alluding to the report, and asking of him an explanation. He said Onis himself had this Evening named to him all three of the grantees. De Neuville said that if Onis’s certificate should not be as explicit as I could desire he would give me one that would be as complete as possible— Artiguenave was of our party this Evening, and spoke to me of Otis— Says he has lost his hopes of the French Mission, and is not a little mortified at his disappointment. Several persons of our company this Evening remarked that I had a care-clouded countenance. It was emphatically true— The discovery that after all the pains I had taken with the eighth Article of the Treaty, it might yet be susceptible of so much as a question whether those grants are annulled, that this question became possible, by my inattention in not thoroughly examining what Erving had transmitted as the copy of Puñon Rostro’s grant, before I signed the Treaty, and the consequences, which this carelessness might have drawn down upon this Country; aye, and may yet draw down, filled me with anxiety and mortification— I have constantly had a vague, general and superstitious impression that this Treaty was too great a blessing, not to be followed shortly by some thing to alloy it— This is at least enough to damp all vanity and self conceit that I could derive from it— Never will this Treaty recur to my Memory, but associated with the remembrance of my own heedlessness— Should it hereafter be, as it probably will, exposed to the world, and incur from my Country, reproach as bitter as my own, it will be no more than I deserve.