John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

1. VI. Saturday. W. S. Smith called early this morning; wanting as usual, relief—and Forbes came to ask a leave of absence from the office, for about a fortnight, to go to Boston— As it is probable Purviance will be back in July, when of course Forbes’s service at the Office will cease, I advised him to postpone his journey till then— I found that the maggot in his brain was to go, and get himself elected as representative for Milton in the State Legislature— Forbes’s life has been bound in shallows and in Miseries; because he never understood the doctrine of proportions, between designs, ends, and means of execution— It is the character of no small portion of mankind— To accomplish great ends with small means, is the most unequivocal characteristic of great and extraordinary powers; but however small a design may be, if the means of effecting it are grossly inadequate, to undertake it is folly. I hinted to Forbes some of the reasons why he should postpone his journey—to which he readily assented. At the Office, Mr Brent was absent. I drafted a Letter, to E. Glenn the District Attorney at Baltimore, and two Notes to Mr Onis— Captain Biddle, Forbes and Bailey, dined with us— After dinner, Mr Lewis, late a Member of Congress from Virginia, and Mr Thurston of Boston paid us a visit. Mrs Adams, with Mary Hellen spent the Evening at the French Minister, Hyde de Neuville’s.

2. VI: Cardelli was here this Morning; and J. M. Forbes about the horses— I walked across the fields towards the Woods; but the heat was so great that I was obliged to turn and come back in about an hour. The heat is aggravated by drought although both yesterday and this day there was a slight semblance of rain— After dinner I took another walk of half an hour, with Mrs Adams and Mary Hellen; and closed the Evening between nine and ten O’Clock— In the leisure of the day, I revised my Monthly Accounts; wrote short Letters to J. B. Prevost and J. Graham; and began one to R. Rush. I dread the Summer of this Climate; and have already symptoms of declining health. The transitions between winter and summer, alternate at this Season almost from day to day— There is no genuine Spring weather; but one Night a frost and the next the thermometer between 60 and 70— One day Snow and the next a dog-day Sun— [symbols]

3: IV:30. Wrote a private Letter to R. Rush, in answer to four received from him— At the Office I began a despatch to him, but found it would be necessary to write him at least two. The first is upon the Article taken for reference to this Government, at the negotiation of the Commercial Convention last October— To give the necessary Instructions concerning it, I was obliged to review, and compare together eight or ten papers of some length. I made therefore small progress with this Instruction— This evening I accompanied Mrs Adams to her Sister Smith’s; where she spent the Evening. Mr Hyde de Neuville the French Minister called to see me. I was desirous of having some particular Conversation with him; and he came with that intention; but we were interrupted. Mr Bailey came and introduced Mr John Law— Bailey goes to Baltimore to-morrow; to an Ordination of Mr Sparks. Soon 103after Bailey and Law went away, my wife came home. De Neuville told me that he had received a Letter from De Mun, at Bordeaux, the 47th. day after he left this City. And he has despatches from his Government of a date, as late as the 16th. of March— He came to propose the renewal of our old commercial Convention with France, under certain modifications; and to ask if I had any other proposals to offer, for a Commercial Treaty— This is a subject almost new to me, and upon which I must give much time and study before I can be prepared to act. Yet it is one of the urgent duties to which I ought to give immediate and deep attention. De Neuville said he was determined to return to France, and go into retirement— He should indeed have been mortified if he had been recalled upon the late change of Ministers in France; but he wishes to go out of Office in a creditable manner— Then, if the Duke de Richelieu or Mr L’Ainé should come into office again; he may be employed elsewhere, or return to his Post here— I was endeavouring to dissuade him from going to France this year; for if he goes, as his party are entirely down, he will stand a great chance of being displaced; and of getting into difficulty and trouble on account of his party—while by remaining here, he will be aloof from all party contention; and be serving faithfully his own Country, in whose hands soever its Government may be— He seems to think it a point of honour to go, and share the fortunes of his party; but I shall resume this Conversation with him hereafter. He spoke of the former French Ministers who have been in the United States and by his account the Archives of the Legation from the time of the first Minister accredited here, Girard, to this time, are complete— He says those of the Chevalier de la Luzerne are in the most perfect order, and the most valuable—better than when Marbois was here alone as Chargé d’Affaires— That la Luzerne was of a very good but not a great family— That in France no families were considered great, but such as could number among their ancestors a Marshal of France, a Cardinal, or an Ambassador— The family of La Luzerne, had neither till he himself and his brother were Ambassadors, and now, one of their kinsmen was a Cardinal— But it was a very respectable family, de Robe— Marbois, whom Bonaparte had made a Count, was now a Marquis. An intelligent, industrious and honest man. Dumoustier was a great fool— There was a long despatch from him, giving an account of his first presentation to President Washington, in which he describes in great detail the President’s dress; and his own; down to their very Stockings— Genet’s despatches are disgusting—full of raving Jacobinism—base intrigues; and la propagande— But he enraged Robespierre so much by publishing part of his Instructions, that if they could have got him back to France, they certainly would have guillotined him— His successor not only had orders to demand that he should be delivered, up, which he did, but was refused; but he had other orders to seize and send him off secretly; which was not accomplished— Turreau was a man of understanding; but a very worthless man, and although here several years knew no more of this Country than of China.— This custom of keeping Archives and Records of a Legation is a very good one, thought it would be more difficult for American Missions than for those of Europe.

4. IV:30. W. S. Smith called this morning, to give some explanation concerning an application to me by T. H. Hubbard to take a debt of Smith’s to him, as payment of his late uncle Justus B. Smith’s debt to me. Hubbard is Administrator upon the Estate of Justus B. Smith, and Smith says he has already given Hubbard in payment of his debt, a receipt of so much as part of his portion coming from Justus B. Smith’s Estate to him— He came again to the Office with a draft of a Letter to James Smith at New-York, who has bought for 1000 dollars a judgment against Coll. W. S. Smith my Sister’s late husband, and who is pushing to get Letters of Administration upon the Coll.’s Estate, to make money from it— The Coll.’s Estate, certainly would not pay a cent for a dollar of his debts, and his affairs were left in extricable confusion. James Smith, and Hubbard are both working to fish up plunder from the wreck for themselves— I advised W. S. Smith not to send the Letter that he had prepared to James Smith, and he tore it up— I advised him also to write to the Surrogate of the County, objecting against the issuing of Letters of Administration to James Smith and stating the Correspondence which has taken place between them, to shew that the Letters ought to be withheld— Captain Biddle called likewise two or three times at the Office, and finally concluded to leave this place 104this Evening for Annapolis— Mr Homans came to consult me where the Ontario should be ordered, for repairs and to discharge her company, whose term of service is expiring. Homans had proposed Baltimore; but upon a Letter from the Commissioners of the Navy, it was concluded she should go to New-York. Homans also brought me the report and accompanying documents from Captain Wadsworth, of the John Adams, which has just arrived from her expedition to the Havanna, Campeachy, and Jamaica. I was thus interrupted continually at the Office; and prevented from concluding my despatch to R. Rush, upon the suspended Article; upon which I made however some progress— I had called at Mr Frye’s Office, and shewn him a second Letter which I have received from Mrs K. Brown asking me to recommend her son for a vacant clerkship in the Paymaster’s Office; by the death of the former clerk T. L. Washington. Frye told me his wife had a daughter, born at two O’Clock this Morning— We spent the Evening with a party at Mr Richard Forrest’s— Mr Bagot sailed this morning with his family in the Forth Frigate from Annapolis, for England. [symbols]

5. VI. The Summer is seriously setting in, and the weather already so warm as to compel relaxation from labour. I called at the Metropolis Bank, and balanced my Books there. Major Mason called at the Office; going to join Genl. Jackson at Nashville. I continued preparing the draft of a despatch to R. Rush, upon the suspended Article. It has already occupied the Office hours of three successive days, and I could not finish it this day. After dinner I took a walk round the Capitol Hill. Madame de Neuville came, with Mr Greuhm and they went with Mrs Adams, Mrs W. S. Smith and Mary Hellen to see Trumbull’s picture at the Capitol, but they were too late— They returned to our house and passed the remainder of the Evening here. Mr de Neuville came afterwards, and spent an hour with us.

6. V:30. Thermometer this morning at 84. Mr Crawford had summoned a meeting of the Commissioners of the sinking fund, at one O’Clock; which I attended; with the Attorney General Mr Wirt. Two Resolutions were past; one to redeem 27 per Cent of the Louisiana Loan, and to apply the residue of the ten Millions of Dollars appropriated by Law for the annual redemption of the Public Debt, after provision for the interest payable in the year, to the purchase of three per Cent Stocks— There was a desultory discussion of various questions relating to these payments; and conversation upon various other topics; a violent thunder gust having detained us there, a half an hour, after the business of the Meeting was finished. Wirt was groaning about the pressure of the Banks upon the People; and from the manner in which he spoke I conjectured that he had feeling of his own in the affair— The transactions of the Baltimore Branch Bank, are still in confusion, and not likely to be soon adjusted. Crawford had a National Advocate which he was reading, and he remarked with great apparent satisfaction, that the recent Elections in the State of New York, had, as he said blown up De Witt Clinton. The Election of Governor in that State will not take place till the next year; but the elections to the Legislature appear to be going against his friends and supporters. Crawford and Wirt both gave it as their opinion that this would put Clinton down, never to rise again—which will depend very much upon circumstances. De Witt Clinton’s political fortunes have been more marked with starts of good and evil Fortune than those of any other man in the Union. He has been taken up, and lain aside, at least half a dozen times; and was never more low and discredited in public opinion than immediately before he was elected Governor of New-York without Opposition. He is in fact a man of great talents, and has magnificent purposes of public service— He has comprehensive views, and great designs— But with these high and honourable materials of ambition he employs those of a baser sort; the Charlatanery of popular enticement— He affects to be a man of universal science; and smatters in agriculture, the arts, manufactures, antiquities, and every thing that smacks of combination, and vote-making— He has been labouring all his life, in combinations and Coalitions; and political intriguing with individuals and with parties. He began his political life as a furious republican, and rose with the downfall of the federal party in New-York.— He then made common cause with Burr and his partizans, afterwards quarreled with them and then coalesced with them again— Till the commencement of the late War with England he had continued however through all his changes an ardent republican; but no sooner was that War declared than he veered about, thrust himself forward as head of a Peace party— Negotiated for and obtained the support of the federalists, as a Candidate for the Presidency in opposition to the re-election of Mr Madison in 1812 and had agents travelling about the Country, and bargaining with individuals of influence, to obtain their support to secure his election— George Blake the District Attorney at Boston, told me last September, that in 1812 Clinton’s Ambassador, came to him, and explicitly assured him that as Mr Clinton was a Candidate for the 105Presidency with a fair prospect of being elected, his, Blake’s continuance in his Office, would depend upon the part he should take in the Election— That if Mr Clinton should succeed he would of course favour those who favoured him— He did the same with others; and the New-England federalists actually gave him their support. This manoeuvre however did not succeed. His forecast failed him, in regard to the effect and result of the War; and his versatility threw him back instead of advancing him in the progress of his ambition. At the close of the War he was so unpopular that he was removed from the Office of Mayor of New York, and turned over to private life: but only two years afterwards Tompkins the Governor of New-York, being transferred to the Vice-Presidency of the Union, a sudden and unaccountable coalition of all the parties in New-York, fixed upon De Witt Clinton, and he was elected Governor without opposition. Since then his public measures have been generally good; and his Speeches to the Legislature of the State have been much admired; but his appointments to office have not given satisfaction. The last year he lost much of his influence in the Legislature; and he will probably lose more by the issue of those now made. The chance is against him for his own re-election the next year— But ups and downs are the natural characters of such a man’s history. His abilities rank him among the first men in the Union—he is the most eminent though not the ablest man in the State of New-York; and as he is yet not more than fifty years old, another fall will by no means be decisive of his fate for life. Crawford however, obviously considers him now, as a rival removed; and evidently reckons upon the support of New-York for himself at the proper time. That he had electioneering intelligences with some of the New-York Members of the late Congress, at the last Session was manifest; and he spoke this day of the men of political consideration in New-York, with an intimate knowledge of all their party views, bearings and connections. He spoke too in a tone, that shewed a confidence that all Clinton’s losses in that State would be his gains. I returned to my Office after the meeting was over, and finished at last the draft of a despatch to R. Rush upon the suspended Article— In the Evening Mr Bailey called with Mr and Mrs B. Whitman of Boston, who are here on a travelling visit— Mrs. Whitman was formerly Mrs Jos: Blake, and first known to me as Miss Black— I did not know she was married to Whitman, until she was thus introduced this day— Professor Ware of Cambridge also visited us.

7. V:30. Dr Porter of Roxbury came this morning to visit us— I accompanied him upon business that he had to transact at the Branch Bank, for the Massachusetts Congregational Charitable Society— At the Office I drafted a Letter to F. Greuhm the Prussian Minister Resident; and a despatch to A. H. Everett, a Press Copy of which I enclosed to Beauvolers at New-York; to meet him there next Monday Morning when he is to sail for Liverpool— Mr Homans Chief Clerk in the Navy Department came again for my answer to enquiries from the Secretary of the Navy. Since the arrival of Captain Biddle, several circumstances have transpired in the newspapers tending to implicate his conduct on his late Cruize; I mentioned them to Homans; and asked him if he knew any thing of them. He said Captain Biddle was much disliked by his Officers, being very arbitrary; and that his first Lieutenant had written him Homans a Letter containing statements to his disadvantage— I received yesterday several documents from W. G. D. Worthington, who has returned since Biddle from Chili, and which give a different colouring to his proceedings at Valparaiso, and to his quarrel with Lord Cochrane, from that of his own Report. I told Homans that these things ought to be known to the Secretary of the Navy; who might perhaps order a Court of Inquiry; or at least issue orders to Captain Downes of the Macedonian; and the other Commanders of our armed Ships to avoid the same errors. Homans said he did not wish to make public against Captain Biddle, what had merely been written in a private Letter to him; but he offered to shew me the Letter— It was from the Lieutenant, Thornton; extremely violent, and grossly prejudiced against Biddle; but confirming Cochrane’s charge that Biddle had taken Spanish Money from Lima to Valparaiso and thence to Rio de Janeiro, and adding that he had received from the Vice-roy of Peru a sword, with a diamond studded hilt, worth two thousand dollars. I told Homans that he ought to send that Letter to Mr Thompson. I had an Evening visit from Judge Dawes of Boston; and Mr and Mrs W. S. Smith spent the Evening here. Mrs. S. B. Clark came 106to pass some time with us; with her infant daughter. I forgot to mention yesterday that Mr. Anderson, the Comptroller of the Treasurer came with his son Alexander, and introduced to me his nephew Mr Sterling— The weather this morning was as usual here after a thunder gust warm and sultry; but grew cool this Evening.

8. VI: I called at Mr Crawford’s Office, chiefly to speak to him, upon an application from Mr Antrobus, the English Chargé d’Affaires, for the admission free from the payment of duties of certain articles arrived at Philadelphia addressed to Mr Bagot, but which are for the use of Antrobus. Mr Anderson the Comptroller to whom Antrobus applied, answered him in writing that the privilege of importing goods free of duty was confined to Public Ministers, and there was no example of its having been allowed to Chargés d’Affaires. Antrobus then called and left the papers with Mr Brent renewing verbally the application for exemption from the payment of the duties. I thought it impossible that any objection should seriously be made; but I found it had been countenanced by Mr Crawford himself, because he said there was no precedent for it at the Treasury— Mr Anderson came in while I was with Crawford. I said there was no distinction of principle, and I had never heard any made in practice between the right of a minister, and that of a Chargé d’Affaires, to exemption from duties. Crawford spoke of the limitation which in most of the European Countries, had been set to the privilege, and of the graduated limitation lately announced by the Emperor of Russia; in which the amount allowed to a Chargé d’Affaires, is much less than that to a Minister. There is a limitation almost every where— But none any where that allows the privilege to the Minister, and denies it entirely to the Charge d’Affaires— We finally agreed that Antrobus should be required to make a written application to the Department of State with a statement of the Articles, that he wishes to be admitted; upon which I am to write to the Secretary of the Treasury requesting the order for their free admission.— I mentioned to Crawford the complaints against Captain Biddle, which he thought with me, ought to be reported to the Secretary of the Navy. Crawford had again the New-York newspapers, before him with the returns of the Elections to the State Legislature; but he was not quite so sanguine as he was the other day—that the Tammanies would outnumber both the Federalists and the Clintonians. The prospect is quite the reverse. At my Office I commenced the draft of a paper, for Instructions to Captain O. H. Perry, on a Mission to Venezuela and Buenos-Ayres— There was this day a cold easterly Storm, which obliged us to resume our parlour and dining room fires; and I rode in the Carriage home from my Office. Painful Letter from my Son John to his mother, received.

9. V:30. Wrote a short Letter to my father, in answer to one lately received from him. Walk to Georgetown— Call at Mr Frye’s, and saw Mrs Frye, in her chamber with her infant— The walk was so much longer than I have of late been accustomed to that after returning home, I had a dull head-ache, all the remainder of the day and Evening. It disqualified me for writing till after dinner, when with a considerable effort, I resumed the draft of a paper of Instructions for Captain Perry. Mrs. Adams went out and spent the Evening at Mrs Frye’s— The day was cloudy, and the atmosphere heavy and damp, though not so cold as yesterday. Yet we had fires— I lost much of the day, I know not how— There is a sort of inability to labour, that is, to write, half moral, half physical; a sort of day-dream Night-mare, which consumes many of my hours, and is beyond measure distressing.— It is a mixture of Listlessness and Lassitude as defined and exemplified in Johnson’s Dictionary; but a strenua ignavia, more powerful than my will, with which it has many a painful conflict. When the will finally prevails as happened this Evening, it is to little purpose; for what I then write is always flat and unsatisfactory to myself— There was a very heavy thunder shower this Evening after we were in bed.

10. VI: I attended this Morning the Office at eleven O’clock, but had so many interruptions of current business that I made little progress with the draught of Instructions for Perry. Dr Huntt called at the Office to solicit in behalf of a Captain Gibbs, whose pay has been stopped by a verbal order left by Mr Calhoun, for delay to settle his Accounts. He is now here, with his papers, which may be arranged and prepared for settlement in a very few days, but Huntt says he is dying of a consumption, and at the same time starving by the suspension of his pay. I asked Huntt, to state the Circumstances of the case in a written note, and promised to speak to the proper Officer, in behalf of the unfortunate man— I received the package of books which I have been expecting from Boston. The Cicero and Tacitus given me by Wells and Lilly, in return for the Ernesti Edition of mine which they had to print their Cicero from. I cannot indulge myself in the luxury of giving two hours a day to these writers, but to 107live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand, seems to me, as if it was a privation of one of my limbs. This Edition of Wells and Lilly, is a very handsome one. I opened a volume of the Tacitus, and by a kind of sors Tacitina, fell upon the passage. “Fidem, libertatem, amicitiam, praecipua humani animi bona, tu quidem eadem constantia retinebis”— (Hist: Lib. 1. Cap. 15.) More than thirty years ago, my father selected the three emphatic words of this passage for a motto; and I have had them these 25 years as the motto upon my cypher seal. I opened the eleventh volume of the Cicero. It was at a Letter from Brutus and Cassius to Mark Anthony. An admirable Letter. The heroic sentiment in it is “Nulla enim minantis auctoritas apud liberos est.” of which the whole Letter is an expanded illustration. The threat of Anthony was no empty menace, and soon proved fatal to both the writers at Philippi— Yet the Sentiment is not the less magnanimous for that— I was obliged immediately to lay aside my books, to ramble over the waste of daily newspapers— Mrs Adams spent the Evening at her Sister Smith’s.

11. IV: Four is the hour at which, if I had vigour of mind and body to carry my wishes into Execution, I would rise every Morning throughout the year. But I have never been able to carry it steadily into effect. With a more determined and persevering Resolution, I might make my average rising hour five— But ill health, fatigue, a broken night’s rest, a protracted hour of going to bed, an over-copious dinner, and the thousand accidents of daily occurrence over which my will has no controul, have perhaps as much effect as the imbecility of my will, in robbing me of the second hour. This morning I rose at my theoretic hour, and immediately resumed the examination of the papers relating to the Journals of the Convention of 1787. to prepare them for publication— I was engaged upon them without intermission till nine, when the Ladies came down to Breakfast— Mrs Clark took leave of us, and returned with her child to Mr Addison’s at Georgetown. At the Office, I attended in the hope of making progress in the draught of Instructions for Captain Perry, but the day was absorbed by other business, which required immediate attention— There were two Notes from Mr Antrobus the British Charge d’Affaires; one requesting the admission, free of duty, of his furniture and wine arrived at Philadelphia, and the other asking the delivery up of three British Subjects, Seamen, on board a Piratical privateer called the Louisa, Captain Alméda, fitted out at Baltimore, and which has committed so many outrages that the Lords of the British Admiralty sent out an armed ship, the Lee, Captain Blacker, expressly to take her— Blacker arrived at Charleston while the President was there; and learning that several of the crew of the Louisa, among whom the three British Seamen were included, were in prison at Charleston, upon a charge of Piracy, he applied by Letter, first to the Governor of South Carolina, and afterwards to the President; asking to have the men delivered up to him, to be carried to England for trial. The Governor answered Blacker, that he had no authority in the case, the men being in prison, under the authority of the United States— Mr Gouverneur, the President’s private Secretary, referred Blacker to the Secretary of State through the British Charge d’Affaires. Antrobus’s Note requests that the men may be delivered up, and sends copies of Blacker’s correspondence— I had received other copies of it the day before yesterday from the President, with a Letter from him, in which he says the men cannot be delivered up; but thinks we may offer to have the trial delayed, if desired, for the attendance of witnesses from England. But the Supreme Court of the United States by a decision founded upon captious subtleties, in Palmer’s case (3. Wheaton’s Reports p. 631) cast away the Jurisdiction which a Law of Congress had given to the Circuit Courts in cases of Piracy, committed by foreigners by construing the words “any person or persons” to mean only Citizens of the United States— Their reasoning is a sample of judicial logic—disingenuous, false, and hollow— A Logic so abhorrent to my nature, that it gave me an early disgust to the practice of the Law, and led me to the unalterable determination never to accept a judicial Office. In this case, if human language means anything; Congress had made general Piracy, by whomsoever, and wheresoever upon the high Seas committed, cognizable by the Circuit Courts—the Law has been in force, from the 30th. of April 1790. Foreign Pirates, for piracies committed in foreign vessels have been tried and hung, by its authority, and now, the Supreme Court have 108discovered that any person or persons means only Citizens of the United States, and that Piracy committed by foreigners in foreign vessels is not punishable by the Laws of the United States— At the last Session of Congress a new Act was passed to patch over this enormous hole in the moral garment of this Nation made by this desperate thrust of the Supreme Court, and general piracy was made expressly punishable by the Circuit Court; but the exploits of the Louisa and her Crew were achieved before the passage of this Act, and cannot be tried under it— The charges upon which the men of her crew are in prison at Charleston, must therefore be for piracies committed against Citizens of the United States, and it is scarcely probable that the witnesses in England can testify to them— I wrote however to Mr Antrobus, coming as near to the President’s ideas as I could. And I wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury, requesting an order to the Collector at Philadelphia, for the free admission of the goods. Mr Nourse the Register of the Treasury came to the Office with Mr Epaphras Chapman and Mr Job P. Vinall, Missionaries from the united foreign Missionary Society, who are going to the Indian Nations West of the Mississippi, and particularly to the Cherokees, and who wanted a Certificate or Letter of Recommendation, signed by the President; or if that could not be obtained, one from the Department of State— I told them I would have the Records of the office examined, and if there was a Precedent of such a Certificate given by the President, I would furnish them with one; but otherwise they should have a Certificate from the Department. Mr Brent was absent, so that the files could not now be examined— They are to call again to-morrow— After five o’Clock, and while I was waiting for a shower of rain to pass, to leave the Office, Mr Crawford came with a Mr Biscoe an Inspector of the Revenue, at Nottingham, going to Baltimore, in pursuit of the Pirate the Irresistible which after being seized at Nottingham, was taken from the revenue Officers, by one of her piratical Officers, and twenty men, authorized by the Collector at Baltimore himself, and carried to that place— I gave Biscoe, a Letter to Glenn the District Attorney, recommending the case again to him— I rode home about seven O’Clock— I had not written two lines of the paper for Captain Perry.

12. VI: I should have mentioned that on my way to my Office yesterday, I called upon Mr Frye to speak of the case of Captain Gibbs. Frye told me that Gibbs, who has been three years paymaster of a Regiment of Infantry, has never rendered any accounts—that he is a delinquent for more than one hundred and eighty thousand dollars— That after many repeated and fruitless calls upon him for his accounts, he was ordered here, and arrived since Mr Calhoun went away. That as a last resource, Mr Calhoun ordered that his pay should be suspended till he produced his accounts— That after this two further payments were made to him in commiseration of his state of health, and on the first of this Month, he sent a third Account for a Months pay, which Frye sent back with a pencil mark that it could not be paid till his accounts were sent in— Upon which he wrote Frye an insolent and insulting Letter, charging Frye with mutilating his account by a pencil mark, and threatening him with personal chastisement— I thought the man must be delirious, and Frye said General Ripley had written that he was crazy, before he left New-Orleans; where he was stationed— I said I would see Dr Huntt again, upon the subject— This morning as I was sitting at my table writing, about eight O’clock, Antoine came in, much agitated, and said that Franzoni, my next door neighbour was dead. He was an Italian Architect, employed upon the Capitol, and built last Summer a house adjoining our Yard. He had risen this morning apparently well; had been working at a little spot next his house, where he was making a garden, and went into his cellar, where half an hour afterwards he was found stretched lifeless on the ground. Dr George May had been at the house, and said there was nothing to be done—he was dead— I sent for Huntt, and went over to the house while he was there. The body was hardly cold and they were rubbing it with Brandy and salt— But life was gone. Huntt said there was a Galvanic pile, belonging to the College at Georgetown. He would like to try it, and believed it was at Mr Robert Brent’s. I sent Antoine for it, but it had been returned to the College. Mr W. G. D. Worthington just returned from an agency to South America, came and was with me near two hours, conversing upon the subjects relating to his late Agency. He has had the fault of some other agents employed there; of being at least an enthusiastic partizan of the South-Americans. His wife is the daughter of a man named Chaytor, who has been Captain of one of the Baltimore piratical privateers, commissioned by Buenos-Ayres— Going to the Office, I called upon Mr Crawford, and told him I should send him a Letter requesting the free admission of Antrobus’s furniture— And I mentioned to him the case of P. Pedersen as Chargé d’Affaires from Denmark in 1804. I asked him also to write to the Collector of Baltimore, for an explanation, why he gave an authority to one of the piratical Officers of the Irresistible to take possession of her at Nottingham— He promised 109that he would. Mr Wirt came to my Office, and introduced to me a Mr Gamble; Mr Alexander Scott of Georgetown was also with them— Gamble brought me a Letter of recommendation from J. Connell, of Philadelphia, and came to apply for the appointment of Consul, or Consular Agent at the Danish Island of St Thomas. The Danish Government admit a consul at St. Croix; but not at St Thomas— Robert Monroe Harrison who was appointed Consul there quarreled with the Governor General Bentzon, and Pedersen, demanded his recall— As they promised to receive a Consular agent under Jaques the Consul at St. Croix, a Mr Levy was appointed, and Jaques was directed to appoint him his agent, but they refused Levy permission to exercise his functions, unless he would become a Danish Burger—and Gamble says if that obstacle was removed they would raise another, and require him to do Militia duty; but that he was authorized to say they would receive him— But he evaded saying what objection there was to Levy— He said Levy had returned to Baltimore, and he Gamble had no wish to interfere with his views; but should be glad of the appointment in case of his resignation— I told him I could take no definitive step, before I should see Levy or hear further from Levy; and perhaps not before the President’s return— Wrote a page further in the draught for Perry. Walk after dinner with Mrs Adams and Mary Hellen. W. S. Smith came and shewed me a Letter from T. H. Hubbard, consenting to take Letters of Administration with the Will annexed, upon Smith’s father’s Estate, and a Letter from himself to the Surrogate of Madison County New-York, requesting him to grant Letters of Administration to Hubbard.

13. IV:30. Four hours of this morning again engaged in examining the Journals of the Convention of 1787. and the sheets of yeas and nays, which I compared with the questions in the Journals. This comparison has led me to the conclusion that the Journals ought to be published with Notes— The Journals were loosely kept; and the yeas and nays, only shew the votes of the States, and not of individual members. There are some questions on the face of the Journals, and which were evidently taken by yeas and nays, but which are omitted in the sheets, and some on the sheet of yeas and nays, which were not entered upon the Journals— The Journal never mentions by whom a motion was made; but it often appears upon the sheets of yeas and nays— I must revise and superintend the publication of this volume myself. At the Office, a French pen-maker came to ask for a place— B. O. Tyler, asked 150. dollars for making a fac simile copy of the Declaration of Independence. I therefore gave up the project. Mr Antrobus came to speak of the Pirates imprisoned at Charleston. According to the President’s direction I had offered him according to the President’s directions to instruct the District Attorney to move the Court to postpone the trial till the witnesses from England could have time to give their attendance—if he desired it. He said he knew nothing of the case, but what appeared from Captain Blacker’s Letters— But as the Lords of the Admiralty had sent a vessel out for the special purpose of hunting up these men, it might perhaps be desirable that the trial should be delayed, that the witnesses might have the opportunity to attend if they pleased. I desired him to write me a line to that effect— I received a Letter from Mr Jefferson who consents to sit to Cardelli for his Bust— Franzoni was buried this Evening— I sent for Cardelli.

14. IV:30. Drudgery again upon the Journals of the Convention and the sheets of yeas and nays— I was engaged upon them about four hours this morning, but without getting through the examination— Cardelli came, and I informed him that Mr Jefferson had consented to sit to him for his bust; and advised him to go as soon as possible to Monticello. He wishes however now to postpone his departure; for since Franzoni’s death he has hopes of being employed in his stead; but he fears that if he goes away, all the other Italians here, who are so jealous of him that they will not speak to him, will combine together, and prevail upon Coll. Lane the Commissioner to send for another man from Carrara to take Franzoni’s place— I promised to see Coll. Lane and converse with him on the subject— Also to ascertain the manner in which he must proceed to go to Monticello, and to write to ask Mr Madison to sit for his bust, which I did this morning— At the Office I wrote to the President, and to the District Attorney at Charleston, S. Carolina, which scarcely left me half an hour to continue the draft of the paper for Captain Perry, in which, of consequence I made very little progress. We spent the Evening with Mr and Mrs110 W. S. Smith in the house to which they removed yesterday from Fletcher’s; it is nearly opposite to the Post-Office— Forbes was there— The weather continues cold, and favourable for the labour of writing.

15. IV:30. Finished the examination of the sheets of Ayes and Noes, compared with the Journals of the Convention— Part of them are still unexplained, and may require further perplexing and not very profitable research. Commodore Rogers called here this Morning, and afterwards came and attended Mrs Adams with Mr and Madame De Neuville, accompanied by W. S. Smith on a visit to the Columbus Line of Battle Ship at the Navy-Yard— At the Office Mr Homans came with a Letter from the Secretary of the Navy; calling again for the Instructions for Captain Perry— I read to Homans the part that I had prepared; he thought they were such as he could not act upon; but that they must go to Mr Thompson— Gales the Senior Editor of the National Intelligencer—came to ask for some printing work— I gave him the papers of N. Biddle’s compilation, though I have not been yet able to examine them. He told me that Hopkinson had lately sent him a piece highly complimentary to Mr Daschkoff, with an earnest request that he would publish it in the National Intelligencer, which he had declined. He says Mr King will be returned to the Senate from New-York, which I wish— But it is remarkable that the three parties in that State, called Federalists, Clintonians and Tammanies are so nearly balanced, that of 124 Members composing their Legislature, each party claims from 40 to 45 of the members elect— I was employed again great part of the day in examining the accounts of appropriations and expenditures, for the contingencies of the Department of State— From the manner in which those accounts have been kept, the expences for some years past have exceeded the appropriations; and as the deficiency of one year, encroaches upon the appropriations of the next, the fund is always in arrear— I have been repeatedly sending to the Treasury, to obtain the accounts, and have them now from the beginning of the year 1817. but the deficiency began before that, and I must go further back— Another source of continual confusion and embarrassment to me is the want of order in keeping the files of papers in the Office— I this day wanted a despatch dated last September, from Mr Russell at Stockholm— It was not to be found. Two days ago, I wanted the Letters from B. Irvine at Venezuela— They are not yet found— Scarcely a day passes, that business is not delayed by this sort of disorder, for which I have not yet been able to devise an adequate remedy— I wrote a single page of the draught of Instructions for Perry; and rode home in a heavy rain which continued all the Evening.

16. V: The rain continued all this morning; when it held up I walked to the Potowmack Bridge, and viewed the spot where I frequently bathed last Summer. After dinner I took another half hour’s walk with Mrs Adams, and Mary Hellen— The remainder of the day I was employed in writing to John A. Smith, and in delving into the Convention Journals and papers. They are to be printed by T. Wait at Boston, which I now find to be cause of some inconvenience— From the examination of all the papers that I have collected, it is apparent that the usefulness of the publication will depend altogether upon their arrangement— When the Convention adjourned they passed a Resolution that their Journals and papers, which had been kept by Major William Jackson their Secretary; should be delivered to their President, Washington, to be kept by him, subject to the future order of Congress, after the Constitution should go into operation— Washington kept them till the 19th. of March 1796. when he deposited them in the Department of State; where they have remained till this time— A Resolution of Congress of 27. March 1818. directed that they, together with the secret Journals of the old Congress and their foreign Correspondence, to the Peace of 1783. except such parts of it as the President, may think it improper now to publish, should be printed under the direction of the President— He devolved this duty upon me; but the Books and papers deposited by President Washington, were so imperfect, and in such disorder, that to have published them as they were, would have given to the public a Book useless, and in many respects inexplicable— It happened that General Bloomfield, a member of Congress from New Jersey, as Executor of the Will of David Brearley, one of the members of the Convention, had come to the possession of his papers; among which were several very important ones, relating to the proceedings of the Convention— He sent them all to me— The Journal itself was imperfect, and the Journal of the last two days was wanting. I wrote to President Madison, and obtained from him the means of completing it. There was a plan of Constitution, mentioned on the Journals as having been proposed by Mr Charles Pinckney of South-Carolina— I wrote to him, and 111obtained a copy of that— With all these papers suitably arranged, a correct and tolerably clear view of the proceedings of the Convention may be presented, but there is one great and irreparable defect. In the printed Journals of the old Congress the yeas and nays appear nominally as well as by States, although the votes were taken by States— So they were in the Convention; but the yeas and nays shew only the votes of States, and not of the individual members— Copies of the Journals, and of most of the papers were sent last Autumn to Wait, at Boston; but I had not time to examine and collate the whole; and I did not dare trust the task to any one else; I have now nearly gone through it, and have settled the mode of publication; but to carry it into effect I must have again all the papers that have been sent to Wait— There is also one paper wanting; to be collected from the Resolutions scattered over the Journal from 19. June to 23. July 1787. I began this day to prepare it.

17. IV:30. Wrote to Wait, and continued plodding upon the Journals and papers of the Convention. Proceeded with the draught of the Supplementary paper, and made out a list of the Members who attended. Received a pressing Letter from Gales, the Editor of the National Intelligencer— At the Office, I found Mr Pleasonton with whom I had some Conversation, about the appropriations and expenditures of the contingent fund of the Department— He told me there had been one year, an overdraught upon it; but did not explain for what— It shall go hard but I will find out. Mr Kerr came to speak of the Ball to be given to Mr and Mrs de Neuville to-morrow, and said that none of the Heads of Departments were to be subscribers, but Mr Crawford and Mr Wirt would come as invited guests— Cards had also been sent to Mrs Adams and me; and the Managers earnestly hoped we would attend— I told him we would. Coll. Lane was at the office, and I spoke to him in behalf of Cardelli. He promised to give him employment if there was any thing to give him. He also mentioned the Fire Engines that are to be purchased; and the land for a supply of water— They want about an acre, which belongs to Mr Wheeler of Norfolk, Mrs Decatur’s father. But Decatur, his agent asks twelve Cents a foot for it, and Lane says the Land is not worth more than three. I proposed to Lane to procure engine pipes or hose of length sufficient to bring water from the river— A Mr Patterson of New-York whom I knew at St. Petersburg in the Winter of 1810 and 1811 called to visit me, at the Office; and on Mrs Adams at the house— He had entirely escaped my recollection, and that of my wife, who generally remembers transient acquaintance of old date, better than I. I recollected his countenance, and indistinctly his name after some time; and upon recurring to my Journal found him—27. Nov. 1810. Mr R. Forrest informed me that Mr Way had finally concluded to accept an offer which I made him near a year ago, for the house in F. Street where Mr R. Cutts now lives; and he asked my terms of payment— I told him I should make them much at the Convenience of Mr Way; and we shall easily agree upon them— I requested that he would send me the title deeds to examine— A Clerk from the Navy Department came, from Mr Homans the chief Clerk, who is sick, to ask for my answer to a Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, about sending the brig Enterprize to Omoa, in the Bay of Honduras, to recover a vessel called the Retrieve, and her Cargo, and to claim the delivery up of her mate and two of her Crew, who murdered the Captain, and ran away with the vessel. I wrote to Mr Thompson, to Mr de la Serna, the Spanish Charge d’Affaires, who is at Philadelphia, for a Letter to the commanding Officer at Omoa; and to the Presidents of two Insurance Companies at New-York, which had insured the property; and had written to me on the subject— It was one of those days so common at the Office and so tormenting—unceasing turmoil, and interruptions— I could not write a line of the Instructions for Perry— Evening absorbed with newspapers— In the Philadelphia Democratic Press of Saturday Evening there is a Petition proposed to the President, to call an extra Session of Congress— I have been expecting this; and apprehend we have troublesome times coming. Congress can provide no remedy for the evil that will not be worse than the disease.

18. V:15. I was obliged to suspend my labour upon the Convention Journals, to pay suitable attention to my own— The morning was gone, before I could otherwise use it; and the Office hours were absorbed in the examination of the Accounts of the Contingent expenses in the Department of State since the year 1814— I have partially 112ascertained the causes of the deficiency in the appropriations, and hope I can now arrange a system of regularity for all the expenditures under the direction of the Department of State— I wrote a very few lines for Captain Perry— In the Evening I attended the Subscription Ball, given to Mr and Madame de Neuville. It was at the house lately occupied by the Spanish Minister, Onis; now untenanted— The Company were about one hundred and fifty persons, among whom were Mr Crawford, and Mr and Mrs Wirt— This Lady was again assigned to me by the managers to lead down to supper. The Ball was lively—and after supper, when the health of Mr and Mrs de Neuville was given, as a toast, he made a short and very pertinent speech of thanks to the Company which was answered by Mr Orr, the mayor of the City and presiding manager. De Neuville spoke in English and very correctly though with a very accented pronunciation. It was one in the morning when we came home.

19. VII: At the Office, I found Captain Morris of the Navy. He is returning from Charleston where he saw the President to Portsmouth, at which place he is stationed. He said the President had spoken to him of the intended mission of a naval Officer to South America. I said when the President had given directions for the mission he had in the first instance thought of offering it to him: but thinking that from the state of his health he would not be able to go, the Secretary of the Navy, when he went to New-York, had been directed to propose it to Captain Perry who had accepted. He said the President had told him the same; except that he did not know of the acceptance of Captain Perry. Morris added that if Perry should not go, he should be willing to undertake it, as the state of his health was improved, and the climate of Buenos-Ayres, might be serviceable to it— He goes to morrow for Portsmouth. Mr Way came, and I agreed with him for the purchase of his house in F. Street, if I find the title satisfactory. He is to send me his Deed to-morrow, and we agreed upon the terms— Mr D. Brent offered also to sell me his house in which I now live— I proceeded in the examination of the accounts of the Department for contingent expences. They have been kept in a very loose and slovenly manner—a deficiency in the appropriations has hence arisen every year, principally from an inadequate appropriation every year for publishing the Laws in the Newspapers. I directed Mr Bailey to procure an Account Book, and beginning with the year 1817. when I entered the Department, open an account for every separate appropriation placed under the direction of the Department of State. Marking—first the amount of every annual or occasional appropriation— Secondly, every receipt, under such appropriation by the Letters from the Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury, requesting warrants to issue upon the appropriation—and thirdly every payment made to balance these receipts— Thus the receipts the payments and the appropriations must all balance one another; and in case of any excess or deficiency its cause will immediately be seen— I also directed Colvin who has the publication of the Laws in the Newspapers under his direction, to insert a paragraph in the next circular Letter of Appointment; directing each printer as soon as he has completed the publication of the Laws and Treaties of the Session, to give notice of it in the Paper, and with that paper to send his account for Settlement— It seems to me that a regular system for keeping the accounts of expenditures under the direction of the Department may be easily established, and made extremely simple; but for want of it, I have been groping nearly two years, without knowing the State of the Accounts, or the causes of the confusion in them— I made little progress in the Instructions for Captain Perry, and began preparing a Letter and Documents for E. Fromentin, who is to go to Pensacola, and St Augustine. I took an Evening’s walk of half an hour— Mrs Adams spent the Evening at the De Neuville’s.

20. V:15. Continued at home the preparations for the publication of the Convention Journals, and at the Office the draughts of Instructions for E. Fromentin, and for Captain Perry. Finished the first sketches of both; but the latter must be revised, and I am not satisfied with my work upon it— There is want of method and great diffuseness, with many repetitions in it. In writing State Papers at present, I constantly feel like the Grecian Orator, who said he had not time to make his Speech short— The pen always overflows, with the first tide of a copious subject; and then to organize and arrange, to add a little and to erase much, which is necessary for all correct and polished composition, consumes more time than to write the first draught. With the pressure of business at the Office, I have not now that time to spare. I must strike off all my papers at 113a heat— They are therefore redundant and at the same time deficient; a fault aggravated in this case of the draught for Perry, because he is to go to two places, with the same errand to both, but with differences of detail. And as the nature of the case required an argumentative despatch, I was obliged to put half the reasoning, in one part of it, and half in the other— The argument was thus weakened both by division and by repetitions. In a second draught I could compress the matter, strike-out the repetitions, and concentrate in one, all the scattered fragments of argument; but I have not time to make it— The Journal and the Ledger of mercantile accounts, present the analogy of the process of elaborate composition— I also pursued further the investigation of the Department accounts, for the last four or five years. The French Minister Hyde de Neuville, called upon me to enquire what foundation there was for a rumour circulated and repeated in the Newspapers, of a cession by Spain of the Island of Cuba to Great-Britain. I did not believe it, and thought the Report merely a political or a commercial speculation, or both— Yet there has been some mysterious Negotiation between Spain and England, about Cuba, the secret of which is not yet unfolded— De Neuville had written to me, to enquire the cause of the imprisonment of a Frenchman, at Fort Washington— I referred his Letter to the War Department, and General Parker, the Inspector General answered that the man had enlisted in the army, and was in prison to be tried by a Court-Martial for desertion. De Neuville said Mr Monroe had promised him that no more Frenchman should be enlisted in our military service— He spoke again about the project of a consular Convention, or a Commercial Treaty. I am as soon as possible to examine this subject— We spent the Evening, at a tea-party at Mr Carroll’s— I met the attempt again this day of going without fire in my writing room; but suffered much for the want of it.

21. IV:45. A Hurly-burly day— By which denomination, I designate that class of days, which I have already noticed in this Journal: days of continual and unexpected interruptions, by persons successively calling at the Office; and by a multitude of Letters and voluminous despatches, received from various quarters— It is distraction, of the character which Dr Rush in his work upon the mind, describes as naturally leading to madness. It is a distressing state, which always reminds me of that Scene in Shakespear’s Henry the 4th. where the Prince and Poins amuse themselves in bewildering Francis, the Drawer— When I came to the Office this morning, I found there Lieutenant Williamson, of the frigate United States, which has just arrived at Norfolk from the Mediterranean. He brought me a despatch from Mr Shaler, the Consul-General to Barbary, who was at Gibraltar, when the Frigate left that place 31. March. With Shaler’s Letters there was one from Mr Folsom, whom he has placed as Chargé d’Affaires at Tunis during the absence of the late Consul there, Anderson; and several enclosures— Lieutenant Williamson sat with me an hour; giving me accounts of the state of the Squadron in the Mediterranean, and of the Frigate United States and her voyage home. She has had a passage of 50. days, while a merchant vessel which sailed from Gibraltar, with her, arrived at Boston, in 29. He says it was owing to the difference of being bound to a Southern instead of an Eastern Port. A remarkable, and perhaps not uncommon fact— The United States, is commanded by Captain Crane, who Williamson says, is so much liked by his crew, that although they must now be discharged the term of their service being expired, he is persuaded more than two thirds of them, after having their frolic would engage with him again— I asked him what number of foreigners there were among them—he said from 45 to 50. but he did not reckon the Englishmen among the foreigners, for they all swore they were born in some part of the United States, and they could not be distinguished by their language, though the Irishmen might— The frigate is much decayed, and will want a thorough repair— When the Lieutenant left me, Mr Pleasonton came in, and gave me some further information respecting the state of the Department Accounts— He is to call again for the same purpose to-morrow— Then came Mr Homans, about my Letter to the Secretary of the Navy; which though finished, I had no time to revise, and despatch for the mail of to-morrow Morning— The papers for Mr Fromentin were however prepared— Mr Frye, came to ask my advice what to do—he is summoned as a witness, to the Court of the United-States at Richmond, which is to sit next week— But he is the 114Chief Clerk in the Office of the Pay-master General Robert Brent, who has been nearly a year Paralytick, and Frye has been doing all the business of his Principal, as well as his own— Mr Brent is utterly incapable of attending to any business; and if Frye goes, all the important business of the pay office will be suspended for a week— He said it would also be very inconvenient also for him to leave home, on account of the situation of his family— I advised him, if possible to put the current business of the pay office in a way that the routine might be performed for a short time without him—and if not, to write a short Letter to the District Attorney, and one to the Court, stating the Circumstances which will prevent his attendance; and transmit an affidavit of the facts concerning which his testimony is wanted. Mr William Lee came, upon no special business, but for conversation— I had despatches from Mr. Gallatin, from A. H. Everett, and from the Bankers at Amsterdam, with accounts— With the interruptions of the visitors, I scarcely got through the reading of the Letters, when five O’Clock came, and I had written nothing. This is a picture of perhaps half the days that I pass at the Office— I went with Mrs Adams to an Evening party at Mr T. Peter’s at Georgetown, or what they call Tudor-Place— The party consisted principally of Georgetown People—and the Diplomats— There was dancing of Cotillions— We came home about eleven O’Clock.

22. V:30. Still occupied upon the Journals of the Convention; upon which I begin to think I shall spend too much time and descend too much to minutiae. Pleasonton brought his accounts of Department expences to the Office, and I finished the examination sufficiently to perceive the sources of the total inaccuracy of the annual estimates, as they have been heretofore prepared— There is yet however much Scrutiny necessary to be able to prepare just estimates for the future, and the Subject will require constant attention and vigilance— I finally revised and despatched the Letter to the Secretary of the Navy containing the Instructions for Captain Perry. Mr and Mrs W. S. Smith spent the evening here— The Summer Season commenced this day; though at the beginning of the Month we had a week of hot weather— The fire in my writing room was this day extinguished till October, and we had the first green peas, and strawberries upon our table.

23. V:15. I had intended to employ this day industriously in writing Letters; but Cardelli came and occupied two hours of it— He is going this week to Monticello, and afterwards to Montpellier to take the Busts of Mr. Jefferson and Mr Madison—to whom I wrote Letters of Introduction for him— I answered also a short but important Letter from my father; and began one to Mr Boylston— But what absorbed the greatest part of the day was an attempt to assort and arrange some of the loose printed documents heaped up in one of my Closets—in which after all I made very little progress— I received a large mail; but chiefly of duplicates and newspapers— Assumed entirely the Summer’s dress— Thermometer at 85— The heat of the weather confined me to the house till after dinner, when I walked to the Capitol Hill, with Mrs Adams and Mary Hellen— Visit at Mr Bulfinch’s.

24. VI:30. Another wasted day; by which I understand those days, consumed by interruptions of visitors, and by necessary reading, so that I write little or nothing. As soon as I reached my Office, Mr Homans came and introduced to me, Captain Oliver H. Perry, who is to go upon a mixed naval and political mission to South-America. He arrived this morning; and is to sail from Annapolis in the John Adams; to be followed afterwards by the Constellation Frigate— I had a conversation of an hour with him upon the objects of his mission, and gave him a copy of my Letter to the Secretary of the Navy, upon which Perry’s Instructions are to be founded; and which with all the accompanying documents was despatched yesterday morning to Mr Thompson, also the paper written by the President, which formed the basis of the Instructions— Perry mentioned several other points, upon which perhaps a supplementary Instruction for him may be necessary— Forbes came in from Baltimore with the news that the houses of Smith and Buchanan, Hollins and M’Blair, Didier and D’Arcy, four Williams’s and many others this day failed— Smith and Buchanan have been for many years the greatest commercial house in Baltimore; the others have all been in immense business, but Bank Speculation is what has broken them down— They will undoubtedly drown numberless others with them— In truth the Commercial, manufacturing and agricultural interests of this Country are in a very distressed situation; and their prospects are still worse— The revenue and even the tranquility of the Union will be most seriously affected by it, and as always happens, the disorder of things will produce discord of opinions, and bitterness of political oppositions. The 115greatest danger is of the application of remedies worse than the disease— Paper money; and prohibitions— The political empyrics are already as busy as Spiders in weaving their tangles for Congress and the National Executive; I received this day a printed copy of the Seventh Address from the Society at Philadelphia, for the promotion of domestic Industry, urging a petition to the President, for an immediate call of Congress, to change the tariff and pass prohibitory Laws. It was enclosed in a printed letter, requesting me to peruse it very attentively which I did. I have read carefully all the addresses, which contain some true information; and some sound reasoning; mixed with misrepresentations, and sophistications; with obscure hints at paper money and a tempest of outcry for prohibitory duties, and protection to manufactures. The process of these publications has been artful and insidious; with after thoughts in every paper, successively disclosed— With elaborate calculation to produce impression upon the public mind. I suppose Tench Coxe to be the author of the Papers, and they bear the stamp of his wily, winding, subtle and insidious character— Of this Petition for the Call of Congress, and the Call itself, we shall certainly hear more— I received a long despatch with enclosures from Jonathan Russell at Florence; and another half pamphlet from Baptis Irvine at Port of Spain, Island of Trinidad— I had barely finished reading these Papers when the dinner hour summoned me home— Immediately after dinner, Mr Poletica, who arrived this day came and paid a visit to Mrs Adams— At Noon I had received a Note from him, announcing his arrival and asking when I would receive him; for which I had appointed to-morrow at one O’Clock— He was this Evening soon followed by Mr Hyde de Neuville, and with these visits the Evening passed away— Poletica says, that he has nothing to trouble us with—that he is charged only with the most cordial and earnest assurances of the Emperors regard and friendship for the United States— That the Emperor was extremely solicitous to be on the best terms with us, and said to him just before he left him at Aix la Chapelle,—“Je crains que nous n’ayons perdu un peu de terrain la-bas”— I assured him; that we retained all our respect, and friendly disposition for the Emperor, and should do every thing in our power to promote the best Harmony with his Government— We had much conversation upon the general state of European Politics; and upon the Affairs of France. Both Poletica and De Neuville discovered their principles— De Neuville’s hobby horse is a democratic-royale—universal suffrage and the Charter— Poletica’s is a Gouvernement paternel— A wise and good absolute Sovereign and a happy and submissive people—“Tout pour le Peuple; et rien par le Peuple,” is his maxim— Such are the compromises which the partizans of despotism, are compelled to make with the prevailing Spirit of the age. Poletica says the new Ministers in France, are well pleased with de Neuville, and wish him to remain here— I urged him again, not to go this year; but he said he must persist in his resolution—chiefly on account of personal and family affairs—

25. V:30. Among the newspapers that I received yesterday was one called the Courier, printed at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, of the 16th. of April, containing a paper of five columns, to be continued, and purporting to be an extract of a Letter from me to the Editors of the National Register, and addressed to the American People—a miserable thing, full of censorious reflections upon the proceedings of Congress, and insinuations against Clay. It is a defence of General Jackson, against the objections to his conduct in the Seminole War, upon Constitutional principles. It is an imposture—I never wrote any such paper. I had seen before some allusions in several other Western Newspapers, to this piece, and in which it is considered as genuine. I wrote a paragraph to be published in the National Intelligencer and Washington City Gazette, declaring it spurious— Cardelli was here this morning and I gave him the Letters of recommendation to Mr Jefferson, and Mr Madison that I had prepared for him. Frye was here, and went off in the Steam-boat, to attend the Court at Richmond— I called at the Patent Office to see Dr Thornton; but he was not there. I met him just opposite his house, with Mr Ferdinando Fairfax. They had called at my Office, to shew me a Letter to Fairfax from William Davis Robinson at Gibraltar; who having arrived at Cadix as a prisoner was suffered to go at large, upon his Parole of honour, which he broke and made his escape— He has written to me, and alledged reasons for 116the justification of his conduct, upon which I am not prepared to give an opinion— His Letter to Fairfax, is of the same complexion, but I did not see it— I went in to Doctor Thornton’s, and he took the acknowledgment of a Power, which I send to John Connell, at Philadelphia, to receive the dividends due in January and April last, on my U.S. Stocks standing on the Books there— Captain Perry called at the Office— Poletica did not come at one, the appointed hour; but at ten, when I was not at the Office, and afterwards at my house, where he introduced to Mrs Adams, a Mr Lomonossof as attached to his Legation, but I did not see them— I rode home from the Office with Mrs Adams who called for me: the heat being too oppressive to walk— After dinner I took Antoine with me, and bathed in the Potowmack, below the Bridge. Returning home, I called at W. S. Smith’s, for my wife and Mary Hellen who had passed the Evening there.

26. V:15. Finished the first draught of an advertisement to be prefixed to the publication of the Journals of the Convention of 1787. and the list of the members— On the way to the office I met Mr Wirt, the Attorney General, who made some enquiries, as to the state of our Negotiation with Spain— Paragraphs are creeping into the newspapers, hinting that the Government of the United States, were imposed upon in the Florida-Treaty; that after it was signed, it was discovered that eight Millions of Acres of Lands had been granted by the king of Spain, which were confirmed by the Treaty— That after the discovery I called upon Don Onis, for an explanation of such conduct; when the crafty Don answered that a bargain was a bargain—that all the grants were confirmed by the Treaty; and that the grantees did not let him into their Secrets— That this was the cause of despatching the special Messenger immediately after the bearer of the Treaty, and that the Government at Washington hope, the Treaty will not be ratified in Spain— This first appeared, about this day last week in the Boston Centinel, and is now circulating in the newspapers throughout the Continent— The real facts, of which this is a malignant distortion, have been known to so many persons, nearly three Months, that I have been surprized to see nothing about it in the newspapers before— Where it came from now, I cannot tell. I told Wirt the facts, as they are— I have little apprehension with regard to the ultimate result; and am not without hope it will eventually prove more advantageous to my Country, than if no such incident had occurred. But in the mean time, I expect it will prove extremely troublesome, and especially to me— I spoke to Wirt about the acquittal at Baltimore of the Pirate Daniels— His case went off upon a legal quibble— Wirt says it is because the Judges are two weak, though very good old men; who suffer themselves to be bullied and brow-beaten by Pinkney. I told him, that I thought it was Law-Logic—an artificial system of reasoning, exclusively used in Courts of Justice, but good for nothing any where else— This acquittal of Daniels is a notable sample of it— He was indicted under an act of Congress to preserve the neutral relations of the United States, of 3. March 1817. which act was on its face, limited to two years duration— By an act of 20. April 1818. it was with several others repealed, by a general Law substituted instead of them all—with a proviso that prosecutions might be commenced and carried on for offences committed against it, as if it had not been repealed— Now Pinckney’s quibble was that if it had not been repealed, it would have expired by its limitation— If it had expired, no prosecution could now have been commenced or continued now, for any offence committed under it— The Court admitted this as sound reasoning; considered it a plain case; and discharged Daniels— The source of all this pettifogging is that out of judicial Courts, the end of human reasoning is truth, or justice; but in them it is Law.— Ita lex scripta est, and there is no reply— Hence it is my firm belief that if instead of the long robes of Judges, and the long speeches of lawyers, the suitors of every question debated in the Courts between individuals, were led blindfold up to a Lottery Wheel, and there bidden to draw, each of them one of two tickets, one marked RIGHT and the other WRONG, and Execution should issue according to the sentence of the wheel, more substantial Justice would be done, than is now dispensed by Courts of Law. In criminal cases, by the humanity of the Law, which is indeed its best and most amiable feature, the chances in favour of the culprit are multiplied, and when the subtlety and the Passions of the judges combine in their favour, no criminal can be brought to Justice and punishment— At the office, I had a visit from Mr Poletica, who told me that he was about writing to his Government, and should be glad to give any information that I should be willing to com-117communicate respecting our Treaty with Spain— He said that his Instructions were to promote to the utmost of his power a friendly arrangement of the differences which subsisted between this Country and Spain; and from the general acquaintance that he had with the substance of the Treaty, he considered it as satisfactory and advantageous to both Countries— But he understood there had been some question concerning certain grants of Land in Florida by the king of Spain; upon which there had been an explanation given subsequently to the signature of the Treaty— I told him the circumstances relating to the eighth Article of the Treaty as they have occurred; and observed that the Treaty was highly advantageous to both parties, and I trusted would prove satisfactory to both. That one of the views in which I considered it most important was its tendency to confirm the tranquility of all Europe; as it was impossible things should remain, in the state in which they were between the United States; and Spain— The Treaty or a Rupture, were the only alternatives. If a rupture had ensued, England could not have been long neutral, and England would have drawn all Europe, pro or con into the quarrel. He said that was exactly his own impression— He then said that he should wait until the President’s return, to present his Credential Letter— I told him that if in the meantime he had any business to transact, I should be happy to attend to it, as if he was already accredited. He said he would furnish a list of the persons attached to his Legation; and asked if there would be any objection to his inserting in it the names of Mr Ivanof the Russian Consul at and of Eustaphieff the Consul at Boston. As the British Government had allowed the insertion of the name of the Russian Consul General at London, Dubachefsky— I told him that in the absence of the President, I could not answer him positively; but as I apprehended we could not by law, extend the diplomatic privileges to Consuls, I thought it most candid to tell him so now. He said that since the affair of Kosloff, the Russian Consuls had in fact been attached to the Department of foreign Affairs, and wore the same uniform that he did— That by this insertion of their names, on the list of his Legation, he should make himself responsible for their conduct; which he could safely do, for Mr Ivanof—though as to Mr Eustaphieff, he was an author— I told him that besides the inconvenience of allowing a precedent, which all the other foreign Consuls would immediately claim for themselves, there was a difficulty in our double jurisdictions; the exclusive authority of the General Government being confined to the District of Columbia. I promised however to submit the point to the consideration of the President after his return— I received a Letter from C. P. Van Ness the Commissioner under the 5th Article of the Treaty of Ghent, with nine or ten enclosures— He has quarreled with Hassler the Astronomer, just at the moment when the operations for the year are to commence, about his Salary, and now writes to ask me what he is to do? I had thus again at the Office, scarcely one hour to write this day. After dinner, I walked round the Capitol Hill. Mrs Adams, with Mrs W. S. Smith spent the Evening at their Sister Frye’s.

27. IV:30. I called this morning at Mr Crawford’s Office, to consult with him, upon what is to be done, to obtain an astronomer for the Commission, under the fifth Article of the Treaty of Ghent in the room of Hassler— Crawford’s opinion of Hassler is, that although a man of Mathematical and Astronomical Science, he is practically a very inefficient man; a mere mill-clapper of babbling, enormously extravagant in his demands, and troublesome by his indiscretions; and tiresome by his Correspondence— His conduct on this occasion has been so provoking, his demands so exorbitant, his tone so dictatorial, and his procedure withal so crafty, that I could not think of submitting to his terms. After full conversation with Crawford, I determined to write to Mr Ellicott at West-Point, requesting him to undertake the business, and to Major Thayer, the commanding Officer at the Academy, asking his assent that Ellicott should go. I wrote to them accordingly, and enclosed the Letters open, with my Answer to the Commissioner Van Ness— I had also some Conversation with Crawford on the present situation and prospects of the Country, which are alarming— The banking bubbles are breaking— The staple productions of the soil, constituting our principal articles of export are falling to half and less than half the prices which they have lately borne; the merchants are crumbling to ruin, the manufactures perishing, Agriculture stagnating, and distress universal in every part of the Country— The revenue has not yet been, but must very sensibly and 118very soon be affected by this state of things; for which there seems to be no remedy but time and patience; and the changes of events which time effects. Crawford shewed me his last Bank returns, which are as large as usual, and the condition of the Treasury, is daily improving— But there will be a great falling off in the revenue of the next year. At the Office, Captain Perry called again, but I have not yet received his Papers, back from the Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Nathan Levy, who was last Summer appointed Consular agent at the Danish Island of St. Thomas, but whom the Government there have refused to receive, has lately returned to this Country, and came this day to the Office— He says that St. Thomas is the focus of smuggling of the Slave-trade, and of piratical privateers— He is nevertheless anxious to go back, if the Danish Government will recognize him, even as the deputy of Mr Jaques the Consul at St. Croix, without compelling him to become a Danish burger— Mr D. Brent was this day absent from the Office. Forbes called upon us after dinner. I spent the Evening with Mrs Adams at a tea-party at Coll. Constant Freeman’s; the second Auditor.

28. V: I resumed this morning the examination of papers, for the preparation of a Report to the Senate, upon Weights and measures. At this Season of the year, if at any, I might expect to have leisure, or at least some controul of my own time— But I look forward from day to day for it, with almost constant disappointment— I called this day upon Mr Anderson, the Comptroller of the Treasury, and asked him to attend to the adjustment of my Accounts during my last Missions in Europe— He said he had hitherto been prevented from taking them up by the pressure of other business, but promised to begin upon them as soon as possible. At the Office Mr Poletica came, and introduced Mr Lomonossof, as attached to the Legation. He made some further enquiries, concerning the late Treaty with Spain; and also what explanations had taken place between this Government and that of Great-Britain, concerning the execution of Arbuthnott and Ambrister. He said that since his conversations with Mr de Neuville and me here, he had corrected some particulars of what he had written to his Government, from Philadelphia about the Treaty. He had understood that Mr Onis had given the impression, that by the letter of the Treaty, the grants of Lands to the Duke of Alagon, and others were confirmed—though Onis added it was his wish that his Government should ratify it with the explanation— I told him that I would in strict confidence shew him the Treaty itself, and gave him one of the original copies of it, with permission to take a copy of it, solely for the purpose of communicating it to his Government. He took it accordingly, and will return it, in a day or two. I told him also, all that had taken place between us and the British Government with regard to the execution of the two Englishmen; till the last Declaration of Lord Castlereagh to Mr Rush, that the British Cabinet, upon full Consideration had come to the determination to make no representation to the Government of the United States upon the subject— I gave him a copy of the pamphlet containing my Letter of 28. November last to G. W. Erving, and the documents supporting it; and promised him another— He said it was formerly the custom to give three copies of all the documents to each of the foreign Ministers— But now we have not copies of a tenth part of the documents of the two houses of Congress for the use of the Department itself. In allowing him to take a copy of the Treaty, I have shewn him an unusual mark of confidence, with a view to its effect upon himself, but still more upon the Emperor. It is only a slight anticipation, for whether ratified in Spain or not, the Treaty must be published here, at least upon the next Meeting of Congress. As the Emperor has evidently taken considerable interest, in the late events of our Relations with Spain, and wished that they might be amicably settled, it is important to satisfy him as early as possible of the fairness and Justice of our proceedings, and that if Spain now refuses the ratification of the Treaty, it will be in her own wrong. There is no doubt great delicacy, and sometimes danger in bestowing diplomatic Confidence; but crafty and fraudulent, as the trade has the reputation of being, I give it as the result of all my experience, that Confidence judiciously and cautiously bestowed, is one of the most powerful and efficacious instruments of negotiation. My prepossessions are not favourable to Poletica; but yet I think it good and safe policy to attempt in the first instance to win him by kindness; and particularly as while it will tend to recommend him to his own Sovereign, it will also tend to cultivate the friendly disposition of his Sovereign towards us— Another visitor this day was Captain José Almeida, Captain of the late Baltimore piratical privateer Louisa— He is now Captain of another Louisa Carseras, a Spanish Brig which he took, in the other Louisa; carried into the Island of Margarita; there took a clearance as a merchant vessel, armed with ten guns, and came to Baltimore with a Cargo, which he sold. He is now ready to sail, and has been libelled in the district Court, as fitting out for a cruize under Artigas Colours against Spanish 119and Portuguese Property. He came here to obtain an order to the District Attorney, to enter a nolle prosequi, and let him go. He went first to the Secretary of the Treasury, who referred him to me— He is a native of St. Michael’s one of the Azore Islands; consequently born a subject of Portugal, and is very indignant at the charge of intending to take Portuguese Property, and among his papers brought a certificate from Mr Swift the Portuguese Consul at Baltimore that he had never heard of Almeida’s having taken any such— He is a rough, open-looking, jovial Jack-tar, who can neither write nor read, but says that he lived sixteen years in Baltimore before our late War with England; during which he commanded one or more privateers out of Baltimore, and took many British vessels, which gave him a taste for privateering—but that after the Peace he went in a merchant vessel to Carthagena, where he was taken by the Spanish. They confiscated his property, and cruelly abused and maltreated his person—even to beating him— That he determined to have satisfaction of them, and so made himself a South-American. Went and commanded a Buenos-Ayrean brig of War of which he shewed me the Commission; and then fitted out his privateer Louisa at Buenos-Ayres; and with her on the Ocean took this Spanish vessel, which he now commands— He went himself on board the prize, leaving the privateer, commanded by his first Officer— It was from him that the crew took the vessel; turned pirates, and went and plundered the Isle of May, and many foreign vessels; after which they stranded and burnt her, off Charleston South Carolina. He with his prize, cleared her out from Margarita as a merchant vessel and came to Baltimore— Here at the instigation of the Spanish Consul she was seized, and he was obliged to give bail for himself and bonds for the vessel—and now just as he is ready to sail without any additional armament, and only eleven men, the vessel is libelled again, upon the information of the same man named Southerland, who had informed against him before— He had no doubt if I would give him a line to the district Attorney Mr Glenn, he would let him go; but otherwise he should have to give a thousand dollars to a lawyer to get him off; and he did not like to do that, as he was now rather short of money. I told him I was sorry I could not help him; as I could not possibly judge of the evidence upon which the vessel had been libelled— He went off saying without any appearance of ill humour, that he must then go back as he came. He did not appear to be conscious in the slightest degree that he had been doing any thing wrong— Just so it is with the Slave traders— Mr Homans brought me the papers for Captain Perry, which have been sent back by the Secretary of the Navy, with scarcely an additional line. Perry will now be despatched in two days. I received also, from Wait at Boston, all the Manuscript which had been sent to him relating to the Convention Journals—likewise a long despatch of 4. March with several voluminous documents from G. W. Erving— Very unpromising for the fate of the Treaty— Thus was another day eroded and I wrote nothing— With my wife I attended an evening party at Mrs Middleton’s— Poletica told me that the Grand Duchess Anne was to have married the Duke de Berry in 1814. but the match broke off, on the refusal to allow her a private Greek church chapel. She has since married the Prince of Orange, a Protestant—much to the mortification, says Poletica, of the Bourbons.

29. VI: Despatches from Mogadore, from Tripoli, and from the Island of Bermuda— Mr Poletica, brought back the copy of the Treaty, which I had lent him, and also copies of some of his Instructions; and one of the Protocols of the Congress at Aix-La Chapelle— It simply establishes the principle that the allied Powers will hereafter consider a Resident, as an intermediate rank in diplomatic etiquette, between Ministers of the second order, and chargés d’Affaires; and that they will communicate to one another, their respective regulations upon the subject of Salutes by Ships of War, in order to agree upon some definitive general rule to be observed by all. Poletica observed that he had communicated this Protocol, to Mr Hyde de Neuville; who had heard nothing of it— But he observed that as Mr Greuhm is here with the character of Minister Resident from Prussia, and had not been officially informed of this new regulation, if he should feel any reluctance to complying with it, he Poletica would very cheerfully yield the precedence to him— One of the Instructions that he gave me to read was from the Emperor Alexander himself— It was in the nature of a circular upon leaving Aix La Chapelle to all his Ministers in foreign Countries, and its principal object was to direct them every where to discountenance the idea, the he was the founder of the system of the European Alliance, which he says the enemies of the system 120industriously circulate with bad intentions. He says that the system arose from the course of Events, and the necessities of the times: that all were parties and all the allied Sovereigns equally entitled to the credit of it— In this instruction there is something of the Emperor’s sagacity; something of his humility, and something of his vanity; for Alexander’s humility is politic—and he is not a little vain of it— The instruction which he takes the pains of writing with his own hands, relates entirely to his own person; and his Ministers in complying with it, could not fail to set forth by a due commentary upon this wonderful self denial, and lowly-mindedness of their master the transcendent excellence of his character. The other Instructions were from the Russian Ministry, and related to various topics—one the affairs of Spain and South America; and another concerning those of the United States and Spain— Poletica is charged by all the means in his power, to promote an amicable arrangement of the latter; but no opinion is given as to the merits of the controversy— Some apprehension is expressed that the Government of the United States, yielding to popular clamours will have recognized the Independence of some of the South-American Colonies, before he arrives here; but if not, his orders are to use all his endeavours, with every suitable deference to this Government, to dissuade them from such an act of hostility to Spain— He is also instructed to use his powers of persuasion to prevail upon the Government of the United States, not to associate itself with the European Alliance, but to pursue a course of policy in harmony with them; hinting that a contrary course of policy could not be carried into effect; and that the United States whether willing or not, must follow the impulse of Europe combined— All this he communicated to me, not officially, but in perfect confidence, in return for that with which I had communicated to him the copy of the Treaty with Spain— I entered into a long conversation with him upon these various topics which is to be resumed hereafter. I assured him again of the unabated friendly disposition of this Government towards the Emperor; and of our earnest desire without being associated with the European Alliance, to pursue a course of policy entirely in harmony with theirs— That we were deeply penetrated with the importance of preserving the general tranquility of the World, and had contributed our earnest efforts to it so far, as it depended upon ourselves. That as to our differences with Spain, he had upon his arrival here found them amicably adjusted; subject only to the ratification of the King of Spain. That in agreeing to that Treaty we had made very important sacrifices of our own claims, for the sake of an amicable arrangement— Things had come to such a pass, that the only alternative was a Treaty or a rupture. If the king of Spain should ratify the Treaty, with the explanation to be given by Mr Forsyth at the Exchange of the Ratifications, there was no prospect of any interruption to the general tranquility by any relations of ours; but it was my private opinion, that if the king of Spain should decline or delay the ratification of the Treaty, Congress would at their next Session, authorize the occupation of the Florida’s, and probably there would be a recognition, at least of the Government of Buenos-Ayres— I wished him to give this information to his Government— I related to him all that has been done by us concerning the South-American question— Told him we were convinced that Buenos-Ayres at least would maintain her Independence of Spain— That sooner or later they must be recognized as an Independent power— That we had thought the time would before now have arrived when they might justly claim this as a right, but that from the time when we learnt that the allies had determined whatever might be the event of their mediation, not to use force against the South-Americans, the President had concluded that we might also forbear to take an immediate decisive part in their favour. He said there was doubtless a difference of opinion between us, on this matter— That possibly Buenos-Ayres might in the end be able totally to throw off the yoke of Spain, but that they were not competent to establish a regular and independent Government of their own. However he declared in the most positive and solemn manner, that Russia had no special alliance, or peculiarly intimate connection with Spain— That the Emperor was utterly averse to all exclusive or partial alliances, and he had no particular engagements with Spain— The ships sent to Cadix had been merely sold—a dear bargain; and without any intention of the Emperor to take side with Spain in her quarrel with the Colonies. Though he, Poletica, had not approved of that transaction— He promised hereafter to shew me all the Protocols that he had, of the Conferences at Aix La Chapelle— The hour of five stole upon our Conversation, which we agreed to resume at a future day— There was a heavy thunder shower, and I rode home— We had an Evening tea-party and dancing of Cotillions, at our house; about sixty persons came, and as many more were 121prevented from coming, by the weather. Poletica asked me this Evening, what style of address he should use, in writing official Notes or Letters— I told him, without giving any titles of honour, either to the President, or the Secretary of State— He said he had always been aware that the title of His Excellency was not suitable to the President; but he had observed it was given here to the Governors of the States, and it was every where given in Europe to the Officers corresponding to our Heads of Departments— I told him the Governors of the States were Excellencies, by the State Constitutions, but that the Constitution of the United States recognized no titles of honour, in the Officers appointed under it; and that our point of honour consisted in the exclusion of all such titles— “Praefulgebant Cassius atque Brutus, eo ipso, quod effigies eorum non visebantur.”

30. VI: Mr R. Forrest called this morning, going to Upper Marlborough, Prince George’s County— I gave him a proxy for David Craufurd to vote at the Election of Directors for the Planters Bank— Forbes also called here; and Mr and Mrs W. S. Smith. The weather was too warm for walking out, and the greater part of the day was consumed in writing the Journal of yesterday. With Mrs Adams I dined at the French Minister’s. Mr and Mrs Crawford, Mrs Middleton, Mrs Lowndes, Miss Rutledge, and the portion of the Corps Diplomatique now here were present—a company of twenty. In the Evening I lost two parties at Chess with Lomonossof— I had some conversation with Crawford upon the state of Affairs, and the late Events in Baltimore— The House of Smith and Buchanan, which has been these thirty years one of the greatest commercial Establishments in the United States, broke last week, with a crash which staggered the whole City of Baltimore, and will extend, no one knows how far— Buchanan, one of the partners, was President, and M’Culloh a creature of the house Cashier of the United States Branch Bank there. The affairs of the House appear to have been desperate for many years— But they were Tyrian Merchants—Princes—and princely expedients have they taken to save themselves from sinking— Their speculations in the United States Bank were to the amount of several hundreds of thousands of dollars, and have proved ruinous— But Buchanan and M’Culloh have used the funds of the Bank, as if they were their own— The Congressional Bank Committee of the last Session made a partial discovery of this state of Affairs, and it was found that the debts of the house to the Bank were enormous— Mr Cheves the new President of the Bank, pursued the research and found there were immense debts of the President and Cashier, not secured— He obtained such security as he could, and then the Board of Directors at Philadelphia, removed M’Culloh the cashier at Baltimore. For a day or two there was great blustering in the Baltimore newspapers, as if the grossest injustice had been done to M’Culloh; but the mine was blown up— Buchanan the President of the Branch resigned, and a debt of nine hundred thousand dollars, appears against the connection, little more than one half of which is even supposed to be effectually secured. General Smith is reported to have gone distracted, and to be confined dangerously ill in bed. This explosion has brought on others—the failures are numerous, and for heavy sums— The Presidents and Cashiers of other Banks have been playing the same game as Buchanan and M’Culloh— One Bank has suspended its payments; but is paying off its Bill of less than five dollars— The Cashier of another has been removed, and there have been runs upon several, more or less severe which they have hitherto been able to meet. The moral, political and commercial character of this City of Baltimore, has for twenty five years been formed, controuled and modified almost entirely by this House of Smith and Buchanan, their connections and dependents— It may be added that there is not a city in the Union, which has had so much apparent prosperity; or within which there has been such complication of profligacy.

31. V: Resumed the task of arranging the Convention Journals and Papers for publication— Among the papers transmitted to me by General Bloomfield was a plan of Constitution, proposed by Alexander Hamilton of New-York. At the time when the Constitution was offered to the People the principal objections against it were that it had too many features of, or as Patrick Henry expressed it with more energy than elegance, an awful squinting towards Monarchy— This objection was much urged during the whole Administration of President Washington, and that of his immediate Successor, my father. When Hamilton as Secretary of the 122Treasury came in conflict with Jefferson as Secretary of State, and consequently with Virginia, this plan of his was often alluded to in party discussions, as a proof of his propensities to Monarchy— As it has never yet been published it became a subject of extraordinary curiosity, and will again excite some public attention, on the publication of the Journals. The only remarkable features in it are that he proposes the tenure of Office, of the chief Executive Magistrate, and of the members of the Senate should be during good behaviour, which of course in ordinary cases is a tenure for life— It seems Hamilton did not formally propose this as a plan for discussion, but read it; as part of a Speech— I wrote this Evening to Mr Madison and enquired on what debate and when the Speech was delivered—with a view to print the paper, immediately after the Journal of the day. At the Office, Commodore Perry called, and I had a further long Conversation with him, upon his contemplated voyage to Venezuela, and Buenos-Ayres. I saw by the Newspapers this Evening that B. Irvine who was sent to Angostura has returned, and arrived at Philadelphia. I suppose this will make a new set of Instructions necessary for Perry. I was writing to G. W. Campbell, and to Pedersen the Danish Minister here; and as they must both be long Letters, I finished neither— There was a long and heavy thunder shower this Evening; the third, in three successive days. I received a remarkable Letter from M. M. Noah, enclosing one to him, dated 12 March last at Madrid from Richard Raynal Keene.

Day. Generally the same as the last Month— The diary, being of little comparative importance has been abridged, but not enough— No arrears have been suffered to encroach upon it; but it has occupied too large a portion of time. I should have risen at the average hour of five; perhaps even earlier, had not a new fit of giving evening parties seized upon the people here, and they consider it as a sort of affront, if I do not attend them when invited. The average rising hour has nevertheless been as early as half past five. From this to Noon is the time which I employ most to my own satisfaction; for that from Noon till five in the Evening which I spend at my Office, is hurly-burly; that is I can never determine before-hand what I shall attend to: the mail and visitors of each day usually absorbing all its Office-hours— The newspapers now engross the Evening when I spend it at home, and I have entirely ceased writing after dinner, for the Season— My progress in all important business is excessively slow, and arrears of correspondence accumulate till the correspondent is forgotten, and never answered— I have many projects of reform in the organization of the Department and the arrangement of business, which arise and flit across my mind like the shadows of a phantasmagoria; but I foresee that not one of them will ever be executed, and that I shall leave the Office as I found it—a Chaos of Confusion— My will would do better—but the flesh is weak.