John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

20416. V:30. Mr Greuhm, the Prussian Minister Resident came this morning, and informed me that he had come to the determination to be married in the course of a few days to Miss Bridon; upon which I offered him my congratulations and my best wishes. He said he was tired of living a wandering and solitary life, as he had done these ten years— Solitude always distant from his natural friends and kindred, and continually removing from one set of acquaintance to another, had become irksome to him. He wanted somebody to love; and he had found the tastes and sentiments and habits of Miss Bridon so congenial to his own, that he had made up his mind to marry her. He had also received from his Government, a leave of absence, of which he should avail himself next Spring; and in the meantime, Mr Middleton had been so obliging as to let them have his house at Kalorama. He also told me much of the history of his own life, and of that of his intended Bride, whose father had been wealthy, and had given her an excellent education; but having by an unfortunate speculation lost his whole fortune in one day, and shortly after died, had left his widow and two daughters entirely destitute; and Miss Bridon had been obliged to maintain herself as Governess to an American family, with whom she came from France; and since then at Mr Middleton’s— Greuhm himself is a native of Darmstadt; but has been ever since the year 1797 in the Prussian Service— At Noon, after a mere call at the Office, I attended at the President’s where Mr Crawford and Mr Wirt soon afterwards came— The President read to us, the portion of his Message that he has prepared, and which was very little more than what he read to me last week— It must in all probability undergo, an entirely new Modification on its principal topic, our relations with Spain, upon the arrival of the Hornet, which I still hope will be before the Meeting of Congress— The recommendation of the President is to consider the Treaty as if it was ratified, and to carry it into execution in the same manner— He had drawn two concluding paragraphs referring to the contingency that Spain should assume a hostile attitude; one of which was in general terms; and the other more explicit; glancing at the propriety of occupying the territory between the Sabine and the Rio Bravo— Crawford preferred the general expressions, and told a Story about old Governor Telfair of Georgia, who having got into a sharp correspondence with some Officer, and looking over a draft of a Letter which his Secretary had prepared for him to the Officer, pointed to a paragraph which struck him as too high toned, and told his Secretary he would thank him to make that passage “a little more mysterious.” We all laughed very heartily at the joke, which so pleased Crawford that he told the Story over again in detail—but it was good upon repetition— He said he had been conversing with Mr Lowndes, who told him that both in England and France, every body with whom he had conversed, appeared to be profoundly impressed with the idea, that we were an ambitious and encroaching people; and he thought we ought to be very guarded and moderate in our policy to remove this impression— I said I doubted whether we ought to give ourselves any concern about it— Great Britain after vilifying us twenty years as a mean low-minded, pedlaring Nation having no generous ambition and no God but gold, had now changed her tone and was endeavouring to alarm the world at the gigantic grasp of our ambition— Spain had been doing the same; and Europe who even since the commencement of our Government under the present Constitution had seen those Nations intriguing with the Indians and negotiating to bound us by the Ohio, had first been startled by our acquisition of Louisiana, and now by our pretension to extend to the South Sea; and readily gave credit to the envious and jealous clamour of Spain and England against our ambition— Nothing that we could do or say would remove this 205impression, until the world shall be familiarized with the idea of considering our proper dominion to be the Continent of North America. From the time when we became an independent people, it was as much a Law of Nature that this should become our pretension as that the Mississippi should flow to the sea— Spain had possessions upon our Southern and Great Britain upon our Northern border— It was impossible that centuries should elapse without finding them annexed to the United States— Not that any spirit of encroachment or ambition on our part renders it necessary; but because it is a physical, moral and political absurdity that such fragments of territory, with Sovereigns at fifteen hundred miles beyond sea, worthless and burdensome to their owners should exist permanently contiguous to a great, powerful, enterprizing and rapidly growing Nation. Most of the Spanish territory which had been in our neighbourhood, had already become our own; by the most unexceptionable of all acquisitions; fair purchase, for a valuable consideration. This rendered it still more unavoidable that the remainder of the Continent should ultimately be ours. But it is very lately that we have distinctly seen this ourselves; very lately that we have avowed the pretension of extending to the South-Sea; and until Europe shall find it a settled geographical element that the United States and North-America are identical, any effort on our part to reason the world out of a belief that we are ambitious, will have no other effect than to convince them that we add to our ambition, hypocrisy— Crawford spoke of an Article in the last Edinburgh Review, defending us against this charge of Ambition; but if the world do not hold us for Romans, they will take us for Jews, and of the two vices I had rather be charged with that which has greatness mingled in its composition— On the part of the Message relating to the South Americans there was little said. Crawford said he had met Torres last Evening at General Mason’s, and he had told him, that the change in Venezuela, by which Arismendi had been placed at the head of the civil Government, would be for the better; and give them new energy— The message makes an advance towards a recognition, of Buenos-Ayres, Chili and Venezuela; but not more than is warranted by circumstances. There were two or three short paragraphs in the draft relating to the late prevalence of the yellow fever—to the drought, and the pecuniary embarrassments of the Country. They closed with consolatory assurances that these evils had in a great measure ceased— Crawford and Wirt both objected that this would be thought as regarded the money concerns a flattering representation; and the President said he would substitute in part removed, instead of a great measure. This introduced a desultory conversation, upon various topics, and particularly upon the Report which Crawford is to make to Congress upon the currency— He said that scarcely any of the State Banks to whom he had applied for returns of the state of their affairs had made them; and he must wait to receive copies of those which they were obliged to make to the respective State Legislatures— I spoke to the President and took his directions concerning several of the current affairs of the Office— On my return to it I found Dr Thornton there. He lent me several volumes of the Philosophical Transactions; and among the rest the volume for 1768. containing the account of Bird’s admeasurement of the old French Toise; which I read this Evening— The Journal of the day employed the rest of it, and was not completed— Cardelli below.