John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

23. VIII: A. Livermore and W. Plumer junr. members of the House of Representatives from New-Hampshire called upon me, and conversing on the Missouri-Slave question, which at this time agitates Congress and the Nation, asked my opinion of the propriety of agreeing to a compromise. The division in Congress and the Nation is nearly equal on both sides. The argument on the free side is the moral and political duty of preventing the extension of Slavery in the immense Country from the Mississippi river to the South-Sea. The argument on the Slave side, is that Congress have no power by the Constitution to prohibit Slavery in any State, and the zealots say not in any territory. The proposed compromise is to admit Missouri, and hereafter Arkansaw, as States without any restrictions upon them regarding Slavery; but to prohibit the future introduction of Slaves in all territories of the United States North of 36:30 Latitude— I told these Gentlemen, that my opinion was, the question could be settled no otherwise than by a compromise— The regulation, exclusion, or abolition of Slavery in the system of our Union, is among the Powers reserved to the People of the several States by their separate Governments; though I have no doubt that Congress have Constitutional powers to prohibit any internal traffic in Slaves, between one State and another— In the States where Slavery does not exist, neither Congress, nor the State Legislature nor the People have any rightful power to establish it. For the admission into the Union of a State where no Slavery exists, Congress may prescribe as a condition that Slavery shall never be established in it; as they have done, to the States of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; but where it exists, and where there are already Slaves in great numbers, as in Missouri and Arkansaw, the power of extirpating it is not given to Congress by the Constitution. To proscribe Slavery therefore in Missouri and Arkansaw I believe to be impracticable— But if a provision can be obtained excluding the introduction of Slaves into future territories, it will be a great and important point secured— I apprehend 271however that Livermore and Plumer did not concur with me in opinion. Mr Roberts the Senator from Pennsylvania came to the Office with Captain Mulloney of Philadelphia, one of the general Candidates for Office, to whom no place with a good Salary could come amiss— Mr G. A. Otis, my sometime fellow passenger in the ship Washington, since which he has been unfortunate in commercial concerns, which has qualified him for any spare consulate abroad, present or to come, and in the meantime he is planting literary laurels, and has published at Philadelphia, a translation of the last of the Abbe de Pradt’s occasional Books on the Politics of Europe— Otis sent me one of his Books, and one for the President. He has now taken in hand Botta’s History of the American Revolution. Coll. Morrison likewise called at the Office— I was at the President’s, and spoke to him about the Slave-dealers North and South—Robbins and Collins in Rhode-Island, and the Indian agent D. B. Mitchell in Georgia— The President said he would ask Mr Calhoun to send Mitchell a copy of the charges against him; and notice that they must be investigated— He thought also that the District Attorney must have an opportunity to repel the charges against him; and requested me to ask one of his friends to inform him that some enquiry must be had into them, unless he should prefer to resign his Office— Mrs Adams was unwell all this day, and the latter part of it confined to her bed. I therefore did not attend the Drawing Room this Evening at the President’s.