John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

9. VI: Mr Bailey went this Morning to Alexandria where he found Mr William Foster junr. of Boston, going in the Steam-Boat to Norfolk— He gave him the Letter to the Collector on the Assurance that he would deliver it in person. I called at the President’s, and met there Mr Calhoun and Mr Thompson. The President is still deliberating upon the selection of Commissioners upon the Claims under the Florida Treaty. Among the persons recommended is Peter Jay Munro of New-York, who was a friend and Correspondent of mine, from 1783 to 1785. since which latter period I have never seen him more than once or twice— We started in life together; being within a few Months of the same age. He was in Europe with his uncle John Jay, during our revolutionary war, and it was at the negotiation of the Peace at Paris, in 1783, when I was there with my father, that I became acquainted with him. Mr Munro has been a practising lawyer in the City of New-York, with a very good, but not a brilliant reputation. The Vice President Tompkins was one of his pupils, and two or three years since earnestly recommended him, for the Office of U.S. District Judge in New-York— He has now written a Letter to the President, and two to me, one public and one private, very urgent for his appointment as one of these Commissioners. I read the Letters to me, to the President, but the Secretary of the Navy, immediately objected to the appointment. He said he knew the Vice-President had a great partiality for Munro, but he was an unsteady man, who in Politicks had been all round the compass— I told the President all the motives that I had for favouring Mr Munro. The friendship of early life— His relation to Mr John Jay, one of the most distinguished founders of our national Independence, and the energy of the Vice President’s recommendation— The President still proposes to deliberate on this selection— I wrote to the Spanish Minister General Vives; informing him of the appointment of Coll. J. G. Forbes, as Commissioner to receive the Florida Archives, and the order of delivery from the Governor of Cuba, and requesting him to send me the Royal Order to the Governor, and a Letter from himself to introduce Coll. Forbes to the Governor. Mr Clay called at the Office— He is pressing upon the President, his claim for a half outfit for the Negotiation of the commercial Convention of 3. July 1815 with Great-Britain. I told him I thought it could not be allowed, without a special appropriation for it by Congress, to which he said he did not know that he should have any objection. But he wants the money now. Clay is one of the Commissioners for taking my Answers to interrogatories in the case of Levett Harris against W. D. Lewis— I agreed if I could have them ready in time to call at the Capitol, where he is in attendance on the Supreme Court, and be sworn to them, Monday or Tuesday. I had some conversation with him on political topics, and on his own present retirement from public life. I asked him if it would be consistent with his views, in case there should within two or three years be a vacancy in any of the Missions abroad, to accept an appointment to it— He said he was obliged to me for the question, but it would not— The state of his private affairs, and his duty to his family had dictated to him the determination of a temporary retirement from the public Service. But by a liberal arrangement with him, the Bank of the United States had engaged him as their standing Counsel in the States of Kentucky and Ohio. He expected that in the course of three or four years this would relieve him from all the engagements in which he had been involved and enable him to return to the Public Service— In that case he should prefer over all others the Station from which he had just retired, a Seat in the House of Representatives, because that would be the place where he could hope to render the most useful service, to the Country. But he said he considered the situation of our Public Affairs now, as very critical and dangerous, to the Administration— Mr Monroe had just been re-elected with apparent unanimity; but he had not the slightest influence in Congress— His Career was considered as closed— There was nothing further to be expected by him or from him. Looking at Congress, they were a collection of materials, and how much good, and 551how much evil might be done with them, accordingly as they should be well or ill directed. But henceforth there was and would not be a man in the United States possessing less personal influence over them than the President— I saw Mr Clay’s drift in these remarks which was to magnify his own importance, and to propitiate me, in favour of his outfit claim— His total forbearance of attack upon me, either by himself or his underlings in the late Session of Congress, and his advance through Mr Brush, I attribute to the same cause. I told him the President must rely as he had done upon the public sentiment and upright intention to support him, and with these his Administration must get along as well as it could— He said he regretted that his views had differed from those of the Administration in relation to South-American Affairs— He hoped however that this difference would now be shortly over. But he was concerned to see indications of unfriendly dispositions towards the South-Americans, in our naval Officers, who were sent to the Pacific, and he was apprehensive they would get into some quarrel there which might alienate the minds of the People in the two Countries from each other— I said the Instructions to the naval Officers were as positive and pointed as words could make them, to avoid everything of that kind— I hoped no such event would occur, as we could have no possible motive for quarreling with the South-Americans— I also regretted the difference between his views and those of the Administration, upon South-American Affairs. That the final issue of their present struggle would be their entire Independence of Spain I had never doubted. That it was our true policy and our duty to take no part in the contest I was equally clear. The principle of neutrality to all foreign Wars, was in my opinion fundamental to the continuance of our Liberties and of our Union— So far as they were contending for Independence I wished well to their cause; but I had seen and yet see no prospect that they would establish free or liberal Institutions of Government. They are not likely to promote the Spirit either of Freedom or of Order by their example. They have not the first Elements of good or of free Government. Arbitrary Power, Military and Ecclesiastical was stamped upon their education, upon their habits and upon all their Institutions. Civil dissension was infused into all their seminal principles; War and mutual destruction was in every member of their organization; moral, political and physical— I had little expectation of any beneficial result to this Country from any future connection with them, political or commercial— We should derive no improvement to our own Institutions by any communion with theirs— Nor was there any appearance of a disposition in them to take any political lesson from us. As to the commercial connection I agreed with him that little weight should be allowed to arguments of mere pecuniary interest; but there was no basis for much traffic between us— They want none of our productions, and we could afford to purchase very few of theirs.— Of these opinions, both his and mine, Time must be the test; but I would candidly acknowledge, nothing had hitherto occurred to weaken in my mind the view which I had taken of this subject from the first— He did not pursue the discussion. Clay is an eloquent man with very popular manners, and great political management. He is like almost all the eminent men of this Country only half educated— His school has been the world, and in that he is a proficient. His morals, public and private are loose, but he has all the virtues indispensable to a popular man. As he is the first very distinguished man that the Western Country has presented as a Statesman to the Union, they are proportionably proud of him, and being a native of Virginia, he has all the benefit of that Clanish preference which Virginia has always given to her Sons. Clay’s temper is impetuous and his Ambition impatient— He has long since marked me as the principal rival in his way, and has taken no more pains to disguise his hostility, than was necessary for decorum, and to avoid shocking the public opinion— His future fortune and mine are in wiser hands than ours; 552I have never even defensively repelled his attacks. Clay has large and liberal views of public Affairs, and that sort of generosity which attaches individuals to his person. As President of the Union his Administration would be a perpetual succession of intrigue and management with the Legislature.— It would also be sectional in its Spirit, and sacrifice all other interests to those of the Western Country, and the Slave-holders. But his principles relative to internal improvements would produce results honourable and useful to the Nation. We spent this Evening at Mr William Lee’s.