Mrs Elizabeth
Baker, Revd. Isaac Hunter of Michigan.
D. Brent twice a Mr
Rankin, of Tennessee, T.
Cook, A. B.
Woodward, H. Clay.
Genl.
Brown with Genl. Gaines and Lieut. Butler. Captain Isaiah Deane, Genl. Brown again, with Genl.
Wilkin heretofore M.H.R. from New-York. James Barbour, and R. B. Maury— These visitors absorbed
the day from eight in the morning till half past four P.M— I walked a
quarter of an hour, and we dined— After dinner, I rode with my Son
John to Greenleaf’s Point— Mr Clay, Mrs. Johnstons of Louisiana,
Mr and Mrs
Frye, Mr and Mrs W. S. Smith, and Linnaeus Smith spent the Evening with
us— Johnson Hellen returned to
Rockville—
Jackson came to solicit a Clerkship— Mrs
Baker to intreat me to release her husband, committed to a loathsome jail, yesterday, by an
order of Judge Thruston, for
the indecency of beating a child of his own on a Sunday— Mr Hunter to ask for contribution for
building a Methodist Church at Detroit in the Michigan Territory. Mr T. Cook, merely for a visit— Judge
Woodward, to shew me Letters he had received from Mr
Jefferson, and Mr Madison relating to the
Author of the Constitution of Virginia— He also shewed me a Letter from
my father—and I read to him in
Niles’s Register of133of last June, my
father’s Letter to Nathan Webb of
12. October 1755. Mr Woodward spoke of his
project for the Establishment of a Department of the Interior; which I
told him I thought Congress would not for some time Sanction— I
mentioned to him the reason assigned to me by Mr Monroe,
for omitting the recommendation of it, in his last annual message. Which
was that having recommended in the same Message an increase of the
Judges of the Supreme Court, he was apprehensive it would have too much
the appearance of a projecting Spirit to recommend also additions to the
Executive Department— Mr Clay informed me
that Mr
Addington had requested that I would appoint a time to
receive him, to make a communication from his Government of
congratulation upon my Election— I fixed to-morrow at one O’Clock, but
observed that if it was a written communication, a copy of it should be
previously furnished to the Department of State— Mr Brent afterwards made enquiry of Mr Addington, and found it was only an Instruction from the
foreign Department— Mr Clay observed that
his health was so much affected, and he was so confident of deriving
benefit from a Journey, as he always had under the same complaint, that
he proposed, preparing Instructions for Mr R. King, upon the single
point of the Slave-Indemnity Commision, and to postpone the remaining
topics, until after his return from Kentucky; so that Mr King may embark without delay— To this I
readily assented, convinced that it would occasion no real delay. It was
also agreed that Mr Somerville should be allowed
to postpone his departure for Sweden, till July or August to accomplish
his matrimonial project with Miss Cora
Livingston at New-Orleans. His Salary not to commence till
he shall depart upon his Mission— Despatch from James Brown at Paris with confidential
copies of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Zea-Bermudez’s answer to the
notification from the British Cabinet of their intention to recognize
the South-American Independents; and of a Letter from London, shewing
the dissatisfaction of Russia, Austria and Prussia, at the British
recognition— Genl. Brown’s two visits with
Gaines and Butler, and with Wilkins were merely of civility— Mr Barbour, brought the papers of two
Officers in the army, brevet Major
Lomax, and Captain R. L.
Baker, who claim to be restored to rank which they lost by
transfer at their own proposal; and of a question concerning the
purchase of ordnance; whether from the same founderies as for several
years back; or by advertisement and competition.