John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

III:45. Monday. 13.

Nathan and Dorcas Allen were here this morning— He had not yet made up the subscription for the balance between 330 and 475 dollars— General Walter Smith of Georgetown having promised to endorse Allen’s note for the former sum, if he could procure the remainder to pay Birch for a Bill of Sale of the woman and the two children.— But he said that General Smith had examined at the Registry of Wills, Davis’s Will, and that by the Will the woman and children were bequeathed to Davis’s wife, and therefore her second wife husband had an undoubted right to sell them— I told him that whenever the Bill of sale should be ready, I would give the check for 50 dollars which I had promised— He came again twice in the course of the day—once while I was out, and again after I returned— He then told me that Birch had again taken the two children, and put them into the jail; and would carry them away, if the money was not paid— That General Smith now said, if I would pay the fifty dollars, he would undertake with the other subscriptions, to pay the whole sum and take the bill of sale.— He repeated that General Smith was entirely satisfied with the validity of Birch’s title, and that he had the right to make the sale— I then gave him the check for 50 dollars in Bills payable in Bills at the Bank of Washington to Walter Smith Esqr or his order; and told him when the affair should be completed to bring me the Bill of sale that I may see it— I could pursue the question of Birch’s title no further, without becoming liable to the imputation of shrinking from my own promise, and prevaricating upon the performance of my engagement— Yet I still doubt the legality of the sale to Birch, and whether the complete emancipation of the woman and children will be effected— I could not take the course of the Law, for Mr Key told me that if upon a writ of Habeas Corpus Birch’s title 386title should be disproved, still as they were slaves they could not be discharged— Such is the condition of things in these shambles of human flesh, that I could not now expose this whole horrible transaction, but at the hazard of my life— Any attempt to set aside this purchase for illegality would be stigmatized as mean and dishonourable— Iniquity must have its whole range— I therefore made the promise of 50 dollars, for their emancipation, and have now paid it, without even being sure of effecting it—rather than attempt, to bereave the man-robber of his spoils— I went to the Office of the National Intelligencer, saw Mr Seaton, and revised the proof slips of my speech on the 29th. of September, upon Pickens’s motion for reconsideration of the vote passing to the third reading, the Bill to postpone the fourth instalment of the deposite with the States, under the act of 23 June 1836. the question was upon the reconsideration of the vote— The argument was upon my amendment to Pickens’s Amendment— It is to be published to-morrow Morning, and will occupy not more than three Columns and an half of the paper. Mr Seaton gave me some of the last Boston Newspapers, full of the bustle of electioneering— At the dusk of Evening I went and passed an hour with Mr and Mrs. W. S. Smith.— Answered Letters from Solomon Lincoln, and J. William Ellis—