John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

15. VII. W. Plumer a member from New-Hampshire was here this Morning— He said Webster had spoken to him yesterday, and intimated that the Committee would report altogether in favour of Mr Crawford— That upon the charges of Mr Edwards he had substantially justified himself; and there was no ground for censure at least of a serious nature upon him— That as to his charge upon Edwards, they considered that as a personal affair, into which they would not enter— It was a quarrel between two individual Officers of the Government, which Congress were under no necessity of deciding— As this decision would bear heavily upon Edwards, he and Cook would be wanting to mingle the Presidential question with it, and to get the friends of the other Candidates to oppose the report in the house, and censure it without doors— But it was best to separate it from the Presidential question altogether; and to let Edwards fall, upon his own demerits— And it was desirable that the Editors of the Newspapers friendly to me have a hint to take that course, representing the whole affair as the Report will do, and leave 319Edwards to his fate— I said the Committee might report to the house with regard to the charges against Mr Crawford, as favourably as they could. His defence, with regard to the management of the public funds was strong; that against the charge of withholding and suppressing documents, with the exception of the case of D. B. Mitchell’s negro smuggling upon which he says nothing, is plausible, and with a spirit of liberality and candour may be accepted as sufficient— Some circumstances which had a suspicious appearance, and upon which Edwards in his charges emphatically dwelt, are fully explained. He himself had in substance retracted a great portion of the indirect and ambiguous charge of perjury against Edwards made in his Report to the house of Representatives of 22. March last— But he has not retracted the whole of it, and although he has adduced argument and circumstantial evidence to prove that he did not in 1819. receive Edwards’s publication in the St. Louis Enquirer, he has not explicitly denied it, nor has he given any sufficient reason for making that attack upon Edwards— That attack was the first public blow, in the quarrel, and if Edwards had the feelings of a man it was impossible he should not return it— To sacrifice Edwards is not the way for the Committee or the House, to avoid taking part in this quarrel— I desired Plumer to say to Mr Webster, that far from inducing any friends of mine to countenance such a report, I should consider it as the most revolting injustice. That if the Committee meant to do justice between man and man, they ought to direct the Attendance of Mr Crawford before them; put him upon oath to answer whether he did or did not receive in the autumn of 1819. the publication of Mr Edwards in the Newspaper—either from Edwards himself or from Stephenson the receiver of public monies, and President of the Edwardsville Bank. Whatever else Mr Crawford in his reply had justified, he had not even palliated his attack upon Edwards— And if he should be sacrificed by the report of the Committee, they would only make themselves the tools of Mr Crawford’s resentments— I should give no countenance directly or indirectly to that. He said he understood that Livingston was drawing the report, and Webster was to revise it— Randolph went off the day before yesterday, for England; and Floyd is sick— Livingston and Webster were making up the report between themselves, and were rather shy of the other members— Plumer said Webster had also spoken to him about the Presidential Election— Had told him that he should conform to the opinion of the State—but without taking much interest in the question— He was not for breaking terms with any party upon the subject— His object was the introduction of federalists into power— For himself he was not ambitious; he was growing old, and would readily yield up any pretensions of his own, if Jeremiah Mason, could be promoted— He thought the Attorney General’s place, would be a very good one for Mason— He did not exactly like the selection of Genl. Jackson for Vice-President— And his opinion of Mr Calhoun had during the present Session of Congress very much depretiated— He thought Richard Rush, would be a very Suitable Vice-President— Plumer said he supposed that was to make a vacancy in the Mission to Great-Britain, which Webster would be willing to fill himself— I told him it would not be necessary to make Rush Vice-President for that— He was at all Events coming home—perhaps this next Summer—but if not, certainly at the close of this Administration— The objections to Rush as Vice President with a Northern President were, to taking both the Officers from non-slave holding States; both from the same great Section of the Country— There was no person who could be substituted for Jackson to fill the Vice-Presidency— No man who had so solid a mass of popularity to secure in support of the Administration. He would be satisfied, and so would substantially his friends, to be Vice-President, and as my supporters must oppose him for the Presidency, the only way that they could manifest their regard for him, and their respect for his services was to vote for him as Vice-President— Plumer concurred in this opinion— While he was here Mr Livermore, another member 320from New-Hampshire came to tell me that he was exceedingly afraid of the effect of setting up Genl. Jackson as Vice-President, on account of a passage in one of his Letters to Mr Monroe, in one of his Letters just published wherein he says he would have hung the three principal leaders of the Hartford Convention as Spies— I told Livermore they must set it off in favour of the fine Sentiments in the same Letter, for putting down the Monster party. It was a hasty and undigested sentiment, thrown out in the privacy of a confidential Letter, and it was hardly fair to hold him responsible for it— Livermore said he was satisfied— He had only been afraid, as there would be two tickets made up, at their meeting of the Legislature in June, that the name of General Jackson annexed to mine, might rather tend to weigh down than assist it— I said the Vice-Presidency was a station in which the General could hang no one; and in which he would need to quarrel with no one— His name and character would serve to restore the forgotten dignity of the place, and it would afford an easy and dignified retirement to his old age— T. Newton, member from Virginia, came with a draft of a Report as Chairman of the Committee of Commerce—upon Breck’s Resolution to enquire if any Law, exists, contravening the Convention of 1815. with Great-Britain— He affirms there does not and in answer to the British complaint, avers that rolled as well as hammered iron, is imported from other Countries as well as from Great-Britain— The returns of Commerce under Sanford’s Law, for the year ending last September shew a considerable importation of rolled iron from Sweden, and a small one from Russia— I told Newton I wished he would add a brief argument to shew that rolled and hammered iron were not the like Articles: but he did not incline to this— Mr George Hay called as he not unfrequently does, seemingly to enquire for news, and to sound opinions— He spoke of Mr Crawford’s answer to Edwards’s Address as very unsatisfactory, and upon some observations that I made referring to points upon which I thought it a good defence, he said I was rather more candid and charitable towards Mr Crawford than he was— At the Office, Mr John Mason junr. came and introduced to me a Mr Dias, of New-York, a Citizen of the United States of many years standing, but a native of France, who had a claim before the Florida Treaty Commission which they have rejected, he thinks unjustly— He took up an hour perhaps in detailing over to me all the circumstances relating to it, and concluded by asking my interposition to prevail upon the Commissioners to reconsider and admit his claim— Saying he had heard I had so interfered, and effectually in a case of Messrs. Perkins and Lloyd— I told him he had been misinformed. I had interfered in no case, and the Executive Government had no coutroul over the decisions of the Commission— In one case only when the Commissioners had doubts upon the construction of a clause in the Treaty—they had written to me a Letter of enquiry which I had answered— Mr Dias left with me several pamphlets relating to his claim, and to the repeated decisions of the Commissioners against it— Mr Andrew Dunlap of Boston paid me a visit. He is here as a political speculator. Mr Gallaudet to ask for employment— G. B. English, the same, and exposing his fathers necessities and his own. If the President concludes to proceed in the idea of a naval Negotiation with the Capitan Pasha, he wishes to be employed in it, or at least to write to his Dragoman, of whom he made a high eulogy— Mr W. C. Bradley, member from Vermont, called to take leave— Going for home to-morrow— He spoke of the late Commissioner C. P. Van Ness’s claim for Salary, higher than the Law of Congress allows; to be considered as speedily as possible. Pleasonton had proposed a trial at Law; but that he thought would not answer— Bradley said too that Storrs had intimated to him, that in my Letter of Instruction to R. Rush last Summer, 321upon the North-eastern boundary, I had censured the whole proceedings of the Commission under the 5th. Article of the Ghent Treaty, so as to include the American Commissioner and Agent in the censure— I told Bradley I had no such intention— I had considered the conduct of the British Commissioner and Agent as absolutely shameful— And had pointed at transactions of the Commission resulting from it, as unfit, for the credit of both parties to be laid before a third party, being a foreign Sovereign— Bradley said he had been utterly ashamed of them himself. I told him, I would sometime when he had leisure, shew him the Instruction itself— Storrs, as a member of the Committee of Foreign Relations, of the House, obtained the perusal of the Instruction, by the confidential communication of it to the Committee, and this is the use he has made of it. Yet Coll. Dwight, who is very intimate with Storrs, and himself an open, generous-hearted man, believes Storrs to be much my friend— Walking after dinner, I met Cushman and walked with him. Then D. P. Cook, and finally Alexander Hamilton, who walked with me to my door— I told him of the accident, which had occasioned the nomination of W. G. D. Worthington, as Land-commissioner in East-Florida, in his place— His Letter of the 1st. instt. to Mr Crawford, withdrawing the tender of his resignation, not having been communicated to the President; which I attributed to the disorder in the Treasury Department, incident to Mr Crawford’s indisposition— I told Hamilton I should on Monday advise the President to send his Report and Documents, with a Message, to the House of Representatives— I received this day a Letter from Joseph E. Sprague, Salem; with a copy of Coll. Pickering’s review of the Cunningham Correspondence; just published.