John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

24. VI:45. James Barbour, a Senator from Virginia, and Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations of the Senate came and spoke of the proceedings of the Senate upon the Convention, and of the motion made by him for removing the injunction of Secresy from all the proceedings. I observed to him that it was desirable the injunction should be removed by the Senate, with regard to their own proceedings; but some question would remain whether they could publish the confidential communications of the President to them— Mr Barbour said he had seen the President who was willing and desirous that all his communications to the Senate should be published. Mr James Lloyd, Senator from Massachusetts, who came in while I was in this Conversation with Barbour said that the proceedings of the Senate on the Convention, if published alone, without the documents from the President, would be unintelligible, the yeas and nays always having reference to the Convention communicated— Mr Barbour concluded to press for the publication of the whole— Mr Lloyd made some enquiries respecting the remonstrance of the Chargé d’Affaires of Spain, Salmon, against certain decisions of the Florida Treaty Commissioners— I told him that the paper had barely been sent to the Commissioners, without comment, the Executive Government disclaiming all controul over, or interference with their decisions— Mr Edward Livingston came to urge the immediate appointment of a District judge for Louisiana, in the place of John Dick, deceased— He named several persons—Watts, Harper, Davizac, and Thomas Bolling Robertson, the present Governor of Louisiana, whose term of service will expire at the end of the present year. Livingston said he was afraid, if Robertson was appointed that he would accept conditionally, and thus keep the Office vacant upwards of a year, for it has already been more than half a year vacant, judge Dick’s illness, having disabled him from holding any Court. Livingston said too that Robertson had so many of the wild Virginia notions about the judiciary, that he feared he would do mischief on the Bench— He spoke well of all the other Candidates, whom he named; and of Smith, the District Attorney—but especially so of Davizac, his wife’s brother, whose appointment he said would be peculiarly gratifying to all the French part of the population— Mr. A. B. Woodward came, and spoke upon his project for the establishment of a Home Department, and also of a Quarto Volume, written by him and printed at Philadelphia, a copy of which I had yesterday received for him and sent it this morning to my Office— He told me he had never 335seen it, though it was printed at Philadelphia, for him— At the office there was a succession of visitors— Hayden of New-York, and M’Duffie of South Carolina, members of the house came to take leave. M’Duffie, having reference to the Presidential Election said he was returning to Carolina, and as there might be in the Legislature of that State a contested support of Mr Crawford and of me, he should be glad, if I had no objection to stating them, to know my sentiments upon the Tariff policy. I told them freely— That it was one of those subjects in which great opposing interests were to be conciliated by a Spirit of mutual accommodation and concession— I was satisfied with the Tariff bill as it has passed, because it appeared to me to have been elaborated precisely to that point. I thought I had seen in it an admirable illustration of the practical operation of our National Government. The two parties had contested every inch of the ground between them with great ardour and ability; and the details of the bill had finally brought them to questions decided by the casting vote of the presiding Officer in each house; and an adjustment by conference between the two houses— With the result it was reasonable to expect that both parties would be satisfied. M’Duffie appeared to be well satisfied with it himself, and he said that the final vote upon it in the house gave a majority of fifty votes in its favour— I told him that there was another subject, upon which my opinions had been greatly misrepresented in the Southern Country, with a view to excite local prejudices against me. It was upon the Slave question generally and the Missouri Restriction particularly— My opinion had been against the proposed restriction in Missouri, as contravening, both the Constitution, and the Louisiana Treaty. This was the first Missouri question— The second was upon an Article introduced into the Constitution of the State of Missouri, which I thought contrary to the Constitution of the United States. I then stated explicitly what my opinions had been upon both questions, and noticed the artifice of the misrepresentation which from my opposition to the Article in the Missouri Constitution inferred my having favoured the restriction. I added that the Article of the Missouri Constitution required the Legislature of that State to do precisely what the Legislature of his own State of South Carolina, had since done—and which Judge William Johnson, a native and Citizen of the State itself had pronounced to be contrary to the Constitution of the United States— M’Duffie said he had no doubt it was so; and was very glad I had given him this explanation. I called at the President’s, and spoke of the Brazilian chargé d’Affaires, whom he had determined to receive to-morrow. I advised that we should first ascertain whether the Brazilian Government considered itself bound by the Treaties of Portugal with Great-Britain for the suppression of the Slave-trade; and whether the Emperor was disposed to suppress the trade itself— To this the President agreed; and on returning to the Office, I sent for Rebello, who immediately came— He said the Emperor had declared by a Proclamation, set forth in the succinct narrative furnished me by Rebello himself, that he considered himself bound by all the Treaties of Portugal previously concluded; and added that he would send me an extract from his Instructions, in which the Emperors disposition for the total abolition of the traffic was pronounced in the most decisive manner— I asked him what number of Slaves had been introduced into Brazil in the course of the last year. He said from seven to eight thousand— What was the proportion of black and coloured people in Brazil to the whites? four or five to one— Under what flag the trade was now carried on to Brazil?— He said it was in vessels which bore the Portugueze flag at the Settlements, in Africa, where they procured the Slaves, and whence they departed, but took the Brazilian flag upon arriving in the Ports of Brazil— He said also that the importations were now confined to such as are shipped from places more than five degrees South of the Equator, where existing Establishments embracing large masses of property would require time to admit of their being totally broken up— He afterwards sent me, a note including the extract from his Instructions, and a reference to the Emperor’s Proclamation, which he had mentioned— Young Hodgson called at the Office, and had a Portugueze pamphlet, a 336periodical work published in Brazil, in which there were several Essays for and against the abolition of the Slave-trade— Those in favour of the abolition, having been written by Mr Rebello himself, who was the Judge of the mixed Commission under the Treaty with Great Britain at Rio de Janeiro— David Trimble, member of the House from Kentucky came and took leave. He spoke of his earnestness in support of the election of Mr Clay to the Presidency; and said he hoped there was less of personal animosity between him and me than there had been heretofore— I told him there never had been on my part, any animosity, other than that which Mr Clay had chosen to raise— Trimble said he did not wish to enter upon this subject, and after some other remarks said all he could tell me was that of the Candidates before the public; for the Presidency, Mr Clay would be his first choice; but I should not be his last— He meant I should take this as a proof of his friendly disposition to me. John Edwards, Mr Southard, Baron Stackelberg and Wyer were here. I had a pardon made out for Perez, which I sent to the President to sign— But the President chose to reserve it, and directed me to write to the District Attorney Tillotson— Edwards was with me, when I sent Thruston to the President with the pardon; and when he came back with the direction to write instead of the pardon signed, Edwards seemed as if he was going into a convulsion— He at last wept abundantly— I told him kindly that he must not suffer himself to be so much agitated; to make himself easy, and be assured that the man would ultimately be pardoned— Southard came to say that the President inclined to the appointment of judge W. P. Van Ness as fourth Auditor, and asked if I had any objection— I said I wished the President would appoint him; chiefly to get him out of his present Office, where his discordancy with judge Thomson the Circuit judge was very pernicious, besides other Considerations— Stackelberg came to speak of his intended departure; and to enquire what Salvage is allowed in the United States upon recaptured vessels— In the Evening, walking out I met N. Biddle, the President of U.S. Bank, with Asbury Dickens— Mr Crawford was taken ill again on Saturday Night, and keeps his bed— I called on Alexander Hamilton, at the President’s request, to ask if he was now ready to consider his resignation as taking effect; so that the nomination of Worthington might be renewed— He said yes; but that Worthington would be rejected by the Senate, and was moreover incompetent— After I returned home George Sullivan came and past the remainder of the Evening with me.