John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

9. VI:30. Note from H. Clay. Heard Little, from Ecclesiastes 7:23.—“I said I will be wise; but it was far from me.”— And in the afternoon, at Mr Baker’s, a Son of Dr Mason, formerly of New-York, from Hebrews 11.1. [“]Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”— This discourse was not uneloquent, but the learning and morality, and instructiveness of Mr Little’s Sermon was more satisfactory to me— In the interval between the two Services I visited J. W. Taylor and A. H. Tracy. They are speculating upon the approaching event still without conclusive materials for judgment. I received a Letter from James Tallmadge, now Lieutenant Governor of New-York; at Albany. 7Mr Clay came at 6. and spent the Evening with me, in a long Conversation explanatory of the past, and prospective of the future— He said that the time was drawing near, when the choice must be made in the House of Representatives, of a President, from the three Candidates presented by the electoral College. That he had been much urged and solicited with regard to the part in that transaction that he should take, and had not been five minutes landed at his lodgings, before he had been applied to, by a friend of Mr Crawford’s, in a manner so gross that it had disgusted him— That some of my friends also, disclaiming indeed to have any authority from me, had repeatedly applied to him directly or indirectly, urging considerations personal to himself as motives to his course— He had thought it best to reserve some time his determination to himself. First, to give a decent time for his own funeral solemnities as a Candidate; and secondly to prepare and predispose all his friends to a state of neutrality between the three Candidates who would be before the House, so that they might be free ultimately to take that course which might be most conducive to the Public Interest— The time had now come, at which he might be explicit in his communication with me, and he had for that purpose asked this confidential interview— He wished me as far as I might think proper to satisfy him with regard to some principles of great public importance, but without any personal considerations for himself— In the question to come before the House, between General Jackson, Mr Crawford and myself, he had no hesitation in saying that his preference would be for me.