6 February 1830
adams-john10 Neal Millikan Elections, Presidential 1832
365

6. IV:30. Saturday.

Hadley. Frothingham Johns Kinsey. Naudain Arnold Sergeant John Chambers Ezekl. F.

I found the weather colder to my feelings this morning than it had been any other day this winter— Upon my return, after Sun rise upon suspending my thermometer in a Northern exposition it fell to 12 above 0. afterwards I suspended it at a Northern window: it rose afternoon to 20 and fell again in the Evening to 14. Mr Hadley came for a subscription to a Society for publishing Religious Tracts which I declined— Mr Frothingham paid a morning visit— Said he had a Letter from his wife; which mentioned that the prospects of Mrs Brooks’s health were very discouraging— Mr Johns, member of the House of Representatives from Delaware came and introduced Dr Naudain the newly elected Senator from that State. Coll. Chambers Senator from Maryland came with Mr John Sergeant of Philadelphia. Mr Chambers 366told me that he proposed calling on me to-morrow, with an old acquaintance of mine by the name of Gilpin— All the members of Congress, are full of rumours respecting the volcanic state of the Administration— A busy-body Presbyterian Clergyman of Philadelphia named Ezra Styles Ely, is the principal mischief-maker in the affairs of Mr and Mrs Eaton. He has been called here for the third time to pacify internal commotions. He was here several days, but went away without accomplishing any thing— The President had determined to remove Branch, the Secretary of the Navy; but H. L. White the Senator from Tennessee, and it is said Edward Livingston went in deputation to the President and informed him that if Mr Branch should be dismissed, the Senators from North-Carolina would join the opposition, and all the dubious nominations now before the Senate would be rejected. H was also given to understand that Ingham the Secretary of the Treasury and Berrien, the Attorney General would resign— He concluded therefore to retain Mr Branch, and become a Mediator between him and Eaton to bring them to speaking terms together. Such is their present state—Ingham, Branch, Berrien, Towson have given large Evening parties to which Mrs Eaton is not invited— On the other hand the President makes her doubly conspicuous by an overdisplay of notice— At the last drawing room the Night before last she had a crowd gathered round her, and was made the public gaze— But Mrs Donelson, wife to the President’s private Secretary, and who lives at the President’s House, held no conversation with her. The Administration party is split up into a blue and a green faction, upon this point of morals; but the explosion has hitherto been deferred: Calhoun heads the Moral Party— Van Buren that of the frail sisterhood; and he is notoriously engaged in canvassing for the Presidency by paying his Court to Mrs Eaton— He uses personal influence with the wives of his partisans to prevail upon them to countenance this woman by visiting her— There is a story current here which whether true or false is significant of the general estimate of Van Buren’s character. It is that he asked for a private conversation with Mrs Donelson, and for three quarters of an hour urged her with pathetic eloquence to visit Mrs Eaton— That she defended as well as she could her own course; but being no match for him at sophisticating, she at last said—Mr Van Buren, I have always been taught that “Honesty is the best Policy”— Upon which he immediately started up; took his hat and departed— Mrs Eaton is as much a character as Van Buren— Dr. Sim and his wife are among her enemies— They live next door to her, and in a house leased by her husband. About a fortnight since Mrs Donelson was visiting Mrs Sim, and Mrs Eaton saw the carriage standing before the door— The next day Dr Sim received notice from Eaton, to quit forthwith the house, though his lease will not expire till next December— The story goes that a day or two afterwards, Mrs Eaton, telling her millaner; a Mrs Williams, of the notice given to Dr Sim to quit, said “if it had not been for that d——d old granny, nothing of all this would have happened”— Whether she spoke those or the like words on that occasion or not, is uncertain, but it is her Style of conversation—and there are many speeches of the same kind reported about the Country; as genuine examples of her ordinary discourse— John’s told me that when 367she went to Philadelphia first, last Summer, she went to the same boarding house where he was lodging— That his landlady asked him if he was acquainted with Mrs Eaton, to which he answered that he was not, and did not wish to be— The second time she went to Philadelphia, though Mrs Barry the Postmaster General’s wife was with her, the same Landlady declined receiving her— I read this morning from the 4th. to the 16th Letter of the 4th. book of the Epistles to Atticus— They speak of the Dialogues de Oratore, and of those de Republica which were composed about that time— There is a curious passage about Britain in the sixteenth Letter—

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