John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

356

5. IV. Round Capitol Square.

Barber. Noyes Bates Isaac B Brent. William L Bryan John H Bunner— Rudolph Condict. Lewis Daniel. Henry Gale. Levin Gurley— Henry W Hunt. Jonathan Johnson. Jeromus Kerr— John Leeds M’lean. William Mercer Charles F Merwin Orange Pearce— Dutee J Pierson— Isaac Polk James K Phelps Elisha Plant— David Rives— William C Sloane. John Taliaferro. John

I have little sleep— Between two and three O’Clock this morning I awoke, and finding on looking at my watch by Moonlight, returned to bed and lay till four, when I arose—finished reading the proceedings of the Court Martial on the trial of Master Commandant William Carter, for habitual drunkenness— The Court Sentence him to be Cashiered and disqualified from ever serving in the Navy which sentence I confirmed. I wrote till after Sunrise, and then walked round the Capitol Square. From breakfast till dinner I had a succession of visitors whose names as far as I can recollect them are in the margin. 32 members of the House of Representatives 14 Senators, and eight others— There are probably several omissions, and some mistakes of names; particularly among the Strangers whom I had not seen before— The alphabetical order of the names of members is imperfect, some of the names at first omitted occurring to my recollection after the others have been written down. It is not the order in which they come. Montandon brought back my Penelope Clock, which he has so many times unsuccessfully attempted to repair— Mr Brent introduced Mr Boyer a young Frenchman from Louisiana— Mr Hayne brought with him his little Son— Mr Henderson came with Mr Pearce of Rhode-Island. He is the husband that was of Coll. John Laurens’s daughter; and a claimant before Congress for compensation of his Services on a Mission extraordinary to France in 1781. Mr Raguet thanked me for the manner in which I had noticed his conduct as Charge d’Affaires at Rio de Janeiro in demanding without waiting for Instructions his Passports and coming home— I had mentioned it in the Message to Congress, had given him credit for the purity and patriotism of his motives, and said I had not disapproved his movement— Mr Gurley introduced Coll    and Coll. Washington. Mr    who he said was from the Eastern shore of Maryland. With the members of Congress who called in the morning I had conversation only

357 Locke— John Reed. John Taylor— John W Verplanck Gulian C Vinton Samuel T Washington. George C Whittlesey— Elisha Wickliffe. Charles A Wilson. Ephraim K. Dickerson. Mahlon Ellis Powhatan Hayne— Robert Y Knight. Nehemiah R King— William R M’Kinley Macon Nathanael Ridgeley. Henry M Robbins— Asher Seymour— Horatio Smith— Samuel Smith— William Williams Thomas M Woodbury— Levi Montandon Boyer of Louisiana Hayne’s Son Raguet Condy Henderson Horning Maxwell Earl

upon indifferent topics: Mr Taylor called in the Evening, and gave me some particulars, of the election for Speaker— His failure was again owing to the defection among the members from his own State of New-York—of their thirty-two votes besides his own, he obtained not more than twelve— Oakley was absent. He lost eight or ten votes upon which he had counted, some of which were given by persons who had voluntarily told him within three days that they would vote for him— Stevenson solicited the votes of the friends of the Administration, and obtained several votes of Tariff men, by promising to appoint a Committee in favour of that measure, though himself deadly hostile to it. Taylor thinks there is no question that may arise, on which the Administration can expect a stronger vote than that for him as Speaker— He said he was willing to do any thing in his power for its support; but he thought it would be best to leave to the opposition, to move the usual distribution of the message into parcels for reference to Committees. These are appointed by the Speaker, and Stevenson would appoint them in such manner, as to indulge his own rancour and that of his party, and yet affect an appearance of impartiality— Stevenson is one of those men, whom troublous times always push into consequence and distinction—men of talents—of characters black with private infamy—detected—exposed—and yet maintaining their popularity and rising to power on the ruin of honour and virtue— Giles the present Governor of Virginia, and Ingham of Pennsylvania, are of the same class of Politicians— I told Taylor that I thought it quite immaterial, by whom the distribution of the message should be moved— The disposal of the business would depend upon the composition of the Committees, and Stevenson’s impartiality in the appointment of these would be like that of Vice President Calhoun, at the first Session of the last Congress— Taylor supposed that the part of the message relating to the Colonial trade question might be referred to a Committee of Commerce who might make a Report of censure upon the administration relating to it: this is quite probable, but I said they could make no Report which the minority of the Committee could not easily refute by a Counter-report— Taylor spoke also of the state of Affairs in New-York— Of De Witt Clinton’s coalition with Van Buren, which he is satisfied was arranged more than a year ago— Of Sanford’s pertinacious refusal, to take any part in sustaining the General Administration, and of the inactivity and timidity of our friends there. He says Sanford intends to be the candidate for Governor at their next Election, and has spent the Summer in travelling about the State to make friends. His neutrality was to avoid giving offence to either party— Taylor mentioned also a conversation he had with Tallmadge upon the subject of appointments in the State of New-York— He says Tallmadge has for the present abandoned the pursuit of politics, and returned to his practice at the bar. Mr Taliaferro this morning spoke with surprize of a decision in the Senate yesterday confirming the appointment of Duff Green, as Printer to that body— This man is Editor of the Telegraph Newspaper, a scurrilous and abusive print, set up by and for the opposition— The vote in Senate was 25 to 19. and Barton and Sanford were among the votes in Green’s favour— Wickliffe of Kentuckey, who introduced Daniel, said I had carved out in the Message much work for Congress to do— I said I had stated to them the present condition of public affairs: it was for them to determine what work they would do. He spoke of the claims of the Revolutionary Officers, and said he thought Congress should do something for them, if they knew what it was— I thought it a very simple enquiry, and a very urgent duty— I signed Commissions for one Captain, one Lieutenant, and 8 Ensigns of Infantry, 2d Legion 1st. brigade of the Militia of the District of Columbia— Wrote also a short Message N. 1. to the Senate, enclosing a Report from the Secretary of the Navy, with documents required by a Resolution of the Senate of 19. February last, relating to the expenses incurred under the Act of 2 March 1819 for prohibiting the Slave-trade— I closed the Evening again soon after nine with the view to rise again to-morrow morning at four.