- Baker. Rev
d.David - Handy
- Duval— Gabriel
- Everett. Edward
- Garnsey— Daniel D.
- Duval. W. B.
- Pearce Dutee J
- Whipple.
- Bateman Ephraim
- Tucker— Ebenezer
- Brook Samuel
Mr
Baker the Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, and Mr Handy the
Treasurer called and paid me 300 dollars on Account of the debt due from
that Society to me— Judge Duval
of the Supreme Court paid a morning visit, not having arrived here when
the other judges came on the first day of their Session— Mr
Everett called to make enquiry concerning an infamous
calumny upon me contained in a note to an electioneering life of
General Jackson, published
by Isaac Hill, Editor of a Newspaper
in New-Hampshire. It is that while in Russia, I attempted to make use of
a beautiful girl to seduce the passions of the Emperor Alexander, and sway him to
political purposes— This is a new form of Slander—one of the thousand
malicious lies which outvenom all the worms of Nile, and are circulated in every
part of the Country, in newspapers and pamphlets. I told Mr Everett the incident upon which this tale
was raised. That when we went to Russia, a very beautiful girl, a native
of Boston named Martha Godfrey
went with us, as Chambermaid to my
wife and nurse to our Son Charles then a child two years old. Soon after our
arrival at St. Petersburg Martha wrote a
Letter perhaps to her mother, relating
Stories that she had heard there of the Emperor’s amours and
gallantries. This Letter having been sent to the Post-Office, was
according to the custom there opened, and sent as a curiosity to the
Emperor, who was diverted with it and shewed it to the Empress— They both felt a
curiosity to see the girls who had written this Letter; and some of the
Ladies of the Court who had visited Mrs
Adams having seen Charles, with his nurse, had spoken to the Empress of
both in such manner as still further to excite her curiosity— The
Empress had a Sister then living with her, the Princess Amelia of Baden— She
expressed a wish to see Charles, and he was sent one morning to her
Apartment in the Palace— Martha his Nurse went with him; and while they
were in the Princess’s Apartment, the Emperor and Empress both went
there, and passed perhaps ten minutes in talking to the child, and at
the same time they had an opportunity of seeing the Nurse, whose Letter
had afforded them some amusement— It is from this trivial incident, that
this base imputation has been trumped up— There never was any other
foundation for it— Martha Godfrey was a girl of irreproachable conduct—
She returned to the United States with Mrs
Smith; married a very respectable musical instrument maker
in Boston, and died there within the last three or four years— Mr
Garnsey, member of the House from the western part of the
State of New-York came to ask me the question whether I was a Mason 417This question absorbs all others upon the
electioneering canvas in that part of the Country; and the Slander
mongers there disregarding all other lies there only pledge their words,
and their oaths that they know me to be a Mason— Garnsey told me that he
was himself one; and he gave me to understand that in the event of the
formation of a new Territory carved out of Michigan, he would like the
Appointment of Governor to it— Governor
Duval of Florida came to take leave; being about to return
to his Territory. Mr Pearce of Rhode-Island came to introduce
Mr
Whipple of that State. Mr Bateman a Senator and
Mr
Tucker a member of the House from New-Jersey, brought a
recommendation numerously signed by members of the Legislature of the
State, of Gershom Mott, as
Collector at Burlington, in the place of Samuel Howell who is about to resign. Samuel Brook of the Treasury came to
shew me a Letter from his friend Thomas
Shillatoe, whom he had introduced to me last Summer— I
signed an order for his discharge from prison of Robert Carter, a mulatto boy, at
Alexandria confined for theft, for which he has been whipped.