John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

26. V. Close of 1. Session 20. Congress— Ride— Evening Thunder gust.

The two Houses had adjourned to meet at 6. this Morning— I rode up to the Capitol with my Son John, and found Mr Southard there. Thirteen enrolled Bills had been sent to me yesterday which I had signed. The Senate this Morning confirmed the nomination of Peter B Porter, as Secretary of War, and all the other nominations that I had sent excepting the army brevet promotions, which were laid upon the table— There is a growing opinion that all breveting in time of Peace ought to be abolished, and a proposition to that effect has been before the Senate great part of this Session; but not definitively discussed— I immediately wrote to General Porter tendering to him the Commission of Secretary of War— About half past Seven O’ Clock a joint Committee, Mr Macon and Mr Woodbury of the Senate, and Mr Dickinson and John C. Wright of the House of Representatives came and informed me that the two House, unless I had any further communication to make to them were ready to adjourn. I requested them to present my respects to the Houses and inform them that I had no further communication to make— They immediately afterwards adjourned, and I rode round by the Navy Yard home— Several of the members of both Houses came and took leave of me at the Capitol, and in the course of the day the Senators King M’Kinley, and Chambers, and the members of the House of Representatives Vance, Garnsey, Turner, John C Wright, Sloane, James Clark, Buckner, Strong, and Mercer called and took leave at my house. The day was otherwise one of crowded and multifarious business— Major Nourse the Chief Clerk of the War Department came for directions concerning it— A Letter of Appointment as acting Secretary of War was made out for Mr Southard and signed. Coll Jones the Adjutant Genl brought me the draft of a General order announcing the appointment of General Macomb as Major General of the Army; and requiring all Officers and Soldiers of the Army to obey, and respect him as such— He said that as General Scott had intimated some intention of active 553disobedience, in the event of General Macomb’s appointment, this Order would mark it more strongly— He shewed me the 61st. and 62d. Articles of War, upon which Scott’s pretensions to command are founded, but which appear to me to be decisive against them— I thought it however proper that the Order should issue, and look the draft for consideration. I told Coll. Jones that General Macomb should resign his Office as Chief Engineer and accept in writing that of Major General— The Coll. also brought me a list of promotions, consequent upon General Macomb’s removal from the Engineer Department which I took for consideration. Mr Derrick brought me a draft of a Letter from Mr Clay to C. Pinkney now at Baltimore, informing him that it had been necessary to appoint at Secretary to the Mission at St. Petersburg, in his place; which I approved— I signed and gave to Mr Southard his Letter of Appointment as acting Secretary of War, and gave him the Adjutant General’s draft of an Order to the Army and list of promotions, for consideration— I also observed that I proposed to send him a Letter, directing the issuing of the General Order, to be placed on the Records of the War Department, and in the Evening I accordingly wrote such a Letter— Governor Barbour called, and spoke of his arrangements for his departure upon his mission— He asked me to accept his Saddle Horse, for which he expects to have no further use, and sent him this Evening to my Stable— I sent for Mr M’lean the Postmaster General, who came and I had a long conversation with him respecting the Post-Office at Philadelphia. I told him that the attempt of Bache to draw the funds of the public from the Bank, after he had been removed was essentially a fraud— That I must confidentially say to him, that the conduct of his Agent Simpson, and of Newman the Chief Clerk of the Post-Office, had been very exceptionable on that occasion, and that of Mr T. Sergeant the new Postmaster at least very inefficient. I told him that Mr Sergeant’s position was a very awkward one in the conflict between his public duties and his private sympathies, and that I thought he ought voluntarily to withdraw from it— Mr M’lean said he wished to God he had never been appointed to it, but added that Simpson was a man of most excellent character, in whom he had unbounded confidence; he was perfectly sure there could have been no remissness in him— I told him of the repugnance of Newman to making the affidavit which was necessary to obtain the injunction to the Bank, which arrested the payment of Bache’s checks, and that Newman had said Simpson knew of this sum deposited in Bache’s private Account in Bank, and did not wish it to be meddled with— Mr M’lean said it was impossible. If Newman had said so he must have misrepresented Simpson’s conduct; and he repeated his declarations of entire confidence in Simpson, as an honest and religious man— I advised him to enquire into the facts, and to have both Simpson and Newman examined upon Oath concerning them which he promised to do. Mr M’lean was still extremely anxious to justify the Department from any laches in this affair, and somewhat disposed to cast upon Bradley the Assistant Postmaster General the extraordinary indulgences which have been allowed to Bache— As yet this affair thickens as it proceeds— Mr Mercer the member of the House from Virginia, called on me a second time this Evening to speak upon the subject of General Scott and General Macomb— Mercer is a Virginian and a friend of Scott— He is also very unfriendly to Macomb, of whose character he spoke in very disparaging terms. Said that his courage was very doubtful— That Coll. Snelling averred that his conduct at Plattsburg had been contemptible. That his pretence of being a Citizen of New-York was false; because he was born in the territory of Michigan— That as Chief Engineer his conduct had occasioned all the difficulties in the Surveys for internal improvements. That he had degraded himself by accepting the office of Chief Engineer with a rank of Colonel, and that the nomination of him had turned 25 votes in the House of Representatives in favour of abolishing the Office— He proposed therefore that at the demand of General Scott, a Court Martial should be assembled, and that General Macomb and General Scott should engage to abide by their decision— I heard him entirely through, and then observed 554that I had been compelled to examine the question of rank, between Generals Gaines and Scott, and had seriously perused all that they had written on the subject of their controversy— That I had come to the conclusion that the conclusive argument was on the side of General Gaines, but I had as long as possible avoided deciding the question. It was however decided by the appointment of Macomb, for the same principle invoked by Gaines against Scott was good for Macomb against Gaines; and of this he was so sensible that he had cheerfully acquiesced in the appointment of Macomb— I took the Senior Officer in the Line of the Army— I considered the brevet as a privilege of distinction honourable to him who obtained it by gallant atchievement, but invidious in its effect to set aside the Seniority of others— This invidious portion of its operation ought in justice to be limited to the Letter of the Law, and not extended by construction— The Law specifies when brevet rank shall give command over an Officer senior by Commission— It excludes from such command, whenever it is not expressly given— It is given only to regimental Officers; it is silent with regard to General Officers and silence withholds command— I shall not therefore submit this question to a Court Martial— I had decided it myself, and would disapprove the proceedings of any Court-martial, which should so decide— General Scott must take his own course, and I shall take mine as my duty may require. The question cannot be decided by a Court-martial, for every Officer upon it would be interested in the issue on one side or the other— The board of Officers convened by Mr Monroe at the close of his administration had declined answering it, on that account— As to Macomb’s character I had never known any thing against him, and I viewed in a different light, his descending to take the character of Commander of the faithful Engineers— As an honourable submission to the laws of the Land— That if Macomb was born in Michigan, he was a Citizen of the State of New-York, and by that means had been first nominated to the Senate for the army Mercer replied that the case was more difficult than he had imagined— That his object had been if possible to pacify and conciliate the parties; and that Scott’s alternative would be to resign his Commission— This has been a harrassing day; but I perceived a tamarind heaving up the earth in the centre of tumbler N 2. and I planted in Tumbler N 1. 3. whole Hautboy Strawberries.