John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

30. IV. Tuesday.

Lieutt. Adams was here, and Mrs Adams went again upon a fishing party at the Creek— I wrote a short Letter to S. L. Gouverneur at New-York, returning to him the Papers which he had sent me some weeks since; which were 1. A Letter from John Rhea of Tennessee to James Monroe, dated in June last (a copy) copy of a Letter from Mr Gouverneur, to W. Wirt, asking his advice, whether this Letter should be shewn to Mr Monroe; who was then drawing fast to his end— Two original Letters from Mr Wirt, in answer, urging very earnestly that the Letter of Rhea should be shewn to Mr Monroe— Copy of a declaration of Mr Monroe attested by two witnesses; and solemnly denying the Truth of Rhea’s Statement— I have retained copies of Rhea’s Letter, and of Mr Monroe’s declaration contradicting it.— There is a depth of depravity in this Transaction, at which the heart sickens— A total disregard to Truth, is chargeable upon so many men of the very highest standing, in this age and Country as well as in all others; that in the estimation of the world, it seems scarcely to carry with it an imputation— But the working up of a circumstantial fabrication, by practising upon the driveling dotage of a political parasite is beyond the comprehension of an honest mind. Jackson’s excessive anxiety to rest the justification of his invasion of Florida, upon a secret, collusive and unconstitutional correspondence with Mr Monroe, can be explained only by an effort to quiet the stings of his conscience for the baseness of his ingratitude to me— Writhing under the consciousness of the return which he has made to me; for saving him from public indignation, and defending him triumphantly against the vengeance of Britain and Spain, the Impeachment of Congress, the disavowal of Mr Monroe, and the Court Martial of Calhoun and Crawford, he struggles to bring his cause before the world and before posterity upon another basis— This basis is itself as rotten as his own heart— It is that his conquest of Florida, was undertaken and accomplished, not as I had successfully contended for him, upon principles, warranted by the Laws of Nations, and consistent with the Constitution of the United States, but by a secret fraudulent concert between him and Mr Monroe, in direct violation of the Constitution, and of all its conservative principles.— To establish this he resorts to his own unprincipled Letter, which I never saw, to the recreant desperation of Crawford, and to the ravenous imbecillity of John Rhea—he has succeeded with them both—both have made themselves by impudent, unblushing falsehoods Pandars to his unnatural Passions, and to glut his revenge upon me, for benefits such as he never received from any other man he has been labouring not only to blast the good name of Mr Monroe, but to cover with infamy his own— His moral perceptions are so confused, and decomposed by his convulsive Passions, that in his eagerness to throw off his obligations to me, and to ruin the reputation of Mr Monroe, he blinds himself entirely to the inevitable recoil upon himself. It is fortunate that Mr Monroe lived and retained his faculties to make a solemn and authentic declaration of the total falsehood of John Rhea’s abominable statement. 258This afternoon Joseph Blunt came in from New-York by the way of Newport, New-Bedford and Hyannis—going to Boston for a few days; to look to the publication of the next volume of his Annual Register— He urged me much for the chapter, which I had undertaken to furnish for him, and I told him the reasons which have prevented me from the accomplishment of the work hitherto, and the delay which will be un-avoidable still. He stops to pass the Night here, and told me that the National Republicans in New-York were satisfied since the result of the Elections in Kentucky, that there was no prospect of success in the Election of Mr Clay to the Presidency; and that it would be advisable to fix upon another Candidate.— He spoke of Mr Webster and Chief-Justice Marshall; and supposed, if there should be a nomination of me by the Anti-Masonic Convention at Baltimore, my name would also come before the Convention to meet there next December; of which Blunt himself is a Member I told him the Anti-masons had not until within a very few days thought of me any where; and now I apprehended it was too late— I was apprehensive that they would not agree; and that their party would fall off to different Candidates to the ruin of their Cause.