John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

17. III.30. V. Morning visit from President Quincy, to whom I delivered all the papers, relating to the Observatory at Cambridge, which it was my business to prepare, but which I have not been able to get ready. I mean it was my business to prepare an address to the friends & supporters of this establishment with a view to a subscription, making provision, for the support of an observer who it is desired should be Mr Bond who now performs the duties of that Office & resides at the dwelling house connected with it but without other compensation. The failure of my health, has prevented me from executing this duty, & I thankfully accepted the offer of Mr Quincy to undertake it for me. Mr J. G. Palfrey also called to see me, but I was out. I called at the Tremont House & enquired for Mr. Hackett to return to him his manuscript with my answer to his letter received some weeks since, but he was no longer lodging there, nor do they know his return is to be expected. I received invitations to dine next Saturday from Mr. F. C. Gray & from Mr Edward Everett, the first of which I accepted, & declined the second, also an invitation from Coln. Swett to name a day of this or the next week to dine with him, for which I answered by naming next Friday. He invited us also, to call & see his pictures, which I did with my daughter, at one oclock this day. I am reading the Correspondence of Edmund Burke recently published, in 4 volumes, & in the 2d volume page 281. I find a letter from Dr John Curry, an Irish Roman Catholic dated the 6. August 1779 in which he informs him of a present a bill of three hundred guineas offered to him by a meeting of the Roman Catholics & at page 290. a letter from Mr Anthony Dermott, dated 9th. August of the same year, enclosing a bill for 300 guineas, in part of a sum of 500, in consequence of an unanimous resolution at a meeting of the Roman Catholics of which they pray his acceptance as a mark of their gratitude for the many eminent services he had rendered their body & he adds that as soon as in cash he shall have the pleasure to send him a Bill for the remaining 200 guineas. 291 is the answer of Mr Burke, declining to receive the present & he says “it is impossible for me with any agreement to my sense of propriety to accept any sort of compensation for services which I may endeavor to do upon a publick account. If the bill you allude to should come before you receive this I must return it by post, to the gentleman who transmits it” & in page 295, is the answer to Mr Dermott dated August 17. returning the bill as he had received it. I note especially this correspondence, to mark my approbation of the principle involved in this transaction. His services for which this offer of a private gratuity was made where performed in the discharge of his duties as a member of Parliament, the refusal to receive it was the act of a lofty, & independent spirit, the most creditable in him, as his circumstances in life were far from affluent. His friend Charles Fox was not so scrupulous, he permitted his friends, to pay his debts for him. His great rival & adversary William Pitt had the same offer made to him which he rejected. There may be some casuistical argument for and against the acceptance of large & costly presents under such circumstances, but for the preservation of a pure, disin 305terested character my opinion is, that they should always be refused in this however, I do not mean to include articles of trifling value, being unwilling to stake a great principle on a very small object. I dined with Robert C. Winthrop in company with 14 persons, among whom were Mr & Mrs Edward Everett, Dr: J. C. Warren & his wife, Sister to Mr Winthrop, & Mr & Mrs Lyell, Mr Lyell is an english Geologist who traveled in this Country, some three or four years ago, & then delivered, & is now delivering, Lectures on Geology, with great acceptance. Mr I. P. Davis, was also one of the party. The gentlemen & ladies, arose from table at the same time, a laudable practise growing into fashion in this City, but not yet unusual. I returned home soon after nine oclock