John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

356 Monday 29. December. 1845.

29. VII.

Beck Hannah Murdock James— Cushing Caleb—

Mrs. Beck was here with a Petition for a Pension was a daughter one of the Pensioners of the Revolutionary War— But no Petitions were received by the House where immediately after the reading of the Journal Tibbats of Kentucky moved the suspension of the order of the day to introduce notices of Bills. Bills, and Resolutions of Instructions to Committees on taking the Question there was no quorum in the House to vote upon the motion. A Call of the House was moved and refused the appointment of a Superintendant of the Folding Room was resumed Preston King had moved last Friday that the whole subject should be referred to the Committee on Accounts with instructions to Report what effect the proposed change would have on the expenses of the House and the convenience of its Members— The Previous Question was moved and refused Thomas Smith moved to lay the whole subject on the Table rejected by yeas and nays, 68. to 76—the referrence to the Committee on Accounts, was rejected by Tellers 35759. to 82. McKay moved the referrence to a select Committee and in the mean time to postpone the election of the superintendant which after a long Debate and various instructions to the Committee was carried— A message was received from the President relating to the expenditures of the late mission to China—a joint Resolution respecting the preparation of the by an Register, was read a third time, and after some Debate on a proposed amendment referred to the Committee on Naval Affairs, the Debate on the Resolutions from the Legislature of Massachusetts concerning the Naturalization Laws was then resumed and Washington Hunt of New York made an hour speech to defend the Whigs against the charge of having countenanced or being in any manner connected with the Native American Party after which just before three o’clock the House adjourned— Mr. James H Murdock who some time since had requested my Autograph for nine ladies of Connecticut and Georgia called and I delivered them to him—these Ladies were.

Miss Mary A Hanson— Md Miss Catharine Burbank Hartford Connecticut— Mrs. James A. Ayrault, Hartford Connecticut Miss Julia Burbank Hartford Connecticut— Miss Jane Grey Burbank Georgia Miss Ellen Murdock— Maryland Miss Maria T Boardman Macon Georgia Mrs. James H. Murdock Washington City Miss Mary Elizabeth Jones Chestertown Maryland—

Mr. Caleb Cushing was also here—and had much conversation with me He said he was here only for two or three days upon some business of his own the nature of which he did not tell me— He said that we were coming again to the times of the Panama Mission which I told him I did not understand— He made inquires concerning the right of Intervention and whether according to International Law Blockades could be instituted unless between Parties are War— I supposed he had referrence to a Blockade of the Platte river said to have been proclaimed jointly by a French and British Squadron off Montevideo—and I conjectured that there was some question in our present Executive Administration—depending at the present time—and that Mr. Cushing was under an expectation of a Diplomatic Mission connected therewith— We had also some desultary conversation respecting his late Mission to China— I mentioned the Lecture which I delivered in 1842. at Boston—358concerning the War then existing between Great Britain and China in which I had avowed the opinion that in that War the right was on the side of Great Britain— That after his return from China I had heard that he in a Lecture delivered at Boston had expressed an opinion adverse to mine but was afterwards told, that he had contradicted this Statement—he said it was so that on reading my Lecture he had procured the papers laid before the British Parliament upon which my opinion had been formed and that he fully concurred with it— I asked him some questions respecting the Religion of the Chineese and their system of morals and whether among them there were any Mahometans he said there were some Mahometans among the Tartars—but of the Chinees there was very little religion excepting Confucianism. I observed that there were differences of international Law between nations modified by their systems of Religion that between Christian nations there was one system founded upon the fundamental Moral Principle of Christianity brotherly Love among men, there was another system between Christian and Mahometan nations modified by the Mahometan Principle the Unity of God and the creed that Mahomet is his Prophet with the further doctrine that this Creed may be imposed upon the rest of mankind by force—that there was still another system with the Chinees, and I asked what was the fundamental principle of morals with them? he said it was the relation of authority and obedience, between Parent and Child, he said also that the words of Jesus upon the Cross “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” were to the very letter in the Cyropædia of Zenophon and he intimated that the Christian Doctrine was fully comprised in the discourses of Socrates—which I think is not quite correct—