Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 6
1836-01-21
Fine day. I went to the Office and found that the public was all alive upon the subject of a Special Message which General Jackson has sent in to Congress about the French affairs. I did not get it. At the Office where I was engaged in making up Arrears of Diary that fell behind in consequence of my other occupations this week. Mr. Wild, my tenant called in to pay his rent. No other interruption. I did this day insist upon a long walk and felt the better for it. My health begins to call loudly for regular exercise.
Home, Livy. Mr. E. Everett dined with us and I was as civil to him as possible. My heart is now softened towards him. He has miseries which make him a pitiable object. Afternoon reading part of Hooke’s history of Rome,1 but I felt the effect of my last night’s vigil. Also Voltaire, to whose letters I am almost enslaved.
314Evening, Goethe who to me is tiresome. Then to Mr. Frothingham’s, where was a meeting of the family. Edward and P. C. Brooks with his Wife, Mr. Brooks, and ourselves. Supper and home.
In MQA is JQA’s set of Nathaniel Hooke’s Roman History ... to the Ruins of the Commonwealth, 11 vols., London, 1818.
1836-01-22
A Southerly wind and melting. Read the special Message with attention and the letter of the Due de Broglie about which so much has been said.1 This whole business has been awkwardly managed from the commencement and the blundering diplomacy of one side has not been equal to the tricky equivocations of the other. It being however quite clear to me that substantial justice is upon the side of the government I have no sort of hesitation as to the course I should as an individual adopt. The President is disposed to recommend nonintercourse. The House of Representatives will adopt it but the decision of the Senate will depend very much upon Mr. Webster’s. He will vacillate as usual, and then go with the tide. In the mean time, the Country looks on astonished. Mr. Calhoun has sprung the fence in furious opposition and Mr. Clay will follow him.
I was engaged in Accounts and Diary. Walk, but home late to read Livy. I therefore made up the deficiency after dinner. Voltaire.
Evening went out to Mrs. S. R. Miller’s, a small party called a sociable which are ordinarily stiff and disagreeable enough. President and Mrs. Quincy together with many more of the Quincys, but not Edmund nor Mrs. Greene. Miss Miller and E. C. Adams, Mrs. Lloyd and so forth. Tolerable. Home at ten.
The text of the special Message from the President sent to the Congress on 15 Jan. was printed in the National Intelligencer, 19 Jan., p. 3, cols. 1–2, and in the Columbian Centinel on 22 Jan., p. 2, cols. 3–4. In it the President reported the refusal of the French government to settle the indemnity claims of the United States amounting to $25,000,000. He therefore recommended such measures as nonimportation of French goods, the exclusion of French vessels from American ports, increased appropriations for defense, and stronger measures if these were ineffectual.
At the same time the New York newspapers published the text of a letter from the Due de Broglie to his chargé d’affaires at Washington, M. Pageot, 17 June 1835, with directions that it be read to the Secretary of State. The existence of the letter, conciliatory in tone, had not earlier been made known though hinted at, and it was alleged that the President had refused to receive the letter or acknowledge its existence. Critics of the President held that the letter offered the means toward an amicable settlement of differences, asking only as a preliminary to payment an explanation from the American government that it had not intended to call in question the good faith of France (Columbian Centinel, 21 Jan., p. 2, cols. 1, 3–5; National Intelligencer, 22 Jan., p. 2, cols. 1–3, p. 3, col. 2).