Mr. Little of Maryland, a friend of gen. Jackson, as spiracy, of which he was the organ. They advised, they have certified, "that he never intended to charge therefore, that he should make a retreat, and their Mr. Clay with corruption or dishonor, in his intended adroitness suggested that, in an objection to that juvote for Mr. Adams as president, or that he had trans-risdiction of the house, which had been admitted, ferred, or could transfer, the votes or interests of and in the popular topics of the freedom of the press, his friends; that he, (Mr. Kremer), was among the his duty to his constituents, and the inequality in the last men in the nation to make such a charge against condition of the speaker of the house and a member Mr. Clay; and that his letter was never intended to on the floor, plausible means might be found to deconvey the idea given to it." Mr. Digges, a highly ceive the ignorant, and conceal his disgrace. A larespectable inhabitant of this city, has certified to bored communication was accordingly prepared by the same declarations of Mr. Kremer. them, in Mr. Kremer's name, and transmitted to the committee, founded upon these suggestions. Thus, the valiant champion, who had boldly stepped forward, and promised, as a representative of the people, to "cry aloud and spare not," forgot all his gratuitous gallantry and boasted patriotism, and sunk at once into profound silence. A message was also conveyed to me, during the discussions, through a member of the house, to ascertain if I would be satisfied with an explanation which was put on paper and shown me, and which, it was stated, Mr. Kremer was willing, in his place, to make. I replied that the matter was in the possession of the house. I was afterwards told that Mr. Ingham, of With these remarks, I will, for the present, leave Pennsylvania, got hold of that paper, put it in his him, and proceed to assign the reasons to you, to pocket, and that he advised Mr. Kremer to take no whom alone I admit myself to be officially responstep without the approbation of his friends. Mr. sible, for the vote which I gave on the presidential Cook, of Illinois, moved an adjournment of the house, election. The first inquiry which it behoved me on information which he received of the probability to make was, as to the influence which ought to be of Mr. K's making a satisfactory atonement, on the exerted, on my judgment, by the relative state of the next day, for the injury which he had done me, which electoral votes which the three returned candidates I have no doubt he would have made, if he had been brought into the house, from the colleges. General left to the impulses of his native honesty. The house Jackson obtained 99, Mr. Adams 84, and Mr. Crawdecided to refer my communication to a committee, ford 41. Ought the fact of a plurality being given to and adjourned until the next day to appoint it by bal- one of the candidates to have any, and what, weight? lot. In the mean time Mr. Kremer had taken, I pre- If the constitution had intended that it should have sume, or rather there had been forced upon him, the been decisive, the constitution would have made it advice of his friends, and I heard no more of the apo-decisive, and interdicted the exercise of any discrelogy. A committee was appointed of seven gentle- tion on the part of the house of representatives. The men, of whom not one was my political friend, but constitution has not so ordained, but, on the contrary, who were among the most eminent members of the it has provided, that, "from the persons having the body. I received no summons or notification from highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of the committee, from its first organization to its final those voted for as president, the house of representadissolution, but Mr. Kremer was called upon by it to tives shall choose, immediately, by ballot, a president." bring forward his proofs. For one moment be pleas- Thus a discretion is necessarily invested in the house; ed to stop here and contemplate his posture, his rela- for choice implies examination, comparison, judgtion to the house and to me, and the high obligations ment. The fact, therefore, that one of the three under which he had voluntarily placed himself. He persons was the highest returned, not being, by the was a member of one of the most august assemblies constitution of the country, conclusive upon the judgupon earth, of which he was bound to defend the pu- ment of the house, it still remains to determine what rity, or expose the corruption, by every consideration is the true degree of weight belonging to it? It has which ought to influence a patriot bosom. A most been contended that it should operate, if not as an responsible and highly important constitutional duty instruction, at least in the nature of one, and that, was to be performed by that asssembly. He had in this form, it should control the judgment of the chosen, in an anonymous letter, to bring against its house. But this is the same argument of conclusivepresiding officer, charges, in respect to that duty, of ress, which the constitution does not enjoin, thrown the most flagitious character. These charges com- into a different but more imposing shape. Let me prehended delegations from several highly respectable analyze it. There are certain states, the aggregate states. If true, that presiding officer merited, not of whose electoral votes conferred upon the highest merely to be dragged from the chair, but to be expel- returned candidate, indicates their wish that he led the house-he challenges an investigation into his should be the president. Their votes amount in numconduct, and Mr. Kremer boldly accepts the chal- ber to ninety-nine out of the two hundred and sixtylenge, and promises to sustain his accusation. The one electoral votes of the whole union. These ninetycommittce, appointed by the house itself, with the nine do not, and cannot of themselves make the precommon consent of both parties, calls upon Mr. Kre-sident. If the fact of particular states giving ninetymer to execute his pledge, publicly given in his proper nine votes can, according to any received notions of place, and, also, previously given in the public prints. the doctrine of instruction, be regarded in that light, to Here is the theatre of the alleged arrangements; this whom are those instructions to be considered addresthe vicinage in which the trial ought to take place. sed? According to that doctrine, the people, who apEvery thing was here fresh in the recollection of the point, have the right to direct, by their instructions, in witnesses, if there were any. Here all the proofs certain cases, the course of the representative whom were concentrated. Mr. Kremer was stimulated by they appoint. The states, therefore, who gave those every motive which could impel to action; by consis- ninety-nine votes, may, in some sense, be understood tency of character; by duty to his constituents-to his thereby to have instructed their representatives in the country; by that of redeeming his solemn pledge; by house to vote for the person on whom they were behis anxious wish for the success of his favorite, whose stowed, in the choice of a president, But, most clearly, interests could not fail to be advanced by supporting the representatives, coming from other states, which his atrocious charges. But Mr. Kremer had now gave no part of those ninety-nine votes, cannot be conthe benent of the advice of his friends. He had no sidered as having been under any obligation to surrenproofs, for the plainest of all reasons; because there der their judgments to those of the states which gave was no truth in his charges. They saw that, to at- the ninety-nine votes. To contend that they are tempt to establish them, and to fail, as he must fail, under such an obligation, would be to maintain that in the attempt, might lead to an exposure of the con- the people of ope state have the right to instruct the representatives from another state. It would be regrets and sympathies, on account of it, was concluto maintain a still more absurd proposition, that, in a sive against him, to say nothing of other consideracase where the representatives from a state did not tions of a public nature, which would have deserved hold themselves instructed and bound by the will of examination, if, happily, in that respect, he had been that state, as indicated in its electoral college, the re- differently circumstanced. He had been ill near presentatives from another state were, nevertheless, eighteen months; and, although I am aware that his instructed and bound by that alien will. Thus, the actual condition was a fact depending upon evidence, entire vote of North Carolina, and a large majority and that the evidence, in regard to it, which had been of that of Maryland, in their respective electoral col-presented to the public, was not perfectly harmonileges, were given to one of the three returned candi-ous, I judged for myself upon what I saw and heard. dates, for whom the delegation from neither of those states voted. And yet the argument combatted, requires that the delegation from Kentucky, who do not represent the people of North Carolina nor Maryland, should be instructed by, and give an effect to, the indicated will of the people of those two states, when their own delegation paid no attention to it. Doubtless, those delegations felt themselves authorized to look into the actual composition of, and all other circumstances connected with, the majorities which gave the electoral votes, in their respective states; and felt themselves justified, from a view of the whole ground, to act upon their responsibility and according to their best judgments, disregarding the electoral votes in their states. And are the representatives from a different state not only bound by the will of the people of a different commonwealth, but for bidden to examine into the manner by which the expression of that will was brought about-an examination which the immediate representatives themselves feel it their duty to make? He may, and I ardently hope will, recover; but I did not think it became me to assist in committing the exe cutive administration of this great republic on the doubtful contingency of the restoration to health of a gentleman who had been so long and so seriously afflicted. Moreover, if, under all the circumstances of his situation, his election had been desirable, I did not think it practicable. I believed, and yet believe, that, if the votes of the western states, given to Mr. Adams, had been conferred on Mr. Crawford, the effect would have been to protract in the house the decision of the contest, to the great agitation and distraction of the country, and, possibly, to defeat an election altogether-the very worst result, I thought, that could happen. It appeared to me then, that, sooner or later, we must arrive at the only practical issue of the contest before us, and that was between Mr. Adams and general Jackson, and I thought that the earlier we got there, the better for the country and for the house. In considering this only alternative, I was not unIs the fact, then, of a plurality to have no weight? aware of your strong desire to have a western presiFar from it. Here are twenty-four communities, dent; but I thought that I knew enough of your patriounited under a common government. The expres- tism and magnanimity, displayed on so many occasion of the will of any one of them is entitled to the sions, to believe that you could rise above the mere most respectful attention. It ought to be patiently gratification of sectional pride, if the common good heard and kindly regarded by the others; but it can- of the whole required you to make the sacrifice of not be admitted to be conclusive upon them. The local partiality. I solemnly believed it did, and this expression of the will of the 99 out of 261 elcctors, brings me to the most important consideration which is entitled to very great attention, but that will can- belonged to the whole subject-that arising out of the not be considered as entitled to control the will of respective fitness of the only two real competitors, as the 162 electors, who have manifested a different it appeared to my best judgment. In speaking of will: To give it such controling influence, would be general Jackson, I am aware of the delicacy and rea subversion of the fundamental maxim of the re- spect which are justly due to that distinguished citipublic-that the majority should govern. The will of zen. It is far from my purpose to attempt to dispathe 99 can neither be allowed rightfully to control rage him. I could not do it if I were capable of making the remaining 162, nor any one of the 162 electoral the attempt; but I shall, nevertheless, speak of him as votes. It may be an argument, a persuasion, address- becomes me-with truth. I did not believe him so ed to all, and to each of them, but it is binding and competent to discharge the various, intricate, and obligatory upon none. It follows, then, that the fact complex duties of the office of chief magistrate as his of a plurality was only one among the various consi- competitor. He has displayed great skill and bravery derations which the house was called upon to weigh, as a military commander; and his renown will endure in making up its judgment. And the weight of the as long as the means exist of preserving a recollection consideration ought to have been regulated by the ex- of human transactions. But, to be qualified to distent of the plurality. As between gen. Jackson and charge the duties of president of the United States, Mr. Adams, the vote standing in the proportions of 99 the incumbent must have more than mere military to 84, it was entitled to less weight; as between the attainments—he must be a STATESMAN. An indivigeneral and Mr. Crawford it was entitled to more, the dual may be a gallant and successful general, an vote being as 99 to 41. The concession may even be eminent lawyer, an eloquent divine, a learned phymade that, upon the supposition of an equality of pre-sician, or an accomplished artist; and, doubtless, the tensions between competing candidates, the prepon-union of all these characters in the person of a chief derance ought to be given to the fact of a plurality. magistrate would be desirable; but no one of them, With these views of the relative state of the vote, nor all combined, will qualify him to be president, with which the three returned candidates entered the unless he superadds that indispensable requisite of house, I proceeded to examine the other considera- being a statesinan. Far from meaning to say, that it is tions which belonged to the question. For Mr. Craw-an objection to the elevation, to the chief magistracy, ford, who barely entered the house, with only four of any person, that he is a military commander, if votes more than one candidate not returned, and up-he unites the other qualifications, I only intend to say on whose case, therefore, the argument derived from that, whatever may be the success, or splendor of his the fact of plurality, operated with strong, though not military achievements, if his qualification be only midecisive force, I have ever felt much personal regard. litary, that is an objection, and I think a decisive obBut I was called upon to perform a solemn public jection to his election. If general Jackson has exduty, in which my private feelings, whether of affec-hibited, either in the councils of the union, or in tion or aversion, were not to be indulged, but the those of his own state, or in those of any other state good of my country only consulted. It appeared to me or territory, the qualities of a statesman, the evidence that the precarious state of that gentleman's health, of the fact has escaped my observation. It would although I participated with his best friends, in all their be as painful, as it is unnecessary to recapitulate have a decided preference, and we think you ought to make some sacrifice to gratify us." Was not much due to our neighbor and friend? some of the incidents, which must be fresh in your pacity and attainments of most of the public men of recollection, of his public life. But I was greatly de- this country, whom it might be proper to employ in ceived in my judgment if they proved him to be en- the public service; extensively possessed of much of dowed with that prudence, temper and discretion, that valuable kind of information, which is to be acwhich are necessary for civil administration. It was quired neither from books nor tradition, but which in vain to remind me of the illustrious example of is the fruit of largely participating in public affairs: Washington. There was, in that extraordinary per- discreet and sagacious, he would enter on the duties son, united a serenity of mind, a cool and collected of the office with great advantages. I saw in his wisdom, a cautious and deliberate judgment, a per- election the establishment of no dangerous example. fect command of the passions, and, throughout his I saw in it, on the contrary, only conformity to the whole life, a familiarity and acquaintance with busi-safe precedents which had been established in the inness and civil transactions, which rarely character- stances of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison and Mr. Monize any human being. No man was ever more deep-roe, who had respectively filled the same office from Jy penetrated than he was, with profound respect for which he was to be translated. the safe and necessary principle of the entire subor- A collateral consideration of much weight was dedination of the military to the civil authority. I hope rived from the wishes of the Ohio delegation. A I do no injustice to general Jackson, when say, that majority of it, during the progress of the session, I could not recognize, in his public conduct, those at- made up their opinions to support Mr. Adams, and tainments for both civil government and military com- they were communicated to me. They said, "Ohio mand, which cotemporaries and posterity have alike supported the candidate who was the choice of Kenunanimously concurred in awarding, as yet, only to the tucky. We failed in our common exertions to sefather of his country. I was sensible of the grati-curo his election Now, among those returned, we tude which the people of this country justly feel to wards general Jackson for his brilliant military services. But the impulses of public gratitude should be controled, it appeared to me, by reason and discretion, and I was not prepared blindly to surrender myself to the hazardous indulgence of a feeling, however amiable and excellent that feeling may be when properly directed. It did not seem to me to be wise or prudent, if, as I solemnly believed, general Jack son's competency for the office was highly questionable, that he should be placed in a situation where neither his fame nor the public interests would be advanced. Gen. Jackson himself would be the last man to recommend or vote for any one for a place, for which he thought him unfit. I felt myself sustained by his own reasoning in his letter to Mr. Monroe in which, speaking of the qualifications of our venerable Shelby for the department of war, he remarked: "I am compelled to say to you, that the acquirements of this worthy man are not competent to the discharge of the multiplied duties of this department. I, therefore, hope he may not accept the appointment. I am fearful, if he does, he will not add much splendor to his present well earned standing as a public character " Such was my opinion of general Jackson, in reference to the presidency. His convictions of governor Shelby's unfitness, by the habits of his life, for the appointment of secretary of war, were not more honest nor stronger than mine were of his own want of experience, and the necessary civil qualifications to discharge the duties of a president of the United States. In his elevation to this office, too, I thought, I perceived the establishment of a fearful precedent; and I am mistaken in all the warnings of instructive history, if I erred in my judgment. Undoubtedly there are other and many dangers to public liberty, besides that which proceeds from military idolatry; but I have yet to acquire the knowledge of it, if there be one more perilous or more frequent. I considered, with the greatest respect, the resolution of the general assembly of Kentucky, requesting the delegation to vote for general Jackson. That resolution, it is true, placed us in a peculiar situation. Whilst every other delegation, from every other state in the union, was left, by its legislature, entirely free to examine the pretensions of all the candidates, and to form its unbiassed judgment, the general assembly of Kentucky thought proper to interpose and to request the delegation to give its vote to one of the candidates, whom they were pleased to designate. I felt a sincere desire to comply with a request, emanating from a source so respectable, if I could have done so consistently with those paramount duties which I owed to you and the country. But, after full and anxious consideration, I found it incompatible with my best judgment of those duties, to conform to the request of the general assembly. The resolution asserts, that it was the wish of the people of Kentucky, that their delegation should vote for the general. It did not inform me by what means that body had arrived at a knowledge of the wish of the people. I knew that its members had repaired to Frankfort before I departed from home to come to Washington. I knew their attention was fixed on important local concerns, well entitled, by their magnitude, exclusively to engross it. No election, no general expression of the popular sentiment had occurred since that in November, when electors were chosen, and, at that, the people, by an overwhelming majority, had decided against general Jackson. I could not see how such an expression against him, could be interpreted into that of a desire for his election. If, as is true, the candidate whom they preferred, were not returned to the house, it is equally true, that the state of the contest, as it presented itself here to me, had Whether Mr. Adams would or would not have been never been considered, discussed and decided by the my choice of a president, if I had been left freely to people of Kentucky, in their collective capacity. select from the whole mass of American citizens, was What would have been their decision on this new not the question submitted to my decision. I had no state of the question? I might have undertaken to such liberty: but I was circumscribed, in the selec- conjecture, but the certainty of any conclusion of tion I had to make, to one of the three gentlemen, fact, as to their opinion, at which I could arrive, was wom the people themselves had thought proper to by no means equal to that certainty of conviction of present to the house of representatives. Whatever my duty, to which I was carried by the exertion of objections might be supposed to exist against him, my best and most deliberate reflections. The letters still greater appeared to me to apply to his competitor. from home, which some of the delegation received, Of Mr. Adams, it is but truth and justice to say, that expressed the most opposite opinions, and there was he is highly gifted, profoundly learned, and long and not wanting instances of letters, from some of the greatly experienced in public affairs, at home and very members who had voted for the resolution, adabroad. Intimately conversant with the rise and pro- vising a different course. I received, from a highly gress of every negotiation with foreign powers, pend- respectable portion of my constituents, a paper, ing or concluded; personally acquainted with the ca-instructing me as follows:-"We, the undersigned voters in the congressional district, having viewed | servation which is called for by the address is the the instruction or request of the legislature of Ken-place of its publication. That place was in this city, tucky, on the subject of choosing a president and vice remote from the centre of Pennsylvania, near which president of the United States, with regret, and the said request or instruction to our representative in congress from this district, being without our knowledge or consent; we, for many reasons, known to ourselves, connected with so momentous an occasion, hereby instruct our representative in congress to vote, on this occasion, agreeably to his own judgment, and by the best lights he may have on the subject, with, or without the consent of the legislature of Kentucky." This instruction came both unexpected and unsolicited by me, and it was accompanied by letters, assuring me that it expressed the opinion of a majority of my constituents. I could not, therefore, regard the resolution as conclusive evidence of your wishes. Viewed, as a mere request, as it purported to be, the general assembly, doubtless, had the power to make it. But, then, with great deference, I think it was worthy of serious consideration, whether the dignity of the general assembly ought not to have induced it to forbear addressing itself, not to another legislative body, but to a small part of it, and requesting the members, who compose that part, in a case which the constitution had confided to them, to vote according to the wishes of the general assembly, whether those wishes did or did not conform to their sense of duty. I could not regard the resolution as an instruction; for, from the origin of our state, its legislature has never assumed nor exercised the right to instruct the representatives in congress. I did not recognise the right, therefore, of the legislature to instruct mc. I recognised that right only when exerted by you. That the portion of the public servants, who made up the general assembly, have no right to instruct that portion of them who constituted the Kentucky delegation in the house of representatives, is a proposition too clear to be argued. The members of the general assembly would have been the first to behold, as a presumptuous interposition, any instruction, if the Kentucky delegation could have committed the absurdity to issue, from this place, any instruction to them to vote, in a particular manner, on any of the interesting subjects which lately engaged their attention at Frankfort. And although nothing is further from my intention than to impute either absurdity or presumption to the general assembly, in the adoption of the resolution referred to, I must say that the difference between an instruction, emanating from them to the delegation, and from the delegation to them, is not in principle, but is to be found only in the degree of superior importance which belongs to the general assembly. Mr. Kremer's district is situated, and in a paper Entertaining these views of the election on which it was made my duty to vote, I felt myself bound, in the exercise of my best judgment, to prefer Mr. Adams; and I accordingly voted for him. I should have been highly gratified if it had not been my duty to vote on the occasion; but that was not my situation, and I did not choose to shrink from any re The relations in which I stood to Mr. Adams, consponsibility which appertained to your representa- stitute the next theme of the address which I shall tive. Shortly after the election, it was rumored that notice I am described as having assumed "a posiMr. Kremer was preparing a publication, and the tion of peculiar and decided hostility to the election preparations for it which were making, excited much of Mr. Adams," and expressions towards him are expectation. Accordingly, on the 20th February, the attributed to me, and which I never used. I am address, under his name, to the "electors of the ninth made also responsible for "pamphlets and essays of congressional district of the state of Pennsylvania," great ability," published by my friends in Kentucky, made its appearance in the Washington City Gazette. in the course of the canvass. The injustice of the No member of the house, I am persuaded, believed principle of holding me thus answerable, may be testthat Mr. Kremer wrote one paragraph of that address, ed by applying it to the case of general Jackson, in or of the plea, which was presented to the committee, reference to publications issued, for example, from to the jurisdiction of the house. Those who coun- the Columbian Observer. That I was not in favor selled him, and composed both papers, and their pur- of the election of Mr. Adams, when the contest was poses, were just as well known as the author of any before the people, is most certain. Neither was I in report from a committee to the house. The first ob-favor of that of Mr. Crawford or gen. Jackson. That by the friendly anxieties of any of my opponents. If injury accrue to any one, by the delay in publishing the narrative, the public will not suffer by it. It is already known, by the publication of the British and American projets, the protocols, and the correspondence between the respective plenipotentiaries, that the British government made, at Ghent, a demand of the navigation of the Mississippi, by an article in their projet, nearly in the same words as those which were employed in the treaty of 1783; that a majority of the American commissioners was in favor of acceding to that demand, upon the condition that the British government would concede to us the same fishing liberties, within their jurisdiction, as was secured to us by the same treaty of 1783; and that both demands were finally abandoned. The fact of these mutual propositions was communicated by me to the American public in a speech which I delivered in the house of representatives, on the 29th day of January, 1816. Mr. Hopkinson had arraigned the terms of the treaty of peace, and charged upon the war and the administration, the loss of the fishing liberties, within the British jurisdiction, which we enjoyed prior to the war. In vindicating, in my reply to him, the course of the government and the conditions of the peace, I stated: I ever did any thing against Mr. Adams, or either of the other gentlemen, inconsistent with a fair and honorable competition, I utterly deny. My relations to Mr. Adams have been the subject of much misconception, if not misrepresentation. I have been stated to be under a public pledge to expose some nefarious conduct of that gentleman, during the negotiation at Ghent, which would prove him to be entirely unworthy of public confidence; and that, with a knowledge of his perfidy, I, nevertheless, voted for him. If these imputations are well founded, I should, indeed, be a fit object for public censure; but if, on the contrary, it shall be found that others, inimical both to him and to me, have substituted their own interested wishes for my public promises, I trust that the indignation, which they would excite, will be turned from me. My letter, addressed to the editors of the Intelligencer, under date of the 15th November, 1822, is made the occasion for ascribing to me the promise and the pledge to make those treasonable disclosures on Mr. Adams. Let that letter speak for itself, and it will be seen how little justification there is for such an assertion. It adverts to the controversy which had arisen between Messrs Adams and Russell, and then proceeds to state that, "in the course of the several publications, of which it has been the occasion, and, particularly, in the appendix to a pamphlet which had been recently published by the hon. John Quincy Adams, I think there are some errors, (no doubt unintentional), both as to matters of fact and matters of opinion, in regard to the transactions at Ghent, relating to the navigation of the Mississippi, and certain liberties claimed by the United States in the fisheries, and to the part which I bore in those transactions. These important interests are now well secured" "An account, therefore, of what occurred in the negotiation at Ghent, on those two subjects, is not, perhaps, necessary to the present or future se- [See Daily Nat. Intelligencer, March 21st, 1816.] curity of any of the rights of the nation, and is only And what I thought of my colleagues of the majority interesting as appertaining to its past history. With appears from the same extract. The spring after the these impressions, and being extremely unwilling to termination of the negotiations at Ghent, I went to present myself, at any time, before the public, I had London, and there entered upon a new and highly almost resolved to remain silent, and thus expose my-important negotiation with two of them, (Messrs. self to the inference of an acquiescence in the cor- Adams and Gallatin), which resulted, on the 3d July, rectness of all the statements made by both my col- 1815, in the commercial convention, which has been leagues but I have, on more reflection, thought it since made the basis of most of our commercial armay be expected of me, and be considered as a duty, rangements with foreign powers. Now, if I had dison my part, to contribute all in my power towards a covered, at Ghent, as has been asserted, that either of full and faithful understanding of the transactions re-them was false and faithless to his country, would I ferred to. Under this conviction, I will, at some fu- have voluntarily commenced with them another negoture period, more propitious than the present to tiation? Further there never has been a period, calm and dispassionate consideration, and when during our whole acquaintance, that Mr. Adams and there can be no misinterpretation of motives, lay I have not exchanged, when we have met, friendly before the public a narrative of those transactions, salutations, and the courtesies and hospitalities of soas I understood them." cial intercourse. From even a careless perusal of that letter, it is apparent that the only two subjects of the negotiations at Ghent to which it refers, were the navigation of of the Mississippi and certain fishing liberties; that the errors, which I had supposed were committed, applied to both Mr. Russell and Mr. Adams, though more particularly to the appendix of the latter; that they were unintentional; that they affected myself principally; that I deemed them of no public importance, as connected with the then, or future, security of any of the rights of the nation, but only interesting to its past history; that I doubted the necessity of my offering to the public any account of those transactions; and that the narrative which I promised was to be presented at a season of more calm, and when there could be no misinterpretation of motives. Although Mr. Adams believes otherwise, I yet think there are some unintentional errors in the controversial papers between him and Mr. Russell. But I have reserved to myself an exclusive right of judging when I shall execute the promise which I have made, and I shall be neither quickened nor retarded in its performance "When the British commissioners demanded, in their projet, a renewal to Great Britain of the right to the navigation of the Mississippi, secured by the treaty of 1783, a bare majority of the American commissioners offered to renew it, upon the condition that the liberties in question were renewed to us. He was not one of that majority. He would not trouble the committee with his reasons for being opposed to the offer. A majority of his colleagues, actuated, he believed, by the best motives, made, however, the offer, and it was refused by the British commissioners." The address proceeds to characterize the support which I gave to Mr. Adams as unnatural. The authors of the address have not stated why it is unnatural, and we are, therefore, left to conjecture their meaning. Is it because Mr. Adams is from New England, and I am a citizen of the west? If it be unnatural in western states to support a citizen of New England, it must be equally unnatural in the New England states to support a citizen of the west. And, on the same principle, the New England states ought to be restrained from concurring in the election of a citizen in the southern states, or the southern states from cooperating in the election of a citizen of New England. And, consequently, the support which the last three presidents have derived from New England, and that which the vice president recently received, has been most unnaturally given. The tendency of such rea soning would be to denationalize us, and to contract every part of the union within the narrow selfish limits of its own section. It would be still worse: it would lead to the destruction of the union itself. For, if it be unnatural in one section to support a |