SECOND REPORT ON THE SMITHSONIAN FUND.--HIS SPEECH ON A BILL FOR
INSURING A MORE FAITHFUL EXECUTION OF THE LAWS RELATING TO THE
COLLECTION OF DUTIES ON IMPORTS.--REMARKS ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN
EXTENSIVE SERIES OF MAGNETICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.--ON
ITINERANT ELECTIONEERING.--ON ABUSES IN RESPECT OF THE NAVY FUND.--ON
THE POLITICAL INFLUENCES OF THE TIME.--ON THE ORIGIN AND RESULTS OF THE
FLORIDA WAR.--HIS DENUNCIATION OF DUELLING.--HIS ARGUMENT IN THE SUPREME
COURT ON BEHALF OF AFRICANS CAPTURED IN THE AMISTAD.
On the 5th of March, 1840, Mr. Adams, as chairman of the select
committee on the Smithsonian bequest, made a report, in which he
recapitulated all the material facts which had previously occurred
relative to the acceptance of this fund, and entered into the motives
which prevailed with the former committee as to its disposal. It
appeared from this report, which was accompanied by a publication of all
the documents connected with the subject up to that period, that the
fund had been received, and paid into the Treasury, and invested in
state stocks, and that the President now invited the attention of
Congress to the obligation devolving upon the United States to fulfil
the object of the bequest. While this message was under consideration
various projects for disposing of the funds had been presented by
individuals, in memorials, concerning which the report states that they
generally contemplated the establishment of a school, college, or
university, proposing expenditures absorbing the whole in the erection
of buildings, and leaving little or nothing for the improvement of
future ages. "In most of these projects," says Mr. Adams, "there might
be perceived purposes of personal accommodation and emolument to the
projectors, more adapted to the promotion of their own interest than to
the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
While these memorials and the subject of the disposal of the whole
Smithson fund were before the select committee, a resolution came from
the Senate appointing "a joint committee, consisting of seven members of
the Senate, and such a number as the House of Representatives should
appoint, to consider the expediency of providing an institution of
learning, to be established at the city of Washington, for the
application of the legacy bequeathed by James Smithson, of London, to
the United States, in trust for that purpose." The House, out of
courtesy to the Senate, concurred in their resolution, and added on
their part the members of that of which Mr. Adams was chairman.
The propositions of the committee on the part of the House and that on
the part of the Senate were so widely at variance, that it was found
that no result could be obtained in which both committees would concur.
It was finally agreed that the committee on the part of the House should
report their project to the House for consideration. Mr. Adams,
thereupon, as chairman, reported a series of resolutions, substantially
of the following import: That the whole Smithson fund should be vested
in a corporate body of trustees, to remain, under the pledge of the
faith of the United States, undiminished and unimpaired, at an interest
yielding annually six per cent., appropriated to the declared purpose of
the founder, exclusively from the interest, and not in any part from the
principal,--the first appropriation of interest to be applied for the
erection of an astronomical observatory, and for the various objects
incident to such an establishment;--that the education of youth had not
for its object the _increase_ and diffusion of knowledge among men,
but the endowment of individuals with knowledge already acquired; and
the Smithson fund should not be applied to the purpose of education, or
to any school, college, university, or institution of education.
The chairman of the committee of the Senate, in their behalf, presented
counter resolutions, disapproving the application of any part of the
funds to the establishment of an astronomical observatory, and urging
the appropriation of them to the establishment of a university. The
bill prepared by the House is presented at large in this report,
accompanied with the argument in its support, prepared by Mr. Adams
with a strength and fulness to which no abstract can do justice. In
this argument he illustrates the reasons for preserving the principal
of the fund unimpaired, and confining all expenditures from it to the
annual interest; also those which preclude any portion of it to be
applied to any institution for education; showing, from the peculiar
expressions of the testator, that it could not have been his intention
that the fund should be applied in this manner. He then proceeds to
set forth the reasons why the income of the fund should in the first
instance be applied to an astronomical observatory, without intending
to exclude any branch of human knowledge from its equitable share of
this benefaction. The importance of this object he thus eloquently
illustrates: "The express object of Mr. Smithson's bequest is the
_diffusion of knowledge_ among men. IT IS KNOWLEDGE, the source of
all human wisdom, and of all beneficent power; knowledge, as far
transcending the postulated lever of Archimedes as the universe
transcends this speck of earth upon its face; knowledge, the attribute
of Omnipotence, of which man alone, in the physical and material world,
is permitted to anticipate."
Why astronomical science should be the object to which the income of
this fund should be first applied he thus proceeds to set forth:
"The express object of an observatory is the increase of knowledge
by new discovery. The physical relations between the firmament of
heaven and the globe allotted by the Creator of all to be the abode
of man are discoverable only by the organ of the eye. Many of these
relations are indispensable to the existence of human life, and
perhaps of the earth itself. Who, that can conceive the idea of a
world without a sun, but must connect with it the extinction of
light and heat, of all animal life, of all vegetation and
production, leaving the lifeless clod of matter to return to the
primitive state of chaos, or to be consumed by elemental fire? The
influence of the moon--of the planets, our next-door neighbors of
the solar system--of the fixed stars, scattered over the blue
expanse in multitudes exceeding the power of human computation, and
at distances of which imagination herself can form no distinct
conception;--the influence of all these upon the globe which we
inhabit, and upon the condition of man, its dying and deathless
inhabitant, is great and mysterious, and, in the search for final
causes, to a great degree inscrutable to his finite and limited
faculties. The extent to which they are discoverable is and must
remain unknown; but, to the vigilance of a sleepless eye, to the
toil of a tireless hand, and to the meditations of a thinking,
combining, and analyzing mind, secrets are successively revealed,
not only of the deepest import to the welfare of man in his earthly
career, but which seem to lift him from the earth to the threshold
of his eternal abode; to lead him blindfold up to the
council-chamber of Omnipotence, and there, stripping the bandage
from his eyes, bid him look undazzled at the throne of God.
"In the history of the human species, so far as it is known to us,
astronomical observation was one of the first objects of pursuit for
the acquisition of knowledge. In the first chapter of the sacred
volume we are told that, in the process of creation, 'God said, Let
there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day
from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for
days, and for years.' By the special appointment, then, of the
Creator, they were made the standards for the measurement of time
upon earth. They were made for more: not only for seasons, for days,
and for years, but for SIGNS. Signs of what? It may be that
the word, in this passage, has reference to the signs of the
Egyptian zodiac, to mark the succession of solar months; or it may
indicate a more latent connection between the heavens and the earth,
of the nature of judicial astrology. These relations are not only
apparent to the most superficial observation of man, but many of
them remain inexhaustible funds of successive discovery, perhaps as
long as the continued existence of man upon earth. What an unknown
world of mind, for example, is yet teeming in the womb of time, to
be revealed in tracing the causes of the sympathy between the magnet
and the pole--that unseen, immaterial spirit, which walks with us
through the most entangled forests, over the most interminable
wilderness, and across every region of the pathless deep, by day, by
night, in the calm serene of a cloudless sky, and in the howling of
the hurricane or the typhoon? Who can witness the movements of that
tremulous needle, poised upon its centre, still tending to the polar
star, but obedient to his distant hand, armed with a metallic guide,
round every point of the compass, at the fiat of his will, without
feeling a thrill of amazement approaching to superstition? The
discovery of the attractive power of the magnet was made before the
invention of the alphabet, or the age of hieroglyphics. No record of
the event is found upon the annals of human history. But seven
hundred years have scarcely passed away since its polarity was first
known to the civilized European man. It was by observation of the
periodical revolution of the earth in her orbit round the sun,
compared with her daily revolution round her axis, that was
disclosed the fact that her annual period was composed of three
hundred and sixty-five of her daily revolutions; or, in other words,
that the year was composed of three hundred and sixty-five days. But
the shepherds of Egypt, watching their flocks by night, could not
but observe the movements of the dog-star, next to the sun the most
brilliant of the luminaries of heaven. They worshipped that star as
a god; and, losing sight of him for about forty days every year,
during his conjunction with the sun, they watched with intense
anxiety for his reäppearance in the sky, and with that day commenced
their year. By this practice it failed not soon to be found that,
although the reäppearance of the star for three successive years was
at the end of three hundred and sixty-five days, it would, on the
fourth year, be delayed one day longer; and, after repeated
observation of this phenomenon, they added six hours to the computed
duration of the year, and established the canicular period of four
years, consisting of one thousand four hundred and sixty-one days.
It was not until the days of Julius Cæsar that this computation of
time was adopted in the Roman calendar; and fifteen centuries from
that time had elapsed before the yearly celebration of the Christian
paschal festivals, founded upon the Passover of the Levitical law,
revealed the fact that the annual revolution of the earth in her
orbit round the sun is not precisely of three hundred and sixty-five
days and one quarter, but of between eleven and twelve minutes less;
and thus the duration of the year was ascertained, as a measure of
time, to an accuracy of three or four seconds, more or less--a
mistake which would scarcely amount to one day in twenty thousand
years.
"It is, then, to the successive discoveries of persevering
astronomical observation, through a period of fifty centuries, that
we are indebted for a fixed and permanent standard for the
measurement of time. And by the same science has man acquired, so
far as he possesses it, a standard for the measurement of space. A
standard for the measurement of the dimensions and distances of the
fixed stars from ourselves is yet to be found; and, if ever found,
will be through the means of astronomical observation.
"The influence of all these discoveries upon the condition of man is
no doubt infinitely diversified in relative importance; but all,
even the minutest, contribute to the increase and diffusion of
knowledge. There is no richer field of science opened to the
exploration of man in search of knowledge than astronomical
observation; nor is there, in the opinion of this committee, any
duty more impressively incumbent upon all human governments than
that of furnishing means, and facilities, and rewards, to those who
devote the labors of their lives to the indefatigable industry, the
unceasing vigilance, and the bright intelligence, indispensable to
success in these pursuits."
These remarks are succeeded by others on the Royal Observatory of
Greenwich, on the connection of astronomy with the art of navigation, on
the increase of observatories in the British Islands, in France, and in
Russia; and, after repeating the objections to applying the fund of Mr.
Smithson to a school devoted to any particular branch of science, or for
general education, Mr. Adams, in behalf of the committee, submitted a
bill for the consideration of the house, embracing the principles
maintained in his report.
On May 8th, 1840, a bill to insure a more faithful execution of the laws
relating to the collection of duties on imports being under
consideration of the house, Mr. Adams, after commenting on the nature
and injurious consequences of the fraud which it was the object of the
bill to prevent, said that this practice was "a sort of national thing,"
to such an extent were the citizens of Great Britain accustomed to come
over to this country to cheat us out of our revenue, and to defraud our
manufacturing interest, and added:
"I have said that there is something national in this matter, and I
will now proceed to state what, in my judgment, lies at the bottom
of this proceeding. It is a maxim of British commercial law that it
is lawful for the citizens of one nation to defraud the revenues of
other nations. The author of the maxim was a man famous throughout
the civilized world,--a man of transcendent talents, who fixed,
more, perhaps, than any other man of the same century, his impress
on the age in which he lived, and upon the laws of England,--I mean
Lord Mansfield. In some respects it has been greatly to the
advantage of those laws, but in others as much to their disadvantage
and discredit, of which the maxim of which I now speak is a signal
instance. He was the first British judge who established the
principle that it is a lawful thing for Englishmen to cheat the
revenue laws of other nations, especially those of Spain and
Portugal.
"This principle was first settled in an act of Parliament, the
object of which was to suppress what are denominated wager policies
of insurance--a species of instrument well known to lawyers as
gambling policies, being entered into when the party insuring has
no interest in the property insured. It had been a question whether
such policies were lawful by the common law. The practice had
greatly increased, insomuch that wager policies had become a common
thing. It was with a view to suppress these that the statute of the
nineteenth of George the Second, chapter thirty-seventh, was
passed. The object of that statute was good; it was remedial in its
character; it went to suppress a public evil; but, while it
prohibited wager policies in all other cases, it contained _an
express exception in favor of those made on vessels trading to
Spain and Portugal_."
After commenting on this act of the British Parliament, he quotes
the words of Blackstone, who, after stating the nature of these
smuggling policies, and dwelling upon their immorality and
pernicious tendency, refers to the law above mentioned, which
enacts "that they shall be totally null and void, except as to
policies on privateers in the Spanish and Portuguese trade, _for
reasons sufficiently obvious_." (2 Blackstone, ch. XXX., p. 4, §
1.) On this statement of Blackstone Mr. Adams remarks:
"It is an old maxim of the schools that frauds are always concealed
under generalities. What were these _obvious reasons_? Why were
they concealed? It is known to the committee that, in the
celebrated controversy of the man in the mask,--I mean Junius with
Blackstone,--he said, that for the defence of law, of justice, and
of truth, let any man consult the work of that great judge, his
Commentaries upon the laws of England; but, if a man wanted to
cheat his neighbor out of his estate, he should consult the doctor
himself. I go a little further than Junius, although I do it with
great reluctance, for I hold the book to be one of the best books
in the world. I say that the observation of Junius applies to the
book as much as to the judge, when, from reasons like those with
which scoundrels cover their consciences, that book evades telling
why the exception was made in regard to Spain and Portugal, and
what those reasons were which the judge declares to be
'_sufficiently obvious_.'
"This exception of the British law was _infectious_; it spread into
France, whose government adopted the same provision by way of
_reprisal_."
Mr. Adams then read from Emerigon, the principal authority of French
lawyers on insurance, who denies the principles of the English statute;
and M. Pothier, not a mere lawyer, but a philosopher and moralist, who
protests against this doctrine, and appeals to the eternal laws of
morality. He then cites the second volume _Term Reports_, p. 164, in
which Judge Buller states, "I have heard Lord Mansfield say that the
reason of that allowance was to favor the smuggling of bullion from
those countries." On which Mr. Adams remarks:
"This is the sum of the whole matter. Judge Buller heard Lord
Mansfield say that the object of the exception in regard to Spain
and Portugal was to encourage--yes, to _encourage_--the smuggling
trade. The object was that smugglers should not only escape the
effect of their villany, but should be actually encouraged by
government in its perpetration.
"I think I have now established the position which I assumed, that
the lawfulness of violating the revenue laws of other nations is a
principle of English law,--a principle sanctioned by the Legislature
and the judicial courts of Great Britain,--but one which the best
elementary writers, proceeding on the great and eternal principles
of morality, have condemned as a false principle; and I have thought
it necessary to do this with a view to trace these frauds upon our
revenue, committed by British subjects, to what I believe to be
their original source in the false morality in the English
Parliament and English judges. What is the natural effect of the
promulgation of such principles by such authority? What can it be
but to encourage frauds on the revenue of other nations? When a
principle like this goes out, sanctioned with the legislative
authority, it will have its effect on the nation.
"'_Quid leges sine moribus._' The whole moral principle of a nation
is contaminated by the legislative authorization and judicial
sanction of a practice dishonest in itself, which necessarily
includes not merely a permission, but a stimulant, to perjury.
If an English merchant, subscribing to this principle, goes to
establish himself in a foreign country, he goes as an enemy,
warranted, by the sanction of his own courts and Parliament, to do
anything that can defraud its revenue. Perhaps this may be one of
the causes of the vulgar saying,--which all must have heard, but
which, thank God, I still hope is not warranted by the practice of
the native merchants of our country,--that custom-house oaths
have no validity. There is a feeling, but too prevalent, which
distinguishes between custom-house oaths and other oaths. It is
obvious that smuggling can not be carried on to any extent without
the commission of perjury. There must be false swearing; and it is
that false swearing which the British laws have sanctioned. None
of this bullion, of which Justice Buller speaks, could be smuggled
out of Spain and Portugal without false oaths; and you will find,
from the details of a case which I shall presently call to your
attention, that false swearing is at the bottom of the frauds which
this bill seeks to correct--frauds in consequence of which seven
eighths of all the woollens imported into New York escaped the
payment of the duty charged by law. These people do not hold
themselves bound to respect our revenue laws, and thus proceed
without scruples to the perpetration of perjury in order to carry
on with success the evasion of them."
In the conclusion of his speech Mr. Adams paid the following tribute to
the English nation, saying:
"That of the English nation he entertained sentiments of the most
exalted admiration; that he was proud of being himself descended
from that stock, although two hundred years had passed away, during
which all his ancestors had been natives of this country. He claimed
the great men of England of former ages as his countrymen, and could
say with the poet Cowper, in hearty concurrence with the sentiment,
that it is
'Praise enough
To fill the ambition of a common man,
That Chatham's language was his mother tongue,
And Wolfe's great name compatriot with his own.'
"He believed that no nation, of ancient or modern times, was more
entitled to veneration for its exertion in the cause of human
improvement than the British. He thought their code of laws
admirable; but, in the discussion of the bill before the committee,
he had been compelled, in the discharge of his duty, to expose one
great erroneous principle of morals incorporated into their laws; a
principle, the natural and necessary consequence of which had been
the occasion of the bill now before the committee; a principle
enacted by the British Parliament, and sanctioned by the decision of
their highest judicial tribunals, with the express and avowed
purpose of encouraging the subjects of Great Britain to the practice
of defrauding, even by the commission of perjury, the revenues of a
foreign country."
In July, 1840, a memorial was presented to Congress, from the American
Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, asking the aid of government to
carry on a series of magnetic and meteorological observations. This
application was made in coöperation with the Royal Society of Great
Britain, and at their solicitation, and had for its object an extended
system of magnetic observations at fixed magnetic observatories in
different quarters of the globe. Mr. Adams, having been appointed
chairman of a committee on the memorial, made a report setting forth at
large the motives for concurrence, and the importance of the object
asked for. The following extracts illustrate his comprehensive views and
appreciation of the subject:
"Among the most powerful, most wonderful, and most mysterious agents
in the economy of the physical universe, is the magnet. Its
attractive properties, its perpetual tendency to the poles of the
earth and of the heavens, and its exclusive sympathies with one of
the mineral productions of the earth, have been brought within the
scope of human observation at different periods of the history of
mankind, separated by the distance of many centuries from each
other. The attractive power of the magnet was known in ages of
antiquity so remote that it transcends even the remembrance of the
name of its first discoverer, and the time of its accession to the
mass of human knowledge. Its polarity, or, at least, the application
of that property to the purposes of navigation beyond the sight of
land, was unknown in Europe, and probably throughout the world,
until the twelfth or thirteenth century of the Christian era; and
its horizontal variation from the tendency directly to the pole was
first perceived by Christopher Columbus, in that transcendent voyage
of discovery which gave a new hemisphere to the industry and
intelligence of civilized man;--an incident then so alarming to him
and his company, that, but for the inflexible and persevering spirit
of this intrepid and daring mariner, it would have sunk them into
despair, and buried the New World for ages upon ages longer from the
knowledge of the Old. Centuries have again passed away, disclosing
gradually new properties of the magnet to the ardent and eager
pursuit of human curiosity, still stimulated by constant observation
of the phenomena connected with this metallic substance, dug from
the bowels of the earth, yet seeming more and more to elude or defy
all the ordinary laws of matter. Thus, in the process of observation
to ascertain the horizontal variation of the needle from its polar
direction, it was found that it differed in intensity in the
different regions of the earth and the seas; that its variations
were affected by different causes, some tending in the same
direction, alternately east and west, through a succession of years,
of ages, even of centuries, and others accomplishing their circle of
existence from day to day, perhaps from hour to hour, or at stated
hours of the day. It was found that there was a perpendicular as
well as a horizontal deviation from the polar direction; and it
became a matter of anxious inquiry to ascertain the intensity both
of the dip and variation of the needle at every spot on the surface
of the globe. It was inferred, from the different intensities of
variation in different latitudes, that there were magnetic poles not
coïncident with those of the earth; and the northern of these poles
has been recently traced to its actual location by the British
circumnavigators, Parry and Ross.
"The attractive power, the polarity, the deviations from the polar
direction, horizontal and perpendicular, the varieties even of these
deviations, and the detection of the northern magnetic pole, have
still left materials for further observation, and suggested problems
for solution to the perseverance and ingenuity of the human mind.
"In the spring of 1836 that illustrious philosopher and statesman,
Baron Alexander Von Humboldt, addressed to the Duke of Sussex, then
President of the Royal Society, a letter upon the means of
perfecting the knowledge of terrestrial magnetism, by the
establishment of magnetic stations and corresponding observations;
and solicited the powerful concurrence of the Royal Society in favor
of the labors then already undertaken by a learned association in
Germany, and which, radiating at once from several great scientific
central points in Europe, might lead progressively to the more
precise knowledge of the laws of nature."
Mr. Adams then proceeds to state the subsequent proceedings of the Royal
Society, and the measures the British government had taken to carry into
effect the views of that society, earnestly recommending the compliance
with the request of the American Philosophical Society, and adds:
"The committee would hail, with feelings of hope and encouragement,
the virtual alliance of great and mighty nations for this union of
efforts in the promotion of the cause of science. Long enough have
the leagues and federations between the potentates of the earth been
confined to alliances, offensive and defensive, to promote purposes
of mutual hatred and hostility. It is refreshing to the friends of
humanity to witness the rise and progress of a spirit of common and
concerted inquiry into the secrets of material nature, the results
of which not only go to accumulate the mass of human knowledge, but
to harmonize in a community of enjoyments the varied tribes of man
throughout the habitable globe. The invitation to participate in
these labors, and to acquire the credit and reputation of having
contributed to the beneficial results which may confidently be
expected from them, is itself creditable to the character of our own
country."
In conclusion, the committee recommend the adoption of a resolution,
which they report, appropriating twenty thousand dollars for the
establishment of five several stations for making observations on
terrestrial magnetism and meteorology, conformably to the invitation of
the Royal Society of Great Britain to the American Philosophical Society
of Philadelphia.
In July, 1840, at the closing of the congressional session, Mr. Adams
thus expressed his opinion of the state of public affairs: "The late
session of Congress has been painful to me beyond all former experience,
by the demonstration it has given of degenerating institutions. Parties
are falling into profligate factions. I have seen this before; but the
worst symptom now is the change in the manners of the people. The
continuance of the present administration will, if accomplished, open
wide all the floodgates of corruption. Will a change produce a reform?
Pause and ponder! Slavery, the Indians, the public lands, the collection
and disbursement of public moneys, the tariff, and foreign affairs--what
is to become of them?"
In September, 1840, Mr. Adams remarked, on the electioneering addresses
then made, preparatory to the next election of President: "This practice
of itinerant speech-making has suddenly broken out in this country to a
fearful extent. Electioneering for the Presidency has spread its
contagion to the President himself, to his now only competitor, to his
immediate predecessor, to the candidates Henry Clay and Daniel Webster,
and to many distinguished members of both branches of Congress. The
tendency of all this is to the corruption of popular elections both by
violence and fraud."
Again, in October ensuing: "One of the peculiarities of the present time
is that the principal leaders of the political parties are travelling
about the country from state to state, and holding forth, like Methodist
preachers, to assembled multitudes, under the broad canopy of heaven.
Webster, Clay, W. C. Rives, Silas Wright, and James Buchanan, are among
the first and foremost in this canvassing oratory; while Andrew Jackson,
and Martin Van Buren, with his heads of departments, are harping on
another string of the political accordion, by writing controversial
electioneering letters. Besides the principal leaders of the parties,
numerous subaltern officers of the administration are summoned to the
same service, and, instead of attending to the duties of their offices,
roam, recite, and madden, round the land."
In a speech made on the 28th of December, 1840, Mr. Adams severely
denounced the policy pursued by the government in respect of the navy
pension fund; stating that it amounted to one million two hundred
thousand dollars; that, without any authority, it had been loaned to
different states, and vested in their stocks, which, for the most part,
were either depreciated in value, wholly lost, or unsalable. That fund,
he maintained, was a sacred trust, and proceeded to state fully and at
large the manner in which it had been violated without authority.
Mr. Adams then went on to state the proceedings of the Executive
relative to the Smithsonian fund. He said that about the 1st of
September, 1838, the sum of five hundred and nine thousand dollars had
been deposited in the Mint of Philadelphia in gold,--in mint-drops;--a
sacred trust, which the United States had accepted, on the pledge of
their faith to keep it whole, entire, for the purpose for which it had
been given by a foreigner. Within three days the five hundred thousand
dollars were on their way to Arkansas to make a bank. The members of the
Senate and of the House from Arkansas had a quick scent of these moneys
coming into the Treasury; and care had been taken to insert into a bill
for a very different object a provision authorizing the President and
Secretary of the Treasury to loan to the states that sum of money when
it should come into the Treasury. This was three months beforehand; and
three days after the money was received the plan was carried into
execution.
"Now, we had heard," said Mr. Adams, "of British gold carrying the
elections, which had resulted, not in favor of the present incumbent of
the presidential chair, but against him. There he could put his finger
upon five hundred and nine thousand dollars of British gold, which
contributed, so far as it could go, to the election of the present
executive magistrate; and he thought he had shown the means by which it
was done. Go to the State of Arkansas. The dollars are not there, but
they _were_ there, and they were sent there from the Mint of the United
States. Here was policy--profound policy--economy--democracy; and all
this accompanied with so great a horror at the idea of assuming state
debts, that the hair of the gentlemen stood on end at the mere mention
of the possibility of such a thing. Was not here a debt of the State of
Arkansas of half a million of dollars? Had not the general government
assumed that debt? Had they not employed trust-money? If Arkansas
should declare herself insolvent to-morrow, Congress must pay that
debt; they had assumed it."
About this time, Mr. Adams, in some of his writings, thus graphically
illustrates the political influences which have mainly shaped the
destinies of the United States: "A very curious philosophical history
of parties might be made by giving a _catalogue raisonné_ of the
candidates for the Presidency voted for in the electoral colleges since
the establishment of the constitution of the United States. It would
contain a history of the influences of the presidential office. Would
not the retrospect furnish practical principles concerning the
operation of the constitution?--1st. That the direct and infallible
path to the Presidency is military service, coupled with demagogue
policy. 2d. That, in the absence of military service, demagogue policy
is the first and most indispensable element of success, and the art of
party drilling the second. 3d. That the drill consists in combining
the Southern interest in domestic slavery with the Northern riotous
democracy. 4th. That this policy and drill, first organized by Thomas
Jefferson, accomplished his election, and established the Virginia
dynasty of twenty-four years;--a perpetual practical contradiction of
its own principles. 5th. That the same policy and drill, invigorated by
success and fortified by experience, has now placed Martin Van Buren in
the President's chair, and disclosed to the unprincipled ambition of
the North the art of rising upon the principles of the South. And 6th.
That it has exposed in broad day the overruling influence of the
institution of domestic slavery upon the history and policy of the
Union."
In the case of a contested election Mr. Adams remarked: "The conduct of
a majority of the House has, from beginning to end, been governed by
will, and not by judgment; and so I fear it will be always in every case
of contested elections."
"The speech of Horace Everett, of Vermont," (made on the 8th June, 1836,
on the Indian annuity bill,) said Mr. Adams, "gives a perfectly clear
and distinct exposition of the origin and causes of the Florida war, and
demonstrates, beyond all possibility of being gainsaid, that the wrong
of the war is on our side. It depresses the spirits, and humiliates the
soul, that this war is now running into its fifth year, has cost thirty
millions of dollars, has successively baffled and disgraced all our
chief military generals,--Gaines, Scott, Jesup, and Macomb,--and that
our last resources now are bloodhounds and no quarter. Sixteen millions
of Anglo-Saxons unable to subdue, in five years, by force and by fraud,
by secret treachery and by open war, sixteen hundred savage warriors!
There is a disregard of all appearance of right, in our transactions
with the Indians, which I feel as a cruel disparagement of the honor of
my country."
On the 1st of January, 1841, Mr. Adams, referring to the accounts he had
received that the attendance at the Presidential levees was much smaller
than usual, and that the visitors were chiefly from among the
President's old adversaries, the Whigs, remarked:
"'_Donec eris felix multos numerabis amicos Tempora si fuerint
nubila solus eris._'
There is, perhaps, no occasion in human affairs," he added, "which more
uniformly exemplifies this propensity of human nature than the exit of a
President of the United States from office."
On the 4th of February, 1841, there arose, incidentally, in the House
of Representatives, a debate upon the act to suppress duelling. Mr.
Wise, of Virginia, had said, in the course of a former debate: "The
anti-duelling law is producing its bitter fruits. It is making this
house a bear-garden. We have an example in the present instance. Here,
with permission of the chair and committee, and without a call to order
from anybody, we see and hear one member (Mr. Johnson) say to another
(Mr. Duncan) that he had been branded as a coward on this floor. The
other says back that 'he is a liar!' And, sir, there the matter will
stop. There will be no fight." Before proceeding to comment, Mr. Adams
called for the reading of this statement, as reported in the _National
Intelligencer_. On which Mr. Wise said publicly, in the house, "That is
a correct report."[1]
[1] See, for all the proceedings on this subject, the
_Congressional Globe_, vol. IX., pp. 320-322.
After this acknowledgment, Mr. Adams proceeded to remark with severity
on this statement and language, occasioning an excitement in the house,
particularly among the duellists, which belongs to the history of the
period. After stating that he understood that statement and language "as
maintaining that duelling, between members of this house, for matters
passing within this house, is a practice that ought not to be
suppressed," he continued: "I maintain the contrary; and I maintain it
for the independence of this house, for my own independence, for the
independence of those with whom I act, for the independence of the
members from the Northern section of this country, who not only abhor
duelling in theory, but in practice; in consequence of which members
from other sections are perpetually insulting them on this floor, under
the impression that the insult will not be resented."
Here Mr. Campbell, of South Carolina, as the reporter states, called Mr.
Adams to order. The chairman said something, of which not a word could
be heard, the house being in such a state of tempestuous uproar. When
the voice of Mr. Adams again caught the ear of the reporter, he was
proceeding as follows:
"Would you smother discussion on the duelling law? There is not a
point in the affairs of this nation more important than this very
practice of duelling,--considered as a point of honor in one part of
the Union, and a point of infamy in another,--with its consequences.
I say there is no more important subject that can go forth, North
and South, East and West; and I therefore take my issue upon it. I
have come here determined to do so between the different portions of
this house, in order to see whether this practice is to be
continued; whether the members from that section of the Union whose
principles are against duelling are to be insulted, upon every topic
of discussion, because it is supposed that the insult will not be
resented, and that 'there will be no fight.'"
Mr. Adams here called for the reading of "the act to suppress duelling;"
which the clerk having read, he proceeded:
"I was going on to say that the reason why I had brought this
subject into the discussion is because it is most intimately
connected with all the transactions in this house and this nation;
and because I think it time to settle this question between the
duellists and non-duellists, whoever they may be. I say that, in
consequence of my principles, and what I believe to be the
principles of a very large portion of the people in that part of the
country from which I came, I will not, as regards the approaching
administration, put myself under the lead of any man who considers
the duelling law in this district as having borne any bitter fruits
whatever. It may not, indeed, be sufficiently potent in its
operation to prevent the thirst for blood which follows offensive
words; but I believe it has prevented, and will prevent, any such
occurrences as we have witnessed here. But, as it bears upon the
affairs of the nation, I am not willing to sit any longer here, and
see other members from my own section of the country, or those who
may be my successors here, made subject to any such law as the law
of the duellist. I am unwilling that they should not have full
freedom of speech in this house on all occasions--as much so as the
primest duellist in the land. I do not want to hear perpetual
intimations, when a man from one part of the country means to insult
another coming from other parts of the country, as, 'I am ready to
answer here or elsewhere;' and 'The gentleman knows where I am to be
found;' saying, as the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. W. C. Johnson)
did just now, that he would call to account any person who dared
make allusion to what had taken place between him and another member
of this house. I do not intend to hear that any more, for myself or
others, if I can help it. Therefore I move to bring the matter up
for full discussion here, whether we are to be twitted and taunted
with remarks that a man is ready to meet us here or elsewhere. It
goes to the independence of this house; it goes to the independence
of every individual member of this house; it goes to the right of
speech and freedom of debate in this house; and I felt myself bound
to bear my testimony in the most decided manner against the practice
of duelling, or anything in the shape of even a virtual challenge
taking place in this house, now and forever. If the committee think
proper to put me down, after a debate of three weeks, involving
almost every topic under the sun, and in which not one man has been
called to order, I must submit. It shall go out to the country, and
I am willing that the sober sentiment of the whole nation shall be
my final judge on this subject."
Mr. Adams, after having recapitulated his course of proceedings on
various topics, and explained his motives and their relations on former
occasions, and his present general views on those subjects, closes his
remarks on duelling by declaring that what he had said had been from
motives of pure public spirit, with no disposition to offend any
gentleman, and least of all the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wise); but
that he had felt it his duty to say what he had said, because he
believed that the application of the principle of duelling, as regards
different portions of this house, is such that it must be discarded;
that duelling must be considered as a crime, and that it must not be
countenanced by professions of any necessity for its existence.
In January and March, 1841, Mr. Adams delivered his celebrated argument
before the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of the United
States, appellants, against Cinque and others, appellees. This was
afterwards published at length. In it he publicly arraigned before that
court and the civilized world the conduct of the then existing
administration, for having, in all their proceedings relating to these
unfortunate Africans, exhibited sympathy for one of the parties, and
antipathy for the other; sympathy for the white, antipathy to the black;
sympathy for the slaveholders, in place of protection for the
unfortunate and oppressed. It is impossible by any abstract or outline
to do justice to the laborious ability with which this argument is
sustained. The just severity with which he scrutinizes the proceedings
of the Executive and the demands of the Spanish Minister, the
completeness with which he vindicates for these Africans their right to
freedom,--the extensive research into the law of nations, and the broad
principles of eternal justice, on which he supports their claim to be
liberated, were probably not excelled by any public effort at that
period, whether of the bar or the senate. He concluded with the
following touching reminiscences of distinguished members of the bench
and the bar, with whom in former times he had been associated:
"May it please your honors: On the 7th of February, 1804, now more
than thirty-seven years past, my name was entered, and yet stands
recorded, on both the rolls, as one of the attorneys and counsellors
of this court. Five years later, in February and March, 1809, I
appeared for the last time before this court, in defence of the
cause of justice and of important rights, in which many of my
fellow-citizens had property to a large amount at stake. Very
shortly afterwards I was called to the discharge of other duties,
first in distant lands, and in later years within our own country,
but in different departments of her government. Little did I imagine
that I should ever again be required to claim the right of appearing
in the capacity of an officer of this court; yet such has been the
dictate of my destiny, and I appear again to plead the cause of
justice, and now of liberty and life, in behalf of many of my
fellow-men, before that same court which, in a former age, I had
addressed in support of rights of property. I stand again, I trust
for the last time, before the same court. '_Hic cæstus, artemque
repono._' I stand before the same court, but not before the same
judges, nor aided by the same associates, nor resisted by the same
opponents. As I cast my eyes along those seats of honor and of
public trust now occupied by you, they seek in vain for one of those
honored and honorable persons whose indulgence listened then to my
voice. Marshall, Cushing, Chase, Washington, Johnson, Livingston,
Todd,--where are they? Where is that eloquent statesman and learned
lawyer who was my associate counsel in the management of that cause,
Robert Goodloe Harper? Where is that brilliant luminary, so long the
pride of Maryland and of the American bar, then my opposing counsel,
Luther Martin? Where is the excellent clerk of that day, whose name
has been inscribed on the shores of Africa as a monument of his
abhorrence of the African slave-trade, Elias B. Caldwell? Where is
the marshal--where are the criers of the court? Alas! where is one
of the very judges of the court, arbiter of life and death, before
whom I commenced this anxious argument, even now prematurely closed?
Where are they all? Gone--gone--all gone! Gone from the services
which in their day and generation they faithfully tendered to their
country. From the excellent characters which they sustained in life,
so far as I have had the means of knowing, I humbly hope, and fondly
trust, they have gone to receive the rewards of blessedness on high.
"In taking, then, my final leave of this bar, and of this honorable
court, I can only ejaculate a fervent petition to Heaven that every
member of it may go to his final account with as little of earthly
frailty to answer for as those illustrious dead; and that every one,
after the close of a long and virtuous career in this world, may be
received at the portals of the next with the approving sentence,
'Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord.'"