I have neither lot nor part in this affair. The Washington Republican professes to support and defend the administration, and says he will defend me in case of need, or the Secretary of the Navy, or the Attorney General. But his real object is to identify the Secretary of War and the administration as one and the same, which object has already been found out and divulged. Now the Franklin Gazette has given me a sample of the defence I am to expect in case of need from Calhounite editors. All I have to say to them is, Hands off, gentlemen; non tali auxilio. Mr. Noah or Mr. Jonathan Elliot shall defend me rather than you. In the hour of need I found no one to defend me but myself, and so I well know it will be again.

The heat has returned upon us "in all the fierceness of autumnal fires." Fahrenheit's thermometer at 94. .. Faithfully yours.

TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS

WASHINGTON, 15th September, 1822.

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

1

The new Commissioner of the Land Office is a Judge McLean of Ohio. I have no personal acquaintance with him, but he was a member of Congress during the late war, when he was well known to the President and to Mr. Calhoun. I was a little surprised at the suddenness of the appointment. The Land Office being an appendage to the Department of the Treasury I had expected the President would have waited to consult Mr. Crawford in the selection.. But the place has been filled before Mr. Crawford could 1 1 John McLean (1785-1861).

have heard of the death of Mr. Meigs, and by a person probably more friendly to Mr. Calhoun than to Mr. Crawford.

As to the whale that ran himself ashore upon my land and has been dispatched by another spear, I suppose that by the law of the land he belonged to me; but the newspapers say that by the custom of the coast he belonged to the first finder. As I am not on the spot to claim or maintain my right, I am not disposed to make a question of it. He is not the first whale that has got himself cut up and tried by floundering upon my territories.

I have received a letter from Mr. Henry Meigs, who is at Perth Amboy, and requests me to aid his mother with my advice, which I have very cheerfully offered her. He says he cannot come on here himself.

The theatrical campaign closes here this week. Cooper finished last Thursday with Virginius, I think the best English tragedy since Cato. As soon as the play was over Cooper was told of the death of one of his own children, which had been known it seems before, but was withheld from him. I was very much pleased with his performances, with the exception of Bertram, a character and a play so disgusting to me, that I could not take pleasure in seeing it performed by any one. . . .

Ever faithfully yours,

1

1 "Saturday morning I gave the last sheet of my book to Mr. Force to be printed. In the evening went to the play. The season closed with the Cure for the Heart Ache, and the Ruffian Boy." To Louisa Catherine Adams, September 23, 1822.

DEAR SIR:

TO JOHN ADAMS

WASHINGTON, 24th September, 1822.

You have been made acquainted with the controversy in which I have been for some months engaged in relation to transactions at the negotiations of Ghent. As the subject is one in which the defence of my own character and that of two of my colleagues was inseparably connected with the principle of deep concernment to the Union, I have thought it necessary to collect in one publication the papers which have hitherto appeared concerning it adding to them further elucidations of the real character of those transactions. Of this publication I enclose herewith a copy. The introduction and most of the papers subsequent to page 162 have not been before published. In submitting them to your examination I shall ask the favor of your confidential opinion on the whole subject. I say confidential because so far as the character and conduct of Mr. Jonathan Russell is implicated I wish that nothing may be said or written by you which would give pain to his friends.

The occupation which this affair has given me, added to the necessary attendance upon the duties of my office, has long deprived me of the satisfaction of writing to you, but has in no wise impaired the unalterable sentiments of duty and affection of your son.

TO LOUISA CATHERINE ADAMS

WASHINGTON, 29th September, 1822.

MY DEAREST FRIEND:

I sent you yesterday a copy of my book, of which after reading as much as you find interesting I wish you to make the disposal mentioned in my last.1 The introduction contains the summary of all its contents, and the papers which have not been published begin at page 163.

Will you tell Mr. Walsh that I ask his attention to the three papers subsequent to that page, and to the five points stated in the introduction as my principal motive for the publication? For all the personal part of the controversy, whether with Mr. Russell or Mr. Floyd, I want neither aid nor cheering. But I want his deliberate and impartial opinion upon the merits of the controversy, separated from all consideration of persons - his revised opinion. I want it for two reasons: first, because upon such topics I value his opinion more than that of any other editor of a newspaper in the Union; and secondly, because he did give an opinion at the outset, before he had heard me on the question, and which I hope he will reconsider. He has expressed wishes that I should make good my argument, while the Richmond Enquirer has told the world that I had asked to be heard. again upon it, probably in vain. By the Richmond Enquirer I shall always be heard in vain for any purpose of truth or justice. But I do not so deem of Mr. Walsh.

Tell him further that I value his personal friendship, and am justly sensible of his kind feelings towards me. That I have seen and utterly discredit the cunning and base in

1 It was to be given to Robert Walsh.

sinuations of his enemies and mine, that he had expressed in private contemptuous opinions of me as a writer, opposed to the favorable notice that he has given of me as such to the public. That I well know his opinion of my style, and am well satisfied with it; the more so, because though favorable in the main, it has neither been flattering, nor blind, or silent to its faults.

With regard to the next Presidential election, tell him, that in his editorial capacity, I wish him to set aside all his feelings of personal regard for me, as completely as if there were no such person in existence. That as his friend, I would have him govern himself by two principles. First, a view to the question as connected with the public welfare only, and in subordination to that; secondly, the discharge of his own duty as a public journalist, and the success of his own establishment. I would have him maintain his independence and be the partizan of no man. I say this now for several reasons. First, because several of the presses devoted to others have set him down as a partizan of mine, which as he has never declared himself to be - I do not desire him to be. Secondly, because in the general prostitution of the periodical press which the election seems likely to produce, I would gladly see its character redeemed by one really pure disinterested and independent editor, and my esteem and regard for him lead me to wish that he may be the man. Thirdly, because you wrote me some time since that he had told you he had no view beyond his present occupation and establishment. As this was precisely the situation in which it was. proper that he should place himself with me, it is just that he should know I expect nothing from him as an editor on the score of personal friendship for me.

What a shocking affair, this death of the Marquess of Londonderry! What a comment upon the vanity of human