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HARVARD
COLLEGE
LIBRARY
MEMOIRS
OF
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS,
COMPRISING PORTIONS OP
HIS DIARY FROM 1795 TO 1848.
EDITED BY
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.
VOL. II.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO,
1874.
I
u
i> Si
e
7^^' O )
TOHWraTuBBBBI
UBRARY
JAN 2 01993
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, ^Y
J. B. LIPIMNCOTT & CO.,
In the OHicc of thu Librarian of Congress at Washington.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VII. PAG>
TiiR Mission to Russia 3
CHAPTER VIII.
TiiR Mediation 498
CHAPTER IX.
The Negotiation for Peace 603
• • •
111
J
MEMOIRS
OP
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
VOL. II. — I
MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
CHAPTER VII.
THE MISSION TO RUSSIA.
Eternal Spirit ! Ruler of the skies !
From whom all good and perfect giAs arise,
Oh ! grant that while this feeble hand portrays
The fleeting image of my earthly days,
Still the firm pur|)ose of my heart may be
Goorl to mankind, and gratitude to thee 1
And while the page a true resemblance bears
Of all my changes through a life of cares,
Let not one worthless deed here claim a place,
To stain the future, or the past disgrace.
Nor yet one thought the faithful record swell
But such as virtue may delight to tell.
Saturday^ August 5th, 1809. At noon this day I left my house,
at the comer of Boylston and Nassau Streets, in Boston, ac-
companied by my wife, my youngest child, Charles Francis, my
wife's sister, Catherine Johnson, my nephew and private secre-
tary, William Steuben Smith, Martha Godfrey, who attends my
wife as her chambermaid, and a black man-servant named Nelson,
to embark on a voyage to Russia, charged with a commission as
Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to
that Court. We went in a carriage over Charles River Bridge
to Mr. William Gray's wharf in Charlestown, and there went on
board his ship Horace, Captain Beckford, fitted out on a voyage
to St. Petersburg direct. We found already on the ship Mr.
Alexander H. Everett and Mr. Francis C. Gray, who are going
3
4 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August.
with mc, as secretaries attached to the Legation, but at their
own expense. Mr. and Mrs. Gray were also at the vessel, with
two of their other sons. There were also a number of gentle-
men there, who took leave of us at the wharf We left it
precisely as the Boston and Charlestown bells were ringing one
o'clock. Dr. Welsh and my brother went with us down the
harbor, and some short distance without the light-house. We
received our passage salutes at the Navy Yard in Charlestown,
at Fort Independence on Castle Island, the garrison of which
was paraded as we passed; from the revenue cutter Massa-
chusetts, Captain Williams; and from the Chesapeake frigate,
Captain Hull, which lay anchored about two miles without the
light, and from which Captain Hull sent an officer on board
with his compliments, and wishing us a pleasant passage. We
returned the salutes and the compliments as well as we could.
We had a fair wind and a tolerably fresh breeze. About four in
the adernoon my brother and Dr. Welsh took leave of us, and
went on board the revenue cutter, to return to Boston ; we then
stood out, with a light breeze and fair weather, which continued
all the evening, and had almost lost sight of the land before the
darkness of night intercepted the shores from our view.
At this commencement of an enterprise, perhaps the most
important of any that I have ever in the course of my life been
engaged in, it becomes me to close the day by imploring the
blessing of Providence upon it — that its result may prove
beneficial to my country, prosperous to my family and myself,
and advantageous to all who are concerned in the voyage.
6th. Sunday, On rising this morning we found ourselves
out of sight of land. Weather cool and foggy. Winds light
and rather scant — about south, with some east. All the ladies,
Charles, and Mr. Everett, who had never before been to sea, are
sick. Mr. Gray, who likewise is a new sailor, has not yet been
so. Mr. Smith and I scarcely perceive that we are at sea.
This is the fourth time in the course of my life I have
embarked from Boston for Europe. The first was nth Feb-
ruary,' 1778, in the Boston frigate, Captain Tucker. The second,
14th November, 1779, in the Sensible, French frigate, Captain
* Written from memory. It was on the 13th of February, by the ship's log-book.
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 5
Chevagnes. The third, 17th September, 1794, in the Alfred,
merchant ship, Captain Macey. On the first and second of these
voyages I accompanied my father, who was going abroad upon
public missions. On the third I went in a similar character
myself, and was accompanied by my brother. The separation
from my family and friends has always been painful ; but never
to the degree which I feel it now. The age of my parents
awakens, both in them and me, the hopes of our meeting again,
and I now leave two of my own infant children behind. My
father and mother are also deeply affected by my departure,
and I received yesterday from my mother a letter which would
have melted the heart of a Stoic. Thus ties which bind me to
my country have multiplied with the increase of my years, and
the difficulties and dangers of every kind, which present them-
selves in anticipation upon this occasion, exceed those of any
former time, excepting, however, the dangers of war, to which on
my two first voyages I was exposed; and which do not threaten
us now. My motives for accepting this commission are various.
That of serving my country, in the station which its regular
organs have chosen to assign me, stands foremost of them all ;
and though it neither suits my own inclination nor my own
private judgment, I deem it a duty to sacrifice them both to the
public sense, expressed by the constitutional authority.
13th. Head winds and fogs continually rising and dis-
persing through the day, — saw nothing. I read over again
Plutarch's life of Lycurgus, and made some minutes from it In
the afternoon also I read two sermons of Massillon — on the
forgiveness of injuries, and on the word of God. The first of
these is the best of this author's sermons that I have yet read.
The subject is indeed most interesting and copious, and the
manner in which he treats it is adapted peculiarly to his audi-
tory— to men of the world and courtiers. The divisions of the
subject are still too technical. The injustice of our enmities, and
the insincerity of our reconciliations, are the two parts. The
first subdivided into three — taste, interest, vanity — which are
the causes of our taking offence. The second also into three —
the motives, process, and consequences of pretended reconcilia-
tion. There is some censure in this discourse upon the practice
6 AfEAfOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [August.
of duelling. There is argument, satire, indignation, tender-
ness— a keen search of every good comer in the heart and
every sound cellar of the brain.
In the second sermon, on preaching, there is more ingenuity
but less pathos. The division is founded on the dispositions
with which believers ought to attend on preaching, and with
those with which they should hear it. In this sermon there is
a passage very much to my purpose in the lecture' which
endeavors to trace the source of difference between Catholic
and Protestant preaching. It is page 170, and names docility as
one of the dispositions with which preaching is to be heard.
There is an anecdote told of Louis XIV., that he said to Mas-
sillon, after hearing one of his sermons, " Father, I have heard
and admired many other preachers, but you always make me
dissatisfied with myself." If Louis said so, he had taken the
idea from Massillon in this sermon. He says that many hearers
come to seek vain ornaments which amuse the patient without
healing him, which make the preacher pleasing to the sinner,
but not the sinner displeasing to himself I observe in this
sermon many instances of a very peculiar manner of applying
passages of Scripture figuratively.
14th. The day was fine, the water smooth, the winds light,
but so much ahead that we were unable at any part of the day
to steer within three points of our course. Latitude, by obser-
vation, 43.26; longitude, 54.30 ; water, morning, at 67; air, 68;
noon, water, 67 ; air, 69. I made minutes on the two sermons
of Massillon which I read yesterday; and on Plutarch's life
of Lycurgus ; read also his life of Solon. I find amusement
in these occupations, and our weather is so mild and the sea so
smooth that I can employ more time in reading and writing
than I ever could at sea before. Yet it seems to me that I do
not employ my time to the best advantage. My thermometer
is an amusement — a celestial globe would also be an agree-
able companion — and Lacep^dc's Natural History of Fishes,
Pinkerton's Geography, and Mavor's little collection of Voyages
and Travels. We have seen nothing since the ship, last Thurs-
' A reference to the fourteenth lecture in the course delivered at Cftmbridge, on
pulpit oratory, and afterwards published, vol. i. pp. 332-337.
l8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. y
day, which the captain says took our wind from us ; but this
afternoon we were entertained with a scull of porpoises, first
seen by W. S. Smith, which played for an hour or two around
the bow of the ship, and which some of the men, with the usual
ill success, attempted to catch with grains and harpoons. The
water continues to bream or scintillate, which the captain con-
siders a sign of easterly winds.
20th. Wind died away this morning, and left us a day of total
calm. The sky was more clear, and W. S. Smith discovered a
vessel after us, which he showed to the captain, but which none
of the rest of us could see. Latitude, by observation, 48.35 ;
longitude, 43.50; water, 59 and 60; air, 62 and 64. I read two
sermons of Massillon, on the certainty of a future state, and on
the reverence to be observed in churches. They pleased me
less than those of the last week. The reasoning in support of
a future state is upon the obvious topics — its necessity for the
moral government of the universe, and the opinion entertained
by all mankind. He does not touch upon the analogies in
physical nature which render futurity more probable. The
sermon upon the duty of reverent behavior at church is upon
an article of the minor morals, but breathes a fervent spirit of
devotion. He compliments the king, Louis XIV., upon his
exemplary piety in attendance upon church; but bitterly
censures the courtiers who come to attract their master's
notice by an affectation of religion which they do not feel, and
the worldly women who come to display a pomp of apparel
or to make assignations of gallantry. He particularly handles
very roughly their nudities. This was about the time when
Addison frowned upon the naked arms of the Englishwomen.
There is a curious account of the four degrees of intrenchment
round the sanctuary of the Temple under the ancient Jewish
Laws.
31st. Day, I rise about six o'clock, often earlier. Read ten or
fifteen chapters in the Bible. We breakfast about nine. Spend
half an hour afterwards upon deck — ^at noon sometimes take
the observation by the quadrant. Read or write in the cabin
until two. Dine. After dinner read or write again ; occasionally
visiting the deck for a walk until seven in the evening. Sup.
8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Augasl.
Read or play at cards until eleven or twelve, when we all retire
to bed. There is much time for study and for meditation at sea ;
and when the weather is as moderate as we have generally had
it hitherto upon this passage, a person capable of useful appli-
cation may employ his time to as great advantage as on shore.
The objects which excite attention are concentrated within the
bounds of the vessel ; the rest of mankind for the time seem to
be inhabitants of another planet. The prosperity of the voyage
consists in the paucity of incident ; and the less there is to be
told the more there is to be enjoyed. This life is not tedious
to those who can make themselves occupation. But its un-
certainties, its perpetual changes, its anxieties, and its concen-
tration of interest upon the fluctuations of wind and wave,
constitute its principal hardships.
The active mind of Mr. Adams could scarcely remain content,
during this long voyage, with speculations upon the writings
of the few authors he could carry with him. It would apj^car
from the following paper, bearing date 2ist August, that he had
spent part of his time in carefully meditating a course of advice
for the benefit of the two sons he left behind him as they should
advance to manhood, during his absence. It is the only one of
its kind that has been found, and is inserted here less perhaps
on account of the matter itself, than for the sake of the light
which it reflects upon his own mind and character.
LEITERS TO MY CHILDREN.
It is iFelated of Augustus Cxsar, that, being upon his death-
bed, he turned, just before he expired, to the friends who were
standing around, and asked them what they thought of the
part which he had acted on the scene of human life. They
expressed their admiration, as their feelings or their prudence
inspired. Then said he, ** Plaudite**
In the article of death, Augustus was what he had been
throughout life, a theatrical performer. The ideas which clung
to his last sand were inseparable from representation. He was
still acting a part in death, and this expression, while it indi-
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, ^
cates a coolness and self-possession at the moment when the
generality of mankind have lost all the faculties both of mind
and body, at the same time proves the consciousness of him
who used it that he had been through the whole course of his
existence a man in a mask — the Roscius or iEsopus of real
life.
The character of Augustus Caesar is not one which I should
ever recommend to you as a model for imitation. I do not
altogether approve even of this idea with which he closed his
life. It is only in a qualified sense that we can admit that " all
the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players."
But thus far it is admissible, and may be useful ; that you should
each of you consider yourself as placed here to act a part — that
is, to have some single great end or object to accomplish, towards
which all the views and all the labors of your existence should
steadily be directed.
The generality of mankind are under little embarrassment in
fixing upon this purpose of existence. Since the sentence upon
our first parent, that he should live by the sweat of his brow,
toil has been the ordinary price of subsistence, and the labor of
a man's life is appropriated by providence to its own support.
At the entrance upon the threshold of life your principal con^
cern will be to procure to yourself the supply of your wants,
and this may be sufHcient for the exercise of all your faculties.
If successful in this, as you advance on the stage your relations
with human society will multiply. One of the laws of nature
requires that after having enjoyed the blessing of existence your-
self, you should perform your part in communicating the sdme
blessing to others. As a great portion of the enjoyment of life
consists in the society of the sexes, there is an obligation upon
you to share your pleasures with a partner. These two moral
duties are naturally connected with each other; if by the means
of industry and frugality, the most essential of all the virtues to
youth, you acquire the means not only of providing for your
own necessities but a superfluity which may be applied to the
support of others, then commences the obligation of matrimony,
which once contracted opens a field upon which the most steady
and bounteous prosperity may lavish all its stores. The partici-
lO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
pation of your own worldly comforts with a companion for life,
and with the children who may be given to the union, is but the
natural expansion of that first object of life which has been
mentioned — ^the procurement of the means of subsistence. To
your children, however, there is another duty not less sacred
than that of giving them bread — the duty of education — of
training them up in the way they should go; of preparing
them for the conflicts which they may have in their turn to sus-
tain with the wo.rld. Thus, then, the object of life, as it presents
itself in the ordinary course of Providence to man, stands in
this graduation — the means of subsistence for himself — of com-
fortable subsistence for himself and his wife — of subsistence,
nurture, and education for a family of children. These are the
first and the closest ties of human society. Without all these
human society could not exist. They are founded on the
universal law of self-preservation as applied to the individual
and to the species. By providing for his own wants the indi-
vidual can only support his own existence ; and if you suppose
the cares of every individual confined to this object, the species
would perish whenever this race of individuals should be extinct.
The species can be preserved only by the provision made by
every generation for the birth, nurture, and support, to a certain
stage of life, of the generation next succeeding. It is the debt
which every generation owes to its predecessors, and which, not
being in the nature of things payable to them, must be dis-
charged to their order. It is the link between the first parents
of our race and their remotest posterity — the tie by which we
belong at once to past and future ages.
These means of subsistence for the individual, and of preser-
vation to the species, constitute the great end of existence to a
great majority of mankind. They fill the ordinary measure of
duties and obligations. They are to be obtained in civil society
only by some mechanic art or some laborious profession.
Whatever that may be, it requires the exercise of a virtue
which employs the principal part of the individual's time. I
mean industry. Most of these occupations employ the indi-
vidual not immediately in labors for his own use, but for the use
of others. And hence arises a new and copious source of further
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, n
obligations. The relations of man are no longer confined to his
own family, but extend to his neighbors and fellow-citizens. The
exchange of mutual wants produces the complicated system of
contracts, and with it an enlarged field of ethics. To the duties
of self-preservation it adds those of justice and fidelity to others,
but does not materially affect the end of the individual's exist-
ence. He exchanges the superfluity of his own labor for an
equivalent supply to his own wants, and the greater his inge-
nuity, his industry, his fidelity, and his integrity, the more
completely in the ordinary course of things will his time be
absorbed, and the necessary end of his existence attained.
But there are two causes opposite to each other in their nature
which require corresponding modifications in the purpose of
life — the one, success, and the other, failure, in the profession
which he has assumed. These contingencies apply less to that
class of men whose employment is agriculture than to any
others. The tiller of the soil, barely as such, seldom fails to
procure his subsistence and that of his family by his industry,
and as seldom can he expect to procure anything more. But
when men are congregated in populous cities, the multitude of
occupations which arise from that state of things renders the
procurement of subsistence more precarious to every single
individual, while it accumulates superfluous prosperity upon
one part of the community by contributions levied upon the
rest. Hence the extremes of riches and poverty, both of which
affect in the highest degree the occupations of individuals, and
modify the ends of their existence. In proportion as poverty
increases, the social obligations of the individual diminish,
until they centre again in the first law of self-preservation.
When the individual becomes incompetent to the supply of his
necessary wants, there results to his family or to society an
obligation to provide the means of subsistence for him, in con-
sideration of which, however, they require the right of employ-
ing him in such suitable labor as he is able to perform. Of such
persons, however, little need here be said, as, ceasing in some
sort to be responsible beings, the end of their being can thence-
forth be no other than physical existence, as comfortable as the
humanity of their fellow-creatures can make it.
12 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Augmf,
But as indigence diminishes, so prosperity multiplies the
relations and the duties of social life. He to whom success in
his occupation has brought a surplus of the means of subsist-
ence beyond that which is necessary for himself and his family,
contracts the obligation of correcting the iniquities of fortune —
of disseminating that prosperity with which he has been blest,
of becoming the beneHictor of his fellow-mortals beyond Ihc
circle of his own family. It is perhaps impossible to mark the
line where this special obligation commences. But it certainly
begins long before any special modification to the object of
existence becomes necessary. Besides the immediate family,
with the support of which the individual is charged under the
primary law of sfelf-preservation, there are remoter domestic
relations — relations of good neighborhood, of friendship, of
patriotism, and of philanthropy, which bind in looser ties every
individual to his fellow-creatures. These are not* only recon-
cilable with those primary obligations of duty which mark out
the object of existence, but are in many respects inseparable
from them. The good offices of social benevolence depend
much in their application upon the circumstances in which the
individual is placed, and are modified by them. There are
also the duties of a citizen to his country, which are binding
upon all, and more forcibly binding in a republican govern-
ment than in any other. The principle of all other governments
supposes that the great interests of the community are, by the
operation of certain institutions, exclusively, or at least prin-
cipally, committed to a certain number of individuals, and that
the duties of all others towards the body politic are a burden
which they may decline, or which perhaps they are forbidden
to assume. But upon the republican principle, every individual
has a stake, an interest, and a voice in the common stock of
society, and consequently lies under the obligation of attending
to and promoting that common interest to the utmost of his
power, compatibly with the discharge of his more immediate
duties of self-preservation and preservation of his kind. These
duties of patriotism and philanthropy may become predominant,
and indicate the very object of existence when the primary obli-
gations are discharged already at a man's hands, or so facilitated
1809.1 rnE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 13
as no longer to employ a material portion of the individuaFs toil
and time.
When by the success of his own exertions, or by the exuber-
ance of prosperity inherited from his fathers, the first necessary
object of existence has been accomplished, the obligation upon
the individual is by his own voluntary act to substitute another
object for his pursuit One of the reasons why the rich, the
great, and the prosperous appear in such unfavorable colors is,
that not possessing the understanding to select, the spirit to
assume, or the perseverance to effect any such steady object of
pursuit, they pass their lives in idleness, or in dishonorable
occupations — mere burdens of human society, mere cumbcrcrs
of the ground. And as employment is necessary, both to the
body and mind of man, none being provided for them, and they
being under a moral incapacity to provide any for themselves,
their existence is as burdensome to themselves as it is useless
to others.
Take it, then, as a general principle to be observed as one of
the directing impulses of life, that you must have some one
great purpose of existence. And if you should ever be relieved
from that which is imposed upon you, that of providing for
yourself, let it be one of your most ardent solicitudes to select
another which may best promote your own well-being and the
happiness of your fellow-creatures. Obvious as this principle
is when thus expressed in general terms, it is not without its
difficulties when we attempt to carry it into practice. How
to employ our faculties in such a manner as shall produce the
greatest quantity of human happiness is a problem of no easy
solution. Good intention is but one step towards its solution.
The good which an individual can do to his fellow-citizens is
seldom proportioned to his dispositions, and the inclination to
do good itself, unless enlightened by a clear perception, guided
by a discriminating judgment, and animated by energetic and
active resolution, evaporates in the dreams of imagination, or
proves a poison instead of a healing balm.
There are two different modes by which an individual pos-
sessed of a sufficient competency for his own wants may em-
ploy his time for the benefit of his country and of mankinds
J 4 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [August,
The first, by taking a share in the public administration of the
government. The second, by cultivating the arts and sciences.
As to the first, there are countries where many persons under
these circumstances are, by the political constitutions of the
country, invested by hereditary right with a portion of the
public authority. But in ours, the principle of the govern-
ment is elective, and the attainment of any situation in the
public administration depends upon the will of others. Still
further, with a very few exceptions, the public oflfices are not
only elective, but for short periods of time. So that neither
their first acquisition nor their permanent possession depends
upon the will of the individual. From this state of things you
may infer certain corresponding axioms.
The object of existence, when selected by yourself, should
be as much as possible within your own control. For if you
choose that which depends upon the will of others, you not only
prepare for yourself probable disappointment, but you diminish
your means of usefulness by rendering them precarious. You
weaken your power of doing good, by placing the capacity of
doing it at the disposal of others. You place not only yourself
and your own happiness, but your beneficent energies, under
tutelage. It is therefore dangerous to connect the principal end
of existence with the participation in the government. Much
more dangerous would it be to place it in the attainment of
public office. This can of itself contribute very little to your
own happiness, and nothing to that of others. Yet an invariable
determination to reject the participation of authority is neither
commanded by virtue nor compatible with it. The public
service, to a man of independent patriotism, is neither to be
solicited nor refused. He must be neither obtrusive nor dis-
dainful. He ought not to ask what he cannot want, but to
hold himself ever ready at the call of his country. This call,
when it occurs, must doubtless to a certain extent modify that
which he chooses to make the end of his existence. Public
office brings with it much necessary occupation, and must give,
some of its colors to individual existence. The duties of the
oflV^c must be faithfully discharged, and at the same time the
.enquiry ought ever to be present to the officer's mind, how he
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 15
can make himself yet more useful to his country. There are
talents and qualifications which belong to every public station,
and the performance of its functions is generally susceptible
of improvement There is a species of knowledge important
if not indispensable to every public officer, and although the
appointment or election presupposes competent qualifications
in the person chosen, yet whoever is ambitious of performing
well his part will find that he has useful employment for much
time in fitting himself better for the station which he has
already attained. Public office is of various kinds. There are
offices merely ministerial and of a subordinate character, easily
filled, and requiring labor rather than talents to be filled in
the best manner. These are usually sought after as a means
of subsistence, and they ought to be reserved exclusively for
meritorious indigence. They may be wanted^ but can never be
desired. But the offices of high trust and responsibility, legis-
lative, executive, and judicial, all require continual supplies of
information, and have within themselves ample sources for
constant employment to those by whom they arc held.
The cultivation of the arts and sciences affords an inexhausti-
ble and never-failing resource for employment; and it is the
most honorable occupation which the leisure of opulence can
assume. But the field is so wide that there is danger of wan-
dering over it to no purpose, unless some specific' object of
pursuit be voluntarily proposed. Miscellaneous and undirected
application to study is a more innocent pastime than wealth or
grandeur usually find, but is after all but an idle industry. The
mind of man is too limited in its powers to embrace all art and
science in general. Superior excellence in one department of
art or science may be attained by a concentration of efforts,
which more diffusely exerted, though in equal degree, will
secure nothing more than mediocrity.
The real and only difficulty to be overcome is that of fixing
upon the special object of application. There is sometimes an
impulse of natural genius so clear and strong that it needs
neither stimulus nor direction. It forces its own way, and car-
ries the individual along with it. But as these persons are a
law to themselves, they are of no use as examples to others.
1 6 MEMOIRS OF yOIIJV QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
The ordinary race of mortals must make themselves a channel
in which their desires and energies may flow. Instead of fol-
lowing a transient propensity, which they will find constantly
changing its object, their merit will consist in counteracting it.
The common man, and as such you must consider yourself,
will find his inclinations leading him constantly not to the ob-
ject of his pursuit, but from it. Let mc, however, suggest a
few principles, which may, by the aid of your own reflections,
lead you to a correct decision in the choice which I suppose
you may be called to make.
1. Let the chosen object of your existence be such as natu-
rally will engraft itself upon the necessary one — such as may
have within itself a capacity of expansion and contraction,
according to the good or ill success which may attend its pur-
suit. When Cortes landed with his troops to undertake the
conquest of Mexico, he burnt his ships to take from his com-
panions all hopes of safety in a retreat. This was rather the re-
sort of desperation than of magnanimity. It suited the ferocious
character of Cortes, and success has enrolled it in the annals
of heroism. But the ordinary policy of the greatest heroes
is not to cut off", but to secure the means of safety by retreat.
The most ordinary mistake of political adventurers in our coun-
try is, like Cortes, at their entrance upon public life to burn
their ships, to cut ofi" their own retreat, and in the first instance
of failure, which is sure to befall them, to plunge headlong over
the precipice of ruin. Should your fortune ever lure you into
the thorny paths of public life, let your first and most inflexible
resolution be, to keep your retreat open, to prepare yourself for
an independent retirement, and to keep your mind always ready
to return to the humbler and safer pursuits of private life.
2. In selecting a specific branch of art or science for your
peculiar assiduity of cultivation, do not waste too much time in
deliberation. Let your choice be made coolly, but let it not be
postponed from year to year, until the chance of choice or the
leisure of pursuit shall be lost.
3. To guide your choice, consult your own genius with the
spirit of enquiry, and, if possible, with the judgment of im-
partiality. Consult your friends, if friends you have capable of
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 17
estimating the importance of the object and the considerations
which ought to influence your decision. Discard, unless you
have a very clear and forcible vocation, the abstract sciences,
because they are much more difficult to be made practically
useful to others by any use that yon can make of them. Dis-
card the mechanical arts, because the exercise of them can
scarcely ever be made pleasing to yourself or of any important
advantage to others. The physical sciences, natural history,
astronomy, ethics, oratory, and poetry, with all the varieties of
polite literature, may divide your attention, and the accidents
of life as they occur may point you more particularly to any
one subordinate division for that extraordinary toil and care of
cultivation which a thrifty and industrious farmer would bestow
upon his garden,
4. Accustom yourself to meditate and to write upon the sub-
jects to which you devote your special attention. Writing, says
Lord Bacon, makes a correct man. Reflect upon what you read,
and converse upon the topic of your enquiry with those who
understand it best. Methodize your studies, and form some
general plan upon which you can resume or lay aside any par-
ticular study without retarding or arresting your general pursuit.
5. Finally, let the uniform principle of your life, the "frontlet
between your eyes," be how to make your talents and your
knowledge most beneficial to your country and most useful to
vtankind,
September 3d. I read the second sermon of Massillon upon
prayer, and that upon confession, which finishes the first volume
of the Lent Sermons. That upon confession is one of the best
in the volume — the figurative application of Scripture very
ingenious ; the divisions drawn with excellent discrimination ;
the sources of inadequate confession traced with keen satirical
severity, and v^ry close inspection of human nature and its
operations. But it might be termed a sermon against confes-
sion. He repeatedly expresses at least a doubt whether the
institution does not produce more evil than good in the church,
and a Protestant might turn the whole of the Bishop's artillery
against the Catholic cause. There is a passage upon the base-
VOI.. II. — 2
1 8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
ness of the mere terror of hell, corresponding much with senti-
ments which I have expressed before I had read this sermon.
loth. I read two sermons of Massillon — second volume of
Lent — on the dangers of prosperity, and on final impenitence.
After reading them I attempted to make an abstract of them,
2A a trial of memory, but without success. I was obliged con-
stantly to recur to the book. I still find that of all my reading
at sea, the memory takes hold scarcely of anything. There
are so many things on board which distract attention, that it
exceeds all my powers of volition to apply the mind to objects
of study. I also read part of Palcy's Horae Paulinas.
15th. About four o'clock this morning the captain came into
the cabin, and waked me with the information that we had land
close upon the starboard bow. He thought it Westra Patra
Island, one of the Orkney Islands, in latitude 59.21, longitude
3.10. About a quarter of an hour afterwards I rose, and saw
the island about seven miles distant, bearing southwest from
the ship — apparently an island about two miles long. There
was another island seen more to the southward, but so distant
that I did not see it. We were going between five and six
miles an hour ; and as we made no other land, and in about
three hours lost sight of that we had made, the captain con-
cluded it was'Rona Island, situated in latitude 50.55, longitude
6. 16— about four degrees west of our reckoning. We ran with a
fair wind and fresh breeze all day, in the course of which we
saw four vessels steering our course, and one to the westward.
No observation could be obtained. About four in the afternoon
land was seen in various directions, on our starboard quarter
and beam, in a south and westerly direction. They were the
Orkney Islands, Pomona, Westra, and Papa Westra, or Westra
Patra.
17th. The breeze and squalls continued all night, driving us
eight and nine miles an hour, but it made such a sea, that I had
scarcely an hour of sleep in the night. It kept the same steady
course all this day, and the captain had some expectation of
making the land of Norway before night. We had not seen
a vessel since passing by Fair Island until about five o'clock
this afternoon, when a brig was discerned steering towards us.
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. iq
Within an hour's time she came within hailing distance, before
which she fired a gun to leeward, upon which we hoisted our
colors. She did not show hers, but came to windward of us,
then fired a gun to windward and hailed us. Whence from ?
From Boston. Whither bound ? To Russia. Let down your
boat and come on board. Which, not being heard distinctly,
was repeated. The captain answered that his boat was so small
that it would not be safe to go out with it in this weather.
The same order was again repeated, and a musket with ball
fired, ranging alongside of our ship. It was the dusk of the
evening, the wind blowing in continual squalls like a gale, and
a heavy sea going. The captain, however, let down the boat,
and went into it with Mr. Lowder and three men. They cast
off from the ship, and attempted to row to the brig, but drifted
so in the course of ten minutes, that instead of getting to the
brig, it was with the utmost difficulty that they reached the ship
again, having the boat half full of water, and all the time in the
most imminent danger, both of oversetting and of being sunk
by an overwhelming wave. The captain then hailed the brig
again, and told them his boat would not live in such a sea and
weather, upon which, without making any answer, the brig shot
ahead of us to such a distance that on the moon's setting she
was out of sight Then, after laying to until about eleven at
night, our ship wore about again and pursued her course.
l8th. Wc had another rough and laboring night, but the wind
not so high as the two preceding days. This morning, how-
ever, the sea ran so heavy that in rolling she often shipped
water at the sides. About five in the morning we made the
land, on the coast of Norway, and at noon were abreast of the
Naze, and in sight of it — our latitude being 57.43 by observation ;
longitude, 7.15 east; water, 56; air, 55. Yesterday both were
at 55. The rolling of the vessel in the forenoon made it impos-
sible for me to write, or to read to any purpose, and I gave it
up. In the afternoon the wind died away, and we came into
smoother water — ^being in what is termed the Slaave, between
the coasts of Norway and Jutland.
19th. We had a calm and quiet night — and this morning
about six, the captain called me, and told me there was a
20 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
cruiser close on board of us. I rose immediately, and within a
quarter of an hour a brig with English colors lay alongside of
us. Without speaking, she sent a boat with an officer and four
men to us. The officer came on board, and, after examining the
captain's papers, left us, saying, " I suppose you may proceed."
He told me it was fortunate we had not met him last night, for
he might have fired into us; having been yesterday all day
in pursuit of two Danish men-of-war, which they chased into
Christiansand. This was a brig of eighteen guns. He gave
the captain some news — as that the French had defeated the
Austrians in a battle, and there was now an armistice between
them; that the English in Portugal had also been defeated,
and Lord Wellesley obliged to make good his retreat. About
seven in the morning we parted from this vessel, and within two
hours came in sight of another brig, under Danish colors. She
soon fired a gun to bring us to, upon which we waited for her
about half an hour. She then passed close under our stern,
hailed us, and enquired from whence we came, and where we
were bound. On receiving the answer, she hauled down her
Danish colors, hoisted the English flag, and sent an officer on
board of us, with four men. It seems they had not heard dis-
tinctly our answers to their hailing, for on being told that we
were from Boston, bound to Petersburg, the officer told his men
to go on board his own vessel and tell the captain we were
from Boston, bound to Petersburg. He remained himself on
board, and examined the captain's papers, telling him that as
we were going to Elsineur, and they were at war with Denmark,
he did not know whether we could proceed or not. The boat,
however, soon returned with the men, and the officer then left
us. The name of the first brig from which we were boarded
was the Rover, Captain McVicar; the name of the second our
captain enquired of the officer, but does not recollect his answer.
The weather all the morning had looked threatening and the
wind directly ahead. The equinoctial being close at hand, our
captain concluded to go into a harbor on the coast of Norway,
which was full in view. So we stood in for the land, and made
a signal for a pilot. A boat very soon came up to us, with a
pilot belonging to Ronga Sound, about three leagues above
1809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 2 1
Christiansand. While the captain was consulting him, whether
to go in there or into Christiansand, a small two-mast boat,
with about fifteen armed men, and a swivel, under Danish
colors, came and fired a gun to bring us to. A Danish lieu-
tenant of the marine, by the name of Kraff, then came on board
from her, and told the captain he must go into Christiansand.
The captain at this took the alarm, declared he would not go
into harbor at all, and put the ship about to stand out to sea.
The lieutenant made a sign to the men in his boat lying along-
side of us to come on board, which the captain ordered our
crew to resist. We had in half a minute a dozen or fifteen men,
with pikes, axes, and swords, on the quarter-deck, and the men
from the deck pressing forward to her forecastle, to attempt
boarding us. The lieutenant, however, made a signal to them
to withdraw. He and the pilot were then very much afraid
that we should carry them off, and wanted to get to their boats.
The captain asked me whether he had not better now stand
off at all events. I told him I saw no reason for changing his
first determination, and he concluded to go into the harbor of
Fleckeroe, about four miles distant from Christiansand. The
lieutenant, by his invitation, went with us, and landed. The
captain landed to show his papers to the commanding officer
here, and afterwards went up to Christiansand with his papers
there. Mr. Everett and Mr. Gray went with him. The officer
at land, being informed of my character, desired to see my pass-
port, and having nothing but my commission, I landed and
showed it to him. In the evening an officer came from the
conuiiodore of all the gun-boats on the coast of Norway on
board with his compliments and offers of service to me. About
midnight the captain, with Mr. Everett and Mr. Gray, returned,
but the papers were to undergo an examination to-morrow.
They found the captains of nearly thirty American vessels, which
have been brought into Christiansand since last May, by priva-
teers, and are detained for adjudication. The number brought
in from May to August is thirty-eight, sixteen of which have
been condemned, and appealed to the higher court, and twelve
acquitted, against which the captors have also appealed, detain-
ing the vessels still here. Our Government having no agent
22 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
here, the captains have appointed a Mr. Isaachson, an inhabitant
of the place, who has interested himself much in their behalf
as their agent. The captain brought me his compliments and
invitation to dinner to-morrow for me and all my family.
^ 20th. Immediately after breakfast this morning, I went with
Captain Beckford, Mr. Smith, Mr. Everett, and Mr. Gray, in
the ship's boat, to Christiansand, about four miles, in a wind-
ing passage among the rocks. On our way we met three or four
boats with Americans going down to the ship ; a gentleman on
board of one of them accosted me by name, but I did not know
him until we landed — when I found it was Mr. Lawson Alex-
ander, of Baltimore. He, with a number more of the Americans
detained here under capture of privateers, was introduced to me
at my landing. I went immediately to Mr. Isaachson's, where
we found his lady and his mother, Mrs. Appleby. He was him-
self absent, but soon afterwards returned home. He repeated
his invitation to dinner, and regretted that the ladies had not
come with us to town. He accompanied me to visit the admiral
of the naval force in Norway, Fischer — the governor of the
city, Tobiesen — and the commandant of the garrison. The two
first of these gentlemen were not at home — tlie last received
us. He is an old officer, far advanced in years, and, speaking
only the Danish language, I could have but little conversation
with him. On my return to Mr. Isaachson's, a number of the
American captains brought me papers containing the transla-
tion of their sentences of condemnation. They also delivered
me a memorial which some of them transmitted to the Presi-
dent of the United States some months since, and a triplicate
of a letter written some time since to me, one copy of which
they had forwarded to Petersburg, and another to Copenhagen,
with the expectation that it would meet me there, requesting
my interference in their behalf. They gave me also the minutes
of all their proceedings since they have acted in company, which
I read.
We dined between two and three o'clock. There were
upwards of twenty of the American captured gentlemen at
table, and several others came in afler dinner. The admiral of
the gun-boats, Fischer, and the governor, Tobiesen, also came
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 23
and returned my visit The admiral is a man apparently be-
tween sixty and seventy, who told me he had seen my father
at Paris in 1779, when he was there with Dr. Franklin and Mr.
Lee, and that he had been in America during the Revolutionary
war, as an officer in the French navy, and knew at Boston
Governor Hancock and t)r. Cooper, who gave him a copy of
his sermon at the organization of the government of Massa-
chusetts under the present Constitution of the State. He was
also acquainted with Governor Collins, of Rhode Island. He
made me a formal apology for the misconduct of the officer
who boarded our ship, and said he should have been in despair
if anything like violence had been offered to a ship bearing a
public minister. The governor of the city was very polite also
in his demeanor ; but some of our captains say he was inter-
ested in the privateers which took them. Another gentleman
also came and invited me to his house to-morrow. His name
was not mentioned to me, but he told me he had been well
acquainted with Mr. Murray at the Hague. In the evening I
returned to the ship in one of the boats belonging to an Ameri-
can ship. Mr. Isaachson accompanied me, and also two boats
more, full of those gentlemen, who intended it as a compliment
to me. They spent about an hour on board the ship, and then
took their leave. The captain came in his own boat about
eleven at night, with Captain Leach, master of one of the cap-
tured vessels belonging to Mr. Thorndike, of Beverly. He,
having by accident missed his own boat, lodges on board our
ship this night.
Our captain's papers were this day returned without examina-
tion, and with an order from the Commission of Examination
that the^ship, having a public minister on board, should be suf-
fered to proceed without any interruption whatsoever. The sight
of so many of my countrymen, in circumstances so distressing,
is very painful, and each of them has a story to tell of the
peculiar aggravations of ill treatment which he has received.
The desire of contributing to their relief is so strong in me
that I shall, without waiting for express authority from the
Government of the United States, use every effort in my power
in their behalf, to however little purpose it may be as to its
24 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September.
success. While we were at Mr. Isaachson's, at table, he re-
ceived a letter containing a proclamation announcing that the
island of Iceland, which about a year since was taken by the
English, is now declared independent of all European Govern-
ments. It was but under a sort of nominal dependence upon
Denmark.
2 1 St. This is the day on which the sun crosses the line, and
we had a heavy gale of wind, with plentiful rain, which began
in the night and continued through the greater part of this day.
It confined us entirely to the ship. Captain Skinner and Mr.
Myers Fisher, Jun., of Philadelphia, came down from Chris-
tiansand to visit us, and spent a couple of hours with us in the
forenoon. In the afternoon I sent my compliments to Captain
Bille, who commands the gun-boats here, and invited him to
come and take coffee with us, which he did. He was a captain
of a frigate while the Danish fleet was in their possession, and
at the battle of Copenhagen, in 1801, was on board of one of
the Danish ships. He says that the Commodore Fischer now
here is not the same who commanded on that day at Copen-
hagen, though bearing the same name. Captain Bille has
been stationed here since the time when the English took
the Danish ships at Copenhagen. He had more information of
European news than any person I have seen before. The
Americans have scarcely any, and Mr. Isaachson spoke upon
the subject with so much reserve that I forbore pressing any
enquiries upon him.
22d. Commodore Fischer paid me a visit on board the ship,
and gave me a special order under his hand to the commanders
of all the gun-boats, requiring them to let me pass freely with
my family. About one o'clock three of the gentlemen from
Christiansand came on board, with an invitation for me to go
there to dine again at Mr. Isaachson's. I w«iit up accordingly,
and found a large party assembled to dinner, among whom
was the late governor of the place, Chiegeson, the present
governor, Mr. Simonson, Mr. Isaachson's father, with his lady,
and his brother's lady. Almost all the rest of the company
consisted of Americans. We had another elegant entertain-
ment ; but when we would have returned on board of our ship,
i8o9.] THE MISSION' TO RUSSIA. 2$
a storm of wind and rain had arisen, which rendered it altogether
impracticable. We were obliged, therefore, to accept of the hos-
pitable entertainment of Mr. Isaachson's house for the night,
which was offered and urged upon us in the most pressing
terms. The evening was passed at cards, and about midnight
we retired to bed.
23d. The storm continued most of the night, and all this
morning; but the wind had become more favorable for us to
sail ; and after waiting until about two in the afternoon, and
dining again at Mr. Isaachson's, we took at length our de-
parture, in the midst of a heavy squall of rain and wind. Mr.
Isaachson had procured for us a sail-boat belonging to the late
governor, with a round-house, in which we were sheltered from
the weather. He accompanied us down, as did Captain Thomp-
son, with four boats from the American vessels here detained,
and by which our boat was rowed down. We reached the ship
about four in the afternoon, and the captain came on board a
few minutes after us. The wind was now fair for us to sail,
though still blowing a gale. The pilot was on board, and we
immediately weighed anchor, assisted by the boats' crews which
had rowed us down from Christiansand. Just at sunset, Cap-
tain Thompson, Captain Joseph, and Captain Leach, with their
boats, left us. Mr. Isaachson, with the governor's boat, had
gone shortly before. About seven we were outside of the
harbor of Flcckeroe, and the pilot left us. It blew a fresh
gale, and the sea ran so high that the rolling of the ship was as
great as at any period of our passage.
25th. At sunrise this morning we were abreast of Koll Point,
the wind having been light and favorable the whole night, but
it now came ahead, and in the midst of the passage of the
sound we saw a British line-of-battle ship and a sloop of war
at anchor, with several other vessels anchored near them. We
made up directly to the man-of-war, and a lieutenant from her
soon came on board, examined the ship's papers, had all the
men mustered, compared their personal appearance with the
description in their protections, and threatened to take one man,
a native of Charlestown, because, he said, his person did not
correspond with the description. He told the captain that the
26 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [September,
passage was blockaded, that we could not go through, and must
return through the Cattegat, and by the passage of the Belt
The captain then informed him of my mission and character,
upon which he observed that we had better go on board the
man-of-war and speak to the admiral himself. Accordingly the
captain took his papers, and I went with him and Mr. Smith on
board the Stately, a sixty-four-gun ship, Captain Dundas.
At the deck we were received by the lieutenant on duty, to
whom the captain stated the circumstances of his situation, and
who repeated that we could not pass, as they were stationed
there to prevent the payment of the Sound duties. He referred
us, however, to Admiral Bertie, whom we found in his state-
room on the quarter deck. The captain showed him his papers,
and mentioned to him my character. He said he could not
suffer us to pass; that the ports in the island of Zealand were
all under a strict blockade, and had been so for a year and a
half; that his instructions were most precise and positive, not
to suffer any vessel whatsoever to pass. But, he said, we should
find the passage round through the Belt very easy. The captain
stated the great disadvantage of the delay at this late season
of the year ; that he had no charts of the Belt, and no pilot.
He then took out his own ship's charts, showed them to the
captain, said he would give him one of them, but that they be-
longed to the ship and the King. As to the pilot, he said, we
n^ight get one at Gottenburg ; where we should find a convoy
going in a few days through the Belt, with which we might
proceed. I then stated to him that I bore a commission as a
public minister from the United States of America to the Em-
peror of Russia ; that this ship was fitted out for the express
purpose of conveying me to St. Petersburg ; that I had my
family on board, and that, by the usages of nations, I had under-
stood that it was not the practice to stop the passage of persons
in such situations. He .asked me if I did not know that the
ports in the island of Zealand were all blockaded. I told him
I did not; but if I had, as our only object was passage,
I should still have relied on the usages of nations, that I
should not be obstructed. He asked my name, which I gave
him. "And you say, sir, you have your family on board?"
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 27
" Yes, sir ; my wife, her sister, and an infant child." He then
said, that, to be sure, by the custom of nations, the passage
of a public minister ought not to be obstructed ; and if I would
give him my word of honor that the ship would not commit a
violation of the blockade by going into Copenhagen or any
port in the island of Zealand, he would consider this as a case
of exception from his instructions and allow us to pass.
I told him that, as an evidence of the character which I
assumed, I could, if he desired, exhibit my commission from
the President of the lUnited States. He said that, by way of
justification for him, h^ should be glad to see it. I accordingly
showed it to him. He then said we might pass — ^but that we
should meet with another difficulty: that the Danes would
take us, and, he feared, condemn the ship and cargo for having
had any communication with him. This was in reply to the
promise I made him, as far as depended on me, and the captain,
on his part, joined in the engagement, not to commit a breach
of the blockade by going voluntarily into any port of the island
of Zealand. But we told him we could not engage that we
should not be taken in. After stating this new difficulty, which
appeared to have much weight in his mind, he asked me what
my determination would be.
I told him that I should proceed; and if the Danes should
take us, I should rely upon the Danish Government's showing
the same respect to the usage of nations to pay respect to the
character of public ministers, as was now manifested by him ;
that I had often had occasion to appeal to this general practice,
and had never found it to fail — nor should I expect it would
fail on the part of the Danish Government.
He said that undoubtedly it was a just expectation that every
liberal nation would respect the character of ambassadors ; that
the Danes had been such a nation ; but he was afraid I should
not find it so now. However, as I was willing to take the risk,
we might pass.
We then took our leave, and returned on board our own
ship. In the course of our conversation, he observed that he
had been stationed here many months, but that, having been
obliged to leave the station for a few days, twelve or fourteen
28 MEMOmS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
American vessels had taken advantage of his absence and passed
through. I enquired of the officers on deck whether Admiral
Bertie was a relation of the Duke of Ancaster. They said he
had married a relation of that family and taken the name.
On this transaction I had occasion to remark a circumstance
which was characteristic of English manners. Admiral Bertie
paid all due respect to the laws of nations. He said nothing
uncivil or offensive ; but during the whole time we were with
him he never oilered us a seat. His conduct was correct in
principle, and as to the substance. He indicated, indeed, some
sense of benevolence and feeling ; for the mention which I
made that I had my family on board manifestly made an im-
pression upon him, and the fears he expressed that we should
be taken by the Danes appeared to arise partly from a dispo-
sition not unfriendly to us ; but the most ordinary of civilities
he either neglected or purposely omitted.
On our return in their boat the lieutenant left us; but so
much time had been consumed, that the wind freshening to a
strong breeze, directly ahead, we could not get up to Elsineur
this night. Just at dark we came to anchor under the Danish
shore, and about three miles distant from the admiral's ship.
Towards midnight the weather cleared away, and the wind came
round to the northwest.
26th. I went to bed last night between eleven and twelve
o'clock ; but with some uneasiness upon my mind, on finding
that the captain supposed our engagement not to break the
blockade included a promise not to stop at Elsineur to pay the
usual Sound duties, unless we should be taken and carried in.
I had understood that we should not go into any port of Zealand
for purposes of trade, but only pass in the customary manner.
I went to sleep, but waked again in less than half an hour, with
a weight and restlessness which would not leave me quiet for
repose. I got up, went and waked the captain, and had more
than an hour's conversation with him, the result of which left
me still in much anxiety. I knew that my intention was not
to engage anything in violation of Danish laws, but only no
violation of the blockade. Nor could I suppose it possible
that the admiral meant to ask anything more of us. But as
i8o9.] ' THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 29
the captain seemed to think at least that we must attempt to pass
the castle of Cronberg, unless a gun should be fired to bring
us to, I felt under much concern, lest we might get into some
difficulty by his misunderstanding of our engagement. I was
desirous that he should go on board the admiral's ship again
and ask an explanation ; and if it should be so that the admiral
meant to allow us to pass only on the condition of our violating
the laws of the territory within which we were to pass, I would
still not accept the permission, but turn back at all hazards, and
go round through the Belt ~
After this conversation, and referring until the morning
whether the captain should go to ask this explanation, I was
again about retiring to bed, when the captain went upon deck
and found that the ship was adrift, bearing down direct upon
the man-of-war, and within a mile of her — the wind at the
same time blowing very fresh. A second anchor, a small
one, was then cast, which but partially arrested the ship. This
continued until about . nine o'clock in the morning, when
she stopped. The wind blew fresh all day, with frequent and
heavy squalls. It was fair for our progress, but we could not
weigh anchor, from the danger of drifting on shore. About three
in the afternoon she began to drift again, when we threw out
the third and last anchor, a very heavy one. * We had drifted
within the ship's length of a large brig, whose bowsprit threat-
ened our cabin windows all the afternoon and evening ; and we
were within a quarter of a mile of the shore and a reef of rocks.
At the approach of night I was anxious for a boat from the
shore to send the ladies and child on shore, for which purpose
a signal was made at the main-mast-head ; but no boat came
out. Shortly before sunset a boat from the British man-of-war
came on board, with a lieutenant, who gave some advice to our
captain. He told him that one good anchor would hold better
than three, and recommended to him, in case the wind should
change, to cut his cables and go out. He returned on board
his ship. The night came on with a prospect of foul weather,
which, however, cleared off about midnight. The wind then
changed, and continued freshening until the morning.
27th. All this morning was employed in weighing the
30 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
anchors, two of which, the largest and smallest, were success-
fully got on board. At this work all hands were engaged, and
the passengers part of the time with the rest. An American
vessel came in this morning, was brought to by the British
admiral and turned back. The captain came on board our
ship. About noon our ship began to drift again ; upon which
the captain ordered the cable of the third anchor to be cut
away, and we stretched out beyond Koll Point, expecting on
the next tack to reach Elsirieur this night. But from the
moment we got under sail, the wind drew continually more
ahead, and freshened, until by four in the afternoon it blew a
gale. Three times the attempt was made to put the ship round,
but she would not come in stays — that is, come round against
the wind. At the third time, just as she was coming round,
the fore-yard broke short in two near the middle, and at the
same time the gale increased to a storm. The captain lashed
down the helm, put the ship under close-reefed main-sail, main
and fore stay-sails ; got down the broken fore-yard, and a spare
main-yard up in its stead. Before this time it was dark evening.
From five in the afternoon to one in the morning blew one of
the heaviest gales that I ever witnessed ; which the ship out-
rode better than I ever knew a vessel in such a situation to do.
She shipped not one sea, and scarcely took in any water. By
the blessing of Heaven, we had sufficient room for drifting, and
no lee shore ; and with land so near us on both sides, the sea
did not run so high as it must have done in the open ocean.
There was no darkness and no severe cold, to aggravate our
danger and the sufferings of the crew. Just before dark, and
after we had broken our fore-yard, we spoke an American, the
Mary, from Newburyport, going back to Gottenburg, turned
away by Admiral Bertie. They thought it very odd that we
were steering a northeast course and bound to Petersburg.
During the furious tempest of last night, in the continual
succession of squalls increasing upon each other in violence, a
very little rain fell in scattered drops, seldom enough at once to
wet the deck. Between midnight and one in the morning came
on the severest of them all, in the midst of which I rose from
bed, to which I had shortly before retired, and, going to light
i8o9.] TJJE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 31
a candle from the lamp in the binnacle, met in the gangway
Mr. Pollan, the first mate, who was coming for a light into the
cabin — ^that in the binnacle having gone out. There was now
none in the ship. I soon struck one with my tinder-box, and
that of the binnacle was again lighted up. During great part
of the tempest there was nobody upon deck. About two I
retired again to bed, and in half an hour after the storm sud-
denly abated, a copious shower of rain fell, and the wind came
round to the northwest, very moderate. We soon got under
easy sail in our course, and at daybreak found ourselves again
in sight of Koll Point. We had drifted in the night about
six leagued backwards. We soon came up with and passed
Admiral Bertie's ship, and proceeding in the narrow passage
between Sweden and Denmark, about noon were within about
a mile of the castle of Cronberg, at the narrowest point of the
sound. A Danish boat, bearing two swivels and fifteen men,
brought us to by firing a shot, and immediately after boarded
us, and took us into Elsineur Roads. The captain sent word
on shore that I was on board, and my character; upon which
the port physician came soon on board, and gave us permission
to go on shore. We anchored about four in the afternoon. I
received an open letter from Messrs. Balfour, EUah & Rainals,
an English house at Elsineur, who have the agency of most of
the American vessels. The latter mentioned that they liad
several letters for me. I went on shore with the captain and
Messrs. Smith, Everett, and Gray. We found Mr. EUah at the
landing, and went with him to his house and counting-room.
The letters to me were only the duplicates of those from Chris-
tiansand, and relating to those cases. A few minutes after we
came in, an officer appeared from the commandant of Cronberg
Castle, to ask for my passport. Mr. Ellah went with us to the
commandant's lodgings in the castle, and I again exhibited my
commission, as the only passport I possessed. He expressed
his surprise that I had no passport, but took the names of the
President and Secretary of State from my commission, with
which he appeared to be entirely satisfied. He also took the
names of the gentlemen who accompanied me, and the account
of my family which I gave him. We returned to Mr. Ellah's.
32 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,
I had intended to go to Copenhagen, with a view to make
a representation to the Danish Government in behalf of the
Americans detained here and in Norway. But I was now in-
formed that the King and the Minister, Count Bernstorff, were
absent from Copenhagen. The captain and all the gentlemen
with me intended also to go. I made enquiries for lodgings for
the ladies on shore, not choosing to leave them altogether alone
on board the ship ; I found that no comfortable accommodations
could be obtained. Mr. and Mrs. Ellah offered to give their own
bedchamber in their house for the use of Mrs. Adams, but this
I could not accept. In consideration of all this, I determined
to return on board the ship, and Mr. Smith concluded to go
with me. The captain, with Mr. Everett and Mr. Gray and
young Mr. Balfour, started for Copenhagen about sunset. Mr.
Smith and myself returned on board the ship. I requested
the captain and Mr. Gray to ask Mr. Saabye whether, in his
opinion, I could be of any service to my countrymen here by
going to Copenhagen, and to send me an answer by them.
29th. Mr. Ellah had invited me and my family to dine with
him this day. About one o'clock we went on shore, with some
difficulty, in one of the shore boats, the wind blowing almost a
gale. We dined at Mr. Ellah's, with his family — his lady, sister,
children, and a Miss Goode, and a Danish gentleman, a civil
officer, called a Politic Master or Inspector of the Police. In
the afternoon came in a French Abbe, named Tellier, a man of
pleasing manner and conversation. The afternoon and evening
were so stormy that the ladies could not go on board ship again,
and I took lodgings for the night at a house next door to Mr.
Ellah's, kept by one Morrel, an Englishman — a house formerly
much frequented and reputed, but, in the present state of war
and annihilation of commerce, fallen into decay and almost ruin.
We finished the day at Mr. Ellah's, and supped there.
The French Abbe was the first man I have met in Europe who
appears to have much information of the state of public affairs,
and the first who spoke of them without extreme reserve. He
told us many circumstances relating to the confinement of the
late King of Sweden, and the embarrassment of the present
Government to determine what they should do with him. He
1809.] 7//£ MS^ION TO aUSSU. 33
asked permission to retire to ^ society of the Moravian fraternity,
whiclji he formerly visited in Ijolstein; which was refused. A
proposition had been ms^^e that ihe should be allowed to reside
in Switzerland ; but the consc^nt of t;he Swiss could not be ob-
tained. The present Swedish administration had applied to the
opposition party in ^ngls^nd, to propose that he anight have an
asylum ip England ; but ^ opposition had refused. He was
now on a ^mall .island ; ^nder no other confinement, and his
family with him. The Duke of Sudermania is king, and the
Prince .of Holstein ja^^A Norway, to whom the succession to the
crown has h^cn qffered, hsts accepted it, to take effect after peace
concluded ]>c^tweep Sweden and Denmark. That between Rus-
sia and $weden is already concluded, of which a handbill from
Copenhagen gaye us information — Russia to keep Finland, and
Sweden to join in ^e continental system. While at table, Mr..
E^)lah received .(;he newspapers by the mail. The Hamburg:
papers contfiin fin account of our sailing from Boston, and the
President's proclamation. of 9th Augqst, renewing the non-inter-
course wit;h Qreat Britain. The Abbe told us of a curious mode
of warfare practised here last winter against Sweden. For about
thirty .^ays successively, one or two balloons were sent up every
day frpvn the .<;astle of ,Cr9nberg,:to descend upon the Swedish
coast, and loaded with copies of a printed inflammatory address
to the Swedisjh pation, instigs^ting them to revolt against their
thqn sovereign, .and urgently recommending to them the ex-
traordinary virtues of the King of Denn^airk. They produced,
however, as he 3^ys, no eflect, leaving iinmediately excited the
attention of t)ie Swedish police, which easily procured and sup-
pressed all the papers (hat came to land.
30th. The Qaptfiin.and his companions returned from Copen-
hagen ithis morning 2(bout six o'clock. He brought me .two
letters Ti^Qm the Americans there detained, entreating me to
con^e tjhei^e, whiph they .thought might contribute to obtain
relief for th^ni. The twind being direqtly ahead, so that the
ship cannot now sail, :I determined to go and hear what they
desired, see Mr. Saabye, and leave with him a representatipn to
be presented to the P^^nish Government. I went on board. the
ship; took with me {|he articles and ps^pers necessary for my
VOL. II. — 3
34 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Sq>t«nbcr,
journey, returned to the shore, and about one in the afternoon
set oflT with Mr. Smith in a post coach for Copenhagen. A
Danish gentleman, who told us he had himself engaged the
carriage, asked if we had any objection to his taking a seat with
us, which we readily gave him. The distance is six Danish
miles of fifteen to a degree, or about twenty-eight English
statute miles. We rode it in five hours, and landed at what is
called the English Hotel, in the great square at Copenhagen —
kept by Rau and Schmetzer — about six in the evening. Our
Danish companion here left us. He told us he was a student in
the University of Copenhagen, and at the same time a lawyer;
that in this university there are about six hundred students in
the three learned professions, but chiefly the law. He informed
us of the names of the several places through which we passed
— ^Amsterdam, Hersholm, and Lyng-bJ?e — ^and pointed to us in
the Sound the island of Hueen, where, he says, Tycho Brahe
resided, and made his observations from a town, the ruins of
which are still extant. The island now belongs to Sweden.
The country from Helsingoer to Kiobenhavn (these are the
Danish names of Elsineur and Copenhagen) is very beautiful,
resembling much the county of Kent, from Dover to London,
in England. The road is a turnpike, and, although somewhat
broken up by the autumnal rains, is yet very good. These
rains have continued every day for several weeks, and while
on our way this day we had several showers. Part of the
country is covered by beautiful oaks and other forest trees.
Part consists of turf grounds, many heaps of which we saw
exposed to be dried. There is some pasturing land, and some
where grain has been standing. The proprietary separations
of the lands are partly sloe hedge and ditch, after the English
fashion, and partly stone walls about three feet high, backed
with a mound of earth and sod up level with the top of the
wall. We met a great number of peasants' carts coming from
Copenhagen, with one, two, or four horses — wagons on four
wheels, the body made of boards in the shape of a bread-
trough. The travelling carriages are mostly made in the same
shape — sometimes of wicker-work instead of boards — usually
three benches crossing them, with or without arms as chairs ;
1809.J THE MISSION TO HUSSTA. 35
and sometimes in the centre, the body of a chaise with a boot.
The body of these carriages rests only upon the axle-trees,
and a transverse beam extending lengthwise. But the benches
and the chaise in the most convenient of them are suspended
upon springs within the wagon. These are almost their only
travelling carriages. We met only one coabh like our own on
the way.
- Immediately on my arrival I sent for Mr. Adgate, the super-
cargo of the ship Helvetius, the first signer of the letter which
requested me to come, and who lodges in the house where we
stopped. He c^me and passed a couple of hours with me.
He told me his own situation, and that of the other Americans
here; which, though unpleasant, is far less so than that of
Christiansand. Of those detained here, two have not yet been
tried, and two have been condemned. The rest are all cleared
in the inferior prize court, and expect the decision of the Court
of Admiralty shortly. The cases of condemnation are in both
instances for misconduct in the captains. Mr. Smith went with
my compliments to Mr. Saabye, to enquire when I could see
him at his house, this evening or to-morrow morning. ' He sent
me word he would call upon me at my lodgings to-morrow
morning at eight o'clock, I wrote to Mr. Lizkewitz, the Rus-
sian Minister Plenipotentiary, to enquire when I could see him
at his house. He was not at home when I sent the billet. I
also sent to enquire whether Count BernstorflTwas in town, and
received for answer that he was not. Wrote part of a letter
to Mr. Saabye, containing a representation in behalf of the
detained Americans, with a request that he would lay the
substance of it before the Danish Government.
Day, The three first weeks of the month like the last month.
Since we made the land of Norway I have had no regular course
of life to pursue. Every day hsLs been altogether different from
every other, and this unsettled state still continues.
October ist. Mr. Saabye called upon me this morning about
nine o'clock, and I had an ^hour's conversation with him upon
the cases of Americans captured and detained here. He assured
me that he had made every possible representation in their
favor, and that this Government was certainly well disposed to
36 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
do them justice. He also told me that Count BernstorfT was
now at his countiy-se^t, about three miles out of the city, and
not far out of the way to Elsineur ; that I <:ould see him jf I
called there at any time before three o'clock in the afternoon.
I ordered a carriage and horses, to leave Ihe city at half-past
one;, and finished the letter to Mr. Saabye. The Americans all
came in, and detained me until near one. The Russian Minister
had appointed twelve at noon to see nne at his house, and in-
vited me to dine with him to-morrow. When I called at his
house I found he had been about five minutes gone out. I
could not wait for his returi^, and wrote him an apology, which
I left to be sent after our departure. The. letter to Mr. Saabye
I left in like manner, and wrote a short note to Count Bern-
storfT, requesting an immediate conference with him, intending
to send it in .at his house. Just .after two we got into the car-
ric^ge, and went out iirst to Count BernstorfT's House. There
I found he was not :at home and would not return until late
at night. The wind has been all this day as fair .as it could
blow for us to proceed upon our voyage. I could not justi^^
to myself a longer delay for business not .within my province,
and i)pon which there was so little prospect of jny ;being able
to render the service which I desired. I gave up, therefore,
the hope of seeing Count Bernstorif, and continued lay journey
to Elsineur, where we arrived safe about nine o'clock in the
evening. We have seen upon our journey scarcely anything
but soldiers, of which there are nearly fifty thousand npon this
little island of Zealanc). Schmetzer, the keeper of the house
where we lodged, told tus there were soldiers enough, now they
. were not wanted ; but none at all when they were. He also
told us that seven >bombs had fallen upon that single house at
the time of the English bombardment, and one woman killed
standing at the .gate. There is in the. streets of Copenhagen a
great appearance of stagnation in all business, and solitude.
There is also the reality.; for the English blockade operates as
a total obstruction to commerce, which was the principal sub-
sistence of Copenhagen.
2d. We all embarked this morning on board the ship, with
a fair wind, 'though a very light one. We weighed anchor
I8o90 '^^^ MISSION TO RUSSIA. 37
to proceed upon our voyage ; but within half an hour the wind
fell away to a calm, the current set in against us, and we were
again obliged to come to an anchor, within half a mile of the
spot where it had been weighed.
3d. Wind ahead the whole day, with rainy weather and a
thick fog. The captain sent the boat on shore for water, and
Mr. Smith and Mr. Everett went in it, to see the (air which is
how holding at Elsineur. This morning a British man-of-war
came and anchored. in sight of us, close under the island of
Hueen^ which is ahead of us four or five miles. In the course
of the forenoon a ship came down standing close upon the
Swedish shore, as iC intending to pass the castle. A number
of shot were fired at her from the batteries on shore, which
fell short of her, and a number of gun-boats came out from the
shore, and finally brought her to — took her in and anchored
her close under the land. She was the Concordia, of New
York, Captain David Johnson, and had been forbidden by the
British armed ship from entering any of the ports of Zealand.
The British ship immediately got under weigh, came down
under the Swedish shore, and anchored directly abreast of us.
About eleven at night a boat came out from the gun-boats and
requested us to put out the lights in our cabin. They were
rowing round the roads, and apprehended that our lights might
be too serviceable to the British man-of-war anchored under
the Swedish shore.
5th. About eight o'clock this morning, the wind being fair,
though very light, we got under weigh, without being molested
by the British two-decker which had anchored so near us. We
sailed close under the Danish shore the whole day; which
being very mild and pleasant, and the prospects on shore very
variegated and beautiful, I passed almost the whole day upon
deck. The island of Hueen lies nearly midway between the
Swedish and Danish shores, and between Elsineur and Copen-
hagen. It is about nine English hiiles round. The principal
objects which presented themselves as we passed between it
on the left hand, and the island of Zealand on the right, are
a solitary church, on the highest eminence of the land — the
owner's house, bosomed high in tufted trees, towards the
38 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
southern extremity of the island — several scattered farm-houses,
and on the very beach a few houses of fishermen. The owner
is a Swedish nobleman, a Count Tausen. Our Baltic pilot tells
me there are about five hundred inhabitants on the island.
Just after passing by its southern extremity we saw beyond
it on the Swedish shore Carlscrona, which is a considerable
town. On the Danish side we successively passed Pletten vil-
lage— Sophienberg, formerly a royal palace, but now the property
of an individual — Wahbock, a place of paper-mills, and where
the principal part of the English troops landed, at the bom-
bardment of Copenhagen — Scotsport, a village, the abode of
tanners — ^and Tarbock — with Charlottenlund, a royal summer-
house, sometimes called the Hermitage. All these places afford
a beautiful variety of romantic situations. And it was equally
pleasing to see that the palaces had no magnificence, and the
villages no wretchedness, in their appearance. ' We had also a
view of the palace of Fredericksburg, about four miles out of
Copenhagen. This city opened some of its steeples upon us
before we had entirely passed the island of Hueen ; but, being
situated on very low land, it makes not much figure as you
pass it. We went without annoyance by the three-crown bat-
tery, but opposite the centre of the city there is another battery
upon three sunken seventy-four-gun ships : it is in the narrowest
part of the channel, at what is called the middle ground. As
we came up there, a gun was fired to bring us to, which was
quite unexpected to the captain and both the pilots. They
thought it was a demand for the usual salute of striking the
top-gallant sail; which was done. But immediately after, a
.second gun was fired, loaded with a ball, which struck a little
.ahead of our ship. The channel was too narrow to admit of
ithe ship's coming to; so that we were obliged to come to
.anchor in the mjdst of the passage. An officer came on board,
examined the captain's papers, and informed him he might
proceed.
This business delayed us upwards of an hour, and before we
got over the grounds we had in succession three more visits
from gun-boats and floating batteries. Two of the boats, how-
ever, on information who we were, forbore coming on board.
i809.] TUB MISSiON TO XUSSIA. 39
One of them took ofT our pilot for the Grounds, just at the
dusk of the evening, and before we had entirely got over them.
The Grounds are shallows between the islands of Amager and
Saltholm, just opposite Copenhagen; and the passage is so
narrow that they cannot be crossed in the night. Amager
Island is joined by a bridge to the city of Copenhagen, and
is inhabited principally by Dutch settlers, who supply the city
with vegetables. At the southern extremity of this island is a
small town called Dragoe, and here terminates the passage over
the Grounds. About an hour afterwards we opened the light-
house of Falsterbo, on the Swedish shore, and ran in sight of it
till midnight
6th. This morning we had the island of Moen astern, almost
out of sight, and, the wind being unfavorable, we were obliged
to stretch over to the coast of Swedish Pomerania, upon which
we soon made the island of Rugen, nearly opposite to the
mouths of the Oder River. We had very fine weather the
whole day, and, running close to the wind, we made before
night the island of Bornholm, the last of the Danish islands.
Our captain and pilot preferring the passage north of this
island, between it and the Swedish coast, we were obliged to
lay as close to the wind as possible, and this evening to beat
between the island and the mainland.
9th. The wind continues steadily ahead, and, after gradually
subsiding all the early part of the day, freshens towards night,
and in the night blows heavily. Last night we had a severe
gale, with a strong current setting also against us. For three
days we have been beating half the day about southeast, and
half the day northwest, without advancing a league in our
course. We have also in the night a heavy sea, which makes
repose impossible. The weather, however, has hitherto been
fair. This day the wind subsided, and, being the day of a new
moon, flattered us with the prospect of a change.
lOth. The flattering prospects of the last evening have dis-
appointed us. The night was moderate ; and the day has been
so, with the exception of a constant succession of squalls, with
rain, hail, sleet, snow, and sometimes wind — but the wind con-
tinues inflexible ; blowing directly from the point to which we
^O MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Ckrlobc^,
zxt bouiYcf. It has now becoihe very dbtibtful whetfier it will
be possible for us to reach Cronstadt before the winter sets m
with ice. We have not gained one league ahead th^se five da;ys.
I proposed to the daptain to go into the little island Christiahsoe
and wait for a wind^ but he thought it could not b6 dbn^e with-
out endangering the ship. He' himself proposed to ttirfr back
and go and winter at Kiel< — and to proceed to Petersburg in the
spring. I ha^e taken time untit to^morr6w morhing to reflect
upon this proposal.
1 1 th. We are still xtt sight of the island of 6omholm, ahd \ti
six days have rafli'^r lost than gained oA our c6urse. The pfps-
pect of reaching Cronstadt before the formation of the ice, ^hich
will make it impi^ticable, has how' become desperate, ahd it
only remains to be considered what in this emergency is to be
done. After full reflection upon the Captain's proposal t6 turn
back and go into Kiel — to winter there and proceed in the
spring in the vessel to Petersburg — I determined to decline
it ; at least until somethihg better shall be found unattainable.
The navigation upon the Baltic i^ now very dangerous, aAd I
have proposed to the captain, if p6ssible, to lafid ds a^where
short of Cronstadt, but ahead of this, from whith we may
attempt to proceed on our journey by laAd. This is rtovir the
expedient to which we must resort, and the suc<>ess of this is in
better hands than mine.
1 3th. The night passed away withbtit a ^eVere gfale, but with
many squalls of wind and rain ; this morAihg it dame to blow
with so much violence that it became dangerbufs to have the
island of Bornholm so near under oiir lee. The captain is
extremely urgent to turn back and ^g to wfAter at Kiel or
Copenhagen*. The pilot is equally averse to pfroceeding. Both
consider it a[s impossible to get up this season to Petersburg,
and equally impossible to land iis at anfy port in the Baltic short
of Petersburg, unless it be Reval ot Port Baltic. I renewed
this morning to the ca^ptain the proposition io ^o into the
harbor of Christiansoe, and there wait for a wind. This he
again absolutely declined; but begihfning to be short of many
articles of provisions, and alarmed at the lee shore of Bornholm,
he determined to bear away for it, and weather the gale under
i«09.] TH]^ MISSldN to KU^S/A. ^i
its iee. At niboA fhe s!ti\p ^as bf ought fdiind, and hk leiis tYaSii
two hour^ wcf were t\o^t ali thtf eritr^ilte of Christians'^^. We
hoisted the ffag at the foremast head, atid the fhg dt tlie eadtle
was hoisted hi fetum^ ithich is . the signal that t pitot would
come out to tH^ if We thosie to stafhd iii. The cSiptain, how-
ever, persevered iii his deferrnfrn^tioil ii6t fo go in, Ind stbOd
on aloiig t^e island 6f B6rnhoInl.
J4th. Th'i^ nfiofning our flag Wds hoisted af the head of the
foremast, upoh* Which two bt>^ts carhe out iCf us from the shore.
The wind still contiYiuirtg about east by north, and blowing ^
hard gale the whole day, Wief stood to and' from' the shore alter-
nately until the evening. tJnder the high land of the shore there
was little se^, and so^ little of a gale that! the boats Were able to
come out to us fhe Whole day; but when Wef stood out clear of
the land, the Wind and sea were is rotgh a^ We could bear with
a reefed foresail aitd to{>^sails. The first boats that caine otit
brought no provision^, having Seen forbidden f>y the confimfand-
ant, who had taken us for an English shi{>. Word was then
^nt on shore who ^nd What we were. With ir list of the articles
of provisions that we wanted. I'he boat returned soon after
noon with a young officer, who came with the' eonipliments of
the' Governor of the island, a naval Officer named Rote, a
knight of the order of DannebrOg, and the offer of anything
Whieh We could want for supplies. The officer said he had
seen in the newspaper^ art account of our having passed at
Elsineur, and intirnated a wish to see the pass or license
fr6m the Danish authority. I shoWed hirh the order which
Conimodore Fiseher gave tne at Christiansand, With which
he appeared much ghitified. The Captain also showed him
hi^ papers frorn Elsineui^.
By this officer I sent fny 6ortipliments to the Governor, With
niy thanks fof his civility, ^nd the assurance that if we should
reniain here to-mofrow, and the Weather Wcfdld ddmit 6i my
landing, I would go on ^hore to pay my re^pect^ and rettfrn my
thanks to the Gove'rnOf Irt ffefson. The officer had brought me
to invitation to come on sh6^e, and one to the ladies to a ball,
to-morrow evening.
Between four and fivd in tiid afternoon the boat came again
^2 UEStOIJlS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October.
on board, with the supply of provisions which had been desired,
and with it came another naval officer, named Smid, who, we
had been told in the morning, was the commandant at the village
of Hassley, abreast of where we lay, but who told me that h^ was
of the Governor's stafT, who repeated the invitation from the Gov-
ernor to nte, to come on shore to-morrow, and said the Governor
himself had come from Ronne, the capital of the island, where
he resided, to Hassley, to meet me there if I should go on shore.
Ronne is distant from Hassley one Danish mile, fifteen to a
degree. At Ronne is a road where large vessels may lie in
perfect safety at anchor, and the officer very obligingly urged
us to go and anchor there. He had brought with him a pilot
for the place. Our captain, however, having lost one cable and
anchor, was afraid of anchoring in an open road, and preferred
standing out and in for the night, as we had done all day. He
finally concluded, however, to bear away before the wind for
Kiel, with the determination still, if a change of wind should
take place, or the weather moderate, to come about again and
take the last chance of a possibility to go up the Baltic this
season. To this I consented. We accordingly bore away at
eight this evening.
15th. We went before the wind all night, and made Moen
Island about eight o'clock this momtng. But the wind having
much moderated in the course of the night, and the warmth of
the weather indicating an approaching change, the captain, at
my desire, agreed to make one last attempt to resume our
course i in consequence of^which we hauled by the wind, and
stood so the whole of this day. I read two sermons of Massillon
— the two last in the second volume of Lent Sermons — on the
mixture of good and evil persons in the world, and on real
religion. I read also some sections in Pale/s Horse Faulinae.
This is the first day of ten in which I have found it [>ossible to
read or write with the composure which admits of due attention.
A brig with English colors brought us to, this morning, but
left us without boarding us or our hoisting our flag.
17th. Our fair wind forsook us this morning about six o'clock,
and came nearly ahead, where it remained all the morning
and from noon to midnight we had a total calm. With ibe
^
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 43
change of wind our captain's inclination to turn back and go
to Kiel returned. I proposed to him to land me at Dantzic,
or to go to Carlscrona ; but he had plausible, and indeed solid,
objections to this. I persuaded him, however, to stand on a
little longer ; but he and the pilot and all the crew are alarmed
at navigating the Baltic so late in the season, and desponding
under the long succession and continued prospect of adverse
winds. The passengers all share in these feelings, and I, who
have so much more embarked than the rest, cannot sufficiently
suppress my own impatience. Yet, in the pursuit of a public
trust, I cannot abandon, upon any motive less than that of
absolute necessity, the endeavor to reach the place of my desti-
nation by the shortest course possible. We saw four men-of-
war crowding sail out of the Baltic, apparently English — one
ship of the line, two frigates, and a brig. They made signals as
they were passing, but did not stop us. We saw also several
other vessels in the course of the day, but no land.
19th. Fair wind, with a fresh gale, all night and all this day.
We stood north for the island of Gottland until noon, without
making it, and then our course northeast until night. The
islands of Oland and Gottland are near each other, and it is
usual to make the latter, as a new point of departure. In this
endeavor, however, we have not succeeded. We saw several
vessels in the course of the day, and among others one astern,
standing the same course as ourselves. She crowded sail to
come up with us, and we slackened sail to let her overtake us.
She came up and spoke with us about twelve at night — a New
York ship, the Ocean, Captain Benjamin Richards, from Malaga,
bound to Petersburg ; supposes Dagerort, in the island of Dago,
twelve leagues' distance; our captain's reckoning makes it fif-
teen leagues.
20th. Our wind continued fresh and fair all night and all this
day, but with rain and fog, and an atmosphere so obscured that
we could see no land in any direction. About eight this morn-
ing we spoke again to Captain Richards ; he supposed Dagerort
to be distant six leagues, and that we should see it within two
hours. We sailed all day within speaking distance of each
other. Our pilot's anxiety at missing sight both of Gottland
44 MEMOIRS 0F JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [CKctober,
an(f Dago was extreme; and his impatience approached to dis-
traction. Soon after noon, however, we saw under the lee a
small Dutch-built schooner beating down against the wind, and
altered our course Ifa sf>eak with her. When she came to a
suitable distance both ships hove to*, but the Ocean' only suc-
ceeded in speaking. From Captain Richards the intelligence
he had obtained was repeated to us. It was that we should
shortfy make th« Odersholm light, which the schooner had
seen since noon, on standing ont from the land. 'Hiis agreed
very well with oof pilot's reckoning, for he had supposed both by
that and by the color and smoothness of the water, remarkably
different from that we had experienced for several days, that we
were already entered the Gulf of Finland. We now stood on m
our course with a fair wind blowing very strong, and within
two hours saw the Odersholm light, and after it successively,
in the course of the evening, the Ragerwick and Reval lights,
each distant from the other about twenty miles. The evening
was variable — somethnes with a bright moonshine, and promis-
ing a continuance of moderate weather, with a &vorable breeze.
According to its variations, the resolution of our pilot also
changed. At one time he ordered the ship to be put under
short sail, intending to lay to for the night before reaching
Reval ; but finally, having seen the island of Hargo, and the
moon shrning out m a more promising manner, he called up
the captain from his berth and made full sail. The place which
he was afraid of passing in the night was Revalstan, a reef of
rocks cast of Reval, which forms one of the dangerous passages
of the gulf. What contributed much to his determination, and
that of the captain, to proceed, was the idea of the other ship^s
proceeding while we should stop short. He was very desirous
of speaking to the other ship, and asking what she meant to do.
Mr. Louder, the mate, who had the watch, would not comply
with this request ; but, at the last, the pilot would not go on until
the captain himself came on deck. The captain, as well as the .
pilots had some scruples about passing Reval, and probably
concluded to stand on because the Ocean would have stood on
without us. I was on deck late this night, and until one in the
morning.
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^5
2 1 St We passed by the Reval stone and the Kokskar light-
house in the night, the latter part of which was veiy boisterous.
About Ave this moriiing the wind came round least of north,
nearly ahead for us, and blew a gale until about ten, clearing
the sky of every cloud tupon lit. The remainder of the day
was moderate, ithe weather mild and fine as possible, and tthe
wind drawing so far to the westward as to enable us to make
• the northward of Hogland Island. We made this about noon,
and passed the two fires upon it about seven in the evening.
This is a very narrow passage, and one of the most dangerous
in the Gulf of Finland. We .passed it !by moonlight, with a
breeze just sufficient to fill our sails, and the moon within
two xiays of being full. In the evening we passed ithe light
on Somero, and .about midnight came in sight lof the Syskar
light. Hogland is about eighty mile^, and Syskar sixty, from
Cronstadt The Ocean followed us far to windward all the
morning, and reached the Hogland passage about ten minutes
after us.
22d. We had atlight and favorable breeze the whole night and
a(ll the morning, iduring which we passed up the gulf in sight
of land on both sides. About eleven this jmorning we saw the
Tolbacken light-rhouse about six miles below Cronstadt, and
soon .came up iwith it. At one, afternoon, we came into Cron-
stadt Road, where we found a number of Russian men-of-war.
An officer came on board from the -first of 'two guard-ships
stationed there, and sent his boat on iboard the second guard-
ship for a pilot to conduct ,us .into 'the Mole. We also made a
signal at the foremast-head for a pilot from the shore. But
none could.be procured, and wecame tp anchor near the second
guard-ship at two. Here we waited .for a pilot until almost five,
when it became too late to :think of getting into the Mole this
night. After sending two or three .times on board the guard-
ship for a pilot, one came at length on board, when it was ttoo
late to work the ship into ithe Mole. The lieutenant from the
. guard-ship offered us, however, his boatito go on shore; vwhich
offer I -finally, though with much reluctance, accepted. My ob-
ject was merely to land and get a lodging for the night at .an
inn. But J was apprehensive of some obstruction in Jandiiig,
46 MEMOIRS OF yOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
though the lieutenant gave us the most positive assurances
that there would be none. At length I concluded to go. We
were about two miles distant from the Mole, and when we had
sailed about half the way to it we met a barge rowing out from
the shore with three officers in it, who spoke to our boatmen,
and ordered them first to turn back, and afterwards to follow
them. Our interpreter, the pilot, understood no more Russian
than ourselves ; so we followed the barge to a landing within
the Mole.
I landed, and an officer who spoke German very politely
invited me to go with him to the admiral, Kolokoltzof, before
whom all strangers arriving from abroad by sea have to pass
an examination. I enquired whether the ladies also were to
go ; upon which he answered it would be best, but they might
go or stay at the boat as we chose. We therefore all went
together, walking nearly a mile to the admiral's house. In
passing through his antechamber we found there a number of
Americans waiting for examination, and among the rest Mr.
Fisher, whom we left at Christiansand, and who arrived at
Cronstadt before us this morning. We went through the ad-
miral's apartments, where there was company assembled, and
in the last of which we found his lady and several others, who
spoke French. The admiral himself soon appeared, but speaks
only Russian. When informed who we were, he showed us
every possible civility; and immediately sent an officer on board
the ship to bring her into the mole this night; to which, how-
ever, I knew the captain would not consent. The admiral sent
immediately for Mr. Sparrow, an Englishman, who is the agent
for American ships and masters here, and who informed us that
by order of Mr. Harris, the American Consul at Petersburg,
he had engaged chambers for us at the best inn of the place.
The admiral and his lady both offered us lodgings in their own
house, and urged us very warmly to accept them ; which, how-
ever, we declineci. The carriages which they ordered to take
us to the inn we, however, accepted. Mr. Sparrow accompanied .
us to the inn ; but on arriving there we found that the chambers
which he had bespoken for us had this day been taken by com-
pany from Petersburg, and there was not a room in the house
l809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 47
disengaged. It wad now dark, between seven and eight in the
evening ; blowing so fresh that we could not get on board our
ship again ; so that we were obliged to accept Mr. Sparrow's
offer to give us lodging in his own house. Here we found
very good apartments, an excellent supper, and a comfortable
lodging for the night
23d. It blew a heavy gale of wind all the night, which con-
tinued this day, so that it was equally impossible for the ship to
warp into the mole and for any boat to go off to the ship. But
it was fair as possible for coming up to Petersburg. Admiral
Kolokoltzof, who, with the Governor of Cronstadt, this morning
paid me a visit, offered me the use of a Government boat, with
a deck and cabin, but at the same time advised us to stay here
until the weather should be more moderate. The admiral the
next in command under him, Lomenne, also paid us a visit,
and recommended to us to wait for fine weather. But we could
procure no lodgings at any public house. We had been already
too burdensome to Mr. Sparrow, and could not think of con-
tinuing longer at his house. An American gentleman, Mr.
Martin, was coming up to Petersburg, and offered to bear us
company ; and by delay we might have lost the finest oppor-
tunity for completing in three or four hours of time the remainder
of our voyage. We therefore determined to proceed in the Gov-
ernment boat about eleven o'clock. It took us nearly two hours
to warp out of the mole, and then three hours up to Petersburg,
where we landed just below the bridge over the Neva, upon
the quay, at four o'clock in the afternoon. It blew a strong
gale all the way up. We passed rapidly the palaces of Oranicn-
baum and Peterhof, and the bar seven wersts below the city,
where there is only eight feet of water, and where the channel
is winding and narrow, obliging our boat several times to
change her tacks.
When we came to the land, Mr. Martin immediately went
and procured a carriage, in which the ladies rode with the
child, while we walked to his lodgings. A Mr. Richardson,
whom we met upon the quay, and who undertook to look out
lodgings for us, came in early in the evening, and with him I
went to the Hotel de Londres, in the street called the Newsky
^8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QU/NCY ADAMS. [October,
Perspective, and engaged i^n ^tpattmept of iivq in<;|iflereot cham-
ber3, but said to be ,the best in .the ,city.'
25th. This morning Mr. Harris sent $1 note ,to the High
ChsMicellor of the Empice, Count Roman^ofT/ informing .him of
my s^rrival, and qf my wish :tp yi^it liim, enquiring ^i vwh?^t time
it would be agreeable to him to receive this visit. He appointed
seven o'clock ithis evening. Mr. .Harris dined with us, and, at
seyen this evening, went with me to the Chancqllpr'^ We went
according to the cu3tQinary style, in full dress. The Count
received us with courtly state and politeness. He asked for ^
copy of .iny credential letter, which I gave .hini, with a French
translation. He s^d that the Emperor v^fis now indisposed with
an inflammation in both his legs, which confined him to a seat on
his sofa, but he would be up again in the course .of a few d^ys.
He would take his orders on the subject .qf niy request for iin
audience to-morrow, s^nd in the mcs^n time he assured me that
the information of my appqintnient had been very agreeable to
him. We made our visit short, and the cpnversatiQn was UPPO
general topics.
.28th. Mr. Krehmer paid me a visit this morning in company
with Mr. Harris. I went with the latter of these gentlemen to
look at a house, the accommodations of which, however, did
not please me. We met there the Baron de Scbladen, the
Prussian Minister, who was in pursuit of the same object, and
tp whom Mr. Harris introduced .me. At four p'clqck I went
with Mr. Harris and.dined at the Chancellor Count HomanzofT's.
I had in the year 178 1 dined at the same house, much in the
same style, with the Marquis de Verac, then the French Min-
ister at this Court This was a diplpn^atic dinner, in the style
> In view of the present facilities of travel, it may not be out of place to point out
that in .the year 1809 this tempestuous an4 hazardous voyage.of seventy-five days
in a simple merchant-vessel was deemed the most eligible mpde of tfanspQrtjng to
his place of d^sdm^iqn |he Tirst DjplomaMc ^nvoy from (he XJnitcfil States ever
accredited to the court of St. Petersburg. It is true that the government had
directed one of the few national frigates to be got in readiness for Mr. Adams.
But, in the condition things w^re ip at that .time, it. was thought more prudent to
t^ke no risk pf delay. The. result con^nped the wisdom of the flecisipi).
■ Hiis nnme is ^pelt Rioumiantsof in the Biographic G^n^rale, but, as it |s pro-
nounced as spelt libove, it has not been thought worth while to ||ter it.
1809.1 ^^^^ MISSION iro MUSSIA,
49
of the highest splendor ; about forty-five persons at table. The
French Ambassador le Due de Vicence, M. de Caulaincourt,
was the principal personage at table. The Baron de Stedingk,
who has been here many years, as Swedish Minister, and who
was one of the negotiators of the late Treaty of peace between
Sweden and Russia, was also there. Mr. Six, whom I had
formerly met at the Chevalier d*Araujo's at the Hague, now
Minister here, from the King of Holland. I sat next to the
Chevalier de Bray, Minister from the King of Bavaria, whom I
once saw in the year 1800, at Berlin. The Chevalier de Navarro,
Portuguese Charge d' Affaires, I had also known as a Secretary
to the Vicomte d*Anadia, at Berlin. The rest of the company
were strangers to me. But they are all covered with stars and
ribbons — ^beyond anything that I had ever seen.
The dinner did not last more than two hours. It was mag-
nificent in every particular. The Chancellor showed me at
table, and afterwards, many pointed and formal civilities. He
exhibited two superb large vases of Sevres china, and splendid
editions of Virgil and Racine — ^presents which he had received
from the Emperor Napoleon; bestowed in a very gracious
manner, which the Count related with much apparent satisfac-
tion. The house — ^the company — the exhibitions — the recollec-
tions of the Marquis de Verac, and his magnificence, which I
had witnessed on the same spot, led my mind so forcibly to the
mutability of human fortunes, that it shared but little in the
gorgeous scene around me. We heard this day that the peace
between France and Austria' was concluded ; and that Te Deum
was to be sung to-morrow in the French Ambassador's chapel
on this occasion.
29th. The Chancellor yesterday told me that the Emperor was
still confined, which would yet delay my reception for some days.
But he repeated that the mission was agreeable to him, and he
said he had been much gratified with Mr. DaschkofT's* dis-
patches, which I had called and lefl the day before yesterday
at his house. Mr. DaschkofT, he said, was highly pleased, as
well with his reception by the President as with the great and
■ Determined hy the result of the battle of Wagram.
* The first Minister sent to the United States by the Emperor of Russia,
vol.. li. — 4
JO MEMOIRS OF jbHN QUINCY ADAMS. [November,
numerous civilities which he had received from the inhabitants
of Philadelphia, and of the other places where he had been.
November 2d. Mr. Harris called again, and passed a couple
of hours with us in the evening. He also sent me a Russian
and French Dictionary and Grammar, from which I began the
attempt to learn the characters of the Russian alphabet.
Among the peculiarities of this country, with which it will be
proper to become more conversant, are the stoves, the kitchens,
the double windows, the construction of the houses generally,
and the drosskys. These and other things will be the subjects
of more particular future observation. I tried this day two of
their most ordinary liquors — the quas, at two kopecks the
bottle, and the chitslisky, at five. They have a taste of small
beer, with an acid not unpalatable to me, though much so to
all the rest of the family.
4th. This morning I received from the High Chancellor,
Count Romanzoff, a written notification that the Emperor
being now better, he had condescended to fix the audiences for
me to-morrow, immediately after his hearing mass, and that im-
mediately after coming out from the Emperor' I should have the
honor of being presented to the Empress. While we were at
dinner, Mr. Harris came in with a gentleman from the Com-
mandeur de Maisonneuve, who told me that he, who was the
master of ceremonies, would call upon me at any hour I should
name this evening, to arrange with me the « ceremonial of my
presentation. I named to him seven o'clock; he came about
eight. The formalities of these court presentations are so
trifling and insignificant in themselves, and so important in the
eyes of princes and courtiers, that they are much more embar-
rassing to an American than business of real importance. It is
not safe or prudent to despise them, nor practicable for a person
of rational understanding to value them. M. de Maisonneuve,
however, as an old acquaintance, gave me all the information
which I could desire.
5 th. At ten minutes past one, according to the appointment
of M. de Maisonneuve, I went to the Imperial Palace, and at
' Alexander the First, at this time in the flower of his age. Born 23d December,
1777, he came to the throne Match 24, 1801.
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 51
about two was conducted by him to the entrance of the Em-
peror's cabinet, the door of which was opened, and at which
he stopped. I entered, and found the Emperor alone.
As I stepped forward, he advanced to me near to the door,
and said, in French, " Monsieur, je suis charme d'avoir le plaisir
de vous voir ici."
I then presented to him my credential letter, and, addressing
him in French, said that in delivering it, I was charged to add
that the President of the United States hoped his Imperial
Majesty would consider the mission as a proof of the President's
respect for hi^ Majesty's person and character, of his desire to
multiply and to strengthen the relations of friendship and
commerce between his Majesty's provinces and the United
States, and of grateful acknowledgment for the frequent testi-
monials of good will which his Majesty, on many occasions,
had given towards the United States.
He replied by desiring me to assure the President of the
United States that this new addition to the relations between
the two countries gave him great pleasure ; that in everything
that depended upon him he should be happy to contribute
towards increasing the friendly intercourse between them ; that
with regard to the political relations of Europe, and those
unhappy disturbances which agitated its different states, the
system of the United States was wise and just, and they might
rely upon it he would do nothing to withdraw them from it ;
that the Continent of Europe was now in a manner pacified, and
that the only obstacle to a general pacification was the obstinate
adherence of England to a system of maritime pretensions
which was neither liberal nor just; that the only object now
to be attained by the war was to bring England to reasonable
terms on this subject, and that she could no longer flatter her-
self with any support for her system upon the Continent ; that
Austria, afler abandoning herself to inconsiderate counsels, and
disregarding the advice which he had given her (qu'on lui avoit
donne), had now been obliged to make peace, and to sacrifice
several of her provinces ; that Austria was thus not in a condi-
tion to renew the contest ; that the King of Prussia was in a
situation to make peace equally necessary to him ; that he him-
52 . MEMOIRS OF JOHN QVINCY ADAMS. [November,
self was convinced that the good of his empire, and of Europe,
was best promoted by a state of peace and friendship between
Russia and France, whose views, he believed, from the assur-
ance of that Government, were not at all directed to the conquest
of England, but merely to make her recognize the only fair and
equitable principles of neutral navigation in time of war ; that
the only danger to England from the establishment of those
principles would be that France might be enabled, in conse-
quence of them, to form and maintain again a large navy ; but
this could be no justification for England's maintaining a system
oppressive and destructive to the fair and lawful commerce of
other nations; that the establishment of this just system of
maritime rights was the purpose of France, "and as for me, I
shall adhere invariably to those which I have declared. I am
sensible that it subjects us to inconvenience; that the people
suffer privations and some distress under the present state of
things. But the English maxims are much more intolerable,
and, if submitted to, would be permanent."
In expressing his determination to abide by his declared
principles, his tone and attitude assumed a firmness and dignity
which he had not taken before, and which,, immediately after,
slided again into that easy and familiar manner with which he
had first accosted me.
In the midst of this conversation he had taken me by the arm
and walked from near the door to a window opening upon the
river — ^a movement seemingly intended to avoid being over-
heard. I occasionally answered his remarks, by observing to
him that, as the political duty of the United States towards the
powers of Europe was to forbear interference in their dissensions,
it would be highly grateful to the President to learn that their
system in this respect met the approbation of his Imperial Majesty ;
that being at once a great commercial and a pacific nation, they
were greatly interested in the establishment of a system which
should give security to the fair commerce of nations in time
of war; that the United States, and the world of mankind,
expected that this blessing to humanity would be accomplished
by his Imperial Majesty himself, and that the United States, by
all the means in their power, consistent with their peace and
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. jj
their separation from the political system of Europe, would
contribute to the support of tKe liberal principles to which his
Majesty had expressed so strong and so just an attachment.
He said that as between Russia and the United States there
could be no interference of interests and no causes for disunion;
but that by means of commerce the two states might be greatly
useful to each other, and his desire was to give the greatest
extension and facility to these means of mutual benefit.
Afler this he passed from topics of general politics to con-
versation more particularly concerning myself and my country.
He enquired how long we had been upon our voyage, and how
we had borne the inconveniences and fatigues of the sea;
whether I had ever been in Russia before; what were our
principal cities in America — the number of their inhabitants,
and the manner in which they were built .
I told him that I had been in Russia formerly, and had
passed a winter at St. Petersburg during the reign of the Em-
press Catherine ; that I had then admired the city as the most
magnificent I had ever seen, but that I scarcely knew it again
now ; that the two principal cities in population of my country
were New York and Philadelphia, the latter of which had been
founded by the celebrated Quaker Penn, of whom his Majesty
had certainly heard ; that the inhabitants in each of these two
cities were now about one hundred thousand ; that they were
both elegant cities, with handsome buildings, three and four
stories high for the most part, and forming handsome and con-
venient dwelling-houses suitable to the citizens of a republic,
but which in point of splendor and magnificence could not vie
with the buildings of Petersburg, which to the eye of a stranger
appeared like a city of princes.
He said that was nothing — ^that a republican government
whose principles and conduct were just and wise was as respect-
able as any other.
I said, Assuredly ; but in regard to the buildings, no person
would know better than his Majesty that Petersburg was the
most magnificent city of Europe, or of the world.
He said he had not been at Vienna or at Paris ; but he had
been at Dresden and at Berlin ; that Dresden was small, but
54 MEMOIRS OF JOIW QUINCY ADAMS, [November^
Berlin was a beautiful city, as to all the part of it which could
be called modern, and to which Frederic the Second had been
specially attentive; that the ancient part of Berlin was not so
handsome; that Petersburg had the advantage of being a city
entirely modern, and built upon a plan.
On which I remarked that this was not its only advantage :
that this plan was that of a man such as very seldom appeared
on the face of this globe, and that it bore tlie marks of his
sublime genius; that it had the further advantage of all the
improvement which a succession of sovereigns could give it,
who had entered into the ideas of that great prince, and had
taken a pride in contributing to their full execution.
He asked me to which of the United States I belonged, and
upon being told Massachusetts, he asked me what was its
climate. I told him that it was in the northern part of the
Union, and had the climate the most nearly resembling that of
this residence of any in the United States. He asked how long
our winter commonly was. I said between five and six months.
" Then," said he, " we have two months more here. We have
eight months of winter — September, October, November, De-
cember, January, February, March, and April ; and sometimes
it lasts till June. But," said he, ''you have good sledging in
your country?" I said we had ; but that the snow seldom lasted
long upon the ground at a time. '' We cannot complain of that,"
said he. '* When it once comes, it is sure to last long enough."
I then said that there was an advantage in that, inasmuch as
it facilitated the communications by the roads. It was, he said,
a very great advantage, for it made roads in the winter better
than any that could be made by human art ; that all the gravel
stones or iron in the world could not make such a road as a
few hours of snow and frost ; and that the advantage of this
was immense to an empire so extensive as this — ^so extensive
that its size was one of its greatest evils; that it was very
^difficult to hold together so great a body as this empire.
I was on the point of saying that, great as this evil was, his
Majesty had recently increased it — referring to the Treaty of
;peace with Sweden, and the acquisition of Finland ; but reflect-
ing that the remark might be taken in ill part, or at least thought
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 55
too familiar and smart for such an occasion, I suppressed it»
and made no reply.
After a short pause, the Emperor dismissed me, by renewing
the assurance of his pleasure at receiving a Minister from the
United States, and with the obliging addition, that he was well
pleased that the choice of the American Government had fallen
upon me ; that he should be happy to promote the relations be-
tween the two countries through this medium, and he hoped I
should find my residence agreeable here.
Upon which I took my leave in the usual form, and went
again with M. de Maisonneuve to the apartment of the Em-
press. Here he entered with me and stood near the door, while
I advanced up to her Imperial Majesty,' who was about the
middle of the room, standing alone, with a lady, whether of
honor or a waiting woman I did not ascertain, standing behind
her Majesty, near the stove in the corner of the chamber.
The Empress, who was dressed in a gown of lace, without a
hoop, with a necklace of rubies, and a chain of the like precious
stones round her head, connecting the utmost simplicity with
most costly ornament, addressed me by saying she was happy
to see me here, and enquiring how I found the roads. I told
her that I had come the whole way by water. Upon which
she made enquiries about the length of our voyage, and others
of the same kind. From this she passed to remarks upon the
climate, the bad weather, the cold season which was approach-
ing, and the city of Petersburg. Upon this my answers and
observations were of the commonplace kind.
Her Majesty then said that two or three years since they had
had the pleasure of seeing here two of my countrymen, Mr.
Smith and Mr. Poinsett, whose manners had been calculated to
inspire great esteem personally to themselves and to their coun-
try, and asked me whether I had seen them since their return.
I said that I heard that two of my countrymen had been
favored with the honor of admission to her Imperial Majesty's
' Elizabeth, Princess of Bftden, born Jnnuary 24, I779» married to the Em-
peror Octolier 9, 1793. He was a little over, and she was as much under,
fifteen. They had no children, and the marriage was not deemed a happy one.
They died within six nionlbs of each other. She survived until May 16, 1826.
56 AfEAfOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Novcml)cr,
presence, and that I knew they recollected with great pleasure
the reception they had met here ; that I had not the pleasure
of being acquainted with Mr. Poinsett,' but I had seen Mr.
Smith at Washington upon his return from Europe, about two
years since, and knew how much he prized the manner of his
treatment at this Court.
On taking leave of her Majesty immediately after this con-
versation, conformably to the established usage, I kissed her
hand, a ceremony which M. de Maisonneuve told me many
persons forgot to perform, which the Empress herself never
took in ill part, being the most amiable princess in the world,
but that the Empress Dowager was more apt to be displeased
at such an omission.
Having thus finished the ceremonies of presentation to the
Emperor and Empress, I went in person to the house of the
French Minister, the Duke de Vicence, who not being at home,
I left a card there. He had sent two cards yesterday, one for
Mrs. Adams and one for me — a circumstance for which I know
not how to account.
6th. I received this morning from M. de Maisonneuve a list
of persons to whom visiting-cards are to be sent. To the
members of the Emperor's Council, however, he intimated that
it would be considered as a mark of attention to go to their
houses and deliver the cards. They are in number about
twenty-five. Mr. Harris called upon me this evening, and we
went round to about half the houses — leaving the remainder
for to-morrow morning.
7th. This morning Mr. Harris called again upon me, and we
went round together and finished the tour of personal visits to
the members of the Elmperor's Council. The remainder of the
day I was employed principally in writing to the Secretary of
State.
9th. This morning Monsieur le Commandeur de Maisonneuve
called upon me, to give mc further information about the cere-
monies. He informed me that I must write a note to the
' J. R. Poinsett, afterwards for many years in public life, both in the foreign and
home service. He was Secretary of War in the administration of Mr. Van Buren,
and diei in 1851.
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, ^ 57
Chancellor, requesting to be presented to the Empress-mother;
and also for Mrs. Adams to be presented to the same Empress;
and also to the Empress Elizabeth — that is, the Imperial Con-
sort ; that the day would be fixed for next Sunday, when there
was to be a Te Deum, and a grand gala-day; that all the
foreign Ministers must attend at the Te Deum, of which they
would receive a seasonable notification ; that on Saturday even-
ing, about seven o'clock, Mrs. Adams and' myself would do
well to pay a visit to Countess Litta, the first dame d'honneur,
who executed the functions of Grande Gouvernante ; that she
would then be at home, of course, it being at the eve of the
presentations, and he himself would be there at the time ; that
Mrs. Adams would then receive further advice as to forms from
the Countess. I accordingly wrote, and sent the note to Count
RomanzofT.
loth. In the evening I went with Mrs. Adams, by an appoint-
ment made with Mr. Harris, to the Chevalier de Bray's, the
Bavarian Minister — the only member of the Diplomatic Corps
at this Court who is married, and has his lady here. We saw
there the mother and sister of this lady, who live with her —
Mr. Six d'Oterbeck, the Minister of- Holland, the Comte de
Luxbourg, Secretary of the Bavarian Legation, and the Cheva-
lier Brancia, Secretary of the Legation from Naples. We made
a short visit. M. and Madame de Bray were both very obliging.
But her account of the forms for Mrs. Adams's presentation dif-
fered from that of M. de Maisonneuve, so that I thought it best
to call upon him and ascertain whether I had properly under-
stood him. He was, however, not at home. Mr. Harris men-
tioned to me from M. de Bray, that besides the visits by cards,
which I have paid to the members of the Diplomatic Corps, by
the usage of this Court it was expected also that I should visit
them all in person — a usage I never heard of elsewhere. I
employed in writing to America as much of the day as I had
of time left.
nth. I received a written notification, from the Grand-maitre
des Ceremonies, of the Te Deum to-morrow, on account of the
peace between France and Austria. M. de Maisonneuve, on
whom I called again without finding him at home, sent me
58 . MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [November,
word that he would be at Count Litta's this evening until seven
o'clock. Just before that hour, therefore, I went with Mrs.
Adams, and we were received politely by Count and Countess
Litta, who told us that Mrs. Adams would be presented to-
morrow to the Empress-mother ; but she knew not whether I
should also be presented to her, or Mrs. Adams to the reigning
Empress. M. de Maisonneuve's information respecting the
forms of Mrs. Adams's presentation was correct. After we
returned to our lodgings I received a written notification from
Count RomanzofT that I was to be presented to the Empress-
mother to-morrow morning before mass, and Mrs. Adams after
mass ; but that he had received no answer from the reigning
Empress; that as soon as he should receive one he would
inform me of it. I wrote a note to Mr. Harris to enquire
whether he would attend the Te Deum to-morrow, and pro-
posing in that case to go in company with him.
1 2th. Mr. Harris answered my note this morning, and called
upon me just before eleven o'clock. I went with him to the
palace and attended the celebration of the mass, and the Te
Deum. Just as we were going out from the house, I received
a note from Count Romanzoff superscribed ** tr^s-pressee,"
informing me that her Majesty the Empress-mother had
changed the hour for the presentation of Mrs. Adams to half-
past two o'clock. I gave notice accordingly to Mrs. Adams.
On arriving at the palace, we were introduced first to the
antechamber, where all the foreign Ministers were assembled ;
and I was soon called out to have a private audience of the
Empress-mother.' She is said to be very much attached to the
punctilio of etiquette, which the reigning Empress is not ; but
her Imperial Majesty is all condescension and affability ; full of
conversation, and upon a variety of topics. She spoke about
America, which, she said, was '' un pays bien sage." I told
her that we were much obliged to her Majesty for the good
opinion she entertained of us. She asked whether there were
' Paul I. married in 1776 for a second wife this lady, then a Princess of WUr-
temberg, niece of Frederic the Second, the great object of his admiration. The
effect of bis accession to the throne upon the issue of the Seven Years* War is well
known.
i839.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. jq
•
not great numbers of emigrants arriving there from Europe. I
told her not many of late years. " How so ?" said she. " I
thought there were even in these times more than ever." I said
that the ports of Holland and other countries from which they
were wont to embark had been closed against our commerce,
and they could not find opportunities to go; that our com-
merce was shut out from almost all Europe.
" But," said she, " it is freely admitted here." I said, yes ; it
was an advantage which we still enjoyed and very much cher-
ished; that from the friendly dispositions which his Majesty
the Emperor was pleased to manifest towards the United States,
I hoped we should continue in the enjoyment of tliis advantage,
which was important to the interests of both countries.
She said there were many very excellent articles of commerce
brought here from America. And, said I, many sent from this
country equally important to us. So that it is a commerce
' extremely beneficial to both parties. This, she said, was the best
kind of commerce. She enquired afler Mr. Smith and Mr.
Poinsett, who were presented here two or three years since, and
of whom she spoke in very favorable terms. She asked me
about our voyage. Said she had heard I had been at Berlin.
Had I ever before been in Russia ? I said I had, at a time when
her Majesty was absent, travelling on the Continent She said
it must have been in 1781 and 1782. Which I said it was.
On taking my leave she said she was happy to see me ; and
hoped I should find my residence at Petersburg agreeable ; that
she would have the pleasure of making the acquaintance of my
lady this day.
I then returned into the hall of the foreign Ministers, where
I had some conversation with several of them. The French
Ambassador, whose name is Caulaincourt, and whose style is
Due de Vicence, Grand Ecuyer de France, Ambassadeur Ex-
traordinaire pris S. M. I'Empereur de toutes les Russies, and
whom I informed that I had called to see him at his hotel in
person, told me that he was sorry not to have been at home
when I called, and that he also had called upon me, and had
not found me at home. This I believe was a mistake.
General Baron de Stedingk has been formerly Swedish Am-
6o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [November,
bassador at this Court, and was the first Swedish Plenipotentiary
at the late Treaty of peace between Russia and Sweden. But
he is here without any diplomatic character at present. He told
me that he had been an officer in the French army during our
war, and was wounded at the battle of Savannah. He said he
received the order of the Cincinnati Society ; but did not wear
it, because he had not the permission of his King so to do. I
made many enquiries of him concerning my old Swedish
acquaintances, and received some information from him con-
cerning some of them. Mr. de Wiggers, agent of the Hanseatic
Cities, was introduced to me, and spoke with much pleasure of
his friendship for Mr. Harris.
About twelve o'clock we were informed that the mass was
about to begin, and went into the chapel. The Emperor, Em-
press, Empress-mother, Grand Duchess Ann, and the Princess
Amelia of Baden, the Empress's sister, and the Grand Duke
and Czarovitz Constantine, with the Prince of Wurtemberg,
brother to the Empress-mother, came in immediately after. A
railing of massy silver separates the chapel from the place of
the hearers. The mass is heard standing, except at one par-
ticular moment, when everybody kneeled. At the close of the
Te Deum, the Metropolitan presented to the Emperor, who
then went within the railing, a large crucifix, which he kissed,
the Archbishop at the same time kissing the Emperor's hand.
The same ceremony was performed to the two Empresses. The
Te Deum was a separate and extraordinary performance for
this day. At the moment of its beginning a salute of cannon
was fired from the Admiralty, near the palace. The ceremonies
were performed in the Russian language. The music altogether
vocal — no instrumental music being allowed in the rites of this
Church. The voices were admirable.
During the performance of this mass two messengers belong-
ing to the Department of Ceremonies were successively sent to
Mrs. Adams to inform her that she must come, first at two
o'clock, and then at half-past one, by different arrangements
ordered by the Empresses. She came in seasonable time, and
was presented, first to the Empress, with whom the Emperor
was at the same time ; then to the Empress-mother ; and finally,
i8o9.J TJIB MISSION TO RUSSIA, 6 1
immediately after me, to the Grand Duchess Ann, a young
lady of fourteen or fifteen, sister to the Emperor, whose audi-
ence was short, and who spoke to me of our voyage, of the
weather, and of the city of St. Petersburg. There were several
gentlemen, foreigners, presented to the Empresses and Grand
Duchess besides us, which occasioned the disorder and con-
fusion in the time. About three in the afternoon it was all
finished, and we came home to our lodgings.
I shortly after received a note from the Chancellor, enclosing
a passport in favor of one Graham, purporting to be from the
Mayor of New York, enquiring as to its authenticity, which
was suspected. A Mr. Plessig had sent me some days ago this
passport, with his own warranty that Graham was a native
American, and a request that I would authenticate the passport.
I had sent it back, on the information of Mr. Harris that the
passport was probably a forgery, and the bearer, Graham, no
native American citizen, but an English officer, who had never
been in America. I now wrote a note in answer to that of
Count RomanzofT, and in the evening called upon Mr. Harris
to show it to him. He was in company at his neighbor Mr.
Severin's, where I sent for him, requesting to see him for a few
minutes. He came home, and I passed a couple of hours with
him, and took his advice respecting my answer.
13th. I sent this day my note in answer to that of Count
RomanzofT, and requested the opportunity of a conference with
him upon the subject I was to have paid a number of visits ;
but found myself successively engaged by so many people of
different^escriptions calling upon me, that I could not get out
until very late. Then walked with Mr. Harris, and visited the
large English warehouse. Walked afterwards in the public
walk, fronting the Admiralty. In the evening I went with Mrs.
Adams to pay the visit of ceremony after presentation to the
Countess Litta, where we were not received. We then went
to' Madame de Bray's, where we found some company — ^a
Countess Zubow and her daughter; Mademoiselle Lesseps,
daughter of the French Consul ; M. Lajard, Secretary of the
French Legation in Persia ; and some others.
14th. After having been detained at home this morning until
62 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
two P.M., I went with Mr. Harris, who called upon me for the
purpose, to pay the visits in person to the members of the
Diplomatic Body now residing here. The French Ambas-
sador, and the Minister of Wurtemberg, Count Schenk de Castel
Deschingen, were not at home. But we were received by
the Spanish Minister, General Pardo de Figueroa; the Dutch
Minister, Monsieur Six d'Oterbeck, and the Saxon Minister,
Count Kinsiedel, as also by the Minister of Naples, the Due
de Mondragone. We conversed with these gentlemen upon a
variety of subjects : with General Pardo, upon the situation of
affairs in his country — with which he is apparently much dis-
satisfied, and upon which, though representing here King Joseph,
he speaks with great freedom ; with Mr. Six, on commercial
affairs, the policy of France and England, upon literature and
political economy, and upon Mr. Six's lands in America, where
he has large possessions ; with Count Einsiedel, upon the King
of Saxony, who was formerly Elector, and at whose Court I was
presented in the year 1799, ^"^ upon the gallery of pictures at
Dresden, with which the Count is well acquainted, being him-
self a connoisseur in paintings ; and finally, with the Duke de
Mondragone, upon the cold climate of Petersburg and the warm
one of Naples, upon house-hiring, lodgings, and furniture.
We came home at about four o'clock, and Mr. Harris dined
with us. Between eight and nine in the evening we went to
a splendid ball, given by Count Romanzoff to the Empress-
mother, and at which were also present the Emperor and
Empress, the Grand Duke Constantine, and the Grand Duchess
Ann, with a court of about two hundred and fifty persons. As
almost total strangers, we found this ball somewhat tedious.
But it resembled in every respect the parties of a similar kind
which we oflen attended at Berlin, where the King and royal
family of Prussia were present. At this, however, the dresses
were more splendid, and the profusion of diamonds and other
precious stones worn both by the men and women, as well as
of ribbons, blue and red, was greater than I ever witnessed
anywhere. There was a fine supper, served at ten or fifteen
tables, covering the second story of the house, besides the
Emperor's table below ; which I did not see, but which is said to
i8o9.] TUB MISSION TO RUSSIA, 63
have been very highly ornamented. The crowd in the dancing-
rooms was very great. The principal dancing was in what they
call Polish dances, consisting simply in a number of couples
walking up and down in the room as in a procession. The
Emperor and Empress-mother spoke, I believe, to all the foreign
Ministers. He asked me some questions about my former visit
to St. Petersburg. I told him that I had then been well
acquainted with the hous6 in which we now were, which was
then the residence of the French Minister, the Marquis de
Verac. He said he supposed I had been here upon private
affairs of my own. I told him that I had been attached to a
Legation from the United States, which was not received here,
it being in the time of the American war. He said that must
have been a very interesting period of our history. The
Empress-mother spoke about the climate and the weather.
Mr. Harris arrived late, having had his carriage overset upon
his first attempt to come. At about one in the morning the
Emperor and the imperial family retired.
15th. Mr. Harris called upon me again this morning, and
we concluded our diplomatic visits in person. The Baron de
Schladen, Minister from the King of Prussia, the Baron de
Bussche Hunnefeldt, Minister from the King of Westphalia, and
the Baron de Blome, Minister from the King of Denmark, did
not receive us. The rest of the gentlemen did. General Baron
de Stedingk, formerly Ambassador from Sweden at this Court,
is now here without any regular diplomatic character. He
expects to be here about nine months, and spoke of it as uncer-
tain whether he should not afterwards be fixed here again, in his
former capacity. He appears mortified and dejected at the situa-
tion of his country. He spoke of the late King much as he is
characterized in a recent speech of the present King, as a man
"qui n'a jamais calculc la possibilite d'une chose." He says that
during the whole of the late war Sweden paid for a hundred
and twenty thousand troops, and never had more than four
thousand engaged in any action — never more than ten thou-
sand acting at once against the Russians, who amounted in
Finland to one hundred thousand men, because he had taken
it into his head that one Swede was a match for ten Russians,
64 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [November,
and nothing would convince him to the contrary. This trait of
character is enough to account for all his misfortunes, and the
present condition of his kingdom.
The General spoke of M. Champagny's late letter to General
Armstrong, and expressed some surprise that he had asserted
in it " des choses qui ne sont pas." He spoke in high terms
of the Grand Duke Constantine, who, he said, was frank and
honorable in his character — " Celui-la^ on peut se fier a ce qu'il
dit."
Our next visit was to the Comte de Maistre, Minister of the
King of Sardinia. His master, who has been stripped of all his
dominions, excepting the island of Sardinia, from which he
derived his title, now receives a pension from the Emperor of
Russia, and his Minister here lives upon a part of it. He is a
Piedmontese by birth, a Frenchman by character, a man of
sense and vivacity in conversation, and as a victim of the French
Revolution, keenly smarting under the present order of things.
He says he shall die here; and he has in fact neither home nor
country to which he can return.' We next visited the Chevalier
Navarro d'Andrade, Charge d'Affaires from Portugal. I had
known him as Secretary to the Portuguese Legation at Berlin.
His country, too, has been overrun by the French, and he is
without communication with his Government. He was unwell —
having been obliged last evening to leave the ball at Count
RomanzofT's. At his lodgings we met a General SabloukofT.
We lastly called upon Monsieur de Wiggers, Agent from the
Hanseatic Towns — the remnant of which, Hamburg, Bremen,
Lubeck, and Dantzic, have all been swallowed up by the French.
He spoke of the ball last evening, and wondered that General
Baron Stedingk was not invited to play cards with the Empress-
mother; for, though he had not now the official character of
an Ambassador, he was one of the most distinguished persons
of his own country. He then told us of the slights and con-
temptuous treatment which Baron Stedingk received from the
' His name is now associated only with his Soirdes de Saint Petersbourg, and other
publications in defence of the doctrines and policy of the Church of Rome, not
exceptini; the Inquisition. His present of an edition of these works remains in
the library of Mr. Adams.
i8o9.] rUE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 65
Emperor Paul, and of the prudent and pleasant manner in which
he got over it. From this he passed to the excessive tedious-
ness and insupportable vexations of attendance upon Paul's
Court ; which indeed, by his description, was much worse than
anything at the present time.
We completed this tour of visits about half-past one o'clock.
At two I went to Count RomanzofTs, by appointment. He
received me in his private cabinet, apologizing for it, as intend-
ing by it an invitation to call upon him whenever it might be
agreeable to me. I told him the circumstances of the informa-
tion which I had received from Mr. Harris respecting the ques-
tionable passport, and its bearer, Graham. He expressed himself
much obliged to me for the notice, of which he said he would
make such use as might be proper, without any exercise of
authority which might affect the possible rights of the individual.
He entered also into much general conversation. He assured
me of his great attachment to the system of friendly intercourse
with the United States, and his conviction of long standing
that the interests of Russia perfectly harmonized with theirs.
He said, Je dois vous prevenir que nous sommes ici de grands
Anglomanes; that the prejudices in favor of England were
founded upon old habits and long-established commercial inter-
course ; but that the English exclusive maritime pretensions,
and views of usurpation upon the rights of other nations, made
it essential to them, and especially to Russia, that some great
commercial state should be supported as their rival ; that the
United States of America were such a state, and the highest
interest of Russia was to support and favor them, as by their
relative situation the two powers could never be in any manner
dangerous to each other ; that he had been many years incul-
cating this doctrine at this Court ; that the Emperor had always
manifested a favorable opinion of it ; and he had had the satis-
faction of perceiving the sentiments of his Imperial Majesty
daily becoming more strongly confirmed in this system. He
said if there was anything in which I could contribute to the
purposes of this object, any views of the American Government
that I could suggest, without wishing to penetrate into their
secrets, he would only say that he should cheerfully lend his
VOL. II. — 5
66 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
aid to anything that I might propose ; that in drawing up the
instructions of the Coftite de Pahlen, the Minister who is going
from the Emperor to the United States, he intended to consult
me, and would insert anything which I should think might be
useful to the great end of drawing closer the relations between
the two countries.
His object appeared to me to be to ascertain whether I had
power to conclude a Treaty with Russia, and to lead directly to
propositions for that purpose from me. I answered him in
general terms, which I endeavored to make such as corre-
sponded, for politeness, with his own. I told him how much
gratified I knew the President of the United States would be
on receiving information of these sentiments, and of those, so
conformable to them, which the Emperor had expi:essed to me
in the private audience which he had granted me; that the
United States, who found themselves and their commerce at
once under the pressure of injustice by both the great rival
powers, France and England, would still find great satisfaction
and support in the knowledge that a sovereign so powerful
and so enlightened as the Emperor of Russia was devoted
to neither, but, like themselves, favored a course equally inde-
pendent of both.
He said he should make no scruple to say to me that he did
not approve the present system of France in relation to com-
merce; that he had seen and conversed with the Emperor Napo-
leon; that he had found him in general of a sound judgment
and a quick perception, but that '' en fait de commerce ce n'est
qu'un etourdi." At the same time, he said, he hoped I should
not think he meant to give him a mauvaise reputation. But
he wished to know whether in the application of this system
there- was anything which could accommodate the views of
the United States, and if there was, requested that I would
suggest it.
I told him that the great and only object desirable to the
United States was that to which they were entitled by right,
Freedom to their commerce — freedom of admission and de-
parture for ships — ^freedom of purchase and sale for goods;
the more completely they could obtain this, the better; that
1809.1 THE MISSION TO /RUSSIA. 67
in the restrictions upon them, I thought the proceedings both
of England and France unjust and impolitic; and was per-
suaded that the more liberal system established under his
auspices by Russia was not only of great advantage to both
countries, but would very much increase the commerce already
existing between them.
He told me also, among other things, that Colonel Burr, now
at Gottenburg, had applied for a passport to come to Peters-
burg; which had been refused him, unless it should be regu-
larly applied for under the sanction of the representative of his
country at this Court. He spoke of the British Ministry, and
asked my opinion of the persons composing it. I told him
he must be infinitely better acquainted with them than I was ;
which, however, he did not admit, alleging that he had but
lately entered upon the department of foreign affairs, and be-
fore that time had purposely avoided any particular attention
to the composition of foreign Governments.
I told him that I heard Lord Bathurst was appointed the
Secretary of State for the foreign department in the room of
Mr. Canning.
Who was Lord Bathurst ?
I said I had heard very little of him.
The Count said it was the same with him; mais ce n'est pas un
homme neuf. I have seen his name, said he, in some ministerial
list before; and I have little hopes from any man in England who
is already known. They are all equally intractable. England
must be brought to give up some of her inveterate prejudices,
and I do not expect she will until the circumstances bring for-
ward new men, who can without inconsistency accede to a new
system. Do you know, said he, of any distinguished men in
England who would be more likely to come to terms of a
general pacification than the late Ministers ?
I told him of the principal personages of the present opposi-
tion— such as Lord Grenville and Lord Howick.
As for them, said he, I do not expect anything better from
them than from the others. No one of them has yet brought
his mind to the conviction of the necessity which will compel
England to follow the current of affairs which is setting in a
68 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Norcmbcr,
certain direction among mankind. There was, he said, some-
thing epidemical in the course of human events, which made
it necessary, as well among nations as individuals, for one to
pursue a course governed in a great measure by the course
of others; and this was what English statesmen would not
perceive.
I told him that it was indeed true that Lord Grenville had
always been a strenuous asserter of the English pretensions,
and had particularly distinguished himself by his opposition to
the Treaty with Russia in 1801, when England had conceded
something.
(The Count spoke very slightingly of the concessions in this
Treaty, which he thought amounted to nothing at all ; upon
which I observed that the explanatory article had indeed ap-
peared to take back most of what the Treaty had conceded,
and that it was probably Lord Grenville's opposition which had
occasioned the explanatory article.) But I said that in my
opinion the foolish obstinacy of England, which was leading
that nation so rapidly to ruin, was dependent upon a single
man.
Who was that? said the Count. The King?
No. It was the Earl of Liverpool — z, man who for many
years had possessed a great ascendency over the King's mind,
and who, I perceived, since the resignation of Lord Castlereagh
and Mr. Canning, had been charged with the duties of both
their offices, besides his own.
The Count appeared not to have been acquainted with the
character and history of Lord Liverpool; of which I gave him
a short account. After having passed about an hour with the
Count, I took my leave and returned home.
1 6th. We had a visit this morning from Mr. Navarro, the
Charge d'Affaires from Portugal, and in the evening from the
Baron de Bussche Hunnefeldt, the Minister from the new king-
dom of Westphalia. They were both complaining of the pres-
ent state of things. I was enquiring of Navarro after Mr.
Brito, whom I formerly knew in Holland. Navarro says that
he is at Paris, detained as a prisoner, as he happened to be
there at the time when the French invaded Portugal, and
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. gg
refused to swear allegiance to the King of Portugal who is to
be. Navarro has two brothers in the same situation, and there
are about sixty Portuguese at Paris detained in the same man-
ner. None of them has taken the oath.
Baron Bussche told us that he was here upon compulsion ;
that he was a Hanoverian subject, and an officer in the King of
England's service ; that having an estate in Hanover, the only
alternative left him was to have it confiscated or to come here
as Westphalian Minister ; that he had entreated King Jerome
to excuse him from this mission, who had approved of the
frankness and candor with which he had made his objections,
but insisted on his coming, and would take no denial. And
here, he said, where everybody hated the French, he partook
of that hatred, as being connected with them, though he hated
them as much as anybody. I said it did appear as if many
people here did not love the French. Tis universal, said he.
There is the Emperor and RomanzofT on one side, and the
whole people on the other.
17th. The Count de Maistre, the Sardinian Minister, returned
our visit this morning. In the course of conversation he ex-
pressed his regret at not having been here in the time of the
late Emperor Paul, whose eccentricities of character were so
remarkable. He ^lentioned a sarcasm of Diderot upon him
when he was at Paris in 1782, which I had never heard before.
Some Frenchmen were speaking in high terms of Paul's polite-
ness and accomplished manners. Says Diderot, "Vous etes
bien bons de croire a cela. Ouvrez la veste ; vous verrez le poil."
Now this is untranslatable into English.
19th. The first night after we came to the Hotel de la Ville
de Bordeaux, kept by Monsieur de Bouillery, the canal before
our windows, called the Moika, froze over. The river Neva has
been these two or three days freezing, and is this day passable
on foot upon the ice. Last night and this morning Reaumur's
thermometer was at twelve degrees below the freezing point,
which is equivalent to five above zero of Fahrenheit There
was accordingly no parade of the troops before the Emperor
this morning, as he makes it a practice to omit the review when
the frost is below five or six of Reaumur's thermometer. I
70 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November.
called upon Mr. Harris, and went with him to the chapel of
the Maltese Palace, where we heard mass performed. It was
exactly like that in the Emperor's chapel last Sunday — the
whole service chanted — no instrumental music — ^and all the
worshippers standing. There are not even any seats in the
churches ; so that no person can sit down. The singing was
very excellent. We afterwards went to the Cathedral Church
of St. Alexander Newsky, at the end of the Perspective, and
found it very magnificent. There is a sarcophagus and shrine
of the saint, of solid silver, with some of the principal events
of his life carved upon the sides of the coffin ; a number of
pictures, some of which are valuable, and one set round with
costly jewels, a present from the Empress Catherine.
25th. Dined with the Saxon Minister, Count Einsiedel, with
a small diplomatic party of about fifteen persons. The French
Ambassador had been engaged, but had been sent for to dine
with the Emperor. The Count's dinner was very elegant, and
his house is quite magnificent. I had conversation upon Span-
ish affairs, and upon Homer, with General Pardo; upon German
literature and the German language, with Count Einsiedel;
and with Mr. Six upon the new monarchical Constitution of
Holland, which he says was principally made by himself, and
upon the general situation and prospects of Europe. The
Chevalier de Bray, who dined with us, paid the ladies a visit
before I came home. General SabloukofT and his lady visited
us also this evening. She is a daughter of Mr. Angerstein, a
celebrated merchant of London. Madame de Bacounin is a
sister of General SabloukofT.
27th. Called upon Mr. Harris this morning, and found him
ag^in confined to his room with a cough. He has made to me
since I arrived here a number of presents, some of which were
of sufficient value to make me hesitate about accepting them ;
and to Mrs. Adams and Catherine a Turkish shawl each, still
more expensive. Disapproving of receiving presents of value
while in public office, I have alvrays refused those which have
been offered to me, and in now yielding to an exception, in
consideration of the situation of Mr. Harris and myself here, I
have determined to make it very limited in its extent, and to
1809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. yi
return equivalents in point of cost, that at least I may derive no
profit from the interchange, I gave him this morning my seal,
with the device which I had engraved in London in 1796, and
which, by a curious coincidence, has his name upon it — the
engraver, Harris, having put it there as a memorial of his work.
This goes but a small part of the way towards fulfilling my
intention. Mr. Raimbert and Mr. Montreal called this morning
upon me.
I had an invitation, with Mrs. Adams and her sister, to dine
at the French Ambassador's sans ceremonie^ at half-past three.
We wentabout four, and were the last there, excepting the Duke
de Mondragone. The dinner was of forty persons, the Corps
Diplomatique of French connections — Princess Wazemsky,
Madame de Vlodek and her sisters, and two or three, other
persons. General Ouvaroff and his brother we're of the party.
After being about two hours at dinner, the company returned
to the hall, where Mademoiselle Bourgoin, a French actress,
who is performing at the theatre here, declaimed scenes from
Phidre, from Zaire, from L'Ecole des Maris, and from Le
Florentin, M. de Rayneval, the premier Secretaire de TAmbas-
sade, reading the alternate parts of the dialogue. Immediately
after this a band of music struck up, and a polonaise was walked
round the hall. Then the company was conducted through the
suite of apartments and dining-hall to a small theatre, where
another actor of the French troupe of comedians performed a
number of sleight-of-hand tricks. Thence we returned to the
hall, and danced two or three hours, after which was a supper,
and between one and two in the morning we came home. I
endeavored to amuse some of the tediousness of the day by
conversation with some gentlemen of the company ; but there
are very few topics of conversation upon which I can talk with
them. General Pardo, the Spanish Minister, has understanding,
literature, and taste, and withal is perfectly accomplished in the
science of cookery. He told me that he had offered at Paris,
for Charles the Fourth, King of Spain, three hundred and fifty
thousand livres for a Death of Adonis by Giorgione, the master
of Titian, and could not get it ; but that he did purchase for
one hundred and ten thousand livres an original picture of
72 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
Christopher Columbus, taken from the life by the same Gior-
gione. He also promised me a pamphlet which he has written
and published, on the Pictures in the National Museum at Paris.
The Baron de Schladen, the Prussian Minister, gave me some
information respecting many of my old acquaintances at Berlin.
They are scattered, like the Prussian monarchy itself, to all the
winds of heaven.
28th. I went with Mrs. Adams to look at a house lately
occupied by General Toutouhein, and belonging to the Count
de St.-Priest It is a very good house, and handsomely fur-
nished— in part ; but the rent is eight thousand roubles a year.
I dined at Count RomanzofT's — a great diplomatic dinner, of
forty persons, given to the newly-arrived Austrian Count de St.-
Julien. I sat at table between Mr. Six and General Pardo, and
had some conversation with both of them. Mr. Six says that
his expenses, the first year he came here, were fifty-five thousand
roubles, and every year since, between forty-five and fifty thou-
sand ; that those of the French Ambassador amounted at least
to four hundred thousand roubles a year ; that the Emperor Na-
poleon encourages great expense here upon a principle of policy,
and also among his officers, not liking to have men too inde-
pendent about him; that, like Frederic the Second, he confines
his rewards to very few persons, but heaps them in profusion.
There was at table a Prussian General Pfuhl, who, Mr. Six said,
was one of the ablest men in the world, who had lately published
in German some remarks upon the system of conscription,
though he did not acknowledge himself as the author. He said
he would send it to me to-morrow. He was very much afraid
that this conscription system would be introduced into Holland.
General Pardo told me that there were lineal descendants of
Columbus, of Cortez, and of the Mexican Emperor Montezuma,
living in Spain. The Duke de Veraguas was descended in
direct line from Columbus, and the title of his eldest son was
Marquis of Jamaica. The family of Montezuma had been always
remarkable for their devotion, and even superstition. The great-
grandfather of the present Duke, who was the great-grandson
of Guatimozin (there must have been a greater number of de-
:scents), was, about a century since, Viceroy of Mexico ; and
1839] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 73
after an administration of five years, which was so excellent that
it is remembered with gratitude by the people of the country
to this day, he returned quietly to Spain. The General said that
the ' Government must have been very confident of its own
strength to trust such a man with such a place. The French
Ambassador made me an apology for having invited us to so
unceremonious a party as that of yesterday, and told me that
it would give him pleasure if at any time I would come about
five o'clock and take a dinner with him, without waiting for an
invitation.
Day. We rise seldom earlier than nine in the morning —
often not before ten. Breakfast. Visits to receive, or visits to
make, until three ; soon after which the night comes on. At four
we dine ; and pass the evening either abroad until very late, or at
our lodgings with company until ten or eleven o'clock. The
night parties abroad seldom break up until four or five in the
morning. It is a life of such irregularity and dissipation as I
cannot and will not continue to lead.
December 3d. I went this morning with Mr. Everett to the
chapel of the British factory, where we heard prayers read, and
a sermon, by the present chaplain, Mr. Lx)udon King Pitt. The
prayers were read strictly according to the Book of Common
Prayer, including the prayers for King George and that he
might be victorious over all his enemies — which, considering
that he and Russia are now at war, appears to be not a little pre-
suming on the indulgence of this Government In the prayers,
however, for the King and royal family of England, the Emperor
and imperial family were added, for participation of the bless-
ings invoked. There was a long occasional prayer introduced,
which Mr. Pitt read from a written paper, and which seemed to
be of his own composition. It deprecated the bitter cup of the
present times, and prayed for a union of counsels between Britain
and Russia. The sermon, from Jeremiah vi. 16, was on the
propensity of mankind to change— a commonplace topic, han-
died in a commonplace manner. After church I walked over
to the Wasily-Ostrof, and measured, by pacing, the building
belonging to the Imperial Academy of Sciences. It is one
hundred and sixty-four paces in front, and one hundred and
74 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
forty-five deep — ^that is, four hundred and fifty by three hun-
dred and eighty-two feet.
4th. Catherine Johnson and Mr. Everett went with us to the
Imperial Palace of the Hermitage. Here is one of the most
magnificent collections of masterpieces in many of the arts
that the world can furnish — ^pictures, antique statues, medals,
coins, engraved stones, minerals, libraries, porcelain, marble; and
the catalogue seems without end. I took little notice of any-
thing but the pictures. With these I often lingered behind ; and
after nearly three hours of inspection, felt only the wish for three
months of examination. The collection is not rich in pictures
of the Italian schools, but of the French and Flemish there is
a profusion — ^and several very excellent pictures of the Spanish
painters. Mr. Labensky, the Director, accompanied us, with
great politeness. We went for a few minutes into the theatre,
where they were singing a chorus in the opera of Telemaque.
5th. I received this morning from Count RomanzofT a noti-
fication that the Emperor had fixed on to-morrow, after hearing
mass, for the presentation of Messrs. Smith ' and Everett, and
at dinner-time a notification from the Grand Master of the Cere-
monies that there would be ^ court held to-morrow, being the
Fete of her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Catherine,
and of the Order of St. Catherine. Mr. Harris called on me,
and went with me to visit Count Strogonoff, Prince Beloselsky,
the Duke de Serra Capriola, Monsieur de Gourief, and Count
Kotschubey. Count Strogonoff and the Duke de Serra Capriola
only received us. Count Strogonoff is an old nobleman of the
highest rank, the most splendid fortune, and the most respect-
able and amiable character of the empire. He has cultivated a
taste for the fine arts, and possesses one of the choicest collections
of pictures in Europe. This was his jour de fete, and we found
much company coming and going while we were there. He
showed us himself many of his finest pictures, and other master-
pieces of art, among which was a costly vase of malachite, a
production of copper-mines, which he says is found only in
Siberia. The Duke de Serra Capriola was many years Minister
' John Spear Smith, the son of General Samuel Smith, the Senator from Maryland,
had come out to Mr. Adams as attached to the Legation of the United States.
i809.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 75
from the King of the Two Sicilies at this Court, and thought he
recollected having seen me when I was here before ; but upon
a comparison of dates we found that impossible, as he did not
come here until 1783. I left Petersburg in October, 1782. He
is married to a daughter of Princess Wazemsky ; but since the
expulsion of his sovereign from his kingdom of Naples he is
here without a diplomatic character. We found Mr. Navarro
with him. We came home about three, which is now exactly
the hour of sunsetting. I dined with the Saxon Minister, Count
Einsiedel, and a small company of twelve persons, among whom
Vcrc Monsieur de Laval and a Prince Gagarin, whom I did not
know before, Count Jawonsky, M. de Bray, M. Navarro, Baron
de Schladen, and Count Liixbourg, whom I did know, and two
or three gentlemen whom I still do not know. After dinner I
had considerable conversation with M. de Laval, who is a French
emigrant nobleman, married to a Russian Princess Kazitsky,
and who has great possessions, as he told me, in iron mines and
works, which makes him personally interested in the maintenance
of the relations between the United States and this country.
6th. Soon after twelve o'clock, Mr. Harris called on us, and
• _
we went to the palace. Mr. Smith went with me, and Mr.
Everett with Mr. Harris. We were introduced first into the
Diplomatic Hall, and remained there about an hour; after
which, the mass being over, we went into the Hall of the
Throne, where, soon after, the Emperor and imperial family
made their appearances. The French Ambassador took his
station nearest the door, and the Corps Diplomatique stood in
succession after him. The Swedish General Baron Stedingk,
and the Austrian General Count St. Julien, placed themselves
purposely out of the range of the foreign Ministers, to avoid
the appearance of placing themselves below the Ambassador.
The Emperor, Empress, and Empress-mother spoke to all the
Ministers. The Emperor asked me whether I had found any
old acquaintances of my former visit to this country, fhe
Empress asked me how my wife supported the climate of the
country ; and the Empress-mother, whether I had heard from
my children that I left in America. Mr. Smith and Mr. Everett
were afterwards presented. The Emperor spoke to them in
76 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [December,
French and English. In half an hour's time the circle was over,
and the imperial family retired.
7th. I went with Mr. Harris and paid a visit to M. de Laval,
whom we found with his lady ; but she went out immediately
after. M. de Laval had in his chamber some excellent maps
and globes. He invited me to dine with him whenever I should
not be otherwise engaged on Mondays. From his house we
went and visited Mr. Tilesius, Professor of Natural History at
the Academy of Sciences, whom we found in the midst of some
repairs he is making in his chambers, but who received us with
great civility. He accompanied the Russian Embassy to Japad
in 1 804 and 1 805, and showed us the drawings of many objects in
natural history, particularly fishes, and of scenes, to be published
with the narrative of this voyage. It is now ready for publica-
tion, and to-morrow the copy of the first publication in Russian
is to be delivered to Count RomanzofT for the Emperor. The
German translation, which is in &ct the original, is to be pub-
lished in January. There is some doubt whether it will appear
in French. Mr. Tilesius is also employed upon a comparative
dissertation on the anatomy of the elephant and the mammoth,
several of the drawings for which he also showed us. He agreed
to go with us to-morrow to see the Museum of the Imperial
Academy of Sciences. I came home at three in the afternoon,
and at five went to dine with General Pardo, the Spanish Min-
ister. The Chevalier de Bray and Count Luxbourg, the Secre-
taries of the French Legation, and Messrs. Labensky and Kohler,
the Superintendents at the Hermitage, with Mr. Harris, con-
stituted the company. Mr. Kohler is a German, and fond of
German literature. Mr. Lajard is a Frenchman, recognizing
no literature but that of France. There was some discussion
between them. Mr. Kohler told me that Heyne's last edition
of the Iliad had not given satis&ction in Germany — that a
later edition, by Wolff, containing only the Greek text, without
notes, was more esteemed. General Pardo showed us the Basker-
ville quarto Virgil and Horace,* and the Spanish Sallust, with
■ Which volumes, with several other choice editions of the dasics, were aftei^
wards porchased at General Pardo*s sale, and ttill remain in the librvy left by Mr.
Adams.
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 77
the translation by the Infant Don Gabriel, who is now in Brazil
— printed by Ibarra, the same who printed the famous Don
Quixote, of the Escurial. About eight in the evening I came
home, and between nine and ten Mr. Harris called again. I
went with him to a ball at Mr. Bergien's, where was a company
of about one hundred and fifty personsn The Grand Duke
Constantine was of the party. The entertainment was splendid,
and the house very magnificently furnished.
8th. Mr. Tilesius came with Mr. Harris this morning and
paid me a visit I went with them and the gentlemen of my
family to the Imperial Academy of Sciences, where we saw the
library, the museum, and the other principal collections of the
place. Many of the articles I recollected at my visit to the
same place during my former residence at St. Petersburg. The
relics of Peter the Great and of his works, his heyduke seven
feet high, and his horse, with the anatomical preparations of
Ruysch, and the elephant, were familiar to my remembrance.
Many things have, however, been added since that time — prin-
cipally from the Russian Embassies to China and Japan, and
chiefly collected by Mr. Tilesius. The complete skeleton of the
mammoth is also of a late date. The celebrated piece of mech-
anism by Roentzer was not there at my former visit, nor is it
worth being there now. The fossils, insects, marine shells, birds,
and beasts are more numerous than formerly, but their particu-
larities do not fasten upon the mind. We shortened our visit,
finding the apartments all very uncomfortably cold.
lOth. About nine this morning I went out with Mr. Smith
to see the Emperor at the parade, a review which he makes
of his troops every Sunday, excepting when the frost is too
severe — that is, more than six or seven degrees below zero of
Reaumur's thermometer. The line of troops extended from
Count RomanzofTs house in the Palace Square to the bridge
over the Neva. The Emperor, accompanied by the Grand
Duke Constantine and several officers, among whom is the
French Ambassador, galloped round in front of the troops and
back again; after which the troops filed off before him, in front
of the palace. It was past eleven before we came home, and
too late for church.
/
78 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [December,
14th. Visited Mr. Six, with whom I passed an hour in con-
versation, and who is the most conversable of any person that
I find here. He wants to be esteemed, and is not so much so
as I think he deserves. He gave me several curious little manu-
scripts of his own writing, and one of the Pensionary Van de
Spiegel ; and he told me several interesting anecdotes of his
negotiations in France, and of the Emperor Bonaparte, of whom
he has a very high idea. Thence I went to Mr. Meyer's, where
I found very different sentiments, most cautiously disclosed.
Then to Mr. Raimbert's, where was the same commercial dis-
satisfaction with the present state of things as at Mr. Meyer's.
Mr. Raimbert told me that he wished me to come some day
and ask a dinner of him ; for if he should send me a special
invitation, and the French Ambassador should hear of it, he
might ask why he did not invite him also ; that he had already
intimated to him that he would come and dine with him if he
would invite him. But it was necessary to make so many cere-
monies with ces messieurs that hp had no inclination to invite
him. However, as ces messieurs portent de grands sabres, it
was dangerous to affront them; and, therefore, if I would come
and dine with him of my own motion it would leave him an
excu.se for not inviting the Ambassador.
2 1 St. I took this morning a long walk over the part of the
city which we inhabit ; and as the sun this day rose at fourteen
minutes past nine and set at forty-six minutes past two, I was
out during almost all the time of daylight
22d. We had received invitations to attend the funeral of Mr.
Martin Glukoff the elder, the Russian merchant with whom
Captain Beckford transacts his business. They were by cards
from his sons, Martin and Alexander Glukoff, and contained
also an invitation to dinner after the ceremony. Mr. Harris,
who considers it unbecoming to go into a Russian merchant's
house, dissuaded us from attending this funeral, and told me
that as to the dinner, it was not usually expected that the persons
invited should attend it, as two or three hundred persons were
invited, and preparations made for only thirty or forty. Not
partaking of Mr. Harris's aversion to Russian merchants, and
intending to return the civility of attendance for the civility of
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. yg
invitation, I concluded to attend the funeral, but to decline the
dinner; which I now regret, as it appears there was ample prepa-
ration made for all the company invited, and as I perceived that
Mr. Glukoff the son was hurt at my declining the invitation to
dinner, which he personally repeated to me at the monastery.
At nine in the morning we went to the house, and were intro-
duced to a large hall, which was darkened and hung entirely
round with black cloth. Here the corpse of the deceased was
lying in state, on a bed, in a large coffin, the upper lid of which
was in the form of a box-cover, and was fixed over the lower
or cradle part when the procession moved. At the top and
bottom and on the two sides of the coffin were large candle-
sticks, four or five feet high, covered with black crape, and having
in them wax tapers of a proportionable size. About two feet dis-
tant at the foot of the coffin stood a papa or priest, with stand
before him, on which was a book, chanting in a very low, solemn,
and plaintive tone, in the Russian language, something which I
could not understand. On one side of the hall sat a row of
perhaps twenty women in mourning attire. On the other were
seated several priests, apparently, by their dress, of higher rank
than the officiating pope, two of whom wore the decoration of
the red ribbon. There were also several empty chairs, in one
of which I seated myself by Mr. GlukofTs invitation. The hall
was nearly full of other company standing. The priest continued
his low chant nearly half an hour. Then appeared the Metro-
politan, who took his stand at the same spot, and delivered to
each of the other priests a lighted taper to hold, and each of
them kissed his hand on receiving it from him. They then
ranged themselves round the coffin, lighted tapers were given
to every person in the company, and the Metropolitan made
what I took to be a short prayer. This concluded the cere-
monies at the house. The upper cover was then fixed over the
coffin. After the sons and daughters had gone up and kissed
the cheek of the deceased, and the domestics his hand, the coffin
was carried out ; all the priests followed, and the company after-
wards. The corpse was followed by the men of the family, and
some of the priests with lighted tapers on foot The rest fol-
lowed in carriages, and the procession went from the Wasily-
8o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
Ostrof across the bridge, and through the great Perspective,
to the Monastery of St. Alexander Newsky. Here, in the small
chapel near the entrance, we found the corpse again laid in
state, and a ceremony commenced which lasted nearly two
hours. The Metropolitan, all the priests, and a choir of singers
officiated at this, which I presume was the celebration of a
solemn mass. At the close of this a carpet was laid, and two
benches with cushions placed on it, back of the head of the
coffin. The Metropolitan and another of the titled priests came
and sat down on the benches. The Metropolitan again dis-
tributed lighted tapers to each of them, and they kissed his hand ;
lighted tapers were also given to every person attending, and,
after some further singing, a paper was given to the Metropolitan,
which he read, and which was then put into the coffin with the
corpse. It is said to be a recommendation of the deceased to
the keeper of Heaven's gates — a passport to be presented to St.
Peter. A few drops of some liquor, perhaps consecrated oil,
were also poured into the coffin. The relations and dependents
again went up and kissed the check or the hand of the deceased.
The coffin was again closed with the upper cover, carried into
the graveyard beside the chapel, and deposited in a grave per-
haps eight or nine feet deep. The persons who attended threw
in a little dust and a slip of pine branch, with which the chapel,
the passage from it to the grave and to the street, and all the
floors and stairways of the house, were strewed. On the return
of the Metropolitan from the grave, numbers of persons, well
dressed, pressed up to him and kissed his hand as he passed.
Mr. GlukofT, in renewing his invitation to me to dinner, told me
that it was a Russian custom ; but having already declined, and
trusting to Mr. Harris's information, I persisted in declining,
and came home with Mr. Smith. Mr. Everett and Mr. Gray
returned to the house, but did not stay to dinner.
I passed the evening at home, and wrote an answer to Count
Romanzoff^'s note. By not attending Mr. Glukoff^'s dinner I lost
part of the ceremonies usual on these occasions. The priests
all were at the dinner, before which the Metropolitan, it appears,
distributed a little rice to all the company. The dresses of the
priests were diflerent, I suppose according to their rank. That
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. gf
of the Metropolitan was splendid, and decorated with precious
stones, particulafly his mitre. The long beards and flowing
hair are the same in all. The deceased wore a beard, and the
national Russian dress. His sons and their families dress in the
common European costume.
24th. At twelve o'clock I attended, according to order, at
the palace. The mass was already commenced, but the Corps
Diplomatique was not assembled. They came in soon after,
and were introduced at the chapel, when the Te Deum began ;
which was about one o'clock. Just before it was finished they
were conducted out again, and after the ceremony was finished,
the Empress-mother and Empress held a cercle. It was finished
about two.
We dined, all the family excepting Mr. Smith, at Mr. H.
Severin's, and I was obliged to leave the table at half-past seven,
to attend at the Empress-mother's ball. Mrs. Adams did not
go. She passed the evening at Madame de Bray's. The ball
was very splendid. Count dc Maistre, the Sardinian Envoy,
says that at such a fete they have fifteen thousand wax candles
lighted, and that it costs eighteen thousand roubles. The supper
was magnificent, and the Empress-mother, who did the honors
of her house, went round all the tables, and spoke to every
guest. She spoke to the foreign Ministers before, at, and after
supper, and during the whole evening was very gracious in her
manner. The supper began about midnight, and there was
dancing again afterwards. The imperial family retired about
two in the morning, and the company immediately dispersed.
There were about three hundred persons present. In the inter-
vals of time at home I read Massillon's sermons on the injustice
of the world to righteous men, and on death.
26th. At seven in the evening I went to Count Romanzoff's.
I found Baron de Blomc, the Danish Minister, with him. He
left the Count's cabinet as I went into it. I told the Count that
I came at the request of a number of my countrymen whose
property had been arrested in a very extraordinary manner, by
an order of the Danish Government, in the ports of Holstein ;
that as to the dispositions of the King of Denmark with regard
to English merchandise or property, that was no concern of
VOL. II.— 6
82 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
mine; but that a great amount of property unquestionably
neutral, direct from America, and after having'passed through
every examination required by the laws of Denmark, had now
been arrested under this order; that purchases to a large
amount of the productions of this country had been made here
and at Riga, on the credit of this property, and the regular pay-
ment of which depended upon its speedy liberation ; that as the
subject therefore in some sort became interesting to the Govern-
ment of this empire, I had requested this interview with him to
state the circumstances to him, and to ask whether the inter-
position of the Emperor's good offices with the Danish Gov-
ernment might not be used in any manner, whether officially
or otherwise, as to levy this sequester upon American property
as speedily as possible; that being aware that it was a sub-
ject upon which, in my character as accredited to this Court, I
could make no formal application, I had not thought proper to
address him an official note concerning it ; but relying upon the
Emperor's good will towards my country, which he had often
manifested, and on tlie Count's own dispositions, which were
equally friendly, I had fluttered myself that by the exertion of
his Imperial Majesty's influence with the Danish Government,
something might be done to obtain the release of this American
property, and to relieve my countrymen, the owners of it, from
their distress.
He said that in regard to the Emperor's dispositions towards
the United States, and as far as he could speak of his own, though
infinitely distant from his Imperial Majesty, by his place, they
were as friendly as I could believe them to be, and that he
personally lamented greatly the distress under which commerce
in general, and with it that of the United States, was labor-
ing; that nothing short of a general peace could probably put
an end to these embarrassments, and that this general peace
depended upon England alone; that he knew not why this
general peace should not be made ; that nothing would be asked
of England, but, on the contrary, she would be left in possession
of what she had acquired ; that until she could be reduced
to reasonable terms of peace, it was impossible that commerce
should be free from rigorous restrictions, because it was by
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO' RUSSIA, gj
operating upon her commerce that she must be made to feel
her interest in making peace ; that as to this particular measure
of Denmark, it was far from being agreeable to him ; and he
intimated that it was the subject upon which he had just been
conversing with the Baron de Blome; that he knew by dis-
patches from M. Lizakewitz, the Russian Minister at Copen-
hagen, that the measure had given great dissatisfaction to the
Danes themselves; that there was no occasion to disguise the
fact; it was not a voluntary act on the part of the Danish
Government — it had been exacted by France, whose force at
their gates was such as Denmark had no means of resisting,
and who considered it as a measure merely of severity against
English commerce; that France had suspected Denmark of
conniving at the commerce with England; at least he knew
that Mr. Champagny had reproached them with it in very severe
terms ; and that, in fact, the whole, or nearly the whole, of that
trade must substantially be viewed as English commerce, since
there were now none but English colonics which produced the
articles that went under the name of colonial merchandise.
I assured him that, with the exception perhaps of coffee, all
the articles of colonial trade were produced within the United
States; and that with respect to coffee, as well as the rest,
there were all the Spanish islands, which produced them in great
quantities, besides the English possessions.
" But," said he, " is not the produce of the United States in
•these articles of inferior quality? Cotton, for instance?"
I told him the United States produced the best of cotton, and
in immense quantities ; that in all the Southern States, as well
as in Louisiana, the cultivation of this article within the last
twenty years had flourished beyond imagination, and that of all
the cotton brought by those American vessels whose cargoes
had been thus arrested in (lolstein, I was persuaded that nine-
tenths at least was the genuine produce of the United States
themselves; that considerable quantities of sugar were also
produced in Louisiana, and in Georgia, which doubtless con-
stituted a great proportion of those cargoes ; and that the rest
was probably the produce of the Spanish islands. Certainly
very little, if any, came from the British colonies.
84 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
"As to the Spanish islands/* he said, "they could now not
easily be distinguished from the British, as they had declared
themselves for the party of the Junta, which in a very extraor-
dinary manner had formally declared war against Denmark."
I remarked that if, in consequence of tliis declaration of war,
the Danish Government thought proper to prohibit the impor-
tation for the future of articles the produce of the Spanish
colonies, it was a measure of expediency which they were
free to take, but that it could never warrant the seizure of goods
already imported under the sanction of the Danish laws, which
had passed through every examination required of tliem, and
had received the pledge of protection due from the Government
of every civilized nation to private property ; that if this was
a French measure, of which the Government of Denmark was
only the passive instrument, I trusted that the influence of a
sovereign so powerful as the Emperor of Russia, and in rela-
tions so close with France, would not be exerted without effect
at Paris, and it would be immaterial to us where the means
should be used, if they produced the result of doing justice to
us and restoring to my countrymen their property. The con-
duct of England towards my country had been such as cer-
tainly not to inspire me with any partiality in her favor, and I
believed the principle of what was called the Continental sys-
tem, which was to bring England to dispositions for peace by
distressing her commerce, a very good one; but I was surprised
that it was not at this day perceived that measures which de-
stroyed the commerce of all other nations, instead of reducing
turned altogether to the profit of that of England; that the
Emperor Napoleon's experiment had now been three years in
operation; and that in the midst of the most wasteful expenses,
the grossest internal mismanagement, the most unfortunate ex-
peditions, and, in short, of everything that could exasperate
the people of England against their own Government and raise
the clamor for peace, no such clamor was heard; and the
commerce of the country, far from being diminished, was flour-
ishing beyond all example. As a proof of which I referred him
to the address from the corporation of London to tlie King on
the late jubilee, and to the King's answer.
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. gj
The Count laughed, and said that as to addresses to Kings
and their answers, he believed the best rule was to take all such
boastings in an inverted sense; " for," said he, " you know when
the father of a family and his family are talking together before
the world, they naturally will not spe.ik of their distresses.**
I replied that in such cases as this I believed the conclusion
would be more consistent with the fact by taking the words in
their plain and direct sense; that the flourishing or distressed
state of commerce was a state of things too notorious by its
simplicity, too certain by the practice of reducing it all to pre-
cise figures by official returns, to admit of direct falsehoods
thus asserted in the face of the world ; that London was a city
almost entirely commercial ; that the numerous classes of people
subsisting upon commerce were not accustomed to boast of
profit while they were actually suffering distress — nor even of
suffering without loud complaint; that if, at this time, any
other King in Europe was to receive an address from the
principal traders of his kingdom, they would not boast of the
flourishing state of their commerce; nor would the corporation
of London have dared to do so if the fact had been strikingly
the reverse. It was not, however, upon this address alone that
I relied as evidence of the fact Other indications of the same
kind were numerous and decisive. How indeed could it be
otherwise? The active commerce of all other nations, thanks
to France, was annihilated. France herself, Holland, Sweden,
Denmark, had nothing that would bear the name of commerce
left in their own ships. The United States had scarcely any.
Their intercourse with almost all Europe was suspended. Here
alone they were still freely admitted, and into those ports of
Holstein, where this violent measure must now break it up
again to the foundation ; that the portion of commerce carried
on by American vessels in the Russian ports was small ; the
number of the vessels was ascertained, and his Excellency, as
Minister of Commerce, knew to what it could amount. He
also knew how much of the trade was transacted in Russian
vessels; and yet it was not. for me to tell him that between
England and this country the commerce actually carried on
was little less than in time of i>cacc; th.it «ill articles of English
86 MEAIOIKS OF yOIIN QUINSY ADAMS. [Deccml>ei,
growth and manufacture were to be had here as if the inter-
course was unobstructed; and that every article of Russian
produce for which England has occasion goes as plentifully to
England as ever.
He said the price of these articles in England had recently
risen — from which I told him a further proof of my position
might be derived ; for that the rise of prices in England had
followed as a consequence upon the rise of prices here, which
had been very considerable. The inference from this last fact
was irresistible; for if the trade with England was actually
suspended, the prices of Russian produce here must have fallen,
from the accumulation which would have been unavoidable.
The commerce, therefore, was carried on — ^and by whom? it
was not to be disguised, principally by the English ; who, by
means which I should not undertake to account for, did con-
trive to evade every ordinance and regulation, and the more
surely evaded them in proportion as they were more severe;
that I had personally had an opportunity to observe this on
my voyage hither. For in the Danish dominions the trade
with England was forbidden upon pain of death, and yet, on
going into a port of Norway, I had seen vessels which had
passed through the British squadrons as in time of profound
peacp, and I was informed from unquestionable authority that
there were then seven ships notoriously English in the port of
Bergen, loading with timber for England upon English account.
He said that he agreed with me in the reasoning, but not in
the conclusion ; that all commerce was to be considered as a
benefit to both parties ; that he had no faith in the doctrine of
balances of trade, or that any commerce could long exist unless
it was profitable on both sides; that if commerce therefore
suffered, as in the present state of Europe there could be no
doubt it did, the greatest commercial nation in the end must
suffer most; that although this crisis had already continued
longer than was to be wished, yet it could not be considered
as a time sufficient for effecting the intended result; that it
would be better that the whole commerce of the world should
cease to exist for ten years, than to abandon it forever to the
control of England ; that the effect of the restrictive system
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 87
would eventually press hardest upon England ; and that Mr.
Pitt, whose talents as a Minister must be acknowledged to have
been great, was compelled by the clamors of the English nation,
arising from the distress upon their commerce, to make peace.
That, I acknowledged, was true, but was imputable to a sys-
tem of measures in relation to commerce directly opposite to
the present — a system which encouraged and favored the trade
of the nations which were the rivals of England, so that England
could not support a competition with them. And although the
English commerce might partially suffer in the general mass
with the rest, it was much more than indemnified by the part
which it had acquired from the ruins of all the other commercial
nations.
The Count asked me if I had read a late publication of Mr.
d'lvernois on the subject. I had heard of the book, but not
seen it. He said its representations corresponded much with
the ideas I had expressed ; but that he had only taken the state
of Ireland to prove his position. This was not very conclusive,
for the commerce of Ireland formed a very small part of that of
the United Kingdom ; and the great stress laid upon the alleged
prosperity of this particular branch of the trade, raised a strong
presumption that the actual stitc of the whole was distressed.
He concluded by saying that, on the subject of my request, he
would take the orders of the Emperor and inform me of the
result ; but as this was a measure emanating from the personal
disposition of the Emperor of France, he was apprehensive there
existed no influence in the world of sufficient efficacy to shake
his determination.
The general impression upon my mind was that the Count
himself was fully persuaded of the truth of my representa-
tions, and that he really disapproved of these measures, but that
Russia would not interfere in the case. He told me that imme-
diately after the return of the Emperor, Count Pahlen*s secretary
would be dispatched to Paris, with his final instructions, and
orders that he should immediately proceed to America. . He
supposed that he would have no difficulty in finding an oppor-
tunity to go — of which, however, in the present state of our'
commerce, I intimated some doubts. He said he would send
88 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [December,
me word before Mr. Ivanoff should go, that if we pleased we
might take the opportunity to write by him.
27th. Mr. Harris was with me in the evening, and showed me
the two forged American registers which he has detected, and
the letter he has written to Count Romanzoff concerning them.
29th. We had all invitations from the French Ambassador
to the ice-hills, at his country scat at the Kammenoi-ostrow. The
company were to meet at noon, and pass the day and evening
there. Mrs. Adams and Catherine, being unwell, could not
go. Just as I was on the point of setting out, I received a note
from Count Romanzoff, requesting me to call upon him at two
o'clock; I was therefore obliged to postpone my ride to the
ice-hills until three.
At two o'clock I called upon Count Romanzoff, who told me
that yesterday, being the first day since the Emperor's return,
he had transacted business with him ; he had reported to his
Majesty my application to him, requesting the interposition of
his good ofTices with the Danish Government for the restora-
tion, as speedily as possible, of the property of Americans se-
questered in the ports of tlolstein ; that he had informed his
Majesty of the answer which in his official character he had
thought it his duty to give me, and to lead me to expect, leaving
the decision free to him, conformably to his own inclinations.
That the Emperor had judged differently upon the subject from
him. He had ordered him immediately to represent to the
Danish Government his wish that the examination might be
expedited, and the American property restored as soon as pos-.
sible; which order he had already executed. He had sent this
morning for the Baron de Blome, and requested him to trans-
mit to his Court these sentiments of the Emperor, with the
assurance that his Majesty took great interest in 'obtaining a
compliance with them ; that the Emperor was gratified at
this opportunity of proving his friendly dispositions towards the
United States ; perhaps the interest of his own subjects might
justify his interference on the occasion: this was what he had
not thought it necessary to examine. It was sufficient for him
that it would manifest his regard for the interests of the United
States.
1809.] TIIiL MISS/ON TO RUSSIA. 89
I assured the Count that I should inform my Government of
this fresh instance of the Emperor's benevolence, and that I
would answer beforehand for the grateful acknowledgments
which it would produce ; that I was the more agreeably sur-
prised at this determination, as from the last conversation I had
had with his Excellency I had been apprehensive of a different
result ; that on leaving him before, I had felt obliged to him for
the frank and candid manner in which he had spoken in relation
to the object of my application, which I preferred infinitely to a
more flattering manner, which might have led to hopes that
would be disappointed; but that, having entertained little or
no hopes of success from his manner of considering the subject
at th.it time, I was now the more delighted to find that my
countrymen would have the benefit of his Majesty's powerful
intercession.
The Count said that he wished by this course of proceeding
to deserve my confidence.
I observed to him that for this purpose it was unnecessary,
as my confidence in his dispositions was already as strong as
possible.
He desired me to mention to Baron Blome, when I should
have the opportunity to see him, that he had told me this deter-
mination of the Emperor, and of the Count's interview with him
respecting it. He said that Baron Blome had repeated to him
what he had said to me, that it was a measure to which Den-
mark had been impelled by France, and which she had taken
with reluctance.
I enquired how the Emperor found his health since his tour
to Moscow. He said well; and that he had been delighted
with the marks of attachment which he had received from the
people there; that he would probably repeat his visits there
occasionally, for he had said to him yesterday it was an excellent
idea he had had, of establishing his sister Catherine at Twer;
" for when I have a mind to go to Moscow I have only to take
her in my pocket, and can go then without any of the expense
and parade of an imperial journey," as might be necessary, said
the Count, for a journey with the Empress, or Empress-mother.
He said the Emperor had charmed the people of Moscow by
yO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [December,
riding in an open sledge, according to the custom of the country,
and by going round and observing all the quarters of the city,
which he knew as if he had been bred there ; and that the
people had received him with more proofs of joy and attach-
ment to his person than they had given at his coronation.
I left the Count after an interview of about half an hour, and
then went with Mr. Smith to the French Ambassador's ice-
hills at Kammenoi-ostrow. We got there about half an hour
before dinner, just in time to see a little of the sliding down
the hills and take part in the amusement. There was a com-
pany of about fifty persons — the Ambassador*s usual company —
most of them specially equipped for the purpose — the men with
fur-lined spencers and caps, pantaloons over boots, fur caps, and
thick leather mittens, the ladies with fur-lined riding-habits.
About four o'clock dinner was served, and lasted about an hour.
In the evening the ice-hills were lighted with lamps and torches,
and some of the company went out again, but did not stay long.
The cold, which had been all day very severe, towards evening
increased to fifteen degrees below Fahrenheit's zero. It mod-
erated, however, before midnight. In the house) cards, dice,
and dancing employed those who delight in such sports. I
came home with Mr. Smith before nine at night, to spare the
servants the severity of the weather. Nelson, however, got his
toes frozen.
I saw Baron Blome at the ice-hills, and had a long conver-
sation with him on the detention of the American property in
Holstcin. lie told me again that it was a measure to which
they had been goaded by France ; that it was more injurious
to themselves than to us ; that this little trade in American ves-
sels, which had given them an opportunity of laying a transit
duty, was the only source of revenue left them ; but that in
Hamburg they had been jealous of it, and had written to Paris
that the Danes were carrying on a contraband trade with the
English. Upon this France had loaded them with bitter
reproaches, which were altogether unmerited. For Denmark
had excluded more rigorously the English trade than anybody.
Except the outskirts of the kingdom in Norway, over which it
was impossible for the Government to have an effectual control.
i8o9.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, pi
the exclusion of English trade had been complete. Denmark
had sacrificed herself for the common cause, and, instead of
acknowledgment, this was the return she received.
I took this opportunity to repeat to Baron Blome the ideas
which I had suggested the other day to Count Romanzoff
respecting the Continental system and the Emperor Napoleon's
idea of carrying it into effect. I told him that it was impossible
for a human heart to feel a stronger abhorrence than I had of
the proceedings of the British Government towards Denmark;
that I knew and felt for the situation of Denmark ; that in point
of principle, and of rctil interests, those of Denmark and of the
United States were precisely the same ; that I hoped the day
would soon come when they might freely pursue those interests
without reproach from any quarter; that if the present course
of measures was merely personal to the Emperor Napoleon, he
must soon perceive, as blindness itself could not but now per-
ceive, that Britain was profiting by the commercial losses of all
his friends; that his measures had now been three years in
operation ; that all other commerce was ruined, while in luig-
land it was more prosperous than ever; that the duties on
imports had exceeded nearly by two millions those of any
preceding year ; that no clamors, no petitions for peace, were
heard of among the English people ; that if on the field of battle
the Emperor Napoleon should see his army on the brink of
destruction, and his enemy almost in possession of the victory
by an error which it was still in his power to repair, and to
secure the day, he was too good a general to sacrifice himself
and his troops to a proud perseverance in mistaken measures ;
that as a statesman, to persist obstinately, or from the petty
vanity of never acknowledging error, in a course which in its
effects was altogether advantageous to his enemy, and to resist
the evidence of demonstration itself, argued a weakness of char-
acter, which I hoped he would dread more than to retract a false
step ; that in the estimation of effects, he as well as others must
calculate the extent of human power, and that with such a sur-
face as the Continent of Europe, under the stimulus of mutual
superfluities and wants, commerce could not be destroyed ; that
in the condition of Spain, the very idea of excluding British
Q2 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [January,
commerce from the Continent, by proliibitions, was like an
attempt to exclude the air from a bottle, by sealing up her-
metically the mouth, while there was a great hole in the side.
The Baron expressed himself perfectly convinced of the
accuracy of these remarks, and wished that the Emperor of
France might soon open his eyes to conviction. He appeared
to take in good part what I said, and promised to transmit to
his Government the claim of Mr. Williams, which I mentioned
to him, though he said they considered all vessels under British
convoy as fair prize.
Day, Little different from the last month, and no better.
I close the year with sentiments of gratitude to Heaven, for
the blessings and preservations which my family and myself
have experienced in its course. It has witnessed another great
change in my condition — ^brought me to face new trials, dangers,
and temptations, relieving me from many of those in which I
was before involved. It has changed also the nature of my
obligations and duties, and required the excition of other vir-
tues and the suppression of other passions. From this new
conflict may the favor of Heaven continue its assistance, to issue
pure and victorious, as from the past. May it enable me better
to discharge all my social duties, and to serve my country, and
my fellow-men, with zeal, fidelity, and effect Imploring the
blessing of God upon my family present and absent, upon my
wife and children, my parents, my kindred, friends, and country,
I look with trembling hope at the mingled light and shade of
futurity, and pass to a new year with the fervent prayer for
firmness to perform as well as prudence to discern my duty,
and for temper and fortitude to meet every possible variety of
events.
January 8th, 1810. We all went to a ball this evening, at
the French Ambassador's, after calling and leaving cards at
Princess Wazemsky's. It being her birthday, the ball was given
in honor of her. There were about a hundred and thirty persons
there. The supper was served about two o'clock in the morn-
ing, and we came home about four, leaving the company still
dancing. I had much conversation with Count Soltykoff, the
adjoint Minister of Foreign Affairs — a man of about forty, of
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, gj
grave manners, very reserved, but always ready to converse.
He spoke to me about D'Ivernois*s late pamphlet, and asked
me what I thought its weak part. But he did not give me his
own opinion.
At supper I sat next to Count Czernicheff, a young officer
about twenty-five years old, who has been repeatedly sent by
the Emperor in special missions, about the person of the Em-
peror of Austria and of the Emperor of France. He h.is been
during the whole of the last campaign with Napoleon, and in
his immediate family — constantly the companion of his table,
and sleeping in his tent. He told me he had been present at
eight pitched battles, among which were those of Eylau, Fried-
land, Essling, and Wagram. That of Essling, he said, was
totally lost, " mais grandement," by the French, and that it was
entirely the fault of the Austrians that they did not take ad-
vantage of it. He said that the military reputation of the Arch-
duke Charles was irretrievably lost, and that all the present
misfortunes were imputable to him almost alone. He told me
several particulars relating personally to Napoleon. I asked
him if he was subject to the epilepsy. He hesitated about
answering, but finally said, not to his knowledge. Then, casting
his eyes on both sides, as if fearful anybody might hear, he
said, "il a la galle rentree." He added that he slept little,
waked often in the night, and would rise in his bed, speak,
give some order, and then go to sleep again. The Duke de
Mondragone told me it was not certain whether he was to
marry a Princess of Saxony or of this country.
. 9th. I called upon Mr. Six and Mr. Navarro. Mr. Six says
" it is certainly not a Russian Princess that the Emperor Napo-
leon is to marry ; that the imperial family here, and especially
the Empress-mother, never would consent to it ; that two years
ago he wanted to marry the Grand Duchess Catherine — who,
though the most ambitious woman in the world, absolutely
refused to have him. The Grand Duchess Catherine is her
grandmother over again. If anything should ever happen here,
it will be in her favor. The idea has never yet occurred to
her, but it is impossible that it should not occur. And it
would be the most ungrateful thing in the world, because, &c.
g^ AfEMOIRS OF yOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [January,
The Grand Duchess Catherine detests the French, and the
Ambassador made her an excellent answer at the Peterhof fete
last summer. The Ambassador kept two country houses : one
at Kammenoi-ostrow, to be near the Emperor, and one on the
Peterhof road, to be near ' sa belle,' Madame de Vlodek. The
Grand Duchess Catherine rallied him about his fondness for
the Peterhof road. The first time he was taken by surprise,
and got over it as well as he could, but prepared himself for
the second. Effectivement, the Grand Duchess renewed the
attack. *Oui, Madame, je trouve le chemin de Peterhof char-
mant. But I have another reason for frequenting it' ' Com-
ment cela. Monsieur I'Ambassadeur ?' ' Because it enables me
the sooner to receive the news of the frequent victories of I'Em-
pereur mon Maitre.' The Ambassador's ball last night was
very pleasant and lively. A year ago he could not have given
such a ball; half the ladies at least who were there last evening
a year ago se seraient faitcs malades, would have shammed sick-
ness, to decline going. All the women were of the luiglish
and Austrian party — to begin par la maitresse de TEmpereur.
But she has no political influence at all. She is the last |)erson
in the world through whom anything could be obtained. Some
little place or trifling favor for any person she might patronize
perhaps might be accepted, but the Emperor makes it a point
of honor to allow no political influence to the woman by whom
he has children because she is beautiful and he is young and
fond of pleasure. The Ambassador is going to give another
ice-hill party in a few days. 'II fait une dcpcnse d'enragc pour
cette femme la* (Madame de Vlodek). The Emperor Napo-
leon has been unanimously advised by all the persons in his
confidence to this divorce of the Empress. He is going to
make his Empire of the West, and will incorporate the whole
of Holland with it. How wonderfully and how steadily he is
favored by fortune!" &c.
Mr. Six is very communicative, and I regret very much that
he is going away. He not only gives much information, but
says that from which much more important inferences may be
drawn. Navarro was not at home. I left his papers and his
pamphlet. Mr. Harris told me that M. de Rumigny had called
iSio.J THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. qj
upon him, and asked him whether the young gentlemen in my
family were " Hants ;" that he should be glad to be particularly
acquainted with them ; to go out with them to the ice-hills, &c.
This gives further materials for reflection.
nth. I had received a card of invitation, and one for Mr.
Harris, from Princess Beloselsky, to attend the funeral of the
Prince, who died last Sunday night. The hour appointed for
attendance at the house was nine this morning. Mr. Harris
not having been yesterday at Mr. Cramer's as I had expected,
I left the card for him at his lodgings last evening, with an
invitation if he should attend the funeral to go with me. He
came this morning, but it was so late that when we arrived at
the Prince's house we found the procession already gone ; we
soon overtook it, however, and reached the monastery soon
after ten o'clock. The ceremony resembled in almost all re-
spects that of Mr. Glukoff's funeral ; excepting that it was not
so long, that the Archbishop who officiated was dressed in more
.splendid jewelry, and that the coffin of the Prince had a rich
canopy of velvet over it with a coronet on the top. The attend-
ance in this instance was of persons of the highest rank. Of
the foreign Ministers there were only the Duke of Mondragone,
Count Schenk, and the Baron de Bussche — ^all in full dress
uniform. About twelve the ceremony was finished, and we
came home.
1 3th. This, being New Year's day according to the computa-
tions of the Greek, which is the Russian, calendar, is observed
as a day of great festivity and solemnity. We sent round visit-
ing-cards to all our acquaintance, and to all the persons of dis-
tinction who are entitled to be visited ; and we received cards
of visitation of the same kind in return. At noon I went with
Mr. Smith, and accompanied also by Mr. Everett, to Court,
where, after the celebration of mass, which was attended by the
imperial family, the cercle of the foreign Ministers was held.
The Emperor, Empress, and Empress-mother all spoke to me
in the most gracious manner. They speak to all the foreign
Ministers of the first and second orders, but to no others. After
the cercle was over, and the Court for the Russian nobility,
which is in another hall, I was presented, with many other
gS AfEMOIRS OF' JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [January.
foreigners, to the two young princes, Nicholas* and Michael,
brothers of the Emperor, who usually reside with their mother
at Gatschina, and have not before been in the city since my
arrival here. I was introduced to the two princes, alone, imme-
diately after Count St. Julien. Mr. Smith and Mr. Everett, with
all the other gentlemen who attended, were presented to them
together. I then went to Mr. Harris's lodgings, and, accom-
panied by him, called in person at Count Romanzoff's, Count
Soltykoff's, the French Ambassador's, M. de Gourief's, the
Grand Chamberlain Narischkin's, Princess Wazemsky's (and
she alone received us). Count Strogonoff's, Princess Beloselsky's,
M. de Laval's. It was now late, and I came home to dinner.
About nine in the evening I went to the masquerade at the
palace, with Mrs. Adams; it is called a masquerade, but there
are no masques. The imperial family and persons admitted to
Court appear — the men in Venetian dominoes, the ladies in
common Court dresses. All the apartments of the palace are
crowded with people of every description, and in all the dresses
of the several provinces of the empire. The Empress-mother
played at cards about two hours. The Emperor and the im-
perial family walked the polonaise through the apartments until
eleven o'clock, and then went into the Palace of the Hermitage
to the supper. To this the foreign Ministers, and in the whole
about two hundred persons, were admitted by special invitation.
The supper was served upon several tables ; that in the centre
appropriated to the imperial family, but at which the French
Ambassador was also seated. The other foreign Ministers had
the second table to themselves. Count Sevcrin Poto^ki came
and took a seat at it next to me, but was informed that the table
was reserved for foreigners, and went to another. The Emperor
passed round the table, speaking to about half the persons
seated at it. Upon Count St. Julien's rising, he told him it was
contraire a I'etiquette, and that he must keep his .scat. He told
me that sixteen thousand tickets had been distributed, and that
the number of persons who attended was upward of thirteen
thousand. Before one in the morning the imperial family rose
from supper and returned to the halls ; they soon after retired.
' Afterwards Emperor, in succession to Alexander, though not the next brother.
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, gj
We came home before two. At the Court this morning I was
informed that some considerable changes had this day been
introduced into the organization of the Emperor's Council of
State, and several new appointments to office were announced ;
among the rest Count Litta, as Grand fechanson, in the place
of the late Prince Beloselsky. I asked the French Ambassador
for half an hour's conversation with him some day next week,
and he agreed to Tuesday morning, eleven o'clock, when I am
to call upon him.
i6th. Mr. L. called this morning for his passport, which I gave
him. His visit this day delayed me until almost twelve o'clock,
before I went to the French Ambassador's. He had appointed
to see me at eleven. I was, however, at his house in sufficient
time.
I told him the object upon which I wished particularly to
converse with him at this time was the order of the King of
Denmark, under which the property of American citizens to so
large an amount had been sequestered in the ports of Holstein;
that this measure was said to be intended only for the purpose
of suppressing an illicit trade between these ports and the
English, and for the condemnation of English property; but in
reality it had fallen most oppressively upon American citizens
and American property.
He doubted, at first, whether he could do anything in the
case ; but finally promised to write to his Government the sub-
stance of our conversation, and its object on my part ; that the
Court of Denmark should restore as speedily as possible the
property, really American, sequestered by their late order, and
discriminate in its severity between the English and the Ameri-
cans. I led the conversation much into the general subject of
the .Continental system, and the impolicy of those measures
which, instead of injuring the English, went to the ruin of all
their rivals in commerce, and operated entirely to their advantage.
He appeared not to have much information upon the subject,
but, as far as he understood it, to agree with me in opinion.
He supposed the American Embargo law was still in operation.
While I was with him. Count Schenk, the Minister of the
King of Wiirtemberg, called, to go out with him to the ice-hills.
VOL. II. — 7
p8 MEMOIRS OF yOHH QUINCY ADAMS. [Janoary,
I therefore left him and returned home. At three o'clock I went
with the ladies to his country house at Kammcnoi-ostrow.
The cold was' at six degrees below zero of Fahrenheit's ther-
mometer; and as by some accident the Ambassador's own hills
were not in perfect order, his company went and used those at
the Emperor's palace, about half a mile from the Ambassador's
house. We did not go. About four o'clock he came with his
company from the hills. His company were, as usual, his own
diplomatic circle, and the family connections of Madame Vlodek.
There were a few young men whom I had not seen before, and
among the rest a Prince Kurakin, son of the Minister of the
Interior. In the evening there was a dance, and Messrs. Ray-
neval, Rumigny, Lajard, and Lowenstern appeared in female
attire. I played at whist with Count Luxbourg, Mr. Labcnsky,
and Mr. Tettard. About ten in the evening, and before supper,
we came home.
1 8th. On this day was performed the usual solemnity of the
benediction of the waters of the Neva. At eleven o'clock I at-
tended at Court, according to the notification yesterday received.
The foreign Ministers, excepting the French Ambassador, who
attended the Emperor on horseback, were first received in the
apartments of the Hermitage, and, after being there about an
hour, went to the antechamber usually allotted to them, from
the .windows of which we saw the procession of the Archbishop
and priests from the palace, through the Admiralty walk, to the
temple below the bridge, where the ceremony was performed.
The ICmpcror and his suite joined the procession. After the
ceremony, the two Empresses, with the Princess Amelia of
Baden, returned to the palace, and went upon a balcony which
overlooks the river. The troops, to the number of about thirty-
two thousand men, filed off before them. The Court attendants
and the foreign Ministers went upon the balcony immediately
after the Empresses, and remained there until they retired.
There was a collation provided in a corner of the hall, which
opens upon the balcony. The Emperor did not make his ap-
pearance at the palace. The Empresses spoke to all the foreign
Ministers, and retired from the balcony about three o'clock.
25th. At noon I went to the palace, and attended the Court,
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, gg
which was held between one and two o'clock. The foreign
Ministers did not attend at the mass. The Emperor, Empress,
and Empress-mother, as usual, spoke to all the foreign Ministers.
28th. We have at length got through the continual series of
invitations which have so long kept us in a state of dissipation
and absorbed my time in a manner the most opposite to my
wishes and my judgment. I passed this day altogether at home,
excepting the time taken for a walk of exercise. I read a sermon
of Massillon, on the immutability of the divine law — the second
in the fourth volume of the Careme. I resumed also the
Russian Grammar, and learnt something further of the char-
acters of the alphabet My correspondence, however, continues
greatly in arrear, and I know not whether I shall ever bring
it up.
31st. Engaged all the morning in writing to the Secretary of
State, to send by Mr. Baxter. In the evening we all went to
the Great Theatre, where we saw Rusalka, the Nymph of the
Dnieper — the fourth part — a great Russian opera. Its char-
acter resembles much the English pantomimes — with a variety
of scenery — the action extravagantly romantic, the ballets in-
different, and the music still more so.
Day, I rise at eight or nine in the morning. Read and write
until ten, or more commonly eleven, which is our usual hour
for breakfast After that I read and write again, or receive,
or pay visits, until three p.m. Then walk one or two hours.
Dine about five. Pass the evening sometimes in company
abroad, sometimes at the theatre. About midnight is our
common hour for retiring to bed. But this has during the
past month been frequently protracted until three, four, and
sometimes five in the morning. Having gone through the
course of invitations which we were to expect, we may promisp
ourselves for the future a more tranquil life. My time hitherto
has been wasted almost entirely.
February 2d. Mr. Baxter and Mr. Berry went ofT this morn-
ing. After writing part of the day, I walked on the quay of the
Neva. On returning I met Mr. Harris, and walking with him
on the quay below the bridge, we were overtaken by the Em-
peror, who stopped and spoke to us about the weather. He
100 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February,
walked by direction of his physician, for the benefit of his foot,
which is not yet entirely recovered from the injury it suflered
last autumn. He walks entirely alone, and stops and speaks
to many persons whom he meets.
27th. Count RomanzofT had appointed me this day at twelve
o'clock to see him ; at which hour I accordingly went, and found
him in his cabinet, with M. Gcrvais, one of the under officers
in his department, who immediately left him. I again returned
him my thanks for the care of my packets forwarded by his
courier to Paris, and of those which had come by his courier
and he had sent me. I mentioned also that I had sent him a
copy of the official documents published by the Government
of the United States concerning the recent negotiations with
Great Britain and France. He enquired whether it was prob-
able, as seemed to be indicated by a passage in a late speech
of the King of England to Parliament, that the negotiations
between them and the United States would be resumed.
I told him that if the sentiments of his Britannic Majesty
were such as his speech professed, the negotiations undoubtedly
would be resumed ; and that as we must always implicitly believe
the word of a King, thus solemnly spoken in the (ace of the
world, I considered it as certain that they would be resumed.
The Count made no reply to this, except by a smile, and a
very significant look, in return for my compliment to the faith
of Kings."
I then mentioned to him that I had a letter from General
Armstrong, in which he expresses his feelings of congratulation
to me that I am in a place where there is some regard for our
country and its rights, and that I had also letters from Hamburg
expressing the gratitude of my countrymen there for the inter-
position of the Emperor with the Court of Denmark, and the
effect which many of them had already experienced from it, in
the liberation of their property.
He said Baron Blome had informed him a week or ten days
ago of the answer he had received from his Court, to the dis-
patch he had sent in consequence of Count RomanzofT's appli-
cation to him, by order of the Emperor — which answer was
that the Danish Government would pay the most particular
l8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. loi
attention to the interest which the Emperor had taken upon
this occasion ; that they would give all possible dispatch to the
proceedings, and that their own wishes were conformable to the
desire manifested by the Emperor upon this subject. He then
added that he was glad that the opportunity which the Emperor
had thus taken to show his friendship for the United States had
been attended with this success. He regretted that the com-
merce of the United States elsewhere appeared still to be subject
to seizure and ill treatment, and that altogether it seemed im-
possible there should be any safe commerce until the peace ;
that the profligacy with which the English, under the obvious
connivance of their Government, were attempting to carry on
their trade with fraud and forgery, was such as he could not
reflect upon without astonishment. The English were a nation
illustrious by the men of genius and learning, distinguished in
the arts and sciences, whom they had produced — illustrious
by the degree of power and importance in the aflairs of the
world which they had attained. Their commerce also had been
very extensive; and although it was known and admitted that
in their commercial intercourse with others their activity and
enterprise gave them advantages, of which they were always
eager to make the most they could, that they would make
those with whom they would treat commit as many faults as
they could lead them into, and turn them with all their inge-
nuity and address to their own benefit ; in short, that they had
an extraordinary talent at making profitable bargains, yet there
was a sort of integrity, to the reputation of which they had
always aspired, and which they had effectually acquired. A
British merchant was considered as a man of honor, a man of
principle, who would disdain to participate in a base or infamous
transaction for the mere profit of trade. " But now," said the
Count, " I will give you a sample of what are the principles of
British merchants. There arrived in our ports last autumn
thirteen ships wirii cargoes, which entered as coming from the
port of Lisbon, under neutral colors. Among the documents
which they exhibited was a certificate of origin, apparently under
the hand and seal of the Russian consul at Lisbon. This gen-
tleman has long been i>crsonally well known to mc, and I have
I02 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [February,
a high esteem for his character and good conduct — in which
point of view I have often mentioned him to the Emperor him-
self. I had no reason on seeing those certificates of origin to
doubt from the appearance of the hand or the seal that they
were authentic; but as their vessels had been detained here
over winter by the ice, and I could have time in that interval to
get an answer from him, I took good measures to get a letter
transmitted to him, with a list of those vessels, and of the docu-
ments apparently executed by him, with an enquiry whether
these were all authentic. I have lately received his answer, and
not one of the documents is authentic — the whole thirteen are
forgeries. Now, I ask," said the Count, "what difference in
principles there is between this case and the same transaction
upon the seal of a deed, or the signature of a bill of exchange —
and what one is to think of a Government which licenses people
to trade on such documents."
He then continued, that the Charge d' Affaires of the Queen
of Portugal had often tormented him (m*a tourmentc) for the
admission of Portuguese vessels from Lisbon. This was impos-
sible. The Emperor had made no change in his relations with
Portugal. He was not at war with Portugal; he continued to
receive Mr. Navarro as the Queen's Charge des Affaires. Portu-
guese vessels from Brazil or elsewhere, not enemies* ports, would
be freely admitted ; but from places notoriously in possession of
the English it could not be, without making a burlesque of the
Imperial ordinances against trading with the English.
The Count made also many enquiries whether I had any
intelligence from South America, which appeared to be an
object of peculiar interest at this moment; but I had none. On
some allusion that I made to the rigor with which the French
Government and its dependencies were proceeding towards
America, which I told him would most powerfully negotiate in
the United States in favor of their reconciliation with England,
he asked me whether I knew that Colonel Burr had gone to
Paris. I said I had heard he was arrived there. He said he did
not know of his arrival ; but that he knew from a certain source
that he was gone there. He said Colonel Burr had written a
letter to him requesting permission to come here; but that, not
i8io.] TUB MISSION TO RUSSIA. 103
being desirous of encouraging people who had fled from the
violated laws of their own country to come into this, he had
not answered his letter. If he wanted to come here he must
make his application through me, and, if I had desired it, no
difficulty would have been made. He enquired what Burr's
project had been ; which I explained to him as well as its com-
plicated nature would admit in the compass of a short conver-
sation. After this I told the Count of the letter I had received
from London for the Abbe Brzozowski, au College des Nobles —
of the circumstances under which I had received it, and of my
determination to send it back to the person who had forwarded
it to me, unless he, the Count, were of opinion that I might
without inconvenience send it to the person for whom it was
destined. I added that if the writer, in requesting me to convey
this letter to its address, had thought proper to leave it open
for my perusal, and I had found it relating only to private con-
cerns of business or friendship, I might have sent or delivered
it to the person to whom it is directed without giving the Count
any trouble on the occasion; but that I could not become the
intermediate of any correspondence from a foreign country* at
war with this, the contents of which were unknown to myself,
without giving notice to him and obtaining his consent; that
I presumed this was a letter merely upon private concerns;
that I knew the American gentleman who forwarded it to me,
and had no suspicion that he would be accessory to the trans-
mission of any improper correspondence; and as the letter was
said to be important (I supposed to the correspondent), I wished
he might not be disappointed by failing to receive it.
The Count at first discovered some surprise, and said he be-
lieved I had better send the letter back. He enquired particu-
larly how it had been forwarded from England ; said that from
the name of the person to whom it is directed, he appears to
be a subject of the Emperor, and not a Russian ; that there was
no such thing here as a College des Nobles; that he supposed
it must mean the Corps des Cadets, and that this Abbe was
one of the instructors there.
I told him that such had been my conjecture. After pausing
a few minutes, the Count requested me to wait a day or two^
I04 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QU/NCY ADAMS, [March,
during which he would make enquiries, and then return me a
final answer whether to deliver the letter as directed or send it
back. He seemed then inclining to think it might be delivered,
and he thanked me in terms of the greatest cordiality for the
notice I had thus given him ; declaring his entire approbation
of the principle, and his particular sense of the delicacy which
I had observed towards this Government in the application of it.
I spoke to the Count concerning the note which I presented
nearly three months since, relative to the claims of the Wey-
mouth Commercial Company and Mr. Thorndike. He said
this subject belonged altogether to the Department of the
Marine; but that he would speak to the Minister of Marine
about it He made a similar promise with respect to acceler-
ating the expedition of passports for American citizens coming
into this country or going out of it. They are always delayed
from a fortnight to three weeks, after going through all the
formalities required by the ordinances, before passports can be
obtained.
The Count said he had frequently heard the same complaint
made before ; that it belonged to the Minister of the Interior
to remedy this evil, and he would speak to him concerning it.
As I took leave, the Count invited me, and desired me to
invite Mrs. Adams, to supper at his house on Thursday next.
He said that to explain an old bachelor's giving a supper to
ladies, he would observe that it was for the Princess Amelia of
Baden, who is going away, and who had permitted him to give
her a supper. I left the Count about two o'clock.
March 27th. I went to Count Romanzoff's this morning at
eleven o'clock, the hour he had appointed in consequence of
my request for an interview with him. I found Mr. d'Alopeus
and Mr. Benkendorf with him, who retired immediately on my
going into his cabinet. He said they were both on the point
of going to Naples, and had come to ask him for jxissports.
As to Mr. Benkendorf, he was a young man, who might form
himself there in the diplomatic career as well as anywhere;
but he was inclined to put ofT the departure of Mr. d'Alopeus
as long as he could. He did not like to see him go to
Naples. He had all proper respect for the King of Naples, but
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 105
the relations of that country with this were not of sufficient
importance to require that they should be confided to Mr.
d'Alopeus, whom he considered as one of the ablest diplomatic
characters of this empire. The Charge d* Affaires of Naples,
he said, had sent to request an interview with him. He sup-
posed it was to inform him of the appointment of a new Min-
ister here, which he understood had taken place — the Duke of
Mondragone, on account of his own domestic affairs, or for
some reason of that kind, not desiring to return here. The
Count then enquired what was the object upon which I had
desired to sec him. I told him it was on the case of the Ameri-
can vessel the Intercourse, which had been condemned by
the Commission for Neutral Navigation at Archangel, upon
which Mr. Harris had some time since presented to him a
note, and which at a former interview I had also mentioned
to him. I assured him that the vessel and cargo were un-
doubtedly American property ; and dwelt upon all the allevi-
ating circumstances which could be adduced to prevail upon
him to have the proceeds of the sale restored to the owner,
Mr. Cutts. I observed to him that this had been suggested
as a probable indulgence to Mr. Cutts by the Commissioners
themselves, as he had assured me; that one motive for the
condemnation was the vessel's having touched at Gottenburg
on her way from Bilboa; but that she had arrived just at the
time of the conclusion of peace, and at a time when I had
heard that other vessels had been admitted.
He said this might be a mistake ; that no vessels whatever
had been admitted from Sweden before the signature of the
Treaty at Frederickshamm, and that during the negotiations
there had not even been an armistice.
The other ground of condemnation was the want of a role
d'cquipage, which I said was to be accounted for from the
length of time since the vessel had left the United States, and
the changes in the crew which had been necessary.
The Count promised to attend to the subject, and intimated
that they were in discussion with another friendly power on
similar cases.
On the whole, there is very little chance for the restoration
I06 MEMOIRS OF JOHN JQUINCY ADAMS, [March,
of Mr. Cutts's property. I then told the Count of the recent
intelligence from Denmark ; that a new ordinance respecting
privateers was about to be issued, and that a large number of
privateers was fitting out in the ports of Denmark.
I spoke of the anxiety which it had occasioned among the
Americans now here, and who propose returning to America
with cargoes of the produce of this country. Though inclining
to think this apprehension without foundation, I said, I was
myself fearful it might interrupt the freedom of navigation of
our vessels that would be coming here ; and, I said, as this was
an object interesting to this country as well as to us, perhaps an
intimation might be given to the Court of Denmark from this
Government, which would operate as a restraint upon the Danes,
and afford some protection to our trade.
The Count said that if the free course of vessels coming to
this country should be obstructed, they might, no doubt, ad-
dress reclamations to the Danish Government ; but that as to
an ordinance for privateers, it was hardly possible to make any
objection against such a measure as that. Denmark was prob-
ably stimulated to it by France, and it was impossible that there
should be any security for commerce until England should
incline to terms of peace. What should now prevent this he
could not conceive. Spain had heretofore been alleged as a
cause for declining negotiation. But Spain was now entirely
subdued — Cadiz alone excepted. The English army had aban-
doned its defence, and had retired into Portugal. What could
now be the motive for persisting in the war, unless it was the
mere pleasure of perpetual hostility ? — a system which could
hardly be supposed as the intention of any Government. The
Count enquired what was the present state of our affairs with
France and with England.
I told him that I had no recent intelligence; that extracts
from English newspapers had announced that Mr. Pinckney, our
Minister at London, had left that city and embarked for America,
but I had no authentic information to that effect; that from
America I had no accounts of anything important since the
rupture of the negotiations with Mr. Jackson; but that if, as
appeared from the latest accounts from England, the British
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. loy
Government was inclined to a settlement of differences with
America, I presumed that it would be accomplished, especially
as the violence with which France and her dependencies were
proceeding towards us would exasperate the spirits of the people
against them, and make them more readily incline to concilia-
tion with England ; that the conduct of France towards us was
unaccountable ; that if we were at open war with her she could
do us no more injury than she now does, and we should tlien
at least enjoy the advantage of a free trade with England.
The Count said that it was not for him to account for the
motives by which a foreign Government might be guided ; but
he could see no rational ground for the proceedings of France
towards America. He asked whether it was true that so much
American property had been confiscated at Naples.
I told him, not only in Naples, but in Holland, in France, in
Spain ; wherever they could lay their hands upon our property
they had taken it ; and without any possible motive other than
the determination to plunder.
He said he hoped at least they had not got the vessels at
Cadiz, of which he had seen in the English newspapers that
there were a great number.
I said I hoped at least they would escape.
He said that he saw by another article in the English papers
that the French Toulon fleet was out; and that an action be-
tween them and Lord Collingwood was expected.
I told him I was sorry to hear it, as the issue of such an
action would undoubtedly be the same as that of all their naval
battles in the present war, and would only tend to buoy up the
temper of the English people for a further continuance of the
war, without producing any imaginable good.
He said it would have the further ill effect of destroying the
remnant of any countcrjjoise to the naval force of Great Britain,
without which it seemed impossible to expect a permanent
peace.
I observed that it appeared probable there would be a change
in the British ministry, as they had been several times left in
the minority in the House of Commons ; and it was very diffi-
cult for a ministry to stand against a majority, or even with a
I08 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March,
small majority, in that House, as the Ministers usually had the
prudence to retire while they could command a majority to
sanction their proceedings.
" But," said the Count, " it does not follow that a change of men
will be a change of ministry. Should Mr. Canning, for example,
come in again, it would not be a change of ministry. And even
if Lord Grenville should come in, it is doubtful whether it would
be such a change as to produce peace. Lord Grenville was the
principal personage in a ministry which commenced and carried
out the war that laid the foundation for all those of the present
times. He may be called emphatically the man of the war ;
and in his late speeches in Parliament he seems to blame the
Ministers only for pursuing a different system of war from that
which he had pursued — that is, for sending expeditions to the
Continent instead of money. Now, to be sure, a war merely with
money does not bear so hard upon a nation as a war with men ;
but, then, what can it effect ? What is the result of this pitiful
dole to beggary ? An ally of a generous spirit, instead of re-
ceiving it as assistance, will consider it an offence. Now, I can
confide this to you (je puis vous le confier). In our war with
France which preceded the peace of Tilsit, a war which we were
waging for the English, since it was commenced on account of
Hanover, we had proposed to the English that they should
send an expedition to the Continent, which might operate as
a diversion in favor of the King of Prussia and the King of
Sweden, with whom we were then upon good terms. Instead
of that, they sent a million sterling, to be distributed equally
among the three sovereigns ; and this was the time when Lord
Grenville was the Minister, and his great expedient. The
generous sentiments of the Emperor induced him to order the
part of the money which was sent here to be kept in deposit,
and it has been sent back to England since the commencement
of this war with her."
I replied that if Mr. Canning should come again into the
ministry, I did not believe that a peace would be possible so
long as he should continue there; but that if Lord Grenville
should come in, particularly if in conjunction with Lord Grey,
I thought there would be a possibility of peace ; that upon the
l8lo.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 109
subject of the maritime pretensions of Great Britain, Lord Gren-
ville was, to be sure, in some degree pledged, but as a states-
man of experience and judgment, he must submit to the neces-
sity of modifying systems according to times and circumstances;
that as to his emphatical attachment to the former war, it was
to be remembered that he professed to consider that a war of
principles, a war against Jacobinism, a war against the French
Republic. I presumed he could not have anything to dread. at
present from the Jacobinism or the Republicanism of France.
. The Count smiled, and said, that to be sure, when one re-
flected upon the whole history of the French Revolution, and
saw that violent republicanism thus terminate in the greatest
excess of monarchy, it ought to be a great lesson for mankind.
I now took leave of Count Romanzofl*, and came home ; soon
after which Baron Blome, the Danish Minister, called to pay
me a visit. I mentioned to him the private accounts which had
been received here of privateers fitting out in the Danish ports,
and the paragraph in the newspapers mentioning that a new
ordinance for privateering was soon to be issued.
He said that he could not undertake to answer that it
was not so ; but he had received no indication of it from his
Government ; that if it was so, undoubtedly it must be from a
foreign instigation, and there could only have been left the
alternative of doing it of their own accord or by compulsion ;
that he himself had advised the suspension of the privateering;
and that having his estates in Holstein, he knew how advan-
tageous to his own country the trade which the Americans had
brought there was. But as I had told him how anxious the
Americans now here, and who were going home at the opening
of the navigation, were in consequence of these accounts, he
said that certainly there could be no danger for them, since
it was only against English trade that the privateers could be
armed. But probably vessels coming into the Baltic would be
molested, for the English would not suffer them to come with-
out licenses, and that his Government considered every vessel
having a British license as lawful prize.
I told him that according to the Orders of Council of April
last, the navigation to the Baltic would be open to American
I lo MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
vessels direct from America without British licenses, and that
I did not expect that the British would add any new restric-
tions.
He appeared not to have known this modification of the Orders
in Council. In conclusion, as he was going away I told him I
hoped he would write to his Government and urge them not to
permit the Americans to be molested by their privateers ; but he
only answered by general assertions of his own good dispositions.
He told me that Princess Wazemsky was to dine with him, and
what disconcerted him much was that she must dine at three
o'clock, while he was accustomed to dine at five.
28th. The weather at length has moderated, afler ten days of
cold almost as severe as any we have had this winter. We have
never, however, had the fire made more than once a day in our
chambers. In our bed-chamber it has not been made more than
five times this winter, and in the adjoining chamber often not
more than three or four times a week. The temperature of the
chamber has been from 12 to 15 of Reaumur's, or from 57 to 66
of Fahrenheit's thermometer. From 13 to 14 of Reaumur, or
from 62 to 64, is that which I find most comfortable, — that is,
no unpleasant sensation either, of heat or cold is experienced.
April 3d. I went with Mr. Harris and visited Mr. Tilesius and
Captain Krusenstern.' Mr. Fuss was not at home. Mr. Tilesius
was complaining much of the want of patronage for objects of
science and art here. He says they employed only scholars to
engrave his drawings which accompany the voyage; that they
spoiled his drawings, and did not engrave thcni well. lie there-
fore doubts whether any English or French translation of the
work will appear. The Emperor pays entirely for the plates of
the Russian work, which have cost him one hundred thousand
roubles. But the mere paper upon which they are struck off
has risen so much in price, that they cannot afford to give it
good, and use mean paper, which is another disgrace to the
work. The Russian edition is of one thousand copies, of which
not a hundred will ever be read; and the German edition so
small there are no copies lefl for new subscribers. M. Tilesius
' The commander of the Runian expedition aound the world in 1803-6. Mr.
Tile«ius was the naturalist belonging to the scientific corps.
i8io.] THE MISSION TO KVSSIA, \\\
gave me, for he would not allow me to pay for it, his own copy
of the first volume, and has taken my name down as a subscriber
for the remaining volumes. The dissertation upon the mam-
moth he thinks will not be published at all. Captain Krusen-
stern is here on a visit. He commands the Blagodat, the largest
ship in the Russian navy, and perhaps in the world. He has
been many years in England, and two or three in America.
7th. At ten this morning I called at the office of Mr. Groot-
ten, who accompanied me to the Alexandrofsk manufactory,
of which he is the superintendent — a manufactory for spinning
cotton yarn, under the patronage of the Empress-mother.
The buildings are about seven wersts, or five miles, from the
city, on the banks of the Neva, beyond the Monastery of St. Alex-
ander Newski. The establishment is under the direction of a Mr.
Wilson, an Englishman. There are four or five hundred card-
ing, spinning, and winding machines, which are kept at work
by three steam-engines, variously constructed, according to the
recent improvements upon that great mechanical invention.
There is also connected with the establishment a manufactory
of cotton stockings ; where they also wove silk stockings while
the silk was to be procured. The needles, cards, and much of
the machinery are made within the manufactory. The labor
is executed by about five hundred foundling children, nearly an
equal number of both sexes, and most of whom are taken, at the
age of eight, nine, or ten years, from the foundling hospitals of
St. Petersburg and of Moscow. They remain here, the boys
until twenty-one, and the girls until twenty-five years, unless
sooner married. They then have liberty to quit the establish-
ment, or to remain connected with it, at their option. They have
apartments accommodated for the married couples, of which
there are now about twenty-five, and they are increasing. The
institution having existed not more than twelve years, it has
only been within four or five years that the marriages began to
take place. Of the earliest, almost all the children died, and
even now a small proportion of those that are born are likely to
live. This mortality is attributed to the ignorance of the parents.
But the confinement of the chambers allowed to the families,
their extreme poverty, the want of cleanliness, and the almost
112 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
pestilential air which I found in them, sufficiently accounted in
my mind for the fact.
In two of the family apartments I saw Russian cradles, which
are a sort of hammock suspended by four small cords from the
end of an elastic pole, fastened by the other end near the head
of the bed. It hangs about four feet from the floor, and the
mother can reach her hand to the pole to rock the cradle from
her bed, by bending the pole at pleasure. It is a very clumsy
contrivance, and the child must be always in danger of falling to
the floor, an accident which four times in five must prove fatal.
The working foundlings themselves look for the most part
wretchedly, and very unwholesome. Of two hundred and forty
girls from ten to twenty-five years of age, I scarcely saw one
that could be called handsome, and very few not positively
ugly. When we arrived, they were just going to dinner — the
girls in a long room, with tables on the two sides, and a passage-
way between them. The girls were all standing between the
bench and the table, with their faces towards the little image of
the Virgin hanging at the wall, at the other end of the hall, and
chanting grace before meat At the farthest end the floor of the
room was raised a step higher, and a separate small table was
placed, at which about twenty of the girls took their seats.
Their fare was the same as at the other tables. But to be seated
there is an honorary distinction for particular industry and good
conduct. The dining-hall of the boys is of the same form and
dimensions, a story higher. But there were not more than nine
or ten at their table of distinction. The plates and dishes of the
girls were of wood, those of the boys of pewter. Their dinner
was a thin turnip soup, and a dish of boiled buckwheat, of the
consistency of hasty-pudding ; their bread rye, and their drink
quas. They are served at tables by invalids belonging to the
establishment, and who have no other duty. They have school-
rooms, where, at certain hours of leisure and on Sunday morn-
ings, they are taught to read, write, and cipher. They attend
public worship at a church in the neighborhood, the priest of
which gives them also occasional religious instruction at the
buildings of the institution. The girls all sleep in one long
bed-chamber, where there are four rows of beds the whole
l8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. nj
length of the room, and in several recesses there are four rows
more. The appearance was neat, the bedding all clean ; but the
air was not good. That of the boys* bed-chambers, which were
in two or three stages of a large square hall, with inside stair-
cases to the second and third stages, was much worse — almost
insupportable. Mr. Wilson told us if had not been ventilated
the whole winter. By the regulations they must all be in bed
before ten at night, and rise at six in the morning. Their task
of work is twelve hours a day, and for any extra work which
they choose to do they are paid.
The girls and boys are kept very carefully separate, and
although marriages between them are encouraged, yet Mr.
Grootten says not a single accident has happened. Is this
owing to constitutional coldness, to the continence of hard
labor and penurious subsistence, or to the perfection of sub-
serviency secured by their mode of breeding and education?
Perhaps to all the causes, combined with the climate and the
rigor of the regulations.
The machinery has been very expensive, and before the in-
troduction of the steam-engines, which is only four or five
years, it was kept at work also at great expense. French and
German projectors devised a number of water-wheels, which,
after the waste of much time and money, were found utterly
useless. Then came a Mr. Gascoigne, an Englishman, of great
mechanical genius, the inventor of the sort of great guns now
called carronades, but which from him were in the first instance
called Gasconades. Some unsuccessful speculative inventions
had impaired his fortune in England, and he had come to Rus-
sia, where he was employed at the head of a manufactory of
iron some one hundred anrf fifty or two hundred wersts from
St. Petersburg, when the direction of this institution was also
put into his hands. He introduced horse-mills to work the
machines — a great improvement upon the former processes, but
which still left the establishment so expensive that they could
not vie with the cheapness of the English manufactures. Mr.
Gascoigne had one-third of the profits from the sales, and
accumulated a great fortune, of which he died possessed a few
years since. He had introduced Mr. Wilson as his assistant in
vol,. II.- 8
1 14 MEMOIRS OF JOHN Ql/INCY ADAMS, [April,
the direction, and since his death Mr. Wilson has his place ; but
without his emoluments. He has introduced the steam-engines,
which have much reduced the expense of the works, and since
the war with England, followed by the prohibition of English
goods, this manufacture is in a flourishing condition. But Mr.
Wilson has no pay — nothing but occasional presents ; leaving
him in a state of anxiety and suspense with regard to his future
prospects — and the order of St. Wladimir, which he received
last year from the Emperor as a mark of his favor. There are
twelve different kinds of machines used in the process of card-
ing and spinning the yarn. But three or four of them are em-
ployed in effecting the modification of the cotton, which might
be accomplished by one, and Mr. Wilson has invented a machine
for that purpose, which is now just beginning to work. There
is also much of the labor still done by the hand which might
be done by machinery; particularly the wiring of the leather
for the carding-machines. I mentioned to Mr. Wilson the
American invention for this purpose, of which he told me he
had heard before. They have also here various small machines
for making up the yarn into packages for sending away. The
reels wind oflT seven threads of a given length, which are fast-
ened together and form the first combination of the prepared
article. A number of these gatherings, according to the fineness
of the yarn, forms a skein. The skein is weighed, and according
to the number of skeins to a pound is numbered from twelve
to twenty. The skeins of the same numbers are weighed in
l)arcels of ten pounds, and from the scales are put into a hollow
squared steel press, in which they are screwed down into as
small a compass as the hand of the workman can press them ;
then they are taken out in a cube apparently solid, and made
into packages of brown paper tied up with twine. These are
deposited upon shelves! in the place where they are made up,
for ten days together — after which the ten days' work is all
removed at a time to the warehouse of the manufactory, ready
to be taken away by the traders from Moscow and other parts
of the country, who purchase it by wholesale and take it here
at the manufactory. Very little of it is taken at St. Petersburg.
Besides the cotton, they also spin some coarse thread from flax —
l8io.] TJIE MlSSIOli TO KVSSTA, nj
a material to which Mr. Grootten wishes that the whole manu-
factory were confined ; because the flax is the produce of the
country itself. After spending about four hours in going over
the different parts of this establishment, I returned with Mr.
Grootten to the city, and left him at his house.
nth. I called upon Mr. Tilcsius, and requested his aid to
procure all the volumes of the Transactions of the Academy of
Sciences at St. Petersburg necessary to complete the collection
for the library of Harvard University. He promised me to
mention it at the conference of the Academy and give me an
early answer. He showed me a letter he had received from
Mr. Pallas, who is in the Crimea. He still complains of the
neglect of sciences at the present day. The age of Catherine,
he says, is past. Excepting Mr. Fuss and Mr. Schubert, there
are no learned Academicians. Pallas is gone ; Gmelin and Gul-
denstacdt are dead ; Storch is a courtier, who writes panegyrics
upon the reigning sovereign, and celebrates the glory and pros-
perity of Russia under Alexander the Great. The rest are all
Russians — that is, nothing. The Academy is daily declining,
and supports itself now principally by printing books for indi-
vidual authors.
He showed me also a press which he has made for coloring
prints. It is precisely upon the principle of Watt's copying-
press ; only larger. He showed me also a number of colored
prints for Gmelin's Historia Fucorum which he has taken upon
vellum paper to send to Dr. Barton. But he says they cost
five roubles a print. He had sent the volume to Dr. Barton
with the plates struck on Russian paper and uncolored. Dr.
Barton complained of the badness of their execution ; and he
sends him these to show him what can be done. Mr. Tilesius
was the editor of the German edition of Pallas's Voyages. I
enquired of him for Pallas's work on the various dialects of the
Russian Empire ; but he said if it was to be procured it would
only be by advertising for it in the newspapers — that the work
was incomplete, and is now to be continued by Mr. Adelung.
I found with Mr. Tilesius a Mr. Gauler, the engraver ; whose
pupils are employed in engraving his designs for the voyage of
Krusenstern. At seven in the evening we attended the first
Il6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [Apnl,
lecture of Mr. Boucher, upon maritime and commercial law.
The introductory lecture was panegyrical upon the Emperor
Alexander, and said much of Mr. Boucher himself. He was
about three-quarters of an hour reading it.
14th. Taking my usual walk this morning, I met General
Pardo, and walked about an hour with him. His conversation
is very agreeable ; his learning profound ; and his taste in the
fine arts enlightened and elegant. But he passes not a little of
his time in translating Horace into Greek. I doubt whether
this can even be called Nugse Canorae. Yet what right have I
to reflect upon it? How do I pass my own time ? In politics
his views are extensive, and in many respects correct. But his
opinions are so much biassed by his prejudices and his passions
that no dependence can be placed upon him. His belief is the
child of his feelings, and his information is more inaccurate
than that of any man that I have met here, moving in that
sphere. Just as we parted, the Emperor passed us in his sledge,
driven by a mujik with a white shaft trotting-horse, and a gal-
loping furieux.
15 ill. 1 attended this morning the service of the Greek cere-
monial in the Church of St. Isaac. In some respects it differed
from those that I have witnessed heretofore. There were only
two officiating priests. The choir of singers at the left hand of
the chancel was small, but the singing, as usual, excellent. There
was one ceremony which I could not ascertain whether it was
the administration of the communion or of baptism. There
were only two vessels, as if containing one the bread and the
other the wine — the former borne by the inferior priest upon his
head, the other a cup carried in the hand by the other priest,
raised to the level of his eyes. The cup only was administered,
and that only to the infants of a number of women, who held
them in their arms. Qn the whole, I concluded it was bap-
tism. The subordinate priest read nearly half an hour from a
book — but whether it was a homily or chapters from the Bible
I could not ascertain.
Afler the service was over, that which I took to be baptism
was repeated to two women with infants, who were not there in
time for the first. They stood about the centre of the church.
i8io.] TJfE MISSION TO RUSSIA, nj
The inferior priest read to them from the book for some time.
They then went up to the balustrade. The inferior priest then
took the children successively from the mothers, carried them
to the superior in the sanctuary, and a moment after returned,
and gave them back. The mothers appeared delighted to have
obtained the blessings. The multitude of self-crossings, the
profound and constantly-repeated bows, the prostrations upon
the earth and kissing of the floor, witnessed the depth of super-
stition in which this people is plunged perhaps more forcibly
than I had seen before. The aisle of the church, where alone the
service can be heard, was crowded ; but there appeared to be
only people in the lowest classes of society, mujiks and common
soldiers, there.
A collection for charity was made during the service, and
beggar boys and girls were going about and asking alms fre-
quently during thie performance. I saw one little girl obtain
several single copecks, principally from the soldiers. The col-
lection was received on tin canisters with narrow holes on the
lids to let in the money. ]Jut there were several cofx^ck and
two-copeck pieces on the lid itself; and some of those who
put on it two-copeck pieces took single copecks from it in
exchange.
In the centre of this church, which is built in the regular
shape of a cross, the trophies lately achieved from the enemies
of Russia arc suspended. They are not numerous. I saw one
English flag there ; but I know not where it was taken. The
pictures, as in their other churches, are some good and some
very bad. I suppose those the worst executed are the most
esteemed for sanctity.
1 6th. Mr. Six paid me a visit this morning, and we had a long
conversation upon political subjects. He is the exact counter-
part of General Pardo. The Emperor Napoleon is his idol.
He once told me he was afraid Napoleon before he died would
take upon him to demand the adoration of mankind, as being
something superhuman. This idea, he said, was entertained by
the whole family of the Bonapartes, and as strongly by his own
King, Louis, as by any of them. I do not know whether Napo-
leon will ever assume the god or not; but if he should, Mr.
Il8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUiNCY ADAMS. [April.
Six would be one of the most devout of his priests. His sub-
jugation of soul is complete. But he is a man of great political
information; of long experience; of better principles than most-
statesmen of this or any other day ; of good intentions ; of good
disposition, — anxiously desirous of the esteem of others, and
especially of those whose judgment he fears. Conscious of
compliances with the times, which stubborn virtue cannot
approve, his mind is in a frequent, if not continual, struggle
to justify himself to his own feelings. The worship of Napo-
leon is thus in some sort necessary to his quiet. It helps him
to apologies of which he feels the want. When his chain galls
him he looks at it and takes comfort in the thought that it is
gold. Pardo bites at his with the fury of a phrenetic, but with-
out having the strength to break it. Six's information is usually
more accurate than that of the General. He is not so much
blinded by his passions. He loves \o XA\ secrets ^ and often
communicates, with injunctions of profound secrecy, the com-
mon rumors of the Exchange.
The day I dined with him last week, he told me that the
Rotterdam Gazette that day arrived had brought accounts of
a French officer having landed in England, who was said to be
the bearer of propositions for a pacific negotiation ; that by a
private letter he was informed that this officer was Marshal
Duroc. This, however, he begged me not to mention, as he
had communicated it to no other person but the Ambassador
and myself. The next morning Mr. J. S. Smith asked me if I
had heard the report current upon the ICxchangc two days
before, that Duroc had landed in England upon an errand of
peace. The Hamburg newspaper on Saturday brought the report
and its refutation. This day Mr. Six observed to me that it
appeared Duroc was not the man, though he had been announced
in the Morning Chronicle.
1 8th. As Count Romanzoff had neither sent nor written to
me concerning the letter which I had told him I had received
from the Abbe Brzozowski, after waiting some weeks, I took
it for granted that his silence implied consent that the letter
should be delivered. I accordingly sent it last week, and received
immediately from him a letter of thanks, with the title of Le
l8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, i iq
Pere General des Jesuites, a person whom I did not know to be
still existing. He paid me this morning a visit, and renewed
his thanks for my care of the letter, with the request that I
would take charge of his answer ; which I readily promised to
do. The letter itself was from America. He asked me many
questions about America. His namesake Prince Alexander
Galitzin, the Procureur du St. Synode, once spoke of him
to mc.
22d. I went successively this morning to the St Nicholas, the
Assumption, and the great Roman Catholic church, to attend
the service of the day. The Church of St. Nicholas was open,
and about twenty shrines were lighted up with tapers hanging
before them; and many worshippers at many of them, crossing
and prostrating themselves, according to the manner of the
country^ before them. The shrines in general were gaudily
dressed out. The only one particularly remarkable contained
a portrait of St. Nicholas, with twelve scenes, I suppose from
the legend of his life, painted in miniature round the figure of
his person, which was only a kit-cat. It was very well painted,
and in a handsome frame ; but there was no public service per-
forming. The Annunciation and Assumption Churches were
not even open, — ^and the Roman Catholic Church service was
finished just as I went to go in. I met a crowd of people coming
from it, many of them with palm-branches in their hands. The
branches were all budded, and almost in leaf. They must
•
therefore have been raised in green-houses. It is, by the old
style reckoning used here. Palm Sunday, though in every other
part of Christendom, where these festivals are observed, it is
Easter Sunday. I had never before observed the commemo-
ration of the day by carrying palm-branches, of which I have
this day witnessed great quantities. Its allusion is to the
entrance of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem — for which see St.
John's Gospel, chap. xii. v. I, 12, and 13. St. John is the only
one of the Evangelists who mentions that the branches of the
trees were palm,
27th. This day being Good Friday, by the old style calendar,
I went to the Church of St. Nicholas, and heard the service of
the day ; which I did not perceive, however, to differ from the
I20 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
ordinary mass. Their mode of worship here is such that
one service can be attended only by very few persons. J^l
The churches are built in the form of a cross, thus: f "H
The place where the service is performed is at one of L-l
the ends, as at a, which is railed off by a low balustrade. There
are neither benches nor chairs. The people stand in the aisle,
and every individual must have space enough round him to
cross himself incessantly, to bow himself down almost to the
earth about once in five seconds, and to prostrate himself on
hands, knees, and forehead, according to the ardor of his
devotion.
In the mean time beggars are circulating through the crowd
to catch the critical moment of charitable feeling and receive
the donation of his copeck. I saw one this day of the most
squalid appearance, in tatters which scarcely hung together
upon his body, but with a leather bag half full of the alms he
was receiving, and giving single copecks in exchange for two-
copeck pieces. But the donors themselves appeared as much
objects for charity as those to whom they gave it. In general,
both at the Nicholal and Isaac's Churches, I saw scarcely a
person attending that was above the class of ordinary mujiks.
I afterwards went to the Roman Catholic church, where I found
a priest in the pulpit preaching a sermon in the Polish language.
He was very animated in his discourse, and seemingly pathetic;
there was a portable wooden crucifix, in a groove at his left
hand, by the side of his pulpit. While speaking with much
vehemence, he seized this crucifix, held it forward to the people,
many of whom immediately fell upon their knees and bowed
their heads to the floor before it, while he continued with
increasing exertion of lungs and muscles to apostrophize them
upon the object represented to them upon the cross, until the
end of his sermon.
29th. Easter Sunday ; the greatest holiday of the Russian cal-
endar. It celebrates the resurrection of Christ. The ceremonies,
as at Christmas, begin at midnight. Mr. Everett and Mr. Smith
attended at the Church of St. Isaac, where a service of about two
hours was performed, partly without the church, around which
the priests went three times successively in procession, and
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 121
partly within it, where was a representation of the sepulchre
from which the Saviour arose. The crowd of people attending
was excessive. At midnight the signal was given by the firing
of a cannon at the fortress, followed by several others ; and at
two or three subsequent periods of the night a salvo of twenty-
five or thirty guns was fired. The midnight service is performed
at all the churches, and the Emperor and imperial family attend
at their chapel. Among the customs of the country is that of
embracing one another at this period, and all the people who
attend at the Court Chapel are admitted to kiss the Emperor's
sleeve and the Empress's hand. It is also the custom to make
presents upon this day, and particularly of eggs. The mujiks
present real eggs, hard boiled and dyed red with logwood ; for
which they receive roubles. Persons of higher standing present
eggs of sugar, glass, gilt wood, porcelain, marble, and almost
every other substance, and of various dimensions, many of them
made into cups, or boxes filled with sugar-plums ; others with
painting and biscuit figures upon them, emblematical of the
crucifixion and resurrection. Some of these eggs arc made to
cost a hundred roubles or upwards. Servants present these eggs
to their masters, and receive presents in return, as at the new
year. Friends present them to one another and embrace. It
is a mode of gallantry allowable towards ladies by gentlemen
of their intimate acquaintance ; and in return for an egg the
gentleman is entitled to a salutation.
The parade was this morning more splendid than usual, and
of longer continuance. I went to the Roman Catholic church
and heard mass performed. There appeared during the daytime
to be no service at the Greek churches. The streets all day
were crowded with people. New dresses, equipages, liveries,
were driving round the city, and met at every turn. The whole
circle of Court visits by cards must be paid, as on New Year's
day ; and the visits in person are more numerous than at that
time. I paid four or five visits in person, leaving cards. The
Court attendants came to pay and receive their compliments, as
usual. I met Mr. Harris, and walked with him on the square of
St. Isaac and the line. On the square are a number of fair shows,
under temporary shelters erected for the occasion, and the
122 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
common people were amusing themselves in whirligig chairs
and swings. There are four chairs to a wheel, which contain
two persons each, and move round in a perpendicularly circular
motion. But it is very slow, and kept up only by a mujik
pushing forward each of the chairs as it descends. The swing
is a plank suspended by four cords fixed at its ends from a
gallows standing over it; on the plank arc two seats for two
persons each ; at each end of the plank a man or woman stand-
ing, and holding by the cords which pass from the plank to the
cross-piece of the gallows, keeps the swing in motion by the
exertion of the muscles, and by changing the centre of gravity
at the moment when the swing reaches its highest elevation on
each side. This they do by simply bending their knees, and
thus shortening their own length ; and I saw at least as many
swings kept in motion by women as by men. The mass at the
Catholic church was remarkable only as it was long. The
music was exquisite. The sermon, in Italian, had been preached
before the mass.
May 5th. I called upon Mr. Harris this morning, and we went
together to .sec the shows ut most of the booths on the s(|uarc
of St. Isaac. At the first were a dromedary and two monkeys,
a dancing bear, and a couple of poor tumblers, with a man, one
of whose legs was deformed, and seemingly jointed like a hand
and arm ; for he used that foot as a hand, to eat, drink, play
upon the violin, with two pairs of cymbals at once, and other
like performances. At the second were only dancers on the
tight-rope, and tumblers — very miserable. At the third a
puppet show, with a stuffed figure dressed up like a giant, which
they send out to stalk in the square before their barn for the
purpose of attracting company. At the fourth, which a paint-
ing on the outside of the stall announced as the English school,
there were about half a dozen dancing dogs, indifferently trained.
The fifth was an exhibition of the Chinese shadows; the broken
bridge, and the traditionary song which we used to hear at the
fairs in Holland thirty years ago. The singer was, of course,
Russian; but his voice grated harshest discord. The ship-
wreck and the war of the fishes was much according to the
usual style. This exhibition had the most numerous attend-
l8io.] rilE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 123
ance. The entrance at each was half a rouble for each person.
All were of the lowest order of public amusements.
6th. I had a visit this morning from Mr. Six, who told me
he had concluded to remain here another year, and appears of
opinion that the issue of the transactions respecting Holland is
much more favorable than was to have been expected. After
dinner I went out and walked in the Mall fronting the Admiralty
to see the Gaschellics, oj; procession of carriages. It was more
numerous than on any former day ; as it usually is on the last of
the Easter holidays. There were three rows of carriages, which
moved round the Church of St. Isaac, and thence to the Palace
Square, of which they also went the round, and then returned.
I suppose there were about a thousand — most of them with four
horses. The crowd of people on foot was also great ; the pro-
portion of women small. The throng was greatest about seven
o'clock, soon after which the carriages began to withdraw.
About half-past eight they were almost dispersed, and the
swings and whirling chairs and hill-sliding ceased all at once.
1 2th. The ice of the river at length broke up at two or three
o'clock this morning. This circumstance is said to be unusual.
The most ordinary time of the day when this event occurs is
between two and six in the afternoon. From noon until two
this day I walked on the quay to the foundry. The river was
entirely open, nearly to where the bridge had been. Below
that, although in motion, it was slowly passing, and in solid
mass, extending from bank to bank. About sunset I walked
again on the quay below the bridge. The whole passage was
then clear, and several boats were then crossing the river. It
was about three in the afternoon when the guns at the fortress
were fired, and the Governor passed in the first boat, to announce
in form the event to the Emperor, to whom it is said he pre-
sents a glass of the water to drink, and from whom he receives a
present of a hundred ducats. It is a subject of so much interest
here, and its influence is so great upon the occupations and
amusements, as well as upon the comforts of the people, that
it furnishes a continual fund of conversation and innumerable
wagers — a fashion introduced by the English merchants, but
which is very general. From this time the summer season is
124 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
understood to commence. The nobility and wealthy merchants
leave their town residences for their country-seats ; the double
windows are taken from the houses, and the business of naviga-
tion takes place of that in sledges. The ladies were out this
evening almost until dark — that is, until between ten and eleven
o'clock.
1 3th. Russian May-day. The French Ambassador invited the
ladies, Mr. Smith, and me to dine at C^therinenhof, to see the
procession of the carriages. It is the custom of the country,
on the first day of May, from five in the afternoon until about
nine in the evening, for almost all the pleasure-carriages in St
Petersburg to go in procession from the Peterhof gate to the
village of Cathcrinenhof, about two miles out of the city. The
Ambassador had borrowed the country-seat of Mr. Beyer, a
merchant who transacts business for him, to give a dinner to
some of his friends and procure them an opportunity to sec the
whole procession. Mr. Beyer's seat is on the road to Catheri-
ncnhof, about a quarter of a mile this side of the village. Mrs.
Adams being unwell, the ladies did not go. I went with Mr.
Smith at three o'clock, the hour appointed for dinner. We
visited before dinner the green-houses, where we saw an abun-
dance of flowers in bloom, a number of strawberries nearly ripe,
and peaches about the size of a pigeon's egg. Not a symptom
of vegetation yet in the garden, where all the fruit-trees are still
clothed with matting. The company consisted of the Chevalier
de Bray and Mr. Lesseps, with their families; General Pardo
and Count Bussche, with their daughters; Count St. Julicn,
Baron Blome, and Mr. Six, Mr. Krcbbe, and the Ambassador's
family — Rayneval, St. Genest, Rumigny, and Lajard. The house
was newly painted, and, as that made it necessary to keep the
windows and doors open, it was uncomfortably cold. Some of
the company came late, and it was half-past four when we sat
down to dinner. I sat by Mr. de Bray, who told me several
curious anecdotes of Count Rumford. About six we rose
from table and joined the procession of carriages. The Am-
bassador sent an open carriage upon the ground, with four
elegant bay horses, and two jockey postilions «richly dressed.
lie went himself on horseback, as did Baron Blome ; Blome
iSio.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 125
was in his full Court uniform. The other Ministers had hand-
some carriages, with drivers in their best dresses. The carriages
appeared to me much the same as on the square of St. Isaac
last Sunday — few handsome, and no magnificent, equipages.
The reigning Empress was there with six horses, and the Em-
press-mother with eight. I came home about eight o'clock,
completely chilled, with a hoarse cold and sore throat.
14th. Visit this morning from Mr. Six. He told me a num-
ber of anecdotes respecting the revolution which placed the
Emperor Alexander upon the throne. He says that he has
ascertained to demonstration not only that the Emperor was in
no manner accessory to the murder of his father, but that he
was affected with the deepest horror at the event; that he
absolutely refused for a long time to assume the government,
to which he was finally persuaded by old Count Soltykoff, who
had been his governor and the superintendent of his education.
Paul had until within six months of his death had but one bed-
chamber with his wife. But his favorite Turkish slave Kutoissoff
had bred discord between them ; and he had ordered the door
between his chamber and the Empress to be barred. He had
notice, when the conspirators broke in upon him, in time to seek
a retreat through this door. It was barred as he had ordered,
and he lost his life. There was another door, between his
chamber and that of his valet-de-chambre. The officer com-
manding the guard that night, and a conspirator, that same
evening locked the door and took the key away in his pocket,
justly foreseeing that the valet-de-chambre, on finding the key
gone, would not mention it to the Emperor, for fear of being
punished for negligence in losing the key. The first plan of the
conspiracy was formed by Count Panin," and Benningsen.
It was communicated to the Governor of the city, Pahlen, who
engaged in it. The Zouboffs were merely instruments. More
than eighty persons were privy to the project; many of whom
spoke of it with great indiscretion. At Moscow the news was
expected for many days before it arrived. Pahlen himself, at a
dinner a fortnight before, said to somebody who was speaking
' A blank left for another name not remembered at the moment, and never sup-
plied. Probably it was OuvarofT.
126 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
of Paul's Strange conduct, " This will not last another fortnight:
we are all too tired of it." At Prince Beloselsky's, on the very
night of the deed, a person said in presence of the Prince and
all his company, " The Emperor Paul has not four hours more
to live." And M. de Laval went home at midnight with this
notice, and was called up in less than four hours and told that
the Emperor Paul was dead. Paul himself had received some
intimations of what was in agitation. He was extremely jeal-
ous and suspicious of everybody. The very morning or day
before his death, he had uttered in presence of his mistress.
Princess Gagarin, threats against the Empress, the Grand
Duke Alexander, and everybody, indiscriminately. Princess
Gagarin was alarmed at it, and gave notice of it to General
Ouvaroff, who went to Count Pahlcn, one of Paul's greatest
favorites, to request he would use his influence to appease the
Emperor's mind. Pahlen let him into the secret, and prevailed
upon him to join the conspiracy. These are among the anec-
dotes which Mr. Six has collected respecting that tragedy. I
asked him if he had heard that Paul's Empress, when informed
of l^aul's death, after recovering from the first shock occasioned
by the intelligence, said to the officer who brought it, " Eh
bien, je suis done votre Imperatrice." To which the officer
answered, " Madame, c'est sa Majeste Alexandre qui est mon
maitre." He said he had not ; but that under the external forms
of attention and affection, he knew that there was no cor-
diality between the mother and the son. He said she was not
popular here, and, at this time particularly, was blamed for
having prevented two years ago the marriage of the Grand
Duchess Catherine with the Emperor Napoleon.
I dined this day with the Chancellor, Count Romanzoff, at a
great diplomatic dinner. There were several persons present
who were strangers to me; among the rest, Count Gregory
Razumofsky, newly appointed Minister of Public Instruction,
and Baron Strogonoff, just returned from a public mission to
Spain. At dinner I sat next to Count de Maistre, the Sardinian
Minister, a man of taste and letters, who told me, upon some
enquiries which I made, that if there was any grammar and
dictionary of the Slavonian language extant, it must have been
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 127
compiled by the Propaganda at Rome. The Slavonian transla-
tion of the Psalms used here by the Church was considered,
he said, as a masterpiece. Many of the clergy here believed
it to be the work of St. Jerome, who was a native of Dalmatia.
But it was not probable. For St. Jerome, who was so celebrated
by his Vulgate translation, if he had made that of the Psalms
into the Slavonian, must have mentioned it in some other of
his numerous works. I came home early, and attended Mr.
Boucher's lecture. He is now thoroughly upon the subject of
maritime law, and discussed the question of open and close seas,
lie pronounced the toll-duty levied by the King of Denmark
at the passage of the Sound lawful and just, as being a fund for
supporting the light-houses and other objects for the preserva-
tion of vessels navigating in the seas. But he did not succeed
remarkably well in distinguishing why Denmark should levy
this duty rather than Sweden ; and he told me after the lecture
that he could give no satisfactory reason for it. At this lecture
I met also Mr. Borel, Count Romanzoffs private secretary,
who spoke to mc respecting the work he is preparing upon the
history of the armed neutrality^ and upon which he requested
my observations.
17th. I was engaged part of the morning in learning Russian.
Walked to the Summer Gardens before dinner. They are now
open — since the first of May, old style — but are not yet pleasant
for walks. In the evening I attended Mr. Boucher's lecture.
He noticed the question I had put to him, why Denmark should
levy a duty upon the passage of vessels through the Sound,
and not Sweden, to which he gave what he thought a sufficient
answer — that is, that the channel is on the Danish side. He
said he had taken great pains to trace the origin of this duty,
but had not succeeded in ascertaining it His lecture this even-
ing was upon shores, alluvion, and atterrissement, which he said
should not be confounded together. The first was gradual, the
last the effect of some sudden and extraordinary change. He
mentioned a very singular and celebrated lawsuit which had
been decided not long since in the kingdom of Naples, arising
from an event of this kind. An earthquake had transported
one man's house upon the territory of another, and the question
128 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
was to whom the house then belonged. The first tribunal de-
cided in favor of the first proprietor, but upon the appeal the
superior court reversed this decision, and gave the house to
the owner of the land where it had fallen. ** Very justly," said
Mr. Boucher, "because it i^ an invariable maxim that the
accessory follows the principal. Now, the house was the acces-
sory to the land, and not the land to the house" — as if earth-
quakes respected the maxims of law, or as if maxims of law
were made to meet the contingencies of earthquakes. The
natural justice of particular cases is very often at variance with
the general maxims of law ; and this, with submission to Mr.
Boucher, appears to be one of them. At the lecture I met the
Chevalier de Berks, secretary to Count St. Julien.
19th. Walking on the Admiralty Mall, I met the Emperor,
who stopped and made some observations about the weather.
He said I should have a bad opinion of the climate here, and
that eight months was too long for the winter to last. I dined
with Monsieur de Laval. The ladies were invited, but Mrs.
Adams was not well enough to go. General Betancourt and
his family were there ; Count Severin Poto<jki, Count de Maistre,
and Baron Rocheberg, Mr. Harris and Mr. J. S. Smith. Mr.
de Laval, who was formerly Duke de Laval-Montmorenci, first
came here as Cavalier d'Ambassade to M. de Segur. But, his
family being proscribed and his property confiscated during
the revolution, he remained here, and married a Princess
Kazitsky, of one of the wealthiest families in Russia. He is a
man of taste and literature. He showed me some of his pic-
tures— a small knife-grinder of Teniers, for which he gave this
day four hundred ducats; his Belle Ferronni^re; La Giocondo
of Leonardo da Vinci cost him ten thousand roubles. He has
a Youth and Courtesan, said to be of Giorgione — doubtful, but
excellent ; a Roman Charity of Guercino — not a pleasing pic-
ture. Indeed, this subject, though a favorite one of the painters,
has always something disgusting to me. A starving old man
sucking at the breast of a young woman has something so
unnatural to the sense, as well as to the fancy, that it requires
a knowledge of the story to reconcile it to the mind. There
is great moral beauty in the fact, but nothing cheering in its
-■ -^- -^
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 129
representation to the eye. M. de Laval has also a small antique
bronze bust, with the name of Plato on the back. But Count
de Maistre insisted upon it that it was not Plato, and remarked
that the P of the name was in the Latin character, while the
other letters were Greek. I saw also the Slavonian, Greek,
and Latin Dictionary, and took down the title-page. At dinner
I sat next to Count Severin Poto^ki, and had much conversa-
tion with him. In the evening I went to the German play,
where I found the ladies, and saw an opera in German called
the Cure for Wives, said to be taken from the Italian Poche
ma Huonc. I saw it at Dresden under the title of Le Donne
cambiate. In English it is called The Devil to Pay. The
music is charming, but we had not half of it.
2 1st. Visit this morning from Mr. Six. Political, literary,
and speculative conversation with him. He has not so much
learning as General Pardo ; but he is very familiar with Horace
and Virgil. He is a good-tempered man, and has more of
moral sense than almost any man I have met in Europe. I
paid visits to Count Stedingk and Count St. Julien. Stedingk
told me he did not know now when he should go home ; but
he hoped not to go through Finland, for he could not bear the
thought of that country. (He signed the Treaty which ceded it
to Russia.) St. Julien asked me many questions about America ;
and told me how much the new French Empress was admired
in France for her beauty — most especially for her foot, which
I suppose is like the foot of Queen Genevra. The Count also
talked of the war in Turkey, a subject which he appears to
understand very well. He is more of a soldier than a courtier ;
but he has a taste for jewelry, and skill in the learning of pre-
cious stones.
In the evening I attended Mr. Boucher's lecture, which was
upon islands, wrecks of the sea, and treasure trove. Some
others, as well as myself, had hesitated to join in his approba-
tion of the Neapolitan tribunal for giving the house of one
man to another because an earthquake had transported it upon
his land. He defended his doctrine by the usual argument,
that courts of justice must decide questions upon general
principles, and not upon particular contingencies. The latter
VOU II.
I JO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
kind of sentences he said were called Rustic Judgments (Juge-
mens Rustiques), and they were condemned by all enlightened
jurists. He had got a long story about my question to him,
and its answer, in his proc^s-verbal.
23d. There is a custom of visiting annually the Fortress of St
Petersburg this day, the occasion of which I have not heard. I
thought I had not the time to spare, and did not go. Mr. Harris
called upon me this afternoon, and told me he was informed
that General Armstrong had left Paris. The French Ambas-
sador gave this evening a splendid ball, on occasion of the
marriage of the Emperor Napoleon. It was attended by the
Emperor and imperial family. The hotel was elegantly illumi-
nated, as were those of General Pardo, Count Bussche, Mr. Six,
the Chevalier de Bray, and Mr. Brancia, the Charge d'Aflaires
of Naples. As the imperial family were at the ball, it was
necessary to go early. We went at nine o'clock, but it was
daylight as at noon, so that the illumination made scarcely any
show at all. It was past two in the morning when the Court
retired, aflcr which we inmicdiatcly came home. It was then
again broad daylight, and, by the time I got to bed, almost sun-
rise. At midnight it scarcely could be called dark. The Emperor
was gracious to everybody, even beyond his usual custom, which
is remarkable for affability. He asked Mr. Harris to show him
where Mrs. Adams sat, and danced a polonaise with her ; and
afterwards one with Catherine Johnson, a circumstance the more
noticed, as she has not been presented at Court. He enquired of
mc whether I had taken a walk this day, and on my answering
that I had, he observed that he had not met me. He said that
the difference of my looks in the street, without a wig, from that
in which he had usually seen me, had been the cause that the first
time he had met me he did not recognize me." He told me the
occasion upon which he had commenced the practice of walk-
ing daily. It was recommended to him to strengthen his foot,
which had received a hurt last summer by the oversetting of
his drossky; and although he preferred riding on horseback,
he believed walking was the healthiest of all exercise.
* Mr. Adams, who was bald, construed (his as excusing him from api)earing at
Court in a wig, and never wore one afterwards.
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 131
The Prince of Wurtemberg, the brother of the Empress-mother,
entered also into conversation with me, though I had never been
presented to him. The rooms were excessively warm, and a
very small part of the company took real pleasure in the fete.
I heard the Ambassador himself say to some one that he gave
this ball because he was obliged to do it — it gave him no
pleasure.
I spoke to Count Bussche about his illumination. "Ay,"
said he, " I promise you I am well paid for my illumination.*' I
asked General Pardo if, as a good Catholic, he did hot expect
to have some atonement to make hereafter for the vain and
excessive enjoyments of this night. " Nay,*' said he ; " but I hope
what I experience this night will expiate some of my sins."
24th. I went with Mr. Everett and attended Mr. Boucher's
lecture, which was upon wrecks of the sea, and strays. But
it was very short. The time was principally occupied in the
reading and commenting upon the proces-verbal of the last
lecture, and in some reflections upon the question which Mon-
sieur le Conseiller d'Etat had received in an anonymous letter
from a very learned, polite, and modest person, of which he
should take more notice hereafter. There was more agitation of
the question regarding the Neapolitan judgment upon the trans-
ported house. A gentleman had enquired how it would be if
the whole city should be thus transported — a very perplexing
question to Monsieur le Profcsscur, who could only suggest
that the principle of lesion (Toutre-moitiiy by which, according to
the civil law, a man may redeem on equitable terms whatever
he has sold for less than half its worth, might rescue the city
from the possession of its new proprietor. The lecture closed
about half-past eight.
27th. I dined with Count Stedingk, and, arriving late, found
his company at dinner when I arrived. Had a game of chess
with him after dinner. He had a courier from Stockholm this
morning, and expects the frigate which is to carry him home in
a fortnight at Cronstadt; orders having been already expedited
to Carlscrona for her to sail. His successor, he told me, was
not yet appointed. It would probably be General Skioldebrand ;
but whether he would accept the appointment was uncertain.
132 MEMOIRS OF JOHl^ QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
He had written to him (Count Stedingk) to enquire what he
ought to insist upon as a salary, if he should come — to which
the answer would be, the advice not to come at a salary under
twenty thousand rix-doUars banco — at two rix-dollars to a ducat.
Upon this, at the present favorable course of exchange, he could
live decently, and not upon less. But whether the Government
would give so much was questionable ; and on other terms the
General would probably not come. I asked him what his own
salary as Ambassador had been. He said it was thirty thou-
sand rix-dollars, besides a pension of three thousand which
he received in his military capacity. He still received the
same salary. This is large ; but Mr. Rumigny, the Secretary
of the French Ambassador, told Mr. Harris, about two months
ago, that he had just closed the accounts of the Ambassador's
expenses for the year 1809, ^"^ ^^^^ ^^^7 exceeded one million
and fifty thousand roubles. The preceding year (1808) they had
also amounted to more than a million.
yune 9th. At seven in the evening I attended the public
exhibition of Mr. Boucher's disputants, on the question, whether
"a country, being a peninsula, blockaded by sea, and at the
point of connection with the continent having to contend against
powerful armies — ^being without money, without credit, without
connections, but having in abundance the most diversified pro-
jluctions, the means necessary for repelling force by force, and
for subsistence — whether such a country, in such a state, can
carry on a great commerce, pay its troops punctually, and supply
them with provisions ?" The assembly was held at the house
belonging to St. Peter's school. The hearers were numerous,
and among them were a few ladies. The dissertations read were
by Mr. Rachette, Count Alexander KhvostofT, Mr. Mayeur, his
Governor, Mr. Filetskoy, and Mr. Freygang. They were ap-
parently written on both sides of the question ; but the writers
in the negative took care not to be too much in the right. The
question itself, without stating precisely the present political
situation of Russia, bore too many of its essential features to
make a public discussion of its merits altogether impartial,
under such a Government as this. Mr. Boucher had announced
that he should sum up the arguments of the several memorialists,
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA.
133
and conclude with his own opinion. But he did little more than
declare himself for the affirmative ; and assigned little else in
support of his opinion but that the commerce might be carried
on, and the troops paid, by means of a bank of deposit The
allusions to this country, in the application of the question, were
frequent in all the memorials, and the compliments to the Em-
peror and his Ministers numerous.
Mr. Boucher, who called upon me on Thursday, with a dozen
printed invitations to this meeting, told me that he had received
last evening an anonymous memoir, perfectly well written in the
negative, which he believed was by Mr. Montreal. But it could
not be read at the exhibition, first, because it was anonymous ;
and secondly, because it came too late. Mr. Raimbert, who also
paid me a visit yesterday, told me that Maximin (Consolat), his
grandson, had written that memoir.
Among the auditors this' evening I met both the Counts
Soltykoff, brothers, the Grand Master of Ceremonies Narishkin,
the Turkish Capitan Bashaw, who bombarded the Seraglio, and
a Monsieur Rudolphe, a Frenchman, who told me that he had
been with me at Mr. Le Cceur*s school at Passy, in 1778, and
enquired of our other American schoolmates of that date —
Cochran, Franklin, Bache, and Deane. I have no doubt that
this gentleman's memory has been more retentive than mine ;
for I have no recollection of him, nor indeed of any one name
among Mr. Le Cceur*s French scholars, though I well remember
all the Americans.
When we came home this evening, I found a notification from
the Grand Master of Ceremonies of a great Court mourning for
the new Crown Prince of Sweden, Charles Augustus, who died
very suddenly upon the parade, in reviewing some troops.
loth. Wrote to the Secretary of State, and read Massillon*s
sermon upon the Assumption day of the Virgin Mary. This,
though by no means the best, is one of the most remarkable of
this author's discourses. It was preached in a convent of nuns
at Chaillot, the church of which I recollect, and where, at the
time when the sermon was delivered, the widow of James the
Second, the cashiered King of England, then resided. One of
the peculiarities of the discourse is a violent censure upon the
134 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
character of William the Third, whom the right reverend
preacher styles a usurper, and of whom he undertakes to foretell
what history will say of him. This is a dangerous undertaking
for a sermon-writer, and history has not at all corresponded
in this case with the bishop's prophecies. The character of Wil-
liam the Third hitherto has been treated much too kindly by
history, and English faction has indeed been constantly interested
to extol him for a hero ; and they have too successfully dictated
the voice of history. William was a bad man, with great qualities,
and unhappily such personages almost always impose upon the
understanding of posterity, as much or more than upon that of
their own age. His conduct to John De Witt was more base
still than to James the Second. In both cases political motives
trampled upon the most sacred sentiments of the human heart;
upon gratitude to a benefactor, and the strongest ties of kindred.
Massillon dwells sufficiently upon this last reproach, without
noticing the other. But as William was the champion of the
British patriots, his crimes have been extinguished in a blaze of
glory ; and history has had none of those delicacies for James
the Second and his family, which the Bishop of Clermont
thought proper to show, when preaching in the presence of
James's widow.
nth. I attended Mr. Boucher's lecture, which was upon
letters of marque, and the etymology of the word marque ;
and upon blockades. His learning upon the first point was
curious, but, as usual, undigested and confused; his remarks
upon blockades, shallow and incorrect. He announced an
extraordinary meeting for next Saturday evening, to discuss the
anonymous memoir on the question of last Saturday, the author
of which, he said, had made himself known to him. He pro-
pounded also a new question for discussion at a second public
exhibition, to be held in the month of September — "Whether
women are qualified to perform the office of arbitrators." To
show that this was no new question, he read a passage from
the Code of Justinian, declaring women incapable of acting
as arbitrators, and annulling all decisions of women as such.
There was no procis-verbal this evening — the public exhibi-
tion not having led time to prepare it. But it will not be lost^
i8io.] Tim MISSION TO RUSSIA, 135
for Mr. Boucher observed that, although objections had been
made to this mode of lecturing, he should persist in it, being
persuaded of its utility from an experience of five-and-twenty
years.
22d. I went, accompanied by Mr. Smith and Mr. Gray, to the
palace soon after eleven o'clock; and, after waiting about an
hour, we were introduced with the other members of the Corps
Diplomatique into the Imperial Chapel. The Emperor and Em-
press, Empress-mother, Grand Duke Constantine and Grand
Duchess Ann, with the Court, came in immediately afterwards.
The Metropolitan, the Archbishop, and the other officiating
priests advanced to meet the Emperor and Empress. The Metro-
politan successively presented to' them the crucifix to kiss, and
then the Emperor and the Metropolitan at the same instant re-
ciprocally kissed each other's hand ; the ceremony with the Em-
presses was the same, and also with the Archbishop. The priests
then returned within the railing and began to sing the service.
But the Emperor waved his hand to them to stop, and the
Minister of War, Barclay de Tolly, went within the railing and
read the report of the victories received from General Kamensky.
The War Minister is not a good reader, and frequently found the
manuscript almost illegible. When he had finished the reading
of it, the Te Deum commenced again, and was about half an
hour long. The ceremonies of kissing the crucifix and the
hands was then repeated, and the imperial family retired. There
was no cercle for the foreign Ministers.
24th. Mr. Harris called upon me this forenoon, and mentioned
that Count Romanzoff had last evening received dispatches from
Mr. Daschkoff with the account of some very unpleasant occur-
rences at his house, at a fete which he gave on the anniversary
of the Emperor's coronation day. Mr. Harris is also of opinion
that Count RomanzofTs influence is upon the decline, and that
the cordiality between this country and France is not so great
as it was some months ago.
25th. Mr. Harris sent me this morning the dispatches from
Mr. Daschkoff to Count Romanzoff, containing the account of
the outrage upon his house on the 26th of March, and his corre-
spondence afterwards with the Secretary of State, and with Mr.
1^6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
Dallas, the District Attorney, respecting it.* Mr. Harris after-
wards called himself, and gave me a report of the American
commerce with Russia during the year 1809. I received also
visits from Mr. Montreal and Mr. Dorsey. Mr. Montreal offered
me any money for which I might have occasion, to be drawn
for at my own convenience. Mr. Harris made me the same
obliging offer immediately after my first arrival here. Under
the circumstances in which I find myself here, it is difficult to
resist the opportunities thus presented for anticipating upon my
regular income; but I am determined to do it. The whole
experience of my life has been one continual proof of the diffi-
culty with which a man can adhere to the principle of living
within his income — the first and most important principle of
private economy. From the month of July, 1790, when I com-
menced my career as a man, until the close of 1793, I was
enabled to accomplish this purpose only by the assistance of
small supplies from my father. I had then acquired the means
of maintaining myself. In 1794 I was sent to Europe, and until
my marriage, in 1797, kept more easily within my bounds than
at any preceding or subsequent period. Since I have had a
family, I have kept steady to my principle, but at the price of
■ Trifling events sometimes produce grave misunderstandings between nations,
and particularly when there is any predisposition to quarrel. Luckily there was
nothing but good will between the Russian Government and Mr. Adams at this
moment, which removed all danger of misconception of the nature of the transaction
alluded to. The following rei)oit of it was given in the newsjxipcrs at the time
from Philadelphia, where it occurred :
** 28 March. Monday being the birthday of the £m|>eror of Russia, the Russian
Envoy gave a parly, and had the front of his dwelling illuminated by a trans^xirency
representing the cities of Saint Petersburg and Archangel, and an American vessel
in full sail, the whole surmounted by a crown and the letters A I.
** Some citizens stopping to look at the transparency, took up a notion that the
putting of the crown over the American ship and colors was improper. This notion
ripened into an opinion that it was intended as an insult, and the ferment became
general. AI)out this point of time a young man, an oflicer in the United Slates
service, came up, and, imbibing all the indignation of those around him, he dis-
charged two pistol-balls through the transparency.
** He was apprehended this morning, and brought before Alderman Keppele,
who, on motion of the District Attorney, bound the officer over, himself in three
thousand dollars, and two securities in fifteen hundred dollars each. In the course
of the examination the officer, with characteristic boldness and strong feeling, de-
clared that he thought it his duty as an American officer to bringdown all crowns."
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, \yj
uncommon sacrifices of consideration and a reputation which, in
the spirit of this age, economy cannot escape. In this country
beyond all others, and in my situation more than any other, the
temptations to excess in expense amount almost to compulsion.
I have withstood them hitherto, and hope for firmness of char-
■
acter to withstand them in future. I declined with thanks Mr.
Montreal's kind offer, as I had that of Mr. Harris.
30th. In the evening I walked in the Summer Gardens, and
over the long bridge. The width of the river there is by my
customary admeasurement eight hundred and five of my paces,
or two thousand two hundred and thirteen feet; at the lower
bridge it is only three hundred and sixty-four paces, or one
thousand feet. I wrote something this day, but still gave an
undue proportion of the time to my enquiries concerning weights,
measures, and coins. My precise object is to ascertain those of
Russia, with their relative proportions to those used in America.
But I find it extremely difficult, and indeed, as yet, have not
succeeded in fixing accurately my ideas on the subject. I pro-
cured some time since a Russian nest of brass weights, from
one pound to a quarter of a zolotnik, and a pair of scales. I
have compared them with an apothecary's scale and weights
which we brought with the medicine-chest from America. By
this comparison I found that the Russian pound was equal to
6312^ grains. But all the smaller Russian weights were incor-
rect, some weighing more, and some less, than the proportion.
The scales, too, are so coarsely made that they scarcely indicate
any variation of less than a quarter zolotnik, which is the smallest
of the weights they use among the silversmiths. My apothe-
cary's balance was much more accurate, and much more sensible
to small weights. There are, however, differences of full half a
grain in several of them. Maudru, in his Russian Grammar,
says that the Russian pound is equal to four hundred and nine
grammes of the new French standard, and Webster, in his
Dictionary, gives 15.444 grains troy weight for the gramme.
Supposing both these correct, the Russian pound will be equal
to 6316.596 grains troy — about three and three-quarters of a
grain more than I found it by the comparison of the weights and
scales. 13ut I had no English weight of more than two drachms,
1 38 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, , [July,
or 1 20 grains, and all my apothecary's weights together amount
only to 301 J^ grains. I was therefore obliged, by means of
these, to make other heavier weights, to compare with the larger
portions of the Russian pound, and, having no smaller weight
than one-quarter of a grain, I could come within that only by
conjecture. These circumstances, together with the slight dif-
ference in my smallest weights, accounting for the difference of
three and three-quarter grains between my experiment and the
numbers given by Maudru and Webster, I have considered them
as correct, and accordingly take the Russian pound to be = to
6316.596 grains English troy weight. Maudru is, however, not
exact in his comparisons of the Russian weights and measures
with those of France, and Webster differs from others, and even
from himself, for in one page he makes the old Paris pound as
twenty-seven to twenty-five English avoirdupois, and in the
next he gives a table in which one hundred and nine pounds
avoirdupois is exhibited as equal to one hundred Paris pounds.
Storch and George, whom I have also consulted, are not more
accurate. So that I may still find occasion to correct my
present estimate. In round niunbers, the. usual maxim is that
thirty-six avoirdupois pounds are ec^ual to a Russian pood of
forty pounds. And Mr. Montreal has given me a. memoir of
the trade of St. Petersburg, in which he makes the one hundred
pounds avoirdupois equal to eleven and four-sixteenths Russian
pounds, in which case, if, as Webster says, the English avoir-
dupois pound is equal to seven thousand grains troy, the Rus-
sian pound would then be only 6292.098 grains troy. I find
also, upon examination, as much uncertainty and discrepancy
in the account of measures as in that of weights. I collect,
however, some information, and put my researches in a train
which may terminate in some useful knowledge.'
JtUy 4th. I went again to the fortress, and saw the director
of the Mint, who told me that there were no weights to be sold
there, but directed me to a Mr. Ilynam, an Englishman, as a
person who might give me the information that I wanted. He
' TliiH labor was not wasted. It proved of use to Ibe writer when called upon,
severol years later, as Secretary of Stale, to prepare ai> elaborate report to Congress
on weights and measures.
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 13^
also ordered that the works at the Mint should be shown me
by an Englishman, under whose direction they are. There are
two steam-engines, one of the power of fifty horses and the
other of twenty-five, by the means of which the works are prin-
cipally performed. The silver comes from the Russian mines.
The smelting process is usually done in the night and early in
the morning. It had ceased for this day, so that I could not
see it. From those furnaces the silver is received in short, nar-
row bars, -which, by passing between rolling-mills, is expanded
to a length of about eight feet and a width and thickness ade-
quate for the various pieces of coin to be cut from it From
these bars are cut out the blanks which are to serve as coins ;
which are first annealed in a hot oven, then passed between two
cheeks, which round the edge and stamp the impression upon
it, and finally coined by a machine which strikes off from sixty
to seventy in a minute. The weight of the rouble is four
zolotniks and eighty-two ninety-sixths. A range of four ninety-
sixths of a zolotnik in excess or in deficiency is allowed for
each piece. If the blank is found heavier than this, it is filed
down to the weight ; if lighter, it must be melted Over again.
The remnants of the long bars out of which the blanks are
cut, must be melted over again. It appears to me that several
of the processes would be susceptible of much improvement.
There is so much waste of filings, and other small particles
which get scattered 6n the floors, that there are brushes at all
the doors, at which on going out every person must scrape the
soles of his boots or shoes, to take off the adhering particles ;
and the Mint men assured mc that the amount annually col-
lected from this operation was very considerable. There is
little or no gold now coined, and few silver pieces other than
roubles; nor, if I judge of the average from this day's appear-
ance, many of them. One coining machine only was at work,
and that tended by a boy.
There are separate rooms for striking medals, where the
coining machine %% worked by hand and not by the steam-
engine. They were at work on a medal for the city of Riga —
to commemorate the centennial day since its subjugation to the
Russian Empire. Its date is 4 July 1710 and 1810. On one
I^o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [July,
side are the profiles of Peter the Great and the present Em-
peror facing each other. On the reverse, a view of the city
of Riga. The heads are extremely well executed, particularly
that of Peter. The medalist is a German named Leberecht.
I enquired if any of them could be procured when they should
be finished, and my companion promised to procure one for me.
15th. Having gone through the volume of Massillon's ser-
mons upon the mysteries, I began this day to read that of his
funeral eulogies. The first of these which he pronounced was
in honor of Henry de Villars, Archbishop of Vienne, in Dau-
phiny. It commenced his reputation as a preacher, and de-
cided his superiors to fix him in that career ; which it seems he
entered with reluctance. It is a brilliant piece of composition,
but bears strong marks of youth and immature judgment, over-
loaded with ornament, especially with those figurative scrip-
tural allusions which constitute a peculiar character of .the
author's manner. The Eulogium includes scarcely any biogra-
phy. The qualities for which the Archbishop is praised are
generally laudable ; but among them is his extraordinary zeal
for the persecution of Protestants. Some instances of what
now would be deemed the most illiberal bigotry are alleged as
his most transcendent proofs of merit. His boldness and in-
flexibility in defending the rights of the church are also com-
mended, though with some obscurity of expression. There is
indeed throughout the discourse a mystical turn of phrase
needing study to be intelligible. It is in three divisions, con-
sidering the prelate as — i . An upright man. 2. A faithful bishop.
3. A charitable and compassionate father. The style is highly
oratorical. It concludes with an intimation of doubt whether
the Archbishop's soul was in purgatory, but calling on the
priests to sing the mass for it. There is also an imitation of
the celebrated invocation to Agricola at the conclusion of his life
in Tacitus. This Henry de Villars was an uncle of the famous
Marshal Villars, who saved France, or at least Louis the Four-
teenth, by winning the battle of Denain agaiifct Prince Eugene.
i6th. I dined at Monsieur de Laval's, at his country-scat, with
a company of about twenty persons. He has a similar com-
pany every Monday at dinner during the summer, to which
i8io.] TJIE MISSION TO KUSSIA. i^i
both he and Madame de Laval, according to the custom of the
country, gave me a general invitation. Mrs. Adams did not
go with me ; being confined to her bed, and this evening very
unwell. Of the company at M. de Laval's were the Chevalier
de Italinski, a connoisseur in paintings, lately returned from
Italy, Counts St. Julien and Schenk, the Grand Veneur, De-
mitri Narishkin, two Barons Buhler, Princess Kazitsky, Ma-
dame de Laval's mother, and one other lady. After dinner
came some additional company ; among whom Princess Wol-
demar Galitzin, venerable by the length and thickness of her
beard. This is no uncommon thing among the ladies of this
Slavonian breed. There is at the Academy of Sciences the
portrait of a woman now dead, but with beard equal to that of
Plato. But of living subjects, the Princess Woldemar Galitzin
is in this respect, of all the females that I have seen, the one
who most resembles a Grecian philosopher. After dinner, part
of the company walked in the gardens; went into the hut
which M. de Laval calls his hermitage; sat down upon the
couches round the room, and had some agreeable conversation ;
in which Madame de Laval and Count St. Julien principally
figured. This lady appears to me the most amiable, intelligent,
and respectable Russian woman that I have seen. Count
St Julien is an old soldier, who has fought many a campaign
in the wars ; but who has been an Austrian courtier all his life.
His character is frank, sociable, good-humored, with a remnant
of libertinism, in which he takes a pride, like all the noble
rakes of the last century. Licentiousness with regard to
women was peculiarly the fashion of high life in that age.
Perhaps it is inseparably the vice of high life in all ages.
26th. Dined "with the French Ambassador, at his house at
Kammcnoi-ostrow. The company were about sixteen. The Am-
bassador is a man of the most polished and at the same time most
unaffected manners that I ever knew. He lives at the annual
expense of a million of roubles ; has a family of sixty-five persons,
and keeps fifty-six horses in his stables. He maintains the state
and splendor of an Ambassador with sufficient dignity, but in
his manners is modest and unassuming. There is a becoming
gravity, too, and something in his countenance and eye which
1^2 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [August,
indicates hardness as well as polish. The company as usual
was diplomatic. Mr. Six renewed to me in conversation the
assurance that the King of Saxony is not a descendant of John
Sobieski, and said that he had been reading Coxe's account of
the family this morning. Coxe's book was the very place where
I had found it ; and, on returning home, I looked at Coxe's
genealogical tables of the Sobieskis, and found that I had not
been mistaken. The Ambassador read to us some private let-
ters from his friends at Paris, containing accounts of the disaster
at Prince Schwarzenbcrg the Austrian Ambassador's fete given
to the Emperor and Empress of France on occasion of the mar-
riage. The dancing-hall caught fire, and several persons were
dangerously burnt. The Ambassador's brother's wife perished
in the flames; the Russian Consul's wife, Madame Labenski, died
the next day; Prince Kurakin, the Russian Ambassador, barely
escaped with his life ; and many others were severely burnt.
27th. I continued employed in writing observations upon the
manuscript relative to the armed neutrality. This work is com-
posed, under the direction of Count RomanzofT, by Mr. Borel
and Mr. Gcrvais. It has been submitted, by the Count's orders,
to my perusal, with the request that I would make such obser-
vations upon it as might occur to me. It is to be published
in the course of the present year at Paris. In the evening I
allowed a couple of hours again to the research concerning
weights, measures, and coins.
August 3d. Dined at Baron de Blome's at Kammenoi-ostrow,
with a company of about thirty-five persons. All the Corps
Diplomatique, of the French alliance, were there. Madame de
Vlodck and her sister Constance were the only ladies. Colonel
Donnat, the aid-de-camp of the late King of Holland, who is
here as a traveller, and came lately from Sweden by the way of
Tornea, told me that he had seen Regnard's inscription in a
church near the Lake of Tornea' — ^but that Regnard and his
'The inscription, made in 1681, is in these words:
Gallia nos genuit, vidit not Africa, Gangem
liausimus, Europamque oculis lustravimus omnein;
Casibus et variis acti terraque marique
Sistimus hie tandem, nobis ubi defuit orbis.
i8io.] TJIE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 143
companion were mistaken in supposing themselves at the
world's end. They had mistaken the Lake of Tornea for the
sea. He himself had been two degrees farther north than
Regnard, and General Skioldebrand had been to the North
Cai)c, which was five degrees farther north.
I asked Count St. Julien about the new Life of Prince
Eugene, said to have been written by himself. He says he
does not believe it genuine ; but that it was written by a French
emigrant, with some passages which might have been from the
hand of the Prince.
After dinner I took a walk with Mr. Smith in Count Strogo-
'nofT's garden on the island, where we saw the tomb of Homer^
and several other remarkable works of art. I particularly
noticed a statue of granite, of very imperfect workmanship,
which I took to be of Egyptian and very early sculpture ; and
a marble statue of the art in its highest perfection, — a man on
one knee, sharpening a knife on a stone. There are also before
the house two colossal marble statues, copies from antiques ;
one of Hercules, and the other a goddess with an oaken crown,
perhaps Minerva. Count Strogonoff is the greatest friend and
patron of the arts in this country. From the Petersburg Island
I walked, by the way of Wasily-ostrof, home. The sky and
temperature of the atmosphere have already the appearance of
autumn.
8th. I was engaged unavoidably until the instant when by
appointment I was to call upon Count Romanzoff. I was even
delayed so much as a quarter of an hour later than the time he
had fixed. On arriving at his house I found he was gone out, or
otherwise engaged, and was desired to call again in an hour. I
returned at the expiration of the hour to Count RomanzoflT,
whom I now found, and who apologized to me for his absence
when I had first called. I imihediately began by making to
the Count my representation in behalf of the Americans who
had written from Archangel to obtain my interposition in their
favor. The admission of all vessels direct from the ports of
Portugal in Europe was prohibited here by an ordinance of
2 2d May last. These vessels sailed from Lisbon at a time
when this ordinance could not have been known there. They
144 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [AuguM,
have cargoes which would sell at very high prices if admitted,
and which must in part perish if sent away. I urged as forcibly
to the Count as I could that these circumstances ought equitably
to be considered as operating to take these vessels out of the
purview of the Imperial ordinance.
The Count, however, as I expected, was inflexible ; and gave
the obvious answers to my arguments, that the measure was
general, and arose from the state of the war ; that particular
exceptions upon the grounds I had stated could not be ad-
mitted ; that individual hardships must accrue from every such
measure of extensive operation, and that there was no way to
prevent them.
I then stated the particular circumstances of the "Three
Sisters/' one of the two vessels, which sprung a leak, and must
be repaired before she can go away — suggesting the motives
of humanity for granting a permission to sell at least enough of
her cargo to pay for the necessary expenses^ of these rcixiirs.
The Count requested me to write to him upon this particular
case, which should be taken into consideration. I spoke to him
further respecting the afTair of Captain Symonds, with which
he was already acquainted. He said that as there had been
a difference of opinion between the Commission at Archangel
and the Procureur, who was an officer appointed immediately
under the Minister of Justice, two persons had been specially
appointed by order of the Emperor to go to Archangel and to
decide upon the business. He took, however, the attestation from
the Commission, which I had received from Captain Symonds
and carried with me, which he promised to examine with due
attention.
The Count as soon as possible made the conversation gen-
eral, and, with the preliminary caution which he always takes
in inviting me to free conversation, that he wished me to con-
sider him as laying aside altogether the Chancellor of the
Empire, and conversing merely as an individual, he asked me
to give him my advice ; what was to be done to restore freedom
and security to commerce in the world.
I told him, with the same reservation, that setting aside all
official character and responsibility, and speaking merely as an
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 14^5
individual speculating upon public affairs, the advice I should
give to his Excellency was, as soon as possible to convince the
French Government that the Continental system, as they called
it, and as they managed it, was promoting to the utmost extent
the views of England ; was, instead of impairing her commerce,
securing to her that of the whole world ; and was pouring into
her lap the means of continuing the war, just as long as her
Ministers should think it expedient. But I said that I could
hardly conceive that the Emperor Napoleon was so blind as
not to have made this discovery already. Three years' expe-
rience, with the effects of it becoming every day more flagrant,
had made the inference too clear and unquestionable. The
Emperor Napoleon, with all his power, could neither control
the elements nor the passions of mankind. He had found that
his own brother could not, and would not, carry his system into
execution, and finally had cast at his feet the crown he had
given him, rather than continue to be his instrument there
any longer. That country was now united to France; but
the trade with England would be carried on as before, and
the only difference would be an increase of contribution to
pay some more French custom-house oflRcers.
The Count partly questioned the accuracy of my statement
respecting the commercial prosperity of England, but admitted
it in the general. He said, too, that as long as a system was
agreed to be pursued, he thought exceptions from it ought not
to be allowed.
I asked him how that was possible in the present case, when
the Emperor Napoleon himself was the first to make such ex-
ceptions, and to give licenses for a trade with England.
He said he thought all such licenses wrong ; and he believed
there were not so many of them as was pretended. There was
indeed one case here, of a vessel coming both with an English
license and a license from the Emperor Napoleon. He was of
opinion that she ought to be confiscated for having the English
license. But the French commercial and diplomatic agents
were very desirous that she might go free, on account of her
French license, and perhaps the Emperor, in consideration of
his ally, might so determine. He complained bitterly that all
VOL. II. — 10
1^6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [August,
the ancient established principles both of commercial and
political rectitude had in a manner vanished from the world;
and observed that, with all her iniquities, England had yet this
advantage over her neighbors, of having hitherto most success-
fully resisted all the innovations upon ancient principles and
establishments. For his part, since he had been at the head of
afiairs here, he could sincerely protest that one wish had been
at the bottom of all his policy, and the aim of all his labors,
and that was universal peace. The peace with Sweden had
been made ; that of Austria had succeeded ; but it seemed by
some fatality, the instant one peace was made, the dearest aim
of some people, and their indefatigable labor, was to make
another war. He asked me what I thought would be the
effect in England of this reunion of Holland with France.
Some people, he said, were of opinion that it would produce a
great sensation.
I said I did not expect so. I believed the British Ministry,
and the thinking men of the nation, would be pretty much of
the Duke de Cadore's opinion, — that since the union of Belgium
with France, the system of Holland must necessarily be that of
her mighty neighbor, — ^and would feel quite indifferent whether
that member of the French Empire was under the administra-
tion of King Louis Napoleon or under that of the Arch-Treas-
urer Duke of Plaisance. From various other hints, I inferred,
however, that this new arrangement was by no means pleasing
to the Count, and of course, I presume, not to the Emperor.
The Count observed also that the King of Prussia had been
compelled to shut his ports against American vessels, which he
supposed was a momentary impulse of the Emperor Napoleon,
to prevent his brother Louis from going to America.
I told him I believed it was a measure to which he had been
instigated by an English influence operating upon his custom-
house officers. It was well known that English vessels, and
English cargoes, were admitted with the utmost freedom and
facility on payment of a sufficient per centum to the French
officers. As long as American vessels were openly admitted
they could not be laid under this contribution. The English
traders were thus subject to a disadvantage in the competi-
i8io.] TJiE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 147
tion of the market By their instigation the French officers
represented to their Government that the prohibited English
trade was carried on under American colors, and so the King
of Prussia is forced to issue an order excluding American ves-
sels from his ports. Notwithstanding which, I was informed
that private letters from merchants gave assurances that they
might come as heretofore, and would be admitted on payment
of the tax. I added that I hoped that we had nothing of the
same kind to apprehend here.
The Count said that, far from it, they should be glad to
give every possible facility to the direct commerce between
the United States and this country, and that he would cheer-
fully agree to any proper measure to promote its future exten-
sion ; but as to the trade with their enemies, that being forbidden,
measures of restriction to prevent it must necessarily sometimes
occasion inconvenience to real neutrals, and they were obliged
to extend the same restrictions to their own subjects.
I said that with regard to the Imperial ordinances prohibiting
trade with England, this was a subject with which I could have
no authority to interfere, and in respect to which I could claim
no indulgence. It was the direct trade alone for which I was
solicitous — a trade, I flattered myself, as useful and advantage-
ous to Russia as to the United States. I had heard that the
Danes, irritated perhaps at the loss of their Sound duties occa-
sioned by the blockade of Elsineur, were endeavoring to obtain
the exclusion of our vessels here, and perhaps some representa-
tions had been made by their diplomatic agents here to that effect.
He said he had not heard of any; that if our vessels could
escape the pursuit of the Danish privateers, Prussia was under
no obligation whatsoever to guarantee the payment of Sound
duties to the King of Denmark. The right to those duties
arose solely from circumstances of locality, and the reception
of the duties must be accomplished by Denmark's own means
of execution.
Mr. Gray, afler dinner, sent for his newspapers, and the copy
of my lectures that he had received. He had learnt from the
papers an account of the arrival of Count Pahlen at Philadel-
phia, which I immediately after dinner communicated in a note
148 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCV ADAMS, [August,
to Count Romanzoff. I was from dinner-time until past two
in the morning absorbed in the perusal of my own lectures,
without a conception of the lapse of time, until at the close of
the first volume upon looking at my watch I saw with astonish-
ment the hour. What a portion of my life would I give if they
could occasion the same accident to one other human being j
But they arc now upon their trial in the world. And I pray
that I may be duly prepared for resignation to their fate, whether
of total neglect, of malicious persecution, or of deserved con-
demnation. The first I do not expect. The second is so cer-
tain that my principal difficulty will be in discerning between it
and the third, which, if it should come, will mortify my vanity,
but even then may have a useful influence upon my heart, by
teaching me the lesson of humility — a lesson which I sorely
want, and which I pray God to give me the grace to learn.
These lectures arc the measure of my powers, moral and intel-
lectual. In the composition of them I spared no labor, and
omitted no exertion of which I was capable. I shall never,
unless by some special favor of Heaven, accomplish any work
of higher elevation or more extensive compass.*
9th. The interruption of my systematic occupations still con-
tinues. Letters and packages from America always engross
the first hours, and not unfrequently days, after their arrival.
From the moment of my rising from bed this morning until
nearly the hour of dinner I was incessantly engaged with Mr.
Gray's newspapers, which, coming down to the 13th of June,
contain much news, particularly respecting the new elections
in the State of Massachusetts. I wrote, however, an official
note to Count RomanzofT concerning the two American vessels
at Archangel. I could not walk until the evening. On my
return home, I found Mr. Harris had spent a couple of hours
with us. He has had much conversation With Count Scverin
Poto^ki, who is immediately going away. The Count says he
does not know what will eventually be done here. The new
ordinance respecting the copper coinage gives much dissatisfac-
tion. Count Romanzoff transacts business personally with the
' The edition of this work was sold, and is now out of print. It is believed to
l)e the only elaborate work on the subject yet produced in America.
l8io.] THE M/SSfON TO RUSSIA, i^p
Emperor, of which the Council know nothing. The French
Ambassador transacts busiiiess personally with the Emperor,
of which neither the Council nor Count Romanzoff himself are
informed. The opinion of all the Council is, at all events, to
remain upon good terms with France. The French Ambassador
and Mr. Rayneval have in the most solemn manner declared to
Mr. Raimbert that France has used no influence whatever in
regard to the late confiscation of vessels pretended to have
come here from Tenerifle. But Mr. I^sseps, the Consul, has
hinted in a conversation at Mr. Severin's that France had in-
terfered in the case. Mr. Six, who is deeply affected by the
recent events in his country, but who bears up under the mis-
fortune as well as he can, expresses himself much pleased with
the measures since adopted by the Emperor, as indicating
moderation and prudence. He says that his brother Louis is
not reconciled with him, and that he must acknowledge Louis
was badly advised, and had fallen into the hands of worthless
intriguers. He says also that Jerome and Louis were upon very
bad terms with each other.
17th. Count Rzewuski and Mr. Six are on the point of de-
parture, the former for Vienna, the latter for Paris. Mr. Six
told me that his instructions had been to return to the empire ;
but that he had hesitated whether to go directly to Paris until
the Ambassador of his own accord advised him to go. He
had then observed that the Emperor Napoleon might perhaps
be displeased at his going there ; upon which the Ambassador
told him he would give him a letter to the Duke de Cadore,
from which Mr. Six concludes that the Ambassador has in-
structions to send him to Paris. He told me also that he had
talked with the Ambassador concerning our affairs; that he
could now say with certainty what he had before hinted to me,
that probably much of the difficulty of our situation with France
arose from the dislike, which our Minister there had incurred,
of the French Government; that the Ambassador himself
would freely converse with me upon the subject, if I wished it ;
that he was persuaded if /was there, the difference between
the two countries would soon be arranged to our satisfaction.
He entered into some detail to convince me that I was the
I JO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
only person who could accomplish this, and seemed to expect
that I should write all this in substance to the Government of
the United States.
I told him that I was much obliged to the Ambassador for
his good opinion of me, and that as to himself, as he was going
to Paris, if he should find any occasion upon which he could
serve our cause, I should be grateful to him on my own account
as well as on that of my country ; that however well I might
think of my own qualifications to succeed in making an arrange-
ment between the United States and France, there was too
little prospect of the possibility of such success not to make
me very reluctant at the idea of being employed to undertake
it, as there was certainly no person in the United States to
whom a failure of such a negotiation would be personally so
injurious as to me; that I had reason besides to suppos<f that
the American Government would prefer keeping me here some
time longer, and sending some other Minister in case General
Armstrong should go home ; that in the relative situation I
stood with General Armstrong, I could not in delicacy transmit
to the American Government any general intimation that he
was obnoxious to that of France ; and that although he had
heretofore hinted to me that this was the case, I did not even
know what General Armstrong's offence had been.
lie said they did not impeach his integrity ; but that he was
morose, and captious, and petulant.
Now, I am afraid that under the circumstances in which the
General has been there, the last three years, they would have
had quite as much reason to be dissatisfied on such ground
with me as they can have with him. And I am sure I should
think it very ill treatment from him if, upon such vague and
loose pretences, he should transmit to the Government a com-
plaint that I was thought morose, captious, or petulant, with
suggestions that he himself was the fittest man to take my
place. I do not suspect Mr. Six of any ill design in this affair,
for I believe him sincerely and cordially my friend and that of
America. Neither do I incline to suspect the Ambassador. I
suppose him to be indifferent on the subject, and rather to have
fallen in with Mr. Six's opinions than to have spoken from any
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 151
particular instructions to himself. My own course upon this
occasion is plain — to be silent.
22d. There was a Te Deum at Court this day at noon — for a
splendid victory, though it is said a very dear one, gained over
the Turks, in the presence of the Grand Vizir, before Shumla.
The ceremony was precisely the same as at the last, for the
taking of Silistria. The Emperor, the Empress-mother, the
Czarowitz Constantine, and the Grand Duchess Ann were there.
I went later than usual, and waited very little.
The French Ambassador spoke to me, and said he hoped
the differences between his country and mine would be settled.
He assured me, and requested me to write to my Government,
that it was the desire of the Emperor of France and of his
Ministers to come to the best terms with the United States;
that "they knew our interests were the same; that he was per-
fectly persuaded if any other person than General Armstrong
was there our business might be settled entirely to our satis-
faction.
I told him that as I was very desirous that we should come
to a good understanding, I regretted very much that anything
personal to General Armstrong should be considered by his
Government as offensive. I was sure the Government of the
United States would regret it also, and would wish, in learning
••t, to be informed what were the occasions of displeasure which
he had given. " C'est d'abord un tres-galant homme," said the
Ambassador ; " but he never shows himself; .and upon every
little occasion, when by a verbal explanation with the Minister
he might obtain anything, he presents peevish notes."
This is much the same thing as what Mr. Six told me, and
appears to me an intriguing manoeuvre, of which I might easily
be niatlc the dupe. Just as wc were at this stage, however, of the
conversation, wc were summoned in to the Te Deum.
28th. At eight o'clock in the evening I went to Count Ro-
manzoff, according to his appointment. I first mentioned to
him the dispatches which I had received on the subject of
Mr. Daschkoff's application to the Government of the United
States in relation to a trade between the United States and a
Russian settlement on the northwest coast of America. But I
152 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Auguxl,
told him I was referred to documents forwarded by another
opportunity, and which I had not yet received.
He said he had also received dispatches from Mr. Daschkoflf,
stating that his application had been favorably received by the
Government of the United States. That they had a growing
settlement on the northwest coast of America, and that from it
a profitable trade could be carried on to China; that they had
sent two vessels there under the command of Captain Krusen-
stern, which had gone from there to Canton. Canton was a
port open to all the nations of Europe ; but the Russians, who
€ire specially favored by the Chinese Government, had an exclu-
sive trade with them, carried on at a place called Kiakta, But
the Chinese had refused to admit Captain Krusenstern's ships
at Canton, upon the pretext that as the Russian trade with them
had long been carried on with exclusive privileges at Kiakta,
they supposed that if the Russians meant to change the chan-
nel of trade they would have given them notice of it. And as
they had heard nothing about such vessels coming to Canton,
they could not tell whether they were really Russians or not.
There had been, the Count said, some sheets passed between
the two Governments since on the subject, but the convulsed
state of Europe, and objects of so much greater magnitude,
had so absorbed his attention, that they had not yet come to
any arrangement with them for the admission of Russian ves-
sels at Canton. He had therefore wished that the trade from
the Russian settlement on the northwest coast of America to
China might be carried on hy the Americans. And as the
settlement itself is in the neighborhood of Indians, who were
sometimes troublesome and dangerous neighbors to it, he had
thought an arrangement might be concerted with the United
States, under which the Americans might have the trade of the
settlement, under a restriction not to furnish warlike weapons
and instruments to the neighboring Indians.
I told him I collected from the papers which I had received
that Mr. Daschkoff was not specifically instructed as to the
limits within which it was wished that the restriction should be
extended, and asked whether he could point them out to me.
He said that it would require some consideration, but that their
|8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 153
maps included the whole of Nootka Sound, and down to the
mouth of Columbia River, as part of the Russian possessions.
By way of digression the Count explained to me the mode of
their negotiations with China, which is by sending sheets, as they
call it — the correspondence, in the name of the Senate — addressed
to an assembly of a like nature in China; and their sheets are
also addressed to the Senate here; who, however, never see them,
and never have anything to do with the negotiations. At one
period of the reign of Catherine the Second, the Chinese sent her
a sheet to tell her that a Governor of one of the Russian provinces
bordering upon them was a bad man. In consequence of this
she ordered an enquiry to be made into his conduct, and found
that their complaints were well grounded. The officer was
therefore immediately removed, and the Chinese were informed
that the Empress had thus proceeded with just attention to their
complaints. This compliance, however, only made them inso-
lent. They sent another sheet, to say that the removal of the
offending Governor was not sufficient ; but that he must be im-
paled, and his skin sent to them by way of atonement. The
Empress was so shocked at this barbarous and insulting message
that she immediately issued an edict prohibiting all her subjects
from having any intercourse with the Chinese whatsoever; and
this prohibition continued eight or nine years in force. As the
trade was a very advantageous one to the Chinese, they became
soon very anxious for its restoration, which they solicited during
the whole of that time, until the Empress, like a person who
finally becomes weary of resentment, consented to the restoration
of the trade. Since then, and even now, the Chinese practised
a sort of coquetting affectation of indulgence to the Russians.
Very lately, as I might have seen by the newspapers, some of
their highest characters, and even .1 Governor of one of their
provinces, had come to a Russian town on the frontiers, and had
attended at the celebration of the mass. It had even given rise
to a laughable circumstance. The Chinese Governor, who had
heard the whole ceremony performed standing, was so much
delighted with the singing that he had asked for an instructor
to teach his son to sing one of those songs; and they had
accordingly furnished him a singing-master, who had taught
154 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August.
the young man, not the mass, but some Russian songs, which
he had learned to sing very well.
I now recurred to the cases of the American vessels which
have arrived at Archangel and at Cronstadt, to whose admission
so many difficulties and delays have been opposed. I urged the
necessityof a very speedy decision concerning them, stating the
certainty that they would be detained for the winter unless that
decision should take place in the course of a very few days — that
in every case it would be extremely injurious to the adventurers
to be thus detained, and in many cases equivalent to a total loss
of the voyage. I urged in particular that the navigation from
Archangel would probably be closed within a month or six
weeks ; that the length of the voyages, both in coming and
returning, of American vessels, made a longer time necessary
for them to remain in port than for others, and pleaded equitably
for a peculiar attention of despatch in their behalf; that after
their admission they must yet have time to dispose of the cargoes
they had brought, and to purchase cargoes for their return, none
of which business could be transacted while they were left in
sus|>cnse whether they should be finally admitted at all ; that
possibly Baron Campenhausen, with whom I had not the honor
of being personally acquainted, and with whom, if I did know
him, it might perhaps be improper for me to have any conver-
sation upon these subjects, might entertain suspicions in relation
to many American vessels, owing to the extraordinary numbers
of them which had arrived during the present season. But the
fact was that a number far beyond that of any preceding year
had really arrived, both here and at Archangel, coming directly
from the United States, and destined to return directly thither;
that I had anticipated this event, and, as he knew, had announced
it to him as infallible, so long ago as last winter ; that the causes
of it were the obstructions to our commerce, which it experi-
enced in almost every other quarter ; the sus|x.Mision of it by
our own laws in the preceding years ; and, above all, the encour-
agement which our merchants had derived from the peculiar
favor which his Imperial Majesty had been pleased to manifest
towards the United States. From my private advices, and
from the complexion of the newspapers which I had received
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 155
down to the middle of June, I knew that the exclusions which
we were now subject to, in Prussia, Mecklenburg, and, as I
expected to learn by to-morrow's post, in all the ports of Hol-
stein, were all expected in America ; but many of our merchants
in all the sea-ports had said. Happen to us what will elsewhere,
at least we are sure of being well received in Russia ; that I
hoped Baron Campenhausen would be made sensible of these
circumstances, and of the essential importance to so many of my
countrymen, that they should be immediately admitted. I added
that this would be still more urgent for all those who might
yet arrive before the close of the season ; that I had received
numerous letters, and from a variety of persons, all meeting with
the same difficulties, and every one thinking that there were
particular circumstances in his case which would entitle him to
special indulgences and exemptions. I was unwilling to trouble
him with each of these cases separately, as I wished them all to
participate in the same advantage, and was desirous of sparing
him the tcdiousncss of particular details ; that I had already had
the honor of addressing to him a note, respecting the vessels
which had arrived from Lisbon; that the supercargo of a vessel
arrived at Archangel, from New York, had written to me to ask
whether a special order for his admission could not be obtained,
on account of his having brought dispatches for me, and also to
this Government from Mr. DaschkofT.
The Count said this was undoubtedly evidence that the vessel
came from the United States; and he had in other instances
alleged it as such himself. But it could not be evidence, either
of the nature of the cargo, or that the vessel was not last from
some port of Great Britain ; that it would not be therefore a
sufficient foundation for a special order.
I then observed that in dwelling so earnestly upon the wish
that I had expressed, 1 flattered myself I waS promoting the
interests of his Majesty's empire as much as thbse of my own
country; that the number of American vessels which had
come here, and the quantity of the Russian productions which
they would take in return, were highly favorable to the agri-
culture and the manufactures of this country ; that they gave
encouragement to its industry, and contributed more than any-
156 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [August,
thing to support the course of its exchange. Such were the
obvious effects of the vessels which had arrived ; but I thought
it unnecessary to press this argument much, as I was persuaded
his Excellency knew better than I did how strongly it was
supported by the fact.
The Count said he well knew that it was exactly so ; that he
had been hitherto the Minister of Commerce, but that a new
arrangement had been made, by which all business of this nature
was transferred to Baron Campenhausen ; that he must do him
the justice to say he was an officer of great activity, and dis-
patched business as fast as he could. But he was extremely
apt to entertain suspicions; and possibly some delays might
arise from this circumstance. He, the Count, was fully sensible
of the weight and justice of the observations I had made to
him. He would immediately make a minute of it in writing
(which he did), and write to-morrow morning to Baron Cam-
penhausen, pressing the subject in a special manner upon his
attention.
I observed that my countrymen felt an extraordinary anxiety
at these unusual detentions, from remarking their coincidence
with the ordinances of Prussia, Mecklenburg, and Denmark
excluding us from their ports, and from an apprehension that
the same influence under which it was known that those orders
had been issued might be exerted even here.
He assured me in the most solemn manner that I might rely
upon it there was no foundation for these apprehensions ; that
the Emperor's sentiments and intentions with regard to the
United States remained unaltered. But he asked me whether
a favorable change had not taken place in the state of our rela-
tions with France.
I said that France had partially opened her ports to the
United States.
He said he believed there was something still more recent,
and that a sort of agreement had been entered into, between
France and England, for the allowance of commerce in certain
articles, by means of neutral vessels.
I had not heard of this; but observed that in the midst of all
these violent ill offices which France was doing to us, her Gov-
l8io.] THE MiSSlON TO KUSSIri, 157
ernment was making the most solemn asseverations of the best
possible dispositions and the most friendly sentiments towards
us; that I had within this week or fortnight received such
assurances from the French Ambassador here, while at the
same time the Mecklenburg and Danish orders for excluding
our vessels from all their ports were coming out. The French
Government too had issued a declaration that the French
Consuls in the United States no longer delivered any certificates
of origin, and therefore that all papers purporting to be of that
description, produced by the masters of American vessels in the
Baltic, must be forgeries. But nothing could be more false
than this assertion. All the vessels coming from the United
States brought certificates of origin given by the French Con-
suls, and I had myself delivered to Mr. Lesseps a letter from
the French Consul in Boston, informing him that he had given
such a certificate to the master of the vessel which sailed the
latest of any which have yet arrived. In the order to exclude
American vessels, which they had made the Duke of Mecklen-
burg sign, that Prince had conmiittcd himself to an assertion
equally wide from the truth. He affirms that for a long time
no colonial articles have been exported from the United States.
This was .sporting with the common sense of mankind in a
manner almost unparalleled.
The Count replied that it was indeed extraordinary — and with
regard to the certificates of origin, he had remarked that the
declaration asserted the French Consuls had not delivered any
"dcpuis quclquc temps'* — an expression so vague that it might
be a week or a year, and could warrant no inference to falsify
any such papers yet produced. With regard to this system of
restriction, the Count seemed to me more than ever convinced
of its incfTicacy, and prepared, at least in his own mind, to give
it up. 1 le asked me whether 1 had heard the news from Sweden.
I told him I had heard it rumored that the Prince of Ponte
Corvo, General Bernadotte, was elected Crown Prince.
He said it was true; that there was a courier coming to
him with the account of this event, who had not yet arrived;
but another courier had. It was a most unaccountable thing
in itself, and in the manner of its accomplishment. The Em-
158 MEAfOIRS OF JOHK QUINCY ADAMS, [August,
peror Alexander had determined that he would in no wise
interfere in this election, or manifest his sentiments in an affair
so interesting to his neighbors, until after the conclusion. The
Prince of Augustenburg, brother of the late Crown Prince, had
in the first instance been unanimously elected ; or at most there
had been in the secret committee but one single vote for the
Prince of Ponte Corvo. As the King of Denmark had proposed
himself as one of the candidates, and had written to the King of
Sweden requesting that he would nominate him, the Duke of
Augustenburg, unwilling to offend his brother-in-law and bene-
factor, the King of Denmark, had not absolutely accepted ; but
neither had he positively refused. After his answer, the King
of Sweden had proposed and the Diet had resolved to renew
the offer and urge the Duke's acceptance of it. A courier had
been sent to him with this second proposal; but before his
answer could be received they had proceeded again to an elec-
tion, and chose the Prince of Ponte Corvo. It was strange
enough to see kingdoms given away by third parties; but to
see a nation thus give itself away was inconceivable. He
asked mc what I thought would be the sentiment about it in
England.
I said I believed it would give great displeasure in England;
but that it appeared to me the King of Denmark had most reason
to be displeased with the issue. I enquired finally of the Count
whether he had any late accounts from the army in Turkey.
He said, none since the Te Deum. I complimented him upon
the successes of the campaign hitherto.
He said that General Kamensky had certainly distinguished
himself, and given great proofs of military talents.
I observed that we Americans were neutrals in this war, and
that he knew the fundamental principle of our policy was to
take no part in the great political affairs of Europe ; that by the
means of commerce, however, we had important relations with
them, and that as in discussion with him in my official charac-
ter I could speak of nothing but in its relation to commerce, I
must naturally seem to him to attach an importance to subjects
of that nature greater than in his relative estimate they could
deserve. But as he sometimes did me the honor to say that he
i8io.] 77//? AflSSION TO RUSSIA. 159
would lay the Chancellor of the Empire aside and freely express
his sentiments, as from one private gentleman to another, I
would ask the same indulgence of him, in saying, that for the
commercial interest of my country, it would be much better that
Constantinople should belong to the Emperor of Russia than to
the Grand Signior.
He appeared to be much pleased with this remark, and said,
with a smile, that after this war he hoped the Americans would
have free access to trade with the Russian possessions upon the
Black Sea.
This conference lasted more than an hour, when the Danish
Minister, the Baron de Blome, being announced, I took leave
of the Count and returned home.
September 3d. The General of the Jesuits, Brzozowski, paid
^me a visit this morning, and gave me a letter for the Abbe
Kohlmann, at New York, which he desired me to forward with
my letters. He said it was in answer to a request that he would
send some fathers there; but the difficulties and the dangers
of their passage at this time were so great that he could not
comply with the request. I made some enquiries of him con-
cerning the state of the Society here. He says they have a
.seminary for the education of fathers tliere, between six and
seven hundred wersts from St. Petersburg ; that they keep here
a day school where they have about two hundred boys, and a
pensionary establishment where there are upwards of thirty.
Among the latter is a son of the Grand Marshal, Count Tolstoy,
and they expect soon to have another. They take no boys
under seven or over twelve years of age. They teach Latin,
French, and Russian, with the usual classical studies, rhetoric
and philosophy included, and the accomplishments of polite
education, — dancing, drawing, and music. \Their pension is at
one thousand roubles a year. Their church is the first Catholic
establishment in St. Petersburg. It consists principally of Poles,
of whom there are about twelve thousand in this city. They
have preaching every Sunday and holiday, in four languages
alternately — French, German, Polish, and Italian. He asked
me some questions about Bishop Carroll, who, he said, had
lately been promoted to the rank of an Archbishop ; but he did
l6o MEMOIRS OF -yOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Scptemlir,
not know how many suffragan bishops he would have under
him.
lOth. I spoke to Mr. Gourieff, the Minister of Finance, to
whose department a great portion of the affairs of commerce
has been transferred. I asked him if he had spent any time
this summer in the country.
lie said no ; that he was .so much engaged in business tjiat
he had found it impossible to leave the city. I said that the
affairs of his department must naturally engross all his time,
particularly as I learnt there had been a great addition to them
in the commercial business. He said that so far as commer-
cial affairs related to the finances, they were, by the new arrange-
ment, placed under his direction ; but the general management
of commercial matters was entrusted to the Treasurer General
of the Empire, Baron Campenhausen. ,
I observed that as the Commercial Department was that upon
which all the important concerns of my countrymen depended,
and as it was now under his superintendence, I begged leave to
recommend them to his protection and attention; that they
were of great imporUu)ce to my country, and, of course, to me,
and that I considered them of considerable consequence to the
interests of this empire, and especially to its finances.
He said he so considered them himself, and that as far as de-
pended personally upon him, I might rely upon everything that
he could do to give facilities to our commerce.
I said that for some time past great, obstructions and diffi-
culties had arisen to the iidmission of American vessels here,
especially at the port of Archangel ; that I had presented a note
some time since to Count Romanzoff, relative to some of the
cases, and had made verbal representations upon some of them.
Mr. Harris had also made various applications; that it gave me
infinite pleasure that the Emperor, in every one of the cases, had
decided in our favor, and I was obliged to Baron Campenhausen
for immediately communicating to me these decisions. But
unhappily I found new complaints were still arising as the old
ones were done away ; that I had just seen several letters from
Americans at Archangel, from which it would seem that their
property had all been put under seals, and that they were in the
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. i6l
greatest alarm and consternation, apprehending nothing less
than a general confiscation.
He smiled, and said that during the interval, or, as it might
be called, interregnum, while the business was transferring from
one department to the other, some strange things had indeed
occurred. But he hoped that now things would go on in better
order. " And besides," said he, " the Emperor Napoleon has
given us a very good example, by his late transactions with
regard to the United States, which I think we ought to follow."
This was the key — and just then dinner was announced, and
terminated our conversation. I sat at table between Baron
Schladen, the Prussian Minister, and the French Consul, Mr.
Lesscps, with both of whom I had much conversation. I told
Baron Schladen how sincerely I had been affected by the Queen
of Prussia's death. He expressed himself gratified at this notice
of her, and said that it was a consolation to find that she was
not only generally lamented, but regretted even by those who
had been her enemies while she lived.
He afterwards asked me some questions about these new
measures in France relating to America. I told him that they
were opening their own doors just at the same moment that
they were shutting those of his country against us.
He isaid he hoped I considered that measure in its true light,
as one which was assuredly not a result of the inclinations of
his Government.
I made him easy on that score, by the fullest assurance that I
was satisfied whence it came, and harbored no resentment for it
against his sovereign.
He then told me that in consequence of the conversation I
had with him, some months ago, he had written to his Court
and mentioned that interview with me, adding a recommenda-
tion of the object which I had appeared to wish ; that he had
received in regular time an answer to his dispatch on that occa-
sion, instructing him to come to a confidential explanation with
me on the subject ; that he was ordered to assure me that, as
faryas the personal disposition of the King and his Government
went, I might place the most perfect reliance upon it, and that
every facility would be granted which lay within their power.
VOL.. II. — II
l62 AfEAfOlKS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,
But then at the same time, he said, he saw from the tenor of
the remaining part of the dispatch what sort of a turn affairs
must take, and he had preferred to omit even the execution of
his instructions, rather than say things to me which might have
led me to form, and perhaps to communicate to my own Govern-
ment, expectations which would be disappointed.
The Baron's intentions, I believe, were good; but I think I
should not have been misled by his executing his instructions.
Probably, however, he was not at liberty to explain the influ-
ence which was then pressing for our exclusion ; and he could
perhaps not have attempted to conceal it without a degree of
dissimulation which a few days would expose, and at which he
was reluctant.
nth. It is the anniversary festival of St. Alexander Newsky,
a Prince of Novogorod, who reigned about the year 1250; and
is also what they call the name-day of the Emperor. At eleven
o'clock I went with Mr. W. Smith to the monastery, where the
crowd was great, and the concourse of the people, from the Per-
spective to the church, on both sides of the street, was excessive.
When we got to the church, wc found it difficult to ascertain a
proper place to stand in. None of the other foreign Ministers
v/ere there excepting Count Schenk, who came in some time after
me, and who was as much embarrassed as myself He took a place
among the officers in attendance on the imperial family, which
he found was not the proper one, and returned to where I had
taken mine. Count Romanzoff, at length seeing me, came to me
and stood next to me during the whole ceremony, and explained
to me many parts of the performances. The silver shrine of the
saint is at the right hand of the chancel, as you go up the broad
aisle to the altar. Before this shrine was spread a large carpet,
on which the Emperor took his stand, with the Empress at his
left hand; next to her the Empress-mother; then the Grand
Dukes Nicholas and Michael, and the Grand Duchess Ann
behind her mother. The Crown officers and attendants were
ranged in a line beyond the Emperor, up to the steps to the
shrine of the saint. Prince George of Oldenburg, husband of the
Grand Duchess Catherine, the Prince of Wiirtemberg, brother
of the Empress-mother, and a number of officers and strangers.
i8io.] TJIE MISSIOl^ TO RUSSIA, 163
Stood before the chancel, on the righ£ side of the aisle, and a
number of ladies, and crowd of women at the left.
The ceremony was performed by the Archbishop and the
other priests who usually perform at the Imperial Chapel, with
the same choir of singers. But it was not a Te Deum, and
differed in many respects from an ordinary mass. Count
Romanzoff told me that the two candlesticks which the Arch-
bishop occasionally takes in his hands, one ikrith three lighted
candles and the other with two, and which he waves downward
crosswise, were symbolical of the Trinity, and of the double
nature of Christ. Coxe, I think, mentions this. At a particular
part of the ceremony a sort of embroidered cloth was waved, or
rather shaken, over the altar. The Count said it was during
the Credo, and to express the uncertainty of the time when the
mystery of the descent of the Holy Ghost commences — the
Greek Church not having thought the precise moment ascer-
tainable.
After the mass was finished, the Emperor went up to the
shrine of the saint, knelt, and kissed the silver coffin three times
— twice at the side, and once on the top. The Empress, Grand
Dukes, and Grand Duchess all followed in turn, and repeated
the same adoration of the saint. The Grand Duchess Ann, a
beautiful princess of about seventeen years of age, performed
her part at once with the most complete prostration, the most
grace, and the most dignity. As the Empress-mother descended
the steps, the Emperor lent her his arm to assist her. There
were then three small pictures, in frames, given to the Emperor
and two Empresses, and small round loaves of bread to each of
the members of the imperial family.
On going out of the church, the crowd was so great that the
pas^ge out to my carriage by the way at which we had entered
was totally barred. I followed the crowd of the Imperial officers
through the only passage-way that was open, supposing it led
to another issue, until I found myself unexpectedly in the Arch-
bishop's apartments, where the Emperor and his suite had been
invited to breakfast. One of the messengers of the Grand
Master of the Ceremonies gave me notice that the attendance
of strangers there was not usual, and I at length found the way
l4| MEMOIRS OF JOBS' QCIXCY ADAJOS.
out to my carnage. The crovd of people in the streets
tinued as great oo our return as when ve vent. It was about
three o'clock when we got home.
12th. Mr. Montreal told me many cucumstanoes respectii^
the capture of the Duke d'Enghien, which was dose by a
French corps of troops under the command of M. de fautain
court. He was then Aid-^ii^-camp General of the First Consul
Bonaparte. He was of a noble £unih-of Picardy.and his &ther
had owed his iofftune to the protection and patrooage of the
Prince de Coodei He recex\ed an ocder to go to Strasbnrg,
there to a-ttcmhlr the ounman^iirT of troops o^^-**^-^! at that
pLace,the mayor of the cxt\\and two or three other officers^ and
tn thexr presence to open the second sealed order which was
delivered to him. On the peribrmance of this duc>\ he ibund
it concaiifted an order to take a column of troops which were
pL^Ded at hcs <ifcspMiqI, to cross the Rhiike, and enter upon the
tcrrtCoo' %x dk: Gr;u>i Duke of R^ien ^ to seicc the person of
the Dc^ke vf Frfc^yg^ wbo resided there m the country at a
ho«Ksc of his OVI1X. ojfii trsjkspoct hun to the prison of V
mar Ptirjs. He was %\:r>- ai;iich «i:r>trv:s2bevi ^ hi^iife
cv.xr3z:x:£kca iazr'.ssscii ro him, h^x be execurevi it : and '^ was ibr
TOiif serrice tiiC !fce was rewaroed with his Duchy, kis en^assy
bKre. .&a»i jc^er reward aai hooors. Tbe E>uke %rEn§hjien was
re<scm^ iZ tsar p^ice wxh tinke knc viedge and cocbsent of BocKa*
aurte. He ased evea occa^iiocxally to go to Scrasburg to the
pLiy. wic^ the ccasenc oc Boctapute; who had been asked
ivoicdxer he h^ oixy v^Cfcxinca tij x. xad hi«i oikioe cbooe. Tbe
Puke hiiii accce :c ±je j^crj^bdi ::•£ the Frrxach troocK. iad wxs
aji^'-rsei tv zLiii h-:i cijcactr- as Jt w:is su^pcte>evf th»iy cccJvi ai%^
a>^ ccher jciect ^.in zz riJci z.'z: : bcit he haid niiuseii ca the
LOcx th^iit X TTis :i:ic«:;iSii:i.e titers cjwi be iity oes;^ to ieLse
juiDL He wa:5 camcc t- the rr^sca wC V'^y^-y** "?«*<. ir»i. withctst
joy irmai.':ry z£ rriotss. iii»:c iZ nr^ j oj<:k the sext ssoraja^.
XSie e3aaiiiiiic:»-a 2au ^z.zrrz\^i£:»zc2t -wh^ch -w^n: piJbi-ihevi the
msssi 3zcr3iiz^ sl tJie 1£ :iiirii!ir -v^zrt ihecr SLbc^ciLticcs — ac trail
au Jioerrc§ac::rT ^rts z^ixi : anii the per^sccss -whose -r-x-w**^
sigsisd tc Tie'W^ ie'jx^rng^ /iiiicial vioo-^rsests never saw
wad tttcy izami dieoL jl ioc 3e'*!xai^3er:i. Pie Duke was
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 165
shot at two o'clock in the morning, and buried in a ditch which
surrounds the prison.
There was another mysterious transaction, of which the re-
membrance had been just renewed at Paris. About three years
ago, a Monsieur de Segur, son of him who is now Grand Master
of the Ceremonies, and who was Sub-Prefect of Soissons, sud-
denly disappeared, and nobody knew what had become of him.
A few days before he had said, in a company where M. de Cau-
laincourt was speaking of his having been present at the passage
of several rivers, '* But, sir, you say nothing about the passage
of the Rhine'' It was rumored that as a quarrel had ensued
and violent words passed upon this speech, Segur had been
challenged, and assassinated in the Bois de Boulogne. But
now, all of a sudden, immediately after the disgrace of Fouche,
the Minister of Police, young Segur has 'appeared again, safe
and unhurt. The conjecture is that Fouche had him seized
and confined in some prison, and that by the change of parties
at Paris he has obtained his libcnition.
Mr. Montreal promised mc a copy of the official notes between
the French and Russian Governments on this affair of the Duke
d'Enghien, and observed what a refinement of assumption it was
to send Caulaincourt as Ambassador after what had taken place.'
■ So strong was the feeling among the Russian nobility against Caulaincourt on
account of the 6rst of these stories, that he found himself Under a necessity to
submit to the Emperor's examination his version of the facts, together with the
proofs to sustain it. This step proved so effective that Alexander was prompted
to write with his own hand a letter strongly exonernting him from blame, to the
publication of which he afterwards consented. Ft-oni that date Caulaincourt was
established as a favorite in St. Petersburg society, until a change in the views of
Napoleon rendered it expedient to have a less friendly representative at that Court.
There can be no doubt that had his counsels prevailed, the madness of the Russian
war would not have followed.
After the fall of Napoleon the charges of participation in the affair of the Duke
d'Enghien were revived, and they cast a shadow over him, deepening to his very
last day. He persisted in denying their justice, even to the date of the execution of
his will, in which he inserted a solemn adjuration of his innocence. Napoleon, the
real author of the crime, when far removed from all motive to misrepresent, is
recorded as having generally testified to his honor and his integrity, but not in any
connection with that action. On the other hand, it appears clearly proved that
orders were given to him both verbally and in writing by Napoleon himself to
take not the first, but a secondary, i>art in the arrest. He was charged with the
l66 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
As Montreal went out, Mr. Harris came in, and was, a few
minutes after, followed by the French Ambassador, with whom
I wished to have some conversation, and could but partly
accomplish my object.
I dined with a company of about sixty persons at Count
RomanzofTs — principally the same company and on the same
occasion as the dinner of the tenth at the French Ambassador's
<
— that is, the Emperor's name-day. The Chevalier Navarro in-
troduced me to Baron Campenhausen, the Treasurer General of
the Empire, whom I had not known before. I spoke to him
of the vessels and cargoes of Americans in difficulty at Arch-
angel. He professed to be very much concerned at these oc-
currences, and reprobated in the severest terms the conduct of
the Commission for Neutral Navigation there; which he told
me he would entirely organize over anew. But these new
organizations produce many more difficulties than they remove.
I also spoke to. him respecting the vessels which have arrived
at Riga, about which he desired me to write to him, so that he
might state the case for the consideration of the Emperor. I
spoke upon all these subjects also to Monsieur de Gourieff,
next to whom I sat at table; and I asked the French Ambassa-
dor to have some further conversation with him, owing to the
interruption which prevented me from having it so freely as I
had wished this morning. He asked me to come and dine with
him on the Peterhof Road to-morrow. I also told Baron Blome,
the Danish Minister, that I wished to converse with him con-
cerning the captures of the American vessels lately carried into
duty of sending troops to masque the town of Oflfemburg, as well as notifying the
Grand Duke of Baden of the act committed within his territories, immediately after
it should have been executed by General Ordener. The fact of his presence at
Strasburg when the Duke was brought there a prisoner is likewise admitted by
himself. Had he objected to the service, it is not likely that a man like Napoleon
would have overlooked such a breach of discipline, or would have advanced him
afterwards, as he did, to higher posts of responsibility. Hence it seems fair to
infer tliat he did whatever was required of him. M. Thiers in his history repre-
sents him as deeply grieved by even the secondary part allotted to him in this
extraordinary drama, at the same time that he entertained not the slightest suspi-
cion of any intention of Napoleon to terminate it with so horrible a catastrophe.
This is perhaps the most reasonable solution of the mystery attending his agency
in the nefarious transaction.
I8IO.J THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 167
Norway. He told me he would call upon me to-morrow or on
Saturday.
13th. About four o'clock I went out to the French Ambas-
sador's country-house, on the Peterhof Road, and dined with
him. There were only his own family, Mr. Lesseps, and three
or four Russian officers there. Before dinner I expressed to him
my surprise at the measures of France towards the United States.
The repeal of the decrees of Berlin and Milan removed the most
important causes of our complaints, excepting the late seizures
and sequestrations, which I understood were reserved for further
negotiation. But at the same time, here were orders to exclude
us from the ports of Prussia, of Holstein and Mecklenburg, and
other indications which seemed altogether incompatible with
the spirit of conciliation manifested by the other measure.
He said the only way he could account for them was that
they had been of prior date. But, he said, these were subjects
upon which his Government said nothing t9 him. The only
time they had spoken to him of our affairs was on what he had
mentioned to me relative to General Armstrong, and on which
he had requested me to write to my Government.
I told him that I should certainly write to my Government
whatever I could think would have a tendency to reconcile the
interests and policy of our two countries; that he would be
sensible that my situation in relation to General Armstrong
rendered me the last person who in delicacy or propriety ought
to be the medium of indefinite complaints against him to his
own Government ; but that if, owing to any inconveniences of
communication arising from the state of things there, his Gov-
ernment thought proper to make any informal and inofficial
observations which they were desirous * of transmitting to the
United States, and would commit them to him, and he to me, I
should take great pleasure in giving every aid in my power to
every purpose calculated to restore harmony and good under-
standing between the parties — a circumstance which might
perhaps occur if General Armstrong should leave France, as I
heard was still his intention.
I told him the French Government appeared to me still^too
much addicted to that repulsive policy which the Prince of
/
l68 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QVINCY ADAMS. [September,
Benevento had justly assigned as the cause which, under the
former monarchy, had occasioned the loss of almost all the
influence in the United States that France had acquired during
the war of the American Revolution; that the influence of
France might be great if she pleased, but that as England by
her conduct seemed determined to reconcile us with France, so
France by hers was rendering the same service to luigland.
[e told me he would write the substance of my observations
to his Government ; that as to the complaint against General
Amstrong, he did not understand it to be a thing which would
injure his credit at home; but it was only said that he scarcely
ever saw the Minister; that he never went to Court, and that
whenever anything was to be done, he was presenting testy
notes, which made written answers of the same sort indispensa-
ble, and which widened matters, when by verbal explanations
they might be conciliated.
So I now see the whole front of Armstrong's offence is
omitting to go to Court, and presenting notes too full of truth
and energy for the. taste of the Emperor Napoleon. I had
already mentioned to the Ambassador yesterday, and rei)eated
to him this day, the articles in the French official gazettes con-
taining misrepresentations in matters of fact, which produced
injurious effects even here, to our commerce; instancing par-
ticularly that the French Consuls in America had ceased to
deliver certificates of origin.
14th. I went according to appointment at eleven o'clock to
Count Romanzoff^s, and had some further conversation with
him. I told him that, although the decision of the Emperor
upon all the cases concerning which Mr. Harris or myself had
made representations was favorable, I was continually receiving
new and more heavy complaints ; that since the arrival of the
revisor, who had been sent to adjust all the difficulties, they
had been multiplied fourfold ; and that in some instances there
were now complaints of personal ill treatment.
The Count said he hoped that henceforth there would be no
more occasion for any complaints, and read me a letter which
he had this morning received from Baron Campenhauscn, in
answer to what he had written to him immediately after my last
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. iQg
conference with him. This letter contained in substance the
same thing which Baron Campenhausen had assured me of in
his verbal message to me : that he had given the most precise
and positive orders to the Comnlission of Neutral Navigation
at Archangel to expedite as soon as possible the business of
the American vessels ; that he regretted exceedingly the delays
which had been occasioned by the neglect or misconduct of
the Commission, and that he had thought it his duty severely
to reprimand them for it.
I then mentioned to the Count the case of the vessels which
have arrived at Riga, after finding themselves excluded from
the ports of Prussia and of Holstein, and which, not having
been originally destined to Russian ports, did not possess cer-
tificates from the Russian Consuls, as in ordinary cases was
required.
He desired me to write him a note on this subject, which he
would immediately recommend to the Minister of Commerce.
He asked me whether I had heard a report that the British
fleet intended an attack upon Carlscrona, to take away the
Swedish fleet that is there. I had; but I did not believe it.
He said the King of England had never acknowledged the
present King of Sweden, and now that a French general was
called as the successor to the throne, they would probably be
still more exasperated in England against Sweden.
I told him that I understood that Carlscrona was too strongly
fortified to be exposed to such an attack. The Danes, he said,
were also apprehensive of an attack on Christiansand, and had
lost some gun-boats at Bergen, in Norway. I said it was impos-
sible to feel much for them ; they were inflicting all the injury
they could upon our trade, and were obstructing particularly
the trade with this country; that of the forty-seven vessels they
had lately taken into Christiansand, seventeen or eighteen were
Americans, eight of them had sailed loaded from Cronstadt,
and I knew them to be perfectly neutral property.
The Count said that they treated them exactly in the same
manner, and the only way in which he could account for it was
to attribute it to want. They were so poor, and had now so
scanty means of subsistence, that they could not subsist with-
170 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
out plunder. He asked me what I thought would be the result
of the late measures in France. I answered that as they were
conditional^ to depend upon corresponding measures on the part
of England, it was yet ver/ doubtful to me what the result
would be. Although England had repeatedly promised to
revoke her Orders in Council if France would repeal these de-
crees, yet as the whole advantage of the system on both sides
had accrued to her, I was apprehensive she would not keep her
word. She would cling as long as possible to the continuance
of the system.
He asked me whether General Armstrong was still at Paris.
I said he was. He observed that while he himself was at Paris
General Armstrong once appeared at Court, which was much
remarked, as it was said he was not in the habit of attending
there at all. That the Emperor then spoke to him. This was
the Court of which the General gave an account in his dispatch
which I remember to have read while I was in the Senate of
the United States.
2 1st. I went this morning with the ladies and Mr. Harris
to the Academy of Arts, which is now open, and where there
is an exhibition of pictures. There is a very great collection of
copies in plaster, from the famous antique statues — but most
of them indifferently executed. The equestrian statue of Balbus,
and those of Marius in the curule chair, and Agrippina, also
seated in a chair, appeared to me the best. The knife-whetter
is far inferior to that in Count Strogonoff's garden. The
pictures in the collection are of various merit; as are those
in the exhibition. The portraits of Prince Bagration, of Count
de Maistre, and of Count John Potoqki, are very good. Some
landscapes, sea-pieces, and historical subjects are good — many
very indifferent. There is a model of St. Peter's Church at
Rome, which takes one large room. The model of the ma-
chinery by which the rock of Peter's statue was brought to
the city is also kept here. The portraits of all the Directors of
the Academy are bad pictures, and no likenesses. We saw
drawings in black pencil dated 29th June, 1796, by Alexander,
then Grand Duke, and now Emperor ; and by his sisters Mary
and Helen. They were heads copied from the common studies
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 171
of scholars. There was one also done by the Emperor Paul.
There was a great collection of prints, generally very bad ; and
many models of buildings and ancient ruins, in cork>wood.
Among the rest was the model of the new Church of Our Lady
of Kazan, in this city, one of the most magnificent churches
in the world. And the model showed the manner in which the
arch between the body of the church and the colonnade is
supported, — ^by a stone hewn in conical form inverted. Mr.
Thomond, a Frenchman, employed as a sub-director, accom-
panied us a part of the time, and Mr. de Torcy, also a French-
man in the service, during the remainder. The building itself is
the most remarkable curiosity. It forms a hollow square, each
side of which is feet. The internal court is a small rotunda.
The architecture is magnificent, and the front, one of the finest
I ever saw. But the sides being unplastered, give it altogether
an incongruous appearance. It is said to have cost three hun-
dred and fifty thousand roubles, and is yet unfinished. I went
afterwards with Mr. Harris to see the new Exchange, which is
likewise unfinished. Mr. Thomond is the architect of this build-
ing, which is remarkable principally for its simplicity.
24th. With the ladies I went to see the palace and gardens
at Pctcrhof, twenty-six wersts from the city, and twenty-nine
from our house in the city. We went in a coach, with our own
four horses, and two others. Mr. J. S. Smith and Mr. Jones
met us there. They went in a chariot-and-four. We were pre-
cisely two hours in going from our own house to the gate of
the palace at Peterhof The distance is between nineteen and
twenty miles, which we went without stopping once, either to
rest or water the horses. Such is the common practice here ;
and their small, mean-looking horses appear not to suffer from
it at all. We were upward of three hours in going over the
palace, its various outhouses, which are seven or eight, and
the gardens. The palace is an image of magnificence in a
late, almost the last, stage of decay. Faded hangings of rich
damask, once-gilded wainscoting and doors, carved work of great
cost but extinguished fashions; Chinese lackering and pictures
perished upon the canvas, from the damps of uninhabited apart-
ments, constitute the whole furniture of the buildings. One of
172 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,
the out-buildings is appropriated for baths ; and there are ail
the conveniences for common water-baths, shower-baths, and
Russian steam-baths. We were told they were sometimes
used by Maria Fedorowna — that is, by the Empress-mother.
Another is the Empress Elizabeth's kitchen ; for this sovereign
of the empire prided herself upon her skill in cookery, and
was used to prepare dinners for select parties in this building.
The kitchen is much upon the Rumford plan. Catherine the
Second, who had other tastes besides those of cookery, had
in these buildings also a hermitage, where a table for twelve
persons descends and ascends by machinery, so that it may be
served without the presence of any servants in the apartment
with the company.
From this chamber there is a balcony in front, just before a
large fish-pond full of carp. They come upon the summons of
a bell rung by one of the servants, and feed upon the crumbs
of brown bread thrown to them upon the water. And there is
a balcony in the rear, facing the Gulf of Finland, from which
there is a full view of Cronstadt. But the principal curiosities
of the place arc the water-works; all of which were set to
playing for us to see. There arc a great variety of pipes and
fountains; some in the form of gilded statues, others of animals
and fish ; some of urns, some of rolling sheets, and some even
of plants and trees. The waters are carried to the tops of some
of the buildings, made to spout from the summit of their domes,
and roll down, streaming from their roofs. The meanest of all
the contrivances is a fountain with three leaden ducks pursued
by a dog, which are movable, and made to imitate the barking
of a dog and the quack of the ducks. The imitation, besides
its being ridiculous, is very bad. We had taken a cold colla-
tion with us, and they lent us a room in one of the external
buildings connected with the palace, where we took it.
Once a year, in the summer season, the Emperor usually gives
a great ball at this palace, to which the public in general are
admitted. The gardens are all illuminated, and the water-works
all played by the light of the illuminations. On these occasions
the foreign Ministers are all accommodated with lodgings at
these buildings. But this year the usual entertainment, from
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 173
motives of economy, has been omitted. We quitted Peterhof
at half-past five o'clock in the afternoon, and reached home pre-
cisely a quarter before eight. We stopped about ten minutes
at the garden of the Grand Chamberlain Narishkin, to look at
a white marble statue representing the Rape of Proserpine, for
which he is said to have given ten thousand roubles, and which
is very well executed. There are on the road to Peterhof a
great number ^f country-seats, inhabited during summer by
the nobility and the principal merchants. Strelna, the summer
residence of Czarowitz Constantine, is of the number, and at
the fifteenth werst there is a monastery founded by one of the
Counts Zuboff.
26tli. 1 have made it a practice for several years to read the
Bible through in the course of every year. I usually devote
to this reading the first hour after I rise every morning. As,
including the Apocrypha, it contains about fourteen hundred
chapters, and as I meet with occasional interruptions, when this
reading is for single days, and sometimes for weeks, or even
months, suspended, my rule is to read five chapters each morn-
ing, which leaves an allowance for about one-fourth of the time
for such interruptions. Extraordinary pressure of business
seldom interrupts more than one day's reading at a time. Sick-
ness has frequently occasioned longer suspensions, and travelling
still more and longer. During the present year, having lost
very few days, I have finished the perusal earlier than usual. I
closed the book yesterday. As I do not wish to suspend the
habit of allowing regularly this time to this purpose, I have this
morning commenced it anew, and for the sake of endeavoring
to understand the book better, as well as giving some variety
to the study, I have begun this time with Ostervald's French
translation, which has the advantage of a few short reflections
upon each chapter. I ought perhaps to be ashamed at having
read this book through so many times, and at possessing its
contents so little as I do. The regular and methodical manner
of reading is not without defects. This division, by a certain
number of chapters, is arbitrary and artificial. The appropria-
tion of a certain hour inevitably devotes times when occa-
sionally the attention is absorbed by objects, passions, interests,
174 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,
feelings, which the affairs of life bring up as it runs, and when
the mind cannot command its application. The Bible is in
many of its parts, as St. Peter says of his brother Paul's Epis-
tles, hard to be understood. It presents difficulties of various
kinds. The help of commentators I have scarcely ever had at
hand, and if I had, could not use without devoting several hours
of every day, instead of one, to this object. It has long been one
of the numerous resolutions which I take and do not fulfil, to
undertake this at some indefinite time ; but I am always making
to myself excuses for postponing it to some future day. Imper-
fect as my method is, I regret none of the time thus bestowed.
At every perusal I do add something to my knowledge of the
Scriptures, something to my veneration for them, and, I would
hope, something to the improvement which ought to result from
this occupation, and which is the great motive to it
27th. At noon I attended, with Mr. W. S. Smith, at the palace,
conformably to the official notice. I had been desired to attend
earlier than usual, as the notice was both for a Court and a Te
Deum. We went, therefore, precisely at twelve, the hour ap-
pointed, but found there was no Court to be held, and the Te
Deum did not commence until near two. There was a mass per-
formed immediately before the Te Deum, at which the Corps Di-
plomatique did not attend. We were introduced just as the Te
Deum commenced. The imperial family were there as usual,
excepting the Grand Duchess Ann. Mr. Rosenzweig, the Charge
des AfTaires from Saxony, told me that General Watzdorf, the
new Minister from his Court, arrived last evening. I had some
conversation with the French Ambassador, from which I un-
derstood that he has received new instructions relative to the
commerce in what are called colonial articles. I thanked him
for the loan of the Moniteurs, and for the return of the English
papers which he had lent me. I mentioned to him that I had
observed with pleasure the attendance of General Armstrong
at Court on the Emperor Napoleon's birthday, considering it
as an indication that our relations were becoming again more
favorable in their aspect there. He said he had again received
assurances that the dispositions of his Government were entirely
friendly towards the United States. ' I said then that they should
i8io.] THE AflSSION TO RUSSIA. 175
make a clear and a strong distinction between the English and
the Americans. That, he said, in relation to commerce, was very
difficult. I assured him that the only difficulty was in the
inclination; that if this existed nothing was more easy, as was
completely proved in this country, where either the Consul or
myself could and did easily discriminate between those who
pretended to be Americans and the English, who on false
pretences gave themselves out as such. I mentioned to him
the vessels which had been detected as coming with false papers
by Mr. Harris, and consequently seized and confiscated by this
Government, and also the persons whom I had detected myself.
I told him that only two days ago the Minister of Police had
sent me two sailors who pretended to be Americans, but whom
upon five minutes' conversation I found not to be such, and
whom therefore I sent back to him. I enumerated 'the par-
ticulars by which we were enabled to make this discrimination
— the different pronunciation of the language — the personal
acquaintance we have with many of the merchants who trade
here — and the secret marks of the papers. • If France was
making war against the English, there was no real difficulty in
distinguishing between them and the Americans; but if she was
making war against certain articles of merchandise, to be sure
discrimination would be of no avail.
He told me that, to be candid, there was a pretty strong
sentiment against the colonial trade at Paris, because they
considered it as all English. For, says he, you, for instance,
raise no sugar. I told him that he was much mistaken ; that
a great deal of sugar was raised in the United States, and par-
ticularly in the country ceded to us by France — Louisiana.
But cotton — indigo — we were perhaps the greatest raisers of
these articles in the work! — they were among our most valu-"
able staple articles. Besides, there were the Spanish Islands —
South America. These were not English, aiid the Emperor
Napoleon could not consider them as such ; for he had more
than once officially declared his friendship to them, and his
willingness for their independence.
With regard to that, he said, he could not give an opinion.
But as to the certificates of origin said to be given by French
176 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS, [September,
Consuls in America, he was assured that they must be false, as
the Consuls no longer gave any such certificates.
I assured him in the most earnest terms that this was a mis-
take ; that, to my certain knowledge, vessels which had sailed
from the United States as late as the month of June had brought
genuine certificates of origin from the French Consuls. I then
added that if these were tlic sentiments prevailing still with the
French Government, I could not but lament it ; that as long as
they prevailed, however strong the friendly dispositions towards
the United States might be said to be, the course of policy pur-
sued must be injurious to them in the highest degree. "You
will do us," said I, " immense injury ; you will oppress the Con-
tinent of Europe and yourselves with it ; but take my word for
it, and I pray you three years hence to remember what I say,
you will do England more good than harm ; you will not cut
off her communication with the Continent, you will not essen-
tially distress her commerce, but you will lay the world under
the most grievous contributions for her benefit and advantage."
" But," said he, " there is a prodigious accumulation of co-
lonial articles and of her manufactures on her hands, which she
cannot dispose of; her bank paper money is depreciating ; her
merchants and great manufacturers are becoming bankrupts;
the course of exchange is draining her of metallic specie ; and
therefore perseverance in this system must eventually compel
her to come to terms of peace."
" Why, then," said I, " did she not snatch at the offer which
you have just made her, of giving up the whole system ? I see
nothing like her giving up even her Orders in Council. No ;
she wishes you to adhere to your system, because she knows
and feels that it turns to her advantage. You speak of the ac-
cumulation of colonial articles in her warehouses ; and what is
the accumulation of your wines and brandies, and what was the
accumulation of grain upon your hands ? It has induced you
to grant licenses for vessels to go from anywhere to England,
and to bring back what they please ; only upon the condition
that they export an equal quantity or value of your productions
from France."
He said he was informed that th6 importations were restricted
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 177
to certain specific articles, and did not include colonial articles
generally.
I told him that my information was very different, and it was
a notorious fact, that immediately on the understanding being
had that this trade by licenses was to be allowed, the price
of colonial articles in London had risen ten or twelve per cent
The Chevalier Brancia told me that he found upon en-
quiry my information respecting the proposition made in the
Imperial Council for securing the election of Prince George of
Oldenburg as the successor to the throne of Sweden by the
restoration of Finland was correct; and he also told me that
the late King of Sweden had come to the frontiers of this country,
and written to the Emperor, requesting permission to embark
from his dominions and go to England ; that the Emperor had
sent his aid-de-camp. Count Ozerowsky, to him, but with what
answer is not known.
October 8th. On rising this morning, I found the ground and
the roofs of the houses covered with snow, which had fallen in
the course of the night. This may be considered as the signal
for the approach of winter. We have had, since the first of this
month, our double windows put in. The external windows
consist of two parts. There are six panes to each window. The
panes are twenty-five inches long and nineteen inches wide.
The two uppermost are in a sash and fastened to the walls of
the house; the other four are in two corresponding door-sashes
suspended on both sides of the wall, and closing together with
bolts both upwards and downwards. The double windows are
of six panes in one sash, of corresponding size with the external
windows. In most of the chambers one of the windows has
one of the lower parts in the form of a door, corresponding in
the external and internal window, and which serves as a ven-
tilator when occasion requires. Between the two windows a
trough about an inch deep of sand closes the crack at the
bottom of the external window. The cracks all round the in-
ternal window, between it and the wall, are. stuffed with oakum,
and a paper border is pasted over it. Thus the windows are
hermetically sealed; and this is the occasion of the equable
warmth which they so commonly have in this country.
VOL. II. — 12
l-g MSJIOIMS OF JOBS QVISCY ADAMS. [Ocuhcr.
9tli. I ns oocufieA this moming in ton dating an loqieHal
muuii=so. cooccraing the organization of the Ministiies, from
the Gcmun, when just at ten o'clock I rcodxied a note from
Cooni RomuLroff requesting me to call upon him at dc\'«L
I had iKC time to order breakfast to be immediately prepared
besoie Mr. Haiiis came in, with O^Nain Bainbndge. Mr. L>-ach.
ajtd Sir. Le^ia. Cjpoin Bainbridgc has just arn\'cd from
Amenca. a&er a detientioQ of six weeks at Copenhagen. He
broughi me a packet of kners frx>m America. Tbej' were from
my mother and bfother. dated in May — two months earlier than
d>ci3± ve ha^'c recei\'ed trcaa our friends by Mr. Jones. I had
sc« lime lo read them before I was obliged to call, acccwding to
T^^H' s TTp-'^'TTTYrm . upon Count Romamofl!
I icwd him ihai I had now rccei^vd the dispatches from my
Gorcmmcaii re^ieaing the propoatioo wfaM^ had been made
b>' Mr. DasdhkoQ in relation to the trade with the Indians on
t^ nctfihwcst coatl of America; that I was directed, in the
bts JTKffanf-f \a declare the sincere and *-^tn/ta desire of the
trtsadexci ci the Coiled Suies to coacat in any measure which
nu^hl be uac^ lo iLe Russian dominioos and agreeable to his
Inqj».Tia3 Majca>' : ihai s-^aae difnculties had occurred to them
vid: repaid to the nanire of the stipulation which had been sug-
gesxi. as de^orabie b>~ Mr. Daschkott The people of the United
Sckics we^e »:< enensnidy engagi^d in commeiciaj iu\-igatiDn
lo all pL7» ;c the wodd. thai the traihc «-ith the Indians cta the
i>cc^»'=:a CiJkSL cjMiJJ not be piwenled but by special profailM-
ZJioti ii i^M — pr^Cu^l)Cdi9 ithich it would seem aJntosl, if not
jJTi^^ihgr. impgafikab"te to cai7\~ fully into executioa The
Russiaits were a T^tJuJa sec so much addicied to naA-igaiktn as
HIT cfiuuUj'iiKs: and y^ the Couni was wcl] aware hew in-
j«w^.— Ill' zitt prc^i)isicaisi<- send \-e$scls to particular lordgn
CDmcnes vtrt la pnr*icat there from going there. If sucb was
the j'T^wr'n-i^-^ £0 iJu£ Oiivcnuoi^i, the dimculncs mus oini-
OKEh' be Bmcii greaser in pre\-cnting a trade so d:££ani. ik-ith
VBBidBaBC sssages soixcfed aicog a ooast o^'cr soxral degrees
MflMiUid^ harjac so poets, do custom-houses, not e>'«£ penna-
■JlmepVnnfT. from which it would be piossible t^ colled
anasac^ af My tnaip^ssaoa of the law: that evea we» a
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 179
convention concluded to prohibit this traffic, the Indians would
probably still get their supplies — if not from our vessels, yet from
the English— cither by water or by land, from the British settle-
ments north of us. And although nothing could be easier than
to draw an article of a convention to prohibit the trade, it would
indicate a want of frankness and candor in the United States to
contract engagements and then find them not executed. For
though it should arise from a state of things not within their
control, it would be manifest that such a state of things ought
to have been considered before the contract was formed. I was,
however, instructed to enquire, what would be the boundary
line within which it was the wish of this Government to extend
the prohibition? — a question which I had already intimated in
the former conference.
The Count answered me, that he would render to the Em-
peror an exact report of the observations I had made to him ;
that it was an object concerning which they had no great
solicitude. Their first idea had been that this trade with the
Indians, especially as to the article of fire-arms, might be as
detrimental to the United States themselves as to the Russian
settlement, and more so ; that in that point of view the United
States might find it expedient to issue the prohibition, provided
it were compatible with our Constitutions. He did not think it
possible for these supplies of arms to be furnished to those
Indians from the British settlements by land. But with regard
to a mutual stipulation, he candidly confessed there was no
basis. To engage that the Russians should not thus traffic
would be nugatory, as no Russian vessels traded there; and
there was no privilege which could be granted for trade with
the Russian settlement but what now existed de facto. The
trade of all nations there was perfectly free. As to the fixing
a boundary, it would be most advisable to defer that to some
future time, for the sake of avoiding all possible collision, and
even every pretext for jealousy or uneasiness. In the present
state of the world, the first and strongest wish of his heart was
to bring all the civilized nations to pacific dispositions, and most
carefully to avoid everything which could strike a new spark of
discord out among them. At any rate, I might be assured of
l8o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October.
the continuance of the Emperor's amicable dispositions towards
the United States. They were as strong and fixed as they ever
had been ; and, he might say, stronger. " Our attachment to
the Uiiited States/' said he, " is obsthtate — more obstinate than
you are aware of**
I replied that I understood the force of the term which he
had used ; that if there were i)articulars of which I was unin-
formed, I knew full well, in a general point of view, the attach-
ment to which he alluded, and that most certainly it should not
remain unknown to the Government of the United States ; that
indeed a comparison between the measures not only of France,
but of all the neighbors of Russia, in the North of Europe,
Denmark, Prussiti, Sweden, with regard to the commerce of
the United States, with those of Russia, during the present
year, would of itself be a strong indication to the Government
and to the people of the United States of a disposition in
Russia very different from that which they have experienced
elsewhere, and it was impossible they could be insensible to it.
I had learnt, however, from some of my countrymen lately
arrived here after detention at Copenhagen, that there had been
some measures of restriction upon the privateers, and some
others favorable to the Americans, lately adopted by the Danish
Government. There had obviously been a change also lately
in the policy of France. The project of cutting off all com-
merce between the British Islands and the Continent could no
longer be pursued, since licenses were openly offered for sale
by authority of the French Government at I lamburg.
*' But," said the Count, " there is an Embargo. The Govern-
ment there do not allow the vessels to sail."
I said that I had private advices that every vessel with a
French license was understood to be exempted from the opera-
tion of the Embargo, and might go when and where it
pleased.
** But," said he, " there is a new edict of the Emperor Napo-
leon, forbidding all such vessels from taking any passengers ;
and in my own opinion there is no real change in the policy of
F^rance. The Ministers and people about the Emperor prevail
upon him sometimes to sign edicts and ordinances which they
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. i8i
think and represent as changes of his policy, but they find
themselves mistaken. His intentions remain the same. He
thinks the only means by which he can influence England is
by distressing the English commerce ; and that is, after all, his
real object, now as much as ever."
I said that I believed this opinion correct ; but certainly the
means to the end were continually changing; and the experi-
ment upon which he now seemed to rely was to levy upon im-
portations the most excessive duties — which, if really levied,
must ultimately fall upon his own people, the consumers. I then
mentioned the case of the Havanna sugars arrived in American
vessels at Archangel, and which the revisor at that port and
Baron Campcnhausen had taken for refined sugars broken up
and powdered ; on which they had suspected and accused the
importers of having endeavored to introduce them by fraud,
and having brought them from England.
I immediately saw by the manner in which the Count
talked upon this subject, what I have all along suspected,
that there is a purpose behind the curtain in this aflair. lie
first asked me whether I did not think they might possibly
be refined sugars powdered, and that there had been an attempt
to introduce them as raw, to evade the payment of the heavier
duties.
I said I believed it impossible. These vessels came from the
United States, with all the regular documents, including certifi-
cates from the Russian Consuls. I knew some of the merchants
who had expedited them, and did not believe they would lend
themselves to such an attempt to defraud the Russian Govern-
ment. I knew the nature of the Havanna white sugar, and the
ease with which it might be mistaken for refined loaf sugar
powdered. But the expense of powdering whole cargoes of
loaf sugar would be far greater than the saving in the differ-
ence of the duties. The first cost of loaf sugar to break down
would be double what these sugars are offered for, and actually
sold for, in the market here. There was no possibility of profit,
but the utmost certainty of a heavy loss, in the attempt which
was suspected. There was, besides, the easiest of all possible
means to ascertain the fact, by boiling down an equal quantity
1 82 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [October,
of refined sugar and of that in question. The result would
immediately show the difference between them.
" But," said he, " if there is this similarity between them that
they are so liable to be mistaken for each other, I should recom-
mend to the Emperor to prohibit their importation (this is the
true secret), for at least it opens a door to fraud, and may deprive
the revenues of the duties on refined sugars. And, indeed, before
I quitted the Department of Commerce I had similar informa-
tions reported to me of the importation here at St. Petersburg
of refined sugars under the name of pmvdered raw**
I said that if the Emperor should consider the interests of
his empire as requiring a prohibition that the white Havanna
sugars should in future be imported into this country, it
would undoubtedly be a misfortune for us, but the Emperor
must certainly decide as he thought fit. I could not, however,
myself conceive a motive for excluding a raw sugar, superior
in quality more than in price to the others, fit as any others
for refinement by the manufacturers of the country, and which
could be mistaken for refined sugar only because until recently
it had been very little known and imported here; that the
quantities in which it now came arose, I presumed, from the
free admission of our vessels, and the great increase of our
trade with the island of Cuba, under the new government
which it had assumed. And I had observed that among the
articles which the new Government of Caraccas had permitted
to be imported from the United States, Russian manufactures
were included. I supposed that the Government at the Havanna
had done the same. I said I was glad of this opportunity of
conversing with him upon these events, which seemed to me to
be of transcendent importance, not only to us, but to the general
politics of Europe.
I knew this was touching upon a string to which the Count's
feelings would respond. They did so instantaneously. He
said that it would have been impossible for himself to express
more exactly his opinion than I had just done. He asked me
whether we had, before the Icvte revolutions in the Spanish
colonies, any commerce with the Havanna, and whether our
vessels had been admitted there; whether I knew what sort
l8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 183
of government they now had there; whether they had sent
any Ministers or Agents to the United States; and whether I
thought they would be able, and would adhere to the intention,
to maintain themselves in a state of independence.
I told him that our vessels had always been admitted at the
Havanna; that, like many other of the West India Islands,
they depended in some measure upon the continent of North
America for subsistence ; that we had therefore always enjoyed
a trade with them arising from their necessities ; and it had
always been very valuable, but undoubtedly the late revolu-
tions had very much increased it; that I was not accurately
informed what the nature of their government was, nor whether
they had Agents or Ministers in the United States. I had
nothing upon the subject from the Government ; and only saw
by the newspapers that they had sent Agents to Washington—
who had not, however, been recognized. As to their maintain-
ing their independence, that would probably depend upon events
and arrangements in Europe. If the war should terminate in
the establishment of a sovereign of the Bonaparte family, or his
appointment, in Spain, undoubtedly the colonies of that natioix
would no longer continue in that relation. The sentiment of the
people, both upon the American continent and in the Spanish
Islands,Vas so unanimous and so strongly pronounced on this
point that they could never again be made dependencies upon
Spain, under that Government, unless by conquest, which Spain
would not be very able, nor, I believed, France very willing, to
undertake. The gmperor^Napoleon, nearly a year since, had
declared himself ready and willing to acknowledge the inde-
pcndcnce of the Spanish colonies, if the people of the "countries
themselves desired it. That they would desire it, in preference to
dependence on his Spanish monarchy, was beyond all question ;
and it seemed to me a thing altogether conformable to the interest
of all the European Continental powers. The only obstacle of
serious import that I could foresee to this result would come
from England. She could not help perceiving that it must give
the death-blow to the old colonial. system of Europe, which was
founded upon the coiitractesLancLdgspigable basis of monopoly
between the-'colony and its European master. If once the
l84 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS, [October,
Spanish and Portuguese colonies on the American continent,
and all the considerable islands in their neighborhood, acquire
independence, and, of course, the enjoyment of a free trade with
all the world, England will make but a sorry figure with her
exclusion of all trade but her own with her petty islands of
Barbadoes and Jamaica. There was, it seemed to me, some
evidence of the jealousy with which England had witnessed the
late manifestations of independence in the Spanish colonies. I
observed that the Junta at Cadiz had issued a proclamation
against them, with a declaration that they had ordered a naval
force to be stationed so as to blockade them. Now, as to a
blockade by the naval forces of the Junta at Cadiz, it would be
only matter of ridicule if it referred for execution only to their
own. But I concluded that in publishing this paper they were
assured of the co-operation of British naval forces for their
blockades, and I strongly suspect that it was under British insti-
gation that they issued the manifesto. If such be the case, it
most clearly demonstrates in what light the English Government
considers these events. But whatever Britain might think, or
wish, this course of events is too mighty for her control. Can
she recover Spain for Ferdinand the Seventh, and Portugal for
the Prince of Brazil ?
"As to Ferdinand the Seventh," said the Count, " I consider the
use of his name, in the present stage of affairs, as absurd, and
becoming ridiculous. A prince in a foreign country — a prisoner
in the possession of another sovereign — without a prospect of
ever being restored — it is impossible that the American colonies
should remain even nominally under his government."
" Then," said I, without hesitation, *' I do give it as my
opinion that the Spanish colonies will be either independent, or
at least have an existence totally different from that which they
have had from the discovery of Columbus to these times. If
France and the EurojK^an Continental powers choose, it will be
independence. As to Brazil, its independence is already de-
clared. The removal of the royal family of Portugal was, in the
result, nothing more nor less than a declaration of independence
for the Portuguese colonies in America. Accordingly, England
has just been making a treaty of commerce with the Prince
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 185
Regent ; and I doubt not he will find it for his interest to make
another treaty with the United States, and with any other
European power, as well as with England/'
The Count enquired whether we had a Minister there.
I told him of Mr. Sumter's appointment, and that the news-
papers mentioned his arrival at Rio Janeiro ; of which, however,
I had no official advice.
By this time Mr. Navarro was announced as being in the ante-
chamber waiting ; and I rose to take my leave. The Count, with
much earnestness, expressed his regret at being interrupted in
this conversation, and again assured me, with great apparent
satisfaction, of his most entire and perfect coincidence of opinion
with me on this subject.
Before leaving him, I mentioned to him Mr. Jones's desire to
be presented at Court to the Emperor. I told him Mr. Jones
had been a fellow-traveller with Mr. Poinsett, who had given
him such a favorable idea of Russia that he had come, as a
traveller, to visit the country. The Count enquired what was
Mr. Jones's condition in life, adding, however, an apology for
the question, and intimating that he did not wish me to be very
particular in the answer. I told him that Mr. Jones was a young
gentleman, of a respectable family, who had no particular pro-
fession ; his father was wealthy, and he was now travelling for
his own pleasure and improvement. He asked me what was his
father's occupation, and I told him he was a merchant. The
Count asked me to give him the gentleman's name, which I did;
and he said he would take the Emperor's orders concerning it.
The Emperor returns this day to the Winter Palace from his
summer residence at Kammenoi-ostrow.
loth. I was employed almost the whole of this day in writing
down the account of my interview with Count Romanzoff. My
custom of thus recording, as nearly as my recollection will serve,
everything that is said in these conferences, I believe to be a
very good one ; but in a very active negotiation it would be
impracticable. It would be prodigiously facilitated if I were
master of short-hand writing. I lament that I did not learn
this effectually in my youth. It is now too late.
I I th. As I was walking on the Mall in front of the Admiralty,
«
l86 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
I met the Emperor, who stopped and spoke to me. He said the
autuipn had been finer than the summer. " But as to summer/'
said he, '' we have had none. You must have a terrible opinion
of our climate."
I said that as long as one enjoyed good health all climates
might be rendered agreeable.
You have a countryman arrived, I hear," said his Majesty.
Yes, Sire." " Mr. Jones," said he ; " an acquaintance, I am
told, of Mr. Poinsett's." " Yes, Sire; Mr. Poinsett carried home
with him such agreeable ideas of his visit to Russia, that he
inspired Mr. Jones with the desire of visiting the same country."
" And where did Mr. Jones see Mr. Poinsett ?" " They returned
in company together from Europe to America." " What ! has
Mr. Jones been in Europe before ?" " Yes, Sire; he has travelled
in France, Italy, and England." " What ! and returned to
Europe again? Perhaps upon his private business?" "Sire,
he is a young man of fortune, who travels for his pleasure and
to acquire instruction. After having been once in Europe, and
returned home, the taste for travelling was not satiated, and he
has come a second time." " He must then have a strong taste
for it indeed ; for such a voyage as that is not like crossing the
Neva." " My countrymen, Sire, are so familiarized with the ocean
that they think not much more of crossing it than of going over
a river." I enquired how his Majesty had enjoyed his health.
" Perfectly well," said he, and added, with a significant smile,
" Ce ne sera pas le physique qui me tuera — ce sera le moral."'
Upon which we parted. I collected from his last words that
there were subjects under his consideration which gave him
some concern.
1 2th. About ten o'clock this morning, as I was preparing a
letter to send by Mr. Donovan, came the messenger from the
Grand-maitre des Ceremonies to inform me that two ships
would be launched at the Admiralty. The hour fixed for this
was half-past twelve at noon, but it would probably be about
one ; and the members of the Corps Diplomatique were invited
to attend if they pleased. Feeling uncertain where to go and
' This turned out a prophecy. lie died in the Crimea, at the early age of forty-
eight, from depression of spirits aggravating the malady which there overtook him.
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 187
how to proceed, in order to be in the rule of etiquette, I called
upon Mr. Navarro, who had been at similar ceremonies before.
He told me that, being not very well, he did not intend to go ;
but that in proceeding to the Admiralty I should find there
some of the officers of the Department of Ceremonies, who
would show me where the Corps Diplomatique were stationed.
Navarro then told me what his errand was the other day when
I met him at Count RomanzofTs. It was to announce the
appointment of a Minister from the Prince Regent of Brazil to
this Court, a Monsieur de Bezzarra; and he showed me the
answer which he had just received from Count Romanzoff to
this communication. It expressed the Emperor's great satis-
faction at receiving this information, and his determination to
appoint a Minister to the Prince Regent in return. This led us
into some conversation, and I expressed to Mr. Navarro very
sincerely my regret that this event would hasten his departure.
I was first acquainted with him as the Secretary of the Viscount
d'Amadia, at Berlin. I have seen much more of him here, and
found in him a worthy and honorable man. Having been here
near six or seven years, he is well acquainted with the country;
and I have often obtained from him just information of current
events.
I was obliged to leave him and dress for the launching.
Went with Mr. W. S. Smith, just at one o'clock. We were
within one minute of being too late. The Emperor and his
Court were already there. We had barely got inside of the
Admiralty yard when the posts under the first ship, the Three
Saints, were knocked away, and she descended majestically
upon the bosom of the flood. I found neither messenger from
the Department of the Ceremonies nor Corps Diplomatique.
But I came to the platform where the Emperor and Empress
were standing, and saw the second ship, St. Eustaphie, rush
down upon the river as advantageously as it could be seen any-
where. They were both seventy-four-gun ships, and very finely
built. The whole ceremony was over within a quarter of an
hour after I arrived. The concourse of people was very great.
As I was coming out, I met the Grand Master of Ceremonies,
Narishkin, who apologized for the lateness of his notice, and
1 88 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
said he knew nothing of it himself until last night at midnight.
I came home, undressed, and walked on the quay below the
bridge, to see the two ships as they anchored in the river. The
bridge had been taken away to let them pass.
26th. The Empress-mother's birthday. I had yesterday
received notice that there would be this day; at twelve o'clock,
a Court at the Winter Palace, and at the same time three tickets
for the play at the Hermitage in the evening — one for myself,
one for Mrs. Adams, and one for Catherine Johnson. At noon
I went with Mr. Jones to the palace. While wc were waiting
in the Salle dcs Ambassadcurs until the mass should be fin-
ished, I was enquiring of M. de Maisonneuve respecting the
presentation of Mr. Jones to the Grand Dukes and Grand
Duchess Ann after the cercle, when I found that the Grand
Duchess Catherine would also receive presentations. I there-
fore requested to be presented to her myself; and the same
favor for all the gentlemen of the Legation. The cercle was
held between one and two o'clock, and all the imperial family,
excepting the Grand Duchess Catherine, were present. Mr.
Jones was presented, as was a Count Fagnani, a Chamberlain
of the Emperor Napoleon as King of Italy. After the cercle
we waited about three-quarters of an hour, until the gentlemen,
together with General Watzdorf, the Saxon Minister, and Count
Liixbourg, as Bavarian Charge des Affaires, had been presented
to the young Grand Dukes and the Grand Duchess Ann ; after
which they returned, and we were all presented to the Grand
Duchess Catherine and her husband. Prince George of Hol-
stein-Oldenburg, at their apartments. General Watzdorf and
I were presented separately, and the rest of the gentlemen all
together. The Grand Duchess spoke of Mr. Smith and Mr.
Poinsett, and asked some questions about America — whether I
had lately heard from there, and how long it took for vessels
to come. The Duke also, who stood by her side, made some
observation, which I scarcely remember. She is about the
middle size, with a beautiful countenance, expressive eyes, and
a fascinating smile.
It was nearly four o'clock when we returned from the palace ;
and at half-past six, immediately after dinner, we went there
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, igp
again. About seven we went into the theatre at the Hermitage.
The Emperor and imperial family came about eight. They sat
in a row of chairs immediately behind the orchestra. The
French Ambassador sat in the same h'ne, the last person at
the right hand of the Kmpcror, and next to the Grand Duke
Michael. The great Crown officers, with Count Stedingk
and Count St. Julien, sat in chairs, and on the lowest range
of benches forming the amphitheatre for the spectators ; for
there are no boxes. The Ministers of the Corps Diplomatique
sat on the right-hand second row, and all the others were filled
with the nobility of the country — the men on the left side and
the women on the right. The French opera of Cendrillon was
performed, for the first time — the music, partly of Nicolo, the
original composer, and partly of Steybelt, set here. The play
is splendid, the music agreeable, and the ballets as usual.
Duport danced very well. Two of the songs were encored, by
a signal from the Grand Chancellor, by the Emperor's order.
About eleven at night the opera was over, and we travelled over
the palace to view from the Emperor's apartments the fireworks.
Those upon the water did not well succeed, owing probably to
the high wind that blew. There was a blue palace of lamps
beyond the river, very well executed ; and the bouquet or wheat-
sheaf of rockets, with which it concluded, was handspme. About
half-past twelve at night it was all finished, and we returned
home. M. de Maisonncuve again repeated to me that the
Emperor himself had written the name of Miss Johnson as one
of the persons to whom tickets for the Hermitage should be
sent, and that it was a very extraordinary mark of distinction.
M. de Maisonneuve was very attentive in accompanying the
ladies, after the play, until we left the palace to come home.
Nm^cmbcr 1 3th. At one o'clock I went again with the ladies
to the palace of Annitschkoff, where we found the Grand
Master of the Ceremonies, Narishkin, Count Bussche, and
General Watzdorf I went all over the palace the second time,
from the chapel to the steam- and water-baths under the ground
floor, which is appropriated for the infant Prince and his nurses
and attendants. The steam- and water-baths here, as elsewhere,
are in different apartments. The bathing-tub is of tin, and fitted
190 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
into the floor in the middle of the room. Over it is a vessel
with holes like a cullender, from which the shower-bath is
poured when they choose it. The chapel is not yet consecrated ;
for which reason the ladies were permitted to go into the
sanctuary. I remarked nothing on this visit but what I had
seen before. The music-room is circular, and not large. The
Prince's cabinet is elegant, but without magnificence. There
are no carpets on the floors ; but a very beautiful parquet. In
the library there is a looking-glass of one plate seven arsheens
(sixteen feet four inches) high and three arsheens (seven feet)
wide — a very magnificent thing, but out of its place. The bed-
chamber is hung round with loose hangings of dark-green
velvet; the bed in the centre of the room, between the two
doors ; the curtains sloping from the head to the foot of the
bed. Among the time-pieces, of which there is one in almost
every room, that which pleased me most was a bronze figure
of a Venus with a little Cupid bursting from an egg-shell which
she holds in her hands. There is on the sofas and chairs too
much gilding for my taste. The porcelain is not very beautiful,
and there is not much of it. The Siberian vase of agate is very
large, and was very much admired. After going over the palace
I walked to the foundry, and in returning upon the quay of
the Neva met the Emperor, first on horseback, and the second
time walking, i He then stopped and spoke to me about the
weather and the appearance of the river. He asked me what
was my habitual walk. I told him commonly to the foundry.
He asked where I lived. I told him in the new street, in a
corner house, partly fronting on the Moika — the apartments
where the Count Einsiedel had lived. He knew it by this de-
scription, and said the situation of the house was not good ; on
account of walking. I said its situation was not remarkably
advantageous, but that the walks in every part of the city were
so convenient that it rendered the situation of a house almost
immaterial. And pointing to the quay on which we stood, I
said it was one of the finest works ever made by men's hands.
He said they had a great advantage in possessing so much of
the material, the granite rock, of which in Finland there were
immense masses; that the rock on which the statue of Peter
L
i8io.] THE MISSION TO KUSSIA. igi
the First was placed was one of the smallest of those rocks
which could have been found ; that it formed blocks of whole
mountains, and that there were places where it was to be seen
at once in both the stages of its first formation and of its last
decay. I told him that I was acquainted with this rock, and
that my own country produced it in great plenty ; that it was
considered as hardening and becoming more solid by being
exposed to the air. He said it did for a certain period of time,
after which it decayed and crumbled into dust. But he added
that it would last a long time, and then, looking at the wall
bordering the quay, observed, with a smile, " There is no danger
for this yet."
30th. At nine o'clock I went to Count Romanzoff's house
on the quay, and met him there. His aunt, Madame Narish-
kin, an old lady of eighty years of age, lives there, and, being
infirm in health, the Count passes much of his time with her.
I told him I had requested to see him on account of a number
of American vessels which had arrived at Reval, at Baltic Port,
at Riga, and at Licbau, since the navigation at Cronstadt, to
which they were bound, had been closed. Several of them
were in the first instance admitted without difficulty ; but after-
wards an order had been issued to suspend the admission of
the rest, and to prevent the unloading of those which had been
admitted, until further orders. The persons interested in these
vessels and cargoes were alarmed and uneasy under these diffi-
culties, and some of them had applied to me for my interposi-
tion in their favor.
The Count said that some suspicion might have arisen from
the supposition that these vessels belonged to the great convoy
of six hundred sail which had been so long signalized by the
Emperor N.ipolcon, and which it was said had entered the
Baltic, coming from Gottcnburg.
I told him that they had actually come from Gottenburg,
and probably belonged to that convoy. But I trusted he would
not suspect me of attempting to shelter under the American
name any traffic or property prohibited by the laws of this
country.
He said he could hardly express to my face what he thought
IQ2 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUIA'CY ADAMS, [November,
upon this subject; but it was certainly nothing distrustful
of me.
I then said that I had a list of these vessels, which I was per-
fectly assured were bona fide American ; that I had received
letters by several of them from my friends in America of the
most recent dates which had come to hand ; that the captain
of one of them, the su|)crcargocs of scvcnil, and the owners
of almost all were personally known to me as citizens of the
United States ; and that with regard to them all I had received
such information as left me no doubt that they were really
Americans, and that all proper confidence might be given to
their papers.
He desired me to write him unofficially a short letter on this
subject, stating all these circumstances, and intimated that the
difficulties that had been raised would easily be removed ; prom-
ising to lay the matter as soon as possible before the Emperor.
He then entered into a general conversation, and asked me to
give him my candid opinion upon the Emperor Napoleon's
tariff of the fifth of August last, and upon his decree for burn-
ing all merchandise of English manufacture.
I did accordingly give him my opinion fully and freely in
respect to both. The Count did not explicitly say that he
agreed with me in opinion ; but I am convinced he can hardly
entertain a different one. He told me that he had received a
courier from Sweden, with accounts of the determination there
to declare war against England, for which the French Minister
had allowed only five days. We had also much conversation
upon the news — the armies in Portugal, the King of England's
illness, and other common topics not of sufficient interest to
be written down. I was with him about two hours.
Day. The sun rises now about nine in the morning. It is
scarcely daylight at eight, and I seldom rise from bed before
ten. Read five chapters in the French Bible, with Ostcrvald's
reflections. Breakfast. Noon has arrived. A visitor or two
brings it easily to three o'clock — or I write a letter, long or
short, or a day's record in this book, and the day is gone. It
darkens soon after two o'clock, even in the few days when the
sun is seen, which is, upon the average, about once a week. The
i8ia] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, igj
six others there is a gloomy half-darkness through the day.
So that from ten until two I can just see to write. From three
to five I walk. Dine at five, and sit usually until seven. Spend
two or three hours after dinner in my cabinet, reading Levesque,*
or writing short-hand on anything that must not be postponed.
From nine or ten at night until one or two in the morning
I pass in company abroad, or at home, or at cards with the
ladies. The difficulty of writing anything, and the disgust at
the occupation, grows upon me in a distressing manner, and I
feel more and more every day the importunity of miscellaneous
com{>any. ,
December 17th. Mr. Delapre, the keeper of the house at the
Ville de Bordeaux, was here. I engaged him to furnish us our
dinners at a stated price — twenty roubles a day — and I shall dis-
miss my cook. When a family becomes large, there is no possi-
bility of observing economy in it without the closest attention
to minute details. Since we entered this house my monthly ex-
pense books amount to double what they were the first month.
We have a maitre-d'hotel, or steward ; a cook, who has under
him two scullions — mujiks ; a Swiss, or porter; two footmen ;
a mujik to make the fires; a coachman and postilion; and
Thomas, the black man, to be my valet-de-chambre ; Martha
Godfrey, the maid we brought with us from America ; a femme-
de-chambre of Mrs. Adams, who is the wife of the steward; a
house-maid, and a laundry-maid. The Swiss, the cook, and
one of the footmen are married, and their wives all live in the
house. The steward has two children, and the washerwoman
a daughter, all of whom are kept in the house. I have baker's,
milkman's, butcher's, greenman's, poulterer's, fishmonger's, and
grocer's bills to pay monthly, besides purchases of tea, coffee,,
sugar, wax and tallow candles. The firewood is, luckily, in-
cluded as part of my rent. On all these articles of consumption,
the cook and steward first make their profits on the purchase,
and next make free pillage of the articles themselves. The
steward takes the same liberty with my wines. In dismissing
my cook I shall attempt to escape from a part of these depre-
dations. To avoid a great part of them is impossible. It is, 1
' History of Russia.
VOL. II. — 13
194 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
believe, the law of nature between master and servant that the
servant shall spoil or plunder the master. In this country at
least it is universal usage. It requires the most constant and
minute attention to keep his pilfering within tolerable bounds;
and among the losses occasioned by it the most valuable is the
loss of time swallowed up in the business of such drudgery.
20th. I called this morning before brcakCist, at about eleven
o'clock, upon Baron Campcnhausen, and had a conversation of
two hours with him on the subject of the American vessels
which are waiting for admission at die ports of Reval, Baltic
Port, Riga, and .Liebau. He received me with politeness, but
complained that he had been for a fortnight very unwell with
rheumatism, and unable to go out of his house. I mentioned
to him the subject of my visit ; told him of the letter which I
had written more than a fortnight since to Count RomanzoflT on
this subject; that I was now about to dispatch a courier to
Gottenburg, to embark there for the United States, and that I
was desirous of informing the Government what the ultimate
decision concerning these vessels and their cargoes would be ;
that Mr. Roddc* had called u|>on me yesterday, after having
been with him, and mentioned to me that there were some
circumstances which had occasioned suspicions in his (Baron
Campenhausen's) mind, which perhaps it might be in my power
to explain to his satisfaction.
He said that with regard to the vessels there was no question
or difficulty ; but that with respect to the cargoes, the Emperor
had ordered a special examination and determination to be
made upon the sixty-seven vessels which had arrived at the out-
ports since the close of the navigation here ; that they belonged
to a convoy about which a great deal had been said, and after
several of them had been admitted it was found that one of them
had two sets of papers, by one of which she had entered as
.coming only from Gottenburg, and by the other she appeared
to have come from Pernambuco — the Emperor had therefore
directed that a special examination and com{>arison of the papers
of all these vessels should be made ; that of tlie American vessels,
some had all the papers in order, and with regard to them there
' The American Consul at Riga.
l8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. jqj
would be no difficulty; some wanted papers for part of their
cargoes, and some for the whole; some had certificates that
their goods came from Calcutta, and one from Marie Galante ;
that the laws of the country were express and positive as to the
papers required; and if any were admitted which were not pro-
vided with those papers, it must be by special indulgence.
I observed that I supposed the only paper required by law,
of which these vessels would be destitute, would be the certifi-
cates of origin from the Russian Consuls, and the cause of their
wanting them was, that they had been originally destined for
other ports than those of Russia — for the ports of Denmark or
Prussia — and they came here only in consequence of finding
themselves excluded from them ; that two vessels under the same
circumstances had been admitted more than two months since,
on a representation which I had made to him and to Count Ro-
manzoff, and that I had considered that as a precedent which
would apply in all other cases of the same description.
That, he said, could not be concluded; for in those cases the
decision was by the special order of the Emperor himself They
were solitary cases of exception from the rigor of the law; but
now it had beconie necessary to decide upon the general prin-
ciple, which the Emperor had thought proper to refer to the
Council; and my letter to Count Romanzoff had also been
referred to the same body, together with the other papers. But
he said that it was very hard upon Russia to have such an im-
mense mass of foreign merchandise thus thrown upon her in a
manner, after the navigation season was closed, especially in the
unfavorable state of her exchange.
I told him I was very glad he had given me this intimation,
because it would give me an opportunity of suggesting to him
several considerations which appeared to me both equitable and
important in favor of my own countrymen. I should not con-
test the correctness of his principle, that the export trade should
be encouraged more than that of imports. It was natural and
reasonable that every country should wish to have the general
balance of trade in her favor, and should frame her commercial
laws ^t home upon that foundation. It was my duty to speak
only of the portion of trade carried on between Russia and my
196 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
own countrymen ; that of the trade carried on by the Ameri-
cans here the balance was in favor of Russia, and I could not
suppose that it would be insisted that we should bring nothing
but money in payment of the articles of Russian produce and
manufacture which we come to take.
He said he could not conceive how the balance should be
in favor of Russia, when the ships came almost all laden with
colonial articles, one cargo of which would more than pay for
more than three return cargoes of any Russian articles.
I told him I must, with submission, question the correctness
of his estimate. I owned that, generally speaking, the Russian
exports were more bulky than the colonial articles for corre-
sponding values, and perhaps, if he supposed hemp to bp the
only article exported, it might take three cargoes of that to pay
for a rich cargo of colonial wares ; but if he would take the
manufactured articles as the standard, the proportion would be
far more equal, and an import cargo would certainly not pay
for two return cargoes of the same burden.
He instanced indigo. But I told him that could in the nature
of things form but a small part of the imported articles. No
vessel would be laden with it entirely. Of very few cargoes
indeed would it form a large proportion. Besides which, I
added that many American vessels came here in ballast and
went home laden to the amount of three or four hundred thou-
sand roubles. Many American merchants who had balances
left after the sale of the cargoes which they sent here, and the
loading of their vessels in return, left the balance in the hands
of their correspondents, to be vested in the funds of the country,
or in goods to be exported the ensuing season, which contrib-
uted to support the prices of the articles at times when other-
wise there would scarcely be any sales for them at all. From
the very nature of the trade between the United States and this
country, it must be the interest of the Americans who carried
it on to load their vessels with the richest cargoes of Russian
manufactures that they could carry, that they might make a
profit oa the homeward as well as on the outward voyage;
that certainly there was no gold or silver carried from this
country to America.
i8ia] TJIE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 1^7
But, he said, it was the same thing if the money was paid by
remitting bills.
There was no profit, I replied, in making remittances; for,
whatever the rate of exchange was, by taking a bill on London
or Amsterdam a man would never get more than the worth of
his money in the market; while by exporting a cargo of goods
he could always calculate upon a suitable commercial profit to
be made upon them. The distance of the United States, the
necessary length and expense of the voyage, made this profit a
more essential object to the merchant. The opening of the
trade to South America and the Spanish West India Islands
had naturally much increased the trade between the United
States and Russia. Those countries consumed great quantities
of the Russian manufactures ; more even than North America.
We took from them their productions and carried them those
of Russia in return.
The Baron said that, au reste, these were political considera-
tions, which ought not to operate in the case of the vessels in
question ; for if they had come in conformably to the laws of
the country, they could not, at any rate, be subjected to the
rejection of their cargoes on mere views of policy. He asked
me if I had seen an article in the gazettes — a letter from Elsi-
neur — in which it was denied in the strongest terms that there
were any American vessels in this convoy at Gottenburg. It
seemed, he said, as if the American Government itself ought to
take notice of such charges as those.
I did not at first understand to what article he alluded;
but when he explained it, I told him yes, I had seen that
article, which was dated at Elsineur, but which I presumed
he knew was fabricated at Paris; that in pretending there
were no Americans among that fleet at Gottenburg it had
certainly made a false statement; that perhaps there might
be in the fleet some vessels which had assumed the American
flag without being entitled to it; but as the fleet consisted
of about seven hundred sail, and I did not know of more
than twenty-five or thirty Americans among them, the pro-
portion of real Americans to the whole number was certainly
very small.
igg MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
He asked me what was the reason that American vessels had
been excluded from the Prussian and Danish ports.
I told him because the Governments of those countries had
been required to pass ordinances to that effect by an authority
which they could not resist ; that I need not tell him it was an
act involuntary and reluctant on their part. But the Kings of
Prussia and of Denmark were to be pitied rather than blamed
for the rigors extorted from them, and which it could not be
supposed would have been exercised by them if they retained
the sentiment or the pretension to independence.
He asked me what could be the motive of France for this rigor.
I told him that France had undertaken to levy a duty of fifty
per cent, upon most of the articles brought by American vessels.
If the same articles could have been freely imported into Den-
mark and Prussia upon the payment of moderate duties, the
French Government could not, with all its power, have prevented
the introduction of them by contraband into France, and there-
fore could not have raised that enormous and oppressive duty.
France, too, entertains the opinion that she cannot injure com-
merce of any kind without injuring England; and, provided she
can strike England, cares not through whose side the thrust is
made.
. But was there not a great abuse, he asked, of the American
flag made by the English ? Did not they counterfeit papers ?
Mr. Harris himself had written him last summer that he could
not vouch for the authenticity of any papers relating to cargoes ;
and there had been, for instance, a vessel arrived at Archangel,
entered as from Gottenburg, and which, for some time, appeared
to have papers perfectly in order, but afterwards another set of
papers had been found. She had been dispatched from Dublin.
And even the instructions to the captain were found : in what
cases he was to produce one set of papers, and when the other.
I said there were undoubtedly cases of that kind; and there
were Americans, as there were individuals of all other nations,
who would practise any imposition which could bring them
profit. They were, however, few in number, and easily de-
tected— less frequent, indeed, than those instances of English
forgeries presenting themselves in the semblance of American
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, ipp
ship papers, which had been exposed and denounced by the
American Consul himself, and for the exposure of which I had
not escaped the obloquy of the English public journals.
He asked what could have become of all the vessels of that
convoy from Gottenburg, if there were really seven hundred
of them.
I said he would find, if he consulted the gazettes which he
had mentioned to me, that a great number had been captured
and would be confiscated by the Danes ; that some had come
to the Russian ports; and that all the rest had perished in tem-
pests— but that if he chose to send a messenger round to all
the harbors of the Baltic as far as Gottenburg and on both its
shores, I imagined he would find there had been very abun-
dant salvages from all these wrecks. I would of course not be
understood as now speaking of the Russian ports. But, setting
them aside, it was a very generally received opinion among the
merchants, that, notwithstanding all the manifestations of rigor
against everything English which were resounding throughout
Europe, it was not an impossible thing, by a suitable sacrifice of
an adequate sum of money, and a judicious application of it,
for English property and English vessels, under whatever dis-
guise, even now to obtain admission into many ports of the
North. I said this was what had been mentioned to me by
some of my countrymen as the most extraordinary circumstance
in its appearance to them, and that even in the difficulties which
they had met with at Archangel, they had seen other vessels
far less entitled to admission than theirs, according to the inten-
tion of the laws, obtain that admission with apparent facility.
He smiled, and said he supposed there might be some such
cases, but that they must have escaped detection by the ap-
parent regularity of all their papers.
That, I replied, was probable; and indeed it was obvious that
those who were deliberately practising fraud and imposition
would be most punctiliously correct in every formality.
He said that the certificates produced for some of the goods
in these cargoes stated them as coming from Calcutta, and others,
from Marie Galante ; that Calcutta was altogether an English
possession, and that the certificates might as well have been.
200 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
from London ; that Marie Galante having been formerly a pos-
session of France, it might be a question whether the goods
had been exported from the island before or sinc^ it had been
taken by the English, and it seemed incumbent on the importers
here to furnish proof that it was before.
I asked him whether he was certain that the papers of the
former kind certified the goods as from Calcutta, or in general
terms as from hidia.
That, he said, was another and distinct question. There were
some from India, but those he had referred to expressly men-
tioned Calcutta. I told him I had heard of both the cases, and
had reflected upon them, as certainly they presented, under the
existing laws of the empire, questions deserving of very mature
reflection ; that the commerce of the United States with India,
even with Bengal, was so far from being justly considered as
English, that it was a rival trade to that of the English, and
carried on with the people of the country ; that our vessels had
been admitted into the ports of the British settlements there by
virtue of an article in our Treaty with England of 1794, and
that we had not since been excluded from them, but that on a
late negotiation for the renewal of this Treaty the English Gov-
ernment had refused to renew that article, on the urgent repre-
sentations of the East India Company, who have the monopoly
of the trade with India in England, and who complained that
our competition there was ruinous to them. As to the articles
from Marie Galante, the fair presumption was that their exporta-
tion must have been previous to the occupation of the island by
the British, because it might be taken as a general rule that the
moment a West India island became a British possession, our
vessels, and those indeed of all other nations but themselves,
were excluded from them.
" But," said he, " did you not just tell me that you were ad-
mitted to their colonies in India ? Po they make a distinction
between the East and the West ?"
I said they did; that in the same Treaty of 1794 that I had
just mentioned, there had originally been inserted an article by
\which our vessels were to be partially and conditionally admitted
io their West India Islands; but the condition had appeared
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 2OI
SO burdensome to our own Government that the Treaty had
been ratified with the exception of that article ; and therefore
our vessels are never admitted to their islands in the West
Indies, except when, to save the inhabitants of the islands them-
selves from famine, their governors allow us to come for three
or six months at a time by special proclamations.
Returning then to the goods from Calcutta, he said he thought
the importers should at least have produced proof that they
were not of English produce or manufacture. I told him that
if he would permit me, between him and me in perfect confidence,
and with the assurance that it should operate no disadvantage
to the persons interested, I could tell him that they did possess
the proof which he thought should be required of them.
" Why, then, did they not produce it ?"
" Because it was contained in a document perfectly authentic,
but which the French Government had thought proper to
declare to be false."
" Oh," said he, " I understand you. It is the certificate of
the French Consuls. Well, they are right not to exhibit that."
Finally he assured me that the business should be decided
in a very few days — certainly by the beginning of the next
week ; that everything on his part was ready, and the Council
would have decided upon it some days since, but that other
business of importance had taken up all their time. He
urged me strongly to detain the courier two or three days
longer, which at this season he thought could not be of much *
consequence for so long a journey and voyage. This too, he
said, had been one occasion of the delays in the decision ; be-
cause at any rate the vessels could not get away for some months,
and that a delay of some days could be no material injury to
them.
I observed to him that all delays might seriously aflfect them
in the disposal of their cargoes, and in their negotiations for a
return cargo. They could do nothing while the question about
their admission was in suspense; besides which, there was a cir-
cumstance which it might require some delicacy for me properly
to mention. But my countrymen, upon arriving here, applied
to merchants to assist them in transacting their business. The
202 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
moment a difficulty in relation to their papers occurred, it was
suggested to them that the way must be smoothed by a payment
of money; which I believe was sometimes charged when it was
not paid.
He said he thought persons who were capable of such a thing
ought to be exposed ; that in the ordinary cases at the custom-
house, or before the Neutral Commission, there might be some
use of money — there might be some bad men (mauvais sujets)
there, whom it was impossible to detect ; but in this case he
could assure me there was no occasion for money, and there
could be nothing obtained by it — the Commission or custom-
house had nothing to do with it. The Emperor had ordered it
for a special decision of the Council, and money was out of the
question. He again repeated the request that I would detain
the courier two or three days longer ; and said, as to the greater
part of the cargoes, they would certainly be admitted ; " and as
to the rest," said he, ** we will try and find some expedient to
let them in too."
I finally consented to detain the courier until Tuesday or
Wednesday, though I told him I should have to apologize to
Count RomanzoflT, from whom I had already received the pass-
ports and his own dispatches for the Minister of his Majesty in
the United States.
I left the Baron after a conversation of about two hours.
24th. It being the Emperor's birthday, between twelve and
one o'clock at noon I went to the Winter Palace and attended
the Court there. Mr. J. S. Smith was presented to the Emperor
and Empresses to take leave. The cercle was such as it always
is. The Emperor told me that I should lose my walk to-day.
The Empress-mother told me she hoped she should see Mrs.
Adams in the evening at the ball. I told her I was afraid the
state of her health would deprive her of that honor — which
her Majesty said she should much regret. But Monsieur de
Maisonneuve had told me before that her Majesty had been
informed that neither Mrs. Adams nor Catherine would be
at the ball, and of the reasons why ; with which she was per-
fectly satisfied. The Empress said to me, " Votre pays nous
a fait un iacheux cadeau." I did not understand her. *' On dit,"
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 203
said she, "que la fi^vre jaune vient de paraitre en Italic."
"Ah I madame," said I, "ce cadeau la ne vient pas de chez
nous. C'est une calomnie qu'on nous fait. II vient d'Afrique."
" But," said she, " you have the yellow fever in your country
every year, have you not ?" I told her I had not heard of it for
four or five years, until the last summer.
When the Empress passed on, Baron Schladen, who stood
next me, said, " L'Imperatrice prend la peste pour la fiivre jaune
— mais vous vous etes vaillamment defendu." The Court was
over by two o'clock, and about eight in the morning I went
alone to the ball. It was, as all these balls are, excessively
tedious ; though the Empress-mother was very 'gracious, and
extremely attentive to do the honors of her house. She twice
expressed to me her regret at Mrs. Adams's not being of the
party, and also that Mademoiselle sa Soeur was not there.
" Mais pour cette jeune personne, je suis sure que ce n'est rien
que la timidite qui I'a empeche de venir." I stood the whole
time until supper, which was served just about twelve at night.
The Emperor made some remark to me upon the warmth of
the rooms, which were indeed excessively warm. I had conver-
sation with Count Soltykoff, Count de Maistre, Count Stedingk,
Dr. Rogerson, and the French Ambassador. Great part of the
time I stood gazing, and doing nothing. It had been a great
object of curiosity and anxiety with the other Ministers to see
whether the Empress and Grand Duchess Ann would dance
polonaises with Count St. Julien. They did not. They dance
only with the French Ambassador, and he only sits at the
Imperial table at supper. Count St. Julien has been here about
a year, without any regular diplomatic character, and, having
no rule of etiquette to operate concerning him, has been invited
to dine with the Emperor, and to the Hermitage parties. He
has lately received and presented his credentials as Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, a Minister of the
second order. The Emperor has ordered that he should still
be invited to the Hermitage parties, at which several of the other
Ministers of the same rank, none of whom receive such invita-
tions, have taken great offence, and have written about it to
their Courts. St. Julien, by his exultation at these distinctions,
204 • MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
has aggravated the mortification of the others, and has counte-
nanced a report which has been in circulation, that he was in
all respects to be treated with the same honors as an Ambas-
sador, and even that there was a convention between the Courts
of Vienna and St Petersburg, by which this was reciprocally
agreed. He was, however, this evening treated in no respect
differently from the other Ministers of the second order.
At our table, and next to me, the Roman Catholic Archbishop
of MohileiT took his seat It was not indeed his place, but the
attendants suffered him to remain ; and sitting next to him, I
had some conversation with him. When the Empress-mother,
going round the tables, and speaking to every guest, in turn
came to him, she said to him, with a smile, " Vous etes ici sans
doute pour la benediction." ** Pour la souhaiter, madame," said
he, ''puisque votre Majeste Imperiale veut bien me le per-
mettre." Upon my observing to him that the Greek Church
was tolerant, he intimated to me that I was mistaken. " The
Government indeed," said he, " is tolerant, and protects us. If
they did not, we should certainly be persecuted." He appeared
to have some little knowledge of America, and told me that
until Bishop Carroll had been made an Archbishop, his diocese
and his own were, he believed, the two largest for extent of
territory in the world. After the supper, there was only a
polonaise danced, and the imperial family retired about half-
past one o'clock in the morning. I was at home before two.
26th. According to appointment, I called this morning upon
Baron Campenhausen, whom I found still unwell. I had about
half an hour's conversation with him, in which we went again
over the subject of that which we had last week. He said that
all the vessels had been arranged in different classes, according
to the regularity of their documents, or of the circumstances
which might affect their right to admission. Those of the most
unexceptionable classes had now been selected, and would be
admitted and allowed to dispose of their cargoes. He said he
would furnish me a list of them in the course of the day. Almost
all the Americans were included in it
I walked home, and, coming round by the quay, met the
Emperor. He stopped and asked me if I was not fatigued with
i8io.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 205
the ball. I told him no. He said he found it very long. I
observed that the dancing-hall had been very warm. " Mais,
mon Dieu," said he, " que c'etoit long 1 J'aurois voulu le couper
court de trois heures au moins." I did not reply, for it might
have been too uncourtly, and even uncourteous, to say how
much I should have been willing to abridge it
I dined at Count RomanzoflT's, and was within a few minutes
of being too late. It was a great dinner of about sixty persons,
in honor of the Emperor's birthday, though two days after the
anniversary day. I saw there Admiral MordwinofT, and told
him what Baron Campenhausen had said to me of the vessels.
But the Admiral said the business would still require the sig-
nature of the Emperor. I asked him whether that would be
obtained to-morrow. He said probably, but with a hesitation
in his manner which left a strong doubt upon my mind.
30th. I walked this day earlier than usual, to observe the
setting of the sun, and the extent of its southern declination
as apparent at the horizon. This was the day nearest to the
solstice that I have been able to observe it, being the first day
for nearly five weeks that it has been visible at the time of
setting. And even now I could observe it only very imperfectly.
It sets at the solstice at forty-six minutes past two. It rises so
little above the horizon that in the city there is scarcely a street
where it can shine ; and for a month before and after the winter
solstice, the weather being always cloudy, it is not much more
light at noon than at the summer solstice at midnight. I read
this day Massillon's sermon upon the Conception of the Blessed
Virgin, a festival kept in the Catholic countries the 8th of
December. The divisions of this discourse are unusually
artificial, but the discourse itself is excellent. The subject is
miraculous purity — the instruction is the duty of purity. The
following sentiment is strikingly just: "II ny a pas loin entre
la vertu qui se repose et la vertu qui s'egare ; et quand on ne
fuit qu a demi le vice, on est bien pris de le retrouver encore
sur ses pas."
The year 18 10 is past; and to all past time we are already
dead. It has been to me rich with the blessings of Providence, for
which I would be duly grateful to the Giver of all good. Having
2o6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [January,
been employed in the service of my country, I am not conscious
of its having witnessed any neglect in the performance of my
official duties, nor can I charge myself with any intentional
wrong in the private affairs of life. But I have indulged too
much indolence and inactivity of mind, and have not turned my
leisure time to good account. I have pursued no object steadily,
and the year has left no advantageous trace of itself in the
annals of my life. I have formed my domestic establishment
here in a very exact proportion to my means, but upon such an
establishment a public Minister here can enjoy very little con-
sideration, and must be subject to great animadversion. It is
with great difficulty that I have hitherto adhered to my princi-
ples, and having now a full year's experience, I think I shall be
able to carry it through. I begin already to be sensible of the
approaches of age. I cannot hope for any intellectual improve-
ment upon my faculties from the present time. I pray for the
power and the will to make a better improvement of them ; and
for the blessing of Heaven continually upon my parents and
children, my wife, my brother, sister, and all connected with
them ; upon my native country, and, according to the will of
the eternal Disposer of events, upon the world of my fellow-
creature, man.
yanuary 3d, 181 1. Count Romanzoff had appointed me to
call upon him this morning at eleven o'clock, which I ac-
cordingly did. I found an officer with him, who immediately
retired. The Count told me that he had been at their settle-
ment on the northwest coast of America, and gave him an
indifferent account of it. He was afraid they would never be
able to make much of it. He then enquired upon what busi-
ness I had desired to see him. I told him it was on the same
subject concerning which I had seen him and written to him
already — the American vessels, for the admission of whose
cargoes the permission had not yet been obtained ; that Baron
Campenhausen, after requesting me to detain my courier several
days, had written me, yesterday was a week, that the business
might be considered as settled with regard to a list which in-
cluded almost all the American vessels; but that last evening
the Commission for Neutral Navigation had received no orders
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 207
for their admission ; that I had understood that nothing was
now wanting but the signature of the Emperor, and that the
papers had been sent to the Secretary General, Speransky, to
lay them before his Majesty ; that my countrymen here inter-
ested in this affair were anxious and uneasy, and naturally re-
sorted to me to give them all the assistance in my power; that
I must, of course, resort in the same manner to him, and came
to ask him whether the business could not be expedited.
He said that the circumstances being as I had mentioned to
him, there was no reason for the persons interested to be alarmed
(de s'effaroucher) ; that according to the course of business here,
it was much easier to obtain a decision than signature, as he had
often found by his own experience, and that the delay necessarily
arose from the multiplicity of business and the great multitude
of signatures which were to be given ; that, however, he would
pay immediate attention to the subject, and speak to the Em-
peror about it des demain-—evtTi to-morrow. He then generalized
the conversation, and after having, according to his custom,
desired me to take what he should say as from a private indi-
vidual, and to answer him equally divested of all official char-
acter, he assured me that when he was Minister of Commerce
he had been extremely desirous of giving every encouragement
and facility to the commerce of the United States with this
country ; that, since he was no longer in that situation, he still
retained the same ardent desire, and it led him to reflect upon
the expedients by which, in the present embarrassed state of
commercial affairs in Europe, it might be benefited. The idea
had occurred to him to enquire whether by the encouragement
of some premium, or some preference of admission, American
vessels might not be employed to bring money for the cargoes
which they should take in return. For that, said he, is what
Mr. Campenhausen wants.
I told him that he knew the United States produced no gold
or silver of their own; and all the money that our merchants
could export must, therefore, previously be drawn from other
countries, which were South America, the West Indies, or Spain
and Portugal ; that the nature of our commerce, the length of
the voyages, and the expenses of all commercial undertakings
2o8 AfEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAAfS. [Januaiy,
between America and Russia, made it an essential object to the
merchant to make a profit upon both parts of the voyage, out-
ward and homeward ; that he could not afford to send vessels
out in ballast and depend only upon the profit of a cargo in
return ; but that if the Government should think proper to give
a benefit or premium upon the importation of silver adequate
to a reasonable profit upon a cargo of merchandise, I had no
doubt but that our merchants would send money here, as they
were accustomed to do to China and to India.
He said I had taken up the subject in a more extensive view
than he had intended. It was true, that by making it the in-
terest of the merchant to send money, money would no doubt
be sent But his idea was, whether it might not be confined
to American vessels, to secure for them peculiar &cilities of
admission.
I told him that hitherto they had found no difiiculty in
obtaining admission. The Government had given all sorts of
facility for the mere admission of all vessels. Their papers
were now not even subject to examination by the Neutral
Commission, provided they came in ballast. I could not per-
ceive what favor could be extended to them for bringing a
cargo of silver, unless it was in the nature of a premium or
profit upon the value of the money.
He asked whether I could say what premium would be suffi-
cient to operate as an inducement.
I said I could not tell, but could easily ascertain, if it was an
object with him to know.
He said it was only one of those things which had passed in
his mind as a possible means of assisting the American com-
merce in the state of obstruction which the circumstances of
the times occasioned. He did not believe, however, notwith-
standing eveiything that was taking place, commerce would be
arrested. It was founded upon such necessities that no regula-
tions could entirely control them.
I said I was fully convinced of this, and had often taken the
liberty of expressing my opinions upon the subject to him.
But according to all present appearances, the experiment was
to have its full trial. The Emperor Napoleon seemed to think
i8ii.]* THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ' 209
that he was going to blow up the island of Great Britain, be-
cause his measures had produced a number of bankruptcies
among the merchants. Undoubtedly there was some commer-
cial distress in England. But how was it on the Continent ?
Since I had seen him last, the first, or at least the second house
in Amsterdam, the house that had done all the business of the
Government for years, had stopped payment. At Hamburg,
Gottenburg, Paris, Konigsberg, and even Riga, houses of the
first importance had done the same thing. There was one uni-
versal cry of commercial distress all over the Continent. I had
observed to him when I last saw him that there was a sympathy
among merchants in their affairs paramount to all political hos-
tility, and it seemed to me that this fact alone was conclusive
against the policy of attempting to operate upon the national
councils of England by mere commercial distress.
The Count has never contested these ideas, and appeared
now, as he always has, to assent to them. He said that the
house of De Smets. at Amsterdam, had recommenced their
payments, and would probably get through their difficulties. So,
I told him, would the house of Goldsmid, in London. They
would make their payments for some time, and perhaps eventu-
ally pay all their debts. But when once such houses had stopped
their payments, it was, comparatively speaking, of little conse-
quence whether they ever paid their debts or not. A com-
mercial house of this class was a sort of little kingdom, and
when it once stopped payment the establishment was demol-
ished beyond all recovery — the machine was destroyed, the
credit by which everything important could alone be accom-
plished was irretrievably gone, and whether the house finally
paid its debts or not was only a question of concern to a few
individuals.
The Count said that these observations were just, and they
confirmed him in a principle which he had very oflen asserted,
and in which he had seldom found others to concur ; which
was, that the commercial year was not composed of twelve
months, or, in other words, that the scale upon which objects
relating to commerce were to be considered was too extensive
and complicated to be judged of from any short or given period
VOL. II. — 14
2IO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Januafjr,
of time. In this country, for instance, the laws of nature them-
selves had crowded into five or six months all the possible busi-
ness of the year; and in like manner political considerations
might occasionally require similar pauses and suspensions from
business. In the long run, it would come to the same thing.
Tlie English had often threatened this country with the loss of
its commerce, but the productions of this country were unfor-
tunately possessed of a peculiar advantage : they were of indis-
pensable necessity to those who took them, and were not worth
the trouble and cost of raising them elsewhere. He spoke of
it, therefore, as an unfortunate advantage. The proportion of
manufactured goods which could be exported from this country
was comparatively very small, and surely it was no subject for
exultation to a great empire that the choicest of its productions
for exportation were hemp and tallow, and bees-wax and iron.
Such as they were, however, their purchasers could not do
without them, and, whatever events might occur, he had no
doubt but that the exportations from this country would always
prove ultimately the same.
I said that however correct this reasoning might be, as taking
into account the result of a series of years, it was certainly an
object of material interest to the Russian commerce of the pres-
ent moment that the vessels of which I was speaking should
leave the cargoes which they had brought ; since if compelled
to reload them and carry them away, they could not carry
away Russian goods.
lie said that was very true, but he considered this matter as
scarcely amounting to a quarter of an hour, according to his
estimate of commercial time. He then enquired whether I had
heard any news, and, on my answering in the negative, he said
there was a report in circulation, which he understood to be
mentioned in some commercial letters, that the Emperor Napo-
leon had determined to annex the Hanseatic Cities to the French
Empire, and that he had sent them notice of this determination.
I smiled, and said the Emperor Napoleon was remarkably •
fond of annexations, for here within six months was Holland,
tlie Valais, and now the Hanseatic Cities. But I thought they
lay more conveniently to the kingdom of Westphalia.
iSii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 2II
The Count said the Emperor Napoleon was a man of great
qualities, but he certainly had very erroneous ideas on the sub-
ject of commerce. He asked if I had heard anything from
England. "Only what was brought by the newspapers last
evening." He said it appeared probable they would be obliged
to have recourse to a regency. I thought so; but, I said, there
was not much to be expected from a regency. The Regent
would live under the continual prospect of seeing the King from
one day to another recover his health and resume the reins of
government. He would not dare to strike out any new line of
policy. But if the King should die, and the Prince of Wales
come to the throne, I believed he would form a Ministry whose
first step would be to commence a negotiation for peace. Other-
wise the prospect of peace appeared rather receding than ap-
proaching ; I had never expected it until the contest in Spain
and Portugal should be determined, which did not appear now
to be at hand, since it was unquestionable that General Massena
and his army had retreated.
The Count took little notice of the observation concerning
Massena's retreat, but he said that all regencies were in their
nature feeble governments, because their heads were always
liable to be called to account, and that an English regency under
the present circumstances would doubtless be peculiarly feeble,
from the chance of the King's recovery. He therefore, with
me, thought it doubtful whether a regency in England would
produce a change of policy. The Count then said he had pre-
sented Dr. Rush's book to the Emperor, who had accepted it
very graciously ; and he (the Count) would write me about it.
I then took my leave, ahd called on the Minister of the Police,
BalaschefT; but he was not at home.
1 2th. Mr. Raimbert and Mr. Montreal called upon me this
morning, for a visit, to serve as at the close of one year and
for the beginning of the other — to-morrow, the Russian New
Year's day, being so much occupied that they supposed they
should not find me at home. The ladies passed the evening at
Madame Colombi's. I went myself at about ten o'clock. We
supped there, and came home a little before two in the morning.
The Misses Betancourt danced the Spanish fandango in the
^12 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [January,
Spanish dresses. After supper the young ladies had their for-
tunes told in various ways--by cards; lots under nine tea-cups;
melted lead ; and by the feeding of a cock, which I presume
must be a remnant of Roman superstition. General SabloukofT
and his lady, Mr. Navarro, and some other company, were there.
Just after we came home, we were alarmed by a fire. It was
the large stone theatre, which burnt down. It broke up entirely
the New Year's party at the Grand Chambellan Narishkin's.
13th. At twelve o'clock I attended with Mr. Smith at the
palace. Between one and two the mass was finished, and the
Emperor and Empresses came to the Diplomatic circle. The fire
of the last night occasioned the principal fund for conversation.
The Empresses spoke to me, as usual, of my wife and children.
The Emperor said to me, " J'apprends que vous nous quittez." I
said, ** J'espere, Sire, que je n'aurai pas encore ce malheur." He
replied, " J'esp^re que cela ne sera pas de sitot."' Monsieur de
Maisonneuve gave me the tickets of invitation to the supper at
the Hermitage, for myself, Mrs. Adams, and Catherine Johnson.
The Grand Marshal of the Court, Count Tolstoy, asked me if
the ladies would come, and on my telling him that they so
intended, he desired me to recommend to them the entrance at
the Hermitage, where he would give orders that they should be
admitted. This is considered as a very extraordinary distinction,
which M. de Maisonneuve specially noticed. The Court, as
usual, was soon over, and I came home, after going and writing
my name at the Grand Duke Constantine's, and paying visits in
person at Count RomanzofT's and at the French Ambassador's
— neither of whom was at home.
I read Massillon's sermon for the foCirth Sunday of Advent,
' This refers to a letter from the Department of State, to the effect that the Presi-
dent, having learned in some, unofficial way that the expenses of the mission at St.
Petersburg were felt by Mr. Adams as much exceeding his salary and means, was
>moved by these considerations to place within his control a power of relieving him-
self from the burden at any moment he might choose to resort to it. To that end
:the necessary papers had been sent, which reached St. Petersburg on the 4th of the
.month. As no use had been made of them down to the date of this entry, it would
-seem that the Emperor must have heard the news through some other channel.
Mr. Adams ultimately decided not to make use of them. The Emperor is found
referring to the matter again on the 25th.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 213
upon the dispositions for the communion, and Robinson's char-
acter of Manasseh.' The dissipation of the day, and some
occupations also which intervened, diverted too much of my
attention from these books. I endeavored in the evening, by
writing a devotional exercise, to recall and fix my mind upon
suitable sentiments. It is in the midst of splendors and magnifi-
cence that the heart most needs to be reminded of its vanities,
and that the aid of Heaven is most earnestly to be invoked.
Between eight and nine in the evening' we went to the palace,
and were admitted at the entrance of the Hermitage : we passed
through that palace into the Hall of St. George, where there was
yet nobody but some of the ladies of honor, the French Ambas-
sador, and Count St. Julien. The Ambassador very soon after
went away, being seized with a swimming in the head, so that
he could not stay. The Emperor and Empresses came in about
nine, from the White Hall, and immediately afterwards the Hall
of St. George was crowded with people. The polonaise imme-
diately began, and^the Empress-mother sat down to her card-
table. I found it impossible to make my way to it, and, having
secured chairs for the ladies, I elbowed with the crowd until
about eleven o'clock. We then went into the Hermitage, and
about a quarter of an hour afterwards the imperial family came
in to supper. The tables were laid in the Hall of the Theatre,
which was illuminated with great magnificence.
The Emperor went round the Diplomatic table, and spoke to
every guest seated at it, with one or two exceptions. He asked
me whether I was in the habit of supping. I told him I was not.
He asked whether it was a common practice in America. I said
that it was, but that we dined at an earlier hour. He said he
thought five o'clock was too late, but four was a very good hour.
In England, however, he had heard* that they dined yet later.
Count Maistre, who sat next to me, said that a Frenchman had
remarked upon these late dining hours, that people would, be-
fore they had done, get to dining to-morrow ; upon which his
Majesty had a hearty laugh. The supper lasted about an hour.
On returning to the Hall of St. George, we found the crowd
■ From n work in four volames, by Thomas Robinson, entitled Scripture Char*
acters, fimt published in England in 1789-90.
214 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Januaiy,
greater than ever. M. de Maisonneuve made his way with the
ladies up to the front of the circle before the Empresses' table.
The Empresses after half an hour went away ; but the Emperor
continued to yralk the polonaise. When we came away it was
about two in the morning. M. de Maisonneuve told me in the
morning that the Empress considered Miss Johnson as having
been presented at the same time with Mrs. Adams, and therefore
she might in future attend at all the Court parties to which she
would be invited, without scruple. He paid this evening every
possible attention to the ladies, by the express order of the
Emperor.
1 8th. At eleven o'clock this morning I went with Mr. Smith
to the Winter Palace, at the entrance of the Hermitage. Mr.
Everett and Mr. Gray came some time afterwards. We were
immediately conducted to the hall in front of the Palace Square,
where the troops were all paraded. The Emperor was on horse-
back in the square. The French Ambassador and Count St.
Julien were there with him. The other foreign Ministers were
in the hall, together with a number of Russian generals, among
whom were Prince Bagration, the late commander-in-chief of
the Moldavian army, and Count Kamenski, the elder brother
of the present commander-in-chief of the same army. Prince
Dolgorouki, the late Russian Minister in Holland, introduced
to me Count Pahlen, the brother of the Minister now in America.
The Emperor was full half an hour in conversation with the
Ambassador, which delayed the marching of the procession. I
had asked the Ambassador, at the New Year's day Court, leave
to send, by the first courier that he should dispatch, a small
packet to Mr. Russell, our Charge des Affaires at Paris. He said
he should send a courier in a few days, but would let me know
the precise time a day beforehand, that I might have time to
make up my packet Yesterday morning he sent me his valet-
de-chambre to say that his courier would go off in the night,
and that I could have until seven o'clock in tlie evening to send
my packet. I had it, however, all ready, and gave it to the
valet-de-chambre. I asked Mr. Genest whether the courier
was gone, and he said not yet He doubted even whether he
would go this day ; for, as the Emperor was in earnest conversa-
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 215
tion with the Ambassador, he supposed this would make some
'alterations, or at least some additions, necessary to the dispatch.
About half-past twelve the procession marched. The consecra-
tion was performed at the temple below the Admiralty. The
procession returned in about three-quarters of an hour. The
Empresses came up into the White Hall, and we went upon the
balcony to see the troops file oflT. The Ambassador and Count
St Julien came up at the same time ; but the Emperor did not
appear in the palace. The Empresses were a full hour upon
the balcony. The number of troops that passed was about
twenty-eight thousand. The Ambassador told me that he sup-
posed his courier, by the time when he was speaking to me, was
gone. But I think Mr. Genest's information was the most
correct. The Ambassador also told me that there was fresh
and important news from England — where the regency was
established, under restrictions against which the Princes of the
royal family had protested. He also said he had some Moni-
teurs containing orders from the Grand Juge to raise the
sequester upon the American vessels in France, in consequence
of the proclamation of the President of the United States of 2d
November last. The ceremony this day was precisely the same as
that of the last year. Each of the Empresses spoke a few words
to all the foreign Ministers. There was a light collation of cakes,
wine, and cordials, and about three o'clock the Empresses retired*
We returned, as we had entered, by the way of the Hermitage.
19th. I called this morning upon Baron Campenhausen, with
the two certificates of the Danish Consul at Boston, respecting
the cargo of Mr. Gray's brig Palafox, which were sent me a day
or two since by Mr. Gramman. The Baron took the papers,
and intimated to me that the Palafox, and the otiier vessels
included in the list which I sent to Count RomanzofT, and
which had not been included in his list of the first class, would
nevertheless be admitted with them. I then asked him how it
happened that the Commission for the Neutral Navigation had
not yet received their orders for the admission of those upon
his first list. He said it was altogether unaccountable to him ;
that so far as it belonged to his province the business had been
finished three weeks ago ; that Mr. Speransky nearly as long
2i6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Januarjr,
since had laid the papers before the Emperor, and they were
upon his table ; that Count RomanzofT a fortnight since had
told him I had spoken to him on the subject ; and the Emperor
had asked for the papers, even before their turn, to sign them,
which Count RomanzofT had hinted was not necessary. The
Baron said he could not suppose that this delay was intentional
on the part of Count RomanzofT; but he could not explain it
on any other supposition. Perhaps he might have motives of
a political nature for postponing a determination. He men-
tioned to me the letter of the Grand Juge to the President of
the Council of Prizes, respecting American vessels, written in
consequence of the proclamation of the President of the United
States of 2d November. From the Baron's I went to Monsieur
de Laval's ; but he was gone to Gatschina, where the Grand
Duchess Ann's birthday is celebrated.
20th. Our footman Paul had a daughter born on the Russian
New Year's day, of which, according to the custom of the
country, he immediately gave me notice. Paul himself is a
Finlander, and a Lutheran ; but, his wife being a Russian of the
Greek Church, the child, which is a daughter, was to be chris-
tened after the fashion of the Greek Church. Paul asked Mrs.
Adams and Martha to stand as godmother, and Mr. Gray as
godfather, and the child was baptized in our parlor, this day, at
eight o'clock p.m. There was a priest and an inferior attendant
not in clerical habits, who chanted the Slavonian service, the
priest from a mass-book. A plated vessel of the size of a small
bathing-tub contained the water, which the priest consecrated
at the commencement of the ceremony. Three tapers were at
first fixed at the end most distant from the priest and at the
two sides of the baptismal vase. The child was brought in
and held by the nurse, until the priest took it naked and
plunged it three times into the water. With a .pencil-brush,
before and after plunging, he marked a cross on its forehead
and breast, and finally on its forehead, shoulders, and Ifeet —
repeating the same thing afterwards with a wet sponge. A shirt
and cap, provided by the godmother, were then put upon the
child, and a gold baptismal cross, furnished by the godfather.
Tapers lighted were put into their hands, two of them from the
l8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 217
sides of the vase, round which they marched three times, pre-
ceded by the priest He then with a pair of scissors cut off
three locks of the child's hair, which, with wax, he rolled up
into a little ball, and threw into the water in which the child
was baptized ; and finally, after a little more chanting from the
book, the ceremony was concluded. During the first part of
the ceremony the priest turned his back to the vessel of water,
and the sponsors, with the nurse and child, to the priest
Another singularity was that at one part of the ceremony they
were all required to spit on the floor. The priest received five
roubles from the godfather, and the nurse the same from the
godmother. The priest took away with him the napkin that he
had used, and would have taken the table-cloth which covered
the table. Paul himself carried round the wine, and received
the five or ten rouble presents on the waiter.
23d. At eleven o'clock this morning I called upon Count
Romanzoff, and found with him a General Doctoroff, who im-
mediately retired. I told the Count I was sorry to be impor-
tunate with him, but I came to him again on the subject of the
vessels and cargoes of my countrymen who had been so long
waiting here. He said that he had been afraid that this was
the subject on which I had asked the conference, because he
was informed that the papers were before the Emperor and
depended upon his personal pleasure. I said, this being the
case, it was unnecessary to urge the matter to him. He said,
although it was a more difficult matter to him to press his
master for a decision than his Ministers, yet he would see what
he could do in the case. He then spoke of the state of our
affairs with France and England, and made several enquiries
concerning it; of South America, which always appears to
interest him much. I said I hardly thought it possible that^
this war should finish without demolishing the ancient colonial
systems of Europe, which would indeed be at present only a
loss to England — France having already lost her colonies, and |
Spain having now lost hers. "But then," said the Count,
" what will Spain herself be ?** I answered, what she must at
all events be, a dependence upon France. This she would be if
England should succeed in the present war, and could restore
2i8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [January,
Ferdinand the Seventh in Spain, and the House of Brag^nza in
Portugal. In the present state of Europe it is inevitable.
I mentioned to the Count that the President of the United
States, in consideration of circumstances relating to my private
aflairs, had given me permission to return to the United States,
and that I had received a letter to take leave of the Emperor,
with a discretionary power to deliver it when I should be ready
for my departure. I presumed it would be proper for me to
keep it until that time. He said certainly ; or even to suppress
it altogether, if I was not under the necessity of going. And
he could assure me, when I should go, I should be much
regretted here ; that they had a very great and sincere esteem
for me, and would be happy that my stay should be prolonged.
I assured him that I was strongly sensible of the kindness and
friendly reception that I had experienced here, and should be
desirous of remaining as long as I could. At any rate, I could
not take my leave until the approach of summer ; and perhaps
I might stay until the appointment of a successor.
25th. Between twelve and one o'clock I attended with Mr.
Smith at the Winter Palace. Mr. Everett likewise attended.
It was nearly two when the imperial family came in to the circle.
The Emperor told me that from what the Chancellor had told
him he found it was verified, as he had mentioned to me before,
that I expected to go away, and he was sorry for it.
I told him that at least I hoped it would not yet be for some
time, probably for some months.
He said, "Je regretterai beaucoup votre depart, et j*espere
que votre sejour ici se prolongera encore." The Empresses spoke
about my wife, as usual, and the Empress-mother asked me
whether I had seen the ceremony of the 6th instant, and what
I thought of it She knew very well that I had seen it, having
spoken to me after her return from the procession, and while
upon the balcony; but in the necessity of making conversation,
and the desire to appear aflable, this is one of her common
practices — to ask questions about what she very well knows,
and when she is sure that the person to whom she speaks knows
that she needs no answer. She reminds me of the personage
in Moli^re, who, upon being asked whether he understands
i8ii.] TUB MiSSJON TO RUSSIA. 219
Latin, answers, "Oui, mais faites comme si je ne le savois pas."
General Pardo, a Spaniard, and Count Maistre, a Savoyard, are
the only two persons of the Corps Diplomatique who have any
interesting literary conversation, and they are always amusing.
The General had seen a new opera, Helena^ which he said was
very indifferent-^the music wretched, without force or color,
I asked him what he understood by the color of music. He
said he did not see why color should not be applied to music
as well as harmony to painting. I told him I thought it was
something like the blind mat! who said he knew very well
what colors were : that scarlet, for instance, was like the sound
of a cannon. He said there was a man named Castel who
constructed a harpsichord of colors, each note of which was
to correspond with every shade of the rainbow. Pardo was
musing, I suppose, upon his Greek translation of Horace's
odes, for he suddenly broke out, as we entered the Salle du
Trone, where the circle was to be held —
'* Et la palme d* Horace
Crott et fleurit toujours an sommet du Pamasse.*'
The General spoke it with enthusiasm, and in uttering the
second line flourished his hand upwards higher than his head.
The lines are from Piron*s Metromanie, which he said nothing
but prejudice could prevent him from placing on a par with
Moli^re. After some commonplace observations of comparison
between the two poets. Count Maistre repeated two other lines
from the Metromanie, about which he told us an anecdote.
The. lines are spoken by the old man who suddenly found
himself a poet at fifty years of age —
" Un beau jour ce talent en moi se trouva,
Et j*avots cinquante ans qunnd cela m'arriva.*'
He said the Empress-mother was one day in conversation with
Prince Kurakin, now the Russian Ambassador at Paris, and
a young officer, and upon some occasion repeated the first of
these lines, and then seemed to be trying to recollect the second.
The young officer looked as if he was going to assist her memory,
and Prince Kurakin trod two or three times on his toes. When
the Empress left them, the officer asked Prince Kurakin why he
220 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Febnuiry,
trod upon his toes. " I was afraid/' said the Prince, " that you
were going to help the Empress to the second line of her quota-
tion, and only meant to give you a hint qu'il iie faut jamais parler
de cinquante ans a la Cour." '' So I" said the officer. " Voila ce
que c'est que d'etre courtisan. It was lucky for me that I did
not know what the second line was, for I should certainly have
repeated it, without thinking at all of its application." The
Count asked me if we had any theatres or dramatic poets in
America; and we talked about Shakspeare, and Milton, and
Virgil, and TAbbe Delille. It was about two o'clock when the
Court was over. There was no ball in the evening.
28th. I took with me the volume of the Memoirs of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which I had received
by Mr. Jones, and carried it to Mr. Schubert, one of the Pro-
fessors of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, requesting him to
present it to the Academy. I introduced myself to this gentle-
man, and took the volume to him, chiefly because it contains
Mr. Bowditch's observations upon the comet of 1807, and I
found in the last volume of the Memoirs of the Imperial Acad-
emy that Mr. Schubert had made observations upon the same
comet He told me that he was much gratified at finding these
observations of Mr. Bowditch, as he should make an extract from
them to send to some of his friends in Germany, who had taken,
and were taking, great pains to determine the orbit of the comet.
He noticed also Mr. Bowditch's observations upon the total
eclipse of i6th June, 1806 ; and I gave some details of the obser-
vations which I took of it myself, together with Judge Davis
and some other gentlemen, in Mr. Bussy's garden, at Boston.
Mr. Schubert had never seen a total eclipse of the sun, and ap-
peared surprised at some of the circumstances which I mentioned
to him relating to it. He promised to come and see me.
February 1st. Mrs. Adams and I yesterday received separate
printed cards from Princess Beloselsky, announcing the betroth-
ing of her daughter, the Princess Zeneide, a maid of honor to
their Imperial Majesties, to Colonel Prince Volkonsky, an aid-
de-camp of the Emperor. The card is bordered round with
amorous and hymeneal emblems — garlands of roses, conjunc-
tions of oak- and myrtle-trees, a Cupid shooting an arrow which
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 221
pierces two burning hearts, a burning altar and a torch, a con-
nubial ring linked into a laurel-wreath, with a pair of billing
doves hovering over a bed of flowers. Such is the fashion of
the country; and we are told that this civility requires a formal
full-dress visit in return.
3d. The French Ambassador sent this morning to enquire
whether I was at home, and afterwards paid me a visit His
object was to talk with me about those American vessels the
papers of which are still detained. He began with some gen-
eral observations on the c6nsiderable commerce by American
vessels during the last season in the ports of this country. I
told him that it had been very considerable — greater. than in
any former year ; aiid that the principal increase had been at
the port of Archangel, the navigation to which had been much
less interrupted than that to the ports in the Baltic.
"And then," said he, "your vessels have done a great deal of
business here on English account."
I told him that was a mistake ; that the American vessels
which had come here were directly from America, and returned
directly thither.
" But how happens it, then,** said he, " that several of them have
been sequestered, or at least that their admission has been sus-
pended ?"
"Why," said I, smiling, "the credit of that is attributed to
you."
"That is to say," said he, "that we are supposed to have
requjred that a strict examination should be had."
I assured him that I had sent to the Government here a list of
the vessels which I knew to be American, and the cargoes of
which I had no doubt were American property and on Ameri-
can account ; that of some of these vessels I knew the captains,
owners, and supercargoes personally, that by others I had re-
ceived late letters from the United States, and that, as to them
all, I had such evidence of their American character as left no
doubt upon my mind. As to the vessels which had arrived here
about the same time under other than American colors, I had
nothing to do with them, and knew nothing about them ; but
that there were no English vessels which came now here under
222 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February.
false American colors, for the plain reason that they knew they
would be immediately detected, seized, and confiscated. I then
mentioned to him the cases which had occurred here last winter,
and the effect which had been produced by them in England.
He asked where the American vessels could get such quan-
tities of sugar as these had brought. I told him that our own
country produced sugar — |>articularly Louisiana and parts of
the State of Georgia. Besides which, we had sugar from St.
Domingo, from Brazil, from the Spanish West India Islands,
and from South America.
This led us into a conversation upon the ancient colonial
system of the European powers, in which I gave him my
opinion that the issue of this war must eventually demolish it.
He asked me what the state of our affairs now was with Eng-
land— whether in case the Orders in Council were not revoked
before the 2d of February it would not be a state of war-r-and
said he was glad to perceive that the desire of the French Gov-
ernment manifestly was to harmonize with us. He expressed
much concern at the distress with which commerce in general
is affected, and his hope that England would at last come to
some terms, from which it would find relief There was, how-
ever, nothing material said in this conversation but what had
in substance been repeatedly observed between us in former
conversations, for which reason I abridge most of the particu-
lars. As he took leave he repeated his invitation for my family
to his ball for next Friday evening.
8th. In the evening we all went to the children's ball at the
French Ambassador's. A great part of the company assembled
late and returned very early. The children danced Polish
dances, country dances, and French dances. But there appeared
a coldness and reserve about the party which I had never ob-
served on like occasions before. The Chinese shadows were
duller than usual. I saw Count Romanzoff there, and delivered
Mr. Harris's message to him. I also mentioned to him that I
should probably not deliver the letter for the Emperor' at least
before the summer, and perhaps not then. He expressed him-
self satisfied with both my articles of communication to him.
> His leUer uf recall, referred to in the entry on the 13th January, p. 212.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 223
The children had their supper between eleven and twelve
o'clock. We came home ourselves soon after one in the morn-
ing, leaving the remnant of the company still dancing, but the
ball moving on heavily. It seemed as if the adventure of Gen-
eral Hitroff was fresh upon every lady's memory." The person
who appeared to enjoy it the most, and who was in the highest
spirits, was Count St. Julien, the Austrian Envoy, an old rake,
whose desire has long outlived his performance. He told me
that he wanted a chair upon rollers to be moved round the room
from lady to lady and to coquette with them all. He said he
delighted above all things in company, and was very fond of
amusing himself with making people ridiculous. I said that was
an amusement more agreeable to the giver than to the receiver.
He said that it generally returned, and the laughers were suffi-
ciently laughed at themselves ; that he liked as well to be the
subject of ridicule himself as to make others so, especially when
it was done with wit, but that this disposition had once cost him
a thrust through his arm. In his youth he used to draw, and
was fond of making caricatures. He had made one of a friend,
which was very striking and, he must do himself the justice to
say, very ingenious. He had given it to another friend in great
secrecy, to show to nobody; but he had shown it to others, until
it came to the person himself who was caricatured. " He thought
proper to take it amiss, et il avait raison. He challenged me to
fight, et il avait raison. He ran his sword through my arm, et
il avait raison. We embraced each other, et nous avions tous
deux raison. But I told him that as soon as my arm was well
I would set about making another caricature of him. Such,"
said the Count, by a grave conclusion, "are the follies of youth."
The Count very honeistly and sincerely exaggerates a little to
himself more than to others the keenness of his own wit. He
brags of everything that a courtier and a soldier is vain of, and
has not yet discovered that the levities which in youth may be
graceful are, at his years, the best subjects of caricature. I told
'On the 3d is the following entry: "Mr. Montreal mentioned as a report
that on Monday evening General HitrofT, a nnan who had a handsome wife, was
taken up and sent to Ftberia. The cause not known. Said to be from improper
correspondence."
224 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February.
him that, with his taste, he would not want materials to work
with here. He said no; that everywhere — ^at St Petersburg,
at Vienna, and no doubt at Washington — there were objects
enough for this amusement But here, it was true, there were
des ridicules tr&s-saillans, and then pointed me to one of an
officer, " notre chevalier la qui danse les AUemandes sans les
savoir." The Count's spirits were probably the gayer for the
coldness which appeared between the Ambassador and his
Russian guests.
15 th. I called at twelve o'clock this day upon the French
Ambassador, according to our appointment, and found Count
Fagnani with him. He was giving an account of his journey
yesterday to Gatschina. I presume he is a traveller for publica-
tion. He soon went away, and I mentioned to the Ambassador
the case of the American vessels, and the difficulties in the way
of their admission, concerning which he had questioned me
when he last visited me, and which I had then told him were
attributed to him. I then observed to him that some of our
American vessels, though not of this last list, had met with
objections for having been provided with certificates of origin
given by the French Consuls in America, as I was informed an
official declaration had been made by the Duke de Cadore, the
French Minister of Foreign Affairs, that all such papers must be
forgeries, and that the French Consuls in the United States gave
no such certificates.
He said he recollected that I had mentioned the same thing to
him some months ago ; but that he had even since then received
again from his Government a formal declaration, and had in
fact communicated it to the Government here, that the French
Consuls in America issued no such documents, and that all
such papers were therefore forgeries.
I told him that this was certainly a mistake; that I had
within a few days received the copy of a paper, of which I
expected shortly to receive also the original, which, with his
permission, I would read to him. It was a certificate of origin,
signed by Mr. Gerand, the French Consul at Boston, dated
the thirty-first of October last, and to which was added a cer-
tificate from the same person that he had been in the constant
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 225
practice of delivering certificates of origin when required,
and upon satisfactory proof, excepting during the time of the
Embargo.
The Ambassador took minutes of this paper, which I told
him I had brought to show him, not officihlly, because it was
only a copy, nor from the expectation that any others of my
countrymen here Would be injured by producing any such paper
in future — for, after the warning Which they have had, I sup-
posed those who had them would be careful to keep them in
their desks — ^but from the expectation that his own Government,
when informed of its mistake, would take measures which its
own credit and dignity, as well as the honor of its public officers,
would seem in such a case to require.
"But," said he, "supposing our Consuls have given these
certificates in disobedience of their orders?"
I said I thought it more probable, as well as more liberal to
the character of those public officers, to suppose that if such
orders had been dispatched to them they had not been received,
or that they were expressed in terms to which the Consuls had
not quite given the construction intended by them, than that
they had violated their duty by acting in direct violation of their
orders ; but that even were this the case it became a question
between the officer and his Government, which could not afTect
the rights, reputation, or property of persons who had received
their certificates. If they had violated their duty, their Gov-
ernment might say so to the world — might recall and punish
them — might disavow their acts, and discredit them after due
notice. But this was a very difTerent thing from declaring
their real signatures to be forgeries. It was merely a question
of fact: did they, or did they not, give the certificates ? If they
did, and you declare they did not, it is precisely the case of an.
individual who should deny his own handwriting to a promis-
sory note ; and, said I, the dishonor of such a procedure must
fall ultimately upon the officer himself whose Government falsi-
fies his acts, or upon the Government which thus gratuitously
discredits its own officer. I could not suppose such an intention,
in the Government of France.
He said that, to be sure, there could not be two opinicios.
VOL. II. — 15
226 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. LFcbnuiy,
upon a case so clear, considered as a question of law or of
fnarality.
** Consider it, Monsieur TAmbassadeur, as a question of honor
— ^as a question between men of honor — what would be the answer
then?"
He smiled, and said, precisely the same. He added, that, as by
the late measures in France it appeared that the Government
was inclined to come upon good terms with the United States,
he was persuaded that they would do justice in this case.
I told him that I thought this was a case which his Government
would consider as altogether distinct from any consideration of
good or bad terms between the two nations ; that it implicated
the honor of his Government itself, and that even if we were
in the midst of a war, the falsification of a French officer's sig-
nature by his own Government, knowing it to be true, would
not be justifiable, but an act of injustice which France would
disdain.
He said it was very true, and that as the credit due to the
Consul's signatures was conferred by those who appointed
them, it was properly not just that others should suffer, if they
were guilty of disobedience of orders. "But," said he, "it
seems you are great favorites here. You have found powerful
protection, for most of your vessels have been admitted."
I told him that they had ; but it was afler a delay of three
months, and after their papers had been taken from the Com-
mission of Neutral Navigation and had undergone a very strict
examination before the Imperial Council. After the circum-
stance had occurred, I had written to Count Ronianzoff, and
sent him a list of the vessels, for which I undertook to answer
that they came from the United States, and of which I had no
doubt but that their cargoes were American property. All of
these had now been admitted except four, which I expected
would soon be, as their cases were equally clear with the rest.
I then added, that in the first audience that I had of the Em-
peror Alexander, he had expressed a determination to favor
the commerce between the United States and Russia, which
he well knew was a commerce highly advantageous to Russia;
and that he had at the same time manifested to me his strong
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 227
desire to harmonize with France, and his attachment to his
alliance with her ; that ever since that time Count Romanzoflf
had uniformly and invariably assured me that such was his
own system of policy — to adhere to the French alliance, and to
favor the commerce with America; that with regard to the
French alliance, this was a subject with which, as an American,
it was not my business to meddle ; but that it was my duty to
support to the utmost of my powers the rights and interests of
our commerce with this country; and I hoped therefore that the
Emperor would persist in his favorable sentiments towards it.
In fact, I considered the two things as perfectly reconcilable
together.
" I hope they will be more reconcilable still," said he, " as
France and the United States will come to a better understand-
ing with each other. But, after all, you have had a very advan-
tageous commerce this last year. I am told you have had more
than a hundred vessels at Archangel — as great a number here
— and now between twenty and thirty of those last arrived."
"But," said I, "you are to consider that, thanks to you, we
have had scarcely any part of the continent of Europe open
to us. We have had only the ports of Spain and Portugal,
where you are not the masters, and Russia. For you made
Denmark and Prussia shut their doors against us, without a
shadow of reason for it."
" You could not, however, have much commerce with Den-
mark," said he.
I replied that it was considerable, as long as goods were
allowed to be introduced from Holstein into Holland and France,
through Hamburg, by land. He finally said that it appeared
further measures were to be taken in France after the second of
February, and he hoped they would lead to the relief of com*
merce generally, which was now so excessively oppressed.
17th. The weather continues severely cold, and in my ^alk
this day I observed a curious phenomenon. The sun was near
setting (it sets at thirty-two minutes past four, precisely as at
the winter solstice in Boston), and from a clear atmosphere sunk
under a bank of haze. Before it had disappeared, its rays in
passing through the vapor formed a rainbow, which, as I walked
228 AfEMOlRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Febnianr,
Up the quay of the Neva, appeared about the middle of the river,
at an angle between me and the sun. At the same time the
atmosphere was full of frozen particles of the same vapor float-
ing all around me and coruscating in the sun. The Carnival
Ice-hills upon the river are finished, and the sliders upon them
are numerous. They had already begun yesterday. The pro-
cession of sledges from the comer of the Winter Palace to the
Hermitage bridge was more numerous, and the crowd of Rus-
sian spectators greater than I had seen it before this winter.
2 1 St We had all received cards of invitation to attend at the
public examination of the studies of the young ladies who are
about to leave the school which is called the Institute of the
Order of St. Catherine. These cards were brought by the Aide
dcs Ceremonies who brings the notices for the Courts. The
invitations are given by order of the Empress-mother, who is
the patroness of the institution. The examination was fixed
for two days successively, the eighth and ninth of February, at
nine in the morning. But we did not receive our cards until
late yesterday, to attend this day at ten o'clock. We went at
that hour in full dress, as to a Court. The building of the
institution is on the Fontanka. We were introduced to a very
large hall, which we found crowded with company. Convenient
seats in the most distinguished places were assigned to the
foreign Ministers. The Ambassador, Counts Bussche and
Schenk, Baron Blome and General Watzdorf, were there, Count
Luxbourg, and most of the Secretaries. Mr. Everett and Mr.
Gray attended; Mr. Smith did not. None of the imperial
family were there — ^but almost all the Ministers of State and
principal nobility of the empire. The examination of this day
iiad just begun when we arrived. A printed synopsis or pro-
gramme of the examination was distributed among the persons
attending, with a list of the young ladies who have finished
ihcir education and are going out. The objects upon which
the examination turned on the first day were — i. Religion,
Sacred History of the Old and New Testament, and Moral
Philosophy. 2. Universal Geography, preceded by an abridged
Course of Mathematical Geography. 3. Universal History,
Ancient and Modern, and tlie History of Russia in particular.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 220
4. Russian Literature. On the second day — 5. Arithmetic.
6. The German Language. • 7. French Literature. 8. Experi-
mental Philosophy. 9. Singing and Music. 10. Dancing.
Besides which were to be presented some essays of composi-
tions and of translations, and a variety of specimens of draw-
ing, embroidery, and other works of the young ladies. The
examination of arithmetic was in the Russian language, and I
could not understand it. The instructor, however, put the ques-
tions, and the young ladies answered by making ciphered
figures with chalk on a large black-board standing in a frame
like a looking-glass, and which could be seen by all the audi-
ence ; and by explaining the ciphers as they made them. The
examination of the French and German languages was made by
books in French, German, and Russian, which the young ladies
brought to persons of the company, requesting them to open
the book to any passage which they pleased. The lady then
took the book, at the passage indicated to her, and read three
or four sentences from the book, translating it as she went
along, into French, German, or Russian, according to the
language of each book. For this examination it is obvious
tliere could be no special previous preparation ; and it was one
of those of which they appeared to acquit themselves the most
indifferently. One of the ladies brought me a French book,
and translated into Russian a passage at which I opened it for
her. But I was not qualified to be her judge, not understand-
ing a word of her translation. But it is an excellent mode of
examination to ascertain proficiency. The examination of
French literature was in logic and rhetoric. The whole of this
was the repetition of a lesson by heart; and it had been well
learnt by them all. The instructor put all the questions, and
the ladies answered verbatim from their books. They were
chiefly logical and rhetorical definitions, with examples of syl-
logisms, enthymemes, epichiremas, and the principal rhetor-
ical figures. Most of the specimens were in verse, from the
French poets, and the young ladies generally, except that they
spoke not quite loud enough, recited remarkably well. Then
followed experimental philosophy ; the examination of which
was likewise in French, and managed by the instructor. An
230 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [February,
air-pump and an electrical machine were brought in, and a table
with a Leyden jar, and phials of gas, with several other of the
instruments used in courses of lectures upon this science. The
instructor, who in appearance and manners was something of
a caricature, asked questions upon the properties of matter —
extension, cohesion, divisibility, mobility, porosity, &c. — and as
the young ladies answered, desired them to show the proof of
tlie answer by an experiment. The gravity and elasticity of
the air, with samples of oxygen, hydrogen, and muriatic acids
and gases, were tlius proved, and an account and description
of the barometer and thermometer were given ; but many of
the experiments were unsuccessful. One of them consisted in
inflaming some spirits of wine and making them spout up from
a glass fountain. The young lady and her teacher both burnt
their fingers in making this experiment, and he spilt some of
the burning fluid on the floor, which he undertook to extinguish
with an empty decanter, and which burnt for two or three
minutes. He extracted the air by the pump from tlie two
hollow hemispheres of brass, to show the gravity of the atmos-
phere by their adhesion. He gave them to the young lady to
show that they could not be pulled asunder. She gave one end
of them to Count Luxbourg, and held the other herself At
the first and slightest pull the hemispheres parted. The young
lady, without being disconcerted, put the two parts of the ball
together again, placed it upon the pump, extracted the air
effectually, and then showed that the hemispheres could not be
pulled asunder. So that the failure of the experiment at first
afforded the strongest proof that she knew how to make it.
But the teacher, who seemed quite as much inclined to exhibit
his own skill as that of the young ladies, had taken so much
time with his chemistry and air that there was none lefl for
electrical experiments.
Afler this the select part of the auditory passed from the
great hall into an adjoining room, where the drawings, paintings,
embroidery, and other works were exposed. The drawings
were in crayons, Indian ink, or water colors — most of them
framed and copied from handsome prints. The name of each
young lady was marked by a ticket upon her performance, and
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 23 1
all the names of the workers to the large pieces of embroidery
which had occupied several hands; all these samples were
exceedingly well done. The specimens of writing and com-
position were numerous, but I accidentally did not see any
of them. In another adjoining room there were tables laid,
and a cold collation served; cordials were also carried round
to the company by servants.
After about half an hour passed in these rooms, we returned
to the great hall, where a new arrangement of the seats became
necessary, as a larger area was indispensable for the exhibitions.
A piano-forte was placed in the middle of the hall, but the per-
former upon this was a man, as were the whole band of accom-
paniment. The young ladies sang airs, duets, recitative, and
choruses. The best singers were of course chosen for the soli-
tary performances, which were in a high style of excellence.
The whole was uncommonly good. The whole examination
was concluded with dancing — ^the Russian dance; the Spanish
fandango, with castanets; a Polish dance; the shawl and gar-
land dances, by three or four; and the whole number joined in
chorus. The waltz was not danced. The number of young
ladies who leave the school is eighty-one. There are four
classes, each of an equal number. They are all very accom-
plished and graceful, but almost all not handsome, to say the
least. The prettiest and most accomplished of them all is a
Countess Chaillot, an orphan daughter of a French emigrant.
22d. Mr. Weeks came in one of the vessels whose cargoes
have been admitted in part, and he wants to procure admission
for the rest. I told him I expected to see Baron Campenhausen,
who had promised to call upon me, this morning, and that I
would speak to him upon the subject I waited for the Baron,
however, until half-past four o'clock, and he did not come.
This is the fashion of doing business here, as I have experienced
on many occasions. In my application to the Minister of Police
in behalf of Waldstein, he promised that the matter should be
settled to my satisfaction, and that he would inform me of it.
To refresh his memory, I sent Waldstein himself to him with
a written note, and he renewed his promise. The last time I
dined at Count Romanzoflf's I reminded him of the matter,
\
232 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February,
which he said he recollected very well, and that he would write
to me about it in one or two days. I have not heard from him
since. Baron Campenhausen proceeds exactly in the same
manner. Every time I see him he gives me the fairest prom-
ises, which, according to the doctrine of Hudibras, are words —
'' wind, too feeble instruments to bind." It is useless to com-
plain of this fashion. To promise and not perform is their polite
mode of refusal.
In my walk before dinner, I met a crowd of people upon the
quay of the Neva, opposite the Winter Palace, and a very large
procession of sledges and carriages. The ice-hills on the river
were also very much thronged. At eleven at night we all went
to a ball at Count RomanzofTs, given on the occasion of Princess
Zeneide Beloselsky's marriage with Prince Volkonsky. All the
Corps Diplomatique was there, but the company was otherwise
not numerous — less than a hundred persons in all. I walked a
polonaise with Madame de Laval, and on my mentioning to her
that I had been at the examination of the St. Catherine school,
she asked me whether I was there the day that Count Serge
Romanzoff (brother of the Chancellor) had gone up and offered
himself in marriage to one of the young ladies. It was not the
day when we were there. The Count was all last winter in
a state of total insanity, and, though now so much recovered as
to be out again in company, still has occasional fits of mental
disorder. The invitation this evening was only to supper, and,
being a full-dress ball, was solemn and dull, as they always are.
The supper was served about three in the morning. We came
home about four. The Ambassador did not stay to supper —
which was, as usual, a subject of remark.
24th. This, instead of yesterday, is the day which closes the
butter week : the name of which indicates its difference from the
Roman Catholic Carnival. It is a sort of prelude to Lent, for by
the Greek Church they are allowed to eat butter, and everything
else, during this week, excepting flesh. It is also a week of popu-
lar festivity, which increases as the week draws to an end. The
weather this day being extremely fine, the crowds of people in
the processions of sledges and carriages, on the quay of the river,
^nd at the ice-hills, was immense. There were three masquerades
i8ii.] THB MISSION TO RUSSIA. 233
given, one of which began at eleven in the morning and finished
at two P.M. ; the other two began at nine in the evening, and
the music ceased precisely at midnight. There was a French
play, which began at noon, and another at six in the evening.
The full rigor of the Russian Lent commences from this mid-
night. The Roman Catholics have two days more of Carnival,
and begin their Lent on Wednesday morning, which is Ash
Wednesday. The whole system is reckoned from Christmas to
Easter. It is all a fortnight earlier this year than it was the last
I read Massillon's sermon upon the ambition of clergymen,
which is very good, but in which there are somcf singular ideas.
I have often heard of the resistance which it was understood the
Romish clergy were bound to make to their elevation to the
episcopal dignity. The nolo episcopari is proverbial to express
a resistance of form which is always to end with compliance.
But Massillon very strenuously urges that it ought to be a
serious resistance, founded upon a deep and sincere conviction
of unworthiness. This is a hard saying, and I find nothing to
warrant it in the Scriptures. If indeed a man is to measure
his qualifications by a standard of ideal perfection, his estimation
of himself will always be, and ought to be, humble. If a man
compares himself with others who might be his competitors,
the greatest danger doubtless is that he will overrate himself;
and against this error he is certainly bound to be upon his guard.
But as to an absolute duty to underrate himself, to think him-
self the most unworthy of a dignity of which he is really the
most worthy, I neither understand it as a principle nor believe
it as a fact. Clerical ambition is indeed a deadly sin, but a
Roman Catholic bishop could not easily consider it in its
deepest colors. He therefore views it only in the light of in-
dividu.ll ambition — desires of selfish aggrandizement without
reference to that of the Church.
27th. I called upon Baron Campenhausen this morning,
according to his appointment, and had a conversation with
him of nearly two hours; which began upon the subject of the
American vessels whose admission has not yet been ordered,
but which soon extended over the whole field of European
politics. As to the vessels, he made me many apologies, all
234 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [February,
very lame, for not having finished the business before, which
he hinted was not owing to him, but to some other person.
He made me as many promises that the business should be
finished in a very few days; which promises being precisely
the same as those that he has made me more than ten times
for these three months, I am at no loss to estimate how much
they are worth. He has a manner of talking which I have
learnt to understand, and which, by the help of a translation,
conveys his meaning clearly enough. It is to promise, and to
apologize in vague and general terms; with obscure hints to
excite the idea of difficulties in other quarters which proceed
altogether from himself " I was for taking these cases sepa-
rately from all the rest — and it is very strange — it is a great
mortification to me that they have been so long delayed. I
cannot conceive why they could not have been decided by
themselves. But then, on the other hand, they say cases under
similar circumstances, not American, ought to be treated in the
same manner. And then the false papers — and then the sort of
minagement . . . and then the caution that was to be observed
to show that there was no change of system — and then all the
clamor about this great convoy from Gottenburg — ^and then all
these things put together, and the different opinions, and the
different interests. . . . But as for everything that depends
upon me, that has been done ; and I will see if I cannot have
the matter brought on from another quarter."
I urged to him that the vessels had now been kept nearly
four months without a decision ; that the Emperor himself and
Count Romanzoff continually had assured me of the determi-
nation of this Government to favor the American commerce,
and I had made it an invariable principle to meddle with no
other; that I considered it my duty to respect the laws of the
country, but it was also my duty to maintain the rights of my
country and the lawful commerce of my countrymen ; that I
knew the French Ambassador had interfered against us in these
cases, and before the admission of the greatest number of these
vessels I had supposed that political considerations might have
some influence in the business. But now, after the principal
step had been taken
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 235
"Between ourselves," said he, "I can tell you that that
difficulty is entirely subdued. There is no question of that
kind left."
I mentioned to him the case of the Eliza, at Archangel,
belonging to Mr. Thomdike, and concerning which Mr. Dana
made application to me. She actually came directly from the
island of Teneriffe, and part of her cargo had been sentenced to
be confiscated by the Commission of Neutral Navigation, be-
cause some of her papers bore the same signatures with those
which had been found to be false on board the vessels which
were condemned last summer, and which were English vessels,
from English ports, but pretended to have cleared from Tene-
riffe. I said I had not seen the papers ; but that from my per-
sonal knowledge of the owner, and of his agent, now here, and
from the solemn assurances I had received from him, I had no
doubt that the vessel came from Teneriffe ; that she had not
been in England, and that the cargo was entirely American
property.
The Karon said that he did not know why the Commission at
Archangel had felt itself bound by the decisions of the Com-
mission here, in cases the circumstances of which, if similar
in one or two particulars, were different in many others. The
Teneriffe vessels condemned here had cargoes not at all suited
to the place from which they pretended to come. There were
declarations of the sailors that they came from elsewhere.
Some of their papers had signatures which were known to be
false — those which were produced in the case of the Eliza were
indeed the same as two of those which had been suspected in
the papers of the condemned vessels, but that was only one of
a variety of grounds upon which the condemnations had ensued.
He took a minute of this case, and said he would see what he
could do about it.
I asked him whether it woul4 be expedient for me to write a
note to Count Romanzoff on this subject, and he said he thought
it would. There was the case of the Rapid, too, about which
Mr. Stieglitz was talking with the Baron when I went in. He
said that if in the course of two or three days the Commission
should not get through, and admit the remainder of that cargo,
236 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Febmary,
he would thank me to send him a short note with a statement
of the case, and he would see to it
I told him it was a great hardship that genuine Americans
should be put to so much embarrassment to defend themselves
against the charge of producing &lse papers; that men of
honor and integrity found both their reputation and their
property jeopardized by such proceedings. I then referred
him to the Declaration of the French Government concerning
the certificates of origin of the French Consuls in the United
States; which Declaration I had repeatedly assured him was
altogether contrary to the fact. I could now show him docu-
ments to prove my assertions ; upon which I showed him the
copy of Mr. Gerand's certificate which I received from Mr. Joy,
and the original certificate itself of the whole cargo of the brig
Syren, Captain Howland, given by Louis Felix, the French
Consul at New York, dated twenty-eighth July, 1810.
The Baron expressed great astonishment at the sight of these
papers — the first of which, I told him, I had shown to the Am-
bassador. He asked me what the Ambassador had said to it.
I told him he had shrugged his shoulders and acknowledged
that he knew not what to say. The Ambassador had no more
doubt than I had that these were authentic papers. But he
had orders to declare the contrary, and what was it for him to
say?
The Baron then put me many questions respecting the present
state of our affairs with France, and the conduct of France
towards the United States. lie enquired why the measures on
both sides had been calculated upon the dates of second No-
vember and second February ; which I explained to him from
the Law of Congress of the last session. He then entered upon
the general consideration of the policy of France, and asked me
if I had read an article in the last Moniteur concerning the
Continental system. I had not seen the Moniteur ; but I had
just received the Hamburg Correspondent, and had read the
article in a German translation. The substance of the argu-
ment was, that although the Continent suffered very much by
the Continental system, the Governments did not lose their
revenues, and the people could live through it; but that it must
i8il.] THE MrSSION TO RUSStA. 237
lead to the total ruin of England, because England had a depre-
ciated paper currency, which already lost fifteen or sixteen per
cent, in the market. As to the Continental system, I said, that
would undoubtedly last as long as the Emperor Napoleon
should choose to continue his experiment, and as long as such
articles as this should appear in their Moniteur. If there was a
change of Ministry in England, the Orders of Council, which
I abhorred as much as the Emperor Napoleon, would certainly
be revoked, and then he might exult with triumph as much as
if his Continental system had extorted the revocation. They
would be revoked because the new Ministry would be com-
posed of men who from the beginning had pledged themselves
against the measure and who had already made several attempts
to obtain their repeal. But it would not be the effect of the
Continental system; and if the present Ministry should be
continued, they would undoubtedly adhere to them. I said
that when the Moniteur and the other French political writers
argued against the British Orders in Council they could not
miss being right; those orders were in such utter defiance
and contempt of every principle of the Law of Nations, that
nothing too severe could be said against them ; but when the
French writers extolled the effects of the Continental system,
as counteraction to the Orders in Council, I thought as little
of their reasoning as I confided in their facts. The Moniteur,
for instance, now insisted that England was upon the verge of
total ruin, because she had a paper currency that lost fifteen or
sixteen per cent. It contended that the Continent was in a
flourishing condition, because France lost none of her revenues,
and because France had nothing but gold and silver. I did
believe that a national bankruptcy, partial or total, would be
inevitable in England. But what of that ? France had com-
mitted bankruptcy three or four times since her revolution;
and in annexing Holland to the French Empire she had made
her commit a bankruptcy no longer ago than last summer.
France considered it the simplest operation in the world to reduce
a public debt to one-third of its amount and tell the creditors
they must esteem themselves very happy to receive their interest
upon that. With what face, then, could France pretend that
238 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [February,
England was at the point of dissolution because she had a paper
currency that lost fifteen or sixteen per cent? As to France's
losing none of her revenues, and having nothing but gold and
silver, that might be true. And it might satisfy her, too, to
consider her own condition as answering for that of the whole
Continent She could throw all the burden of this state of
things upon Austria, upon Prussia, upon Denmark, upon
Sweden, upon Russia, and reckon their sufferings for nothing
at all ; but they suffered nevertheless for that As to a depre-
ciated paper, I hoped that was not to be considered as a signal
of national ruin ; for if it was, the whole Continent, excepting
France, was in a far more ruinous condition than England,
having paper much more deeply depreciated.
The Baron then asked me what I thought of the probability
of a negotiation for a peace ; which I told him I had long been
of opinion would not take place until the English have evacuated
Spain and Portugal. I considered that as the only question yet
remaining to contend against seriously. He said he was afraid
that would yet be for a long time undecided ; that it did not
appear as if they would soon be expelled from Portugal ; that
if they should be compelled to embark at Lisbon they might
immediately afterwards disembark again in some part of Spain ;
that the war seemed to be raging in almost all the Spanish
provinces, and that the King, Joseph, as well as the King of
Naples, talked of abdication,
I said I did not think the last circumstance of much conse-
quence as to the negotiation for peace. Spain was to be under
French domination, under one shape or another, and it mattered
little who was to be its nominal governor. But the Spanish
Colonies were to be forever separated from their metropolis,
and they would not come under French domination. The
Emperor Napoleon's marriage had manifestly effected a total
revolution in his political system. He had formerly been
inclined to form a system of federative monarchies, placing his
brothers and sisters at their head. But since he had a prospect
of posterity himself, the royalties of all his brothers would
probably meet a similar fate to that of the kingdom of Holland.
The Baron appeared to coincide in these opinions, but he
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 239
was not so free as I was to express his opinions upon general
politics. I told him that the Emperor Napoleon very often wanted
such a monition as was once given to Peter the Great. In one
of his fits of passion, he threatened violence against one of his
officers, who simply said, " Your Majesty will do as you please,
but your history will tell of it ;" and Peter immediately checked
his hand. Napoleon has been in great want of somebody
to say to him, "Your history will tell of it," throughout the
whole series of these Spanish transactions, and especially for
the scenes at Bayonne. The Baron said that Talleyrand had
undoubtedly rendered him that service, though without success.
28th. The General of the Jesuits, Father Brzozowsky, called
upon me this morning with a letter for the Reverend Mr. Neale,
the Roman Catholic priest at Georgetown, which he requested
me to forward. I made many enquiries of him concerning the
school which they have here. They have now forty-two scholars,
which is the full number that they can take. There is under
the father-general a provincial father, then a rector, five pro-
fessors, and six regents. Each student has his separate chamber,
where he studies. But the door remains open, and the duty of
the regents is to watch and pass occasionally from chamber to
chamber to see that the boys are really at their studies. They
are in the classes five hours a day. Whenever the boys walk out
they are accompanied by one of the regents. The pupils are
taken not under six and not over twelve years of age. Their
course of study employs six years — three for the ancient lan-
guages, one for rhetoric, and two for philosophy. The mathe-
matics commence with the first year by common arithmetic,
and close with the last by conic sections and the sublimest
parts of the science. They have two half-holidays in the week.
The church holidays and a few hours of every week are allowed
for the teachers of elegant accomplishments — fencing, dancing,
drawing, and music. Their discipline is indulgent, their pun-
ishment light and adapted to the moral feelings of tlie children.
They have also a seminary for the education of priests : their
term of study is fifteen years, — the six above mentioned — ^then
a second year of rhetoric, which they are required to go over
again — three years of regency^ to form them to the art of
240 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [March,
instruction — and five years' study of theology. With regard
to rhetoric, the good father told me he thought nothing could
be added after Quintilian, RoUin, and Father Jouvency, who, he
observed, was a member of their order. He spoke with great
commendation of the Rule of St Ignatius, as a perfect model
of discipline, ai!d said that Frederic the Second of Prussia had
declared that it would alone be competent to the good govern-
ment of a kingdom.
I asked him if they had any public exhibitions at their school.
He said there \vras one in December, and a public examination
in May, to the next of which he would send me an invitation.
He said that the Grand Marshal Count Tolstoy had now placed
his second son with them. His eldest was now closing his year
of rhetoric. He was remarkable for his docility and goodness
of temper. But they had a young Prince Galitzin, who, though
not of a genius uncommonly bright, surpassed all the others in
indefatigable application. He said that from his experience in
the education of children he always formed better hopes from
moderate natural capacities with assiduous study than from
brilliant parts, which were almost always too eccentric to turn
steadily to good. It is everywhere the same.
March ist. The French Ambassador paid me a morning visit
He mentioned that he had heard I was going away and in-
tended to return to the United States. I told him that I should
probably not go the present year. I said I had heard also that
he was going away, and that he was to take the Department of
Foreign Affairs at Paris. He said that he had been here three
years, and that the report had been constantly circulated during
the whole time that he was going away; that as to the De-
partment of Foreign Affairs, it was not at all desirable that he
should have it
6th. I finished the original Discourse upon Universal History.
There is to the edition which Mr. Navarro has lent me a con-
tinuation, said to have been written by Bossuet, but never pub-
lished until the year 1806. This work, which I had never read
until now, has been, and still is, so excessively extolled by the
French writers that, as usually happens to overrated things, it
has not answered my expectations. Bossuet was a party writer
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 2\\
(in regard to religion)^ and the reputation of all such authors is
exaggerated and partly factitious. Faction of every kind can
find wit in dulness, and supernatural powers in ordinary genius.
The discourse is not, however, an ordinary work. It is a bold
and vigorous outline of Universal History; chiefly founded
upon the Bible. The succession of empires is marked out by
a series of remarkable epochs, and the fortunes of the people of
God, and their successors, the Christian Church, are compressed
into a small but interesting abridgment. There are some
chronological discussions, not very clearly elucidated; a re-
view of the prophecies, equally profound and ingenious ; an
exposition of the arguments of the Jews, who deny the appli-
cation of the prophecies to Jesus Christ ; and an argumentation
against the Protestants, derived from the novelty of their sects.
The bishop's tone, whenever he enters upon controversy, has
nothing in it of Christian humility or charity. He is arrogant
and insulting ; as, when he speaks of Louis the Fourteenth, he
is a base and servile flatterer. He concludes with a rapid view
of the Roman history, in which he recognizes the love of liberty
and the spirit of patriotism as the sources of all their greatness.
8th. At twelve o'clock I went to the Office of the Depart-
ment of Foreign Affairs, on the quay of the Neva, which I sup-
posed to be the place where Count Romanzoff* had appointed
to meet me ; but he was not there. I then went to his own
house on the quay, but did not And him. I Anally went to the
house where he resides, and was admitted. On apologizing to
him for being so late, and telling him that I had first gone to
the office of the department, which I thought his note had
indicated to me, he said that the house in which he lives was
the Hotel des Affaires Etrangeres.
I then told him the subject upon which I had requested to
see him — the vessels which were still waiting for a decision
respecting the whole or parts of their cargoes. He expressed
some surprise, and said he thought that business had been set-
tled some time ago. I said it had been in part, but that there
remained a number concerning which it had been delayed ; that,
not wishing to importune him more than was absolutely neces-
sary, I had applied several times to Baron Campenhausen con-
VOL. II. — 16
242 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March,
cerning it ; that he had repeatedly assured nie that the business
should be immediately settled in their favor; but it was not
yet done. I then told him how long this decision had been
delayed, and how important it was to those concerned that they
should have time to transact their business and be able to get
away immediately on the opening of the navigation in the
spring. I added that I had made a minute in writing of all the
cases, not in official form, but merely as a memorandum, which,
with his permission, I would give him.
He said he was very glad I had brought it, as it would
serve him to draw up his official note to Baron Campenhausen,
which he would immediately send. He would not call this delay
a caprice of the Baron*s, but he did not know what was the reason
of it. I accordingly delivered the minute to him, and mentioned
particularly the case of the Eliza at Archangel, repeating to him
the observations which I made concerning her, last week, to
Baron Campenhausen. I asked the Count's i:>cnnission to send
him a packet to be forwarded by the first courier that would go
to Paris. He said that he would send it with pleasure ; that he
had already received notice of a courier from Paris, whom he
expected immediately, and shortly after his arrival he should
dispatch one. He asked me if I had any news from England.
I had none. He said it appeared Mr. Labouch^re, the same
person who had been sent to London last winter from Holland,
was gone again ; but as there had been no change of Ministry,
probably he would be as little listened to as he was before.
Perhaps he had been sent upon the expectation that with the
establishment of the regency there would be a new set of
Ministers.
I said that I should have supposed the subject upon which
Mr. Labouchere went last winter was now no longer a matter
for negotiation, as Holland had been so formally annexed to the
French Empire.
"Pourquoi pas?" said the Count; " such things are not irrev-
ocable ; and at least the Emperor Napoleon may be willing to
offer terms which may be favorable to England." I said that,
as to the restoration of the Kingdom of Holland, I did not think
. that was an object in which the English •Government would
i8il.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 243
take much interest — they would be indiflerent as to the form
of government, which must essentially be under the absolute
control of France. He said he thought so too ; and though it
might not be an agreeable consideration for the Hollanders, it
was impossible to conceal that they were no longer to be prized
as they formerly had been, considered as a nation.
I asked the Count if this was a special holiday, having seen a
great number of carriages and sledges in the St. Isaac's square,
before the church, and several soldiers at the church door. He
said it was no holiday; but as the nobility of the province had
been this week making their elections, perhaps it was some reli-
gious ceremony which they attended at the close of the business.
He had heard that the Count Strogonoff had been re-elected
the First Marshal. It was the eighth time he had been elected
— that is, he had held the office ever since the establishment of
the system, which was an institution of the Empress Catherine.
But as it was not to be disguised that Count Strogonoff was
growing old, they had now elected a candidate, who he heard
was Count OrlofT, as a substitute in case of a vacancy. He had
not attended, and never attended these meetings himself, because
he did not consider himself as having a right to attend them.
There were, indeed, many persons who attended them merely
because they were owners of a house in St. Petersburg; but that
was not the construction which he gave to the law. At the first
election, the Empress Catherine, to avoid every appearance or
even suspicion of exercising any influence, had purposely left
the city and gone upon a journey while the elections were held.
" At present our masters," said the Count, " do not absent
themselves at these times ; but as to this province, the institu-
tion itself has not answered the expectations that had been
entertained from it. The object was to assemble in a body and
make a representation of the principal landholders. But from
the situation of tli^ capital and of the property in its neighbor-
hood, it turns out that all the owners of the petty gardens and
country-seats on the Peterhof road claimed the right of attend-
ing the meetings here; and upon such a title one of the Mar-
shals elected was a Mr. Bille, the brother of a merchant in this
city — a man who, to be sure, as a merchant, had a very respect-
244 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March,
able occupation and was wealthy, but who had begun lower
in life than that." The Count, therefore, is not much satisfied
with the institution, which is indeed a singular anomaly in a
government like this. The elections are held once every three
years ; and the merchants have an election separate from that
of the nobility. The officers elected constitute the judicial
tribunal of the province, from which there is an appeal to the
Senate. My conference with the Count was short, and I left
him about one o'clock.
nth. In walking my usual round this morning, I met the
Emperor upon the Fontanka. He stopped and talked about the
weather — said it was very windy, and that I was in the direc-
tion to have it shortly afterwards in the face. I told him that
as it was not cold, and I had already been walking long enough
to quicken the circulation, I should scarcely perceive the wind.
I asked him whether this very warm weather, which has now
continued nearly a fortnight, would not break up the river. He
said that it would be a very extraordinary instance if it did ;
that the river had never been known to break up before the
middle of March, and sometimes not until May. I observed
that the last year it had waited until the 30th of April ; but I
thought it could not stand so long this season. ** But," said he,
*' we shall be paid for all this moderate weather before the winter
ends. The spring never begins before its time without relapsing
afterwards into winter. Even last year, on the 31st of May, our
style — think of that, our style — I was going to Twer, and had on
the road a very considerable flight of snow. We gain nothing
by having mild weather too soon." While he was in the midst
of these remarks, a carriage-and-four passed us in the street. He
stepped aside from before me, put up his glass to see who was
in the carriage, bowed, and took off his hat, and then stepped
back to me, and finished the sentence which he had broken off
in the middle.
17th. In taking my daily walk, I met upon the quay General
Pardo, and walked with him. He talked, as usual, of political
news, and of a courier received by the French Ambassador
the day before yesterday, by whom he received a positive order
to stay until the arrival of Count Lauriston, his successor.
l8ii.] THE MISSION TO HUSSIA, 245
General Fardo pledges himself that the Ambassador's recall
was at his own repeated solicitation, and that he had told
him his health was so impaired that on his arrival at Paris he
should ask permission to go to the waters of Barege. In the
evening we had a visit from Baron Blome, who likewise talked
politics in his style. I asked him some questions concerning
this country, which he would not answer. For the current
news of the day, such as is picked up by visits, and such as
those with whom he associates incline to circulate. Baron Blome
is the best-informed man at this Court. But he gets no secret
information, is often misinformed, and, as to the history and
constitutional organization of the country, quite ignorant. So
are all the foreigners whom I meet here. They seldom think it
worth their trouble to make enquiries.
1 8th. As I was walking I met first Mr. Navarro, who told me
that Count Czernicheff had arrived last night from Paris. I after-
wards met Count Luxbourg, who was going to dine at Baron
Blomc's, and I Wcilkcd with him. He thinks that Russia is about
to adopt decidedly a system of neutrality^ and speaks of a new
ukaze for the regulation of trade, which is to be issued next
Sunday, the anniversary of the Emperor's accession. I do not
much believe in that. Luxbourg told me that his letters from
Count Montgelas, the Bavarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in-
formed him that all their advices from Paris concurred in stating
that the coolness between France and Russia was becoming
more and more notorious, but that hopes were entertained that
it would not come to an absolute rupture this season. He says
that the Emperor Napoleon scarcely speaks to Prince Kurakin,
and that Monsieur de Champagny has had quite an angry con-
versation with Mr. Nesselrode at a public dinner and before a
large company. Yesterday the Ambassador dined with the
Emperor, who, after dinner, was in conference with him until
ten o'clock, and this day the Ambassador has been engaged
writing, and has admitted nobody. In the mean time both par-
ties continue to arm and prepare for war. There are now at
least two hundred thousand men stationed on the frontier from
Riga to Kiew, and yesterday or the day before one hundred
and eighty heavy cannon were sent off from tliis city, in addi«
246 MEMOIRS OF yOIlN QUIKCY ADAMS, [March,
tion to all those that had been sent before. On the other hand,
France has just sent a large quantity of fire-arms to Dantzic
and Warsaw; and the number of troops under arms in the
duchy of Warsaw is from fifty to sixty thousand men. .
A diplomatic dinner of about sixty persons at the French
Ambassador's. The Chancellor, great Crown officers, Gen-
erals, and Foreign Ministers were there, all in full dress. Im-
mediately after I went in, Baron Campenhausen came to me
and told me that it was better late than never — that he had been
upwards of a fortnight upon pins until yesterday, which was
the first day that he had been able to make his report to the
Emperor ; that he was happy now to say that the cases of all
the American vessels (excepting that of the Eliza at Archangel)
were definitively decided; that the cargoes and parts of cargoes
which had not the necessary certificates should be admitted on
the engagement of the persons interested in them to produce
the certificates hereafter; that as to all the other small parcels
which were under other circumstances of irregularity, the Em-
peror had also ordered that they also should be admitted, and
that thus everything recognized as American should be cleared.
With regard to the case of the Eliza, there might be some
further delay. A gentleman who had some interest in it had
called upon him once or twice, but could speak nothing but
English, which he (the Baron) could not speak, and therefore
they had found some diffici)lty in understanding one another ;
that, however, he had already written his opinion, that the case
was very strongly distinguishable from those of the pretended
Teneriffe vessels which were condemned and confiscated here
last summer, and the business would be eventually terminated
to my satisfaction.
I thanked the Baron for his information, and especially for
the final decision upon the cases which had been in siis[)onse;
and I asked him whether the custom-house had receivcil the
orders for the admission of the merchandise.
He said they would be expedited from the Commission of
Neutral Navigation to-morrow or the next day, and that he had
told Mr. Stieglitz eight or ten days ago that he might freely make
advances on the goods as much as if they were already admitted.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA^ 247
Count Bussche told me that a courier was gone the day before
yesterday to recall General Kamensky from the command of
the army in Turkey, and that General KutusofT, the Master of
the Police, was appointed to go and take his place. I asked
him what was the cause of this change. He said he did not
know — perhaps to employ Kamensky upon a more important
command. He said that Czernicheff, who was himself present
at the dinner, had brought a letter from the Emperor Napoleon
to the Emperor Alexander, expressed in terms of friendship
and kindness stronger than any that he had ever written before;
but that there were other things which did not so well corre-
spond with these professions. He also remarked that there
were many of the Ministers and Generals here whom he did not
know ; that they were seen only upon these great dinners, or at
Court, and, if you asked who they were, you seldom found any-
body who could tell you. He said that his King (Jerome) had
a curiosity to know characters, and had given him instructions
to report particulars respecting the most distinguished persons
at this Court. But he had excused himself from executing this
commission. It was too difficult and too dangerous. The King
had beaucoup d'esprit, but he was a young man; and perhaps
had not altogether reflected upon the possible consequences of
things. For his part, he made it a principle to write nothing
but what he might be prepared in the vicissitudes of this world
to have all reported back here again.
We talked also of the apparent avowal in the late French
official gazettes of the intention to annex all Spain to the French
Empire. Prince Dolgorouki, who has just been appointed Min-
ister to Naples, and who sat on the other side of Count Bussche,
took part in the conversation, which, he observed, must be
spoken in such a tone of voice that the Ambassador should
not hear it. Mr. d'Alopeus sat next to the Prince. He too is
appointed Minister to the King of Wiirtemberg; but with a
permission to visit all the Courts of the Rhenish Confederation
— Liixbourg supposes, to be a spy upon all their movements
in these critical times.
After dinner I conversed with General Ouvaroff*, who has
just returned from the Turkish army, and with Count Alexander
248 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS, [April,
SoltykofT, who told me that the last census, or, as they call it
here, revision, of the empire, was in the year 1795 or 1796;
which was taken before the regular period, which is at intervals
of twenty years, on account of the final division of Poland,
with the annexation of the Polish provinces to the empire. The
Ambassador was apparently in good humor, and his guests
seemed more at their case than they have appeared at sonic of
his late parties ; but the extraordinary attention paid by them
to Count St. Julien, the Austrian Envoy, was remarkable. Ex-
cepting the Chancellor, Count Romanzoff, whom the Ambas-
sador himself attended, all the other principal Ministers and
Generals made a stand at the door until the Count passed to
go in to dinner. The Count was quite irradiated with this
politeness, and bowed himself almost into a hoop as he stepped
from the circle to precede them. He sat at the Ambassador's
left hand at table.
I told Count RomanzofT that Mr. Harris was very much
pleased with Moscow, on which he said, " Cela ne me contrarie
point du tout, d'entendre qu'on s'amuse a Moscow." Cela ne
mc contrarie point du tout is a phrase of the Count's to signify
tliat it gives him great pleasure.
23d. As I was returning from my walk, about five o'clock, I
met the carriage of the Empress-mother, followed by two others,
just going from the palace, and I saw them cross the river from
the marble palace over to the fortress, to the church of which
she annually goes and performs a solemn act of devotion at the
tomb of the late Emperor Paul, this night being the anniversary
of his death. I had intended to go over and witness this cere-
mony; but on speaking of it to the Master of Ceremonies,
Maisonneuve, he spoke of it in terms rather dissuading me to
go. He said that it was a mere act of family devotion, at which
he had never attended himself, and he could not tell me the
hour at which it took place. Mr. Harris, however, had men-
tioned it to me as an object of curiosity worthy of being seen.
But now it was too late to follow the imperial carriages over.
April 7th. Palm Sunday. At ten in the morning I went to
the Roman Catholic church and heard mass performed. The
church was crowded. The only part of the ceremony which I
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 2^g
had not seen before was the distribution of the holy palm-
branches. But while the mass was performing, there was in
the confessional on each side of the altar, in the left wing of the
church, a priest who confessed a number of the people, men
and women, as they successively presented themselves. The
confessional is in the form of a sentry-box, open at the upper
part, and with a low door reaching about two and a half feet
from the floor, to let the confessor in and out It is barely large
enough to hold one person, has a bench to sit down upon, and
a small lattice window on each side, at which the penitent,
kneeling on the outside, applies his lips, while the priest listens
from within. Each confession lasted from Ave to ten minutes.
The priest applied himself alternately to the lattice on each
side, and muffled himself up entirely in his cloak. When the
confession was finished, he threw aside the cloak from his face,
locked his fingers together, and, holding his hands up thus
joined,, with his eyes cast upwards, muttered a short prayer ;
then, separating his hands, with the right one crossed his own
breast, and with the knuckles of the two first fingers gave two
gentle knocks at the side of the lattice where the penitent was
kneeling, as the signal of absolution. The persons who went to
confession were of the lower classes of the people — common
soldiers, footmen in livery, and women of apparently the like
rank. I observed their countenances on going to and returning
from confession. They were generally and evidently anxious
as they approached, and joyous, or at least relieved, as they
retired from the box. Some of them before confession kneeled
and prayed with great apparent earnestness on the steps of the
altar. There was a young woman whose confession told itself
in her shape. Her previous earnest anxiousness was greater,
her confession longer, and her subsequent satisfaction less
unmingled than was discernible in any of the other cases.
Some of them, after confessing, went and received the com-
munion.
1 2th. Good Friday, which is this year the same in both the
calendars. I accompanied Catherine Johnson to the Roman
Catholic church, where we saw the performances of the day.
We went before ten in the morning, but the ceremonies had
250 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
commenced at nine. The church was crowded, and it was with
difficulty that Catherine and Martha, whom she took with her,
found seats. I stood the whole time. Besides the mass, there
is a procession and representation of a sort of religious panto-
mime, exhibiting the death and burial of Christ. A crucifix
with the figure of Christ is carried round under a canopy, laid
out on cushions in the chancel, and then transported in solemn
procession into a chapel at the left of the great altar. In this
chapel there is a sccnical representation of the sepulchre, with a
remote view of Mount Calvary, upon which stand the three
crosses — and of the Temple of Jerusalem. There is a transparent
coffin with the image of a dead body within it, large as human
figures, and painted images of the two Marys on one side of
the coffin, and two angels on the other. The figures of two
Roman soldiers appear as guards at the entrance of the sep-
ulchre, which is lighted by sepulchral lamps. The small crucifix
which had been carried in the procession was laid on cushions
upon* a table barred ofT in front of this scene, and there were
two large brazen canisters on the table for the reception of alms.
I saw numbers of men and women successively go up to this
table, kiss the feet, the side, and the hand of the image on the
cross, and then drop a piece of silver in one of the alms-boxes.
There was a sermon upon the Passion, delivered in the German
language, by a person who, by his pronunciation, appeared to
be a Pole. He spoke the discourse from memory, but appeared
not remarkably fluent. The style of his oratory was moderate,
and rather cold than vehement. The division was conformable
to the French school, and all the circumstances of the Passion
were introduced into it with ease and propriety. The morning
services were finished between twelve and one o'clock.
13th. Having heard much of the religious ceremony per-
formed at the Imperial Chapel on Easter-eve, I was desirous of
being a witness of it. But, as it is a ceremony to which the
foreign Ministers are not invited, I followed the directions of
Mr. Harris, who had already attended it two or three times.
He called on me about ten in the evening, and we went together
to the palace just at eleven. We were, however, a full half-hour
too soon, the apartments not being yet lighted. We sat down
i8ii.] THE AflSS/ON TO RUSSIA, 25 1
during that time in the guard-room of the Chevalier Gardes,
and then went into the hall nexk to that of the throne, where
the company was assembling. The Grand Master of the Cere-
monies, Narishkin, soon after came in, and told us we must fall
in with the crowd after the imperial family should pass into the
chapel ; but the Grand Marshal, Count Tolstoy, coming into the
hall afterwards, came up to me, said that he was very glad to
have met me, that he would take care to get us introduced into
the chapel, for that if we should follow the crowd we should not
get a place where we could see anything. He left us, and soon
after returned; and, as the imperial family were now just ready
to go into the chapel, he requested Prince Galitzin to accompany
us, which he did, and introduced us, by a side-door from the
same guard-room where we had first been seated, into the
chapel, where the priests and the choir of singers were all ready;
but the imperial family had not come in. He placed us at the
left side of the chapel, close to the iron railing which parts the
chancel from the church, and exactly where the foreign Min-
isters are placed when invited to the celebration of a Te Deum.
On the other side of it, within the chancel, were the Chancellor,
Count RomanzofT, and two or three other Ministers. Prince
Galitzin and Mr. Gourieff, who came with us, also went in there.
General Watzdorf and Count Bose were already in the chapel,
and we all stood together. About five minutes after, the Em-
peror, Empress-mother, Grand Dukes Constantine and Nicholas,
and the Grand Duchess Ann came in, followed by the whole
Court. The crowd was excessive, and if we had been left to
follow the directions of the Grand Master of the Ceremonies,
Narishkin, we should hardly have got within the chapel.
The Empress was not there, having lately met with an acci-
dent in falling over a trunk and receiving a hurt in her forehead,
which confines her to her apartment. The Grand Duchess
Catherine is gone with her husband to meet the Duke of Olden-
burg, his father. The Grand Duke Michael also is absent.
The Emperor and Empress-mother went and stood within the
chancel at the right hand. A gun from the fortress at mid-
night had been the signal of their entering the chapel. One
of the priests went and presented to each one of them a lighted
252 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
taper, which they took into their hands ; and a lighted taper
was in like manner given to every person in the chapel. This
custom is observed at almost all the religious ceremonies of the
Greek Church. The choir of singers then came out from their
stations, marching two and two in procession, followed by the
priests, then by the Emperor and Empress-mother, and after
them by the Grand Dukes and Grand Duchess, and a small
number of the Court lords and ladies, all with lighted tapers in
their hands ; the choir, consisting of singers of all ages, from
boys of eight or nine years old to men of forty, all in dark red
and laced imperial uniform dress, singing as they marched a
solemn hymn — ^and minute-guns were firing at the same time
from the fortress. The procession went in this manner out of
the chapel, and round several of the palace halls, and then
returned into the chapel in the same order, the choir continuing
all the time their chant. The Emperor and imperial family
resumed their stands, and a religious ceremony by the priests
began. It was long, and to me altogether unintelligible. The
principal performing priest was not, as I have usually seen
at Court, the Metropolitan, and Archbishop of St. Petersburg,
Ambrose; for he was engaged upon a like ceremony at the
Monastery of St. Alexander Newsky. It was not even a bishop,
but the Emperor's confessor, who, as such, is entitled to wear
the mitre. He performs the service with much less dignity
than the Metropolitan, and his voice could scarcely be heard.
During one part of the ceremony, one of the priests presented
to the Emperor two images to kiss, which Count Romanzoff
told me were sacred relics procured by the Emperor Paul from
Malta. One of them was a picture of the Virgin Mary, said to
have been painted by St. Luke, and the other was the head of
St. John ; " and these," said the Count, " are all the benefit we
have derived from our relations with Malta." Some time after,
the priests ranged themselves all in a line, each of them bearing
a sacred image. The Emperor went up to them and kissed the
images, and then embraced each of the priests who bore them.
The Empress-mother followed him and went through the same
ceremony, only instead of her embracing the priests they all
kissed her hand. Count Romanzoff told me that she would kiss
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO IfUSSIA. 253
them all on the lips ; but, observing that she did not, said that
it was always thus done heretofore, and that the kissing of the
hand was a very late innovation. The Emperor thqn embraced
his mother. The Grand Dukes followed, and embraced the Em-
peror and Empress. The Grand Duchess came next, and went
through the process. Then the Chancellor of the Empire, the
Grand Chamberlains, CountI StrogonofT and Narishkin, kissed
the relics and priests, and the Emperor; and finally the Em-
press's hand. A promiscuous crowd of officers followed during
more than an hour, going through the same formality, the choir
of singers continuing all the time to chant At the same time
all those noblemen and officers, as soon as they had finished
the operation with the imperial family, turned to one another,
and such a scene of kissing and embracing ensued as I never
saw before. As they passed from one to the other it was a
continual motion, like a bee-hive. It reminded me of the
descriptions in Ariosto and Wieland of a Sultan and his Court
falling suddenly into a fit of involuntary dancing.
Before the embracing commenced, the tapers which had been
distributed around among the company were put out and
returned to a servant, who went round with a waiter to receive
and take them away. After embraccments were concluded,
a new religious ceremony commenced — a mass, celebrated by
the principal priest, within the sanctuary, the doors of which,
by the Russian rites, are opened only upon this occasion. In
the course of this performance was introduced what they call
the reading the four gospels to the four winds of heaven. One
of them was read by the principal priest at the altar, which is
at the east. Three desks were brought and placed fronting the
west, north, and south. A large folio volume containing one
of the gospels was placed upon each of them. A priest came
and took his stand before each of them, and read about a chapter
of each gospel, each priest reading two or three verses at a
time, and following one another successively. The confessor
read in so low a tone that his voice could scarcely be heard ;
but the others read in a very strong base voice, between speaking
and chanting, a fashion of reading peculiar to this Church. The
ceremony concluded by the principal priests taking the com-
254 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
munion at the altar ; but in which neither the imperial family
nor any of the other priests participated. The whole was finished
soon after three in the morning.
14th. There was this' morning a very splendid parade and
review of forty thousand men ; half of whom, it is said, are to
march off immediately to the frontiers of Poland. The Emperor
sent a horse to General Watzdorfto attend this parade. Mr.
Navarro called to see me this morning. The day was un-
commonly fine for Easter. In walking on the quay I met
and walked with General Pardo, who told me that he consid-
ered an immediate war between Russia and France as inevitable.
The Duke of Oldenburg and the commercial system were the
causes. He said that as to the complaints and protest of Rus-
sia against the seizure of the Duke of Oldenburg's territories,
Napoleon had answered, according to his custom, par une sot-
tise — that the thing was sanctioned by a Senatus-consult — as if
his Senate consulted anything but his command. The General
said there would soon be a great dispersion of all the Corps
Diplomatique, and that he himself, he supposed, would also be
expected to go. "But I can toll you," said he, **that, on account
of my own concerns, I shall not go ; I shall stay here. As to
RomanzofT," said he, "the only thing that still keeps him in is
that Caulaincourt is yet here. When he is gone, RomanzofT
will not last a week." I asked who he thought would succeed
him. He said there was talk of Panin, but not MarkofT, whom
the Emperor personally disliked. Mr. Harris dined with us.
He had told mc last evening, while we were sitting in the
guard-room, some information which he had recently received
concerning the prospect of war, and he now urged the expe-
dient of making a sort of provisional Treaty, to be finished if the
United States Government should send powers. He has renewed
this subject to me many times. But I think it best to wait for
authority to act. It is true that if Count RomanzofT goes out,
there will be little chance of doing anything afterwards. But
in that case any provisional arrangement would avail us nothing.
We had this day a succession of Easter compliments, and eggs
of all kinds — glass, porcelain, wood, marble, and sugar — besides
the real eggs.
i8ii.] • THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 255
1 6th. This morning a messenger came from the Grand
Master of Ceremonies and informed me that the Grand Duchess
had fixed this day at half-past one o'clock, s^fternoon, to receive
the Corps Diplomatique at her palace. We accordingly went
at the apix>intcd hour. As I was going up the stairs at the
AnnitschkofT Palace, I met the Emperor coming down, alone.
He stopped, and said he supposed I had come to see his sister.
I said I was going to pay my respects to her Imperial Highness.
He asked me if I had seen the house before. I told him I had
— that it was very magnificent. He said the house was now
appropriated to its proper use ; until lately it had been turned
into a sort of magazine. I found most of the foreign Ministers
already assembled there. Several of these came in after us —
and among the rest the Ambassador. When we were all assem-
bled, we were introduced into the apartment next to the bed-
chamber; and soon afterwards the Grand Duchess came in,
accompanied by the Prince, her husband. The Grand Master
of the Ceremonies, Narishkin, made the presentations. There
were with • the Grand Duchess in attendance only the old
Princess Volkonsky, and Prince Gagarin, the Grand Duchess's
Equerry. The circle was held altogether in the same style as at
the Imperial Palace. The Grand Duchess spoke to the Ambas-
sador and to all the Ministers, and was followed by the Prince,
as the Empresses follow the Emperor. She stood much longer
talking to each person, and, after going through all the circle,
returned again and resumed a conversation with the Ambas-
sador ; after which she and the Prince retired, and we all came
home.
20th. At half-past ten this morning I went to the Roman
Catholic church and saw the christening of Nelson." The
ceremony was very long, continuing nearly two hours, and was
performed partly at the door of the church, partly in the nave,
and partly within the chancel near the altar. It included, I
believe, the three ceremonies of baptism, confirmation, and
communion. There was a bishop, or at least a parson with
an episcopal mitre and staff, and ten or twelve other priests,
* The negro servant whom Mr. Adams had brought with him from America,
and who now entered into the imperial household.
256 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
officiating — with the choir of singers in the organ-loft chanting
the greatest part of the time. There was so much of a crowd
that I could neither see nor hear distinctly much of the per-
formance, though it was the first Roman Catholic baptism that
I had seen. As the baptism of a person full grown, it differed
much from that of an infant. He was first baptized at the door;
then was introduced, leaning uix>n the arm of the priest, up to
the nave ; there was anointed with oil, and had a white fillet
tied round his head, and a white robe over his garments. At
the conclusion, the communion was administered to him. It
was nearly one o'clock when I came home.
24th. While we were at breakfast this morning, about ten
o'clock, the salute of five guns from the fortress announced to
us that the passage of the river in boats was again free, and
that the Governor had brought the glass of water to the Em-
peror. I received a note from Baron Campenhauscn, informing
me that he would see me at any hour this morning. I accord-
ingly went at about one o'clock to his house, and had a con-
versation with him. He told me that it had never been his
intention that bonds should be required for the production
of the Russian Consular certificates upon the last admitted
American cargoes; that a mere engagement of the consignees,
without any penalty, was all that he had required, and that was
merely to s^ive the appearances in regard to the obligations of
this country; that the custom-houses had misunderstood his
instructions, but he had written yesterday a new order to
explain his former directions, and had given facilities to take
the engagements of the consignees immediately here, without
requiring any at the out-ports, where the vessels are. He said
that he had sent to Mr. Gourieff some weeks ago his protesta-
tion against the decision of the Commission at Archangel in
the case of the Eliza, and he did not know why Mr. Gourieff
had not finished the business in the Council; that he had
ordered the papers of the American vessel at Abo to be dis-
patched, that she might come to Cronstadt ; that in the case of
the Venus, at Riga, he would give orders that the engagement
to produce the papers (from Cadiz) should be taken, as in the
others, or that the petition of Mr. Kennedy, the supercargo,
I8ll.] THE MISSION TO XUSSIA. 257
should be granted — ^the cargo sold, and the proceeds deposited
until he shall himself produce the papers. He believed that he
had not one case of an American vessel left upon hand. As
to the time which had been given for producing the papers, a
year and a day, that had been fixed on the proposition of Mr.
Meyer and Mr. Stieglitz themselves ; but if longer time was
wanting, he was as willing that they should have two or three
years as one.
I spoke to him of the correspondence between the Secretary
of State and General Turreau respecting the French Consular
certificates.
He said there was one Hamburg vessel that had produced a
French certificate of a Consul in America, and they were em-
barrassed what to do with it ; but the most extraordinary case
they had was of a house at Rotterdam, which had made a
solemn declaration before the Russian Consul that they had
expedited a certain vessel and cargo to a Russian commercial
house at Archangel, and a declaration equally solemn before
the French authorities that they never had expedited any such
vessel. The Baron, as usual, talked about commercial politics
in general, but in a style a little different from that of his last
conversation with me on the same topic.
May 2d. I dined at Count St. Julien's, with a small company
— General OuvarofT and General Pardo, Mr. Laval and Mr.
Ribeaupierre, with Mr. Schubert, the Director of the Academy
of Sciences, and the Count's secretaries, Lebzelterh and Berks.
The Count apologized for a departure from etiquette in having
sent cards of invitation for an unceremonious dinner. His other
guests had been as much perplexed as General Pardo and
myself to know how they should go dressed. At dinner the
Count mentioned his having been last evening at Countess
Strogonoff's and suddenly having found out that the Princess
Amelia of Baden was there. Upon which Mr. Laval told an
anecdote of a person who once met the same Princess at the
same house. While they were there, the Princess asked if her
sister (the Empress) had not passed by in a carriage, and the
gentleman had answered, " I don't know, but if you will tell
me her name I will go and see." "Ah!" said Count St Julien,
VOL. II. — 17
258 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
" that must have been a stranger, like one of us." " No," said
Mr. Laval, " very far from it — quite another person." But he
did not name him ; so that it was not explained whether it was
an instance of ignorance or of insolence. But, at any rate, it
marks the tone of treatment which both the Empress and her
sister meet at this Court. I had after dinner much conversation
with Mr. Laval, who says that the war is not so near as is pre-
tended, and confirmed me in the opinion I had, that many of
the current war rumors are invented by the party who are
laboring to plunge the Emperor into the war — offensively.
Laval says the Emperor scqs this as clearly as he or I, and
that he will not be guided by that party.
6th. Morning visit from Mr. Raimbcrt, who complains much
of the accounts furnished by Mr. Rodde, of Reval, upon Mr.
Gray's vessels that have wintered there and are coming to
Cronstadt. He told me also that he had just come from the
Ambassador's; that he hoped there would be no war; that
they were afraid here. I afterwards paid a visit to the Ambas-
sador myself, and found him at home. He enquired if I had
any recent accounts of the state of our affairs with France or
England. I told him all I had heard, and said that after the
Emperor Napoleon's declaration in the answer to the deputation
from Hamburg, Lubec, and Bremen, all we could do would be
to wait with patience. The Emperor said that the decrees of
Berlin and Milan (were issued)' for all nations that did not
support their flag against the British Orders in Council. The
British would not revoke them. Wc had nothing left to main-
tain our flag but war. And in a war with England we should
have no flag. When we have two hundred ships of the line,
and a navy in proportion, we may talk of maintaining our flag
by war. Now it would be ridiculous.
He said he wished it were possible to see a prospect of
peace.
I observed that, according to general opinion, it was more
remote than ever ; though I understood the hope of preserving
peace between France and Russia was now stronger than some
time ago. "Oh, oui!" said he. "J'espire que tout ccla se
* These words are suggested to supply an obviously accidental omission.
l8li.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 259
civilisera, I do not see any great interests upon which the
two countries need to quarrel ; nor even any small interests,
which may not easily be arranged to their mutual satisfaction ;"
and then he repeated, " J'espAre que tout cela se civilisera." I
asked him if he expected General Lauriston soon to arrive. He
answered, to-day or to-morrow. Indeed, he might have been
here before this. A courier who arrived three days ago left
him at Dantzic. I said I had heard that there had been a
change in the Department of Foreign Afiairs in France — that
the Duke de Cadore was no longer the Minister. " It was true.
The Minister appointed in his place was the Duke de Bassano."
I remarked that he had been long and constantly engaged in
public affairs, and Secretary, I believe, ever since the Execu-
tive Council. The Ambassador said I was mistaken ; that the
Secretary under the Directory was La Garde, and Maret came
in only at the time of the Consulate. He did not know what
was the occasion of the Duke de Cadore's going out. It was
only mentioned to him in a private letter of i6th April, the day
when it happened, and when the courier was to have left
Paris,
I asked if it would probably produce any material change in
the political system. " No. The Emperor governs so much
by himself, that a Minister is nothing more than the pen, and
not the hand that guides it."
I asked if the Prince of Benevento had not still some super-
intendence over the Department of Foreign Affairs. ** No. He
had no hand in the public affairs at present, but was altogether
in retirement. His capacity as a Grand Dignitaire was that of
Vice Grand Elector, the double of the King of Spain, who was
Grand Elector. This was a place not of business, but merely
of representation. Its only duty was to present to the Emperor
the Senators and members of the Legislative body. The only
office of a diplomatic nature, in rank above that of the Minister
of Exterior Relations, was the Arch Chancellor of State ; which
was held by the Viceroy of Italy."
I asked him whether he expected to go soon after the arrival
of his successor. He said, in three or four days ; that he had
full time to be prepared, and should be impatient to get home.
26o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
I asked him if he would do me the favor to take a small packet
of letters for Mr. Russell, which he promised to do with pleasure.
He said that shortly before his departure he would give me
notice, and call to take leave of Mrs. Adams.
I met the Emperor, who stopped and conversed with me —
at first, as usual, about the weather, which he remarked was
warmer and finer than he remembered ever to have known it
so early in the season, but he was afraid we should have it
balanced by foul weather hereafter. Snow, it was at least cer-
tain, we should have ; for he had never known, and there never
had been known here, an instance of the month of May passing
entirely without snow. I said that now the weather was rather
that of an Italian spring. He remarked that it was very long
since he had seen me, and asked if I had abandoned my habit
of walking. I answered that I had not, but I believed it was
the hour at which I usually walked that deprived me of the
happiness of meeting his Majesty. He said that he had often
of late been so engaged in business that he could not take his
usual walks ; and sometimes he had gone out of the usual track,
which might also have contributed to the length of time since
he had met me. He then said that the ice from the Ladoga
was passing down (he was coming from the river — I was going
towards it), but that there was not much of it, and the weather
was so moderate, he thought there would not be so much as
usual. He then made a movement as if to leave me, and I was
about to bow and turn from him, when he stepped back to me,
and, leaning on the iron railing of the canal, asked me if I had
any late accounts from home. I told him I had letters to the
twentieth of February. He asked if they contained information
of any particular importance. I said they did not ; that the
occurrence of principal note of which I had heard was the arrival
of the new French Minister, Serrurier, to replace the former one.
General Turreau. He asked me what the state of our affairs
with England was. I answered that they remained in an un-
settled state; that our Minister there had taken leave and was
gone, but he had left a Charge des Affaires there ; and that the
English Government had sent out a new Minister to the United
States, who, as Mr. Perceval had said in Parliament, carried out
i8ii.] THE Mission to xussia. 261
some new propositions from England. I added that I had
heard Mr. Smith, a gentleman who had been with me, and
had had the honor of being presented to his Majesty, would be
Charge d* Affaires in England. " But," said the Emperor, " did
he not go from here to Vienna ?" I said he did, and was now
at Paris ; but I had heard he was to be the Charge d' Affaires in
England. " It is a place of some importance," said his Majesty,
" is it not ?" I said, of very considerable importance, especially
in the present state of the relations between the United States
and England. "And," said he, "I hear you have lately made
an acquisition." I observed, I supposed his Majesty meant in
Florida. He said that was what he meant " But," said he, " it
appears to have been a spontaneous movement of the people
themselves, who were desirous of joining themselves to the
United States." I said, so it appeared from the accounts which
I had seen, but that I had received no communication from my
Government upon this subject. I added that this was a part of
the territory which had been ceded by France to the United
States in the Louisiana Treaty ; that Spain, however, had entered
into a controversy with us about it, upon which negotiations
were pending at the time when the great changes in the Govern-
ment of Spain itself had taken place ; that since then the people
of that country had been left in a sort of abandonment by Spain, ,
and must naturally be very desirous of being annexed to the
United States. Under these circumstances the United States
have taken possession of the country. The Emperor smiled,
and said, "On s'agrandit toujours un peu, dans ce monde,"
and bowed; upon which I quitted him, and continued my
walk.
We had been standing so long that numbers of people between
the two bridges had observed us, and from the time when I left
him until I had got beyond the distance where we could be seen
together, the people gazed upon me as upon a very important
personage ; once past those boundaries, every mujik brushed by
me with as little notice as if passing one of his fellows. Such
is the magic of an Emperor's countenance. We had stood all
the time immediately before the guard of soldiers stationed
upon the Fontanka, who were turned out under arms. When
262 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
he turned back to me, to speak of politics, he waved his hand
to the officer to dismiss the guard from being under arms;
which he did.
9th. On rising this morning, I received from the French
Ambassador a message that his successor, Count Lauriston, had
arrived in the night ; and an invitation to come and dine with
him in boots. At half-past four I went to the French Ambas-
sador's and dined. He presented us to General Lauriston, a
man, by his own account, as near as may be, of my age* — very
diflferent in manners, address, and appearance from the Duke de
Vicence. The comparison is not to his advantage. He brought
with him an aid-de-camp, named Longuerue, who appeared only
at the dinner, was introduced to nobody and spoke to nobody.
The company, besides the two Ambassadors and the family,
consisted of the Counts St. Julien, Schenk, Bussche, and Lux-
bourg. General Pardo and Baron Blome, the Chevalier Brancia,
and myself. Prince Galitzin was the only Russian there. The
Duke de Vicence was suflfering excessive pain with his lame leg
and foot. While we were at dinner. Count Tolstoy, the Grand
Marshal, came in full dress from Court to pay his visit to the
new Ambassador. Mr. d'Alopeus came in after dinner, and
said he was going upon his mission in a very few days.
There was in the evening a play at the Hermitage, it being
the celebration of the Grand Duke Constantine's birthday.
Count Bussche remarked that the choice of plays was made by
the Emperor, and it was singular that for this evening he had
selected Ruse contre Ruse, the other title of which is Guerre
ouverte. After the dinner I walked about an hour with Count
Luxbourg, who still thinks the war will break out.
13th. Russian May-day. The weather was cold, and, in the
morning, rainy. We dined at four o'clock, and after dinner the
ladies went to the procession of carriages from the Peterhof
gate to Catherinenhof I took a long walk round the Fontanka
and river quays, over the bridge which was yesterday replaced,
to the new Exchange. I met in the Newsky Perspective Baron
Campenhausen, who turned and walked to the Fontanka bridge
with me. He had called upon me the day before yesterday,
' Born February I, 1768, — a little more than six months younger.
i8ii.] TJiE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 263
when I had not been at home. He said it was to talk to me
about a poor merchant, one Mr. Cramer, whom he had sent for
to take his opinion last autumn about some sugars at Archangel,
and who, together with other persons whom he had also called
to give their opinions, had taken them for refined sugars pow-
dered ; that he had lately been to him and complained that this
afTair had injured him exceedingly; that Mr. Harris had written
to America, charging him with having taken part against Ameri-
cans, and that it had affected him very seriously in his business;
that Mr. Cramer had requested him to speak to me about it,
and he could assure me that Mr. Cramer had no knowledge
whatsoever that it was sugar imported by Americans, which
must acquit him of any intentions to injure Americans in their
trade.
I told the Baron that Mr. Cramer had spolcen to me on this
subject, and that I had heard a great deal of it at the time while
the character of the sugars was in question ; that several Ameri-
cans had indeed been much alarmed on finding themselves sus-
pected and inculpated of an intended fraud upon the Government,
and when they found such charges and suspicions countenanced
by an opinion .said to have been delivered by Mr. Cramer when
consulted by the Government, it was natural that they should
feel resentment against him, and that it should have affected
him in his business. Mr. Cramer had told me, however, not
only that he had not known the 'sugars to be the property of
Americans, but that he had been of a different opinion from that
of the other persons consulted with respect to a part of the
samples. This fact was more material to his justification than
whether he did or did not know to whom the property belonged ;
and this was what he told me the Baron could attest for him.
The Baron said it w.is true Mr. Cramer had at first expressed
a doubt with regard to one of the samples, but he, as well as
the other gentlemen, had finally assented to the opinion of the
sugar-refiner, who came from Hamburg. That, I said, was
the misfortune, as it was now ascertained that they 'were all
mistaken, and the sugar-refiner as much as all the rest The
sugars were raw white Havanna, and not refined sugar pow-
dered. Mr. Cramer, with the other gentlemen, had made a
264 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
mistake, unfortunate now for himself; but with regard to the
intention I believed he was not to blame ; and if the occasion
should offer, I would say as much in his iavor.
Upon this I left the Baron and continued my walk. The
whole of this transaction has proved to me the evil and danger
of excessive jealousy and suspicion in the management of public
business. The Baron himself was the dupe of his own suspicions.
He endeavored in a cunning way to get the opinions of mer-
chants to sanction his suspicions. He succeeded to get the
opinion, but it was an error ; its effect was almost to ruin one
of the. merchants from whom he had drawn an incautious and
mistaken opinion, and now he is reduced to exculpate the
man whom he injured by a captious and insidious consultation.
He says he refused to tell them to whom the sugars belonged.
Cramer says he* deceived them by using German names to
designate American vessels. Under the semblance of an im-
partial examination, it was an unfair snare, laid for the mer-
chants whom he consulted, as well as for the importers whose
property was at stake — ^and all to indulge suspicions. Give
me, in every station of life and every crisis of affairs, an open
and a candid mind.
17th. Mr. Harris called on me this morning, and requested me
to go with him to present him to the new French Ambassador.
He was not at home, and we left cards there, and at M. de Cau-
laincourt's. He has removed into the apartments on the street,
leaving all the hotel on the canal to his successor. We next
went to Count Schenk's, where we were received ; but his Sec-
retary, M. de Gremp, whose visit I was returning, was not at
home. As we left Count Schenk's the new French Ambassador
drove up to the door in his carriage, and left a card without
getting out He passed me immediately afterwards, and I saw
that he was full-dressed. On leaving Count Schenk's I parted
from Mr. Harris, and called at Count Stedingk's; but he was not
at home. I walked around upon the river quay, and through
the Summer Gardens, where I found some elegant company.
The bridge to Kammenoi-ostrow is just putting up for the
summer. On returning home I found the Ambassador's cards.
He had been going through one of the most inconvenient and
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSI4. 265
absurd but best established usages of this place — ^that of going
a round of visits in full court dress, and leaving cards at every
house without enquiring whether the persons visited are at
home, or ever getting out of the carriage. There is so much
punctilio in this usage that it admits of no substitute. It is not
sufficient to send a servant with a card, nor even to send round
your carriage : nay, if you go yourself, unless it be in full dress
the visit is not duly paid. You must be seen in full dress by
all the porters ; but it is understood that you are only to leave
a card. This is called a diplomatic visit paid in person.
I walked again in the evening. Met and walked with Gen-
eral Pardo, a phenomenon of human character — an excellent
classical scholar, a profound connoisseur in the arts — a Spaniard,
the proudest of his nation that I ever knew, a most impassioned
Spanish patriot in their present struggle against France, and
yet appearing here as the Minister of King Joseph, a Lieutenant-
General by his appointment, and wearing a great "blushing
riband*' of his order. He is, of all the men that I was ever
acquainted with, the one whose discourse is the most constantly
in hostility with his situation and conduct. Yet his conversa-
tion is agreeable. His great intellectual deficiency is judgment
His characteristic want is energfy. Such a composition is rare —
taste, learning, and a brilliant imagination, without steadiness
of brain or firmness of heart. He told me the Duke de Vicence
would go to-morrow night
1 8th. Morning visit from Mr. Montreal, and afterwards from
Mr. Harris, who came to tell me that he should call with the
Duke de Richelieu, which he did about an hour afler. The
Duke is Governor of Odessa, and ilow here upon a visit, as he
has been about six weeks. He is of the ancient and high
nobility of the French monarchy, and was an emigrant ; but
has been many years in the Russian service. He told me that
he had an army list of France for the year 1790, in which the
Emperor Napoleon, Count Lauriston, and Savary were all down
as Second Lieutenants in the regiment of La Fere. He spoke
to me also of the American trade to the Black Sea, and wished
that the admission of American vessels to it might be stipulated
in the treaty of peace beween Russia and the Porte ; to which
266 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May.
he supposed the Turks would readily agree, and which he was
only afraid would be forgotten.
19th. The morning being fine, and as on rising I heard the
music of one of the regiments marching to the parade, I resolved
to go out and see it. I went about half-past eight o'clock, but
found only one regiment yet upon the square. Pursued my
walk to the quay, where I met the Chevalier Brancia; he turned,
and we walked to the Summer Gardens. On our return we found
the troops all assembled, and servants with horses waiting at the
Emperor's door. Walked round the Boulevard, when Brancia
left me. He was going to visit Dr. Creighton. A few minutes
before ten the Emperor appeared, galloping along in front of
the line of troops, which extended from the corner of the Grand
Millionne to the bridge across the Nicolai Canal, on the Ga-
leerenhof. The Grand Duke Constantine rode at the Emperor's
left hand, on a line with him. The French Ambassador, Count
St. Julien, and General Watzdorf, followed behind, and a suite
of fifteen or twenty general officers and aides-de-camp. I could
not ascertain the number of the troops upon the parade. There
was a mixture of infantry, cavalry, and artillery. I marked the
Uhlan regiment, every man of whom carries a little red-and-
white pennant at the top of his pike. The arrangement of
baggage appears well adapted for marches and to diminish the
incumbrances of a large train. The Emperor's review is not
long. It consists in his galloping from one end of the line to
the other, and back again — after which the troops file ofT on
the Palace Square before him.
2 1st. I took a short walk before dinner, and went through
the Summer Gardens. Met and walked with Mr. Prevost, who
told me that the Duke of Vicence had left this city on Sunday,
about noon, and expected to lodge this night at Baron Lowen-
stern's, near Riga. On Saturday morning he had an interview
with the Emperor, who had given him a box with his picture,
with his own hand, saying it was a great likeness, and that he
gave it not as to the Ambassador, but as a token of his par-
ticular friendship. He embraced him several times ; bade him
adieu in the most affectionate manner, and even shed tears.
Prevost said the Duke was much affected by the numerous
i8il.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 267
marks of esteem and regret shown him at his departure. And
they were well merited. He lived here in a style of princely
magnificence ; aiid he was one of the most accomplished gen-
tlemen in his manners that I ever knew. His civilities and
attentions were always obliging, and without pretension or
afTectation. His personal disposition was moderate and pacific.
He had perhaps made himself too agreeable here for the pur-
pose of his own Government. In his family, it is said, he was
passionate and violent, and he had connections of gallantry
in which he indulged himself too much without reserve. It
engrossed too much of his time ; it laid him open too much
to the Government here ; and it occasioned scandal in a country
by no means scrupulous for the purity of its morals. The
Emperor's presents to him at his departure are upwards of
a hundred thousand roubles in value, three or four times as
much as it is customary to give. The more I see of this usage,
the more I approve the principle adopted by the Government
of the United States, to prohibit altogether the acceptance by
their Ministers of any such presents.
24th. Mr. Krehmer sent me the London Courier, from 19th
to 26th April, where I found articles which give me great con-
cern upon the account of my country. They threaten war in
the most unequivocal terms. I fear the British Ministry have
made it unavoidable. They menace us with an " Iliad of woes,"
and already deny us every particle of compassion for our suflfer-
ings under them. Non nobis, Domine I If our trial is now to
come, God of Justice and of Mercy I give, us spirit to bear with
fortitude and to derive ultimate power and virtue from all the
evils that they can inflict, and spare us from that woe of woes,
the compassion of Britons !
31st. I took my usual morning's walk. On the Fontanka,
near the bridge through which the canal joins the river, I met
the Emperor walking. As he approached me he said, " Mon-
sieur Adams, il y a cent ans que je ne vous ai vu," and coming
up, took and shook me with great cordiality by the hand.
After some common observations upon the weather, which has
been very fine, but which this day was. cold and autumnal, and
which he thought would yet come to snow, before the end of
268 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
this month, Russian style, he asked me whether I intended to
take a house in the country this summer. I said, no ; that I had
for some time had such an intention, but had given it up. '' And
why so ?" said he. I was hesitating upon an answer, when he
relieved me from embarrassment by saying, ** Pcut-etre sont-ce
des considerations de finance," As he said it in perfect good
humor, and with a smile, I replied in the same manner. " Mais,
Sire, elles y sont pour une bonne part." " Fort bien," said he ;
'' vous avez raison. II faut toujours proportionner la depense a la
recette." A maxim worthy of an Emperor, though few Emperors
practise upon it. He then asked me if I had received any late
news from America. I said I had. He replied that he also had
lately received some very interesting dispatches from Count
Pahlen, which had given him much pleasure. He asked how
our affairs stood with England. I said they had a very hostile
appearance, and that the English journals were threatening us
with the last extremities, but that my own letters from America
did not appear to expect that a war would ensue. '' It has, how-
ever," said he, "very much that appearance — at least if we
believe the French journals. But, au reste," he added, "we
know how much the Moniteur is to be believed, and that cer-
tain deductions are to be made from whatever that contains."
I said, to be sure — people were very apt to publish as fact what
they had an interest and a wish to believe.
On this he made me his usual parting bow, or rather military
salute, by raising his hand to his hat, and pursued his walk.
Soon after six in the evening, I went and attended the third
and last day's examination of the pupils at the Jesuits' school.
The examination was of the four classes, and, being upon sub-
jects more easily comprehended than the sublime mathematics
of last evening, I was much better entertained with it. French
and Latin Grammar, Geography, Mythology, Prosody; passages
from Virgil's Eclogues, and from Gressct's French translation
of them ; Rhetoric, with a recitation and illustration by analysis
of Massillon's funeral eulogy upon Turenne and Cicero's Ora-
tion pro Rege Dejotaro, furnished the materials for the exam-
ination. The exercises closed by what we should call at our
Colleges a conference, upon the respective merit of the infantry,
i8ii.] THE hUSSrON TO RUSSIA. 269
cavalry, artillery, and light troops for military service. Four
of the young men delivered discourses on the superior merit
which each of these modes of service might claim ; and a fifth
opened the subject to the auditory and sat as umpire of the
contest He adjudged the palm of utility to the infantry;
assigned the next place to the cavalry, the third to the artillery,
and regretted that he had not a fourth prize to bestow upon the
Cossacks, Uhlans, and Hussars. The controversy was very well
supported, and each of the young men delivered his part as well
as would be done by most of pur College speakers. Oratory,
however, is less cultivated here than with us, and in that respect
the performances are inferior to ours ; as in the mathematics they
are much superior. The printed notice of the exercises says
that the discourses of the young martial disputants were com-
posed by themselves ; but this must be taken as the Emperor
takes the news in the Moniteur. After the performances were
finished, the prizes (books handsomely bound) were distributed
to the students who had excelled by application and success —
two to each class. Their names were publicly proclaimed by
one of the fathers, and the Minister of Public Instruction gave
them the books. It .was about ten at night when all was
finished.
June 3d. This morning the Father-General of the Jesuits
called on me before breakfast, with a letter to be transmitted to
America; which I took. He sat and conversed with me, I be-
lieve, more than two hours. He enquired about the numbers
and character of our religious sects in America; and when I
told him of them, he lamented the multitude of sects which
had separated from the Holy Church, and urged with great
earnestness upon me the necessity of unity as well ^ union in
the Church. I indulged him in his remarks, and purposely
stimulated him to controversy, by contesting his positions and
hinting the answers to his arguments. I found him not so keen
and skilful a controversialist as I should have expected. The
necessity of a Church, and of a head to the Church ; the cer-
tainty of the seven sacraments ; the express words of Jesus
Christ to establish trans ubstantiation, and the duty of celibacy
for the priesthood; he dwelt upon all these points with an
270 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
appearance of strong conviction upon his own mind, and with
no small show of a desire to produce it upon mine. He apolo-
gized for talking to me on religious subjects, because it was a
holiday of the Church, and told me that their Metropolitan,
the Archbishop of Mohilcflf, would administer the sacrament
of confirmation to several persons this day between twelve and
one o'clock at noon. I went at the time and saw this ceremony
performed. It has nothing peculiar in it, but was remarkable
by the great solemnity of its forms. The Archbishop wore
the embroidered robe, the mitre, and the crosier, which, after
having finished the ceremony, he laid aside within the sanctuary,
and he was conducted to the front doors of the church by
seven or eight subordinate priests, with like solemnity. It was
over in less than half an hour, and I walked home.
4th. I had written yesterday a note to Count RomanzofT,
requesting a conference with him, and this morning found on
my table a note from him appointing this day at noon for that
purpose. I went accordingly at that hour. The Count, as I
entered, told me that he had just received a courier, who had
passed through Paris, but who came from Madrid — an aid-de-
camp of Prince Rcpnin, the Minister appointed from Russia
to reside near King Joseph, but who never went there. The
aid-de-camp had left Madrid after the King, who had now
arrived at Paris, after having seen his brother, the Emperor
Napoleon, at Rambouillet. I thanked the Count for the packets
which he had sent me, brought by former couriers. He said
he understood they were packets which he should be sorry
for; as they were to occasion my return home. I told him
that they contained notice of my appointment to an honorable
office in my own country ; but that there was some tie which
attached me so strongly to this country that I should probably
not go yet. I then mentioned the situation of my wife, which
would make it impossible for me to embark for America
certainly until very late in the season, and probably before
the next year. He asked me if the office was of a nature
which would admit of being long vacant. I answered that I
considered it would not ; that it ought to be filled as soon as
possible ; and I could not go immediately to assume the dis-
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 27I
charge of its duties. I had written to the President of the United
States, requesting him to excuse me from accepting it, and to
appoint another person. He then said that he should this
evening ask the Emperor's permission to dispatch a courier to
Paris, and should probably send him in the course of the day
after to-morrow. If I wished to send any letter or packet to
the Charge d' Affaires of the United States, he would be happy
to forward it for me. I accepted his offer ; and I then observed
that from the idea which since my residence here I had formed
of the importance and mutual benefit of the commercial rela-
tions between the United States and Russia, from the signal
manner in which Russia had distinguished herself from all the
other belligerent powers of Europe, in her treatment of the fair
commerce and neutral rights of America, and from a wish to
increase and render still more advantageous the commerce
between the two countries, the idea and desire had occurred to
me of cementing still further their amity by a treaty of com-
merce. I had suggested this idea to the American Government,
and was now authorized to propose the negotiation of such a
treaty, if it should be agreeable to the Emperor. I had thought
it most advisable to make to him at first this verbal communi-
cation, instead of sending him an official note upon the subject.
I requested him to consider it as confidential, so that at least it
should be made known only when he thought it advisable ; as
I had communicated the knowledge of it to no person whom-
soever.
The Count then asserted his great and long-settled attachment
to the United States — the desire which he had so many years
entertained of favoring American commerce. It was not only
a thing to which he was attached by sentiment, but it had
been with him long a maxim of policy. It was the interest of
Russia to encourage and strengthen and multiply commercial
powers which might be the rivals of England, to form a balance
to her overbearing power. Russia herself had not the advan-
tages for it. She could not be a great naval power. Nature
had in a great measure denied her the means. She ought then
to support and favor those who had them. The propriety of
extending this spirit to the United States had become more
272 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
obvious and strong by the decay and disappearance of the old
commercial States. Holland, for instance ; how great a com-
mercial power she had been even within our memory i Those
sentiments he had often expressed, with a strong sense of con-
viction, to the Emperor, who had always received them well
and appeared impressed with the justice of them. He referred
me to Mr. Harris for the proof that such had always been his
system, or indeed to some other person even in preference to
him.
I observed that I was fully sensible of it myself; that I had
frequently had the demonstration of it ; and I could assure him
that the Government of the United States were by no means
ignorant of it. He said that he would lay before the Emperor
the proposition, which he presumed would meet with no diffi-
culty whatsoever — unless, indeed, there was one, which he did
foresee : which was, that in the violent and convulsed state of
commerce and of the world at this time, he hardly conceived
it possible to agree upon anything, if he might be allowed the
expression, that had common sense in it. But, however, at
any rate, this need not prevent him and me from debating the
subjects which might be interesting to the commerce of our
countries, and coming to an agreement if we could. This is
precisely the object of the American Government. He said he
would make his report of this conversation to the Emperor, and
in a few days would send and ask me to call upon him again.
Then he enquired how affairs stood between the United
States and France on one part, and England on the other. I
told him briefly the actual state of things. He asked me if
Mr. Erving was now our Minister in France. I said Mr. Rus-
sell was the Charge d*Affaires; Mr. Erving's mission was to
Denmark. He said he had understood that Mr. Erving had
some arrangements to make in France, which would detain him
still some time at Paris. How were we likely to come out with
England ? I told him that it would depend altogether upon
England herself; that my letters from America did not appear
to indicate an expectation of war there, but that the late accounts
from England seemed to manifest hostile dispositions.
He said he thought that was very probable. England, no
i8ii.] Tim MISSION TO RUSSIA. 273
doubt, would decide according to the ministerial opinion of
what was most for her interest, and that would now more than
ever be of adherence to their system. Their recent successes
were calculated to give great strength to the Ministry, and to
repress the opposition far more than had been seen for many
years in that country. Indeed, he must say that for many years
England had not exhibited such talents as those by which she
was now governed. The two brothers Wellesley had certainly
proved themselves extraordinary men, not only by the greatness
and perseverance of the plan which they had pursued, and which
seemed now to have at hand a great result — the denouement in
Spain and Portugal was apparently not distant — but by the
success with which it was likely to be attended. If, to be sure,
it was only to begin over again, they would not appear to have
done much ; but if the issue should be as important as now
appeared probable, it would certainly be much to their credit.
They would also be much elated by their successes, and he did
not consider them as men who would be restrained by any prin-
ciple from any enterprise that they might judge to be expedient.
I told him I did not rely at all upon the expectation that
principle would restrain them, but there might perhaps be
interest to restrain them. If Spain and Portugal should be
entirely evacuated by the French, the people there would as
much as ever need supplies of grain and other provisions,
and the English could hardly resolve to intercept them without
famishing their allies, and even their own armies.
The Count asked whether they could not obtain the same
supplies from other quarters, particularly from the coast of *
Barbary. I said that they undoubtedly had part of their supplies
from that quarter ; but it did not suffice, and if they lost the
American market, there was none that could take its place,
unless it were that of the Baltic, from Dantzic to Riga ; and
that, I believe, had been to a certain extent always open to them.
He said that their supplies from thence had been very small
indeed ; at least, there had been scarcely any exportation from
thence.
"That/' I replied, "was at least their only resource; and if
they opened that, it could only be by coming to terms of accom-
VOL. II. — 18
274 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
modation with Russia ; and if they made peace with Russia, in
the name of Heaven, what motive could they have for quar-
relling with America?"
The Count smiled, and said that it reminded him of something
that had been said by another person, and which, therefore, he
could not give as his own. It was that there were sea madmen
as well as land madmen (dcs enrages dc mer, commc dcs cnrag6s
de terre), and the English were the sea madmen.
Here we rested the matter for the present. I mentioned the
launching of the ships, which had failed last Saturday, and, I
had heard, was intended for this day. He said he believed it
would be to-morrow ; that the Minister of the Marine told him
that he should have him waked at six in the morning to give
him the notice. But he had authorized the notification to be
opened at the Department, so that the foreign Ministers might
be notified in time, without his having the trouble of being
roused at that hour. He said the lowness of the water at the
lower Admiralty was the cause of the launch having been post-
poned on Saturday ; and that great complaints had been made
at the time of the selection of that spot for a navy-yard, on
account of its being exposed to such accidents.
In the long entry of this day appears a notice of the fact that
the writer had received information from home of an appoint-
ment to a wholly new field of duty.
Tliis is best explained by reference to the Executive record of
the Senate, in which appears the following entry for Thursday,
2ist February, 1811.
The following written message was received from the Presi-
dent of the United States by Mr. Coles, his secretary:
To THE Senate of the United States: — .
I nominate John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, to be an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
James Madison.
The message was read.
Ordered, That it lie for consideration.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 275
*
Fridny, Felmiary 22, 181 1.
The Senate took into consideration the message of the
President of the United States of yesterday, nominating John
Quincy Adams to office, and
Resolved, That the Senate do advise and consent to the
appointment, agreeably to the nomination.
The following is an extract from the official letter sent to
Mr. Adams. It bears date the 26th February, 181 1 :
Robert Smith, Secretary of State, to Mr. Adams.
I have the satisfaction to inform you that the President has
thought proper to avail the public of your services at home, and
has accordingly appointed you, by and with the advice and con-
sent of the Senate, to the seat on the bench of the Supreme Court
of the United States, vacated by the death of Judge Gushing.
This appointment will make it proper that you should return
to the United States as soon as the public interest and your own
convenience will permit You are accordingly herewith fur-
nished with a letter of leave to the Emperor; and in presenting
it you will be sensible of the propriety of giving not only such
explanations and assurances as may be calculated to prevent the
circumstance of your return from being misconstrued, but such
as may be best suited to convince the Emperor of the continued
friendship of the United States.
To which the substance of the answer by Mr. Adams is as
follows. It bears date the 2d June, 181 1 :
" Deeply sensible of the honor done me by the President and
Senate in the appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court
I lament that circumstances beyond my control have prescribed
to me the duty of declining it. As they are, for the most part,
of a private nature, I have taken the liberty to explain them in
a private letter to the President himself, enclosed, and which I
have to ask of you the favor to deliver to him. One of them,
itself decisive to dictate my determination, is the impossibility of
my return to the United States during the present year, arising
• 276 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
from the peculiar situation of my family, the length of time neces-
sary to accomplish a voyage from the extremity of the Gulf of
FinUnd to the coast of North America, and the short portion
of the year during which such a voyage can be commenced."
19th. In the evening, I went to the top of the round tower
at a corner of the house in which we dwell, and saw the red-
ness of the sun as evening and morning twilight at the same
time. I returned again to the tower a little after midnight, and
observed a second time the same phenomenon. I read a chapter
of Savary's Koran, chiefly without a candle, and at midnight.
2 1 St. After more than two hours of restlessness, finding that
I had no prospect of sleep, I rose, dressed myself, and walked
out to see the sun rise, on the day of the summer solstice. I
took my stand on the quay opposite the Winter Palace, at the
spot where last year, on the same day, I had seen the sun set.
It rose at forty-six minutes past two, and I marked its bearings.
There was, however, a low cloud bordering that part of the
horizon, so that I could not see the sun until about a quarter
of an hour risen. I then returned home, and, at about half-
past three in the morning, went again to bed. I slept until
nearly nine.
22d. At twelve o'clock, noon, I went to the house of Mr. Gou-
rieff, the Minister of the Finances, whom I found in his cabinet.
I mentioned to him the object of my visit, which related to the
two American vessels, the Horace and Superior, which have
arrived at Cronstadt with prohibited articles. He told me that
he had received a petition respecting only one of them — the
Horace ; that the directions of the law were precise, requiring
that all prohibited articles, upon their arrival at the ports, should
be destroyed; but that, in consideration of the circumstance
that these vessels were not originally destined for this place, but
had come under a sort of compulsion, he should in his report to
the Emperor, which he expected to make this day, recommend
that permission should be granted for the re-exportation of the
goods in the same vessels in which they were broug^ht — for he
could not undertake to decide this upon his own authority; that
as to the exportation by land, which had been requested in the
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 277
petition of the commercial house, he did not think it could be
granted ; for as the prohibition formed part of the system which
had been established for the regulation of commerce during the
present year, a departure from it in one case might be alleged
as a precedent in others, which would make the whole system
a mere nullity.
I told him that I had not expected it would be possible to
obtain the leave for exportation by land ; tliat in the note which
I had written to Count Romanzoff on the subject, I had not
asked it ; but that I had asked, as I did not know that it would
be incompatible with the law of the country, that the permis-
sion of re-exportation might extend to the employment of other
vessels than those in which the goods were brought I said
that in one of the cases I knew this would be a convenience
to the owner, who had some time since ordered purchases of
Russian merchandise to an amount of seven or eight hundred
thousand roublest to be made here, and to be paid for by bills
drawn here on foreign countries; that a considerable part of
the purchases had been made, and some of them might be ex-
ported by this ship if he could send away the hides in another.
The Minister said that he would suggest this consideration
to the Emperor, though he could not promise that it would
be successful. He then assured me of his own disposition
to favor as much as possible the commerce of the United
States with his country, and observed that he had this day
dispatched orders to Riga for the admission of an American
vessel which had arrived there from Lisbon, she having sailed
from that port in the month of April of the last year.
I said I had addressed a note to Count RomanzofT also upon
this case, which I presumed had been referred to him. He said
he believed not. • He did not recollect that Count Romanzoff
had referred to him any note concerning this affair from me.
" And, indeed," said he, " excuse me for giving you the hint,
but in any of these cases, if there is any facility which I can
aftbrd your countrymen, and in which you take an interest, if
you will apply directly to me the business will be more expe-
ditiously settled than by a note to Count Romanzoff! Because,
if it goes to him, you know, it must be treated diplomatically ^
278 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, (June,
and then the afTaif takes quite another course. Even now,
respecting this vessel at Riga, perhaps it may occasion further
questions in future ; but that is a matter all settled — the orders
are dispatched."
I told him that, as officially I could, as a matter of right, cor-
respond only with Count Romanzoff, I had addressed my note,
of course, to him, and had forborne to call upon him, Mr. Gou-
rieff, from the apprehension of being importunate; but that,
having now his permission, I should certainly take the liberty
of applying directly to him, and thanked him for the assurance
of his good dispositions in regard to the American commerce.
After this we entered upon general conversation, and the
Minister manifested an earnest curiosity to be informed of the
state of our relations with Great Britain and with France. I told
him much the same as I had said to Count Romanzoff and to
the Emperor. Mr. Gourieff expressed a very high opinion
of the British Ministry, and particularly of their energy. I ac-
knowledged that they had lately been favored with an extraordi-
nary career of success, and I could not deny that they appeared
entitled to the credit of eulogy ; but there was some part of that
energy which I believed would ultimately prove very calamitous
to their country. They were abusing the power of making
paper money, until its depreciation had already run down to
thirty per cent. ; they were accumulating the load of paper to
support the burden of the war, and the Ministers in Parliament
had frankly avowed that the war could not be carried on with-
out it.
He said that the Bank appeared to have issued not more
than twenty-two millions sterling ; that they were already sensi-
ble of its dangers, and seeking a remedy for it, which he believed
they would find. I said that in addition to the Bank paper
there was the enormous mass of the debt, to be considered as
paper too. lie thought not. A pa^^r which bore interest, he
said, never weighed upon the circulation : it was private cap-
ital, like land or houses. Paper could be oppressive only 'as
it was a representative without a constituent — a representative
of specie when there was no specie to represent. As to the
English funding system, he admired it as one of the most
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 279
extraordinary inventions of the human understanding. There
was not one of the mechanical inventions for which the English
were famed which he thought more deserving of admiration
than that. Recurring to our affairs with France, he said he had
heard our vessels were now admitted there, and that a more
friendly disposition to us had been lately professed than before.
I told him I had heard so, but that, to be candid, I placed
as little dependence upon the French Government as upon the
English. He smiled, and appeared to be of the same opinion.
26th. We had for several days past an engagement, post-
poned until this day, to go upon a water-party with Mr. Fisher
and Mr. Jones. They dined with us at an early hour; and about
four in the afternoon we took boat at the landing opposite the
Winter Palace, were rowed up the Neva and the Great Nevka
to the island of CrestofTsky, where we landed, and took tea at
a shady spot in the open air; we then embarked again and
returned, rowed as before; we landed below all the bridges
and at the end of the quay, just above the lower Admiralty.
In returning we had floated down part of the time, while the
boatmen were singing in concert the national airs, with a pipe
resembling a clarionet, a tambourine, and a pair of cymbals.
There were eleven of the rowers, and when they sang they sat
in two lines, face to face, crosswise of the boat, each upon an
oar, and their feet resting on the benches. They are all in
uniform, and wear plumes in their hats. Their song is always
the same, and appears to consist only of three or four notes.
It was about ten in the evening when we returned.
July 1 5th. Went to a diplomatic dinner at Count Romanzoff's.
It was to take leave of Count Stedingk, and a dinner of recep-
tion to the Chevalier Bezerra. I told the Chancellor that in a
few days I should ask an interview with him, to present to him
Mr. Hazard, who is appointed by the Government of the United
States Consul at Archangel. He said that to save me the
trouble of writing he would propose that it should be on Wed-
nesday, at eleven o'clock in the morning ; to which I agreed.
I had some conversation with the French Ambassador. He
asked me how our affairs stood with England. I told him I
thought it probable that his Government would make our peace
28o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [July,
with England. " How ?" " By not keeping their word. They
had promised to repeal the Berlin and Milan decrees, and had
not kept their promise." "Oh I but you must seize two or
three English vessels, and then I will promise you that you
may come freely to France, and will never be troubled with the
Berlin and Milan decrees. Only you must not bring English
merchandise to us."
"Americans will not bring you any English merchandise,
except when you insist upon having it. But you give so many
licenses for trading with England, that there is no temptation
of profit to carry any English goods to you." " No, no ! we
do not give any more licenses. Ay! ay! my spies" (he had
said in a joke that his spies had not informed him that I had
moved into his neighborhood), " my spies give me quite dif-
ferent information. Well, if we get English merchandise, it
is only to bum it" " Yes ; and you have burnt so much that
now you are obliged to send for more for your own use."
All this was said on both sides in a sort of banter; half jest,
half earnest. Blome was standing by, and enjoyed it very much.
I had forgotten to go with the mourning crape. But there were
several others in the same predicament to keep me in counte-
nance.
25th. Mr. Hazard came as I had requested, at half-past ten.
I went and introduced him at Count Romanzoff's. He had
taken with him his commission, and a French translation of it,
but the Count did not look at them. He said he thought it
would be sufficient for me to write him a note, mentioning the
appointment, and the necessary document would be expedited,
he believed, from the Department of Foreign Affairs — certainly
not from the Chancellor's office. But, as Mr. Borel was at the
head of the Department of the Consulates, if there were any
other formalities necessary he would send him to me to give me
notice of them. " For, between you and me," said the Count,
" there can happen nothing but what will be rightly done."
As Mr. Hazard speaks scarcely any French, and the Count
no English, he did not hold much conversation with him. He
said, turning to me, " Je crois que nous allons vous enlever le
Comte Pahlen, mais ce sera pour le remplacer." Then, laughing.
l8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 28I
he added that it seemed to be a kind of destiny for Count Pahlen
to visit all the sovereigns of America ; and if another such
power should arise in that hemisphere, he did not know but
that they should charge him with commencing the diplomatic
relations of Russia with it. But Count Pahlen himself seemed
to be much afraid of this mission to Brazil, for he had accepted
it on the condition, or with the earnest solicitation, that it might
be limited to two years. The Emperor had read his letter, and
had been diverted at his concern. It was, however, determined
in the course of two years to provide some place for him here
at home, and so the commission would be sent him according
to his own' inclination. And hereafter, he was persuaded, the
Count would thank him for having given him the means of
becoming so extensively acquainted with both the American
continents. As to such places as Cassel or Stuttgart, what
could a Russian get by an appointment to them ? It was easy
to visit them, and great numbers did visit them, without having
diplomatic missions. But Count Pahlen, on his return, will have
seen what scarcely any Russian can have seen, and none to the
same advantage.
I said I hoped he would at least have occasion to remember
the country with pleasure.
He said that with regard to our part of it he certainly
would ; as all his letters very fully testified : they were strongly
expressive of his satisfaction with his situation there. The
Count then enquired whether I had any recent intelligence of
the state of our affairs with England. I said I had received
the official account of the American captain, of the action
between the two ships, of which he had doubtless heard.* I
had not seen the account of the English captain. If it should
give a statement materially different from the other in regard to
the facts, I could not say what would be the consequence ; but
if the facts were as stated by Commodore Rogers, the British
Government, I supposed, would disavow their officer's conduct,
as they have done in so many cases before. In the present case,
■ This relates to the encounter at sea on the 1 6th of May between the American
frigate President, commanded by Captain Rogers, and the British sloop Little Belt,
commanded by Captain Bingham.
282 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [July,
however, there was the diiTerence that their ship and men had
been the greatest sufferers.
He said he had seen accounts from England, with the gazettes
down to the twenty-eighth of June. That there appeared to be
great agitation in the public mind there on account of that
event ; and it was said a squadron, commanded by an Admiral
Yorke, had been ordered to sail for America. But then it
appeared the struggle in Spain was all to be gone over again,
very differently from what had been so lately expected. It had
been thought that if the war in that country was not entirely
at an end, at least the English had obtained a decisive pre-
ponderancy. But now the French army under Marshalt Soult
was reinforced and concentrated, and Lord Wellington had
been obliged to raise the siege of Badajos, in order to draw all
his forces together for another battle. Now the event of another
general action was to be waited for. I said that from the late
speeches of the Emperor Napoleon and of his Minister of the In-
terior, it appeared that France did not give up the game for lost
in Spain ; but that it remained to be seen whether the French
armies there would be reinforced. He said that reinforcements
had certainly been ordered, that troops had marched from
Toulon and Marseilles, and he was informed by dispatches from
the Ambassador at Paris, Prince Kurakin, that after a review
lately of several regiments at Paris by the Emperor Napoleon
they immediately received marching orders, and were gone to
Spain. The Count told me that he had taken this place in the
country in order to be near the Emperor ; but he found it so
inconvenient for the transmission to and fro of all the papers
that must pass under his inspection, that he should give it up
after next week.
26th. I have this day been married fourteen years, during
which I have to bless God for the enjoyment of a portion of
felicity, resulting from this relation in society, greater than falls
to the generality of mankind, and far beyond anything that I
have been conscious of deserving. Its greatest alloy has arisen
from the delicacy of my wife's constitution, the ill health which
has afflicted her much of the time, and the misfortunes she has
suffered from it. Our union has not been without its trials,
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 283
nor invariably without dissensions between us. There are many
differences of sentiment, of tastes, and of opinions in regard to
domestic economy, and to the education of children, between
us. There are natural frailties of temper in both of us ; both
being quick and irascible, and mine being sometimes harsh.
But she has always been a faithful and affectionate wife, and a
careful, tender, indulgent, and watchful mother to our chil-
dren, all of whom she nursed herself. I have found in this
connection from decisive experience the superior happiness of
the marriage state over that of celibacy, and a full conviction
that my lot in marriage has been highly favored.
30tli. The whole morning was engrossed by one of those
occasional occupations which so often divert me from business
of more urgency. I found in an American newspaper a return
of the whole population of the United States by the last census
of 1 8 ID, and I engaged myself in calculations resulting from a
comparison of it with the returns of 1790 and 1800. The pro-
portion of increase between the second and third census is
exactly the same as that between the first and second. It is
between thirty-six and thirty-seven per cent, in ten years ; rather
more than three per cent., and very near thirty-one per thousand.
I do not think it possible that this proportion should continue
even for the next ten years. It is a phenomenon which the
world never witnessed before, and which probably will never be
seen again. The state in which we have been the last twenty
years is too happy a condition for human nature long to endure.
Blessed be God for it, and may He still protract it, notwithstand-
ing the ingratitude and other vices by which we have forfeited
almost the right to ask his favor ! May He also protract the
portion of virtue in the people which has hitherto contributed
to preserve the blessings they have enjoyed ! May He continue
to build up a state which shall exhibit a clear and permanent
improvement in the existence of social man I When I reflect
upon the capabilities of that people and that territory, I have
no curb to enthusiastic hope, but in the recollection of the
follies and vices which have proved so fatal to mankind in
all former ages, and which threaten to destroy all the glorious
prospects of my own country. Let me implore the aid of Heaven
284 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Attgurt,
to meditate further, and to some useful purpose, on this subject,
so that this may not be a day lost
August 3d. Peterhof Fete. At eleven this morning I went
into my carriage, and at a quarter before two alighted at Peter-
hof, at the small building opposite the palace, where the foreign
Ministers are received on this occasion. The distance from my
house is thirty-five wersts, or twenty-five miles. I went with
four horses in front, and without stopping once on the road. I
was alone, Mr. Smith and Mr. Gray having gone in another
chariot with six horses. I took with me the message to Con-
gress at the commencement of the last winter's session, and
read part of the documents — that is, the whole of Mr. Pinckney's
correspondence. The road was crowded with carriages of all
kinds from the city gate to the palace at Peterhof. The invi-
tation to the Corps Diplomatique was to a masked ball, supper,
fireworks, illumination, etc. They were requested to alight, and
to dine at the Pavilion^ destined to receive them. On arriving
there, I found one of the aids of the Master of Ceremonies, and
one of the running footmen of the Court, who showed me to a
chamber where I could dress. I went immediately to the apart-
ment of Mr. and Madame Bezerra, and gave her the card from
Catherine, excusing herself for not going. They were to be
presented to the Empress-mother and the Grand Duchesses.
I then walked about an hour round the garden. The principal
water-works were playing ; but, as they form only one of the
various exhibitions of this day, I did not see them so well as at
the visit we made to this palace on the twenty-fourth of last
September. The preparations for the illuminations of the even-
ing were all made, excepting the placing of the lamps. There
were erected scaffoldings of planks in various forms, with rows
of wire stuck on them in lines adapted to the figures to be
represented, each wire stuck into the plank and rounded into
a circle, distant about six inches from the plank. The lamps
were glass tumblers filled with tallow, a wick passing through
the centre, and the wick and surface of the tallow brushed over
with spirits of turpentine. Each of the wire circles was to hold
one of these tumblers. On the gulf, about a quarter of a mile
distant from the shore, there were seventeen Imperial yachts.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 285
under full sail and dressed out in a full suit of colors. I saw
Claud Gabriel and Nelson in the garden ; Nelson appeared to
be unwell. I returned to the lodge, where I now found Mr.
Smith and Mr. Gray. We dressed for dinner. M. de Maison-
neuve, the Master of the Ceremonies, came into the parlor where
we were assembled, with Mr. and Madame Bezerra, whom he
presented to Count Lauriston, inviting him to lead her in to
dinner. A Portuguese Minister's lady escorted by the French
Ambassador was, in the present state of the world, a singular
curiosity, and excited a smile throughout the company. The
dinner ought regularly to have been presided over by Count
RomanzofT, but, on account of his brother's death, he did not
attend on this occasion. Mr. Weydemeyer, a member of the
Council, attached to the Department of Foreign Affairs, and M.
de Maisonncuve, the Master of the Ceremonies, presided, and
did the honors of the table. The dinner was excellent, and
the fruits of all climates in profusion ; cherries, strawberries,
raspberries, apricots, plums, peaches, oranges, grapes, and pine-
apples were served in abundance. The members of the Corps
Diplomatique present were about twenty-five. After dinner we
rode round the gardens in carriages provided by the Court.
They are called Unes^ and resemble a double sofa, with a seat
on each side for four persons. They were on four wheels, and
tackled with two horses. We rode about an hour, returned to
the lodge, and lounged or played away the time until eight
o'clock. We then went in dominos and Venetians to the palace
on the same Unes^ and assembled in the central chamber,
painted all over the wainscoting with female portraits. There
were already the nobility of both sexes who attend the Court,
and within a quarter of an hour the imperial family appeared.
The Emperor and Grand Duke Constantine first passed through
the chamber to the dancing-hall, and about five minutes after-
wards the Empress and Empress-mother, followed by the Grand
Duchesses Catherine and Ann, the Grand Dukes Nicholas and
Michael, and the Princess Amelia of Baden, and the Duke and
two Princes of Oldenburg. The Court and Diplomatic Corps
followed them into the ball-room, which was excessively crowded
with people of all classes and descriptions. The imperial family
286 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
and Court nobility walked a number of Polish dances; there
was no room for any others. The Empress, with her sisters,
took seats at the head of the hall. The Empress-mother
played at piquet in an adjoining chamber; she played with
the principal nobility and with the French Ambassador. Both
Empresses spoke to most of the foreign Ministers. They asked
me the same questions — ^whether my wife was there ? why she
was not there? where we now resided? whether we had a
comfortable house ? and whether Mrs. Adams would be con-
veniently situated for her confinement ? Between nine and ten
o'clock the illumination commenced. Count Litta said that the
whole garden was lighted up in ten minutes; there were three
hundred thousand lamps, and sixteen hundred persons employed
to light them. Just after ten the Emperor passed back into the
Hall of Portraits, and upon the balcony fronting the back garden.
The fireworks were then played off. They were not, upon the
whole, equal to those of the twenty-sixth of October last ; they
were over in a quarter of an hour. We then passed through
several of the halls to a very long gallery, over which was a
soit of canvas roof, and in which was a long table on which the
supper was served. There were about three hundred persons set
down to this table, among whom were the Court circle and the
foreign Ministers. The supper was equally excellent, and the
fruit as plentiful and as various, as at the dinner ; it was over in
about an hour. Miss Gourieff told me that if I returned home
this night I should find the bridges raised ; but I thought she
was joking. After supper we went down and rode round again
for an hour and a half upon the Lines. Madame Bezerra, though
the only lady of the Corps, and an entire stranger, presented
this day for the first time at the Court, went through the whole
with perfect propriety and without embarrassment. About a
quarter-past one we returned to the lodge — to separate and
retire for the night, or undress to return home. The daylight
was already beginning to return, and many of the lamps were
already extinct. Mr. Jones, who returned the last evening from
Moscow, without having been able to reach Makarieff, came
spontaneously to the lodge about seven in the evening, and
from that time introduced himself everywhere as in the suite of
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 287
tfie Corps Diplomatique. General Pardo was the only foreign
Minister absent Navarro and Luxbourg were not there ; but
they have taken leave at Court. Barons d'Arnim, Gremp, and
Marechal were also absent. General Betancourt received the
red riband of the order of St. Alexander Newsky while there
at the ball. A curious part of the show was the Circassian
deputies in their national dresses, when presented and spoken
to by the Empress.
4th. At half-past one in the morning I entered my carriage
iEigain and returned home. I reached the lower bridge across
the Neva just as the sun was rising, at a quarter before four.
The lines of carriages on the road were almost uninterrupted
from Peterhof to the city gate, and they were often two or
three in front I passed upwards of two thousand, as I presume,
on the road ; and during the first half of the way great mul-
titudes of persons returning on foot The numbers of people
who attend at this celebration are asserted to be at least fifty
thousand. It has been usual to keep such a day here ever
since Peter the First's time, but the day has occasionally been
changed. I was present at this fete in the year 1782, but it was
then kept on the festival of St Peter and St Paul, the twenty-
ninth of June, old style ; being the then Grand Duke Paul's
name-day. He was not present, however, being then upon his
travels. The day is now changed to that of St Mary Magdalen,
which is the Empress-mother's and her daughter Mary's name-
day, the twenty-second of July, old style. The time is much
better for an illumination, as there are now two hours in the
night of darkness sufficient for the effect of the lamps. On
the twenty-ninth of June there is no darkness at all. Ac-
cordingly, the effect of the illumination this time was far
more brilliant than, from my recollection, it was wheh I saw it
before. There were then, I think, no fireworks. The company
then was, I think, more numerous, and, from my impressions,
more splendid in dress. Perhaps, however, it was because then
magnificence of dress was not so familiar and common an object
as it now is. I saw the Court then only at a distance and as a
stranger. At present I know all the principal individuals. The
Empresses and Grand Duchesses were attired with great splendor
288 MEMO/RS OF JOHN QU/NCY ADAAIS, [Auguit,
of jewels. The Empress-mother wore an imperial diadem en-
tirely set in diamonds, and of immense cost The men were
all plainly dressed, with their uniforms slightly embroidered.
The ball finished much earlier now than formerly. The Em-
peror abridges all the tedious festivities. On arriving at the
lower bridge, I found, as Miss Gourieif had told me, that it was
raised. I went to the upper bridge, and found it in the same
situation. I now learnt, and not without concern, that they
raise both the bridges every morning at two o'clock, to let the
vessels pass through, and that they are kept raised from two
to three hours. I was detained at them about an hour, and
reached my house about a quarter before five in the morning.
The weather had been fine the whole day and night; but I
found a surtout convenient in the carriage as I returned.
5th. I had a visit this morning from Count Luxbourg, who
is going away in a few days. He waits only for the arrival of
his successor, a Count Jennison, who was coming from Berlin,
but was stopped at Polangen and not allowed to proceed until
a passport from Count RomanzoiT could be sent to him. Lux-
bourg took leave of the Court yesterday week, and he says
that the Emperor, after charging him with his compliments to
the King of Bavaria, said to him, "J'espere que la paix du nord
de TEurope ne sera pas troublee. II y a beaucoup de dis-
cours dans le public ; mais tout cela ne signifie rien. A quoi
bon feroit-on la guerre? II est temps qu'on commence a se
tenir tranquille. On ne croit pas, sans doute, faire des conquetes
ici. A quoi cela pourroit-il mcncr? Au rcstc, nous sonimcs
prets." Luxbourg says that he was quite surprised and embar-
rassed at hearing the Emperor speak to him in this manner,
and hardly knew how to answer him. He told him, however,
that the sentiments so worthy of a great monarch he presumed
were also shared by the other side (de I'autre part), and that
peace was undoubtedly the object most desirable for suffering
humanity. He says, too, that he has written an account of
this conversation to his Government, leaving out, however, the
expressions which import a readiness for war. I should have
thought them by far the most important part of the report.
6th. According to appointment, I went at half-past twelve
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 289
to Count RomanzofTs. I reminded him of a note which soon
after fny arrival here I had written him respecting the Com-
merce and the Hector, and mentioned that I had lately received
a letter from one of the owners making enquiries what was
done with those cases. He asked me if I had never received
from him any answer relating to them. I said I had not. He
said he would immediately attend to it; that it had been
referred to the Minister of Marine, and no report had yet been
made by him. I spoke of a packet which I sent him in the
beginning of June, for Mr. Russell, at Paris, which was to go
by a courier; and as I had just received from Mr. Russell a
letter, by which it appeared that packet had not come to his
hands, I was afraid that by some accident, or perhaps some
mistake of my servant, the Count had not received it. He said
that he had ; but the delay in its transmission to Mr. Russell
had arisen from another accident — an extraordinary length of
time during which his courier had been detained before he had
dispatched him. It was full two months after the time he had
intended. Prince Kurakin complained of it very much ; but,
after all those discussions had arisen, the Emperor had positively
determined that he would not come to any definitive resolution
to be communicated by courier until he should know of the
Duke of Vicence's arrival at Paris, and what effect would be
produced by his return. The courier, therefore, had not been
dispatched until the day of the Tc Deum, and probably has
but just now arrived in Paris.
I said that with regard to the preparation of a Treaty of
commerce, I had made no further communication to him, owing
to the uncertainty both in the state of public affairs and of my
own situation here — not knowing what the ultimate disposition
of my Government with regard to this mission had been or
would be. He said that from this uncertainty in the state of
everything, it seemed really impossible to enter upon any dis-
cussion relative to commerce. We could not know from day
to day whether there would be any commerce. It would be
impossible to do anything more than provide for the day that
was passing over our heads. What would come to-morrow
was beyond all human foresight. What, for instance, would be
VOL. II. — 19
290 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Auguil,
the consequence of a war between the United States and Eng-
land, which I had told him I thought probable, and which he
thought so himself? However amicably disposed they were
here to favor our commerce, and they continued as much so as
they ever had been, it would obviously upon that contingency
be totally stopped by the English. Ht was, therefore, sorry to
see this prospect of that war ; for it protracted all the hopes of
peace, and menaced a longer and a more extensive war. Did
not I think so ? What was my opinion of the chances for a
peace f
This fashion of consultation is one of the Count's forms of
civility. He supposes that I feel flattered by having my opinion
asked, and that it will make me talk as much as he pleases. I
always do give him my opinions as freely as he asks them ; not
that I fancy he attaches so much importance to them as he
imagines I do, but because I consider it as civility returned for
civility, and because as long as my talk is not tiresome to him
I suppose it to be agreeable. I asked him if he meant a gen-
eral peace. " Ay, or at least a peace between France and Eng-
land?" That was the same thing; I saw nothing like a prospect
of it, or a disposition to it, on either side. There never was
less reason to expect it. He said he was extremely sorry to
be so nearly of my opinion. And I was extremely sorry to
hear his Excellency acknowledge it; for it confirmed me in a
belief which I should have been most happy to have had him
shake. But it was too clear. The Emperor Napoleon, and his
Mini.ster, MonUilivct, spoke of the war in Spain as likely still
to occupy several campaigns. They talked of ten years, as of
a matter for which France was prepared. No symptom of
relaxation or yielding could be discovered there. In England
such symptoms must come first from the people ; as long as
their spirits could be kept up, their Government would not
flinch; and as long as they had any successes to boast of, the
spirits of the people would not flag. There was no appearance
of that kind yet — no petitions for peace, no talk of a change
of Ministry. There was, indeed, great anxiety for the issue of
affairs in Spain and Portugal ; and until that affair was finished,
the English nation would not begin to look round them and
I8il.] THE MISSION 7V KUSSIA. 29I
think of peace. The Count said that France was certainly now
making another great effort there. Besides the success of their
arms in taking Tarragona, and the junction of the two mar-
shals, Soult and Marmont, he knew that the Emperor Napoleon
had determined to send eighty thousand more men into Spain.
The English army would probably be. obliged to resume its old
position near Lisbon, and there time again might be gained.
For it was remarkable that the Emperor Napoleon, who was
always accustomed to announce quick dispatch and to threaten
with thunderbolts, had in this case admitted that the subjuga-
tion of Spain would still be an affair of time.
He then asked me whether I knew if Mr. Bczcrra had any
late news, and what his opinion was of the present state of
things. I said that I had not seen Mr. Bezerra since the Peter-
hof day, when he did not know of Lord Wellington's retreat.
The Count then told me that the Ambassador had just been
with him. He had received a courier, who brought him the
account that the Ecclesiastical Council assembled at Paris had
been dissolved, and three of the bishops arrested. He was a
little surprised at this instance of resistance to the will of the
Emperor Napoleon, but he did not expect it would be followed
by any serious consequences. He believed there was very
little religion in France. When he was last there he had made
it a particular object of his personal observation. He had sup-
posed before he went there that the result of the horrible revo-
lution through which they had passed would have been to
awaken religious ideas in the people, and to have given their
minds a peculFar direction that way. He saw no such thing. He
saw no disposition with regard to religion but that of profound
indifference. It was not a fashion of infidelity such as had
been known in France thirty or forty years ago — not a sectarian
atheism, courting martyrdom ; but total indifference — a total
absence of all thought concerning religion. He had mentioned
it to the Emperor Napoleon, and perceived that the remark had
displeased him. He asked him on what he founded his opinion.
The Count answered that as he had before going to France
entertained the theoretic idea that he should find strong symp-
toms of religious propensities, he had made it a point to observe,
292 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QC/IA'CY ADAMS. [Augiisl,
and had repeatedly gone into the principal churches of Paris
on Sundays and holidays in service-time. They were all abso-
lutely deserted — scarcely a soul to be seen, except here and
there an occasional straggler, who looked as if he had been sent
on an errand and had come into the church and taken a chair
to rest himself on the way. The Emperor had replied, " Per-
haps it may be so, but I assure you it is not my fault. On the
contrary, I know the importance of religious sentiments, and
encourage the propagation of them as much as I can. There
are even five or six popular writers to whom I give pensions
for this purpose, and among them are Chateaubriand and
Madame de Genlis." " Now," said the Count, *'he considers these
people as drugs of the Imperial Pharmacopoeia — ingredients to
be mixed up in the chemical mass of an Emperor's government.
His own idea is political, and not at all religious. And as to
his pensioners, for aught I know, Chateaubriand may be honest,
but Madame de Sillery would preach any religion for which she
could get paid. I know something of her, and I know her to
be as false and unprincipled a woman as breathes.
I said that Chateaubriand himself had lately shown some
resistance against the Emperor's will, as I had heard, on a
religious topic ; that he had written a discourse for his reception
as a member of the National Institute, which he had not been
suffered to pronounce, and which he had refused to alter.
The Count said it was not a matter of religion. It related
to the death of the King. Chateaubriand was received at the
Academy in the place of Chenicr. Chcnier had voted in the
Convention for the King's death, and Chateaubrfand, instead of
pronouncing a panegyric upon Chenier according to custom,
had written a violent philippic against him, and criminated him
especially for his vote on the King's trial. The Emperor had
forbidden its being delivered ; because he. Napoleon, had par-
doHi'd all those who had voted for the King's death, and had
among them several of his highest Imperial officers. Cam-
baceres was one. Regnaud St. Jean d'Angely was another.
He did not choose that any such allusion to that event should
be made in a public oration ; especially by a man whom he
patronized, and to whom he had been a benefactor. The
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 293
Count added that he did think there was something very in-
decent in the manner in which they managed some of these aca-
demical receptions in France. He had attended one of them,
where a man, whose name he did not recollect, was received
in the place of a certain physician named Cabanis, who had
written an atheistical book. The new member had observed
the custom of eulogizing his predecessor, but the President in
answering the discourse had severely censured him for praising
such a book — for the recipiendary had included the book in his
panegyric. The Count added, laughing, that these reception-
speeches and answers had been well ridiculed by Piron, who
said that they all amounted exactly to this, that the member
said, " Messieurs, je vous remercie," and the President answered,
" Monsieur, il n*y a pas de quoi." This Academy had occa-
sioned him to make another indiscreet observation in conversing
with the Emperor Napoleon. They had on some occasion, while
he was at Paris, perhaps some affair of the Spanish business,
sent a deputation to the Emperor, and the orator of the depu-
tation had said, among other things, that " they were an invisible
militia surrounding his throne." The speech was published in
the next morning's Moniteur, where the Count read it. Seeing
afterwards the Emperor the same day, he had told him that
there had been to him a deputation from the Academy, and
that he encouraged and countenanced those people, "I am not,"
said the Count, " remarkable for being incautious about what
I say; but that day somehow it happened that all my caution
forsook me. For I said, ' Yes, Sire, and I have read something
as a speech of that deputation which struck me oddly, and gave
me some pain.' 'And what is that?' said the Emperor.' 'Why,
Sire, they said they were an invisible militia surrounding your
throne. The meaning of which is that your throne derives sup-
port and assistance from a club of Atheists. Now I think, in
the first place, this is not true ; and in the next, if it were, that
it is not becoming that it should be thus publicly announced.'
The Emperor made little reply, but I saw," said the Count,
"that what I had said was not agreeable to him. The next
day, however, the orator's speech was published again in
another gazette, and the pass.ige upon which I had animad-
294 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QU/NCY ADAMS. lAupiM.
verted was omitted. I had no doubt that my remarks to the
Emperor had occasioned its being struck out.
" Ever since my return from France at that time I have been
persuaded that there was very little religion there. Now, indeed,
this incident in the Council disconcerts a little my ideas
(" derange un peu mes idees"), and we shall see what it comes
to. But again I have considered that the Council, consisting
principally of old men, may naturally have an extraordinary pro-
portion of members more stubborn than the spirit of the times
will be found to bear them out. The characteristic of the great
mass was indil^rence, and it was not confined to France. It
pervaded the great body of the Roman Catholics throughout
Europe. Consider," said he, "what the Pope is, in the prin-
ciples of that sect. You know the situation in which he has
long been kept. How, but from this immovable indiHerence,
can we account for it that not the slightest manifestation of
interest or of sensibility to his condition has ap]x:ared in any
part of the Catholic world? Yet the mass of population in
several important European states were Roman Catholics. To
instance only Austria."
I said I did not know whether 1 could without indiscretion
tell him what I thought of Austria. But he must be aware
Austria had made her effort. She had struggled — she had
motives of policy which would induce her to restrain the ex-
pression of sentiments among her subjects which might impair
her good understanding with France.
He replied that the sentiments to which he alluded were
precisely of a nature which the Government could not control.
If they were felt, they would burst through all such restraints.
He did not know, however, that any such restraint had been
used, or attempted. There ceitainly hud been none Iiltc.
Several provinces of the Russian Empire were inhabited by
Roman Catholics; and the Emperor Napoleon knew — he had
long since been infornied — that if any difference between him
utd the Pope should arise, by which the consciences of that
dMS ^ th« Russian subjects might be affected, the Russian
Government would not side with him against them.
I mentioned to the Count that I liad some time since seen a
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 295
letter from the Roman Catholic Bishops in America to those in
Ireland, concerning the situation of the Pope. He had never
heard of it, and requested me, if it should again fall in my way,
to send it to him ; which I promised.
In the part of the conversation respecting the prospects of
peace, I told him that besides the war between the United
States and England, which, with him, I feared and lamented
would be inevitable, the state of affairs between France and
Russia, with the discussions they were agitating (at least as
they were represented in the public opinion), had also a strong
appearance of protracting the period when peace might be
expected. He said that with regard to the relations between
Russia and France there were undoubtedly many unfounded
reports in public circulation ; but thus much he could say, that
if the whole budget could be turned inside out (si on pouvoit
tourner le fond du sac en dehors) and exposed to the view of
everybody, it would not at all promote any other conclusion
than is already drawn from what is known.
loth. I dined at the French Ambassador's — his first great
diplomatic dinner. Count RomanzoflT asked me to send him
the three latest English newspapers; being later than any
that he had seen. 1 accordingly sent them immediately on
my return home in the evening. At table I sat between the
Minister of War, General Barclay de Tolly, and the Emperor's
aid-de-camp, Count Ozarowsky. My only conversation was
with the latter. I mentioned to him that the late King of
Sweden had returned from Heligoland into Holstein, greatly
incensed against the English Governor and officers of the
island.
The Count said he was the most difficult man to deal with
thtit he had ever met in the course of his life. When he came
into Russia last autumn, the Emperor sent him. Count Oza-
rowsky, to meet and compliment him. His orders were to do
everything that the King pleased, and to facilitate anything
upon which be should determine. Whether he chose to stay
at Riga, or to come to St. Petersburg, or to go into the interior
of Russia, or to embark for England, his pleasure was to be
the rule for Ozarowsky 's conduct. But he was scarcely ever
296 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
six hours together of the same intention. At one time he
was for staying at Riga ; then for going to Sarepta, a Hcrrnhut
establishment ; then for going to Bender — because Charles the
Twelfth had been there ; and lastly, for going to England, and
then to Spain. He did actually go to England, but did not stay
there long. He came thence to Heligoland, and now has re-
turned to the Continent. The Count says that he is disordered
in the intellect to such a degree that he sometimes fancies
himself to be Charles the Twelfth in person — and that was his
motive for intending to go to Bender — ^a project which he car-
ried so far that the horses and carriage were already tackled for
his departure before he changed his mind. He has a sort of
Bible, or rather a Herrnhut Calendar, with a text from the Bible
for every day in the year. He consults this book every day as
an oracle, and considers the text for the day as prescribing to
him his rule of conduct for that day. But, as he gives a sort of
mystical construction to these texts, he makes out of them a
meaning of his own, which, instead of inspiring wisdom, as the
natural operation of the Bible would be, leads him into a mul-
titude of absurdities. Yet he has, withal, many good qualities
— a proud spirit of honor, and generous sentiments.
15th. It being the Emperor Napoleon's birthday, I dined in
formal ceremony at the French Ambassador's. It was like the
dinner on the same occasion the last year; but Count Lauris-
ton's magnificence is not in so high a style as that of the Duke
de Vicence. The ceremony of rising to drink the Emperor's
health in champagne wine was re|)eated in the same manner as
then ; and there was a band of music occasionally performing
during the dinner. The preparations for the illumination were
like those of that night. I sat between Counts Soltykofif and
Bussche at table. The company were about fifty-five persons.
The dinner was short, and the company all very soon afterwards
retired.
16th. I received a note from Count Maistre, the Sardinian
Minister, requesting me to return him his manuscript transla-
tion of Plutarch's treatise on the Delays of Divine Justice, which
he lent me some weeks ago. I have read it, and been pleased
with his preface and notes. The translation is too much dilated.
iRii.J THE AtlSS/ON TO KUSS/A. 297
The argument against Wittenbach, to prove that the Christian
Scriptures were known to Plutarch, is weak. He commends
Wittenbach's learning and ingenuity, but censures his infidelity.
There are two points in the character of Plutarch's style which
the French denominate bonhammie and naivete ; they are well
represented in the old translation of Amyot, but I do not find
them in that of Count Maistre. He has doubtless corrected
some mistakes and elucidated some obscure passages. Plu-
tarch reasons well, but leaves much of the mysterious veil over
his subject which nothing but Christian doctrine can remove.
If the existence of man was limited to this life, it would be
impossible for me to believe the universe under any moral
government; Prudence would be the only God, and Jupiter,
according to the pagan doctrine, would be subject to Fate. It
is not the affliction of the righteous, but the prosperity of the
wicked, which would contribute most to stagger my faith in
Divine justice. I cannot reconcile it to my own mind to see
the crimes of a successful conqueror punished in the person of
his innocent great-grandchild, and to take it for justice. There
is one more idea which I think not unimportant. Taking
a future state of retribution for granted, the imperfection of
Divine justice in the present life necessarily follows. If it
were complete here, there would be nothing to comf)ensate
hereafter ; if the righteous were rewarded and the wicked pun-
ished here, in this world, to the full extent of justice, there
would be neither merit nor demerit left upon which justice
could operate hereafter. Now, let it once be admitted that
there is a balance of virtue and of vice to be accounted for and
settled in another state of existence, and there will be no ques-
tion left with regard to the delays of Divine justice ; because,
however defective the measure may be found here, the prin-
ciple supposes that it will be filled up elsewhere. I sent Count
Maistre his book, with a note of thanks.
28th. Mr. Montreal came again this morning, with some fur-
ther information concerning the vessels arriyed at Reval, and
spoke to me of a publication which he had heard was in aii
English newspaper, and with which my name was said to be
connected. I did not know to what he referred, but Mr. Harris
2q8 memoirs of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Auc^unt,
afterwards, in the course of the day, sent me the London Cou-
rier of the thirtieth of July, containing the publication. It is a
stupid forgery, purporting to be a memoir, signed by the Duke
de Cadore, thirtieth of October, 1810, addressed to the Russian
Ambassador, Prince Kurakin, to be laid before the Emperor of
Russia. It contains a clumsy imitation of the general accusa-
tions of France against Britain and British policy, and asserts the
necessity of changing the English Constitution or the dynasty
on the throne. But for the rest it speaks in language suited
only to the sentiments of George Rose, or any other ministerial
tool. Its venom against the United States would be sufficient
to betray its English origin. This miserable thing the Courier,
a ministerial paper, announces with emphatic solemnity as per-
haps the most important state paper ever laid before the English
nation, asserts repeatedly that it is of unquestionable authen-
ticity, and gives what it calls a history of its publication ; that
it was sent by Prince Kurakin to St. Petersburg, where, not
producing upon the mind of the Emperor Alexander the in-
tended effect, it was communicated by the Russian Government
to me ; that I sent a copy of it to my Government, and to my
father, through whom it was first published. This is a lie from
beginning to end.
30th. The French Ambassador came, according to his ap-
pointment. The Ambassador had seen the spurious memoir
attributed in the English papers to the Duke de Cadore ; but he
had seen it in the Pilot of the thirty-first of July, extracted from
the Courier of the preceding day, where I saw it ; and he says
that in the Pilot of the first of August there are some further
remarks upon it. He supposes it to be a device of the British
Ministry themselves; for he says that the extreme severity
with which the laws of England punish forgery is only because
their Government view it as a breach of their own exclusive
privilege.
I told him I had not much opinion of their virtue, but I could
hardly suspect them of participation or connivance in so low and
wretched a device as this. He said they were at their wit's end;
that the King was dying, and the Prince had other favorites ;
their paper was falling in value every day; their expenses,
l8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 299
especially in Spain and Portugal, increasing ; their merchants
all turning to bankrupts. He had seen in the Statesman a list
of bankrupts. It took up half the paper. And so the Ministers
spread abroad one falsehood after another merely to maintain
themselves. One day it was a victory in Spain ; the next, it was
a naval victory and the destruction of a French fleet in the
Mediterranean ; the third, it was the taking of Genoa. Now
they were trying to coax America, and he saw they were begin-
ning to hint that Captain Bingham's account of the attack upon
the Little Belt was not fully confirmed. Then again they were
coaxing Russia, and were sending frigates and store-ships with
powder and saltpetre, which no sooner arrived than they were
ordered away.
I asked him if he was sure of that.
He said the Emperor himself had told him so. It was a
foolish attempt at a separate negotiation, which they had tried
twice before and failed — once with the frigate which brought
the prisoners, and once on another occasion, (He meant the
frigate that brought the Portuguese Minister.) They were now
not more successful than before, though it was said they were
in great want of gunpowder. If they wanted it, he could not
conceive why they wasted it Every day they had some fete
or manoeuvre here at Cronstadt, when they burnt as much
powder as would serve for one day of battle. But at least he
was sure they did not intend war with France, and therefore
that they would have no separate negotiation with England.
It was, to be sure, an awkward way of doing business, if this
was it. Russia had Voronzof and Smirnoff in England ; if
they wanted to negotiate, it was very easy, but then they would
not take such a ridiculous course as this.
I told him I rejoiced to hear him say that there would be no
war between this country and France, for I had for a long time
been afraid there would.
He said he came here with the same apprehension. He
knew that France did not intend to begin ; but he heard so
much before he came, and saw so much on his way, that he
really feared they would begin here. The preparations were in
themselves great and menacing — five divisions ordered away
jOO MEMOIRS OP JOHN QUISCY ADAMS, [Ai^vt,
from the Turkish army to Poland (I never beard of more than
four) ; and then the paper about 0)denburg looked so much like
a manifesto. But that had been explained. It was merely a
reservation of rights, and would be got over. There were points
about which Russia was obstinate ; she must show a little flexi-
bility and give them up. The return of the Duke of Vicence
had done much good. It was so much easier to explain and
prove intentions, verbally and in person, than at a distance of
eight hundred leagues. Besides, if it was thought that long
residence in the country, and personal favors received, had
made something of a Russian of him, when the reports of the
new-comer perfectly agreed with those that he carried, they
must be convincing. I might rely upon it therefore, with the
most p<;rfcct certainty, that there would be no war for anything
yet in discussion between the parties. "And now," said he,
" we have sent eighty thousand more men into Spain, and are
going to form a camp at Boulogne, and along the coast of the
North Sea, opposite to England. We shall see if they do not
think of calling their troops home to defend themselves."
I said that it sccincil as if there would not be a very active
campaign in Portugal.
The Emperor, he replied, intended first to sweep all clear
in Spain ; to wear out all the guerrillas, and take Valencia and
Carthagena, which would not cost so much trouble as Tarragona.
Cadiz would be left, and that was a strong place. Probably it
would be the last hold ; but the Emperor had given great means
(do grands moyens) to King Joseph, and all must before long
be settled there. As to Portugal, the English would always
have the position of Torres Vedras, which could not be forced.
Probably the war would not be much pushed there. But if the
English stayed where they were, at Portalegre, encamped in the
marshes of Alemtejo, the pestilence would do among them the
work of a T^rench army. Besides which, there were Generals
quite competent to keep the field on a day of battle, but not
qualified to plan successfully a whole campaign. (He must
have alluded to Soult.) The result of the campaign was the
only important object in war, and therein lay the great talent
of the Emperor (Napoleon). A battle was to him only a
i8ii.]. THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 301
secondary object of consideration. It might almost be said it
was unimportant. If he lost a battle to-day, he knew that in
three weeks* time he would be ready to win the next. He was
sure of the effect of an entire campaign — that was everything —
and that, happily (hcurcuscmcnt), was what they wanted here.
They had not got a single General fit to be named. Oh, if they
had, with such soldiers as they have, he should be very much
afraid of them. Hut how they went on with this war in Turkey I
This year nothing done at all, but to return back to where they
were two years ago. The year before last. Prince Bagration
sends a pompous account of a victory, gets the blue riband,
and the day after is recalled, because it turns out that his victory
was a defeat. Last year, what did they ? Lost thousands upon
ten thousands of men in storming two or three paltry fortresses,
which, after having got, they could not hold. Why, the Em-
peror Napoleon would not ask more than one campaign to go
to Constantinople. As to the English, if we could but take
away from them their Scotch soldiers and their Irish sailors, we
should have cheap and easy work with the rest. The Irish are
most excellent sailors, and the Scotch are equally good for the
land service; but they have a national feeling very distinct
from that of the English. " They claim me as a countryman
to this day."
I asked him whether he was directly descended from the
celebrated John Law. " No ; but from his elder brother, who
was my grandfather. John Law left no children. But I am his
heir, and that of the family, and am still the proprietor of the
jestate of Lawriston in Scotland. When I was in England on
a mission, there was a great entertainment given in Scotland,
at which they toasted me as a Scotchman ; and what is more
curious still, they did the same for my son, when, for having
distinguished himself at the battle of Wagram, he was promoted
on the field of battle." The General then told me how the Em-
peror had sent after him into Italy, where he had been employed
upon a particular mission, to make him Ambassador here. He
had never before been upon any but short and easy missions;
always used to have it soon over, and receive nothing but testi-
monies of satisfaction. But now it was altogether different. *' I
302 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,
don't know how your Government does with you/' said he,
" but for mine, I can scarcely ever get so much as a cold appro-
bation. If you yield anything, if you seem even to set forth
what is alleged on the other side in all its strength, they seem
to think you are biased by the people where you are, and coaxed
into their influence. I foresaw this, and told them so before I
came aw<iy. I said I knew I should get more scoldings than
complinicnls. 1 lowcvcr, 1 determined to accepl, and here I am.
It must come to what it can."
He now took his leave, and about two hours afterwards I had
a visit from Count Bussche, the Westphalian Minister. He is
of opinion that there is a separate negotiation between Russia
and England ; that the sending of these store-ships was a con-
certed thing ; and that Prince Lubomirski, whom he says he
knows to be much in favor with the Emperor Alexander, was
charged with a secret mission. It is certainly possible, and the
suspicion is countenanced by the manner in which the Prince
went from hence ; but the reception, or rather the rejection, of
the store-ships upon their arrival is strong evidence either that
he was not executing, or that he has not executed, his errand
with sufficient address, or that, since he went, there have been
changes of affairs which have operated a new change of policy.
September 2d. After dinner I paid a visit at Mr. Laval's. I
found Count Maistre and the Chevalier Brancia there, and Mr.
Labensky — but a company smaller than usual. Madame de
Laval was absent — went yesterday to Pavlofsky, and had not
returned. She came home while I was there. I asked Mr.
Laval some questions about the two institutions of cadets. Onq
of them is to educate officers for the army, and the other officers
for the navy. The army cadets are under the direction and
management of the Grand Duke Constantine. They are taught
the manual exercise in great perfection, and little or nothing
else. The marine cadets are under the inspection of Captain
Krusenstern and Mr. Laval; of the Captain for the practical
part, and of Mr. Laval for the part of instruction. They enter
from nine to eleven years of age, and remain there six years,
after which they are obliged to serve as marine officers, with
the appointment of midshipmen. The three last years of their
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. jqJ
attendance at school they are bas-officiers and gardes-marines,
and when the sea is open and free to them, are sent out on board
frigates to cruise in the Baltic, to learn the practice of navigation.
This part of their duty now is confined to the navigation between
this city and Cronstadt. They are tnught the mathematics with
great assiduity, and many of them make great and surprising
proficiency in them. They are also taught the French and Eng-
lish languages, and some of them German; but the greatest
attention is paid to the French. There are thirteen teachers of
that language alone. But then there are seven hundred pupils
belonging to the institution. Their numbers occasion the great-
est inconvenience. And another heavy misfortune is the de-
preciation of the paper money. The funds remain the same as
they were in the time of the Empress Catherine, while the money
has depreciated to the rate of four for one. The masters have
salaries of two hundred roubles a year, when they ought to
have two thousand. Good masters, therefore, are not to be
had. Notwithstanding which, this is the best naval school in
the country. Mr. Laval promised me that he would some day
accompany me and show me the buildings and arrangements
of the institution.
4th. I sent home the papers which the French Ambassador
had lent me yesterday, with enquiries whether he* could see me
this day, and at what hour. He sent me word that he should
be at home the whole day, and would receive me when I pleased.
I called upon him about one in the afternoon, and thanked him
for the loan of the papers. I had then some conversation with
him upon general subjects. His papers came by a Russian
courier to Count Romanzoff. His own courier, whom he has
some time expected, has not yet arrived. He complained that
his couriers were all dispatched to him too late. I asked him
if he was still as confident of peace as the last week. He said,
yes ; at least there could be no war now — it was too late. He
had heard, indeed, that the Emperor Napoleon had made a
promotion upon his birthday, 15th August, of fifty Brigadier-
Generals and several Generals of Division at once, which could
hardly be true. There had very probably been, however, a
promotion, and it might be unusually numerous, for there had
304 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Septemlwr,
been none since the last campaign against Austria. It was said,
too, that the Emperor Napoleon had had a conversation with
the Russian Ambassador, Prince Kurakin. That was very
probable ; but as the substance of it had been reported to this
Government by Prince Kurakin, and as neither the Emperor
nor Count Romanzofr had told the substance of it to anybody,
it was evident that there could have been nothing in it of
an unfavorable nature; for if there had been, they certainly
would have spoken of it.
The Ambassador's reasoning must go upon the principle that
by anything of an unfavorable nature he means express war.
He said that when the Russian courier came from Paris, the
Emperor Napoleon was going to Compi^gne, and perhaps to
Holland, which would further increase the suspicions and alarms
here. But he would be returned so soon after his departure that
they would not have time to be alarmed long. He had heard, too,
that the Generals had been appointed here ; but this was merely
a rumor. On the whole, I saw that the General himself was
not perfectly sure how affairs actually stood, and that although
he really believes the peace will continue, he is not altogether
without his doubts.
9th. Four o'clock p.m. was fixed for the christening of my
infant daughter. The company invited assembled at that hour.
The Reverend Loudon King Pitt, chaplain to the English factory
church, performed the ceremony. Levett Harris, Esquire, Consul
of the United States in this city, was the godfather, and Madame
Bezerra, the lady of the Portuguese Minister, and Mrs. Annette
Krehmer, were the godmothers ; the witnesses present were the
Chevalier Bezerra, General Watzdorf, and Count Bussche, Portu-
guese, Saxon, and Westphalian Ministers, the Chevalier Navarro,
Mr. and Mrs. Bentzon, Mr. Krehmer and his daughter Sally,
Commodore Bainbridge, and Messrs. Blodget, Fisher, Gray,
Harris, jun^ and Jones — together with our own family. The
child was baptized by the name of Louisa Catherine ^ being that
of her mother. The ceremony took about a quarter of an hour,
and immediately after it was over we sat down to dinner. Great
part of the company spent the evening with us, and we had
cards. I played whist with Mr. Bezerra, Mr. Jones, and Mr.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 30$
Gray. My oldest son and my daughter have been baptized
according to the rites of the Church of England. My sons
John and Charles were baptized at Boston, by my worthy
friend Emerson, now deceased. I think the ceremony of bap-
tism as performed in our Congregational churches much more
proper and rational than that of the English Church. I have
both in this instance and in that of my son George recurred to
the ceremony in this form, only because I thought the rite itself
essential, and because the forms of the English Church are the
most like to those which I have considered as the best, and to
which I myself was born, that I could have access to. The
motives for my preference of our own form of baptism arc —
I. Because it is done in church, a place devoted to divine wor-
ship, and in the presence of the congregation. It is therefore
more solemn and more public than a private baptism can be;
both of which are characters peculiarly suited to this act. 2.
Because it is much more simple, performed only with a previous
and succeeding prayer of the clergyman, without any entangle-
ment of creeds and controversial doctrines. 3. Because the
father of the child is the only sponsor, and solemnly undertakes
what it is his duty to perform — that is, to educate the child to
virtuous and Christian principles; while the sponsors of an
English christening are often strangers, who are never likely
to have any control over the child, and therefore rashly enter
into solemn engagements, the performance of which will never
depend upon themselves. But the rite itself, the solemn dedi-
cation of the child to God, I prize so highly, that I think it
ought never to be deferred beyond a time of urgent necessity.
19th. I received this morning a note from Mr. Craig, inform-
ing me that h^ had heard that there was to be a ball this evening
at the French Ambassador's, and requesting me to present him
to the Ambassador and to allow him to accompany me there.
I answered him that I regretted I could not present any Amer-
ican at the French Ambassador's unless he had been previously
presented at Court. I returned the visit of the Chevalier de
Bray, where I found Mr. St. Genest and Mr. Harris. M. de
Bray gave some particulars of the mode of courtly living at
Paris, which made me doubly rejoice at having no call there,
vol.. 11. — 20
306 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
St. Genest complained of the manner in which the diplomatic
establishment in France is organized, and said that if he or
Rayneval were to go to Paris they could not be presented at
Court, because they were not auditeurs — though Prevost, their
junior, having that title, would be. They were refused it, and
were told it was because they were above it. Besides which,
to obtain it, proof must be given of having an income of six
thousand livres a year. I called on Mr. Harris and had some
conversation with him concerning this curious application to
me of Mr. Craig. I told him that I had adopted as rules which
experience had rendered necessary — I. To present no gentle-
man at Court without first obtaining an express permission
from Count RomanzofT. 2. To present in person no one to
Count Romanzoff, to the foreign Ministers, or to anybody,
except at Court. 3. To soliqit no letters for any one to per-
sons in other countries. The ambition of young Americans
to crowd themselves upon European Courts and into the com-
pany of nobility is a very ridiculous and not very proud feature
of their character. There is nothing, in my estimate of things,
meaner than courting society where, if admitted, it is only to
be despised. Yet such is this vicious appetite for great acquaint-
ance, and so little delicacy has it, that an American Minister
abroad can preserve himself from sharing in the scorn which it
excites only by adopting some such general rules as these.
26th. I called again at eleven o'clock this morning upon
Count Lauriston, and this time found him at home. He had
some . musicians with liim, and violins and a bass-viol, and
music-stands, so that he was preparing for a family concert. I
invited him and all his family to dine with us next Monday.
They agreed to come. I asked permission to s^nd a letter to
Mr. Russell by his next courier. He said he should send one
on Sunday. He spoke of the Emperor Napoleon's being at
Compiegne, where he said it was probable he would stay longer
than had been expected ; that he would perhaps go to Holland,
but probably not to Hamburg. He mentioned paragraphs in
the English papers saying that he was trying to keep Count
Romanzoff in office here, but that he would certainly be turned
out. He also mentioned the English sloop-of-war and the
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 307
store-ships at Reval. I asked him if they were gone. He
said they were gone out of the harbor, but were still anchored
below; and the Emperor Alexander had told him his naval
force had not a superiority adequate to drive them from thence.
He asked me if I had any late accounts from the United States.
I told him, none — that scarcely any American vessels had
arrived here within the last month, and that his countrymen, I
believed, were in part the cause of it. How so ? A number
of privateers, under French colors, had taken stand at the
passage of the Sound, which was now not blockaded by the
English ; one of those privateers had taken, to my knowledge,
two American vessels coming here, and those which were going
from here were considered as in great danger of being taken
by them also. He said it was the difficulty of discriminating
between our vessels and the English which made ours liable to
capture. And the English themselves boasted of the use they
made of our flag. He had but a few days ago seen a para-
graph stating that Admiral Saumarez had permitted two hundred
vessels to come under American colors from Gottenburg into
the Baltic. I told him undoubtedly the English favored this
deception as much as they could, for the sake of exposing our
vessels to be taken for theirs and exposed to the same capture.
It was their interest to prevent the discrimination; but it was
the interest of France, as well as ours, to make it. I then
repeated to him the means by which it is so easy to make the
discrimination, wherever there is an American Minister or Con-
sul. He asked me if I would furnish him with a list of those
which had sailed from here this season, and which I considered
as unquestionably American ; that he would transmit it to
Paris, and then if any of them should be taken they might be
more Sj[)ccclily liberated. I promised to furnish him such a list,
and he said I had better send another copy of the same list to
Mr. Russell. I mentioned to him that among the American
vessels arrived at Cronstadt there were three with false papers,
which we had detected, and which had been seized and would
be confiscated. " But," said he, " I do not mean to speak of it
by way of complaint — I do not wish to trouble anybody — but,
between us two, there must be many more than three vessels
3o8 AfEMOlRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Scplcmlier,
under American colors which have come with false papers, or
which at least have come from England." "Well, between us
two/* said I, "speaking with the same confidence as you ex-
press, there are many American vessels which I believe came
from England; but they all came in ballast. Of loaded vessels,
I assure you, not that there have been none^ but, to my full
persuasion, scarcely any. As to vessels coming in ballast, the
Government here hardly ask any questions — they come to
export Russian produce and manufactures ; which is an object
of so much importance here, that they do not trouble them-
selves about the flag." I understood him to say that he had
seen a list of fifty-five American vessels that had arrived with
cargoes, and of thirty-three in ballast. He also said there had
been within a few days a seizure of one or more loaded vessels
which came under the Pappenburg flag. I have no doubt that
in asking me for the list, besides the motive which he avowed
to me, he had that of collecting information upon the subject,
according to instructions lately received. I know that Mr.
Lesseps has received such instructions. Mr. Longuerue walked
with me as far as my door.
Soon after returning home, I went out again to see the
annual exhibition at the Academy of Arts. It is much inferior
to that of the last year. The paintings are all very bad. There
was a subject of national history, the Czar John Vasilievich
giving a poor soldier to drink from a helmet, treated by several
of the students at the Academy, of what they call the fourth
age or class. The four prize pieces in painting, and the four
in basso-rilievo, were exhibited. There were a few historical
and fancy pieces exposed by persons to obtain the rank of
Academician, and a few portraits. One of the best pictures
there was a Repose of Suwarrow, by Mr. Swienin, the gentle-
man who is gone out to America as adjoint Consul, and with
whom I dined at Mr. Fisher's. A visit to this place is, how-
ever, always interesting and agreeable, on account of the models
from antique statues which are always exhibited. They are
numerous, and many of them well executed. But the print-
shop, and particularly the very bad prints exposed for sale in
one of the halls, seem an incongruity. The indifferent pictures
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 309
hanging in the halls is another. I observed again the full-length
portrait of the Emperor Paul, which I had noticed last year.
It is well painted, but the air of dignity attempted to be given
him, with his countenance and person, is as incongruous as his
purple tunic and imperial crown and robe, with an enormous
pair of jack-boots armed with spurs. I then called upon the
Chevalier de Bray, and invited him and Count Jennison to dine
with us on Monday, which they promi.sed. The Chevalier told
me that there was a verbal invitation to the Corps Diplomatique
to attend at the consecration of the new church of Our Lady of
Kazan to-morrow morning at ten o*clock. On returning home,
I found that one of the aids of the Master of Ceremonies had
been to give us the same notice. I sent word of it to Mr.
Harris, and walked home. I asked the Chevalier de Bray
whether he knew what were the particulars of the conversation
held on the fifteenth of August between the Emperor Napoleon
and Prince Kurakin. He said the Emperor began by speaking
of the accounts from the Russian army, and told the Prince
that although General Koutouzof had claimed the victory at the
late affair of Rustchuk, it was evident by the result that he was
not entitled to it, since he had been obliged to abandon Rust-
chuk itself, to repass the Danube, and to give up everything
that the Russians had gained in the last campaign ; that the
reason why he. Napoleon, had claimed the victory at the battle
of Essling, was because he had maintained his position upon
the island and the head of the bridge on the opposite shore, so
that he was enabled to rebuild his bridge and pass again as
soon as he was in force ; that he could not help being surprised
and somewhat uneasy at seeing the Emperor of Russia, of
whose judgment and honor he had the highest sense, weaken
so excessively his army where he was actually at war, to in-
crease his armaments in Poland, where there was no danger of
his being attacked; that with regard to the Duchy of Olden-
burg, that was included in the Confederation of the Rhine;
that the Duke had not fulfilled the obligations resting upon him
in that capacity; that he. Napoleon, might therefore have put
him to the ban of the Empire, and considered it as an affair of
internal concern, in which no foreign power had a right to inter-
3IO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QU/NCY ADAMS, [September,
fere. But, out of regard and consideration for the Emperor of
Russia, he had offered, and was still ready to give, ample in-
demnity to the Duke of Oldenburg, and he asked Prince Kura-
kin if he had powers to conclude a convention upon the subject.
The Prince said that he had not Upon which the Emperor
said that he was ready to make the arrangement whenever it
should please the Emperor of Russia. But if he had not the
highest confidence in that Prince's justice and honor, he should
have been suspicious that he meant to attack him ; and in such
a war he did not know upon what ally Russia could depend.
This discourse naturally struck the Russian Ambassador with
surprise and alarm; but the Duke of Bassano immediately
afterwards gave the Ambassador the strongest assurances that
it was not intended to indicate any hostile ihtentions; the sub-
stance of it was again repeated in a circular dispatch from him,
which has been sent to the French Ministers at all the Courts
where the Russian protestation of last spring had been sent.
27th. Went with Mr. Smith in full dress, and attended the
consecration of the new church of the Mother of God of Kazan.
We were there punctually at two o'clock, and found it difficult
to get in, owing to the immense crowd. It was about eleven
when the Emperor and imperial family came in, the Emperor
having, according to his constant custom upon all holidays,
begun the day by a parade of the troops. From that time until
half-plast two the ceremonies were performing, so that we stood
between four hours and a half and five hours. The stone floor
of the church, too, was somewhat cold and uncomfortable. There
was a large carpet for the Emperor and im|x:rial family to stand
upon, and a narrow stair-carpet for the priests to pass over,
upon which we had frequent and earnest notice not to encroach.
We were placed, afler several removals to and fro by Count
RomanzofT and the Grand Master of Ceremonies, Narishkin,
at a stand opposite the place where the Enii>eror stood, and in
full view of him. The services were performed by the Metro-
politan Ambrose, and the other dignitaries of the Church who
usually perform with him. The ceremonies were excessively
long, and in very few particulars sufficiently significant to be
understood by me. At one stage of it the priests, followed by
1^1 1.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 311
the Emperor and imperial family, went in procession out of the
church, and marched round it, carrying the holy relics, and the
sacred, miraculous image of the Virgin to whom the church is
dedicated. At another, the four ends of the church, at the east
one of which hung a full-length image of the Virgin, and the
three others of which are the doors, were anointed with oil by a
small brush at the end of a long pole ; the kneeling was twice
repeated, and once continued longer than usual. The priests
were in their customary garments, and the metropolitan mitre
was studded with costly precious stones. The choir of singers
performed their parts as usual. General Pardo and the Chevalier
de Bray soon got weary after the ceremony commenced. Old
Count Strogonoff stayed until the last half-hour, but was then
obliged to retire. He had received us at first, and said to us,
" Je suis charme de vous recevoir chez moi, car c'est encore chez
moi." That is, the church has been built under his superin-
tendence, as President of the Academy of Arts. It is one of
the most magnificent churches that I ever saw. It has been
about eleven years building, having been begun during the
reign of the late Emperor Paul.
October 4th. We dined with Count St. Julien, the Austrian
Minister, at a great diplomatic dinner, the first he has given.
Count Romanzoff, the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, Narish-
kin, the two Masters of the Ceremonies, Laval and Maisonneuve,
the French Ambassador, his aid, secretaries, and consul, and all
the other foreign Ministers and their secretaries, were there,
excepting Count Maistre, the Sardinian, and the Chevalier
Bezerra, the Portuguese, Minister. The absence of these two
gentlemen, with both of whom Count St. Julien is well ac-
quainted, and who are always invited to Count RomanzofTs
parties, was evidence clear enough of Austrian policy, and how
its pride cowers before the power of France. There was in the
dinner, and in everything connected with it, an effort of magnifi-
cence, seemingly to equal or outdo that of the French Ambas-
sador. The servants were nearly as numerous, and the same
various styles of liveries, and equally rich. But the Count had
behind his own chair two chasseurs in hussar dresses, bedizened
with silver lace and tassels and sashes to such a degree that
312 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUfNCY ADAMS. [October,
scarcely any part of the clothing under them was visible. Their
mantles, bordered with furs, hung crosswise' behind them from
shoulder to shoulder, and both of them were tall, handsome
men, with persons well adapted to set off their garments. This
is a very handsome dress, but not more convenient than suitable
to a footman waiting at dinner behind a gentleman's chair. The
Count's house is also very magnificently furnished. He gives
for it two thousand ducats a year rent. His table was hand-
somely ornamented, but not so superbly as is customary at the
Chancellor's or at the Ambassador's. His dinner was remark-
able for a number of things of studied rarity, such as pineapple
jelly served in cups of pineapple rinds. There was a band of
music performing during the dinner, almost without intermis-
sion. The music was very good, but fit only for the field ; the
horns and drums and cymbals made such a thundering harmony
that it was literally " rending with tremendous noise our ears
asunder." It was impossible to hold any conversation with one's
next neighbor. General Pardo told me after dinner that the
only way he had been able to account for its not having been
stopped after the first three minutes, by order of the master
of the house, was that his cartilages were ossified. The Count
was indeed the only person at table who did not appear sen-
sible at all that his orchestra was too powerful. The Emperor
Francis's health was drunk in champagne, the company all rising
from table, according to the usage at the Chancellor's and at the
Ambassador's. But it was curious that Count RomanzofT, after
going through the ceremony of this toast, addressed himself
before he sat down, across Count St. Julien, to the Ambassador,
who sat on the other side of him, and toasted his master, the
Emperor Napoleon. This was another act of homage to the
supremacy of France, demonstrative of Russian policy. For
this dinner was occasional — given on the Emperor Francis's
name-daiy, and the honor was intended exclusively for him.
Count Romanzofif never thinks of the Emperor Francis at his
Alexander-day dinners, or at the Napoleon-day fetes at the
Ambassador's. The attendance of the servants, like everything
else at this dinner, bespoke the stiffness and awkwardness of
novelty, and even the seating of the company was irregular and
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 313
unusual. The Chevalier de Sturmer sat at the Ambassador's
left hand. Almost all the foreign Ministers sat on the opposite
side of the table. I sat between Count Bussche and the Chevalier
de Bray. I observed the rule of temperance better than usual
at these great dinners, to which I believe the stunning noise of
the music in some sort contributed. For by preventing all con-
versation it left my mind unoccupied by anything which could
lead me to forget my resolution, and by confusing the brain it
roused me to an extraordinary exertion to preserve it in as
rational a state as was possible. The company all retired imme-
diately after dinner, and I came home with a dull headache,
occasioned by the noise, but which subsided as soon as I had
enjoyed half an hour of quiet at home.
7th. I walked before dinner over Count StrogonofTs garden,
of which I now take my leave, and which has afforded me a
frequent and agreeable walk the summer through. I examined
again the ancient tomb, said sometimes to be that of Homer,
and sometimes that of Achilles. It is of marble, eight feet long,
forty-four inches high, and of the same width. The four sides
are sculptured in basso-rilievo. At the east end is a centaur,
with a bow, and a young man naked ; the two faces are directed
each towards the other, and it seems intended to represent the
training of Achilles by the Centaur Chiron. The long north
side has four figures representing two centaurs in battle, one
with a lion, and the other with a lioness, or tiger. In the centre
and behind the animals there is a tree. On the short west side
is a female figure seated, playing upon a lyre, and two others
standing, one on each side of her. The long south side has ten
human figures, of which two are women seated upon stools; in
the centre is a young man with a shield upon his arm, in an
attitude of starting to force himself away, and a female on her
knees before him, as if imploring him to stay. I conjecture it
to be Achilles discovered by Ulysses and summoned to attend
the Greeks at the siege of Troy. The sculpture is in a style of
very considerable refinement, but not of the most perfect period
of the art. The heads of the centaurs, the form of the naked
young man, and of the lions, and the draperies of all the attired
figures, are executed in a style of great improvement. There
3r4 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Oclobcr.
are mouldings and cornices above and below the figures round
three of the sides, but the long side with the two centaurs and
lions is plain. At three of the corners are carved plain Doric
pilasters, but at the fourth, the eastern corner, is an image like
a human figure with the head of an ape. There is a marble lid,
or cover, originally of the same length and width as the tomb,
but one end of which has been broken off; it still, however,
nearly covers the whole. It is shaped like the roof of an
American barn — sharp-pointed at the top, as if to shed with
most ease the snow or rain. It is uniformly sculptured in a sort
of regular leaves, and is two feet in perpendicular height. On
the face of its unbroken end there is a roynd medallion carved
in the stone, upon which there may have been an inscription.
There is not, however, at present, the trace of a letter. The
sides of the monument themselves are not entire ; they have
been broken in several places, but are put together with accurate
adaptation.
9th. Finished the third volume of the Bibliotheque dcs Phi-
losophes. It contains a dedication to the King, by Dacier; a
discourse upon Plato, with some account of the motives for the
translation; a life of Plato; dissertations upon the doctrine, the
style and method, and the interpreters and commentators of
Plato ; the first Alcibiades, or concerning human nature ; and
the second Alcibiades, or upon prayer. Voltaire says that
Dacier was a mule loaded with all antiquity. There appears
to be neither criticism nor philosophy in his own writings. I
have not the means of judging of the merit of his translations;
but they are in no high repute. It is strange that a man who
had spent so much time and taken such pains to understand
Plato himself, and to make him understood by others, should
have caught so little of his spirit himself He has a profound
admiration both of Plato and Socrates; but it is the admiration
of a slave, or of an inferior being. His great anxiety seems to
be to make saints of them. Yet I am under obligations to him
for making me acquainted with Socrates and Plato, whom I
have not Greek enough, or not leisure enough, to read in the
original. I read the first Alcibiades at Auteuil, in 1784 or 1785,
and it has been useful to me. The second Alcibiades might be
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 315
called the Vanity of Human Wishes. It lays down the same
principles and uses the same arguments as Juvenal and Dr.
Johnson have thrown into the poetical and satirical form. The
form of prayer recommended by Socrates is more comprehen-
sive than that of Juvenal, and contains the substance of a part
of the Lord's Prayer. The process of the Socratic reasoning
is slow,' sometimes too diffuse, and too uniform in the manner.
Cicero gives some importance to all the personages of his dia-
logues ; Plato has but one personage, all the rest are automata.
I read also several articles in the Edinburgh Review, and
among the rest that upon the Philosophical Essays of Dugaid
Stewart, published at Edinburgh in 1810. The whole article is
curious, and highly interesting; but there is one part of it
which gave me a mingled sensation of surprise, pleasure, and
mortification. It is a train of reasoning on the subject of
etymology and figurative language so similar to that of my
Lectures 30, 31, and 32, that it would be difficult for a third
person, reading both, not to suspect one to be a plagiarism
from the other; the whole page 198 of the Review (No. 33, for
November, 18 10) is so much like pages 274 and 275 of my
second volume, that they seem almost copied from one another.
I was surprised to find opinions, and even some of the forms
of expression, which I had thought entirely my own, belonging
as much to another as to myself I was pleased to find such a
coincidence between my own sentiments and those of so dis-
tinguished a writer as Dugaid Stewart, and I was mortified to
find myself not alone in what I considered as among the few
original parts of my book, and upon which my vanity has
often flattered me as with a discovery.
1 2th. The messenger from the Master of Ceremonies came
with a card from Count Paul StrogonofT, announcing the death
of his father. Count Alexander StrogonofT, the old nobleman
who had received us at the consecration of the Kazan Church
as at his home. He had just lived to witness its consecration,
and on that day, in the church itself, had been elevated by
the Emperor to the first class of the subjects of the empire,
in wliicli there were only two persons besides himself — Count
Strogonoff and Prince Kurakin, the Ambassador at Paris. He
3i6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
was nearly eighty years of age, and had enjoyed every honor
and dignity and pleasure of life, almost to its last day. It was
probably, however, the fatigue and the chill of the consecration
which cost him his life. His funeral service is to be performed
at the Kazan Church on Tuesday next, and to be followed by
a procession to the Monastery of St. Alexander Newsky.
13th. Finished reading the fourth volume of the nil)liothcque
des Philosophes. It contains the Theages, or on wisdom ; the
Euthyphro, or on holiness; an abridgment by Dacier of the first
and second Alcibiades, and of the Euthyphro; the Apology of
Socrates, delivered upon his trial; the Crito, or upon the obli-
gation of duty; and the Phaedo, upon the immortality of the
soul — which I now read the second time. In the Theages,
Socrates gives the account of his demon, or familiar spirit — a
voice, he says, which occasionally warned him what he was not
to do, but which never gave him any advice to act. It is not
easy to say whether this was the effect of superstition or whether
he spoke in figure. It is still more difficult to impute it to de-
liberate deception. The instances which he gives of the occa-
sions when he heard the voice, make it hardly possible to
consider him as having intended only Prudence or Conscience.
They are four; but they all relate to the conduct of others, and
not his own. The Euthyphro is a discussion whether it be con-
sistent with holiness for a man to appear as the accuser of his
father for murder. Socrates here mentions that he himself
was accused by Melitus of disbelieving the established gods and
attempting to introduce new ones. lie certainly does ridicule
the popular creed about the gods then in repute, and shows
that holiness cannot be defined that which pleases them. The
Apology is divided into three parts — what he said before the
question upon the charge; after it, when he was to name his
own punishment; and after the sentence of death had been
passed upon him. The mildness of his tone and manner, the
firmness and intrepidity of his adherence to his principles, the
sportive playfulness of his satire, and the exalted purity of his
doctrines, are all but divine. He repeats here the assurance
that he is accompanied by a demon ; but there is no sub-
stantial defence against the accusation of Melitus. He had no
i8ii.] THE AflSSION TO RUSSIA, 317
defence to make: the charges were substantially true. The
Crito is the exposition of his motives for refusing to make his
escape from prison when under sentence of death — sublime
morality. Hume, I think, says it is the doctrine of passive
obedience and non-resistance. Socrates argues in this dialogue
from a dream that he had the night before. So that he believed
in dreams. He lays down, however, and demonstrates the posi-
tion, that evil is never to be returned for evil, and it is from this
that Juvenal quotes that sentiment in his 13th Satire. I am
better pleased with the Phaedo at the second reading than I
was at the first. Its argument is still unsatisfactory. One of
his principal reasons is the doctrine of the metempsychosis;
another, the existence of the soul before the body — which is
attempting to prove a doubtful point by data still more doubt-
ful. We know them now to be false. The idea that spirit is a
simple and not a compound essence, and therefore not liable to
decomposition like matter, is ingenious, and the strongest that
he gives. He refutes with sufTicient force the objection of Sim-
niias, that the soul is only a hminony^ and that of Cebcs, that
although the soul may last long enough for several bodies, it
must at last wear out. But one of the most remarkable things
in this treatise is the observation of Simmias, that to establish
firmly the soul's immortality, a special revelation from Heaven
is necessary.
1 sth. Attended the funeral solemnities at the interment of the
late Count StrogonofT. We went to his house about half-past
nine in the morning. He was lying in state, under a splendid
canopy, in an apartment hung entirely round with black cloth
and lighted with tapers. All the principal nobility of the Court
were there, but none of the foreign Ministers except Count
Maistre. But Mr. Laval, Master of the Ceremonies, told me
that it was considered as more of a compliment to the family to
go first to the house. The corpse was removed from the house
in about half an hour. The procession to the Kazan Church
was performed entirely on foot, and everybody was bare-
headed ; the house being too near the church to form a pro-
cession of carriages. The crowd was so great that it was with
difficulty I made my way into the church and found it to the
3l8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [October,
•
place for the foreign Ministers. The ceremonies were similar to
those I had seen at the interment of Prince Beloselsky, but
longer, and with more magnificence. There was a funeral dis-
course delivered by the Archimandrite Philaretus, said to be the
most distinguished orator among the Russian clergy. It had
the merit of being short — about twenty minutes ; but I could
not understand him, and few of the assembly could hear. him.
His manner was temperate, and his gestures graceful. He did
not appear to attempt any excitement of the passions. The
passport, as it is commonly called, is only a prayer for God's
mercy to the deceased, and a sort of certificate of his character.
It is rolled up and put into the right hand before the closing of
the coffin. The body was clad in the uniform worn by the
Count when alive, with the star of the order of St. Andrew upon
the coat. A number of stools covered with cushions of crimson
velvet were ranged on both sides of the stage on which the
coffin was placed, and on each stool was laid the mark of some
distinction which the Count had enjoyed — such as the ribands
of the different orders, a gold medal struck by the assembly of
the nobility of the province, of which he had been chosen eight
or nine times successively the marshal, &c. Before the coffin
was closed, his son, grandson, relations, friends, and servants
went up and performed the usual ceremony of kissing his hand.
The son and grandson prostrated themselves three times at the
lowest step before they went up, and as they descended. One
of the women of the family remained prostrate, with her face
fixed down upon the first step, for a full space of ^wk: minutes,
weeping and sobbing aloud as in extreme distress. Countess
Litta, who is a distant relation of the deceased, was much affected
during a part of the ceremony. She wept much, and sobbed
heavily for some minutes, but recovered herself before the cere-
mony was finished. It was past two o'clock when the procession
from the church commenced; but I did not follow it. I returned
home.
I had some conversation at the house with Count Roman-
zoff. I mentioned to him the appearance of French privateers
at the passage of the Sound, concerning which I observed I
knew that Mr. Harris had spoken to him. He said that Mr.
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO HUSSIA. 319
GouriefT had laid the subject before the Emperor; that the
Emperor had directed Mr. Gourieff to repeat the statement to
him, the Chancellor, and had directed him to make represen-
tations concerning it to the Danish Government, and he had
accordingly entered into a correspondence with the Danish
Government through Baron Blome about it. But what could
be done ? If France had no possessions upon the Baltic, the
old ground might be taken that the Baltic was a mare clausum ;
but, however it might be closed with regard to other nations, it
could not be so to the powers bordering upon it, and conse-
quently not now to France.
I told him that such considerations had induced me to spare
him the trouble of a formal application upon the subject. I
had not much expectation from what Denmark could do, though
she would be the greatest sufferer by the event. Our vessels
would not go through the Sound to pay the toll, for the sake of
being taken by French privateers. They would sooner come
with English convoys through the Belt.
The Count said he hoped many of them would take their
destination for Archangel, as he did not think they would be
troubled by French privateers in that sea. And then he told
me again, with an injunction to consider him as laying aside
the character of Chancellor of the Empire, the story about the
enrages de terre and the enrages de mer, which he had told me
before, last June. He asked me if I had any late news from
America ; and particularly with reference to a prospect of war
between the United States and England. I told him I had none ;
but if I could venture to give him my private opinion, it was
that there would not be a war — that France was rendering us
too many good offices, like that of stationing those privateers
at the passage of the Sound, to make us very hasty in coming
to extremities with England. He smiled, and said he thought
so too.
17th. Walking afterwards upon the quay, I met Mr. E. Plum-
mer and Mr. Smith, of Boston, who informed me of the arrival
of several American vessels. Met the Emperor, who asked me
if I had returned into the city, and where I lived now. I told
him in a corner house of the Vosnesensky and Little Officer's
320 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [October,
Streets. He said he knew well Where it was ; and after living
thirty-five years in a place he ought to be well acquainted with
it. He enquired whether Madame was confined. I told him
she had been. " When ?" " More than two months ago."
"What! in the country?" "In the country." He shrugged
his shoulders and waved his hand, which is a fashion of gesture
that he often uses to intimate that he did not know a thing you
are telling him, without saying it. And he does not say it,
because he cannot. I believe he knew my wife had been con-
fined perfectly well. But he asked me the question for the
sake of conversation, and to please me ; and after asking it,
he could not seem to know anything about it. His mother
does the same thing more remarkably still. He pursued the
enquiries. Had her confinement been fortunate ? Entirely so.
And what had she got ? A daughter. He then said he be-
lieved I did not walk now so much as formerly. Just the same.
" But," said he, " we have lived very near each other this sum-
mer, and I do not know how it has happened that wc have
never met." I said it was true, that it had been long since
I had the honor of seeing him. ** Not once, that I recollect,"
said he, " the whole summer. Yet I was often riding and
walking." I said I believed the cause of it was that I had
generally been walking at his Majesty's hour of dinner. He
finished by making an observation upon the weather. He said
nothing upon any political topic.
25th. I met the Emperor upon the Fohtanka. He observed
I had no gloves on my hands, and asked me if I was not cold
without them. I told him I had accustomed myself to going
without gloves, and seldom wore any but in extreme cold
weather. He appeared to be much surprised at this, for the
wearing of gloves or of mittens is so universal in this countiy
that I suppose it struck him as oddly to see a man with bare
hands as it would have been had he met one barefooted. In
general, the Emperor is extremely quick and particular in
observing slight peculiarities in dress. He asked me whether
there was an officer of the navy of the United States now here.
I told him there was, but he was on the point of his departure.
He enquired what had brought him here. I said his private
I8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 32 1
affairs. Had he come as master of a merchant vessel ? He
had not. Merely as a traveller, then? As a traveller, upon
business of his own, and with permission of the Government.
Was it customary under the Government of the United States
to allow their naval officers to go as masters of merchant vessels?
Sometimes, when they were upon furlough. Most of our naval
officers had been taken from among the captains of vessels in
the merchant service. That, he said, differed from the English
practice. In England, officers of the navy were sometimes
allowed to sail on merchant vessels, but he believed they were
never taken from merchantmen to be marine officers. I said
they had an extensive system for the regular education of officers
to the service of the navy, which on a smaller scale we now had
also ; but that our navy itself was a recent institution, and in
the origin it was necessary to take its officers among the persons
best qualified for the service, which were obviously mariners
experienced in the merchant service. He said it was his phy-
sician (Dr. Wiley) who had told him that there was an American
officer here. I suppose he also knew that I had applied to
Count Romanzoff for a passport for him, but of this he said
nothing. I met Dr. Wiley the other evening at Commodore
Bainbridge's lodgings. He was attending him professionally
under an attack of rheumatism. In the course of my walk I
met General Pardo, who told me of the courier arrived last
evening from General Koutouzof with advices of a splendid
victory over the Turks.
31st. Mr. Fisher had been over to the island to see Mr. Blod-
get, who is very dangerously ill with a fever. This was the
first day that he could go over since Sunday; the river not
having been passable before. I went with him to the glass
manufactory, which is just beyond the monastery of St. Alex-
ander Newsky. It was so late that we could see only a small
part of the works which they carry on. The most curious part
of them is the making of looking-glasses, four of which had
been cast this morning before we went there. They showed us
the manner of coating the glasses with mercury and tin, and they
were at work in polishing a number of them, which is performed
with a stcani-cnginc — an invention of prodigious effect, in its
VOL. 11. — 21
322 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
application to manufactures. They also make here decanters,
wine-glasses, tumblers, and colored glass dishes and vases of
various kinds. I saw the various works of blowing, color-
ing,* cutting, and gilding; but we were obliged to go over the
whole in the space of half an hour; and I know not how to
describe even what I saw. I wish I could visit a manufacture
once a week, and spend three hours at every visit. If I learnt
nothing else by it, I should have a perpetual lesson of humility
in the consciousness of my ignorance from which it would not
suffer me to escape. This manufacture belongs to the Crown,
and I hope to see it again.
« November 7th. I continued reading the first volume of Cha-
teaubriand's Itineraire. It is merely a journal — ^but the journal
of a man of genius. He alleges the motives of his journal —
to look for scenery for his Martyrs, to visit Greece for the
sake of its antiquities, and a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem,
This book is a good study for a traveller who wishes to give
himself or others an account of what he sees. The two intro-
ductory memoirs, and every page of the book, are full of eru-
dition— book-learning. He thinks he has discovered the ruins
of ancient Sparta. He mentions the trees and plants which he
met on his way as a botanist. He paints with elegance and
truth the manners of all the people with whom he converses
— Turks, Greeks, Jews, Italians, janissaries, mariners, guides,
&c. He reflects, perhaps, too much. Some of his reflections
are ingenious and pleasing. Many of them are fanciful combi-
nations of trivial occurrences in his journey, with incidents of
antiquity. Some about the vicissitudes of human affairs have
too much of the commonplace stamp. He says he carried
with him no books but Racine, Tasso, Virgil, and Homer — the
last with blank leaves to write notes upon — all poets. In his
navigation from Trieste to Modon he met a cabin-boy who
sang songs from Tasso's Jerusalem. It sounds to me as if he
had said the Mousse kept a basin of Sevres china to eat his
broth out of Popular songs are seldom taken from epic poems.
I question whether even the odes of Horace or of Pindar were
ever sung by Roman or Greek cabin-boys. A keen eye may
see here and there traces of vain-glory piercing through the
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 323
veil of Christian humility. The author glories in his country,
in his religion, in his literary successes, and persecutions ; and
he studiously sets off his own courage, and patriotism, and
tender affections. His favorite association of ideas is between
himself and any thing or person illustrious in antiquity. ' He
generally puts in a qualifying disavowal of comparison, for
form's sake ; but the next great man that occurs to his mind
comes with the same company, — himself. All this, perhaps, is
inseparable from a journal.
9th. I finished reading this morning the Laws of Plato, and
in the evening the first volume of Chateaubriand's Itineraire.
Began, but did not finish, the Epinomis. I met in the Itineraire
an account of an occurrence similar to that which happened to
us on approaching the island of Bornholm. The writer makes
an ingenious reflection upon it, on the continual transitions, not
only of scenery but of fortune, the traveller witnesses, and in
some sort participates — one moment upon the ocean, buffeting
a storm, or drifting to a rock or quicksand, the next entering
a house of sickness or mourning, and from that passing, per-
haps, into another for a banquet or a ball, to the voice of feast-
ing and of mirth — of the bridegroom and the bride. This
thought is at once so striking and so obvious that I was vexed
at having never made it myself He speaks of having met a
number of American officers at Tunis. He blames Sparta for
not having been sufficiently ambitious, and avows some sen-
timents in favor of domestic servitude, which savor much of
the soil and the season in which they originate. They are
mingled with other sentiments of fervent Christianism and
attachment to liberty which it may be difficult, but perhaps
not impossible, to conciliate with them.
lOth. I had only time this morning to finish reading the
Epinomis, or Philosopher, at the close of Plato's Laws. As my
acquaintance with Plato becomes more intimate, my admiration
of his genius, and my regret for his errors, increase. I lament
that I had not sought this intimacy sooner and more assidu-
ously. In reading him it is necessary to be always upon one's
guard, always winnowing the chaff from the wheat. His Laws
might with more propriety have been called the Republic, than
324 MEAWIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
the work which bears that name. The laws are professedly a
project of a Constitution for a Cretan colony that was to issue
from the city of Gnossus. As a project of government, it is,
if possible, more absurd and impracticable than the Republic.
He chooses to have five thousand and forty families, and pro-
poses laws to prevent their increase not less than their diminu-
tion. He makes laws for the most trivial domestic arrangements,
and punishes with death more frequently than Draco. But
some of his regulations are excellent, and many of his princi-
ples are truly admirable. His argument upon the existence
and nature of the gods, upon the immortality of the soul, and
upon future rewards and punishments is inferior to nothing but
Christianity, and stronger in logic tlian the Phajdo. The doc-
trine upon Lave, peculiar to Plato, is fully set forth in this book,
and, in spite of all ridicule, is both beautiful and sublime. The
doctrine about numbers seems to me rather pedantic than pro-
found. But the advice to study the mathematics and astronomy
is well reasoned. I hope to be yet much better acquainted
with Plato.
At noon I went with Mr. Smith to the Winter Palace, and
attended the Te Deum. The Emperor, Empress, and Grand
Duke Constantine only were there of the imperial family. The
Empress-mother is sick at Gatschina. I had some conversation
with the French Ambassador, who hinted to me that with the
help of about five thousand men we could easily take Canada.
The Te Deum was finished about half-past two.
13th. Mr. Fisher called on me and proposed paying a visit
to Mr. Dubrowsky, the Librarian of the Imperial Library.
While I was dressing to go with Mr. Fisher, Mr. Harris came
in, and sat with me nearly an hour. It was thus past three
o'clock before I went out with Mr. Fisher. I would have
postponed the visit to Mr. Dubrowsky to another day, but
Fisher was anxious to go this day, and I accompanied him.
Mr. Dubrowsky received us in an obliging manner, and showed
u^ a number of curious manuscripts — principally curious on
account of the persons to whom they had belonged. Among
them were a mass-book belonging to the unfortunate Mary
Queen of Scots, which she used while in prison in England,
l8il.] TUB MISSION TO RUSSIA. 325
with many things written with her own hand upon the margins
and blank pages; an English Chronicle, and some other books,
with the names of James (,) Charles (,) and O. Cromwell
written on their first and last blank leaves. There was another
name, which I took to be Edvardus, and supposed to be that
of Edward the Sixth. But Mr. Dubrowsky said it was Ricardus;
and upon my asking him which of the Richards, he answered,
Richard the Fourth — ^which gave me no very high opinion of his
antiquarian knowledge. There was a small Latin Bible, written
upon a soft and beautiful kind of vellum, which he pretended
was human skin. I asked him when and where the manufactory
of this material, in such a manner, had existed; which, however,
he could not tell me. He only said it was done by the monks
of the middle ages, and must be the skins of infants who had
died without baptism. I have yet some doubts with regard to
the fact, though it is obviously a kind of vellum far more thin
and delicate than that of a calf There was a collection of letters
written by Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth of England, James
the First, and others, which I had not time to examine; a manu-
script collection of poetry addressed to Louis the Twelfth of
France and Anne de Bretagne, his Queen, with illuminated pic-
tures between many of the leaves, two of which Mr. Dubrowsky
says are by the hand of Raphael Sanzio. They are allegories,
and very beautifully done. There were many other curiosities
of the same kind, but it grew late and dark, and we were
obliged to go away. I asked Mr. Dubrowsky's permission to
call upon him again, to which he gave me an earnest invitation.
He was an amateur of these curiosities, and formed a large
collection of them, which the Emperor Paul purchased of him
entire for seventy thousand roubles, and appointed him the
keeper of them, as Librarian.
14th. This forenoon Mr. Fisher called upon me with a collec-
tion of Siberian minerals worked into knife-handles — six dozen
of them — which have been purchased, he thinks extremely
cheap, for fifteen hundred roubles. While he was here, Count
Bussche came in, and sat with me more than an hour. In the
evening we went to the ball at Count and Countess Besborodko's.
We went about ten at night, and came home about one in the
326 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [NoTember,
morning. There were about five hundred persons there. The
house is one of the largest, most magnificent, and most superbly
furnished in St. Petersburg, but has not been opened to com-
pany since the death of Prince Besborodko, the Count's elder
brother, by whom it was built and furnished. He was at one
time Chancellor, but has been dead these ten or twelve years.
Three-fourths of the company, or more, were totally unknown
to the inviters. There was a gallery of pictures, many of them
by great masters, and nearly equal to that of Count Strogonoff ;
antique busts and statues — one, particularly, of a Cupid stand-
ing with his hand raised to his mouth, and the finger extended,
to mark an intention to surprise, and the other hand slily draw-
ing out an arrow from the quiver under him ; Japan porcelain,
very rare ; a splendid dining-hall, with tables laid in the centre
and round the sides for about two hundred persons, all served
in solid plate; other halls, with tables laid and served in the
same manner ; a hall where part of the company were seated
at cards, hung round with the finest Gobelin tapestry ; three
small apartments, being a bed-chamber, dressing-room, and
boudoir, furnished with most of the furniture of the late Queen
of France at the Grand Trianon ; Sevres porcelain coffee-services
and vases ; bronzes of the most exquisite workmanship; a bar-
rel clock studded with diamonds; a toilet service of solid gold;
and last, but chiefest to my value, a miniature picture of Peter
the Great, painted from the life, when he was in France, which
Count Kotschubey showed me. Count and Countess Kotschu-
bey did the honors in part. The lady of the house speaks only
Russian; her husband very little French. The bride or her
husband, Prince Labanoff, I did not even see. The Grand
Chamberlain Narishkin told me that if that house and all
those fine things belonged to him, he would have taken care
to show them to advantage, and the furniture would not be in
so good a state of preservation. Much of it, indeed, was as old-
fashioned as it was rich. The supper was served about three
in the morning. Two hundred and sixty persons sat down to it.
About half the company had come away as we did. The ball
finished about six in the morning. I was in bed about two.
1 6th. Dined at the French Ambassador's, with a company of
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 327
about thirty persons, among whom were Count Besborodko,
the father of the newly-married bride for whom the ball was
given, and Prince Labanofl) the father of the bridegroom ; Ad-
miral Siniavin, Count Nesselrode, late Secretary of the Russian
Embassy at Paris, and now one of the Emperor's particular
secretaries, Count RomanzofT, and most of the foreign Ministers
were there. I sat at table between Count Bussche, the West-
phalian Minister, and Count Besborodko, with both of whom I
had much conversation. Baron Armfeldt, now a Russian officer,
and President of the Commission for the affairs of Finland, was
also of the cpmpany. I had seen him at Berlin, in 1797 and
1798, in a state of banishment, and with a very alarming, and
almost despairing, condition of health. He is now robust and
healthy, and, as a Russian nobleman, was seated at the Ambas-
sador's left hand at table, Count RomanzofT being at his right.
The Count, as usual, enquired of me whether I had any late
news from America, and what were the prospects of our relations
with England. I said I thought they were less warlike than
they had some time since appeared. He said he thought so
too — particularly as the American Government had declared
they had given no orders which could have occasioned the ren-
counter between the two ships of war, and had put Commodore
Rodgers upon trial.
19th. Before dinner, walked with Charles over to the Wa-
sily Ostrow. We met Mr. Harris, Mr. Lebzoltem, Mr. Salters,
and lastly the Emperor. Mr. Salters walked with us to the
extremity of the quay in front of the Exchange, which was too
far for Charles. We met the Emperor as we were returning, on
the boulevard of the Admiralty. He accosted me by saying,
" Vous voila en societe aujourd'hui ;" and then asked me \ithat
(pointing to Charles) was his old acquaintance. I said it was,
upon which he stooped and asked Charles, in English, if he
spake English. Charles was too much intimidated to answer
him at all, upon which he asked me what language Charles
spoke. I told him a little English, a little French, a little Ger-
man, and even a little Russian. *' Ah I" said he, " mais c'est un
jeune homme tres-eclaire." But which of these languages did
he speak best ? I answered that I believed it was the German.
328 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [November,
" How happened that ?" " He had a German woman who had
him under her care." " I thought," said he, " that it was the
American young woman, celebrated for her beauty, whom I
once saw, and who I heard had been alarmed, as if young girls
were liable to be dreadfully treated in this country." I said,
laughing, that she had entirely recovered from all alarms of this
kind, rie said, yes, he supposed she had found that nobody
would hurt her here, and that she might go about in perfect
security. Then, changing the subject, he made some remarks
upon the weather, which is very dull, but mild. On my remark-
ing that the sun had appeared a few minutes before, and led me
to expect a change, he shook his head, and said no — he thought
there would be no change until the next change of the moon :
so that his Majesty is a lunarian.
22d. Walked again, about an hour before dinner, upon the
quay, and met a numerous company of walkers ; among them
was the Emperor, who told me that he had made the acquaint-
ance of a countryman of mine, a Mr. Fisher. I told him that Mr.
Fisher had mentioned to me his having had the honor of seeing
his Majesty. " So you know him, then ?" said he. " Yes, Sire, inti-
mately." " From what part of America does he come ?" " From
Philadelphia." " He speaks French very well." " Tolerably
well, Sire." " Is the French language very common in your
country ?" ** Not very common, and not at all so except in the
commercial cities.^' " In England I have heard that the French
is scarcely ever spoken, and in Germany it is extremely rare
among the common people. But you, I suppose, have people
of almost all nations mixed together." " Of most European
nations. Sire. But chiefly Germans and Irish people ; a few
French, but altogether fewer than is generally supposed." "And
do they all amalgamate well together?" "Very well, Sire,
in a length of time." "And does it not sometimes produce
difficulties or confusion at the elections for your assembly?"
"None that are of material consequence." "And if they are
elected, how do they express themselves ?" " They sometimes
make speeches in English, and often speak very well, only their
pronunciation is a little laughed at. But one of our Ministers,
for instance, was a German, and was many years a member
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 329
of Congress, where he made speeches as well as any other
member."
December 9th. I walked only once this day, and that was be-
tween two and four in the afternoon. I first met General Pardo,
who told me that, from a particular source of information that he
had, he doubted whether the peace with Turkey would come to
a conclusion. Afterwards I met the Emperor on the Fontanka,
who, on meeting me, said, " Monsieur Adams, j'ai Thonneur de
vous presenter mes respects" — a mode of salutation which
proved him to be in good humor and spirits. He proceeded,
as usual, to remark upon the weather — this day it was fine, but
that for some time past it had been like the climate of Portugal
at this season. " And then," said he, " we have two comets at
once." I said I had seen some such intimation in the news-
papers, but had not seen the second comet. "Oh, that," said
he, " is certain — c'est positif But, furthermore, I hear that one
of the fixed stars, namely, Sirius, has sunk one degree in the
firmament ; but for this I will give you my authority — c*est
Monsieur TAmbassadeur de France." I said this was extraor-
dinary news indeed. "C'est un bouleversement general du
ciel," said he. " But," said I, " as it is generally understood
that one comet portends great disasters, it is to be hoped that
two must signify some great happiness to the world." " Or at
least," said he, " that their mischief will operate mutually against
each other, and by reciprocal counteraction destroy the evil
efficacy of both." " I congratulate his Majesty on his happy
solution of the portentous knot." He laughed, and said, " II y
a moyen d'expliquer toutes ces choses la."
20th. In my second walk before dinner I met the Emperor,
who asked me if it was now cold enough for me. I answered
him, very reasonably cold, though I had heard that the comet
had been warming us for some months. He said that opinion
would not answer now (the thermometer was at about fourteen
of Fahrenheit). I asked him if his Majesty had any news from
the fixed stars. He laughed, and said, none since the informa-
tion given him by the French Ambassador, who had told him
that some astronomer had announced the fall of Sirius one
degree. But General Pardo, who was himself a learned astrono-
330 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS, [December,
mer, had told him that even if the fact were so, it could not
have been discovered here, because the fixed stars have no
parallax, and the variation of a degree in the position of them
would not be perceptible to us. He was not astronomer enough
to know whether this was correct. I said, nor I ; but I had a
prepossession against making a wandering star of Sirius ; his
movements had hitherto been so long regular, as well as the
whole government of the heavenly bodies, that I did not readily
credit their now beginning to change their character. He said
he believed the best way was to let the heavens take their own
course, without meddling with their management.
2 1 St. Read the tenth Philippic, which is little more than a
repetition of the eighth, superadding a violent invective against
Aristodemus at the close. I cannot believe that these Philippics
were all delivered as they are now published. The repetition
of whole pages in the same identical words, twice or three times
over, at assemblies held within one or two years of each other,
is neither consonant to the perfection of the orator's composi-
tions, the greatness of his powers, nor the fastidious delicacy of
an Athenian audience. But they give rise to another scruple
in my mind. Is it an indication of perfect compositions, that
whole pages may be transported from one discourse to another,
and be equally suitable for either? Blair says that Demosthenes
never recurred to the loci communes. But the usurpations of
Philip are the perpetual commonplace of all the Philippics, and
you scarcely ever can discover the precise object of the delibera-
tion on any one of the specific occasions of the discourses. In
the tenth Philippic he argues in favor of the theatrical dis-
tributions, which in the third and fourth he had urged to have
appropriated to maintain the troops — a remarkable example
of compliance with popular prejudices and passions. Philip's
letter to the Senate and people of Athens is well written ; with
much moderation and dignity of expression, and with provoking
coolness, he details all his causes of complaint against them ;
and in many particulars he appears to have reason and justice
on his side. In all great human controversies the better side
may be liable to the reproach of subordinate wrongs more than
their adversary. The Athenians were not altogether blameless
i8ii.] THE MISSION TO XUSSIA. 331
in their proceedings towai-ds Philip. But their faults were all
of petty extent, and in the nature of defence. Philip's wrong
was enormous ; it was the design of subjugating to himself all
Greece. He windd his web round them like a spider round a
fly. When I ttzA those noble sentiments of Pemosthenes in
which he compares the fortune of Athens with that of Philip,
and prefers it upon the principle that truth and justice must be
favored by Heaven ; when he contends that success and prosperity
founded on fraud and treachery must be short-lived, I cannot
avoid a feeling of sorrow that these maxims were not sanctioned
by the event — that the triumph of fraud and treachery was
complete, and that liberty sunk under the genius and industry
of the tyrant. I remark, as an item in estimating the oratorical
powers of Demosthenes, that there is nothing like learning in
his orations. There is nothing that discovers a cultivated mind.
There is little of philosophy, no indulgence to the imagination,
no wit or humor, no attempt at ridicule; he is sufficiently
figurative, but all his figures are taken from familiar objects.
His eloquence is characteristic of democracy, as that of Cicero
is of aristocracy. It is the Doric to the Corinthian pillar.
24th. The Emperor Alexander's birthday. There was a
parade in the morning, but, as there was a steady fall of snow,
I did not go out The Court was announced as usual for noon.
I went a little before one, entering at the Hermitage, as had
been requested. The imperial family were already at the mass,
and the Corps Diplomatique had gone into the Hall of the
Throne. It was, however, near two before the Emperor came
in, as there is always a Te Deum as well as a mass. Both the
Empresses were dressed with extraordinary magnificence and
an unusual profusion of diamonds and other precious stones
— the Empress-mother especially. The circle was as short as
ever — if anything, shorter. The Emperor and Empresses said
very few words to the Ambassador and each of the Ministers.
The Emperor noticed that I had at last left off" my wig. I said
I had considered his Majesty's example as a permission, and
accordingly followed it. He said it was not so showy, but
more convenient, to go without it. Between eight and nine in
the evening I went with the ladies again to the palace and
332 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY 4DAMS, [January,
attended the ball given by the Empress-mother. It was similar
to those of the last two years on the same occasion, but the
supper was more magnificent, being served in one of the largest
halls of the palace. The Empress-mother, who does the honors
of her own house, was, as usual, remarkably attentive to her
guests, and spoke several times to the foreign Ministers, before,
at, and after supper. The Emperor asked me whether dancing
was not practised in America. . " Very much. Sire." ** Well,
why do you not dance here ?*' " Because I have given it up.
I am too old for dancing. Does your Majesty dance ?" " No ;
I say, like you, I am too old." The Empress was unwell, and
obliged to retire immediately after supper. About half-past
one the Emperor came up and said, '* Je crois qu'il est temps
de sonner la retraite," and, with his mother, left the ball-room.
We got home a little after two.
January 4th, 181 2. Mr. Raimbert also paid me a morning
visit, and brought with him a present of porcelain for my wife
and for Charles, and another for myself, of which he requested
our acceptance. I gave him many thanks for us all, and assured
him that, being fully sensible of his kindness and attention, I
should feel an additional obligation to him if he would take
them back — it being a principle which I had found it necessary
to adopt from the first day that I became a public man, never
to accept for myself or my family, while I hold any public
ofHce, a present of more than trifling value from any person;
that this principle was not only the result of my own sense of
propriety, but was altogether conformable to the general senti-
ment of my country, which was more punctilious on this subject
than any European nation, and which was peculiarly strict with
regard to their Ministers abroad. Mr. Raimbert accordingly
took the things home with him again. He appeared to feci a
little mortification, but he expressed his approbation of my
motive. The refusal of presents is one of the occasions on
which I have found it most difficult, ever since I have been in
the public service, to act with perfect propriety; and that diffi-
culty becomes not a little aggravated when they are offered to
my family and not to myself Were it possible for me to pre-
vent it, not the value of a dollar should be offered by anybody
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 333
to any of us ; but those who forbear presenting anything to
me sometimes address themselves where refusal may not be
thought my duty ; and those who begin with trifles, which it
would be affectation rather than virtue to reject, rise gradually
to articles of cost and value, which render it indispensable to
recur to the standard of spotless integrity. I have heretofore
accepted from Mr. Raimbert presents of fruit and other small
things, which it would have been ridiculous to reject on the
ground of a scruple, and which I could not refuse on any other.
But this time the gift would have been of a value which I could
not have received without feeling uneasy for it hereafter. The
perfect line between self-denial and self-indulgence may not
always be clear, but the principle of temperance has self-denial
for its essence, and even excess on that side is better than the
slightest deviation on the other. I dined at the French Am-
bassador's, with a company of about fifty persons — the common
diplomatic company. My next neighbors at table were Count
Bussche and the Grand Veneur Narishkin. Count RomanzofT
told me that he had received a courier from Paris, and that
there were two letters for me, which, if I had not already
received, would be sent me this evening; that he had the
papers containing President Madison's message, which recom-
mended serious and energetic measures, but complained alike
against both France and England. It also mentioned Russia ;
but in terms peculiarly gratifying to him. I came home im-
mediately after dinner was over, but was disappointed in
the expectation of receiving the letters which the Count had
promised me.
1 2th. Conversation with General Watzdorf on the subject of
the Bible. The other day, at the Chevalier de Bray's, in speak-
ing of Chateaubriand's Itineraire, the Chevalier had told me
that he had been more interested in his account of Athens than
in that of Jerusalem, and I had expressed a preference on the
other side. The Chevalier had then extended his observation
to the two nations, and said he thought the Greeks a more
interesting people of antiquity than the Hebrews. I had taken
the other side of that question too, and said, without intending to
derogate in the least from the merits of the Greeks, I thought
334 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [January,
that the Hebrews, whether historically or philosophically con-
sidered, were the most interesting people of antiquity. This
had led us into a considerable discussion of the subject, and the
Chevalier had mentioned the conversation to General Watzdorf,
who said he was on my side of the question generally, but he
believed that the Greeks had excelled in the Arts, especially in
eloquence. We had much conversation on this, in which I
found that the General was more acquainted with the Scrip-
tures than Mr. de Bray; and he has naturally founded on this
better acquaintance a higher opinion of them and of the
nation which produced them. For, setting prejudices and all
party spirit aside, I believe that the respect and veneration
of any person for the Bible will increase in proportion to the
intimacy of his acquaintance with its contents.
25th. At twelve o'clock I went with Mr. Smith to the Winter
Palace, expecting an ordinary circle on account of the Empress's
birthday, instead of which we were regaled with the most un- ,
pleasant and dangerous part of the ceremony, which had been
postponed from the sixth, and which I had flattered myself we
should escape this year. We were introduced first to the
Hermitage, by the door from the Grande Millionne, and soon
after were conducted to the Great Hall upon the quay to wit-
ness the filing off of the troops before the Emperor. The two
Empresses came sufficiently muffled up in furs, and went out
upon the balcony. Reaumur's thermometer was from ten to
twelve degrees below zero — ^the precise degree of cold which
was alleged last week for omitting the parade and the Court. It
was indispensable to follow them out upon the balcony, bare-
headed, without pelisse, with silk stockings and thin shoes.
They both immediately and strongly recommended to us to go
into the hall, and after a very few minutes I took them at their
word ; not, however, until I had been thoroughly chilled by the
zephyr from the quay. The troops were more than an hour
filing off; and Count Maistre and the Chevalier Bezerra stood
it out almost the whole time. The other members of the Corps
Diplomatique all withdrew into the hall, which was itself abun-
dantly cold. The French Ambassador, who has been voy ill,
and several days confined even to his bed, was out on horse-
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 335
back in the suite of the Emperor. He came up, however,
before the troops had all passed, and in time to make his com-
pliments to the two Empresses. The true courtiers stuck to
the balcony at the risk of their lives, but I thought my privilege
as a republican would be an apology for me, and that I should
be doubly ridiculous to stand there, cap in hand, shrugging my
shoulders before the two Empresses, and my teeth chattering
and my limbs shivering with cold. About three o'clock we
were released, and I came home.
February 4th. At noon I called upon Count RomanzofT,
according to his appointment. He apologized to me for
receiving me in his full dress, which he said was occasioned
by his having just received a deputation of Cabardinians ; and
I excused myself for not being in full dress — at which he took
no displeasure. I began by informing him, with my thanks to
him for the packets which he had sent me, brought by the
courier from Paris, that 1^ had received in them dispatches from
the Secretary of State, and a letter personally from the Presi-
dent of the United States ; that the President, according to the
request which my inability to return to the United States last
summer had made necessary on my part, had nominated an-
other person to the judicial office which had been previously
designated for me^ and had instructed me to remain here : a
circumstance which I thought it proper to communicate to
this Government ; which was one of my motives in requesting
the conference with him.
The Count very civilly expressed his satisfaction at this
arrangement, with which he said he was the more gratified
as he had seen paragraphs in the English and German gazettes
stating that I was to be removed to England. He had men-
tioned it to the Emperor, and had thought it probable, as
there appeared a manifestation of conciliatory dispositions
towards the United States.
I told him that the paragraphs in the English newspapers
were probably taken from some of the American papers, where
it was much the fashion to announce appointments by anticipa-
tion, which never came to be realized; that I had not the slight-
est insinuation of an intention of the President to remove me
336 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [February,
to England, but from the tenor of my dispatches I had every
reason to believe that no appointment of a Minister would be
made unless England should make further and far more im-
portant advances towards conciliation than she had yet made
or appeared disposed to make. He said that, on the other hand,
it was understood at Paris that in France a better understand-
ing with America was intended, and even professed ; that the
entire revocation of the decrees of Berlin and Milan, so far as
concerned the United States, was confirmed, and that with re-
gard to American vessels which should arrive in France there
would be little or no difficulty made a;5 to whence they came,
or as to the nature of their cargoes ; that in the general view of
the Russian policy this was very agreeable to him, because it
showed something like a relaxation in favor of commerce ; but
he referred me to our former conversations, in which he had
given me his opinion upon the character of the Emperor Na-
poleon. He did not think the permanency of anything to which
he should assent concerning commerce could be relied upon :
every resolution, every act, was the result of an impulse of the
moment, the effect of an occasional impression. To-day the
impression was of one sort, and the measure corresponded with
it ; to-morrow the impression would be of an opposite nature,
and the measure would follow that too. To make them con-
sistent was not in the nature of the man. He never looked at
commerce with commercial eyes; he never considered that
commerce was an interest in which all mankind were con-
cerned ; he saw in it nothing but the trade of a certain class of
individuals. ''But in truth," said the Count, ''commerce is the
concern of us all. The merchants are, indeed, only a class of
individuals, bearing a small proportion to the mass of the people;
but commerce is the exchange of mutual superfluities for mutual
wants — is the very chain of human association ; it is the founda-
tion of all the useful and pacific intercourse between nations ; it
is a primary necessity to all classes of people. The Emperor
Napoleon will never see it in this light, and so his commercial
regulations and promises will never be systematic or consistent
— you can place little dependence upon them."
I said that his present measures appeared obviously dictated
i8ia.] THR MISSION TO RUSSIA. 337
by a political interest As he saw the situation in which the
English Government had chosen to place themselves with re-
spect to America, he was taking advantage of it, by assuming
a course of an opposite character ; and I believed the British
Government alone could prevent his succeeding in it completely.
And in order to defeat him they must adopt measures to which
they did not appear at all inclined, and of which I had little
hope.
He said that he should not dissemble to me, that he had seen
the English newspapers to th^ seventh of January, which had
been sent to him from Stockholm ; that the English Prince Re-
gent's speech at the opening of the session of Parliament was
in them ; that it spoke of the King's health ; said nothing at
all about the north of Europe; mentioned that the affair of the
Chesapeake frigate had been amicably arranged with the United
States; that several other topics remained in discussion with
them, upon which the most conciliatory disposition was enter-
tained by him.
I observed that the profession of conciliatory dispositions had
always been sufficiently made by the British Government, but
they had been so long the only things we had experienced from
England that were conciliatory, that now something more would
be necessary to produce the effect; and of this, I was sorry to say,
I could scarcely discover any prospect.
The Count said there were some intimations that a messenger
had been sent over from France to England. It was reported
that he was charged with overtures for a pacific negotiation.
But that might perhaps be an ostensible measure, to excite the
opinion he;-e of a negotiation between France and England —
which, in the great and extraordinary armaments said to be
now making in France and destined against Russia, might be
thought calculated to produce a certain effect here.
I said that as to negotiations between France and England,
I did not much believe in them, or in their success, if really
attempted ; but that I had heard there were prospects of war
between France and Russia, which I lamented. He had men-
tioned the Emperor Napoleon (the print of him, in all his im-
perial accoutrements as Napoleon le Grand, was hanging at the:
VOL. 11.-32
338 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [February,
side of the wall, over the sofa upon which we were sitting),
and how much was it to be wished that it were possible the
will of peace and tranquillity could be inspired into his heart
The world might then be allowed to enjoy a little peadb.
The Count shook his head, and said, " No ; it is impossible.
Tranquillity is not in his nature. I can tell you, in confidence,
that he once told me so himself. I was speaking to him about
Spain and Portugal, and he said to me, ' I must always be going.
After the Peace of Tilsit, where could I go but to Spain? I went
to Spain because I could not ^ anywhere else.' And this,"
said the Count, ''was all that he had to say in justification of
his having gone into Spain and Portugal. And now, as perhaps
there he is not quite satisfied with his going, he may intend to
turn against us, from the same want of any other place where
to go."
I said that one would think Spain and Portugal still furnished,
and were likely long to furnish him quite room enough to go
in, without making it necessary to gratify his passion in another
quarter.
The Count replied that there was no political consideration
whatever upon which he founded a hope that peace might yet
be preserved ; but there was a consideration of a different nature
which might have its weight, and upon the effect of which he
still rested some expectation. It was the scarcity of grain. He
understood it was considerable at Paris.
I said I had heard the same, and that the price of wheat and
flour had much advanced, though not that of bread, which the
Government kept down by payments of their own to the bakers.
He said the scarcity was so great that there had been recently
several riots at the doors of the bakers, both at Paris and Lyons.
And as large armies could not be put in motion without very
large supplies of such provisions, he still hoped that as the
months of April and May should come on, the inconvenience
and difficulty of procuring such supplies for these armies would
ultimately arrest their march; "for which, however," added
the Count, " the circumstances have rendered it proper for us
to place ourselves in a state of preparation, as we have accord-
ingly done."
I8i3.] THE MISSION 70 KUSSIA, 339
I then passed to another subject, observing that it ought
perhaps to have been the first with which I should have com-
menced— the removal of Count Pahlen from the Russian Mis-
sion in* the United ' States to that of Brazil. I observed that
my dispatches from the Secretary of State made it my duty to
express to the Emperor the sentiments entertained by my Gov-
ernmeAt, and their strong sense of the friendly policy constantly
pursued by his Majesty towards them, and I had a letter from
the President himself mentioning that Count Pahlen had taken
leave, and speaking in terms of the highest satisfaction of his
deportment during the whole period of his mission — with the
assurance that he had conciliated by it the universal esteem
and regard of all who knew him; that it gave me peculiar
pleasure to communicate to him this information, as I was per-
suaded it must be pleasing to the Emperor.
. He said it certainly would, and that such a testimonial would
contribute to raise yet higher the Emperor's good opinion of
that officer ; that his letters had constantly spoken in the highest
terms of the treatment that he had received from all classes of
people in America ; and that he would iquit the country with
the warmest regard for it.
I observed that his mission to Brazil would place him in an
advantageous situation for observation, not only in regard to
that country itself, but to the scenes which were passing in
the other parts of South America, particularly the Spanish
provinces.
He asked me whether our Government had taken any meas-
ures respecting them, and in what light they were considered
by us; and whether they had any Ministers in the United
States.
I said I was informed by my dispatches that there were
deputies at the seat of our Government from the province of
Venezuela; that the Government of the United States con-
sidered with favorable sentiments the change which was taking
place in those provinces, believing that it would prove generally
advantageous to the interests of mankind ; and that I readily
confided to him those views of my Government, because from
former conversations that I had held with him, and from other
340 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [February,
•
circumstances of which I had heard, I thought there was the
most perfect coincidence between his views on this subject and
those of my Government
He said they were the same. There was only one doubt left
on his mind, which gave him some concern. The people of
those provinces had been kept in such a. state of grievous
oppression, that he was afraid they would, in accomplishing
their emancipation, exhibit examples of that sort of violence,
and those scenes of cruelty, which experience had proved to be
too common in such revolutions. He hoped, however, it might
be otherwise. He had been for opening a free communication
between them and this country, which would have implied a
recognition of their new state, and he had made a proposition
to that effect (in the Imperial Council) ; " mais en cela j'ai
echoue. The apprehension of those disorders to which I have
alluded prevented my success. On pourra cependant revenir
sur cet objety
8th. I dined at Mr. Laval's with a petit comite of about
twenty persons, with about half of whom I was unacquainted.
General Pardo came with Mr. Ballin de Ballu, a great Greek
scholar, after we had sat down to table. Madame de Laval's
mother. Princess Kazitzky, and her sister. Princess Beloselsky,
were there. Count Maistre, his brother and son, were also of
the company. Mr. Laval's antiques and his pictures were
amusing. The statues are all mutilated, and restored — some
well, others indifferently. There are busts of Cicero, Germani-
cus in basalt, and the Emperor Balbinus, of the natural size ;
a colossal one, said to be of Diana, and several smaller than
life ; a conqueror at the Olympic games ; a Sabina ; two other
Roman ladies ; a Bacchus and Ariadne upon one stone, Janus-
faced ; a Pluto seated in his chair ; a Terminus ; a rostral column
surmounted by a Victory ; a Quadriga, without reins or traces ;
a suit of armor sculptured in porphyry; a Roman Consul,
remarkable for the drapery of his robe ; a basso-rilievo, much
in the style of the tomb in Count Strogonoff 's garden — the
subject said to be from Homer — Nestor falling from his horse,
and the Greeks coming to his assistance; but I think them
mistaken in this; a sarcophagus, or votive altar, inscribed to
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 3^1
Julia, the daughter of Augustus, with various sculptures on all
its sides ; and various other articles, of which I took less notice.
The pictures are most of them excellent, but, excepting three or
four, I had seen them all before. The David with the head of
Goliath, by Guido, struck me more this time than when I saw
it last. The Salmacis and Hermaphroditus wading through
the water, by Albano, and a Holy Family, by Fra Bartolommeo,
were new to me. These curiosities furnish one large saloon.
The rest of the house, though fitted up with equal magnificence,
had no peculiar recommendation to my taste. It is merely the
ordinary princely Style. »
1 2th. I dined at the French Ambassador's with a company
of twenty persons, the Ministers of the Diplomatic Corps. It
was a parting dinner to Count Schenk. Mr. Jouffroy spoke of
an inefiectual attempt he had made to obtain the admission of
Silesian linens here for re-exportation to America, and of which
he was instructed to give me information, as a matter in which
I had taken some step — but this was a mistake. The Chevalier
Brancia told me that he had received official communications
of the fray and duel between Prince Dolgorouki, the Russian
Minister, and the Baron de Durand, the French Minister, at
Naples; and the other duel at the same time, between Mr.
Benkendorf, the Secretary of the Russian Legation, and the
King's (Joachim Murat's) Grand fecuyer ; and he related to me
the circumstances as he was ordered to represent them, much
to the disadvantage of Prince Dolgorouki. He added that he
would call upon me in a few days and show me the representa-
tions that he should officially make here on the subject.
The Ambassador conversed quite freely with me on the state
of affairs ; told me of the occupation by French troops of Swedish
Pomerania and the incorporation of the Swedish garrison into
the French army, which, he said, laughing, was following the
example of Frederic II. ; and of the Swedish counter-measure
of confiscating debts due to French subjects, including their
loans in Holland. He spoke with contempt of the Prince
Royal's (Bemadotte's) late report to the King ; said he hoped
people would not now charge them (nous autres — ^the French)
with having fixed the election of Prince Royal upon him ; said
342 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [February,
he supposed he was afraid of the nation, but then he ought to
have bargained with them, and have refused to accept if they
would not honestly and faithfully come into the Continental
system. He also said he did not yet despair of preserving
peace between France and Russia, but he should, unless some-
thing was very soon done. He wished they had sent Nesselroc|e.
He had not urged it, for it was a proposition of their own. But
now they said it would look like making advances. What
then? Prince Kurakin was sick. Nesselrode had been the
Secretary of the Embassy. Now he was the Emperor's Secre-^
tary. They had given him " un galqp de plus ;" but what did
that signify ? why not send him ? he might be the more accept-
able for the added lace. Certain it was that something must be
done, and that very soon, or the worst might happen.
I had much conversation with General Pardo too; but that
was upon Homer, Demosthenes, and Cicero. He insists that the
Iliad and Odyssey are not works of the same author, and that
the last five books of the Iliad are not of the same hand as the
rest.
1 8th. Went to dinner at the Chevalier de Bray's. Mr. Laval
and Mr. Harris dined there, and a professor of the University at
Porpat, with whom I had much conversation respecting that
institution. Mr. Laval had got a small silver coin, or medal, of
Balbinus, given him by a friend, and perfectly resembling his
bust, with which he was in ecstasies of delight. He had also
a copper coin with the head of Augustus Caesar, resembling,
though not so strongly, another of his busts. The Chevalier
de Bray gave me a copy of his Tour in the Tyrol, of his own
edition, which, he told me, was not so good as the edition
printed at Paris.
I spent an hour with the Chevalier and Madame Bezerra, then
half an hour at home, and finally about two hours at the French
Ambassador's ball, where I conversed with several persons, but
particularly with General Pardo, who made very light of the
surrender of Valencia and General Blake with his army. Pardo
is one of the first classical scholars in Europe — ^a military man,
thoroughly versed in the science of war, with a fine taste for
the arts, a brilliant imagination, much eloquence in conversa-
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 343
tion, and withal the weakest head, the most abandoned to his
feelings, and the memory the most treacherous to itself that I
ever knew. He had often spoken to me of Blake as a sort of
military prodigy. To-night he told me that he knew him
perfectly well ; that he (Pardo) had formed him ; that he was an
excellent gar^on, but no general. H is heroes now are Balasteros,
L'Empecinada, Mina, and Mendizabal. He considers the patri-
otic cause as so firmly established that he makes no scruple to
speak of it as his own. He says, we shall be successful ; we
have such and such places in our power; we have defeated
Victor at Tariia — meaning by we the Spaniards in arms against
King Joseph, whose commission and credentials are his only
acknowledged titles at this Court, and by whom he has been
loaded with dignities and offices, not to forget a bltishing riband
which the General takes no displeasure in wearing.
Count St. Julien was looking through his glass at the dancers
and lamenting that the sex in Russia was not handsome — Mogul
faces — nez camus— et des bouches qui se moquent des oreilles.
Oh, at Vienna not a guingette of chambermaids but would
show more handsome women than all Petersburg could produce.
The Chevalier Brancia told me that he had called on me this
morning to show me his correspondence respecting the affair
of Prince Dolgorouki at Naples; and he promised to call again.
I came home about one in the morning.
22d. The question of this day was to ascertain the extent of
the earth's circumference. The only English book I have at
hand to consult in this case is Morse's Geography. There I
find it stated at 25,038 miles, which, divided by 360, makes
the degree = 69.55 miles. But by the admeasurement of the
meridian between Dunkirk and Montjouy, the quarter of the
earth's circumference was definitively settled to be 5,130,740
French toises (toises de Perou), the ten-millionth part of which
is the metre of the new French system. Taking, then, the
English foot as .9386 of the French Pied du Roi, the circum-
ference of the earth is = 131,193,01 1 English feet, or 24,847.25
statute miles, and gives 69.02 to a degree. The quarter of the
circumference is 32,798,252.7 English feet, and the ten-mil-
lionth part of it is 3 feet 3 inches 358 tenths of an inch.
'■ 345
il over the city; and
ru breakfast this day.
■:!il the body of smoke,
■ "Jcttlcd together, consti-
sun totally, and continued
liioly dissipated until past
iicforc dinner, I met the Em-
n me for a long time, and he
X hours. I told him that I had
- in the morning early, and some-
:.nlow open in very cold weather.
:<lo it a rule to rise in the morning
■• upcn, I asked if he did not suffer
-. on the contrary, he found it inured
,; to the cold ; that in the time of the
had been very much the usage to be
. iti very hot apartments, and in that of
. the contrary, to be continually out at the
. ( I'c not, as at present, large buildings where
icld. He had then worn a flannel waistcoat,
i;itcd and fretted the skin so much, and made
that he could not endure it. A physician
liim to leave it off, and told him that either he
operation of the change, or would have his
He left off therefore the maudite veste de
not die, but has had his health much better,
ce from certain rheumatic complaints that he
to before. " You are not of my opinion,"
innel ?" I said that I had so long been in the
it in winter, that I believed if I should leave it
nder the operation. " But," said he, " there
-sicians here who think that flannel is a bad
ion to the examination of the young ladies of
he Convent was with notice to begin at nine
:^rning. I went with -Mr. Smith before ten,
id already begun. The examination was then
344 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Fcbrowy,
23d. I consulted Borel's tables of the Russian weights, meas-
ures, and coins, to see how he states the metre. He has the
arsheen right at 28 English inches, but he makes 71.19 metres
= 100 arsheens, and 14048 arsheens=: 100 metres; the first
of which makes the metre = 39.331 English inches, and the
second, 39.334. This difference in the fraction is itself con-
siderable, and would amount to five inches in a mile. But the
metre, as I have found it, is yHv ^f ^ of an inch longer than
either of these measures gives it; and ^ of an inch added to
the shortest of these would only make the measure as given by
Webster. This would make a difference of at least five feet in
a mile. I drew diagrams of the French demilitre and of the deci-
litre, according to the dimensions prescribed by the French law.
The capacity of the first is 30.509 cubic inches, and of the second,
6.1 cubic inches. I was then curious to compare them with the
capacities of our glasses and bottles in common use. I measured
the dimensions of a tumbler and calculated its contents, after
which I adjourned this pursuit until to-morrow.
25th. I was disappointed in my expectation of having time
this clay to write. I began to read regularly through Paucton's
Metrology. He says that what first turned his attention to the
subject was a passion for the improvement of agriculture, which
he resolved to study in books. He soon found that he could
understand nothing in them without accurate ideas of weights
and measures. The study of these took place of his first pur-
suit— the accessory became the principal. He postponed,
probably forever, his agricultural enquiries, and produced his
Metrology. This is too much the progress of all my studies;
but I shall never produce a Metrology.
26th. In the evening I read further in Paucton, and find in
him a strong recommendation of the use of decimal fractions
and logarithms for the facility of practical calculations. A
familiar and ready use of logarithms is one of the things that I
have neglected to acquire, and I have not been aware with how
much convenience they may be applied to the ordinary purposes
of business. I am awkward in the management of them.
29th. I had heard it said by Dr. Galloway that in cold and
calm weather here the smoke from the chimneys, instead of
i8i2.] TH& MISSION TO XUSSIA. 345
ascending, was often depressed, and settled over the city ; and
I witnessed this effect in my walk before breakfast this day.
The atmosphere was perfectly clear until the body of smoke,
formed from the fires in the' city, had settled together, consti-
tuting a thick fog, which obscured the sun totally, and continued
three or four hours. It was not entirely dissipated until past
noon.
March 3d. In my second walk before dinner, I met the Em-
peror, who said he had not seen me for a long time, and he
supposed we walked at different hours. I told him that I had
adopted the practice of walking in the morning early, and some-
times saw his Majesty's window open in very cold weather.
He said that he always made it a rule to rise in the morning
and dress with his window open. I asked if he did not suffer
from the cold. He said, on the contrary, he found it inured
him better than anything to the cold ; that in the time of the
Empress Catherine it had been very much the usage to be
shut up and confined in very hot apartments, and in that of
the late Emperor, on the contrary, to be continually out at the
parades; and there were not, as at present, large buildings where
the exercises were held. He had then worn a flannel waistcoat,
but he found it irritated and fretted the skin so much, and made
him so delicate, that he could not endure it. A physician
therefore advised him to leave it off, and told him that either he
would die under the operation of the change, or would have his
health much better. He left off therefore the maudite veste de
flannelle ; he did not die, but has had his health much better,
and been wholly free from certain rheumatic complaints that he
had been subject to before. "You are not of my opinion,"
said he, " about flannel ?" I said that I had so long been in the
custom of wearing it in winter, that I believed if I should leave it
off I should die under the operation. " But," said he, " there
are now many physicians here who think that flannel is a bad
thing for wear."
6th. The invitation to the examination of the young ladies of
noble families at the Convent was with notice to begin at nine
o'clock in the morning. I went with 'Mr. Smith before ten,
and found they had already begun. The examination was then
346 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [March.
in Geometry, after which followed Experimental Philosophy,
French Rhetoric and Literature, German language. Then the
company were introduced into another hall, where were the
samples of drawing, painting, needle-work, embroidery, and
artificial flowers worked by the young ladies. Then we returned
to the examination hall, and the musical performances com-
menced, after which succeeded the dancing, and the whole
concluded about four o'clock. Part of the company then went
into another apartment, where a collation was provided, and
the young ladies presented the plates round to the guests. The
examinations were precisely the same as at the institution of
St Catherine last year, and chiefly, if not altogether, by the
same masters. The music, especially the singing, I thought
better now than then ; the dancing and the works of art not so
good ; the geometry, physics, literature, and languages much
the same — lessons learnt by heart and generally well repeated.
All spoke French well, and with evident facility. Several com-
positions were distributed, of which I received three — two of
them, however, by the same person : one a letter to a friend,
with topics of consolation upon the loss of an aunt and her
fortune ; one a sentimental eulogy of benevolence ; and one a
short argument upon the existence of Deity, founded on the
visible things of creation. The handwriting very good and
entirely formed ; the style correct and easy — they are in the
French language. The number of young ladies who quit the
school and whose names were on tlie programme of the exhibi-
tion was one hundred and four. There is also a certain number
of demoiselles bourgeoises^ that is, not of noble &milies, educated
at this same seminary; but their examination is to be to-morrow,
and the foreign Ministers are not invited to attend it. They
are educated nearly in the same manner, with the omission of
logic, geometry, and experimental philosophy. It was observed
now, as well as last year, that there were very few handsome
girls among them, and Count St Julien, next to whom I sat,
remarked that they had all ignoble countenances. But, he said,
there was no nobility in this country ; that as the Government
was a mere despotism-, every man was all or nothing, as the
sovereign smiled or frowned. Birth was nothing. But, as he
i8i2.1 THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 347
came from the Court of Vienna, where birth was in high estima-
tion, it was natural for him to entertain different opinions. This
produced a conversation between us upon noble blood and noble
faces, in which I did not much indulge the noble Maltese Com-
mander's pride of birth, and in which he indulged himself with
it to his own satisfaction, acknowledging at last that there was
too much truth in the reasons which I assigned to him for not
thinking that the alliance between noble blood and noble coun-
tenances was universal or even general in any part of Europe.
There were some Cabardinians, Tartars, there in the dresses
of their country — two with large white turbans, and the rest
with sharp-pointed velvet caps, like those in Chinese pictures
— Georgians, Circassians, Mingrelians, Turks, and so forth, as
usual.
9th. I called upon the General of the Jesuits, Brzozowsky, to
deliver him a letter I had received for him from New York —
from one of the fathers he sent out last summer. I found the
old father reading his breviary, and he made me excuses for
asking mc to wait until he had finished, which he did in a few
minutes. I told him that Father Malon, who enclosed to me the
letter for him, had also written to me mentioning that they had
commenced a school but were in great want of more teachers.
The General answered that he could not supply them ; that
from all quarters he was called upon for fathers, and had none
to spare. The ecclesiastical life was now pursued by very few
persons ; the military career was the only one in favor. He
spoke to me about Waldstein, saying he had heard I had been
robbed by a servant, and asked if he was a Russian. I said, a
Livonian. "Ah I" said he ; " and so a Lutheran !*' But observing,
I suppose, that I was not pleased with the remark by my looks,
he added that it would have given him great pain if he had been
a Catholic, because those who were Catholics ought to prove
themselves worthy of their religion. It was evident, however,
that the old man thinks a man's being a Protestant is a solution
for every enormity committed by him. Madame de Bray, the
other day, attributed it all to Waldstein's being an affranchi,
" That," said she, " is the consequence of giving those people
their freedom." Madame de Bray is the daughter of a Livonian
348 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March,
nobleman, who probably relishes evidence against the emancipa-
tion of his peasants, as the Jesuit is a Catholic churchman who
thinks Luther the root of all evil. Such is the mode of reason-
ing among pien and women.
1 2th. The Chevalier Brancia called on me this morning and
read to me all the official correspondence that has passed both
at Naples and here respecting the duel between Prince Dol-
gorouki and Baron Durand, the Russian and French Ministers
at Naples, and he told me what he had done here on the occa-
sion. It was at the Diplomatic Circle on New Year's day.
The Neapolitan Minister of Foreign Affairs relates the transac-
tion in an instruction to Mr. Brancia. That on the New Year's
day, when the Corps Diplomatique was passing from the Salle
des Ambassadeurs to the Salle du Trone, preceded by the
Maitre des Ceremonies, Prince Dolgorouki and Baron Durand
were going first, side by side, and the Prince having the right
hand when they came to the door of the Salle du Trone, before
the Grand Maitre des Ceremonies had taken the King (Murat's)
orders to introduce them, and before the doorkeeper had opened
the door, the Prince pushed it open and entered, which Baron
Durand attempting to prevent, thb Prince, in presence of the
King, struggled to keep his place, and laid his hand upon his
sword. He maintained his place. The King had presence of
mind to avoid manifesting his indignation at this indecent scene,
but, addressing both the Ministers, said that he could only
ascribe what had passed to their eagerness each to be the first
to present his felicitations to him; and then conversed with
them both on other topics ; but as soon as the levee was over
he expressed his displeasure in the most energetic manner, and
directed depositions to be taken, and enquiries of the other
members of the Diplomatic Corps who had been present to be
made, concerning the facts ; and finding them attested to be as
above stated, although he had been on all other occasions per-
fectly satisfied with the conduct of Prince Dolgorouki, he could
not overlook a proceeding so offensive, and had forbidden Prince
Dolgorouki's appearance at Court until the Emperor's orders
could be taken. The letter then instructed Brancia to demand
the Prince's recall. He omitted reading the instructions. With
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 3^5
it were enclosed the depositions to the facts, and the correspond-
ence between the Neapoh'tan Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Prince Dolgorouki upon the subject — the former stating to the
Prince the King's displeasure at the scene that had taken place,
observing that if the King had not assigned to the foreign
Ministers their respective ranks of precedence, he had a
right to treat as a family representative the Minister of his
august brother, the Emperor of the French, and that he could
not but express his resentment at an insult offered to him;
that the King, therefore, had determined to demand of the
Emperor the Prince's recall, and in the mean time had directed
the Minister to signify to the Prince that it would be proper to
abstain from attendance at Court.
The Prince, in his answer, expresses his great regret that the
King should have taken displeasure at anything in his conduct;
says that he was bound not to submit to any pretension of pre-
cedence by the French Minister, and appeals to the express
letter of an article in the Treaty of Tilsit, stipulating the most
perfect reciprocity between the two powers ; that he, the Prince,
having been at the right hand, and having oh a former occasion
declared his intention to take his precedence of the French Min-
ister in turn, had advanced up to the door of the hall, when the
French Minister had thrown himself in his way, attempted to
seize the handle of the door-latch and to stop his passage, say-
ing, " Ah 1 pour cela — ccla ne sera pas ;" that he therefore was
the cause of the struggle, in which the Prince necessarily was
drawn to keep his place, and that if he had laid his hand on his
sword it was merely to disengage it from between his legs ; that
as to precedence on the principle of family representation, it was
allowable only to Ambassadors, and could not be pretended to
by Ministers of the second order.
On receiving these papers, Mr. Brancia requested an interview
with Count Romanzoff ; which he deferred one day later than
usual, and in the mean time received a courier from Naples with
Prince Dolgorouki's own account of the transaction. On this,
he sent Mr. Brancia a note before the Conference, stating that
the Emperor had learnt with much concern the dispute which
had happened between Prince Dolgorouki and the French
350 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March.
Minister at Naples, and regretted that the King of Naples had
thought proper, instead of simply asking his recall, to forbid
his appearance at Court; that the Emperor might have used
reprisals, but that, consulting only his magnanimity and his
amicable dispositions towards the King of the Two Sicilies, he
had resolved to continue his friendly relations with him as be-
fore ; and he, the Count, was ordered to declare to Mr. Brancia
that he should continue to be received and treated at Court as
he had been heretofore, and as if the unfortunate occurrences at
Naples had never happened.
When the interview took place, Brancia found Count Roman-
zofTstiir dwelling upon Prince Dolgorouki's exclusion from the
Neapolitan Court, and expressing himself concerning it with
some ill humor. He thought it therefore necessary to answer
the Count's note, stating to him that it was not on account of
the duel (the Count had spoken of that as the occasion of what
had happened), but of the outrage committed in the King's
presence, that the measure had been taken of interdicting the
Court to Prince Dolgorouki, and quoting a passage from Vattel
as authority for interdicting the Court to an offending foreign
Minister, or even ordering him away from the country. After
this. Count RomanzofT sent for Brancia again, and told him that
his note had been laid before the Emperor, who had weighed
the observations contained in it, and, recognizing that there was
solidity in them, he had given orders that Prince Dolgorouki
should be recalled, and had appointed Baron Budberg to reside
at Naples in his stead as Charge d'Aflaires — and thus this matter
is terminated. The duels were both subsequent to the inter-
diction of the Court to Prince Dolgorouki. The day afterwards.
Baron Durand sent Prince Dolgorouki a challenge ; the Prince
answered him that while invested with a diplomatic character
he did not think it proper to fight, but that he had already
written home, offering his resignation to the Emperor, which
he had no doubt would be accepted, when he should readily
meet the Baron. The Baron replied that the Prince's excuse
for not fighting was not suflficienf ; that as they were both diplo-
matic characters, that circumstance took away the impropriety
of a meeting between them in single combat, upon which he
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 351
again insisted. The Prince then yielded. They fought, and
were both slightly wounded. A French General there at the
time likewise sent a challenge to Prince Dolgorouki, to which
Mr. Benkendorf, the Secretary of the Russian Legation, an-
swered that Prince Dolgorouki could not be expected to fight
all the Frenchmen at Naples, but if the General was very de-
sirous of a duel, he, Benkendorf, was ready to meet him in the
Prince's stead. They fought accordingly, and they, too, were
both wounded. The two duels were on the same day. Ben-
kendorf has since had'the Order of St Wladimir conferred upon
him by the Emperor.
13th. This morning I finished the perusal of the German
Bible, which I began 20th June last There are many differ-
ences of translation from either the English or the French
translation — some of which I have compared in the three ver-
sions. Many passages, obscure and even unintelligible to me
in the English, are clear in the French and German. Of the
three, the German, I think, has the fewest of these obscurities.
But the eloquence of St. Paul strikes me as more elevated and
sublime in the English than in either of the others. In the
German New Testament there is a transposition in the arrange-
ment of the books, the Epistle to the Hebrews being separated
from the rest of St. Paul's, and placed after those of Peter and
John. There is a difficulty which obviously often embarrassed
all the translators : it was how to render the significant proper
names which abound in the Bible. For instance, in the text
where Adam says to Eve in the English Bible that Eve " shall
be called woman, because she was taken out of man," the
name does not correspond with the reason assigned for giving
it — Gen. ii. 23. The French Bible has it, "on la nommera
Hommesse, car elle a ei€ prise de Thomme." The name and
the reason here correspond ; but Hommesse is not the French
word for woman — there is no such word in the language. The
German Bible resorts to the same expedient of coining a word,
and says, she shall be called Mannin. If the English translators
had taken the same liberty they would have called her Manness.
In expressions of this sort, the English translators, whenever
they can, retain the very Hebrew word, and sometimes they
352 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March,
give as proper names words which the other translators render
as things. The more I read the Bible the more I feel that it
ought to be accompanied with critical and explanatory notes.
There are commentators and expositors enough, but they are
too voluminous, and almost universally sectaries, whose labors
are devoted not to exposition but controversy. The German
Bible has one very useful kind of annotation. It is, that after
every verse throughout the book all the other verses having
reference to it are marked down. This is peculiarly convenient
for consulting the mutual references between the Old and the
New Testament — the prophecies and their fulfilment. The
German New Testament also, besides the division of the books
into chapters, marks the festivals at which particular Epistles
and Gospels are to be read at the passages themselves. There
is at the commencement both of the French and German Bibles
an excellent discourse upon the manner and dispositions in
which the Scriptures should be read. That of the German
Bible is the best
19th. Walked upon the quay, and met the Emperor. He told
me he had seen one of our Americans this morning who must
have very strong military propensities, for he had gone out
when there were at least fifteen degrees of frost to see one of
the regiments march, which were leaving the city. He meant
Mr. Fisher. I said perhaps he had some acquaintance among
the officers. " No ; not in that regiment. But he is acquainted
with Mr. Fenshaw, who belongs to the regiment that will go
next Saturday. And so it is," continued his Majesty, ** after
all, that war is coming which I have done so much to avoid —
everything. I have done everything to prevent this struggle
(cette lutte), but thus it ends." "But," said I, "are all hopes
vanished of still preserving the peace ?" " At all events," said
he, " we shall not begin the war ; my will is yet to prevent it ;
but we expect to be attacked." " Then," said I, " as your Ma-
jesty has determined not to commence, I would fain hope it may
still pass over without a war." " I wish it may," said he. '* Mais
tous les indices sont a la guerre. Et puis — il avance toujours.
II a commence par prendre la Pom6ranie Suedoise — voila qu'i
present il vient d'occuper la Prusse — il ne peut pas beaucoup
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 353
plus avaticer sans nous attaquer." I said it was to be hoped he
would stop somewhere. " Oh ! oui — j'espire bien qu'il ne viendra
pas jusqu'ici." Seven or eight regiments have already marched
from St. Petersburg within the last three weeks for the frontiers,
and others are following twice or three times each week.
Paucton and the Metrologie primitive still engross all my
leisure. I have been for years uncertain of the exact comparison
between the length of the French and English foot ; which is
yet essential to ascertain that of all the new French weights,
measures, and coins. I have at last found that in the Philo-
sophical Transactions of the year 1768, a Mr. Bird gives the
English foot as equal to 1 35.1 161 154 lines ahd decimals of
the pied de la toise du Perou, the identical measure by which
the metre of the new French system was compared when finally
established. I shall therefore in future take this proportion as
the standard, though Paucton, Ricard, and Dubost make the
English foot three ten-thousandths longer — Bird's calculation
being carried to seven decimals of a line, and referring expressly
to the toise du Pcrou. The difference between the two calcu-
lations, trifling as it seems, produces one of eleven feet in a
myriamitre, and nearly two feet upon an English mile. On
the circumference of the earth it amounts to a difference of
nearly ten miles. **
20th. I took this morning a longer walk than usual, for the
purpose of measuring by the number of my paces and by the
time taken to walk it the difference between the first and second
werst column on the Czarskozelo road. I found il, as on a former
occasion, thirteen hundred and sixty-six paces ; but I walked it
in eleven minutes, the cold having quickened my step. Paucton
states the pace of a man five feet two and a half inches, French,
tall, to be two and a third feet, or twenty-eight inches pied
du Roi, and at the rate of one hundred and twenty-one in a
minute. My own height is five feet seven inches, English —
about half an inch higher than Paucton's standard ; and I have
found, by experiments frequently repeated, that my ordinary
pace is two feet six inches and eighty-eight one-hundredths of
an inch, or about twenty-nine French inches, and that in my
ordinary pace I walk one hundred and twenty steps to a minute.
VOL. II. — 23
354 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
My height thus exceeds that of Paucton about one hundred and
twentieth, and my gait advances upon his about one-fortieth.
But I have never had an opportunity of comparing my step
by a distance regularly measured, and I know the mile-stones
and werst-stones have been carelessly placed.
25th. Paucton and Callet still absorb all the time that has no
indispensable occupation, and even encroach much upon that
which ought to have one. Paucton engages my curiosity more
and more ; but since I have detected him in a considerable error
in his estimation of the English foot, my confidence in his cal-
culations generally has been a little shaken. One strongly-
marked character of his book is singularity, and his method
is not that of mathematical precision. He is much addicted to
digression, and sometimes turns to subjects the connection of
which with that of his work is not easily traced. He has, for
instance, a chapter to prove that the American continent was
known to the ancients. What concern has this with weights
and measures ? I have not yet found sufficient proof of what
he affirms as his fundamental position, that the geometric foot
of tlie ancients was the standard of all their weights, measures,
and coins, and that it was originally one four-hundred-thou-
sandth part of a degree of the meridian. He affirms also that
all the measures of distance were formed upon the proportions
of limbs of a man of middling stature. He does not give his
authorities in proof, nor does he reconcile together his two
principles. For what need was there of the degree, if the pro-
portions of the human form were the standard ? and what need
of the proportions, if the degree gave the measure ? There is
frequent reference to the measures mentioned in the Bible,
and an estimate of them all compared with the old French
measures.
April 5th. I read this day the remaining chapters of the first
part of Watts's Improvement of the Mind. The seventeenth
chapter, on improving the memory, is precisely the subject of
one of my lectures, and contains so many of the same thoughts
that any impartial reader of my lecture would certainly suspect
me of having borrowed freely from the Doctor. I never read
that chapter of his book until this day. Almost all his observa-
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 355
lions are just, but there is occasionally an ejaculation of piety
which he might as well have omitted. His argument against
Shaftesbury's test of ridicule as applicable to sacred subjects is
decisive, and his comparison of the principle with that of perse-
cution is very just and ingenious. The chapter on the sciences
and their use in the professions is full of sound sense and solid
instruction. The caution against wasting time upon studies
very laudabld in themselves, but which cannot be pursued with-
out encroaching upon necessary occupations, I feel at this
moment with peculiar force. If I do not profit by the advice,
my fault will be the greater. The recommendation of poetry
has the warm sensibility of a poet. The opinion that epic
poetry would have been more perfect if interspersed with
elegiac and lyric odes may be controverted ; but that it would
have rendered the poems of Homer, Virgil, Tasso, and Milton
more interesting I do fully believe. The advice to young
men of a lively genius and a poetical turn to write poetry if
they cannot possibly help it, has some pretension to pleasantry.
I read also the sermons 14 and 15, vol. v., of the English
Preacher — on Subjection to Civil Authority, and on the Crown
of Righteousness for Christian Fortitude. This morning I read
from Leviticus xx. to xxv., and particularly fixed my attention
upon chap, xxiii., containing the directions for the several feast-
days prescribed to the Jews. They were : the Sabbath— every
seventh day throughout the year; the Passover; the feast of
unleavened bread, which was the day after — ^whcn the first fruits
of the harvest, a wheat-sheaf, was offered, and unleavened bread
was to be eaten seven days ; the Pentecost, fifty days after, when
loaves of bread from the new harvest were offered ; the feast
of trumpets, the first day of the seventh month, when the
beginning of the civil year was proclaimed; the feast of
atonement or expiation, when the scape-goat Azazel was sent
abroad — the tenth day of the seventh month; and the feast
of tabernacles, beginning the fifteenth of the seventh month,
and lasting seven days, during which the people were to dwell
in booths. The Sabbath has been adopted (only with the change
of a day) by all Christians ; the Passover and Pentecost by
almost all. The three others have been considered as abolished
356 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
by the Christian dispensation. The Jubilee was proclaimed on
the expiation day every fiftieth year. The Jubilee was an excel-
lent institution, which operated at once as an agrarian law and
a law against slavery. The tenure of lands was equivalent at
most to a lease of fifty years ; nor could the service of a Hebrew
be engaged for a longer time. The precept to let the lands lie
fallow every seventh year, and again on the year of Jubilee, is
more difficult to account for, and in mere human institutions
could not be admitted. I do not recollect that in the subse-
quent history of the nation there is any notice of its effects.
9th. In my walk before dinner I met the Emperor, who spoke
to me of nothing but the weather — said we should have a very
late spring, which would appear still later from the earliness
of that of last year; that the floods would be extraordinarily
high when the rivers would break up, the late snows having
been so considerable. It had been snowing all the morning.
The Emperor is to leave his capital in two days, to join his
army. His manner to-day was graver and less cheerful than
I have usually seen him^
1 2th. I finished reading the second part of Watts's Improve-
ment of the Mind, and began his discourse upon the education
of children and youth. The second part is on the communica-
tion of useful knowledge ; much shorter than the first, and not
equal to it. Watts was a dissenting clergyman. He is cautious
never to say anything that could give offence to the established
Church, but he indulges his passion with so much the more
freedom against the Catholics. With transubstantiation it seems
as if he never would finish. He insists strongly upon the dis-
tinction between things above reason, which, as mysteries of
religion, may and ought to be believed, and things contrary to
reason, which he says must be false ; but I doubt whether this
distinction will avail for the maintenance of any religious creed.
For any part of the Christian faith I am persuaded it will not.
The Trinity, the Divinity of Christ, the whole doctrine of atone-
ment, all miracles, the Immaculate Conception of Jesus, and a
devil maintaining war against Omnipotence, appear to me all as
contrary to human reason as the Real Presence of the Eucharist.
Religion, as it appears to me, is one of the wants of human
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 357
nature — an appetite which must be indulged, since without its
gratification human existence would be a burden rather than a
blessing. Reason may serve as a guard and check upon the
religious appetite, as well as upon our bodily necessities, to pre-
vent its leading us into pernicious excesses. But it is presump-
tion in human reason to set itself up as the umpire of our faith.
My own reason is as fallible as that of the Pope, and probably
much more so than the collective reason of ^n ecclesiastical
Council. I cannot reject a doctrine merely because my reason
will not sanction it. I must appeal to a higher tribunal, and
believe what I want to believe, am taught to believe, and may
believe, without injury to myself or others. The argumen-
tum ex absurdo is conclusive only upon subjects of a finite
nature ; excellent for mathematics and geometry, but incompe-
tent for infinity. It is not the absurdity of the doctrine of tran-
substantiation that proves its error, but, as I conceive, it is its
pernicious tendencies to enslave the human mind, to subject it .
to the arbitrary dominion of the priesthood — weak, corrupt, and
fallible men like ourselves. Could I once bring myself to believe
that by a special power from heaven a priest can turn a wafer
into a God, and a cup of wine into the blood of my Redeemer,
the next and natural step would be to believe that my eternal
weal or woe depended upon the fiat of the same priest — that the
keys of heaven were in his hands to lock and unlock at his
pleasure, and that the happiness or misery of my existence in
the world to come depended upon the chance of propitiating
not the Deity, but His minister. All these tenets of the Romish
Church are streams from the fountain of transubstantiation. The
doctrine is pernicious— one motive for disbelieving it. Then I
may examine it by the test of reason. The doctrine is not
necessary for the general system of Christianity. It is counte-
nanced by the letter of Christ's words : Matt. xxvi. 26 ; Mark
xiv. 22 ; Luke 3|:xii. 19. (In St. John's Gospel it is not at all
mentioned as an occurrence at the last supper, but with much
more detail upon another occasion: John vi. 26-66.) And it
appears that the words, when spoken even by himself, shocked
his disciples so much that many of them, from that time, walked
no more with him, though he told them,by way of explanation.
358 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
that " his words were spirit ;" that is, as I believe, that they
were to be understood in a spiritual or figurative sense. This
of itself is sufficient to settle the question in my mind. If the
words were figurative, there is no real presence. If they were
not, if he performed a miracle, and the bread and wine of the
last supper were really his flesh and his blood, it does not
follow that the same miracle can be repeated by every priest
at every commemoration of that event. He promises no such
thing. I trace the doctrine therefore directly to priestcraft — to
the obvious purpose of the priests to establish their dominion
over the minds of men under the mask of holy mystery. I see
that by the history of Christianity such has been its effect;
that its consequences have been anti-Christian in the highest
degree ; and that it is a mystery above, but not contrary to, my
reason why Divine Providence has permitted the weakness and
folly of men to turn the very words of Christ to such dreadful
abuses. Such is my opinion of transubstantiation. Its abstract
inconsistency with my reason is not my principal ground for
disbelieving it The Doctor's remarks upon preaching are, as
his editors remark, partly out of date. There is some satirical
humor in them. His principles respecting the influence of
human authority are a little embarrassed about the settlement
of a difficult boundary. The chapters on writing books for
the public, and on writing and reading controversies, are mere
loose thoughts, scarcely skimming the surface. But the active,
thinking, and judicious mind appears in them all.
1 8th. I called upon the French Ambassador, and conversed
with him about an hour. He was not sparing in his observa-
tions upon the impolicy of the Russian Cabinet in accepting a
Prussian province at the Peace of Tilsit — ^a province taken from
their own allies. He thought it equally impolitic in the last
peace between France and Austria that Russia had accepted the
400,000 souls in Gallicia by a cession from Austria. Russia^
he said, was always temporizing; always on the watch for
expedients; never ready to take a decisive part. If Russia had
seriously and energetically threatened Austria, she would have
prevented the last war between Austria and France. If she had
now seriously threatened Sweden, there would not have been
i8i20 THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, jjq
the danger of the present war. When several powers were
engaged in a common cause, they must be responsible for one
another. He did not know for what Russia was going to war.
They said it was not for the Duchy of Oldenburg. Count
RomanzofTwas certainly desirous of peace; but they would not
give any explanations. The Emperor Alexander had declared
he would send Count Nesselrode to Paris. It had not been
asked of him ; it was his own determination. Nesselrode had
merely been a Secretary of Embassy. He was to have returned
to Paris in the same capacity. It had been announced to all
Europe that he was to be sent; yet he had not been sent.
Czemicheff had been sent here with a letter from the Emperor
Napoleon himself This letter, it was admitted, manifested
pacific, at least, if not amicable, dispositions ; yet five or six
weeks had been suffered to pass before any ans)ver to it had
been sent. As to Austria, he himself had witnessed how they
felt towards Russia. He had been at Vienna at the time of the
marriage. He arrived there five days before the Prince of
Neufchatel. From the moment of his arrival. Count SchuvalofT,
who was then the Russian Envoy, waS deserted — nobody would
go near him. But he, Lauriston, walked about with him arm
in arm, to get him better treatment. The Austrian officers all
told him they hoped soon to have, in concert with France, a
war against Russia. In Prussia, too, they talked to him about
Russia's having accepted, at Tilsit, one of their provinces, taken
from their own ally. How could Russia expect friends in those
(Quarters? I mentioned to him the Duke of Bassano's late
report to the Emperor Napoleon, and told him that the Brit-
ish Ministry now adhered to their Orders in Council only, as I
believed, because they thought they would produce this war
between France and Russia. He said that as to the principle
in the Duke of Bassano's report, that vessels navigating under
an enemy's convoy must be considered as enemies, there could,
be no doubt of that. But, then, circumstances were to be taken
into consideration; the necessity of having some trade; the im-
possibility of having any if all convoyed vessels were excluded :
all this was ground for discussion, explanation, negotiation, and
that was what Russia now withheld.
360 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
19th. I finished reading Watts's discourse on the education
of children and youth. He gives a contrasted description of
the excessive rigor and severity with which children had been
usually brought up about a century before he wrote, and of the
most profuse and unlimited liberty indulged to children in his
age. Watts died before the middle of the last century, and tliis
discourse must have been written some years before his death.
The indulgence of fashionable education has become much
more profuse and unlimited than it was when he complained of
it as excessive, and it is much to be wished it were turned again
towards rigor — not perhaps to the extreme of the seventeenth
century, but to much more than I am able to practise. Watts
himself inclines to the system of severity, and from my own
experience I concur altogether in the opinion with him. The
sections upon self-government, on collecting rules of prudence,
and on the sports and diversions of children. He undervalues,
1 think, the languages, both ancient and modern. But the
course of my life has probably led me to overrate them. He
prohibits plays, masquerades, assemblies, and the gaming-table,
all of which, except the last, have now acquired such an as-
cendency that no writer upon education would venture to pro-
scribe them. Gaming, as a positive vice, must always be
forbidden by prudent instructors, and avoided by prudent men.
The directions for the education of daughters are very good in
themselves, but not suitable to the spirit of the present age.
20th. I had received last evening a note from Count Roman-
zo(f, requesting me to call upon him at eleven o'clock this
morning. I accordingly went. Count Czernicheff was with
him, and I was requested to wait a few minutes. Czernicheff
soon after passed through the antechamber where I waited,
and, as he passed, stopped to ask me if I was not about to
dispatch a courier to Paris. I suppose he knew Mr. John A.
Smith had come as a courier, and, expecting I should send him
back, wished to send something. There were some books
lying in the chairs : a Projct pour un Code de Commerce, by
Bouchet; a manuscript, as I conjecture, and, from its folio form
and magnificent red morocco binding, I conclude, a present
from the author; also two sets of Mr. Rayneval's book, De la
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 361
Liberte des Mers. The Chancellor came in after a very few
minutes, and told me. that the Emperor had fixed upon to-
morrow for his departure, that he himself should be very soon
afterwards obliged to follow him, and, as there might perhaps
be before his return some discussions in which the interests of
the United States as well as those of Russia might be involved,
from his wish to defend and support both, he wished to know,
as far as I was informed and might think proper to confide in
him, what was the precise state of the relations between the
United States and France or England, or both; and he had
been the more desirous of this information before he should go,
as he knew the courier I had expected from Paris was now
arrived ; that some time ago Prince Kurakin had written that
there was to be a treaty between France and the United States,
and that arrangements favorable to America had actually been
settled in France, but lately there seemed again to be some
uncertainty upon the subject, and he had seen in one of the
best journaux de I'Empire an article, dated at Baltimore, which
seemed to hold out an angry and irritated language towards
the United States.
I told him that since my last conversation with him I had
received no communication from my own Government of a
more recent date than I had then ; nor had I any information
from which I could infer that any change had occurred in the
state of our political relations from that in which I had then
suggested to him ; that with regard to France, all that I could
say, from the letters I had received frohi Mr. Barlow, was, that
no definitive arrangement had yet been agreed upon ; and with
respect to England, none had taken, nor, as I believed, was
likely to take place. I had heard that late English newspapers
contained articles of intelligence from New York to the 14th
February, and that they said Mr. Foster, the British Minister,
was in negotiation with our Secretary of State, Mr. Monroe,
and it was expected that a treaty would be concluded. I could
say nothing on this subject from my own Government, but my
own opinion was that no such treaty could be concluded. I was
perfectly sure it could not, unless the revocation of the British
Orders in Council should be one of its explicit conditions. If
362 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
Mr. Foster is authorized to stipulate for the revocation ,of the
Orders, a treaty is possible.
The Count asked how I thought France in that case would
take it. I said I did not know, but I believed the American
Government would not enquire whether France would take it
well or ill. It was the right of the United States as a neutral
nation to trade with France that the American Government
was bound to protect. It was denied them by the British
Orders in Council, and unless restored by the revocation of
those Orders, I had no doubt but the United States would
vindicate it by war. But I did not anticipate a declaration of
war by the United States at present. The measures that had
been taken this winter were measures of preparation. Upon
the ocean we could do nothing. If hostilities were to com-
mence there, they must come from the part of England, and
not from ours. To attack the British upon our continent we
must be prepared. A bill for raising twenty-five thousand
men had been passed by Congress. They must be raised by
voluntary enlistment, for we had no system of conscription.
It was a difficult and slow work to raise, organize, and discipline
twenty-five thousand men. I did not think it could be done
in less time than the present year, nor should we commit the
folly of commencing or declaring war before we could do some-
thing to maintain it But unless the Orders in Council were
revoked, a war eventually must be their result.
Did I think it probable they would be revoked ?
No. Every present prospect was to the contrary. I thought
their existence now depended solely upon that of Mr. Perceval
as Prime Minister in England.
Did I think Mr. Perceval would remain Prime Minister?
I believed he would.
Was it not probable that the Marquis of Wellesley would
come in again, after the Catholic question shall be disposed of?
I thought not.
But how was it possible that the English Regent should be
so fascinated (said the Count) by Mr. Perceval, un homme, a ce
qu'il me parait, assez mediocre, in preference to Wellesley, whose
career has been so much more brilliant, and who appears to have
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO J^USSIA, 363
rendered real services to the nation ? a man especially so im-
portant to the affairs in Spain ?
I said I had my suspicions that the Catholic question was
little more than the ostensible cause of Lord Wellesley's re-
tirement, and that a much more efficacious r^al cause was the
state itself of affairs in Spain.
But how so ?
There was a good deal of misunderstanding between the
British Government and that of the Spaniards at Cadiz. It had
already proceeded so far that the English had threatened to
abandon them. Lord Wellesley must before this time have
strong misgivings about the ultimate issue of their cause in
Spain. He may be glad to retire from his particular stake
upon it while it has yet the show of being unimpaired.
The Count said he thought it very probable, and that the
motive would be a very rational one.
I then asked him if he expected very soon to leave the city.
Very shortly — within two or three days. The Emperor
had finally resolved to go and review the situation of his army
on the frontiers. He should very shortly send me a written
notice that during his absence the business of the Department
of Foreign Affairs would again be entrusted to Count SoltykofT,
as it had been heretofore — a person of great merit, and very
deserving of the choice the Emperor had fixed upon him.
I said that I could not but regret his, the Chancellor's, own
absence, and wish that it might be short; but that if that
must be, it Would have been impossible for any appointment
of the Emperor's choice to have fallen upon a person whom I
esteemed and respected more than Count SoltykofT, or with
whom it would be more agreeable to me to have the usual
official relations.
He said that his own departure was necessary, though he
regretted it much, and he intimated that his advice had been
not to go. But the Emperor had decided otherwise. The
forces which were assembled on the frontiers were immense,
oh both sides. There was in history scarcely anything like it
It was like romance. What it would come to he knew not.
That perpetual restlessness and agitation of the Emperor Napo-
364 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. . [April,
leon was such that it was impossible to say how it would termi-
nate ; and the most extraordinary of all was that there was no
cause of war. On the part of this country the ^iTair of the
Duchy of Oldenburg was the only object Russia had made a
declaration in that case reserving her rights, but in that very
declaration had explicitly stated that she did not consider it as
a cause for renouncing the alliance, or for changing the course
of her policy.
I said that from the late report of the Duke of Bassano to the
Emperor Napoleon it would seem that the principles assumed
by France went to a total exclusion of all commerce from the
' country of her friends, as the English Orders of Council went
to a total exclusion of all commerce from France itself
" But,*' said the Count, " a total exclusion of all commerce
is impossible. You might as well set up a total exclusion of all
air to breathe, or all food to subsist upon, from a whole nation,
as a total exclusion of commerce. You must have commerce
in some shape— either lawful and regular, or by contraband and
licenses. The system of licenses is founded upon falsehood and
immorality. A sovereign who countenances such vices is no
longer a sovereign. It is a virtual abdication of his authority.
He is a sovereign for that very purpose, to maintain justice and
morality ; and to give his sanction to falsehood and injustice is,
in substance, ceasing to reign. I urged this very argument to
the Emperor in a case of individual concernment, but which,
in principle, I consider as exactly resembljng this practice of
navigating by licenses. On that occasion the Emperor did me
signal justice. The person particularly interested was incensed
against me to extreme bitterness, but, as he appears now alto-
gether to have forgotten it and treats me in a friendly manner,
I can without impropriety mention his name. It is Count
Alexis Razumofsky." (N. B. This man is the Minister of Public
Instruction, the superintendent of the schools, universities, and
scientific academies throughout the empire.)
22d. When I returned home, I found an official notification
from Count RomanzofT that he was going away to accompany
the Emperor, who was going for the ordinary review of his
troops and the inspection of some of his provinces, and that in
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 365
the interval Count Alexander Soltykoff was charged with the
direction of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Bezerra
and Count Lowenhielm were commenting on the phrase thaf!
the Emperor was going for the ordinary review of his troops.
Lowenhielm asked me what could be the motive of a great Court
to lie for nothing. I told him it was the power of halnt; the
Count had just observed that he was much attached to regular
habits, and thsit it was better to have bad habits than none at all.
23d. I walked twice the round through the Newsky Perspec-
tive, down the Fontanka, and along the quay of the Neva — before
and after dinner. In the morning I met the French Ambas-
sador, who turned and walked with me, and with whom I had
a long and free conversation upon political subjects. He does
not yet talk of leaving the city. Prevost goes as a courier to^
morrow, and next week he sends another. He told me that
Count Romanzoffhad assured him the Emperor was gone pour
empecher ses generaux de faire des sottises — that is, by com-
mitting any imprudence which might provoke a commence-
ment of hostilities. I said it was strange that such a war should
begin while both parties were protesting there was no cause of
war between them. He said that the chances undoubtedly
were high that the war would break out, but he could not
abandon all hope that some arrangement might be concluded ;
that he was sure at least the Emperor Napoleon would not
leave Paris until the last of April ; but the greatest danger of
war arose from the obstinate refusal here to come to any
explanations. I told him that the principles asserted in the
Duke of Bassano's late report to the Emperor Napoleon were
such that, if pursued in their rigor, they must produce war.
Their effect would be the total annihilation of the trade to the
Baltic — Swedish and Russian. This it was impossible they
should agree to. Neither of the Governments could accom-
plish it. No Government could accomplish it. France and
England were perfectly agreed in the theory of excluding all
commerce between each other, and yet both were compelled to
admit it again by the means of licenses. He said therefore it
was that Russia ought to come into some explanations on the
subject. The. principle undoubtedly was as laid down by th6
366 AfEMOmS OF yOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
Duke of Bassano. But Russia might insist upon exceptions and
relaxations which she might show to be necessary. So might
Sweden. France would no doubt accede to such of these as
should be reasonable. The object merely was to discuss, and
not substitute obstinacy or temper in the place of reason. He
told me the adventure of Longuerue, whom he sent off as a
courier, and who, on the last stage before he arrived at Riga,
fired pistols at two carriages successively, which were going the
same way, and the drivers of which attempted to pass him.
The first was a merchant, Mr. Amburger, and it was said one
of his horses was wounded. The second was a courier of the
Russian Government, who pushed on in spite of the pistol-shot,
which Longuerue said he had fired in the air. The courier,
however, had complained of him at Riga, and Longuerue, on
his arrival, went to the Governor, Prince LabanofT. He said,
to justify himself, that by the usage, nobody could pass by a
courier. This was, to be sure, the usage in France, but it did
not follow it was the usage here. Prince LabanofT hesitated for a
moment whether he should not stop Longuerue, but he did not,
and the Emperor, who knew it would mortify him (the Am-
bassador), had forbidden, that any notice should be taken of it
to him. So that for more than a week the Ambassador had
disbelieved the whole story. It had mortified him beyond all
expression. He had not only utterly disavowed Longuerue's
conduct, but had declared that it was in direct opposition to his
instructions, which were that he should conduct himself with
peculiar reserve and discretion upon the road. He had sent
Longuerue off by the £m{^ror*s Icnowledge and approbation,
immediately after a long consultation the Emperor had had
with him, and for the purpose of reporting it to his Government;
and he was the more vexed at Longuerue's foolish adventure,
because it had placed him, the Ambassador (Longuerue is his
nephew), under the appearance of owing obligations to them
here. I told him I had heard so many reports about Longue-
rue's being arrested on his way, &c., that I had disbelieved
them all. We also talked about Sweden, and I told him that
there was but one way of explaining her present situation and
accounting for her conduct, to my mind. When I saw a French-
i8i2.] THE 'MISSION, TO RUSSIA, 367
man, a French General, a family relation of the Emperor Napo-
leon, taking such a decisive part against France, the only
possible way of explaining it was by observing the harshness
with which France treated every foreign nation negotiating with
her. The total disregard to their interests and feelings, the
perpetual sentiment of her own strength to which she resorted,
left it impossible for any person in another Government to be
her friend. She did so everywhere. We had experience of it
in our own country. He said the subjects were treated no better
than foreigners. But I must own the Prince of Ponte Corvo, or
Prince Royal of Sweden, was un peu Bouillon too — un peu
Bouillon (he did not say Brouillon), and his adventure at Vienna
was a proof of it That, I told him, they ought not to reproach
him with. " Why not ?" said he. " It was a great indiscretion,
an imprudence, and has always been so considered in France,
as well as elsewhere. Supposing I should do such a thing here
now, what would you call it ?" " I certainly should not consider
it as very prudent." "Well," said he, "Bernadotte had no in-
structions for what he did at Vienna. He did it of his own
head, and it is a proof that he is un peu Bouillon." The Am-
bassador took in perfect good humor all the remarks I made
upon the harshness of the French negotiations, though I ex-
pressed myself in terms as strong as could, with decorum, be
used ; we parted very amicably.
2Sth. When I finally found out Mr. Severin's, I spent about
two hours with him, examining his collection of Russian coins.
He has them from the time of Peter the Great's grandfather, and
a great variety of them. He has also a large collection of for-
eign coins, which were packed up, as he is about to remove into
another house. I therefore could not see them. He showed
me, however, his Cromwell's guinea,* which looks perfectly new,
and has a head of the Protector extremely well executed and a
great likeness. The greatest curiosities of his Russian coins
are the roubles with the heads of Peter and Ivan on one side,
■ Scarcely the right name for this very fine twenty-shilling piece. Those of the
same sort struck previous to that period had been called either sovereigns or units.
It has been doubted whether it was ever issued as coin. The guinea came in with
Charles II., in 1663.
J
368 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
and Sophia holding the sceptre on the other, and a rouble of
Peter III., with a head of Catherine II. struck over that of Peter,
whose profile is still discernible upon it. He has a Bank of
England dollar with similar remnants of the Spanish coinage
upon it. He has a rouble with the head of Paul, which he
suppressed because he found it too ugly ; and seven different
samples of the present Emperor's head which he never would
approve — perhaps because none of them are handsome enough.
There is not indeed among them one that can be called a favor-
able likeness. He has also a rouble and half-imperial of Eliza-
beth, which she suppressed because her head was so ill executed
upon it. Mr. Severin invited me to come again and see other
parts of his collection next Friday, which I promised to do.
29th. I had never regularly read through myself before the
twelve books of this fabulist,' whom the French critics extol as
the most perfect writer of fables of any age or nation. There is
a mixture of careless simplicity and rude sagacity, of indulgent
good-humor and sly severity, of vulgar phraseology and ele-
vated poetical beauty, which perhaps no other fabulist possesses
in so high a degree, and which is peculiarly adapted to this
particular species of writing. His versification is negligent,
and seldom harmonious. But that also is excusable for these
popular, unpretending stories written for children and for the
ignorant. He has no merit of invention, for he took his sub-
jects from anybody— even from the Duke de Bourgogne, a
child of eight years old. The point in which he appears most
deficient is precisely that which I deem the most essential. I
mean the morality. It is either the old and hackneyed moral
of his predecessors from whom he takes the story, or a half-
indulged and half-suppressed satire upon kings, nobles, and
priests (which I believe more than anything else has con-
tributed to his excessive reputation in France), or frequent
repetition of commonplace axioms, or inconsistencies with him-
self, or finally, and worst of all, questionable or false principles.
Examples of all these defects might easily be adduced, nor
would the number be small of feeble and insignificant conclu-
sions, not worthy of a story built upon them. La Fontaine, ia
' La Fontaine.
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 369
short, teaches very little virtue of any kind, and perhaps more
vice than virtue. Of elevated or heroic virtue he seems not to
have had a conception. His great merit is as a story-teller, and
not as a moralist. The Two Pigeons, for instance, has a false
moral. Its doctrine is, Never travel for improvement, because
you may meet with disasters, and may be separated from your
friend or lover. But it is full of charming strokes of tender-
ness and affection-^not conjugal affection; for the pigeons arc
brothers ; nor yet fraternal affection, for the poet himself applies
his moral to happy lovers — boasts how much he has loved once,
and laments that he is too old to love ag^ain. It is therefore
licentious love that he substantially recommends ; and he has
expressly and unnaturally avoided to make his pigeons mates,
lest it should be mistaken for a case of marriage. He was tor-
mented, it is said, by a termagant wife, and he expressly dis-
avows all respect for marriage. He disavows, too, paternal
affection, and, according to an anecdote related of him, did not
know his own son when introduced to him at twenty-five years
of age. He is said to have died profoundly penitent for his
tales, which are indeed much more grossly licentious than his
fables, but which perhaps do not show more moral laxity of
mind. His flattery of Louis XIV., of the Dauphin, the Duke do
Bourgogne, the Prince de Conti, and even of Madame de Mon-
tespan, may be excused, for when you are obliged to say, " Let
Horace blush, and Virgil too," it would be requiring too much
of La Fontaine not to let him pass in the throng. On the whole^
therefore. La Fontaine is the first of story-tellers, but not of
fabulists. As to his famous Two Pigeons, Moore's Sparrow
and Dove may be placed in opposition to it, and in my estima-
tion would bear the palm from it in every respect.
May 2d. Two sailors came to me who had belonged to two
of the vessels which came last summer under false American
colors and have been seized by the Government here. It ap-
pears that the vessels, all excepting one, are to be restored as
English property to their real owners. The captains want to
ship men again, and one of these sailors, who is unwilling to
ship again in a vessel which he now knows to be no American,
complained that he was threatened with being turned out of his
VOL. II. — 24
370 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
lodgings if he refused to ^hip-with some of these impostors.
Mr. Harris came in while they were here, and thought this man
turbulent and unreasonable.
14th. In the morning I met and walked with the French
Ambassador, and had much conversation with him. He still
professes to hope that the war will not commence at present.
But since the Emperor's departure he is in a manner left here
with nothing to do. He says if Nesselrode had been sent to
Paris there would have been no war this year. But I asked
him whether the late trial at Paris, in which Nesselrode's name
was a little involved, woultd not have hurt him. He said no ;
the matter would not have been made so public. Czernicheflf
was the only person who in that matter could have been pecu-
liarly obnoxious, and it would have been enough to have ordered
him away from France. The Ambassador, however, now speaks
with some appearance of dissatisfaction of what is done here —
dwells upon trifles — complains that Count RomanzofT is slow
and irresolute — talks of oflensive publications in the Journal du
Nord. He hinted that he had complained of them to Count
SoltykofT, who had answered him by referring to the like pub-
lications oflensive to Russia in the French gazettes. "Oh,
you recriminate, do you ? Well, I despise les foUiculaires too
much to say any more about it." He adds that he goes into no
society ; visits nowhere — because he finds everybody so shy of
him that he perceives his presence is irksome. He finds his
situation, therefore, extremely insipid.
15th. On returning home this evening, I found Count St.
Julien upon a visit. He persists in his opinion that the scarcity
will prevent the war. The Count was perfectly good-humored,
and avowed his prejudices against the class of merchants with-
out reserve. He ^iays they are the cause of all these wars,
without ever taking part in them or suflering from them — they
fatten and grow rich upon the misery and blood of nations;
that they have no country but their counting-house, no God
but gain ; that they will traflic with the enemy of their nation
as readily as with their friends, and supply him with pro-
visions, ammunition, arms, anything that he wants, to destroy
their own countrymen. He was a nobleman, and it was natural
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 371
he should not like merchants. It was the caste of society that
he esteemed and respected the least of all. He was a military
man, and there was a natural antipathy between the soldier and
the pedlar. He had ransomed some towns and burnt some
villages in the course of his profession ; but there was a reason
of public necessity for it But the merchants burnt and de-
stroyed by little and little. They consumed by defrauding on
all sides. It was nothing to them who was victorious or who
.vanquished. They made their profit with equal indiflference out
of all. He had seen them'at Vienna after the French had been
in possession of the city. To them it was as if nothing had
happened. They sold their goods as freely to the Frenchmen,
and took the money pressed out from the contributions of their
countrymen as gaily, as if it had been a public jubilee. All this
was said in a careless, rattling, good-humored tone, and is a
sample of Austrian or High Dutch feelings, military arrogance,
jand the radical prejudices of German nobility. The dark side
of the commercial character does present features by no means
amiable or respectable, and the Count seized them with suffi-
cient sagacity. But the fair side would present others which
restore the balance of comparative merit, and in the estimate of
impartial justice place the commercial caste ^ if not upon a level
with the rest, at least by their side and not far beneath them.
Had a sensible merchant been present, if he could not have
justified his profession from the Count's reproaches, he might
have turned the tables upon him either as a warrior, a noble,
a courtier, or a diplomatist, all of which classes have vices of
condition at least as odious as any that can be imputed to the
merchant, and from those vices the Count himself is by no
means exempt. At my own house, and in the presence of my
own family only, I did not think it proper to discuss the sub-
ject with the Count, or to touch him in his tender parts, as the
champion of the merchants. When he charged the merchants
with being the causes of the present war, I asked him only why
he did not allow its share to the island of Malta, The Count has
a Commanderie in the old Order of Malta, and I knew it would
give a different direction to the chain of his ideas. He did not
at first understand me, for he had forgotten that the war began
372 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
upon a question about Malta. But when reminded of it, he
talked about the wisdom of Charles V. in giving the island of
Malta to the Order, so that it might be possessed by no terri-
torial power, because, small as it was, whatever territorial power
should possess it must have the command of the Mediterranean.
20th. We had received printed invitations from the General
Betancourt to attend the annual exhibition of the students at
the Institute of Ways and Communications, or, in other words,
the School of Engineers, this day and to-morrow, from ten a.m.
to two P.M. ; and between ten and eleven this morning I went
with Mr. Smith. The examination was confined altogether to
the mathematical sciences — ^Arithmetic, Algebra, Theory of
Proportions and Progressions, with the construction of Loga-
rithms and the use of the Tables, Elementary Geometry,
Plane Trigonometry and the use of the tables of sines, and
explanations of the instruments used in surveying. The students
appeared to be from about fourteen to nineteen or twenty years
of age, and the examination was a real and rigorous one. The
problems given them for solution were entirely unexpected to
them, and for which they could have no previous preparation.
Some of them, which required long and complicated demonstra-
tions, were proposed by strangers present, and not by their
own teachers. They acquitted themselves of the demonstra-
tions apparently with readiness and facility — ^with very little
assistance from the teachers, and with as much correctness as
could be expected from them as masters of their subjects upon
sudden, unpremeditated calls. I say apparently, because the
greatest part of the examination was beyond my own reach in
mathematics, and I could not pursue their demonstrations so
fast as they carried them through.
2 1 St. I attended alone this morning at the second day*s
examination at the School of Engineers. The oldest scholars
were examined — young men of nineteen or twenty, who, I
presume, are prepared to quit the institution. They were
examined in the highest parts of the mathematics — the conic
sections, infinite series, and fluxions. They were generally ready
and quick in their solutions; but there was one instance of a
failure, and several of some embarrassment in the procedure.
I8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 373
The principal examiners were four French officers, who have
been engaged for this school, but who are now obliged to return
to France. The whole institution is under the direction of Gen-
eral Betancourt, a Spanish officer, who has been only about three
years in the Russian service. There were only four or five of
the young men examined, and it finished before two o'clock.
Mr. Bezerra was the only foreign Minister who attended besides
myself, and he was not there more than half an hour. We did
not partake of the collation, but went and looked over the ^
designs and drawings and plans of the young men, which were
in another hall. They appeared to be all well executed, but the
name of the professor was annexed to each of the designs, as
well as of the pupil who executed it. Mr. Thomond, the archi-
tect, is one of the professors, and all the designs of architecture
appeared to be his. The house where this school is kept was
purchased of Prince Yussupoff, and is a magnificent building,
with a large and elegant garden. The hall where the examina-
tion was held is spacious, and is constructed for a large library.
The book-cases are built all round the sides of the walls, and a
gallery about eight or nine feet from the floor and extending
round three sides of the hall gives the advantages of two stories
to one room. The several apartments are lettered at the top
alphabetically and according to an order of sciences. The
theoretical order and arrangement of the hall is ingenious and
convenient for a library, but there are scarcely any books. The
cases are almost all empty. One of the doors opening to the
next hall is painted in imitation of books, so that the whole ^
hall seems an emblem of promise without performance, and
the imposture of learning. For such an institution, where the
instruction seems exclusively confined to the mathematics, a
large library cannot be necessary. But Prince YussupofT, to
whom the house belonged, has a very voluminous library him-
self, which I suppose he kept in this hall, and it has been left
unaltered since the purchase of the house. There is an im-
mense expenditure upon this school, but, like all the other
foundations for education here, it is carried on by the means
only of foreign teachers. Of nine or ten professors who con-
ducted this examination, one only appeared to be a Russian ;
374 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
and he was so continually interfering and intermeddling with
the demonstrations of the pupils, sometimes to help them when
they did not want help, and sometimes disconcerting instead
of aiding them, that General Betancourt, after repeatedly mani-
festing by looks and gestures his impatience and dissatisfaction,
at last peremptorily ordered the Professor to let the young men
alone to do their own work.
31st I read this day in the English Preacher, volume vii., the
/ sermons 3 and 4 — on Humility. Plain and sensible discourses on
a subject of importance, but concerning which my mind is not
settled to its own satisfaction. H umility, as this preacher remarks,
is a mediate virtue between the excesses of Pride and Pusilla-
nimity. He also well observes that although between those two
vices, and perfectly distinct from them both, it resembles the
latter more than the former, and that the former is the more
general and predominating vice than the latter. He expatiates
well upon the nature of humility, its excellence as a Christian
virtue, and the duty and proper means of cultivating it. But
the great difficulty with regard to all these intermediate moral
qualities is in applying the principle to the practice of life. I
cherish the virtue of humility in proportion to the scarcity of
it in the world. When associated with active and energetic
powers it is truly admirable. But there is great danger in that
humility which implies the sacrifice of one's own judgment
to the opinions and wishes of others. In all the relations of
life, public and private, I have found this difficulty constantly
recurring, and, when compelled to decide, have erred, sometimes
in following the dictates of my own mind, and sometimes in
yielding to the persuasions of others. The only true reliance
is from above.
yune 2d. I paid successively visits to the French Ambassador,
to General Pardo, and to the Chevalier de Bray, with all of
whom I had much conversation. The Ambassador is in a state
of great uncertainty as to the event, and still professes to have
hopes that the peace between France and Russia will be pre-
served. He assured me with the most solemn protestation that
no proposition of a derogatory nature had been made by France
to the Emperor Alexander; that, indeed, there had been no
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 375
propositions at all — que la negotiation est encore vierge. He
spoke even with some appearance of expectation that there
might be a negotiation for a general peace, and that it might
prove successful.
I told him I had no hopes of that with the present British
Ministry. The system on both sides was wound up too high.
Whenever there should be a serious desire for peace, both
France and England must yield largely of their present pre-
tensions— England much more than France, but both a great •
deal.
But why, said he, should not they take the basis of uti
possidetis f Let them keep the colonies and do what they
please with Portugal, and we will keep Hanover and Spain.
I did not think the present English Ministry woyld abandon
Spain.
Why not?
It would be precisely as it was before the French Revolu-
tion. France and Spain under one family? I did not know'
what another English Ministry might do, but the present one
had pledged itself too much to their party in Spain and to their
own country to retreat from that ground.
The Ambassador said the accounts from Wilna were this
day of a more pacific complexion than the last. The Emperor
had sent Prince Trubezkoi, an Aide-de-camp General, with a
letter to the Emperor Napoleon, he supposed to Warsaw, in
answer to that which had been brought by Mons. de Narbonnc,
also an Aide-de-camp General, to Wilna. I mentioned the
ex-King of Sweden's journey to Vienna precisely at this junc-
ture as leading to conjectures that there might be a project for
restoring him. " Why not ?" said the Count. " If the present
Swedish Government choose to be at war with us, why should
not we support the late King, who has certainly a strong party
in that country, and especially his son ?'* I agreed with him
that there was nothing to be said against the policy, and ex-
pressed my surprise at seeing the Swedish Government now
falling into the identical political course which had hurled the
late King from his throne. I asked the Ambassador to enclose
a letter for me to Paris by his next courier, which he promised.
376 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
I found General Pardo recovering from his illness, but looking
very ill. His disorder has been a nervous fever. He told me
he was going to take the waters at Egra, in Bohemia — ^that he
should resign his office and live as a private man somewhere in
the Austrian dominions. It was the only country where he
could reside. He did not choose to go to France. En Espagne
on ne veut pas de moi. The climate of this country was too
severe for him. He did not like the English or their habits of
society, though he liked very well to read their writings. So
that there was no part of Europe where he could live cofh-
fortably but in the Austrian dominions. The General's situa-
tion is painful and distressing, and he has not energy of charac-
ter adequate to the adversity which has befallen him. He told
me some time ago that in case of the war he was determined
to stay here at all events. As the crisis approaches, he sees
the subject with other eyes ; and on the subject of the war
itself I have never heard him speak rationally until this day.
He thinks it possible yet that the storm may blow over ; though
extremely improbable — not that there would be much difficulty
in finding terms for a compromise, but because both parties must
yield more than they can easily reconcile to themselves, with
such forces at their backs; because they will come to the
negotiation with an extreme distrust and jealousy of each other;
because the Emperor Alexander, with the sentiment of his force,
will feel a confidence that he had not^ before; because the
Emperor Napoleon must make sacrifices for a compromise not
verbal and ap|>arent, but great and real, to be seen and judged
of by all Euro|)e. But then he is not upon a bed of roses.
He wants peace, and must be ready to do much for obtaining
it. And as to Russia, she has lost an immense advantage by
adhering to her defensive system and not taking the line of the
Vistula. That would have forced Prussia to an alliance with
Russia. Now she was on the other side. The position of
Russia was much more unfavorable. '' Et puis, tant bien que
mal, cet homme (Napoleon) traine toute TEurope apr^s lui." All
this is very sensible, but totally opposed to everything the
General has oftentimes said to me before. He said nothing of
the affairs in Spain.
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO JfC/SSIA. 377
19th. I paid a visit to the French Ambassador, who is yet
very unwell. His complaint is now a severe and incessant
headache, which has afflicted him for several weeks. On
political affairs I found him soured and exasperated, principally
by the refusal to allow him passports to go to Wilna. I asked
him what reason had been assigned. The interruption of the
mails ; for it seems the French commanding officer at Memel or
at Konigsberg, about a fortnight ago, stopped the post going
from Russia to Germany and the south of Europe, and kept
all the letters. He asked me if I had heard it mentioned as a
reason that passports had been refused to Prince Kurakin at
Paris. I said I had ; and also that Count Lieven, at Berlin,
had met with the same refusal. He said he knew nothing of
the refusal to Count Lieven, but the case of Prince Kurakin
was thus. On the departure of the Emperor Napoleon from
Pari§, Prince Kurakin had said, " I have nothing more to do
here," and had asked for passports for himself and his family.
The Duke de Bassano had furnished him the passports for all
his family, including his pnpUs (natural children), but had urged
him in an amicable manner, and for the sake of avoiding the
conclusion which must inevitably be drawn by the public from
his departure, not to insist upon having his own passport unless
he had orders to that end from his Court The Prince had
accordingly desisted. It was said that after the Emperor Napo-
leon's arrival at Dresden the Prince had again asked for his
passport, and had been again requested to say that it was by
order of his Court, which he had declined. But his passport
was not refused, and the motive for urging him to wait was
altogether amicable. Prince Kurakin was exceedingly esteemed
at Paris, and not only every right due to his character, but
every possible accommodation that he could wish, would be
afforded him.
These facts show at once the extreme jealousy, suspicion,
and distrust existing between the parties, and the reluctance
they have to begin the war, with the anxiety on each side to
throw the first act of aggression upon the other.
The Ambassador told me that Count SoltykoflT had been to
him in person, to inform him of the peace with Turkey^ and to
A
378 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
tell him how much satisfaction this event caused here. " Oh, I
congratulated him upon it, and told him that news of peace
was always good news. And I shall go to the Te Deum.
Though I suppose they will look at me as they did last year at
the Te Deum for General Koutouzofs aflair at Rustchuk. I saw
them look at me when I kneeled, as much as to say, 'Ay, if
you pray, it is not for us.' But, after all, they have not yet got
the ratifications of this peace from Constantinople, and Greneral
Andreossi is there. And certainly by the very last courier from
Constantinople we were in high favor there. The Grand Signor
may ratify the peace, and I suppose he will ; but, if he does, it
will not be of much importance to Russia, for they have not
more than twenty-five thousand men on the Danube."
I said I had heard the ratifications were already received, and
that there was not only a peace, but an alliance, ofTensive and
defensive. "That is all Russian talk," said he. "And they have
filled poor Count St. Julien's head with such stufT. He came
and told me just such a story. But you may rely upon it they
know nothing of the conditions of the treaty. All they have
is a courier sent by Balachcff, the Police Minister, by the Em-
peror's order, with a letter for the Empress, saying that the
peace was signed, and the Pruth was to be the boundary. But
they are waiting for the ratifications ; and that is the reason why
the guns have not been fired, and the Te Deum is not to be
next Sunday, but the Sunday after."
I asked him if he had any news from Sweden. None. But
he thought when the Prince Royal had time to grow cool and
to reflect upon things, in the morning, abed, he would find* it
advisable to change his course a little. He was a man of fiery
temper, and had shown that at Vienna. But he dearly loved
his bed, though he was a working man, too; and the bed was a
very good place for cool reflection. He would at last ask him-
self what it would all come to, and what he was staking upon
the event. He did not think it would come to extremities.
I mentioned to him the squadron ready to sail from Cron-
stadt, and that it was said they were to land troops in Pomerania,
and the Prince Royal was to command the joint expedition. Yes,
he said ; so he had heard. The squadron were going to Swea-
I8l2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. yj^
borg, to take in troops there; but he did not believe the Prince
Royal would command them. He had even heard that General
Moreau was coming from America to join them ; but neither did
he believe that. At any rate, however, if they were to land in
Pomerania, there were the Duke of Reggio, Ney, and the Duke
of Bellune, Marshal Victor, each with thirty thousand men to
receive them. And as for that one (the Duke of Bellune), he
and the Prince Royal of Sweden " ne sont pas cousins." He
asked me about the late changes in the British Administration.
I told him what I had collected in the papers to 26th May. He
had no account so late. I asked him where the Emperor Napo-
leon was. He did not know — perhaps at Warsaw. He heard
the Russians had concentrated their forces, because they said
the Emperor Napoleon always attacks the centre. " There it is I"
said he. " They think because he has done so before, he will
do so again. But with such a man as that, they will find their
calculations fail them. He will do something that they do not
expect. He does not copy himself nor any other. He does
something new."
2 1st I read the sermons 7 and 8, volume vii., of the English
Preacher — the first on Anxiety, and the second on Envy. That
on Anxiety is by Atterbury — the text, "Take no thought for
the morrow ;" and contains many observations of which I felt
«
the force. My own disposition has in it too much anxiety,
and the experience of life has a great tendency to increase
that propensity. The precept itself, as Atterbury remarks, is
too strongly expressed in the English translation. A father of
a fiimily in this world must take thought of to-morrow — not for
what he himself shall eat of drink, or wherewithal he shall be
clothed, but for his wife and children. The situations in which
I have been placed since the obligation of providing for others
has become incumbent upon me, have been almost perpetual
temptations and stimulations to waste the means of provision
bestowed upon me by the goodness of that Heavenly Father
who feeds the fowls of the air and who clothes the lilies of the
field. Had I not a constant, unabating, and unyielding thought
for the morrow, my family would long ere this have been desti-
tute, and my children without the means of obtaining a suitable
380 AfEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
education. With all the thought that I do bestow, and all the
precautions that I can take, resulting from it, frequent untoward
events and unforeseen accidents disconcert all my prudence, and
require new sacrifices of feeling, of pleasure, and even of indul-
gence, to the thought for the morrow. When life must be one
uninterrupted struggle against impulses of every kind to expense
beyond income, what but an anxious thought for the morrow
can be adequate to maintain it ? But the guard upon my own
disposition, which it behooves me to seek, is against allowing
this thought for the morrow to run to excess, and to prevent its
degenerating into carking care and distrust of Providence. The
discourse upon Envy was not very striking to me. I am not
conscious of being much afflicted with this vice; and though
I cannot deny that I sometimes have felt more of it than was
comfortable to myself, I cannot charge myself with ever having
indulged it
24th. I came in the course of my Scripture reading this morn-
ing to Psalm 37 — " Fret not thyself because of evil doers," &c. —
and was much struck with its excellent and profound morality.
The duty of reliance upon the retributive justice of God, without
being staggered either by the transient prosperities of the wicked
or by the afflictions of the good, is inculcated with a force of
sentiment and an energy of expression such as I have never
met with in any of the profane writers. Plutarch's Treatise on
the Delays of Divine Justice, and Juvenal's 13th Satire, are not
comparable to it. They contain, with more diffusion, a part of
the same doctrine. But this Psalm was written centuries before
Homer, and a thousand years before Juvenal and Plutar<fh.
There is not indeed in the Psalm any recurrence to the rewards
and punishments of another life, and it leaves the argument
entirely open for the sublime improvement of the Christian
doctrine. But it is to be observed that one of its promises of
blessedness (to the meek, for they shall inherit the earth) is
expressly quoted and repeated by our Saviour in his Sermon
on the Mount (Matt. v. 5). There is so much prosperity to the
wicked in this world, and the good, as iar as human nature can be
called good, are followed by such great and manifold afflictions,
that some consolatory principle of trust upon divine justice is
/r%
I8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 381
necessary to the comfort of existence. I know of none equal
to that in this Psalm, with the addition of the Christian faith.
Afterwards I had a visit from the Ambassador himself, who
told me that Prince Kurakin having a third time demanded his
passports, they had been sent to him, and that it appeared the
Emperor 9f Russia was determined not to negotiate at all ; that
with his last demand for passports the Prince had sent a note
offering, on condition of the total evacuation by French troops
of the Prussian territories as a preliminary, " that the Emperor
Alexander would then do what I," said the Ambassador, " have
been urging and entreating them to do these twelve months —
that is, send powers to treat about the Duchy of Oldenburg.
And the Duke of Bassano has sent me an English newspaper,
printed before Prince Kurakin presented his note, and containing
not only the substance of it, but the very words, excepting that
it says that if the French do not evacuate Prussia the Emperor
of Russia will have war. This the Prince's note does not say ;
but otherwise it is in the precise terms of the article in the
English newspaper. As to the condition, how was it possible
to suppose that we could comply with a preliminary dishonor-
able to ourselves — a proposition which after the battle of Fried-
land we never thought of making to Russia on our part? Count
St. Julien, and all the members of the Rhenish Confederation,
have asked for their passports also, and have received the same
answer. Count Soltykoff had told me before that he was
authorized to grant passports for us Ministers ; but now he tells
me he has dispatched my demand to Wilna. I asked him how
this happened, after what he had assured me. But he said, ' Oh,
mais a present c'est autre chose.* So I suppose they keep us
as hostages. As to Count St. Julien, he useU to say to me,
' Ah, Monsieur TAmbassadeur, you are going away, and I shall
have all the women to myself;* but he too has asked for his
passports. For my part, as soon as I cross the line at Polangen
I shall turn round, put on my uniform, and commence soldier
again. I am sorry for it, but I should like to be, once for all,
one thing or another. Thus it appears that the Rubicon is
passed, and before this moment the dogs of war may be loosed.**
The Ambassador asked me to take charge of some papers
382 MEAfOIRS OF yOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
relating merely to individuals, and which might even be de-
livered up if demanded. I told him I would with pleasure
take them.
27th. I asked Count Soltykoff if he had any news from Wilna.
He said he had just received a letter from Count Romanzoif on
a particular subject, and, as it was written with his o\«^ hand, he
must have been tolerably well. But the great news is that which
goes from here thither. "I suppose you know what 'ces
Messieurs' have done ?" I knew he alluded to the demands for
passports from the foreign Ministers, and said I had heard of it
He said it gave him pleasure that in this great reduction of the
Corps Diplomatique I was not among the departers. I told him
that I was certainly very glad of it myself, and I believed there
were among those who were, more than one who would be as
reluctant at being included in the number as I should have been.
28th. Mr. Rayneval, the Secretary of the French Embassy,
called upon me this morning to take leave. He goes this night
as a courier, with his wife, and is not unconcerned as to the
safety of his passage out of the country. He told me that a
courier had arrived last night from Wilna in forty-seven hours,
with the news that hostilities had commenced — that the French
had crossed the Niemen or Memel River at Kovno, which we
found upon the great Russian map. On their passage the
Russian troops there had retired. The two Empresses, it was
expected, he said, would return to the city this evening, and
would reside here. It was said to be customary in time of
war — or at least in wars " un peu interessantes." They have
not been more than a week or ten days in the country. I
received the letter from Mr. Russell brought by Mr. Proud.
The French Ambassador paid us a visit in the evening. He is
yet waiting for his passports from Wilna. He thinks the passage
of the river at Kovno a very formidable manoeuvre, and says
that it cuts off four divisions from the Russian line. *' Now*' he
says, " they are quite astonished at it here, because they expected
to be attacked on the side of Grodno ; and naiu they begin to be
sorry that passports were refused him for going to Wilna."
30th. The St. Petersburg Gazette of this morning contains
the Emperor's rescript to Count Nicholas Soltykoff, the Presi-
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 383
dent of the Imperial Council, announcing the invasion of the
Russian territories by the French, and his resolution never to
make peace so long as an enemy remains in arms upon his
territory. I had a visit from Count Frohberg, the Wurtem-
berg Minister, who told me that he had not yet received his
passports^ and did not know how it was intended they should
go. • Some said they were to be sent off in a frigate and landed
at Memel or Dantzic ; others, that they were to be directed to
take their course roundabout to the Turkish or Austrian fron-
tier. It was wished that they might not have the opportunity
to observe the military state of the country, as it is supposed
they would by passing through the very theatre of the war.
The Count asked me to take charge of a small packet of papers,
which I promised him I would do. I paid a visit to the Am-
bassador, who is very anxious to be gone. Rayneval went off
yesterday as a courier, with his wife. The Count still thinks
that the passage at Kovno was a surprise upon the Russians,
and a " superb debut."
yuly 1st. I had a visit from Count Jennison- Walworth, the
Bavarian Charge d' Affaires, one of those who depart with the
French Ambassador. He told me that he and his family had
lost their whole fortune by placing it in public national funds.
It had been partly in the French funds, annihilated by the
French Revolution; partly in Austrian funds, which the Austrian
Government had now nearly reduced to nothing at all ; and,
finally, the rest in a Swedish loan in Holland, of which for the
last three years no interest had been paid, and which now the
Swedish Government had declared they would not pay, on
account of their quarrel with France. Count Frohberg had
told me much the same thing of himself He was an Alsacian,
and had been a page of Louis XVI. His father emigrated, and
all his estates were confiscated. He then had entered the
Austrian service, and had served in it for more than ten years.
In 1803 he obtained admission into the Teutonic Order, and
soon afterwards a Commandery in it He is now a subject of
Wiirtemberg. I dined with the ladies at the French Ambassa-
dor's. Count St. Julien, Baron Blome, Counts Bussche and
Frohberg, Barons Gremp and Marechal, and the Chevalier
384 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [July,
Brancia were there. They are all going except Blome, who
told me that he did not know whether he should finally go or
stay. Probably the course of Denmark would depend upon
that of Sweden, which was not yet definitively settled. Signeul,
the Swedish Consul at Paris, had carried the last propositions
from France to Sweden, inviting the alliance. That, offer was,
Finland to the Neva, seven millions of francs in cash to equip
a corps of twenty-five thousand men, and one million monthly
to maintain them. This offer had been rejected by Sweden.
She insisted upon neutrality. . But at the same time Lowen-
hielm here had been pushing to the utmost for war, and Sweden
had been urging England for joint invasion of the island of
Zealand, which England had not yet consented to, and prob-
ably would not. Perhaps Sweden might be allowed to remain
neutral : and in that case Denmark would be so too.
4th. I called according to appointment, at noon, upon Mr.
GouriefT, and mentioned to him the complaint addressed to me
by Mr. Hazard, the Consul at Archangel. He said he would
enquire into the circumstances and inform me of. the result.
He enquired respecting the situation of affairs between the
United States and Great Britain, and spoke with much regret
of the prospect of war between them. I told him I regretted
it also exceedingly, and that the American Government had
been brought to it with extreme reluctance ; but I now saw no
reason to hope it could be averted. He mentioned the forma-
tion of the new Ministry in England, and spoke in very favor-
able terms of Lord Liverpool, Mr. Vansittart, and Mr. Rose.
But he said they had met with a very heavy loss in Mr. Perceval,
and that it was greatly to be lamented that Lord Wellesley had
not joined them. I called at the (late) Ambassador's. He told
me he had this time, for the third time, written to demand his
passports. Perhaps they thought it a point of etiquette, as
Prince Kurakin had three times asked for his, to make him do
the same thing. So he had done it. But the difference was that
the Prince's demands were before a declaration of war, and his
own now were afler it He had also written to Count Soltykoff,
requesting him to send some person to receive the house in the
city and the country-scat at Kammenoi-ostrow (both of which
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 385
were provided by the Emperor Alexander). The Count had
answered that he would see to this, but had received no instruc-
tions upon the subject. The Ambassador said if he was to be
detained he should take lodgings at the Hotel du Nord. He
made some remarks upon the publication concerning the war
in yesterday's Gazette, and still considered the positions of the
Russian armies as dangerous and very much exposed. But he
did not exactly account for the five days lost by the French
after their passage of the river without attacking any of the
Russian corps. He said that in the positions stated by the
publication, the Emperor Napoleon, whenever he might choose
to attack, would have two men to one. He said, too, that there
was not upon earth a General so particular in making his arrange-
ments for the contingency of a defeat ; that whenever he went
into battle you would suppose he reckoned upon nothing but
being beaten. His retreat is always secure. He said he saw
the plan of the Russians. Their point of defence was a chain
of mountains. But those mountains were not insuperable, and
to take them they were obliged to abandon all Courland.
6th. Count Lauriston (who is no longer the Ambassador), Mr.
Montreal, Mr. Harris, and Mr. Lewis paid me visits this morn-
ing. The Count's third application, like the two former, has
been dispatched to the Emperor Alexander, the last advices
from whom were received on Saturday by the Empress-mother.
The Emperor writes her from Vidzy, about forty-five wersts
north of Swensiany, " Your son is alive and well. All is going
on well. We shall fight them ; we shall beat them, and la ruse
et la perfidie will have their reward." The Count informed me
that he should this evening remove from his house to his lodg-
ings at the Hotel du Nord, and should send to me to-morrow
the chest of which he had desired me to take charge. He is
extremely impatient to be gone, and says they now address their
letters to him, "A Son Excellence, Monsieur le Comte de Lau-
riston," without so much as an etcetera. He says Prince Bagra-
tion has joined the central army with his advanced guard, but
that both the Russian wings are very much exposed, and that
the Emperor Napoleon never suffers his enemy to commit such
faults with impunity. It does not appear, however, that the
VOL. II. — 25
386 MEAfOiRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [July,
Russians have been molested in their retreat, or that they will
be prevented from assembling all their forces. Mr. Montreal
had heard a multitude of rumors circulating among the public,
which only manifest the agitation of their feelings. Mr. Harris
had some apprehensions that if Riga should be besieged it
would not hold out more than a fortnight Mr. Lewis had
received letters, from which it appeared that war between the
United States and England was unavoidable.
8th. After dinner I walked in the Summer Gardens, and,
returning, met Count Lauristpn with Mr. Lerembours, his
private secretary. He had told me he had been to Count Sol-
tykofT again to-day to apply for his passports, but that he told
him he was perfectly innocent of the detention ; that he had
received from head-quarters not a line of any kind, neither
respecting this affair nor any other. The Ambassador said he
intended to send in to-morrow a written protest against this
refusal to let him go. I met also Count Jennison and Baron
Gremp. They are all yet in the same condition.
9th. I called on Count Lauriston at the Hotel du Nord, where
he has a good suite of apartments. I met Count Bussche there.
The Ambassador said he had applied to Count Soltykoff to be
informed whether he was to consider himself detained as a
hostage or a prisoner. Count Soltykoff had told him that he
was perfectly innocent; that he received himself no answers
from head-quarters, not only on this, but on any subject. Talk-
ing of the war, Bussche said he had been yesterday to purchase
some fusees to make sport for his children ; that he had seen a
very large board painted with a Fame and trumpets and many
military trophies, as a transparency for an illumination. He
asked what it was, and was told it had been ordered by the
Empress-mother. " Ay !" said the Ambassador, "they prepare
for illumination beforehand. I know they will illuminate, let
the event be what it will. But I shall look, the next day after,
upon the map, to see where the head-quarters are, and perhaps
they will be at Smolensk." He mentioned, and Mr. Harris had
told me the same thing before, that the Russians expected there
would be a great battle to-day, because this was the anniversary
of the battle of Pultawa. It was the anniversary, too, of the
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 387
Peace of Tilsit, at which time the Emperor Alexander said to
the Emperor Napoleon that it was the second time Russia had
been saved on that day. Count Lauriston added, archly, " The
Emperor laid up this remark in his memory ; he has not for-
gotten it, and he probably has not waited for this day.*'
nth. I am forty-five years old. Two-thirds of a long life are
past, and I fiave done nothing to distinguish it by usefulness to,,
my country or to mankind. I have always lived with, I hope,
a suitable sense of my duties in society, and with a sincere
desire to perform them. But passions, indolence, weakness,
and infirmity have sometimes made me swerve from my better
knowledge of right and almost constantly paralyzed my efforts
of good. I have no heavy charge upon my conscience, for
which I bless my Maker, as well as for all the enjoyments that
He has liberally bestowed upon me. I pray for his gracious
kindness in future. But it is time to cease forming fruitless
resolutions.
The Chevalier Brancia paid me a visit, and told me that
Count Lauriston and the other allied Ministers had received
passports last evening, accompanied with notes from Count
Soltykoff, observing that as the military operations embraced
the whole of the western frontiers of the empire, the Emperor
had judged it suitable that they should embark and depart by
sea, for which purpose a public ship would be provided for them^
to land them at such port as they should fix upon ; and that
they should be furnished with accommodations at the palace of
Oranienbaum, from whence they might embark. Brancia was
deeply exasperated at this treatment, and said he had written to
Count Soltykoff expressing his surprise at it, and demanding a
guarantee from the Emperor that he shall not be taken on his
passage by the English, with whom his sovereign is at war.
The Ambassador told me he had done the same thing. I asked
him what they had done with regard to Rayneval. He said
that Count Soltykoff had written him that, his Majesty the Em-
peror having disapproved his having given a courier's passport
to Mr. Rayneval, he did not know what to say respecting him.
They will probably not in fact be molested by any English ship
of war, but the chances are two to one that they will meet
388 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [July,
some, and, upon English maritime principles, their protection
will depend altogether upon the English captains' discretion
and forbearance.
1 2th. Read sermons 13 and 14 of the English Preacher, vol.
vii. — on the irreligion usually attending on great riches, by
Sherlock, and on the duty of charity, by Seed — ^both very good
discourses. The commentary upon the parable of the rich man
and Lazarus is ingenious, but whether just or not may be ques-
tioned. Hard-heartedness, at least, as well as irreligion, may be
inferred from the narrative as having been the rich man's crime.
They naturally go hand in hand. A man without religion can
never have a very strong feeling of humanity, nor can one
truly religious be without it.
15th: Called on Count Lauriston at the Hotel du Nord,
where I met Count Bussche and Mr. Joufiroy. The Ambas-
sador and his family, Mr. Lesseps, the French Consul, and his
family. Count Frohberg, the Chevalier de Bray, Count Bussche,
with their secretaries and families, and the Chevalier Brancia, are
to be embarked at Cronstadt and to go by water to Memel ;
but Count St. Julien, the Austrian Minister, Jouflroy and Colonel
Scholer, the Prussians, General Pardo, and Count Bose, the
Saxon Charge des Affaires, are permitted to go by land. Ray-
neval, who was stopped at Mittau, must return here to go by
water to Memel. These distinctions are no doubt intended to
excite irritations among the allies, but their effect cannot be very
extensive. Count Lauriston said he had yesterday written to
Count Soltykofi*, and received in return from him a note, saying
that the functions and character of French Ambassador having
ceased by the passports furnished him for his departure. Count
Soltykoff'could hold no further correspondence with him. There
is to be a frigate, a corvette, and two transports, which are to
be ready on Saturday or Sunday next. The Ambassador, as
well as Brancia, had written to demand a guarantee that they
should not be attacked on their passage by the English, to
which Count Soltykoff" answered that it was to be presumed the
Russian Government had taken all necessary precautions, but
that they must be sensible he, Count Soltykoff, could answer
them nothing but by the express command of the Emperor.
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO liUSSIA. 389
The Ambassador and Count Bussche were very much exas-
perated. JoufTroy was tickled with the distinction in his favor,
and not very diplomatic to conceal his gratification.
1 8th. Baron Gremp and Mr. St. Genest called upon me this
morning, and brought with them the packages whicli the Am-
bassador and Count Frohberg had requested me to receive in
deposit; being the archives of the French Embassy, of the
former Dutch Legation, and of the Wiirtemberg Legation.
The French are in a very large wooden chest ; the Dutch in. a
trunk equally large; and those of Wurtemberg in a small box
about the size of a portable writing-desk and covered with oil-
cloth. In case of my own departure, they are to be delivered
to Messrs. Livio. I had afterwards visits from Count Lauriston
and Count. Bussche, who expect to go down to Oranienbaum
on Monday. Count Lauriston asked me if I had seen the
Emperor Napoleon's proclamation to the army at the com-
mencement of hostilities. I had, but, I said, there must have
been a mistake in the copy or translation that I saw, which
was in English. For it stated the proposition of Russia to
have been that the French troops should retire beyond the
Rfiifu previous to negotiations — whereas it was the Elbe that
she had spoken of, and not the Rhine. Lauriston laughed, and
said, "Oh, the proclamation est bien de lui — c'est bien la sa
mani^re. My copy has it the Rhine, too — ^but do you know
they did talk about the Rhine? Count Romanzoff himself said
once to me that we must retire beyond the Rhine. I told him
that he must surely mean the Elbe. But he said, ' Mais non,
TElbe n'est pas votre frontiere.' But they mistake one thing
for another. Count Romanzoff once complained to me that
the French troops had crossed the Elbe and the Oder and
entered Berlin. They had entered Berlin, but they had not
then approached the Oder. But Romanzoff thought they must
have crossed the Oder to get to Berlin." " But," said I, " it
was the Elbe^and not the Rhine, that Prince Kurakin's note
required you to pass previous to negotiation. Was it not ?"
" Yes, mais qu'est-ce qu'il coute a TEmpereur Napoleon de
dire que c'etoit le Rhin?" Lauriston has the same idea of
Napoleon's veracity that Caulaincourt had; though he is a
• 390 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [July,
more enthusiastic admirer of him, and apparently more un-
bounded in his devotion to him. Count Bussche told me that
St. Julien lingered about going away; that Russia was still
courting Austria; that Count Stachelberg, the Russian Min-
ister, had obtained permission to remain at Vienna, and it had
-been indirectly signified to St. Julien that he might stay here
if it suited his convenience. Even yesterday, St. Julien told
Bussche that it might be some time before he should go. But
this morning Berks had called on him (Bussche) and told him
St. Julien would positively go on Tuesday ; and Lauriston this
morning told Bussche the same thing. Whence Bussche con-
cluded that lauriston had given St. Julien a touch of the spur.
General Pardo and Count Bose are gone. Mr. Raimbert paid
me a visit likewise, and mentioned the report of an action in
which Prince Bagration has suffered considerable loss, and the
French were said to have entered Minsk.
20th. Mr. Fisher came with Captain Hillard this morning.
The Captain was much dissatisfied that I refused to lend my aid
- officially to deceive the Russian Government and prevail upon
them to deliver up a ship seized for a breach of their laws and
liable to confiscation. The case stands thus upon the papers
sent me by Mr. Hazard with the request for my interposition.
In September, 1809, John Thomas, a merchant of Baltimore,
made over to one Worthy, of Liverpool, in Great Britain, a
ship called the "Thomas," owned by him, and a sea letter ship.
But instead of giving Worthy a bill of sale, he gives him a
power of attorney, irrevocable ^ to dispose of her, and makes
Worthy supercargo. The ship goes then to Madeira, and
returns to New York in January, 18 10. In February she sails
for Archangel, taking St. Michael's and Madeira in her way.
Worthy purchases at New York, of Noah Talcott, a cargo, as
the agent, and as for account of John Thomas, but pays Talcott
by bills of exchange upon the house of McSirr, Mc & Mc-
Corkedale, of Liverpool. Worthy comes from New York to
Archangel as supercargo, and with a passport as a citizen of the
United States, real or forged, in the name of De Witt Clinton,
Mayor of New York. The ship enters at Archangel as an
American, in the name of John Thomas, with Worthy, as a
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 351
citizen of the United States, for her supercargo. She was
admitted as an American, sold her cargo, took in a cargo, as if
to return, and sailed in the autumn of 18 10, but, being driven
back by the weather, wintered in Archangel,' and before she
could sail in 181 1, was seized by the Russian Government upon
information lodged by a sailor that the property and the voyage
were really for account of the house in Liverpool, and that the
ship was bound thither from Archangel, and not to New York.
While the ship was under seizure. Worthy's bills in favor of
Talcott were returned from Liverpool to New York protested.
Talcott sent to Archangel, and got the ship mortgaged to him
by Worthy for security, and afterwards got a bill of sale of her
in form, from John Thomas, at Baltimore, and no>V sends out
Captain Hillard with a crew, on the expectation of having her
restored, to take charge of her and carry her to New York.
Mr. Harris had pursued the claim of this ship last summer,
' and now continued it, considering the property and Worthy
himself as American, and he had also claimed very heavy
damages for her detention. But the Commission for Neutral
Navigation not manifesting a disposition to restore the ship, Mr.
Hazard wrote to me, and sent me the papers, with a suggestion
that nothing but my interference could get the ship released
this year. On the face of the papers Worthy appeared in the
double capacity of a British subject, owner of the ship, and
of an American citizen, supercargo for John Thomas. There
was a notarial declaration and certificate that Talcott was a
native American, and the same with John Thomas, with his
declaration that he was heretofore sole owner of the ship, and
that she sailed with a certificate in lieu of register in 1809.
The papers all concurred to show that the property and the
voyage were on British account, and that John Thomas gave
only the cover of his name. Mr. Harris showed me the sen-
tence of the Commission of Neutral Navigation here, by which
it appears that since the seizure both Worthy and the Captain
ran away from Archangel, and that among Worthy's papers
were found letters to him from his wife and from the house at
Liverpool, proving their interest in this ship, and in another
which Worthy dispatched from Archangel under American
392 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Joly^
colors. I declined interfering at all in the case, and have
received three letters from Mr. Hazard on the subject The
Captain asked me to give my refusal in writing, which I told
him I had already done to Mr. Hazard. He said, too, that Mr.
Harris told him that if he had not applied to me he would
before this have had the ship. He complained that Mr. Hazard
had been three post days without receiving my answer to his
first letter. He gave another example of what I have before
more than once remarked, that men who ask dishonest &vors
are apt to be insolent upon finding them refused. I gave him
the papers, on his promise to be answerable for them, and on
Mr. Fisher's answering for him, and I dismissed him with little
ceremony.
2 1 St. I received from Count Jennison- Walworth a note with
a trunk containing the archives of the Bavarian Legation,,
and gave a receipt for them at his desire. So that there are
now deposited with me all the papers of the French, thd
former Dutch, the Bavarian, Wurtemberg, and Westphalian
Legations. And in case of my own departure before they are
duly called for, I am to leave them all with Messrs. Llvio,
bankers.
22dv Morning visit from Mr. Montreal. A new ordinance of
the Emperor concerning foreigners, and particularly French-
men, has spread a general alarm, and in its terms is so extremely
rigorous that it has been thought necessary to send to the Em-
peror for an explanation of its extent. Mr. Raimbert went
yesterday to the military Governor, WiasmitinofT, to ascertain
what was intended. The Governor received him politely, and
told him he was waiting for orders, but at all events that
he should make himself easy; there could be no danger for
him. There is a new levy of five men to every five hundred
in the four bordering governments, and a call for money and
supplies of grain from others. My coachman was this morning-
taken for a soldier, but in the evening was released again upon
payment of twenty-five roubles by his master. The official
news from the armies is all favorable, and according to the
hand-bills they have had nothing but a series of successes from
the first day of the campaign. But the Emperor with one army
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 393
has been retreating from the Niemen River to the Dwina, and
is completely separated from the second army under Prince
Bagration. He has burnt and destroyed all the towns on his
retreat, as well as all the grass and grain standing on the fields.
And he must now be compelled to retreat still farther, or to
give biattle with only a part of his forces, contrary to what has
been officially declared to be his plan. There is great anxiety
here, but as yet no symptom of discouragement Rumors of
disasters both to Prince Bagration's army and to that of the
Emperor himself are circulating in whispers, but without any
mention of particulars.
26th. At ten this morning, the hour appointed for the cele-
bration of the Te Deum for the peace concluded with the Otto-
man Porte, I went with Mr. Smith to the Kazan Church, and we
were there waiting upwards of two hours before the Empresses,
with the two Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael, made their
appearance. The mass preceded the Te Deum, and they were
each more than an hour in performing. It was about half-past
two when the services finished, and we returned home. The
church was extremely crowded, but the only foreign Minis-
ters present were Count Maistre, the Chevalier Bezerra, Baron
Blomc, and myself. I saw there General Koutouzof, who signed
the peace, and Count Lieven, late Russian Minister at Berlin.
The Grand Master of the Ceremonies, Narishkin, read me, from
the Russian, the hand-bill issued last evening concerning the
military operations, and dated the ^ of this month. The com-
mentaries upon the state of things were various. It was gen-
erally agreed that the French army is wedged in between the
first and second Russian armies, and in an extremely dangerous
position. Count Maistre said, if the Emperor Alexander was
in such a position we could not sleep for anxiety. " Mais — voila
ce que c*est — I'etoile de cet homme. And, what is strange, the
private letters from the officers in the army are written in the
finest spirits imaginable — gay as larks ; wherever they go, the
ladies and gentlemen of the vicinities go into the cities with
them and make agreeable society; and they have charming
music,'' &c. Mr. Bezerra could hardly believe that the Emperor
should have gone to Moscow. But he knew Count Roman-
3^ MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Aacvt.
2x>K had been some time at Veliki-Luki, and General Pfuhl
was there too. General Pfuhi had lost all his influence with
the Emperor. «Mr. Bezerra could not conceive, either, how the
French should have taken the Russian magazines at Orsha.
Why could not they have set fire to them ? Twenty days' pro-
visions for the whole army! Very strange! In substance,
nothing is yet done. The two Russian armies appear to be near
forming their junction, but whether they will be able to effect it
without separately giving battle is still to be determined by the
event There was an illumination at night; not very general.
At the church General WiasmitinoflT, the military Governor of
St Petersburg, performing the functions of the Minister of War,
read before the Te Deum a paper announcing the conclusion of
the peace with the Porte at Bucharest After the Te Deum the
Empresses and Grand Dukes went up and performed their
prostrations to the image of the Holy Virgin of Kazan, which
they very devoutly kissed. General Koutouzof himself also
apparently had a private act of devotion of his own to perform,
for he went alone into the sanctuary.
August 1st. Notice had been given yesterday from die police
to the inhabitants of the city that the Emperor being expected
this day, in case of his arrival they must illuminate their houses.
Mr. Harris told me he had just come from the square of the
Kazan Church, where a great crowd of people were assembled
waiting for the Emperor, that being the first place to which he
would go to attend a religious service. He did not, however,
arrive.
2d. I read some pages in Watts's Logic on the doctrine of
prejudices, which occasioned the reflection how excessively dif-
ficult it is to divest one's self of prejudices, and how much more
difficult still to discard prejudices without falling into indifier-
ence with regard to important truth. I believe the best guard
against prejudice is a frequent examination of our opinions and
a cool estimate of the arguments opposed to them. You must,
as Cicero says, identify yourself, in imagination, first with your
adversary and then with your judge, and, above all, you must
have resolution to abide by the result, even if it should be
adverse to your preconceived opinions. The victory over preju-
^
iSia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 355
dice is a conquest of one's self. It is better than to be the ruler
of a city.
3d. The Emperor arrived here this morning about two
o'clock — I suppose because this is the Empress-mother's name-
day, and one illumination answered for both events. I walked
before breakfast in the Summer Gardens, and in turning round
the boulevard I perceived the Imperial flag flying over the
palace, which first gave me notice of the Emperor's return.
Sth. I met Don Francisco Colombi and Mr. Zea, who in-
formed me that Count Wittgenstein had totally defeated Mar-
shal Oudinot with great slaughter, and had taken his baggage,
artillery, and three thousand prisoners. In Spain, too, he said,
all was going on well, and Lord Wellington was at Salamanca.
After dinner I had a visit from Claud Gabriel, the black man
in the Emperor's service, who went to America last summer for
his wife and children, and who is now come back with them.
He complains of having been very ill treated in America, and
that he was obliged to lay aside his superb dress and sabre,
which he had been ordered to wear, but which occasioned
people to insult and even beat him. Count St. Julien, the late
Austrian Minister, had a fancy for appearing in public here in
the Vienna fashion. So he drove about the streets last winter
in a sledge of a different appearance from those here used. It
was a sort of phaeton body, hung upon runners, perhaps six feet
high, and ^ith clusters of bells at the saddle-place of the two
horses. He drove himself, with a footman carrying an enor-
mous muff behind him on the sledge. Although this is perhaps
the spot of the globe where varieties of dress and of modes of
appearing in public are most common, and where they of course
excite the least attention, there was yet something so ludicrously
fantastical in this anomaly of Count St. Julien's sledge, that he
made himself the laughter of the Court and city by it I was
once mentioning to him how dangerous it was to appear in the
streets of London in any mode or dress different from those to
which the eyes of the people are accustomed. " Then I sup-
pose," said he, " my Iraineau would make a riot there." I told
him I questioned Whether he Would ever have occasion to use
it a second time in that city. It was said that he had asked the
3^6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Aogvsl.
Emperor Alexander's permission to exhibit this rarity about the
town, and that the Emperor Alexander answered him that he
had not the slightest objection, but added, " If the children in
the streets should throw stones at it, I hope, Monsieur le Comte,
you will not be surprised." There was so much sound sense in
this remark that I know not how the idea had not occurred to
the Emperor when he ordered Claud Gabriel to wear in public
his magnificent gala Court dress when he should arrive in
America. After wearing them once at Providence and once at
Boston, he says, he was obliged to hide them ; and he looks as
if even that wearing had cost him five or six of his front teeth.
He says, however, he told the Emperor that he had been well
treated, and that he had worn the dress all the time.
6th. Mr. Proud dined with us, and brought with him the
New York Commercial Advertiser of 2 2d June, containing the
message from the President of the United States to Congress,
communicating the sequel of the correspondence between Mr.
Monroe and Mr. Foster, and recommending a declaration of
war ; the report of the Committee of Foreign Relations upon
this message, also recommending an immediate appeal to arms ;
the act declaring war, approved i8th June; the proclamation
of the President founded upon the act of Congress; and the
yeas and nays in both Houses upon the act — seventy-nine
to forty-nine in the House of Representatives, and nineteen to
thirteen in the Senate; two Senators, Mr. Bradley and Mr.
Whitesides, absent. Minturn and Champlin sent off a pilot-
boat from New York to Gottenburg with this intelligence, for
the purpose of securing their property there and here from
British capture on this occasion. The vessel arrived at Got-
tenburg 23d July, and Mr. Proud, who is an agent of Minturn
and Champlin, received the paper by express from that place.
9th. There was a Te Deum at the Imperial Chapel this day,
and in the evening an illumination of the city, on account of
General TormassoflT's victory over a corps of Saxons at Kobrin.
loth. Mr. Brandel arrived last evening from Toropetz, the
last place where Count RomanzofT had been. Count Lowen-
hielm had followed the Russian army to Witebsk, but Mr.
Brandel expects him back here soon. The Emperor and Count
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 397
RomanzofT, Brandel says, are shortly going away again — prob-
ably to be nearer the armies. The Russian head-quarters are
at Smolensk. PlatofT is arrived there, and the two great armies
have so far formed their junction that Count Romanzoff told
Brandel this morning the two Generals, Barclay de Tolly and
Prince Bagration, had dined together. Brandel had heard
nothing of the Russian armies being defeated.
14th. Mrs. Adams and Catherine, the two children, Mrs.
Helm, the infant's nurse, and Martha, went with me to Ora-
nienbaum. We left home at half-past nine in the morning,
and precisely at noon stopped at a house kept by an English-
woman, Mrs. Tringham, where we dined. The distance is
thirty-five wersts, besides three to the werst-stone within the
city, from which they begin their admeasurement — twenty-five
English miles — which our horses ran without once stopping to
rest or to drink. We had four horses in a line, driven by the
coachman, and two leaders by the postilion. Seven persons,
including the two children, in the coach. At Oranienbaum we
went to see the palace, with its gardens and adjacent buildings,
which, though smaller and less magnificent than those of Peter-
hof, command a finer prospect and are kept in better condition.
There is nothing, however, very remarkable to be seen in the
palaces. The series of artificial hillocks, which, I believe, was
invented and constructed in the time of the Empress Elizabeth,
is now totally decayed and ruinous, so that without an explana-
tion it would be impossible to conjecture what was its original
intention. It was entire, though I believe no longer used, when
I saw it before, in January, 1782. There are some indifferent
paintings in some of the apartments, and in the choice of the
subjects there appears a predilection for such as the Judgment
of Paris, Venus and Adonis, Hercules and Omphale, Diana
and Endymion, and the like. There is a billiard-room wain-
scoted with the nine Muses ; tables inlaid with mosaic ; col-
lections of old' china, Japan vases, and Dresden porcelain,
the most ingenious of which is a concert of monkeys in por-
celain figures — each figure with a different instrument and
attitude, and all caricatures of the various kinds of affected
melomania. The furniture is all very old, and exhibits mag-
398 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Sq)Cember,
niiicence in all its stages of decay, from the mere change of
&shion to the perishing rags and tatters of crimson satin cur*
tains and chair-covers. We dined about (our o'clock, and
returned in .about the same time we had taken to go. We
reached the city before eight in the evening, and I walked from
the Fontanka home. The road as far as Peterhof is entirely
plain ; but from thence to Oranienbaum there are several hills
and dales. The view of Cronstadt, on the opposite side of the
gulf, is most pleasant between the two places. The villages
are both small and mean.
15th. They are organizing the new armament for the defence
of the country, and the nobility of the governments of St.
Petersburg and Moscow have given one man in ten of their
peasants for the army. I saw many of them this morning, just
in from the country, with the one-horse wagons, and the families
of the recruits taking leave of them. The number of volunteers
is very great ; and if they find it as easy to organize and disci-
pline them as they find it to raise the men, there is little danger
for the country to apprehend from the invasion under which it
now suffers.
27th. Nothing is published respecting the late battles at or near
Smolensk, of which there are now said to have been four. The
reports concerning them are exceedingly various. The letters
from the officers assert the advantage to have been constantly
on the Russian side, and wonder why the Commander-in-Chief,
Barclay de Tolly, ordered the retreat. There is now an extraor-
dinary clamor against that General. Prince Bagration is not
in much better credit. General Koutouzof, who was made a
Prince after the Turkish peace, last week was appointed Com-
mander-in-Chief of all the active armies, and left the city last
Saturday night to go and take the command. The want of a
single head to the Russian military force is a great misfortune
to the country.
September ist. In the evening, after a walk in the Summer
Gardens, I sent for Mr. Strogofshikoff, my landlord, and gave
him notice of the removal of part of the family into the country,
of which he is responsible to give notice to the police. He told
me that his family owned a small village in the neighborhood.
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO XUSSIA. ' 3^^
with one hundred peasants, out of which they had given ten
for the new armament; and it was giving as great a propor-
tion as one-fourth of the eflective men. He speaks with warm
feelings as a Russian, and with sound sense. He has more
confidence of final success to their cause than when I saw him
last.
2d. Visited the Chevalier de Bezerra and his lady. He knew
a few particulars from the army and the Emperor which I had
not heard, and was uninformed of others which I told him. It
appears, by all the accounts from the army, that after four days
of very severe battle, in all of which the Russians were victorious^
they evacuated and set fire to Smolensk, and have since been
constantly retreating, but the whole blame is laid upon the then
Commander-in-Chief, Barclay de Tolly. The loss of the French^
in killed, wounded, prisoners, and artillery taken, was much
greater than that of the Russians, and General Koutouzof ar-
rived at the head-quarters last Saturday. He met on his way,
and took back with him. General Benningsen, who is to com-
mand the first army in the room of Barclay de Tolly. Koutouzof
is Commander-in-Chief of all the active armies. The Emperor
Alexander has had his interview with the Prince Royal of
Sweden (Bernadotte), at Abo, and is quite charmed with him.
6th. I received this morning a note from Madame de Stael,
requesting me to call upon her, at- the Hotel de TEurope, at
four o'clock this afternoon, concerning something relative ta
America. I found Lord Cathcart, the newly-arrived British
Ambassador, with her ; also Admiral Bentinck, a young man
who appeared to be an attendant upon Lord Cathcart, Madame
de Stael's son and daughter, a son of Admiral Bentinck, a boy,,
and two or three other men, whom I could not ascertain. Ta
every soul in the room I was a total stranger. Madame de
Stael was in very animated conversation with Lord Cathcart,
and expressing in warm terms her admiration of the English
nation as the preservers of social order and the saviors of
Europe. She also complimented his Lordship very highly
upon his exploit at Copenhagen. My Lord looked a little
awkward at the size and rankness of the lady's applause ; to
the personal tribute oflTered to himself he made no answer, but
400 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,
to the besmearing of his nation, he answered that his nation
was a nation which, as such, felt itself bound by moral obli-
gations, which it would always fulfil, and to which it would
never be false.
I thought of the moral obligations of the Copenhagen expe-
dition, and of the American Revolutionary War. Lord Cath-
cart had his share in both.
The English talk much about their honor and national
morality — sometimes without meaning, but generally with a
mixture of hypocrisy and of self-delusion in about equal por-
tions. Dr. Johnson, in one of his poems, honestly avows that
in his lifetime English honor had become a standing jest ; and
it has assuredly not since then improved. The Lord and Lady
conversed also about his journey from Sweden to this place,
upon which his carriage overset and rolled down hill; and
upon her journey there, and her fears of a water passage. She
is to leave the city to-morro\v. Admiral Bentinck seemed a
little uneasy under the close siege of compliments which was
laid to the Ambassador, and when his Lordship took his
leave and went away, said, as if he felt relieved, "Thank
God, that is finished!*' The Admiral himself immediately
afterwards went away to his lodgings, where the Baroness was
to go and take him up to go somewhere together to dinner.
She had then leisure for some conversation with me. She
has lands in the State of New York, upon Lake Ontario, and
stocks in the United States funds, and she wished to enquire
how she could continue to receive her interest in England
while there is war between the United States and Great Britain.
This introduced a conversation upon the war, which appeared
to be to her a topic far more interesting than the affairs upon
which she had sent to consult me. But, as she was going out
to dinner, she desired me to come again to-morrow morning,
and asked me why I had not been to see her before, having
known her father by reputation. She said she had read my
father's book' with great pleasure, and that her father had often
spoken of it with great esteem.
7th. I called again upon Madame de Stael this morning, and
■ The Defence of the American Constitutions.
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 40I
had a second long conversation with her upon politics. She is
one of the highest enthusiasts for the English cause that I have
ever seen ; but her sentiments appear to be as much the result
of personal resentment against Bonaparte as of general views
of public affairs. She complains that he will not let her live
in peace anywhere, merely because she had not praised him in
her works. She left the city this day for Stockholm.
loth. I received from the Chancellor, Count RomanzofT, an
official note, communicating two printed copies of the Treaty
of Peace with the Turks, to be sent to the Government of the
United States. The Count has, therefore, resumed his official
functions without any formal notice of the cessation of those
of Count SoltykofT. I paid him a visit of form this day with
Mr. Smith, but did not find him at home.
We also visited Lord Cathcart, who received us. He sent
us yesterday cards announcing that he had presented his creden-
tials as British Ambassador. I had not expected that in a state
of declared war between Great Britain and the United States he
would, have sent to us ; but, as he did, I concluded to return the
civility in the usual form, which I might the more regularly do^
not having received officially from my Government the declara-
tion itself He mentioned to me the latest news from England
and the account of Mr. Foster's arrival there from America.
He professed to have a particular attachment to America, with
which he felt a strong personal relation (alluding, I suppose, to
his having married there an American lady), and to cherish a
wish that the political differences between that country and
England might yet be amicably settled. I assured him that
my own sentiments in this respect altogether coincided with
his. I believed peace and friendship to be easily attainable be-
tween them, and highly important to the best interests of both.
He sent me the newspaper in the evening, with a polite note.
2 1 St. At seven this evening I called by appointment upon
Count RomanzofT, who told me that he had asked to see me
by the Emperor's command ; that, having made peace and
re-established the relations of amity and commerce with Eng-
land, the Emperor was much concerned and disappointed to
find the whole benefit which he expected his subjects would
VOL. u. — 26
I
^2 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September.
derive commercially from that event defeated and lost by the
new war that had arisen between the United States and Eng-
land; that he had thought there were various indications that
there was on both sides a reluctance at engaging and prose-
cuting this war, and it had occurred to the Emperor that per-
haps an amicable arrangement of the differences between the
parties might be accomplished more easily and speedily by
indirect than by a direct negotiation; that his Majesty had
directed him to see me and to enquire whether I was aware of
any difficulty or obstacle on the part of the Government of the
United States if he should offer his mediation for the purpose
of effecting a pacification.
I answered that it was obviously impossible for me to speak
on this subject otherwise than from the general knowledge
which I had of the sentiments of my Government ; that I was
so far from knowing what their ideas were with regard to the
continuance of the war, that I had not to this day received any
official communication of its declaration, but that I well knew
it was with extreme reluctance they had engaged in the war ;
that I was very sure that whatever determination they might
form upon the proposal of the Emperor's mediation, they would
receive and consider it as a new evidence of his Majesty's regard
and friendship for the United States ; and that I was not aware
of any obstacle or difficulty which could occasion them to
decline accepting it. For myself, I so deeply lamented the very
existence of the war, that I should welcome, any facility for
bringing it to a just and honorable termination. I lamented it,
because I thought that the only cause which had made it abso-
lutely unavoidable was actually removed at the moment when
the declaration was made. If the course which had been
adopted by my Government had been such as I could not in
my own mind approve, it would not become me to censure it.
But it was not so. The Declaration of the English Regent in
April, and the letter which Mr. Foster had written to the
American Secretary of State in communicating it, had, as it
appeared to me, left the American Government no alternative
but an immediate appeal to arms or a dishonorable abandon-
ment of all the unquestionable rights for which they had con-
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 403
tended, and eveii the essential characteristics of an independent
nation. The blame of the war was therefore entirely on the
English side, but the war itself was not the less disagreeable to
me. I lamented it particularly as occurring at a period when,
from my good wishes for Russia and the Russian cause, I
should have rejoiced to see friendship and harmony taking
place between America and England, rather than discord and
hostility. I knew the war would aflect unfavorably the inter-
ests of Russia. I knew it must be highly injurious both to the
United States and England. I could see no good result as
likely to arise from it to any one ; nothing but mischief, and
gratification to the makers of mischief
The Count said he had considered it altogether in the same
light ; and so had the Emperor, who was sincerely concerned
for it, and who had himself conceived the idea of ofTering his
mediation. He thought an indirect negotiation conducted here,
and aided by the conciliatory wishes of a friend to both parties,
might smooth down difficulties which, in direct discussion
between the principals, might be found insuperable. To a
mutual friend each party might exhibit all its complaints and
all its claims without danger of exciting irritations or raising
impediments. The part of Russia would only be to hear both
sides, and to use her best endeavors to conciliate them.
I said, the Count was aware there was a third party to be
consulted as to the proposal — the British Government
He said the .proposal had already been suggested to the
British Ambassador, and he had yesterday dispatched an ac-
count of it to his Court. I asked if I could obtain a courier's
passport to communicate the information to my Government
He said it might be furnished in a manner, that the person
should be dispatched as a Russian courier. I asked him if
he could obtain from Lord Cathcart any paper which should
operate as security from capture by British cruisers, as in that
case I presumed I could find an American vessel here to carry
the dispatches. He said he' would ascertain and inform me in
the course of a very few days, and he should write to Mr.
DaschkofT to report the same proposal to the Government of
the United States.
i
.04 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Sepiember,
The Count dwelt earnestly on the Emperor's regard for the
United States, and added that the Emperor was fully sensible
of the great advantage to the interests of his people resulting
from the commercial relations with America. He said it mani-
fested itself even in objects of a light nature. He, the Count, had
received from Mr. DaschkofTa picture, a view of Mr. Jefferson's
seat, and upon his mentioning it to the Emperor, his Majesty
had insisted upon seeing it himself. The Count was obliging
in his enquiries and condolence upon my domestic misfortune.'
His countenance retains strong traces of the illness he had at
Wilna, and he complained of having taken cold at the funeral of
Baron Budberg, one of his predecessors in the Department of
Foreign Afiairs. He read me a note which he received while
I was with him, from Lord Cathcart, with news from England
and Spain — of the English and allies having taken Madrid.
23d. Captain Bates called upon me this morning for a pass-
port. He was in great anxiety on account of debts due to him
in Moscow, and from rumors that the French are in possession
of that city. These rumors have been prevailing these three
days, and with them other reports, that the French had been
repulsed and the Emperor Napoleon mortally wounded. Mr.
Harris paid us a visit in the evening, and told us that official
accounts were now received that the Russian army had retired
behind Moscow fifteen wersts, on the road to Kazan, and that
Moscow had been surrendered by a sort of capitulation to the
French; that the King of Naples (Murat) with eight thousand
men took possession of the city on the fifteenth or sixteenth of
this month, and that the Emperor Alexander was informed of
it three days afterwards. The French Emperor with his great
army had not entered Moscow, but was still in pursuit of the
Russians. There has been no battle since that of the seventh^
which Prince Koutouzof reported as a splendid victory, for
which he was made a Field Marshal and received from the
Emperor a present of a hundred thousand roubles. The result
of this great Russian victory was to put the French in pos-
session of Moscow.
24th. The reports that {he French are in possession of
' The death of the infant born in Russia.
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 405
Moscow continue to obtain credit, and it was said there was a
formal capitulation, but nothing has yet been officially published
by the Government respecting it
25th. At nine o'clock this morning I went with Mr. Smith to
Field-Marshal General Count SoltykofTs house, and attended
the funeral of his wife, Countess Natalie. The ceremonies were
the same as I have seen them several times before. About ten
the procession moved from the house, and was an hour and
three-quarters in reaching the Monastery of St Alexander
Newsky. The service, including a short sermon, was an hour
and a half long, and it was about two in the afternoon when
we got home. The procession was large, and the attendance
numerous. The principal change that I perceived was in the
Diplomatic Corps. Lord Cathcart, with a suite of seven gen-
tlemen, attached to the British Embassy, Mr. Zea, as Spanish
Minister, the young Duke of Serra Capriola, as attached to the
Legation of the Two Sicilies, and Mr. Hochschild, as Charg6
d* Affaires from Sweden, were there. Count Maistre, Baron
Blome, and myself formed the only remnants of the former
diplomacy. The courtiers were as assiduous to the British
Ambassador as eighteen months ago they had been to the
Duke of Vicence. Mr. Fisher called upon me after I came
home, much alarmed and anxious about his present situation
here. The English are all preparing to leave the country;
their fears are greater than I believe there is occasion for. My
landlord, Strogofshikofl*, also came to me much alarmed and
mortified at the present condition of his country — hinting, but
afraid expressly to say, that Moscow is in the hands of the
French, and still reposing confidence in the cunning of General
Koutouzof. Nothing official has yet been published by the
Government concerning the occupation of Moscow^ and the
rumors are innumerable. Several persons, it is said, have been
made to sweep the streets for having said that Moscow was
taken ; so that the people are afraid of talking.
27th. Anniversary of the Emperor Alexander's coronation.
There was one yacht upon the river dressed out with colors,
and in the evening an illumination. No other notice of the day
was publicly taken.
4o6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
28th. Had morning visits from Mr. Raimbert and from Mr.
Pierre de Poletica, who was in America as Secretary of Legation
to Count Pahlen. He was appointed to go with him to Brazil,
but declined accepting the office, and returned home a few
weeks since. He left the United States in May, and came
through England. He is now appointed to go to Spain, and is
to depart in ten days or a fortnight. I had a conversation of
nearly two hours with him about the affairs of America, Russia,
France, and England. His opinions and sentiments are those
now prevailing here — of course anti-Gallican and Anglomanian.
That a Russian should abhor France and adhere to England at
this time is very natural and very proper. With respect to
American affairs, Mr. Poletica's opinions are favorable to the
federalists, most of his acquaintances having been of that party.
He said he had intended to publish here a statistical account of
the United States, and had collected materials for the purpose,
but that he should now be obliged to postpone it until after his
return from Spain. He said there was an old ukase of Peter
the Great forbidding any person employed in the Department
of Foreign Affairs from associating with the foreign Ministers,
and that he had asked Count Romanzoff* whether he might visit
me, to which he received for answer that he might see me, but
not frequent me. He said the Chancellor had told him of the
Emperor's offer of mediation between the United States and
England, which he hoped would be successful.
29th. I dined with Mr. Smith at Mr. Harris's. The company
consisted of Mr. Laval, Mr. Labensky, the late Russian Consul-
General in France, the Abbe , and Mr. Rapatel, formerly
an aid-de-camp of General Moreau, lately arrived from America.
He has entered the Russian service, and said he should '' en-
dosser I'uniforme" to-morrow, and go to join the army in about
eight days. At table he talked much and without reserve.
Speaking of the Prince Royal of Sweden, Bernadotte, he said,
'' II a une belle haine pour le monstre ; et je le sais deja depuis
douze ans." He added that the same Bernadotte, whom he saw
a few weeks since, at Stockholm, on his way here, said to him,
" C'est moi qui ai etc le premier a lever I'^tendard contre ce
coquin la." Mr. Laval asked him how it happened that the
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 407
French Charge d'Aflfaires remained at Stockholm. He said he
did not know ; " mais c'est un imbecile," which he certainly is
not. This Mr. Rapatel is supposed to be here with a view to
obtain th^ employment of General Moreau in the Russian
service. He spoke of the General's remaining in America as an
uncertainty, saying, if he remained there, he would probably
build again his house at Morrisville, which was burnt down last
winter.'
After dinner I had some conversation with Mr. Laval. He
is going, with his family, and Princess Beloselsky and hers, to
Sweden; He told me that since the loss of Moscow the very
idea of negotiating for peace was offensive to the Emperor, and
so it would continue, unless his army should be defeated, which
it has not yet been. If they should be victorious, the persever-
ance in the war would follow of course. But in case of one or
two defeats, and one would probably produce two, the change
of sentiment and of policy might be very sudden and complete,
and the desire for peace as strong as the aversion to it now. I
asked him if he could tell me why the war was commenced.
He said, women ! women ! women I Women had been the cause
of all the late disastrous wars against France. It was unques-
tionably the late Queen of Prussia who had caused the Prussian
war ; it was the late Empress of Austria who had produced the
last Austriah war ; and it was the Grand Duchess Catherine who
had occasioned the present war. I asked him how it was possible
that the proposition should have been made to France to with-
draw all the French troops behind the Elbe as an indispensable
preliminary to negotiation. Because, said he, it was feared that
a more moderate proposal would have been accepted. I said
I had very much feared that such was the fact, and I was
sorry to have it confirmed by him. He said that when the
Emperor left this city for Wilna he intended and expected to
have preserved the peace ; but when he got to Wilna, General
Barclay de Tolly laid before him a long roll of the troops that
had been assembled, and of the preparations of all kinds for
the war. An extraordinary confidence in his own power and
resources was the first effect upon the Emperor's mind. Then it
happened that just at that moment General Armfeldt had acquired
I
^08 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
a momentary influence (he had none now), which he had used
to stimulate and incense, and he had been a mere instrument of
the Grand Duchess Catherine. Then, unfortunately, Napoleon
had sent to Wilna the Count Narbonne, an old courtier of the
old French monarchy under Louis XVI. It would have been
better to accomplish the purpose of preserving peace if he had
sent a corporal. The very politeness and courtly formalities of
Narbonne were taken as evidence that Napoleon was overawed
by the greatness of the Russian force, afraid and unable to begin
the war. The spirit of exultation was at its height, and in the
first twenty-four hours Narbonne was convert de ridicules, and dis-
missed. Mr. Laval further told me in confidence that they gave
out they were going to England, but they should probably not go
farther than Sweden. At the times that might be approaching
he had many motives for wishing to be absent. He said if the
Court should leave this place, which they would certainly do as
late as possible, and for which he thought there was even yet no
determinate plan, he supposed that I should be left at my option
either to follow the Court or to remain here. But he spoke
without any knowledge of what was intended ; it was merely
his own conjecture. He asked me to call upon him to-morrow
and look at a fine picture of Claude which he has lately pur-
chased and will pack up in a few days. I promised him I would.
The occupation of Moscow by the French is at length officially
announced by a report from Prince Koutouzof, and by a procla-
mation of the Government. It is attenuated into a circumstance
of trifling importance as to the ultimate issue of the war.
30th. I called at one this afternoon upon Mr. Laval. I found
Mr. Harris there. Madame de Laval talked much about going
to England. I saw the pictures, and the remainder of the
statues and busts, all of which were packing up. The Claude
is called a ''Cascade of Tivoli," and is a fine picture. It is
difficult to admire with sufficient fervency the last purchased
picture of Mr. or Madame de Laval. Their ecstasies are more
moderate whenever a new purchase concentrates them upon
itself I have witnessed a succession of these favorites since
my acquaintance at the house, and have seen the reign of six
or seven of them superseded in turn by a new-comer. • But
y
1812.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 409
their owners can never endure a critique or even a suggestion
of an imperfection in any of them. This Claude is of a size to
require a carriage for itself, and is to travel with them through
Finland and Sweden. I had some further conversation with
Mr. Laval. He says there are dreadful accounts of the burn-
ing of Moscow since the French entered it. There were two
attempts made to bum the houses next to that in which he
(Napoleon) had taken his quarters, in consequence of which his
troops set fire to the city in many places at once, and it is feared
that the whole city may be destroyed. The Emperor Alexander,
since the loss of Moscow, has said publicly at his own table,
** II n'y a qu*un coquin qui puisse prononcer actuellement le
mot de paix." His spirit stiffens with adversity. The situation
of the French army in the midst of their triumphs is considered
as absolutely desperate; it is supposed that Napoleon wishes to
negotiate, and this is the strongest reason for the determination
not to negotiate here. But the Emperor Alexander is not satis-
fied with the conduct of his Generals, nor pleased that he made
Koutouzof a Field Marshal and gave him one hundred thousand
roubles for a victory the immediate result of which was the loss
of Moscow. Koutouzof says in his last report that in the coun-
cil of war, by advice of which he abandoned Moscow, some of
the principal Generals were of a different opinion. There were
three, Benningsen, Konovnizyn, and Doktoroff, for fighting
another battle. Benningsen has written that until and in-
cluding the battle of Borodino, his advice was followed in
everything — ^since then, not at all. The defensive and Fabian
system is certainly painful and costly in its operation, and may
perhaps not be calculated for a country situated like Russia.
But it has not yet had its full trial. The time of real danger
to the invader is now but just commencing, and it is a species
of warfare to which Napoleon is not accustomed, and for
which he may not be prepared. If, however, the system is
good for the old Russian provinces, it is far more questionable
for the recovery of Courland and of Poland.
October 2d. There is this day a publication here by authority,
to assure the public that St. Petersburg is in no danger of being
taken by the enemy, and explaining the motives for taking now
i
4IO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
the precaution of packing up and sending away the necessary
things which they are doing in open day at the Hermitage and
the public offices. There are also three encouraging bulletins
of news from the army, and reports still more encouraging.
5th. Mr. Harris called on me this morning, and asked Mr.
Smith and me to dine with him this day, which we did ; Prince
Koslofsky, Mr. Poletica, and Mr. Krehmer were the company.
Mr. Rapatel was to have been there, but was sent for to dine
with the Emperor. He came in after dinner ; as did a son of
Baron Rail, and Mr. Slade. Mr. Rapatel was in his uniform,
and is to go to-morrow to join one of the armies. The Abbe
Fremont, who lives with Mr. Harris, was at table, and obliged
to hear all the bitterness of Prince Koslofsky and Mr. Poletica
against the French : it was as inveterate as might be expected
from the rancorous war they are waging. The Prince is ap-
pointed Minister to the Court of Sardinia, where he was for-
merly Charge d'Aflaires. Notwithstanding his abhorrence of the
French, he manifestly takes pleasure in being reminded that he
is a member of the Legion of Honor. He professes to think
himself disgraced by it ; but the complacency with which he
returns to the idea shows that it is a disgrace which he w6uld
be sorry to lose. He says that Prince Kurakin is still detained
at Paris ; that before Count Lauriston went away he had officially
declared that Prince Kurakin had not only received his pass-
ports, but that every attention had been shown him to facilitate
his journey, and yet that now there were letters received from
Prince Kurakin, and dated 30th August, complaining that he
had not received and could not obtain his passport.
9th. Mr. Laval sent me word that he had returned home, and
I called on him again. I had drawn his certificate according to
a form which he had sent me, being the same that had heretofore
been used by the French Consul. But it purported that Mr.
Laval's Acte de Naissance had been presented to me, and I
accordingly asked him to show it to me. He said he had given
it to Mr. Lesseps, who had not returned it. I observed that I
could not then certify that it had been presented to me. He
thought that those were mere words of form, and that I might
certify in confidence upon his statement. In the form Mr. Les-
I8i2.] TlfE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^n
seps had used, those words were underscored and minuted as
indispensable. I told Mr. Laval that my confidence in his
assertion was perfect, but it could not justify me in certifying
what was not the feet. I would either omit the words or insert
in their stead " deposited at the French Consulate in this city."
He preferred the latter, and we appointed seven in the evening
for me to call upon him with the new certificate. At seven I
accordingly went with it, and he signed it. I lefl it with him,
to be signed by four witnesses as the French law requires. It
is for an annuity which his mother receives upon . his life.
Madame Laval was present, and Count Maistre was there. They
are to go in five or six days. They both appear to be much
dejected. They are fugitives from one of the most magnificent
establishments in St Petersburg, a house where splendor and
hospitality went hand in hand. They are going with a family
of small children literally they know not where^ and to return
they know not when. Madame de Betancourt and all her
children went the day before yesterday ; they go to England.
We shall have scarcely an acquaintance lefl.
Baron Blome paid me a long visit; he is much out of health,
and no less out of spirits. He thinks the Swedes are going to
attack the island of Zealand, and he is very apprehensive they
will succeed in taking it. He says they have not the shadow
of a complaint against Dehmark, and that it will be an attack
more treacherous and profligate than that upon Spain. He
appears fully convinced that Koutouzof had really won the
battle of Borodino, though the world will never believe it. I
do not yet believe it myself The Baron, however, gives credit
to all the stories they circulate here, many of which are with-
out foundation.
1 5th. I received this morning a note from Count RomanzofT,
requesting me to call on him at his house on the quay at seven
o'clock in the evening. I accordingly went, and he said he
wished to consult me as to the manner of sending to the United
States dispatches to Mr. DaschkofT, containing the proposal of
the Emperor Alexander's mediation between the United States
and Great Britain ; that with regard to my dispatching a courier
directly, he had spoken to the English Ambassador to ask if he
i
412 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
would furnish a passport or paper to secure such a person from
being taken by the British, which Lord Cathcart answered he
could readily do, provided the courier should go by the way of
England. But the Count said that he had replied that he could
not propose to me to agree to such a condition.
I thought it not advisable on my part to agree to it, but
mentioned to the Count that I should in a few days apply to
him for a courier's passport for an American whom I should
charge with my dispatches, and who would take his for Mr.
Daschkoff, if he thought proper to trust them to this convey-
ance. He said his dispatches were all ready, and the passport
could be furnished as soon as I should ask for it. He asked
if there would not be an opportunity to send direct to the United
States from Archangel. I told him I believed it was too late.
He said upon reflection he believed it was, and it reminded him
of an answer of Admiral TchitchagofT, after a visit he had made
to Archangel, to the Emperor, who asked him how long he had
stayed there. He said he had spent the whole summer there.
The Emperor, knowing his absence had been very short, said,
with some surprise, " How so ? — the whole summer ?" " Three
days. Sire," said the Admiral. I told the Count that I should
probably ask for the passport towards the close of the next
week. The courier would probably be obliged to go through
England. If he was stopped, the English Government might
perhaps read the dispatches ; for that I could not answer. The
Count said that as to his dispatches, it would not be of any
consequence ; they would only read over again in the identical
words the proposition that had been made to themselves.
I asked him if he had any good news from the armies. He
said, none of any consequence, nothing but what was in the
bulletins. He enquired concerning a report circulating here,
that a suspension of hostilities had already taken place between
the United States and England. I mentioned my information
from Mr. Russell directly to the contrary, and that a propo-
sition made by him to that effect had been rejected by the
English Government. He said this would not discourage him
from the proposition of the Russian mediation, but, on the
contrary, would rather make him more earnest in the proposal.
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 41 j
from the confirmed opinion that an indirect negotiation would
not be liable to the mutual irritations which had attended the
direct attempts. He also mentioned the account he had seen
in the newspapers that the American troops had taken the town
of Sandwich, in Canada. I told him that was nothing morct
than that they had entered the province. There had been no
fighting.
I was with the Count about half an hour, and spoke to him
of Mr. Fulton's letter to me, with his wish to obtain an exclusive
privilege for constructing steamboats in Russia. I asked him
if exclusive privileges were granted here to the inventors of
useful machines. He said they sometimes were, not by a gen-
eral law, but by a special grant from the Emperor, of which
there was one recent example. I explained to him the nature
of Mr. Fulton's steamboats, the very advantageous experience
of them in America, and my own persuasion that the introduc-
tion of them between St. Petersburg and Cronstadt would be
not only useful but important to the commerce of this city.
He asked if I had any memoir upon the subject from the in-
ventor which I could give him to show to the Emperor, after
consultation with the Minister of the Marine. I told him I had
only a letter from Mr. Fulton himself, and I would send him
an abstract of his proposals in that. The Count appeared welt
disposed to favor an application of this sort, and asked some
questions respecting the operation of our patent laws, as whether
they did not give frequent occasion to litigation as to the fact
of a new invention, how the claims to patents were examined,
and upon what conditions they were granted. He asked also
whether Mr. Fulton's steamboat could stem rapids in rivers as
well as currents. I said I believed not That, he said, would be
a most important invention indeed to this country; where, owing
to a few very insignificant falls of water, they were obliged to
break up and burn for common fuel all the boats that brought
merchandise down their rivers.
19th. Mr. Rapatel told me that he had just left Baron Arm-
feldt, who informed him that a courier arrived in the night, who
left the Russian great army engaged in a general battle with
the French. He thinks that the French army are about to
i
^1^ MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [October,
abandon Moscow and retire back into Poland. He himself is
going to Sweden. He says the Emperor had intended to send
him to the great army, but he had requested to be employed
either upon this expedition from Sweden, or at General Tormas-
sofTs army, which is opposed chiefly to Austrians and Saxons.
He has a scruple against active service in opposition to French*
men. Mr. Harris also called upon me. His nephew will be
ready to go next Sunday. I mentioned to him my idea of
asking Count RomanzofT for a courier's passport as bearer of
his dispatches to Mr. DaschkofT, as it might afford him more
certain protection from British capture than if h^ went as an
American courier. He was gratified with the proposal. Mr.
Harris told me that Dr. Creighton had mentioned to him that
Sir Robert Wilson, when he was here, had said to him at his
table that Mr. Perceval, just before his death, had assured him,
Sir Robert Wilson, that it was his intention to make war
against the United States of America, and that he had good
grounds for the expectation that it would end in the restora-
tion of the British authority over the Narthent Provinces of the
American Union.
2 1st. Mr. Harris spent great part of the evening with us.
He says that Mr. Laval told him that he had been informed
by Mr. BalachefT, the Minister of the Police, that since Prince
Volkonsky*s return from the army the Emperor had less con-
fidence in Marshal Koutouzof than he had before; that Murat
had made some proposals tending to a negotiation for peace,
which, if the Russian army should be defeated, the Emperor
Alexander would perhaps incline to consider; that the peace
party about the Court was growing stronger ; that the English
Ambassador, instead of treating directly with Count RomanzofT,
was endeavoring to obtain access to the Emperor through the
medium of Count Tolstoy; that the joint Swedish and Rus-
sian expedition was certainly and indefinitely postponed — at all
events not to take effect this year. Almost all this information
appears to me extremely questionable. Prince Volkonsky is
one of the Emperor's aid-de-camp generals, and was sent off
to the army very suddenly, on the Emperor's hearing of the
surrender of Moscow. He returned four or five days ago. It
. i8i2.] THB MISSION TO RUSSIA, 415
was rumored, when he went, that he was sent to feel the way
for negotiation. Now Mr. BalachefT says that proposals have
been made by Murat. It is more probable that he was sent to
inspect, and report to the Emperor, the real state of the army
and of affairs, and it is not unlikely that* he has returned with
accounts differing essentially from Koutouzofs reports. The
rest of this news must be taken with cstution.
22d. I called at eleven o'clock this morning upon Count
Romanzoff, and told him that young Harris was going to
America, and tliat I proposed sending by him duplicates of my
last dispatches to the American Government I asked him if
he would by the same occasion send duplicates of his dis-
patches to Mr. DaschkofT, and on that account give him a
passport as a messenger dispatched by him. This the Count
said he could not do. Mr. Harris being an American, he
could not give him a passport as a Russian courier, and if
he should, the English would pay no regard to it. He had
already found himself engaged in a discussion with the British
Ambassador on the subject of passports. He had asked the
Ambassador for his visa to one. The Ambassador had answered
in the most obliging manner possible as to the forms, but had
been, " quant au fond, assez sec." He had offered very readily
to give his indorsement, but observed at the same time that the
English cruisers might pay no attention to it, as they acted
under their instructions from home, governed by the English
laws. But, the Count said, he would send duplicates of his dis-
patches to Mr. Daschkoff by Mr. Harris, and in his courier's
passport would have it inserted that he was also bearer of his
dispatches to the Russian Minister in America. The Count
himself had, in our first conversation concerning the mediation,
proposed to me to give the messenger I should send a passport
as a Russian courier, and it was on that suggestion that I asked
it for Mr. Harris. But the Count then did not know the diffi-
culties started by the British Ambassador. Perhaps the inser-
tion which he offered may answer the purpose as well as a
formal passport ; and I readily accepted the offer. Afler I came
home, young Mr. Harris called upon me, and I informed him of
what the Chancellor had said to me.
^l6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
24th. I called this morning upon Count Lowenhielm, at the
Hotel de TEurope, to ask him for a passport for young Mr,
Harris to go through Sweden, which he promised he would
send me. I ijaund the Marquis de Paulucci with him, an officer
who has been of somt note the last spring and summer. The
Count told me the news, which he said was not a little impor-
tant. Wittgenstein had taken Polotzk by storm — ^two thousand
Frenchmen killed — and Wintzingerode was at Moscow, and his
Cossacks fought with the French in the streets of Moscow. Witt-
genstein would now cross the Dwina and form his junction with
the armies of Tormassoflfand TchitchagofT, and then, je prevois
des douleurs (to Bonaparte). The Count is as sanguine as he
was last spring ; he thinks the destruction of the Emperor Napo-
leon and his army inevitable. Making every allowance for the
exaggerations of prejudice and passion, it is obvious they are
in great and imminent danger, and their inaction so long after
the occupation of Moscow is very unlike the former practice of
Napoleon. Paulucci said that he had committed the same im-
prudence in 1797, and had extricated himself from it by the
peace which he was compelled to ask, and to which Austria
then assented. But for that, he was then perdu sans ressource.
I have often heard this before. But he had then, and has now,
his greatest of all resources, a battle. His fortunes and exist-
ence are staked upon that, and he has so long abused the favors
of Fortune that she will certainly finish by jilting him ; or rather
Providence (such is my belief), after using him for the purposes
he is destined to answer, will exhibit him, like another invader
of Russia, " to point a moral or adorn a tale."
25th. Received a notification, from the Grand Master of the
Ceremonies, of a Court to be held to-morrow at the Winter
Palace, at noon, it being the Empress-mother's birthday, and at
the same time a Te Deum for the victory of the General of
Cavalry, Count Wittgenstein, over the French commanded by
Marshal Gouvion St.-Cyr, and for the taking by storm of the
fortified city of Polotzk. I had visits from Mr. Montreal and
from Mr. Laval, who has postponed his departure for five or
six days longer. He is not quite so sanguine as Lowenhielm
that the French army will inevitably be destroyed; but he thinks
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO ^C/SSI^. 417
the present prospects of the Russian cause superb. He still
dreads the genius and resources of Napoleon more than they
deserve. The accounts are so numerous and so uniform that
his army is famishing, that he has proposed to Koutouzof, by
Count Lauriston, an armistice, that his retreat through Smo*
lensk is impossible, that they are no longer mere rumors. Kou-
touzof has received a reinforcement of tWenty-four regiments,
eighteen thousand men — Don Cossacks. The Novogorod arma-
ment, eighty thousand men, are rapidly advancing to Moscow
from, this side. Many of Napoleon's couriers, and mails with
letters, have been intercepted; all complaining that they are
in want of everything— one from the Bavarian General to the
King of Bavaria, in which he complains that the al/ies are not
allowed to forage, and that they are starved that tlie French
soldiers may be fed. Koutouzof has reorganized the army and
filled up the vacancies in the regiments from the Moscow arma-
ment. The answer to the proposal for an armistice was a mere
reference to the Emperor Alexander's declaration at Wilna
that he would not make peace while an armed enemy should
remain on the Russian territory. Such is the change from
despondency to confidence effected by the storm of Polotzk.
26th. At twelve o'clock Mr. Smith and myself attended at the
Winter Palace, according to the notification. The Te Deum com-
menced between one and two. There was no Court held after
it, notwithstanding the notice. The new Diplomatic Corps were
there — Lord Cathcart, the British Ambassador, with his suite
of seven persons ; the Duke de Serra Capriola, with his son ;
Mr. Zea, as Spanish Minister, and Captain Guedes, as Charge
des Affaires from Portugal ; Baron Lowenhielm, as Minister from
Sweden, with the Russian riband of St. Anna of the first class,
which the Emperor gave him at Abo ; Mr. Brandel, as Secre-
tary of Legation. Baron Blome and Mr. Krabbe, from Denmark,
and Count Maistre, from Sardinia, were, with us, the only rem-
nants of the former corps. There was a Comte de Noailles
there, an emigrant, lately from England. Lord Walpole, the
Secretary of the British Embassy, asked Lord Cathcart to in-
troduce him to me; which he did, and I had some conversation
with him about architecture and sculpture, Guarenghi's build-
voL. II. — 27
41 8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
ings, and the statue of Peter the Great The T^ Deuiri was
like all the others I have heard in the chs^pel. Baron Blome
told me he hoped the expedition against the island of Zealand
was postponed, but he did not venture yet to be confident
Met Messrs. Willing, Redwood, Fisher, and Plummer, who all
told me thq story of the capture of the British frigate '' Guer- .
riere" by our frigate Constitution. I considered it as a joke
invented by some of the Americans here, and had indeed been
told that it was.
27th, About noon this day the report of cannon from the
fortress announced that important and pleasing intelligence
from the armies had been received ; about half an hour after,
Mr. Harris, the Consul, came in. He had just come from Count
RomanzofTs, where he had been with his nephew upon a visit
of taking leave^ The news was a great victory of Marshal
Koutouzof over the King of Naptes (Murat), and the retaking of
Moscow by General Wintzingerode's corps, though in achieving
it Wintzingerode was himself taken prisoner. In the evening I
received from the Grand Master of the Ceremonies a notification
to attend a Te Deum to-morrow morning at the Kazan Church,
on account of these events. The city was illuminated by night
Mr. Harris lent me an English Courier of 6th October, which
he had borrowed from Count RomanzofT, containing a confirma-
tion of the capture of the " Guerriere" frigate ; but with it an
account of the surrender of General Hull and his army, and
of the taking of Fort Detroit by the British. It would be use-
less, and the attempt would be vain, to express my sensations
upon this event There are scarcely any details of the affair
given. The honor of my country — O God! suffer it not to
go unredeemed.
28th. About noon I went with Mr. Smith to the Kazan
Church, and attended the Te Deum for Marshal Koutouzof 's,
or rather for General Benningsen's victory, and foi* the delivery
of Moscow. The Duke of Serra Capriola and Baron Armfeldt
were in the highest exultation of glory. Armfeldt had a letter
from his son, who was with Benningsen at the battle, written
the day after, in all the insolence of victory. Armfeldt went
about reading it to anybody who would hear him. Without
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^xg
moving from where I stood, I heard him read it seven times.
Prince Plato ZubofT, the last favorite of Catherine, was also
there. I had seen him at Berlin in 1797 and 1798. I did not
know him again, and asked who he was. He has been in dis-
grace ever since the present Emperor's accession, but his estates
in Poland, where he resided, being now overrun, he is again
admitted at Court. Count RomanzofT apologized to me for
having permitted Mr. Harris yesterday to take me a paper with
bad news. I congratulated him on the occasion of the Te Peum,
which he said it was to be hoped ivould be followed by impor-
tant consequences, and Especially that it would correct some
opinions concerning the Russians, which had been industriously
disseminated. I supposed he alluded to the. reputation of the
military skill of their generals. The music of the Te Deum was
remarkably fine. After it was finished, the Emperor, the Empress
and Empress-mother, the Grand Dukes Constantine, Nicholas^
and Michael) and the Grand Duchess Ann, made their prostra-
tions and adorations to the miraculous image of the Virgin.
When the Emperor left the church to return to the palace, he
was greeted with three shouts by the crowd of people who
surrounded the church. The city was illuminated again in
the evening.
29th. Mr.-Krehmer told me there was a further report re-
ceived this day from Count Wittgenstein; that the corps of
Gouvion St.-Cyr, united with that of Macdonald, had been pur-
sued, overtaken, and almost totally destroyed. Mr. Krehmer
invited me to dine with him next Wednesday, to meet Sir
Fraiicis d'lvernois, who has expressed a. wish to be acquainted
with me.
November 2d. Dined at Count Romanzoff's with a diplomatic
company — about forty-five persons. The Count told me before
dinner that he believed the grant I had asked for Mr. Fulton
would be made ; that the Emperor had only thought proper
to fix a different modification of time. Mr. Fulton asked an
exclusive privilege for twenty years. But the grants of patents
in America and in England were only for fourteen years, and
the Emperor thought proper to allow one year more — the
privilege therefore would be for fifteen years. At table I got
420 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
between Count Maistre and Count Lowenhielm, and conversed
about the American Indians, about creation, and about the des-
perate condition and almost certain ruin of the French Emperor
and army. Baron Blome told me that the Swedish expedition
against the island of Zealand was probably postponed, but they
now threatened the invasion of Norway. Blome himself has
yet the deportment of an assiduous courtier, and is treated in
return with a coldness bordering, to say the least, upon incivility.
4th. Went out to Ochta, and dined at Mr. Krehmer's. Mr.
Harris was there, Mrs. Pitt, the wife of the English clergyman,
and two Mr. Gisbornes, sons of Dr. Gisborne the author, who
live with Mr. Krehmer. There was much political conversation,
characteristic as well of the present state of affairs as of the feel-
ings of the speakers. The passions of almost all the politicians
whom I now^ see and hear are concentrated upon the head of
one man. It seems almost universally to be considered that
the destinies of mankind hang upon his life alone ; and in pro-
portion to the force of this sentiment is the ardor for his death.
I know not how it has been with former conquerors during
their lives, but I believe there never was a human being who
united against himself such a mass of execration and abhorrence
as this man has done. There is indeed, on the other hand, an
admiration of him equally enthusiastic, as for every great con-
queror there always must be; but I have never yet seen the
person by whom he was regarded with affection.
6th. The official account of the battle of Malo Yaroslawetz,
24th October, is now published. Koutouzof, as usual, claims
the victory ; but his army again retreated after it. As yet, no
decisive proof appears whether the object of the French army
was to cover its own retreat, or to penetrate farther into Russia.
That they do not expect or intend to return to Moscow appears
certain.
9th.' On taking my usual walk this morning, I found the two
bridges of the Neva gone, and the river about half full of float-
ing ice. The Fontanka Canal was almost everywhere frozen
over. There has been yesterday and the day before a con-
siderable fall of snow, so that the sledges pass upon it. The
thermometer (Reaumur's) has been from five to seven below
^
i8ia.] THE MISSrON TO RUSSIA, ^|
zero, the temperature at which the river usually freezes. Mr.
Harris called upon me, and brought with him some English
newspapers containing the English official account of the cap-
ture of the British frigate Guerriere by the Constitution, Cap-
tain Hull, and also the dispatches from General Brock, and the
shameful capitulation of General Hull and his army in Upper
Canada. The Countess Colombi and her sister, Frederica
Bode, visited the ladies, and mentioned the decease of General
Pardo, the late Spanish Minister here. He died at a small,
mean hovel of an inn, upon his journey from this city. Gen-
eral Essen, at Riga, has taken his daughter, a child about
fourteen, who was left friendless and alone when her father
died. Madame Colombi intends sending for her. Pardo, I
believe, died of a broken heart. He had connected himself
with the French party in Spain inextricably, while his feelings
were all on the other side. He accepted office, military rank,
and a blushing riband from Joseph Bonaparte, and yet in all
his conversation with everybody was enthusiastically zealous
for the patriots. There was a contrast between his conduct
and his discourse greater than I ever witnessed in any other
man. He had lost his fortune and several of his near relations
by the war in Spain ; he had been two or three years without
pay from the Government that he had consented to serve ; and
by the new war he was dismissed, even from nominal employ-
ment, without any present provision, or any prospect of future
supply, so much as for the subsistence of himself and his
daughter, besides a son of sixteen or seventeen, who is at Paris.
He was a learned classical scholar, a well-taught connoisseur in
the fine arts, a profound theoretical proficient in the art of war,
a lively and pleasant convivial companion, and a man of strong
and brilliant genius. I believe if he had possessed firmness
and energy of character he would have taken an active part,
and been a highly distinguished leader, in the Spanish cause.
loth. I read the remainder of Gisborne's Principles of Moral
Philosophy, and his remarks on a decision in the British House
of Commons, in April, 1792, on the abolition of the slave trade.
He is a very zealous advocate for this abolition, which has
been since legally decreed in England, as well as in America.
i
^22 AtEAtOIRS OF JOHtT QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
Whether it will be eventually abolished in fact is yet a problem.
The tr&de is beyond question an abomination, disgraceful to the
human character, but there are so many powerful passipns and
interests concurring to support it, sLnd the efforts' to obtain its
abolition are themselves so much composed of fashion and
Miction, that I still doubt whether the abolition will be accom-
plished. I say the motives of the abolitionists are in*a great
degree fashion and faction ; for the impressment of seamen is
to all intents and purposes a practice as unjust, as immoral, as
base, as oppressive and tyrannical as the slave trade. It is in all
its most heinous features identically the same crime ; in some
particulars it is more aggravated ; and yet the same members of
the British Parliament who have been the greatest zealots for
abolishing the slave trade are not only inflexible adherents to
the practice of impressments among their own people, but are
now waging a rancorous war against the United States to
support the practice of their officers in impressing men from
American merchant vessels on the high seas. Every particle of
argument that can bear ag;iinst the slave trade bears with equal
force against impressment. Dr. Gisborne is at least consistent.
He admits that the impressment of seamen is a violation of the
general principles of the English constitution ; and he speaks
of It, even as applied to British subjects, with disapprobation.
He says nothing of the abuse of extending the practice to
Americans and upon American vessels, and even his censure
*upon it as applied only to British subjects is very faint and cold
compared with his fervor of passion against the slave trade.
25th. This morning I received a notification from the Grand
Master of the Ceremonies, Narishkin, that a Te Deum would
be performed at the Cathedral Church at Kazan, at half-past
eleven o'clock this forenoon, to return thanks for the defeat of
the enemy's corps under the command of the Marshals Davoust
and Ney. I went with Mr. Smith accordingly at this hour. It
is the greatest victory that the Russians have gained since the
war commenced, and is perfectly decisive of the fate of the
campaign and of the Emperor Napoleon's main army. It is
now morally impossible that the remnant of them should escape.
In every probability they are at this hour all prisoners of war.
i8i2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. . 423
He is lost without resource. The trophies, among which is
Davoust's Marshal's truncheon, were exhibited in the church.
CzernichefT, who has highly distinguished himself, was present,
as were General Wintzingerode and his aid-de-camp, young
Narishkin, the Grand Chamberlain's son, who were taken pris-
oners by a hiost extraordinary accident when Wintzingerode's
corps took Mostow, and were retslk^h by another accident no
less extraordinary, oii their way as prisoners to France. A few
Cossacks of CzernichefT's detachment released them. • Czemi-
cheff has been promoted to the rank of a Major-General, and
Aide-de-Camp General to thd Emperor, and appeared in his new
uniform. Joy and triumph Were upon every countenance ; but
upon none with duch transport as Upon that of Madame Na-
rishkin, who went about with her son by the hand, presenting
him to all her friends, and saying she had nothing more to ask
of Heaven. The Emperor and imperial family performed their
prostrations to the miraculous image of the Virgin, and the
Emperor, on leaving the church, was greeted with loud shouts
of the populace. Mr. Harris visited us at the close of the
eveiling. There have been rumors of internal commotions at
Paris in circulation some time. They were much exaggerated
in the reports, but accounts from Sweden ascertain that they
did take place even before the end of October, and before Napo-
leon's disaster had commenced. They were then suppressed ;
but they afford a presage of violent convulsions, when the real
events of the last month shall be suflliciently known to produce
their effects. The crisis is great and awful beyond all example.
Almighty God, grant that it may turn to good I to peace ! to
the relief of mankind from the dreadful calamities of unbridled
ambition I
December ist. The ladies were to have gone to the theatre, at
which a French Opera had been announced. It was changed,
however, for a Russian play. Great efforts have been made to
obtain the dismissal of all the French players ; and it has been
repeatedly said that the Emperor had determined to dismiss
them. The Russian public have manifested some uneasiness at
their continuance here, and everything French, even the lan-
gusige, has become an object of their abhorrence.
424 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [December,
«
3d. I dined at Count RomanzofTs with a company of about
forty persons ; among whom were the ladies of the celebrated
Generals who are now dispelling, as Count Litta remarked^
like the fog before the sun, the immense armies of the Emperor
Napoleon, and levelling with the dust his colossal military repu-
tation, Princess Koutouzof Smolenski, Countess Wittgenstein,
Baronesses Benningsen, Wjntzingerode, and several others. The
day was rendered peculiarly joyous to them by the news of a
fresh, splendid victory over the porps of the French Marshals
Victor and Oudinot, by Count Wittgenstein, which arrived this
morning. Within the compass of ten days the Russian armies
have taken between forty and fifty thousand prisoners, with
cannons, baggage, and ammunition in proportion. There is
nothing like it in history since the days of Xerxes. I sat at
table next to Admiral Koutouzof, a nephew of the Prince of
Smolensk, "le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre," whc^
entered into conversation with me, and told me some anecdotes
of his uncle, who he says is as good as he is great He has
been more than fifty years in the service, employed in important
military and diplomatic stations, successively, by the Empress
Catherine and the Emperors Paul and Alexander. He said
that just before the Prince went away on this last appoint-
ment he (the Admiral) was enumerating the multitude of mili-
tary commands and important embassies upon which he had
been for so long employed; when the old Prince, with a
grave countenance, told him that he had forgotten one of his
high offices. What was that? Director of the German theatre.
It was remarkable, the Admiral observed, that Napoleon's
present disasters were owing to his having despised his enemy,
and Prince Koutouzofs success might be due to the opposite
cause, for he was an enthusiastic admirer of Napoleon's oiilitary
genius, and on going away last summer, told him that when he
considered whom he was going to oppose, he felt overpowered
by the magnitude of the responsibility he was taking upon him-
self; and he had lately written him that notwithstanding he
had now the pleasure of beating day after day the first Captain
of the age, and notwithstanding the honors that were heaping
upon him, he longed for the time when he could return here to-
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 425
his friends. The Admiral told me there had been here an
English Admiral named Bentinck, a vaingloriotiS, boasting sort
of man, and he and Madame de Stael one day said to him that
Prince Koutouzof was destined to be a second Wellington. But
they were mistaken in supposing he should take it as a compli-
ment If his uncle had doiie nothing more thail .Wellington,
he would sink low indeed from the summit of his merited fame.
I said that the English were apt to make much of small suc-
cesses by land, but I thought they might be allowed a little
pride upon the battle of Sklamanca. "Thanks," said he, "to
the random shot that carried away Marmont's arm before the
battle began. But here is Wellington with his whole army
stopped for weeks before' a paltry little fori at Burgos, with a
garrison of two thousand men, which- he cannot take. And if
it were not for bur victories in the north, I would lay a wager
the French would be now again in Madrid."
The Admiral was equally severe in his remarks upon the
Spaniards, and was peculiarly sarcastic upon Mr. Zea, who sat
opposite to us at table. He first asked me who he was. I said,
Mr. Zea, the Spanish Minister. "Spanish Minister. What?
Joseph Bonaparte's?" No; Ferdinand the Seventh's; the
Minister of the Cortes who had signed a Treaty with Count
RomanzofT.
"Oh, yes ; the Gargon de Comptoir of Colombi, the merchant.
Why, what a diplomatic tone he assumes I You smile, I see ;
but I am no diplomatic man. I say just what comes into my head."
' I said that Mr. Zea had been connected with the house of
Colombi » but that I believed he had been a diplomatic char-
acter, sub rosa, even then— as Mr. Colombi himself had been
while he lived ; that his widow had since his death been made a
Countess by the Regency for his services. Upon all which the
Admiral spoke with as little respect for Ferdinand the Seventh
and the Cortes as he had of the English and Lord Wellington.
I told him that I had witnessed with interest and admiration
the spirit manifested by all classes of people in this nation under
the struggle from which they are issuing with such triumphant
glory ; that I had never entertained a low idea of Russia, but
that the conduct of the nation upon this severe trial had far
J
^26 AfEAtOJRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS, [December,
•
exceeded my expectations. He said, " Monsieur, la Russie, bien
gouvernee, est faite pour commander a TEurope."
I think she will not lose the opportunity. I observed, how-
ever, that the circumstance that appeared most to gratify the
Admiral, in speaking of the conduct of the nation, was that the
peasants had not shown the least disposition to avail themselves
of the occasion to obtain their freedom. I see that this is what
most touches the feelings of all the Russians with whom I have
conversed on this subject. This was the point upon which
their fears were the greatest, and that upon which they are
most delighted to see the danger past. The Admiral, whose
name I did not know, until upon enquiry after dinner I ascer-
tained it, professed to be so pleased with my remarks that he
told me he hoped to have the opportunity of introducing me
personally to his uncle when he should come home.
Count RomanzofT told me that he had sent the last letter I
^rote him to the Emperor, who had been well pleased with it.
I asked him if he had received any answer from England on
the proposal of mediation. He said it had not been rejected,
but they had intimated an opinion that it would not be accept-
able to the American Government ; that they expected some-
thing might be done after the new election in America, by
which the Count said he understood them to mean that Mr.
Madison, after being reelected, would be more pacifically
inclined than he is at present.
I said the English Government were much misinformed con-
cerning American affairs. I believed the Emperor's proposal
would be very acceptable, whatever the event of our election
might be. Lord Cathcart also said to me that the elections for
the new Parliament in England were now over, "but," said he,
** they are more anxious there, I believe, about your elections
than about our own." I said that our election was of a differ-
ent description from theirs ; it being not only of members of
the legislature, but also of the head of the Executive Depart-
ment. He said he was glad to observe that there did not
appear to have been anything to excite rancor on either side.
I told him, from the complexion of the newspapers, I thought
there was more of that in England than in America.
i8t2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 427
7th. On returning thid morning from my walk I found a note
from Count Romanzoff, proposiiig a change of the time and
place which he had fixed for seeing me, and asking me to call
upon him between one and two o'clock this afternoon at the
Hotel of Forei'gn Affairs, which I accordingly did.
I told him that my motive for desiring this conversation with
him was, that since I saw him last I had received from my
Government official notice of the declaration of war by the
United States against Great Britain, together with a letter from
the Secretary of State, dated first July'; that I had not received
any instruction to make an official commuilication on the subject
to this Governhient, but the Secretary of State had explicitly
expressed the views 6f the Government ' at this juncture on
several points, which I thought it important to communicate to
him. The first was the desire of the United States that this
war might be confined to them and Great Britain, that no other
power might be involved in it ; that the United States wished
to preserve unimpaired their relations of dmity with all other
powers, and that this wish was declared in a particular manner
in regard to Russia ; that the war between Russia and France,
though it could not then be known in America to have com-
menced, was anticipated as inevitable, and was a subject of great
regret to the Atnerican Government ; that the state of our
affairs with France Was said to be ih an unsettled condition, and
there was not much expectation of any speedy settlement of
them satisfactory to us ; but that, whatever course they might
take, the American Government did not contemplate any more
intimate connection with France ; nor was it aware of any occur-
rence whatsoever which could induce it to enter into any such
connection. This sentiment, I said, was expressed in terms as
strong as language could employ, tod the desire of the United
States to maintain in their full extent the friendly and commer-
cial relations with Russia was in terms of equal earnestness.
The Count said he was obliged to me for the communication,
which- he was sure would be peculiarly agreekble to the Emperor,
before whom he should lay the substance of it ; that the Em-
peror's desire to maintain the friendly and commercial relations
with the United States was entirely reciprocal to those of the
M
428 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [December,
American Government, and it was the apprehension that they
might be interrupted by the English which had made him wish
so sincerely the termination of this war; that we might be
assured that no circumstances could induce the Emperor to
interrupt the friendly relations of Russia with the United States,
even if he were prepared to enter into more intimate engage-
ments than he is at present inclined to form with any power
whatsoever. And with regard to the assurance that the inten-
tion of the American Government was not to form any more
intimate connection with France, as it would afford particular
gratification to the Emperor, he wished to ascertain precisely
whether he had understood what I stated as having been, ex-
pressed to me in the communication from my Government.
He then repeated over in substance, and correctly, what I had
said, and I assured him that he had perfectly understood me.
He asked me whether I had any objection to his communi-
cating to the British Ambassador, Lord Cathcart, this part of
what I had said to him.
I answered him that, far from having any objection, I thought
it might do good, and could not believe it would produce any
unfavorable effect; that in the discussion of our differences with
Great Britain previous to the war, the British Ministers had fre-
quently believed, or professed to believe, that the American Gov-
ernment were partial in favor of France, and were actuated by a
French influence in opposition to England. If they really enter-
tained such a prejudice, the frank and explicit declaration of my
Government's intentions after the declaration of war against
them, and precisely at that time, must, if they were capable of
giving it a candid consideration, tend to remove a prejudice and
to produce a more pacific disposition.
The Count replied he did not mean to say that he thought
this the only obstacle to the restoration of a good understanding
between the United States and England; but he thought it a
great one, and that it would be a favorable circumstance to
have it removed. He then asked me whether I had any late
intelligence from America indicating the determination of the
American Government after the revocation of the Orders in
Council was known.
i8l2.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 429
I said I had not, but that although I was satisfied, if that re-
vocation had been known, the declaration of war would not have
been made, yet war being once declared, there were other points
of collision upon which an accommodation became essential for
the restoration of peace ; and upon the chief of these, the im-
pressment of seamen from our merchant vessels, it appeared the
British Government would listen to nothing. I then explained
to the Count the nature and character of this practice, as exer-
cised by the British naval officers — ^the impossibility that any
nation * having a sense of independence, and of* the protection
due to its own citizens, should submit to it, or endure it without
indignation, and I told him that two several proposals had been
made by our Government to the British for a suspension of
hostilities; the Orders in Council to stand revoked, and they
stipulating to discontinue the practice of impressment from
American vessels ; the United States prohibiting by law the
employment of British subjects, either in their public ships or
in private merchant service.
He said he thought the latter part of the proposal could not
easily be carried into execution.
I told him I did not think it could meet with much difficulty;
but that at any rate the American Government, having made the
proposal, would have been responsible for its execution. The
British Minister, however, had rejected it, and until they should
be willing to come to some accommodation upon the point I
saw no prospect of a peace. I was aware, and did not wish to
disguise, that there was an inherent difficulty which made the
British adverse to a compromise.
The Count asked if they did not complain that they lost great
numbers of their seamen by their becoming naturalized as
Americans.
I said it was not exactly that. There were very few British
sailors who ever were or could be naturalized as Americans;
and I mentioned to him the conditions of naturalization by our
laws, and the character of them, which makes it sure that few
foreign seamen can avail themselves of them. But, I said, the
American sea service, public and private, was more attractive
than the British, for our common seamen were better fed, better
430 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [December,
paid, and better treated than English seamen are wont to be
in their own service.* It was natural therefore for English
sailors to prefer our service to their own, and to seize every
opportunity they could of entering it This the English Gov-
ernment consider, and complain of, as seduction, and they
have no other remedy against it than that violent and tyran-
nical practice of their naval officers, of stealing men from our
merchant vessels. I did not know that it would be possible
ever to come to a compromise with them upon it ; but I hoped
if we could not *hit upon any expedient for arranging it, he, the
Count, would furnish us with one.
He said, ''il (audra travaillcr a cela," and concluded by .
promising to give the Emperor an account of this conversation,
after which, he said, he would see me again.
8th. Mr. Montreal called upon me this morning. He told
me there was a report circulating in the city that Bonaparte
(he is now nothing more than plain Bonaparte) was killed. We
afterwards, in the course of the day, heard the same report from
two other quarters; and even that his body had been found
after a battle ; that a courier brought the news last night ; and
that the fortress guns were fired for it in the night. There is
said to be a bulletin, on the other hand, from Admiral Tchit-
chagoff, admitting that Bonaparte, with seventy thousand men,
had passed beyond him.
9th. The news of the Emperor Napoleon's being killed is
not authenticated; that of his having effected his escape be-
comes more credited ; though, if true, his situation must still
be extremely perilous, and almost desperate. The disappoint-
ment here at the belief of his escape is very great, and has
given rise to various rumors, that one, and even two of the
Russian armies have been defeated ; of which there is prob-
ably no foundation.
loth. On returning this morning from my walk, I received
a note from the Chancellor, Count RomanzofT, requesting me
to call upon him at twelve o'clock, noon ; which I did. He said
he had sent for me to show me the draught of a dispatch to
Count Lieven, the Russian Ambassador in England, which he
had prepared to lay before the Emperor for his approbation ;.
i8ia.] THE MISSlOtr TO RUSSIA, 431
and as its object was to communicate to Count Lieven the sub-
stance of what I had said to him in our last conversation, he
wished me to peruse it, and to point out any inaccuracy or
variation from what I had said, and that he would immediately
correct it. I found there were several passages differing from
the ideas I had intended to convey to him, which he imme-
diately struck out of the draught, inserting others in their steady
exactly conformable to what I now repeated, and explained as
having said, or intended to say, before ; the Count observing
that he was desirous of not using one expression; either stronger
or weaker, than I had meant to use. The first variance was,
that he had written Count Lieven that I had called upon him,.
by order of my Government^ to communicate to him the declara-
tion of war by the United States against Great Britain. I had^
on the contrary, said to him that my Government had not
ordered me to make any official communication here of this
declaration; but that, having just received it, together with a
dispatch from the Secretary of State, indicating the views of
my Government on this occasion in relation to other powers,
and particularly to Russia, I had felt it a duty to communicate
the substance of it to him.
The second difference was, that in reporting what I had men-
tioned of the state of our affairs with France, he had used
expressions of resentment and reproach, such as, that France
used us as ill as Great Britain, that she gave us nothing but
"des belles paroles," which I told him might be very just
inferences from the facts, and might even express my own
sentiments, but which I had not intended to use, because my
object had been merely to state the purport of the dispatch I
had received, in which no such expression of asperity, no senti-
ment even of irritation, was to be found. It simply said that
the principal subjects in discussion with France remained un-
settled, and there was little reason to expect a settlement of
them satisfactory to us. On the third point, I observed that
the Count's expressions were not so strong as those I had
•
repeated from the Secretary of State's letter. • He had accu-
rately noted the determination of the American Government
not to enter into more intimate connections with France, even
432 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [December,
if a satisfactory adjustment of those differences should be ob-
tained ; but he had omitted the additional assurance, that they
. did not foresee any event whatever that could produce such a
result.
The Count immediately struck out every one of the passages
which I noticed as inaccurate, and inserted others in their stead,
exactly conformable to my present repetition and explanation
of what I had said to him in our last conversation. I then told
him, in consenting to the making of this communication to the
British Government I was aware that it might possibly produce
an effect, different from that which he intended and which I
desired ; that, supposing the British Ministers should be actuated
by dispositions which might without any breach of candor be
imputed to them, the certainty that the American Government
would in no case seek or accept a community of cause with
their most dreaded enemy, might render them more careless or
indifferent to a pacification with us, as leading them to think
less formidably of our hostility ; that I believed, however, the
operation of this intelligence upon their minds would be of an
opposite kind — that its tendency would be to promote the spirit
of conciliation ; and that I was in this rcsix:ct happy to have the
concurrence of his judgment.
The Count said there was a possibility that the effect might
be contrary to his wishes and intentions, but he trusted it
would not ; that his instruction to Count Lieven was to inform
Lord Castlereagh of this conversation with me, with the purpose
of removing the prejudices entertained by the British Govern-
ment, and of promoting the peace which he (Count Lieven)
knew the Emperor had much at heart, as believing it most for
the interest of both powers as well as of his own empire ; that
he had not told Count Lieven that he was authorized by me to
repeat this conversation, but appeared to relate it altogether
without my privity ; that as the affairs of the British in Spain
were not so prosperous as they had lately been, they would
probably be under the necessity of making further efforts there,
and might therefore be more disposed to accommodation in
another quarter. He was quite anxious, he said, to hear from
England. He had no accounts from thence later than 3d
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, ^33
November, and now the only course of inrormation, even with
regard to the internal state of France/ was through England.
I asked him if there was no communication through Sweden
and Denmark. He said there was — but very precarious and
dilatory, for even before the war between Russia and France
the usual course of the post between Paris and Copenhagen
was through Moscow. I spoke to the Count of the answer
the English Government had given to the Emperor's proposed
mediation. He said they had neither accepted nor rejected it,
but had hinted that it would not be acceptable in America ; that
they thought the time was not yet come. But it appeared they
had sent out Admiral Warren with powers to negotiate. Did I
know what the result had been of this ? I said I did not, but
I augured very little from this mode of negotiation. Admiral
Warren had been known here in a mere diplomatic capacity,
and I had heard his personal character spoken of as amiable
and conciliatory; but there, he went also as commander-in-
chief of a hostile squadron of ships, a character in itself far
from portending conciliation. If we were vanquished indeed,
an Admiral might signify to us the terms to which we must
subscribe, as well as any other ; but until then, it was no good
aspect for juciging favorably of the proposals; to be oflered
from an Admiral making his first appearailce in hostile array,
with ships of the line and frigates.
The Count replied, that was true, but to the amiable and con-
ciliatory disposition of Sir John Borlase Warren he could bear
ample and willing testimony. He was as free from pride and
from prejudices, both personal and national, as any Englishman
he had ever known. At an early period of his embassy here,
he (Count Romanzoff) had told him that the commercial rela-
tions between Russia and England might be continued on a
foundation of mutual advantage to both nations, but not upon
the basis of former times ; not by viewing things under the
varnish of the English factory ; not on the scale of maintaining
here a dominion something like that they had in India. Sup-
posing the Russian commerce upon the Black Sea were to
become important, was the English factory to say that there
must be none but at St. Petersburg? It could not be endurod.
VOL. II.— 28
^34 AfEAfOIJlS OF JOHN QUIKCY ADAMS. [December,
It was absolutely necessary to remember that times and things
had changed. Sir John did not say anything in answer to this
at the time, but afterwards, when he was going away, he told
the Count that he had remembered that conversation, and was
fully satisfied of the correctness of his opinion. From the general
tenor of the Count's remarks, I conjecture that he does not now
very cordially harmonize with the English Ambassador, or fall
into the present commercial or political views of the English
Government He said that he was happy to find that the Brit-
ish Ministers did full justice to the sentiments of the Emperor
Alexander — " more justice, indeed," said he, " to the Emperor
than they do to his Chancellor." He told me that Mr. Zea had
lately sent him a dispatch of an old date from Mr. DaschkofT,
and asked me whether I knew how it came to Mr. Zea's hands.
I suppose Mr. DaschkofT sent it through the Spanish Minister
by a cartel-ship to England, from whence it was transmitted to
Mr. Zea by a courier.
1 2th. Charles has learnt Addison's versions of the 19th and
23d Psalms. The first of them I think the best. The second of
J. B. Rousseau's sacred odes is a paraphrase of the same 19th
Psalm, or rather of the first part of it. The French and English
poetry is beautiful; but there is a sublime simplicity in the
original Psalm itself, more energetic than anything in either of
the imitations. Addison says that there is no real voice or
sound in the firmament and stars. I am not sure that the Psalm
says so. Plato's idea of the music of the spheres does not
appear to have struck the Psalmist, but the Psalmist's idea that
they declare the glory and handiwork of God was above the
reach of Plalo. Shakspeare's idea that they sing choiring to the
young-eyed cherubim is almost inspiration. Addison's astron-
omy is adapted, perhaps, to the age when the Psalm w^s com-
posed, and may pass for poetical astronomy in any age. But
the Psalm does not say that the stars and planets move round
the earth. In the 23d Psalm, Addison's introduction of the
crook displeases me; ''fainting in the sultry glebe" is awk-
wardly expressed, and "faint" will not rhyme with "pant,"
either to the ear or to the eye. In both the versions the
thoughts are weakened by expansion and repetition. Yet the
s
i8ia.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^35
23d Psalm in Addison's poetry is delightful by its rural
imagery; and the 19th is elevating by its grandeur.
19th. The Emperor Alexander left this city early this morn-
ing to go to the army. There have been for some days rumors
of his departure, but they were so much contradicted that Jt
was finally quite unexpected.
24th. The Emperor's birthday, which, for the first time since
I have been here, passed over without any celebration and
almost without notice. There was a petty illumination of the
streets for about two hours in the evening, and nothing more.
The country has suffered so much by the last summer's inva-
$ion, and there have perished such great multitudes of the
people and armies, while other multitudes still greater are
reduced to ruin and beggary, that the Emperor himself has
determined there should be no expensive festivities this winter
at his Court, and he particularly forbade the customary celebra-
tion of his birthday. I was playing at ombre with the ladies,
when I received a note from Mr. Harris, with a London gazette
extraordinary of 27th November, containing the official ac-
count (British) of the total defeat of the second American
attempt to invade Upper Canada, and the surrender of General
Wadsworth and nine hundred men. The symptoms disclosed
by these repeated shameful terminations of impotent assaults
are distressing to the feelings of one who loves his country.
The reliance of man in all cases can only be upon Heaven.
God grant that these disasters instead of sinking may rouse
the spirit of the nation, and that they may learn, though from
adversity, the skill and discipline which will be the pledges of
their future prosperity I
25th. I dined at Count RomanzofTs with a company of about
sixty persons, the Corps Diplomatique, and the principal Min-
isters of the country. I was seated at the table between Count
Maistre and the Duke de Polignac, with both of whom I had
much conversation. The news was the evacuation of Courland
by the French, and the taking of three thousand Prussians
prisoners d^ the Marquis de Paulucci, the Governor of Riga.
This was so small an affair amidst the multitude of great and
brilliant successes of the Russian arms that it was spoken of
J
^36 MEMOIRS OF JOHlf QUINCY ADAMS. [1812.
rather contemptuously. Count RomanzofT, laughing heartily
and apologizing to me for laying aside the reserve of the
Chancellor, told me that the boys in the streets who sold the
bulletins, when they followed persons and found them slow
to take their goods, would urge them by saying, " Oh, take
it! take it| It is not from Paulucci, but from Wittgenstein."
The new-comer, Count Lowenhielm, appeared to be in a soit
of ecstasy after dinner, at the band of music, particularly the
horns, in the chamber adjoining the dining-hall. Admiral
Bentinck complained that they smelt too strong of human
nature. The Admiral told me that Napoleon had confiscated
in Holland property belonging to him worth a hundred thou-
sand pounds sterling.
31st. I offer to a merciful God at the close of this year my
humble tribute of gratitude for the blessings with which He has
in the course of it favored me and those who are dear to me,
and I pray for a continuance of his goodness. Above all, I pray
that He who worketh in us both to will and to do, may grant
to me and mine that temper of heart and that firmness of soul
which are best adapted duly to receive all his dispensations,
whether joyous or afflictive. It has pleased Him in the course
of this year to lay his chastening hand upon me, and to try me
with bittef sorrow. My endeavors to quell the rebellion of the
heart have been sincere, and have been assisted with the bless-
ing from above. As I advance in life its evils multiply, the
instances of mortality become more frequent, and approach
nearer to myself. The greater is the need of fortitude to
encounter the woes that flesh is heir to, and of religion to sup-
port pains for which there is no other remedy. Religious sen-
timents become from day to day more constantly habitual to
my mind. They are perhaps too often seen in this journal.
God alone can make even religion a virtue, and to Him I look
for aid, that mine may degenerate into no vicious excess. For
the future time may the favor of God, which passeth all under-
standing, rest upon my parents, my wife, and all my children,
my kindred, friends, and country ; nor at this moment can I for-
bear to include in my petitions the welfare of all human kind I
For myself, may the divine energies be granted to perform fully
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, ^37
all my duties to God, to my fellow-mortals in all the relations
of life, and to my own soul I
February ist, 18 13. At nine in the evening I went to Count
RomanzofTs^and had with him the conversation I had requested.
My object was to ascertain whether any commercial arrange-
ments were making between this country and Great Britain
which might affect the trade between Russia and the United
States, chiefly upon suggestions in a letter I have received from
Mr. Hazard. I mentioned to the Count the present state of our
aflairswith England; the failure of all attempts to negotiate for
a suspension of hostilities, and the prospect that the war must
continue at least through the greatest part of the ensuing
summer, even if the Emperor's mediation should eventually
succeed in accomplishing a peace. Under these circumstances,
I had been questioned in behalf of persons interested in the
commerce between Russia and the United States, whether there
had been, or was likely to be, any understanding between Russia
and Great Britain, particularly with regard to the subject of
articles of contraband.
The Count said there neither had been, nor was likely to be,
any such understanding ; that with England Russia had simply
made peace, and the events of the French war had since so
entirely absorbed their attention that they had not yet had time
to talk about commerce ; that with regard to articles of contra-
band, "you know," said he, "that our religion here is different
from that of the English. But there have been a great many
faults committed in Europe. Such is the pressure of the most
important interests that it is impossible to have more than one
ally. There is but one power on each side. If questions about
articles of contraband arise in England, we shall adhere to our
own system, and make our claims accordingly. But they will
probably adhere to their side too. Thefe is no list of contra-
band adjusted between us ; nor will they perhaps consider them-
selves bound by that stipulated in our Treaty of Commerce with
them, to which the subsequent war with them has put an end.
They may recur to their most comprehensive list of contraband,
and at this time we can hardly think of contesting with them on
that point."
438 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Fcbnuiy,
I said that in regard to the interest of Russia in her trade
with America, almost all her articles of export, hemp, sail-cloth,
and even iron, were articles which the English styled contra-
band. But my business only was to know the iact, as he had
candidly stated it to me, and I should, with his permission, make
it known to those who had consulted me concerning it, and
they must arrange their commercial speculations accordingly.
He said that, without naming him, I might give this as the
real state of things from the best information I could collect ;
that there was no caution valide that the English would recog-
nize or respect any list of contraband other than that which they
had always allowed ; that with respect to commerce, no change,
had yet been made in the tariff of the last two years. Probably
little or none would be. made. The tariff had indeed not yet
been renewed ; but it would be decided upon in another fort-
night, for he knew the Emperor had again been applied to for
his decision. He himself knew of it no more than what was
current about the town, for he attended none of the meetings of
the Council. When he went away with the Emperor last
spring, all his presidencies (in the Council) had been trans-
ferred to Marshall Soltykoff. He still retains them ; " and I,"
added the Count, " being still in the condition of a man for whom
the Emperor may send from day to day the order to join him,
though I do not know whether he will, yet in the mean time
cannot attend at the meetings of the Council, appearing under
the Presidency of Marshal Soltykoff, my equal in rank, but
over whom my previous situation in the council had given me
precedency." He then asked me some questions with regard to
the popularity of the war between the United States and Britain,
as well in England as in America. I said that in America the
war was popular in some parts of the country, and unpopular in
others. I told him what I had heard concerning the probable
issue of the presidential election, and my belief that Mr. Madison>
would be re-elected. He said that his information led to the
same expectation.
As to the popularity of the war in England, I said I was
afraid it would be too popular with all parties. The only point
. upon which the war was now continued was the impressment
I8i3.] THE MISS/OJ^ TO RUSSIA. ^y^
or our sailors. On this point the whole English nation, or at
least all the political parties, were unreasonable ; and the loss of
two of their frigates, successively captured by American frigates,
had mortified their national pride, and touched their point of
honor in its tenderest part. I was afraid it had embittered them,
and would make them think they must now fight not only for
their honor, but for revenge.
He asked me what I thought of the war by land. I answered
that I expected for the present little or nothing from it We
were all too raw and unskilled in war to make much progress
in Canada. He asked if the people of that Province itself were
not inclined to favor our cause, and to join the American Union.
I answered there might be some of them so disposed, but I
placed no reliance upon it He asked whether I thought there
was any disposition in the present British Ministry towards
a general peace, and noticed a remark said to have been made
by Lord Castlereagh in Parliament — that the success of Russia
had, among other good results, that of making it possible to
conclude a peace. I said that the observation had been after-
wards explained in a ministerial paper to mean peace with the
Emperor Napoleon. But the English Ministry appeared to
think that the late events had rendered the restoration of the
throne of France to the family of Bourbon probable, in which
case they suppose peace may be made without difficulty.
The Count said, he had not seen this explanation, but he
believed this winter would produce events of the highest im-
portance and the most extraordinary nature, arising from the
late occurrences of the war. But it was impossible to foresee
precisely what they would be. It was a thaos, as he had told
the Emperor, and no one could yet imagine what system of
order would finally arise from it. But what did \ think of the
strength of the' British Ministry at present? and what of the
likelihood of any change in it ?
I thought the Ministry incomparably stronger than they were
when ultimately formed last summer.
But would not the English nation be urgent for peace ?
The English nation would never ask for peace as long as
their Ministers could fire the Park and Tower guns, and talk
440 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [February,
to them of victories over the French, whether they were their
own or those of their allies. As to a change of Ministers, I saw
no probability of that ; the old opposition had not the most dis-
tant prospect of coming in ; the Wellesley family little more.
Mr. Canning probably might come in, but the only change of
system that could produce would be an increase of rancor in
the war with America.
But why did I think the prospects of the Wellesleys so bad ?
There was some delicacy in mentioning part of my reasons
. for this opinion, but I hoped he would consider me as speaking
altogether in confidence to him of it. The private character of
the Marquis of Wellesley was disreputable in England. His
conduct on the Catholic question was unpopular. The bigoted
Church party thought he favored the Catholics too much, and
the Catholic party had no confidence in his sincerity. His
political system was in no better favor with the public. He was
for doubling and redoubling air the efforts and sacrifices of the
English in Spain. It was evident enough that this system was
adapted to his brother's glory and his own family aggrandize-
ment ; but the people were not of the same opinion, and had
not the same motives. They thought the English were doing
quite enough in Spain, particularly in the expenditure of
money, which the nation felt more severely than the losses of
men.
The Count observed that since Count Lieven's arrival in
England he had yet received from him only one or two dis-
patches, and they mentioned that he should soon afterwards
speak of American affairs. He spoke of the blockade by the
English of Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River, which I told
him was another illegal blockade, for which I could perceive no
other motive than a small malice against the cities of Philadel-
phia and Baltimore. If they expected any good'effects to them-
selves from this measure, I trusted they would be disappointed.
There was another* thing in which I had $een a symptom of
petty malice against America. They had made up a story that
our Minister in France had followed the Emperor Napoleon to
Moscow, to make a treaty with him against Spain — which was
certainly a falsehood.
i8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 441
The Count said it was true that Mr. Barlow, with the Danish
Minister, and a third diplomatic character, from a State sup-
posed to be in the interest of France, had been sent for to
Wilna, by an invitation from the Duke of Bassano; but that
only one of them had arrived there, and that after Napoleon
had left it. There had been even some dispositions made as
if a stay of some time in Lithuania had been contemplated.
But the issue of the war had given a different turn to things.
I said that Mr. Barlow, for aught I knew, might have been
sent for to Wilna, but assuredly he never could go there for the
purpose alleged by the English newspapers, and by Mr. Can-
ning in Parliament. As to the Emperor Napoleon, his cam-
paign had terminated in disappointment, and placed him in a
situation which I considered as extremely precarious. But he
had nobody to thank for it but himself. He was one more
example of a head turned by a prosperous fortune, and he must
abide the consequences of his insanity.
" True it is," said the Count, " that he must thank himself for
his present condition^ How many, many times I have urged
.' upon the Duke de Vicence, sitting on this very canape, the
preservation of peace I I did not repeat the same to Count
Lauriston, because, although I had every reason to be satisfied
with his conduct personally to me, I was not upon the same
terms of intimacy with him as I had been with his predecessor.
The Duke de Vicence himself I believe was of the same opinion.
His inclinations were pacific, but they were unavailing. He was
in a sort of disgrace, but he seems now to have come into favor
again, and was the only person who accoifipanied Napoleon in
his late return to Paris."
I said I had heard that Count Lauriston was dead. There
was such a report, he answered — that he had been found frozen
to death in his carriage ; and it was not improbable, as no men-
tion was made of him among the Generals and Ministers who
followed Napoleon upon his return to Paris. It was probable,
too, that Lauriston's death might be hastened by chagrin at the
idea of having contributed by his counsels to the ruin of the
army. For it is said to have been* by his advice, against the
opinion of CaUlaincourt and of all the other Generals, " qu'il fit
442 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February,
la sottise de Moscou." It was Napoleon's own opinion, and
Lauriston flattered him by concurring with it ; not from base
motives, but because it was his real opinion that by pushing on
to Moscow we should be induced to negotiate, and, if terms
of peace not too severe should be oflered us, we should accept
them. It is scarcely credible how complete the destruction of
that immense army had been. And they could no longer
disguise it. He had seen a letter from the Duke of Bassano,
written at Berlin, to some of the French agents, in which were
these identical words : " II faut avouer que les circonstances ne
nous sont pas favorables."
I observed that this was by no means disclosing a secret.
The Count replied that it was not, but that it showed that their
acknowledgment of the fact became every day more complete.
The details surpassed everything that imagination could have
anticipated. It was remarkable that at Dresden, the very spot
which Napoleon had chosen for his point of departure, where in
May last he had made such a pompous and ridiculous display
of power, where he had assembled Emperors and Kings, and
distributed their seats at the Elector's table, and published them
in all his gazettes, as if he had been there a monarch surrounded
by his vassals — ^that exactly there, on his return, he entered the
city in a single sledge, without servants, without guards. His
very Mameluke had been frozen to death, and he was obliged
to borrow four thousand louis of the Elector to continue his
journey, and six shirts from his Minister. At Weimar he had
passed through without stopping, and left an apology behind
to the Duke for not having visited him, that he was absolutely
not in a presentable condition. (N.B. The Duchess of Weimar
is a Russian Grand Duchess, sister of the Emperor Alexander.)
At Weimar he could not go any farther in his sledge, which
was broken, but borrowed the town carriage of Monsieur de
Saint-Aignan, his Minister, the brother-in-law of the Duke de
Vicence, and who was some time here with him ; and with this
carriage, and two soldiers lent him by the Elector of Saxony,
he reached Paris. It was truly singular that Saxony should
have been the particular scene of these humiliations, that very
Saxony where he had made such a display of the colonies of
i8i3.] TUB MISS/Ol/ TO JiUSSlA. 443
farmers, and artists, and God knows what, that he had brought
with his army to settle in Poland. Since his arrival in Paris, it
was said he was sick ; that he was certainly gone to Marly on the
pretext of hunting, and there he might be sick and confine him-
self to the palace without so much notice as it would occasion at
Paris. There was alsd a report current about the city, and re-
lated with so many circumstances of detail as rendered it highly
probable, that there had been a great popular insurrection at
Munich, in Bavaria, " but I have had," said the Count, " no official
advice of it myself. For the Emperor has naturally directed
the couriers, who had dispatches to me, to proceed to his own
head-quarters, and has opened the packets addressed to me."
Thus far my conversation with the Count, of which, as of all
the others I have with him, I give the most particular relation,
omitting only the common chat about weather, my family, and
objects of no general or particular interest, which are occasion-
ally mingled with them. The circumstances which most struck
me this time were those which the Count mentioned respecting
himself, and which seemed to indicate an apprehension of de-
clining favor. It was near eleven at night when I came home.
9th. At noon I went with Mr. Smith to the Winter Palace,
where, after the imperial family had attended mass, the Em-
presses held a diplomatic circle. It was attended by the British
Ambassador, Lord Cathcart, his two sons, and aids. Captain
McDonald and Captain Forbes, and Mr. Bailey, the British
Consul ; by the Duke de Serra Capriola and his son (Two
Sicilies), Baron Blome (Denmaik) — Mr. Krabbe, his Secretary
of Legation, was unwell and not there — Count Lowenhielm
(Sweden), with his nephew and aid, and Mr. Brandel, his Secre-
tary; Count Maistre (Sardinia), and the Chevalier Bardaxi
Azara (Spain, Ferdinand the Seventh), with the Chevalier Came-
rero, attached to the mission, and Captains Lcma (Secretary of
Legation) and Parada, attached to the mission. These gentle-
men were presented to the Empresses. Captain Guedes was
not there. The Empresses were very short in their conver-
sation ; talked about the weather, and to me, about my wife and
absent children. The Empress-mother said there had been
thirty degrees of cold, and that the mercury had been frozen.
444 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS, [February,
After the circle, the whole Corps Diplomatique were con-
ducted ilito the Grand Duke Michael's apartments, and he held
a circle. This was a novelty both to him and to us. He is the
youngest of the Emperor Paul's children, and this day fifteen
years old. He has grown to manhood since we arrived here.
He was in his twelfth year when I was first presented to him.
This day he went through the ceremony very well for a first
time — spoke to Baron Blome of his fine horses, and asked me
if I had any late news from America. He must be nearly full
grown, is nearly six feet tall, and very strongly resembles the
Emperor.
Before the circle, and while we were assembled in the intro-
ductory apartment, Count RomanzofT came in. He took me
aside, and told me that he was very sorry to be the bearer of
bad news to me of Mr. Barlow; that Prince Kurakin had
written from Vienna that he was dead. He had been sent for
last summer to Wilna, but after waiting some time at Moscow
he had determined to return, through Cracow and Vienna, to
Paris. On the road he was taken sick, and died at Cracow.
Prince Kurakin mentioned the event in his letter with great
concern. During the latter part of the time preceding the war,
the Prince had seen nobody but him at Paris, and there was no
sort of kindness and attention that Mr. Barlow had not shown
him. The Prince had even deposited with him' the archives of
the Russian Embassy at Paris, and was now anxious about
them. The Count said he had no doubt but that ^ on leaving
Paris Mr. Barlow had taken care to leave them in some safe
custody; but he wished me to write concerning it.
I told him I would write immediately, if he would have the
goodness to indicate a mode to me of transmitting the letter.
The Count asked me if I could not send it through Baron
Blome by way of Denmark. He added that he had particular
reasons for not wishing to point out to me a direct mode of
communication. I replied that I would very readily ask Baron
Blome to transmit a letter for me ; or if I could send directly to
Vienna, I would take that course.
I had also some conversation with the Chevalier Bardaxi, for
the first time. He had seemed before this to avoid it; and
1813] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 445
Countess Colombi told Mrs. Adams that he had some scruples
whether to consider Spain and the United States at peace. He
was, however, now very communicative, and told me that when
our declaration of war against England had appeared, he was
at Lisbon, where the Portuguese Government had declared
themselves neutral and issued an ordinance prohibiting the
admission of prizes into their ports ; that he had recommendad
the same course and the same regulation to his own Govern-
ment, and they had accordingly adopted them both. The
exclusion of prizes, he said, was suggested to him as necessary,
by the embarrassments and controversies into which they had
been drawn, particularly with America, by having^been obliged
to admit prizes made by the French into their ports during the
last war. I told him I thought the regulation a very good one,
and wished it could be made a universal law of neutrality.
Lord Cathcart spoke to me about the weather.
nth. I received from Count RomanzofT a second note, de-»
siring mc to come at half-past seven this evening instead of six,
and at his house on the quay. I accordingly went, and men-
tioned to him that in consequence of Mr. Barlow's death I had
thought of sending a messenger by the way of Vienna to Paris,
as well to ascertain the situation of our own affairs in France
as to give the necessary instructions with regard to the security
of the archives of the Russian Embassy, which had been de-
posited with him ; that one of my countrymen here, who was
desirous of going through Vienna to Paris, had asked me some
time ago if I could not send dispatches by him and obtain a
courier's passport for him, which I had then declined, having
no speciial motive for sending dispatches, and wishing to avoid
every unnecessary correspondence with France, in the state of
affairs between that nation and Russia; but that now, having a
sufficient motive of public interest for it, I should request a
courier's passport for him, if there was no objection to granting
one.
The Count said he would with pleasure give a passport to go
either to Vienna or Copenhagen, or anywhere but directly to
Paris, that he might not have the appearance of knowing that
the courier was destined there ; that he thought I was right in
446 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [February,
sending a special messenger on this occasion, and I had an
undoubted right to dispatch a courier to the agent of the
United States in France, with whom they were at peace ; that
he was sensible to the delicacy I had shown in previously con-
sulting him to enquire if he should have any objection to this
measure ; that he had none whatsoever. But his passport would
9vrail only as far as the frontier; that the Austrians might stop
the courier, and not permit him to proceed to Vienna. . They
had already done so by some Prussian officers to whom he had
given passports, who had been full of zeal, and considered this
as their own cause. But the pusillanimous Austrians, from the
feair of giving offence to the French Government, had refused
them permission to go to Vienna. He asked if I could not ob-
tain a courier's passport from the Duke de Serra Capriola.
I said that I should prefer giving him my own; that the
United States had indeed no Minister at Vienna, but that they
were at peace with Austria, and I could see no reason why they
should refuse admission or passage to an American courier.
I said I would also give him a letter to the French Ambassador
at Vienna, who was an acquaintance of mine of nearly thirty-
five years' standing, and whom I should request to facilitate the
admission of my courier into France.
The Count said he saw no reason why the Austrians should
not respect my passport, and that it would therefore be unneces-
sary to ask for any other.
We had then some further desultory conversation. He said
he had English gazettes to 8th January ; that the renewal of the
East India Company's charter was the subject which appeared
most to occupy the public attention there at present, and to
occasion some temporary and local agitation; that in Spain
they appeared to be doing nothing at all, and that Lord Wel-
lington had retreated into Portugal.
I said the French cpuld do nothing at all there either, but I
had heard they had not withdrawn any troops from there. The
Count said he did not know. I observed that if they had not
withdrawn them, they very shortly must resort to that expe-
dient. How else could they supply the place of that immense
army they had lost in the north ?
I8l3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, ^7
This brought the Count to talk of the destruction of Napo-
leon's army, which he said was so complete that scarcely any
but the officers had escaped. It reminded him of an anecdote
of the Comte de Clermont, who commanded the French army
in Germany in the Seven Years* War. He had suffered a great
defeat and dispersion of his troops, and was passing through a
city,'and stopped at a public house, where, upon his enquiring
of the landlady, ** Avez-vous vu quelqu*un de nos fuyards ?"
she answered him, " Non ; Monseigneur est le premier ;" an
answer which would now be perfectly applicable to a great
number of Napoleon's marshals and generals. It was certain
that Providence had reserved to itself almost entirely the
agency in this event It was beyond all human calculation
that the fame and glory of the Emperor Napoleon, founded
on an almost uninterrupted succession of victories for nearly
twenty years, and which had become a sort of religion in
Europe^ should thus have vanished in the course of three
months before an old man of seventy-two years of age, whose
own military reputation was a problem, and whom many people
here extolled very highly, while as many others held him in
contempt.
The Count alluded by this to Prince Koutouzof Smolensky,
who certainly has very little contributed to the disasters of
Napoleon and his army. ^
22d. At eleven this morning I went with Mr. Smith to the
Kazan Church, and attended the Te Deum for the taking of
Warsaw and of the fortress of Pillau. The keys of Warsaw, a
couple of old brass keys, were exhibited. The Empress and
imperial family, now in the city, were present. But the crowd
was much smaller than at the former Te Deums in this church.
Baron Blome told me that he had received a courier from
Copenhagen yesterday ; that his Government had made a pro-
posal to England for a negotiation of peace ; that it was quite
uncertain whether the French Government itself would not
negotiate. So that it was necessary for every one to think of
himself.
25th. I had a morning visit from the Chevalier Bardaxi
Azara, the Spanish Minister, accompanied by Don Francisco
448 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February,
Zea Bermudez, who styles himself Plenipotentiary of Ferdinand
the Seventh. Mr. Bardaxi was in high spirits, and extremely
sanguine at the present situation of political affairs. He says
there was a courier from the army yesterday; that Russian
troops had passed the Oder, and that Count Woronzoff would
shortly be at Berlin ; that there was to be a personal interview
between the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia, near
Breslau ; that the Russian army was everywhere received with
such enthusiasm of joy, that there would immediately be fifty
thousand men raised in Prussia to fight against the French ; that
Austria likewise manifested a disposition to negotiate separately.
I mentioned that an Austrian courier had been said to have
passed through Holland, and arrived in London early in Janu-
ary, with very important dispatches.
He said that was nothing but the mediation, in which he
supposed Austria was not sincere. Austria had made an offer
of her mediation for a general peace, which Napoleon had
accepted ; and his acceptance had been formally communicated
to the several European Courts. But it was in terms which
evidently showed that he had no intention to make peace. It
said that he accepted the mediation of his puissant allie, the
Emperor of Austria, and would declare the basis on which he
would negotiate, referring to his offer made to England last
April, and adding to it that Prussia must remain as heretofore,
and Russia not to acquire a line beyond her present territory ;
Turkey to remain as by the peace of last summer at Bucharest.
I asked him if he had lute news from England. He said, none
— there could be no important news from thence. It was in the
north that the destiny of Europe must be settled.
27th. I paid a visit to the Chevalier Bardaxi Azara, with
whom I found Mr. Zea. The Chevalier had some late news-
papers from England, with the Regent's declaration against
America. He said he thought it a very feeble piece; but he
thought the question between the United States and England,
upon which the war now turned, was an extremely difficult one
to settle. He spoke of the English manner of negotiating, and
of their ideas of reciprocity, which he said was always a reci-
procity of words, with the substance all on their own side. He
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^g
instanced particularly in their late treaty with Portugal, made
at Rio de Janeiro. I asked him if there were any news from
America in his papers ; but he did not appear to know.
28th. Between noon and one o'clock I went with Mr. Smith
to the Winter Palace, and attended the Te Deum for the victory
of General Wintzingerode over the corps commanded by Gen-
eral Regnier. I met there; besides the usual members of the
Corps Diplomatique, Sir Francis d'lvemois, whom, at his re-
quest, Mr. Harris introduced to me. He told me that he had
formerly been acquainted with my father in London, and had
since been in correspondence with him ; that my father, in one
of his publications, had given him a title which did not belong
to him — that of Doctor. He believed that the mistake had
arisen from his having once dined with my father at Dr. Price's,
and from Dr. Price's having then several times at table addressed
him (he did not know why) as Doctor d'lvernois.' Sir Francis,
who since that time has been knighted by the King of England,
doubtless considers the title of Doctor as a sort of degradation,
and it must have lain heavy upon his mind for him to have
made it, after an interval of more than twenty-five years, the
first topic of conversation with me. He had before mentioned
it to Mr. Harris. He also told me that he was now going to
travel over a country through which he knew that I had also
been (Silesia), and concerning which I had published a book.
He had not seen it. We had some further conversation, which
was, however, very soon interrupted by the summons to the Te
Deum ; it was shorter than usual.
March ist. We had been invited to attend the funeral service
for Admiral Bentinck, at the English church, at six o'clock in
the afternoon. Having attended the same service there several
times before, and always found that they began an hour later
than the time fixed, I thought it would be time enough at seven
this evening, and went at that hour. The service was just fin-
ished at the moment when we arrived — which gave me a new
lesson of punctuality. I went, nevertheless, to the vestry, where
> This voluminous and rather tedious writer, bom in 1751, after passing through
a series of vicissitudes, and an exile from his own country of twenty*one years,
finally returned to Geneva in 1814, where he survived until 1843.
VOL. II. — 39
J^^ MEMO/MS OP 7OBN QUIMCY ADAMS. pi«k.
I imnd the oflkcrs of the FngfMi Emlassy, aad some other
perMOS, with Dtl Pitt aad Bocsibrd. I mmfioncd to Dr. Pitt
the cause of my having arrived late. He said they had been
obliged to begin earlier than osoal, becaose the Duke of Olden-
burg had attended, and had come very punctually at the hour
appointed. He apologized to me for not having sent me the
certificate which I had afkrd of him some months since. I ^^kf^
Dr. Bereslord what was the rule of the Greek Churdi for deter-
mining the time of Easter. He did not know. The Abbe
Lavoisier the other day was unable to answer me the same
question.
3d. Sir Francis dTvemois paid me a long visit, and in return
for my Silesian letters gave me two of his own publications —
^ Les trois Offhmdes/' and ** Napoleon Administrateur et Finan-
cier.^ He found Mr. Harris with me, and we had a long con-
versation together upon political aiEiirs. He has all the preju-
dices and all the passions of an English Ministerialist — which
was to be expected ; but he very stoutly contends that the
British Ministers deplore the war with America. Mr. Harris
mentioned to him Sir Robert Wilson's assertion at DryCrcigh-
ton's table, that Mr. Perceval had told him a very few days be-
fore his death that he was determined upon a war with America.
Sir Francis said he did not believe that Mr. Perceval had ever
said any such thing to Sir Robert Wilson ; that Mr. Perceval
was the only member of the British Gd>inet deeply, strongly,
inflexibly attached- to the Orders in Council; that he probably
would not have abandoned them to prevent a war with America,
but he did not believe they would produce a war. Sir Francis
said that he had been very intimately acquainted with Mr.
Perceval, who had been with him and left him not five minutes
before he was murdered ; that he had often conversed with him
on the subject of America ; that Mr. Perceval always expressed
himself averse to a war with America, but he did not believe it
would come to a war. Sir Francis appeared to hope that the war
between America and England would yet be short ; he founded
his hopes on the expectation that the war would become too
unpopular in America to be pursued. On this point, as on
almost every other, I found his opinions at the greatest possible
|8I3.] THE MISS/ON TO ilUSS/A. 451
variance from mine. As to the question of impressment, he
said he did not see how that could be settled unless all the
sailors in the British navy would submit to be tattooed with a
G. R. in Indian ink upon the arm ; but he doubted whether they
would consent to that. This is the strangest expedient, I be-
lieve, that was ever devised ; but he mentioned it seriously.
We talked about the American revolution, the war against
which he thought had been excessively impolitic in Britain ; but
as to the justice of the case he had his doubts. But, he said,
he was one of the small number of persons who believed the
loss of the American colonies to have been the origin of the
King of England's malady. As Sir Francis is under personal
obligations to the King of England, I did not think it suitable
to tell him what I thought — that he had mistaken the cau.se for
the effect. ^
1 6th. I went to Mr. Meyer's on business, where I heard of
the alliance concluded between the King of Prussia and the
Emperor Alexander, which I did not believe, but which was
confirmed by Mr. Harris, who paid us a visit in the evening ;
also the taking of Berlin by the Russians. There are also
accounts from England to i6th February, and from America
to 17th January, and Mr. Harris says Mr. Madison's re-election
is ascertained.
I had likewise this morning a long visit from the General of
the Jesuits, who came to enquire if I had any late letters from
America, and to ask me to forward some from him to his asso-
ciates there. I made enquiries of him concerning the instruc-
tion in their College here, and was surprised to find that they do
not teach Greek. He says they formerly did, but the modern
languages and mathematics, with the example of the German
universities, have absolutely expelled Greek from their classes.
I likewise asked him by what rule the Russian Greek Church
fixed their time of Easter. He did not know that they had a
different rule from that fixed at the Council of Nicaea, until I
showed him by the Almanac for this year that they do not
observe it. He thought the only difference was of the old and
new style. But that is not all. Easter this year is celebrated
here the second instead of the first Sunday after the full moon
452 ' MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUISCY ADAMS, [March,
foUowing the 2 1 st March. He promised me, however, to enquire
and let me know hereafter what rule they do follow. He told
me that the Emperor Paul had the project of introducing the
new style here, but the Metropolitan objected that it would
require a total alteration in the rubric of their Church books,
and make all the books now in use of no service. The expense
of printing new ones deterred Paul from the execution of his
design. I wrote scarcely anything this day. Read a few pages
of Fabricius, and Olivet's Remarks on the Theology of the
Greek Philosophers, with which I was much gratified.
17th. I sent for my landlord, Mr. Strogofshikoff, and paid
him a half-year's rent in advance. He conversed with me,
as he always does, upon politics, and upon the character of the
Russian people. He is very well satisfied with the present state
and prospect of affairs, and thinks the Emperor Alexander might
now come home and take his ease. He says that, of the Peters-
burg levy of men last summer of one man in ten, the greatest
part have perished, and the rest have been, or will be, incorpo-
rated in the regiments. Not one of them will ever come back.
He spoke of their Lent, of which this is the second week.
They keep their first and last week with great rigor, and in them
they are not allowed to eat fish, no animal food of any kind —
scarcely anything but bread, oil, and mushrooms. The common
people, he says, consider a violation of the Lent as the most
heinous of crimes. Murder, they suppose, may be pardoned,
but to break the fast is a sin utterly irremissible. He himself
kept the fast last week, not from a religious scruple, but because
he thought it a salubrious practice, and a useful one to form
habits of self-denial. I am of that opinion myself, and I have
often wished that the reformers who settled New England had
not abolished the practice of fasting in Lent. I am convinced
that occasional fasting, and particularly abstinence from animal
food several weeks at a time, and every year, is wholesome, both
to body and mind. It is true that fasting is not expressly en-
joined in the Scriptures, and therefore cannot be required as a
religious observance ; but, unless prescribed by a principle of
religion, there is no motive sufficiently powerful to control the
appetites of men.
iSij.] THE MfSSION TO RUSSIA. ^53
22d. The General of the Jesuits paid me a morning visit, and
brought me a letter to be forwarded to America. He had also
a statement by one of the fathers of his college, explaining the
reason why the festival of Easter falls on different days this
year in the Greek and Roman Calendars. It is not owing to
the difference of the solar year, but to that of the epact
That of the new style is XXVIII, that of the old style, IX ; that
is, according to the Gregorian Calendar, the solar year in its
embolismic revolution of nineteen years exceeds the lunar year
by twenty-eight days. According to the Ju}ian Calendar, this
same year in its embolismic revolution of nineteen years exceeds
the lunar year only by nine days. Hence by the first the term
of Easter is {5th April, which being the fifth holy-day of Pas-
sion week, Easter is transferred to the next Sunday, being i8th
April. By the second the* Paschal term is y^^th April, which
being the second holy-day, Easter is transferred to the next
Sunday, ^th April. The term of Easter does not, therefore,
depend solely upon the time of the full moon succeeding 21st
March, but also upon the comparative state of the solar and
lunar years by the two calendars. The reverend father told me
that the Russian priests know nothing about the cause of the
difference ; that one of his associates had enquired of them at
Riga, at Moscow, and here. Nobody could tell him. The
explanation itself leaves other questions to be solved — par-
ticularly why, and how, the difference of epact should operate
upon the calculation of the full moon.
April 3d. Dined at Count RomanzofTs, with a diplomatic
company of a new description. A Count de la Ferronais has
arrived from England, and is going on to the Emperor Alex-
ander's head-quarters. He comes upon a mission from Louis
XVIII., and to him this dinner was apparently given. The
Count de Brioii was there — an old gentleman whom I had only
seen before at Count Stedingk*s and at the Chevalier Bezerra's.
He has been a sort of Agent, or Minister, from Louis XVIII.,
but hitherto not recognized. The Duke de Polignac was like-
wise one of the company. I had dined there with him once
before.
I had some conversation with Baron Blome, who is in great
454 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
anxiety. He told me that the proposition for peace, made by
Denmark to England, had been rejected. The answer had
been that they must treat at Stockholm, and on the basis of
ceding Norway to Sweden. The Baron said this was a pro-
posal to which it was impossible for Denmark to listen, but he
did not know what his Government would do.
The news had just been received of the taking of Hamburg
by the Russians. Young GouriefT had carried the keys of the
city to Count Wittgenstein, at Berlin. The whole city, seventy-
five thousand people, came out to meet the Russians in triumph,
and such transports of joy were never before known. The
mayor of the city, Abendroth (a sinister name, as Baron Budberg
observed), they had thrown out of the windows. The King of
Prussia had written a letter to Prince Koutouzof, placing all his
troops under his command, submitting to him without restric-
tion the whole management of the war, and requesting him to
take the Prince Royal of Prussia for his aid-de-camp. This, it
was remarked, was the only way in which anything could be
done to good purpose. ^
I sat at table between Baron Budberg and Mr. Oubril, who
reminded me that he had seen me. at Berlin, where he was a
Secretary to Baron Krudener, then the Russian Minister there.
None of the English Embassy, nor the Duke of Serra Capriola,
nor Count Maistre, were there. But the Secretary and two
Captains of the Spanish Legation were present. It was in
truth a Bourbon dinner, and reminded me of the resurrection
of dry bones in the Prophet Ezekiel. Count Romanzoff was
courteous as usual, but has more and more the appearance of
declining influence. When I returned home I found it useless
to attempt reading. As we came down the stairs from the
Count's, Baron Campenhausen said, " Ma foi ! si on faisait tous
les jours un dine comme cela, je crois qu'on mourroit au bout
de deux ans."
4th. Finished reading Olivet's translation of Cicero " De
Natura Deorum." A large part of the third dialogue is lost,
which I very much regret. All the arguments of Cotta against
the wisdom of Providence in the structure of the human body,
and in the usefulness of all created nature to man, are lost. I
iSi3.] THE MISSION TO. RUSSIA. 455
should have wished to see the whole strength of the Acade-
mician as well as that of the Stoic. Cicero concludes by say-
ing that Velleius (the Epicurean) thought Cotta's argument the
truest, but that he (Cicero) thought that of Balbus the most
probable. Ernesti says that this is mere dissimulation, for
that Cotta delivers the real sentiments of Cicero. He draws
the inference from the absurdity of the Stoic opinions, and the
impossibility that Cicero should have believed them. There is
one point, and that a very important one, in which Olivet, the
translator, agrees with Cotta, which is, that in matters of religion
we must not rely upon reason, but take refuge in authority.
But to me this is impossible. I have no cause for peculiar con-
fidence in my own judgment, but I cannot seat my faith upon
the mere authority of othei* men. I began reading the trans-
lation of the books "De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum," by
Regnier Desmarais.
5th. Finished reading the first and began the second book,
De Finibus — ^a disquisition upon the Supreme Good. There
are five books, the first and second containing a dialogue, at
Cicero's villa at Cumae, between him, Torquatus, and Triarius.
Torquatus in the first book sets forth the Epicurean doctrine
which makes the summum bonum to consist in pleasure. It is
refuted by Cicero in the second. Torquatus, according to the
fashion of the Epicureans, applies great part of his discourse to
the panegyric of the Graius homo. But Cicero handles him
very roughly, charging him with a total ignorance of physics,
an absurd disdain of dialectics, a loose, confused employment
of terms, and a doctrine pernicious and detestable in morals.
He says particularly that Epicurus held the sun to be only three
feet in diameter, and not larger than it appears to the human
eye, and that he formally objected to all definition of terms. A
principle laid down by Torquatus is, that the absence of pain is
the most exquisite pleasure, and Cicero appears to labor with
the utmost earnestness the contradiction of this maxim, which
he says confounds the nature of things. There is an ardor
partaking of passion in all Cicero's attacks upon Epicurus, but
I believe it was well founded. The principles of that philosophy
may properly be called the philosophy of corruption, and it has
^58 MEMOIHS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
I replied that this was my wish. I had abstained from every
step that could bear even the construction of attempting to
disturb the friendly relations between Russia and Britain ; and
all I asked was that the same measure should be meted out to
us. I had indeed observed several indications of endeavors to
warp the public opinion here on the side of the English in their
contest with us, but I had never much dreaded their effect, and
had npt thought them worthy of notice until this occurrence.
I assured him that I would send him the translations as soon
as I could have them made out.
We then touched upon the subject of general European
politics, upon which I found the Count evidently dissatisfied
with the present course of affairs. He expressed himself in
terms but partially intelligible to me. He said it was now
quite aiashion to talk as if there was but one object of atten-
tion in the affairs of Europe, and that one object was a single
man. For his part, he firmly believed that Providence would
make the experiment of taking away the man and leaving the
world to see how they could settle their questions without him.
As for himself, he was persuaded that if Providence had kept
this little incident in reserve afber the first moment of rapturous
joy should be over, the world would be quite astonished to find
itself as far from a state of harmony as ever, and with all its
sources of discord and additional new ones to settle.
I told the Count I had been much struck with the same
remark of the general disposition to concentrate upon one
individual man all the warfare and all the politics of the time.
I believed with him that the man would be taken away and the
questions would remain. But I consoled myself with reflecting
upon the part which Russia was obviously called to take in the
present state of the world, and with the confidence I had in the
extent of her power and the moderation of her views.
The Count replied that the Emperor was so accessible by the
goodness of his character — and then checked himself without
finishing the sentence. It was absolutely necessary that there
should be somebody to assume the office of regulator in this
state of affairs — somebody who should give the impulse to the
system of futurity. He did not say it must be the Emperor of
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 457
declaration was calculated, if believed by Russia to be true, to
make Russia take an interest in the war in favor of England
and against my country ; that the main efTort of the Regent's
state paper was to inculcate the belief that the causes assigned
in the American declaration were mere pretences, and that
America had commenced the war under the influence and in
subserviency to the policy of France. This I affirmed to be
absolutely false. I had officially communicated to him (the
Count) the views of the American Government with regard to
France at the time of the declaration of war. It was not true
that our quarrel with England had been produced by any opera-
tion of French influence. It was a question which we had to
settle with England alone, and a question without settlement of
which I did not believe it possible that peace should be made.
I added, that although the English answer to bur declaration
had thus been published here at full length, the declaration
itself had not ; and my principal object was to ask him whether
I could have* translations of our manifesto now published in
the same papers which had given circulation to the answer.
The Count said, by all means ; that the introductory remark
which I had noticed as having been published with the English
Regent's declaration was altogether wrong; that he did not
know it was in the paper, though he must acknowledge it was
his fault that it was there ; supposing that the declaration only
was in the paper, and being overwhelmed with these news-
papers, which they were perpetually bringing to him to read,
he had stopped them from reading this document to him, and by
that accident the remark had escaped his attention ; that if I
would send him translations of the American declaration, they
should be immediately published in the same gazettes where the
English answer had appeared ; that it was by no means the
intention of Russia to take a side or constitute herself a judge
in the war between the United States and England ; that his
own opinion was that I had truly stated the fact, that the ques-
tion was between America and England, altogether independent
of any French influence. But from the same disposition, not
to take a part in the question, he wished me to send him the
translations of our manifesto without any commentary.
^58 MEMOIHS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
I replied that this was my wish. I had abstained from every
step that could bear even the construction of attempting to
disturb the friendly relations between Russia and Britain ; and
all I asked was that the same measure should be meted out to
us. I had indeed observed several indications of endeavors to
warp the public opinion here on the side of the English in their
contest with us, but I had never much dreaded their effect, and
had npt thought them worthy of notice until this occurrence.
I assured him that I would send him the translations as soon
as I could have them made out.
We then touched upon the subject of general European
politics, upon which I found the Count evidently dissatisfied
with the present course of affairs. He expressed himself in
terms but partially intelligible to me. He said it was now
quite a. fashion to talk as if there was but one object of atten-
tion in the affairs of Europe, and that one object was a single
man. For his part, he firmly believed that Providence would
make the experiment of taking away the man and leaving the
world to see how they could settle their questions without him.
As for himself, he was persuaded that if Providence had kept
this little incident in reserve after the first moment of rapturous
joy should be over, the world would be quite astonished to find
itself as far from a state of harmony as ever, and with all its
sources of discord and additional new ones to settle.
I told the Count I had been much struck with the same
remark of the general disposition to concentrate upon one
individual man all the warfare and all the politics of the time.
I believed with him that the man would be taken away and the
questions would remain. But I consoled myself with reflecting
upon the part which Russia was obviously called to take in the
present state of the world, and with the confidence I had in the
extent of her power and the moderation of her views.
The Count replied that the Emperor was so accessible by the
goodness of his character — ^and then checked himself without
finishing the sentence. It was absolutely necessary that there
should be somebody to assume the office of regulator in this
state of affairs — somebody who should give the impulse to the
system of futurity. He did not say it must be the Emperor of
iSi3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 459
Russia, or speak as his Chancellor ; but nothing could ensue
but confusion if, as seemed now very much the tendency of
things, the policy and the will of Europe, were, if he might so
express himself, thrown into a republic. Every one would
have his project, and no two of them reconcilable with each
other. The present tendency was to throw everything into the
popular channel. Everything was to be done by popular move-
ments. It was in substance a return of Jacobinism. Napoleon
might be considered as the Don Quixote of monarchy. He
had, to be sure, overthrown many monarchs, but he had done
nothing against monarchy. By affecting to make his person
the only object of hostility, and by setting the populace at work
to run him down, there would be a foundation laid for many
future and formidable disorders. According to the principles
of the ancient diplomacy, it was a rule that every state must
be negotiated with upon the basis of its interests and its powers.
It would have been thought absurd to aim at obtaining from
any one what he had not to give. For instance, no one would
have applied to aa' order, of mendicant friars for a grant of
money. Every one was to be dealt with according to his means,
and that was to be required of him which he had to supply.
Now it was to be all a common concern, and all man- and
womankind was to mingle in the deliberations.
He asked me if I had seen Mr. SchlegePs pamphlet. I knew
nothing even of the man. He said Mr. Schlegel was a gentle-
man who had been here with Madame de Stael, and was still
with her at Stockholm. A pamphlet had lately been published,
ostensibly by him, though without his name.' Madame de
Stael, he supposed, was not the author of it, but he believed
she had given it quelques coups de brosse. It professed in the
title-page to be printed at Hamburg, but had really been printed
at Stockholm. He had received two copies of it from General
Van Suchtelen (the Russian Minister in Sweden), and he would
give me one of them (which he did), requesting only that I would
not mention having received it from him. He said with regard
to its contents that he totally diflered from the opinions it con-
tained, and was much like Madame de Stael herself She was
■ The title of this pamphlet was **Du Systime continental.**
^60 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
a perfect sample of Frenchwomen. It was impossible for a
human mind to have more wit and vivacity, but such was the
extreme mobility of her imagination, and such the inconsistency
of her ideas, that in the result of every conversation you have
with her, it is the same thing as if you had been talking avec une
folle.
I told the Count I had had the honor of two conversations
with her when she was here, and that in them she had given
me the measure of her political system. It was personal
resentment against Napoleon because he had treated her ill.
The Count laughed, and reminded me of the anecdote ' about
Madame de Sevigne, Louis the Fourteenth, and Bussy-Rabutin.
I mentioned the new proclamation of Louis to the French
people, and asked the Count if it was known to have produced
any effect in France. He said it was a good proclamation, and
he had no doubt would a la longue produce very considerable
effects, though perhaps not immediately. It was certain that
never since the commencement of the French Revolution had
there been so general a removal of all the obstacles to the return
of the Bourbons as there was at present, and he had long been
of opinion that it would end sooner or later in their restoration.
He had often said, and yet believed, it would finally come to the
King of the Almanac Royal. That is, he did not say that Louis
the Eighteenth would be restored, or his brother, the Comte
d'Artois; he would not promise that the Due d'Angouleme,
or even that the Due de Berri, would ever come to the throne;
it was impossible to ascertain the time when, or the individual
in whom, the restoration would be accomplished ; but the crown
would eventually fall upon the lawful head, just as the succession
would be arranged in the Almanac. " There is yet, however,
much to struggle through," added the Count ; " and even now
our political successes will tend much to strengthen and consol-
idate his power internally. France could have had nothing to
fear directly from Russia. Even had Russia harbored hatred
against France, which she does not, she is too distant ; she can
have no purposes of encroachment upon France. The nation,
therefore, could feel but a feeble interest in the war against
' I have not been able to trace this anecdote.
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^6 1
Russia. But now on one side (Prussia) we have had a com-
plete political success ; we may have success equally complete
on the other side (Austria). France will be thus put on the
defensive, and must contend for her own territories. This, no
doubt, will give new energy to her exertions, and will interest
the nation more in him whose cause will be thus identified with
their own. We must wait to know the results."
1 2th. I read the pamphlet given me by Count RomanzofT, in
which I imagine Mr. Schlegel had very little hand. That of
Madame de Stael is betrayed in every line. Although the
Count in strong terms disclaimed his concurrence in the opin-
ions it contains, I much fear they will prevail in the policy of
both Sweden and Russia. The pamphlet is a perfect picture of
Madame de Stael's mind, and strongly exemplifies the remarks
which the Count made to me about her. He told me that when
she was here she had taken entire possession of poor Admiral
Bentinck, but he thought Lord Ca^hcart had been a little shy
of her. I had remarked the same.
13th. After my evening walk, I read Olivet's translation of
Cicero's first Tusculan Disquisition. There are five— on Death,
Pain, Affliction, the Passions, and Virtue. The first, second,
and fourth are translated by Olivet, the third and fifth by
Bouhier. They are addressed to Brutus, and avowedly in the
Socratic form of dialogue. He suppo.ses a conference at Tus-
culum, between himself and a man of straw, whom he is to
refute and convince. It is not an alternate discussion, like the
books on good and evil, where each side supports its doctrine
with its arguments, but a mere statement of positions by one
party, with an elaborate argument by the other. Thus, in the
first Tusculan, after an introduction exposing the plan of the
work addressed to Brutus, he makes his interlocutor begin
thus : " I think death an evil." Upon which Cicero assumes
to prove the contrary. He draws his principal reasoning from
the immortality of the soul, which he accordingly labors to
prove, and does prove, as far as it can be shown by the light of
nature. The drifl of the discourse very strongly resembles that
of Socrates in the Phaedo, from which he makes several long
quotations. There appears some superfluous exertion to prove
462 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
that death is not an evil to the dead, the contrary being too
absurd to be affirmed by anybody accustomed to philosophical
discussion. The natural horror of death will always be more
than a match for Philosophy. It is perhaps impossible to
prove death an evil ; but it is certainly impossible to feel that
it is not
17th. Mr. Lewis sent me a letter he received last evening,
from Gpttenburg, with news from America to 23d February.
Further disasters by land, and successes upon the sea. " In
the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity
consider : God also hath set the one over against the other, to
the end that man should fink nothing after him!* (Instead of
which read, " not know what is to come.**) Ecclesiastes vii. 14.
So it is translated in Luther's German Bible. One thousand
more men, with a General Winchester, killed or taken in Canada,
and the Java frigate sunk by the Constitution, Captain Bain-
bridge. I walked alone after dinner, and on returning home
read the fiflh Tusculan, translated by Bouhier. The subject is
Virtue; the argument, that it is sufficient for the happiness
of man; and it concludes this admirable work. Nothing can
stand a comparison with the genuine doctrines of Christianity
in their application to the pursuit of happiness ; but, setting
them aside, the Socratic and Ciceronian moral philosophy is
the most exalted system of human conduct that ever was pre-
sented to the world. Its tenets were beyond the ordinary level
of human infirmity; and so are those of Christianity. It made
the essence of virtue to consist in self-subjugation ; and so does
Christianity. It gave out a theory of perfection to the aim of
man, and made the endeavor to attain it his duty. So does
Christianity. The perfect example indeed was not given, as by
Christ ; not even by Socrates. Yet he, and Cicero, and many
of the sectaries of this philosophy, did attain an eminence of
practical virtue highly laudable. In this last book Cicero
indulges his oratorical manner of discourse freely, and with
great eloquence. He mentions the practice of the women of
India of being burnt upon the death of their husbands. This
is one of the strongest proofs how the horror of death can be
overcome, even by the female sex, I marvel, nevertheless, that
1813] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 463
such a custom should have subsisted so long ; for it is yet in
full vigor, notwithstanding all the eflbrts of the Christians to
obtain its abolition. In this book Cicero relates his discovery
of the tomb of Archimedes, near Syracuse, when he was Quaestor
in Sicily. He also tells the story of Pythias and Damon.
1 8th. In the evening I read several chapters of Paley's
Natural Theology. He states his argument clearly by the
similitude of a watch, and his reasoning to prove contrivance
in the construction of the eye is ingenious, learned, and im-
pressive. I wanted to consult Ray and Derham, the titles of
whose works show that they took the same basis of argument,
but I have not the books at hand. There is a great variety and
minuteness of knowledge displayed in this work — of Natural
History and Comparative Anatomy, in the descriptions of the
eye and ear, and other parts of organized bodies ; of Mechanics,
in the description of the watch ; of Metaphysics, in the state-
ment of the Atheistic arguments. I believe there is not much
Atheism in the world. But the illustration of the watch and
the steam-engine cannot account for Creation— iJjBxplains only
the intelligence of organization. The matodals of which the
machine is composed exist independent o^he workmen. Mere
intelligence is not competent to create. The watch is only
combination. The creative power is beyond the reach of my
understanding. I believe it, as revealed in Scripture, and I infer
it, from the intelligence and power manifested in the mechan-
ism of the Universe ; but I cannot embrace the idea with any
distinctness, and I see no attempt by Paley to prove it.
26th. The second of the Easter holy-days. I went soon after
twelve at noon to the Winter Palace, and attended at the Court
held by the Empresses. Mr. Smith did not go, his wife being
confined by the scarlet fever. This disease is considered as
highly infectious, and it is an etiquette that a person having
intercourse with one affected by it must not go to Court. I
went because' I have not seen Mrs. Smith, or been in her
chamber, since she was seized with the complaint. The Court
itself was like all others, excepting that the foreign Ministers
received notice that they would have permission to kiss the
hands of the two Empresses, which we all accordingly did.
464 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCV ADAMS. [April,
Mr. Narishkin said that several of the foreign Ministers had
expressed a desire to be admitted to that honor, in consequence
of which it was granted. The Court were all in very high
spirits at the news of a victory gained by Count Wittgenstein
over the Viceroy of Italy near Magdeburg, of which a bulletin
was in circulation. Baron Blome told me that his Government
had sent Count Joachim BernstorfT. a brother of the late Minis-
ter of Foreign Affairs, to London, but it was not yet certain what
would be his reception. The Danish Government had recalled
all their privateers, and ceased hostilities at the n)outh of the
Elbe. The British had done the same there, but not as a
general measure. The Emperor Alexander had sent Prince
Dolgorouki to Copenhagen with a letter to the King, who had
sent his answer to the Emperor's head-quarters by a young
Count Moltke, who had been Danish Minister in Sweden.
27th. At eleven this morning, I went with Mr, Smith to the
Kazan Church, and attended the Te Deum, preceded by a mass.
The two ceremonies together employ three full hours. The
Empresses, the two Grand Dukes, and the Grand Duchess
Ann performed their adorations at the miraculous image of the
Virgin as usual — complete prostration — ventre a terre, as Mr.
Laval expressed it. Count Lowenhielm was much occupied
in making the Chevalier Bardaxi Azara, the Spanish Minister,
lose the first place in the arrangement of the Corps Diploma-
tique. " The Chevalier," as the Count observed, " always affects
to take the first place, and thereby," said the Count, "shows a
pretension which I do not admit. I have spoken about it to
the Duke of Scrra Capriola, because I had observed he always
gives place to the Chevalier Bardaxi, and I told him that out
of politeness and personal respect to him I should always very
cheerfully give ///;;/ precedence, and I would do the same to
any other of my colleagues ; but as a pretension, I could not
allow it in any one of them. The Duke answered that he
was instructed to yield precedence to the Spanish Minister, as
representing the eldest Prince of the House of Bourbon. But
I have no such instructions, and Mr. Bardaxi knows that the
rule established here is the alternative." Mr. Bardaxi did not
come until afler the ceremony had begun. Count Lowenhielm's
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 465
effort was, that the ranks should be kept so close that Mr. Bar-
daxi should not be able to take the first place, but might be
obliged to take the last. He succeeded only in part. Mr.
Bardaxi came and attempted to get up to the top; this he could
not effect, and finally found a passage at the third place, below
the Duke and Baron Blome, and above Count Maistre. I was
between him and Count Lowenhielm. Mr. Zea, however, who
has manifested the same pretension of primacy, was now obliged
to take the lowest place. These pretensions are troublesome
things, and continually recurring. When the French set of
Ministers were here, Baron Blome always made a point of get-
ting his place next to the Ambassador, until Count St. Julien
was formally accredited, and afterwards next to him. Count
St. Julien as the Austrian Minister, and a sort of an apology
for an Ambassador, had peculiar distinctions shown him by the
Emperor's command ; not without giving offence to the other
Ministers. But he assumed, and was allowed, always to take
the place next to the Ambassador. Blome*s pretensions were not
then formally opposed, although they were particularly noticed
and contested by all the other Ministers. But since the change
of politics at this Court, Blome has not ventured to push his way
before others, and has often been at the lowest place. When
I first came here, Mr. Maisonneuve told me that the rule
established here was the pell-mell — ^but that sometimes Min-
isters, and more commonly Ambassadors, would not submit to
the rule. The only reason why Count Stedingk and Count St
Julien had not the formal character of Ambassadors, was to
avoid contesting the precedence with the French Ambassador.
In all these controversies, I have endeavored to consider it as
an affair in which I, as an American Minister, had no concern ;
and that my only principle is to dispute upon precedence with
nobody.
29th. I dined at Count RomanzofTs with a company of about
thirty-five persons — Russian officers and the foreign Ministers.
There was much news, though none official. The taking of
Thorn is known by a letter from the Duke of Oldenburg to the
Empress-mother. Count Lowenhielm told me he had the protest
of the thirty-four members of Congress in the minority against
VOL. II. — 30
466 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May.
the war, and promised to send it to me. He q>oke of it in terms
of high approbation. Baron Blome, next to whom I sat at dinner,
appeared to have recovered his spirits again, and has become as
warm an adversary to Napoleon as any man I see. He told me
that he had seen his speech on closing the session of the Legis-
lative Assembly, in which not one word was said of the defection
of Prussia; but he said he should very soon go in person and
place himself at the head of his army. I asked where his army
was. Blome said he did not know. He had also said in the
speech that the Department of the Mouths of the Elbe had been
offered to Denmark as an indemnity for Norway (meaning, I
suppose, offered by England and Russia). I said that part of
Hanover was in that Department " Oh/' said Blome, " it is only
he says so, and what he says deserves no credit In this case
it is otAy partly truey Partly true it therefore is. The Hanseatic
Cities are not likely to be long-lived.
May 2d. Early this morning I received a notification from the
Grand Master of the Ceremonies, Narishkin, that there would
be a Te Deum at the Imperial Chapel in the Winter Palace, at
noon, for the occupation of Thorn by tlie Russian troops. I
went with Mr. Smith about half-past twelve. The Te Deum
began about half-past one. It was very thinly attended. The
Spanish Minister, Bardaxi Azara, and all his legation, and Cap-
tain Guedes, the Portuguese Charge d'Affaires, were absent
They were gone to Czarskozelo, where the oath of allegiance
to Ferdinand tlie Seventh was administered to a regiment of
Spanish prisoners taken last summer and stationed there during
the winter. The Ministers of the allied Courts were all going
out to witness the ceremony, after which they were entertained
by the Spanish Minister. Afler dinner I walked on the Bou-
levard of the Admiralty, and saw the procession of carriages.
It was very numerous, and the walk was greatly crowded,
this being the last of the Easter holy-days, and the weather
fine.
nth. I dined with Mr. Smith at Count RomanzofT's; no
other of the foreign Ministers was there. But it was a dinner
to a Baron de Tawast, formerly Swedish Minister at Constanti-
nople, and now an aid-de-camp of the Swedish Prince Royal.
i8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 467
The young Count Lowenhielm was there, but neither the Min-
ister nor Mr. Brandel, they being both confined at home by
sickness. I called at the Count's after dinner, but saw ndther
of them. At dinner I was seated between Count Kotschubey
and General Betancourt, with both of whom I had some con-
versation. That with the Count was chiefly political, on our
war with England. My feelings on this subject, and some re-
marks and questions of the Count, urged me to a degree of
warmth bordering at least on indiscretion. Count RomanzofT,
who was unusually marked in his attentions to me, said, in a
tone of pleasantry, " How happens it that you are constantly
beating at sea the English, who beat all the rest of the world, and
that on land, where you ought to be the strongest, the English
do w/iat they please T* I answered him in the same manner,
that I knew not how to account for it, unless by supposing that
these times were reserved to keep the world in a continued
state of wonder, and to prove that there is something new
under the sun. He replied that there had once been a con-
fusion of tongues, and now, he believed, was the time for a
confusion of minds.
13th. I received this morning the notice for the Tc Deum
at the Imperial Chapel for the victory obtained by the Russian
imperial troops, commanded by Count Wittgenstein, in presence
of the Emperor Alexander, near the borough of Lutzen, over
the French army, commanded by the Emperor Napoleon. At
half-past twelve I went with Mr. Smith to the palace; the Te
Deum began soon after. Scarcely any details of the victory
were given. We were told that the Emperor Alexander
actually commanded — was on the field, and twice rallied his
troops — but that he chose to have the Te Deum at the chapel
and not at the Kazan Church, and also chose to have it said
that Wittgenstein commanded, from his personal modesty and
to avoid all appearance of ostentation. It was supposed the
loss of men was about equal on both sides, but fell most heavily
on the Prussians, who are not even mentioned in the account
read by the War Minister, GortschakoflT, before the Te Deum.
Count Maistre and Baron Blome were the only other foreign
Ministers present. The Duke de Serra Capriola, Count Lowen-
468 MEMOIRS OF JOHS QU/XCY ADAMS. [M^,
hielm, and the Chevalier Bardaxi Azaia were confiocd at home
by sickness. The ceremony was short
I Jtb. We passed the evening at Mr. Harris's until ten. Just
before we came away, Mr. Laval sent in a verbal message. A
courier from the Grand Duke Constantine arrived about noon
with a complete confinnation, and more than confirmation, of
the Enqieror's victory at Lutzen. Instead of fifteen thousand
Freachmen ^in, twenty-five thousand ; instead of sixteen
cannon, thirty-six taken ; and Wittgenstein in full pursuit of the
fugitives. The Emperor bad returned to Dresden, where the
Emperor of Austria and the King of Saxony were to meet him.
l8tb. Neither of the gazettes has yet published any details of
the great victory at Lutzen, which occasions rumors to be in
circulation that it was an equivocal victory. The usual custom
here of announcing victories which are sometimes real defeats
always gives rise to strong opinions in public, and to many
adverse rumors, when the particulars are delayed. As this is
beyond all comparison the most important of the victories that
the Russians have gained in the present war, the impatience of
the public is proportionably excited to leam the particulars.
I suppose them to be delayed only to connect them with some
decisive and important result.
19th. On our return home I found Mr. Harris. His news
directly from General Armfeldt was, that the victory at Lutzen
not having been quite so decisive as had been expected, the
Emperor Alexander was at Dresden, sending on a hundred and
fifty thousand men to fight one which would be completely so.
The courier with the news is hourly expected, but there was
none arrived yesterday.
22d. Count Wittgenstein's report to the Emperor of the battle
at Liitzen was at length published this day in the gazettes. It
leaves yet much to be told ; the victory hitherto appears to have
consisted in merely maintaining possession of the field of battle.
Miss Frederica Bode dined with us. She said a field-jager had
arrived this morning from the army, but she believed he had
brought no news. 1 saw him arrive at the door of the palace.
A remarkable omission in Wittgenstein's report is, that it has
no date of place, and that it still remains generally unknown
i8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^(^
where the Russian and Prussian head-quarters were after the
battle.
28th. There has been no official publication of military events
since the battle at Lutzen, and the consequence is, innumerable
rumors of every description are in circulation, upon none of
which any dependence is to be placed. A retreat of the Russian
and Prussian armies followed immediately after the battle of
Lutzen, and the official silence observed since that time has
occasioned some disappointment and uneasiness in the public
mind. Vague and groundless reports of defeat and disaster
have been whispered about, and other reports of success and
victory have been spread abroad to counteract them. Mr. Lewis
informed me of news from England that the United States sloop-
of-war " Hornet" had sunk an English sloop-of-war of superior
force, called the *' Peacock."
yiine 1st. The French and German gazettes communicate
gradually and not very distinctly the state of aflairs at the
armies. The battle of Lutzen is claimed as a victory by both
sides. The Russians and Prussians maintained the field, and
took a battery of cannon. They lost none ; but they retreated
the next day. The French have crossed the Elbe and threaten
Berlin. The situation of things is critical in the highest degree.
3d. It was Ascension-day by the Julian Calendar, which is yet
observed here. The Kazan Church being open, we went in and
surveyed all the trophies of the present war there deposited.
There are ten or twelve French Imperial eagles, forty or fifty
standards of the French, last year's allies, Marshal Davoust's
truncheon, which is preserved in a glass case fixed to the wall,
and the keys of Dresden, Hamburg, Lubeck, Warsaw, Thorn,
and Czenstochoff, suspended by ribbons of the Order of St.
George over long square pasteboards, notifying which place
each of the sets of keys belongs to. We saw the usual morn-
ing exercise of troops before the palace.
4th. The exhibition of pupils at the Engineer School, under
the direction of General Betancourt, was fixed for this day and
to-morrow, and Mr. Smith and I had received invitations to
attend it. We went accordingly. It lasted from ten o'clock
until two, after which there was a collation, of which we partook.
470 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
The examination was similar to that of the last year, confined
entirely to the mathematics. Only one of the five French
officers who had been employed in the instruction of this
school, and whom we saw there last year, was now present.
The rest have been sent into the country, in consequence of the
war. . The company which attended was not numerous. Count
Maistre was there, and I had some conversation with him. He
told me there had been news yesterday, first from the Prince
of Wurtemberg, who commands the Russian army besieging
Dantzic, and afterwards by a courier from the army, of new
and splendid successes against the French — fighting three days
successively, and the French repulsed upon all points — some-
thing of what the Italians call " strepitoso." "But," said the
Count, " if the French were repulsed, they attacked ; then they
still have the offensive, and they are advancing. I am afraid
there is something behind that they do not tell us. The cou-
rier brought the report, too, that the Austrians were just
commencing hostilities again.st the French ; but I still doubt it."
6th. Mr. Smith called on Mr. Harris, where he heard that
the " strepitoso** affair, of which Count Maistre spoke to me so
dubiously, the three days' battle, had ended in a total defeat
of the combined Russian and Prussian armies ; that the Duke
of Vicence had since been at the Emperor Alexander's head-
quarters, and that it is expected Count RomanzofT will be called
thither in a few days. It is further said that the French are
in possession of Hamburg. The Russian and Prussian head-
quarters were at Lowenberg and Goldberg, in Silesia, at both
of which places we were in our tour through tliat country.
The battle was on the 2ist, 22d, and 23d May.
7th. I dined at Count Romanzoff's. The usual diplomatic
company were there ; also Admiral Tchitchagoff, and a young
Englishman or Scotchman, Lord Dumfries, a grandson of the
Marquis of Bute, — travelling for instruction and pleasure. I
asked Baron Blome which side his Government was, French,
or against France. He answered laughingly, but evasively.
" Ay," said he, " ask me that question ; but we shall soon know ;
it cannot last long: at least we have fired guns against both
sides." I asked him whether the Danes were at Hamburg. No ;
i8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 471
they had been there, and evacuated it by an order, on Count
BernstorfFs return from England, where they had refused even
to listen to his propositions. The Swedes were in possession of
Hamburg, which they took two days after it was evacuated by
thq Danes. The late battles in Saxony were on the 19th, 20th,
and 2 1st May. The combined armies were not at all defeated,
but they had merely retreated after them, to draw on the French
army until Austria should march her troops, which was fixed
for the 30th May. Napoleon and his army are again in the most
imminent danger of having their retreat cut off In these last
battles he lost nearly double the number of men that the com-
bined army did, and prisoners and cannon — ^whereas they lost
none. Caulaincourt did come to the Emperor Alexander's head-
quarters, but was not received.
Count Maistre, next to whom I sat at table, told me that there
had been, since this battle, a thousand false reports in circu-
lation ; among others, that one of the Russian regiments had
refused to obey his orders to fight ; that there was a long letter
of eight pages from the Emperor to his mother, which had been
seen by several persons, and even copies of it were circulated ;
that it gave at large his motives for retreating after the battle,
by Count Wittgenstein's advice ; that he was fighting for the
cause of Europe, but that he ought not to risk too much the
blood of his troops, when such a powerful ally was close at
haiid to share in the losses and in the struggle.
Count RomanzofT asked me if I had received any late dis-
patches from America. I had not, but had seen, in English
newspapers, articles stating that Mr. DaschkofT had offered the
Emperor's mediation at Washington, which was immediately
accepted. The Courier of 1 3th May says the British Govern-
ment will refuse it. The Count had seen these papers, but said
he had received no dispatches from Mr. Daschkoff". I observed
that, from the complexion of the article in the Courier, it was
not very important when Mr. Daschkoff''s communication might
arrive ; to which he assented. I had also some conversation
with Count Traversey, who thinks the American and Russian
oak less durable than the English.
8th. On my return home I found Mr. Harris, who spent the
472 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
evening with us until midnight. He has heard several more of
the &lse and absurd rumors whispered about in consequence
of the official silence concerning the last battle. One was that
Wittgenstein had been killed or mortally wounded in it, and
that his death is kept a great secret. Another, that the Russian
army was forced to retreat with rapidity ; that they marched a
hundred and thirty-five wersts in two days. Both these reports
are stupid falsehoods. The last is an impossibility. The Rus-
sian retreat must have been about one hundred wersts in four
or five days ; and that is rapid enough, with an incumbrance
of their wounded and their artillery. And there would be no
imaginable motive for keeping it secret if Wittgenstein had
been killed or wounded. It is but just now that the real issue
of the battle of Lutzen is coming to light. The accounts on
both sides must be compared to collect the truth. The errors
in the French relations are chiefly in the details, those of the
combined armies are in the results. The allies maintained the
field on the day of battle. But they retreated the next morn-
ing; and I marvel that they should have thought it an occasion
for Te Deums.
lOth. Mr. Harris, who passed the evening with us, gave me
an account of a long conversation which he had this morning
with Admiral Tchitchagoff, who gave him freely his opinions
respecting the present state of political affairs. The Admiral
commanded one of the armies which last winter were to have
surrounded and intercepted the Emperor Napoleon at the pas-
sage of the Beresina, on his retreat from Moscow, last December.
Napoleon passed the Beresina in presence both of TchitchagofT's
and Wittgenstein's armies, and the Admiral has been much
censured for having suffered it. He says that at the utmost he
had twelve thousand men, and that Napoleon had more than
seventy thousand. He speaks with great contempt of the late
Field-Marshal Prince Koutouzof and of Wittgenstein, and in the
most explicit manner declares that for all their successes of the
last winter the Russians were indebted to Famine and Frost.
I ith. As the prospect of breaking up my establishment here,
and the course of life connected with it, approaches and becomes
certain, I find comforts and pleasures in it which, while enjoyed
i8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 473
constantly, I have not estimated as they deserved ; the loss of
them will be no trifling privation. A still more serious reflec-
tion is, upon the very little account to which I have turned the
leisure I have enjoyed here.
1 2th. There are a multitude of rumors about the city. An
Austrian declaration of war against France. The retreat of the
French army back to Dresden. The evacuation of Hamburg
by the Swedes. Its occupation by a body of Russian troops.
A declaration of war by Denmark against Sweden, Russia, and
Prussia. The battles of 19th, 20th, and 21st May, in and round
Bautzen, were nearly as bloody and as indecisive as that of
Liiitzen. The Russian semi-official accounts acknowledge a
retreat on the 21st, and they claim a victory on the 26th, at
Haynau, in Silesia, of their rear-guard over the French advanced
guard. The subsequent retreat of the French was occasioned
by the hostilities, commenced or declared, of Austria.
13th. The Austrian declaration of war against France is con-
firmed, and the retreat of the French army back to Dresden in
consequence of it. Nothing has, however, yet been officially
published on the subject.
15th. At noon I called upon Count RomanzofT, according to
his appointment. He told me he had received dispatches from
Mr. DaschkofT, in answer to the Emperor's proposal of media-
tion, which he said appeared to have been entirely successful.
He then showed me the copy of Mr. Monroe's answer to the
proposals made by Mr. DaschkofT. It is dated nth March,
and in very handsome terms accepts the mediation. It says
that further arrangements will shortly be made to carry the
acceptance into eflect, of which he shall be duly informed. The
Count added that Mr. DaschkofT informed him that he should
write him more at large as soon as possible. The Count said
he was gratified that this measure had been so received by the
United States, though, from the manner in which it seemed to
be considered in England, he could not flatter himself that it
could have any further immediate efTect.
I said that my own expectations were the same ; that by the
manner in which it is considered by the newspapers of all the
great parties in England, I saw no prospect of its acceptance
474 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
there. The Courier, a ministerial paper, had declared itself sure
that it would be refused. The Times, a Wellesley and Canning
paper, had expressed its regret at the interest taken by the Em-
peror in this mediation, and its reluctance at the negotiations
taking this turn. I had a private letter also, mentioning that such
was the general sentiment of all parties in England. I regretted
very much that this should be the result, but I was extremely
gratified that the measure had been proposed, and at the frank-
ness and readiness with which it had been accepted by my own
Government; inasmuch as it had given them an opportunity to
manifest to the Emperor and to the world their readiness and
even eagerness for peace, as well as the falsehood of what our
enemies were taking such pains to propagate throughout the
world, that we acted under the influence of France.
The Count replied that he did not think the mediation would
be directly refused by the British Government. It would cause
some embarrassment to the Ministry. By a refusal they would
incur a responsibility which they might hereafter find trouble-
some. But he believed they would give an Evasive answer,
and renew the pretence that we were in subserviency to France.
He nevertheless hoped that the measure would at a future day
not be without its good effects. He asked me if I had any
later accounts from America, and what was the state of the
war.
I had no accounts but such as came by the English gazettes.
I mentioned the bombardmeiU of Lewiston and the report of
the destruction of Norfolk; the application by Mr. Daschkoff 's
secretary to the British Admiral for a cartel for a vessel to come
here, dispatched by the Government of the United States ; and
the report of Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard being destined to
come out as Commissioners — of the accuracy of which I had
my doubts. I presumed a commission would be appointed, but
I questioned whether they would be the men. Mr. Gallatin
could not easily be spared, and he and Mr. Bayard were so
opposed to each other in our politics that I thought nt doubtful
whether they would be joined in one commission.
The Count said that in a Government like ours that might be
the very reason for joining them, so that the great opposing
i8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 475
interests might all be represented. I admitted this, but thought
it more likely to give rise to the report than to the reality.
He said he should this evening write to the Emperor and
make him his report of the dispatch from Mr.Daschkoff. He
asked me therefore to send him the English paper in which I
had seen the article concerning Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard. I
accordingly sent him the slip of the Times of i8th May, which
I received from Mr. Beasley.
I had some further conversation with the Count upon other
subjects. I told him I had seen, in the National Intelligencer
that he had lent me, Mr. Barlow's correspondence with the
Duke of Bassano, concerning the invitation to Wilna, and Mr.
Barlow's account of it to the American Secretary of State. I
had been happy to observe Mr. Barlow's remark, that if there
were any other motives than those of treating concerning our
commerce and our indemnities, he should know what answer
to give — as it so fully confirmed the assurances that I had
given to the Count on that occasion. He said he had noticed
it in the correspondence, and had always been fully convinced
it was so.
He asked me whether I had received an answer concerning
the papers of the Russian Embassy at Paris, of which he had
spoken to me. I said I lamented that hitherto all my efforts
to obtain an answer from Paris had been unsuccessful ; that
the person whom I had dispatched as a courier had been very
long in reaching Vienna; that he had even met with some ob-
structions and detentions on the road in Russia, owing, I pre-
sumed, to the peculiar situation of that part of the country at
the time ; that on his arrival at Vienna he had found himself
unexpectedly detained there, and had forwarded by mail one
of the two letters I had given him for Paris. This letter was
in cipher, and I had authorized him in case he should himself
be detained to forward it by post. It has been received, and
yesterday came to me an answer, saying that they have no key
to the cipher, and cannot read it. I had foreseen that Mr.
Barlow might not have the key to my cipher, which had been
with his predecessor, and had therefore given Mr. Delprat a
duplicate without cipher, to be delivered only by himself, and
476 AfEMOlRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
in consequence of his detention this letter had not. been re-
ceived. I had afterwards written again, and sent my letter to
be forwarded from Copenhagen. I had an answer to that also,
saying that the communication between Copenhagen and France
was interrupted and my letter could not be transmitted. Then
I had written a third time, and dispatched my letter to be for-
warded from Hamburg. But the bearer of it, who was going
to England, on reaching Berlin, found it dangerous to proceed
to Hamburg, and had taken the way through Stralsund and
Gottenburg.
The Count observed that the communication between Copen-
hagen and France he supposed was now restored, and my letter
sent through that channel might now reach its destination.
I said I could not yet discover what the position of Denmark
was, and of which side she was to be considered.
He hesitated a little, and then said he believed Denmark
would finally be fixed as the friend of France in this war ; that
it seemed so since the positive refusal to hear Count BernstorfT
in England, and his return home. It could not be otherwise
after that. ** Though now," added he, " the gazettes say that the
English Government have sent General Hope to Copenhagen.
There is," said the Count, "a want of combination in some of
the proceedings. I had made dispositions which I hoped, and
yet believe, might have secured Denmark to our cause. But I
have been disappointed."
I said that the failure of Denmark might be of less importance
since the declaration of Austria, and the subsequent retreat of
the French army.
He said that he knew nothing of the Austrian declaration,
and did not believe there was sufficient evidence that the
French army bad retreated. It had been said he had received
an estafette with the Austrian declaration, which was not true.
The letters from the army, and even from the Emperor, speak
of it as being confidently expected, and that very shortly. Days
had been fixed, upon which the Austrians were to have com-
menced their hostilities, first the 15th and then the i8th May.
Both those days, however, had passed, and they had not com-
menced. The Emperor had not written to him these fifteen
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 477
days ; the co-operation of Austria was promised as a certainty,
but there is yet no account of its having taken efiect. As to
the accounts of the retreat of the French army, they were from
Berlin, where they had been excessively and needlessly alarmed,
and where they had published everything, true or false, that
could tend to quiet the alarms of the people. He did not mean
to say there had been no danger to Berlin; its danger was im-
mense, but not exactly for that week. What motive could the
Emperor Napoleon have for going to Berlin while he had the
combined army in presence before him ? But if he can oblige
us to cross the Oder, what can hinder him afterwards from
going to Berlin just when he pleases?
I said that the possession of great cities always had on
the popular sentiment a more powerful impression than it de-
served. There was hardly a capital in Europe but had been
taken and retaken time after time. People seemed to think
it was putting an end to the war; but it scarcely ever had
been so.
The Count said that Governments were apt to comply too
much with this popular panic on the occupation of great cities.
Napoleon, however, paid very little attention to it. He followed
his own course, and let people clamor to their heart's content.
He knew that all such piauUment signified nothing at all in the
course of events, and it reminded him of a saying of his father's.
Marshal RomanzofT. In the midst of a great battle, some sol-
dier, in a moment of particular danger, had loudly exclaimed to
him, *' I will die with you I" upon which the Marshal instantly
answered as loudly, " Away I go and die with whom you will I
I want none but such as will live with me I" — ** a sentiment," said
the Count, "which T think as judicious as it was well timed."
The Count appeared at once inclined to be communicative and
restrained by motives of prudence from speaking out freely, and
I forbore to press him upon topics with which I had no imme-
diate concern. He said that, by the late English newspapers
that he had seen, there appeared to be a most extraordinary
and wonderful stagnation of everything of general interest.
The Princess of Wales's virtue, and the Cossack, seemed to
have absorbed all the contemplations of the English nation.
478 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
He is evidently not satisfied with the course which things are
taking, though he speaks with great caution and reserve.
i6th. This day the rumors afloat are that the French are in
possession of Hamburg and Breslau. The official silence still
continues.
17th. We all went at noon to the warehouse of Messrs. Meyer
and Briixner, near the Exchange, and saw the statue of Napo-
leon, said to be the work of Canova. It belonged to the city
of Hamburg, to which it is said he had presented it, to be
placed in the city hall. When Colonel Tettenborn entered
Hamburg, it was given to him, or he took it by the right of
conquest, and made a present of it to Count Wittgenstein, his
commander. The Count directed it to be sent from Hamburg
to Lubeck, and thence, by water, to this city, where it arrived
lately, consigned to Messrs. Meyer and Bruxner. It is a
pedestrian statue of white marble, about, seven feet high, in the
Roman iAiperial garb. The face is well executed, and said to
be a strong, but flattered, likeness. Mr. Lewis called on me
this morning, and was here again in the evening. The appoint-
ment of Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard to come to Russia upon
the business of the mediation is announced in the National
Intelligencer. They were to sail from Philadelphia about the
first of May.
1 8th. There is a multitude of reports and rumors in circu-
lation ; that of an armistice confidently asserted, though quite
contradictory to everything published in the official g^ettes.
20th. After dinner I walked in the Summer Gardens ; there
was a great crowd of people, but almost entirely Russians of
the lower classes. Numbers of the women were in the national
dresses. I went into the Kazan Church, where preparations are
making to celebrate the obsequies of Prince Koutouzof. I went
up and examined near by the image of the Virgin of Kazan,
which they consider wonder-working. It is a wretched old
daubing, not fit for a sign-post ; but the head-dress around it is
rich with diamonds and other precious stones. There are a
multitude of other paintings, of angels, evangelists, bishops, &c.,
some of them well executed.
22d. I received this morning a note from Count RomanzofT,
i8i3.] THE MISSION TO HUSSIA. 479
requesting me to call upon him at one o'clock afternoon, which
I did. I took with me the French translation of the two papers
containing the manifesto on our declaration of war against
Britain, which are to be published. I explained to him the
reason why the two pieces were to be taken as comprising the
single manifesto.
He said they should be published ; that he had written to
the Emperor, charging himself with the wrong of having per-
mitted the publication of the commentary which had accom-
panied the English manifesto in the Russian and German
gazettes, and informing him that he had promised me the
American manifesto, without commentary, should be published
in the same papers.
/ I told him I should send him the Russian and German
translations when they should be completed. I also showed
him, and left with him, the National Intelligencer containing
the article relative to the appointment of Messrs. Gallatin and
Bayard, which I received yesterday, observing that he had
judged more correctly than I had on the probability of this
fact He ^id that he was very sorry to say he had received,
since he had seen me, further dispatches from Count Lieven,
stating that the British Government, with many very friendly
and polite assurances that there was no mediation which they
should so readily and cheerfully accept as that of the Emperor
of Russia, had, however, stated that their differences with the
United States of America, involving certain principles of the
internal government of England, were of a nature which they
did not think suitable to be settled by a mediation.
I said this was no more than I had expected ; that I much
regretted the failure of this new attempt at negotiation, but that
I was happy the solemnity which the President had given to
the acceptance of the Emperor's offer, by the appointment of
two persons so highly distinguished in our country, would at
least manifest the sense which he entertained of the Emperor's
friendly sentiments and proposal, as well as the constant desire
of the American Government for peace.
He said it was the light in which he had already represented
it to the Emperor, and it would now be for consideration
480 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
whether, after the step thus taken by the American Govern-
ment, it would not be advisable to renew the proposition to
Great Britain; upon which he should write to the Emperor.
Perhaps it might be proper not to be discouraged by thfe ill
success of his first advances. After-considerations might pro-
duce more pacific dispositions in the British Government.
Unexpected things were happening every day; "and in our
own aflairs/' said the Count, "a very general report prevails
that an armistice has taken place."
I said I had for the last four or five days heard rumors of
that sort in circulation, and had intended to ask him, if I might
• without indiscretion, whether they were true.
He said they were. He had no doubt they were. He had
received no official account of it. The Emperor had not written
to him. The multitude of his occupations sufficiently explained
this. The Emperor did everything himself. He was Emperor,
commander-in-chief, quartermaster, and, in short, superintended
everything. It was therefore perfectly natural that he had not
found time to write to him ; and, from motives of delicacy, he
did not permit any other person to write to him ; so^hat he had
received nothing official on this subject. But there were letters
from the army which ascertained the fact, and indeed Count
Lowenhielm had received it officially from the Prince Royal of
Sweden, to whom it had been communicated. There was also
an article in the Berlin Gazette of 8th June, mentioning that
a Russian and a French officer had passed through that city
from the respective head-quarters, bound to Hamburg — they
were doubtless sent to extend the armistice to the troops in
that quarter.
I asked him whether the Prince of Sweden and his troops
were included in the armistice. He supposed so. For what
length of time was it ? " For five or six weeks." I had heard
it was to the 20th July. ** It must be about that." I had seen
also a proposal mentioned for a Congress at Prague.
" Yes, there was such a proposal, and the United States are
expressly named among the powers to be invited to it. But
in this universal state of war, partial peaces seem hardly" (said
he) " to be an adequate remedy. The Emperor Napoleon pro-
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 48 1
posed the armistice. I suppose that it was hunger that led
to the proposal. He wished it for a longer time, but the five or
six weeks was all that they could agree upon — that will bring
them to the new harvest." I said I hoped it would bring them,
at least, to the prospect of peace. The Count did not appear
to expect it.
I then mentioned the expectation I had of the arrival of my
new colleagues at Cronstadt, which might be from hour to hour ;
and asked if they could be presented to the Empresses in the
Emperor's absence. He said he believed they might to the
Empress-mother, who had a Court of her own, and received
company at Paulofsky; but the Empress Elizabeth was at
Czarskozelo, quite in retirement, and saw nobody.
I asked if it would be necessary to give any order, that they
might not be delayed at Cronstadt. He said that an order
might be necessary for the admission of their baggage, and if
I would write him a couple of lines of a note, mentioning my
expectation of their arrival, he would take upon himself the
charge to make all the proper arrangements.
I told him that I presumed the President of the United States
had not made these appointments without being aware that the
British Government might reject the mediation and thus leave
us nothing to do. I concluded, therefore, that he had a second
object in sending them both ; that one of them was destined
to succeed me here, and that the other would probably have
another destination. He said perhaps to France. I 5aid I could
not tell, it was merely my conjecture.
He replied, that if it was to France, he should have no objec-
tion. He thought the maxim of Cato the Censor very good in
politics, though he detested it in everything else. He meant
the rule of always hating your enemy as if he was one day to
be your friend, and loving your friend as if he might be one
day your enemy. He added some expressions of civility upon
the information that I expected to have a successor, and to
leave this country; with much regret that I should not have
the opportunity of taking a part in the negotiation for peace. I
thanked him for his good opinion, and assured him that nothing
could be so gratifying to my own wishes as to have the means
vo^. 11.— 31
482 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
of contributing to produce peace ; but that while England should
refuse to treat, I must acquiesce in the consequences, and give
up the hope of laboring in so good a work.
I was with the Count about half an hour.
Received an invitation from Princess GolenishtchefT Koutou-
zof Smolensky to attend the funeral service for her husband, the
late Field-Marshal, at the Kazan Cathedral, Friday morning,
and a notice from the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, Narish-
kin, that an apartment for the Corps Diplomatique would be
reserved at Countess StrogonofT's house to see the funeral
procession, at three o'clock p.m., to-morrow.
23d. I went with Mr. Smith, at three o'clock this afternoon,
to Count StrogonofT's house, to see the funeral procession.
Most of the members of the Diplomatic Corps were there.
The Duke of Serra Capriola and Baron Blome were absent.
We waited from three until near seven in the evening before the
procession went by. Count Lowenhielm went away between
four and five, taking with him Mr. Forbes, who was to go as
his courier, and from his house after dinner. The Count him-
self, by orders from his Government, is going to the Emperor
Alexander's head-quarters. The procession was as magnificent
as anything of the kind I had ever seen. The body had been
embalmed at Bunzlau, and transported to the Monastery of St.
Serge, at Strelna, about ten miles from the city. At eleven
this morning it was placed on a car and drawn by horses to
the Tarakanoffka River, the bounds of the city, beyond the
Peterhof gate.- There the procession was formed. The car bear-
ing the coffin, under a crimson velvet canopy, was drawn by the
people. The nobility, the clergy, the high civil and military
authorities, and the merchants of the city (bearded Russians)
marched in the procession, which was closed by detachments of
troops, about five thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry.
The body was deposited on the catafalque in the Kazan Church.
The Princess Amelia of Baden had come from Czarskozelo to see
the procession, but went about half an hour before it passed by.
24th. After dinner Mrs. Adams and Charles went with me
to the Kazan Church, where we saw the preparations for the
funeral ceremony at the interment of Prince Koutouzof Smolen-
1813] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. ^83
sky. The catafalque is in the centre of the church, immediately
under the dome, — a cubic basis, and about twelve feet high,
with steps to ascend at the four corners. There is an arch in
the middle of it, high enough for a man to pass through ; the
coffin is placed at the summit, on bars, over a cavity large
enough to let it down by machinery. The coffin is said to
weigh sixty poods — about a ton avoirdupois. It is surrounded
by trophies — French eagles and standards, and bashaws' horse-
tails. All around the basis are rows of large tapers to be lighted.
The whole fabric, which is of painted wood, appears to be rested
on four fluted Corinthian pillars at the four corners. A figure
of Fame or of an Angel, with a crown of laurel in one hand,
hovers over the coffin, suspended by a rope from the summit
of the dome. On the two sides of the catafalque are ranged
stools, w^ith velvet cushions, on each of which is placed some
mark of dignity which he had acquired — the sword, the Marshal's
truncheon, the orders of the Russian Black and Red Eagles,
the Austrian order of Maria Theresa, and the Russian orders
of St. Andrew, St. Alexander Newsky, St. George of the first
class, St. Ann, and St. Wladimir. The church was much crowded,
but, by the civility of the Master of the Police, General Gorgoly,
we saw everything. The Marshal's truncheon and sword-hilt
are superbly studded with diamonds, and the eagle and star of the
order of St. Andrew are entirely of diamonds. But the highest
distinction of all is the order of St. George of the .first class, a
plain cross, suspended by a black-and-yellow ribbon. He was
the only person in the Empire who possessed it. The Emperor
himself hung it on his neck, on arriving at Wilna, last De-
cember. It is reserved exclusively for commanders-in-chief of
armies, and for achievements of the most signal importance.
25th. I went with Mr. Smith to the Kazan Cathedral Church
very shortly after ten this morning, but we found that the cere-
mony had already begun. It continued until half-past one,
nearly four hours, during the whole of which we were standing.
The ceremony appeared in some particulars different from those
of the same kind I had attended before, but, being totally igno-
rant of the language in which it was performed, I could not
understsind the difference. The Metropolitan Ambrose offici-
484 MEAfOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
ated, and the Archimandrite Philarete preached the sermon,
which was said to be in the highest style of eloquence and
pathos. The manner was temperate, not to say cold ; the dis-
course about half an hour long. The Prince is buried in the
body of the church, by the side of one of the walls, under a
picture representing the deliverance of Moscow. His nephew,
Admiral Koutouzof, was seized with a violent and very distress-
ing fit of asthma immediately after performing the last act of
duty to the corpse, as usual at their interments. It was found
necessary to take him out of the church. Most of the Corps
Diplomatique were there.
27th. Baron Blome called upon me, according to his promise,
and had a long conversation with me upon political affairs.
He thinks there will be no peace between Russia and France,
and, excepting with relation to his own Government, he knows
nothing but what is nearly public. He says Denmark has been
forced into a new alliance with France, when she would have
been glad to join in the alliance against her; that there is
neither harmony nor combination in the views or operations of
the allies ; that Russia and England are not agreed ; that the
British Ministry sent here " un imbecile" for their Ambassador ;
that the Prince Royal of Sweden is making dupes of them all ;
that they are paying him with the design that he should attack
France, against which he will never fire a musket, and that he
intends to make them pay richly for despoiling and plundering
Denmark, and all the time be clamorous at their non-fulfilment
of their treaties with him ; that England had stipulated the
payment of the subsidy should not be commenced until he had
landed in Pomerania, but that when Count Bernstorflf went to
England the Crown Prince sent word that he would not embark
for Pomerania unless Count Bernstorflf was rejected without a
hearing ; that he had always protested to the Danish Charge
d'Aflfaires at Stockholm that Denmark should be amply indem-
nified, more than indemnified, for Norway. He had oflfered the
Hanseatic Cities, and even Holland — anything, anywhere —
pushing the hypocrisy to shedding of tears, but well knowing
that his promises of indemnity were mere words, signifying
nothing. The Emperor Alexander had sent Prince Dolgorouki
iSij.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 48$
to Copenhagen. The Prince, for the sake of conciliating Den-
mark, had gone perhaps a little further than he was warranted
by his instructions. He had declared that Russia had not
positively guaranteed Norway to Sweden, but only on the con-
dition that Denmark should be indemnified for the cession.
Upon that basis the King of Denmark had consented to treat ;
but when the Swedish Crown Prince heard what Dolgorouki
had done, he immediately insisted that it should be disavowed,
and that he should be recalled, which was done ; that, after all
this, Denmark had renewed her negotiations with France.
There had been actual hostilities between the Danes, at Ham-
burg, and the French. The King had, as a matter of form,
disavowed their occupation of that city. Napoleon had de-
manded that the commanding oflicer should be dismissed, and
punished. The King had removed him from that command,
but would not disgrace him. All this, France knew, was mere
form. There was no duplicity in the conduct of Denmark. He
was sure that in substance they had explicitly avowed to France
everything they had done, which was fully justified by the cir-
cumstances, and there was not a word of truth in the story the
Crown Prince had published at Stralsund, that while President
Kaas was treating with Davoust, at Haarburg, he sent a verbal
message to General Tettenborn, at Hamburg, that the King of
Denmark was ready to join the coalition, with twenty-five thou-
sand men, against France. Blome added that he had had no
late information from his Government; his communications were
very much interrupted. He could seldom write but through
Sweden, and throughout the whole of last winter not one dis-
patch between him and his Government had been suflfered to
pass; every one of them had been intercepted. At this out-
rage, as at many others, Denmark, to avoid bringing things to
extremities, had shut her eyes. Count Romanzoff had letters
from Lisakewitz to the 8th, and had shown him Thornton*s
note to Mr. Rosenkrantz when the "troupeau de Ministres"
arrived off Copenhagen from Stralsund; with Rosenkrantz's
answer, which was in terms of great moderation. The Danish
Government had published them both, and the public spirit had
been excited to the highest indignation by the terms proposed.
486 MEMOIRS OP JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [July,
The public spirit was the same in Norway, although in the
Grand Baillage of Drontheim the &mine was so severe that
forty persons perished daily with hunger. They were cut off
from all supplies, but they only wanted to go and find their
granaries in Sweden. The King had sent the heir to the crown
into Norway, but so closely and narrowly was the coast watched
that he had been obliged to go over disguised as a sailor.
Lisakewitz, on the 8th, had received no order for his departure,
but expected it. Blome himself had received no order for his
departure, but Count Lowenhielm, whom he had seen at Count-
ess Tolstoy's, and who had received a courier in four or five
days from Stockholm, had told him he had official advices of
the declaration of Denmark against Russia and Sweden. The
object of England, Blome says, in giving Norway to Sweden,
is to take Zealand for herself; but that if Sweden has Norway,
England can never keep Zealand, because the Sound can at all
times be passed in spite of any fleet. He is in great anxiety
and alarm, and expects that an attack will immediately be made
on the island of Zealand.
July 3d. I received a note from Count RomanzofT enclosing
a letter from Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard, and one from Mr.
Speyer, at Stockholm. The first informs me of the appoint-
ment of those two gentlemen jointly with myself as Envoys
Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to negotiate a
peace with Great Britain under the mediation of the Emperor
of Russia; of their arrival at Gottenburg, and their intention
to proceed as speedily as possible to St. Petersburg ; also that
Mr. Harris is appointed Secretary to the Legation.
19th. Mr. Harris called upon me this morning, and spent the
evening with us. He is in great agitation and anxiety at the
delay in the arrival of our gentlemen from America, and I
begin to feel no small concern on the same account. While he
was with me, I received a letter from Mr. Speyer, at Stockholm,
mentioning that they were on the 24th June at Elsineur. His
letter anticipates that they would have a long passage, from the
late prevalence of easterly winds in the Baltic. They have been
in that quarter here, with scarcely the interruption of a day, the
whole month.
I8i3.] TJiE MISSION TO KUSSIA. 487
2 1 St. Mr. Harris came in and told me that Mr. Gallatin and
Mr. Bayard had just arrived. I immediately went to see them
at the lodgings he has taken for them. I invited them, and Mr.
Milligan, Mr. Dallas, and Mr. Gallatin, Jr., who are with them,
to go home with me and dine ; but they excused themselves,
being much fatigued, and having been three nights without
sleep. I sat with them about an hour, in which they gave us
the latest information from America, and I communicated to
them the general state of affairs here. They gave me a large
bundle of letters and dispatches from the United States, which,
with the exception of an hour at dinner, I was employed in
reading until ten at night. I tliank Almighty God for the
favors communicated to me by these dispatches, and I pray for
the gracious aid of his Spirit to discharge with zeal, integrity,
and discretion the new duties required of me.
22d. Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard called upon me this morn-
ing, and we had some conversation together on the mode of
proceeding upon our business. The first object is that they
should be presented to the Chancellor, for which some essential
preparatory arrangements require a delay of one or two days.
I dined at the Count's, ilientioncd to him the arrival of my
colleagues, and requested an interview with him for some par-
ticular conversation. He appointed to-morrow, one o'clock p.m.
Baron Blome gave me two letters, which he said came from
the Emperor's head-quarters and had been handed to him for
me by a person of the GouriefT family. I suppose they came
through Count Nesselrode. I found one of them was from
General La Fayette, and the other from the Senator Count
Destutt de Tracy, asking the use of my influence to obtain the
release upon parole, or the exchange, of Mr. De Tracy's son,
an officer of infantry taken prisoner last winter with General
Augercau, and now at Tambof, between Moscow and Astracan.
Count RomanzofT told me the news of Lord Wellington's
new victory in Spain, at Vittoria, and I saw the dispatch he had
just received from Count Lieven announcing it. After dinner,
the Count introduced me to Prince Alexander Kurakin, late
Russian Ambassador in France, who has been only a few days
here, and to whom this dinner was principally given. I had
488 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QVINCY ADAMS. [July,
some conversation with him concerning the Americans whom
he had seen, and to whom he was always very attentive and
obliging. He also told me that he had received information
from Mr. Warden concerning the archives of the Russian
Legation, which had been deposited with Mr. Barlow, that they
were safe in Mr. Warden's possession, and that he (the Prince)
had requested they should be transferred to Mr. Barlow's suc-
cessor whenever he should arrive.
I returned home on foot, for some of the police-officers had
taken my coachman from his seat for having run across a
drossky the driver of which was drunk, and the carriage was
stppped, so that it could not come to me.
23d. Mr. Harris brought the credential letter of the ex-
traordinary mission, of which a copy and translation are to be
delivered to Count RomanzofT, and he asked me to make the
translation, which I promised. I went to Countess Colombi's
to make some enquiries concerning the Major Dc Tracy whose
liberation I was requested to endeavor to obtain. I wished to
see Mr. Zea, but he was not at home. I saw Mr. Lys and Don
Francisco. They had furnished money to Mr, De Tracy, and
I enquired whether they knew anything further concerning him
— which, however, they did not.
At one I called, as by appointment, upon Count RomanzofT,
and told him that I had received instructions from the Ameri-
can Government to remain here under the commission which
I have hitherto held, and that I had been mistaken in supposing
that my colleagues had other destinations, independent of the
mission here. My conjecture had been founded on the doubt
whether the President would have appointed the mission solely
upon the expectation that the mediation would be accepted by
the British Government. But I was now instructed that the
President, considering the acceptance by the British as probable,
though aware that if they should reject it this measure might
wear the appearance of precipitation, thought it more advisable
to incur that risk than the danger of prolonging unnecessarily
the war for six or nine months, as might happen if the British
should immediately have accepted the mediation and he should
have delayed this step until he was informed of it. And a great
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 489
object with him was to manifest not only a cheerful acceptance
on the part of the United States, but in a signal manner the
sentiments of consideration and respect for the Emperor, and
to do honor to the motives on which he offered his mediation.
Another gentleman, Mr. Crawford, was appointed Minister to
France.
The Count said he regretted much that there was such reason
to believe the British would decline the mediation ; but on trans-
mitting the copy of the credential letter to the Emperor, he
would determine whether to renew the proposal ; as the opposi-
tion in England might make it an embarrassing charge against
the Ministry if they should under such circumstances reject it.
He spoke of the taking of Yorktown, in Upper Canada, by
General Dearborn, and, desiring me not to mention him as an
authority, added that he was informed the British Government '
had determined, in consequence of tliat event, to send more
troops to America.
I told the Count there were two other objects, not connected
with cither of my public capacities here, but upon which I found
it necessary to speak to him. The first was concerning a pay-
ment made to the owners of a vessel to which a black man
belonged who had entered the Emperor's service. This pay-
ment was made by way of indemnity for the detention of the
vessel. I had been directed by a verbal message from the
Minister of the Police, BalachcfT, to offer this indemnity; and
I related to the Count the circumstances of the man's having
got into the Emperor's service. The Count asked what the
amount of the payment was. I said it was about seven hun-
dred dollars, amounting to more than three thousand roubles.
He said he would write upon the subject to Mr. BalachefT.
The other subject, I observed, was still more remote from
my official functions, for it related to a French prisoner. My
only motives, and my excuse for speaking of it to him, were
humanity and gratitude. General La Fayette had written to
me requesting me to endeavor to obtain a favor for a relation
of his, a Mr. De Tracy, now at Tambof, and taken last winter
with Augereau. On the score of gratitude for General La
Fayette's services to my country, and of a very old personal
490 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [July,
friendship for him, I was ardently desirous of rendering him
any service in my power. What he and the Senator Count de
Tracy, the prisoner's father, asked, was either an exchange or
a release on parole.
The Count said he did not think it would be possible. The
French had refused to listen to any proposition for exchange.
An English officer named Willoughby had come here last
summer and offered his services. He had been sent to Count
Wittgenstein's army, and, by lending his horse to a wounded
Russian, whom he h|d even carried some way upon his shoulders,
he had fallen into the enemy's hands. The Emperor had asked
to have him exchanged, and had been positively refused; in
consequence of which he had resolved he would listen to no
applications of a similar nature. However, if I would give him
the officer's name, he would write to the Emperor about it;
and although there was no prospect of obtaining an exchange,
there might possibly be a permission for his removal, perhaps
for him to come to St. Petersburg ; that I might then enter into
correspondence with him, and his situation might be alleviated.
I replied that I would give him the name, and, as it was
altogether a favor I was asking, I should be grateful for any-
thing that might be granted. The Count agreed with me to
receive my colleagues with me at eleven to-morrow morning,
and said that at twelve he should set out for Czarskozelo, to
spend two or three days there.
I spoke of the presentation of myself and my colleagues to
the Empresses. He said that the Empresses in the country
had received two or three private strangers, but that they could
not receive persons in such a public character as that of Envoys
Extraordinary unless they had been previously received by the
Emperor, or until the Emperor should give his orders, on re-
ceiving the copy of the credential letter. He might perhaps
direct that the gentlemen should be considered as having
delivered the letter to him in person ; or if he should return
here, as it was sometimes said he soon intended, we might then
really deliver it.
This is a change of opinion since the Count spoke with me
on this subject before. In general there appears a coolness in
\
1813.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA, 491
his manner, which leads me to suspect that the Emperor him-
self is not well pleased at the eclat which this mission will give
to the British refusal of his mediation. The Count's politeness
is as marked and warm as ever, but there is a reserve and
solicitude in his manner which I regret to perceive.
I went from his house to the lodgings of my colleagues, and
informed them of the time fixed for presenting them to the
Count. Mr. Gallatin then put into my hands the three full-
powers, which contain our commissions— one to negotiate the
peace with Britain, under the mediation of the Emperor of
Russia ; one to negotiate a treaty of commerce with Britain,
given for the contingency that the pacific negotiation should be
successful. In these two, Mr. Gallatin is the first Commis-
sioner, and I am the second. The third power is to negotiate
a treaty of commerce with Russia, in which, as. well as in the
credential letter, my name is the first, and Mr. Gallatin's the
second. This arrangement, Mr. Gallatin told me, was made
intentionally, and I consider it as a mark of delicate attention
in the President towards me ; though I should have been per-
fectly satisfied had Mr. Gallatin's name been first in all the
p«ipers. I took the powers for treating of peace with Britain,
and of commerce with Russia, home with me, and made trans-
lations of them, and of the credential letter.
24th. At eleven this morning I went with Mr. Gallatin and
Mr. Bayard to Count Romanzoff's, and presented them to him.
He received us in his saloon, above-stairs, with his usual cour-
tesy. After some conversation upon the familiar and ordinary
topics, Mr. Gallatin gave him the copies and translations of the
credential letter and the two powers, observing that we should
address a note to him on the subject, but that we now furnished
him with the papers to give him an immediate view by antici-
pation of the extent of our powers. I mentioned to him that
the object of one of them was to form a treaty of commerce
with Russia ; upon which he answered that we might be very
sure of being listened to in everything we might have to say
here. He said there might be reason to hope that the British
Government would be more inclined to negotiate now, as upon
the only remaining great object of dispute with us he under-
492 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [July,
Stood Congress had lately passed a law which must take away
a great part of the British grounds of complaint.
Mr. Gallatin added that besides this law, if anything further
was necessary to tranquillize Britain upon the point of which
she complained, we were authorized to agree to any expedient
that might be proposed and which would be compatible with
the rights of an independent nation — the only point indispen-
sable on our part being to obtain a stipulation which should
protect our seamen from impressment.
The Count spoke of the late capture of York, in Upper
Canada, and asked if it would not give us the command of the
lakes.
Mr. Gallatin said we might hope it would lead to the occupa-
tion of Upper Canada, and that the command of the lakes could
not be contested against us, after we had built vessels upon
them — the British having always had a few vessels there, and
we none until the war.
I gave the Count a paper with the name and situation of Mr.
De Tracy on it, as he had yesterday requested. He said he
would attend to it, and I might be sure nothing would prevent
the application from succeeding but what he had mentioned to
me. On taking leave, both the gentlemen presented him private
letters which they had for him from Mr. Daschkoff. He asked
us on what day we should be disengaged to dinner ; he should
return from Czarskozelo on Tuesday: would Wednesday or
Thursday suit us ? We said, cither. Then, he said, he should
take the shortest day, and would send us cards for Wednesday.
I went home with the gentlemen, and sat a couple of hours
with them. We agreed to meet on Monday, at eleven o'clock,
at my house, to discuss the project of a note to the Count, and
to pay personal visits to the foreign Ministers on that and the
next day.
Mr. Gallatin enquired of me on what footing Mr. Smith was
here, and I told him of the two conmiissions he had received,
and of the number of times 1 had written to the Department of
State concerning him without receiving any answer. He said
that the State Department always had that habit; they never
decided anything, always postponed.. But by the law of May
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 493
2d, 1 8 10, no payment could be allowed at the Treasury for a
Secretary of Legation, or private secretary, unless regularly
appointed, with the concurrence of the Senate. That law of
2d May, 1810, Mr. Bayard spoke of as Bradley's law. Mr.
Gallatin said it was Robert Smith's law, or rather the Smiths'
law ; it was introduced the very last day of the session, carried
by Mr. Burwell, the organ of the Smiths in the House of Repre-
sentatives, into the House, and read three times on the same
. day — presented to the President at ten o'clock at night, with a
number of other bills, at the moment when the session was
closing — and afterwards R. Smith had affected to make this
very law an article of attack upon the President.
I said I had seen in an answer to Mr. Smith's publication a
statement that it would probably be repealed. Mr. Gallatin said
that the President had made no appointment under it. Mr.
Bayard thought that Mr. T. Barlow had been appointed. Mr.
Gallatin said he had been nominated, but some difficulty had
occurred, and the nomination had been withdrawn ; for in the
late dispute between Mr. Warden and young Barlow, at Paris,
Mr. Monroe had told Mr. Gallatin that Barlow had been right,
because he supposed himself to have an appointment. I ob-
served that a provision was made in the appropriation laws for
a Secretary of Legation here, and, no other appointment having
been made, I had paid the salary to Mr. Smith, constantly re-
questing and expecting instructions. I had at least supposed
they would have brought some; but there is not a word upon
the subject in the dispatches they have brought.
27th. Mr. Gallatin and Nfr. Bayard came, and we had a con-
ference of about three hours. Mr. Gallatin took his first sketch
of our proposed note to Count Romanzoff, with the translations
and the additional paragraphs I had drawn up, for the purpose
of making a final draft of the note. Mr. Gallatin had proposed
the suggestion of some ideas on the probable rejection of the
mediation by Great Britain. I had, accordingly, introduced
them. But Mr. Bayard thought it would be best to make no
reference to the prospect at all, and Mr. Gallatin finally came
over to his opinion. I desired them to determine it between
themselves, being ready Cj^ther to introduce or omit those sug-
494 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUiNCY ADAMS. [July,
gestions, as they should think best We had much conversation
upon a variety of topics connected with the objects of our
mission.
28th. Mr. Gallatin called upon me about one o'clock ; Mr.
Bayard, being still unwell, did not come. He had made a draft
of a note to be sent to Count Romanzofi) differing still from
that which Mr. Gallatin and I had prepared. We now com-
pared them all together, and agreed upon one to be composed
of the three, and which is to be given to Mr. Harris to make
out a fair copy to be sent We dined at Count RomanzofTs
with the usual diplomatic company. Prince Kurakin and
Count MarkofT, and the Generals TormassofT and Armfeldt,
were there. The Duke de Serra Capriola came after dinner.
Count Maistre was absent. I sat next to the Chevalier Har-
daxi Azara on the one side, and General Gorgoly on the
other. Baron Blome told me that the armistice was prolonged
to lOth August, with the additional six days of notice. In the
mean time, a preliminary to a Congress was to meet at Prague
— Count Metternich, from Austria, as the mediator; Count de
Narbonnc, from Franco; Arnstatt, from Russia; Humboldt,
from Prussia; and Lord Walpole, from England. They were
to try to agree upon a basis for negotiation, and, if they could,
the Congress was to assemble at Prague. In the mean time, it
was said that an eventual alliance, offensive and defensive, be-
tween Russia and Austria was concluded. I asked how the
mediation and the alliance were conciliated together. He said,
by the alliance being eventual. He thinks, however, the nego-
tiation will come to nothing; that Napoleon is only gaining
time, and will finish by breaking all up and renewing the war.
Mr. Bardaxi, as we sat at table, told me that Mr. Dallas had
a letter for him from the Spanish Minister, non reconmi at Wash-
ington. I said that it was to be hoped he would be reconnu
in time; the American Government had perhaps thought the
example of Spain a good one, and, having had three or four
years during the war of our Revolution a Minister non rcconnn
in Spain, had reserved the acknowledgment of the Spanish Min-
ister until the end of the contest for Spain. He said Spain had
not, to be sure, acknowledged our Minister, but had aided us in
I8i3.] THE MISSION TO RUSSIA. 495
our war. I said we had also aided them in theirs, particularly
in the article of provisions ; which he admitted.
I spoke to General Armfeldt after dinner, and requested him
to repeat my thanks to General Aminoff for the medal he lately
sent me.
Count RomanzoflT told me that he had written upon the sub-
ject of my application in behalf of Mr. De Tracy — not to the
Emperor, but to Count Araktcheieff; because the Emperor
might have thought he had given the order to permit Mr.
De Tracy to come to St Petersburg, and have said it was very
well, and not have answered the letter; but Count Araktcheieff
must answer his letter. He had, therefore, written him that
my request was that Mr. De Tracy might be exchanged or per-
mitted to go home on parole, that he had not thought himself
authorized to give me any expectation this could be granted,
but that he had urged his wish to do as much as possible, as a
favor to me, and asked that Mr. De Tracy might be allowed to
come to St. Petersburg and be put into my cu.stody, which he
hoped would be obtained. I had some conversation also on
general political subject^ with Count Soltykoff.
29th. I stopped at Mr. Harris's to tell him that Count Roman-
zoff had fixed twelve o'clock this day to receive us. He showed
me his commission, which is only for the negotiation of peace
and of the treaty of commerce with England. At noon I went
with him, and presented him, as secretary to the mission, to
Count Romanzoff. He received us with his usual courtesy and
urbanity. I asked him if the rumors of the prolongation of
the armistice until loth August, besides the six days* notice,
.were true. He said . he had no doubt they were, but that
neither he nor the Minister of War had one syllable of informa-
tion, not merely of the fact, but even of there being any such
intention. He said he had received yesterday a letter from
Lord Cathcart, the first he had written him since he had been
at the Emperor's head-quarters. He notified him of the inten-
tion of the British Government to send a Secretary of Embassy
to remain here at St. Petersburg, and in the mean time requested
him to deliver passports on the application of Mr. Bailey (the
British Consul). He had certainly never refused Mr. Bailey
496 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUlhXY ADAMS. [July,
any passports, and did not know why this request was addressed
to him. The Count expressed without reserve his disapproba-
tion of the armistice and of its prolongation. He said that
everything was done too much in a hurry to be well done.
I said that I supposed he would not consider the Congress
at Prague, to settle whether there should be a Congress at
Prague, as an over-hasty matter.
Yes, he thought it was. There was a very simple prelimi-
nary question — Was a general peace at this time possible?
Everybody must answer, no ; it was obviously Napoleon's ob-
ject, by the armistice, to gain time, and nothing more. He
would improve that time to the utmost for his own advantage,
and he (the Count) therefore thought it was wrong to let him
have the opportunity. Another instance of hastiness, the Count
said, was in the Council of Administration, which had been very
formally organized for the countries between the Oder and the
Elbe. ** Je me reproche encore ma gaiete," said he, when Count
Lowenhielm came to me very gravely, to give me notice that
his Court had appointed a member of the Swedish Council to
take his scat in the Council of Admiiystration. He seemed to
expect that it was a step which would have met with some
opposition, for he laid it down somewhat elaborately that,
according to the spirit of the alliance, Sweden considered her-
self as having a right to appoint a member to the Council of
Administration. I laughed, and told him I was very glad to
hear it; that I presumed the more members there were ap-
pointed to the Council of Administration, the more there was
to administer. But really there seems now but little for the
Council of Administration to do. If they were an assembly
of Solons, it is but a small number of people indeed that they
can make happy by their laws.
I asked if Count Lowenhielm had arrived at the head-
quarters. He had no news of his arrival, and the messenger
he had given to accompany him had not returned.
After going home with Mr. Harris, I called upon my col-
leagues. Mr. Bayard was gone out; I saw only Mr. Gallatin,
with whom I had two hours of conversation, all upon general
subjects. I desired Mr. Gallatin to consult Mr. Bayard upon
!■ ■ mA M I r I .
1813.J THE MiSSIOX TO RUSSIA. 4^7
the propriety of our taking notice of this negotiation for a gen-
eral peace, of which there appears to be now a considerable
prospect. On the supposition that Great Britain should event-
ually reject the mediation of Russia, and that the Congress for
a general peace should be held, I thought it should excite our
particular attention. Mr. Gallatin asked me to make the draft
of a note to Count RomanzofT on the subject of the treaty of
commerce with Russia. I wrote one immediately after dinner,
and took it to their lodgings, but found nobody at home.
30th. I called at the lodgings of my colleagues, but found
nobody there. They came to my house about noon, with Mr.
Harris, having the note to Count RomanzofT concerning the
negotiation for peace prepared. We signed it, and Mr. Harris
took it with him and sent it to the Count It has been the work
of a week, and might have been done by either of us in two
hours. It is a sufficient specimen of the method of negotiating
by commissions. In the multitude of counsellors there is safety,
but there is not dispatch. I gave at the same time to my col-
leagues my draft of the note concerning the treaty of com-
merce with Russia. It was in French, and Mr. Bayard wished
to have it in English before he would take it into consideration.
Mr. Gallatin returned it to me to make the English translation.
At one I called upon them, and we went to pay visits to the
foreign Ministers, to Baron Blome and the Chevalier Bardaxi
Azara, in the country, and to Count Maistre, Captain Guedes
and Mr. Zea, and Don Francisco Colombi, in town.
31st. I close this volume of my diary, containing four years,
within four days, of my life, with sentiments of gratitude to God
for all the favors, preservations, and blessings received at his
hands during that period, of humble resignation under the
afflictions which his wise Providence has mingled in my cup,
and with conscious sorrow for the deficiencies, and omissions
of improvement of the time which has been indulged me —
imploring at the same time his further blessing upon my wife,
my parents, my children, my friends, and my country, and the
whole world of mankind, and especially asking for the aid of
his Spirit, that my future life may be more thoroughly devoted
to his honor and glory, and to usefulness on earth I
VOL. n. — 32
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MEDIATION.
Prefixed to the fourth volume of the manuscript is this
invocation :
Lord of creation 1 thou from whom proceed
Each honest thought and honorable deed ;
Parent of life I without whose quickening ray
The soul's deep darkness knows not how to pray ;
Oh I let thy mercy teach my lips their task,
Or freely grant the boon they ought to ask !
Let not yon glorious orb's returning light
Once from these eyes dispel the shades of night,
But from my heart spontaneous may arise
A prayer sincere and fervent to the skies.
That all earth's choicctit favors may atlcml,
And all thy joys, ui>on my bosom's friend,
That thou wouldst bless with ever-lx>unteous hand
My parents, children, friends, and native land ;
Nor be my vows to these alone confined :
Forgive my foes, and bless all human kind ;
And whatsoe'er thy wisdom shall decree
My future portion on this earth to be,
. I^t thy good Spirit ever nerve my will
To thee, and man, my duties to fulfil.
August 3d, 1 81 3. Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard came about
one o'clock; we considered the answer we had received from
Count RomanzoiT to our first official note, and concluded that
no reply to it would be necessary for the present. We finally
agreed upon the note to be sent relative to the treaty of com-
merce with Russia. Mr. Harris's commission not extending
to this object, I requested my colleagues to take some order
concerning it. Mr. Gallatin said that, however the commission
might be, he knew it was the intention that he. should be the
secretary for all the objects of the mission ; and that he had
498
i8i3.] THE MEDJATJON. 4^5
been appointed by an intimation from the Russian Government
itself, or at least from Mr. DaschkofT. It was therefore de-
termined that Mr. Harris should act as secretary upon all the
powers. Mr. Gallatin took with him the draft of the note con-
cerning the treaty with Russia, as finally settled. He also took
my formal instructions from the Department of State on this
subject, with the heads of a treaty as they were sent to me.
Mr. Gallatin told me that he and Mr. Bayard had requested, and
had, an interview with Count RomanzofT on Sunday morning,
in which they had suggested the wish to the Count of being
informed as soon as possible if Britain should finally reject the
mediation, that they might not be unnecessarily detained here,
with no prospect of accomplishing any useful purpose.
5th. On returning home, I found an answer from Count
RomanzofT to our note yesterday sent in, and a note to me
requesting me to call upon him to-morrow evening, between
six and seven, in the country ; also a letter from Mr. Speyer,
and an enclosure from Mr. Beasley, with the Times of 9th
July, containing the account of the capture of the ** Chesa-
peake." I went with what appetite I might to Mr. Pflug's, in
the country, to dinner, — ^the company, ladies and gentlemen,
thirty-three or thirty-four persons. All our Legation Extraor-
dinary were there, and Messrs. Lewis, Willing, and Redwood.
The rest of the company chiefly Germans. We came home
between nine and ten. Colonel Milligan and Major Dallas were
here for an hour afterwards. There were English newspapers,
which it could give me no satisfaction to read.
6th. Immediately after dinner I went to Count RomanzofT's,
according to his appointment — in the country. He told me
the Empress Elizabeth was coming into the ci^y for a few days,
and that while she would be here strangers, as travellers, might
be presented to her. He wished to consult me whether the
young gentlemen who came with Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard
would be desirous of being presented, and whether those gen-
tlemen themselves would wish, as private gentlemen, to be
presented. I said that I could not answer for the ideas of my
colleagues, but if they thought as I did, they would prefer
waiting until the Emperor*s orders should arrive, as it would
jOO ME MO INS OF yo//A/ QUINCY ADAAfS, [August,
be more respectful to him and the Empresses. But if 'the
young men wished to be presented, I did not perceive any
objegtion to that. I would consult my colleagues, and give
liim a definitive answer on the whole matter. He thought as I
did, that it would be best for the Envoys themselves to wait.
•He told me that he had received the German newspapers, by
an estafettc, but there was nothing in them. I observed that
I had heard the war was likely to break out even before the
end of the armistice. He said it was expected, and the very
silence of the German papers made it the more probable, as
they would naturally prefer saying nothing at such a crisis,
and wait "pour voir eclater la bombe." I asked him if the
preliminary Congress which was to have met at Prague had
actually been held. He did not know. He said he had seen
in the English papers the account of the capture of our frigate
•* Chesapeake," and the exultation in England upon it, which he
thought was high testimony in honor of the Americans.
8th. At three o'clock I called upon my colleagues. They
were reading their letters and dispatches from America — with
news not of the cheering kind. Mr. Dallas showed me a letter
from his father, who was at Washington i8th June. The nomi-
nations to the Senate for the Mission Extraordinary had been
a fortnight before them, not confirmed. The objection was,
that the appointment of Mr. Gallatin while Secretary of the
Treasury would bo unconstitutional. The nomination of Mr.
Russell as Minister to Sweden. was likewise opposed, probably
on the argument that a mission to Sweden was unnecessary.
We went out, the Envoys, with Mr. Smith and Mr. Harris,
and dined at the Duke de Serra Capriola's, in the country.
We met there N^r. Rosenzweig, whom I had not seen for many
months. We saw at the Duke's the Courier de Londres of
20th and 23d July. After dinner, with Mr. Gallatin and the
Duke, I walked round the gardens, which are spacious and
beautifully laid out, covered with forest-trees planted by the
Duke more than twenty years ago. We came home about nine
in the evening.
9th. I received letters from Paris, Copenhagen, and Stock-
holm, with one enclosed for Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard, which
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION, jqI
I carried to them. Mr. Bayard appears to be not a little uneasy
in his situation. Mr. Gallatin has more tranquillity, though
with more cause for uneasiness. His temper is more equable.
They have concluded to postpone the presentation of the young
gentlemen as well as their own.
lOth. I received this morning a note from Count RomanzoflT,
re:questing me to call upon him at his house in the country
between six and seven, which I did. He said that in conse-
quence of a note from Mr. Harris, mentioning the desire of the
Envoys to visit the several public institutions of this city and
neighborhood, he had written to all the superintendents of those
institutions, and had received answers from all, expressive of
their readiness to show the gentlemen whatever was to be %^^xi ;
with the exception of the corps of cadets, the director of which
had requested a postponement of their visit two or three weeks,
it being now their time of vacation. From the palace at Czar-
skozelo, he was notified that the Empress would be absent at
Kammenoi-ostrow, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and that
on either of those days they might see it better than they could
at any time when the Empress should be there. He asked
me whether they had determined upon the presentation of the
young gentlemen. I told him they had concluded to wait,
that all the presentations might be at the same time. He said
that would suit him well, as he expected very soon to receive
the Emperor's order authorizing him to take and forward to
him the credential letter, and then all the presentations to the
Empresses might be at once. He then said there was another
and a more important subject, upon which he had asked me to
see him. Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard had promised him a little
note, not official nor signed, but a sort of historical recapitula-
tion of the state of our controversy with England upon the
great question of the war ; that he wanted it to draw up his
official note to the Ambassador, Count Lieven, renewing the
offer of mediation ; that he had now received the Emperor's
answer to his dispatch communicating the appointment of
Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard previous to their arrival (see my
Journal of 22d June last); that the Emperor had answered
him " haut comme 9a," all at once, and had given him a whole
502 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUlt/CY ADAMS, [August,
history how his time had been taken up. From the extreme
pressure of business, and the military operations, there had
been only two days during which he could find time to read
the pieces annexed to the dispatches and to answer them. He
had entirely approved of the Count's suggestion that the oflTer
of mediation should be renewed to England on the arrival of
the extraordinary mission from the United States, and had so
fully authorized him to do it that he should send his dispatch
by a courier directly to Count Lieven, without even forwarding
it to the Emperor's head-quarters. He had promised Mr. Gal-
latin and Mr. Bayard that when his dispatch for Count Lieven
should be prepared he would show it to us, and make any
alteration in it which we should desire, as he had done with me
on occasion of a former dispatch to the same person ; that the
only object and motive of Russia was to produce the recon-
ciliation, and in renewing the offer of mediation he wished to
enable Count Lieven to present every consideration that might
prevail upon the British Government to accept it. This occa-
sioned his wish to have the little note historique promised by
Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard. If the British Government should
eventually reject the Mediation, it would have the effect of put-
ting them in the wrong — not with us, because our only object
and purpose is to conciliate, but with their own opposition,
who might charge them with the rejection of so fair an oppor-
tunity of making peace.
I told the Count that my colleagues had mentioned some-
thing of this note, which they had promised him, but we had
been in no haste to prepare it, under the uncertainty whether
the Emperor might not say that the British Government having
declined his mediation, he did not think it expedient to renew
the offer of it ; but that I would immediately inform my col-
leagues of what he now said, and that the note could in a very
short time be prepared.
He replied that we might take as much time as would suit
our convenience ; that to-morrow he should go to Czarskozelo,
and he should be Thursday and Friday at Pavlovsky. If the
note could be ready on Saturday, it would be as soon as he could
receive it. The gentlemen had mentioned to him their wish, in
iSij.] TUB MEDIA no A'. 503
case the mediation should be finally rejected by England, to be
informed of it as soon as possible, that they might not be de-
tained here without any prospect of being useful to their country.
This was so just and proper that he could say nothing in ob-
jection against it, and it was his only motive for wishing to
expedite his courier to Count Lieven. The saving of time,
when the object was peace, was itself a precious object, and it
was urged with irresistible force in the motive assigned by
the President of the United States for the appointment of the
extraordinary mission, without waiting for the certainty that
Great Britain would accept the mediation. Between the mere
chance of an unsuccessful mission, on one side, and that of a
war unnecessarily continued for perhaps nine months, on the
other, the disproportion of evil was so great that it was impos-
sible not to approve the alternative the President had chosen.
But there would be now no occasion for precipitation. Perhaps
the renewed offer might have a better chance of being accepted
at some interval of distance after the first effect of the great
victory in Spain. The sensation which that had produced in
France was very great indeed. He knew it not only from
Russian sources, but also from others, and authentic ones.
But it was now to be seen what would be done with Suchet,
after General Murray's re-embarkation and abandonment of all
his artillery. He seemed to have been in tremendous fear
of Suchet, and takes great pains to charge himself with all
possible blame, by acknowledging that Admiral Hallowell
entreated him in vain at least to take time to save his cannon.
I asked the Count if there was any information of the renewal
of hostilities. He said, none. He had received the German
papers which are to arrive by the post to-morrow; they are
brought by estafette to the Minister of Foreign Affairs from
the frontiers, and arrive about eighteen hours before the post.
He read mc an official article from the Berlin Gazette, an-
nouncing the prolongation of the armistice to i6th of August,
which we knew before. I observed that I had seen an article
from a Vienna gazette, speaking of the preliminary Congress at
Prague. The Count said he really could not see why the farce
of holding that Congress was kept up. It was perfectly well
504 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJNCY ADAMS. [Augu»t,
known it could come to nothing. Very great events were at
hand, and a few weeks would bring them forth. He mentioned
to me the arrival of General Moreau at Gottenburg — said he
had received a letter from him, and that he was gone on to the
Emperor's head-quarters.
I told him I had received an answer from Mr. Fulton to my
letters informing him of the terms upon which he could obtain
the privilege for navigating the Russian waters by steamboats.
I stated Mr. Fulton's wish to obtain the patent without coming
here in person. The Count desired me to write to him on the
subject, which I promised.
I spoke to him of the French translation of our manifesto
which I g^ve him some weeks ago for publication. He said it
should certainly be published, and now immediately if I wished;
but he had delayed the publication, thinking that just now, on the
arrival of the Envoys, and at the moment of renewing the offer
for mediation, it might be more expedient to wait a few weeks
longer. With this arrangement I expressed myself satisfied.
He then said that he had something to say to me, upon which
he must lay aside entirely his official character and ask me to
do the same with mine. He knew me, and the confidence with
which he might speak to me. It was impossible he should so
well know my colleagues ; though what he had seen of them
had inspired him with a very high esteem for them. They
were men apparently very different from each other, but each
having a distinct and peculiar merit Mr. Gallatin had a
facility of communication, which gave him more readiness;
but he thought that the remarks Mr. Bayard had made indi-
cated a strong, judicious, and discerning mind, seizing at once
upon the essential points of a subject, and discarding all the
immaterial incidents to it. The Emperor had felt particu-
larly gratified with the honorable notice the American Govern-
ment had taken of his offer of mediation, and wished to show
his sense of it by some peculiar token of distinction to the
extraordinary mission. He had instructed him to think of
something for that purpose, and there were only two ideas
which had occurred to him as adapted to the object, if they
were compatible with the usages and forms of our country :
V
iSij.] THE MEDIA J70N. . 505
the one was, to defray the legation, and the other, to present
the Envoys some particular production of the Russian manufac-
tures. He wished merely to consult me, and asked me freely
to give him my sentiments.
I answered that I would consult my colleagues for their
opinions ; that for myself, I felt highly grateful to the Emperor
for his intention; I was very sure that my colleagues, our
Government, and country, would all concur with me in this
sentiment; that as to the two expedients, without pledging
either of the other gentlemen to my opinion, I believed neither
of them compatible with the ideas of our country ; that our
Constitution forbade our public officers from accepting presents,
or personal donations of any kind, from foreign sovereigns.
He said he was aware of that, but he had thought that this
was not to be considered in the nature of a present or donation,
but merely as a manifestation of respect to distinguish the lega-
tion from an ordinary mission. I replied that I would mentioil
it to my colleagues, and they would judge for themselves.
He enquired how they were lodged, and how they were
satisfied with their apartments. I told him they were tolerably
good, but with not quite room enough for both the gentlemen
and their families.
The Count spoke finally of the President's last message on
opening the session of Congress, in which, he said, there was a
passage that had appeared to him not altogether clear, and he
had seen some animadversions upon it in the English news-
papers. It spoke of the English pretension to search foreign
ships as being no right either of war or of peace. It might
justly be asserted that it was no right of peace to search neutral
vessels ; but- surely the right of search could not be denied —
the right of search in an enemy's ship. The right of war was
to do your enemy all the harm you could.
I said that I did not recollect the particular passage to which
he alluded, but believed it referred only to search for men to
impress, which the President said could be no right either of
war or peace.
The Count said it was hardly possible to limit the right of
war as against an enemy.
5q6 memoirs op JOHf/ QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
I answered that limits there must be. You could not, for
instance, poison a prisoner. You could not put him to death in
cold blood. You could not compel him to serve against his
own sovereign.
The Count said a prisoner might be put to death by retalia-
tion— which I admitted, but said it proved my position, that
you cannot put him to death but by retaliation.
He also said he had not known that the English now forced
the impressed Americans to fight against their own country.
He asked me to read over again the President's message and
notice the passage to Which he had referred, which I assured
him I would.
From his house I went to the Jesuits' College, and delivered
to the Father General the letters I had received for him.
Thence I went to the lodgings of my colleagues, and commu-
nicated to them the substance of the whole conversation I had
just had with Count Romanzoff. As to the historical note for
the Count, Mr. Gallatin gave me a sketch which he had drawn
up, as a minute of what the note should contain, with the
request that I would return it to him to-morrow. As to the
honorary propositions, both the gentlemen thought, as I did,
that neither of them would be suitable to the ideas of our
countrymen. Mr. Bayard thought the legation would rather
be degraded than honored by being defrayed. He said he
could only compare it to the Tunisian Embassy, which had been
defrayed by us in America. Mr. Gallatin was a little surprised
that Count Romanzoff should have imagined we could feel
ourselves honored by being defrayed. I thought that things of
this sort should be estimated by the intention, and I was very
confident that the intentions both of the Emperor and Count
Romanzoff were sincerely to show the sentiment which the
Count had professed. They finally concluded that a proposi-
tion to provide them with apartments might be acceptable,
because that might have the appearance of a mark of respect
to the mission, and that instead of being a pecuniary benefit to
the Envoys personally, it would prove an additional expense
to them, by the presents it would oblige them to make.
i6th. Went with Mrs. Adams to Czarskozelo. Mr. Gallatin
i8l3.] THE MEDIATION. 50^
and his son, and Mr. Dallas, accompanied us. Mr. Bayard,
who still continues very unwell, with Colonel Milligan, came
abbut two hours after us, and Mr. Todd alone. Mr. Bayard,
after being there about an hour, was so ill that he was obliged
to leave us and return to the city. We left home at half-past
ten, and arrived at the palace at Czarskozelo at a quarter-past
twelve. The distance is twenty-two wersts from th^ Fontanka.
Miss Bode had given a letter for Miss Bussy, a lady of th^
family of the Duchess of Wiirtemberg, requesting her to order
that Miss Bode's apartments and servant should be at our dis-
posal. We went therefore first to her rooms. Mr. Gallatin
having been directed to apply to the Chamberlain, Count Oza-
rovsky, sent to him, and he came to us in a few minutes. I went
to the inn, and ordered a dinner for seven persons ; but Count
Ozarovsky invited us all to dine with him, and urged us so
strongly that we accepted, and dined with him — upon which 1
sent and countermanded the dinner at the inn, for which, how-
ever, I paid the bill. We went over all the apartments at the
palace, and walked over all the grounds of the gardens. The
palace is spacious, and has had an additional wing built to it
within a few years. On each side of this wing is a porch, sup^
ported by a colonnade, and filled with flowers in pots. Under
the colonnade is a large collection of busts in bronze, cast at
the Academy of Science here — copies from antiques, with only
two exceptions ; one of wjiich * is the poet LomonossofT, and
the other is the late Mr. Fox, placed between Demosthenes
and Cicero. The Empress Catherine sent for this bust at th^
time when Mr. Pitt threatened a war with Russia, in 1790.
But the Count told us that Mr.' Fox having afterwards made
speeches against Russia, the Empress had the date inscribed
under the bust, to say it was Fox in 1790. '
There is another singular date in this palace — an apartment
the walls of which are entirely of amber. It was a present from
Frederick II. of Prussia to the Empress Elizabeth, in the year
1760, whilst she was waging against him that inveterate war.
The date is therefore inscribed on the wall. The floor and the
doors of another apartment are inlaid with mother of pearl, and
the furniture, sofas, and chairs are of Lyons stuff, presented by
508 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Aueiist,
Louis XVI. to Catherine II. The work (flowers and birds) is
of the most exquisite kind, but the colors, which were origrinally
pink, are faded. There is a rostral column of marble, standing
on a foundation of granite, and surmounted by an eagle, placed
on an island in the centre of a lake in the garden, and to which
we went in a boat. On another island is ^ hall for concerts,
where the Empress sups two or three times a week. The sup-
per-hall, with tables made to wind up and down with machinery,
is entirely disused, and out of repair. We did not see it There
is a pyramid in honor of Marshal Romanzoff, like that fronting
the marble palace in the city. The rostral column on the island
is in honor of Count Alexis Orloff and his victory at Tchesme.
The inscription is in Russian, and there are three representa-
tions in bronze, in basso-rilievo, of the action. Together with
Catherine's generals and human favorites, her dogs are also
here commemorated. There are gravestones for three grey-
hounds, with inscriptions as long, probably much more inge-'
nious, and certainly more intelligible, for they are in French,
than those in honor of Romanzoff and Orloff. The dogs were
Sir Tom Anderson, Duchesse, and Zemire. The epitaph of the
last is in very elegant French verse, by the Count de Segur;
they say that Zemire loved very much her whom everybody
else loved ; but, " Comment aimer en repos, quand on a cent
peuples pour rivaux ?" and, finally, that the gods, witnessing
her tenderness, had given her immortality, " pour qu'elle fut
toujours aupres de sa maitresse." I believe there is nothing
like this for Orloff and Romanzoff.
We dined at Count Ozarovsky's, and met there a company
of about twenty persons of both sexes — with none of whom we
were acquainted. The Countess was a Miss Mouravieff, and
has been married between three and four years. She is young
and handsome, and has a very lively little daughter nearly
three years old. After dinner the Count went with us to the
Alexander Palace, at which the Emperor resided . before his
accession to the throne. This is a much smaller building than
the Imperial Palace, but built in a more modern style and with
newer furniture. The theatre is a separate edifice, but altogether
disused. Two of the boxes are fitted up as Chinese apartments.
I8i3.] THE MRDIATION. 509
more peculiar for rarity than beauty or elegance. We had
some difficulty, after returning to Miss Bode's apartment, to
get our carriage from the inn. Timosei, the servant, on the
authority I had given him to take with the other servants the
dinner I had bespoken, had made himself so drunk that he
knew not what he was about. Between eight and nine in the
evening we left the palace, and reached home about ten. We
met the Empress returning to Czarskozelo on the road.
17th. In the evening, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Dallas, and Mr. Har-
ris were here. Mr. Gallatin had received a letter from Mr.
Alexander Baring, relating to our mission,' which he left with
me to read, and requested me to call oh him and Mr. Bayard
to-morrow morning. Mr. Baring writes that the British Gov-
ernment have refused the mediation, but offer to treat with us
directly at London, or, if we prefer it, at Gottenburg.
1 8th. Called this morning on Messieurs Gallatin and Bayard,
and returned the letter from Mr. Baring, upon which we had
a conversation of about two hours. We concluded that it was
not a foundation upon which any measure could be taken by
us. The letter is very well written, and shows the English
feelings on the subject of mediation clearly enough. The wish
to draw us to London is very freely avowed, but nothing, other
than vague and general expressions, to encourage a hope that
we should have any prospect of success there. My colleagues
are anxious and uneasy under the responsibility of staying
here with the knowledge that England has declined the media-
tion. They desired me, if I should see Count Romanzoff, to
ask him for an official notification in writing of his intention
to renew the proposal of mediation to England ; and Mr. Bay-
ard intimated his wish that in that notification the Count would
invite them to stay here for an answer. When I returned home
I found a note from the Count, asking me to call upon him at
his house in the city to-morrow at noon.
19th. I called at the lodgings of my colleagues, and saw Mr.
Gallatin. I mentioned to him that I was to see Count Roman-
zoff at twelve o'clock, and enquired if there was anything
further that he wished me to say to him. He said he only
desired me to hasten as much as possible the Count's further
5 lo MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Augnit,
measures, and again hinted how irksome it was for him and
Mr. Bayard to be here in prison, not allowed to see anybody,
and uncertain what to depend upon. I asked him whether he
would have me say anything respecting the proposition to have
apartments provided them by this Government. He said, no.
He would not have any such idea go from them. He had only
meant to observe that if the proposition had come in that form
from this Government it would have been proper to be con-
sidered.
I called upon the Count at noon. He said that he had
received our historical note, which he had read with great
attention and satisfaction; first, because it was very well done;
and next, because it was so fair and moderate that he could not
forbear to hope it would lead to a happy result, unless England
was determined at all events against making peace at all. If
that was the case, indeed, no proposition could l)e of any effect
But he could not presume such to be their intention, because
they had uniformly professed the contrary, and because, " when-
ever we" (said he) " have urged how much our commerce suffers
by this unfortunate war, they have always answered that their
own commerce suffers by it in a much greater degree. The
proposals which you have to offer, as you observe, have never
been considered by the British Government. They have de-
clared that it was a subject upon which they had never refused
to treat for a substitute to their present practice, and you offer
an alternative which discards the question of right, and tenders
a compromise which Britain may accept even without the sacri-
fice of any of her pretensions. I entertain a strong hope that
England will take these proposals into consideration, that she
will finally agree to negotiate, and eventually be perfectly satis-
fied that the affair has taken this direction.
" But before I prepare my official dispatch to Count Lieven, I
wish to anticipate all the contingencies that may happen, and
sent to ask you whether, if England should propose to transfer
the negotiation to London, you would have any objection to
going there."
I said, first, that 1 could answer only for my own opinions,
^nd begged to be understood as not pledging those of my col-
iSlj.] THE MEDIATION. jn
leagues. Next, that the proposition to transfer the negotiation
to London might be in one of two very distinct forms. One
was to treat, though at London, still under the mediation of
the Emperor, and the other was to set aside altogether the
mediation and treat directly; that with regard to the second, he
would find by the inspection of the full-powers, of which wc
had furnished him a copy, that our commission was limited to
negotiate under the mediation of the Emperor, and we could
not treat otherwise than under that mediation.
As to going to London, to treat there under the Emperor's
mediation, I did not know that we were forbidden to do that.
For my own part, I should much regret the transfer — ^not only
as it would remove me from my post here, but as it would
deprive us of the advantage of having his (the Count's) aid ;
as I had calculated very much upon the successful effect of
his spirit of conciliation. But if England chose to make a
point of it, I supposed we had sufficient authority to justify
our going to London, if it should be advised by the Emperor.
The Count enquired, observing that it was not with a wish to
elicit any secret or draw any indiscreet communication from
me, whether we had not another power to treat with England
directly— ^as it seemed a contingency which might have been
anticipated by our Government. I said we had no such power
to treat of peace ; that the object of the American Government
was to accept the Emperor's mediation in the most respectful
manner, and with the same frankness that it had been offered ;
that it was not their intention to sue for peace, nor was there
anything in our condition, or in the result of the war hith-
erto, which could make it suitable for the American Govern-
ment to send a special mission to England for that purpose ;
that the President might have tliought it not altogether respect-
ful to the Emperor even to anticipate that England, his ally^
making common cause with him in their great war against
France, should refuse his mediation, while the United States^
though, as enemies to Britain, having a common cause with
France, the Emperor's enemy, had yet accepted his mediation
without an instant of hesitation.
He said the acceptance of a mediation was always a voluntary
512 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [August,
thing, and he had more than once advised declining offers of
that sort which had been made to this country. I admitted that
it was always voluntary, and that to decline it might often be
perfectly proper, but in such cases there should be, I thought,
a motive for declining; and it was scarcely possible to con-
ceive such a motive in this case, unless it was that England
did not choose to consider us as upon a level with other nations.
He had heard from Count Lieven that they alleged the dispute
with America involved principles relative to their internal gov-
ernment, as a motive for their objection to the mediation.
The Count said I was mistaken — that he had not received
such information from Count Lieven. But he certainly did tell
me so, on the 22d June. I reminded him of the conversation
in which he had mentioned it, but he seemed to have no recol-
lection of it.
There had been, he now said, no refusal on the part of Eng-
land to accept the mediation, but the last autumn, when the
ofTer was made to them, they had said that they did not think
the time favorable for a negotiation of peace, on account of cer-
tain pretensions which they said the American Government had
then advanced, as he had informed us by his note. The only
way I can account for his denial now of what he told me on
the 22d June is by supposing that Count Lieven's report at
that time was of an inofficial conversation, which, as the Em-
peror has determined to renew the offer, the Count chooses at
present to consider as nothing. Confident as I am that he told
me of it, as I recorded in my journal of the day and wrote
to the Secretary of State at the time, I should still think I
had actually mistaken him, were not the precise idea which he
stated to me as having been alleged to Count Lieven the whole
burden of Mr. Baring's letter. Baring, when he wrote that letter,
was fresh from Lord Castlereagh, and avowedlyj:ommunicates
the sentiments of the British Government. The objection to
the mediation there is exactly the same as that which had been
stated to Count Lieven — a family quarrel — a question about
the rights and duties of sovereign and subject, and much more
to the same purpose.
I told the Count I had also information by a private letter
1813.J THE MEDIATION, 513
that England in accepting the proposal of the Congress at
Prague had expressly excepted the American question.* He
Would remember that the Emperor Napoleon had proposed that
the United States should be invited to send Ministers to that
Congress.
The Count said he much doubted whether England had
m^de any such exception. It was certain that in her commu-
nications to this Government not a syllable about America
was said.
I observed that I supposed the answer must have been made
to Austria. The Congress was proposed by the Emperor
Napoleon — acceded to by Austria as the mediator. The propo-
sition to England must have gone from her, and to her the
answer would of course be made.
He said that was true, but "on se communique de telles
pieces, and, as far as I know anything about that Congress^
nothing concerning America has been said by England. The
Congress itself is one of those things against which I should
have advised, if I had been consulted, and I own I do not yet
understand in what sense the approbation of it by England \s
to be taken. Diplomatic affairs were formerly managed by few
persons. They were like a convent of monks, and accordingly
there was some gravity in the manner of transacting business.
But now there are so vmny dilettanti that I, for my part, cannot
see through it. As to the Congress, it does not appear that
England has sent anybody to it, nor does the Austrian Envoy
in England appear to be in activity. The Congress has not
even been opened. Count Metternich is there. Count de Nar-
bonne is there too; but he says he only came there on a
party of pleasure. M. de Caulaincourt seems to have been
going between there and Dresden, to and fro, and to have had
conferences with Count Metternich ; but all this can come to
nothing."
I asked if the hostilities had commenced, as was reported.
He said, not yet, but very great events were at hand. I men-
tioned an article in the gazettes stating that two English
Plenipotentiaries had landed at Helvoet-Sluys and were pro-
ceeding to the Congress. He said he had seen the article^
VOL. II.— 33
514 MEAfOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
but it was merely gazette news. He questioned its authen-
ticity.
I then mentioned to him the wish of my colleagues that he
would inform us, by an official note, of his intention to renew
the offer of the mediation. I said they were very anxious*
under the responsibility of remaining here, with the knowledge
that England had declined the mediation, and with the pros-
pect'of doing nothing; that they wished to be released from
their uncertainty as soon as possible, and flattered themselves
that he would hasten the business as much as he conveniently
could. He said that he was going to-morrow to Czarskozelo ;
that he would endeavor to prepare his dispatch to Count Lieven
there before his return ; that when it was ready he would com-
municate it to us all, as he had promised, and then furnish us
with a copy of it, which he thought would answer their purpose
better than a note merely announcing his intention to send
the dispatch. He readily conceived the anxiety of persons
employed in important stations at home not to be detained
unnecessarily abroad ; but he thought they should not permit
any impatience to gain upon them. There must be some time
allowed for business of such importance as this.
I take it for granted, from the tenor of his conversation this
day, that he does not intend to dispatch his courier to Count
Lieven until he shall have heard again from the Emperor. He
then asked me as to the petite commission that he had in
charge from the Emperor, of showing some special mark of
honor to the mission. I told him that I found the ideas of my
colleagues coincided with those I had expressed to him : with
regard to the Emperor's intentions, they felt highly gratified
and grateful ; but they considered both the proposals, of defray-
ing the mission and of making presents from the manufactures
of this country, as incompatible with our Constitution ; that any
token of respect from this Government to the mission, applying
to the American Government and nation rather than personally
to the Envoys, would be very highly valued, but nothing which
could assume the shape of personal advantage and profit to the
Envoys themselves. Without presuming to indicate a mode of
expressing favor to the Emperor, we have thought that the very
1813] THE MEDIATION, 515
words in which the mission and its reception should be an-
nounced in the oflficial gazettes might be made fully to manifest
the Emperor's intention to do honor to it, and have its proper
effect on the opinions of Europe generally, and in particular on
those of England.
He daid he should take care of that, and hoped we should be
satisfied in this respect ; but that would not be what was the
Emperor's intention. However, if it was not compatible with
our Constitution, there was nothing further to be said. Every
country had its " maniire de voir," and it was not worth while
to run counter to it. His own idea had been entirely to defray
the mission, but it was only to treat it in a more honorary
manner than as an ordinary mission. As, for example, when
he had been to Paris, the Emperor Napoleon had made it a
point to treat him in a manner totally distinct from the treat-
ment of an Ambassador. He asked me if the gentlemen would
be disengaged, so that they, with the young gentlemen attached
to the mission, could come and dine with him next week in the
country. I said I presumed they would be.
I asked him if Lord Walpole had arrived. He said, not here,
but he might be gone to head-quarters. I gave the Count a
letter I had written him concerning Mr. Fulton's business.
He lent me the English Morning Chronicles to 27th July, con-
taining some British dispatches from America. I went imme-
diately from the Count's, and informed Mr. Gallatin and Mr.
Bayard of the substance of my conversation with him. Mr.
Bayard intimated his wish that the Count, instead of reading
to us his drafl of a dispatch to Count Lieven, would send us a
copy of it, to discuss, before he transmits it.
23d. Austria declared war against France on the tenth of this
month, at Prague, and the Russian troops have entered Bohemia.
24th. Count Romanzoff sent notes to my two colleagues and
mc, requesting us to call at his house in the country between
half-past five and six o'clock this evening. At the time ap-
pointed I went to their lodgings, but they were already gone.
I found them at the Count's. He told us that he had received
a letter from the Emperor, dated on the twelfth of this month,
saying that the "Simulacre d'un Congrfes" at Prague had
5l6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Augurt,
broken off, and that on the tenth, at midnight, Count Metter-
nich had delivered to the Count de Narbonne the Austrian
declaration of war against France, to be transmitted to the
Emperor Napoleon. " Which event," adds the Emperor Alex-
ander, "fully justifies my conduct towards Austria." Be-
cause, said the Count, he knows that he has been reproached
for his confidence in Austria. He says, further, that this will
give three hundred thousand men more in support of the
common cause, and that more than one hundred thousand of
our troops (by which expression the Count did not know
whether he meant all Russian, or joint Russian and Prussian
troops) had already entered Bohemia. The Emperor proceeds
to say that he was going to Prague, to have an interview with
the Emperor of Austria. Count Wittgenstein commands the
troops that have entered Bohemia ; the hostilities were to com-
mence on the seventeenth, and the allies were to assume the
oflTensive. The Count said the courier who brought the dis-
patches reported that the French troops in Silesia had already
commenced their retreat. He was a little surprised that the
Emperor Napoleon had not been the first to attack, as he was
much in the habit of anticipating his enemies. A few days must«
bring the news of some great events. General Moreau has
passed through Berlin, going to the Emperor Alexander's
head-quarters, and was accompanied by Mr. Rapatel. Lord
Walpole was gone the same way, and was styled in a Prussian
passport Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia. He
is not coming here. The French pretend to have had some
new success in Spain, in which they took five thousand pris-
oners; but perhaps they were only of the guerrillas. The
English gazettes from 27th to 30th July say that Joseph Bona-
parte had collected about twenty thousand men at Bayonne, and
had been joined by ten thousand more of the militia.
The Count lent us these English papers, and Mr. Gallatin
took them with him.
After the general conversation, the Count read to us the dis-
patches to Count Lieven, directing him to renew to the British
Government the proposal of the Emperor's mediation. They
consisted of a short letter to Count Lieven, instructing him to
1813] THE MEDIATION, 517
present the oflficial note to Lord Castlereagh — the official note
itself ready drawn, and only to be signed, by Count Lieven,
and a longer letter to him, urging arguments to induce the
acceptance of the mediation by the British Government. This
letter Count Lieven is authorized to communicate in extenso
to Lord Castlereagh. There was one passage in the official
note, and one in the long letter, to which Mr. Gallatin suggested
objections, and which Count RomanzofT altered. That in the
letter was„ in stating the wish of my colleagues not to be de-
tained here without any prospect, of being useful to their
country. The Count had alleged as a motive for this wish the
places which they occupy (as he believes) in the administration
of the American Government. Mr. Gallatin preferred to have
the motive omitted altogether. The Count struck it out.
The other, in the note, was a reference to the last paragraph
of Lord Castlereagh's letter to Mr. Russell of 29th August,
1812. In the Count*s quotation, he had understood Lord Cas-
tlereagh as having expressed a positive refusal of Britain to
suspend the exercise of the right of impressment without quali-
fication. But the refusal, as Mr. Gallatin remarked, was condi-
tional— until they were sure that other means could be devised.
Mr. Gallatin asked to have the word suspendre in the note
changed for the word abandonner.
The Count changed it.
In both instances, however, he manifested some little repug-
nance. In the first, on the question of the motive, he seemed
at first inclined to argue the point, but observed that he had
promised to make any alteration we should suggest. Mr. Gal-
latin said we thought the best way we could show our 'sense of
his obliging confidence was to avail ourselves of it. At the
question upon the word in the note, the Count insisted that he
had used the very words of Lord Castlereagh, and turned to
the printed document itself. He found that he had the very
word suspend^ but that by quoting it as unqualified he had not
the exact sense of it, which was conditional.
Mr. Gallatin said that his motive for asking the change was
that the very heart of our negotiation depended upon that word.
The British Government had refused to abandon. We did not
jlS MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
now ask them to abandon. We should ask them to suspend ;
which they had not yet refused. The Count, on reading over
the paragraph of Lord Castlereagh's letter, acknowledged that
Mr. Gallatin was right, and changed the word in his note.
Neither Mr. Bayard nor I made any objection or asked any
alteration to the papers. I was gratified in observing the Count's
candor in acknowledging his mistake in the quotation, as well
as the quickness and readiness of Mr. Gallatin, his perfect pos-
session of the subject, and the address with which he averted
the allegation of the motive upon which he and Mr. Bayard
were desirous of not being unnecessarily detained here.
The Count said he should send off his courier with the dis-
patches to Count Lieven in three or four days, without trans-
mitting them first to the Emperor. He promised also to send
us copies of the note and instruction. Mr. Bayard enquired
how long it would probably be before the answer would come.
The Count could not tell — it depended upon the winds; but
said we should dine at his house to-morrow with young Count
Woronzoff, who is attached to the Russian Embassy at London
and came as courier. Me could tell us how long the passage
was, though, indeed, he first came to the Emperor's head-
quarters. The Emperor had sent him on hef-e to spend some
time with his friends and then return to England.
We now resumed the general conversation, which turned
upon the Spanish colonies in South America, and the prospects
of their returning to the doniinion of Spain. Upon the state of
our manufactures in the United States, Mr. Gallatin said he
had some statements and returns upon the subject, which he
promised to give the Count. Our conference was little short
of an hour.
25th. I dined at Count RomanzofTs, in the country. My
colleagues and their secretaries, Mr. Harris and Mr. Smith,
were there, Mr. KosodavlefT, the Minister of the Interior, Cap-
tain Krusenstern, and eight or ten others. The Count had
more news — Lord Aberdeen had arrived at Gottenburg, having
sailed from England the loth of this month. The Government
had just received a telegraphic dispatch announcing a complete
victory of Lord Wellington over Marshal Soult. The Count
iSij.] THE MEDIATION.
5I9.
told me he had already sent off to the Emperor copies of the
papers which he read to us last evening, and should dispatch
the courier to Count Lieven in two or three days. He also
said he should soon send a courier to Vienna, and offered to
forward any letters for me there.
I sat next to Mr. Bayard at table ; he told me more in detail
what he had hinted soon after his first arrival, of the manner in
which Mr. Pope had lost his seat in the Senate of the United
States. It was by supporting what he thought were the views
of the Executive for the renewal of the charter of the United
States Bank; and he thought that Mr. Pope had been abandoned
by those whom he supported. He also gave me some informa-
tion concerning the state of parties in the United States Senate.
He thought Mr. Crawford the ablest and most influential man
in it at the time of his appointment to France. Mr. G. W.
Campbell he considered as anxious to acquire influence, but
without ability to maintain it. He says Mr. Lloyd resigned
his seat for fear of being obliged to fight Campbell; that Camp-
bell was continually insulting him ; that by shooting Gardenier
he had got a formidable reputation, and that Lloyd, though
excessively testy and irritable, had become averse to fighting
now he was married. Campbell, he said, fairly drove him out
of the Senate, and at the close of the last session he (Bayard)
was very sure Lloyd would never come there again.' He
further said he was sure the Senate would not confirm the
appointment of Mr. Gallatin to the mission unless another
appointment was made of Secretary to the Treasury. As to him-
self, he could not hold his place as Senator with this appoint-
ment. He had therefore written to the Governor of Delaware,
communicating the fact of his appointment, and the Legislature
had chosen Mr. Wells to his place in the Senate. " But when I
go back,** said he, " I can have my seat in the Senate again, if I
please. Either of the gentlemen would immediately resign for
me; for Mr. Horsey was brought in by myself, and Mr. Wells
is my particular friend.** We had much more conversation about
' This intimation seems scarcely to be just to Mr. Lloyd ; neither was the pre-
diction verified, for he did return to the Senate in 1822, and remained there some
years.
520 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
American politics and American characters — Randolph, Quincy,
Clay, and others. After returning from the Count's, I walked
in the Summer Gardens. Mr. Grallatin and his son, Mr. Bayard,
and Mr. Harris passed the evening with us. I agreed with
my colleagues to meet them at their lodgings to-morrow at
noon.
26th. Morning visit from Mr. Montreal, who said that Count
Romanzoff was making preparations to go out of office ; on
my expressing some doubts, he mentioned a circumstance which
happened yesterday, and which indicates that the Count is really
preparing for events, and expects to resign or to be dismissed.
I went at noon and met Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard at their
lodgings. We had some conversation concerning the letter to
be written to our Government Mr. Gallatin proposed to me
to make^a draft of it; but I thought it more proper that it
should be drawn up by them. Mr. Gallatin asked me if I
would then make the translation of our inofficial historical
note, which I readily promised, and offered to take upon me
anything of mere labor which they would see fit to assign to
me ; adding that I would decline nothing of any other kind
with which they would charge me, but, if they preferred it,
would leave the drafting to them. It has appeared to me that
each of them was at first a little tenacious of this originating
part of the business, and I determined, from the first moment I
perceived it, to accommodate myself entirely to their wishes.
Mr. Bayard hinted to me that from the composition of the mis-
sion, the people of America would have high expectations of
the ability of all our official papers ; and that to make them as
perfect as possible, we must animadvert very freely upon each
other's work. This may be very proper, particularly if there
should be controvertible papers to be drawn ; but to make three
drafts of every formal note or letter we have to write, which
any private secretary would be as competent to write as either
of us, would seem to me making a mountain of a mole-hill; so I
intend to leave all compositions to them at their discretion.
We considered the manner in which it would be most ad-
visable to report our interviews with Count Romanzoff. My
practice has been to give the whole substance of my conversa-
lSi3.] THE MEDIATION, 52 1
tions with him, in my dispatches to the Secretary of State; but,
as all our joint dispatches will be published, we concluded it
would not be proper to pursue this method, but only to notice
what was material, and in such a manner that the Count may
have no occasion to regret any confidence in conversing with
us. If it be necessary to write anything which ought not to be
made public, it must be addressed to the President himself
Mr. Gallatin gave me the historical note, which I took with me,
and began upon the translation this evening.
29th. Made several alterations, and one additional paragraph,
to the draft of a joint dispatch to the Secretary of State, sent me
yesterday by Mr. Gallatin. I then called at his lodgings, and
left the draft with him and Mr. Bayard to be copied.
30th. Received letters from Mr. Speyer and Mr. Beasley;
one of the last enclosing a long dispatch from the Secretary of
State to the joint mission, dated 23d June, and almost entirely
in cipher. I deciphered it, and then took it to my colleagues.
Mr. Gallatin, after reading it over, drily said he might have
saved himself the trouble of writing that whole letter.
31st. Mr. Harris called at my house with the dispatch of
the joint mission to the Secretary of State for me to sign. Mr.
Gallatin afterwards sent it to me, with a note suggesting a
question whether the publication of some parts of it might not
give offence here, particularly the paragraphs I had introduced,
and whether it might not be advisable to divide the dispatch
into two parts, one for publication and the other confidential.
I did not think it necessary.
September 2d. Baron Blome paid me a visit to inform me
that he was recalled. Mr. Lisakewitz, the Russian Minister
at Copenhagen, received an order from the Emperor, through
Count Nesselrode, to quit that country. It was dated 7th
August, in consequence of which he (Baron Blome) was like-
wise ordered to ask for his* passports. He should write this
day to Count Romanzoff, and ask for a vessel with a safe-con-
duct ; for he could not return either through Sweden or through
Prussia, where there is a Swedish army. He keeps the house
that he has taken, and all his furniture, thinking that the war will
not be long ; for either Denmark will be utterly destroyed, and
522 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [September,
he must come out of it as he can, or the allies will be successful
and will make peace with her, or they will be unsuccessful,
which may lead to a result of the same kind. He promised to
send me the Berlin gazettes containing the French news from
Spain. They claim a victory on the 28th July, but so faintly
that it portends perhaps a defeat. The English accounts at
least pretend so. Blome thinks that, whatever may happen,
the Swedish Crown Prince, at least, is sure of having great
success.
After my evening walk I went to the lodgings of Messrs.
Gallatin and Bayard, and spent the remainder of it with them.
They had called at my house, and I met them returning home.
Mr. Gallatin showed me the copy of his letter to Mr. Baring, and
a letter which he has received from General Moreau, who is at
the Emperor Alexander's head-quarters. He says he has come
to fight Bonaparte, and does it without repugnance ; that if he
contributes his share to overthrow Bonaparte, he shall have the
thanks of France, as well as of the rest of the world. Peu
importe la banniere lorsqu'on reussit. The rest of his letter is
upon American politics. We had some conversation on this
topic, and I sat with the gentlemen until near one in the
morning.
4th. I received this morning an answer from Count Roman^
zoflTto the application I had made in behalf of Mr. De Tracy.*
The Emperor has granted him permission to come from
Tambof to St. Petersburg and lodge at my house.
6th. I wrote a note to Count RomanzofT, asking a passport
for Captain Stanwood, and requesting to see him. He sent me
an answer, appointing half-past five this afternoon, at his house
in the country. I was engaged to dine at Mr. Raimbert's, but
I thought I could leave the table in time to go to the Count's.
I did leave the table, but not until a quarter before seven, and
it was ten minutes past seven when I reached the Count's house.
' The Marquis Destutt de Tracy, the son of the philosophical writer of the same
name, had ^come connected with the family of La Fayette by the marriage of his
sister with George La Fayette. After his return to France he acquired distinction in
public life, down to the time of the coup-d'6tat, in 1851, when, like so many others,
he retired in disgust to his estate in the country, where he remained until his death,
in 1864.
iSij.] THE MEDTATIOK. 523
He had waited for me until seven, and then went out to Madame
Narishkin*s, his aunt.
7th. I wrote this morning a note to Count Romanzoff, apolo-
gizing for having called so late at his house last evening ; but
before I had sent it I received a note from him apologizing to
me for not having been at home when I called, and appointing
one o'clock this afternoon at his house in the city. I went at
that time, and, after thanking him for the permission which the
Emperor had granted for Mr. De Tracy to come to St. Peters-
burg, I asked him if by that of his lodging at my house it was
understood that he would be restricted from lodging elsewhere
if it should be more agreeable to himself
The Count said no, that was only a compliment to me ; as
there might otherwise appear some impropriety that a prisoner
of war should lodge at the house of a foreigrt Minister. The
Emperor had done the same thing to the Princess de Tarente,
by sending a M. de Castres to lodge at her house, at which
she had been quite thrown into consternation — she having in
such excessive horror all the present state of things in France,
and having taken this interest in favor of M. de Castres not
from any regard for him, whom she did not know, but for his
father, who had been her friend.
I also asked the Count if anything further was necessary to
be done to give Mr. De Tracy notice that he might come to St.
Petersburg. He said he would immediately write a letter to*
the Minister at War, to enquire whether he had received any
order on the subject. He called in one of his clerks, and directed
him to write the letter for him to sign. We had little con-
versation besides.
He told me that Mr. Gallatin had called upon him this morn-
ing, and had mentioned to him the substance of the letter he
had received from Mr. Baring. But he (the Count) still thought
that the British Government would eventually accept the media-
tion, and he supposed their reluctance to it hitherto might have
arisen from their habit of considering the people of the United
States as a part of themselves, and all their differences with
them as a sort of family quarrel. Yet, by their proposal of
treating at Gottenburg, he thought they might be willing to
524 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September,
treat, under the mediation of the Crown Prince of Sweden or
the Swedish Government. I told him they had already refused
that. The Count spoke of the last battles in Spain as not deci-
sive in their issue, and said there were no official accounts from
the armies in Germany. He had heard of private letters from
Memel and Konigsberg, saying that the Crown Prince had taken
six thousand prisoners ; but he thought it was no more than that
the French had attempted to penetrate towards Berlin and had
been repulsed. The Count complained of having been very ill,
and said he was still quite indisposed.
8th. I received a note from the Duke de Serra Capriola, say-
ing that the other foreign Ministers here had agreed to go on
Saturday next, without invitation, to the. Church of St. Alex-
ander Newsky, to the celebration of the Emperor's name-day,
as a mark of attention to the two Empresses, and proposing to
me to join in the compliment.
nth. At a quarter-past eleven this morning I went with Mr.
Smith and attended the celebration of the Emperor's name-day
at the Monastery of St. Alexander Newsky. It was within ten
minutes to twelve when we came there, and the crowd made the
•church almost inaccessible. The Empresses, the Grand Dukes
Nicholas and Michael, and the Grand Duchess Ann, came in
about half an hour. There was a mass, a consecration of the
medals, and a Te Deum. The medals are of silver, about the
•size of a half-rouble, struck in commemoration of the campaign
and deliverance of 1812. On one side is an eye enclosed within
a triangle, an emblem of God's providence, and on the other
the inscription, in Russian, '' Not unto us, not unto us, but unto
thy name." This medal is to be distributed, and worn, sus-
pended by a blue silk ribbon, at the button-hole of every indi-
vidual who took part in the campaign of 181 2, from the hjghest
officer to the private soldier, inclusive. The Emperor's ukase
concerning this medal was read by the Minister at War, Gort-
schakoiT. The consecration was performed by the Metropolitan
Ambrose. The mass had been said by another archbishop.
The imperial family performed their prostrations at the shrine
of the saint. The courtiers were all radiant with good news
from the armies — the Emperor within hearing of the bells of
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION, 525
Dresden, and the French defeated in all quarters, with the cer-
tain expectation of more important victories in a few days. It
was past three o'clock when we got home. Napoleon's drama
draws to its catastrophe.
12th. I read prayers for the thirteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Dined at Count RomanzofT's with a company of about sixty
persons, the usual anniversary dinner for the Emperor's name-
day. There was a hand-bill before dinner, with the account of
General Blucher's victory of 26th August, but with no other
particulars than those I had seen last night in the papers sent
me by Mr. Krabbe. I sat between Alexander Soltykoff and the
Minister of the Interior, Mr. KosodavlefT. The band of music
performed in an adjoining chamber during the whole dinner.
After the Emperor's health had been drunk, according to the
usual custom, in champagne, the company all rising, a Court
footman came in with a note from the Empress-mother to the
Count, which he immediately opened, and read aloud to the
company. Its purport was, " Thanks be rendered to the Most
High, our dear Emperor is in good health. He has won
the most complete victory over our enemies — eighty pieces of
cannon, several generals, two thousand prisoners, etc. I am in
too great emotion to say more. Praised forever be the Supreme
Being!" Immediately afterwards a second note was read by
Count Markoff, which came, I believe, from the old Field-Mar-
shal Count Soltykoff. It repeated the siame tidings of victory,
with the addition of Blucher's victory in Silesia, and another
victory won by the Crown Prince of Sweden. This note added
that among the generals taken prisoners was Vandamme, who
was already sent off to Moscow ; that the victory was decided
by the regiments of guards Preobrajensky and Semenoffsky,
and the regiment of chasseurs, which had greatly distinguished
themselves.
Count Romanzoff called up the footman who brought the
note, gave him a glass of wine, and embraced him, kissing him
on both cheeks. A second glass of champagne was ordered
all round the table, and the Emperor was toasted over again.
A tempest of exultation burst forth from all quarters, and it was
universally agreed that Bonaparte's career was now finished.
526 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [September.
The Empress-mother's note was passed from hand to hand, and
instead of two thousand prisoners, as Count RomanzofT had
read, it was found to be four or nine thousand.
In the midst of the hurly-burly came a note to Mr. Koso-
davlefT, the Minister of the Interior, from the director of the
post-office, saying nothing more than that the courier left Top-
litz the \\t\i. This^ circumstance cast spme little damp upon
the tumult of joy that was raging. How the courier should
have come from Toplitz occasioned some surprise. It was
remarked that there were three Toplitzes, one in Bohemia, one
in Saxony, and one in Silesia, and the question was from which
of them the courier came. Then it was noticed that neither
the Empress's nor Marshal Soltykoff's note mentioned either
time or place at which the battle was fought. General Arm-
feldt said that Toplitz was forty wersts from Dresden ; but it is
at least sixty. It was known that before the battle the Emperor
Alexander was at the gates of Dresden, and his troops were
bombarding the city. Why the courier, after the battle, should
have come from Toplitz, was not enquired into, nor accounted
for. It was said that the Russian accounts never gave dates,
either of time or place. It was unanimously concluded, how-
ever, that there was now a total dissolution of the French army,
and the doubt and distrust occasioned by the name of Toplitz
were perceptible only on the countenances and in the eyes of two
or three persons. I came from the Count's immediately home.
13th. Early this morning I received a notification from the
Department of the Ceremonies for a Te Deum at the Kazan
Church at twelve o'clock. I attended it with Mr. Smith. All
the mystery of the courier's having come from Toplitz was
explained by Count Litta. The Russian, Austrian, and Prussian
head-quarters were at Toplitz. The victory of the 30th August
was complete — the divisions of Victor and Vandamme totally
destroyed — Vandamme himself, and seven other generals, pris-
oners, with seven thousand men, eighty pieces of cannon,
standards, eagles, and ammunition-wagons. The allies had
commenced the siege of Dresden, and had taken one of the
outworks. Gouvion St.-Cyr had thrown himself with thirty
thousand men into Dresden ; on the 27th Napoleon came with
I8i3.] THE MEDIATION, 527
sixty thousand men and ten thousand cuirassiers, and attacked
the allies before Dresden — they fought the whole day, and he
made no impression. He renewed the attack the 28th, with no
better success. The 29th he turned about, crossed the Elbe at
Konigstein, marched down the river-^side, crossed it again, and
entered Bohemia. The Russian army followed him down on
the other side of the river. Kleist, with the Prussians, at the
same time went down and crossed the mountains. Schwartz-
enberg and the Austrians came in a still different direction,
and on the 30th, from all quarters at once, attacked the French
army, which was entirely cut to pieces, and in a state of total
dissolution. Barclay de Tolly covered himself with immortal
glory. The three nations rivallized with each other in achieve-
ments. The Grand Duke Constantine distinguished himself at
the head of the Guards, and the Emperor has given him a sword
of honor, and a cipher on the shoulder. The Emperor Francis
has promised to erect a monument in honor of the Russian
guards on the plains at Toplitz, where the battle was fought.
He said to the Emperor Alexander, " I put my person, my
armies, and my dominions into your hands." In a postscript,
the Emperor Alexander says, "They are still bringing in
prisoners by thousands, found dispersed about in the woods.
Blucher, on his side, has defeated the French in Silesia, and, as
I dismount my horse, I learn that the Swedish Crown Prince
has defeated Oudinot, taken twenty-five pieces of cannon," etc.
Count Litta further said he had read an intercepted letter from
a certain General Catar to Lauriston — a long letter, which
concluded by saying, " I cannot disguise to your Excellency
that three-fourths of the soldiers can no longer be made to fight
They throw away their arms, and neither entreaties, nor threats,
nor honor, nor blows, can bring them to their duty. They say
that it is better to be taken prisoners than to perish with hunger
and misery. My heart is rent with affliction, but your Excel-
lency may nevertheless rely upon it that I shall do my duty."
Count Litta said that all this wtis charming news, but when the
details should come, then would be the time for the heartaches
of wives and mothers and sisters. It was impossible that such
a battle of four days should have been won without great losses.
J28 MEMOIKS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Sc|«
Only one general was said to be killed — a General Helissmo.
Count Ostennann had lost an arm, and General Moreau both
his legs. He was at the Emperor's side on the 27th, and had
just dismounted from his horse, when a cannon-ball carried
away his two feet. His two legs were amputated the same day,
and on the 30th the Emperor writes that Wiley gives him
more and more hopes of his recovery. The Emperor had made
him his first aide-de-camp general, and Count Litta said the
accident which had beiallen him was unfortunate in itself, by
the loss of his services, and of the impression he might have
made on the French troops ; but it was terrifying, when it was
considered where he was. Whose turn might it be to-morrow ?
What might the next courier have to bring? It was wrong
for commanders-in-chief to expose their own persons without
necessity, and it could never be necessary, but by way of
e3cample, when the soldiers did not of themselves show suf>
ficient ardor. The Te Deum was like all the rest, and we
came home about three o'clock.
30th. Received a notification from the Grand Master of the
Ceremonies for a Te Deum at the Imperial Chapel at half-past
eleven this morning, for the victory of the Prince Royal of
Sweden, at Dennewitz, the sixth of this month. We went at
the hour, and mustered only four Ministers of the Corps Diplo-
matique— the Duke de Serra Capriola, Count Maistre, and
Mr. Bardaxi, who told me he should go out to-morrow on the
road to Abo to meet his lady, who has passed through Gotten-
burg. These gentlemen all arrived so late that the Empresses
waited for them some time to begin the ceremony. Prince
Alexander Galitzin, the Minister of Religious Worship, observed
that wc were few in number, but that it was an occasion for
judging by the quality, and not by the quantity; that there
had been sometimes here a numerous Corps Diplomatique,
but The Prince spoke also of his exile by the Emperor
Paul ; the object of which was to remove him from the person
of the Grand Duke Alexander. ' He was ordered to reside at
Moscow, and not to go without the bounds of the city — a
restriction which was nothing in winter, but which he found-
very disagreeable during two summers.
iSlj.] • THE MEDIATION. 529
The Minister at War read from a printed gazette a very long
bulletin of the Crown Prince of Sweden, which has been pub-
lished these ten days. The Te Deum was short, and the com-
pany not so exulting as at some other times. The courier that
brought the order left the head-quarters at Toplitz the 14th.
Nothing of importance has happened in that quarter since the
affairs that finished by the destruction of Vandamme's corps,
30th August.
October ist Mr. Victor de Tracy paid me a visit this morning,
and thanked me for the steps I had taken in his behalf. He is
very anxious to obtain the permission to go to France upon
parole, but that is now impossible. He is much out of health,
and has a complaint in his eyes, which he says the physicians
are apprehensive is gutta serena. It will make him henceforth
incapable of performing any military service. He appears to
be affected in spirits as much as in health. He gave me some
particulars concerning the French prisoners in this country and
their treatment, which differs much in the different governments.
He says that of all the prisoners made in the year 181 2, there
are not twenty-five thousand now remaining alive. The treat-
ment of them is the worst in the government of Novogorod.
loth. Received a note from Count Romanzoff, asking me to
call upon him at half-past twelve o'clock, at noon, which I did.
He said he had received yesterday a number of letters from the
Emperor, and, among the rest, some concerning our affairs. In
one of them, he was ordered to receive from us, and forward to
the Emperor, our credential letter, as he (the Count) had sug-
gested, so that we might be completely recognized, and the
mission fully received as a foreign legation at this Court ; that
he had written to us to ask for the credential letter, and he left
it entirely to our option to enclose it under a cover to him or
to deliver it to him in person. If we preferred the latter mode,
we should only have to mention it in a note, as he should in
that case receive us formally in his apartments of ceremony ;
that with regard to our being presented to the Empresses, we
need give ourselves no trouble. He would consider the appli-
cation as made, and would t^ke the directions of the Empresses
as to the time ; that the reigning Empress would probably give
VOL. 11. — 34
5 JO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QU/NCY ADAMS, . [October,
US our audience next Sunday; unless in the interval there should
be a Te Deum. In that case, he would endeavor to procure us
the audience prior to it, that my colleagues might have the
opportunity to attend it, and he requested me to ask Mr. Harris
to send him the names of the persons attached to the Legation
who wished to be presented to the Empresses. He observed
that he had addressed the letter in which he asked us for our
credential letter, generally, to the Envoys Extraordinary and
Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States, without naming
us, because he had not known which of us to name first ; that
in the credential he observed I was first named, and that Mr.
Gallatin's name was first in the full-power to treat with Eng-
land.
I told him that it had resulted from a delicacy of attention
in the President towards me ; that in the power to treat with
England, Mr. Gallatin's name was first — to which I could have
no possible objection, he having held many years an oflice of
higher rank than any one in which I had been placed ; but the
President had perhaps thought, as I had already been here some
time, it would be in some sort displacing me, to give precedence
to another Plenipotentiary before me at the Emperor's Court,
and in the credential letter had therefore put my name first. It
was, however, a point on which I had no feeling to gratify, and
I should be obliged to him if he would always consider Mr.
Gallatin as the first of the three Plenipotentiaries.
He asked me if he should send his communications to the
mission to Mr. Harris, as Secretary to the mission, or continue
to send them to me. I said, either way, or to the other Pleni-
potentiaries. They would always be received with equal pleas-
ure to whomsoever they might come. But he might observe
from this expedient that little punctilios of precedence were apt
to arise in republics as well as under other forms of govern-
ment.
He said that he thought that republics might naturally be
liable to such questions more than other Governments ; which
remark was very just. Because in other Governments such
questions for the most part are settled; in republics they are
always open.
i8i3.] TJIE MEDIATION. 531
The Count asked me if I would take the letter myself; which
I did. He also showed me one of the Emperof's letters to
him. It was a note of four lines in the Emperor's own hand-
writing, without direction or signature, dated Toplitz, 8th Sep-
tember (O. S.). Its purport wds this :
** J'approuve complitement, Monsieur le Comte, votre lettre
au Comte de Lieven, sur les affaires d'Amerique, et je vous
prie de poursuivre cette affaire de meme. Tout a vous."
This was the whole letter, and the first and last words pre-
cisely as I give them ; of the others I only recollect the sub-
stance. He said that in another of the letters the Emperor
had directed him to apologize to us for the delay of his answer,
which was owing solely to his having been constantly On horse-
back and in presence of the enemy for several weeks. He had
also sent him orders to furnish Baron Blome with a ship to go
home in and to take with him the effects belonging to the Lega-
tion. The Count gave me the two collections of intercepted
letters from the French army, taken with the army mails of 12th
and 1 6th September. One of these letters, he told me, was
from the Duke de Vicence, and the other from the Prince de
Neufchatel. The courier who brought these dispatches left
Toplitz 25th September (N. S.); the Emperor's letter to the
Empress-mother was of the day before. The Emperor ex-
pected immediately afterwards the arrival of General Benning-
sen with his army to join them, and then the main army was
to march forward. The Emperor expected great events from
day to day. Napoleon had attempted several times and on
various quarters to penetrate into Bohemia, but had everywhere
been repulsed. Mr. Alopeus had written to him (the Count)
that Napoleon's marches and countermarches, and the extraor-
dinary circumspection of his present movements, had consider-
ably affected his military reputation. But, the Count added, he
did not join in that opinion ; he thought his circumspection
was a new proof of his ability. For my part, I believe the
man is abandoned of God, and that Heaven is breaking one of
the instruments of its wrath. The only prayer I dare to form
is, that by his ruin still more terrible scourges may not be sub-
stituted in his place.
532 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
I took the Count's letter immediately to Mr. Gallatin and
Mr. Bayard.' We all concurred in the opinion that we should
ask an audience of the Count and deliver to him the credential
letter in form. Mr. Bayard said this was something, but he
had much rather have received the answer from England. He
thought our audience of introduction to the Empresses might
at the same time be an audience to take leave. I wrote the
note to Count RomanzofT, asking him to appoint a time for us
to deliver the credential to him, and I sent it in the evening to
Mr. Gallatin, to be copied, if approved by him, and sent to-
morrow morning to the Count by Mr. Harris.
I ith. Mr. Montreal paid me a morning visit; he told me that
Colonel Rapatel had arrived with the body of General Moreau,
which is to be buried from the Catholic church. Rapatel has
told all the circumstances of Moreau's death. He was recon-
noitring with the Emperor before Dresden, 27th August. The
fourth cannon-ball that was fired struck him, killed his horse,
crushed both his legs, killed another horse under an officer
standing by him, and passed under the Emperor Alexander's
horse's head. Moreau fell with his horse, instantly raised him-
self upon his two hands, and said, " Je suis perdu." Rapatel
had sprung from his horse, and raised Moreau by holding him
up under the arois, at the same time endeavoring to cheer and
comfort him with hopes. After a few minutes, he said, " Que
ce coquin de Bonaparte est heureux I" He was placed upon a
litter, and soon after asked Rapatel to feel in his side-pocket,
where he would find a flint and steel and some cigars. He
struck the fire and lighted a cigar, from which time he never
manifested a sign of complaint. The legs were amputated the
next day. He was removed on the litter to Toplitz, where he
died the- 2d of September.
1 2th. At noon, according to appointment, I called upon Mr.
Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, and we went together to Count
Romanzoff's. I delivered to him our credential letter to the
Emperor, and he repeated to us almost everything he had said
to me on Sunday. He said he had already spoken to the
Empress to request that, if there should be a Te Deum, we
might be presented to her before it, that Mr. Gallatin and Mr.
1813] 'THE MEDIATION, 533
Bayard may have the opportunity to attend it ; and he should
rejoice in having so happy an occasion for our presentation — I
consider it as infallible. He told me that he had written this
day to Mr. Narishkin, the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, to
take the orders of the Empresses on the subject The reigning
Empress went yesterday to visit the Empress-mother, at Gat-
schina, where she would stay until to-morrow night. The
Empress-mother would stay until the ^th, her birthday, at
Gatschina. That day she would come to Pavlofsk, where the
reigning Empress and the imperial family would dine with
her. She would stay there until the ^th, when she would
come to the city for the winter.
Mr. Bayard asked the Count whether Lord Walpole was
coming here. He said the letters from Vienna ipentioned that
Lord Walpole was there, and coming here. As the Emperor
Francis and Count Mettemich, his Minister of Forejgn AiTairs,
were both absent from Vienna, he did not know why Lord
Walpole had chosen precisely that moment to go there, unless
it was that, having to arrange the matter of a subsidy, his
business might be with the Minister of the Finances at Vienna.
Lord Aberdeen had presented his credentials to the Emperor
of Austria as British Ambassador. He had been commissioned
and dispatched from England before the end of the armistice,
upon the confidential communications of Russia to the British
Government of the disposition of Austria to change her system ;
and he had arrived at the head-quarters and found all prepared
for his reception, as had been anticipated. It was now said,
upon very good authority, that the King of 'Bavaria had de-
tached himself from his alliance with France, and made arrange-
ments with Austria. He had no official account of this himself,
but it was reported on authority which deserved full credit.
Mr. Gallatin asked whether in any arrangements which might
be negotiated between Austria and Bavaria, the Tyrol would
not come in for something. The Count answered that the
Tyrol was in a state of insurrection ; that Count Stachelberg
had written him so from Vienna, and that they had refused a
passage to the French troops. He then asked us if wc had
ever seen any Tyrolians. Mr. Gallatin said he had once seen
534 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINdV ADAMS. [October,
one. The Count said he had seen numbers of them on his
mission in Germany, and afterwards, by the Emperor's orders,
he had been in relations with their deputies. They were a
very singular people — a loyal, brave, honorable people — but
their coquetterie consisted in opposition. He had asked them
what sovereign they themselves would prefer. They said the
Hoiise of Austria, but upon condition they should be better
treated than they had been. They were willing to try the
House of Austria again; and if, upon trial, they should not be
satisfied, they would look out elsewhere.
14th. At ten o'clock I went with Mr. Smith to the Roman
Catholic church, and attended the funeral ceremonies for the
interment of General Moreau. His body had been transported
to this city for that purpose, by the Emperor's orders, and was
accompanied by Colonel Rapatel, who had been the General's
aid-de-canip, and whom the Emperor has now appointed one of
his aids. The church service was performed by the Archbishop
of Mohileff, the Roman Catholic Metropolitan of the Empire.
The music was the same that had been composed for the funeral
of the late King of Poland. The singing was very good. The
sermon was preached in French by Father Rosavel, the Pro-
fessor of Philosophy at the Jesuits' College. His text was from
the Wisdom of Solomon, ch. ix. v. 1 3 : " For what man is he that
can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the
will of the Lord is ?" It was delivered from memory, short —
not exceeding fifteen minutes — remarkable for moderation in
the sentiments, and without one word of invective against Bona-
parte, or even of allusion to him. The biographical sketch of
Moreau's history was such as might be collected from the
gazettes; his military exploits sufficiently, and not too much,
detailed; his famous retreat particularly dwelt upon; his re-
fusal to execute the decrees of the Convention against the
emigrants, and for giving no quarter to the English and Hano-
verians, justly alleged as instances of the humanity and mag-
nanimity of his character; his equivocal transactions with Piche-
gru at two different periods, and his accusation of Pichegru at
one of them, slurred over as points too strong to be discussed.
His trial was only mentioned, to say that it cost him the greatest
I8i3.] THE MEDIATION. 535
part of his fortune. The panegyric of the Emperor Alexander
was well interwoven with that of the General, and his medal for
the year 181 2 adduced as a proof of his modesty and piety.
The style of the discourse was altogether temperate, with
scarcely one oratorical movement, excepting an apostrophe to
the inhabitants of Augsburg, which was not very well placed.
In truth, the whole ceremony was languid ; excepting Colonel
Rapatel, there was not perhaps a real mourner in the church.
He appeared to be much affected, and lamented to me that the
ball had not struck him instead of the General. The Ministers
and Generals of the country were there, but none of the foreign
Ministers except Count Maistre. The Chevalier Bardaxi was
said to be ill. The catafalque was elegant, but plain, without
ornaments or trophies. The church was partly hung in black.
The body was deposited in a vault at the right hand of the central
aisle of the church. There were troops drawn up in front of
the church, who fired several volleys of musketry at the moment
of the interment. The whole ceremony was about three hours
long. It had begun when we arrived— about a quarter-past ten,
19th. Mr. Lewis called upon me this morning, and read to
me a letter which he received yesterday from Mr. Gair, at
Gottehburg. It contained, with some other information from
America, the statement that the nomination of Mr. Gallatin to
the Russian mission had been negatived in the United States
Senate by a majority of one vote — General S. Smith's — seventeen
and sixteen.' The other two, it says, were confirmed, twenty-
seven and six, and thirty-three (for twenty-nine?) and four; but
which had the six and which the four opposing votes he did not
know." Mr. Bayard and Mr. Harris came in while Mr. Lewis
was here. He then left me. He had informed them of the con-
tents of Mr. Gair*s letter; but they are not yet known to Mr.
Gallatin. Mr. Bayard proposed to me to send Mr. Gallatin Mr.
* This proceeding was based upon the fact of the President's retention of him at
the same time in the place of Secretary of the Treasury. So soon as that post was
vacated there was no further opposition to his confirmation to this mission.
• On the nomination of J. Q. Adams, the voters in the negative were Messrs.
Dana, German, Lacock, and Vamum.
On that of Mr. Bayard, they were Messrs. Dana, German, Lacock, Morrow,
Robinson, and Varnum.
536 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [October,
Speyer's letter to me. I consented, if he would take it as the
bearer, which he declined. He then thought it would be best
to wait some days; perhaps there might be official dispatches
communicating the fact, with some softening to take oflT its
unpleasantness.
Mr. Bayard came again, and passed an hour with us in the
evening. He was then anxious to have Mr. Gallatin informed
of the fact, thinking he might take it as no kindness to have it
withheld from him. I advised Mr. Bayard, if a favorable oppor-
tunity should occur to mention it in a manner which would
indicate kindness, to let him know it; thinking myself that a
studious concealment of it for any length of time would scarcely
be consistent with candor.
25th. Received a letter from Mr. Speyer, enclosing one for
Mr. Bayard, and a packet of National Intelligencers to 5th
August ; that of the third of that month contains the whole
proceedings on the appointments for the extraordinary mission
to Russia, from the nominations until the final votes of the
Senate upon them. The votes for Mr. Gallatin were seventeen
against eighteen; for Mr. Bayard, twenty-eight against six; for
myself, thirty against four. The vote that it was inexpedient to
send a Minister Plenipotentiary to Sweden was twenty-two to
fourteen. Mr. Gallatin's son came in almost immediately after
I had received these papers, to ask if I had any letters. I sent
them by him to Mr. Bayard.
30th. I went to the lodgings of Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard;
while I was there, Mr. Todd came in with further reports con-
tained in English newspapers of an action between the Ameri-
can and British fleets on Lake Ontario, in which the British
were defeated. I had received the account in a letter from Mr.
Speyer last Monday; but as it rested upon very remote and
indirect authority, and there was then no other account of it
received here, I had not indulged myself to give it credit. I
may now hope it is not entirely without foundation. Mr.
Todd's further news was, that Count Wittgenstein had won a
decisive victory near Dresden, for which there would be a Te
Deum to-morrow, and that Lord Walpole had arrived last even-
ing, and would be presented to the Empresses to-morrow.
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION. 537
31st Just after one o'clock I went to the lodgings of Mr.
Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, and accompanied them, together with
Mr. Harris, Mr. Milligan, Mr. Todd, and young Gallatin, to the
palace, where we were presented first to the Empress-mother,
then to the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael, and lastly to
the Grand Duchess Ann. There had been some question
whether, according to the etiquette, we should be presented in
mourning ; to solve which Mr. Harris had written to the Grand
Master of the Ceremonies, and had received for answer from
Mr. Swistounoff that we should. We accordingly wore crapes
round the arm, at the sword-hilt, and in the hat. Mr. Swis-
tounoff also mentioned as points of etiquette the three bows on
advancing to the presence of the imperial personages and the
three on retiring from it, with the precaution of stepping back-
wards without turning round.
The Empress-mother, however, on our entering her apart-
ment, immediately advanced towards us, and scarcely gave
time for the three bows. She expressed very courteously her
satisfaction at my new appointment, and her hope that it would
prolong my stay at her son's Court ; and she was equally polite in
her addresses to Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, spoke of America,
of the long voyage, of this city, the river, the climate, etc. On
her enquiring whether my colleagues had visited the places in
the vicinity of the city, Mr. Gallatin mentioned that they had
seen with great admiration the beneficent institutions under her
patronage. This was a favorite topic for her, and she conversed
upon it several minutes. She said that she did not approve the
principle of the foundling hospitals, because she thought it was
encouraging immorality; but as they hdd been instituted by
the Empress Catherine, it was just to respect her intentions
and carry them as far as possible into effect. The late Emperor
had always had it much at heart, and her son had never ceased
to take great interest in it. She mentioned it as a great evidence
of the morality of the Russian people, that when, in consequence
of the last year's disasters, the enemy penetrated to the very
capital of the empire, and the children under the care of these
institutions had been dispersed all over the country, yet the
people into whose hands they had fallen had generally taken
538 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
SO good care of them, that out of seven thousand, to which
their number amounted, there were only eighteen of whom
there was yet no account what had become of them ; and the
mortality among the rest had scarcely been greater than in
ordinary years. She spoke also of bur benevolent institutions
in America, and particularly those relating to the management
of prisons. She had read with great pleasure the accounts of
these ; and she admired the idea of aiming at the reformation,
rather than the punishment, of offenders. She said she had
heard there was a gr^at similarity between the Russian and the
American people, for which reason she rejoiced the more in the
good qualities of her countrymen. The Grand Dukes and^the
Grand Duchess Ann spoke only of the common topics of
weather, climate, the city, and the country. Our audiences
were all over and I returned home in the space of an hour.
November ist. On my return home I found a note from Mr.
Gallatin, with the draft of a note which he proposes to send to
Count RomanzofT, informing him that by an American gazette
of 3d August it appeared that, the United States Senate having
judged the offices of Secretary of the Treasury and of Envoy
to a foreign Court incompatible with each other, and the Presi-
dent, nevertheless, not having nominated another person to the
Treasury, the Senate had refused to confirm the nomination of
him as one of the Envoys to this Court ; that from the char-
acter of the gazette, and the details given in it, he has no doubt
of its authenticity ; that neither of the members of the mission
had received advices from America of a later date, but that he
would not continue to exercise functions no longer belonging
to him ; that no inconvenience would result from this circum-
stance, the two other members of the mission being authorized
by the originaKappointment to act as well without him as with
him. He therefore requested the Count to add to the civilities
with which he had honored him that of an interview for an
extra-oflicial conversation, to make arrangements for the most
suitable manner for him to ask for his passports and take leave.
Mr. Gallatin requested me, by a minute on the back of this
draft, to look over it, and give him freely my opinion of the
propriety of his sending it.
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION. 539
2cl, Mr. Lewis gave me the first news of the great victory of
the allies over Napoleon and his army near Leipsic — there had
been a rumor of this battle yesterday. The report now comes
from the Empress-mother— Leipsic taken by storm, four French
Marshals, fourteen Generals, thirty-six thousand men, and one
hundred and fifty pieces of cannon taken.
Mr. Harris soon after called upon me. At the request of
Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, he had applied to Mr. Bailey, the
English Consul, to ascertain from Lord Walpole whether he
had any instructions from his Government relative to the
American mission extraordinary. Mr. Bailey called yesterday
upon Mr. Harris and told him that Lord Walpole had informed
him that on the 20th September Lord Cathcart had delivered
to Count Nesselrode, at the Emperor's head-quarters, a memoir
from the British Government, stating at full length their reasons
for declining any mediation in their contest with the United
States, and requesting the Emperor not to insist upon it any
further; that the Emperor, after perusing this memoir, had
said, " En ce cas la, je ne puis plus rien y faire;" but that the
British Government had offered to treat directly with the
American Envoys, either at Gottenburg or in London.
When Mr. Harris reported this to Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bay-
ard, they thought it advisable that he should apply to Count
Romanzoff to know if he had received any conimunication
upon the subject. He had just come from the Count, who
told him that he had received from Count Lieven a dispatch
in answer to the instructions he had sent him to renew the offer
of the Emperor's mediation ; that Count Lieven Jiad not pre-
sented to the British Minister the note renewing this offer,
which the Chancellor had sent him by the courier dispatched
from hence 28th August, because when Count Lieven received
that dispatch he had already received from the British Govern-
ment and transmitted to the Emperor the memoir formally
and explicitly rejecting the mediation. Count Romanzoff said
he should in a day or two ask a conference with us and com-
municate this information to us. But he had received no orders
from the Emperor, nor even any information from him of the
memoir transmitted to him directly from England. He should
540 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
now dispatch a courier to the Emperor, requesting his final
orders upon the subject.
Mr.. Harris observed that Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard were
now embarrassed how to proceed — wishing to avoid any
unnecessary delay of their departure, and still thinking it
unjustifiable to go without written and official information
from this Government of the rejection of the mediation. The
Count had said nothing to Mr. Harris of the news from the
armies. I called before dinner at the lodgings of Mr. Gallatin
and Mr. Bayard. Mr. Gallatin only was at home. I showed
him the letter I had received from Mr. Crawford. Mr, Gallatin
had sent to Count RomanzofT the note of which he had yester-
day shown me the draft, and the Count had appointed nine
o'clock this evening to see him. Mr. Gallatin thinks Mr. Bayard
ought not to go until we have from this Government an official
and explicit written notification of the rejection of the media-
tion by the British Government. He said it might be mortifying
to the Chancellor and the Emperor to have this communication
to make, but that they must come to it.
3d. Mr. Gallatin gave me an account of the conversation he
had last evening with Count RomanzofT. He informed the
Count that it was his intention to go, without waiting for any
official communication of the decision of the United States
Senate concerning him. The Count told him that he could not
judge how far this might be congenial to the Constitution of
the United States, but he thought there was not a Government
in Europe from which an Envoy would take such responsibility
upon himself,.as to withdraw upon such unauthenticated informa-
tion, and without formal instructions from his Court. But if he
had concluded upon it, the form in which he thought it would be
best to apply f6r audiences to take leave would be to state that
he had received a conge ; to which Mr. Gallatin objected that it
would not be conformable to the fact. The Count then said he
might state *' que des circonstances majeures" had induced him
to withdraw, and that he should thereupon obtain the necessary
audiences. Mr. Gallatin then adyerted to the situation of Mr.
Bayard, and his wish to go with him, if, as we now know the
fact to be that Great Britain had definitively rejected the Em-
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION. 541
peror's mediation, we could receive it in such form as to warrant
his departure. The Count said he was not yet in possession of
such facts as would justify him in making to us a written com-
munication of that rejection ; that he intended to ask of us a
conference to-morrow, to give us all the information he had.
He had received two dispatches from Count Lieven — ^the one
some days ago ; Mr. Gallatin inferred about ten days ago ; but
the Count, he said, was a little shy about giving dates, probably
from a belief that we might think he ought to have given us
immediate notice of what he did receive. This first dispatch
acknowledged the receipt of Count RomanzofTs instruction to
renew the offer of mediation, and promised to answer by Mr.
Gourieff's courier, who arrived about the same time and would
soon return, it being Count Lieven's intention to dispatch
Count Romanzoff's courier directly to the Emperor's head-
quarters. The second dispatch Count Romanzoff received two
days ago; and in it Count Lieven observed that he had not
presented the note offering the renewal of the mediation,
according to his instructions, because before receiving it Lord
Castlereagh had communicated to him a long and detailed
memoir, giving at large, and, from the expressions used by Count
Romanzoff, Mr. Gallatin understood that Count Lieven meant
to say, in a manner satisfactory to him, the reasons why the
British Government declined any mediation to settle their dis-
pute with America, which memoir had been transmitted directly
to the Emperor at his head-quarters. Mr. Gallatin said Count
Romanzoff appeared to be greatly mortified at this conduct of
Count Lieven's, and that he felt it peculiarly as affecting him-
self He said he had sent the dispatch itself immediately to
the Emperor, without any comment, but requesting the Emperor
to read it wholly through, and to give him his orders what to
do upon it He then observed that the offer of the mediation
had originally been the Emperor's own idea; that he had
spoken several times to him upon the subject ; that when he
first gave him the order to make the offer, he (the Count) had
hinted to him that England might reluct at a mediation, from
a sort of remembrance of their former dominion in America,
and a disposition to think themselves a sort of elder brother,
542 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [November,
and to consider it as a family quarrel, with which strangers
should have nothing to do. The Emperor said that was nothing
to him ; he entertained no such idea, and would make the ofler.
The Count had then asked him if he would not first ascertain
whether England would accept the mediation before he offered
it to America. He said, no; that would not be fair. He must
make the offer to both at the same time.
The Count further remarked that Lord Walpole, since his
arrival here, had very bitterly complained of an article in the
Conservateur Impartial, concerning the presentation of the
American Envoys to the Empress — not on account of that
part which was complimentary to America and the Envoys,
but because it expressed a hope that the mediation would
effect a peace, when in fact it had been rejected by England.
Mr. Gallatin added, that this morning Mr. Harris had met
Lord Walpole at Mr. Bailey/s, and Lord Walpole had there
told him that before he last left England, which was on the 5th
of August, he had a conversation with Lord Castlereagh on
the subject of this mediation. Lord Castlereagh had told him
that the first time he had heard of the mediation was upon the
notice of the passport given by Admiral Warren for the vessel
that brought the two American Envoys ; that on this informa-
tion a Cabinet Council was immediately held, where it was
unanimously determined that the mediation ought not to be
accepted, but that the British Government would be willing to
treat directly with the Envoys, either at Gottenburg or in
London; that he (Lord Walpole) then went to Prague, where,
on the 22d of August, Lord Cathcart told him that he had
informed the Emperor of this determination of the British
Government, and that the Emperor had thereupon said that,
such being the case, he could do nothing more in the business.
Lord Walpole went then to Vienna, and when, on his return to
come here, he was again at the Emperor's head-quarters, Lord
Cathcart told him that he had in the interval received new
and more particular instructions to explain to the Emperor the
reasons of the British Government for declining the mediation;
that on his speaking of it to the Emperor he had said that it
was unnecessary to go into any further details, as he had
i8i3 ] THE MEDIATION. 543
already instructed his Chancellor to express his regret to the
American Envoys that England having declined his mediation,
he could take no further nieasure in it. Lord Walpole added
that he had told all this to Count RomanzofT; that he regretted
the American Envoys had been so long detained here; that
the contest between England and America was now reduced
within so narrow a compass, and the disposition to peace was
on both sides so strong, that he believed if they could but get
to treat, they would easily come to terms.
Mr. Harris said that we had no authority to treat otherwise
than under the mediation ; to which Lord Walpole replied, that
if we wduld treat, he was confident the British Government
Would admit our authority, such as it is, without hesitation.
Mr. Gallatin remarked that there were several things in these
statements of Lord Walpole manifestly incorrect in point of
•
fact; but altogether he thought the circumstances stated by
him, compared with the proceedings of the Emperor and of
Count RomanzofT, were very extraordinary and unaccountable.
I told him that Lord Walpole had been very free in telling
the same story about the communication to the Emperor of
the British rejection of his mediation, and of what he had said
relating to it ; that I had heard it from various quarters, and it
was mentioned to me particularly by Mr. Montreal, whom I
met this morning in the streets, and who, I suppose, had it from
the English merchant Mr. Anderson.
I found a notification from the Grand Master of the Cere-
mpnies, Narishkin, for a Te Deum at the Kazan Church this
day at twelve o'clock, for the illustrious victory of the Russian
and allied troops over the enemy's army, and for the taking of
the city of Leipsic. I attended accordingly. Count RomanzofT
showed me a letter to him from the Emperor, as nearly as I
can recollect in the following words : " Je m'empresse dc vous
annoncer, mon cher Comte, que la victoire est complete. La
bataille a dure le 3., le 4., le 6. et le 7. ; nos trophees sont, 22
generaux, 320 canons, 37,000 prisonniers ; et soyez sur que je
les mets en moins, plutot qu'en plus. Dieua tout (ait. Je suis
de coeur et d'ame, tout a vous. Leipzig, le 9. Octobre, 18 13."
The Ministicr at War read a long account of the battle; there
5^ MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [November,
are no Marshals prisoners, but two killed, Poniatoflsky and
Augereau. Among the Generals prisoners is Count Lauriston.
The King of Saxony is also a prisoner. The Minister of the
Interior, KosodavlefT, had received this morning another esta-
fette from Memel, with the further news that the King of Naples,
Murat, with ten thousand men, had been overtaken at the pas-
sage of the Saale, and had surrendered ; that Blucher had crossed
the Saale in pursuit of Napoleon's army, had overtaken and
beaten them ag^ain, and taken fifty pieces of cannon ; that Wiir-
temberg had declared for the allies, and Wurtemberg troops
already had taken possession of Frankfort-on-the-Main. Lord
Walpole was at the Te Deum, having had his audiences this
morning. Messieurs Gallatin and Bayard were also there. We
all dined at Count RomanzofT's. I sat at table between the
Minister of the Interior, KosodavlefT, and Mr. Bayard. Count
RomanzofT said to me before dinner, '* II faut que vous veniez
un de ces jours farcer ma porU^ afin que nous ayons quelque
conversation ensemble, sans que nous ayons Tair de nous avoir
donne rendezvous." I told him that it was a force I should
always be happy to commit, and should lose no time in avail-
ing myself of his permission. Mr. Bayard intimated to me his
wish to call upon Count RomanzofT for some explicit statement
of the rejection of the mediation by the English Government,
and also that I would ask Lord Walpole to say distinctly what
he had mentioned to Mr. Harris as having been done and said
on the matter at the Emperor's head-quarters. We had the
band of music at dinner, and the Emperor's health drunk in
champagne. Prince Gortschakoff, the Minister at War, and
Counts Litta and Markoff, came in after dinner. The city was
illuminated in the evening.
5th. At twelve o'clock I went to Count RomanzofiT's, accord-
ing to the hint he had given me yesterday, and was received.
I had about an hour's conversation with him, in which he
repeated to me the substance of what he had said the other
evening to Mr. Gallatin. The first dispatch he had received
from Count Lieven in answer to the instruction to renew the
offer of mediation, he said, he had received by the post, or by a
foreign courier (a courier who came to Mr. Bailey, the British
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION, 5^5
Consul). In that dispatch Count Lieven told him that he had
communicated confidentially and verbally with Lord Castle-
reagh concerning the former answer given by the British Gov-
ernment to the Emperor's offer; that Lord Castlereagh had
expressed himself in very civil and obliging terms with regard
to him, the Chancellor, and admitted that the former answer
from England was not a rejection; that in Count Lieven's
second dispatch, received a few days since, he stated that he
had not presented the note renewing the offer, because, in the
interval since his last dispatch, Lord Castlereagh had confi-
dentially communicated to him a long and particular memoir,
which had been sent directly to the Emperor at his head-quarters,
proving the utter impossibility that the contest between Great
Britain and America should be settled by any mediation, and
requesting the Emperor not to press the subject any further.
The Count said that. the Emperor had not given him any
orders in consequence of this memoir from England, nor even
informed him of it In the midst of the events which were
passing, and which so fully occupied the Emperor, he might
perhaps have forgotten it ; but he had shown me the instruction
from the Emperor in his own handwriting, which approved, of
the note to renew the offer of mediation which he h^d directed
Count Lieven to present He had now sent Count Lieven's
dispatch to the Emperor, and was waiting for his orders con-
cerning it. Lord Walpole had rather insinuated than directly
asserted that Lord Cathcart had informed the Emperor of the
refusal of England to treat under a mediation, and at the same
time had declared the readiness of the English Government
to treat directly with the Envoys, either at Gottenburg or in
London.
I told the Count that I had heard Lord Walpole had gone
further, and reported here in public companies that the Emperor
had told Lord Cathcart he had given orders that the American
Envoys should be informed that he could proceed no further
in the business.
The Count asked me to give him my opinion what it would
be best for America to do on this proposal from England.
I said that I could only conjecture what course the President
VOL. II. — 35
546 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. .[November,
might adopt Perhaps he might send us new powers to treat
directly.
He asked when I thought it probable we could receive such
new powers.
I supposed not before next April ; perhaps not before June.
He asked if we had not already informed our Government of
what might probably be the ultimate proposal of England to
treat directly. I said we had. Possibly the President might
act immediately upon that information, and give us an eventual
new authority to treat, in case the proposal should be made by
England. If so, we niight receive it much sooner.
He asked me what was the President's character. Was he
a man that made up his mind promptly and with decision, or
was he more inclined to deliberate, and judge slowly ? I said
the President's character was neither slow nor precipitate ; that
he took his measures with firmness and decision, but not with-
out solid grounds to act upon.
The Count said he thought if we were over-hasty in the
purpose of concluding this peace, it would not be permanent
The war would be to begin again in six months' time. But if
we had successes in the war, they would be the best of all
possible aids to negotiation. He than asked about the action
on Lake Ontario, and whether we had any account of it I
said only those in the English newspapers, which, if true, must
give us the command of that lake. He said he had also seen*
in an English paper that an American privateer had taken an
English vessel having dispatches from the English Ambassador
in Persia to the British Government in India, and that they had
been published in America. They were said to be curious, as
containing particulars of the war between Persia and Russia.
I had not seen them.
Returning to the subject of our negotiation, the Count said
that as the British Parliament were about to assemble, les
aboyeurs (the opposition) would of course attack the proceedings
of the Ministry, and might charge them with having slighted
this opportunity of making peace with America. " Car il etait
echappe a quelqu*un de dire que je leur avois donne un tort
C'est un reproche qu'ils me font"
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION. 547
This might have been Lord Walpole ; but the English oppo-
sition will never blame the Ministry for rejecting the Russian
mediation. I spoke also to ^e Count of the anxiety of Messrs.
Gallatin and Bayard to return to the United States. He said
he thought neither of them could go until oJfHcial and positive
information should come to them to warrant their departure.
As I alluded to the peculiar situation of Mr. Gallatin, the
Count said he had been long informed of it, though he had
thought it best to say nothing to us about it ; that Mr. Dasch-
koff had written him, first, that the President was likely to be
thwarted (tracasse) about the mission generally. Afterwards
he had written that with regard to the mission there would be
no difficulty, but that upon the appointment of Mr. Gallatin there
would.
I mentioned to him the forms of our Constitution which had
occasioned this state of things, and observed that it had been
decided in the Senate by a majority of only one vote. He
asked if the Senate could not reconsider their decision. I said
they were not in session, but at their next meeting Mr. Gallatin
might be nominated again. He said that at all events he
thought Mr. Gallatin could not go away without official com-
munication from his Government of the event.
1 8th. I this day discovered a new particular of my own
ignorance of things which I ought to have known these thirty
years. One clear morning, about a fortnight since, I remarked
from my bed-chamber windows a certain group of stars form-
ing a constellation which I had not before observed, and of
which I knew not the name. I marked down their positions
on a slip of paper, with a view to remember them hereafter
and to ascertain what they were. This day, on looking into
the Abridgment of Lalande's Astronomy, one of the first
figures that struck my eye in the plates was that identical con-
stellation. It was Orion. That I should have lived nearly
fifty years without knowing him, shows too clearly what sort
of an observer I have been. The evening was clear, and I saw
him rise from the roof of the house on the other side of the
street from ours. With the aid of Lalande's Abridgment, I
found in the directions from him Aldebaran, Procyon, and the
548 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [November,
Bull's Horns, between which the Ecliptic passes. But I am
ashamed at my age to be thus to seek for the very first elements
of practical astronomy.
19th. Mr. Gallatin's son brought me a draft of a letter to the
Secretary of State, written by Mr. Bayard, for a dispatch from
the mission. It contained a part of the information we have
informally received concerning the intentions of the British
Government, a statement of the course which Mr. Gallatin and
Mr. Bayard mean to take in returning home, and particularly
that they have it in contemplation to stop in England to ascer-
tain the views of the British Government in relation to peace.
I wrote what I thought a very material addition to this draft,
stating what we actually know of the British Government's
views in relation to peace. They seemed to me very clearly and
explicitly unfolded in Mr. Baring's letter to Mr. Gallatin, and
I thought there was no sufficient motive to omit all notice of
them in the dispatch. I took this addition to them, but found
an insuperable reluctance in them to inserting it in the dispatch.
They thought it would be sufficient to send to the Secretary of
State a copy of Mr. Baring's letter. That letter urges the mis-
sion to go to England to treat directly with the British Min-
isters ; but says, in the most decisive terms, that the British will
agree to no article abandoning the practice of impressment.
The mission has no powers to treat with the British Govern-
ment but under the Russian mediation, and is most pointedly
instructed to sign no treaty without a stipulation that the prac-
tice of impressment shall be abandoned. I told my colleagues
that the motive of ascertaining whether the British. Government
persevered in their principles, and also what they proposed as
expedients to guard against the abuse, as they called it, of im-
pressment, was sufficient, in my mind, to justify their touching
in England, and they were to judge for themselves as to the
responsibility which they assumed by it in regard to our Govern-
ment. I thought that responsibility not inconsiderable, as, with-
out any powers to treat at all, they were going to treat with a
full knowledge that it must be upon a basis directly in the face
of our instructions.
Mr. Gallatin said that the whole of that responsibility must
I8i3.] THE MEDIATION, 545
rest upon Mr. Bayard ; that he (Gallatin) was no longer a member
of the mission — he was a private gentleman, and might go home
by the way of England, or any other way, as he pleased ; that
as to the approbation of the Government, he should not trouble
himself about it. He would not disobey their orders, but if he
was right, he should not much regard whether they liked it or
not. Mr. Baring's tetter did indeed speak of the decision of
the British Government upon the point of impressment in the
clearest and strongest terms, but he believed the point might
still be presented to them in a manner which would induce
them to judge of it otherwise. This, he thought, would be the
utility of their going to England. For his purpose was to con-
vince the British Ministers that unless they should yield on
the article of impressment, there was no possibility of treating
at all.
Mr. Bayard's ideas were altogether. different. He thought
they could not only treat with the British Ministry, but evert
settle all the principles and articles of a treaty. He appeared
perfectly prepared to concede the point of impressment, and
said the British had professed a readiness to modify it entirely
to our satisfaction. He was for making distinctions — for con-
ceding the right of search, without admitting it for the purpose
of impressment. On the article of responsibility, he saw no
difference between his situation and that of Mr. Gallatin. From
the moment their mission to this Court terminated, they would
both be private men, and neither would be more responsible for
his subsequent acts than the other.
I observed there was a material difference in their situations,
inasmuch as Mr. Gallatin, quoad this mission, was no longer in
the public service, which Mr. Bayard was, and would be until
his return to the United States. Finding, however, that they
were both averse to my proposed addition to the dispatch, I
remarked that it would be necessary to make some change in
the paragraph of Mr. Bayard's draft, stating their intention of
stopping in England ; for, without hinting at the invitation to
the mission, or at the hint given by Lord Walpole that the
British Ministers would ask no questions about powers, Mr.
Bayard simply said that Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard had it in
550 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUJKCY ADAMS. [November.
contemplation to stop in England, with a view to ascertain the
intentions of the British Government in relation to peace. I
said I thought those intentions very fully and unequivocally
stated in Mr. Baring's letter; and they offered, as the only
basis •upon which they would treat, a principle to which we
were most pointedly forbidden by our instructions to accede.
If Mr. Gallatin thought he could persuade the British Govern-
ment to relax from their obstinacy, or Mr. Bayard thought he
could settle a treaty with them that would be satis&ctory to
our country, it was a justifiable motive for them to go to
England ; but it could hardly be said they were going to ascer-
tain the intentions of the British Ministry in relation to peace.
These we knew already perfectly well, and, by omitting all
notice of the invitation in Mr. Baring's letter, and of the avowal
of the only principle upon which his Government will treat, we
had the appearance of suppressing what I thought by far the
most important part of the communication due from us to our
Government
Both the gentlemen agreed that the communication must
undoubtedly be made. The only question was in what form.
They thought it sufficient to enclose to the Secretary of State
a copy of Mr. Baring's tetter, and merely refer to it in the dis-
patch, adding that Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard contemplated
stopping in England on their way home. Mr. Gallatin proposed
even to make this a separate dispatch, or rather a private letter,
and to say nothing at all in the dispatch about their intention
to go to England ; which, after all, he said, was quite uncertain
whether they should or not. Perhaps they should finally con-
clude to go north-about. He added that unless the British
Government were sincere in the wish for peace, this proposal
for a direct negotiation was insidious, and they had connected
it with the avowal of their basis with the intention of having
it rejected, and thereby throwing back upon the American
Government the odium of refusing peace, which otherwise, by
the rejection of the mediation, would fall upon them.
Mr. Bayard seemed anxious to discuss the expediency of
giving up the point of impressment. He said half the Amer-
ican nation were for giving it up. The State of Massachusetts
i8i3.] THE MEDIATION. 551
had called upon the Government explicitly to give it up. I
told him I thought it would be time enough to consider this
question when our instructions should authorize us to give it
up. In the mean time, it was proper for our Government to
know that the British will not negotiate on any other principle.
Our Government must decide for themselves. I did not know
how high-spirited they would feel at this juncture; but I well
knew that half the nation — not the half that he spoke of, but the
other; the half which approved the war — would never approve,
or be satisfied with, a peace which should give up the point of
impressment. After much conversation on these topics, I took
back with me the sketch of an addition to the dispatch which
they did not approve, and left Mr. Bayard's draft to be modi-
fied as they shall think proper.
20th. At noon I attended with Mr. Smith at the palace ; and,
after waiting about an hour, the Empresses held their Court;
after which the Grand Duke Michael separately held his circle.
The topic of discourse, as usual, was the weather. Mr. Bayard
engaged Lord Walpole in conversation — in which Lord Wal-
pole, apparently with intention, spoke loud enough to be heard
by all the circle.^ He said that he left England on the 9th of July ;
that the last thing Castlereagh said to him was, that the British
Government had never had one hint of a Russian mediation
until a dispatch from Borlase Warren informed him that he had
given a passport for the vessel in which Mr. Gallatin and Mr.
Bayard came; that this did really embarrass them, as it was
a very unpleasant thing for them to reject the mediation ; that
having found it, however, absolutely necessary, they had imme-
diately given notice of their intention to the Emperor ; that he
had received this notice first, verbally, at Bautzen ; that it had
been repeated in writing on the 6th of July, and afterwards by an
official note dated 13th July and sent to Count Nesselrode, of
which he (Lord Walpole) had among his papers a copy. He
spoke of it in a style of complaint, and said that Russia might
have had the civility to make the offer of mediation to both
parties at once, or at least to have given the British Govern-
ment notice of the offer to America.
I had heard before that Lord Walpole had said the British
550 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUIA'CY ADAMS, [November,
contemplation to stop in Kngland, with a view to ascertain the
intentions of the British Government in relation to peace. I
said I tliought those intentions very fully and unequivocally
stated in Mr. Baring's tetter; and they offered, as the only
basis -uiM^n which they would treat, a principle to which we
were most i)ointedly forbidden by our instructions to accede.
If Mr. Gallatin thought he could persuade the British Govern-
ment to relax from their obstinacy, or Mr. Bayard thought he
could settle a treaty with them that would be satis&ctory to
our country, it was a justifiable motive for them to go to
England ; but it could hardly be said they were going to ascer-
tain the intentions of the British Ministry in relation to peace.
These we knew already perfectly well, and, by omitting all
notice of the invitation in Mr. Baring's letter, and of the avowal
of the only principle u|>on which his Government will treat, vre
had the appearance of suppressing what I thought by fiir the
most important part of the communication due from us to our
Government.
Both the gentlemen agreed that the communication must
undoubtedly be made. The only question was in what form.
They thought it sufficient to enclose to the Secretary of State
a copy of Mr. Baring's letter, and merely refer to it in the dis-
|Mtch, adding that Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard contemplated
stopping in England on their way home. Mr. Gallatin propost.-.i
even to make this a separate dispatch, or rather a private Icit'
and to say nothing at all in the dispatch about their intcir
to go to England ; which, after all, he said, was quite unct
whether they should or not Perh^is they should finall
elude to go north-about He added that unless the
Government were sincere in the wish for peace, this ;
for a direct nqrotiation was insidious^ and tfiey had >. ..
it with the avowal of their basis wMi tlie intention
it rejected, and thereby throwing fanck iqK>n tlic /v.
Go\-emment the odium of refiisiac pence, which otlici .
the rejection of the mediition. would Ul upon tliem.
Mr. Bayaid seemed anxious to dbcnss the expcui.
giving up the point of impitsinienfc He said halt
ican nation were for mimt it udl The Slate of Mx
•c:.. -&..
•-ti*';- t : - •
553
• »n of my
I Sialic died,
Jssc vidcar"
-; fruits. He
^ species. But
iven is given to
by toil. To be
:i the compass of
■s and my prayers.
an»r
v-i-.
«
y • •«
TV
"'.V
#
««|3i
.-••
V-Jf.
^r»*
■ ^^\
V} %
: *i-
m
tl«-
*S- ii
r
t of the evening with
L^ on Monday at two
priety of fixing a time
tor the official informa-
British Ministers have
" .iation. I agreed to the
ame, according to appoint-
spoke of his anxiety to go
lould send a note to Count
^ 'f information what had been
ll Government concerning the
""^ We agreed to send such a note,
^ ) draw up. I told him that as its
* -«»«?:. ' ^, ^^ l^jj, Q^yj^ conduct and his wish
uild best express his own ideas; to
illatin mentioned that he had had a
iianzoff respecting his own departure,
in when an answer might be expected
Count could riot tell, but had observed
■. that it was solely and entirely on our
hitherto delayed to resign his office of
ould not transact the Emperor's business;
id forbidden any other person to write to
respond with him himself. He occasionally
;crs, which were all kindness and condescen-
i nothing upon matters of business. It was
1 (tAc Count), therefore, to do the business of
f
552 • MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [1813.
Government had not been informed of the offer of Russia to
mediate until last summer, which appeared extraordinary ; and
now, hearing him say so expressly, to be sure of not mistaking
his meaning, I asked him if I had understood it correctly.
He said I had ; repeated over again what he had said to Mr.
Bayard, adding that they were the last words Castlereagh said
to him when he left England. Lord Walpole has an apparent
frankness and some coarseness in his manners. He said they
kept Michaelmas in England the 29th September; that it was
a universal and indispensable custom to dine upon goose;
that it was called goose-day ; that members of Parliament always
dined that day with their constituents. He dined with the
mayor of the place he represented. The constituents gave
very good dinners, and " we do not get drunk — ^but something
devilish near it." He told me that he had been two or three
years in the Admiralty ; that the Admiralty cost twenty millions
a year; that he and the other members proposed in 181 1 to
reduce it two millions, but the First Lord would not consent,
and his voice weighed more than all the others put together.
He said that Vansittart was a devilish fine fellow; that Pitt
had undoubtedly been one of the first men ip the world for
finance, but Vansittart, who had been only a Secretary of the
Treasury under him, was a much bolder man, and had done
things from which Pitt recoiled with horror. He and Sidmouth,
after the peace at Amiens, by one dash had raised in one year
of peace the supplies to pay off all the floating debt — ^a measure
which struck Pitt with horror, but in which Vansittart had
been perfectly successful. This year he was taking part of his
supplies from the sinking fund ; which some thought one of the
best, and others one of the worst, measures in the world. The
Court was over about three o'clock.
30th. Day, I rise, on the average, about six o'clock in the
morning, and retire to bed between ten and eleven at night.
The interval is filled up as it has been nearly two years, or, more
particularly, as since I placed Charles at school. The four or
five hours that I previously devoted to him I now employ in
reading books of science. These studies I now pursue not
only as the most delightful of occupations to myself, but with
1814] THB MEDIATION. 553
a special reference to the improvement and education of my
children. I feel the sentiment with which Tycho Brahe died,
perhaps as strongly as he did. His "ne frustra vixisse videar"
was a noble feeling, and in him had produced its fruits. He
had not lived in vain. He was a benefactor to his species. But
the desire is not sufficient. The spark from heaven is given to
few. It is not to be obtained by entreaty or by toil. To be
profitable to my children seems to me within the compass of
my powers. To that let me bound my wishes and my prayers.
And may that be granted to them !
yanuary ist, 1 8 14. Mr. Bayard spent part of the evening with
us, until eleven. He proposed a meeting on Monday at two
o'clock, to consult together on the propriety of fixing a time
beyond which he should not wait here for the official informa-
tion from this Government that the British Ministers have
rejected the Emperor's offered mediation. I agreed to the
meeting.
3d. Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard came, according to appoint-
ment, at two o'clock. Mr. Bayard spoke of his anxiety to go
away, and proposed that we should send a note to Count
RomanzofT, urging an answer of information what had been
the determination of the British Government concerning the
Emperor's offer of mediation. We agreed to send such a note,
which Mr. Bayard asked me to draw up. I told him that as its
object had particular reference to his own conduct and his wish
to go away, I thought he would best express his own ideas; to
which he assented. Mr. Gallatin mentioned that he had had a
conference with Count RomanzofT respecting his own departure,
in which he had asked him when an answer might be expected
from the Emperor. The Count could riot tell, but had observed
to him, as in confidence, that it was solely and entirely on our
account that he had hitherto delayed to resign his office of
Chancellor; that he could not transact the Emperor's business;
that the Emperor had forbidden any other person to write to
him, choosing to correspond with him himself. He occasionally
wrote him short letters, which were all kindness and condescen-
sion, but answered nothing upon matters of business. It was
impossible for him (tAe Count), therefore, to do the business of
554 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [Janoary,
his office, and his sole motive for continuing in it had been his
wish to close the affair of our mission.
In the course of our conversation I found that the project of
Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard now is, to go to the Emperor's
head-quarters, and apply to Count Nesselrode for the answer,
which does not come through the channel of Count Romanzoff.
The first intimation of this intent was given me by Mr. Harris
last week, but it was then confined to Mr. Gallatin. It was this
day repeatedly suggested by both of them, apparently with a
view to elicit my opinion of its propriety. But, as I made no
remark upon it, Mr. Bayard at last asked me whether we ought
not to ask Count RomanzofT whether it would not be proper.
I then said that, as I did not myself think it proper, I could
not think it expedient to ask Count RomanzofT's opinion of its
propriety.
Both the gentlemen appeared to be very strongly affected by
this expression of my opinion. They both started instantly
from their seats, and walked to and fro in the chamber, in direc-
tions crossing each other, and in great apparent agitation. I
observed that there was no proper channel of communication
for them with the Emperor at head-quarters. Mr. Bayard said
there was Nesselrode. I said he was not Minister of Foreign
Afifairs, and would certainly receive no communication from
them without an express order from the Emperor. Mr. Galla-
tin said it was not his idea to go themselves to the head-quarters,
but to go near enough to them to send Mr. Harris to them ; if
Harris would go. Mr. Bayard said that Harris was willing to
go, which Mr. Gallatin confirmed, and of which I have no doubt.
I said that as it was a matter relating to their personal con-
duct they must judge for themselves, and were not at all bound
by my opinion.
Gallatin said we might be blamed for not having already sent
a courier of our own to the* Emperor's head-quarters, after the
delay that had occurred in the former instance. Bayard said
that he was under a great responsibility if he stayed, and there
was also great responsibility in going away. But the head-
quarters project is Gallatin's, who acts without any responsi-
bility at all. Bayard has repeatedly expressed his astonishment
I8i4.] THE MEDIATION. 555
to me that Gallatin should presume to act at all, knowing the
rejection of his nomination by the Senate ; and told me the
other day, at Count Romanzoff's table, that \{he had received
such information he would not have stayed here two days after
receiving it. Bayard said he had thought upon fixing on the
twenty-first for his departure, as it would be that day six
months since they arrived. He told me on Saturday that
Gallatin had said he should go between next Monday and
Wednesday. We finally rested upon sending a note to Count
RomanzofT, which Mr. Bayard is to draft.
6th. The Russian Christmas. About nine this morning I
received from the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, Narishkin,
a notification for a Te Deum at eleven, at the Kazan Church,
for the splendid successes of the allies, the taking of several
cities in Holland, and the peace with Persia. I attended with
Mr. Smith at the hour. The Empress-mother, the Grand
Dukes, and Grand Duchess Ann were there. Of the Corps
Diplomatique, only Count Maistre, Messrs. Bayard and Gallatin,
and Mr. Jouffroy, the Prussian Charge d'Affaires. Neither the
Duke de Serra Capriola, Lord Walpole, the Chevalier Bardaxi,
nor Captain Guedes was there. The Court circle very thin, and
the crowd not great. The cold had abated to about — 25, but
the church doors were so continually opening and shutting that
we had a constant fan upon us during the two hours that the
ceremonies lasted, and before they finished I was thoroughly
chilled. Instead of a hand-bill read by the Minister at War,
there was a proclamation of the Emperor's, dated at Carlsruhe,
read by a Chamberlain. Mr. Narishkin told me it was an order
for a Te Deum in all the churches throughout the Empire, to
give thanks to God, for that whereas one year ago all Europe
was against Russia, now all Europe was united with Russia in
support of the good cause. Count Maistre told me that one
of the bishops who usually officiated at these ceremonies, Theo-
phylact, had lately, by a ukase from the Emperor, been ordered
away to his diocese, for having translated a work of Ancillon,
a Protestant clergyman at Berlin, which the Metropolitan had
taken offence at, as containing atheistic or pantheistic doctrines,
or what they call in Germany transcendental Spinozism. The
556 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [January,
Metropolitan had first employed Philaretus to answer the
book, which he had done with great acrimony. Theophylact
had prepared a reply, which he was refused permission to print,
and the whole matter was laid before the Emperor, who had
ordered Theophylact to go to his diocese, and, in consequence
of the censurable doctrines which he had countenanced, he
was forbidden to preach anywhere but in his diocese, which
the Count thought a strange decision. The Count said he
believed there was no atheism, but some Protestantism, in the
doctrines, but that Ancillon was determined to justify himself,
and would publish an account of all the proceedings, so that
the affair, which had already made a " tr^s-grande sensation/'
would finish by making " un bruit epouvantable."
Mr. Bayard spent the evening with us, until half-past eleven,
and was very full of conversation. He spoke, particularly,
much of Mr. Gallatin, and not in a very friendly style. He said
they had not more communication with each other than there
was between him (Bayard) and me. He spoke sarcastically of
the representation Gallatin had made to Count Romanzoff of
the motive for the rejection of his nomination by the Senate;
as if it was only the President's extreme anxiety to keep him
in the office of Secretary of the Treasury. I said that might
be the idea conveyed by his note to Count Romanzoff, but that
he had only stated the facts as they were, and I thought the
representation a very natural and allowable one. Bayard said
he had never seen that note ; which surprised me. He added
that Gallatin had now another project, which was, on his return
to America, to ascribe the whole failure of the negotiation to
the rejection of his nomination, and Bayard thought it was a
pretension extremely likely, in the temper of parties, to take,
and generally to prevail. He mentioned again his own great
anxiety to return home, but said he had concluded to be
governed by the opinion of the majority, cither to stay, to go
to head-quarters, or to go home. He had drafted a note to
Count Romanzoff and given it to Mr. Gallatin the day they
were here, and Gallatin had returned it to him, not until just as
he was going out (to Princess Michel Galitzin's) this evening.
I observed that, as to a majority, I did not know how he would
I8i4.] THE MEDIATION. 557
now find one, as Mr. Gallatin had declared he considered him-
self as no longer belonging to the mission, and had very plainly
told us that he was aware he was acting without any sort of
responsibility; which he very certainly was, being neither ac-
countable to the Executive nor impeachable by the House of
Representatives. Mr. Bayard concurred explicitly in this opin-
ion, and he repeated what he has said to me many times before —
that he had a very short notice of his own appointment ; that
he had barely time to make his preparations for the voyage
and to settle his domestic and professional aflairs ; that his only
motive for accepting the appointment was the belief that it
might tend to a conciliation of parties; but as soon as he got
on board ship and turned his mind to the subject, he had not
an instant of doubt but that the British Government would
reject the mediation, and he told Mr. Gallatin so before they
had been three days at sea ; that what the British called their
maritime rights were their pretensions, and they would never
submit them to the judgment of another nation, but would
support them with their power.
9th. Mr. Bayard spent the evening with us, and told me that
he should send me to-morrow his draft of a note to Count
RomanzofT. He expressed his determination to go away with
Mr. Gallatin, at the latest, in a week or ten days from this time,
loth. Mr. Bayard called, and left with me a draft of his note
for the Chancellor, which he requested me to take and correct
or alter as I should think proper. He left with it a minute by
Mr. Gallatin, suggesting great alterations, omissions, and trans-
positions. He said Mr. Gallatin had, however, told him that he
should not sign the note. At my request he left it with me,
but wished me to return it in time to have the note sent to-
morrow. I devoted the evening to it ; translated into French
the part of his original which was left after Mr. Gallatin's re-
trenchments from it, and drew up an additional paragraph,
notifying to the Chancellor Mr. Bayard*s intention shortly to
ask for his passports, which he has so repeatedly stated to me
in strong terms, and which, if sincere, I thought it indispensable
to be communicated to the Count
. nth. About two o'clock in the afternoon I called upon Mr.
558 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Janiuuy,
Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, with the draft of the note for Count
Romanzoff, as I had prepared it. They both read it over, and
suggested some verbal criticisms and emendations, Mr. Galla«
tin to the French, and Mr. Bayard to the English. I readily
assented to all the alterations they proposed. At length Mr.
Bayard said he did not altogether like the closing sentence of
my additional paragraph. It was the one stating his intention to
ask for his passports. He said that it had the appearance of his
deserting his duty. No; if there was any duty to do, he should
certainly not go away and leave it for me to do. His idea was,
in going away, to tertPiinate the mission, I observed that it was
neither in his, nor in our joint, power to terminate the mission;
that could be done only by the Government which sent us, or
the Government to which we were accredited. And as to the
desertion of his duty, what was the duty to be performed ?
Simply to receive from this Government, and to transmit to our
own; an official document, the substance of which was already
perfectly well known to us ail. He had conceived himself
competent to go alone to the Emperor's head-quarters and ask
there for this very document, without needing my co-operation.
He had even conceived himself competent to go to England
alone, and there make a treaty, without needing any concur-
rence of mine. If he, therefore, could perform separately duties
of the mission of that magnitude, I could not conceive that the
mere act of receiving and transmitting an official paper was such
as he could not leave to be performed separately by me, without
any desertion of his duty.
He said that any idea he might have had of going to England
was not in an official character, but it was only to sound the
disposition of the Government there ; and as to the project of
going to head-quarters, that was merely an idea that had oc-
curred to him, but upon which he had formed no determina-
tion.
I did not reply to either of these answers, because, after
bringing to Mr. Bayard's mind the comparison between his
own grounds for being prepared to do so much separately
himself, and .yet so averse to leaving so little to be performed
separately by me, I thought it unnecessary to push him too
i8i4.] THE MEDIATION. jjp
hard in argument In his projects of going to England to
make a treaty, all but the signing (which he explicitly avowed
in one of our former conferences), and of going to the Em-
peror's head-quarters, the thought had never entered his head
that he would be taking the whole mission upon himself, and
dismissing me from my share in it as eflectually as if I had
never been joined in the commission. I made no objection
against his going to England, because, supposing it possible that
the door for a negotiation would thereby be kept open which
might promote the work of peace, I felt it my duty to sacrifice
all personal considerations to the furtherance of the great public
object. I was nevertheless fully aware that the negotiation, if
practicable, will be accomplished by Mr. Bayard, the only com-
missioned Envoy, and by Mr. Gallatin, no longer even in the
commission, to the total exclusion of myself. I did think that
Mr. Bayard, before he came to the determination of going to
England, ought to have thought of this, to have weighed the
consideration, and consulted me concerning it I believe he
never thought of it Certain it is that he never gave me the
remotest hint that he had thought of it He has now for some
weeks been declaring his intention to go away without waiting
any longer for the official communication from this Government
of the rejection by Great Britain of the mediation. He has
been asking and urging for my advice to him, and expressing
the most extreme anxiety to go. I had in the paragraph I drew
up announced his intention of going, and put it on a footing
altogether inoffensive to this Government; saying that he would
leave to me the care of receiving and transmitting the paper when
it should suit the convenience of this Government to give it
But the instant the idea was presented to Mr. Bayard of my
performing separately the mere act of receiving and enclosing
an official paper without his participation — No; it would be a
desertion of his duty; and if there was any duty to be per-
formed, he would stay. I thought it therefore proper to bring to
his view the parallel of his principles in the two cases, and, as a
bare glimpse was sufficient to make it glaring, I forbore to press
the comparison upon him; leaving it to the operation of his
own mind.
j6o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Qumy,
Mr. Gallatin said there was an imtrinsic difficmUy in Mr.
Bayarcf's returning to America without having first received
the document which we expected fixMn the Government; that
it related not merely to himself, but to the public interest, —
since the odium of rejecting the mediation would, in the public
opinion, be thereby transferred from England to Russia. This,
therefore, had suggested to him the idea of going, not to head-
quarters, but near enough to send Mr. Harris to them ; as Mr.
Harris had oflered himself to go. I then said to Mr. Bayard
that I had drafted the paragraph only on the supposition that
he had determined to go. If there was any doubt on his mind
concerning that point, my paragraph became useless and im-
proper, and I requested him to strike it out He said that he
should wish to wait for Count RomanzoiTs answer to the main
point before he notified to him his intention of going away.
Perhaps that answer would contain something which might
vary tliat determination. He expressed himself perfectly satis-
fied that my intentions had been good, and it was agreed the
paragraph should be struck out The remnant of the note was
dispatched by young Gallatin to Mr. Harris, to be prepared for
our signature to-morrow morning ; and, as the gentlemen were
about dressing to go and dine at Princess Beloselsky's, I took
my leave of them and immediately returned home.
1 2th. Mr. Harris called with the note to Count RomanzofT
prepared for signature. He said that Mr. Gallatin had asked
for his passports and his audience of leave of the Empress-
mother. He also mentioned his own intention of going away.
His visit to me on the 31st of December I have since perceived
was a sounding. Mr. Gallatin's project was to go round by the
Emperor's head-quarters, taking Bayard and Harris with him,
and make the occasion to have a direct communication with the
Emperor. To effect this it was necessary to have my acquies-
cence, and Harris was sent to me to try the experiment, without
informing me what the real plan was. Harris told me then that
Mr. Gallatin had concluded to go, and having received a letter
from one of his relations in Geneva, who was very desirous
of seeing him, and had proposed to meet him in Switzerland,
he would probably go round by the way of Frankfort, now
i8i4.] THB MEDIATION. 561
the Emperor Alexander's head-quarters ; but that it was very
strange Mr. Bayard would insist upon staying here and waiting
for a document which perhaps this Government never would
communicate; so that Mr. Gallatin would have to go away
alone. It was the next day after this that Mr. Bayard came
and proposed a conference to fix upon a time beyond which he
should no longer wait, and which he proposed should be the
2 1 St of this month, six months from the day of their arrival.
Mr. Bayard, who had uniformly expressed great anxiety to go,
then said that Mr. Gallatin hitherto had always given it as his
opinion that he (Bayard) could not go away without receiving
the Emperor's answer. In the conference, the plan of going
to head-quarters was very gradually disclosed to me, and it was
only the great agitation of both the gentlemen, when it became
necessary to express my opinion of it, which showed me how
thoroughly it had been concerted before I was even given to
understand that it was thought of. The plan, as well as that of
going to England, is entirely Mr. Gallatin's, who, notwithstand-
ing the vote of the Senate on his nomination, has no Inclination
to lose any possible opportunity of being still engaged inoffici-
al ly in the negotiation. But Mr. Harris told me on the 31st of
December that it was Mr. Gallatin's opinion that we must yield
to Great Britain upon the point of impressment ; because we
should never obtain peace without it, and because we should
be unable to carry on the war, for want both of funds and credit
Mr. Bayard has expressed this opinion to me, but Gallatin never
did. Every intimation of his opinion upon the subject to me
has been directly the reverse. He has, indeed, said nothing on
the point of impressment lately; but since our late accounts
from America have informed us of the facility with which the
Government obtained the late loan of seven millions of dollars,
Gallatin says that he never supposed we should find any diffi-
culty in raising money after once adopting the English manner
of making lists, instead of the clumsy one of subscriptions. But
with both the gentlemen prepared to abandon the point of im-
pressment, and with the determination of the British Govern-
ment concerning it, as signified in Mr. Baring's last letter, I
doubt whether they will do much good by going tp Englandi
VOL. II. — 36
562 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [January.
unless our Government has totally changed its principles since
they gave our instructions, and are as much prepared as Mr.
Gallatin and Mr. Bayard to yield the point of impressment. I
received this afternoon a notification from the Grand Master of
the Ceremonies for a Court to-morrow. Mr. Gallatin and Mr.
Bayard, spent the evening with us. Mr. Gallatin told us he was
to have his audience of leave of the Empress-mother to-morrow.
1 3th. The morning of the Russian New Year is always occu-
pied in receiving the visits of all the Court servants and messen-
gers of the public offices, who come for their customary presents.
At noon I went with Mr. Smith to the palace, and attended at
the Empress-mother's Court; after which we attended the
circle of the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael, and finally
that of the Grand Duchess Ann. We kissed the hands of the
Empress and Grand Duchess. We were also shown into the
hall where the table was laid for the Empress's dinner, a table
of about sixty covers, and we were allowed to admire the
Russian costumes of the ornaments on the tables. The Em-
press-mother was still in ecstasies at the state of political affairs,
and rejoicing at the happy auspices under which the new year
is commencing. As between the Empress's Court and that of
the Grand Dukes we were kept waiting about an hour, we were
served with a cold collation, consisting of the leg of a cold roast
fowl (we were about twenty-five in number), with bread, Madeira
wine, and a cordial, in cups and glasses containing each about
a tablespoonful. This collation was an extraordinary impromptu
of the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, Narishkin. Mr. Gallatin
and his son took leave at the circles. The Chevalier Bardaxi
told me of the accident which had befallen his lady, whose
clothes caught fire yesterday at one of the stoves, and she was
very badly burnt.
15th. Mr. Bayard spent part of the evening with us. He is
still anxious to go, and determined not to wait more than ten
days longer. He told me that he had sent Mr. Harris to
Count RomanzofT to ascertain whether he would give a direct
answer to our last note ; that the Count had said it was im-
possible for him to give any other answer than that he had
feceived, and would transmit it to the Emperor. The Count
.i8i4.] • THR MEDIATION. 563
was much distressed, and determined to resign his office. He
had, however, told Mr. Harris that he thought Mr. Bayard
would be justifiable in going away, and at his request would
furnish him with passports. Mr. Ba3rard proposed sending a
new note to the Count, stating the evidence we have of the
rejection of the mediation by the British Governoient as the
motive for his departure, and asked me if I should have any
objection to joining in such a note.
I told him, not if it could be drawn up in such a form as to
avoid giving ofTence to this Government, and everything that
might irritate our country against Russia. For I could not but
feel the neglect of the Emperor in delaying the answer we had
been so long expecting, and I thought our country, when ac-
quainted with the facts, would feel it still more sensibly.
He said he would make a draft of such a note to-morrow, and
send it to me for consideration. He is so much embittered
against the Emperor that I have some apprehension he will
betray his feelings in* the note. He says Lord Walpole told
him that, after their former conversation together, he had
written to Lord Cathcart, asking from him the confirmation of
the statements he had made, and also to Lord Castlereagh for
instructions concerning it ; that he had received from the Em-
peror's head-quarters a letter mentioning that the day after it
was written Lord Cathcart was to dispatch a courier to him
with his answer. He added that Mr. Gallatin last evening paid
a visit at Mr. KosodavlefT's, and that he showed him a patent
made out for Mr. Fulton's privilege, which he considered as a
proof that the Emperor could find time for attending to objects
of minor importance.
But I told him I had made the application for Mr. Fulton in
August, and had been ever since waiting for an answer.
1 8th. Mr. Bayard called upon me this afternoon with a note
from Count RomanzofT, in answer to that which we sent him last
week, and a draft of a reply, in which he asks for his audiences
of leave and his passports. He desired me to make a translation
.of it into French, to be ready to-morrow morning, as he hoped
to have his audiences of leave next Sunday. Hi^ intention is
to go next Tuesday, until which time Mr. Gallatin, who is now
564 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Januarx,
ready to go, will wait for him. I made the translation this
evening.
19th. I called upon Messrs. Bayard and Gallatin between two
and three in the afternoon. In my translation of the note to
Count RomanzofT I had made but one alteration from the
original : it. was in relation to Mr. Bayard's determination to go
away. He had mentioned it as a resolution jointly concluded
as indispensable by us both. I expressed it so as to appear his
own determination, as it really is. He said that he had inten-
tionally stated it as our joint conclusion, because he had wished
it to be the result of my advice, as well as his own opinion: I
observed that by signing the note I made myself responsible for
all the reasoning upon which his resolution to go had been
formed ; but I thought it best that the resolution itself should
appear as his own. He said, if so, it should go as I preferred,
and perhaps there might be a point of delicacy in my appearing
to advise his going away. Mr. Gallatin, at my request, revised
the French of my translation. He made no remark this time
upon the language, but observed that an alteration was to be *
made in the English draft to make it conformable to the French
note. It was accordingly made, and the note was sent to Mr.
Harris to be copied. The draft and translation had both asked
an audience of leave for Mr. Harris, as well as for Mr. Bayard.
Mr. Gallatin remarked that, according to the etiquette, no audi-
etice could be granted to a Secretary of Legation, but that he
must take leave at an ordinary circle. We therefore struck out
that part of the note. Mr. Bayard then asked Mr. Gallatin
whether he would mention the additional paragraph for the
note, which he had suggested to him as advisable last evening
— " Not dissembling." Mr. Gallatin said that he had thought
we should state the ill impression which the Emperor's neglect
of sending the answer which we have been so long expecting
might make in the United States, and intimate the wish that if
he meant to answer, and particularly if Great Britain in refusing
the mediation had expressed any disposition for a direct nego-
tiation, he would still dispatch the answer in time for them (Mr.
Gallatin and Mr. Bayard) to receive it before they should leave
Europe, as otherwise the Emperor's conduct might actually
i8i4.] THB MEDIATION, .565
retard the restoration of peace, which it had been the object of
his offer to promote. But, he said, Mr. Ba3rard had thought
there might be an objection to such a paragraph.
I said that I thought it would be best to avoid any direct
written censure upon the Emperor, because, however it might
be expressed, the Count would feel himself bound in duty to
defend his master, and it might lead to a disagreeable and
Useless discussion. But in taking leave of the Count, Mr.
Bayard might verbally express any ideas of that kind which it
might be useful to suggest. We had gone far enough in our
reply to the Count's note when, without noticing at all his
zealous apology for the Emperor, we merely say we had hoped
after so long a lapse of time he (the Count) would have been
able to give us a definitive answer. I believed the Emperor
would feel the force of that remark, and I hoped he would feel
it in a proper manner. They both said they thought the para-
graph might be so worded as to give no offence; but it was.
finally concluded to leave it to be given verbally by Mr. Bayard
to Count RomanzofT.
2 1 St. Mr. Harris came, and showed me a statement, in the
form of a letter to Mr. Bayard, of his two last conversations with
Count RomanzofT, to whom he first went at Mr. Bayard's re-
quest, to solicit an answer to the former of our two recent notes,
and afterwards, a second time, at the Count's own request.
Mr. Bayard had desired Harris to draw up this statement in
writing, and then to put it on record in the official book of the
mission. On reading it over, it immediately struck me that it
ought not to be recorded as an official document. First, because
there was nothing official in the transaction ; and secondly, be-
cause if so recorded it would be liable to be published in
America; and many things were said by the Count, in th6
letter, which he could not have intended or supposed would
ever be published, but which might be the cause of giving
him great trouble hereafter. I observed, therefore, that if Mr.
Bayard thought proper, he might have a copy of this paper
either on a loose street, or entered into his separate book ; in
which case I. should wish to have a copy of it also entered upon
mine, as the letters of' Mr. Baring to Mr. Gallatin had been ;
j66 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Uu
but not Upon the official records of the mission. Mr. Harris
remarked that, besides the objections I had stated, by maUng
the paper an official document it might appear an improper
proceeding on his part towards Count RomanzoflP— as it cer-
tainly would.
22d. After break&st I called upon Mr. Harris, to see the
state of my book containing the copies of letters and documents
relating to the extraordinary mission, and I found several letters*
still to be copied into it He said Mr. Bayard had been satisfied
that the statement of his (Harris's) late conversations with
Count RomanzoflT should be copied into his separate book and
not upon the book of official records. He also told me that
Mr. Bayard had received notice that he would have an audience
of leave of the Empress-mother the day after to-morrow.
I called again upon Mr. Schubert, whom I found at home,
and to whom I took the little volume published at Boston, by
Judge Davis, upon comets. I had much conversation with him
upon astronomical subjects, and he promised to lend me Bode's
Uranographia. I mentioned to him Adam Smith's fragment on
the History of Astronomy, of which he had never heard, and
which I promised to send him. I asked him about Kepler's
manuscripts which are in the library of the Academy of Sciences,
and of which he told me he had made great use in composing
his popular astronomy. He did not recollect among Kepler's
manuscripts having seen the one against Calvin, but he had
not paid much attention to the theological works. He would,
however, look over them again, and see if he could find the
one about which I enquired. There were twenty-four volumes
of the manuscripts, among which was a collection of letters,
but there were few of them that were interesting so as to de-
serve publication. One of the letters is to his wife, in answer
to a request from her that he would send her some money to
buy firewood in the midst of a severe winter. He writes that
he has no money to send her, and can get none ; but he advises
her to apply to Tycho, and hopes he will lend them so much
as she wants for firewood. Mr. Schubert spoke of the comet
of i8ii, which he said had been observed by one of the travel-
ling members of their Academy long after it had been supposed
i8m.] THB mediation. 567
that it would be no longer visible; and from those observations
it was ascertained that the period of that comet was more than
three thousand years.
23d. I called upon Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, and took
with me the note yesterday received from Count RomanzofT. I
found Mr. Harris there. Mr. Bayard had this morning had his
audiences to take leave of the Empress-mother, the Grand
Dukes Nicholas and Michael, and the Grand Duchess Ann.
He was much gratified with the graciousness of the Empress.
Mr. Harris had also taken leave. He told me that he had
asked Mr. Gallatin about inserting in my separate book copies
of his letters to Mr. Baring, and that he had objected to it,
saying they were private letters, and had no relation to the
mission*. They certainly were private letters, but their contents
do principally relate to the objects of the mission, as Mr. Gal-
latin sufficiently showed by putting them into Mr. Harris's
hands to be copied, Mr. Harris being the Secretary of the mis-
sion, and not the private secretary of Mr. Gallatin. However,
as he objects to my having copies of his letters, I shall not
insist upon them. We agreed to write a dispatch to the Secre-
tary of State, enclosing copies of our last two notes to Count
Romanzofl*, and his answers. Mr. Bayard asked me to draft
the dispatch. I said that as it would relate altogether to his
proceedings, I thought he had better make the draft. He said
he had not time, being engaged in his preparations for de-
parture, and if I declined doing it he should be obliged to
postpone it until his arrival in England. I accordingly made
the drsjft this evening — ^a dispatch of three lines, barely refer-
ring to the enclosures. I asked Mr. Gallatin for the copy which
I had deciphered of the dispatch from the Secretary of State of
23d of June last. He offered me, laughing, four of the undeci-
phered copies, if I would let him take that; but I did not relish
the labor of deciphering it a second time, and advised him to
let his son James take a copy from mine, to which he at last
assented.
25th. The reigning Empress Elizabeth's birthday; on account
of which the Empress-mother, Marie, held a Court, to which I
went with Mr. Smith at noon. It was very thinly attended.
j6g MEMOIRS OF JOHN QU2NCY ADAMS. [Febnutfji
The only other foreign Ministers there were Lord Walpole and
Count Maistre, with Mr. Jouflroy, the Prussian Charg6 d'Affiures.
The Empress-mother continues ecstatic at the state of political
aflairs. The Emperor, she said, crossed the Rhine on the
anniversary of the day on which he had crossed the Nieipen,
and the allies are penetrating into France without meeting any-
thing like resistance. General Betancourt and the Minister of
the Interior, KosodavleflT, spoke to me about Mr. Fulton's
patent, which Mr. KosodavlefT said he could not deliver until
there should be a specification, as the law required; but he
promised to write to me on the subject. I told him I should
be perfectly satisfied that he should keep the patent until
Mr. Fulton can send a power to receive it, and a specifica-
tion. Afler the Court was over, I called upon Messrs. Gallatin
and Bayard, who were packing and upon the point of departure.
I took leave of them. Madame Bardaxi, the Spanish Minister's
lady, died at eleven this evening, of the consequences of the
dreadful accident she met with the day before the Russian New
Year.
February ist. I found myself this morning far from well; but
so much better than I was last evening that I was able to go
out, and at eleven o'clock went with Mrs. Adams to the Roman
Catholic Maltese Chapel and attended the funeral obsequies of
Madame de Bardaxi Azafti, to which we had been invited by her
husband. The chapel was full, and all th^ foreign Ministers
were there, excepting the Duke de Serra Capriola, who is unwell.
On my return home, I found a note from Count RomanzofT
requesting me to call on him at nine o'clock this evening at his
house on the English quay; I went accordingly at that hour.
The Count said that as he was on the point of abdicating, he
wished to persQvere until the last in the habits which he had
formed and constantly observed with me, and would therefore
show me the dispatch from Count Lieven, which he had received
yesterday by a courier from the Emperor's head-quarters. He
then put it into my hands.
s6th November, \
It was numbered 260, dated — — — 181 3, and marked
' 8th December. •"
that a duplicate, was sent to Count Nesselrode. It stated that
i8i4.] THE MEDIATION. 569
•
the British Government having been informed of the definitive
refusal of the American Ministers at St. Petersburg to negotiate
directly with them for peace, on account of the limitation of
their powers to a negotiation under the Emperor's mediation,
Lord Castlereagh had communicated to him (Count Lieven)
that, in order to avoid some of the delays which would arise
from waiting until the Envoys cbuld write to their Government
for further instructions and powers, he himself had just written
to Mr. Monroe, proposing to him to send his instructions through
the medium of Sir John Warren, and explaining the motives
upon which Great Britain had declined treating with the United
States under a mediation ; that as this measure had been taken
at a period so splendid for England, it would prove to the Em-
peror of Russia that they entered cordially into his views in the
disposition to terminate a war which they considered as not
conformable to the interests of the British nation.
The Count asked me if I had already received intimation of
this. I had not. He had supposed it might have been com-
municated to me by Lord Walpole. I had seen him this
morning, but he had said nothing of it to me.
The Count told me he had received no other communication
on this subject from the Emperor or from Count Nesselrode ;
that the courier who brought it to him had also brought an
immense number of packets, addressed to him, which had
been accumulating there for several weeks; but not even the
ratifications of the peace with Persia, the term for exchanging
which was already past. Mr. Harris had been with him this
evening, and had told him he should call upon him again to
take leave. Mr. Gallatin had written to him at the time of his
departure, requesting him to write to them whatever might
occur after their departure in reference to the mission. Mr.
Harris had offered this evening to take his letters. He would
write with pleasure to Mr. Gallatin, as an evidence how much
he valued his correspondence. But he had told Mr. Harris^
and Mr. Gallatin himself must be sensible that, as Chancellor
of the Empire, after the departure of those gentlemen he must
consider their mission as terminated, and could write nothing
to them concerning it Nor could he have any occasion to
570 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February,
regret this, since I was here, to whom he should naturally make
every proper communication of business, and who would of
course transmit all the material information to them. He had
therefore not mentioned this dispatch this evening to Mr. Harris,
because I was the person to whom he thought proper to make
it known. When Mr. Dallas went from hence, Mr. Gallatin
had asked him (the Count) to recommend him to the Ambas-
sador, Count Lieven, and to hear what he should say to him
respecting the state of our negotiation here. He had accord-
ingly strongly recommended Mr. Dallas to Count Lieven, and
with much pleasure, as he knew it would procure to the Count
an agreeable acquaintance. And the Count had informed him
that he had received Mr. Dallas with pleasure.
I said I hoped he was not in earnest in what he had said, and
repeated several times, about abdicating. Altogether in earnest,
he said. He had more than once written to the Emperor,
requesting him to accept his resignation. On the occasion of
sending to him the treaty of peace with Persia he had renewed
the request. The Emperor had answered him, that he justly
appreciated the high and honorable character and the impor-
tance of this treaty, and concluded by saying, '' II y a dans la
derni&re ligne de votre lettre une idee a laquelle je ne puis pas
me faire." " Upon which," said the Count, " I have replied to
the Emperor, insisting upon my resignation, and recalling to
his recollection that after the peace of Tilsit, with which I had
nothing to do, when he laid his commands upon me to take
the Department of Foreign Affairs, he told me that he had then
two wars upon his hands — that with Turkey, and that with
Persia — and had just contracted the engagement of com-
mencing two others, with Sweden, and with England. These
four wars are now all brought to a termination ; the peace with
Persia closes the last of them ; it brings to a natural conclusion
all the business upon which I came into office, and affords to
the Emperor an opportunity to dismiss me *avec bonte.* I
have in truth now no other business to do. The Emperor,
when he went away, determined to write to me on business
exclusively himself. He has entered upon other business, other
engagements. He not only commands his own army, but he
i8i4.] THE MEDIA riON. 571
oversees and superintends the interest of all the allies. Insen-
sibly he hsls dropped the habit of writing to me at all. His
time is absorbed ; he is always intending to write to me in one
or two days. 'Multitudes of letters come from the head-quarters
upon business, saying that the orders on this, that, and the
other affair will certainly be dispatched to me in one or two
days ; and the orders never come. I have nothing to do. To
be Chancellor of the Empire for the sake of signing passports,
and giving orders about lawsuits, is not worth while, and yet
the office keeps me here in a state of perpetual subjection. I
cannot sleep out of St. Petersburg, I cannot attend to my
private affairs, I cannot visit my own estates, which I very
much desire to do. I therefore entreat the Emperor to give
me my discharge, and leave me to bless him for all his favors
and to wish him all happiness and prosperity. I expect now
every day to receive the Emperor's acceptance of my resigna-
tion ; it is not more than four or five days since it would have
been possible, by the course of time, that I should have received
it. Now it may come every hour, and an answer must be given
to my application."
I told the Count that I could not, but express my personal
fegret at his determination.
He said that as to his personal sentiments, they would always
remain the same ; but he must do as his old grandmother told
him once, after she wa^ turned of eighty, she was resolved to
do. After two years more, she told him she was determined to
turn over a new leaf — to change entirely her course of life —
and to go and live at Moscow. " I," said the Count, " am not
quite so old as my grandmother was then, but I am sixty, and
have not so good health as she had. I shall not wait two years
to turn over my new leaf. My feelings are entirely American
(je puis dire que j'ai les entraillcs Americaines); and were it
not for my age and infirmities, I would go now to that country."
In the whole of this conversation there was not a syllable
uttered by the Count in the nature of complaint. His tone was
altogether that of cheerfulness and pleasantry. The wounded
spirit was only to be seen in the allusion to the four wars, of
which he reminded the Emperor, and which hung upon him
J j2 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Fcbrauy.
when the Count entered upon his office. All these wars have
been closed honorably, three of them gloriously, for Russia,
during the Count's administration. The commemoration of
them must carry a reproach to the Emperor's heart; but it
indicates a proud consciousness in the Count of his own ser-
vices, and a firm and independent spirit in referring to them.
He said that firom the commencement of the new year he had
removed firom the hotel of the Department of Foreign AfEurs to
his own house, and was there quietly waiting for his discharge.
I spoke to him about the translations of the oflScial docu-
ments concerning our war with England, which he had promised
me should be published in the gazettes, and which afterwards,
at his request, I had consented to leave unpublished until the
determination of the British Government on the offer of media-
tion should be known. He said he thought that after this new
step of England towards a direct negotiation there was still
the same reason to avoid the publication — to forbear firom all
irritating acts ; that if I absolutely insisted upon it, they should
be published, but Lord Walpole had already reproached him
for what he had published concerning the American mission,
and any such publications would be entirely imputed to him.
This is certainly true, and it might in the present state of
things be of such consequence to him personally, that I con-
cluded not to insist upon the publication. I told him that as
he placed the matter upon the ground of a personal fiivor to
him, I should say no more; but that he had formally and
repeatedly promised me the publication should take place;
that I had asked it because the English documents to which
these were answers had been previously published in the same
papers ; that the Emperor had declared himself neutral between
the United States and England ; that he had offered them his
mediation, which the United States had accepted. They had
not merited any act of his Government indicating partiality
against them ; and if I consented now not positively to demand
the publication of these papers, I should at least not expect to
see any niore extracts from the English newspapers, concerning
their war with us, injurious to my country and its Government ;
that such paragraphs did even now appear.
I8i4.] THE MEDIATION, 573
He asked in what paper. I named the Invalid. He said
he had no control over that paper, though it was under the
control of the police ; that the papers under his direction were
the political part of the St. Petersburg Gazette, Russian and
German, and the whole of the Conservateur Impartial ; that
there was a paragraph in that of this day, stating that there had
been a bloody battle in Canada, in which three hundred English
had totally defeated eight thousand Americans. It had appeared
to him ridiculous and self-contradictory; a bloody battle and
three hundred men was a contradiction in terms. But it was
merely an extract from an article in a German gazette. I told
him I had been going to mention that very article to him,
together with that in the Invalid. He said that he would to-
morrow give orders that nothing respecting the war between
America and England should be published in either of those
papers excepting the mere statement of military events.
Mr. Harris came, and brought me my book of papers relating
to the mission extraordinary. He confirmed what Count
Romanzoflf told me last evening, that Mr. Gallatin, upon
leaving this city, had put into his hands, together with some
other papers, a letter to Count RomanzofT, the contents of
which had been unknown to him ; that the Count, last even-
ing, had told him that it contained a request from Mr. Gallatin
that he (the Count) would write to him, and transmit to him
any official document that he might receive from the Emperor
relative to the mission, and urging the ill effects it would have
in America if the Envoys should return without any further
communication from his Majesty ; that the Count had desired
Mr. Harris to tell Mr. Gallatin that he would with pleasure write
' to him about la pluie et le beau temps; but that he (Mr.
Gallatin) must himself be aware that from the moment of his
departure from St. Petersburg the Chancellor of the Empire
could no longer write to him upon subjects relating to the
mission ; that I was the person through whom the communi-
cations were to be made, and to whom alone he could write.
Harris says that Mr. Gallatin's expectation is confident of a
reappointment upon the new commission for a direct negotiation.
4th. Mr. Harris called upon me this morning, and told me
574 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [February,
that he should postpone his departure until next Tuesday.
He brought me my letter-book of the joint mission, to which
some additions are still to be made. I told him that before he
went away there were two subjects upon which I thought it
best to have some explanation with him. The first was to
enquire whether he had formed a commercial connection with
Mr. Lawrence Brown, an English merchant in this place ; and
if he had, whether he considered it as compatible with the office
of Secretary to a Legation for negotiating peace. He said he
had not ; that Mr. Norman had formed, or was forming, some
such connection with Mr. Brown, though he had told him this
morning there were some difficulties in it of which they had
not been aware ; that he himself had told Mr. Brown that he
could not think of any such connection previous to the peace ;
but as Mr. Brown had been unfortunate, and was a very worthy
man, he had promised him that if the connection between Mr.
Norman and him should take place, he (Harris), upon returning
to America, would do everything in his power to promote their
interests of a commercial nature. For he assured me that he
did consider any commercial connection with a British subject
as altogether incompatible with the office of Secretary to the
Legation.
. I told him I was satisfied with his positive assurance that he
had formed no sudh connection ; that I had asked the question
not for the sake of prying into his private concerns, but because
I had heard he had formed a partnership with Mr. Brown ; and
had the fact been so, I thought my duty to the public required
me to give him my opinion that such a connection was not
compatible with the office of Secretary to such a Legation, or
at least that, during the existence of the Legation, it would
interdict all correspondence whatsoever between him and his
partners. He said he was fully sensible of that, and had de-
clined any connection of that sort with Mr. Brown, and before
that with Mr. Lewis.
The second object of my enquiry was, whether Mr. Bayard
had ever said anything to him with regard to my disposition
towards him. He said Mr. Bayard had once said to him, '' Mr.
Harris, I have reason to believe that Mr. Adams is no friend of
i8i4.] THE MEDIATION, 575
yours ;" that he (Harris) had asked him upon what grounds he
had formed such an opinion ; that he had avoided particular-
izing, but had repeated he had very good reason to believe
I was not friendly to him, or that he was no favorite in my
family. All he would say further was, that I did not like
Harris's politics, and that my motive for being unfriendly to
him was, that he was the Secretary to the extraordinary mission
instead of my nephew. Harris said that these suggestions had
given him great pain ; that, excepting on one occasion, which
he had hoped would be forgotten, he was conscious of never
having given mc occasion to be unfriendly to him ; that as to
his politics, he could have none but those which favored the
interests of his country, and that he had taken no step whatso-
ever to obtain the office of Secretary to the Legation.
I told him that I would deal with him in perfect candor. It
was possible that, in conversation with Bayard, I might at some
time have lightly said, " Harris is more of a Russian, or takes
more pleasure in the success of the allies, than I do ;'' but that
I had certainly never said anything to him which could warrant
him making the inference that I was unfriendly to him, and
that his imputation of the motive was as false as the insinuation
itself; that I had never wished that my nephew should have
had the appointment of Secretary to this mission ; and if I had,
I should never have been unfriendly to him (Harris) because
he had been preferred. Mr. Bayard and I had formerly been
in strong opposition to each other in the Senate of the United
States. When he came here, one of my most earnest wishes
was to harmonize with him. I had uniformly treated him with
respect and attention. There had been no misunderstanding
or variance between us ; but he had repeatedly made attempts
to injure Mr. Gallatin in my opinion, and I had now reason,
since their departure, to believe that he had made similar
attempts against me upon the mind of Mr. Gallatin ; that he
had quarrelled with Milligan, which had been the occasion of
Milligan's leaving him; that he had asked him (Harris) to
speak to Milligan and effect a reconciliation between them;
that he had spoken to Milligan accordingly, but without suc-
cess ; that MilligSLn was so exasperated with what he thought
J j|$ MEMOIM5 OF JOHN QVINCY ADAOX
Bayard'f ill tfcalmcsit of him that he would listen to nothing,
I said I had heard that Bayard had reported to him somrthing
said of him by Mr. Gallatin, with which he would naturally be
displeased He said that one morning Bayard said to him,
'' Mr. Harris, Milligan will tell you some conversation we had
last evening about you ;" that he had asked Milligan what it
was ; that Milligan had endeavored for some time to put him
ofl) and said it was all mere joking ; but on Harris's insisting,
he had said that Mr. Gallatin the evening before at supper,
being warm with wine (which Harris said he had never ob-
served Gallatin to be, but which Milligan told him he certainly
had been at that time), had said something about Harris and
women — a mere trifle, which, as Milligan told it, was nothing
but that Bayard himself had afterwards told it to him, and
given it a turn which was certainly displeasing. Harris was not
more explicit ; but the conversation was this. Bayard asked
Gallatin why Harris did not visit more intimately at Princess
Michel Galitzin's. Gallatin answered that the Princess was a
woman of too much sense to take notice of such men as Harris.
" No, sir; it is such men as me that Princess Michel distin-
guishes by her notice." And this was the speech of Gallatin
that Bayard was so studious of reporting to Harris.
I observed to Harris that I hoped never again to be placed
in relations which would make it necessary to associate with
Mr. Bayard ; but as I possibly might, and should have reason
to expect a continuance of his favors, like those I had learnt of
since his departure, I asked of him (Harris) that should Bayard
ever again report or insinuate anything to him, the tendency of
which was to excite enmity or dissension between us, he would
immediately inform me of it, and give me the opportunity of
clearing it up. He solemnly promised that he would. I told
him that I neither asked nor wished him to tell me anything
else that Bayard might say to him of me, for I cared very little
what a man capable of such conduct said or thought of me. I
added that I had found no difficulty in getting along with Mr.
Gallatin ; and, excepting his last letter to Count RomanzofT,
requesting the Count to correspond with him on tlie business
of the mission, which the Count, as well as myself, had thought
i8i4.] THR MEDIATION. 577
a little sifigular, I had no cause to complain of him. Perhaps
he might e^cplain that. I had a much higher opinion of Mr.
Gallatin's abilities than of Mr. Bayard's. Mr. Bayard was an
eloquent speaker in a popular assembly ; but of his abilities for
anything else I had seen little evidence here. Mr. Gallatin's
had struck me very powerfully in our conferences with Count
Romanzoflf, in his note upon the impressment of seamen, and
in his letter to Mr. Baring.
Harris agreed with me, and said he had been surprised to see
how weak and clumsy the papers drawn Up by Bayard were.
Gallatin, he said, had uniformly spoken well of me to him ; only
he had once hinted he thought I did not make show enough
here in my living ; that he (Harris) had told him that I lived to
the extent of my salary, and Gallatin had said there was no
chance that the Government would raise the salaries of the
Ministers abroad during the war. I have noted down the par-
ticulars of this conversation with Harris, because they show the
character of one of the men with whom I have been associated,
and with whom it is possible I may be associated again. The
public interest requires a suppression of all the feelings of re-
sentment which his conduct deserves; but this record may
serve as a monitor of circumspection to myself, if I should be
destined ever to act with him as a public servant again.
7th. Mr. Harris came, and introduced to me Mr. Dobell, an
Irishman, who resided several years at Philadelphia, and who
now comes from China. He has travelled overland from
Kamschatka upwards of ten thousand miles, sometimes on foot,
carrying his baggage upon his back ; sometimes floating down
a river on a raft ; sometimes drawn over the snow by dogs, and
sometimes by reindeer — having experienced 37 degrees of cold
by Reaumur's thermometer, which, he says, is sometimes at — ^45
at Irkutsk in Siberia. He. left Canton in January, 1812, and
Kamschatka in January, 181 3. He is going, if he can obtain
the permission, to the Emperor's head-quarters. I asked him
what was the name of the present Emperor of China. He said
it was Kai-King, a son of Kien-Long, and a very unworthy
representative of th^t excellent monarch ; that he has been ten
or eleven years on the throne, and that since he reigns, the
vou n.— 37
5^9 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. . [Febrauy,
revolts among the people of the provinces have becdme more
frequent, and the pirates on the rivers more numerous and
formidable, than they had ever been before. Mr. Dobell said
he had once been completely plundered himself by pirates,
under the command of a woman, and at another time had saved
himself from others only by hard fighting.
9th. At noon I went with Mr. Smith to the palace, and at-
tended the Empress-mother's Court. It was the Grand Duke
Michael's birthday, and after the Court the Grand Dukes held a
circle. They are going to the Emperor's head-quarters, but
are afraid of arriving too late. They are to leave the city the
seventeenth of this month. The Court was the thinnest and
most deserted that I ever attended. Lord Walpole was the
only other foreign Minister there, and was so much out of
humor that he asked Mr. Narishkin, the Grand Master of the
Ceremonies, between the Court and the circle, how much
longer we should have to wait, and told him that he was sorry
he had not taken yesterday's Conservateur Impartial in his
pocket, as he had not read it. The Duke de Serra Capriola
and the Chevalier Bardaxi sent their excuses. How Count
Maistre came to be absent was unaccountable. There was much
conversation about Count RomanzofT, and much exultation at
his fallen condition. Jouflroy said that he regretted it person-
ally, because he had always treated him well. Lord Walpole
said he regretted it, because he gave good dinners ; and that
was the only regret he had about it. I mentioned to Lord
Walpole that I had heard Lord Castlereagh had written to Mr.
Monroe proposing a direct negotiation, and had been gratified
to hear it. He said he believed Castlereagh had written, in
consequence of what he himself had written to him from this
place, after his arrival here. I asked Lord Walpole what rela-
tion he was to the Lord Orford of Strawberry Hill. He said
his relation was by the female side — that his grandmother was
a daughter of Sir Robert Walpole's, and sister to Horace
Walpole.
20th. At eleven this morning I went with Mr. Smith and
attended the Te Deum. It was preceded by a mass, much to
the annoyance of Lord Walpole, who told the Grand Master of
iiJi4.] THE MEDIATION. 575
the Ceremonies that their religious services were " diabolique-
ment longs." The relation of the victory at Brienne was con-
tained in a letter from the Emperor to his piother, which the
Minister of War, Gortschakoflf, read before the Te Deum com-
menced. It concluded by saying that the allied army was in
the direct march upon Paris^ a word which he pronounced with
a strong emphasis. Count Maistre said, "II a mis un bon
accent sur Paris/* and Lord Walpole answered, " J'espere qu'on
y mettra bientot une bonne main.*' I walked out before dinner,
and saw the procession of sledges and carriages round the
palace corner and square, and the crowds of people upon the
river, which were uncommonly great. The Empress-mother
was in the procession, and the hand-bill announcing the march
of the allied armies upon Paris was circulating eagerly among
the crowd.
23d. I received this morning a note from Count Romanzoflf —
a circular to the foreign Ministers, informing them that being
unable, by reason of ill health, to perform for the present the
duties of the Department of t^'oreign Affairs, he requests them
in future to address their official communications to the Senator
Weydemeyer, a member of the Department, until the Emperor
shall make known his determination. I suppose this is to fore-
close the mortification of any further notice of his dismission.
I sent a short answer to his note, and presume that this will
close all my diplomatic relations with him. They have all been,
so far as depended upon him, of a pleasing nature. I esteem
and respect his character, and consider the loss of his counsels
as a serious loss to this empire.
25th. The weather continues fine, and the skies as clear as
ever can be expected in this climate. I surveyed as much as I
can see of them from my house, and reviewed almost every star
that I have hitherto discovered. I found none new, but ascer-
tained the side and lefl foot of Perseus, the head of Medusa, the
foot and girdle of Andromeda, the armpits and knees of Bootes,
and Mount Maenalus at his feet. I have hitherto sought in vain
for the square of Pegasus, and the Dolphin. They are, in the
evening, below the horizon, or so near it as to be concealed by
its vapors. The Swan's-tail and Lyra never set. Jupiter hangs,
58o MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [March,
" like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear/' between the Lion's heart
and tail ; but the most magnificent object of the night is the
great square of Orion, with his splendid vicinity of Sinus,
Procyon, Aldebaran, the Twins, and the Pleiades, moving ma-
jestically along, as they pass in the meridian before my chamber-
windows, now between seven and ten in the evening. Manilius
very justly remarks that a man who does not know this con-
stellation need give himself no trouble about any others.
26th. Mrs. Adams had a visit from Countess Colombi, who
told her that Baroness Koscull, alias Mrs. Hall, had commenced
prophetess, or fortune-teller, and foretold so much that the
Grand Master of the Police, Gorgoly, had paid her a visit and
advised her not to be so knowing.
27th. Three. I rose at this early hour to have the benefit of
seeing a clear sky without moonlight. I was able just to dis-
cern two of the stars of the sixth magnitude in the Lion. I
spent two full hours at the chamber-windows on both sides of
the house, and, besides all my former celestial acquaintance,
recognized the Crow, Hercules, the head of Ophiuchus,and the
star of the second magnitude in the first claw of the Scorpion,
from my own chamber, and the Dolphin and Antinous from
the front side of the house. The head and folds of the Serpent
of Ophiuchus, down to the two stars at his hands, I saw very
distinctly. I might have .seen Antares by going into the street,
but it was too cold. At five the day dawned, and all the stars
of less than the first magnitude vanished, while I was seeking
for the square of Pegasus. At precisely seven the sun rose.
And from this time I shall have no inclination to inspect morn-
ing stars; at least before another winter. Six days and nights
in succession of clear weather are so rare an occurrence in this
country that I am not to expect it soon again.
March 5th. At nine o'clock this morning I went to the Insti-
tution of St. Catherine, and attended the examination of the
young ladies who have completed their education there and
are now about leaving the school. It was in all respects similar
to that which I attended at the same place three years ago,
excepting that the examination in experimental philosophy
was omitted, the teacher in that department having been long
I8i4.] THE MEDIATION, jgi
ill. The examinations in the German language, Arithmetic,
French Literature, Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric were short.
The most trying of the exercises was the translation of passages
from a French book opened at random by the visitors, and of
which a few sentences were read into Russian by several of the
young ladies. The music and the dancing took up at least
three-fourths of the time. The whole examination was finished
about two in the afternoon. The works in embroidery, artificial
flowers, carpet-work, and drawing were exposed as usual, and
all done in the ordinary style of perfection. There was a cold
collation served in one of the outer halls. Of the two most dis-
tinguished of the young ladies who exhibited, one was a Fi;ench
name, Mademoiselle Prevot de Lymian, and the other a German,
Engelbach. The first was most remarked for her beauty and
elegant accomplishments. The other, less handsome, was nearly
as conspicuous in the literary exercises, and surpassed all the
rest in the specimens of needle- work, tapestry, and embroidery.
The crowd, both in going and returning, was impassable; the
heat oppressive. No other of the foreign Ministers was there
but Lord Walpole.
6th. Read prayers for the second Sunday in Lent, and Mas-
sillon's Sermons, upon Les Ecueils de la Piete des Grands.
His doctrine, that the principles of Christianity apply to the
government of states as much as to the conduct of individuals,
is more congenial to my opinions than that of Paley, who main-
tains the contrary. Massillon*s morals are discolored by re-
ligious bigotry; Paley *s are infected with the poison of the
world. Paley seems to think Christianity was a law made
only to keep the peace between shoemakers, blacksmiths, and
lamplighters. Massillon sees ho Christianity out of the pale
of the Church. Merciful God ! in how many and how different
shapes do the passions and vices of men disguise themselves
to corrupt the purity of thy Word I Massillon and Paley are
among the most distinguished defenders of the Christian cause;
yet Massillon incessantly preaches unrelenting persecution to
heretics, and Paley curtails the jurisdiction of Christianity
within narrower bounds than that of a justice of the peace.
8th. Dr. Galloway was here this morning, and prescribed for.
582 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March,
me a vial of Sacred Elixir. I am very unwell, and have strong
symptoms of the jaundice; a lassitude which has almost, but
not yet quite, suspended all my industry; ft listlessness which,
without extinguishing the love of life, affects the mind with the
sentiment that life is nothing worth; an oppression at the
heart, which, without being positive pain, is more distressing .
than pain itself I still adhere, however, to my usual occupa-
tions. I feel nothing like the tediousness of time, suffer
nothing like ennui. Time is too short for me, rather than too
long. If the day were of forty-eight hours instead of twenty-
four, I could employ them all, so I had but eyes and hands to
read and write.
9th. Dr. Galloway visited me again, and now pronounces
decisively that I have the jaundice. He also favors me with a
prospect of its long continuance, and with a much deeper shade.
He sat and conversed with me on literary subjects for more than
an hour.
1 2th. Morning visits from the General of the Jesuits, Brzo-
zowsky, and from Mr. Montreal. The good old father cer-
tainly has hopes of bringing me back within the pale of the
Church, for he seldom slips an opportunity of urging upon me
the doctrine of adhering or returning to the faith of our fore-
fathers. I told him that principle would make us Jews or
heathens. He was ready enough with his answer. They are
so thoroughly bred to controversy that they can never be sur-
prised in argument. And, as I wish to preserve the terms of
good humor upon which we are, I forbear coming to the essen-
tial points, upon which the separation of the Churches ensued.
I told the Father General that I was seeking instruction from
the ornaments of his order, and showed him the folio volume
on my table. He thought it was Bellarmin — it was Petau.
Yes, he said, Petau was a great man, and so were Suarez, and
five or six others whose names have escaped me. I have not
the pleasure of being acquainted with any of them.
1 6th. Evening visits from Count Maistre and Mr. Lewis.
The Count came to ask me to return the books he lent me,
and principally Petau's Doctrina Temporum. The Count is
a religious man, a Roman Catholic, with all the prejudices of
i8l4.] THE MEDIATION, ' jgj
his sect. He is a great admirer of Malebranche, and has Locke
and Condillac in horror. He thinks it a very sublime idea of
Malebranche's, that God is the fi/ace in which spirits exist, as
space is the place of bodies. So differently are the minds of men
constituted, that this comparison conveys to my understanding
no idea at all. It rather detracts from the idea I have of the
Deity, because it takes away its most essential characteristic, in-
telligence. It draws closely to the absurdities of the Greek phi-
losophers, who thought water, air, fire, and what not, God. The
Count was particularly harsh upon Locke for his doctrine that
we have no innate ideas. He insists that all our ideas are innate,
and that a child can never learn anything but what he knows
already. He expressed a very mean opinion of Locke's genius,
and said he was the origin of all the materialism of the eigh-
teenth century; that Condillac was the corrupter of France;
that Kant, the German metaphysician, though an atheist him-
self, had gone &r to demolish Locke's pretence that experience
was the source of our ideas ; and that there was now wanting
only a coup de pied to demolish ^uch fellows as Locke and
Condillac altogether.
20th. I read Massillon*s Sermon for Easter-day — on the
Triumph of Religion. The sermon, like all the others in this
collection of the Petit Careme, has no reference, and scarcely
an allusion, to the festival Upon which it was delivered. They
are all moral and political discourses, preached in the presence
of Louis XV. when he was a boy of nine years old. They
are all upon the duties, the temptations, the vices, and the vir-
tues of the great. Whether Louis was of an age to under-
stand them, I know not ; his life proved that, if he did, it was
to little purpose. Instruction is lost upon fools. Mr. Lewis
sent me this morning a letter he had just received, by the way
of Holland, from Mr. Diamond, in London, dated 15th Feb-
ruary. It says that the Fair American Cartel had arrived at
Liverpool with letters from New York to 22A January, and
with Nathaniel H. Strong" as Consul at Gottenburg, who was
bearer of dispatches for Mr* Bayard and me; that we, tO"
gether with Mr. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and Mr. Jonathan
Russell, had been appointed to treat with the British Govern-
584 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [March.
oient, upon the invitation of Lord Castlereagh, at Gottenburg;
that Messrs. Clay and Russell would not sail from the United
States until the ist of April, that I might have time to reach
Gottenburg as soon as they; that Mr. Strong was to embark
in the next packet for Holland or for Gottenburg, as he should
find most advisable, to meet me with diligence. This opens
upon me a new prospect of futurity, and a new change in the
scenery of life. Upon this change it becomes me to implore
the blessing of Heaven, which can turn to good the most
unpromising appearances, and, above all, which can preserve
integrity and inspire wisdom, whatever turn it may have des-
tined that the event should take.
25th. Continued my Chronological Dissertation and reading
Sully's Memoirs, also Crabbe's Poems, lent us by Dr. Beresford.
Sully has taken such hold on me that I shall read him through
if I have time. Crabbe's colors are gloomy, but his picture of
human life is true. His Parish Register gives views of the
village very diflferent from those of Goldsmith. He says that
since the flood Auburn and Eden can no more be found. But
there is a bright and a dark side to almost everything in this
world. Goldsmith's picture shows only the sunshine of the
village. Crabbe shows scarcely anything but the shade. His
characters are drawn with strong and distinct features. His
satire is sometimes as caustic as that of Juvenal — especially
in the stories of Sir Richard Monday and the Lady of the
Manor. I have long doubted the soundness of the morals in*
volved in these dismal pictures of human existence. Crabbe
is not quite so melancholy as Dr. Johnson. Both of them are
too much so. Life in all its forms, high and low, has great,
numerous, and exquisite enjoyments ; it has also deep afflictions,
oppressive cares, and sometimes overwhelming calamities. To
show us nothing but its sorrows is to increase them, and it has
no tendency to inspire us with gratitude to that Good Being by
whose bounty life was given us as a blessing.
26th. Read' the second book of Sully's Memoirs. I read
them more than twenty years ago in the English translation,
which is not a good one. I find them now more interesting,
but want the original edition, to see what really belongs to
1814] THE MEDIATION, 585
Sully and what to the Abbe de Tfecluse. Sully's education
was imperfect, which I suppose was the reason why his me-
moirs were so immethodical and confused as to give rise to this
transformation of them. He was presented in his eleventh
year by his father to Henry IV., then King of Navarre, and
attached himself to him from that time. It was just before
Henry's marriage and the massacre of Saint Bartholomew;
from which Sully escaped almost by a miracle. From that
time he abandoned all study of the learned languages, but
applied himself assiduously to matnematics, history, and the
exercises that give strength and grace to the body. He was
one of those beings so happily constituted by nature that, in
reading his life, it seems as if virtue itself was a gift of God so
entire as to take away all responsibility from human action.
His personal courage had so much of rashness in it in his
youth, that he must have perished on many occasions but for
that unseen Spirit that protects the favorites of Heaven, which
we call fortune. His presence of mind in the midst of danger
was as great and extraordinary as his valor, and saved him on
many occasions when others must have fallen. He had from
his childhood a spirit of order and economy^ which became one
of the firmest pillars of his greatness, yet blended with a liber-
ality which, on proper occasions, made with cheerfulness the
greatest pecuniary sacrifices. His control over the passion of
love was perhaps too complete, for he married, by the advice of
his valet-de-chambre, one lady while he was deeply in love with
another — merely because the lady whom he finally fixed upon
was richer and of higher rank than the other. He and his
father were both believers in judicial astrology, and were con-
vinced he was to be a great man because it had been predicted.
Indeed, from the instances he gives of his own genius and dis-
cretion in his infancy, the astrologers needed no supernatural
light to foretell his future greatness. There was a stubbornness
of resolution and perseverance in his composition which I be-
lieve indispensable to all truly great characters ; but it some-
times betrayed him into faults, which he candidly acknowledges.
There is one instance of it at the close of the first book, which
arose upon a point of false honor, in which he gave great offence
586 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [March,
to his master, and deeply aggravated it by persisting in it with
what he himself terms insolent language. But his character
and that of Henry IV. were so exactly adapted to each other
that it was impossible for them to be permanently separated.
Among the reflections which arise from the perusal of this
book, the mind can scarcely credit the strange and horrible
picture of civil society which they exhibit — the rapid and
continual alternations of peace and war; the mixture of de-
bauchery and devotion, of marriage and massacre, of festive
entertainments and pillaged cities; treaties made and broken
every year ; treachery, assassination, and poison, all upon the
pretext of religion. Bad as is this age, that, I think, was worse.
28th. I read the third book of Sully's Memoirs, which attach
my attention more and more. It is probably the most interest-
ing book of the work, by the variety and importance of the
events related in it: containing the deaths of the Prince of
Conde and of Catherine of Medicis ; the assassinations of the
Duke and Cardinal de Guise by Henry III. ; that of Henry
III. himself by Jacques Clement; the final alliance of Henry
III. and Henry IV. against the League; and the battles of
Arques and of Ivry ; the whole interspersed with many excel-
lent moral and political reflections. The particulars respecting
Sully himself are also 'curious and important. The death of
his wife ; his house shut up against him, while she was dying,
by his own brother; the dangers he escaped from and the
wounds he received at the battle of Ivry ; his four prisoners,
who surrendered themselves to him alone, and in the most
forlorn condition ; his quarrel with D'Andelot, a son of Coligny's,
for the standard of the House of Guise, and the singular tri-
umphal procession devised by his ecuyer, Maignan, are all
incidents so striking that I am surprised at having no recollec-
tion of them from my former perusal of the book.
29th. I read the fourth book of Sully's Memoirs ; it intro-
duces a new military personage and a great general, Alexander
Farnese, Prince of Parma, opposed to Henry IV. This book,
like the rest, is full of instruction for a general- and a states-
man ; but the best book in the world is like the pipe that Ham-
let oflers to I^osenkrants; and Guildenstern : it will discourse
1 8 14.] THE MEDIATION, 587
excellent music only to those who know how to govern the
ventages. Sully tells his story with candor, occasionally ac-
knowledges his own faults, and even, though more gently,
those of his master. One of Henry's faults was the rashness
with which he exposed his person in action. A signal example
of it is given in this book, at the affair which Henry used after-
wards himself to call the error of Aumale. But I believe it'
impossible to acquire the reputation of courage, so indispensable
to a military commander, without committing many such errors.
On that occasion Henry must have perished, or at least beeii
taken prisoner, which to him and his cause would have been
the same thing, but for an error of the opposite kind, excess of
prudence, in the Prince of Parma, who, thinking it impossible
that Henry should expose himself as he was actually doings
suspected an ambuscade, and lost the opportunity of taking or
destroying his enemy without danger and without possibility of
failure. Yet the Prince of Parma was personally brave, and
Henry's courage was tempered with sound judgment and dis-
cretion. He had vigilance, .activity, and the natural faculty,
improved by the study of Caesar's and Scipio's lives, of seizing
the critical moment and moving with rapidity. Sixtus V. said
he could not fail of conquering Mayenne, because the Biamois
spent less time in bed than the other did at table. It was said
of him, too, that he wore out more boots than shoes. Qualities
all suited to form a great character. His temper, too, seems to
have been expressly adapted to his situation. It would seem
as if Sully was the only man who had ever any real attachment
to his person. Between the Catholics and the Protestants,
filled with all the furies against one another, he was obliged to
share his favors, and his armies and his councils were composed
of elements more at war with themselves than with his adver-
saries. His Catholic troops were ever ready to join his enemies
on account of his religion, and the Protestants, for want of pay;
while his financier, a treacherous Catholic, purposely kept his
coffers drained to produce the mutinies which might hasten
his ruin. Then the private ends, the selfish projects, the jeal-
ousies and rivalries of his principal ofHcers and adherents, the
unsteadiness of some, the imbecility of others, and the profli-
^ MEMOIMS OF JOHN QUINCT ADAMS.
dt^hucA all, wcir sach \yn\wiuA fkwUiM If % to his
that €0mt can scarcely bdaeirc it pcwtibic that he should hue
sanDOonted them. He told Solly, after the battle of Ivry, that
afltsl then he had never been in a coniiilion to fonuk daigms^
that he had only felt desint. His greatest, or father his oidy,
vice^ was his passion for women ; which was so ejtcessiye that^
in my mind, it casts a foul and indelible stain opon his char-
acter. It is, indeed, one of those vices for which manlrind
always had, and ever will have, great indolgenocL Bat to men
in such stations and placed under sudi circumstances as his, it
is one of the most peniicious and £ual of vices. Whether it is
so constitutional in some men, and was in him, as to be uncoa-
troilable, I cannot undertake to say. But I can never consider
the disgrace of a goat as the honor of a man. On the other hand,
his good humor, his attachment to his firiends, his humanity,
his sacred regard to bis word, are such admirable virtues, that
it gives us a poor opinion of human nature to see how little
they availed to gain him the aflection even of his own partisans.
31st I read the fifth book of Sully's Memoirs, which is at
least equally interesting with any of the preceding books. It*
shows Sully as a great statesman and negotiator as well as
a military character. Many of the incidents have an air of
romance about them, which raises an involuntary suspicion that
there is a little coloring added to the narrative. Yet they are
told with such particulars of detail as have all the ^^)earance
of truth. Such is the account of his mine by which the castle
of Dreux was taken, and that of his obtaining all the papers of
secret negotiation between the Duke de Mayenne and Spain,
and those of the third party, whose project was to raise the
Cardinal de Bourbon to the throne and to get rid of Henry
IV. by assassination. The characters of the Count de Soissons
and of the Duke d'Epemon are well drawn ; those of Jeannin,
Villeroy, the Abbe. do Bellozanne, and Cardinal Duperron,
sketched with a masterly hand. Sully ascribes entirely to his
own advice the King's change of religion, the resolution for
which was first adopted upon mere motives of policy. This is
a very delicate point in the estimate of Henry's character, and
it is treated by Sully with great delicacy and circumspection.
I8i4.] THE MEDIATION. jgp
He says he believes that Henry's conversion was in the last
result sincere; that he finally came to the conclusion that the
Githolic faith was the safest ; but in the controversial discus-
sion between the divines of the two sects which he attended to
fix his creed, it was a tacit understanding on both sides that
the Catholic doctors should have the best of the argument,
and the Protestants had complaisantly consented to be defeated.
Such jugglery in a matter of religion is not very creditable
to any of the parties, and very disgraceful to the Protestant
champions. It seems to me that both the wisdom and the
virtue of Henry's apostasy are very equivocal. Had he firmly
adhered to his first faith, the Protestant religion would have
prevailed in France, and the intolerance, the persecutions, the
monkish bigotry, and the perfidious tyranny of Louis XIV.
would never have desolated that country. Yet it is hard to
say that the measure was not indispensably necessary, when it
was so considered by so sound a head and so firm a heart as
Sully ; an inflexible Protestant himself, yet the first to advise
his master to that change in which he could never be prevailed
upon to follow the example. One of the remarkable features
of those times is the secrecy with which Henry was obliged to
cover his confidence in Sully, who for many years was his most
intimate friend and counsellor, without holding under him any
office of apparent importance, and without being able to obtain
the government even of the places taken by himself They
were obliged to appear in public upon the coldest and most
distant terms of reserve, and Sully was habitually introduced
to the King's apartment in the night, for the most important
consultations, to elude the jealousy and envy of the Catholic
nobles.
Day, My rising hour has been something more approaching
to regularity this month than the last ; but my health has been
more infirm. My occupations generally the same, but affected
much by the state of my health. My astronomical paroxysm
has passed away, and my mathematical propensity must be
postponed to a more convenient season. The prospect of a
wandering life has again opened upon me, with a view of cares
and duties which will probably for many months absorb all
5^ MEMOIRS OF yOIIN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
my time and faculties. Never have I had more urgent necessity
to implore the aid of the Divine Spirit to enable me to discharge
those duties with zeal, energy, and fidelity; never more need
of the guiding hand of that Being whose inspiration is wisdom
and virtue, and who disposes of all events and controls the
passions of men and the course of events. Merciful God I
Thou knowest all my wants. Provide for them as to thy infinite
wisdom shall seem meet; and, whatever issue thy providence
has decreed to the purposes committed to my charge, grant
that I may faithfully and entirely fulfil my duties to Thee and
to my country.
AprU 1st. Mr. Nathaniel H. Strong this morning brought
me dispatches from the Secretary of State — one addressed to
Mr. Bayard and myself, the other to me alone; letters from
Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, at Amsterdam, and one from Mr.
Bourne, enclosing one from Mr. Beasley. The dispatch to
Mr. Bayard and me, of which Mr. Bayard retained the original
and enclosed to me a copy, directs us both to repair, imme-
diately upon the receipt of it, to Gottenburg, there to enter
upon a negotiation of peace with England, conformably to a
proposal made by the British Government and accepted by that
of the United States. Mr. Monroe intimates that there will be
other American Commissioners; but his letter is dated 8th
January, before the nominations were made. Mr. Henry Clay
and Mr. Jonathan Russell were the persons ultimately appointed.
Mr. Gallatin is not in the commission. Mr. Monroe directs me
to leave the affairs of the United States here, in my absence, in
the charge of Mr. Harris.
2d. I called upon Lord Walpole at one o'clock, the hour he
had appointed, told him the order I had received to go to
Gottenburg, and asked him if he could inform me whether
commissioners on the part of Great Britain had been appointed.
He said he could not \ that he had received no dispatches from
his Government of later date than 24th December. There are
now twenty-two mails from England due. But, he said, by his
last accounts from Stockholm, of the 23d of March, he leamt that
some of the mails were landed ; they might be expected every
day. He had heard from private letters that George Hammond
iSi4.] THE MEDIATION, jpi
had been appointed, but there must be others ; he did not know
who. Perhaps Mr. Foster might be one ; but he could hardly
conjecture who it would be. George Hammond was getting to
be an old man ; he must be near sixty, and he was very fat.
I told him I had known Mr. Hammond from the year 1783^
when he was secretary to Mr. Hartley, the British Commis-
sioner, at the definitive treaty of peace; that he was then
a student at Oxford, where I afterwards saw him ; that he must
be. now about fifty-one years old. I mentioned the letter from
Lord Castlereagh to Mr. Monroe, proposing the direct negotia-
tion, and told him I was surprised to find in it stated that Lord
Cathcart's note to Count Nesselrode had been made known to
the American Plenipotentiaries and they had answered the
overture contained in it ; that in fact no communication of it
ever had been made to us ; that, excepting what he. Lord Wal-
pole, had told me of it, I never knew anything of this note until
I found it yesterday in the printed documents I had received.
He said he had no doubt that the knowledge of it had been
purposely withheld from us, because if it had been communi-
cated, Russia would have had nothing further to do with the
matter; but RomanzoflT had got into his head some wild and
absurd project of a congress, and a maritime law, and he (Wal-
pole) was as sure as he was of his own existence, and he be-
lieved he could prove it, that RomanzofT had been cheating us
all. In the first place, the mediation had never been proposed
to Great Britain until they were informed of the appointment
of the American Ministers. When they received this informa-
tion. Lord Cathcart was ordered verbally to decline the accept-
ance of it.; which he did at Bautzeh in June. The Emperor
said, in aiiswer to this, that he could have nothing further to
do in the business ; that he had written so to RomanzofT, and
had ordered him to make the communication to the American
Ministers. His answer to Lord Cathcart had been, "Well, I
can do no more in the business; je m'en lave les mains." That
RomanzofT, after receiving this order, instead of obeying it, had
sent it back to the Emperor, with a project of his own, to renew
the offer of the mediation ; which the Emperor did afterwards
approve, and the instruction to renew the offer of mediation
5p2 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
was sent to Count Lieven — which he did. That Romanzoflf
knew perfectly well the answer of the British Government, and
he (Walpole) believed that he could produce proof of it which
would be receivable in a court of justice, though he would not
say so positively. That RomanzofT had told him so himself,
that he knew it inofficially, and not otherwise. He pretended
that the only knowledge he had of it was by a letter which
General Moreau had written to Monsieur Gallatin, and which
Monsieur Gallatin had shown to him, stating that Lord Cath-
cart had told Moreau the English Government had rejected the
mediation. But RomanzofT must, forsooth, cling to his project
of a maritime law. It was the folly of all the Russians. Ever
since the year 1780, he did not believe there was a Russian
breathing but was infected with this absurdity of maritime law.
A maritime law by compact between one power and another
was a very proper thing, and assuredly if there was a liberal
maritime law in the world, it was that of the Treaty between
England and Russia, and what could they want more ? Yet
even such men as Prince Czartorinski and NovosiltzofT (Czar-
torinski was undoubtedly a very superior man. NovosiltzofT
was not; he was a very fair, honorable mah, but he meant
superior in talent), even they, some years ago, after a dispatch
which had no concern or relation with the subject, '' apropos de
bottes," had added a postscript, saying that they hoped England
would hereafter relax in her principles of maritime law. " Mari-
time law I Russia !'* said my Lord, and reddened as he spoke,
'' why, Russia may fight us till she sinks, and she will get no
maritime law from us ; that is, no change in the maritime law.
Maritime law submitted to a congress! What can there be
upon earth more absurd?'*'
I said that whatever Count RomanzofT's projects about mari-
time law might have been, he had never manifested to me the
most distant idea of connecting them with thi$ mediation ; that
the offer of mediation came from the Emperor himself; that
Count RomanzofT told me it was made to England at the same
time as to the United States ; that it was merely as a common
' A signal example of English dogmatism, viewed in the later light of the present
century, in Great Britain.
I8i4.] THE MEDIATION. jgj
friend, anxious for the restoration of peace between the two
parties, that the Emperor had made the ofler. Not a syllable
upon the subject of maritime law had ever been said to me
by the Count throughout the whole transaction.. However, I
added, that much as I regretted the &ilure of this attempt to
accomplish a peace, I hoped the issue of the new effort by
direct negotiation would be more propitious. '
Lord Walpole said he understood the expectations from it
were very sanguine, both in England and in America. I said I
had heard they were in America ; and it was natural they should
be, for an object that was so much desired.
He said that wherever the misunderstanding in the former
case originated, it was to be regretted, for he was persuaded that
had it not happened the peace might have been made eight
months ago. He said he heard Mr. Russell was in the new
commission — ^and he looked sour in pronouncing his name —
and Mr. Clay — whom he did not know.
I told him that I had no official information of the names.
Mr. Bayard and myself were ordered to Gottenburg, with inti-
mations that other commissioners would be joined with us, and
meet us there. I had heard that Mr. Russell was appointed
Minister to Sweden, and he might be joined in the commission
on that account. Mr. Clay, at the time of his appointment, was
Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States.
I concluded by asking him, if he should receive any account of
the appointment of British commissioners, to have the goodness
to inform me of it, as it would hasten my departure if I saw a
probability that they might soon be there. I should be sorry
to make any person wait there an hour for me. He said if he
heard of an appointment he would give me immediate notice ;
that he expected some of the mails every hour, and they could
not be much longer delayed. He had told me that he himself
had written Lord Cathcart*s note to Nesselrode of ist September;
that he thinks it was written at Prague, the 23d or 24th of
August, but not presented until they came to Toplitz. Our
conversation was of about half an hour.
8th. Good Friday. Employed great part of the day in making
the copy and translation of my official note to Mr. Weydemeyer.
VOL. II. — 38
jQ^ MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April.
I called at half-past eleven this mommg to see him at the hotel
of the Department of Foreign Ai&irs, being the time and place
appointed by him. I found him with an excessively bad cough,
and apparently some fever. He had my note in his hand, and
was just reading it I told him it would explain to him the
subject upon which I had requested to see him. He assured
me that he would immediately transmit the contents of my
note to the Emperor, and was certain that his Majesty would
receive with peculiar satis&ction the testimonials of continued
friendship from the Government of the United States. He asked
me whether I wished for an audience of the Empress-mother to
take leave, or only to be presented to her for that purpose. I
said that I wished in that respect precisely what was customary.
He •said that there was more ceremony in an audience, but as
my absence was to be only temporary, and I expected to return,
it was merely a presentation that was customary.
I told him that would be then what I should wish, and as I
presumed there would be as usual a Court on Easter Monday,
which is next week, I had supposed it might suit the Empress's
convenience that I should take leave of her on that day, and
had therefore sent him my note in season to obtain her Majesty's
orders before that time. He promised to take care of it, and to
give me seasonable notice of the time she should appoint I
mentioned to him that Mr. Harris was to be left here as Charge
d' Affaires; that I had written to him to give him notice of this
arrangement, and that his return might be expected very shortly.
I referred him also to the part of my note disavowing the answer
stated by Lord Castlereagh to have been given by the American
Envoys to the proposition of a negotiation at London or Gotten-
burg, made in Lord Cathcart's note to Count Nesselrode, dated
1st September, 1813, at Toplitz. He said he would not fail to
make the Emperor acquainted with it.
iith. At twelve o'clock I went with Mr. Smith to the Winter
Palace, and attended the Te Deum for Marshal Blucher's vic-
tory, and the taking of Rheims par assaut; and the Cercle
Diplomatique afterwards held by the Empress-mother. It had
been preceded by the mass, which we did not attend. The
foreign Ministers were there, excepting the Chevalier Bar-
I8i40 THE MEDIA TION. jpj
daxi and Captain Guedes. When the m^ss was finished, the
foreign Ministers were introduced into the chapel for the Te
Deum; in the performance of which there was a variation from
the customary manner. The kneeling was omitted. They said
it was always so at Easter-time; but last year there was a Te
Deum at the Kazan, Easter Tuesday, when they knelt as usual.
We withdrew from the chapel just before tl^e Te Deum closed,
to be ready in the Salle du Trone for the cercle. I was pre-
sented to take leave by Prince Tuffakin. The Empress asked
me several questions about my journey, wished it might be
pleasant, and hoped to see me soon again, etc. I offered to
take her Majesty's commands, if she had any, for that country,
which she received graciously, and with thanks. It was a
kiss-hands Court, which Count Maistre forgot, and then was
" au desespoir" at his inattention. We waited as usual some
time aflef the cercle, to go to the Grand Duchess Ann's apart-
ments. Lord Walpole, to repose himself, literally lay down
on the steps of the throne. There are no chairs in that hall,
I suppose because it is not of etiquette to be seated there.
I was presented to the Grand Duchess, to take leave, by her
ecuyer. Count SoltykofT. Her questions were much the same
as those of the Empress-mother.. But she asked me whether I
intended to go through Sweden or through Germany, at which
JouflTroy, the Prussian Charge d'Anaires, was much diverted.
She told JouflTroy that he must feel very happy to be the
countryman of such a hero as Marshal Blucher. She spoke to
Lord Walpole, too, about the herb Wellington, Like other
young ladies, she is a great admirer of heroes. As there is no
abundance of Neapolitan heroes, she always speaks to the Duke
de Serra Capriola in Italian. In general there was not quite
so much triumph and exultation at this Court as there has been
at the preceding Te Deums these eighteen months. Count
Maistre, whose son is aid-de-camp to General Wittgenstein, and
was wounded with him at Bar-sur-Aube, was much dejected.
He said that we were singing a Te Deum for some cannon,
but that the allies had suflTered considerable defeats and great
losses; that we should see the Moniteur; that the resistance
was greater than had been expected ; that there were divisions
596 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
among the allies, etc. Yet they are advancing again on all
quarters, and are almost at the gates of Paris. The real truth
is that the French are not in force to resist them. Princess
Woldemar Galitzin was at the Te Deum, not knowing that her
grandson, young Count Strogonoflf, has been killed, though it
has been known all over the city these ten days. Count Maistre
was informed only by accident of his son's being wounded,
and that it was but slightly. He mentioned it to the Empress,
who offered to transmit letters to or from him. " Vous savez,"
said she, "que j'ai d'excellens Commissionnaires a I'armee a
present. J'ai quatre fils a I'armee, and it gives me many a mo-
ment of heartache." As she went away, I said to the Count,
** Bella matribus detestata." " Ay," said he, ** but for her sons
there is no great danger ; though, to be sure, the ball that killed
Moreau might have struck the Emperor." After we had been
at the Grand Duchess's Court, we went to the apartments of
the Duke and Duchess of Wiirtemberg, and were written down.
The Duke was present at the Te Deum. He commanded at
the siege of Dantzic.
17th. This is, regularly, the last of the Easter holy-days, but
this year they are to be continued two or three days longer, by
order of the Empress-mother, in rejoicing for new and great
victories obtained by the allies over Napoleon, of which Qie
news was brought by a courier this day. The weather was fine
and warm, and the crowds of people, on the walks and in the
squares, great.
1 8th. There was a Te Deum at the Kazan Church for the
late victories of the allies ; but, having taken leave at Court, I
received no notice to attend it. I had a morning visit from
Baron Blome, who mentioned to me the particulars of the last
actions, in which Rapatel was killed with a bayonet in sight of
the Emperor. Napoleon is reduced to the last extremity, and
his fate cannot be much longer delayed. In the evening the
whole city was illuminated. '
20th. About two o'clock this afternoon one of the palace
couriers came in great haste to congratulate me on the taking
of Paris. An estafette had just arrived to the Empress-mother
with the news. The reports in circulation afterwards through
I8i4.] THE MEDIATION, 5^7
the day were various. The estafette came from the Governor
of Konigsberg. The news to him was from the military Gov-
ernment at Berlin, and to them from Field-Marshal Blucher,
who took the city on the 29th of March.
23d. Count RomanzofT appointed eleven o'clock this morning
to see me, and at that hour I called upon him and took leave of
him. I had about an hour's conversation with him, embracing >
a variety of political topics, but chiefly of a general nature. He
spoke much of his retirement, and told me he had written again
to the Emperor, asking him to accept his resignation ; that on
the one hand he was grateful to the Emperor for his kindness
in the reluctance he showed to dismiss him, but on the other
he thought he had some "petites reproches a lui faire," for
having withheld now for a full year his compliance with his
request He said the Empress-mother had sent him word
that the courier with the news of the taking of Paris was not
arrived; but there was an estafette from the Duchess of Weimar,
confirming the accounts first received from Konigsberg, and
with further details. The Emperor Napoleon was said to be
at Joinville with seventy thousand men, and the Emperor of
Austria had retired to Dijon, with all the Quartier-General
Diplomatique.
I said I supposed the war might be considered as finished.
The Count replied that, with regard to Paris, all was finished;
but if Napoleon was still supported by the army, he thought
the recent events rather retarded than advanced the end of the
war. If all Greece demanded to be delivered from the Minotaur,
he would be killed, and then the affair might be finished. At
Bordeaux, the people had declared for the Bourbons. In
Brittany and Normandy there were said to be insurrections in
their favor. The Comte d'Artois had been at Nancy, and com-
plained that the people in those provinces, who only asked for
arms to support the Bourbon cause, had not received them.
But he (the Count) knew that since then arms had been sent to
them from England, not many indeed, because England, who
furnished them to all the world, had exhausted herself of her
stock in hahd, though not of the means of supplying more in
future. But at Paris, the place had capitulated. The Senate
598 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
were to assemble to form a Constitution, and the Emperor
Alexander, in the name of all the allies, had declared they
would not interfere with their deliberations. But the people
had manifested nothing but silence. It was said they had
assumed the white cockade, but that they would of course do
in the presence of the allied armies. It was necessary to see
what would be the consequences. If there was to be a civil
war in France, then war was not yet near its end. It was not
a month since the English newspapers stated that Austria had
declared she would change sides with a hundred and fifty thou-
sand men if the allies attempted to dethrone Napoleon, and
that the Emperor Alexander had informed the British Govern-
ment that it was with the greatest pain he had been obliged to
agree to the preliminaries at Chatillon. And the English
ministerial prints published this as the justification of their Gov-
ernment for assenting to the same. Even now the last Berlin
gazettes stated that the Emperor of Austria had been received
with the greatest acclamations of joy by the people at Dijon,
because he was the father of the Empress, It appeared that
Austria had, however, been prevailed upon by eloquence, or
rather by the force of circumstances, to change her policy, for
the Emperor Alexander had declared at Paris, in the name of
all the allies, that he never would make peace with Napoleon,
or with any of his supporters. From all this the Count's conclu-
sion was, that the prospects of a general peace were uncertain ; at
least, he saw no appearance that a state of tranquillity was to be
expected; and, as I expressed some anxiety to reach as speedily
as possible the place of my destination, he said he thought we
should lose no time and no chance of eventual success in the
negotiation by delay. In my own opinion it makes no differ-
ence. The Count hinted that he thought it not improbable
that Bonaparte might pass over into Italy and make a stand
there, where, he said, it appeared the people remained faithful
to him. But in reality the only chance remaining to him is,
how and when he shall be killed — a few days sooner, or a few
days later. The Count also spoke of Spain, of Holland, of
Hanover, of the marriage between the hereditary Prince of
Orange and the Princess Charlotte of Wales, of another mar-
i8i4.] THE MEDIATION. jgp
riage which he said was likely to take place between the Duke
of Cambridge and the Princess of Solms, the late Queen of
Prussia's sister, whose present husband, the Prince of Solms,
treats her very ill and has become a common sot. So she is to
be divorced from him and to marry the Duke of Cambridge ;
upon which one of the Count's friends had written him that she
was going to exchange a drunkard for a man that gets drunk.
I was speaking of the prospect that the progeny from the
English marriage might unite the sovereignty of Great Britain
with that of Hanover and of Holland ; but, he said, Hanover
could not descend to or through a female, and must pa.ss to
the younger sons of the present King of England, and that
Holland was also to be settled upon the younger son of the
present Prince of Orange. But, he added, Holland was a
country divided in sentiment, friends and enemies of the House
of Orange, and not likely to be quiet or contented under the
new Government that may be formed. Spain also had a pros-
pect of uneasy and turbulent futurity. He read me from an
English newspaper some late occurrences at the Cortes on the
approach of Ferdinand the Seventh, arid the arrangements
making for his reception. But, he said, they had made a new
Constitution in Spain, and a King of Spain now would be a very
different personage from a King of Spain heretofore.
I concurred with the Count in most of these opinions, but not
in his conclusions. I spoke to him of the note I had sent to
Mr. Weydemeyer, and which he told me he had not seen. I
mentioned my disavowal of the answer stated by Lord Castle-
reagh to have been given by the American commissioners at
St. Petersburg to the overture in Lord Cathcart's note of ist
September. The Count said he had never received any such
note as that of Lord Cathcart. He was surprised to hear that
it was addressed to Count Nesselrode. Indeed, he had been
informed otherwise, that Count Nesselrode had meddled with
the foreign affairs (s'etoit mele des affaires etrang^red), and he
supposed Lord Walpole had written to Lord Cathcart reports of
conversations, loose and inofficial, from which these assertions
of Lord Castlereagh might have arisen. All this proceeded
from the double mode of transacting business — here through
600 MEMOIRS OF JOHtf QUINCY ADAMS, [April,
one channel, and at head-quarters through another. But he
(the Count) had always been frank and explicit with us.
Another might have shuffled and equivocated, and, as was cus-
tomary both in England and France, left our notes three or
four months unanswered. That was not his way of doing busi-
ness ; he had told us at once and immediately that he had
received nothing from the Emperor on the subject, and the
Emperor had forbidden Count Nesselrode to write him any-
thing, except merely to transmit official documents to him. If
we had ever answered as Lord Castlereagh pretended, let them
produce our answer. It must be in writing, for nothing but
a written document could be such an answer. It was clear
enough there was none such to produce, for we had more than
one note from him, signed by him, and declaring that he had
no communication from the Emperor, which we could answer.
As to the pretence that we had expressed our desire that this
business might not be mixed with the affairs of the continent of
Europe, it was absurd, since nothing had ever been said of mix-
ing those things together.
I told him that my colleagues and myself had been much
surprised to see these statements, and I in particular, when
I compared Lord Cathcart's note, dated ist September, 1813,
with the letter from the Emperor to him (the Count), dated 8th
September, 181 3, O. S., and therefore twenty days after the note,
and which he (the Count) had shown me.
The rest of our conversation was about Messrs. Gallatin and
Bayard, Clay and Russell, Harris and Todd. He asked me
when I expected Mr. Harris would arrive here, and desired me
to write to Harris that when he should come he must call upon
him. On taking leave of the Count I thanked him for all his
civilities to me, and he answered with his usual politeness. I
told him I hoped still to see him again at the head of the Em-
peror's Councils ; which he by no means admitted, but of which
I think he is not himself without hopes. We soon after met
Count Litta, who told us there was this morning an estafette
from the King of Wurtemberg, further confirming the taking of
Paris. It was a good, a great, and a happy piece of news ; for
everytliing had passed quietly, and the greatest of all was the
1 8 14.] THE MEDIATION, 6oi
declaration bjr the Emperor Alexander, alone, but speaking in
the name of all the allies. This was very pfoper, because he
was the one in whom the greatest confidence was to be placed.
The courier was still expected, but at Berlin they had already
had their firing of cannon and their illuminations. It was Count
Schwerin that had carried the news there. Mr. Bardaxi told
me his news from Spain, brought by a courier to him yester-
day. It was the same Count RomanzofT had told me. Mr.
Bardaxi said that Bonaparte's system was too violent ; it could
not stand. He had committed two great faults — the war with
Spain, and the war with Russia. He had ruined Spain. But
Spain would be indebted to him for her liberty and her happi-
ness. Without him Spain would never have been free; and
now within ten years Spain would astonish the world by the
wisdom of her institution^. I thought these opinions all suffi-
ciently correct, excepting the last.
25th. As I was going this morning with Charles to school,
we heard on the quay the report of fifty cannon from the
fortress, announcing the arrival of General GolenischtchefT
Koutouzof, the official courier, with the news of the taking of
Paris by the allies on the 31st of March.
27th. I was employed the whole day in packing up and pre-
paring for my departure. Mr. Smith attended the Te Deum
for Paris. I did not attend, it being the rule of etiquette not
to appear in the presence of the Empress afler having taken
leave. The notice for the last preceding Te Deum was not even
sent me. I supposed this one was sent for Mr. Smith. I was
likewise so busy with my preparations that I could not con-
veniently spare the time. I went out, however, in the evening,
to see the illuminations, which were universal, and some of
them splendid. The most brilliant of all were those at the
fortress. It was very cold, and the wind blew so strong that
all the designs of illumination were baffled in the execution ; .
for before any one of them was completely lighted, half the
lamps were blown out. In many places where expensive
preparations had been made they totally failed. At others the
lamplighters were constantly employed in relighting the extin-
guished lamps, but the wind blew out faster than they could
602 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April.
light. There were some transparencies, but none remarkable
for ingenuity. The letter A was repeated in thousands of
forms, and there were a few Russian, Latin, and French mot-
toes. The crowd of carriages, and of people walking in the
streets, was very great. It was near one in the morning when
we returned home.
28th. I had finally fixed upon this day for my departure on
the journey to Gottenburg, and was employed from the time
of my rising until half-past one p.m. in finishing my prepara-
tions. I had visits during the morning from Mr. Hurd, Mr.
Norman, and Mr. Montreal ; the last of whom informed me
that a courier had this morning arrived from the Emperor with
the news that Napoleon Bonaparte, on having the decree of the
French Senate notified to him, declaring that he was cashiered,
had immediately abdicated the throng, and thus that the war is
at an end. With this prospect of a general peace in Europe
I commenced my journey to contribute, if possible, to the
restoration of peace to my own country. The weight of the
trust. committed, though but in part, to me, the difficulties, to all
human appearance insuperable, which forbid the hope of suc-
cess, the universal gloom of the prospect before me, would
depress a mind of more sanguine complexion than mine. On
the providence of God alone is my reliance. The prayer for
light and vigilance, and presence of mind and fortitude and
resignation, in fine, for strength proportioned to my trial, is
incessant upon my heart The welfare of my family and
country, with the interests of humanity, are staked upon the
event. To Heaven alone it must be committed. That my
duty may be performed in sincerity, with fervent zeal and
unsullied integrity, is my heart's desire and prayer to God.
And let his will be done.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE.
April 28th, 1 8 14. At half-past one o'clock, afternoon, I left
my house, after taking leave of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. My dear
wife and Charles came with me to Strelna, the first stage, where
we dined together, at the post-house opposite the Grand Duke
Constantine's summer palace. At half-past four I embraced
them, and committed them to the protection of a kind and
gracious Providence, and proceeded on my journey with my
servant. Axel Gabriel Gahlroos, a native of Abo, in Finland,
whom I have engaged to go with me.
Suget.
From St. Petersburg.
To Strelna
Kipene
Koskovn
Czerkovitz
Opoli*
Jamburg
Narva
Waiwara ,
Chudleigh
Jeva
Wargle
Hohenkreutz
Pedrous.....
Loop
Kahal
Jegelicht
Reval
Wents.
Paid,
a. c.
18
34.01
23><
5-45
«9
4.55
21
4.95
22><
5.25
>5 ^
3.75
22><
5.25
20
7-75
17
4.'5
II
4.05
20
6.75
22
,7.35
23
7.65
21
7.05
22
7.35
7.65
23
21
7.05
Time of Arrival.
3.30 PM
6.45 "
930 "
29th April, 1. 1 5 A.M.
5.00
•I
«
(I
««
«
«
«
«
«(
I St May,
*(
7.00
»o-35
2.45 P.M
530
7.30
10.15
8.30 A.M.
1 2.30 P.M.
3-45
7.«5
1. 00 A.M.
11.00 «•
«<
«(
*«
(<
«i
(«
Departure.
28th April, 1.30 P.M.
4.30 "
7.30 "
10.15 "
2.00 A.M.
5.30 "
7.45 "
11.30 "
3.45 «*-M.
6.15 "
8.00 "
30th April, 6.00 A.M.
•• 9.00 "
" 1.00 P.M.
" 4.50 "
•« 8.00 «•
*' 8.00 A.M.
«
*(
«
«
i«
II
II
II
This table contains the itinerary of my journey from St.
Petersburg to Reval. Upon my application to Mr. Weyde-
meyer, he sent me a passport for myself and my servant, with a
603
6o4 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
sealed letter to General WiasmitinofT, the Military Governor of
the city, which I sent yesterday to him, on which he furnished
me tht padorojna^ or order for post-horses. The order 'was for
four courier horses, and was to be exhibited to the postmaster
at every station. It mentioned that the road was from St
Petersburg to Reval, that it was three hundred and forty-one
wersts, the horses to be paid for at the rate fixed by the ukazes,
and that twenty-seven roubles, twenty-eight copecks, that is,
eight copecks per werst, was paid for this padorojna. For the
horses, the first stage to Strelna, the charge was seven copecks
for each horse per werst, and the rest of the road five copecks
per werst and horse. At each stage I paid fifty copecks to
the postilion and twenty-five copecks to the starost, or peasant
who furnished the horses. They were all satisfied with this,
and never asked for more. I have marked down in the table
the legal payments at each stage, including the seventy-five
copecks to the postilion and starost. The first stage also
includes the twenty-eight roubles for the padorojna, the Gov-
ernor's clerk, who made it out, having kept the odd copecks for
himself My actual payments were in some instances more
than I have here set down, but the difference was a mere trifle.
I have also marked the time of my arrival at each stage, and of
my departure from it, which will show the average rate of
travelling, and the time of detention, at each post-house, for
the horses. It was never less than half an hour, and seldom
much more, excepting when I stopped to take some refresh-
ment, or to have the wheels of the carriage greased. I found
the roads this evening excessively rough. The snow was gone
almost universally. The frost had come out of the ground,
making the roads deep, and they were now frozen hard again.
The weather was cold, but the night clear and with a moon
nearly at the full. I concluded therefore to travel the whole
night. At Koskova I remarked the conjunction of the moon
and Jupiter.
29th. At the two stages from Koskova to Opoli6, which I
travelled between one and five o'clock this moi:ning, there was
still some depth of snow, and the roads were worse than upon
any other part of the road. I breakfasted at Jamburg, and
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 60$
crossed the river Luga there, about nine. The road to Narva,
from the river, is in a straight line, and fine as a turnpike. The /
post-house at Narva is without the city, which I therefore did
not enter. Crossed the river Narova just below it. The cir-
cumstance of the post-house's being without the city, I suppose
is the cause that two. wersts more are charged for on the stage
which enters the city from either side. But when the traveller
does not enter the city, as was my case, they do not charge the
additional wersts for both stages. I crossed the river just at
noon, under the salutation of thirty or forty guns, which, on
enquiry, I found were fired in rejoicing for the taking of Paris.
At the post-office at Chudleigh the name was painted upon
the door of the house. The place is grossly misspelt on the
post-map and in the books. I asked the postmaster how it
came by its English name. He said that the estate upon which
it was built had been purchased by the Duchess of Kingston,
and that she had long resided at the chateau, in view, of the
place where we^ stood, and which he pointed out to me. I met
here a traveller, almost the only one I had seen upon the road,
with the exception of two couriers, one last night, and one this
morning ; and both beyond Narva, towards St. Petersburg.
This traveller asked me if there was any late news from the
armies at St. Petersburg. I told him of the taking of Paris. He
said he knew that, but shook his head, and said he feared the
worst danger was yet to come. I had neither time nor incli-
nation to enquire into the motives of his fears, and wished him
a pleasant journey. The same postmaster at Chudleigh gave
me and charged me for six horses instead of four, which from
St. Petersburg to that place had been sufficient for me. Several
of the preceding starosts had indeed spoken of six horses, but
Mrs. Colombi had told me her husband had never travelled in
it with more than four; and I knew not that more than four
were required by the ordinances. This postmaster had the
printed ordinances suspended at the wall of the room where I
waited for the change of the horses. They were dated in 180 1,
1808, and 181 2, — the last atWilna. It regulates the price to be
paid for the horses, at five copecks for each horse per werst, in
this and the neighboring governments. It had been previously
6o6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [April,
only three copecks per werst, and before the paper currency.
only two. The ordinance of 1808 prescribed the number of
horses to be taken and charged for every sort of carriage, from
two horses to ten. The number for each kind of vehicle is in-
creased by one or two at the two seasons of the year when the
roads are broken up. Thus, the two-seated coach, with trunks,
and two or three persons, takes four horses from 15th of
December to 15th of March, and from 15th of May to 15th of
September. During the rest of the year the same carriage and .
burden must take six horses. My carriage is of this description,
and in the heavy parts of the roads really needed the six horses.
The breed of these horses is peculiar to the country. They
are very small, very wretched in appearance, and very weak,
which last quality must be owing to their bad keeping. For
they are hardy, they endure the extremities of the cold as if it
was their natural temperature, and they are fleet. The prices
charged for horses is lower than in any other couptry in Europe,
and they exact much more from travellers who have not the
padorojna for courier horses. It has not even been increased
in proportion to the depreciation of the paper, for two copecks
in silver are equal to eight of copper or paper. We arrived at
Wargel between ten and eleven in the evening. The weather
had changed, and it began to snow; I determined, therefore, to
stop for the night, and had my bed made in a room which they
allowed me at the post-house.
30th. They gave me a breakfast of very good coffee and rye
bread. The postmaster attempted to charge me nearly double
the fixed price for his horses, but desisted upon my asking him
for an explanation. At six I entered the carriage. There had
fallen so much snow in the night that the ground was entirely
covered. It continued to snow at intervals all tho^ first part of
the day. In the aflernoon it cleared away, but still continued
very cold.
In the course of the day I read the pamphlet upon expatria-
tion sent me by Mr. Monroe, the Secretary of State. Mr.
Strong told me it was written by Mr. George Hay, who mar-
ried Mr. Monroe's daughter. The author appears to me to
have proved beyond all possibility of reply the falsehood.
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE, 607
absurdity, and tyranny of the doctrine of perpetual allegiance.
But I cannot altogether reconcile myself to his doctrine of the
unqualified right of expatriation. I consider the social compact
as bilateral — ^allegiance and protection as reciprocal and cor-
responding obligations of the subject and sovereign. But it is
a compact, and I cannot think it dissoluble at the mere pleasure
of either party. I also began this day to read Clark's Naval
History of the United States. Stopped about an hour and
dined at'Loop. I had proceeded about four wersts from Kahal,
the last stage but one before Reval, when, between eight and
nine in the evening, my servant discovered that the crane-neck
of the carriage was broken entirely off. We proceeded with
much difficulty about three wersts further, to the next village,
where, with the assistance of several peasants, the broken parts
of the carriage were lashed together ; so that we were able be-
tween midnight and one in the morning to reach the post-
station at Jegelicht On descending from the carriage, we
found that the first accident had occasioned a second and more
serious one. My servant's portmanteau, containing all his
clothes and all the money he had, was lashed on in front of the
carriage and under his own seat Afler the carriage was
broken it became necessary to remove it, and he lashed it on
the trunk behind. When we arrived at the station, it was gone.
Whether the ropes which had held it were cut away, or had
been worn off by the friction, was not perfectly clear. We had
seen no person upon the road, and Axel thought he had seen
his portmanteau still on the trunk about eight wersts behind
the post-house. I stopped here until the morning, to give him
time to go back and see if he could find it on the road. The
mail for St Petersburg from Reval was going through about
two hours afler, and I wrote by it a few lines to my wife. I
then had my mattress thrown upon a sofa, and lay down, with-
out being able to sleep, from two until about six in the morning.
Day, Until the last three days the distribution of my time
has been like that of the preceding months ; but my principal
occupation has been to prepare for the journey which I have
now commenced. At present there can of course be no regu-
larity in my ntode of life. The scene changes from day to day
6o8 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May.
and from hour to hour. Ihave become once more a wayiaring
man, and am separated from every part of my family. Before
the close of the next month I hope to be again stationary, at
least enough so to resume an orderly disposal of my time.
May 1st. About "seven this morning my servant returned
from his expedition back in search of his portmanteau, which
had been fruitless. The postmaster promised to have it adver-
tised this day at the village church, and to have it forwarded to
Reval if it should be found. At eight o'clock we proceeded
on our journey, and just before eleven entered the gates of
Reval. I was met almost at the gate by Mr. Walther, the son-
in-law of Mr. Rodde, and by Mr. Riesenkampf, his partner.
They conducted me to the apartments they had engaged for
me in the Langstrasse, at the house of a tailor named Dahl-
strom. The chambers are perfectly convenient, pleasantly
situated, and neatly furnished. They had written yesterday to
the postmaster at Jegelicht, requesting him to inform me on
my arrival there where the lodgings were provided for me;
which he did. As I entered the city, all the bells were ringing,
and the streets were in a tumult of rejoicing for the taking of
Paris and the subsequent events, which were known here just
as I had left them at St. Petersburg; with the addition, that the
peace was already concluded at Paris. There had already been
here two successive illuminations, and this evening was to be
the third. I had scarcely had time to change my clothes be-
fore three young gentlemen came, as a deputation from the club
of the young merchants, and invited me to attend this evening
their celebration of the late glorious news from the armies.
Mr. Walther also invited me to go with him in the evening to
the theatre, where there was to be a musical celebration of the
same events. At six he called upon me again, and I went with
him to the theatre. It is larger than either of the theatres now
remaining at St. Petersburg, and was built about four years ago
under the direction of Kotzcbue, who was then an inhabitant of
this city. His family are still here, but he is himself now Rus-
sian Consul at Konigsberg, in Prussia. The celebration of the
Emperor's victories and the taking of Paris was a musical per-
formance, sung by all the singers belonging to the theatre, and
i8m.] the negotiation for peace, 609
was followed by a German translation of " La Revanche/' which
I had seen performed in French at the Duke de Vicence's when
•
he was Ambassador at St. Petersburg. After the play I went
with Mr. Walther to the club of the young merchants to which'
I had been invited. It is a sort of a Dutch cofTcc-house, where
there was an assembly of people drinking, smoking, and play-
ing cards. The institution has existed upwards of a cen-
tury, and was formed under the Swedish Government. All the
young merchants as soon as they finish their apprenticeship are
obliged to become members of the society, which is a corpora-
tion, and has several privileges conferred by Peter the Great
— among which is that of wearing a uniform, in which all the
marshals were dressed on the present occasion.
About eleven o'clock this evening, the city being illuminated,
they made their procession by torch-light, with a band of in-
strumentalmusic and of singers, thundering the principal Rus-
sian national air. The marshals in full uniform, preceded by
the music, vocal and instrumental, and followed by the members
of the society, marched out with a bust of the Emperor Alex-
ander, followed by one of the marshals, carrying a crown of
laurel upon a velvet cushion. They proceeded to the public
market-place, and there, in the presence of all the people, placed
the crown of laurel upon the head of the bust, with three times
three huzzas of the whole multitude. They then returned to
the hall of the society, and replaced the bust, crowned with
laurel, on its former stand. They were preparing the supper-
table, when, it being past midnight, I retired to my lodgings,
and there immediately to bed.
2d. I was awaked this morning at seven by a band of music
in the street before my door, and the closing procession of the
club, the marshals and members of which were dispersing ajad
retiring to their homes in the plenitude of their festivity. I
employed the morning in writing. At eleven Mr. Walther
called on me and went with me to visit Admiral SpiridofT, the
military governor of the city. The civil governor. Count Ex-
kull, is sick; so that I postponed my visit to him. Towards
evening, I walked with Mr. Walther to the Dome — a hill upon
which stands the castle of the city, and from which there is a
VOL. II. — 39
6lO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
fine prospect of the harbor and gulf, with the neighboring^
islands and the country round the city. The remainder of the
Evening I passed at my lodgings, writing. I made few remarks
on my journey from St. Petersburg, the natural character of
my mind being more adapted to reflection than to observation.
The face of the country at this season presents very little to
the observation of any one. It is generally level, though be-
tween Narva and this city there are a few hills; one of the highest
is within three wersts of the walls. The country is an open
champaign, without wood, without hedge, ditch, fence, or wall
the greatest part of the way. The exceptions of fence, wall,
and wood are occasional, and to a very small extent The
road runs the whole way very near the Gulf of Finland, and at
several places in sight of it. There was not an appearance of
vegetation about half the way ; but the latter half, the rye was
two or three inches out of the ground, and caused a perceptible
and pleasant verdure. From the day before yesterday morning
until noon the whole ground over which I passed was covered
with snow, which had fallen the preceding night ; but as I ad-
vanced, and after the sky cleared away, it all disappeared. I
saw scarcely any cattle on the way. The principal cultivation
of the country is rye, and there is little or no pasture or grazing
land. Excepting the city of Narva, there is no town on the
road. Very few country-seats, not many comfortable houses.
The post-houses all belong to the Crown. Until Narva, they
are large brick white plastered houses, but standing, for the
most part, alone, without even a village around them. They
have no accommodations as inns, but you may obtain at most
of them a dirty bed, and very good coffee, milk, cream, and
sugar; no wheat bread, and not always rye. The villages are
scattered about at the distance of three or four wersts from each
other. They consist of twenty or thirty block-houses, scattered
in spots, without yard, fence, or road before them, about twelve
tcet high, with thatched roofs, often without any chimney, and
with the smoke issuing from a hollow passage between the
eaves of the roof and the side of the house: they have more
the appearance of barns than of dwelling-houses. In some of
the villages there is a small brick church with a low steeple; in
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 6ll
most of them none. The peasants all wear the Russian dress,
the caftan, and beard. The postmasters all speak German, and
have the German dress and manners. I took, as is customary,
a bag with twenty-five roubles in copper, to pay away in change
upon the road, which just lasted me to Reval. They have
scarcely any small change upon the road, but have small cards
printed, which pass from stage to stage, for one rouble, half or
quarter of a rouble, according as they are marked. They pass,
however, only at the stages, and not iff the city.
3d. Admiral SpiridofT this morning sent me an officer
requesting me to send him my passport; which I did. The
same officer, about a quarter of an hour afterwards, brought it
back to me. The Admiral soon after paid me a m6rning visit
and invited me to dine with him to-morrow. Mr. Walther
came with Captain Brinkman, the master of the vessel bound
to Stockholm, with whom I agreed to take my passage and to
pay him thirty ducats for myself, my servant, and my carriage.
I was much engaged, and almost the whole day, in writing.
Took a short walk round the city before dinner, and in the
evening went to the theatre ; where I saw the opera of Jean
de Paris in German. The French author is St.-Just, the
German translator Herklots, and the music by Boieldieu. The
performance was very good, and the company appears to me
generally better than that of the German players at SL Peters-
burg. The ice has this day broken up, and the harbor is clear.
Captain Brinkman told me he expected to go on Sunday or
Monday. He cannot venture to go sooner, because the ice is
still in the gulf, and by a westerly wind may yet be driven back.
Mr. Walther told me that the official news of the taking of
Paris and the order for a Te Deum had arrived this day from
St. Petersburg, so that the regular day of rejoicing and the Te
Deum would be to-morrow.
4th. Employed the day in writing and copyings for which
purpose I resumed the practice of writing in short-hand. I
have so long disused it that I find myself awkward at recom-
mencing, and for the present save no time by it. Until the hour
of dinner, I left my writing-desk only to breakfast and dress.
At one o'clock Mr. Walther called upon me^ and we went and
6i2 MEMOIMS OF JOHK QUiKCT ADAMS. m^^
dined at Admiial SpiridoflTs. Tbac vrre about tmtakf
at table; among wbom vasGeneial Bcnkcodoci^ fbnnefiy Gofr-
omor of Riga, and iitfaer to Coontess LievcB,i«rife of the Rus-
sian Ambassador in England. Tbey had got the nev Frcacii
Constitution as proposed by the Senate to the Ficndi p^^^ylr,
and the proceedings of the Provisional Government relative to
the abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte, Tbcy were cncfaantod
with the auldrcss of the Provisional Government to the French
nation, which is extremely well written. The Admiral's lady
and several children were there, and are a very agreeable family.
I returned home about three, and wrote again until six. Mr.
Walther called and took my letter for Mrs^ Adams» to go by
the post to St Petersburg this evening. We afterwards went
to the theatre, which was decorated and illuminated. There
was performed a prcJogue, written by Kotzebue, and called
Europe Delivered — an allegory. Europe, a fair lady, was chained
before a pedestal, on which stood an evil genius bearii^ a
lighted torch in one hand and an air-balloon in the other. The
Old Year came in lamenting his condition, and attended by War,
Poverty, Famine, and Pestilence, whom he pointed out as they
stalked successively across the stage. But he announced that
he was to be followed by his brother, who would restore all
things. Then came another fair lady, representing Russia, who
broke the chains of Europe, and at whose command the evil
genius vanished. The scene changed, showing a new world
rising from the ocean, with a rising sun. After which appeared
the New Year, with Peace, Plenty, Public Faith, and Justice; con-
cluding with a chorus from Mozart's opera of Titus, in honor
of the Emperor Alexander, whose bust, crowned with laurel,
appeared at the back curtain of the scene. The opera of the
Caliph of Bagdad was then performed. The author, composer,
and translator are the same as of Jean de Paris, and the plays,
too, are in substance the same. It is only a change of names
and of incidents. The plot \s absolutely the same.
After the play I went with Mr. Walther to the ball at the
Merchants' Club. There were sixty or seventy ladies, and
about as many men. They said it was very thinly attended,
and that they often bad at their balls in the winter six hundred
I8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 613
persons of both sexes. I met here a Lieutenant Barrett, who
introduced himself to me as an American, a native of Boston,
and son to Deacon Barrett of that place. He also introduced
me to his wife, who is an Englishwoman, and his daughter.
Mr. Walther appeared to pay little respect to him, and told me
he believed him to be a Scotchman. I left the ball-room about
one o'clock in the morning, and, after walking round to see the
illuminations, retired to my lodgings. The streets were as
crowded with people, and as full of revelry, as I had seen them
on the Sunday evening. This was the day of official rejoicing.
The Te Deum, with the cannonade, was in the morning, and
all the holy images of the city were carried round by the priests
in procession.
5th. Mr. Walther called upon me this morning, and delivered
me a letter brought by Mr. Rodde, who had just arrived from
St. Petersburg. It was from Mr. Krehmer, and enclosed letters
of introduction for Stockholm and Gottenburg. Before dinner
I went down to the harbor and on board the vessel in which we
are to sail. We found them taking in their lading. Towards
evening I went on the hill, from which there is a view of the
harbor and gulf; the latter of which is still covered with ice.
Afterwards, I took a warm bath. The bathing-house is better
served than at St. Petersburg. There was a plenteous rain this
evening, which I hope will hasten the dissolution of the ice. I
employed almost the whole day in writing.
6th. Mr. Rodde called upon me this morning, and invited me
to dine with him on Sunday. I walked partly round the walls
of the city before dinner, and again towards evening. The rest
of the day I employed in writing to my wife, copying, and
reading. I finished the sketches of the Naval History of the
United States, and resumed the volume of Sully's Memoirs
which I was reading whe.n Mr. Strong arrived at St. Petersburg.
Began upon the sixth book, the interesting parts of which are
Sully's negotiation with Villars, the Governor of Normandy,
for the city of Rouen; that with Nugnes, the Spanish Envoy;
the unworthy management of Sully, by Henry's orders, to
break, off the marriage of the King's sister with the Count
of Soissons ; and the romantic surprise of Fescamp by Bois-
6l^ MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
Rose. There are some very judicious observations upon
Brissac's project to turn France into a Roman Republic; an
experiment which has been so formally attempted in these
times, and the final catastrophe of which is at this moment
concluding a horrible tragedy with a disgusting &rce.
7th. Mr. Rodde sent me this morning the Riga gazette, the
Zuschauer, of last Tuesday, which contains the act of abdica-
tion signed by Napoleon Bonaparte at Fontainebleau the nth
of April. I paid a visit to Mr. Rodde, returned him the paper,
and gave him two letters for St Petersburg, to be sent by this
evening's post I walked entirely round the city, entering at the
same gate by which I had gone out I was forty-seven minutes in
completing it, and conclude the circle to be exactly four wersts,
or two and two-thirds miles. There are seven gates at irregular
distances from one another, an empty moat, and a Mrall flanked
with towers. The city is very old, and built in the Gothic
style ; the streets narrow and crooked ; the buildings generally
of brick, and plastered, and a few of stone. The roofs of the
houses are of tiles, and in sharp, steep angles ; the ends of the
houses upon the streets. One seems to be transported back to
the twelfth century in such a place. I met Mr. Walther and
Mr. Riesenkampf in the street I had thoughts of sending a
trunk, with most of my books, directly to Gottenburg, for the
sake of lightening the load upon my carriage. But Mr. Walther
told me that Captain Weymouth was aflronted at my having
taken passage in another vessel than his, and refused to take my
trunk. I walked again down to the harbor towards evening,
but found nobody on board the Ulysses. I employ my time in
reading and writing, and find no difficulty in employing it fully.
I feel, however, the effect of continual solitude, and the want of
society, especially in the after-part of the day. Finished read-
ing the sixth and began the seventh book of Sully's Memoirs.
The singular composition of Henry the Fourth's character is
exhibited here more distinctly than that of Sully himself Sully
tells his own story. He shows only his own fair side ; but he
shows Henry on all sides — his vigilance, his intrepidity, his
wonderful presence of mind and coolness in the most immi-
nent perils; his generous, affectionate, and humane temper ; his
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATIOf^ FOR PEACE. 615
cheerfulness and gaiety ; his condescension and fascinating affa-
bility; his naturally choleric disposition, and the control that he
had acquired over that part of his infirmity; together with his
ungovernable passion for the sex, and all the weaknesses and all
the follies into which it betrayed him. He tells a story about
the Belle Gabrielle, which shows her to have been a mere pros-
titute, and Henry an egregious dupe — ^to such a degree as to
acknowledge for his own a child to which he had no pretension.
And this woman was the channel of the royal favors ; and who-
ever was ambitious of serving the King found it necessary to
pay assiduous court to her. The character of the Duke of
Bouillon, his insidious intrigues, and the imprudence of Henry
in being persuaded by him to declare war s^inst Spain, form
an interesting part of this narrative. The treaty for the sub-
mission of the Duke of Guise, another. The assassination of
Henry the Third by Jean Chatel, under thd instigation of the
Jesuits, a third. The events at the siege of Laon are interesting
as military incidents.
8th. I went out at ten this morning, with the intention of
going to church, that being the hour at which I was informed,
upon enquiry, that the service began. I met in the street Mr.
Rodde, who accompanied me to the principal Lutheran church.
We were at least a full half-hour loo late, and found the preacher,
a Mr. Meyer, in the midst of his sermon. There were about
one hundred women present, and, I believe, not twenty men.
The clergyman read his discourse; after which there were
prayers for births and deaths, and banns of marriage published.
The service closed with the singing of one stanza of a hymn,
accompanied by the organ. The church is Gothic, built of stone ;
the walls are lined with armories ; in a side chapel, separated
by grated gates from the rest of the church, there was a bier
and coffin, apparently in a state of preparation for a funeral.
It was cold and damp : from the extent of the church, and the
height of the Gothic arches, it was scarcely possible to hear
the voice of the preacher. There was nothing remarkable in
his oratory, but his delivery was very good. After church, I
walked round the outside of the city, and, as yesterday, returned
to the same gate in forty-seven minutes. When I came to my
6l6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
lodgings, I found th^ card of Baron Exkull, the Governor of
Esthonia, who had paid me a visit and left a message inviting
me to dine with him to-morrow. On my arrival here, I intended
to have paid him a visit, but was informed he was sick. One
of the captains of the fleet, with whom I dined at Admiral
SpiridofT's, also paid me a visit. I dined at Mr. Rodde's. He
has a lady, five daughters, and one son. The eldest daughter
is married to Mr. Walther, and they all live together. The.
second daughter is very pretty. There were at the dinner
Baron Rosen, an old gentleman of seventy-two, whom I had
already met at Admiral Spiridoff's ; Baron Dankelmann, a native
Prussian, now employed here at the Qistom House ; a Baron
Stakelberg, a Landrath, or one of the twelve judges of the
provincial tribunal, and his lady, of the family of Igelstrom, a
young and handsome woman; the preacher whom we had
heard at church, Mr. Meyer; Mr. Rodde's partner, Riesen-
kampf; and two or three others, whom I did not know. The
dinner was sumptuous and social.
About four in the afternoon I came home, and, with a second
walk towards evening, spent the remainder of the day in writing,
and reading Sully. Finished the seventh and began the eighth
book. There is a mixture of public and private history in these
Memoirs, a talent at giving interest to the narrative and the
impression of resemblance to the characters, a soundness of
moral and political principle, a keenness of penetration, and a
solidity of judgment, in the reflections upon persons and events,
which give them a charm beyond that of any novel I ever read.
The account of his final and unsuccessful negotiation with the
King's sister, Catherine, to prevail upon her to marry the Duke
of Montpensier ; of her violent sallies of passion against him; of
his cool, respectful, and inflexible defiance of her; his distress at
the first hasty order given him by Henry, to ask the Princess's
pardon; his triumph at the second letter from the King, after
receiving his report, and the address and management with
which Catherine finally sought a reconcilement with him, are
all painting to the life. His scene with the astrologer, and the
picture of the man, are diverting; and the manner in which he
finally enters the Council of Finance, the intrigues of the other
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 617
members against him, Henry's fluctuations about the measure
of placing him there, the cunning of Villeroi in delaying the
delivery of his commission, Henry's charge to Beringhen to
keep the commission until further order, his device afterwards
to throw the blame of its detention upoh the forgetfulness of
the " gros Allemand," who had disclosed the secret to Sully,
and who at last took upon himself all the blame of forgetful-
ness, are comical in the highest degree. The Belle Gabrielle still
darkens the shade of Henry's inexcusable vice. Her stratagem
to get to the King before Sully, when they were both sent for
together, Sully's dispatch to go with her, the dangerous acci-
dent they met with upon the road, and the agitation betrayed
by the King on being informed of it, are all strong characteristic
features. Yet perhaps this woman may claim some indulgence,
when it is considered that it was her advice which flnalfy per-
suaded Henry, against all the cabal of Sully's rivals and enemies,
to place him at the head of the finances. The adventure with
the Duke of Bouillon's troop of horse is one of those which
show the spirit, firmness, and decision of Sully's character.
He speaks of Villeroi, D'Epernon, Jeannin, and especially of
Cardinal d'Ossat, in terms very much to their disadvantage ;
and he very directly charges d'Ossat with having betrayed
the interests of the King, his master, and the rights of the
Gallican Church, in the negotiation with the Pope for Henry's
absolution. There was this evening a new illumination of this
city — a mere superabundance of joy.
9th. This morning I returned the visit of Baron Exkull, the
Governor of the Province, and at one o'clock went and dined
with him. He has no family, and there were no ladies at table.
The company were seventeen or eighteen persons, among
whom were Admiral Spiridoflf, General Benkendorf, Baron
Stakelberg, Mr. Rodde, and several other gentlemen whose
names I did not discover. There were two card-tables and a
chess-board set in a chamber adjoining the dining-hall. I sat
down with General Benkendorf, the Commandant of the city,
and a fourth hand, to whist, while the dinner was serving up.
We played one hand, then adjourned to dinner, and after that,
and taking coflee, returned to the card-table. We played
6l8 .MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
four rubbers, and all retired between four and five in the after-
noon.
General Benkendorf, who is a great talker and very pleasant
companion, told a number of anecdotes, to the great diversion
of the company. He told me that his daughter, Countess
Lieven, wrote him that she liked the country in England very
well, but that the climate did not agree with her. health, and
that she found London excessively tiresome. She had no
society, and her house was so small, and so crowded at her
parties, that she was sure some of her company never got
beyond the stairs ; that they could not live upon the Count's
salary, which is thirty-two thousand ducats a year and house-
rent free; and that if they stayed there long he would be
ruined; that his state carriage cost him seventeen thousand
roubles, and her box at the opera, for four months in the year,
twenty-five hundred roubles.
I went down to the port, and on board the vessel, to enquire
when the captain thought of sailing. He was not there, but
the steersman said about Thursday, and to-morrow they would
take my carriage aboard. The northwest wind has brought the
ice all back into the harbor. I walked round the city towards
evening, and read Sully — books seven and eight He is now
entering deeply into the affairs of finance, and shows how he
detected and exposed the frauds and malversations of the
Council, the establishment and suppression of. a ridiculous
Council of Reason, the reconciliation of the Duke of Mayenne
with the King, and the surprise of Amiens by the Spaniards.
loth. Mr. Walther called upon me this morning, and asked
me for my passport and a minute of my baggage, to be
delivered at the Custom House, which I accordingly gave him.
My carriage was this afternoon shipped on board of the Ulysses.
In the evening I went to the theatre, and saw the Swiss Family,
an opera said to be from the French of Castelli ; the music by
Joseph Weigl. It is a bad copy of Nina, which is a bad original,
and, as General Pardo used to say, there is no color in the
mu3ic. I found it very tiresome. Spent part of the day in
writing, and reading Sully — books eight and nine. Further
details concerning the finances, the infamous corruption and
I8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. gip
base intrigues of Messieurs du Conseil, and the baleful influ-
ence of the King's mistress. It appears that the edict of Nantes
was extorted from the King by the powerful combination of
the Protestants, at the head of whom was the Duke of Bouillon.
Sully's zeal for the King urges him to an excess of disapproba-
tion of these measures of the Protestants, and he acknowledges
that they considered him as a deserter from the party. Sully's
religion, and that of Henry himself, were evidently matters of
State policy. Sully advised his master to change ; and if he
did not change himself, it was merely because no motive of
sufficient weight was presented to him to overcome the pride
of consistency and the scruples of his conscience. If Henry
was really sincere in his conversion, it is only a proof how
subservient even the sincere opinions of a powerful mind may
be made to worldly interests. The penances imposed upon
Henry by the Pope, as the price of his absolution, are a bur-
lesque upon religion. He was to say so many rosaries, and so
many chaplets, and so many litanies, every week; to hear
masses every day, to fast once a week, and go to confession at
least four times a year. Was the soul of Henry the Fourth
capable of believing that an oflended Deity could be propitiated
by such mummery as this ? or was the principle of his change
conformity, and not conviction ?
I ith. Mr. Rodde called on me this morning, and afterwards
sent me the Riga newspapers. Mr. Walther caftie and returned
me my passport, and Captain Brinkman was here to tell me
that he had cleared out his vessel and was ready to sail with
the first fair wind. But, he said, there had been seen yesterday
much ice in the gulf at Baltic Port ; and I myself saw this
evening a great deal from the hill that overlooks this harbor.
I walked down to the vessel and round the city walls before
dinner, and went partly over the same pilgrimage in the even-
ing. Employed the rest of the day in writing, and reading
Sully — books nine and ten. The details of finance become
almost tedious, particularly as they are in a great measure
unintelligible. To understand them, it would be necessary to
be acquainted with' the organization of the department and the
official duties of the several officers belonging to it. That it
620 MEMOIRS OP JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
was a general chaos of confusion, in which nothing was sys-
tematic but fraud, peculation, and plunder, is obvious enough.
The interests, thfe passions, and the influence against which
Sully had to struggle in eflecting a reform, are equally con-
spicuous ; but the explanation of his means, and the details of
his measures, I do not understand. The character of Henry
appears in all its weakness and all its strength in his project
to marry his mistress, and in the deference which he shows to
Sully's resistance against that measure; in the insolent airs
which he allows her to assume at the baptism of her second
son by him ; and in the energy with which he supports Sully
against her pretensions and her artifices. The scene between
them, in which she first reproaches him with sacrificing her to
his valets, and ends by imploring mercy and forgiveness at his
feet, is delightful. And yet, if this woman had not shortly afler
died, the King would, in all probability, have disgraced him-
self by marrying her. The scene between Sully and the Duke
of Epernon at the Council board is another incident in which
the character of Sully displays itself advantageously ; and the
account of his own mode of life, the distribution of his time,
and the qualities which he describes as essential to a financier,
or minister of state, are full of important instructions, and sub-
jects for serious reflection. Mr. Rodde sent me this afternoon
a small volume in German, containing a history of the Province
of Esthonia.
1 2th. I And no difficulty in filling up my time; but I am not
exempt from the weariness of constant solitude. To vary my
exercise, I amused myself this morning by walking round the
city, half without and half within the walls, going out and in,
alternately, at the seven gates, and Anally returning by the same
at which I had flrst gone out. A person came this morning
and introduced himself to me by the name of Major Reiners,
and asked me to take a foster-son of his, a boy of fourteen
years of age, with me to America. I excused myself as civilly
as I could, but consented that he should come and present the
boy to me to-morrow morning. I walked to the hill again
towards evening, and still isaw ice in the gulf I continued to
read Sully — books ten and eleven. They relate the marriage of
I8i4.] THE NECOTIATTON FOR PEACE. 62 1
the King's sister Catherine with the Duke of Bar, and the death
of his mistress, Gabrielle d*Estrees, Duchess of Beaufort, his
profound affliction at this event, and his intrigue immediately
afterwards with Mademoiselle d'Entragues, with his foolish
and ridiculous promise of marriage to her. There is a long
account of the political testament of Philip II. of Spain, and a
humorous one, of the dialogue between Roquelaure and the
Archbishop of Rouen, the King's natural brother, who 'was
the only prelate that could be prevailed upon to perform the
ceremony of marrying the King's sister, because she was a
Protestant
13th. Mr. Rodde came this morning and introduced to me
a General Norberg, who asked me whether I had been, about
thirty-two years ago, at Stockholm, in company with an Italian
nobleman named Count Greco. I said I had. He then asked
if I recollected having then visited, with the Count, and a
Swedish gentleman named Wadstrom, the cabinet of mechanical
inventions of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. I answered
that I did perfectly well. He said he was then the keeper of
that cabinet, and had shown it to us. His name and counte-
nance were equally lost to my memory; but after the name
was brought back to it I had a faint remembrance of it. He
had no more recollection of niy person than I of his. He told
me that he had now been for some years in the Russian ser-
vice ; that he resided in the neighborhood of this city ; and he
invited me to his house, where, he said, if I still retained my
fondness for the sight of mechanical inventions, he could show
me some curiosities. He invited us to dine with him on
Sunday ; but, as I had hopes of sailing by that day, I went
out this afternoon with Mr. Rodde to the General's house, and
returned his visit. It is about a mile without the walls. He
showed us several of his inventions, which are ingenious and
useful. He is now engaged upon a great and costly work — to
enlarge and improve the harbor of this place. Upon this there
have already been expended a million and a half of roubles,
and it will cost two millions more to finish it It is under
the superintendence of the Marine Department. But he seems
not to be satisfied with the Marquis de Traversey, and hopes
622 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
Admiral TchitchagofTwill come to the office again. He showed
us the drawings and the models of his works, and several other
of his inventions. A round table, contrived for the purpose of
dispensing with the attendance of servants. He thought if he
had this in England he could make money with it; but I
believe not much. He appeared to me to have bestowed much
labor and ingenuity to produce a small effect It is merely
a movable circular leaf in the middle of the table, which, by
the machinery, may be turned round so as to bring each dish
before each person at the table ; and a shelf under the table,
upon which plates may be stowed away. A bedstead for sol-
diers in barracks, invented by Count Rumford, and improved
by the General. It may be used as a chair, a table, or a work-
ing-bench. An instrument for drawing in perspective. This,
the General said, was not yet published ; because Patterson had
taken with it all his views of St. Petersburg, and he wished
him to enjoy all the benefit of it. But he now intended to
publish it shortly. A machine for raising water and circulating
it through spiral tubes. A machine for scooping out the staves
of barrels. A steam vessel, navigable on the high sea — a pro-
ject which he said he had presented more than twenty years
ago to the Empress Catherine, to be used between St. Peters-
burg and Cronstadt. But it had not been approved. I told him
of the privilege granted to Mr. Fulton. He said he had heard
of Mr. Fulton's boats, which were a very admirable invention.
After spending a couple of hours with him, we returned to
the city. I walked to the castle hill, and saw a quantity of ice
floating in the harbor, which convinced me that I must not
expect to sail before Monday, if so soon.
14th. Mr. Ross came to me this morning with a letter from
Mr. Sterky, the Swedish commercial agent at St. Petersburg,
dated last Tuesday. It enclosed one from Count Engestrom,
in answer to that which I wrote him the nth April, and a
passport. The Count's letter is dated 26th April, and informs
me of the arrival of two of the American Plenipotentiaries at
Gottenburg, and that of Mr. Russell at Stockholm. I answered
Mr. Sterky's letter, and wrote to my wife. Mr. Rodde came
afler dinner and took me out with him, first to Catherinendal,
i8l4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 623
a palace about a mile without the city, built by Peter the First
for his Empress Catherine. The house is small, but the gardens
are extensive and laid out in the fashionable style of that time.
There are three bricks at one corner of the house, painted red,
which are said to have been laid by Peter himself. The rest
of the house is plastered. It is the usual residence of the
Prince of Oldenburg, the Governor-General of these provinces.
But he is now absent. Round the gardens there is a little village
of barracks for a regiment of soldiers ; and on a hill beyond the
gardens stands the light-house. There are five lamps placed
in a chamber at the front of which is a door opening upon the
gulf; and one lamp at the door itself. It is the highest land in
the neighborhood of Reval, and a fine prospect of the city, the
harbor, the gulf, and the country around. We saw a small
vessel coming into the harbor, the first that has appeared this
season. The harbor, and the gulf beyond it, are still covered
with ice, but not in very large masses, and it appears that the
gulf is navigable. We afterwards went to Charlottendal, Mr.
Rodde's country-seat, about three wersts on the other side of
the city. He ha^ a good house and garden there, which cost
him only twenty thousand roubles, and where he resides in the
summer ; he intends going out there next week. Afler return-
ing home, I read Sully — books eleven and twelve. It contains
the birth of Louis XIII. ; a dark and mysterious account of
a quarrel between the King and Queen ; Sully's embassy to
Queen Elizabeth, at Dover, and his long conference with her;
and the Duke of Biron's conspiracy against Henry, the rela-
tion of which I broke off in the middle. Henry, as well as his
Minister, appears to have been infatuated with judicial astrology,
and on the birth of his son made his physician, La Riviere,
cast his nativity. Another characteristic of the age is Sully's
excessive pride of birth, and his profound contempt for ^vt,rf
profession and occupation but that of arms. He argues the
point as well as he can, and is evidently very sincere in his
prejudices; but the prejudice betrays itself. Military renown
will in every country, and under every form of government,
rise to the highest dignity and give the greatest consideration;
but in no civilized age or nation can it ever engross the whole.
624 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
The administration of justice must niake the profession of the
law respectable; and wealth always will command considera-
tion, because it will always confer power.
15th. On rising this morning, I saw by the vanes on the
steeples from one of my windows that the wind was favorable
for sailing, and, expecting a message from Captain Brinkman,
I packed up my boxes with every article not of constant neces-
sity, to be ready to go at as short a notice as possible. Went
to church alone, and heard the service performed and the ser-
mon in the Esthonian language — which is altogether different
both from the Russian and German. The church was not so
large as that of the Germans, but it was full, and even crowded,
chiefly with persons from the country — ^peasants of both sexes.
There was an alternation of prayers and hymns sung by the
congregation, accompanied by an organ, before and after the
sermon. At the administration of the communion I left the
church. Mr. Rodde came at one o'clock and took me out to
General Norberg's, where we dined. Admiral Spiridofl', the
Commandant of Reval, named Berg, and a clergyman were the
company, with General Norberg's two sons, youths of about
fourteen or fifteen. We dined at his round table without
attendants ; there was only one servant, who brought in the
dishes and put them on the table. But that servant might have
waited on the whole company, and would have saved them the
continual trouble of helping themselves. This table is a mere
gimcrack. After dinner, we made a party at whist until five.
The commandant. Berg, invited me to dine with him the day
after to-morrow, if I should still be here. When I took leave
of General Norberg, he gave me several copies of a pamphlet
which he has lately published, relative to some improvement
of his invention for the distillation of brandy, which he asked
me to distribute among his friends there, if I should meet with
any who made enquiries about him. He wished to show them
what he was l^usied about. He gave me also one copy of an-
other, a preceding pamphlet upon the same subject.
When I returned to my own lodgings, my servant told me
that the captain had been to desire that I would go on board
the vessel this evening, the wind being fair, and it being his
i8i4.] THE NE<GOTIATION FOR PEACE, 625
intention to sail very early to-morrow morning. I immedi-
ately finished the packing of my clothes, books, and papers,
and came on board the vessel — the Ulysses, Captain Brink-
man. It was between nine and ten in the evening. Mr. Ross,
with ten or twelve other gentlemen, were on board, to take
leave of Mr. Zandelin, a Swedish merchant, who freights the
vessel and is also going in her as a passenger. They returned
on shore in the boat in which I had come on board. Captain
Brinkman immediately took my passport on board the guard-
ship, where they kept it, together with that of the vessel, tell-
ing him to come for them again to-morrow morning. In the
leisure of the day I read Sully — books twelve and thirteen:
containing the conclusion of Biron's conspiracy, by his trial
and execution; the pardon granted by Henry to the Count
d'Auvergne, because he was the brother of the King's mis-
tress, the Marchioness of Verneuil ; the address with which the
Duke of Bouillon kept himself out of Henry's reach, and the
manner in which the Duke of Epernon disculpated himself
from having been engaged in the plot. Even the name of Sully
himself had been implicated by La Fin, the informer who be-
trayed Biron ; but it made no impression upon the King's mind.
It is a proof with how much caution all evidence merely sus-
picious should be received involving persons in conspiracies.
Sully refers to other books for Biron's trial, the particulars of
the conspiracy, and the proofs against him. There are also
some remarks upon Henry's edict against duels, and concerning
the coinage — which was debased by Sully's advice, to prevent
exportation.
16th. The wind this morning was fair, though very light,
and at four o'clock we were ready to sail. It was, however,
between seven and eight before the officer from the guard-ship
came on board with the vessel's pass and my passport. He
apologized to me for having made me wait so long, pretending
not to have known I was on board this vessel, because my pass-
port did not mention the name of the vessel in which I was to
embark. After taking down in his register the name of the
vessel and of the captain, her burden, lading, and where bound,
he asked the captain and me, saying he was obliged to do so,
VOL. II.-
626 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
whether we had any Russian money, I had none, contrary to
the intent of the law. The captain gave him a five-rouble bill,
with which he was well satisfied, and he left the vessel, wishing
us a good voyage. We sailed immediately, although the wind
had died away almost to a total calm. There were seven other
vessels lying with us at the mouth of the harbor ready to de-
part, but only one of them got under weigh — a Dutch vessel,
freighted on the same account as ours, and the captain of which
had promised to sail in company with ours. We had not even
got outside of the harbor before we saw in the gulf floating
masses of ice, so large and so close together that the captain
was apprehensive we should be obliged to return. But there
was no wind until towards evening, when a light breeze sprang
up from the northwest, as directly ahead as it could blow.
Notwithstanding the difficulty of beating against a head-wind
amidst the floating ice, the captain, at my desire and that of
Mr. Zandelin, made the attempt to reach Baltic Port, about
twenty miles distant from Reval, but without success. The
weather was fine, but so cold that it was impossible for me to
write a line the whole day. I read Sully — ^books thirteen, four-
teen, and fifleen, the most interesting parts of which are the
details of his embassy to England on t|ie accession of James I.,
immediately afler the death of Queen Elizabeth, and his nego-
tiations with James and his Ministers. Sully, with all his great
and good qualities, was a man of harsh and severe character.
He speaks ill of almost everybody, and scarcely ever well of
* any one, excepting King Henry and Queen Elizabeth. In his
English negotiations he is extremely bitter against the English
nation in general, and most especially so against James's Min-
ister of State, Cecil, a name much respected in English History.
Sully is not much more- favorable to Barneveld, who was then
in London at the head of a deputation from the States-General,
and in pursuit of the same object as Sully. He represents him-
self as having been perfectly successful with James against the
advice and cabals of Cecil and all the English Ministry ; but he
admits that he could not avail himself so advantageously of
this success as he might have done, for want of a carte-blanche
signed by Henry, upon which he could have concluded a treaty
I8l4.] TUB NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE, 627
with James. He touches very lightly upon a gross insult
which he received from an English Admiral as he was crossing
the Channel, on account of the flag, and on the piracies of the
English ; against which it was one of the objects of his mission
to complain. He had with him a suite of three hundred per-
sons, and immediately after his arrival in London was obliged
to try and condemn to death one of them for a murder. He
delivered him over for execution to the Lord Mayor of London,
but the sentence was not executed. He gives the character of
a young man of his suite named Servin, a most extraordinary
compound^ of personal accomplishments and detestable vices ;
and he makes the conduct of the Spanish ambassador, Count
d'Aremberg, appear supremely ridiculous.
17th. After beating against the wind and amidst the floating
ice great part of the night, the captain was finally compelled to
put about and return to Reval. About three in the morning
the vessel struck against a mass of ice, and the shock was so
great that it waked me. The ice ahead was in such quantities,
and with such narrow passages between the floats, that it was
impossible to proceed, although in sight of Baltic Port. The
wind was fresh, and about eleven in the morning we came to
anchor again in the harb9r of Reval, where we lay the remainder
of the day. A boat from the guard-ship came alongside, but
the officer, upon enquiring whence we came, and being informed
by the captain that we had sailed yesterday from hence, returned
without coming on board, but told the captain that whenever
he went on shore he must first go on board the guard-ship.
In the afternoon two gentlemen of Mr. Zandelin's friends came
on board and spent an hour with him. Zandelin himself, after
waiting four or five weeks for his passport, was obliged to go
without it, and to pass himself off for the steersman of the vessel.
The weather was still so cold that it was with extreme difficulty
I wrote half a page in this journal, and I could not write any-
thing else. Read Sully — books fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen:
the conclusion of his embassy to James L, his return to France,
and his danger of being lost on the passage between Dover and
Calais ; the re-establishment of the Jesuits ; the introduction of
the silk manufactures, and the colony sent to Canada; all in
628 . MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [May,
opposition to his opinions. He pronounces very decisively
that no colony in America north of forty degrees of latitude
can be of any value. The death of the King's sister, Catherine,
who had finally married the Duke of Bar, is noticed in the
seventeenth book.
i8th. The wind blew fresh west by north the whole day.
West by north is precisely our course to Stockholm. Towards
evening it died away to a calm. The captain went on shore
this morning, and returned in the evening. Three vessels came
into the harbor this afternoon — two from the island of Dago,
and one from Girlshamn. The weather was fine, and, being not
quite so cold as the two preceding days, I was enabled'to write
more. I brought up entirely my journal. Read Sully — ^books
seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. The domestic distresses of
Henry, occasioned by his vices and the characters of his wife
and mistress, are related with candor, and form a picture which
excites alternate indignation and compassion. The mistress,
the Marchioness of Verneuil, was engaged, with her brother,
the Count d'Auvergne, a natural son of Charles IX., and her
father, D'Entragucs, in a conspiracy against Henry ; for which
they were sentenced to death, and she to perpetual imprison-
ment. Henry not only forbore to hav^ the sentence executed,
but pardoned her, and submitted to the conditions she required
with regard to the others. But the passion for the sex was not
Henry's only vice. He was addicted to gaming, and his hunt-
ing expenses were extravagant. Altogether, Sully states that
the sums he squandered upon his pleasures would have main-
tained an army of seventy-five thousand men. The treachery
of one of Villeroy's clerks, and its detection, is also told here;
the manner in which James the First abandoned his alliance
with France, and the treaty he concluded with Spain; the treaty
of commerce between France and Spain, which was concluded
by Sully himself shortly afterwards ; and some affairs of minor
importance relating to the Swiss, and to a bridge at Avignon.
Sully gives his opinion decisively, and with strong reasons,
against the famous principle of the Salic law, which forbids the
descent of the crown upon a female, or through a female line.
19th. After a night totally calm, there was again a light
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 62^
breeze this morning west by north. It was impossible to move.
The breeze continued freshening all day long, and by five in
the afternoon, the time of the new moon, had risen to a brisk
gale. It blew hard the whole evening, with some rain. My
fellow-passenger Zandelin, for fear of losing his good humor,
took to his bed and slept the greatest part of the day. There
was a vessel arrived this morning in four days from Stockholm.
I was just able to write, and did actually write several hours.
Read Sully — ^books twenty and twenty-one. The twentieth is
perhaps the most affecting of the whole work. It contains the
conversation between the King and Sully at the time when
Henry had been so beset by the artifices and calumnies of his
Minister's enemies as to have conceived strong prepossessions
against him. The scene between them, in which Sully justifies
himself and entirely recovers his favor, moved me even to
tears. The account of the Protestant assembly at Chatellerault
is of a more general nature, but not without interest. In re-
flecting upon the general tenor of these Memoirs, I cannot but
remark how large a portion of the obstacles with which states-
men have to contend proceeds from the vices and passions and
perversities of those with whom they have to co-operate. This
is perhaps the most useful lesson of the book.
20th. Blew a strong gale all night. At six this morning the
wind was at north-northeast, and Mr. 2^ndelin was in a flame
to get immediately under weigh. The captain was reluctant
and fearful, because none of the other vessels lying in the
harbor showed any signals of sailing. He was, however, at
length prevailed upon to sail, and beat out of the harbor. The
Hollander, bound to Stockholm, alone followed us. We were
scarcely under weigh when the wind started to the north, then
northwest, then west-northwest, and we were just ready to
return and anchor again, when it came with a moderate breeze
bet\yeen east and northeast, which enabled us to proceed about
noon. The other vessels that had been waiting then all followed
us out. The breeze continued moderate and steady the whole
day; the weather fine, now and, then dropping a few flakes of
snow. Reaumur's thermometer on deck, between two and three
above zero ; in the cabin, at five. We cleared the islands of
630 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Mmy,
Wulf and Nargo, at the mouth of Reval harbor, and passed,
before dark, the lights of Surepudd and Ragervik, or Baltic
Port. Just before midnight we were abreast of Odensholm, the
first light in the Gulf of Finland, which we saw on board the
Horace in 1809. Here a field of ice, stretching across the
gulf we know not how far, compelled us to change our course
and beat northward to seek a passage. I wrote a little this day,
and read Sully — books twenty-two and twenty-three : much of
Henry's private life and gossiping humors ; his acceptance of
the Duke of Bouillon's submissions, much against Sully's will,
and forcing Sully to fire the cannon upon his (the King's)
return to Paris, as if it had been in triumph; the supremely
ridiculous questions penned by Father Cotton, the Jesuit, to be
put to the devil, in exorcising a woman reputed to be possessed;
and a new memoir of Sully upon the subject of duels.
2 1 St Calms, head-winds, and ice-islands constituted the
vicissitudes of this day, during which we saw several vessels
beyond the ice, coasting to find the passage to our side, as we
were to get on theirs. About four this aflernoon we saw three
of them succeed, and effect the passage before the wind, through
an opening too narrow for us to go through by tacking. In
the evening we had sight again of the Odensholm light The
atmosphere is nearly at the temperature of frost, and it is only
by walking an hour upon deck that I can warm my fingers
enough to hold a pen for another hour. This of necessity
abridges my writing. I read Sully — books twenty-three and
twenty-four, which are less interesting than many of the others.
22d. About three o'clock this morning we passed through
one of the lines. of ice-fields, and might have proceeded in. our
course, but the wind was ahead the whole day. We stretched
over to the Finland shore, until admonished, by the sight of
rocks showing their heads above the water, to steer back
again. Our course of this day was thus bounded : north, by
the rocks in the gulf; and south, by the floating ice-fields. We
spoke with two vessels, one four days from Stockholm and
bound to Reval, the other an English vessel, from which they
told us they had met the ice as far south as sixty miles beyond
Dagerort I took my thermometer on deck to ascertain the
I8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 63 1
temperature of the atmosphere. It was one and a half degrees
of Reaumur above zero. In the cabin it is steady between four
and five. I walked three times in the day, about an hour each
time, to warm my fingers sufHciently to write, but it grows every
day more irksome. I read Sully — ^books twenty-five and twenty-
six, in which there are many details concerning the internal
government of France which I do not understand, and which are
therefore rather tedious than amusing. It is much to the honor
of Sully that he resisted all the King's efforts to aggrandize
him and his family upon condition that he and his son should
change their religion. Here is the first notice of Henry's last
passion for Mademoiselle de Montmorency, whom he married
to the Prince of Conde. The domestic quarrels with the Queen
still continue to occupy much of the narrative, and Sully com-
plains still of the King's gambling habits and prodigalities.
A remarkable circumstance is the publicity with which Henry
kept his mistresses, four of whom, it is said, had formally, and
Successively, that title. He had eight children by them, .who
were all legitimated, and for whom Henry's affeciion, as well as
for his lawful children, is one of the most amiable features in his
character.
23d. The weather continues fine ; the wind moderate, but
so nearly ahead that we cannot steer within five points of our
course, and our progress is accordingly slow; the thermometer
on deck, between one and two in the shade and at six in the sun
— in the cabin, between four and five. I saw this day no ice ; the
captain says, however, that it was to be seen at the southward.
Twice in the course of the day I saw the rocks on the coast of
Finland. They are innumerable, and many of them do not
appear above water. There is one place laid down on the
charts, and from which we are not far distant, where the com-
pass entirely fails, the needle pointing irregularly to every
quarter of the sky. This effect is supposed to proceed from
great masses of iron among the rocks under the water. I wrote
less this than any of the preceding days, the continual cold
making it almost impossible. Read Sully — books twenty-six
and twenty-seven, the latter closing with the fatal catastrophe,
the murder of the King. He was on the point of commencing
632 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
the greatest war in which he had ever been engaged — a war
for which he and Sully had been many years making every
possible preparation, but the issue of which would have been
very uncertain, and of the justice of which I am not convinced.
In the affair of the Prince and Princess of Conde, Henry was so
grossly and outrageously wrong that I feel some indignation at
Sully's attempt to throw much of the blame upon the Prince.
I see nothing in his conduct which was not justified by the
necessity of the case, and nothing in that of Henry, on this
occasion, which deserves any other sentiment than contempt
and detestation. The presentiments and prognostications of
Henry's death show very strongly the character of the age, and,
in some degree, the weakness of the man. His reluctance at the
coronation of the Queen appears to have arisen altogether from
superstition. But the act of Ravaillac had no connection with
the coronation, and would doubtless have been committed in
the same manner if that ceremony had not taken place. Ra-
vaillac was a fanatic, and had probably no accomplices.
The night \^as nearly calm. My fellow-passenger Zandelin
had exhausted his patience, and told me last evening that if the
wind continued as it was it would kill him. About five this
morning he came down from deck in an ecstasy of joy, and
said, " Sir, I do not know whether I dare to tell you. We
have the fairest wind in the world — just this moment sprung
up." I answered that he needed not to have told me, for I had
seen it in his face the moment he opened the cabin-door. This
wind continued fair the whole day, a light breeze, and scarcely a
cloud to be seen. About noon we saw the light-house on the
island of Uto, which is the entrance to go to Abo. At eight
in the evening we passed two small rocks, called Nyskaren
and Bogskaren, about sixty English miles distant from our
first harbor. In the afternoon we passed three brigs, probably
English, bound up the Gulf of Finland. The weather is still
cold — between two and three degrees in the shade, and seven in
the sun on deck. I read Sully — ^books twenty-eight, twenty-
nine, and thirty: the two first containing the mortifications and
persecutions he underwent after Henry's death, until his total
retirement from public affairs ; and the last, a full exposition
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 633
of Henry IV/s great design. He makes it plausible enough,
and probably Henry would have succeeded in his first and
main object, which was to humble and reduce the power of the
House of Austria. His European Republic, I think, would
have proved chimerical.
2Sth. About five this morning the rocks on the coast of
Sweden were first seen, and soon afterwards the two light-
houses on the rocks of Grunskar and Korsso, which are at the
entrance of the harbor. They were then distant about twenty
marine miles. At nine we had nearly come up with them, and a
pilot came on board, who took the vessel into Sandhamn, the first
harbor, formed by the island of Sandoe, where there is a custom-
house and ten or twelve pilot's huts. We got in there about
ten, and while the custom-house officers came on board, instead
of coming to anchor, the vessel was fastened by a small cable
carried to the shore. The captain and Mr. Zandelin went on
shore with the papers of the vessel and cargo. The officers of
the customs came on board, and visited the vessel, but not my
baggage, nor did they ask for any passport. It was half-past
twelve, at noon, when we got under sail again, and just as we
parted from the rock one of the vessels which sailed from
Reval with us came to it. We had a second pilot, who took
us up to Stockholm. The passage is of about forty iharine
miles, very narrow, ahd winding between a multitude, almost
numberless, of rocks, many of them bare, and others covered
with firs and other evergreens. About fifteen marine miles
below Stockholm is the ancient castle of Friedrichsberg, of
which no use is now made ; and the modern one of Waxholm,
where there is a guard stationed, and where the ship's papers
and my passports were sent on shore to be inspected. Just
before coming to this castle, at a place where the channel winds
between the rocks, the passage, made by nature very narrow,
has been still more straitened by two old ships of the line,
sunk purposely to obstruct it. This, Mr. Zandelin told me,
was done about three years ago, when they were at war with
England, from the fear of a visit to Stockholm by a British fleet.
It has made the place all but impassable. We anchored about
seven in the evening in the harbor. of Stockholm; and I very
634 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
soon afterwards came on shore. I took a lodging at the Eng-
lish tavern, kept by Mrs. Johnson, and found there an American,
a Captain Fairfield, with whom I went immediately to Mr.
Speyer's lodgings ; not finding him at home, I went to those of
Mr. Russell,' whom I found with Mr. Lawrence, his Secretary
of Legation, and Mr. Russell's son, a boy of about twelve
years of age. I sat with them until eleven o'clock, and received
from him information of many circumstances, and much Ameri-
can news — the most important of which was the appointment
of Mr. Gallatin as a member of the mission to Gottenburg.
He showed me letters from Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard, who
are yet in England, urging a removal of the seat of the ne-
gotiation from Gottenburg to Holland or England, with Mr.
Clay's answer, consenting conditionally to go to Holland. The
reply of Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard is expected by the next
post. Mr. Russell lent me a file of American newspapers,
which I took to my lodgings, and which engaged me until
between one and two in the morning.
26th. Stockholm. — I breakfasted and dined with Mr. Rus-
sell, and took lodgings in the same house where he lodges.
From breakfast-time I spent two or three hours in conversation
with him upon the affairs and prospects of our mission, and in
reading over the letters and instructions he communicated to
me. They convinced me beyond every doubt that this mission
will be as fruitless as the last, and led me strongly to doubt
whether I ought to consent to go to Holland. While I was
with Mr. Russell, Mr. Speyer called upon him. I went with
Mr. Speyer to his lodgings, where he gave me lettera from my
wife and from Charles of 8th May. At two o'clock, afternoon,
I went with Mr. Russell to visit Count Engestrom, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, at his office, which is in the Royal Palace ;
he was not there, but we called again at six in the afternoon,
and found him. He received mc very politely, and recollected
our former acquaintance at Berlin. We afterwards called upon
the Russian Minister, Baron Strogonoff, who invited me to
dine with him on Sunday. It was so late in the evening, and
■ Jonathan Russell, at this time Minister of the United States in Sweden, and
appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate a treaty of peace.
I8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 535
the weather bad with rain, that I concluded not to remove from
my lodgings until to-morrow morning. My carriage was this
day brought ashore.
27th. This morning, before breakfast, I removed my lodgings
to the house in which Mr. Russell resides. Immediately after
breakfast Mr. Speyer came in with eight large packets for me,
brought from St. Petersburg by young Mr. Peyron, who came with
.a courier's passport obtained for him by Mr. Smith. Peyron left
St. .Petersburg the 17th, the day after I first sailed from Reval,
and has come in two days from Abo. In the packets there
were upwards of thirty letters and dispatches, the reading of
which employed me more than four hours. After dinner I
called and delivered my letters to Messrs. Tottie and Arfuedsen
and to Mr. Schon, both of whom received me in their counting-
houses. I had letters to Tottie and Arfuedsen when I was at
Stockholm in the year 1782, but neither they nor I recollected
one another personally. Arfuedsen the father is an old gen-
tleman of eighty, and wears a large green riband, it being the
custom in Sweden to admit distinguished merchants to certain
orders of knighthood. The son gave me a letter from Meyer
and Bruxner, enclosing two from my mother, which they
received at St. Petersburg the day after my departure. It was
from Meyer and Bruxner that I had the letter of introduction
and of credit to Tottie and Arfuedsen. That to Mr. Schon was
from Mr. Krehmer. I had also a packet to be left at Mr. Schon's,
which had been given me by young Peyron, to whom I delivered
it again; for I found him at Mr. Schon's. I spent the evening
at my new lodgings alone, reflecting on the subjects of the many
letters I received this morning ; not without much perplexity
of mind and doubt whether I ought not, instead of proceeding
any further, immediately to return to St Petersburg.
28th. I called this morning to see Mr. Speyer^ but he was
not at home ; I left at his lodgings the packet which had been
intrusted to me by Baron Klinkowstrom. Walked round the
city, and observed the statues of Gustavus Vasa, Gustavqs
Adolphus, and Gustavus III., the column erected by the last
King in honor of the citizens of Stockholm, and the church on
the hill adjoining the palace. All the rest of the day I passed
636 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [May,
at my lodgings, writing, deciphering a dispatch from the Secre-
tary of State, and in conversation with Mr. Russell relative to
our joint mission.
29th. Began again the reading of the Bible. I was then em-
ployed all the remainder of the morning in writing, copying,
and ciphering a letter to the Secretary of State. About an hour
before dinner I walked out and crossed the river, to a part of
the city which I had not visited before. It is Whitsunday, and
a distinguished holy-day here, as well as in Russia. I went into
one of the churches, where I saw a clergyman officiating in
Swedish. On , coming out of the church, there was a grave-
stone among those in the yard, a small cylindrical pillar, which
attracted my notice. I went and looked at the inscription, and
found it was the monument of Olof von Asp, one of my oldest
Swedish friends and acquaintance, whom I had known in 1784
and '5 as the Secretary of the Swedish Embassy at Paris, and
in 1797 as the Swedish Minister in London. There it was that
I last saw him, and dined with him. I scarcely recollect having
heard of him since. The epitaph on his monument says that
he died in the year 1808.
I dined at the Russian Minister Baron StrogonofTs. A
diplomatic dinner, but not more than eighteen persons at table
— ^among them Count Engestrom, Count Morner, the Governor
of Stockholm, Admiral Stedingk, the Field Marshal's brother,
the Grand Master of the Ceremonies, Von Hausvulf, the Spanish,
Austrian, and Prussian Charges d* Affaires, Moreno, Weiss, and
Tarrach, Baron Strogonoflf's Secretary of Legation, named
BloudofT, Mr. Russell, and Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Weiss told me
that Count St. Julien, formerly the Austrian Minister at St.
Petersburg, was dead. After we came home Mr. Speyer called
on Mr. Russell, and we spent the evening, until nine, in con-
versation together. I had called this morning on Mr. Speyer,
to make some arrangements for my departure. Mr. Russell
had intended to go with me, but has now concluded to stay
here some time longer.
30th. The second holy-day of Pentecost, or Whitmonday,
which is kept here with much solemnity, though it be a
Protestant country. I walked round the city an hour before
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 637
dinner, and again an hour in the evening ; went into one of the
public gardens, where I found a band of music and a great
crowd of people, all of the lower classes. Crossed also one of
the bridges, of which there arie many, Stockholm being built
upon several islands, or rather upon a number of the rocks
which form the whole coast and extend down to Sandhamn.
The remainder of the day I was constantly engaged in writing
and copying.
3 1 St. Rain all the morning. Mr. Russell received, and showed
me, a letter from Mr. Clay, which brought me to the determina-
tion to wait no longer than the day after to-morrow for my
departure. I was again employed in writing and copying the
whole day, with the exception of the time spent in my walks
before dinner and in the evening. Mr. Speyer has lent me his
copying-press; but it differs so much from mine that I have
not been able to obtain from it a good copy of one paper.
Day, My rising hour, and that of retiring at night, has been
generally the same this month as it had been before; my
employments also are in a great measure the same. But I
passed half the month at Reval, the next ten days on board of
the Ulysses, and the remainder here at Stockholm. My dining
hour has varied from noon to three hours after. Here I have
lived with Mr. Russell, his son, and Mr. Lawrence, his secre-
tary. I have spent two or three hours every day with them,
and the rest of the time in reading and answering the letters I
have received, and copying my own papers. A more regular
day is not to be expected of a traveller.
June 1st. Having determined to take my departure for
Gottenburg to-morrow, I called on Mr. Speyer this morning to
make my arrangements for that purpose. I gave him fifty
Dutch ducats, which he undertook to exchange for Swedish
money. I took them with me as the money in most general
circulation throughout the North of Europe, but I find there
will be some loss upon the exchange of them here. I am
obliged to hire a driver for my carriage, the peasants who fur-
nish post-horses being able to drive no other carriages than
their little wagons. I must also send on a messenger, a day
beforchandi to order my horses at the several stages. I deter-
638 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
mined to send on my servant, Axel, as the forebudd to order
my horses, and I engaged another nian, named Ericson, to
drive my carriage. Mr. Speyer recommended me to go from
here about six o'clock in the evening, for the convenience of
obtaining horses with more certainty. He made out three lists
of the stages, which I signed and sealed — the first from hence
to Orebro, which I gave to Axel to take on with him. At
Orebro he is to wait for my arrival, and then immediately to
'proceed with the second list, about half-way to Gottenburg.
There he is to wait for me again, and then go on the third
day's journey, which is to bring me, by this calculation, to
Gottenburg. The hours at which he is to order the horses are
all marked down on the first list; but I kept the two others, to
ascertain by experience how I shall get along by this mode of
travelling with my carriage. Axel went from hence between
eleven and twelve o'clock this evening. I went with Mr. Speyer
to a bookseller's shop and purchased a post map of Sweden.
The English mail of 13th May arrived this day. Mr. Russell
had a letter from Mr. Beasley of that date, informing him that
the British Governnxent had appointed three Commissioners to
meet those of the United States — Admiral Lord Gambier, Mr.
Adams, a lawyer, and Mr. Goulburn, a Secretary in the Colonial
Department ; that the British Government would probably pro-
pose in form the removal of the seat of negotiations from Got-
tenburg to Holland, and that it was to be decided the day after
he wrote. I made, however, a draft of a letter to Lord Castle-
reagh, notifying our appointment, and our readiness to meet the
British Commissioners at Gottenburg; which Mr. Russell, afler
making some alteration in it, signed, and which I am to take on
to Gottenburg to be forwarded, if the removal to Holland has
not been finally agreed upon.
I went with Mr. Russell, his son, and Mr. Lawrence to the
Arsenal, and saw the collection of curiosities deposited there.
Complete sets of steel armor for knights, worn by the Kings of
Sweden from the time of the Statthalter Birger Jarl, in the thir-
teenth century, to the Carrousel armors of the two last Kings.
Trophies taken in war, from the time of Gustavus Vasa down
to the present Crown Prince, inclusively; for there are some
I8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE, 639
Danish standards taken in Holstein last December. One of
them, the man who shows the ' things told us, the King had
sent for last week, to have at the palace at the reception of the
Crown Prince, who has arrived at Carlskrona and is expected
at Stockholm the day after to-morrow. There is nothing at
this place of much curiosity but the clothes of Charles the
Twelfth which he wore when he was killed — hat, gloves, coat,
waistcoat, breeches, shirt, stockings, upper and under boots, and
sword. The stain of blood is yet on the gloves and sword-hilt.
There is also a large staff, upon which, it was said, he was lean-
ing when he was killed. The hole made by the bullet through
«
the hat is so precisely at the spot which must have covered the
temples, as certainly to countenance the suspicion that he was
assassinated. All the remainder of the day I was very busily
engaged in writing and preparing for my departure.
2d. The first part of the day, and until dinner-time, I was
engaged in writing to St. Petersburg, and finishing the neces-
sary preparations for my departure. My horses had been
ordered at five in the afternoon, that I might get away by six.
It was about a quarter of an hour later when I actually took
leave of Mr. Russell and his son, Mr. Lawrence, and Mr. Speyer,
and started from the door of my lodgings. There had been
rain part of the afternoon, and a prospect of foul weather, but
it cleared away before I was without the bounds of the city, and
the evening was fine. The road at the first three stages fromi
Stockholm, though generally good, was hilly, and the peasants
complained that the carriage was too heavy for four horses. I
had already added a quarter of an hour to Mr. Speyer's al-
lowance for every stage between Stockholm and Orebro. At
Gran, the third post-house, I was already two hours in arrear
of my time. I was to have arrived there at midnight, but really
reached the place only at two in the morning.
3d. As I alighted from my carriage at Gran, I was accosted
by Mr. Connell, who was going from Gottenburg to Stockholm
as a special messenger from Mr. Clay to Mr. Russell and me.
He gave me, together with the letter from Mr. Clay, more than
thirty letters and dispatches, most of which had been forwarded
by Mr. Clay. His letter was to enclose copies of a correspond-
640 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, [June,
«
ence between Messrs. Gallatin and Bayard and Lord Bathurst,
by which, on a proposition from him, assented to by them, the
place of the proposed negotiation is transferred from Gotten-
burg to Ghent, in Flanders. Mr. Clay's letter was dated 31st
May, and mentioned his determination to proceed, as yester-
day, by land. The John Adams, he observed, was ready to
receive us on board, and to sail, if we should choose to go on
by water, After a few minutes of deliberation what was most
advisable on this occasion for me to do, I determined to con-
tinue my journey to Gottenburg. I sealed up again the letter
from Mr. Clay with its enclosures, retaining the duplicates of
the full powers to treat, which he had also transmitted. I
had neither time nor materials for writing to Mr. Russell, and
verbally requested Mr. Connell to say to him that I hoped he
would use the utmost possible dispatch to join me at Gotten-
burg, or to give me notice if he should conclude to go on by
land. I was detained at Gran exactly one hour, and left it at
three in the morning, taking with me all the rest of the dis-
patches and letters delivered to me by Mr. Connell. I was now
three hours in arrear of my time, and continued so the remainder
of the day. I travelled two whole stages, to Lislena and Enko-
ping, while reading my letters and dispatches. I stopped another
hour to breakfast, at Wasteras, and arrived at Orebro at eleven
in the evening. From Gran, I had at every stage one or two
hours of waiting-money to pay to the peasants who furnished
the horses. The ordinances require them to wait four hours
from the time when the horses are ordered. For the first hour
they are allowed nothing, but for the three succeeding hours
they are entitled to eight schillings banco for each horse by the
hour. The fare is from the country post-houses twelve schil-
lings banco per horse and Swedish mile, from the city post-
houses sixteen schillings, and from Stockholm thirty-two. A
Swedish mile is six and a half English miles. Each peasant
furnishes two horses, and goes with them himself There is at
each post-house a peasant called the Hollkarl, whose duty it is
to go for the horses, and it usually takes about two hours after
they are ordered to procure them. Immediately after arriving
at Orebro, I sent on my servant, Axel, with the marche-route,
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. g^i
or list of Stages, for to-morrow, until Kallangen, where I calcu-
late upon arriving at eleven to-morrow evening.
4th. Started from Orebro at five of the morning, and arrived
at Mosas, the first stage, at six. The horses had been ordered
there at that hour, but they were not ready, and I waited half
an hour before they came. Just as they arrived, the village
clock struck six, and the postmaster appealed to his clock for
proof of his punctuality. The succeeding three stages I rode
exactly according to my calculation. But at Bodame, where I
arrived between noon and one o'clock, they assured me that
the road of that stage was so mountainous and heavy with
sand that four horses could not draw my carriage. They had,
however, no more than four in readiness for me, and with them
I was obliged to depart. The horses themselves were unusually
bad ; and, after proceeding with them about half a Swedish mile,
which took me more than an hour^ I found it absolutely impos-
sible to get along with them, and was obliged to send back to
the post-house for two more horses. This detained me an hour
and a half longer, and even with the six horses it was three full
hours more before I reached the stage at Hofva. Thus I was
again three hours in arrear of my time. At Hasleror, the next
stage, they detained me two hours for horses, and obliged me
to pay for the detention occasioned by themselves. Their clocks
now were half an hour in advance of the real time, as they had
been half an hour behind it this morning. I was obliged here
again to take six horses, and to pay for three hours' detention
of the horses, the remainder of the road to Kallangen.
5th. I rode again the whole night, and just before seven
o'clock this morning arrived at Kallangen, which I had ex-
pected to reach at eleven last night. My driver, Niels Ericson,
was so exhausted with fatigue that the whole night through
he had been continually dropping asleep upon his seat. I
stopped about two hours at Kallangen to breakfast, and sent
forward Axel, to bespeak the horses at Marslaby. I had still
fourteen Swedish miles to Gottenburg, and it was now impos-
sible for me to arrive there this evening. As I was riding the
stage to Marslaby, I found, by consulting the post-book, that
by adding only two Swedish miles to my journey I could come
VOL. II.— 41
6^2 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
this evening to Trolhattan, visit the curiosities of the place to-
morrow morning, have a night's repose for myself, and, what
was still more necessary, for my driver, and yet reach Gotten-
burg to-morrow evening. I therefore changed my road from
Marslaby, and about ten this evening arrived at Trolhattan.
6th. There was a company of ladies and gentlemen here from
Gottenburg, who had come to see the waterfalls and canal, and
who had engaged the man who usually shows them to strangers.
His name is Strombom. We all went out in company together
at five of the morning. We first saw the canal cut through and
blown out of the solid rock, about two English miles long,
twenty-two feet wide, and eight feet deep. There are eight
locks, forming a descent of one hundred and fifty feet We saw
several vessels coming from I^ke Wener descend through three
or four of these locks. Strombom told us that if the canal had
been thirty-six feet wide vessels of a size suitable for navigating
the ocean might have descended by it; bu^ that it was nar-
rowed to twenty-two feet by the influence of the Gottenburg
merchants, for the purpose of securing their own monopoly.
On visiting the waterfalls, I immediately recognized them as
the same that I had seen in January, 1783. The canal and locks
had not then been commenced, but were in contemplation;
they were completed in the year 1800. About nine o'clock I
returned to the inn, and, having breakfasted, proceeded upon
my journey. From Fors to Karra, and from Lahall, the last
stage, to Gottenburg, I took six horses. At both these places
I overtook Axel, whom I had sent forward this morning to
bespeak the horses, and I waited for them nearly an hour at
every stage. Wherever I had six horses, there were three
peasants came with me to take them back. One of them, at
one of the stages, was a woman, and it is a very common
thing at the post-houses in Sweden. The women also row the
boats upon the rivers, and in general perform almost every kind
of labor which in other countries exclusively belongs to the
male sex. The road from Trolhattan to Gottenburg is along
the banks of the river called the Gotha-elf, and over a pleasant,
though a hilly and rocky country. On the stage between
Fors and Karra I met Count Rosen, the Governor of Gotten-
I8i4.] THE NBGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 64.3
burg, who was going to Wenersborg. I arrived at Gottenburg
between ten and eleven in the evening, and took lodgings at
Segerlind's Inn. About half an hour after I arrived came a
soldier, and required me to go with him. He took me to a
guard-house where there were a lieutenant and two subalterns,
only one of whom spoke a very little bad French. He told
me I must go with him to the commandant to be examined.
The commandant was in bed, but told the lieutenant to take
my passport and bring it to him to-morrow morning; upon
-which the lieutenant turned to me and said, " Vous avez per-
mission d'aller a votre quartier." It was about midnight when
I returned to my lodgings.
7th. Mr. Connell arrived this evening from Stockholm, and
brought me a letter from Mr. Russell. His intention, he says,
is to leave Stockholm' this day; and he expects to reach Gotten-
burg next Friday.
loth. Mr. Russell arrived this afternoon with his son from
Stockholm, and we determined to embark on board the corvette
John Adams with the first fair wind.
nth. Captain Angus came up this morning from the ship,
and informed us that the wind was fair and he was ready to
:sail. Mr. Russell and myself concluded to go on board this
day. I was obliged to take an additional trunk, which Mr.
Hall furnished me, to carry the packets of public documents
from the Department of State, received here, and four-fifths of
which I have not yet had even time to open. I wrote to my
wife by this day's post, and, with Mr. Russell, paid a visit in
person to the Governor, Count Rosen. He received us with
much politeness, and gave us an invitation to dine with him,
from which we excused ourselves, being too much engaged in
the preparations for our departure. We requested of him pass-
ports, which he sent us, to land either in Holland or in the
Netherlands. About six this afternoon we came in the ship's
boat on board the United States corvette John Adams, Samuel
Angus commander. She was lying about three marine miles
in the harbor below the town. When we 'came on board,
Ave were received with the marines under arms, and a salute
of thirteen guns was fired. I sent my carriage on board by
6^ MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Qmic^
a Swedish tender. Mr. Hall came on board with us, and
we found Mr. Strong here ; also Captain Barron of our navy,
who arrived this morning from Copenhagen with the wish to
embark in the ship for the United States. He asked my
opinion whether he could take a passs^e in her without a
departure from the neutrality of a cartel. I thought he could
not, and had expressed the same opinion in relation to fifty or
sixty American seamen who are here waiting for an oppor-
tunity of returning to America. Mr. Russell being of the
same opinion, none of them were admitted. Mr. Connell, a
Mr. Pease, and a Mr. Lee, non-combatants, obtained a passage.
Mr. Wyer was desirous of going to Ghent, but Mr. Russell
objected to taking him. He asked me if I should have any
objection against his coming there in any other way. I said,
none, provided he should go without any f)roject of commercial
speculation ; but that I* could not imagine he could have any
other motive for going there. He finally promised me that he
would not go, but proceed directly to his destination in Russia.
Captain Barron, Mr. Strong, and Mr. Hall left us to return on
shore about ten tliis evening, immediately after Mr. Connell
came on board. My servant. Axel, whom I now dismissed,
returned on shore with them. Captain Angus concluded to
weigh anchor at three o'clock to-morrow morning.
1 2th. About four this morning we sailed from the anchoring-
place in the harbor of Gottenburg with a bit but very light breeze
and fine weather. We passed Wingo Castle in two or three
hours, and soon after were entirely out of the harbor and on the
Skagerrack. The Skaw light-house was in sight this afternoon,
but in the interval our breeze had died away to a calm, and was
succeeded by another so scanty that we were obliged to make a
tack of four or five hours to clear the Skaw Point We had land
in sight the whole day. I wrote part of a letter, but suffered my
journal still to run in arrear. The weather was so fine, and the
temptations to conversation so many, that I made not all the
improvement of my time that I should have done.
13th. The wind last night and the whole of this day was &ir,
but so small that our progress was slow ; we came down the
sleeve, between Norway and Jutland — all the way down in sight
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. g^j
•of the Jutland coast. This evening we had entered on the
North Sea, and about midnight the wind came round, almost
directly ahead. The weather has continued fine, and we have
scarcely felt more motion than if we were on shore.
I began the examination of the documents received from the
Department of State; and also to retrieve the arrears of my
journal. In February, March, and April, 1778, I crossed the
Atlantic in an American frigate. From that time until now
I have never again been in the same situation, except in the
spring of 1779, when I was for some weeks on board the
Alliance. I now find the recurrence of many incidents which
revive recollections that have been during that long interval
buried in oblivion. The John Adams, though a corvette, or
sloop-of-war, is nearly of the same size as was the Boston
frigate. She carried twenty-two guns, but is now only half
armed, having but twelve forty-two-pound carronades.
17th. We were beating to windward from seven o'clock last
evening until four this morning, when we tacked again, with a
breeze which carried us between nine and ten knots an hour
upon a wind. About eight this morning, the land again ap-
peared, and this time it was the Texel. A gon was fired for a
pilot, and at ten there were two on board the ship. We were
obliged to lay to, and wait for the high tide, about four hours.
On the bar, at the entrance of the roads, we had only three and
a quarter fathoms of water, and the ship draws eighteen feet.
The captain thought her keel struck the ground as we passed.
We anchored in one fathom of water, at three in the afternoon.
A clerk of Mr. Hoogland, the American Consular Agent at the
Helder, immediately came on board, and offered his services.
Mr. Connell was going on shore with him, to enquire concern-
ing the best method of going to Amsterdam, when he was met
by an officer from the Helder, whq obliged him to return to the
ship, and came on board himself. He told us that we could not
land and proceed to Amsterdam until he should have written
to the Minister of Marine and received his answer, which would
take four days. We pleaded our office, public character, and
business. He finally concluded to refer the matter to his supe-
rior, the Brigadier commanding the fleet in the New Diep. Mr.
6^6 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
Connell and Lieutenant Cooper went with him on board the
Brigadier's yacht, and returned in less than half an hour. He
then came with apologies and excuses, and an order from the
Brigadier to give every assistance and show every due distinc-
tion to the ship, and that the Ministers should land when they
pleased, and proceed by land or by water, as was most agreeable
to themselves. We immediately went on shore at the Helder,
and called on Mr. Hoc^land, who advised us to go by land.
He said that unless we should be particularly favored by the
wind, the passage by water might take us two or three days.
Mr. Russell engaged carriages and hors^ for himself and his
son, and for his baggage, and part of mine, and I bespoke six
horses for my carriage — they were to be all at five o'clock to-
morrow morning on the beach, and I ordered a lighter to come
to the ship and take my carriage on shore at four o'clock. As
we left the ship to land, Captain Angus ordered a salute to be
fired, intending to salute the commanding Admiral and the
fort to-morrow morning. He sent Lieutenant Cooper with us,
to see the Admiral (or Brigadier) and arrange with him the
salute for the morning. He took, as I had told Captain Angus
I thought he Would, the salute meant for us as intended for
him, and returned it gun for gun, from the fort at the Helder.^
He apologized for not returning it from the ships, as they were
not manned. About eight this evening, we returned for the
night to the ship.
1 8th. It blew almost a gale the whole night, and this morn-
ing the wind was so fair for going to Amsterdam, that we
might have made the passage in seven or eight hours. We
persevered, however, in the determination of going by land, and
between four and five in the morning we disembarked from the
ship, in the lighter which had come for my carriage. The
carriages and horses were waiting for us on the beach, with a
blacksmith and coachmaker, to suspend my carriage. They
were more than three hours about the work. Mr. Russell
therefore started about two hours before me, and waited for me
at the first stage, where we break&sted. The remainder of the
day we were on the road to Buchsluyten, opposite to Amsterdam.
Here we crossed the Zuider-Zee to the city, and at eight in the
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 647
evening I took my lodgings at the Arms of Amsterdam, the
same house where I have always lodged oh my visits to this
city, from the year 1780 until now. Mr. Russell had arrived
about half an hour before me, and on going to his chamber I
found Mr. Bourne, the Consul, with him. Captain Bates and a
Mr. Richards, of Boston, soon afterwards came in, and we sat
in conversation about two hours, when, finding myself much
fatigued, I retired to my chamber and bed.
The road through North Holland from the Helder was new
to me, never having travelled it before. But the face of the
country resembles so much what I had so often seen throughout
the Province of Holland, that it seemed as if I was at home. It
is the season of the year when it appears to the greatest ad-
vantage. The meadows are clothed in their most beautiful
verdure, and are covered with sheep and cattle. The canals
are lively with the constant passage to and fro of the treck-
schuyts and .other boats, and the cleanliness of the houses and
villages on the road is such as I had always seen in this
country. At the Helder there appears to be some encroach-
ment upon the immemorial usages of the land, particularly in
the apparel of the women ; but at Purmerend and Schermer-^
horn, and the other villages on the road, the dress is as it
always was. The distance from the Helder is about fifty English
miles. We had some expectation of finding Mr. Clay here, but
he has not yet arrived.
20th. Mr. Russell having concluded to leave his son at school
here, and to take a seat with me in the carriage, to go to Ghent,
I determined to send round a part of my baggage by water.
Mr. Bourne had recommended to me a man as a servant, but I
found he could not write or keep accounts, and therefore that
he would not suit me I packed up and sent ofT two trunks
with my mattress, to go to Antwerp, and from thence to Ghent.
Mr. Bourne called upon me at one, and we went to see the
palace, which was formerly called the Stad-house. It has been
travestied to make a palace, and was the residence of Louis
Bonaparte when he was King of Holland. The apartments on
the lower floor are now appropriated for the Sovereign Prince
of the Netherlands and his family. On the upper floor there
648 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, (Juiic.
is a gallery of pictures, almost entirely of the Dutch school,
and many of which are excellent paintings. After dining at the
table-d'hote, I walked out with Captain Ang^s and Mr. Connell
to the great dyke opposed to the Zuider-Zee, and upon it, until
we came to the sea itself. We returned through the Muyden
gate and the Plantagie walk. Mr. Schimmelpenninck, the prin-
cipal remaining member of the house of Van Staphorst, and
brother of the late Senator, called upon me. He told me his
brother was in this city, and I promised to call and see him to-
morrow morning. Nicholas and Jacob and Rolof van Staphorst
are all dead.
2 1 St I engaged a servant this morning, and, having now no
room to take him with me, sent him by the water stage and
diligence to meet me at Ghent. We had intended to leave
the city this day, but, at Mr. Russell's desire, I agreed to post-
pone our departure until to-morrow morning. I bespoke four
horses for Rotterdam, to be, at five in the morning, with the
carriage, at our door. At eleven I called upon the Messrs.
Willink, Junrs. — William and John — ^at their counting-house.
They showed me a letter from Messrs. Baring, of London,
dated last Friday, mentioning that Mr. Gallatin was still there,
and that they knew not when he was to leave that city. I
afterwards paid a visit, and had an hour's conversation with Mr.
Schtmmelpenninck, late a Count and Senator of the French Em-
pire— before that. Grand Pensionary of Holland — whom I had
first known in 1794, as a lawyer of high reputation at Amster-
dam, and afterwards as member and President of the Batavian
National Convention. He has now been some years blind;
but, after all the vicissitudes through which he has passed, he
appears to retain his cheerfulness and his spirits. His wife is
with him, and has the same pleasing and attractive manners
which she had when twenty years younger. He resigned his
seat in the French Senate before the late changes which ex-
cluded the other members, his countrymen. He conversed
with as much freedom upon the late events in France as in his
peculiar situation could be expected. He expressed some
satis&ction at the restoration of his country's independence,
and spoke disadvantageously, and somewhat contemptuously.
'i
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. g^g
of Bonaparte. In the evening I went to the French theatre,
and saw "Les deux Journees," an opera, music of Cherubini,
and "Ambroise, ou Voila ma Joumee," music of D'Alayrac.
There is rather too much, resemblance between the plot and
characters of the two plays ; but difference enough in the music.
The company of performers is pretty good. I met Mr. John
Willink, Junr., there. Between the acts they played two or
three times a national Dutch air, and God save the King.
Mr. Clay arrived this, afternoon from Hamburg; but he
lodged at the Doelen, and it was so late before I returned from
the theatre that I did not see him. I had visits from Captain
Bates and from Mr. Eves, the latter of whom told me that the
Government of the United States had sent out to Spain last
November a Mr. Anthony Morris, of Philadelphia,' as Minister,
but without a formal character. He appeared surprised that I
had not been informed of this, and I was myself surprised that
nothing about it had been said to me by Mr. Russell. I asked
him afterwards, and he said he was not at liberty to say what
he knew about it
22d. I had packed up the principal part of my baggage last
night, but found still employment enough until the carriage
came to the door, which was punctually at five. We had then
another hour of preparation, and left the house precisely. at six.
We ^changed horses only once to Rotterdam — at Schouwen.
We passed through Haerlem and the Hague without stopping.
The road from Haerlem to the Hague is much improved since
I was last here, in 1797. I should have wished to stop a day
or two at the Hague, but the first and most urgent duty was to
repair as speedily as possible to the place of oui' destination.
I can scarcely account to myself for the sensations which I
felt on approaching the Hague, where I resided at several of
the most interesting periods of my life. I saw it first at the age
of thirteen years, in July, 1780, when I came from Paris to
Holland with my father and my brother Charles. In 1783, on
my first return from Russia, I lived with the family of C. W. F.
Dumas from April to the last of July; in 1784, from January
to May, and again, June and July. It was the precise time of
my change from boy to man, and has left indelible impressions
gjO MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [Jone,
upon my memory. From November, 1794, to October, 1795,
and from June, 1796, to June, 1797, I dwelt at the Hague on
my first public mission from the United States, and at that time
commenced the regular diary which I have continued without
interruption to this day. It was here that the social passion
first disclosed itself with all its impetuosity in my breast. It
was here that, ten years later, I made my entrance on the
political theatre as a public man. It was not in my command
of language to express what I felt on passing through the yard
of the house in the wood, and thence through the town along
the road between the canal and Ryswick to Delft. It was a
confusion of recollections so various, so tender, so melancholy,
so delicious, so painful, a mixture so heterogeneous, and yet
altogether so sweet, that, if I had been alone, I am sure I should
have melted into tears.
At four in the afternoon we came to the gate of Rotterdam,
and, without entering the city, dined there, and took fresh
horses for Zwyndrccht. We crossed the Maes first about three
English miles below Rotterdam, and again from Zwyndrecht
to Dortrecht. At Zwyndrecht we changed horses again to
Prinsen Polder, and then, having a favorable wind and tide,
made the water passage, of about five English miles, to Lage
Zwaluwe. From Rotterdam this road was entirely new to me.
I had been twice between that place and Antwerp, but both
times by the passage of the Moerdyke. jit was about eleven at
night when we landed at Lage Zwaluwe.
23d. We had ordered our horses at five this morning, and I
had agreed with Mr. Russell that we should start at six. We
did so, and proceeded, by way of Breda, to Antwerp. The
arrangement of the posts here, and the moneys yet circulating,
are those of France ; but the country is in a state of interreg-
num— severed from France, and uncertain to whom it is to
belong. Austria, France, Holland, and even England, all have
pretensions, and the great anxiety of the people is to know who
is to be their master. We arrived at Antwerp at three in the
afternoon, and, upon enquiry at the post-house, were told that
the tide being low we could not cross the river with a carriage
till to-morrow morning. We took lodgings for the night at
y
I8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. gji
the Hotel of the Grand Laboureur. I went and deh'vered a
letter of introduction and credit, which Mr. Willink had fur-
nished me, to a Mr. Dutart. He made me offers of service, and
excuses for not inviting me to his house, because he had four-
teen English soldiers quartered upon him. There is a small
English garrison of three or four thousand men now here, and
more expected. Mr. Dutari has just returned from Paris. He
thinks that this country will belong to England, and will pay
off" part of the Austrian debt to purchase it He says that the
allies parted at Paris in very ill humor with one another, and all
of them excessively dissatisfied with Austria ; that Austria is
how levying new troops, and that he thinks the Congress at
Vienna will not end well ; that they are daily expecting here
the arrival of English Comniissaries to take possession of one-
third of the ships of the fleet and one-half of the materials of
those upon the stocks; that the English are sending troops
and taking possession of all the sea-ports on the coast ; and that
the Hollanders will certainly be disappointed in their expecta-
tions of having this country annexed to them. In the evening
we went to the theatre. Saw " Les deux Ages," an opera
comique; "Arlequin apprentif Magicien,'' a pantomime; and
rope-dancing, by Madame Sacchi. The plays were both very
indifferent, and not well performed ; but the rope-dancing was
superior to anything I had ever seen of that kind. But it was
more painful than pleasing — ^a continual effort to do more than
they could accomplish, frequent failures, several falls, and more
than once with imminent danger of broken bones. The house
was crowded, and half filled with English officers. We sat in
the stage-box, with a family of French ladies and children
before us. A gentleman accosted me, to remark that he sup-
posed I was the father of those children. I answered him that
I was a stranger. He said that he was himself the father of
three children ; that he had married Mademoiselle Storch, the
most beautiful young lady of Antwerp, and that she was eighteen
years old when they were married. He soon aflerwards ad-
dressed the ladies, and asked the mother who she was. The
husband, who aflerwards came in, amused himself with the
appearance of the English officers in the opposite boxes — their
652 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. (June,
round faces, their portly bellies. He said it was a pleasant
thing to see such wholesome, full-fed bodies ; that they prided
.themselves upon it ; that the English thought it an excellent
joke to laugh at the lanthorn jaws and spindle shanks of the
Frenchmen. " And truly," said he, " they take special good
care of their bodies. On voit que la partie animate est bien
soignee." The house was very warm, and I was so much
fatigued as to be thoroughly weary before the play finished.
24th. Saint John's day, and the day of our arrival at Ghent.
We came down to the ferry about nine in the morning, and
were obliged to wait there an hour and a half before we could
cross it. We saw several ships of the line on the river, with
the white flag, and thirteen large ships on the stocks — eight of
the line, and five frigates, all of which are to be demolished
and half the materials to be delivered up to the English. At
the '' Tete de Flandre," where we landed, there was a dispute
between the postmaster and some collecting officers, new-
comers, which of them should not receive our money for the
turnpikes. The postmaster was at last obliged to receive it
We came through St Nicholas and Lokeren to Ghent, where
we arrived at four in the afternoon, and took lodgings at the
Hotel des Pays-Bas, on the Place d'Armes, the best public
housd in the city. I dined in my chamber alone, Mr. Russell
having been the whole day quite unwell. Towards evening I
took a walk round the city, and wrote part of a letter. At an
early hour I retired for the night The distance from Antwerp
here is six and a half posts — ^about thirty English miles; the
road a perfect level, and well paved ; the country a continual
garden. The fields of wheat, rye, barley, and flax on both
sides of the road left scarcely an interval between them. They
appear now in^their fullest beauty, some of them almost ready
for the harvest, the others less advanced, but all waving above
the ground and in their fairest verdure. The road is bordered
on both sides with large and shady trees — elms, lime-trees,
and poplars, with a younger growth of oaks planted between
the old trees, and too near them to flourish. From their size,
they must have been planted shortly after this country came
into the possession of France. We saw likewise one or two
I8l4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 653
nurseries of young oaks. But in general these trees, although
they appeared to have been much cherished, had not a healthy
aspect. The soil does not seem to be favorable to their growth.
When we alighted at the house, the landlady enquired if it was
Mr. Bayard ; Colonel Milligan had been here the day before
yesterday, and, after engaging apartments for him, had gone
upon a tour to Lille, from which he had not returned. One of
the singularities which we met with in this country, and which
as much as anything indicates its condition, is the multitude
and diversity of the coins in circulation. The French weights,
measures, and coins have been established by law and provi-
sionally confirmed by the present temporary Government ; but
the people most commonly reckon according to the old Aus-
trian currency. In the short space of our journey since yester-
day morning we have received coins of Maria Theresa, Joseph
II., Louis Seize Roi des Franqais, Union et force five-franc
pieces, Bonaparte Premier Consul, Napoleon Empereur, Repub-
lique Fran9aise, Italian Napoleon lire, and finally Monnoie
Obsidionale d'Anvers, copper coins of five and ten centimes,
struck during the late siege of Antwerp. Dutch florins and
stuivers also pass, but at a discount of ten or fifteen per cent.
25th. We found the city in 'no small bustle of agitation,
expecting hourly the arrival here of the Emperor of Russia
and King of Prussia. I saw a proclamation placarded on the
walls, signed by the Mayor of the city, Philippe Comte de Lens,
a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, and by the Intendant
D'Hane de Steenhuyse. It stated that, by a letter from the
Gouvemeur-General de la Belgique, it was probable that the
Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia would land on the
25th instant at Ostend, and that they would pass through this
city on their way to Antwerp. In consideration of which, and
to receive with all suitable pomp these sovereigns and their
illustrious suite, the programme, in eight articles, was ordained
by the Mayor, with the approbation of the Intendant. i. Upon
the arrival of their Majesties, the bells and chimes are to ring.
2. The ringing and chiming is to be repeated several times
throughout the day. 3. The Mayor, his adjoints, the Municipal
Council of the city, the five Cpnfreries, and the Society of St.
654 MEAfOmS OF yOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [June,
Cecilia are to go out and meet the two monarchs. The Mayor
is to harangue them. 4. They are to enter at the Porte de
Bruges, and to proceed through certain streets and squares to
the hotel of the Intendant, unless their Majesties should order
otherwise. 5. No carriages are to circulate in the parts of the
city through which they will pass. 6. The streets are to be
strewed with flowers and green foliage. 7. At eight o'clock in
the evening is to commence a general illumination. 8. Copies
of the programme are to be sent to suitable persons.
The Prussian troops, of which there is here a garrison of six
or seven thousand men, were under arms almost the whole day.
Mr. Russell and I sent a messenger to the Mayor of the city to
enquire when it would suit his convenience to receive his visit.
He was not at home, but came in the afternoon, about four, with
a gentleman, I suppose his adjoint, both in full costume, with
their official sashes, and paid me a visit. The Mayor made
many obliging offers of service to the mission, with the object
of which he was acquainted, and particularly offered to provide
us a place for holding the conferences, if we, should desire it.
26th. All the bustle of yesterday was again renewed this
day in expectation of the Emperor of Russia, for it is now
understood that the King of Prussia will not come here. He
is to land at Calais and go through France. One of his aides-
de-camp passed here this day and showed the itinerary of the
Emperor, according to which he is to go from Ostend to Ant-
werp in one day, and of course to make no stay here. The
troops were under arms again the greatest part of the day. I
received an invitation from the Mayor to the American Envoys
to attend the ball to be given on the occasion of the Emperor's
passage; and the Mayor himself paid me a visit, and extended
the invitation to all the persons attached to the mission, and
generally to any person whom we should think proper to intro-
duce. He also told me that he heard we were looking out
for furnished apartments ; that we should not easily find any
that would accommodate us ; but that the house where General
Billow had lodged would probably be at liberty in a few days;
that we might perhaps hire it by the month, and that part of
the furniture now in it belonged to the city, and should be left
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 655
in it for our use. I walked out this mon^ng and went into a
church, where there was a priest officiating at the altar — but
few persons there, and those of the lowest classes. I saw a
notification that there would be this day at the Cathedral a
solemn mass said for the return of his Holiness the Pope to
Rome, and for the return of the bishop of this city here. He
was one of the bishops who had been imprisoned in 18 1 1 by
the Emperor Napoleon.
29th. Soon ader I arose this morning Lsaw the troops again
under arms in front of my chamber-windows, and an extraor-
dinary activity among them indicated the approach of the
Emperor of Russia. The bells and the carillon began soon
afterwards to ring. About eleven o'clock I went out, and fol-
lowed the crowd to one of the streets through which he was to
pass. He passed just at noon, on horseback, with a suite of
fifteen or twenty officers. He was distinguished from them only
by the greater simplicity of his dress — ^a plain green uniform,
without any decoration, and even without facings. Very few
of the crowd knew him as he passed. He stopped about ten
minutes at one of the squares, while a Prussian regiment, drawn
up there, defiled before him. He afterwards stopped again,
while a French regiment of the garrison of Hamburg passed.
But he went through the city and immediately proceeded on his
journey to Antwerp. It rained almost the whole day, and there
was a heavy shower while he rode through the city. He had
entered it, however, in an open caliche, that everybody might
have an opportunity of seeing him. His condescension and
affability were, as usual, conspicuous. The bells and carillon
rang several times in the course of the day. In the evening
Messrs. Bayard, Clay, Shaler, Milligan, and myself went to the
ball at the Hotel de Ville. There were two or three hundred
persons at the bSill. The ladies not remarkable either for
beauty or elegance. We stayed about two hours, and returned
to our lodgings before midnight. This afternoon Mr. Clay gave
me the papers, addressed to the mission, which he had received
by the Chauncey at Gottenburg ; and, as there are now four of
the five Commissioners here, it was agreed that we should have
a meeting in my chamber at eleven o'clock to-morrow morning.
656 MEMOIRS OF yOlIN" QUINCY ADAMS. [July,
30th. At eleven o'clock this morning the American Commis-
sioners now here had a meeting at my chamber. Mr. Bayard,
Mr. Clay, and Mr. Russell attended it. The conversation was
desultory, and came only to the result of determining to send
the John Adams home as soon as may be convenient; and of
writing to Mr. Beasley, to obtain a passport for her from the
British Admiralty. We agreed also to order two English news-
papers to be sent us, and several other articles of necessity.
We proposed to have regular meetings, and to keep a journal
of our proceedings, when we shall all be assembled. We re-
ceived information that Mr. Gallatin had arrived in Paris.
jFuly 2d. Messrs. Bayard, Clay, Russell, and myself went at
noon to pay visits to Count d'Hane Steenhuyse, the Intendant,
and to the Count de Lens, the Mayor of the city. The Intendant
was not at his house, and we left cards. We met the Mayor in
the street as we were going to his house. He told us he
thought General Biilow would go to-morrow, and that we
could see the house immediately afterwards.
8th. Prince Henry left this city about noon. I dined again
at the table-d'hote, at one. The other gentlemen dined together,
at four. They sit after dinner and drink bad wine and smoke
cigars, which neither suits my habits nor my health, and
absorbs time which I cannot spare. I find it impossible, even
with the most rigorous economy of time, to do half the writing
that I ought.
9th. The American Ministers had this day a meeting in my
chamber, from twelve o'clock noon until four. All the mem-
bers were present, and we had a general conversation upon a
variety of objects relating to our own situation here, and to our
present mission. We agreed to have in future daily meetings,
and to meet again in my chamber at twelve o'clock on Monday.
I proposed the question whether we should* make an official
communication to the British Government of our being here,
waiting for their Commissioners. This was not agreed to ; but
it was determined that a letter to our own Government should
be written, to inform the Secretary of State that we are here, and
transmit copies of the correspondence relating to the removal
of the seat of negotiation from Gottenburg to Ghent.
i8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 657
There was much discussion, but no final determination, with
regard to our personal arrangements during our residence here.
I think it will be very short ; but the other gentlemen are all of
a difierent opinion. They calculate upon passing the winter
here. It is impossible to form a decisive opinion upon the sub-
ject until the British Commissioners arrive. There was also
much conversation respecting the manner of keeping the books
of the mission, and the obligations of the Secretary. It was
finally understood that in the books were to be copied only
,the papers of which there is but one copy; that the individual
members of the mission must provide for the keeping of their
own books ; that they have a right to ask the Secretary for
copies of particular papers which they may want; and that Mr.
Shaler is to assist Mr. Hughes in the copying which may be
found necessary. We adjourned at four o'clock, and I dined
with my colleagues, as I propose to do hereafter, Mr. Clay
having expressed some regret that I had withdrawn from their
table yesterday.
nth. I am this day forty-seven years of age. Two-thirds of
the period allotted to the life of man are gone by for me. I
have not improved them as I ought to have done. I pray God
that of the remainder so large a portion may not be lost ; that
my children may all survive me, and all be in their day and
generation wiser and better men than their father.
The American Ministers met in my chamber at noon. My
draft of a dispatch to the Secretary of State was read, agreed
to with some alterations, and I gave it to Mr. Hughes to be
copied. We discussed various other topics relating to the
affairs of the mission ; and a question concerning the account-
ability for the contingent expenses authorized by individual
members was left unsettled. Mr. Clay and Mr. Russell, on
their arrival at Gottenburg, sent Mr. Lewis as a special mes-
senger with dispatches to me, and promised that his expenses
should be paid. Mr. Bayard, with approbation of Mr. Gallatin,
sent Colonel Milligan as a special messenger to Gottenburg,
to negotiate with Mr. Clay and Mr. Russell for the change of
the place of negotiation, and engaged that his expenses should
be paid, going and returning, with some expectation even of
VOL. II. — 42
gjg MEMOIRS OF JOHN. QUINCY ADAMS. [July
further compensation. Mr. Clay sent Mr. Carroll to Paris, as
a special messenger to Mr. Crawford, with a promise that his
expenses should be paid. But Mr. Crawford has taken that as
a contingency of his legation. Mr. Clay sent Mr. Connell as a
special messenger from Gottenburg to Mr. Russell and me, at
Stockholm, with the agreement for the removal to Ghent, and
engaged that his expenses, going and returning, should be
paid. Mr. Clay says he understood from the Secretary of State
that we should send special messengers as often as we could,
and rather make than miss the occasions for them. I should
not have sent one of the messengers hitherto employed, neither
were they in either of the cases at all necessary. Mr. Lewis
has now sent his account, about two hundred dollars, to author-
ize the payment of which Mr. Clay applies to the whole mission.
We are to take the subject up again.
13th. The mission had a meeting from twelve at noon until
two. We assorted all the papers that are to be copied into the
general letter-book of the mission. Marshal Prince Blucher
passed through this city upon his return from England; he
dined at this house, but I did not see him.
15th. Meeting of the Ministers at twelve o'clock. The report
that the British Commissioners had arrived was a mistake. The
Mayor had told it to Mr. Meulemeester.
1 8th. I had promised Mr. Meulemeester to call upon him
about two o'clock this afternoon, to go with him and see the
public library belonging to the city; but, as the mission had its
ordinary meeting at noon, with which we were occupied until
nearly four o'clock, I could not go. I proposed that we should
deliberate upon the subjects mentioned in our instructions, and
endeavor to prepare something upon the principal points re-
ferred to in them, to have it ready upon the arrival of the British
Commissioners. I instanced the article concerning impress-
ment, and mentioned the difficulty which there would be in
attempting to draw it up. Some essays to that end were made
by Mr. Bayard and Mr. Gallatin. It was found we had not
here a set of the laws and treaties of the United States, without
which we cannot proceed. Mr. Bayard has, however, a set on
board the Neptune, at Antwerp. We had some consultation
Iti4.j THE IfMCOT/ATIO/r FOM rSACS. 6$Q
as to the best mode of proceediog with the British Cooimis- .
siooeis, whether b^ verbal ctmfemices or by written communi-
cations; but this must also be concerted with them — whether
we should make or receive the first propositions, and whether
they should be a mere summary statement of the objects to be
discussed, or the formal projects of a trea^. It was supposed
that this last would be unnecessary, as there is every [Hvbability
that we shall break oflT upon the basts of the n^otiatioii, and
shall have no occasion for coming to the details. If we should
come to the formal project of a treaty, it was suggested by Mr.
Bayard that it would be advisable to give and receive the
reciprocal projects at the same time, with the understanding
that each party should include in his project every point in-
tended by him to be brought into discussion. The result of
this meeting was to convince me of the .necessity of applyii^
immediately and closely to our business ; but I immediately
found the want of the Laws and Treaties.
19th. I had been charged to draw up a project of an article
on the subject of impressment, but found it useless to make the
attempt without having the United States Laws and Treaties
to refer to. At the meeting this day Mr. Bayard agreed to
send to Antwerp for his trunk containing the Laws of the
United States, and I engaged to make an abstract; or index, to
all the subjects enjoined upon our attention by our instructions.
20th. I went with Mr. Clay to the Hotel de Ville, which was
formeriy the imperial palace, and we saw the ceremcmy of the
" manage ctvil" performed by the at^oint Mayor of the dty.
There were about twenty coufries to be married this day. We
saw six or seven of them go through the ceremony, which was
very short. It ^ipcared to consist only in the calling over the
names, age, and characters of the parties and their witnesses,
iriio were usually live or six. A short passage from tbe
register was then read by the cleric, in Flemish, and the Mayor
ddivefcd a paper to tbe bridegroom — I suppose the certificate
of tbe marriage. There was a brass box on the table, into
whidi cadi of the parties put a small piece of money, and «4iich
was probably a charity for the poor. Tbe brides were all ugly,
and lloMMt all apparently older than the bridcgromns.
660 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [August,
August 1st. About ten o'clock the municipal . processiori
passed by our house. I immediately went out and followed
them with the crowd. They marched to the Hotel de Ville,
and proceeded to the hall where the distribution of the prizes
was to be made. I found a seat on one of the benches. The
Intendant of the department, the Mayor, and the Municipal
Council soon after entered, and took seats upon a stage erected
at one end of the hall. The Mayor read a speech from a printed
pamphlet. He announced the occasion of this distribution of
prizes to be the exertions of the adjoint Mayor, Mr. Verhaeggen,
of the Commanders of the City Foot and Horse Guards, of the
five Fraternities, and of the Society of St. Cecilia, for the preser-
vation of tranquillity, and the protection of property, on the late
change, after the French authorities had disappeared, and be-
fore others had taken their place. The Deputy Mayor had a
large silver medallion, and a smaller gold one; the Com-
mander of the City Foot Guard, a sword ; the Commander of
the Horse Guard, a sabre ; the five Fraternities, each a silver
medal ; the Society of St. Cecilia, the same, and also a stand of
colors richly embroidered. The Intendant and the Mayor dis-
tributed the prize's. The Commander of the Horse Guard, on
receiving the sabre, made a speech, and said if any future
danger should arise, it should be used for the defence of the
city. An officer in uniform, one of the members of the Society
of St. Cecilia, sung a hymn, a la Reconnoissance, written and
composed for the occasion, of which printed copies were circu-
lated, as well as of the Mayor's speech. This ceremony lasted
about an hour, and when it was over I returned home. At
three in the afternoon there was another at the same place, to
which we were all invited. To this we went in company with
the Intendant and Mayor, and were seated next to them on the
stage. The Mayor, the President of the Academy of Fine Arts,
a lawyer named Hellebaut, and the Intendant read speeches,
after which the victors were proclaimed, and the prizes given
for the best works of painting, drawing, and architecture, ex-
posed at the saloon. We were requested to take a part in the
distribution of the prizes, and each of us delivered one of them
to one of the successful candidates. There was a flourish of
I8i4.] THE NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE. 66l
horns and clarions every time that a prize was given. The
pupil who had obtained the first prize of architecture read a
speech, to return thanks in the name of the victors. When
these ceremonies were finished, we passed into another hall,
and were requested, each of us, to return home with one of the
pupils who had obtained a prize. I went in company with one
of the directors of the academy, and a lad about fifteen years,
named Maligo. The streets in the neighborhood of where the
victors lived were hung with evergreens and flowers in bloom.
In the evening they were illuminated. The father of the youth
with whom I went is a goldsmith, and apparently very poor.
He and the mother appeared, however, to be much delighted
with the success of their son. The boy presented to the gen-
tleman who took him home a letter requesting his friendly
assistance to get hini and his father a place as clerk in some
public office, or for himself in some counting-house. The gentle-
man gave it to me, but I could not obtain what the lad wanted.
It was six in the evening before we reached home to dinner,
and Messrs. Hughes, Dallas, Milligan, and Carroll dined with
us. Mr. Shaler and Mr. Ecky came in after dinner. The
Society of St. Cecilia came and serenaded us at our door while
we were at dinner. We invited them in, but they declined.
At ten in the evening we went to the ball given by the Presi-
dent and Directors of the Society of the Fine Arts. The hall
where they were assembled was small, and much crowded with
company. I knew scarcely a person there.
3d. Mr. Gallatin and I attended this morning at a sitting of
the Cour d'Assize, or Criminal Tribunal. We had seats as-
signed to us, and the President of the tribunal addressed us in
a short complimentary speech, which, on the motion of the
Accusateur Publique, or Attorney-General, was ordered to be
entered on the records of the Court. There were, besides the
President, four judges on the bench. Their dress was a black
gown, over which the President had a scarlet surplice. There
were present only two lawyers, the public accuser, and the
prisoner's counsel, or defenseur officieux. The jury appeared
to consist altogether of gentlemen. Mr. Meulemeester was one
of them. The trial was of a man charged with having written
662 MEMOIRS OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. [1814.
three incendiary letters to extort money. The letters were pro-
duced, and French translations of them were read. The wit-
nesses were then heard, but only one by one ; they were all
sent out of Court, and then called in successively. The pro-
ceedings were in French, but the witnesses and the prisoner
spoke altogether in Flemish. There was an interpreter, who
translated what was said by them and by the President. There
was a continued interrogatory of the prisoner, who was always
called upon to say what he had to answer to the testimony of
each witness, after it was delivered. The leaning of the Court,
or rather of the President, was very hard against the prisoner,
and his answers before the judge who committed him were
continually referred to as contradictory to those he gave now.
His counsel once ventured to object that the Court was asking
leading questions, but he was instantly silenced by the President^
who declared he had a right, and that it was his duty, to use
every means to discover the truth, and advised the counsel to
keep within his own bounds. At one time two of the judges
were speaking together, and the President turned to them and
said, " Taisez-vous, Messieurs — c'esta dire, s'il vous plait." The
Attorney-General observed that many of the words in the in«
cendiary letters were misspelt, and in a very extraordinary way.
He proposed that the clerk should dictate to the prisoner to-
write the same words, and that the spelling in the two papers
might be compared together — ^which was done. The Court
adjourned between one and two o'clock until half-past three,,
to hear the remaining witnesses ; and to-morrow the cause is to-
be argued by the counsel.
Thus far the record has given only the proceedings pre^
liminary to the assemblage of the Commissioners of the two
sovereign powers on the important duty of restoring peace.
The details of the negotiation will be better understood if kept
entirely together : hence it has been deemed best to embrace
them all in the next volume.
END OF VOL. II.
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