Footnotes
1 ([Return])
See "Letters of Mrs. Adams, with an Introductory Memoir," and "The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, with a Life of the Author," by their grandson, Charles Francis Adams.
2 ([Return])
John Quincy represented the town of Braintree in the colonial legislature forty years, and long held the office of speaker.
3 ([Return])
See Niles' Weekly Register, New Series, vol. xv., pp. 218, 219.
4 ([Return])
Sparks' Life and Writings of Washington, xi., p. 56, and p. 188.
5 ([Return])
The writer of this Memoir.
6 ([Return])
See pages 18 and 19.
7 ([Return])
The Report of Mr. Adams, when Secretary of State, on weights and measures, at the call of Congress, sufficiently evidences the ultimate usefulness of these researches.
8 ([Return])
A committee appointed by the House of Representatives, on McGregor's possession of Amelia Island, waited on Mr. Adams, and inquired concerning the proposed proceedings of the executive, and his powers in that respect. Mr. Adams took occasion to state and explain to them the effects of "the secret laws, as they were called, and which," he said, "were singular anomalies of our system, having grown out of that error in our constitution which confers upon the legislative assemblies the power of declaring war, which, in the theory of government, according to Montesquieu and Rousseau, is strictly an executive act. But, as we have made it legislative, whenever secrecy is necessary for an operation of the executive involving the question of peace and war, Congress must pass a secret law to give the President power. Now, secrecy is contrary to one of the first principles of legislation, but the absurdity flows from having given to Congress, instead of the executive, the power of declaring war. Of these secret laws there are four, and one resolution; and one of the laws, that of the 28th of June, 1812, is so secret, that to this day it cannot be found among the rolls of the department. Another consequence has followed from this clumsy political machinery. The injunction of secrecy was removed on the 6th of July, 1812, from the laws previously passed by a vote of the House of Representatives, and yet the laws have never been published."
9 ([Return])
This publication is contained in Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xxii., pp. 198, 209, 220, 296, 327, and continued in vol. xxiii., pp. 6 and 9.
10 ([Return])
Niles' Register, vol. xxvi., pp. 251-328.
11 ([Return])
Niles' Register, vol. xxvii., p. 387.
12 ([Return])
Ibid., vol. xxvii., p. 321.
13 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xxvii., p. 386.
14 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xxviii., p. 71.
15 ([Return])
Ibid., p. 20.
16 ([Return])
In the year 1823 the State of South Carolina passed a law making it the duty of the sheriff of any district to apprehend any free negro or person of color, brought into that state by any vessel, and confine him in jail until such vessel depart, and then to liberate him only on condition of payment of the expenses of such detention. To this law William Johnson, a South Carolinian, and a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a letter to Mr. Adams, then Secretary of State, called the attention of the President of the United States, as a violation of the constitution; and declared his belief "that it had been passed as much for the pleasure of bringing the functionaries of the United States into contempt, by exposing their impotence, as from any other cause whatsoever;" they being precluded from resorting to the writ of habeas corpus and injunction because the cases assumed the form of state prosecutions. William Wirt, also, the Attorney-General of the United States, in a letter to Mr. Adams, then Secretary of State, pronounced that law "as being against the constitution, treaties, and laws, and incompatible with the rights of all nations in amity with the United States."
17 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xxxii., p. 162.
18 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xxxii., p. 316.
19 ([Return])
Ibid., p. 415.
20 ([Return])
Niles' Register, vol. xxxiii., p. 297.
21 ([Return])
Niles' Register, vol. xxxiii., p. 303.
22 ([Return])
Address of John Quincy Adams to his Constituents, at Braintree, September 17, 1842, p. 27.
23 ([Return])
See, for Crawford's letter and Calhoun's address, Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xl., p. 12.
24 ([Return])
Jackson's cabinet were, Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State; Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury; John H. Eaton, Secretary of War; John Branch, Secretary of the Navy; John M'P. Berrien, Attorney-General; William T. Barry, Postmaster-General.
25 ([Return])
For which see Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xl., pp. 12, 13.
26 ([Return])
See Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xl., pp. 129-145.
27 ([Return])
Ibid., pp. 152-3.
28 ([Return])
Niles' Register, vol. xl., p. 201.
29 ([Return])
Ibid., p. 220.
30 ([Return])
Ibid., p. 253.
31 ([Return])
Ibid., p. 304.
32 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xl., p. 331.
33 ([Return])
Ibid., vol. xli., pp. 5, 6.
34 ([Return])
The facts above stated are chiefly derived from a speech of Henry Clay, delivered at Lexington, Kentucky, on the 16th of May, 1829, in which all the topics here touched are forcibly and eloquently illustrated. It may be found at length in Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xxxvi., pp. 399 to 405.
35 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xlii., pp. 86-88.
36 ([Return])
See this letter in Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xxxvii., pp. 91-93.
37 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, vol. xlvii., p. 91.
38 ([Return])
Mr. Wirt was Attorney-General of the United States during the four last years of Mr. Monroe's and the whole of Mr. Adams' administration.
39 ([Return])
See Congressional Debates, vol. x., part 2d, p. 2758.
40 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, N. S., vol. i., pp. 385—390, et seq.
41 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, New Series, vol. iii., pp. 167, 168.
42 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, New Series, vol. iii., p. 161.
43 ([Return])
Niles' Weekly Register, New Series, vol. v., p. 219.
44 ([Return])
For this letter see Niles' Weekly Register, New Series, vol. v., p. 55.
45 ([Return])
See, for all the proceedings on this subject, the Congressional Globe, vol. ix., pp. 320-322.
46 ([Return])
See the Boston Courier and New York American of the period.
47 ([Return])
Quincy's History of Harvard University, vol. ii., p. 567.
48 ([Return])
Congressional Globe, vol. xv., p. 738.
49 ([Return])
Niles' National Register, Second Series, vol. xvii., pp. 105-111.
50 ([Return])
Niles' National Register, Second Series, vol. xvii., pp. 154-159.
51 ([Return])
By William P. Lunt, minister of the First Congregational Church in Quincy.