244 



the President for the papers ; which now appears to have been 

 done at the instance of Mr. Adams himself. 



There is certainly something very singular in this affair, that 

 Mr. Adams, who has laboured with so much zeal and perseverance, 

 to impress the nation with the belief that Mr. Russell is not correct 

 in his statements, should, nevertheless, as zealously adhere to de 

 clarations equally injurious, and unfounded as it regards myself 5 

 to the end, it is presumed, to justify his own conduct in procuring 

 Mr. Fuller to make the call which I had desisted from, and which 

 it seems was so desirable to him as a mean of getting into the news 

 papers, this, too. after Mr. Russell had said he knew nothing of 

 my intention of Making the request I did make. 



Mr. Adams, I had believed, was too well acquainted with eti 

 quette, to leave his lawful game, to send a shaft at me, however he 

 might/ee/ towards me ; but, since he has thought proper to do so, 

 I must defend myself. 



Whatever a Secretary shall say of me, I think it but right, to 

 hold him responsible ; nor will I consent that he shall ransack hi 

 department to find a clerk to prop his desires by a certificate. So 

 far as it regards myself, I must protest against the certificates of 

 clerks, who depend for their daily bread, upon the capricious 

 smiles of a Secretary of a Department. I do not wish to be un 

 derstood as making any remark upon Mr. Adams s certifying clerks. 

 It is possible they may be respectable, I know nothing of them; 

 nor, can I, consistent with my own self-approbation, know any body 

 but Mr. Adams, who 1 presume, having reliance, and regardless of 

 feelings or opinions, boldly and confidently, reiterates in his re 

 joinder, that Mr. Russell procured me, to subserve his purposes, 

 and make the call in the House which I did make ; which assertion, 

 I unequivocally pronounce to be utterly destitute of that verity 

 which ought always to characterize assertions made to the public. 



The story is briefly this : 



Last winter was a year, at my lodgings, in conversation with 

 some of my friends, we were discussing the advantages of the oc 

 cupation of the Oregon, or Columbia river, the value of the- fur 

 trade of our western rivers, the wealth to be derived from that 

 trade in the Canton market, and the practicability of supplying the 

 valley of the Mississippi with the manufactures of China by that 

 route ; when one gentleman observed, that the Mississippi had 

 been discussed at Ghent, arid from the character of the gentlemen 

 engaged in it, there was a strong probability, that, if I had that cor 

 respondence, I would obtain something, which might be useful to 

 me. I had then presented to the House, my report upon the occu 

 pation of that river, and would have to make an exposition of the 

 bill when it came up for discussion. 1 instantly determined to make 

 the call, as the proper mode of getting the papers : but, I soon 

 found my bill for its occupation, could not, from the place it held 

 in the orders of the day, be acted upon that session : I then deter 

 mined to postpone the call until the next session. Accordingly, on 



