118 



ia either of the calls of the House of Representatives of 17 Jan, 

 1822, for the Ghent documents, or of 19 April, 1822, for his own 

 letter, and above all, the extract from the instructions of 15 April, 

 1813, which Had never before been published, but of which Mr. 

 Russell had recently obtained, from the records of the Depart^ 

 ment of State, two copies, were undoubted indications that the 

 publication came from Mr. Russell. The editor of the Gazette 

 has indeed since stated, that the editorial article was written by 

 himself; but it was evidently written upon representations directly 

 or indirectly from Mr. Russell. The opinions expressed in the 

 editorial article were his own, but the facts for which he vouched, 

 and the extract from the cancelled instructions, could have becu 

 furnished him only by, or at the instance of, Mr. Russell. 



The copy of the letter was 7iot exact, as will be seen by the foU 

 lowing extracts from a subsequent editorial article in the National 

 Gazette of 25 May, 1822. 



«' We insert, to-day, the reply of the hon. John Q. Adams, Se- 

 cretary of State, to Mr. Russell's communications to the govern- 

 ment respecting the negotiations at Ghent." 



'• Upon the merits of the main argument, we do not intend, and 

 indeed have not room, to express an opinion to-d-ay ; but we may 

 remark at once, that so far as regards the proposal to allow the 

 British the free navigation of the Mississippi, Mr. Adams has plac- 

 ed his conduct and views beyond the reach of calumny and misap- 

 prehension for the future. It will be seen that Mr. Jefferson, ire 

 1807, then President of the United States, expressly authorized 

 Messrs. Monroe and Pinkney, who were negotiating in London, to 

 accede to a stipulation proposed by the British government for the 

 navio-ation of that river, and access to it from our territories, on 

 submitting to the duties and custom-house regulations applicable 

 to goods and effects of citizens of the United States. 



'• The pamphlet of documents printed for Congress embraces 

 not only the original letter of Mr. Russell, as received by Mr. Mon- 

 roe, but the paper which Mr. Russell on the 22d April 1 ist, left at 

 the Department of State, as the duplicate of that letter, and which 

 contains passages not to be found in the original. In publishing the 

 letter of Mr. Russell, we undertook to vouch for its exactness as a 

 copy, circumstances having led us fully to believe this to be the 

 case. On comparing it, however, with the printed original, we 

 found the following variations in the text. 



•' Quotation from our publication : ' From the year 1783 to the 

 ' commencement of the present war, the actual advantages derived 



• from the iishing privilege by the people of the United States, 



* were, according to the best information that we could obtain on 

 •^ the subject,' &c. The text of the original is — / can obtain on the 

 subject. Again, our printed text is, 'because by conceding in it 

 '• (the proposed article) to Great Britain the navigation of the Mis- 

 ' sissippi, we directly violated our instructions, and we offered,' 

 &c. The phrase, wt directly violated our instructions, is not in the 



