Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1876-02-18
."TnE Coon OLD TINES. I'm Volume VII.

"THE Coon OLD TrNEs. In Volume VII
of the d" Memoirs of John Quincy Adams
Comprising Portions Of his Diary" there is
curious passage, showing how some Of
90 the Fathers" could behave in a very un-
dignifed manner, on occasion. Mr.. Asbury
Dickens, on the l4th OF December, 1926,
told President Adams, writes the latter in
his Diary, that, few weeks before the
close of the Nlonroel Administration, some
words used by Mr. Monroe to Mr.. Crawford
had induced the latter to abstain thencefor-
W, from coming to this the White House,
or over seeing Mr.. Monroe again. When
Mr.. Southerd [Secretary of the Navy] came
in, asked him if this fact had been known
to him. He said. yes that one day last
winter, on coming here on business, he found
Mr.. Monroe walking to and fro across the
room, in great agitation that he told him
Crawford Secretary of the Treasury had
just left him he lhad come to him con-
cerning the nomination Of certain officers of
the Customs in the Northern ports that
Crawford recommended the nomination of
several persons, against whom Mr.. Monroe
had expressed several objections that Mr..
Crawford at last rose in much irritation.
and said, petulantly, Well, if you will not
appoint the persons well qualified for the
places. tell me whom you viii appoint, that
| may get rid of their importunities. Mr..
Monroe replied with great warmth, saying
that he considered Crawford s language as ex-
tremely improper, and unsuitable to the rela-
tions between them when Crawford, turn
ing to him, raised his cane, as in the atti-
tude to strike, and said, You damned in
fernal cid scoundreli' Mr. Monroe seized
the tongs at the fire place for selfdefence,
applied retaliatory epithet to Crawford,
and told him he would Immediately ring for
servants himself, and turn him out Of the
house upon which Crawford, beginning to
recover himself, said he did not intend, and
had not intended, to insult him, and left the
house. They never met afterward. Mr..
Southland does not recollect the precise dav
on which this happened. ! told him that If
had known it at the time, should not
have invited Mr.. Crawford to remain in the
Treasury Department. 1t resembles the
scene between Bolingbroke and Oxford in
the last days Of Queen Anne" At the
time of this - scene" Mr.. Crawford was
fifty-three years old, and President Monroe
was sixty-six. Writing of Mr. Crawford,
on the 2sth of December, 1897, Mr.. Adams
said 80 Treachery Of the deepest dye is at
the bottom of Crawford's character. 1t
was, before his palsy, combined with strong
mental powers, little cultivated and desper-
ate energy of soul. The whole composition
was more like one Of Millions fallen angels
than that Of any other man ever knew,
that Milton has made his devils
true to each other Since his paralysis,
Crawford has lost much of his memory,
much Of his Judgment, and some of his ad-
dress What he has lost of these he has |
gained in nervous irritability and morbid |
On the 22d Of February, ISIS, |
Mr.. Adams wrote of Mr. Calhoun =" Cal |
hOun Is a man of considerable talent and |
burning ambition stimulated to frenzy bv |
success, fattery, and premature advance
nent governed by no steady principle, but
to seize upon every prevailing pop |
nlar breeze to swell his own sails shower
ing favors with lavish hand 10 make uarti- |
sans, without discernment in the choice Of |
his instruments, and the dupe and tool Of |
every knaye cunning enough to drop the oil |
IF fools in his ears" The more We look |
or those good old times in which all men
we're saints, and all women angels, the more
10 We succeed in not finding them.