Chapter VI: Introduction: And Notes by Charles Francis Adams (1)

A century ago at this time the Napoleonic wars, so-called, or the convulsions which succeeded the French Revolution of 1789, were rapidly drawing to a close. Beginning with the capture of the Bastille, July 14, 1789, the final catastrophe occurred at Waterloo, June 18, 1815. Meanwhile, during the last half of 1812 and the whole of 1813, it is no exaggeration to say that the whole world was at war. Up to June, 1812, the United States had kept out of the actual fray, maintaining, by hook or by crook, a species of so-called neutrality. The affair of the _Leopard_ and the _Chesapeake_, unspeakably disgraceful to the United States, had occurred off the capes of Virginia in June, 1807. In the following December Jefferson’s embargo had been proclaimed; but, having proved utterly futile as either a remedial or a protective measure, it was removed in March, 1809.

Needless to say, this was for the United States a period of tension and deep humiliation. Threats of disunion were freely made, and the first steps looking to a secession of the New England States from the Union had been taken. On March 4, 1809, James Madison was inaugurated as the fourth President, and war with Great Britain was declared in June, 1812. One of the earliest acts of Madison after taking the oath of office had been to nominate John Quincy Adams to represent the United States at the court of St. Petersburg. Alexander I, then thirty-five years old, was Czar of Russia. Two years before that he had, with Napoleon, effected the treaty of Tilsit, so-called, theatrically signed on a raft moored in the river Niemen. A temporary peace, therefore, existed between the Russian czar and Napoleon, then at the zenith of his career; a truce, rather than a peace, destined to be rudely broken in the summer of 1812. Napoleon’s disastrous Russian campaign, and the War of 1812-15 between the United States and Great Britain, then ensued; the latter was drawing to a close just at the end of 1814 (December 25), six months before the battle of Waterloo.

Mr. Adams’s residence in Russia (1809-1814) covered, therefore, the whole of the period of Napoleon’s Russian experience, as also his campaign during the subsequent year (1813), intervening between the retreat from Moscow and Waterloo. Mr. Adams thus held an official position at the very center of conflict during the four most troubled years of the nineteenth century. He was in the midst of things. During that period also he maintained a constant interchange of familiar, family letters, so far as the facilities for such an interchange then existed, between St. Petersburg and Quincy, his home in Massachusetts. These letters never have seen the light.

On Wednesday, October 16, 1912, the American Antiquarian Society celebrated its centennial anniversary at Worcester, Massachusetts. As president of a sister, but senior, organization--the Massachusetts Historical Society--the writer was invited to take part in this affair, contributing to it. His thoughts, therefore, naturally reverted to the events taking place at the particular time the society, whose birth was thus celebrated, came into existence; and those events were of a very exciting and memorable character.

Napoleon was in Moscow that day, anxiously awaiting the results of certain negotiations he had undertaken, looking to a possible escape from the situation in which he had involved himself. Tidings of the utter failure of the negotiations reached him, and the order to evacuate Moscow, preliminary to the fatal retreat, was given on October 18--just two days subsequent to the occurrence we were to celebrate.

On this side of the Atlantic the memorable action between the _Constitution_ and the _Guerrière_ had occurred on August 19--just two months before; and exactly one week later--October 25--the frigate _United States_ captured the _Macedonian_. Thus, during the latter half of the year 1812, memorable events followed close on one another’s heels. Of all of these, Mr. Adams, in Russia, and his relatives in Massachusetts, were deeply interested observers; and a recurrence to the letters then interchanged, canvassing these events from the contemporary point of view, could hardly fail to be of interest and even of historical value.

A portion of the material from the yellowing letter-files of that intimate family correspondence is offered in the following extracts. They relate exclusively to the events then occurring in Russia and America, and to characters now become historic. One letter, of the most informal character, describes a long interview with the famous Madame de Staël in St. Petersburg, at the time of Napoleon’s Russian campaign, the conversation taking place on the day preceding that on which the great battle of Borodino was fought (September 7, 1812). It will be remembered that Napoleon, considering Madame de Staël an enemy in no way to be despised, had some years before treated her accordingly, so that in 1812 she was still in exile.

Correspondence between Europe and America in those days was carried on under extreme difficulty. Letters, whether passing through the post, or confided for delivery to private hands, were freely opened by officials in nearly every country. To such a degree was this practised that in a letter written from St. Petersburg to his brother, Thomas Boylston Adams, John Quincy Adams observed: “Almost every letter I write is opened and read either by French or English officers.”

Correspondence, therefore, had to be carried on with great discretion. This is apparent in the letters of Mrs. John Adams to her son. In one of them, dated from Quincy, July 29, 1812, she says:

“The declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain,
the necessity for which is deplored, renders the communication
between us so hazardous that I despair of hearing from you
or conveying intelligence to you.... We have not any letters
from you of a later date than the 4th March, and we wait in
anxious expectation of hearing. I have written to you by various
opportunities, and I could not fill many pages with subjects which
ought to come to your knowledge of a political nature, if I did not
feel myself restrained by the desire I have, that this letter may
reach you, as it contains no subject to gratify the curiosity of
any one and can be only interesting to yourself as a testimony of
the health of your friends.”

And again, writing under date of November 30 following, she says:

“Your letters gave us the more pleasure, as we had despaired of
hearing again from you during the winter. It is almost a forlorn
hope to expect any communication between us. The war between France
and Russia on the one hand, and America and England on the other,
leaves few chances for private correspondence. If while peace
existed so little regard was had to letters addrest to a publicke
minister that they must be broken open and family and domesticke
concerns become the subject of public investigation, there can
be but little satisfaction in writing.... Notwithstanding that
blundering Irish Lord Castlereagh[1] denies the fact, I cannot
expect more respect or civility when the nations are hostile to
each other. Should this be destined to similar honor I request Sir
William or any of their Lordships to awaken in their own Bosoms
some natural affection and kindly forward this letter to the son to
whom it is addrest, and whom three years’ absence from his parents
and children render it particularly necessary that it should go
with safety.”

Curious light on this subject of tampering with correspondence is shown in a letter from J. Q. Adams to his mother, dated St. Petersburg, April 7, 1813:

“I know not whether it was generosity, or any other virtue, or
merely a disposition to receive the postage, that induced the
transmission of your favour of 30 December to Mr. Williams of
London; for by him it was kindly forwarded to me, and on the first
day of this month, to my inexpressible joy, came to hand. It was
but so short a time before that I had received your letter of 29
July!--and excepting that, not a line from Quincy later than April
of the last year. This last letter had apparently been opened,
although the impression of your Seal upon the wax was restored--a
circumstance which indicates that it was done in England, where
they still affect the appearance of not breaking seals at the
Post-Office.

“On this Continent they are less scrupulous about forms. When they
open letters, they break the seals, and do not take the trouble of
restoring them. They send them open to their address. It reminds
me of an anecdote I have lately met with of Prince Kaunitz when he
was prime Minister of the Empress Maria Theresa. One of his clerks
whose business it was to copy the _opened_ letters, coming to
foreign Ministers at Vienna, in the hurry of reclosing a despatch
to one of the Envoys, sent him his copy instead of the original.
The Envoy went to Prince Kaunitz, showed him the copy that he had
received, and complained that the original was withheld from him.
The Prince immediately sent for the Clerk, severely reprimanded
him in the Envoy’s presence for his blunder, and directed him to
bring instantaneously the original despatch. The Clerk brought
it accordingly, and the Prince gave it to the Envoy, with many
apologies for the trouble occasioned him by the Clerk’s mistake,
and assurances of his hope that it would never occur again.”

THE SITUATION IN 1812

John Quincy Adams to his mother, Mrs. John Adams

“St. Petersburg, 24 October, 1812.

“ ... There is now scarcely a spot upon the habitable globe but
is desolated by the scourge of War. I see my own Country writhing
under it, and every hope of better prospects vanishing before me.
If I turn my eyes around me, I see the flame still more intensely
burning. Fire and the Sword are ravaging the Country where I
reside. Moscow, the antient Metropolis, one of the most magnificent
and most populous Cities of Europe in the hands of an invader,
and probably the greatest part of it buried in ashes.[2] Numerous
inferior Cities daily devoted to the same Destruction, and Millions
of People trampled under the feet of oppression of fugitives from
the ruins of their habitations, perishing by hunger, in woods or
deserts....

“We live indeed in an age when it is not lawful for any civilized
Nation to be unprepared for or incapable of War. Never, with an
aching Heart I say it, never did the warlike Spirit burn with so
intense a flame throughout the civilized World as at this moment.
Never was the prospect of its continuing to burn and becoming still
fiercer, so terrible as now. It would perhaps not be difficult
to show that the State of War has become indispensable to the
existence both of the French and British _Governments_. That in
Peace they would both find their destruction....”

John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

“St. Petersburg, 24 November, 1812.

“ ... You know how deeply I was disappointed at the breaking out
of our War,[3] precisely at the moment when I entertained the
most ardent and sanguine hopes that War had become unnecessary.
Its Events have hitherto been far from favourable to our Cause,
but they have rather contributed to convince me of its necessity,
upon principles distinct from the consideration of its Causes....
Our Means of taking the British possessions upon our Continent
are so ample and unquestionable that if we do not take them it
must be owing to the want of qualities, without which there is no
Independent Nation, and which we must acquire at any hazard and any
loss.

“The acquisition of Canada, however, was not and could not be
the object of this War. I do not suppose it is expected that we
should keep it if we were now to take it. Great Britain is yet too
powerful and values her remaining possessions too highly to make it
possible for us to retain them at the Peace, if we should conquer
them by the War. The time is not come. But the power of Great
Britain must soon decline. She is now straining it so excessively
beyond its natural extent that it must before long sink under the
violence of its own exertions. Her paper credit is already rapidly
declining, and she is daily becoming more extravagant in the abuse
of it. I believe that her Government could not exist three years at
Peace without a National Convulsion. And I doubt whether she can
carry on three years longer the War in which she is now engaged,
without such failure of her finances as she can never recover. It
is in the stage of weakness which must inevitably follow that of
overplied and exhausted strength that Canada and all her other
possessions would have fallen into our hands without the need of
any effort on our part, and in a manner more congenial to our
principles, and to Justice, than by Conquest.

“The great Events daily occurring in the Country whence I now
write you are strong and continual additional warnings to us not
to involve ourselves in the inextricable labyrinth of European
politicks and Revolutions.”

John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams

“St. Petersburg, 30 January, 1813.

“ ... There are several Americans residing here, who continue to
receive frequent letters from their friends at home. Through them
and through the English Newspapers we collect the information of
the most important events occurring on our side of the Water.

“ ... The English Government and Nation have been told, and have
probably believed that Mr. De Witt Clinton would be elected
President instead of Mr. Madison, and that he would instantly make
peace with England upon English terms. Of the real issue of the
Election we are here not yet informed; though accounts from the
United States have reached us to late in November, and they lead us
to expect Mr. Madison’s re-election.[4]

“I never entertained very sanguine hopes of success to our first
military efforts by land. I did not indeed anticipate that within
six months from the Commencement of the War they would make us the
scorn and laughter of all Europe, and that our National Character
would be saved from sinking beneath contempt, only by the exploits
of our Navy upon the Ocean. Blessing upon the names of #Isaac#
Hull[5] and Decatur,[6] and their brave Officers and Men! for
enabling an American to hold up his head among the Nations!--The
capture of two British frigates successively, by American ships but
little superior to them in force has not only been most profoundly
felt in England, but has excited the attention of all Europe. It
has gone far towards wiping away the disgrace of our two Surrenders
in Canada. I believe if the English could have had their choice
they would rather have lost Canada the first Campaign, than their
two frigates as they have lost them. I hope and pray that the
effect of these occurrences upon the national mind in our own
Country will be as powerful as it has been in England, but with a
different operation.

“After the news of the _Guerrière’s_ capture, I saw an Article
in the ‘Times,’ a _Wellesley_ Paper, written evidently under the
impression of great alarm; and explicitly declaring that ‘a new
Enemy to Great Britain has appeared upon the Ocean, _which must
instantly be crushed_, or would become the most formidable Enemy
to her naval supremacy with which she ever had to contend.’ We
must rely upon it that this will be the prevailing sentiment of
the British Nation. That we must instantly be crushed upon the
Ocean--and unless our Spirit shall rise and expand in proportion to
the pressure which they can and will apply to crush us, our first
success will only serve more effectually to seal our ultimate ruin
upon the Sea.

“The disproportion of force between us and Britain at Sea is so
excessive that the very idea of a contest with her upon that
Element has something in it of desperation. To her it is only
ridiculous. Upon a late debate in the House of Peers, something
having been said of the American Navy, Lord Bathurst, one of the
Ministers, told their lordships that the American Navy consisted of
_five frigates_--and the House burst into a fit of laughter. These
five frigates, however, have excited a sentiment quite different
from laughter in the five hundred frigates of the British Navy,
and if the American People will be as true to themselves as their
little despised Navy has proved itself true to them, it is not
in the gigantic power of Britain herself to _crush_ us; neither
instantly nor in any course of time, upon the Ocean.

“Hitherto, Fortune, or rather with a grateful Heart would I humbly
say Providence, has favoured us in a signal manner. But we must not
expect that our frigates will often have the luck of meeting single
ships a little inferior in strength to themselves, or of escaping
from ships greatly superior to them. That they have not already all
fallen into the Enemy’s hands, is matter of surprise as well as of
gratulation....

“The first wish of my heart is for Peace. But the Prospects of
Peace, both in Europe and America, are more faint and distant than
they have been for many years. War has in the course of the year
1812 consumed in the North of Europe alone, at least half a million
of human lives, without producing the slightest indication in
any of the parties engaged in it of a disposition to sheathe the
sword....”

John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

“St. Petersburg, 31 January, 1813.

“ ... The spirit of 1775 seems to be extinct in New England,[7] but
I hope the profligacy of British policy will not be more successful
now than it was then.

“The War between us and them is now reduced to one single
point--_Impressment!_--A cause for which we should not have
commenced a War, but without an arrangement of which our Government
now say they cannot make Peace. If ever there was a _just_
cause for War in the sight of Almighty God, this cause is on
our side just. The essence of this Cause is on the British side
_Oppression_, on our side _personal liberty_. We are fighting for
the _Sailor’s Cause_. The English Cause is the _Press-gang_. It
seems to me that in the very Nature of this Cause we ought to find
some resources for maintaining it, by operation upon the minds of
our own Seamen, and upon those of the Adversary’s. It is sometimes
customary for the Commanders of Ships to address their crews, on
going into action; and to inspirit them by motives drawn from
the cause they are called to support. In this War, when our Ships
go into action, their Commanders have the best possible materials
for cheering their men to extraordinary exertions of duty. How
the English Admirals and Captains will acquit themselves on such
occasions I can easily conjecture. But I fancy to myself a Captain
telling them honestly that they are fighting for the Cause of
Impressment. That having been most of them impressed themselves,
in the face of every principle of Freedom, of which their Country
boasted, they must all be sensible how _just_ and how _glorious_
the right of the Press-gang is, and how clear the right of
practising it upon American Sailors as well as upon themselves must
be. I think they will not very readily recur to such arguments....
The English talk of the _Seduction_ practiced by us upon their
Seamen. There is a Seduction in the very Nature of this Cause,
which it would be strange indeed if their Seamen were insensible
to. I have heard that many of their Seamen taken by us have shown
a reluctance at being exchanged, from an unwillingness to be sent
back to be impressed again. A more admirable comment upon the
character of the War could not be imagined. Prisoners who deem it
a hardship to be exchanged! With what heart can they fight for the
principle which is to rivet the chains of their own servitude?

“I have been reading a multitude of speculations in the English
Newspapers, about the capture of their two Frigates _Guerrière_ and
_Macedonian_. They have settled it that the American forty-fours
are line of battle-ships in disguise, and that henceforth all the
frigates in the British Navy are to have the privilege of running
away from them![8] This of itself is no despicable result of the
first half-year of War. Let it be once understood as a matter of
course that every single frigate in the British Navy is to shrink
from a contest with the large American frigates, and even this will
have its effect upon the Spirits of the Tars on both sides. It
differs a little from the time when the _Guerrière_ went out with
her name painted in Capitals on her fore-topsail, in search of our
disguised line of battle-ship _President_.[9]

“But the English Admiralty have further ordered the immediate
construction of seventeen new frigates, to be disguised line of
Battle ships too. Their particular destination is to be to fight
the Americans. Their numbers will be six to one against us,
unless we too taking the hint from one success can build frigate
for frigate and meet them on their own terms; in which case if
our new ships are commanded and officered, and manned like the
_Constitution_ and the _United States_ and _Wasp_,[10] I am
persuaded they will in process of time gain one step more upon the
maxims of the British Navy, and settle it as a principle that
single English ships are not to fight Americans of equal force.
Thus much I believe it will be in their power to do. And further I
wish them never to go. I hope they will never catch the indolent
affectation of seeking Battle against superior force. An English
pretension which has been so well chastised in the fate of their
two frigates.

“Our Navy, like all our other Institutions, is formed upon the
English model. With regard to the Navy at least the superiority
of that model to all others extant is incontestable. But in the
British Navy itself there are a multitude of abuses against which
we may guard, and there are many improvements of which it is
susceptible, and for which the field is open before us. Our three
44 gun ships were originally built not as the English pretend for
line of Battle ships, but to be a little more than a match in
force to the largest European Frigates, and the experience both of
our partial War with France, in 1798 and 1799 as well as of our
present War with England has proved the wisdom of the principle
upon which they were constructed. It has been a great and momentous
question among our Statesmen whether we should have any Navy or
not. It will probably still be a great question, but Great Britain
appears determined to solve all our doubts and difficulties upon
the subject. She blockades our Coast, and is resolved to crush us
instantly upon the Ocean. We must sink without a struggle, under
her hand, or we must have a Navy....”

NAPOLEON’S RETREAT FROM MOSCOW

John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams

“St. Petersburg, 30 November, 1812.

“ ... It may well be doubted whether in the compass of human
history since the Creation of the World, a greater, more sudden and
more total reverse of Fortune was ever experienced by man, than is
now exhibiting in the person of a man, whom Fortune for a previous
course of nearly twenty years had favored with a steadiness and
a prodigality equally unexampled in the annals of mankind. He
entered Russia at the head of three hundred thousand men, on the
24th of last June. On the 15th of September he took possession of
Moscow, the Russian armies having retreated before him almost as
fast as he could advance; not however without attempting to stop
him by two Battles, one of which [Borodino] was perhaps the most
bloody that had been fought for many ages. He appears really to
have concluded that all he had to do was to reach Moscow, and the
Russian Empire would be prostrate at his feet. Instead of that it
was precisely then that his serious difficulties began. Moscow
was destroyed; partly by his troops, and partly by the Russians
themselves. His Communications in his rear were continually
interrupted and harassed by separate small Detachments from the
Russian Army. His two flanks, one upon the Dvina, and the other
upon the frontier of Austria were both overpowered by superior
forces, which were drawing together and closing behind him; and
after having passed six weeks in total inaction at Moscow, he found
himself with a starving and almost naked army, eight hundred miles
from his frontier, exposed to all the rigour of a Russian Winter,
with an Army before him superior to his own and a Country behind
him already ravaged by himself, and where he had left scarcely a
possibility of any other sentiment than that of execration and
vengeance upon himself and his followers.

“He began his retreat on the 28th of October, scarcely a month
since, and at this moment, if he yet lives, he has scarcely the
ruins of an Army remaining with him. He has been pursued with all
the eagerness that could be felt by an exasperated and triumphant
Enemy. Thousands of his men have perished by famine,--thousands by
the extremity of the Season, and in the course of the last ten days
we have heard of more than thirty thousand who have laid down their
arms almost without resistance. His Cavalry is in a more dreadful
condition even than his Infantry. He has lost the greatest part
of his Artillery,--has abandoned most of the baggage of his army,
and has been even reduced to blow up his own stores of ammunition.
The two wings of the Russian Armies have formed their junction and
closed the passage to his retreat; and according to every human
probability within ten days the whole remnant of his host will be
compelled like the rest to lay down their arms and surrender at
discretion. If he has a soul capable of surviving such an Event, he
will probably be a prisoner himself.

“Should he by some extraordinary accident escape in his own person,
he has no longer a force nor the means of assembling one which can
in the slightest degree be formidable to Russia. Even before his
Career of victory had ceased, commotions against his Government
had manifested themselves in his own Capital, on a false rumour of
his death which had been circulated. Now, that if he returns at
all, it must be as a solitary fugitive, it is scarcely possible
that he should be safer at the Thuileries [_sic_], than he would
be in Russia. His allies, almost every one of whom was such upon
the bitterest compulsion, and upon whom he has brought the most
impending danger of ruin, may not content themselves merely with
deserting him. Revolutions in Germany, France, and Italy must be
the inevitable consequence of this state of things, and Russia,
whose influence in the political affairs of the World he expressly
threatened to destroy, will henceforth be the arbitress of Europe.

“It has pleased Heaven for many years to preserve this man, and
to make him prosper, as an instrument of divine wrath to scourge
mankind. His race is now run, and his own term of punishment has
commenced.--‘Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his
way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass--for
yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt
diligently consider his place and it shall not be.’ How often have
I thought of this Oracle of divine truth, with an application of
the Sentiment to this very man upon whom it is now so signally
fulfilling. And how ardently would I pray the supreme disposer of
Events that the other and more consolatory part of the same promise
may now be also near its accomplishment--‘But the _meek_ shall
inherit the Earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of
Peace.’”

John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams

“St. Petersburg, 31 December, 1812.

“ ... In my last letter I gave you a sketch of the situation at
that time of Napoleon the Great. There is no Account yet that he
has personally surrendered himself;[11] but he has only saved
himself by the swiftness of his flight, which on one occasion at
least he was obliged to pursue in disguise. Of the immense host
with which six months since he invaded Russia, nine tenths at least
are prisoners, or food for worms. They have been surrendering
by ten thousands at a time, and at this Moment there are at
least one hundred and fifty thousand of them in the power of the
Emperor Alexander. From Moscow to Prussia, eight hundred miles
of road have been strewed with his Artillery, Baggage-Waggons,
Ammunition-Chests, dead and dying men who he has been forced to
abandon to their fate. Pursued all the time by three large regular
armies of a most embittered and exasperated Enemy, and by an almost
numberless militia of peasants, stung by the destruction of their
harvests and cottages which he had carried before him, and spurr’d
to Revenge at once themselves, their Country and their Religion.
To complete his disasters, the Season itself during the greatest
part of his Retreat has been unusually rigorous even for this
Northern Climate. So that it has become a sort of bye-word among
the Common People here that the two Russian Generals who have
conquered Napoleon and all his Marshals are General _Famine_ and
General _Frost_. There may be and probably is some exaggeration
in the accounts which have been received and officially published
here of the late Events; but where the realities are so certain and
so momentous the temptation to exaggerate and misrepresent almost
vanishes.

“In all human probability the Career of Napoleon’s conquests is
at an end. France can no longer give the law to the Continent of
Europe. How he will make up his account with Germany, the victim
of his former successful rashness, and with France, who rewarded
it with an Imperial Crown is now to be seen. The transition
from the condition of France in June last to her present State
is much greater than would be from the present to her defensive
campaign against the Duke of Brunswick in 1792. A new Era is
dawning upon Europe. The possibility of a more propitious prospect
is discernible; but to the great disposer of Events only is it
known whether this new Revolution is to be an opening for some
alleviation to human misery or whether it is to be only a variation
of Calamities.

“ ... I have already mentioned that the season has been unusually
rigorous. In the course of this month of December, we have had
seventeen days in succession with Fahrenheit’s thermometer almost
invariably below 0. I now write you at that temperature, and
notwithstanding the stoves and double windows my fingers can hardly
hold the pen. The Sun rises at a quarter past 9 in the morning,
and sets a quarter before 3 in the afternoon; so that we must live
almost by Candlelight. We are all literally and really sick of the
Climate. It is certainly contrary to the course of Nature, for men
of the South to invade the Regions of the North. Napoleon should
have thought of that....”

John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams

“St. Petersburg, 19 July, 1813.

“ ... The Battle of Lützen[12] was claimed by both parties as a
Victory, and was here celebrated as such by a Te Deum. But in
its consequences it was the most important Victory ever won by
Bonaparte--for it proved to all Europe that France was still able
to cope with her Enemies, and even to make head against them.
A second Battle[13] three weeks after had a similar and more
unequivocal result. Between the first and second Battles Napoleon
had proposed that a Congress should be assembled at Prague in
Bohemia, to which all the powers at War, including the United
States of America, should be invited to send Plenipotentiaries
for the purpose of concluding a general Peace; and he offered to
stipulate an Armistice, during the Negotiation. After the second
Battle, Russia and Prussia, with the concurrence of Austria,
accepted the proposition for an Armistice, limited however to the
term of six weeks, probably with a view to receive the answer
from England, whether she should choose to be represented at the
Congress or not. This Armistice is now on the point of expiring,
but is said to have been prolonged for six weeks more. In the
meantime Napoleon has quartered his army upon the Territory of his
Enemy in Silesia, is levying a contribution upon Hamburg of about
ten Millions of Dollars, is doubly fortifying all his positions
upon the Elbe, and receiving continual reinforcements to be
prepared for renewing an offensive campaign. He has made sure of
the aid and support of Denmark and Saxony, and strongly confirmed
Austria in her propensities to neutrality. If the War should be
renewed his prospects, though infinitely below those with which he
invaded Russia, last Summer, will be far above those with which
he entered upon the present Campaign in April. If the Congress
should meet he will not have it in his power to give the law to
Europe; but the Peace must be in effect of reciprocal and important
concessions.

“There has nothing occurred since the commencement of the French
Revolution which has occasioned such astonishment throughout Europe
as this state of things. There are many examples in History of the
extraordinary defeat and annihilation of immensely powerful armies.
But the reappearance of a second overpowering host, within five
Months after the dissolution of the first, is I believe without a
parallel....”[14]

John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams

“St. Petersburg, 19 November, 1813.

“ ... Since the renewal of the War in Germany the odds of force
have been too decisive against the French, and the catastrophe
of their Army [at Dresden and Leipsic] has been nearly equal to
that of the last year.[15] Napoleon himself has been defeated
and overpowered by the four combined armies of Austria, Russia,
Prussia and Sweden, and on the 19th of October escaped from Leipsic
leaving his ally the king of Saxony a Prisoner, more than twenty
of his Generals, and forty thousand men also prisoners, and 400
pieces of Cannon, Ammunition, baggage, etc., in proportion to the
conquerors. All his other German Allies have deserted him and taken
side against him; the Austrians are advancing in Italy, and Lord
Wellington with his English, Spaniards and Portuguese, are invading
France from the Pyrenees....”

John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

“St. Petersburg, 24 January, 1814.

“ ... The Events of the last two years have opened a new prospect
to all Europe, and have discovered the glassy substance of the
Colossal Power of France. Had that power been acquired by Wisdom,
it might have been consolidated by Time and the most ordinary
portion of Prudence. The Emperor Napoleon says that he was
never _seduced_ by Prosperity; but when he comes to be judged
impartially by Posterity, that will not be their sentence. His
Fortune will be among the wonders of the age in which he has lived.
His Military Talent and Genius will place him high in the Rank
of Great Captains; but his intemperate Passion, his presumptuous
Insolence, and his Spanish and Russian Wars, will reduce him very
nearly to the level of ordinary Men. At all Events he will be one
of the standing examples of human Vicissitude--ranged, not among
the Alexanders, Cæsars and Charlemagnes, but among the Hannibals,
Pompeys and Charles the 12ths. I believe his Romance is drawing
towards its close; and that he will soon cease even to yield a
pretext for the War against France. England alone will be ‘afraid
of the Gunpowder Percy, though he should be dead.’”[16]

John Quincy Adams to Mrs. John Adams

“Reval, 12 May, 1814.

“ ... The Coalition of all Europe against France has at length
been crowned with complete success. The annals of the World do
not I believe furnish an example of such a reverse of Fortune as
that Nation has experienced within the last two years.[17] The
interposition of Providence to produce this mighty change has been
so signal, so peculiar, so distinct from all human co-operation,
that in ages less addicted to superstition than the present
it might have been considered as miraculous. As a Judgment of
Heaven, it will undoubtedly be considered by all pious Minds now
and hereafter, and I cannot but indulge the Hope that it opens a
Prospect of at least more Tranquility and Security to the civilized
part of Mankind than they have enjoyed the last half Century.
France for the last twenty-five Years has been the scourge of
Europe; in every change of her Government she has manifested the
same ambitious, domineering, oppressive and rapacious Spirit to
all her Neighbours. She has now fallen a wretched and helpless
victim into their hands--dethroning the Sovereign she had chosen,
and taking back the family she had expelled, at their command;
and ready to be dismembered and parceled out as the Resentment
or the Generosity of her Conquerors shall determine. The final
Result is now universally, and in a great degree justly imputable
to one Man. Had Napoleon Bonaparte, with his extraordinary Genius,
and transcendent military talents, possessed an ordinary portion
of Judgment or common Sense, France might have been for ages the
preponderating Power in Europe, and he might have transmitted to
his Posterity the most powerful Empire upon Earth, and a name
to stand by the side of Alexander, Cæsar and Charlemagne--A name
surrounded by such a blaze of Glory as to blind the eyes of all
humankind to the baseness of its origin and even to the blood with
which it would still have been polluted. But if the Catastrophe
is the work of one Man, it was the Spirit of the Times and of the
Nation, which brought forward that Man, and concentrated in his
person and character the whole issue of the Revolution. ‘Oh! it
is the Sport (says Shakespear) to see the Engineer hoist by his
own petard.’ The sufferings of Europe are compensated and avenged
in the humiliation of France.... The great danger of the present
moment appears to me to be that the policy of crippling France to
guard against her future power will be carried too far....”

MADAME DE STAËL

John Q. Adams to Thomas B. Adams

“St. Petersburg, 22d November, 1812.

“ ... Toward the close of the last summer arrived here as a sort of
semi official appendage to the British embassy an old acquaintance
of yours, Sir Francis D’Ivernois, who as you know has been for many
years a distinguished political writer in the French language and
in the Interest of the British Government. He came not I believe
with, but very soon after, the Embassador Lord Cathcart.[18] just
at the same time a lady of celebrated fame, Madame de Staël, the
daughter of Mr. Necker, was also here on a transient visit.[19]
As I had not the honor of being personally known to Madame de
Staël and as we had just received information of the American
Declaration of war against Britain, I had no expectation of having
any communication or intercourse either with the Embassador or the
lady. And I regretted this the less as my whole soul was at that
period absorbed in the distressed situation of my family.... Early
one morning I received a note from Madame de Staël, requesting me
to call on her at her lodgings that same day at noon as she wished
to speak to me on a subject respecting America.

“I went accordingly at the hour appointed and upon entering the
lady’s _salon_ found there a company of some fifteen or twenty
persons, not a soul of whom I had ever seen before. An elderly
gentleman in the full uniform of an English General was seated on
a sofa and the lady whom I immediately perceived to be Madame de
Staël was complimenting him with equal elegance and fluency upon
the glories of his nation, his countryman, Lord Wellington, and
his own. The Battle of Salamanca and the bombardment of Copenhagen
were themes upon which much was to be said and upon which she said
much.[20]

“When I went in she intermitted her discourse for a moment to
receive me and offer me a seat which I immediately took and for
about half an hour had the opportunity to admire the brilliancy of
her genius as it sparkled incessantly in her conversation. There
was something a little too broad and direct in the substance of
the panegyrics which she pronounced to allow them the claim of
refinement. There was neither disguise nor veil to cover their
naked beauties, but they were expressed with so much variety and
vivacity that the hearers had not time to examine the thread of
their texture. Lord Cathcart received the compliments pointed at
himself with becoming modesty; those to his nation with apparent
satisfaction and those to the conquest of Salamanca with silent
acquiescence. The lady insisted that the British was the most
astonishing nation of antient or modern times, the only preservers
of social order, the defenders exclusively of the liberties of
mankind, to which his lordship added that their glory was in
being a moral nation, a character which he was sure they would
always preserve. The glittering sprightliness of the Lady and
the stately gravity of the Embassador were as well contrasted as
their respective topics of praise, and if my mind had been at cast
to relish anything in the nature of an exhibition I should have
been much amused at hearing a Frenchwoman’s celebration of the
generosity of the English towards other nations and a lecture upon
national morality from the commander of the expedition Copenhagen.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

FROM THE PORTRAIT, PAINTED IN 1835, BY ASHER B. DURAND]

“During this sentimental duet between the ambassador and the
Embassadress, kept my seat, merely an auditor. The rest of the
company were equally silent. Among them was an English Naval
Officer, Admiral Bentinck, since deceased. He was then quite the
chevalier d’honneur to Madame de Staël but whether the scene did
not strike him precisely as it did me or whether his feelings
resulting from it were of a more serious nature than mine the
moment it was finished he drew a very long breath and sighed it
out as if relieved from an offensive burden saying only ‘thank God
that’s over.’ He and all the rest of the company immediately after
that retired and left me tête-à-tête with Madame de Staël.

“The subject respecting America was to tell me that she had a
large sum in the American funds and to enquire whether I knew how
she could contrive to receive the interest which she had hitherto
received from England. I gave her such information as I possessed.
She had also some lands in the State of New York of which she
wished to know the value. I answered her as well as I could but her
lands and her funds did not appear to occupy much of her thoughts.

“She soon asked me if I was related to the celebrated Mr. Adams
who wrote the book upon Government. I said I had the happiness
of being his son. She said she had read it and admired it very
much, that her father. Mr. Necker, had always expressed a very
high opinion of it. She next commenced upon Politics and asked
how it was possible that America should have declared war against
England. In accounting for this phenomenon I was obliged to recur
to a multitude of facts not as strongly stamped with British
generosity or British Morality as might be expected from the
character which she and the Embassador had just been assigning
that nation. The orders in council and the press gang afforded but
a sorry commentary upon the Chauvinesque defence of the liberties
of mankind and no very instructive lessons of morality. She had
nothing to say in their defence but she thought that the knights
errant of the Human race were to be allowed special indulgence and
in consideration of their cause were not to be held by the ordinary
obligations of war and peace.

“There was no probability that any arguments of mine could make
any impression upon opinions thus toned. She listened, however,
with as much complacency as could be expected to what I said and
finally asked me why I had not been to see her before. I answered
that her high reputation was calculated to inspire respect no less
than curiosity and that however desirous I had been of becoming
personally acquainted with her I had thought I could not without
indiscretion intrude myself upon her Society. The reason appeared
to please her. She said she was to leave this city the next day at
noon. She was going to Stockholm to pass the winter and then to
England. She wished to have another conversation with me before she
went and asked me to call on her the next morning.

“I readily accepted the invitation and we discussed politics again
two or three hours. I found her better conversant with Rhetoric
than with Logic. She had much to say about social order, much
about universal monarchy, much about the preservation of religion
in which she gave me to understand she did not herself believe,
and much about the ambition and supremacy of Buonaparte upon which
she soon discovered there was no difference of sentiment between
us. But why did not America join in the holy cause against the
tyrant? First because America had no means of making war against
him, she could neither attack him by sea or land. 2d because it was
a fundamental maxim of American policy never to intermeddle with
the political affairs of Europe. Thirdly because it was altogether
unnecessary. He had enemies enough upon his hands already. What!
Did not I dread his universal monarchy? Not in the least. I saw
indeed a very formidable mass of force arrayed under him, but I saw
a mass of force at least as formidable arrayed against him. Europe
contained about 100 millions of human beings. He was wielding the
means of 15 millions and the means of 85 millions were wielding
against him. It was an awful spectacle to behold the shock, but I
did not believe nor ever had believed that he would ever be able to
subjugate even the continent of Europe. If there had ever been any
real danger of such an event it was passed.

“She herself saw that there was every prospect of his being very
shortly driven out of Spain. And I was equally convinced he would
be driven out of Russia. It was the very day of the battle of
Borodino. ‘J’en accepte l’augure,’ she said. ‘Everything that
you say of him is very just. But I have particular reason for
resentment against him. I have been persecuted by him in the most
shameful manner. I was neither suffered to live anywhere nor to
go where I would have gone, all for no other reason but because I
would not eulogize him in my writings.’ As to our war with England
I told her that I deeply lamented it and yet cherished the hope
that it would not last long. That England had forced it upon
us by measures as outrageous upon the rights of an independent
nation as tyrannical as oppressive as any that could be charged
upon Buonaparte. Her pretences were retaliation and necessity.
Retaliation upon America for the wrongs of France and necessity
for man Stealing. We asked of England nothing but our indisputable
rights, but we allowed no special prerogatives to political
Quixotism. We did not consider Britain at all as the defender
of the liberties of mankind but as another Tyrant pretending to
exclusive dominion upon the ocean. A pretension full as detestable
and I trusted in God full as chimerical as the pretension of
universal monarchy upon the land.

“Madame de Staël was of her own opinion still but on the point of
empressment she owned that my observations were reasonable. I have
not yet found a European of any nation except the English who on
having this question in its true state brought to a precise point
had a syllable to say for the English side. In conclusion I told
her that the pretended retaliation of England had compelled us to
resort to real retaliation upon them and that as long as they felt
a necessity to fight for the practice of stealing men from American
merchant vessels on the high seas we should feel the _necessity_ of
fighting against it. I could only hope that God would prosper the
righteous cause.

“Madame de Staël charged me if I ever should be again in any place
where she should be at the same time not to neglect paying her a
visit which I very willingly promised. She left St. Petersburg
the same day. I should ask Sir Francis D’Ivernois pardon. I began
this letter with him, but whom can one help deserting for Madame
de Staël? I will return to Sir Francis by the next opportunity.
Dutifully and affectionately yours.”

MY DAUGHTER

FROM THE PAINTING BY FRANK W. BENSON

(THE CENTURY’S AMERICAN ARTISTS SERIES)]

SIGIRIYA

“THE LIONS’ ROCK” OF CEYLON

BY JENNIE COKER GAY

WITH PICTURES BY DUNCAN GAY

“And after that, that wicked ruler of men (Kassapa) sent his groom
and his cook to his brother (Moggallana) to kill him. And finding
that he could not fulfil his purpose, he feared danger, and took
himself to Sihagiri rock, that was hard for men to climb. He
cleared it round about and surrounded it by a rampart, and built
galleries in it ornamented with figures of lions; wherefore it took
its name of Sihagiri (‘The Lions’ Rock’). Having gathered together
all his wealth, he buried it there carefully, and set guards over
the treasures he had buried in divers places. He built there a
lovely palace, splendid to behold....

“He planted gardens at the gates of the city.... He observed the
sacred days ... and caused books to be written. He made many
images, alms-houses, and the like; but he lived on in fear of the
world to come and of Moggallana.”[21]

That is what history has to say about the founding of Sigiriya (or “Sihagiri,” as it is called in “The Mihavansa,”) and all that it has to say; just enough to arouse our interest, and not enough to satisfy it. At Anuradhpura we had come across numerous traces of Kassapa’s father, Dhatusena, who was counted a great king when he ruled Ceylon fifteen hundred years ago. And we were curious to see the place where Kassapa had sought safety after he had killed Dhatusena and usurped the throne, and had been forced to flee into the jungle for fear of his brother Moggallana; so we decided to follow this bold, wild patricide to his hiding-place not by the exact trail that he took, for no one knows by what roundabout wandering he finally reached the rock, but by the more modern and convenient, if somewhat dustier, way that leads along the iron rails of the Ceylon Government railroad.

Sigiriya is southeast of Anuradhpura, and only about fifty miles away from it in a direct line; but around by way of Kandy, as we purposed to go, it is fully three times that far. It lies just north of the mountainous center of Ceylon at the edge of the great plain that stretches on the one hand to the Indian Ocean and on the other to the small waters that separate the island from the Indian peninsula.

A long, hot ride through the western lowlands brought us to Polgahawela, where the road we were to follow diverges at a right angle from the main line, and we began to climb the magnificent mountains; past rice-fields, so substantially terraced up the sides of the hills that they looked like monstrous and never-ending fortifications; past forests of palms and masses of brilliant flowers; past the world-famed botanical gardens of Peradeniya, until just at dusk we came into the lovely town of Kandy, which seemed delightfully fresh and cool after the heaviness and heat of the plains. Beyond Kandy the road began to descend again, until at Matale it suddenly came to an end, and we were obliged to look out for some less-modern conveyance for the continuance of our journey.