ted
States, a serious trouble arose in which Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Adams
were at direct difference. In the spring of 1821 a French vessel, the
Apollon, was seized on the St. Mary's River, on the Spanish side, and
condemned for violation of the United States navigation laws. Mr. Adams
sustained the seizure and Mr. Gallatin did his best to defend it, on the
ground that the place where the vessel was seized was embraced in the
occupation of the United States. To Adams he wrote that the doctrine
assumed by the State Department with respect to the non-ratified treaty
with Spain was not generally admitted in Europe, and that "he thought it
equally dangerous and inconsistent with our general principles to assert
that we had a right to seize a vessel for any cause short of piracy in a
place where we did not previously claim jurisdiction." Mr. Gallatin
succeeded in satisfying M. Pasquier that the seizure was not in
violation of the law of nations or an insult to the French flag, and the
captain having instituted a suit for redress against the seizing
officers, the French minister allowed the matter to rest. Adams,
however, was indignant at having his arguments set aside. He complained
of it to Calhoun, and asked what Mr. Gallatin meant. Calhoun answered
that perhaps it was "the pride of opinion." But when Adams got to his
diary, which was the safety-valve of his ill-temper, he set a black mark
against Mr. Gallatin's name in these words: "Gallatin is a man of
first-rate talents, conscious and vain of them, and mortified in his
ambition, checked as it has been, after attaining the last step to the
summit; timid in great perils, tortuous in his paths; born in Europe,
disguising and yet betraying a superstitious prejudice of European
superiority of intellect, and holding principles pliable to
circumstances, occasionally mistaking the left for the right handed
wisdom." Against this judgment, Gallatin's estimate of Adams may be here
set down. It was expressed to his intimate friend Badollet in 1824:
"John Q. Adams is a virtuous man, whose temper, which is not the best,
might be overlooked; he has very great and miscellaneous knowledge, and
he is with his pen a powerful debater; but he wants, to a deplorable
degree, that most essential quality, a sound and correct judgment. Of
this I have had in my official connection and intercourse with him
complete and repeated proofs; and although he may be useful when
controlled and checked by other