nearly half way between the
common law of England and what every body else has called natural law,
and not common law, that he could hold to either the one or the other,
as he should find expedient.

Dexter maintained that the common law, as to crimes, is in force in the
United States.

Chipman says, that the principles of common right are common law.

March the 11th. Conversing with Mrs. Adams on the subject of the writers
in the newspapers, I took occasion to mention that I never in my life
had, directly or indirectly, written one sentence for a newspaper; which
is an absolute truth. She said that Mr. Adams, she believed, had pretty
well ceased to meddle in the newspapers, since he closed the pieces on
Davila. This is the first direct avowal of that work to be his, though
long and universally understood to be so.

March the 14th. Freneau, in Charleston, had the printing of the laws
in his paper. He printed a pamphlet of Pinckney's letters on Robbins's
case. Pickering has given the printing of the laws to the tory paper of
that place, though not of half the circulation. The printing amounted to
about one hundred dollars a year.

March the 24th. Mr. Perez Morton of Massachusetts tells me that
Thatcher, on his return from the war Congress, declared to him he had
been for a declaration of war against France, and many others also; but
that on counting noses they found they could not carry it, and therefore
did not attempt it.

March the 27th. Judge Breckenridge gives me the following information.
He and Mr. Ross were originally very intimate; indeed, he says, he found
him keeping a little Latin school, and advised and aided him in the
study of the law, and brought him forward. After Ross became a Senator,
and particularly at the time of the western insurrection, they still
were in concert. After the British treaty, Ross, on his return, informed
him there was a party in the United States who wanted to overturn the
government, who were in league with France; that France, by a secret
article of treaty with Spain, was to have Louisiana; and that Great
Britain was likely to be our best friend and dependence.

On this information, he, Breckenridge, was induced to become an advocate
for the British treaty. During this intimacy with Ross, he says, that
General Collot, in his journey to the western country, called on
him, and he frequently led Breckenridge into conversations on
their grievances under the government