ntinued, systematic, and laborious
effort" of "Mr. Clay and his partisans to make it unpopular," it was
ratified by a handsome majority, there being against it "only four
votes--Brown, of Louisiana, who married a sister of Clay's wife;
Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, against his own better judgment, from
mere political subserviency to Clay; Williams, of Tennessee, from
party impulses connected with hatred of General Jackson; and Trimble,
of Ohio, from some maggot of the brain." Two years had elapsed since
the former ratification, and no little patience had been required to
await so long the final achievement of a success so ardently longed
for, once apparently gained, and anon so cruelly thwarted. But the
triumph was rather enhanced than diminished by all this difficulty and
delay. A long and checkered history, wherein appeared infinite labor,
many a severe trial of temper and hard test of moral courage, bitter
disappointment, ignoble artifices of opponents, ungenerous (p. 125)
opposition growing out of unworthy personal motives at home, was now
at last closed by a chapter which appeared only the more gratifying by
contrast with what had gone before. Mr. Adams recorded, with less of
exultation than might have been pardonable, the utter discomfiture of
"all the calculators of my downfall by the Spanish negotiation," and
reflected cheerfully that he had been left with "credit rather augmented
than impaired by the result,"--credit not in excess of his deserts.
Many years afterwards, in changed circumstances, an outcry was raised
against the agreement which was arrived at concerning the southwestern
boundary of Louisiana. Most unjustly it was declared that Mr. Adams
had sacrificed a portion of the territory of the United States. But
political motives were too plainly to be discerned in these tardy
criticisms; and though General Jackson saw fit, for personal reasons,
to animadvert severely upon the clause establishing this boundary
line, yet there was abundant evidence to show not only that he, like
almost everybody else, had been greatly pleased with it at the time,
but even that he had then upon consultation expressed a deliberate and
special approval.

The same day, February 22, 1821, closed, says Mr. Adams, "two of the
most memorable transactions of my life." That he should speak thus (p. 126)
of the exchange of ratifications of the Spanish treaty is natural; but
the other so "memorable transaction" may not appe