of his official advisers as long as I could.

"At that time there was in Congress, and especially in the House, a
spirit of concession, which I could not resist. From the year 1818
to the year 1823, not a session passed without some movement on this
point, and some proposition made to request the President to
negotiate for the mutual concession of this right of search. I
resisted it to the utmost; and so earnest did the matter become,
that, on one occasion, at an evening party in the President's house,
in a conversation between myself and a distinguished gentleman of
Virginia,--a principal leader of this movement, now living, but not
now a member of this house,--words became so warm that what I said
was afterwards alluded to by another gentleman of Virginia, in an
address to his constituents, against my election as President of the
United States. It was made an objection against me that I was an
enemy to the suppression of the slave-trade. That address and my
reply to it are in existence, and the latter in the hands of a
gentleman of Virginia now in this house, and who can correct me if I
do not state the matter correctly. The address was written, and
would have been published, with an allusion to what I had said in
the conversation (which the writer heard, although it was not
addressed to him), but the gentleman with whom I was conversing went
to him, and told him that if he did refer in print to that private
conversation, he would never speak to him; and so it was suppressed.
I state these facts, sir, that I may set myself right on this
question of the right of search.

"At that time a gentleman, who was the leader of one of the parties
in this house, had endeavored from year to year to prevail with the
house to require of the President a concession of the right asked.
I name him to honor him; for he was one of the most talented,
laborious, eloquent, and useful men upon this floor. I allude to
Charles Fenton Mercer, of Virginia. Session after session, he
brought forward his resolution; and he continued to press it,
until, finally, in 1823, he brought the house by yeas and nays to
vote their assent to it; and, strange to say, there were but nine
votes against it. The same thing took place in the other house. The
joint resolution went to the President, and he accordingly entered