If these conclusions needed the support of authority, they would find it in John Quincy Adams. His words have been often quoted, without perhaps fully considering the great weight to which they are entitled. At an early day, when Minister at London, while Slavery prevailed in the Government, in the discharge of official duties, under instructions from the President, he claimed compensation for slaves liberated by the British armies, arguing against any such liberation under the Rights of War. In conversation with the British Prime-Minister, as reported by himself, after saying that proclamations inviting slaves to desert from their masters had been issued by British officers, he added: “_We_ considered them as deviations from the usages of war.”[89] Afterwards, as Secretary of State under Mr. Monroe, of Virginia, he made a similar statement.[90] A full knowledge of his convictions on this occasion might, perhaps, disclose the repugnance, or, to borrow his own words on another occasion, “the bitterness of soul,” with which he discharged his duty. It is known, by avowals afterwards made, that on at least one occasion he acted as Secretary of State contrary to his convictions. “It was utterly against my judgment and wishes, but I was obliged to submit, and I prepared the requisite despatches.”[91] Such was his open declaration in the House of Representatives with regard to an important negotiation. So that it is easy to see how on this other occasion he may have represented the Government and not himself. But, whatever his actions at that time, it is beyond question, that afterwards, in his glorious career as Representative, when larger experience and still maturer years had added to his great authority, and he was called in Congress to express himself on his personal responsibility, we find him reconsidering his earlier diplomatic arguments, and, in the face of the world, defiantly claiming not only for Congress, but for the President, and every military commander within his department, full power to emancipate slaves under the Rights of War. If these words had been hastily uttered, or, if once uttered, had been afterwards abandoned, or if they could in any way be associated with the passions or ardors of controversy, as his earlier words were clearly associated with the duties of advocacy, they might be entitled to less consideration. But they are among the later and most memorable utterances of our great master of the Law of Nations, made under circumstances of peculiar solemnity, and repeated after intervals of time.[92] … The representatives of Slavery broke forth in characteristic outrage upon the venerable orator, but nobody answered him. And these words have stood ever since as a landmark of public law. You cannot deny the power of Congress to liberate the slaves, without removing this landmark. Vain work! It is not less firm than the Constitution itself. * * * * *