Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. — John Shaqi
Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams.Quincy, Josiah
History
Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams.
Quincy, Josiah
Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848
The intelligence that Napoleon had left Elba soon caused great
excitement and anxiety in Paris, which continued to increase until the
morning of the 20th of March, when Louis the Eighteenth left the
Tuileries. In the evening Napoleon alighted there so silently, that Mr.
Adams, who was at the Theatre Francais, not a quarter of a mile distant,
was unaware of the fact until the next day, when the gazettes of Paris,
which had showered execrations upon him, announced "the arrival of his
majesty, the Emperor, at _his_ palace of the Tuileries." In the Place
du Carousel Mr. Adams, in his morning walk, saw regiments of cavalry,
belonging to the garrison of Paris, which had been sent out to oppose
Napoleon, pass in review before him, their helmets and the clasps of
their belts yet glowing with the arms of the Bourbons. The theatres
assumed the title of Imperial, and at the opera, in the evening, the
arms of the emperor were placed on the curtain and on the royal box.
A few days afterwards, Mr. Adams requested an interview with the
emperor's Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Duke de Vicence, with whom he
had been previously acquainted at St. Petersburg. He assured Mr. Adams
that the late revolution had been effected without effort; that Fouche,
the new Minister of Police, who received reports from every part of the
country, informed him that there had not been one act of violence or
resistance. He said, that if Napoleon had not returned, the misconduct
of the Bourbons would have caused an insurrection of the people in less
than six months; that the emperor had renounced all ideas of extended
conquest, and only desired peace with all the world. Mr. Adams expressed
a hope that the relations between France and the United States would
become friendly and mutually advantageous, and said he was awaiting
orders from his government, and should soon need a passport to England.
The duke assured him of his readiness to comply with any request from
him or from Mr. Crawford. All the other foreign ministers had already
quitted Paris.
After Mrs. Adams had arrived from St. Petersburg, Mr. Adams, having been
appointed American minister at the British Court, left Paris, with his
family, on the 16th of May, 1815. About the time of his departure he
observed: "War appears to be certain. The first thought of the
inhabitants of Paris will be to save themselves. They have no attachment
either to the Bourbons or Napoleon. They will submit quietly to the
victorious party, and do nothing to support either."
On the 25th of May Mr. Adams arrived in London, and on the 29th had an
interview with Lord Castlereagh relative to the treaty of peace, and the
commercial relations of Great Britain with the United States. The Prince
Regent, at a private audience, said the United States might rely with
full assurance on his determination to fulfil all engagements with them
on the part of Great Britain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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