colleagues, more complaisant or having less confidence in their own
skill in that game, found it difficult to placate him; he "stalked to
and fro across the chamber, repeating five or six times, 'I will never
sign a treaty upon the _status ante bellum_ with the Indian article.
So help me God!'" The next day there was an angry controversy (p. 091)
with the Englishmen. The British troops had taken and held Moose
Island in Passamaquoddy Bay, the rightful ownership of which was in
dispute. The title was to be settled by arbitrators. But the question,
whether the British should restore possession of the island pending
the arbitration, aroused bitter discussion. "Mr. Goulburn and Dr.
Adams (the Englishman) immediately took fire, and Goulburn lost all
control of his temper. He has always in such cases," says the Diary,
"a sort of convulsive agitation about him, and the tone in which he
speaks is more insulting than the language which he uses." Mr. Bayard
referred to the case of the Falkland Islands. "'Why' (in a transport
of rage), said Goulburn, 'in that case we sent a fleet and troops and
drove the fellows off; and that is what we ought to have done in this
case.'" Mr. J. Q. Adams, whose extensive and accurate information more
than once annoyed his adversaries, stated that, as he remembered it,
"the Spaniards in that case had driven the British off,"--and Lord
Gambier helped his blundering colleague out of the difficulty by
suggesting a new subject, much as the defeated heroes of the Iliad
used to find happy refuge from death in a god-sent cloud of dust. It
is amusing to read that in the midst of such scenes as these the (p. 092)
show of courtesy was still maintained; and on December 13 the
Americans "all dined with the British Plenipotentiaries," though "the
party was more than usually dull, stiff, and reserved." It was
certainly forcing the spirit of good fellowship. The next day Mr. Clay
notified his colleagues that they were going "to make a damned bad
treaty, and he did not know whether he would sign it or not;" and Mr.
Adams also said that he saw that the rest had made up their minds "at
last to yield the fishery point," in which case he also could not sign
the treaty. On the following day, however, the Americans were
surprised by receiving a note from the British Commissioners, wherein
they made the substantial concession of omitting from the treaty all
reference to the fisheries and the navigation of the Missis