liated by reciting
offensive language used by Mr. Canning, who in turn replied that he
had been speaking only in self-defence. Mr. Canning found occasion to
make again his peculiarly rasping remark that he should always strive
to show towards Mr. Adams the deference due to his "more advanced
years." After another very uncomfortable passage, Mr. Adams said that
the behavior of Mr. Canning in making the observations of members of
Congress a basis of official interrogations was a pretension the more
necessary to be resisted because this

"'was not the first time it had been raised by a British minister
here.' He asked, with great emotion, who that minister was. I
answered, 'Mr. Jackson.' 'And you got rid of him!' said Mr.
Canning, in a tone of violent passion--'and you got rid of
him!--and you got rid of him!' This repetition of the same words,
always in the same tone, was with pauses of a few seconds between
each of them, as if for a reply. I said: 'Sir, my reference to
the pretension of Mr. Jackson was not'--Here Mr. Canning
interrupted me by saying: 'If you think that by reference to Mr.
Jackson I am to be intimidated from the performance of my (p. 147)
duty you will find yourself greatly mistaken.' 'I had not,
sir,' said I, 'the most distant intention of intimidating you
from the performance of your duty; nor was it with the intention
of alluding to any subsequent occurrences of his mission;
but'--Mr. Canning interrupted me again by saying, still in a tone
of high exasperation,--'Let me tell you, sir, that your reference
to the case of Mr. Jackson is _exceedingly offensive_.' 'I do not
know,' said I, 'whether I shall be able to finish what I intended
to say, under such continual interruptions.'"

Mr. Canning thereupon intimated by a bow his willingness to listen,
and Mr. Adams reiterated what in a more fragmentary way he had already
said. Mr. Canning then made a formal speech, mentioning his desire "to
cultivate harmony and smooth down all remnants of asperity between the
two countries," again gracefully referred to the deference which he
should at all times pay to Mr. Adams's age, and closed by declaring,
with a significant emphasis, that he would "never forget the respect
due from him _to the American Government_." Mr. Adams bowed in silence
and the stormy interview ended. A day or two afterward the disputants
met by