which he said or suggested please
his prejudiced auditors. The worst augury for any measure was his
support; any motion which he made was sure to be voted down, though
not unfrequently substantially the same matter being afterward moved
by somebody else would be readily carried. That cordiality, (p. 032)
assistance, and sense of fellowship which Senators from the same State
customarily expect and obtain from each other could not be enjoyed by
him. For shortly after his arrival in Washington, Mr. Pickering had
been chosen to fill a vacancy in the other Massachusetts senatorship,
and appeared upon the scene as a most unwelcome colleague. For a time,
indeed, an outward semblance of political comradeship was maintained
between them, but it would have been folly for an Adams to put faith
in a Pickering, and perhaps _vice versa_. This position of his, as the
unpopular member of an unpopular minority, could not be misunderstood,
and many allusions to it occur in his Diary. One day he notes a motion
rejected; another day, that he has "nothing to do but to make
fruitless opposition;" he constantly recites that he has voted with a
small minority, and at least once he himself composed the whole of
that minority; soon after his arrival he says that an amendment
proposed by him "will certainly not pass; and, indeed, I have already
seen enough to ascertain that no amendments of my proposing will
obtain in the Senate as now filled;" again, "I presented my three
resolutions, which raised a storm as violent as I expected;" and on
the same day he writes, "I have no doubt of incurring much censure
and obloquy for this measure;" a day or two later he speaks of (p. 033)
certain persons "who hate me rather more than they love any
principle;" when he expressed an opinion in favor of ratifying a
treaty with the Creeks, he remarks quite philosophically, that he
believes it "surprised almost every member of the Senate, and
dissatisfied almost all;" when he wanted a committee raised he did not
move it himself, but suggested the idea to another Senator, for "I
knew that if I moved it a spirit of jealousy would immediately be
raised against doing anything." Writing once of some resolutions which
he intended to propose, he says that they are "another feather against
a whirlwind. A desperate and fearful cause in which I have embarked,
but I must pursue it or feel myself either a coward or a traitor."
Another time we find a committee, of wh