Browsing: Diary of Charles Francis Adams, Volume 2

2. JQA had been busy trying to collect evidence to refute the “thirteen confederates” (see entry for 7 Feb., and note, above). The only trustworthy recollection he could secure was that of William Plumer (1759–1850), a former Senator from New Hampshire, who claimed to know at first hand of a New England separatist movement in 1803–1804, which he believed had been revived in 1808 and in 1812. JQA had Plumer’s letter and other supplementary papers added to a new edition of the pamphlet of the Boston Federalists: Correspondence between John Quincy Adams, President of the United States, and Several Citizens of Massachusetts concerning the Charge of a Design to Dissolve the Union Alleged to Have Existed in That State. To Which Are Now Added Additional Papers, Illustrative of the Subject, Washington, 1829 (copy in MHi).