Adams Papers Digital Edition

Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 1

10. VIII.

12. IX.
11. IX. CFA

1820-02-11

 11. IX. CFA
11. IX.

Arise, no School, to the Senate, Missouri Question, Mr. King of New York,1 crowd, home, evening, Cardelli.

 1.

Federalist Senator Rufus King (1775–1827) supported the right and the expediency of restricting slavery in Missouri as a condition for statehood ( Annals of Congress , 16 Cong., 1 sess., 1:372–373). Slaveholders who listened to him “gnawed their lips and clenched their fists” in anger (JQA, Diary, 11 Feb. 1820). In “Rufus King, Slavery, and the Missouri Crisis,” Robert Ernst has recently explained King’s not always well understood position on the “Missouri Question” (NYHS, Quart. , 46:357–382 [Oct. 1962]).