Diary of Charles Francis Adams, volume 1
1825-01-31
Morning at home, political excitement, Mr. Clay,1 evening, Theatre, the Gamester, Cooper, Mrs. Barnes,2 full house, rival candidates.
Clay on 31 Jan. 1825 issued “A Card,” denying Kremer’s accusation of a corrupt bargain and denouncing its author as “a base and infamous calumniator.” A copy of this document, in Clay’s own handwriting, is in the Adams Papers. A threatened duel was avoided because Kremer showed no inclination to fight, and Clay considered his opponent “too simple-minded and eccentric to summon to the field of personal honor” (Bemis, JQA
, 2:57).
Mrs. Barnes and Cooper were appearing in Edward Moore’s tragedy, The Gamester (The Oxford Companion to the Theatre, ed. Phyllis Hartnoll, London, 1951).