8447. TITLE, President's.—[further continued].
I will presume to suggest
to Mr. [John Quincy] Adams the question
whether he should not send back Onis's
letters in which he has the impudence to qualify
you by the term “His Excellency”? An
American gentleman in Europe can rank with
the first nobility because we have no titles
which stick him at any particular place in
their line. So the President of the United
States, under that designation ranks with the
emperors and kings; but add Mr. Onis's
courtesy of “His Excellency” and he is then
on a level with Mr. Onis himself, with the
governors of provinces, and even of every
petty fort in Europe, or the colonies.—
To President Monroe.
Ford ed., x, 123.
(M.
1819)
