June 19 1812: John Quincy Adams Discusses Napoleon

On June 19, 1812, John Quincy Adams, the American Ambassador to Russia in St. Petersburg, pays a visit to his French counterpart. Adams writes, in part, in his diary:

I asked him where the Emperor Napoleon was. He did not know — perhaps at Warsaw. He heard the Russians had concentrated their forces, because they said the Emperor Napoleon always attacks the centre. "There it is!" said he." They think because he has done so before, he will do so again. But with such a man as that, they will find their calculations fail them. He will do something that they do not expect. He does not copy himself nor any other. He does something new."