P''' ^N"-" * 0^^' %'^^^^'\'^'^ '^^ "'o^.> .vO^ . '^w. '•- .%' .^ -^o. ,^^' ^oV' / :^- /'JF , >\:i^ • N Hq. .} vO' .LVL'* .V ^^-v^. ^*' y <*. . * ^. O^ ' 'i^" -'■"•7 ^°-v. ^'^^'^^ .^^, ■.i-% ,•^ »•••>" v-«^>r.. <<.---v :::-r '^-. ''!^»:° .r:^ o ^ ^o o > \' ^'^ t.. .^ .'a\%^a:^ -^^ •^^0^ ■^ ^'.c'- 'o . » * G^ \3 *' .. 5* .^ t O A"- y ^o^'^^-V' \-^"y^ ^^^/ V-!^ » -< ^ n his letter of apology, he may have taken them all 22 back, together with every thing else in the " Corres- pondence" which could give offence to his half century friend, the " patriarch" of republicans — lest they should have an inauspicious influence on the fortunes of his son. After all, what is there in Mr. Jefferson's letter, of October 12th, to entitle him to the honour of a tri- umph — hy some few so liberally decreed? Suppose Mr. Adams's accusations well founded — as every intel- ligent reader, and all others acquainted with the affairs of the United States during the last twenty four years, may justly be inclined to believe — and suppose Mr, Jefferson to be conscious of their truth ; did it require any great stretch of charity to forgive his friend and fellow "patriarch," " Now at his feet submissive in distress," and suing for pardon ? and when freely to grant it would present the idea of Ms otvn innocence and of J\Ir. jldams^s guilt f for if not guilty, why make apologies, or sue for pardon ? And while Mr. Adams's situation bears not the most honourable aspect, that of his friend is singularly happy ; it exhibits the loveliness of inno- cence, the calmness of philosophy, and the meek, for- giving temper of Christianity. But in what originated Mr. Adams's solicifude so promptly to apologize, in order to prevent, or soften, the displeasure of his old friend ? Certainly not the belief that all his reproaches were unfounded. It was, as above suggested, the apprehension of the effect of the " Correspondence," made public prematurely— be- fore the time which he had himself assigned for its publication — and when he had not contemplated a crisis like the present. It was a moment of high family con- cern. His son, who, by deserting his and his father's former friends, and joniing their enemies, had risen anew to place and power — a boon which he saw was no longer attainable if he continued in their ranks, and persevered in their principles — was now a candidate for the highest object of republican ambition — the pre- sidency of the United States. This elevation would 23 depend on his standing well with the great dominant party, of which Mr. Jefferson, originally the leader, was still, though not officially, yet in public estimation, the political head. Under these circumstances, Mr. Adams hastens to make apologies and atonement to Mr. Jef- ferson, for the just reproaches, or the foul slanders — they must be one or the other — which he had uttered against him. Mr. Adams may avow either, as will best comport with his knowledge, his conscience, or his family interest. His choice will not change my opinion, nor the opinions of the distinguished citizens still living, who have observed the course of public affairs, and of those who have conducted them, for the last three or four and twenty years. In letter No. IV, January 10, 1804, Cunningham (as before observed) requests information concerning Mr. Jefferson, supposing " no man living had so thorough a knowledge of his transactions as Mr. Adams." In his answer of the 16th of the same month, Mr. Adams says, " You are mistaken when you say that ' no man " living has so much knowledge of Mr. Jefferson's " transactions as myself.' In truth I know but little con- *' cerning him^ Then, giving some details, showing how small had been the intercourse between them, he adds, " Although we agreed always very well, there was no ^''very close intimacy between us.'''' Now observe the contrast. A little more than five years afterwards — when his son John Quincy Adams (having before de- voted himself to Mr. Jefferson, and continuing in full favour with his successor, Mr. Madison) had been no- minated minister plenipotentiary to Russia — Mr. Ad- ams was capable of making the following declaration : " I sought and obtained an interview with Mr. Jeffer- " son.* With this gentleman I had lived on terms of " INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP ybr frvc and twenty years, had " acted with him in dangerous times and arduous con- •' flicts, and always found him assiduous, laborious, and " as far as I could judge, upright and faithful."t And * This refers to affairs of 1797 ; Mr. Jefferson being then Vice-Presiden(. t Mr. Adams's letter No. xiii, dated May 29. 1809, in the Boston Patrtel. 24 farther on, Mr. Adams says, " I will not take leave of " Mr. Jefferson in this place, without declaring my " opinion, that the accusations against him, of blind de- '* votion to France, of hostility to England, of hatred " to commerce, of partiality and duplicity in his late '^ negotiations with the belligerent powers, are without " foundation." In the progress of this Review, the reader will learn how to estimate any of Mr. Adams's opinions, in cases where the interests of himself or of his son may be affected. I accord with Mr. Adams thus far — that Mr. Jefferson's devotion to France was not a bliiid devotion. The elucidation of this remark will appear, when I describe his Embargo, and the support of it by John Q. Adams. So anxious has been Mr. Adams to conciliate the good will of Mr. Jefferson (for the persuasive reason I have mentioned) that he perverts the use of as plain words as any in our language. He has said (in one of his late published letters) that Mr. Jefferson and he were never rivals ; but that Jefferson and Hamilton were rivals ! Surely, every reader of English knows, that they who co?itend for one common object are rivals. The common object, for which Adams and Jefferson contended, was the Presidenc} . But Jefferson and Hamilton aimed to effect different measures in the ad- ministration of the government — and therefore were not rivals^ but antagonists. In noticing the extraordinary ascendency acquired by Mr. Jefferson over the minds of his partisans and admirers, I remarked, that it would puzzle any one to account for it. And I ask, What evidences has he given to the world, of his being, what he seems gene- rally reputed to be, a profound philosopher, and a great statesman f The former part of his character (which, by the way, has little to do with government) I leave with philosophers and men of science.* Of the latter, every man of common sense is qualified to judge, from its practical effects. For the rule, " by their fruits ye shall know them," is alike applicable in politics as in * See Appendix, B. S5 morals. A list of the beneficent acts of his eight year's* administration of the government of the United States is a desideratum. Those of a co7itrary character would rise to a large amount. But let us look back to earlier and more virtuous times. In the war of words with the mother country, antecedent to the war of arms, when every American^ who could hold a pen, employ- ed it in defending American Rights, it is natural to suppose that Mr. Jefferson's was not idle ; and then, Erobably (though his political lucubrations may not ave passed the bounds of Virginia) he gained the re- putation of holding a good pen ; to which Mr. Adams alludes in a letter to me, extracts from which will ap- pear in the Appendix.* But the performance for which Mr. Jefferson has been most distinguished, is the Declaration of Independence. This has been ex- travagantly eulogized, as if rising to a degree of excel- lence that not one of his cotemporaries had the power to reach. In my humble opinion, however, much of its merit is owing to the amendments made when re- ported to Congress, where one fourth of the whole was struck out, and some things (not many indeed) were introduced. In my letter to Mr. Adams, on this sub- ject, I remarked, that the Declaration contained few neio ideas. Mr. Adams, in his answer, says, not one ; but he thinks the best parts were struck out. I shall give, in the Appendix,! a copy of Mr. Jefferson's draught of the Declaration, which I took some yearS ago from one in his own hand-writing ; by the compare ing of which with the Declaration as voted and pro- claimed by Congress, every reader will be enabled to judge for himself. But Mr. Jefi'erson added to the United States the rich and immense territory of Louisiana ; thus extend- ing their dominions from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean ! Yes — the acquisition was effected in his pre- sidency ; and his merit in the case shall now be ex- hibited. * See Appendix, C. f Appendix, D. .5 26 By the treaty of Oct. 27, 1795, between the United States and Spain, the King, assenting to the claim of the United States to the free navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, stipulated to permit the citizens of the United States, " for the space " of three years, to deposite their merchandizes and " effects in the port of New-Orleans, and to export " them from thence without paying any other duty " than a fair price for the use of the stores ;" and pro- mised either to continue this permission, or to " assign " to them, on another part of the banks of the Missis- " sippi, an equivalent establishment." The benefit of this stipulation was enjoyed by our citizens until 1802, when the Spanish intendant at New-Orleans " occluded" (as Mr. Jefferson said) — shut them out, from this de- posite, without assigning any equivalent establishment elsewhere. This violation of the treaty-stipulation was not to be endured ; and, upon representations to the government of Spain, the place of deposite w^as restored. To whom this interruption of our right is to be ascribed, will presently be seen. I presume it ^vas to prevent its recurrence, that Mr. Jefferson in- structed his minister at Paris (the late Chancellor Livingston) to obtain, as I have understood, a cession of the isle or port of New-Orleans, or some part of the eastern bank of the Mississippi — that is, of West Flo- rida, or of both — to the United States, It is not a little curious, that a negotiation for purchasing supposed Spanish territory should be carried on at Paris with the French government, instead of Madrid^ with the government of Spain. In the same manner, when, at a subsequent period, Mr. Jefferson proposed to Con- gress the purchase of Florida, the certain property of Spain, the negotiation was instituted at Paris. The truth was, that France exercised a complete ascenden- cy over Spain, which was no longer a free agent Godoy, the Prince of Peace, the favourite of the Queen, ruled Spain in the name of her weak King ; and Go- doy was Bonaparte's tool. The "occlusion" of the port of New-Orleans against American merchandise 27 and effects excited keen resentment in the United States ; and some were ready to send an armed force to occupy the port ; and the poor Spaniard was the subject of severe reproach. But I presume it was not then known, that the King of Spain had been, before that time (viz. on October 1, 1800) compelled to re- C07wey Louisiana to France. This fact exposes the secret of the interruption of our right of deposite at New-Orleans; and it was against the French govern- ment that the indignation of the United States should have been excited, had the retrocession of Louisiana to France been known. The opening again of the port of New-Orleans arose from the circumstance, that Bonaparte was not prepared to take immediate posses- sion of Louisiana. But the territory having been ac^ tually reconveyed to France accounts for the unsuc^ cessful attempts of Mr. Livingston to obtain a cession of Orleans and part of the adjacent province of West Florida. At length, during the short and feeble administra- tion of the British government which succeeded Mr. Pitt's, a peace was negotiated at Amiens between Great-Britain and France. Bonaparte seized this in- terval to prepare a fleet and army to go and take pos- session of New-Orleans and the whole province of Louisiana. But the British government soon perceiv- ed, that it was, in effect, an armistice, rather than a peace, which had been concluded at Amiens ; and that the war must be renewed. And finding that Bona- parte was going to add the immense province of Loui- siana — a new world — to the dominions of France, a British fleet was despatched to block up the ports (in Holland) where Bonaparte had assembled military for- ces, and ships to transport them to New-Orleans. It was in this state of things that Bonaparte became willing to transfer to the United States — not the island of New-Orleans and part of the adjacent territory — but the whole province of Louisiana — the tvhole or no part. For he was justly apprehensive that, its retro- cession to France being then known, Great-Britain 28 would send an adequate force, and take possession of it for herself. If therefore he could raise some mil- lions of dollars b}^ the sale of the province to the Uni- ted States, the sum would be so much clear gain. Un- der these circumstances, the transfer to the United States was made, and (if I mistake not) rather pressed on our envoys. Chancellor Livingston and Mr. Mon- roe ; and they agreed to receive it, stipulating the price at fifteen miflions of dollars. They gave to Mr. King, American minister in London, information of the trea- ty ; with which the British government, to whom he made known the transfer, was perfectly satisfied. And I recollect that when Alexander Baring (son-in-law to the late Mr. Bingham, and whom I had known in Phi- ladelphia) came from England to Washington, to re- ceive the six per cent, stock created to pay for thi^ purchase, he told me, that the British government would sooner have paid the money stipulated for the purchase, than have suffered Louisiana to have become a province of France. Thus, to British policy and interest are the United States indebted for the acquisition of Louisiana. And, \{ gratitude ever enters into the consideration ofnationSj we owe it to Britain, for that acquisition, as really as to France for her assistance in acquiring our indepen- dence» But on the score of gratitude^ in these two cases, we are indebted neither to one nor to the other. Each of them acted to serve her own interest exclusively : France, to diminish the power of Britain by cutting off thirteen flourishing colonies ; and Britain, to prevent an accession to the power of France in possessing the immense territory of Louisiana, and a consequent con- trol over all our Western States, which depended on the Mississippi, and the rivers running into it, for the conveyance of their boundless products to a market. Yes, we owe it to the naval power of Britain, that Louisiana is not now a province of France. Bona- parte had already sent his prefect, Mr. Laussat, to New-Orleans, to receive possession ; and he waited only for the arrival of the French fleet and army, to 29 take upon himself the administration of the govern- ment.* Before I take leave of Louisiana, I will add a few observations. At the close of the seven-years war, so disastrous to France, which was terminated by the peace of 1763, she ceded to Spain — apparently in consideration of the losses which the latter had sustained by being drawn into that war, towards its close, in aid of France — the province of Louisiana, westward of the river Mississip- pi, and the island of New-Orleans on its eastern side. The whole of Florida was ceded by France and Spain (each her part) to Great-Britain. In the course of the war of our revolution, France and Spain became once more engaged in a war with Great-Britain. Spain seized the occasion to possess herself of Florida ; and, at the treat}^ of peace of 1783, Britain relinquished her right to it. I entertain no doubt, that at that time the govern- ment of France contemplated the regaining of Louisi- ana; and waited only for some favourable events to accomplish her purpose. It was unquestionably with this in view, that, in the negotiations at Paris, in 1782, for effecting a general peace, the French Minister re- presented to our Commissioners, authorized to treat of peace with Great-Britain, that they ought not to claim the country westward of the Allegany mountain, but to suffer it to go into the hands of Spain. Mr. Jay, however, (for he was obliged for a while to act alone, though Dr. Franklin was also a commissioner) resisted all the French intrigues, as well at Paris as in London ; and thus that country was secured to the United States. It was, unquestionably, with a view to this land-scheme, and some other plans injurious to the United States, that the French government exerted itself, and suc- cessfully, through its minister to the United States, la Luzerne, and the secretary of legation, Marbois, to obtain from Congress instructions to the American mi- nisters for negotiating a peace with Great-Britain, wholly unworthy of the earlier firm, dignified and in- * See Appendix, E- 30 dependent acts of that bod}^ The commissioners were instructed " to undertake nothing in the negotiations for " peace or truce, without the knoAvledge and concurrence ♦' of the ministers of the King of France, and ultimately " to govern themselves by their advice and opinion." This appeared to Mr. Jay so dishonourable to the Uni- ted States, and fraught with such evil consequences, that he laid the instruction aside, and, in his negotia- tions with the British minister, considered only what the important interests of his country required ; and thus formed the basis of the treaty of peace, so highly advantageous to the United States. In pursuance of our treaty of 1795, with Spain, com- missioners were to be appointed to run the boundary line between the territory of the United States and Florida, from the river Mississippi to the Atlantic ocean. Andrew EUicott was the commissioner on the part of the United States ; and, with the requisite at- tendants, he repaired to the Natchez, the place desig- nated in the treaty for the first meeting of the commis- sioners. From the time of his entering the Mississippi, after his descent by the Ohio, and coming to the first Spanish posts, and thence proceeding downwards, to- wards the Natchez, there were mysterious appearances, suggesting the idea that delays and difficulties would be interposed, to prevent the running of the boundary line. The apprehensions of Mr. Ellicott were realized, after his arrival at the Natchez. He there received satisfactory information, that the governor in chief at New-Orleans, and the sub-governor (Gayoso) at the Natchez, in some private and confidential communica- tions, had suffered the secret to escape them. That it was intended, by delays and evasions, to defeat the at- tempt, on the part of the United States, to run the boundary line, and the execution of the treaty, in what concerned that country. Mr. Ellicott states, that Go- vernor Gayoso's original letter to a confidential friend, to that effect, had been in his hands. Accordingly, in the correspondence of this governor with Mr. Ellicott are seen a series of apologies, excuses, and empty 31 professions, all contemptible ; and offered in the face of treaty articles too plain to require a moment's he- sitation as to their meaning. One of the articles sti- pulated the evacuation of the posts occupied by Spa- nish troops on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, within the known boundary of the United States. Of these the Spaniards still kept possession. All these occurrences are accounted for by the informa- tion next received, and stated by Mr. Ellicott — " That " the country either was or would be ceded to the Re- ^^ public of France. ''''^ It will be recollected that Spain had concurred with the other most considerable Eu- ropean nations in warring against France, in the early years of her revolution ; but meeting with defeats, and in danger of being overrun by the French arms, her prime minister, Godoy, made peace with France : and for this act, at that time so auspicious to Spain, he had conferred on him the extraordinary title of Prince of Peace. This was in the year 1795. From this time the Spanish councils were under the influence of the French Republican Government ; and, even- tually, appear to have been in a state of complete subjugation, in whatever materially concerned the in- terests of France. And to that controlling influence are to be ascribed all the delays, difficulties and inju- ries experienced by the United States and their citi- zens, in every thing relating to their interests in the country in question. So much for the friendship of France to the United States ; which, according to the declarations and de- mands of her revolutionary rulers, and of many of our own citizens, imposed on the United States obligations of everlasting gratitude ! That it was for the purpose of securing the independence of the United States that France rendered the aid we received from her, is true : but this was solely to weaken her old adversary, by lopping off* an important limb. In justification of his treating with the Americans, Louis XVI said express- ly, that he acted " ivith no other vieiv than to put an * Ellicott's Journal, p. 44. 32 '• end to the predominant power which England abuf^- " ed in every part of the globe ;" and, " that the onl}- " means of being secured from it, was to seize the op- '^ port unity of diminishing it.''"' That opportunity was the war in which we had engaged, to separate the Uni- ted States from Great-Britain. The King said further, That he formed a connexion with the United States, " because his safety, the interest of his people, invari- " able policy^ and, above all, the secret projects of the " Court of London, imperiously laid him under the ne- " cessity.'''' The secret projects, of which the French government was so apprehensive, were doubtless the measures then contemplated by the British govern- ment to effect a reconciliation and re-union of the Uni- ted States Avith Great-Britain ; and to defeat them, and so to prevent a re-union, was the leading motive to the French alliance ; while Americans fondly believed, that friendship for them loas its basis. And Congress it- self, from feeling or policy, pronounced Louis the Sixteenth, " the Protector of the Rights of Man- kind."* Indeed the citizens of the United States, re- joiced at the assurance of the aid and co-operation of France, thought only of the benefit^ without adverting to the motives in which it originated. During our revolutionary war, and ever since, we have been taught to beheve that Louis XVI, and his Queen, Maria Antoinette, entertained a personal re- gard to the United States and their cause. This was possible ; and in the glow of our gratitude we cheer- fully believed it. But it was unnatural that a mo- narchical power, whose will was law, should desire to promote the establishment of free republican govern- ments. This idea, now so obvious, is shown to be correct, by the statement of the fact, in the interesting memoirs of Madame Campan, published at Paris since the restoration of the Bourbons to the throne of France. And we see it strikingly exemplified in the avowed principles of the emperors and kings who compose the so called " Holy Alliance." * Resolve, May 6, 1778, in the journals of Congress. 33 The sentiments of the persons who composed th6 court of Louis XVI were doubtless similar to those manifested by the King and Queen ; but all sacrificed their feelings, in regard to republicanism, for the sake of humbling their great rival, England. Of all the French officers, of name^ who served in the United States, and returned to France, la Fayette, I believe, stands alone, invincibly firm in his original principles, for the establishment and maintenance of free govern- ments. We have seen the present monarch of France, his ministers and armies, by their operations in Spain, the last year, violating her independence, and over- turning her free government : and who can doubt that his brother, Louis XVI, his ministers and armies, un- der like circumstances, would have acted the same part? — And that their aid to the United States, in sup- porting their independence, was rendered solely for the interest of France, I trust has been satisfactorily shown.* In the face of all these clear and incontrovertible evidences, that the views of France in aiding us in our revolutionary contest were exclusively selfish.^ and that she aimed at doing serious injuries to the United States in its conclusion, Mr. Jefferson in his letter to Mazzeit charged them with " ingratitude and injustice tow ards France" ! He charged the enlightened and eminent statesmen and patriots who formed the federal consti- tution, and who organized, and were then administer- ing, the government under it, as " Anglican-Monarchi- * Of the expenditures of France, in tlie maintenance of troops and ships applied directly to our aid, I liave no data on which to form an estimate ; but the capture, plunder, and wanton destruction, of American ships and mer- chandise, by the French, have been estimated, by a well informed and judici- ous merchant, the late Thomas Fitzsimons of Philadelpliia, at fifty millions of dollars ; to wit — twenty millions under the orders of the Directory and their ag'ents, and thirty millions during the imperial reig-n of Bonaparte. These fifty millions may fairly be set off against the expenditures of France directly made by her in the cause of the United States. The loans of money by France to tlie United States were all repaid. The estimates of Mr. Fitz- simons were made at my request, and communicated to me by a letter which I have not yet found ; but I well remember their amount. f Mazzei, an Italian gentleman, was in Virginia prior to our revolution ; and then the apparently intimate acquaintance between him and Mr. Jeffersoa fook place. Mazzei returned to Ttalv. 6 34 " cal-Aristocratic ; whose avowed object it was, to im- " pose on the people the substance, as they had already " given them the forms, of the British government.'* And, after mentioning various measures of the federal government as political " heresies — established for the ''^purposes of corruption,^^ he points his reproaches at the officers of our government and the members of Congress who had embraced them, — " the men," he sa3^s, " who were Solomons in counsel and Samsons in " combat, but whose hair had been cut off by the whore " England." For this infamous slander, which em- braced Washington, Hamilton, and all the eminent men who had formed the Constitution, and established the measures referred to, Washington, when he be- came a private citizen, called Jefferson to account ; requiring of him, in a tone of unusual severit} , an ex- planation of that letter. In what manner the latter humbled himself, and appeased the just resentment of Washington, will never be known ; as, some time after his death, this correspondence was not tol3e found; and a diary for an important period of his presidency was also missing. My information on this subject is derived from an authentic source. The late Dr. David Stuart, of Virginia, who married the widow of Mrs. Washington's son Custis, first mentioned the matter to me, twenty years ago ; and five years afterwards, at my request, stated the circumstances in detail, in a let- ter, with a voluntary " permission to make what use " of it I should think proper." A train of occurrences within my knowledge would enable me to unravel what may seem mysterious in this affair ; but I for- bear. Prior to the appearance of Mr. Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, " there was," sa} s Dr. Stuart, " a friendly " correspondence between him and Washington — since " then, none" : and " before that letter, he used always " either to call on him, when passing by, or to send an " apology for not doing it." Notwithstandino- these lamentations of Mr. Jefferson to his friend Mazzei, of palpable deviations from repub- 35 lican principles in \heform of the Federal Constitution^ and in the administration of tlie government^ under Washington, Hamilton, and the eminent federalists of that period in Congress ; yet, after he had gained the President's chair, I do not recollect a single amendment to that " Angiican-Monarchical-Aristocratic" Consti- tution to have been recommended by him ; nor, that more than one was made, during his presidency ; and that one should have been called an alteratioti, not an amendment. Its object was, by requiring the electors to designate the person to whom they gave their votes for President, and the one whom they voted for to be Vice President, to prevent the recurrence of a contest like that between him and Mr. Burr, when the states represented in the House were equally divided. And as to his measures, I know not any, that related to prin- ciples of government, which Mr. Jefferson could pre- tend were more republican than those of his predeces- sors. As to other principles, I will not say there was no difference ; but in regard to them, I content myself with remarking, that, during Washington's administra- tion, and a part of that of his immediate successor, there were no ostentatious professions of regard to the public welfare, nor similar declarations repeated and repeated of a desire of settling existing controversies, in an ami- cable and friendly manner, with any foreign nation. Under Mr. Jefferson's administration, three treaties were negotiated with Great Britain. The object of the first (negotiated by Mr. King, pursuant to his instruc- tions) was, an adjustment of the north western bound- ary ; but, from an apprehension that its execution might derogate from a claim as to the northern boun- dary of Louisiana, it was ratified on the part of the United States with an exception which defeated the treaty. Another, a treaty of amity and commerce with Great-Britain, was negotiated by ministers of Mr. Jef- ferson's own selection — James Monroe and the late William Pinkney. These gentlemen, it must be pre- sumed, well understood the interests of their country ; and no one will question the diligence and faithfulness 36 of their endeavours to promote and secure it, in the terms 'M that treaty. They thought the wformal ar- rangement offered by the British negotiators — in whose sincerity they saw reason to confide — would prove, in practice^ an adequate protection to our seamen, on board American merchant vessels, against impress- ment. In reference to that informal arrangement, they say, " We persuade ourselves we shall place the busi- " ness almost, if not altogether, on as good a footing as " we should have done by treaty, had the project which " we offered them been adopted."* This treaty, liowever, Mr. Jefferson sent back, without laying it before the Senate, although it was then in session ; because there was not 2i formal stipulation^ by an arti- cle in the treaty, against any impressments whatever, of seamen on board those vessels : a stipulation which, from the experience of tlie American government, during a series of years, he had reason, amounting to moral certainty, to believe to be unattainable ; and therefore, I infer, he made such a formal stipulation a sine qua non. A third treaty he readily ratified. This was negotiated by Mr. King, pursuant to Mr. Jeffei^ son's instructions. Its object was, by a compromise with the British government, to put an end to the con- troversy concerning the ante-revolution debts due to British merchants, and to extinguish the British claims^, by paying to its government a round sum ; in consid- eration of which that government undertook to satisfy the demands of its own subjects. This sum was six hundred thousand pounds sterling — equal to ^2,264,000 ; which w as paid from the treasury of the United States. The merchants in the Commercial States were the debtors to the British merchants ; and generally speak- ing (I always understood) had, prior to Mr. Jay's trea- * From different sources I received information, from which it appeared clearly, to my apprehension, that with all the parade, kept up for several years, of neg-otiating a treaty of amity and commerce with Great-Britain, Mr. Jefferson really desired none. A letter from a friend of his, now before me, contains this passage : "■ I perfectly remember he terminated a conversation on this subject, by observing-, that before a treaty could be ratified with Great Britain, she might no longer exist as an independent nation." — He imagined (as I learned from another source) that Great Britain must sink under the weight of her debt, and the arms of Bonaparte. 37 ty, paid or compromised their debts, to the satisfaction of their British creditors. The treaty of peace of 1783 recognized those debts ; and the United States stipulated, that no legal impedi- ments should be opposed to their recovery : but such impediments were opposed ; and that stipulation re- mained a dead letter. When, therefore, fresh causes of controversy arose, in 1793 and 1794, Washington, to prevent a war with Great-Britain, instituted a new mission to that g;overnment, and appointed Mr. Jay, the able and principal negotiator of the treaty of peace of 1783, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipoten- tiary, to negotiate and by treaty to settle the new con- troversies, and those which had arisen from the non- execution of some of the articles of the treaty of peace. In this negotiation, Mr. Jay honestly renewed, or rath- er provided for the due performance of, the original stipulation relative to British debts. This, unques- tionably, was one thing which contributed to render his treaty unpopular, in some parts of the Union ; while its terminating the recent controversies which hazarded our peace with Great-Britain — disappointing the vehement haters of that countr}'^ and at the same time ardent lovers of France — raised up enemies to its ratification, in every part of the Union. It was ratified, however, and executed; and procured for our mer- chants, who had suffered by British spoliations, indem- nities to the amount of more than five millions of dol- lars, paid to them by the British government. What did they obtain for ten fold more aggravated spolia- tions committed on their vessels and merchandise, and to ten times that amount, by the Republican and Im- perial Governments of France ? Not one cent. Every independent American must, I presume, view this subject (our relations with France) in the light in which I have now placed it ; and be willing, should it become necessary, to concur with the only great, free and independent nation on earth, besides our own, in measures which the interest and welfare of both may require, to prevent the re-establishment of despotism in the New World. 38 That France afforded assistance to the United States, in our revolutionary war, exclusively for her own in- terest, had long ago been manifested ; and it seems impossible that with Mr. Jefferson it should ever have been a subject of doubt. But the People of the United States having unwittingly entertained and steadily clierished the contrary opinion, their prejudice was too strong to yield even to the force of moral demonstra- tion. And the leaders of the opponents of the federal administration seized on this honest prejudice in fa- vour of France, to obtain popularity ; while by every means they excited and promoted opposite sentiments towards Great-Britain, which the resentful passions en- gendered in the revolutionary war rendered it easy to propagate among the people. These prejudices, dili- gently cultivated, were among the chief means by which Mr. Jefferson and his partisans acquired a pre- dominance ; and they may now safely abandon the scaffolding by which they rose to power. Still, how- ever, for the purpose of enjoying, exclusively, all the benefits to be derived from its possession, the}^ con- tinue to arrogate to themselves the name of Republi- cans ; willing and desirous that their federal opponents should, by the people, be deemed aristocrats and mo- narchists. Yet to the Federalists are they indebted for their republican constitution and republican govern- ment ; both of which are noAV very good things, and in their hands quite imexceptionable. Many years ago, in the Senate of the United States, I heard the most frank, the most bold, and in my opinion the most able politician of the, so called, republican party, pro- nounce a eulogy on tiie Constitution, as strong and honourable as words could express. And even Mr. Jefferson must have entertained the like opinion ; or, in conformity with his libellous remarks on it to his friend Mazzei, he would have proposed to change its features. And now he appears to desire only one al- teration — to destroy, as I have before remarked, the independence of the judges. And having three and twenty years ago pronounced the citizens of the Uni- 39 ted States, composed of the different political partie^f, "ail repubiicaDS, all federalists," it niigbt have bteri expected that by this time, at least, he would be willing we should together form one people^ one nation^ e(jually entitled to, and equally enjoying the advantages to be derived from, the government of our common country ; but it is not so. In his letter toLieutertant Governor Barry, before mentioned, he affects to doubt (for if he really doubts he must be a blinder and more narrow minded politician than any of his intelligent followers) he, I sav, affects to doubt whether it would be safe to admit federalists into the republican " camp !" that is, to admit to a participation of the public offices, the men whom he, before the representatives of the nation and a numerous assembly of citizens, pronounced, either honestly or deceitfully (he may choose which term he pleases) to be republicans ! And he desires still to foster the spirit of party, by party names ; and, assign- ing to his own the name of whigs — originally in Eng- gland designating the friends of liberty, in opposition to the partisans of the tyrannical race of the Stuarts, who were called toy^ies — he would brand all federalists with the latter name, to induce a belief among the peo- ple, that federalists are enemies to liberty ! What federalist can feel a shadow of respect for such a man ? If they suppose him sincere in broaching such ideas, they must think lightly of his pretensions to wisdom as a statesman : insincere, I need not say what senti- ment they will feel and express. Wailings for the condition of the Catholics of Ire- land, so long suffering under the Protestant oppression of the English government, have been heard through- out the United States. The Dissenters in England are also oppressed. Both pay tithes to support the Eccle- siastics of the Established Church. But what is the real condition of Federalists in the United States ? How does it differ from that of the Dissenters and Ca- tholics in the United Kingdom of Great-Britain ? Fed- eralists have long been paying tithes to the established Political Clergy of the United States, who exclusively 40 eujov all the benefices. Surely there are many hii>;li niindeiK liberal men, amor.ij; the reigning class, who must see this injustice, and be willing to provide a re- medy. One such man, elected the Executive Head of the \ vTioN. and having in view only the " general welfare."' and not the continuance of himself in power by a re-election, might remove the existing evil, and '• set the people to rights." For the enjoyment of equal rights. Federal Emancipation is as necessary in the United States, as Catholic Emancipation is in Ire- land. In stating the preceding facts, and the reflections they sugiiested. in regard to ]Mr. Jefierson. I have writ- ten with the freedom Avhich the occasion seemed to require, but without the consciousness of any personal animosity. Towards me his deportment has ever been marked with urbanity. It is in reference to his con- duct and character a^ a public man. that he is present- ed as a just subject of reproach": such as. on a further and fidl investigation, he will, in my apprehension, ap- pear to the future impartial liistorian of our country. The sentiments exhibited in his letter to Lieutenant Governor Barry, at this period., I confess I could not have expected. That they have excited in me a de- gree of indignation. I cannot, nor do I desire to, con- <'eal. 41 SECTION II. John Qlinxy Adams, and Mr. Jeeterson's Embargo. The first eiglit letters in the " Corresponderjce^ were interchanged between Nov. 28, 1803, and March 1.5, 1804. After the lapse of four years and a halt, ap- pears No. IX, dated Sept. 19, 1808, from Cunningham; in which he mentions The Embargo ; and, after " la- ** raenting that the bitterness of rebuke so often mani- " fested towards his son (John Quincy Adams) Lad " been extended to Mr. Adams himself," asks his opi- nion " on that public measure, which had so agitated " our country," and in producing which his son had acted so conspicuous a part. This unlucky question was the putting of a match to a mass of combustih'es, which soon kindled to a flame, and threatened to bum me up. John Q. Adams and myself were, in 1803, chosen by the Legislature of ^Massachusetts to represent that State in the Senate of the United States : and we took our seats there in the session which commenced in October of that year. He was then a federalist, lud for a good while acted in that character. Some ca^rs, however, occurred, in which he di^^played a zeal in co- incidence with the views and wishes of the President, Mr. Jefferson. He particularly distinguished himself in the attempt to expel from the Senate John Smith of Ohio, as one concerned in Aaron Burr's conspiracy, or project, whatever it was: for Burr and his accomplices were the marked objects of Mr. Jefferson's hatred and revenge. There were passages in A[r. Adams's report in Smith's case, which outraged, I believe, everv' dis- tinguished lawyer in America. The process of law, with its " pace of sixiil,*' was too slow for his ven- geance. But this by the by. It was the unfortunate question of the Embargo, which, in regard to myself set the ink a-running through President Adams's pen ; 7 i 42. aiid it continued running in the whole of his corres* pondence, not unmingied with gall. Of the Embargo, therefore, it is necessary to give an account. The Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, in the prosecu- tion of his plan of universal dominion, having overturn- ed the Prussian monarchy — and resting a little while in its capital, Berlin — on the 21st of November 1806, issued a decree, called the Berlin decree ; whose ob- ject was, the destruction of the commerce of Great- Britain, his persevering enemy, and the only country in Europe (the waters of the sea intervening) which his arms could not reach. The decree consisted of ten articles. By the first, " The British Islands are de- " clared in a state of blockade." By the second, " All " commerce and correspondence with the British Isl- " ands are prohibited." And by tlie fifth, " All trsde " in English merchandise is forbidden ; all merchan- " dise belonging to England, or coming from its manu- " factories and colonies, is declared lawful prize."* Plain as was the intention of this decree, from the words of it, yet an interpretation, indicating an excep- tion favourable to the neutral commerce of the United States, was given to it, by the French Minister of Ma- rine — but unsanctioned by the Emperor, or even by his Minister for Foreign Affairs, to whose department (as .the Minister of Marine avowed) the question more properly belonged. That interpretation, however, served to amuse our government — willing to be amus- ed — even when not bearing on its face (to use the words of President Adams in another case) " the plau- sible appearance of a probability" of its giving the real meaning of the decree. At length the time ar- rived, when it suited the convenience of the Emperor to carry his decree into rigorous execution. The commerce of the United States with the British do- minions was probably at. that time of as much import- ance to the former, as their commerce with all the world besides ; and, as the benefits of a fair commerce are * The whole decree, and the donimcnts commnnicated with it, by the Pre- sident, are in the volumes of State Papers, published by Wait and Sons. 43 reciprocal, Great-Britain shared with the United State,^ the advantages of that intercourse ; and so far the views of the imperial tyrant were obstructed. He had long shown himself indifferent to the interests of his own commercial subjects : the plunder of conquer- ed nations supplied the place of that revenue which would accrue from foreign commerce. He, of course, would be perfectly regardless of the interests of the United States. So the Berlin decree went into full operation. The papers on the subject were transmit- ted to our government from Paris, by General Arm- strong, our minister at the imperial court ; and were communicated by the President to Congress, with the following message, recommending an Embargo. *' To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. " The comtnimications now made, shewing the great and increas- ing dangers with which our vessels, our seamen, and merchandise, are threatened on the high seas and elsewhere, from the belligerent powers of Europe, and it being of the greatest importance to keep in safety these essential resources, I deem it my duty to recommend the subject to the consideration of Congress, who will doubtless per- ceive all the advantages which may be expected from an inhibition of the departure of our vessels from the ports of the United States. " Their wisdom will also see the necessity of making every prepa- ration for whatever events may grow out of the present crisis. '"'■ I ask a return of the letters of Messrs, Armstrong and Champagny, xehich it would be improper to make public.'^'' "Dec. 10, 1807. TH: JEFFERSON." The last paragraph of the message (in Italics) is omitted in the copy in the State Papers, a^ well as in the Journal of the Senate ; but is retained in the Jour- nal of the House of Representatives. It was, on a for- mal motion in the Senate, ordered not to be entered on their Journal. I cannot assign, for I do not recollect, any reason for it. Possibly the mover felt some deli- cacy on the subject, after voting for the law recommend- ed in the message ; seeing a part of the documents, on which it was avowedli/ foictided, were withdrawn ; and so far the basis of his vote was taken aioay. No. 1. Was a proclamation, dated Oct. 16, 1807, by the King of Great-Britain^ requiring his " natural born 44 Subjects, seafaring men," serving in foreign vessels, to relui-ii ' oaie, according to their duty and allegiance, to defend cheir own country, then menaced and endanger- ed, from the arms of France and of the nations subject- ed to her power, whom she honoured with the name of allies. Such proclamations are common among nations engaged in war ; and no well-informed man will, I pre- sume, dispute their justness. And because it was known that numbers of such seamen did continue to serve in foreign vessels, British naval officers were required to take and bring away all such persons who should be found serving in any foreign merchant vessel ; but with a special injunction to offer no violence to such vessel, or to the remainder of the crew. No. 2. Was an extract of a letter, dated Sept. 18, 1807, from the French Grand Judge, Minister of Jus- tice, to the Imperial Advocate General for the Council of Prizes. It was an answer to some questions which concerned the execution of the Berlin decree. " 1st. May vessels of war, by virtue of the imperial ^ decree of the 21st of November last, seize, on board " neutral vessels, either English property, or even all " merchandise proceeding from the English manufac- " tories or territory ?" " Ansiver. His Majesty has intimated, that as he " did not think proper to express any exception in his " decree, there is no ground for making any in its exe- " cution, in relation to any whomsoever." " 2. His Majesty has postponed a decision on the "question. Whether armed French -vessels ought to " capture neutral vessels bound to or from England, " even when they have no English merchandise on " board." (Signed) " Regnier." Of these two papers no secret was made ; and for a plain reason ; the British proclamation had many days before been published in the newspapers. The copy laid by Mr. Jefferson before the Senate had been cut out of a newspaper — a form not the most respectful, of a document laid before the Legislature of the United States, by their Presideixt. In like manner, the sub- 45 stance, if not the words, of the Grand Judge Regnier's letter had been published. But these two papers had excited little, if any, concern among those most inter- ested — our merchants and sfeafaring people : they saw, in the proclamation, not an increased, but a diminished danger of impressments ; and French cruisers on the seas were then few in nuraber. The third paper was a letter, dated Sept. 24, 1807, from General Armstrong to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, Champagny ; asking him, whether the report he had just heard was true — " that a new and " extended construction, highly injurious to the com- " merce of the United States, was about to be given to " the Imperial decree of the 21st of November 1806'* (the Berlin decree.) The fourth document was Champagny 's answer to Armstrong, bearing date Oct. 7, 1807, and which, with a little difference in the phraseology, is the same v.dth that of the Grand Judge Regnier, before mei ;tioned, to the Imperial Advocate General ; from whom, indeed, Champagny says he received the explanation. These are his words : " His Majesty has considered every ^' neutral vessel, going from English ports, with car- " goes of English merchandise, or of English origin, as " lawfully seized by French armed vessels." Here an obvious question presents itself. Seeing Armstrong's letter simply asks the question, whether his information about the Berlin decree was correct — and Champagny's answer tells him that it was — why did Mr. Jefferson ask a return of these two papers, saying, " it would be improper to make them public" ? The solution may be found in the last paragraph of Champagny's letter, in which he says, "The decree of " blockade has now been issued eleven months. The *' principal powers of Europe, [meaning Holland, Spain, " and the other powers which the arms of France had " subjected to her control] far from protesting against " its provisions, have adopted them. They have per- *' ceived that its execution must be complete to render it *' more effectuaV The commerce of the United States 46 surpassed that of all the other neutral nations ; and with the British dominions was very extensive, and of vast importance to both. To render the blockade of the British islands " complete," the commerce of neu- trals with them must cease. This object, in respect to the United States, could be accomplished only by an Embargo. In four days after the arrival at Washing- ton of Armstrong's despatches by the Revenge, con- taining the letters of the Grand Judge and Bonaparte's Minister Champagny, Mr. Jefferson recommended his Unlimited Embargo^* — One more fact : — On the 8th ' of February 1808 (less than two months after the passing of the embargo law) the Secretary of State, Mr. Madison, in his letter to General Armstrong, on this subject, says, " The conduct of the French go- " vernment, in giving this extended operation to its de- " cree, and indeed in issuing one with such an appa- *^* rent or doubtful import against the rights of the sea, *' is the more extraordinary, inasmuch as the inability *' to enforce it on that element, exhibited the measure " in the light of an empty menace. t So then, Mr. Jefferson's Embargo, which prostrated our immense commerce, which ruined many, and seriously injured * The followiDf*' extract, recently found among' my papers, of a letter, dated January 2, 1808 (eleven days aftei the embarg-o law had passed) from a respectable g-entleman in New-York to his father, a member of Congress at Washington, merits attention. " It is said, and from correct sources, that Mr. Armstrongs gave notice, in " Amsterdam, that a general embargo would take place in the United States " immediately on the arrival of the Revenge ; and that, in one day, sugar rose « from 13 to 19 dollars, and coflee from 21 to 27 stivers, in consequence of " that information." The Revenge arrived at New-York. The bearer of the despatches was Dr. Bullus, surgeon to the marine corps. New- York papers announced her arrival, and, among other articles of news, stated this — that the French Em- peror said there should fee no nevtrah. I did not doubt the truth of the report ; but, not having the evidence of the fact, in my first letter to Gov. Sullivan, Feb. 16, 1808, on the embargo, I merely asked the question, " Has the French Emperor declared that he will have no neutrals r" J. Q. Adams, in his letter to Mr. Otis, dated the following 31st of March, roundly affirmed, that "The French Emperor had not declared that he v/ould have no neutrals." Yet it afterwards appeared that Gen. Armstrong officiallj' communicated the Em- peror's declaration, " That the Americans should be compelled to take the po- sitive character of either allies or enemies ;" that is, they should not be neu-"- t State Papers, vol. 1808-9, page 232. 47 all, of our citizens, was founded on an empty menace ! I now leave every intelligent reader to j^sdge, whether the real object of the Embargo was, " to keep in safety " our vessels and merchandise," — or, to render the French Emperor's decree of blockade of the British islands " complete." To him, it is certain, the Em- bargo was acceptable ; he passed a decree to en- force its execution. And at a subsequent period (Au- gust 5, 1810) his minister informed Gen. Armstrong, that " the Emperor applauded the Embargo." Such were the grounds, or pretexts, for the Embar- go. The President's message, and the four papers ac- companying it, were referred to a committee, of whom John Q. Adams was one. In a short time they re- ported a bill for laying an Embargo. It was read once. A motion made to read it, immediately, a second time, was objected, to; it was repugnant to a standing rule of the Senate, wisely formed, to prevent hasty decisions. To remove this difficulty, the Senate, on a motion for the purpose, " Resolved, That so much " of the 12th rule for doing business in the Senate, as *' requires that three readings shall be on three diffe- " rent days, unless the Senate unanimously direct other- " wise, be suspended for three days." The bill was then read a second time, as in committee of the whole, and reported to the House without amendment. Then the bill (having been quickly engrossed) was read a third time, and passed — yeas 22, naj s 6. Those who voted in the negative were Messrs. Crawford, Maclay, Goodrich, Pickering, Hillhouse, White. The time occupied in this business, from the recep^ tion of the President's message, to the passing of the bill, was about four hours. It was Friday. A motion was made to postpone the further consideration of the bill until the next Monday : It passed in the negative. On motion of Mr. Crawford, — That the bill be post- poned till the next div, it passed in the negative, yeas 12, nays 16. Mr. Adams was among tlje nays. No 48 memtier of the Senate displayed equal zal tor the passing of the bill. In opposing i postpojinent, to obtain further information, and to considen measure of siicii moment, of such universal concern, Jr. Adams m.ide this memorable declaration : " The Prsident has " recommended the measure on his hi^h rsponsihili- " ty : [would not consider — T would not fh) prate : I " would act. Doubtless the Pkksident posssses such ''\furthcr information as will justify the leasure''^ ! This sentiment was so extraordinary, that instantly wrote it down. It shocked even Mr. Jeftrson's de- voted partisans. " However I may vote., ( member was heard to remark) that is too much for le to say.''* For my own part, I originally viewed, and (ill view, the Sentiment as so abhorrent to the prjciples of a free government, so derogatory to the chracter of a mefuber of Congress, such" a dereliction ot duty, and s » disgraceful to a man of sense, that I an incapable of conceiving of any counterbalance in officd honours and emobunents. An embassy, a judgesip, or the presidency, to an honourable and indeperient mind, would, in the comparison, be " as a drop i the buck- "et — and the small dust of the balance." Upon the principle advanced by J. Q. Adams, what ecomes of the " checks and bal-inces," which are th- pilhus of his father's " Great Work" (as it has beeixalled) on the American Constitutions of Government^ By the Constitution of the United States, the if^nate and House of Representatives were intended a-checks on the acts of each other, and Imth as checks ii those of the President. The sentiment expressfd fv Mr. Ad- ams resolves the whole business of legilution into the will of the Executive. The bill, passed by the Senate, was iimediately sent to the House of Representatives. Thre it was long and earnestly contested; and did no'pass until Tuesday, the 22d of December. On the ame day it received the President's approbation, an- became a law. In the year 1807, the registered tonnag«'.'f the Uni- 49 ted States, employed in foreigii trade, amounted to 848,306 tons. Ol tiiis, Massachusetts owned 310,309 tons, almost equal to the united tonnage of the three states of New- York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, which aiijounted only to 322,836 tons. That vast quantity of shipping belonging to Massachusetts, giving employ- ment to many thousands of her citizens on the water and on the land, was to be laid waste by the Embargo, unlimited in its duration, and contemplated, I have not a shadow of doubt, by its author, to endure as long as the war between France and Great-Britain should con- tinue. Seeing then., as every impartial reader will now see and acknowledge, that the reasons, presented to Con- gress for imposing the Embargo, were but shaliow pretences, and, as resting on the Berlin decree, amount- ed, according to Mr. Madison, only to " an empty me- nace ;" and as, according to J. Q. Adams (as will pre- sently be shown) the four papers laid before Congress, containing Mr. Jefferson's reasons for recommei'ding an Embargo, were but four " naughts ;" and viev, iiig with horror and indignation its destructive effects ; I thought it to be my duty to give to the greatest navi- gating State in the Union, which I in part represent- ed, such information concerning it as was in my pov er ; that the State might take such measures to obtain a removal of the evil as her wisdom should direct For this purpose, I wrote a long letter, dated the 16th of Februar}^ 1808, to Mr. Sullivan, Governor of Mas- sachusetts, to be laid before the Legislature, then in session ; and' through that channel to pass to all my fellow-citizens. But, from a knowledge of his party politics, apprehensive that my object would not be obtained through him, I sent a copy to m}' excel- lent friend, the lately deceased George Cabot- — a man of so enlightened a mind, of such wisdom, virtue and piety, that one must travel far, very far, to find liis equal. ' After waiting a few days, finding that the ori- ginal was not communicated to the Legislature, Mr. Ca- bot sent the copy to a printer. It first appeared in a small pamphlet ; and, being re-published in pamphlets. 8 50 and newspapers, was soon spread over the United States. lo this letter I neither named nor alluded to my coileap;ue, J. Q. Adams. The Governor refused to communicate my letter to the I^egislature. He sent it back to me, in a letter of rei^uke, for my expecting; him to make such a commu- nication. In my reply, justifying the step I h^d taken, I said, " I confess there seemed to be a peculiar fitness " in a Senator's addressing the Legislature frf m whf m " he immediately derives his appointment. Ai'd in the " present case, seeing my letter embraced the highest " concerns of our country, in which Massachusetts " holds so large a stake, especially in a commercial " Doint of view, I could not imagine that I was offend- " ing her chief magistrate, in presenting a view of those " concerns to him^ to be afterwards laid before the Le- ^^irislature.^'' This reply was dated the 9th of March. On the 18th, the Governor wrote me a long, but not very courteous^ letter. My answer, not destitute of re- ciprocity, was still longer ; and, in the estimation of my friends in Boston, who caused it to be printed, was, in all respects, a complete vindication. The last para- graph in the Governor's letter contained these words : " Mr. Adams, your colleague, is quite opposed to you " in his o])inion of the embargo. He voted for it, and " still considers it as a wise measure, and as a necessa- " ry one. I have his letters before me upon it." In answer to this, I say, " True— he did vote for the em- " bargo ; arid I must now tell your Excellency how he " advocated that measure. It is not willingly, sir, that " I speak of him in an address to the public. Though " often opposed in opinion, on national measures, there " has never existed for a moment any personal diffe- " rence between us. But as you have now contrasted " his o]3inion with mine, to invalidiite my public state- " ments, you compel me to relate the fi^ct. " In my first letter I informed your Excellency of " the haste with which the embargo bill was passed in " the Senate. I also informed you that a Hitt'e m^re " time was repeatedly asked, to obtain further infor- m " mation, and to consider a measure of such moment* " of such universal concern ; but that those reqiiests " were denied ;' and I must now add, by no one more /' zealously than by Mr. Adams, my colleague. Hear " his words. But even your Excellency's strong faith *' in the President's supreme wisdom may pause, while " independent men will be shocked, at the answer of " my colleague to those requests. ' The President (said " he) has recommended the measure on his high re- " sponsibility : I would ?iot consider — I would not deli- " berate : I would act. Doubtless the President pos- " sesses such further information as will justify the " measure' ! — Need I give to your Excellency any " other proof (though other proof abounds) of ' blind " confidence in our rulers T Need I give further evi- " dence of ' the dangerous extent of Executive influ- " ence T When the people of Massachusetts see a " man, of Mr. Adams's acknowledged abilities and learn- *' ing, advancing such sentiments ; when they see a " man, of his knowledge of the nature of all govern- " ments, and of his intimate acquaintance with our own " free republican government, and of the rights and *' duties of the legislature ; especially of their right and " duty to consider, to deliberate, and, according to their " own judgment, independently of Executive plea- " sure, to decide on every public measure ; when, I " say, the people of Massachusetts see this, will they " wonder if a majority in Congress should be over- " whelmed by the authority of Executive recommen- " dations ? And had I not reason to be alarmed " ' at the dangerous extent of Executive influence,' " which to me appeared to be leading the public mind, " by its blind confidence, to public ruin ?" The reader has now the whole of what was written and published concerning J. Q. Adams, in my corre- spondence with Governor Sullivan ; and it is to this that President Adams refers, when, after a page of vi- rulent abuse, he says, " He [Pickering] broke out at " last in a rage, and threw a firebrand into our Massa- " chusetts legislature against his colleague. The stub- 52 *• ble was dry, and tlie flame easily took hold.''* Mr, Adams, accustomed to let loose his vialerit passious, mistakes the rage burning in his own breast, foi- a flame which he fancies that he sees lighted np in the bosom of the person he is intem])erately reviling. In a preceding letter (XIV) dated Nov, 7. 18C8, Mr. Adams has been pleased to describe me in the follow- ins: words : "The gentleman has wreaked his reveus:e " on my son, in letters which shew the ch.aracter of tJie " man bitter and malignant, ignorant and Jesuitical. K is " revenge has been sweet, and he has rolled it as a de- *' licious morsel under his tongue." To this reprcprh I disdain to otfer a contradiction. If the reader can fj-d any ground for it, in the foregoing extracts frero my lost letter to Governor Sullivan (for, as I have said alrea<:!y, it was in that letter only that I named or alluded to Lis son) then let the reproach fasten upon me. Here is the source of the father's wrath. In my cor- resi^ondence w ith Governor vSuIlivan, I w as constrair< d to state, in the manner before mentioned, a fact which occurred in the Senate of the United States, in order to justifj' my ow^n vote against tlie embargo, contrary to the vote of my colleague, J. Q. Adams, on the san^e question. Of the character of that fact, every reac-er w'ill judge. I have given my own sense of it. If the fact w'as honourable to his son, w hy should the father's WTath be kindled against me for stating it ? That it has been kindled, and into a flame, his whole corre- spondence with Cunningham affords demonstrative proof. What is the obvious inference ? That, in his opinion, the fact recited was dishonourable to his son. In his letter to Mr. Otis, Mr. J. Q. Adams intimates a reproach to me for spending my time, when a sena- tor, in wTiting the letter to Governor Sullivan ; while he w^as assiduously devoted to his senatorial duties. But where was his regard to his duty as a legislator for the Union, in advocating and voting for a law which paralysed all the business of the nation ; when, by his own admission, it had only four ciphers for its basis ? * Letter XVII, to Cunningham. 53 Where was his attention to the rights and interests of his constituents of Massachusetts, when his utmost ex- ertions were made to impose that law upon them ? a law deceptively called an Embargo ; which is a mea- sui'ie sometimes adopted for an important national ob- ject, of a temporary nature : but the law in question was without limitation. The law was general in its terms^ interdicting our commerce with ail nations : it would not have been convenient to discriminate : but, accurately speaking, its title should have been — ' An Act to prohibit all commerce with Great-Britain and her domiiiions.' Whether J. Q. Adams ve^iWy perform- ed his duty in thus advocating and voting for the em- bargo — or abandoned it ; whether he guarded the inte- rests of his constituents of Massachusetts, or betrayed them, the reader can now form a pretty correct opin- ion : but, if he will accompany me as I proceed, he will see the latter completely established. I proceed with the Embargo ; though I fear the reader will be as weary of the details concerning it, as the people of the United States were of the embargo itself, when they threw the intolerable load from their shoulders. I pray for the reader's patience a little longer. My first letter to Governor Sullivan, giving an ac- count of the embargo — exposing it stripped of the dis- guise which concealed its deformity — v. as opening the eyes of the people, to see the delusion practised upon them. The administration stood in need of justifica- tion ; and J. Q. Adams stepped forth as its champion. The zeal of new converts is proverbial. The justifica- tion was in the form of a letter, addressed, nominally^ to Harrison Gray Otis. In this letter, Mr. Adams took new ground on which to rest the embargo; the British Orders in Council, of the 11th of November 1807 — issued to retaliate the French Emperor's Berlin de- cree. As the latter interdicted the commerce of neu- tral nations with the British islands — which in its exe- cution was extended to all the British dominions — its object, as already observed, being to ruin the com- 54 merce of Britain, as an essential source of that revenue which enabled iier to contend successful!} with France ; so the Orders in Council interdicted the commerce of neutrals with France and her allies and their depen- cies, and with all other countries, under the control of France, whose ports w ere shut against British com- merce ; with the exception, however, of a direct trade between neutral nations and the colonies of the ene- mies of Great-Britain. Mr. x\dams describes these or- ders as " studiousl}^ concealed until the moment w hen " they burst upon our heads.'"' Whereas our govern- ment was apprised, by the British Secretary of State (Lord How^ick) soon after the Berlin decree was issu- ed, that measures of retaliation would be necessary, on the part of Great-Britain. The first was a prohibition of the coasting trade carried on by neutral vessels, from one port to another of France and her allies ; and notice thereof was immediately given to our Minister in London. This was on the 10th of January 1807. But the French Emperor continuing his Berlin decree^ and in September, in that year, directing its execution, without any exception of the nations affected by it, the British government, having waited almost a year, and no neutral nation having offered any efficient interpo- sition to obtain a repeal of the Berlin decree, made and proclaimed the retaliating Orders in Council of No- vember 11th, 1807. Perhaps it may be asked. How could any of the na- tions then neutral, the United States for instance, the principal neutral power, interpose, with ejfect^ to ob- tain a revocation of the Berlin decree ? The answ er is obvious. That decree was such a monstrous stride in imperial tyranny, so atrocious a violation of our trea- ty with France (a treaty made with Bonaparte himself when first consul) such an outrage on the law of na- tions, that all commerce with that country, and with her allies and dependencies, might have been prohi- bited, and the prohibition effectually enforced; while our commerce would have been protected against the small naval power of France. The American navy, 55 with the requisite increase then in onr power, would soon have been comi^letely competent to tiiat object: not 'VIr. Jefferson's contemptible gun-boat system ; the ex lenditures on which were enough to have built a squadron of frigates. And had he possessed any por- tion of the spirit manifested by President Adams and the Congress of 1798, such a resistance would have been made.* But nothing was more remote from Mr. Jefferson's policy than such resistance ; while it was the only measure which could have had a tendency to effect a revocation of the decree. Or, if the pride and obstinacy of the Emperor should have caused him to persevere, at least our commerce would have been protected. Whereas the timid subserviency of our go- vernment naturally inv^ited the Emperor to persist in his scheme of universal plunder. And the delusive hopes which the actual conduct of our government ex- cited among the people, enticed them to hazard their property on the seas, and even to enter the ports of France and her allies ; thus rushing into the mouths of the sharks which the decrees of Bonaparte had opened to devour them. The British Orders in Council, of which every body hai^ heard, were not, like French decrees, put in in- stant execution, " without a moment's warning :" they were not " pounced" upon all neutral commerce. Time was allowed for neutrals to receive information of them, before their vessels would be subjected to their operation. These were the Orders which J. Q. Adams has said " stood in front of the real causes of " the embargo." " To argue (said he) upon the sub- " ject of our disputes with Great-Britain, or upon the " motives for the embargo^ and keep them out of sight, " is like laying your finger over the tmit before a se- " ries of naughts, and then arithmetically proving that * To protect our commerce in 1798, all commerce with France and hej: dominions was prohibited. Our armed vessels were instructed to capture all French armed vessels. Our merchant vessels were permitted to arm in their own defence. Vigorous measures were adopted to increase our vessels of war. And all our treaties with Franee, grossly riolated by her, were decHS*- ed. void. 56 '' they all amount to nothing." Now 1 will show, that when the embargo was recommended, and when the bill passed in the Senate, those Orders in Council were, in fact, out of sight of the President — out of sight of the Secretary of State — out of sight of the Senate — i and out of sight of Mr. Adams himself. 1. Mr. Jefferson, together with his message recom- miending an embargo, sent to Congress the four papers I have already described ; saying, that those papers showed the great and increasing dangers to our vessels, our seamen and merchandise ; against which he ex- pected the wisdom of Congress would provide. And, lar from placing the Orders in Council in front of the causes for the embargo, there is not the sliglitest rea- son to believe that he thought of their existence. On the contrary, forty-six days afterwards, viz. in his mes- sage to Congress, of February 2, 1808,* laying before them the Orders in Council, he says, " I transmit them " to Congress as a farther proof of the increasing dan- " gers to our navigation and commerce, which led to " the provident measure of tlie act of the present ses-v " sion, laying an embargo on our own vessels." 2. Mr. 'Madison, in his letter of December 23, 1807t— the day after the embargo law was enacted — to Wil- liam Pinkney, our minister in London, says, "I enclose " you a copy of a message from the President to Con- " gress, and their act in pursuance of it, laying an im- " mediate embargo on our vessels and exports. The '^'policy and the causes of the measure are exj^lained " in the message itself." But Mr. Madison, }\ke ]>Ir. Adams, was afterwards willing to drag in the Orders in Council to bolster up that mischievous measure. Accordingly, in his next letter to Mr. Pinkney, dated Feb. 19, 1808, Mr. Madison says, "My last, which was " committed to the British packet, enclosed a copy of " the act of embargo, and explained the policy of the *^ measure ;" leaving out " causes." More cautious, however, than Mr. Adams, or having a better memory. * State Papers, vol. 1806-8, p. 2G3. f State Papers, vol. 1808-9, p. 260. he does not venture to assign the Orders in Council aa a cause of the embargo ; much less to place them " in ^'' front of the real causes of the embargo ;" but ^contents himself with saying, that " among the considerations *' which enforced it, was the probability of such de- *' crees as were issued b}^ the British government, on " the 1 1th of November ; the language of the British ga- " zettes, with other indications, having left little dcubt " that such were meditated." But thc^e were after thoughts^ the expression of which does no honour to Mr. Madison; as they bear an insmnaticn, that those rn- mours of British orders were among the motives which influenced the President to recommend an embargo ; which he knew was not the case. 3. I have said, that as to J. Q. Adams himself, the Orders in Council were out of sight, when he zealously advocated and voted for the embargo. This is a plain inference from the facts I have already stated. When hard pressed for adequate causes for the embargo, and not finding them in the four documents communicated with the message, Mr. Adams, it will be recollected, had recourse to the President's highly responsible re- commendation of the measure, and the possible iifor- mation locked up in his bosom, to justify the passage of the law. Noav, if the Orders in Council furnished the great and prominent cause for the embargo, and if, compared with them, the four papers assigned by the President as the onh' causes for an embargo were but four " naughts ;" is it possible that " those all-dc" vouring instruments of rapine," as Mr. Adams calls the Orders in Council, should never have risen in their terrific forms to his view ? that he should not have so presented them to the view of the Senate? and that they should not have caused him to pour forth a deluge of his appalling metaphors, in describing them ? I he- sitate not to pronounce it impossible. " Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Should he assert the contrary, no man of common understand- ing can believe him. At all events, it is clear, from the President's first message and documents, and froin 5S the quotations already made from his next messag'e, and from Mr. Madison's letters, that neither Mr. Jeffer- son nor he had the Orders in Council in their minds, when assigning and mentioning the causes of the em- bargo. 4. It is equally clear, that no other Senator, in vot- ing for the embargo, contemplated the Orders in Coun- cil, because no one adverted to them in the discussion. I now consider it as demonstrated, that Mr. Jeffer- son's embargo was not recommended by him, " to keep " in safety our vessels, our seamen and our merchan- " dise." And as no man who thinks at all does any act of consequence without a motive, and as I am inca- pable of discerning any other, I do not hesitate to say, that its object was a co-operation with the French Fm- peror, to diminish, and as far as possible to destroy, the commerce of Great-Britain ; and thereby compel her at least to make peace, if not absolutely to sub- ject her to the control of the imperial conqueror ; when it ivas apparent that the object of his ambition was uni- versal empire. I add, that the mischievous measure I have been exposing was not an embargo, but an abso- lute prohibition of commerce, and therefore a violation of the Constitution : for the power given to Congress to regulate, cannot be construed to authorize the anni- hilatioti of commerce : but such was the nature, and such would have been the effect, of this perpetual law — perpetual in its terms — if the people of the United States had tamely continued to submit to it. But they would not submit ; and Congress were obliged to repeal it. The commercial part of our nation considered the Berlin decree, and the still more outrageous one issued at Milan, with the British orders in council, superadd- ed, as less injurious than Mr. Jefferson's edict called an Embargo : and all those decrees and orders continued in force, ivheti the embargo latv was repealed. I have but one more fact to state on this subject : it is this — that on his first hearing the news of the embargo. President Mams earnestly condemned it. But he did not then know that his son had voted for it, 59 and was its most strenuous advocate : that son, of whom he said, there was not an hcnet^ter or abier man in the United States.* When afterwards he learned what a conspicuous part his son had acted in favour of the embargo, he also thought it a wise measure. He even doubted whether it ought to have been limited ! He says, " The policy of a limitation to the embargo " is, in a national view, and on a large scale, a nice " question."! That a man of his strong understanding, extensive knowledge, and great exYierience, ivhen judg- ing with an unbiassed mind, should have condemned the embargo — especially an embargo of unlimited duration — was perfectly natural ; and, but for the agen- cy of his son J. Q. Adams in imposing it, and his con- tinuing joined to the dominant party, he would never have ceased to condemn it. Then, too, I might have been exempted from his calumnies : for it was my in- voluntary exhibition of his son's conduct about the embargo, that kindled the father's wrath against me ; which, in the effervescence of his foaming passions, threw up that foul scum which is spread over all his letters Avhere my name is mentioned. The immense importance ascribed by Mr. Adams to his son, John Quincy, induces me to state — that, hav- ing received a law education, he commenced the prac- tice of it in Boston; but soon (in 1794) when his father was Vice-President, he was appointed Minister Resident of the United States to the States of Holland. His father places this first step in diplomacy to the account of Washington's gratitude for the son's rescu- * Letter to Cunning-ham, No. XLIII, datedJuly 31, 1809. J. Q.Adams was then on the point of denarture from Boston, bound to Russia, as minister ple- nipotentiary from the United States. " I hope," says the father, "his absence ♦' will not be long-. Aristicles is banished because he is too just. He will " NOT LEAVE AN HONESTER. OR ABLER MAN BEHIND HI!W." Here is a singular confusion of ideas. To the inclement reg-ion of Siberia in Russia, her despots have been accustomed to banish offending- subjects. Aristides the just was driven into banishment by the votes of his fickle fellow citizens. J. Q. Adams voluntarily accepted of the mission to Russia. It was his first reward for aban- doning- the cause of federalism, and his father's and his own original principles. He perceived " there was no g-etting- along, or being- any thing-, without popu- larity ;" and the path to popularity was that opened by Mr. Jefferson — then the idol of the people : his measures must be supported. T Letter X, to Cunning-ham, p. 29. 60 ing the governnietit from the overw-liehniKg flood oi democratic fanaticism, raised in the preceding year by the infl ^ence or proceedings of Monsieur Genet, Minis- ter from the French Repubhc. " John Quincy Adams's " writings (isays his father) first turned this tide." — " Not all Wasliington's ministers, Hamilton and Pick- " ering included, could have written those papers, which " ivere so fatal to Genet. Washington saw it, and felt " his obligations."* Mr. Adams's overweening opinion of his son's ta- lents, and his raging enmity to others, makes him for- get and confound times and facts. I had then nothing to do with the cabinet. The general post-ofhce was my department. But IMr. Jeiferson was at that time (1793) Secretary of State ; and he has always been re- puted to possess certain talents, some knowledge of public law and of foreign affairs, and a fiimiliar ac- quaintance with the rights and duties of ministers f having himself been minister from the United States to the Court of France, from the year 1785 to 1789. And being Secretary of State, it was his special duty to enter the lists with ]\lr. Genet ; but he shrunk, it seems, froni the fearful task. Alexander Hamilton, too, then Secretary of the Treasury, was believed to be a man of understanding, with a capacity to manifest its strength on paper. Even at the age of eighteen, he encountered successfull}^ the most powerful tory advocates of British taxation. . But wliat of all this ? Mr. Adams represents Alexander Hamilton at one time as not possessing a particle of common sense ; at ano- ther, as an ignoramus ; and that, in a certain conversa- tion with him, " he talked like a fool ;" and at length sinks him even below Elbridge Gerry ! Yes — Elbridge Gerry Avas Alexander Hamilton's master in finance!! In this state of terror and dismay, when all Wash- ington's ministers trembled at the sight of the French Leviathan, forth stepped a youthful champion, son of * Letter XII, dated Oct. 15, 1808, to Cunning-liam. t See Mr. Adams's Letter, No. XIII, May 29, 1809, published in the Bos- ton Patriot; an extract from which will be inserted in the section concerniDgj Hamilton. 61 the venerable sage of Quincy, and (like the stripling son of Jesse who slew the Philistine giant) " put a hook in his nose." It will be impossible to doubt of the persuasive mo- tives that influenced John Q. Adams to desert the cause, policy and principles of federalists, and join himself to their adversaries. In addition to what I have already stated, look at the following facts. In a little more than a jear after turning out as the champion for the embargo, to w it, on the 4th of March 1809, Mr. Madison (it being the first day of his presi- dency) nominated J. Q. Adams Minister Plenipoten- tiary to the Court of the Emperor of Russia. The Senate put their negative on the nomination. But Mr. Madison, hav^ing called a special meeting of Congress in the following Ma}^, repeated the nomination ; and, by a change in some votes, the nomination was ap- proved. Mr. Adams was next appointed Minister Plenipotentiar}' to the Court of London ; then one of the Commissioners for negotiating a peace with Great- Britain ; and, in the last place, Secretar}^ of State. There is but one more step in the ladder of ambition ; and there are not wanting partisans to aid him in the ascent — so far as perpetual eulogies can give him aid. His abilities and learning have been highly extolled. His father possessed the same qualifications. But something more is requisite in the character of a safe and useful President. Whose passions, of the two, are. the most violent, it may be difficult to decide. Those of the son may, perhaps, be managed with the most discretion : from the father's errors he may have learned some degree of caution. But his review of the works of Fisher Ames, one of the most able, ex- cellent and amiable of men — and his last fourth of July oration — exhibit a temper which no candid, liberal and honourable mind would indulge. In both are mani- fested a rancour alike unbecoming a gentleman, a statesman and a Christian. Of what value are profes- sions, without the spirit, of Christianity ? In vain will you search for this spirit \n the conduct of either father 62 or son. In what part of the gospel did the latter find a warrant for him to tlirow the bolts of Heaven ? Where, to authorize him to interpret the events of Providence, as the special judicial acts of the Deity, applied to individual sufferers ? In his oration, he has the boldness to ascribe the insanity of George the Third to the judgment of Heaven ; to consider his insanity — the most deplorable malady incident to suffering hu- manity ; an affliction, the bare idea of which would melt any but the most obdurate heart — as a punish- ment inflicted by God, for the evils experienced by the Colonies in his reign, from the oppressive acts of '.par- liament, and the consequent iVmerican war. " Suppose *' ye that those Galileans (whose blood Pilate had " mingled with their sacrifices) were sinners above all " the Galileans, because they suffered such things ? I " tell 3'ou, Nay :" — " Or those eighteen on whom the '• tower in Siioam fell, and slew them, think ye that '" they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jeru- "salem? I tell you. Nay." These words have an authority which J. Q. Adams will not controvert. His father, more placable, has expressed his belief, that George the Third " was not a tyrant in disposition and " in nature ;" but that he was " deceived by his cour- " tiers on both sides of the Atlantic ; and in his official " capacity only cruel." Had J. Q. Adams been a private citizen, the senti- ments in his oration, here adverted to, would have been a subject of just reproach : but, viewing him as the Secretary of State — ^^the officer of the government whose particular duty it was to hold a courteous and amicable intercourse with foreign nations with whom the United States were at peace — it was peculiarly in- decorous thus to insult the memory of the deceased King. From his general reputation, if there was, at that period, a monarch in Europe, whose actions and whose life were regulated by moral principles, it was George the Third. Will it then be deemed a stretch of candour to suppose, that he verily thought himself bound by the duties of his station, as the head of the British empire, to preserve it entire ? 63 On the score of talents and learning, the experience of five and thirty j^ears, in the United States, has fur- nished ample proof, that a practical knowledfie of the interests of the country^ and common sense deliberately exercised in forming a sound judgment^ united with perfect integrity and pure and disinterested patriotism, are of infinitely greater value^ than genkts without sta- bility^ profound learning, ripe scholars! 'p, and philoso- phy ; — the latter often uasting its energies in visionary theories and political dreams. SECTION III. The Causes, pretended and real, for removing T. Pick- ering FROM OFFICE ThE MiSSION TO FrANCE IN 1799 The Pardon of Fries. It appears to have been a material object of Mr. Adams, in his Correspondence with Cunningham, where he labours to justify his dismissing me from the office of secretary of state, to show that I did not possess the qualifications necessary to perform the duties of it. This reproach from him should have been spared, when he knew what I had written and published in Boston above five months before the date of his letter to Cun- ningham, No. XII, the first in which he introduces my name. Mr. Adams had certainly read that publication; for it is the same in which I recited to Governor Sulli- van J. Q. Adams's extraordinary sentiment in the em- bargo question, which I have already stated. Mr. Cun- ningham (Letter No. XI) asks the causes of my dismis- sion; which (says he) "I have never seen unfolded, " and which Col. Pickering has nearly pronounced in- *' explicable ;" referring to my last printed letter to Governor Sullivan, wl^ich is dated April 22, 1808. The principal object of that letter was, my vindication again«!t 64 many aspersions on my character. The urgent motives to undertake that vinclication are expressed in the fol- lowing paragraph of the same letter : " I am now, sir, far advanced in life. I have children " and grand-children, who, when I am gone, may hear " these slanders repeated, and not have the means of " repelling them. I have, too, some invaluable friends " in most of tWe states, and many in that which gave " me birth.; men who are the ornaments of society and " of their country. All these, if not my country itself, " interested as it is in the public concerns on which I " first addressed you [the embargo] have claims which "I ought not to leave unsatisfied. Thus called upon " to vindicate my character, I am constrained to give a " concise narrative of my public life." I shall not trouble the reader with long details. It may suffice to say, That early in 1768, when a marked line was drawn between whigs and tories (the party names of that day) I acted with the former in all the measures of my countrymen, in opposition to British taxation of the colonies — that in my native town I w as a member of the various committees raised in that pe- riod, to support that opposition ; and that on me de- volved all the writing which occasions called for : — That, prior to the war which ensued, I was elected by the freeholders of my native county, Essex, register of deeds — that, after the commencement of hostilities, when Massachusetts organized a provisional govern- ment, I was appointed a judge of the county court of common pleas ; and sole judge of the maritime court, to take cognizance of prize causes, pursuant to the re- solutions of Congress, for the middle district of Massa- chusetts, comprehending Boston, Marblehead, Salem, and other ports in Essex. Into these places were brought most of the prizes taken by the armed vessels of Massachusetts. The number of those prizes, while I held the office, (which was until I joined tlie -army under General Washington's immediate command) amounted to about one hundred and fifty. In the au- tumn of 1776, the army being greatly reduced, by the I 65 expiration of enlistments, and likely soon to be nearly dissolved, there was a call on Massachusetts for many thousands of her militia. I marched a regiment of se- ven hundred men from Essex. The tour of duty ter- minated in New-Jersey, in March 1777. General Washington's head quarters were at Morristown. Some time after my return home, I received from the General an invitation to take the office of adjutant gen- eral. In that capacity, I joined the army at Middle- brook about the middle of the month of June. In Sep- tember happened the battle of Brand^^wine. Five days afterwards another general action was expected ; but, rain coming on, the enemy halted ; and, after some skirmishes between the advanced parties, the American army retired. In October the battle of Germantown took place. After the capture of Burgoyne's army, General Washington, reinforced by some brigades from the northern army, took an advantageous position at Whitemarsh, fourteen miles from Philadelphia. In the beginning of December, Sir William Howe led his ar- my from Philadelphia to Chesnut Hill, about three miles from the American army, and on the morning of the third day afterwards advanced, with his whole force, apparently with the expectation, or hope, of drawing Washington from his advantageous position. The advanced parties, and Morgan's rifle regiment, engaged the British advanced parties. Washington re- taining his station on the hills, Howe returned to Phi- ladelphia. The American army then marched to Val- ley Forge, on the western side of the river Schuylkill, and hutted for the winter. Some two or three months before, Congress had con- stituted a Board of War. I was appointed one of its members ; and took my seat there as soon as a succes- sor in the office of adjutant general was appointed, be- ing the last of January 1778. Judge Peters was a mem- ber of the board, and we were joined by Generals Gates and Mifflin : but these two left the board not long af- terwards, and the business of it rested chiefly on Mr. Peters and myself. I continued in this station untijl the 10 66 summer of 1780, when General Greene resigned the office of quarter master general. Very unexpectedly^ that office was proposed to me, and by Roger Sher- man, then a member of Congress ; a man whose name, in the annals of his country, will descend to posterity among the names of her eminent patriots and states- men. Having taken a httle time to consider the pro- position, I informed him that I would accept the office, should it please Congress to confer it. It was an ar- duous undertaking, and the more embarrassing because continental paper money was so depreciated as to be hardly worth counting; and Congress had no other funds. Having accepted the office, I addressed a letter to Congress, proposing the expedient of authorizing me to value all services and supplies, in the department, as if to be paid for in specie, and to give certificates there- for, bearing an interest of six per cent. This measure was adopted ; and with the aid of these certificates the business of the department, which under the new reg- ulations extended to all the states, was carried on, un- til that eminent citizen, Robert Morris, appointed su- perintendent of finance, by his personal credit, furnish- ed, in his own promissory notes, (which foreign loans enabled him to redeem) a medium which passed as cash. I continued in the office of quarter master gen- eral to the end of the war. In the year 1791, President Washington appointed me postmaster general. At the close of the year 1794, General Knox resigned the office of secretary of war, and Washington appointed me his successor. In Au- gust 1795, on the resignation of Edmund Randolph, secretary of state, Washington charged me with the business of that department. Some time before the meeting of Congress, which was in December follow- ing, the President tendered to me the office of secre- tary of state : at the same time he frankly told me the names of three highly distinguished citizens, to whom he had offered, but who declined accepting, the office. General Washington knew me well, and that I had not enough of vanity or ambition to be wounded or hum- 67 .Ijled at the preference given to those gentlemen ; they were entitled to it : I only regretted tliat tliey declined the office. For myself, I objected, that the duties of the department of state were foreign to my former pur- suits in life ; and I thought myself unequal to the pro- per discharge of them. He desired me to take the matter into consideration. When he again spoke to me on the subject, I observed, that although the gen- tlemen he had named to me had declined the office, yet by a little delay he might find some other candi- date to fill it. The session of Congress was approach- ing. By inquiry among the members he might obtain information of a fit character not then occurring to him ; and I requested him to postpone the matter until the meeting of Congress. The President acquiesced. But as soon as Congress assembled — without speaking to me again — he nominated me to be secretary of state ; and the Senate approved the nomination. Now all these important offices, in the general go- vernment, were voluntarily conferred upon me ; the last, and highest, attended by the singular circumstan- ces I have just stated ; and all of them unasked for, in any form whatever. Yet Mr. Adams says, Pickering was ambitious ! Had I solicited these offices — had I made an interest through my friends, or intrigued with my enemies^ to obtain them — had I swelled with vani- ty on their acquisition — I might lave been pronounced ambitious. The following are Mr. Adams's words : — " Under the simple appearance of a bald head and " straight hair, and under professions of profound re- " publicanism, he conceals an ardent ambition, envious " of every superior, and impatient of obscurity !"* My " bald head and straight hair" are what nature has given me ), and I have been content with her ar- rangements : they are not a fit subject for reproach. Mr. Adams's friend Cunningham reminds him, that it was rather unfortunate for him to attempt to degrade Ham- ilton, by calling him " the little man ;" seeing, though with less flesh, he surpassed in stature both him and '^ Letter XVII, p. 56. 68 hi? <:on. — Of aH men livi^ 2. those who l^est know me will say. that 1 am ope 01 the last to whom a disposi- tion in any manner to disg:iiise his sentiments, should be imputed. Havinir seen, throughout the " Correspondence," a series of misrepresentations of comparatively recent events, it cannot surprise one that Mr. Adams should misstate an occurrence fifty or sixty years old. He says, that he was engaged in a cause in which my fa- ther was a witness : that " while under examination, " though treated with the utmost respect and civility, he ** broke out. without the smallest provocation, into a ■^ nide personal attack upon him." Mr. Adams. — I know m^ father's character too well to orive any credit to the latter part of thislaie. He was a farmer ; yet. bred in the tOAATi. his manners were not coarse and rude. It is true that he thought all men were bom free and equal ; ar-d though indisposed to any act of humiliation to a prrud barrister, he would treat his poor neighbour with kindness and civihty. — The story admits of an easy solu- tion. It was, I presume, a cross-examination : and that my father's testimony bore hard upon the cause of Mr. Adams's client. Then, as it not unfrequently happens, (audi have often thoiiglit with too much indulgence from the court) the lawyer brow-beat the witness, with the hope to confound him. in order, amidst his confusion, to produce some change in his language that might lessen or destroy the weight of his testimony. Such, proba- bly, was Mr. Adams's conduct towards my father : who had discernment enough to perceive the insult, and spirit enough not to let it pass unnoticed. — In com- menting upon the testimony, in his argument to the jur}\ Mr. Adams says he raised a ofeneral laugh at my fathers expense. He supposes that I was present ; and says " I have never forgiven him." — Xow, whether this miserable tale be true in whole, or in part, or wholly destitute of truth, it is, as to the conclusion, al- together immaterial : for I never heard of it before ; nor do I remember a single instance in which my fa- ther was examined as a witness in any court. There 69 was, consequently, no object on account of which, in regard to Mr. Adams, I could impart or withheld for- giveness. My father, at the age of 75, died almost six and forty years ago. I have mentioned one cause of Mr. Adams's viru- lent reproaches in giving an account of Mr. Jefferson's embargo. I shall now mention another. His friend Cunningham desires to be informed by Mr. Adams of the causes of his dismissing me from office.* Ke eagerh" seized the occasion to vent his resentments, while he gratified the extreme curiosity of his frieiid. In his first answer,t Mr. Adams says — " Ccesar's *^' wife must not be suspected — was all the reason he " gave for repudiating her.'' [On this reason I make but a single remark, that the familiarity of this same delicate Csesar, with the other sex. was so noji:*^ 'ious, that he was stigmatised as the husband of every wo- man in Rome.] Mr. Adams proceeds — '* Reasons of " state are not always to be submitted to newspaper " discussions. — It is sufficient for me to say, that I had " reasons enough, not only to satisfy me. but to make " it my indisp'ensable duty. Reasons which, upon the " coolest deliberation, I still approve. I was not so " ignorant of Mr. Pickering, his family relations, his " political, military and local connexions, as not to be " well aware of the consequences to myself. I said at " the time, to a few confidential friends, that I signed " my own dismission when I signed his, and that he " would rise again, but I should fall forever.'' [This, I doubt not (the reader ^y\\\ pardon the apparent sole- cism) was a prediction after the event ; — Mr. Adams, when he wrote this letter, forgot the date of his pro- phecy.] " His removal was one of the most delibe- ** rate, virtuous and disinterested actions of my life.*' On this part of the answer, I must pray the reader to pause for a moment. That there were, in his own views, "' reasons of state.'* I am ready to admit : what they were will by-aud-by appear. But his prediction, that for •• one of the most deliberate, virtuous and * Letter XI, dated Oct. 5, 1868. f Letter XII, Oct. 15. 1808. 70 '* disinterested actions of his life," " he should fall for- " ever" — while /, the subject of that act, " should rise " again" — appears, among intelligent and virtuous peo- ple, really enigmatical. Incapable, as he represents me, on what ground could Mr. Adams predict that I should rise again ? — Never in my life did I court po- pularity, the usual road to honours and employments. Yet I have had many excellent friends, whose appro- bation has infinitely more than countervailed all the obloquy of which I have been the subject. Mr. Adams proceeds — "If any future historian should " have access to the letter books of the Secretaries of " State, and compare Mr. Pickering's negotiations with " England, with those of Mr. Marshall, he will see rea- ^' sons enough for the exciiange of ministers," Be it so : but the actual comparison was out of the question when I was removed ; my letters o?ily being on the books ; and Mr. Adams saw very few of them ; as he usually passed half the year, enjoying otium cum dignitate, at Quincy ; and during the sessions of Con- gress he never called for a letter book to read one of them. — HoAvever, he might very well calculate on the superiority to which he refers ; as Mr. Marshall's dis- tinguished talents were well known ; and perhaps no one entertains a higher opinion of them than I do. Since we were personally known to each other, I have been happy in receiving uniform testimonies of his friendship and esteem. His elevated and generous mind will derive no pleasure from this contrast. Mr. Adams again. " In consequence of Mr. Picker- " ing's removal, I was enabled to negotiate and com- ^' plete a peace with France, and an amicable settle- -" ment with England." I do not know what settlement with England he re- fers to. The difficult question about impressment of seamen was not then adjusted ; nor in the two next succeeding administrations ; though in the latter of them it was one of the professed objects of a three years' war, vastly expensive in money and in human lives : nor is it settled to this day. There was another 71 subject of dispute with England — the debts incurred, by Americans prior to the revolutionary war, and re- maining due to British merchants. What negotiations, in this case, were carried on by Mr. Marshall and the British government. I do not know ; yet I am sure, that, on the part of Mr. Marshall, they must have been ably conducted : but, nevertheless, they du\ not effect an " amicable settlement," as Mr. Adams asserts ; nor any settlement at all ; unless it was, that the two parties, unable to agree on terms, mutually consented to let the matter rest : for an actual settlement was not made un- til January 1802, near the close of the first yea.r of Mr. Jefferson's presidency, by a convention negotiated in London, by Rufus King, the American Minister, and the British Secretary of State. This was a compro- mise about the British debts. It was agreed, as I have already stated, that the United States should pay to his Britannic Majesty, six hundred thousand pounds sterling, ($2,664,000) for the use of his subjects, credi- tors to the American ante-revolution debtors, in dis- charge of those creditors' claims. — That he was ena- bled to make peace with France, in consequence of my removal^ is not true. The Commissioners, Ellsworth and Davie, furnished with full and minute instructions, sailed for France six months before my removal ; and my being in or out of office was a matter of perfect indifference in the negotiations, and in their result. Having so far gratified Cunningham's eager appetite for secret history, he takes care to keep up the excite- ment, by saying, near the close of this letter, " But I " am not yet to reveal the whole mystery." Accord- ingly, in the next letter. No. XIII, Cunningham re- news his importunity " to be initiated into the whole " mystery," relating to me. In his next letter (No. XIV) Mr. Adams adds to the former subjects of negotiation, " discussions of great " importance with Spain," as well as with France and England. — On the discussions with Spain, I can speak with some certainty, having seen Mr. Marshall's letters to Col. Humphreys, our minister at Madrid. They were few in number, and treated of the spoliations of our commerce, by the privateers of France and Spain. By both, the captured vessels were carried into the ports of Spain, and there tJjenerally condemned, in vio- lation of every law that is held in respect by civilized nations. The case was too plain to recjuire the abili- ties of Mr. Marshall to discuss it. The chief clerk whom I left in the Department of State, and whom Mr. Marshall retained, was quite competent to that task. The Spanish government was at that time but partial- ly independent. French Consuls in her ports erected themselves into tribunals takini? coo;nizance of prize causes. The captures made by Spanish armed vessels, and unlawfully condemned in Spanish courts, were the subject of a treaty afterwards negotiated by Mr. Jefferson's minister to Spain, Charles Pinckney ; in which the Spanish government stipulated to make compensation for all which, on due investigation, should be found in that predicament. But the Senate, to whom this treaty was submitted, did not (under an in- fluence easy to divine) advise its ratification. At the next session of Congress, the same treaty was again submitted to the Senate, who then advised its ratifica- tion. But it was too late ; the Spanish government now refused to ratify. It was rejected by our own government, in the first instance, because the illegal captures and condemnations, by French armed vessels, and the French Consular Tribunals, were not compre- hended, and stipulated to be paid for by Spain. She was in fact under duress from the French Republic, under whose authority, or efficacious countenance, the French Consular Tribunals were erected. On these three subjects of negotiation, Mr. Adams says, " I could " get nothing done as I would have it. My new min- ^' ister, Marshall, did all, to my entire satisfaction." Mr. Adams was a lawyer, a statesman, a diplomatist, of great experience ; and from his abundant resources, ready at his call, it would not be unnatural, or unrea- sonable, to expect, that, having endured his lame Se- cretary so long, he might be willing to lend him some 73 JEiid — to sugfifest at least some leading ideas on the sub- jects in question : but of these he was certainly very sparing, if he offered any at all. As soon as a session of Congress ended, he hurried away to Quincy, to in- dulge himself in repose, almost free from the cares of government, and enjoying his office, with its emolu- ments, nearly as a sinecure. At the close of the verj important session in July 1798, he posted off without informing any head of department that he was going to leave the seat of government ! His son-in-law. Col. Smith, nominated for adjutant general, had recently been negatived by the Senate ; and I supposed he de- parted in a pet. Much in this manner he left the city of Washington, early on the morning of the fourth of March 1801, the day of the inauguration of his success- ful rival, Thomas Jefferson ; vexed and mortified that he was not himself elected to the presidency a second time. Washington stayed in Philadelphia, and, with dignified courtesy, attended the inauguration of Mr. Ad- ams ; and afterwards made him a visit at his lodgings, before he departed for Mount Vernon. So much on the score of incapacity, with which I am roundly charged by Mr. Adams. With this, how^- ever, great as it may have been, it was somewhat cruel to upbraid me, after what had passed between Presi- dent Washington and me, when he tendered me the office of Secretary of State, as recited in my letter to Governor Sullivan, which Mr. Adams had read, and which, as already mentioned, caused the out-pouring of his wrath ; and after I had held the office a year and a half under Washington, and three years and two months under Adams himself. If the reader will have the goodness to accompany me, we will now look on the other side of the ques- tion. Mr. Adams having advanced far in gratifying Cun- ningham's inquiry concerning my dismission, the itch- ing curiosity of the latter prompts him to solicit further information. " I wish." says he, " my suspicions were *' obviated or confirmed, that his (Pickering's) far-famed H 74 •• report to Coni^jress, on our foreign relations, was not " his own unassisted performance." There were two reports relating to France. To the iirst Mr. Cun- ningliam must refer. It was in the form of a letter,- of great length, dated the 16th of January 1797, ad- dressed to General Pinckney, the American minister at Paris ; a copy of which on the 19th of that month, was communicated by Washington to Congress ; by whose order it was printed. It made a pamphlet of a hundred pages. Mr. Adams had satisfactory reasons to know, that it was my own composition ; but he care- fully avoided answering Cunningham's importunate de- sire of information on this point; it would have pre- sented a contradiction to his numerous vilifying re- proaches. This report was the result of a thorough and laborious investigation, which enabled me to con- cl'ide with the following inferences : " From the foregoing statement we trust it will ap- " pear, That there has been no attempt in the govern- " ment of the United States to violate our treaty, or " weaken our engagements with France : That what- " ever resistance it has opposed to the measures of her " agents, the maintenance of the laws and sovereignty " of the United States and their neutral obligations " rendered indispensable : That it has never acquiesced " in any acts violating our rights, or interfering with " the advantages stipulated to France ; but, on the con- " trar}, has opposed them by all the means in its pow- " er : That it has withheld no succours from France, " that were compatible with the duties of neutrality to " grant : That, as well by their independent political " rights, as by the express provisions of the commer- " cial treaty with France, the United States were at " full liberty to enter into commercial treaties with any " other nation, and consequently with Great-Britain : " That no facts manifesting a partiality to that country " have been, and I add, that none such can be, pro- " duced. " Of the proDriety and justness of these conclusions, " you will endeavour to satisfy the French govern- 7^ ** ment : and, conscious of the rectitude of our own ** proceedings, during the whole course oi the present " war, we cannot but entertain the most sanguine ex- >" pectations that they will be satisfied. We even hope " that this has been already accomplished ; and that ** you will be saved from the pain of renewing a dis- ** cussion, which the government has entered U]*on ** with regret. Your mission and instructions prove its ** solicitude to have prevented its necessity, and the " sincerity of its present hopes, that your endeavours, " agreeably to those instructions, ' to remove jealousies., " and obviate complaints, by showing that they were " groundless — to restore confidence, so unfortunately " and injuriously impaired — to explain the relative in- " terests of both countries, and the real sentiments of " your own,' have been attended with success. And, *' as a consequence thereof, we rely on the repeal of " the decrees and orders which expose our com- ^' merce to indefinite injuries, w^hich militate with the ^ obligations of treaties, and our rights as a neutral na- *' tion." Of the nature and character of this letter to General Pinckney, I can desire no higher or better opinion than Chief Justice Marshall's. In his Life of Washington, Vol. V,.p. 725, he gives the following account of it : "Early in the session (1797) the President commu- " nicated to Congress, in a special message, the com- " plaints alleged by the representative of the French " republic against the government of the United States. " These complaints embracing most of the transactions " of the legislative and executive departments in rela- " tion to the belligerent powers, a particular and care- " ful review of almost every act of the administration, " which could affect those powers, became indi> pensa- " ble. The principal object for the mission of Geiieral " Pinckney to Paris having been to make to the Exfcu- " tive Directory those fuU ar'd fair explanations of the " principles and conduct of the American government, "which, by removing such prejudices and jealon «es *' as were founded on misconception, might restore that 76 ^' harmony between the two republics which the Pre- " siden luid at all times anxiously sought to preserve^ " this review was addressed to that minister. It pre- " sented a minute and comprehensive detail of all the " points of controversy which had arisen between the " two nations, and defended the measures which had " been adopted in America, with a clearness and a " strength of argument believed to be irresistible. To " place the subject in a point of view admitting of no " possible misunderstanding, the Secretary of State had " annexed to his own full and demonstrative reasoning, " documents establishing the real fact in each particular *' case, and the correspondence relating to it." The other report I addressed to President Adams himself, on the 18th of January 1799, to be communi- cated to Congress. On the 21st he made the commu- nication, with the following message addressed to the two Houses : " According to an intimation in my message of Fri- " day last, I now lay before Congress a Report of the " Secretary of State, containing his observations on " some of the documents w hich attended it." These documents consisted of a letter, dated June 25, 1798, from me to Mr. Gerry, then in Paris ; of a very long letter from him to me, dated Oct. 1, 1798, at Nantasket Road, the loAver harbour of Boston, where he had just arrived from France ; prepared, of course, on his voyage ; and studiously framed, to put the best face possible on his transactions with the French min- ister Talleyrand, after his colleagues, Pinckney and Marshall, had been obliged to leave Paris ; and of a mass of papers, numbered from one to thirty-five. To these I added two or three letters from Fulwar Skip- with, consul general of the United States at Paris, and some papers received by him from the French minis- ter, after Mr. Gerry left that city. These were the documents referred to by Mr. Adams, in his message to Congress, on which I made my report ; which oc- cupies a pami^hlet of 45 r?n2;es, published by order of the House of Representatives. 77 To understand perfectly, and justly to estimate, the conduct of the United States government, in relation to France, during the administrations of Presidents Washington and Adams, one must read the correspon- dences between the Department of State and tlie French ministers to the United States, Genet, Fauchet and Adet: and the letters and reports of the secreta- ries of state, on the subjects in controversy between the two Republics. This, perhaps, will hardly be un- dertaken by any one, excepting the historian who shall minutely investigate the public transactions of that pe- riod. Chief Justice Marshall, when writing the Life of Washington, read, as he once told me, the immense mass of letters and papers left by him, in relation to all his public transactions, dviringthe longperiods in which he was engaged in the service of his country ; and the reader has seen, in the extract from the Life of Wash- ington, that all the acts of his administration, in relation to France, received, in the opinion of the chief justice, a complete vindication, in my letter of January 16t}i, 1797, to General Pinckney. My report to Mr. Adams, of January 18th, 1799, was intended, by an exhibition of the subsequent unjust, tyrannical and profligate conduct of the French government, to justify our own govern- ment in all its measures towards the French Republic, Avhether in its attempts to conciliate by negotiation, or of armed defence against her wanton and outrageous hostilities. The examination of Mr. Gerry's budget of documents, which constituted the basis of that report, led me to remark, That the points, chiefly meriting at- tention, were the attempts of the French government, 1. To exculpate itself from the charge of corruption as having demanded a douceur of fifty thousand pounds sterling (222,000 dollars) for the pockets of the Direc- tors and Ministers of the Republic, as represented in the despatches of our envoys : 2. To detach Mr. Gerry from his colleagues, and to inveigle him into a separate negotiation ; and 3. Its design, if the negotiation failed, and a war should take place between the United States and France, to throw the blame of the rupture on the United States. The i*eport does not admit of ivn abridgement. I ciui iiUrodiioe only its coneiudiuii- observaliuii>. iue iVMilt of my examination. Tliey are tiiese : " Tiie French ** government, by always abstainniix from making spe- ** eitii' demands of damages — by refusnig to receive ** onr ministers — by at length proposing to negotiate, ** in a mode which it knew to be impracticable, with " the person who had no powers, and who therefore ** constantly refused to negotiate, and tiuis wholly avoid- " ing a negotiation — has kept open the tield for com- " plaints of wrongs and injuries, in order, by leaving " them undetined. to furnish pretences for unlimited " dejiredations. In this way it 'determined to fiei'ce ** us :' In this way it gratitied its avarice and revenge; ^ and it hoped also to satiate its ambition. After a lonsj ** series o{ insults unresented. and a patient endurance " of injuries agirravated in tlieir nature and unexampled ** in their extent, that government expected our tinal " submission to its will. Our resistance has excited its ** surprise, and as certainly increased its resentment ** With some soothing expi-essions. is heard the voice ** of wounded pride. Warmly expressing its desire of *• reconciliation, it gives no evidence of its sinceritv ; ** but proofs in abundance demonstrate that it is not sin- *• cere. From standing erect, and in that commandijig " attitude requiring implicit obedience — cowerinsr. it re- ** uounces some of its unfounded demands. But I hope *• we shall remember. * that the tiger crouches, before *• he leaps upon his prey.* " Of the truth of this report — its conformity to facts — and tlie correctness of tlie inferences — Mr. Adam? must at that time have been satisfied: or he would not have couuuimicated it to Consres. It is true he calls the report the observations of the secretary of state : but tliey were the secretary's obsenatious after passing Mr. Adams's examination and expnrsatiofi : that is, af^ ter he had marked a nrmiber of sentences to be struck out, because they bore somewhat hardly on the conduct of h.is friend and favourite minister. 3Ir. Gerr\' : who. it must l>e confessed, appears as a principal actor, and 79 the hero of the report. But, after this expurgation, all th^t remained must be considered as having his appro- bation. But it ha]>pens to be in my power to present the reader with the opinion of a peifectly competent ard impartial jud^e. In searchincr among my papers, I have found the following letter from General (now chief justice) Marshall to me, which I tixsst he will ex- cuse my presenting to the pufjlic, seeing it is mateiial to my vindication frrm 3Ir. Adams's aspersions on this particular subject. Readers will be pleased to recol- lect, that General Marshall, having been one of the en- voys to the French republic, with Mr. Gerrw was per- fectly acquainted with the characters of the Directory and their minister Talleyrand; and, comparing the management of this minister v.ith IMr. Gerr}- with the occurrences under the direction of the same minister, during the six months that 3Iarshall and Pinckney had stayed in Paris, was perfectly competent to form a cor- rect judgment. General Marshall's Letter to T. Pickerixg. " Richmond, Feb. 1 9. "99. •• Dear Sir, " An occasional absence from Richmond suspended for some time mv acknowledgment of the receipt of your very correct analysis and able commentary on the late negotiation with France. 1 wish it could be read more generally than I fear it will be. '• I am grieved rather than surprised at Mr Gerrs "« letter. To my comprehension, the evidence, on which his judgment is formed, posi- tivelv contradicts the opinion he ha* given us. From what tacts he infere the pacitic temper of the French government, I am unable to conjecture. That France is not desirous of immf diate war with Ame- rica, is obvious ; that is, of reciprocal -JEur — for she ha* been long mak- ing it on us: but. that any indications appear of a disposition for a solirl accommodation, on terms such as America can accede to, is by no means to be admitted. '• It is strange that Mr. Gerry should state the negotiation to have been in a fair tram when intelligence of the publication of the des- patches arrived in Paris: while he repr'^sents Mr Talleyrand as hav- ing declined entering on the proposed treaty, until he could know the temper of our government on the communications that had been made, which communications related chiefly to money; and while also he states Mr. Talleyrand to declare, that he had never approved of send- ing a minister to the United States. i am. &c. J. MARSHALL." 80 Every reader acquainted with the character of Gen* eral Marshall (and who in the United States, at all conversant in public affairs, is a stranger to it ?) will be satisfied that my report, as communicated to Con- gress by Mr. Adams himself, far from containing any thing exceptionable, merits approbation. Fortunately it is in my power to show, that the passages struck from the original draught are alike unexceptionable. These I have exhibited in the section on Elbridge Gerry, from a press copy found among my papers, with all the parts to be expunged, according to the President's direction, included between brackets. I am aware that these minute details may, at this day, excite little interest ; and I would not invite attention to them, had they not been rendered important by Mr. Adams, in making my original report the basis of a malicious slander. Every American who lived in the days of the French republic, particularly in the years 1796, 7, 8 and 9, or who, by a little reading, has become acquainted with the trans- actions of that period, will remember the familiar use of the letters X, Y, and Z, in relation to those transactions. Those letters have often been repeated ludicrously, even as though they represented fictitious characters > whereas, in decyphering the voluminous despatches of our envoys, Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry, I substituted, for a reason to be herein after mentioned, those letters for the names of persons introduced to our envoys in Parrs ; whither they had been sent, and where they waited patiently for six months, for the purpose of ef- fecting an amicable settlement of all differences be- tween the United States and the French Republic ; which differences, by the government of that republic, in the hands of a Five-Headed Executive, called the " Directory," were made the pretences for a scene of piracies, in kind never surpassed, in extent never equalled, by the barbarous Mahometan Regencies of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli. On the arrival of our en- voys at Paris, " cards of hospitality" were sent to them, to entitle them to stay there unmolested by the police. They delivered to Mr. Talleyrand,* minister for foreiga aftairs, copies of their letters of credeiice ; and rightfully expected to be soon presented to the Directory, by its minister. But they were not presented — they were never admitted to the presence of that haughty and insolent Executive. The arms of France had subject- ed Holland, Spain, Portugal, and the minor powers conveniently within their reach ; and even Austria was compelled to make peace. All the subject nations were treated with little ceremony ; and some with ut- ter contempt ; to which they submitted. The Direc- tory expected a like humble submission from the Uni- ted States. In this they were encouraged by their knowledge of a powerful party which from the begin- ning were opposed to the federal administration under Washington, and who persisted in their opposition during the continued federal administration of govern- ment under his successor Mr. Adams. Few, if any, im- portant acts of the federal administrations, prior to the year 1799, escaped opposition from that party, of which Mr. Jefferson was the reputed, and undoubtedly the actual, head and oracle. This party vehemently op- posed even the building of two or three frigates, which were necessary to protect our commerce from the Al- gerines ! those frigates which, were the commence- ment of that navy which, in the late war having saved the administration from political perdition, has now be- come a favourite with the government, as well as with the people. Instead of admitting our envoys to an audience with the Directory, their minister, Mr. Talleyrand, employ- ed certain agents to make overtures — to inform them of the temper of the Directory towards the United States, as filled with resentment, on account of some expressions in President Adams's speech to Congress, in which he noticed the offensive discrimination made by the French government, between the people of the * This is the same extraordinary personaj^e who, under the title of Prince Talleyrand, made an important figure for some years under the Emperor Bo- naparte, and since in the court of Louis the Eig-hteenfh. 12 Onited States and their government, in the last public audience given to Mr. Monroe^ minister from the Uni- ted States, on his taking leave of the Directory, ki th€ year 1796. The parts of the President's speech, with which the Directory affected to be offended, regarded chiefly the speech of the President of the Directory to Mr. Mon- roe. Mr. Adams said (and most truly) that it was marked with indignities towards the government of the United States. " It evinced," said he, " a dispo- " sition to separate the people of the United States " from their government ; to persuade them that they " have different affections, principles and interests " from those of their fellow-citizens whom they thern- " selves had chosen to manage their common concerns ; " and thus to produce divisions fatal to our peace." — But not the government only was reproached ; the whole people of the United States were insulted in the speech to Mr. Monroe : " They," (said the Presi- " dent Barras) " always proud of their liberty, will " never forget that they owe it to France^ A gener- ous friend, who had conferred the greatest benefit, even at the hazard of life, on another, would never boast of it ; much less would he tauntingly remind the latter of his obligations. I have suggested, that the resentment of the Direc- tory against the American government was merely af- fected, for the purpose now to be explained. Had there existed in the Directory a particle of honesty or honour, and had there been any solid grounds for complaint against the United States, our envoys would have been at once admitted to an audience ; commissioners would have been appointed to negotiate on all the topics of complaint ; all differences would have been settled, and harmony and good will restored. But the French government had no just ground for even one of their complaints. Such was the opinion of well informed men at the time ; and such, the reader has seen, wa^. the deliberate oninjon of the enlighten- ed citizen, Chief Justice Marshall, formed several years 83 afterwards, on an examination of all the public docu- ments, aided by ins own personal knowledge, relating to the subject. Why then, was there such a loud and long continued clamour of the French government against the United' States ; especially against their government ? I shall not attempt to enumerate all the causes. Those who conducted the affairs of France, doubtless, wished to involve the United States in the war commenced with England in 1793. But the President (Washington) af- ter the most mature consultation with the members of the administration, consisting of Jefferson, Hamilton, Knox and Randolph, determined that it was the right, as well as the interest, of the United States, to remain at peace ; and, in pursuance of this determination, he issued his proclamation of neutrality, and enjoined up- on the citizens of the United States an observance of all the duties of neutrality. The exactness with which the Executive endeavoured to secure and enforce their observance offended the government of France. Having a serious controversy with Great-Britain on subjects arising out of the existing war, as we'l as claims of vast importance resulting from the treaty of peace of 1783, the government of the United States, instead of plunging the country into an expensive and bloody war, sought redress by an amicable negotiation. Success attended the pacific measure. By mutual stipulations, provision was made for adjusting all the matters in dispute between the two nations for which the mission was instituted. Of this treaty the French government loudly complained ; and pretended that it contravened some of the articles of our commercial treaty with France. There was no foundation for this complaint ; the treaty with Great-Britain (well known by the name of Jay's treaty) containing an article, in- troduced by Mr. Jay, for the express purpose of se- curing to France and other nations, with whom we had engaged in treaties, the perfect enjoyment of every right and privilege to which those treaties entitled them. The real cause of French clamour about this treaty was. M that it prevented a war between the United States an^ her most hated enemy, Great-Britain. The French go- vernment pretended, that some articles in the British treaty gave that nation advantages not secured to France by our commercial treaty with her. To remove this ground of complaint, though under no obligation to do it, we offered to change our stipula- tions with her which she said operated to her disad- vantage — or to make an entire new treaty, to give to her every advantage which accrued to Great-Britain by any article in Jay's treaty. But the French govern- ment evaded every offer we could make : it would not negotiate — it would not receive our envoys commis- sioned for the sole purpose of adjusting, by an amica- ble negotiation, every point in dispute between France and the United States. She had for two years been carrying on a piratical war against our commerce ; to which we had made no armed resistance, and which therefore she preferred to mutual peace ; presuming, tliat while so many nations, subdued by her arms, humbly submitted to their fate, the United States would be alike subservient. Threats, corresponding with these expectations, were thrown out, indirectly, to intimidate our envoys, to induce them to yield to her demands ; a compliance with which would have furnished to her enemy, Great-Britain, a just cause of war. Those threats made no impression on our en- voys. They persevered in their attempts to bring on a negotiation ; if with little hope of success, at least with the expectation of such a development of the character and views of the French government, as would satisfy the people of the United States, strongly prejudiced in favour of France, that no treaty with her, compatible with the interest, the honour and the independence of the United States, was practicable. This was sufficiently ascertained some time before Pinckney and Marshall quitted Paris ; and at an earlier day they would have sent their final letter to the French minister, but were delayed by Mr. Gerry ; on whom, in private conferences, Talleyrand had made 85 inipressions favourable to the designs of the Directory ; as wiW be more particularly related in another place. The Directory and Talleyrand expected to engage him singly to enter on a negotiation, and to impose on him such terms of a treaty as would suit their own and the interests of France ; such unequal terms as they had been accustomed to impose on the vassal na- tions around them, and which, once stipulated by Mr. Gerry, and favoured by the whole party opposed to the federal administration, which was relied upon as partial to France, they presumed the American govern- ment would not dare to reject. In the same letter. No. XI, dated Oct. 5, 1808, in which Cunningham desires Mr. Adams to inform him of the causes of my removal, he says. That when in Philadelphia, soon afterwards, he was told, that when another mission to the French Republic was concluded on [meaning that which was commenced by the nomi- nation of Mr. Murray] " my aversions to any farther " negotiations with France were so untameable, and so " indecorously expressed, as to render me an unfit me- " dium for the communications between the two go- " vernments, and unsuitable to remain in a ministerial " station." In the answer of Mr. Adams (Letter No. XII, Oct. 15) he says, ** The reason you heard in Phi- *' ladelphia was quite sufficient, if there had been no " other ; but there were many other and much stronger " reasons." All I need say on this reason is — that it is a nonentity. And if Mr. Adams, in cases where his re- sentments are operating, were capable of any just reflection, he would have been ashamed to have adopt- ed it ; for he continued me in office almost fifteen months after the institution of the mission ; viz. from February 18, 1799, the day he nominated Mr. Murray, until the 12th of May, 1800, when he sent me my dis- mission. In his letter XVII, Mr. Adams mentions, as an evi- dence of my incompetency for the Department of State, and consequently to justify my removal, that when in the Senate of the United States,, I was almost always in a minority of two, three, four or five, in 34. This Mr. Adams has said, as he iias said mEiEy other things, at random, without examination ; which shows how little his naked assertions are to be relied on. The number of federal senators was small ; and there- fore, on questions in which the different principles or views of the two parties were affected, federal mem- bers would of course be in the minority. But I had the curiosity to look into the journal of the first session (1803-4) in which J. Q. Adams and I were in the Sen- ate ; and in making a list of the instances when the questions were decided by yeas and nays, I found that he was seven times in the majority and nineteen times in the minority ; while I was eight times only in the minority and twenty times in the majority ; and more than forty times we voted on the same side. I pre- sume (for it is too trifling a matter to be critically ex- amined) that we continued for the most part voting together, until Mr. Adams began to change his course, and finally joined the strongest side. But if a want of talents commensurate with the duties of the office of Secretary of State rendered me unfit to retain it, why did he suffer me to hold it so long ? Did it require three years and two months for a person of his know- ledge, discernment and experience (w hich he certainly believed were not surpassed, if equalled, in any man in the United States) to make the discovery? And if he had made it, even by the end of one year, where was his regard to his official duty, in letting the public interests suffer, above two years more, and at a most critical period, through my incompetency ? In his letter No. XXVI, (February 11, 1809) Mr. Adams is pleased to give me rank with three men whose names are familiarly known throughout the United States — Shays, who headed the dangerous insurrection in Massachusetts — Gallatin, a reputed leader in the Whiskey insurrection in Pennsylvania — and Fries, the author of the second insurrection in the same state, in the time of Mr. Adams's presideDcy. These three in- stances of treason^ the highest crime which a citizen 87 can commit, he lowers to a small offence — " a distuiv. bance" ! — But he had pardoned Fries ! (the mode and the apparent motive will be explained.) And what a cruel thing it would have been to have hung a poor man, only for disturbing the tranquilhty of a state! This same Fries, however, was convicted of treason, before the court in which that very able and learned judge, Samuel Chase, presided — the judge whom Mr. Adams calls his friend, and on whom he has pronoun-^ ced a lofty eulogy. Associating me with the three per- sons first above named, Mr. Adams asks — " And why may we not have a Pickering's disturbance?" This idea of Mr. Adams's was suggested, perhaps, by some expressions in his son's letter to Mr. Otis ; in which he wished to have it believed that my opposition to Mr. Jefferson's embargo law, after it was passed — even so far as my letter to Governor Sullivan was in oppo- sition — was unwarrantable. From this wanton charge, basely insinuated, my political enemies will not think any defence to be necessary. However, I will refer to my letter itself, to Governor Sullivan, on which the in- sinuation rests, for a vindication. I need recite only the last sentence of my letter on the embargo (for which I had shown there was no adequate cause) in which I say, " Regardless of personal consequences, I have un- ** dertaken to communicate these details ; with the view " to dissipate dangerous illusions ; to give to my con- " stituents correct information ; to excite inquiry ; and " to rouse that vigilant jealousy which is characteristic ^' of Republicans, and essential to the preservation of " their rights, their liberties, and their independence." In another part of the same letter, I said, " Nothing " but the sense of the commercial states, clearly and " emphatically expressed, will save them from ruin." Of such sentiments I have no reason to be ashamed ; and to have expressed them in the most public man- ner, is not a subject of regret : they will receive the approbation of every independent mind. But if high authority were necessary to jistify them, I would cite that of the same eminent lawyer and upright judge. Samuel Chase : — " To oppose (says he) a depending " measure, by endeavouring to convince tlie pub.ic " that it is improper, and ought not to be adopted ; or to " promote the repeal of a Imv already past, by endea- '^^ vouring to convi?ice the public that it ought to be re- ''' pealed, and that such men ought to be elected to the " legislature as will repeal it ; to attempt, in fine, the « correction of public measures, by arguments tending '^ to show their improper nature or destructive te?ideticy, " never has been or can be considered as sedition, in " any country where the principles of law and liberty " are respected ; but it is the proper and usual exer- *^ cise of that right of opinion and speech which con- " stitutes the distinguishing feature of free govern- " ment."* In the same letter. No. XXVI, Mr. Adams says " I " have a few sheets of paper written on a point on " which I differed formerly and latterly with our angry " Senator, and ivhich was one of the causes of his re- '' moval ; which I will send you, provided you will pre- " viously give me your honour that 3 ou will return it " after you have read it, without taking a copy." I can only conjecture what was the subject of these " sheets of paper ;" — that it was the impressing of British seamen from neutral merchant vessels. In his letter No. XXXII, March 4, 1809, Mr. Adams encloses five sheets, " the rough draft," which Cunningham had promised to return. " I shall burn it," says Mr. Ad- ams, " because I have made another copy more cor- " rect, in which I have left out the name, and much of " the trumpery." I now recollect reading, about that time, an anonymous publication on the subject of im- pressments ; and that it was ascribed to President Ad- ams as the writer. But I have no recollection of ever discussing with Mr. Adams the principle involved in the question of impressments ; and it is incredible that it should have been a cause of my removal. It is to be placed, with many other pretended causes, to after * From the answer of Judg-e Ghase to the articles of impeachment ag-ainst Wm io 1805. 89 thoughts ; when, as in the case of instituting the mis- sion to France, he was straining his wits to cIiscon er and disclose reasons, if they bore only '• the plausil le apj3earance of probabihty" of satisfying public or in- dividual inquirers. I believe I have now exhibited ail the alleged causes of my removal from office — except the indefinite ( ne, *' Reasons of State," but which (see letter Xil) Mr. Adams says, " are not always to be submitted to news- " paper discussion." Of these I have promised to take some notice ; and here they are. After the perusal, readers will not wonder that Mr. Adams should be un- willing to subject them to newspaper discussion. An extract from General Hamilton's letter, published in 1800, "concerning the public conduct and character " of John Adams, Esq. President of the United States," will be a proper introduction to the evidence in the case. Referring to the removal of M'Henry and my- self, Hamilton says, " It happened at a peculiar junc- " ture, immediately after the unfavourable turn" [un- favourable to Mr. Adams] " of the election in New- " York ; and had much the air of an explosion of ccm- " bustible materials which had been long prepared, but " which had been kept down by prudential calculations " respecting the effect of an explosion upon the friends " of those ministers in the State of New-York. Per- " haps, when it was supposed that nothing could be " lost in this quarter, and that sometfiing might be " gained elsewhere, by an atoning sacrifice of those " ministers, especially Mr. Pickering, who had been " for some time particularly odious to the opposition " party, it was determined to proceed to extremities." The reader will compare this with the following de- tails. Hazen Kimball, a very worthy man, had been a clerk in my office. After quitting the office he settled in Savannah. In 1803, being in Massachusetts, and call- ing to see me, he gave me information relative to my dismission, which I had not expected. Mrrtj^ g him afterwards at Washington (where I was attending as a 13 member of the Senate) I desired him to commit that informatioR to writing ; which he did as in the follow- ing certificate : " At a public table, iVI'Laughlin's tavern, in Georgetown, July, 1800, I heard Elias B. Caldwell say, that some time in May precedins^, he was present in a public room at Annapolis, when Mr. smith, the pre- sent secretary of the navy, made the following' declaration : That we (meaning the democratic party) have been sent down to (from Phi- ladelphia) to know on what term^ we would support Mr. \d im- at the next presidential election. In our answer, among other conri.tfMS, was the dismissal of Colonel Pickering from the office of secreiarj of state : but he has delayed it till he lost all hopes of his elec'uou by the strength of his own party, and now we do not thank him lor it. " I have shown this statement to Mr. Caldwell, who says, if it doee not contain the precise words of Mr. Smith, that it is substantially cor- rect. " Mr. Caldwell further says, that Mr. Smith said, in the same pub- lic manner, that he knew Colonel Pickering would be dismissed some time before it took place. HAZEN KIMBALL." 't City of Washingto7i, 29th Dec. 1803." Having learnt that Thomas C. Bowie, Esq. of Prince George's county, Maryland, (whom I did not persona;, j know, but who was named to me as " a gentlemar; < f high respectability, who had retired from the bar,") had had a very particular conversation with Ro^f rt Smith, on the subject stated in the above certificate, I took the liberty, in April, 1810, of addressing a letter to him, with a copy of the certificate. The following extracts from his answer are all that particularly apply to the case in question. Extracts of a letter, dated April 16, 1810, yVow TJwmas C. Bowie, Esq. to Timothy Pickering. *' I assure you, sir, it will be a source of much gratification, if any thing in my power can contribute, in the smallest degree, to thf ex- posure of those gross and palpable delusions which have been so long imposed upon the American people, by the abettors of democracy in regard to your public character." — [Then noticing ray official publi- cations relative to our rulers, and their management of the affairs of the United States, Mr. Bowie savs,] '• In order to impair the eff'ct and universal conviction which they had begun to operate in almcst every section of the country, it was soon found necessary to make you the incessant theme of the^most bitter invective and vulgar abuse." — " It IS impossible for you, sir, to have any adequate idea of the vi rj ungenerous, and I may say wicked, expedients resorted toby the de- mocrats in relation to this subject." 91 •♦ 1 certainly did hear Mr. Secretary Smith make the declaration GOnlained in the certificate of Mr. KimbaiJ. A few days before the account of your dismissal arrived at Annapoli.*, I repaired thither, at- teiidiiio: the General Court, having just commenced the practice of the law : and, having studied in Bahimore with Judge Chase and Mr. Martin, I was well acquamted with Mr Robert Smith, and the Balti- more Bar generally, with whom I messed in No. 2, at Wharfe's tav- ern, although then a resident of Prince George's county. One morn- ing, while m bed, Mr. Smith remarked, that in a few days the fede- ralists would receive from the seat of government a piece of intelli- gence which would both surprise and alarm them. He would not impart what it was, but requested me to notice his prediction. When the mail brought the news of your dismissal, Mr. Smith told me it was that to which he alluded ; and he supposed 1 would admit he had some knowledge of cabinet secrets." — " I had understood, a short t me pre- vious, that Mr. Adams was negotiating with the leading republican members of the House of Representatives, a coalition which went to secure his twenty-five thousand dollars (a year) at the expense of what he himself had deemed the public good, but a little time before : that General Smith, and other leading democratic members, were, on the eve of Mr. Adams's e.xpected re-election, frequently dining and visiting at his house, and who before that time had never been in the habit of either." The fact, that I was to be removed, being known among the democrats, while federalists were ignorant of it, is an irrefragable evidence of the intrigue between Mr. Adams and the democrats, to which my removal is to be ascribed. The reader now sees, in the compass of two or three pages, the real cause of my removal by Mr. Adams ; " the reasons of state," not to be submitted to newspa- per discussion. If this statement is sufficient to shock every honest and honourable man, what will be his feelings when he compares it with this solemn decla- ration of Mr. Adams, in his letter No. XII, Oct. 15, 1808, when speaking of me ? " His removal was one of the " most deliberate, virtuous and disinterested actions of " my life "! — And again, on the 25th of November fol- lowing (letter No. XVII) he calls it " one of the most " virtuous actions of his life" ! Mr. Kimball's certificate, and the extracts from Mr. Bowie's letter, with observations, I published thirt en years ago ; only in the certificate I then, of my vvn accord, left blanks where I have mow introduced? tis in 9^ the original, the name of Mr. Caldwell. He is the re- spectabje citizen, Eiias B. Caldwell, Esq. of the city of Washington, and clerk of the courts there. He also knows the excellent character sustained by Mr. Bowie. At the time of the former publication (March 1811) I made the foiiowing, among other, reflections on this transaction : — " When a man has, at one period of his " life, distinguished himself by his public services, it is " distressing to find and exhibit him, as capable of " straying from the straight path of integrity and " truth ; for it tends to excite suspicions and jealousies " towards the most upright and inflexibly just." In anotlier part of this Review, I mention the efforts made by Mr. Adams to justify his unadvised institution of a mission to the French Republic, in February 1799, when he nominated Mr. Murray sole commissioner to negotiate a treaty with its rulers — " men so bold, so cunning and so false." But as that mission appears to have had an origin similar to that of my removal — if it was not a part, and indeed the important part, of the original intrigue — I shall here introduce what has come to my knowledge concerning it. In the year 1815, in conversing with some of my friends, of whom tlie late Thomas P. Grosvenor, a Re- presentative in Congress from the State of New-York, was one, I said, that for a considerable time I had been endeavouring to make some discovery as to the origin of that mission ; and that I suspected it to be the same with that of my removal — an intrigue between Mr. Adams and the opposition, or democrats. Grosvenor instantly answered in these words : " Why that was " the fact : John Nicholas told Judge Van Ness the " whole story, and laughed at Mr. Adams's credulity." John Nicholas was a Virdnian, and for several years a member of Congress, in Washington's administration, and firmly in opposition. At length he removed to the State of New-York ; where, as I have understood, he was appointed a Judge of the Court of the County in ^vbich he residf^d, and a Senator for the District, in the Senate of that State. Judge Van Ness was the late 93 William P. Van Ness, of the Supreme Court of New- York. Here the matter rested for some years ; after which, feeing in company with a number of members of Con- gress, and the conversation turning on some past events, particularly the mission to France in 1799, in the midst of our successful naval hostilities with that power — tt^ithout the previous mention of it by the President to any head of a department, or to any federalist in or out of Congress, as far as was then known — one of the gentle- men said, that when John Dennis* returned from Con-- gress, after that session, he said in his hearing, and in the hearing of mau}^ others. That a Committee of Three wait- ed on Mr. Adams, and told him, that if he would insti- tute a mission to make peace with France, and dismiss the Secretary of War, Mr. M'Henry, and of State, Mr. Pickering, they would not oppose — or they would sup- port — his re-election to the Presidency. Immediately afterwards, I mentioned this information to another member, of my acquaintance : he confirmed it as re- ceived by him from another source ; and named for his author the same gentleman, a member of Congress in 1799, who, the late Gouverneur Morris once told me, negotiated my removal. The veil being now taken off from the two acts of President Adams, of which no federalist could give a satisfactory solution, the embarrassments attending his laborious attempts to justify those acts, and his glaring inconsistencies, are easily accounted for. The fruits of his toil on these subjects, as displayed in the letters published in 1809 in the Boston Patriot, and those written in 1808 and 1809 to Cunningham, and lately published by Cunningham's son, would cover nearly a hundred printed pages in octavo ; whereas, had they originated in considerations purely public, the honest and satisfactory truth might have been expressed in a single page. Truth alone is clear and consistent. With respect to the French mission — at one time Mr. Adams says, the information derived from his min- * Mr. Dennis was a representative from the Eastern shore of Maryland. S4 ister, Mr. Gerry, formed a full and complete basis on which to institute the mission. Yet, in December, 1798, after he h^d been for above two months in pos- session of all that information, and of more, of one kind and another — in addressing Congress, he said, " To send another minister, without more determinate *' assurances that he would be received, would be an " act of humiliation to which the United States ought '*not to submit:" and on the 12th of that month, in answer to an address from the Senate, he said, " I have " seen no real evidence of any change of system or dis- " position in the French Republic towards the United " States*" At other times, Tallej^and's letter to Pi- chon, who communicated it to Mr. Murray, furnished the assurances he had required, of the due reception of an envoy. Mr. Adams's words are, " This letter was " transmitted by Mr. Murray to the American govern- " ment, and I own I am not acquainted with any words, " either in the French or English language, which could " have expressed in a more solemn, a more explicit, or ** a more decided manner, assurances of all that I had " demanded as conditions of negotiation."* Yet, when, ten years before, he nominated Mr. Murray to the Senate, and sent them a copy of Talleyrand's letter, he declares to that body (in order to conciliate and ob- tam their approbation) that Mr. Murray " shall not go " to France without direct and unequivocal assurances " from the French government, signified by their min- " ister of foreign relations, that he shall be received in " character." I have said, tJiat Mr. Gerry's long letter to me, dated Oct, 1, 1798, in the harbour of Boston, on the morning of bis arrival, was written on his passage from France, and studiously prepared, to put the best face on his conduct while in Paris. In that letter he says, " Be- " fore the arrival of the despatches of the envoys, the " minister [Talleyrand] appeared to me sincere, and " anxious to obtain a reconciliation." And again, " On " the 26th of July I left Paris ; and from the best in- * BrtJtter HI, dated April 1809, published by Mr. Adams in the Boston Patriot. ^. formation which I could obtain relative to the dispo- ** sition of the Executive Directory (for I never had ** any direct communication with them) they were very i' desirous of a reconciliation between the republics." Ail this is very courteous and charitable towards the French rulers and their minister Talleyrand, from whom he had received, and with tame submission, the most pointed insults. But see his language eleven years afterwards, when his former communications were not recollected, or were forgotten, and ivhen he expressed his real sentiments — the same that remained stamped on his mind from the deep impressions made upon it by the actual occurrences in Paris. These sentiments are found in his letter dated at Cambridge, in July, 1809, addressed to Mr. Talleyrand, and pub- lished, with Mr. Adams's letter, in the Boston Patriot of August 26. It was written in reference to one of Talleyrand's letters to Pichon (that dated August 28, 1798) which also Mr. Adams had published in the Bos- ton Patriot. This letter contained an expression some- what contemptuous, in regard to his friend and " ms mi'^ister," Mr. Gerry, at which he took offence. Tal- leyrand said, " I wished to encourage Mr. Gerry by " testimonies of regard, that his good intentions merited, " although I could not dissemble that he wanted deci- " sion at a moment when he might have easily adjust- " ed every thing. It does not thence follow that I de- " signated him : / will even avow that I think him too " irresolute to be Jit to hasten the conclusion of an af- ''''fair of this kind.'''' On this Mr. Gerry makes a point- ed appeal to Talleyrand : " Let any candid man read " our correspondence, and declare, if he can, that your *''' propositions were not altogether vague, from the be- ''^ ginning to the cw6?." I have one more case to mention, on which I shall be sparing of comments, and content myself with a brief statement of facts : it is the case of Fries, of Penn- sylvania, twice convicted of treason ; the second time on a new trial, ordered on a s^ipnosed incorre< , prjhiished in the Boston Patriot. !4 98 " and supposed that their withdrawing themselves [uh- " der the circumstances above intimated] in the event " of a conviction, which from their knowledge of the " law and the facts they knew to be almost certain * " might aid the prisoner in an appHcation to the Presi- " dent for a pardon."t General Hamilton (in the letter of 1800, on the con- duct and character of Mr. Adams) noticing this case of Fries, and the extraordinary step of consulting only the culprit's counsel, makes this reflection on tfie par- don : " We are driven to seek a solution for it in some " system of concession to his political enemies ; a sjs~ " tern the most fatal for himself, and for the cause of " public order, of any that he could possibly devise. " It is by temporisings like these, that men at the head " of affairs lose the respect both of friends and foes : " it is by temporisings like these, that in times of fer- " mentation and commotion, governments are prostrat- " ed, which might easily have been upheld by an erect '' and imposing attitude." The reflections of Mr. Adams are of quite a diffe- rent complexion. In his tenth letter in the Boston Patriot (May 17, 1809) remarking on his responsibility for all his executive acts, and therefore that it was his right and duty to be governed by his own mature and unbiassed judgment, though unfortunately it may be in direct contradiction to the advice of all his min- isters, he says, " This was my situation in more than " one instance. It had been so in the nomination of " Mr. Gerry ; it was afterwards so in the pardon of " Fries : two measures that I recollect with iiifinite " satisfaction, and ivhich will console me in my last " hour.'''' How much cause for satisfaction and consolation he can find in the case of Mr. Gerry, the reader will be able to judge, from the proceedings exhibited in this Review, of that gentleman as Mr. Adams's minister to the French Republic. As to Fries, he having been at * Lewis and Dallas were Fries'* counsel on his first trial, and therefore per- fpf^tly acquainted with the merits of the case, i Judn-e Chase's Defence before the Senate. 99 the head of a second insurrection in Pennsylvania, to Erevent, by force, the execution of the laws enacted y Congress for levying taxes laid in pursuance of the express provisions of the Constitution, and, in 1798, of the most pressing necessity, for the common defence of the country, and the protection of its great and essential commercial interests, against the hostilities of the French Republic ; under these circumstances, the public welfare appeared to demand a signal example of inflexible justice. We see, however, that in various acts of President Adams, combined Avith their apparent motives, he can glory, and draw consolation, where other men would jfind cause only for profound regret. Those, who have been accustomed to view Mr. Ad- ams as a bold and able leader in the American Revolu- tion ; as a man of extensive learning, and much and useful experience ; as a great and upright statesman ; and therefore entitled to all the high offices and hon- ours which his fellow citizens could bestow, and did confer upon him ; will be astonished at the picture of his character presented in this Review, and not with- out difficulty admit that it is a likeness. My veracity is pledged for all I state as facts. What I give on in- formation from others, I offer because I think it enti- tled to belief. Of the correctness of my inferences and conjectures from any facts and circumstances which I state, every reader will judge. If, after all, any should remain incredulous, Mr. Adams himself may at least contribute to remove their unbelief. In the 26th letter, vol. I, p. 129, London edition, of his "Defence af the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America," the doubting reader may find a solution of the apparent enigma. There Mr. Adams says, " The *' passions are all unlimited ; nature has left them so : " if they could be bounded, they would be extinct ; " and there is no doubt they are of indispensable im- " portance in the present system. They certainly in- "' crease too, by exercise, like the body. The love of " gold grows faster than the heap of acquisition. The 100 " love of praise increases by every gratification ; till it " stings like an adder, and bites like a serpent ; till the '• man is miserable every moment token he does not snuff " the incense. Ambition strengthens at every advance. " and at last takes possession of the whole soul so ab- " solutely, that the man sees nothing in the world of im- ^^ portance to others, or himself but in this object. The *• subtlety of these three passions, which have been se- " lected from all the others because they are aristocratical " passions, in subduing all others, and even the under- " standing itself, if not the conscience too, until they " become absolute and imperious masters of the whole " mind, is a curious speculation." He then mentions " the cunning with which they hide themselves from " others, and from the man himself too ; the patience " with which they wait for opportunities ; the torments " they voluntarily suffer for a time, to secure a full en- " joyment at length." On this recital, who can forbear to exclaim, " Ecce Homo !" or, in the solemn words pf Nathan to David, " Thou art the man !" Mr. Adams would spurn at an exhortation from me ; but he may not refuse to apply to himself his own ad- monition. " Men should endeavour at a balance of af- " fections and appetites, under the monarchy of Reason " and Conscience within, as well as at a balance of pow- " er without. If they surrender the guidance, for any " course of time, to any one passion, they may depend " upon finding it, in the end, an usurping, domineering, " cruel tyrant."* At the age of eighty eight years, it might be expect- ed that a man's strong passions would have cooled ; but those of Mr. Adams, by an immoderate indulgence, have acquired the mastery of his soul ; and now, inca- pable of personally enjoying their gratification, he lives in his son ; and, if he survive a few more months, he will be pleased or tormented, as that son shall suc- ceed or fail, in the last object to which American am- bition can aspire. "■' Same volume, p. 130. 101 111 tlie account here given of the intrigue in which the precipitate institution of the mission to Frmice ori- ginated, compared with Mr. Adams's too often repeated avowals o( public motives exclusively^ every reader will 'have the means of forming his opinion, whether theset or others purely selfish., the offspring of his ungoverned ruling passions, were the decisive inducements. But although he readily adopted the measure, it may easily be imagined that it was the contrivance of a more cool and crafty head — of the man of whom that experienced diplomatist, Mr. Liston, once said, that, " for conducting " an intrigue, there was not one American who came •' within a thousand miles of him."* This crafty per- son perfectly understood the character of Mr. Adams, and knew the avenues to his heart. Mr. Liston said, at the same time, " that never, at any government where " he had been a minister, had he so little trouble in gain- " ing all desirable information : that from Mr. Adams " himself he obtained what he wanted ; for that noth- " ing more was requisite than to listen, while he took " his own course in talking." This brings to my mind an anecdote, of late accidentally communicated to me. Mr. Adams paid a handsome compliment to Washing- ton, and said, " He could keep his mouth shut — / never could.'''' And this again reminds me of a letter written to me some years ago by a gentleman of respectable character, of which the following is an extract : " Some time in the fall of 1807 I was in company " with General Henry Lee, at in Virginia. Dur- " ing the day, various topics of conversation were in- " troduced. Among others, some remarks were made " upon the unhappy consequences which had resulted " from the change in the Federal Administration of the " Government of the United States. And this change " was in a great measure, by the person submitting *• these remarks, attributed to the apathy and inertness " of Federalists at elections. General Lee replied, that * I received this anecdote from an unquestionably correct source, a very iatelligent American gentleman present in the company when the remark was made. 102 "he did not hesitate to allow some influence to that " cause ; but that he ascribed the principal cause to " Mr. Adams himself; and then remarked, That being *' in Philadelphia in the summer of 1800, when the sub- *' ject of the approaching presidential election had ex- " cited much interest, he dined with Mr. Adams, in com- " pany with Mr. Jefferson. In the afternoon, when Mr. " Jefferson had retired, he took the liberty to caution " Mr. Adams, who had been, as he considered, very un- " guarded in the presence of Mr. Jefferson ; and ob- " served, with the view to enforce that caution, that he " knew Mr. Jefferson was using all his influence and " intrigue to supersede him in the presidential chair. " Mr. Adams received this friendly admonition with ap- " parent displeasure ; and observed, with warmth, that " he believed Mr. Jefferson to be more friendly towards " him, than many who professed to be his friends ; and " that he further believed, Mr. Jefferson never had the *' ambition or desire to aspire to any higher distinction " than to be his First Lieutenant." So respectable is the source of this information, that it requires no confirmation. It has, besides, the advan- tage of internal evidence of its correctness, in the per- fectly characteristic answer of Mr. Adams, which con- cludes the extract. This, probably, was the time when Mr. Jefferson w as making his warmest professions of friendship to Mr. Adams, of which the latter afterwards found he had been the dupe; and the discovery of' which authorized him to reproach Mr. Jefferson with " a want of sincerity." Three years before, Mr. Jeffer- son had proclaimed his humble pretensions, in his in- augural address to the Senate, when he took the chair in that assembly ; he having been elected Vice-Presi- dent, as Mr. Adams was elected President, of the Uni- ted States. Mr. Jefferson appeared to rejoice that the burthen of the chief executive pow er had fallen on Mr. Adams's shoulders, so much abler than his own to sustain its weight ! Remarking to the Senate, that the primary business of the office of Vice-President being to preside over the forms of that house, he added, " No one more 103 '* sincerely prays that no accident may call me to the " higher and more important functions, which the con- " stitution devolves on this office." This profession was unnecessary — but not without an object To the uninformed (in all communities the numerous class) as to the true characters of public men, it bore the appear- ance of the amiable virtue of humility ; and Mr. Jeffer- son believed in its auspicious tendency to advance his interest on the next occasion ; not doubting, in refe- rence either to philosophy or the gospel, the correct- ness of the position, " He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Among those in public life, or the citi- zens well acquainted with distinguished public cha- racters, there was one, and I presume but one, in the United States, who supposed Mr. Jefferson's declara- tion to have come from the heart : I hardly need say, that this one was Mr. Adams. Mr. Adams catches at every straw, and sometimes at phantoms, which, in the use he makes of them, may have even a remote tendency to give a colour of neces- sity for instituting his extraordinary mission to the French Republic in 1799. For this end, he allows himself to go back to the year 1793, to exhibit the temper of the people in relation to France and Great- Britain ; and tells the following tale : " Jonathan Dick- " inson Sargeant and Dr. Hutchinson, two old revolu- " tionary Americans, extremely popular, put themselves " at the head of the mob. Washington's house was " surrounded by an innumerable multitude, from day to " day, huzzaing, demanding war against England, curs- " ing Washington, and crying success to the French " patriots and virtuous republicans." " J. Q. Ad- " ams first turned this tide ; and the yellow fever com- " pleted the salvation of Washington. Sargeant and " Hutchinson died of it. I was assured, soon after, by " some of the most sensible, substantial and intelligent " Quakers, that nothing but the yellow fever saved " Washington from being dragged out of his house, or " being compelled to declare war against England,"* * better to Cunninjrliam. No. XIT. Oct IB, ISrtS. 104 This story Avas too absurd and ridiculous to be belie v-* ed. When writing it, Mr. Adams forgot that the Pre- sident of the United States did not joossess the power to declare war ; and that no leader of a mob in Phila- delphia could be so ignorant as not to know that Con- gress alone possessed that power. I do not know Vvhether Dr. Hutchinson left any offspring ; but the respectable sons of Mr. Sargeant v. ill not thank Mr. Adams for placing their father, an eminent lawyer, and the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, at the head of a mob^ and of a mob to commit such an outrage on the President of the United vStates — and that President. Washington. Incredible, however, as was this story — of which I had never heard before — I wrote to William Rawle, Esq. at that time the District Attorney of the United States for Pennsylvania ; and, referring him to Mr. Adams's statement, requested an answer. In his letter, dated the 18th of last December, he thus writes : " In respect to the mob asserted to have surrounded " the President's house, &c. &c. Judge Peters and I " have already had several conversations. We read " this part of the Cunningham Correspondence with " surprise, as we neither of us at the time knew, nor " till then had heard, of such transactions. The Judge " lived out of town, but was frequently in town. I resided " about three of our squares distant from the President, " passed his door almost every day, and regularly at- " tended his weekly levees. I never noticed the slight- " est disturbance of the kind. Mr. Sargeant and Dr. " Hutchinson, although zealous in their politics, were " not men who would have so degraded themselves.'.' Where, let me now ask, could this mob story have its origin ? It is a sheer fabrication. But who was its artificer ? Mr. Adams is responsible for it. And it further shows the justness of the remark I have had occasion to make and to repeat, that where his pas- sions or interested views are enlisted, no reliance can be plaped on his statements. Hamilton acknowledged, and every other well-in- formed man will acknowledge, that Mr. Adams, in 1790. 105 contributed largely to rouse the spirit of the nation tO f-esistance against the unexampled insults and injuries we had experienced from the French Republic ; and he boasts of the beneficial operation of the measures then taken, and of our naval successes in the limited -war authorized by Congress ; when, as he says, * " the *' proud pavilion of France was, in many glaring in- ^' stances, humiliated under the eagles and stripes of ** the United States." But the greatest triumph of all, he says, was in the humiliation of the haughty Direc- tory ; who, renouncing all their unfounded claims, sought for peace — " transmitting to him the most posi- *' tive assurances, in several various ways, both official " and inofficial, that they would receive his ministers, " and make peace on his oivn terms.'''' These last words are, assuredly, a fond assumption of Mr. Adams. The Directory could never have entertained the idea of giving Mr. Adams a carte blanche^ on which to write what articles he pleased. It is too absurd to be ima- gined, except by Mr. Adams when his mind was high- ly sublimated. Had such an offer been made, it would have furnished additional ground for believing the Di- rectory were not sincere. But, unfortunately, in the heyday of victory, when the United States were rising in their own estunation, and were cheered by the salu- tations of admiring Europe, the American Admiral struck his flag ; the " Proud Pavilion of France" rose above the " Eagles and the Stripes ;" and, instead of " making peace on his own terms," he received the law from France. He even gave up the trophies of our vic- tories ; stipulating to restore to France her national ves- sels captured by ours. He purchased peace at the ex- pense of twenty millions of dollars (for that was the estimated amount of French spoliations) relinquished to France, without any equivalent. For the United States had been fairly exonerated of the burthen of their treaties with France, by her " infractions, vio- " lence, injustice, and breach of faith ;"t and Congress * Letter No. XXX, Feb. 22, 1809, to Cunningham. ■{■The words, marked with inverted commas, are Mr. Adams's, in leUer XXX, to Cunningham. 15 106 accordingly declared them null and void. But the French government would not consent to give any in- demnities to the American merchants, for those spolia- tions of their property, unless the United States would revive and restore the treaty of alliance, with its bur- thensome guarantee. To get rid of this, the claims of the merchants were abandoned. Such were the fruits of the glorious naval war of 1798, and of the inglorious peace by which it was ter- minated. Yet, Mr. Adams fondly expects, that for these acts in his administration, laurels will crown his monument, and flourish in immortal green. " If ever," says he, " If ever an historian should arise, fit for the " investigation, this transaction must be transmitted to *' posterity as the most glorious period of American " history, as the most disinterested, prudent and suc- " cessful conduct in my whole life. For I was obliged " to give peace and unexampled prosperity to my " country for eight years — and if it is not for a longer " duration, it is not my fault — against the advice, en- " treaties and intrigues of all my ministers, and all the " leading Federalists in both houses of Congress." This rodomontade of Mr. Adams is perfectly in char- acter. It is akin to another fond conceit of his, which we find in his 28th letter (July 27, 1809) published in the Boston Patriot — the last paragraph : " I shall con- " tinue," says he, " to send you extracts of letters, by " which the rise, progress and conclusion of our con- " nexion with Holland may be in some degree under- " stood ; a connexion that accelerated the peace^ more " than the capture of Cornwallis and his army.'''' Who can forbear to smile at the folly as well as the vanity of this assumption ? Cornwallis surrendered on the 18th of October, 1781. On the 27th of February, 1782, a resolution was carried, in the House of Com- mons, against the whole force of the administration, de- claring it to be inexpedient any longer to prosecute ojQTensive war against America. And, to put an end to all further hesitation on the part of the crown, the House of Commons, on the fourth of March, resolved, 107 " that the house will consider as enemies to his majes- " ty and the country, all those who should advise or " attempt a further prosecution of offensive war on the ** continent of America." These votes were soon fol- lowed by a change of administration, and by instruc- tions to the commanding officers of his Britannic ma- jesty's forces in America, which conformed to them.* In the summer following, a British minister was sent to Paris to negotiate a treaty of peace with the Com- missioners of the United States. The important pre- liminary step had been insisted on and obtained by Mr. Jay — that the United States loere to be treated with as already independent. He gave notice of this to Mr. Adams, who was in Holland, and who arrived in Paris some time after the middle of October. On the 30th of November, 1782, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams and Mr. Jay signed the preliminary treaty of peace with Great-Britain, which constituted, in fact, the definitive treaty. Now the connexion (by which I presume Mr. Ad- ams means the treaty) with Holland, negotiated by him, was not concluded until the 8th of October, 1782 ; almost a year after the capture of Cornwaliis, and \^ hen the Dutch government knew the negotiations for peace between the United States and Great-Britain had been for some time going on at Paris. Hence it is past all doubt, that the resolutions of the House of Commons, the consequent change in the British ministry, and the negotiations begun at Paris, decisively influenced their High Mightinesses to conclude the commercial treaty with Mr. Adams. This inference appears inevitable, if we take a view of the deplorable state of Holland, after England had made war upon her, and cut up her commerce by extensive captures. I will take Mr. Ad- ams's own description, in one of his letters to Con- gress — the epitome of similar information spread over other letters. In that of the 4th of August, 1781, he says, " I should scarcely be credited, if I were to de- " scribe the present state of this country. There is "* Marshall's Life of Washing-ton, vol. IV, p. 567. 108 '^ more animosity against one another, than against the " common enemy. They can agree upon nothing ; " neither ujjon war nor peace ; neither upon acknow- " ledgiiig the independence of America nor upon de- *•' nying it" Again, in the same letter, he says, " In *' short, this nation has no coniidence left in its own " wisdom, courage, virtue or power. It has no esteem, •' nor passion, nor, desire, for either. It loves and seeks " wealth, and that alone."* One word more on Mr. Adams's mission of Februa- ry 1799, to make peace with the French Republic. This mission was instituted in the midst of our na- val successes, and of the increasing spirit of the peo- ple. But for this, the system of administration which had been established under Wasliington, and untilthen continued under Adams, would have remained. The tru6 character of the French government had been de- veloped, and generally understood — and consequently was generally detested. Our proper weapon of waf, our navy, would have been strengthened by an ade- quate increase ; our commerce would have revived and flourished. On the change of the French revolu- tionary government, by which its powers were placed in the hands of Bonaparte, the spirit, vigour and ability which the United States had displayed, and would have continued to display, would have secured to them the respect of that extraordinary man, and saved them from renewed insults, and their commerce from the more extended and aggravated depredations under the Imperial Ruler, than had been experienced from the despotic Directory. The United States would not have been told by Bonaparte's minister, that those who administered their government were " men without " just political views, without honour, without ener- " gy" — ^" insult unexampled, and, what is worse, an INSULT uNRESENTED.t Had that first system of the federal government continued to operate, we should have had no indefinite embargo, prostrating our commerce, in * Letter LXHI, dated Feb. &, 1810, in the Boston Patriot. f Letter of Feb. 14, 1810, from the French minister, the duke de Cadore, to General Armstrong. Madison was then President. 109 subserviency to France ; nor its sequel, the non-inter- course laws, in their effects and consequences alike de- structive ; nor, finally, a three years' war with Great- Britain ; a war which cost the United States more than a hundred millions of dollars, and the lives of pro- bably thirty thousand of our citizens, tvithout obtaining any one of the objects for which it was professed to be declared. Dr. Johnson has observed, that " there is nothing " more dreadful to an author than neglect ; compared " with which, reproach, hatred, and opposition, are " names of happiness." Mr. Adams felt himself to be in this unfortunate situation. He began to publish liis long letters in the Boston Patriot on the 10th of April 1809 ; and in two months he had advanced to his eighteenth letter — the subject, his unadvised mission to France. But it seems no notice was taken of them, by friend or foe. " A most profound silence," says he, " is observed relative to my scribbles. I say not a " word about them to any one ; and nobody says a " word to me. The newspapers are still as midnight." But, unwilling; to think this silence resulted from sen- eral indifference to his letters ^though doubtless that was the fact) he fancied tliat " sulphureous combusti- " bles were preparing under ground, and the electrical " fire collecting in the clouds," to burst upon him all at once, to destroy him : but, consoling himself with the expectation that he might escape unhurt from the thunder and lightning, and the eruption of the volcano, he determines that " his pen shall go as long as his " fingers can hold it."* Some of his well-wishers, per- ceiving that in his own bosom the lightning and the fiery lava were preparing, may regret that they ever found vent, satisfied that in the end the explosion and eruption will not injure those he meant to destroy, and that the great sufferer will be himself They may see verified his own assertion, that " records themselves" [his letters were designed for records] " are often liars ;" and his prediction fulfilled, that " he should not be be- lieved." The statements and evidences, which I have * Letter XXXVFT. June 7, 1809, to Cunninffhara. 110 exhibited, must convince every impartial reader, that his records are not entitled to belief. Mr. Adams often complains that the federalists are his enemies ; sometimes limiting the charge to their leaders. If this were true, what was the cause ? The federalists wished to retain their ascendency, for their own sake and their country's ; and every body of men, every association, will have a leader or leaders. Mr. Adams was once their chief And what produced an alienation ? Their principles and system of govern- ment remained unchangecl. To the conduct of their chief, then, must their alienation be ascribed. And how was it possible for men of intelligent and inde- pendent minds to persevere in their confidence, and continue their attachment, where they saw, constantly displayed, boundless vanity, disgusting egotism, repul- sive self-sufficiency, and an ambition so inordinate as to be capable of sacrificing principles, system and con- sistency, to personal gratification? Was Mr. Jay ever reproached by awy federalist^ that deserved the name ? With eminent abilities, with as pure integrity, and true zeal to serve his country, as any citizen ever displayed, he was driven from power by the enemies of federalism. But the profound re- spect, which his public conduct had produced, has suf- fered no diminution. Still revered, admired and loved, his name, without a stain to lessen its lustre, will de- scend to posterity with distinguished brightness. SECTION IV. ELBRIDGE GERRY. This gentleman makes so prominent a figure in Mr. Adams's letters, in relation both to himself and to me, I must unavoidably consume a good deal of ink and paper in exhibiting his conduct and character. I re- Ill gret the necessity of entering on details, which I fear may fatigue the reader, but without which the force of Mr. Adams's calumnies and of my vindication cannot be fully understood. This biographical sketch of Mr. Gerry, though in some respects minute, may never- theless be found in a degree interesting, when it shall be recollected, that, subsequently to the actions and events detailed, he was twice elected by the people of Massachusetts to be Governor of that State, and after- wards by the people of the United States to be their Vice-President. Mr. Gerry, appointed a delegate to Congress from Massachusetts, in 1776, had the good fortune to be pre- sent at the adoption of the Declaration of Indepen- dence, and the honour of subscribing his name to that celebrated state paper. He continued a member of that body for some years. He was also a member of the National Convention by which the present Consti- tution of the United States was formed (and carped at some of its provisions) and a member of the House of Representatives in the first Congress, and in one or two of the succeeding Congresses. The financial embarrassments of the French Monar- chy produced, about the year 1787, a crisis, which, in a succession of remedial measures and reforms, issued in the subversion of the Monarchy, and the establish- ment of a Republic. The people of the United States, flourishing and happy in their own republican institu- tions, rejoiced in the prospect of a free government to be established in France. This joy was raised to en- thusiasm, by the recollection of the aids received from that country in effecting their own independence. A war between France and her neighbours soon succeed- ed. The energies of her government, and the zeal of the people, brought powerful armies into the field ; which enabled her to defeat her enemies, and to invade their territories. In a few years, the neighbouring na- tions were subdued. Her pride increased with her conquests ; and her injustice was not slow to follow in their train. " I considered (sa^^s the wise man) all the 112 " oppressions that are done under ttie sun — and on the " side of the oppressors there was power." A series of unprincipled rulers governed the state, and in succes- sion cut off the heads of their predecessors. At length a constitution was formed, and a government organized, on republican principles, which gave hopes, to the lovers of liberty, of a permanent establishment. The legislature was composed of two branches, denominat- ed the Council of Ancients, and the Council of Five Hundred ; and the executive consisted of five per- sons, called the Directory. But the revolutionary spirit continued. The executive power found the means of impairing the independence of the legisla- ture ; and, practising much tyranny at home, set no limits to its exercise on all the nations within its reach. Remote as were the United States, their commerce brought them near to every portion of the world. Upon various pretences, all alike unfounded, the cor- sairs of France were let loose upon that commerce, and her government insulted our country* Willing to hope that these outrages and injuries ori- ginated in misrepresentations and misconceptions of the conduct and views of the United States in relation to France, President Washington appointed General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney minister plenipotentiary to the French Republic, to make to its government those frank and friendly explanations, which, if received in the spirit with which they were to be offered, would restore harmony and a beneficial intercourse between the two countries. General Pinckney, accepting the appointment, proceeded on his mission, and early in December, 1 796, arrived at Paris. He was introduced to the minister for foreign affairs, Mr. de la Croix, by Mr. Monroe, as his successor in the station of minister plenipotentiary from the United States ; and in that character delivered an official copy of his letters of cre- dence, which announced his public character, under the signature of the President and the great seal of the United States. General Pinckney's public character being thus ascertained, all the indignities practised to- 113 wards him by the French government were insults as well to the country which he represented, as to himself. Anxious, however, to restore that harmony which once existed between America and France, Pinckney for- bore to resent this treatment, hoping that a reconcilia- tion might yet be effected. But he was disappointed, and was required to leave France. Upon this requisi- tion he quitted Paris, and travelled with his family to Amsterdam, there to await the orders of his govern- ment. General Pinckney might bear those indignities with the more patience, because they were not peculiar to him. In one of his letters to the Department of State, he says, " I am informed that they have already " sent off thirteen foreign ministers ; and a late emi- " grant,* now here, has assured them, that America is " not of greater consequence to them, nor ought to be " treated with greater respect, than Geneva or Genoa." ^ Those who regard us as being of some consequence " (continues General Pinckney) seem to have taken up " an idea, that our government acts upon principles op- " posed to the real sentiments of a large majority of our ^' people ; and they are willing to temporise until the " event of the election of President is known ; thinking, " if one public character [Adams] is chosen, he will be " attached to the interest of Great-Britain ; and that if " another character [Jefferson] is elected, he will be " (to use the expression of Du Pont de Nemours in " the Council of Ancients) devoted to the interest of " France." Everj^ body knows that Adams and Jeffer- son were the rival candidates for the presidency, on the retirement of Washington. Notwithstanding this haughty and insolent rejection of General Pinckney, it was thought expedient to make one more effort to recover the good will of our terma- * Meaning Mr. Talleyrand, I presume, who visited this country in the year 1794 ; appeared in the character of an emigrant, and was treated with hospi- tality and respect. If his object in coming to the United States was to es- cape the guillotine, yet, from what is mentioned by General Pinckney, we may infer that he acted the part of a spy ; and probably in that character made his peace with the Directory, who in 1797 appointed him their minister for foreign affairs. For his great talents and other qiialitifs, no man was bet- ter adapted to their service. 16 114 gant sister. A more solemn embassy was therefore instituted ; and General Pinckney, General Marshall, and Francis Dana, then chief justice of Massachusetts, we-e appointed by President Adams, with the advice and consent of the Senate, " Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States to the French Republic." Elbridge Gerry was Mr. Adams's choice ; and it was with some difficulty that the heads of departments prevailed on him to substitute Mr. Dana; the same gentleman of whom Mr. Adams made mention, alike honourable and just, in his letters published in the Boston Patriot, in 1809-10. But Mr. Dana declin- ing the service, Mr. Adams recurred to the first object of his partiality, Mr. Gerry. Further opposition was vain. One reason assigned by Mr. Adams for prefer- ring Mr. Gerry was (and I wish it to be remembered) that, besides possessing the requisite talents, he was a firm man, and superior to all the arts of French seduc- tion ! Marshall and Geriy arrived in France about the last of September 1797, and proceeded to Paris, where General Pinckney joined them. They in due form an- nounced their arrival to Mr. Talleyrand, the French Minister for foreign affairs. Cards of hospitality were sent them, to save them from molestation by the police ; and they expected to be formally received, and to en- ter on the business of their mission. But in a few days they had reason to think that the first favourable ap- pearances were delusive. They delivered to Mr. Tal- leyrand copies of their letters of credence from the President, showing their characters, and desiring full credit to be given to their communications. But they were not admitted to an audience of the Directory. At length, certain propositions were made to them by Mr. Talleyrand's agents to which they must assent, as preliminaries to their admission as ministers of the Uni- ted States. These preliminaries were, a disavowal of some parts of the President's speech to Congress, touch- ing the conduct of the French government, notoriously founded on facts, and therefore impossible to be disa- 115 vowed ; but at which the Directory affected to be ot- fended. Nevertheless, they were not inexorable. Their extreme resentments might be allayed, and their wound- ed HONOUR healed, by a douceur (gratuity or bribe) of fifty thousand pounds sterling (222,000 dollars) for the pockets of the Directory and their minister Talleyrand ; and a loan to the amount of thirty two millions of flo- rins, equal to twelve millions eight hundred thousand dollars ; for which Dutch paper securities, under the name of Rescriptions, of that nominal sum, but ac- knowledged to be worth not more than ten shillings in the pound, might be assigned to the United States. These modest propositions were of course not assented to. Our envoys had no power to give their assent Their instructions expressly forbade the making of any loan : it would have violated our duty as a neutral na- tion. But if the douceur had been given, and our en- voys had been so far disposed to assent to a loan as to consult their government upon it (an operation of full six months) which indeed thev offered to do ; the hor- rible depredations on our commerce were not to be discontinued ; and these were already estimated at fif- teen millions of dollars, and were still going on with unremitting activity. The names of Talleyrand's private agents, designat- ed by the letters X and Y, were written at length in our envoys' despatches ; but accompanied with an engagement, on the part of the United States, that their names should in no event be made public. For this reason, when the despatches were to be laid be- fore Congress, I substituted the letters X and Y. The letters W and Z were also introduced by me, gratui- tously, instead of the proper names of two other per- sons who had some agency in these transactions, and through whom X and Y might perhaps be disco- vered. Mr. Talleyrand's corrupt overtures were repeated, and pressed upon the envoys ; and soon with threats of vengeance from the Directory, if not complied with. Thanks to the intelligence and firmness of Pinckney 116 and Marshall, these threats were utterly disregarded I do not add the name of Mr. Gerry, although he then concurred with them, for reasons which will hereafter appear. ' Thus slighted, thus insulted, and kept at an official distance, Pinckney and Marshall would not make to Talleyrand, what he desired, inofficial visits to discuss official business.* Mr. Gerry, however, because he had seen Talleyrand in the United States, in the form of an emigrant, was pleased, contrary to the opinions of both of his colleagues^ to make him an early visit. Once he was accompanied by Mr. Y and Mr. Z. The latter was a French gentleman, occasionally if not re- gularly employed by Talleyrand ; and, understanding the English language, served as an interpreter. Mr. Gerry, thus in the presence of Y and Z, spoke to Mr. Talleyrand of the propositions which had been made to our envoys by Y, in behalf of Mr. Talleyrand : to which statement the latter answered — " The informa- " tion Mr. Y had given was just, and might always be " relied on." Although not received, yet the depredations on our commerce, the capture and condemnation of our ves- sels, were so extensive, and pressed with ardour, that Pinckney and Marshall proposed the making of a re- spectful communication to the minister, to pray for a suspension of those proceedings until the further order of the Directory. " Mr. Gerry is of a contrary opinion : " he apprehends that by hurrying we shall irritate the " government."t It was now the 15th of Octobec To several subsequent attempts to act with some deci- sion, Mr. Gerry was constantly opposed. War, like a terrible spectre, had risen up to his view. Precipita- tion, he said, would certainly produce war. Yet he acknowledged the demands of France to be unjust, and her treatment of the envoys insulting ; and to such a degree, that, if proceeding from any other government * At a subsequent period, events of magnitude, affecting' the United States, induced them to depart from this determination. f General Marshall's manuscript journaj, a copy of which is now before ntlbi 117 in the world, he said he would not submit to them for ten da3'^s. Near a month having elapsed, since the envoys had delivered to the French minister copies of their letters of credence, without their being admitted to an audi- ence of the Directory, Pinckne} and Marshall wished to call the attention of the minister to the subject of their mission. To this Mr. Gerry at length agreed ; but the next day changed his mind, and proposed the postponement of such a letter until all their conversa- tions already detailed should be put in cipher (a tedious operation) and six copies made out awd sent to their government. " This (says General Marshall in his " journal) would, on a reasonable calculation, require *' about two or three months." However, a letter having been prepared, and submitted to Mr. Gerry^ and he having employed a day in making essential changes, to adapt it to his own taste — to which the other two envoys yielded, for the sake of unanimity — on the 11th of November it was sent to Mr. Talley- rand. No answer, however, was given to it. Three months having elapsed. General Marshall draughted a long letter, consisting of a justification of the conduct of our government in relation to France. This was done by the 10th of January 1798. It was submitted to Mr. Gerry (whose humour it was neces- sary to consult to obtain his signature) to suggest any alterations and amendments he might think proper. That such a letter should be written, had been agreed on by the 1 8th of December ; and that it should be concluded with a request to the French government to open the negotiation, or to grant to the envoys their passports, to return home. The letter was closed, however, in very gentle terms (undoubtedly to satisfy Mr. Gerry) requesting, that if no hope remained of re- storing harmony between the two republics, by amica- ble negotiation, " their return to their own country " might be facilitated." Mr. Gerry's vexatious delays prevented the completion and translation of the letter until the 31st of January, when it was signed, and sent to the French minister. 118 Mr. Gerry appears now to have had frequent ap- pointments to meet Mr. Talleyrand ; but this gentle- man was often absent, nor did he think Mr. Gerry of consequence enough to make any apology for repeat- ed disappointments, until a fourth had occurred. Then one of Talleyrand's secretaries called on Mr. Gerry, to make a slight apology ; and this secretary took this opportunity (Feb. 3) to remark, that they had receiv- ed a very long letter from the envoys, and inquired what was its purport — " for they could not take the " trouble to read it" ! and he added, " that such long " letters were not to the taste of the French govern- " ment, who liked a short address, coming at once to " the point." No ; the peremptory demands of that government, just or unjust, on the neighbouring na- tions, subjugated or intimidated by the French arms, superseded all negotiation ; and the like short work was intended to be made with the United States. The secretary invited Mr. Gerry to see Mr. Talleyrand the next day. " February 4. — Mr. Gerry returned from his visit to " Mr. Talleyrand, and informed me (says General Mar- " shall) that communications and propositions had been ^^ made to him by that gentleman, which he was not at "liberty to impart to General Pinckney or myself; *' that he had also propounded some questions to the ^' minister, which had produced some change in the " proposition from its original aspect ; that he was to " give an answer to-morrow or the day after ; and that " upon it probably depended peace or war."* So this distinguished diplomatist, Mr. Gerry, the favourite of Mr. Adams, " whose negotiations were " more useful and successful than those of either of his " colleagues"t— " by way of excellence (says Mr. Adams) " my own ambassador, for I had appointed him against * General Marshall's manuscript journal. The above paragraph I have eopied verbatim. For all other details concerning the envoys and their pro- ceedings, in Paris, which are not communicated in their public despatches, I am indebted to General Marshall's journal, of which, on his return from France, he allowed me to take a copy. The original is in his hands. t So says Mr. Adams in letter XIV, Nov. 7, 1808, to Cunningham. 119 " the advice of all my ministers."* — This envoy, one of three, and the last of the three, to whom the great interests of the United States in relation to France had been entrusted, engages in private consultations with the French minister, and under an injunction of secrecy, to which he pledges himself, on the business of their important mission ! And on his answer to that minister, he says, " probably depended peace or war" ! And the whole of this machination was to be conceal- ed from his colleagues ! So gross a misdemeanor must be ascribed either to corruption, or to weakness and pusillanimity and vanity : I am ready to acquit him of the first. On the 18th of January, at the instance of the Di- rectory, the two Legislative Councils passed a decree, enacting that " every vessel found at sea, loaded in " whole or in part with merchandise the production of " England or of her possessions, shall be declared good " prize, whoever the owner of these goods or merchan- " dise may be."t On the 6th of February, General Marshall put into Mr. Gerry's hands the draught of a letter to the French minister, remonstrating against that decree, and closing with a request of passports. But Mr. Gerry was too busily occupied with his secret negotiations with that minister to attend to the letter, though it would affect nearly every American vessel on the ocean. On the 14th of February Mr. Gerry returned the draught of the letter, with some amend- ments. It was then put under copy, and translated.^ On the 18th, being fully prepared, it was offered to Mr. Gerry to sign — which he declined. The envoys had been waiting for an answer to their long letter, dated the 17th and delivered to the minis- ter on the 31st of January ; in which, as before men- tioned, they had minutely examined all the subjects on which the French government had made complaints, * Letter XXXIV, March 20, 1809, to Cimningham. t This is the prototype of Bonaparte's Berlin decree, \ The Envoys' letters to Mr. Talleyrand were in their own language, but accompanied by French translations, as well to prevent, mtsconstr notions, as. any pretence for delay in answering- tkern-. 120 and exhibited a complete vindication of their own. At length Mr. Talleyrand, on the 18th of March, deigned to send them an answer, in the usual style of French Republican sophistry and round assertions, which he knew were alike false and insulting, and near its close is the following paragraph : " It is, therefore, only in order to smooth the way of " discussions, that the undersigned has entered into " the preceding explanations. It is with the same " view, that he declares to the commissioners and en- " voys extraordinary, that, notwithstanding the kind of " prejudice which has been entertained with respect " to them, the Executive Directory is disposed to treat " with that one of the three, whose opinions, presumed " to be more impartial, promise, in the course of the " explanations, more of that reciprocal confidence " which is indispensable." The above paragraph, being interpreted, w ould read thus : — " You, Messrs. Pinckney and Marshall, dis- cerning what the rights and interests of your country demand, and being determined to maintain them, are not the persons with whom the Directory choose to have any intercourse. Mr. Gerry, on the contrary, being more open to useful impressions, ' more impar- tial' — that is, not partial to those rights and interests, at least so far as comports with the present views and wants of the French government — possesses the qual- ifications proper for an «nvoy with whom the Directo- ry will negotiate." At the beginning, Mr. Talleyrand's agents X and Y had stated to the envoys the necessity of paying mo- ney, and a great deal of it, to sooth the irritated Direc- tory, and of agreeing to a very large loan. The en- voys repelled these demands ; and assured those agents, and Mr. Talleyrand himself, that they had no power to make any loan of money ; and, finally, that their in- structions forbade their agreeing to a loan. Mr. Gerry concurred with his colleagues in these declarations. But, after he had been closeted by Talleyrand, and in- vited to and indulged in frequent seeret conferences, 121 he came out a convert to the minister's avowed opi- nion, that a loan, to be paid after the war with Ens^- land, was not forbidden by their instructions ; although the direct object of such a stipulation was, to raise the money upon it immediately, to aid in carrying on the existing war ! And in this new opinion, enforced by the terror of the war with which Talleyrand had in- Spired him, Mr. Gerry persisted, in opposition to the plain and unanswerable arguments of his colleagues. Their instruction, on this question, was in these words — '^ That no aid be stipulated in favour of France during " the present war." On the 3d of April, the envoys sent to the French «iinister a full answer to his letter of the 18th of March ; and concluded with saying, that if " it should be the " will of the Directory to order passports for the whole " or any number of them, you will please to accompany " such passports with letters of safe conduct, which " will entirely protect from the cruisers of France the " vessels in which they may respectively sail, and give " to their persons, suite and property that perfect se- " curity to which the laws and usages of nations entitle " them." After this. General Marshall prepared for his depar- ture, and waited only the order of the Directory as to a passport and letter of safe conduct. But these they ivished to avoid giving : for though it was perfectly clear that Mr. Gerry was their man, they desired not to make a formal selection of him ; but that Generals Pinckney and Marshall, by asking passports for them- selves, would, in effect, make the selectioii ; and by thus withdrawing, in appearance voluntarily, leave Mj*. Gerry more at liberty, with some colour of authority, to negotiate alone. It is due to him to say, that he was not guilty of this last degree of folly : he under- took only to negotiate informally, and in this way suf- fered himself to be amused and trifled with for above four months ; two months and a half of that time after he had received instructions from his government to leave France. He had repeatedly told his colleagues 17 122 that he would not stay ; but changed his mind after^ -ward, and said he would stay, to prevent a war> Threats of various kinds had been thrown out, for six months, to alarm the envoys, and frighten them into a submission to the arbitrary will of the Directory ; none of which had been carried into execution ; and among them tiiis bugbear of immediate war, which Mr. Gerry had now been persuaded to believe would become a reality, and which nothing but his remaining in France would prevent. The sickness of General Pinckney's daughter com- pelled him to stay some time in France. Geiieral Mar- shall embarked without delay ; and his safe return was a subject of cordial congratulation among his indepen- dent fellow-citizens. The despatches from our envoys, in which the un- just and corrupt demands of the French government were displayed, having been communicated to Con- gress, they ordered them to be published. They were of course circulated by newspapers, and reached Eng- land ; and from England they travelled to Pans. Up- on their arrival, Mr. Talleyrand, with singular etiicn- tery, wrote to Mr. Gerry the following letter, dated May 30, 1798. '"• I communicate to you, sir, a London gazette of the 1 5th of May. You will therein find a very strange publication. I cannot observe without surprise, that intriguers have profited of the insulated condi- tion in which the envoys of the United States have kept them^f ives, to make proposals and hold conversations, the object of which was evidently to deceive you. I pray you to make known to me imme- diately the names denoted by the initials W, X, Y and Z, and that of the woman who is described as having had conversations with Mr. Pinckney upon the interests of America. If you are averse to send- ing them to me in writing, be pleased to communicate them confi- dentially to the bearer. " i must rely upon your eagerness to enable the government to fathom those practices, of which I felicitate you on not having been the dupe, and which you must wish to see cleared up. " Accept, &c. CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND." It is difficult to conceive of a more pointed insult than was in this letter offered to Mr. Gerry. He was present with Pinckney and Marshall, and heard all the 123 propositions for the douceur and the loan, made by X and Y, in Talleyrand's behalf, and had signed all the despatches which Talleyrand now called " strange pub- lications." Further — Mr. Gerry went with Y to Mr. Talleyrand's office (as before mentioned) where Mr. Gerry told him, " that Mr. Y had stated to him some " propositions as coming from Mr. Talleyrand, respect- " ing which Mr. Gerry could give no opinion." Mr. Gerry made some other observations : after which, Mr. Talleyrand said, " that the information Mr. Y had given " him (Mr. Gerry) was just, and might always be reli- " ed on." Now, the precise propositions offered by Y, that morning, are thus given, in the envoys' despatches, as stated by Mr. Y to Mr. Gerry himself " He (Mr. Y) " then stated, that two measures, which Mr. Talleyrand " proposed, being adopted, a restoration of friendship be- " tween the republics would follow immediately ; the one " was a gratuity of 50,000 pounds sterling ; the other, a " purchase of thirty-two millions of Dutch rescriptions." Still further ; at a preceding interview between Mr. Talleyrand and Mr. Gerry, Mr. Z being present, Mr. Gerry said, " that as to a loan, we had no powers what- " ever to make one ; that, if we were to attempt it, we " should deceive himself and the Directory ; but " that we could send one of our number for instructions " on this proposition, if deemed expedient, provided the " other objects of the negotiation could be discussed " and adjusted ;" concluding with a referrence to Tal- leyrand's desire to " confer with the envoys individu- ally." To this Mr. Talleyrand answered, " He should "' be glad to confer with the other envoys individually ; " but that this matter about the money must be settled " directly, without sending to Jlmerica ; that he would " not communicate the arret for a week ; and that if " we could adjust the difficulty respecting the speech, " an application would nevertheless go to the United " States for a loan." This conversation was on the 28th of October, twenty-four days after all the en- vo3^s had arrived in Paris. The threatened arret was to order them off 124 The reader now sees, that the two conversations held bv Mr. Gerry with Mr. Talleyrand demonstrate, that the money propositions of the " intriguers" are precisely those of Mr. Talleyrand himself— Mr. Y pre- sent in one instance, and Mr. Z in the other ; that Tal- leyrand distinguished between the loan — for w hich the American government must be consulted, and the mo- ney — " which must be settled directly ;" which was the douceur, or gratuity, of 50,000 pounds sterling. Yet, with all this certainty that X and Y were Talleyrand's agents, Mr. Gerry yields to his demands, and certifies their names ! He wished to have evaded the disgrace- ful compliance ; but exacted only one condition, Tal- leyrand's assurance that their names should not be pub- lished on his (Gerry's) authority. Talleyrand answers, " that they shall not be published as coming from him." Then follows the certificate in these w ords : " Paris^ June 1798. Prairial., 6 an. " The names of the persons designated in the communications of the Envoys Extraordinary of the United States to their government, pub- lished in the Commercial Advertiser of the 11th of April last at New-York, are as follow : X is Mr , Y is Mr. Bellamy, Z is Mr. Hauteval. E. GERRY.'^ " To the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic.'''' This certificate is No. 12, among the documents communicated to Congress by Mr. Adams, on the 18th of January, 1799 ; and to this No, 12 I then subjoined the following note : " Mr. Gerry has inserted the proper name of X in this document, as given to Mr. Talleyrand ; but the person designated by X not hav- ing (like Y) avowed himself, the promise made to him and Y, ' that their names should in no event be made public,' is still obligatory on the Executive in respect to X, and therefore his name is here omitted. T. PICKERING." But, besides thus debasing himself in giving to Tal- leyrand the names of his own agents, Mr. Gerry stat- ed, that " they did not, to his knowledge, produce cre- " dentials or documents of any kind." But what ere- 125 'deiitials could be necessary, when Mr. Talleyrand had acknowledged to Mr. Gerry himself, that Y was his agent in the propositions he had made ; when not only X, but Talleyrand also, had made to Mr. Gerry the same propositions, for the gratuity and a loan ? Mr. Gerry did not stop here : in another letter to Talley- rand, he says, " In regard to the citizens attached " to your employment, and authorized by you to see " the envoys on your official communications, I do not " recollect a word from any of them which had the " least relation to the proposition, made by X and Y " in their informal negotiations, to pay money for cor- " rupt purposes." Now when, on the 28th of October, Mr. Talleyrand made to Mr. Gerry the same money propositions, (as I have before stated) Z (Mr. Haute- val) was present, and was desired by Talleyrand to re- peat what he had said to Mr. Gerry. Another fact was certified by Mr. Gerry — that three of the persons were foreigners, and the fourth (Hauteval) Mr. Gerry says, " acted merely as a messenger and lingviist." — Mr. Talleytrand had now obtained, through Mr. Gerry's pusillanimity, the ground-work for a publication in Pa- ris, ridiculing the envoys as the dupes of the pretend- ed intriguers, and using Mr. Gerry's answers on the subject to justify the statement. Mr. Hauteval was not merely a messenger and linguist, but a solicitor, in this business, for Mr. Talleyrand ; of which take the following decisive proof, it being an extract of a letter, dated June 15, 1798, from Mr. King, our minister in London, to the Secretary of State, and which was pub- lished, as a note, in my report. Col. Trumbull is the painter so well known in that profession. " Col. Trumbull, who was at Paris soon after the ar- '' rival there of the Commissioners, has more than once " informed me, that Hauteval told him, that both the " douceur and the loan were indispensable ; and urged " him to employ his influence with the American Com- " missioners to offer the bribe, as well as the loan.'''' Yet this same Mr. Hauteval, acting a part in this go- vernment farce, writes to Mr. Talleyrand — " My sen- 126 '• sibility must be much affected on finding myself, un- " der the letter Z, acting a part in company with cer- " tain intriguers, whose plan it doubtless w as to take " advantage of the good faith of the American Envoys, " and make them their dupes." — " Citizen" Talleyrand, now Prince Talleyrand, was long enough minister for foreign affairs to accumulate a princely fortune, by practising, for himself and his principals, on the vassal states subdued by, or trembling in terror of, French armies, the same exactions with those he attempted to impose on the American Envoys. — [It is perhaps hard- ly known, that this Prince is a citizen of Pennsylvania. He was citizenized when there in the form of a French emigrant. I have somewhere among my papers a copy of the certificate of his admission.] On the 4th and 5th of March 1798, the first despatches from our envoys came to hand. Being voluminous, and in cipher, much time was required to decipher them, and make copies to be laid before Congress. On the 23d of that month, by the President's direction, I wrote a letter, addressed to all the envoys ; in which I quote from their No. 5, dated the 8th of January, the follow- ing passage : You " repeat, that there exists no hope " of your being officially received by that government, " or that the objects of your mission will be in any way " accomplished." * This opinion is sanctioned by the whole tenor of your communications ; and we trust that soon after the date of your No. 5 you closed your mission, by demanding passports to leave the territo- ries of the French Republic' Then, adverting to the fair and honourable views of the American govern- ment, which dictated the mission, and the extreme neglect with which they, and through them their coun- try, had been treated by the government of France, my letter proceeds : '* Under these circumstances, the " President presumes that you have long since quitted " Paris and the French dominions." Then, noticing their intention to make one more attempt to draw the French government to an open negotiation, in which there was a bare possibility of succeeding, the President 127 authorized their staying to complete a treaty ; but, if there appeared a design in that government to procrastinate, they were directed to break off the negotiation, demand their passports, and return. " For (it was added) you " will consider, that suspense is ruinous to the essential " interests of your country ;" and this instruction was given them : "In no event is a treaty to be purchased " with money, by loan or otherwise. There can be " no safety in a treaty so obtained. A loan to the Re- " public would violate our neutrality ; and a douceur " to the men now in power, might, by their successors, " be urged as a reason for annulling the treaty ; or, as " a precedent for further and repeated demands." In his letter of May 13th, addressed to me, Mr. Gerry acknowledged the receipt of m}^ letter of the 23d of March, delivered to him the preceding evening by the special messenger, sent to France in a public vessel of the United States. The instructions in that letter Mr. Gerry said he should duly observe ; yet suffered him- self to be amused by Talleyrand's idle proposals of a negotiation, until near the end of July ; even when the French minister's letters were marked with repetitions of insulting sentiments towards the American govern- ment, particularly in suggesting doubts of its sincerity in its measures to effect a settlement of differences — re- proaches which Mr. Gerry knew to be unfounded — and after he had, to his colleagues, pronounced the govern- ment of the French Republic, " the proudest as w ell as " the most unjust government on the face of the earth ; " that it was so elevated by its victories as to hold in " perfect contempt all the rights of others ; and that " with this disposition it would certainly make war on " us, if we refused to comply with what its pride would " insist on, because the measure had been proposed."* Thus completely had Mr. Adams's able and magnanimous ambassador become the dupe of the French minister's threats, mingled with blandishments flattering to his vanity. Mr. Gerry had even the folly to imagine his colleagues to be envious of his good fortune : " They ■'General Marshall's Journal— Feb. 26, 1798. 128 *' were wounded (he said) and he was not surprised at " it, by the manner in which they bad been treated by " the government of France, and the difference which " had been used with respect to him."t How different- ly his great friend and protector, President Adams, at that time, viewed his conduct, will appear by the fol- lowing extracts of my letter, dated June 25, 1798, to Mr. Gerry, which, together with his voluminous docu- ments, were by the President communicated to Con- gress on the 18th of January 1799. Extracts of the letter to Air. Gernj., dated June 25, 1798. " By the instructions dated the 23d of March, which agreeably to the President''s directions I addressed to Generals Pinckney and Mar-' shall and yourself, and of which six sets were transmitted, one by a despatch boat sent on purpose, and some of which doubtless reached you during the last month, you will have seen that it was expected that all of you would have left France long before those instructions could arrive, and which were transmitted rather from abundant cau- tion than necessity, seeing no probability or hope existed that you would accomplish the object of your mission. The respect due to yourselves and to your country i-rresistibly required that you should turn your backs to a government that treated both with contempt ; a conteiapt not diminished but aggravated by the Jiattering but insidious distinction in your favour., in disparagement of men of such respectable talents.) untainted honour and pure patriotism., as Generals Pinckney and Marshall, and in whom their government and country reposed entire con- fidence ; o.nd especially when the real object oj that distinction was to en- able the French government., trampling on the authority and dignity of your own, to designate an envoy with whom they woidd condescend to ne- gotiate. It is therefore to be regretted, that you did not concur with your colleagues in demanding passports to quit the territories of the French Re- public, some time before they left Paris.'''' " It is presumed that you will consider the instructions of the 23d of March, before mentioned, as an effectual recall. Lest, however, by any possibility, those instructions should not hav» reached you, and you should still be in France, / am directed by the President to transmit to you this letter, and to inform you, that you are to consider it as a positive letter of recall." If the reader has had patience to accompany me through this abridged history of the occurrences at Paris in relation to the French government and our envoys, and particularly to the conduct of Mr. Gerry, t General Marshall's Journal — April 3. 129 lie will be prepared to understand and appreciate the passages in my report on French affairs, which Mr. Adams marked to be struck out, and which were ac- cordingly expunged. The reader will see, in another part of this Review, General Marshall's testimony to the correctness of the report as laid before Congress. The following passages between brackets are those ordered to be struck out, and complete the report as originally written and submitted to the President. A few words of the report, as adopted by the President, are introduced, to render those passages perfectly in- telligible. Paragraph 6. Mr. Gerry wishes to evade Talley- rand's demand of the names of the persons designated by the letters W, X, Y and Z, and with reason ; for he and his colleagues had " promised Messrs. X and Y " that tJieir names should in no event be made public. " [I know not what considerations could warrant a de- " parture from this promise, on the supposition that " their names were unknown to t!ie French govern- " ment ; and admitting that they were known (which " was the fact) the minister's request was impertinent " and insulting ; and to comply Avith it was submitting ** to an indignity."] In the same paragraph — " Mr. " Gerry had Mr. Talleyrand's own assurance that Mr. " Y was acting by his authority. [It is to be regretted " that an envoj^ from the United States should have " consented to act a part in this farce."] In the same paragraph — Mr. Gerry, " besides formally certifying to " Mr. Talleyrand the names of his own private agents, " [giving colour for his affected ignorance of them, in " using the hypothetical expression, ' if any of those " persons were unauthorized to act,' and adding] that " ' they did not produce, to his knowledge, credentials,' " &c." In the same paragraph — " Mr. Talleyrand an- *' swered, that the information Mr. Y had given him " (Mr. Gerry) was just, and might always be relied on. " [This surely was a ' credential' for Mr. Y, to vouch " not only for his past, but for any future, coramunica- 18 130 " tions to the envoys, as made by the minister's au- " thority."]* Paragraph 9. " On the 2d of December X, Y and " Z dined together at Mr. Talleyrand's [familiarly] in " company with Mr. Gerry ; and, after rising from ta- " ble, 'the money propositions, which had before been " made, were repeated, in the room and in the pre- " sence, though perhaps not in the hearing, of Mr. Tal- " leyrand. Mr. X put the question to Mr. Gerry in " direct terms, either, ' whether the envoys would give " the douceur ^^ or ' whether they had got the money " ready,' [meaning the douceur."] Paragraph 12. " It was to accomplish the object of '* these [scandalous] intrigues, that the American en- " voys were kept at Paris, unreceived, six months af- " ter their credentials were laid before the Directory." Paragraph 13. The report, mentioning the threats which during four or five months had been uttered, of immediate orders to the envoys to quit France, and of war in its most dreadful forms — which threats had in- duced Mr. Gerry to separate himself from his col- leagues, and stay in Paris — goes on to say, that " those " threats had not been executed, and the unworthy " purposes for which they had been uttered had been " obvious. [It is further unfortunate that Mr. Gerry " should have imagined it to be his duty to remain in " France near three months after the instructions reach- " ed him, busied in informal negotiations, hopeless in " their nature, and unwarranted by those instructions ; " in which, too, he was pointedly told, ' that suspense " was ruinous to the essential interests of his coun- « try.' "] Paragraph 20. " Hitherto, instead of a [sincere and " anxious] desire to obtain a reconciliation, we can dis- " cover in the French government only empty profes- " sions of a desire to conciliate" — * The following- passage is in the same paragraph of the printed report : " Mr. Y, himself, who is Mr. Bellamy, of Hamburg-h, in his public vindica- tion, declares, that ' he had done nothing', said nothing', and written nothing", without the orders of Citizen Talleyrand.' " 131 Paragraph 23. " On the 12th of May, the new in- " structlons of March 23d, sent by the Sophia packet, " reached Mr. Gerry, [requiring him, situated as he " then was, to demand his passports and return ; for, " possessing no powers to negotiate, it was impossible " that any circumstance mentioned in the instructions, " to warrant his staying any longer in France, could " exist He was informed, too, that suspense, the na- " tural consequence of his stay, was ruinous to the es- « sential interests of his country. Mr. Gerry, how- " ever, instead of conceiving himself bound immediate- " ly to demand his passports and return, only thought " himself authorized to give immediate information to *' the minister of foreign affairs,] and he gave immedi- " ate notice to the minister, that he should return to " America in the Sophia, as soon as she could be fitted " for sea. [He remained, nevertheless, much longer in « France, vainly seekins^ pacific arrangements."] Paragraph 28. " Such are the proceedings of the " French government, by its minister, Mr. Talleyrand, '' before the arrival of the printed despatches of the " envoys : [and where can we find any mark of a sm- " cere and anxious desire to obtain a reconciliation' ?"] Same Paragraph. After noticing the impossibility of the envoys' negotiating on the terms proposed by Mr. Talleyrand, " because directly repugnant to their " instructions : [It is really surprising that such renew- " ed propositions should not have appeared to Mr. Gerry " to be, what they really were, illusory, and calculated " only to amuse."] Paragraph 34. " While we, amused and deluded by *' warm but empty professions of the pacific views and " wishes of France, and by [Mr. Gerry's] informal con- " ferences, might wait in fruitless torpor, hoping for a " peaceful result." Such are the passages in my original report, on which Mr. Adams has made the atrocious charge, that " I inserted a most virulent, false and calumnious phi- " lippic against Gerry." I need not appeal to Gen- erals Pinckney and Marshall, who are intimately ac- 132 quainted with facts, and will assuredly justify all I have said ; but every reader will see, that the parts struck out are only inferences and remarks on notori- ous facts — facts stated in the official despatches of the envoys which are signed by Mr. Gerry, or in his own official communications. But the reader cannot possi- bly conceive of the virule: ce of Mr. Adams himself, in this case, without seeing tUat charge in its connexions r it shall be exhibited. Mr. Adams, having ta^ien an imadvjsed step, in in- stituting a mission to Fran^^e in February 1799, nomi- nated Mr. Murray, then minister resident of the Uni- ted States in Holland, sole minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a trc!aty with the government of the French Republic. The measure vvas condemned by the most enlightened federalists. It paralysed the public spirit, at that time roused to a proper sense of the unexam- pled injuries and insults of that Republic. It subverted the temple of federalism ; and, burying its destroyer in its ruins, rendered strikingly applicable to Mr. Ad- ams, his own quotation in another case — -Nee lex est justior ulla Quam necis artifices a^te perire sua. Which, as applied in this case, may be thus translat- ed : JSTo law is more just, than that to the contrivers of mischief their own arts should prove fatal. This mea- sure, if clearly correct and patriotic, in the actual state of things, in relation to France and the United States, would not have required so long and laboured an ar- gument, and the production of so many letters and papers for its justification. Yet it is the burden of a number of his letters to Cunningham, and of many more which he published in 1809, in the Boston Pa- triot. And he introduces the names of many persons who had given him information, official and inofficial, that the Directory desired to make peace ; all which, in his communications to Congress in December 1798, he declared unsatisfactory ; yet, in 1809, he musters them together, in order to prove the propriety, expe- diency, and moral certainty, of negotiating an honr 133 curable peace.* In his message of June 21, 1798, to Congress — feeling with some force the monstrous in- dignities with which Pinckney, the minister of Wash- ington, and Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry, his own ministers, had been treated and finally rejected — he said, " I will never send another minister to France, " without assurances that he will be received, respect- " ed and honoured, as the representative of a great, " free, powerful and independent nation." In his let- ter No. XXXIV, March 20, 1809, to Cunningham, for- getting what he had declared eleven years before, con- cerning Gerry's information, he says, " Mr. Gerry, in '' an official public letter, conveyed to me, at the re- " quest of the Director}^ and their secretary, Talley- " rand, the most positive and express assurances, that " I had demanded." The reader will now compare this solemn asseveration with Mr. Adams's message to the Senate, nominating Mr. Murray ; in which no use is made of Mr. Gerry's official letter ; but of Talley- rand's letter to Pichon, which he communicated to Mr. Murray, who sent it to his own government.! * Among- these, was the late Dr. Logan of Pennsylvania. He was of the Society oi Friends, whose leading^ principle, every one knows, is opposed to war. A g'entlernan of fortune, he went to Europe at his own expense. Anx- ious for peace, lie visited Paris, in 1798, and conversed witii Talleyrand, from whom he received the information to which Mr. Adams refers ; and, on his return home, in the autumn of that year, communicated the same to him. Yet, far from setting any value upon it at that time, it became a subject of his censure. In his answer, Dec. 12, 1798, to the Senate's address, Mr. Adams suys, "Al- though the officious interference of individuals, without public character or authority, is not entitled to any credit, yet it deserves to be considered wheth- er that temerity and impertinence of individuals, affecting to interfere in piib- lic affairs, between France and the United States, whether by their secret correspondence or otherwise, and intended to impose upon tlit; people, and se- parate them from their government, ought not to be inquired into and cor- rected." This suggestion, doubtless, gave rise to an act of Congress to re- strain such private interferences ; and its popular name was the Logan Law. Dr. Logan was an acquaintance of mine ; and I am perfectly satisfied of the purity of his views. From the same solicitude to preserve peace to his coun- try, he made a voyage to England, in 1810, when there were signs of war in the American horizon. He visited British ministers — noblemen — gentlemen — farmers — in a word, some among all classes of the people, in various parts of England ; and when I saw him, on his return, he informed me, that all were averse to a war with the United States — with the single exception of one lieutenant in the navy. I Mr. Pichon, once known in America as the charge des affaires of the French Republic, was at this time officiating in the same character in Hoi- 134 " Gentlemen of the Senate, " I transmit to you a document which seems to be intended to he a compliance with a condition mentioned at the conclusion of my mes- sage to Congress, of the 21st of June last. Always disposed and ready to embrace every plausible appearance of probability of preserving or re- storing tranquillity, I nominate William Vans Murray, our minister re- sident at the Hague, to be minister plenipotentiary of the United States to the French Republic If the Senate shall advise and con- sent to his appointment, effectual care shall be taken in his instruc- tions, that he shall not go to France, without direct and unequivocal assurances from the French government, signified by their minister of foreign relations, that he shall be received in character, shall en- joy the privileges attached to his character by the law of nations, and that a minister of equal rank, title and powers, shall be appoint- ed to treat with him, to discuss and conclude all controversies be- tween the two republics. JOHN ADAMS. " Feb. 18, 1799." The reader must be struck with what Mr. Adams as- sumed for the ground of this nomination, relating to a matter of very high national concern, and manifestly of great difficulty to manage, and bring to a safe and successful issue. The ground assumed did not rest on probability, nor the appearance of probability ; but on- ly on the plausible appearance of probability ! And the business to be transacted was the same for which he had before appointed three envoys, two of whom were General Pinckney and General Marshall. Mr. Mur- ray, though worthy and respectable, yet, standing alone, would not have received the Senate's approbation. This was manifested to the President by a committee of that body. The measure itself excited extreme surprise ; and, excepting to a few members in the Op- position party who loere in the secret, the surprise was as universal as extreme. No head of a department — not a single federalist — had any previous knowledge of it. The shock to the minds of federalists, generally, may be judged of by this fact : As soon as the report of the nomination to the Senate took air, a member of the House of Representatives, and a friend to Mr. Adams, came to my office, and accosted me in this land, where Mr. Murray was resident as the Minister of the United States. The " document," mentioned by the President, was Talleyrand's letter to Pichoa of Sept. 28, 1798. 135 manner : How is all this ? the President's nomination of Mr. Murray to be minister to France ? I answer- ed, I know nothing more about it than you do ; I have only heard that the nomination has been made. " Why, is the man mad ?" was the member's reply. But let us compare the different acts of Mr. Adams. If he had received " the most positive and express as- " surances that he had demanded," as the condition on which alone he would send another minister to France, why, in the message to the Senate, in order to recon- cile them to the measure, and gain their approbation of the nomination, does he declare, that Mr. Murray shall " not go to France without direct and unequivocal " assurances from the French government, signified by " their minister of foreign relations, that he shall be re- " ceived" in the manner required by his message to Congress of the 21st of June, 1798? The two state- ments are incongruous. The simple truth is, unques- tionably, that the materials he had mustered up, with great diligence, and many of which he had displayed in the Boston Patriot, in 1809, and referred to in his letters to Cunningham, to justify himself for instituting the mission, were (like the British Orders in CovmcU, dragged in by his son J. Q. Adams, to justify his active zeal and vote in imposing on our country Mr. Jeffer- son's ruinous embargo) the fruit of after thoughts. Most of them, and especially those furnished by Mr. Gerry, on which so much stress was now laid, had been a good while known to him.* To which add the ver- bal communications from that gentleman to the Presi- dent while remaining at Quincy. The reader shall now see of how little value they were in his estima- tion, only a short time before he instituted the mission. Congress assembled in Philadelphia in December, 1798. On the 8th of that month, Mr. Adams address- ed that body, according to the usage under the federal administrations, in a speech. After noticing the failure of the measures which had been taken to settle our contro- * Mr. Gerry arrived at Boston the first of October 1798, and delivered his budget of letters to Mr. Adams, then at Quincy, and Mr. Adams sent them to me at Philadelphia. 136 versies with France, and some of the outrageous acts of its government, he says, '* Hitherto, therefore, noth- " ing is discoverable in the conduct of France, which " ought to change or relax our measures of defence ; " on the contrary, to extend and invigorate them is. " our true policy." Again — " It is peace that we have '' uniformly and perseveringly cultivated ; and harmo- " ny between us and France may be restored at her " option. But to setid another minister^ without more " determinate assurances that he tvould be received, " would be an act of hmniliation, to which the United " States ought not to submit. It must therefore be left ^' to France (if she is, indeed, desirous of accommoda- " tion) to take the requisite steps." The Senate, on the 12th of December, presented to the President a respectful answer to his speech, echo- ing his sentiments. In the President's reply we have this passage — " I have seen no real evidence of any " change of system or disposition in the French Re- " public towards the United States." It should also be recollected, that so late as the 18th of January, 1799, just one month prior to the nomination of Mr. Murray, he laid before Congress my report on the conduct of the French government towards the United States ; in the last paragraph of which is this expression — " Warmly professing its desire of reconciliation, it gives " no evidence of its sincerity ; but proofs in abundance " demonstrate that it is not sincere." If Mr. Adams had then thought this opinion erroneous, he would have marked it to be struck out, as he did some ex- pressions in the report which had too pointed a bear- ing on his favourite, Mr. Gerry. I have already recited Mr. Adams's charge, that in my report I " inserted a most virulent, false and calum- nious philippic against Gerry ;" and I presume I have shown to every candid reader that the charge is utter- ly groundless. In truth, all the virulence, falsehood and calumny belong to Mr. Adams. If I forbear, in this case, to accuse him of premeditated falsehood, what excuse can be offered for the man who; for ten years, 157 can hoard up his resentments, and then with augment* ed virulence, even carelessly utter unfounded reproach- es, which in their nature deeply affect the character of the person at whom they are pointed ? I will now give the above mentioned false charge, with its connexions, from his letter No. XXXIV to Cunningham. My re- marks will be included in brackets. " You speak of the fortunate issue of my negotiation " with France to my fame ! ! ! I cannot express my as- " tonishment. No thanks for that action, the most dis- ^ interested^ the most determined and the most success- ""fill of my lohole life. No acknowledgment of it ever " appeared among the Republicans ; and the Federal- " ists have pursued me with the most unrelenting ha- " tred, and my children too, from that time to this." [Without admitting the existence of that " unrelenting hatred," it is obvious to remark, that trimmers between two parties lose the respect of both. Mr. Adams then mentions the assurances he received, that the govern- ment of the French Republic would duly admit an Ame- rican minister to treat of peace ; and specifies the letter before mentioned, from Mr. Talleyrand to Mr. Pichon, French charge des affaires at the Hague, to that effect, ' and which Pichon communicated to Murray.] " And " the assurance (says Mr. Adams) was as complete as " words could express." [Yet we have before seen that Mr. Adams assured the Senate, to whom he sent a copy of that letter, that Mr. Murray " should not go " to France without direct and unequivocal assurances " from the French government, signified by their minis- " ter of foreign relations, that he should be received in " character."] " The second assurance (says Mr. Adams) was more " positive, more explicit and decisive still, and through " the most authentic channel that existed. It was Mr. " Gerry, one of my own ambassadors, and by way of " excellence my own ambassador., for I had appointed " him against the advice of all my ministers, to the fu- " rious provocation of Pickering," [False — " furiously" false : there was no passion manifested by m^ or any 19 138 other head of a department, on the occasion. In deny- ing any of Mr. Adams's assertions, I feel very little dis- posed to seek for any voucher beside my own declara- tion. One other head of a department, however, is still living — Governor Wolcott of Connecticut, who was then Secretary of the Treasury ; and to him, if any one doubt, an appeal may be made.] " and against the " advice of all the Senators whom he could influence." [I have before stated, that when Mr. Adams first pro- posed Mr. Gerry for one of the envoys, the heads of de- partments objected; and that Mr. Adams gave way, and substituted Chief Justice Dana of Massachusetts ; but, on his declining, Mr. Adams recurred to Mr. Ger- ry, and in a manner to preclude, as well as I recollect, any further opposition. And as to Senators, I am per- fectly satisfied, that I never spoke to any one of them. We had entire confidence in General Pinckney and General Marshall ; and only wished to save them from being embarrassed with a difficult and troublesome as^ sociate ; and such, to their extreme vexation and de- lay, Mr. Gerry proved to be,] " Mr. Gerry, in an offi- " cial public letter, conveyed to me, at the request of the " Directory and their secretary, Talleyrand, the most " positive and express assurances, that I had demanded." [Yet Mr. Adams had no confidence in them ; as is ma- nifest by the passages I have before quoted from his speech to Congress in December 1798, and in his reply to the answer of the Senate on the 12th of that month. To the Senate he said, " I have seen no real evidence " of any change of system or disposition in the French " Republic towards the United States."] " This letter " of Mr. Gerry threw Pickering into so furious a rage " against Gerry, that in a report to me, which I request- " ed him to draw for me to communicate to Congress, " he inserted a most virulent, false and calumnious phi- " lippic against Gerry." [I have had occasion to re- mark, that Mr. Adams, subject to the raging of furious passions, fancies, by the aid of that sublimated imagina- tion which Hamilton ascribed to him, that the storm within his own breast is violently agitating the bosom 139 of another, against whom he is discharging all its fury. My feelings in relation to Mr. Gerry were of a kind totally different from " rage." And once for all I affirm, that in my various interviews with Mr. Adams, there was never a single instance of passion on my part ; (I had a higher sense of the decorum proper to be observ- ed towards the President of the United States ;) and, what is not a little remarkable, but one on his ; and this on an occasion which would not have produced in any other man the smallest emotion.* Mr. Adams proceeds,] " I read it with amazement. I scarcely thought that " prejudice and party rage could go so far. I told him " it would not do ; it was very injurious, and totally un- " founded. I took my pen, and obliterated the whole " passage as I thought, but after all I let some expres- " sions pass which ought to have been erased." [I have already given a full account of the report. As printed, General Marshall has pronounced it correct ; and the parts struck out, which I have accurately stated, every reader will see to be the natural inferences and remarks applicable to the notorious facts exhibited in public documents vouched by Mr. Gerry's own signature.] " Pickering reddened with rage or grief, as if he had * It was this. In 1794, John Q. Adams was appointed minister resident of the United States at the Hague. Just before General Washington's last pre- sidency expired, he raised J. Q. Adams to the higher grade of minister pleni- potentiary to Portugal. But his father soon succeeding to the office of Pre- sident, he changed the son's destination from Portugal to Prussia. In making out a new commission, I called him kdc minister resident of the United States at the Hague ; doubting whether it would be correct to call him late minister 'plenipotentiary of the United States at the court of Lisbon^ seeing that not hav- ing gone thither, of course he had not been received in that character. I concluded, however, to submit the draught to his father, to be approved or altered, as he pleased. He read on till he came to " late minister resident of the United States at the Hague," vyhen he burst into a passion, and with a loud and rapid voice exclaimed, " Not late minister resident at the Hague, " but late minister plenipotentiary of the United States to the court of Lisbon, " to which office he was appointed by General Washington— 7not by me — and " so he shall be called." Then, lowering his tone, but speaking with earnest- ness, he added, " I am sorry that my son ever went abroad as a minister : " I wish he had staid at home ; for there was not a pen in the United States *' of which the Jacobins were so much afraid as of my son's !" Where and what is now this wonderful son ? Among the men whom his father called Jacobins — himself, of course, a Jacobin. And where, I may also ask, is the father ? When the son tacked, the father wore ship, and followed in his u-afce, Jefferson leading the van ; Jefferson, whom, not long before, the father pro- aouuced " the deepest dissembler aud most artful hypocrite he ever kaew." 140 '* been bereaved of a darling child." [This is not a whit the more credible for Mr. Adams's having declar- ed it. While writing the parts of this letter to Cun- ningham, in which my name is introduced, it is evident that his resentments were kindled to a flame ; and thence he fancied that / was red hot.] " He even w ent so far '^ as to beg that I would spare it, and let it go to Con- " gress. But I was inexorable ; and his hatred of me " has been unrelenting from that time to this." [The simple history of the report is this : As the President was to communicate it to Congress, I of course sub- mitted it to his inspection and correction. When I called for it, and found he had marked some passages to be struck out, I, with perfect calmness, observed, that it would produce some chasms, and, I apprehend- ed, might break the connexion of some parts of the re- port ; and therefore wished it to remain unmutilated* Mr. Adams answered, with a voice steady and slow, pre- cisely in these words, (I here endeavour to indicate the manner by the spaces between them) — " I am not " going to send to Congress a philippic " against Mr. Gerry." Such is the amount of this mighty affair. I took the report, and had a fair copy made, leaving out the passages and words to which the President objected ; and, thus expurgated, he laid it before Congress. The parts struck out were of much less con"^equence than at first sight I had supposed.] Mr. Adams's blind prejudice in favour of Mr. Gerry was to me incomprehensible. I exhibit, elsewhere, an in-> stance in which it rose to a ridiculous excess. Perceiv- ing that he entertained a high opinion of General Mar- shall, I put his journal into Mr. Adams's hands, hoping that some parts of it, in which his favourite was necessarily introduced, would lead him to form more correct ideas of his character. Whether he read the journal I do not know: if he did, it is plain that it had no effect; his prejudices appear to have remained unchanged. On the 21st of September, 1798, 1 wrote a letter to Mr. Adams, at Quincy, of which the following is an ex- tract. 141 f " I have a letter from General Marshall, dated at Richmond the 15th, in which is the following passage : " 1 have seldom seen more extraordinary letters than those of Mr. Talleyrand to Mr. Gerry. He must have known in what manner they would have been answered before he could have ventured to have written them That he should have founded a demand to Mr. Gerry, for the names of certain persons, on a document proving that Mr. Gerry had asserted Mr. Talleyrand to have recognized those very persons as his agents, was as pointed an insult as could have heen given. There is a fact relativ*^ to this business, not mentioned in the despatches, which deserves to be known. The company at the private dinner, to which Mr. Gerry was invited by Mr. Talley- rand, consisted of X, Y and Z. After rising from the table, X and Y renewed to Mr. Gerry, in the room and in the presence (though per- haps not in the hearing) of Talleyrand, the money propositions which we had before rejected." About this time I received a letter from Mr. P. John- son, chairman of an assembly of citizens of Prince Ed- ward County in Virginia, covering an open Address to President Adams ; which I read. Numerous addresses, from all parts of the Union, had been presented to Mr. Adams, expressing the just resentment of his feliow- citizens at the deep injuries and insults which we had too long borne from the French Republic ; and ap- plauding him for the vigour he had manifested in his endeavours to rouse his countrymen to resist and repel them. But the address from Prince Edward was of a character so different, and so charged with insults, that I refused to be the medium of conveying it to the President ; and had written a short letter to Mr. John- son, with which to send back the address ; but, just as I was closing it, a newspaper came to hand in which the address was published. I then laid aside the let- ter I had written, and wrote one of considerable length to Mr. Johnson, on the conduct of the French govern- ment, in order to justify our own ; and in it inserted the anecdote of the private dinner at Talleyrand's, when the money propositions were renewed. I also mentioned Talleyrand's demand of the names of the intriguers, and that Mr. Gerry complied with the in- sulting request. Having caused my letter to Mr. John- son to be printed, I enclosed a copy of it to Mr. Adams, who was pleased to notice it as in the following letter. 142 The reader will see that it is marked private ; which distinguishes it from his official correspondence with me. As it has been his steady aim, in his letters to Cunningham, to vilify me, so, in order to counteract his design, Mr. Adams is here exhibited against him- self. Not that I consider approbation or praise, from a man so notoriously governed by his passions, by his ambition, vanity and family interest, of any intrinsic value ; but his eulogies and censures, when brought together, like two different substances in chemical ope- rations, may neutralize each other. " Private." " Quincy, Oct. 15, 1798. " Dear Sir — I received your answer to the Address from Virginia, concinnate and consummate. My Secretary gave a hint of it to Mrs. Adams and she insisted upon his bringing it to her Bedside and read- ing it to her. She desires me to tell you, that weak and low as she is she has spirit enough left to be delighted with it. She says it is the best answer to an address that ever was written, and worth all that ever were written. You may well suppose that I, who am so severely reflected on by these compliments, am disposed enough to think them extravagant. I however think the answer excellent, and wish you had to answer all the saucy addresses 1 have received. I don't intend to answer any more of the disrespectful ones. " 1 am with great esteem, *' Mr. Pickering. JOHN ADAMS." But my letter to P. Johnson, though so acceptable to the President and Mrs. Adams, gave offence to Mr. Gerry, who wrote a letter of complaint concerning it to Mr. Adams ; and he transmitted the same to me for publication. I refused to publish it, and assigned this reason — that it would then require from me animad- versions more wounding to Mr. Gerry's feelings than any of the remarks in my letter to Mr. Johnson. Mr. Gerry's letter was returned to the President to be re- stored to the writer. It was a long letter, and trifling as long. He intended it as a justification of the parts of his "conduct in Paris which I had noticed in my letter to Mr. Johnson. Its publication would only have ex- posed him, even without comments, to additional re- proach* The foregoing details of the conduct of Mr. Gerry in Paris, and of his intercourse with the French rulers^ 143 will, I presume, induce every reader to assent to the justness of the following summary of his character, in relation to that intercourse : — " He was charmed with V their words, and duped b)'^ their professions ; he had " neither spirit nor penetration sufficient to negotiate " with men so bold, so cunning and so false." — I am well persuaded, notwithstanding the astonishing par- tiality of Mr. Adams, that towards the close of the year 1798, when the above sentiment was communicated to him, he thought it correct. It was the sentiment of a man,* of whose discernment and judgment he has al- ways entertained the highest opinion. SECTION V. LIEUT. COL. WILLIJM STEPHENS SMITH, Mr. Adams, in his correspondence with Cunningham, letting slip no opportunity to revile and calumniate me, introduced the name of his son-in-law. Col. Smith, as a theme in relation to which he could vent his reproaches. But for this, his name would, on my part, have been consigned to oblivion. Compelled, in my own justifi- cation, to notice him, the facts stated will present a further elucidation of Mr. Adams's own character. Col. Smith, an inhabitant of New^-York, was serving in the revolutionarj- war, when an inspectorship was established, in 1778. Baron Steuben (a German offi- cer, bred to arms) was appointed inspector general, and Smith became one of his deputies. The war end- ed in 1783. In February 1785, Congress determined on a diplomatic mission to Great-Britain, and John Ad- ams was elected minister plenipotentiary, to represent the United States at that court. In March, Smith was elected secretary of legation for this mission ; having * T think it proper to say, that it was not General Marshall. 144 been nominated by Mr. M'Henry, a delegate from Ma- ryland, who had also served in the army, and, in the latter period of the war, as one of the aids de camp to General Washington, by whom, in 1795, he had been appointed secretary of war, and from which office, Mr. Adams, after addressing him in opprobrious lan- guage, ejected him, a few days prior to my own re- moval from the department of state. This diplomatic connexion led to a family one. Colonel Smith became the son-in-law to Mr. Adams, marrying his only daugh- ter. The mission was limited by Congress to three years, after which Smith returned to New- York. About this time, the government of the United States was formed, under the Constitution ; and when the funding system and the national bank had been esta- blished, Smith again went to England, with informa- tion of the advantages which capitalists might derive from the application of their moneys in those establish- ments, and in the purchase of new lands. Smith suc- ceeded in this scheme, and large sums were placed in his hands to carry it into execution. These funds ena- bled him to commence a very expensive style of liv- ing, on his return to New- York. He also engaged in dashing speculations, incurred debts, and soon failed ; injuring, of course, many creditors, and ruining his friend Burrows, as will presently be related. Smith was thus reduced to a state of dependence on his fa- ther-in-law ; and lie^ willing to relieve himself, eagerly embraced every opportunity of providing Smith with some public office. In July 1798, Congress passed a law for raising twelve regiments of infantry, in addition to the exist- ing military establishment. General Washington be- ing appointed commander in chief, he was desired to name the persons whom he would recommend to the higher offices, and particularly for the general staff. Besides the three major generals, Hamilton, Pinckney and Knox, Henry Lee, John Brooks, Wm. S. Smith or J. E. Howard, were oroposed for brigadiers ; Edward Hand, or Jonathan Dayton, or William S. Smith, for 145 aidjutant general ; and Edward Carringtou for quarter ■master general. Col. Carrington had served in that office with the southern arni}^, under the command of "^General Greene ; and General Hand in the office of adjutant general, in the last years of the war. The Secretary of War, M'Henry, having been sent to Mount Vernon with General Washington's commis- sion, I was charged with the duties of his office during his absence, and was with Mr. Adams when he was making a list of nominations to the Senate, from that which Mr. M'Henry had transmitted from Mount Ver- non by the mail. The President proposed to give rank to Col. Smith, as a brigadier, before Dayton, who had also served in the revolutionary war, and to name the latter for adjutant general ; but, pau'sing, he said, " I have a good mind to put Dayton before Smith, as '' a brigadier, and to nominate Smith for adjutant gen- " eral ;" and added, " When I was in England, several " British officers, who had conversed with Col. Smith, " told me that he would make a distinguished military *' character." And then, to crown the eulogy, he said, " Why, sir, he has seen the grand reviews of the Great " Frederick, at Potsdam !" This last idea appeared, in the President's view, decisive of Smith's great mili- tary pretensions. Leaving the President, I went to Congress hall, and sent the door-keeper to ask some of the Senators of my acquaintance to step out. I informed them ot the nomination of Col. Smith to be adjutant general present- ly to be laid before them, and told them why I thought he ought not to be approved. The nomination was made ; and the Senate were inclined, at once, to give it their negative ; but some of Mr. Adams's particular friends, wishing to save the feelings of himself and his family, desired the Senate to postpone their decision till the next day ; and they would, in the mean time, wait on the President, and endeavour to prevail on him to withdraw the nomination. They did wait on him — but in vain ; finally telling him, however, that if the nomination were not withdrawn, it would be negatived, 20 146 *' I will not withdraw the nomination," was his answer. The next morning the nomination was taken up, and 5 negatived by all the Senators, except two. Every cir- • tjumstance here stated was related to me immediately, by one or more of the Senators who were present. I certainly had expressed my opinion to not more than half a dozen Senators, all federalists ; and not to one who was in the " Opposition." The presumption is therefore conclusive, that many voted from their infor- mation concerning Col. Smith, independently of any communication from me. When I come to another transaction, after the new army was disbanded, it will appear that I had not made an erroneous estimate of his character. In letter No. XXXVIII of the " Correspondence," Mr. Adams says, " It is true that Pickering, at the in- " stigation of Hamilton, as I suppose, who was jealous " of Smith as a favourite of Washitigton, and a bet- " ter officer than himself excited a faction against " him, and to my knowledge propagated many scanda- " lous falsehoods concerning him, and got him nega- " tived, though Washington had recommended him to " me." Every reader must smile at Mr. Adams's fond conceit, that Alexander Hamilton was jealous of Col. Smith, as a favourite of Washington, and a better offi- cer than himself! If there were the semblance of truth in this ridiculous assertion, it would be obvious to ask. Why then did not Washington name Smith to be inspector and major general, instead of Hamilton ; and put the latter with the other two gentlemen, who were proposed as candidates for the office of adjutant general ; especially as Smith had served under Steu- ben, in the inspector's department ? But as to Hamil- ton's " instigation" in the case, the fact is, that about noon, on the day of the nomination of Smith, I express- ed my opinion of him to some of the Senators, and the next morning it was negatived ; and Hamilton, utterly ignorant of the matter, was in New-York. Mr. Adams refrains from charging me with fabricating " scanda- lous falsehoods" concerning Smith ; but says I propa- 147 gated them. All that I said of him (excepting in re- gard to his talents, of which I did not think very high- ly, and I expressed what I thought) I h?id derived from a very credible source, several years before ; and on that information gave my opinion to some Senators. It related to a private trust of magnitude, in which Col. Smith was so unfaithful, that it appeared to me unsafe , to commit the confidential office of adjutant general to his hands. I was not unaware of the hazard I ran in speaking to Senators, in this case ; and perfectl}^ remem- ber remarking to some one of them, that what I had said to him and others, would probably, by some means, come to the President's ears, and cause my removal from office ; but adding — " I have done only what I thought to be my dut}^, and am willing to abide the consequences." Near the close of the year 1798, General Washing- ton came to Philadelphia, to meet Generals Hamilton and Pinckney ^Cnox had refused to serve, because he was not appointed the first major general) to consult on the organization of the army. Col. Smith was a candidate for the command of the regiment to be rais- ed in the State of New-York ; but Washington and the major generals received information so unfavoura- ble to Smith's character, in point of integrity, that they did not recommend him. Unwilling however to reject him peremptorily, General Washington addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, in which is the follow- ing passage : " As well myself as the two generals " whose aid I have had in the nomination, have been " afflicted with the information, well or ill founded, that " he stands charged, in the opinion of his fellow-citi- " zens, with very serious instances of private miscon- " duct, [instances which affect directly his integrity as " a man. The instances alleged are various, but there " is one which has come forward in a shape which did " not permit us to refuse it our attention. It respects " an attempt knowingly to pledge property to Major " Burrows, by way of security, which was Ijefore con- *' veyed to Mr. William Constable, without giving na- 148 *• tice of the circumstances, and with the aggravation " that Major Burrows had become the creditor of Col. " Smith, through friendship, to an amOunt which has " proved entirely ruinous to him.] While the impos- " sibility of disregarding this information forbad the " selection of Col. Smith absolutely ; yet, the possibil- " ity, that it might admit of some fair explanation, dis- " suaded from a conclusion against him. As it will be " in your power to obtain further light on this sub- '• ject, it has appeared advisable to leave this matter " in the undetermined form in which it is presented, " and to assign the reason for it. You are at perfect " liberty to communicate this letter to the President. " Candour is particularly due to him in such case. It " is my wish to give him every proof of frankness, re- " spect and esteem." This letter is dated at Philadel- phia, December 13, 1798. On the 17th, Mr. M'Hen- ry, the secretary of war, wrote a very kind letter to Col. Smith, and enclosed a copy of General Washing- ton's, for the purpose of obtaining the explanation of the transaction referred to. Smith, on the 20th, answer- ed in a very long explanatory letter ; which, no doubt, was perfectly satisfactory to his father-in-law, President Adams, who was never disposed to believe any thing ad- verse to the character and interest of any of his family. Col. Smith was nominated to the Senate, and the nomi- nation received their assent. Col. Smith's explanation, however, differed widel}^ from that of Major Burrows, whom, profiting of his generous friendship, he had redu- ced from a genteel competency to absolute beggary ; — to a condition still worse ; for, after selling his whole es- 'tate, to fulfil his pecuniary engagements for Smith, he was yet left involved, on the same account, and at the mercy of his creditors, whose forbearance, only, saved him from a jail. The mission to France in 1799, suddenly instituted by President Adams, striking the public mind like a shock of electricity — soon paralyzed the increased and increasing energies of the nation, animated with the brilliant actions of our infant navy ; and there being a 149 prospect that a treaty of peace would be the result, 1^1 the new little army was disbanded, in the summer of 1800. Col. Smith being again without employment, the President appointed him surveyor of the district of New-York, and inspector of the revenue for the ports within the same. But this appointment being made in the recess of the Senate, it was necessary 'J ito nominate him to that body, on their assembling in November 1800, at the city of Washington. This no- mination (as usual when objections or doubts concern- ing the candidate exist) was referred to a committee, of which the late Gouverneur Morris was chairman.* This nomination of an officer of the customs pertaining to the treasury department, the committee, of course, applied there for information. The secretary answer- ed, that he possessed no information respecting this nomination of Col. Smith. The committee, however, received recommendations, under respectable names, in favour of Col. Smith ; besides letters from the col- lector and naval officer, certifying Col. Smith's dili- gence in his new office. It should be remembered^ that Smith was then standing on his good behaviour : his continuance in office depended on the approbation of the Senate, upon a nomination to be made to that body. Other papers were delivered to the committee by the Secretary of the Senate, which, as he informed them, had been entrusted to him for that purpose by the President of the United States. One of the latter pur- ported to be a copy of a letter of December 13, 1798, from General Washington to the secretary of war, of which I have just given an extract. But all that part of the extract which I have included between brackets was omitted ; that is, all that related to Major Bur- rows. Col. Smith's name being thus again brought before the Senate, when nominated to be surveyor of the cus- toms for the district of New-York ; and gentlemen re- * It is proper for me to remind the reader, that I had been removed by Mr. Adams in the preceding month of May ; but the facts I am going- to state r^st en authentic documents, copies of which are now before me. 150 collecting objections made two years before, which prevented Washington, with his two generals, decid- edly recommending Smith for a military commission; the nomination was committed, as already mentioned. The committee received and collected, in the course of two months, a mass of information, which, some time in February 1801 (when the session of Congress and Mr. Adams's presidency were near expiring) they re- ported in gross to the Senate. The whole, in my copy, occupies eighty-six pages of large letter paper. The impression left on my mind, from the information I re- ceived of the transaction, from one or more of the Se- nators, is, that the papers were not read in the Senate ; unless, perhaps, by some individuals, who would toil through them in the few remaining busy days of the session ; and, under these circumstances, the nomina- tion was approved, with only eight negatives, among whom was Gouverneur Morris, chairman of the com- mittee, and perfectly possessed of all the evidence in the case ; and no one will question his discernment or impartiality in judging. There are other distinguished names, among the negatives, of gentlemen still living. But I have not done with these documents. The copy of General Washington's letter, relative to Smith, and which was communicated by President Adams, by the hands of Secretary Otis, to the Senate, was, as above remarked, essentially mutilated, and on the spe- cific point lohich required explanation,the case of Major Burrows. Together with the mutilated copy of General Wash- ington's letter, President Adams sent to the Senate what purported to be a copy of Col. Smith's explana- tory letter, before mentioned ; but so mutilated as to be reduced from eight pages to less than four, accord- ing to the copies of both in my hands ; every part re- specting Burrows being omitted. But, besides the mutilations in both of these singular copies, there were a few interpolations ; some to amend the style, and others to give a fairer aspect to Smith's explanations. By whom these alterations and amendments were made^ 151 does not appear. Col. Smith could not have been so indiscreet ; for he had transmitted genuine copies, with other papers (ten in all) to the President of the Senate, • Mr. Jefferson, to be laid before that body ; but which Mr. Jefferson sent to Mr. Morris, chairman of the committee, as appears by his letter of December 15, 1800. Such instances of reprehensible management, as these documents exhibited, it was obviously supposed, would not be suffered to remain on the files of the Se- nate. President Adams did withdraw^ them, and (as the information rests on my memory) the very next day. Apprehensive of this, some of the Senators, by diligent application, and setting up at night, took co- pies of them. These copies have been fifteen or twenty years in my possession, unseen till now ; and no part of them might ever have seen the light, but for Mr. Adams's malicious calumnies, respecting my con- duct in relation to Smith, in his letters to Cunning- ham ; intended, with his other calumnies, eventually to be published ; to the mortification of my children and children's children — of many affectionate relatives — and of numerous respectable friends, so long as my name should be remembered. I leave the reader to his own reflections on this ma- nagement of President Adams to obtain the Senate's approbation of his son-in-law, Col. Smith, to be survey- or of the customs at New-York ; only remarking, that the nomination appears to have taken place without the privity of the Secretar}^ of the Treasury, to whose de- partment the matter belonged. To the application of the committee for information, the Secretary (in his letter of Dec. 26, 1800) answered, "I possess no infor- " mation respecting the nomination which .the Presi- " dent of the United States has been pleased to make " of William S. Smith, Esq. to be surveyor for the dis- " trict of New-York, and inspector of the revenue for " the ports in that district." The very serious instances of private misconduct, -affecting directly Col. Smith's integrity as a nian, refer- 152 red to ill General Washington's letter, and the specific case respecting Major Burrows, to which Smith ascribes the negative to his nomination as adjutant general, were unknown to me when I expressed to some Senators my opinion that it was not expedient to confer on Smith that confidential office ; although, by the documents before me, I find those " serious instances" were known in New- York two years before ; and hence, doubtless, the negative votes of many of the Senators may be ac- counted for; although Mr. Adams has been pleased, for the purpose of reproach, to ascribe to me impor- tance and influence enough to determine the votes of. the Senate : he says, that I " got Smith negatived." That opinion of mine rested wholly on the information already intimated, accidentally given me, three or four years before, by a gentleman of fair character, with whom I was acquainted. This was. Col. Smith's un- faithfulness in a trust of magnitude committed to him by Sir William Pulteney, a wealthy Englishman. Having introduced the serious charge against Smith, in General Washington's letter, but which he said might possibly admit of a fair explanation, candour requires that I should notice what Smith said. He roundly de- nies, but with too much bluster, that he had " know- ingly" pledged property to Burrows which was before conveyed to Mr. Constable ; and says it was by a mere mistake, an inadvertence, that his titles to some real estate, already conveyed to Constable, were produced to Burrows's counsel, as of property still his own ; and which, by that means, was included with other real es- tate then conveyed to Burrows ; to whom, however, it made a difference of ten thousand dollars loss; and Smith had no other property to give as a substitute. It is not a little remarkable, that Smith should have forgotten the conveyance (not of long standing — per- haps a year or two) of city lots in New- York, to Con- stable, of the value of ten thousand dollars ; though the thing is possible. But this explanatory letter of Smith's -r-if it deserve the name — is marked with ingratitude, and replete with misrepresentations, respecting Major f 153 Burrows ; as any one would perceive on the perusal of the candid statement of the latter to the Senate's com- mittee, furnished at their request. Its great length ne- cessarily excludes it from this Rev iew. After all that Burrows could obtain of Smith, towards the large sums he had been obliged to pay for him, Smith remained deeply his debtor. Burrows then com- menced a suit against him, with a view to get hold of any property of his which might be discovered. Smith found bail ; but the bail being alarmed, they insisted on Smith's relieving them, by surrendering himself to the sheriff; who must have committed him to jail. In this forlorn situation, Smith wrote to Burrows, praying to be relieved ; for he was then going from camp to New- York, to save his bail. That generous hearted man, totally ruined as he had been by Smith, instantly re- lieved him ; saying, he would rather burn his bond than disgrace or injure him. General Hamilton wrote to Burrows for the same purpose ; and, as the letter is not a long one, and has, besides its kindness, some plea- santry in it, I give it entire ; the rather, because Mr. Adams represents Hamilton (ridiculous as is the idea) to have been jealous of Smith's superior military tal- ents, and his enemy. General Hamilton's Letter to Major Burrows. '<■ JVew-York, March 10, 1800. ** Dear Sir, " The anxiety of Col. Smith's bail to your suit had like to have shut him up yesterday in our prison. The good nature of Col. Troup* interposed to save him from the disgrace. You would have been sorry if it had happened — because you are not vindictive, and be- cause it would utterly have ruined him, without doing you the least good. Many considerations induce me to second the advice you will receive from Col. Troup — namely, to accept John Doe and Richard Roe, characters of ancient renown in the law, for your bail, and to proceed to judgment on that basis. If Smith has any real estate, that will secure it ; and as to his body, it had better continue fat and jolly, to present a good front to his country's enemies, than to be sent to pine and grow meagre in a nasty jail. Adieu. Your's truly, A. HAMILTON." * Col. Troup was Major Bnrro^rs's coiinse]. 21 154 I have but slightly adverted to Col. Smith's unfaith- fulness in the trust he accepted from Sir William Pul- teney. I am now possessed of particular and authentic details of his gross mismanagement (to use a gentle term) of the property of that gentleman, and of Gover- nor Hornby ; together, amounting to sixty thousand pounds sterling (equal to 266,400 dollars) committed to Smith, to be applied (on very liberal commissions) to their use, in the United States ; where advantageous speculations presented, in the purchase of funded debt, bank stock, and new lands ; but of which Smith made no returns. The whole was so soon dissipated, that in 1796 he began to borrow money ; and before the close of that year he ruined his friend Burrows. The agents of Pulteney and Hornby gathered something from the wrecks of the property acquired by Smith with their funds. I forbear to say more on this subject; what I have stated being sufficient to show the substantial correct- ness of the information on which I thought myself bound to interfere, to prevent his obtaining the office of adjutant general. The statement I have here made suggests the fol- lowing questions. Can it be supposed that Mr. Adams was ignorant of Col. Smith's conduct in relation to the funds of Pulteney and Hornby? If not uninformed, what can be offered to justify his nominating him to an office in the Revenue department of the United States ? And why was the nomination made (as it seems to have been) without the privity of the secretary of the trea- sury ? Col. Smith lost his office in the revenue department in the followino- manner : The name of General Miranda was familiar in the United States, at one period of Mr. Jefferson's presi- dency. He was a Spaniard, born (as I understood) in one of the Spanish American provinces. He had been in France, at one period of her revolution ; and, serv- ing in her armies, in the rank of major general, barely escaped the guillotine, when it was so common to cut 155 off the heads of their military commanders. After this, Miranda came to America, and visited the city of Wash- ington, where he spent some time. From thence he repaired to New-York, and there engaged practically in a project of revolutionizing one of the Spanish pro- vinces. A band of Americans, encouraged perhaps by visions of wealth to be acquired in the country of sil- ver and gold, were induced to embark with him in the expedition. Col. Smith, then surveyor of the customs for the New-York district, aided Miranda, in forward- ing the enterprise ; and, if I do not mistake, permitted one of his sons to go with him. This wild, because so premature a project, and so deficient in means, neces- sarily failed, and the Americans were made prisoners. The Spanish minister complained of this outrage against the territory of a nation with whom the United States were at peace. The thing was notorious. To appease the Spaniard, President Jefferson deprived Smith of his office ; and the expedition having been set on foot, and the means for it prepared, within the United States, in violation of an express law of the Union, Smith was prosecuted for a breach of it. His apologv for engaging in it was, that Miranda informed him, that Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison approved of his plan. This was stated by Smith, soon after he had been deprived of his office, in a long letter to his brother- in-law, J. Q. Adams, then in the Senate of the United States. Smith, thinking that in Miranda's information gentlemen would find an excuse for his engaging in the expedition, desired the letter might be shown ; and Mr. Adams put it into my hands to read. 156 SECTION VI. ALEXAjXDER NJAHLTOM. In Mr. Hamilton's Letter on tlie Public Conduct and Character of John Adams, President of the United States, published in 1800, prior to the election of Pre- sident and Vice President, to take place in December of that year. Mi;. Adams is censured for his various measures which resulted in the institution (in February 1799) of a mission to France, to negotiate a treaty with her government. This last measure, suddenly taken, without the previous knowledge of a single fed- eralist, in or out of the government, occasioned uni- versal surprise. A decided majority of the nation had been roused to a just resistance of French aggressions. Success attended the vigorous measures of the United States ; French armed vessels were captured ; and our commerce received protection. A continuance of the same spirited measures would naturally increase the public ardour. In this state of things, Mr. Hamilton expressed his belief, that there was a real alteration in public opinion ; and, hence, that a negotiation to restore peace and a friendly intercourse with France, might be more safe- ly and advantageously conducted at Philadelphia than at Paris ; without hazard of dangerous intrigues by any French minister who should be sent to the United States. Mr. Adams takes this occasion to say not only that Hamilton's conceptions of public opinion were errone- ous, but intimates that he ivas mcapable of judging cor- rectly in the case ; for which he assigns these reasons — " That he was born and bred in the West Indies, till " he went to Scotland for education, where he spent " his time in a seminary of learning till seventeen years " of age ; after which,, no man ever acquired a national " character ; then entered a college at New-York, from " whence he issued into the army an aid de camp. lii 157 " these situations he could scarcely acquire the opinions, " feelings or principles of the American people."* This quotation presents a statement marked with Mr. Adams's usual incorrectness ; and his inference from his assumed facts is on a par with his statement. To exhibit his errors, and at the same time gratify the reader, I will subjoin a sketch of Mr. HamiUon's early life. This eminent man, the son of a Scotch merchant, was born in the island of Nevis, in the West Indies ; and, as soon as he was old enough to be so employed, became a clerk in the counting house of Nicholas Cru- ger, a merchant from New-York, who was settled in the island of St. Croix. Boy as he was, the conscious- ness of a superior intellect satisfied him that a merchant's store was not the proper place for the exertion of his talents. When past the age of thirteen years, he was sent to New-York for his education. After the prepa- ratory school instruction, he entered the college in that city. The controversy between the British Colonies and the Mother Country employed, at that period, the tongues and the pens of the most eminent men in America. Hamilton, though engaged in his collegiate exercises, was not an unobserving spectator of the passing scenes. " In this contest with Gr,eat-Britain (says Dr. Mason) " which called forth every talent and every passion, " Hamilton's juvenile pen asserted the claims of the " Colonies, against writers from whom it would dero- " gate to say that they were merely respectable. An " unknown antagonist, whose thrust was neither to be " repelled nor parried, excited inquiry ; and when he " began to be discovered, the effect was so apparently " disproportioned to the cause, that his papers were " ascribed to a statesman who then held a happy sway " in the councils of his country, who has since render- " ed her most essential services, and who still lives to •' adorn her name.t But the truth could not long be * better XII, May 26, 1809, published in the Boston Patriot, f John Jay. 158 '* concealed. The powers of Hamilton created their " own evidence ; and America saw, with astonish- " ment, a lad of seventeen"* in the rank of her advo- " cates, at a time when her advocates were patriots " and sages."t In the year 1775, after the commencement of hostili- ties, " Hamilton attached himself to one of the uniform " companies of militia then forming in the city for the de- " fence of the country, and devoted much time and at- " tention to their exercises. In the early part of 1776, " he received, from the Provincial Congress of New- " York, the appointment of captain of one of the inde- " pendent companies of artillery.''^ "It was while he " was training this company, that, for the first time he " was seen by General Greene ; to whose discerning " eye something more appeared in the conduct of the " young captain than was ordinarily exhibited in the " parade exercises of that office."§ Near the close of the campaign of 1776, Hamilton was introduced into General Washington's family, as an aid de camp. In this situation he continued until the winter of 1780-1. In 1782-3, he was a delegate from the State of New- York in the Congress of the United States. It was while a member of that body that he saw the letters and communications from our ministers at European courts, and among them those of John Adams, then minister plenipotentiary to the States of Holland, and one of the commissioners for negotiating a peace with Great-Britain. These negotiations were carried on at Paris, to which city Mr. Adams came from the Hague. Mr. Jay, already there, had taken certain decisive pre- liminary steps, without the concurrence of Dr. Frank- lin, our resident minister in France, and another of the peace commissioners. Franklin, caressed by the French, was disposed implicitly to obey an instruction * Col. Nicholas Fish, a fellow student of Hamilton's, informs me that he was about eighteen ; and that he saw some of Hamilton's essays before they went to the press. f Doctor Mason's oration on the death of Hamilton. I Letter of December 26, 1823, from Col. Fish. § Judge Johnson's Life of Greene. 159 from Congress, wholly different in spirit from former acts of that body, and unworthy of its well earned pub- lic reputation. The object of that instruction was, to submit the terms of the treaty of peace with Great- Britain absolutely to the French court, excepting in the single article of our independence. This instruc- tion was obtained, undoubtedly, through the influence of the French minister to the United States, the Count de la Luzerne, and of the able secretary of legation, Mr. Marbois. Had this instruction been implicitly obeyed, and had the British government concurred with the plans of the French court, the fisheries, the territory west of the Allegany mountain, and the navi- gation of the Mississippi, would have been lost to the United States. Mr. Jay, with the foresight, wisdom, firm- ness and patriotism which have always distinguished him, resisted : he laid aside his instructions, and alone commenced the negotiation, in a manner to do honour- to an able, upright and independent American citizen. Mr. Adams came to Paris : his views coincided with Mr. Jay's ; and, eventually. Dr. Franklin co-operated with them. Peace was made on terms advantageous beyond the most sanguine expectations ; notwithstand- ing which, an attempt was made by the members un- der French influence — for there was then, as there has been since, a French party in Congress — to censure the commissioners ; but it failed ; and praise instead of censure was bestowed on them. Hamilton, " dreading " the preponderance of foreign influence, as the natural " disease of a popular government, was struck at the " appearance, in the very cradle of our republic, of a " party, actuated by an undue complaisance to foreign " power ; and resolved at once to resist this bias in our " affairs ;" " a resolution (says Hamilton) which has " been the chief cause of the persecution I have en- " dured in the subsequent stages of my political life."* The agency of Mr. iVdams in the peace negotiation made a favourable impression on the mind of Hamil- * Hamilton's Letter on the Public Condoct and Charartwof Jolm Adams. President of the United States. 160 ton, but not without alloy. A scrutiny of Mr. Adams's several communications to Congress produced in the mind of Hamilton the following result : He says, " I " then adopted an opinion, which all my subsequent " experience has confirmed, that he is of an imagina- " tion sublimated and eccentric ; propitious neither to '• the regular display of sound judgment, nor to steady " perseverance in a systematic plan of conduct ; and I " began to perceive, what has been since too manifest, " that to this defect are added the unfortunate foibles " of a vanity without bounds, and a jealousy capable of " discolouring every object."* I greatly mistake if the reader has not found, in this Review, abundant confir- mation of the correctness of Hamilton's opinion. It was in the year 1777, that I first saw Hamilton, and perceived his importance in the military family of General Washington. The subsequent acts of his pub- lic life, and the eminent and disinterested services he rendered to the United States, inspired me with the highest ideas of his talents and worth. As an Aid de Camp to the Commander in Chief, he saw the princi- pal operations of the main army during four years ; but had no command of troops, except of a detachment at the siege of Yorktown, with which he stormed and teok a redoubt. A man of genius, however, will promptly grasp any subject ; while a common mind is learning the rudiments, which, b)^ slow degrees, are to conduct him to the knowledge of it. When, therefore, in 1798, a small army was to be raised, in addition to our peace establishment, I had no hesitation as to the person best qualified to command it. Of the citizens of the United States loho had seen service, I knew not one to place in competition with him. It was while I was in this state of mind, that the following dialogue took place between Mr. Adams and me. Mr. Adams. — " Whom shall we appoint comman- der in chief?" — "Colonel Hamilton." Mr. Adams made no reply. On another day, he repeated the same question, and I gave him the same answer : he did not * The same Letter. 161 reply. On another day, he for the third time asked me, "Whom shall we appoint commander in chief?" and the third time I answered " Colonel Hamilton." " O no !" replied Mr. Adams, " it is not his turn by a great " deal ; I would sooner appoint Gates, or Lincoln, or " Morgan." Instantly I rejoined to this effect : " Gene- " ral Morgan is here a member of Congress, now very " sick, apparently with one foot in the grave ; certainly " a very brave and meritorious officer, in our revolution- " ary war; and perhaps his present sickness may be " the consequence of the hardships and sufferings to " which he was then subjected ; but, if he were in full " health, the command of a brigade would be deemed " commensurate with his talents. As for Gates, he is " now an old woman ; and Lincoln is always asleep."* Mr. Adams made no reply. Washington being, on this occasion, appointed com- mander in chief, the secretary of war (M'Henry) was directed to carry his commission to Mount Vernon. Knowing Mr. Adams's aversion to Hamilton, and ap- prehensive that he would either not be called into ser- vice, or if nominated to any office, that it would be in a rank so much below his merit that he would not and ought not to accept it, I took the liberty of writing to General Washington the following letter.t * My remark on the military characters of the genllemen named by Mr. Adams, whom he would prefer to Hamilton for the command of the army, may perhaps be thoiig'ht not quite so respectful to the President of the United States as became the dignity of his station. But if it was frankness in excess, it will at least show that I was not inclined to " mask" my opinions. My re- mark was instantaneous, but calm. Mr. Adams has totally misrepresented my character. All mj life long I have been so accustomed freely to express my opinions, that some of my friends have occasionally regretted that I was so little reserved ; that I did not conceal my sentiments, when, though cor- rect, they might give offence ; in a word, that I did not sometimes wear a " mask." — I meant no reproach to Lincoln. His lethargic habit was a con- stitutional infirmity. Vfhen I made the winter campaign, in 1776-7, with the Massachusetts militia under his command, he told me, that prior to the war, when he represented the town of Hingham in the legislature, he used to ride home (a distance, tlien, of 16 to 20 miles) every Satuiday night, on horseback, and commonly slept half the way. It wtis easy for him to fall asleep at any time, when in a sitting posture. In other respects he was a vigilant officer. But at this time he was a cripple from a wound received in the revolutionary war, and of an advanced age. f I desire it may be noticed, that when I wrote this letter, I had had no 22 162 " Philadelphia^ July 6, 1 798, 1 1 o'clock at night. '' Sir — My uttachment to my coyintry, and my desire to promote its best interests, I trust, have never been equivocal ; and at this time I feel extreme anxiety that our army should be organized in the most efficient manrier. The enemy whom we are preparing to encounter, veterans in arms, led by able and active officers, and accustomed to victory, must be met by the best blood, talents, energy and experi- ence that our country can produce. Great military abilities are the portion of but few men, in any nation, even the most populous and warlike. How very few, then, may we expect to find in the United States ! In them the arrangements should be so made that not one might be lost. " There is one man who will gladly be your second, but who will not, I presume, because I think he ought not to be the second to any other military commander in the United States. You too well know Col. Hamilton's distinguished ability, energy and fidelity to apply my remark to any other man. But to ensure his appointment, I ap- prehend the weight of your opinion may be necessary. From the conversation that 1 and others have had with the President, there appears to be a disinclination to place Col. Hamilton in what we think is his proper station, and that alone in which we suppose he will serve — the Second to you, and the Chief in your absence. In any war, and especially in such a war as now impends, a commander in chief ought to know and have a confidence in the officers most es- sential to ensure success to his measures. In a late conversation wiih the President, I took the liberty to observe, that the army in question not being yet raised, the only material object to be contem- plated in the early appointment of the commander in chief would be, that he might be consulted, because he ought to be satisfied, in the choice of the principal officers who should serve under him. " If any considerations should prevent your taking the command of the army, I deceive myself extremely if you will not think that it should be conferred on Col. Hamilton. And in this case it may be equally necessary, as in the former, that you should intimate your opinion to the President. Even Col. Hamilton's political enemies, I believe, would repose more confidence in him than in any other mil- itary character that can be placed in competition with him. " This letter is in its nature confidential, and therefore can pro- cure me the displeasure of no one : but the appointment of Col. Hamilton, in the manner suggested, appears to me of such vast im- portance to the welfare of the country, that I am willing to risk any consequences of my frank and honest endeavours to secure it. On this ground I assure myself you will pardon the freedom of this ad- dress. I am, with perfect respect, Sir, your most obedient servant, TIMOTHY PICKERING. " P. S. Mr. M'Henry is to set off to-morrow, or on Monday, bear- ing your commission. " General Washington." sort of commiinication with Hamilton on the subject: it wa.& a spoataneous act on my part to secure his services to the country. 163 To this letter, I was favoured with a long and confi- dential answer, dated July 11th, in which the General went into a consideration of the kind of warfare to be expected, in case of an invasion by the French, and to which the military arrangements should have relation. The following paragraph is the only one I feel at liber- ty to introduce ; and this, because important in justifi- cation of my conduct on the occasion. " Of the abilities and fitness of the gentleman you have named for a high command in the Provisional Ariny^ 1 think as you do, and that his services ought to be secured at a//?io5( any price. What the (liflTi- culties are that present themselves to the mind of the President, in opposition to this measure, I am entirely ignorant ; but in confidence, and with the frankness you have disclosed your own sentiments on this occasion, I will unfold mine, under the view I have taken of the prospect before us ; and shall do it concisely." I was also happy in finding my ideas on this subject coincident with those of Mr. Jay, who was then Gover- nor of New-York. In his letter to me, dated July 18, 1798, he said, "Being of the number of those who ex- " pect a severe war with France the moment she makes ''peace ivith Britaiii, I feel great anxiety that nothing ^ may be omitted to prepare for it ;" — and then, glan- cing at the kind of generals we should have to contend witb, Mr. Jay proceeded — " I cannot conceal from " you my solicitude that the late secretary of the trea- " sury" [Hamilton] " may be brought forward in a " manner corresponding with his talents and services. " It appears to me that his former military station and " character, taken in connexion with his late important " place in the administration, would justify measuring " his rank by his merit and value." The unexampled insults and injuries inflicted by France on the government and people of the United States, as herein before described, were sufficient, an impartial observer would suppose, to rouse the spirit of every American citizen to a determined resistance, and to repel force by force. But this unhappily was not the case : many of our citizens appeared more in- clined to criminate their own government than that of France. There was, however, a decided majority well 164 disposed to provide the means of protecting our com- merce, and defending our country. Our treaties with France, grossly violated on her part, ceased to be ob- ligatory on the United States ; and Congress declared them to be void. Naval hostilities were authorized by an act of Congress, for the purpose of capturing all French armed vessels. Several of these were taken ; and our commerce received protection. In this state of things, apprehensions were entertain- ed that a formal war with France might ensue. A peace between her and England, for which the party (with the celebrated Mr. Fox at its head) in opposition to the government, were zealously contending, would remove the only obstruction to an invasion of our coun- try by a French fleet and army. Under these circum- stances, a prudent foresight justified and required the raising of a small army, as a suitable preparatory mea- sure of defence. It would be a nucleus^ around which, should it become necessary, additional forces might be collected, to whom the previous training of the former would facilitate the speedy acquisition of the know- ledge of discipline, to qualif}^ them for actual service. Accordingly, Congress authorized the raising of twelve regiments of infantry and six troops of cavalry, in ad- dition to the small peace establishment. But the same party in our country, which had before steadily oppos- ed the federal administration, resisted the present mea- sure. Indeed, no inconsiderable portion of our citizens appeared willing to make any sacrifice to France, al- though at the expense of the honour as well as the in- terests of their own country. For this reason, espe- cially, it was deemed expedient to place in the command of the army its most po])ular military citizen ; and on Washington it was accordingly conferred. This policy was doubtless correct. But, for myself, I thought only of that man of eminent talents who had been in service during nearly the whole of our revolutionary war, and the greater part of the time in General Washington's military family : this was Colonel Hamilton. I knew Washington's advanced age, and his strong predilec- 165 tion for a retired and rural life. He had himself avow- ed it. I knew that so long before as 1783, when he resigned to Congress his military commission, he manifested a determination never again to appear in office on the national theatre.* And after he retired from the presidency, I had not contemplated any fu- ture crisis in the affairs of our country, which would render it proper to interrupt his repose, and call him from that retirement to the field.t The Secretary of War, when charged with Wash- ington's commission, was instructed b}^ the President to consult the General as to the principal officers to be appointed to the arm}^ ; and he transmitted, from Mount Vernon, by the mail, the General's list, con- taining the names of gentlemen who had served in the revolutionary army, and designated the stations in which they should be placed. At the head of this list, and in the following order, were the names of Alexander Hamilton, inspector general and major general ; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, major general ; Henry Knox, major general. And in this order they were nominated to the Senate. When the nominations were taken up for considera- tion, some of the Senators, who knew Mr. Adams's antipathy to Hamilton, proposed (as I was at the time informed) that they should act on the nomination of Hamilton, and postpone their decision on the other two till the next day ; lest, if all were approved on the same day, in which case all their commissions would bear the same date, Mr. Adams should derange that order, and raise Pinckney and Knox above Hamilton. * " I here offer ray commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life," vrere his words. Congress journal, Dec. 23, 1783. f How distressing' it was to him to be called forth at the period here refer- red to, cannot be more forcibly expressed than in his own words : " If a crisis should arrive, when a sense of duty, or a call from my country, stiould become so imperious as to leave me no choice, I should prepare for relinquishment, and go with as much reluctance from my present peaceful abode, as I should go to the tombs of my ancestors." — Letter from the General in answer to Col. Hamilton's of Mav 19,. 1798, in Marshall's Life of Washington, vol. v, p. 748. 1^6 But it was answered, thVit it was the constant usage * that persons nominated and approved, on the same day, to the same grade of office, should take the rank in the order in which they were nominated and approved ; and that surely Mr. Adams would not violate that es- tablished rule. So the Senate approved of all the three nominations on the same day.t For some cause or other — I supposed under the im- pulse of the irritation occasioned by the negative put by the Senate on his son-in-law Col. Smith, as before related — Mr. Adams very suddenly, and without ap- prising the heads of departments of his intention, push- ed off for Quincy, the place of his residence near Bos- ton ; leaving his " incompetent secretaries"! at the seat of government, to perform, besides the ordinary executive duties, those arising from the acts of the very important session of Congress just ended. There was at that time no navy department ; and the issuing of commissions of letters of marque had been assigned to the department of state. These being prepared, I went to the President's house, by nine in the morning (the da} I do not recollect) to obtain his signature ; when, to my astonishment, his steward informed me that he had already set off for Quincy. I hastened back to my office, made up a packet of blank commis- sions, and forwarded them by mail to New-York, to the care of one of his sons then living in that city. There the packet came to the President's hands. He signed the commissions, and returned them to me. But this caused a delay of two or three days, when a number of merchant vessels, in different ports, armed and manned for letters of marque, and ready for sea, were waiting for their commissions. The Secretary of War made out the commissions for Hamilton first, Pinckney second, and Knox third, ma- jor general, and sent them to Quincy, for the Presi- * Grounded on a resolve of the Old Congress, January 4, 1776. t Congress had already adjourned ; and the senators, impatient to depart, remained in session only to pass on the military nominations. It was then the middle of July. \ Such, I remember to have been informed, was the term by which he sometimes desig'nated the heads of departments. IG'7 dent's signature. He wrote to the Secretary, that in his opinion Knox was entitled to rank as first major general, Pincknej as the second, and Hamilton as the third ; and directed, that if General Washington should concur in that opinion, he should conform the commis- sions to that order. Possessed of this information, and having already interested myself to secure to Hamil- ton the first place after the commander in chief, I ad- dressed, on the first of September, a second letter to Washington ; in which I examined at large the alleged reasons for giving Knox the precedence, and demon- strated (as I thought) their invalidity. The General honoured me with his answer, dated the 9th. It was a long letter, in relation to the new army. The fol- lowing extracts, pointing most directly to the present subject, are all that I need introduce. " Your private letter of the first instant came duly to hand, and I beg you to be persuaded that no apology will ever be necessary for any confidential communications you may be disposed to entrust me with. " In every public transaction of my life, my aim has been to do that which appeared to me to be most conducive to its weal. Keep- ing this object always in view, no local considerations, or private gratifications, incompatible therewith, can ever render information displeasing to me from those in whom I have confidence, and who, I know, have the best opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of facts in matters which may be interesting to our country, and essential for myself as its servant. " Having troubled you with this exordium and egotism, I do not only thank you for the full and judicious observations relative to the discontents of General Knox, at being appointed junior major gene- ral in the augmented corps, but I shall do the same for your further occasional remarks on this, or any other subject which may be inter- esting and proper for me to know ; that 1 may thereby regulate my own conduct in such a manner as to render it beneficial and accepta- ble to the community, in matters which depend on correct informa- tion not in my power to obtain in the ordinary course, without aid." The General then mentions his early writing to Gene- ral Knox, stating the principle upon which the arrange- ment of the major generals had been made ; and that he was not a little surprised to find in his answer an expression of great dissatisfaction at the measure. General Washington replied, in order to conciliate Knox ; but in vain. 168 Before the Secretary of War could have written to and received an answer from General Washington, res- pecting the order in which the three major generals should take rank, another letter was received from the President, peremptorily requiring him to make out their commissions in the order of Knox, Pinckney, Hamilton. Upon which I again wrote to General Washington. The subsequent decisive proceeding on his part finally induced the President (certainly to his extreme morti- fication) to recur to the old rule, from which he ought never to have departed; and the commissions were made out according to the General's arrangement. The President's departure from it was a violation of the general condition on which Washington accepted the chief command. Several motives to this incorrect conduct of Presi- dent Adams may be assigned. Primarily, his unrelent- ing hatred of Hamilton ; whom, utterly regardless of the public interest in his services, he would have driven from the army, by degrading him from the rank to which his merit and actual appointment entitled him. In the next place, he would have expected from Knox a degree of subserviency to his views which was not to be expected from Hamilton. Lastly, he had receiv- ed from Knox a flattering letter, expressing his unquali- fied admiration of the President's measures. And to a man of Mr. Adams's unbounded vanity, nothing could be so grateful, nothing so influential, as flattery. In this letter, Knox suggested a variety of measures, and on a liberal scale, which he thought should be taken, effectually to resist and defeat an invasion by the French ; and he concluded with a tender of his humble abilities for any sort of service to which they should be thought equal* After such an expression of the humble sense of his own abilities, and of his readiness to serve in any sta- tion to which they should be deemed adequate, it must surprise every one to find that his humility was offended * I have a copy of this letter, takeo from the original, which, by Mr. Ad- amses direction, I deposited in the war-office. 169 because he was not placed above all other officers, Washington only excepted : but such was the fact ; and for that reason he refused to serve at all. In a letter to me, General Knox said, " The present view " of the subject is, that Mr. Hamilton's talents have " been estimated upon a scale of comparison so tran- " scendent, that all his seniors in rank and years of the " late army have been degraded by his elevation. " Whether this estimate has been perfectly correct, or " whether the consequences will be for the happiness " of the country, time will discover." It is the more remarkable that Knox should insist on the first rank as a major general, seeing the arrangem.ent had been made by Genera] Washington, for whom he always manifested the most profound respect; and the General always appeared to me to entertain towards Knox a peculiar and very strong attachment. In a letter to Hamilton, in reference to the arrangement of him and Pinckney, Washington said, " With respect to " my friend General Knox, whom I love and esteem, I " have ranked him below you both." If there was in the revolutionary army but one officer whcm he loved^ Knox was that one. In this case we see exemplified the sentiment expressed to me by the General in his letter of Sept. 9, before quoted — That in every public transaction of his life^ the public weal, and not private gratifications, governed him. No person acquainted with Hamilton and Knox could hesitate a moment in deciding to whom the preference was due. Mr. Adams has been unwearied in his attempts to degrade Hamilton in the eyes of his fellow-citizens : he has been so indiscreet as to deny him, what all the world beside allow him, very eminent talents. Ac- cording to Mr. Adams, his son-in-law Col. Smith, in the military line, was much superior to Hamilton : And having, in mau)^ letters published in the Boston Patriot in 1809, labouring to vindicate the mission to Prance instituted in 1799, commented on varicus pas- sages of Hamilton's letter of 1800, when jAdams was a s-econd time a candidate for the presidency, he com 23 eludes his I6th letter with these words : " I have no " more to say on this great subject. Indeed I am " weary of exposing puerilities that would disgrace the " awkwardest boy at college." After this shot, the following comparison of Mr. Gerry and Hamilton, as financiers, will occasion no surprise. In his 13th letter, dated May 29, 1809, published ia the Boston Patriot, Mr. Adams, speaking of his favour- ite, Gerry, as one of the ministers to negotiate with the French Republic, against whom he supposes pre- judices had been entertained, says, " No man had a " greater share in propagating and diffusing these pre- *' judices against Mr. Gerry than Hamilton ; whether ** he had formerly conceived jealousies against him as a " rival candidate for the. Secretaryship of the Treasu- « ^y . — for jyji.^ Gerry was a financier, and had been " employed for years on the treasury in the old Con- " gress, and a most indefatigable member too :"— " that " committee had laid the foundation for the present " system of the treasury, and had organized it almost " as well :" — " I knew that the officers of the treasury, " in Hamilton's time, dreaded to see him rise in the " House upon any question of finance, because they said " he was a man of so much influence, that they always " feared he would discover some error, or carry some " point against them : — or whether he [Hamilton] fear- " ed that Mr. Gerry would be President of the United " States before him, I know not." ! ! ! It appears by Cunningham's letters to Mr. Adams, that the latter had written two conceniing Hamilton, filled with matters of such a character that he would not leave them in Cunningham's hands : he insisted on their being returned to him, and they were returned : but their contents are intimated in Cunningham's an- swers. The accusations are of atrocious vices. One, that Hamilton was totally destitute of integrity. The whole of the world where Hamilton was known will acquit him of this charge, and with scorn repel the foul calumny. And every reader of this Review will have seen the licentiousness of Mr. Adams's pen, and how 171 little credit is due to any of his statements conceniini>; those who are ike subjects of his envy, hatred or re- venge. In Cunningham's letter XXXVII, to Adams, dated May 6, 1809, he states, that Mr. Adams informed him, that the testimony of General Washington in Hc^mil- ton's favour was given under a threatening of a public exposure of his mistakes. " You, sir, know," says Cunningham, " what authority I have for the declara- " tion — General Washington was overawed with a me- " nace." In a note Cunningham adds, " Mr. Adams is " my authority for all this, and more." Every man who knew Washington will pronounce this, whoever might be the author, an atrocious falsehood. In the conscious purity of intention in all his actions, while he entertained a modest opinion of himself, he would not have endured such an insult from any human be- ing; and all who knew Hamilton will pronounce him utterly incapable cf offering it. Here I conclude all that I think proper for me to say respecting Mr. Hamilton, in regard to Mr. Adams's reproaches, in his correspondence with Cunningham. His animadversions on Hamilton, in his letters pub- lished in the same year (1809) in the Boston Patriot, which occupy nearly fifty pages in octavo, so far as the same may merit any notice, will have the attention of Hamilton's biographer. That the work is not yet commenced, or in progress, is a subject of deep regret. But as Hamilton has formerly been accused of cher- ishing highly aristocratic views of government, and, as a member of the General Convention which formed the Constitution of the United States, would have infused that spirit into it, I subjoin his letter to me on that subject. 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