66

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 harmony between us and France may be restored at her "option. But 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. It must therefore be left "to France (if she is, indeed, desirous of accommoda"tion) to take the requisite steps."

66

66

The Senate, on the 12th of December, presented to the President a respectful answer to his speech, echoing his sentiments. In the President's reply we have this "I have seen no real evidence of any passage- 66 "change of system or disposition in the French Republic 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 expressions in the report which had too pointed a bearing on his favourite, Mr. Gerry.

I have already recited Mr. Adams's charge, that in my report I "inserted a most virulent, false and calumnious philippic against Gerry ;" and I presume I have shown to every candid reader that the charge is utterly 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,

can hoard up his resentments, and then with augment ed virulence, even carelessly utter unfounded reproaches, 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 remarks 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"ful of my whole 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 government of the French Republic would duly admit an American 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 me or any

other head of a department, on the occasion. In denying any of Mr. Adams's assertions, I feel very little disposed to seek for any voucher beside my own declaration. 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 proposed Mr. Gerry for one of the envoys, the heads of departments objected; and that Mr. Adams gave way, and substituted Chief Justice Dana of Massachusetts; but, on his declining, Mr. Adams recurred to Mr. Gerry, and in a manner to preclude, as well as I recollect, any further opposition. And as to Senators, I am perfectly 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 associate; and such, to their extreme vexation and delay, 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 manifest 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 philippic against Gerry." [I have had occasion to remark, that Mr. Adams, subject to the raging of furious passions, fancies, by the aid of that sublimated imagination which Hamilton ascribed to him, that the storm within his own breast is violently agitating the bosom

66

66

66

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 observed 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

66

* 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 presidency expired, be raised J. Q. Adams to the higher grade of minister plenipotentiary to Portugal. But his father scon succeeding to the office of President, he changed the son's destination from Portugal to Prussia. In making out a new commission, I called him late 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 having 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,” when 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-not by me-and "so he shall be called." Then, lowering his tone, but speaking with earnestness, 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 wake, Jefferson leading the van; Jefferson, whom, not long before, the father pronounced "the deepest dissembler and most artful hypocrite he ever knew.”

66

"been bereaved of a darling child." [This is not a whit the more credible for Mr. Adams's having declared it. While writing the parts of this letter to Cunningham, in which my name is introduced, it is evident that his resentments were kindled to a flame; and thence he fancied that I was red hot.] "He even went so far 65 as to beg that I would spare it, and let it go to Congress. 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 submitted 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 apprehended, might break the connexion of some parts of the report; and therefore wished it to remain unmutilated. Mr. Adams answered, with a voice steady and slow, precisely 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."

66

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 consequence 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 instance in which it rose to a ridiculous excess. Perceiving that he entertained a high opinion of General Marshall, 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, I wrote a letter to Mr. Adams, at Quincy, of which the following is an ex

tract.