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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 motives 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 year after turning out as the champion for the embargo, to wit, on the 4th of March 1809, Mr. Madison (it being the first day of his presidency) nominated J. Q. Adams Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of the Emperor of Russia. The Senate put their negative on the nomination. But Mr. Madison, having called a special meeting of Congress in the following May, repeated the nomination; and, by a change in some votes, the nomination was approved. Mr. Adams was next appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of London; then one of the Commissioners for negotiating a peace with GreatBritain; and, in the last place, Secretary 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. 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, excellent 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 manifested a rancour alike unbecoming a gentleman, á statesman and a Christian. Of what value are professions, without the spirit, of Christianity? In vain will you search for this spirit in the conduct of either father

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or son. In what part of the gospel did the latter find a warrant for him to throw 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 insanitythe most deplorable malady incident to suffering humanity; an affliction, the bare idea of which would melt any but the most obdurate heart-as a punishment inflicted by God, for the evils experienced by the Colonies in his reign, from the oppressive acts of parliament, and the consequent American 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 you, Nay :"-" Or those eighteen on whom the "tower in Siloam 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. 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."

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Had J. Q. Adams been a private citizen, the sentiments 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 indecorous 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?

On the score of talents and learning, the experience of five and thirty years, in the United States, has furnished ample proof, that a practical knowledge 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 genius without stability, profound learning, ripe scholarship, and philosophy; the latter often wasting its energies in visionary theories and political dreams.

SECTION III.

THE CAUSES, PRETENDED AND REAL, FOR REMOVING T. PICK

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ERING FROM OFFICE THE MISSION TO FRANCE IN 1799---THE PARDON OF FRIES.

Ir 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 Cunningham, 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 Sullivan J. Q. Adams's extraordinary sentiment in the embargo question, which I have already stated. Mr. Cunpingham (Letter No. XI) asks the causes of my dismission; 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, which is dated April 22, 1808. The principal object of that letter was, my vindication against

many aspersions on my character. The urgent motives to undertake that vindication are expressed in the following paragraph of the same letter:

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"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 the 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 was a member of the various committees raised in that period, to support that opposition; and that on me devolved 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 government, 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 resolutions of Congress, for the middle district of Massachusetts, 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 the army under General Washington's immediate command) amounted to about one hundred and fifty. In the autumn of 1776, the army being greatly reduced, by the

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 seven hundred men from Essex. The tour of duty terminated 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 general. In that capacity, I joined the army at Middlebrook about the middle of the month of June. In September happened the battle of Brandywine. 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 army 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 retaining his station on the hills, Howe returned to Philadelphia. The American army then marched to Valley Forge, on the western side of the river Schuylkill, and hutted for the winter.

Some two or three months before, Congress had constituted a Board of War. I was appointed one of its members; and took my seat there as soon as a successor in the office of adjutant general was appointed, being the last of January 1778. Judge Peters was a member of the board, and we were joined by Generals Gates and Mifflin: but these two left the board not long afterwards, and the business of it rested chiefly on Mr. Peters and myself. I continued in this station until the

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