1818
                       HAMILTON AND ADAMS

                       by Thomas Jefferson









şiElectronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
DAK Upgraded Edition, Copyright 2000, DAK Industries 2000, Inc(R)şI

{THE_HAMILTON_AND_ADAMS
                Hamilton and Adams


  HAMILTON was, indeed, a singular character. Of acute
understanding, , honest, and honorable in all private
transactions, amiable in society, and duly valuing virtue in
private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the British
example, as to be under thorough conviction that corruption was
essential to the government of a nation. Mr. Adams had originally
been a republican. The glare of royalty and nobility, during his
mission to England, had made him believe their fascination a
necessary ingredient in government; and Shay's rebellion, not
sufficiently understood where he then was, seemed to prove that the
absence of want and oppression, was not a sufficient guarantee of
order. His book on the American constitutions having made known his
political bias, he was taken up by the monarchical federalists in
his absence, and on his return to the United States, he was by them
made to believe that the general disposition of our citizens was
favorable to monarchy. He here wrote his Davila, as a supplement to
a former work, and his election to the Presidency confirmed him in
his errors. Innumerable addresses too, artfully and industriously
poured in upon him, deceived him into a confidence that he was on
the pinnacle of popularity, when the gulf was yawning at his feet,
which was to swallow up him and his deceivers. For when General
Washington disinterested was withdrawn, these energumeni of royalism,
kept in check hitherto by the dread of his honesty, his firmness, his
patriotism, and the authority of his name, now mounted on the car
of State and free from control, like Phaeton on that of the sun,
drove headlong and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor
regarding anything but the objects they were driving at; until,
displaying these fully, the eyes of the nation were opened, and a
general disbandment of them from the public councils took place.

  Mr. Adams, I am sure, has been long since convinced of the
treacheries with which he was surrounded during his administration.
He has since thoroughly seen that his constituents were devoted to
republican government, and whether his judgment is re-settled on
its ancient basis, or not, he is conformed as a good citizen to the
will of the majority, and would now, I am persuaded, maintain its
republican structure with the zeal and fidelity belonging to his
character. For even an enemy has said, " he is always an honest
man, and often a great one." But in the fervor of the fury and
follies of those who made him their stalking horse, no man who did
not witness it can form an idea of their unbridled madness, and the
terrorism with which they surrounded themselves.


                        THE END