' Mr. Adams was honest as
a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a
politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to
govern men.
You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about
that time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our
constitution, to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to
bring us into war with France and alliance with England, and finally to
homologize our constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know,
was overwhelmed with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often
by the pen of the _bloody buoy_, and was seduced by them into some open
indications of his new principles of government, and in fact, was so
elated as to mix with his kindness a little superciliousness towards
me. Even Mrs. Adams, with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly
flushed. And you recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and
the circumstance which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to
bring to an early explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial
satisfaction of us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the
political principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr.
Adams in the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia
the vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide
the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called
on Mr.
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