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United States, on their fouthern frontier, and on the Missisippi, advantages of real magnitude and importance.

"Well-informed men knew that the event of the election was extremely problematical; and, while the friends of Mr. Jefferfon predicted his fuccefs with fanguine confidence, his oppofers feared that he might have at least an equal chance with any fedral candidate.

"To exclude him was deemed, by the Federalifts, a primary object. Those of them who poffeffed the belt means of judging, were of opinion that it was far lefs important, whether Mr. Adams or Mr. Pinckney was the fuccelsful candidate, than that Mr. Jefferfon fhould not be the perfon; and on this principle, it was understood among them, that the two first mentioned gentlemen fhould be equally fupported; leaving to cafual acceffions of votes in favor of the one or the other, to turn the fcale between them.

"In this plan I united with good faith; in the refolution, to which I fcrupulously adhered, of giving to each candidate an equal fupport. This was done, wherever my influence extended; as was more particularly manifefled in the State of New-York, where all the electors were my warm perfonal or political friends, and all gave a concurrent vote for the two federal candidates.

"It is true, that a faithful execution of this plan would have given Mr. Pinckney a fomewhat better chance than Mr. Adams; nor fhall it be concealed, that an issue favorable to the former would not have been difagreeable to me; as indeed I declared at the time, in the circles of my confidential friends. My pofition was, that if chance should decide in favor of Mr.. Pinckney, it probably would not be a misfortune; fince he, to every effential qualification for the office, added a temper far more difcreet and conciliatory than that of Mr. Adams.

"This difpofition, on my part, at that juncture, proves, at leaft, that my approbation of Mr. Adams has not originated in the disappointment, to which it has been uncandidly attributed. No private motive could then have entered into it. Not the leaft collifion or misunderstanding had ever happened between that gentleman and myself-on the contrary, as I have already ftated, I had reafon individually to be pleafed with him.

"No; the confiderations which had reconciled me to the fuccess of Mr. Pinckney, were of a nature exclufively public. They refulted from the dif gufting egotifm, the diftempered jealoufy, and the ungovernable indifcretionof Mr. Adams's temper, joined to fome doubts of the correctness of his maxims of administration. Though in matters of finance he had acted with the federal party; yet he had, more than once, broached theories at variance with his practice. And in converfation, he repeatedly made excurfions into the field of foreign politics, which alarmed the friends of the prevailing fyftem.

"The plan of giving equal fupport to the two federal candidates was not purfued. Perfonal attachment for Mr. Adams, especially in the New England States, caufed a number of the votes to be withheld from Mr. Pinckney, and thrown away. The refult was that Mr. Adams was elected Prefident by a majority of two votes, and Mr. Jefferson Vice-Prefident.

"This iffue demonftrated the wifdom of the plan which had been aban doned, and how greatly, in departing from it, the caufe had been facrificed to the man. But for a fort of miracle, the departure would have made Mr. Jefferson Prefident. In each of the States of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and

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North Carolina, Mr. Adams had one vote. In the two latter States, the one vote was as much against the ftream of popular prejudice, as it was against the opinions of the other Electors. The firmnels of the individuals, who feparated from their colleagues, was fo extraordinary, as to have been contrary to all probable calculation. Had only one of them thrown his vote into the other fcale there would have been an equality and no election. Had two done it, the choice would have fallen upon Mr. Jefferfon.

"No one, fincere in the opinion that this gentleman was an inelligible and dangerous Candidate, can hefitate in pronouncing, that in dropping Mr. Pinckney, too much was put at hazard; and that those who promoted the other courfe, afted with prudence and propriety.

"It is a fact, which ought not to be forgotten, that Mr. Adams, who had evinced difcontent, because he had not been permitted to take an equal chance with General Wathington, was engaged with all thofe who had thought that Mr. Pinckney ought to have had an equal chance with him. But in this there is perfect confiftency. The fame turn of temper is the folution of the difpleafures in both cafes.

"It is to this circumstance of the equal fupport of Mr. Pinckney, that we are in a great mealure to refer the ferious fchifm which has fince grown up in the federal party.

"Mr. Adams never could forgive the men who had been engaged in the plan; though it embraced fome of his moft partial admirers. He has difcovered bitter animofity again ft leveral of them. Against me, his rage has been fo vehement, as to have caufed him more than once, to forget the decorum, which, in his fituation, ought to have been an inviolable law. It will not appear an exaggeration to those who have ftudied his character, to fuppofe that he is capable of being alienated from a fyftem to which he has been attached, because it is upheld by men whom he hates. How large a fhare this may have had on fome recent aberrations, cannot cafily be determined."

Mr. Hamilton next adverts to the letter, which, upon Mr. Thomas Pinckney's appointment as Envoy to the Court of London, Adams wrote to Tench Coxe of Philadelphia. This is truly a moft bafe and infamous tranfaction. We fhall give Mr. Hamilton's account of it at length.

"The letter which has juft appeared in the public prints, written by him, while Vice-Prefident, to Tench Coxe, is of itself evidence of the juftnefs of this fentiment. It is impoffible to speak of this tranfaction in terms fuitable to its nature, without lofing fight that Mr. Adams is Prefident of the United States.

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"This letter avows the fufpicion, that the appointment of Mr. Pinckney to the Court of London, had been procured or promoted by Britifh influAnd confidering the parade with which the ftory of the Duke of Leeds is told, it is fair to confider that circumftance as the principal, if not the fole, ground of the odious and degrading fufpicion.

"Let any man of candour or knowledge of the world, pronounce on this fpecies of evidence.

"It happened, unfortunately for the Pinckneys, that, while boys, and long before our revolution, they went to school with a British Duke, who was afterwards Minifter of the British government for the foreign department. This indifcreet Duke, perhaps for no better reason than the defire

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of faying fomething to a parting American minifter, and the want of fome thing better to say, divulges to him the dangerous fecret, that the two Pinckneys had been his clafs-mates, and goes the alarming length of making enquiry about their health. From this it is fagacioufly inferred, that these gentlemen have many powerful old friends in England;" and from this again, that the Duke of Leeds (of courle of the number of these old friends) had procured by intrigue the appointment of one of his classnates to the Court of London; or, in the language of the letter, that much British influence had been exerted in the appointment.

"In the school of jealoufy, ftimulated by ill-will, logic like this may pafs for fubftantial; but what is it in the fchool of reafon and justice?

"Though this contaminating connection of the Pinckneys with the Duke of Leeds, in their juvenile years, did not hinder them from fighting for the independence of their native country throughout our revolution; yet, the fuppofition is, that the inftant the war was terminated, it transformed them from the foldiers of liberty into the tools of the British monarchy.

"But the hoftility of the Pinckneys to Mr. Adams, evidenced by their "long intrigue" against him, of which he speaks in the letter, is perhaps intended as a still ftronger proof of their devotion to Great Britain-the argument may be thus understood. Mr. Adams is the bulwark of his country against foreign influence-The batteries of every foreign power, defirous of acquiring an afcendant in our affairs, are of confequence always open against him-and, the prefumption therefore muft be, that every citizen who is his enemy, is the confederate of one or another of those fo reign powers.

"Let us, without contefting this argument of felf-love, examine into the facts upon which its applicability muft depend.

"The evidence of "the long intrigue" feems to be, that the family of the Pinckney's contributed to limit the duration of Mr. Adams's commiffion to the Court of London to the term of three years, in order to make way for fome of themselves to fucceed him. This, it must be confeffed, was a long-fighted calculation in a government like ours.

"A iummary of the tranfaction, will be the best comment on the inference which has been drawn.

"The refolution of Congrefs by which Mr. Adams's commiffion was limited, was a general one, applying to the commiffions of all ministers to foreign courts. When it was proposed and adopted, it is certain that neither of the two Pinckney's was a member of Congress; and it is believed they were both at Charleston, in South Carolina, their ufual place of abode, more than eight hundred miles diftant from the seat of government. "But they had, it seems, a coufin, Mr. Charles Pinckney, who was in congrefs; and this coufin it was who fupported the restrictive resolution. Let us enquire who feconded and voted for it.

"It was feconded by Mr. Howell, a member from Rhode Island, the very perfon who nominated Mr. Adams as Minifler to Great Britain, and was voted for by the four eaftern flates, with New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and South Carolina. Mr. Gerry, always a zealous partizan of Mr. Adams, was among the fupporters of the refolution. To make out this to be a machination of the two Pinckneys, many things must be affirmed:First, that their coufin Charles is always fubfervient to their views (which would equally prove that they have long been, and still are, oppofers of

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the federal adminiftration :)-Second, that this cunning wight has been able to draw the four eastern states into his plot, as well as New York, New Jerfey, Maryland, and South Carolina :-Third, that the Pinckneys could forefee, at the diftance of three years, the existence of a ftate of things which would enable them to reap the fruit of their contrivance.

"Would not the circumftances better warrant the fufpicion that the refolution was a contrivance of the friends of Mr. Adams, to facilitate in fome way his election, and that Mr. Pinckney was their coadjutor, rather than their prompter?

"But the truth moft probably is, that the measure was a mere precaution to bring under frequent review the propriety of continuing a minifter at a particular court, and to facilitate the removal of a disagreeable one, without the harshness of formally difplacing him. In a policy of this fort, the cautious maxims of New England would very naturally have taken a lead.

"Thus in the very grounds of the fufpicion, as far as they appear, we find its refutation. The complete futility of it will now be illuftrated by additional circumstances.

"It is a fact, that the rigour with which the war was profecuted by the British armies in our fouthern quarter, had produced among the friends of our revolution there, more animofity against the British government, than in the other parts of the United States: and it is a matter of notoriety, in the fame quarter, that this difpofition was confpicuous among the Pinckneys, and their connections. It may be added, that they were likewife known to have been attached to the French Revolution, and to have continued fo, till long after the appointment of Mr. Thomas Pinckney to the Court of London.

"These propenfities of the gentlemen were certainly not fuch as to make them favourites of Great Britain, or the appointment of one of them to that court, an object of particular folicitude.

"As far as appeared at the time, the idea of nominating Mr. Thomas Pinckney, originated with the then President himself: but whatever may have been its fource, it is certain that it met the approbation of the whole adminiftration, Mr. Jefferson included. This fact alone, will go far to refute the furmife of a British agency in the appointment.

Suppofing that, contrary to all probability, Great Britain had really taken fome unaccountable fancy for Mr. Pinckney, upon whom was her influence exerted?

"Had the virtuous, circumfpe&t Washington been ensnared in her infidious toils? Had fhe found means for once to foften the ftern, inflexible hoftility of Jefferfon? Had Randolph been won by her meretricious careffes ? Had Knox, the uniform friend of Mr. Adams, been corrupted by her feducing wiles? Or was it all the dark work of the alien Secretary of the Treasury? Was it this arch juggler, who debauched the principles, or transformed the prejudices, of Mr. Pinckney; who perfuaded the British government to adopt him as a pliant inftrument; who artfully induced the Prefident to propofe him as of his own felection; who lulled the zealous vigilance of Jefferson and Randolph, and furprized the unfufpecting franknels of Knox ?

"But when the thing had been accomplished, no matter by what means, it was furely to have been expected that the man of its choice would have been treated at the Court of London with distinguished regard, and that APPENDIX, VOL. VIII.

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his conduct towards that court would have been marked, if not by fome improper compliances, at least by fome difplays of extraordinary complai fance.

"Yet, ftrange as it may appear, upon Mr. Adams's hypothefis, it might be proved, if requifite, that neither the one nor the other took place. It might be proved that, far from Mr. Pinckney's having experienced any flattering diftinctions, incidents not pleasant to his feelings, had occurred, and that in the discharge of his official functions, he had advanced pretenfions in favour of the United States, from which, with the approbation of the then Secretary of State, Mr. Jefferion, he was inftructed to defift.

"What will Mr. Adams or his friends reply to all these facts? How will he be excused for indulging and declaring, on grounds fo frivolous, a fufpicion fo derogatory, of a man fo meritorious-of a man who has acted in a manner fo unexceptionable?

"But a more serious question remains: How will Mr. Adams answer to the government and to his country, for having thus wantonly given the fanction of his opinion to the worst of the aspersions which the enemies of the administration have impudently thrown upon it? Can we be surprised that fuch a torrent of flander was poured out against it, when a man, the fecond in official rank, the fecond in the favour of the friends of the government, stooped to become himself one of its calumniators ?—It is peculiarly unlucky for Mr. Adams in this affair, that HE HIMSELF is known to have defired, at the time, the appointment which was given to Mr. Pinckney. The Prefident declined the measure, thinking that it was compatible neither with the spirit of the conftitution nor with the dignity of the Government, to defignate the Vice-Prefident to such a station.

"This letter, better than volumes, developes the true, the unfortunate character of Mr. Adams."

The Author might further have obferved, that Adams, having been refused the appointment for himself, afked it for his fon-in-law, William Smith, which request was alfo refused by General Washington. Hence his hatred of the Pinckneys and his foul infinuations against them in his letter to Coxe.

Mr. Hamilton next enters into an examination of Adams's conduct as Prefident.

"It will be recollected that General Pinckney, the brother of Thomas, and the gentleman now fupported together with Mr. Adams, had been deputed by Prefident Washington, as fucceffor to Mr. Monroe, and had been refused to be received by the French government in his quality of Minifter Plenipotentiary.

"This, among thofe of the well-informed, who felt a juft fenfibility for the honour of their country, excited much disgust and refentment. But the oppofition-party, ever too ready to juftify the French government at expence of their own, vindicated or apologized for the ill-treatment: and the mafs of the community, though difpleafed with it, did not appear to feel the full force of the indignity.

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"As a final effort for accommodation, and as a mean, in cafe of failure, of enlightening and combining public opinion, it was refolved to make another and a more folemn experiment, in the form of a commission of three,

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