which had already been surreptitiously published in the CHAPTER Aurora and in Holt's New London Bee.

XV.

The reiterated charge made by the president in private 1800. conversations against his Federal opponents, and now beginning to be repeated by his partisans in the newspapers, that they were a British faction, rankled deeply in their bosoms. Hamilton, especially, was very indignant; and learning that the president had repeatedly mentioned him by name as acting under British influence, he had written a respectful letter requesting explana- Aug. 1. tions. The president took no notice of this or a subsequent letter on the same subject, and his silence, while Oct. 1. it aggravated the feelings of Hamilton, confirmed him in a resolution, as to which Cabot and Wolcott in vain discouraged him, to finish and print, with his own name to it, a pamphlet to be privately circulated among the leading Federalists, vindicating himself against the insinuations of Adams and his partisans, and also setting forth the reasons why Pinckney ought to be preferred for president.

That Hamilton had abundant personal provocation to the writing and circulation of this pamphlet can not be denied. In the then existing state of the public feeling, the charge of subserviency to Great Britain was terrible indeed; and, unless satisfactory explanations were given, he and his friends were in danger of political ruin from Adams's charges. Besides, he had the best reasons for believing that, with respect to himself in particular, Adams had repeatedly indulged in the most virulent and indecent abuse, not only stigmatizing him as the leader of a British faction, but assailing even his private character, and holding him up as a man destitute of every moral principle; charges afterward repeated in that famous Cunningham correspondence of Adams's,

CHAPTER from which we have already made several quotationsXV. and which continue to be cited as testimony by writers

1800. who would have us believe that in his relations with

women Hamilton was as profligate as Mifflin, Burr, or Edwards; a slander mainly founded on the case of Mrs. Reynolds, and upon which Adams's austere Puritanism had seized, in the absence of other matter of attack, with an eagerness quite rabid.

It was the great object of Hamilton's pamphlet to show, without denying Adams's patriotism and integrity, and even talents of a certain kind, that he was not adapted to the administration of government, there being in his character great and intrinsic defects which unfitted him for the office of chief magistrate. The chief of these defects were stated to be "an imagination sublimated and eccentric, propitious neither to the regular display of sound judgment, nor to steady perseverance in a systematic plan of conduct;""a vanity without bounds;"" a jealousy capable of discoloring every object;""disgusting egotism and ungovernable indiscretion." This was, to be sure, a somewhat strong presentation of the dark side of Adams's character, yet, in the main, it was correct for his was a character not to be faithfully portrayed, whether as to its lights or its shadows, except in pretty strong colors. In proof of its correctness, Hamilton added a sketch of Adams's political career, especially of his late official acts, interspersed with a number of authentic anecdotes, which showed, indeed, how little control Adams often had over his tongue and his pen, and how, in moments of excitement, he gave vehement and unguarded expression to his feelings. But all this was very far from proving-what was charged, not in this letter only, but in the private correspondence as well of Jefferson as of Wolcott-that

385

Adams acted without any settled plan, without any fixed CHAPTER system or theory, and much more under the guidance of XV. caprice and passion than of judgment. Passion-tossed, 1800. and sometimes transformed, undoubtedly he was, as all persons of his hot temperament and vivacious imagination always must be. His, indeed, was a character hardly comprehensible by the serene and magnanimous Hamilton, the steady, sagacious Wolcott, or the crafty, secretive, dissembling Jefferson. Adams's temperament was, however, qualified, and as to all his most important public actions, overmastered and controlled, by a vigorous judgment, penetrating and prompt, of which, in the great events of his life, "his sublimated and eccentric imag ination" was, as results proved, not the master, but the useful and ready servant.

In

As to himself a subject on which he dwelt but briefly-Hamilton might well declare, as he formerly had in answer to Jefferson's assaults, that "in the cardinal points of public and private rectitude-above all, in pure and disinterested zeal for the interest and service of the country," he "shrank not from a comparison with any arrogant pretender to superior and exclusive merit." reply to the charge of being the leader of a British faction, he denied having ever advised any connection with Great Britain other than a commercial one, or the giving to her any commercial privilege not granted to other nations; nor had he ever been able to make up his mind as to the expediency of even a temporary alliance in case of a rupture with France.

Although, as between themselves personally, Hamilton had ground enough for his pamphlet; though the tone of it, all things considered, was exceedingly candid; and though his placing his name to it was in honorable contrast to Adams's silent evasion of charges which, however

CHAPTER he might reiterate them, he did not venture to avouch XV. under his own hand; yet the expediency of the publica1800. tion at this particular crisis was somewhat more than

doubtful. Such, indeed, was the position of affairs, that
Hamilton was obliged to stultify himself, as it were,
by declaring, in conclusion, that he did not recommend
the withholding from Adams of a single vote!
pressed his intention so to regulate the circulation of
the pamphlet that it might not operate in that way to
Adams's disadvantage, and his wish, also, to confine it
within narrow limits. But, whatever might have been
his intentions or wishes-and the expectation of mak-
ing a secret of such a printed pamphlet was chimerical
at the best they were defeated at the outset by the
watchful and artful Burr, who obtained one of the earli-
est copies, and sent off extracts, as already mentioned, to
the Aurora and Holt's New London Bee. This made

the appearance of an authentic edition necessary; and it
issued from the press cotemporaneously with the publi-
cation of Adams's letter to Pinckney.

It is now time to take a look at the embassy to France, the immediate cause of these bitter and ominous dissen

sions among the Federal leaders. As the French gov

ernment, at the moment of Ellsworth's and Davie's embarkation for France, was evidently on the eve of one of its periodical revolutions, it had been thought best that the frigate in which they sailed should touch at Lisbon for information. On arriving at that port they heard of the Revolution of Brumaire (November 8, 1799), which some three weeks before had placed Bonaparte at the head of the state. The frigate then made sail for L'Orient, but, after being tossed for a fortnight in the stormy Bay of Biscay, was obliged to put into Corunna. Thence Jan. 11. the commissioners wrote to Talleyrand, who still remain

3

XV.

ed, under the new administration, at the head of foreign CHAPTER affairs, asking passports for themselves, and that one might also be sent to Murray at the Hague; and in- 1800. quiring if the circumstance that their letters of credence were addressed to the Directory, now passed away, would make any difference in the matter of their reception.

Talleyrand replied that the ministers were waited for with impatience, and would be received with warmth. Thus encouraged, they proceeded to Paris, where they found their colleague Murray, who had arrived three days March 2. before them. A few days after, they were formally received by the first consul; and three plenipotentiaries, Joseph Bonaparte at the head, were appointed to treat with them.

But a serious obstacle soon appeared which threatened to defeat the negotiation. The American commissioners were peremptorily instructed to insist on the renunciation of the old treaties, which had been declared void by Congress, and also upon indemnity for spoliations on American commerce. The French commissioners were unwilling to relinquish the old treaties, especially the provisions relating to the admission of French privateers and prizes into American ports, the more so as this privilege, lost to the French, would, under Jay's treaty, be exclusively vested in the English so long as the present war continued. They were still more unwilling to pay any indemnities, for which they insisted there could be no claim except upon the assumption that the treaties continued in force. After a good deal of delay for additional instructions, caused by Bonaparte's absence from Paris, they finally offered this alternative: the old trea- Aug. 11. ties, with stipulations for mutual indemnities, or a new treaty on equal terms, but without indemnities. After a good deal of correspondence, the American envoys sug.