TO THE PRINTERS OF THE BOSTON PATRIOT. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]
Edition used:
The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 9.
Author: John Adams
Editor: Charles Francis Adams
Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.
*snip*
Mr. Hamilton’s erroneous conceptions of the public opinion may be excused by the considerations that he was not a native of the United States; that he was born and bred in the West Indies till he went to Scotland for education, where he spent his time in a seminary of learning till seventeen years of age, after which no man ever perfectly acquired a national character; then entered a college at New York, from whence he issued into the army as an aid-de-camp.
In these situations he could scarcely acquire the opinions, feelings, or principles of the American people.
His error may be excused by the further consideration, that his time was chiefly spent in his pleasures, in his electioneering visits, conferences, and correspondences, in propagating prejudices against every man whom he thought his superior in the public estimation, and in composing ambitious reports upon finance, while the real business of the treasury was done by Duer, by Wolcott, and even, for some time and in part, by Tench Coxe.
*snip*
My worthy fellow-citizens! Our form of government, inestimable as it is, exposes us, more than any other, to the insidious intrigues and pestilent influence of foreign nations.
Nothing but our inflexible neutrality can preserve us.
The public negotiations and secret intrigues of the English and the French have been employed for centuries in every court and country of Europe.
Look back to the history of Spain, Holland, Germany, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy, and Turkey, for the last hundred years. How many revolutions have been caused!
How many emperors and kings have fallen victims to the alternate triumphs of parties, excited by Englishmen or Frenchmen!
And can we expect to escape the vigilant attention of politicians so experienced, so keen-sighted, and so rich?
If we convince them that our attachment to neutrality is unchangeable, they will let us alone; but as long as a hope remains, in either power, of seducing us to engage in war on his side and against his enemy, we shall be torn and convulsed by their manœuvres.
I’m going to SO hate myself in a few hours .. especially of all nights .. losing an hour of sleep, but John Adams pretty much graphically painted the situation there, didn’t he ? Our Founders have to be spinning in their graves.
Anyone want to see whats inside..I have not opened..
Contents:
Appendix — Extracts from Vattel’s Law of Nations with notes by Burke.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=154-fma&cid=25-79#25-79
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I’m going to SO hate myself in a few hours .. especially of all nights .. losing an hour of sleep, but John Adams pretty much graphically painted the situation there, didn’t he ? Our Founders have to be spinning in their graves.
It's so elementary, so very basic, this need to shut out foreign influence.
And we have tragically lost sight of it.
I'd written earlier about physical illustrations of the need for this protection. One example was a set of gates near a pedestrian railroad crossing. The gates were constructed with double gates such that a person could not walk straight across the tracks.
Another example is a dog park I saw. This park, enclosed by a chain-link fence, has a double set of gates for entry. You could take a group of schoolchildren to that dog park and ask them, "Why two gates? Why not just one?" Then explain to them that for the Presidency of our country, our Founders designed "two gates" of citizenship expressed in the fundamental concept of the law of nations, that of the natural born citizen. Born on the soil of the country (one gate) of parents who are citizens of the country (second gate).
Even a schoolchild would understand this. Our Founders understood this. But the voters have forgotten.
We’ve rarely had such a nasty jerk in the White House as John Adams. He turned on Hamilton (and everyone else) many a time, to the point that Hamilton finally crossed the party line and endorsed Jefferson over Adams.
Adams (at the encouragement of his wife Abigail) had tried to round up his political opponents at newspapers and jail them under the Alien and Sedition Act, because at heart he was a fascist.
Jefferson, brilliant as he was, was also a sneaky bastard, possibly due to the influence of James Madison, with whom he was close. He had the good sense to burn his personal papers before his death.
Adams lost his reelection bid, appointed a bunch of judges he thought would be hostile to Jefferson’s policies, and blew town before Jefferson was sworn in.
The whiny little bitch did one service for the country that was his greatest — he was the poor bastard who followed George Washington.
The remarks about “foreign influence” probably were Adams’ barbs directed at Jefferson, whom he (through proxies) accused of being too much under French influence.