XI. public inspection. Hamilton's numerous political ene- CHAPTER mies, at least the baser part of them, consoled themselves for the total failure of this new attempt against his repu- 1797. tation as a public officer by exulting over the pain and mortification which he must have suffered in being driven to the disclosures which he thought it necessary to make; and they even insinuated-insinuations which have been often since repeated, that he had at least outraged pro priety in venturing to defend his official integrity at the expense of so indecorous a confession. But it was not. he, it was his rancorous and malignant enemies who had dragged his secret amours before the public; and few who have a spark of generous feeling will be able to read, without emotion, his own excuse, in the introduction to his pamphlet, for defending his reputation as a public officer by telling the whole story without reserve. "This confession is not made without a blush. I can not be the apologist of any vice because the ardor of passion may have made it mine. I can never cease to condemn myself for the pang which it may inflict on a bosom eminently entitled to all my gratitude, fidelity, and love; but that bosom will approve that, even at so great an expense, I should effectually wipe away a more serious stain from a name which it cherishes with no less elevation than tenderness. The public too, I trust, will excuse the confession. The necessity of it to my defense against a more heinous charge could alone have extorted from me so painful an indecorum." This matter has been gone into at greater length, not only as very illustrative of character, and because the circumstances attending it have been often misrepresented, but also as showing the desperate and outrageous kind of warfare to which some, at least, of the leaders of the opposition were willing to resort. Under these as CHAPTER Saults, which had, of late, begun to fall thick and heavy XI. upon all the principal supporters of Washington's policy, 1797. the Federalists were by no means passive. The princi pal writers on the side of the opposition were recent immigrants from abroad, of whom there were several besides Callender. The Federalists were not without assistance from the same quarter. In the afterward so celebrated William Cobbett they had found a formidable champion. After an eight years' tour of duty in the British army, commencing just at the close of the American war, and passed principally in New Brunswick, during which he had risen from the ranks to be sergeant major of his regiment, and had improved his leisure to acquire a familiar knowledge of the French and a complete mastery of the English tongue, together with no inconsiderable stock of general information, Cobbett had emigrated to America in 1792. Of ardent feelings and most determined spirit, he had, as is not uncommonly the case with young men of that character, a traditionary reverence for the institutions of his native country-a reverence proportioned, as he himself confessed at a later day, and as such feelings are very apt to be, to his ignorance of what those institutions practically were. His patriotism and his hatred of the French, which he had imbibed in the army, were inflamed instead of being cowed by the detestation of England and partiality for France which he found so prevalent in America; and under the influence of those feelings, he wrote and published, in 1794, a bitter satirical pamphlet on Priestley's emigration to America, and the demonstrations with which he had been welcomed at New York and Philadelphia. This pamphlet was favorably received by the Federalists, and was followed up by several others, principally relating to the British treaty, and published under the name of Peter XI. Porcupine, in which some very sharp thrusts were made- CHAPTER at the Democratic opposition. Such, in fact, was the success of these writings, that Cobbett resolved to adopt 1797. that profession of a popular political writer, for which Nature had specially designed him. Having first set up a shop at Philadelphia for the publication and sale of his own writings-for he complained of having been a good deal fleeced by the printers and publishers for whom he had hitherto written-he commenced, simultaneously with Adams's administration, the publication of a daily paper called Porcupine's Gazette. In this, the eighth daily paper then published in Philadelphia (a greater number than in all the rest of the country), he handled the opposition with very little mercy. His pointed wit, cutting sarcasm, and free command of the plainest and most downright English, made him, indeed, a formidable adversary. But the ultra and uncompromising Toryism in which he gloried, and the entire freedom which he claimed and exercised in expressing his opinions, rendered him even more dangerous to the party he had espoused than to that which he opposed. Though publishing an American paper professedly in support of the administration, he did not profess to be any the less a Briton in his allegiance and his heart, and he came into collisions hardly more violent with Bache's Aurora than with the Minerva, the leading Federalist paper of New York, edited by Noah Webster, the afterward celebrated lexicographer. It was vainly attempted to silence him by threats of violence; he grew daily more formidable; to Monroe he showed no mercy; and perhaps it was the sting of some of his sharp squibs that had stimulated to the recent attack upon Hamilton. That attack was presently followed up by a very remarkable experiment on Washington, with abuse of whom XI. 1797. CHAPTER and of his administration, to which the Aurora and other more violent opposition prints clamorously responded, Callender's book had been filled. For the purpose, apparently, of ascertaining the effect of these attacks upon Washington's mind, and of drawing from him something of which advantage might be taken, a letter was addressSept. 23. ed to lim, dated Warren, Albemarle county, and signed John Langhorne, condoling with him on the aspersions on his character, but suggesting that he ought not to allow them to disturb his peace. Without any suspicion that his correspondent was a fictitious person, but supposing him, as he afterward expressed it, to be "a pedant desirous of displaying the flowers of his pen," WashingOct. 15. ton, with his accustomed courtesy, made a short reply, declaring that on public account he felt as much as any man the calumnies leveled at the government and its sup porters, but that as to himself personally he had a consolation within which protected him against the venom of these darts, and which, in spite of their utmost malignity, kept his mind perfectly tranquil. It having accidentally become known to John Nicholas, who lived in that vicinity, that there was a letter in the Charlottesville post-office, directed, in Washington's handwriting, to John Langhorne, a name unknown in the county, and his suspicions having been excited by other facts that had come to his knowledge, as it would seem, through his political intimacy with Jefferson, he took measures to learn what became of the letter, and ascertained that it was taken from the office by a political opponent of the administration, it would appear by a messenger from Monticello. Nicholas was a very zealous member of the op position; but, whether instigated by regard for Washington, by personal dislike and distrust of Jefferson, or by a Nov. 18 mixture of motives, he presently wrote, warning Wash XI. 1798 ington against what had the appearance of a snare CHAPTER Washington thereupon sent him a copy of the Langhorne letter and of his answer to it; and, some months after, Nicholas communicated, as Washington had requested, Feb. 22. the result of his investigations. That letter of Nicholas has never yet been published, but its tenor may be judged of from Washington's reply. "Nothing short of the evidence you have adduced," so Washington wrote, "cor- March roborative of intimations which I had received long before through another channel, could have shaken my belief in the sincerity of a friendship which I had conceived was possessed for me by the person "-this person was Jefferson-"to whom you allude. But attempts to injure those who are supposed to stand well in the estimation of the people, and are stumbling blocks in the way, by misrepresenting their political tenets, thereby to destroy all confidence in them, are among the means by which the government is to be assailed and the Constitution destroyed. The conduct of this party is systematized, and everything that is opposed to its execution will be sacrificed without hesitation or remorse, if the end can be answered by it. "If the person whom you suspect was really the author of the letter under the signature of John Langhorne, it is not at all surprising to me that the correspondence should have ended where it did, for the penetration of that man would have perceived by the first glance at the answer that nothing was to be drawn from that mode of attack. In what form the next insidious attempts may appear, remains to be discovered. But as the attempts to explain away the Constitution and weaken the gov ernment are now become so open, and the desire of placing the affairs of this country under the influence and control of a foreign nation is so apparent and strong, it |