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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

C. LEE, ATTORNEY-GENERAL, TO JOHN ADAMS. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

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. 8.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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C. LEE, ATTORNEY-GENERAL, TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 14 March, 1799.

Dear Sir—

The inclosed from my friend Marshall, on Wednesday last was received by me, and it is with no small pleasure I find his opinion correspondent with my own respecting the appointment of Murray. You will perceive from the date, that the subsequent modification of the embassy was not known to him when he wrote. His letter being entirely of a private nature, I should not have sent it to you, but that I presume it will afford you satisfaction to know that a measure which excited so much agitation here, has met the approbation of so good a judge as Mr. Marshall.1

Nothing new has been heard concerning the insurgents since you left the city. The report of the marshal agrees substantially with the letters and affidavit which were shown to you by the Secretary of State on Monday evening.

Wishing you a safe journey, &c.

Charles Lee.

[1 ]Mr. Marshall’s letter was returned. The act to which it alludes, saved the neutral policy of the country. And this evidence, as well as General Knox’s letter, shows that the sentiment of disapprobation was not even at the time quite so general among the federalists as Mr. Pickering assumes it in his confidential disclosure to Mr. Hamilton to have been. See Hamilton’s Works, vol. vi. p. 398. Mr. Jay’s tone and manner of treating the subject, even with the half light in which he saw it, contrast singularly with those of Mr. Pickering and Mr. Sedgwick. See Jay’s Life of Jay, vol. ii. p. 288, 296.

Patrick Henry’s letter to Mr. Pickering, 16th April, declining his appointment, speaks for itself.

Mr. Higginson also betrays his uneasiness at the approbation of the measure given by others whom he does not name, though General Lincoln is evidently one of them. He laments that “no use will be made of the powers given to the President by the alien and sedition acts, nor will the authority to raise an army, to organize and officer it, be exercised.” S. Higginson to O. Wolcott, Gibbs’s Mem. of the Fed. Adm. vol. ii. p. 230.

Lastly, General Lafayette, in a letter adressed to Mr. McHenry on the 18th of April, which has not been printed, says,

“I must express the happiness I have felt in hearing that plenipotentiary ministers are going from the United States, to bring about a reconciliation with France. I am persuaded, as I have formerly written, that the French government are in earnest.”