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

T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE, TO JOHN ADAMS. - 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.

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

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T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE, TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 24 July, 1799.

Sir,—

There is in the Aurora of this city an uninterrupted stream of slander on the American government. I inclose the paper of this morning. It is not the first time that the editor has suggested, that you had asserted the influence of the British government in affairs of our own, and insinuated that it was obtained by bribery. The general readers of the Aurora will believe both. I shall give the paper to Mr. Rawle, and, if he thinks it libellous, desire him to prosecute the editor.

I do not know a member concerned in the administration of the affairs of the United States, who would not indignantly spurn at the idea of British influence; and as to bribes, they would disdain to attempt a vindication from the charge.

The article in the paper, marked 5, of an acknowledgment in my writings, that in case of a war with Great Britain, a foreign war is not the only one to be dreaded, probably refers to my letter of 12th September, 1795, to Mr. Monroe, in which, vindicating our state of neutrality and the British treaty, and exhibiting the evils to flow from a war with Great Britain, I say that in that case “it would be happy for us if we could contemplate only a foreign war, in which all hearts and hands might be united.”

The editor of the Aurora, William Duane, pretends that he is an American citizen, saying that he was born in Vermont, but was, when a child, taken back with his parents to Ireland, where he was educated. But I understand the facts to be, that he went from America prior to our revolution, remained in the British dominions till after the peace, went to the British East Indies, where he committed or was charged with some crime, and returned to Great Britain, from whence, within three or four years past, he came to this country to stir up sedition and work other mischief. I presume, therefore, that he is really a British subject, and, as an alien, liable to be banished from the United States. He has lately set himself up to be the captain of a company of volunteers, whose distinguishing badges are a plume of cock-neck feathers and a small black cockade with a large eagle. He is doubtless a United Irishman, and the company is probably formed to oppose the authority of the government; and in case of war and invasion by the French, to join them.

I am, with great respect, &c.

Timothy Pickering.