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

TO JOHN NICHOLAS. - George Washington, The Writings of George Washington, vol. XIII (1794-1798) [1892]

Edition used:

The Writings of George Washington, collected and edited by Worthington Chauncey Ford (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1890). Vol. XIII (1794-1798).

Part of: The Writings of George Washington, 14 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO JOHN NICHOLAS.

Mount Vernon, 8 March, 1798.

Sir,

The letter, which you did me the favor of writing to me under date of the 22d ultimo, came safe to hand. Nothing short of the evidence you have adduced, corroborative 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 person1 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 every thing 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 government, 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 is hardly to be expected that a resort to covert means to effect these objects will be longer regarded.

With respect to Mr. Monroe’s “View of the Conduct of the Executive of the United States,” I shall say but little, because as he has called it a “View” thereof, I shall leave it to the tribunal to which he himself has appealed to decide, first, how far a correspondence with one of its agents is entitled to the unqualified term he has employed; secondly, how, if it is not, it is to exhibit a view thereof; thirdly, how far his instructions and the letters he has received from that executive, through the constitutional organ, and to which he refers, can be made to subserve the great points, which he and his party are evidently aiming at, namely, to impress upon the public mind, that favoritism towards Great Britain has produced a dereliction, in the administration, of good will towards France.

As to the propriety of exposing to public view his private instructions and correspondence with his own government, nothing needs be said; for I should suppose, that the measure must be reprobated by the well-informed and intelligent of all nations, and not less by his abettors in this country, if they were not blinded by party views, and determined at all hazards to catch at any thing, that in their opinion will promote them. The mischievous and dangerous tendency of such a practice is too glaring to require a comment.

If the executive, in the opinion of the gentleman you have alluded to, is chargeable with “premeditating the destruction of Mr. Monroe in his appointment, because he was the centre around which the republican party rallied in the Senate”1 (a circumstance quite new to me), it is to be hoped he will give it credit for its lenity towards that gentleman, in having designated several others, not of the Senate, as victims to this office before the sacrifice of Mr. Monroe was ever had in contemplation. As this must be some consolation to him and his friends, I hope they will embrace it.

But as you have given me assurances of a visit at this place, with Governor Wood, in the spring, which is now commencing, I shall only add, that, with esteem and regard, I am, &c.

[1 ]Mr. Jefferson.

[1 ]Mr. Nicholas said in his letter that this declaration was made in his hearing by Mr. Jefferson.