58. ADAMS (John), Administration of. [continued]
We were far from considering
you as the author of all the measures we
blamed. They were placed under the protection
of your name, but we were satisfied
they wanted much of your approbation. We
ascribed them to their real authors, the Pickerings,
Wolcotts, the Tracys, the Sedgwicks,
et id genus omne, with whom we supposed you
in a state of duresse. I well remember a
conversation with you in the morning of the
day on which you nominated to the Senate
a substitute for Pickering, in which you expressed
a just impatience under “the legacy
of secretaries which General Washington had
left you,” and whom you seemed, therefore,
to consider as under public protection.
Many other incidents showed how differently
you would have acted with less impassioned
advisers; and subsequent events have proved
that your minds were not together. You
would do me great injustice, therefore, by
taking to yourself what was intended for men
who were then your secret, as they are now
your open enemies.—
To John Adams. Washington ed. vi, 126.
Ford ed., ix, 387.
(M.
June. 1813)
