59. ADAMS (John), Attacks on.—
With respect to the calumnies and falsehoods
which writers and printers at large published
against Mr. Adams, I was as far from
stooping to any concern or approbation of
them, as Mr. Adams was respecting those of
“Porcupine,” Fenno, or Russell, who published
volumes against me for every sentence
vended by their opponents against Mr.
Adams. But I never supposed Mr. Adams
had any participation in the atrocities of these
editors, or their writers. I knew myself incapable
of that base warfare, and believed
him to be so. On the contrary, whatever I
may have thought of the acts of the administration
of that day, I have ever borne testimony
to Mr. Adams's personal worth; nor
was it ever impeached in my presence,
without a just vindication of it on my part.
I never supposed that any person who knew
either of us, could believe that either of us
meddled in that dirty work.—
To Mrs. John Adams. Washington ed. iv, 555.
Ford ed., viii, 309.
(W.
July. 1804)
