79. ADAMS (John), Jefferson, Paine and.—
I am afraid the indiscretion of a printer has committed me with my friend Mr. Adams,
for whom, as one of the most honest and disinterested
men alive, I have a cordial esteem,
increased by long habits of concurrence in
opinion in the days of his republicanism: and
even since his apostasy to hereditary monarchy
and nobility, though we differ, we differ as
friends should do. Beckley had the only copy
of Paine's pamphlet [Rights of Man], and lent
it to me, desiring when I should read it, that
I would send it to a Mr. J. B. Smith, who had
asked it for his brother to reprint it. Being
an utter stranger to J. B. Smith, both by
sight and character, I wrote a note to explain
to him why I (a stranger to him) sent him
a pamphlet, to wit, that Mr. Beckley had desired
it; and to take off a little of the dryness
of the note, I added that I was glad to find it
was to be reprinted, that something would,
at length, be publicly said against the political
heresies which had lately sprung up among
us, and that I did not doubt our citizens would
rally again round the standard of “Common
Sense.” That I had in my view the “ Discourses
on Davila,” which have filled Fenno's
papers for a twelvemonth, without contradiction,
is certain, but nothing was ever
further from my thoughts than to become myself
the contradictor before the public. To my
great astonishment, however, when the pamphlet
came out, the printer had prefixed my note
to it, without having given me the most distant
hint of it. Mr. Adams will unquestionably
take to himself the charge of political heresy,
as conscious of his own views of drawing the
present government to the form of the English
constitution, and, I fear, will consider me as
meaning to injure him in the public eye. I
learn that some Anglo-men have censured it
in another point of view, as a sanction of
Paine's principles tends to give offence to the
British government. Their real fear, however,
is that this popular and republican pamphlet,
taking wonderfully, is likely at a single stroke,
to wipe out all the unconstitutional doctrines
which their bell-weather, “Davila,” has been
preaching for a twelvemonth. I certainly never
made a secret of my being anti-monarchical,
and anti-aristocratical; but I am sincerely mortified
to be thus brought forward on the public stage, where to remain, to advance or to retire,
will be equally against my love of silence
and quiet, and my abhorrence of dispute.—
To President Washington. Washington ed. iii, 257.
Ford ed., v, 329.
(Pa.,
1791)
