NOTES ON HISTORY 9. SECOND HALF-YEAR. 1881-82. LECTURES, I.—II. THE ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN ADAMS CABINET INTRIGUES - FALL OF FEDERALISM. Parallel: Von Holst I. 165-82; Hildreth, V. 321-415; Schouler, Hist. of U. S., I. 404-500; Young, 166-95; Tucker, II. 28-143; Woodward, II. 189-326; Morse, Life of Hamilton, II. 220-312; Geo. Gibbs, Admin. of Washington and Adams, II. 86-513; Stat. Man., 103-38. By the favor of the people John Adams succeeded Washington in the presidency in spite of the vigorous opposition of the Federalist leaders. The latter "perceived Adams to be irritable and headstrong, as well as a vigorous upholder of executive independence, and one whose views on foreign, banking, and funding questions were not always coincident with their own . . . . and on Hamilton's advice, the plan was to combine Adams with a popular southern candidate (Thomas Pinckney - the negotiator of the Spanish treaty) nominally selected for the Vice-Presidency, and, then, after the Federal electors had been chosen, prevail upon those of the North to vote for the two equally; by which means, could the second candidate get a scattered vote in his own section, he 138 PINCKNEY INTRIGUE. [1801] would come in first, and make the more manageable President. . . . . To prevent Jefferson from succeeding to either place was the ostensible reason given by Hamilton and his friends" for this action. (Schouler's Hist. U. S. Although correct in [Anti-Federalistic] I. 327-8). their estimate of Adams' character, the Federalist leaders by this plot secured the ill-will of Adams, and inaugurated that series of intrigues which weakened his administration and hastened the downfall of that party. "Like all statesmen of the first rank, he (Hamilton) could, once he had accepted the leadership, do nothing but lead; and could never in matters of importance be governed by a majority. But his genius alone could no longer assure him the leadership . . . . Adams was jealous of Hamilton's influence, and owed him a grudge, not entirely without reason, on account of the Pinckney intrigue. He was, besides, an uncertain character, strongly inclined to act according to the impulse of the moment, one whose natural firmness was excited by his vanity, arising from his power over other minds, to an almost stubborn egotism. Besides.... Adams retained Washington's cabinet, which had been used to consider Hamilton their leader." (Von Holst, I. 135.) Unlike Washington, who so sedulously sought advice, the new President seemed to confer with others rather for the purpose of imparting his own views, and those most. likely in the crude, and before gaining possession of all the data needful; and he had that tendency, so disagreeable to one who brings suggestions, of talking others down. . . . he too often displayed an unfortunate capacity for taking all the grace out of a kindly and favoring action, and stifling all sense of gratitude in the recipient, by the unkindly or ungracious manner in which he performed it . . . . Adams, pure, disinterested, [1801] ADAMS' CHARACTER. 139 upright, as we must conceive him in the main, had yet that dread of cant which-marks a faulty but heroic nature struggling with itself and yielding much to impulse . . . . (he would) profess his utter contempt for the public whose interests he was doubtless serving with all his might . . . . it was his eloquence, his scholarship, his literary abilities, and the earnestness of his convictions as one of a deliberative body among his peers that carried persuasion .... (As the chief executive he) was not steady and sure in his guidance, nor sufficiently in the habit of directing other minds to impress a policy upon those without whose willing co-operation it must fail. . . . . With more culpable indiscretion, he permitted official subordinates, stern, narrow-minded, and moreover interested in their motives, to present to the country an administration far more spiteful and intolerant than he desired it, and less dispassionate in its foreign policy.... Adams had, nevertheless, great virtues as well as great failings. . . . . An accomplished scholar, a statesman who had experienced much and travelled far, one of a vigorous and far reaching intellect, he comprehended with great wisdom the most difficult problems which his administration encountered. . . . Adams may fairly be styled the Father of our American navy. . . . His penetrating mind had discovered, quite in advance of his times, that the belligerents of the Old World would not respect American commerce while it remained defenceless, and that the first successful war with France or England must be waged by us, behind wooden walls. rather than ramparts." (Schouler, I. 493-8.) At any rate his administration secured the welfare of the country. Honest and patriotic, he labored for the public |