will be promoted by a discreet and judicious encouragement of manufactures, and that it is not the land-jobber who can be benefited in the rapid rise of his monopoly, by drawing every labouring hand into the wilderness to fell trees.

"The continual accession of foreigners wil! endanger and destroy our peace, if we know not how to govern them. They will moreover corrupt our elections, and tear us to pieces. Sufficient to the day, however, is its evil; and in that day and hour it always has been, and I doubt not, always will be given us to provide against its dangers.

"Tench Coxe, Esq."

"Yours, &c.

"JOHN ADAMS."

The reader will readily perceive, that this letter was written in confidence, and that no part of it was ever intended to be shewn to a third person, much less to be published to the world. This consideration, however, had no weight with CoxE, who having, in 1799, been turned out of place, became, of course, a bitter enemy to his former friend and patron. From this moment the treacherous CoXE appears to have been constantly on the watch for an opportunity of gratifying his revenge, which opportunity offered itself in 1799, when ADAMS and PINCKNEY were, for the second time, proposed candidates for the chairs of President and Vice-President.

Coxe did not, at once, publish the letter repecting PINCKNEY; he made the contents of it known to the printer of a Jacobin newspaper, who, thereupon, boldly declared (without giving his authority), that the Federal Government had acted under the influence of British gold. Mr. ADAMS, not dreaming that this assertion was made upon the strength of a statement of his own, ordered the printer to be prosecuted. A prosecution was accordingly instituted, and a bill was found against DUANE (the printer), in September 1799; but, to the astonishment of every one, the trial was, all at once, postponed to another term.

The

The cause of this postponement DUANE has since explained. He says, in his paper of the 3d Oct. 1800,

That," Upon an offer of the Editor, by his counsel, to "produce that letter in Court, some confusion was manifested, "and some legal pantomime was played off, the trial was postponed. But the indictment was withdrawn by order of the "President, and that part taken from the indictment." He further says, that the Court, “ contrary to right and to law, "enjoined the Editor not to publish a word about its proceedings." Notwithstanding this injunction, injunction, however, DUANE, who knew the value of Mr. ADAMS's letter, was resolved that it should not be thus strangled in its birth. He first attempted to make use of it as an instrument for creating a quarrel between ADAMS and the PINCKNEYS, which, he was in hopes, would lead to a division of the federal party. With this object in view, he, last winter, made three copies of the letter, two of which were handed to the PINCKNEYS, and the third to a member of the Senate. The PINCKNEYS flew to ADAMS, shewed him the letter, and asked him if it was authentic. ADAMS was frightened; he acknowledged the authenticity of the letter, but endeavoured to give it an explanation different from its apparent tenor. The PINCKNEYS, who are penetrating and high-spirited fellows, were not at all satisfied with this apology, which Mr. ROUTLEDGE, who was present, declared to be "the most rascally shuffle he had ever

heard." Party considerations, however, stifled the resentment of the PINCKNEYS, who are said to have consented, that the injury should be buried in oblivion, provided that the New England friends of Mr. ADAMS would promise to support Mr. CHARLES COTES with PINCKNEY, jointly with Mr. ADAMS, at the ensuing election!

But the parties reckoned without their host. They appear to have forgotten, that it was not in

their

their power to bury the disgraceful fact in oblivion; and what is still more inexcusable in such able politicians, they neglected to purchase the silence of DUANE. This artful fellow, who was in the pay of the French, and of course entirely devoted to the cause of JEFFERSON, suffered the matter to sleep till about four months previous to the day of election for President: this was the favourable time for him to employ the fatal letter with effect; and, accordingly, he published it in all manner of forms, and circulated it through every possible

channel.

The PINCKNEYS, not foreseeing this blow, were at a loss how to resist it. They suffered the letter to circulate for some time, without condéscending to contradict it, thinking that, like a mad dog, it would soon exhaust itself. But the clamour against them grew so loud and so general, that, towards the middle of September, THOMAS PINCKNEY published the following letter, addressed to the printers of a newspaper at Charleston, SouthCarolina.

"Moultrieville, 15th Sept. 1800.

"Messrs. FRENEAU and PAINE,

"A letter copied from a newspaper of Baltimore, having been inserted in your Gazette of Saturday last, signed JOHN ADAMS, and purporting, from its contents, to have been written to Mr. TENCH COXE, of Philadelphia, in the year 1792, wherein are contained some comments on my appointment as minister plenipotentiary to the Court of Great Britain-I think it right at present only to state, that this letter either is a forgery calculated for electioneering purposes, or if genuine, must have been founded on a misapprehension of persons. This last suggestion I infer from facts, alluded to in the letter, and from the subsequent nomination of my brother, General Pinckney, to two highly confidential offices by its supposed writer.

"To my fellow-citizens of South-Carolina, who have so often honoured me, by testimonies of their confidence, I should deem it unnecessary to urge a syllable of justification from such charges as are implicated in this production, however authenticated; but as it appears, from the time of its publication, to

be

be calculated for more extensive influence, I have deemed it of importance publicly to state what is above, that those persons who may be unacquainted with the characters concerned, may be guarded against giving credit, either to the authenticity or justice of this performance, until the event of an investigation, which I will immediately commence, shall be made public. "THOMAS PINCKNEY."

This letter must have been written, one would think, in a fit of insanity! How could a man like THOMAS PINCKNEY be so very foolish as to write and publish a letter like this! He knew that the letter was not a forgery: he knew that it was authentic he knew that its authenticity had been acknowledged by Mr. ADAMS in his presence: and he further knew, that all these facts were well known to JEFFERSON and DUANE! No sooner, therefore, did this letter of THOMAS PINCKNEY reach Philadelphia, than DUANE published a narrative of the explanation and agreement that took place between Messrs. PINCKNEY and ADAMS, last winter. This involved PINCKNEY in fresh difficulties. The authenticity of the letter was now proved; and THOMAS PINCKNEY was compelled to call on ADAMS for a recantation, or to submit to the charge of having been the willing tool of a foreign court. He, as might well be expected, chose the former. He wrote to ADAMS, whom, it appears, he not only required to recant, but also to publish his recantation, which the latter actually did in the following letter, which we have taken from the New-York Gazette of the 29th of October last :

"DEAR SIR,

"Philadelphia, October 27th, 1800.

"It was only on yesterday that I received the letter you did me the honour to write me, on the 16th of September.-For the friendly and respectful stile in which it was written, I pray you to accept of my hearty thanks, and you shall receive in my answer all the satisfaction in my power to give you.

"Of the letter, which is published in my name, I have no copy nor any particular recollection. In general I remember, that when Mr. Coxe was assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury, he was very assiduous in his attentions to me-made me many visits at my house, and many invitations to his own, when I was at the seat of government, and wrote me many letters, when I was absent from it. I have also an indistin&t idea of his writing me a letter before your embarkation for Europe, expressing a great anxiety that an interview should take place between you and me, before you should depart, and an opi nion, that it would be in my power to communicate some useful information and advice, relative to the subject of your mission. As I knew of nothing that could make it necessary for you to take a journey to Quincey, or for me to go to Philadelphia, it is probable I wrote him something like the letter that is published. This, however, has been manifestly either so carelessly copied or unfaithfully printed, that I must refer to the original letter, which, if it is in my hand-writing, may be easily known.

"It may not be easy for me to give you a clear idea of the situation I was in, when that letter was written. In order to accomplish this necessary purpose as well as I can, it must be observed, that in May 1792, it was my misfortune to be wholly unacquainted with all the gentlemen who bear the name of Pinckney, I had never seen one of them in my life, as I can recollect, and knew not that there were more than two. When I heard of your appointment, I recollected the conversation with the Marquis of Carmarthen, now Duke of Leeds, and imagined it probable, that bis Lordship might have intimated, directly or indirectly, to some one near the President, that one of the Mr. Pinckneys would be agreeable at Court. I never bad an idea of any other audience, than that which is very common in Europe, when one Government causes intimations to be given to another, that the appointment of some particular gentleman would be agreeable. And I now fully believe, that my suspicion of even that kind of influence was wholly unfounded in reality, though it bad then some colour in appearance. The other insinuation, concerning the Pinckney family, had no other foundation than this:-When I received my commission to the Court of St. James's, I observed in it a limitation to three years. As I did not recollect any example of this before, I was at a loss for the reason of it; but as I did not intend, at that time, to remain in Europe, even so long a time as three years, I thought very little of it, until afterwards on my arrival in London in 1785, I received information without inquiry, that Mr. Pinckney, a member of Congress, from, South Carolina, had said, that,

"The limitation to three years had been inserted in my commission, for the purpose of getting rid of me; that the mission to London was too good a thing for me; and that the

intention