his trust "to allow them (the writings of his grandfather) to be used as vindicatory testimony of the character or conduct of any individual." He says farther: "The facts contained in this letter have long been familiar to me, having often heard them with great interest from my grandfather in conversation with others, on different occasions, from the date of their occurrence to his death."

This letter of Mr. Jefferson was dated the 25th of December, 1825, the day before that from which the foregoing extracts have been taken; and both were written in answer to a letter from Mr. Giles of the 15th of December, in which he communicated to Mr. Jefferson the intention of continuing a series of "political disquisitions," which he had been writing for the public "on the rapidly progressive usurpations of the general government," and of extending these disquisitions into an examination of some of the most prominent principles avowed in the recent message of the president. "In the performance of this task," he says, "I think material aid might be derived from looking back to the period of Mr. Adams' political conversion, reviewing the inducements then suggested by him for his conversion; and tracing the outlines of the policy pursued by him from that time to the present. But I could not permit myself to place that transaction before the public without consulting you, sir, upon the propriety of the measure." One of the objects of consulting Mr. Jefferson was to know whether his (Mr. Giles') recollection of the inducements suggested by Mr. Adams for his political change was

correct.

Mr. Jefferson says in reply: "Far advanced in my 83d year, worn down with infirmities which have confined me almost entirely to the house for seven or eight months past, it afflicts me much to receive appeals to my memory for transactions so far back as that which is the subject of your letter. My memory is indeed become almost a blank, of which no better proof can probably be given you, than by my solemn protestation that I have not the least recollection of your intervention between Mr. John Q. Adams and myself, in what passed on the subject of the embargo. Not the slightest trace of it remains in my mind. Yet I have no doubt of the exactitude of the statement in your letter. And the least as I recollect the interview with Mr. Adams to which the previous communication which had passed between him and yourself, were probably and naturally the preliminary. That interview I remember well, not, indeed, in the very words which passed between us, but in their very substance, which was of a character too awful, too deeply engraved in my mind, and influencing too materially the course I had to pursue, ever to be forgotten.

"Mr. Adams called on me pending the embargo, and while endeavors

He spoke of the dissatis

were making to obtain its repeal. faction of the eastern portion of our confederacy with the restraints of the embargo, then existing, and their restlessness under it. That there was nothing that might not be attempted to rid themselves of it. That he had information of the most unquestionable certainty, that certain citizens of the eastern states, (I think he named Massachusetts particularly,) were in negotiation with the agents of the British government, the object of which was an agreement, that the New England states should take no farther part in the war then going on; that, without formally declaring their separation from the union of the states, they should withdraw from all aid and obedience to them; that their navigation and commerce should be free from restraint or interruption by the British; that they should be considered and treated by them as neutrals, and as such might conduct themselves towards both parties; and, at the close of the war, be at liberty to rejoin the confederacy.

"He assured me that there was imminent danger that the convention would take place; that the temptations were such as might debauch many from their fidelity to the union; and that to enable its friends to make head against it, the repeal of the embargo was absolutely neces sary. I expressed a just sense of the merit of the information, and of the importance of the disclosure to the safety and even salvation of our country and however reluctant I was to abandon the measure, (a measure which, persevered in a little longer, we had subsequent and satisfactory assurance would have effected its object completely,) from that moment, and influenced by that information, I saw the necessity of abandoning it; and instead of effecting our purpose by this peaceful weapon, we must fight it out, or break the union. I then recommended to my friends to yield to the necessity of a repeal of the embargo, and to endeavor to supply its place by the best substitute in which they could procure a general concurrence.

"I can not too often repeat, that this statement is not pretended to be in the very words which passed; that it only gives faithfully the impression remaining on my mind. The very words of a conversation are too transient and fugitive to be so long retained in remembrance. But the substance was too important to be forgotten, not only from the revolution of measures it obliged me to adopt, but also from the renewals of it in my memory on the frequent occasions I have had of doing justice to Mr. Adams, by repeating this proof of his fidelity to his country, and of his superiority over all ordinary considerations when the safety of that was brought into question.

"With this best exertion of a waning memory which I can command, accept assurances of my constant and affectionate friendship and respect."

' &c.

The publication of this letter drew forth a statement by the editors of the National Intelligencer, authorized by Mr. Adams to be made, and which appeared in that paper of October 21, 1828. As this statement contains sundry important facts of the history of the eventful period in which they occurred, and also was the occasion of the correspondence which ensued between Mr. Adams and the citizens of Massachusetts which afterward took place, we copy it entire.

“ The indistinctness of the recollections of Mr. Jefferson, of which the letter itself feelingly complains, has blended together three distinct periods of time, and the information which he did receive from Mr. Adams, with events which afterwards occurred, and of which Mr. Adams could not have informed him. It unfortunately happens that this error is apparent on the face of the letter itself. It says: 'Mr. Adams called on me pending the embargo, and while endeavors were making to obtain its repeal.' He afterwards says, that at this interview Mr. Adams, among other things, said he had information of the most unquestionable certainty, that certain citizens of the eastern states, (I think he named Massachusetts particularly,) were in negotiation with agents of the British government, the object of which was an agreement that the New England states should take no farther part in the war then going on,'

“ The embargo was enacted on the 22d of December, 1807, and repealed by the non-intercourse act on the 1st of March, 1809. The war was declared in June, 1812.

“ In August, 1809, Mr. Adams embarked for Russia, nearly three years before the declaration of war, and did not return to the United States till August, 1817, nearly three years after the conclusion of the peace.

“Mr. Madison was inaugurated president of the United States on the 4th of March, 1809.

“ It was impossible, therefore, that Mr. Adams could have given any information to Mr. Jefferson of negotiations by citizens of Massachusetts with British agents, during the war, or having relation to it. Mr. Adams never had knowledge of such negotiations.

“The interview to which Mr. Jefferson alludes, took place on the 15th of March, 1808, pending the embargo; but, at the session of congress before the substitution for it of the non-intercourse act. The information given by Mr. Adams to Mr. Jefferson, had only an indirect reference even to the embargo, and none to any endeavors for obtaining its repeal. It was the substance of a letter from the governor of Nova Scotia to a person in the state of Massachusetts, written in the summer of 1807, and before the existence of the embargo; which letter Mr

а

Adams had seen. It had been shown to him without any injunction of secrecy, and he betrayed no confidence in communicating its purport to Mr. Jefferson. Its object was to countenance and accredit a calumny then extensively prevailing, among the enemies of Mr. Jefferson and the opponents of his administration, that he and his measures were subservient to France; and it alleged that the British government were informed of a plan, determined upon by France, to effect the conquest of the British provinces on this continent, and a revolution in the government of the United States, as means to which they were first to produce war between the United States and England.

“From the fact that the governor of Nova Scotia had written such a letter to an individual in Massachusetts, connected with other facts, and with movements of the party then predominant in that state, Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson drew their inferences, which subsequent events doubtless confirmed; but which inferences neither Mr. Jefferson nor Mr. Adams then communicated to each other. This was the only confidential interview which, during the administration of Mr. Jefferson, took place between him and Mr. Adams. It took place first at the request of Mr. Wilson Carey Nicholas, then a member of the house of representatives of the United States, a confidential friend of Mr. Jefferson ; next, of Mr. Robinson, then a senator from Vermont; and lastly, of Mr. Giles, then a senator from Virginia--which request is the only intervention of Mr. Giles, ever known to Mr. Adams, between him and Mr. Jefferson. It is therefore not surprising, that no such intervention occurred to the recollection of Mr. Jefferson, in December, 1825.

“ This interview was in March, 1808. In May, of the same year, Mr. Adams resigned his seat in the senate of the United States. At the next session of congress, which commenced in November, 1808, Mr. Adams was a private citizen, residing at Boston. The embargo was still in force, operating with extreme pressure upon the interests of the people, and was wielded as a most effective instrument, by the party prevailing in the state, against the administration of Mr. Jefferson. The people were constantly instigated to resistance against it, and juries after juries acquitted the violators of it, upon the ground that it was unconstitutional, assumed in the face of a solemn decision of the district court of the United States. A separation of the union was openly stimulated in the public prints, and a convention of delegates of the New England states, to meet at New Haven, was intended and proposed.

"Mr. Giles and several other members of congress, during this session, wrote to Mr. Adams confidential letters, informing him of the various measures proposed as reinforcements or substitutes for the embargo, and soliciting his opinions upon the subject. He answered those letters with

1

frankness and in confidence. He earnestly recommeuded the non-intercourse for the embargo; and in giving his reasons for this preference, was necessarily led to enlarge upon the views and purposes of certain leaders of the party which had the management of the state legislature in their hands. He urged that a continuance of the embargo much longer would certainly be met by forcible resistance, supported by the legislature, and probably by the judiciary of the state. That to quell that resistance if force should be resorted to by the government, it would produce a civil war; and that, in that event, he had no doubt the leaders of the party would secure the coöperation with them of Great Britain. That their object was, and had been for several years, the dissolution of the union, and the establishment of a separate confederation he knew from unequivocal evidence, although not provable in a court of law; and that, in the case of a civil war, the aid of Great Britain to effect that purpose would be as surely resorted to, as it would be indispensably necessary to the design.

“That these letters of Mr. Adams to Mr. Giles and to other mem. bers of congress, were read or shown to Mr. Jefferson, he never was informed. They were written, not for communication to bim, but as answers to letters of his correspondents, members of congress, soliciting his opinions upon measures in deliberation before them, and

upon

which they were to act. He wrote them as the solicited advice of friend to friend, both ardent friends to the administration and to their country. He wrote them to give to the supporters of the administration of Mr. Jefferson in congress, at that crisis, the best assistance, by his information and opinions, in his power. He had certainly no objection that they should be communicated to Mr. Jefferson; but this was neither his intention nor desire. In one of the letters to Mr. Giles, he repeated an assurance which he had verbally given him during the preceding session of congress, that he had for his support of Mr. Jefferson's administration no personal or interested motive, and no favor to ask of him what

ever.

“That these letters to Mr. Giles were by him communicated to Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Adams believes from the import of this letter from Mr. Jefferson, now first published, and which has elicited this statement He believes, likewise, that other letters from him to other members of congress, written during the same session, and upon the same subject, were also communicated to him; and that their contents, after a lapse of seventeen years, were blended confusedly in his memory, first with the information given by Mr. Adams to him at their interview in March, 1808, nine months before; and next, with the events which occurred during the subscquent war, and of which, however natural as a sequel to