Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1811-03-20
Nix. PICKERING's ADDRESS
TO the PEOPLE Of tie United States.
No. Y.
FefioW-G tiz ems,


! and then by constraint to repel fresh SLAM
der on my character. 1t was In letter dated
April 80, 1908, to the late governor Sullivan
of Massachusetts, in which l said +: am
| reproached for having been removed from the
Office of Secretary Of State /; on the SUPPOSE
! ton that this would not have been done but
| for some sufficient cause, honorable to the
! President and dishonorable to me. On this
must remark, that held the Office about year
and half under General Washington, and
three years and two months under President
Adams, and until 10 months only remained OF
his own term of office. For what did ne re-
move me S-IIe never told me. Was 1t tor a
dishonest or dishororable act He will not say
it. Was it for British attachment HE
will not say it. Was it for my incapaclty 3
If that were the cause, ard it be we'll founded,
statesman OF his experience and discernment
ought sooner to have made the discovery.
But, my fellow citizens, when l asked
For what did MIR. Adams remove me 20
was not ignorant of the immediate cause.
was indeed shocked at the depravity of the
man; yet he being then, as now, private
citizen and never likely to be more, meant,
els it regarded myself, to let him depart In
peace. If ! have changed my mind, 1t has rot
been without reason. Besides his open apos-
tacy from the cause which he had carly and
warmly espoused and supported, which had
given him responsibility in the eyes OF those
who had loaded him with public honors, and
finally raised him to the first station III his
country; he has, with the temper OF all assas-
sin, assa!ed the character of man, more wise
and more righteous than himself; of man,
whom he hated while living, without daring
publicly to reproach him but whose chalac-
ter, now he is dead, he has attempted, with all
the rancour of envy, with all the vrulchce OF
malice, to luangle and defle. This malignity
must not pass unaEenged. To hold such base
hess up to public scorn and detestatlon, will
coincide with the vindication due, in my own
case, to myself, to my family, to my friends
and 70 my country.
MY sudden removal from Office excited a.
mong fedcralists not little surprizc and to
my fellow citizens generally, it appeared as
unaccountable rs it was unexpected. Various
coniecturcs were formed but all were erro-
neous. A unto of democrats were in the ST.
cret: but three years elapsed before was
let into it. Fcderalists ascribed it to the re-
sentiments of man of ungoverned passions,
tration and to this opinion was myself in
clined although the acts to which l refer
had passed long before. For l believe A1r.
Adams capable Of boarding A1h his hatreds, u
broodis over them, and at length Of bringing
them .for.h svith increased maHgaty. This
spirit he has exempliEed in his late atEocious
attack on the memory of the deceased Halnll
ton. And mine, though of comparatively small
account, would not have escaped, had also
been numbered with the dead.
To the questions before asked relative to
my removal from office, / add one more
"Did Mr.. Adams dismiss me for keeping
back dispatches This has been asserted Ill
some democratic newspapers and in Con-
gress by Mr.. Eppes, son-in-law to the late
President Jefferson.
On the Soth of December, 1908, in the
House of Representatives, Mr.. Eppes, COM
menting ON my first letter to MIR. Sullivan, 60
vernon of Massachusetts,, concerning the en-
barge (every statement. and even conjecture,
in which, subsequent events have Justlhed)
thus expressed himself 6 Immediately after
the measure the embargo was adopted last
winter, what takes place, sir! A man dlstln-
guished by the favor of the people, man adj
vaDced in years. the very man zvho in 1913
KEPT back the dispatches from 4Mr. adams (tAen
President } tgulmost1 Plunged US into zvar with
France by this eet--what does he do In 1908,
he displays the same spirit of hostility to
France which he manifested in 'es; writes
letter, in which he attributes the embargo to
French influence, to the mandates OF Bona
parte."--Being asked by a member of the
House to name the person he referred to, Mr..
Eppes named me. Hear my defence.
/. In the first place, say, that am utter
ly ignorant of the alleged fact. l do not re-
collect to have heard, till within three years
past of any "despatches kept back" and the
tale then surprized me by its novelty.
2. If any dispatches coming to my hands
were kept back from the President, it must
have been purely accidental and even of this
am yet absolutely ignorant. To render it
criminal it must have been done intentionally.
Now, if Mr.. Eppes meant to say that l kept
back any dispatches intentionally, or with a
design to plunge the United States into a war
with France; then answer that the charge is
utterly void of truth. I presume MIR. Eppes