Martinsburgh gazette. [volume] (Martinsburgh, Va. [W. Va.]) 1810-1825, 1811-04-05
Whole No. 7OS.


ty!-lfthat were the cause, aud IL be well
founded, a statesman of his experience and
discernment ought sooner to have made tho
discovery"
But, my fellow citizens, when asked
-" For what did MIR. Adams remove met"
Twas not ignorant of the immediate cause:
| was indeed shocked at the depravity OF
the man: yet he being then, as now, april
vate citizen and never likely TO be more,
meant as it regarded myself to let him de.
part in peace. II | have changed my mind,
II has not been without reason. Besides
his open spostacy from the cause which he
had early and warmly espoused and aup-
ported, which had given him respectable.
~ in the eyes.oLlhose who had loaded him
with public honoars, and hnally raised him
TO the first station 10 his country; he has,
with the temper Of an assassin, assailedthe
character of man, more wise and more
righteous than himseH OF man, whom
he hated while living, without daring pub
| licly to repIoach him but whose character,
now he is dead, he has attempted, with all
the ranco.r Of envy. with all the virulencc
Of malice, to mangle and drfle. This ma
lightly must not pass unavenged. To hold
such baseness up to public scorn and detes-
tation, will coincide with the vindication
due, in my own case, to myself, to my "a.
mily, to my friends, and to my country.
| My sudden removal from Office excited
among federalsts not little surprize; and
to my fellow. citizens generally, itappeared
as unaccountable as it was unexpected. Va
rious conjectures were formed; but all were
| erroneous A junto of democrats were in
the secret: but three years elapsed beforeI
was let into it. Federalists ascribed it to
the resentments of man of ungovcrned
passions, for my opposition to some acts of
his administr alton |; and to this opinion l.
was myself inclined; although the acts to
which refer had passed long before. For
| believed Mr.. Adams capable of boarding
up has hatreds, Of broodins ooev them, and
at length Of bringing them forth with in-
creased maLgn.ty. This spirit he has exc
empli6ed in his late atrocious attack on the
! memory of the deceased Hamilton. And
mine, though of comparatively small ac-
! count, would not have escaped, had also
been numbered with the dead.
To the questions before asked relative to
j my removal from Office, add one more I:
Ibid Mr.. Adams dismiss me for keeping
back dispatches ?"-- This has been asserted
in some democratic newspapers; and in
!. Congress by Mr.. Eppes, son-in.law to the
late President Jefferson.
Il On the 3Oth of December, ! sos, in the
House Of Representatives, Mr.. Eppes,
commenting on my first letter to Mr.. Sulli-
van, governor OF Massachusetts, concern.
ing the embargo every statement and even
i conjecture in which, subsequent events
have iusti6ed) thus expressed himself:
4. Immediately after the measure 1.-THE EN-.
bargo1 was adopted last winter, what takes
place! A man distinguished by the favor
of the people, man advanced in years,
the pery man Iuho in 1898 kebs back the des-
patches 1om mr.. Adams (then Pyesidens)
and almost plunged as INFO war NTH
France BY this act--whas does he do. In
1908, he displays the same spirit Of hostile
ty to France which he manifested in '98;
writes letter, in which he attributes the
| embargo to French influence, to the man.
dates Of Bonaparte. being asked by
member of the house to name the person
he referred to, Mr.. Eppes named me.
Hear my defence.
1. In the first place. ! say, that ! am ut-
terly ignorant of the allrdgcd fact, I do not
recollcct to have heard, ill within three
years past, of any IS dispatches keptback j"
and the tale then surprized me by its now
city.
| 2. If any dispatches coming to my hands
were kept back from the president, il must
have been purely accidental: and even of
this am yet absolutely ignorant. To
render il criminal il must have been done
Intentionally. Now if Mr.. Eppes meant
TO say that l kept back any dispatches in.
tentonally, or with design TO plunge the