Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1821-07-19
REMARKS
REMARKS
On an ADDRESS, deliveredat Washing
ton, the 9Th of July, 1921, by JOHN
QUINCY ADAMS, Seeretaryef State
concluded

QUINCY ADAMS, Secretary Of State.
Concluded
The sa me snarling fierceness which the
Secretary exhibits towards the English
nation, invigorates his assault on its liter
AZURE; an enterprise quite as absurd as
it is iiliberal. Not satisfied with asserting
the obvious superiority of America in po-
litical knowledge and mechanical I'M
provements, he has invoked her passions
that he might array them against the
philosophy, the science, and the letters of
England. Now, can this intelligent peo-
pie be deluded into the self complacency
which would insinuate that their general
intellectual advancement transcends that
of older countries shall they be told that
because their literary sun is still under
the horizon, it ought never to rise? Shall
they be told that the Steam boat the cot
ton gin and other valuable inventions, en-
little them to despise the country of Ba-
con and of Boyle? Shall the useful Full
ton be made ridiculous by being implicit
ly preferred in factious classification to
these benefactors of mankind? Shall a
professor of rhetorick seek to infuse into
the American youth an aversion from a
literature irradiated by the names of
Shakespeare and Milton, johnson and
Humeo Let them not listen 10 an oracle
So abundant in barbarous revelations! Let
them cherish the indignant emotion,
which rises in their besoms, when the
Premier of the United States on an occa-
sion of political thanksgiving to the AL
mighty, abandons his object for sneer
at Sir Isaac Newtonl But the explana-
ton OF this Vandalism is easy That i'm
mortal sage was an Englishman, and of
course in the new creei of the Secretary,
deserved his bitterest sheer In politicks,
unlike religion, hatred is sometimes
proof OF repentance
The spirit pervading this address SO
forcefully provokes eensure, that its mere
inaccuracies scarcely attract observation.
In path SO beaten, it is rather strange
that any traveller should mistake: and
yet, though the learned Secretary has
generally Stunned any thing like excur-
sive novelty, his steps are not always
sure He inflicts tedious narrative of
the progress of liberty, beginning at the
heptarchy. and ending, doubtless for
good reasons, at the invention of the Tor
pedo Most Of this TRADE may be found
in the table of contents usually preixed
to school histories, and the residue is, it
NAV be hoped, exclusively his own. The
praise of originality is certainly due to the
following proposition, which appears in
the Introductory paragraph; and thus
chivalrousiy encounters the dangers Of
the battle Sin their moral and political
chronology" Ito wit: in the moral and
political chronology of the English
"the great charter of Runnymead was
the beginning of the world" This sally
must amuse all who recollect lard no
historical fact is better established) that
the articles of Magma Charta most ia
vourable to popular liberty only revived
the laws OF Edward the Confessor, which
preceded it by century and hals, and
tina even these were merely collections
from the still earlier laws of Ethelbert,
Ina and Alfred the Great. The old Sax
on polity was imbued with the true spirit
of freedom; its subversion by the Danes
and Normans. and the introduction of a
subsequent system are no evidences that it
never existed II the inhabitants OF
Rhode Island, who have now no regular
constitution, were to adopt one, it would
hardly be contended that " in their moral
and political chronology this constitution
was the beginning of the world
The prominent doctrine Of the cad
dress" with an obvious exception,) is
that the g Declaration of american In
dependence ras the first solemn declara-
tioa by the nation IF the only legitimate
foundations of ciul goOerament' This
position has obtained much newspaper
eulogy for its justice and its novelty. The
first of these praises is not strictly true
and as to the second, scarcely any Grafton
on the 4th Of July has failed to present
this Wanted discovery in full relief.
1t is impossible to look unheedingly on
the style of an Grafton composed by the
guondam professor OF Rhetorick at Cam
bridge. and whose scholarships the boast
OF city which, on better authority than
that of Kean the player, has been consid
cred "the literary emporium of Ameri
Ca" And here, am afraid, the occasion
al occurrence of an eloquent passage can.
not redeem this performance from the
censure Of even charitable criticism The
learned Secretary's dislike to England
seems to include her language. for other.
wiss his classical taste woald have reject.
ed the bloated phraseolgy which eharac
serizes the address" The prodigal use Of
epithets, the complication of some sen en-,