Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1823-02-15
TO the Editors qfthe Ricimnnd Enquirer.

WASHINGTON, 30th DEC. 1922.
Gentlemen: General Alexander Smyth, a
| Representative in the Congress of the United
States, from one of the Districts of the Com
moawealth OF Virginia, in a printed address 10
| ms constituents, has introduced my name with
imputations which deem it my duty to repel-
that address having been repubiished in your
paper, have to request of you the favor To
publish the enclosed answer 10 it. Should You
decline this publication, viii thank you to re-
turn me the manuscript as soon as may suit
your convenience.
am, with respect, gentlemen, your very
obedient servant,
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
To the FreeholdsrS Of Uashjngton, WjRhe, GRAY
son Russell, 1a=esveA, Lee, and Scot counties,
Virginia.
Friends ard FeHo1O- Citizens BY these titles
presume to address YOU, though personally
known to few OF Won, because my character
has been arraigned before YOU, by your Repre-
sentative in Congress, in printed handful,
soliciting your sgilrages for reelection, who
seems to have considered his FIRST clam TO the
continuance Of your favor to consist IN the biz
terness with which he could censure me. /
shall never solicit Your suflrages nor those Of
your Representative, for any thing. But
value your good opinion, and wish to show on
that nave not deserved to lose it.
He says, that if You viii elect him once
more, h shall have served during the whole
administration Of James Monroe; an aAminis-
trattoa 4poh ~alch io passes h4gn paucg Tic,
and which, he adds, he has found il agreeable
TO his Judgment generally to support " mic
i'll the exercise Of my natural right of seif-dc-
fence, come to repel the charges of General
Smyth, pray you to understand, that it is
neither for the purpose of moving YOU, to
withhold your votes from him, nor to induce
the General himself to reconsider his opinion
or his intentions, as they personally concern
me. He offers himself candidate for your
votes, as having been hitherto generally sup
porter OF the administration Of Mr. Monroe
On that ground, and upon the reasonable eN-
pectation that he will continue his support to
1t, he has my sincere and warm wishes for his
success. But, as TO his opinions of me, YOU
will permit me to be md Herent to the opinion
of man capable of forming his Judgment of
character from such premises as he has alleged
in support OF his estimate of mine.
His mode OF proof is this. He has ransack-
ed the journals Of the Senate, during the five
years that had the honor of a seat in that bo-
dy--a period, the expiration Of which is near
y mteen years distant; and wherever he has
found IN the list of yeas and NAYS, my name re-
corded to a vote which he dlsspproyes he has
imputed it, without knowing any of the
grounds upon which it was given, to the worst
OF motives tor the purpose OF ascribiug them
10 me. Is this tair Is it candid Is 1t Just
Where is the man who ever served in u iegis
lauve capacity in your councils whose charac-
ter could stand test like this J The General
once pehtioned the members Of a former Con-
gress "to be mindful of the rule of justice
to others do what to thyself thou wshest TO be
done.''
But it is to his charges against me, that
would turn your attention. And first, of this,
which he says he passes over, but does not pass
over my relation to my father. If the Gene
raj could have found any of NV votes upon the
public journals during the administration ofmv
father. he might perhaps have used them as he
has those of later date. But, during the
whole ofmy fathers administration, | was alb
sent from the country. For how much of my
fathers acts | am accountable, leave to your
sense OF justice to determine as leave to the
tilial affection and p ETY. of every one of you,
to estimate the temper of the reproach that
have never been the revler of them.
Another charge which the General brings
against me, while protesting to pass it over, is,
not only, he says, against the work thus en-
titled. but against the rights themselves. This
is mistake. wrote series of papers, con-
tanning an examination ofsome of the doctrines
in Thomas Paine's pamphlet, entitled the
Rights Of Man. | believed many of its doc
trines unsound. think have not seen either
the pamphlet, or my examination of it, for
more than thirty years. In that time | claim
not more indulgence for changes of opinion,
with regard to the principles of government
and of the French Revolution, than may be
fairly claimed by any man. Far from having
written against the rights of man, Appealed,
in the papers alluded to, from what deemed
the inhammatory principles of Paine, to the
sober and correct principles of our own De-
claration of independence. My opinion of
Paine, and his writings, was not then very ex-
allied: They have not, since that time, risen in
my esteem. As occasional addresses to popu-
lar passions I see, in all his works, the flashes
of powerful genius. Acknowledging the
service of his Common Sense, and some other
of his writings during our Revolutionary war,