Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Mass.) 1828-1830, 1828-11-18

tale, with vain hope Of extricating him
self fiom a most awful dilemma"
And in concluding his Letter, Mr.. Giles
characterizes the explanatory remarks
published by us as being ushered forth
to the World in utter disregard of common
respect for truth"
| 1t is lamentable, we repeat, to witness
such miserable decay of once vigorous
intellect, or SO despicable prostitution
of waning character to purpose SO base
as deliberate traduction and vilification OF
the honest, upright, and unassuming indi-
vidual who now fills the presidency ofthe
United States. "'Tis pity, and pity tits,
It's true" that every assertion of Mr..
Giles, touching correspondence with
Mr.. Adams, is utterly without founda-
ton.
For the matter OF form of this article,
we take all the responsibility where it be-
longs-to ourselves. Mr.. Adams has
nothing to do with it. But we should
basely become accessory to the most des-
perate assault ever witnessed on publick
or private integrity, if we did not, in the
teeth of Mr.. Giles, declare his statement
in the above extract to be wholly destitute
of truth. There is for him, no way by
which he can retreat or escape. The plea
of gone memory only can avail him : for
he has tasked it to its utmost he says, and
can find no trace of any correspondence
between him and Mr.. Adams.
We had evidence to satisfy us, before
publishing the explanatory article which
called forth the above remarks of Mr..
Giles, that the correspondence referred to
in those remarks not only did take place,
but would, if published, rebound to the
honour of Mr.. Adams.
Upon receiving the Enquirer of yes
terday, containing the letter of Mr.. Giles,
we used the privilege of citizens, deeply
interested in the cause of truth, to call
upon the President, and request that he
would suffer justice to be done to himself
by the publication of the correspondence
which Governor Giles has the effrontery
or the faulty to deny, and of the existence
of which we were before satisfactorily APP
prised. The President, from a delicacy
which we feel inclined to call fastidious,
declined furnishing copies of the cores
pondence for publication. He seems dis
posed to follow, in this instance, as he has
evidently endeavoured to do throughout
his administra alton, in the footsteps of the
illustrious Washington. That great man
was, in his day, illuminated almost as
much as Mr.. Adams, and what is not a
little singular Considering the length of
the intervening period of tlme) by some
of the same individuals, and by MIR. Giles
for one of them. Then, as now, by the
meaner agents of faction, forgeries, and
other species of deception, -Eesnriad
to. These despicable frauds Washington
passed by with silent, though indignant
contempt, until, as his last act before
yielding the Presidency, on the Sd day of
! March, 1897, he sent to the Department
of State, to be there recorded and pre-
served, an exposure of the forgeries by
which various letters had been passed up
on the publick as being his. We do not
know that, as his last publick act, on the
third day of March, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and
thirty-three, Mr.. Adams, on retiring from
office, may not also condescend to place
upon record the proofs of the attempts
which have been made to defraud him of
his well-earned fame.
Be that as it may, Mr.. Adams will not
consent to the present publication of these
Letters, from motives of delicacy, to which
he too often sacrifices his personal inter-
est. He permits us to say, however, that
he has read to us from his Letter-Book
the copies Of his Letters to Mr.. Giles, DUR
ing the winters of 1859, in reply to
letters of Mr.. Giles, the originals of which
latter are amongst his papers at his family
seat; and we take leave to say, aoithoM his
permission, that they are of character
to exalt him in the estimation of every
patriot, every Republican, every honest
man. They are of character, too, such
as to prevent the possibility of any mans
forgetting them, who had ever read them,
unless he had first forgotten himself
The first ofthcse Letters of Mr.. Adams
is dated November 18th, 1908, and is in
acknowledgement and reply to Letter of
MIR. Giles of the 7th-Sth of the same
month. Congress having assembled on
the 7th.)
The second of them is of the date of
December 10, 1903, in reply to Letter
from Mr.. Giles, enclosing a copy of his
Speech upon Mr.. Hillhouse's motion for