The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1882-12-14
Gath on the Presidents.

| and SOlQler ever llYeQ Jnan w aSnlng-
ton. Like all our great presidents
he was a western man. At Is he
was among the Indians; and q lie
| fought a battle on the Monongahela,
which had more extravaganza echoes
than the first shot at Lexington; it
started the seven years war which
made the Prussian empire of to-day,
established the British empire in
India, drove France from the Amer
lean continent, and founded the Rus
STA OF Catherine the Great. All this
was the fruit of Washington's kill.
| ing Jumonville on the Mononga-
hela, and it shows what a drop of
Bourbon and NJ onongahela can do. =
He was not an observer of his
neighbours ways, nor would he de-
claim against human nature. He
demanded not that such he good in
the abstract, but that they fulfil
their obligations. When he had
reached the age of So and was the
greatest figure of his times, he drew
up and signed articles of agreement
with one Philip Barber, gardener,
who could only make his mark, say
ing:
HE will not at any time suffer
himself to be disguised with liquor
except on times hereinafter men
toned, to-wit: Four dollars at
Christmas with which he may be
drunk four days and four nights;
| 81 at Easter to effect the same pur-
pose; 81 ut Whitsuntide to be
drunk for two days, and daily a
dram in the morning and drink of
grog at dinner at noon"
Coming to John Adams, Mr..
Townsend gave some novel points
about his married life:
Lawyers were few, and looked
down upon in that puritan society;
preachers were magistrates, and
their daughters were matrimonial
prizes. 1t broke farmer Adams
hopes to see his son cavil on Calvin
ism and go to join that lawyer cir
Gle, and lie soon after died; but the
boy ever reading, reading, deep in
the law and principles of society as
he could get, lived at Quincy with
ais mother, picking up scant prac-
tlce till he won one of those preach
ef's daughters, Abigail Smith, and
she brought him both practice aud
brains. OF all the wives OF presi-
dents she was the only wise one, the
only one whose letters, written for
her husband alone, are real litera
ture; the only presidents wife
whose son, reared by her hand, be-
came his fathers equal. To her he
wrote: II have no concern on your
account but. for your health. "A
woman can be silent when she
will. After he became vice pres
ident he wrote to her: III
your letters give me more en-
tertainment than all the speeches L
hear. There are more good thoughts,
fine strokes and mother wit in them
than | hear in a whole week. An
ounce of mother wit is worth a
pound of clergy, and L rejoice that
one of my children, at least, has not
only an abundance of mother wit
but of his mothers wit. If the
rogue has any family pride it is
all derived from the same source"
For years that wife titled his
farm at Quincy; there abe heard the
cannon at Bunker's Hill and was ex-
posed to all the perils Of the war
while he was absent. For ten
years she saw him scarcely at all,
surrendering him to the country,
never complaining of country mo
notony, never asking to move into
Boston, and had she been leaning on
him like a helpless woman of fash
ion all those years, or conceiving
herself to have been elected presi- |
dent, this letter would never have
been written by him at the out
break of the war:
Dear partner, take a part with
ne in the struggle. Rouse your
whole attention to the family, the
stock. the farm, the dairy. Let
very article of expense which can
possibly be spared be retrenched.
Keep the hands attentive to their
business and let the most prudent
ofevery kind be adopted. p"
A peculiar view of the three great
lights of our incipient politics was
his:
These three men represented
three ideas all necessary to the re
public. Adams represented indie /
pepdence, jefferson liberty and Ham
,lton empire. The elder two had
brought the nation forth, while Ham
ihon dressed it in constitution and
gave it a financial milk bottle.
Twenty two years younger than MIR.
Adams, he had been educated on
he military staff, and, making no
allowance for the genius of a west
arn people, this Englishman born
to mould America to in
slant maturity, for he was a states
man by nature, and led her into a
military career against Spain's colo
ME, where in the decaying powers
IF W ashHmtou. Hamilton would be
-he new worlds Napoleon.
Jefferson, of a feminine and sus
picious nature, like WelshmIu
and with physical courage altogcth-
er below his mental originality,
had lost his Judgment is his sym
pathy with peace and come to con
slider Washing on himself a con
-pirer against his own people. Pres
ident Adams, crotchety but all
believed in neither Ham
lton's army nor JeffersOn's mob.
He wanted to keep his country out
VI The vortex Of European war and
the indepence we had Sc
.ured. To this end he signe the
alien and sedition bills passed by
friends in congress, but
he would not make the English al
lance Hamilts n demanded nor at
tack France and her ally, Spain.
He incurred Hamilton's resentment,
and the consequence of Hamilton's
legislation fell upon Adams never
great popularity, the Federal party
fell in half, and Aaron Burr organ
lied the opposition into victory, and
on his bullet Hamilton wrecked a
life whose artificial honor was
i