not be the name they were known
by in Virginia,--table-cloths and mattresses, however moderate in
number, are sure indications that the house, which was to be his
residence when he should be content to retire from public service, was
finished early in 1798. He had rested long enough, and was busy that
year in attendance upon the state Assembly at Richmond, to which he
consented the next year to be returned as a member. Perhaps it was
because he could not keep longer out of the fray. Perhaps he felt called
to a special duty. Affairs, foreign and domestic, were in a critical
condition. France, in her resentment at the Jay treaty, had committed so
many fresh outrages upon American commerce; had so exasperated the
American people by these outrages; and, by refusing to receive the
ministers from the United States, had so insulted them and the
government they represented in the proposed arrangements,--disclosed in
the X. Y. Z. correspondence,--that all friendly relations between the
two countries had ceased, and it had seemed impossible that war could be
avoided.

For a while the popular sympathy was entirely with Mr. Adams's
administration, and the promise could hardly be fairer that the
Federalists, if they managed wisely, might remain in power and be
sustained by the whole country. But in some respects they were as unwise
as in others they were unfortunate. President Adams, though possessing
many great qualities, was of too irascible and jealous a temper to be a
successful leader or a good ruler. But there were other men of
distinction among the Federalists who were hardly less fond of having
their own way than the President was of having his. The incompatibility
of temper was not altogether on one side in that family quarrel. But all
were equally responsible for such a blunder as the enactment of the
Alien and Sedition Laws. The provocation, it is true, was unquestionably
great. Refugees from abroad had crowded to the United States, many of
whom were professional agitators, and some were very sorry vagabonds.
Whatever reason they might have had for fomenting discontent with
government in England or in France, there was nothing to justify any
such violent measures in this country. But from their conduct as
political partisans, particularly as newspaper editors, they soon came
to be looked upon by the Federalists--for they all joined the other
party--as a dangerous class. There grew up a feeling that it would be
wiser for