on and circumstances from the troubles and tumults of the
European world, became plunged into its vortex and contaminated with its
crimes? The answer is easy. Those who were then at the head of affairs
were apostates from the principles of the revolution. Raised to an
elevation they had not a right to expect, nor judgment to conduct,
they became like feathers in the air, and blown about by every puff of
passion or conceit.

Candour would find some apology for their conduct if want of judgment
was their only defect. But error and crime, though often alike in their
features, are distant in their characters and in their origin. The one
has its source in the weakness of the head, the other in the hardness
of the heart, and the coalition of the two, describes the former
Administration.(1)

1 That of John Adams.--_Editor._

Had no injurious consequences arisen from the conduct of that
Administration, it might have passed for error or imbecility, and
been permitted to die and be forgotten. The grave is kind to innocent
offence. But even innocence, when it is a cause of injury, ought to
undergo an enquiry.

The country, during the time of the former Administration, was kept in
continual agitation and alarm; and that no investigation might be made
into its conduct, it entrenched itself within a magic circle of terror,
and called it a SEDITION LAW.(1) Violent and mysterious in its measures
and arrogant in its manners, it affected to disdain information, and
insulted the principles that raised it from obscurity. John Adams and
Timothy Pickering were men whom nothing but the accidents of the times
rendered visible on the political horizon. Elevation turned their heads,
and public indignation hath cast them to the ground. But an inquiry
into the conduct and measures of that Administration is nevertheless
necessary.

The country was put to great expense. Loans, taxes, and standing armies
became the standing order of the day. The militia, said Secretary
Pickering, are not to be depended upon, and fifty thousand men must be
raised. For what? No cause to justify such measures has yet appeared. No
discovery of such a cause has yet been made. The pretended Sedition Law
shut up the sources of investigation, and the precipitate flight of John
Adams closed the scene. But the matter ought not to sleep here.

It is not to gratify resentment, or encourage it in others, that I enter
upon this subject. It is not in the power of man to