accuse me of a
persecuting spirit. But some explanation ought to be had. The motives
and objects respecting the extraordinary and expensive measures of the
former Administration ought to be known. The Sedition Law, that shield
of the moment, prevented it then, and justice demands it now. If the
public have been imposed upon, it is proper they should know it; for
where judgment is to act, or a choice is to be made, knowledge is first
necessary. The conciliation of parties, if it does not grow out of
explanation, partakes of the character of collusion or indifference.

1 Passed July 14, 1798, to continue until March 3, 1801.
This Act, described near the close of this Letter, and one
passed June 35th, giving the President despotic powers over
aliens in the United States, constituted the famous "Alien
and Sedition Laws." Hamilton opposed them, and rightly saw
in them the suicide of the Federal party.--_Editor._,

There has been guilt somewhere; and it is better to fix it where
it belongs, and separate the deceiver from the deceived, than that
suspicion, the bane of society, should range at large, and sour the
public mind. The military measures that were proposed and carrying on
during the former administration, could not have for their object the
defence of the country against invasion. This is a case that decides
itself; for it is self evident, that while the war raged in Europe,
neither France nor England could spare a man to send to America. The
object, therefore, must be something at home, and that something was the
overthrow of the representative system of government, for it could be
nothing else. But the plotters got into confusion and became enemies to
each other. Adams hated and was jealous of Hamilton, and Hamilton hated
and despised both Adams and Washington.(1) Surly Timothy stood aloof, as
he did at the affair of Lexington, and the part that fell to the public
was to pay the expense.(2)

1 Hamilton's bitter pamphlet against Adams appeared in 1800,
but his old quarrel with Washington (1781) had apparently
healed. Yet, despite the favors lavished by Washington on
Hamilton, there is no certainty that the latter ever changed
his unfavorable opinion of the former, as expressed in a
letter to General Schuylor, Feb. 18, 1781 (Lodge's
"Hamilton's Works," vol. viii., p. 35).--_Editor._

2 Colonel Pickering's failure, in 1775, to march his Salem