The
Federalists, on the other hand, were alarmed at the anarchical tendencies
in France. They were fearful that law, order, government, and society
itself, would be utterly and speedily swept away, unless the revolutionary
movement was arrested. Cherishing these apprehensions, they were disposed
to favor the views of Great Britain and other European powers, and were
anxious that the government of the United States should adopt some active
measures to assist in checking what they could not but view as rapid
strides to political and social anarchy. However the two parties differed
as to the measures proper to be adopted in this crisis, they were united
in the conviction that our government should take some part as a
belligerant, in these European struggles; and exerted each its influence
to bring about such an interference as would be in accordance with their
conflicting views of duty and expediency.

There was residing, at this period, in Boston, a young and nearly
briefless lawyer, whose views on these important matters differed
materially from those entertained by both parties. It was John Quincy
Adams. While he could not countenance the attempts of the Allied Powers to
destroy the French Republic, and re-establish a monarchy, he was equally
far from favoring the turn which affairs were clearly taking in that
unhappy country. He evidently foresaw the French Revolution would prove a
failure; and that it was engendering an influence which, unchecked, would
be deeply injurious to American liberty and order. To counteract this
tendency, he published in the Boston Centinel, in 1791, a series of
articles, signed "Publicola," in which he discussed with great ability,
the wild vagaries engendered among political writers in France, and which
had been caught up by many in our own country. These articles attracted
much attention, both at home and abroad. They were re-published in
England, as an answer to several points in Paine's "Rights of Man." So
profound was the political sagacity they displayed, and so great the
familiarity with public affairs, that they were, by general consent,
attributed to the elder Adams. On this subject, John Adams writes his wife
as follows, from Philadelphia, on the 5th December, 1793:--

"The Viscount Noailles called on me. * * * * He seemed very critical in
his inquiries concerning the letters printed as mine in England. I told
him candidly that I did not write them, and as frankly, in confidence,