Jefferson was opposed to the French war.  The aid afforded by France in our Revolution had made grateful the public heart, and the people were indisposed to rush into a war with her for slight cause.  The pen of Jefferson was never idle:  he knew the general feeling, and inflamed it, and what the consequences to the country might have been, had not the war come to an abrupt and speedy end, there are no means of knowing.  The trial and conviction of Lyon and Cooper under the Sedition Law, aroused a burst of indignation from the people.  Still it taught no wisdom to Mr. Adams.  He was urged to have their prosecutions abandoned, but he refused.  After conviction, he was seriously pressed to pardon these men, in obedience to the popular will, but he persistently refused, and Lyon was continued in prison until liberated by the success of the Republican party, and the repeal of the offensive and impolitic laws soon after.

Adams professed great veneration for the character of Washington, and he was doubtless sincere.  Yet he never lost sight of the fact that it was he who had seconded the motion when made in Congress by Samuel Adams to appoint Washington commander-in-chief of the armies of the Revolution, or that it was he who suggested it to Samuel Adams, and that he sustained the motion in a speech of burning eloquence.  He felt that this conferred an obligation and that Washington was at times unmindful of this.  He was more exacting than generous, and more suspicious than confiding.  In truth, Adams had more mind than soul; more ambition than patriotism, and more impulse than discretion.  Yet the country owes him much.  He was a great support in the cause of the Revolution, and his folly was to charge too high for his services.  The people honored him—­they have honored his family, and will yet make his son President.  He received all they could give, and his littleness crept out in his desire for more.

General Washington’s estimate of men was generally correct.  He understood Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Burr.  I do not think he was personally attached to any one of them; yet he appreciated them as the public now do.  He had need of the talents of Hamilton and Jefferson.  The organization of the Government required the first minds of the country; and Washington was the man to call them to his side.  In nothing did he show more greatness than in this.  He knew Jefferson was without principle, but he knew that he was eminently talented; he could forget the one, and call to his aid the other.  His confidence in the integrity of Hamilton was stronger, as well as in his ability.  Upon all matters of deep concern to the country he consulted both, and these consultations often brought these two men into antagonistical positions before him, and upon important public matters—­one of which was the constitutionality of a United States Bank.  To each of these, when the charter of the bank was before him, he addressed a note requesting