bout as that was before its necessity was apparent
but by the sure and inscrutable wisdom so marvellously enclosed in the
great popular instinct. It was not patent, when Mr. Jefferson
succeeded Mr. Adams, that Federalism was soon to become an unsound
political creed--unsound, not because it had been defeated, but
because it had done its work, and in the new emergency was destined to
blunder. During Mr. Jefferson's first administration no questions of
novel import arose. But they were not far distant, and soon were
presented by the British aggressions. A grave crisis was created by
this system of organized destruction of property and wholesale
stealing of citizens, now suddenly practised with such terrible
energy. What was to be done? What had the two great parties to advise
concerning the policy of the country in this hour of peril?
Unfortunately for the Federalists old predilections were allowed (p. 062)
now to govern their present action. Excusably Anglican in the bygone
days of Genet's mission, they now remained still Anglican, when to be
Anglican was to be emphatically un-American. As one reads the history
of 1807 and 1808 it is impossible not to feel almost a sense of
personal gratitude to John Quincy Adams that he dared to step out from
his meek-spirited party and do all that circumstances rendered
possible to promote resistance to insults and wrongs intolerable. In
truth, he was always a man of high temper, and eminently a patriotic
citizen of the United States. Unlike too many even of the best among
his countrymen in those early years of the Republic, he had no foreign
sympathies whatsoever; he was neither French nor English, but wholly,
exclusively, and warmly American. He had no second love; the United
States filled his public heart and monopolized his political
affections. When he was abroad he established neither affiliations nor
antipathies, and when he was at home he drifted with no party whose
course was governed by foreign magnets. It needs only that this
characteristic should be fully understood in order that his conduct in
1808 should be not alone vindicated but greatly admired.

At that time it was said, and it has been since repeated, that he (p. 063)
was allured by the loaves and fishes which the Republicans could
distribute, while the Federalists could cast to him only meagre and
uncertain crusts. Circumstances gave to the accusation such a
superficial plausibility that it was believed by many h