of your
representatives, for anything. But I value your good opinion, and
wish to show you that I do not deserve to lose it."--"I come to
repel the charges of General Smyth, but neither for the purpose of
moving you to withhold your suffrages from him, nor induce the
General himself to reconsider his opinion concerning me."--"As to
his opinions, you will permit me to be indifferent to the opinions
of a man capable of forming his judgment of character from such
premises as he has alleged in support of his estimate of
mine."--"His mode of proof is this: He has ransacked the journals of
the Senate during the five years I had the honor of a seat in that
body,--a period the expiration of which is nearly fifteen years
distant,--and wherever he has found in the list of yeas and nays my
name recorded to a vote which he disapproves, he has imputed it,
without knowing any of the grounds on which it was given, to the
worst of motives, for the purpose of ascribing them to me. Is this
fair? Is this candid? Is this just? Where is the man who ever served
in a legislative capacity in your councils whose character could
stand a test like this?"

Mr. Adams then proceeds to reply to all the charges brought against him
by Alexander Smyth, analyzing and explaining every vote which he had
made the subject of animadversion fully and successfully. The close of
his defence is as follows:

"Fellow-Citizens: I have explained to you the reasons and real
motives of all the votes which your representative, General
Alexander Smyth, has laid to my charge, in a printed address to you,
and to which unusual publicity has been given in the newspapers. I
am aware that, in presenting myself before you to give this
explanation, my conduct may again be attributed to unworthy motives.
The best actions may be, and have been, and will be, traced to
impure sources, by those to whom troubled waters are a delight. If,
in many cases, when the characters of public men are canvassed,
however severely, it is their duty to suffer and be silent, there
are others, in my belief many others, wherein their duty to their
country, as well as to themselves and their children, is to stand
forth the guardians and protectors of their own honest fame. Had
your representative, in asking again for your votes, contented
himself with declaring to you his