now cherished the idea that there was a conspiracy on foot, headed by
Adams and Hamilton, to overthrow the republican institutions of the
United States, and on their ruins to erect a mixed government like that
of England, composed of a monarchy and aristocracy. To counteract these
political heresies, Paine's Rights of Man, which he wrote in reply to
Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution (a performance which Adams
held in "perfect detestation," but which other patriots regarded as one
of which any man might be proud), was reprinted and circulated in the
United States, with a complimentary note from Mr. Jefferson at its
head--"a note which Mr. Jefferson declared he neither desired nor
expected to have printed;" not because he did not approve of Paine's
doctrines, but because he did not wish to take such responsibility at
that crisis and while in his official position. He rejoiced, however, at
the reprint of Paine's essay.

"Paine's pamphlet," he said in a letter to Mr. Short, the American
_charge d'affaires_ at Paris, "has been published and read with general
applause here;" and then he proceeds to charge "Adams, Jay, Hamilton,
Knox, _and many of the Cincinnati_," with endeavoring "to make way for a
king, lords, and commons." "The second" (Jay), he said, "says nothing;
the third [Hamilton] is open. Both are dangerous. They pant after union
with England, as the power which is to support their projects, and are
most determined anti-Gallicans." This, as time has demonstrated, was a
most unjust and ungenerous charge. So thoroughly was Mr. Jefferson then
imbued with the spirit of the French revolution, in its most democratic
and destructive aspect--so bitter was his hatred of monarchy and
aristocracy--that his judgment seemed entirely perverted, his usual
charity utterly congealed; and every man who differed with him in
opinion was regarded as a conspirator against the rights of mankind.

In after years, when the passions of the times had passed away, he
reiterated his opinion that Adams and Hamilton were at that time seeking
the subversion of republican institutions in the United States. "The one
[Adams]," he said, "was for two hereditary branches, and an honest
elective one; the other [Hamilton] for an hereditary king, with a house
of lords and commons, corrupted to his will, and standing between him
and the people. Hamilton was indeed a singular character. Of acute
understanding, disinterested, honest, and honorable i