self-government than George Washington: but when,
finally, he was not only stung to fury by the constant and systematic
calumnies of Jefferson's slanting art, but fearful for the permanence of
his measures, in the gradual unsettling of the public mind, he took off
his coat; and Jefferson knew that the first engagement of the final
battle had begun in earnest, that the finish would be the retirement of
one or other from the Cabinet.

Hamilton began by mathematically demonstrating that Freneau was the tool
of Jefferson, imported and suborned for the purpose of depressing the
national authority, and exposed the absurdity of the denials of both.
When he had finished dealing with this proposition, its day for being a
subject of animated debate was over. He then laid before the public
certain facts in the career of Jefferson with which they were
unacquainted: that he had first discountenanced the adoption of the
Constitution, and then advised the ratification of nine of the States
and the refusal of four until amendments were secured,--a proceeding
which infallibly would have led to civil war; that he had advocated the
transfer of the debt due to France to a company of Hollanders in these
words: "If there is a _danger_ of the public debt _not being punctual_,
I submit whether it may not be better, that _the discontents which would
then arise_ should be _transferred_ from a _court_ of whose _good-will
we have so much need_ to the _breasts_ of a _private company_"--an
obviously dishonourable suggestion, particularly as the company in view
was a set of speculators. It was natural enough, however, in a man whose
kink for repudiation in general led him to promulgate the theory that
one generation cannot bind another for the payment of a debt. Hamilton,
having disposed of Jefferson's attempts, under the signature of
Aristides, to wriggle out of both these accusations, discoursed upon the
disloyal fact that the Secretary of State was the declared opponent of
every important measure which had been devised by the Government, and
proceeded to lash him for his hypocrisy in sitting daily at the right
hand of the President while privately slandering him; of exercising all
the arts of an intriguing mind, ripened by a long course of European
diplomacy, to undermine an Administration whose solidity was the only
guaranty for the continued prosperity and honour of the country.
Hamilton reminded the people, with a pen too pointed to fail of
con