Adams, John as Second President

Autograph letter signed ("John Adams"), one page (9 3/4 x 8 in.; 248 x 203 mm), Philadelphia, 28 June 1797, to Uriah Forrest, thanking him for an extract of a Jefferson letter to his relative Peregrine Fitzhugh and excoriating the Vice-President for his criticism of Adams's administration; bottom third of letter dampstained, left margin spotted, matted, glazed and framed with an engraved portrait of Adams.  

Autograph letter signed ("John Adams"), one page (9 3/4 x 8 in.; 248 x 203 mm), Philadelphia, 28 June 1797, to Uriah Forrest, thanking him for an extract of a Jefferson letter to his relative Peregrine Fitzhugh and excoriating the Vice-President for his criticism of Adams's administration; bottom third of letter dampstained, left margin spotted, matted, glazed and framed with an engraved portrait of Adams.
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"It is evidence of a Mind sowered, yet seeking for Popularity, and eaten to an honeycomb with ambition; yet weak, confused, uniformed and ignorant." Adams angrily lashes out at his dissenting Vice-President and old friend, Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to fellow Federalist Uriah Forrest.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had both run for the presidency, with Adams winning the election by three electoral votes. Under the Constitution of 1787, the candidate with the second highest number of votes became vice-president, regardless of party affiliations. While Adams was a staunch Federalist, Jefferson belonged to the opposing Republican party, which held differing objectives and principles. Therefore Adams could never count on Jefferson for the unconditional loyalty he himself had exercised as Washington's second in command. And this latest criticism would sharply mark the cessation of personal friendliness on Adams's part; reconciliation between these two old friends would not occur until 1812.  

Shortly after the inauguration, several events prompted Adams to call a special session of Congress to consider how to resolve issues involving relations with the French. France had regarded Jay's Treaty as a betrayal by the United States since it granted the Americans the right to trade with British possessions in India and the Caribbean. America's renewed economic ties with the mother country were viewed as a shifting of the American alliance from France to Great Britain.  In 1797, with authorization from the Republic of France, French privateers continued to prey on American mercantile shipping. With America lacking a military and naval presence, there was no stopping the depredations. Furthermore, Napoleon's government rejected the new American minister to France, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

Jefferson harbored misgivings about Adams convening Congress so precipitously, which he confided to his friend Peregrine Fitzhugh in a letter dated 9 March: "I have just recieved a summons to Congress for the 15^th. of next month. I am sorry for it as every thing pacific could have been done without Congress, and I hope nothing is contemplated which is not pacific" (Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 29:346–347). "At the opening of the congressional session, Adams accused the French of treating her old American ally 'neither as allies or friends nor as a sovereign state,' and urged Congress to show the French that the Americans were not the 'miserable instruments of foreign influence' who had no regard for 'natural honor, character, and interest'" (Annals of Congress, 5^th Congress, 1^st session, 15 May 1797 in Randall, Thomas Jefferson, p. 524). Adams called for a "fresh attempt" at negotiation with France, and an increase of American military defenses. "While we are endeavoring to adjust all our differences with France by amicable negotiation, with the progress of the war in Europe, the depredations on our commerce, the personal injuries to our citizens, and the general complexion of our affairs, render it my duty to recommend your consideration of effectual measures of defense" (quoted in McCullough, John Adams, p. 484). Federalists compared the speech to the American eagle, an olive branch clasped in one talon and the emblems of defense in the other. Shocked by the speech, the Republicans—most notably Jefferson—failed to comprehend how Adams could reconcile peace negotiations with a military build-up.

In a lengthy, confidential letter to Peregrine Fitzhugh dated 4 June, Jefferson accuses Adams of convening the Congress to measure their receptiveness to war with the French and harshly criticizes him for sounding a belligerent alarum: "In fact I consider the calling Congress so out of season as an experiment of the new administration, to see how far and in what line they could count on it's support. ... It is visible from the complexion of the President's speech that he was disposed or perhaps advised to proceed in a line which would endanger the peace of our country: and though the address is nearly responsive yet it would be too bold to proceed on so small a majority" (Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 29:416). Jefferson also devises a tax plan that would render state legislatures "useful allies and associates instead of degraded rivals." He also criticizes the federal judges who "invited Grand juries to become inquisitors on the freedom of speech, of writing and of principle of their fellow citizens" and wishes to see protestations against "this perversion of their institution from a legal to a political engine." Instead of keeping Jefferson's letter confidential as instructed, Fitzhugh bruited it about his fellow Republicans. Word spread, but the original context was mangled and exaggerated by the time it appeared in print.

"The Paper inclosed in [your letter of 23 June] is a serious thing. It will be a Motive in additional to many others, for me to be upon my Guard," writes Adams. To exonerate Jefferson, rather than show Adams's letter to a fellow Republican, Fitzhugh showed it to his relation, General Uriah Forrest, an ardent Federalist. Forrest in turn, produced an extract of the letter from memory (peppered with some of his own inflammatory embellishments) and out of patriotic duty, forwarded it to President Adams. The truth be told is that both Adams and Jefferson were desirous of peace with France, but each took a decidedly different path to attain that objective.