The Hamiltonian group daily became more wrathful with the President. In addition to what they considered his mistakes of policy and party blunders, Adams's charge that they were a "British faction" angered them more and more as the circulation of it spread and the public credited it. Even "General M[arshall] said that the hardest thing for the Federalists to bear was the charge of British influence."[1219] That was just what the "Jacobins" had been saying all along.[1220] "If this cannot be counteracted, our characters are the sacrifice," wrote Hamilton in anger and despair.[1221] Adams's adherents were quite as vengeful against his party enemies. The rank and file of the Federalists were more and more disgusted with the quarrels of the party leaders. "I cannot describe ... how broken and scattered your federal friends are!" lamented Troup. "We have no rallying-point; and no mortal can divine where and when we shall again collect our strength.... Shadows, clouds, and darkness rest on our future prospects."[1222] The "Aurora" chronicles that "the disorganized state of the anti-Republican [Federalist] party ... is scarcely describable."[1223]
Marshall, alone, was trusted by all; a faith which deepened, as we shall see, during the perplexing months that follow. He strove for Federalist union, but without avail. Even the most savage of the President's party enemies felt that "there is not a man in the U. S. of better intentions [than Marshall] and he has the confidence of all good men—no man regrets more than he does the disunion which has taken place and no one would do more to heal the wounds inflicted by it. In a letter ... he says 'by union we can securely maintain our ground—without it we must sink & with us all sound correct American principle.' His efforts will ... prove ineffectual."[1224]
It seems certain, then, that Hamilton did not consult the one strong man in his party who kept his head in this hour of anger-induced madness. Yet, if ever any man needed the advice of a cool, far-seeing mind, lighted by a sincere and friendly heart, Hamilton required it then. And Marshall could and would have given it. But the New York Federalist chieftain conferred only with those who were as blinded by hate as he was himself. At last, in the midst of an absurd and pathetic confusion of counsels,[1225] Hamilton decided to attack the President, and, in October, wrote his fateful and fatal tirade against Adams.[1226] It was an extravaganza of party folly. It denounced Adams's "extreme egotism," "terrible jealousy," "eccentric tendencies," "violent rage"; and questioned "the solidity of his understanding." Hamilton's screed went back to the Revolution to discover faults in the President. Every act of his Administration was arraigned as a foolish or wicked mistake.
This stupid pamphlet was not to be made public, but to be circulated privately among the Federalist leaders in the various States. The watchful Burr secured a copy[1227] and published broadcast its bitterest passages. The Republican politicians shook with laughter; the Republican masses roared with glee.[1228] The rank and file of the Federalists were dazed, stunned, angered; the party leaders were in despair. Thus exposed, Hamilton made public his whole pamphlet. Although its purpose was to further the plan to secure for Pinckney more votes than would be given Adams, it ended with the apparent advice to support both. Absurd conclusion! There might be intellects profound enough to understand why it was necessary to show that Adams was not fit to be President and yet that he should be voted for; but the mind of the average citizen could not fathom such ratiocination. Hamilton's influence was irreparably impaired.[1229] The "Washington Federalist" denounced his attack as "the production of a disappointed man" and declared that Adams was "much his superior as a statesman."[1230]
The campaign was a havoc of virulence. The Federalists' hatred for one another increased their fury toward the compact Republicans, who assailed their quarreling foes with a savage and unrestrained ferocity. The newspapers, whose excesses had whipped even the placid Franklin into a rage a few years before, now became geysers spouting slander, vituperation, and unsavory[1231] insinuations. "The venal, servile, base and stupid"[1232] "newspapers are an overmatch for any government," cried Ames. "They will first overawe and then usurp it."[1233] And Noah Webster felt that "no government can be durable ... under the licentiousness of the press that now disgraces our country."[1234] Discordant Federalists and harmonious Republicans resorted to shameful methods.[1235] "Never ... was there such an Election in America."[1236]
As autumn was painting the New England trees, Adams, still tarrying at his Massachusetts home, wrote Marshall to give his "sentiments as soon as possible in writing" as to what the President should say to Congress when it met December 3.[1237] Three days later, when his first request was not yet halfway to Washington, Adams, apparently forgetful of his first letter, again urged Marshall to advise him as President in regard to his forthcoming farewell address to the National Legislature.[1238]
Statue of John Marshall
By W. W. Story, at the Capitol, Washington, D. C.
Marshall not only favored the President with his "sentiments"—he wrote every word of the speech which Adams delivered to Congress and sent it to the distressed Chief Magistrate in such haste that he did not even make a copy.[1239] This presidential address, the first ever made to Congress in Washington, was delivered exactly as Marshall wrote it, with a change of only one word "much" for "such" and the omission of an adjective "great."[1240]
The address is strong on the necessity for military and naval preparation. It would be "a dangerous imprudence to abandon those measures of self-protection ... to which ... violence and the injustice of others may again compel us to resort.... Seasonable and systematic arrangements ... for a defensive war" are "a wise and true economy." The navy is described as particularly important, coast defenses are urged, and the manufacture of domestic arms is recommended in order to "supercede the necessity of future importations." The extension of the national Judiciary is pressed as of "primary importance ... to the public happiness."[1241]