[1104] Adams to Rush, Aug. 23, 1805; Old Family Letters, 76.
[1105] Cabot to King, April 26, 1799; King, iii, 8.
[1106] Wolcott was as malicious as, but more cautious than, Pickering in his opposition to the President.
[1107] "He [Adams] is liable to gusts of passion little short of frenzy.... I speak of what I have seen." (Bayard to Hamilton, Aug. 18, 1800; Works: Hamilton, vi, 457.) "He would speak in such a manner ... as to persuade one that he was actually insane." (McHenry to John McHenry, May 20, 1800; Gibbs, ii, 347.) "Mr. Adams had conducted strangely and unaccountably." (Ames to Hamilton, Aug. 26, 1800; Works: Ames, i, 280.) These men were Adams's enemies; but the extreme irritability of the President at this time was noted by everybody. Undoubtedly this was increased by his distress over the illness of his wife.
[1108] McHenry to John McHenry, May 20, 1800; Gibbs, ii, 347.
[1109] See preceding chapter.
[1110] Aurora, May 9, 1800; the Aurora had been attacking Pickering with all the animosity of partisanship.
[1111] The French press had been quite as much under the control of the Revolutionary authorities as it was under that of Bonaparte as First Consul or even under his rule when he had become Napoleon I.
[1112] Aurora, May 27, 1800.
[1113] Ib., June 4, 1800; and June 17, 1800. The Aurora now made a systematic campaign against Pickering. It had "substantial and damning facts" which it threatened to publish if Adams did not subject Pickering to a "scrutiny" (ib., May 21, 1800). Pickering was a "disgrace to his station" (ib., May 23); several hundred thousand dollars were "unaccounted for" (ib., June 4, and 17).