I first
met with it at Bladensburg, and for a moment conceived I must take the
field of the public papers. I could not disavow it wholly, because the
greatest part was mine in substance, though not in form. I could not
avow it as it stood, because the form was not mine, and, in one place,
the substance very materially falsified. This, then, would render
explanations necessary; nay, it would render proofs of the whole
necessary, and draw me at length into a publication of all (even the
secret) transactions of the administration, while I was of it: and
embroil me personally with every member of the executive, with the
judiciary, and with others still. I soon decided in my own mind, to be
entirely silent. I consulted with several friends at Philadelphia, who,
every one of them, were clearly against my avowing or disavowing, and
some of them conjured me most earnestly to let nothing provoke me to it.
I corrected in conversation with them, a substantial misrepresentation
in the copy published. The original has a sentiment like this (for
I have it not before me), 'They are endeavoring to submit us to the
substance, as they already have to the forms of the British government;'
meaning by forms, the birth-days, levees, processions to parliament,
inauguration pomposities, fee.
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