“ pamphlet. I accordingly wrote a note of compliment informing him that I did it at the desire of mr Beckley, &, to take off a little of the dryness of the note, I added that I was glad it was to be reprinted here & that something was to be publicly said against the political heresies which had sprung up among us &c. I thought so little of this note that I did not even keep a copy of it: nor ever heard a tittle more of it till, the week following, I was thunderstruck with seeing it come out at the head of the pamphlet. I hoped however it would not attract notice. but I found on my return from a journey of a month that a writer came forward under the signature of Publicola, attacking not only the author & principles of the pamphlet, but myself as it’s sponsor, by name. soon after came hosts of other writers defending the pamphlet & attacking you by name as the writer of Publicola. thus were our names thrown on the public stage as public antagonists. that you & I differ in our ideas of the best form of government is well known to us both: but we have differed as friends should do, respecting the purity of each other’s motives, & confining our difference of opinion to private conversation. and I can declare with truth in the presence of the almighty that nothing was further from my intention or expectation than to have had either my own or your name brought before the public on this occasion. the friendship & confidence which has so long existed between us required this explanation from me, & I know you too well to fear any misconstruction of the motives of it. some people here who would wish me to be, or to be thought, guilty of improprieties, have suggested that I was Agricola, that I was Brutus &c. &c. I never did in my life, either by myself or by any other, have a sentence of mine inserted in a newspaper without putting my name to it; & I believe I never shall. ”

To this Adams replied on July 29 from Braintree, Mass.: “Yesterday at Boston, I received your friendly Letter of July 17 ^th. with great pleasure. I give full credit to your relation of the manner, in which your note was written and prefixed to the Philadelphia edition of Mr Paine’s pamphlet on the rights of Man: but the misconduct of the person, who committed this breach of your confidence, by making it publick, whatever were his intentions, has sown the seeds of more evils, than he can ever attone for. The Pamphlet, with your name, to so striking a recommendation of it, was not only industriously propagated in New York and Boston; but, that the recommendation might be known to every one, was reprinted with great care in the Newspapers, and was generally considered as a direct and open personal attack upon me, by countenancing the false interpretation of my writings as favouring the Introduction of hereditary Monarchy and Aristocracy into this Country. The Question every where was what Heresies are intended by the Secretary of State? The Answer in the Newspapers was, The Vice Presidents notions of a Limited Monarchy, an hereditary Government of King and Lords, with only elective commons. Emboldened by these murmurs soon after appeared the Paragraphs of an unprincipled Libeller in the New Haven Gazette, carefully reprinted in the Papers of New York, Boston and Philadelphia, holding up the Vice President to the ridicule of the World, for his meanness, and to their detestation for wishing to Subjugate the People to a few Nobles. These were soon followed by a formal speech of the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts very solemnly holding up the Idea of hereditary Powers and cautioning the Publick against them, as if they were at that moment in the most imminent danger of them. These things were all accompanied with the most marked neglect, both of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of this State towards me; and alltogether opperated as an Hue and Cry to all my Ennemies and Rivals, to the old constitutional faction of Pensilvania in concert with the late Insurgents of Massachusetts, both of whom consider my Writings as the Cause of their overthrow, to hunt me down like a hare, if they could.-- In this State of Things, Publicola, who, I suppose thought that Mr Paines Pamphlet was made use of as an Instrument to destroy a Man, for whom he had a regard, ”