Excerpt from The Diplomatick Policy of Mr. Madison Unveiled
There are some, however, who are neither so candid or so enlightened as to be entirely open to conviction, and yet not so prejudiced as to be proof against its force - who had learned from sad experience to distrust the sincerity of Mr. Jefferson, and were therefore capable of discussing with closeness the nature of his measures: - Yet these same persons deem it unfair to examine, with the same degree of suspicion, the conduct of Mr. Madison.
A charitable sentiment towards this Gentleman has acquired a wonderful influence, owing principally to the undeserved parse incautiously bestowed upon a measure little understood, and which, when thoroughly examined, will be found to merit a high degree of censure. The adjustment with G Britain was a measure so gratifying to all the true lovers of their country, and of its peace, that without reflection, they were willing to bury all past recollection of Mr. Madison's conduct, and to believe that a statesman who had grown hoary in the cultivation of deep antipathies to Great Britain, who had staked his literary reputation (dearer to an author than Country or life) in favor of principles which rendered a sincere accommodation absolutely hopeless, had, by a sort of miracle, been converted by a feeble, diplomatick s ipling of Great Britain, into a sincere friend to an honorable accommodation.
It was openly said that Mr. Madison always had been at heart a Federalist: - that he had never pledged himself to the system of eternal hatred to England which formed the most marked feature in the policy of his predecessor; - that the part which he had borne under that administration was only subordinate and theatrical; and that no opinion could be formed from that cause of his future measures.
Disgraceful as such a supposition was to his character, mean as must his conduct have been thus to have played the hypocrite or the slave, and false as his measures now prove this sentiment to have been; yet these opinions gained proselytes - and there have been moments in which Mr. Madison, for an act which will eventually destroy his reputation, might have obtained the suffrages of the degraded federalists.
Though the counteraction will eventually be as strong as the deception was complete, and deep indignation will succeed to momentary applause; yet, at this moment, the difficulties of a publick writer are materially increased.
Adapted to this state of things must be our course of procedure. - The Political History of Mr. Madison will be first and briefly discussed, in order to shew us what we had a right to expect of him, and to prove that hatred to Great Britain and attachment to French politicks were deeply rooted in his own character totally independent of his connection with Mr. Jefferson.
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