Note 18 — LETTER XXVII. TO JACOB SUTHERLAND, ESQ., GENEVA.

When General Jackson was running alone, in opposition to Mr. Adams, the English, under the impressions alluded to, above, and probably on account of ancient grudges, betrayed a strong disinclination to his success. Still, Mr. Adams was disliked, for he was believed to be unfriendly to England, and favourable to the system of protecting duties. Suddenly, the press of London, altered its tone in reference to the former, and from lavishing the usual scurrility, it began to speak of him in terms of respect. It is said that the English agents in America, notified their government that they were quarrelling with their bread and butter, and that the change of policy took place in consequence. These little occurrences should teach every American, how to appreciate praise, or censure, that comes from sources so venal. Mr. Adams probably understood the true foreign policy of the government, better than any political man who has been in power since the days of Jefferson. The protective system, the congress of Panama, though defeated in its objects by hostile influence, and the protest of the administration of Mr. Monroe, which is understood to have originated with Mr. Adams, are three of the most elevated, far sighted, and statesman-like measures, America ever undertook. The former, though run down by English influence, will quite likely be called for by the very states that now most oppose it, within the next five-and-twenty years. Nothing is more probable, than that the Constitution will be amended, solely with a view to this end, and that the cotton-growing states will first move in the matter. But for the redeeming act of the president, in recommending reprisals against France, the writer, a near looker on for most of the time, should say, that the character of the nation abroad, suffered much less during the administration of Mr. Adams, than during that of his successor, though the diplomatic tone was not what it ought to have been, under either administration. We boast a great deal of the dexterity with which the nation has got out of a difficulty, while we entirely overlook the capital fault by which it got into it. So far from the truculent spirit of democracy, inducing the government to rush into wars, the craven and temporising spirit of trade, the only concentrated interest of much available power in ordinary cases, has prevented it from maintaining the true interests of the country, in a dozen distinct instances, within the last twenty years.