Let our patriots destroy Anarch's pestilent worm, Lest our liberty's growth should be checked by

corrosion;

Then let clouds thicken round us; we heed not the storm;

Our realm fears no shock, but the earth's own explosion;

Foes assail us in vain,

Though their fleets bridge the main, For our altars and laws, with our lives, we'll maintain.

For ne'er shall the sons, etc.

Should the tempest of war overshadow our land, Its bolts could ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder;

For, unmoved, at its portal would Washington stand,

And repulse with his breast the assaults of the thunder!

His sword from the sleep

Of its scabbard would leap,

And conduct with its point every flash to the deep.

For ne'er shall the sons, etc.

Let fame to the world sound America's voice; No intrigues can her sons from their govern

ment sever:

Her pride is her Adams; her laws are his choice,

And shall flourish till Liberty slumbers forever. Then unite heart and hand,

Like Leonidas' band,

And swear to the God of the ocean and land, That ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves,

While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.

Stedman and Hutchinson, American Literature (III. 75), (N. Y., 1888), IV. 341-342.

15.

The Sword and the Olive Branch (1798)

By JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

(See note above, p. 36.)

In this point of view I have some little hesitation at assenting entirely to your opinion, that active hostilities should be urged on our side. That our vessels should be permitted to arm was, I think, perfectly right, but it seems to me that you ought still to keep the defensive. Let us put on the shield and the helmet, and even draw the sword, but never cease to hold out the olive branch, and carefully keep the odium of aggression upon the enemy's shoulders. We shall need only a little patience to come to the same result, for they feel themselves so strong, so in

vulnerable, and so formidable, that they will increase their provocations, without needing any occasion for them on our part. Special letters of reprisal must soon be given, but at every step I hope our government will declare and prove their earnest inclination for peace. You think the war passions must be engaged; but is it not better that they should be engaged by the irritations of the enemy, than by the instigation of the government? For my own part I believe that in our country the government can never carry through any war, unless the strong, unequivocal and decided voice of the people leads them into it. The impulse must go from the circumference to the center. I have seen hitherto no such spirit, notwithstanding all the provocations, indignities and injuries we have received.

In

In Congress, one half of the House of Representatives have to the last moment contested every measure, even of the defensive kind. the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, but a few days before the publication of the last dispatches and after the message of 19 March, 1 a resolution was proposed to instruct their members in Congress against every measure that could lead to war, and it was lost only by three or four votes. Even now the most indefatigable pains are taken to throw the blame of a rupture upon our government, or rather upon the President personally, and there are men enough

among us of consequence and influence most heartily disposed to second this purpose.

Let events be what they will, the idea will be maintained by many, and even a shadow of foundation would be sufficient to make it generally prevalent. I rather wish, therefore that the present exertions may be limited to arming for defence and collecting force in case of future need. .

You wish to live at peace with America, and in answer to her complaints of violence and rapine, after rejecting her ministers of peace, you tell the Americans that the men in their highest offices are the blind and servile tools of Great Britain; that they wish to make them adopt the British Constitution, and are rushing into war to force it upon the people. Is this language pacific? Is it friendly towards the American government? Could inveteracy the most deadly say more? But your friendship is for the people, not for the government. Have not all your injuries, all your depredations, been committed upon the people? Have the government even complained of any personal injury done to them, however great their occasion? Have the long series of executive arrêtés and legislative decrees contrary to the solemn stipulations of your treaties, contrary to the universally recognized laws of nations, contrary to the common principles of humanity; have the numberless depreda

tions committed without any arrêté or decree, but under color of your authority, and to a representation of which you refuse to listen, have not all these been acts of hostility to the people? Are you now more ready to redress these wrongs? Have you repealed those arrêtés or decrees? Have you ever ceased to execute them? If on the contrary they are all continued and increasing, what is your declaration of peace and friendship but a smile upon the face, while you plunge the stiletto to the heart?

Such it appears to me would be the natural and just reply of every true American. If, however, the Directory really felt any disposition of peace or friendship towards us, I most ardently desire that every just disposition may be met with a similar spirit of conciliation, not by base and degrading submission to injustice unrepaired and unremoved; not by humiliating and oppressive contributions under the name of loans; not by bribes through channels formal or informal, through native Frenchmen or foreign intrigues, but by an unaltered, an unalterable system of truth and justice, and an honest determination even after all that has happened to do for the friendship of France everything consistent with the duties of a neutral, and the rights and honor of a free and independent nation.

John Quincy Adams, Writings, (N. Y., 1913), II. 301-321 passim.