John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

23. V:30. A Mr Charles Jones came this morning and applied for the appointment of Consul at Demarara. Mr George Hay called and mentioned certain recent publications respecting the notorious Newburgh Letters, circulated in March 1783. instigating the army to mutiny— The author of them has always been supposed to be John Armstrong, a man variously distinguished in our later History, who has never explicitly avowed or disowned them publicly; but who as William Lee told me printed them while at Paris in a pamphlet, and distributed them among his acquaintance, as his own— He then gave one of them to Lee himself— Judge William Johnson, in his recently published sketches of the Life of General Greene, calls in question Armstrong’s authorship of these Letters, as far beyond his ability, and attributes them to Gouverneur Morris— Since then, and within these few days a paragraph has been current in the Newspapers seemingly though not avowedly from Armstrong himself, introducing a Letter, purporting to have been written by President Washington in 1793, to Armstrong. Mr Hay asked me if I had seen it this morning in the Alexandria Herald. I had not seen that paper, but had seen it lately in other Newspapers. Mr Hay asked if I had ever heard of that Letter before. I had heard there was such a 378Letter but have no distinct recollection when or where. The Letter purports to have been written 23. February 1793. and is now stated, on belief, as having been first published in 1803. It is a declaratory certificate that in writing his address to the army on the occasion of the Newburgh Letters General Washington did not regard Mr Armstrong as the author of those Letters, and further that he had since had reason for believing that the object of the author, was just, honourable, and friendly to the Country, although the means suggested by him were certainly liable to misunderstanding and abuse— And the reason alledged for giving this certificate are, the belief that there might be times and occasions, when the writer’s opinion of the anonymous Letters, as delivered to the army in 1783. might be turned to some personal and malignant purpose— Hay said he believed that this Letter was a forgery— It was impossible that General Washington should even have written such a Letter, or ever have certified that he had reason to believe that the object of the incendiary of Newburgh was just, honourable and friendly to the Country. I told Hay I was afraid that he had: as it was unquestionable that Mr Jefferson had nominated the incendiary to foreign Missions of the highest trust— As a member of the Senate, I had voted against that nomination, alledging distinctly as my reason that Mr Armstrong was known to be the author of the Newburgh Letters— Others voted against him for other reasons—no one alledged that; and the nomination was confirmed by the casting vote of the Vice-President— I told Hay that I still believed Armstrong to be the author of the Newburgh Letters— That I believed it impossible that their object should have been just, honourable or friendly to the Country— That I believed Armstrong to be one of the ablest writers and most unprincipled public men, that this Country had ever produced— And that General Washington, Mr Jefferson, Mr Madison, George Clinton, the Senate of the United States, and the Legislature of New-York, all of whom had at various times, and in diverse manners concurred in appointing him to great public trusts, had indulgently overlooked the depravity of the Newburgh Letters, or attributed them to a youthful excess of an ambitious Spirit; afterwards chastised by experience into honour and honesty— I had myself been willing for some time to cherish such hopes; but Mr Armstrong’s public life has been but too clearly marked with the stamp of the Newburgh Letters— And I thought Judge Johnson’s suggestion that they were written by Governeur Morris, very feebly supported by his evidence— Hay said he thought so too— But he could not believe General Washington had ever written this Letter; and he mentioned reasons for disbelieving it— That no mention of it was made in Marshall’s Life of him— That his signature as printed in the Newspaper was not like that habitually used by the General, and that it was impossible he should have entertained the sentiment expressed in it— Mr Hay has I think particular motives for these enquiries. The President returned this day from Loudoun. I received despatches from Mr Rush at London, and from Mr Forsyth at Madrid— Mr Rush sends a copy of the Convention lately concluded by Mr. Middleton at St. Petersburg— Mr Forsyth gives an account of the convulsive political State of Spain— Mr Calhoun called at the Office and I gave him Rush’s despatch, to take him with him. Force called with the last revised sheet of my pamphlet, the publication of which will be yet some days delayed— I spent the Evening at Mr Frye’s—