HISTORY Ol? VERiMONT. 315 



ration of their opinions and sentiments respect- 

 ing the characters of all the presidents, Wash- 

 ington, Adams, and Jefferson. It deplored the 

 increasing rage of party spirit, announced their 

 tvish to strengthen the union and augment the 

 dignity of the United States, and expressed their 

 hopes that all their public acts would conduce 

 to the best interests of the state. The address 

 was written in a peculiarity of language ; and 

 contained expressions and phrases, from which 

 it could not be clearly determined what was 

 meant, and what was not meant by the writer. 

 Some of the paragraphs were in this style : '' We 



* with you, sir, most sincerely lament the pro-r 



* gress of party spirit. True it is, and with sor- 



* row do we acknowledge that the moderate, the 



* wise, the prudent Washington, with all his 



* great and good qualities, did not escape from 



* the tongue of slander. Endeavors also have 



* been made, at no very distant period, to en- 



* velope in a cloud of black detraction, those 

 *. .patriotic exertions of an Adams, so highly 

 *^ conspicuous, and eminently serviceable, at an 



* early period of our revolution, in an hour of 



* extreme weakness, before even we had arrived 



< at the years of political manhood. But the 



* animadversions on the. administration of our 



* present chief magistrate, our mild, our serene, 



* our benevolent Jetferson, have been clothed 



* in language, charged with peculiar and unpre^ 



* cedented venom. The purity of his motives, 



* the applause he receives from the great majori- 



< ty of his fellow citizens, must however, svveet- 



* en his injured feelings, and create in his heart 



* a generous and benevolent compassion for his 

 *■ revilers,"^ • Page 114, uj. 



