It might be inferred from this that Mr. Adams was as obstinate in
prejudice as in opinion, but as he had demonstrated to the contrary
in taking the unpopular cause of the British soldiers at the
beginning of his public career, he showed it still more strikingly
by renewing and continuing until his death a friendship with
Jefferson which had been interrupted by the fierce struggle over the
Alien and Sedition Act.


INAUGURAL ADDRESS (March 4th. 1797)

When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course
for America remained, between unlimited submission to a foreign
legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of
reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable
powers of fleets and armies they must determine to resist, than from
those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise
concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole
and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on
the purity of their attentions, the justice of their cause, and the
integrity and intelgence of the people, under an over-ruling
Providence, which had so signally protected this country from the
first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little
more than half its present numbers, not only broke to pieces the
chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that was lifted up,
but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched
into an ocean of uncertainty.

The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary War,
supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order,