These war measures will protect us from insurrection and subversion.
And that is the principle behind these measures - the prevention of war.
You cannot protect the nation by attacking the right of every man to speak freely without fear. You're trampling on the Constitution. The states will have no alternative but to resist these measures, which are an assault on the liberty of their people.
Yes, but the people's representatives demanded these acts. Would you have me deaf to the voice of the people?
If we're forced to rely on incompetent state militias for our defense, we may as well start learning French now, Mr. President. [chuckling] A national army binds the country much as a national bank does.
Alexander Hamilton: Should victory fall to Britain, as it most surely must, then the Bourbons are likely to regain the throne of France. Any dealings with a current illegitimate government there could well redound to our detriment, leading us back into a war with Britain we can ill-afford to wage.
John Adams: What if the French, not the British, emerge victorious, Mr. Hamilton? The pretender Bonaparte is within a hairsbreadth of victory over most of Europe.
Alexander Hamilton: In that regrettable instance, we must be prepared to take possession of valuable, strategic territory before France can lay her hands on it. All the territory this side of the Mississippi must be ours.
John Adams: You would seize Spanish Florida and Louisiana?
Alexander Hamilton: And not only those, sir. If universal empire is to be the pursuit of France, what can tend to defeat their purpose better than to detach South America from Spain? It is the only channel through which the riches of Mexico and Peru convey to France. Let us not forget there are those in our own country, sir, who would prefer secession to our continued Union. If they should be so bold as to act on their threats in the event, say, of a French victory, we must be prepared to bring the renegades back into the fold by force if necessary.
John Adams: Never in my life have I heard a man speak more like a fool.
Alexander Hamilton: Sir?
John Adams: Your actions, Mr. Hamilton, would precipitate the very thing that you pretend to protect against: the dissolution of this nation. May I inform you as well, sir, that I am in possession of intelligence that confirms that we are as likely to see a French army on these shores as we are on the moon! You dream of empire, Mr. Hamilton!
Alexander Hamilton: You question my loyalty, sir?
John Adams: Oh, no, Mr. Hamilton, I question your sanity. Now either you are stark raving mad, or I am! Good day, sir!
Timothy Pickering: [after he and James McHenry fail to convince Adams to go to war with France] Your stubbornness will be our ruin. You would surrender our party's interests to Mr. Jefferson and his so-called Republicans.
John Adams: And you, sirs, are subservient to Hamilton, who ruled General Washington and would rule me if he could. Mr. Jefferson, whom you despise, is an infinitely better man. I would rather be vice president under him or resident minister to the Barbary pirates than be indebted to a creature such as Hamilton for my present post! Now, your immediate resignations will be accepted, gentlemen.
Timothy Pickering: I do not feel it my duty to resign.
John Adams: Excellent, excellent. Then you leave me with the far more satisfying remedy of removing you from office. Both of you.
Half-fed slaves building our nation's capital. What possible good can come from such a place?
If the Federalist conspirators are allowed to defeat this election, there will be resistance by force, and the consequences could be incalculable.
The outcome of this election is within your power. You would do well to quiet your revolutionary notions, Thomas. You have only to say that you will not turn out the government's officers, will maintain the navy, that you will honor the national debt - all of which the Federalists hold dear - and the government will instantly be in your hands.
I will not enter office but in perfect freedom to follow the dictates of my own judgment.
Peacefield
John Adams: [while examining John Trumbull's depiction of the Declaration of Independence presentation] You know, I, I am informed that one of the greatest talents of a painter is the capability to comprehend a large space. Herr Rubens, whose canvases I always paused to admire when I was staying in Holland, was a master of this. You, Mr. Trumbull, are no Rubens.
John Trumbull: I do not claim to be a Rubens, sir. I would, however, remind you that Herr Rubens never painted such a uniquely American subject.
John Adams: As to the painting's singularity, I can offer no opinion. But I will say this. It is very bad history.
John Trumbull: The likenesses have been very carefully researched...
John Adams: No scene such as you depict here ever took place. There was not one moment or one day when all the delegates from the Congress gathered to record their signatures.
John Trumbull: This is a matter of detail.
John Adams: May I remind you, sir, that we were already at war? Now, contrary to your tranquil scene, your subjects were scurrying in and out of Philadelphia all summer long, affixing their names to Mr. Jefferson's hallowed parchment whenever they happened to be in town.
John Trumbull: You would not deny the artist a certain license?
John Adams: Do not let our posterity be deluded with fictions under the guise of poetical or graphical license. It is a very common observation in Europe, Mr. Trumbull, that nothing is so false as modern history. Well, I would hasten to add that nothing is so false as modern European history except modern American history. In plain English, sir, I consider the true history of the American Revolution as lost. Forever.
