There was residing, at this period, in Boston, a young and nearly briefless lawyer, whose views on these important matters differed materially from those entertained by both parties.  It was John Quincy Adams.  While he could not countenance the attempts of the Allied Powers to destroy the French Republic, and re-establish a monarchy, he was equally far from favoring the turn which affairs were clearly taking in that unhappy country.  He evidently foresaw the French Revolution would prove a failure; and that it was engendering an influence which, unchecked, would be deeply injurious to American liberty and order.  To counteract this tendency, he published in the Boston Centinel, in 1791, a series of articles, signed “Publicola,” in which he discussed with great ability, the wild vagaries engendered among political writers in France, and which had been caught up by many in our own country.  These articles attracted much attention, both at home and abroad.  They were re-published in England, as an answer to several points in Paine’s “Rights of Man.”  So profound was the political sagacity they displayed, and so great the familiarity with public affairs, that they were, by general consent, attributed to the elder Adams.  On this subject, John Adams writes his wife as follows, from Philadelphia, on the 5th December, 1793:—­

“The Viscount Noailles called on me. * * * * He seemed very critical in his inquiries concerning the letters printed as mine in England.  I told him candidly that I did not write them, and as frankly, in confidence, who did.  He says they made a great impression upon the people of England; that he heard Mr. Windham and Mr. Fox speak of them as the best thing that had been written, and as one of the best pieces of reasoning and style they had ever read.”

The younger Adams, in surveying the condition of the country at this critical period, became convinced it would be a fatal step for the new government to take sides with either of the great parties in Europe, who were engaged in the settlement of their difficulties by the arbitrement of arms.  However strongly our sympathies were elicited in behalf of the French Republic—­however we may have been bound in gratitude for the assistance rendered us during our Revolutionary struggle, to co-operate with France in her defence of popular institutions—­still, self-preservation is the first law of nature.  Mr. Adams saw, that to throw ourselves into the melee of European conflicts, would prostrate the interests of the country, and peril the very existence of the government.

These views he embodied in a series of articles, which he published in the Boston Centinel, in 1793, under the signature of “Marcellus.”  He insisted it was alike the dictate of duty and policy, that the United States should remain strictly neutral between France and her enemies.  These papers attracted general attention throughout the Union, and made a marked impression on the public mind.  They were read by Washington, with expressions of the highest satisfaction; and he made particular inquiries respecting the author.