A Letter to a Great Character [ John Adams]

S.l.: S.n., 1811. . 8vo, disbound; spine showing traces of previous pamphlet binding; needle stab-holes Cunningham was at one time considered by Adams as his "historiographer": "No man living, out of your own family, has been admitted to so near an intimacy with your heart as you have indulged me...I allude to your Letters, and oral communications in the years 1803, 4 and 9...But to support yourself in a new character, you have thought it necessary to do your own emblazoning, and it has become the right and duty of your former friends, to expose the holes you have made in your escutcheon." Cunningham then proceeds to expose them. He attacks Adams roundly for vilifying Hamilton, going so far as to suggest that Adams was jealous of Hamilton's stature and recalls Pepin, father of Charlemagne, who abashed his courtiers because of their scorn for his lack of stature. He suspects him of intending "to plant your Family in the corruption of the present times, to flourish as the Monarchical Head of this Country." The whole is full of classical allusions from which parallels are drawn; and is liberally sprinkled with asterisks; pages 53-64 contain notes which on occasion elucidate the anonymous subjects