He would
for ever have laid at their door his failure of promotion. I did not
press it for another reason, which is, that I have great reason to
believe, that the character of the Count de Moutier, who would go, were
the Chevalier to be otherwise provided for, would give the most perfect
satisfaction in America.
As you have now returned into Congress, it will become of importance,
that you should form a just estimate of certain public characters; on
which, therefore, I will give you such notes as my knowledge of them
has furnished me with. You will compare them with the materials you are
otherwise possessed of, and decide on a view of the whole.
You know the opinion I formerly entertained of my friend, Mr. Adams. *
* * and the Governor were the first who shook that opinion. I afterwards
saw proofs, which convicted him of a degree of vanity, and of a
blindness to it, of which no germ appeared in Congress. A seven months'
intimacy with him here and as many weeks in London, have given me
opportunities of studying him closely. He is vain, irritable, and a bad
calculator of the force and probable effect of the motives which govern
men.
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