The public history of all countries, and all ages, is but a sort of mask, richly colored. The interior working of the machinery must be foul.

Adams’s remark expresses a deep skepticism about “official” narratives of politics and statecraft. Public history—what nations present as their story—is likened to a brightly painted mask: attractive, curated, and meant for display. Behind it, he suggests, the real mechanisms of power (bargaining, intrigue, corruption, coercion, vanity, and self-interest) are likely “foul.” The line reflects a realist view of government and diplomacy, warning readers not to confuse ceremonial rhetoric and patriotic mythmaking with the morally compromised processes that often produce political outcomes. It also implies a historian’s task: to look past pageantry and propaganda to the less flattering causes and motives that drive events.