Title: From John Adams to Nathan Webb, with Comments by the Writer Recorded in 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Webb, Nathan

      Dear sir
      Worcester Octr: 12th: I believe, 1755

     All that part of Creation that lies within our observation is liable to Change. Even mighty States and kingdoms, are not exempted. If we look into History we shall find some nations rising from contemptible beginnings, and spreading their influence, ’till the whole Globe is subjected to their sway. When they have reach’d the summit of Grandeur, some minute and unsuspected Cause commonly effects their Ruin, and the Empire of the world is transferr’d to some other place. Immortal Rome was at first but an insignificant Village, inhabited only by a few abandoned Ruffins, but by degrees it rose to a stupendous Height, and excell’d in Arts and Arms all the Nations that praeceeded it. But the demolition of Carthage (what one should think would have establish’d it in supream dominion) by removing all danger, suffer’d it to sink into debauchery, and made it att length an easy prey to Barbarians.—England Immediately, upon this began to increase (the particular, and minute causes of which I am not Historian enough to trace) in Power and magnificence, and is now the greatest Nation upon the globe.—Soon after the Reformation a few people came over into this new world for Concience sake. Perhaps this (apparently) trivial incident, may transfer the great seat of Empire into America. It looks likely to me. For if we can remove the turbulent Gallicks, our People according to the exactest Computations, will in another Century, become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the Case, since we have (I may say) all the naval Stores of the Nation in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas, and then the united force of all Europe, will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves, is to disunite Us. Divide et impera. Keep us in distinct Colonies, and then, some great men, in each Colony, desiring the Monarchy of the Whole, they will destroy each others influence and keep the Country in Equilibrio.
     Be not surprised that I am turn’d Politician. This whole town is immers’d in Politicks. The interests of Nations, and all the dira of War, make the subject of every Conversation. I set and hear, and after having been led thro’ a maze of sage observations, I some times retire, and by laying things together, form some reflections pleasing to myself. The produce of one of these reveries, You have read above. Different employment and different objects may have drawn your thoughts other ways. I shall think myself happy if in your turn, you communicate your Lucubrations to me. I wrote you, some time since, and have waited, with impatience, for an answer, but have been disappointed. I hope that Lady at Barnstable, has not made you forget your Friends. Friendship, I take it, is one of the distinguishing Glorys of man. And the Creature that is insensible of its Charms, tho he may wear the shape, of Man, is unworthy of the Character. In this, perhaps, we bear a nearer resemblance of unbodied intelligences than any thing else. From this I expect to receive the Cheif happiness of my future life, and am sorry that fortune has thrown me at such a distance from those of my Friends who have the highest place in my affections. But thus it is; and I must submit. But I hope e’er long to return and live in that happy familiarity, that has from earliest infancy subsisted between yourself, and affectionate Friend,

      John Adams

      Adams’ Comments in 1807

     Quincy April 22 1807. Nathan Webb was the Son of the late Deacon Jonathan Webb of Quincy and the Grandson of Benjamin Webb of the same place. The Father and Grandfather were intimate Friends of my Father and Grandfather, and the Grandson was my Playfellow at the Grammar School in Braintree, and my Contemporary at Colledge. He had Wit, humour and good Nature, equal to his Understanding And Judgment which were very good. He died young, and I attended him in his last Sickness, with equal Grief and assiduity, and watched with him a Night or two before his death. He left this Letter and some others in possession of his Father, who left it with his whole Estate to his Nephew, Captain Jonathan Webb, now of this Town living in the old Seat of the Family, who about a fortnight ago was kind enough to send it to me, after it had lain fifty one years and an half among the Papers of the Family in Oblivion. It was written soon after I took my first degree at Colledge, and some days before I was twenty years old. Nathan was named after his Unkle Nathan Webb the Minister of Uxbridge, who married my Fathers Sister.
     John Adams


Title: Literary Commonplace Book, 1755 – 1756
From: Adams, John
To:

     Harvard College(?) and Worcester, mainly compiled in 1755–1756, with some possibly earlier entries and one (not in JA’s hand) much later. This is a MS book (Adams Papers, M/JA/8; Microfilms, Reel No. 187), measuring 8″ x 6″, bound in vellum and containing 182 (unnumbered) pages, including occasional blank leaves or pages and a folded sheet of four pages laid in loose at the back that may once have been part of the book. Many leaves have been pulled away from the stitching and are brittle and worn at the edges. Through p. [26] the handwriting is in JA’s “experimental” hand of 1754–1755, discussed and illustrated in JA’s Earliest DiaryThe Earliest Diary of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1966., p. 8–9 and pl. 3, following p. 42. These entries may therefore have been written while JA was still in Harvard College.
     Contents, with some minor items omitted:
     P. [1–2]. “an ode to Health by an unknown”; Greek text, followed by translation into English prose.
     P. [3–23]. Excerpt from Sallust’s Catiline’s War, in Latin. A few more short extracts, apparently all from Sallust, appear on p. [25–26].
     P. [27–44]. Copies of the Spectator papers, Nos. 411–421 (originally published 21 June – 3 July 1712), the famous series by Joseph Addison with the general title “On the Pleasures of the Imagination.” Dated by JA at the end “April 13. 1756.” and written up to all the margins in his very smallest hand characteristic of much of the writing in his Diary and legal papers from 1756 onward. A few further short extracts, probably also from the Spectator, follow.
     P. [51–53]. “Criticisms on Milton. May 10th. 1756.” This is a copy of Addison’s Spectator paper No. 267 (5 Jan. 1712) and a partial copy of No. 273 (12 Jan. 1712), with following pages left blank for continuation.
     P. [67–70]. Copy of Addison’s Spectator paper No. 39 (14 April 1711), on Tragedy, and partial copy of No. 43 (19 April 1711), on the same subject, with following pages left blank for continuation.
     P. [75–95]. “Extractions from Butlers Analogy,” bearing headings such as “1st of a future Life,” “Of the Government of God by Rewards and Punishments,” “Of Personal Identity,” “Of the Nature of Virtue,” and the like. Though JA did not date his reading and copying of Butler in the Commonplace Book, his Diary states under 2 May 1756, a Sunday: “Since the 14th of April I have been studying the 1st Part of Butlers Analogy,” and a week later adds: “Since last Sunday I have wrote a few Papers of the Spectators, read the last Part of Butlers Analogy, wrote out the Tract upon personal Identity, and that upon the nature of Virtue” (Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:24, 26). Joseph Butler (1692–1752), Bishop of Durham, first published his celebrated Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature, in 1736. A copy of the 7th edition, London, 1785, is among JA’s books in MB (Catalogue of JA’s LibraryCatalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.); a copy of the 2d edition, 1736, is among JQA’s books at MQA but may have first belonged to JA.
     P. [97–101]. “A Letter to a Bishop.” Copy (partial?) of Duncan Forbes, A Letter to a Bishop, concerning Some Important Discoveries in Philosophy and Theology, first published in 1732 and included in Forbes’ Whole Works, 2 vols., Edinburgh, n.d. [1755?], of which a copy owned by JA is in MB (Catalogue of JA’s LibraryCatalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.). On 23 May 1756 JA mentions “Duncan Forbes Works” as among his reading during the past week (Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:28). Forbes was a Scottish jurist who studied Hebrew, wrote on theological subjects, and strongly defended the biblical revelation.

     P. [103–108]. “Dr. Clark.” Extracts evidently from a sermon or tract by Samuel Clarke, D.D. (1675–1729), on the attributes of God. For Clarke (sometimes Clark), see a lengthy article in DNBLeslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements..
     P. [110–112]. “The Ballance of Astrea, or upright administration of Justice; In a letter from an old Judge to his Son, who was newly raised to the bench. Bretts Fejoo vol. 2d. ch. 1. Sectn. 1st and 2d.” Copy in an unidentified hand. This passage is extremely puzzling, appearing as it does in JA’s early Commonplace Book, for it is not written in his or any other identifiable hand, and it would not have been copied before the late 1770’s, when John Brett’s English translations of the original Spanish work first began to appear. Benito Jerónimo Feijoó y Montenegro (1676–1764) was a Spanish monk, scholar, and prolific writer. JA’s copy of Frey Feijoó’s Essays, or Discourses. . . , translated by Brett, was published in 4 vols., London, 1780, and is among his books in MB (Catalogue of JA’s LibraryCatalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.; see also LC, Cat.A Catalog of Books Represented by Library of Congress Printed Cards, Ann Arbor, 1942–1946; 167 vols. Supplement, Ann Arbor, 1948; 42 vols.; BM, Cat.; Century Cyclo. of NamesBenjamin E. Smith, ed., The Century Cyclopedia of Names, New York, 1894., under Feyjoo y Montenegro). Blank pages follow.
     P. [121–133]. “Extracts from Richard Bentleys Confutation of Atheism,” the first of his Boyle Lectures (or sermons), 1692, and a copy of Bentley’s “Sermon 8th” and last in that series preached the same year. On 23 May 1756 JA recorded that he had read “1/2 Bentleys Sermons at the Boilean Lectures,” and a week later: “I have wrote the 8th Sermon of Bentleys Boilean Lectures” (Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:28, 31). On Bentley and the significance of these sermons, see DNBLeslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements..
     P. [134–136]. Extract from “King Richard III. Act 1. scene 1st. A Garden in the Tower,” preceded by a note on the dramatis personae. The text copied is from Colley Cibber’s bastardized version of 1700, which held the stage throughout the 18th century, not from Shakespeare’s original play.
     P. [143–166]. Copies of selected French and English historical “characters” from (a translation of?) Voltaire’s Age of Louis XIV (first published in 1751) and possibly from other sources. Some pages in this sequence are wholly or largely blank. On 30 May 1756 JA recorded that he had “Read part of the 1st Volume of Voltairs Age of Lewis 14th” (Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:31). No separate copy of this title has been found among his books.
     P. [178]. “C. Plinius, Minutio Fundano, suo Salutem.” Copy, in Latin, of a letter from Pliny the Younger to Minutius Fundano. Among JA’s books in MB is a copy of the younger Pliny’s Epistolarum libros decem, Amsterdam, 1734 (Catalogue of JA’s LibraryCatalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.).
     Folded sheet of four pages, consisting of incomplete copies of or notes on reading in moral philosophy, perhaps from one of Francis Hutcheson’s works on this subject. JA records reading Hutcheson as early as 16 Jan. 1756 (Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:2). Several works in different editions by this author remain among JA’s books in MB (Catalogue of JA’s LibraryCatalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917.), but the present notes have not been matched up with any passages therein.


Title: From John Adams to the Reverend Jacob Bailey, January 1756
From: Adams, John
To: Bailey, Rev. Jacob

      Dr. Sr.
      Worcester Janry. I know not What Day 1756

     I receiv’d your favour of Decr. 29. about 3 or 4 Days after it was wrote. The bearer left it at the Tavern and proceeded on his journey, so that I despair’d of ever getting an opportunity of answering it, till this moment. I heartily sympathize with you in your affliction, which I am the better qualified to do as I am confined myself to a like place of Torment. When I compare The gay, the delightsome scenes of Harvard with the harsh, and barbarous nature of sounds that now constantly grate my Ears I can hardly imagine myself the same being, that once listen’d to Our Mayhews Instructions, and revell’d in all the other pleasures of an accademical Life. Total and Compleat misery has succeeded so suddenly to total and compleat Happiness, that all the Phylosophy I can muster can scarce support me under the amazing shock. However one source of pleasure is left me still and that is the Letters of my Friends, and the more streams flow from this source the greater is my Pleasure. I should be extremely glad therefore of a Correspondence with you, and I promise you I will improve every opportunity of writing to you. If you see any of my old Friends, tell them I am well and should take a line from them very kindly.—But I can add no more now, than that I am

      Your Friend & sert.,
      J. Adams

      Pardon all our epistolary sins.


Title: From John Adams to Charles Cushing, 3 April 1756
From: Adams, John
To: Cushing, Charles

      My Friend
      Worcester April 3. 1756

     I had the Pleasure, a few Days since, of receiving your favour of February 4th. I am obliged to you for your advice, and for the manly and rational Reflections with which you inforced it. I think I have deliberately weighed the subject and had almost determined as you advise. Upon the Stage of Life, we have each of us a part, a laborious and difficult Part, to Act, but we are all capable of acting our Parts, however difficult, to the best advantage. Upon common Theatres indeed the applause of the Audience is of more importance to the Actors than their own approbation. But upon the Stage of Life, while Concience Clapps, let the World hiss! On the contrary if Conscience disapproves, the loudest applauses of the World are of little Value. While our own minds commend, we may calmly despise all the Frowns, all the Censure, all the Malignity of men.

      Should the whole Frame of Nature round us break
      In ruin and Confusion hurld
      We unconcern’d might hear the mighty crack
      And stand unhurt amidst a falling World.

     We have indeed the liberty of Chusing what Character we shall sustain in this great and important Drama. But to chuse rightly, we should consider in what Character we can do the most service to our fellow men, as well as to our selves. The Man who lives wholly to himself is of less worth than the Cattle in his Barn. Let us look upon a Lawyer: In the beginning of Life we see him, fumbling and raking amidst the rubbish of Writs, indightments, Pleas, ejectments, enfiefed, illatebration and a 1000 other lignum Vitae words that have neither harmony nor meaning. When he getts into Business, he often foments more quarrells than he composes, and inriches himself at the expence of impoverishing others more honest and deserving than himself. Besides the noise and bustle of Courts, and the labour of inquiring into and pleading dry and difficult Cases, have very few Charms in my Eyes. The study of Law is indeed an Avenue to the more important offices of the state, and the happiness of human Society is an object worth the pursuit of any man. But the Acquisition of these important offices depends upon so many Circumstances of Birth and fortune, not to mention Capacity, which I have not, that I can have no hopes of Being Usefull that way.
     The Physician If he has real Skill and Ingenuity, as things go now, will have no employment. And if he has not skill and Ingenuity, will kill rather than Cure. I have not mentioned the infinite toil and Labour of his Occupation.
     The Divine has a Thousand Obstacles to encounter. He has his own and his Peoples Prejudices to Combat—the capricious Humours and Fancies of the Vulgar to submit to—Poverty to struggle with—the charge of Heresy to bear—systematical Divinity, alias systematical vexation of spirit to study and sift. But on the other hand He has more Leisure to inform his mind, to subdue his Passions—fewer Temptations to intemperance and injustice, tho’ more to trimming and Hypocrisy—an opportunity of diffusing Truth and Virtue among his People. Upon the Whole I think if he relies on his own understanding more than the decrees of Councils, or the sentiments of Fathers, if he resolutely discharges the Duties of his Station, according to the Dictates of his mind, if he spends his Time in the improvement of his Head in Knowledge and his heart in Virtue, instead of sauntering about the streets, he will be able to do more good to his fellow men and make better provision for his own future Happiness in this Profession, than in any other.
     However I am as yet very contented in the place of a School Master. I shall not therefore very suddenly become a Preacher. When I do I hope to live a year or two in the same neighbourhood with you. Had indulgent Heaven thrown me into the neighbourhood of a Dalton, or some other such kind Friend of my former acquaintance, I think little had been wanting to compleat my satisfaction. It is late in the evening, and my Candle, my pen, and more than all, my inclination, calls upon me to subscribe my self your Sincere Friend & Servt.,

      J.A.

      P.S. There is a story about Town that I am an Orminian.
      Pray write me, every opportunity, and be so kind as to omit 1/2 dozen wafers in your next. The last was barr’d and barricadoed with so many Seals, that I was out of all patience before I could come to the Treasure.


Title: From John Adams to Richard Cranch, 29 August 1756
From: Adams, John
To: Cranch, Richard

      My Friend

       August 29th 1756

     I am set down with a Design of writing to you.—But the narrow Sphere I move in, and the lonely unsociable Life I lead, can furnish a Letter with little more than Complaints of my hard fortune. I am condemnd to keep School two Years longer. This I sometimes consider as a very grievous Calamity and almost sink under the Weight of Woe.—But shall I dare to complain and to murmur against Providence for this little Punishment, when my very Existence, all the Pleasure I enjoy now, and all the Advantages I have of preparing for hereafter, are Expression of Benevolence that I never did and never could deserve? Shall I Censure the Conduct of that Being who has poured around me, a great Profusion, of those good Things that I really want, because he has kept from me other Things that might be improper and fatal to me if I had them. That Being has furnished my Body with several senses, and the world around it with objects suitable to gratify them. He has made me an erect Figure, and has placed in the most advantageous Part of my Body, the sense of Sight. And He has hung up in the Heavens over my Head and Spread out in the Fields of Nature around me those glorious Shows and appearances with which my Eyes and my Imagination are extremely delighted. I am pleasd with the beautiful Appearance of the Flower, and still more pleased with the Prospect of Forrests and of Meadows, of verdant Feilds and Mountains covered with Flocks, but I am thrown into a kind of Transport when I behold the amazing Concave of Heaven sprinkled and glittering with Starrs. That Being has bestowed upon some of the Vegetable species a fragrance that can almost as agreably entertain our sense of smell. He has so wonderfully constituted the Air we live in, that by giving it a particular Kind of Vibration, it produces in us as intense sensations of Pleasure as the organs of our Bodies can bear in all the varieties of Harmony and Concord. But all the Provision that he has made for the Gratification of my senses, tho very engaging Instances of Kindness, are much inferiour to the Provisions for the Gratification of my nobler Powers of Intelligence and Reason. He has given me Reason to find out the Truth, and the real Design of my Existence here, and has made all Endeavours to promote that Design, agreable to my mind, and attended with a conscious Pleasure and Complacency. On the Contrary, he has made a different Course of Life, a Course of Impiety and Injustice, of Malevolence and Intemperance, appear shocking and deformed to my first Reflection. He has made my Mind capable of receiving an infinite Variety of Ideas from those numerous material Objects with which we are environed. And of retaining, compounding and arranging the vigourous Impressions which we receive from these into all the Varieties of Picture and of Figure. By inquiring into the Scituation, Produce, Manufactures &c. of our own, and by travailing into, or reading about other Countries, I can gain distinct Ideas of almost every Thing upon this Earth at present, and by looking into history I can settle in my mind a clear and a Comprehensive View of the Earth at its Creation, of its various Changes and Revolutions, of its progressive Improvement, sudden Depopulation by a Deluge, and its graduall Repeopling, of the Growth of several Kingdoms and Empires, of their Wealth and Commerce, their Wars and Politicks, of the Characters of their principal Leading Men, of their Grandeur and Power their Virtues and Vices, of their insensible Decays at first, and of their swift Destruction at last. In fine we can attend the Earth from its Nativity, thro all the various Turns of Fortune, through all its successive Changes, thro all the Events that happen on its surface, and all the successive Generations of Mankind, to the final Conflagration, when the whole Earth with its appendages shall be consumed by the furious Element of Fire. And after our minds are furnishd with this ample store of Ideas, far from feeling burdend or overloaded, our thots are more free, and active, and clear than before, and we are capable of spreading our acquaintance with Things much further. Far from being satiated with Knowledge our Curiosity is only improved and increasd, our Thoughts rove beyond the visible diurnal sphere, range thro the immeasurable Regions of the Universe, and loose them selves amongst a Labyrinth of Worlds, and not contented with knowing what is, they run forward into Futurity, and search for new Employment there. Then they can never stop! The wide, the boundless Prospect lies before them! Here alone they find Objects adequate to their Desires. Shall I now presume to complain of my hard Fate, when such ample Provision has been made to gratify all my senses, and all the Faculties of my soul? God forbid. I am happy and I will remain so, while Health is indulgd to me, in Spight of all the other Adverse Circumstances that Fortune can place me in. I expect to be joked upon, for writing in this serious manner, when it shall be known what a Resolution I have lately taken. I have engagd with Mr. Putnam to study Law with him, 2 years, and to keep the school at the same time. It will be hard work, but the more difficult and dangerous the Enterprize, a brighter Crown of Lawrell is bestowed on the Conqueror. However I am not without Apprehensions concerning the success of this Resolution. But I am under much fewer Apprehensions than I was when I thought of preaching. The frightful Engines of Ecclesiastical Councils, of diabolical Malice and Calvinistical good nature never failed to terrify me exceedingly whenever I thought of Preaching. But the Point is now determined, and I shall have Liberty to think for myself without molesting others or being molested myself. Write to me the first Opportunity, and tell me freely whether you approve my Conduct. Please to present my tenderest Regards to our two Friends at Boston, and suffer me to subscribe myself your sincere Friend,

      John Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Wentworth, September 1756
From: Adams, John
To: Wentworth, John

      Dr Sir
      Worcester Sept. 1756

     I brought a few Ideas with me when I first came to this Town, that grew in the luxurious soil of Cambridge. These I have dispersd among my Friends, and you have had your share. Be contented, therefore, now with such as grow at Worcester. It is a political Climate and the soil produces state Reflections as rank as hogweeds in a Garden. After the melancholly Accounts from the Mediterranean and from Oswego, I attended to the Conversation that passed and thought it curious enough to send to you, that you might see how near they resemble the Reflections made in your World. A Lawyer expressd his Apprehension of our calamitous Scituation in this Manner, (viz) where is the Genius the mighty Genius of Britain gone? Is she flown from the Realm and taken Residence in France? What has happend to us?—Before the War commenced we were flattered with pompous Catalogues of the English Navy. The English Marine was strong enough to rend the French to Attoms and blow the Attoms to the Devil as soon as War should be declard. But now war is declard the French are sufferd to steal away with a pitiful Squadron, to Minorca, while our ships are confined in the English Channel, to prevent the French from descending on Great Britain in Canoes. All the Powers of Europe are astonish’d, and cry, “Where is the British Navy that made such a sublime Ringing in the World?”—The Parson says “The Prospect is extremely dark all around us. This is the sad Effect of our abominable Impiety, our Pride, our Luxury, our Hypocrisy. If we had been a godly People, the Lord would not have forsaken us in this manner. It behoves us all to repent and work a speedy Reformation if we expect or desire even temporal salvation.” The Representative says “We are all sold I really believe. I swear our Condition is not to be thought upon with Patience. Bings fleet was completely equipp’d 16 Days before Orders were given to sail. The Devil reigns and his Enemies are Scatterd. And that dastardly Fellow will be promoted, and West, as brave a fellow as ever ruled a ship, will be hangd.” The Colonel, “We are gone, that’s a certain Case. The French will land 15 or 20,000 men in the Spring at Marble Head and what can we an undisciplind Rabble do against such a regular force? Our Children will have their Brains dash’d out against the Walls, our Daughters and Wives will be ravished by the brutal Lust of a victorious soldiery, and our men will be butcherd by those Engines of Hell the new fangled scalping Knives. Desolation hangs over our Country and threatens suddenly to fall in a Tempest and a Whirlwind upon us.” Others think an Inquisition will be sett up, and all will burn or hang that will not turn papists. Some say the Governor is an Emissary of France and all cry out the Devil the Devil is at the Bottom. By the Gathering of the Clouds, and the angry frowns of the Heavens, we may reasonably expect tempestuous Weather, my Friend, But should the Vessell be shatterd on the Rocks and the whole Crew and I with the rest be buried in our undistinguished Destruction, nay should the whole system round us break &c. all would not abate the sincerity with which I am your Friend,

      John Adams

      P.S. Pray impute my Neglect in not writing you so long, not to the least Indifference but to the eternal Fatigues of my Occupation. And be so kind to write to me often, for a letter from you in my present scituation, gleams upon me, as the first ray of light gleamed in Chaos. However the Anxiety of mind that has made me uneasy to myself and friends for this year past is at length in some Measure removed. I have begun the study of Law with Mr. Putnam a very sensible and agreable Gentleman of the Profession in this Town. How I shall succeed in the Law, God only knows. I am not without Apprehensions, but I am much less troubled with them than I was before I was determind what Profession to follow. I never thought of the frightful Ecclesiastical Apparatus, of Councils, Creeds &c. without extream Horror. My Compliments to all near you, that I had ever the Honour Pleasure of knowing and believe me yours ut semper,

     J A


Title: To John Adams from Richard Cranch, October 1756
From: Cranch, Richard
To: Adams, John

      My worthy Friend

       Braintree October 1756

     Tho’ I acknowledge that one ought never to be asham’d to speak the truth; yet I find my self much inclin’d to it, when I’m about to tell you that I have two of your very kind and ingenious Letters by me unanswer’d. I assure you sir, that my neglect arises not from any want of esteem for my Friend, but (to tell another ungratefull truth) from downright dullness; I must wait with patience for lucid intervalls, and can truly say to you, as Boileau did to his Friend—“Apollon est pour moi &c.” “Apollo is to me a fickle Deity, and grants me not the favour which he affords to you, of a constant audience. I must wait for favourable moments &c.”
     You complain to me of the lonely, unsocial Life you Lead: (which is indeed an undesirable state): But while your tho’ts rove with such ease and regularity thro’ the whole Creation, discovering the beauties in the natural, and the nice connections in the moral world, the want of Society seems in a great measure removed, tho’ it must be confess’d there is something malancholly even in the most extensive knowledge without agreeable Society. I have therefore often admir’d that saying of Archytas (Vizt.) That tho’ a man were admitted into Heaven to view the wonderful Fabrick of the World, and the beauty of the Starrs, yet what would otherwise be Rapture and Extasie, would be but a malancholy Amazement if he had not a Friend to communicate it to.
     You are pleas’d to ask my advice with respect to your intended study of the Law; to which I answer, that I am heartily sorry the difficulties attending the preaching the truths of Xty. Christianity in their native simplicity are so great as in any measure to deterr you from that more noble employment of delivering captive minds from their Shackles, and re-instating them in that liberty with which Christ has made ’em free. Will you urge the numbers who oppose the truth, and the strong prejudices of those you shall have to encounter, as arguments against the undertaking? I shall answer in your own excellent words on another occation—That “the General who with a small Army in a disadvantageous posture engages an Enemy who is more numerous, and better scituated, tho’ he is defeated on the whole, yet if he bravely struggles for victory, and makes his retreat with dignity, receives the thanks and the Plaudits of his Country.” So should Truth under your conduct fail of an entire victory, yet the brave efforts which I am perswaded you can make would not only entitle you to the praises of every lover of Truth and liberty, but what is of infinitely greater importance will ensure to you the plaudit of your Creator. I therefore on the whole wish you might finally settle in the Ministry; for what will become of Christianity amongst us if almost every accomplish’d mind and great Genious refuses to inlist in its Cause? Shall we any longer be surpriz’d to find immorality, and consequently Infidelity prevail, when Christian Societies have scarce a Pastor who can or dares give a “Reason of the Hope that is in them?”
     This my Friend is my present opinion; but should you see sufficient reason to turn your studies to the Law, I don’t doubt but that your great genious will soon overcome the difficulties you mention in your last Letter, and make you shine at the Barr; had I not tho’t your capacity equal to that or any other of the Learned professions, I should not have urg’d you to the Ministry, well knowing that that Profession has Fools enough already.


Title: From John Adams to Tristram Dalton, October 1758
From: Adams, John
To: Dalton, Tristram

     Braintree, October? 1758. Printed: JA, Earliest DiaryThe Earliest Diary of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1966., p. 65–66.


Title: From John Adams to William Crawford, October – November 1758
From: Adams, John
To: Crawford, William

     Braintree, October–November? 1758. Printed: JA, Earliest DiaryThe Earliest Diary of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1966., p. 99.


Title: From John Adams to Samuel Quincy, October – November 1758
From: Adams, John
To: Quincy, Samuel

     Braintree, October–November? 1758. Printed: JA, Earliest DiaryThe Earliest Diary of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1966., p. 66–67


Title: From John Adams to Richard Cranch, November – December 1758
From: Adams, John
To: Cranch, Richard

     Braintree October–December? 1758. Printed: JA, Earliest DiaryThe Earliest Diary of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1966., p. 69–70, from a draft, with the principal variations from text of RC (Adams Papers) recorded in notes.


Title: Marginalia in John Winthrop’s Lecture on Earthquakes, 5 December 1758; 12 March 1761
From: Adams, John
To:

     Braintree, 5 December 1758?, 12 March 1761. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:61–62, 201–202.


Title: From John Adams to Samuel Quincy, July 1759
From: Adams, John
To: Quincy, Samuel

     Braintree, July? 1759. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:109.


Title: To John Adams from Jonathan Sewall, 29 September 1759
From: Sewall, Jonathan
To: Adams, John

      Dear Sir
      Charlestown 29th. Sepr. 1759

     My Absence from home for this Week past has occasioned my delaying an Answer to your very agreable Favor of the 14th. Instant.
     It gives me the most sensible Pleasure to find in my Friend so becoming a Resolution to persevere in the sublime Study of the Law, maugre all the Difficultys and perplexing Intricacies with which it seems embarrassed. I call it a sublime Study; and what more sublime! what more worthy the indefatigable Labours and Pursuit of a reasonable Man! than that Science by which Mankind raise themselves from the forlorn helpless State in which Nature leave’s them, to the full Enjoyment of all the inestimable Blessings of Social Union, and by which, they (if you will allow the Expression) triumph over the Frailty and Imperfections of Humanity?
     Tho’ in my last I mentioned the Greatness of the Task we have voluntarily set ourselves; and the Shortness of the Time to which by the present Constitution of Things we are confined, as an Apology for my attempting to assist you in your Progress; and to justify you in making Use of Means so vastly disproportionate to the End; I say, tho’ I hinted these Things to these Purposes; yet I would not have you conclude from hence; that I am discouraged from the Pursuit. No my Friend, I thank God, I am at present far from a State of Despondency. The Difficultys, ’tis true, are great, but the Motives to Resolution and Diligence are superiour. The Obstacles are surmounted by the Industrious; are insurmountable only to the perversely indolent and effeminately irresolute. For my own part, I am determined, as I have (to return you a Scripture-metaphorical-Phrase) put my Hand to the Plough, not to look back, and it is not the smallest Encouragement, that I have found in you a fellow-Traveller who, if at any Time thro’ Inattention, Inability or Ignorance I should stop short or deviate, can, and I doubt not will, kindly lend an helping Hand and set me right.
     Your Account of Mr. Blackstone’s Lectures is entirely new to me, but I am greatly pleased with it. The Embellishments of historical and critical Learning, as well as the alluring Ornaments of Language, (too much neglected by Law-writers) would undoubtedly render much more agreable the Study of the Laws of England, in their present System, too abstracted and dry. I could wish Mr. Blackstone, or some other Friend to this invaluable Branch of Knowledge, would undertake to abridge the Reports, that we might not be forced to throw away so much of our Time upon needless Repetitions.
     You refer me to Hawkins for an Answer to my Question touching Survivorship where a power to sell is devised. I had before consulted Co. Lit., Hawk. and Wood, who all agree the Law to be the same, but I am not satisfyed. At common Law, it seems, if one Executor refused to sell, the others could not, but this appearing too rigorous and militating with an established Rule, (viz) that in the Construction of Wills the Testator’s Intent is to be followed; the Statute of 21. H.8, ch. 4. was made, by which it is enacted, that where one or more refuseth yet the Residue may sell; but no Provision is made by it where one Executor dies, tho it seems to me there is the same Reason for abating the Rigour of the common Law in this Case as in the former; and ubi eadem ratio, ibi idem jus, is a favourite Maxim which I am always pleased to find true in Practice as it undoubtedly is in Theory; and whenever the Law appears to rest on any other Foundation than that of Reason, I find it difficult to retain that Veneration which I am always desirous to preserve in my Mind for the former.
     And by the way, I would ask, whether this must not sometimes, if not often, be the Case, while the latest Resolution is Law? But not to ramble, Hawkins in his Abridgment (page 170.) tells us that by a favourable Construction of the (above-mentioned) Statute, where Land is devised to Executors to be sold, and some refuse, yet the others may sell, tho’ this is not within the Letter of the Statute, which provides only in Cases where a bare power to sell is devised; but the reason is the same. Whether it would be a Construction of the Statute, too liberal, to extend it to the enabling the Survivors to sell where one Executor dies, I will not take upon me to say; but it seems to me this Construction would not be more forced than Hawkins’s; (for the Statute provides only in Cases where a bare Trust is devised, and he extends it to the Case where a Trust coupled with an Interest is devised; which two Cases are, I think, as different as these two, where an Executor refuseth to sell, and where an Executor dies and therefore can’t sell). If you see any essential Difference you will communicate it. Perhaps you may meet with some Statute in Point which may easily have escaped my Notice. I mentioned the Case one Day to several of my Superiours in the Law, who all seemd to think there was some such Statute, but could not recollect it.
     To your Question, what Rule the Superiour Court go by in computing the Degrees of Kindred among Collaterals? I am at a Loss what to answer. The Case you put when I saw you last (which, if my Memory serve’s me, was, where a Child died intestate leaving a Father and Brother, the Court adjudged his Estate to the Father) seems primâ Facie, not properly determinable by any Rules for computing the Degrees of Kindred among Collaterals, the Father being in the right Line ascending from the Son, and not in the Collateral Line. But this is a sudden Thought and it is quite supposeable I may be wrong. However, Wood in his Inst. Co. Law. (page 354.) says, if a Child dies intestate and unmarried, the Father surviving has the Childs whole Estate at this Day: and cites 1. Williams 48. I have not Williams by me; but this Resolution seems to be upon a Clause in the Statute of 1. Ja.2. ch. 17. so that the Superiour Court, I imagine, have determined agreable to the Practice of the Courts in England. Perhaps I have misapprehended your Difficulty; if I have, pray state the Case more fully in your next.
     If you should think me deficient in the Number of my Letters I believe you will readily allow that I make ample amends in the Size, and I shall own your Patience is great if it will hold, while, to the Exorbitancy of this in particular I add that, I am your sincere Friend,

      Jonath. Sewall


Title: From John Adams to Robert Treat Paine, 6 December 1759
From: Adams, John
To: Paine, Robert Treat

      Sir
      Braintree Decr. 6th. 1759

     I was too much gratified with the Proposal you made me of writing to you, to neglect it long. For as Nature and Fortune have conspired to strip me of all other means of Pleasure I cannot think it either Vanity or Virtue to acknowledge, that the Acquisition and Communication of Knowledge, are the sole Entertainment of my Life. I should therefore be inattentive to my object, and stupidly forget my own designs, if I neglected the Liberty you gave me of opening this Correspondence.
     Such is the social Constitution of our Nature, that Conversation arouses Passions in our Breasts, which give new Vigour and Freedom to our Thoughts, raises Hints and Arguments which we should never find in solitude, and is at least the best scene to gather Ideas, if not to compare and seperate them, and finally to settle a difficult Enquiry. Conversation may promote Benevolence in general, as well as Friendship to Individuals, raises a Spirit of Industry and Emulation, and evaporates the Spleen which we are all too apt to contract, by long and close attention to Business or study.

     But as we are seldom so happy, as to find Company much inclined to Speculation, and as some of us, can find no Company at all, the only Method left, is that of Correspondences, which, in my Opinion have all the Advantages of Conversation, with the Additional ones of searching deeper into subjects, of crushing many vain and more offensive Thoughts, and of perpetuating such as are useful and judicious.
     How well or ill qualified you may be to maintain a Correspondence on the wisest Principles and Motives you have forbidden me to tell you, and I had much rather say to other People. If you condemn this as a Compliment I will not mention your Name in my next, in the mean time, I will conclude this (after requesting your Answer to the Underwritten Questions) with the Name of your honest Friend,

      John Adams

      A mortgages an House to B, conditioned for the Payment of a certain sum. A dies insolvent. The House is apprized at £500 less than it was mortgaged for.—Q. In this Province can B come in as a Creditor for the £500, and claim his proportional share, in the Division with the other Creditors?
      A mortgages an House in N to B, conditioned for the Payment of £1300, and another House in O, conditioned for the Payment of £1000, and dies insolvent. The House in N. is appraised at £500 less than it is mortgaged for; and the House in O is appraised at £500 more than it is mortgaged for. Q. Is the Administrator of A entituled to his Right of Redemption of the House in O, without paying the £500 deficient in the other Mortgage?
      These two Questions will fill a very sizeable Letter, without leaving Room for one Compliment.


Title: Will of Deacon John Adams, with Comments by His Son John, 8 January 1760; 10 July 1761; 29 April 1774
From: Adams, Deacon John,Adams, John
To:

       Braintree and Boston, 8 January 1760 – 29 April 1774

     In the Name of God Amen. The Eighth day of January in the year of our Lord one Thousand Seven hundred and Sixty, and in the thirty third year of his Majestys Reign King George the Second &c. I John Adams of Braintree in the County of Suffolk in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England Gentleman, being in Health of Body and of Perfect mind and Memory thanks be given to God therefor. Calling to mind the Mortality of my Body and knowing that it is appointed for man once to dye, Do make and ordain this my last Will and Testament, That is to Say, Principally and first of all I Give and Recommend my soul into the Hands of God that gave it, hopeing thro’ the Merits, death and Passion of my saviour Jesus Christ, to have full and free pardon and forgiveness of all my Sins and to Enherit Eternal life. My Body I Commit to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executors hereafter named Believing that at the General Resurrection I shall Receive the same again by the Mighty power of God. And as for such worldly Estate where with it hath pleased God to bless me in this Life, I Give, devise and dispose of the same in the following manner and form. That is to Say, First I Will that all those Debts which I owe in right or Conscience to any Person or persons whatsoever shall be well and truly paid in Convenient time after my decease by my Executors hereafter named. Item I Give to Susannah my well beloved Wife to be enjoyed and Improved by her during her natural life one third of my Real Estate. The third part of my Real Estate is to be understood as including not only what I shall be possessed of at my decease but also such as I have made over to any of my Sons by deeds of gift. Also I Give to my wife one third part of my personal Estate to her and her heirs and assigns. Item I have given my Son John Adams a Libberal Education also I have given my Son John Adams by deed of gift one half of the house that Doctr. Elisha Savel lives in that I bought of Mr. John and Richard Billing with half the Barn and half the land belonging to the said House which I Confirm to him and his heirs and Assigns forever to which I add the other half of the above said House and Barn and land thereto belonging the whole Containing about ten Acres be it more or less also the Priviledge of drawing Water out of my Well, and I also give to my Son John Adams and his heirs &c. twelve acres part orchard and part Pasture land, adjoyning to Mr. John Curtis’s land. Also about Eight Acres of Fresh Meadow adjoyning to Benjamin Vesey’s land and the Town Common. Also two small wood Lotts that I bought of Brother Owen one Esteemed Six Acres and the other four. All which I give to him and his heirs and Assigns forever. Item I Give and Bequeath to my Son Peter Boylston Adams and to his heirs and Assigns forever the house I live in with the Barn and other buildings and all the Lands of the Remainder of my homestead Containing about thirty five Acres. Also I Give to my Son Peter Boylston Adams and his heirs and assigns four Acres of Salt Marsh two at Rock Island and two at the farms. Also a Quarter part of the Seventh Lott in the Six hundred acres so Called lying in partnership with Brother Ebenezer Adams. Also the half of about ten Acres lying in partnership with Mr. Samuel Bass, also a Share of Cedar Swamp in the Middle Swamp lying in partnership with Brother Ebenezer Adams. Item I Give and Bequeath to my Son Elihu Adams and his heirs and assigns forever my farm in the South Precinct in Braintree Joyning upon Lieut. Joseph Whites Land Easterly, North on Mr. Ruggles land and South on Noah Whitcombs land and West on the River against Lieutenant Joshua Haywards Land. Also I Give to my Son Elihu and his heirs and assigns forever my Salt Meadow in Milton at Penny fery so Called Containing two Acres and a half he paying ten pounds Lawfull Money to my Executors in one year after my decease. Further my Will is that after my Wife hath had her third part of my personal Estate the other two thirds be improved to pay debts if any be, otherwise to be Equally divided between my three sons. Lastly I do hereby Constitute make and ordain my two sons John Adams and Peter Boylston Adams Executors of this my last Will and Testament. And I do hereby utterly disallow, Revoke and Disanull all and every other and former Testament, Will, Legacies, Bequests and Executors by me in any wise before this time Named, Willed and bequeathed, Ratifying And Confirming this and no other to be my last Will and Testament. In Witness where of I have hereunto set my hand and Seal the day and year above written.

      John Adams and a Seal
      Signed, sealed, published, pronounced and declared by the said John Adams to be his last Will and Testament in Presence of us the Subscribers— Joseph Field, Elijah Belcher, Ebenezer Adams Junr.

     Suffolk ss By the Honble. Thomas Hutchinson Esqr. Judge of Probate &c.
     The afore written Will being presented for Probate by the Executors therein named Joseph Feild, Elijah Belcher and Ebenezer Adams Junr. made Oath that they saw John Adams the Subscriber to this Instrument sign the same and also heard him Publish and declare it to be his last Will and Testament and that when he so did he was of sound disposing Mind and Memory according to these Deponents best discerning, and that they set to their hands as Witnesses thereof in the said Testators presence.

      Boston July 10–1761.
      T Hutchinson
      Copy Examd.Per Jno. Cotton Register

      John Adams’ Comments on Cover of Will

     This Testator married Susanna Boylstone, a Daughter of Peter Boylstone, of Brooklyne, who was a son of Thomas Boylstone, of the same Town a Physician, and Brother of Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, the first Practiser of Inoculation for the Small Pox.
     This Match produced John, the Writer of this Memorandum, Peter Boylstone, and Elihu.
     This Testator had a good Education, tho not at Colledge, and was a very capable and usefull Man. In his Early Life he was an Officer in a Company of Militia—afterwards a Deacon of the Church, and a select Man of the Town, almost all the Business of the Town being managed by him in that Department for 20 Years together.—A Man of Strict Piety and great Integrity: much esteemed and beloved, wherever he was known, which was not far, his Sphere of Life being not extensive.

     Boston April 29. 1774. This is a Copy of my Fathers Will. He lived in an House between the Episcopal Church and the Foot of Penns Hill, in Braintree. This House in His Will is given to my Brother Peter Boylston Adams, and of him was purchased by me, a few Months agone.

      John Adams

       What Fortune had he pray? His own:
       And better got, than Bestia’s from the Throne.


Title: To John Adams from Jonathan Sewall, 13 February 1760
From: Sewall, Jonathan
To: Adams, John

      My Friend
      Charlestown 13th. Feby. 1760

     In my last, if I rightly remember, I joined with you in your panegyric on the superior Rewards which ancient Rome proposed to Application and Study, and in your Satyre on those despicable praemia, which we, whose Lot it is to live in the infant State of a new World, can rationally expect. But perhaps we have both been too hasty in our Conclusions; possibly, if we peirce through the Glare of false Glory, too too apt to dazzle and deceive the intellectual Eye; if, in Order to the forming a just Estimate, we secrete the genuine from the imaginary Rewards, we may find the Difference much less than at first Sight we are apt to concieve. For, let us, if you please my Friend, consider what was the palm for which the roman Orator ran? It was, the plaudit of a people, at that Time, sunk into a most shameful Effeminacy of Manners, governed by a Spirit of Faction and Licentiousness, to which this Father of his Country, at length fell himself a Sacrifice;—It was, the highest Post of Honour in that august Empire which hath since fallen an easy prey to Goths, Visigoths, Vandals and other barbarous and uncivilised Nations of the North;—It was to be the first Man in that Roma Aeterna, which, but for the Names of Brutus, Caesar, Cicero, Cataline, and a few other Patriots, Tyrants, Orators and Conspirators, which have been perpetuated by the Eminence of their Owners and their respective Employments, had been long since buried in eternal Oblivion.
     To be caress’d, applauded and deify’d by Roman Citizens, to be raised to the highest Honours which Rome, the Mistress of the World, could give, are Rewards, it must be confessed, in their Nature more dazzling and, to an unthinking Mind, more captivating and alluring to the Toils of indefatigable Study and close thinking; and in these, it will be acknowledged, Cicero had greatly the Advantage of us. But are these the most striking? Are there not others, which we, as well as Cicero, have in prospect, infinitely superiour, in their Nature, more refined, more lasting? What think you my Friend of the inward pleasure and Satisfaction which the human Mind receiveth from the Acquisition of Knowledge? What, of rational Delight which the benevolent Man experienceth in the Capacity and Oportunity of doing Good to his fellow Men? What, of the Heart-felt Joy which the Man of Virtue overflows with in relieving and supporting distressed Innocence and Goodness, and in detecting and punishing insolent Vice?
     But Cicero’s Name has been handed down thro’ many Ages with Admiration and Applause; so may yours. “Worth makes the Man,” form’s the Character, and perpetuates his Memory: Cicero is not revered because he was Rome’s Consul; had his Orations been deliverd in the little Senate of Lillybaeum or Syracuse, yet still they would have been esteemed as they are, by all Men of Learning, and perhaps would have perpetuated the Names of Lillybaeum and Syracuse, for many Ages after they shall now be forgotten, and had A——n lived in Rome, it is more than probable we should never have heard his Name. It is not the Place where a Man lives, nor his Titles of Honour in that Place, which will procure him Esteem with succeeding Generations, tho perhaps, for the present it may command the outward Respect of the unthinking Mob for the most part dazzled with the Parade and Pomp of Nobility. But if in the Estimation of the World, a Man’s Worth riseth in proportion to the Greatness of his Country, who knows but in future Ages, when New England shall have risen to its’ intended Grandeur, it shall be as carefully recorded among the Registers of the Leterati, that Adams flourishd in the second Century after the Exode of its first Settlers from Great Brittain, as it is now, that Cicero was born in the Six-Hundred-&-Forty-Seventh Year after the Building of Rome?
     A Man by Will gives his Negro his Liberty, and leave’s him a Legacy. The Executor consents that the Negro shall be free, but refuseth to give Bond to the Selectmen to indemnify the Town against any Charge for his Support, in Case he should become poor, (without which, by the Province Law he is not manumitted) or to pay him the Legacy.
     Quer. Can he recover the Legacy, and how?
     I have just observed that in your last you desire me to say something toward discouraging you from removing to Providence, and you say any Thing will do. At present I only say, you will do well enough where you are. I will explain my self and add something farther, in some future Letter. I have not Time to enlarge now, for which, I believe, you will not be inconsolably grieved. So, to put you out of pain—I am, Your hearty Friend,

      Jonath. Sewall

      P.S. I hope you’ll write me soon, I think you are scrupulously exact in writing only in turn.

      P.P.S. I am now going thro Co. Litt. again, and I suppose you are likewise. If you make any new Observations as you go along, or if any Questions arise in your Mind, it may possibly be of mutual Advantage to communicate them. I shall do the same. This may in some measure answer the End of reading him together, which I am persuaded would be eminently beneficial, at least to,

     J.S.


Title: From John Adams to Jonathan Sewall, February 1760
From: Adams, John
To: Sewall, Jonathan

       Feb.  1760

     I am very willing to join with you, in renouncing the Reasoning of some of our last Letters.
     There is but Little Pleasure, which Reason can approve to be received from the Noisy applause, and servile Homage that is paid to any Officer from the Lictor to the Dictator, or from the sexton of a Parish to the sovereign of a Kingdom: And Reason will despize equally, a blind undistinguishing Adoration of what the World calls fame. She is neither a Goddess to be loved, nor a Demon to be feared, but an unsubstantial Phantom existing only in Imagination.
     But with all this Contempt, give me Leave to reserve (for I am sure that Reason will warrant) a strong affection for the honest Approbation of the wise and the good both in the present, and in all future Generations. Mistake not this for an Expectation of the Life to come, in the Poets Creed.—Far otherwise. I expect to be totally forgotten within 70 Years from the present Hour unless the Insertion of my Name in the Colledge Catalogue, should luckily preserve it longer.—When Heaven designs an extraordinary Character, one that shall distinguish his Path thro’ the World by any great Effects, it never fails to furnish the proper Means and Opportunities; but the common Herd of Mankind, who are to be born and eat and sleep and die, and be forgotten, is thrown into the World as it were at Random, without any visible Preparation of Accommodations.—Yet tho I have very few Hopes, I am not ashamed to own that a Prospect of an Immortality in the Memories of all the Worthy, to the End of Time would be a high Gratification to my Wishes.
     But to Return, Tully, therefore, had but few Advantages, in the Estimation of Reason more than We have, for a happy Life.—He had greater Political Objects to tempt his Ambition, he had better Opportunities to force the Hozanna’s of his Countrymen, but these are not Advantages for Happiness. On the Contrary, the Passions which these Objects were designed to gratify, were so many stings for ever smarting in his Mind, which at last goaded him into that Excess of Vanity and Pusillanimity, for which he has been as often blamed, as ever he was praised for his Genius and his Virtues. Tis true, he had Abler Masters and more Opportunities for instructive Conversation, in a City, so fruitful of great Men. But in other Respects the rational sources of Pleasure, have been much enlarged since his Day.
     In the Acquisition of Knowledge, without which it would be a Punishment to live, we have much greater Advantages (whatever some ingenious Men may say) than he had or could have. For the Improvements in Navigation, and the surprizing Augmentation of Commerce, by spreading civilized Nations round the Globe, and sending Men of Letters into all Countries, have multiplied the Means of Information concerning the Planet we inhabit; and the Invention of the Art of Printing, has perpetuated and cheapened the Means of every Kind of Knowledge, beyond what could have been immagined in his Day.
     Europe has been, ever since his Death, the Constant Theatre of surprizing Characters, Actions, Events, Revolutions, which have been preservd in a sufficient Plenty of Memorials, to constitute a series of Political Knowledge of a greater Variety of Characters, more important Events, and more complicated Circumstances; and of Consequence better adapted for an Agreable Entertainment to the Mind, than any, that the World had ever known in his Times; and perhaps there never was before, nor has been since his Day, a Period, abounding with greater Heroes and Politicians, or with more surprizing Actions and Events, than that in which we live.
     In Metaphysicks, Mr. Locke, directed by my Lord Bacon, has steered his Course into the unenlightened Regions of the human Mind, and like Columbus has discoverd a new World. A World whose soil is deep and strong producing Rank and unwholsome Weeds as well as wholsome fruits and flowers; a World that is incumbered with unprofitable Brambles, as well as stored with useful Trees; and infested with motly Savages; as well as capable of furnishing civilized Inhabitants; he has shewn us by what Cultivation, these Weeds may be Extirmined and the fruits raised; the Brambles removed as well as the Trees grubbed; the savages destroyd, as well as the civil People increased. Here is another Hemisphere of Science therefore abounding with Pleasure and with Profit too, of which Cicero had but very few and we have many Advantages for learning.
     But in Mathematicks, and what is founded on them, Astronomy and Phylosophy, the Modern Discoveries have done Honour to the human Understanding. Here is the true sphere of Modern Genius.—What a noble Prospect of the Universe have these Men opened before us. Here I see Millions of Worlds and systems of Worlds, swarming with Inhabitants, all engaged in the same Active Investigation of the great System of Universal and eternal Truth, and overflowing with Felicity.
     And while I am ravished with such Contemplations as these, it imports me little on what Ground I tread or in what Age I live.
     The Intention of the Testator to be collected from the Words, is to be observd in the Construction of a Will—and where any Title to Lands or Goods, or any other Act is devisd to any one, without any mention of something previous or concomitant, without which the Act or Title is not valid, in such Case the Thing previous or concomitant shall by Implication be devised too, e.g.
     A Man devises Lands and Tenements to A.B., the said A.B. paying £100 out of the same Lands to B.C.—Here are no Words of Inheritance or of Freehold you see, yet since The Testator plainly intended, that £100 should be paid to B.C. out of the Land, it must be presumed that he knew the Rule of Law which entitles a Devisee of Lands encumbered with a Charge, to a Fee simple, and therefore a fee simple shall pass by Implication. So also
     A Man devisd Lands and Tenements to A.B. in Trust for C.D. and his Heirs. Here are no Words of Inheritance, yet as he has established a Trust that may last forever, he shall be presumed to have intended a Fee simple in his Devise, and the Devisee shall hold the Tenements to himself and his own Heirs for ever, by Implication, altho the Cestuy que Trust should die Heirless tomorrow. Now
     En mesure le manner. The Testator intended plainly that his Negro should have his Liberty, and a Legacy. Therefore the Law will presume that he intended his Executor should do all that, without which he could have neither. That this Indemnification was not in the Testators mind, cannot be proved from the Will, any more than it could be proved in the 1st Case above that the Testator did not know a Fee simple would pass a Will without the Word Heirs; nor than in the 2d Case, that the Devise of a Trust that might continue for ever would convey a fee simple without the like Words.
     I take it therefore, that the Executor of this Will is by Implication obligd to give Bonds to the The Town Treasurer, and in his Refusal is a wrong doer, and I cant think he ought to be allowed to take advantage of his own Wrong so much as to alledge this Want of an Indemnification, to evade an Action of the Case brot for the Legacy, by the Negro himself.
     But why may not the Negro bring a special Action of the Case vs. Executor setting forth the Will, the Devise of Freedom, and a Legacy, and then the Necessity of Indemnification by the Province Law, and then a Refusal to indemnify and of Consequence to set free, and to pay the Legacy.
     Perhaps the Negro is free at common Law by the Devise. Now the Province Law seems to have been made, only to oblige the Master to maintain his manumitted slave servant, not to declare a Manumission in the Masters lifetime or at his Death, void. Should a Master give his Negro his freedom under his Hand and seal, without giving Bond to the Town, and should afterwards repent and endeavour to recall the Negro into servitude, would not that Instrument be sufficient discharge vs. the Master?

      P.S. I felt your Reproof, very sensibly, for being ceremonious. I must beg Pardon in a style that I threatend you with as a Punishment, a few letters ago, Μηδ᾽ ἓχθαιρε ϕίλον σὸν ἁμαρτάδος εινεκα μικρης.
      However, it is not Ceremony, so much as Poverty.


Title: Draft of a Letter on the Evils of Licensed Houses, 29 May 1760
From: Adams, John
To:

     Braintree, 29 May 1760. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:128–129. For the context of this draft and its three sequels, Jan.?–May? 1761, none apparently published at the time, see note in same, p. 129–130, and JA’s MS map of taverns, same, facing p. 65, with description and references at p. ix.


Title: Draft of a Letter on the Succession to the Chief Justiceship, 5 November 1760
From: Adams, John
To:

     Braintree 5 November 1760. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:167–168. See above, JA to Jonathan Sewall, post 10 Sept. 1760 and note there.


Title: From John Adams to Samuel Holden Parsons, 5 December 1760
From: Adams, John
To: Parsons, Samuel Holden

      Sir
      Braintree December 5th. 1760

     I presume upon the Merits of a Brother, both in the Academical and legal family, to give you this Trouble and to ask the favour of your correspondence. The Science which we have bound ourselves to study for Life, you know to be immensely voluminous, perhaps intricate and involved, so that an arduous application to Books at Home, a critical observation of the Course of Practice, and the Conduct of the Elder Practicioners in Courts, and a large Correspondence with fellow students abroad, as well as much conversation in private Companies upon legal subjects are needful, to gain a thorough Mastery, if not to make a decent Figure in the Profession of the Law. The Design of this Letter then is to desire that you would write me a Report of any cause of Importance and Curiosity either in Courts of Admiralty or Common Law, that you hear resolved in your Colony, and on my Part I will readily engage to do the same of any such causes that I shall hear argued in this Province. It is an employment that gives me pleasure, and I find that revolving a Case in my mind, stating it on Paper, recollecting the Arguments on each side, and examining the Points thro’ my Books that occur in the Course of a Tryal makes the Impressions deeper on my memory, and lets me easier into the Spirit of Law and Practice.
     In view I send you the Report of a Cause argued in Boston last Term. And should be glad to know if the Point “whether Statutes of Mortmain are to be extended to the Plantations” was ever stirred in your Colony? And by what Criterion you determine what Statutes are and what are not extended to you?


Title: Draft of a New Year’s Address to His Nieces, January 1761
From: Adams, John
To:

     Braintree, January? 1761. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:193–196. The letter is of course pseudonymous; at this time JA had no nieces.


Title: From John Adams to Peter Chardon, January 1761
From: Adams, John
To: Chardon, Peter

     Braintree, January? 1761. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:196–197. On Chardon (d. 1766), see JA’s admiring characterization in same, p. 47, and note at p. 48.


Title: Draft of a Letter from an Old Man on the Evils of Licensed Houses, March 1761
From: Adams, John
To:

     Braintree, March? 1761. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:204–206. Third in the series of (unpublished) newspaper contributions on this subject. See entry for the earliest draft in the series, 29 May 1760, above, and references there.


Title: From John Adams to Samuel Quincy, 22 April 1761
From: Adams, John
To: Quincy, Samuel

      Dr. Sir

       April 22d. 1761

     Since you claim a Promise I will perform as well as I can. The Letter so long talked of, is but a Mouse though the offspring of a pregnant Mountain. However, if amidst the cares of business, the gay diversions of the Town, the sweet refreshments of private study, and the joyful expectations of approaching Wedlock, you can steal a moment to read a letter from an old Country-friend, I shall chearfully transcribe it, such as it is, without the least alteration, or the least labor to connect this preamble to the subsequent Purview.
     The Review of an old Letter from you upon original Composition and original Genius, has raised a war in my mind. “Scraps of Verse, sayings of Philosophers,” the received opinion of the World, and my own reflections upon all, have thrown my imagination into a Turmoil, like the reign of Rumour in Milton, or the jarring elements in Ovid, Where

        “Nulli sua forma manebat
        Obstabatque alliis aliud.”

       a picture of which I am determined to draw.
     Most writers have represented Genius as a rare Phenomenon, a Phoenix. Bolingbroke says, “God mingles sometimes among the societies of Men, a few and but a few, of Those on whom he is graciously pleased to bestow a larger portion of the aetherial spirit, than in the ordinary Course of his Providence he bestows on the Sons of Men.” Mr. Pope will tell you, that this “vivida vis animi, is to be found in very few, and that the utmost stretch of study, learning, and industry, can never attain to This.” Dr. Cheyne shall distinguish between his Quick-thinkers, and Slow-thinkers, and insinuate that the former are extreamly scarce.
     We have a becoming Reverence for the authority of these Writers, and of many Others of the same Opinion—but we may be allowed to fear that the vanity of the human heart, had too great a share in determining these Writers that Opinion.
     The same vanity which gave rise to that strange religious Dogma, that God elected a precious few (of which few however every Man who believes the doctrine is always One) to Life eternal without regard to any foreseen Virtue, and reprobated all the Rest, without regard to any foreseen Vice—A doctrine which, with serious gravity, represents the world, as under the government of Humour and Caprice, and which Hottentots and Mohawks would reject with horror.
     If the orthodox doctrine of Genius is not so detestable as that of unconditional Election, it is not much less invidious, nor much less hurtful. One represents eternal life, as an unattainable Thing without the special favor of the Father—and even with that attainable by very few, one of a Tribe or two of a Nation, and so tends to discourage the practice of virtue. The other represents the talents to excell as extreamly scarce, indulged by Nature to very few, and unattainable by all the Rest, and therefore tends to discourage Industry. You and I shall never be persuaded or frightened either by Popes or Councils, Poets or Enthusiasts, to believe that the world of nature, learning and grace is governed by such arbitrary Will or inflexible fatality. We have much higher Notions of the efficacy of human endeavours in all Cases.
     It is not improbable (as some Men are taller, stronger, fairer &c., than Others) that some may be by the Constitution of their bodies more sensible than others, so some may be said to be born with greater geniuses than others—and the middle point between that of the most perfect organization and the least perfect, in an healthy Child, that is not an Idiot nor a Monster, is the point of Common Sense. It is therefore likely, there are as many who have more than Common Sense, and so may be in different degrees denominated great geniuses, as there are who have less, and these surely will not by Mr. Pope, my Lord Bolingbroke, or Dr. Cheyne, be thought extreamly few.—The falacy seems to lie here. We define Genius to be the innate Capacity, and then vouchsafe this flattering Title only to Those few, who have been directed, by their birth, education and lucky accidents, to distinguish themselves in arts and sciences, or in the execution of what the World calls great Affairs, instead of planting Corn, freighting Oysters, and killing Deer, the worthy employments in which most great Geniuses are engaged—for in truth according to that definition the world swarms with Them.
     Go down to the Market-place, and enquire of the first Butcher you see, about his birth, education and the fortunes of his Life, and in the course of his rude history, you will find as many instances of Invention (Mr. Pope’s Criterion of genius) as you will find in the works of most of the celebrated Poets. Go on board an Oyster-boat, and converse with the Skipper, he will relate as many instances of invention, and intrepidity too, as you will find in the lives of many British Admirals, who shine in history as the ornaments of their Country. Enquire of a Gunner in Braintree-bay, or of an Hunter upon the Frontiers of this Province, and you will hear of as many artful devices to take their Game, as you will read in the lives of Caesar, or Charles or Frederick. And as genius is more common, it seems to me it is much more powerful than is generally thought. For this mighty favour of Nature, of which the Poets and Orators, Philosophers and Legislators of the world, have been in all ages so proud and which has been represented as sufficient of itself to the formation of all those Characters—is so far otherwise, that if you pick out your great Men, from Greek or Roman, and from English history, and suppose them born and bred in Eskimeaux or Caffraria, Patagonia or Lapland, no Man would imagine that any great effects from their genius would have appeared.
     Mr. Pope tells us, that De la Motte confesses, in whatever age Homer had lived, he must have been the greatest Poet of his Nation—but in my humble opinion, Mr. Waller was nearer the truth when he said, that in certain Circumstances.

        “The Conqueror of the world had been,
        But the first Wrestler on the Green.”

       The gods sell all Things to Industry, and Invention among the Rest. The Sequel upon Industry, you may possibly have sometime or other, but remember it is not promised by,

      J. A.


Title: Draft of a Letter to the Boston Gazette on the Evils of Licensed Houses, May 1761
From: Adams, John
To:

     Braintree, May 1761. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:212–215. Fourth and last in the series of newspaper communications on this subject. See entry for the earliest draft in the series, 29 May 1760, above, and references there.


Title: Inventory of Deacon John Adams’ Estate, 9 October 1761
From: Savil, Elisha,Field, Joseph,Belcher, Elijah,Hutchinson, Thomas
To:

       Boston, 9 October 1761

     A true Inventory of the Estate whereof John Adams late of Braintree Gent. deceased died seized and Appraised according to the best skill and Judgment of Elisha Savil, Joseph Feild and Elijah Belcher, Viz.

      An House Out Houses and 35 Acres
      }
      366
      13
      4

      Land belonging to it

      An House & Barn 10 Acres Land

      186
      1
      34

      An House 92 Acres land

      400
      0
      0

      7 Acres Salt Marsh

      56
      0
      0

      8 Acres fresh Meadow

      40
      0
      0

      12 Acres Upland

      80
      0
      0

      22 Acres Woodland

      73
      6
      0

      2 Acres Cedar Swamp

      5
      7
      0

      A Pew in the North Precinct Meeting House

      6
      13
      4

      An House £ 1: 6/. 6 Cows £17

      18
      6

      1 Yoke of Oxen

      12

      3 Steers

      8
      16

      5 Sheep

      1
      7

      3 Hogs

      4
      12

      1 Cart & Wheels & Wheel Timber

      1
      12

      3 Chains 1 Plow & Horse Gears

      1
      6
      0

      4 Hoes 3 Rakes 5 Forks 2 Iron Bars

      1
      17
      0

      4 Axes a Beetle & Wedges

      0
      12
      0

      A Chest with Draws

      0
      10
      0

      An Oval Table

      0
      16
      0

      A small round Table

      1
      4
      0

      A small Desk

      0
      10
      0

      eight Chairs

      0
      16
      0

      A looking Glass

      1
      8
      0

      1 Silver Spoon 2 small Dito

      0
      16
      0

      A Chest of Draws

      2
      13
      0

      1 Oval Table

      0
      12
      0

      A looking Glass

      0
      10
      0

      6 Chairs

      0
      12
      0

      A Bed Bedstead & Beding

      5
      0
      0

      3 Beds

      9
      0
      0

      8 Blankets 1 Quilt

      2
      5
      0

      2 Beadsteads 2 Cords

      0
      14
      0

      A Suit of Curtains

      2
      8
      0

      Wearing Apparel

      7
      9
      0

      30 Yards Homespun Cloth

      6
      0
      0

      9 Sheets 3 table Cloths 3 Towels 4 Pellow Cases

      2
      15
      0

      38 Ld. Sheeps Wool

      1
      18
      0

      A Clock

      2
      0
      0

      3 Tables

      0
      12
      0

      9 Chairs

      0
      9
      0

      a small Glass

      1

      2 warming Pans

      10

      Sundry Books & Pamphlets

      2
      10

      an Hone & Rasor

      0
      5
      0

      A Gun sword & Amunition

      0
      4
      0

      An Iron Box and heaters

      0
      5
      0

      2 Pair Tongs 1 Shovel 1 H Pair andirons

      0
      16
      0

      2 Tramels

      0
      12
      0

      1 Iron Kittle 1 Skillet 2 Pots

      12

      1 Hatchil Hatchel 2 Wheels

      13

      2 Brass Kittles 1 Skillet

      0
      2
      8

      A Tea Kittle

      13

      A Frying Pan Iron pan & Spitt

      10

      10 pewter Dishes 19 plates 3 Basons 1 Cran

      2
      6
      0

      a pr. Steelyards

      10

      Carpenters & Shoemakers tools

      11

      7 Cyder Casks sundry dry Casks & tubs

      2
      5

      an old Bed & Beding

      1
      6

       Total

       £1,330

       3

       8

      Elisha Savil, Joseph Field, Elijah Belcher

     Suffolk ss. John Adams one of the Executors presented the afore-written and made Oath that it contains a true and perfect Inventory of the Estate of John Adams deceased so far as has come to his hands and knowledge, and that if more appears hereafter he will Cause it to be added. The Subscribing Appraisers were sworn as the Law directs.

      Boston Octo. 9. 1761.
      T. Hutchinson
      A true Copy Examd.PerWm. Cooper Reg.


Title: Draft of a Letter to All Young Gentlemen on the Evils of Factionalism, February 1763
From: Adams, John
To:

     Braintree, February 1763. Printed: JA, Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:242–243. Incomplete and evidently not published contemporaneously, this satirical fragment anticipates one of the themes developed in JA’s newspaper pieces signed “Humphry Ploughjogger”; see the following entry.


Title: Editorial Note
From:
To:

      In 1763, John Adams made his first verifiable entry into print with the publication of his “Humphrey Ploughjogger” letter in the Boston Evening-Post on 14 March (No. I, below). He was to use the pseudonym several more times—twice that summer, once in 1765, and twice in 1767. His authorship of the 1763 Ploughjogger pieces is attested to in his own words, written long after the fact and inaccurate in detail, but convincing nonetheless.
      In an enumeration of his published works prepared for the Abbé de Mably, 17 January 1783, Adams listed “2 or 3, fugitive peices written in the year 1762 or 3., under the Signature of Humphrey Ploughjogger, not worth mentioning” (LbC, “never sent,” Adams Papers, Microfilms, Reel No. 108). On 13 February 1792, in a letter to his son Charles, Adams recollected writing only one Ploughjogger letter, but he now gave a better report of its reception: “That my Confessions may be compleat I must tell you that I wrote a very foolish unmeaning thing in Fleets Paper in 1762 or 1763 under the signature of Humphrey Ploughjogger. In this there was neither good nor Evil, yet it excited more merriment than all my other writings together” (MHi: Seymour Coll. of Charles Adams Letters).

      Adams made only one other reference to Humphrey Ploughjogger in extant documents, considerably earlier than either of those just cited, but probably arising out of his 1765 use of the pseudonym. In his Diary, 10 January 1766, he wrote: “Humphry Ploughjogger received a Letter from a Friend, thanking him for his good Advice and presenting him with a Crimson, Homespun Cap to wear with his Hide, as a Reward” (Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:290). Since it was customary for 18th-century contributors to newspapers who used a pseudonym to continue to employ the same one, a practice insisted upon by colonial printers who wanted to be able to identify contributors in the event of prosecution for libel, writers only very rarely used a pseudonym already claimed by another. This practice was followed even if the pseudonym was used at long intervals over a period of years (Roger B. Berry, “John Adams: Two Further Contributions to the Boston Gazette, 1766–1768,” NEQ New England Quarterly. , 31:94–95 [March 1958]). Thus, Adams’ authorship of the Ploughjogger pieces would seem well substantiated.
      The pseudonymous pieces signed “U,” appearing in the Boston Gazette between July and September 1763, were also claimed by Adams in the listing he prepared for Abbé de Mably. Adams recalled that he composed these letters “in answer to a Tory-Writer, who subscribed himself J Jonathan Sewall.” Actually Adams’ intention was more complicated than he remembered, for he sought to serve several purposes, not all of them related to “J.”
      The Humphrey Ploughjogger letters are in an American tradition of humor that arises from illiterate phonetic spelling and rustic dialect, and that is meant to cover an undertone of serious purpose. One thinks, for example, of James Russell Lowell’s Hosea Biglow. In his first Ploughjogger letter, Adams sought to ridicule “grate men who dus nothin but quaril with one anuther and put peces in the nues paper” and to poke fun at bugbears of the day—a standing army, popery, and the Pretender. For months the Boston press had been filled with vituperative charges and countercharges of two factions, one that gathered around James Otis Jr. and his cause, and the other that supported Gov. Francis Bernard and Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. The quarrel had its origin in the Governor’s naming Hutchinson to the post of chief justice, despite his not being a lawyer and despite the promise made by a Bernard predecessor to name Otis Sr. to the next vacancy. Young Otis saw an insult to his family and, more important, the gathering in Hutchinson’s hands of a multiplicity of offices, some of which would lead to a conflict of interests. Within a month or two of his appointment, Hutchinson participated in the famous writs of assistance case that Otis pleaded unsuccessfully before the Superior Court (JA, Legal PapersLegal Papers of John Adams, ed. L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel, Cambridge, 1965; 3 vols., 2:106–147). After that, Hutchinson had been involved, unintentionally and to his detriment, in the dispute between the Governor and the House over the naming of a new colonial agent (Bailyn, Thomas HutchinsonBernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, Cambridge, 1974., p. 51–60). By 1763 these were already old quarrels, but it took little to revive them in young Otis’ continuing campaign of harassment against the Lieutenant Governor. The immediate spark setting off fresh controversy was Otis’ criticism of the Governor for spending money on a gunboat in the fall of 1762, in Otis’ eyes a threat to legislative prerogative. The door was then opened to rehearsal of old grievances (Berkin, Jonathan SewallCarol Berkin, Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist, New York and London, 1974., p. 29–30).
      The intemperate language and abusive tone of these publications would have disturbed John Adams in any case (see Diary and AutobiographyDiary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols., 1:243), but his concern deepened when one of his closest friends entered the fray. On 14 February 1763 in the Boston Evening-Post appeared Jonathan Sewall’s first effort in a defense of the Bernard-Hutchinson administration which grew into a series of newspaper contributions, the last published June 13. Writing as “J,” Sewall satirized the Otises and their allies in terms no worse than other newspaper combatants, but his enthusiasm and commitment to his task aroused Adams (Berkin, Jonathan SewallCarol Berkin, Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of an American Loyalist, New York and London, 1974., p. 167). Thus, it was no accident that he wrote the first Ploughjogger letter only seventeen days after Sewall had made his debut as “J.”
      One can only speculate that the humorous first letter of Ploughjogger was a mild attempt to reprove Sewall and other disputants, but when Sewall continued, wholly committed to one side, his good friend felt betrayed. In this period Adams was an exemplar of the Anglo-American tradition that considered blind factionalism detrimental to the public good. Thus sometime in the spring of 1763, but most likely after Adams’ first newspaper article appeared, he wrote an outraged and outrageous letter to his friend, identified only as Jonathan, which he broke off abruptly and apparently never copied and sent (No. II, below). The writing of it vented his spleen; keeping the letter prevented, for the time being at least, what would probably have been an irreparable breach in their friendship.
      Shortly after the last of Sewall’s “J” pieces appeared in print, Humphrey Ploughjogger came back after a three-month absence, still complaining about newspaper quarrels but directing his energies now to a call for agricultural diversification, particularly the cultivation of hemp. His postscript suggests he was driven to take up his pen once more by the outbreak of fisticuffs between two members of the legislature.
      Gen. William Brattle of the Council and Col. John Murray, representative from Rutland, got into a scuffle outside the Town House on 8 June when Murray demanded an apology for a slighting remark he claimed Brattle had made some time before. When Brattle denied the accusation, Murray called him a liar and attacked him. The sheriff separated the two men, but when they met again the same afternoon another scuffle broke out. Although Murray apologized for his conduct the next day before the Council and was pardoned by the governor and the councilors, Brattle was not satisfied. Before the end of June, he retained John Adams as counsel in his suit for trespass against Murray, and the case first came to court in Boston on 5 July. (For JA’s legal notes on the case, see No. V, note 2, below.) Brattle’s suit was not disposed of until 1766, with Adams acting as attorney through the whole process. Brattle won token damages of £30, although he had sued for £1,500. The episode was important for Adams as an instance of resort to unwritten law in defense of honor, a custom he was to attack in several of the “U” letters.
      The first of the “U” letters, however, was an answer to Ploughjogger’s request for information about the cultivation of hemp (No. IV, below); thus, Adams began a dialogue with himself carried on in two different newspapers. His original purpose was not as he remembered it many years later, when he told the Abbé de Mably the “U” letters were written to answer a tory. It was characteristic and understandable for Adams to shove farther back in the past his dedication to whig principles and his strong opposition to tory ideas. Sewall, of course, could not be called a tory in 1763. Although “U” began by posing as a learned gentleman who would satisfy Ploughjogger’s desire to turn men’s minds away from factional strife and toward the practical and needful matter of agricultural diversification, Adams was deflected from his purpose after the first letter by the Brattle-Murray imbroglio and by Sewall’s dedication to one side in the political clash between the Otis and Bernard-Hutchinson factions. Subsequent “U” letters bemoan the writer’s failure to get back to agricultural reform; only two, one of them unpublished, are addressed directly to “J” (Nos. VI and VII, below). Adams’ lengthy treatment of the immorality of private revenge grew out of deep personal conviction, but he may have sought also to sway public opinion to his side as the plaintiff’s attorney in Brattle’s suit against Murray, who had sought directly to defend his honor.


Title: I. Humphrey Ploughjogger to the Boston Evening-Post, 3 March 1763
From: Adams, John,Ploughjogger, Humphrey
To: Boston Evening Post (newspaper)

       Lofing Sun
       Bostun, the thurd of March 1763

      Thes fue Lins cums to let you no, that I am very wel at prisent, thank God for it, hoping that you and the family are so too. I haf bin here this fortnite and it is fiftene yeres you no sins I was here laste, and ther is grate alterashons both in the plase and peple, the grate men dus nothin but quaril with one anuther and put peces in the nues paper aginst one anuther, and sum sayes one is rite, and others sayes tuther is rite and they dont know why or wherefor, there is not hafe such bad work amumgst us when we are a goin to ordane a minstur as there is amungst these grate Fokes, and they say there is a going to be a standin armey to be kept in pay all pece time and I am glad of it Ime sure for then muney will be plenty and we can sell off our sauce and meat, but some other peple says we shall be force to pay um and that wil be bad on tuther hand becaus we haf pade taksis enuf alredy amungst us, and they say we are despretly in det now but howsomever we dont pay near upon it so much as bostun folks and thats som cumfurt but I hop our depetys will be so wise as to take care we shant pay no more for that, the Bostun peple are grone dedly proud for I see seven or eight chirch minsturs tuther day and they had ruffles on and grate ty wigs with matter a bushel of hair on um that cums haf way down there baks, but I dont wonder they go so fin for there is a parcel of peple in Lundun that chuses um as they say and pays um, but our m—— thinks themselfs well off if they can get a toe shirt to go to Leckshun in, but that is not their sorts for if they ant well pade they cant help it and they ort to be for the bible says the laburrer is wurthy of his hier and they that prech the Gospel should live by the Gospel, but Ime dredful afrade that now there is so many of these minsturs here that they will try to bring in popiree among us and then the pritandur will come and we shal all be made slaves on. I have bote your juse harp and intend to come home next week and tell your mother so. so no more at prisent but that I am Your lofeing father

       Humphry Ploughjogger


Title: III. Humphrey Ploughjogger to the Boston Evening-Post, 20 June 1763
From: Adams, John,Ploughjogger, Humphrey
To: Boston Evening Post (newspaper)

        20 June 1763

       To the Publishers of the Boston Evening-Post.

        Plese to put this following, in your next Print.

      I Arnt book larnt enuff, to rite so polytly, as the great gentlefolks, that rite in the News-Papers, about Pollyticks. I think it is pitty, they should know how to rite so well, saving they made a better use ont. And that they might do, if they would rite about something else. They do say we are a matter a million of muney in det. If so be the matter be so, I dont see but the Cunstibles must dragg two thirds on us to goal, for our land and housen and creeturs wont pay tacksis, without ther is muney to sell them for. And I am shure ther arnt haff a million of muney amongst us. And now the war is done, we cant bring in any more amungst us.—In the war time I could sell my fatt ocksen, and sheep, and every thing I could raise on my place, for a pretty good round price in muney. So that the war did me some good, ’tho’ I lost by it two of my sons, as stout young fellows as ever took a man by the sholders. But now I cant sell any thing, because nobody has no muney hardly. And they do say that amost all the muney folks can rake and scrape, is sent away by water to buy Corn and Hemp and such like, besides that that is sent to buy fine cloths. As to finery gentlefolks may do what they ples, for we cant make um so fine here as they bring um from Lunnun. But I know we can raise as good Ingean corn here as they can in Virginny, and as good Wheet as they can in Connetticut, and folks say we could raise as good Hemp, as they raise in any part of the world. And if so be, this be true we might raise anuff amongst us, to send to Lunnun to pay for our fine cloths; for they do say, it fetches a nation price, and they want abundance of it ther, about their shipping, but no body amungst us knows how to raise it.
      What I’me ater is, to get some great larnt gentleman, who has been to Old Ingland, and knows how they raise Hemp there, and can read books about it, and understand um, to print in your News, some direckshon, about it, that we may go to trying, for we cant afford to run venters, by working, may be, a month and then have nothing come of it for want of working right.—I’le affirm it, a little short piece in the print, no bigger than these few lines I send you at this present riting, if it did but tell us how to raise Hemp, how to fitt our land and feed, how and when to sow it, how to gather the crop and when, and how to dress it, and suck like would do a thousand pounds worth of good.
      Seems to me folks must have a queer kind of souls to love to study, to fling dirt and play hide and seek in the News, better to walk or ride about the country, in good weather, and study like King Solomon, the Herbs from the Cedar of Lebanon to the Hysop in the wall. I’le avouch it I’ve took more delight in looking upon a bunch of leeves, or blossoms, or sprigs of grass for two hours together, to see how nice and pretty it is made, than I ever did last winter, or spring in reeding any of them scolding pieces in the News, and yet tho’ I want bro’t up to College I love to reed.

      I wonder why folks will rite so as they do in the News, they make amost all the world hate um for it. whereas I’le say it they could make every body love um if they would rite about farming, and teech country folks how to pay their rates by rasing hemp and such like. For it would be strange, if we in a land of light were not as good as Heathens, and I’ve seen it in a sermon book, that they worshipt, even arter he was dead, that man that taut um how to use Grapes, and tother too that taut um how to sow corn and such like. Thes Pagans were fools to worship um, tho it shows that they lov’d and honour’d the man that did um good, which we Chrischans dont always do, tho I hope most of us should.—Sum of our ministers say that none of thes heathens are sav’d, which I cant hardly beleeve.
      I do say that our great knowing rich men cant answer it to a good conshence, if they dont take sum panes and spend sum muney too, to learn us little ignorant poor folks how to pay our rates, and get a living, dont they remember the parable of the Talents!—besides we have work’d hard and lost our sons and brothers in the war, to defend them in hole skins, and got so far in det that we cant pay saving they contrive sum way for us.—I wonder whether they ever sit alone and medetate.—If they did their bowels would yerne toward us.—I sit up sumtimes till 12 a Clock at night thinking about myself and Naibours our land and stock and rates, and about the war, and about my too poor dear sons, one of um died of a camp fevur, and tother was skalp’d by the Ingeans, till my hart is redy to burst and my eyes run over. I’m shure if I had as much larning, books and time to spaer from my labor, with my poor abillitys, thof I say it, I could find out 20 ways of teeching mankind things they want to know, and helping um pay their dets and live comfortable.
      Good Mr. Elliot did rite sumthing once about farming, but not enuff about Hemp.—I see his book tother day, poor man he’s ded now, but our loss in his gain.—I red a good deel in his book, and like it extrordinary well. I wish I had one of um. I suppose I could get one for haff a dollur. I think I’le leeve off tacking the News papers for haff a yeer, and bye one, and in haff a yeer I hope the News will get cleer again of so much wicked langage, and ripping and rending of one grate man agenst another! There’s sundry leeves at the end ont, put out by a fine man, folks say I know him, I’ve seen him ride by my house, and thof I durst not speek to him yet I’m a fool for it, for they say he’s a nice good-natur’d free Gentleman, yet I love him for the pains he has took to make folks ditch their meadows, and sow Wheet and Hemp and such like.

      I do say it would be a nice thing if we could raise enuff Hemp to pay our rates, and bye a little rum and shuger, which we cant well do without, and a little Tea, which our Wifes wont let us have any peace without.
      I’ve been as long as a sarmon amost, so I wont rite no more at present. Sumbody put a lettur of mine into the print tother day that I was asham’d to see there, so I wanted to let the world know I could if I try’d both spell and word a lettur, abundance better than that was, and I have told um sum things they would do well to think on, when they go to bed and when they get up, if their Wifes dont pester um too much. So I remain your’s to sarve.

       Humphrey Ploughjogger

       P.S. Seems to me if grate Men dont leeve off writing Pollyticks, breaking Heads, boxing Ears, ringing Noses and kicking Breeches, we shall by and by want a world of Hemp more for our own consumshon.