Title: To John Adams from Elisha Sylvester, Jr., 20 May 1802
From: Sylvester, Elisha, Jr.
To: Adams, John

Sir!
Greene May 20th 1802

I have taken liberty to call at your house in a friendly way Several times, and as I respected you as President of the united States, and liked the laws and administration, while you was in that office,—and as I was in much trouble and am yet, I occasionally travelled in your parts, to contrive some means of redress.—I have call’d on your Kinsman Revd Norton also, and suspect such visits are a mortification to your wives, if not to you. Women don’t love to see great, well men coming into their houses, visiting their elevated husbands, with little or no business. There is a kind of dignity & defference among people of Office, which (even in this republican government,) makes them afraid of strangers, who seem to have little or no business. Now, I must confess that I have been respectfully recd with by your family, and Mr Norton’s—but the reason of my mentioning these things is, that I would have you know that I am not afraid to be seen by any rank or order among my fellow Citizens,—that though I have had any Commission yet that I tho’t myself as well deserving one, as my neighbors.—
You have met with some trouble, insult & disappointment, yet I joyfully congratulate you on the reflection, that, after being rivaled, and seeing the systems contemned and pulled down which you and other friends to good government have done much to Support, you have fortitude and prudence to bear calumnies with calmness and patience. May we all learn by every means, to be wiser & better, and end our days in peace with God, & in forgiveness of enemies.—
I should not have written you this letter, but knowing I have a right to frank a letter one to you I thought it could be no offense—tho’ I am a poor man. I purpose to visit you when I come that way again, and hope for some good counsel in my difficulties which are of the worst kind—Domestic embarrassments.
So hoping you will put no bad constructions on my familiarity with you, but find me a peaceable honest man, I subscribe myself your humble Servt: no less than fellow Citizen,

            Elisha Sylvester.junior

            P.S. If I have given you a wrong title, it owing to my ignorance. ES.—


Title: To John Adams from John Sinclair, 3 June 1802
From: Sinclair, John
To: Adams, John

Sir
London 29 Parliament Street 3rd. June 1802.

I expected to have had the Honour of hearing from you before this time, on the subject of the publication of General Washingtons Letters, but I hope to have that pleasure soon. In the interim I beg to send an engraving of the proposed Monument and a plan of the new town of Thurso in which it is proposed to be erected.
You will also herewith receive a paper on Longevity. Permit me to request your assistance in procuring answers from America to the question in Appendix No:1.
With great truth and regard /  Believe me /  your faithful  and /  Obedient Servant
John Sinclair


Title: To John Adams from Thomas Truxtun, 10 July 1802
From: Truxtun, Thomas
To: Adams, John

Sir
Perth Amboy 10th July 1802.

Permit me to present you with a Copy of the medal voted me by Congress, and executed agreeable to Your directions (to the Secretary of the Navy) as President of the United States, and I pray you good Sir, to receive it as a Small token of the veneration, Respect and Esteem I bear towards you. May you live long and enjoy health and happiness in the Sincere prayer Dear Sir of Your sincere friend and very Obedient Servant.
Thomas Truxtun


Title: From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 24 July 1802
From: Adams, John
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

Dear Sir
Quincy, July 24. 1802

I have received your letter of the 1. of June and read your Sketch of the Achaic Republick. It is a valuable Addition to American Litterature, and richly deserves to be printed. It will do Some good. I fear however, that all Men in Power will generally Say with Oliver Cromwell, on reading Harringtons Oceana, that they will not be frightened out of their Power by a few paper Shot.
I should be much obliged to you, if, when you print it, You would take the trouble to refer in the margin of every page to the Chapter and Verse of the original Authority upon which you depend. Moderns have no right to Say any thing concerning the Ancients without Book. We know nothing of them but by means of Books. Have you read Ubbo Emmius’s Descriptio reipublicæ acheorum? It is not So ample as yours.
What you are pleased to call "the Tryumph of good Principles in Massachusetts", will be of no great Consequence while N.Y. and P. are under the dominion of bad ones. These two State, and S.C. have always had much guilt to answer for. I could give you an history for 28 years of their Unsteady Conduct and its inexpressible injury to the Cause of the Nation. But it would do no good. All must be left to Fate. Intrigues first and Arms afterwards, have hitherto decided all things in Government. The Virtue and good Sense of Americans, which I own I once had some dependence on, and which have been trumpetted with more extravagance by others, are become a byword. I am dear Sir / yours
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to National Intelligencer, 4 August 1802
From: Adams, John
To: National Intelligencer

Minutes occasioned by Remarks in the national Intelligencer of August 4. 1802.
post August 4, 1802

It has been often Said, and as often as denied, that there are Men in this Country attached to Democracy. Simple Democracy: to a Government in every State, of a Single Assembly of Representatives, without a Senate and without a Governor; to a Government of the Nation in a Congress of Delegates in one House without a Senate and without a President. The Charge is Supported by the Declarations of Numbers from Chase’s Rebellion and the Votes of County Conventions, down to the Letter to Mazzei present time to the Efforts in the House of Representatives to Sett aside the Treaty with England, and many other Actions and declarations of Individuals to this day. Whether the Writer of the Remarks is capable of comprehending it or not, there is a distinction between an Attachment to Monarchy, and an opinion that it will in Some Nations and at certain periods prevail, and that no human Wisdom or Virtue in Existence can prevent it.—Cato was never Suspected of any Attachment to Monarchy.—His Death was a full proof of two points. 1. that he detested and dreaded Monarchy more than death. 2. that he was fully convinced, that Monarchy in the person of Cæsar, could not be prevented in Rome. Men’s Opinions are not always conformable to their Wishes. Some have Understandings, as well as affections.
Abstract Opinions in favour of Monarchy or Democracy may exist without Injury to the State. Plato & Aristotle declare freely in their Writings a Veneration for Kingly Goverment. Yet, in the most democratical Governments of Greece, they were not persecuted. An End will be put to all Liberty of thought as well as Speech, if Duane, Callender, Lyon, Cooper, Cheetham Wood, in Short all the Dogs of the Mob, are to be let loose upon every Man, who dares to Speculate upon Principles or Systems of Government. The Change of the last Administration, was in a very Small degree affected by any Sentiment that there were Men in the government whose Views were Subversive of Republicanism: because the very Men, who endeavoured to propagate Such a Sentiment were did not believe themselves and were not credited by others. Many of these Men were known to be more inclined to monarchical opinions, then those whom they accused. Many of these Men were known to have often declared their opinions, that the Constitution of the United States was defective, because it had not an hereditary President and an hereditary Senate. Others had been known to declare that no form of Government was worth any thing, but that of King Lords and Commons. Some had even Said that We ought to have a Monarchy in this Country in the Person of one of the Princes of England. This kind of Speeches and Opinions have been oftener uttered by those who are called Republicans and are now possessed of Power in the States, than by Federalists. The Change of Administration in this Country was effected by the Federalists themselves: not by any change in favour of Republicanism in the People. But this is a Subject I would not wish to devellop at present, nor by any opinion that the new President was more of a Republican than the old former one. But this is a Subject that may be develloped hereafter.
Are our Court Gazettes then prepared to Say that "Liberty has vanished from France" That the first Consul is an Usurper. That "the French Nation have Submitted every political Right to the mercy of the Sword" That "The Republic is Subverted and Monarchy has returned“? This Language is not likely as remote from any tendency to preserve the Friendship between this Country and France, as it is from the Truth. The Government of France is at least as Republican, now as it ever has been Since the death of the King, or Since the Subversion of the Monarchy, or indeed Since the meeting of the Assembly of Notables in 1786.—It answers the Ends of Government in preserving personal Liberty, private property, and the Peace, order Tranquility and Happiness of Society, better than any republican Constitution that nation ever has enjoyed, and as well as any it will probably ever have. This mighty transformation has been effected without Violence or Conterition, by the Voice, of the People, by the general Sense, and the public opinions. The People of France are weary of blood, disgusted with murder, and indignant at Rapine. They have Seen and felt, and are at length convinced with an Unamimity, that is very remarkable, that Democracy, without controul, would depopulate And desolate France. They have Stopped in their career of Enthusiasm and delirium and are restored in Some measure to their right minds.
What connection there is between the returning reason of the french People and the publication of these Letters, it is not easy to imagine. These Letters are calculated, in every Sentence and every Word of them, to preserve the Constitution of the United States, from deviating into Monarchy on one hand, and Democracy on the other. If the Ballance of our Government was destroyed and the Weights all placed in the democratical Scale, nothing is more certain than that all the Confusions and horrors of France for fifteen or Sixteen Years past must be our Lot, and nothing could relieve Us from them but a Civil War, or a victorious Army: unless the People Should Suddenly recover their Reason and restore the Equilibrium of the Government. These letters were written twelve years ago, from an Apprehension that the contagion of a french delerium, might Seize the Passions of the American People and excite them to destroy their present Constitution, annihilate the President’s Office, the Senate of the United States, the independe the Governors and Senates of the individual States, and the independent Judiciaries in all of them.
The publication of these Letters is another affair. They had been long forgotten and would probably have never been again read or Seen by the Writer, had he not been informed, that last Winter, certain Persons in Boston were handing about one of them about, Shewing sentences or half sentences and misrepresenting them not only in democratical Clubbs but to Lawyers and Judges during their Terms. This Information alone, occasioned Some old Letter Books to be Searched and these Copies to be published. They contain no sentiments which the Writer ever concealed. He held them in 1776 when his Letter to Mr Wythe was published. He held them openly and publicly in 1779, when in the Convention which formed the Constitution of the State of Massachusetts. They run through the three Volumes of his Defence of the Constitutions of the United States and have been frankly professed and avowed in public and private on all occasions for Six and Twenty Years. a greater falshood cannot be committed to Writing, than is contained in these Words "Hitherto they have courted the Obscurity of a rigid concealment."


Title: To John Adams from William Cunningham, 10 August 1802
From: Cunningham, William,Cunningham, Abigail Fellows
To: Adams, John

Sir
Lunenburg 10th. Augt. 1802

It is intended with the leave of Providence to settle a Gospel Minister in this Town, the solemnity to be performd on Wednesday the 6th. of October next, at which time it will be highly gratifying to Willm. and Abigail Cunningham to be honoured with a visit from your Excellency and Lady. the pleasant season for travelling, the high and well ventilated situation here, whch is favourable to health, and every attention in our power to render our Illustrious Visitors happy, excites the pleasing hope that you will condescend to make us a visit on this Occasion. We are very respectfully your humle. Servts.

Wm. & Abigail Cunningham


Title: To John Adams from David Humphreys, 28 August 1802
From: Humphreys, David
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir.
Boston Augst. 28th. 1802

A combination of circumstances having prevented me from having the honour of paying my respects in person to Mrs Adams & yourself, I could not proceed on my journey to the Westward, without expressing in this manner my extreme sensibility of the disappointment. When I was in this Town, a few weeks ago, on my way to the Province of Main, I so fully indulged the expectation of making the visit, on my return, that I prayed Mr Tilghman to announce my intention, in presenting my best & most respectful Compliments. After the convocations of Commencement were passed, I had accordingly fixed in my mind upon this day for the enjoyment of that happiness, as I mentioned yesterday to your Son; but a certain species of Obligation (contracted when I was here lately) to dine with the Trustees of the Agricultural Society, has frustrated that pleasing expectation. My particular concerns & previous arrangements requiring that I should commence my journey for Connecticut on Monday next, nothing remains for me but to offer the simple facts as my only apology...  And I flatter myself Mrs Adams & yourself will do me the justice to believe, that none of your numerous friends could be more seriously mortified in not having an occasion (after so long an absence) of testifying verbally my great attachment, veneration & friendship for both.
I must likewise be permitted to add, that Mrs Humphreys, who shares very largely in all those sentiments which the high respectability of your Characters ought to inspire, requests me to commend her respectful homage to the acceptance of yourself & Lady, with assurances that she leaves this part of the Country with a sensible regret at not having had the honour of being introduced to your acquaintance. I hope we may have the happiness of indemnifying her for this privation, on another occasion; and that, in presenting my best respects to Mrs Adams with wishes for health & felicity, you will be persuaded, that, with sentiments of perfect consideration & esteem, / I have the honour to be, / your Mo obedt & / Mo: hble Servant

D. Humphreys.


Title: To John Adams from David Brown, 7 September 1802
From: Brown, David
To: Adams, John

Sir,
Philadelphia, September 7, 1802.

From the encouragement which literature has received from you, I am encouraged to solicit the honor of your name to the inclosed Proposals... not doubting, if obtained, but what a people, daily increasing in learning, will follow the example,—as being made by the late Guardian of their country.
I have the honor to be, / Sir, / your Excellency’s most obdient, / And most humble servant,
David Brown.


Title: To John Adams from C. P. Wayne, 17 September 1802
From: Wayne, C. P.
To: Adams, John

Sir,
Philadelphia, September, 17, 1802.

Enclosed you will receive Proposals for publishing by Subscription, a History of the late General George Washington; your presenting it to any of your friends, will greatly oblige me, and should you think proper to sanction it with your own name, it will be duly appreciated / By Sir, / Your most obedient Servant,
C. P. Wayne