Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody, 10 June 1807
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw

My dear sister
Quincy June 10th. 1807.

If I had written to you my dear sister half as often as I have thought of you and contemplated writing, you would have had a Letter by every Mail for these two months: I have to acknowledge the receipt of two kind Letters from you since I have made you any return the last bearing date May 29th, which came last week to hand, and to which I should have replied yesterday by a young Man who lives with us who was going home for a week, and had promissed me to call and tell you how we do: and bring me word of your welfare; I attempted writing to you yesterday, but the weather had become so suddenly so intencely hot, that my feeble frame sank under it, and renderd me wholy unfit for any exertion of body or mind; To day an easterly wind has given me new Life and spirits, and I determined, no longer to delay returning you thanks for your kind favours which always do my Heart good; tho they are so sparingly bestowed that I have frequently to regret, that Talents so brilliant and powers so harmonious and touching, should not more frequently be displayed for the improvement, and edification of those who know how to appreciate their value.
I know you can plead a thousand cares and avocations which necessarily devolve upon you; Surrounded as you are by your numerous family, in which you are continually doing good, and communicating it to others, knowing so well as you do, that we live not to ourselves.
My own Family when collected together consists of 21 persons. Mrs Smith, John & Caroline have been these three weeks in Boston upon a visit to my Son J. Q. Adams, who with his family are residents in Boston. I say residents, because they mean to take their flight in the fall like the Birds of passage to the southward. I shall inform mrs Smith of your kind invitation to her and her children—She is a woman of great firmness of mind you know, from her youth up—She has had ample Scope for the exercise of it, in the visissitudes of fortune which have attended her. To herself are confined her troubles. She never makes them a subject of complaint to her most intimate Friends—but they evidently wear upon her spirits, and produce many a silent tear—her present Situation is painfull to her, her future prospects . . . we see but a little way into futurity—”or who could suffer Being here below”?
This world we are told is our School may we all of us improve aright, the usefull Lessons we are taught.
I hope Lydia has recoverd, and that you will make us a visit soon. We are now, all in pretty good health. I have recoverd from the disorders which confined me, from the first week in Febry untill the middle of April, I was threatned with a Lung fever for many days, which finally terminated in an Eruption upon the skin, which with its dissagreeble qualities gave me one pleasure—that of scratching.
Mrs T B Adams hopes you will come before she makes her visit to Haverhill, or not untill her return. She will go there the first week in July. My little name sake is a sweet child—pretty enough I think. I have little John with me too. Susan is grown to the stature of a woman before she is in her teens—a great misfortune to have the Body out grow the mind—I never saw two children more different in their turn of mind behaviour and tempers than Caroline Smith and Susan—I sometimes think of what Mr. Joseph Dyar, used often to say to me when I was young and very wild, Nabby you will either make a very bad, or a very good woman. Caroline is soft in her manners compliant in her temper and disposition, yealding to the opinions of those whom she considers her superiours—and every way engageing—A thread would govern one, a cable would be necessary for the other—yet time is doing much for her, and reason and argument begin to take hold, and make impression which give hopes that a very good woman may be made from seeds Sown. If you had been near me, I should have sent her to you long ago; but the distance has been an obstacle—She has a strong mind and a generous temper. She is not proud, haughty or envious—but an ardent temper, and a Spirit of contradiction odious in youth—You have had a variety of tempers and dispositions to deal with. How would you manage one, upon whom you could not impress any subordination—any true defference to age, or relation or Rark in Life?
how hard it is to rule the Spirit and govern the tongue—
Brother and Sister Cranch are well. Mrs Norten looks very thin—She is indeed multiplied in children—I hope she will live to see them a comfort to her, and reward her for all her toil and trouble.
Your son is well-envoloped in Science a promoter of literature with all his Heart and Soul and Strength—no man engages more zealously, or is more persevering. There is Some talk of his sacrificeing to the graces—he will not however acknowledge it Yet I belive he has his favorite—and in time will make it appear so, if other circumstances are favorable. I have at length prevaild upon him to get him a peice of linnen, and mrs. Smith with Susan & Caroline have made it up: and a very good peice it was—but he wants a care which neither you or I can help him to, a stich in time—and a care of his own things, and indeed a knowledge of them—a man whose mind is so engrosed with great objects—cannot descend to the minutiea of an odd sock—a raggid ristband &c &c.
My Love to my dear amiable Neice I hope she will accompany you. My best respects to mr Peabody in which we all join. I shall tell John Smith what you have written respecting him. He is the same in mind and manners that he early presaged.
Pray my dear Sister do not let it be long e’er you make us all happy by seeing and embraceing you with that sincere and tender affection which has ever Subsisted between us—and which still burns with undiminished fervour / in the bosom of your Sister
Abigail Adams.


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 18 June 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir.
Boston 18. June 1807.

The Fire and Marine Insurance Office are now repaying the third part of their capital, to which they were authorized by an Act of the Legislature; and issuing new Certificates to the Stockholders—The old Certificates must therefore be returned into the Office—I will thank you to send me, by the earliest opportunity, your Certificate for the forty shares, which stand in my name, but of which you have the Certificate.—The repayment is made principally in Shares of the Boston Bank, your part of which I will either hold for you, or sell as you may think proper.
I am ever affectionately & dutifully your’s
John Quincy Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 June 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Son
Quincy June 20 1807

Inclosed is the Certificate of forty Shares in the Fire and Marine Insurance Company. The third part of the Capital which is to be paid off, you will please to receive in shares of the Boston Bank, if you approve of it, and hold them as you propose.
I am your affectionate / Father
J. Adams


Title: From Walter Hellen to John Quincy Adams, 9 July 1807
From: Hellen, Walter
To: Adams, John Quincy

Dear sir
Washington 9th: July 1807

As the British have blockaded the Chesapeak it has deprived us in this Quarter of any conveyance to Europe; will you therefore my dear sir be good enough to forward the enclosed letter by the first vessel going from your place to any part of Holland—as its early conveyance under present circumstances may be of considerable consequence to me—
You will observe from the Papers how indignant the people in this Quarter feel at the Outrage committed by the British at Norfolk; Our Executive however take things with more composure, & will I fully expect endeavor to persude us, that what has happened is for the best. Most of their own friends expected that Congress wou’d have been immediately convened, but it seems now, that we must first send to London to ascertain if they intended to kill our people or not; if they say it was not done intentionally, why I suppose we shall then be completely redress’d, at least in the opinion of our Rulers.
We shall expect to see you in when the Revenge returns wch. will I presume be in Novemr.
Yours most Affectionately
Walter Hellen


Title: From Thomas Jefferson to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 8 August 1807
From: Jefferson, Thomas
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

Madam
Monticello Aug. 8. 07

I have duly recieved your letter of the 28th. of July expressing a wish that your brother could find some emploiment in New Orleans in which his knolege of the French and Spanish languages might be made useful. it would have been pleasing to me to have been able to point out such an emploiment, & more so to add that any such was within my powers of appointment, but the only appointments I make there, or in any department, are of the highest officers. they alone appoint to all subordinate places under them. in N. Orleans the Governor, Collector, Naval officer & Surveyor of the port are of my appointment, but each of them appoints those under them; and being responsible for their underagents, are left uncontrolled in their choice as is just. I can do no more therefore than indicate the true sources of appointment there to which your brother should apply. I tender you at the same time the assurances of my high respect & consideration.

Th: Jefferson


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Catherine Nuth Johnson, 18 August 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Johnson, Catherine Nuth

My dear Madam
Boston 18. August 1807. Quarter past nine O’Clock in the Morning.

I take the first moment of self-possession that I have to inform you that my dear wife at half-past eight this morning presented me a third son.—The labour which commenced about 2 O’Clock this morning was extremely severe, and the child and mother both suffered so much in the birth as to give us great concern—We had at first little hopes of the child’s life; but it is now and Mrs: Adams also as well and better than we could have expected.—I hope in the course of a few days that she herself will give you a favourable account of both; and in the mean time with our affectionate regards to Mrs: Hellen, Mrs: Boyd and the families remain, Dear Madam, ever truly your’s,

John Quincy Adams


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Catherine Nuth Johnson, 20 August 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy,Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson
To: Johnson, Catherine Nuth

Dear Madam
Boston 20. August 1807

As the account I gave you the day before yesterday may occasion you some anxiety on my wife’s account, it gives me the most cordial pleasure now to inform you that she is as well as under the Circumstances could possibly be expected, and the infant remarkably hearty and Strong—My Sister Smith came in from Quincy the morning of the child’s birth and has been with Mrs: Adams constantly since.
I remain, Dear Madam, ever faithfully yours
John Quincy Adams.I write a few lines to say that I am doing very well and that the little Gentleman is likely to do so too. He is born to be lucky as you say having come into the World as Harriet did—


Title: From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 17 October 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Shaw, William Smith

Dear Sir.
New York 17. October 1807.

We arrived safe at Providence on the Evening of the day when we took leave of you in Boston; and the next morning embarked in a Packet which was ready to sail. We were however detained at anchor just below Providence the whole of that day, and the next Night—On Monday we effected with much difficulty our passage to Newport, and sailed from thence on Tuesday Morning—We had every possible variety of calm and head-wind, with scarce an hour of any other, untill Thursday afternoon about 4 O’Clock, when we reached the Passage of Hell-gate just an hour too late to come through—We therefore anchor’d there untill yesterday morning, when with the wind still a head we came through and beat our way up to this City about Noon. We had however fine weather and pleasant Company the whole time, and unfavourable as the chances of time and tide were to us, the voyage was less fatiguing and tedious to us than the journey by land would have been.
On arriving here I found Mr: Otis, had gone on, yesterday morning to Philadelphia—So that we were disappointed of hearing from our boys—Mr: Quincy is still here, and proposes remaining here till Monday—We intend to proceed on our Journey to-morrow.
Mrs: Adams and her maid in the hurry of departure from Boston, both left their Cloth great-Coats behind—I have sent a number of Articles to Mr. Baxter’s Store. N. 55. Long-wharf, to go by his schooner Good-Intent; if you will have the goodness to call at our house and have a bundle made of the two great Coats, and get them sent to Mr: Baxter’s Store, to come with the rest of the things I shall be much obliged to you—The bundle may be directed to me, as the trunks now are—And you will be kind enough to recollect that I mentioned to you the Insurance I had made on the books going to Congress—to be sent by the Good-Intent—And if Mr. Baxter should eventually send them by any other vessel, notice is to be given at the New–England Insurance Company Offices, that a proper alteration may be made in the policy.
We are all tolerably well—The infant has hitherto proved an excellent traveller both by land and water—It would scarcely be possible for him to be less troublesome than he is. I hear no news of consequence here, and have not looked at a newspaper since I left Boston.
Let me hear from you, as often as your leisure will permit, and believe me with the greatest affection and esteem your’s
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 28 October 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Shaw, William Smith

Dear Shaw.
Washington City 28. October 1807.

I enclosed to you by last Evening’s Mail a Copy of the President’s Message, as first printed by Smith—I now send you a copy together with the documents that accompanied it—You will see that the H.R. have a new Speaker and Clerk—They have this day determined to appoint the standing Committees by ballot instead of leaving their appointment to the Speaker as heretofore—The Washington Races constitute the principal business of the present week.
I suppose you will receive this letter, about next Monday, upon which day you will recollect to offer Sewall & Salisbury’s bill which I left with you, for discount at the Bank—And also on the subsequent Wednesday to take up my note there—I hope you will already have received the rents of Mr: Gardiner and Mrs: Newton, and paid the bills of Bradlee, Pollock, and Endicott—I am anxiously waiting to hear from you that my boys are well, and remain, yours affectionately
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 3 November 1807
From: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson
To: Cranch, Mary Smith

Washington Nov. 3d 1807

Having at length recover’d from the fatigue of a very unpleasant journey I take the liberty my dear Aunt of writing to solicit the favour of your correspondence although I know your avocations to be so numerous I almost fear to trespass upon your time—
It was with the greatest regret I found myself obliged to leave Boston without seeing you as I wished much to converse with you concerning John who has appear’d two or three times this Summer to be threaten’d with a dreadful complaint which is known by the name of Hives of which I feel a continual apprehension owing to its being so sudden in its consequences I will therefore my dear Madam simply mention the remedies made use of in this part of the Country where the disorder is common. It generally at first comes on with a hoarseness and difficulty of breathing the least sympton of which must be immediately attended to by giving Onion juice prepar’d in this cut a large Onion into slices and lay as much Brown Sugar between as will extract all the strength of the Onion to be taken a teaspoonful at a time frequently and not to be exposed at all to a damp air if this does not take effect an Emetic to be giving immediately and the feet and Stomach rub’d with Goose Oil—
You will I am sure excuse my writing you on this subject as it is a complaint which even the Physicians in Boston are very little acquainted as Dr. Welsh inform’d me and the loss my Sister met with last Winter as render’d me more than usually anxious I am fully persuaded that under your protection he is perfectly safe and happy which is a source of comfort and happiness to / Your affectionate and grateful Neice

L C Adams
PS Remember me affectionately to my Mother and tell her how anxious I am to hear from her likewise to the President and all the family


Title: From John Quincy Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 4 November 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My dear Mother
Washington City 4. Novr: 1807.

Last Evening I had the pleasure of receiving your favour of 25th: ulto: which contained the first information we had received from you or from our children since we left Boston—and for which we began to be very anxious. I am glad to hear that George is so well satisfied with his situation and promises so well—If the french Gentleman will allow him to chatter with him according to his own propensities he will maintain his French at least where it is, and I hope another Summer will get over all the difficulties he will ever have to encounter for the mastery of that Language.—John has been so much more with you and has experienced so much of your tenderness and indulgence, that I am not surprized he should hanker a little for it now and then—But I feel so perfectly easy with regard to the affection and kindness with which he will be treated and such entire Confidence in the Management he will be under, that I am satisfied he will be perfectly reconciled to his situation, and be content with occasionally visiting you on holidays.
We have hitherto been doing as little more than Nothing as imagination can conceive, to form a distinction—The Message advised us to wait for news from abroad before we should do any thing decisive, and the disposition is universal to take the advice— Our friends in Boston were afraid that the measures of Congress would be warlike—I did not expect so myself and I now know from personal observation that the national Representative pulse never has beaten so slow as it does at this time— The Cotton of the South is a great peace-maker. The great Sentiment which appears to me predominating in the minds of Congress-Men at present is the dread of their own valour—Every man seems to tremble least he should do something rash—We feel less than the People do—We shall want a spur more than a rein.
Mr: and Mrs: Cranch called upon us last Sunday—Both very well, with their family—Mrs: Cranch has grown quite fat—I am doing the same thing untill I am afraid of growing lazy too. My wife and child, and all the family we are with are well—We pass’d a couple of days at Baltimore with Mr: & Mrs: Buchanan who are also very well.
Your’s ever affectionately
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 5 November 1807
From: Adams, Thomas Boylston
To: Adams, John Quincy

Dear Brother
Quincy 5th: November 1807.

Your letter from Washington of the 27th: ult: to our dear Mother, came to hand this day; and as She was in Boston, we had the first perusal of it. We learn from it with much pleasure your Safe arrival at the end of your journey and that you and yours are in good health. In return for this intelligence I am happy to be able to acquaint you with the health of all our friends here and your children in particular. Little John is here this afternoon with his Aunt and he Stays with us regularly on Sunday’s though he seems perfectly contented at his place of abode. From George we have heard but once since his Grandparents left him. He was quite at home before they came away and I have no doubt he will recommend himself very soon to the favour of the good people among whom he lives. His aptitude to learn and his inquisitive turn of mind will gain the good graces of the old parson, who will Stuff him chock full of Stories So as he but listen to his tediousness. I shall endeavour to See him when I go to keep Thanksgiving, as we are wont, with our friends at Haverhill. Our Sister is Still with us and I think will not leave us this Winter; at least I hope not, for I think there cannot be Suitable accommodations for her at Hamilton. We have had no news of John since he was at Albany, though letters are expected from him every day. William is very desirous of obtaining a situation in a Compting-house in Boston, but has not yet made any direct application to any Merchant. I Shall render him all the aid in my power towards the attainment of his wishes, but whether the terms on which he would be admitted are such as he can comply with, I am yet to enquire.
I presume that our good Uncle Cranch has communicated to his Son the result of the law suit in which he was engaged in the Circuit Court. Mr: Blake thought proper to become non-suit, for default of evidence though he ascribed it to the Plaintiffs marriage, which he acknowledged to be the fact, notwithstanding we had taken no advantage of it in our plea. Miss Penelope alias Mrs: (I dont know who) is said to have torn herself from the embraces of her newly acquired husband and is gone to the West Indies in search of evidence of her birth & parentage, with which She threatens to come back and overwhelm us. We Shall wait with patience her return. The Baxters very probably will be glad to See their Dollars back again rather than the lady.
The only news I have of importance to communicate is that on Tuesday last His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth, accompanied by his trusty and well-beloved Jerry High Sheriff &ca.  paid a visit in due form and ample Style, at Quincy; I was in Boston and he Saw none of the family but your father, who received him, I presume, with due respect. The Governor & his Council are yet twain. They pull different ways, but measures go with the greater number; so that we are generally thought to have nine Governors in lieu of one. The winter Session of the General Court will determine who Shall be our next Governor. Either his Excellency or the Honorables in Council must yield their Sharp points, or there will be serious divisions among the dominant sect. This is the opinion of Some folks, but I have not sufficient knowledge of the matter to make any conjectures of my own.
If you Should take the new paper which we hear is established at Washington, we Shall be glad to receive it instead of the Intelligencer, provided the debates are reported in it.
With best love and regards to all friends at Washington, I am / Your’s affectionately
Thomas B Adams


Title: From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Abigail Smith Adams, 11 November 1807
From: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson
To: Adams, Abigail Smith

My dear Mother
Washington Nov 11th. 1807

Your very kind letter has eased my heart of a load of anxiety, on account of our dear George, whose health appear’d to me to be in a very indifferent state. and I could not have quitted him with any satisfaction, had I not placed him under your protection. recieve my dear Madam our united thanks for your extreme kindness in taking him to Atkinson which journey I sincerely hope proved beneficial both to the President and yourself—
I have nothing to write worthy your attention. Washington is worse than Dull at present Mr. Randolph has commenced the Session by making a violent attack upon the administration condemning it severely for not having called Congress together immediately after the affair of the Leopard. many of the Members have not yet arrived—I have not yet seen the new Room for the Representatives but am told that it is extremely Elegant—
Mr. Erskin has not left Philadelphia but is expected shortly—
Do my dear Mother write soon, if you can possibly spare the time and tell us if Mrs. Smith is with you and if she stays with you this Winter. at any rate give my best love to her and request her to write to me remember me kindly to all, particularly to Louisa Smith. kiss my darling John for me. Charles grows finely he is the very image of his father who is thank God more fleshy and in better health than I ever knew him—
I passed two days with Mrs. Buchanon she had been very sick but was much recovered she requested me to offer her best respects to yourself and family and I remain dear M Mother your very affectionate daughter
L. C. Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 12 November 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My dear Son
Quincy November 12. 1807

I have not written to you, though I have received two kind Letters from you, Since your departure, giving me very pleasing accounts of your comforts in your Travels.
Soon after you left Us, I took the resolution instead of Sending George to Atkinson by the Stage or any other accidental and precarious conveyance to convey him myself. Accordingly We Set out, your Mother your Son and myself, and after three or four days of visit to Mr Peabody and his Family We returned in better health and Spirits to Quincy. George’s Behaviour on the Journey and in the Family was very agreable and We left him Satisfied and contented with every thing about him. He is a very fine Child, and requires a mixture of tenderness and resolution in the Government of him, which I hope he will never fail to experience at School or at home. A young French Gentleman, whose Manners were very engaging and who Sings a multitude of French Songs, remarkably well, Soon became intimate with George and made him Sing his French Song. This is a Student in the Accademy not more than Eighteen or nineteen, and has an excellent Character in the Neighbourhood. He boards at Dr Cogswells where We Spent an Evening.
Mr Buckminster, whom I expect with Mr Shaw to dine with me, to day has furnished me with the fifteenth and Sixteenth Volumes of La Harps Course. They are posthumous publications and are only fragments, but bear indisputable Characters of his head heart and hand. They relate wholly to the Phylosophy of the Eighteenth Century. He distinguishes very justly between true and false Phylosophy. The latter is ascribed to the Atheists Deists and in general all the Ennemies of Religion, whom he calls Sophists. He goes over the Productions of Newton Lock Clark, Montesquieu Condelac, Buffon, D’Alembert, Condercet, Voltaire Rousseau, Diderot Boulanger &c &c &c Raynal Mably. &c but these are but Scraps. He makes Diderot the King of the Sophists. He candidly allows them all their Merits as fine Writers, but has no Mercy on their Absurdities, Sophisms, Hypocrisy and Lies. He ascribes the French Revolution to the Sophists, with all its horrors.
If La Harpes Conversion was political only, he was the most excellent and Masterly Hypocrite that ever existed. The Master of a Mint could not counterfeit his own Coin with his best materials and Instruments, and make a more perfect impression.
I have been delightfully entertained and much instructed by these Books, and I think that any Man who reads them with attention and impartiality must be convinced that the Atheistical and Deistical Phylosophers and their Writings contributed a great deal to bring about the french Revolution but especially to produce the worst Parts Scenes and most bloody horrors of it.
Mr Buckminster has lent me another Work, however, in one Volume, which has been written expressly and professedly to Show, in opposition to Robinson and Barruel, that neither the Phylosophers, the Free Masons, nor the Illuminati, had any influence at all in producing the Revolution. This Work is the Production of J. J. Mounier and was printed at Tubingen 1801. You remember Mounier in the assembly of the States General, and in the National Assembly. He advocated the System of a mixed Government of King Senate and Commons, and a Seperation of the Legislative Executive and Judiciary Powers. For these Sentiments he was obliged to fly and emigrate.
The Volume is very well written: more laboured in the Style by far than La Harpes: yet I think he has not  proved his Points. The whole Truth may be collectd from La Harpe and Mounier compared together. The Extravagances of Courtiers, the Disorder of the Finances, the Usurpations of the Parliaments and the Oppressions of the Remnants of Feodalities, and the infinite Multiplication of the Nobility, arising from the absurd System of France and all the rest of Europe except England by which every Child of a Nobleman is Noble and entitled to exclusive Priviledges (for it is in England only that Aristocracy has but one Child), and many other Causes conspired to produce the Revolution. But I think it may be fairly denied that all these Causes, added to the American Revolution, would have produced one in France if the Philosophers had not prepared the Minds of the Nation for it. I more over Still think that the Free Masons and the Illuminati contributed a good deal in Aid of Phylosophy and all other Causes.
I will give you a sample of Diderots Atheism, from La Harp. Vol. 16. p. 155 “Il etait devenu Athée, au point d’entrer en fureur au seul Nom de Dieu, et de regarder 1’idea d’un Dieu comme le premier des fléaux de la Terre. Il cherchait comment cette idee etait entrée dans le monde et quel était le premier qui avast pu s’en doiser. Ii ne disait pas comme Lucrece: Primos in orbe fecit Deos timor. La Crainte a fait les Dieux. Son imagination lui fourniss ait une autre Hypothese bien digne d’une tete comme la Sienne. Il suppos ait Un Misantrope furieux, un Timon, un homme qui avait nourri trente ans, dans une caverne le resentiment de tout le mal que lui avaient fait les hommes, et cherché pendant tout ce tems, comment it exercerait contre eux une vengeance terrible et durable qui put assouvir toute la haine. Un jour, enfin cet homme etait sorts de sa caverne tout rempli d’une idée qui repondait a ses fureurs. Il en etait sorti, en criant d’une voix epouvantable: Dieu! et avast ainsi couru le Monde en jetant partout le meme cri, Dieu, et ce mot, repete et commente, avait repandu toutes les Calamites sur la Terre. Telle etait la fable Philosophique que Diderot substuait a celie de Pandore.
It must be confessed that this is much more profound than J. J. Rousseaus fable of the first Man who marked or Staked out a Garden and called it his own. This Man ought to have been instantly put to Death, as he Says. And I Say that both Rousseau and Diderot ought to have been Sent aux  petits Maisons.
Piety and Property, according to these profound Phylosophers have been the Sole Causes of all the Calamities and Miseries of Mankind. It Seems to be almost a Sin, as well as a folly to reason with these great Masters of the Βαθος. But I cannot help considering whether, if Men were So happy according to the Ideas of these Gentlemen, as to be Totally destitute of the Love Fear and belief of a God, and to be agreed to have no property, whether they would not Still be liable to diseases, Cramps Side Sstiches, Head Ache Tooth Ache Gout Stone fevers and a thousand others.  Whether they might not freeze in our cold Winter night, without houses to Shelter them. Whether they might not melt in the heats of Summer. Whether they or their Children might not be unluckily torne by wild beasts. Whether the old might not perish for Want, when their Children had no faith in any precept to honour father and Mother. Whether Children would not suffer, when their Parents were Sick or drunk with eating too many grapes or drinking too much of their Juice. The miserable Conditions of our North American Indians in the Months of February March and April, when their Stores are almost empty and they are reduced to short allowance, emaciated, exhausted Sunk in their Spirits and Scarcely able to move, might  convince those Men but they are ignorant of these facts and will not believe them, though they are well known to all who have been conversant with Indians in our Woods.
Mounier has given Us the most intelligible Account of the System of Weishaupt, the Professor of Law in Bavaria, which I have Seen. The most profound, most extensive and at the Same time the most delirious and the most wicked of all the mistic Empiricisms of ancient or modern times. How it was possible that Such a Knave could associate with two or three other Knaves and find So many Dupes and among them Princes Magistrates, Nobles Philosophers, Some of whom were respectable Characters I cannot conceive. My Capacity for comprehending the Elevations of Such Genius’s is however very Superficial. I could never fathom the heighths or Depths of Miranda or Burr or even Hamilton. How then can I hope to penetrate Weishaupt. The very Circumstance, that his Scheme for the Perfectibility of Man to Such a degree as to make Princes Magistrates and Laws unnecessary, was not to be expected to be accomplished in less than thousands of Years would to my contracted Mind, have been Sufficient to discredit it forever.
Mr Shaw and Mr Buckminster as I expected obliged Us with a Visit. Buckminster is a charming young Man and Seems to be in good health. If his health should continue and the Sword does not cut through the Scabbard, he will raise an Enthusiasm in this Country. I pity him. Such Splendid Talents and the enthusastic Reputation they Spread are very dangerous to a Mans Peace. Sir Isaac was a real Phylosopher when he Said he would not Sacrifice Something so real as his Peace of Mind for a bauble. This he Said when Envy made a Serious Attempt to take from him the Honor and Merit of his greatest discoveries.
I shall not take the trouble to read what I have written because it is to you. I sSay little on public affairs, because I know little of them. I am glad however to see that you and Mr Quincy are so attentive to the honor and Interest of your Country. The Facts you move for are very important and ought to be authentically ascertained, for the Satisfaction of the American People in the first place and foreign Nations in the Second. John is pretty well and tolerably contented. Rather too much attached to the Old Mansion but that is flattering to old hearts.
Your Porter has done me much good, but you must charge me for it lest it should be forgotten by your
J. Adams


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 30 November 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

My dear Sir
Washington 30. Novr: 1807.

I received a few days since your very kind letter which I am ashamed of answering by a few lines; but by some accident I have fallen from a state of almost total idleness into an overwhelming flood of business, which leaves me scarcely a quarter of an hour of the day or of the Night—I sent you last week a copy of a volume in the form of a bill which I reported upon the Aggression business and which is now under debate—The mere scribe-work of its compilation (for not much of it is my own) and the attendance upon a large Committee where it was discussed before it came into the Senate has already employed me with sufficient Industry—But on Friday last Mr: John Smith of Ohio made his appearance here—and was going to take his seat—A Resolution for a Committee of enquiry whether he ought not to be expelled was immediately offered, which after some debate was substantially adopted—A Committee of seven was raised of which I have the misfortune to be Chairman; I did not introduce any one of the proposed Resolutions, and as you will see by the printed debates took very little part in the discussion—It was a subject which of all others I was desirous of avoiding, but in vain—The principles and facts involved in this inquiry are of a compass and magnitude, at which I hardly dare to look, and the solicitude to discharge my duty, oppresses me beyond measure.
I remain of my first opinion on my arrival here—The President’s Policy is procrastination—and if G. Britain does not wage complete War upon us, we shall end with doing nothing this Session—
My wife, child and the family where we live are in good health—With my duty and Affection wherever due I am, in hopes of writing to you soon more at length—faithfully yours.
J. Q. Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 30 November 1807
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson

my dear Daughter
Quincy Novbr 30th 1807

I received your favour of Novbr 20th and rejoiced to learn that you reachd Washington in safety with your young Charge. it is an important undertaking to travel such a distance with so young a Baby, by land and by water, but you have been accustomed to it, and therefore feel less embarressd with it than others would be. the little fellow seems to be Born for deeds of greater hardihood than his Brothers.
John grows very fat. he is as thick as he is long is very well, but that gasping for Breath always attends him when he grows fleshy. I know not what to attribute it to. I hope he will out grow it—he is very well, sleeps quietly and is quite gay and happy. he is fonder of me than ever, thinks it a great priviledge to tarry with me a day or two at a time, which he frequently does, and looks for Sunday with much earnestness—yet when he is at his Aunts, he is quite content—he amused me much a few days since with his Reasoning. he was sitting on my lap when he began. Grandmamma I know who made me, God made me, and made me to be happy. Well are you not happy? After a pause of some moments. Grandmamma Elizabeth had a peice of toast this morning, and I had two peices, but Elizabeths one peice was larger than both mine—Now that did not make me happy—Altho he was very serious, I could not refrain from bursting into a laugh.
I heard from George a day or two since he was very well and quite content. his Aunt writes, that he is a very good Boy, and not more trouble than Children of his Age usually are.
Mrs Smith, William and Caroline are still with us, and will pass the Winter here. I cannot think of her going into the Wilderness at this season of the year. William wishes to go into a store to qualify himself for a voyage to the East Indies, but the State of uncertainty in which our public affairs are involved, are a Bar and obstical to his getting into a merchantile House at present—his engageing manners, and pleasent temper and disposition are qualities which will recommend him. he has also a Strict Sense of honour and integrity. we have not heard from John but once since he left Quincy, which was from Albany. Mrs Smith is very anxious and uneasy in concequence of ithe was always so punctual to write, and so anxious himself to get Letters, that we know not what cause to attribute it to—
Mr and Mrs T B Adams are gone to celebrate Thanksgiving at Haverhill when her Sister Betsy is to be married. I have scarcly ever been able to collect my Family together tho so small a Number at these Annual festivals—they have been scatterd over the Globe—I had the largest collection of them together the last Sunday you dinned with us—all my Children, and all but one of my Grandchildren—which have ever met before—it is a pleasing and gratefull Sensation to parents to see them thus assembled like  olive plant round about the tableYea to see as the psalmist expresses it. to see our childrens Children—
By the Journals of Senate I perceive mr Adams is like to have his share of Buisnessbut Congress never get their Blood in motion untill after Christmass.—I was quite amused to see how reluctantly the Truth came out, that the Administration had been obliged to have recourse to those very measures which their ignorance and folly had led them to censure under Washingtons—under the last, there was not any money applied, but what had been previously appropriated yet such will frequently be the exigency of the Country, that such a measure must be resorted to for its immediate safety, and security. but that was a Jeffersonian trick to catch popularity, of which he ought now to be asshamed, to make the people believe that he was so tender and carefull of their money, that not a shilling should be expended, but what they had voted to a particular purpose—I do seriously believe that the greater part of mankind from the days of Adam to this hour were designd to be Dupes and tools—and they have most admirably answerd the end of their creation to this blessed hour as all history proves from haughty Nimrod to the tyrant to Napolean
Quincy december 3d
My Letter has lain by for several days, unfinishd—I have only to add that the family are all well. and desire to be rememberd to yours: Louisa desires me to present her Love to you & Mrs Buchannan whose sickness we hope is not of a very allarming nature the weather is very fine, tho we had one severe snow storm in Novbr—
My Love to my son I am glad to learn that he grows fat, as well for his looks as his Health
Whilst you  I do not expect you will be Burdend—Remember me kindly to your Mother and Sisters ask Eliza if she has sown wild oats enough to become the  sober solid dame of a parsons wife? She had better persuade her swain to think of some other profession.
Mrs Smith Caroline Susan and Mrs Adams /  all present their best Love to which I join that of your /  affectionate Mother
Abigail Adams—


Title: From Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, 13 December 1807
From: Adams, Louisa Catherine Johnson
To: Cranch, Mary Smith

My dear Aunt
December 13th. 1807

I recieved your very kind Letter for which I return many thanks I hope you will pardon the anxiety which my last expressed concerning my darling John who is I am well aware safer with you than with me but the continual apprehension his father and I suffer’d when he visited us last Summer induced me to write so particularly. We are sincerely thankful for your kindness to our Children and I shall ever feel happy in expressing my gratitude for your goodness—
There is nothing new stirring here We hear of nothing but War The P— however has no idea of anything of the Sort which gives me great hopes that the Negociation may terminate amicably. war is certainly to be deprecated by either side, the mischiefs resulting from such a step, must be nearly equal to both Countries—
Mr: Adams is just come in from his Walk I must therefore resign my seat but must first request you to give my most affectionate love to my Mother and all the family with best respects to Mr. Cranch and a thousand Kisses for John of whom I am delighted to hear so good an account Charles grows in proportion to what he was when you saw him. he is a lovely Baby! he has two Teeth nearly through with the wishes for your health & happiness I with pleasure subsribe myself your affectionate Niece

            L C Adams

P.S I have seen Mr. & Mrs. Cranch but once they were in good health She is grown very fleshy


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 14 December 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

Quincy Decr 14. 1807

Knowing very well by too long Experience the nature of your Employment, I wish you to understand that I never expect or desire any answers to my Letters except when I expressly request Information, more than a bare Acknowledgment of the Recipt of them. I Say this however upon a very patriotic and Self denying Principle because every Line from you is a cordial to my Spirit.
Mr John Smith of Ohio is so much a Stranger to me that I never saw him nor he me. He is therefore as far removed from my Love or hatred as any other Gentleman in the United States. I could very conscientiously be a Juryman, upon his Tryal, and therefore perhaps the more anxious that he should have Strict Justice.
The Senate upon the Tryal of Impeachment, is a Sacred Trybunal of Judicature, and the Principles, the Passions and Predjudices of Party Should have no Influence in their decisions. In this Case indeed there is no Impeachment. The Power however of the Senate to expell a Member is not much less important and delicate. Expulsion from the Senate is almost as ruinous to a Citizen as conviction of Guilt and the highest punishment a Senate can inflict.
There are two questions of great importance which will not escape the Attention of any inquiring Mind. The first is what are the Crimes Misdemeanors or offences, which will deserve or justify Expulsion; The Second is what Evidence is to be admitted in Proof of any Crime, fault or offence.
I know not what is advanced, or proposed in Senate. if the President has laid before the two houses the Tryal in Print or manuscript of Col Burr and there are any Testimonies which bear hard upon Mr Smith, will it be contended that Such Evidence is Sufficient? Will it not be necessary to have the Witnesses present in Person to be examined and cross examined vivâ vocè?
The Case of William Blount was So confused and mysterious, that I know not what can be made of it.
Another Case of direct disobedience to an order of the Senate and an insolent contempt of their Authority, by one of its Members was passed over without any animadvertion at all. Such Examples give Us little reason to hope for any great advantages from the Power of Impeachment or that of Expulsion. Yet these Powers are indispensibly necessary in terrorem at least.
If the Spirit of Party intermingles in the least in these Impeachments and Expulsions, the Man convicted or expelled is immediately taken up by his Party, put upon the compassionate List and returned again to Congress like John Wilks, or promoted at home in some more honourable and lucrative Way. So that Such Things cannot be too maturely weighed and considered: and the Safest Course is always on the Side of Mercy Candour and Clemency.
Governor Sullivan has been very ill of a Lung Fever and As I arrive had fitts and died of Such a fever, the Governor, having had fitts and being seized with a like fever, apprehended that the cause of the fitts had Seized the Lungs in both Cases, and might have the Same Effect. But he is better and Attends his office upon Business.
I cannot omit to mention the Death of Elseworth, or to lament it as a misfortune to his Country. Not to mention his Probity, Integrity or Public Spirit, in which he was equalled by few and perhaps exceeded by none, he had the clearest head in the United States.
If We were not all well I should mention the Sick. My Love to the Mother and the Babe, and the Family where you are.Yours forever
J. Adams


Title: From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 18 December 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Shaw, William Smith

My dear Sir.
Washington 18. Decr: 1807.

I received some days since, your letter of the 18th: of last Month—But it was longer in coming than the time usually taken by the mail—and I have left it longer without reply than I could have wished—
I am much obliged to you for your attention to my personal affairs, and much gratified that my obligations at the Bank have all been taken up—You will recollect my wish that you would pay to my father $91..22. on the 22d: of this month, on my account, and also inform me what dividend upon a share is declared at the New-England Insurance Office, and at the Boston Bank, this Month.
Dr: Bullus the Messenger sent in the Revenge, arrived here yesterday, we understand with dispatches from Mr: Armstrong—Their substance has not yet been communicated to Congress, but the rumour is, that it contains notification that the French decree of November 1806 will henceforth be rigorously executed against us as well as others.—We learn the English have issued their counterpart—Between the two our prospect is not bright—
Your’s faithfully.
John Quincy Adams


Title: To John Adams from John Quincy Adams, 27 December 1807
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Adams, John

My dear Sir,
Washington 27. Decr: 1807

Your favour of the 14th: instt: came to my hands just at a moment to renew and to strengthen impressions which had been weighing heavily upon my mind for near a month—The general questions relative to the powers and the process of expulsion under our Constitution had been forced upon me by the situation in which I was placed as Chairman of the Committee on the present Inquiry—My own inclinations would have led me to investigations of a different kind, for which indeed I was making preparations and collecting materials—This subject however came on quite unexpectedly, and still more unexpectedly was it made my duty to take the principal labour of its management upon myself—The Committee have been in Session almost every day, Saturday’s, and Christmas day not excepted since their appointment—Their report is now ready and will be presented in the course of a very few days—It is long and has been agreed to by the Committee almost to a line, as drafted by myself—It will probably form a subject of animated discussion on the question of acceptance, and if printed I shall immediately send you a copy—If its principles should not meet your approbation, it will be a subject of the deepest regret to me—But even then, I think you will find in it internal evidence that its errors if such you should deem them have not arisen from carelessness or inattention—That they should have proceeded from any less excusable origin I am sure you will not suspect
I perceive by the newspapers, and by letters from more than one of my friends that the Bill, which has here commonly been termed the aggression Bill, and which was also reported by me, as Chairman of a Committee, has excited surmises, and occasioned imputations among my federal friends, not very auspicious to their good opinion of me—I think that when I enclosed you a copy of the bill I informed you that scarcely any of its provisions were mine, although I gave the Bill, as it pass’d the Senate my vote and my support—I know not any thing that has given me so much pleasure, as to have learnt by a letter from Dr: Waterhouse that you approved of its principles—I have however inferr’d however from your silence respecting it, and from some other circumstances, that you supposed it a measure too high-toned for our situation, and perhaps hazardous to our Peace—That may possibly be—It pass’d by a vote almost unanimous in Senate, but has not finally been acted upon in the House of Representatives—It may therefore be considered as indicative of the tone of Sentiment in the Senate, particularly with regard to the affair of the Chesapeake, and to the support of our own authority, within our own Jurisdiction—That I have contributed to the best of my abilities, and as far as my very slender influence in that body extended to pledge them by this Bill to the assertion and support of its principles I can never deny—But I had evidence too clear and irrefragable of the temper prevailing through both branches of Congress, to fear that any measure which might unnecessarily endanger the peace of the Nation would be over-hastily adopted.
Our prospects have indeed been growing more gloomy from day to day—And we have now, at the express call of the President, an unlimited Embargo—To this measure also, as merely precautionary and defensive I gave my assent and vote—It was in Senate carried through in one day—but was contested with much more violence in the other House—Under the decrees of France and Great-Britain dooming to capture and confiscation all our ships and cargoes trading with either of those powers we had no other alternative left, but this or taking our side at once in the War—I do not believe indeed that the Embargo can long be continued—but if we let our ships go out without arming them and authorising them to resist the decrees, they must go merely to swell the plunder of the contending parties.
The British Proclamation, expressly commanding impressment from our merchant vessels, and assuming in fact a right of annulling our laws of naturalization, has given again a new and a darker complexion to our old controversies on that subject—We ought not I think to suffer this new encroachment, and yet I know not how we can take a stand against it without coming to immediate War—Mr: Canning in his correspondence with Mr: Monroe has insisted very strenuously upon keeping the case of the Chesapeake distinct from all other subjects of negotiation between us, and yet the Proclamation itself improperly connects them, by taking occasion, with the disclaimer of the right of search in National Ships, to place upon new ground, and under the formal tenor of a proclamation the pretension to impress from merchant vessels.
There are some important lights in which this question of impressment has not yet been presented to the People of this Country—You have seen the Resolution which I offered in Senate some weeks since, to request from the President information as to the impressments within the two last years—The returns have not yet been made—
If it would not be too troublesome to you, I would intreat you to send me an account as minute and particular as your recollection will admit, of the case of the man, whom you defended for killing Lieutenant Panton—If you have any minutes of the trial, or any means of reference to your argument, the authorities you adduced, and the opinion of the Court, they might be of service to me—I think I have heard you say that in that case it was admitted by that decision, that the practice of impressment was even then held to be inadmissible in the Colonies.
I would also thank you for your opinion on the following points—Is not the impressment of a native born American Citizen, from an American vessel, in point of principle, precisely the same thing, as if a British recruiting Officer, from Canada should come within our lines, and forcibly take away a man, to make him a British soldier?—And is not this forcible levying of recruits by the Officer of one Nation within the Jurisdiction of another, the offence against the laws of Nations, known by the name of Plagiat, or man-stealing?—And is not that offence by the universal usage of civilized Nations punished with death?
Is there any Law or usage of Nations, which forbids an American merchant or Master of a vessel, from engaging by contract a foreign seaman, to serve him as a sailor, upon a lawful voyage?
Is not every seaman thus engaged by signing a shipping-paper according to Law?—And is not the personal service of a Seaman thus engaged, a debt?
I put the case of deserters from ships of War, or any other vessel out of the question—But setting that aside—If the personal service of a British Seaman has become by contract a debt to an American merchant—And if a British Officer, is warranted, and ordered by his Government, forcibly to take the Seaman away from the service to which he is bound—is it not in principle, an undertaking by the British Government to cancel a debt due by the individual of one Nation to the individual of the other—and as such, in substance, a direct violation of the tenth Article of Mr: Jay’s Treaty?
Perhaps these last questions may at first blush carry an appearance of refinement in their train of reasoning more than they really deserve—I will thank you to weigh deliberately the nature of the contract between seamen and their owners, and the moral reason professedly assigned in the tenth Article of the Treaty, for placing contracts between individuals even beyond the reach of War, and say whether the forcible dissolution of contract, which must be involved in every case of impressment, does not violate the substance, if not the form of that Article?
These are not the only subjects of public concern, upon which I feel the want of your judgment and advice. My situation here at this moment is singular, and critical—My views of present policy, and my sense of the course enjoined upon me by public duty, are so different from those of the federalists that I find myself in constant opposition to them—Yet I have no communication with the Administration, but that which my place in the Senate of course implies—The friends of the Executive in Senate repose little confidence in me, and discover occasionally unequivocal marks of their distract and suspicion—Even when concurring in my opinions some of them betray an involuntary anxiety lest their popularity should be affected, by having their names go out as supporters of measures linked with mine—This temper does indeed appear in some small degree to be wearing off, but any trifle light as air, would restore it in all its vigour—Yet since the Commencement of the present Session I have been placed upon every Committee of national importance, and made the reporter of several—Without having the weight of a single vote besides my own, in point of personal influence, I find myself charged with the duty of originating—and conducting measures of the highest interest—I am made a leader without followers—Until the present Session I have always had two friends, (Tracy and Plumer) with whom I could consult in the most intimate and confidential manner, and on whose friendship I could always rely—Almost always upon their concurrence—But Death has removed one of them, and the changes of political party the other—I am compelled therefore to lean upon my own judgment more than it will always bear—My only consolation is in the consciousness of good intentions, and unwearied attention to my duty—Man can give no more—the rest must be left to a higher power.
Mr: Monroe is here; and has been received with great demonstrations of respect and affection by his own State—There is said to be some electioneering on foot, of which he is one of the objects—Electioneering indeed is reported to be very active, but I know nothing of its course of proceedings.
We are well, here, excepting that my wife, my child and myself have all colds. With my best affection and duty to my mother and all the family with youBeing ever your’s
John Quincy Adams
P.S—I hear there is a private correspondence now passing between Genl: Wilkinson, & J. Randolph, which is expected to terminate in a meeting of honour.


Title: From Thomas Boylston Adams to John Quincy Adams, 27 December 1807
From: Adams, Thomas Boylston
To: Adams, John Quincy

Dear Brother
Quincy 27th: December 1807

I returned from Dedham on Friday morning, and found your letter of the 14th. The Court of Common Pleas dispatched business rather faster than usual, on account of Christmas; but there was business enough left unfinished to have occupied a day or two more.
I am glad to find you are satisfied with my sale of your wood—I believe, no body has done better since, though sundry lots have been disposed of at publick sale. If Congress should declare war against GB. the price of wood, in the vicinity of Boston, would doubtless be considerably higher, than it is or has been, but, as I could not absolutely, calculate upon such an event, I am, as yet, well pleased with my private bargain for the Grove.
The information you gave us on political topicks, was, in some particulars, a confirmation of opinions entertained here, especially as to the influence of the Corsican; but the rumour of yesterday, brought by express was, that the Secret Session had been held in consequence of dispatches from our Minister in France, which confirmed the declaration that there should henceforth be no Neutrals; that the Decree should be rigidly enforced against us in common with others, and that any Nation, having a Minister at the Court of GB, should be considered enemies at war with France. So much for rumour—which also reported an act to have passed both houses of Congress laying an Embargo throughout the U.S. If all this should be true—What then? I am sure I can’t tell, or even guess from the complexion of your Congress, what effect any external occurrence will produce there. Some say the Senate are unanimous for war with France & the House of Representatives nearly so, for war with GB. A Committee of conference ought to decide the question between you, since the venerable President is so neutral. Alas! We learn from his own pen, his wish to retire from the Arena of political contention, that he may enjoy the security of domestic scenes, while the furies of war and discord, which he has let loose, are striving which shall do the most harm; not to a foreign enemy, but to our own dear Country. In critical times he has been known to call on the Mountain to cover him, and I hope the same friendly retreat may be reserved for him again. It is generally believed that for himself he has no idea of fighting, and is not a little surprised to find that any body should think him in earnest. Mr: Monroe is said to be astonished at the hue & cry for war so prevalent here; doubtless because his instructions were of a more pacifick tenor than the publick have been taught to believe. A language official and a language confidential has been heard of under a former Administration.
We have received the documents and a file of Newspapers; but I have not yet had time to read much of the debates. The Gun-boat system has undergone a tedious investigation, and there I think it would be best to leave it. But I speak after the manner of Men—having little knowledge of the subject, any more than common sense teaches, and what Peter Pindar says on the same, “Fleas are not Lobsters G—d-damn their souls.”
I shall be glad to receive your instructions as to the disposition of so much of your Real Estate in Quincy, which was leased for one year & which will expire on the first of April. If I can let the house and all the land together would it not be preferable to dividing it among many tenants? But if no person should apply for the house and farm, how shall I dispose of the land? I do not like Mr: Cook for a tenant, at any rate, and shall give him seasonable notice to quit. Shall I sell your fresh and Salt hay soon or wait till Spring? The Spring chance for a price being fairest, but I am afraid of Cooks horse or some one’s else being in great straits for food before the Winter is over—There is but a small quantity of fresh hay to steal or sell and the Salt hay is safe enough.
My wife & daughter are well and send love to Mrs: A—Give mine into the bargain. Your boy John is well and passed the day with us—My little daughter has just recovered from the Kine-pock, which she had very severely by the instrumentality of your friend the professor.
If you read the Col: Centinel, you need no private hints on the subject therein discussed between my two worthy and highly esteemed friends, the Doctors; Who shall decide when Doctors disagree? This is a very trite quotation, but it suits my purpose to a tittle tittle. I wish them well through with the scuffle, but will have no hand in prescribing for either.
We are all well. The young Col: is teaching our youth the discipline of angles and parrallelograms—He is one of my chusing, being myself on the Sub-school Committee. I like him well—So do all who know him, and I refrain from odious comparisons—
Compliments of the season to every friend I have in Washington. / Your’s


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 8 January 1808
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My great and good Son
Quincy January 8. 1808

The distance between Us, the total retirement in which I live and the Want of Facts, render a Correspondence between Us, upon public affairs of very little use to you, though it is a great pleasure to me. The Storm that has agitated the Elements for twenty Years in Europe must be drawing towards a Conclusion, and the last blasts may be the fiercest of all. We have been favoured by Providence beyond our deserts in five and twenty years of Peace. But the last Waves will dash upon Us.
Your Situation you think critical. I think it is clear, plain and obvious. You are supported by no Party. You have too honest a heart, to independent a Mind and too brilliant Talents, to be Sincerely and confidentially trusted by any Man who is under the Dominion of Party Maxims or Party Feelings,: and where is there another Man who is not.? You may depend upon it then that your fate is decided. You will be countenanced neither by France, Spain or England. You will be supported neither by Federalists or Republicans. In the next Congress, Dr Eustis will be chosen Senator, and you will be numbered among the dead like Jay, Elsworth, King, Ames, Dexter and an hundred others of the brightest Geniuses of this Country. You ought to know and expect this, and by no means to regret it.—Return to your Professorship but above all to your Office as a Lawyer devote yourself to your Profession and the Education of your Children.
Having explained to you my sincere Judgment of the Consequences of your present and past conduct, I shall now tell you that I fully approve it. Your Votes for Gun Boats, and Non Importation Laws, ridiculous as are the objects I consider as mere compliments to the silly humours and ignorant Notions of the People at a time when all depends upon them. These measures considered on the great national Scale can do little good or little harm. The Aggression Bill I cannot think “too high toned for our Situation, nor too hazardous to our peace. If Resentment of such Slaughters as that, of Pearce and those in the Chesapeake, is not excited in our bosoms and cannot excite Us to assert our own Jurisdiction We are degraded People
The Embargo I cannot blame, though I know its duration must be short. That of 1775 and that of 1794, I had opportunity to observe.—Yesterday, about an hundred Sailors marched in Procession, in the Streets in Boston, and the same will be done in every Seaport very soon. You may as well drive hoops of wood or iron on a Barrell of Gunpowder, to prevent its Explosion when a red hot heater is in the Center of it, as pretend to enforce an Embargo on this Country for six months. It would be utterly impracticable, if you had a regular army of ten thousand Men employed with all their Bayonettes and balls to keep the Peace. We bought the best of butter yesterday for a Shilling which has been long sold for one and six pence or two Shillings. A Drove of Store Swine was sold yesterday for five Cents which used to be sold for Eight or ten. If our Country produce has fallen already fifty per Cent, you may infer what will happen in a few months. Repeal or War will be the only Alternative, very soon. We shall save what We have on hand and all that shall come in. But arming our Merchantmen, unless they sail in Fleets, and even then will be but frail protection. You will be compelled to give Letters of Mark, and build frigates. Your Gun boats will never be built.
Before the British Proclamation appeared, I thought that Peace might be preserved. Since that Event I see no possibility of it. We may submit to the annihilation of our Naturalization Laws, and to Empressment of our Seamen from our Merchant Vessells for a Year or Years but every Instance of it will be complain’d of to our Government, to whom it will be a perpetual Source of Vexation and humiliation as well as to the People and the whole Nation. It will keep alive an eternal hatred between the two Countries, and End in a War at last. I agree with you We ought not and cannot Suffer this New Encroachment, nor do I know how We can take a Stand against it, unless by Resolutions of both Houses of Congress and Remonstrance of the President against it, as a new and unjust Interpolation into the Law of Nations, made by arbitrary Power against America alone, and distinguishing her from all other Nations. Impressment of Seamen by the Law of Nations! What a daring Act of Despotism! What Impudence! This Style is not proper for a Public Man: but it is only calling a Cat, a Cat.
I believe I have said to you, and I know I have said formerly to your Colleague Mr. Pickering, to Mr. Woolcot and McHenry, and others, that there was no distinction between Ships of War and Merchant Ships, in this respect. If the Britons have a right to impress Seamen, from a Fishing Smack they have the same right from an hundred and twenty Gun Ship. The Deck of a Jolly Boat, at Sea, is as much the Territory of its Sovereign as the hold of a seventy four, and as much under its Jurisdiction, as the House of its Ambassador in a foreign Country. Children born on board Merchant Ships at Sea, are considered as natural born Subjects or Citizens of the Power to which they belong. Elizabeth Breisler who was born at Sea, half way between England and America, is as good a Citizen of the United States as Joseph Arnold Junior, her Husband who was born in Quincy and never was out of it, farther than Boston. This little domestic Anecdote will illustrate the Argument as well as any thing more Solemn.
With all due respect for his Majesty the King of England I cannot justify his Proclamation from the Charge of Usurpation and arbitrary Power by the Constitution of his own Kingdom. Nothing short of an Act of Parliament could authorize his Navy officers, to impress a Seaman out of any foreign ship. And if one of his subjects on board such a Ship, should kill a Midshipman in self defence it would be justifiable Homicide by their own Laws. On the contrary if an English officer should kill an English sailor, in attempting to impress him from an American Vessell, it would be Murder. And this Proclamation could not be pleaded in Justification or Excuse of the Crime. Such Killings on both Sides will often happen, and the Ears of the two Nations will be dinned with the Clamour about them forever. I am very willing to keep the affair of the Chesapeake distinct from all other Points. Perhaps We ought to be satisfyed with the Concession they have made upon this Point. They have reserved only the Liberty of representing to our Government, and this I shall hardly wish them to give up, if our Government will be so impolitick as to suffer deserters to be enlisted in any of our ships of War or Commerce. Une Pomme gaté, gatera bien d’autres. We shall not be obliged to comply with their representations, nor can the President surrender a Deserter without a Law of Congress.
Michael Corbett and three other Irish Sailors, coming in from Sea on board a Vessell of Mr Hoopers of Marblehead, were attacked fought by Lt Panton and a Midshipman of the Rose Frigate at the head of a Presgang. The Sailors retreated to the Forepeake, and there, armed with such Instruments as they could snatch in their flight, stood upon their defence. A Parley ensued. Corbett said I know you are a Lt of a Man of War, come to impress Us. We are determined to defend ourselves. You have no right to force Us. We have retreated far as We could. We can go no farther. Much altercation ensued. Some attempts were made to break down the Bulk head and the Midshipman in Confusion fired a Pistol and wounded one of the four Sailors in the Arm. This the Lt reproved, but attempted to enter. Corbett thrust him back, and marking a Line in the Cargo of Salt in the hold, said if you step over that mark again I shall take it as a proof of your determination to impress me, and by the eternal God of Heaven you are a dead Man.—Ay my Lad says Panton, I have seen a brave fellow before now, took his Snuff box out of his Pocket, and snuffing up a pinch, resolutely stepped over the Line. Corbet instantly threw an Harpoon Iron, which cutt off the Carrotid Artery and Jugular Vein. Panton cry’d the Rascall has killed me and fell, dead in a few minutes.a Reinforcement came to the Press Gang, and the four Men were taken. They were tryed by a Special Court of Admiralty according to the Statute. Governor Bernard Presided, Mr Huchinson then Lt Governor and Chief Justice, Governor Wentworth of N. Hampshire, Mr Auchmuty Judge of Admiralty, Commodore Hood, now Ld Bridport, and many others were the Judges. I prepared long Special Pleadings in Behalf of the Prisoners, demanding a Tryal by Jury, but these were overruled as I expected.
Upon the Tryal the Evidence of all the Facts was very clear. I was much affected by the Testimony of the English Sailors. Their Attention to their Oaths and punctual Veracity and impartiallity was very striking. Not a circumstance which made against themselves was concealed or disguised.
I had prepared an elaborate Investigation of all the Doctrines of Homicide in the Civil Law as well as common Law, and the Statute which expressly forbid Impressment in America. The Civil Law Authority on which I relyed the most was Gail, Foster, Hawkins Ld Coke in the Common Law. But I had not advanced far in my Argument, before Chief Justice Hutchinson arose and moved an Adjournment of the Court till the next Day. His secret motives were two 1st. To prevent me from reaping an Harvest of Glory. 2. To avoid a public Exhibition of the Law in all its details before the People.
Next Morning Governor Bernard arose and said that the Court had been together in private and as they were all of one Mind they judged it unnecessary to proceed further in the Consideration of the Law or the Evidence, and had ordered him to pronounce, the Action of the Prisoners Justifiable Homicide and the Sentence not Guilty. Not a Word was said by any other Judge.
I brought an Action for the wounded Sailor against the Midshipman, and received a Letter from Commodore Hood asking favour, for his Midshipman as being worth nothing but his small Pay and offering to give my Client the place of Cook on board the Rose, worth twenty five Guineas a Year. This he refused because he had fallen in Love and would be married. The officers gave him such Satisfaction as he demanded and he wrote me orders to drop the Action: and Sailor like, without ever paying my Fees. This Negligence made me laugh but gave me no Pain.
I had ample minutes of my Researches in this Case, but like all my other Briefs, they are lost. The only Minutes left are the Report of the Tryal on Writs of Assistance, which Mr Minot has preserved in his History. And this was saved by the Roguery of a Clerk.
I was amused with the feelings of the Sailors, of the Crew of the Rose. I met many of them in the Street and on the floor of the Court House, who could not conceal their Joy at the Acquittal of my Client. Some of them thanked me for my noble Conduct as they called it, in behalf of those brave fellows. One of them a Boatswain who had been a Witness, and given his Testimony with remarkable coolness and candour, to the Satisfaction of every Body, said to me “Sir I have been almost constantly employed for twenty Years in Work of this kind, impressing Seamen, and I always thought I ought to be hanged for it, but now I know it, yet I cant help it.”
I dont believe there is a Jury in England at this day who would not justify a Sailor in Resistance and condemn an officer for an Impressment. When I was in England, a Committee of the City of London or of the Merchants of that City were before the King in Council. Thurlow then Chancellor said—this Practice of Impressing is legal. The Committee by their Chairman answered “We acknowledge the high Authority of your Lordships opinion, but We cannot concurr in it.”
Judge Foster in his Crown Law, has assembled every Colour of Argument and Authority to support the Legality of Impressment of Seamen. Read it. You will find that it is only in Case of a Special Warrant from the Admiralty or King in Council that Impressments are countenanced and that only within the Rivers Harbours and nearest Seas.
A right or Pretension so equivocal and contestable in their own Country and by their own Laws, can never be transferred into the Law of Nations without the Consent of all the World, a more groundless pretence was never advanced. They might as justly claim from all our Vessells at Sea, the Ship Money of Charles the first or his Loans and Benevolences. They might as well set up their Star Chamber and high Commissioned Courts.
By the Laws of England Allegiance and is perpetual and inallienable. What then? You have or ought to have the Power of Commanding the Allegiance and Obedience of your own Subjects. By our This Doctrine may be feudal, may be ecclesiastical. It may be implied by the old Doctrine of the divine Right of Kings. It may have descended with the holy oil with which they are anointed and consecrated. We acknowledge no such Law divine or human. By our Laws, it is allowed to any Englishman Irishman or Scotchman to renounce his Allegiance to the King and become a naturalized Citizen and then We are bound to protect him. If you get him into your territory You will do with him as you please: but you shall not come to Philadelphia from Sea nor to Pitsbourg by  from Canada and steal him nor take him by force. If you do, We will arrest you and try you and punish you by our Laws not by yours. We would do the same at Sea, if We could. But want of Power takes away no right.
I see no difference between the Cases you have stated. A recruiting officer from Canada might as well come within our Lines, and take away a Man by force and make him a British Soldier. A recruiting officer in Liverpool, Hallifax or Jamaica might as well go on board our Ships and take away their  Sailors to make them Soldiers. There is just as much reason and Justice, in interpolating a Right of impressing Soldiers as Seamen, into the Law of Nations. It is in vain to look into Books on the Law of Nations, relative to this Subject: because so absurd and extravagant a Pretension was never thought of by any Nation in the World, till now.
The Policy of the Romans was very different. They allowed even their capital Criminals to banish themselves. The Priviledge, the Honor the Glory, the Power and Security of a Roman Citizen was held to be of such inestimable Value, that no Man would voluntarily renounce it. To take it away from him was to many a punishment worse than death.
The Word Plagiat, I do not find in any Book but the French. Kidknapping you may find in the American Encyclopedia. Plagium, you may find in Calvin’s Lexicon Juridicum, in Stephens’s Dictionary and all the other Dictionaries.
In the Dictionaire de Trevoux. Tom. 6. Plagiat. Crime du Plagiaire. Plagiaire. s.m. Plagiarius. Dans les Lois Romaines, ceux qu’on appelloit, Plagiarii, etoient des Seducteurs, ou des especes de voleurs, qui attiroient, retenoit, achetoient ou receloient les enfans de famille, de l’un ou de 1’autre Sexe, pour les depayser pour les vendre et les negocier, a l’inscu, et contre le gré de ceux à qui ils appartenoient. De la, par Similitude, et par extension, on appelle Plagiaire, chez nous, celui qui pille derobe les ouvrages d’autrui pour se les approprier.
Fabri Thesaurus. Plagium proprie, crimen, quo quis sciens liberum hominem, aut alienum mancipium, dolo malo vendit, emit, donat, celat.
Calvins Lexicon. Plagium est, cum quis, hominem ingenuum vel libertinum invitum celat, vinctum habet, dolove malo sciens emit, aut in earum rerum aliqua Socius est, vel cum Servo alieno, Servæve persuasit, ut a domino dominave fugeret, Servum Servamve invito domino dominave celavit, vinctum habuit dolo malo sciens emit, quive in ea re Socius fuit. Hinc plagiarii sunt, qui furantur homines liberos vel Servos eosque vendunt, aut iis persuadent, ut a parentibus vel dominis suis aufugiant.
Plagiariorum poena olim erat pecuniaria, quæ propter Sceleris frequentiam in Usu esse desinit: postea capitalis esse cæpit, et plerumque exilium, sive in metallum damnatio. Sane hominis liberi Suppressio, pœnam habet mortis, quæ pœna etiam Sacris litteris est consentanea. Deut. c 24.
The Britons had better, devise a new Article or Title in the Law of Nations and call it The Right of Britons to Kidknap Americans. There Custom of Impressment from their own Ships is not more legal, than the Dutch Custom of Kidknapping Men for Inhabitants of Batavia
Why should not these modest Gentry set up a right to Kidknap Us all who were born before the Revolution. We have all the indelible Character of British Subjects. The King could not absolve Us from that Allegiance under which We were born, according to the English Law. Why should they not kidknap your Unkle Cranch who has been sixty Years in this Country and begotten a Son and Daughters. The Pretension is so much the more extravagant as it is inconsistent with their own whole Conduct towards other Nations, and the System of their Laws. They have passed many Acts of Parliament, which you will find in the Statute Book granting various priviledges to foreign Seamen, and declaring such of them as shall serve a certain number of Years to be naturalized and entitled to all the Priviledges of British Subjects. Frenchmen Spaniards, Sweeds Danes Portuguese &c have the indelible Character of perpetual, inherent, unalienable Allegiance to the Kings in whose dominions they were born yet an Act of Parliament can absolve them. Why not then an Act of Congress or the Constitution of the United States.
You and I cannot follow our federal Friends, if We ever had any such, in their present Doctrines and Politicks. Yet on the other Side a close Connection with France is to be dreaded. Intrigues like that of Beaumarchais, and that of X  Y. Z to pillage Money into private Pocketts and other Intrigues of Courtiers will aim at gaining Advantages of Us in Negotiation. But by employing such Ambassadors as Arthur Lee, Ralph Izzard, John Marshall, C. C. Pinkney and Elbridge Gerry, and above all John Jay, We may as We ever have prevented them from gaining any great Advantage to our Injury.
My System of impartial Neutrality might have been pursued and this War avoided. J. Randolph might well say that they ought to go to Braintree and ask pardon of John Adams for opposing him, in his Plan of foreign Affairs.
There is no Law or Usage of Nations which forbids an American Merchant or Master of a Vessell, from engaging by Contract any foreign Seaman not ever a Deserter, to serve as a Sailor upon a lawful Voyage. Nor is there in England. On the contrary there are by many Statutes granting Rewards and Encouragements to Merchants to employ, to Officers of the Navy to enlist foreign Seamen without limitation, and to any such Seamen to enlist and serve.—Such Seamen are undoubtedly engaged, in honour, Conscience and Law to serve by such Shipping Paper, and their personal Service is a Right, and why should it not be called a Debt? it is an undoubted duty. Deserters to be sure, must have contracted inconsistent Engagements. They are bound in duty to serve, according to their first Contract and especially according to their Oath.
As to electioneering you and I may as well have nothing to do with it: but if I must vote for Madison or Monroe I should not hesitate to prefer Madison as at present informed. It is not worth while for the Federalists to name any Man. They are dwindled down to an handful of Disciples of Hamilton, and their System of internal Government is not much better than that of our present Rulers, their Ideas of foreign affairs I fear are not so good. If our present Rulers would not garble the Constitution and would let Us have a reasonable Revenue, fortifications Ships and Trops I would not quarrell with them at all.
I hope Wilkinson and Randolph will not meet in the field of honor. I feel so much regard for both of them that I should be very sorry to hear that either was killed or wounded.
We are all pretty well—John especially—Love to all where it is due. Ever yours
J. Adams


Title: From John Quincy Adams to William Smith Shaw, 8 January 1808
From: Adams, John Quincy
To: Shaw, William Smith

My dear Sir.
Washington 8. Jany: 1808.

I send you occasionally, the public documents of the most interesting nature, but I have not the opportunity of writing to you so frequently as I could wish—My time is so much engross’d by business equally unpleasant and important that I can very seldom catch a moment for my private affairs, or the more agreeable communications of friendship—I believe I have repeatedly told you as much, before, but what we continually feel, we are apt sometimes unconsciously to repeat.
I now enclose you an order for $350 on the branch Bank, which I will thank you to deposit at the Bank, and have placed to my credit in Bank—You have my Book in your possession.
Mr: Rose is not yet arrived—There is something singular in his detention, the cause of which is not yet explicitly known.
Your’s truly.
John Quincy Adams.


Title: From Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to John Quincy Adams, 10 January 1808
From: Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw
To: Adams, John Quincy

My Dear Nephew,
Atkinson. Janry. 10th. 1808.

Mr Peabody, & your Aunt, were much gratified last Fall, by a visit from your venerable Parents, who presented me with a Letter from you, requesting our parental care & attention to your eldest Son. With heartfelt pleasure, I received the precious Charge, considering it as a pledge of your regard, & former affection; & of the Opinion you still entertain of my Integrity, in discharging the important Offices, incumbent upon those, to whom the Education of Youth is committed.—
Every day, I am more convinced that the very earliest periods of Life, are the best time to check the turbulent Passions, to sow the seeds of Knowledge, Virtue, & Religion; to impress upon their infant minds, that the great Object of Life, was to do good; that our beneficent Creator, did not send us here, merely to walk the Earth, to gaze, & draw fresh air, but gave us Time & Intellects to improve, great and important buisness to perform; & that the Ultimate view of Instruction, was to render them Useful & happy—
Your Son is a lovely Child—He appears to have more regard to truth, & justice, than is common to one of his age.—Many things which he says, appear to be the result of thought, & principle; which to me, is peculiarly pleasing, for half the Evils we suffer, are because we do not accustom ourselves to thought & reflection.
Master George claims my promise, that when he had commited the English Accidence to memory, & began to Pars, I would write, & inform you, & his Mother of his proficiency. He really learns very well, is fond of reading, & often comes home from the Academy, delighted by the encomiums of his Preceptor, when he tells him, he learns like a Hero—for he is charmed, with everything martial.—
I have frequently written to your Mother, & requested her to inform you, respecting your Sons Health—But I presume, it will not be an unpleasant Task to hear particularly from your Son by a letter, from an absent Aunt, who always loved you as her Nephew, & Friend; & revered you, for clasical and scientific Knowledge, which you have early devoted to your Country, & which claims your Talents as a Statesman, a Philosopher, & a Patriot. And, while you view with contemplative Eye, the Causes, by which Empires rise, & fall, you cannot but breathe a Sigh, responsive with the Fathers of Columbia, & weep over the fair Edifice of virtuous Liberty, which has lost its “stability,” & now totters to its Base.—
May Heaven preserve us, from the envenomed arrows of civil Discord,—may the sword never be unsheathed but for the defence of our natural Rights—never, to aggrandize a fellow Worm—nor to monopolize Wealth, or to extend dominion over a vast Territory.—
And, may the cloud which now darkens our Horison, & casts a deep gloom over every Face, be dispelled, by the energies of united Wisdom; & Peace, still, extend her Olive Branch, over an happy Nation.—
You will be so kind as to present my Affectionate regards, to my much loved Nephew, Judge Cranch, & his Family,—& to Mr Quincy, who appears an able & zealous advocate for his Constituents.—
Master George begs you would accept of his dutiful love, he cannot Yet write well enough, to tell you himself—but hopes to very soon, he wishes me to tell his Mamma he is well, & very happy.—My Daughter pays great attention to him, & he is good Lydia’s Favorite.—We have a post Office very near, & if you could sometimes be good enough to send a Washinton news paper, it will please both him, & Mr Peabody / & your Aunt, who with esteem, & affection, / Subscribes,
Elizabeth Peabody—


Title: From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 17 January 1808
From: Adams, John
To: Adams, John Quincy

My great and good Son
Quincy Jan. 17. 1808

As I know you hold a higher Rank in the intellectual Scale and a more estimable Situation in the moral Gradations of the Universe than Admiral Nelson, I know of no reason why I should not borrow his Fathers Epithets and for once or twice bestow them upon you.
I, who perhaps ought to be indifferent to all Things in this World, and certainly Should conscientiously resign all Men Measures and Events to Providence, must acknowledge myself to be not less anxious about public Affairs, than in my Youth or middle Age. I know not but I am as Solicitous about your responsibility as I was formerly for my own: and the public affections are the same as ever
Your Vote for the Gun boats, I have Supposed arose from your desire to have Some thing done, and your despair of having any Thing better: a general opinion too that the Administration ought to be Supported in their own measures, if nothing more could be obtained, might influence you. But certainly you cannot be insensible of the Imbecility of the Measure. A Short Essay has been printed in New York, and reprinted in the Centinel and Fred. Town Herald, written by my Old Friend Captain Talbot, in which the futility and Extravagance of them has been demonstrated beyond all possibility of Refutation. They could not have been better exposed to contempt, unless by Adding from Moliere, I will not look to See whether it is in The Femmes Scavantes or in the Precieuses ridicules, the Story of the two Lackies who assumed the Dress Arms and Airs of a Marquis and a Count, imposed themselves upon the Ladies for fashionable Wits, and in recounting their Services, one of them Says to the other “I remember at that time you commanded a Brigade of Horse on board the Gallies of Malta. Certainly Brigades of Horse, will be necessary to make our Naval Armament of much Utility towards our Defence. I do not however blame you for voting for them, the Money is appropriated, and that is a great Point gained. The Boats most certainly will not be built, and the Appropriation may hereafter be changed for Frigates.
The Embargo is a Stroke instantaneously felt, and will be more and more irksome every day. The Gazettes, in opposition, will continually expose the miseries resulting from it and will increase in their Zeal, their pathetic lamentations, their bitter Sarcasms and their rhetorical Exaggerations and uncandid misrepresentations, till they make the measure unpopular and raise a clamourous resentment against those who voted for it, and especially against you. This you must have foreseen and you must fortify yourself with Patience to bear it. I will not presume to conjecture how long this Stagnation of Business can be borne, but I certainly know it will not be tollerated many Months. Congress will be forced to the Alternative, of granting Letters of Marke letting loose Privateers and Sending out Frigates, or repealing the Law. How it will opperate to Sing the Simple Palinodia I leave you to judge. What Sentiments but contempt and ridicule can it produce in England France Spain and indeed all Europe? What but Scorn and Insolence and Tryumph in those who have opposed and vilified the Measure?
If England Should be wise, which however I cannot very confidently expect, She will not declare War against Us. This Congress and this Administration I am convinced will never declare War against her. We shall remain therefore in this State of Inactivity, till the People will burst open the Doors We have closed upon the ocean, either by overawing Congress, or by down right Disobedience to the Laws. My Advice to you is, stedily to pursue the Course you are in, with moderation and caution however, because I think it the Path of Justice. B But you must e’er long Vote for the repeal.
But You and I must have a care what We Say or do. We are in an Enemy’s Country, because We are mere Americans, and Such at present have few if any friends. Already has a Scribbler of french Paragraphs Sent all the Family of Adams to Cayenne by a future decree of Napoleon, and the Other Side may as well Send Us to Botany Bay by a Proclamation of the King of Great Britain. Future Ages however will do Us Justice if the present Should not. Park has denounced You as No Federalist, and I wish he would denounce me in the Same manner, for I have long Since renounced, abdicated and disclaimed the Name and Character and Attributes of a T that Appellation Sect as it is now applied appears. We have no favour to expect from France or England nor from the Partisans of either.
If this Country Submits to the Unjust demands of the Britons and throws herself into their Arms she will find their Gripe as cruel as that of France. If our Hyperfederalists Should get Us into a War with France and an Alliance with England it will be the all Society of the Wolf and the Sheep.
France, before our Conquest of Canada was never able to get into America including the Continent and Islands, more than ten thousand Men. She never will be able to transport a large Army here. She will want all her Men in Europe. I am told indeed there are great Numbers of French officers and Soldiers Scattered all over the United States: that there are ten thousands of them in the City of New York and its neighbourhood on long Island. Moreau is gone to New orleans, and Napoleon is about to buy or beg the Floridas. And Apprehensions are entertained that Napoleon could Stamp his foot and raise an Army in a moment in the midst of Us. These terrors and Alarms may have Some cause and Some foundation, for what I know. That Spain has been intriguing to seduce our transalleganian Fellow Citizens is now but too evident and notorious. Your Report in the Case of John Smith, must if any Thing can put this Country on its guard in that quarter. Yet our Hyperfederalists are nettled at it and abuse it as much as they can. Do they Still mean to countenance Burr? Do they not See our danger in that point of the Compass?
When poor Cicero found himself almost the only Roman left Surrounded by Clodius, Cataline Cæsar and Pompey, all alike ambitious and Selfish, the two last with Legions at their heels Sufficient to overawe every independent Soul, by four and twenty per Cent, Men by in thousands to gripe the People and by Millions of the People in desperate Poverty and more desperate Vice, he had no Consolations but in his own Vanity as most men call it, but his own Conscience of Merit as I deem it. I believe you will find little other Comfort. You remember the Proclamation of Ephesus, when she banished Hormodorus. “No Man among Us Shall excell. If any Such Man Shall arise let him carry his merit to Some other Country.” Nemo de nobis Unus excellat. Sed Si quis extiterit, alia in loco et apud alios Sit.” You remember too, no doubt Ciceros Comment upon this memorable Vote of the Ephesians. “An hoc non ita Sit, in omni populo? Nonne omnem exuperantiam virtutis oderunt? Tusc. Quest. l. 5. n. 105.
The Constitution of our Country is already far advanced in decay under this corroding Cancer of Envy. Witness Jay and Elsworth and an hundred others of superiour conspicuous merit already exiled to their Lands, though not yet to Cayenne or Botany Bay. Your Exile will be to your Office and Chair and you may Soon be called again to higher Cares. If I could have been banished to the Bar, I Should have thought it an exaltation: but that was impossible. Nature was disqualified, worne out by long Use and hard Service: So that nothing remained to me but my plough, between me and Six foot by two in the Ground. I am your Affectionate Father
J. Adams


Title: From Abigail Smith Adams to Caroline Amelia Smith De Windt, 24 January 1808
From: Adams, Abigail Smith
To: De Windt, Caroline Amelia Smith

my dear caroline
Quincy, January 24th, 1808.

To-morrow will be a fortnight since you left me; I have watched the weather with much solicitude, and when we had snow, as we had the Thursday after you set out, I hoped it might speed your journey, provided there should not be too great a quantity; although the storm was severe and cold on Saturday, it was pleasant sleighing. I flattered myself we should enjoy it for a week or ten days, but so changeable the season that on Monday we had a partial thaw. If you have had similar weather I fear you have not reached your journey’s end. We were rejoiced to hear from you at Worcester, and afterward at Northampton. A letter from a travelling friend is a great treat to those who sit by their firesides, compassionate their toils, sometimes fancying that they must suffer from the cold, from the snow, from the rain, hard beds, scanty clothes, small pillows, &c. But patience, my dear girl, will make a smooth road where the pick-axe has never levelled the inequalities, and soften the mattress and the pillow.
You will find new scenes opening before you; in the venerable oaks, you must fancy you see the image of those grandparents you have left behind, and every tree of the forest you must picture some friend or acquaintance, even to our little A., who daily calls for you. You must write me how you spend your time, what are your daily occupations and amusements, what acquaintance you make with the quail, the partridge, and the pheasant. If you find sufficient amusement in the winter, the spring will give you new employment, and new pleasures.
“You must mark how spring the tended plants,
How Nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on the bloom extracting liquid sweets.”
I shall fancy you flitting about among the trees gathering the sweets of the season. Your friends were all much surprised at your sudden flight, and regret that they had not the opportunity of bidding you adieu. I shall send my regards to uncle Justus, and congratulate him on the acquisition of his female friends; tell him they will make the wilderness blossom like the rose, and add much comfort, I hope, to his domestic happiness. He deserves, I think, all they can bestow.
I think of you more on Sunday than on any other day. If you cannot attend public worship, you can spend your Sabbaths in a useful manner, as Mr. W. told us to-day, every moment should be devoted to some useful purpose, that we might ask the moments as they passed, what report they bore to Heaven—that the more we cultivated and improved our intellectual powers, the more capable we should be of enjoyment in a higher and more perfect state of existence; the nearer we should be allied to angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect; and that in order to cultivate our faculties to advantage, we must have order and method in all our affairs.
I am called to close my letter, yet I have not said half I intended; take it as it is, warm from the heart of your affectionate grandmother,
A. Adams.