Title: From John Adams to Oliver Whipple, 3 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Whipple, Oliver

Dear Sir—
Quincy March 3rd 1809

I have recieved your favour of February 23rd and thank you for the friendly as well as the complimentary sentiments expressed in it
It has been now and then my fortune in the course of a long life, though not frequently to receive a compliment. yours is a pleasant one; and as an instance of adversity seldom comes alone, so I have observed that an instance of prosperity is seldom quite solitary. The same evening that brought me your letter brought me another compliment. In the Boston Gazette of March the 22nd is an advertisment of Ebenezer Leman a black smith. NB Wanted at said shop,. The oil of Mr Adams’s Administation—it being a sovereign Antidote against rust accumulating on mechanic Tools. Probatum est. March 2nd. Who this Mr Leman is I know not, But I recollect not that I was ever more sweetly flattered by any compliment since I was born.
But to be serious I have read nothing in Print or in Manuscript during the last year, more correct in Fact and in principle than the sentiments expressed in your letter. I wish they were more general. I am afraid my beloved New England is in too violent a passion to think soberly of her duty and true interest.
Envy, jealousy, and fear, are incessantly at work in the minds of certain editors of Newspapers and thier profligate scribblers to throw out something which may injure the reputation of J Q Adams and raise suspicions in the minds of the people that he has interested views and ambitious Projects. Hence all these lying Paragraphs which you have read of his destination to the War office &c. There is no foundation for them but in the ill-natured brains that produce them. my commission then which you give me has no sphere of action
Old Montaigne says shew me the most virtuous man that ever existed and name to me the most virtuous action of his life and in ten minutes time I will undertake to assign fifty selfish and vicious motives for it. This sentiment has been remarkably exemplified and verified in the person of J Q A—The most selfish, ambitious and avaricious Crew in the nation are imputing Sinister motives to the most virtuous and disinterested Man in it.
These Libellers are not so ingenious as virgil in the invention of mean motives. I nevertheless can never forgive him for contriving so clumsily and impiously his Æneid as to oblige himself to invent so many base motives for the most chaste and dignified goddess in heaven Juno the wife and Sister of Jupiter, the mother of Gods and men and all this in favour of such a strumpet as Venus
Nec dum etiam caussae irarum Saevique dolores
Exciderant animo manet alta mente repostum
Judicium Paridis, Spretæque injuria formee
Et genus invisum et rapti Ganymedis honores
His accensa &c
Cum Juno ætarnum Servans Sub pectore vulnus
Hæc Secum &c
But away with Poets and Politicians. I salute your fireside and with success to your views being with sentiments of esteem and regard Sir your most obedient

J Adams


Title: To John Adams from Daniel Wright, 3 March 1809
From: Wright, Daniel,Lyman, Erastus
To: Adams, John

                            Venerable father of New-England!
                            Northampton, March 3, 1809.

BORN and educated in the same state which has given birth to you, and to which our hearts are tied by the dearest and most sacred ties; we address you in the name of this our common country, at a time, in our opinion most ominous, and threatening the destruction of our rights, liberty and happiness. We look up to you in the name and in behalf of many in the interior of Massachusetts, for sympathy and counsel, for hope and courage, in the dreadful state of our affairs, with reverence, with filial affection and regard, as to the great and wise and patriotic father of New-England. Your birth, your sublime and useful talents, your intimate acquaintance with the interests of our country, and your enlarged views of the comparative merits of the different forms of government; your great and meritorious services, your ripened age, your inflexible, persevering and honest patriotism, impel our minds most forcibly to place our utmost and unlimited confidence in a man who has been so eminently instrumental not only to make our country free, but to preserve its freedom. With incessant toil, anxiety and care, with the warm affection of a fond and tender parent you have nursed your darling child, American liberty, in her weak and helpless state, and watched her green years with the solicitude of a guardian angel. You have never withdrawn your fostering care, your parental love, from this your favorite child; you followed her youthful steps through intricate labyrinths and threatning dangers, and gloried in her riper years, when she appeared the most divine and valuable blessing to your country and the world. Without your providential intervention there was a time when we might have lost this great and inestimable treasure, and eternal gratitude we owe for the wise and patriotic measures which wrought the overthrow of the paricidal schemes of a daring British faction—Shall we for a moment doubt, that our venerable father, so well acquainted with the restless dæmon of ambition, and with the vile intrigues of the Cabinet of St. James, did not observe that the faction was confounded but not destroyed? and can we for one moment doubt that so great a statesmen, so warm a patriot, has not watched their secret machinations, has not quickly recognised, under the cloak of a patriotic Senator of Massachusetts, the British partizan; and was never duped by their pretentions to religion, to liberty and federalism? Is it impossible to believe, that the principal federal leaders in our state are friends to our union, liberty and happiness, when a Pickering stands at their head, notorious for his steady and most empassioned attachment to British interest; when a Gore and Lloyd, infected with parental hatred to our country, sucked love for England with their mothers’ milk; when they show a frantic eagerness, to palliate and defend every injustice, injury and insult of Britain and criminate and condemn every American act intended to vindicate and guard our sovereign rights; and when their jealousy and hatred of our native worth, their usurpations of our rights of suffrage—of executive and judicial powers; their resolutions, mistatements and alarms, speak loud their views and portend a crisis in our land, which certainly will try again the souls of men. We readily admit, but sincerely deprecate, that by the dexterity and cunning of these men, thousands, who really love liberty and their country, are obviously misled, that others, with a view to purchase privileges, incompatible with the spirit and principles of our republican form of government, degrade the characters of freemen unknowingly, and lend their aid and honor, their talents and integrity to domestic Catalines, and to the deadliest foes of our sovereignty and independence. From hence to derive our fears, that by these means and by this powerful combination our Cromwells may succeed in their nefarious plans, to undermine by slow and cautious labors, the firm and wonderful fabric of our nation’s power and happiness, and to lead us, through the horrors of anarchy and bloody civil war, tired out of manliness and liberty, too listless despotism.—But we will not despair as long as we are persuaded your keen and penetrating eye has pierced the mask of conspirators and foreign foes, and that our venerable father is not indifferent and inattentive at a time when treason and sedition stalk openly and boldly through our devoted land, when insatiate ambition is prepared to grasp that inestimable boon, bought dearly with the best blood of our fathers and acquired by infinite anxiety, toil and danger of our illustrious patriots and heroes—Venerable father of New England! Liberty mourns for the dangers of her first and lovliest daughter, and looks eloquently up to you for your friendly, your wonted aid, your active and parental intercession. Save your country,  O save your native state from ruin and destruction! Your talents, your wisdom, your merits are great, and highly venerated; your influence all important, and was justly dreadful once to tyrants and their slaves. Your counsel is commanding still—thousands will hear your voice, will rally round the standard of liberty and union; and anarchy, rebellion and treason will fly our land.—We conjure you by all that is dear to you, by your innate love of freedom, by your inflexible and persevering patriotism, not to stand aloof in these most perilous times. Your beloved country implore you to rescue her from impending ruin, and solemnly reminds you that your revered name, your honest and so dearly earned fame, must share her fate, must either perish with her liberty and happiness, or participate in a most glorious immortality.
With the greatest veneration, we subscribe ourselves, your most obedient and humble servants, DANIEL WRIGHT,ERASTUS LYMAN.


Title: From John Adams to William Cunningham, 4 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Cunningham, William

Dear Sir
Quincy March 4th. 1809

I have yours of Feb. 20 and 23. The inclosed five sheets are the rough draught, which I have requested and you have promised to return. I shall burn it because I have made another Copy more correct in which I have left out the Name and much of the trumpery.
In strictness, we have nothing to do with the question whether impressments of seamen are legal or illegal in England. Whatever Iniquity or inhumanity that Government may inflict on thier own subjects, We have no authority to call them to an account for it. But when they extend that power to us a foreign Nation it is natural for us to consider, what it is among themselves.
The most remarkable Case in which this subject has been touched in Westminster hall is in Cowpers reports page 512. Rex vs John Tubbs. The report of the case is very long and I shall only observe that the question of the legality of the power of impressment was not before the Court. The question was whether the Lord Mayor had a right to exempt thirty or forty watermen for his barges. Lord Mansfield sufficiently expresses his alarm and his apprehension of the consequences of Starting a Question relative to this subject in the following words, “I am very sorry that either of the respectable Parties before the Court. The city of London on the one hand or the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the other have been prevailed upon to agitate this question.” &c
I was in hopes the Court would have had an opportunity of investigating this point to the bottom, instead of being urged to discuss it so instantaneously, &c I own I wished for a more deliberate Consideration upon this subject; but being prevented of that I am bound to say what my present sentiments are. The power of pressing is founded upon immemorial usage allowed for ages. If it be so founded and allowed for ages it can have no ground to stand upon nor can it be vindicated or justified by any reason but the safety of the State: and the practice is deduced from that trite Maxim of the Constitutional Law of England that private Mischief had better be submitted to than public detriment and inconvenience should ensue. To be sure there are instances where private men must give way to the public good. In every case of pressing every man must be very sorry for the act and for the necessity which gives rise to it It ought therefore to be excercised with the greatest moderation and only upon the most cogent Necessity And though it be a legal power it may like many others be abused in the excercise of it.
The case is too long to transcribe but it is worth reading my remarks upon it shall be short.
1. Lord Mansfield most manifestly dreaded the question. 2 His Lordship carefully avoids the use of the word Right. 3 He calls it a power and a Practice but he does not venture to call it a Perogative. 4 he does not even affirm that such a custom usage power or practice could be pleaded or given in evidence in any Court of Justice against Magna Charta. 5 nor he does not say how any custom usage Power or Practice has existed from time immemorial and been allowed for ages: 6—All the Judges allow that Exemptions, Badges and Protections have been given by Peers, Commoners, Lord Mayors, Lords and officers of the admiralty and as I understand Lord Mansfield by officers of the navy. Now what a loose, undefined arbitrary power is this to be legally established as an immemorial usage allowed for ages. 7 I wonder not that his Lordship dreaded an investigation of it to the bottom for he must have seen the endless difficulty of ascertaining defining and limiting the usages which were immemorial and distinguishing them from such as were modern and temporary. 8 The council for the city had before observed, That the legality of pressing if founded at all could only be supported by immemorial usage: there being clearly no statute in Force investing the Crown with any such authority.
Christian in his Edition of Blackstone Vol 1 page 419 says in a note. “The Legality of pressing is so fully established that it will not now admit of a doubt in any Court of Justice,” And in proof of this he quotes Lord Mansfields opinion in the case of the thing King vs Tubbs in the words I have above transcribed.
Upon the whole all that I can conclude from the conduct of the modern Judges and Lawyers in England is that administration and opposition Court and Country Lawyers have been gradually endeavouring to unite for the last thirty years in Sacrificing the principles of Justice and Law to reasons of State by countenancing this branch of arbitrary power. But let them keep thier arbitrary powers at home: Not practice them upon us our seamen or ships.
The British Practice of searching our ships of War as well as Merchantmen for seamen was one great Point on which my petulent Prophet was pleased to differ in opinion from me. When I wanted him to instruct Mr King to urge the most nervous remonstrances against these outrages, I could get nothing but muttering that the English had a right to thier own seamen &&&. When Marshall came in I got all I wanted cheerfully faithfully and ably done. Return the inclosed as soon as you can to your humble servant

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Jedidiah Morse, 9 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Morse, Jedidiah

Dear Sir,
Quincy March 9. 1809.

Though it is “a terrible thing” for “eyes with reading almost blind” to go over between three and four hundred pages of ms. History, I have read “the General history of the United States” with more delight than it would be prudent for me to express.
It is written in the pure spirit of an upright and faithful and impartial American. I see in it none of those panegyrical Romances which compose many of our American histories, nor any of those scandalous calumnies with which all foreign narrations of American affairs abound. As far as my knowledge extends, the facts in general have been industriously collected and correctly represented. The plan is judicious and the execution of it able. The style is not so elaborate as Robinsons, so subtly elegant as Hume’s, nor so pompous as Gibbons: but in my opinion for the mere purpose of conveying truth, to the reader, it is better than any of them. History should be read for facts, not for words. European and perhaps some American reviewers will criticise the numerous reflections so well becoming the character of the Historian, which ascribes all events to providence, and perhaps stigmatize them as puritanical preaching. I would not leave out one of them, however, to please those Gentlemen.
Twenty two years of this history, that is, from 1744 to 1766, I very well remember; and I have never read so true and interesting an account of them.
It is very probable that some circumstances may have escaped the vigilant investigation of Dr Trumbull, but it is not in my power to point out many of them.
The hill in Dorchester called Mount Massachusetts, the seat of the Great Sachem Massachusetts, I have never known nor heard mentioned. I believe this is an error. It has always been considered by me as very difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain precisely where Massachusetts held his principal Court. He probably had like the great princes of Europe many palaces all along the Sea Coast from the North River to Charles’s River, and seated himself from time to time where he and his people could best provide themselves with eels, clams, Muscles, Lobsters, Alewives, Tom Cod and Cod and Haddock, as well as wild fowl and all other sorts of Game. Weymouth, Mount Woolaston or Squantum, I shall think more likely for many reasons than Dorchester, to be some of his seats, and the quantity of shells and Indian tools, pestles &c found in these places, shew them  to have been inhabited by Great numbers of the Indians.
One more intimation I beg leave to make. It is important that posterity should know the very first symptoms and circumstances of misunderstanding between Great Britain & the Colonies. These will be found to have originated from the first news in England of the conquest of Quebec in 1759. Immediately after the news reached the Court of St James’ of the surrender of Quebec, a jealousy of the Colonies sprung up and a resolution to “secure them.” For this purpose orders were sent to the Custom House offices to demand Writs of assistants of the Superior Court. Paxton perhaps thought it safest to apply at Salem rather than Boston. Accordingly Cockle petitioned the Superior Court at Salem in 1760. Chief Justice Sewall was then on the bench, and being a high American, and a warm friend of liberty civil and religious, provided prevailed on the Court to order the question to be argued at Boston at the Feb. term in 1761, expressing some doubts of the legality of the writs of assistants requested and of the power of the court to grant them. Between the Court in Salem in 1760 and that in Boston in 1761, Sewall died and Hutchinson was appointed Chief Justice, for the precise purpose as it was Supposed, to support this writ.
I was present at the argument of the question in Feb. 1761, and took those minutes which are quoted in the margin of the second volume of Judge Minot’s history. “Ms. minutes taken at the bar.” You may read the arguments of Mr Gridley, Mr Otis and Mr Thatcher, as taken by me from page 87 to page 89 inclusively of that work. My very hasty careless and imperfect minutes lay in my desk, neglected till about the year 1770, when Jona. Williams Austin, one of my clerks, clandestinely seized them, & without my knowledge, printed them in Isaiah Thomas’ Massachusetts Spy. And what was less excusable, he inserted two interpolations of his own head. The first is in p. 95 of the words, “until the trump of the Archangel shall excite different emotion in the soul.” The second is in p. 96 in these words—“What is this but to have the curse of Canaan with a witness upon us; to be the servant of servants, the most despicable of God’s creation?” This last flighty interpolation Austin took in substance from the instructions of the town of Braintree to their Representatives in the year 1765.
This great cause and Mr Otis’ wonderful argument of it was attended by as many of the principal people of Boston as could crowd into the council chamber. My miserable minutes convey no idea of the learning and eloquence displayed on that great occasion. The popularity acquired by Mr Otis was an universal enthusiasm. At the next election and for two years afterwards he was chosen into the House of Representatives, with great unanimity, and during that whole period supported the order and conducted the Councils of the town of Boston with a stability, prudence and spirit, that no other man I ever Knew, was capable of.
That petition for Cockle for wrist of assistants and the ardent opposition to it ought to be distinctly marked, as the first proof of a design in the government of Great Britain to tax the Colonies, and of the resolution of the people of America, to resist such taxation.
That argument convinced me that Great Britain was setting up a claim, that she never would abandon, and the Colonies were commencing an opposition in which they would forever persevere, and that the consequence must be sooner or later a separation of the countries. When the argument was over, I went up to Mr Otis and said, “Exequisti monumentum ære perennius.” We shall never hear the last of this.” As long as he lived he remembered the compliment and the prediction, and rarely saw me without reminding me of them.
I thank you, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to read D Trumbull’s history, and pray you to accept a renewed assurance of the esteem and friendship of Your

John Adams.


Title: From John Adams to Skelton Jones, 11 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Jones, Skelton

Sir
Quincy March 11th 1809

I rec’d yesterday your favour of the Month of August 1808 and if the following answers to your Questions will be any gratification to your curiosity or any Aid to your Work, they are at your Service.
1. My Father was John Adams, the Son of Joseph Adams the Son of another Joseph Adams, the Son of Henry Adams who all lived independent New England Farmers and died and lie buried in this Town of Quincy formerly called Braintree and more anciently Still Mount Wollaston. My Mother was Susanna Boylston Daughter of Peter Boylston of Brookline, the oldest Son of Thomas Boylston a Physician who came from England in 1656 and purchased a Farm in that Town near Boston.—
2. I was Born in Quincy on the 19 of october, 1735
3. My early Life and Education were first at the Public Latin School in the then Town of Braintree, then at a private Academy under Mr Joseph Marsh, within three doors of my Fathers House, then at Harvard Colledge in Cambridge, where after four yers Studies I received a Degree as Batchelor of Arts in 1755 and after three years more that of Master of Arts.—
4. Among these accidents, the principal that I recollect were certain Theological Controversies, which were conducted as I thought with an uncharitable Spirit of Intollerance that convinced me I should be forever unfit for the Profession of Divinity and determined me to the Profession of the Law. To this cause were added many Compliments from my Accademical Companions who endeavoured to make me believe that I had a Voice and a Tongue as well as a Face and Front for a Public Speaker and that I was better fitted for the Bar than the Pulpit. For the Faculty of Medicine I never had any Inclination having an Aversion to Sick Rooms, and no fondness for Rising at all hours of the night to viset Patients.
5. Mr Maccarter a Clergyman, of Worcester, authorised by the Select-Men at the Commencement at Colledge in 1755, happened to be pleased with the performance of my part in the publick Exhibition engaged me to take the Charge of the Latin School in that Town, where in a few Months I entered as a Clark in the Office of Col. James Puttnam a Counsellor at Law in very large Practice and of very Respectable Talents and Information. Here as I boarded in his Family I had opportunities of Conversing with all the Judges Lawyers and many others of the Principal  Characters of the Province and heard their Speculations upon Publick affairs. This was highly delightful to me, because my Father who had a publick Soul had drawn my attention to Publick affairs, from my earliest Infancy, I had listened with eagerness to his Conversation with his Friends during the whole Expedition to Cape Breton in 1745 and I had received very grievous impressions of the Injustice and Ingratitude of Great Britain towards New England in that whole Transaction as well as many others before and after it, During the Years 1754. 1755. 1756. 1757. The Conduct of Generals Shirley Bradock, Abercrombie Webb and above all Lord Loudon which were daily discussed in Mr Putnams Family gave me such an opinion and such a disgust of the British government that I heartily wished the two Countries were Seperated forever. I was convinced We could defend ourselves against the French and manage our affairs better without than with English, in 1758 and 1759. Mr Pitt coming into Power sent Wolfe and Amherst, whom I saw with his Army as they passed through Worcester and these conquered his Army Cape Breton and Quebec I then rejoiced that I was an Englishman and gloried in the Name of Breton, But alass how Short was my tryumph in British Wisdom, and Justice, In February 1761 I heard the argument in the Council Chamber in Boston upon Writs of Assistance, and there Saw that Britain was determined to let nothing divert me from my Fidelity to my Country.
6 An inflexible course of studies and Labours to promote preserve and Secure that Independence of my Country which I so early saw to be inevitable against all Parties Factions and Nations that have Shown themselves unfriendly to it.
6 The fourth of March 1801. The Causes of my Retirement are to be found in the Writings of Freneau Markoe Ned Church Andrew Brown Pain Calender Hamilton Cobbet and John Ward Fenno and many others but more especially in the Circular Letters of Members of Congress from the Southern and Middle States, Without a compleat Collection of all these Libels no faithful History of the last twenty years can ever be written. Nor any adequate account given of the Causes of my Retirement from public Life.
8 My Life for the last Eight years has been Spent in the Bosom of my Family surrounded by my Children and Grand Children. In my Farm in my Garden and Library. But in all this there is nothing interesting to the Public.
9 Five feet Seven or nine Inches, I really know not which.
10 I have one head, four Limbs and five senses, like other Men, and nothing peculiar in any of them.
11 I have been Married forty four years, 12 To Miss Abigail Smith on the Twenty fifth of October 1764, in her Fathers House at Weymouth the next Town to this, and by her Father who was a Clergyman—
13 Three Sons and a Daughter, 14 This would require twenty Volums.
15 My temper in general has been tranquil except when any Instance of extraordinary Madness deceit Hypocricy Ingratitude Treachery, or Perfidy has suddenly struck me. Then I have always been irascible, enough and in three or four Instances, very extraordinary ones, too much so. The storm however never lasted for half a hour, and anger never rested in the Bosom.
16. Very little I believe.
17 Under my first Latin Master who was a Churl, I spent my time in Shooting Skaiting Swimming Flying Kites and every other boyish Exercise and diversion I could invent More mischiveous. Under my second Master, who was kind I began to love my Books and neglect my sports.
18 from that time I have been too Studious, At Colledge, next to the ordinary Routine of Classical studies, Mathematicks and natural Philosophy, were my favourite pursuits, When I began to study Law, I found Ethicks, the Law of Nations, the civil Law the common Law, and the Common Law, a field too vast, to admit of many other Inquiries. Classicks, History and Philosophy have however never been wholly neglected to this day—
19 Such Persons are all dead or so old as to be incapable of writing any long details.—
20 I have no Miniature and have been too much abused by Painters ever to sit to any one again.
I have the Honor to be, very respectfully Sir your / most obedient Servant

John Adams—


Title: To John Adams from William Cunningham, 11 March 1809
From: Cunningham, William
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir.
Fitchburg, March, 11. 1809.

On the first of the month I received your favour of the 22d. ult. with a copy of a speech of a ci-divant Minister to the Six Nations. Having been ill of the prevailing influenza, and expecting, mail after mail, to receive your answer to my letters of the 20th. and 23d. of Feb. I have delayed this acknowledgment. I hope that this evening will relieve my impatience to see the speculations you have written in opposition to the opinions of an Officer, whose duty it was to facilitate, but whose contumacy embarrassed your Administration.
If the Speech was, as is asserted in its exordium, extemporaneous, it is better evidence of the real sentiments of the speaker than a premeditated oration could have been. Truth is often, with sinester views, disguised in false drapery, but it is more difficult than to give to Genoa velvet a firmness to resist water, to give to this drapery an impenetrable texture. The obligations to his country of a public agent, demand from him an able and a just defence of her cause—his ingenuousness will not be reproached if he leaves to the adverse party the developement of the facts which would serve his own purpose but by remaining in obscurity, but His views cannot escape suspicion if he dwells much on extraneous matter. If these obligations do not embrace a principle which could tolerate in Col. Pickering, in a conference with the Chiefs of the Six Nations, the dissimulation of his feelings towards England and France and I am confident they do not, we must find his object under the web he spread over it, or throw him into the dilemma unavoidable from the admission of his sincerity. The declarations that, “Since we threw the King upon his back, and established our independence, they, (Great Britain) have borne us no good will, and would gladly make another attempt to enslave us,” are declarations of facts, unchangeable by the conduct which policy, in any contingency, might dictate as best to be regarded towards this implacable foe. Facts are the foundations of a good policy, and their stable belief in the public mind, is in a free government, essential to the existence of the policy. In the Senate, Mr. Pickering asserts the dispositions of Great Britain to be friendly. With regard to France, his sentiments have passed to the same reversal, as if he thought it due to consistency, that his contradictions should be double, and meet in a new opinion like the dovetails in a piece of joinery—that his tepidity and his zeal might incur the single charge only of a change in object. If a little higher advance in the, at all times diminutive, stature of the understanding, opens a new view, he must be too versatile in his judgment to claim much confidence, who can see things differently from the same summit and to him the highest attainable. If this diversity of prospect is allowable to a political Joshua, the people, will be deluded by the report of his discoveries, will despair of the promised land. Is a statesman like a Mantau-maker who, by the multiplication, the reduction or the transformation of the same fabrics, can make a dress for any season, for any age, or for any occasion? In what will such fluctuations of opinion end? At variance with himself, Mr. Pickering may propose the terms of reconciliation, but it remains to the people to ratify or reject them.
I had seen Lyon’s Letter, and had waded through it. When I turn to the journals of ‘98, and compare the treatment of him then with the estimation of him now, I think of a belle who, in the pride of accomplishments, casts her eye fastidiously upon a worthless fellow; but who, when passed her prime, “oversteps the modesty of nature” in her forwardness to encourage his advances—’tis a mortifying meanness! Lyon has been called a beast, but the most I could ever make of him was a chattering pianet—Noscitur ex sociis.
Your view of our situation in 1798, is fully substantiated by public Documents. So glorious a result of the measures then pursued ought to have settled them forever in the Cabinet, and in the bosom of every American, as the only measures, designated by Heaven and consecrated by Experience; for the maintenance of our maritime rights. The fortunate issue, Sir, of these measures to your own fame, is a subject with which I am too full not to fear to attempt to speak to you, and confine myself within allowable limits. The reduction of Directoral hauteur, to a compliance with your own conditions, was a conquest which no other Cabinet can boast. Your declaration in your Message to Congress of June 21. 1798, “that you would never send another Minister to France without assurances that he would be received, respected and honoured as the Representative of a great, free, powerful and independent people nation,” committed you, as to the terms, upon which a new mission would be instituted. I derive the highest satisfaction from the direct information, that the Directory transmitted to you “the most positive assurances in various ways, both official and unofficial, that they would receive your Ministers, and make peace on your own terms.” You know it, Sir, to have been alledged, that of a relaxation in the tone of the Directory, you had nothing but informal intimations, circuitously passed to you through Mr. Murray, and of too vague a character to release you from your engagement in your Message. To what distortions will not a phrenzied party descend! The concessions on the part of the Executive of France, which abated, if but for a moment, the Hotspurian temper of the British Minister, were unquestionably such as ought to pa effectually to have appeared the just indignation of the American President. The confession of Mr. Liston, that the submission of the Directory had banished his hopes of a war, is the more precious for being unwillingly yielded. If his understanding and his magnanimity, enlightened and ennobled, burst through his prejudices, to pay you a just compliment, the breach was immediately repaired, and in his own breast and in the breasts of his party, these prejudices have pent up, against you, not wisdom and generosity only, but truth—They will have their enlargement—The day will come when the Statue, and the hearts of a grateful people, will bear the honourable and useful memorial of their triumph Magna est veritas et prevalebit.
Had our Country profited of past experience. Had she duly appreciated the counsel respecting a safe, prompt and efficacious defence of our commercial rights, so copiously given in your communications to Congress, and in your Answers to Addresses, particularly in your Answer to the people of Rockingham County in North-Carolina, and in your Answer to the Boston Marine Society, of July, and Sep. ’98 the tide of successful experiment would not have ebbed; the ocean would have continued free to us as to the Leviathan, and as fearlessly might we play or prowl therein.
I wish I could be favoured with your thoughts upon the State Papers which have lately appeared.
Mr. Lloyd, in his celebrated Speech, speaks of a truism, but I have not seen any thing from him before which so clearly betrayed the trio tyro.
With veneration and respect, I am, Dear Sir /Your obliged Friend

Wm. Cunningham, J.


Title: From John Adams to Daniel Wright, 13 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Wright, Daniel,Lyman, Erastus

Gentlemen
Quincy March 13th 1809

I have received your very civil Letter of the third of this Month with Emotions very similar to those which I felt, many years ago upon the following Occasion.—
Returning from Holland to Paris in 17784 I was invited to dine with my Wife and Daughter by the Baron De Stael, Ambassador from Sweeden, As I was the first of the Corps Diplomatic who arrived, the Ambassador was shewing me a fine Portrait of the King of Sweeden his Master, when the Count Deodati Ambassador from the Elector of Saxony came in. After Compliments to De Stael Deodati turned to me whom he had known Several years before and the following Dialogue ensued,—
Deodati. Very well! Mr. Adams! You are a Republican I suppose.
Adams, You are in the right, Mr. Ambassador, I have the honor to be a Republican.—
Deodati. And your Countrymen are Republicans, and your Government is Republican.
Adams. Certainly. My Countrymen are Republicans and our Government is Republican.
Deodati. And you have made your Countrymen and your Government Republican.
Adams. Not at all, Sir my Country and its Government have been Republican from their origion, and long before I was born.
Deodati. Very well! you at least have made your Country very Celebrated you have made it, independent.—You have made an astonishing Treaty with Holland.—you have made a Marvelous Peace with England. you have made her Acknowledge your Independence
Adams I beg your pardon Sir, you are too polite; you do me too much honor, I have no pretensions to have performed all those great Acts however I have acted a part in Some of those affairs,
Deodati But! very well!—I will now tell the Recompence you will receive, for all that you have done.—
Adams I shall be very glad to hear your Prognostications concerning my Destiny.
Deodati. Your Fortune will be that of all the Injustice, of the A Republicans, of Aristides of Phocion: of Miltiades: of Scipio & &
Adams, I believe it.
Deodati You believe it?
Adams Yes
Deodati you will experience all the Ingratitude all the Injustice of the ancient Republicans.
Adams. I expect it: and always have expected it.—
Deodati. you will be ill treated, hated, despised and persecuted.
Adams. I have no doubt of all that, It is in the ordinary nature and Course of Things.
Deodati. Your Virtue must be very heroical, or your Philosophy very Stoical to undertake all those Adventures, with your Eyes open, for such a Reward.—
So much for Deodati and his warning Voice! and so much for my well grounded Anticipations.—
This is no fabulous Dialogue of the Dead: but strict historical Truth.
A curious coalition of French and English Emissaries with Federal and Republican Libellers have so compleatly fulfilled the Prophecy of Deodati and my own—Forebodings, so totally destroyed my Reputation by their Calumnies, that I have neither Power nor Influence to do any Thing for my Country to assist her in her present distresses or guard her against future Calamities. Nothing remains to me but the Right of private Judgment, and that I exercise freely, and communicate my sentiments as freely to those who wish to know them.—
I am totis Viribus against any division of the Union by the North River or by Delaware River, or by the Potomack or any other River or by any Chain of Mountains, I am for maintaing the Independence of the Nation at all Events—
I am no Advocate for Mr Gores Declaration of War against France knowing as I do from personal Experience the mutually friendly dispositions between the People of France and the People of America, Bonaparte out of the Question, I shall be very Sorry to see them converted into ill will and old English Prejudice revived, Lasting Injuries and Misfortunes would arise to this country from such a Change.—I am averse also to a War with England, and wish to maintain our Neutrality as long as possible without conceeding important Principles. If either of the belligerent Powers force us all into a War, I am for fighting that Power whichever it may be.—
I always consider the whole Nation as my Children: but they have almost all been undutiful to me, you two Gentlemen are almost the only ones out of my own house, who have for a long time and I thank you for it expressed a fillial affection for,

John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 13 March 1809
From: Rush, Benjamin
To: Adams, John

My excellent friend
Philadelphia March 13th. 1809

When a young man I read Sidney upon government. In one of his Chapters, he agitates the following question—“Whether A civil War, or slavery be the greatest evil” and decides in favor of the Latter. In ing and revolving that Subject in my mind, I have been led to suppose there are evils more afflicting and injurious to a Country than a foreign War. The principal evil of War is death. Now Vice I believe to be a greater evil than Death,  and this is generated more by funding systems, banks embargoes, and non intercourse laws than by War. Dr Price calculates the perjuries in England at Great Britain from the excise and customs at three millions annually. What do you suppose was the Number of the false oaths produced by our late embargo? and what will be the Number of the same crimes from the operation of our present non intercourse law?—Greater probably than the amount in number and in enormity of all the Crimes that are perpetrated by the fighting part of an Army in twenty years, and even by its quarter masters commissaries and directors of hospitals in half that time.
We have had two gala days since the 1st of March in our city,—one a procession on the 4th of March in honor of the elections of Mr Madison and our Governor—the other a dinner, in honor of some of the federal members of Congress from New England on the 10th: instant. The latter a dinner was intended chiefly as a mark of respect to Col: Pickering, but he did not arrive in time from Washington to receive it.
I was much pleased with the friendly disposition manifested by Mr: Madison to your Son. The unsucessful issue of his attempt to honour him will not I hope prevent his recollecting at a future day the claims of his father as well as of himself to the gratitude of his Country.
You have properly distinguished the two great parties which divide your state into french and english. The history of massachussets is the history of all the states in the Union as far as it respects political zeal, and party principles. We are not “all federalists and all republicans” but we are all (with the exception of a few retired and growling neutrals) all frenchmen, and or all englishmen. The men of both those nations have immense advantages over you and me. By not eating of the Onions of either of them, we are constantly exposed to the offensive breath of them both.
Adieu my ever dear & valuable friend. From / yours sincerely

Benjn: Rush
PS. All my fireside as usual salutes yours.


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Benjamin

My dear Friend
Quincy March 14. 1809

Your Anecdotes are always extreamly Aprospros and none of them more So than those in your Letter of Mar 2d
The King of Spain who attempted to purify the Streets of Madrid was the Father and the Grand father of the two Animals now in Napoleons Menagerie. And the only bon mot that ever I heard of him was upon that occasion. He Said “his good People of Madrid were like Babies who having dirtied their Diapers and their Mothers were anxiously wiping their Bottoms for their good, never failed to bawl.
you forget the Czar who attempted by an Edict to compel his Russians to Shave their Faces, found their Pride in their Beards too powerful for all his Armies.
I remember our Massachusetts Legislature once made a Law for the Extirpation of Barberry Bushes, upon Severe Penalties. Not a Single Bush was ever injured in obedience to it, and at the next Election Seven Eighths of the Members were turned out, And Friends to Barberries elected who instantly repealed the Law.
Another time in my Memory our Legislature made a Law to compel Batchelers to marry upon Pain of paying double Taxes. The People were So attached to the Liberty of propagating their Species or not as they chose according to their Consciences that at the next Election they left out all the Advocates for the Bill and choose Men who respected the Right of Citizens enough to repeal the Law!
Legislators! Beware how You make Laws to Shock the Prejudices or break the habit of the People. Innovations even of the most certain and obvious Utility must be introduced with great caution, Prudence and Skill. I am very anxious about your State because I think the Fate of American Union and Independence depends more upon its Policy than its Wisdom or Virtue qualifies it to adopt.
You and I remember the Times when Virginia and Massachusetts agreed very well and acted cordially together. And other Times when Pensilvania and Massachusetts associated very well: but I fear these were the Times when the old Constitutional Party was predominant. At other Times Massachusetts and New York have drawn together Sincerely and amicably.
But Burr by his Intrigues with Clintons and Livingstones and Gates threw New York into the Scale of Virginia and McKean by his Intrigues with Gallatin Dallas Swanwick and other Foreigners the French the Spaniards the Irish and the Germans has allienated Pensilvania entirely from Massachusetts and thrown her blindfold into the Arms of Virginia. There is now therefore and has been for Eight Years a Combination of Virginia Pensilvania and New York against Massachusetts and their Domination has been So hard hearted that if it should be much longer continued and be much more cruel, I really do not know but the People of New England would petition the King of England to take them under his Protection again and appoint their Governors Senators and Judges. The Royal Appointment in New England before the Revolution were as respectable as Mr Jeffersons Appointments have been.
I wish that Some of the Choice Spirits in each of those four States could form a Connection that might unite those four great States in one plan or System of domestic and foreign affairs. Without this our Seventeen Sovereignties in one Sovereignty our Seventeen Wheels within one Wheel, our Seventeen Imperia in one Imperio will not work well.If Mr Sneider discards, Duane and Lieb, McKean and Dallas and depends wholly on his Quadroons, I have a Strong Curiosity to know who they are? what their Systems? what their Principles? Can they be the old Constitutional Party? I Should Suppose that Dallas and Duane had all them in their Friendship. Mr Binns, your active and intelligent Printer, I Suppose is a Foreigner. of what Country is he? Pensilvania must always it Seems be governed by Foreigners.
The Birth of Washington was celebrated in Boston too. The Feasts and Funerals in Honour of Washington Hamilton and Ames are mere hypocritical Pageantry to keep in Credit, Banks Funding Systems and other Aristocratical Speculation. It is as corrupt a System as that by which Saints were canonized and Cardinals Popes and whole hierarchical Systems created. I allow Washington Hamilton and Ames all their real Merit but many others much more important and deserving than either of them instead of being honoured, are Studiously, and Systematically driven into Oblivion.
Our New England Federal Papers have been celebrating the dear Love of Old England towards Us and the horrible dangers that Napoleon will Conquer England and then conquer America till they have frightened the People into their Party. As I believe none of these Tales, I cannot approve much of the Conduct that has been produced by them.
I have Children and Grandchildren and little to leave them besides their Liberty. I am sometimes more anxious for this than my Philosophy approves. I wish you could allay my fears. With great regard / always yours
J. Adams


Title: To John Adams from William Cunningham, 14 March 1809
From: Cunningham, William
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir
Fitchburg, March 14, 1809.

My solicitude to see your strictures upon Mr. Pickering’s Letter was satisfied by the last mail. I acquit myself, by the enclosure of the sheets, of one of the stipulations upon which you transmitted them to me—the other has not been violated.
Nothing on the Impressment of our Seamen, has yet appeared which unfolds the subject so lucidly and satisfactorily either as to law or expediency. I am surprised that the case, so much in point, of Cobbets, has never been cited. Your opinion, bottomed upon reason, supported by authorities, and untinged with any foreign commixture, appears, as indeed it might be expected to appear, in the dignity, the precision, the impartiality and the weight of a judicial decision. It is evident that the plan of your Administration, and the pouty and petulant medium of your foreign intercourse, were not formed to be associated. After the publication of your observations, shall I be permitted to speak of you, in any manner, as the Author?
With veneration and esteem, / I am, Dear Sir, / Your most obliged Friend & Sevt.

Wm. Cunningham, Jr.


Title: From John Adams to William Cunningham, 20 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Cunningham, William

Dear Sir
Quincy March 20 1809

I have received your favours of March 11 and 14th. In answer to the first I wish to know whether you remember General Washington’s answer to Adet the successor of Genet. It was written by the gentleman in question and by the spirit of it represented the President almost as ardent a Jacobin as himself. He had not yet been converted from his Gallicism and Jacobinism. You remember the thing “Born and educated in a free Country” and “wonderful people &c.
You wish to be informed of my thoughts upon the State Papers which have lately appeared. What State Papers do you mean? The Diplomatic Correspondence between our Administration and the Cabinets of France and England? Or the votes of our towns of Boston, Newbury Port, Augusta, &c &c &c? or the resolutions Addresses & of our Massachusetts House and senate? Or the volumes of speeches in Congress? If you want my Comments upon all this Farrago you cut out more work for me than I have days to live.
You speak of the fortunate time of my negotiation with France to my Fame!!! I cannot express my astonishment. No thanks for that action the most disinterested the most determined, and the most successful of my whole life, No acknowledgement of it ever appeared among the Republicans, and the Federalists have pursued me with the most unrelenting hatred and my children too from that time to this. Covered however with the thickest veils of thier hypocricy because there was some danger in being too open. My Fame!!! It has been the Systimatical Policy of both Parties from that period especially, and indeed for twelve years before to conceal from the people all the services of my life. And they have succeeded to a degree that I should scarcely have believed it possible for a Union of both Parties to effect.
I know too well that it was alledged, and Pickerings correspondence Higginson and Cabot alledged in thier cowardly anonyimous way, and they even corrupted Ben Russel against his own judgment to print thier Calumnies in the Centinal” that I had nothing but informal intimation.
But the fact is that I had the most direct, formal and official Information and Assurances in two different ways and through two Diplomatic Organs. The first was a resolve of the Directory signified by thier Secretary Talleyrande and conveyed to Mr Pickon Secretary of Legation and charge des Affairs of France in the absence of thier Ambassador at the Hague and by him officially to me. This was a legal communication according to the most scrupulous usage and practice of the Courts of the World the most delicate in all matters of etiquette. 1 In what other manner could the cabinet of France have communicated with me. They had no Minister in America they were at war with England and had no Minister there. They could not therefore convey anything to me through Mr King. Through Spain, Portugal, or Prussia would have been more round about have taken more time and been infinately less certain of a safe conveyance. The directory then took the best possible course in thier power. And the assurance was as complete as words could express. 2 The second assurance was more positive more explicit and decisive still, And through the most Authentic channel that existed. It was Mr Gerry one of my own Ambassadors, and, by way of excellence, my own Ambassador; for I had appointed him against the advice of my ministers to the furious provocation of Pickering and against the advice of all the Senators whom he could influence. Mr Gerry in an official public letter conveyed to me at the request of the Directory and thier Secretary Talleyrande the most positive and express assurances that I had demanded. This letter of Mr Gerry’s threw Pickering into so furious rage against Gerry that in a report to me to which I requested him to draw for me to communicate to Congress he inserted a most virulent false and Calumnious philipic against Gerry. I read it with amazement & I scarcely thought that prejudice and Party rage could go so far. I told him it would not do: It was very injurious and totally unfounded. I took my pen and obliterated the whole passage as I thought but after all I inadvertantly let some expressions pass which ought to have been erased. Pickering reddened with rage or grief as if he had been bereaved of a darling child he even went so far as to beg that I would spare it and let it go to Congress but I was inexorable and his hatred of me has been unrelenting from that day to this.
But these were not all the official Assurances I received I had personal Conversations with Mr Gerry and in detail he declared to me that he had the most decisive assurances both from the Directory and Talleyrande that they would not only receive my minister upon my own terms but make peace with me upon my own terms and I am convinced had that constitution continued and the negotiation been conducted with the directory, I should have had my own terms. But Napoleon came in and altered the case a little. The convention however as finally ratified is a monument of the dignity my Country once had and of the respect paid to its policy and power. Inofficial assurances I had moreover I will mention two instances. Mr Logan of Philadelphia however scorned and run down by the English Party is a gentleman of Fortune, Education, good breeding, and not despicable abilities; after his return from France he made me a visit and politely informed me that he waited upon me at the request of Talleyrande to assure me in the most solemn manner that the directory wished for peace with the united States and desired me to send a minister or authorize one already in Europe to treat and that I might depend upon his cordial and honorable reception and that a treaty should be made to my satisfaction. I should however have paid no attention to this if I had not received other similar assurances through Mr Murray and Mr Gerry.
Another instance was through General Washington. Mr Joel Barlow wrote a long, elaborate, elegant and ingenious letter to General Washington in which he urged negotiation and peace with a variety of arguments and insisted upon it that everything might easily be arranged to mutual satisfaction. Washington was so impressed by it that he sent it to me with a letter of his own in which he said to me that he had reason to believe that Barlow’s letter was written with the knowledge and Consent of the French Government. And Washington added that it appeared to him that the people of America were very desirous of Peace “What could I understand by this hint but an expression of his opinion that I ought to endeavour to make peace if I could?
However Barlow’s letter would have had no more weight with me than Logans Message nor would Washingtons opinions have been regarded more than either if they had not been preceeded or followed by the regular communications through Murray and Gerry. With this diplomatic Evidence, every Court in Europe and the French Nation themselves as well as our American People would have cryed shame upon French Government and justified a subsequent War.
This Conduct should not have brought upon me disgrace. But the British Faction was determined to have a War against France and Alexander Hamilton at the head of an Army and then President of the united States. Peace with France was therefore Treason against thier Fundamental Maxims and Reasons of State.
But if I had been too hasty in declaring that I would not send a minister but upon certain conditions or too easy in recieving the conditions,  Why should the Federalists endeavour to render me unpopular for this? It could answer no end but to turn me out and they ought to have known that they could carry no other man in the union. Or to force me to retract my nomination of Ambassador or suspend thier Voyage and supercede the negtiation alltogather.” These were thier motives and they exhausted all thier wit in Studies and Labours to defeat the whole design. A War with France an alliance with England and Alexander Hamilton the Father of thier Speculating Systems at the head of an army and the State were their hobby horses, thier visions of sovereign felicity no wonder they hate the author of thier defeat.
The papers you promised to return I have recieved in yours of the 14th. in better order than they went from.

J Adams


Title: To John Adams from Joseph Lyman, 21 March 1809
From: Lyman, Joseph
To: Adams, John

To the Honble. John Adams Esqr. late President of the United States
SirHatfield  March 21—1809

The slight personal acquaintance I have had with you would not entitle me to the honour of addressing to you a letter, which might take off your attention from more interesting employments. But, as I have had the opportunity of obtaining a Handbill, said to be printed yesterday in Northampton & put into rapid circulation in this neighbourhood, in which your name & influence are to be employed for Electioneering purposes, I have thought it a duty which I owe to you & to my country to enclose it to you & to accompany it with such reflections as have risen in my mind upon the occasion. I need not express the veneration I have ever had for you as the friend and father of your country; nor the regret, which has been one of the bitter ingredients of my life, that a country so much indebted as ours has been to your eminent & disinterested services has been so forsaken of heaven as to make such unthankful & undutiful returns—that, Sir, from what source have these wrongs these ungrateful returns originated? Not from the Federalists within the circle of my acquaintance, not from the federalists of Massachusetts: they in the most publick and official manner have borne testimony to your patriotism & integrity. They have uttered every tender and feeling affection for a Father whom they revered and honoured, whom they considered as the injured victim of ambition, party spirit and false accusation. No topic has more effectually roused the indignation of federalists than the wicked criminations of your administration and your writings by the partizans of those men who persecuted & hunted you out office. These partizans have been the imwearied libellers of your able and luminous writings of your unexceptionable letter to Mr Samuel Adams and of all the best measures of your public administration. But the spurious republicans, with no exception in the circle of my acquaintance, have bent their whole force to cover your well earned glory with disgrace—For reasons which I do not comprehend, these revilers have of late changed their course and volunteered their services to retrieve that honour which few but themselves ever called in question.—Whether the enclosed letter is genuine or spurious I have not the means to determine. If it be genuine as the publishers say, It is directed to men who have uniformly been the opposers of your administration & your personal calumniation, to men who for purposes which have now unvieled themselves have been employed to obtain from you something to influence the approaching Election in favour of a man, who has been your most cruel foe and who has done every thing in his power to weaken the cause which you have supported, and to injure the men, whom you have been accustomed to love and to confide in, men who have thought that promoting the interest of the community & your reputation were synonimous services
You, Sir, will excuse my expostulation, when I so sincerely regret that you should intimate in the close of your letter, if it be yours, that out of your own family almost all of your political children have been undutiful to you and that Daniel Wright and Erastus Lyman are almost the only ones out of your own house who have for a longtime expressed a filial affection for you, when these two men have been your persevering and hostile opposers and when your name has been precious as rubies with the federalists of my acquaintance That gratitude which they have uniformly exercised, might have been acknowledged, at least not questioned.
What effect your silence as to Mr Lincoln and your attack on Mr Gore may have on the approaching Elections must be left to the overruling influence of a wise providence. What the Legislature have said in their acceptance of Mr Gore’s Report is entitled to double respect & confidence because it so perfectly coincides with that manly and dignified attitude which you took with respect to the French when they assumed the same insolent preeminence over our nation which they have lately assumed but in more imperious terms, and when you and your compatriots declared that the French had made void the treaty of alliance between them and us; and when you declared, that you would no more negotiate with them until they had laid aside their insolent attempts upon our national honour & independence. This, your friends have ever viewed as a most dignified act of your administration—
A war with England I am satisfied will meet your hearty reprobation, since there is no pretext or excuse for such a war at present—since they have borne so much from the waywardness of our government and have done nothing to injure us but from a principle of necessary self defence and a retaliation of injuries from their adversaries which we had not the dignity to resent and repel. So would not Mr Adams have done, as the present administration have done, with regard either to France or England had our nation understood their interests and continued him in office. The letter which the Democrats are circulating as yours will bear various constructions. They would have it, although I allow not their construction, that the late President Adams has forsaken the Bosoms and interests of his friends & has gone over to the camp of his enemies. This cannot be. His friends have persevered in his politics and have retained their affection for his person & measures. They do not believe, that he can willingly promote the ruinous system which Mr Lincoln & his adherents have uniformly pursued; or that he would lend the weight of his name to the unfounded opinion, that his friends & former associates are for dissolving the Union—No: they are pursuing those measures by which alone the Union may be permanent & happy. Not indeed that they would debase themselves so low as to wish for a union coupled with subordination and slavery—I am persuaded, that you had no idea, that your letter (if it is yours) should be converted into an engine to exalt your and your country’s enemies, depress your native State and mar the hopes & check the laudable efforts of your friends to rescue a degraded country from infamy, oppression and a military despotism. I have written this letter because I am and ever have been your sincere friend and a passionate admirer of you as an able statesman & patriot and my wish is that those hoaryhairs which have been crowned with glory may be gathered at a very late hour, in peace
You will make such returns to this letter as you think it merits But you will believe me when I say, that no man has ever felt more veneration & esteem for you than myself and that I am / Much revered Sir / Your very obedient, humble Servt

Joseph Lyman


Title: To John Adams from William Sumner, 22 March 1809
From: Sumner, William
To: Adams, John

To The Honble: Mr. AdamsSir
Boston March 22d. 1809

Inclosed is a Letter which I have this morning received from a particular Friend of mine, who is a Representative from the Town of Northhampton & Son in Law to the late Judge Henshaw, Mr. Bates who feels for you the highest respects.
Knowing the great weight which your opinions justly greatly have in the Community, & the evils which our Country has suffered from a misquotation of them; I thought it due from the friendship and respect I have always borne you to make this Communication; requesting if you think it proper, that you will favor me with a Copy of the Letters alluded to, to be used in such a manner as you shall direct; or that you will be pleased to honor me with a Communication, such, as the nature of the subject requires, and as shall be agreeable to your feelings and wishes.
I am unfortunately engaged to day or I should have done myself the Honor of waiting on you; this if you desire it, I shall have it in my power to do tomorrow—But being desirous that no evil should arise from any neglect of mine, I shall send this by a special Messenger who will wait your pleasure.
I have the honor to be Sir /  your Mo. Obt. & respectful Servant

Wm: H. Sumner
P.S. Since writing the above I have seen another Letter from Hampshire County, which mentions that Handbills purporting to contain extracts from your Letters are Secretly circulated by the Democrats in that County.


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 23 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Benjamin

My Sensible and humorous Friend
Quincy March 23d 1809

I agree with Sidney as quoted in your favour of the 13th. That civil War is preferable to Slavery and I add that foreign War and civil War together at the Same time are preferable to Slavery.
We hear very often declamations on the demoralizing tendency of War, but as much as I hate War, I cannot be of the opinion, that frequent Wars are So corrupting to human Nature as long Peace. In a Peace of an hundred Years and Sometimes of fifty, and I have Some Suspicions, of twenty five a Nation looses its honor Intergrity and most of its other Virtues. It Sinks into universal avarice Luxury, Volupty Hipocricy and Cowardice. War necessarily brings with it Some Virtues and great and Heroic Virtues too.—Holland, Denmark and Italy ought to be Warnings to us. Those Nations by long Peace were Sunk below the Character of Man. What horrid Creatures we Men are, that we cannot be virtuous without murdering one another?
The Honours done to Mr Pickering I Suppose were upon a similar Principle to those formerly done to Mr Gallatin.
I was not displeased to See by Mr Madisons nomination of my Son that he was not totally renounced abjured and abhorred by all Parties like his Father: but I have no Inclination to see him banished into Siberia. I rejoice that he is not to go: though I thank not the Senate for preventing it. That Vote was an Aristocratical Usurpation. There has been a constant Inclination in the Senate for twenty years to interfere with the President in appointments to foreign Embassies. In Washingtons reign there were motions made Several times, to pass Similar resolutions. They were always evaded by the previous Question. The Secret pride of Aristocracy lurked in the heart with so much Influence as to prevent the Majority from passing a Resolution as in my opinion they ought, that the Senate had no constitutional Authority to judge of the Necessity or Expediancy of any proposed Embassy. In my distracted times I believe the Senate never went so far upon Record, though they Sent private Committees to over awe me, upon Several occasions and negatived Some of my Nominations because I would not give Way to their Secret Cabals. The Power of the Senate in Executive affairs is in my Opinion the rotten Part of the Constitution, and requires an Amendment in the Constitutional Way more than any other Thing. That Power overturned the federal Administration and will embarrass if not destroy every future one.
Mr Jefferson’s Nomination of a Minister to Russia at the End of his Term was a wise Measure: and Mr Madisons repetition of it, at the beginning of his Shews that his views are too extensive to be bounded by the Expence of a Mission. It is of great Importance that our President Should be informed of the Views and Politicks of the Northern Courts and Cabinets at this dangerous Conjuncture.
As to my Son I would not advise him to refuse to serve his Country when fairly called to it: But as to myself I would not exchange the Pleasure I have in his Society once a Week, for any office in or under the United States.
I See our American Parties precisely in the Same Light with you. I am determined to Swallow American garlick enough to defend me against French and English, Federal and Republican Onions, let their Odor be as Strong as it will.
The most modern Reproach against me that has come to my Knowledge is that “Misinterpretations and Misrepresentations of my opinions have done great Injuries to my Country.”—And what has not been misunderstood, and misrepresented? The Spirit of God could not or would not dictate Words, that could not be misunderstood or perverted. Misinterpretations of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament have founded Mosques and Cathedrals, have made Saints Cardinals and Popes, Tyrant and Despot without Number, and deluged three quarters of the Globe I mean all Christian and Mahometian Countries at times in blood. Must not a Man write or Speak, lest his Words should be misconstrued?
I am weary, My Friend of that unceasing Insolence of which I have been the object for twenty years. I have opposed Nothing to it, but Stoical Patience, unlimited Submission and passive Obedience, and Non Resistance, Mausauleums, Statues Monuments will never be erected to me. I wish them not. Panegyrical Romances will never be written;, nor flattering orations Spoken to transmit me to Posterity in flatter brilliant Colours, No Nor in true Colours. All but the last I loath. Yet I will not die wholly unlamented.—Cicero was libelled Slandered insulted by all Parties. By Caesars Party Catalines Crew, Clodius’s Mirmidons, Aye and by Pompey and the Senate too. He was persecuted and tormented by turns by all Parties and all Factions and that for his most Virtuous and glorious Actions. In his anguish at times and in the consciousness of his own Merit and Integrity he was driven to those assertions of his own Actions which have been denominated Vanity. Instead of reproaching them with Vanity I think them the most infallible demonstration of his Innocence and Purity. He declares that all honors are indifferent to him because he knows that it is not in the Power of his Country to reward him in any proportion to his Services.
Pushed and injured and provoked as I am I blush not to imitate the Romans, and to Say to these Snarlers against me, that if, to avoid misrepresentations of my Words I had omitted to Speak and write they would never have been wealthy and powerful as they are. This Country would never have been independent, three hundred Millions of acres of excellent Land which She now holds would have been cutt off from her Limits, The Cod and Whale Fisheries those inexhaustible Sources of Wealth and power would have been ravished from her, the Massachusetts Constitution, the United States Constitution, the Constitutions of New York, that of Philadelphia and every other Constitution in the United States which is fit for any but Brutes to live under, would never have been made. Our Armies could not have been fed or clothed for a long time nor our Ambassadors Franklin and Jefferson Supported but with my Money; an American Navy would never have existed the Barbary Powers would have captivated and plundered, and without my Treaty in 1800 which I made by force against all the Arts and opposition of those who pretended to be my Friends We Should have been now involved in a foolish War with France and a Slavish Alliance with Great Britain. All this in my Conscience I Believe to be true.
Let the Federalists then talk about Misinterpretations and Misrepresentations of my Words or Actions. None have done more of them than themselves. I appeal to foreign Nations.—I appeal to my own Countrymen, within a year after my death. And there let the appeal rest, for the present.
Adieu, fireside to fireside as usual

J. Adams


Title: To John Adams from Robert Clark, 23 March 1809
From: Clark, Robert
To: Adams, John

Dear Father
Boston March 23—1809

Seeing a letter this morning in the Chronicle (a paper which has universally been calumniateing your Carecter both public and private) with your signature too it disapproveing of what is called Mr Gores War report and as the Chronicle says disapproveing of Mr Gore in toto, I avail my self of the preveledge of one of your Children and an infant too and one who since he has been able to list has been taught to adore your name and Politicks, to know your opinion between the two candidates for Governor as I shall as I think it my duty certainly vote for one or the other of them and unless my opinion should be changed by yours which I revere shall vote for Mr Gore as I think him an honest Man and I think his politicks more like yours that is when we are insulted by any foreign power he would like you in Ninety seven & eight fight and let those powers know that we are not to be frightnd out of our Just rights and that we have other amunition besides paper Proclamations—
You will please to excuse the liberty of a Stranger thus addressing you in your old age and beleave it to be from pure motives and no other—

Robert Clark.


Title: To John Adams from Simeon Draper, 23 March 1809
From: Draper, Simeon
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir
Brookfield March 23d. 1809

being a perticuler Friend of yours, Take the liberty to inclose this Letter, and ask the indulgence of an answer respecting its being a fabrication as is thoughts by some of your old substanciel Friends I want an answer for my own Sattisfaction and will not make any use of it then the answer shall Dictate, Should I be indulged.
I am with the Highest / Consideration your / Excelences Very Huml. / Servt.

Simeon Draper


Title: To John Adams from Jedidiah Morse, 27 March 1809
From: Morse, Jedidiah
To: Adams, John

Dear & much respected Sir,
Charlestown Mar. 27th.1809

I recd. your letter of the 9th. inst—(nearly a fortnight after its date) accompanying Dr. Trumbull’s M S. Hist. “with more delight than it would be prudent in me to express.” Your approbation of this History, is more praise to it its author, than would be the praise of any other man living, because I believe no other man is so well acquainted with the history of this country, & at the same time so competent to judge what such a history ought to contain. Will you not permit me, Sir, to publish an Extract from this letter, for the benefit of Dr. Trumbull, in the proposals, whh are issued for his History? I should be much obliged by this permission, as wd. Dr. T. Pray do not deny this favor.
The observations & facts in your letter, particularly those, whh relate to “the very first Symptoms & circumstances of Misunderstanding between G. Britain and the Colonies,” are, in my opinion, of peculiar value, & shall be introduced in their place before the work goes to press. Should I proceed in the History, & bring it down to the present times, as I confidentially intimated to you,  was contemplated, I should deem it a privilege to spend some time a day or two with you at your house, when convenient for the purpose of availing myself of the information, whh you possess, & whh I can obtain from no other source, & also of being pointed ascertaining in their order the leading facts & events, whh must constitute the bones & sinews of the history, & of being pointed to the sources whence correct information concerning them may be derived. I feel, Sir, that it is an undertaking of no common magnitude & delicacy, to bring down the general History of the general U States, from 1766 to the present time, a period in a high degree eventful, marked with violent political divisions, & having to do with so many living characters—It will require great labor & patience & perseverance, & restraint on my own feelings, to make it complete & impartial. If I engage, however, I shall engage in earnest, & with determination to go through with it shd. my life & health be spared, a sufficient length of time—Whatever aid you, Sir, can afford me, in this great undertaking, will lay me under great obligations to you.—
The times, Sir, on whh we have fallen, “are evil times indeed.” Some things, whh have lately taken place to blacken this picture, in respect to us both, are too delicate to commit to paper. They may be the subject of conversation at a personal interview.—In the mean time, I pray you, Sir, to rest assured, that I am with the greatest sincerity, / your respectful friend / & servt.
Jedh Morse.Mrs Morse & myself request to be remembered very respectfully & affectionately to Mrs Adams.—


Title: From John Adams to William Sumner, 28 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Sumner, William

Mr Sumner,
Quincy March 28th. 1809.

I have always cherrished an affection for you for many reasons which determine the Understanding and touch the heart.—
Your Father Solicited me to receive him into my Office as a Student at Law. Having at that time three Clerks, and the Rules of the Bar as well as the Orders of the Court prohibiting any Barrister to entertain more than that number at any one time, I was compelled, much against my Inclination to refuse him. This was no Injury to him, because he went to another Barrister Samuel Quincy Esqr. under whose Tuition he recieved as good an Education as I could have given him. It was however a Sensible Mortification to me, not only because my Mother and his Mother were Sisters Daughters and Affectionate Friends from their Cradles (and they continued so till their Graves) but because I know the Young Gentleman was a promising Genius, and a Studious and Virtuous Youth. Finding my Anticipations verified in a Virtuous and able Man and Magistrate and Seeing his Example followed by his Son, I have always been attached to your Family and to you, and not only on those Accounts but from regard to your Grand-Father, by your Mother who was one of my Steady Clients.—
This Preamble is necessary to introduce the Answer I shall give to your Letter of March 22d—
You Speak of the Evils which our Country has Suffered from Misquotations of my Opinions”. it is very true that my opinions expressed in public debates, in private Conversations and in public Writings have often been misquoted, misunderstood and misrepresented. But I have been for twenty years in Situations which made it incompatible with my Station and Character to enter into flickering Controversies in the Newspapers, with the profligate Scriblers who figure in those Vechicles of Scandal and Sedition. But why were not my Opinions vindicated by other Writers? Such were never wanting to defend the Opinions of Washington or of Jefferson. The true causes of this distinction I could easily explain to you.——
Who or what is Sheltered from Misquotations, Misinterpretations or Misrepresentations. The most infallible of all Writings have Suffered the most from them—Misinterpretations of the Old and New Testament have founded Synagogues Mosques and Cathedrels.—Maid Saints Cardinals and Popes, as well as political Tyrants and Despots without Number. And farther still have deluged three quarters of the Globe, I mean all Christian and Mehomitan Countries, at times, in blood——Must not a Man write or Speak, for fear that his Words should be misquoted or perverted.
I am weary, my Friend, of that unintermitted Insolence of which I have been the Object for twenty years, Stoical Patience, unlimited Submission passive obedience and Non Resistance are the only Arms I have, as yet opposed to it.——
Mausoleums, Statues, Monuments will never be erected to me. I wish them not——Panegyrical Romances, will never be written, nor flattering Orations pronounced to transmit my Character to Posterity in glorious Colours. No nor in true Colours neither.—All Colours but the last I abhor. Nevertheless I will not die unlamented.—
Cicero was libelled, Slandered insulted by all Parties; by Caesars Party, by Catalines Crew, by Clodius’s Mermidons, Aye and by Pompey the Patricians and the Senate too—He was persecuted and tormented by turns and by all Parties and all Factions, and sometimes by combinations of all of them together, and that for his most virtuous and glorious Councils and Conduct. In his anguish at times under these multiplied prevocations and in the consciousness of his own Merit, which have been denominated Vanity. Instead of reproaching them with Vanity I think them, the most infalliable Demonstrations of his Purity Since no Man did or dared to contradict them. He declares that all honours are indifferent to him, because he knows that it is not in the Power of his Country to reward him in any proportion to his Services.
Injured, insulted and provoked as I am, I blush not to imitate the Roman and to Say to the Snarlers against me (among whom however I do not consider you as one) that if to avoid Misquotations, Misinterpretations and Misrepresentations of my Words, I had omitted to Speak and write, they would never have been wealthy and powerful as they are; this Country would never have been independent; Washington would not have been Commander of the American Army; three hundred Millions of Acres of Land which She now possesses would have been cutt off from her Limits; the Cod and Whale Fisheries, those inexhaustable Sources of Wealth and Power would have been ravished from her; The Massachusetts Constitution, the Constitution of the United States New York Constitution, the Pensilvania Constitution the Maryland Constitution, the Constitution of the United States would never have been made; Our Armies, for a long time at a most critical period could not have been fed or cloathed, nor our Ambassadour’s, Franklin and Jefferson maintained but with my Money; an American Navy would not have existed, the Barbary Powers would have captivated and plundered; and without my Treaty in 1800 which I was obliged to make against the Arts and opposition of those who pretended to be my Friends, We should have been involved in a foolish War with France and a Slavish Alliance with Great Britain. I Say a foolish War, for although the intolerable Conduct of the French Government had made a Commencement of a War indispensable, yet when that Government humbled itself, and instead of demanding Apologies for my Speaches, made in effect the most decent ones for their own, and gave the most positive assurences in various ways official and unofficial that they would make Peace upon my own terms, it would have been to the last degree unjust unnecessary and foolish to have continued the War merely for the purpose of making Hamilton Commander of an Army I will add that without me the System of Neutrality to which, we owe so much would not have been adopted. The greatest Part of this I certainly know, and all the rest of it, in my Consience I believe to be true. You may easily believe from this Representation that I live and shall die under a Strong Sense of Injustice done to one Individual, though I forgive it all, as I do all other Injuries,
Let the Federalists then talk abought Misrepresentations of my Opinions, Words or Actions, None have played more at this Game than themselves.—For my Character I appeal to foreign Nations even to the English, But above all I appeal to Posterity.—
And now my dear Sir let me tell you, in answer to your Letter that if you will come and see me and dine with me upon Beef I will shew you the dreadfull Letter, from Messrs. Wright and Lyman two Gentlemen whose faces I never Saw and whose Names I never heard or read before the recept of that Letter and my Allarming answer. Your Viset however I hope will be delayed till after the Election, for I have no Ambition to interfere between Mr Lincoln and Mr Gore.
With Sincere Affection and Esteem I am Sir your Friendly /  well wisher and very humble Servant—
—
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Jedidiah Morse, 29 March 1809
From: Adams, John
To: Morse, Jedidiah

Dear Sir
Quincy March 29 1809

I cannot pretend to any extraordinary Knowledge of the History of this Country, or of what a general History of it ought to contain nor is my Letter written with Sufficient Care for publication: but as this is equally true of every other Thing of mine that has been published you are quite at Liberty to make what use of this you please. My Life has been passed in too much hurry to allow me to keep any thing nine years or nine minutes under correction.
The Task you have undertaken is very arduous but if any Industry can accomplish it, yours will be more adequate to it, then any other I know.
My House, Library Letters written or received Shall be open to you as well as any other Papers I possess whenever you please. You will find them indeed rudis indigestaque Moles, and enough to try the Patience of Job: but whether they will after all be of much use to you I doubt.
Mrs Adams joins with in respectful regards to your Lady / with Sir your Friend and Sert

John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 1 April 1809
From: Rush, Benjamin
To: Adams, John

My dear and venerable friend
Philada April 1st: 1809

It would be well, if legislators were taught before they begin to legislate, that there are certain things which elude the power of government as certainly as a stone when thrown into the Air falls to the ground. In addition to those Subjects which have been mentioned in our letters I will add—“the dictates of Conscience, religious & philosophical opinions—the current prices of goods, and tavern bills.” Of the two bills last, we saw memorable proofs in the year 1776 in several of the States.
In your letter of the 23rd: of march you mention Cicero as a precedent for a mans doing justice to his Services to his Country. You might have added the Conduct of St Paul, for the same purpose. The Calumnies of the Jews, and the ingratitude of his pagan Converts, compelled him to enter into a long detail of his sacrifices, sufferings and exploits in advancing the glory of his master, and the interests of his gospel. There is it is true great difficulty in a man’s speaking, or writing of himself so as to avoid giving Offence. The King of Prussia in his posthumous works says this difficulty it is so much so great, that even a public justification for supposed offences should be avoided, inasmuch as they it cannot be made without some self praise; but this opinion is by no means a correct one. I differ widely from this opinion of his Prussian Majesty. A reverence for Religion, and a regard for truth, liberty, family honor, and the interests of society may make it indispensably necessary for a man who has been wronged by the Country, or the Age in which he has lived, to appeal to the world at large and to posterity for an Acquittal of the follies or Crimes with which he has been charged. Knowing that you feel your Obligations to all the objects  upon and your desire to maintain a fair and just Character. I have formerly suggested to you to employ the   evening of your life in writing “the history of your own times” as far as you were an actor in them. Let it be published by your sons after your death: It will be more than a patent of nobility to your descendants to the end of time. I shall follow the Advice I am now giving you as far as it relates to Volumes of Scandal that have been printed against me for my medical opinions and practice since the year 1793, and to no one of which I have ever replied even by a single paragraph in a newspaper. My sons expect this Act of justice to them with more solicitude than they would  an independance  in property were it possible for me to bequeath them it to them.
Mr Bins whose name I mentioned to you in my last letter is an exiled Irishman. He has been 14 years in our Country. Our Governor and the party most attatched to him are said to be wholly under his influence. When a young housekeeper I well recollect a servant girl who lived with me had a quarrel with a mulatto man in the neighbourhood. She called him by several scurrilous names, One of which was “a no nation Son of a bitch.”—Does not this character apply to the Citizens of Pennsylvania? We are Englishmen—Frenchmen—Irishmen and Germans. The Accent of an American tongue can scarcely be heard among them. We are in short “no nation Sons—of—you may supply the rest fill up the Sentence with any thing you please.—
Our legislature has exhibited prodigies of folly & madness. They have passed an arbitration law which is to supercede if possible tryals by Jury. They have made several attempts to  sweep the benches of the state of federal judges. In all of them they have failed, & from a Secession of men of their own party. My worthy brother has escaped their fury. He has been heard, and honourably acquitted by 2/3rd of the lower house. Judge of their hositily hostily to commerce and civilized manners by the following fact. a member of the Senate in the Course of a debate in which the prosperity of Philadelphia was spoken of, said, “he should be glad to hear that the Whole City was reduced to ashes, & that those ashes were conveyed by the four Winds to every part of the world, that not a vestige of the spot where the City stood might remain” Similar feelings govern many of the members of both houses of our legislature.—
O’ Liberty!—liberty! I have worshipped thee as a Substance—But—but—but—“where are my shoes and stockings”?—where is my lancet—where are my gallypots?—
I have lately been daily in the family of major Butler who has been much indisposed with the Gout. Your name has been occasionally mentioned by him to me in the most respectful terms. “An honester man than John Adams (he says) he believes never lived.” Upon my telling him we were in habits of corresponding, he begged me the first next time I wrote to you, to present his Compliments to you. The Major has  assumed new Ground in politicks. He views both parties through your and my Spectacles. In the year 1800 I stood nearly alone in  refusing to be led by either of the two parties that were then contending for the power of our Country. This is not the Case now. Hundreds of our Citizens now think and act with me, more especially the whigs of the Revolution. The most active men of both sides of the question parties were brought into life by the sunshine and safety of the peace of 1780, or by the prosperity or poverty which have been produced by it.
A state guard parades constantly before the doors of Mr Rittenhouse’s daughters. Should the General Government persist in the attempt to take them, blood will certainly be shed. The moderate democrats—that is the Quids & Duanites have in vain united their strength to obtain the a repeal of the exceptionable law, and the payment of the money due to the United States. It is impossible to tell where and when this business will end.—I forsee in it the Seeds of the dissolution of the Union. Alas!—for the last only surviving hopes of mankind! What has become of the “tribunal of Reason”? I wish It would seem as if the history of our Country may not would furnish new proffs that men are to be governed only by the Bible, or the bayonet.
Are the labors and virtues of the patriots of and heroes of 1774. 1775 and 1776 to perish without bringing forth any Other fruit than What we have gathered from the transient duration of our general government? Or Are thier sleepless nights—their midnights addresses to the power and justice of Heaven for their oppressed & injured Country—their Sacrifices of time and property & their “cruel mockings” (Often worse than bodily sufferings) to be rewarded only in “another and a better world.”? Let us believe
—the firm patriot there,
“who made the welfare of mankind his care,
“Though here with envy, & with faction lost,
“Shall find the generous labor was not lost.”
ADieu—always yours most / sincerely  Affectionately and / gratefully—

Benjn: RushPS: Since writing the above, we have heard that our legislature will probably consent to pay the money demanded by the UStates & thus end the alarming contest between them.


Title: To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 2 April 1809
From: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir
Olden barneveld. 2 Apr. 1809.

A continued headache has compelled me, to delaÿ an answer to your favour of the 16th of Febr. from daÿ to daÿ; tho I receive no higher gratifications than from these. It is indeed far beyond, what I could reasonably have flattered me with, that, in your far advanced age, you So often would have condescended, in taking notice of mÿ letters, and bestowing So manÿ marked proofs of your uninterrupted kindness towards me. My Sense of this your politeness is So much livelier, as in this period of mÿ life I remain nearly alone—bereaved by death of nearly all my old acquaintances and frends, and left unnoticed—in a Strange Land—in the western wilderniss.
I hope not, Dear Sir! that the prudential measure of levying a tribut upon the elected Members to create a Salary for the Secretarÿ, shall be soon adopted by the Secretarÿ—Whÿ do not rather the wealthy Bostonians, who with Such profuseness bestow their gifts upon different kinds of institutions, raise a fund from which a Perpetual Secretarÿ of the Academÿ, might be honorably Salarized—or rather—as your Academÿ is the primogeniture of that spent in America, whÿ does not the Massachusetts Legislature provide in its wants, and Supplÿ it nobly with the means, thro which again knowledge might Spread among the ÿankees—in this manner Liberty would be effectuallÿ preserved.Dr Morse hath an opportunity of conveying to me your present, when Some time ago his Brother in Law Breese of our neighbourhood visited him—and Dr Kirkland cannot want it, in Sending it Sooner of later to his Brother in Law Dr. Lothrop in Utica, who would find a pleasure, in obliging me with this civility. Perhaps you maÿ have, in him, an occasion of Sending it to mÿ address to the care of Paul Hochstrasser, Merchant at Albanÿ.You have traced—as usually—the real causes—of the fall of the Dutch Republick—even an alliance between the house of Orange and the French would not have Saved it. Nothing but a sufficient navÿ to protect their declining commerce, which fatally could not be prevented—nothing but a more rigid oeconomÿ—nearly impracticable at that station of its Political existence—a regeneration of their abolished militia system—a more Solid compact—than that of the Union of Utrecht—withe the Sacrifice of Some individual rights of the independent members of that monstruous confederacÿ, a more Legitimate, less indefinte, Powers and honors bestowed upon the Stadholders—might have continued its existence a few years longer. But it had long decay’d—the time of its natural death was at the door—the riches too great yet too unequally devided—it could not have with Stood the torrent of the French Revolution.
I am apprehensive—my Dear Sir! that the morals of our Nation are already more corrupted, that the Character of our Nation is already more polluted—that upon this alone, we may rest with confidence our hopes for our future securitÿ, and consider these as a Sufficient pledge for our Independence—for our rights and Liberties—or I am entirely mistaken, or it is not longer the Nation, as you with Such an energetic vehemence described it to us in 1780—without a Navÿ I fear—our Political independence Shall Soon be gone—and if your Prophetic warnings are Slighted ruet Ilium!
You can not indulge in the effusions of your heart, or you recall to my mind our noble Literarÿ frend Luzac—whose merits were yet less known, than his talents were conspicuous—but that frank and noble Soul did outlive the existence of his countrÿ. His mind was as great, as his heart expanded. Tho we differed in Political theories—at a period—when I was yet uninstructed in the genuine principles of Government by Him, whom I am in duty bound to revere and respect as a Patron and frend—it never cooled his affections—it did not abate his zeal in exerting his utmost Strenghth—to defend me against the Whole power of the Stadholderian Party. He alone coincided with me in the opinion, when I was criminally prosecuted for a pretended Libel—Tho Gyzelaer, de Van der Capellens exhorted me to leave the country—and La Vauguion offered me an asylum in France, to Stand it with firmness—while his juridical memoirs and the masterly Remonstrances of Voorde and van der Keessel, had So much influence by the States of Holland, that I was fullÿ acquitted—and no reward was his lure, he refused, to accept anÿ compensation. This defence was more glorious, there in a centurÿ Such a case—except that of the Senator vander Shieden, had not been tried—there not one of the eminent Patriotic Lawyers—Hamel and others dared to undertake the patronage, and van Zelderen alone, tho of the court party shewed independence and courage enough, to join John Luzac.
But need I not an Apology for this excentric excursion—I would trÿ it—did I not know, that John Luzac had no warmer admirer no more Sincere frend than John Adams,—was I not fully convinced, that the memorÿ of this man is as dear to you, as it is to me, and there we are bereft of the pleasure of conversing upon the merits of our deceased friend, that you deem it not unbecoming—to remember Him—now and then—Quando ullum invenient parem.
Tho I have yet manÿ points in your Letter to answer, I believe it not uninteresting to you, to know how I Spent this winter—while—except Mr Mappa’s and my own familÿ—I am here vox Silentis in deserto. I devoted a great part of the Season to Metaphysics, and the Later to the Jus Ecclesiastium Protestantium—which will yet occupÿ me during two or three weeks—When tired I visited Chaulieu and La Tarre, and when theÿ could not remove a growing dulness—Rabelais and Sterne make me laugh it awaÿ. I am thus happÿ in never wanting a charming Society, and nevertheless I must Sip mÿ glass alone—tho this too is not longer filled with vin des coteaux. But I presume, I Shall make my self a compensation in full—for all these penances, if mÿ life is preserved Soo long, and my fortune so much amended, that I maÿ acquit me of a vow in a pilgrimage to St. John of Wollaston, when I Shall claim dayly a Small pittance from his Sumtuous cellar.
You pourtraÿ’d Dumas in few words,—Peace to his Soul! In Some period of his life—with more independence he might have been less useful to his Employers.
What Solid proof have you to give Solomo the praise as the builder of the manificent ruins of Palmÿra? do you indeed Suppose, that he has any claim upon it—except, what he might have contributed—thro an intercourse of commerce—of fixing there an Emporium, building, perhaps Thadmor and establishing arts and Sciences—in that convenient place. Makes R. Wood anÿ mention of it? or is there again Some Mysterÿ hidden in this enunciation, then I must beg you, to reveal it.
Mr. Blok left New-york the 11th of Jan. for Batavia—where—I ardently wish he maÿ with his family arrive in Savety. He is an amiable man—of an excellent Character, with moderate talents. He was delighted in Spending Six weeks at Olden barneveld. I Shall give my Sincerest thanks to the Good Being, who overrules all for the best, If I am favoured with your kind remembrance during mine remaining days, while you are convinced / that I am your obliged and devoted
Fr. Adr. vanderkemp