Title: From John Adams to John Randolph, Jr., 1816
From: Adams, John
To: Randolph, John, Jr.

Mr Randolph
1815 or 1816

I have read your letter, and thank you for the Amusement it has afforded me. We in Massachusetts, however, know not why the Name of Adams Should be thought “of evil omen.”
The Rumors you heard in Washington, of a disposition in Massachusetts, to declare for Neutrality, were not well founded. If an Individual or So, in the Agony of his heart has suggested such an Idea, this would no more prove such a “disposition in Massachusetts and throughout New England” than the Speech of the Fool who said in his heart There is no God proves that Mankind are Atheists and as great Fools as he was. Nor any more than the Menaces of some Members of the Virginia Legislature Sixteen years ago of a Seperation from the Union proved a disposition in Virginia to Insurrection which ought to be humbled in Dust  and Ashes. I remember to have read in the Journals of Congress, in 1775, or 1776 of several Counties who voted to be Neutral in that War, and it cost Congress much trouble to shame them out of it, but all this did not prove a disposition in the State of New York to abandon the Union. About the same time, I have heard that Rumors were spred far and wide that many of the Inhabitants of the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland were disaffected to the Union: Yet this was never thought a disposition in those States to dissolve or prevent it; on the contrary no States were more Stedfast in Support of it.
The People of New England know that Neutrality is unattainable. Neither England, nor Canada, nor Nova Scotia would agree to it. New England Spreads too much Canvas upon the Ocean. To this Cavass, New England Canvass, The English have a great Aversion. Were it not for this Canvass, they would make peace immediately; for Mr Madison has removed every other Obstruction to it. What! New England Neutral Canvass, flying to France Spain Portugal Holland Antwerp Newport Ostend, Spreading to the Mediterranean, The Baltic, The East and West Indies as well as to Scotland Ireland and England! English Patience can never bear this. No. They had rather be at War with all, or indeed at peace with all, America.
We must fight said Major Hawley in 1774, and his Words being reported to Patrick Henry, he ecchoed them in 1775, both very nobly and Sagaciously. We must fight now, Says Mr Randolph; and So Say I. Not merely to defend our Independence but to Save Our New England Canvass and Fisheries from desolation, and your Tobacco, Domesticks and Self.
Your Sentiments of Men have changed: When you “commanded in Chief in the House of Representatives” you had a high Opinion of Mr Jefferson Mr Madison and Mr Monroe at least. Whatever opinion they might have of you, it was generally believed in the Publick that you Spoke their Sentiments. It was their Influence, that Supported you. But when it was found that you no longer, esteemed them nor Supported their Measures, you lost not only your “Command in Chief in the House” but the place of a common Soldier in the Ranks: a common Ragamuffin.
The World in general Understood that there “Was Something extravagantly unreasonable in your Wishes” and that this Extragance prevented their gratification. Mr Jefferson and Mr Madison might think it extravagantly unreasonable in you, to wish to be Sent Ambassador to Europe. They might think you better qualified to be “Commander in Chief of the House,” than to dance attendance at a Court. And this opinion was honourable to you. They might think your wild Imagination, ungovernable Passions, invederate Prejudices and inextinguishable Resentments and flashing frothy foaming desultory unconnected Eloquence, unsuitable to confer with Old experienced Cabinets, cool artful designing Ministers of State, profound upright Statesmen or Sharp Sighted Diplomatick Agents. They might think you had not weighed your own Talents in Money Scales. They might think the Style of Tom Paine and Callender your two great Models  ill adapted to the cool deliberate Conferences, and candid discussions even of wise and honest Statesmen who aim Sincerely at reciprocal Justice, between Man and Man, Nation and Nation, Government and Government. There might be personal Considerations too. Ambassadors are necessarily much in Society. In all great Public Assemblies they are invited and expected to attend. Ladies of all Ranks in vast numbers are always present many of them in tender Circumstances . The Sight of a Baboon a Monkey or an Ourang Outang or an Ape in the Costume of an Ambassador, would throw them into Fitts. The Story would be told in Siberia and descend to Posterity in Support of De Peau and Buffon.
Upon my honour, Mr Randolph, I have no Authority directly or indirectly, from Mr Jefferson or Mr Madison to make this Apology for their Conduct in disappointing your Wishes, which you think moderate and reasonable. I alone am responsable. It is merely the result of my own meditations. There is no Patronage: No Venality here.
Indeed, Mr Randolph, it is very true that you are not on very good terms with the “World.” For this misfortune I pitty you. My Compassion for you is Still more affected, because you are on ill terms with yourself. You Sitt uneasy on Society and are discontented with yourself. Restless in your easy Chair, on your Sofa, in your Closet, at your Book at your Pen and in your Bed, you are tormented every where at all times with Ennui, which is worse than Exile. You cannot bear your own reflections. You cannot turn your Eyes inward upon your own Soul, its present State past conduct and future prospects, without Starting with horror.
Indeed! Is “The public Ear Shut against you in Virginia”? Is “The Press there under a virtual Imprimatur”? This is far worse than a Sedition Law and an Allien Law both together. If this is a Truth, Virginia must be very inconsistent with herself, if She ever forgives you for telling it.
I agree with you that the Artillery of the Press has been long the Instrument “of our Subjugation.” Witness your Paine Brown Calender Cheetham Tennison and twenty others. My Judgment approves and my heart harmonizes in your virtuous Indignation against “The Shall” of Old England and the “Must” of New England. But you ought to recollect, that Sixteen Years ago, France Said John Adams must and the Southern States Said he Shall be turned out of Office. And most Scandalous Lies have been propagated both in Europe and America, if large Sums of Money were not Shipped to America to effect “The must.” The “Shall” was accomplished by the great increase of the Number of Votes in the Southern States assisted by the virtuous Exertions of Hamilton and Burr.
It is candid in you to confess that you have wished that We had been embroiled with the Court of St. James’s, twenty years ago. It is well known that you and all your Friends, Were ardent for War with England, when and closer Connections with France, at the Time when Jacobinism and Sansculottism raged with infernal Fury in France, and in America, threatened to drag Washington from his chair: and at the time when the Single Vote of the “ill omened John Adams” in the Senate, by crushing “Mr Madisons Resolutions,” prevented both.
Why, Mr Randolph do you Steal a Laurel from one brow to adorn another? This is not “Jus cuique.” To “regard the English as other Nations, as Ennemies in War, in Peace Friends” was the “benevolent Policy” of the “ill omened John Adams” and the Well omened Thomas Jefferson in the declaration of Independence: If Washington or his Mentor ever adopted it, they were mere copyists, not originals.
You have detailed Some Articles of the Policy of the Middle and Southern States against the Empire which you suppose hatching at Hartford. But do you Suppose, Sir that The People of New England, have not foreseen and premeditated this Policy and much more than your Shallow Sagacity has discovered? Depend upon it, they have looked farther forward than you have. Perhaps they have not looked to the End: and Who in America can See So far? The “ill omened John Adams” almost thirty years ago Said to The Queen of England “Another Europe, Madam is arising in America”. And the Baron de Stael Holstein, once Said to the Same “ill omened John Adams” “Qu’est que c’est que L’Europe”? “C’est une Repaire d’Horreurs” i.e. in English, for you do not understand French “What is Europe? A Den of Horrors.”
Your Satyr, Mr Randolph is “extravagantly unreasonable.” I do not believe that anybody in Virginia would be glad to hear of the Bombardment of Boston; nor that anybody in New England would not be “Sorry to hear of a Servile Insurrection in Virginia.” With you, I have always regarded Union as the Means of Liberty Safety and Happiness: and New England and Virginia are of our opinion; though vapouring Factions in both, have at times foolishly blustered and threatened.
When was this goverment, “in the hands of bad Men”? Was Washington a “bad Man”? Was Jefferson a “bad Man”? Is Madison a “bad Man”? Have any of their Ministers been “bad Men”? Have both Houses of Congress for five and twenty years been bad Men? Where then Shall We look to find good Men? The People under Washington from Georgia to New Hampshire, were more discontented than they ever have been Since. His Administration was Supported by Smaller Majorities in both Houses than any Administration since. It was about half and half through his whole Eight years. It has been nearly two thirds against one third in the three Subsequent Administrations. You may say, if you please, that the “ill omened” John Adams was a bad Man: but you will not, now Say that his Ministers were bad Men, nor that the then Senate and House were filled with bad Men. And how are We undone, or “almost undoing”? The People of England love to be told, that they are ruined, or on the Brink of ruin: and you treat the People of America as if you thought them English Children.
I shall not “abuse the Fickleness of the People.” They are Steadier, honester and more grateful, than the Newspapers and popular orators, that misinform, misguide deceive and mislead them. “Foreign Influence,” you Say, “is unknown among you.” Have you forgotten Calender, nourished cherrished, hired courted and paid: thought the most abandoned Scoundrel Miscreant that ever fled from his Bail and a Scottish halter. It would be more prudent, Mr Randolph, not to remind any one to look too curiously and critically into the history of those times. “The Virginians and the New Englandmen, are indeed an unmixed People” and more alike, than either are willing to acknowledge. Time was when they loved one another and drew together. May Such a time come again!
You glory in the Magnanimity of Virginia in her Cession of Lands to the Union, and So do I. But Massachusetts also deserves praise indeed of those very Lands which you applaud Virginia for ceeding, for a Concession to the same Union, not less unlimited. For a Cession upon the Subject of the Emancipation of Slaves I Shall never, I believe, dispute with you, Mr Randolph. Perish the New England Wish, if any One Should ever be uttered or conceived, for any Insurrection among your Domesticks. And perish every Old England Attempt to Steal them.
Virginia had no more merit in accepting the Constitution, than Massachusetts in 1788. “It was repugnant to our Judgment,” “and fraught as We feared, with danger to our Liberties.” “The aweful Voice of our oldest and Soundest Statesmen, Samuel Adams John Hancock and Elbridge Gerry greater Men than Patrick Henry or George Mason, never before or since disregarded, warned us of the consequences.” Neither were their Counsels unheeded For the Constitution could not be carried till they brought in the Amendments that reconciled them and the Nation to it.
You say, Sir, that “For the Sake of Union, you Submitted to the lowest State of degradation; the Administration of John Adams.”! What will the Virginians Say to this? You weighed Adams and Madison in opposite Scales and found them equal. Have the Virginians Submitted with their own Unanimous Votes to the lowest State of degradation, for eight years under the Administration of Madison? You say “the name of John Adams calls up contempt and derision, wheresoever it is pronounced.” Mr Randolph! I once read, in a Letter written by one of the greatest and best Men ever born in America, these Words, “John Randolph is a mischievous Boy Standing in the Street with an elder Syrringe in his hand quirting nauseous Water from the Kennel on the Cloaths and in the Eyes of every Gentleman who passes by him.”
You talk Sir of “the fantastic Vanity of this John Adams.” I never heard that he boasted of the command in Chief of the House of Representatives. You once indeed endeavoured to assume the Command in Chief over him, and assign him a Post without his Jurisdiction and within your own. It was a Post of danger, which you have always shunned, though you came into congress to “fight Harper” whom you are now flattering. You recollect the Anecdote. Will you never forget the Raggamuffins? To be sure you was exposed to universal ridicule and contempt; but you have been Since So much flattered, and been so long commander in Chief of the H. of R. and above all as you have lately read So much “in Tillotson Sherlock and Porteous” and become So religious, you might forgive if you cannot forget that humiliation though it was in Dust and Ashes. Those great and excellent Divines, no where teach eternal and inexorable Malice and Revenge against a Man for doing his Duty. If you were not a Boy, and an ignorant, as well as an angry and Saucy Boy, you would know, that John Adams from 1774 to 1778 had more weight in Congress, than you ever had in the H. of R. Yet no Man ever heard him boast or pretend that he was Commander in Chief in that Congress. No! he never pretended to more than his Share. Perhaps not So much; if he had possibly the opinions of the World, both of Men and Things might have been Somewhat different. In the case Supposed, or if you had read the Journals of Congress, You would have known that John Adams was for Eighteen Months President of that Board of War to which Congress dayly referred every Thing relating to the Army: Yet though he was compelled to a more punctual Attendance, Morning, Noon And Night up on this Service than any other Member, no Man ever heard him boast that he was Commander in Chief of that Board. In the case supposed you would have known that John Adams was a Member of the first Committee of Congress for filling out a Navy and that all the Papers and regulations were drawn by him: Yet he never bragged that he was Commander in Chief of that Committee or that Navy. He never assumed the Merit of his Colleagues, He loves the Memory of them all, and would pick their Pocketts or rob them on the high Way as soon as he would steal a Laurell from their Brows. No! Mr Randolph! Your “fantastic Vanity” and your “extravagantly unreasonable Wishes,” I had like to have said were unparralleled and without Example: but I recollected myself. They are not unexampled. I now recollect three Instances in point. Christopher McPherson a Gentleman of Virginia, Parson Austin a Gentleman of Connecticutt and Abraham Brown a Gentleman of Rhode Island, were all ambitious of Embassies to Europe: They all thought themselves Jure divino, “Commanders in Chief” of all Nations, they all Solicited John Adams to Send them to Europe. And So did Dr Priestley. But Adams could not See his Way clear, any more than Jefferson and Madison You Say, that Upon the Adoption of the Constitution in Virginia in 1778 “the Feuds of Federalism and Anti-federalism disappeared.” This, if not Strictly true, has Some Verisimilitude. It has the Species Veri: for Virginia became very unanimously “Antifederal”, and continued invariably So for twelve years, i.e throughout the whole Administrations of Washington and Adams. Every Senator from that State, invariably voted against Washingtons Measures, except Coll Walker who was appointed only by the Governor and discarded in a few months, at the next Election. The Virginia Members of The House were nearly as unanimous and of as Steady habits. True enough! There could be little or no Contention between Federalism and Antifederalism. They wear nearly all on one Side in Virginia. Nevertheless your oldest and Soundest Statesmen your “greatest Orator that ever Spoke,” Patrick Henry, allways a Friend to John Adams became a good Federalist and cordially Supported his Administration.
To “John Adams you trace our present unhappy Condition”! This is somewhat mysterious! Was it his Embargo Law? His Non importation Law? His Non intercourse Law? Measures which he always detested and always prevented when he had a Vote, that “produced our present unhappy Condition”? Was it his War with France, which humbled an insolent Directory, as much as France has been lately humbled by the combined Efforts of Europe? Was it his purchase of Navy Yards which would now Sell for double their Cost? Was it his Building Frigates, manning a Navy and Selecting Officers who perfectly protected our Commerce and gained Victories against the French, who afterwards acquired Such Laurell’s in the Mediterranean and who have lately emblazoned themselves and their Country with a Glory more Solid and durable than America ever beheld? And all this was done against opposition, Clamours and Reproaches such as no other President ever had to encounter. Or was it, his earnest Sedulous and Successful, though expensive Exertions to preserve Peace with the Indians and prepare them for Agriculture? Not a hatchet was lifted in his time. Was it his demarcation of Limits and Settlement of all Controversies with Spain? Was it his Composition with England for Virginia Debts? Was it his indefatigable Labours to compose all Differences and Settle all Controversies with all Nations and his compleat and perfect Success in leaving his Country at Peace with all the World? And after all his “extravagant Epences” and “wanton waste of public Publick, Money;” leaving you Navy yards Frigates Manufactories of Cannon and Arms, and fortifications, and a Treasury full of five Millions of Dollars? How many Millions, Mr Randolph have you, your Patrons and only Friends you ever had, now in the Treasury.? Blush! Insolence Blush! If any Spark of honour conscience, or Sensibility remains. Was it his total and cheap Suppression of the Insurrection in Pensylvania? Or was it his Pardon of Fries? What would you Commder in Chief &c have done with those upright Judges, Chace and Peters, if Fries had been hanged?
No Mr Randolph! our present unhappy Condition, ought not to be traced to John Adams. Try Sir, exert yourself, and See whether it is possible for you to discern or perceive the Truth: and acknowledge what you must know to be the Truth, namely, that the real cause of “our present unhappy condition” is the Hostility of the Southern to the Northern Interest. Virginia abounds with excellent Men and High minded Gentlemen. Virginia, honestly, Sincerely and with perfect good Faith, (de tres bon Foi) believes that she has an unalienable indefeasable Right to the Presidency. that it her is her undubitable Prerogative, and that it is essential to the Happiness of the People of the United States that She Should hold it. Upon this Principle She has calculated her Policy to exclude every Man, from every other State from the Presidency, and the Southern States have invarably cherrished her in this Policy. It is difficult to find any meaning in your Gallimaufry and Gallimatia: but if any thing can be guessed from it, it is that the Change of Government in 1801 was “the cause of our present unhappy Condition.” Well! Agreed! But what was the Cause of that Change? Did not Virginia and her Southern Allies allure Col. Burr by the hopes of the Vice Presidency to take Advantage of the blunders of Hamilton, form a Coalition between the Clintons and Livingstons and Seduce the State of New York to apostatize and desert in a Body? Did not Washington a Virginian, by preventing the Nomination of Peter Muhlenbourg, whom he acknowledged to be a very good officer, to be a Brigadier cause the Apostacy and desertion of One half the Votes of Pensylvania? And did not a Trick of the Southern Party in South Carolina, by removing the Election to a great distance from the Metropolis, cause an apparently Unanimous desertion of that State, against the real Sense of the People? Are these Instances, Some of your Venalities from Esau to yourself? When you Say that the “Name calls up contempt,” no Man believes you, and you do not believe Yourself. You both dread and envy the Name.If you were not a Boy, you wood would have known, that Six and twenty years ago the Name of John Adams was so much respected in Virgiania, that had John Adams lived in Virginia, and George Washington in Massachusetts, the former would have had the unanimous Votes of Virginia to be President of the United States.
As to the “Adresses” they were all written and presented by those People whom you then reviled and now are courting with all the Art you posses. They were then as they are now as respectable People as any in the United States. if those Addresses were as you say flatteries to John Adams, who were the Flatters? Booby? They were The Legislatures, the Cities, the Clergy, the Lawyers, the Physicians the Merchants the Universities, the Planters and Yeomen of the Nation, the greatest and best Men in it with Washington and Patrick Henry among them. A little Junto in Virginia Sent him an impertinent impudent and insolent Address, callculated to foment the Disturbances then raging in Pensylvania and elswhere, and he told then they ought to be humbled and he things So Still. He is no Flatterer of Virginia or New England. Virginia pursued a wild career in the last Century and New England is too  faithfully imitating her Example in this. He is heartily Sorry for both. He cordially disapproves both.
Was he responsable for the violations of The National Faith, or did he cause the trampling in “dust and Ashes” the Public Credit? No Act of National Banruptcy was ever committed in his day.
You next fall foul of poor Madison, and throw him head and heels into a Money Scale against John Adams, and leave it doubtful whether the Hair or the Wit preponderates.—Your Malevolence Mr Randolph is a Marplot. You are that blundering Irish Clown who deliberately and gravely Sawed Off the Limb he bestrided, fell with it to the ground on a Rock and broke his brainless Skull. Suppose a Spider Should, de tres bon Foi, Spread a Webb to catch an Eagle for his dinner.! I have Seen a Lady’s Lapdog give himself Airs to an enormous Bulldog. The noble Animal, never looked at him, any more than he would at a fly, buzzing over his head, till the Puppy not only Snapped and Snarled but flew at his Ears with open Jaws. The Hero without a change of Pace or countenance took the Puppies under Jaw into his mouth and followed his Master with the same cool Steady Gravity. But such a distress as that of Puppy! His Agony moved the heart of every one. He Screamed, he writhed in total despair. The Master was greived He turned back and begged and pleaded for the Victim. The insulted Hero in complaisance to his Master, and possibly from Pitty to the Indiscretion of his little fellow Creature opened his Mouth and let him escape; and never did a Creature, run away with more Joy.
This is not pretended to be Witt, nor humour nor Satyr, Mr Randolph, it is grave, Serious, Solemn Argument. You are the Irish Clown You are the presumptuous Spider, You are the Ladys Lapdog.
If the Name of John Adams is “ill omened,” that of James Madison is has been well omened. He carried from Colledge, to Virginia to America and to Europe the Saying of Dr Witherspoon, the President, “Madison was four years, under my Inspection and Tuition, and during that whole time he never Said or did, an indiscreet thing.” This should admonish old Men to be carefull what they Say of young ones. It is very remarkable, How these Horroscopes influence the Destinies of Individuals. This Accidental Escape from Witherspoon had as much Effect, as President Davis’s “That Hiroic Youth Collonel Washington.” Mankind in general, however, have persevered in the Opinion of Mr Madisons discretion. The Virginians especially have given a Splendor to his Reputation for at least, four and thirty years. Mr Madisons “extraordinary Talents,” Mr Madisons “Singular Talents” Mr Madisons “peculiar Talents” have been the delightfull and unanimous theme of Virginia Panegyric, through the whole of a human Age. You have the honor to be the first to brake up the Charm. I Shall here Speak a little freely. You Virginians have Stood by one another. You have applauded, celebrated, panegyrised trumpetted and puffed one another. You are the first to dissolve the Spell and instead of puffing your Colleagues and Fellow Citizens, you puff yourself. Massachusetts had pursued Another Rule,. As Soon as any Man has acquired a Reputation, they tear it to Pieces. I am not about to give you, my opinion of Mr Madison: But what will Virginians Say when you give an Equipoise if not a preponderance to the ill omened Name, the degraded Character, and the every Thing despicable and ridiculous of John Adams? I will Say, however that there are Writings and Speeches  of Mr Madison upon record, which will forever place his Name and Character above the reach of your impotent Envy Malice and vengeance. Mr Madisons Talents and Character have commanded respect from Federalists and Antifederalists, from Whigs and Tories, from Federalists and Republicans, from Jacobins And Anti Jacobins for thirty years. Great Britain has declared War against him personally as they once did against Hancock and Adams, and afterwards against Mr Vanberckel in Holland. But all the Power of the Imperial Crown and Parliament cannot Shake him. The Truth, is Mr Randolph,, that Mr Madison has been greatly esteemed by both and by all Parties in America. But our Government has been a Game at Leap Frogg, in which the Sportsmen have been perpetually leaping over One Anothers heads and Shoulders. Or, to draw a Similitude from fashionable Life, it has been a Country dance, in which, Gentlemen and Ladies have figured in and figured out, crossed over joined hands And changed hands and turned about.
Is there not a Meanness of Spite, that would disgrace the Viper knawing the File in reviving a and circulating at this Age, the execrable Lye of “the Coronet and Sceptree” which no body ever believed, and which was calculated only for the Mob? Nothing can be baser, unless you Should revive the cruel Lies about your fictitious Jonathan Robbins and the Burning of the War Office and the Treasurers Office.
Your brain-sick Vanity Still raves about your “Influence and popularity Such as no Man had attained.” You never had half the Influence of Callender: nor a tenth part of the Popularity of Tom Paine. Nor was the little you had half so well merited. Your Popularity was nothing but the Popularity of your Party. No Man of Sense had any Confidence in your Judgment, whatever they might once have in your Honor or Integrity. You have apostatised from the Party that gave you all your Ecclat and Weight; and now are making your fauning Addresses to the opposite Party whom you have formerly abused and insulted by every Injury; and they will not receive you. You are ruined with all Parties, reduced to total Insignificance, and now cannot bear the Consciousness of your despized Situation.
Will there never be Vigour enough in your Understanding or your Heart, Mr Randolph, to forget, or at least to conceal your Remembrance of the “Raggamuffins.” Does Jealousy, Envy, Malice and Vengeance So ferment in your Soul as to boil over? And to glutt your Malice must you make it boil over and Scald on the poor innocent Professor? Must the Son, bear the Chastizement and Swelter under the Scalding drops as well as the Father?
I hope this Gentle flaggellation will bring the Unlucky Boy to his Senses if not Some other measures must be taken. Some Skilful Physician must be consulted.

A Gentleman lately in The Senate of the United States from Massachusetts.
P.S. You make me Shudder, Sir, in one place where you Speak of “Agony and bloody Sweat,” and Still more when you Say, that “Atheists and Madmen have been our Lawgivers.” This, Mr Randolph, is a Serious Subject and deserves a carefull Investigation. If you possess any Evidence of Facts, in proof of your Asseveration, you will act the part of a good Citizen, by Stating, it before the Publick. You ought not to assert it, unless you are able to prove it. Such confident affirmations Scattered at random among the People, without Specifying proofs or Persons, has a tendency to Spread universal Suspicion of all Men and to destroy all Confidence of any in any Men. I declare to You, Mr Randolph, that I have never known, an Atheist in the Government of the United States. That I have never known but two Men Suspected of Atheism, Mr Jefferson and Mr Hamilton. The suspicion of the former I have always known to be false, and the Slander cruel. That the other once believed nothing, not even a future State, I have more than one credible, and in my Judgment indubitable Witness: but this man after the French Revolution became more thoughtfull and finally received the Sacrament as a Christian. God, rest his Soul!
Now, Mr Randolph! I demand of you, to name The Atheists who have been our Legislators. And to prove your accusations. Your Assertion as it Stands is a Libel on the Nation.
And Who are your “Madmen, who have been our Lawgivers”? I know that The Honourable John Randolph has been one of our Legislators. But this is in the Singular Number.
2nd. P.S. When I first granced an Eye over your raving Rant, I thought the last Sentence of it unworthy of Notice: but on looking over it again with a little more attention I thank you for it, because it obliges me to reveal Some Secrets, which might have been buried in eternal Oblivion if you had not called them up. You remind Us “That to Virginia We are indebted for a Washington.” The Reverse of this is exactly true, and I beg of You to “remember not to forget,” that Virginia was indebted to Massachusetts for a Washington. Virginia opposed him, Massachusetts elected him. After the Battles of Concord and Lexington on the 19. of April 1775 The Militia of Massachusetts, Connecticutt, New Hampshire and Rhode Island marched to Cambridge Roxbury &c to drive the British Army into the Sea: and if their first Ardor had not been restrained by Considerations of the Union of the Colonies, they would have done it. In may Congress met. No Man knew, whether the Battle of Concord, the Battle of Lexington, or the Assembly of an Army at Cambridge, would be approved or condemned by Congress. The Army at Cambridge had poor Arms, no Cannon, but the Hancock and Adams, No Tents No Barracks no provisions but from day to day. No Cloathing for change No Magazines.
Congress could not be brought to look the Crisis in the Face. It was easy to See that the Members dared not to command, nor advise the Army at Cambridge to disperse, on one hand, nor to approve it and adopt it on the other. A Majority of them lived in hourly expectation of News that the British Troops had marched out of Boston and Scattered the New England Militia at Cambridge to the four Winds.
But when no such Intelligence arrived, after days and Weeks they began to think what must be done. Should they give up the contest? No. The People would Stone them. Should they adopt the Army at Cambridge? Or raise a new One of their own? This last project would take a long time, and it was very uncertain whether it would ever be practicable. If they adopted an the Army now on foot, who should command it? A New England Army, under a New England General, they were pleased to say, would be dangerous to the other Colonies: for no Man then dared to Utter the Word State or Nation. Who then Should be General? On this question the Members were greatly divided. A Number was for Mr Hancock then President of Congress, a greater Number for General Charles Lee then universally represented in America to be one of the greatest Generals in the World. A Number was for Washington: But the greatest Number was for Ward. In the midst of this chaos, the Massachusetts Members dayly received Letters from their Friends and Constituents at home intreating them to Urge Congress to a decision, for the Army wanted many things and every thing was uncertain. The Anxiety of New England and her Members in Congress may be well imagined. In this State of Things John Adams met Samuel Adams in the State House Yard from various morning Walks and Avocations. Said Sam to John “What Shall We do, to get Congress to adopt our Army?  Said John to Sam, “I will tell you what I am determind to do. I will go into Congress this Morning and as Soon as it opens I will make a Motion that a day be assigned to take into considera the Adoption of the Army at Cambridge and the Appointment of a General, and I will nominate Washington.” Mr Samuel Adams Shook his head and Said “I know not what to think of that; I am afraid of the consequences of it.” Congress was by this time assembled, The Fratrum Luta Par they went together into the House and John made his Motion, “that a day might be assigned to take into Consideration, the Adoption of the Army before Boston and the Appointment of a General.” I pretend not to record his Speech. It is gone into the air like the frozen and thawed Words of Lapland celebrated in the Speculator. But he Supported his Motion by a detailed history of that Army, a Character of its Officers and Soldiers, an enumeration of its Wants, Necessities and Uncertainties and concluded by Observing, that he apprehended, the greatest difficulty would arise in the Appointment of a General. Upon this point he feared there was much diversity of Sentiment. But he hoped that candid discussion, cool deliberation and above all the critical and dangerous Situation of the Country might bring Parties together and induce them to Unite. For his part he had made up his Mind. There was a Gentleman well known to Several of the Colonies, who had considerable Experience of military Service in the last French War, who was a Member of that house and highly esteemed by them all. For that Gentleman he should give his Vote. Washington, who Satt but three Chairs off, and not more from the Library room at these Words darted into it and was Seen no more during that deliberation. Samuel Adams Seconded the Motion but Said not one Word in Support of it. The then aged, cool and wise Pendleton who continued beyond his Eightieth Year to be an Oracle in Virginia arose and Said “he was for adopting the Army but against Changing the General. The Army was wholly from New England, they had Selected their own Commander were Satisfied with him and had proved themselves capable of confining the Ennemy within the Limits of Boston, and he thought it would be great Injustice to supercede their Leader and impose a Stranger upon him and them.” The Sagacius Mr Sherman of New Haven followed Mr Pendleton on the Same Side “He was personally acquainted with General Ward. Knew him well. He also was well known in several of the Colonies and especially in all New England and esteemed by all. A full Proportion of the Army was from Connecticutt, whose People Officers and Soldiers, he knew had entire Confidence in their present Leader, who also had Seen Service, gained Experience  and given good Satisfaction in the last French War. He therefore was utterly averse to any Innovation or Alteration in the Command of the Army.”
Mr Richard Henry Lee said a few Words against any Change in the Chief of the Army and in favour of appointing a time to consider of the Adoption of it.
Mr Cushing Spoke with more decision and Energy than was usual with him in honor of his Friend Ward and against the Appointment of any one over him.
Mr Paine Spoke with Zeal against it. “General Ward had been his Contemporary” and I believe “his Classmate at Colledge. He had Studied by his Side and knew his Worth.”
Mr Hancock was President and had no Opportunity to Speak, but his countenance and Gestures Sufficiently manifested his Sentiments and feelings.
Other Gentlemen spoke according to their different Views, but the question was called for and a future day appointed.
In the meantime great Pains were taken among the Members, Out of Doors and at their quarters to convince them of the great importance of Harmony Union and Unanimity in so delicate an Appointment, on which might depend not only the Success of the War but the Union of the Colonies.
When the appointed day arrived the Conferences, Discussions or debates call them which you will, were renewed. The Nominations were made, Ward I believe by Mr Cushing, Lee by Mr Mifflin, and Washington by Mr Johnson of Maryland. The opposition to a change was not So warm, as it had been before, but Still each Candidate had his Advocates. Nevertheless all agreed in the great importance of Unanimity. This point was urged from all quarters of the House with great force of Reason and Eloquence and Pathos that never has been exceeded in the Counsells of this Nation. It was unanimously agreed to postpone in Election to a future day in hopes that the Members that Gentlemen by a deliberate Consideration, laying aside all private feelings, local Attachments, and partial motives, might agree in one, and unanimously determine to Support him with all their Influence. The Choice was accordingly postponed. By this time all the Friends of Ward, among whom there was not one more Sincere than John Adams who had known him at School within two doors of his Fathers house, and who had known him in Worcester in his riper Years, were fully convinced that Washington Should be preferred to Lee; and they had reason to fear that Delegates from the Southern and Middle States would vote for Lee rather than for any New Englandman. And all the Sober Members would have preferred Either Ward or Washington to Lee.
When the day of Election arrived, after some Observations on the necessity of Concord, Harmony and unanimity in the present portentous moment, Congress proceeded to the Choice and the Suffrages were all found to be for George Washington.
From this narration, it appears, that “to Massachusetts, Virginia is indebted for General Washington and not Massachusetts to Virginia. We owe you no thanks for Washington. Massachusetts made him a General, Virginia never made him more than Colonel. Massachusetts had made Ward a General Months before, to some purpose, for under him was fought the Battle of Bunker Hill, the most important Event the most obstinate contest and the most bloody Action of the whole Revolution: and this Glory was acquired before Washington was a General. We owe you no thanks for Washington. On the contrary if you have any gratitude you ought to thank Us, “For the Sake of Union,” We Submitted, to a State of real degradation, infinitely lower than “the Administration of John Adams.” Indeed there can be nothing more absurd, præpoterous or affrontive to common Sense than to call that degradation which was in reality exaltation. The Glory of the United States never Shone with So much splendor at home or abroad, before nor Since, as during the Administration of John Adams. It’s Effulgene produced its Extinguishment as often happens. It excited the dread both of France and England,  and the Jealousy and Envy both of Federalists and Republicans and of none more than of Washington and Hamilton and all united to put it out.
Will you now Say, Mr Randolph, that John Adams was “ill omened” in his Exertions to get Washington appointed a General? If you do, I dare Say he will not dispute that point with you at this time.
Is there, Mr Randolp, in the History of Nations an Example of Submission to a mere point of Policy harmony and Union, to be compared to the Complyance of all New England, their General all their Army and all its Officers with an Arrangement which placed a total Stranger over the heads and Bodies of them all; at a moment too when they were flushed with Victory of Bunkers Hill, for a Victory indeed it was, the most important Event, and to this day the most glorious Action in the History of the United States. I assure you, Sir, it was not owing to a Want of Sensibility that no public Remonstrance was made and no public murmurs heard. Poor John Adams had upon his Return to the Army and his Constituents enough to do to apologize for the part he had taken in the Change.
“Was there ever known, the History of the World an Instance of changing the Commander in Chief of an Army in the Sight and face of an Enemy, and in hourly expectation of Battle?” “Was it not unexampled to Supersede a General universally esteemed beloved and confided in by his Army and their Country by appointing another, an entire Stranger whom they had never Seen and whose name they had Scarcely heard”? “Was there another Army or Country that would Submit to it”? “Was it not astonishing that a high Spirited Militia had not Shouldered their Firelocks and marched home? Or at least refused to receive the new Commander” “Was it not to have been expected, thatt the Officers would have resigned their Commissions, when Such a flight of Officers of the highest Rank all Strangers, was Sent and placed over them”? “How could you, in Such critical Circumstances, assist in putting the Cause of the Country to such eminent hazard?” &c &c &c These and many other questions were put to him by his Friends wherever he went and he had no other Way of Softening the hard thoughts of him, but by appeals to their Patriotism, by urging the Policy and necessity of Sacrificing all our Feelings to the Union of the Colonies and by Panegyricks upon Washington Lee Gates Mifflin Reed &c.


Title: From John Adams to John Trumbull, 1 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Trumbull, John

My dear Sir
Quincy January 1. 1817.

Your kind Letter of the 26th. of Decr has given me more pleasure than it would be prudent or decent for me to express.
Your design has my cordial Approbation and best Wishes. But you will please to remember that the Burin and the Pencil, the Chisel and the Trowell, have in all Ages and Countries of which We have any Information, been enlisted on the Side of Despotism and Superstition. I Should have Said of Superstition and Despotism; for Superstition is the first and Universal Cause of Despotism.
Characters and Counsels and Actions merely social merely civil, merely political, merely moral are always neglected and forgotten
Architecture Sculpture Painting and Poetry have conspir’d against the Rights of Mankind: and the Protestant Religion is now unpopular and Odious because it is not friendly to the Fine Arts.
I am not, however a Disciple of Rousseau. Your Country ought to acknowledge itself more indebted to you than to any other Artist, who ever existed; and I therefore heartily wish you Success But I must beg Pardon of my Country, when I Say that I See no disposition to celebrate or remember, or even Curiosity to enquire into the Characters Actions or Events of the Revolution.
I am therefore more inclined to despair, than to hope for your Success in Congress: though I wish it with all my heart.
I Should be glad to be informed of your progress, / being with Sincere Esteem and real Affection / your Friend
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Hezekiah Niles, 3 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Niles, Hezekiah

Sir,
Quincy January 3rd 1817

I thank you for your letter of 23rd Decbr. & your Register, which is the first I have ever seen. I have an ardent curiosity to know, who you suspect to be your “Anonymous Correspondent.” I am intuitively certain it cannot be Governor Johnson, Secretary Thompson or President Jefferson.
Of all the speeches made in Congress from 1774 to 1777 inclusive of both years; not one sentence remains except a few periods of Dr Witherspoon printed in his works. The illustrious Samuel Adams, certainly never delivered an Oration on the first of August, 1776.
In the Vatican there is a picture of the Creation by Raphael. A man in represented, darting into Chaos, and buffeting its heterogeneous Elements with his fists, and kicking the “Molecules Organiques,” its “primordial Corpus cules” into the sublime and beautiful order of the universe.
My papers are an infinitessimal Miniature of Raphael’s Chef’ d’ouvre. But I have neither Clerk Secretary or Amanuensis to leap in, and my eyes, are too blind, & my hands too paralytick to jump in myself.
Numa buried his papers, and ordered them to be concealed for 500 years. At the expiration of that served the Senate ordered them to be burned, as dangerous to religion, that is to say, to the religion of the Phenecians, Persians, Egyptians, Indians & Scythians, converted by the Greeks into pretty, elegant, and laughable fables. It is a serious question, whether I ought to bury my papers, or burn them. You would not publish them & if you should, they would ruin the sale of your register.
There are two gentlemen in Boston, William Smith Shaw, Superintendant of the Atheneum and William Tudor Esqre Editor of the North American Review, who are engaged, in the same general pursuit with you. They would probably be pleased with your Correspondence. The former has the most complete collection that exists, and yet very imperfect. In plain English, and in few words Mr Niles, I consider the true Victory of the American revolution & of the establishment of our present Constitution as lost forever. And nothing but misrepresentations or partial accounts of it, ever well be recovered.
I am Sir with thanks for your Communication / your very humble Servant
John Adams.
PS I have not the honour to be brother to the late Governor Samuel Adams. The nearest relation between us, was that of second Cousins. his Great Grand Father and mine was the same person, Joseph Adams, Senior of his place; his Grand Father & mine were Brothers; his father & mine, first Cousins
JA.


Title: From John Adams to Joseph Delaplaine, 5 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Delaplaine, Joseph

Sir
Quincy Jan. 5. 1817

I have recd your Letter of 24th. of Decr. with the Pamphlet. I am Sorry to see in our American Reviewes an affectation of imitating European Reviewers. They generally discover an unnatural Appetite for Sour Plums: more Sagacity in discovering little faults than great Merits.
I will now for a Moment undertake the Office of  a Critic, not for publication: but between you and me.
In my Opinion you have placed the Chariot of Phaeton before his Horses.
You ought to have begun with James Otis Samuel Adams and Oxenbridge Thatcher in Boston; Governor Trumbull and Roger Sherman of Connecticutt Ward & Hopkins of Rhode Island, Generals Sullivan and Whippl of New Hampshire William Livingston and John Jay in New York; John Dickinson and Benjamin Rush in Pensilvania, Macklain and Rodney of Delaware; Johnson and Chase of Meriland; Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry of Virginia Caswell Hooper and Hews of North Carolina Gadsden and John Rutledge of South Carolina
I am, Sir your most humble Servant
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Richard Rush, 7 January 1817
From: Rush, Richard
To: Adams, John

					Dear sir.
					Washington January 7. 1817

				The winter is always the busy season here. With me, it is especially so from the fortnight that precedes the session of the supreme court, until its close. Therefore, before the arrival of that time, I must, while I can, have the pleasure of writing to you.It is chiefly that I may thank you for one or two of your late favors. That from “Montezillo”, written on Christmas day, I have particularly in mind. In reading the defence of the American constitutions, I have some recollection of a name like this, with a description of the attributes of the mountain. I searched for it last summer, before I set out for the other “Monticello,” suspecting that Mr Jefferson had borrowed it from this source. I did not find it, but must make another search some other time. And who can turn over the pages of that work without instruction? especially when the eye meets the interesting narratives of Italian history. Perhaps I ought rather to say, the awful admonitions of Italian factions.It is this flattering Christmas gift from “Montezillo,” that invites me to visit Quincy. Really, sir, I know not what would gratify me so much. Truly no other visit that I could pay in the world. Nor will I dispair of one day accomplishing it. Aside from the primary gratification of going to Quincy, I want to see New England, and chiefly old Massachusetts. I want to see if it equals my part of Pennsylvania. Nothing that I have yet seen does, from New York to North Carolina. does I have seen no more. No, a Philadelphia—city and county—a Chester, a Delaware, a Bucks, a York, a Lancaster, a Dauphin, no where else have I seen. My wife charges me (until she is able to make them herself) with her affectionate and most respectful acknowledgments to Mrs Adams, for her kind and gratifying letter by Miss Sumner. She received it only yesterday. Col: Sumner was also so good as to call. Our only regret is, that they stay on Capitol hill, near three miles from us. We are always obliged by the opportunity of knowing such, and all other, persons who are know to you. Mr Colmans countenance bespoke him an estimable man, and we found him even more than his first presence bespoke. Shall I add, that his society was made doubly pleasing to us, from the family at Quincy entering so frequently into his conversation.The newspapers, as you see, have been forming cabinets for Mr Monroe. Already have they given him a large number of secretaries of state. Amongst them there is one who towers high above all others in every just pretension. You can be at no loss for my meaning. I allude to the mature age, the wide experience, the profound talents, the long services, of the present American minister at London. Believe me, sir, I have long that thought, and still think, that his genius, his principles, and his pen, stand, most conspicuously, number one, for the elevated and difficult duties of our own foreign office. Truly do I hope, that he may be invited, and that he will come to it. What Mr Monroe’s intentions, in this respect, may be, I know not. All I know is, that he estimates in a very high degree, the publick and personal worth of the gentleman in question.I bid you, dear sir, adieu with all the respectful assurances of my devoted friendship.

					Richard Rush


Title: From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 11 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Tudor, William, Sr.

Dear sir
Quincy Jan 11. 1817

Dr Morse having undertaken to continue Trumbul’s History: wrote urgently to me to assist him. I wrote him a few Anecdotes in a few Letters which he regularly acknowledged but my Facts were so new to him and so ill calculated to promote the Sale of his projected Book, that he soon neglected to answer me. There our Correspondence ended.
You attempted to “bring the Old Gentleman out.” You have brought him out. He has written you so many Letters that you have now neglected to answer him and even to acknowledge the Receipt of his last.
But you Shall now escape as Dr Morse did. I will pursue and call upon your Memory and your honour to contradict, dispute question or correct every Fact that I may relate and every Expression that I may employ. You are the only Man now living to whom I can appeal. Name me another, if you can.
In my last, I hinted a design of communicating to you my Conjectures concerning the Motives of the Strange jesuitical Conduct of Hutchinson and his Conclave of Cardinals and the Tryal of the four Sailors.
1. First and last, it was Fear. Hutchinson dreaded (and the Apprehension of Hutchinson was the apprehension of all) the public Investigation, before the People of the Laws applicable to that Case. They dared not pronounce Judgment in favour of Impressment in any possible Case. Such a Judgment would at that time have been condemned, reprobated and execrated not only in New England and all the other Colonies but throughout the three Kingdoms. It would have accellerated the Revolution more than even the Impeachment of the Judges or Hutchinsons foolish Controversy about the Omniscience and Omnipotence and infinite Goodness of Parliament, did afterwards. It would have Spread a wider Flame than Otis ever did or could have done.
But there is a Secret behind, that has never been hinted in public; and that Hutchinson dreaded should be produced before the Public.
You know, Mr Tudor, that I had imported form London and then possessed the only Compleat Sett of the British Statutes at large, that then existed in Boston and as I believe, in all the Colonies. In that Work is a Statute which expressly prohibits Impressments in America; almost the only Statute in which the Word of Idea of Impressment in Admitted. The Volume which contains that Statute, doubled down in Dogs Ears, I had before me on the Table, with an heap of other Books.
I was determined that if the Law of God, of Nature, of Nations of the common Law of England and our American Prescriptions and Charters could not preserve the Lives of my Clients, that Statute Should, if it could.
The Conclave dreaded the publication of that Statute, which they intended to get repealed, and which they and their Successors have Since procured to be repealed.
On the bench as Chief Justice he flourished away. He was apt and fluent, had none on the Bench to contradict correct or doubt, till Trowbridge came, and then his judicial Character Sunk into contempt, which he Soon perceived and keenly felt. He knew nothing of Law. Before that, his immense his enormous Vanity had Stimulated him to fill all Space. He mst be both Bench and Barr. No Body must be any thing but the C.J. You have lately had in Parsons a perfect Copy of him, though Superiour to him in Science Litterature and especially in Knowledge of the Law. These foppish coxcomical Airs were in neither, the Attributes of a Chief Justice.
This Vanity attended him, through his Career as Chief Justice. And he perfectly fullfilled the purpose, for which he Sought and obtained the Office of C.J. by favouring biassing and deciding every Question that arose in his Court in favour of King Minister and Parliament. In common cases of meum and tuum he was upright enough.
He has been accused of Avarice. This I cannot Support. He was too much of a Fop and a Coxcomb to be Stingy. His House, his Furniture, his Table, his Hospitality, his Equipage his Dress indicated no Avarice. He lived, I believe to the extent of his Income, and even that required some appearances of OEconomy, which have unjustly brought upon an Imputation of this mean Vice. Avarice and Ambition can never live together in the Same Soul. One will devour the other. He had too much of the latter to be under the dominion of the former. You See, I ascribe to him the most generous benevolent and noble of the two Passions.
But away with this frivolous Subject. When I wrote the Character of Franklin, I had quite a different Topick. I was responsible to all Mankind and for all that I Said.
I could Speak of Hutchinsons Scolarship, which in Greek was confined to the new Testament and in Latin to Tullys Epistles
I could Speak of his Manners &c If you desire more you must ask it.

John Adams.


Title: To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 11 January 1817
From: Jefferson, Thomas
To: Adams, John

Monticello Jan. 11. 17. Forty three volumes read in one year, and 12. of them quartos! dear Sir, how I envy you! half a dozen 8vos. in that space of time are as much as I am allowed. I can read by candlelight only, and stealing long hours from my rest; nor would that time be allowed me indulged to me, could I, by that light, see to write from sun-rise to one or two oclock, and often from dinner to dark, I am drudging at the writing table. and all this to answer letters into which neither interest nor inclination on my part enters; and often for persons whose names I have never before heard. yet, writing civilly, it is hard to refuse them civil answers. this is the burthen of my life, a very grievous one indeed, and one which I must get rid of. Delaplaine lately requested me to give him a line on the subject of his book; meaning, as I well knew, to publish it. this I constantly refuse; but in this instance yielded, that, in saying a word for
			 him, I might say two for myself. I expressed in it freely my sufferings from this source; hoping it would have the effect of an indirect appeal to the discretion of those, strangers and others,
			 who,
			 in the most friendly dispositions, oppress me with their concerns, their pursuits, their projects, inventions and speculations, political, moral, religious, mechanical, mathematical, historical Etc. Etc. Etc. I hope the appeal will bring me relief, and that I shall be left to exercise and enjoy correspondence with the friends I love, and on subjects which they, or my own inclinations present.
			 in that case your letters should not be so long on my files unanswered, as sometimes they have been to my great mortification.—to advert now to the subjects of those of Dec. 12. & 16. Tracy’s Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the original. Duane printed a translation from the original MS. a few years ago. it sold I believe readily, and whether a copy can now be had, I doubt. if it can, you will recieve it from my bookseller in Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose. Tracy comprehends, under the word “Ideology,” all the subjects which the French term Morale, as the correlative to Physique. his works on Logic, government, political economy, and morality, he considers as making up the circle of ideological subjects, or of those which are within the scope of the understanding, & not of the senses. his logic occupies exactly the ground of Locke’s work on the understanding. the translation of that on Political economy is now printing; but it is no translation of mine. I have only had the correction of it; which was indeed very
			 laborious. le premier jet having been by some one who understood neither French nor English, it was impossible to make it more than faithful. but it is a valuable work.The result of your 50. or 60. years of religious reading in the four words “be just and good” is that in which all our enquiries must end; as the riddles of all the priesthoods end in four more “ubi panis, ibi deus.” what all agree in is probably right; what no two agree in most probably wrong. one of our fan-colouring biographers, who paints small men as very great, enquired of me lately, with real affection too, whether he might consider as authentic, the change in my religion much spoken of in some circles. now this supposed that they knew what had been my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom I certainly never made the confidants of my creed. my answer was “say nothing of my religion. it is known to my god and myself alone. it’s evidence before the world is to be sought in my life. if that has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.” affectionately Adieu.Th: Jefferson


Title: From John Adams to Henry Colman, 13 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Colman, Henry

Dear Sir
Quincy Jan 13th. 1817

What Temples Statues, Mausoloumes, pray, have you seen, that you cannot could pretend to entertain a Man who has read Clark, Porter, Chateaubriand, Eustace, and, Dupuis.? Yet I should read your Journal with more cordial Satisfaction than all of them.—
If any of my Letters have given you an agreable hour the information of it has given me more than one. Though the Barriers of Party in our Country, cannot be broken down. Yet the Communication between them ought not to be wholly Cutt off, and I have consequently endeavoured in my humble manner to smooth the Passage from one to the other—
Your reasoning on the Project of a Colony of free Blacks on the Coast of Affrica, is no less ingenious than humane. This Subject is vast and ominous. More than fifty years has it attracted my thoughts and given me much anxiety. A Folio Volume would not contain my Lucubrations on this Subject. And at the End of it, I should leave my Reader and myself as much at a loss, what to with it, as at the Beginning—
It is certain We have more Barrels of Gunpowder planted under the United States, than Guy Fauks placed under Parliament. It is certain, that our tender Mother, has twice attempted, in parental kindness, to Set fire to this Magazine. We know her Conduct towards the Negroes, in the revolutionary War equally benevolent to the Slave and his Master—
For her atrocious Violation of her Faith, both to the Negroes and the United States—she has never been made to repent as she ought to have been. Her Conduct in the last War, is known to Individuals: but not to the Public. The timorous Planters are afraid to State their own Grievances. The Policy of Britain is changed. Instead of leaving the stolen Negroes to Starve in Hallifax and London or Sending them to Sierra Leona, they have now planted a Colony of them in Nova Scotia. A thousand Families are established in one Settlement, with ten Acres of Land granted by the Crown to each with an Allowance of Instruments and Provisions for two Years. From this Nursery are hereafter to be drawn recruits to invade the Southern States to entice and Seduce other blacks to desert for rebell against their Masters and the Nation.
The present Slave holders cannot justly be reproached. They have given proofs of dispositions favourable to the gradual abolition of Slavery—more explicit than could have been expected—All Nations civil and Savage have practised Slavery and time must be allowed to eradicate an Evil that has infested the whole Earth
I wish after all that some Nation would plant Colonies black, White or Grey on the Coast of Affrica. That quarter of the Globe ought to be explored and better known.
Accept the cordial Congratulations on your happy Return, of your Friend

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Richard Rush, 14 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Richard

Dear Sir
Montezillo Jany 14 1817

Montezillo, in the Spanish language signifies “a little hill.” You will search for it in vain in Italy; none of the Alps, the Appenines, no, nor the Pyranees, nor Asturians, ever bore that name. the City, Village or Villa, ever arrived to that honour. Search, and research. find it if you can. Neither Montezillo, nor Monticello desire many of your thoughts; but the Italian Republicks, like the Grecian, deserve your serious attention. “Nocturnâ versate manis versate diurna.” There is not a City of Italy that has not its historian all in the same strain; eternal squabbles between Democrats, & Aristocrats, for want of a Mediatorial balance between them. But of what use is reading? I have heard gentlemen of fortune, Education, learning and Taste, say in England that they had rather live, in an eternal, civil war, than live in England, their native Country, as things were there governed.—We are so much disposed to such disputes, quarrels, and civil commotions, that I wonder our Orthodox Federalists, have not accused Jefferson of Idolatry, in reviving the worship of the host of heaven on the “high places” of his lofty mountains Nothing but ignorance and want of Wit has prevented them. Montezillo, the little hill, cannot be charged with the worship of the Sun; for it is the very contrast, the very Antithesis of Monticello the lofty mountain. Vive la Bagatelle! If I should live 30 or 40 years longer, become as opulent as Pliny the younger and can acquire a style, melle ducior like his, I will write you a description of my Villa, and Montezillo.—Meantime, come and see it, and visit the Counties of Massachusetts; though I cannot promise you any that are equal to many that you have enumerated in Pensylavania, you will find some that are very respectable, and well worth seeing.
Mr Colman, like all other pilgrims to Washington & Monticello, returns full of praises & acknowledgements. Was quite at home, at mr Rush’s &c &c &c. I thank you most cordially for your kindness to all, whom I have ventured to introduce.
Editors & Scribblers, intermeddle very impertinently in arranging a Cabinet for the President. Mr Monroe I hope will follow his own judgment, without regard to their little tattle. I am your friend
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from William Tudor, Sr., 17 January 1817
From: Tudor, William, Sr.
To: Adams, John

					Dear Sir
					Friday Evening January 17th.

				The reproof I received in your Letter of the 11th. & which I was favoured with only last Evening would have been more keenly felt if I had not written you one in the Morning. And now once more permit me to beg your Indulgence untill I can be relived from the daily Toil I am subjected to by the Duties I owe to the S. J. Court which now sits both forenoon & afternoon six Days in the week, & will do so for a fortnight longer, and leaves me at Night with a mental & bodily Languor. Our Docket is loaded with Business, & the Gentlemen associated with me are averse to appearing in Court.I do rejoice that I have brought the old Gentleman “out” My Views were very different from those of the avaricious Fanatic Priest you mention. He was desirous of writing a Book which Should help his Purse and in some Degree restore the Reputation which his Imprudence & Conceit had so much tarnished. The energies of mind, & exalted Independence which he found in his Correspondent terrified the Man & made him shrink from a literary Converse which his narrow Soul could not appreciate.No, sir, I want to posses the Evidence that shall convince Posterity that the Vigour of Mind which led to the gigantic & extensive Plan of ensuring the Freedom of a Continent, & founding an Empire on the Basis of correct Liberty, & social Rights continued to a very late Period unimpaired; & grant to his Memory that Justice which Malice, Envy & Faction attempted to depreciate.You must not after such  specimens of Encouragement as you have kindly given leave me to the Regret of having fatigued or offended You.I have many more Inquiries to make, and you shall know them, if I obtain your farther Permission.The Freedom with which I write, you know how to excuse. My Letters are for yourself alone. Libellers, Demagogues & Englishmen with all their Dupes might place to the Score of Flattery, feelings which never fail to arouse my utmost Indignation against them all.I am most truly yours

					Wm Tudor


Title: From John Adams to Theodore Lyman, Jr., 18 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Lyman, Theodore, Jr.

Dear Sir
Quincy January 18th 1817

I ought long ago to have acknowledged my obligation to you for the loan of Grim who has afforded me a sumptuous feast for many months. In several of his scenes, most characteristic of the age, I was present and a witness, and could add some comical circumstances, that he has omitted. This philosophy, which was nearly that of Pythagoras, is as credible & intelligible to me, as that of the Shaking Quakers, whose learned writings I have also lately read; and both have contributed, more & more to convince me that Ignorance & absurdity are divisible like matter, in infinitum.—Nevertheless, neither Atheists nor Quakers, have, to borrow a well known phrase of an American philosopher “broke my leg, or picked my pocket.” I would not therefore persecute either. Let both have a care however, how they thrust their hands into my pockets or strike my legs like Epictetus’s master
Accept my congratulations upon the restoration of your health. present kind compliment to your father & your Mother. thanks for her obliging offer to send me, more of your French Literature. Nothing would be more acceptable; for I have reason to remember the French revolution; and excitements enough of your ardent curiosity to see all its productions
I am Sir with grateful regard, your sincere well wisher & humble Servant
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Horatio Gates Spafford, 21 January 1817
From: Spafford, Horatio Gates
To: Adams, John

					Esteemed Friend—
					Albany, 1 Mo. 21, 1817.

				I send, by this Mail, Nos. 7, 8, & 9, of my Magazine, & invite thy particular attention to the Essay of Franklin, on a National School, &c. Please favor me with thy opinion of it, & of the plans that he suggests.The little Work I mentioned sometime ago, is printed, at Boston, & I have directed my publisher to send thee a Copy. It is anonymous, because I must conceal the  of Authorship.I hope thy health holds out, good, & thy spirits, that enable Man to enjoy life. Should we both live till next summer, I anticipate the pleasure of paying my respects to thee, as I shall have occasion to visit Boston on some business.With great esteem, thy friend,

					H. G. Spafford.


Title: To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 24 January 1817
From: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan
To: Adams, John

Dear and respected Sir!
Oldenbarneveld. 24 Jan. 1817.

Although I continue to be an invalide by a relapse Since three weeks—I will endeavour to amuse myself—while I have once more a prospect of recovering Soon—in perusing again and answering your affectionate lines of the 27 of Dec. last. you will not deem it a triffle for a man—who know not Sickness as by name, to be confined to his chair—during three months—often under torturing pains—But—it must be So—and I try to Submit—my clipp’d wings, I hope Shall receive a new growth with the approaching Spring—while I hope and pray, that with this new year a new Store of bliss and happiness Shall have been opened for you—your Lady—and familÿ.
I acknowledge you as my Superior in writing Greek—but I did not think it was quite So bad—nearly So as Sam. Eliot pronounced my English idiom—and yet I must continue, to express my Self in the latter, and will not, laugh were you can, write greek in barbarous Characters. Do you not Suppose Sir! that I might have been vexed, when, mentioning in your Letter—arma virumque cano—you had added Virg: and how then could I have dared, could I have thought on—in using two Scraps of Anacreon (fragm. xi & xix) to add the name of the inimitable bard? That it escaped you—nevertheless—is not more Strange, than that John Le Clercq or Salmasuis—complained in one of their Letters to a friend—"I can not guess—what you mean with your Plut. in Gal. to which he had red.
There is not one line in your Letter to which I give Such unconditional assent, as that in which you so feelingly assert with Paul—that if it was not for the hope on a future State of existence, we were miserable indeed—Often, My Dear Sir! Should I in my checqured life have been prompted, to have freed my Self from its burthen, had it not been from a full conviction—of an here-after—and this consolatory hope—its certainty we are indebted for to the religion of Jezus. What matters it, if his heavenly doctrine has been adulterated—grain does not loose its feeding powers—although a wafer may have been poisoned—once—if not here—it Shall appear that his doctrine was plain and Simple—and the good—the wel-intentioned—not the zealot—Shall reap the fruits of his exertions.
Has Norton Seen Basanistes? if not—and he ask for it—permit him or anÿ other its perusal—but it must be returned to you—as Some N. Yorkers are longing to See it—their appetite, which I Shall feed in the mean time, Shall become keener—by delaÿ. He too ought to See the Sketch—this I Shall Send him; if I can find time—and am mor at ease, to bestow on it a few more touches.
Was I Some what nearer to Mount-Wollaston—I might request from time to time a Supplÿ of modern dainties in French or English—Now I must live on cramben coctam et recoctam—and yet those ancients are delightful companions—Ovid took a Seat in my easy chair and made lately place for Seneca—who pleases me far better than for 30 years—it maÿ be—I did not before pay him that attention, which he deserved.
When Satiated, I take hold of Bahrd’s neuaster Offerbarung en Gottes, a work—or to Say more correctly—a free translation of N.T. in manÿ respects recommendable—although the author was a learned villain—Reading last week Herder’s geist of Orientalische Poësy—I met with an explanation, which made me recollect J. Q. A. masterly lectures. I presume, if he did not See it—the passage may meet his approbation Vol. ii Lect. xxxiii Pag. 310/311
"Listen to that magnificant panegyric on Reuben, my first born, my might—the beginning of my Strenght, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power, then mark the blasting Sentence upon all this Superiorty unstable as water, thou Shalt not excel" &c
Herder reads
"Reuben—my first born
Thou—the strenght of my youth—the beginning of my power—
Your precedence in dignity, your right of precedence in power
passes as the haughty wave before you.” Harder iii. p. 271
When the Paralelismus is more complete—
He published a work on the Ancient documents of human kind—which I have not Seen—but—if it is equal to his didactic work on Hebra poesy—it must contain valuable materials.
Now one Single question—and you may not decline an answer—if you have consider’d the Subject worthy your attention—Have you examined—and what is your opinion of the constitution of the Kingdom of the United Netherland? Would you have believed, that I was lured—to discuss this topic—after having bid farewel to a Countrÿ—to which I never wish to return—except could I defray the expences—for a Short visit, to bid a last farewel—to them yet dear to me.
I beg another favour—you can, no doubt, bestow it. My Plinius wants an Index—will you give me the place—where he mentions the Zeti—being hexagonal or octagonal voluptuous buildings among the Romans.
And now it is more than time to abuse no longer of your indulgence, and assure you—that I am as all ways / Dear and respected Sir! / Your affectionate and obliged / frend!

Fr. Adr. vanderkemp.

PS Do you possess De LaVerne’s Inquiries into the true theorÿ of war—Paris Cordier & Legras 1805? What is its worth?


Title: From John Adams to Jacob Bigelow, 28 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Bigelow, Jacob

Sir
Quincy Jan. 28 1817

Accept my Thanks for your Inaugural Oration. It would have been a great pleasure to me, to have heard it: but at my Age, all Such pleasures are forbidden me.
The Edinbourgh Reviewers have Said, that, “if the whole of American Litterature were annihilated with the exception perhaps of something of Franklin, the World would loose nothing of the Usefull or agreable.”!
These Gentlemen have merited a great Reputation: but they ought to beware. Their Honours and Glories and constant good fortune may make them giddy, as well as Napoleon.
Your inaugural discourse, Mr Bigelow, is a Sufficient Refutation of that peurile flight of those great Men. You may challenge the three Kingdoms to produce a Character, in the last hundred Years, more usefull to his Species, than the founder of your Professorship.
With the best Wishes for your Success, I am, Sir / your obliged Servant

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Nathaniel Gorham, 28 January 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Gorham, Nathaniel

Sir
Quincy Jan. 28. 1817

My Thanks are due to you for your Inaugural Address of Decr. 11th.
I rejoice that Such a Professorship is established and that So accomplished a Professor has been chosen.
I am afraid to express my wild Ideas on this Subject. We are all Chymists from our Cradles. All Mankind are Chymists from their Cradles to their Graves
The Material Universe is a Chemical Experiment, Its Author and Conductor is now, ever was, and ever will be, the only perfect Chymist in the Universe. I believe he constantly Superintends the Operation and interposes whenever, if ever, his Special Providence is necessary or beneficial.
Our terrestrial Chymists have a great Controversy to decide between The Spiritualists and the Materialists. Will your Teliscopes, Microscopes Incision Knives and Analyses, ever penetrate to the original Atoms, the Smallest particles of which this great chymical process is composed?
What is the first Cause of Motion? Is it Spirit or is it Matter? Some Phylosophers antient and modern Say “Spirit is a mere metaphisical Hypothesis, a mere Chymera.
I Say that Matter is a mere metaphisical abstraction; a mere Hypothesis; a chimera. We know no more of Matter, than We do of Spirit. We know nothing of either but their qualities and Effects. And We can See no compatibility between Perception Memory Judgment Reason and order; with Extension Solidity and Vis Inertia. Can you Chimists discover any possible or conceivable Connection between Sensation and Reflection; and Matter and Motion? Modern Phylosophers Say, Spirit is a Word void of Sense. I Say Matter is a Word void of Sense. D’Alembert, himself, when he was asked in Writing, “What is matter? answered in Writing, Je n’en sçais rien” And every Chymist of you all must give the same answer.
When, and how Shall We discover the Smallest Particles of Matter in the Universe? When and how Shall We discover the Original Causes of the misterious diversity of Odours and flavours, consider the Odour of the apple, the Quince, the Lime the Lemon the Orange, the Strawberry the Raspberry, the Thimbleberry, the Strawberry, The Pine Apple, the Grape, The Penny royal the Saffron the Balm, the Sage, the Mint, the Tansey, the Cresses the Sorrells the Mallows, the Roses the Blossoms, the Lillies &c &c &c without Number? Are they globular, triangular quadrangular, Cubes Cones, Obelisks, Pyramids, Ellipses, or what? Do their Perfumes and flavours and different medicinal Qualities depend upon their different Modifications and Combinations and What are they?
What is the difference between Small Pox and Kine Pock? This must be Chymical. What Shall We Say of Heat, and Light? Wave the former, for the present and think of the latter. A Sperma Cæti Candle placed on a Steeple on the Great Blue Hill would be Seen  two miles, at least. A Small Portion of Sperma Cæti, therefore, converted into Light must fill a Sphere of four miles diameter, with matter, if Light is matter, and So full, that the human Optick nerve can discern it in every part of that Sphere. How attenuated must that matter be?
To pass by the Sun Moon and Planets, look at the fixed Stars. My Friend Herschell, I think computes Sixty or Seventy Millions of them, discernible through his Tellescope. That We may not loose ourselves in the Wilderness of suns; We will fix upon Sirius. I have not time to look into Books of Astronomy to ascertain his ballance; Say one hundred Millions of miles. The light of Sirius, then, must be visible through this Telescope in every part of a Sphere, two hundred millions of miles in Diameter, at all times of the day night Year and Age. Who is the Chymist, who has levigated this Light with his Pestel in his mortar? Mathematicians have demonstrated the infinite divisibility of Matter. The Marquis De L’Hospital has demonstrated the Existence of Quantities Infinitely little, and of other quantities “Infinitely less, than those Infinitely littles. What pretension can We have to limit the Power of the first Chymist and Suppose that he has desisted at any imaginable Minuteness? and fixed any definite magnitude or form of original and unchangeable particles of matter?
In former times when I looked a little into Classicks, and a very little indeed it was while I was facinated with the Numbers I could no of Lucretius, I could not comprehend his Attoms. In aftertimes when I was delighted with the Eloquence of Buffon, I could not help laughing at his Molecules.
Both appeared to me, as ridiculous as the Entities and Quidities of a more antient Phylosopher.
Chymists! Pursue your Experiments with indefatigable Ardour and perseverance. Give Us the best possible Bread Butter and Cheese, Wine Beer and Cyder, Houses Ships and Steamboats, Gardens Orchards Fields, not to mention Cloths or Cooks. If your Investigations lead Accidentally to any deep discovery, rejoice, and cry Eureka! But never institute any Experiment with a View or a hope of discovering the first and Smallest Particles of Matter.
I believe with Father Abraham and Sir Isaac Neuton in the Existence of Spirit distinct from matter, and resign to the Universal Spirit the Government of his Heavens and Earth.
I pray you to consider this Letter as confidential. If it should get abroad, I Should be thought a Candidate for the new Hospital, before it will be ready to receive / your obliged Servant
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from John Trumbull, 28 January 1817
From: Trumbull, John
To: Adams, John

					Dear Sir
					Washington 28th. January 1817.

				Your letter of the 1st. of this Month was received by me here on the 6th. I will not attempt to express to you the feelings which were excited in my mind by its kind & approving Language—to have the approbation of the first benefactor & most eminent patriot of my Country gratifies my  proudest ambition.You also will be gratified to learn that in this instance Our Country has departed from those erroneous principles which have too generally governed Man kind in the application of the Arts.—& that by a Vote nearly unanimous in the Senate, and by a very large majority in the House of Representatives, the President is authorized to employ me in painting four Subjects chosen from the p illustrative of the great events of the Revolution to be placed in the Capitol:“of these the Declaration of Independance is one & the favorite.—this vote the others are to settled by the presidIt will be a high gratification It gives me the highest satisfaction to possess this opportunity of devoting the remainder of my time to an Object which has already occupied so much of it—& I hope I may possess health & time to accomplish it. what Talent I possess will be ardently devoted to the execution of a Work, which has So long occupied my mind, & which if well must bind my name to those great Events:—it is late—yet I hope time & health will be allowed me to complete it:—in the mean time it will be delightful during the work to renew the Scenes of my youth, in the Society of the greatest & best Men of My Country.—May you my dear Sir long enjoy health, & the veneration of your Countrymen. in the Memory of posterity you will always live. I am / Dr Sir with the warmest Respect & gratitude Your Oblig’d &

					J T


Title: To John Adams from Theodore Lyman, Jr., 31 January 1817
From: Lyman, Theodore, Jr.
To: Adams, John

					Boston. Jan. 31. 1817.

				I am certainly very glad, Sir, that the Baron de Grimm with his 16 big tomes has been able to amuse You for a few hours, and So far at least one feels disposed to forgive him his philosophy, though upon the whole it may be senseless and unprofitable enough.—Indeed, I readily beleive, that You will also forgive him a few weak paragraphs about his holy Church philosophir, since he has indited so many delightful ones about Your former distinguished acquaintance in Paris.—We must confess, that we marvel very much what “learned writings” of the Shaking Quakers you have been reading, and doubtless these learned Quakers would marvel still more, if You should tell them that Pythagoras, in whose porch You have placed the worthy Baron, was himself a Quaker, inasmuch as constituting a Community of Goods makes a Quaker. You also can tell us, if the disciples of Pythagoras at Crotona have not been among the first to form a body of works on Quakers, and if those, who at all hours of the day preach and practize within their own pale and cloister a community of goods, have not been ready in every day of the year to assign and dispense to their brother pilgrims on the outside of the pale a community of evils—You recollect when l’homme aux quarante écus of Voltaire knocked at the door of a magnificent convent, and begged a bit of bread,  for he was starving; the fat Carmelite said to him, Mon fils, nous demandons nous-mêmes l’Aumône, nous ne la faisons pas—This famished garcon afterwards went to the quarters of a regiment, where he got a Crown and a good dinner.—one of the officers proposed to go    and burn the Convent!—NO! said an officer more discrete. the time has not yet come; we must wait a few years. Now, Sir, Justin has told us, that the philosopher Pythagoras went to Egypt and Babylon to inform himself of the origin of the world and the center of things. And You, following the progress and spirit of this same philosophy from the earliest period, have prophesied in the year ‘90, that the “struggle in Europe” was nothing more than “a change of impostors and impositions”—These same ingenious Magi, who set out to go to Babylon to learn the beginnings and the reasons of things, have finished their pilgrimage in Paris by bringing about the disorder and destruction of all things. The soldiers have at length burnt the convent;—and do You think, Sir, that another set of “impostors and  imposition” is about to start up.—    You probably recollect that it was another of the institutes of Pythagoras, that the most loquacious of his disciples should not be permitted to speak for five years—a sort of dogma, which the Baron de Grimm would doubtless make every haste to dash out of his decalogue. Thou sha’lt not speak—this curse has not yet overtaken the poor Frenchmen, with all their curses of cossacks and conscriptions, and a thousand others abundantly more frightful than the curses of Egypt—However, he permitted them to write and make enquiries;—and I beg You would allow me here to mention a little notion; which has just happened to ocurr concerning his doctrine of transmigration of Souls. You know he pretended, that he first appeared as a herald, then a soldier, afterwards a prophet, his  Fourth probation, and probably the least agreable, was that of a fisherman of delos, and last of all he Came out Pythagoras. Now, Sir, why may not this metempsychosis means in the form of a fable or parable, (a mode of speech in which we know that the ancients delighted and constantly used), that Pythagoras was doubly and practically instructed in these various arts and trades. And why might not one who say in figurative language, that Peter of Russia had the transmigration of souls because he served as a private in a regiment of guards, worked as a shipwright in Holland, and passing through other transformations finally appeared the Autocrator. The ancients have attributed to Daedalus, the great mechanic, and to Hercules, that one might call, as the English do Cribb the boxer, the champion of Green, certain miraculous powers. Why then should not one of the earliest and most distinguished of the Grecian Philosophers be accompanied with   quotations and attributes above vulgar mortals? It is true, his philosophy came from Egypt, and so originally, I beleive, did the Grecian fables about Daedalus and Hercules.My Father and Mother feel much obliged by your Kind Compliments, and they are always made very happy to hear that Mrs Adams and Yourself enjoy good health. And I beg You will allow me to say how much I feel honoured and delighted by the letter which You have written me. I have taken the liberty to make a trophy of it, and have added it very triumphantly to some which I got in Europe. I have been prevented by a little journey to the Eastward from expressing my particular acknowledgements to You before this time, and of praying You to offer my respects to Mrs Adams.—My Father and Mother desire me to make their kindest Regards.With the greatest respect, Sir, Your / Most devoted Servant.

					T. Lyman. jr.


Title: From John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 2 February 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Jefferson, Thomas

Dear Sir
Quincy Feb. 2d. 1817

In our good old English language of Gratitude, I owe you and give you a thousand thanks, for Tracy’s Review of Montesquieu which Mr Dufief has sent me by your Order. I have read an hundred pages, and will read the rest. He is a Sensible Man and is easily understood. He is not an abstruse misterious incomprehensi Condorcet. Though I have Banished the Subject from my thoughts for many Years, yet if Tracy and I were thirty Years younger I would ask him and an hundred or two of questions. His book was written when the French Experiment was glowing in the furnace not yet blown out. He all along Supposes that Men are rational and consciencious Creatures. I Say So too: but I say at the Same time that their passions and Interests generally prevail over their Reason and their consciences: and if Society does not contrive Some means of Controuling and restraining the former the World will go on as it has done.
I was tollerably well infomed, fifty years ago, how it had gone on, and formed Some plausible conjectures how it would go on. Grim, Dupuis and Eustace have confirmed all my former Notions and made immense Additions to them. Eustace is a Suppliment to Dupuis; and both together contain a compleat draught of the Superstition Credulity and Despotism of our terrestrial Universe. They Show how Science Litteratur, mechanic Arts, and those fine Arts of Architecture, Painting, Statuary, Poetry, Musick and Eloquence: which you love So well, and taste So exquisitely; have been Subservient to Priest and Kings Nobles and commons Monarchies and Republicks. For they have all Used them when they could: but as the rich had them oftener than the poor, in their power, the latter have always gone to the Wall.
Eustace is inestimable to a young Schollar, and a Classic Traveller: but he is a plausible insidious Roman Catholick Priest and I doubt not Jesuit: He should have read Dupuis before he comenced his Travels. Very little, of the Religions of Nations more antient than the Greeks and Romans, appears to have been known to him.
I am glad to see, that De la plane has published a part of your Letter, and I open it will procure You Some relief. I have Suffered in the same manner, though not probably in the same degree. Necessity has compelled me to resort to two expedients to avoid or escape excessive importunity. One has been, by totally neglecting to answer Letter, after Letter. But this Method has cost me very dear in the loss of many Correspondences that had been and would have been instructive and profitable to me, as well as honourable and entertaining. The other has been by giving gruff, Short, unintelligible misterious, enigmatical, or pedantical answers. This resource is out of your power, because it is not in your nature to avail yourself of it.
The practice however of publishing private Letters without leave, though even as rude ones as mine, is an abuse and must be reformed.
Theodore Lyman Esqr, Junior, will I hope, deliver you this. He is an Educated and travelled Son of one of our Richest Merchants. His Heath has been, and is precarious. I have been indebted to him for the perusal of the Baron de Grim. I find that all our young Gentlemen who have any Nous, and can afford to travel, have an ardent Curiosity to visit, what Shall I Say? the Man of the Mountain? The Sage of Monticello? or the celebrated Philosopher and Statesman of Virginia? They all apply to me for Introduction. In hopes of softening asperities, and promoting Union, I have refused none whom I thought Men of Sense.
I forgot one thing that I intended to Say. I pitty our good Brother Madison. You and I have had Children and Grand Children and great grand Children. Though they have cost Us Grief, Anxiety often Vexation, and Sometimes humiliation; Yet it has been cheering to have them hovering about Us; and I verily believe they have contributed largely to keep Us alive. Books cannot always expell Ennui. I therefore pitty Brother Madison and especially his Lady. I pitty him the more, because, notwithstand a thousand Faults and blunders, his Administration has acquired more glory, and established more Union, than all his three Predecessors Washington Adams and Jefferson put together.
I am, as ever
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from William Tudor, Jr., 2 February 1817
From: Tudor, William, Jr.
To: Adams, John

					Dear Sir,
					Boston Feby 2 1817.

				An attack of rhumatism which has confined me to my room & kept me in such a feverish, irritable state as to be almost incapable of any thing, has alone prevented my writing to return my thanks for the few hints on the subject of the Jesuits; I hope Sir, you will be willing to continue the subject which has long appeared to me one of the most interesting in modern history. The peice you sent shall be published in the Number for March which will go to press this week. That Number closes the 4th Volume, and with it my responsability as Editor. I have conducted it two years gratis & have paid some small sums beside. I think this is my share. Of American patronage it may truly be said alienos fovens, suis neglectis—so long however as the is kept independent of any narrow sect in politics or religion, I shall feel a strong interest in its welfare and be a contributor when wanted—On the same principles I shall feel particularly flattered in its receiving any communications from you, and if your Ms. are sent to me, I will if you wish it copy them, so that the author will not be known.I have been constantly gratified in reading your most interesting letters to my Father, I hope you may continue them from time to time, so that they may form documents which will tell hereafter. Your account of the Impeachment of the Judges, was admirable, and give on paper probably the only authentic account of that event with all its circumstances which are highly picturesque. The valuable works you mention, the possession of which enabled you to produce authority to confirm those who wavered, in the decisive step, you proposed was indeed fortunate. They have never rendered a more important service. That blow struck the dagger into the heart of the system, and those who aimed it would be patriots or assassins as right or tyranny prevailed. It seems to have been in the civil contest, what the affair of Lexington was in the military.  If this letter is not very intelligible you must excuse it for I find my head is not very clear. I hope to get out in ten days, and if it is in my power will have the honour of paying my respects to you before I go to the Southward.—I am with the highest respect / your most obed. Sert

					W. Tudor jr.

					P.S. Will you next time you write to my Father express your opinion of “Pownals Administration of the Colonies,” and of its author?


Title: From John Adams to Samuel L. Mitchell, 7 February 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Mitchell, Samuel L.

Dear Sir
Quincy February 7th 1817

I thank you for a Curiosity, which, for anything I know, is as inexplicable, as any thing in Antiquity.—
At what time, and by what People was that Monument to Daniel erected?
If by the Jews in the time of the Captivity, would not the Inscription have been in Hebrew? Would the Chaldeans have permitted the Jews to erect such a Monument, even with an Inscription in their own or in Egyptian Hierogliphicks? or may the Mahomitans within 1300 years have erected this Monument, and roguishly employed Chaldean Magi to write the Inscriptions. Yet the figures represent nothing in the Constellations above, or in the Earth beneath—
The Freemasons may conjure a meaning. My learned, amiable and highly esteemed Friend, Monsieur de Court De Gibelin, if he were alive, would write a Volume upon it.
Can you account for the total loss destruction and Anihilation of all the Languages excepting the Hebrew and the interpretation of all the Hyeroglyphicks, anteceedent to the Greek?
If I were fifty years younger it would give me pleasure to accompany you, though it must be “haud pari passu, in your industrious Researches into all Things.
I am Sir your Obliged Servant
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to William Tudor, Sr., 14 February 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Tudor, William, Sr.

Dear Sir
Quincy February 14th 1817

The Metaphysical, Theological, Ecclesiasticcal and political Pendulums, which all go to gether, like clockwork, have swung to the Utmost extremity, one way: and are now, taking a Contrary direction, and there is reason to fear, will produce as many Calamaties to mankind as the former Vibration.—Our dear Country my dear Tudor, has an important Part to act in the drama before us.—How humble Soever may be our Opinions of our earliest Americans Forefathers, they understood these Things better than we do. It may be worth while, but I know not whether it will be or not, to suggest Something that may put them upon thinking beyond the present moment and our own Shores; Something of more importance than the Election of a governor or a President
I would write to your Son: but I think the Correspondence had better be kept together between you and your Friend
John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 17 February 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Waterhouse, Benjamin

Der Sir
Quincy Feb. 17th 1817

Have you read certain Strictures upon Painters and Paintings, in the Newspapers? what do you think of them?
I am pleased with his gratitude to Copeley—but I believe he was not perfect Master of Copeleys Merit. There is a Portrait of Justice Dana in his Robe bands and Tie Wig of a Barrister at Law, now no doubt in possession of his Descendants. There is a fault Length Portrait of Governor Adams, probably in possession of his Daughter—The Honorable Mr Quincy has a Portrait there is Truth, of his Grandfather—and there are among others. In these Portraits there is Truth! Nature and Fact—You can scarcely help discoursing with them, asking them questions and receiving answers.—
I wish I could see you oftener, but as I know this is impossible I can only express the regret of
John Adams—


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 22 February 1817
From: Adams, John
To: Waterhouse, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Quincy Feby 22d 1817

Graüs Ingenium dedit Musa. the Greeks refined and polished every thing. The Competition between Apelles and Protogenes, and its termination in Unchangeable Friendship is one of the most amiable Tales of Antiquity. Yet these keen Greeks must always have something marvellous; Something Supernatural. The Spunge, after all, wrought the miracle. The froth of the exhausted hound could not be hit, but by chance, that is, no doubt by the interposition of a Muse.—
Mr Copely was ruined by his Travels. He learned nothing in Europe. Had he been content in Boston, what would he have been?
Let it be remembered, that though West was the favourite of george the third; Copeley was the favourite of Mansfield the “dear Murray” of Pope. Mansfield had his Portrait taken by Copeley, in every Character Office and Station he ever held.—
Sobrius esto, Waterhouse! It is in your Power and mine to sett this Continent in a flame of Controversy concerning the Comparative merits of Copeley and West.— Copeley was not merely “self taught. He was if I am not misinformed a Pupil of Smibert, a Character now forgotten but of great Genius, both in Letters and Arts.—
Do you know the History of my Friend Copeleys Portrait, of my Friend Lawrence? I could give it you.—
but you must come and see your good friend
John Adams