Title: To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 16 April 1814
From: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan
To: Adams, John

My Dear and high respected Sir!
Oldenb. 16 Apr. 1814.

The sun breaks through the skies—I skipt just in the garden—but the soil is yet too wet—to morrow—if it is a warm day—I shall make a beginning of gardening. I must take hold of the few moments at mÿ command—to answer your favour of the 8th. Brucker’s hist critica Philosophiæ is a work indeed of immense erudition; and considerable acuteness. It consists in 5 vol 4to. I regret, that it was sold with my Librarÿ. It is beyond question—the most complete, and judicious work of that kind, we possess—Perhaps—it may be deemed in some respects too exuberant—but this is the characteristic of the German nation & ought to be in possession of every young man, who is ambitious to excel—and has for his great object in view any other thing—but to consult himselv the Ancients—His fidelity is equal to his correctness. He was a Professor of Philosophy—at Halle or Leipsich—if I am not mistaken—
I have not seen nor heard from the Gen. Reposit, except from your Letter. What you call a bagatelle, Judge Davis calls an eloquent treatise—I can not write to Judge Davis—you perhaps chuse not to do it—but—ask of mr Shaw, he maÿ do it in my name; I want to see that piece—why did you not permit me, to keep that other Letter? I return it with my Sincere thanks—you say—none of your writings were popular—I know it, they could not be so—they were not adapted to captivate the vulgar applause, I know it—Adam! you could not stoop, to take the staff, nor lay it down just as the rabble please to smile or frown, but your writings shall not be forgotten—This letter contained the outlines of your Defence—I perused it with great satisfaction.
Permit me to suggest one incorrectness—Pag. 12. (If your healing hand will restore it—I dare not touch it. Part of the § relates to England or the long Parliament—a part to Holland—In the latter the city magistrates have been always for life—with some small distinction—and they allway filled their own vacancies, without anÿ application to constituents at all. the last were not even known there in name since—the Resolve of 1581—When you meet with another copÿ—I lay a claim on it.
But this makes me recollect—that for many, many years I enquired of you—if you was the writer of the Historia Succincta Hospitalis S. Elisabethæ. printed London 1786 dedicated to Joseph. II—which I then received from London. you never answered it—and no man—then in London could have send it—I supposed, as his Excell. The Amer. Ambassador.
Thus far I wrote last mondaÿ—two daÿs I spend in the garden—and was rewarded the next with violent headache—which abated last evening—Now I am again free—and the cold and snowÿ weather procures me the privilege of finishing this Letter.
I omitted to mention, that of Bruckers Hist: crit. Philos—is a very correct compendium—a hugh octavo small print—intended for young students to which—if you recommended it to Tyrones—ought to be added—the useful tables of Seutterus—who followed the same plan—as Priestlÿ in his Chron. and Biographical charts. I know not—if either of them was acquainted with the other, or with their plans. Seutter—is a learned man—Secundi ordinis—but—nevertheless—the previous use of his Tables shall give the student a concise view of the extensive ground of Brucker—It are six large Folio Tables—in plano—The title is “Philosophiæ universæ origines et Successiones a mundi ortu ad presens seculum juxta observationes recentissimas, quas in Historia critica Philosophiæ excussit Jacobus Bruckerus, Academiæ Berdimensis et Bononice membrum, Succincta diatypesi ære exhibitæ a Matthia Seuttero Geographo Cæsariense. August: Vindelicum. vi. Tab. Fol. plan.
The centre contains a delineation of Philosophy and Philosophers—the margin’s observations and illustrations—relatif to the Tables.
Tab. iPhilosophiam ejusque  Successiones in orbe vetustissimo continens.Philosophia {Ante de’ luvianaPost de’ luviana {BarbarorumGræconean.BarbaricaOrientalium HebræorumChaldeorum, AssyriorumPersiorumIndorumArabiumPhoenicumMeridionaliumAegyptionumAethiopumOccidentaliumCeltarumEtrusconumRomanorumHyperboreonumScythanumThracumTab. iiHistoriam Philosophiæ Græcæ in infantia, et adultam ex propagine Italica complexam—iiiHistoriam Philosophiæ Græcaæ ex Ionica propagine complexam—ivHistoriam Philosophiæ ab initus Romanæ Monarchiæ ad repurgatas literas complexam—vHistoriam Philosophiæ emendatæ Sectariæ —viHistoriam Philosophiæ recentioris Eclecticæ atque exoticæ complexam
If I was more at ease—I mean—if I could dispose of mÿ time at pleasure, I should be tempted—to try—if I could bring forward something—at least worth showing to them, who honour me with their esteem—on Brown’s Sceme of Popular errors—but I would extend it— as I hinted in mÿ last—to everÿ kind—moral—intellectual—Physical—Political—this was my nature in inquiring—if you any thing—how he executed his plan—I have never seen it. But it must have been considered of some consequence—in its time, as it was translated in French.
It appears that Miss Nancy Smith—had given you a partial encomium of my oration—it Shews at least—that She was pleased—I am confident, that if She—or Some other of mÿ female frends had charged themselves—with the dispatching of the copies to their adresses—I should here, have long, seen, it—I hope—they have are at Utica been more active in regard to the copies—to be forwarded to my frends—I Loaned  them several times—and can not well do it more—all moneÿ and some love making men!
All that I hope is, that you Shall not be disappointed,—mrs Adams will Sooner pardon me a blunder—if she can discover here and there Something—which maÿ Serve as an Atonement—and—I dare it whisper to you—I flatter myself, that I have not entirely failed:—how could I? my Dear frend! knowing—I should be heard and read bÿ a few Ladies and men—whom I alwaÿs Should wish to please. Generally Spoken I found, and I believe, Solomon would have asserted, that it was So in his days—that women are less envious of—and esteem with better grace and more justness that of what is praise worthÿ in us, than we are inclined with respect to them From this principle acting I was generally contented—could I obtain Some Small Share in their good opinion—without minding much our own herd—the few excepted—and I am convinced—that if a certain Lady A.A. ruled with despotic Swaÿ—I should have a better chance of obtaining "otium cum dignitate"—that is something to eat and to drink too—without hard working—without doing any thing, than from all mÿ frends together in both hemispheres. They all would pretend—that I ought not be in idleness—that a Sinecure is a pernicious thing!—but they know not, how manÿ Sinecures can be honorable—profitable to contemperaries and posterity—Suppose I was created—with a handsome living—the master of ceremonies—at the high festivals at Wollaston—or made Collector—not of taxes or of customs—but of judicious remarks—Sprightly repartees—and anecdotes or Historiographer of her Ladyship—or—if that was too high aspired—Father confessor of her charming attendants—alwaÿs on the wing to present her wishes, and modelling themselves after her example. In this manner—I should persuade my own dear Lady and beloved daughter, that her health contentment and happiness imperiously required—to obeÿ the call—and move to Mount Wallattoo—but should mrs A. dare to make such an invitation?—I doubt much—if divisum imperium cum Jove () uxor habet—adio—recommend me—and continue the friend / of

Fr. Ad. Vander kemp.


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 19 April 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

No. 3.
Sir
Quincy April 19th. 1814

I believe that none but Helvetius will affirm that all Children are born with equal Genius.
None will pretend, that all are born of dispositions, exactly alike; of equal Weight; equal Strength; equal Length; equal delicacy of nerves; equal Elasticity of Muscles; equal complexions; equal Figure, Grace or Beauty.
I have Seen in the Hospital of Foundlings, “the Enfans trouvees”, at Paris, fifty babes in one room; all under four days old; all in cradles alike; all nursed and attended alike; all dressed alike; all equally neat. I went from one end of the other of the whole row, and attentively observed all their countenances. And I never Saw a greater Variety, or more Striking inequalities in the Streets of Paris or London. Some had every Sign of grief, Sorrow, and despair. Others had Joy and gaiety in their faces. Some were Sinking in the Arms of death; others looked as if they might live to fourscore. Some were as ugly and others as beautiful, as children or Adults, ever are. These were Stupid; those Sensible.
These were all born to equal Rights; but to very different Fortunes; to very different Success and Influence in Life.
The World would not contain the Books, if one Should produce all the Examples that reading and experience would furnish. one or two, permit me to hint.
Will any man, Say? Would Helvetius Say, that all Men are born equal in Strength? Was Hercules no Stronger than his Neighbours? How many nations, for how many Ages, have been governed by his Strength? and by the Reputation, and renown of it, by his Posterity? If you have lately read Hume, Robertson or the Scottish Chiefs, let me ask you, if Sir William Wallace, was no more than equal in Strength, to the Average of Scotchmen? And whether Wallace could have done what he did, without that extraordinary Strength?
Will Helvetius or Rousseau Say that all Men and Women are born equal in beauty? Will any Phylosopher Say, that beauty has no Influence in human Society? If he does, let him read the Histories of Eve, Judith, Helen, the fair Gabrielle, Diana of Poitiers, Pompadour, Du Barry, Susanna, Abigail, Lady Hamilton Mrs Clark, and a million others. Are not Despots, Monarchs, Aristocrats and Democrats, equally liable to be seduced by beauty to confer favours and influence Suffrages?
Socrates calls beauty, a Short lived Tyranny; Plato, The Priviledge of Nature; Theophrastus, a mute eloquence; Diogenes, the best Letter of recommendation; Carneades, a Queen without Soldiers; Theocritus a Serpent covered with Flowers. Bion, a good that does not belong to the possessor, because it is impossible to give ourselves beauty, or to preserve it. Madam du Barry, expressed the Phylosophy of Carneades, in more laconic Language When She Said “La veritable Royaute, c’est La Beaute,” “The genuine Royalty, is Beauty.” And She might have said with equal truth, that it is genuine Aristocracy; for it has as much influence in one form of Government as in any other; and produces Aristocracy in the deepest Democracy that ever was known or imagined as infallibly, as in any other form of Government.
What Shall We Say to all these Phylosophers? male and female? Is not Beauty, a Priviledge granted by Nature, according to Plato, and to Truth, often more influential in Society and even upon Laws and Government, than Starrs, Garters, Crosses Eagles, Golden Fleeces, or any hereditary Titles or other distinctions? The grave Elders were not proof, against the Charms of Suzanna. The grecian Sages, wondered not, at the Trojan War, when they Saw Helen. Holofernes’s Guards when they Saw Judith Said “One Such Woman let go, would deceive the whole Earth.”
Can you believe, Mr. Taylor, that the Brother of Such a Sister? The Father of Such a Daughter? The Husband of Such a Wife? or even the Gallant of Such a Mistress, would have but one Vote, in your moral Republick?
Ingenious, learned, classical, poetical but not historical phylosophical nor political Barlow! I mourn over thy Life and thy death. Had Truth instead of Popularity and party been they object, your Pamphlet on priviledged Orders would have been a very different Thing!
That all Men are born to equal Rights is true. Every being has a right to his own; as clear, as moral, as Sacred, as any other Being has. This is as indubitable, as a moral Government in the Universe. But to teach, that all Men are born with equal Powers and Faculties; to equal Influence in Society; to equal property and Advantages through Life: is as gross a fraud, as glaring an imposition, on the Credulity of the People; as ever was practised by Monks, by Druids, by Brachmans, by Priests of the immortal Lama, or by the Self-Stiled Phylosophers of the French Revolution. For Honours Sake Mr Taylor, For Truth and Virtues Sake! Let American Phylosophers and Politicians despize it.
Mr Adams leaves to Homer and Virgil, to Tacitus and Quintilion, to Mahomet and Calvin, to Edwards and Priestley, or if you will, to Milton Angels reasoning high in Pandaemonium: All their acute Speculations about Fate, Destiny, Foreknowledge absolute, Necessity, and Prædestination. He thinks it problematical whether there is, or ever will be more than One Being capable of understanding this vast Subject. In his Principles of Legislation he has nothing to do with these interminable controversies. He considers Men as free, moral and accountable Agents; and he takes Men, as God has made them. And will Mr. Taylor deny, that God has made Some Men deaf? and Some blind? or will he affirm that these, will infallibly have as much influence in Society, and be able to procure as many Votes as any who can See and hear?
Honour the day and believe me no Enemy.

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 19 April 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

No. 4.
Sir
Quincy April 19th. 1814

That Aristocracies, both ancient and modern have been “variable and artificial” as well as natural and unchangeable, Mr. Adams knows as well as Mr. Taylor, and has never denied or doubted. That “they have all proceeded from moral causes” is not so clear; Since many of them appear to proceed from physical causes; many from immoral causes; many from Pharisaical, jesuitical and Machiavilian  Villany; many from Sacerdotal and despotick Fraud; and as many as all the rest; from democratical Dupery, Credulity, Adulation, Corruption, Adoration, Superstition and Enthusiasm. If all these cannot be regulated by political Laws and controuled, checked, or ballanced by constitutional Energies, I am Willing, Mr. Taylor Should Say of them, as Bishop Burnet Said of The Hierarchy, or the Severest Things he can express or imagine.
That Nature makes King Bees, or Queen Bees, I have heard and read. But I never read in any Phylosopher or Political Writer as I remember, that Nature makes State Kings and Lords of State. Though even this, for ought I know, might be Sometimes pretended. I have read of Hereditary Rights from Adam and Noah, and the divine Right of Nobility derived from the Dukes of Edom: but the divine Rights, did not make Kings, till holy Oil was poured upon their Heads, from the Phyal brough down from Heaven in her beak by the holy Ghost, in the Person of a Dove. If We consult Books, Mr. Taylor, We Shall find, that Nonsens, Absurdity and Impiety are infinite!
Whether “the Policy of The United States” has been Wisdom or Folly, is not the question at present. But it is confidently asserted, without fear of contradiction, that every page and every line of Mr. Adams’s Writings has ever written was intended to illustrate, to prove, to exhibit, and demonstrate, its Wisdom.
The Association of “Mr. Adams with Filmar,” in the third page may excite a Smile!  I give you full Credit, Mr. Taylor, for the Witt and Shrewdness of this remark. It is droll and good humoured.
But if ever Policy was in diametrical Opposition to Filmar it is that of the United States. If ever writings were opposed to his Principles, Mr. Adams’s are So opposed. They are as much So as those of Sidney or Lock.
Mr. Adams thanks Mr. Taylor, for proposing in the third page, to analyze and ascertain the Ideas, intended to be expressed by the Word “Aristocracy”. This is one of those Words which have been abused. It has been employed to Signify any thing, every thing and nothing.
Mr Taylor has read Mr Locks Chapter “On the Abuse of Words”; which, though it contains nothing but what, daily experience, exhibits to all Mankindl ought, never the less, if he had never written any thing else; to Secure him immortal gratitude and renown.
Without the Learning of Luzac, Vanderkemp, Jefferson or Parsons, Mr Adams recollects enough of Greek, to remember, that “Aristocracy” originally Signified “The Government of the best Men.”
But Who are to be Judges of the best Men? Who is to make the Selection of the best Men, from the Second best? and the third? and the fourth? and So on, ad infinitum? For good and bad, are infinitely divisible, like matter. Aye! there’s the Rub! Despots, Monarchs, Aristocrats, and Democrats, have, in all Ages, hit, at times, upon the best Men, in the best Sense of the Word: but at other times, and much more frequently, they Have all chosen the very worst Men: the Men who have the most devotedly and the most Slavishly flattered their Vanity, gratified their most extravagant Passions and promoted their Selfish and private Views.
Without Searching Volumes, Mr. Taylor, I will tell you, in a few Words what I mean, by an Aristocrat, and consequently, what I mean by Aristocracy. By an Aristocrat I mean every Man, who can command or influence Two Votes; One beside his own.
Take the first hundred Men, you meet in the Streets of a City, or on a Turnpike Road in the Country, and constitute them a Democratical Republick. In my next Letter, you may have some conjectures of what will appear in your new Democracy from

John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Richard Rush, 20 April 1814
From: Rush, Richard
To: Adams, John

					Dear sir.
					Washington April 20. 1814.

				After having read, for a fifth time, the elegant letter of Mr. J. Q. Adams, I return it with renewed thanks; and as in the postscript to  your favor of the 6th instant I think I recognise the hand writing of Mrs Adams, I must beg my respectful compliments and thanks to her also, to whom I feel indebted in part for the pleasure and benefit of perusing the letter in question. And next, sir, for the dream, the dream. I am all impatience for the dream.How will the repeal of the restrictive system be received in New England? Mr Gray, we have understood, was against it. This  manacle upon the right of the citizen to do as he pleases being removed, and encouragement being given to a navy to as great an extent as is, perhaps, at this moment, safe or practicable, what other essential point is now left for real American patriots to differ about, whether they live in New England or Virginia? I speak not of those who are determined to defend Britain under all circumstances, and who denounce this war as unprovoked and wicked; but of the Mass of sober intelligent and virtuous citizens. The secretary of the treasury is in good hope about his loan, and should the war continue the opening of commerce, notwithstanding the belligerent pressure upon it, cannot fail to come greatly in aid of our finances. Our newspapers have lately been saying something about an armistice. There is foundation for their statements, so far as the pendency of a correspondence upon the subject is concerned. The first hint of it came from Sir George Prevost, as we say here, though not in the shape of an official proposal. Sir George denies this; but at all events the parties are brought together, and a correspondence is going on. How it may end is still uncertain. None will be concluded unless Sir George’s Powers extend to the coast and Atlantic waters within  our jurisdiction.But, sir, after being beaten and disgraced for two years on land by that little colony on our north, ought we to wish for an armistice until further opportunity is afforded us to settle the account? I have my doubts. Would it not be better to be beaten still more into discipline and good generalship, and then in our turn beat them? It seems to me that in your revolutionary day, as times grew more gloomy you all became more inflexible and chivalric, until the glorious issue at last arrived. This is a great example that your sons should not forget. To conclude, sir, if Mr J. Adams besides being engaged in making a treaty for us as you did, would obtain for us beforehand as opportune a loan as your did, it would add to the value of his services, and go nearer towards putting the similitude upon all fours. Though much would be left for him to do after that. I am, with my constant devotion / and respect,

					R. Rush


Title: To John Adams from John Taylor, 24 April 1814
From: Taylor, John
To: Adams, John

					Sir
					Virga. Caroline County, port Royal April 24 1814

				Lest any letter of December the 24th. last, in answer to yours of the 12th. of the same month, may not have come to hand, I mention it, in acknowledging the receipt of yours of the 9th. inst. with the discourses on Davila, you are so good as to present me.   Truth having been the object of the enquiry you mention, it is a publick misfortune and a matter of regret to me; as it is hard to find and difficult to keep; that any circumstances should prevent  a detection of my errors by a gentleman so well qualified for the office, both by talents and a purity of motives; especially as the inequality between the combatants would probably have called into the field, an abler champion on the side I have espoused.  The appearance of the political essay in the sixth century of the enquiry (being that you mention as composed at the request of the legislation of North Carolina) happened as follows. The original,  still in my possession, was given to me about thirty years past by a gentleman of that State, as a publick paper of great merit, calculated to instruct a young man, and worthy of preservation for the benefit of posterity: In revising many years afterwards, the materials I possessed for enlightening my mind as to the principles of our government, this paper presented itself, and forcibly claimed the right to which the donor supposed it to be entitled, against which claim I saw no objection, as it had been both written and published for the benefit of a State. It was therefore quoted literally, without any intentional diminution, or the addition of an extract from any other work. Many years ago, I saw in the newspapers exact copies of several passages in this work, and a suggestion that Mr: Wythe was possessed of some similar composition of yours. Whence these newspaper paragraphs came I know not, for I never gave a copy of a line from the original, but I inferred from their accuracy, that copies existed, taken perhaps when the form of government for North Carolina was under consideration. To Mr: Wythe I applied personally (informing him of the paper in my possession) to know if he had one of a similar kind; and he declared that he had not, nor any recollection of what the newspapers had suggested. Of  I never heard of the printed discourse before the receipt of your letter.The enquiry contains no extract from any work of yours, the Defence excepted; and the extracts from this were carefully selected with a view to place in its true light, and not to misrepresent the political system of the author.That “time should destroy the imaginations” of so imperfect and transitory a being as man, is probably one of nature’s resources for bestowing on his mind activity and health. Unable himself to endure its assaults, he is equally unable to produce a material or moral work possessed of that capacity. Swift even predicts the overthrow of Newton’s principia, though built upon unchangeable materials. How infinitely unprobable is it, that political systems, resting upon a changeable complication of physical and moral circumstances, should be durable?I am with great respect and perfect esteem, Sir, / Your mo: obt: Sert.

					John Taylor


Title: From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 2 May 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

Beloved Sir
Quincy May 2d. 1814

If with blind Eyes and paralytical Hands, I could enfanter des in Folio, like De Wolf, Priestley and Voltaire, and at the Same time had the Library of the late King of France, about me I might be qualified in part to correspond with you.
Buckminster imported Brucker with him from Europe. In the Sale of his Library, the Competition was between Harvard University and the Athenæum. William Smith Shaw, my Eleve was outbidden. The deepest Purse prevailed, as Usual. This is perhaps the only Copy in America. Enfields Abridgment is not So uncommon.
Explicitly, I know nothing of the Historia Succincta, Hospitalis Elisabethæ; except that Thomas Brand Hollis Esqr gave it to me. As I never understood it, I cared nothing about it. If I Sent it to you, which I do not remember, it was at Hollis’s Request.
The Tables of Sculterus, are unknown to me
Great Nature! And greater Nature’s God! Must I read all this Hebrew, Greek and Latin! to learn the love of God and Man? And to do, as I would be done by?
I know nothing of Brown’s Scheme of popular Errors. Nor care. I know, there has been little but popular Error, among the Learned. I know that this Globe is the Bedlam of the Solar System? Do You know, as much?
I have Seen your Sketch in the General Repository. It appears to me, garbled by the  Essex Junto. It is very different from the last Edition of it Sent to me by your Self. My Name is inserted in an Age in which I did not exist, and Omitted in a Year in which it ought to have been inserted; if my name ever did deserve to be remembered. I mean in my Negotiations in Holland in 1780. 1781. and 1782. I thank you for your Oration. My Feelings went along with yours. I Shall forever rejoice in the Independence and Prosperity of Holland.
Your Answer to English, I had only time to cast my Eye over; before I was obliged to lend it to the Reverend Mr Colman of Hingham; under Solemn Injunctions of Confidence till Harvard Colledge, the liberal Christians and biblical Criticks Shall have decided its fate.
My own Opinion is, that it is with written in too Sacerdotal a Style; and too calvanistical a Spirit. It is not after the Model of Watsons, Apology to Paine. Free discussion must not be browbeaten. Rail not! Rave not! Prove the Authenticity of the Gospells, Acts and Epistles and Apocalypse. It is not enough to Say his Objections have been answered: You Should Say, how they have been answered.
I am, dear Sir, your unalterable Friend

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 6 May 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

Sir
Quincy May 6 1814

I chearfully interrupt the series of Letters, I was writing to you, to acknowledge the Receipt of your’s of April 24 and that of the 24th of December last
I am Somewhat Surprised, at the Failure of Memory in Mr Wythe, which appears in your Letter; for it is as certain as his Existence upon Earth, that the first Project of a Government that I ever, put upon Paper, was at Mr. Wythe’s express request and desire in a conversation with him at my Lodgings, after he had asked and I have given, a Sketch in Words of my thoughts upon the Subject. It is equally certain, that he Shewed my Letter to Richard Henry Lee; that R.H.L. in consequence, came to me & asked my consent to Print it; that it was prited printed at Lees Solicitation, by Dunlap. The inclosed Copy, which I gave to my Uncle Norton Quincy in 1776, and which Since his Death has fallen again into my hands, will afford you Some Evidence in Addition to my Testimony. This Copy I pray you to return to me by the Mail, because I have no other Copy, and I perceive it is of Some importance to me, that I Should keep it.
From your representation I conclude, that Mr Wythe’s Offices as a Judge, a Chancellor, as the Head of an University; and his Studies in Thucidides, Herodotus, Polybius and all the Greek and Roman Orators Historians and Philosophers, had So entirely monopolized his Soul, that he had totally forgotten his nightly Conversations, and dayly Intercourse and professed Friendship with John Adams.
That the Letter to North Carolina in your Possession, which was probably given you by your Father in Law and my intimate friend, The Honourable John Penn of North Carolina; may contain the Same expressions and nearly the Same Principles and System, with the inclosed Pamphlet which is a printed Copy of my Letter to Mr Wythe is highly probable.
I am Sir with respect and Esteem, your /  Friend and Servant

John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Richard Rush, 20 May 1814
From: Rush, Richard
To: Adams, John

Dear sir.
Washington May 20. 1814.

On my return four day ago from Philadelphia where I had been for a fortnight I had the pleasure to find your favor of the 2d of this month which arrived during my absence, for which, as for all I get from you, I must return my thanks. One of the objects of my visit was to lay in a stock of new law books, as I hope, by hard study, to lay in a stock of law knowledge. At least I know this is my duty. My surviving parent has done me the happiness to return with me from Philadelphia, and is now in my family on a visit, much to our gratification and with a prospect as I ardently hope of the new scene having a friendly influence upon her spirits and feelings. She begs I will mention her affectionate compliments to Ms Adams and yourself.
What astonishing events in Europe, and in what are they to end? Despatches from our public agents abroad, even of dates anterior to the occupation of Paris, do not I think much encourage the hope of a speedy peace for us, though such an opinion I could only venture to express to you, Sir, and one other correspondent in Philadelphia. What, for example, would new England say to great Britain talking about excluding us from trade beyond the cape of good hope, from the west Indies, and from the new foundland fisheries? Though not absolutely authentic, yet we have lately had intimations to this effect. The entry of Paris by the allies will place her at the still higher pitch of exaltation and of exultation, from which the may but the more fiercely wreak herself upon us. Yet are then those among us, and of the peace party too, who hail this late news as glorious news. We shall see the end of it. I can take no rational view of it. that is not likely to lead to a prolongation of our war.
As to Mr. J. Q. Adam’s destiny all I have to say at present is, that I think it ought to be, and that the time must come when it will be, the highest that a citizen of the American states can know. As to my humble self, never meaning to act any other part but such as I believe right I am happy that I can put at defiance newspapers, any set of man, or any man.
The lakes, the lakes, the lakes, O, how shocking is it that we have not yet the command of the lakes!
I have digested all the preliminary observations about dreams, and am, somewhat more anxiously than ever, your attached and respectfully devoted friend and servant.

R. Rush.


Title: To John Adams from John Taylor, 20 May 1814
From: Taylor, John
To: Adams, John

Sir
Virginia Hazelwood near Port Royal May 20: 1814

I return you with regret your pamphlet printed in 1776, in the form of a letter to a friend. The admirable outline for a militia in its 22d. page, is itself a treasure—worthy of perpetual preservation, nor do I know as good a text for a valuable political  work, is afforded in that short paragraph. Had it come to my knowledge, it would have been substituted for the North Carolina letter. That, as you rightly conjecture, was given to me by my relation Mr: Penn (with whom I was intimate) before I married his daughter, with high encomiums on the author. Whether the news:paper extracts mentioned in my former letter, corresponded with the printed pamphlet, as they did with the North Carolina manuscript, it is impossible to remember. It might however have been the case as they these nearly correspond with each other.
Your series of letters has reached only to number 4. My not having answered them, arrives from the Supposition that they are intended as a resource for correcting the errors of the Enquiry in case of its revisal. As such, I shall receive them with pleasure and preserve them with care, that posterity may compare them with the text they criticise, should I be unable to do it myself; and if any number should miscarry, you shall be informed of it, by, / Yours with great respect

John Taylor


Title: To John Adams from Richard Rush, 24 May 1814
From: Rush, Richard
To: Adams, John

Extract from a manuscript volume of the late Doctor Rush in which is recorded a narrative of some of the events of his life."During the first session of congress I spent a long evening at General Mifflins in company with General Washington, the two Mr Adams’s, General Lee and several other gentlemen who acted a conspicuous part in the American revolution. After supper several of the company looked forward to the probable consequences of the present measures and state of things. John Adams said he had no expectation of a redress of greivances and a reconciliation with great Britain, and as a proof of this belief he gave as a toast ’Cash and gunpowder to the Yankees’."
Dear sir.
Washington May 24. 1814.

I have given the above extract exactly as I find it in a book of my venerated parent that I have just been reading, and which is full of interesting anecdote. I avow it in part as my motive, that I may ask you what toast you would give now if I had the happiness of being in your company at Quincy. That we shall have to fight longer is, as I intimated to you a few days ago, highly probable. The Yankees; of New England, at the present day want neither cash, nor gunpowder, nor men, nor spirit. But will they, sir, O will they use them.
Your constantly devoted / servt.

Richard Rush.


Title: From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 29 May 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

My dear and venerable Friend.
Quincy May 29. 1814.

How Shall I? How can I express my Obligations to you? My Time, thoughts, labours are all Spent in my Garden,  from five in the morning to Eight at night. I am more fatigued than my Boys or my Men. They laugh and Sing and dance, after I am So exhausted that I can Scarcely hear Madame or Mademoiselle read your Letters or Buckminsters Sermons, or Everets.
At a time, when I had resigned the Chair of The Academy and that of the Agricultural Society, for neither of which was I ever fit: I am chosen a Member of the New York Historical Society, for which honour I am Still less qualified.
At a time when I had abandoned all thoughts of Legislation, in Theory and practice; I am presented with a printed Volume of 656 pages, written by a great rich honourable and profound Phylosopher and Politician of Virginia, in which my poor “Defence” and my Skill poorer “Thoughts on Government, are taken to pieces by the Study of Twenty Years! Mercy on me! Must I live twenty years longer, to answer This Book?
Mr Norton has Sent me your “Historical Sketches on Calvin and Servetus, in manuscript, neatly and elegantly bound, for Harvard University Library.” I have read it through. And without, flattery, favour or Affection, I can Say that I have never read any thing with more pleasure, and Satisfaction. Candour, Moderation and perfect impartiality, as my limited Information extends, exhibited through the whole, has captivated my head and my hear  heart. I wish it printed. But I doubt whether the times would bear it. It is too great for the Time, in this Country, however We may boast of our liberality, our freedom of thinking, Acting, Inquiry and Discussion.
Mr Colman has returned your Manuscript upon English. This young Man is of a French, Hugonot, Refugee Family; no less than the Bethunes. From his Childhood, Sober, Studious, and without a Stain on his moral Character. If a Serious public Controversy Should be excited, no man can tell where it would end: and We have controversies enough on hand.
I agree with you that “We have lucid Intervals” You have many. I Sometimes think that I have, now and then, one.
Whatever you may think; I know, that, if ever my name deserved to be mentioned, from my Birth, on the 19th of October 1775 to this 29th of May 1814; it ought to have been noted in Holland in 1780, or 1781, or 1782, for this Period was the most important of my whole Life, excepting one; and that was the impeachment of the Judges in Massachusetts.
In some one of your Orations, my Friend, you have commemorated my “Childish Vanity” in Holland. I will now again indulge that Childish Vanity, So far as to tell you, that you know nothing of the real Character, History or Biography of John Adams.
The Impeachment of the Judges in Massachusetts; The Controversy between The House of Representatives and Governor Hutchinson, concerning the Sovereignty of Parliament over America in all cases whatsoever; the Appointment of Washington to the Command of the American Army; And the Negotiation in Holland: were the four Events of more critical difficulty, and more actual and eventful importance than any other Efforts of my whole Life. Of these Things you appear to know nothing. And you might employ, in vain, as much labour as your Calvin and Servetus have cost you nay as much as the Execution of your vast “Sketch” would cost you, in the Investigation of these little Events.
So be it. Let John Adams and his Life be forgotten. Let Hamilton, Ames and Parsons be celebrated to eternal Ages. Sic transit Gloria. Amen.
I find that you Still correspond with the heathen Jacobine Jefferson, as he is called, as well as the Christian enlightened and civilised Essex Junto, as they are called. They are both valuable Correspondences. I advise you to continue them.
If you knew how much pain and time it cost me, to write every line of this Letter, you could not wish me to write / another Word, than

            John Adams.

P.S. Woods half pence, were a debasement of Coin, like Massachusetts Old Tenor, Continental Currency, and Bank Bills.
But Swift might as well have compared Mount Wollaston to The Andes; a glass of wine or a bottle of old Hock to the Ton of Heidelberg, or an Animal vile in Pepper Water to Leviathan or Mammoth.

            J. A.


Title: From John Adams to Richard Rush, 30 May 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Richard

My dear Sir
Quincy May 30. 1814

Your favour of the 20th has given me great pleasure; because it informs me that you are happy. Your Visit to Philadelphia must have been delightful; and the Company of your excellent Surviving Parent on your return, and her domestication with you, and the fair Enchantress must be more So. This family Intercourse cannot be less pleasing to your Mother. It will preserve her health and prolong her Life, much more important to you, your Brothers and Sister, than, I dare Say, She esteems it for herself.
A Stock, of new Lawbooks, next to the renovation of social, domestic and local feelings, was an Object worthy of you. New Lawbooks, I hope improve upon the Old, But ought not to Supercede them all. I fear you would laugh, if I Should Say that the Corpus Juris, Vinnius, and Cujacius; ought not to be wholly Superceded by Hale and Coke, Holt and Mansfield. No, nor by Parsons Ingersol, or Marshall.
Why are We “astonished at the Events in Europe?” They are every day Occurrences in History. That Heroes come to bad Ends, has been the experience of all Ages. Alexander, Cæsar, Charles 12th and Oliver Cromwell: and millions of others as wild and delirious as they, have all come to a like Catastrophy. Read the Historys of our Missionary Societies. Is there not the Same Enthusiasm? the same Heroism? I Scarcely dare to Say what I know, that many a kept Mistress has dared for her Lover, as great hazards and Sufferings as any of these Sublime Heroes temporal or Spiritual.
While We know, that Enthusiasm, produces the most Sublime and beautiful Actions and Events in human Life, at times, We Should always be jealous of it, watch its movements, and be prepared to escape, avoid or resist its deleterious Effects.
Alass! The Massachusetts Triumvirate is broken! Judge Paine is no more! An old german Doctor Turner when I was a little Boy asked me the Age of my Father. When I told him, as well as I knew, Alass! Said the old Gentleman, “Your Fathers Age, is So near my own, that when one dies of Old Age, the other may quake for fear.” If death were terrible to Gerry or to me, the death of Paine might make Us, “quake for fear”!
“What would New England Say”? She will Say as She ought to Say, And as She always has Said, on like Occasions “I have been deceived, cheated, deluded.” I thought Britain our Friends: but I find I have been mistaken. The “Intimations” you have had, have been made to me. The Tories have “intimated” to me in various, Secret confidential, round about Ways, these mighty Bugbears. “Mr Adams Saved the Fisheries once.” “I hope his Son will save them, a Second time.” “We have no confidence in Gallatin, Clay, Russell, nor even Bayard. We believe they would all Sacrifice the Fisheries for Canada, or even for Peace.” My invariable Answer has been. You deceive yourselves with imaginary fears. You know not the Men. Bayard Russell, Clay and even Gallatin, would cede the Fee Simple of the U.S. as Soon as they would the Fisheries.
Did you ever know a Man or Nation or Coalition or Alliance that could bear Success, Victory and Prosperity. Victory has destroyed Napoleon. Victory is in danger of destroying the Allies. If not, and the Bourbons are restored, what is their prospect The Steuarts were restored. For how long a time? And how many Plotts? How Many Sidneys Russells, Staffords, were beheaded?
I know by experience, that the Swell is as dangerous as the Storm.
We must learn to know ourselves, to esteem ourselves to respect ourselves, to confide in ourselves under Heaven alone. We must hold Europe at Arms length, do them Justice, treat them with Civility, and Sett their Envy, Jealousy Malice Retaliation and revenge at defiance.
“The Lakes, the Lakes, the Lakes”! “Shocking” indeed that We have not the command of the Lakes!
But I could convince you, that it is Still more Shocking, that We have not the command of the Ocean; or at least an independent Power on the Ocean. But this would lead me too far, at present. If you have a curiosity upon this Subject, I will give you a few hints in a future Letter from your Friend

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 3 June 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

Sir
Quincy June 3. 1814

I have recd your favour of May. 20, with the thoughts on Government, returned in good condition.
The Outline of a Militia in the 22d page, has been Since adopted in Massachusetts. This Commonwealth alone, had at the declaration of the present War, One hundred and thirty Seven Pieces of brass Cannon, belonging to as many Companies of Artillery, ready to march at the command of Government In 1774 and 1775 We had but two Pieces, the Hancock and Adams. But what Government? A question is raised, between the national and State Government. “Two Authorities are up; neither Supream, Confusion enters through the Gap.”
As there is rarely a rose without a thorn;  Convenience without an inconvenience; a good without an evil: I am Suspicious that our admirable System of Militia in Massachusetts has made Us too Self Sufficient. We fear nothing. Neither Friends nor Enemies.
I am glad you have recd. four Numbers of my hints, doubts and difficulties. If health and leisure, and Eyesight and quivering nerves will permit, I Shall Send you a few more, for your Amusement. But as nothing Urges haste, I Shall make it an Amusement to myself as well as to you. My principal Business is in My Garden at this Season. Next Winter I may write more Essays on Man.I am your Friend

John Adams.


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 4 June 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

No. 5
Sir,
Quincy April -4 June 1814

When your new Democratical Republick meets, you will find half a dozen Men of independent Fortunes; half a dozen, of more Eloquence than learning; half a dozen, with more Learning than Eloquence; half a dozen, with Eloquence, Learning and Fortune.
Let me See;We have now, four and twenty. To these We may add Six more, who will have more Art, Cunning and Intrigue, than Learning Eloquence or Fortune. These will infallibly Soon unite with the Twenty four. Thus We make Thirty. The remaining Seventy are, are composed of Farmers, Shopkeepers, Merchants Tradesmen and Labourers.
Now, if each of these Thirty, can, by any means influence, one vote, besides his own, the whole Thirty can carry, Sixty Votes, a decided and uncontroulable Majority, of the hundred. These thirty I mean, by Aristocrats; and they will instantly convert your Democracy of, One hundred; into an Aristocracy of Thirty.
Take at random, or Select, with your utmost prudence; one hundred of your most faithful and capable Domesticks, from your own numerous Plantations: and make them, a Democratical Republick. You will immediately perceive, the same Inequalities; and the same Democratical Republick, transformed into an Aristocratical republick; in a very few of the first Sessions; as compleat and perfect an Aristocracy, as the Senate of Rome and much more So. Some will be beloved and followed; Others hated and avoided by their Fellows.
It would be easy to quote Greek and Latin; to produce an hundred Authorities, to Shew, the original Signification of the Word Aristocracy, and its infinite Variations, and Applications in the history of Ages. But this would be all Waste Water. Once for all I give you notice, that, Whenever, I use the Word Aristocrat, I mean a Citizen, who can command or govern two Votes or more in Society; whether by his Virtues, his Talents, his Learning, his Loquacity, his Taciturnity, his Frankness his Reserve, his Face, Figure, Eloquence, Grace, Air, Attitude, Movements, Wealth, Birth, Art, Address, Intrigue, good Fellowship, Drunkenness, Debauchery, Fraud, Perjury, Violence, Treachery, Pyrrhonism Deism or Atheism; for by ever one of these Instruments, have votes been obtained, and will be obtained. You Seem to think, that Aristocracy consists, altogether in artificial Titles, tinsil decorations of Starrs, Garters, Ribbons, golden Eagles and golden Fleeces, Crosses and Roses and Lillies, exclusive Priviledges, hereditary descents established by Kings or by positive Laws of Society! No Such Thing! Aristocracy was from the beginning, now is, and ever will be, World without End! independent of all these artificial Regulations, as really and as efficaciously as with them.
Let me Say a Word more. Your Democratical Republick, picked in the Streets; and your Democratical Affrican Republick, or your domestic Republick, call it which you will; in its first Session will become an Aristocratical Republick. In the Second Session, it will become an Oligarchical Republick. Because, the 74 Democrats and the 26 Aristocrats will, by this time, discover, that 13 of the aristocrats, can command four Votes each: these thirteen, will now command the majority and consequently will be Sovereign. The Thirteen will then be an Oligarchy. In the third session, it will be found, that, among these thirteen Oligarchs, there are Seven, each of whom can command eight Votes, equal in all to fifty Six, a decided majority. In the Fourth Session, it will be found, that there are among these Seven Oligarchs, Four who can command Thirteen Votes apiece. The Republick then becomes an Oligarchy, whose Sovereignty is in four Individuals. In the Fifth Session it will be discovered, that Two, of the four can command Six and twenty Votes each. These two, will have the command of the Souvereign Oligarchy. In the Sixth Session, there will be a Sharp Contention between the Two, which Shall have the command of the Fifty two Votes. Here will commonce, the Squabble of Danton and Robespierre, of Julius and Pompey, of Anthony and Augustus, of the white Rose and the red Rose, of Jefferson and Adams, of Burr and Jefferson, of Clinton and Madison; or if you will; of Napoleon and Alexander.
This, my dear Sir, is the History of Mankind past present, and to come. So believes

            John Adams

              N.B. This No. 5. was begun in April, but neglected till this fourth of June 1814.

            J.A.


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 7 June 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

No. 6.
Sir
Quincy June 7.th 1814

In the third page of your “Inquiry”, is an Assertion, which Mr. Adams has a right to regret as a gross and egregious misrepresentation. He cannot believe it to have been intentional. He imputes it to haste; to ardor of temper; to defect of memory; to any thing, rather than design. It is in these Words, Mr. Adams asserts, “that every Society naturally produces, an order of Men, which it is impossible to confine to an equality of Rights.” This pretended quotation, marked as it is by inverted commas, is totally and absolutely unfounded. No such expression ever fell from his Lips; no such Language was ever written by his pen; no such principle was ever approved or credited by his Understanding; no such Sentiment  was ever felt without Abhorrence in his heart. On the contrary he has, through Life, asserted, the moral equality of all mankind. His System of Government, which is the System of Massachusetts, which is the System of the United States, which are the Same, as much an  original and a copy are the same; was calculated and framed, for the express purpose of Securing to all Men, equal Laws and equal Rights. Physical Inequalities are proclaimed aloud, by God Almighty through all his Works. Mr. Adams must have been destitute of Senses, not to have perceived them in Men, from their Births to their Deaths: and at the same time, not to have perceived that they were incurable and inevitable, by human Wisdom, Goodness, or Power. All that Men can do , is to mortify, Organise, and arrange, the powers of human Society; that is to Say, the physical Strength and force of Men; in the best manner, to protect, Secure and cherrish, the moral, which are all the natural Rights of Mankind. The French are very fond of the phrase “Social Order”. The English commonly hear it, or read it with a broad grin. I am not English man enough to join in this ridicule. A “Social Oder”, there must be; unless We would return to the Forests, and assert individual independence, in a more absolute Sense, than Tartors or Arabs African Negroes or North American Indians, or Samojedes or Hottentots have ever conceived.
A Begger, Said at my Fathers house, full Seventy years ago “The World is very unequally divided. But I do not wonder at it, nor think much of it. Because I know, that if it were equally divided, to day, in one month there would be as great Odds as ever.” The Beggers Proverb contained as certain, and as important Truth as any, that was ever uttered by the wise Men of Greece.
Will Mr Taylor profess himself, a downright Leveller? Will he vote for a community of Property? Or an equal division of Property? And a community of Wives and Women? He must introduce and establish both, before he can reduce all men to an Equality of Influence. It is indeed questionable, whether Such Laws, would not produce greater Inequalities, than ever were Seen in the World. These are not new Projects, Mr. Taylor. They are not original inventions, or discoveries of Philosophers of the Eighteenth Century. They were as familiar to Plato, as they were to Helvetius or Condorcet.
If I were a young Man, I Should like to write a Romance; and Send a Hero upon his Travels, through Such a levelling Community of Wives and Wealth. It would be very edifying to record his Observations, on the Opinions, Principles, Customs, Institutions, and maners if this Democratical republick, and Such a virtuous and happy Age,
But a Gentleman, whose mind is So active, Studious and contemplative, as Mr. Taylors, must easily foresee; that Some Men must take care of the Property of others, or it much perish with them its owners; and that Some Men Would have as many Wives as Soloman, and others none at all.
See! What is no uncommon Sight, a Family of Six Sons. Four of them are prudent, discreet, frugal and industrious Men. The other two are idle and profligate. The Father leaves equal portions of his Estate to all the Six. How long will it be, before the two, will request the four to purchase their Shares? And how long, before the purchase money will be Spent in Sports, gambled away at Races or Cards, or Dice or Billiards, or dissipated at Taverns or worse houses? When the two are thus reduced to Beggery, will they have as much Influence in Society as any one of the four?
That I may not disgust you with too long an Application to one Amusement, which is Sometimes as irksome as Ennui, I will /  Subscribe

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 9 June 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

No. 7
Sir
Quincy June 9th. 1814

Suppose another case which is not without examples; a family of Six daughters. Four of them are not only beautiful, but Serious and discrete Women. Two of them are not only Ugly, but ill tempered and immodest. Will either of the two, have an equal chance, with any one of the four, to attract the Attention of a Suitor, and obtain an husband of Worth, respectability and consideration, in the World?
Such, and many other natural, and acquired, and habitual Inequalities; are visible, and palpable and audible, every day, in every Village, and in every Family, in the whole World. The Imagination therefore of a Government; of a democratical Republick; in which every Man, and every Woman, Shall have an equal Weight in Society, is a Chimæra. They have all equal Rights: but cannot and ought not to have equal Power.
Unhapily, the cases before Stated are too often reversed; and four or five out of Six Sons are unwise, and only one or two praiseworthy: and four or five, out of Six daughters, are mere triflers, and only one or two, whose price is above rubies. And may I not ask, whether there are no Instances, in which, the whole Six, Sons and daughters are found wanting: and instead of maintaining their Single Vote, and their independence, become all dependent on others? Nay there are examples of whole Families wasted and totally lost by Vice and folly. Can these, while any of them existed, have maintained, an Equality of Consideration in Society, with other Families of equal numbers, but of virtuous and considerate Characters?
Matrimony, then, Mr Taylor, I have a right to consider as another Source of natural Aristocracy.
Will you give me leave to ask you, Mr Taylor, Why you employ the phrase “Political Power” in this third page, instead of Sovereign Power; the Summa Potestatis; the Supream Power; the Legislative Power The Power from which there is no appeal, but to Heaven, and the Ratio Ultima Regum, et Rerum publicarum? This Language would be understood by Readers, by Scientific People, and by the Vulgar. But “Political Power” is so indefinite, that it belongs to every Man who has a Vote and every Woman, who has a Charm.
What Mr Taylor is “the Resemblance of a President or a Governor, to a Monarch?” It is the Resemblance of Mount Vernon to the Andes; of the Tyber at Washington to the Ganges or Missisippi. A President has the executive Power only, and that under Severe restrictions; jealous restrictions: and, as I am too old to court Popularity I will venture to Say in my Opinion, very pernicious restrictions; Restrictions that will destroy this constitution, before its time. A President has no Legislative Power. A Monarch has it all.
What “resemblance has an American Senate to an hereditary order?”  It has a Negative, upon the Laws. In this it resembles the House of Lords in England. But in nothing else. It has no resemblance to any “hereditary Order.” It has no resemblance, even to the hereditary descent of Lands Tenements and Hereditaments. There is nothing hereditary in it. And here Mr Taylor, permit me to ask you, whether, the descent of Lands and Goods and Chattells, does not constitute “An hereditary Order,” as decidedly, as the Descent of Starrs and Garters? I will be Still bolder.
Has not this Law of Descents, constituted The Honourable Mr John Randolph, one, of an hereditary Order, for a time; as clearly as any Montmorancy or Howard; any Julius; any of the Horaclides; or any of the blood of Mahomet; or any of his Connections by Marriage?
You must allow me twenty years, to answer a Book that cost you twenty years, of meditation to compose. You must allow me also to ask you a question Still nearer home. You had the honour and felicity to marry the only Child of my honest and Sincere Friend, The Honourable John Penn of North Carolina. From this Marriage, you derived, with an amiable consort, an handsome Fortune; what with Us poor New England Men would be considered a Splendid Fortune. Has not this Law of Descents, Conferred on you, an additional Influence in Society? an Augmentation of “Political Power”? If you complain that this is personal; I confess it; and intended it Should be personal; that it might be more Striking to you, and to all others whom may ever See or hear of Our Controversy. In return I give you full leave to ask me any questions, relative to myself, my Ancestors, my Posterity, my natural or political Friends. I will answer every question you can ask, with the same Frankness, candour and Sincerity.
I will be bolder Still, Mr Taylor. Would Washington have ever been Commander of The Revolutionary Army, or President of The United States, if he had not married the rich Widow of Mr Custis? Would Jefferson ever have been President of the United States if he had not married the Daughter of Mr Wales?
I am weary, and So are you. Ceremonies avaunt.
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Richard Rush, 17 June 1814
From: Rush, Richard
To: Adams, John

					Dear sir.
					Washington June 17. 1814.

				Since you first allowed me the honor and gratification of corresponding with you, I have observed, that important events in the political world have trodden so closely upon each other that they interpose themselves between the successive favors I receive from you, and to such a degree as often to bear out of the view the subject of the last by drawing the eye towards some new occurrence, or great battle, or war, or revolution. This has been signally the case with your two last favors of the 30th of May and first of this Month. What events have we not distinctly beheld in France since? Your reflections, sir, I am always anxious to posses as these events move along. More than once have they served to lift me up from a state of depression and half dispair as to our own public affairs; and I have seen them lend their aid towards working the same effect upon others.  Mr Crawford writes word, that he dined with M. Marbois, at a large state dinner, after the provisional government was set up. He sat between Marbois and Count La Forest. Lord Castlereagh was close by. Marbois proposed a toast for the four. It was “universal peace.” Castlereagh drank it adding “upon just conditions.” Lord Cathcart came to where they were, took his glass and drank it too, without the commentary. He also writes, that it was the talk of the day that the emperor Alexander was to be king of Poland, as well as emperor of Russia, and that Austria was not to have Belgium. But how the great arrangements of power for Europe were to be adjusted he was at a loss farther to speak of even as report:He begs the secretary of state will send him six copies of Mr Jefferson’s manual, and as many copies of the rules of our house of representatives; for that the french, although they have now had what they have been calling deliberative assemblies for 20 years, are utterly ignorant of the first principles of parliamentary routine and order! A curious fact for the historian.The antient nobles, he says, openly speak of Alexander and the King of Prussia as jacobins, and are looking to the emperor of Austria as their friend.His despatches, so far as concerns us, are, as the newspapers state, friendly. So of those communicated by the French minister. They have an aspect at restoring the antient friendship that existed between the two countries. But Louis the 18th had not been installed. Is it not to be feared that he comes too fresh from England, and all the good things with which his eyes and his ears and his stomach have there been regaled, for us to hope for much courting from him—at least until the impressions of the company he has lately been keeping wear down? I fear so. When I have the pleasure of again hearing from you, I shall be, as ever, your instructed / correspondent,—

					R. Rush.


Title: From John Adams to John Taylor, 18 June 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Taylor, John

No. 9.
Respected Sir
Quincy June 18. 1814

Observation fourth. “By modifying our temporary, elective, responsible Governors, into Monarchs.” How have I modified our Governors, into Monarchs? My three Volumes were written in “Defence of the Constitution of Massachusetts, and insolent against a rude Attack of Mr Turgot. This constitution, which existed in my hand writing, made the Governor annually elective, gave him the Executive Power, Shackled with a Council, that I now wish was annihilated, and made him as responsible, as any executive Power, in the United States, or any one of the Seperate States, is to this day. How then are our annual Governors, modified into hereditary Mondarchs? My annual elective Governors, limited and Shackled, even in the Exercise of the Executive Authority, and responsible for all things; modified into hereditary Monarchs, possessed of unlimited Legislative and Executive power, or even only of unlimited Executive Power, and responsible for nothing!
Observation fifth. By modifying “Our Senates into Aristocratical Orders.” What is meant by “Our Senates.” My Books had not in contemplation any Senate of the United States, for no such Senate existed, or was expected by me. Mr Turgots attack was, in reality an Attack on the Senate of Massachusetts. That Senate was annually elective; had no Executive Power, positive or Negative; was merely an independent branch of the Legislative Power. How then, did Mr Adams modify “Our Senates into Artistocratical Orders”? What is the meaning? the Deffinition? The Analysis of “Aristocratical Orders”? My anomalistical Friend, and Friend of Mankind Horne Tooke, has said “Mankind are not sufficiently aware, that Words without meaning, or of equivocal meaning, are the everlasting Engines of Fraud and Injustice.” This wise Saying, of my learned Friend, is no more, than every Attentive thinking and reflecting mind Sees, feels and laments, every day. Yet “Mankind are not Sufficiently aware.” You will charge me here, with an Aristocratical distinction, with erecting an Aristocratical order of Thinking Men, in contradistinction to the Democratical Order of Unthinking Men. Well! Is there not Such a distinction in nature? Are not some Children, thoughtful and others thoughtless, from their earliest years? Among the thoughtful, indeed, there is a distinction. Some think for good, and others for Evil: and this distinction is manifest through Life, and Shews itself in all the Prosperities and all the Adversities of human Life. Recollect the History of our own dear Country for the last fifty years, and the principal prominent Characters, in our political Drama, and then tell me whether there has not been a very glaring distinction between thoughtfull and thoughtless Characters, both good and evil!
Our Governors resemble Monarchs in nothing but in holding, for Short periods the Executive Power of the Laws, under Shackles and Tramels, that destroy the Efficacy of the Constitution. Our Senates resemble “Aristocratical Orders” in nothing but holding for Short periods a Negative upon the Laws, with the Addition of a participation in the Executive Power, in Some Instances, which mixes the Legislative and Executive Power together, in Such a manner as to destroy the Efficacy of the Constitution. Our national Representatives, have no more, nor less Power, that I recollect than they ought to have.
A long and dangerous Sickness, has Saved you the trouble of reading Several Letters that would not have been worth reading.
I am, Sir your respectfull Servant

John Adams


Title: To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 19 June 1814
From: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan
To: Adams, John

My dear and respected Sir!
Oldenbarneveld. 19 Jun—1814.

What Shall I answer to your obliging favour of the 29 May? I can not express, what I felt—it cheered my drooping Spirits—my continued distressing head-ache has cast on my mind a deep gloom—So that within a month I was unable to read or to write. This daÿ is the first, that I am Some what less uncomfortable, or I would not have delay’d till now, to give you my thanks—But, if montaigne is correct, and he was no novice in the knowledge of the human heart, that by receiving benefits and kindnesses, we bestow really these on our frends, then you remain really my debtor, without a prospect of repaÿing it. Be it So, then nothing remains between us—than that I endeavour to accept all which you continue So graciously to bestow.
When I read the passage in your Letter about your dayly occupations—mÿ daughter answered—"could I write to mr Adams I would tell him, that he Sets you a verÿ bad example—already you go to vast, and can never rest, till nothing remains undone"
You heard Buckminster and Everett—who may feed dayly on Such Sort of dainties! and the poor wanderer in the wilderness must be Satisfied—that Similar works do exist—however—I live yet in hope, as mr Thatcher and Shaw offered me, when at Boston to Send me a copÿ—
Your membership does credit to the historical Society—and maÿ give it a Spurr—to exert themselves with more vigour—than they have done hitherto—to deserve better your patronage. I am nevertheless not verÿ ardent in my hope about any thing of a Similar nature in this State. Who maÿ be that daring man, who attacks your defence in Such a voluminous work?—why did he not Sent me a copÿ—if he knew me, and knew that I could not purchase? I must however  See first, before I Shall believe, that he has cut it to pieces. The facts, I believe, can not be contested, and the conclusions from it, are in my opinion—till now—uncontrovertible. It is a pity indeed, that the author did not present, that the French Nation Should mould their new government on your plan—but theÿ were not perhaps So well enlightened as an American Philosopher. It gives me pleasure, that the character of mr English is good—but how comes he a Bethune? par le fourreau? no Bethune would have written Such a book—Quiescat in pace!
I acknowledge, I know not much of what you performed—but—is this not mr Adams fault? but you Shall not dispute—that I was thoroughly acquainted with many obstacles, which you had to Surmount, thrown in your way, by the courts of St James and the Hague. and this—I could prove you from documents—had I not in 1790 Send a whole trunk of State-papers—relating to Holland—to mÿ friend Cau—as having resolved—never to meddle again with the affairs of that countrÿ—
Unwillingly—as your heart had no Share in it, you hurted my feelings in remembring the two words "Childish Vanity" without mentioning the occasion, why used, could I in a more energetic manner have declared my abhorrence of that Scurrilous abuse, as in the manner I did? could I in a more Significant waÿ have confounded the Slanderer? indeed I knew—you could not want my gratification but the expressions of a friend could not, I think, be unacceptable. I did know nothing of what you performed here—my knowledge dated from 1780—If ever I See again your mansion, I Shall leave you no rest, till you have initiated me in the whole course of your Political career.
I feel—my Spirits grow more and more languid—In a former I must have expressed myself with great incorrectness, or, no doubt, you would have explained more fully my question—I was acquanted with the nature of wood’s base coin—but wished to be informed—what wood had to do with N. England?
the passage, alluded to is in the Drapier’s Lett. iii vol. 4 Ed. ed. 1752. "He (wood) hath alreadÿ tried his faculty in New-England, and I hope he will meet at least with an equal reception here: what that was, I leave to public Intelligence."
Our Dutch and French correspondents Seem to revive—as early as Januarÿ the downfall of Bonaparte was considered unavoidable in Paris So that it was delineated in the most pointed language
Montesquieu observes that the French were nine times driven from Italÿ they were So again in 1799 and will be it now for the eleventh time.
“—non liceche ’l giglio in qual terreno abbia radice."
Shall my eÿe See peace before my death? God Spare your days So long!—I am with the highest affectionate esteem / your obliged

Fr. Adr. v.d kemp

P.S. if my Sketch becomes known in France—the work, no doubt Shall be executed—


Title: To John Adams from Elbridge Gerry, 30 June 1814
From: Gerry, Elbridge
To: Adams, John

					My dear Sir,
					Cambridge 30th June 1814

				The subject of this letter, is the celebration of the 4th of July at Lexington; a fete which I hope will be honored by your company. The crisis appears to require every measure for animating the friends of our Independence. In this quarter they are sensible of it, & are making every exertion for honoring the  day. Your ideas on this subject, as communicated by accident, always struck my mind with force;  & carried into effect would produce at this time a very salutary result . The ladies of my family propose to  attend, including Ms Gerry, if her health will permit; but of this I am doubtful, as she has been unwell since tuesday morning. I hope your Lady will be more fortunate, & be accompanied with the young ladies. In any event, You will consider my   family as your own & enable us to accompany you to Lexington. The Judge & Ms Adams I flatter myself will be of the party. Accept with your Lady & family    the most respectful & sincere regards of Ms Gerry & my own—& of your unfeigned friend

					E. Gerry


Title: To John Adams from John Wilson, June 1814
From: Wilson, John
To: Adams, John

					Sir,
					Washington City June 1814

				I have taken the liberty of requesting your acceptance of the enclosed volume. When you see me recommending with all the powers I am capable, a new rule to explode one which already has a place in grammar, be not alarmed, Sir, I beg of you; with an apprehension that I come forward to introduce an innovation. No, Sir, the reverse is the case; my efforts are directed to explode an innovation and such, undoubtedly, is the character of the rule in question. It is not supported with that mighty authority of custom, and if it was and even if it was, I am convinced that your well grounded knowledge, disdaining the pliability of superficial minds, would never sanction the continuance of an unreasonable custom; never sanction it more than it would an unreasonable law; but rather point out their defects, their inconveniencies or oppression. This now, this custom, is the only argument, fallacious as it is, which may be urged in favor of the mutilation.It will be a great triumph to my feelings if your opinion shall be such as to rank you in the list of my advocates. With great respect, I am Sir / Your Mo Obedt Servt.

					Jno. Wilson

					P.S. If contrary to my hopes you should not have leisure or inclination to furnish an opinion on the essay, you would do a favor to procure that of any person less prejudiced than the farmer’s son (related in my work) but I am confident you will select a character which shall be entitled to the greatest attention.


Title: From John Adams to Alexander Hill Everett, 4 July 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Everett, Alexander Hill

Dear Sir
Quincy July 4 1814

Be pleased to accept my thanks for your Oration, which I read with great pleasure. But as it was immediately in so much request, as to be borrowed and circulated and not yet returned, I can only say at present that it is ingenious and eloquent.
I am glad to hear that you are to pronounce an oration, before another society the day after commencement, which I hope to have an opportunity also to read.
I ask your acceptance of an attempt towards an history of the rise, progress and present State of the navy from 1795, whether it is an honor to our Country for the gallant exploits it records or a satire on the fatal negligence of the nation in delaying the preparation of this essential arm for our defence and prosperity. I leave to your candid and impartial Judgement to determine.
There is a good road to Quincy, and the season is very fine. Never did the country appear more beautiful. I hope you will draw the natural inference from these premises and oblige your Friend

John Adams


Title: From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 4 July 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Gerry, Elbridge

My dear Friend
Quincy July 4th. 1814

I have received your kind letter of the 30th. of June, with emotions which it would be in vain for me to attempt to describe. My attendance at Lexington is out of all question; the state of my health renders it both morally and physically impossible.
I dare not express even to you, in a confidential private letter, my recollections, my reflections my feelings, or opinions, on this day, and these times.
Five and forty years ago, when my terrible news arrived from England, of their hostile designs, against our liberties, when the people gaping, and staring, pale and trembling asked me “What I thought of the news” my invariable answer was “the worse the better”
Nothing ever did arouse this people but the last and extremest, expression, and exertion of the contempt, the malice and vengeance of Great Britain; and this in my opinion we shall soon see and feel.
My Son, just beginning to be convalescent, from a very severe and dangerous sickness, which has reduced him very low has gone to Rhode Island for his health. your invariable friend
John Adams.


Title: To John Adams from Alexander Coffin, Jr., 4 July 1814
From: Coffin, Alexander, Jr.
To: Adams, John

					His Excellency John Adams.Sir
					New York. 4th July 1814

				Be pleas’d to accept the inclosed little Poem, presented by the Author, as a small testimonial, of the respect He has for you, and to whom he has taken the liberty to make the dedication;—The Poem you will perceive attempt to celibrate an important & glorious event of the Revolution. In fact it my Justly be call’d the opening scene of the Drama. I will now Sir, make a Poets apology for the production. It was written in about three weeks merely for my own amusment & not intended for publication. but by the persuasion of some of my literary friends I have publish’d It. It may possibly afford a little food for the Critics if they think It worth their notice, if they do not I shall escape their unmerciful fangs.—Its being the production of a native American; & a native too of Massachusetts, may raise the Ire of those, & there are many such, who take pleasure in l ashing & ridiculing every thing American in the literary way. nothing of the Kind is palatable here unless it come from London & has the Royal British stamp upon it.—how long Sir are we doom’d to think meanly of ourselves; & confess an inferiority in Intellect which in fact does not exist.—We are not inferior Sir, to Europeans, nature has done her duty towards us. but if we ourselves degrade nature it is not her fault but our own. accept Sir my sincere wishes for your health & happiness, & beleive me / very respectfully / yr Obedt Servt.

					Alexander Coffin Jr

					PS. I have Just finishd another Poem Intitled the Death of Genl. Montgomery &c


Title: From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 5 July 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

Dear Sir
Quincy July 5. 1814

Bad health ever Since last Christmas! the last month worse than ever! Head loaded, Eyes almost blind! horrid Chh Yard Cough! high fever! feet almost Stumbling on the dark mountains! rapidly advancing towards the Valley of Jehoshaphat! No Veal Cutlet, no Old Hock, no old or young Madeira, no meat, no Spirit: nothing, but Indian Porridge, Water gruel and mutton broth, lemonade, five and twenty Segars, much Sleep, a little mercury and a quarter of a pound of Bark, with Some Aid from your Letter of June 19th has Saved me. Left however, as weak as water. Incapable of the least research. I cannot look up, the Draper. Woods halphpence were a debasement of the national Coin; the public Standard of Commerce. Swift, I Suppose, compares it to the Paper Currency of New England which was a ten times greater debasement of the honest Standard of trade and business.
The man who attacks, my Defence, is the Honourable John Taylor of Hazel Wood, Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia. He has not contradicted any facts; indeed it is difficult, to discover his Ideas, his principles or his System. He is not Scurrilous, like all others who have written, at, about, or upon me, and my poor Scribles. As this honble. Gentleman was a Senator of the U.S. when I was Vice President, I have had the honour to be addressed by him, from day to day, for years together in Orations, as voluble, as logical and as luminous, as this Book and as another Work of his upon Agriculture and Politicks entitled Arator. If I could persuade, the litterary and Scientific World to read this great production, my “Childish Vanity” would be gratified by it, more than by Boissy D’Anglas’s explicit adoption of my defence, as a Model; more than by Louis the 18th’s Adoption of it for a constitution for France; nay more than by another Fact, which I know to be true, though the World knows nothing of it. When David Hartley returned from Paris to London in 1783, after the Signature of the definitive Treaty of Peace with the United States, he went home full of Ideas and hopes of a great revolution approaching in France in favour of Liberty and the Rights of Mankind.  Hartley introduced me, to Fox and Burke, who were his Patrons, to whom he was an humble Friend and great Admirer, especially Burke, of whom he was the most perfect Idolater I ever knew. Burke, Fox and Hartley, with all others of their Party were warm Enthusiasts for the French Revolution from 1783 to 1786. When the first Volume of my Defence, was printed in 1786, I gave an elegant Copy of it to Hartley, and the other two Volumes as they came out. Hartley lent them to Burke; and they gave him, his first Suspicions and diffidence in the French Revolution. They produced an entire Change in his Views and Sentiments; for the Organisation of a free Government was a Subject at that time as little Studied by Burke Fox, Hartly, Price and Jebb as by Turgot, Rochefaucault Condorcet or Franklin. After reading those Volumes, a Gentleman in company with Burke, Speaking of General Washington Said He was “the greatest Man in the World” Burke answered him “I thought So too, till I knew John Adams.”
You may easily Suppose that my “Childish Vanity” is gratified with Some of these Facts. But I declare to you, it would be more delighted with Taylors Book, (for Littera Scripta manet), provided I could get it read: but I am convinced that no Man, Woman or Child, ever did, or ever will read it.
The termination of the French Revolution of Thirty years duration is the best of all Commentaries on my Defence and Discourses on Davila.

John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 5 July 1814
From: Jefferson, Thomas
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir  Monticello July 5. 14.Since mine of Jan. 24. your’s of Mar. 14. was recieved. it was not acknoleged in the short one of May 18. by mr Rives, the only object of that having been to enable one of our most promising young men to have the advantage of making his bow to you.
			 I learned with great regret the serious illness mentioned
			 in your letter: and I hope mr Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely restored. but our machines have now been running for 70. or 80. years, and we must expect that, worn as they are, here a pivot, there a wheel, now a
			 pinion, next a spring, will be giving way: and however we may tinker them up for awhile, all will at length surcease motion. our watches, with works of brass and steel, wear out within that
			 period.
			 shall you and I last to see the course of the seven-fold wonders of the times will take? the Attila of the age dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of 10. millions of the human race, whose thirst for blood appeared unquenchable, the great oppressor of the rights & liberties of the world, shut up
			 within the circuit of a little island of the Mediterranean, and dwindled to the condition of an humble and degraded pensioner on the bounty of those he has most injured. how miserably, how meanly, has he closed his inflated career! what a sample of
			 the Bathos will his history present! he should have perished on the swords of his enemies, under the walls of Paris ‘Leon piagato a morte  Cosi fra l’ire estremaSente mancar la vita,rugge, minaccia, e freme,
			 Guarda la sua ferita,Che fa tremar morendo
Ne s’avilisce ancor.Tal volta il cacciator.’ Metast Adriano.
			  But Bonaparte was a lion in the field only. in civil life a cold-blooded, calculating, unprincipled Usurper, without a virtue, no statesman, knowing nothing of commerce, political economy, or civil
			 government, & supplying ignorance by bold presumption. I had supposed him a great man until his entrance into the Assembly des cinq cens, 18. Brumaire (an. 8.) from that date however I set him down as a great scoundrel only.
			 to the wonders of his rise
			 and fall, we may add that of a Czar of Muscovy dictating, in Paris, laws and limits to all the successors of the Caesars, and holding even the balance in which the fortunes of this new world are suspended. I own that, while I rejoice, for the good of
			 mankind, in the deliverance of Europe from the havoc which would have never ceased while Bonaparte should have lived in power, I see with anxiety the tyrant of the ocean remaining in vigor, and even participating in the merit of crushing his brother tyrant. while the world is thus turned upside down, on which side of it are we?
			 all the strong reasons indeed
			 place
			 us on the side of peace; the interests of the continent, their friendly
			 dispositions, & even the interests of England. her passions alone are opposed to it. peace would seem now to be an easy work, the causes of the war being removed.
			 her orders of council will no doubt be taken care of by the allied
			 powers, and, war ceasing, her impressment of our seamen ceases of course.
			 but I fear there
			 is foundation
			 for the design intimated in the public papers, of demanding a cession of our right in the
			 fisheries. what will Massachusets say to this? I mean her majority, which must be considered as speaking, thro’ the organs it has appointed itself, as the Index of it’s will. she chose to sacrifice the liberty of our
			 seafaring citizens, in which we were all interested, and with them her obligations to the Co-states; rather than war with England. will she now sacrifice the fisheries to the same partialities? this question is interesting to her alone: for to the middle, the Southern & Western states they are of no direct concern;
			 of no more than the culture of tobacco,
			 rice &
			 cotton to Massachusets. I am really at a loss to conjecture what our refractory sister will say on this occasion. I know what, as an American a citizen of the Union, I would say to her, ‘take this question ad referendum. it concerns you alone. if you would rather give up the fisheries than war with England, we give them up. if you had rather fight for them, we will defend your interests to the last drop of our blood, chusing rather to set a good example than follow a bad one.’ and I hope she
			 will determine to fight for them.—with this however you and I shall have nothing to do; ours being truly the case
			 wherein ‘non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis Tempus eget.’ quitting this subject therefore
			 I will turn over another leaf.I am just returned from one of my long absences, having been at my other home for five weeks past. having more leisure there than here for reading, I amused myself with reading seriously Plato’s republic. I am wrong however in calling it amusement, for it was the heaviest task-work I ever went through. I had occasionally before taken up some of his other works, but scarcely ever
			 had patience to go through a whole dialogue. while wading thro’ the whimsies, the puerilities, & unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been
			 that
			 the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this? how the soi-disant Christian world indeed should have done it, is a piece of historical curiosity. but how
			 could the Roman good sense do it? and particularly how could Cicero bestow such eulogies on Plato? altho’ Cicero did not wield the dense logic of Demosthenes, yet he was able, learned, laborious, practised in the business of the world, & honest. he could not be the dupe of mere style, of which he was himself the first master in the world.
			 with the moderns, I think, it is rather a matter of fashion and authority. education is chiefly in the hands of persons who, from their profession, have an interest in the reputation and the
			 dreams
			 of Plato. they give the tone while at school, and few, in their after-years, have occasion to revise their college opinions. but fashion and authority apart, on and bringing Plato to the test of reason, take from him his sophisms, futilities, & incomprehensibilities, and what remains? in truth he is one of the race of genuine Sophists, who has escaped the
			 oblivion of his brethren, first by the elegance of his diction, but chiefly by the adoption & incorporation of his whimsies into the body of artificial Christianity. his foggy mind, is for ever presenting the semblances of objects
			 which, half seen thro’ a mist, can be defined neither in form or dimension. yet this which should have consigned him to early oblivion really procured him immortality of fame & reverence.
			 the
			 Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ levelled to every understanding, and too plain to need understanding explanation, saw, in the mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an artificial system which might, from it’s indistinctness, admit everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and introduce it to profit, power & pre-eminence. the doctrines which flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that nonsense can never be explained. their purposes however are answered. Plato is canonised: and it is now deemed as impious to question his merits as those of an Apostle of Jesus. he is peculiarly appealed to as an advocate of the immortality of the soul; and yet I will venture to say that were there no better arguments than his in proof of it, not a man in the world would believe it. it is fortunate for us that Platonic republicanism has not obtained the same favor as Platonic Christianity; or we should now have been all living, men, women and children, pell mell together, like the beasts of the field or forest. yet ‘Plato is a great Philosopher,’ said La Fontaine. but says Fontenelle ‘do you find his ideas very clear’?—‘oh no! he is of an obscurity impenetrable.’—‘do you not find him full of
			 contradictions?’—‘certainly, replied La Fontaine, he is but a Sophist.’  yet immediately after, he exclaims again, ‘oh Plato was a great philosopher.’—Socrates had reason indeed to complain of the misrepresentations of Plato; for in truth his dialogues are libels on Socrates.—but why am I dosing you with these Ante-diluvian topics? because I am glad to have some
			 one to whom they are familiar, and who will not recieve them as if dropped from the moon.
			 our
			 post-revolutionary youth are born under happier stars than you and I were. they acquire all learning in their mothers’ womb, and bring it into the world ready-made. the information of books is no
			 longer necessary; and all knolege which is not innate, is in contempt, or neglect at least. every folly must run it’s round; and so, I suppose, must that of self-learning, & self sufficiency;
			 of
			 rejecting the knolege acquired in past ages, and starting on the new ground of intuition. when sobered by experience I hope our successors will turn their attention to the advantages of
			 education. I
			 mean of education on the broad scale, and not that of the petty academies, as they call themselves, which are starting up in every neighborhood, and where one or two men, possessing Latin, & sometimes Greek, a knolege of the globes, and the
			 first six books of
			 Euclid, imagine & communicate this as the sum of science. they commit their pupils to the theatre of the world with just
			 taste enough of
			 learning to be alienated from industrious pursuits, and
			 not enough to do service in the ranks of science. we have some exceptions indeed. I presented one to you lately, and we have some others. but the terms I use are general truths. I hope the
			 necessity
			 will at length be seen of establishing institutions, here as in Europe, where every branch of science, useful at this day, may be taught in it’s highest degrees. have you ever turned your thoughts to the plan of such an institution? I mean to a specification of
			 the particular sciences of real use in human affairs, and how they might be so grouped as to require so many professors only as might bring them within the views of a just but enlightened
			 economy? I
			 should be happy in a communication of your ideas on this problem, either loose or digested. but to
			 avoid my being run away with by another subject, and adding to the length and ennui of the
			 present
			 letter, I will here present to mrs Adams & yourself the assurance of my constant & sincere friendship and respect.Th: Jefferson


Title: From John Adams to John Wilson, 7 July 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Wilson, John

Sir
Quincy July 7th 1814

Nothing but sickness would have delayed an acknowledgement of your favour of June 1814 I have indeed been entertained by your Philogical Entertainments and agree with you that the English language is capable of “immense improvements.”
Every Art is founded in Science, and every Science in principle; Where can we look for the principles of Grammar, but in the physical constructions of the organs, and the natural history of speech?
If you examine, the mouth, tongue, the teeth, the throat, the Lungs, breath, the Midriff & every other organ that is employed in speech, you will find it utterly impossible, to pronounce, one half the words in an English dictionary.
But you are engaged in a dangerous enterprise. Webster has done many things very well and would have done more; but he has been rewarded by persecution.
I have not strength, to pursue this subject at greater length. Behold! mere accident has brought forth two words Strength and Length, which no human organs, ever did, ever will or ever can pronounce. I am Sir your obliged Servant
John Adams.


Title: To John Adams from Richard Rush, 11 July 1814
From: Rush, Richard
To: Adams, John

					Respected Sir.
					Washington July 11. 1814.

				The pleasure I usually derive in opening a letter from you, was considerably abated at the receipt of your last favor, because it spoke of your indisposition. I hope the cessation of your north and north east winds, with a return of dryer weather, will have  restored you to health. I hope that years of tranquility and happiness are yet to shine upon you before the close of your illustrious life. That you are yet to live a blessing to your friends, an ornament to your country.I ventured to put this last favor from you into the hands of the President for I knew it would give him pleasure. Nor was I mistaken. He returned it to me  yesterday saying with what satisfaction he had read it. After dwelling on its contents his remark was “that opinions from such a quarter had the smack of rich and old wine.” He was much struck with the calculation of three tons for every soldier, and thought it not only good arithmetic but good logick. He begged that when I next write I would present you his best respects, with his most cordial wishes for the restoration of your  health. I believe, Sir, that he would be more gratified then you could be at your being the bearer of congratulations to the Bourbons! Joining him in his wishes for your health and happiness, I conclude, for the present, with my accustomed tribute of attachment and respect

					R. Rush


Title: From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 15 July 1814
From: Adams, John
To: Warren, Mercy Otis

Quincy July 15th 1814

I thank you Madam for your obliging Letter of the 10th whether my life shall be Spared to se the restoration of peace, is a question which I cheerfully submit to him whose right it is to decide it. The severe threats of “our old inveterate enemy” have been habitually so familiar to you and me, from the year 1760, ie. for 54 years at least: that they excite less terror in us, than in the puny race of Idolaters of mannon in the present generation.
My observations on the gloomy aspect of the times” with their proofs and illustrations. would fill mere volumes, than you and I have ever written and after all they would appear a confused mass, for I have with the leisure nor the faculty of abbreviation and abridgement of my cousin Hannah. I will make your friend Copy this letter and she must answer for herself we have nothing from Petersburg, since February and many letters before that are missing.
What brain could ever have convinced or suspected Samuel Barret Esq to have been the author of the “Group”? The Bishop had neither the natural genius nor the acquired tallents to knowledge of characters, nor the political principles, sentiments or feelings that could have dictated that Pungent Drama. His worthy brother the Major might have been as rationally suspected.
I could take my Bible oath, to two propositions.
1 that Bishop Barret, in my opinion, was one of the last Litterary Characters in the world, who ought to have been suspected to have written the groupe. 2.  That there was but one person in the world, male or female, could at that time, in my opinion have written in and that person was Madam Mercy Warren, the historical, Philosophical, poetical & satirical Consort of the then Colonel, since General James Warren of Plymouth—Sister of the great but forgotten James Otis.
This Groupe has mortified and confounded me— Since the receipt of your letter, I went to Boston, and demanded of my nephew and quondam  Secretary, the volume. He says he obtained it, with other pamphlets, from Governor Adams’s collection, with the strange certificate in manuscript in the hand writing as he things of as he thinks of Jo Dennie, the Editors of the port folio— Jo Dennie in Sam Adams’s Library is as great an oddity as Sam Barret author of the Group. But this is not the worst. The ‘Group’ has convinced me of the decay of my memory, more than any thing that has yet occured . Hazelrod,  Magna Hateall, Bean Tromphs, Francois Dupe and Spendall I can comprehend: but Mushroom, Dick, Sapling, Crowbar Fribble. Battean and Collateralis, have escaped my recollection. The group was printed in 1775. The cawing  in the 16th page and Novanglus & Massachusettensia in the 20th page prove that it was written during the flickering between these two scribblers but as no allusion is found in it to the skirmishes of Concord or Lexington, it must have been written and printed before the 19th of April 1775. Now I cannot recollect to have been in Plymouth since the spring of 1774. help! oh help my memory.!
France is humbled and Napoleon is banished: but the Tyrant, the Tyrant of Tyrants is not fallen. John Bull still  and bellows, terrible menaces and defiances—
Sincerely your friend
John Adams


Title: To John Adams from Joshua Cushman, 2 August 1814
From: Cushman, Joshua
To: Adams, John

					Sir—
					Winston, August 2, 1814—

				As a token of my high respect, I inclose to you an oration delivered on the late anniversary of American Independence. I present it not from an impression that it contains any uncommon excellence; but because it inculcates doctrines and countenances a Spirit of loyalty to the Powers that be, which, I believe, you have uniformly Sanctioned, not less in the Shade of retirement than when presiding over the civil destinies of the nation. Union of the States under a Federal Head, a qualified Subordination of all the members to this Head, together with a Stable and an efficient Government, able to bear down the faction of the great, as well as to awe into Silence the Sedition of the Small, are the faith taught by the political Patriarchs and Apostles of our country. Having deeply imbibed the principles of this faith, I am in full fellowship with those who are enlisted under the national banners, and Subscribe to the creed, that the war, being just, ought to be prosecuted with vigour till a peace can be obtained, Securing to us our rights, our Safety, and our honour. With every Sentiment of respect, I am, Sir, your most obedient, / humble Servant.

					Joshua Cushman.

					P.S. Mrs. Cushman, learning that I was inclosing an oration to you, embraces the opportunity of uniting with me in tendering most respectful regards to you, Mrs. Adams, and those of your family to whom we have the pleasure of being known.