Title: To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 1 November 1806
From: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir!
Olden barneveld 1 Nov. 1806

How long have I waited in answering your favour of 23th. of aug–with which you again honoured your old frend? To anÿ other I should be obliged, to make an apologÿ for my silence, during such a long interval of time—but your kindness—acquainted with mÿ circumstances, relieves me of this burden. You enjoÿ—honored and loved by all what surround you, otium cum dignitate, while I see my Labours and cares encrease with my years, while I am happy enough to find my solace in a continued peace and contentment, and an irresistible spur to redouble my exertions in the adprobation of a few good & wise frends—in nothing more efficious than in your generous patronage. ‘O Adams! how sensiblÿ I feel the encouragement of Principibus placuisse viris—I can open for you the inmost recesses of mÿ bosom, and dare communicate to you the uppermost thoughts of mÿ heart, without apprehension that mÿ bluntness shall offend—or mÿ talkativeness offend you. God knows, that every word of my pen towards you is stamped with sinceritÿ—say then no more, that I flatter you, when I satisfy mÿself—and obeÿ the impulse of my feelings and now and then throwing a transitorÿ glance on your virtues. Adornar la virtu none mentin—Tho’ wrapt in your own integrity in the consciousness of your own intrinsic worth you may scorn the praises of cringing flatterers and consider the servile offers of the vulgar below your acceptance. you cannot be equally indifferent about the adprobation of a Man, for whom you wove a wreath, as never one more glorious was placed on upon the head of anÿ mortal—The acknowledgment of our virtues bÿ dissinterested great characters—much enhance these beÿond dispute; to what high pitch they may able, to maintain themselves bÿ their own intrinsic worth.
As Washington is no more—and left no progeny—I cannot yet agree that he can be extolled too high, provided, it is not done at the expense of other meritorious characters—and how little I esteem Franklin as a Statesman—I join willingly in his praises as an experimental Philosopher. They stand not however alone: are you not—retired at Quincÿ—preserving to you self—uncontaminated—the applause the reverence of the worthiest part of the Nation? Are you not, incessantly, scoffed at and reviled bÿ a host of hungrÿ hireling scribblers, who would caress you in power, and ought to respect now your character after your retirement—even if your administration had been truely been delineated by them, if their ephemerous Patrons did not fear your influence—did not tremble at the recollection—that John Adams lived ÿet at Quincÿ; and—what is another Spring of comfort—would they continue to slander the Father, did they not vainly flatter themselves to prevent Cambridge’s Professor—to follow in the same glorious track?
I know yet no History in which more secret springs of actions are developed than in that of Tacitus; and, nevertheless, it seems to me more than presumptive, that many impelling motives of his actors have remained concealed—It is—in my judgment—a verÿ difficult task—requiring not only deep penetration and solid judgment—but besides these the inmost familiarity with the actors—so that even their interest prompted them to lay open the inmost recesses of their heart, and a coöperation with them in the same scenes—and all this would but little avail—if the writer at the same time, had not divested himself of all partiality—so that he was free from danger, of obtruding a specious motive of his own brain for a true one, in him whom he delineated—and then the escape of a nearly imperceptible tint maÿ lead him into error—when he with great parade had prepared himself—to reveal the latent springs of an action. How then should I laÿ mÿ hand at the Holÿ holy ark, without being initiated in the Mysteries? It would be a task to mÿ taste—and mÿ courage would not fail me—had I been the intimate associate of those Performers from 1774—till 1804—In Holland—I should not have considered this task above my powers from 1774 till 1787—Here is wished—that it could be performed—but to your frend is nothing left but a vain wish. Will you now once permit me the Question? did you trÿ to discover in your frend a new weekness—a new instance of vanity? have I deserved this reproof by my blunt and inconsiderate remarks—then I must bear the punishment—so gently inflicted.
It has been thus far mÿ opinion,—mÿ pen moves again—that The Federalists were the principal causes of their own ruin and that Hamilton, whose merits I think to appraise deservedlÿ—had given it a mortal blow: and many bitter dregs must be swallowed before the patient shall recover—and then yet a sudden blast maÿ occasion a worse relapse.
I have never seen any of your Son’s productions except his speech in Congress and his Inaugural Oration—If his Lectures are published—I expect from your kindness their communication this boon I dare request from you. Can John Adams ask me, if I am a loyal subject of the king of Holland? My heart glows as warm yet, as when America’s Ambassador honoured me with his familiar intercourse from 1780-1787—Here I should, if my limbs were not palsied—or mÿ brain deranged—rather fall with the last American in the last trench to repel a foreign usurper—tho I should not abhor the name of an energetic king—if a Pusillanimous executive could be constitutionally charged with him, and the other independent branches of Legislature with an Independent judiciarÿ preserved. You draw my again in Politics—and you see, I should not be able to withstand the temptation. God forbid—that I should be tried—but is it possible not to feel for his countrÿ—degraded as ours now—lower indeed than manÿ of the subjugated countries—you self—I know—feel for it—
Felix, qui esimine nullo
Tantum cum Patra miser est, causamque dolendi,
Quod sis Civos habes—
Excuse, I praÿ you, this long letter—I promise to detain you not so long, whenever I have something to impart to you, more worthy of your notice—I do not often abuse your indulgence. Favour me with the continuance of your friendship, and believe me, that I remain with the highest respect and consideration / Dear Sir! / Your affectionate Frend / and most obed. humble Servt.

Fr. Adr. vanderkemp.
P. S. wherein consists the principal merits of James Otis? So immensely rich as I was in Holland—in regard to Public persons and things—so comparitively poor I am with respect to those of our own Countrÿ—


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 11 November 1806
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Quincy Novr. 11. 1806

When I recd your favour of the 24. Oct, I Soberly expected a grave dissertation on the Perfectibility of Man. Although I thank you for the political information you give me, which is amusing and although I doubt not your Physiological researches will result in something usefull to the publick, yet, as I have ever considered all Arts Sciences and Litterature as of small importance in comparison of Morals, I was disappointed in finding nothing upon the great subject of the Perfectibility of human Nature, which I Suppose is to be ranged under the head of Ethicks. I really wish you would tell me what you understand by this nights discovery of Price, Priestley or Condorcet. Perfectibility, I Should Suppose to mean capability of Perfection or Susceptibility of perfection. But what is Perfection? It is self evident, there cannot be more than one perfect Being in the Universe. If this Truth is not perceived by one Act of Intuition the prossess of reason is so obvious and so decisive, in the demonstration of it that it may well pass for self evident. Divine Power is no doubt essential to Perfection. There can be but one being in the Universe possessed of almighty Power: because if there were two each would be able to controul the other, and indeed to annihilate him: and the Hypothesis would be equivalent to asserting that there was no Power at all in the Universe. The Absurdity is multiplied in proportion as you suppose more than two Almighty Beings. These great Phylosophers then cannot be supposed to mean that every Man Woman and Child is capable of becoming a Supream and all perfect Being. What then do they mean? Do they mean perfection in this World or in a future state? Do they mean perfection of Mind or Body or both. Condorcet and Priestley believed in no Soul Spirit or Mind distinct from the Body: they must therefore have meant that the Perfectibility resided in the Body or matter. Do they mean that in a future state, the Body shall may be purified from all causes of disease and death, liberated from all Pain Grief Sorrow and Uneasiness and that forever. If this is all their meaning, it is no more than the Christian Doctrine, and therefore certainly no discovery of Price, Priestly or condorcet.
The greatest part however of the modern Philosophers, who have written and discoursed upon this Mysterious doctrine, have confined their Ideas to this terrestrial Existence and have believed in no other. If they mean that Man is capable, of by abstract meditation, and habitual practice of acquiring that self possession and command which can bear pain and think it no more intolerable than Pleasure, the Felicis Animi immota tranquilitas, this is no more than the Perfectibility of the Stoick Philosophy. If they mean that by banishing all Ideas of God, or Gods, of future Rewards and Punishments and of moral Government or Providence in the Universe, every Man may get into an habit of taking pleasure in ever Thing, like this is no more than the Perfectibility of Epicurus or Lucretius, and certainly no discovery of Price Priestly or Condorcet. What then do they mean? Do they mean that Chimical Proscesses may be invented by which the human Body may be rendered immortal and incapable of Disease upon Earth. This, in a fit of Enthusiasm, resembling Instances which I shall enumerate before I finish this Letter, Dr Price advanced in a printed Note to one of his publications. Surely the good Doctor had forgot his Bible which pronounces an irrevocable Decree of Death on every human Being, allmost in every page of it. Price and Priestly were honest Enthusiasts carried away by the popular contagion of the times, for those moral and political Histericks are at least as infectious as the Small Pox or yellow fever; but the greater part of Politicians and Phylosophers who prated about the perfectibility of Man, mean nothing but to Seize occupy and confound the Attention of the Public, while they were amusing and cheating the Populace with principles of Equality and Levellism, which they know impracticable and never intended to promote any further than for the purposes of present plunder. It is really humiliating to the pride of human nature that so frivolous a piece of Pedantry should have made so much noise in the World and been productive of such melancholly and tragical Effects; especially as another discovery had been made long before, of much more importance, by which this and most of the other Theories and Events of the last twenty years might have been more justly estimated.
The discovery I mean is this. If We take a Survey of the greatest Actions which have been performed in the World, which are the establishment of new Empires by Conquest, and the Advance and progress of new Schemes in Phylosophy, We shall find the Authors of them all to have been persons, whose Brains had been shaken out of their natural position. For the Upper region of Man is furnished like the middle region of the Air. Mists arise from the Earth, steams from dunghills, exhalations from the Sea and Smoke from fire; yet all Clouds are of the same, in composition as well as consequences; and fumes issuing from a Jakes will furnish as comely and usefull a vapour as incense from an Altar. As the face of nature never produces rain, but when it is overcast and disturbed; So human Understanding, Seated in the brain, must be troubled and overspread by Vapours, ascending from the lower faculties to water the invention and render it fruitful. Two Instances may be produced to prove and explain this Theory. the first is that of Henry the fourth of France, whose whole project of universal Empire, as well as that of subduing the Turk and recovering Palestine, arose from an absent female, whose Eyes had raised a protuberancy, and before emission she was sent into an Ennemy’s country. The collected part of the semen, raised and inflamed became a dust, converted to choler, turned head upon the spinal duct, and ascended to the brain. The very same principle that influences a bully, to break the Windows of a whore that has jilted him, naturally Stirrs up a great Prince to raise mighty Armies, and dream of nothing but seiges, battles and Victories. In this place I cannot avoid introducing a reflection by Way of digression. What a pity it is that our Congress had not known this discovery, and that Alexander Hamiltons project of raising an Army of fifty thousand Men, ten thousand of them to be Cavalry and his projects of Sedition Laws and Alien Laws and of new Taxes to Support his army, all arose from a superabundance of secretions which he could not find Whores enough to draw off? and that the Same Vapours produced his Lyes and Slanders by which he totally destroyed his party forever and finally lost his Life in the field of honor. But to return from this digression
The second instance is that of Louis 14th who for the Space of above thirty years amused himself to take and lose Towns; beat Armies and be beaten; drive Princes out of their dominions; fright children from their bread and butter; burn, lay waste plunder, dragoon, massacre, Subject and stranger, friend and foe, male and female it is recorded that the Phylosophers of each Country, were in grave dispute upon causes natural moral and political, to find out where they should assign an original solution of this Phenomenon. At last the Vapour or Spirit, which animated the Hero’s brain, being in perpetual circulation, Seized upon that region of the human Body so renowned for furnishing the Zibeta occidentalis, and gathering there into a tumour, left the rest of the World for that time in Peace. Of such mighty Consequence it is, where those exhalations fix; and of So little, whence they proceed. The same spirits which in their Superiour progress, would conquer a Kingdom, descending upon the Anus conclude in a fistula.
And here again I feel an irresistable inclination, to introduce a Reflection by Way of digression. How very desirable it is that all the Vapours in the heads of our modern Philosophers, should take a turn downwards, and relieve the World from their silly and mischievous Speculations. And above all how devoutly it is to be wished that Napoleon may have a Fistula large enough to carry off all his Vapours and Set the World at peace.
The Phylosopher, from whose Works I have borrowed this ingenious Theory is Dr Swift, who in that grand Phylosophical Effort the Tale of a Tub, has in the ninth section given the World a profound discourse on the original Use and improvement of madness in a Commonwealth, which whole Section I earnestly recommend to your Serious meditations, as one of the profoundest and most important systems of Phylosophy which the last Century produced, and by which I have been convinced, that all modern Ideas of the Perfectibility of Man will be drawn from the Brains of every Philosopher upon Earth, as soon as a fistula shall be formed in its proper place, and either break or be skillfully cutt, so as to occasion a plentiful discharge. So no more at present from your loving / friend

J. Adams
P. S. What are your reflections on the Conquest of Buenos Aires? Is it not a great Event? Will the English stop short of Chili and Peru? What Effect will it have on France and Spain? What Effects from it have We reason to apprehend? Will it not protect Portugal from France and Spain: because the Brasils will certainly be in the Power of the English as soon as Portugal shall become their Ennemy?


Title: To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 25 November 1806
From: Rush, Benjamin
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir
Philadelphia Novemr 25. 1806

I have seldom been more highly gratified than by the receipt of your letter of Novr 11th. The latter part of it accords perfectly with Opinions I have long cherished. You may see a short account of those Opinions in an Oration delivered before our Philosophical Society upon “the influence of physical Causes upon the moral faculty” published in the first Volume of my Inquiries. They shocked for a while the prejudices of our citizens, but they are now more reconciled to them. Your letter was further rendered still more interesting to me by my having picked up the Volume of Swifts works last summer which contains his “tale of the tub,” and read it with a pleasure which I was incapable of relishing, and with an application to particular Characters to which I was a stranger when a boy.—The remedies for a yellow fever would do wonders with the heads of the men who now move our world. Ten and ten (as our doses of Calomel & Jalap were called in 1793) would be a substitute for a fistula in the bowels of Bonaparte. Bleeding would probably lessen the rage for altering the Constitution of Pennsylvania in the leaders of the party who are now contending for that measure. Tonics might be useful to those persons who behold with timidity the insults and spoliations that are offered to our Commerce. The cold Bath might cure the pevish irritability of some of the members of our Congress, and Blisters & mustard plasters rouse the apathy of others.—In short there is a great field opened for new means of curing moral & political maladies.—The Common Remedies for that purpose—that is Reason & Ridicule have been used in Vain.—
I thank you for your excellent strictures upon the visionary ideas of the Perfectionists in morals—physicks & government. It was from hearing & reading their nonsense in 1792 that I first despaired of the happy issue of the French Revolution. Perhaps Lord Bacon laid the foundation in part for their madness by his well known aphorism—that “Knowledge is power.” One of the Zealots of this opinion supposed it would extend over matter as well as mind,—that it would suspend, and invert the laws of nature, & thus destroy the inductions from miracles. I well remember one of his sayings was—“that the time would soon come when a man should thrust his head into the fire without burning it.”—Where are all the vagaries of that eventful year now?—The Conventions—Directories—and Emperor of France have dissipated them all—and the foundations of that Religion which can only alone make men and nations happy, have acquired by their distruction a firmness th in our World they never had before. Thus not only the wrath—but the all the follies, and crimes of man have, in the language of Scripture—combined indirectly to praise God.—
Our political hemisphere is again calm. But the storm, it is said, is only lulled. It is reported that our Governor will be impeached in the next session of our Legislature. Many things are laid to his charge. The principal one—is his appointing his son in law (then a Citizen of Maryland) to a lucrative office in our State.—A majority of the Senate who are to be his judges are said to be his friends.—
Adieu! my venerable & dear friend! My dear Mrs Rush and sons join in love & respect to you and yours with your ever grateful and / Affectionate friend

Benjm: Rush


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 December 1806
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Quincy December 22 1806

I thank you for yours of the twenty fifth of November. I was in hopes you would have explained to me the System of human Perfectibility which was is claimed as the Invention of Dr Priestley. The System of the French Œconomists I took some Pains, more than five and twenty years ago, to understand; but could not find one Gentleman among the Statesmen, Phylosophers and Men of Letters, who pretended to understand it. I procured the Books ofDr Qhanai  Dr Quanay and I could not understand much of them: and much of what I did understand I did not believe. He was a sort of Jacob Behman a Count Zinzendorf or German Kant; a Swedenburgh or George Whitfield. He had a practice of Knighting his Disciples. And Dr Franklin professing to be one of his Disciples, procured an Introduction to him and condescended to receive this honor from his hands. the hand of this Man laid upon the head of one of his Disciples, conferred a Mark of distinction, a priviledged order, which for what I know was respected by at least as many People among the Philosophers as the Cross of Saint Louis or the Ribbon of the Holy Ghost. The Perfectibility of Man was, as I think one of the Dogma’s of this Sect. Andersons great Branch of this perfectibility was a universal and perpetual Peace among all Nations and all Men. This Idea was not invented by Dr Priestley, for the Abby de Saint Pierre had written two Volumes upon Universal and perpetual Peace an hundred years before him.
Some who pretend to believe in these pacific systems, Advance that it is only necessary, to convince all Nations and Peoples and Individuals, that War is never in any case Advantageous to them. This to be Sure, does not at first blush appear to be very easily done. But let Us never cease to din in the Ears of the people this great Truth and others connected with it. Let Us fatigue them with perpetual Exclamations on the enormous increas of Taxes Imports Excises and duties, for the maintenance of Armies and Navies always on foot. On the draughts from Agriculture and Industry of an immense number of hands, whose Utility belongs not only to the Nation that produces them, but to all other nations, who might enjoy the fruit of their Labour by Commerce.
On the impossibility of preserving internal Liberty, with the system of permanent Troops or Standing Armies and our American Knights of Quanay would add Navies or any thing more powerful at Sea than gun Boats.
On the immense destruction of Lives, for a dead Man is good for nothing but a living Man as long as he can work and consume the fruits of the Earth or the Manufacture of Industry, is useful to the whole society of the human Race.
On the inconceivable Barbarity of cutting one anothers throats, Our Philosophers add that no other Being but Man is guilty of this Crime, although he is the only one whose Interist is connected with the Life of his fellow. But in this they assert facts diametrically contrary to the Truth: for the whole Animal Creation as far as We are acquainted with it are daily destroying and feeding on their fellow Creatures. And those of the same species fight and kill, as often as Men. And some of them not unfrequently eat one another. The Animals too are interested in one anothers Lives, in a very great degree if not as much as Men.
In Sum, on the Evils, Absurdities, Inconsistencies and horrors of War. on the other hand We must challenge all Mankind, to produce one Single Advantage which results from War.
Anciently the People Sometimes appeared to derive some Advantage by the Spoils, which were placed in the public Treasuries, to defray the Expences and exempt them from Taxes. This benefit however was only in appearance. But now the fruits of Victory are so far from compensating the Expences of it, that We must support our Taxes even in time of Peace.—
Now the People arm themselves against each other, only to support the mad pretensions and to cherish the Stupid Pride of an handful of Despotts, Nobles and Priests. Now, Commerce, the instrument of an universal Alliance, establishing a Channel of communication between Man and Man, from the North Pole to the South renders it visible to the grossest Eye Sight, that We are made for one another, that our destination is to be useful reciprocally, that We are Members of the same body and children of the same family
Now the Art of Printing, that Gift of Heaven, applying the reason of the present and all past generations, to the benefit of all Nations, carries with the rapidity of Lightening, these benevolent, salutary and beneficent sentiments, over all parts of the Globe.
These are the Arms with which We are to  excite the holy insurrection of Nature against the Despots, who would Stifle her Voice.
Barbarians as they are! They have only to will, and to unite, and the servants of Equality and Fraternity would resound in every heart! Not one of them ever conceived the Sublime Idea! They collect Men together, only to make them fall under each others blows, like those who for a vile profit, exhibit Spectacles of Animals, whom they excite to lacerate one another.
Differences may arise between nations as well as individuals, but as the latter discuss their rights before Trybunals, there is no difficulty moral or phisical, to prevent the former from following a similar procedure.
The time will come when the whole world will cover with Benedictions the Generous nation, which by being the first to pronounce that She renounced the right of Conquest, has displayed the standard of universal peace.
I shall not essay an examination of this Revery of a Perfectionist.
Of all the Patriot things that Pultney writ,
The Earl of Bath confutes it every Bit.
Bonaparte at the head of this generous Nation, has taught the World some different Lessons.
Quanay taught before Priestley. So did the Quakers. Your honest Neighbours of this denomination can harrangue as eloquently on this subject as the French Philosophers: so could their Predecessors before Priestley was born.
Give me leave now to turn your Attention to a set of Philosophers, much more ancient than these. I shall confine myself to one of these at present, and to save you the trouble of consulting Concordances, will quote Chapter and Verse. Turn then, if you please to the Eleventh chapter of Isaiah and the Sixth Verse, “The Wolf Shall lie down dwell with the lamb, and the Leopard Shall lie down with the Kid and the Calf and the young Lion and the fatling together; and a little Child shall lead them. And the Cow and the Bear shall feed; their young ones Shall lie down together; and the Lion shall eat Straw like the ox. And the Sucking Child shall play on the hole of the Asp, and the weaned Child shall put his hand on the Cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain for the Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord, as the Waters cover the Sea.” And again in chapter Sixty fifth verse 25. “The Wolf and the Lamb shall feed together and the Lion shall eat straw like the Bullock, and dust shall be the Serpents meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain.”
I am not about to write a Book upon the Prophecies and therefore will not be more particular. But there are other Prophecies which speak of a time to come when Men shall beat their Swords and into Ploughshares and their Spears into pruning Hooks and learn “War no more.” What may be the meaning of these highly figurative Expressions, I shall not present enquire. But they seem to intimate an happier and more pacific state of human Life than Reason or Experience would justify us in expecting.
Condorcet however would pronounce these at once “Visions Judaiques.” And pay no more regard to them than to the Prophecies of the Sybills. They are however as distinct and rational intimations, of the perfectibility of Man abstracted from all divine Authority, as any french Phylosopher, has ever foretold. How then can Condorcet pretend to have first started the Idea.
Price and Priestley believed these Prophecies to be inspired. How then can they pretend to have invented the Same thing. I Say Priestley believed these Prophecies for they Survived to be the only parts of the Bible that he thought inspired.
45 Years ago when I wore my Barristers Gown band and Tye wig a French Barber in Boston was in the habit of shaving and dressing me. His Name I think was Dehon: One morning he told me he had lived some years in London and dressed several of the Nobility, of one of whom he related a long story of some very extravagant conduct, which I have forgot. Dehon concluded his story by observing that his Lordship “Was a little crack. All the Nobility in England, Mr Adams, ” added Dehon, “are crack.” He meant cracked. I have long thought the Philosophers of the Eighteenth Century and almost all the Men of Science and Letters, crack.—In my youth I was much amused with the Idea that this Globe of Earth was the Bedlam of the Universe. If I were now to judge of it by the Conduct and Writings of the Men of Science, I should be more desperate than ever to believe that the Sun Moon and Stars send all their Lunaticks here for Confinement, and as they used to send them from Paris to Bietre.
I must tell you that my wife, who took a fancy to read this Letter as it lay upon my table, bids me to tell you that She “thinks my head too, a little crack,” and I am half of that mind myself.
Although McKean has been Somewhat of a Whiffler and a Shuffler, I should be sorry to hear that he was Subjected to an impeachment of which you seem to think him in danger. I think him an honest Man in the main, although Sometimes misled by his Vanity and Ambition as so many others of our revolutionary Patriots have been and are.
The facility and frequency of Impeachments in this Country forebode much Evil. They are very dangerous Remedies and should never be employed but in desperate Cases.
My Paper allows me room to subscribe myself your Affectionate / Friend
J. Adams


Title: Memorandum on the Legal Status of Half-Moon Island in Quincy Bay, 1806
From: Adams, John
To:

1806It is not less than Sixty years, I believe since I was first upon the Island of Half Moon  I was many other times upon it . I have walked over several Acres of Upland, high above all the highest Spring tides that had been known. I then Understood, it belonged to the Farm of Col. John Quincy, and, it has been universally considered as a part of it from that time, as far as I ever heard suggested, till the time when Mr Mitchel leased it to the present Tenants. When I bought the farm I had no more doubt or suspicion of my title to it, than I had of that of the Hill called Mount Woolaston or the House in which Mr Mitchell died. In my Childhood and youth, I heard often of Col. Quincys planting Corn upon it and cultivating of it like the rest of his Tillage Land, and of his Ladies going over there with her friends and company from Boston to drink Tea, pick Strawberries and eat fresh clams, &c The Eye Witnesses of these things are long since in the grave, but the tradition of them is notorious in the whole town.
As the Title to the Fee is now called in question, what proofs of it can now be brought? 1. The face of nature shews that it is and was a part of the Land, bounded by the Salt Water shore. it is properly but a peninsula, or hummuck, like many others in that neighbourhood, as Mr Rufus Davis’s, and Gull Island, seperated from the rest of the Continent only by Salt Marsh, flatts, sedge banks and beds of Eel Grass.
2. It is a Maxim of Law, that all Land has an owner. The fee is in somebody, either in the Commonwealth or some individual. The Commonwealth has never claimed it. Nor has any Individual ever claimed it. If there has, let him appear or let it be made appear. No Corporation or Individual has ever claimed it, but Tyng Shepherd, John Quincy and Norton Quincy, the Devisees of Norton Quincy, and the Person who purchased it of them at a very dear rate and now owns it.
3. The original Grant was made very early to Mr Coddington, by him sold to Mr Tyng, from him descended to his Daughter Shepard, the Gra who by her Will gave it, to John Quincy her Grandson then a student at Colledge, by him possessed above 50 years and after him by his son Norton who held it near 40 years more. All this time no owner has claimed it, but the owners of the Farm. It is too precious a Morsell, to have been neglect, from the year 1630 or between that and 1640, by any individual who had the Colour of a Title to it, or even by the Town of Braintree or by the Commonwealth, if every body had not known that it belonged to the Mount Woolaston farm. I have heard lately, that many years ago, indeed somebody got an Article inserted in the Warrant for a Town Meeting of the ancient town of Braintree to see if the Town would lease out, Half Moon. Mr Quincy who was not at the Meeting sent Word to the Town that, that Island was his Estate and he would defend it, and the Town was so universally of the same opinion that they dismissed the article.
Col Quincy and Mr Quincy have always been in possession of it, by Gunning and digging Clams there annually And continually, even since they ceased to plant sow and mow there.
John Quincy was like a certain Species of Men in those days, who for forty or fifty years of his Life was so entirely occupied with public affairs that he totally neglected his private Estate. He had an full of Negroes to whom under the direction of his Wife, he left the management of his Estate, and took no more notice of it, or pleasure in it, than he would, if he had been at Sea of so many Acres of Water he was Sailing in. Half Moon he left, to his cousin Hunt and his Sons, who were as familiar to him almost as his Children, his own Servants and hired Men went, upon Half Moon as often as the family wanted any thing there, and the Master took no more notice of the Trespassers upon it than he did of the Salt Meadow Men who turned out their Horses to feed in his pastures or of those and others who trespassed on his orchards and carried off half his fruit. it might as well be now contended, that the Town of Braintree or the Town of Quincy, have a right by Custom, to turn their Horses where they please in his pastures or meadows or to carry off his apples at their pleasure, as it is to go upon half Moon for any purpose whatsoever, or to get Seaweed an or Sand on the shore.
Norton Quincy had neither Wife nor Child, and though an amiable and sensible Man, had no regard to business or profit. With Advantages to have been one of the first men in the State, both in honour and fortune, he never added a shilling to his paternal Estate, but on the contrary spent a considerable personal property left him by his father. He therefore contented himself, with complaining some times of the Trespasses committed upon his property and threatening prosecutions which he never executed. Once indeed he gave a lease of half moon, but he gave little Attention to it, afterwards. The Men belonging to his family went upon the Island continually for gunning an fishing, and the other Men who visited it, were the friends and Lessees and he indulged them.
Instead of a general Custom, or practice, there has seldom if ever been more than Eight or Ten Persons, who followed the practice of Gunning on the Island.
Instead of the practice being confined to the Town of Quincy or the Town of Braintree, the Inhabitants of Dorchester frequented it as freely.
If it is contended that the Fee or the Custom is in the Town, I ask what Town? Dorchester, Milton, Weymouth, or ancient Braintree or Quincy.—If there were a colour in this case it would be for old Braintree. in that Case, Braintree and Randolph have as good a right as Quincy.
The Law of 1640, or thereabout, still in force is clear, that even, if the Island was not and never had been upland, yet still it belongs to the farm, if it is within one hundred Rods of the Shore of the Continent. Now I believe, that every part of half moon is with one hundred Rods of some part of the shore of the Continent. This must be ascertained by Survey and Admeasurement.
If it is my Propriety, no Man has a right to go upon it without my leave; and certainly not against a possitive and repeated prohibition.
The sport upon half Moon cannot be enjoyed but by those who keep Canoes, and they can keep them no where but upon the shore or Upland of the farm. Have they a right to trample my sedge banks and moor their Canoes upon the shore of the farm? And to draw up their Canoes in Winter on my mowing tillage or pasture lands and build hutts there to shelter their Canoes?
There has never been more than half a dozen or half a score Persons who have kept Canoes in Quincy. How can this then be pretended to be a general or universal Custom?
Again, the sport cannot be enjoyed to any profit, but by those who keep decoy Brants, trained and disciplined to the Business. Now there has never been more than half a dozen or half a score persons in Quincy who have attempted to keep decoy brants. How then can this be pretended to be a general or Universal Custom.
Again I contend that there are no Customs in this Country. Customs in England are common Law i.e. ancient usage, against which there is no Memory, or Recall. The Memory of Man, is not construed to mean the Memory of living Men, but every Record Proof or Evidence, that remains to prove or remind Men that there was a time when such a Custom did not exist. In this Country, our original, rise and progress is made known by records and Histories, and therefore nothing can be beyond the Memory of Man.
Again it is not the Island of Half Moon that the Wild fowl seek. Their food is not there. But it is the Eel Grass, rock Weed, Dulse, and other species of marine Vegetables called by Naturalists fucus, which grow upon the flatts between the Island of half Moon, and the Continent, which are the temptations which draw the wild fowl to that part. When they alight upon or swim to these beds of marine Grasses, the Decoys of the Gunners allure them over to the Island, within the reach of the fowling Pieces of the Sportsmen.
Not more than half a dozen or eight or ten Persons can carry on the Business and enjoy the amusement at a time and these must enter into Covenants with each other to share in all the Game, for if any independent Gunners come upon the Island, and station themselves upon other parts of it, they allarm and intimidate the Brants so that they cannot be allured within the sight and hearing of the decoys nor within the reach of the shot. How then can this be called a general or universal Custom.
Cujus est solum ejus est usque ad Cœlum. If the Soil of Half Moon Island and of the flatts is the Fee of the owner of the Farm, all that is on it is his.
Wreck or Wrack of the Sea belongs to the owner of the Soil. In England to the Lord of the Leet, who is always the owner. Authorities ought to be searched and collected to this point.
The Fee of a Road is in the Man who owns the land on both Sides of it. If one Man owns on one side and another on the other, the middle of the road is the dividing line between them, and seaweed or wreck of the sea thrown up upon the road belongs to him who owns the fee. Authorities should be collected to this point.


Title: From John Adams to John Thornton Kirkland, 5 January 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Kirkland, John Thornton

Dear Sir
Quincy 5 Jan 1807

Upon the recommendation of General Washington Gen Hamilton and General Pinckney I appointed your brother George an officer in the American army in which he served from its creation to its dissolution in that division of it which was under the general superintendance of Gen Hamilton and the immediate command of Col Smith. When he left the army in 1799 I well remember that several letters or certificates were shewn to me, one I believe from Gen Hamilton and another from Gen North expressing in very handsome terms their approbation of his conduct—One from Col Smith under whose more immediate command and inspection he had served, expressing in very strong terms his approbation of Kirklands activity vigilance diligence discipline & skill as an officer during the whole of the service I am Sir with great regard / your humble Servant

J. A


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 8 January 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Waterhouse, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Quincy January 8. 1807

I received your favour of the Second of this month, yesterday. I dont do not understand your reason for calling our Forefathers Brownists. I Should call them rather, Robinsonians. But that our Forefathers resided twelve years at Leyden, and that they Worshipped in the Building, where I attended divine Service for Several months, I have no more doubt than I have of the Existence of a University at Leyden. Mr John Luzac, one of the most learned and virtuous Men in Europe, his Father and Unkle, both of them above seventy years of Age, informed me, of this fact. This whole Family were as perfectly informed in the History of that Country as any Man in the United Provinces. Mr John Luzac who first procured me a Sight of that Church and who has Since been Professor of Faderlandsche Historie, in the University, assured me that this was the Place assigned for public Worship to those English Emigrants. Dr McLane and Mr Dumas never doubted it. In my first Memorial to their High Mightinesses, I asserted that our forefathers had resided twelve years at Leyden, and although that Memorial was a Subject of Animadversion in all the Seven United Provinces, no denial of this fact nor any insinuation of the Uncertainty of it, ever appeared. The Building itself had the Appearances of Antiquity, enough and more than enough to make the fact probable.
I have no more doubt of the Fact than I have that I attended Dr Macclaines Church at the Hague.
Dr Homes is rendering very grateful and usefull service to his Country by his indefatigable Researches into its antiquities. I wish him all the Success and Encouragement he can desire. But our Country, to its disgrace is disposed to encourage a thousand foolish republications from Europe rather than one usefull Work of their own Growth. In short our Litterature, as well as our Commerce and our Politicks are monopolized by European Capitalists and our People will have it So. I am Sir, with much Esteem / yours

J. Adams


Title: To John Adams from Samuel Foxcroft, 10 January 1807
From: Foxcroft, Samuel
To: Adams, John

Sir,
Jany 10th. 1807.

I herewith send you Asmall book, which having your Name in it I suppose it to be yours. and that I borrowd it when we ware at Colledg together) tho I have littile or no rememberance of it. Why it was not then returnd, or why it has not since been returned before now, I can give but poor too poor an account, I but can say Im not sesibel there has ben any frautilant aim or design.—in the matter.—hope you Excellency will for give the neglect and pass it over with candour. As an atonement for my misconduct I send you the book accompanying it; which please to accept. I can only subscribe your Excellency sincere / friend / And steady avocate in these shaking times.

S.Saml L FoxcroftIf your Excellency shoud happen to find me out, & shoud entertain the condesenting thot of honouring me with a fue lines; I wish to have your thots respecting the tendency and probable issue of the present State of our publick affairs. Will it end in Monarchy or Antnarchy? Will the Federal Union long continnu; or terminate in two or more general goveraments? with the reasons for or Against either. Will Apresent separation of the District of Main be for its interist; or of much advantage to the northern States by givving them additional weight in Congress.
 by reason of great  dimness of Sight I have wrote by the Aborrowed hand of A Female domestick.


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, 21 January 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Waterhouse, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Quincy Jan. 21. 1807

Robinson was not only a Man of Sense and learning but Piety and Virtue but of a Catholic tolerant Spirit and remarkable humanity. He resembled the two shepards one of whom was settled at Charleston and the other at Cambridge. Neither of the three were for renouncing Communion with the Church of England Brown was for excommunicating all, who differed from him in his most rigid notions. It is greatly to be regretted that Robinson did not live to come over, for he probably would have had influence enough to have restrained the early Emigrants from many Extravagancies which have diminished the reverence due to their general Character.
I congratulate you on the Amusement and Instruction you have found in the sermons of Dr Isaac Barrow. His Character and Writings are too much neglected. In Science and Learning he has had very few equals in England. He was the Predecessor, of Sir Isaac Newton in the Professorship of Mathematicks and natural Phylosophy, and contributed largely as I conjecture to the formation of that mighty genius both in Science and Litterature.—I am not very largely read in English Sermons. Dr Tillotson Dr Sam. Clark, Atterbury Houdley Dr Shirlock, Dr Sacker South Swift, Sterne and Blair, I occasionally read in Part. But I cannot think any of them deserve to be read more than Barrow. The English Divines who have ever read him call him a Quarry both of Sentiment and Expression. I have somewhere read that the Earl of Chatham was a constant Reader and great Admirer of him, as the greatest Magazine of nervous Expressions in the English Language. I bought his Works in England and have read the sermons you enumerate and admire them as you do. But you know the Taste of this Age both in Europe and America. The nice palates of our modern Men of Letters, must have polished Periods and fashionable Words. A few Words out of date and Sentences not fashioned upon the model of Hume Robinson  Johnson Gibbon or Burke or Junius, will give them such disgust that they will throw away the most sterling Wisdom to take up Reviews Magazines Maria Williams and Dr Aikin.
Were I a Professor of oratory at Harvard Colledge I would give a Lecture at least if not a Course of Lectures upon Dr Barrow.
I suppose all Attempts however, to bring him into fashion would be abortive. The Bent of the Reviews &c in England and Scotland is to run down out of sight all the old Writers. I see they are now endeavouring to cry down Mr Lock. His Ideas of Liberty and Tolleration are not enough sublimated for them. They are more tender of Tom. Paine—Locks Essay on Tolleration Human Understanding however I still think one of the greatest Works of modern times or ancient times. But alass! of what value is the opinion of

J. Adams?


Title: To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 23 January 1807
From: Rush, Benjamin
To: Adams, John

My dear friend
Philadelphia Jany 23rd. 1807.

I have been waiting like Horace’s Clown till the Stream of my business should so far lessen that I could pass over it, in order to acknowledge the receipt of your interesting letter upon the Subject of the perfectibility of human nature, but as that Stream, from adventitious currents pouring into it, rather encreases, than lessens, I have seized a few moments merely to testify my gratitude for that letter, and to assure you that I subscribe to every sentiment contained in it. By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral Subjects. Our Saviour in speaking of it calls it “Truth,” in the Abstract. It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published. It contains a faithful representation of all its follies, Vices & Crimes. All Systems of Religion, morals, and Government not founded upon it, must perish, and how consoling the thot!—it will not only survive the wreck of those Systems, but the World itself. “The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”—
Our Citizens are now gazing at the storm that has lately risen in the western states. General Eaton who lately passed this city, on his Way to Washington, has mentioned several details of Col Burr’s propositions to him not published in any of the newspapers. Among Others, he said in A large Dining Company, that he asked Burr what he intended to do After establishing the independance of the Western states—“turn Congress out of doors. replied the Colonel—and hang Tom Jefferson.” This declaration General Eaton added was extorted, by his having made Burr believe he favoured his Views, and was disposed to take a part of in his enterprises.—
All my family join in love to you & yours with Dear Sir, your grateful & Affectionate / friend
Benjn: Rush


Title: From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 29 January 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

Dear Van Der Kemp
Quincy January 29 1807

Upon my Word and honour, if I know myself, and for any Thing I know to the contrary, I am Alive, and wide awake, and in as good health as usual, and have been So for Several years past, excepting now and then Such a Cold as that which you cured with a Bottle of Old Hoch and a pound or two of Veal Cutletts for Supper three Evenings Successively.
Pray tell me.—Is it actionable or indictable to Say or to write of a Man that he is dead?—Perhaps the Defendant would call for Evidence that it would be any damage to Such a Plantiff to be dead. How then could I make this out? Besides before the Action Should come to Tryal it is very probable that nature will do the Work, and then for any thing I know, he might give the Truth in Evidence in Justification, and a democratic Jury might not make the metaphisical distinction between the time past and the present, and might by their Verdict declare that the Thing is true enough.
Pray tell me again:—Is it an affront, to Say or write that a Man is dead who is not? And ought I to call the Defamer or Libeller to an Account? This it Seems to me would be to give the Slanderer an Opportunity of proving the truth of the fact, excepting a trifling Anacronism.
But to be Serious, it has been a kind of fashion to kill great Men. Franklin was put to death, half a dozen times and many others among the rest our amiable and excellent Governor was lately Slain by Such a report, and he had Several droll Conversations about it, with Strangers at the Taverns. But I am not, never was and never Shall be a great Man and therefore I can conceive no Motive that any Man could have to lay me low before my time. He could not expect to gratify my Ennemies, because they all know they have nothing to fear from me. They could not think of grieving or afflicting my friends for they all know they have nothing to hope from me. I conclude therefore that the report must have been owing to Some Accident and no design.
But to be more Serious Still. There are indubitable Marks in your Letter of an affection for me, which have tenderly touched me. I wish I were worthy of So much and So Sincere friendship as I believe yours to be.
You mention the late Pensionary De Gyzelaer, but I cannot be Sure whether this Signifies that he is physically or only politically dead.—I have So lively an impression on my Mind of that Sensible and Manly Character, that I Should cordially grieve at his death. I hope he Still lives and will yet be active and usefull in restoring the lost Liberties of Nations.
Your Letter is the first Intimation I have had of the melancholly Situation of our Friend Mr John Luzac. I feel for him, and every one of my Family will Sympathize with you and me upon this occasion. My Wife, My Daughter and my two Sons all knew him and revered him. He is a large Portion of the Salt of the Earth, and if it were not for a few Such Lotts, it seems to me, the whole Sodom must soon be burn’d up.
With Sincere Esteem and Regard, I am / Dear Sir yours

            J. Adams

            P.S. I cannot recollect that I have acknowledged the Receipt of your favour of the first of November last, which came to my hands in due Season.


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 February 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Benjamin

My Dear Doctor
Quincy Feb. 2. 1807

You make me very happy when you Say, that you agree with me upon the Subject of the Perfectibility of Man. Let every Man endeavor to amend and improve one and We Shall find ourselves in the right Road to all the Perfection We are capable of: but this rule Should by no means exclude our utmost exertions to amend and improve others, and in every Way and by all means in our Power to ameliorate the Lot of Humanity. Invent new Medicines construct new Machines write new books, build better Houses and Ships, institute better Governments, discountenance false Religions, propagate the only true one, diminish the Vises and encrease the Virtues of all Men and Women, whenever We can. You have done a great deal, and I very little in this Way. I Sometimes wish that I had never been concerned in any public Business. I might then have been Sure that I had done no harm. One of the Popes ordered an Inscription upon his Monument, which would Suit me very well. Hic Situs est Adrian qui nihil Sibi in Vitâ infelicius duxit, quam quod imperavit.
I beg that you would not Spare a moment of your time or one of your thoughts from your Business, on Account of my Letters. If I had any useful Employment I Should not write them, But as Voltaire Says, “Il est plus difficile de S’amuser, que de S’enrichir” You can grow rich and do good, easier than I can avoid Ennui. I dont know but I Shall take your Advice and write my own, worthless Life, merely to keep myself out of Idleness. If my generous fellow Citizens the wisest, and best People under heaven, you know, had discarded me from all public Employment, while I could have Spoken So as to be understood at the Bar, by the Court and Jury I would have thanked them. But they wore me out, with hard Service and then turned me adrift like an old Dray Horse. But I have read Dr Isaac Barrow upon Contentment and Patience, and have learned of him to despize my Despizers. Stop! Is there not too much pride in this last Sentiment? I know not, but I believe Dr Barrow will bear me out in it.
The Bible contains the most profound Philosophy, the most perfect Morality, and the most refined Policy, that ever was conceived upon Earth. It is the most Republican Book in the World, and therefore I will still revere it. The Curses against Fornication and Adultery and the prohibition of every Wanton glance or libinous ogle at a Woman, I believe to be the only System that ever did or ever will preserve a Republick in the World. There is a Paradox for you. But if I dont make it out, you may Say if you please that I am an Enthusiast. I Say then that national Morality never was and never can be preserved, without the Utmost purity and Chastity in Women: and without national Morality a Republican Government cannot be maintained. Therefore My Dear Fellow Citizens of America, you must ask leave of your Wives and Daughters, to preserve your Republick. I believe I Shall write a Book upon this Topick before I die and if I could articulate a Word I dont know but I would go into the Pulpit and preach upon it. I Should be very learned: ransack Greece and Rome and Judea, and France and England & Holland &c.
What Shall I Say of the Democratical Vice President and the Federal would be President Burr. Although I never thought So highly of his natural Talents or his acquired Attainments, as many of both Parties have represented them, I never believed him to be a Fool. But he must be an Idiot or a Lunatick if he has really planned and Attempted to execute Such a Project as is imputed to him. It is even more Senseless and extravagant than Miranda’s. It is utterly incredible that any foreign Power, Should have instigated him. It is utterly incredible that without foreign Aid he Should have thought that the transalleganian People would revolt with him; or even if they Should revolt, that he and they could maintain themselves against the United States, who could So easily block up the Mississippi. Any Man who has read the circular Letters to their Constitutents from Members of the House of Representatives in Congress from Some of the Southern States, while I was President, must be convinced that there were many Among them who had no more regard to Truth than the Devil. At present I Suspect that this Lying Spirit has been at Work concerning Burr and that Mr Jefferson has been too hasty in his Message in which he has denounced him by Name and pronounced him guilty. But if his guilt is as clear as the Noon day Sun, the first Magistrate ought not to have pronounced it so before a Jury had tryed him. Wilkinsons Conduct, as it is represented is equally unjustifiable. But W. Shall hear more about it. The whole Thing is a kind of Waterspout a terrible Whirlpool, threatening to ingulph every Thing. But it may be as the Fable says that Single Bullet Shot through it, will quell it all at once to the level of the Sea
Eatons relation is very strange. The President takes no Notice of it. Is Burr So Shallow as Soberly to confide Such a Secret to him? But why is he called General Eaton? Our Laws forbid any Commission to be taken under a foreign Power. He had no Commission from the President. He was only appointed by the Ex Bashaw. He had no more Authority than Mr Deane had when he entered into a Contract with Du Coudray and his hundred officers, and assumed the Powers of a Plenipotentiary. You and I have Seen enough of Adventurers to be put upon our guard. I of all Men in the World would be the farthest from injuring Eaton. I have every motive in the World to wish that his reward may be equal to his merit, but reports are current, which Suggest to me the propriety of Suspending Judgment. I mention this to you in perfect Confidence, but with great reluctance. I hope all will turn out better than my fears. The hint may be of use to you—It cannot now be long before an Ecclairiessement must take place and We Shall know better what to think of Burr and his designs. I am dear Sir with Usual Compliments yours

J. Adams,


Title: From John Adams to Abel Sawyer, 8 February 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Sawyer, Abel

Sir.
Quincy February 8th: 1807.

Mr: Samuel Adams was called a Maltster because he kept a Malt-house; but he was a Gentleman of liberal Education; a Legislator and a Magistrate. He was the father of the late Governor Adams and the Son of John Adams, a Merchant in Boston, who was brother of my Grandfather.
Mrs: Elizabeth Adams, Widow of the late Governor Adams still lives in Boston. The Governor left but one child, a daughter, married to Mr: Wells of Boston. Governor Adams had one sister married to a Mr: Allen, who left one son a very respectable man at Worcester. These are all the descendants that I know of the Mr: Samuel Adams you mention. If you write to Madam Elizabeth Adams in Boston, relict of the late Governor Adams she will receive your letter, without doubt, and give you all the information you desire.
I am, Sir, your most obedt Servt


Title: From John Adams to Thomas Foxcroft, 13 February 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Foxcroft, Thomas

Dear Sir
Quincy Feb 13, 1807.

Benjamin Beale Esq. our representative, brought me last night from the General Court, a packet containing two books and a letter. But the letter was dated from no place, and I could not decypher the signature. He thought the name of the Member who gave it to him was Foxcroft, which suggested to me the suspicion that it was came from you. There is not in my memory the faintest trace of the old book which it seems I must have owned fifty five years ago. My name, which is written in it, in several places, is in a better hand than ever I wrote in my life. One or two of the names may have been from my hand. The other, which is a handsome volume and a famous work is a valuable present, for which you have my hearty thanks.
You lead me, Sir, into deep waters, in which, a hundred to one, I shall be drowned. I have no desire to be considered a prophet of ill. The Prophet or the Enthusiast, who as we read in the wars of the Jews cryed woe! woe! woe! to Jerusalem, was obliged at last to cry woe! to myself.
But to be candid with you, I think the tendency of the present state of our public affairs is to foreign war and domestic confusion. In what it will end I believe no human sagacity can foresee. We must leave it with submission to Providence. There will be no Monarchy in America, I believe, while you and I live unless Napoleon should make Aaron Burr a King over us, which I do not believe he is either able or willing to accomplish or even to attempt. The Federal Union too I believe will last longer than we shall live. Nor do I believe we shall be reduced to absolute Anarchy. We are at present as near it as we shall approach. We may descend a little lower towards it before the tide turns, but not a great deal. My reason for these opinions is, some remaining confidence in the sense and virtue of the people. Very much diminished, however, I confess it is.
I am very clear in my opinion that a present separation of the District of Maine is not for its interest, and that it would be no advantage to the Northern States and give them no aditional weight in Congress. According to the present appearances, the votes of Maine in both houses of Congress would be a dead weight in the scale of Virginia. A Separation might be some advantage to the rest of Massachusetts, for at present the votes of Maine turn the scale of the politicks of the State a wrong way.
After all: this Country is rising with astonishing rapidity in population and oppulence, and proportionally sinking in Luxury, Sloth and Vice; what Revolutions, what Wars, foreign or civil, what forms of government, or what divisions these causes may produce in one hundred, fifty, or even in twenty years, I leave to that wisdom, which is alone competent to foresee and determine. If we imitate the vices and follies of all the Nations, who have gone before us, we have no right nor reason to expect or hope to be exempted from such calamities as they brought upon themselves.
I thank you, Sir, for the friendly expressions in your letter. An acquaintance of fifty five years is not common in this world; but when it has been without enmity it is always an attachment of esteem and affection. I heartily wish you may live to see better times and more pleasing prospects, not only in our own country but among all the human race.

J. A.


Title: To John Adams from Joseph C. Foxcroft, 18 February 1807
From: Foxcroft, Joseph C.
To: Adams, John

May it please your Excellency,
Boston Feb 18. 1807.

The package I had the honor of forwarding to you was from my honored Father Samuel Foxcroft of New Gloucester.—He has had the misfortune to lose his sight one year ago, be reason of an inflamation in the Same his eyes; And by reason of his never having made use of glasses, & his whole time having been spent in reading & writing; the loss has been very sensibly felt by him.—He did not know of your book’s being in his possession ’till very lately, and he did not feel easy without returning it.—The other “Fleming on the fulfiling of the Scripture” he wished you to accept as a token of his veneration for your caracter & person. My hond. Father is very feeble & ematiated, and therefore I presume a diffidence, least you might think, his troubling you was too much of a presumption, he withheld his name.—He enjoys religion, and that’s his full, & only comfort.—With the highest respect and veneration I am your Excellencys / Obt. Servt.

Joseph C. Foxcroft


Title: From John Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 9 March 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Warren, Mercy Otis

My Answer to Mrs Warrens Question Shall be as prompt and frank as hers can be to mine Napoleones Maker alone can tell all that he was made for, And it would take a Sheet of Paper for me to explain all that I think he was made for. But in general Napoleone was made I will not say made but permitted for a Cat with o’ nine tails, to inflict ten thousand Lashes on the back of Europe, as a divine Punishment Vengeance for the Atheism Infidelity, Fornications Adulteries Incests, and Sodomies as well as their Briberies, Robberies Thefts, Gamblings, Intrigues and fraudulent Swindlings and speculations of her Inhabitants: and if We are far enough advanced in the career, and certainly We have very rapidly advanced a great Way very rapidly, to whip Us, for the Same Crimes, and after he has answered the Ends he was made or permitted for, to be thrown into the fire. Now I think I have merited the Answer from Mrs Warren which she has promised me to the Question What was Napoleone made for.


Title: To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 15 March 1807
From: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir!
Oldenbarneveld 15 March. 1807.

As your Letter of the 29 of Jan—afforded me a Sensible pleasure, I will procure meself another in writing you again. God be praised, that your health is unimpaired—it must continue so manÿ daÿs, if the warm wishes of  your Relatives and friends obtain their accomplishments—our own interests—mÿ Dear Sir! prompts this wish.
I spent this winter verÿ agreablÿ—partlÿ with mÿ old Classick friends whom I have given a heartÿ welcome—while the prospect on a Supplÿ of modern literature, give a new value to their visit—a part of my time I employ’d in Crescimbeni’s ist: della volg. Poës: a part—in examining and excerping Venema’s Ecclesiastical hist—of the O & N. Testament—7 vol. in 4o. the best work I ever read upon that subject—in anÿ Language—with regard—to candour—impartiality and critical judgment—his stile alone is not engaging—I am sorrÿ that he did not continued it farther than the 16 Centurÿ—I have known that amiable old man, being above 80 when he published this work—then yet in the full vigour of bodÿ and mind—a man of an open—benevolent character—of amiable manners—of eminent learning—of exemplarÿ piety—the protector of learning—the friend of youth—the Patron of tolerance without any mixture of morose austerity against Litterarÿ opponents or Theological Antagonists—“and yet a Calvinist Clergÿman. I know not, if I noticed in my last, that I have this winter too reviewed mÿ Achaick Sketch, and, as I flatter meself improved it throughout, bÿ which you will see, that I did not loiter awaÿ the winter-months in Idleness; ere long—the Labour of my hands must recommence.
In my Lett. of Nov. which you mention—I requested, that you would—at leisure—communicate to me—some particular notes of mr J: Otis—upon whom you bestowed such a high encomium—He can not have been an ordinarÿ man. I renew that request.
It must be in your power—to elucidate the transactions with Beaumarchais—if proprietÿ can allow the communication. To me it appears—if Turreau’s statement is true—exact—that Beaumarchais—claim is good—but then remains the odious hypothesis, to which a Frenchman without a blush gives an origine, that the Cabinet of Versailles, acted a vile part, and laid the American Congress under obligation of a million—which it had not received—for which it was charged, as having been benefitted bÿ a generous don gratuit—which however was employd for Special Political purposes of the corrupting Vergennes—perhaps, to bribe some of its own members—to prop the French Interests—or is there a more innocent Solution of this Problem?
How fortunatelÿ is it for the Cabinet of St James, in having—just in time—reconciled herself with America—Now our President had procured a fresh supplÿ of gunboats! this is quite another policy—as your standing armies—and navies! might I not give a hint—that, in a case of a new broil—a few of these amphibious—I suppose with trifling additional expenses, theÿ might be enabled to act as well on land as in open Sea—stationed on Oneida Lake—near my farm is a small snug harbour—black creek—to conceal them—might—unexpectedly descend in Lake Ontario and Laÿ Canada under contributions. It might be a good proviso in our Legislature’s address—to praÿ the President—to manage our national affairs—after his own waÿ—for another term—provided—we may get our share in the cursed gunboats—
I have perused Selfridge’s trial—I cannot say, that I like the man—I pity the rash boÿ, and curse the old formal villain—the original cause of this unhappÿ affraÿ—I have been pleased—generallÿ—with the defence of Gore and Dexter—it was well managed—Judge Parker’s charge appeared to me candid—impartial—but I waded with disgust through Sullivan’s plea—Had he pleaded weaklÿ in the prosecution he might have pleaded—In cirem Hortensius dicere non didicet—but here he betrays a weakness of malice—me thinks—he lost even the dignity of a Public prosecutor of public wrongs out of sight—and—Selfridge fate might have been more precarious, If John Luzac had been his prosecutor.
I have at length been compelled to accept the fellowship of the Philad: Society—you know—I declined it in 1805—but Mifflin was vexed—in 1806 a bylaw—of paÿing annually 2 Dols—was limited to residents of Philadelphia—by another bylaw—it was left to the option of foreign members—to paÿ the Don gratuit for the Diploma—Mifflin had not delivered my Lett. nor returned the Diploma—and insisted now upon my final resolve—He shares too much in my esteem to hurt his feelings—and I wrote him—to accept it—and paÿ my mine ten Dols—This last I did contre coeur—but I could not condescend to accept this boon; Thus by the grace of God—and the means of a too partial Mifflin—your frend is become Member of the American Philosophical Societÿ.
What awful lesson would be renewed for mankind, if examples could make a deeper impression—than we thus far have experienced—if the slaves of the modern Sennacherib fell the sacrifices of the Hun and Plica Polonica before they touched the borders of Russia! we know not the ways of Providence—but—if it is compatible with unerring goodness and wisdom—I ardently praÿ—that the gigantic power of that daring insolent horse maÿ be crushed. You can not doubt of my Sincerity what would save us from his grasp—in our distracted situation—if he succeeded in conquering great-Brittain—That—and the Almighty’s protection are our only bulwarks—
Recommending meself in your kind frendship—I renew my Sincere assurance of the highest respect and consideration—with which I remain / Dear Sir! / your most obliged and affectionate / frend!
Fr. Adr. vanderkemp


Title: From John Adams to James Perkins, 17 March 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Perkins, James,Perkins, Thomas

Gentlemen
Quincy March. 17, 1807

I received last evening your favour of the 13th of this month, enclosing a letter to me, from Mr. Thomas Theodore Cremere of Rotterdam. This gentleman is altogether a Stranger to me, but as he appears to have been a confidential friend of Mr. John Luzac of Leyden, who, in my opinion has not left his equal in Virtue and Learning united in all Europe, this circumstance alone is sufficient to induce me to acknowledge him my friend.
The letter is manifestly the composition of a gentleman conversant in many of the languages of Europe, & frequently writing in all of them. Such a person frequently substitutes a French or Dutch for an English one, & sometimes & English word for a Dutch or French. Such is the word Tresspass in this letter to signify Death or Desease; it is manifest he had in his mind the French word “Trepas.” Many other words in this letter denote the imperfect knowledge of the language in which he wrote: but notwithstanding all this, there is solid sense, & masculine expression in the letter which would do honour to any American or Englishman. My advice therefore is to publish the letter literature as it is; but subjoining a few notes, explanatory of the words & correcting the spelling spelling—
I am, Gentlemen your obliged, humble Servant—

J. A.


Title: To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 3 April 1807
From: Rush, Benjamin
To: Adams, John

My venerable & dear friend,
Philadelphia April 3. 1807.

The difficult and complicated labors of my professorship consisting of teaching, examining, reviewing theses &c &c being now nearly over, I sit down with great pleasure to pay my epistolary debts. You are my largest, and most lenient Creditor. The first dividend of my time of Course is due to you.
I concur with you in your reflections upon the Western insurrection, but not altogether in your opinion of Col: Burr’s Objects.—“Prudence in enterprizes and even common business (& a guilty conscience, fully long ago remarked) in his Character of Count Byron) are generally incompatible.” Burrs plans have been directed like Doctor’s prescriptions by pro re nata circumstances. I will give you a Specimen of them. He applied indirectly to governor McKean for the chief Justiceship of Pennsylvania, just before he set of for Kentucky last year. Success here, was as improbable, as revolutionizing the Western States. “To be unfortunate (says Richlieu) is to be imprudent.” The history of Col: Burrs pursuits verifies this remark.—He was for failed in 1 in obtaining a foreign embassy the first year he took his seat in the senate. 2 in being supplanting Mr Jefferson. 3 in obtaining the government of new york. 4. in being his Western enterprises, & 5 in being Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. There is often something said, or done by men in their youth, that marks their destiny in life.—I attended the Commencement at Princeton at which Mr Burr took his degree. He was then between 16 & 17 years of Age. He spoke an elegant Oration, and with great Spirit upon “Building–Castles in the Air” in which he exposed the its folly in literary, political and military pursuits:—These Anecdotes are between ourselves.
Poor Pennsylvania is still upon her broadside. Our Governor Who is now the only Anchor of our State, is in bad health, and upon the eve of being impeached. If–not removed by the former death, from office, he will probably be dismissed by the Senate. The lower house of our legislature is under the influence of the his enemies of the governor. The Senate, though less unfriendly to him, will not it is thought dare to acquit him.
A few Weeks ago your Grand Son left a letter at my house from his father in which he recommends his Son to my good Offices. I have in vain attempted to find him out. If he is still in our city (which from the tenor of his fathers letter I am disposed to believe is the case) I wish he may be directed to call upon me. My table and fire Side shall be to him like the table and fireside of his grandfather. My Wife and Children will all unite with me in shewing our thier Gratitude and Affection to his family by civilities to him.
With respectful regard to Mrs Adams and all your family in which my dear Mrs: Rush (who is now at Work by my side) joins, I am / Dear Sir your Obliged friend an / humble Servt.
Benjm: Rush


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 April 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Quincy April 12, 1807

Your favour of the 3d is received; I am willing to allow you Philosophers your opinion of the universal gravitation of matter, if you will allow mine that there is in some souls a principle of absolute levity that buoys them irresistibly into the Clouds. Whether you call it etherial spirit or inflammable air it has an uncontroulable tendency to ascend & has no capacity to ascertain the height at which it aims or the means by which it is to rise. This I take to be precisely the genius of Burr, Miranda and Hamilton, among a thousand others of less or more note. These creatures have no prudence. If a man is once so disarranged in his intellect, as to deliberate upon a project of ascending to the seven stars, it is natural enough that he should first attempt to seize the two horns of the new moon and make her his first stage.
Burr’s project of making himself V. P. of the U. S. to a reasonable Man would have appeared an high degree of extravagance for there were ten thousand men in the U. S. who were as well qualified for it and had merited it by much greater sacrifices, sufferings and services. Yet in this he succeeded. Buoyed up by the flattery of the Presbyterians in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pensylvania and all the Southern States from the veneration in which they held his father and grandfather, the factions of Clintons and Livingstons alternately employed him as their instrument, till the Virginians conceived the project of engaging him to corrupt the state of New York from the Federal interest. In this they and he succeeded, but all the rest of his Projects have been chimerical and without success. What could have inspired Burr with hopes of being an Ambassador, a Chief Justice of Pensylvania or a Governour of New York, or Vice President of the United States.
Omnia Numina absunt, si absit Prudentia. Prudence is the first of Virtues and the root of all others. Without prudence there may be abstinence but not Temperance; there may be rashness but not fortitude; there may be insensibility or obstinacy but not patience.
Without Prudence to weigh and deliberate on the nature and consequences of an enterprize, and to consider his means and his end, a man, who engages in it commits himself to chance, and not seldom when a thousand Chances are against him to one in his favour.
I pity my old friend McKean; like many others of our antideluvian patriarks, he was carried away into error by the French Revolution, and delivered himself in the hands of a party with whom he could never cordially cooperate. In the time of Robbespiere and his bloodiest cruelties, I dined once in company with McKean Gallatin and Burr, and they were all very loud in praise of Robespiere “He was honest and the Saviour of France.” Some of the Company presumed to censure their patriot and hero, and all three of these gentlemen cried out “Robespiere’s Crime is his honesty.” “How many instances do we see every day which prove that honesty is not the best policy.” They have all of them tried a different policy, but I believe they will all come to a bad end, and find at last that honesty would have been a better policy.
I now come to a mystery in your letter. I have but four Grandsons; two of whom are boys under seven years of age, & have been at my house and in Boston all winter; they are the children of my son John; the two others are sons of my daughter Smith; the youngest of whom, whose name is John is now with me and has not been in Philadelphia since last May. The eldest is William, now to my great grief in Trinidad. No letter therefore can have been left at your house from any grandson of mine. I cannot unriddle this mystery but by supposing that some adventurer has forged a letter: but for what end I know not. I thank you with all my heart for your kind intentions towards my supposed Grandson.
Pensylvania can fall down on one broadside and then roll  over to the other broadside, and then turn keel upwards, and then right herself up again. She is a Ship however, so violently addicted to pitching and rolling, that I should not wonder if she dismasted herself. To quit the figure and speak plain English I have long thought that the first serious civil war in America will commence in Pensylvania. The two nations of Irish and Germans, who compose the principal part of the people, are so entirely governed by their passions, that it will be impossible to keep them steady in any just system of policy. They will one day repent in sackcloth the ascendency they have given to the Transalleganian and Southern Atlantic States, and so will New York. But so contagious is folly that we in the Mass. are running the same course. I do not believe, however, that Sullivan, if he should be chosen, will harmonize long with his party, not half so long as McKean has. He is in heart and in head as no more of a Democrat than McKean. I have known him not much less than forty years. He has never been a steady nor a correct man. But he is not malevolent enough for his party, nor ignorant enough. His general aim has been to be of the strongest side, and consequently has often offended both parties at times.
I should be glad to receive your explication of the strange story of my Grandson. You do not say that the letter was from Col. Smith? What can the secret be?
My family reciprocate the friendly sentiments of yours & none of them more heartily than
J. A.


Title: To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 22 April 1807
From: Rush, Benjamin
To: Adams, John

Dear Sir
Philadelphia April 22nd: 1807

I enclose you the letter I mentioned in my last, from the person whom I supposed to be your son in law. The letter from his son has been mislaid. I have neither friend, nor Correspondent in new york of the name of Wm Smith except your son in law, and having never before seen his hand writing, and supposing he had dropt Ste his middle name of Stephens, I had no doubt of the letter coming from him. From this statement of facts, you will perceive the whole Affair is as much a mystery to me, as it has been to you. I have heard of letters being directed by mistake to persons for whom they were not intended. Perhaps this may explain the Case in Question.
Your remarks upon the Character of three Gentlemen mentioned in your last letter I believe to be just. They were all visionary in their principles and projects. The two Americans attempted to rise by in the same manner kind of Vehicle, but by by different kinds of Gas—the one was the result of federal—the other of democratic putrefaction. They both looked forward to a civil war to place them in the situation to which they aspired. One of them acknowledged it the evening before he fell,—the other certainly attempted it. Of this, two letters from my son John who now commands a Gunboat at new Orleans have furnished me with the most satisfactory—(tho’ not legal) evidence. His Object was not Mexico—but Louissiana where my son informs Us two thirds of the inhabitants were in favor of his revolutionary enterprize. You have mentioned in your letter the true Cause of his Success when he became V. President of the UStates.
Govr: McKean is better. The Assembly have postponed the vote for impeaching him, till the next session of the Legislature which will not take place Until After another election. I despair of a Change for the better in the legislature. The tories & federalists in our city governs the choice of persons to represent it state object to a Union with the Quids, and while this the case the enemies of our Governor will continue to pursue him and probably with Success. You have aptly compared our state to a ship in a storm. From my view I have taken of our situation, I see no prospect of a Change for the better in our Affairs. Do you not sometimes imprecate the same evils Upon the day on which you became a politician, that Job did upon the day of his birth? How many of Us have reason to cry out in reviewing our revolutionary services to our country—with Cæsar’s parrot—“we have lost our labor”! Shakespear makes Lord westmorland wish for one ten thousand of those brave men that did no work on the day before the battle of Agincourt. In looking back upon the years of our Revolution, I often wish for those ten thousand hours that did no work I wasted in public pursuits, and that I now see did no permanent work for my family nor my Country. Such is the delight I now take in my professional studies, and that I daily regret that ever I was seduced from them for to build for a moment to assist in an enterprize such as the late Catharine of Russia accomplished at Petersburgh—I mean building “a palace of Ice.” Vanity of vanities—all is Vanity. “We I came into the world crying, we I lived complaining, and we I died disappointed.” should be the epitaph inscribed upon the tombstone of every politician. Say—ye departed spirits of Pitt—and Fox is not this true?—
We have lately graduated 32 young Doctors. I send you herewith One of their inaugural dissertations in which you will find I hope some entertainment.
with respects and love as usual to all your family in which all mine Unite, I am / Dear Sir your grateful & affectionate friend

Benjn. Rush
PS: Since writing the Above I have been told at the post office, that postage is charged upon all packets sent to you. Is it so? Until I hear from you again I shall withhold the inaugural dissertation.—


Title: From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 23 April 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Van der Kemp, François Adriaan

Dr Sir
Quincy April 23. 1807

you have Spent your Winter with delight as well as Industry. My Moments have neither produced pleasure or improvements to be compared to yours. I am obliged to be very œconomical of my sight. Though I can See very well, with Glasses, or without them My Eyes cannot bear fatigue as they did when they were young. you have Sett me a Task that will infallibly make me blind before it will be finished.
Mr James Otis was a great Schollar, a great Philosopher a great Mathematician, a great Lawyer, a great Politician who possessed the most commanding oratorical Powers of any Man I ever knew. He was the first assertor at the Bar in the Legislature and in Print of the Rights of the Colonies against the unjust unconstitutional and illegal Claims of the British Parliament. He conducted the Town of Boston which was the great Wheel on which the Politicks of the Massachusetts Bay and the whole Continent turned from the year 1760 to the year 1770, during which ten years the Principles of the Revolution were introduced, propagated and established through the Colonies; with a Wisdom, Caution and Fortitude that no other Man possessed. He ruined his Health and injured his Fortune by his Exertions, and at last loss his Reason. Heaven in compassion to him, I hope Struck him dead with a Flash of Lightning, and though his Body did not ascend like the Prophet in Car of fire, He went to Heaven in as short a time and with as much Ease. Justice has never been done him in American History and never will be done him.
My Knowledge of Beaumarchais’s Claim is not such as can be admitted in Testimony, as it is only from Hearsay. And the Persons from whom I heard it are all dead. But how came Beaumarchais possessed of Millions of Money? A poor Advocate and Comedian, he never was worth an hundredth Part of the Money. No Such Company as Roderique Hortales & Co ever existed. No Such Persons were ever known. It was all a political Intrique to disguise, the real fact. The Money was an Absolutle And free Gift from the King. This is my Opinion founded on the Declaration of Mr. Arthur Lee to whom the original Communication of the Kings design was first communicated by Beaumarchais himself. I could write a sheet full of Conjectures and probabilities but I hate to think upon the subject. If Congress would make a free Gift of the Money to the King of France Louis 16 I mean or his Child, I should rejoice in it but neither Beaumarchais, Bonaparte or Talleyrande have any right to it more than you have. John Wilks and another Gentleman were present when the offer was made to Arthur Lee.
Your Remarks upon Selfridges Tryal are very natural. I never Saw the Faces of the rash Man or the rash Boy. It is astonishing that the long continued Libels and Slanders of the old one, have not produced more tragical Effects, long ago. A persevering Course of malicious falshoods for more than twenty Years, have scarcely left an honest Man in the State unslandered. The Cause was a very critical and nice one, and was I believe decided according to Justice as well as Law. If Luzac had been his Prosecutor!!!—I can proceed no farther!
Alass! Luzac! Alass Leyden! You had not heard the horrid News. I withheld it from you as long as I could, well knowing that your Grief was would last as long as your Life. I received the inclosed Letter from Mr Cremer, who is an entire Stranger to me, and it has been inserted in the Anthology. I pray you to return them to me as Soon as possible. I can Say nothing that will alleviate your Feelings or my own. Luzac has not left upon Earth a worthier Man. The last Winter has removed an amazing Number of my old Friends and Acquaintances, but not one has affected me So much as this. Why is my Life protracted, when So many younger and more Usefull are taken Away?
I intended to say Something about Gun Boats, but I can add nothing after the Story of Leyden, but that I feel the more attached to you for this very misfortune.
J. Adams


Title: To John Adams from Nathaniel Lord, 2 May 1807
From: Lord, Nathaniel
To: Adams, John

Sir,
Ipswich, May 2, 1807.

Be pleased to accept from an obscure individual a copy of a work, which after much care and labor he has prepared for the public, under an impression that it would be agreeable to the sons of science in general, and in particular that those more immediately interested would find their curiosity more peculiarly gratified.
Give me leave to trouble you with an inquiry, whether you can give me the genealogy or family connexion of the several persons on the catalogue by the name of Adams.
With the sincerest wishes for your health and happiness, I have the honor to be, / Sir, / your obedient servant,
Nathaniel Lord 3d.


Title: From John Adams to Nathaniel Lord, 6 May 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Lord, Nathaniel

Sir,
Quincy May 6th: 1807

Be pleased to accept of thanks for your favour of the second of this month, and for your Alphabetical Catalogue of the Sons of Harvard inclosed with it, which I think is convenient and usefull and will be a gratification to numbers of the most respectable people in the Country.
You ask me whether I can give you the Family connections and genealogy of the several Persons on the Catalogue by the Name of Adams. This I believe is not in the Power of any man living. It has been a prolific Race: and the Tradition is that an old gentleman came over to this Country with Eight Sons, one of whom returned to England and the others remained, settled and left Families in New England. To trace the Families of all these and their Intermarriages males & females with other families would be an endless task, and I presume at this day wholly impracticable. There is a Gentleman of Medfield Elijah Adams Esqr., who has taken more pains and obtained more information than any other upon this subject. He can give you much more information, than I can who am very little of a Genealogist.—
Of a few of the Names in the Catalogue, the most nearly related to me, I can give you some particulars—
Joseph who graduated in 1710 and was Minister of Newington in New Hampshire was my Fathers Brother, son of Joseph of Braintree my Grand Father, who was the son of Joseph my Great Grand Father also of Braintree.
Samuel 1740 was the son of Samuel of Boston, the son of John of Boston, the son of my Great Grand Father Joseph of Braintree.
Joseph 1745 was the son of my Uncle Joseph of Newington—
Ebenezer 1747 another son of my Uncle Joseph.
Amos 1752 Minister of Roxbury Brother of Elijah Adams Esqr. of Medfield John
John 1755 the Son of John the Son of Joseph the Son of Joseph all of Braintree—
Zabdiel 1759 Minister of Lunenburg the son of Ebenezer son of Joseph my Grand father—
John Quincy 1787 Charles 1789 Thomas Boylston 1790 my Sons—
Zabdiel Boylston 1791 Son of Zabdiel Minister of Lunenburg.
I passed over Jedediah 1733 Minister of Stoughton, who was the son of Peter the son of Joseph, my Great Grand Father all of Braintree. I also passed over John 1745 who I believe was a Brother of Governor Adams and a Physician.
As a spesimen of the Genial & Social warmth, as well as multiplicity of the Breed I will mention to you that my Grand father in his will mentions ten Children five sons& five daughters, every one of whom was married and had children, except one Daughter married to Nathan Webb, Minister of Uxbridge who died without Issue.
I am sir, your obliged humble Servant

J. A.


Title: From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 May 1807
From: Adams, John
To: Rush, Benjamin

Dear Sir
Quincy May 21 1807

I return you, the Letter of Edward Smith. Time may or may not unriddle this whimsical Mystery. It might however in the mean time to put Us on our guard against Intrigues.
My not preserving a Copy of my Letter to Dr Nathan Webb (for he was a Physician) is no Wonder: for I never kept a Copy of any Letter, till I became a Member of Congress in 1774. The observation of your Son Richard is very Shrewd, and unfortunately for me very just. There are the Same marks of haste and the Same heedless inattention to Style which have characterized all my Writings to this day.
I have always laughed at the Affectation of representing American Independence as a novel Idea, as a modern discovery, as a late Invention. The Idea of it, as a possible Thing, as a probable Event, nay as a necessary and unavoidable Measure, in case Great Britain should observe an unconstitutional Authority over Us, has been familiar to Americans from the first settlement of the Country: And was as well understood by Governor Winthrop in 1675 as by Governor Sam. Adams when he told you that Independence had been the first Wish of his heart for Seven years. I Suppose he dated from 1768, when the Board of Commissioners arrived and landed in Boston under the Protection of Nine Ships of War and four thousand regular Troops.
A Couplet has been repeated with rapture as long as I can remember which was imputed to Dean Berkley. The first line I have forgot: but the last was “And Empire Rises where the Sun descends.” This was public many Years before my Letter of Oct. 1755 to Doctor Webb.
In 1760 Coll Josiah Quincy the Grandfather of Josiah Quincy now a member of Congress from Boston, read to me a Letter he had then just received from London from a Mr Turner I believe, one of the first mercantile Houses in London; congratuting him on the Surrender of Montreal to General Amherst and the final Conquest of Canada “as a great Event for America not only by insuring her Tranquility and repose, but as facilitating and Advancing your (Coll Quincys) Countries rise to independence and Empire.”
Within the course of the year before the Meeting of Congress in 1774 on a Journey to Some of our Circuit Courts in Massachusetts, I Stopped one night at a Tavern in Shrewsbury about forty miles from Boston: and as I was cold and wett I Sat down at a good fire in the Bar room to dry my great Coat and Saddlebags; till a fire could be made in my Chamber. There presently came in, one after another half a dozen or half a score Substantial Yeoman of the Neighbourhood, who, Sitting down to the fire after lighting their Pipes, began a lively conversation upon Politicks. As I believed I was unknown to all of them, I Sat in total Silence to hear them. One Said “The People of Boston are distracted.” Another Answered No wonder the People of Boston are distracted, oppression will make wise Men mad. A third said, what would you Say, if a Fellow Should come to your house and tell you he was come to take a List of your Cattle that Parliament might tax you for them at So much a head? And how Should you feel if he Should go and break open your barn, to take down your Oxen Cows horses and Sheep? What would I Say? replied the first. I would knock him in the head. Well, Said a fourth, if Parliament can take away Mr Hancocks Wharf and Mr Rows Wharf they can take away your Barn and my House. After much more reasoning in this Style, a fifth who had as yet been Silent, broke out “Well it is high time for Us to rebel. We must rebel, some time or others and We had better rebel, now than at any time to come. If we put it off for ten or twenty years, and let them go on as they have begun, they will get a Strong Party among Us, and plague Us a great deal more than they can now. As yet they have but a Small Party on their side.” I was disgusted, with his Word “rebel,” because I was determined never to rebel, as much as I was to resist rebellion against the fundamental principles of the Constitution whenever british generals or governors begin it. I mention this Anecdote to Shew that the Idea of Independence was familiar even among the common People much earlier than Some Persons pretend. I have heard Some Gentlemen of Education Say that the first Idea of Independence was Suggested to them by the Pamphlet Common Sense, and others that they were first converted by it to that Doctrine: but these were men of very little Conversation with the World and Men of very narrow views and very little reflection.
Your Ennemies are only your would be, rivals. They can never hurt you. Envy is a foul Fiend, that is only to be defyed. You read Sully. His Memoirs are a pretty specimen. Every honest virtuous and able Man that ever existed, from Abel down to Dr Rush, has had this Enemy to combat, through Life. “Envy does merit as its shade pursues.” Sir you need not fear the charge of Vanity. Vanity is really what the French call it, Amour propre, Self Love, and it is an universal Passion. All Men have it in an equal degree. Honest Men do not always disguise it. Knaves often do, if not always. When you see or hear a Man pique himself on his Modesty, you many depend upon it he is as vain a fellow as lives, and very probably a great Villain. I would advise you to communicate freely all the Compliments you have had or may receive from Europe. Defy the foul Fiend. Do not infer from this that I think there is no Such thing as Modesty or Decency. On the contrary it is the duty of every Man to respect the Self love of every other Man, and not to disgust him by any ostentatious displays of his own. But in your case, Surrounded as you are by jealous Competitors, always intriguing to depress you, it is your right and your Duty to mortify their invidious impertinence by a free communication of all your Trophies to your Friends, without any injunctions of Secrecy.
I have not Seen this Pamphlet, entitled  The dangers of the Country—but my Mind is chiefly impressed with a Sense of the Dangers of our Country and all other Countries, of France as well as England. of all Countries there is none more to be pitied than France. England in my Opinion is in a Less dangerous Situation than her Rival.
The ominous dissolutions of Morality both in Theory and Practice throughout the civilized World, threatens dangers and Calamities of a novel Species, beyond all Calculation; because there is no Precedent or Example in History which can show Us the Consequences of it. Perhaps you may Say Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorra, are examples in Point. But we have no Relations of their rize progress or decline. You may Say the old World, when it repented God that he had made Man, when it grieved him in his heart that, he had made So vile a Creature, is a Case in point. I know not what to Say in answer to this, only that the Same Authority We have for the fact, assures Us that the World shall never be again drowned. I am my / dear Sir yours

J. Adams