Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow INTRODUCTORY NOTE. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

INTRODUCTORY NOTE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 7 (Letters and State Papers 1777-1782) [1852]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 7.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The official papers of Mr. Adams are so voluminous as altogether to forbid the idea of embracing the whole within the limits of the present work. At the outset, it was supposed that the fact of the publication by government of a large portion of them, in a permanent form, would render the work of reproduction to any great extent superfluous. But a close investigation showed that a selection was absolutely necessary, in order to do justice to the career of the writer as a statesman. Ten critical years in the foreign relations of the country, in the course of which its position as an independent state was first recognized in Europe, could not but produce memorials essential to the history of those who acted any part in the scene. To Mr. Adams these are most important, as developing the substantial unity of his system of policy, from first to last, a feature which has not been hitherto pointed out so clearly as justice to him would seem to demand.

The necessity of making a selection from these papers having for this reason been assumed, the next thing was to look for some principle of publication adapted to answer the purpose intended. After due reflection, it was, first of all, thought best to place the selected letters by themselves, not even connecting with them any private correspondence of the same date, that might lay open the secret springs of the movements described. This will find its proper place in the general collection relating to public events, which immediately follows these official papers. By the arrangement, in chronological series, reference can be made at pleasure by the curious reader to any period of time, without incurring the hazard of breaking the continuous record of the author’s public action. Secondly, the rule of publication was made to apply, first, to the magnitude of the events described; next, to the manner in which they are treated; thirdly, to the influence exercised upon them, directly or incidentally, by the writer; lastly, to the effect upon his own position. To one or other of these reasons the presence of each of the papers contained in this part of the work must be referred.

Many letters have been admitted, signed by the members of the Commission to France; none, however, which are not believed to have been drawn up by Mr. Adams, and which do not tend to show the place occupied by him in that unfortunate association, and the efforts which he made to change its character, or to effect its dissolution. This portion of the collection is a mere continuation of the series in the Diary, and derives much light from the explanations therein given.

The public letters of distinguished persons which either occasioned, or are in reply to, those of Mr. Adams, are furnished in all cases where they are deemed necessary to promote the end designed. Many of them have never been published before. Some, though printed in other forms, are not found in the great repository of these papers,—the Diplomatic Correspondence of the Revolution,—a valuable work, but unfortunately disfigured by numerous typographical errors, especially in proper names, and wanting in that most indispensable part to every useful publication of an extended and complex nature, a thorough index.

The letters of Mr. Adams, when drawn from his copy books, will, in many cases, be found to vary more or less from the ultimate forms as they may yet exist elsewhere. This is to be ascribed to the fact, that the former were often in the nature of rough drafts, altered or improved, when transcribed to be sent away, and not to any design of the editor. He ventures upon no liberties with the text, excepting such as are requisite to correct obvious errors of haste, or marked imperfections of language.

Many letters from French and other correspondents will be found in the language in which they were written. This has been thought better than to take the responsibility of translating them. Variations of phrase, which in themselves appear trifling, do yet, in many cases, materially change the character of a style. And that is the particular which, in official papers, it seems most important to preserve intact. Neither is it presumed, that the occasional introduction of a language so generally made part of the system of education in America, as the French, can present such an obstacle to the understanding of the text as may not readily be surmounted.

In the year 1809, a series of papers was addressed by Mr. Adams to the publishers of the Boston Patriot, embracing extracts from many of his letters which had not at that time been published in any form, and such comments and elucidations as he deemed expedient to add, in order to explain his public course. These papers were afterwards collected and published in Boston, in a volume entitled Correspondence of the late President Adams. Recourse has been freely had to this volume, wherever it furnishes the materials for illustrating the same letters as now presented in a more extended form, and with a better chronological arrangement than was in that case practicable.

PUBLIC PAPERS.