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

TO FRANCIS DANA. - 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.

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TO FRANCIS DANA.

Dear Sir,

I had yesterday the pleasure of receiving two letters from you,—one dated February 1st, and one without a date,—but I suppose written the day before. With these, I received the packets, but there are in them no letters from my wife. The resolution of congress of the 12th of December, gives me great pleasure, as it proves that we had the good fortune to be possessed of the true principles of congress, and to enter fully into their views in the resolutions of last March, respecting the paper money; but I cannot recollect what were the two papers in the duplicate, more than in the original; there is no minute in the book to show.

I assure you, sir, I have not had more satisfaction in the resolution, than in the affectionate manner in which Mr. Lovell and you have communicated it to me. I am prepared in my own mind to receive from congress resolutions of a different nature; but of these we will say nothing until we see them.

I must beg you to send a key to the ciphers; the letter is wholly unintelligible to me for want of one. I see by the journals that we are authorized to accede to the principles of the Empress of Russia; but I find no commission for that purpose, nor any resolution of congress authenticated by the secretary, or the committee. Will you talk with D. D. and Fun about what is proper to be done?1

All accounts from all parts of America show that a great spirit reigns triumphant; a vigor, an elasticity appears in all parts, notwithstanding the croaking of Sullivan, Pickering, and Francisco; the last has been here, and gone away without doing me the honor of a visit. Rodney’s and Vaughan’s repulse is a grand stroke, a balance for five or six Jersey affairs. All things, in all quarters, conspire to show that the English will have their fill of glorious war. Gillon’s hour of sailing is uncertain; not for a long time, I fear. Do you learn any thing of Davis’s arrival, or capture or loss? If I had a commission as minister here, I verily believe I could borrow money. Without it, no man ever will, in any considerable quantity.

John Adams.

[1 ]The allusions in this letter are not perfectly easy to explain. From the tenor of the answer, which is even more enigmatical, it is inferred that D. D. and Fun stand for Dr. Franklin and Count de Vergennes. Francisco is Silas Deane. The references to General John Sullivan and T. Pickering, then Quarter-Master-General, grew out of publications made by them at the time, explaining the depressed condition of the army, which terminated in the revolt of the Pennsylvania line.