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

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TO JOHN ADAMS. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

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. 8.

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

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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TO JOHN ADAMS.

Passy, 6 August, 1784.

Sir,—

Mr. Bingham sent me last night from Paris your Excellency’s letter of the 27th past, inclosing a copy of one from Mr. Jefferson. I had before sent you a copy of one from the same to me, which I hope you received. I inclose herewith copies of a letter from Mr. Thomson, some new instructions, and one of the commissions. The other two are in the same words, except, that, instead of the words the United Netherlands, there is in one France, and in the other Sweden. These came by Monsieur de la Luzerne, but it was not before Wednesday last that I received them. You will see that a good deal of business is cut out for us,—treaties to be made with, I think, twenty powers in two years,—so that we are not likely to eat the bread of idleness; and that we may not surfeit by eating too much, our masters have diminished our allowance. I commend their economy, and shall imitate it by diminishing my expense. Our too liberal entertainment of our countrymen here, has been reported at home by our guests, to our disadvantage, and has given offence. They must be contented for the future, as I am, with plain beef and pudding. The readers of Connecticut newspapers ought not to be troubled with any more accounts of our extravagance. For my own part, if I could sit down to dinner on a piece of their excellent salt pork and pumpkin, I would not give a farthing for all the luxuries of Paris.

I am glad to hear that your family are safely arrived at London, and that you propose to bring them here with you. Your life will be more comfortable.

I thank you much for the translation of the Abbé de Mably’s letters. The French edition is not yet published here. I have as yet only had time to run over the translator’s preface, which seems well written. I imagine Mr. Sowden to be a Presbyterian minister, as I formerly corresponded with one of that name in Holland, who, I suppose, might be his father. I have not seen the piece you mention of a Berlin academician. I should not object to his enjoyment of the discovery he has made, that despotism is the best possible form of government, by his living under it as long as he pleases. For I admire the decision of his Prince in a similar case, the dispute among his clergy concerning the duration of hell torments.

With great respect, I have the honor to be, &c.

B. Franklin.