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

TO O. WOLCOTT, JR., SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. - 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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TO O. WOLCOTT, JR., SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

East Chester, 20 October, 1797.

Dear Sir,—

I have received your favor of the 16th.1 Thank you for your care in writing to Mr. Sands, who has furnished me with two thousand dollars, for which I gave him duplicate receipts, to serve for one, according to your desire. Though I rejoice to learn from your letter that the sickness in the city is diminishing, I cannot admit your walk through the principal streets of it to be full proof, because it is generally agreed that the principal streets are deserted by the inhabitants.

You remember the anxieties and alarms among the members of Congress in 1793, their continual regret that no power had existed to convene them elsewhere, and their solicitude to pass an act to provide an authority in future. There will be so much uneasiness among them, if that authority is not exerted, that there will probably be no Congress formed before Christmas, and a few who will venture into the city will be there in idleness and out of their element.

I thank you for the sentiments you have expressed relative to the system to be pursued. Can you send me a copy of the speech at the commencement of last session? I have no copy of it here, and perhaps shall find it difficult to procure one. I should be glad, however, to know your opinion, whether our envoys will be received or not, whether they will succeed or not; with hints at your reasons, if any intelligence has furnished any.

The organization of the stamp tax suggests a vexation to me. The bill was worth money, and money was so much wanted for the public service, that I would not put it at risk; otherwise I would have negatived that bill; not from personal feelings, for I care not a farthing for all the personal power in the world. But the office of the secretary of the treasury is, in that bill, premeditatedly set up as a rival to that of the President;1 and that policy will be pursued, if we are not on our guard, till we have a quintuple or a centuple executive directory, with all the Babylonish dialect which modern pedants most affect.

I pray you to continue to write me as often as possible.2

With high esteem, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]This letter is printed in Gibbs’s Federal Administrations, vol. i. p. 568.

[1 ]In the original organization of the departments, a remarkable variation from the general system of accountability to the President had been made in the case of the secretary of the treasury, who has ever since made his reports directly to the legislature, and not under the supervision of the President. Mr. Adams appears to have considered this measure as another step in the same direction.

[2 ]Mr. Wolcott’s reply is to be found in Mr. Gibbs’s work, vol. i. p. 571. He promised an argument on the last topic, but he never sent it. There is an opinion given upon it by the attorney-general, in which he quotes five precedents, without perceiving that these might be used as confirming the President’s view.