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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, 27 October, 1797.

Dear Sir,—

I have received your favor of the 24th,1 and thank you for your careful attention to the distemper in Philadelphia. Representations similar to yours are sent me from various quarters. That there would be considerable public inconvenience in a convention of Congress at any place out of Philadelphia, is certain, and this consideration has great weight. That there would be much popular clamor, at least much low snarling, among the inhabitants of the foul dens in Philadelphia, is very probable. This, however, would have little weight with me, against a measure of general necessity or expediency. Mr. McHenry and Mr. Pickering are of your opinion; and this union will have more weight than all the brawlers of Philadelphia, even though they should be countenanced by the prudent citizens.

Your conjectures concerning the success of our envoys to France appear to me very probable; yet I cannot apprehend so much from the personal feelings of Talleyrand. He received a great deal of cordial hospitality in this country, and had not the smallest reason to complain, that ever came to my knowledge, in any place. As a reasonable man, he could not but approve of the President’s caution, knowing himself to be upon the list of emigrants, and knowing the clamor which would be raised by the French minister at the presentation of an illustrious Frenchman by any other than himself. It is a part of the duty of an ambassador, to judge of the persons among his countrymen whom it would be proper to present to government. It would have been a slight, at least, to the French minister, to have received a man he had refused to present. It would have been offensive to the government of France, to have received a man proscribed by their laws. There is, however, little immediate advantage to be expected from this embassy, I fear. It will be spun out into an immeasurable length, unless quickened by an embargo. We must unshackle our merchant ships. If Congress will not do it, I shall have scruples about continuing the restriction upon the collectors.

What the session of Congress will produce, I know not; but a torpor, a despondency, has seized all men in America as well as Europe. The system of terror, according to an Indian expression, has “put petticoats on them.” The treachery of the common people against their own countries, the transports with which they seize the opportunity of indulging their envy and gratifying their revenge against all whom they have been in the habit of looking up to, at every hazard to their countries, and, in the end, at every expense of misery to themselves, has given a paralytic stroke to the wisdom and courage of nations.

If peace is refused to England, they will leap the gulf. Their stocks are not much higher than those of the French. The latter, I see in some speech in the Council of Five Hundred, have been at forty. Can these be the general mass of the French national debt, old as well as new?

The French directory, I take it for granted, must have war. War, open or understood, is their eternal doom.

I am, dear Sir, with unalterable esteem,

John Adams.

[1 ]Printed in Mr. Gibbs’s work, vol. i. 571.