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

TO J. M. FORBES. - 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.

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.


TO J. M. FORBES.

Philadelphia, 6 February, 1798.

Sir,—

I received, in season, and with pleasure, your letter of 12th January.

I must avow that, upon the first publication of Mr. Monroe’s work, I was much hurt at that levity with which so many Americans, and among them some of respectable character, had taken an open part against the executive authority of their own government, especially when that authority was exercised by a character so universally respected as Washington. It looked as if Americans would be forever incapable of any kind of government.

Your particular obligations to Mr. Monroe for his services to your brother, must have made a deep impression on your feelings, and the sense you express of them does honor to your heart, and will apologize for a conduct which, however, it will not justify. As this is the first instance, it may be pardoned; but, most assuredly, a second never will.1

I am obliged to you for writing to me on this occasion, and for the just sentiments and handsome expressions of them to, Sir, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]Mr. Forbes, out of a sense of personal obligations for the rescue of his brother from prison and perhaps from death, signed the address of the Americans at Paris to Mr. Monroe, upon his recall, which paper, in his “View of the conduct of the Executive,” that gentleman made great use of to sustain himself.