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

TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. - 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 GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Philadelphia, 19 February, 1799.

Dear Sir,—

Although I received the honor of your letter of the 1st of this month,1 in its season, I determined to postpone my answer to it till I had deliberated on it, and the letter from Barlow, inclosed in it, as well as a multitude of other letters and documents, official and inofficial, which relate to the same subject, and determined what part to act.

I yesterday determined to nominate Mr. Murray to be minister plenipotentiary to the French republic. This I ventured to do upon the strength of a letter from Talleyrand himself, giving declarations, in the name of his government, that any minister plenipotentiary from the United States shall be received according to the condition at the close of my message to Congress, of the 21st of June last. As there may be some reserves for chicane, however, Murray is not to remove from his station at the Hague until he shall have received formal assurances that he shall be received and treated in character.

Barlow’s letter had, I assure you, very little weight in determining me to this measure. I shall make few observations upon it. But, in my opinion, it is not often that we meet with a composition which betrays so many and so unequivocal symptoms of blackness of heart. The wretch has destroyed his own character to such a degree, that I think it would be derogatory to yours to give any answer at all to his letter. Tom Paine is not a more worthless fellow. The infamous threat which he has debased himself to transmit to his country to intimidate you and your country, “that certain conduct will be followed by war, and that it will be a war of the most terrible and vindictive kind,” ought to be answered by a Mohawk. If I had an Indian chief that I could converse with freely, I would ask him what answer he would give to such a gasconade. I fancy he would answer that he would, if they began their cruelties, cut up every Frenchman joint by joint, roast him by a fire, pinch off his flesh with hot pincers, &c. I blush to think that such ideas should be started in this age.1

Tranquillity upon just and honorable terms, is undoubtedly the ardent desire of the friends of this country, and I wish the babyish and womanly blubbering for peace may not necessitate the conclusion of a treaty that will not be just nor very honorable. I do not intend, however, that they shall. There is not much sincerity in the cant about peace; those who snivel for it now, were hot for war against Britain a few months ago, and would be now, if they saw a chance. In elective governments, peace or war are alike embraced by parties, when they think they can employ either for electioneering purposes.1

With great respect and regard to you and your good lady, and late Miss Custis, I have the honor to be, Sir, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]See this letter in Sparks’s Washington’s Writings, vol. xi. p. 398.

[1 ]There is a good deal of partisan harshness in this condemnation. But Mr. Barlow, however sincere his motives, had been very far from judicious in his mode of attempting to bring round a reconciliation between the two countries. He had written to his brother-in-law, Mr. Baldwin, in March, that “the election of Adams produced the order of the 2d of March, which was meant to be little short of a declaration of war,” thus making the President responsible for all the losses which took place under that decree, merely because he had been selected by the people, acting in their own legitimate sphere, for the chief executive office. And in a later letter of the 26th July to James Watson, which had been submitted to the President, even in stating the withdrawal by the French government of their most offensive acts, he had urged peace measures, not on their own merits, but under the menace, that “a refusal would be considered as a declaration of war, and it would be a war of the most terrible and vindictive kind.” These were not of the class of arguments likely to conciliate Mr. Adams. Wait’s State Papers, vol. iv. p. 269. Gibbs’s Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 112.

[1 ]At about this same time, Mr. Pickering was transmitting to General Washington information that “the President was suffering the torments of the damned, at the consequences of his nomination.” The writer’s name is suppressed, but the context reveals it. Gibbs’s Memoirs of the Fed. Adm. vol. ii. p. 208.