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

TO THOMAS MIFFLIN. - 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 THOMAS MIFFLIN.

I have received the letter your Excellency did me the honor to write me on the 5th of this month, with the copy of Chief Justice McKean’s letter to your Excellency, and two letters of Mr. Liston. These last I shall transmit to the Secretary of State, to be restored to the writer of them, according to the idea of your Excellency, with the best apology that the subject will admit of, for the freedom which has been improperly taken with his correspondence by opening the letters. The safety and honor of nations is so much concerned in the universal respect that is, or ought to be shown to the despatches of ambassadors, that it is to be regretted that any of our citizens should have been guilty of the fault of opening these.1

[1 ]Mr. Liston’s messenger, Isaac Livesey, had been arrested in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on a well grounded charge of horse stealing. His trunks had been forced, and the letters of Mr. Liston opened by the officers, apparently without any ill intent.