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

TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

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. 9.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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TO B. STODDERT, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

Quincy, 21 September, 1799.

Sir,—

I have read over and over again your letter of the 13th. I regret extremely another blunder of the post-office, by which it has been sent to the southward and returned to me only last night. You needed not to have apologized for its length; there is not a word in it to spare. You may not write me any more letters, which are to reach Quincy or Boston, after the 29th of September. I will be at Trenton by the 10th, 12th, or at latest the 15th of October, if no fatal accident prevents. Mrs. Adams, although she is determined to risk her life by one more journey to Philadelphia, will not come with me. She will come after me, so that I shall want no extraordinary accommodations. I can and will put up, with my private secretary and two domestics only, at the first tavern or first private house I can find. I shall desire the attendance of the Attorney-General and the American commissioners as soon as possible, at Trenton, after the 12th or 15th of October.

I have only one favor to beg, and that is that a certain election may be wholly laid out of this question and all others. I know the people of America so well, and the light in which I stand in their eyes, that no alternative will ever be left to me, but to be a President of three votes or no President at all, and the difference, in my estimation, is not worth three farthings.1

With a strong attachment to you, I am, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]Mr. Wolcott, on the other hand, seeking for bad motives, finds them in the “belief that the President supposes he is conciliating the opposition.” Gibbs’s Memoirs, &c. vol. ii. p. 279.