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

TO JOHN TRUMBULL. - 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 JOHN TRUMBULL.

Quincy, 12 August, 1800.

Dear Sir,—

A letter from my old friend Trumbull is always so cheering a cordial to my spirits, that I could almost rejoice in the cause which produced yours of the 6th. The gentleman you allude to did, it is true, make me a visit at New Haven. It was not unexpected, for it was not the first or second mark of attention that I have received from him, at the same place. On this occasion his deportment was polite, and his conversation easy, sensible, and agreeable. I understood from him, what I well knew before and always expected, that there had been some uneasiness and some severe criticisms in Connecticut on account of the late removal of the late Secretary of State; but he mentioned no names, nor alluded to persons or places. No such insinuations concerning Hartford, as you have heard, escaped his lips.2 I had for many years had it in contemplation to take the road of the sea coast, and I believe that for many years I have never stopped at New Haven, without making some inquiries concerning the roads and inns. The gentleman in question had just returned from New London, and assured me the road was good, the accommodations at the public houses not bad, and the passage of the ferry neither dangerous nor inconvenient to any but the ferrymen. He added, that he had heard people at several places on that route observe, that I had never seen it, that they wished to see me that way, and that the distance to my own house in Quincy was ten or twelve miles less, than the other. An economy of a dozen miles to an old man, who was already weary with a journey of six or seven hundred miles, was an object of attention, and that way I took. I never entertained nor conceived a suspicion, that I should not meet the same cordial reception at Hartford as usual. There was some conversation concerning constitutions and administration, rather free, but very cool and decent, without any personal or party allusions, which gave me an opinion of the correctness of his judgment, which I had not before. But as these were private conversations, I do not think it necessary, if it could be justifiable, to mention them. Who is it says, in the Old Testament, I will go out and be a lying spirit among them?2

With affectionate esteem, dear Sir, your much pained friend,

John Adams.

[2 ]Mr. Trumbull had written to know whether the stories in circulation were true, that Mr. Adams had been induced to change his course from Hartford to New London by reason of the representations made by the gentleman referred to, of the hostility felt to him at the former place. In this connection Mr. T. says;—

“In fact, had you given Hartford the honor of a visit, you would have been met from all parties with more than usual marks of attention and respect. Many were desirous of convincing you that they did not consider the President’s exertion of his constitutional right of displacing a subordinate executive officer, as a matter of national concern; that while they felt no dissatisfaction at the conduct of administration in public and consequential measures, no minute clamors could shake their confidence; and that of the propriety or necessity of the measure, they pretended not at that time to be possessed of the evidence, or the right, which could enable them to judge or decide.”

[2 ]Mr. Adams was not fated to have his own measure meted to him by others. A specimen of the manner in which he was treated, in this very instance, is disclosed in a letter of Chauncey Goodrich to Oliver Wolcott, still Secretary of the Treasury. The writer warns his correspondent, that the person to whom this letter is addressed, described as “our friend Trumbull, remains as firmly as everattached to his old master.” Noah Webster, too, is not well affected to the cabal. Gibbs’s Memoirs of the Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 411.