Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO JOHN JAY. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO JOHN JAY. - 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.

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 JOHN JAY.

Washington, 24 November, 1800.

Dear Sir,—

I received last week your friendly private letter of the 10th. The assurance of the continuance of your friendship was unnecessary for me, because I have never had a doubt of it. But others invent and report as they please. They have preserved hitherto, however, more delicacy towards the friendship between you and me than any other.

The last mission to France, and the consequent dismission of the twelve regiments, although an essential branch of my system of policy, has been to those who have been intriguing and laboring for an army of fifty thousand men, an unpardonable fault. If by their folly they have thrown themselves on their backs, and jacobins should walk over their bellies, as military gentlemen express promotions over their heads, whom should they blame but themselves?

Among the very few truths, in a late pamphlet,1 there is one which I shall ever acknowledge with pleasure, namely, that the principal merit of the negotiation for peace was Mr. Jay’s. I wish you would permit our Historical Society to print the papers you drew up on that occasion. I often say, that, when my confidence in Mr. Jay shall cease, I must give up the cause of confidence, and renounce it with all men.

With great truth and regard, I am now, and ever shall be, your friend and servant,

John Adams.

[1 ]Mr. Hamilton’s attack upon him.