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

TO JOSEPH WARD. - 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 JOSEPH WARD.

Washington, 4 February, 1801.

Dear Sir,—

I have received and read with much pleasure your kind and friendly letter of January 22d. As I have all my lifetime expected such events as these which have lately occurred, I was not surprised when they happened. They ought to be lessons and solemn warnings to all thinking men. Clouds black and gloomy hang over this country, threatening a fierce tempest arising merely from party conflicts, at a time when the internal and external prosperity of it, and the national prospects in every other respect, are the most pleasing and promising that we ever beheld. I pray Heaven to dissipate the storm. Depressions of spirits, such as wound the nice organs of health, I have not perceived and do not apprehend, but I have some reason to expect that my constitution will have another trial when I come to exchange a routine of domestic life, without much exercise, for a life of long journeys and distant voyages, in one or other of which I have been monthly or at least yearly engaged for two and forty years. When such long continued and violent exercise, such frequent agitations of the body, are succeeded by stillness, it may shake an old frame. Rapid motion ought not to be succeeded by sudden rest. But, at any rate, I have not many years before me, and those few are not very enchanting in prospect. Till death, an honest man and candid friend will ever be dear to my heart, and Colonel Ward, as one of that character, may ever be sure of the good-will and kind remembrance of

John Adams.

P. S. Ward, I wish you would write a dissertation upon parties in this country.