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

TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA. - 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 THE INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTY OF LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

8 May, 1798.

Gentlemen,

This respectful and affectionate address from the wealthy, industrious, and independent proprietors of the county of Lancaster, is as honorable as it is agreeable to me, and is returned with my hearty thanks.

The attention you have given to a demand of a preliminary submission, acknowledging the commission of offence, requires an observation on my part. The Constitution of the United States makes it my duty to communicate to Congress from time to time information of the state of the Union, and to recommend to their consideration measures which appear to me necessary or expedient. While in discharge of this duty, I submit, with entire resignation, to the responsibility established in the Constitution, I hold myself accountable to no crowned head or Executive Directory, or other foreign power on earth, for the communications which my duty obliges me to make; yet to you, my fellow-citizens, I will freely say, that in the case alluded to, the honor done, the publicity and solemnity given to the audience of leave to a disgraced minister, recalled in displeasure for misconduct, was a studied insult to the government of my country.

The observations made by me were mild and moderate in a degree far beyond what the provocation would have justified; and if the American people or their government could have borne it without resentment, offered as it was in the face of all all the world, they must have been fit to be the tributary dupes they have since been so coolly invited to become.

As I know not where a better choice of envoys could have been made, I thank you for your approbation of their appointment and applause of their conduct.

In return for your prayers for my health and fortitude, I offer mine for the citizens of Lancaster in particular and the United States in general.

John Adams.