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

TO THE CINCINNATI OF RHODE ISLAND. - 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 THE CINCINNATI OF RHODE ISLAND.

Gentlemen,

I thank you for your respectful remembrance of me on the birth-day of our United States. The clear conviction you acknowledge of the firm, patriotic, and enlightened policy pursued by the chief magistrate of the United States, after a review of the progress of his administration, will encourage his heart and strengthen his hands. Our country, supported by a great and respectable majority of its inhabitants, will not only be protected from a degrading submission to national insults, but be placed, I trust, on that point of elevation, where, by her courage and virtues, she is entitled to stand. The best “diplomatic skill” is honesty, and whenever the nation we complain of shall have recourse to that, she may depend upon an opportunity to boast of the success of her address—till then, she will employ her finesse in vain. On the day you resolved to live and die free, and declared yourselves ready to rally round the standard of your country, headed by that illustrious chief, who, at a time that proved the patriot and the hero, led you to victory—I was employed in the best of measures in my power to obtain a gratification of your wishes, which I am not without hopes may prove successful. In a country like ours, every sacrifice ought to be considered as nothing, when put in competition with the rights of a free and sovereign nation; and I trust that, by the blessing of Heaven, and the valor of our citizens, under their ancient and glorious leader, you will be able to transmit your fairest inheritance to posterity.

John Adams.