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

5 June 1800: TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. - 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 CITY OF WASHINGTON.

5 June, 1800.

Fellow-Citizens,

I receive with pleasure, in this address, your friendly welcome to the city, and particularly this place. I congratulate you on the blessings which Providence has been pleased to bestow in a particular manner on this situation, and especially on its destination to be the permanent seat of government. May the future councils of this august temple be forever governed by truth and liberty, friendship, virtue, and faith, which, as they are themselves the chief good and principal blessings of human nature, can never fail to insure the union, safety, prosperity, and glory of America!

John Adams.

TO THE CITIZENS OF ALEXANDRIA.

11 June, 1800.

Gentlemen,

I receive from the citizens of Alexandria this kind salutation on my first visit to Virginia with much pleasure. In the earlier part of my life, I felt, at some times, an inexpressible grief, and at others, an unutterable indignation, at the injustice and indignities which I thought wantonly heaped on my innocent, virtuous, peaceable, and unoffending country. And perceiving that the American people, from New Hampshire to Georgia, felt and thought in the same manner, I determined, refusing all favors and renouncing all personal obligations to the aggressors, to run every hazard with my countrymen, at their invitation, by sea and land, in opposition and resistance, well knowing that if we should be unfortunate, all the pains and all the disgrace which injustice and cruelty could inflict, would be the destination of me and mine. Providence smiled on our well-meant endeavours, and perhaps in no particular more remarkably than in giving us your incomparable Washington for the leader of our armies. Our country has since enjoyed an enviable tranquillity and uncommon prosperity. We are grown a great people. This city, and many others which I have seen since I left Philadelphia, exhibit very striking proofs of our increase, on which I congratulate you. May no error or misfortune throw a veil over the bright prospect before us!

John Adams.

TO THE CORPORATION OF NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT.

1 July, 1800.

Gentlemen,

I receive with sincere satisfaction this testimony of esteem from the corporation of this respectable city of New London.

The part I took in our important and glorious revolution was the effect of a sense of duty; of the natural feelings of a man for his native country and the native country of his ancestors for several generations; of all the principles, moral, civil, political, and religious, in which I had been educated; and if it had been even more injurious than it has been, or ever so destructive to my private affairs, or ruinous to my family, I should never repent it. I did but concur with my fathers, friends, fellow-citizens, and countrymen, in their sensations and reflections, and lay no claim to more than a common share with them in the result.

It would be devoutly and eternally to be deplored, if this most glorious achievement, or the principal characters engaged in it, should ever fall into disgrace in the eyes of Americans.

In return for your kind wishes, gentlemen, I wish you every blessing.

John Adams.

TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE COUNTY OF EDGECOMBE, NORTH CAROLINA.

15 August, 1800.

Gentlemen,

I received last night, and have read with serious concern, mingled with lively sentiments of gratitude, your animated address. As, from the nature of our government, the choice of the first magistrate will generally fall on men advanced in years, we ought to be prepared to expect frequent changes of persons, from accidents, infirmities, and death, if not from election; but it is to be presumed that the good sense and integrity of the people, which the Constitution supposes, will indicate characters and principles, that may continue the spirit of an administration which has been found salutary and satisfactory to the nation, when persons must be changed. I cannot give up the hope that to be active in fault finding, and clamorous against wise laws and just measures of government, is not to be most popular. When popularity becomes so corrupt, if it cannot be corrected, all is lost.

For forty years my mind has been so entirely occupied and engrossed with public cares, that I have not been able to give much attention to any thing else. Whatever advantages this country may have derived from my feeble efforts, I wish they had been much greater, and less disputable. If any disadvantages have resulted from them, I hope they will be pardoned, as the effect of involuntary error—for I will be bold to say, no man ever served his country with purer intentions, or from more disinterested motives.

You may rely upon this, that, as, on the one hand, I never shall love war, or seek it for the pleasure, profit, or honor of it, so, on the other, I shall never consent to avoid it, but upon honorable terms.

Very far am I from thinking your determination desperate, to risk your lives and fortunes in support of your constitutional rights and privileges. I perceive no disposition in the American people to go to war with each other; and no foreign hostilities that can be apprehended in a just and necessary cause, have any terrors for you or me.

Your fervent prayer for the long continuance of my days, shall be accompanied by mine, for the much longer continuance of your laws, liberties, prosperity, and felicity.

John Adams.