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

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

TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF MASSACHUSETTS.

26 March, 1801.

The very respectful, affectionate, and obliging address, which has been presented to me by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives, by your order, has awakened all my sensibility, and demands my most grateful acknowledgments.

As the various testimonials of the approbation and affection of my fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, which have been indulged to me from my earliest youth, have ever been esteemed the choicest blessings of my life, so this final applause of the legislature, so generously given after the close of the last scene of the last act of my political drama, is more precious than any which preceded it. There is now no greater felicity remaining for me to hope or desire, than to pass the remainder of my days in repose, in an undisturbed participation of the common privileges of our fellow-citizens under your protection.

The satisfaction you have found in the administration of the general government from its commencement, is highly agreeable to me; and I sincerely hope that the twelve years to come will not be less prosperous or happy for our country.

With the utmost sincerity, I reciprocate your devout supplications, for the happiness of yourselves, your families, constituents, and posterity.

John Adams.

CORRESPONDENCE.

CORRESPONDENCE ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE BOSTON PATRIOT.