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

TO SAMUEL CHASE. - 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 SAMUEL CHASE.

Philadelphia, 1 July, 1776.

Your favor by the post this morning, gave me much pleasure,2 but the generous and unanimous vote of your Convention gave me much more. It was brought into Congress this morning, just as we were entering on the great debate. That debate took up the most of the day, but it was an idle mispence of time, for nothing was said but what had been repeated and hackneyed in that room before, a hundred times, for six months past. In the committee of the whole, the question was carried in the affirmative, and reported to the house. A colony desired it to be postponed until to-morrow. Then it will pass by a great majority; perhaps with almost unanimity. Yet I cannot promise this. Because one or two gentlemen may possibly be found, who will vote point-blank against the known and declared sense of their constituents. Maryland, however, I have the pleasure to inform you, behaved well. Paca, generously and nobly.

Alas, Canada! we have found misfortune and disgrace in that quarter. Evacuated at last. Transports arrived at Sandy Hook, from whence we may expect an attack in a short time upon New York or New Jersey, and our army not so strong as we could wish. The militia of New Jersey and New England not so ready as they ought to be.

The Romans made it a fixed rule never to send or receive ambassadors to treat of peace with their enemies, while their affairs were in an adverse and disastrous situation. There was a generosity and magnanimity in this, becoming freemen. It flowed from that temper and those principles, which alone can preserve the freedom of a people. It is a pleasure to find our Americans of the same temper. It is a good symptom, foreboding a good end.

If you imagine that I expect this declaration will ward off calamities from this country, you are much mistaken. A bloody conflict we are destined to endure. This has been my opinion from the beginning. You will certainly remember my declared opinion was, at the first Congress, when we found that we could not agree upon an immediate non-exportation, that the contest would not be settled without bloodshed; and that if hostilities should once commence, they would terminate in an incurable animosity between the two countries. Every political event since the nineteenth of April, 1775, has confirmed me in this opinion. If you imagine that I flatter myself with happiness and halcyon days after a separation from Great Britain, you are mistaken again. I do not expect that our new government will be so quiet as I could wish, nor that happy harmony, confidence, and affection between the colonies, that every good American ought to study, labor, and pray for, for a long time.

But, freedom is a counterbalance for poverty, discord, and war, and more. It is your hard lot and mine to be called into life at such a time. Yet, even these times have their pleasures.

[2 ]An exact imitation of this letter is inserted in vol. iv. of this work, p. 56.