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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, 9 July, 1776.

Yours of the 5th came to me the 8th. You will see by this post, that the river is passed, and the bridge cut away. The Declaration was yesterday published and proclaimed from that awful stage in the State-house yard; by whom, do you think? By the Committee of Safety, the Committee of Inspection, and a great crowd of people. Three cheers rended the welkin. The battalions paraded on the Common, and gave us the feu de joie, notwithstanding the scarcity of powder. The bells rang all day and almost all night. Even the chimers chimed away. The election for the city was carried on, amidst all this lurry, with the utmost decency and order. Who are chosen, I cannot say; but the list was Franklin, Rittenhouse, Owen Biddle, Cannon, Schlosser, Matlack, and Kuhl. Thus you see the effect of men of fortune acting against the sense of the people!

As soon as an American seal is prepared, I conjecture the Declaration will be subscribed by all the members, which will give you the opportunity you wish for, of transmitting your name among the votaries of independence.1

I agree with you that we never can again be happy under a single particle of British power. Indeed, this sentiment is very universal. The arms are taken down from every public place.

The army is at Crown Point. We have sent up a great number of shipwrights to make a respectable fleet upon the lakes.

We have taken every measure to defend New York. The militia are marching this day in a great body from Pennsylvania. That of Jersey has behaved well, turned out universally. That of Connecticut, I was told last night by Mr. Huntington, was coming in the full number demanded of them, and must be there before now. We shall make it do, this year, and if we can stop the torrent for this campaign, it is as much as we deserve, for our weakness and sloth in politics the last. Next year we shall do better. New governments will bring new men into the play, I perceive; men of more mettle.

Your motion last fall for sending ambassadors to France with conditional instructions, was murdered; terminating in a committee of secret correspondence, which came to nothing.

Thank you for the paper and resolves. You are atoning for all past imperfections by your vigor, spirit, and unanimity.

Send along your militia for the flying camp; do not let them hesitate about their harvest. They must defend the field before they can eat the fruit. I shall inclose to you Dr. Price.2 He is an independent, I think.

My compliments to Mr. Johnson, Mr. Carroll, and all your friends whom I have the honor to know.

[1 ]“I hope ere this time the decisive blow is struck. Oppression, inhumanity, and perfidy have compelled us to it. Blessed be men who effect the work! I envy you. How shall I transmit to posterity that I gave my assent?” Mr. C.’s letter.

[2 ]Observations on Civil Liberty, for which Mr. Chase had written.