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

TO WILLIAM TUDOR. - 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 WILLIAM TUDOR.

Philadelphia, 29 August, 1776.

I sit down now in the character of a schoolmaster, or a fellow of a college, to give myself airs, the pedantry and impertinence of which I have no doubt you will pardon, as the precepts I am about to deliver are of such vast importance to the public and so little practised, although they are so very easy and natural.

You must be sensible that intelligence is of the last consequence to the Congress, to the Assemblies, and to the public at large. It ought, therefore, to be transmitted as quick and frequently, and with as much exactness and particularity, as possible. In time of war, the letters from Generals and other officers of the army are usually the memorials and documents from whence annals are afterwards compiled and histories composed. They cannot be too careful, therefore, to transmit circumstantial narrations of facts, any more than, for their own safety, success, and glory, they can omit any means of obtaining the most exact, particular, and constant information. I have suffered inexpressible vexation upon many occasions, when I have seen public letters containing vague sketches and imperfect hints of enterprises and movements both of friends and enemies.

When an officer sits down to write a relation of a skirmish or a battle, I should think his first care would be to ascertain and describe the force of the enemy, their numbers, their commanders, their appointments, their motions, the situation of their encampment, the ground they occupied, or were attempting to possess themselves of. In the next place, I should think he would tell you the number of men which he sent against the enemy, the officer to whom he gave the command, the other general officers under him, the names of the regiments which composed the party, and then give you a detail of the marches and countermarches, the motions and manœuvres of both enemies and friends during the contention, the result of the whole transaction, on which side victory declared herself, and the number of killed and wounded on each side, the number of officers especially, and among them the most eminent by name. All these particulars, together with the loss or acquisition of arms, ammunition, baggage, ordnance, and stores, ought to be related with as much precision as the writer can obtain. Recollect the letter of Colonel Campbell, lately taken prisoner at Boston, relating the circumstances of his captivity; how clearly and precisely he states his own strength and that of his enemy! how minutely he remembers every circumstance of the engagement! When facts are related in this manner, the reader, the public, and posterity are enabled to form a judgment upon the whole, to decide what is the consequence of the event, to determine the character and conduct of commanders and of troops, to ascertain their merit or demerit. In short, to pass just reflections, to praise or blame with propriety, to reward or punish with justice.

Read the relation of the battle between Catiline and his adversaries, in Sallust. You see the combatants. You feel the ardor of the battle. You see the blood of the slain, and you hear the wounded sigh and groan. But if you read our American relations of battles and sieges, in our newspapers or in private letters, or indeed in public official letters, you see little of this accuracy. You are left in confusion and uncertainty about every thing. It may one day be your fortune to be obliged to convey information to the public of the course of the events and transactions of a war, and whenever it is, I doubt not it will be faithfully done. At present, except by the commander-in-chief, and one or two others, it is done very superficially, crudely, and confusedly. A general officer should spare no pains to make himself master of the epistolary style, which is easy, natural, simple, and familiar, and of the historical style, too, which is equally simple, although a little more grave, solemn, and noble. Xenophon, Cæsar, Wolfe, Lee, are all indebted for a very large share of their fame to their pens.

The strange uncertainty in which we are still involved, concerning the late skirmishes upon Long Island, has given rise to the foregoing observations. My friends have been a little negligent in not writing me a line upon this occasion. I think we have suffered in our reputation for generalship in permitting the enemy to steal a march upon us. Greene’s sickness, I conjecture, has been the cause of this. We have not been sufficiently vigilant in obtaining information of the motions and numbers of the enemy after their landing on Long Island, in reconnoitring them, and in keeping out advanced guards and patrolling parties. Our officers do not seem sufficiently sensible of the importance of an observation of the King of Prussia, that stratagem, ambuscade, and ambush are the sublimest chapter in the art of war. Regular forces are never surprised. They are masters of rules for guarding themselves in every situation and contingency. The old officers among them are full of resources, wiles, artifices, and stratagems, to deceive, decoy, and overreach their adversaries. We must oppose art to art. We must not disdain to learn of them. Fas est et ab hoste doceri.

My mind is more and more engaged with the thoughts of the importance of introducing into our army officers of parts and ambition. Captain Lee has been constantly upon my mind ever since you mentioned him. His father’s merit and his own demand promotion for him. Pray let me know who are Nixon’s Lieutenant-Colonel and Major. Who are Learned’s Lieutenant-Colonel and Major? You said there were other young officers of parts and spirit in Glover’s regiment. Let me know the name and character of every one of them, I conjure you.

Have we not put too much to the hazard in sending the greatest part of the army over to Long Island, from whence there is no retreat? Will not the enemy, by making regular approaches upon us, be able to force us, by means of their bombs and carcasses, out of our lines?

2 September.

So! The fishers have set a seine, and a whole school, a whole school of fish have swum into it, and been caught! The fowlers have set a net, and a whole flock of pigeons have alighted on the bed, and the net has been drawn over them. But the most insolent thing of all is, sending one of those very pigeons as a flutterer to Philadelphia,1 in order to decoy the great flock of all. Did you ever see a decoy duck or a decoy brant?

Thank you for your last letter. There are a few words in it, which contain a hint of something, which, if fact, has been industriously hidden from us. “By the action of last Tuesday, we are convinced that many of our men are cowards.” I beg of you to explain this, in detail. Do you mean the men who were in the skirmish? Those in the lines on Long Island, or those in New York? Do not subscribe your name. It shall be a secret. But I conjure you, as you love your country, to let me know.

20 September.

We have so many reports here of the infamous cowardice of the New England troops, especially of Fellows’s and Parsons’s brigades, in running away in spite of their two Generals, and General Washington too, that I am ashamed of my country. Pray, let me know the truth, and whether there is less courage in the northern than southern troops. The report of Fellows’s and Parsons’s brigades is confirmed by the General’s letter.

[1 ]John Sullivan.