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

TO JOHN AVERY, JUNIOR. - 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 JOHN AVERY, JUNIOR.

Philadelphia, 21 March, 1777.

Sir,—

I had this morning the pleasure of your favor of the 7th instant, and am glad to learn that my letter to you of the 10th of February was conveyed safely to your hand, and am obliged to you for communicating the resignation inclosed in it to the honorable Board.1

It would give me a great deal of uneasiness, if the honorable Board should not proceed forthwith to fill up the vacancy, if I thought, as you seem to suggest, that they would postpone it until they should see me; because the public must suffer in the mean time, and the vacancy must be filled up, after all, with some other gentleman. The resignation, you saw, was the result of long and anxious deliberation, was founded in reasons that will not alter, and, therefore, there will be no change in my determination. The difficulty you insinuate of finding a proper person, is merely imaginary. There is not a more suitable person in the State, nor belonging to it, than the very worthy gentleman who now presides in that court; and other gentlemen enough may be found to fill the place which will be left open by the removal of him and his honorable brothers, much more suitable to sit in that seat than I am.

The hope you give me, that our quota will be ready in a few weeks, rejoices me much. We want nothing but an army, new in the field, to answer our purpose. I had this morning the pleasure of a conversation with Major-General Mifflin, who assures me that he has tents of the very best quality completely ready for an army of twenty thousand men to take the field, and that, in three weeks, he shall have enough completed for ten thousand more; that he has intrenching tools enough completed for the whole army the whole campaign; that he has camp-kettles and canteens enough, and that he has horses, wagons, and magazines of forage ready. So that this department, which was last year in so much disorder, which occasioned us such losses of men, baggage, and stores, is now in a good arrangement, and promises more comfort to the army. We are making every regulation in our power in the medical department, and a fine cargo of drugs has arrived, in addition to a large quantity before purchased by Dr. Shippen. So that we comfort ourselves with hopes that the health of the men will be better provided for than last year. In the commissary’s department, I am informed that large quantities of meat have been salted down, that the men may not be obliged to live altogether upon fresh beef, as they did the last summer, in the extremest heat of the weather, which was thought to be prejudicial to their health.

We are doing every thing in our power for the discipline and the comfort of the army. Nothing in this contest has ever given me so much pain as the sufferings of the soldiers in sickness and for want of discipline, to which, indeed, that sickness was in a great measure owing.

You had good reasons for your expectations that we should have a hard struggle with Great Britain. Whoever has attended to the policy of the British court, and studied the characters which composed it, from the year 1761, must have seen abundant evidence of a fixed design to subjugate America to the complete domination of parliament; must have observed how systematically they have proceeded with all their art and all their force to accomplish this detestable purpose. Whoever was acquainted with the national history, must have been convinced how completely their government was corrupted, and the persons concerned in it lost to all the ties of honor, virtue, and religion;—ties which once restrained that nation; ties which alone can restrain any people from robbing and plundering all whom they think in their power. Whoever was acquainted with America, knew how unprepared she was; how inexperienced as statesmen and warriors; how unprovided with warlike stores; how defenceless in fortified places; and, what is infinitely worse than all the rest, how much infected with that selfishness, corruption, and venality (so unfriendly to the new governments she must assume), which have been the bane of Great Britain. Every such person, therefore, must have expected a hard struggle. Hard as it is, however, it will succeed. May Heaven direct us, and conduct us safely in due time to liberty, to virtue, and, of course, to glory!

[1 ]Of the place of Chief Justice. Vol. iii. p. 25, note.