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

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. - 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 THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Philadelphia, 26 May, 1777.

I had this morning the pleasure of your agreeable favor of the 16th instant, by the post, and rejoice to learn that your battalions were so far filled as to render a draught from the militia unnecessary. Draughts are dangerous measures, and only to be adopted in great extremities, even by a government the most popular; although in such governments draughts will, perhaps, never be made but in such cases,—cases in which the people themselves see the necessity of it, which is widely different from draughts made by monarchs to carry on wars in which the people can see no interest of their own, nor any other object in view than the gratification of the avarice, ambition, caprice, envy, revenge, or vanity of a single tyrant. Draughts in the Massachusetts have not been unpopular, as they have been managed; for the persons draughted are commonly the wealthiest people, who become obliged to give large premiums to their poorer neighbors to take their places.

The great work of confederation drags heavily on; but I do not despair of it. The great and small colonies must be brought as near together as possible, and I am not without hopes that this may be done to the tolerable satisfaction of both. Your thought, Sir, that any proposition may be negatived by the representatives of a majority of the people, or of a majority of States, shall be attended to; and I will endeavor to get it introduced, if we cannot succeed in our wishes for a representation and a rule of voting perfectly equitable, which has no equal in my mind.

Nothing gives me more constant anxiety than the delays in publishing the journals. Yet, I hope gentlemen will have a little patience with us. We have had a committee constantly attending to this very thing for a long time. But we have too many irons in the fire, you know, for twenty hands, which is nearly the whole number we have had upon an average since last fall. The committee are now busy every day in correcting proof-sheets, so that I hope we shall soon do better. A committee on the post-office, too, have found a thousand difficulties. The post is now extremely regular from north and south, although it comes but once a week. It is very difficult to get faithful riders to go oftener. And the expense is very high, and the profits, so dear is every thing, and so little correspondence is carried on except in franked letters, will not support the office. Mr. Hazard is now gone southward, in the character of surveyor of the post-office, and I hope will have as good success as he lately had, eastward, where he put the office into very good order.

We have no news from the camp but that the General and army are in fine spirits, and begin to feel themselves powerful. We are anxiously waiting for news from abroad, and for my own part I am apprehensive of some insidious manœuvre from Great Britain to deceive us into disunion and then to destroy.

We want your industry and abilities here extremely. Financiers we want more than soldiers. The worst enemy we have now is poverty, real poverty in the shape of exuberant wealth. Pray come and help us to raise the value of our money and lower the prices of things. Without this we cannot carry on the war; with it, we can make it a diversion.

No poor mortals were ever more perplexed than we have been with three circumstances at once, any one of which, coming alone, would have been sufficient to have distressed any people. I mean a redundancy of the medium of exchange, a diminution of the quantity at market of the luxuries, the conveniences, and even the necessaries of life, and an increase of the demand for all of them, occasioned by two large armies in the country.

I shall ever esteem it a happiness to hear of your welfare, my dear Sir, and a much greater still to see you once more in Congress. Your country is not yet quite secure enough to excuse you for retreating to the delights of domestic life; yet, for the soul of me, when I attend to my own feelings, I cannot blame you.