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

8 Feb. 1778: TO BENJAMIN RUSH. - 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 BENJAMIN RUSH.

Braintree, 8 February, 1778.

Two days ago, I was favored with your polite and elegant letter of January 22d. I have received so many of your letters, within a few months, containing such important matters, in so masterly a style, that I am ashamed to confess that I have answered but one of them, and that only with a few lines. I beg you would not impute this omission to inattention, negligence, or want of regard, but to its true cause, a confusion of business. I beg leave to assure you that I hold your correspondence inestimable, and will do every thing in my power to cultivate it.

Whether I shall be able to render any valuable service to our country in my new capacity, or not, is to me very uncertain. All I can say with confidence is, that whether in that or any other, I will never knowingly do it any injury. In spite of all the reflections that are cast upon human nature, and of all the satires on mankind, and especially on courts, I have ever found, or thought that I found, honesty to be the best policy. And it is as great a truth now as it was three thousand years ago, that the honest man is seldom forsaken.

Your sentiments, that we are but half taught in the great national arts of government and war, are, I fear, too just. And I fear that the subject, which is at present most essentially connected with our government and warfare, I mean money, is least understood of any. I fear the regulation of prices will produce ruin sooner than safety. It will starve the army and the country, or I am ignorant of every principle of commerce, coin, and society. Barter will be the only trade.

You are daily looking out for some great military character. Have you found none? Let me entreat you, my friend, to look back on the course of this war, and especially through the last campaign, and then tell me whether many countries of the world have ever furnished more and greater examples of fortitude, valor, and skill, than our little States have produced. We do not attend enough to our heroes, and we are too indulgent to those of opposite characters. Barton, Meigs, Green, Smith, Willet, Gansevoort, Herkimer, Stark, Arnold, Gates, and many, many others, have exhibited to our view a series of actions, which all the exertions and skill of our enemies have never equalled in the present contest. I do not mean by this to derogate from the main army or its commander. Brandywine and Germantown can witness both bravery and skill, though unfortunate. The great fault of our officers is want of diligence and patience; they do not want bravery or knowledge. Let them learn to attend to their men, to their clothes, diet, air, exercise, medicines, arms, accoutrements, &c.; in short, let our officers learn to keep their men in health, &c., and to keep them together at their duty, not let twenty-five hundred men go to guard baggage wagons through a country where there could be no enemy, and I would answer for the bravery of our armies, for their discipline and good dispositions. If I may venture to prophesy, I think you will see in another campaign still greater exertions of heroism and magnanimity. The idea that any one man alone can save us, is too silly for any body but such weak men as Duché to harbor for a moment.

I am very glad you have not laid down your commission, and I conjure you, by all the ties of friendship to your country, not to do it. Men who are sensible of the evils in the hospital department, are the most likely to point them out to others, and to suggest remedies. Patience, patience, patience! the first, the last, and the middle virtue of a politician.

The lady you mention will not go abroad. A thousand reasons are against it. It would be too much happiness for him who is your sincere friend and servant.

TO JAMES LOVELL.

Passy, 27 November, 1778.

It is now a year since I left you, and I have heard very seldom from you since that time. I have written as often as I could, but so many vessels have been taken that I fear you have heard as seldom from me.

There is no news anywhere, excepting the innumerable reports circulated in every part of Europe by the emissaries of England, every one of which I know to be false. They still, however, find stockjobbers and other persons to believe them. These lies are calculated to make it believed, that there are great dissensions between the French and Americans, and between the Americans with one another. No extravagance is too great. Ten thousand of General Washington’s army gone over to Clinton. Count D’Estaing making a procession through the streets of Boston with the Host, and seizing a meeting-house for a chapel, and the d— knows what.

I suffer as much for want of intelligence from America, as we used to suffer in Congress for want of it from Europe.

Mr. D. writes a gentleman here, that on the 14th of September Congress took up foreign affairs, and determined to have but one commissioner here. If this is the case, I shall be at a loss how to conduct myself, unless you recall me. Dr. F., no doubt, will be appointed for this court. If you appoint me for any other, especially that which is mentioned to me, Vienna, it will be more disagreeable to me than to be recalled; because Vienna is the court of all Europe, as I conceive at present, the least likely to receive your agent. I should, therefore, be reduced to the necessity of residing at Paris in idleness, or of travelling to Germany, and living there in greater idleness still; in either case, at a great and useless expense.

In time of peace, nothing would give me greater pleasure than travelling; but at present my heart is too much affected with the miseries of this war, for me to take pleasure in a mere gratification of curiosity, or even a pursuit of taste in arts, or knowledge in sciences. To return home immediately, some persons here say would give offence, and be wrong. To wait to write for leave, would be losing time, and putting you to some expense; however, I will determine nothing until I know what is done. Remember me with the tenderest affection, and greatest respect to your colleagues, and all others that deserve it.

TO MRS. WARREN.

Passy, 15 December, 1778.

Madam,—

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of your obliging letter of the 15th of October. It came by the post, and single, not a line from any other person, so that I knew not by what means it reached Lorient. It was not, however, the less welcome to me. Its intrinsic excellence would have recommended it, whoever had written it. The merit of the writer would have made it dear to me, if the letter itself had been indifferent, a supposition not very easy to make in this case.

I am sorry, very sorry, for our common country, that the unshaken patriot you mention should think of retiring;1 but I cannot blame him, because my own thoughts are constantly running in the same way, and I am determined, with submission, to do the same thing.

I hope, however, Madam, that there is not so total a change of manners, as some appearances may indicate. A paper currency, fluctuating in its value, will ever produce appearances in the political, commercial, and even the moral world, that are very shocking at first sight; but, upon examination, they will not be found to proceed from a total want of principle, but, for the most part, from necessity.

Who will take the helm, Madam, and, indeed, who will build the ship, I know not. But of one thing I am well convinced, that a great part of the evils you mention arise from the neglect to model the Constitution and fix the Government. These things must be finished, and the dispute, who shall be the head, is much less important than whether we shall have any.

I am happy to learn, Madam, that so many of the most respectable strangers have had an opportunity to visit you. I am pleased with this, because it has given you an opportunity of speculating upon these illustrious characters, and because it has given them an opportunity of observing that their new ally can boast of female characters equal to any in Europe.

I have not the honor to know Mrs. Holker. She lives at Rouen, at a distance. However, I have gratified Mr. H.’s father with a sight of his son’s portrait drawn by a lady, which he could not read without the tears gushing from both his eyes.

As to portraits, Madam, I dare not try my hand as yet. But my design is to retire, like my friend, and spend all my leisure hours in writing a history of this revolution, and, with a hand as severe as Tacitus, I wish to God it was as eloquent, draw the portrait of every character that has figured in the business. But, when it is done, I will dig a vault, and bury the manuscript, with a positive injunction that it shall not be opened till a hundred years after my death.

What shall I say, Madam, to your question, whether I am as much in the good graces of the ladies as my venerable colleague? Ah, no! Alas, alas, no! The ladies of this country, Madam, have an unaccountable passion for old age, whereas our countrywomen, you know, Madam, have rather a complaisance for youth, if I remember right. This is rather unlucky for me, because here I have nothing to do but wish that I was seventy years old, and, when I get back to America, I shall be obliged to wish myself back again to five-and-twenty.

I will take the liberty to mention an anecdote or two, Madam, among a multitude, to show you how unfortunate I am in being so young. A gentleman introduced me, the other day, to a lady. “Voilà, Madame,” said he, “Monsieur Adams, notre ami, le collègue de Monsieur Franklin.” “Je suis enchanté de voir Monsieur Adams,” answered the lady. “Embrassez le donc,” replied the gentleman. “Ah, non, Monsieur,” said the lady, “il est trop jeune.

So that you see I must wait patiently full thirty years longer before I can be so great a favorite.

Madam, I can give you no news. The Lords and Commons have refused to censure the manifesto of the commissioners. That unhappy nation are going on in their frenzy; but there is an awful gloom and melancholy among them, and with reason.

[1 ]General Warren.