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

HENRY LAURENS TO JOHN ADAMS. - 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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HENRY LAURENS TO JOHN ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 4 October, 1779.

The receipt and perusal of your favor of the 10th ultimo afforded me a very high satisfaction. The answer with which you honored my letter of May, 1778, has not yet reached me.

From the earliest intelligence of your return to America, I felt a strong disposition to wait on you with a line or two of sincere congratulation on your happy return to your family and American friends; but there were certain irresistible pull-backs to the intended operation. I am not addicted to commonplace ceremony, and I perceived it extremely difficult to compose a palatable address of blended gratulation and condolence to an exauctorated fellow-citizen, who had deserved well of his country, and who, at the same time, stood in the most awkward situation that an honest, susceptible mind can be reduced to. Sent, without his own desire, and probably inconsistently with his interest and inclination, on an embassy beyond the Atlantic, kept unemployed, and in the course of a few months virtually dismissed, without censure or applause, and without the least intimation when or in what manner he was to return and report his proceedings; from these and other considerations I found myself constrained to wait future events. These, though a little clumsily brought forth, have happened as I wished; and now, my dear Sir, I not only congratulate you on a safe return, but I have another opportunity of rejoicing with my countrymen on the judicious choice which Congress have made in their late election of a minister plenipotentiary to treat—in due time, be it understood—with his Britannic Majesty on peace and commerce. The determination of Congress in this instance will be grateful to the people of these States, and may expiate the queernesses of some of the queerest fellows that ever were invested with rays of sovereignty. Let me entreat you, Sir, for my country’s sake, to accept the appointment without hesitation or retrospection; you know “whereof we are made.” Wisdom and patriotism forbid exceptions on account of past circumstances. I speak in pure truth and sincerity, and will not risk offence by uttering a word respecting your fitness, or peculiar or exclusive fitness for the important office; but I will venture to add, it is necessary you should accept and stand ready to execute it. Your determination to do so will make the true friends of American independence happy, and will abate their apprehensions from incompetency or negligence in other quarters. Not that I believe you will be directly the object of negotiation; the pride of our haughty enemy will lead him to manœuvre by mediation, and my ideas teach me to suppose you are for some time to remain behind the curtain; but the moment cannot be far distant, according to present appearances, when you will step on the stage, and act a part productive of substantial good to your country, of honorable fame to yourself and to your posterity. My prayers and good wishes for your success will be accompanied by the utmost exertions of my feeble powers to insure it.

I pay no regard to the slanders of stockjobbers, monopolists, nor any of the various tribes and classes of the enemies of our peace. It gives me some satisfaction, however, to know that better men think well of me; but I draw an infinitely more solid consolation from this knowledge, that I have uniformly striven to persevere faithfully and disinterestedly in the service of my country. This well-founded assurance will in every event, however untoward, calm the mind, and secure that peace, which neither the great nor the little world can give or rob me of. I have now no hope of embracing you corporeally on this or the other continent to which you are going; but as a good citizen, and fellow-laborer in the common cause, my heart will embrace you at whatever distance we may be from each other. Be this as it shall happen, should we be permitted to come within reach, I tell you plainly, and I know you will not be displeased, I shall prefer shaking hands in the old American style.

Should I be detained in Congress the ensuing winter, I mean to ask leave in the spring to visit Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as one of the last of my terrestrial peregrinations. That journey finished, I hope the times will give me leave to withdraw and learn to die, a science I most devoutly wish to enter upon with a sedulousness which the present day prohibits.

Commodore Gillon’s ill success in France may possibly abate a little of his fervor for accomplishing every thing by the force of his own powers. His expenses being fruitless, will make no inconsiderable deduction from our Carolina finances, and I am sorry to hear that when he returns to Charleston, he will be asked unpleasant questions respecting his general conduct, and Don Juan de Miralles complains heavily of one of his transactions at Havana. These are things of no immediate concern to you, nor would it be instructive to say, it is difficult to judge of men from appearances.

I wish I had time to speak of the awful state of our national debt and credit: the field is too wide for the compass of a letter; but believe me, Sir, while we are decorating our fabric, we are censurably careless of the foundation. Censure, if ever it comes, will not light wholly on those whom the pious Duffield calls “the great council of these States.” Each State, at too late a day, will find cause to apply blame to itself. We are at this moment on the brink of a precipice, and what I have long dreaded and often intimated to my friends, seems to be breaking forth—a convulsion among the people. Yesterday produced a bloody scene in the streets of this city;1 the particulars you will probably learn from other friends; and from circumstances which have come to my knowledge this morning, there are grounds for apprehending much more confusion. The enemy has been industriously sapping our fort, and we, gazing and frolicking; peradventure we, meaning every State, may improve the present alarm to good purpose; but what shall we do by and by, and not far distant, for quieting a hungry and naked army? Shall we call forth a grand convention in aid of the great council? This may become absolutely necessary.

I will presume on your kindness and friendship to trouble you by the next post with a packet for my friends in Europe, and no further in the mean time, but to subscribe with great truth, dear Sir, your faithful, obliged, and affectionate friend and servant,

Henry Laurens.

[1 ]This alludes to the “Fort Wilson riot,” a full account of which is given in Reed’s Life of Reed, vol. ii. pp. 149-152, and in the Appendix.