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

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, 4 November, 1779.

Your favors of October 12th and 19th are before me. I should not have left the first unanswered seven days, if it had not been for my new trade of a Constitution monger. I inclose a pamphlet as my apology. It is only a report of a committee, and will be greatly altered, no doubt. If the committee had boldly made the legislature consist of three branches, I should have been better pleased. But I cannot enlarge upon this subject.

I am pained in my inmost soul at the unhappy affair at Colonel Wilson’s house. I think there ought to be an article in the declaration of rights of every State, securing freedom of speech, impartiality, and independence at the bar. There is nothing on which the rights of every member of society more depend. There is no man so bad but he ought to have a fair trial, and an equal chance to obtain the ablest counsel, or the advocate of his choice, to see that he has fair play, and the benefit of truth and law.

Do not be discouraged, you will yet find liberty a charming substance. I wish I had Leonidas.1 Cannot you send it after me? Thank you for your congratulations on my new and most honorable appointment; honorable indeed, if it is possible for mortals to honor mortals. I am honored with an honor, however, that makes me tremble. Pray help me, by corresponding constantly with me, and sending me all the pamphlets, journals, news, &c., to a little success as well as honor.

Your congratulations on the Count d’Estaing’s operations are conceived in terms flattering enough. I will please myself with the thought that I had some share in bringing him here. If he only liberates Georgia and Rhode Island, which is already done, it is a great success; but I promise you, although I go to make peace, yet, if the old lady Britannia will not let me do that, I will do all I can in character to sustain the war, and direct it in a sure course. I must be prudent in this, however, which I fear is not enough my characteristic; but I flatter myself I am rather growing in this grace. And in this spirit I think, that although we have had provocations enough to excite the warmest passions against Great Britain, yet it is both our duty to silence all resentments in our deliberations about peace, and attend only to our interests and our engagements with our allies.

Nothing ever gives me so much pleasure as to hear of harmony in Congress. Upon this depend our union, strength, prosperity, and glory. If the late appointments give satisfaction, I am happy, and if the liberties and independence of our country are not safe in my hands, you may swear it is for want of brains and not of heart. The appointment of Mr. Dana could not be mended. He will go, and I shall be happy. You have given me pain by your account of the complaints against the director.1 I am sorry, very sorry!

What will you say, if I should turn your thoughts from politics to philosophy? What do you think of Dr. Franklin’s theory of colds? He is fixed in the opinion that we never take cold from the cold air, and wants the experiments of Sanctorius tried over again. Suppose you should make a statical chair, and try whether perspiration is most copious in a warm bed, or stark naked in the open air. I assure you, these branches of physics come within the circle of the sciences of the statesman; for an unlucky cold, which I have been much subject to all my days, may stop him in his career, and dash all his schemes; and it is a poor excuse to say he foresaw and provided against every event but his own sickness.

My partner, whose tender health and numerous family will not permit her to make me as happy as Mr. Jay, joins with me in the kindest compliments to you and Mrs. Rush. Adieu!

TO EDMUND JENINGS.

Amsterdam, 23 September, 1780.

I have received your favor, written after your return from Spa, and am very glad you had so pleasant a tour, and found so agreeable a reception.

I find that my friend in Philadelphia reprinted the letters on the spirit and resources of Great Britain, after which they were again printed in Boston, and much admired. A gentleman from Boston tells me he heard there that they were written by one Mr. Jenings. I wish his countrymen knew more than they do about that same Mr. Jenings.

I take a vast satisfaction in the general approbation of the Massachusetts Constitution. If the people are as wise and honest in the choice of their rulers as they have been in framing a government, they will be happy, and I shall die content with the prospect for my children, who, if they cannot be well under such a form and such an administration, will not deserve to be at all.

I wish the translation might appear as soon as possible, because it may have some effects here.1 It certainly will; for there are many persons here attentive to such things in English, whether in pamphlets or newspapers. I wish it was published in a pamphlet, and I could get a dozen of them. I begin to be more fond of propagating things in English, because the people, the most attentive to our affairs, read English, and I wish to increase the curiosity after that language and the students in it. You must know I have undertaken to prophesy that English will be the most respectable language in the world, and the most universally read and spoken, in the next century, if not before the close of this. American population will in the next age produce a greater number of persons who will speak English than any other language, and these persons will have more general acquaintance and conversation with all other nations than any other people, which will naturally introduce their language everywhere, as the general medium of correspondence and conversation among the learned of all nations, and among all travellers and strangers, as Latin was in the last century, and French has been in this. Let us, then, encourage and advise every body to study English.

I have written to Congress a serious request, that they would appoint an academy for refining, correcting, improving, and ascertaining the English language.1 After Congress shall have done it, perhaps the British king and parliament may have the honor of copying the example. This I should admire. England will never have any more honor, excepting now and then that of imitating the Americans.

I assure you, Sir, I am not altogether in jest. I see a general inclination after English in France, Spain, and Holland, and it may extend throughout Europe. The population and commerce of America will force their language into general use.

[1 ]An article signed with this name, written by Dr. Rush, and published in Dunlap’s paper at Philadelphia.

[1 ]Of the Hospitals. The allusion is to Dr. Shippen, and to the difficulties that took place between him and Dr. Morgan.

[1 ]A translation into French of Governor Pownall’s Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe. See vol. vii. p. 248, note.

[1 ]See vol. vii. p. 249.