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

20 May 1789: TO RICHARD PRICE. - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO RICHARD PRICE.

New York, 20 May, 1789.

I last night received your friendly letter of March the 5th, and am happy to find that I have a place in your remembrance. There are few portions of my life that I recollect with more entire satisfaction than the hours I spent at Hackney, under your ministry, and in private society, and conversation with you at other places. The approbation you are pleased to express of my speculations on the subject of government, is peculiarly agreeable to me, because it goes a great way to convince me that the end I had in view has been in some degree answered, and will be more so. It was not to obtain a name as an author, or a reputation for literary talents, that I undertook the laborious work. If such had been my object, I certainly should have taken more time to digest and connect it. But it appeared to me, that my countrymen were running wild, and into danger, from a too ardent and inconsiderate pursuit of erroneous opinions of government, which had been propagated among them by some of their ill informed favorites, and by various writings which were very popular among them, such as the pamphlet called Common Sense, for one example, among many others; particularly Mrs. Macaulay’s History, Mr. Burgh’s Political Disquisitions, Mr. Turgot’s letters. These writings are all excellent in some respects, and very useful, but extremely mistaken in the true construction of a free government. To accomplish the good I had in view, I thought it would be more useful and effectual, to lay facts, principles, examples, and reasonings before my countrymen, from the writings of others, than in my own name. This has given an air of pedantry to the books, which I despise; but it has answered the end in a manner more effectual than if I had contrived it with more art to promote my own reputation. Our new Constitution is formed, in part, upon its principles, and the enlightened part of our communities are generally convinced of the necessity of adopting it, by degrees, more completely.

Your monthly reviewers thought themselves very sagacious in conjecturing that I had a point to carry! They will now, I suppose, glorify themselves in the belief that their conjecture was right, and that I have carried my point. Shrewd, however, as they think themselves, they are mistaken. Had my books been contrived for any selfish purpose, they would have certainly been modelled in a more popular manner. If those writings have contributed to procure me the confidence of my fellow-citizens, I shall rejoice in them the more as a sure proof that they have convinced many already, and that they will continue to operate a complete reformation of every thing yet wrong, and produce in the end what I think the most perfect form of government. I am now very happy with our illustrious chief and many of my old friends, and firmly trust in the goodness of Providence for aids to accomplish the great work of forming institutions for a great continent, which may leave them their liberty and happiness for many generations.

TO HENRY MARCHANT.

New York, 18 August, 1789

I have received your kind and obliging letter of the 16th of July, and am sorry that the extreme heat of the weather, and a constant attendance on the duties of an office which is somewhat laborious and fatiguing, have prevented my giving it an earlier answer. The approbation you are pleased to express of my public conduct, is a great satisfaction to me. It is true that I have run through a course of dangers, hardships, and fatigues, by sea and land, and a series of perplexed negotiations among various nations, and at different courts, which have never fallen to the lot of any other American, and scarcely to any other man. But although I may flatter myself that under the favor of Heaven I have had as much success as could have been rationally expected, yet I find myself obliged with you to lament that our countrymen have not availed themselves of the advantages which Providence has placed in their power. After a generous contest for liberty, of twenty years’ continuance, Americans forgot wherein liberty consisted. After a bloody war in defence of property, they forgot that property was sacred. After an arduous struggle for the freedom of commerce, they voluntarily shackled it with arbitrary trammels. After fighting for justice as the end of government, they seemed determined to banish that virtue from the earth. Rhode Island has carried all these errors to their extremes, but there is not any State in the Union which is wholly free from the same mistakes. I should denominate this conduct guilty as well as erroneous, if I were not sensible that it has been owing to the loss of that balance in our government which can alone preserve wisdom or virtue in society. The whole continent seems at present sensible that much has been wrong, and desirous of reformation. But there are obstacles in the way, among which the unnatural conduct of Rhode Island is not the least. You will add greatly to your merits towards your country by your exertions to bring your follow-citizens into a right way of thinking in this respect.

It is very true that several of those loose conjectures of an imagination, wandering into futurity, which you are pleased to dignify with the magnificent appellation of “prophetic declarations,” have been brought to pass in a singular manner, for some of which I had much less reason to offer than for that which has not been accomplished relative to yourself. This, however, is still not impossible, nor perhaps improbable. The solemn declaration, which you call prophetic, and say has come to pass, made on the floor of Congress, respecting the late confederation, just as we had closed it, I do not distinctly recollect. I should be much obliged to you if you would write me as particular an account of it as you can recollect.1Hæc olim meminisse juvabit.

I must now thank you for your polite and friendly attention to my family when at Newport. They speak with much gratitude of the civilities they received both there and at Providence, and we live in hopes of seeing you in Senate before another year is completed.

TO SILVANUS BOURN.

New York, 30 August, 1789.

I have received your letter of the 18th of this month, and have communicated that to the President which was inclosed in it. The particular office you solicit by that letter will be sought by numbers, and among them probably will be men advanced in life, encumbered with large families, in necessitous circumstances perhaps occasioned by public services, by depreciated public promises, &c. The President will, as he ought, weigh all these particulars, and give the preference upon the whole as justice, humanity, and wisdom shall dictate. There is another gentleman who has applied for it, whose pretensions, perhaps, will have great weight, and will be supported by recommendations of the first sort.

I must caution you, my dear Sir, against having any dependence on my influence or that of any other person. No man, I believe, has influence with the President. He seeks information from all quarters, and judges more independently than any man I ever knew. It is of so much importance to the public that he should preserve this superiority, that I hope I shall never see the time that any man will have influence with him beyond the powers of reason and argument.

Who is it, pray, that has been honoring Vice in poetry?

TO JAMES SULLIVAN.

New York, 17 September, 1789.

In your letter of the 18th of August, you ask why we may not have as much paper in circulation in proportion to our circulating silver and gold, as Great Britain has in proportion to hers. Give me leave to answer you without hesitation. We may, as soon as we shall have any credit. We have none. No man of common sense will trust us. As long as an unlimited democracy tyrannized over the rich, no man of property was safe. If ever an unlimited aristocracy shall tyrannize over the poor and the moderately rich at once, the greater portion of society will not dare to trust the less. But if a government well ordered, mixed, and counterpoised should take place, and in consequence of it the commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” be observed, then and not till then you may circulate what paper you may find necessary. But I doubt very much whether our circumstances will require any paper at all. The cash paid in imposts will immediately be paid to creditors, and by them circulated in society.

TO MARSTON WATSON.

Braintree, 7 November, 1789.

The letter you did me the honor to write me on the 30th of September has been to New York, and from thence transmitted to this place; but it never reached my hand till the night before last. The sentiments of esteem for my private character, expressed by gentlemen who are probably strangers to me, are very obliging, and the approbation of my public conduct abroad lays me under still greater obligations.

The fisheries are so essential to the commerce and naval power of this nation, that it is astonishing that any one citizen should ever have been found indifferent about them. But it is certain that at a time when there were reasons to expect that more than one foreign nation would endeavor to deprive us of them, there were many Americans indifferent, and not a few even disposed to give them away. A knowledge of this was the first and strongest motive with me to embark for Europe a first and a second time. After all, however, the final preservation of the fisheries was owing to causes so providential, that I can never look back upon them without reverence and emotion. Your approbation, Sir, and that of your friends, of the part I acted in that negotiation, give me great pleasure.

The present of four boxes of fish has been received in my absence by my family; and is in every point of view very acceptable to me. As an amateur, I shall regale myself and my friends; as a wellwisher to the trade, I shall endeavor to make the dish fashionable at New York. I pray you and your companions to accept of my sincere thanks for the favor, and my best wishes for their pleasure, profit, and prosperity in the prosecution of the fisheries. May you and they live to see a commerce and a naval power growing out of your occupations, which shall render this the first and most respectable of maritime nations!

[1 ]See vol. iii. p. 70, note.