Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO HANNAH ADAMS. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO HANNAH 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.

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 HANNAH ADAMS.

Philadelphia, 10 March, 1791.

I have this day received your obliging letter of the 21st of February, including a copy of a proposed dedication. Your request of my permission to dedicate to me the second edition of your View of Religions, is very flattering to me, because, although I am ashamed to acknowledge I have never seen the book, I know its reputation to be very respectable, not only in this country, but in Europe. Although I am conscious that some of the compliments intended me have not been so well merited as I wish they had been, I shall leave to your inclination and discretion every thing of that kind; only requesting that all titles, literary or political, may be omitted, and that the address may be only to John Adams, Vice-President of the United States of America. If you please, you may receive me into the list of your subscribers for three copies bound.

You and I are undoubtedly related by birth, although personally unknown to each other, and although we were both “born in humble obscurity,” yet I presume neither of us has any cause to regret that circumstance. If I could ever suppose that family pride were any way excusable, I should think a descent from a line of virtuous, independent New England farmers for a hundred and sixty years, was a better foundation for it than a descent through royal or noble scoundrels ever since the flood.

I am, Miss Adams, very sincerely your well wisher.

TO JOSEPH WARD.

Philadelphia, 6 April, 1797.

I received yesterday your favor of the 27th of March, for which I thank you.

The strain of joy at a late event, and of panegyric on the subject of it, serve, among some other instances, to convince me that old friendships, when they are well preserved, become very strong. The friends of my youth are generally gone; the friends of my early political life are chiefly departed; of the few that remain, some have been found on the late occasion, weak, envious, jealous, and spiteful, humiliated, and mortified, and duped enough by French finesse and Jacobinical rascality, to show it to me and to the world. Others have been found faithful and true, generous and manly. From these I have received letters and tokens of approbation and friendship, in a style of ardor, zeal, and exultation, similar to yours.

Your postscript is a morsel of exquisite beauty and utility. My life will undoubtedly depend in a great measure on my observance of it. The labor of my office is very constant and very severe, and before this time you will have seen enough to convince you that my prospects, as well as yours, are grave. I should be much obliged to you for your sentiments, and those of the people in general about you, concerning what ought to be done.

TO HENRY GUEST.

Philadelphia, 3 January, 1799.

I have just received your favor of the 1st of this month, and am much pleased that you think my answers to addresses patient, fatherly, and patriotic. I believe with you in the profound patriotism at the bottom of the hearts of our countrymen very universally. Clitus, I think, describes the ship in more danger than she is.

I received the panegyric on General Anchoret, and a political speech, and read them with pleasure.

The coat of mail, if it answers your description, must be a useful invention. Do you think the French will come here with their bayonets to pierce it?

I care very little what shall be written on my gravestone, only I hope it will tell no untruth. I like your epitaph as well as any.

  • “Who British, French, and Moorish bribes withstood,
  • Not for his own but for his country’s good.”

As I do not choose to correspond with any one who is ashamed of his correspondent, I shall certainly frank this letter, for to you it will not be worth the postage.