Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 3 Dec. 1800: TO DR. OGDEN. - 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

3 Dec. 1800: TO DR. OGDEN. - 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 DR. OGDEN.

Washington, 3 December, 1800.

I have received, this evening, your favor of the 26th November, with the pamphlet inclosed.1 I have run it over in more haste than it was written in, but am so far possessed of its purport as to be better pleased that it was written in thirty hours, than if it had been the elaborate production of a week, because it shows the first impressions of the writer upon reading the pamphlet it is an answer to. This last pamphlet I regret more on account of its author than on my own, because I am confident it will do him more harm than me. I am not his enemy, and never was. I have not adored him, like his idolaters, and have had great cause to disapprove of some of his politics. He has talents, if he would correct himself, which might be useful. There is more burnish, however, on the outside, than sterling silver in the substance. He threatened his master, Washington, sometimes with pamphlets upon his character and conduct, and Washington, who had more regard to his reputation than I have, I say it with humility and mortification, might be restrained by his threats, but I dread neither his menaces of pamphlets nor the execution of them. It would take a large volume to answer him completely. I have not time, and, if I had, I would not employ it in such a work, while I am in public office. The public indignation he has excited is punishment enough. I thank you, Sir, for this valuable present. I shall preserve it for my children.

[1 ]“A letter to Major-General Hamilton, by a Citizen.”