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

TO BENJAMIN STODDERT. - 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 STODDERT.

Quincy, 31 March, 1801.

On the evening of the 18th, a few minutes after my arrival at this place, commenced a violent equinoctial gale of wind, accompanied with a flood of rain, from the north-east, which has continued, with very short intervals, to this day, and confined me to my house. This is so old fashioned a storm, that I begin to hope that nature is returning to her old good-nature and good-humor, and is substituting fermentations in the elements for revolutions in the moral, intellectual, and political world. I can give you no information of the politics of this State, having had little opportunity to converse with any of the knowing ones.

We know nothing with any certainty of the acts of our Executive at Washington; who are to go out, and who to come in; whether the Virginia system is to be a copy of that of Pennsylvania, or whether it will be original. Appointments of Mr. Dallas and Mr. Dawson are announced, and as these characters are not held in great veneration here, they are not much admired. We federalists are much in the situation of the party of Bolingbroke and Harley, after the treaty of Utrecht, completely and totally routed and defeated. We are not yet attainted by act of Congress, and, I hope, shall not fly out into rebellion. No party, that ever existed, knew itself so little, or so vainly overrated its own influence and popularity, as ours. None ever understood so ill the causes of its own power, or so wantonly destroyed them. If we had been blessed with common sense, we should not have been overthrown by Philip Freneau, Duane, Callender, Cooper, and Lyon, or their great patron and protector. A group of foreign liars, encouraged by a few ambitious native gentlemen, have discomfited the education, the talents, the virtues, and the property of the country. The reason is, we have no Americans in America. The federalists have been no more Americans than the anties.

Your time is too precious to be wasted in idle correspondences; but, if you have a moment to spare, you will oblige me by giving me news of your welfare. My family present their high regards to yours. I have not seen any of the attacks upon you, nor any of your defence. Indeed, I have no great anxiety or curiosity to know the productions of malevolence. I am, and ever shall be, I believe, world without end, your friend, &c.