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

5 Feb. 1805: TO F. A. VANDERKEMP. - 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 F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Quincy, 5 February, 1805.

This day I received your favor of the 15th of last month. You and I are in the same predicament. You are buried and forgotten, as you say, in the western wilderness, and I am buried and forgotten at Mount Wollaston; but I believe you are happier than you were when bustling in Holland, and I am very sure I have been happier for these four years past, than I ever was in any four of forty years before that term began. From the year 1760 to the year 1800 I was swallowed up in cares, anxieties, and exertions for the public. At the close of the 18th century, I was dismissed, to the joy of both parties, to a retirement in which I was never more to see any thing but my plough between me and the grave. I submitted without murmuring, complaint, or dismay, and have enjoyed life and health with gratitude, calmness, and comfort. I cannot always be free from apprehensions for the public; but as all responsibility is cheerfully taken away from me by both parties, I have no fears of future remorse or reflection on myself for any errors or miscarriages of my own.

Such is the nature of the people, and such the construction of our government, that about once in a dozen years there will be an entire change in the administration. I lived twelve years as President and Vice-President; Jefferson may possibly last sixteen; but New York and Pennsylvania cannot remain longer than that period in their present unnatural attachment to the southern States, nor will the natural inconstancy of the people allow them to persevere longer in their present career. Our government will be a game of leap-frog, of factions leaping over one another’s backs about once in twelve years, according to my computation.

I am fearful of nothing more than of what you prognosticate, that the people at next change will “fearfully avenge themselves and their wrongs on some of the objects of their present idolatry.” The federalists, however, will be too wise to be vindictive.

Franklin’s parable against persecution was borrowed from Bishop Taylor, who quotes it from some of the cabalistical writings, as I understood. It is certain that Franklin was not the inventor of it.

The dart of Abaris might be the northern light, for what I know, but it will be difficult to prove it. Who, pray, is Sarbienus? I never heard of him, and cannot find his name in the Dictionnaire Historique, nor Moreri, nor any other writer. You must erase every word of panegyric upon Buffon and Jefferson, for Buffon was an atheist and Jefferson is President of the United States.