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

TO DANIEL WRIGHT AND ERASTUS LYMAN. - 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:

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TO DANIEL WRIGHT AND ERASTUS LYMAN.

Quincy, 13 March, 1809.

I have received your very civil letter of the 3d of this month with emotions very similar to those which I felt many years ago upon the following occasion.

Returning from Holland to Paris in 1784, I was invited to dine, with my wife and daughter, by the Baron de Stael, ambassador from Sweden. As I was the first of the corps diplomatique who arrived, the ambassador was showing me a fine portrait of the King of Sweden, his master, when the Count Deodati, ambassador from the Elector of Saxony, came in. After compliments to De Stael, Deodati turned to me, whom he had known several years before, and the following dialogue ensued.

Deodati.

Very well, Mr. Adams, you are a republican, I suppose.

Adams.

You are in the right, Mr. Ambassador, I have the honor to be a republican.

Deodati.

And your countrymen are republican, and your government is republican.

Adams.

Certainly. My countrymen are republicans, and our government is republican.

Deodati.

And you have made your countrymen and your government republican.

Adams.

Not at all, Sir. My country and its government have been republican from their origin, and long before I was born.

Deodati.

Very well. You at least have made your country very celebrated. You have made it independent. You have made an astonishing treaty with Holland. You have made a marvellous peace with England. You have made her acknowledge your independence.

Adams.

I beg your pardon, Sir. You are too polite. You do me too much honor. I have no pretensions to have performed all these great achievements. I have acted a part in some of these affairs.

Deodati.

But! Very well! I will now tell you the recompense you will receive for all that you have done.

Adams.

I shall be very glad to hear your prognostications concerning my destiny.

Deodati.

Your fortune will be that of all the republicans; of Aristides, of Phocion, of Miltiades, of Scipio, &c., &c.

Adams.

I believe it.

Deodati.

You believe it?

Adams.

Yes.

Deodati.

You will experience all the ingratitude, all the injustice of the ancient republicans.

Adams.

I expect it, and always have expected it.

Deodati.

You will be ill-treated, hated, despised, and persecuted.

Adams.

I have no doubt of all that. It is in the ordinary nature and course of things.

Diodati.

Your virtue must be very heroical, or your philosophy very stoical, to undertake all those adventures, with your eyes open, for such a reward.

So much for Deodati and his warning voice; and so much for my well-grounded anticipations. This is no fabulous dialogue of the dead, but strict historical truth. A curious coalition of French and English emissaries with federal and republican libellers, have so completely fulfilled the prophecy of Deodati and my own forebodings, so totally destroyed my reputation by their calumnies, that I have neither power nor influence to do any thing for my country, to assist her in her present distresses, or guard her against future calamities. Nothing remains to me but the right of private judgment, and that I exercise freely, and communicate my sentiments as freely to those who wish to know them.

I am totis viribus against any division of the Union, by the North River, or by Delaware River, or by the Potomac, or any other river, or by any chain of mountains. I am for maintaining the independence of the nation at all events. I am no advocate of Mr. Gore’s declaration of war against France. Knowing, as I do, from personal experience, the mutually friendly dispositions between the people of France and the people of America, Bonaparte out of the question, I shall be very sorry to see them converted into ill will, and old English prejudices revived. Lasting injuries and misfortunes would arise to this country from such a change. I am averse, also, to a war with England, and wish to maintain our neutrality as long as possible without conceding important principles. If either of the belligerent powers forces us all into a war, I am for fighting that power, whichever it may be.

I always consider the whole nation as my children; but they have almost all been undutiful to me. You two gentlemen are almost the only ones, out of my own house, who have for a long time, and I thank you for it, expressed a filial affection for

John Adams.