1IV. A Proclamation by the General Court, 19 January 1776 (Adams Papers)
The frailty of human Nature, the Wants of Individuals, and the numerous Dangers which surround them, through the Course of Life, have in all Ages, and in every Country impelled them to form Societies, and establish Governments. As the Happiness of the People alone , is the sole End of Government, So the Consent of the People is the only Foundation of it, in Reason, Morality, and the natural...
2To John Adams from James Sullivan, 9 May 1776 (Adams Papers)
To intrude on one who in the greatest Political Tempest is Tyed to the helm of the Mighty Vessel of Empire, wrecked and tossed by the Whirling blasts of Despotism, must give disagreeable Sensations to one (if there is such) of less Sensibility than myself—but as the greatest Events are Swiftly impelling each other upon us, and each moment in the present being worth an age in any other Time I...
3From John Adams to James Sullivan, 26 May 1776 (Adams Papers)
Your Favours of May 9th. and 17th. are now before me; and I consider them as the Commencement of a Correspondence, which will not only give me Pleasure, but may be of Service to the public, as, in my present Station I Stand in need of the best Intelligence, and the Advice of every Gentleman of Abilities and public Principles, in the Colony which has seen fit to place me here. Our worthy...
4To John Adams from James Sullivan, 22 September 1776 (Adams Papers)
Since I received your favour of the 27th of May on the Subject of Representation I have heard of a Letter being in the post office in Boston for me which I flattered myself was from you in reply to my answer to yrs above mentioned but some body has taken that with one other out of the office and embezzled them. In my answer to yours of the 27th of May I let you know that I was convinced, that...
5James Sullivan to John Adams and Elbridge Gerry, 11 October 1776 (Adams Papers)
There is no measures conceivable to me that can save this Country from utter ruin but the raising an Army to serve during the present War which to all appearance will be yet of very considerable duration. I therefore am much pleased that the Congress are taking measures to that purpose and wish their present measure may prove Effectual but am constrained to say that there is not in my mind the...
6To John Adams from James Sullivan, 24 July 1782 (Adams Papers)
Your Numerous friends will undoubtedly give you by this Conveyance all the news we have in this part of the world, but that you may not think me wanting in that respect which we all owe to your public Character, and that Esteem I ever had for you in private life, I intrude this letter upon you: I have not however the ambition to wish you would acknowledge the receipt of it, because I am...
7From John Adams to James Sullivan, 6 September 1782 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with your Letter of the 24. of July and feel myself under Obligations to you for it, So much the greater as it contains freer Sentiments than most of my Friends ever write me, and as it is almost the only Letter, I received by that Conveyance, except from my Family. My Friends Sir have almost forgotten me, by Way of Retaliation I Suppose for my Apparent Neglect of them. I have...
8To John Adams from James Sullivan, 21 December 1783 (Adams Papers)
To trouble you with a Letter merely by way of compliment, or to have it known that I assume the freedom of writing to you is quite out of the way of my practice. nor can I say any thing respecting our Confederation, or constitution, but what you are perfectly acquainted with— but as M r Cranch tells me that you complain of the remisness of your friends on this side the water for not giving you...
9John Adams to James Sullivan, 20 April 1784 (Adams Papers)
I am very much obliged by your Favour of the 21. of December. it is a great Pleasure to learn that the Treaty of Peace gives Satisfaction. The Preservation of the Fishery, is the more prescious, as it appeared for Several Years together to be in great danger. In danger I mean of being given up, by the United States themselves, for the Sake of Peace.— it is not in our Power to do any Thing...
10James Sullivan to John Adams, 22 November 1784 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the 7th Sep r. I had a few days ago, shall Set off for Trenton within three days, and shall not fail to communicate One Paragraph of your Letter, the inconvenience of public parsimony I have experienced So much as gives me a full Idea of your feelings. I rejoice with you that you are again with an agreeable and charming family after so long an absence from domestic felicity, I...
11John Adams to James Sullivan, 11 March 1785 (Adams Papers)
I have received within a few days your obliging Favour of Nov: 22. The Removal of Congress to New York, where their residence will probably be uninterrupted for sometime will I hope have a good Effect, towards raising the Respect to that august Assembly, and reconciling the People, to such general Measures as are indispensable. The People will be less jealous, if Mr: Gerry’s aversion to an...
12From John Adams to James Sullivan, 26 April 1785 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday at the Marquis de la Fayette’s, he told me, that he had received a Letter from M r: Gerry, in which he was surprized to be informed that the French Chargé des Affaires had demanded M r: Longchamps to be given up. This was unexpected to him, he said, as he had understood at Court that the Ministry were pretty well contented with the Sentence against M r: Longchamps. He thought too...
13To John Adams from James Sullivan, 7 June 1785 (Adams Papers)
I had the honor on the 2 d Instant of receiving your much Esteemed favour of the 11th of March. you have I hope, already received an Act of Congress which may serve as an answer to your reasoning on the necessity of our having A minister at the Court of London. before this can reach you, the accounts of a sad agitation in the Commercial Circle of your Country, but more Especially in your...
14From John Adams to James Sullivan, 16 August 1785 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I received your favor of June. 7 th. and the day before I received from Boston the Navigation-Act of Massachusetts. It is probable that our People flatter themselves that this act, and other measures tending to the same end in other States will intimidate the English Nation & force them into an advantageous treaty of Commerce. If such are their views they will be disappointed, as far...
15To John Adams from James Sullivan, 10 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
By the Ship which will sail in a day or two, I beg leave to inform you that our Situation in america is, by no means so pleasing as would be agreeable to you, the poverty of the general treasury, as soon as the money now resting in holland shall be exhausted will be very distressing. a reluctance in the Legislatures to levy taxes and a greater in the people to pay them seem to urge us with...
16To John Adams from James Sullivan, 23 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
I had your favour of the 16 th. of August Yesterday, and am exceeding glad that it came at this time because I am frequently applied to for my Sentiments upon the propriety of the Navagation act of this State and being clear in my own opinion that it ought not to be repealed I can Say it with more confidence when my sentiments so exactly coincide with yours. but as the People here are much...
17To John Adams from James Sullivan, 24 October 1785 (Adams Papers)
I beleive you will be tired of my correspondence not only from the length of my letters but from the Melancholly things I always tell you. Since I Sealed the enclosed I have heard something of the Province of main which I cannot but communicate to you as interesting and important. upon the 10th instant there was a convention held at Falmouth the president was Gorham the Judge of probate of the...
18To John Adams from James Sullivan, 16 December 1786 (Adams Papers)
I have neglected writing to you perhaps more than I Should have done had I not supposed that your Numerous correspondents had become a burden to you. indeed our Country has afforded but little lately to write upon. I have been here seventeen days on a mission to settle by a way of Compromise with the State of N York a Controversy between our Commonwealth and them respecting the Western...
19To John Adams from James Sullivan, 10 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
The Communicating our Sentiments to men in power, when done with the respect due to their characters, and without a troublesome intrusion, is at all times a mark of Veneration and esteem. upon these ideas I Venture to address a letter to the Vice President of the United states, and which he will read, when his leisure will admit a moment of heedless employment. I am very deeply impressed with...
20From John Adams to James Sullivan, 18 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the 10 th. and am obliged to you for a free Communication of Your sentiments upon some important points. The situation of Rhode-Island, North Carolina and Vermont, must be disagreable to themselves as well as to their neighbours. Congress is not inattentive to either. What measures they may think proper to take is as yet to be determined— It is reported here that...
21To John Adams from James Sullivan, 2 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
When I had the honor of addressing a Letter to your Excellency, upon a subject of allowed importance to the united States, I did not indulge a hope, that you would step aside from the important concerns in which you are engaged, to acknowledge the receipt of it. nor was I vain enough to imagine, that I was able to Suggest one thought, which was not fully possessed by the Learned body of...
22From John Adams to James Sullivan, 14 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favor of the second of this month. The report I mentioned to you in a former letter, was spoken of to me by gentle n: from Rhode Island, who are good citizens. One of these assured me of the fact as of his own knowledge, that there was an intimate intercourse between some of the leading antifederalists in their State and some of the same character in Massachusetts,...
23To John Adams from James Sullivan, 23 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have to acknowledge the honor of receiving your Letter dated the 14th July. as to the subject respecting an opposition to the constitution of the united states, there are no doubt men in every society whose desperate Fortunes render them alike Enemies to all Government, but the people with very few exceptions, and these by no means important consider the Government of the united states as...
24From John Adams to James Sullivan, 17 September 1789 (Adams Papers)
In your letter of the 18 th of August, you ask why we may not have as much paper in circulation in proportion to our circulating silver and gold, as Great Britain has in proportion to hers? Give me leave to answer you without hesitation. We may as soon as we shall have any credit.— We have none. No man of common sense will trust us. As soon as an unlimited democracy tyrannized over the rich,...
25From John Adams to James Sullivan, 21 September 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your letter of the 23 of July remains unanswered. There is in the United States and the regions to the southward of it a body of people, possesed of too much of the public confidence who are desperately in debt, and therefore determined all or any government, which shall have power to compel them to pay. Untill the property possesed by some of these men shall change hands, no government will...
26To John Adams from James Sullivan, 2 October 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have to aknowledge the honor of receiving yours of the 17 th & 21 st. instant In my Letter of the 18th of agust, I suggested to your consideration, the idea of encreasing the circulating medium of the united states, by some kind of paper Credit. I hinted that I beleived, the duties, and Impost, Established, would call for more cash than is in circulation within the union, and that there was...
27To John Adams from James Sullivan, 23 April 1795 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with your letter of this date, and am highly flattered by your expressions of approbation on my book called the history of the district of maine. I should have not imposed the task of that work on myself, with my other avocations, if I could have procured any other person to undertake it. I have attended to your remark on the sentiment in page 299: and should be exceedingly...
28To John Adams from James Sullivan, 30 July 1796 (Adams Papers)
Upon contemplating the subject of settleing the eastern boundary of the untied States, and attending to of expression in the treaty of 1795, that the commissioners shall decide what river was intended by the commissioners at Paris in 1783, as the Saint Croix; I am of opinion that it is necessary to establish the facts, that Mitchells map was, as an authority before the commissioners, and that...
29From John Adams to James Sullivan, 2 August 1796 (Adams Papers)
I received; last Evening the Letter you did me the honour to write me, the 30th of July, and am ready to give you all the Information in my power Mitchel’s Map s was the only one, which the Ministers Plenipotentiary of The United States and The Minister Plenipotentiary of great Britain made use of in their Conferences and Discussions relative to the Boundaries of the United States, in their...
30To John Adams from James Sullivan, 29 September 1798 (Adams Papers)
I am very sensible that this is out of proper mode of communication to the President of the United States; but there are certain considerations which I hope will form an apology for the intrusion I have the honor to be / with the most perfect / respect your humble / Servant MHi : Adams-Hull Collection.