1From John Adams to John Taylor, 24 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
The Correction in your favour of the 10th is exact. I pray you to restore No. 24 to its place No. 3 and all the Subsequent ones to their Ranks. In future I will correct the procedure. But it may be Some time before I can go on, for I have So many Irons in the fire, that I cannot bring them at once on the Anvil and hammer them all in the nick of time. I have not numbered this because it is a by...
2From John Adams to John Taylor, 12 December 1813 (Adams Papers)
By a great favour and a mere Accident, I have lately obtained for a few hours, the loan of A Volume, by Arator, which has interested me So much that I have an earnest desire to purchase it: but know not where to apply for it. I am informed it is your Work, and as I really think it is the most valuable Treasure of Agricultural and horticultural Knowledge that has yet been given by any...
3From John Adams to John Taylor, 6 May 1814 (Adams Papers)
I chearfully interrupt the series of Letters, I was writing to you, to acknowledge the Receipt of your’s of April 24 and that of the 24th of December last I am Somewhat Surprised, at the Failure of Memory in Mr Wythe, which appears in your Letter; for it is as certain as his Existence upon Earth, that the first Project of a Government that I ever, put upon Paper, was at Mr. Wythe’s express...
4From John Adams to John Taylor, 3 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
I have recd your favour of May. 20, with the thoughts on Government, returned in good condition. The Outline of a Militia in the 22d page, has been Since adopted in Massachusetts. This Commonwealth alone, had at the declaration of the present War, One hundred and thirty Seven Pieces of brass Cannon, belonging to as many Companies of Artillery, ready to march at the command of Government In...
5From John Adams to John Taylor, 24 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
That the first Want of Man is his Dinner, and the second his Girl, were truths well known to every Democrat and Aristocrat, long before the great Phylosopher Malthus, arose, to think he enlightened the World by the discovery of them. It has been equally well known, that the Second Want is frequently So impetuous as to make Men and Women forget the first; and rush into rash Marriages, leaving...
6From John Adams to John Taylor, 21 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
You remember I have reserved a right of employing twenty years to answer your Book, because you consumed that number in writing it. I have now written you thirty Letters and have not advanced beyond a dozen pages of your Work. At this rate I must ask indulgence for forty or fifty years more. You know that your Amusement and my own are the principal Objects that I have in View. In the fine...
7From John Adams to John Taylor, 14 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
Mr Adams’s System is that of Pope, in his Essay on Criticism; “First follow Nature and your Judgment frame By her just Standard, which is still the Same.” This Rule, Surely cannot “arrest our efforts” or “appal our hopes. ” Study Government, as you build Ships or construct Steam Engines. The Steam Frigate will not defend New York, if Nature has not been studied and her Principles regarded. And...
8From John Adams to John Taylor, 12 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
In this fourth page you say, that “Mr. Adams’s System tells Us that the Art of Government can never Change.”— I have said no such thing, Mr. Taylor.!—I know the Art of Government has changed, and probably will change as often as the Arts of Architecture, painting Sculpture Music, Poetry, Agriculture, Horticulture, Medicine &c that is to Say almost as often as the Weather or the fashion in...
9From John Adams to John Taylor, 7 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
In the third page of your “Inquiry”, is an Assertion, which Mr. Adams has a right to regret as a gross and egregious misrepresentation. He cannot believe it to have been intentional. He imputes it to haste; to ardor of temper; to defect of memory; to any thing, rather than design. It is in these Words, Mr. Adams asserts, “that every Society naturally produces, an order of Men, which it is...
10From John Adams to John Taylor, 4 June 1814 (Adams Papers)
When your new Democratical Republick meets, you will find half a dozen Men of independent Fortunes; half a dozen, of more Eloquence than learning; half a dozen, with more Learning than Eloquence; half a dozen, with Eloquence, Learning and Fortune. Let me See;We have now, four and twenty. To these We may add Six more, who will have more Art, Cunning and Intrigue, than Learning Eloquence or...