8761From John Adams to John Taylor, 25 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
The Corporeal Inequalities among Mankind, from the Cradle, and from the Womb, to the Age of Oglethorp and Parr, the intellectual Inequalities from Blackmore to Milton, from Cocker to Neuton and from Behmen to Lock, are So obvious and notorious, that I could not expect they would have been doubted. The moral Equality, that is, the Innocence, is only at the Birth; As soon as they can walk and...
8762From John Adams to John Taylor, 27 December 1814 (Adams Papers)
When Superior genius gives greater Influence in Society than is possessed by inferiour Genius or a mediocrity of Genius, i.e than by the ordinary level of Men, this Superiour Influence, I call natural Aristocracy. This cause you Say is “fluctuating.” What then? It is Aristocracy Still while it exits. And is not Democracy “fluctuating” too? Are the Waves of the Sea, or the Winds of the Air or...
8763From John Adams to James Madison, 1815 (Adams Papers)
Benjamin Wells Esqr and his Lady are very ambitious of paying their respects to President Madison and his Lady. The Gentleman’s Grandfathers were two as respectable Characters as any in Boston. One of them, Chief Justice Pratt of New York was one of my Patrons at the Barr in 1758; and his Memory will forever be held in veneration by me. The Lady is a Daughter of our late Governor Sumner and a...
8764From John Adams to Richard Rush, 2 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for yours of Dec. 24. I Still entertain hopes that New England will not be forever alienated from the Southern and the middle States, and therefore take with pleasure, the Liberty of introducing Some of our most promising Young Gentlemen. Mr Gray is on his Travels and Mr George Ticknor. I believe I did not give the latter a Line to you. He has a most amiable Character. He is Said to...
8765From John Adams to Horatio Gates Spafford, 2 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I resigned the office of President of the Academy, before your nomination, and have not since attended a meeting of that learned, and respectable Assembly. When I shall embrace my Son, a felicity for which I devoutly pray, I know not. The President & Mr Munroe’s wishes are complementary, but a great gulph is fixed between him and them. I wish we may not have cause to repent of continuing our...
8766From John Adams to Alexander Bryan Johnson, 2 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I thank you for your work on value and for that on Expatriation. They are great subjects The first has employed the greatest heads, not only Adam Smith & Sir James Steuart, the Chevalier Pinto and Mr McKean, and French Economists have exhausted all their wits upon it; but the reasoning faculties of Locke, & the mathematical inspiration of Newton have been applied to it to great advantage....
8767From John Adams to John Taylor, 7 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have not yet finished what the Poets call an Episode, and Prosemen a digression. Can you Account for a caprice in the public opinion! Burke’s “ Swinish Multitude ,” has not be half so unpopular, nor exited half the Irritation, Odium, Resentment, or Indignation, that “ Well born ” and “Better sort,” have produced. Burke’s Phrase nevertheless must be allowed to be infinitely more...
8768From John Adams to John Taylor, 9 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
I am Still upon Birth and my Seventh Argument is. 7. It was a Custom among the Greeks and Romans; probably in all civilized Nations to give Names to the Castles Palaces and Mansions, of their Consulls Dictators and other Magistrates Senators &c This practice is still followed in England France Etc. Among the Ancients the distinctions of Extraction were most commonly marked by the Spots on...
8769From John Adams to John Peter De Windt, 11 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
Thanks for your favour of the 2d. I rejoice in your health and that of all your connections; and am not a little pleased with your situation in New York with your Caroline and especially with your determination to compleat your studies in the Law and be called to the Bar. The Profession is the most liberal in society, let the Priests say what they will. A Man of Integrity Talents and Urbanity,...
8770From John Adams to Alexander Bryan Johnson, 11 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
For myself and all my Family, I reciprocate to you and yours, the Compliments of the Season. At my Age, one knows not what a year or a day may produce or destroy. To you and yours I wish health long life and every blessing. I hope you will not keep a very Strict Account of Dr and Cr with me in the commerce of letters. I Should be obliged to you, for as large and as long Credit, without...
8771From John Adams to John Taylor, 12 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
A Word or two more upon Birth. 10thly. Birth is naturally and necessarily, and inevitably So connected and blended with Property Fame, Power, Education, Genius, Strength Beauty, Learning Science Taste, Figure Air, Attitudes, Movements &c &c &c that it is often impossible and always difficult to Seperate them. Two Children are born on the Same day, of equal Genius; one the Son of Mr Jefferson,...
8772From John Adams to John Taylor, 13 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
In page 10. You Say, “Mr Adams, has omitted a Cause of Aristocracy in the quotation, which he forgets not to Urge, in other places; namely, exclusive Wealth.” This is your Omission, Sir, not mine. In page 109 Vol. 1. I expressly enumerated “Inequality of Wealth” as one of the causes of Aristocracy, and as having a natural “and inevitable influence in Society.” I Said nothing about “exclusive”...
8773From John Adams to John Taylor, 16 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
Give me leave to add a few Words, on this Topick. I remember the Time when three Gentlemen, Thomas Hancock, Charles Apthorp and Thomas Green, the three most oppulent Merchants in Boston, all honourable virtuous and humane Men if united could have carried any Election, almost unanimously in the Town of Boston. Harrington, whom I read forty or fifty Years Ago and Shall quote from Memory, being...
8774From John Adams to John Taylor, 18 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
“Knowledge” you Say invented Alienation, and became the natural Enemy of Aristocracy. This “Invention” of “Knowledge” was not very profound or ingenious. There are hundreds in the Patent office more brilliant. The Right, Power and Authority of Alienation is essential to Property. If I own a snuff box, I can burn it in the Fire, cast it into a Salt pond crush it to attoms under a Wagon Wheel,...
8775From John Adams to John Taylor, 19 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
Suppose Congress Should at one Vote, or by one Act, declare all the Negroes in the United States, free, in imitation of that Great Authority the French Sovereign Legislature? What would follow? Would the Democracy, Nine in ten, among the Negroes be gainers? Would not the most Shiftles among them be in danger of perishing for Want? Would not Nine in ten perhaps Ninety nine in a hundred of the...
8776From 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...
8777From 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...
8778From John Adams to James Lloyd, 28 January 1815 (Adams Papers)
Although I have no recollection, that I ever met you more than once in Society; and that I presume was the instance that you have recorded; Yet I feel as if I was intimately acquainted with you. The Want of familiarity between Us, I regret, not only because I have known esteemed and I may Say, loved your Family from an early Age: but especially, because whatever I have heard or read of your...
8779From John Adams to James Lloyd, 6 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
In my first Letter, I requested the favour of you, to recollect and consider the positive and relative state of this Nation at the time when my “Missions to France” were instituted. I now request you to look over the List, of Senators and Representatives in Congress, at that time, and then tell me whether you think that the War Party had influence enough in this Nation to carry on a long War...
8780From John Adams to James Lloyd, 11 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
We are ignorant, as you intimate, of one another. We are ignorant of our own Nation; We are ignorant of the Geography, the Laws, Customs and maners and habits of our own Country. Massachusetts, as knowing as any State in the Union, is deplorably ignorant of her Sister States, and what is more to be lamented Still, She is ignorant of herself. She is composed of two Nations, if not three. One...
8781From John Adams to James Lloyd, 14 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
The Quakers, as I said in my last, were in Principle against all Wars, and moreover greatly prejudiced against New England and personally against me. The Irish, who are very numerous and powerful in Pensylvania, had been and Still were Enthusiasts for the French Revolution, extreamly exasperated against old England, bitterly prejudiced against New England, Strongly inclined in favour of the...
8782From John Adams to James Lloyd, 17 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have never known in any Country the Prejudice in favour of Birth Parentage and Descent more conspicuous than in the Instance of Colonel Burr, That Gentleman was connected by blood with many respectable Families in New England: he was the Son of one President and the grandson of another President of Nassau Hall or Princeton University, the Idol of all the Presbyterians in New York, New...
8783From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 20 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. your Letter of Oct. 27. 1814. and that of 26. of November. I congrtulate you on the harmony between you and your Colleagues an inexpressible Felicity of which I have not always been So fortunate as to enjoy the Sweets. I congratulate you also on the Peace and the glorious moment in which the News of it arrived. The Raptures of Joy I leave the Newspapers to describe. It is my...
8784From John Adams to James Lloyd, 21 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
In my Letter of the sixth of this Month, No. 2, I asked you “If three, or five Millions could not be borrowed under an Interest of Eight per Cent you may easily conjecture, how soon We should have Seen, as glorious a Bankruptcy, as We now feel.” In your Letter to me of the Same date, February the sixth, you admit that all would have proved “fallacious,” if publick “Credit had become as...
8785From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 22 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
Alexander Hill Everett Esquire, a Genteman of the Bar in Boston, who had his Law Education in the Office of my son John Quincy Adams: and accompanied him to Russia, five or Six years ago, and afterwards travelled, in various parts of Europe, is to be Secretary of Legation to our Embassy to Holland. He is elder Brother to the Reverend Mr Edward Everett, and as great a schollar. He wishes me to...
8786From John Adams to William Stephens Smith, 22 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I rejoice in your Recovery from Sickness and wish a perfect restoration of your health—I think I may Congratulate you on the Glorious termination of the War. The Rejoicings here are enthusiastic, If Such Rejoicings here are at my Peace with France in 1800, had been Exhibited, would the Condition of our Country at this hour however have been better? Tallard when he had been beaten and taken...
8787From John Adams to Catherine Elizabeth Murray Rush, 23 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
My obligation for your charming Letter of the first of this month is so great that I am ashamed to acknowledge my fault in neglecting so long an Answer to it. The indisposition of my invaluable Friend Mr Rush, has been a severe Affliction to me and to your Friend Mr Adams. We rejoice in the hopes of his recovery, though the progress of it may be slow, as often has been experienced by me and...
8788From John Adams to François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 23 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
Your favr. of Dec. 17. 1814 has lain too long unnoticed. “Votre deuil vous plait.” I have before recommended to you the Precepts and Example of Epictetus: I now Shall refer you to another respctable Authority and bright Pattern. Forty five years ago, living in cold Lane in Boston, and holding my Barristers Office in Kings Street I walked four times a day by an obscure house, in which I...
8789From 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...
8790From John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 25 February 1815 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of October. 27. 1814. and that of 26 of November. I congratulate you on the harmony between you and your Colleagues, an inexpressible Felicity of which I have not always been so fortunate as to enjoy the Sweets. I congratulate you also on the Peace and the glorious moment in which the News of it arrived. The Raptures of Joy I leave the Newspapers to describe. It is...