31From John Adams to Jeremy Belknap, 5 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have this Evening received, your favour of May 30 th. inclosed with a Sermon at the Installation of M r Morse. This elegant Discourse, I have read with the more pleasure, because that, besides the good Sense, the moral Sentiments and christian Benevolence which it breaths, I had the last Week an Opportunity of commencing an Acquaintance with M r Morse himself, who appears to be an...
32From John Adams to Richard Peters, 5 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I had the Pleasure of receiving your Letter of the 28 th. of May. M r Beals Intention was not to Stay in Philadelphia more than two or three days, and his absence from this Place was accordingly very short. I thank you, for your obliging Enquiries after him, and for your kind offers of Civility to others of my Friends. I hope e’re long to be in a Condition to receive any Friend of...
33John Adams to Abigail Adams, 6 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I must now most Seriously request you to come on to me as soon as conveniently you can. never did I want your assistance more than at present, as my Physician and my Nurse. my disorder of Eight years standing has encreased to such a degree as to be very troublesome and not a little alarming.— I have agreed to take Col Smith and his Family and Furniture into the House with us and they will be...
34From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 9 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
No! You and I will not cease to discuss political questions: but We will agree to disagree , whenever We please, or rather whenever either of Us thinks he has reason for it.— I really know not what you mean by apeing the Corruptions of the British Court. I wish Congress had been called to meet at Philadelphia: but as it is now here, I can conceive of no way to get it transported thither,...
35From John Adams to Samuel Barrett, 11 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honour to write me on the first of this month with its inclosures: The Letter to The President is conceived with propriety & expressed with decency. As the Investigation of the Characters, Services, Qualifications, and all other pretensions of every Candidate for public employment, is constitutionally, in the President in the first Instance; General...
36From John Adams to James Bowdoin, 11 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have recieved the Letter you did me, the honour to write me, on the 30. of May: but have not yet had an opportunity to See M r Boid. Whenever that Gentleman shall appear, it will be a pleasure to me to give him all the Attention and Assistance, in my Power, which may be due to public Justice, and to your Recommendation. We proceed Slowly: but in digesting Plans so new, so extensive and so...
37From John Adams to William Tudor, 12 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your Letters put me more and more out of Patience every Post.— Why, in that of the 6 th. do you call our national Government a federal Republick ? It is no more that, than it is Sphœrical Trigonometry. What is a federal Republic? It is an association of a Number of independent Sovereign States.— Are the Seperate States in our national Government, Sovereign and independent? If they are, We had...
38From John Adams to Cotton Tufts, 12 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
The last Evenings Post favoured me with yours of the 6 th . Many Gentlemen are in favour of a national Excise: and Some would have the nation take upon itself all the State Debts. M r Morris particularly: but I cannot say what will be done. My Burthens are not very heavy: but my health is not very good.— I have been obliged to decide many questions on the Impost Bill, the Senate being equally...
39From John Adams to Richard Peters, 18 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
Success you say, in yours of the 15 th. stamps a substantial value upon measures, Yet the Motto under a Picture of O. Cromwell, is not without its Justice It is a saying in France, “We can never be ruined, for if our ruin had been possible, it would have been accomplished long ago, since the wisest Heads in France have been these hundred Years employed in doing all they could to effect it”—...
40From John Adams to James Searle, 18 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received your Letter of the 10 th. and in answer to your question, I have no scruple to say, that on your arrival in Holland you appeared to me to take as effectual measures as any man could then have taken to obtain a loan to the state of Pensylvania: But that such was the situation of Affairs, that it was next to Impossible to obtain any considerable Loan for the United states Jointly...
41From 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...
42From John Adams to Benjamin Lincoln, 19 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I am honoured with yours of the 30 th. of May, and find We are well agreed in opinion in all points. Nothing Since my return to America, has alarmed me So much, as those habits of Fraud, in the Use of Language which appear in conversation and in public writings. Words are employed like paper money, to cheat the Widow and the fatherless and every honest Man. The Word Aristocracy is one...
43From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
Your Single Principle, in your Letter of the 15 th must fail you.— You say “that Republican Systems have never had a fair Tryal.”— What do you mean by a fair Tryal? and what by Republican systems.— Every Government that has more than one Man in its soverignty is a republican system. Tryals innumerable have been made. as many as there have existed Nations. There is not and never was, I believe,...
44From John Adams to George Washington, 20 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
Among the Candidates for the Honour of public Employment, under the New Government there is one, whose connection in my family, and public relation to me, in the late legation to S t. James’s would render my total silence on his account, liable to misinterpretation, as proceeding, either from a want of esteem, confidence, or affection for him on the one hand, or to a failure of respect to The...
45From John Adams to Jabez Bowen, 26 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I received your letter of June. 16: and am glad to learn that you “gain a little.” If as I have learnt from D r Manning, the leaders of your councils have an intercourse with the dissaffected in the Massachusetts, and as appears by your letter a correspondence with antifederal members of a more august body: it is probable there is a chain of communication throughout the states. If such should...
46From John Adams to Uzal Ogden, 26 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me, on the twefth of this month, with the first number of a new periodical publication. I have not been able, as yet to find time to read the whole of the christian schollars and farmer’s magazine, but upon looking over several parts of it, they appear to me to correspond with the title, and to be well calculated “to promote religion,...
47From John Adams to Eliphalet Pearson, 26 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
By my Son Charles, who arrived Yesterday, in good Health, I received the Letter you did me, the honour to write me, on the fifteenth of this month with the Letters enclosed for the Duke D’Almodavar and the Marquis De Santa Cruz.— These Letters Shall be delivered as you desire, to my Friend, Don Diego De Gardoqui, by the first Opportunity and that Minister will no doubt be flattered with the...
48From John Adams to William Tudor, 28 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I Shall not grant the Indulgence you request in yours of the 21 st , most certainly: I mean that for hastily adopting Expressions, which are So often improperly used by Massachusetts Politicians. Our Fellow Citizens will never think alike nor act aright, untill they are habitually taught to Use the Same Words in the Same Sense. Nations are governed by Words, as well as by Actions; by Sounds as...
49From John Adams to Cotton Tufts, 28 June 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received your favour of the 22.— M rs Adams, M r Charles and Miss Louisa, arrived on Wednesday the 24 th. after a tedious Passage of five days from Newport. We are all very happy. M r Samuel Tufts needs no other merit but that of being your Brother, to convince me that he has a great deal: but if he is a Candidate for any Employment he must apply directly to the first Magistrate. The...
50From John Adams to William McPherson, 4 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received your polite letter of the second of this month, and am obliged to you for this instance of respect and attention to me. The competition for employment under the national government, is, I preceive, in Philadelphia, very numerous, and the merits of various candidates are considerable The personal knowledge of the President, and the able and faithful characters within the reach...
51From John Adams to George Mason Jr., 4 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
With great pleasure, I received your kind letter of the twenty fifth of last month, give me leave to congratulate you on your marriage, the increase of your family, and your happy settlement on your plantation. I have known by repeated experience enough of the pleasure of returning from the life of a traveller in Europe, to the pleasures of domestic life, in a calm retreat in the country, to...
52From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 5 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
Without waiting for an Answer to my last, I will take a little more notice of a Sentiment in one your Letters. You Say you “abhor all Titles.” I will take the familiar freedom of Friendship to say I dont believe you.— Let me explain my self.— I doubt not your Varacity. but I believe you deceive yourself, and have not yet examined your own heart, and recollected the feelings of every day and...
53John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 9 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I thank you my dear Son, for your dutiful Letter of the 28 th. of June, and rejoice, with exceeding Joy, in the recovery of your health My Advice is, to give yourself very little Thought about the Place of your future Residence. a few Months will produce changes that will easily Settle that Question for you. M r Parsons’s great Law Abilities make me wish that the Public may be availed of them,...
54From John Adams to Francis Dana, [10 July 1789] (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write on the 26 th of last month and am much obliged to you for it. The Judicial bill is still under consideration of the senate, and altho’ it has undergone many alterations and amendments it is imposible to say what farther changes may be made in the house of representatives. The district Judges may be annihilated altogether, and the number...
55From John Adams to Stephen Higginson, 14 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I received your favor of the 4 th of this month, but not till the impost bill was enacted and published. In the progress of that law, through the several branches of the legislature, the arguments in favor of a drawback on rum were insisted on by several members of each house. But I think it was not shewn with sufficient evidence, nor explained with so much precision as I expected, how it...
56From John Adams to Thomas Mifflin, 14 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me on the third of this month, and I thank you for giving me an opportunity of renewing a friendly intercourse which has continued I beleive with some interruption for these seventeen years. I was early acquainted with the activity, Zeal, and Steadiness of Capt: Falconer in the cause of his country: but as the number of competitors for...
57From 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,...
58[John Adams’ Diary resumes.] (Adams Papers)
Mr. Carrol. The Executive Power is commensurate with the Legislative and Judicial Powers. The Rule of Construction of Treaties, Statutes and deeds. The same Power which creates must annihilate.—This is true where the Power is simple, but when compound not. If a Minister is suspected to betray Secrets to an Ennemy, the Senate not sitting, cannot the President displace, nor suspend. The States...
59[Notes of Debates in the United States Senate] July 15. 1789. (Adams Papers)
Mr. Carrol. The Executive Power is commensurate with the Legislative and Judicial Powers. The Rule of Construction of Treaties, Statutes and deeds. The same Power which creates must annihilate.—This is true where the Power is simple, but when compound not. If a Minister is suspected to betray Secrets to an Ennemy, the Senate not sitting, cannot the President displace, nor suspend. The States...
60From John Adams to John Jenks, 15 July 1789 (Adams Papers)
I received your letter of the first of this month and thank you for you kind congratulations. The application in favor of Joseph Hiller to be naval officer for the port of Salem must be made by himself or friends to the President. The indispensible duties of my office render it impossible for me to give much attention to nominations and appointments in the executive departments: but if this...