Adams Papers
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Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, 16 January 1803

Abigail Adams to Mercy Otis Warren

Quincy Jan’ry 16th 1803

my Dear Madam

It was with much pleasure I recognized the Hand writing of an old Friend, tho only in the Signature of her name.1 it recall’d to mind those days of pleasureable intercourse, “when thought met thought,[”] and a happy union of sentiment endeard our Friendship, which neither time, or distance has effaced from my Bosom.2 I have sympathized with You, in sickness and in Sorrow, much oftner than my pen has detailed it to you.— I too have tasted of the bitter cup of affliction—and one is not, cut off in the Meridian of Life.

I was happy that my son had an opportunity of paying his respects to the ancient Friends of his parents. We should be equally glad to see Your sons when ever they pass this way. his visit to Plimouth was necessarily short, or he would have spent more time with You.

You observe that you have not Seen any effect of my pen for a long time; Indeed my Dear Madam, I have avoided writing for these two Years past a single Letter, except to my Sister, and Children. the Sacred Deposit of private confidence has been betrayed, and the bonds of Friendly intercourse Snapt assunder to Serve the most malicious purposes; even a jocular expression, has been made to wear the garb of Sober reality; the most innocent expressions have been twisted, mangled & tortured into meanings wholy foreign to the Sentiments of the Writer. I have been ready to exclaim with the poet, “What Sin unknown dipt you in Ink?[”]3

There now lies before me an Ægis of the present year; in which is draged to light, the intercepted Letter, said to have been written to your Worthy Husband, in the year 1775,4 and publishd in an English Magazine. The design of the publisher appears from the introduction of the Letter, to make it believed, that the person alluded to as a pidling Genius, was Gen’ll Washington, and5 that the Supposed writer, was engaged in a plot to get him removed from the command of the Army. that he possesst a Sanguinary revengefull temper, and was desirious of punishment without mercy:6 without adverting to the period when the Letter was written the State of the country at that time, before the declaration of Independance had Sit it free from the Shackles and Chains which were prepared for it, and when we were hazarding an attempt to form a Government for ourselves. it was natural for the Letter Writer to inquire; will your judges be Bold? will they feel firm? will they dare to Execute the Laws, under their present circumstances? with their Capitol in the possession of a powerfull Enemy, and many of their near and dear Friends Shut up within it, Prisoners to them. The old Actors are gone off the Stage. few remain who remember the perils and dangers to which we were then exposed, and fewer still who are willing to do Justice to those who hazarded their lives and fortunes, for to Secure to them the blessings which they now possess, and upon which they Riot, and Scoff. little regard is paid to that prohibition, thou Shalt not bear false witness, or to that System of Benevolence which teaches us to Love one another, and which I trust, we my dear Madam Shall never lose sight of, however reviled and despightfully used.7

Your Friends tho not exempt from the infirmities of age, are in the enjoyment of many blessings, amongst which is a comfortable portion of Health, and rural felicity. We enjoy the present with gratitude, and look forward to brighter prospects, and more durable happiness in a future State of existance, where we hope to meet, and rejoice with those whom we have loved, and revered upon Earth—

as to the little pecuniary matter between us, which but for your reminding me of, would never have been recollected by me, I know not where the papers are. I have not seen them or thought of them for many years; I have not any thing upon Book and the amount can be but a triffel, and I beg you not to give yourself any further concern about it—as I have not any demand upon you, but a continuence of that Friendship and regard, commenced in early Life, and never designedly forfeited.8

by Your Friend

Abigail Adams

Both mr Adams and your Friend unite our best wishes for the Health and happiness of Genll Warren and yourself and Family.

RC (MHi:Warren-Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs Mercy Warren / Plimouth”; endorsed: “Mrs. Adams / Jany 1803”; notation: “No 23.” Dft (Adams Papers).

2Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard,” line 95.

3Pope, “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot,” lines 125–126.

4In the Dft, AA inserted and canceled: “which was taken by the British officer.” The Worcester, Mass., National Aegis, 5 Jan., republished letters JA wrote to AA and James Warren on 24 July 1775, for which see vol. 1:255–257; JA, Papers description begins Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor, Gregg L. Lint, Sara Georgini, and others, Cambridge, 1977– . description ends , 3:89–93; and JA, D&A description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 2:174–175, which were intercepted and printed in Massachusetts and British newspapers the same year. In the letter to James Warren, JA referred to John Dickinson as a “piddling Genius.” The National Aegis explained its purpose: “The object of presenting them to the Public at this time, is to show in what estimation the leading patriots of ’75 were held, by a certain great revolutionary character. The reader is left to conjecture who is meant, by ‘a certain great fortune, and piddling genius.’” The newspaper was edited by Worcester lawyer Francis Blake (1774–1817), Harvard 1789, who used the pseudonym Hector Ironside (Jeffrey L. Pasley, “The Tyranny of Printers”: Newspaper Politics in the Early American Republic, Charlottesville, Va., 2001, p. 218–219; Thomas P. Hughes and Frank Munsell, eds., American Ancestry, 12 vols., Albany, N.Y., 1887–1898, 9:238).

5In the Dft, AA added here: “to Coroborate Pains Story.”

6In the Dft, instead of the preceding six words, AA wrote: “wished to Hang Whip and fine without Scruple.”

7In the Dft, AA concluded this paragraph, “the rising generation will not find a departure from these Maxims and principles, conducive to their personal happiness or security, for without those restraints the turbulent passions will run Riot—and lay waste both Religion & Government upon they find it necessary untill Some daring ambitious Spirit, rises up and makes his little finger heavier than the loins of those who have gone before him.”

8In the Dft, AA added: “and Which I trust will continue endure untill Death separates us.”

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