George Washington Papers
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From George Washington to John Adams, 20 February 1797

To John Adams

[Philadelphia] Monday 20th Febry 1797

Dear Sir,

I thank you for giving me the perusal of the enclosed.1 The sentiments do honor to the head & heart of the writer; and if my wishes would be of any avail, they shd go to you in a strong hope, that you will not withhold merited promotion from Mr Jno. Adams because he is your son. For without intending to compliment the father or the mother, or to censure any others, I give it as my decided opinion, that Mr Adams is the most valuable public character we have abroad; and that there remains no doubt in my mind that he will prove himself to be the ablest, of all our diplomatic Corps.

If he was now to be brought into that line, or into any other public walk, I could not upon the principle which has regulated my own conduct, disapprove of the caution which is hinted at in the letter.2 But he is already entered; the public, more and more as he is known, are appreciating his talents & worth; and his country would sustain a loss if these were to be checked by over delicacy on your part. With sincere esteem and affectionate regard I am ever Yours

Go: Washington

ALS, MHi: Adams Papers; ALS (retained copy), DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW. Beneath the signature of the ALS, Adams wrote the following note, which he signed “J. A.” and which he preceded with the salutation, “My dearest Friend”: “This is too prescious a morsell to go out of your hands.” Adams wrote the note to his wife, Abigail, to whom he forwarded the letter (see n.1 below).

1GW enclosed the letter of 14 Nov. 1796 from John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams. In that letter, dated at The Hague, John Quincy Adams had written: “The appointment to the mission of Portugal … was … unknown to my father. I have already written you upon the subject, and I hope my ever dear and honoured mother that you are fully convinced from my Letters … that upon the contingency of my father’s being placed in the first magistracy, I shall never give him any trouble, by sollicitation for Office of any kind. … I have indeed long known that my father is far more ambitious for my advancement, far more sollicitous for the extension of my fame, than I ever have been, or ever shall be myself; but I have hitherto had the satisfaction to observe that the notice with which my Country and its Government have honoured me, and the confidence which they have been pleased repeatedly to repose in me have been without the smallest agency of my father, other than the recommendation which his services carried with them.” After discussing his future wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson, Adams praised his parents: “To love his Country and venerate his Parents is undoubtedly among the most imperious duties of Every Man; but I am bound to mine by more than ordinary ties; by the obligations of such tenderness, and indulgence, such inestimable instruction and virtuous principles … that I should indeed disgrace the name and character of Man, if I could dismiss the remembrance or the sense of them for a moment from my heart and mind.” John Quincy devoted the remainder of the letter to European politics (Adams Family Correspondence description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends , 11:404–8).

Abigail had received John Quincy’s 14 Nov. letter on 9 Feb. 1797. She immediately forwarded it to John Adams, who in a letter of 20 Feb., informed her that he had shown it to GW: “John’s [letter] is gone to the P.—I could not withhold it. … Johns Letter … is the most beautiful Thing I ever read” (Adams Family Correspondence description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends , 11:567–68). John Adams later returned to Abigail both John Quincy’s 14 Nov. 1796 letter and GW’s 20 Feb. letter to him (John Adams). In a letter to John Quincy Adams of 3 March 1797, written from Quincy, Mass., Abigail copied out GW’s 20 Feb. missive and informed her son that she would “lay up the original as a precious Deposit for your posterity” (Adams Family Correspondence description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends , 12:4–7).

For GW’s appointment of John Quincy Adams as minister to Portugal, a post in which he never served, see GW to the U.S. Senate, 28 May 1796 (third letter); see also GW to Maria I of Portugal, 17 Feb., and n.1.

2GW refers to John Quincy Adams’s concern about nepotism, which he had expressed in his 14 Nov. 1796 to his mother (see n.1 above). GW himself had refrained from appointing family members to high positions during his presidency. In 1789, GW had denied his nephew Bushrod Washington an appointment to a federal district court in favor of more highly qualified candidates eager to fulfill the post. GW warned his nephew that his “political conduct in nominations” had to be “exceedingly circumspect,” and that he had to guard against accusations of “supposed partiality for friends or relations” (GW to Bushrod Washington, 27 July 1789).

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