To John Adams from Benjamin Rush, 22 January 1789
From Benjamin Rush
Philadelphia Jany 22nd. 1789.
my dear friend,
Your affectionate and instructing letter of Decemr 2nd: did not reach me ’till yesterday.— I embrace with my Affections, as well as my judgement that form of Goverment which you have proved from as many Authorities, to be the only One that can preserve political happiness. It was my Attachment to a constitution composed of three branches, that first deprived me of the Confidence of the whigs of Pennsylvania in the close of the year 1776. My Observations upon the misery which a single legislature has produced in Pennsylvania, have only served to encrease my Abhorrence of that Species of Goverment.1 I could as soon embrace the most absurd dogmas in the most Absurd of all the pagan religions, as prostitute my Understanding, by approving of our State constitution.— It is below a democracy. It is mobocracy—if you will allow me to coin a word. If you will not, permit me to compare it to a wheelbarrow, or a Balloon. I never see our selfballancd legislature meet, but I feel as if I saw a body of men ascending in One of those air Vehicles—without sails or helm.— I have collected materials for a history of the Revolution in Pennsylvania, but despair of being able to arrange or publish them, while I am so closely confined to the duties of my profession. They contain such an Account the follies & vices of mankind as would tend, for ever to discredit a single legislature.
You will perceive by the Philada papers that your friends here have not been idle in preparing an honourable Seat for you in the federal Senate. You will I believe have every Vote from this State, & pains have been taken to secure the same Unanimity in your favor in several of the adjoining states.2 I assure you Sir—that friendship for you, has had much less to do in this business, as far as I have embarked in it, than a sincere desire to place a Gentleman in the vice president’s chair, upon whose long tried integrity,—just principles in Goverment—and firm opposition to popular arts and demagogues, such a dependance could be placed, as shall secure us both from a Convention, & from constitutional Alterations, falsely & impudently called by some of our State Governors Amendments. Mr Tench Coxe (Now One of our delegates in new York) has had great merit in holding up your name to the public by private letters, as well as by publications, for the Above station.— I wish to make you acquainted with him. He has been extremely active & useful in spreading federal knowledge & principles in Pennsylvania, as well as in other parts of the United states.3
Our Representatives in the lower house of Congress are all federal. Mr Fitzsimons is an enlightned merchant, and an able politician. Mr Clymer is judicious—and perfectly upright. The Country gentlemen are all Sensible,—and some of them well informed upon the Subjects of legislation.—
Our Senators are Mr Morris—& Mr McClay.4 The latter is one of my early, & most intimate friends.— He is a Scholar—a philosopher— and a Statesman.— Few men unite such great speculative, with such [extraordinary] accurate practical talents. He was educated a l[aw]yer, but for many years past had left the bar in order [to] improve a large & clear estate in one of our n[ew] Counties.
I rejoice to hear of the promising talents & manners of your sons. With sincere wishes for the encrease of your domestic happiness, & public usefulness, I am / my dear friend, / Yours / Affectionately
Benjn Rush
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “The Honble: / John Adams Esqr: / Braintree / near / Boston”; endorsed: “Dr Rush 22. Jan. 1789 / recd 7. Ansd 8. Feb. 1789.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
1. Drawing heavily on JA’s Thoughts on Government (Philadelphia, 1776), for which see vol. 4:65–73, in order to criticize the utility of a unicameral legislature, Rush wrote Observations upon the Present Government of Pennsylvania. In Four Letters to the People of Pennsylvania, Phila., 1777, No. 15589.
2. Between 15 Dec. 1788 and 10 Jan. 1789, ten states selected electors who then cast votes in the first presidential election. North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the U.S. Constitution and therefore did not participate; meanwhile, the New York legislature was deadlocked over potential amendments and did not partake in voting either. When Congress achieved a quorum on 6 April and counted the votes, George Washington was the unanimous choice for president. The selection of the first vice president, who was mainly to preside over the Senate, was clear: JA received 34 out of a possible 69 votes. New York governor George Clinton won three votes thanks to Virginia’s Antifederalists. The rest of JA’s rivals were all Federalists who each received a handful of votes: Samuel Huntington, John Jay, John Hancock, Robert H. Harrison, John Rutledge, John Milton, James Armstrong, Edward Telfair, and Gen. Benjamin Lincoln. Showing strong Federalist support, as Rush indicated, Pennsylvania cast ten votes for Washington, eight for JA, and two for Hancock (, 1:7–9; A New Nation Votes).
3. Former loyalist Tench Coxe (1755–1824), a Philadelphia merchant who served as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention, was an ardent supporter of American manufactures and the author of An Enquiry into the Principles on Which a Commercial System for the United States of America Should Be Founded, Phila., 1787, No. 20306. Coxe was named assistant secretary of the treasury on 11 Sept. (; ).
4. Philadelphia merchants Thomas Fitzsimons and George Clymer were joined in the House by six more Pennsylvania representatives: Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, Thomas Hartley, Daniel Hiester, Thomas Scott, and Henry Wynkoop. Lawyer and surveyor William Maclay of New Garden, Chester Co., Penn., was a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania, and he served in the Senate from 1789 to 1791 ().