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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...
By a great favour and a mere Accident, I have lately obtained for a few hours, the loan of A Volume, by Arator, which has interested me So much that I have an earnest desire to purchase it: but know not where to apply for it. I am informed it is your Work, and as I really think it is the most valuable Treasure of Agricultural and horticultural Knowledge that has yet been given by any...
I chearfully interrupt the series of Letters, I was writing to you, to acknowledge the Receipt of your’s of April 24 and that of the 24th of December last I am Somewhat Surprised, at the Failure of Memory in Mr Wythe, which appears in your Letter; for it is as certain as his Existence upon Earth, that the first Project of a Government that I ever, put upon Paper, was at Mr. Wythe’s express...
I have recd your favour of May. 20, with the thoughts on Government, returned in good condition. The Outline of a Militia in the 22d page, has been Since adopted in Massachusetts. This Commonwealth alone, had at the declaration of the present War, One hundred and thirty Seven Pieces of brass Cannon, belonging to as many Companies of Artillery, ready to march at the command of Government In...
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...
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...
Mr Adams’s System is that of Pope, in his Essay on Criticism; “First follow Nature and your Judgment frame By her just Standard, which is still the Same.” This Rule, Surely cannot “arrest our efforts” or “appal our hopes. ” Study Government, as you build Ships or construct Steam Engines. The Steam Frigate will not defend New York, if Nature has not been studied and her Principles regarded. And...
In this fourth page you say, that “Mr. Adams’s System tells Us that the Art of Government can never Change.”— I have said no such thing, Mr. Taylor.!—I know the Art of Government has changed, and probably will change as often as the Arts of Architecture, painting Sculpture Music, Poetry, Agriculture, Horticulture, Medicine &c that is to Say almost as often as the Weather or the fashion in...
In the third page of your “Inquiry”, is an Assertion, which Mr. Adams has a right to regret as a gross and egregious misrepresentation. He cannot believe it to have been intentional. He imputes it to haste; to ardor of temper; to defect of memory; to any thing, rather than design. It is in these Words, Mr. Adams asserts, “that every Society naturally produces, an order of Men, which it is...
When your new Democratical Republick meets, you will find half a dozen Men of independent Fortunes; half a dozen, of more Eloquence than learning; half a dozen, with more Learning than Eloquence; half a dozen, with Eloquence, Learning and Fortune. Let me See;We have now, four and twenty. To these We may add Six more, who will have more Art, Cunning and Intrigue, than Learning Eloquence or...
I hope my last Letter convinced you, that Democracy is as restles as ambitious as warlike and bloody, as Aristocracy or Monarchy. You proceed to say that I “ought to have placed right before Us, the Effects of these three Principles, viz Democracy, Aristocracy and Monarchy, commixed, in the Wars, Rebellions, and Persecutions of the and oppressions of the English form.” Pray sir What was the...
What Shall I Say, of the “Resemblance, of our House of Representatives to a legislating Nation.”? It is, perhaps, a miniature, which resembles the original as much as a larger Picture, would or could. But, Sir, let me Say, once for all, that, as no Picture great or Small; no Statue, no Bust in brass or marble, gold or Silver, ever yet perfectly resembled the Original: So no Representative...
Observation fourth. “By modifying our temporary, elective, responsible Governors, into Monarchs.” How have I modified our Governors, into Monarchs? My three Volumes were written in “Defence of the Constitution of Massachusetts, and insolent against a rude Attack of Mr Turgot. This constitution, which existed in my hand writing, made the Governor annually elective, gave him the Executive Power,...
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...
In my last, I ventured to Say, that I would hint, in this, at a principal Misconception that had misled, either you or me. I Shall Submit the question to yourself, and to the World if you or I please, to be decided between Us with candour. You appear to me in all your Writings to consider hereditary descent as essential to Monarchy and Aristocracy. When you mention Monarchy, Monarch, or King,...
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...
I have received your Inquiry in a large Volume, neatly bound. Though I have not read it in course, yet upon an application to it, of the Sortes virgilianæ, Scarce a page has been found, in which my name is not mentioned and Some public Sentiment or expression of mine examined. Revived as they these Subjects are, in this manner in the recollection of the Public, after an Oblivion of So many...
I believe that none but Helvetius will affirm that all Children are born with equal Genius. None will pretend, that all are born of dispositions, exactly alike; of equal Weight; equal Strength; equal Length; equal delicacy of nerves; equal Elasticity of Muscles; equal complexions; equal Figure, Grace or Beauty. I have Seen in the Hospital of Foundlings, “the Enfans trouvees”, at Paris, fifty...
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”...
“Whether the terms ‘Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy,’ or the one, the few, and the many, are only numerical; or characteristic, like the Calyx petal and Stamina of plants; or complicated with the Idea of a ballance; they have never yet, Singly or collectively been used to describe a Government, deduced from good Moral Principles. ” Linnæus is upon my Shelf, very near me; but I will not...
In your 4th page, you give Us your Opinion “that the moral Efforts of Mankind, towards political Improvement, have been restrained and disappointed, by the erronious Opinion, that Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy or mixtures of them constitute all the Elements of Government.” And you proceed to State, that “it will be an Effort of your Essay to prove, that the United States have refuted the...
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...
You “are unable to discover in our form of Government any resemblance of Aristocracy.” As every branch of Executive Authority committed or entrusted, exclusively to One, resembles and is properly called a Monarchical Power; & Government in proportion as its Powers legislative or Executive are lodged in One, resembles Monarchy: So whatever Authority or Power of making or executing Laws is...
In your fifth page You Say “Mr. Adams calls our Attention to hundreds of wise and virtuous Patricians, mangled and bleeding Victims of popular Fury.” and gravely counts up several Victims of democratic Rage as proofs that Democracy is more pernicious than Monarchy or Aristocracy.” Is this fair, sir? Do you deny any one of my Facts? I do not say that Democracy has been more pernicious, on the...
In this Number I have to hint at some causes, which impede the course of investigation in will and political knowledge, Religion, however, has been so universally associated with Government, that it is impossible to seperate them in this Inquity. And where shall I begin and when end? Shall I begin the Library at Alexandria, and finish with that at Washington? The latter Saracens more ferocious...
Suppose another case which is not without examples; a family of Six daughters. Four of them are not only beautiful, but Serious and discrete Women. Two of them are not only Ugly, but ill tempered and immodest. Will either of the two, have an equal chance, with any one of the four, to attract the Attention of a Suitor, and obtain an husband of Worth, respectability and consideration, in the...
In my Apology, if you like that Word better than “Defence” I passed over England for more reasons than One. I very well knew, that there had been no nation that had produced so many materials for the illustration of my System and confirmation of my Principles as that in which I wrote. There was antiently no People, but Serfs; no House of Commons. The Struggles between Kings, Barrons and...
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...
I have received from Mr. John M Carter, Your “Inquiry,” in 656 Pages, neatly bound. If I had any rational Expectation in my 79th. Year, of Life health, unclouded Eyes and unparralysed fingers, for 20 Years to come: I would chearfully engage with you, in an analitical Investigation of all those Subjects, which you Say, have amused Some of your Leisure hours for 20 Years past. The Field is vast....
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...
It is unnecessary to discuss, the nice distinctions, which follow in the first page of your respectable Volume; between Mind, Body and Morals. The Essence or Substance of Mind and Body, of Soul and Body of Spirit and Matter; are wholly witheld as yet, from our knowledge; from the penetration of our Sharpest faculties; from the keenest of our inscision knives; the most amplifying of our...
That Aristocracies, both ancient and modern have been “variable and artificial” as well as natural and unchangeable, Mr. Adams knows as well as Mr. Taylor, and has never denied or doubted. That “they have all proceeded from moral causes” is not so clear; Since many of them appear to proceed from physical causes; many from immoral causes; many from Pharisaical, jesuitical and Machiavilian...
A few Words more concerning the Characters of litterary Men. What Sort of Men have had the Conduct of the Presses in the United States for the last thirty Years? In Germany, in England in France in Holland, tho Presses even the Newspapers have been under the direction of learned Men. How has it been in America? How many Presses, how many Newspapers have been directed by Vagabonds fugitives...
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,...
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...
“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,...
In your fourth page you “are unable to discover, In Oour form of Government, any resemblance of Monarchy, Aristocracy or Democracy.” “as defined by ancient Writers, and by Mr Adams himself.” As these Words are technical Terms, whose meaning is as well defined both by ancients and moderns, as the Words, Point, Line, Surface, or Solid, in Geometry, I Shall nor turn over Volumes to quote...