31From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
Upon honor, now, Rush! You cannot be serious in calling me, mad, to my Face! I learned a proper Answer to you, in Bedlam in England. In one of the Visits I made to that Hospital, I took a few Turns in the Area, where Some of the most harmless of the patients are permitted to walk. One of them a decent looking Man joined me, and conversed very Sensibly but with much animation for Some time: but...
32From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
If I could be considered as a Friend to the Family I should Advise the Grand Children of Dr Franklin to divide the Real Estate among them in their several proportions rather than to sell it in order to divide the Money. Not a Liver or a Stiver was ever committed to Dr Franklin or any other Minister of The United States in Europe, “to be employed, in Secret Services to his Country.” The Million...
33From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 August 1811 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 20th., My dear Friend, has filled my Eyes with Tears,—and, indurated Stoick as I am, my heart with Sensations unutterable by my Tongue or Pen. Not the Feelings of Vanity, but the overwhelming Sense of my own Unworthiness of Such a Panegyrick from Such a Friend. Like Louis the 16 I Said to myself Qu’est ce, que J’ay fait pour le meriter. Have I not been employed in Mischief...
34From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 September 1811 (Adams Papers)
Suum cuique decus Posteritas rependit, has some Truth in it and you have addressed several Examples of it: But it is by no means an universal Aphorism; nor do I believe it to be generally true. You seam to think that Integrity is less envied than Talents. This Question deserves consideration. Under the Roman Emperors nothing was envied so much as Integrity or even the Appearance or suspicion...
35From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 October 1811 (Adams Papers)
Sobrius esto! Recollect your own Non Nobis! Your Letter of the 20th. of September I communicated to Mrs Adams as you advised. Mrs Adams to her Daughter, After a reasonable Time for Deliberation and Reflections the Heroine determined. The Mother and the Daughter went to Boston and consulted Dr Warren Junior, Dr Welsh, Dr Warren Junior having previously consulted Dr Tufts and Dr Holbrook. The...
36From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 2 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
Be pleased to accept my cordial congratulations on the felicity of your Family in the arrival of your Son and Daughter from Europe. The Doctor will be the Staff of your Age and you will be the Guide of his youth. The Daughter and her Infants will be the delights of her Mother as well as her Father. For myself, clothed as I am in the Sable, I may without repining, acknowledge the Seventy Sixth...
37From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 21 November 1811 (Adams Papers)
On this our Thanksgiving day, among innumerable other Blessings, I have to thank express my Gratitude for your favour of Nov. 11. I do not believe that Boethius’s Consolations of Philosophy, which however I have never read, would do me more good. I hasten to answer your Questions, that your friendly Sympathies may be no longer afflicted or allarmed. Indeed I almost repent of the Simple Tale I...
38From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
Shall I congratulate or condole with you on the appointment of your Son to be Comptroller of The Treasury? You will know the delightful Comfort of his daily Society and that of his Lady and their prattling Little ones, which I know by Experience to be in old age, among the Sweetest Enjoyment of Life, provided Always that it be not indulged to excess. I Should have thought too that his Office...
39From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
When I was a Boy, not ten years old, I heard Smith Richard Thayer, a great Authority, say “When Duty and Interest go together, they make Staving Work” By your own Shewing it was Richards Duty to be over ruld or ruled over by his Wife: and by my Shewing I shall make it appear to be his Interest. He will Soon be Secretary of the Treasury. Or he may be a Judge of the Supream Court, or an...
40From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 25 December 1811 (Adams Papers)
I never was so much at a loss how to answer a Letter, as yours of the 16th. Shall I assume a Sober Face and write a grave Essay on Religion Philosophy, Laws or government? Shall I laugh like Bacchus among his grapes, Wine fats Vatts and Bottles? or Shall I assume the Man of the World, the Fine Gentleman, the Courtier, and Bow and Scrape with a smooth smiling Face, soft words, many compliments...
41From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 8 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I have recd. your favour of the 26th. of Decr. You mention Cobbet. have you read Mr Randolphs Speech? Was there any Thing in Cobbets Writings more envious than that Speech? Now I assure you upon my honour and the Faith of the Friendship between Us; that I never Saw the Face of that Cobbet; that I should not know him if I met him in my Porridge Dish; that I never wrote one Word in his Paper and...
42From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 27 January 1812 (Adams Papers)
I agree with you that The Ocean ought to be and must be the Theatre of the War. Our Government will come by Degrees to the right System. I have toasted The Wooden Walls, the Floating Castles the floating Batteries and the floating Citidels of The United States for Six and thirty years: and I now rejoice to find that many Persons now begin to drink my Toast with Huzzas. I am quite of The...
43From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 10 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
your Dream is out, and the Passage you read in the History that Richard was reading is come to pass: notwithstanding you said you believed no History but the Bible. Mr Mediator! You have wrought Wonders! You have made Peace between Powers that never were at War! You have reconciled Friends that never were at Enmity! You have brought again Babylon and Carthage long Since into Existen...
44From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 26 February 1812 (Adams Papers)
I shall expect your long letter; but I ought not to wish it with impatience: for you have such demands upon you for your time that I wonder how you can spare any to write answers to my impertinances, the astonishment of your family at my vivacity—is very just—Rochefaucault says when a mans vivacity increases with years it becomes frenzy at last nothing is indeed more ridiculous than an old man...
45From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 March 1812 (Adams Papers)
The greatest part of the History in your last Letter was well known to me, and I could write you Six Sheets for your three, full of Anecdotes, of a Similar complexion. I wanted no Satisfaction. If I had, your Letter would have given it. The great Character, was a Character of Convention . His first Appointment was a magnanimous Sacrifice of the North to the South: to the base Jealousy, Sordid...
46From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 22 April 1812 (Adams Papers)
Omnicient Jackson Said to me, at his own Table and repeated it at mine in London, that Chatham flattered the Vanity of The Nation and gratified their Passion for War. but that he was a pernicious Minister. David Hartley Said to me often; (it was a favourite Observation with him;) that Chatham was a national Minister, but not a wise Minister. So far, I am out of your debt. I have given you a...
47From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 13 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
Say what you will, that Man is in a poor case who is reduced to the necessity of looking to Posterity for Justice or Charity; and he who is obliged to fly to Newgate and to Cobbet for consolation, is in a more forlorn Situation Still. Col. P. is entertaing and instructing the Public by a new series of addresses to the People, the fourth number of which I read in Dr Parks Repertory last night,...
48From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 14 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
When I sat down to write you, yesterday I really intended to write a sober Letter: but fell insensibly into my habitual playful Strain. I will now try the experiment, whether I can write a Serious Letter to you without any thing Sportive or extravagant in it. I cannot See with you that “a declaration of War against France as well as England would probably unite Us.” On the contrary, it appears...
49From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 26 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
I am Such a miser that I cannot Suffer a Letter of yours to remain a day unanswered, because my answer procures me an Interest of eight per cent a month. I Should have Said Such a Shaver for that is now the technical term and Signifies more than Miser . I Shall mind no order. You hope the new President, if there Should be one will Send back your Son, and I hope he will call home mine. We had...
50From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 28 May 1812 (Adams Papers)
I will not loose an hour of my Interest of 8 per Cent a Month. I have this moment received yours of 22d.—I could paper my whole house with such ornaments as Franklin wished, for his Study: and from Persons who owed Offices, Fortunes and all their Consequence to me. St Bernard St. Loyala, and St. Dominick, and many other Saints remain in the Calendar and are worshipped, as well as Whitefield...
51From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 12 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
Ask the great Lady, you quoted in your last, whether when I pray for the health of Philadelphia, and that no wasting Sickness may prevail there, I make a Girlish or a boying compliment to Doctor Rush? The next paragraph, requires a graver answer. But a Volume would not suffice. Take a hint.—I have lived among Infidel Philosophers for more than half a Century, and been engaged in continual...
52From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 24 June 1812 (Adams Papers)
The Decadency of Government is obvious, through the World and it is to be feared the cause of it is the general Relaxation of family discipline. It becomes you and me Seriously to consider whether We have not contributed our Share to this general Evil. Within a few days, my Rib had the boldness to Say to me “When you write to Dr Rush, you String together Epithets and Adverbs and Substantives,...
53From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 3 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
Mrs Rush may be assured, that I have no doubt of her Friendship for me. The Familiarities and Jocularities in question have been too often experienced by me, for fifty years, for me to be ignorant of the Spirit of them. I must confess that I have received much good Advice and many wholesome Admonitions and Remonstrances in this Way: as I believe you have too. And We must both of Us confess...
54From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 7 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
If I were as rich as Mr Stephen Gerard or Mr William Gray, I would publish and proclaim offers and promises of Rewards in Gold and Silver, in money and medals, for the best Essays on Several Subjects, Some of which I will now hint without any regard to arrangement. 1. 100 Dollars or Eagles if I could afford them, and a Gold Medal for the best History of our American Navy and its Exploits as...
55From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 10 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
I beg you would not consider yourself obliged to answer my Letters. Your Time is prescious, mine of no Value. I thank you for the contrast. Striking it is. General Mifflin behaved nobly. But Muhlenbourgs, Coxes &c &c how did they? In Strong and Goodhue you See the Whiggism or rather the Republicanism, of Strait Hair ; as well as in Pickering. Liberty sometimes wears Strait Hair: but Strait...
56From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 18 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your Letter of the 8th, my dear Friend is pleasing and it is painfull to me, in a high degree. You are not less allarmed, than I am grieved, at the opposition to the general Government in our State. But I am more allarmed and grieved at the Apologies furnished for it by that general Government in their Stupid Embargo and their wicked refusal to build a few Frigates. You will daily read more...
57From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 19 July 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your delightful Letter of the 13th received Yesterday now in turn must receive my grateful Acknowledgements. Is it a dream? Or is it Biography? When I write my Life in obedience to your Commands, I ought to insert in it the Anecdote, that once upon a time I had the Pleasure and the honour, in your and your Brothers Company, and at the invitation of both, to make a visit, to your amiable...
58From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 1 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
We have been in such hurry of late that if I have mentioned your Letter of 18th of June, I have not taken any particular Notice of it. You and I have both been to blame. You, for destroying your Notes of the Revolution; I, for keeping none, and making very few. You have much Merit in preserving the Pamphlets you have given to the oratorical Controuler, who is a Phenomenon, for who ever heard...
59From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 17 August 1812 (Adams Papers)
Your favour of the Eighth, is another Monument to virtue and Piety, I would rather have your Birth and descent than that of any Howard or Montmorency, any Bourbon or Austrian, any Guelph or Stewart. The Antifederalists, Democrats, Jacobins, Republicans and Frenchmen, for all these Shades of Faction, and graduations of Party united twenty Years ago, to raise a popular clamour against me, for...
60From John Adams to Benjamin Rush, 4 September 1812 (Adams Papers)
Little can be added to your distinctions of Principles and delineation of Parties, in your Letter of the 21st of August. Permit me, however to intimate one Idea. The pious and virtuous Hamilton, in 1790 began to teach our Nation Christianity, and to commission his Followers to cry down Jefferson and Madison as Atheists, in league with The French Nation, who were all Atheists. Your “British...