1From John Adams to Oliver Hart, 26 November 1791 (Adams Papers)
I have received from you an agreeable present of your Thanksgiving Sermon, and have read it with pleasure; The text I think was very appositely chosen; for every Balaam in the World, I think, unless a more abandoned deceiver of himself than the original prophet of that name must cry, “How shall I curse, when God has not cursed,” when he is called upon to prophecy evil concerning America....