To John Adams from Thomas Brand Hollis, 6 June 1789
From Thomas Brand Hollis
Chesterfeild Street June 6. 1789
Dear Sir
your long silence gave me much uneasiness but I endeavour’d, to assign a thousand reasons which must have prevented you & some of them most natural at last however your favor restored my calm.
I should have been surprised indeed, had Cato’s house stood uninjured in the general conflict for Existence life & liberty.1 remember the glorious contest the Anxious fears the painful doubts the dreadful suspence & above all the tremendous consequences of not succeeding— yet your manly unremitting energies have overcome all these horrors staring you in the face big with calamities & woe.
But how different your fate from that of the Roman for tho success is not absolutely necessary to happiness yet in the state of doubt in which we live it seems desirable to keep alive the cause of virtue & to prevent the insolence of Vice.
What reason have you then to rejoice & to be exceeding glad & more when you recollect that some of your copatriots set out aswarm in the publick cause yet soon relinquish’d, at the approach of danger, their first love which you never forsook.
your state may be envied not regretted & upon the Balance I know which will kick the beam, as our time is short here, it is to be estimated by what we effect,—having showed your self capable & worthy & having done what will entitle you to an exalted state in a future active life. I should not have said thus much but that your country is sensible of the same by ranking you among her first magistrates which I enjoy & approve may you do the same & fill up your measure of Virtue.
How different the state of this country! no struggles for the preeminence of virtue. Baseborn ambition Vice & dissipation predominate & is encouraged as the means of governing—was ever Royalty seen in all its dignity—was ever prostitution from the Bar from the senate & the sacred Rostrum carried to a greater height even in the times of the infamous Jemmy?2
the emoluments of office are the ruin of this country.
we have a new Speaker Addington a New secretary in place of sidney proofs of a change which must come & a new parliament not of long continuance.3
I have sent you a few tracts & papers—4
our college prospers & is full.
The Dissenters have been cajoled as usual.
Feuds & animosities among the family.
The Lama of Tartary has taken up his residence in England we have all the expence of Monarchy without the Splendor5 the minister has been most fortunate in availing himself of the mistakes of his opponents who maintaind tory principles about the regency, & Pitt a Tory took up whig principles to serve his purpose & has succeeded, such is the glorious fixed principles of Politicians of my amiable Friend Mrs Adams I hear not one word, nor from her— tell her I visited her family very lately who are all well & that the character of a great lady is every day more & more visible & I might add another Epithet for she now is principal6
we have a sad prospect before us but I do not despair do but inform the people & they will not injure themselves.
I have sent some books to the college very various for every book has its merit & few from which knowledge may not be obtained & every thing is acceptable to a publick Library.7
The affair of Lazaretto’s is of the utmost consequence to America—it will be in your power to promote it think of Harvard—bills of health & entrance will effect it—the plans are made out of which these are choice:—regulations & passes m[us]t exclude the Barbarians & plague—excuse the liberty & accept of the intention8
I hear this morning Bell will pub[lish] in the oracle [Ameri]can intelligence—may m[any] profit by it
[Washi]ngtons speech is printed—9
I have much to say but the ship is upon the to[. . .] how do I wish to be remember’d by the Adam’s family who have saved their country.
Hawsbury will be secretary.10
more taxes tho we save money.
Farewell & be happy as wishes / your sincere Friend
T Brand Hollis.
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); addressed: “To / The Honorable / John Adams Esqr / Vice President / Boston / The American Congress”; endorsed: “Mr T. B. Hollis / June 6. 1789.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
1. JA’s most recent extant letter to Hollis was of 3 Dec. 1788. Here, he equated his public service with that of the Roman republican hero Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis (vol. 19:356–357; ).
2. The “infamous Jemmy” was James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, who mounted a bloody and unsuccessful challenge to James II, king of England, in 1685 (, 5:230, 232).
3. Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (1757–1844), became speaker of the House of Commons on 8 June 1789. Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, served as the British home secretary until 5 June. His successor was William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, who filled the post until 21 April 1791 ().
4. Not found.
5. Hollis referred to the illness and recovery of King George III, likening his absence from public life to the hermetic habits of the Tibetan Buddhist priesthood. The king’s health crisis prompted an outpouring of public emotion in the British press. As an example, Hollis enclosed an anonymous satirical poem, “Redeunt Saturnia Regna” (Adams Papers), mocking the monarch’s return and the deeper political implications of the regency crisis following a revolution. Allegedly written “by an American,” the poem opens with the lines: “See the vengeance of heavn, America cries, / George loses his reason, North loses his Eyes. / But when first they provok’d us all Europe could find / That the monarch was mad & the minister blind” (vol. 19:360; , p. 225–226).
6. AA last wrote to Hollis on 5 April 1788. She wrote next on 6 Sept. 1790, telling him that AA2 had named her third son, born 7 Aug., Thomas Hollis Smith. AA also described the estate that they had rented, Richmond Hill, as a “truly enchanting” and “delicious spot” to live. Hollis may have visited John Boylston, of Bath, the cousin of JA’s mother whom JA, AA, and JQA all met in England (, 7:46; 8:xv–xvi, 252, 427; 9:99–101).
7. To Harvard College, Hollis sent copies of John Howard’s An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe and Leopold II’s Edict of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, for the Reform of Criminal Law in his Dominions, both London, 1789.
8. Prior to Congress’ Quarantine Act of 27 May 1796, individual states tried to manage the containment of contagious diseases. For example, in an effort to halt the spread of yellow fever in 1793, New York established a temporary hospital on Governors Island and implemented a two-week quarantine for ships arriving from Philadelphia, whereas Boston officials quarantined all incoming traffic (, 1:474; , 9:448; Wesley Spink, Infectious Diseases: Prevention and Treatment in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Minneapolis, Minn., 1979, p. 152).
9. Printer John Bell (1745–1831) began publishing the London Oracle in June 1789. In the 11 June issue, below a note that the Oracle intended to report on American intelligence, he printed George Washington’s 30 April inaugural address (). By midsummer, several British newspapers had reported the arrival of JA and Washington in New York City; see, for example, London Chronicle and London World, both 13 June.
10. The London Sunday Chronicle, 7 June, falsely reported the imminent resignation of the Marquis of Carmarthen, British foreign minister, and named Charles Jenkinson, 1st Earl of Liverpool, as his successor.