[Draft of a Newspaper Communication, January? 1770.]
[from the Diary of John Adams]

[Draft of a Newspaper Communication, January? 1770.] 1

“If I would but go to Hell for an eternal Moment or so, I might be knighted.”

Governor Winthrop to the Inhabitants of New England.

My dear Children—

You may well imagine, that no Lapse of Time, nor any Change whatever can render me totally inattentive or indifferent to your Interests. They are always near my Heart. I am as anxious as ever for your Welfare and as studious to avert the most distant Calamity that threatens or can befall you.

Your present Danger arises wholly from that general Cause of the Ruin of Mankind I mean Ambition. Your Agrarian Laws, and your frame of Government, are much better callculated than most others to oppose, to disarm, and restrain this fell Distroyer.

But, as no Government can possibly be contrived or conceived that shall wholly eradicate this Passion from human Nature, so yours is very far from being the best that can be conceived from [for?] preventing its ill Effects.

1. Obviously incomplete as it stands, and no printing has been found. Other apparently related fragments will be found under Aug.? 1770 and 9 Feb. 1772, below.

Index Entries

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: [Draft of a Newspaper Communication, January? 1770.]
Author: Adams, John
Date: January 1770

Reference

Cite as: “[Draft of a Newspaper Communication, January? 1770.] ,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-01-02-0014-0001-0002. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 1, 1755–1770, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961, p. 349.]