John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 5 October 1802
John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
Boston 5. October 1802
My dear brother.
The apt and excellent quotation from Horace’s epistles, in your letter of 26th: ulto: made me turn over all the editions and translations of the old poet, that came within my reach, to find the context—1 When once a man takes up Horace, it is not easy to lay him down again— So in turning over the leaves, I stumbled by the strangest accident imaginable upon the fourth Ode of the second book— But what is yet more surprizing, and indeed almost incredible to my self, is, that upon opening the book again, the enclosed imitation, drop’d out from between the leaves— I send it you for your opinion with regard to its authenticity; and also of its merit as an imitation— It strikes me that if it be really genuine, Pain’s poetry is better than his
prose— But The great difficulty seems to be that the tender tale of Sally has not yet been long enough known to have made its way across the Atlantic, and back again— But indeed Pain being so much in the philosopher’s confidence may have been acquainted with the facts earlier than the American public in general—2 In short I cannot find my way out of the critical labyrinth, and leave it to your taste and ingenuity to discover the clue.
I have read the life of Gifford, in some of our newspapers, extracted from his book; and it gives me a very favourable opinion of the man— The tale of Genius bursting into light through the petrified shell of poverty and neglect, is always pleasing, and few instances of the kind, so extraordinary as that of Gifford have ever come to my knowledge— His Juvenal I shall certainly purchase as soon as it shall undress itself enough to meet the level of my finances—3 I have been so much used to find myself out-done in poetical translation, that I shall feel no mortification, at being once more excell’d by him— Sotheby has made me callous upon that score; and if my Vanity wanted a backdoor to retreat from, it would immediately suggest, that my translation was a hasty and unfinish’d production, not intended for publication, and his, by his own account the labour of twenty years.—4 I am willing to impute it therefore to your indulgence or partiality that you thought the American version would in any respect bear a comparison with the other.
The whale-oil for which you write is too rank, because too stale to send you— Political disquisitions like those in our newspapers, are flowers of a day, and turn to mere chaff and straw, unless you catch them at the hour of their bloom— The pieces to which I refer appeared in the Boston Gazette, nearly a month ago— They are therefore dead and gone— Nor shall you misspend your time so much as to read them— The National Intelligencer has republished a garbled extract from the last number only, (there were 6 in all) but he has taken special care not to publish the two first numbers, which contained his dressing— He thinks the author a verbose critic, and complains that he liberally quotes the antient poets, and proves every thing from them—5 Poor thing— If the enclosed Ode should ever meet his eye, he will find more proved from the antient poets than will be welcome to him.
Our friends here and at Quincy are all well— My George only excepted— He breeds his teeth with much pain and difficulty; and for the last four months has scarcely had a week’s respite— We are not without some cases of malignant fever here; but as the season is advancing we hope it will very speedily subside wherever it has appeared upon the continent.
Bradford the printer, I observe, advertises a subscription for a complete edition of Burke’s works—to be comprized in eight volumes octavo— I want you to put my name down as a subscriber—6
Ever faithfully your’s
This letter was prepared to be sent you by Mr: Walter, a young Gentleman who has just completed his course of legal studies, and is going to make a tour of some weeks, as far as Washington—7 He bears a very good character as a scholar, and is a particular friend of Shaw.— But he goes off very early in the morning, and perhaps I shall miss the opportunity by him— In that case I shall send it by the mail—
RC (DLC:John Quincy Adams Papers); internal address: “T. B. Adams Esqr.”; endorsed: “J. Q Adams Esqr: / 5th: Octr: 1802 / 19th: Do: Recd: / 20th Do Answd:.”
1. Not found.
2. JQA, using the pseudonym “Thomas Paine,” penned the poem “Horace, Book II, Ode 4. To Xanthia Phoceus,” which was published in the Port Folio, 2:344 (30 Oct.). In the original ode, Horace writes of Xanthia’s love for the enslaved woman Phillis. JQA’s version was directed toward Thomas Jefferson, whose relationship with the enslaved Sally Hemings was recently publicized in James Thomson Callender’s Richmond, Va., Recorder, 1 September. Hemings (1773–1835) was the daughter of Elizabeth Hemings, an enslaved woman, and Jefferson’s father-in-law, John Wayles. Sally accompanied Jefferson’s daughter Mary to Europe in 1787. While there she served as one of the family’s household staff and as maid to Martha Jefferson. She later worked in the household at Monticello and gave birth to several children fathered by Thomas Jefferson.
JQA began the piece: “Dear Thomas, deem it no disgrace / With slaves to mend thy breed, / Nor let the wench’s smutty face / Deter thee from the deed,” and continued, “Though nature o’er thy Sally’s frame / Has spread her sable veil, / Yet shall the loudest trump of fame / Resound your tender tale.” An editorial note appeared below the poem in the Port Folio: “The pretence, that Thomas Paine wrote this Ode, is mere poetic fiction. To my certain knowledge he did not write it, and indeed to speak in the Gallic idiom, he is incapable of writing such verses” ( p. 469–470; Elise Lemire, “Miscegenation”: Making Race in America, Phila., 2002, p. 18–19, 21–22; , 38:323–325; , 1:686; , 3:610–611; Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, Charlottesville, Va., 1997, p. xxvi, xxvii, 1–2, 23–25). For Sally Hemings’ stay with the Adamses in London in 1787, see vol. 8:xxiii, 94, 108. See also TBA to JQA, 30 Nov. 1802, and note 4, below.
3. British editor and satirist William Gifford (1756–1826), Oxford 1782, published a translation of Juvenal’s satires in London prefaced with an autobiographical sketch that was printed in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 6, 7 September. The Philadelphia Gazette, 3 Sept., advertised the publication of a U.S. edition, and both JQA and TBA subscribed to an edition that was published the following year. An 1806 London edition is in JQA’s library at MQA (DNB; The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis, transl. William Gifford, 2 vols., Phila., 1803, 2:[270], , No. 4466; , 6:140). For the publication of JQA’s translation of Juvenal’s thirteenth satire in the Port Folio, see vol. 14:286–287, 289–290.
4. William Sotheby (1757–1833), a British poet, published in London in 1798 a translation of Christoph Martin Wieland’s 1796 epic poem Oberon, a copy of which is in JQA’s library at MQA (; Catalog of the Stone Library). For JQA’s translation of the same work, see vol. 14:258.
5. The Boston Commercial Gazette, 23, 30 Aug. 1802, 2, 9, 13, 16 Sept., published an anonymous six-part series that responded to the publication of JA’s 1790 letters to Samuel Adams, for which see JQA to TBA, 27 Aug. 1802, and note 2, above. The series criticized commentary that appeared in other newspapers, including the Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, and defended JA against the charge that he was a monarchist. As JQA observed, editor Samuel Harrison Smith disparaged the series in the National Intelligencer, 27 September.
6. From 22 May to 9 Oct. Philadelphia printer Samuel Fisher Bradford (1776–1837) and publisher and bookseller John Conrad (1777–1851) advertised in the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States seeking subscribers for a proposed six-volume edition of Edmund Burke’s writings. Although subscriptions were collected in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C., the edition was not published (, 7:289; , 39:176).