John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 April 1776

John Adams to Abigail Adams

April 12. 1776

Inclose a few Sheets of Paper, and will send more as fast as Opportunities present.

Chesterfields Letters are a chequered sett. You would not choose to have them in your Library, they are like Congreeves Plays, stained with libertine Morals and base Principles.

You will see by the Papers, the News, the Speculations and the Political Plans of the Day.

The Ports are opened wide enough at last, and Privateers are allowed to prey upon British Trade.1 This is not Independency you know.—What is? Why Government in every Colony, a Confederation among them all, and Treaties with foreign Nations, to acknowledge Us a Sovereign State, and all that.—When these Things will be done, or any of them, Time must discover. Perhaps the Time is near, perhaps a great Way off.

RC (Adams Papers).

1. See JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. description ends , 4:229–233, 251–254; JA, Diary and Autobiography description begins Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. description ends , 3:373–375, 377.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 April 1776
Author: Adams, John
Recipient: Adams, Abigail
Date: 12 April 1776

Reference

Cite as: “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0245. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1, December 1761 – May 1776, ed. Lyman H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 376–377.]

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