Adams Papers

From John Adams to John Stockdale, 12 September 1794

To John Stockdale

Quincy near Boston 12. Septr: 1794.

Mr: Stockdale

I embrace with pleasure the opportunity by my Sons of presenting you many thanks for your kind Letter1 and obliging present, of an elegant sett of your new edition of the history of Republic’s

I know not whether experience of the evils, physical, moral & political of simple Governments, will recommend to the public my poor speculations in favor of mixed forms, so as to give you a profit by the sale of the Book; but I know the Devil ought to have mankind, if they do not soon put a stop to the progress of Cleon’s & Clodius’s, Rienzi’s & wat Tyler’s.2

I have written since I came to America, Discourses on Davila; you may make another volume of them, if you will, under the same Title with the other three.

With compliments to your / Family, I am your / Friend & Sert:

LbC in TBA’s hand (Adams Papers); APM Reel 116.

1. Of 3 March, above.

2. JA grouped together the ancient Greek politician Cleon, Roman tribune Publius Clodius Pulcher, medieval politician Cola di Rienzo, and English rebel leader Wat Tyler. Writing to CA a day earlier, JA listed Cleon and Clodius as “popular Destroyers of Republicanism” and described di Rienzo and Tyler as “Heroes of democratical Memory” (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 10:229–230).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to John Stockdale, 12 September 1794
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Stockdale, John
    Date
    12 September 1794

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to John Stockdale, 12 September 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-21-02-0225. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 21, March 1791–January 1797, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Gwen Fries, Amanda M. Norton, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022, pp. 309–310.]

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