On 11 July 1767 John Quincy Adams was born in the home of his parents
John and Abigail Adams and his two-year-old sister Nabby at Braintre
in the British colony of Massachusetts.
His father was a lawyer, and Abigail also assisted in Johnny’s education.
As the oldest son he was often reminded that he was to be a good example
of virtue for his two younger brothers Charles and Thomas.
His father John was active in the movement to gain rights for the colonies
that developed with protests against the Stamp Tax in 1765.
The British began imposing Townsend Duties in 1767 and 1768,
and in October that year four British army regiments began arriving in Boston.
On 5 March 1770 nine British soldiers shot into a crowd at Boston killing five colonials.
No lawyer appeared to defend the British Captain Thomas Preston
until John Adams agreed to do so in his trial that began on October 24.
Adams presented evidence and showed that Preston did not give any order to shoot,
and he was eventually acquitted.
On 13 April 1771 the Adams family moved from Boston back to Braintree.
Yet after the birth of Thomas the family of John Adams moved
into a brick house bought by John in Boston in August 1772.
The British imposed the Tea Act on 10 May 1773,
and Bostonians refused to let the expensive tea be unloaded.
On December 16 about 150 Sons of Liberty dressed like Indians threw the boxes of tea
into the Bay, and the “Boston Tea Party” became a clarion call in the colonies.
Activists, responded to what they called “Intolerable Acts,”
and they formed committees of correspondence in some colonies in 1774.
John Adams in June was elected one of five delegates from Massachusetts,
and 56 men attended an assembly that became the
First Continental Congress in Philadelphia on September 5.
The Congress adjourned in October, and Adams
decided to move his family back to Braintree.
On October 13 Johnny wrote his first letter to his father.
In the next three years John Adams would be away from his family most of the time,
and Abigail was the main influence on Johnny.
The Massachusetts militia began stockpiling weapons at Concord,
and in April 1775 the British General Thomas Gage sent troops to destroy the arms.
The war against British domination began at Lexington and Concord on April 19.
John Adams was elected a delegate to the Second Continental Congress
that began on May 10 in Philadelphia.
On June 17 Abigail Adams and her children were awakened by artillery explosions,
and at dawn she went with Johnny to observe the Battle of Bunker Hill
from Penn’s Hill which was ten miles away from the fighting.
They could see the fire and smoke that was burning Charlestown.
The British suffered 1,054 casualties and the Americans only 450.
Afterward Abigail and Johnny said the Lord’s Prayer.
The next day she wrote in a letter to John Adams that Johnny had said,
“My mother was the daughter of a Christian clergyman and therefore
bred in the faith of deliberate detestation of war.”1
Schools were closed, and John Adams was with the Congress.
Abigail made sure Johnny was getting educated.
Their cousin John Thaxter had been studying law in the office of John Adams,
and she asked him to tutor Johnny in mathematics and science.
Johnny wrote in his diary:
The year 1775 was the eighth year of my age.
Among the first fruits of the War was the expulsion of
my father’s family from their peaceful abode in Boston
to take refuge in his and my native town of Braintree.
Boston became a walled and beleaguered town, garrisoned
by British Grenadiers with Thomas Gage, their Commanding
General commissioned Governor of the Province.
For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant
children dwelt, liable every hour of the day and of the night
to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried into
Boston as hostages by any foraging or marauding
detachment of men, like that actually sent forth on the
19th April to capture John Hancock and Samuel Adams on
their way to attend the continental Congress at Philadelphia.
My father was separated from his family on his way
to attend the same continental Congress, and there
my mother with her children lived in unintermitted
danger of being consumed with them all in a
conflagration kindled by a torch in the same hands
which on the 17th of June lighted the fires of Charlestown.
I saw with my own eyes those fires and heard
Britannia’s thunders in the battle of Bunker’s Hill,
and witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled
with them my own at the fall of Warren, a dear friend
of my father and a beloved Physician to me.
He had been our family physician and surgeon
and had saved my forefinger from
amputation under a very bad fracture.
Even in the days of heathen and conquering Rome,
the Laureate of August Caesar tells us,
that wars were detested by mothers,
even by Roman Mothers,—‘Bella matronis detestata.’
My Mother was the daughter of a Christian Clergyman,
and therefore bred in the faith of deliberate
detestation of War, superadded to the
impulsive abhorrence of the Roman mothers.
Yet in that same spring and summer of 1775, she taught
me to repeat daily after the Lord’s Prayer before rising
from bed the Ode of Collins on the patriot warriors who
fell in the war to subdue the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.How sleep the brave who sink to rest
By all their Country’s wishes best!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow’d mold,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.By Fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung,
There Honor comes, a pilgrim grey,
To watch the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell, a weeping Hermit, there.“Of the impression made upon my heart by the sentiments
inculcated in these beautiful effusions of patriotism and
poetry, you may form an estimate by the fact that now;
seventy-one years after they were thus taught me,
I repeat them from memory without reference to the book.
Have they ever shaken my abhorrence of War?
Far otherwise.
They have riveted it to my soul with hooks of steel.
But it is to war waged by tyrants and oppressors against
the rights of human nature and the liberties and rightful
interests of my country, that my abhorrence is confined.
War in defense of these, far from deserving my execration,
is in my deliberate belief a religious and sacred duty.“Dulce et decorum est, patria mori.”
The year before the event here described,
the writer’s father, as is stated in this letter,
had been commissioned as one of four delegates
of Massachusetts to attend a Congress at Philadelphia
with a view to mature a unity of action among the colonies.
From that time his absences from his family
necessarily became frequent and protracted.
It was during one of these that the incident took place.
The boy on this account became naturally more and more
of a companion, deeply sympathizing with his mother.
Hence it was that in a letter to her husband, she tells
him that, to relieve her anxiety for early intelligence,
Master John had cheerfully consented to become
“post-rider” for here between her residence and Boston.
As the distance by the nearest road of that day was
not less than eleven miles each way, the undertaking
was not an easy one for a boy barely nine years old.
Of course the few facilities for education then
within reach were materially obstructed and remained so,
even after the scene of war was removed farther south.2
During the summer of 1775 John Adams was on 90 committees
of the Congress, and he was chairman of 25.
That summer Abigail was impressed when
she met General George Washington in Boston.
In September at the age of 8 John Quincy became a “post-rider”
to carry mail back and forth to Boston.
After Washington became the commander, the Americans managed to defeat
the British in the Battle of Dorchester Heights on March 4 and 5 in 1776,
and the British forces retreated from Boston.
John Adams in a letter to his wife Abigail on 15 April 1775
wrote that “John has genius,” and also wrote,
These are the times in which a genius would wish to live.
It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a
pacific station, that great characters are formed.
Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator
if he had not been roused, kindled, and inflamed
by the tyranny of Catiline, Verre, and Mark Antony?
Great necessities call out great virtues.
When a mind is … animated by scenes that
engage the heart, then those qualities, which
would otherwise lie dormant, wake into life and
form the character of the hero and statesman.3
In early 1776 a smallpox epidemic was spreading in Boston.
Abigail had symptoms, and she worked to inoculate her children.
In May 1776 the Second Continental Congress urged the colonies
to form new governments to replace British authority.
John Adams was on the committee, and he urged Thomas Jefferson
to write the Declaration of Independence that was approved on July 4.
John Adams in October was given a leave of absence
by the Congress to return to his family.
He was especially influenced by the works of John Locke.
Johnny had begun reading the multi-volume History of England by Smollett
and his father urged him to read various histories.
Johnny loved Shakespeare and read The Tempest, As You Like It,
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, and King Lear.
He tried to read Milton’s Paradise Lost but could not master the text.
On 2 June 1777 Johnny from Braintree wrote this letter to his father:
I love to receive letters very well;
much better than I love to write them.
I make but a poor figure at composition;
my head is much too fickle; my thoughts are running after
birds eggs play and trifles; till I get vexed with myself.
Mamma has a troublesome task to keep me steady,
and I own I am ashamed of myself.
I have but just entered the 3rd volume of Smollett,
tho’ I had designed to have got it half through by this time.
I have determined this week to be more diligent,
as Mr. Thaxter will be absent at Court,
& I cannot pursue my other studies.
I have Set myself a Stent & determine
to read the 3rd volume Half out.
If I can but keep my resolution, I will write again
at the end of the week and give a better account of myself.
I wish, Sir, you would give me some instructions
with regard to my time & advise me how to
proportion my Studies & my Play in writing,
& I will keep them by me & endeavor to follow them.
I am, dear Sir, with a present determination
of growing better, yours.
P.S.—Sir, if you will be so good as to favor me with
a Blank book, I will transcribe the most remarkable
occurrences I met with in my reading,
which will serve to fix them upon my mind.4
In the summer of 1777 John Adams wrote this about
his son John Quincy in a letter to Abigail on June 23:
I am under no apprehension about
his proficiency in learning.
With his capacities and opportunities
he cannot fail to acquire knowledge.
But let him know that the sentiments of his heart
are more important than the furniture of his head.
Let him be sure that he possesses the great virtue
of temperance, justice, magnanimity, honor,
and generosity, and with these added to his parts,
he cannot fail to become a wise and great man.
Does he read newspapers?
The events of this war should not pass
unobserved by him at his years.
As he reads history, you should ask him
what events strike him most.
What characters he esteems and admires?
Which he hates and abhors?
Which he despises?
Treachery, perfidy, cruelty, hypocrisy,
avarice, &c &c should be pointed out to him
for his contempt as well as detestation.5
John Adams had been studying government and constitutions, and he helped the
Continental Congress complete the Articles of Confederation by 17 November 1777.
He and his cousin Samuel Adams left, and two weeks later the Congress chose
John Adams to join Benjamin Franklin and replace Silas Deane as a commissioner in Paris.
Deane and Arthur Lee had been accused of financial corruption.
France and the United States agreed on a Treaty
of Amity and Commerce on 6 February 1778.
John would not take his wife Abigail with him, and she allowed him to take Johnny.
Silas Deane’s son Jesse would be on the 24-gun-frigate Boston with them,
and they embarked on February 13.
On that day in a letter to his “Honored Mama”
on the voyage Nicholas Noel tutored Johnny in French.
They reached a port near Bordeaux on March 30, and they arrived in Paris on April 8.
John Adams wasted no time in getting his son enrolled at a boarding school at Passy
that taught classics, history, Latin, and French.
Jesse and Ben Franklin’s grandson were also students there.
Adams learned that Franklin and Vergennes had already agreed on a treaty.
The three American diplomats worked on getting the French
to send supplies and troops to their new ally.
Johnny got some time off from school in 1778 and studied some of his father’s books.
Because of his schooling he was learning French faster and better than his father
who was busy with diplomatic work.
In Paris they saw plays by Corneille, Racine, Molière, and Voltaire.
On 27 September 1778 John Quincy Adams wrote this letter to his mother Abigail:
My Pappa enjoins it upon me to keep a journal or a diary
of Events that happen to me and of objects that I see and
of Characters that I converse with from day to day;
and although I am convinced of the utility, importance
& necessity of this Exercise, yet I have not patience
and perseverance enough to do it so Constantly as I ought.
My Pappa, who takes a great deal of Pains to put me
in the right way, has also advised me to Preserve copies
of all my letters & has given me a Convenient Blank Book
for this end; and although I shall have the mortification
a few years hence to read a great deal of my Childish
nonsense, yet I shall have the Pleasure and advantage
of Remarking the several steps by which I shall
have advanced in taste judgment and knowledge.
A journal book & a letter Book of a Lad of Eleven years old
Cannot be expected to contain much of Science,
Literature, arts, wisdom, or wit, yet it may serve
to perpetuate many observations that I may make
& may hereafter help me to recollect both persons
& things that would other ways escape my memory.
I have been to see the Palace & gardens of Versailles,
the Military school at Paris, the hospital of Invalids,
the hospital of foundling Children, the Church of
Notre Dame, the Heights of Calvare, of Montmartre,
of Minemontan, & other scenes of Magnificence
in & about Paris, which, if I had written down in a diary
or a letter Book, would enable me hereafter to entertain
my friends but I have neglected it, & therefore can now
only resolve to be more thoughtful and Industrious for
the Future, & to encourage me in this resolution & enable
me to keep it with more ease & advantage, my father
has given me hopes of a Pencil & Pencil Book in which
I can make notes upon the spot to be transferred afterwards
in my Diary & my letters this will give me great pleasure
both because it will be a sure means of improvement
to myself & enable me to be more entertaining to you.6
On 12 February 1779 they received news that John Jay,
who supported Deane, was elected president of the Congress.
John Adams was informed that the government had appointed
Benjamin Franklin their only representative to France.
Johnny in a letter on February 20 criticized his mother Abigail
regarding her husband John Adams:
You complain as bad or worse
than if he had not wrote at all.
It really hurts him to receive such letters.
If all your letters are like this,
my Pappa will cease writing at all.7
John Adams and his son left Paris on March 8.
As they stayed in Loire waiting for a ship to take them home,
John had his son translate Cicero and Horace.
Johnny also read works by Erasmus.
They boarded the Alliance on April 28; but the French advised them to wait
for their King’s French frigate La Sensible so that they would be joined by
the French minister Luzerne and his secretary Barbé-Marbois.
Also Commodore John Paul Jones wanted to use the Alliance.
John Q. Adams helped the Chevalier de La Luzerne and Marbois
with their English on the voyage, and John Adams wrote,
I found them this morning, the ambassador seated
on a cushion in our state room, Mr. Marbois in his cot
at his left hand and my son stretched out in his at his right—
the ambassador reading out loud in Blackstone’s Discourse
… and my son correcting the pronunciation
of every word and syllable and letter.
The ambassador said he was astonished
at my son’s knowledge: that he was a master
of his own language like a professor.
Mr. Marbois said, “Your son teaches us more than you.
He shows us no mercy.
We must have Mr. John.”8
They departed on June 17, and La Sensible took them to Boston.
They returned to their home at Braintree
on 2 August 1779 and stayed there three months.
On October 20 John Adams learned that Congress had
made him a minister plenipotentiary to work on a peace treaty
with the diplomats working for Britain’s King George III.
On the voyage his oldest son had written, “A Journal by J. Q. A.
From America to Spain Vol. 1. begun Friday 12 of November.”9
His son Charles Francis Adams (1807-86) later would turn this
extensive work into Memoirs of John Quincy Adams which
would eventually be published in twelve volumes starting in 1874.
In the last paragraph of his Preface the editor C. F. Adams wrote,
Very fortunately for this undertaking, the days
have passed when the bitterness of party spirit
prevented the possibility of arriving at calm judgments
of human action during the period to which it relates.
Another more fearful conflict, not restrained within the limits
of controversy however passionate, has so far changed
the currents of American feeling as to throw all earlier
recollections at once into the remote domain called history.
It seems, then, a suitable moment for the submission
to the public of the testimony of one of the leading
actors in the earlier era of the republic.
I can only add that in my labors I have confined
myself strictly to the duty of explanation and illustration
of what time may have rendered obscure in the text.
Whatever does appear there remains
just as the author wrote it.
Whether for weal or for woe, he it is who has made
his own pedestal, whereon to take his stand, to be
judged by posterity, so far as that verdict may fall
within the province of all later generations of mankind.10
John Quincy Adams at the age of 12 wrote in his journal
on November 12, “This morning I took leave of my Mamma.”11
On the 13th father and son departed again on La Sensible that was damaged.
Even passengers had to man the pumps to keep the ship from sinking.
John and his son J. Q. were also accompanied by his 9-year-old brother Charles.
John Adams, his two sons and their cousin John Thaxter Jr.
were dropped off in Spain at El Ferrol on 8 December 1779.
They began on the 26th their travel across the Pyrenees to France.
They reached Paris on 9 February 1780 and stayed in the Hôtel de Valois
until July 27 when they began their journey to his position in the Netherlands.
Thaxter helped J. Q. and Charles at Leyden where they
could learn from lectures and tutors of Latin and Greek.
Their studies were supervised by the family’s friend Benjamin Waterhouse.
Thaxter and John Quincy Adams attended the University of Leyden
which
was considered one of the best in the world,
and Johnny was admitted as a scholar in January 1781.
John Adams in 1780 had drafted a constitution for the
state of Massachusetts that would be used as a guide for other states.
On 21 January 1781 Abigail in a letter to Johnny wrote,
“You must not be a superficial observer, but study
Men and Manners that you may be skillful in both.”12
On May 18 John Adams wrote to J. Q. from Amsterdam
and advised him to read works by Sallust, Cicero, Tacitus and Livy
in order to “learn Wisdom and Virtue.”
In early July they discovered that the Congress had named
Francis Dana the American minister to Russia.
Dana did not know French, and he decided that 14-year-old
John Quincy Adams was the best secretary and interpreter that he could find.
John Thaxter was Dana’s private secretary,
and he tutored Johnny and his brother Charles Adams.
Johnny spent much time studying Greek and Latin.
On July 7 John Quincy Adams left Amsterdam to join Francis Dana in Utrecht.
On his journey he passed through Leipzig and Berlin, which impressed him.
Johnny wrote in St. Petersburg on 21 August 1781 O.S
in a letter to his father John Adams:
The first place of any consequence we stopped at was
Berlin, the capital of the King of Prussia’s Dominion;
this is a very pretty town, much more so than
Paris or London, as Mr. Dana says; but it will be
still more so if the present King’s plan is adopted
by his successor, for wherever there is a row of low,
small houses, he sends the owners out of them,
pulls them down, and has large, elegant houses built
at the same place, and then sends the owners in again.
But notwithstanding this, he is not beloved in Berlin, and
everybody says publicly what he pleases against the King;
but as long as they do not go further than words,
he does not take any notice of it, but says that as long as
they give him all he asks for, they may say what they will.
But they have great reason to complain of him,
for he certainly treats them like slaves.
Among other things, if a farmer has two or more sons,
the oldest inherits all the land and all the others
(when of age) are soldiers for life at a groschen
and a half, which is about two pence sterling per day,
and they must with that find their own provisions;
if a farmer has but one son, he inherits his land.
Whenever a vacation [vacancy] happens in any regiment,
he chooses one of his subjects to fill the place,
and this subject from that time becomes a soldier for life;
everybody that is tall enough is subject to this law.
In peace time the native troops are disbanded
nine months in a year, and in all that time their pay ceases,
and they must get their living as they can.13
J. Q. read Voltaire’s History of the Russian Empire and Peter the Great.
On August 27 they arrived at St. Petersburg.
Dana got a subscription to a library with books in English, and Johnny
began reading David Hume’s 6-volume History of England
and works by Catherine Macaulay and William Robertson.
He also read Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.
He used a Latin dictionary to study Cicero’s orations, and he read
works by Addison, Pope, Dryden, and Richardson’s novel Clarissa.
A tutor began teaching him German.
Johnny also found that the Russian system was unjust, immoral, and unstable.
His father had moved from Amsterdam to The Hague, and in December
he advised his oldest son to return to studies at Leyden.
John Adams thought it was all right to study German.
In a letter on 14 December 1781 he counseled his oldest son not to waste time,
I am pleased to see, your hand Writing improve,
as well as your Judgment ripen, as you travel.
But I am above all happy to find that your Behavior
has been such as to gain the Confidence of Mr. Dana
so far as to employ you in copying.
This Employment requires a great degree
of Patience and Steadiness as well as care.
It will be of vast Use to you, to be admitted thus early
into Business, especially into Business of such Importance.
Make it a Rule, my dear Son, to lose no Time.
There is not a moral Precept,
of clearer Obligation, or of greater Import.
Make it the grand Maxim of your Life, and
it cannot fail to be happy and useful to the World.
You have my Consent to have any Masters, which
Mr. D. thinks proper for you.
But you will have none, upon whom
I shall depend so much as upon him.
He will form your moral and political Principles and give you
a Taste for Letters as well as Business, if you can but be so
wise and happy as to continue to deserve his Confidence,
and be admitted to assist him in Copying his Business.14
He urged Johnny to read books on the “science of morality.”
In March 1782 the American diplomats in St. Petersburg
realized that their Russian mission was not working.
Holland recognized the credentials of the Minister John Adams on April 19,
and nine days later John Adams wrote in this letter to his son J. Q.:
I am well pleased with your learning German
for many Reasons, and principally because
I am told that Science and Literature flourish
more at present in Germany than anywhere.
A Variety of Languages will do no harm unless you should
get a habit of attending more to Words than Things.
But, my dear Boy, above all Things,
preserve your Innocence and a pure Conscience.
Your morals are of more importance, both to yourself
and the World than all Languages and all Sciences.
The least Stain upon your Character will do more harm to
your Happiness than all Accomplishments will do it good.15
On 13 May 1782 he wrote to Johnny that
he should pursue his studies at Leyden.
That spring John Adams obtained a $2 million loan from Dutch bankers,
and this would lead to four more long-term loans for the United States.
On September 4 Johnny got a letter from his father
telling him to join him again at The Hague.
He left St. Petersburg on October 30.
On his way he visited Stockholm in Sweden,
and he called it “the land of lovely dames.”
He left Stockholm on 1 January 1783 and traveled 600 miles
to Copenhagen which he reached on February 15.
Father and son were reunited at The Hague
on April 21 after being apart for two years.
Johnny decided to study there, and he lived with the Charles Dumas family.
John Adams signed a trade treaty with the Dutch Republic on October 8.
The Adams family had gathered at Paris by October 26
except Johnny stayed at The Hague.
Dumas helped him translate several Latin classics,
and his father urged Johnny to study the New Testament in Greek.
John Adams joined the negotiations on a peace treaty
with Benjamin Franklin and John Jay,
and at Paris they signed a preliminary treaty with the British
on 30 November 1782 that doubled the size of the United States.
Johnny joined his father at The Hague in April 1783,
and on May 14 John Adams advised his son,
A regular Distribution of your Time
is of great Importance.
You must measure out your Hours, for Study, Meals,
Amusements, Exercise and Sleep, and suffer nothing
to divert you, at least from those devoted to study.
But above all Things, my son, take Care of
your Behavior and preserve the Character
you have acquired for Prudence and Solidity.
Remember your tender Years and treat all the World
with Modesty, Decency and Respect.16
They returned to Paris in August, and the final
Peace Treaty of Paris was signed on 3 September 1783.
Johnny wrote about the Russian system to his mother Abigail on September 10,
As you have ordered me in a Letter which I have
Lately received to give you my own Observations on
the Countries through which I have travelled, the following
are some upon Russia; but I must previously beg you will
remember, that you Say in your Letter that you expect
neither the precision of a Robertson, nor the Elegance
of a Voltaire, therefore you must take them as they are.
The government of Russia is entirely despotical.
The Sovereign is absolute, in all the extent of the word.
The persons, the Estates, the fortunes of the Nobility
depend entirely upon his Caprice.
And the nobility have the same power over the people,
that the Sovereign has over them.
The Nation is wholly composed of Nobles and Serfs,
or in other words, of Masters and Slaves.
The Countryman is attached to the Land in which he is born;
if the Land is sold he is sold with it; and he is obliged
to give to his Landlord the portion of his time,
which he chooses to demand.
It is commonly two days in the week, I think.
Others make them pay a sort of tax, of
two or three Roubles a year
(N.B. that a Rouble is 4 shillings sterling or thereabouts).
This makes a large Revenue for the Landlords
if they have a great Number of Serfs.
And there are some of the Nobles who have
an amazing Quantity of them: out of each
five hundred they are obliged to furnish one
to the Empress every year, and this forms her Army.
I have been assured from good Authority that
there is one Nobleman who furnishes 1300 men a year
to the Empress, according to that the
number of his Slaves would be 650,000.
Supposing each of these Slaves pay him
a Ruble a year his revenue will be
more than 100,000 £ Sterling per annum.
This form of Government is disadvantageous
to the Sovereign to the Nobles and to the People;
for first, it Exposes the Sovereign every Moment
to Revolutions of which there have been already
four in the Course of this Century videlicet: when Anne,
Duchess of Courland was set upon the throne, which
was the right of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the first.
This was done by some Noblemen who wanted
to limit the prerogatives of the Sovereign,
and be more powerful themselves.
And they thought, they would find Anne
more ready to agree to their Stipulations than
Elizabeth because she had no right to the Crown.
But she soon overturned all their Schemes;
for as soon as she found herself well seated upon the
throne, she rendered herself Absolute, by reinstating the
Ancient form of Government and banished all those who
had made those restrictions; this was the second Revolution.
The third was when Elizabeth dethroned Ivan
an infant of 6 months old, and had him shut up in a Tower
where he lived 20 years and was then murdered in it.
And the 4th when Peter the third was dethroned by the
present Empress: this I think is sufficient proof that
the Government is disadvantageous for the Sovereign.
Secondly, as the Nobles all depend wholly upon the
Sovereign they are always in danger, of their estates
being confiscated, and themselves sent into Siberia.
It is commonly the fate of the favorites.
Menzicoff, the Dolgoroucki’s, Biron, Bestucheff, Osterman,
L’Estocg, all these have been the sport of Fortune.
For some time the favorites of the Emperors were then
sent to Siberia into exile, there to live in Misery.
The History of Menzicoff is the most extraordinary,
and he did not deserve his fate.
He was born at Moscow; he was of low extraction
and used to Carry about the Streets
while a Child pies and sing ballads.
Peter the first saw him several times and asked him
several Questions; his answers pleased him so much
that he took him to the Palace, and by degrees
he became the favorite of the Emperor, who gave him
the title of Prince and made him general of his Army &c.
At the battle of Pultowa, he saved the Empire, because
by a maneuver of his he was the means of the battle’s
being decided in favor of the Emperor.
During the whole Reign of Peter the 1st and that of
Catharine he was high in favor, but under that
of Peter the 2nd he was stripped of all his dignities;
his fortune which was immense was confiscated,
and himself sent in exile where he died in misery.
This is very nearly the history of all the others.
An author who has written upon Russia
(Manstein’s Memoirs of Russia)
says he has seen Lands change masters
three or four times in the Course of a year.
This is certainly not advantageous for the Nobility.
And Thirdly, as to the People, No body I believe
will assert that a People can be happy
who are subjected to personal Slavery.
Some of these Serfs are immensely rich:
but they are not free, and therefore they are despised;
besides they depend still upon the Nobles,
who make them contribute more for their riches.
A Nobleman wants money; if he has any rich Serfs,
he sends and lets one of them know that
he must have at such a time a thousand Roubles
(more or less according to Circumstances).
This the Serf has a right to refuse: but in that Case
his Landlord orders him to go and work upon such
a piece of Ground: so he is obliged either
to give the money or to go and work.
The richer they are the more the nobles prize them:
thus a Common man costs but 80 or 100 Roubles at most:
but I have seen a Man who gave to his Landlord for
his Liberty and that of his descendants 450,000 Roubles.
This proves the esteem they have for Liberty:
even where one would think they should
not know that such a thing exists.17
John Adams became ill, and on October 26
he and his oldest son arrived in London.
They saw several Shakespeare plays including Hamlet,
The Merchant of Venice,
King Henry VIII, and Measure for Measure.
Johnny visited libraries and bought intellectual treasures in bookshops,
and he translated Latin and French classics.
Father and son enjoyed reading Plutarch aloud.
Johnny also listened to debates in the House of Commons
that expanded his knowledge of rhetoric.
On 18 May 1784 Johnny arrived in London before his father.
Six days later his mother Abigail arrived, and she hardly
recognized her son who had grown so in over four years.
The Adams family went to Paris on August 13
and rented a house where they stayed for nine months.
John Quincy Adams wrote this in his journal for
a specific day for the first time on 25 March 1785:
March 25th. Good Friday.
Went in the afternoon to Longchamps; this is the last day.
Every year, the Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the
week preceding Easter, which is called Semaine Sainte,
there is a kind of procession in the Bois de Boulogne,
and it is called Longchamps.
There are perhaps on each of these days
a thousand carriages that come out of Paris to go
round one of the roads in the wood, one after the other.
There are two rows of carriages; one goes up,
and the other down so that the People
in every carriage can see all the others.
Everybody that has got a splendid carriage,
a fine set of horses, or an elegant Mistress, sends them
out on these days to make a show at Longchamps.
As all the Theatres and the greatest part of the public
amusements are shut all this week, the concourse
is always very considerable; for those that cannot
go there to be seen, go to see, and as it commonly
happens upon the like occasions, there are always
twenty to see for one there is to be seen.
It is very genteel, for there are always there
some of the first people in the kingdom.
The hours are from five to seven by which time
very few carriages remain there, for they all go off
together; so that one quarter of an hour before the
place is entirely deserted, the concourse is the greatest.
The origin of this curious custom was this.
There is a Convent of women called Longchamps
somewhere near the Bois de Boulogne, where formerly
there was some very fine music performed on these days,
which drew a vast number of persons out from Paris
to hear it; but one year there was an uncommon concourse,
and some disorders happened, which induced the
Archbishop of Paris to forbid this music on these days;
but the Public who had commonly taken a ride round
part of the wood after hearing the music, continued taking
the latter part of the amusement when they were deprived
of the first, and the custom has been kept up to this day.
After it was over, we went and drank tea
with Dr. Franklin.18
This is what John Quincy wrote in his journal for March 26:
26th. Paris afternoon.
Froullé, books upon astronomy.
Went to see Mr. West and Mr. Waring,
but neither was at home.
Spent part of the evening with the Abbés.
While I was there, a gentleman came in,
who was a great partisan for animal magnetism,
that he very strenuously defended.
Speaking of Dr. Franklin, he said, “J’aime M. Franklin,
c’est un homme de beaucoup d’esprit et de genie;
je suis seulement faché pour lui qu’il ait signé
ce rapport des Commissaires.”
He spoke this so with so much “naiveté,”
that I could not help smiling.
When he went away, the Abbés told me he was a man
with 50,000 livres a year, of an exceedingly benevolent
disposition, and that he does a great deal of good.
A sensible man, but very firmly persuaded
of the reality of animal magnetism.
Mesmer, the pretended discoverer, has certainly
as yet behaved like a mountebank, and yet he
has persuaded a great number of people,
and some persons of great sense and learning,
that he has made an important discovery.
An extraordinary system, a great deal of mystery,
and the art of making people pay a hundred louis d’or
for a secret which nobody receives, have persuaded
almost half this kingdom that Mesmer really
has the secret he pretends to have.19
On March 27 he wrote,
27th. Sunday. Mr. Adams dined with Mr. de St. Olympe
and spent the evening at Mr. Jefferson’s.
At about seven o’clock in the evening,
the Queen was delivered of a Son,
who is Monseigneur le Duc de Normandie.
This is one of the most important events that can happen
in this kingdom, and every Frenchman has been
expecting it as if the fate of his life depended upon it.
One would think that after having a Dauphin,
they would be easy and quiet; but say they,
the Dauphin is young and may die; and though
the King has two brothers, one of whom has several
children, yet the capital point is, that the crown should
pass down eternally from Father to Son; insomuch that
they would prefer being governed by a fool or a tyrant
that should be the son of his predecessor, than by a
sensible and good prince who should only be a brother.
The cannon announced to us the birth of the Prince.20
John Adams was sent back to London as the American minister to Britain
in April 1785 while he continued as the Minister to the Netherlands.
John Quincy Adams quoted Voltaire in his diary.
He had met the Marquis de Lafayette, and he got to know Ben Franklin
and Thomas Jefferson whom he considered a “man of great judgment.”
The Adams family went to Paris in August.
On 27 March 1785 France’s Queen gave birth to a son
who was named Monseigneur le Duc de Normandie.
Madame de la Fayette helped Adams, Jefferson and others get places
in Notre Dame cathedral for the Te Deum that was celebrated on April 1.
Several bishops, the King and his brothers also attended.
After observing this event Johnny Adams with his family,
he wrote in his diary these thoughts:
What a charming sight—an absolute King of one of the
most powerful Empires on earth, and perhaps a thousand
of the first personages in that Empire, adoring the Divinity
who created them and acknowledging that he can in a
moment reduce them to the dust from which they sprung!
Could we suppose their devotion real and sincere,
no other proof would be necessary to demonstrate the
falsity of the supposition that religion is going to decay.
But oh! if the hearts of all those persons could have
been sounded, and everything that was lurking there,
while the exterior appeared offering up prayers to God,
could be produced to light, I fear the rigid moralist
would have a confirmation of his fears.
The reflection of the Chevalier de Gouvion
shows he was of this opinion.
I don’t know, said he, whether all this will be
very acceptable to God Almighty;
but very few persons came here for him.
I was however vastly pleased with the Ceremony,
and should have been so, if it was only that it
gave me an opportunity to see so numerous
an assembly of men of the first rank in the Kingdom.
The King and all the Court were dressed
in clothes vastly rich, but in no peculiar form.
After the Ceremony was finished, we had to
wait a long time for our carriages, and could not
at last get them all; so that we were obliged
to go away five in one chariot.
We returned to the Hotel de la Fayette
and drank much tea with Madame.
A number of houses were considerably illuminated,
but nothing to be compared to what there was
six years ago, when the King’s first child was born,
although it was only a Princess.
We returned home at about nine and were more than
half an hour getting over the Pont Neuf, such was the
crowd of carriages; in the passage of the Cours la Reine
we saw a number of fellows throwing up the sand to see
if there were no 12 sols pieces remaining;
for upon these occasions, when the mob cry out Vive le Roi,
he throws out of his Coach handfuls of small pieces of
money, and is thereby the cause of many a squabble
and some broken heads, though the Police
is so attentive that few such misfortunes happen.
The title Duke of Normandy has not been borne
by any person for more than three hundred years,
until the birth of the young Prince.21
On 26 April 1785 Johnny Adams wrote in his journal:
26th. I went in the morning to the Swedish Ambassador’s
Hotel to go with Mr. d’Asp and see the Abbé Grenet;
but I was too late, and Mr. d’Asp was gone out.
I went to see Mr. Jarvis and afterwards Count d’Ouradou
at the Hotel de Nassau Rue de la Hope.
We agreed to go together to L’Orient.
Went to see West but did not find him at home.
Walked in the Palais Royal, where I met Mr. Williams;
and as I had sent our carriage back to Auteuil,
and it was too late to walk home,
I went with him and dined at Mr. Jefferson’s.
A few minutes after dinner some letters came in
from America, and I was informed by Mr. J.
that the Packet “Le Courier de L’Orient,” which
sailed from New York the 23rd of March, is arrived.
Mr. J. and Col. Humphreys had letters from
General Washington; and a letter from Mr. Gerry
of February 25th says Mr. Adams is
appointed Minister to the Court of London.
I believe he will promote the interests of the
United States, as much as any man, but I fear
his duty will induce him to make exertions
which may be detrimental to his health.
I wish however it may be otherwise.
Were I now to go with him, probably my
immediate satisfaction might be greater
than it will be in returning to America.
After having been traveling for these seven years almost
all over Europe and having been in the world and among
company for three; to return to spend one or two years
in the pale of a College, subjected to all the rules which
I have so long been freed from; then to plunge into the
dry and tedious study of the Law for three years;
and afterwards not expect (however good an opinion
I may have of myself) to bring myself into notice
under three or four years more; if ever!
It is really a prospect somewhat discouraging
for a youth of my ambition (for I have ambition,
though I hope its object is laudable).
But still, “Oh! how wretched is that poor Man, that
hangs on Princes’ favors” or on those of anybody else.
I am determined that so long as I shall be able
to get my own living in an honorable manner,
I will depend upon no one.
My Father has been so much taken up all his lifetime
with the interests of the public, that his own fortune
has suffered by it; so that his children will have to
provide for themselves, which I shall never be able
to do if I loiter away my precious time in Europe
and shun going home until I am forced to it.
With an ordinary share of common sense, which I hope
I enjoy, at least in America I can live independent and free;
and rather than live otherwise I would wish to die
before the time when I shall be left at my own discretion.
I have before me a striking example of the distressing
and humiliating situation a person is reduced to
by adopting a different line of conduct,
and I am determined not to fall into the same error.22
John Quincy Adams left Paris on 21 May 1785, and he reached New York
on July 17 with letters for John Jay, Elbridge Gerry, and Samuel Adams.
For a while he lived in the home of the Congress President Richard Henry Lee.
Johnny returned to Boston on August 25, and six days later he went to see
President Willard of Harvard at Cambridge
where he applied for a transfer to Harvard.
Johnny met with Willard on 15 March 1786 and
was tested by three professors, a librarian, and four tutors.
He passed the entrance exams by translating Latin of Horace and Homer’s Greek,
though he had difficulty explaining Locke’s philosophy.
In April he was admitted as a third-year student.
Because of his father’s public service, Johnny was not charged tuition fees.
He translated the entire New Testament from the Greek
and much of Cyropaedia by Xenophon.
He read Latin literature and studied logic and astronomy.
He especially liked Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding,
and he read Esprit des lois by Montesquieu.
The Adams family discussed plays by Shakespeare and debated the tragedy Othello.
Johnny joined the senior class at Harvard in July 1786.
He also studied Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
In January 1787 John Adams resigned as the ambassador at London,
and he stayed until February 1788.
The Shays Rebellion began in Massachusetts in February 1787,
and they were defeated by the revived Continental Army.
John Adams completed his Defense of the Constitutions of the
Government of the United States of America in the spring,
and it was published in two volumes in time
for the Constitutional Convention that summer.
Johnny from Braintree, Massachusetts wrote a letter to his father
on June 30 informing him that John Hancock was elected governor again,
and he reported on the legislature.
Johnny wrote in a letter to his mother Abigail on August 1:
I consider as one of the most fortunate circumstances
of my life that I came from Europe as I did; it has been
of great and real service to me in many particulars.
It has reduced my opinion of myself and of my future
prospects to a nearer level with truth; so that making
allowances for the general exaggerations of youth, I do not
overrate myself more than people in general are apt to do.
It has enabled me to form an intimate friendship
with a number of worthy characters of the same
standing in life with myself; and it has been the means of
turning my attention to several important branches of study,
which otherwise I must have neglected.
There are at the university two private societies
formed upon a similar plan to that which
you mention in one of your letters.
Of these societies friendship is the soul,
and literary improvement the object;
and consequently neither of them is numerous.
I was received as a member of both these societies
very soon after my admission at the university,
and I am certain that the institutions are of
great service to those who belong to them.
In short I am now so firmly persuaded of the superior
advantages of a public education, that I only regret I did not
enter the university a year and a half sooner than I did.23
John Quincy Adams graduated second in his class at Harvard
on 18 July 1787 and gave one of the two orations in English.
Newspapers gave “The Importance and Necessity of
Public Faith to the Well-Being of a Nation” good reviews,
and the oration was published in the Columbian Magazine in September.
This is the entire speech:
The solemnity of the present occasion,
the numerous concourse of this brilliant audience,
and the consciousness of my own insufficiency,
all conspire, to fill my breast, with terrors hitherto
unknown, and although my heart would fondly cherish
the hope, that the candor and indulgence, which have
ever been the distinguished characteristics of this assembly,
will at this time be exerted; yet this involuntary palpitation
expresses fears which cannot be subdued.
Suffer me however, while the united powers of genius
and of science are here displayed by others for your
entertainment, to call your attention for a few moments
to a subject of the utmost importance to our country,
and to every individual as a citizen.
To every reflecting mind the situation of this
Commonwealth, for some months past,
must have appeared truly alarming.
On whatever side we turn our anxious eyes, the prospect
of public affairs is dark and gloomy: the distressing scarcity
of a circulating medium has been continually increasing:
the violent gust of rebellion is scarcely dissipated, and
threatening clouds of sullen discontent are still lowering
round the horizon; luxury and dissipation, like baneful
weeds have obstructed the growth of all our useful virtues;
and although the hand of patriotism, has of late been
stretched forth to crop the noxious plant, yet the fatal root,
still lies lurking beneath the surface: the bonds of union
which connected us with our sister States, have been
shamefully relaxed by a selfish and contracted principle,
and the sails of commerce furled within our ports,
witness the lamentable declension of our trade.
At this critical period, when the whole nation is groaning
under the intolerable burden of these accumulated evils,
and while the most tremendous calamities are suspended
by a slender thread over our heads, it is natural to enquire,
what were the causes which tended to reduce the
commonwealth from a state of happiness and prosperity to
the deplorable situation in which we now behold it placed,
and what measures might still be adopted to realize those
happy days of national wealth and honor, which the glorious
conclusion of a just and successful war, seemed to promise.
In this enquiry the first question which will naturally occur
must be, what is the situation of our national credit?
and what are the dispositions of our fellow citizens
with respect to the fulfillment of those engagements,
which in times of difficulty and danger, in times
“when the souls of men were tried,”
they were under a necessity of contracting?
And let me ask, can any man whose generous soul
disdains every base sentiment of fraud or injustice,
answer these questions without dropping a tear
of shame or uttering an expression of indignation?
Will he not be constrained to acknowledge, that the
divine enthusiasm, and the undaunted patriotism,
which animated the bosoms of his countrymen in their
struggle for liberty, has abandoned many so soon
as they had attained the darling object of their wishes?
But what is liberty, and what is life,
when preserved by the loss of honor?
Would not the most abject state of slavery to which tyranny
and oppression could have reduced a people, have been
preferable to standing as an independent nation exposed
to the scorn, the reproach, and the derision of mankind.
Forbid it Heaven, that this should be our fate!
From the well known honor and integrity of the
distinguished patriot, who by the suffrages of a free people,
has repeatedly been called to fill the seat of government,
and from the present dispositions of the majority of
my countrymen, I would still hope, that they will
adhere inviolably to every maxim of justice and equity;
yet an indolent carelessness, a supine inattention to
the solemn engagements of the public are but too
conspicuous among us: numbers indeed, without even
assuming the mask of dissimulation, openly avow their
desire to evade the performance of those engagements,
which they once esteemed supremely sacred.
It is frequently suggested, that nations are not subjected
to those laws which regulate the conduct of individuals;
that national policy commands them to consult their
own interests; though at the expense of foreigners,
or of individual citizens; that it is the duty of every
government to alleviate the distresses of the people
over whom it is placed, and in short that a violation of
the public faith could not subject any individual to censure:
but an idea, so palpably absurd can be formed upon
no other principle, than the probability of escaping
the punishment due to the most flagrant enormities:
one of the basest principles which can blacken the human
heart: the principle, which impels the hand of the lawless
ruffian, and directs the dagger of the midnight assassin.
Can it be pretended, that there be more
than one kind of justice and equity?
Or that honor and probity be qualities, of such
an accommodating nature, that, like the venal
sycophants of a court, they will suit themselves
at all times to the interest of the prevailing party?
Does not the very idea of a right whether
possessed by an individual or by a Society,
imply that of a correspondent obligation?
And can a nation therefore have a right to form treaties
or enter into contracts of any kind, without being
held by every bond of justice to the performance?
The contracted bosom, which was never expanded
by the warm and generous feelings of benevolence and
philanthropy, may slight all public engagements for the
sake of a paltry profit, but to a mind not bereft of every
virtuous sentiment, it must appear that if any obligations
can be more peculiarly solemn than others, they must be
those for the performance of which, the honor, not of one
individual, but of millions has been pledged: and to a person
whose views extend beyond the narrow compass of a day,
every breach of public faith must appear equally
repugnant to every principle of equity and of policy.
Survey the faithful page of history, peruse the annals of the
civilized world, and you will always find, that the paths of
rectitude and justice have ever been to a nation the paths
of wealth and greatness, as well as of glory and honor:
that public credit has ever been the foundation, upon
which the fabric of national grandeur has been erected.
So long as the Grecian states adhered inviolably
to the bonds by which they were connected,
the innumerable armies of the Persian despot,
only served as trophies to adorn their victories:
when a disregard to their public faith with its inseparable
companion Discord crept in among them, they soon fell,
an easy prey to the ambition of a less powerful tyrant.
Rome, the imperial mistress of the world, exhibits to
our view the most illustrious example of the grandeur
to which a nation may arrive by a sacred regard to
public faith: it was not by the splendor of her victories,
it was not by the pageantry of her triumphs that
she extended her dominion over the submissive world:
but it was by her insuperable attachment to the laws
of justice and equity and her punctilious observance
of all the contracts in which she engaged.
On the other hand, the disastrous fate of Alba
and of Carthage, the faithless rival of the
Roman power displays the melancholy
consequences of an unjust system of policy in a Nation.
In modern times Britain attacked at once by the
united power of four mighty nations, and born down
by the load of an enormous debt, exhibits an example
of national honor for the admiration of the world
and for the imitation of the American States.
The punctual observance of every agreement,
and the scrupulous fulfillment of every contract
are the only props which have supported the
sinking reputation of that ill-fated kingdom.
This alone has arrested the progress of threatening
conquest and suspended the uplifted arm of ghastly Ruin.
In this country I am persuaded there yet exists a spark
of patriotism, which may still rekindle a vivid flame.
On you, ye lovely daughters of Columbia, your country
calls to revive the drooping public spirit.
Without recurring to the examples of distant ages,
let me only recommend to you to imitate yourselves:
you have already given ample proofs that the patriotic
virtues are not confined to man.
Nature it is true, has not formed you to tread the
rugged paths of active life, but yours is the nobler
influence of the mind: ‘tis yours to encourage with
the smiles of applause every virtuous undertaking,
and when the warrior returns from the field of battle with
the laurel in his hand, ’tis yours to twine it round his head.
Oh! may you ever instill into the tender mind the
principles of liberty and of patriotism; and remember
that the man who can violate his country’s faith,
must ever be regardless of his own.
Suffer me, my friends and class-mates
to address you upon this interesting subject.
Warmed by that friendship, which will ever be the pride
and comfort of my life, I can attest the sentiments of
honor and integrity which I have ever heard you express.
To recommend to you a spirit of patriotism and of
public zeal would be needless; I can therefore only
exhort you, when you shall be advanced upon the
theatre of the world; when your Country shall call
upon you to assist in her Councils or to defend her
with your fortunes and your lives against the sword
of Invasion or against the dagger of Oppression, to retain
those severe republican virtues, which the pampered
minion of a tyrant may deride, which the debilitated
slave of luxury may dread, but which alone can effectually
support the glorious cause of Freedom and of Virtue.
Above all, may your ruling passion ever be to preserve
pure and immaculate the reputation of your Country.
May an insuperable attachment to this ever shine forth in
your actions, ever be the favorite theme of your discourse:
for it may safely be asserted, that all the distresses in which
the commonwealth is involved are immediately connected
with the loss of our national credit, and that of an invincible
resolution to abide by all the agreements to which we have
consented, were displayed in the conduct of our citizens in
general, we should soon rise superior to every temporary
evil: gentle Peace and smiling plenty would again appear
and scatter their invaluable blessings round the happy land;
the hands of Commerce would recover strength and spread
the swelling sail; arts and manufactures would flourish here
and soon would vie with those of Europe, and Science here
would enrich the world with noble and useful discoveries.
The radiant Sun of our union would soon emerge
from those thick clouds, which obscure his glory,
shine with the most resplendent lustre, and
diffuse throughout the astonished world the brilliant
light of Science and the genial warmth of freedom.
Our eagle would soon extend the wings of
Protection to the wretched object of tyranny
and persecution in every quarter of the globe.
The Muses, disgusted with the depravity of taste and
morals which prevails in Europe, would soon take up
their abode in these blissful seats of liberty and peace:
here would they form historians who should relate
and poets who should sing the glories of our country.
And shall we from a sordid motive
of self-interest forego all these advantages?
Shall we draw upon our country the
execrations of injured foreigners?
Shall we deprive the man, who nobly fought and bled
to establish our freedom of that subsistence
which he no longer can procure?
Or shall we reduce his mourning widow and his
orphan child to beggary as a reward for his services?
Forbid it ye powers, who are the protectors
of innocence and virtue!
May a detestation of so base a principle be
engraved upon the heart of every American!
May it be expressed in the first accents
of the lisping infant, and in the last words
pronounced by the faltering voice of age!
May national honor and integrity distinguish the American
commonwealths till the last trump shall announce the
dissolution of the world, and the whole frame of nature
shall be consumed in one universal conflagration.24
John Quincy Adams left Harvard on 20 July 1787,
and he read Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia in August.
He was given the opportunity to study law under Theophilus Parsons
at Newburyport, and he went to Newburyport on September 7.
His study included Le droit des gens by Emmerich de Vattel
who was foremost on international law and human rights.
He also read Blackstone’s Commentaries and the
First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England by Edward Coke.
From there he wrote to his mother Abigail again on December 23.
He concluded,
I have frequently been prevented from
expatiating in my letters upon political topics
by the sterility of the subject; an uncommon
fertility now produces the same effect.
I can only say in general terms that parties run very high,
and that we are most probably at the eve of a revolution.
Whether it will be effected in silence and without a struggle,
or whether it will be carried at the
point of a sword, is yet a question.
The newspapers will show you how much the public
is engaged in the discussion of the new continental form
of government, which I fear will be adopted.25
Massachusetts ratified the United States Constitution on 6 February 1788.
John and Abigail Adams moved their family to Boston on June 17
and then in October to a new estate at Braintree where Johnny joined them.
John Adams on 21 April 1789 had become the first Vice Presiden
of the United States and the first president of the United States Senate.
The government was in New York,
and he spent most of his time in New York or Philadelphia.
His son John Quincy Adams was well received when he visited there.
He even dined a few times with the first President George Washington,
and he heard James Madison debating in the Congress.
John Quincy Adams decided to go back to studying law,
and he returned to Newburyport in April.
He was admitted to the bar as a lawyer on 15 July 1790, and on that day
the courts of Essex County allowed J. Q. Adams to begin practicing law.
He opened his law office in Boston on August 9.
The United States Government in December 1790
moved to Philadelphia for a decade.
His parents were living there, and yet they encouraged him to practice law in Boston.
Early in 1791 his parents invited John Quincy Adams to come to Philadelphia,
and he dined with President Washington to celebrate his birthday on February 22.
In the Memoirs of John Quincy Adams the editor, his son,
Charles Francis Adams, wrote about the year 1791.
His relations were to be made anew,
almost as if he were a stranger.
Such was the state of mind at the outset
when business appeared to him slow in coming.
At the same time, it must be said that his
was not a nature to lose his leisure in idleness.
His training, self-imposed from his earliest youth,
made labor of some kind indispensable to his comfort.
Very naturally his mind turned to the consideration
of the public events immediately under his observation.
They were of a nature too interesting
not to fasten his attention at once.
The great struggle for independence had passed away.
Next had come the labor of organizing a system of
government, which had terminated with equal success.
Then followed the process of establishing a policy,
in regard as well to the internal concerns of the country
as to its relations with foreign states.
The ordinary method of discussing the various
important topics growing out of the labor of instauration
had been carried on through the public newspapers
issued in some of the chief towns.
In this way many strong minds were enlisted
in the treatment of the critical questions
agitating the popular mind.
Hence sprang the papers by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay,
which contributed so much to the final acceptance of the
federal Constitution, afterwards collected into a volume,
esteemed even now as the leading authority for
the construction of the terms of that instrument.
Hence came likewise numbers of similar contributions
from various sources, touching the secondary
questions ever springing out of the novel experiment.
It is not too much to say of these papers that
they form a body of contemporaneous exposition
of the nature and policy of the government at the
outset of its career, which will become of more and more
interest to the philosophical historian as time goes on.
The period of leisure conceded to Mr. Adams while
waiting for professional employment was one during
which a great change was passing over the civilized world.
The memorable eruption in France
had shaken all the thrones of Europe.
Men had taken everywhere to the examination
of the foundations of human government.
In Great Britain, Edmund Burke had thrown himself
in the van with his accustomed power by his
publication of the “Thoughts on the French Revolution”
to which Thomas Paine had not been slow to retort
in his essay on “The Rights of Man.”
On the merits of the questions thus presented,
people divided everywhere, and
nowhere more earnestly than in America.
No sooner did Paine’s production find its way there
than it was reprinted in Philadelphia under the auspices,
if not at the instigation, of Mr. Jefferson, who hailed it
as an important instrument with which to counteract
what were then believed by many to be dangerous
tendencies towards monarchical institutions.
The person aimed at as showing the strongest leaning
that way was John Adams, who, in certain papers
making their appearance in the customary channels,
was engaged in philosophically analyzing the antiquated
History of the Civil Wars of France by Davila.
Stimulated perhaps by this conflict of authority,
his son prepared for a Boston newspaper, in his turn,
a series of strictures on the pamphlet of Paine, which
appeared in due course under the signature of Publicola.
This was in 1791, when he was in his twenty-fourth year.
Perhaps the strongly excited passions of the hour,
the offspring of the upheaval of such deep social
foundations, or else the suspicion that these papers were
substantially prompted by the father, contributed to the
result, but the fact is beyond doubt that they at once
attracted great attention, not less in Europe than in America.
They were reprinted in the papers of New York
and Philadelphia, were generally read,
and elicited numerous replies.
If Mr. Jefferson’s testimony may be relied upon,
it was Publicola that forced Paine’s pamphlet into notice,
even though the latter had the great advantage
of his own prefatory endorsement to recommend it.
Be this as it may, the reputation of Publicola
spread far beyond the confines of the United States.
No sooner did the papers arrive in England than
they were collected and published in London by Stockdale,
who erroneously ascribed them to his father.
But it was not there only that they were issued.
Another edition, without the name of John Adams,
was printed and published at Glasgow in Scotland,
and still a third at Dublin in Ireland,
each differing materially from the other.
This fact, never known to the author himself,
was only discovered by the writer, who accidentally
met with copies of each edition during his residence
in Great Britain, more than seventy years afterwards.
Paine’s production had made so strong an impression
upon the popular mind in that country that the government
deemed it a proper subject for prosecution as a libel.
The case was brought up for trial on the
18th of December 1792 before Lord Kenyon.
It was upon this occasion that the Attorney-General, in
opening the case, had recourse to this publication, written,
as he said, “by an American gentleman of the name of
Adams, and read from it several passages pronounced
by him to be complete answers to the arguments of Paine.
It is told of Erskine, at that time engaged in the defense,
that he at once retorted, “How much better would it
have been for the government to follow Mr. Adams’s
example, and, instead of prosecuting Paine, to refute him!”
Neither was the sensation made by this pamphlet
limited to Great Britain.
Its reputation spread to France and elicited there a careful,
well-written answer in the form of a pamphlet, issued at
Paris, entitled “Essai sur la Constitution Française.”
How far Paine himself may have had any share
in this paper there are no means of knowing,
beyond the internal evidence, which would
rather indicate a higher grade of scholarship.
These papers, eleven in number, are found in the files of
the Boston “Centinel” for the months of June and July 1791.
The ability displayed in them was so marked that
the authorship was generally imputed to his father,
then Vice President of the United States.
So strong was this impression everywhere that the true
author appears to have felt it his duty to introduce
into the tenth number a formal contradiction of the story.
At this day no one who would take the trouble to compare
the style of the two writers could fail to see the truth.
No doubt, the popular error contributed somewhat to
extend the circulation of the production; yet making every
allowance possible for this agency, it cannot be doubted that
its intrinsic force, combining with the excitement of the time,
was the real cause of its extraordinary success.26
J. Q. Adams wrote “An Answer to Paine’s Rights of Man”
as letters using the pseudonym “Publicola.”
His father John Adams had published his Defense and Discourses on Davila
recently, and scholars thought that he was probably the author.
Yet Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe felt that his son was the author.
They agreed that the criticisms had not been successfully refuted.
This work increased controversy as the Federalist
and Republican parties criticized each other.
This is the first essay that J. Q. Adams published under the name “Publicola”
addressed to Mr. Russell, and Samuel Harrison Smith
published it in the Columbian Centinel on 8 June 1791:
The late Revolution in France has opened an extensive
field of speculation to the philosopher and to the politician.
An event so astonishing and unexpected in its nature,
and so important in its consequences, naturally arrested
the peculiar attention of the whole civilized world.
The friends of liberty and of man have seen with pleasure
the temples of despotism levelled with the ground,
and the genius of freedom rising suddenly in his collected
and irresistible strength, and snapping in an instant
all the cords with which for centuries he had been bound.
Upon the downfall of the arbitrary system of government
in France, there appears to have been but one sentiment,
and that a sentiment of exultations; but while the friends
of humanity have rejoiced at the emancipation of so many
millions of their fellow creatures, they have waited with
an anxious expectation to see upon what foundations
they would attempt to establish their newly acquired liberty.
The proceedings of their Representative Assembly
have been contemplated in very different points
of view by men of names equally illustrious,
and of characters equally favorable to the cause of liberty.
Among the publications which have appeared
upon the subject, two pamphlets founded upon
very different principles appear to have been
received with the greatest avidity and seem
calculated to leave the deepest impression.
The one written by Mr. Burke, which is one
continued invective upon almost all the proceedings
of the National Assembly since the Revolution,
and which passes a severe and indiscriminating
censure upon almost all their transactions.
The other, the production of Mr. Payne,
containing a defense of the Assembly and approving
everything they have done with applause as
undistinguishing as is the censure of Mr. Burke.
We are told that the copy from which an edition of
this work was reprinted at Philadelphia,
was furnished by the Secretary of State, and was
accompanied by a letter from which the following
extract has been published in most of our newspapers.
“I am extremely pleased to find that it is to be
reprinted here, and that something is at length
to be publicly said against the political heresies
which have sprung up among us.
I have no doubt our citizens will rally a second time
round the standard of Common Sense.”
I confess, Sir, I am somewhat at a loss to determine what
this very respectable gentleman means by political heresies.
Does he consider this pamphlet of Mr. Payne’s
as the canonical book of political scripture?
As containing the true doctrine of
popular infallibility, from which it would be
heretical to depart in one single point.
The expressions indeed imply more; they seem
like the Arabian prophet to call upon all true believers
in the Islam of democracy, to draw their swords,
and in the fervor of their devotion to compel all their
countrymen to cry out, “There is but one Goddess
of Liberty, and Common Sense is her prophet.”
I have always understood, sir, that the citizens
of these States were possessed of a full and entire
freedom of opinion upon all subjects civil as well as
religious; they have not yet established any infallible
criterion of orthodoxy, either in church or state.
Their principles in theory and their habits in practice
are equally averse to that slavery of the mind,
which adopts without examination any sentiment
that has the sanction of a venerable name.
“Nullius in verba jurare magistri” is their favorite maxim;
and the only political tenet, which they would stigmatize
with the name of heresy, would be that which should
attempt to impose an opinion upon their understandings
upon the single principle of authority.
I believe also, sir, that the citizens of America, are not
at present disposed to rally round the standard of any man.
In the full possession and enjoyment of all the freedom,
for which they have gone through so arduous a conflict,
they will not for the poor purpose of extinguishing
a few supposed political heresies, return to the
horrors of a civil contest, from which they could
reap no possible benefit, and which would probably
terminate in the loss of that liberty, for which they
have been so liberal of their treasure and of their blood.
If however, Mr. Payne is to be adopted as
the holy father of our political faith, and this
pamphlet is to be considered as his Papal bull
of infallible virtue, let us at least examine what it contains.
Before we determine to join the standard,
let us inquire what are the articles of war,
to which our General requires our submission.
It is the glorious characteristic of truth,
at once to invite and bid defense to investigation.
If any opinions which have sprung up among us,
have really led us astray from the standard of truth,
let us return to it, at the call of Mr. Payne,
or of any other man, who can show us our errors.
But sir, if upon examination, even this testament
of orthodoxy shall be found to contain many
spurious texts false in their principles and
delusive in their inferences, we may be permitted,
notwithstanding our reverence for the author,
at least to expunge the apocryphal doctrine, and to confine
our faith to the genuine tenets of real political inspiration.
It is my intention to submit to the public a few observations
which has so clear and valid a title to the public attention.
But I must observe that I wish to avoid every appearance
of disrespect, either to the real parent of this production, or
to the gentleman who has stood its sponsor in this country.
Both these gentlemen are entitled to the gratitude
of their countrymen; the latter still renders them
important services in a very dignified station.
He is a friend to free inquiry upon every subject,
and he will not be displeased to see the sentiments
which he has made his own by a public adoption,
canvassed with as much freedom as is consistent
with the reverence due to his character.27
The Boston Centinel, which supported the administration of President Washington,
began publishing the eleven Letters of Publicola with #1 on 8 June 1791.
The second Publicola letter was published on June 11 and included these thoughts:
The eternal and immutable laws of justice and
of morality are paramount to all human legislation.
The violation of those laws is certainly within the power,
but it is not among the rights of nations.
The power of a nation is the collected power
of all the individuals which compose it.
The rights of a nation are in like manner the collected rights
of its individuals; and it must follow from thence, that the
powers of a nation are more extensive than its rights
in the very same proportion with those of individuals.28
Here are some highlights from #7 that they published on July 2:
The Constitution of the United States appears to me
to unite all the advantages both of the French and
of the English, while it has avoided the evils of both.
By that constitution the people have delegated the
power of alteration by vesting it in the Congress,
together with the State Legislatures; while at the
same time it has provided for alterations by the people
themselves in their original character, whenever it shall
evidently appear to be the wish of the people to make them.
This article appears to be replete with wisdom;
I believe it will stand the test of the severest examination,
though according to the ideas emanating from Mr. Paine,
and coming to us at the same time by
reflection from the Secretary of State,
it contains a very dangerous political heresy.
It is a maxim which will not, I trust, be disputed
that no government of which the people is not a
constituent part can secure their equal rights;
but where this is the case to cramp the operations of their
own government with unnecessary restrictions and forbid
themselves to enact useful laws, what is it but to defeat
the purposes of society by the very act which gives it
a permanent existence; to tie their own hands from an
imaginary apprehension that if left at liberty, they would
administer poison to the body which nourishes them?
It is in the distribution of the national powers;
it is in the independent spirit of the people, and not
in the manuscript limitation of the Legislative authority,
that a nation is to secure the protection of its liberties.
In this Commonwealth we have a constitution,
most parts of which are unalterable by our ordinary
Legislatures; it has existed but ten years;
and already its operation has convinced us all that
several alterations in the system would be highly expedient.
Our Legislative body would be fully competent to the
purpose, and if they had the power, would readily make
such alterations as might suit the convenience of the people;
but they have no authority to act in these cases for the
benefit of the people, and as the inconveniencies to which
this injudicious jealousy have subjected us, are not at
this time of such importance as to render the alterations
of immediate or absolute necessity, we must wait our
appointed time and patiently submit to the operation
of bad laws, because we have not chosen to invest
our Legislature with the power of making good ones.
Let us not be frightened, however, from the pursuit
of our common interest by the words arbitrary power.
Distribute the whole of your power in such a manner,
as will necessarily prevent any one man, or body of men, or
any possible combination of individual interests, from being
arbitrary, but do not encumber your own representatives
with shackles, prejudicial to your own interests;
nor suffer yourselves, like the Spanish Monarch of ridiculous
memory, to be roasted to death by denying to your
servants the power of removing the fire from before you.
But although a constitution, professedly unalterable
by the common legislative authority, is of weight sufficient
to prevent the enacting of many good laws; yet it will
not always operate as a check upon your legislature.
Such is the poverty of all human labors, that
even a whole nation cannot express themselves
upon paper with so much accuracy and precision, as not
to admit of much latitude of explanation and construction.
The Legislature must always be allowed
to judge of the intentions with which the
instrument was formed, and to construe and
explain accordingly the expressions which it contains.
They sometimes think proper to violate the letter of
the constitution by adhering to its spirit, and at other times
they sacrifice the spirit by adhering strictly to the letter.
But when your Legislature undertakes to
decide that the spirit of the constitution is
directly contrary to its express letter, where is
the power in the nation that should control them?
The same power, which will always be sufficient
to control a Legislature, of which the people
are a constituent part; it is the spirit of the people.
Let your Legislative and Executive authorities be
so constituted, as to prevent every essential or
dangerous abuse of the powers delegated, but depend
upon the honest and enlightened spirit of the people for a
security which you never will obtain by merely withholding
your powers, unless that spirit should be constantly kept up.
Divide your power so that every part of it may at all times
be used for your advantage, but in such a manner, that
your rights may never depend upon the will of any one
man or body of men, entrust even the power of altering
your constitution itself, because occasions may arise,
when the use even of that power, may be absolutely
necessary for your welfare, when at the same time
it may be impossible for you to act in your original
character with the expedition necessary for your salvation;
but reserve to yourselves a concurrent power of
altering the constitution in your own persons,
because by the decay to which all the works of man
are liable, it is possible that your Legislature may become
incompetent to make such alterations as may be necessary.
But when the people are constantly represented in the
Legislature, I believe they will never find it necessary
to recur to their original character in order to make any
alterations which they may deem expedient, unless they
deny the power of making them to their Legislature….
The very act by which septennial Parliaments
were established in England, affords sufficient proof
that the power of altering the constitution itself
ought to be delegated, and even exercised
by the government upon certain critical occasions.
That act was made at a time when the kingdom was
threatened with an immediate invasion, when a rebellion
had but just been quelled, and when peace and safety
of the nation depended upon the use of this power
by the Parliament; such was the opinion of the people
at that time, and the act met with general approbation
from the general conviction of its necessity.
Such occasions may happen in the history
of every free people, and it is therefore
proper that the power should be delegated.
Upon the principles of equal liberty, upon the principles
of public happiness, and therefore of political expediency,
I think it may be fairly concluded that Mr. Paine’s
preference of the French to the English Constitution,
so far as it relates to this article, is not founded in truth.29
John Quincy Adams published Publicola #8
on July 9 and concluded with this paragraph:
Happy, thrice happy the people of America!
whose gentleness of manners and habits of virtue are still
sufficient to reconcile the enjoyment of their natural rights
with the peace and tranquility of their country—whose
principles of religious liberty did not result from an
indiscriminate contempt of all religion whatever, and whose
equal representation in their legislative councils was founded
upon an equality really existing among them, and not upon
the metaphysical speculations of fanciful politicians,
and the established order of nature.30
In #10 which appeared on July 20 Adams wrote:
By the Constitution of the United States, it is true,
the right of declaring war is vested in the Congress,
that is, in the legislative power.
But it is in the point of form that it agrees with the
constitution of France; it has wisely placed the management
of all negotiations and treaties, and the appointment of all
agents and ministers in the executive department;
and it has so thoroughly adopted in this instance the
principles of the English constitution, that although it has
given the Congress the right of declaring war, which is
merely a difference of form, it has vested the President with
the advice of the Senate as his executive council, the right of
making peace, which is implied in that of forming treaties.31
The Republican leaders Thomas Jefferson and James Madison engaged
Philip Freeman in January 1792 to publish a newspaper called the National Gazette,
and they would be opposed by Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists
who also included George Washington and John Adams.
On 17 April 1792 John Quincy Adams wrote in his Memoirs that
he burned his eyes while observing a total eclipse of the sun
without using smoked glass for protection.
His eyes were severely damaged, nearly blinded him temporarily,
and bothered him for the rest of his life.
In the 1792 elections the Republicans nominated George Clinton of New York
for Vice President, and the Federalist John Adams
prevailed in the Electoral College 77 to 50.
President George Washington had no opposition and was
easily re-elected with all 132 electoral votes.
On 10 February 1793 John Quincy Adams wrote in this letter to his father:
The bubble of banking is breaking, and I am very
apprehensive that it will prove as distressing to
this town as that of stock-jobbing
was about twelve months since at New York.
Seven or eight failures of considerable consequence have
happened within these three days, and many more are
inevitable I think in the course of the ensuing week.
The pernicious practice of mutual endorsements upon
each other’s notes has been carried as now appears
to an extravagant length, and is now found to have
involved not only the principals, who have been converting
their loans from the bank into a regular trading stock,
but many others who have undertaken to be their security.
The stagnation of trade produced in the fall of the year
by the smallpox, and very much increased by a
remarkably open winter, which has not admitted
of the usual facility of communication with the country
upon the snow, have undoubtedly accelerated this calamity,
which however, would have been the more oppressive
the longer it would have been deferred.
These misfortunes will undoubtedly give
a degree of activity to my particular profession
which has not for several years been allotted to it.
But I shall personally derive but
very little immediate benefit from it.
I see no prospect of its adding much to my business
at present, and if it should, there is no satisfaction
in thriving by the misery of others.32
On 22 April 1793 President Washington proclaimed neutrality
in the war between the British and French empires.
Two days later John Quincy Adams published in the Centinel
two letters supporting his policy using the name “Marcellus.”
Later Washington would thank J. Q. Adams especially whe
it helped people
see through Jean Genêt and to turn against his attempts
to draw Americans into France’s war against Britain.
Here is the first portion and the conclusion of the first Marcellus letter:
At a period when all the European powers with whom
we have any considerable commercial intercourse,
are involved in war, it becomes an interesting question
to every American, what line of conduct ought to be
pursued by the United States as a nation, and by their
citizens as individuals in relation to the contending parties.
The individual must follow the dictates of his own discretion,
and the path to be pursued by the United States
as a nation must be pointed out by the
wisdom of the National Legislation.
But upon a subject in which all are so deeply interested,
it is the right, and in some measure the duty
of every citizen to express his opinions
with decency but with freedom and sincerity.
The solution of the question as it respects the country,
involves in itself an answer
to that which relates to individuals.
There have indeed been certain suggestions
in the public papers, and in private circles
something similar has been heard of an intention
among some of our fellow citizens to arm privateers,
and commit depredations upon the commerce
of one of the parties under the authority of another.
It is to be hoped that this violation of the laws of nature
and nations, this buccaneering plan of piratical plunder,
may not in any instance be carried beyond the
airy regions of speculation, and may never
acquire the consistency of practical execution.
If the natural obligations of justice are so feeble among us,
that avarice cannot be restrained from robbery,
but by the provisions of positive law, if the statute book
is to be our only rule of morality to regulate the observance
of our duties towards our fellow creatures, let those whose
ideas of equality are so very subservient to their private
interests, consult the treaties between the United States
and the several powers now at war, which by the
constitution of the United States, are declared to be
“the supreme law of the land” and in the 21st, the 19th and
the 20th articles of the several treaties of commerce with
France, Holland and Prussia, they will find that by taking
letters of marque or arming privateers with commissions
under either of the powers against either of the others,
they would subject themselves to the punishment of pirates.
There can be no doubt but that a similar act of hostility
against any subject of the king of Great Britain, would be
a direct violation of the 7th article of the treaty of peace.
If we were not bound by any treaty whatever,
with either of the nations, the natural obligation of neutrality
would operate upon us individually, unless the nation
should take a decisive part in favor of one of the parties.
Every citizen should be legally responsible for all the
property which he might seize which violence under a
commission to which he could not be entitled, and if he
should preserve himself from the punishment of piracy,
he would be liable to make entire satisfaction
for all the damage he might occasion,
and to restore his ill-acquired plunder….
For, if as the poet with more than poetical truth has said,
“War is murder,” the plunder of private property,
the pillage of all the regular rewards of honest industry
and laudable enterprise, upon the mere pretense of a
national contest, to the eye of reason and justice,
can appear in no other light than that of highway robbery.
If, however, some apology for the practice is to be derived
from the uncontrollable laws of necessity, or from the
iniquitous law of war, certainly there can be no possible
excuse for those who incur the guilt without being able to
plead the palliation; for those who by violating the rights
of nations in order to obtain a license for rapine, manifestly
show, that it is only the lash of the executioner that binds
them to the observance of their civil and political duties.33
Young Adams in his third and last Marcellus letter
on May 11 concluded with these thoughts:
We are therefore commanded by a law; which supersedes
all others by that uncontrollable law of nature, which is
paramount to all human legislation or compact,
to remain at peace and to content ourselves with
wishing that laureled Victory may sit upon the sword
of justice, and that smooth success may always be
strewed before the feet of virtuous Freedom.34
John Quincy Adams in his oration on 4 July 1793 concluded:
The bonds of civil subjection must be loosened
by the discretion of civil authority, or they will be
shivered by the convulsive efforts of slavery itself.
The feelings of benevolence involuntarily make themselves
a party to every circumstance that can affect the happiness
of mankind; they are ever ready to realize the sanguine
hope, that the governments to rise upon the ruins of the
present system will be immutably founded upon the
principles of freedom, and administered by the genuine
maxims of moral subordination and political equality.
We cherish with a fondness which cannot be chilled
by the cold unanimated philosophy of skepticism,
the delightful expectation that the cancer of arbitrary
power will be radically extracted from the human
constitution; that the sources of oppression will be drained;
that the passions which have hitherto made the misery
of mankind, will be disarmed of all their violence,
and give place to the soft control of mild and amiable
sentiments, which shall unite in social harmony
the innumerable varieties of the human race.
Then shall the nerveless arm of superstition no longer
interpose an impious barrier between the beneficence
of Heaven and the adoration of its votaries: then shall
the most distant regions of the earth be approximated
by the gentle attraction of a liberal intercourse:
then shall the fair fabric of universal liberty rise
upon the durable foundation of social equality,
and the long-expected era of human felicity,
which has been announced by prophetic inspiration,
and described in the most enraptured language
of the Muses, shall commence its splendid progress—
Visions of bliss!
With every breath of Heaven we speed an ejaculation
that the time may hasten, when your reality shall be
no longer the ground of votive supplication but the theme
of grateful acknowledgment: when the choral gratulations
of the liberated myriads of the elder world, in symphony,
sweeter than the music of the spheres,
shall hail your country, Americans!
As the youngest daughter of Nature,
and the first-born offspring of Freedom.35
Notes
1. Quoted in John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger, p. 17.
2. Memoirs of Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848
by John Quincy Adams ed. Charles Francis Adams, Volume I, p. 5-6.
3. Quoted in John Quincy Adams and the Public Virtues of Diplomacy
by Greg Russell, p. 13.
4. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 7-8.
5. Quoted in John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger, p. 18.
6. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 8-9.
7. Adams Family Correspondence Volume 1 p. 222.
8. Quoted in John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger, p. 38-39.
9. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 10.
10. Ibid., p. ix.
11. Quoted in John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger, p. 41.
12. Adams Family Correspondence 4:68.
13. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume I 1779-1796
ed. Worthington Chauncey Ford, p. 4-5.
14. John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 14 December 1781 (Online).
15. John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 28 April 1782 (Online).
16. John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 14 May 1783 (Online).
17. John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, 10 September 1783 (Online).
18. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 13-14.
19. Ibid., p. 14-15.
20. Ibid., p. 15-16.
21. Ibid., p. 18-19.
22. Ibid., p. 20-21.
23. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume I 1779-1796, p. 33-34.
24. An Oration upon the importance and necessity of public faith,
to the well-being of a Community by John Quincy Adams. (Online).
25. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 39.
26. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 24-27.
27. Speeches & Writings by John Quincy Adams ed. David Waldstreicher, p. 13-15.
28. Ibid., p. 16-17.
29. Ibid., p. 36-39.
30. Ibid., p. 42.
31. Ibid., p. 49.
32. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Volume I, p. 133-134.
33. Ibid., p. 135-136, 138.
34. Speeches & Writings by John Quincy Adams, p. 65.
35. Ibid., p. 79.
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