22 Sep. 1798
Original paper slip text:22 Sept. 1798.
Quincy
Original paper slip text:Quincy
Unable to lookup name for quincy.2 p.
- With enclosure: address of Grand Jury signed by Jonathan DeWitt, Foreman, as received from MBU
- ALS given to Boston University in 1980 by Paul Richards.
- "THE CONDUCT OF FRANCE MUST NOT DISGRACE THE CAUSE OF FREE GOVERNMENTS."
- 86. ADAMS, JOHN. 1735–1826. President of the United States. Letter Signed, as President. 2 full pp., 4to. Quincy, Mass., September 22, 1798. To the Grand Jury of the County of Dutchess in the State of New York. With docketed integral leaf and the retained contemporary manuscript copy of the "Address" to which this letter is in answer. Historically important letter. About the period of the "Address" and Adams' reply, the trouble with France occurred and numerous patriotic societies and meetings were held by the Federalists throughout the Country and addresses sent to the President. Both the letter and the "Address" deserve very careful reading. Eloquence is the keynote of the "Address" of 3pp., folio, which in small part reads: "...We disclaim the wish of being united to any European nation and the idea of being concerned in their wars, but we are Americans, and we will assert our rights and defend our country...With respect to yourself sir [Adams], we have neither a disposition or a motive for flattery but declare in plain language of sincerity, that we think you have deserved well of your country. Posterity will not judge you unworthy of occupying the place of the first of men..."
- Equally eloquent and well prepared is Mr. Adams' answer which reads in part: "...Is there any mode imaginable, in which contempt of the understanding and feelings of a nation, can be expressed with so much aggravation, as by affecting to treat the Government of their choice as usurpation? If in some instances, marks of dissaffection have appeared in your state, it is indeed exceedingly to be regretted. If this has been owing to the influx of foreigners of discontented characters, it ought to be a warning. If we glory in making our country an asylum for virtue in distress, and for innocent industry, it behooves us to beware, that under this practice, it is not made a receptacle of malevolence and turbulence for the outcasts of the universe. The conduct of France must not disgrace the cause of free governments. With the tears and the blood of millions, she has demonstrated, that a free government must be organized and adjusted with a strict attention to the nature of man and the interests and passions of the various classes of which society is composed; but she has not made any rational apology for the advocates of despotic government. Society cannot exist without laws, and those laws must be executed. For nations that are populous, opulent & powerful, the concurrent interest of great bodies of men operate very forcibly on their passions, and break down the barriers of modesty, decency, and morality, and can be restrained only by force. But there are methods of combining the public force in such a manner, as to refrain the most formidable combinations of interest, passions, imagination and prejudice, without recourse to despotic government. To these methods it is to be hoped the nations of Europe will have recourse, rather, than surrender all to military dictators or hereditary despots..." Handsomely preserved and with remarkable content. 2000.00
- Information transferred from blue slip now deleted. ER 9/18/2015
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