Original paper slip text:18 April 1813.
Original paper slip text:Quincy
Unable to lookup name for quincy.- Previously at PWaC Feinstone and on deposit at the American Philosophical Society Library
- ALs sold, Parke-Bernet, 28 Nov. 1962, Sale No. 2145, lot 234.
- 234. ADAMS JOHN. In retirement after his term as President. A.L.s., 2 pp., 4to; Quincy. 18 April 1813. To Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, in reply to Rush's letter of 10 Apr., the next to the last collected in Butterfield's edition of Rush's correspondence. With integral address leaf, franked by Adams. (Brooklyn Priv. Coll.)
- Adams was evidently unaware that Rush had become ill 14 April; ironically, Rush in his letter of 10 April, written in health, had mentioned the approach of death, not knowing that his own life was to end on the 19th of the same month. The two men had maintained a correspondence for years, and Rush was proud of the fact that in 1811 he had arranged the reconciliation between Adams and Jefferson which was to last throughout their lives. Rush in turn had earned Adams' gratitude by successfully treating Abigail Adams for lameness.
- Adams replies to the news of the safe return of Rush's son from a foreign voyage by mentioning his anxiety over the absence of his own sons. He then goes on to discuss the purposes of the War of 1812, offering to copy out an Act of the Continental Congress to be printed at Philadelphia "tho made at the expense of my worn eyes and trembling fingers." He offers to have it printed at his own expense, if necessary, because he believes it to be the first such act attempting to establish the freedom of the seas. He then writes of Rush's puzzlement that a Congressional loan for the prosecution of the war should have been underwritten by an Englishman and a Frenchman, saying in essence that his experience of "Capitalists and Money Lenders and Usurers and Shavers" leads him to believe they will invest in anything for a profit. In direct answer to a question by Rush on war aims, he writes: "The Liberty of the ocean is the Praetext; but the Power of the Union The Object as Calvinism and Catholicism were the Praetexts; but the Power of France the Object of the civil wars of France 200 years ago."
- A remarkable letter, with Adams at his rhetorical liveliest, and a most unusual association.
- Information transferred from multiple blue slips now deleted. ER 12/10/2015
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Original held by:From the collection: Previously owned by Sol Feinstone of Penn. and on deposit at the American Philosophical Society Library.
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Original paper slip text:Printed: Biddle, Old Family Letters, p. 449–451
Full citation:
Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle, Series A, Philadelphia, 1892.
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Original paper slip text:(in part): Biddle Papers, pt. 3, lot 58
Full citation:
The Alexander Biddle papers : American autographs: Adams, Franklin, Washington ... and other important Americans. Sold by direction of the Pennsylvania company and Girard Trust Company, Philadelphia, Pa., in connection with the final distribution of the estate to the residuary legatees ... Public auction sale ...
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