21 June 1815
Original paper slip text:21 June 1815.
Quincy, MA
Original paper slip text:Quincy.
2 p.
- Original currently boxed in cage in E187 Letters Removed from other collections, Box 1A
- Adams Papers, "4th Generation." Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph H. Hennage to MHS, 1976.
- ALs Purchased by Goodspeed's, December, 1969. Offered for sale (cat. 561, May 1970), item 2, $875.
- >In this letter Adams mentions two of his own important works. A Defense of the Constitutions of Government of the United States (several American and English editions, 1787–88 et seq.) and Discourses on Davila: a Series of Papers on Political History (serialized in The Gazette of the United States in 1790; book publication in 1805). Adams also writes of Carey's important work, The Olive Branch (1814, second edition 1815), written in an attempt to reconcile the feuding Federalists and Republicans during the War of 1812. Adams here also eloquently reveals his altered view of the French Revolution.
- "... I am sorry there has been so much cause for the publication of the Olive Branch; but as I believe it will do good I have subscribed for it. I am ashamed of the Vanity and Injustice of some of our Preachers and Writers: and rejoice that the Events of the War have so completely confuted the Calumnies against the Southern and transalleganean States.
- "You have paid a handsome compliment to a Work [his Defence of the Constitutions] which is forgotten in America, though not entirely in Europe, as it has been translated into [German and French], and, in the opinion of some persons, has contributed . . . to introduce Representative Government into some of the old Electorates and Principalities in Germany as well as into . . . France. It certainly had some effect in producing our present national Constitution. . . . Never were Volumes written with more Sincerity, than the defence, and the discourses on Davila. . . .
- "[Adams notes that A Defence was published] when the French Revolution exhibited in its countenance . . . nothing but Innocence, Purity, Virtue, Humanity, Liberty and Patriotism. It had not then assumed its face of Blood and Horror, of Murder and Massacre, of Ambition and Avarice, of Conquest [,] Despotism and Devastation."
- Adams's last paragraph relates to various editions of A Defence, including one published by William Cobbett. On the first page of his letter is the MS, notation (presumably by Carey): "Red. June 28 Ansd. July 11."
- Information transferred from blue slip now deleted. ER 3/11/2016
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From the collection: Adams Papers, 4th Generation
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