Papers of John Adams, volume 21
The public & the public papers have been much
occupied lately in placing us in a point of opposition to each other. I
trust with confidence that less of it has been felt by ourselves personally.
in the retired canton where I am, I learn little of what is passing:
pamphlets I see never; papers but a few; and the fewer the happier. our
latest intelligence from Philadelphia at present is of the 16th. inst. but tho’ at that date your election to
the first magistracy seems not to have been known as a fact, yet with me it
has never been doubted. I knew it impossible you should lose a vote North of
the Delaware, & even if that of Pensylvania should be against you in the
mass, yet that you would get enough South of that to place your succession
out of danger. I have never one single moment expected a different issue;
& tho’ I know I shall not be believed, yet it is not the less true that
I have never wished it. my neighbors, as my compurgators, could aver that
fact, because they see my occupations & my attachment to them. indeed it
is possible that you may be cheated of your succession by a trick worthy the
subtlety of your arch-friend of New York,1 who has been able to make of your
real friends tools to defeat their & your just wishes. most probably he
will be disappointed as to you; & my inclinations place me out of his
reach. I leave to others the sublime delights of riding in the storm, better
pleased with sound sleep & a warm birth below, with the society of
neighbors, friends & fellow laborers of the earth, than of spies &
sycophants. no one then will congratulate you with purer disinterestedness
than myself. the share indeed which I may have had in the late vote, I shall
still value highly, as an evidence of the share I have in the esteem of my
fellow citizens.2 but while
in this point of view, a few votes less would be little sensible, the
difference in the effect of a few more would be very sensible and oppressive
to me. I have no ambition to 526 govern
men. it is a painful and thankless office. since the day too on which you
signed the treaty of Paris our horizon was never so overcast. I devoutly
wish you may be able to shun for us this war by which our agriculture,
commerce & credit will be destroyed. if you are, the glory will be all
your own; & that your administration may be filled with glory &
happiness to yourself and advantage to us is the sincere wish of one who
tho’, in the course of our voyage thro’ life, various little incidents have
happened or been contrived to separate us, retains still for you the solid
esteem of the moments when we were working for our independance, and
sentiments of respect & affectionate attachment.
FC (NN:Thomas Addis Emmet Coll.); addressed: “John Adams / Vice President of the US. / Philadelphia.”; internal address: “J. Adams V. President of the US.”
That is, Alexander Hamilton.
For the results of the presidential election of 1796, see JA’s 4 Jan. 1797 Certification of Receipt of Presidential Votes from Kentucky, and note 2, below.
JA never received this letter. Jefferson
enclosed it in a 1 Jan. missive to confidant James Madison and asked him
to make the final decision on forwarding it. Madison declined,
explaining that JA’s “ticklish” temper might spark
political discord between the second president and his new vice
president. Madison also recommended suspending delivery and revising the
date, in the event that Jefferson’s qualms grew about JA’s
professional and personal views. Jefferson’s reluctance about serving
again with JA ebbed by mid-January, for, as he wrote to
Madison: “Tho’ I saw that our antient friendship was affected by a
little leaven produced partly by his constitution, partly by the
contrivance of others, yet I never felt a diminution of confidence in
his integrity, and retained a solid affection for him. His principles of
government I knew to be changed, but conscientiously changed” (Jefferson, Papers
, 29:247–248, 263–264,
270–272).