Your favors of the 7th: & 31st: of March & 3d: of April, are yet unacknowledged, though they have been some time received. No vessel has sailed directly for your port, since I last wrote; until the ship Benjamin, on board of which I sent you a packet of the port folio. I also sent a packet for my Brother, but I apprehend he will have left 99 Berlin before it can arrive, though possibly he may not have embarked for home.1

The Spectateur & another pamphlet have likewise been received from you; but this pamphlet addressed by my brother to my father, & enclosed by you to me, was unfortunately put on board a ship, bound to NewYork, though said, on the cover, to be sent by the Pennsylvania, for this place; coming by post to me, it inflamed my postage bill, rather more than a poor attorney can bear without grumbling; so I charge you to be more careful, in future, how you enclose pamphlets to me, which are addressed to another person. Congress, conferred the privilege of franking, upon John Adams, but they were not so generous to his son.2

I thank you for all your political intelligence. Poor, free, imperial Hamburg! How art thou bandied about, like a football, kicked, cuff’d & squeezed, until thou hast scarce breath enough left to sigh a complaint, at thy indignities! Thou has been convicted, at sundry times & in divers manners of being rich, and because thou wouldst not fight, thou fain must pay. I hate to see the weak trodden under foot, but since the abrogation of the law of Nations, this has been a trick of the times. I think however, that these little, paltry, insignificant, trading towns, which are mock-dignified by the epithet of free & imperial Cities, are such a burlesque on sovereignty, that I care little who takes them under protection, provided it be a power competent to the service.3

I presume you get newspapers from this place, and therefore I need not tell you any thing about the heinous sins of our political rulers. They are chronicled every day in the vehicles of scandal, otherwise called free presses. There is sore complaint at removals from Office, and there is unceasing clamor that so few removals are made. The sovereign, begins to bellow, about the loaves & fishes, which are the very quintescence of Republicanism. The Alpha & Omega of democracy. “We have yet gained little,” say the Republicans, if any federal officer be continued in employ, and it is beginning to transpire, that the triumph of principle, in the late struggle of parties, is nothing more than the triumph of the unprincipled office-seekers of the Country.4

We hear & read every day, that our fathers fought & bled for the sake of establishing a free & independent republic— Well, we had flattered ourselves, (till lately, when we have been bettered informed) that we had been living under a republican form of government, & some have been foolish enough to think, that the Country has 100 prospered under the administration of the two first Presidents; but we are now assured, by all the democratic prints, that the Independence, that which was declared in 1776. was never established till the 4th: March 1801.5

My dear Sir, you seem to retain a respect for the good sense of my Countrymen & are willing to believe, that fair argument & free discussion, will yet avail, in preserving our political institutions. I advise you to banish this impression, as too destitute of foundation, for if a people were ever befooled & besotted with intemperate zeal for any thing, my Countrymen certainly are, for the name of Republicanism. But enough. I ought, like Noah’s sons to step back & cover the nakedness of a parent.

I believe “a political intolerance, as despotic as wicked,” is about to commence. Hitherto we have seen but little of it, though I have looked for it, more than other’s, who have more faith than I had in smooth words. You I think may calculate upon being removed, provided any body should want to be Consul at Hamburg.6

Your old friend Clinton has again got into the saddle upon the back of NewYork. The good beast called the sovereign, had always a propensity to be ridden by this jockey, and only threw him out of his seat, by stumbling over Jay.

Our NewYork & Boston friends are well. The enclosed half Centinel will afford you some reading—7

With great esteem I am, dear Sir, / your friend & hble Servt:

It falls to my lot to do things so repugnant to my inclination & so contrary to my sense of strict propriety, that I know not what apology to offer for complying, in opposition to both, with the absurd customs of the times, which so often impose a necessity of thus betraying my judgment. What answer can be given to a man who after living for a few months under the same roof with you, though in no particular habits of intimacy, shall accost you thus? “Mr: Adams have you any commands for Boston?” Are you going to Boston Sir? “Yes.” I know not that I have any particular commands. “Will you give me some letters to your friends?” I will Sir, with pleasure. This is the substance of a dialogue, which passed between your friend, Mr: Thomas Radcliff & myself last evening.1 He has lived, during the whole winter, under the same roof with me, and though I did not become acquainted with him, until about two or three months ago, he presumes on this as a sufficient title to ask letters to my friends in Boston. You know what a kind of reputation he had in this place, at one time; but in justice to him I must say, that I think a great deal of artificial, mlignant censure was cast upon him, though he was 102 certainly somewhat to blame in all the disputes, in which he has been involved. I have found him, in the little intercourse I have had with him, perfectly correct in his conduct, while he was not affected with wine; but when exhilirated, he is often thrown off his guard.

I have entered into this detail for the sake of explaining to you, how it happened, that I should give letters of introduction to a man of this stamp. This is the third instance wherein I have introduced people, to my friends by solicitation, & I confess it is a very irksome thing, for I place considerable importance upon this custom of giving introductory letters, though others may esteem it lightly.

I beg you to apprize Mr: Smith, that I have given a letter [to] Radcliff, for him, under these circumstances; I have also given a letter for [my] father. I am not afraid that any conduct of Mr: Radcliff, in their company, would disgrace my introduction, but I cannot answer for him else-where. My friends, in Boston, I fear, will think I keep strange company, by the specimens I have given in my introductions.

Mr: Radcliff accompanies his mother, who has recently arrived at New York, from So: Carolina.

I have your favor of the 10th: and the paper with it, containing an account of the Juvenile procession, which warmed my filial blood.2 Youth, ingenuous youth! The biass of envious, interested, abitious rivalship, hath not warped the natural propensities of your hearts! The paralizing stroke, of age, hath neither perverted your understandings nor blinded the eye of gratitude. Contemporaneous emulation, though exhibited in glowing colors before you, hath not dazzled your powers of discernment, nor taught you to be unjust. In blushing for your Sires, some of whom, with less sincerity than yourselves, may have swelled the numbers of your procession, you may proudly apply the motto from Gay’s immortal fable of the “Hare & many friends” “Older & abler pass’d you by; How strong are those! how weak am I.”3

I have this morning a letter of the 11th: April, from my brother. He is the most exhaustless writer that I ever knew. The three last numbers of the Port folio, are compiled from his communications, more than half— You may know his mark, by one of the letters which make the word Columbus, being at the bottom of each poetical effusion.

I have my mother’s letter, of the 12th: this morning. Cordially your’s