Adams Family Correspondence, volume 9
I thank you for your, agreable Letter of the 29. Ult. Your Brother is destined to be celebrated and consequently envyed and abused. He has great Talents, and equal Industry. Publicola has passed through Several Editions in Ireland and Scotland as well as England, and I am well informed that the Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr Pitt and Several other Characters high in office besides the Attorney General have pronounced it one of the ablest Things of the kind they ever read. Marcellus deserves as high an Encomium. I am of Dumouriers opinion that the last Fugitive Piece, which the French call a Constitution is worse than the first, and, as La Croix Said of the latter that it would last as long as it should please God the former will have the same fate.1
If Dumourier had known Condorcet as well as I do, he would not have been surprized at his Constitution. He has been ignorant and indiscreet enough to commit himself in Print, Several years ago, in favour of a crude and shallow Idea of his three Idols Turgot Franklin and the Duke de la Rochefaucault, and now he will never get rid of it, till he is murdered like the last of them.2
You are very right. The Spirit of Liberty is a Sober and a temperate Spirit. Rage, Violence & fury are inconsistent with it.
I am pleased to perceive that your Taste for Books is a growing Appetite and your Love of study an increasing Passion. Go on my son. You will find your Account in the study of Ethicks, and the Law of Nations. Such Writers not only enlighten the Understanding but they rectify and purify the heart. The Love of Justice, of Humanity and of Wisdom, are the never failing Effects of frequent and constant Contemplation of the Principles Maxims and Reasonings of those Writers.
Your Plan of Studying Espinasse, is judicious and I hope you will pursue it to the End.— The Catalogue of Books you have purchased is no Doubt valuable, and you do well to admire Lord Mansfield, yet you must be upon your guard and not always adopt his Ideas, nor should you forget, Hale Coke or Holt3
Brisler shall Send you, The Abbe Condelae's Course of Study as you desire.
Judge Duane has made you a very handsome Compliment, which 435demands and I presume will have your gratitude. Tho there may be no Profit there is honour, and a fair Opportunity to do good and to approve your humanity, Justice, publick Spirit Patience Politeness and Address before many People, which to a good young Man is a prescious Advantage. I hope therefore you will attend this Duty as punctually as if it was lucrative. A Sincere desire to do good is the best Trait in a young Man's Character. A Selfish Indifference to the good of others, is one of the worst.
My regards to our Connections. I am &c
RC (MHi:Seymour Coll.); internal address: “Charles Adams”; endorsed: “June 5. 1793.”
Jean François de Lacroix (1754–1794), a lawyer, was a member of the National Convention and an ally of Danton (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
).
Condorcet had argued for “the unprofitableness of the division of legislative powers into several bodies,” first in a Supplément to his Influence de la révolution d’Amérique sur les opinions et la législation de l’Europe, n.p., 1786, and later in his Lettres d’un bourgeois de New-Heaven (published in Philip Mazzei's Recherches historiques et politiques sur les États-Unis de l’Amérique septentrionale, 4 vols., Paris, 1788), written in response to JA's
Defence of the Const. He believed that a single unicameral legislature better served a democracy, a notion to which JA took considerable exception (Haraszti, Prophets
, p. 235–236).
Sir John Holt, Thomas Farresley, and Giles Jacob, A Report of All Cases Determined by Sir John Holt, Knt., from 1688 to 1710, London, 1738.
th:June 1793—
I have procured the Warrant from the Treasury for the payment of D 1250. and taken two Orders on the Branch Bank at Boston in the name of my Brother. One for Dls800. & the other for Dls1,190, which will be paid him on demand, on your behalf. The surplus I have reserved for the following purposes. Viz For five months Board Dls66. 50Cts; One hundred Dls sent to my Brother Charles; For two Quarters Store Rent Dls 36. For nine Doz of Porter Dls 16. For myself Dls 41— 50Cts— Or, to state it in a more Mercantile way—
| Dlls | Cts | |
| To Charles at NYork | 100 | |
| For five months Board for myself | 66 | 50 |
| For two quarters Store Rent for the furniture | 36 | |
| For Nine Doz of Porter | 16 | |
| For myself | 41 | 50 |
| Dls 260 | " 0 |
I have inclosed the Orders to my Brother John;1 he will be upon the Spot, and can transmit the money to you at Quincy without delay; As they are drawn in favor of my Brother, no Indorsment will be necessary on your part. My good Quaker Landlady is upon the point of giving up house keeping, which has obliged me to seek another residence— I have found one at another Quaker house, but at a higher price than before— They demand at the rate of seventy five pounds Pr Ann. and I was under the necessity of closing with the terms, as I could hear of no place equally reasonable— The situation is much preferable to that which I left, & my accomodations are better; but I did not make the exchange from choice. The name of the Family is (Staal) they bear a very respectable character, and are to appearance civil folks—2
I must apologize for troubling you with my personal concerns— I hope my next letter may contain more interesting matter.
Presenting my best love to all friends / I subscribe / your affectionate son
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Vice President of the U,S.”
Not found.
China merchant John Stall Sr. and his wife, Frances, operated a boardinghouse at 72 North Third Street in Philadelphia (Rush, Letters
, 2:688–689, 747;
Philadelphia Directory
, 1793, Evans, No. 25585; U.S. Census, 1790, Penn., p. 222).