Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
I Send you, at present the Negotiations with Mr Hammond as I sent you before those with Mr Genet.1 I wish I could send you “The Example of France a Warning to Britain” a Pamphlet of Arthur Young the Secretary of Sir John Sinclairs Agricultural Society: but it is borrowed and must be returned. He is more Burkish than Burke I think.2
Congress will do little this session I believe and perhaps the less the better.
Americanus has received just such a Flagellation as he has deserved these twenty Years. His Blunders, his Ignorance his Dulness, his Duplicity and Insincerity has been detected and exposed. And if The Blockhead had always been treated with the Same Freedom & Spirit he would have been held in total Contempt before this day and would have been quite harmless. I hope however that Barneveld will not make himself cheap by meddling much with Such Fools and Knaves.
Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus Vindice nodus.3
Thomas has Sent to his Brother, two hundred dollars for you, in a Check on some bank.
We have an open Winter, much too mild to clear the Atmosphere of all its Vapours. It is Said that a dry Fall is commonly followed by an open Winter. When the large Tracts and great Lakes in the North West are not wet and full of Water in the Fall before Winter setts in, there is seldom must snow or great Cold in the Course of it. I presume the Ice is not sufficient any more than the Snow for our Wall Operations but our Wood may be brought home for the whole summer I should Supppose. There is a quantity of manure thrown out of the Ditches of the Coves which I should wish carted or Sledded into the yard if it can be conveniently: but I would not plan too much Work. Duty & Love
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Jan’ry / 18 1794.”
The enclosure has not been found but was likely Authentic Copies of the Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson, Esq., Secretary of State to the United States of America, and George Hammond, Esq., Minister Plenipotentiary of Great-Britain, on the Non-Execution of Existing Treaties, the Delivering the Frontier Posts, and on the Propriety of a Commercial Intercourse between Great-Britain and the United States, 2 vols., Phila., 1794.
Arthur Young, The Example of France, a
47
Warning to Britain, London, 1793. Sir John Sinclair (1754–1835) served as the first president of Britain’s board of agriculture from 1793 to 1798 and again from 1806 to 1813. Young (1741–1820), the secretary of the board, defended in his pamphlet his earlier support for the French Revolution based on its initial goals of limited monarchy and defense of natural rights, and he justified his current opposition to the Revolution given its shift to demands for a full republic (
DNB
).
“And let no god intervene, unless a knot come worthy of such a deliverer” (Horace, Ars Poetica, transl. H. Rushton Fairclough, Cambridge, 1947, lines 191–192).
We go Slowly forward: So Slowly as to produce no Results, which is a better course than to run rapidly in a Career of Mischief.
I go to Senate every day, read the News papers before I go and the Public Papers afterwards, see a few Friends once a Week, go to Church on Sundays; write now and then a Line to you and to Nabby: and oftener to Charles than to his Brothers to See if I can fix his Attention and excite his Ambition: in which design I flatter myself I shall have Success.
John may pursue his Studies and Practice with Confidence as well as Patience. His Talents, his Virtues his Studies and his Writings are not unknown, nor will they go without their Recompence, if Trouble is a Recompence for Trouble. If the People neglect him the Government will not: if the Government neglect him the People will not, at least very long.
Thomas is reading Clarendon, in order to form a Judgment of the Duration of the French Republick; and all other such Democratical Republicks which may arise in the great Maritime and commercial, Avaricious and corrupted Nations of Europe.
Cheesman I hear is returned to Boston— Our Trunk had better be taken out. Thomas’s Books and Boots should be Sent here: but the rest may be carried to Quincy. I want nothing and Brisler says having done without his Things so long, he had rather do without them now till We return.
The Senators and Reps. Say that We must Sit here till May— Some hope to be up in April. I cannot flatter myself to be at home till the first of May. If the Yellow Fever Should make its Appearance, We Shall Seperate earlier, but the general Opinion and universal hope is that it will not return at all: at least till after the extream Heats of summer.
Col. Smith Spent about a fortnight here and is now returned. He 48 is tormented by his Ambition but has taken very unsagacious measures to remove his Pains. I know not what he is in Pursuit of.
I am affectionately yours
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Janry / 21 1794.”