close
Browsing: Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 11
Docno: ADMS-04-11-02-0061
Recipient: Adams, Abigail
Date: 1796-01-07
John Adams to Abigail Adams
[dateline] Philadelphia Jany. 7. 1796
[salute] My Dearest Friend
Inclosed is another Production of Porcupine, whose quils will Stick.1
“And Midas now neglected Stands
With Asses ears and dirty hands.[”]2
The President appears great in Randolphs Vindication throughout excepting that he
wavered about Signing the Treaty which he ought not to have done one moment. Happy
is the Country to be rid of Randolph: but where shall be found good Men and true to
fill the offices of Government. There seems to be a Necessity of distributing the
offices about the States in Some Proportion to their Numbers: but in the Southern
Part of the Union false Politicks have Struck their roots so deep that it is very
difficult to find Gentlemen who are willing to accept of public Trusts and at the
same time capable of discharging them. The President offered the office of State to
Seven Gentlemen who declined: to Mr Patterson, Mr King, Mr Henry of Virginia, Mr Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of S. C. and three others whose names I dont recollect.3 He has not been able to find any one to accept the War Office.4 The Expences of living at the Seat of Government are so exorbitant, so far beyond
all Proportion to the salaries and the Sure Reward of Integrity in the discharge of
public functions is such obloquy Contempt and Insult, that no Man of any feeling is
willing to renounce his home, forsake his Property & Profession for the sake of removing
to Philadelphia where he is almost sure of disgrace & Ruin. Where these Things will
end I know not. In perfect Secrecy between you & me, I must tell you that I now believe
the P. will retire. The Consequence to me is very Serious and I am not able as yet
to see what my Duty will demand of me. I Shall take my Resolutions with cool deliberation,
I shall watch the Course of Events with more critical Attention than I have done for
sometime, and what Providence shall point out to be my Duty I shall pursue with Patience,
and Decision. It is no light thing to resolve upon Retirement. My Country has claims—my
Children have claims and my own Character have claims upon me. But all These Claims
forbid me to serve the Public in disgrace. Whatever any one may think I love my Country
too well to shrink from Danger in her service provided I have a reasonable prospect
of being
{ 131 }
able to serve her to her honour and Advantage. But if I have Reason to think that
I have either a Want of Abilities or of public Confidence to such a degree as to be
unable to support the Government in a higher Station, I ought to decline it— But in
that Case, I ought not to serve in my present Place under another especially if that
other should entertain sentiments so opposite to mine as to endanger the Peace of
the Nation. It will be a dangerous Crisis in public affairs if the President and Vice
President should be in opposite Boxes.
These Lumbrations must be confined to your own Bosom— But I think upon the whole the
Probability is strong that I shall make a voluntary Retreat & spend the rest of my
days in a very humble Style with you. of one Thing I am very sure— It would be to
me the happiest Portion of my whole Life.
I am with unabatable Affection / Yours
[signed] J. A
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”; endorsed: “Janry 7th / 1796.”
2. Jonathan Swift, “The Fable of Midas,” lines 81–82. These lines appeared as part of
an epigraph on the title page of Peter Porcupine’s A New-Year’s Gift.
3. In a late October 1795 letter to Alexander Hamilton, George Washington largely reiterated
JA’s comments here: Washington had offered the post of secretary of state to William
Paterson of New Jersey, Thomas Johnson of Maryland, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of
South Carolina, and Patrick Henry of Virginia, in that order, all of whom had declined.
Subsequent correspondence with Hamilton indicates that Rufus King of New York was
also approached but likewise declined. Although Hamilton made other suggestions for
possible candidates, on 9 Dec. Washington submitted Timothy Pickering’s name to Congress
to make his position as acting secretary of state permanent. The Senate gave its advice
and consent to the appointment the following day.
Paterson (1745–1806), Princeton 1763, was Irish-born but raised in New Jersey. A lawyer,
he held various posts in New Jersey government and served as one of that state’s delegates
to the federal Constitutional Convention in 1787. In 1793 he became an associate justice
of the U.S. Supreme Court. Pinckney (1745–1825), of the prominent Pinckney family
of South Carolina, was educated in England at Oxford and the Middle Temple. He rose
to the rank of brigadier general during the Revolutionary War and later was named
a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He held no other federal positions, however,
until named U.S. minister to France in 1796 (Hamilton, Papers, 19:356–357, 395–397; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour., 4th Cong., 1st sess., p. 193; ANB).
Cite web page as: Founding Families: Digital Editions of the Papers of the Winthrops and the Adamses, ed.C. James Taylor. Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 2018.
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/
http://www.masshist.org/apde2/