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Adams Family Papers : An Electronic Archive
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Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 April 1776


Inclose a few Sheets of Paper, and will send more as fast as Opportunities present.

Chesterfields Letters are a chequered sett. You would not choose to have them in your Library, they are like Congreeves Plays, stained with libertine Morals and base Principles.

You will see by the Papers, the News, the Speculations and the Political Plans of the Day.

The Ports are opened wide enough at last, and Privateers are allowed to prey upon British Trade. This is not Independency you know. -- What is? Why Government in every Colony, a Confederation among them all, and Treaties with foreign Nations, to acknowledge Us a Sovereign State, and all that. -- When these Things will be done, or any of them, Time must discover. Perhaps the Time is near, perhaps a great Way off.



Cite web page as: Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 April 1776 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/
Original manuscript: Adams, John. Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 April 1776. 1 page. Original manuscript from the Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
Source of transcription: Butterfield, L.H., ed. Adams Family Correspondence. Vol. 1. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1963.
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