Papers of John Adams, volume 19
r.18. 1787
Let me thank you kindly and cordially for your Letter of the fifteenth.
Such is the melancholly Lot of Humanity, that I cannot pretend to promise Immortality to Liberty or to Virtue in any nation or Country of great numbers and large Extent from any Constitution of Government within human Contrivance.— All I can say is that it appears plain to me that every great Nation must have three Branches or but one. and if it has but one, that one must be a Simple Monarchy or in other Words a Despotism. A Government of one assembly or of two assemblies only in any great nation, cannot exist but in a state of civil War that will Soon End in Despotism, of one Man. I am not Solicitous about the Name of the first Magistrate, provided he have the whole Executive Power. call him Podesta, President, Consul or King, as you will.—2
Anything Sir! I am not afraid of the Word.—
You and I hold, that Nations are the Creators, the Masters, the Sovereigns of Kings. That the People have a Right to depose a bad King and set up a good one. to pull down a bad Government and erect a good one. We believe too that the People are capable of this.— how then can We Suppose the People them so ignorant and Superstitious, as to be imposed on and ruined by a Word.— The Danger
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does not arise from the King: but from the Folly of the People, in giving up their own Branch.— if the People, were well represented they would always controul the King. and depose him if he would not be otherwise controuled. For Gods sake sir, instead of finding fault with you King find fault with your People and Your Representatives and make them do their duty.— The Trappings and thousands of Useless offices about the King, are no Part of the Royal Office. abolish them all, as Mr Burkes Bill proposed, and the Royal Dignity and office remains the Same.3
Dft (Adams Papers); docketed: “My Letter to T.B. Hollis / begun.”; notation by CFA: “To T. B. Hollis. Draft.”
JA’s imminent visit to The Hyde may mean this letter was never sent (
AFC
, 8:195).
The U.S. Constitution’s omission of a formal executive title triggered fierce congressional debate in the spring of 1789, with JA favoring, variously, “His Highness” or “Majesty” (Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, For Fear of an Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789, Ithaca, N.Y., 2014, p. 25–27). On the question of how the president should be formally addressed by Congress and in official government documents, see
JA’s 9 May 1789 letter to William Tudor, and note 1, below.
JA referred to the sweeping reforms outlined by Edmund Burke in his Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., Member of Parliament for the City of Bristol: On Presenting to the House of Commons (on the 11th of February, 1780) a Plan for the Better Security of the Independence of Parliament, London, 1780. Burke suggested the abolition of a substantial number of offices in the royal household and civil administration as a cost-cutting measure meant to end corruption. After fierce debate, a moderate version of Burke’s proposed plan, which consolidated parliamentary oversight of the crown’s expenditures, was passed as the Civil List Act in 1782, after fierce debate (Earl A. Reitan, “The Civil List in Eighteenth-Century British Politics: Parliamentary Supremacy versus the Independence of the Crown,” The Historical Journal, 9:328–337 [1966]).
J’ai eû l’honneur de bien recevoir Votre Lettre du 1. du courant, par laquelle Vous m’avez envoyé un Memoire pour Leurs Hautes Puissances, au sujet des circonstances dans lesquelles Monsieur Du Mas se trouve. Ce Memoire n’etant pas écrit en François, comme il est de coutume, mais en Anglois, n’a pû étre mis en delibération formelle; mais comme il a cependant été porté par moi à la connoissance de Leurs Hautes Puissances, j’ai été authorisé de Vous écrire en reponse, que Sur une Note remise à moi par le dit Du Mas en date du 28. du mois passé, et par moi présentée à Leurs Hautes Puissances, les Seigneurs Deputés de La Province de Hollande & West-Frise on deja été priés de veiller à la surété de Sa personne: que Leurs Hautes Puissances ne verroient pas volontiers que le dit Du
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Mas, aussi peu qu’aucun de Leurs propres habitans, se trouvât dans l’embaras; mais qu’Elles ne peuvent pas Vous cacher, Monsieur, que le dit Du Mas merite peu Leur protection, puisqu’il s’est conduit d’une maniere qui à plusieurs égards est tout à fait inconvenable; c’est pourquoi qu’au nom de Leurs Hautes Puissances je Vous prie Monsieur (chose qu’on attend aussi de Votre discretion) que Vous ne l’employerez pas plus longtems ici, mais que Vous appointerez une autre personne, pour étre chargé ici des Affaires pendant Votre absence.1
Je m’acquitte de ces ordres, in ayant l’honneur d’étre avec la consideration & le respect le plus parfaits / Monsieur. / Votre très humble & très obeïssant Serviteur
I had the honor of receiving your letter of the 1st instant, with which you sent me a memorial for Their High Mightinesses about the circumstances in which Mr. Dumas finds himself. Since it was written in English and not in French, as custom demands, the report could not be subject to formal deliberation. Nevertheless as I have brought it to Their High Mightinesses’ attention, I have been authorized to write you in reply that in response to a message forwarded to me by Mr. Dumas dated the 28th of the previous month, which I presented to Their High Mightinesses, the Lord Deputies of the province of Holland and West Friesland have already been requested to supervise his safety: and that Their High Mightinesses will not intentionally allow Mr. Dumas to find himself in difficulty, no more than they would any of their own citizens, but they cannot conceal from you, sir, that Mr. Dumas is little deserving of their protection, having behaved in a manner which, in several respects, is altogether inappropriate. For this reason, I ask, sir, on behalf of Their High Mightinesses, that you refrain from employing him any further (a decision to be expected as well from your own sense of discernment), and that you appoint another person to be chargé d’affaires here during your absence.1
I fulfill these orders, having the honor to be, with the most perfect consideration and respect, sir, your most humble and most obedient servant
Dupl (Adams Papers).
Patriot sympathizer C. W. F. Dumas, enjoying at least semidiplomatic status as the U.S. agent at The Hague, had involved himself in the political controversies then roiling the Netherlands, causing him to lose favor with the States General. Fagel also enclosed a Dupl of this letter to JA in Dutch.