Papers of John Adams, volume 20
TRANSLATION
After having presented to your excellency, in a previous letter, the expression of my sentiments on your rise to the prestigious office that you hold, allow me, sir, to confirm them and add today new congratulations on the dignified collaborators for the public good whom you have recently acquired by the election to the prominent offices of secretary of state, chief justice, and secretary of the treasury, of individuals of equally great merit, and as universally applauded, as their excellencies Messrs. Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton. My heart, wrung by all that I see happening around me in Europe, expands at the idea of an administration like the American Confederation in such wise and skillful hands. You will bring shame, the most salutary lesson, sirs, and if it please God, upon Europe; I dare predict it. This moment, I have learned that the Department of War is likewise filled by his excellency General Knox;1 and I leave 183 off finishing the present letter in order to send it to Mr. Luzac so that he may add it to the others that I have already delivered to him. God bless him too, with all the others, the legislative, the executive, the judiciary, the maritime, all the American people, madam your wife, family, and your excellency, of whom I am with the most respectful attachment, the most humble and obedient servant.