Papers of John Adams, volume 21
th.1796
I have received the Letter you did me the Honor to write
me from London, the twelfth of July, from the Hand of our mutual Friend Dr Walter with a Volume of your Essays, which I
have read with great Pleasure.1 They are the Result of no less fertility of genius than benevolence of
Heart.
I have also received the Volume which you desired might be presented to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, with the Profile of the Auther and the Letter in which you request the Academy to accept of Five Thousand Dollars in three PerCent Stock to be applied to particular Purposes.
All these I laid before the Academy on Wednesday of this
Week; They were received with great sensibility for the favour and their
Secretary Mr Pearson was directed to transmit
you their Resolution expressing their Thanks, As no Stock was inclosed in
those Letters and Paketts it was Supposed that you waited to hear from the
Accademy, before you transmitted it and the Secretary will send you an
Account of the Mode of transfering Stock which it was supposed might not
have come to your knowledge.—
I beg you to accept of my Thanks for the elegant Present of a Volume of your Essays to me and to add my gratitude to that of the Accademy for your generous Proposal of a Donation to that Corperation.
I wish you every Success in your Career of doing good to Mankind and have the Honour to be with great Esteem for your Character your Countryman and / most humble Servant—
FC in AA2’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Count Rumford—”
JA was reading the first installment of
Thompson’s Essays, Political, Economical, and
Philosophical, 4 vols., London, 1796–1798. A presentation copy
inscribed by the author is in JA’s library at MB. Their mutual friend
was Dr. Rev. William Walter (1737–1800), Harvard 1756, who served as
rector of Christ Church, Boston, from 1792 until his death (
Catalogue of JA’s Library
;
AFC
, 11:459).