Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
I had the following conversation with a gentleman on thursday last How comes it that you vary so much in your political opinions 106 from Col Smith and your father? I do not know that I differ in sentiment with My father but there are many principles which Col Smith has lately adopted that by no means accord with my ideas. This is strange it has been given out that Your father and Col Smith coincided in opinion and that he was put upon the Committee as far as possible to unite interests. You may be assured Sir that my father would never countenance such improper interferences with our Government and that it is merely a bait thrown out to allure some who have a veneration for his opinions
This report has never before come to my ears but you may be assured it is without foundation. It was spoken of last evening at the Coffee house. Well Sir I shall take the liberty of denying it wherever I hear it. I leave you my dear Sir to make comments. We have a poem entitled Democracy in which the motives of the Resolving party are exposed. It is circulated with so much caution that I cannot procure one or I would send it1 if I should be able I will forward it sometime next week I shall tomorrow write you the result of my researches upon the subject of the Samaneens2
Your affectionate son
RC (Adams Papers); notation: “New York March.”
Attributed to Brockholst Livingston, “Democracy: An Epic Poem, by Aquiline Nimble-Chops, Democrat” was published in New York on 6 March. The poem is a lengthy, mocking attack on the activities of the Democrats in the recent New York City town meeting. Ostensibly the first canto of what would be a longer piece, a later portion has not been found; the poem concludes with the establishment of the committee to prepare resolutions: “‘I hope that our Committee will take care / A long account, for Congress, to prepare, / Of all the michiefs by the British done, / And brand the devils every mother’s son.’ / ‘Huzza! huzza!’ thro’ all the streets resounds; / ‘Huzza! huzza!’ from every wall rebounds; / The distant lanes reverberate the roar, / And echoes break on either River’s shore” (Evans, No. 28979; New York Daily Advertiser, 5 March).
A newspaper squib printed the same day reported, “The Public are informed, that the Booksellers of this city, overawed or influenced by Democratic threats, have declined vending the Poem entitled DEMOCRACY: it will, however, be printed and circulated for the benefit of those whose principles and views it was intended to expose” (New York Daily Gazette, 6 March).
See CA to JA, 12 March, and note 1, below.
Although the scenes in which I have been engaged for six weeks past, have been very different from those which you describe, I have been amused and entertained by your account. Though I cannot say 107 that I am charmed with your hero’s personal accomplishments, as you describe them, yet you find
I think our ladies ought to be cautious of foreigners. I am almost led to suspect a spy in every strange character. It is much too easy a matter for a man, if he has property, to get introduced into company, in this country, of the best kind, and that without recommendations. The entertainment you describe was really very curious.
and I am sure this was of that kind.
You may mix in these scenes, and sometimes join in the society; but neither your habits, your inclination, nor your natural disposition are formed for them. By nature you have a grave and thoughtful cast of temper, by habit you have been trained to more rational and durable pleasures, and by inclination you delight more in them. The frivolity of the present day has been much increased by our foreign connexions. I pray Heaven to preserve us from that dissoluteness of manners, which is the bane of society, and the destroyer of domestic happiness. I think, with the poet,
You complain that there is, in the rising generation, a want of principle. This is a melancholy truth. I am no friend of bigotry; yet I think the freedom of inquiry, and the general toleration of religious sentiments, have been, like all other good things, perverted, and, under that shelter, deism, and even atheism, have found refuge. Let us for one moment reflect, as rational creatures, upon our “being, end, and aim,” and we shall feel our dependence, we shall be convinced of our frailty, and satisfied that we must look beyond this transitory scene for a happiness large as our wishes, and boundless as our desires. True, genuine religion is calm in its inquiries, deliberate in its resolves, and steady in its conduct; is open to light and conviction, and labors for improvement. It studies to promote love 108 and union in civil and in religious society. It approves virtue, and the truths which promote it, and, as the Scripture expresses it, “is peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated.”4 It is the anchor of our hope, the ornament of youth, the comfort of age; our support in affliction and adversity, and the solace of that solemn hour, which we must all experience. Train up, my dear daughter, your children, to a sober and serious sense of the duty which they owe to the Supreme Being. Impress their infant minds with a respect for the Sabbath. This is too much neglected by the rising generation. Accustom them to a constant attendance upon public worship, and enforce it by your own example and precept, as often as you can with any convenience attend. It is a duty, for which we are accountable to the Supreme Being.
My pen has again taken a serious turn. I shall not apologize for it. Your own letter led to these reflections;5 and I am sure they flow from a heart anxiously solicitous for the happiness of you and yours. That they may make a due impression, is the ardent and affectionate wish of / Your mother,
MS not found. Printed from AA, Letters, ed. CFA, 1848, p. 365–367.
Alexander Pope, “The Sixth Epistle of the First Book of Horace,” lines 81–82.
Edward Young, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire I, lines 185–186.
Rev. Samuel Bishop, “The Family Fireside,” lines 51–54.
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James, 3:17).
Not found.