Papers of John Adams, volume 18
I lately wrote you a few hasty Lines just as the vessel which carried them was departing; and enclosed a Pamphlet containing my Correspondence with a Mr Littlepage, who was formerly in my Family.1 The attack which produced that Pamphlet, was not only countenanced but stimulated by some of the Subjects of our good allies here. It is no Secret either to You or me that I am no favorite with them: nor have I any Reason to apprehend that they are pleased to see me in the Place I now fill. a minister whose Eye is single & steadily fixed on the Interest of america, must expect to be opposed by the unfriendly Influence of those whose wishes & measures he does not promote—
I should have treated this attack with silent Contempt, had not false Facts been urged, propagated and impress with Industry & art, and which if not exposed and refuted, might have appeared after my Death in the Memoirs of some of these People.
This Edition of that Pamphlet is so inaccurately printed, that I have directed another to be published, which when compleated Shall be sent to You, and Mr Jefferson—
with great & sincere Esteem & Regard / I am Dear Sir / Your Friend & Servt
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Honb’le John Adams Esqr.—”
Jay’s letter enclosing copies of the pamphlet concerning his dispute with Lewis Littlepage has not been found, but see JA’s 14 Feb. letter to Jay, below. Littlepage (1762–1802), a Hanover County, Va., soldier of fortune who enjoyed Jay’s patronage at Madrid from 1780 to 1781, was indebted to Jay for over $1,000. He sent Jay several incendiary letters during that period, contesting the debt and lambasting William Carmichael, Jay’s secretary at Madrid, for “perfidious and cruel” behavior. Upon his acrimonious 1781 departure from Jay’s household, Littlepage embarked on a military career, joining the French forces at the sieges of Port Mahon and Gibraltar. He resurfaced a year later at Paris, where he intrigued among the American peace commissioners in a vain effort to replace John Thaxter as courier of the Anglo-American peace treaty to Congress. Following the commissioners’ failure to replace Thaxter, JA was present for Littlepage’s Sept. 1783 confrontation with Jay over the perceived slight—the “Scæne” that JA alludes to in his 14 Feb. 1786 letter—and subsequent plea for reconciliation.
En route from Virginia to France, Littlepage reached New York City in Nov. 1785 and he asked Jay for a congressional recommendation of military service to King Stanislaus of Poland. Sensitive to the precedent that furnishing such a recommendation might create, Jay delayed Littlepage’s petition, and Congress adjourned without granting the request. In an attempt to collect the long-overdue debt, Jay then filed suit against Littlepage and had him arrested. Posting bail with the aid of Jay’s brother-in-law,
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Brockholst Livingston, Jay’s former protégé launched a series of personal attacks against him in the New York Daily Advertiser on 6, 7, and 10 December. Brushing aside Littlepage’s request for a duel, Jay responded by compiling and circulating the pamphlet mentioned here, Letters, Being the Whole of the Correspondence between the Hon. John Jay, Esquire, and Mr. Lewis Littlepage, N.Y., 1786 (Evans, No. 19735). For the revised edition, see Evans, No. 19736.
Littlepage’s public display of animus troubled Jay, who thought it might be rooted in foreign factions seeking to divide or distract an already enfeebled Congress. Jay and others, therefore, sent the pamphlet to JA, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington; all replied in strong support of Jay. Jefferson, noting Littlepage’s arrival in Paris on 19 Jan. 1786, lamented to Jay that public service attracted ugly controversies like the one brought on by Littlepage: “Your quiet may have suffered for a moment on this occasion, but you have the strongest of all supports that of the public esteem.” From Warsaw, Littlepage renewed the argument in 1787 with his Answer to a Pamphlet. He spent the next fifteen years occupied in various European court intrigues, until his death at the age of 39 (Stahr, John Jay
, p. 228–232; Smith, Letters of Delegates
, 23:62, 118, 172, 1999; Franklin, Papers
, 40:564–565; Jefferson, Papers
, 9:215; Evans, No. 20462;
DAB
; Jay, Letters, Being the Whole of the Correspondence, 1st edn., p. 12).
r.sq
r.
d.Feb
y.1786
In your kind Letter of the 26. of Jany. You ask an explanation of that expression of the Massachusetts, “a Ridder of hobby horses”— in the original of the Word Hobby horse it signified a little horse, the same with Poney in English—or Bidet in french,—
The English then transferred it to Irish and Scottish horses— Cheval de Irlande au D Ecosse from this sense it was transferred to those little Wooden Horses which are made for Children to ride on for their Amusements. it is defind a stick on which Boy’s get astride & ride—“Un baton sur lequel les Enfans vont a Cheval”— it is defined in Latin Arundo Longa, a reed or cane, for the Boy’s in want of better instruments made use of these— from these originals it has been used, I don’t know whether metaphorically or Poettically to signify any favourite Amusement of grown Men of all Ranks and Denominations, even sages & Heroes Philosophers & Legislators, Nobles, Princes & Kings all Nations I believe have some Word appropriated to this meaning— There is one in french which I once knew familiarly but have forgotten The Dutch have a Proverb “Ieder heeft zyn speelpop[”] every one has his hobby horse— for Example the hobby horse of Mr. Lionel, was the Anatomy of Caterpillars— that of Mr. Ploos Van Amstell to collect drawings &c.1 The Italians say “quel legno o bastone che i fanciulli si mettono fra gambe e chiamans il loro cavallo”—2 The dutch Proverb is very true, every Man has a staff which he puts sometimes between his Leggs & rides
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& calls it his hobby horse— It is in this sense the hobby horse of many curious Persons, to become acquainted with singular & extraordinary Characters
It has ever been my hobby horse, to see rising in America an Empire of Liberty & a Prospect of two or three hundred Millions of freemen, without one noble or one King—among them— You say it is impossible— If I should agree with you in this, I would still say let us try the experiment and preserve our equality as long as we can—
A better system of Education for the Common-People, might preserve them long from such artificial inequalities, as are prejudicial to society by confounding the Natural distinctions of Right and Wrong, Virtue and vice—
I am
LbC in WSS’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “monsieur Le Comte De. / sarsefield Rue Pot de fer”; APM Reel 113.
“Mr. Lionel” was Pierre Lyonet (1706–1789), a French naturalist and savant whom JA met at The Hague in 1782. In a 25 July 1782 letter to AA, JA described touring a private collection of marine shells with Lyonet, who was best known for his illustrated Traité anatomique de la chenille, qui ronge le bois de saule, The Hague, 1760 (
AFC
, 4:353–354).
Cornelis Ploos van Amstel (1726–1798), a Dutch artist, printmaker, and fellow-director of the Amsterdam Drawing Academy, accumulated a private collection of more than 7,000 drawings (Elmer Eusman, “Ploos van Amstel’s Mark,” Print Quarterly, 17:248 [Sept. 2000]).
That wood or stick that children put between their legs and call their horse.