Papers of John Adams, volume 19
thsep
r1787
The proceedings of the Convention being this day published, I embrace the Oppertunity of transmitting them by a Vessel which is to sail this morning for London.1 There were only three dissentients Governor Randolph & Colo Mason from Virginia & your friend who now addresses you, from Massachusetts.2 The objections you will easily conceive without their being enumerated: & they will probably be stated to our respective Legislatures. Time must determine the fate of this production, which with a check on standing armies in Time of peace, & on an arbitrary administration of the powers vested in the Legislature, would have met with my approbation. I have only time to add Mrs Gerry’s & my own best respects to Mrs Adams Mr & Mrs Smith / & to assure you that I remain / with the highest Respect yours
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency Mr Adams.”
Gerry enclosed a copy of the new U.S. Constitution, which JA forwarded to Thomas Jefferson, for which see his 10 Nov. letter, and note 1, below. Gerry likely sent this letter to JA via the Prince George, Capt. Strong, which departed New York City in late September and arrived in London on 3 Nov. (New York Independent Journal, 1 Sept. 1787, 2 Feb. 1788).
The U.S. Constitution was adopted on 17 Sept. 1787, and British newspapers first published the text in late autumn. The London Chronicle printed the preamble and the first article in its 27–30 Oct. issue, and the remaining articles and signatures in its 30 Oct. – 1 Nov. issue. Several British newspapers noted that “the Convention” wished “to preserve a Republican, or democrative Government” while following the British model, with a president, senate, and house of representatives operating in “parallel” to “King, Lords, and Commons.” Noting Americans’ lack of “Royalty” and “Nobility,” the British press observed that “the whole constitution will be one democracy.” Viewing the new nation’s diplomatic relations, British newspapers conjectured that as “Foreign treaties, already
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made, or which may hereafter be made” would be “regarded as the Supreme law of the land,” the American delegates evinced “an earnest desire to have their new form of Government respected by foreign nations” (London World and Fashionable Advertiser, 3, 19 Nov.; London Public Advertiser, 5, 16 Nov.).
Edmund Randolph (1753–1813), governor of Virginia, later served as the first attorney general of the United States. George Mason (1725–1792) was the chief author of Virginia’s constitution of 1776. Randolph and Mason objected to the Senate’s power, including its relationship with the executive branch and to Congress’s authority to regulate trade. Both men were early advocates of what became the Bill of Rights (vol. 4:70;
Biog. Dir. Cong.
;
ANB
; Maier, Ratification
, p. 43–45, 51).
tr20
th1787
Your favor of July 14th with the pamphlet of letters addressed to Dr. Calkoen came to hand a few days since. Many thanks to you for that production. Your predictions of the consequences of the British successes in the Southern States have been so exactly realised as to fill me with admiration of that political sagacity which could so accurately foresee the connexions between causes & effects. It has been your lot to predict what was to happen & mine to relate the same events after they had happened.1
I have also to thank you for your defence of the American constitutions which has also been recieved. This work is universally admired in Carolina & I flatter myself it will be instrumental in diffusing right notions of government. I devoutly wish that the sentiments of it were engraven on the heart of every legislator in the United States. The letter to Mably at the end of it has suggested to me many useful hints on the subject of writing the history of the American revolution.
The high opinion I entertain of your abilities & information induces me to ask the favor of your sentiments on three or four periods of our history. 1. The rise & progress of the guerre de plume (as you call it) between 1761 & 1775.—2 What were the points in dispute? How were the arguments handled on both sides? Who the principal writers & what were their arguments & the influence of the whole on the public mind?
2 the Preedisposing causes & preeparatory steps to Independence. I beg leave to mention an anecdote I have heard of your self which is—that from the peace of Paris 1763 you both expected & wished for that event as unavoidable in the course of things & as highly beneficial to America. I wish to be enabled to trace the progress of Independence from its first conception in The mind of the enlightened few to its final ratification & to mark the causes which opened the
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public mind of America & preedisposed it to this great event. I also wish to know how the states stood affected towards it in July 1776. Who were for it—Who against it & the views & arguments on both sides. No man is more capable than yourself for this disquisition as being Pars magna
3 of the whole.
3 On the subject of our foreign affairs I wish to be informd of the particular reasons which Induced Congress to send ambassadors to the different courts of Europe & the history of their respective negotiations— I am particularly anxious to know every thing relative to the embassy to Holland but most of all of the negotiations which ended in a general peace, and of the gradual reconcilement of the public mind of Great-Britain to the acknowledgment of American Indepence.
As Dr Gordons work will be out before mine you will greatly oblige me by some general remarks on his performance.4 If you will be so good as to point out any omissions errors or mistatements in his history I will be enabled to avoid them. On these or on any subject connected with the history of the American revolution I shall recieve your communications with the greatest gratitude. I have finished my work to the close of 1781. The first Volume is transcribed & has been for some months in the hands of some of our best informed citizens for their remarks.5 I wish not to be in a hurry but to collect information from all quarters. I assure you there is no one person from whom I would expect more than yourself nor one to whom I would more willingly subject my manuscript for perusal if circumstances permitted. Your information & remarks by way of letter will be ever esteemed as one of the greatest of favors. With the most exalted sentiments of respect & esteem I am your most obedient & very / humble servant
P. S in your letters to Dr. Calkoen page 7. you say “I could describe all the sources all the grounds springs principles & motives to Toryism through the continent”6 On this subject I have often reflected & mean to treat it at some length. Your observations on it would confer on me a favor for which no words are sufficient to express my gratitude.
It will obviously occur that I do not wish to request your taking any trouble in communicating any information 1 can readily get elsewhere. What I particularly wish for is general observations which are not obvious & not to be found [. . .] accessible books or manuscripts.
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Hon: John Ada[. . .] / Minister Plenipoten[. . .] / United States to [. . . .] / Lon[. . .]”; notation by CFA: “D. Ramsay. / Septr 20. 1787.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed and due to a mutilated manuscript.
JA’s letter has not been found, but he enclosed a copy of his Twenty-six Letters, Upon Interesting Subjects, Respecting the Revolution of America, London, 1786. Ramsay referred to JA’s tenth letter, in which JA outlined Britain’s unsuccessful southern strategy during the Revolutionary War (vol. 10:196–252, 228–229).
For JA’s allusion to the “Controversy upon Paper” that dominated colonial politics, see vol. 14:172–180.
A large part.
William Gordon, History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America, London, 1788.
Seeking to refine his two-volume work, which would be published in 1789 as The History of the American Revolution, Ramsay sent a draft of the manuscript to Charles Thomson for distribution (vol. 18:157; Robert L. Brunhouse, ed., “David Ramsay, 1749–1815: Selections from His Writings,” Amer. Philos. Soc., Trans.
, new ser., 55:105–108 [1965]).
Vol. 10:204.
This is the last known letter between JA and Ramsay.