A wistful letter to a Harvard friend in which Adams mentions some guileful political colleagues and laments the “popular Passions of the times” and the general neglect of his political writings.
“The Difficulty of leading or guiding Millions, by any means but Power and Establishments can be known only to those who have tried Experiments of it.”
BACKGROUND
France, in the midst of its war with Britain, had authorized its naval vessels to seize American shipping. A small American navy was beginning to respond in kind in this “Quasi-War.” In hopes of avoiding open war with their old Revolutionary War allies, Adams had sent John Marshall, Charles Pinckney, and Elbridge Gerry to France.
Their reception was humiliating. Three agents of French foreign minister Charles Talleyrand told the Americans that negotiations would not proceed unless they paid a personal bribe of $250,000.
Upon receiving their report, Adams called a special session of Congress in hopes of mobilizing for war. On March 16, two weeks before this letter, he addressed Congress, informing them of the XYZ affair, which sparked the bitterest partisanship the young republic had yet seen.
The “forgotten Lucubrations” are Adams’s Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America (1787). The duplicitous friend Adams references is Thomas Law, who had been building influence in Washington and purchasing land and erecting buildings as an agent for someone in England.
Our complete description contains more historical back ground on this correspondence, which additionally turns to Tristram Dalton and Tobias Lear’s involvement in the acquisition of land at Harpers Ferry where an armory and U.S. arsenal were soon to be built.
JOHN ADAMS. Autograph Letter Signed as President to Tristram Dalton, March 30, 1798, Philadelphia, [Pa.]. 2 pp., 8 x 9⅞ in.
Offered by Seth Kaller
$25,000
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