Abigail Adams: Letter to Thomas Boylston Adams

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Quincy, 8 November, 1796.

My dear son,

I have just received your letter sent by the General Green, Capt. Sheldon, via Rhode Island, dated August 27th. I believe I have scarcely lost a letter from you or your brother, notwithstanding the many hazards and chances to which they have been liable. Accept my thanks for your last communications.

I rejoice at the return of your health, strength and spirits and most sincerely wish that your connections may be mended by the ordeal you have passed.

I have much upon my mind which I could say to you; prudence forbids my committing it to writing. At this eventful period, I can judge of your solicitude to learn, through a channel upon which you could depend, whatever affects the interests of your country.

In a quotation from the Chronicle you cannot expect truth. Falsehood and malevolence are its strongest features. It is the offspring of faction, and nursed by the sedition, the adopted bantling of party. It has been crying monarchy and aristocracy, and vociferating anathemas against the “Defense,” as favouring monarchy; and making quotations of detached sentences as the atheist endeavoured to prove from scripture that “there is no God,” by omitting, “the fool hath said in his heart.”

One writer asserts, that “Mr. Adams has immortalized himself as an advocate for hereditary government, as much as Mr. Jefferson has distinguished himself, in and out of office, as a true republican. Mr. Adams has sons placed in high offices, and who are, no doubt, understood to be what he calls the well-born, and who, following his own principle, may as he hopes, one time become the neighbors or lords of this country. Mr. Jefferson has daughters only, and had he the wish, has no male successor.”

By such false and glaring absurdities do these miserable beings endeavour to deceive and delude the people into a distrust of their most disinterested friends, the real guardians of their liberties and defenders of their privileges.

I feel anxious for the fate of my country. If the administration should get into hands which would depart from the system under which we have enjoyed so great a share of peace, prosperity and happiness, we should soon be involved in the wars and calamities which have deluged other nations in blood. We should soon become a divided and a miserable people. I have been too long a witness to the scenes which have been acted for years past, and know too well what must be endured, to have any other sensations, when I look to an elevated seat, than painful solicitude and anxiety. It is a mark at which envy, pride and malevolence will shoot their envenomed arrows. Joy dwells in these dear silent shades at Quincy; and domestic pleasures, in peace and tranquility. If I should be called to quit you, with what regret shall I part from you.

I feel perhaps too keenly the abuse of party. Washington endured it; but he had the support of the people and their undiminished confidence to the hour of his resignation, and a combination of circumstances which no other man can look for. First, a unanimous choice. Secondly, personally known to more people by having commanded the armies, than any other man. Thirdly, possessed of a large landed estate. Fourthly, refusing all emoluments of office both in his military and civil capacity. Take his character all together, and we shall not look upon his like again; notwithstanding which, he was reviled and abused, his administration perplexed, and his measures impeded. What is the expected lot of a successor? He must be armed as Washington was with integrity, with firmness, with intrepidity. These must be his shield and his wall of brass; and religion too, or he never will be able to stand sure and steadfast. Dr. Priestley, in a dedication of some sermons which he delivered last winter, and which he dedicated to the Vice President of the United States, observes to him, “that religion is of as much use to a statesman as to any individual whatever; for Christian principles will best enable men to devote their time, their lives, their talents, and what is often a greater sacrifice, their characters, to the public good; and in public life, he observes, this will often be in a great measure necessary. Let a man attain to eminence of any kind, and by whatever means, even the most honorable, he will be exposed to envy and jealousy. And of course he must expect to meet with calumny and abuse. What principles can enable a man to consult the real good of his fellow citizens without being diverted from his generous purpose by a regard to their opinion concerning him, like those of the Christian who can be satisfied with the approbation of his own mind, and who, though not insensible to due praise, can despise calumny, and steadily overlooking every thing which is intermediate, patiently wait for the day of final retribution?”

Thus says the Poet;

“Fame for good deeds is the reward of virtue;

Thirst after fame is given us by the gods

Both to excite our minds to noble acts,

And give a proof of some immortal state,

Where we shall know that Fame we leave behind,

That highest blessing which the gods bestow.”

As I consider it one of my chief blessings to have sons worthy of the confidence of their country, so I hope, in imitation of their father, they will serve it with honor and fidelity, and with consciences void of offence; and though they may sometimes meet with ingratitude, they will have

“The soul’s calm sunshine and the heart-felt joy.”

Adieu, my dear son, I hope to see you in the course of another year. Time, which improves youth, every year furrows the brow of age.

“Our years

As life declines, speed rapidly away;

And not a year but pilfers, as he goes,

Some youthful grace that age would gladly keep,

A tooth or auburn lock.”

Thus, my son, in the course of three years absence, you will find many depredations of time upon those whom you left advanced in life, and in none more, perhaps, than in your mother, whose frequent indispositions hasten its strides and impair a frail fabric. But neither time, absence nor sickness have lessened the warmth of her affection for her dear children, which will burn with undiminished fervor until the lamp of life is extinguished together with the name of

ABIGAIL ADAMS.