John Adams to Benjamin Rush, April 4, 1790
New York April 4. 1790
Dear sir
The Tories as you observe in your friendly Letter of 24 Feb. are
more attached to each other; they are also, We must candidly confess, more of real
Politicians.— They make to themselves more merit with the People, for the smallest
services, than the Whigs are able to do for the greatest. The Arts, the Trumpetts the
Puffs, are their old Instruments and they know how to employ them. The History of our
Revolution will be one continued Lye from one End to the other. The Essence of the whole will be that Dr Franklins electrical Rod, Smote the Earth and out Sprung
General Washington. That Franklin electrifed him with his Rod—and thence forward
these two conducted all the Policy Negotiations Legislation and War. 1 These underscored Lines contain the whole
Fable Plot and Catastrophy. if this Letter should be preserved, and read an hundred
Years hence the Reader will Say “the Envy of this J. A. could not bear to think of the
Truth”! [“]He ventured to Scribble to Rush, as envious as himself, Blasphemy that he
dared not Speak, when he lived. But Barkers at the sun and Moon are always Silly
Curs.” But this my Friend, to be serious, is the Fate of all Ages and Nations. And
there is no Resource in human nature for a Cure. Brederode did more in the Duch
Revolution than William 1 st. Prince of orange. 2 Yet Brederode is forgotten and William the
Saviour, Deliverer and Founder.— limited Monarchy is founded in Nature. No Nation can
adore more than one Man at a time. it is an happy Circumstance that the Object of our
Devotion is so well deserving of it. that he has Virtue so exquisite and Wisdom so
consummate. There is no Citizen of America will Say, that there is in the World so fit
a Man for the head of the Nation. from my Soul I think there is not. and the Question
should not be who has done or suffered most, or who has been the most essential and
Indispensible Cause of the Revolution, but who is best qualified to govern Us? Nations
are not to Sacrifice their Future Happiness to Ideas of Historical Justice. They must
consult their Own Weaknesses, Prejudices, Passions, Senses and Imaginations as well as
their Reason. “La Raison n’a jamais fait grande chose.” as the K. of Prussia says in
his Histoire de mon tems. 3
The more Extracts you Send me from your Journals, the more will
you oblige me— I beg especially a Copy of my Character. I know very well it must be a
partial Panegyrick.— I will send You my Criticisms upon it. You know I have no
affectation of Modesty.— My Comfort is that such vain folks as Cicero, Neckar Sir
William Temple & I are never dangerous. 4
If I Said in 1777 that [“]We Should never be qualified for
Republican Governments till We were ambitious to be poor” I meant to express an
Impossibility.— I meant then and now Say that No Nation under Heaven ever was, now is,
or ever will be qualified for a Republican Government ,
unless you mean by these Words, equal Laws resulting from
a Ballance of three Powers the Monarchical Aristocratical & Democratical. I meant
more and I now repeat more explicitly, that Americans are
peculiarly unfit for any Republic but the Aristo-Democratical-Monarchy; because they
are more Avaricious than any other Nation that ever
existed the Carthaginians and Dutch not excepted. The Alieni Appetens Sui profusus 5 reigns in this nation as a Body more
than any other I have ever Seen.
When I went to Europe in 1778 I was full of patriotic Projects
like yours of collecting Improvements in Arts Agriculture, Manufacture Commerce
Litterature & science. But I Soon found my Error.— I found that my offices
demanded every moment of my time and the Assistance of two or three Clerks—and that
all this was not enough. I was obliged to make it a Rule never to go out of my Road for any Curiosity of any kind. J. J. Rousseau
understood it very well when he Said that Ambassadors “ doivent
tout leur tems á cet Objet Unique, ils sont trop honnêtes gens pour voler leur
Argent. [”] Emile Tom. 4. p. 361. 6 if he meant this as a Sarcasm, he was in the
Wrong. I never knew one who attempted or affected Philosophy, that was good for any
Thing in the Diplomatique Line—and I know that every Hour that I might have employed
that Way would have been a Robbery upon the Duties of my Public Character.
Your Family pictures are charming; and the tender Piety you
express for your Mother, is felt by me in all its force, as I have a Mother living in
her Eighty Second Year, to whom I owe more than I can ever pay. This Mother and a
Father who died 30 Years ago, two of the best People I ever knew formed the Character,
which You have drawn. alass! that it is no better! I Said before that Vanity is not
dangerous. a Man who has bad designs is seldom or never vain. it is such modest
Rascals as Cæsar, who play tricks with Mankind. read his Commentaries—what consummate
caution to conceal his Vanity! contemptu famæ, fama augebatur. 7 This Tyrants and Villains always know.
Adieu Mon Ami,
John Adams
Pray can you recollect a Feast at Point no Point in the Fall of
1775 and the Company that returned with You and me in a Boat and our Conversation. I
want a List of the Names of that Party who returned in the same Boat with Us to
Philadelphia.