John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, March 10, 1801

Berlin 10. March 1801.

My dear Mother.

I am almost asham’d to acknowledge how long it has been since I
wrote you last, and can only hope you will consider my numerous letters to my brother,
most of which I intended as much for you as for him, to be a sufficient apology— I have
not received a line from you or from my father since last June, though I think it
impossible but that you should have written more than once— My last letter to my father
was of November 25. 1

My mind has deeply shared in all the anxieties, the disappointments and afflictions both of a public and private nature, which have
befallen you, crowded into so small a space of time— The loss of my brother Charles— The
illness of my father—and the manner in which his country rewarded a life of labours
devoted to their service, were all events which I knew must call forth the fortitude and
energy of his soul and of your’s.— The death of my brother affected me greatly— I first
learnt it by a letter from my kind friend M r: Murray, who
had seen it mentioned in a newspaper— Two days after it was confirmed in a letter I
received from my brother Thomas— The illness of my father and the result of the election
I was informed of at the same time, by the English and German newspapers— Five weeks
have since elapsed during which I have not had a single line from America.— M r: Murray my constant and valuable correspondent has informed
me very lately that he had seen in a New-York paper a paragraph stating my father’s
having recovered from his fever, which it was a great consolation to me to hear from any
quarter, and which I hope will soon be made certain to me by more direct
intelligence— 2 The issue of the
election I could not suppose would be an object of indifference to him; but I knew he
had always been impressed fully with the sentiment, that every man who serves the
public, must look upon the injustice of men, so far as it concerns himself, in the same
light, as upon the ills of nature; the shocks that flesh is heir to, 3 —a fever, or a clap of thunder—which are neither
to be denied for real evils, nor to be complained of as avoidable— Political
disappointment is perhaps one of the occasions in human life which requires the greatest
portion of philosophy; and although philosophy has very little power to asswage the
keenness of our feelings, she has at least the power to silence the voice of complaint—
To be relieved from the labours and responsibility of such a station as that of an
American President, is a great consolation for all the pain of being removed from it,
and will I hope have its full weight as such.

What the influence of the change in our Administration, upon the
reputation and fortunes, of our Country may be, I do not think it necessary to enquire,
and am altogether unable to foresee. For the past alone my
father has any thing on this score to answer— For the future, the whole responsibility
rests upon the people themselves— If they find themselves after an experience of their
new system , Start deletion, as , End, more prosperous than they have been
under the old, the pure and generous spirit of patriotism, will rejoyce in their
prosperity, and forget their injustice— But if the principles, to which they have
thought proper to transfer their trust, should prove delusive, and bring upon them, the miseries of broken public faith, of disunion, or of War, deeply
will their sufferings be lamented by the pure and virtuous friend of his Country, but he
will find comfort in the reflection that he had done all in his power to ward off those
calamities; and that the people could not have exposed themselves to their effects, but
by first abandoning him.

I have hitherto for the last four years written seldom to my
father, because I knew that all my public correspondence would be laid before him— For
the future however (while I remain in Europe) I shall write oftener, to inform him of
the principal political events which may occur. I say while I remain in Europe, because
I am in expectation of my recall, immediately upon the new President’s coming into
office— 4 He will doubtless have nothing
personal against me; but my mission here has been one of the most powerful objections
made against the policy of his predecessor, and I presume therefore will be one of the
first objects that he will think it expedient to reform.— The use and advantage of
having some public character in the North of Europe, is indeed at this time more
immediate, and nearer the surface of evidence than it has been at any former period
since I have resided here; but those who deem’d the mission inexpedient at first, will
probably find motives, if not reasons, equally strong for thinking it so still.

The North of Europe, and the views, interests, and relations of the
several states it contains, are indeed becoming an object of no small concern to our
commerce— Russia, Sweden, Denmark and Prussia, while I write this are upon the brink of
War with Great-Britain, upon one common point of issue, but each separately guided by
purposes of its own, and each pledging to the contest a different stake. 5 If this quarrel should really break out, The
United-States will be the only maritime nation remaining neutral, and their navigation
will be needed by all the hostile parties to carry a trade alike necessary for all, but
which none will be allowed to transport in their own vessels— Our navigation to and from
the Baltic therefore must acquire a great and rapid extension; and as the carrying trade
of Sweden and Denmark must in the nature of things be suspended, our vessels will be no
less in demand for the commerce of the mediterranean.— It is possible that this state of
things, and the events resulting from it, will convince some of our keen-eyed and large
soul’d politicians, that Treaties of commerce with Russia and the Sublime Porte, made
two years ago, would not have been such a useless waste of public money, nor such a proof of absurd policy, as their comprehensive minds represented
it— A most profound and ingenious statesman, I remember, has urged in a printed
pamphlet, the recommendation of these measures by the late President, as a proof of his incapacity. 6

That the War will kindle into a blaze, is not however certain—
Great-Britain, who would make but little account of the resentments of Sweden and
Denmark, cannot look with so much indifference upon those of Prussia and of Russia— She
has talk’d very loud and bluster’d very much about her rights, and her essential
interests and her determination to resist any combination against them, but I suspect when it comes to the putting of the match to the
powder-barrel, she will flinch; or, that she will bribe off the great parties to the
league; at the expence of the small ones, if she can; but that she will at any rate
bribe them off— Unless it should already be too late.

Of English news I need not tell you— That part of Europe, and its
occurrences are tolerably well known in our country, and you must hear from it more
accurately and sooner by direct communication than I could inform you, thus distant from
it— The change of Ministry, and the king’s illness, are the two most important late
events, of which the consequences are yet covered by the veil of Time 7

In France the career of the first Consul’s prosperity continues,
and Fortune is as profuse of her favours to him as ever— That he is an extraordinary
man, there can at this day be no doubt; but whether his niche in the temple of Fame,
will be in a line with Alexander, Caesar, and Charlemagne, or with Hannibal, Pompey and
Charles the twelfth of Sweden, no mortal I believe can foretell— It is only certain that
he will not stand in that of Alfred, Gustavus Wasa and Washington— 8 He has not yet entirely kicked away the ladder
of Jacobinism, which so well served his Ambition, because he is not yet perfectly secure
of his footing, at the pernicious height where he has ascended; but he is no longer as
after the Peace of Campo Formio the common-place declaimer against Emperors and kings— In the name of the french people , he takes the sceptred
despots by the hand, and as he looks at the gold and jewels of their crowns, feels a
mysterious sympathetic itching play around his own temples— 9 Yet if the crown were offered him to-morrow, he
would refuse it as Caesar and Cromwell did before.

I am just at the bottom of my paper, and have yet said nothing to
you about ourselves. My own health, since the beginning of the Winter has been good—
Louisa’s better upon the whole than any former winter since
she came to Berlin, but still very feeble and delicate— She desires her dutiful
remembrance to you and to my father— The season, since the middle of December has been
unusually gay and splendid in the courtly circles, owing to the presence of a Russian
Grand-Duchess upon a visit— 10 But I have
been a great measure exempted from attendance at the house of feasting, by the call to
one which we are told by the highest wisdom, is better.

I am in all duty and affection, your Son

A.