John Quincy Adams to Abigail Adams, February 5, 1798

Berlin 5. February 1798.

I had scarcely closed my last Letter to you my dear mother,
acknowledging the receipt of your favours of Dec r: 2. and
Nov r: 23. before I received that of Nov r: 3. written at East-Chester.— We are duly grateful for your
kind congratulations upon our marriage.— You will find by some of my late Letters that
we have already been brought to the trial of some unpropitious circumstances Yet much as we have reason to regret them, we have at least
the consolation that they have only strengthened and confirmed our mutual affection. My
wife is all that your heart can wish— I will not indulge
myself in the panegyric which my inclination dictates, for you would imagine that the
lover had not yet subsided into the husband— But I will say that I am as happy as a
virtuous, modest, discreet and amiable woman can make me.

Upon the subject of my change of destination, I wish to say no
more. Of itself, I believe Berlin a much more agreeable residence than Lisbon.— As to
the utility of the mission here, I can scarcely be deemed a proper judge of it.— The
immediate relations between the United States and Prussia cannot in ordinary times be
very considerable. If our intercourse with England or France should be interrupted it
might become more important.

I am very glad that I was not sent to France, for there is so much personal malignity among the men in power in that Country
against my father, that they would have felt a special satisfaction in treating me with
more than common indignity, and in defeating every attempt by me for a reconciliation
between the two Governments.— Since the 4 th: of September
all hopes of Justice from France must vanish untill some further Revolution, and
although I think those Gentlemen who have submitted to every sort of contumely and
ill-treatment for the sake of preserving Peace, deserve as highly of their Country, as
if their negotiation had been successful, I am pleased that no part of their failure can
be imputed to the appointment of a person in any degree obnoxious to the ruling persons
in France.

Of the personal malignity which I have
above noticed, there has been for years past incessant proofs many of which I have
heretofore noticed; it continues still indefatigable. You will have the plainest
evidence of the arts used by the Directory and their creatures to give the colour of a
personal quarrel to the differences between the Governments.— They not only make
personal complaints against the President, but they have made their creatures in Holland
(creatures which since then they have without ceremony kicked out of doors themselves)
complain against me: simply because they bear a personal malice against him, and of
course against every one connected with him.— 1 “Principles and not men” is their motto— (It
used to be that of our last Minister in France, until from some secret stings of
conscience, or other cause he changed it to that of “Dread God.”) 2 By which they mean that no sentiment of honour,
truth, Justice, or generosity, is to be admitted to protect the
feelings, or character or reputation, or person, or property of any Man, whose
Principles happen to differ from theirs.— Consequently they are in their animosities the
most personal, and most malicious of mankind— They always affect even to attack
particular persons—as the french have done in all their declarations of War, and as all
their writers and most of their partizans have invariably done ever since by fixing upon
individual men upon whom to pour the perpetual torrent of their invective.— The
consequence of this system is by unavoidable necessity, a state of inexstinguishable War
between Man and man, as long as there exist two human beings together: for no sooner has
one sett of persons been swept away by the pestilence of these doctrines than their
destroyers immediately divide against each other with the same system of destroying men
to establish Principles.

The french Government have at length crowned the measure of their
injustice and violence towards neutral Nations by a decree declaring all goods of British produce to be the worst sort of
contraband.— They have not yet declared War against us, but by this measure they will do
us all the mischief that they could by a state of open War. In my own opinion the United
States have long enough tried a “tame beseeching of rejected Peace.” 3 It does not appear to me necessary to declare or
even to make War against France; but I most sincerely hope our commerce will be allowed
to arm in its own defence. I am not prepared for unresisting submission to robbery, even
though all the rest of the world should be.

You will find in my last letter a suspicion that my father had
contributed to procure me the honour of admission as a member of the American Academy.
My opinion was founded upon some hint of his having such a design, which I dare say you
will remember, just before I left America; and you will also remember the regret with
which I then observed it.— As you mention my nomination to have been made by D r: Belknap, I am the more disposed to flatter myself there was
no paternal recommendation in the case.— It is not the first instance in which I have
been honoured by the particular notice of D r: Belknap, nor
can any thing afford me a more flattering gratification than to be distinguished by such
men. 4

I should be glad to know, how long it is the President’s intention
that I should remain here, that is, whether in case the particular object of my mission
should be accomplished, in either or both instances, it is proposed to leave me still
here, or to keep constantly a Minister here at
all. I do not really think it worth while, from my present observation, unless we should
get at serious variance either with France or England; in which case the commercial
concerns of the United States with all the other great European powers would be of much
more consequence than they have hitherto been. 5

The state of Society here is such as better suits persons fond of
an incessant round of company, than those whose chief enjoyments are at home. The Court
is especially brilliant and gay at the period of a new accession. The series of fetes
and balls which were almost continual is now interrupted by the illness of the king and
Queen, both of whom have the measles, and I hope it will not be renewed before the next
Winter Season— It is the universal and indispensable custom after being presented at
Court and to the Princes & Princesses of the royal family, to send round visiting
cards to all the Ministers, the members of the corps diplomatique, the Generals, and
nobility belonging to the court amounting to about two hundred persons, most of whom
return cards, after which you are constantly invited to all the great parties that are
given.— The present king holds no Levees except for his own military, but attends at the
Queen’s Court which is held once a week, and her balls of which there has yet been only
one, but which are to be once a fortnight.— The Princess Henry has an Evening card party
at which the foreign Ministers attend once a week, and Prince Ferdinand invites to
Evening parties and supper about once a fortnight. Besides this many of the Ministers,
Generals and nobility, give single balls, or have weekly evening parties, at all of
which are to be met the same round of company, and at all the balls, the king and queen
and royal family, who join in all the dances, and live with all this Court upon quite an
accessible and almost a familiar footing.— Foreign Ministers are considered as under a
sort of obligation to be present at all these parties, and many among them take their
turns in giving them.— You can easily judge how heavily all this goes with my
disposition, and how impossible it is for me to adopt on my part such a style of
living.— As it is, and with a most punctilious and minute rigour of Oeconomy, I shall
find it very difficult to persevere in the determination which I have hinted to you— But
I will not upon any terms break through it.

I am very much obliged to you for your advice with regard to the
employment of any little sum which I find myself enabled to lay aside, though I regret
the necessity without which I am sure you would not have given it.— My injunctions to
avoid every improper and every hazardous speculation with my money, have
been sufficiently strong and repeated, to have deserved a full and unequivocal
compliance with them.— I will hope they have not been disregarded.— I have requested
D r: Welsh to purchase me a little freehold in Boston,
which if possible may in case of need serve for my own residence upon my return home.
This will so effectually swallow up all the funds that I have at my disposition, or
shall have for many months to come, that I shall not have it in my power to take the
benefit of your good council, by the experience and judgment of D r: Tufts, though I have the most unbounded confidence in it. If at any future
period an opportunity should offer, I shall be happy to sollicit his kindness.

I feel sincerely and deeply my Sister’s afflictions, which I am
confident have not been imputable to her. Her children I am glad to find will enjoy the
advantage of my Aunt Peabody’s kindness, and I hope will receive an education teaching
them such lessons of moderation of Industry and of prudent discretion, as are peculiarly
proper for Americans in general, and for every member of our family in particular.

I am your ever dutiful and affectionate Son

John Q. Adams.