Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, August 23, 1799

Rock-hall 23 d: August 1799

Dear William

I received your agreeable birth day tribute the day following the
date of my last; since then the deadly pestilence has burst forth again with ten fold
violence & every part of the City is more or less infected. 1 The inhabitants are flying in every direction
& not a room is left unoccupied at Germantown. I go there but
seldom. The Banks & other public Offices are soon expected. New York, we understand,
is equally afflicted & alarmed. Another mournful Autumn menaces on all sides, &
yet the weather seems favorable to an high degree of health in the Country. I shall not
expose myself to fever infection, so, be of no concern for me; 2

I had heard nothing of the pamphlet you mention, but am desirous of
seeing it, wicked & abandoned as it is— Barloe is deep in the mysteries of modern
philosophy— He is not only a deliberate plodding villain, but of slender intellect— His
mind was never capable of a manly thought on subjects of government— Poets in general
are the worst of politicians— they are by trade & occupation worshipers of ideal
images, dealers in fiction, builders of air born castles & master workmen only in
the edifices of Parnassus’ sumit. These things belong not in any manner to the Science
of Government. In France indeed, under the mockery of Republicanism, the Chénier’s the
Beaumarchais’s have prostituted their muses to the vile purpose of blasphemy &
Atheism— 3 In Republican france, Poets
may be legislators, for the Republic originated in fraud, has been maintained by
violence & yet exists only in imagination. All these things appertain to Poetry.
Ergo a poetical form of Government is the most arbitrary, absurd & monstrous that
ever prevailed among mankind. Who but a frenchman would have endured a rhyming race of
governors & legislators?

The above is about on a level with the reasoning of Tom Paine in “Age of Reason part 2 d: ”
wherein he , Start deletion, levels , End, aims all the shafts of his
railery & gibes at the Bible— He dwells much on a conceit which he thinks original,
in both parts of this work, viz— That prophet, originally meant nothing more nor less
than poet, and that the prophesies are only poems in the Eastern style, which deals much
in allegory fable & parable, so that to sanctify these poems by calling them
prophesies & respecting them as authentic traditions of the word of God; is solemn
mockery. 4 Well, I have proved that the
french nation have in latter days pay’d more respect than any other to these sort of
folks called poets, by admiting them to give laws to their Country, & therefore
france is incontestably more culpable in retaining a reverence for impostors than all
the world besides.

I hope D r: Hopkins is not ranked among
the fraternity, though he is rather a visionary than otherwise in some of his opinions.
His professional reputation at Hartford is very good. 5

I got a letter from JQA. dated 29 April, a day or two since— It was brought by a vessel that was carried in &
detained a month in England, but was finally liberated, being freighted with a cargo for Government. 6 The subject of this letter is business merely, on the details of which I shall write
shortly to my Mother— I have no letter from her later than the 4 th: curr t: .

Truxton insinuates that he has been coaxed to go out after another
Monsieur friggate— I dont believe this would have been done if the S of N— had felt
himself unconscious of promising more than he had a right to do on the subject of rank.
He is resolved to persist in his resignation. He has a right so to do, but he is
preparing chagrin discontent & torment for himself during his life, by the obstinate
exercise of it. Discipline must be established at the outset, for the vices & errors
of infancy are hard to correct in maturer age. Our Navy is the most hopeful &
promising of our Country’s offspring & I hope it will be trained up in the nurture
of due subordination to its parent authority. A really good & valua[ble o]fficer or
servant, is he that unites courage, capacity, humanity & humility , but how rare is the association complete! I wish Truxton well, but
older & abler must not be overlooked, however they may have been eclipsed by a
fortunate & well timed adventure.

Dear William you write a very slovenly hand and you spell
shockingly ill— Truth is sometimes disagreeable, but ought not therefore to be
disguised— She is, you know, the only female that wants no fig leaf to cover her
nakedness.

I am dear William sincerely / Your’s

T. B. Adams

PS. If the Post Office does not remove it will be difficult to
get letters very soon from town or to it—you must make due allowance therefore for
irregularity.