University of Virginia Library

TO JOHN ADAMS

How many are the solitary hours I spend, ruminating
upon the past, and anticipating the future, whilst
you, overwhelmed with the cares of states, have but
a few moments you can devote to any individual.

All domestic pleasures and enjoyments are absorbed
in the great and important duty you ower your country,
"for our country is, as it were, a secondary
"god, and the first and greatest parent. It is to be
preferred to parents, wives, children, friends, and all
things, the gods only excepted; for, if our country
perishes, it is as impossible to save an individual, as
to preserve one of the fingers of a mortified hand."
Thus do I suppress every wish, and silence every
murmur, acquiescing in a painful separation from
the companion of my youth, and the friend of my
heart.

I believe 't is near ten days since I wrote you a
line. I have not felt in a humor to entertain you if
I had taken up my pen. Perhaps some unbecoming
invective might have fallen from it. The eyes of
our rulers have been closed, and a lethargy has seized
almost every member. I fear a fatal security
has taken possession of them. Whilst the building
is in flames, they tremble at the expense of water to
quench it. In short, two months have elapsed since
the evacuation of Boston, and very little has been
done in that time to secure it, or the harbour, from
future invasion. The people are all in a flame, and
no one among us, that I have heard of, even mentions
expense. They think, universally, that there
has been an amazing neglect somewhere. Many
have turned out as volunteers to work upon Noddle's
Island, and many more would go upon Nantasket, if
the business was once set on foot. "'T is a maxim
of state, that power and liberty are like heat and

moisture. Where they are well mixed, every thing
prospers; where they are single, they are destructive."

A government of more stability is much wanted
in this colony, and they are ready to receive it from
the hands of the Congress. And since I have begun
with maxims of state, I will add another, namely,
that a people may let a king fall, yet still remain a
people; but, if a king let his people slip from him,
he is no longer a king. And as this is most certainly
our case, why not proclaim to the world, in decisive
terms, your own importance?

Shall we not be despised by foreign powers, for
hesitating so long at a word?

I cannot say, that I think you are very generous to
the ladies; for, whilst you are proclaiming peace and
good-will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist
upon retaining an absolute power over wives. But
you must remember, that arbitrary, power is like
most other things which are very hard, very liable
to be broken; and, notwithstanding, all your, wise laws
and maxims, we have it in our power, not only to
free ourselves, but to subdue our masters, and, without
violence, throw both your natural and legal
authority at pur feet;—

I thank you for several letters which I have received
since I wrote last; they alleviate a tedious
absence, and I long earnestly for a Saturday evening,

and experience a similar pleasure to that which
I used to find in the return of my friend upon that
day after a week's absence. The idea of a year
dissolves all my philosophy.

Our little ones, whom you so often recommend to
my care and instruction, shall not be deficient in
virtue or probity, if the precepts of a mother have
their desired effect; but they would be doubly enforced,
could they be indulged with the example of a
father alternately before them. I often point them
to their sire,

I designed to have finished the sheet, but, an
opportunity offering, I close, only just informing you
that, May the 7th, our privateers took two prizes in
the bay, in fair sight of the man-of-war; one, a brig
from Ireland; the other from Fayal, loaded with
wine, brandy, &c.; the other with beef, &c. The
wind was east, and a flood tide, so that the tenders
could not get out, though they tried several times;
the lighthouse fired signal guns, but all would not do.
They took them in triumph, and carried them into
Lynn.

Pray be kind enough to remember me at all times,
and write, as often as you possibly can, to your