University of Virginia Library

TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Dear Sir Previous to my return to his City, I
received a letter from Mrs. Adams, your highly respectable
mother, communicating your anxiety to
leave a situation[28] rendered insupportable by the
ruinous expences found to be inseparable from it, and

taking it for granted that you had written or would
write to the Secretary of State to the same effect.
The answer to her was, that as it was not the intention
of the Executive to expose you to unreasonable sacrifices,
it could not withhold a permission to retire
from them, and that you would be so informed from
the Department of State. You will accordingly
receive a letter of leave, and a blank Commission,
providing for the care of our affairs, till a successor
may be appointed. As no communication of your
wishes, however, has yet been received from yourself,
I cannot but hope, that the peculiar urgency manifested
in the letter of Mrs. Adams was rather hers,
than yours; or that you have found the means of
reconciling yourself to a continuance in your station.
Besides that confidence in the value of your services
which led to the call upon them, there are considerations
which you will readily appreciate, bearing
against a sudden return, from a short mission; the
occasion for which has been made the subject of so
much lucubration. Among them, is the difficulty
of shielding the step against unfavorable conjectures
as to its cause in the mind of the Emperor; and the
evil might become the greater, from the possibility
of a protracted intermission, if not entire discontinuance,
of a representation of the U. S. at St Petersburg,
corresponding with the grade of the Russian
Minister here. It will for this reason, be particularly
expedient, in case you should make immediate use
of the document sent you, to spare no pains, in
guarding against a misconstruction of your departure,
and in preparing the Russian Government for a delay
in filling the vacancy; which may be unavoidable,
notwithstanding the purpose of preventing it. As
far as assurances of unabated friendship here, can
be of aid to you, they may be given with every emphasis
which the sincerity of these sentiments can
warrant.

I will add that whilst I do not disguise my wish
that the continuance of your valuable services, may
be found not inconsistent with your other and undeniable
duties; I cannot, on the other hand, wish
that the latter should be sacrificed, beyond a reasonable
measure; and within that measure, I am
entirely persuaded that your patriotism will cheerfully
make the sacrifice.