Sir:

     I sat down with a design of executing your request to form a catalogue of books to the amount of about 50 lib. sterling. But could by no means satisfy myself with any partial choice I could make. Thinking therefore it might be as agreeable to you I have framed such a general collection as I think you would wish and might in time find convenient to procure. Out of this you will chuse for yourself to the amount you mentioned for the present year and may hereafter as shall be convenient proceed in completing the whole. A view of the second column in this catalogue would I suppose extort a smile from the face of gravity. Peace to its wisdom! Let me not awaken it. A little attention however to the nature of the human mind evinces that the entertainments of fiction are useful as well as pleasant. That they are pleasant when well written every person feels who reads. But wherein is its utility asks the reverend sage, big with the notion that nothing can be useful but the learned lumber of Greek and Roman reading with which his head is stored?

     I answer, everything is useful which contributes to fix in the principles and practices of virtue. When any original act of charity or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts also. On the contrary when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we are disgusted with it’s deformity, and conceive an abhorence of vice. Now every emotion of this kind is an exercise of our virtuous dispositions, and dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body acquire strength by exercise. But exercise produces habit, and in the instance of which we speak the exercise being of the moral feelings produces a habit of thinking and acting virtuously. We never reflect whether the story we read be truth or fiction. If the painting be lively, and a tolerable picture of nature, we are thrown into a reverie, from which if we awaken it is the fault of the writer. I appeal to every reader of feeling and sentiment whether the fictitious murther [murder] of Duncan by Macbeth in Shakespeare does not excite in him as great a horror of villany, as the real one of Henry IV. by Ravaillac as related by Davila? And whether the fidelity of Nelson and generosity of Blandford in Marmontel do not dilate his breast and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident which real history can furnish? Does he not in fact feel himself a better man while reading them, and privately covenant to copy the fair example? We neither know nor care whether Lawrence Sterne really went to France, whether he was there accosted by the Franciscan, at first rebuked him unkindly, and then gave him a peace offering: or whether the whole be not fiction. In either case we equally are sorrowful at the rebuke, and secretly resolve we will never do so: we are pleased with the subsequent atonement, and view with emulation a soul candidly acknowledging it’s fault and making a just reparation. Considering history as a moral exercise, her lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life. Of those recorded by historians few incidents have been attended with such circumstances as to excite in any high degree this sympathetic emotion of virtue. We are therefore wisely framed to be as warmly interested for a fictitious as for a real personage. The field of imagination is thus laid open to our use and lessons may be formed to illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life. Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were written. This is my idea of well written Romance, of Tragedy, Comedy and Epic poetry.–If you are fond of speculation the books under the head of Criticism will afford you much pleasure. Of Politics and Trade I have given you a few only of the best books, as you would probably chuse to be not unacquainted with those commercial principles which bring wealth into our country, and the constitutional security we have for the enjoiment of that wealth. In Law I mention a few systematical books, as a knowledge of the minutiae of that science is not necessary for a private gentleman. In Religion, History, Natural philosophy, I have followed the same plan in general,–But whence the necessity of this collection? Come to the new Rowanty, from which you may reach your hand to a library formed on a more extensive plan. Separated from each other but a few paces the possessions of each would be open to the other. A spring centrically situated might be the scene of every evening’s joy. There we should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them in music, chess or the merriments of our family companions. The heart thus lightened our pillows would be soft, and health and long life would attend the happy scene. Come then and bring our dear Tibby with you, the first in your affections, and second in mine. Offer prayers for me too at that shrine to which tho’ absent I pray continual devotions. In every scheme of happiness she is placed in the foreground of the picture, as the principal figure. Take that away, and it is no picture for me. Bear my affections to Wintipock clothed in the warmest expressions of sincerity; and to yourself be every human felicity.
     Adieu.

     Th. Jefferson
     Monticello, Aug 3, 1771

Enclosure below the fold.

Enclosure
List of Books from Thomas Jefferson to Robert Skipwith

Fine Arts.
     - Observations on gardening. Payne. 5/
     - Webb’s essay on painting. 12mo. 3/
     - Pope’s Iliad. 18/
         –Odyssey. 15/
     - Dryden’s Virgil. 12mo. 12/
     - Milton’s works. 2 V. 8vo. Donaldson. Edinburgh 1762. 10/
     - Hoole’s Tasso. 12mo. 5/
     - Ossian with Blair’s criticisms. 2 V. 8vo. 10/
     - Telemachus by Dodsley. 6/
     - Capell’s Shakespear. 12mo. 30/
     - Dryden’s plays. 6V. 12mo. 18/
     - Addison’s plays. 12mo. 3/
     - Otway’s plays. 3 V. 12mo. 9/
     - Rowe’s works. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Thompson’s works. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Young’s works. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Home’s plays. 12mo. 3/
     - Mallet’s works. 3 V. 12mo. 9/
     - Mason’s poetical works. 5/
     - Terence. Eng. 3/
     - Moliere. Eng. 15/
     - Farquhar’s plays. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Vanbrugh’s plays. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Steele’s plays. 3/
     - Congreve’s works. 3 V. 12mo. 9/
     - Garric’s dramatic works. 2 V. 8vo. 10/
     - Foote’s dramatic works. 2 V. 8vo. 10/
     - Rousseau’s Eloisa. Eng. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
         –Emilius and Sophia. Eng. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Marmontel’s moral tales. Eng. 2 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Gil Blas. by Smollett 6/
     - Don Quixot. by Smollett 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - David Simple. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - By Smollett:
         –Roderic Random. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
         –Peregrine Pickle. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
         –Launcelot Graves. 6/
         –Adventures of a Guinea. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - By Richardson:
         –Pamela. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
         –Clarissa. 8 V. 12mo. 24/
         –Grandison. 7 V. 12mo. 9/
         –Fool of quality. 3 V. 12mo. 9/
     - Fielding’s works. 12 V. 12mo. £1.16
     - By Langhorne:
         –Constantia. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
         –Solyman and Almena. 12mo. 3/
     - Belle assemblee. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Vicar of Wakefeild. by Dr. Goldsmith. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Sidney Bidulph. 5 V. 12mo. 15/
     - Lady Julia Mandeville. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Almoran and Hamet. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Tristam Shandy. 9 V. 12mo. £1.7
     - Sentimental journey. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Fragments of antient poetry. Edinburgh. 2/
     - Percy’s Runic poems. 3/
     - Percy’s reliques of antient English poetry. 3 V. 12mo. 9/
     - Percy’s Han Kiou Chouan. 4 V. 12mo. 9/
     - Percy’s Miscellaneous Chinese peices. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Chaucer. 10/
     - Spencer. 6 V. 12mo. 15/
     - Waller’s poems. 12mo. 3/
     - Dodsley’s collection of poems. 6 V. 12mo. 18/
     - Pearch’s collection of poems. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Gray’s works. 5/
     - Ogilivie’s poems. 5/
     - Prior’s poems. 2 V. 12mo. Foulis. 6/
     - Gay’s works. 12mo. Foulis. 3/
     - Shenstone’s works. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Dryden’s works. 4 V. 12mo. Foulis. 12/
     - Pope’s works. by Warburton. 12mo. £1.4
     - Churchill’s poems. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Hudibrass. 3/
     - Swift’s works. 21 V. small 8vo. £3.3
     - Swift’s literary correspondence. 3 V. 9/
     - Spectator. 9 V 12mo. £1.7
     - Tatler. 5 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Guardian. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Freeholder. 12mo. 3/
     - Ld. Lyttleton’s Persian letters. 12mo. 3/

Criticism of the Fine Arts.
     - Ld. Kaim’s elements of criticism. 2 V. 8vo. 10/
     - Burke on the sublime and beautiful. 8 vo. 5/
     - Hogarth’s analysis of beauty. 4to. £1.1
     - Reid on the human mind. 8vo. 5/
     - Smith’s theory of moral sentiments 8vo. 5/
     - Johnson’s dictionary. 2 V. fol. £3
     - Capell’s prolusions. 12mo. 3/

Politicks, Trade.
     - Montesquieu’s spirit of the laws. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Locke on government. 8vo. 5/
     - Sidney on government. 4to. 15/
     - Marmontel’s Belisarius. 12mo. Eng 3/
     - Ld. Bolingbroke’s political works. 5 V. 8vo. £1.5
     - Montesquieu’s rise & fall of the Roman governmt. 12mo. 3/
     - Steuart’s Political oeconomy. 2 V. 4to. £1.10
     - Petty’s Political arithmetic. 8vo. 5/

Religion.
     - Locke’s conduct of the mind in search of truth. 12mo. 3/
     - Xenophon’s memoirs of Socrates. by Feilding. 8vo. 5/
     - Epictetus by Mrs Carter. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Antoninus by Collins. 3/
     - Seneca. by L’Estrange. 8vo. 5/
     - Cicero’s Offices by Guthrie. 8v0. 5/
     - Cicero’s Tusculan questions. Eng. 3/
     - Ld. Bolingbroke’s Philosophical works. 5 V. 8vo. £1.5
     - Hume’s essays. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Ld. Kaim’s Natural religion. 8vo. 6/
     - Philosophical survey of Nature. 3/
     - Oeconomy of human life. 2/
     - Sterne’s sermons. 7 V. 12mo. £1.1
     - Sherlock on death. 8vo. 5/
     - Sherlock on a future state. 5/

Law.
     - Ld. Kaim’s Principles of equity. fol. £1.1
     - Blackstone’s Commentaries. 4 V. 4to. £4.4
     - Cuningham’s Law dictionary. 2 V. fol. £3

History. Antient.
     - Bible. 6/
     - Rollin’s Antient history. Eng. 13 V. 12mo. £1.19
     - Stanyan’s Graecian history. 2 V. 8vo. 10/
     - Livy. (the late translation). 12/
     - Sallust by Gordon. 12mo. 12/
     - Tacitus by Gordon. 12mo. 15/
     - Caesar by Bladen. 8vo. 5/
     - Josephus. Eng. 1.0
     - Vertot’s Revolutions of Rome. Eng. 9/
     - Plutarch’s lives. by Langhorne. 6 V. 8vo. £1.10
     - Bayle’s Dictionary. 5 V. fol. £7.10
     - Jeffery’s Historical & Chronological chart. 15/

History. Modern.
     - Robertson’s History of Charles the Vth. 3 V. 4to. £3.3
     - Bossuet’s history of France. 4 V. 12mo. 12/
     - Davila. by Farneworth. 2 V. 4to. £1.10
     - Hume’s history of England. 8 V. 8vo. £2.80
     - Clarendon’s history of the rebellion. 6 V. 8vo. £1.10
     - Robertson’s history of Scotland. 2 V. 8vo. 12/
     - Keith’s history of Virginia. 4to. 12/
     - Stith’s history of Virginia. 6/

Natural Philosophy. Natural History. Etc.
     - Nature displayed. Eng. 7 V. 12mo.
     - Franklin on Electricity. 4to. 10/
     - Macqueer’s elements of Chemistry. 2 V. 8vo. 10/
     - Home’s principles of agriculture. 8vo. 5/
     - Tull’s horse-hoeing husbandry. 8vo. 5/
     - Duhamel’s husbandry. 4to. 15/
     - Millar’s Gardener’s diet. fol. £2.10
     - Buffon’s natural history. Eng. £2.10
     - A compendium of Physic & Surgery. Nourse. 12mo. 1765. 3/
     - Addison’s travels. 12mo. 3/
     - Anson’s voiage. 8vo. 6/
     - Thompson’s travels. 2 V. 12mo. 6/
     - Lady M. W. Montague’s letters. 3 v. 12mo. 9/

Miscellaneous.
     - Ld. Lyttleton’s dialogues of the dead. 8vo. 5/
     - Fenelon’s dialogues of the dead. Eng. 12mo. 3/
     - Voltaire’s works. Eng. £4
     - Locke on Education. 12mo. 3/
     - Owen’s Dict. of arts & sciences. 4 V. 8vo. £2

Heather’s Notes: All I have to say is, WOW! That’s one heckuva long list, and believe you me, my hands are sore after transcribing all that!! I can’t imagine what a fortune all of that must have represented back then, the wealth expended to buy up all those books and create such an extensive library. And to think, Jefferson’s own library was even more extensive than that!
     Aside from my wonderment at the length and breadth of what I’ve just transcribed, don’t you think it would be neat to try and find as many of those books available online as possible? I might just have to do that, and link to them from here if they are available. If you happen to know of any, or have the spare time to look, would you mind posting links to them in the comments? I’d appreciate it, as I’m sure many, many of your fellow readers would as well.
No offense to Mr. Jefferson, but I think I’m gonna go ice my poor fingers for a while…

John

Abigail

     I never enjoyed better health in any of my journeys, but this has been the most irksome, the most gloomy and melancholy I ever made. I cannot with all my philosophy and Christian resignation keep up my spirits. The dismal prospect before me, my family, and my country, is too much for my fortitude.

         ”Bear me, some god! Oh quickly snatch me hence,
         To wholesome solitude, the nurse of sense;
         Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings,
         And the free soul looks down to pity kings.”*

     The day before yesterday a gentleman came and spoke to me, asked me to dine with him on Saturday; said he was very sorry I had not better lodgings in town; desired, if I came to town again, I would take a bed at his house and make his house my home; I should always be very welcome. I told him I had not the pleasure of knowing him. He said his name was Codman¹. I said I was very much obliged to him, but I was very well accommodated where I lodged. I had a clean bed and a very neat house, a chamber to myself, and everything I wanted.
     Saturday, I dined with him, in company with Brigadier Preble, Major Freeman² and his son, etc., and a very genteel dinner we had. Salt fish and all its apparatus, roast chickens, bacon, pease, as fine a salad as ever was made, and a rich meat pie. Tarts and custards, etc., good wine, and as good punch as ever you made. A large, spacious, elegant house, yard, and garden; I thought I had got into the palace of a nobleman. After dinner, when I was obliged to come away, he renewed his invitation to me to make his house my home whenever I shall come to town again.
     Friday I dined with Colonel, Sheriff, alias Bill Tyng.³ Mrs. Ross and her daughter Mrs. Tyng dined with us, and the court and clerk, and some of the bar. At table we were speaking about Captain MacCarty†, which led to the African trade. Judge Trowbridge said, “That was a very humane and Christian trade, to be sure, that of making slaves.” “Aye,” says I, “it makes no great odds; it is a trade that almost all mankind have been concerned in, all over the globe, since Adam, more or less, in one way or another.” This occasioned a laugh.
     At another time Judge Trowbridge said, “It seems, by Colonel Barré’s speeches, that Mr. Otis has acquired honor by releasing his damages to Robinson.‡” “Yes,” says I, “he has acquired honor with all generations.” Trowbridge: “He did not make much profit, I think.” Adams: “True, but the less profit, the more honor. He was a man of honor and generosity, and those who think he was mistaken will pity him.”
     Thus you see how foolish I am. I cannot avoid exposing myself before these high folks; my feelings will at times overcome my modesty and reserve, my prudence, policy, and discretion. I have a zeal at my heart for my country and her friends, which I cannot smother or conceal; it will burn out at times and in companies where it ought to be latent in my breast. This zeal will prove fatal to the fortune and felicity of my family, if it is not regulated by a cooler judgment than mine has hitherto been. Colonel Otis’s phrase* is, “The zeal-pot boils over.”
     I am to wait upon brother Bradbury to meeting to-day, and to dine with brother Wyer. When I shall get home, I know not, but if possible, it shall be before next Saturday night. I long for that time to come, when my dear wife and my charming little prattlers will embrace me.

     Your,
     John Adams
     Falmouth
     9 July 1774

Footnotes:

     * – John quotes a poem by Alexander Pope, “The Fourth Satire of Dr. John Donne Versified,” lines 184-187. Interestingly, John misremembered the first line. It should have read, “Bear me, some god! Oh quickly bear me hence,”.
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     ¹ – Richard Codman, a merchant from Falmouth.
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     ² – Brigadier Jedediah Preble, served under General James Wolfe in Canada before becoming a representative to the Massachusetts General Court. Enoch Freeman was a major in the Militia.
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     ³ – William Tyng (1737-1807), sheriff of Cumberland County, was recently commissioned as a Colonel by Governor Thomas Gage.
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     † – Captain MacCarty, unidentified, possibly a slave trader.
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     ‡ – Over the previous decade, Isaac Barré (1726-1802) had been a frequent speaker in the House of Commons, speaking up for the rights of the Americans. In a speech against the Stamp Act given in 1765, his use of the phrase “sons of liberty” to refer to the American patriots is one of the earliest known uses of that distinctive phrase.
James Otis Jr. had been assaulted on September 5, 1769, by John Robinson, a Crown Officer. John Adams represented Otis in his suit for damages. Despite winning £2,000, after receiving an apology, Otis refused to accept any damages beyond court costs, lawyer’s fees, and medical expenses.
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     * – Colonel James Otis (1702-1778) was the father of James Otis Jr., the aforementioned orator and propagandist against parliamentary rule.
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John

Abigail

     Have you seen a list of the addressers of the late Governor*? There is one abroad, with the character, profession, or occupation of each person against his name. I have never seen it, but Judge Brown says against the name of Andrew Faneuil Phillips is “Nothing.” And that Andrew, when he first heard it, said, “Better be nothing with one side than everything with the other.”
     This was witty and smart, whether Andrew said it or what is more likely, it was made for him. A notion prevails among all parties that is is politest and genteelest to be on the side of the administration; that the better sort, the wiser few, are on one side, and that the multitude, the vulgar, the herd, the rabble, the mob only, are on the other. So difficult is it for the frail, feeble mind of man to shake itself loose from all prejudice and habits. However, Andrew or his prompter is perfectly right in his judgment, and will finally be proved to be, so that the lowest on the Tory scale will make it more for his interest than the highest on the Whiggish. And as long as a man adheres immovably to his own interest and has understanding or luck enough to secure and promote it, he will have the character of a man of sense, and will be respected by a selfish world. I know of no better reason for it than this, that most men are conscious that they aim at their own interest only, and that if they fail it is owing to short sight or ill luck, and therefore they can’t blame, but secretly applaud, admire, and sometimes even envy those whose capacities have proved greater and fortunes more prosperous.
     I am engaged in a famous cause,–the cause of King, of Scarborough¹, versus a mob that broke into his house and rifled his papers and terrified him, his wife, children and servants in the night. The terror and distress, the distraction and horror of his family cannot be described by words or painted upon canvas. It is enough to move a statue, to melt a heart of stone, to read the story. A mind susceptible of the feelings of humanity, a heart which can be touched with sensibility for human misery and wretchedness, must reluct, must burn with resentment and indignation at such outrageous injuries. These private mobs I do and will detest. If popular commotions can be justified in opposition to attacks upon the Constitution, it can be only when fundamentals are invaded, nor then unless for absolute necessity, and with great caution. But these tarrings and featherings, this breaking open houses by rude and insolent rabble in resentment for private wrongs, or in pursuance of private prejudices and passions, must be discountenanced. It cannot be even excused upon any principle which can be entertained by a good citizen, a worthy member of society.
     Dined with Mr. Collector Francis Waldo, Esquire², in company with Mr. Winthrop, the two Quincys, and the two Sullivans³, all very social and cheerful–full of politics. S. Quincy’s tongue ran as fast as anybody’s. He was clear in it, that the House of Commons had no right to take money out of our pockets more than any foreign state; repeated large paragraphs from a publication of Mr. Burke’s in 1766, and large paragraphs from Junius Americanus†, etc. This is to talk and to shine before persons who have no capacity of judging, and who do not know that he is ignorant of every rope in the ship.
     I shan’t be able to get away till next week. I am concerned only in two or three cases, and none of them are come on yet. Such an Eastern circuit I never made. I shall bring home as much as I brought from home, I hope, and not much more, I fear. I go mourning in my heart all the day long, though I say nothing. I am melancholy for the public and anxious for my family. As for myself, a frock and trousers, a hoe and a spade would for for my remaining days.
     For God’s sake make your children hardy, active, and industrious; for strength, activity and industry will be their only resource and dependence.

     John Adams
     Falmouth
     7 July 1774

Footnotes:

* – In the spring of 1774, General Thomas Gage removed Thomas Hutchinson as Governor. In response to this, many of Hutchinson’s friends and supporters signed a testimonial support, titled “Address from the Merchants and Traders of the Town of Boston, and others”, dated May 28, 1774. Soon enough, patriot printers quickly printed and circulated two pamphlets listing the names of each “addresser”, as they came to be known, including their occupations, addresses, as well as contemptuous descriptions of their character and aspirations. In subsequent letters, both John and Abigail adopt “addressers” as a kind of shorthand for Boston Tories in general.
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¹ – Richard King was the largest creditor in Scarborough and was the treasurer of the parish. However, he supported the Stamp Act, which needless to say produced a great deal of resentment among many of his neighbors, including those who were in his debt. Some of these individuals ransacked King’s home on March 19, 1766.
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² – Francis Waldo was the former customs collector for the port of Falmouth, and was the first to hold that post.
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³ – Even though these men have been referenced in previous letters, I thought I’d give their full names again, since it’s kinda hard to keep track of them all. They are Samuel Winthrop, Samuel Quincy, Josiah Quincy, James Sullivan, and John Sullivan. If you’d like to read more about them, check out their respective tags listed below.
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† – Here John is referring to two different works; first, Edmund Burke’s 1766 “A Short Account of a Late Short Administration”; second, Arthur Lee’s collection of pro-American propaganda pieces, “The Political Detection: or, The Treachery and Tyranny of Administration Both at Home and Abroad; Displayed in a Series of Letters, Signed Junius Americanus”, published in London in 1770. Most historians agree, that’s one heckuva long name for a book. Total TL;DR!
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John

Abigail

     Our Justice Hutchinson* is eternally giving his political hints. In a cause this morning, somebody named Captain Mackay as a referee. I said, “An honest man?” “Yes,” says Hutchinson, “he’s an honest man, only misled“–”he, he, he!”–blinking and grinning. At dinner today somebody mentioned determinations in the Lord’s House (the Court sits in the meeting-house). “I’ve known many very bad determinations in the Lord’s house of late,” says he, meaning a fling upon the clergy. He is perpetually flinging about the Fasts, and ironically talking about getting home to the Fast. A gentleman told me that he had heard him say frequently that the Fast was perfect blasphemy. “Why don’t you pay for the tea? Refuse to pay for the tea! and go to fasting and praying for direction! Perfectly blasphemy!”
     This is the moderation, candor, impartiality, prudence, patience, forbearance, and condescension of our Judge.
     Samuel Quincy said yesterday, as Josiah told me, he was for staying at home and not going to meeting as they, i.e., the meetings, are so managed.
     Such is the bitterness and rancor, the malice and revenge, the pride and vanity, which prevail in these men. And such minds are possessed of all the power of the province.
     Samuel makes no fortune this court. There is very little business here, it is true, but S. gets but very little of that little–less than anybody.
     Wyer retains his old good nature and good humor, his wit, such as it is, and his fancy, with its mildness. Bradbury retains his anxiety, and his plaintive, angry manner; David Sewall his softness and conceited modesty.
     Bradbury and Sewall always roast Dr. Gardiner at these courts, but they have done it more now than usual, as Gardiner had not me to protect him. See how I think of myself!
     I believe it is time to think a little about my family and farm. The fine weather we have had for eight or ten days past I hope has been carefully improved to get in my hay. It is a great mortification to me that I could not attend every step of their progress in mowing, making, and carting. I long to see what burden. But I long more still to see to the procuring more sea-weed, and marsh mud, and sand, etc.
     However, my prospect is interrupted again, I shall have no more time. I must prepare for a journey to Philadelphia, a long journey indeed! But if the length of the journey were all, it would be no burden. But the consideration of what is to be done is of great weight. Great things are wanted to be done, and little things only I fear can be done. I dread the thought of the Congress’ falling short of the expectations of the continent, but especially of the people of this province.
     Vapors avaunt! I will do my duty, and leave the event. If I have the approbation of my own mind, whether applauded or censured, blessed or cursed, by the world, I will not be unhappy.
     Certainly I shall enjoy good company, good conversation, and shall have a fine ride and see a little more of the world than I have before.
     I think it will be necessary to make me up a couple of pieces of new linen. I am told they wash miserably at New York, the Jerseys, and Philadelphia too in comparison of Boston, and am advised to carry a great deal of linen. Whether to make me a suit of new clothes at Boston or to make them at Philadelphia, and what to make, I know not, nor do I know how I shall go–whether on horseback, in a curricle, a phaeton, or altogether in a stagecoach I know not.
     The letters I have written, or may write, my dear, must be kept secret, or at least shown with great caution. Mr. Fairservice goes tomorrow: by him shall I send a packet. Kiss my dear babes for me.

     Your¹,
     John Adams
     Falmouth
     6 July 1774

     I believe I forgot to tell you one anecdote. When first came to this house it was late in the afternoon, and I had ridden thirty-five miles at least. “Madam,” said I to Mrs. Huston, “is it lawful for a weary traveller to refresh himself with a dish of tea, provided it has been honestly smuggled, or paid no duties?” “No, sir,” said she, “we have renounced all tea in this place, but I’ll make you coffee.” Accordingly I drank coffee every afternoon since, and have borne it very well. Tea must be universally renounced, and I must be weaned, and the sooner the better.

Footnotes:

     * – Justice Foster Hutchinson (1724-1799), an associate justice of the Superior Court, brother of Thomas Hutchinson, one of John’s most frequent targets for rancor, given Thomas Hutchinson’s support of British policies.
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     ¹ – This time John actually signed the letter for a change! Huzzah! Just thought I’d point this out, since I mentioned previously that most of the time he didn’t bother to sign them, for some unknown reason. Now back to our regularly scheduled letter!
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John

Abigail

     Mobs are the trite topic of declamation and invective among all the ministerial people far and near. They are grown universally learned in the nature, tendency, and consequences of them, and very elegant and pathetic in descanting upon them. They are sources of all kinds of evils, vices, and crimes, they say. They give rise to profaneness, intemperance, thefts, robberies, murders, and treason. Cursing, swearing, drunkenness, gluttony, lewdness, trespasses, maims, are necessarily involved in them and occasioned by them. Besides, they render the populace, the rabble, the scum of the earth, insolent and disorderly, impudent and abusive. They give rise to lying, hypocrisy, chicanery, and even perjury among the people, who are driven to such artifice and crimes to conceal themselves and their companions from prosecutions in consequence of them.
     This is the picture drawn by the Tory pencil; and it must be granted to be a likeness. But this is declamation. What consequence is to be drawn from this description? Shall we submit to Parliamentary taxation to avoid mobs? Will not Parliamentary taxation, if established, occasion vices, crimes, and follies infinitely more numerous, dangerous, and fatal to the community? Will not Parliamentary taxation, if established, raise a revenue unjustly and wrongfully? If this revenue is scattered by the hand of corruption among the public officers and magistrates and rulers of the community, will it not propagate vices more numerous, more malignant and pestilential among them? Will it not render magistrates servile and fawning to their vicious superiors, and insolent and tyrannical to their inferiors? Are insolence, abuse, and impudence more tolerable in a magistrate than in a subject? Are they not more constantly and extensively pernicious? And does not the example of vice and folly in magistrates descend and spread downwards among the people?
     Besides, is not the insolence of officers and soldiers and seamen, in the army and navy, as mischievous as that of porters, or of sailors in the merchant service? Are not riots raised and made by armed men as bad as those by unarmed? Is not an assault upon a civil officer, and a rescue of a prisoner from lawful authority, made by soldiers with swords and bayonets, as bad as if made by tradesmen with staves?
     Are not the killing of a child by R.*, and the slaughter of half a dozen citizens by a party of soldiers, as bad as pulling down a house or drowning a cargo of tea, even if both should be allowed to be unlawful? Parties may go on declaiming, but it is not easy to say which party has excited most riots, which has published most libels, which has propagated most slander and defamation? Verbal scandal has been propagated in great abundance by both parties; but there is this difference, that one party have enjoyed almost all public offices, and therefore their defamation has been spread among the people more secretly, more maliciously, and more effectually. It has gone with greater authority, and been scattered by instruments more industrious. The ministerial newspapers have swarmed with as numerous and as malicious libels as the antiministerial ones. Fleet’s paper, “Mein’s Chronicle”*, etc., etc., have been as virulent as any that was ever in the province. These bickerings of opposite parties, and their mutual reproaches, their declamations, their sing-song, their triumphs and defiances, their dismals and prophecies, are all delusion.
     We very seldom hear any solid reasoning. I wish always to discuss the question without all painting, pathos, rhetoric, or flourish of every kind. And the question seems to me to be, whether the American colonies are to be considered as a distinct community so far as to have a right to judge for themselves when the fundamentals of their government are destroyed or invaded, or whether they are to be considered as part of the whole British empire, the whole English nation, so far as to be bound in honor, conscience, or interest by the general sense of the whole nation. However, if this is the rule, I believe it is very far from the general sense of the whole nation, that America should be taxed by the British parliament. If the sense of the whole of the empire could be fairly and truly collected, it would appear, I believe, that a great majority would be against taxing us against or without our consent. It is very certain that the sense of parliament is not the sense of the empire, nor a sure indication of it.
     But, if all other parts of the empire were agreed unanimously in the propriety and rectitude of taxing us, this would not bind us. It is a fundamental, inherent, and unalienable right of the people, that they have some check, influence, or control in their supreme legislature. If the right of taxation is conceded to Parliament, the Americans have no check or influence at all left.
     This reasoning never was nor can be answered.

     John Adams
     Falmouth
     6 July 1774

Footnotes:

     * – Ebeneezer Richardson, a customs officer, shot and killed eleven-year-old Christopher Snider when an anti-British mob tried to break into his house on February 22, 1770. The boy’s funeral became a political event, and his shooting was a prelude to the Boston Massacre, also referred to here. The incident was the subject of Phillis Wheatley’s poem, “On the Death of Mr. Snider Murder’d by Richardson.” An earlier mob had destroyed Thomas Hutchinson’s house on August 26, 1765.
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     ¹ – Thomas and John Fleet’s Boston Evening Post and John Mein and John Fleeming’s Boston Chronicle supported British policies to various degrees.
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John

Abigail

     I spent an hour last evening at Mr. Wyer’s, with Judge Cushing*. Wyer’s father, who has a little place in the customs, came in. He began upon politics, and told us that Mr. Smith¹ had a fast last week which he attended. Mr. Gilman² preached, he said, part of the day, and told them that the judgments of God upon the land were in consequence of the mobs and riots which had prevailed in the country; and that turning to me old Wyer said, “What do you think of that, Mr. Adams?”
     I answered, “I can’t say but mobs and violence may have been one cause of our calamities. I am inclined to think that they do come in for a share; but there are many other causes. Did not Mr. Gilman mention bribery and corruption as another cause? He ought to have been impartial, and pointed out the venality which prevails in the land as a cause, as well as tumults.” “I think he did,” says Wyer. I might have pursued my inquiry, whether he did not mention universal pilfering, robbery, and picking of pockets which prevails in the land,–as every man’s pocket upon the continent is picked every day by taking from him duties without his consent. I might have inquired whether he mentioned the universal spirit of debauchery, dissipation, luxury, effeminacy, and gaming, which the late ministerial measures are introducing, etc., etc., etc., but I forbore.
     How much profaneness, lewdness, intemperance, etc., have been introduced by the army and navy and revenue; how much servility, venality, artifice, and hypocrisy have been introduced among the ambitious and avaricious by the British politics of the last ten years. In short the original faulty causes of all the vices which have been introduced are the political innovations of the last ten years. This is no justification and a poor excuse for the girls who have been debauched, and for the injustice which has been committed in some riots; but surely the soldiers, sailors, and excisemen who have occasioned these vices ought not to reproach those they have corrupted. These Tories act the part of the devil. They tempt men and women into sin and then reproach them for it, and become soon their tormentors for it. A tempter and tormentor is the character of the devil. Hutchinson, Oliver³, and others of their circle, who for their own ends of ambition and avarice have pursued, promoted, encouraged, counseled, aided, and abetted the taxation of America, have been the real tempters of their countrymen and women into all the vices, sins, crimes, and follies which that taxation has occasioned. And now by themselves and their friends, dependents, and votaries, they are reproaching those very men and women with those vices and follies, sins and crimes.
     There is not a sin which prevails more universally and has prevailed longer than prodigality in furniture, equipage, apparel, and diet. And I believe that this vice, this sin, has a large a share in drawing down the judgments of Heaven as any. And perhaps the punishment that is inflicted may work medicinally and cure the disease.

     John Adams
     Falmouth
     6 July 1774

Footnotes:

     * – Judge William Cushing (1732-1810), an associate justice for the Superior Court of Massachusetts.
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     ¹ – Rev. Thomas Smith, minister from Falmouth.
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     ² – Rev. Tristram Gilman, also a minister from Falmouth. On a totally random note, I think “Tristram” is my new favorite name! It sounds like the name for some sort of product you’d see on a late-night infomercial, doesn’t it? Oh, oops, sorry, that really doesn’t sound very historic and intellectual, does it?
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     ³ – Peter Oliver (1713-1791) was Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court, but John may be referring to Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver (1703-1774), who along with his brother in law Thomas Hutchinson was a frequent target of John’s resentment. However, Andrew Oliver had died on March 3, 1774.
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John

Abigail

     I can’t be easy without my pen in my hand, yet I know not what to write.
     I have this morning heard a dialogue between Will Gardiner and a Captain Pote*, of Falmouth. Gardiner says he can’t subscribe the non-consumption agreement¹ because he has a hundred men coming from England to settle upon Kennebeck River, and he must supply them, which he can’t do without English goods. That agreement he says may do at Boston, but not in the Eastern country. Pote said he never would sign it, and railed away at Boston mobs, drowning tea, and tarring Malcom².
     James Sullivan at dinner told us a story or two. One member of the General Court, he said, as they came down stairs after their dissolution at Salem said to him, “Though we are killed, we died scrabbling, did not we?”
     This is not very witty, I think.
     Another story was of a piece of wit of brother Porter³, of Salem. He came upon the floor and asked a member, “What state are you in now?” The member answered, “In a state of nature.” “Aye,” says Porter, “and you will be damned before you will get into a state of grace.”

     John Adams
     Falmouth
     5 July 1774

Footnotes:

     * – William Gardiner was the son of Dr. Silvester Gardiner. Jeremiah Pote, merchant in Falmouth, was a loyalist who fled to New Brunswick in 1775.
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     ¹ – Nonconsumption of British imports had been a strategy of protest in Massachusetts and the other colonies since the 1760s, and had been periodically renewed. Joseph Warren’s “Solemn League and Covenant” of Massachusetts merchants to boycott British goods had just been published on June 8 and is undoubtedly referred to here.
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     ² – The tarring and feathering of John Malcolm, a customs collector in Boston, in January 1775 received considerable notice on both sides of the Atlantic. The incident was a possible inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “My Kinsman, Major Molyneux.”
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     ³ – Samuel Porter was a lawyer in Salem. The Massachusetts legislative body, the General Court, called to meet in Boston in May 1774, was adjourned to Salem for a session beginning June 7 in order to escape Boston political unrest. Salem was thought to be a Tory stronghold.
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John

Abigail

     Arrived last evening at Falmouth, and procured a new place to lodge at, Mrs. Euston’s. Quincy and I have taken a bed together. My brother Neg Freeman* came to pay his respects to me and to invite me to a bed in his house; but I was fixed before, and therefore thanked him and excused myself. It is a very neat house where we sleep. The desk and table shine like mirrors. The floors are clean and white and nicely sanded, etc.
     But when shall I get home? This tedious journey will produce me very little profit. I never saw Falmouth before with such lean expectations and empty pockets. I am much concerned for my family. These Acts of Parliament and ministerial manoeuvres will injure me both in my property and business as much as any person whatever in proportion.

     John Adams
     Tuesday Morning, Falmouth
     5 July 1774

Footnote:

     * – Enoch Freeman (1706-1788) practiced law in Falmouth, Maine, now known as Portland, and thus was John’s “brother” as a fellow lawyer. John also considered him a brother in that they were both elected to the Massachusetts Council – essentially the upper house of the legislature – but were both negatived, i.e., rejected, by Governor Thomas Gage.
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John

Abigail

     We went to meeting at Wells and had the pleasure of hearing my friend upon “Be not partakers in other men’s sins. Keep yourselves pure.” Mr. Hemmenway came and kindly invited us to dine, but we had engaged a dinner at Littlefield’s, so we returned there, dined, and took our horses to meeting in the afternoon and heard the minister again upon “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” There is a great pleasure in hearing sermons so serious, so clear, so sensible and instructive as these.
     We went to Mr. Hemmenway’s, and as it rained a little he put out our horses, and we took a bed with him, i.e., Mr. Winthrop and I.
     You know I never get or save anything by cozening or class-mating. So I gave pistareens* enough among the children and servants to have paid twice for my entertainment.
     Josiah Quincy¹, always impetuous and vehement, would not stop, but drove forward; I suppose, that he might get upon the fishing ground before his brother Sam and me. I find that the divines and lawyers this way are all Tories. Brother Hemmenway is as impartial as any I have seen or heard of. James Sullivan seems half inclined to be a Whig.
     Mr. Winthrop has been just making some observations which I think worth sending to you. Upon reading an observation in the Farmer’s fourth letter², that some of our (the Massachusetts) resolves and publications had better have been suppressed, Mr. Winthrop said that many things in our newspapers ought to have been suppressed, for example, whenever there was the least popular commotion or disturbance, it was instantly put in all the newspapers in the province. But in all the other provinces they took care to conceal and suppress every such thing.
     Another thing, he says we ought to avoid all paragraphs in our papers about our own manufactures, especially all vaporing puffing advertisements about them, because such paragraphs only tend to provoke the ministers, merchants, and manufactures. But our presses in Boston, Salem, and Newburyport are under no regulation, nor any judicious, prudent care. Therefore it seems impracticable to keep out such imprudences. The printers are hot, indiscreet men, and they are under the influence of others as hot, rash, and injudicious as themselves, very often.
     For my own part, it has long been my resolution to avoid being concerned in counseling, or aiding, or abetting any tumult or disorder; to avoid all exceptionable scribbling in the newspaper of every kind; to avoid all passion and personal altercation or reflections. I have found it difficult to keep these resolutions exactly; all but the last, however, I have religiously and punctiliously observed these six years.

     John Adams
     Patten’s, at Arundel
     4 July 1774

Footnotes:

     * – A pistareen was a small Spanish coin used at the time in the West Indies and the American colonies. It came to be used colloquially to mean “small change.”
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     ¹ – Josiah Quincy Jr. (1744-1775) had earlier joined John in defending soldiers tried for their role in the Boston Massacre. His important Observations on the Act of Parliament Commonly Called the Boston Port Bill appeared later in 1774. He was a well respected patriot. His brother, Samuel Quincy, was mentioned in the previous letter.
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     ² – One of the Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British Colonies, written by John Dickinson in 1767-68 in protest of the Stamp Act. Widely reprinted, these letters constituted one of the most important American critiques of British power in the years before the Revolution.
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John

Abigail

     Mr. Winthrop, Mr. Quincy*, and I came this morning from York before breakfast, fifteen miles, in order to hear my learned friend Hemmenway. Mr. Quincy brought me a letter from Williams¹, in which he lets me know that you and the family were well. This is very refreshing news.

     John Adams
     Wells, Maine
     3 July 1774

Footnotes:

     * – Samuel Quincy (1735-1789), elder brother of the patriot Josiah Quincy Jr., was cultivated by Hutchinson and the Olivers; in 1770 he had been appointed solicitor general of Massachusetts. He left the country as the Revolution broke out and died in Antigua.
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¹ – Jonathan Williams (d. 1780) was one of John’s legal clerks.
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