the corvées, the gabelles, the farms and barriers: the shackles on commerce by monopolies on industry by guilds and corporations: on the freedom of conscience, of thought, and of speech on the press by the Censors and of person by lettres de cachet; the cruelty of the criminal code generally, the atrocities of the Rack, the venality of judges, and their partialities to the rich; the monopoly of military honors by the noblesse; the enormous expenses of the Queen, the princes and the court; the prodigalities of pensions; and the riches, luxury, indolence, and immorality of the clergy. Surely under such a mass of misrule and oppression, a people might justly press for a thorough reformation, and might even dismount their rough-shod riders, and leave them to walk on their own legs.-AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 86. FORD ED., i, 118. (1821.) 22. ABUSES, Patrimonies in.-Happy for us that abuses have not yet become patrimonies, and that every description of interest is in favor of rational and moderate government.-To RALPH IZARD. ii, 429. (P., 1788.)

ABUSES OF POWER.-See POWER. 23. ABUSES, Revolution and.-When a long train of abuses and usurpations begun at a distinguished period and * pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.-DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AS DRAWN BY JEFFERSON.

24. ABUSES, Temptations to.-Nor should our Assembly be deluded by the integrity of their own purposes, and conclude that these unlimited powers will never be abused, because themselves are not disposed to abuse them. They should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when corruption in this as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people and make them pay the price. Human nature is the same on each side of the Atlantic, and will be alike influenced by the same causes. The time to guard against corruption and tyranny is before they shall have gotten hold of us. It is better keep the wolf out of the fold, than to trust to drawing his teeth and talons after he shall have entered. NOTES ON VIRGINIA. viii, 362. FORD ED., iii, 224. (1782.)

*

25. ABUSES, Tendency to.-Mankind soon learns to make interested uses of every right and power which they possess, or may assume. The public money and public liberty * will soon be discovered to be sources of wealth and dominion to those who hold them; distinguished, too, by this tempting circumstance, that they are the instrument, as well as the object of acquisition. With money we will get men, said Cæsar, and with • Congress struck out the words in italics.

EDITOR.

men we will get money.-NOTES ON VIRGINIA, viii, 362. FORD ED., iii, 224. (1782.)

ning.-It was proposed [at a meeting of the 26. ACADEMY (The Military), Begincabinet] to recommend [in the President's speech to Congress] the establishment of a the specified powers given by the Constitution Military Academy. I objected that none of to Congress would authorize this. ** The President [said], though it would be a good thing, he did not wish to bring on anything which might generate heat and ill humor. It was, therefore, referred for fur

*

ther consideration and inquiry. [At the next meeting] I opposed it as unauthorized by the Constitution. Hamilton and Knox approved it without discussion. Edmund Randolph was for it, saying that the words of the Constitution authorizing Congress to lay taxes &c., for the common defence, might comprehend it. The President said he would not choose to recommend anything against the Constitution; but if it was doubtful, he was so impressed with the necessity of this measure, that he would refer it to Congress, and let them decide for themselves whether the Constitution authorized it or not.-ANAS. ix, 182. FORD ED., i, 270. (Nov. 1793.)

27. ACADEMY

largement.-The scale on which the Military (The Military), EnAcademy at West Point was originally estab lished, is become too limited to furnish the number of well-instructed subjects in the different branches of artillery and engineering which the public service calls for. The want of such characters is already sensibly felt, and will be increased with the enlargement of our plans of military preparation. The chief engineer having been instructed to consider the subject, and to propose an augmentation which might render the establishment commensurate with the present circumstances of our country, has made the report I now transmit for the consideration of Congress.SPECIAL MESSAGE. viii, 101. (March 1808.)

our

28. ACADEMY (The Military), Importance of. I have ever considered that establishment as of major importance to country, and in whatever I could do for it, I viewed myself as performing a duty only. * * * The real debt of the institution is to its able and zealous professors.-To JARED MANSFIELD. vii, 203. (M., 1821.)

29. ACADEMY (The Military), Removal.-The idea suggested by the chief engineer of removing the institution to this place [Washington], is worthy of attention. Beside the advantage of placing it under the immediate eye of the Government, it may render its benefits common to the naval department, and will furnish opportunities of selecting on better information, the characters most qualified to fulfil the duties which the public service may call for.-SPECIAL MESviii, 101. (March 1808.)

SAGE.

30. ACADEMY, A National.-I have often wished we could have a Philosophical Society, or Academy, so organized as that

33. I have returned, with infinite appetite, to the enjoyment of my farm, my family and my books, and had determined to meddle in nothing beyond their limits. Your propo

emy should select unpublished what should be most choice. In this way all the members, wheresoever dispersed, might be brought into action, and an useful emulation might arise between the filiated societies. Perhaps the great societies, now existing, might incorporate themselves in this way with the National one. TO JOEL BARLOW. FORD ED., viii, 424. (Feb. 1806.)

31. ACADEMY, Need of a Naval.-I think * ** that there should be a school of instruction for our Navy as well as artillery; and I do not see why the same establishment might not suffice for both. Both require the same basis of general mathematics, adding projectiles and fortifications for the artillery exclusively, and astronomy and theory of navigation exclusively for the naval students. Berout conducted both schools in France, and has left us the best book extant for their joint and separate instruction. It ought not to require a separate professor.* -TO JOHN ADAMS. vii, 218. (M., 1821.)

32. ACADEMY, Transfer of Geneva.I * * enclose for your perusal and consideration *** the proposition of M. D'Ivernois, a Genevan of considerable distinction, to translate the Academy of Geneva in a body to this country. You know well that the colleges of Edinburgh and Geneva as seminaries of science, are considered as the two eyes of Europe. While Great Britain and America give the preference to the former. all other countries give it to the latter I am fully sensible that two powerful obstacles are in the way of this proposition. First, the expense; secondly, the communication of science in foreign languages; that is to say, in French and Latin; but I have been so long absent from my own country as to be an incompetent judge either of the force of the objections, or of the disposition of those who are to decide on them. ** What I have to request of you is, that you will

* consider his proposition, consult on its expediency and practicability with such gentlemen of the Assembly [of Virginia], as you think best, and take such other measures as you shall think best to ascertain what would be the sense of that body, were the proposition to be hazarded to them. If yourself and friends approve of it, and there is hope that the Assembly will do so, your zeal for the good of our country in general, and the promotion of science, as an instrument towards that, will, of course, induce you and them to bring it forward in such a way as you shall judge best. If, on the contrary, you disapprove of it yourselves, or think it would be desperate with the Assembly, be so good as to return it to me with such information as I may hand forward to M. D'Ivernois, to put him out of suspense. Keep the matter by all means out of the public papers, and particularly, do not couple my name with the proposition if brought forward, because it is much my wish to be in nowise implicated in public affairs.-To WILSON NICHOLAS. iv, 109. FORD ED., vi, 513. (M., Nov. 1794.)

The Naval Academy at Annapolis was opened in 1845. The credit of its foundation is due to George Bancroft, who was then Secretary of the Navy.EDITOR.

Geneva to my own country, was too analogous to all my attachments to science, and freedom, the first-born daughter of science, not to excite a lively interest in my mind, and the essays which were necessary to try its practicability. This depended altogether on the opinions and dispositions of our State Legislature, which was then in session. I immediately communicated your papers to a member of the Legislature, whose abilities and zeal pointed him out as proper for it, urging him to sound as many of the leading members of the Legislature as he could, and if he found their opinions favorable, should find it desperate, not to hazard it; beto bring forward the proposition; but if he cause I thought it best not to commit the honor either of our State or of your college, by an useless act of eclat. * * * The members

were generally well-disposed to the proposition, and some of them warmly; however, there was no difference in the conclusion, that it could not be effected. The reasons which they thought would with certainty prevail against it, were 1, that our youth, not familiarized but with their mother tongue, were not prepared to receive instructions in any other; 2, that the expense of the institution would excite uneasiness in their constituents, and endanger its permanence; and 3, that its extent was disproportioned to the narrow state of the population with us. Whatever might be urged on these several subjects, yet as the decision rests with others, there remained to us only to regret that circumstances were such, or were thought to be such, as to disappoint your and Our wishes.-To M. D'IVERNOIS. iv, 113. FORD ED., vii, 2. (M., Feb. 1795.)

34. ACADEMY, Wish for Geneva.-I should have seen with peculiar satisfaction the establishment of such a mass of science in my country, and should probably have been tempted to approach myself to it, by procuring a residence in its neighborhood, at those seasons of the year at least when the operations of agriculture are less active and interesting.-To M. D'IVERNOIS. iv, 114. FORD ED., vii, 4. (M., Feb. 1795.)

erect

a

35. ACADEMIES, Architectural Reform. I consider the common plan followed in this country, but not in others, of making one large and expensive building, as unfortunately erroneous. It is infinitely better to small and separate lodge for each separate professorship, with only a hall below for his class, and two chambers above for himself; joining these lodges by barracks for a certain portion of the students, opening into a covered way to give a dry communication between all the schools. The whole of these arranged around an open square of grass and trees, would make it, what it should be in fact, an academical village, instead of a large and common den of noise, of filth and of fetid air. It would afford that quiet retirement so friendly to study, and lessen the dangers of fire, infection and tumult. Every professor would be the police officer of the students adjacent to his own lodge, which should include those of his own class of

preference, and might be at the head of their table, if, as I suppose, it can be reconciled with the necessary economy to dine them in smaller and separate parties, rather than in a large and These separate buildings, too, might be erected successively and occasionally,

common mess.

5

36. ACCOUNTS, Complicated.-Alexander Hamilton * * in order that he might have the entire government of his [Treasury] machine, determined so to complicate it as that neither the President nor Congress should be able to understand it, or to control him. He succeeded in doing this, not only beyond their reach, but so that he at length could not unravel it himself. He gave to the debt, in the first instance, in funding it, the most artificial and mysterious form he could devise. He then moulded up his appropriations of a number of scraps and remnants, many of which were nothing at all, and applied them to different objects in reversion and remainder, until the whole system was involved in impenetrable fog; and while he was giving himself the airs of providing for the payment of the debt, he left himself free to add to it continually, as he did in fact, instead of paying it.-TO ALBERT GALLATIN. iv, 428. FORD ED., viii, 140. (W., 1801.)

* * *

37. ACCOUNTS, Keeping.-All these articles are very foreign to my talents, and foreign also, as I conceive, to the nature of my duties. I suppose it practicable for your board to direct the administration of your moneys here [Paris] in every circumstance.-To SAMUEL OSGOOD. i, 451. (P., 1785.)

38. ACCOUNTS, Neglected.-It is a fact. which we [Virginia] are to lament, that, in the earlier part of our struggles, we were so wholly occupied by the great object of establishing our rights, that we attended not at all to those little circumstances of taking receipts and vouchers, keeping regular accounts, and preparing subjects for future disputes with our friends. If we could have supported the whole Continent, I believe we should have done it, and never dishonored our nation by producing accounts; sincerely assured that, in no circumstances of future necessity or distress, a like free application of anything therein would have been thought hardly of, or would have rendered necessary an appeal to accounts. Hence, it has happened that, in the present case, the collection of vouchers of the arms furnished by this State has become tedious and difficult.-TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. FORD LD., ii, 283, (W., 1779.)

39. ACCOUNTS, Simple.-The accounts of the United States ought to be, and may be made, as simple as those of a common farmer, and capable of being understood by common farmers.-To JAMES MADISON. iv, 131. FORD ED., vii, 61. (M., 1706.)

40. If * * * [there] can be added a simplification of the form of accounts in the Treasury department, and in the organization of its officers, so as to bring everything to a single centre, we might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligible as a merchant's books, so that

Actions

every member of Congress, and every man of any mind in the Union, should be able to comprehend them, to investigate abuses, and Consequently to control them. Our predecessors have endeavored by intricacies of system, and shuffling the investigation over from one officer to another, to cover everything from detection. I hope we shall go in the contrary direction, and that, by our honest and judicious reformations, we may be able in the limits of our time, to bring things back to that simple and intelligible system, on which they should have been organized at first.-To ALBERT GALLATIN. iv, 429. FORD ED., viii, 141. (W., 1802.)

ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY.See TERRITORY.

41. ACTIONS, Approved.—The very actions [on] which Mr. Pickering arraigns [me] have been such as the great majority of my fellow citizens have approved. The approbation of Mr. Pickering, and of those who thought with him [the Federalists], I had no right to expect.-To MARTIN VANBUREN. vii, 363. FORD ED., X, 306. (M., 1824.)

42. ACTIONS, Disinterested.-I am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for my fellow citizens; and never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest of my own.-TO RICHARD M. JOHNSTON. v, 256. (W., 1808.)

43.

My public proceedings were always directed by a single view to the best interests of our country.-To Dr. E. GriffITH. V, 450. (M., 1809.)

44. In the transaction of the [public] affairs I never felt one interested motive.-To W. LAMBERT. v, 450. (M., May 1809.)

45. ACTIONS, Government and.-The legislative powers of government reach actions only and not opinions.-R. TO A. DANBURY BAPTIST ADDRESS. viii, 113. (1802.)

46. ACTIONS, Honest Principles and.Every honest man will suppose honest acts to flow from honest principles, and the rogues may rail without intermission.-To DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. iv, 426. FORD ED., viii, 128. (W., 1801.)

47. ACTIONS, Indulgent to.-I owe infinite acknowledgments to the republican portion of my fellow citizens for the indulgence with which they have viewed my proceedings generally.-To W. LAMBERT. v, 450. (M., May 1809.) See DISINTERESTEDNESS.

48. ACTIONS, Judgment and.-Upwards of thirty years passed on the stage of public life and under the public eye. may surely enable them to judge whether my future course is likely to be marked with those departures from reason and moderation, which the passions of men have been willing to foresee.-To WILLIAM JACKSON. iv, 358. (M., 1801.)

Adams (John)

49. ACTIONS, Lawful.-Every man should be protected in his lawful acts.-To ISAAC MCPHERSON. vi, 175. (M., 1813.)

50. ACTIONS, Present and future.Our duty is to act upon things as they are, and to make a reasonable provision for whatever they may be.-SIXTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. viii, 69. FORD ED., viii, 405. (Dec. 1806.)

51. ACTIONS, Publicity and.-I fear no injury which any man can do me. I have never done a single act, or been concerned in any transaction, which I fear to have fully laid open, or which could do me any hurt if truly stated. I have never done a single thing with a view to my personal interest, or that of any friend, or with any other view than that of the greatest public good; therefore, no threat or fear on that head will ever be a motive of action with me. *-ANAS. ix, 209. FORD ED., i, 312. (1806.)

6

Alien and Sedition laws, the vexations of the stamp act, the disgusting particularities of the direct tax, the additional army without an enemy, and recruiting officers lounging at every court house, a navy of fifty ships, five millions to be raised to build it, on the ruinous interest of eight per cent., the perseverance in war on our part, when the French government shows such an anxious desire to keep at peace with us, taxes of ten millions now paid by four millions of people, and yet a necessity, in a year or two, of raising five millions more for annual expenses. Those things will immediately be bearing on the public mind, and if it remain not still blinded by a supposed necessity, for the purpose of maintaining our independence and defending our country, they will set things to rights. I hope you will undertake this statement.-To EDMUND PENDLETON. iv, 275. FORD ED., Vii, 337. (Pa., Jan. 1799.) See 1056.

58.

53. ACTIONS, Right. The precept of Providence is, to do always what is right, and leave the issue to Him.-To MRS. COSWAY. ii, 41. FORD ED., iv, 320. (P., 1786.)

54. ACTIONS, Rule for.-Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.t-To PETER CARR. i, 396. (Ps., 1785.)

55. When tempted to do anything in secret, ask yourself if you would do it in public; if you would not, be sure it is wrong -TO FRANCIS EPPES. D. L. J. 365. 56. ACTIONS, Virtuous.-If no action is to be deemed virtuous for which malice can imagine a sinister motive, then there never was a virtuous action; no, not even in the life of our Saviour Himself. But He has taught us to judge the tree by its fruit, and to leave motives to Him who can alone see into them.-To MARTIN VAN BUREN. vii, 363. FORD ED., X, 307 (M., 1824.)

ADAIR (James), Views on Indians.See INDIANS.

57. ADAMS (John), Administration of. -If the understanding of the people could be rallied to the truth on the subject [of the French negotiations and the X. Y. Z. plot,18 by exposing the deception practiced on them, there are so many other things about to bear on them favorably for the resurrection of their republican spirit, that a reduction of the administration to constitutional principles

cannot fail to be the effect. There are the

* Aaron Burr, in asking Jefferson for office, intimated that he could do Jefferson "much harm." This was Jefferson's defiance.-EDITOR.

+ Peter Carr was the young nephew of Jefferson.EDITOR.

Francis Eppes was a grandson, then at school.— EDITOR.

§ See X. Y. Z. plot post.-EDITOR.

blamed. They were placed under the protection of your name, but we were satisfied they wanted much of your approbation. We ascribed them to their real authors, the Pickerings, Wolcotts, the Tracys, the Sedgwicks, et id genus omne, with whom we supposed you in a state of duresse. I well remember a conversation with you in the morning of the day on which you nominated to the Senate a substitute for Pickering, in which you expressed a just impatience under “ the legacy of secretaries which General Washington had left you," and whom you seemed, therefore, to consider as under public protection. Many other incidents showed how differently you would have acted with less impassioned advisers; and subsequent events have proved that your minds were not together. You would do me

taking to yourself what was intended for men great injustice, therefore, by who were then your secret, as they are now your open enemies.-To JOHN ADAMS. vi, 126. FORD ED., ix, 387. (M., June 1813.)

59. ADAMS (John), Attacks on.-With respect to the calumnies and falsehoods which writers and printers at large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far from stooping to any concern or approbation of them, as Mr. Adams was respecting those of Porcupine, Fenno, or Russell, who pubvended by their opponents against Mr. lished volumes against me for every sentence Adams. But I never supposed Mr. Adams editors, or their writers. I knew myself inhad any participation in the atrocities of these him to be so. On the contrary, whatever I capable of that base warfare, and believed may have thought of the acts of the administration of that day, I have ever borne testimony to Mr. Adams's personal worth; nor was it ever impeached in my presence, without a just vindication of it on my part. I never supposed that any person who knew either of us, could believe that either of us

meddled in that dirty work.-To MRS. JOHN ADAMS. iv, 555. FORD ED., viii, 309. (W., July 1804.)

60.

Mr. Adams has been alien

ated from me, by belief in the lying suggestions contrived for electioneering purposes, that I perhaps mixed in the activity and intrigues of the occasion. My most intimate friends can testify that I was perfectly passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me what was going on; but no man ever heard me take part in such conversations; and none ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence, without my asserting his just character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless disapproved of the principles

and practices of his administration. This was unavoidable. But never with those with whom it could do him any injury. Decency would have required this conduct from me, if disposition had not, and I am satisfied Mr. Adams's conduct was equally honorable towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his suspicions. To DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. v, 563. FORD ED., ix, 299. (M., Jan. 1811.)

61. ADAMS (John), Character. He is vain, irritable, and a bad calculator of the force and probable effect of the motives which govern men. This is all the ill which can possibly be said of him. He is as disinterested as the Being who made him. He is profound in his views, and accurate in his judgment, except where knowledge of the world is necessary to form a judgment. He is so amiable that I pronounce you will love him, if ever you become acquainted with him. He would be, as he was, a great man in Congress.-To JAMES MADISON. ii, 107. (P., 1787.)

62. His vanity is a lineament in his character which had entirely escaped me. His want of taste I had observed. Notwithstanding all this he has a sound head on substantial points, and I think he has integrity.— TO JAMES MADISON. FORD ED., iii, 309. (B., Feb. 1783.)

as

63. The President's title, proposed by the Senate, was the most superlatively ridiculous thing I ever heard of. It is a proof the more of the justice of the character given by Dr. Franklin of my friend. Always an honest man, often a great one. but sometimes absolutely mad-To JAMES MADISON. FORD ED., V, 104. (P., July 1789.)

64. ADAMS (John), Declaration of Independence and.—John Adams was the pillar of its [Declaration of Independence] support on the floor of Congress; its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious assaults it encountered. For many excellent persons opposed it on doubts whether we were provided sufficiently with the means of supporting it, whether the minds of our constituents were yet prepared to receive it &c., who, after it was decided, united zealously in the measures it called for.-To WILLIAM P. GARDNER. FORD ED., ix, 377. (M., 1813.)

65.

He supported the Declaration with zeal and ability, fighting fearlessly for every word of it. No man's confident and fervent addresses, more than Mr. through the difficulties surrounding us, which, Adams's encouraged and supported us like the ceaseless action of gravity, weighed on us by night and by day. *-TO JAMES MADISON. vii, 305. FORD ED., x, 268. (M., 1823.) His deep conceptions, nervous style, and undaunted firmness, made him truly our bulwark in debate.-To SAMUEL A. WELLS. i, 121. FORD ED., X, 131. (M., 1819.) See DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

66.

Europe.-I learn with real pain the resolution you have taken of quitting Europe. Your presence on this side the Atlantic gave me a confidence that, if any difficulties should arise within my department, I should always have one to advise with on whose counsels I could rely. I shall now feel bewidowed. I do not wonder at your being tired out by the conduct of the court you are at.-To JOHN ADAMS. ii, 127. (P., 1787.)

67. ADAMS (John), Departure from

68. ADAMS (John), Friendship of Jefferson for.-Mr. Adams's friendship and mine began at an early date. It accompanied us through long and important scenes. The different conclusions we had drawn from our political reading and reflections, were not permitted to lessen personal esteem; each party being conscious they were the result of an

honest conviction in the other. Like differences of opinion existing among our fellow citizens, attached them to one or the other of us, and produced a rivalship in their minds which did not exist in ours. We never stood in one another's way; for if either had been withdrawn at any time, his favorers would not have gone over to the other, but would have sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. This consideration was sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to guard our friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship.t-To MRS. JOHN ADAMS. iv, 545.. FORD ED., viii, 306. (W., June 1804.)

69. I write you this letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new affections. I had for some time observed in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious innuendoes of a correspondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by that friend or

Daniel Webster visited Jefferson at Monticello having then said in conversation: toward the close of 1824. He quoted Jefferson as "John Adams was our Colossus on the floor. He was not graceful, nor elegant, nor remarkably fluent; but he came out, occasionally, with a power of thought and expression that moved us from our seats." Webster introduced the quotation in his speech on "Adams and Jefferson," August 2, 1826. The conversation entire is printed in the Private Correspondence of Webster (1, 364), and in the FORD ED. of Jefferson's Writings, x, 327.-EDITOR.

+ A reference to the "Midnight Appointments" of Mr. Adams in this letter led Mrs. Adams to make a

spirited attack on Jefferson's administration. Jefferson's reply, and also his correspondence with Dr. Rush, which led to a reconciliation with Mr. Adams will be found in the Appendix to this volume.EDITOR.