The following is an extract of a letter from the late President
Adams, to a friend of the editors. Any thing from the pen of this
eminent and venerable man will be read with interest, and ought to
be public property. The anecdote is characteristic, and the obvious
moral influence to be deduced from it, will strike the mind of every
attentive reader.
_Quincy, January_ 12th, 1820.
DEAR SIR.--I thank you for your New-Year's letter, &c. * * * * As
agriculture is the nursing mother of us all, it cannot be too
assiduously cultivated; nor is it likely to be too much honoured,
while mercantile profits are so much greater, and military glory is
esteemed the highest glory!
The "American"[1] is an able writer; but I wish he had avoided
so many appearances of endeavouring to justify, or at least to
apologize for slavery in general. His arguments _ad hominem_ from
the Bible, reminded me of an anecdote, which as I am an old man, and
as old age has a privilege to be talkative and narrative, I will
attempt to relate: In the winter of '76, Mr. Paine's Common Sense
and my Thoughts on Government, made their appearance in public, the
one not long after the other. Common Sense recommended the Thoughts
on Government; an organization in three distinct departments, as
independent of each other as human beings can be;--the legislature
to consist of three branches. Mr. Paine came flying to my apartment,
to reproach me for publishing a monarchico, aristicratico,
democratico system. He scolded violently, but I soothed him down by
laughing at him in my turn. Paine, said I, how could you be such an
abominable hypocrite, as to pretend to prove in your Common Sense
from the Old Testament, that monarchy was not lawful by the word of
GOD? This struck him dumb for a moment, but recovering himself, and
shrugging his shoulders, and laughing, said, with great contempt; "I
believe nothing of the Old Testament, nor the New neither;" and then
pausing, said, "I have had thoughts of publishing my opinions upon
religion, but upon the whole I have concluded to put _it_ off till
the latter part of my life." This plan he consistently pursued.
[1] The author of a long letter to the "Edinburgh Reviewers,"
published in the National Intelligencer.
I am not sorry his bones are gone to England, to moulder in the soil
where they grew; for I claim neither to myself or to my country, any
honour from having once supported them.