Next in time among the prophets was John Adams, who has left on record
at different dates predictions showing a second-sight of no common
order. Of his life I need say nothing, except that he was born 19th
October, 1735, and died 4th July, 1826. I mention the predictions in
the order of utterance.
* * * * *
1. While teaching a school at Worcester, and when under twenty years of
age, he wrote a letter to one of his youthful companions, bearing date
12th October, 1755, which is a marvel of foresight. Fifty-two years
afterwards, when already much of its prophecy had been fulfilled, the
original was returned to its author by the son of his early comrade and
correspondent, Nathan Webb, who was at the time dead. After remarking
gravely on the rise and fall of nations, with illustrations from
Carthage and Rome, he proceeds:--
“England began to increase in power and magnificence, and
is now the greatest nation upon the globe. Soon after the
Reformation, a few people came over into this New World for
conscience’ sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incident _may
transfer the great seat of empire into America_. _It looks
likely to me_: for, if we can remove the turbulent Gallics, our
people, according to the exactest computations, will in another
century become more numerous than England itself. Should this
be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of
the nations in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery
of the seas; and then the united force of all Europe will not
be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up
for ourselves is to disunite us. _Divide et impera._ Keep us
in distinct colonies, and then some great men in each colony
desiring the monarchy of the whole, they will destroy each
other’s influence, and keep the country _in equilibrio_.[358]
On this his son, John Quincy Adams, famous for important service and
high office, remarks:--
“Had the political part of it been written by the minister
of state of a European monarchy, at the close of a long
life spent in the government of nations, it would have been
pronounced worthy of the united penetration and experience of a
Burleigh, a Sully, or an Oxenstiern.… _In one bold outline he
has exhibited by anticipation a long succession of prophetic
history, the fulfilment of which is barely yet in progress,
responding exactly hitherto to his foresight_, but the full
accomplishment of which is reserved for the development
of after ages. The extinction of the power of France in
America, the union of the British North American Colonies,
the achievement of their independence, and the establishment
of their ascendency in the community of civilized nations by
the means of their naval power, are all foreshadowed in this
letter, with a clearness of perception and a distinctness of
delineation which time has hitherto done little more than to
convert into historical fact.”[359]
* * * * *
2. Another beautiful instance followed ten years later. In the
beginning of 1765, Jeremy Gridley, the eminent lawyer of Colonial days,
formed a law club, or Sodality, at Boston, for the mutual improvement
of its members. Here John Adams produced the original sketch of his
“Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,” which appeared in the
“Boston Gazette” of August, 1765, was immediately and repeatedly
reprinted in London, and afterwards in Philadelphia.[360] The sketch
began:--
“This Sodality has given rise to the following speculation of
my own, which I commit to writing as hints for future inquiries
rather than as a satisfactory theory.”[361]
In this Dissertation, the writer dwells especially upon the settlers of
British America, of whom he says:--
“After their arrival here, they began their settlement, and
formed their plan, both of ecclesiastical and civil government,
in direct opposition to the canon and the feudal systems.”[362]
This excellent statement was followed, in the original sketch
communicated to the Sodality, by this passage, which does not appear in
the printed Dissertation:--
“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence
and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in
Providence for the illumination of the ignorant and the
emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the
earth.”[363]