Passionate Sage (35 page)

25.
Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, January 29, 1783, in
Warren-Adams Letters
, Massachusetts Historical Society (2 vols., Boston, 1925), II, 188–89.

26.
Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, July 11, 1807, in Charles Francis Adams, ed.,
Correspondence Between John Adams and Mercy Warren
, reprinted in
Collections of Massachusetts Historical Society
, IV, 5th Series (1878), 21.

27.
Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, July 27, 1807,
ibid
., 354, 358.

28.
Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, August 3, 1807,
ibid
., 400–11.

29.
Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, August 7, 1807,
ibid
., 422–23; Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, August 15, 1807,
ibid
., 449; Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, July 28, 1807,
ibid
., 359, 364.

30.
Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, July 28, 1807,
ibid
., 360; Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, July 16, 1807,
ibid
., 480; Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, August 15, 1807,
ibid
., 456.

31.
Mercy Otis Warren,
History of the American Revolution
(3 vols., Boston, 1805), III, 394–95; Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, July 28, 1807,
Adams-Warren Correspondence
, 363.

32.
Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, July 20, 1807,
ibid
., 335; Mercy Otis Warren to Adams, August 15, 1807,
ibid
., 354.

33.
A fuller discussion of Adams's political theory is offered below, in chapters 4 and 5. But particularly relevant for an understanding of the modern scholarly debate over “republicanism” as it related to Adams, the following have been helpful, even if they are not always in agreement about the meaning of that important term: Joyce Appleby, “The New Republican Synthesis and the Changing Political Ideas of John Adams,”
American Quarterly
, XXV (1973), 578–95; Isaac Kramnick, “The Great National Discussion: The Discourse of Politics in 1787,”
William and Mary Quarterly
, 3rd Series, XLV (1988), 3–32; Ralph Lerner,
The Thinking Revolutionary: Principle and Practice in the New Republic
(Ithaca and London, 1987); and Leslie Wharton,
Polity and the Public Good: Conflicting Theories of Republican Government in the New Nation
(Ann Arbor, 1980), especially 33–55.

34.
Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, July 20, 1807,
Adams-Warren Correspondence
, 353; Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, August 8, 1807,
ibid
., 432.

35.
See Lester Cohen, “Explaining the Revolution: Ideology and Ethics in Mercy Otis Warren's Historical Theory,”
William and Mary Quarterly
, 3rd Series, XXXVII (1980), 200–18. For a devastating and sprightly polemic against the efficacy of Warren's version of republicanism, see John P. Diggins,
The Lost Soul of American Politics: Virtue, Self-Interest, and the Foundations of Liberalism
(New York, 1985).

36.
Adams to Mercy Otis Warren, August 19, 1807,
Adams-Warren Correspondence
, 477–78.

37.
Adams to William Cunningham, February 22, July 31, and June 7, 1809,
Correspondence Between Adams and Cunningham
, 93, 151, 124.

38.
Adams to James Lloyd, February 6, 1813,
Works
, X, 113.

39.
Adams to James Davis, August 4, 1819, Reel 123.

40.
See above, chapter 1, for treatment of the Adams presidency. The quotation is from Adams to James Lloyd, February 6, 1815,
Works
, X, 115.

41.
Adams to Nicholas Boylston, November 3, 1819, Reel 124;
Works
, X, 310, which reprints the selection from the
Boston Patriot
.

42.
Ibid
., IX, 281; Adams to William Cunningham, March 20, 1809,
Correspondence Between Adams and Cunningham
, 107; Adams to James Lloyd, February 11, 1815,
Works
, X, 119; Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, March 6, 1813,
Statesman and Friend
, 92–93.

43.
Adams to Mathew Carey, September 9, 1820, Reel 124.

44.
Adams to George Washington Adams, February 3, 1823, Reel 124; Adams to John Quincy Adams, May 14, 1815, Reel 122.

45.
Adams to Alexander Johnson, December 14, 1822, Reel 124; Adams to John Quincy Adams, March 13, 1819, Reel 123; Adams to James Davis, August 14, 1819, Reel 123; Adams to Harrison Gray Otis, March 21, 1823, Reel 124.

46.
Adams to William Bentley, August 18, 1819, Reel 124.

47.
Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, May 3, 1821, Reel 124; Adams to Benjamin Rush, July 7, 1812,
Old Family Letters
, 401; Adams to Jedidiah Morse, March 4, 1815,
Works
, X, 133; Adams to Hezekiah Niles, January 3, 1817, Reel 123.

48.
Adams to George Alexander Otis, July 2, 1820, Reel 124.

49.
Adams to Louisa Catherine Adams, December 22, 1818, Reel 123; Adams to John Quincy Adams, December 24, 1818, Reel 123; Adams to Benjamin Rush, December 27, 1812,
Old Family Letters
, 432.

3.
Irreverencies and Oppositions

1.
Diary and Autobiography
, I, x–xiv.

2.
Adams to Benjamin Rush, February 27, 1805,
Spur of Fame
, 24; Adams to Benjamin Rush, December 22, 1806,
ibid
., 72; Adams to Benjamin Rush, February 26, 1812, Reel 118.

3.
Adams to Thomas Jefferson, June 11, 1813,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, II, 328; Adams to Thomas Jefferson, July 16, 1814,
ibid
, 437; Adams to Francis Vanderkemp, December 27, 1816,
Works
, X, 235.

4.
Adams to Thomas Jefferson, May 3, 1812,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, II, 302; Adams to John Marshall, August 11, 1800,
Works
, IX, 73.

5.
See the preface in Haraszti,
Prophets of Progress;
Thomas Jefferson to Adams, January 11, 1817,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, 505.

6.
Haraszti,
Prophets
, 21, for the quotations. I have browsed in the Adams collection at the Boston Public Library to review the marginal comments for myself, but citations are to the Haraszti account, which is both readily accessible to readers and a model of spirited scholarship.

7.
Isaac Kramnick,
Bolingbroke and His Circle: The Politics of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole
(Cambridge, Mass., 1968), is the authoritative scholarly account of Bolingbroke's life and thought. See also H. T. Dickinson,
Bolingbroke
(London, 1970).

8.
Haraszti,
Prophets
, 54–79.

9.
Ibid
., 258.

10.
Ibid
., 116–38.

11.
Ibid
., 181–85, 187.

12.
Works
, VI, 279; Adams to Richard Price, April, 1790, quoted in Haraszti,
Prophets
, 81.

13.
Adams to Thomas McKean, June 21, 1812,
Works
, X, 16; Adams to Jefferson, July 13, 1813,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, II, 355.

14.
Adams to Jefferson, July 15, 1813,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, II, 357–58; Adams to Charles Holt, September 4, 1820,
Works
, X, 391; Adams to Benjamin Rush, February 27, 1805,
Spur of Fame
, 24. There are several other books in the Adams library that deal with the French Revolution and contain Adams's marginalia, but none with the volume or bite of his comments on Wollstonecraft. The secondary literature on the French Revolution is, of course, immense. The recent publication of Simon Schama's
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
(New York, 1988) is a brilliant and colorful account guided by convictions that Adams would have found compatible with his own.

15.
Haraszti,
Prophets
, 187, 203.

16.
Ibid
., 187, 167. Adams's understanding of the new word “ideology” is itself a large subject, discussed at greater length in chapter 5.

17.
Ibid
., 221–22.

18.
Ibid
., 201.

19.
Ibid
., 218–19, 214, 234.

20.
Adams to Josiah Quincy, February 9, 1811,
Works
, IX, 630.

21.
Adams to William Keteltas, November 25, 1812,
Works
, X, 23; Adams to Rush, June 12, 1812, Reel 118.

22.
Adams to William Plumer, March 28, 1813,
Works
, X, 35; Thomas McKean to Adams, January, 1814,
ibid
., 87–89; Adams to John Trumbull, March 18, 1817, Reel 123. For the best scholarly discussion of the signing confusion, see Gary Wills,
Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence
(New York, 1979).

23.
Adams to Alexander Everett, March 14, 1814, Reel 121; Adams to Thomas McKean, November 26, 1815,
Works
, X, 182.

24.
Adams to William Tudor, April 5, 1818, Reel 123; Adams to John Quincy Adams, May 20, 1818,
ibid
. For a brilliant analysis of William Wirt's treatment of Patrick Henry, see William Taylor,
Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character
(New York, 1961), 81–89.

25.
Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, January 20, 1818,
Works
, X, 279; Adams to William Tudor, June 5, 1817,
ibid
., 262–63; Adams to William Tudor, June 1, 1817,
ibid
., 259.

26.
Adams to William Tudor, February 16, 1823, Reel 124; Adams to William Tudor, February 1, 1823,
ibid
., Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, March 19, 1817,
Statesman and Friend
, 126–28.

27.
Adams to William Tudor, June 7, 1818, Reel 123. For a modern scholarly assessment of Otis's role in the Revolution, see John J. Waters,
The Otis Family in Provincial and Revolutionary Massachusetts
(Chapel Hill, 1968).

28.
Adams to Hezekiah Niles, February 13, 1818,
Works
, X, 282.

29.
Adams to Thomas Jefferson, August 14, 1815,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, II, 455.

30.
Adams to Hezekiah Niles, February 13, 1818,
Works
, X, 283.

31.
Adams to Jefferson, May 29, 1818,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, II, 525; Adams to William Tudor, September 18, 1818,
Works
, X, 359.

32.
Adams to William Tudor, November 7, 1816, Reel 122; Adams to James Madison, July 25, 1818, Reel 123.

33.
Adams to Benjamin Rush, December 8, 1812,
Old Family Letters
, 322; Adams to Benjamin Rush, September 30, 1805,
Spur of Fame
, 39. For more on Adams's notion of neutrality, see also Adams to Francis Vanderkemp, April 1, 1811, Reel 118; Adams to James Lloyd, March 29, 1815,
Works
, X, 146–49.

34.
Works
, IV, 401, for the quotation from the
Defence;
Adams to Benjamin Rush, October 22, 1812, Reel 118.

35.
Adams to Francis Vanderkemp, April 1, 1811, Reel 118; Adams to Benjamin Rush, June 28, 1810,
Old Family Letters
, 258–59; Adams to Benjamin Rush, July 25, 1808, Reel 118.

36.
Adams to Richard Cranch, August 11, 1813, Reel 121; Adams to Benjamin Waterhouse, September 17, 1813,
Statesman and Friend
, III.

37.
Adams to William Cunningham, February 11, 1809,
Correspondence Between Adams and Cunningham
, 82; Adams to John Quincy Adams, February 5, 1805, Reel 118; Adams to John Adams Smith, October 10, 1819, Reel 124.

38.
Adams to Thomas Truxton, November 30, 1802,
Works
, IX, 586; Adams to Joseph Varnum, December 26, 1808, Reel 118;
Diary and Autobiography
, III, 343–49.

39.
Adams to Thomas Jefferson, May 1, 1812,
Adams-Jefferson Letters
, II, 301; Adams to Richard Rush, July 15, 1813, Reel 95.