more, more, however much good they receive. To the sweet Girls of your family name affectionately your Friend 1 MERCY WARREN ABIGAIL ADAMS TO MERCY WARREN QUINCY, May the 5th, 1814 DEAR MADAM, - I most sincerely sympathize with you and the Bereved distrest Family at Washington, in the dispensation of heaven which has broken assunder the last paternal ligament; and left you the only surviving pillar, of the once numerous edifice.2 To us, who in the course of nature expect, and hope to join the spirits of the just; are consolations, which to the bereved Widow; and Children, are more distant and remote; for they may survive, to feel all the anguish, of a long seperation; and to lament the loss, of a tender, affectionate, attentive, Husband, and doating Father. He died at his post, probably a sacrifice to over exertion, and too great a weight, and press of Business; for his years. he died, with the Love, respect, and esteem of his Country, having for twenty-five years, exhibited, a strikeing example of attention and punctuality worthy imitation. If we live to old Age, "string after string is severed from the heart" untill, as one expresses it, we have scarcly anything left to resign, but Breath. To a mind elevated and endowed like your own, full of confidence and hope, you can look through nature to Natures God and trust the Ruler of the skies, sure that all events are permitted and contrould, by infinite wisdom, justice, and Benevolence. The circumstance of loosing a Friend distant from home, must add to the pain of my dear Relative, and her return to her own habitation, be solitary indeed. Mr. Otis was a most pleasant companion, both at home, and abroad. when at Philadelphia, I lived in constant habits of intimacy, and Friendly intercourse with the Family, and was witness to the cheerfulness and urbanity of his manners, which in public Life I Only the signature is hers. 2 Samuel Alleyne Otis, died April 22, 1814. secured him against the shafts of malice. he was always moderate, and never imposed his own opinions upon those who dissented from him upon political Questions. he was firm in his own, and decided, but left others the same Liberty. accordingly for twentyfive years that he acted as Secretary to the Senate of the United States, amidst all the conflicts of party, he retaind, the Love and Esteem of that Body. I need not say to you, who so well know his Character, that he adorned the Doctrine which he professed, as a christian Liberal, candid, and Charitable. His uniform habits of temperance and sobriety and uninterrupted Health, gave him a vigor, which promised a much longer duration, and made him dear to his Family and Friends, few of the infirmities of Age were discoverable in him. his loss will be most heavily felt, by his partner and his dear daughters. I know, my dear Madam, you will offer to them, all the sympathy, and consolation which your own experience can suggest, and which supported you through a similar trying scene. That you may still enjoy the consolations and support of the most High, and finally be received to the Mansions of the blest, is ardently hoped for By your affectionate Friend, ABIGAIL ADAMS JOHN ADAMS TO ELBRIDGE GERRY QUINCY, July 4, 1814 MY DEAR FRIEND, I have received your kind letter of the 30th of June with emotions, which it would be in vain for me to attempt to describe. My Attendance at Lexington is out of all question: the State of my health renders it both morally and physically impossible. I dare not express even to you, in a confidential private Letter, my recollections, my reflections, my feelings or Opinions, on this day and these times. Five and forty years ago, when any terrible News arrived from England of their hostile designs against our Liberties, when the "What people gaping and stareing, pale and trembling asked me, I thought of the News," my invariable Answer was, "The worse, the better," Nothing ever did arrouse this People, but the last and extreamest expression and Exertion of the Contempt, the Malice and Vengeance of Great Britain, and this, in my Opinion We shall soon see and feel. My Son, just beginning to be convalescent from a very severe and dangerous Sickness which has reduced him very low, has gone to Rhode Island for his health. your invariable Friend MERCY WARREN TO JOHN ADams JOHN ADAMS ADAMS MSS. PLYMOUTH, July 10, 1814 It is very many days since I addressed a line to any of my Quincy friends, and as I think I have been sometime in arrears for a very agreeable Letter from the late President, my first attention is due to him. I am quickened to discharge this obligation from having recently heard by my sister Otis that your health is declining. The years you have counted up admonish that the harbingers of dissolution are drawing near after three score and ten. Yet I most sincerely hope that the life of a Gentleman who acted so great a part in a revolution that astonished the world and lived to set his seal to an honorable peace after a desolating war, 'may be spared to see peace again restored to the United States, notwithstanding the severe threats of our old inveterate enemy. I should like very much to hear your observations on the gloomy aspect of the times. I am disposed to ask you very many questions which a Letter cannot contain. I sit in my elbow chair in the old corner and were you and Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Warren again to meet there before we meet in the eternal world, I think the conversation of this trio would be neither unpleasing nor unprofitable. What think you, Sir, of a little jaunt to Plymouth in company with Mrs. Adams and my sweet Caroline? The ride might contribute to your health and to that of my long tried friend, your excellent partner. I am told that my amiable young friend just mentioned contemplates a distant residence from that of her Grand-Parents. I expect to see her before she spreads her wings. for the Southward. I cannot close this without inquiring when and what you hear from the Ambassador at the Court of Petersburg? My next question, Sir, you may deem impertinent. Do you remember who was the author of a little pamphlet entitled the Group? To your hand it was committed by the writer. You brought it forward to the public eye. I will therefore give you my reason for naming it now. A friend of mine who lately visited the Athenæum saw it among a bundle of pamphlets with a high encomium on the Author who, he asserted, was Mr. Samuel Barrett. You can, if you please, give a written testimony contradictory of this false assertion. You and Mr. Gerry are the only surviving Gentlemen that I recollect, who know anything of the character, the manners, the movements, and a thousand circumstances that took place and occupied the attention of the Patriots who struggled and suffered in the cause of their Country from 1765 to 1783, when the instrument of Independence signed by yourself and others was acknowledged by foreign nations. Am I mistaken when I observe that the generations of men which have since arisen have been too notoriously negligent in their enquiries relative to the principles and the foundation of the rights and liberties acquired by the labours and blood of their Ancestors, that with few exceptions they appear a very ignorant and narrow minded people. I forbear to say more on this or any other subject, lest I should trespass on your patience. With the most cordial wishes for the restoration of your health and my affectionate regards to Mrs. Adams, to Susan, Caroline and others of your family, subscribes respectfully your Friend and Humble Servant 1 1 MERCY WARREN I The entire letter is in the writing of her son. On July 15 John Adams replied and the letter is in Writings of John Adams, x. 98. A second letter from Mrs. Warren, August 4, 1814, is in 5 Collections, IV. 509, and was the last letter she wrote to Mr. Adams. She died October 19, 1814. JOHN ADAMS TO MERCY Warren ADAMS MSS. QUINCY, August 17, 1814 DEARMADAM,-I have certified in the book in the Athenæum that to my certain knowledge, The Group was written by Mrs. Warren. Your polite invitation to Plymouth is esteemed as an effusion of friendship, ancient and modern: but three score and nineteen years have reduced me to the situation, the temper and humor of Mr. Selden, who Clarendon says, would not have slept out of his own bed for any office the King could have given him. The difference of Character and Conduct in New England for the last fifty years is not so great in reality as in appearance. The Tories had the ascendancy from 1761 to 1775 and then 1775 and 1776 scarcely turned the majority. Through the whole Revolution the Tories sat on our skirts and were a dead weight, obstructing and embarrassing all our Efforts. They have now the entire dominion of the five states of New England. Stonington, however, appears to have shaken off their yoke, and New York is setting a good Example. Could you have believed forty years ago that in so short a time Plymouth, Duxbury and Boston, would have been rivalled and exceeded by New York in Patriotism, Fortitude and Courage? I do not consider the peace in Europe as yet concluded. The great questions of the Liberty of the Scheldt, of Ostend, Nieuport, Bruges, etc., are still to be discussed in a Congress of Ambassadors at Vienna, and other questions too numerous to be mentioned. The War between Protestantism and Catholicism lasted thirty years, i. e., from 1618 to 1648. The War between Republicanism and Despotism has already reached thirty-nine years. The religious war is not yet ended. When the political war will terminate must be left to him who rules the armies of Heaven. In one thing I am clear. If the war continues between Great Britain and the United States, as I believe it will, it will soon rekindle the flames in Europe... The alarm in Plymouth had no share in their [the children's] early return to the mansion of your old Friend JOHN ADAMS |