Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution: with a Memoir of Mrs. AdamsAdams, John
History
Familiar Letters of John Adams and His Wife Abigail Adams During the Revolution: with a Memoir of Mrs. Adams
Adams, John
Adams, Abigail, 1744-1818 -- Correspondence; Adams, John, 1735-1826 -- Correspondence; Presidents -- United States -- Correspondence
When my imagination sets you down upon the Gallic shore, a land to which
Americans are now bound to transfer their affections, and to eradicate
all those national prejudices which the proud and haughty nation whom we
once revered craftily instilled into us, whom they once styled their
children, I anticipate the pleasure you must feel, and, though so many
leagues distant, share in the joy of finding the great interest of our
country so generously espoused and nobly aided by so powerful a monarch.
Your prospects must be much brightened; for when you left your native
land they were rather gloomy. If an unwearied zeal and persevering
attachment to the cause of truth and justice, regardless of the
allurements of ambition on the one hand or the threats of calamity on
the other, can entitle any one to the reward of peace, liberty, and
safety, a large portion of those blessings are reserved for my friend in
his native land.
"Oh, wouldst thou keep thy country's loud applause,
Loved as her father, as her God adored,
Be still the bold asserter of her cause,
Her voice in council; (in the fight her sword;)
In peace, in war, pursue thy country's good:
For her, bare thy bold breast and pour thy generous blood."
Difficult as the day is, cruel as this war has been, separated as I am,
on account of it, from the dearest connection in life, I would not
exchange my country for the wealth of the Indies, or be any other than
an American, though I might be queen or empress of any nation upon the
globe. My soul is unambitious of pomp or power. Beneath my humble roof,
blessed with the society and tenderest affection of my dear partner, I
have enjoyed as much felicity and as exquisite happiness as falls to the
share of mortals. And, though I have been called to sacrifice to my
country, I can glory in my sacrifice and derive pleasure from my
intimate connection with one who is esteemed worthy of the important
trust devolved upon him.
Britain, as usual, has added insult to injustice and cruelty, by what
she calls a conciliatory plan. From my soul I despise her meanness; but
she has long ago lost that treasure which, a great authority tells us,
exalteth a nation, and is receiving the reproaches due to her crimes. I
have been much gratified with the perusal of the Duke of Richmond's
speech. Were there ten such men to be found, I should still have some
hopes that a revolution would take place in favor of the virtuous few,
"and the laws, the rights, the generous plan of power delivered down
from age to age by our renowned forefathers" be again restored to that
unhappy island.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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