From John Stockdale to John Adams, 16 March 1793

From John Stockdale

Piccadilly, London 16th March 1793

Sir

You have most probably heard long before this, that I have printed “Letters to Paine,” by your son.—

A Copy was given to me by a Gentleman high in Government, to print as your production, with your name affixed, and I actually advertised it as such; but fortunately had information of its being written by your Son, and of course cancelled the Title before a Copy was seen by any one except the Printer and myself.—

The work does the highest honour to the writer, be he who he may.— The Attorney General assured me that it was the ablest work of the kind he had ever read.—1

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. Pitt, and many other Gentlemen of the first abilities spoke of it in the same terms.— It was printed as your Work several times in Scotland before it came into my hands.—2

Your work on Government has never yet had fair play. I wish you would give me a corrected Copy, with any additions that you may have; and, at the same time, an Order upon Mr. Copley for your Picture to engrave a Frontispiece.—3 I would with pleasure risque any sum in bringing out an Edition of the Work, and that in a much more reputable stile than the former.— The Picture would be returned to Mr Copley in two Months.—

Sincerely wishing that this may find you and your Family well, / I am / Dear Sir / With great respect, / Your Much Obliged and / Very Humle. Servt

John Stockdale

P. S. Mrs. Stockdale desires her kind respects.4 I shall be glad to receive an Answer by the first Ship.—

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “John Adams Esqr. / Vice President of the / United States, &c / Boston. / N. America.—”; endorsed: “Mr Stockdale / March 16. ansd / May 12. 1793.” Tr (Adams Papers); APM Reel 327.

1. Scottish jurist Archibald Macdonald (1747–1826), Oxford 1768, successfully prosecuted Thomas Paine for seditious libel stemming from his publication of Rights of Man in 1792. Macdonald, then serving as the British attorney general, quoted heavily from JQA’s Publicola writings during the trial (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 9:413, 414; DNB description begins Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1901; repr. Oxford, 1959–1960; 21 vols. plus supplements; rev. edn., www.oxforddnb.com. description ends ).

2. J. Dickson published a compilation of JQA’s articles as Observations on Paine’s Rights of Man, in a Series of Letters, by Publicola, Edinburgh, 1792. Several British editions listed “John Adams, Esq.” as the author, possibly blurring the line between father and son for profit’s sake, for which see JA’s 12 May 1793 reply to Stockdale, below.

3. For the 1794 London edition of JA’s Defence of the Const. description begins John Adams, A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, London, 1787–1788; repr. New York, 1971; 3 vols. description ends , Stockdale chose a cropped engraving made by Mr. Hall after John Singleton Copley’s 1783 oil portrait (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 5:xvii; Oliver, Portraits of JA and AA description begins Andrew Oliver, Portraits of John and Abigail Adams, Cambridge, 1967. description ends , p. 24, 30).

4. That is, Mary Ridgway Stockdale, originally of Cheshire, England (DNB description begins Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1901; repr. Oxford, 1959–1960; 21 vols. plus supplements; rev. edn., www.oxforddnb.com. description ends , entry on John Stockdale).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: From John Stockdale to John Adams, 16 March 1793
Author: Stockdale, John
Recipient: Adams, John
Date: 16 March 1793

Reference

Cite as: “From John Stockdale to John Adams, 16 March 1793,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-21-02-0138. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 21, March 1791–January 1797, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Gwen Fries, Amanda M. Norton, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022, pp. 185–186.]

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