Adams Papers

From John Adams to Thomas Welsh, 19 November 1794

To Thomas Welsh

Philadelphia Nov. 19. 1794

Dear Sir

I thank you for your kind Letter.1 The Elections in Massachusetts have done honour to the Principles and Dispositions of the People. The Error of my old Friend is no surprize to me, for although I know his the abhorence of Jarvis in his heart, I have lately seen his Versatility in so many Instances, that his Character, always Subtle fine and Slippery, is now become lubricated to a degree Susceptible of almost any Refinement in Casuistry. Old Cato Said “Corrupta civitate corruptio est licita” others have Jona. Sewall Said from Mandeville I believe

When it is to combat Evil

’Tis lawful to employ the Devil.2

I could never reconcile those Maxims to my Judgment or my Feelings. But I know a Man who always seem’d to think that the End sanctified the Means.3 Was Boston understood to be the Horse and Dedham the Cart? or was the State Government the Horse and the federal Government the Cart? or was the Town the Horse & the Country the Cart?

To Day We shall have the Presidents Speech.4 I hope We shall have a peaceable Session. Rebellion is not the Ton, for the Moment, nor is War a la mode, in this Country.

The Sour Fog that I see in the Street and feel even here at my Fireside, almost gives me the Ague. I will never vote again for meeting before the Constitutional Day. a London November is not more Suicidical. All the World on Mountains and in Valleys, in Plains and Cities have had the Ague this Way. Oh that I was out of the Region of it.

I Salute your Fireside & am / as ever

J. A.

RC (MHi:Adams-Welsh Coll.); internal address: “Dr Welsh”; docketed: “John Adams ’94.”

1. Of 6 Nov., above.

2. In a corrupt city, corruption is lawful. JA quoted from Matthew Prior’s poem “Hans Carvel,” lines 69–70. Jonathan Sewall quoted the same phrase in a 12 Aug. 1775 letter to his cousin Thomas Robie of Marblehead, Mass. (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 , 10:180, 182, 270; MHS, Procs. description begins Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings. description ends , 2d ser., 10:407, 415, 416 [1895–1896]).

3. JA likely meant Fisher Ames (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 , 10:275).

4. For George Washington’s 19 Nov. 1794 message to Congress, see the Senate’s [22 Nov.] reply, and note 1, below.

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to Thomas Welsh, 19 November 1794
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Welsh, Thomas
    Date
    19 November 1794

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to Thomas Welsh, 19 November 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-21-02-0237. [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. 330–331.]

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