Nature in the “Letters of John Adams”
Introduction:
Like his diary entries, John Adams’s letters present a profoundly intimate look at his environmental thinking and awareness. Most of these letters are parts of correspondence with his beloved wife Abigail, and therefore often represent the intersection of familial life with the natural world. One of the prominent themes running across these letters is Adams’s vision of nature as a commodity (farming) or annoyance (smallpox). Whereas the diaries demonstrate more of his Romantic attitudes towards nature, his letters suggest a greater influence of Enlightenment practicality and utilitarianism. While there are Romantically-influenced letters associated with nature in this collection, there is more of a general theme of the practical uses of nature.
Archived by Date:
- “Safety in the Woods during the Battle of Bunker Hills,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1774, in MHS-AFP.
Date: May 2, 1775
Text:
In Case of real Danger, of which you cannot fail to have previous Intimations, fly to the Woods with our Children. Give my tenderest Love to them, and to all.
- “A Walk with the Family,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 22, 1776, in MHS-AFP.
Date: May 22, 1776
Text:
I want to take a Walk with you in the Garden — to go over to the Common — the Plain — the Meadow. I want to take Charles in one Hand and Tom in the other, and Walk with you, Nabby on your Right Hand and John upon my left, to view the Corn Fields, the orchards, &c.
- “Smallpox: Enemy of Independence,” John Adams to Samuel Cooper, June 9, 1776, Founders Online, National Archives [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 4, February–August 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 357–358.
Date: June 9, 1776
URL: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0145
Text:
The Small Pox is an Enemy more terrible in my Imagination, than all others. This Distemper will be the ruin, of every Army from New England if great Care is not taken. I am really Sorry that the Town of Boston attempted to clear itself of the Infection.2 I cannot but wish, that an innoculating Hospital, was set up in every Town in New England. But if this is not done, I am Sure that Some Hospitals, ought to be erected in Some convenient Places.
- “The Small Pox!” John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 26, 1776, in MHS-AFP.
Date: June 26, 1776
Text:
Our Misfortunes in Canada, are enough to melt an Heart of Stone. The Small Pox is ten times more terrible than Britons, Canadians and Indians together. This was the Cause of our precipitate Retreat from Quebec, this the Cause of our Disgraces at the Cedars. — I dont mean that this was all. There has been Want, approaching to Famine, as well as Pestilence. And these Discouragements seem to have so disheartened our Officers, that none of them seem to Act with Prudence and Firmness. But these Reverses of Fortune dont discourage me. It was natural to expect them, and We ought to be prepared in our Minds for greater Changes, and more melancholly Scenes still. It is an animating Cause, and brave Spirits are not subdued with Difficulties. Amidst all our gloomy Prospects in Canada, We receive some Pleasure from Boston. I congratulate you on your Victory over your Enemies, in the Harbour. This has long lain near my Heart, and it gives me great Pleasure to think that what was so much wished, is accomplished. Page 2 page image View larger image I hope our People will now make the Lower Harbour, impregnable, and never again suffer the Flagg of a Tyrant to fly, within any Part of it. The Congress have been pleased to give me more Business than I am qualified for, and more than I fear, I can go through, with safety to my Health. They have established a Board of War and Ordinance and made me President of it, an Honour to which I never aspired, a Trust to which I feel my self vastly unequal. But I am determined to do as well as I can and make Industry supply, in some degree the Place of Abilities and Experience. The Board sits, every Morning and every Evening. This, with Constant Attendance in Congress, will so entirely engross my Time, that I fear, I shall not be able to write you, so often as I have. But I will steal Time to write to you. The small Pox! The small Pox! What shall We do with it? I could almost wish that an innoculating Hospital was opened, in every Town in New England. It is some small Consolation, that the Scoundrell Savages have taken a large Dose of it. They plundered the Baggage, and stripped off the Cloaths of our Men, who had the Small Pox, out full upon them at the Cedars.
- “The Little Ones are Very Sick,” Abigail Adams to John Adams, July 13, 1776 in MHS-AFP.
Date: July 13, 1776
Text:
I had many dissagreable Sensations at the Thoughts of comeing myself, but to see my children thro it I thought my duty, and all those feelings vanished as soon as I was innoculated and I trust a kind providence will carry me safely thro. Our Friends from Plymouth came into Town yesterday. We have enough upon our hands in the morning. The Little folks are very sick then and puke every morning but after that they are comfortable. I shall write you now very often. Pray inform me constantly of every important transaction. Every expression of tenderness is a cordial to my Heart. Unimportant as they are to the rest of the world, to me they are every Thing…
I now date from Boston where I yesterday arrived and was with all 4 of our Little ones innoculated for the small pox…. Our Little ones stood the opperation Manfully….The Little folks are very sick then and puke every morning but after that they are comfortable. I shall write you now very often. Pray inform me constantly of every important transaction.
- “Smallpox: The King of Terrors,” John Adams to James Warren, July 24, 1776, in MHS-APDE.
Date: July 24, 1776
URL: https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/ADMS-06-04-02-0179
Text:
Yours of the 10th. instant, came by Yesterdays Post. This I Suppose will find you, at Boston, growing well of the Small Pox. This Distemper is the King of Terrors to America this Year. We shall Suffer as much by it, as We did last, Year by the Scarcity of Powder. And therefore I could wish, that the whole People was innoculated. It gives me great Pleasure to learn, that Such Numbers have removed to Boston, for the Sake of going through it, and that Innoculation is permitted in every Town. The plentifull Use of Mercury is a Discouragement to many:1 But you will see by a Letter from Dr Rush which I lately inclosed to my Partner,2 that Mercury is by him wholly laid aside. He practices with as much success and Reputation as any Man.
I am much grieved and a little vexed at your Refusal of a Seat on a certain Bench. Is another appointed? Who is it?3
Before now you have the Result of our Proceedings the Beginning of this Month. A Confederation will follow very Soon, and other mighty matters.
Our Force is not Sufficient at New York. Have Suffered much Pain, in looking over the Returns, to see no Massachusetts Militia at N. York. Send them along, for the Lands sake. Let Us drubb Howe, and then We shall do very well. Much depends upon that. I am not much concerned, about Burgoine. He will not get over the Lakes this Year. If he does he will be worse off.
I rejoice at the Spread of the Small Pox, on another Account. Having had the Small Pox, was the Merit,4 which originally, recommended me to this lofty Station. This Merit is now likely to be common enough, and I shall Stand a Chance to be relieved. Let some others come here, and see the Beauties and Sublimities of a Continental Congress. I will Stay no longer.5 A Ride to Philadelphia, after the Small Pox, will contribute, prodigiously to the Restoration of your Health. I am &c.
- “Delights of the Garden,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, March 16, 1777, in MHS-AFP.
Date: March 16, 1777
Text:
The Spring advances, very rapidly, and all Nature will soon be cloathed in her gayest Robes. The green Grass, which begins to shew itself, here, and there, revives in my longing Imagination my little Farm, and its dear Inhabitants. What Pleasures has not this vile War deprived me of? I want to wander, in my Meadows, to ramble over my Mountains, and to sit in Solitude, or with her who has all my Heart, by the side of the Brooks. These beautifull Scaenes would contribute more to my Happiness, than the sublime ones which surround me.
I begin to suspect that I have not much of the Grand in my Composition. [illegible] The Pride and Pomp of War, the continual Sound of Drums and Fifes as well played, as any in the World, the Prancings and Tramplings of the Light Horse numbers of whom are paraded in the Streets every day, have no Charms for me. I long for rural sceanes and domestic scaenes, for the warbling of Birds and the Prattle of my Children. Dont you think I am somewhat poetical this morning, for one of my Years, and considering the Gravity, and Insipidity of my Employment. — As much as I converse with Sages and Heroes, they have very little of my Love or Admiration. I should prefer the Delights of a Garden to the Dominion of a World. I have nothing of Caesars Greatness in my soul. Power has not my Wishes in her Train. The Gods, by granting me Health, and Peace and Competence, the Society of my Family and Friends, the Perusal of my Books, and the Enjoyment of my Farm and Garden, would make me as happy as my Nature and State will bear.
- “Nature and Art have Conspired in France,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, June 3, 1778, in MHS-AFP.
Date: June 3, 1778
Text:
It would be endless to attempt a Description of this Country. It is one great Garden. Nature and Art have conspired to render every Thing here delightful. Religion and Government, you will say ought to be excepted. — With all my Heart. — But these are no Afflictions to me, because I have well fixed it in my Mind as a Principle, that every Nation has a Right to that Religion and Government, which it chooses, and as long as any People please themselves in these great Points, I am determined they shall not displease me.
- “The Gulf Stream and Lightning,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, February 28, 1779, in MHS-AFP.
Date: February 28, 1779
Text:
After sending orders to me at five hundred Miles distance which I neither solicited, nor expected nor desired, to go to Europe through the Gulf Stream, through Thunder and Lightning, through three successive storms…
- “The Geography of France,” John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, May 22, 1785, and May 23, 1785, Founders Online, National Archives [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 8, 25 February–31 October 1785, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1953, pp. 159–160.]
Date: May 22-23, 1785
URL: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-08-02-0113
Text:
My Dear Sir
We left Auteuil the 20th. afternoon and have made easy Journeys. Indeed We could not have done otherwise, because the Post-horses were engaged, by the unusual Number of Travellers, in such Numbers that We have been sometimes obliged to wait. The Country is an heap of Ashes. Grass is scarcely to be seen and all sorts of Grain is short, thin, pale and feeble while the Flax is quite dead. You see indeed more green Things than in some of our sharp Drouths in America, but as the Heat of this Clymate is not sufficient to destroy vegetation so effectually as with us, it is not enough neither to produce so rapid a Revivication of the Universe, upon the Return of Rains, so that their Prospects are more melancholly than ours upon such Occasions. I pity this People from my soul. There is at this Moment as little appearance of a change of Weather as ever.
Tomorrow we shall reach Calais, but I cannot calculate how long it will take us to cross the Channel. I allow two days from Dover to London as I am determined to be in a hurry about nothing from the Beginning to the End of this Adventure. It is best to give myself as well as others time to think.
The Ladies join in respects to you and Mr. Humphreys and Mr. Williamos, the Marquis and his Lady and all other Friends. Be so good as to inform me, if you learn any Thing of the sailing of the Packet, and of the Health of my Boy. I thank you kindly for your Book. It is our Meditation all the Day long. I cannot now say much about it, but I think it will do its Author and his Country great Honour. The Passages upon Slavery, are worth Diamonds. They will have more effect than Volumes written by mere Philosophers. The Ladies say you should have mentioned West and Copeley at least among your American Genius’s, because they think them the greatest Painters of the Age. Madam[e says] I have not expressed her sentiments politely enough. It should run thus: The Ladies desire that in the next Edition you would insert West and Copeley &c.
The melancholly Face of Nature, added to the dull political Prospect before us, on the other side of the Channell, coming upon the Back of our natural Regretts at parting with our Son and our fine Summer Situation at Auteuil, and all our Friends in and about Paris, make the Journey rather triste, but we have passed through scenes bien plus triste encore. Adieu.
- “Farm of a Patriot,” John Adams to Thomas Brand Hollis, December 3, 1788, Founders Online, National Archives [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 19, February 1787–May 1789, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 356–357.]
Date: December 3, 1788
URL: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0256
Text:
If I had been told at my first arrival that five months would pass, before I should write a Line to Mr. Brand Hollis, I should not have believed it. I found my Estate in Consequence of a total neglect and inattention on my Part for fourteen years, was fallen to decay; and in so much disorder, as to require my whole attention to repair it.1 I have a great Mind to essay a description of it— It is not large in the first place— It is but the Farm of a Patriot. But there are in it two or three spots, from whence are to be seen some of the most beautiful Prospects in the world— I wish the Hyde was within ten Miles, or that Mr: Brand. H. would come and2 build an Hyde near us. I have a fine Meadow that I would christen by the Name of Hollis mead, if it were not too small. The hill where I now live is worthy to be called Hollis Hill: but as only a small Part of the Top of it belongs to me, it is doubtful whether it would succeed. There is a fine Prospect Brook through a Meadow by my House shall I call it Hollis Brook.—
- “Oh’s and Ah’s of the Farm,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1794, in MHS-AFP.
Date: May 12, 1794
Text:
Thomas has attended the Court at Chester and York town and is now I suppose at Lancaster. He is pleased with his tour. Oh my farm when shall I see thee. Oh my dear Wife. But there will be no End of my tragic Oh ‘s and tragic Ah’s.
- “Collecting Seaweed,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, December 19, 1794, in MHS-AFP.
Date: December 19, 1794
Text:
The Weather has been Spring like and fair along time. To Day it rains most abundantly. We expect cold after it.
Your last Letter had not one Word of Agriculture in it. I hope my broad Wheels are under Salt Water, and that Joys Yard and Shaws Yard are filled with Seaweed, and especially I hope that soft and Warm Beds are made of it for our swinish Multitude in all our Yards.
- “Nor’Easter and Seaweed,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, February 15, 1795, in MHS-AFP.
Date: February 15, 1795
Text:
My Dearest Friend This is the coldest day We have felt this Winter, and if it were not for the hope I have of a Letter from you Tomorrow, I should freeze for what I know, to night. This Month has been all unpleasant Weather, but none severe. You have had a North East storm I perceive which raised the Tides and I hope brought in a fresh and abundant supply of Seaweed. It is the dullest time We have seen this Winter. No Arrivals no News from abroad, nor from any Part of our own Country. The Treaty appears not and when it will, no Man can tell. Are We to wait here till May for It? I wont. There is not the smallest reason for my waiting. I can, in no possible Case have any Voice in its Ratification as two thirds of the Senators must agree. Nor will any opinion or Reasoning of mine have the smallest Weight with any one of the Senators. Page 2 page image View larger imageIf I were disposed to — wait how long must I wait? I am tired of reading and writing: My Eyes complain: I want Exercise: I must have my Horse: and I must be at home. Charles writes me that Nabby has got the better of her unfortunate Accident and is out of all Danger. I rejoice and am thankful. We know not what to do with our Trunks and Flour and Porter &c. &c. There is no Vessell here for Boston. We must store them and leave them with some faithfull hand to be sent to Boston by the first Vessell. You say I must stay a few Days at New York. But I shall be uneasy and impatient. No Business, No Books, no Amusement, No Society much suited to my Taste. Good Cheer is not enough for me. Balls, Assemblies, Hunting, are neither Business, Pleasure nor Diversion for me. Page 3 page image View larger image What do you say shall I resign my Office when I am threescore, or will you come with me in a stage. Waggon and lodge at a Tavern in fourth street? I must contrive something new against next Winter. The old Routine grows too insipid! I shall never be weary of my old Wife however. So declares your Affectionate Husband
- “The Election of 1796 and Return to Farming,” John Adams to Abigail Adams, December 7, 1796 in MHS-AFP.
Date: February 7, 1796
Text:
I can pronounce Thomas Jefferson to be chosen P. of U. S. with firmness and a good grace that I dont fear. But here alone abed, by my fireside nobody to Speak to, poring upon my Disgrace and future Prospects — this is Ugly. The 16 of Feb. will soon come and then I take my Leave, for ever. Then for Frugality and Independence. Poverty and Patriotism. Love and a Carrot bed.