Alexander Hamilton (of
To John Jay
Dear Sir
In times of such commotion as the present, while the passions of men are
worked up to an uncommon pitch there is great danger of fatal extremes. The
same state of the passions which fits the multitude, who have not a sufficient stock
of reason and knowledge to guide them, for opposition to tyranny and oppression,
very naturally leads them to a contempt and disregard of all authority. The due medium
is hardly to be found among the more intelligent, it is almost impossible among
the unthinking populace. When the minds of these are loosened from their
attachment to ancient establishments and courses, they seem to grow giddy
and are apt more or less to run into anarchy. These principles, too true in
themselves, and confirmed to me both by reading and my own experience, deserve extremely the
attention of those who have the direction of public affairs. In such tempestuous times,
it requires the greatest skill in the political pilots to keep men steady and within
proper bounds, on which account I am always more or less alarmed at every thing which is done of mere
will and pleasure, without any proper authority. Irregularities I know are to be
expected, but they are nevertheless dangerous and ought to be checked by every
prudent and moderate mean. From these general maxims, I disapprove of the irruption
in question, as serving to cherish a spirit of disorder at a season when men
are too prone to it of themselves.
Moreover,
I am sir with very
great Esteem— Your
most hum servant
A. Hamilton
John Adams
(of
TO JAMES SULLIVAN
It is certain, in
theory, that the only moral foundation of government is the consent of the people.
But to what an extent shall we carry this principle? Shall we say that every individual of the
community, old and young, male and female, us well as rich and poor, must consent,
expressly, to every act of legislation? No, you will say, this is impossible. How,
then,
does the right arise in the majority to govern the minority, against their will? Whence
arises the right of the men to govern the women,
without their consent? Whence the right of the old to bind the young, without theirs?
But let
us first suppose that the whole community, of every age, rank, sex, and
condition, has a right to vote. This community is assembled,
A motion is made, and carried by a majority of one voice. The minority will not agree
to this. Whence arises the right of the majority to govern, and the obligation of the minority to obey ?
From necessity, you
will say, because there can be no other rule.
But why exclude women?
You will say, because their delicacy renders
them unfit for practice and experience in the great businesses of life, and the hardy enterprises of
war, as well as the arduous cares of state. Besides, their attention is so much engaged with the necessary nurture of their
children, that nature has made them fittest for domestic cares. And children have not
judgment or will of their own. True. But will not these reasons apply to others? Is it not equally true, that men in general, in
every society, who are wholly destitute of property, are also too little
acquainted with public affairs to form a right judgment, and too dependent upon other men to have a
will of their own? If this is a fact, if you give to every man who has no property, a
vote, will you not make a fine encouraging provision for corruption, by your fundamental law? Such
is the frailty of the human heart, that very few men who have no property, have any judgment
of their own. They talk and vote as they are directed by some man of property, who
has attached their minds to his interest.
Upon my word, Sir, I have long thought an army a piece of
clock-work, and to be governed only by principles and maxims, as fixed as any in mechanics; and, by all that I
have read in the history of mankind,
and in authors who have speculated upon
society and government, I am much inclined to think a government must manage a society in the same
manner; and that this is machinery
too.
Harrington has shown
that power always follows property. This I believe to be as infallible a maxim in
politics, as that action and reaction are equal, is in mechanics. Nay, I believe we may
advance one step farther, and affirm that the balance of power in a
society, accompanies the balance of property in land. The only possible way, then, of
preserving the balance of power on the side of equal liberty and public virtue,
is to make
the acquisition of land easy to every member of society; to make a division of
the land into small quantities, so that the multitude may be possessed of landed estates.
If the multitude is possessed of the balance of real estate, the multitude will have the balance
of power, and in that ease the multitude will take care of the
liberty, virtue, and interest of the multitude,
in all acts of government,
I
believe these principles have been felt;, if not
understood, in the
Your idea that those
laws which affect the lives and personal liberty of all, or which inflict corporal punishment, afflict
those who are not qualified to vote, as well
as those who are, is just. But so they do women, as well as men; children, as well as adults.
What reason should there be for excluding
a man of twenty years eleven months and
twenty-seven days old, from a vote,
when you admit one who is twenty-one. The reason is, you must fix upon some
period in life, when the understanding and
will of men in general, is fit to be trusted by the public. Will not the
same reason justify the state in fixing upon some certain quantity of property, as a qualification?
The same reasoning
which will induce yon to admit all men who have no property, to vote, with those who
have, for those laws which a fleet the person, will prove that you ought to admit women
and children; for, generally speaking, women and children have as good
judgments, and as independent minds, as those men who are wholly destitute of
property; these last being to all intents and purposes as much dependent upon others, who will
please to feed, clothe, and employ them, as women are upon their husbands, or children on
their parents.
As to your idea of
proportioning the votes of men, in money matters, to the property they hold, it is
utterly impracticable. There is no possible way of ascertaining, at any one
time, how much
every man in a community is worth; and if there was, so fluctuating is trade and property, that
this state of it would change in half an
hour. The property of the whole community
is shifting every hour, and no record can be kept of the changes.
Society can be
governed only by general rules. Government cannot accommodate itself to every particular
case as it happens, nor to the circumstances of particular persons. It must establish general comprehensive regulations for eases and persons. The only question is,
which general rule will accommodate
most cases and most persons.
Depend upon it, Sir,
it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as
would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there
will be no end of it. New claims will arise; women will demand a vote; lads from twelve to
twenty-one will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not
a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends
to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level.
Abigail Adams
to John Adams
Brain tree
Tho we felicitate
ourselves, we sympathize with those who are trembling least the Lot of Boston should he
theirs. But they cannot be in similar circumstances unless pusilanimity
and cowardise should take possession of them. They have
time and warning given them to see the Evil and shun it.—I long to hear that you have
declared an independancy—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which
I suppose
it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies,
and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.
Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all
Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar
care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a
Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which
we have no voice, or Representation.
That your Sex are
Naturally Tyrannical is a Truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute,
but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the
more tender and endearing one of Friend. Why then, not put it out of the power of the vicious and the
Lawless to use us with cruelty and indignity with impunity. Men of Sense in all Ages
abhor those customs which treat us only as the vassals of your Sex. Regard us
then as
Beings placed by providence under your protection and in immitation of the Supreem Being make use of that power only for our happiness.
John Adams to Abigail Adams
Ap,14.1776
As to Declarations of
Independency, be patient. Read our Privateering Laws, and our Commercial Laws. What
signifies a Word.
As to your extraordinary
Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh. We have been told that our Struggle has loosened the
bands of Government every where. That Children and Apprentices were
disobedient—that schools and Collcdgcs were grown
turbulent—that Indians slighted their Guardians and Negroes grew insolent to
their Masters. But your Letter was the first Intimation that another Tribe more
numerous and powerful! than all the rest were grown discontented.—This is rather too coarse a
Compliment but you are so saucy, I wont blot it out.
Depend upon it. We
know better than to repeal our Masculine systems. Altho they
are in full Force, you know they are little more than Theory. We dare not exert our
Power in its full Latitude. We are obliged to go fair, and softly, and in
Practice you know We are the subjects. We have only
the Name of Masters, and rather than give up this, which would compleatly
subject Us to the despotism of the Peticoat,
I hope General Washington, and all our brave Heroes would fight. I am sure
every good Politician would plot, as long as he would against Despotism,
Empire, Monarchy, Aristocracy, Oligarchy, or Ochlocracy.—A fine Story
indeed. I begin to think the Ministry as deep as
they are wicked. After stirring up Tories, Land jobbers, Trimmers, Bigots, Canadians, Indians, Negroes, Hanoverians,
Hessians, Russians, Irish Roman Catholicks, Scotch Renegadoes, at
last they have stimulated them
to demand new Priviledges
and threaten to rebell.
Abigail Adams
to John Adams
B[raintre]e
I can
not say that I think you very generous to the Ladies, for whilst you arc proclaiming
peace and good will to Men, Emancipating all Nations, you insist upon retaining
an absolute power over Wives. But you must remember that Arbitary
power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken—and
notwithstanding all your wise Laws and Maxims we have it in our power not only
to Tree ourselves but to subdue our Masters, and without voilence
throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet—
"Charm by accepting, by submitting sway
Yet have our Humour most when we obey."
I thank you for
several Letters which I have received since I wrote Last. They alleviate a tedious absence, and I long earnestly
for a Saturday Evening, and experience a
similar pleasure to that which I used to find in the return of my Friend upon that day after a weeks absence. The Idea of a year dissolves all my Phylosophy.
Our Little ones whom
you so often recommend to my care and instruction shall not be deficient in virtue
or probity if the precepts of a Mother have their desired Effect, but they would be
doubly in-forced
could they be indulged with the example of a Father constantly before them; I often
point them to their Sire.
"engaged in a corrupted State Wrestling with vice and faction."
John Adams Remembers
1776
and the "Majority of the Great Body of the People"
An Event of the most
trifling nature in Appearance, and fit only to excite Laughter, in other Times, struck me
into a profound Reverie, if not a fit of Melancholly. I
met a Man who had sometimes been my Client, and sometimes I had been against him.
He, though a common Horse Jockey, was sometimes in the right, and I had
commonly been successful in his favour in our Courts
of Law. He was always in the Law, and had been sued in many Actions, at almost every
Court. As soon as he saw me, he came up to me, and his first Salutation to me was "Oh! Mr.
Adams what great Things have you and your Colleagues done for Us! We can
never be gratefull enough to you. There are no Courts of Justice now
in this Province, and I hope there never will be another!"…Is this the Object for
which I have been contending? said I to myself, for I
rode along without any Answer to this Wretch. Are these the Sentiments of such
People? And how many of them are there in the Country? Half the Nation for what
I know: for half the Nation are Debtors if not more,
and these have been in all Countries, the Sentiments of Debtors. If the Power of
the Country should get into such hands, and there is great danger that it will,
to what purpose have We sacrificed our Time, health and every
Thing else? Surely We must guard against this Spirit and
these Principles or We shall repent of all our Conduct. However The
good Sense and Integrity of the Majority of the great Body of the People,
came in to my thoughts for my relief, and the last resource was after all in a good