An amazing archive including a family-owned retained copy of a John Adams letter telling how the Declaration of Independence came to be written with family writings of two sons, two grandsons, and the granddaughter whose hobby was to preserve family mementoes. Archive consists of:
(1) Ink signature, “Yours faithfully, J. Q. Adams,” on a 3 x 1.5 slip clipped from a letter, noted in another hand to be “1819,” presented as a gift by Elizabeth Coombs Adams to her Uncle Joseph Harrod. Beneath the signature is a handwritten note signed, “J. Harrod” by Joseph Harrod: “Miramonte May 7 1872. Presented me by my niece E.C. Adams of Quincy Ms.” Miramonte was Edwin Bartlett’s estate on the Hudson River. Upon his death, it was willed to his wife, Caroline Harrod Bartlett, and upon her death to his nephew, William Francis Bartlett, son of his brother, Charles L. Bartlett. This collection originally comes directly from the wife of the great-great-great grandson of Edwin Bartlett’s brother, Charles L. Bartlett.
(2) Family-owned retained draft of the manuscript letter, originally written by John Adams to Timothy Pickering from Montizillo on August 6, 1822, six pages, 7.75 x 10.25. In this letter, written in an unknown hand, John Adams tells the whole story behind the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
The letter reads, in part: “Sir, Your favor of the 2d inst has prescribed a dismal plan which I never was well calculated to execute, but I am now wholly incapable. I can write nothing which will not be suspected of personal vanity, local prejudice or provincial & State partiality. However as I hold myself responsible at this age to one only tribunal in the Universe, I will give you a few hints at all hazards. As Mr. Hancock was sick and confined, Mr. Bowdoin was chosen at the head of the Massachusetts Delegation to Congress. His relations thought his great fortune ought not to be hazarded. Cushing, two Adams, and Paine all destitute of fortune, four poor pilgrims all proceeded in one Coach; were escorted through Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, & New Jersey into Pennsylvania. We were met at Frankfort by Dr. Rush, Mr. Mifflin, Mr. Bayard and several other of the most active sons of Liberty in Philadelphia, who desired a conference with us. We invited them to take Tea with us in a private apartment They asked leave to give us some information and advice, which we thankfully granted. They represented to us that the friends of Government in Boston and in the Eastern States in their correspondence with their friends in Pennsylvania and all the Southern States had represented us as four desperate adventurers.
‘Now,’ said they, ‘you must not utter the word Independence, nor give the least hint or insinuation of the idea, neither in Congress nor in private conversation; if you do, you are undone, for the idea of independence is as unpopular in Pennsylvania and in all the Middle and Southern States as the Stamp Act itself. No man dares to speak of it; moreover, you are the representatives of the suffering States. Boston & Massachusetts are under a rod of iron., British Fleets and Armies are tyrannizing over you; you yourselves are personally obnoxious to them, and all the friends of government. You have been long persecuted by them all, your feelings have been hurt, your passions excited, you are thought to be too warm, too zealous, too sanguine – You must not come forward with any bold measures, you must not pretend to take the lead. You know Virginia is the most populous State in the Union. They are very proud of their “Ancient dominion,” as they call it. They think they have a right to take the lead and the Southern States and the Middle States are too much disposed to yield it to them. This was plain dealing, Mr. Pickering, and I must confess that there appeared so much reason and good sense in it, that it made a deep impression on my mind, and it had an equal effect on all my colleagues. This conversation and the principal facts and motives suggested in it, have given a color, complexion and character to the whole policy of the United States, from that day to this. Without it Mr. Washington would never have commanded our armies, nor Mr. Jefferson have been the author of the Declaration of Independence nor Mr. Richard Henry Lee the mover of it, nor Mr. Chase the mover of foreign connections. If I have ever had cause to repent of every part of this policy, that repentance ever has been and ever will be, unavailing. I had forgot to say, nor had Mr. Johnston ever been the nominator of Washington for General.
It soon became rumoured about the City that John Adams was for independence; The Quakers and proprietary gentlemen took the alarm. represented me as the worst of men, the true-blue sons of Liberty pitied me; all put me under a kind of Coventry. I was avoided as a man infected with the Leprosy. I walked the Streets of Philadelphia in solitude, borne down by the weight of care and unpopularity. But every ship, for the ensuing year brought us fresh proof of the truth of my prophecies, and one after another became convinced of the necessity of Independence. I did not sink under my discouragements. I had before experienced enough of the wantonness of popularity in the trial of Preston and the Soldiers, in Boston [following the Boston Massacre].
You enquire why so young a man as Jefferson was placed at the head of the Committee for preparing a Declaration of Independence. I answer it was the Frankfort advice, to place Virginia at the head of every thing. Mr. Richard Henry Lee might be gone to Virginia to his sick family, for aught I know, but that was not the reason of Mr. Jefferson's appointment. There were three Committees appointed at the same time, one for the Declaration of Independence, another for preparing articles for confederation & another for preparing a Treaty to be proposed to France. Mr. Lee was chosen for the Committee of Confederation, and it was not thought convenient that the same person should be upon both. Jefferson came into Congress in June 1775 and brought with him a reputation for literature, science and a happy talent at composition. Writings of his were handed about remarkable for the peculiar felicity if expression. Though a silent member in Congress, he was so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon Committees (not even Samuel Adams was more so) that he soon seized upon my heart, and upon this occasion I gave him my Vote and did all in my power to procure the votes of others. I think he had one more vote than any other, and that placed him at the head of the Committee. I had the next highest number, and that placed me the second. The Committee met, discussed the subject, and then appointed Mr. Jefferson and me to make the draught, I suppose because we were the two highest on the list. The sub-committee met; Jefferson proposed to me to make the draught I said, ‘I will not’ ‘You shall do it’! ‘Oh no!’ ‘Why will you not ? You ought to do it.’ ‘Why? reasons enough!’ ‘What can be your reasons?’ ‘Reason 1st You are a Virginian, and Virginia ought to appear at the head of this business. Reason 2nd I am obnoxious, suspected and unpopular; you are very much otherwise. Reason 3rd You can write ten times better than I can.’ ‘Well said Jefferson, ‘if you are decided, I will do as well as I can.’ Very well. When you have drawn it up, we will have a meeting.’
A meeting we accordingly had, and conned the paper over. I was delighted with its high tone, and the flights of oratory with which it abounded, especially concerning Negro Slavery, which, though I knew his Southern brethren would never suffer to pass in Congress, I certainly never would oppose. There were other expressions which I would not have inserted, if I had drawn it up, particularly that which called the King a Tyrant. I thought this too personal for I never believed George to be a Tyrant in disposition and in nature. I always believed him to be deceived by his Counsellors on both sides of the Atlantic, and in his official capacity only, cruel. I thought the expression too passionate and too much like scolding, for so grave and solemn a document. But as Franklin & Sherman were to inspect it afterwards, I thought it would not become me to strike it out I consented to report it. I do not now remember that I made or suggested a single alteration. We reported it to the Committee of Five. It was read and I do not remember that Franklin or Sherman criticized any thing. We were all in haste. Congress was impatient, and the instrument was reported as I believe, in Jefferson’s hand-writing, as he first drew it. Congress cut off about a quarter part of it, as I expected they would, but they obliterated some of the best of it and left all that was exceptionable, if any thing in it was.” Letter is accompanied by a photocopy of Adams’s original letter to Pickering.
(3) Thomas Boylston Adams. John Adams youngest child. ALS signed “Thomas B. Adams,” three pages on two adjoined sheets, 7.75 x 9.75, October 3, 1828. Thomas and his brother, President John Quincy Adams, went horseback riding on the beach, then went fishing. After he talks about the health of family members and his wife’s niece Caroline Eliza Harrod of Portland, Maine, studying French, Thomas Boylston Adams writes about a presidential visit. The letter begins, “My dear Daughter.” In part, “While the President [his brother John Quincy Adams] stayed it was not in my power to write. We had so many excursions by land and Sea that my nerves were in a twitter all the time. You would have laughed to see the PUS on his Governor, trotting most straightforwardly toward Nantasket Beach – The Secretary with your Brother JQA – and Mr Kirk – in the Barrouch & Pair – and your Father mounted on his Mulish Vermont Poney, as Outrider. But such was the Cavalcade, and we did Ten miles in one hour & 25 minutes by the watch.” On the address leaf, Abigail’s younger sister Elizabeth Coombs Adams has handwritten in pencil: “Father to Abby – speaks of Caroline of Portland studying French. Keep this for me Cary [Caroline] - ECA.” She’s also penciled “Mrs Edwin Bartlett” - her first cousin Caroline Eliza Harrod, married Edwin Bartlett in 1832.
(4) Isaac Hulll Adams. Son of Thomas Boylston Adams. ALS signed “Hull” with postscript signed “IHA,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.75 x 9.75, March 24, 1843. Addressed on the reverse of last page to his cousin “Mrs. Caroline E. Bartlett, Care of Edwin Bartlett, Esqr, Merchant. New York.” Also stamped “FREE” beneath the “J.Q. Adams” free frank of his uncle John, then in Congress. In a letter free franked by his uncle, ex-President John Quincy Adams, 29-year-old Hull Adams mentions, in part, “the Balls & Parties of Washington” and that “Uncle Adams is now afflicted with a very bad cold.” Three weeks earlier, on March 3, 1843, President John Tyler signed “An act for the relief of Edwin Bartlett, late consul of the United States at Lima, in Peru,” paying Bartlett $9,062.50 for “diplomatic” services as acting Charge d’Affaires from 1838-1840.
(5) John Quincy Adams. Son of Thomas Boylston Adams. ALS signed “J.Q. Adams,” one page, 7.75 x 9.75, December 3, 1852. In part, “I have just received yours of the 29th ult and am happy to inform you that my sister [Elizabeth] is much better and I think fast improving. The Doctor said she is doing very well & she is so much better – that he visits her but once a day. His sister Elizabeth died 51 years later at the age of 95. On September 28, 1854, 38-year-old Lieutenant John Quincy Adams was an officer aboard the sloop-of-war “Albany” when it sailed for New York from Aspinwall, New Grenada (today, Colon, Panama). The “Albany” and her crew were never found.
Some other miscellaneous items are included with the archive, including a clipped signature of John Quincy Adams, and several other pieces of correspondence to or from his family or relatives. In very good to fine overall condition.
This collection comes directly from the wife of the great-great-great-grandson of Edwin Bartlett’s brother, Charles L. Bartlett. Edwin Bartlett was married to Caroline Harrod, Elizabeth Coombs Adams’ first cousin. Harrod’s father, Joseph, was a brother-in-law of Thomas Boylston Adams, the youngest child of John and Abigail Adams. Elizabeth Coombs Adams, the second president’s granddauther, never married and lived her life in Quincy, Massachusetts. She died in 1903, and the Massachusetts Historical Society maintains that ‘one of her hobbies was preserving family mementoes and chronicling family history in the form of notes and marginalia.’ Truly an astonishing and cherished piece of Americana, passed down and treasured by President Adams’ descendants. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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