Presaging His Famous Definition of the American Revolution, John Adams Declares He Welcomed British Malice in the Lead Up to American Independence, So As to Turn the Hearts and Minds of Americans Against the Mother Country

Four years later he would write his well-known statement: “But what do We mean by the American Revolution? Do We mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the Minds and Hearts of the People….This radical Change in the Principles, Opinions Sentiments and Affection of the People, was the real American Revolution.”

 

This is the only letter with content reflecting his famous quote that we can find ever having reached the market, and it predated that quote by four years

In 1818, John Adams wrote his famous quotation on the American Revolution. It was, and is, widely considered the most insightful one ever made on the subject by anyone, and the most memorable statement Adams ever made. He wrote, “But what do We mean by the American Revolution? Do We mean the American War? The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the Minds and Hearts of the People….While the King, and all in Authority under him, were believed to govern, in Justice and Mercy according to the Laws and Constitutions derived to them from the God of Nature, and transmitted to them by their Ancestors— they [the American people] thought themselves bound to pray for the King and Queen and all the Royal Family, and all the Authority under them…But when they Saw those Powers renouncing all the Principles of Authority, and bent up on the destruction of all the Securities of their Lives, Liberties and Properties, they thought it their Duty to pray for the Continental Congress and all the thirteen State Congresses, &c…This radical Change in the Principles, Opinions Sentiments and Affection of the People, was the real American Revolution.”

Autograph letter signed, Quincy, Mass., the Fourth of July 1814, to James Madison’s Vice President Elbridge Gerry, a friend and fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, and containing his assessment of how the Revolution came to pass in phrases that echo and elucidate his most famous quotation on the Revolution. He starts out by declining an invitation to a Fourth of July celebration on the grounds of ill health. ” I have received your kind letter of the 30th of June with emotions which it would be vain for me to attempt to describe. My attendance at Lexington is out of all question: the State of my health renders it both morally and physically impossible.”

He then continues with proof he sought the Revolution, and that the real Revolution was the change in the hearts and minds of Americans as the result of British actions before a shot was fired. “I dare not express even to you, in a confidential private Letter, my recollections, my reflections, my feelings, or opinions, on this day and these times. Five and forty years ago, when any terrible news arrived from England of their hostile designs against our Liberties, when the people gaping and staring, pale and trembling asked me, ‘What I thought of the News,’ my invariable answer was, ‘The worse, the better.’ Nothing ever did arouse this People, but the last and extremest expression and exertion of the Contempt, the malice and vengeance of Great Britain, and this, in my opinion we shall soon see and feel.

“My son, just beginning to be convalescent from a very severe and dangerous sickness which has reduced him very low, has gone to Rhode Island for his health.” This letter is notable and is quoted in books, such as “Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams” by Joseph Ellis.

We can find only one other instance in which Adams expressed these sentiments that has been committed to writing. In a conversation in 1823 with a women who noted it down, Adams virtually quoted our letter, saying “when any bad news came so much the better—the worse the better—because I knew we must come to a revolution…” He went on to explain that he hoped such news would unite the people. Moreover, this is the only letter with content reflecting his famous quote that we can find ever having reached the market, and it predated that quote by four years.

Gerry not only signed the Declaration of Independence, but helped draft the Bill of Rights. A long-time friend of John Adams, when Adams was President he sent Gerry and John Marshall to France on the mission that resulted in the XYZ Affair. In 1812 Gerry, governor of Massachusetts and an ardent supporter of the War of 1812, was elected vice president of the United States on the ticket with James Madison.