2. Adams, John Quincy. Extraordinary autograph letter signed (“J.Q. Adams”), 3 pages (8 x 10 in.; 203 x 254 mm.), Quincy, 6 December 1830. Written to former Senator Samuel L. Southard (1787-1842) of Trenton, New Jersey, who was then serving as Attorney General for the state of New Jersey. Two years later, he would be elected governor of New Jersey, in which office he would serve just one year before resigning to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate.

Just before departing for Washington to serve in Congress, John Quincy Adams contemplates former Presidents’ return to public service following their Presidential terms.

“… it is my deliberate and well considered opinion that the discharge of the Office of President of the United States ought not in our Country to operate either as exclusion or exemption from the subsequent performance of service in either branch of the Legislature… Washington accepted a military commission from his successor – Jefferson while he lived was the Rector of his own University – my father, Madison, and Monroe, served in Convention of fundamental legislation in their respective States – Had every one of them after the termination of their functions in the first executive office of the Union, gone through a term of Service in either house of Congress, the Country might now be reaping a harvest of their Labour…”

Adams writes in full: My dear Sir: So it was written the day before I left home for Washington, where I now write on the day of the Winter Solstice. My purpose was to acknowledge the receipt of your kind Letter, and to assure you of the day’s concern with which I had learnt your recent severe and long continued illness – called away by the bustle of preparations for departure upon a Journey, not yet short in winter. I was unable to return that day to my paper – and to foreclose the chances of final disappointment in the intention of inviting to you, brought it with me – The pleasure which I have enjoyed in the interval of meeting you at Philadelphia, ought not to deprive me of that of reciprocating the friendship of your letter. Your reasons for declining to be inserted in the ticket of New Jersey, for Representatives in the next Congress, are amply sufficient for your justification. Intending to take the Seat which the People of my District have thought proper to assign to me in that body, no person can more sincerely lament than I shall, the necessity under which you have excluded yourself from it. In your case, I should have done the same – We were so long fellow labourers in the service of the public, and my confidence both in your personal and political character, was so deeply rooted, and unbounded, that in another career of public duty, I cannot but often miss the able coadjutor, and faithful friend which I always found in you – The loss will be mine, and I shall share it with our Country – yet I will hope and trust that she is not destined to be always bereft of your Services in her Councils. For myself, taught in the School of Cicero, I shall say, ‘defendi rempulicam adolescens, non disiram genex.’ The People of the District in which I reside, when they called upon me to represent them in the Congress of the United States, consulted not my inclinations – To those of them who enquired better I would serve if elected, my answer was that I saw no warrantable ground upon which I could withhold my services if demanded. This was strictly the principle by which I was governed. Had I perceived any sound reason upon which my refusal could stand I should have refused. I could not disguise to myself the prospect that the service would neither be personally agreeable to me, nor without the mortification and its dangers – But there were considerations namely personal, which I deemed it my duty to disregard. A motive far more efficient caused my only hesitation – The service that a member of the House of representatives in Congress can render to his Constituents, depends not entirely upon his dispositions, or even upon his capacity. There is much in his relative position – much in the feelings towards him entertained by those with whom he is to act – In times of warm party collusion, his influence while in the minority cannot be considerable, and if personally obvious to the prevailing majority, there is danger that his best exertions may serve but to draw defeat and obliging upon himself, without benefit to the nations or profit to his particular constituents. A member less qualified in other respects, will in such cases prove a more useful Representative – So possibly does this consideration even here present itself to my mind that it might have staggered my Resolution to undertake the service which the confidence of my fellow Citizens has committed to me, had not the Scavingers of the Administration indulged themselves in [?] from individuals whom they have had the delicacy to name, and of whose services as bullies or assassins for the benefit of the party they hold themselves quite authorised to dispose. Some of my friends appear to be affected by this threat of Algerine warfare, and have advised me not to expose myself to it – So different is its operation upon me that it has riveted my determination to take my seat. I will not distrust the feint principles of our Republican Institution, by stipulating that the rights of the People who elected me will be violated in my person by any desperado or ruffian partizan in or out of the house; and as I took the Oath of President of the United States, under an anonymous threat that I should meet a Brutus, if I went that day to the Capitol, I may now again say with Cicero in the divine Philippiie, to any dark hint of future violence ‘contempsi catilinas gladios; non partinescam tuoi’. With regard to the general principle, it is my deliberate and well considered opinion that the discharge of the Office of President of the United States ought not in our Country to operate either as exclusion or exemption from the subsequent performance of service in either branch of the Legislature. There has indeed been hitherto no example of this, and one of my motives for consenting to serve has been, to get the example which I consider so eminently congenial to the Spirit of Republican Government, and which I cherish the hope will be followed by results signally useful to our Country – Washington accepted a military commission from his successor – Jefferson while he lived was the Rector of his own University – my father, Madison, and Monroe, served in Convention of fundamental legislation in their respective States – Had every one of them after the termination of their functions in the first executive office of the Union, gone through a term of Service in either house of Congress, the Country might now be reaping a harvest of their Labour the worth of which may be estimated by that which she has derived from their actual devotion to her cause and welfare. I have given you an exposition of my views and motives on this occasion, in the confidence of our friendship, and the more readily, inasmuch as there has been a considerable diversity of opinion among my friends upon the propriety and expediency of the cause which I have taken – To the advice of my friends I have ever held the obligation of yielding a respectful deference. In this case the opinions of most of those with whom I have consulted concur with my own – Those of different mind dwell chiefly upon the troubles which my return to public life may bring upon myself, a consideration which however unworthy it might be of me to entertain, is not the less deserving of my gratitude as entertained by them – It is a source of high gratification to me that the approbation of your judgment is among those which have sanctioned the determination of your friend

J.Q. Adams

Following the bitter election of 1828, in which populist Andrew Jackson swept into office, John Quincy Adams left Washington and returned to his native Quincy, Massachusetts, a defeated politician. Half-hearted attempts at gardening and studying the classics did not ameliorate the growing depression he felt after leaving the seat of government. It wasn’t until the autumn of 1829 that certain friends of Adams urged him to run for Congress, reminding him that his stature in the community would guarantee a win. Adams then donned his familiar cloak of coyness by speaking of “age and infirmity,” and of “not the slightest desire to be elected.” He did take care to add, however, that while he would not seek the office, if the people should call upon him, he “might deem it my duty to serve.” This was the signal his supporters were awaiting, and, needing not more encouragement, they departed to begin the campaign. Adams kept mostly quite during the campaign season the following year, and only in the few weeks prior to the election did he move toward active candidacy. The prospect of a seat in Congress – from where he could voice his opposition to the new Jackson Administration – had re-ignited his political fire.

On 7 November 1830, John Quincy Adams was announced the winner of the election. He had received 1,817 votes against 373 for the Democratic candidate and 279 for the nominee of the old Federalist party. The lopsided victory elated him, and he called his election an answer to prayer, claiming that it brought a place of dignity from which he could once again strive to serve mankind. However, the election’s highest importance to the former President was that it signaled his political vindication.

JQA departed for Washington on 8 December 1830, just two days after the date of the present letter, delayed only by a violent snowstorm. Adams spent the next seventeen years of his life in Congress, the only former President to serve as a member of the House of Representatives. Though he often found himself in the minority, he made a number of important addresses before that body in support of Abolition, in addition the questions Texas annexation and the declaration of war with Mexico, both of which he vehemently opposed. Adams was also instrumental in approving John Smithson’s gift to the U.S. of $500,000, which became the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution.

An excellent letter from Adams regarding his return to public service. Perhaps most sensational is Adams’ remark that he was threatened with assassination just prior to taking the Oath of Presidential Office: “…and as I took the Oath of President of the United States, under an anonymous threat that I should meet a Brutus, if I went that day to the Capitol, I may now again say with Cicero in the divine Philippiie, to any dark hint of future violence ‘contempsi catilinas gladios; non partinescam tuoi’.
$40,000 - $60,000