Adams, John (1735-1836) 2nd President of the United States (1797-1801).
Autograph letter signed as President, one page, 9¾ x 8", Philadelphia, Feb. 22, 1799. To "
Fr. Adr. Vanderkemp at Oldenbarneveldt. State of New York." In full: "
Sir, I have just received your favour of the 20th of January: and am sensibly touched with the Remembrance of our learned and ingenious Friend whom I saw at the Red [Golden]
Lyon in Leyden. I thank you for his Poems. Whether you will find Purchasers for the Edition of his juvenile Poems you meditate I cannot say. My Country I fear do not sufficiently attend to Greek and Latin after they leave Colledge - perhaps not there. I am with much Esteem Sir your most obedient John Adams." Fine condition.
In 1780, John Adams became U.S. Minister to the Netherlands and gained early recognition of the fledgling United States, as well as much-needed loans. While there Adams made friends with intellectuals who were sympathetic to the American cause, among them Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, who Adams described to Thomas Jefferson as "the most elegant writer in the Dutch language." Adams spent time in the Golden Lion inn in Leyden with his new friends. In 1781, Van der Kemp published "A Collection of Tracts Relative to the United States," an espousal of the American cause, which earned him letters of introduction from Madison, Franklin, and Washington. In 1788, he left the Netherlands and settled in New York at Oldenbarneveldt, where he met Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, among others. He shared Washington's interest in scientific agriculture and visited Washington at Mount Vernon.
In Leyden, Adams and Van der Kemp knew Laurens von Santen, who had written a children's book in Latin,
Carmina Juvenilia. In 1799, Van der Kemp wrote to Adams, suggesting the publication of this work. Adams had reservations about the project, because he felt his countrymen weren't well versed in the classics, a situation which he greatly regretted, because Latin and Greek were of paramount importance to him. He felt that American democracy descended directly from its Roman and Greek counterparts, and his speeches abound with classical references. In 1779, when John Quincy Adams was studying for entrance to Harvard, John Adams read with him Aristotle, Plutarch, Lucian and Homer, as well as Horace, Virgil and Suetonius, and in John Adams' correspondence with Thomas Jefferson in their later years, the two men, who had been friends, then enemies, then friends again, would sometimes discuss the best translation of a phrase in Latin or Greek. An excellent letter from a truly learned man.
Estimated Value $7,500 - 10,000.
The Arden Family Holdings of Beverly Hills.
Historic Documents/Manuscripts
