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John Adams, "The Father of the American Navy," sends thanks "for the copy in two volumes of the naval history", written during the War of 1812, one of the great tests of American naval prowess
John Adams, "The Father of the American Navy," sends thanks "for the copy in two volumes of the naval history", written during the War of 1812, one of the great tests of American naval prowess
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Description:

Adams John


Autograph Letter Signed, "John Adams," 1 page, 8" x 9.75", Quincy, January 25, 1814 to naval historian Thomas Clark in Philadelphia. Typical folds, text and signature bold and dark, minor expert archival restoration to edges, small bit of expert archival tissue repair to verso, none affecting text or signature, overall very good to fine condition.


This rare January 25, 1814 autograph letter signed once by John Adams, written to naval historian Thomas Clark, speaks to Adams’ renowned stature as “Father of the American Navy.” During the Revolution, when the Continental Congress hoped that a small naval force could help offset the uncontested exercise of British sea power, Adams championed the founding legislation that called for fitting out armed vessels for national service, as well as the creation of a Marine Committee to oversee naval affairs. Before year’s end, again in large part due to Adams’ lobbying, Congress authorized the construction of a small fleet. “It was Adams who drafted the first set of rules and regulations for the new navy, a point of pride with him for as long as he lived.” In addition Adams rigorously studied naval armaments and strategy, “and would call his work on the naval committee the pleasantest part of his labors… In the advocacy of sea defenses he stood second to none” (McCullough, 99-100).



Adams’ letter reads, in full: "I thank you for your polite and obliging letter of the 17th and for the copy in two volumes of The Naval History of the United States, and for several copies of your Proposals for publishing a History of U.S. The Plan is ample and judicious, and I wish you every Encouragement in the execution of it. Mr. Trumbull of Connecticutt [sic has published a general History of this country. I have not seen it since it was printed. It is probably familiar to you. I am so ill at present that I cannot enlarge. Your Proposals shall be distributed to the best of my Judgment. I have given one to the modest Gentleman who would not allow his name to appear, and told him at the same time, Contemptu Famae, Fama Augetur,”



Adams’ closing Latin phrase draws upon a favorite one by Tacitus, “Contemptu Famae, contemni Virtutem,” which Adams once translated in a youthful diary as “Contempt of Fame generally begets or accompanies a Contempt of Virtue” (Richard, Battle for the American Mind, 93). Here Adams’ “Contemptu Famae, Fama Augetur” can be roughly translated as: “contempt of fame increases notoriety (or rumor).”



Naval historian Thomas Clark served in the War of 1812, where he was a “captain of engineers and employed in the defenses of the Delaware River” (20th Century Biographical Dictionary). His Naval History first appeared in a one-volume edition in 1813, and was issued in an expanded two-volume edition in early January 1814. Not long after publication of the first edition, Adams wrote Thomas Jefferson: “Have you seen the Naval History by Mr. Clark, published by Mathew Carey at Philadelphia? I wish I had time and Eyes and fingers to write much to you on this Subject” (Cappon, 326). Jefferson, who would also receive a copy of the first edition, subsequently wrote Clark with suggestions for the proposed expanded edition. On its publication Jefferson praised the work for “ensuring to us the preservation of the facts as they occur.” In Clark’s preface to the first edition, he warmly “acknowledged the valuable assistance of John Adams” and in his preface to the 1814 edition, again spoke of Adams while also noting, with regret, that it was only the “want of proper documents, and the hurry of the work” that prevented him from pursuing “the observations of Mr. Jefferson… on the Tripolitan war” (Sowerby 262).



Clark’s Naval History “was distributed widely and was immensely popular. John Adams felt it was the decisive factor in persuading a largely agrarian populace to support an American Navy” (Green, Mathew Carey, 28). Considered “the first book which attempted to treat the subject as a whole” (Winsor, Narrative and Critical History V7:416), it is also famous as “the foundation on which James Fenimore Cooper wrote his Naval History [1839” (Scharf & Thompson, History of Philadelphia, 1139).



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