Abigail Adams to John Adams-Classical Parallels- August 19 1774

Abigail Adams anxiously worries over her husband's well being and the future of their country. She realizes that the battle for liberty will not be a pleasant one and will involve bloodshed. The idea of the bloodshed scares her but she realizes that liberty does have its price and that in order for them to truly obtain it they must pay the price. They must follow the correct order no matter how hard it is, to establish the kind of country that they dream of.

“Did ever any Kingdom or State regain their Liberty, when it was invaded without Blood shed?” (A. Adams 676)

This is a rhetorical question, one that Abigail does not expect an answer for. She clearly knows that the battle for liberty will involve bloodshed but urges her husband to fight for the country they dream of. She uses history to set an example of others who have fought for liberty before them and who have also paid the price with their blood. In this letter Abigail gives John her support and says that they cannot stand on the side and ignore what needs to be done.

“The great anxiety, I feel for my Country, for you and for our family renders the day tedious, and the night unpleasant. “(A. Adams 676)

Abigail appeals to emotion in this quote. It expresses her feelings of anxiety at the mere thought of war. The use of these words show that although she understands war is inevitable, they let John know of her feelings for him and for her country.  The choice of words show her passion and her fear.

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Refuting Patrick Henry

Gentlemen, allow me to address this convention today and to humbly reply to Mr. Henry’s arguments. Mr. Henry, you are right, different men see things in different light. I both agree and disagree with you. I strongly disagree that this not a time for ceremony and strongly agree of the importance of our battle for freedom. No one here will argue against you that we all deserve freedom. This is the reason why many of us came to this place. However, there are ways to obtain it. I firmly believe that there is always a time for ceremony, always space for negotiation and for peaceful talks. As you said, there is a time for peace and I believe that the time for peace never truly passes. War is never inevitable and never necessary. As leaders of this nation we have the responsibility to fight for what is best for it and to protect it as well. I cannot stress enough how important it is to maintain the peace among our people. Lately we have lost that peace and have given the British an opportunity to take advantage of this. We need to be smart and use our heads not our arms to get what we want. There is still no reason whatsoever to have bloodshed upon our men. The British have acted incorrectly in the past and after heavy negotiation they have retracted in several occasions. Laws that had been enacted have been retracted to keep the peace. We must follow in their example. We must negotiate. Today they have sent troops because they feel threatened. If we correspond we would be falling into a trap. Up to now we have not been attacked by these troops, why provoke them? Why not sit down at a table and peacefully finish a conversation.

Why appeal to arms? Should we so quickly and freely want to spill the blood of our fellow men? We must recognize that we do not have the strength to fight against such an army as the British army. Moving in that direction would endanger the lives of way too many people. We would be making an insane sacrifice of too many lives of young men. As I have remarked earlier we have neither the strength nor the power to defeat the British. We are not only weak right now, we do not have the ammunition, the forces or the experience. We might be able to solve or win one battle, but in the long run there is no way we can defeat the British at war.

We must use great diplomacy to be able to gain our freedom. We must slowly fight for independence but not on a battlefield. We must protect the lives of our brothers, sons, nephews, fathers and all our loved ones. Who will be left to enjoy freedom if they are all killed in battle? We must grant them freedom but not thru war. We must not give up on diplomatic measures so quickly. Mr. Henry, I urge you not to say “Give me liberty or give me death” the price seems too huge to pay.