Beschreibung:

ADAMS, John Quincy Letter signed ("John Quincy Adams") to Messrs. Bolinson, Brady, Dowling, Stubbs, Boyle, and Donohue, Washington, 16 March, 1846. 1¼ pages, 4to, integral blank, minor stains to second leaf. ADAMS' PRAISE FOR IRELAND AND THE IRISH. A cordial and lengthy reply to an invitation to a St. Patrick's Day dinner. Adams regretfully declines the invitation due to "an infirm state of health, and a second domestic affliction." After expressing his regrets, Adams launches into eloquent praise of Ireland and the Irish people, "I cannot however deny myself the pleasure of thanking you for the testimonial which you have borne, to my long cherished, and deeply rooted, respect, and affectionate attachment, to the People of Ireland, and the cause of their National Independence. A respect and attachment co-equal with the fall of Montgomery before the walls of Quebec, in the war of our Independence, confirmed and cemented, by the virtues, which I have witnessed, through the course of a long life, by personal acquaintances, with numerous natives, of the Emerald Isle." Adams offers a poem, written in reflection "upon the Historic, and prophetic, fortunes of Ireland" as a substitute for his presence: "Soon! Soon! may dawn the day, as dawn it must When Erin's falchion, shall be Erin's trust!" John Quincy Adams' interest in Ireland and its subjugation to British authority was also demonstrated in his verse narrative published in 1832, Dermot Macmorrogh, or the Conquest of Ireland: An Historical Tale of the Twelfth Century . The book went into a second edition, but its use by his political enemies prompted its author to admit "I lament its publication."