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ADAMS, John Quincy. Autograph letter signed ("J. Q. Adams") to Joseph Blunt, editor of the American Annual Register, Washington, 9 April 1830. 2 full pages, 4to. In very fine condition.
A FORMER PRESIDENT TURNS AUTHOR. Deeply wounded by the personal attacks upon him during the 1828 election campaign, Adams took up the pen and undertook to write a history of New England federalism and a number of articles analyzing European politics. Here, he sends his publisher a list of 18 corrections to an unidentified work, amending such terms as "Peloponnesus," "Rigney," "Kalija," "Vassiladi," etc. That careful task completed, he adds that "These last three errors on page 425 are enormous. 'Sistemus hic tandem' should begin the paragraph...As it now stands on the printed page it is too ridiculous even to be corrected...and the might for the must is worse than all. If you will print over again that page, you may treat all of the rest of the errata as you please. I am telling the Emperor Nicholas what he must do, and your printer tells him what he might do. I lay down for him his duty, and your printer tells him of his Power!"
As to the transliteration of names, Adams chides Blunt that "you may spell most of them three or four different ways, but you must not spell Siroff for Tiroff nor Tolsloy for Tolstoy, and as you spell each individual name once, you should continue it through. All this I say for the credit of your Book. Which I suppose you intend shall be read at London, Paris, St. Petersburg and Vienna as much as at New York...." Blunt (1792-1860), a leading Whig journalist, edited the American Annual Register (1827-1835), where the article probably appeared.
A FORMER PRESIDENT TURNS AUTHOR. Deeply wounded by the personal attacks upon him during the 1828 election campaign, Adams took up the pen and undertook to write a history of New England federalism and a number of articles analyzing European politics. Here, he sends his publisher a list of 18 corrections to an unidentified work, amending such terms as "Peloponnesus," "Rigney," "Kalija," "Vassiladi," etc. That careful task completed, he adds that "These last three errors on page 425 are enormous. 'Sistemus hic tandem' should begin the paragraph...As it now stands on the printed page it is too ridiculous even to be corrected...and the might for the must is worse than all. If you will print over again that page, you may treat all of the rest of the errata as you please. I am telling the Emperor Nicholas what he must do, and your printer tells him what he might do. I lay down for him his duty, and your printer tells him of his Power!"
As to the transliteration of names, Adams chides Blunt that "you may spell most of them three or four different ways, but you must not spell Siroff for Tiroff nor Tolsloy for Tolstoy, and as you spell each individual name once, you should continue it through. All this I say for the credit of your Book. Which I suppose you intend shall be read at London, Paris, St. Petersburg and Vienna as much as at New York...." Blunt (1792-1860), a leading Whig journalist, edited the American Annual Register (1827-1835), where the article probably appeared.