From John Adams to John Quincy Adams

2 March 1825

My dear Sir

Quincy 2d: March 1825.

I enclose you a letter from honest Spafford. I do it with great reluctance but he has so much merit in his New-York Gazetteer that I wish something could be done for him. I know however the difficulty indeed the impossibility that a President should get into any of the offices a single clerk. I tried to get Mr Dalton into an office in the Treasury Department. I proposed it to the Secretary who shortly answered; we do not want any great men among us. At another time I wanted to get Charles Storer into the Secretary of State’s office as a clerk. I proposed him to the Secretary who sharply and fiercely answered, he is the greatest calf I ever knew.—

These two rebuffs discouraged me from attempting any thing of the kind ever afterward.—

With the most intense feelings / I am your Father

John Adams

MHi: Adams Papers.

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