1790

4 Jan.: The 2d session of the 1st Congress convenes in New York.

2 March: Abigail Adams Shaw, daughter of John and Elizabeth Smith Shaw, is born in Haverhill.

12 March: Richard Cranch Norton, son of Rev. Jacob and Elizabeth Cranch Norton, is born in Weymouth.

17 April: Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia at the age of 84.

28 April 1790 – 27 April 1791: JA's Discourses on Davila, a series of unsigned essays, is published in 32 installments in the New York (later Philadelphia) Gazette of the United States.

29 May: Rhode Island ratifies the Constitution, the last of the original thirteen colonies to do so.

15 July: JQA is admitted to the Massachusetts bar.

16 July: George Washington signs an act to move the temporary seat of government from New York to Philadelphia and establish a permanent seat on the Potomac River in ten years’ time.

21 July: TBA graduates from Harvard; JQA and William Cranch receive their master's degrees.

July: William Cranch is admitted to the Massachusetts bar and opens a law office attached to his father's shop in Braintree.

7 Aug.: AA2 gives birth to her third son, Thomas Hollis Smith, in New York.

9 Aug.: JQA opens a law office at the Adamses’ Court Street property in Boston.

12 Aug.: The 2d session of the 1st Congress adjourns in New York.

10 Sept.: TBA joins the Adamses in New York.

Oct.: TBA leaves New York for Philadelphia to begin a legal apprenticeship in the office of Jared Ingersoll.

12 Nov.: The Adamses take up residence at Bush Hill, an estate outside of Philadelphia, after a five-day journey from New York.

Nov.–Dec.: TBA suffers an acute rheumatic attack, lying “18 days totally deprived of the use of his Limbs”; he is attended by Dr. Benjamin Rush.

6 Dec.: The 3d session of the 1st Congress convenes in Philadelphia.

Dec.: WSS leaves for England to pursue business opportunities.

1791

20 Jan. – 3 March: JQA visits Philadelphia from Boston.

3 March: The 3d session of the 1st Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.

4 March: Vermont is admitted to the Union.

4 March: While still in Europe, WSS is appointed supervisor of revenue for the district of New York, having served as marshal since 25 Sept. 1789.

21 March – 6 July: George Washington makes a tour of the southern states, visiting Richmond, Charleston, and Savannah; he is greeted with great fanfare.

April: AA2 and her family relocate within New York City, from 13 Nassau Street to Dye (now Dey) Street.

2 May: JA, AA and TBA leave Philadelphia for an extended visit to Braintree, stopping in New York and Fairfield, Conn., due to AA's illness.

May: Thomas Paine's Rights of Man is published in the United States; Thomas Jefferson pens the new introduction, indirectly attacking JA's “political heresies” in Discourses on Davila.

5 June: WSS returns to the United States from England on the British packet.

8 June – 27 July: JQA, under the pseudonym Publicola, publishes eleven letters in response to Paine's Rights of Man in the Boston Columbian Centinel; JA is widely believed to be the author.

20–25 June: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their children are stopped at Varennes while attempting to flee the capital and brought back to Paris.

6 July: John Thaxter Jr., AA's cousin and former secretary to JA, dies in Haverhill.

8 July: Thomas Hollis Smith, AA2's third son, dies.

July: William Cranch moves to Haverhill to take up the law practice of John Thaxter Jr.

Aug.: AA2 and the children, accompanied by WSS's brother and sister, visit JA and AA in Braintree; CA also visits for a time before leaving for New York on 21 August.

24 Oct.: The 1st session of the 2d Congress convenes in Philadelphia.

31 Oct.: Philip Freneau launches the Philadelphia National Gazette to counter John Fenno's Gazette of the United States.

Oct.: AA and JA depart Braintree for Philadelphia, visiting the Smiths in New York on their way.

Oct.: Richard Cranch suffers from a severe gangrenous leg injury and is weakened by sickness through the winter.

late Oct.: JA and AA take up residence in a home in Philadelphia at the corner of Fourth and Arch streets.

1 Nov.: WSS is appointed supervisor and inspector of the district of New York.

29 Dec.: William Smith Norton, son of Rev. Jacob and Elizabeth Cranch Norton, is born in Weymouth.

1792

Winter: AA suffers from an “Intermitting” fever, preventing her from attending most social events in Philadelphia.

Jan. – mid-Feb.: AA2, WSS, and William Steuben Smith make an extended visit with the Adamses in Philadelphia; CA also visits for a fortnight.

23 Feb.: Quincy is set off from Braintree and incorporated as a town.

29 March: AA2, WSS, and their two children sail for England aboard the Bristol, arriving in England in early May.

24 April: The Adamses leave Philadelphia for Quincy.

8 May: The 1st session of the 2d Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.

1 June: Kentucky is admitted to the Union.

July: CA is admitted to the New York bar.

10 Aug.: The French Revolution intensifies with the invasion of the Tuileries Palace and the arrest of the royal family. Ten days later the Marquis de Lafayette emigrates from France to Austria.

20 Aug.: CA opens a law office in Hanover Square, just off of Wall Street.

late Oct. – 9 Nov.: WSS visits Paris, where he agrees to act as an agent for the French government in collecting debts owed to France by the United States.

5 Nov.: The 2d session of the 2d Congress convenes in Philadelphia.

19 Nov.: JA departs for Philadelphia, arriving on 4 Dec., and takes a room with Samuel and Mary Otis; AA remains in Quincy for the winter owing to her ill health.

19–26 Dec.: JQA publishes three letters in the Boston Columbian Centinel under the pseudonym Menander protesting the antitheatrical actions taken by Massachusetts attorney general James Sullivan.

1793

21 Jan.: Louis XVI, having been tried by the National Convention and found guilty of conspiring against the nation, is executed by guillotine in Paris.

9 Feb.: The Smith family returns from England on the Portland packet.

13 Feb.: The Electoral College votes are counted and read by JA in Congress: George Washington is unanimously reelected president and JA wins a plurality for vice president.

2 March: The 2d session of the 2d Congress adjourns in Philadelphia.

4 March: Washington takes the oath of office at a special session of Congress and delivers a brief inaugural address; JA attends along with foreign ministers, representatives, and many spectators.

mid-March: JA departs Philadelphia to join AA in Quincy.

8 April: The French ambassador to the United States, Citizen Edmond Genet, arrives in Charleston, S.C., and makes an overland journey to Philadelphia arriving on 16 May.

July–Aug.: TBA visits the Adamses in Quincy and the Smiths in New York.

July–Nov.: A yellow fever epidemic breaks out in Philadelphia, eventually taking 4,000 lives; thousands, including TBA, flee to the surrounding countryside.

5 Sept.: The Reign of Terror begins in France; over 17,000 executions occur before Robespierre is overthrown and put to death himself the following summer.

16 Oct.: Marie Antoinette is executed by guillotine.

30 Nov.: JA arrives in Philadelphia after a brief stopover in New York; AA again remains in Quincy for the winter.

30 Nov. – 14 Dec.: JQA, under the pseudonym Columbus, publishes three letters in the Boston Columbian Centinel challenging the current fervor for Citizen Genet and the French Revolution.

2 Dec.: The 1st session of the 3d Congress convenes in Philadelphia.

7 Dec.: TBA is admitted to the Pennsylvania bar.

16 Dec.: Jacob Porter Norton, son of Rev. Jacob and Elizabeth Cranch Norton, is born in Weymouth.

31 Dec.: Thomas Jefferson resigns as secretary of state.