Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
I have this moment recd your favour of 25. April.— If you want more Money before June borrow it of the General whom I will repay when I return. The freight of the furniture was in Mass. L. M.— The Farm goes on admirably well— I am well Satisfied with all you do.
The Weather is terribly hot and dry for the season. Yet the Country looks charmingly. I hope to be at home by the first of June. Thomas is upon the Circuit.
Mr Jay is to immortalize himself over again by keeping Peace—This will depend on the Valour of the french. I begin to rejoice in
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their Successes more than I did. The English have treated Us very ill.—
We must Send a new Minister to France and another to Holland.1 Mr Fauchet begins to grace our Democratic Societies with his Presence. This must not be carried very far. These Assemblies are very criminal.
Oh that I was with you!
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A.”
Gouverneur Morris, the U.S. minister to France, was replaced by James Monroe, at the time a senator from Virginia. Morris had angered the French revolutionary government with his support for a constitutional monarchy and his involvement in an attempt to help Louis XVI escape. His recall was also part of a quid pro quo for the French recall of Edmond Genet. William Short, minister to the Netherlands, was already in Spain as a joint commissioner with then U.S. chargé d’affaires William Carmichael, attempting to negotiate a commercial treaty. After Carmichael’s recall, Short became the minister resident to Spain, clearing the way for JQA’s appointment as minister resident to the Netherlands (
DAB
).
JA wrote another short letter to AA on this same date, reiterating that his presence in Philadelphia was still necessary: “Those whose Principles are the same with mine whose Views of Public good coincide with mine, Say that if We keep together We shall succeed to the End of the Session as we have hitherto, done, in keeping off all the most pernicious Projects.” He particularly noted the budget bills under discussion in the House of Representatives and their potential to “accumulate a perpetual Debt, and lead to future Revolutions” (Adams Papers).