Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
ry8
th1794 [
1795]
yours of 25 December reachd me with the Book for Louissa. through the Month of December the weather was uncommonly fine, but the New Year is very inclement. we have had a fair day or two only since it commenced, very little Snow & what Snow we had, 337 is all leaving us to day, by a plentifull Southerly rain our people have been engaged where the weather Would allow this week in the woods. I have had my wood cut by them this Winter in what is call’d Beals Lot. they go to the Top of the Hill cut it, & pitch it down. the weather has been moderate & if we had snow this could not be done as the Hill is high rocky & Steep, nor would any persons Do this, if hired to cut by the cord. I am soliticious to get sufficient for the winter and summer— I shall be only second in command by & by yet I think I am more solicitious to have the commands of my Principal executed in his absence, than when he is present.
If you see the Chronical you may read the address of our Massachusets Self created Society. it is much more respectfull and Modest than the Pennsilvania address—and is not badly pennd I presume Morten was the Draughtsman.1 it is however false, and artfull. I read it last Evening in my Neighbour Beals paper— they are all Galld that the President Denounced them, but let any person attend to the horrid Scenes produced in France by the unlawfull combinations of the worst & most profligate part of Society, and say if a Similar Spirit does not excite & actuate the Jacobins of America to insurgency and rebellion—
I have not heard from mrs smith since November. Charles wrote me, but did not mention his Sister2 What is the proper address to our son. how does the Secretary of state address his Letters.3 I have been writing to him, and addrest to JQA minister Ressident &c has a minister Ressident the title of Excellncy?
Remember me to mrs otis & cousin Betsy—
affectionatly Yours—
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “vice President of the / united states / Philadelphia”; endorsed: “Mrs A. Jan. 8 / ansd 16. 1795.” Filmed at 8 Jan. 1794.
On 5 Jan. the Boston Independent Chronicle published a statement by the Massachusetts Constitutional Society defending the right of popular societies to exist. Offering a thoughtful rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union address, which had denounced them, the society desired to “state at large the motives which induced us to assemble—the opinions we have uniformly held, and to reply to such objections as appear to us to be entitled to a serious refutation.” The address was signed by the society’s president, William Cooper, not Perez Morton, whom AA presumed to be the author.
For the address by the Democratic Society of Pennsylvania, which first appeared in Boston in the Federal Orrery, 1 Jan., see
JA to CA, 20 Dec. 1794, and note 1, above.
AA2’s letter to AA has not been found; CA’s is at 11 Dec., above.
On 5 June 1795 Secretary of State Edmund Randolph referred to JQA’s appointment as “Minister Resident of the U.S. to the Hague.” Otherwise Randolph typically addressed JQA by name; see his letters to JQA of 29 July, 13 Aug., and 8 Nov. (all Adams Papers).