Adams Papers Digital Edition

Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams

John Adams to Abigail Adams
John Adams to Abigail Adams, 8 June 1795 Adams, John Adams, Abigail
John Adams to Abigail Adams
My dearest Friend Philadelphia June 8. 1795

Through the finest Fields of Wheat Rye, Barley Oats and Clover, but very indifferent Roads We arrived on Saturday all well

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The Senators to the Number of five or six and twenty are in Town and will meet in this Chamber at Eleven O Clock.

I can form no Judgment how long We shall sitt.

I congratulate you and all good People on the favourable decision of the Elections in New York which indicates a Change of sentiment very desirable in that state, and of great Importance to the Union.

We are told that Adet is arrived and De Letombe and that Dudley Rider is to take the Place of Hammond1

The State of Things in Paris arising from Scarcity and from Party is gloomy—but the Particulars you will see in the Papers.

Mr Swan was in my old Lodings but has very politely offered me the saloon as usual—2 He is thought here to have made a great Fortune and to be a very important Man— it is said he has been the most Successfull of any Man in getting his Vessells to Port.

The Want of Bread in France & England will raise flour to 20 Dollars a Barrell—it is now 15.

My Love to all the Family

JA.

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”; endorsed: “June 8th 1795.”

 1.

Pierre Auguste Adet (1763–1834), a French scientist, government official, and diplomat, served as minister to the United States from 1795 to 1796. Philippe André Joseph de Létombe had been recalled as French consul general in 1792 but was reappointed in 1795 (Jefferson, Papers, 28:459; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series, 1:34–35).

JA appears to have confused the brothers Dudley Ryder (1762–1847) and Richard Ryder (1766–1832), both British MPs. In early June 1795, newspapers in New York and then Philadelphia reported that Richard Ryder had been appointed minister plenipotentiary to the United States in place of the recalled George Hammond. Hammond, who departed the United States in August, was succeeded by Robert Liston in Feb. 1796 ( DNB ; New York Argus, 6 June 1795; Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 9 June; New York Daily Advertiser, 18 Aug.).

 2.

Boston merchant James Swan, for whom see JA, Papers , 3:354, had gone to France in 1787 but returned to the United States in Feb. 1795 to negotiate a payment for the remaining U.S. debt to France ( DAB; Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 24 Feb.; Madison, Papers, Congressional Series, 15:358).