Adams Family Correspondence, volume 11
ca. 24 September 1796]1
I received Your kind Letter of Sepbr 5 and was very happy to learn from it, that You enjoyed So large a portion of Health.2 long may the blessing be continued to You and to Your Family. My own Health has been very infirm through the Summer, nor does it Seem much mended by the appraching fall.
I thank you my Dear Madam for your kind wishes. The Event You notice expected Event You mention in Your Letter has just been made publick here. there is but one more that could have caused a more uneversal mourning throughout America, I mean the Death of the Greatest Character that America ever produced and the closing Scene of this Great Man’s & Good Mans political Life adds a Dignity & Lusture to his all Whole Li his former actions, and will cover him with unfadeing Lawrels no one can be so long as Time untill Time shall be no more.3 whomsoever the people may call to succeed him will find no easy task to fill his place. should the Lot fall where You are pleased to hope it may, I can only say may the Mantle of Elijah rest upon Him.4 for my self—the declining State of my Health leads me much more to contemplate a residence in the World of
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Spirits, than becomeing Successor to one of the most amiable innofensive and best of women, and to you my Dear Madam I may say, that the event would excite in My mind an anxiety greater far than I ever before experienced, and so far from being an object of my Ambition; that the consiousness of my inability and the apprehension that I could not make good the to discharge So important acceptably So the Duties of So important a station, would fill my mind with the most lively apprehensions of my own unworthyness. From very early Life, I have been innured to the Sacrifice of Personal happiness to the in the frequent Seperations I have experienced from my best Friend, not merly in times of tranquility but in those of great Danger & Hazard. I have ever considerd the calls of My Country as the first & foremost claim, my self & family but as Secondary objects, to that I again submit whatever decision it makes it may please to make—& tho retirement alltogether from publick Life as Years increase, and infirmities assail me, would be by far most Eligible to me, if the Voice of my Country determine otherways, I shall consider myself but should it be otherways determined, I shall endeavour cheerfully to accquiese in the allotment of Providence—
I pray you to present my Regards to mr Dalton & the young Ladies and to believe that I shall ever retain a greatfull Remebrance of the Sisterly care and kindness I experiencd from you in the long sickness I underwent in Philadelphia.5 I am glad to learn that Polly Tailor is so well situated as with you I wish she would be sensible that she never had So great an Enemy as herself, and learn from former experience that a placid Temper and complying disposition is the great Sweetner of Life. she has many Excellent qualities for which I Shall ever value and regard her— I shall request mr Brizler to execute her commission and will direct the Man whom she formerly employd to get her shoes made— Mr Brisler has been in great affliction having lost his Second Daughter with a putrid disorder6
Mr Adams and my Neice join me in an affectionate Remembrance to mr Dalton and the Young Ladies and request You Madam to be assured / of the sincere regards / of your Friend
Dft (Adams Papers); notations by CFA: “Copy. Mrs Dalton.” and “1796.” Filmed at [1796].
The dating of this letter is based on the publication of George Washington’s Farewell Address in Boston, for which see note 3, below.
Not found.
On 24 Sept. the Boston Columbian
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Centinel was the first Boston newspaper to reprint Washington’s Farewell Address, which originally appeared in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser on 19 September. The address was a composite, adapted and reworked by Washington from an earlier version composed at the close of his first term by James Madison and then emended and redrafted by Alexander Hamilton in 1796. The president used the address not only to announce his retirement but also to defend his administration and to articulate his vision for the future of the nation. He reaffirmed the need for American neutrality: “Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour, or caprice?” He also emphasized the importance of domestic and political unity, cautioning, “The unity of Government which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But, as it is easy to forsee, that from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth … it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union, to your collective and individual happiness” (Hamilton, Papers, 20:169–170).
2 Kings, 2:13–15.
For Dalton’s assistance to AA during her protracted illness in 1792, see vol. 9:271–272.
On 27 Aug. 1796 JA recorded in his Diary, “Brisler absent on Account of his sick Child.” That child was likely Abigail Briesler, the second of John and Esther Field Briesler’s children (JA, D&A
, 3:244; Sprague, Braintree Families
).
br25
th1796 Quincy
Your Letter of June the 29th was as refreshing to me as cold water to a thirsty Soul. the very superscription gave a flow to my spirits which I had not experienced for many Months before. be assured not one unkind thought ever enterd my mind at not hearing from you. it was anxious Solisitude for Your Health, painfull suspence at what might be the cause of Your long silence. Your Brother had informd me from England, that you had been sick, and the Nature of your Complaints. Maternal affection felt the pains, heightned by the Idea of Distance, a foreign Land, destitute of Fraternal aid, and those alleviations which Soothe the Heart, and mitigate the Sufferings. Not a Bosom as Sterns Says to Uncle Toby, to rest Your Head upon, nor a Heart to repose Your Sorrows to.1 poor Fellow, if after commisiration and pity, could assuage even the pain of recollection, be assured You would find an ample fund, sufficient to allay them all, in the sympathetic Heart of Your Mother, who has herself experienced much ill Health through the Summer. I would recommend to You to try the Waters of Bath. they are said to be Soverign in those complaints to which you are Subject.2 Your Brothers New appointment will determine You to return Home next spring I presume. I should however recommend to you to visit France before that period.3 See for yourself a very extradonary People, whose
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future Destiny no Eye can penetrate, nor am I sufficently versd in the Prophesys, with Pater West, to rejoice in this Revolution which has consignd so many Innocent Victims to the World of Spirits, immolated so many fellow Creatures, to Mad ambition, and a thirst of Domination and conquest which now mark every step of their progress.4 Heaven grant that we may not be Scorched by their Flames. even at this Distance we feel the Heat of them.
The die is cast! All America is or ought to be in mourning The President of the united states refuses again to be considerd as a canditate for that office. He has addrest the people of the united states. read and Judge for yourself. is it not repleat with profound wisdom? how enlarged and comprehensive his views? How wise and judicious his advise? and, his warnings? with a modesty, I could almost say, peculiar to himself, with a Heart and mind Duly imprest with Religious Sentiments and an affectionate attachment to his Countrymen, he resigns the important trusts Committed to him, coverd with Glory and Crownd with Laurels, which will place him in the Archives of Time with the first of Heroes and the greatest of Benefactors to Mankind.
The present period is to the people of America a solemn pause! an Epoch in their Annals Big with the Fate of America.
Heaven Guide and direct them.
Before your Letter of June reachd me I felt so anxious for you, that I requested your Father to write to the Secretary of state, and inquire of him if any Letter had reachd him of a later Date. he was kind enough to reply and make some extracts from them, and at the close of his Letter, he says “the intelligence with which the Letters of your Youngest Son have been written, shew that the affairs of the united States in the Netherlands might very well be intrusted to his direction,[”] but he adds, I do not know what are the Presidents intentions.5
I quote this passage to shew you that your Letters have given satisfaction. the President has not left to a successor the promotion of Your Brother. I find by the Secretary of States Letter, that he was to remain in Holland untill further orders. when he receives them, I presume he will go to England and take his companion, who I hope will prove to him all he wants, and all he wishes, who will Do him good and not evil all the Days of her Life. I have felt a little anxious least I should have hurt his feelings in some sentiments exprest to him in a Letter, soon after I heard of his appointment, but he must 383 asscribe them to the real cause an anxious Solicitude for his welfare—6
adieu my Dear son. may you be safely returnd to Your Native land, and to the Arms of / your affectionate Mother
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs: A Adams TBA / 25 Septr: 1796 / 27 Jany 1797 Recd: / 7 April answd:.”
“How can you live comfortless, captain Shandy, and alone, without a bosom to lean your head on—or trust your cares to?” (Laurence Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, vol. 8, chap. 25).
For AA’s trip to Bath in Dec. 1786 and Jan. 1787, on which she was accompanied by AA2 and WSS, see vol. 7:410–411, 414–415, 445–448. JA and JQA had also made a brief visit to the town in Dec. 1783, for which see JA, D&A
, 3:151–152, and JQA’s excellent account of the trip in his letter to Peter Jay Munro, 29 Dec. (NNMus). TBA did not take the waters at Bath during the three months he and JQA spent in London from July to Oct. 1797.
While TBA would not return to America until 1799, he did spend nearly a month in Paris during April and May 1797. For the best description of his visit, see his letter to AA of 24 July, in which he enumerates the sites “worth a travellers curiosity” that he visited in the capital and also the country estates near Paris that had been damaged during the revolution (Adams Papers).
AA is referring to Rev. Samuel West, for whom see vol. 7:176. West was well known for his belief in biblical prophesies and the predictions they held about modern events, especially those of the American Revolution, and for his opposition to the French Revolution (Sprague, Annals Amer. Pulpit, 8:40, 41, 43).
JA’s letter to Timothy Pickering requesting information about TBA has not been found but was dated 29 Aug. 1796. In his reply of 5 Sept., Pickering informed JA that he had recently received a letter from TBA dated 28 May, not found, in which TBA cited ill health as the cause of his interrupted correspondence (Adams Papers).
See AA to JQA, 10 Aug., above.