Adams Family Correspondence, volume 11
r.5. 1796
As I came through New York, where I found your Sister and your Brother and their families in good health I recd your Letter No. 24. and upon my arrival here, presented it to The President together with the preceeding Numbers to 19 inclusively.1 I dined with him on Saturday when he returned me the Letters, with an Eulogium. He Said that “Things appeared to him exactly as they do to your son”
Your Intelligence is good, and your Prophesies ominous if not infallible. The Plott has opened here with a Note of a Volume from Mr Adet. I Shall make few Observations upon this. But I believe my Countrymen will assert and maintain their Independence. We are not generally intimidated, although it is said that a considerable Body of Quakers were Panick Struck at the Election and abandoned their Colours. The Laurells acquired by this System of Terror, are a Majority of from 20 to 100 Votes in favr of a certain Ticket, made up of the lowest dreggs of the Mob of Philadelphia and the Inhabitants of the Insurgent Western Counties of Pensilvania, against the almost unanimous suffrages of the great farming Counties of York & Lancaster.2 The Day after tomorrow is the great Election. I look upon the Event as the throw of a Die, a mere Chance, a miserable meagre Tryumph to either Party.
If Mr Jefferson is chosen he cannot depart from the system of Washington which is the system of all that is respectable in this
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Country. I hope the Directory of France will not in a fit of Exultation & Temerity push matters to extremes. if they do they will excite Feelings in this People, which they suspect not. Mr Adets Note has proved an Antidote to the violence of their Passion to many of the most ardent Lovers of France. It will cool Us. it is a febrifuge. an AntiSeptick. it will arrest the rapid progress to Corruption in many.
It is our Sincere and universal desire to live on Terms of Harmony and Friendship with The French. If We do not it will not be our fault. But We are not afraid of France. All the Ships she can command or hire, cannot send an Army here that would not Soon decay. I dont love to think a moment of such a Case— But if they force Us to think of it, our Imaginations must range. Do you my son, reflect on the Consequences of a War forced upon Us by France. as it respects Spain, Portugal Holland Italy Germany All Europe, England her Commerce Navy &c. One Consequence I will mention— There will be Tories to fly to France, as there were Tories to fly to England— she will Scarcely compensate them at the Expence of Millions. French Tories will not be venerated in the World much more than the English Tories have been.
I shall answer my dear Thomas’s Letter as soon as I can.3
I am &c with great Esteem as well as / a tender Affection
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “J. Q. A.”; endorsed by TBA: “The Vice President JQA / 5 Decr: 1796 / 27 Jany Recd: 1797 / 3 Feby Answd:.” Tr (Adams Papers).
This is the RC of JQA to JA, 13 Aug., for which see TBA to JA, 6 Aug., and note 7, above. For AA’s receipt of the FC-Pr, see her letter to JA of 27 Nov., and note 2, above. JQA’s letters Nos. 19–23 to JA were dated 4, 14 April, 6, 24 June, 21 July (all Adams Papers).
JA won York and Lancaster counties, Penn., by some 4,500 votes but lost decisively to Thomas Jefferson by over 6,000 combined votes in Philadelphia and the rural western counties that had been at the center of the Whiskey Rebellion two years earlier (Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 12 Nov.).
Probably TBA to JA, 6 Aug., above.
JQA wrote to JA on 17, 24, and 30 Dec. reporting the European news, especially regarding the activities of the French government and French Army. On 17 Dec. JQA commented on the progress of negotiations between Britain and France and noted particularly the concern in Europe over the American presidential election: “There are many People here anxious to know the Event of the Presidential elections, in America, and who either feel or affect an alarm least under a change of administration the United States will become involved in a War with G. Britain. They tremble for the price of their American Stocks.” But JQA sought to assure Europeans “that however the elections may turn, there is not the least danger that the United States will deviate from their neutral system of policy, or engage in War with any European Power whatever.” His next letter, of 24 Dec., again emphasized the concerns over the presidential elections as well as the growing tensions between the United States and France in the wake of the Jay Treaty and Pierre Auguste Adet’s resignation. JQA’s 30 Dec. letter continued the theme, noting that an unofficial newspaper of the French 434 Directory was attempting “to influence the choice of President in the United States, and if it cannot turn the election to embarass the new Administration, and rally all its opponents under the standard of France. … The violation of the British Treaty, and a War with Britain therefore is what the French Government wish to provoke.— The house of Representatives, is the instrument which they intend to use, and … the fear of their displeasure the motive which they purpose to inspire.— We shall see how they will succeed” (all Adams Papers).
I have just now received, my dearest friend, your letter of the 15th: of last month,1 since which I hope you have before now received two from me; and would to Heaven, they could have been such as would have been more conformable to our mutual inclinations, or that I could now give you tidings more agreeable for me to communicate or for you to receive.— Instead of which a Letter from America, which has this morning come to me, and dated on the 28th: of September, still enjoins upon me to remain [here and] makes it probable that I shall not remove, at least for several months to come.2 [. . . .]3 America, that I must hope for the completion of that union which we both [. . . .] wish, and I confidently hope that a greater distance and a longer time of separation, than we had contemplated, will have no more effect upon your affection, than I am sure it will upon mine.— Let us consider it as one of those counterchecks in the affairs of life, which happen to all, which all must endure whether they will or not, and in which acquiescence is at once a necessity and a consolation.— Be assured at the same time, my lovely friend, that no length of time nor of space, can have access to the heart of the man you love, to weaken his attachment to you.
I have hitherto given you with freedom and sincerity my sentiments, with regard to our common interests and concerns. I have never believed that you would take in ill part what was so well intended, and what I should be so happy to receive in return from you. Between you and me, Louisa, an intercourse of advice and reflection founded upon a mutual unsuspecting confidence is not merely proper; it is in my mind a reciprocal duty. Your assurance therefore that you value the observations I have made gives me the most heart-felt satisfaction, and be assured that I shall always highly value yours.
I have been absent about a week from the Hague, on a visit to this place, and expect to return to-morrow. Wherever I go, your 435 image keeps me constant company, and every where, I feel the same vacancy for want of the reality. I never was much delighted with what are called the pleasures of Society, but at present they have less attractions for me than ever: I participate in them therefore only so far as I find it absolutely necessary, and make myself as often as possible a solitude, to enjoy at least, undisturbed the remembrance of you.
I have lately seen here Mr: Calhoun, the Gentleman with the fine teeth, whom I met at your house last Winter, when your friend Mr: Maury was there.4 Mr: Calhoun has since then been to America, and has very lately returned. He is going in a few days to London, where he will no doubt have the happiness to see you.— It seems to me that every person with whom I have been in company when you were present, derives from thence a sort of merit, in my eyes when I meet him now. There is a kind of reflected cha[rm over ev]ery object that naturally brings your recollection to the mind. I remember still [. . . .]5 pleasure I saw two or three months ago, my old friend, Mr: Foster, on this account among [. . . .] suppose you have seen him since his return to England.—6 How is your good friend and mine, Coll: Trumbull?— I suppose you will smile at seeing his name here.— He would smile too if he knew how I once, as Yorick says thought him a Turk or a Jew—Curs’d him by my Gods—Wish’d him at the D—— innocent as he was of all I feared; but his Peace with me has long been made, and is in no danger of being ever interrupted again.7
The Weather is shivering cold, and the wind reminds me of the times when we used to walk round or across the park: this brings me to the remembrance of our rides there, and this again to Caroline. Why to her particularly, you say?— She will know, if her memory is as good as her Spirits. I am thinking of making up a little collection of fine large-sounding guttural Dutch adjurations for her use, to improve upon her English stock. I cannot promise so good a store of puns for Nancy.— Your Dutch language is good for nothing at a pun. Two senses to the same word would be a kind of prodigality, and if you should hear it talk’d you would think one is more than enough.
I finish my letter at the Hague, where I returned yesterday through a number of snow-storms. We have already had more Winter than there was in the whole course of the last Season.— Remember me 436 affectionately to your Mamma and Sisters, and believe me to be, invariably your’s
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Miss L. C. Johnson / London.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
On 15 Nov. LCA wrote JQA a hasty note saying it had been a month since his last letter to her. She also reassured JQA that the advice he offered her did not cause offence but rather was welcomed (Adams Papers).
Timothy Pickering to JQA, 28 Sept., in which Pickering asked that JQA begin laying the groundwork for a treaty between the United States and the Netherlands that the president could use to “propose to the Senate the appointment of a minister with full powers to complete the negociation, in case you should previously remove to Lisbon.” Pickering continued, “The reasons for suspending that removal, which I suggested in my letter which informed you of your appointment to that station, still exist” (Adams Papers). For Pickering’s earlier instructions to JQA, see CA to JA, 4 June, and note 2, above.
About three words missing.
James Maury (1746–1840), originally a merchant from Fredericksburg, Va., was serving as U.S. consul at Liverpool (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series, 3:345; 4:149).
About three words missing.
Bossenger Foster Jr. traveled in 1796 to Europe, where he spent several years representing his family’s speculation interests in Dutch property and British-owned land in the United States. JQA socialized with Foster several times in London between January and April and also received a visit from him at The Hague in September (Lauren B. Hewes, Portraits in the Collection of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass., 2004, p. 157–159; D/JQA/24, 14 Jan., 4 April, 7 Sept., APM Reel 27).
A reference to Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. By Mr. Yorick, 2 vols., London, 1768, 1:41. For John Trumbull’s alleged interest in LCA and JQA’s jealousy thereof, see LCA, D&A, 1:33, 37, 40.