Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
th1797
Will you be kind as to see mr Frothingham and tell him that I wish him to have the Coachee cased, and put on Board the first vessel which sails for this place agreeing for the freight of it, before he puts it on Board I have a Leeding Brass Harniss at Quincy which I will write to have sent to mr Frothingham that the whole may come together.1 Dr Welch has in his Hands three hundred Dollors which he was to repay to mr Frothingham when he had done the Carriage. mr Frothingham will credit me that and send on his Bill for the remainder.
We hope that Congress will be Warm’d
out of the city by the middle of July. I believe they will
rise before, not by accomplishing the buisness, but by not doing it. this Dead weight of
Pennsilvanna consisting of Quakers, who are always opposed to every arming proposition,
of more Jacobins than any other city, who all wish to see our Government Prostrate, and
a proportionable part of timid Men who fear offending the terrible Nation. all these
causes have their influence upon a proportion of those members who wish for an excuse to
rise without doing any thing more than negotiate these people however are very ready to
advocate Convoys which may it is said be a protection to the trade of this state, and
further southard, but will by no means be a sufficient shield to the trade of the
Eastern states. these Members are willing that vessels should Arm for the East 155 Indias and for the Meditarranean but not for the
west Indias.2 we want more Men of Deeds, and fewer of Words. a speech which shall take up ten
Collums of a News paper and part of an additional supplement must contain very weighty
and important matter indeed to induce people to hear it patiently, or read it
afterward.3 there is no Man from our
state, whose abilities talants and integrity are more highly spoken of than mr sewalls,
and none who has more weight in the House. if his talants are not so striking as mr
Dexters, he has qualities which are an adequate compensation mr otis too is highly
spoken of, but it requires some time to be Way wise, and
from reading his speeches, I think him too personal and too great a share of satire and
Wit. he is a thorn to the antis, accordingly they abuse him—
I hope you had a pleasent journey home and found mrs smith and Family well. I do not despair of seeing you this summer if congress rise in any season the President says he must take a journey, and it seems quite necssary for him. the buisness accumulates, instead of lessning. the Dons are cutting out work for us,4 stimulated no doubt by our Dear Friends the French.
I hope as mr Frothingham is a Man of his Word, that the Carriage will not fail of being ready to come— My Love to cousin Betsy. mr otis and Family are well—
Yours affectionatly
RC (MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers); addressed: “Mr William Smith / Boston”;
endorsed: “Philaa. 10. June. 1797.”
For the Adamses’ previous discussion of purchasing a coach from Nathaniel Frothingham, see vol. 11:521, 522–523. AA wrote to Smith on 1 July, lamenting that Frothingham had not yet finished their coach, and then again on 19 July, stating that they still had not received the coach in Philadelphia and that it should be held until their return to Quincy (both MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers).
Privateers from the French West Indies had been plundering
American ships in the Caribbean since 1796. After a House resolution was introduced on
5 June 1797 “for regulating the arming of the merchant vessels of the United States,”
debate arose about specifying the East or West Indies. On 7 June Joshua Coit proposed
inserting the phrase “bound to the East Indies and to the Mediterranean,” and Robert
Goodloe Harper proposed further including the “West Indies.” Although William Loughton
Smith, the resolution’s author, did not believe that arming U.S. vessels heading for
the West Indies would lead to war, Samuel Smith argued that adding the phrase “brought
them to an issue; for it was war or no war.” On 8 June a vote was taken on the two
amendments; the addition of “West Indies” failed, but the “East Indies and the
Mediterranean” passed. Ultimately, however, the House voted 45 to 37 against the
entire resolution on 9 June (Alexander DeConde, The Quasi-War:
The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France 1797–1801, N.Y.,
1966, p. 124;
Annals of Congress
, 5th Cong., 1st sess., p. 253, 257, 259, 280,
281–282).
AA was referring to Edward Livingston’s 24 May
speech, which required ten columns in the Philadelphia Gazette
of the United States and was published over four issues, 30, 31 May and 1, 3
June. The Philadelphia 156
Porcupine’s Gazette, 27 May, noted that Livingston spoke
“upwards of three hours. He did not address himself to the reason or the passions, but
to the patience of his hearers, which he, at last,
completely overcame.” The article further stated that if “the merits of an orator are
to be measured by the page or the column, I do not hesitate to affirm that Mr.
Livingston will be counted the Cicero of his day.”
In Sept. 1796 Andrew Ellicott left Philadelphia to survey the
boundary line between the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida and the United
States. Ellicott planned to meet his Spanish counterpart at Natchez, Miss., according
to the arrangement made in the 1795 Pinckney Treaty. The men agreed to commence
drawing the line on 19 March 1797, but while Ellicott waited for the Spanish
commissioner to arrive, he received word from Gov. Manuel Gayoso de Lemos that Spain
would maintain jurisdiction over the Floridas until the second article of the Pinckney
Treaty (regarding withdrawing from posts) was further clarified. On 8 June Timothy
Pickering received a report from Ellicott regarding the difficulties he encountered
with the Spanish authorities in Florida. Pickering sent the report to JA
on 10 June, and JA submitted it to Congress on the 12th (
Amer. State Papers,
Foreign Relations
, 2:20–21, 26; Robert V. Haynes, The Mississippi Territory and the Southwest Frontier,
1795–1817, Lexington, Ky., 2010, p. 13). For more on the correspondence between
Ellicott and Gayoso de Lemos, see
Amer. State Papers, Foreign Relations
, 2:20–27.