Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12

Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, 9 February 1798 Cranch, Mary Smith Adams, Abigail
Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams
My dear Sister Quincy Feb. 9th 1798

what a feast you have sent us my good sister. for alhough it may be call’d a feast of bitter herbs yet I would not be ignorant from whence the Poison is extracted which is design’d to destroy our constitution this is evidently the design of those declamers. how can the People bare to see their members spending So much of the publick money to the very worst purpose. is it possible that they can prostitute their talants their reason & understanding & Submit to look So small & make Such a pitiful figure as they do without a prospect of touching foureign money for it. They will meet their reward I hope. but not in the way they expect I love my country too will to wish it Such an evil. I do hope good will come out of this controversy. excellent reasons have been offer’d why Nicolas amendment Should not take place. every one must see whether they will allow it or not, their design is to get from the President the little Power he posses to my Sister continue to send us Such papers as you think interesting & write me what you dare. It makes me feel important to be able to talk after you tho’ I do not bring my voucher always. I love to discover the spring of a Movement

Mrs Baxter is getting better but cannot set up half an hour yet. I Shall see her & inquire if She can take wine she has not been able too yet. the weather has been & Still is extream cold we had a Snow about ten days since which has made tolerable Sleighing mrs Black has been very Sisterly to me & given me a Seat with her frequently. I was at Boston Hingham & to see miss Eunice Paine last week all were well but our poor lame Friend & She has suffer’d much this winter but I found her more comfortable than she had been. She cannot work at all but can read better than usual. She sent her Love to you says you promis’d her a Letter—

I have Bottled your mythiglin there are eleven Bottles tis more like Syrrup than any thing else—1 the settling was as thick as molasses. I had the cask rinc’d & the Settlings put into a vessel with a gallon of water & Boil’d Skum’d & put into the cask again I design 388 to add some Brandy to it & Bottle it in a month or Six weeks I believe it will be better to drink next Summer than the other I rinc’d with & left in each Bottle a little Brandy. your things are all Safe I went into the cellars my Self— your carpets are out of danger too— there is one which I have spread on our east front chamber which is more wore & burnt & eat than the rest. will you Sell it? I will give you what you may think tis worth. I have bought mrs Quincys flour cloth but it must be painted & I have nothing to lay upon the floor till tis done my Scotch carpet would mend no longer. I have been So long us’d to one in the winter that I have had my feet froze all the time this cold weather. you have So many & they are So difficult to be keept from injury that I thought you might be willing to part with the poorest

mr Beal is not return’d. but I thank you with my whole heart for your kind present.—

Sister Smith has done three pair of stockings & I have got more cotton for her you did not leave me money for cotton or to pay her. but I will purchase when she wants & pay her too I shall owe you for milk I have had we will Settle it when you return would you have the stockings sent you—

Phebe is comfortable— I have been prevented writing by company & gadding my Self till to day. & now the Post is come before I have half done. I will write again next week—

yours affectionately

Mary Cranch

every good wish attends the President Love to Louissa

RC (Adams Papers).

1.

Metheglin is a spiced or medicated variety of mead ( OED ).

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 February 1798 Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy
Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams
my Dear son Philadelphia Feb’ry 10th 1798

I hope long before this time you have arrived Safe at Berlin. The first intelligence which I received of your having left England, was under the Copenhagen head soon after. Letters were received from mr Murrey of the 9th of November, in which he mentions your writing to him from Hamburgh. I immediatly informed my dear Louissa’s Parents and received a Letter from mrs jhonson this last week; in which she expresses herself relived from much anxiety by the information. in her Letter to me, she acknowledes receiving one from Mrs Adams dated in sep’br with the pleasing account of her 389 Health, and happiness. I mention these circumstances because Letters from one quarter, are sometimes more fortunate in their destination than others.

on the last of Jan’ry I received a Letter from you dated the 7th october at London. at the same time your Father received one from your Brother of the 3d and a communication from you of the 4th. your Letters always possess one good quality beyond many others. they have an intrinsick value which Age does not impair. as far as they respect political intelligence, or rather what is calld News. we should like to get them sooner. very few reach under two and three months I flatter myself I shall hear from you as often as that, even tho further removed.

Congress you know are now in Session and have been so ever Since Nov’br yet tho total want of official intelligence from our Envoys, are an excuse for suspending opperations which ought not to have been hessitated about at their Summer Session. the subject was brought again before the House and after a debate of two Days, postponed untill this Month, not doubting but that Something to be relied upon would before now have arrived.

From various quarters, it is reported that after the Presenting the Letters of Credence by our Envoys, not any thing further has taken place, and expectation is entertaind of their Speedy return.

In the mean time our Commerce is suffering a general Wreck, and nothing is respected by these Piratical Sea Robbers. An astonishing degree of forbearence, and respect to the Laws of Neutrality; and to the Government, is manifested by our Countrymen, and one might be almost ready to credit Mr Munroes assertion, “that his Countrymen would not only bear with Patience, a breach of Treaty, but with pleasure, provided it was benificial to France.”1

There is however a spirit in Man. I see it rising from the North. it will come with the Besom of destruction; and sweep from the bed of the ocean these Mauraders. I hope however they will receive the sanction of Law.

During the Winter, Health has been restored to this city, and to the United States. we have an abundance of the fruits of the Earth, and might sit under our own vines, and fruit Trees, having none to make us affraid if we were as wise, as experience ought to make us; but in such a state of warfare, against all order, Law and Religion, the spirit of French prosiliteism pervades all quarters of the civilized world. it is not to be wonderd at, that we should partake of the general calimity

390

In daily expectation of some important event, we wait. we have ceased to wonder at the most improbable. the threatned invasion of England has brightned her Glory, united all Parties, for all seem determined to exert every energy, and I trust every effort to subdue them will prove ineffectual. England appears the only barrier left, with a chance for Stoping the ravages of the most Sanguinary Nation whose History has yet been transmitted to Posterity.

I send you a Number of Pamphlets you will see by them, what trouble France has given the united states by spain.2 in short we are buffetted by both Nations, yet enjoy more happiness and tranquility than any other Nation. if we could but have our commerce protected, and preserve our Neutrality, we may pitty all other Nations, but envy none of them. The Chel’er de Friere lives amongst us universally respected and beloved he has a most agreable Lady, for his wife, with whom I am much pleased.3 I am sorry to inform you of the sudden death of mr Regal last week. he was sick but two days. he has left a young amiable wife 35 years younger than himself, who has not a relative in the Country. both mr & Mrs Regal made many Friends here. he was a Man of extensive learning and science. She will not fail of every consolation which the kindness and benevolence of Friends can render to her. her circumstances are easy, as mr Regal was I think a German and an officer under the Duke of Bavaria. I have been thus particular not knowing but you might meet with some Friend of theirs—

Your sister was well last week and I had Letters from William & John Who are at Atkinson under the Patronage of your Aunt Peabody, at an accademy there.4 our other Friends are all well.

I hope your Father will be able to write you, but if he is not, my Letters must be a substitute. Tell Thomas we want him, but approve his going with you. if I do not write him now, his turn shall be next. my Love to mrs Adams. I have not yet Seen her Mamma but expect a visit from her soon. we exchange Letters frequently.

I am my Ever dear Son / most affectionatly / Your Mother

Abigail Adams

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed by TBA: “Mrs: Adams 10 Feby 1798 / 30 April Recd / 4 May answd.”

1.

AA was paraphrasing James Monroe’s A View of the Conduct of the Executive … Connected with the Mission to the French Republic, During the Years 1794, 5, & 6, Phila., 1797, p. 34, 35, Evans, No. 32491.

2.

Among the pamphlets AA sent was possibly the Message from the President of the United States, Accompanying a Report to Him from the Secretary of State, and Sundry Documents Relative to the Affairs of the United States on the Mississippi; the Intercourse with the Indian Nations, and the Inexecution of the 391 Treaty Between the United States and Spain, Phila., 1798, Evans, No. 34801.

3.

Agnes Frances Lockyer Freire, for whom see 10:319, wrote to AA on 13 Nov. 1797, returning the copy of the Franco-Portuguese peace treaty that AA had lent her and sending two pamphlets, one of which was John Gifford’s Letter to Thomas Erskine (Adams Papers).

4.

Letters not found.