Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
I fully unite with you in sentiment, that much ill Blood and warmth
of Passion is excited by Town meeting Government.1 the Merchants who are most interested ought to
be left free to Arm or not as they please. You cannot conceive what Mischief will result
to our Country from the inteference of People, who can have only a partial view of
subjects of this nature; I will tell you Sir, that the Money paid by Portugal to France
to purchase her Peace, was applied to the Army of France and enabled France to overthrow
the directory on the 4 of sep’br. this being accomplishd, more Money is wanted, and the
Portegeeze Ambassador is imprisoned to obtain it—2 England might have purchased a Peace as lasting
as the present Rulers if she had not spurnd the Proffer—
so that Money is what they want, plunder is their object, and no meaness too grose for
them to resort to—3 where money cannot be
obtaind the small weak States are parssel’d out amongst the conquerers— what I have
mentiond with regard to Portugal & England is little known you will not name your
Authority. it is however received through such channels as cannot be doubted. the report
respecting America which you have seen in the publick papers—Viz a demand for 2 Million
of dollors—is perhaps judging from Annalogy, not improbable— should you be willing to
pay your proportion for a Six Months Peace, which Price might be again demanded by the
next set of Directors—
The unfortunate movement in our state will and has given Impudence to Bache, if it was possible to add to his former audacity, and dampd the Friends of Government. it has given triumph to the Jacobins— it weakens the hands of Government, and has a Hydra Head of evils—4
Inclosed is a paper with Some debates which you may not perhaps get. I send you a pamphlet a speech of mr Harpers—5 adieu my 470 dear sir excuse a very bad pen and be assured of the affectionate / Regard of your / Friend
RC (MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers); addressed by Louisa Catharine Smith:
“William Smith Esqr, Merchant / Boston”; endorsed:
“Philaa. 30 March 98 / A. Adams—”
It is unclear when Smith had previously written to
AA regarding this issue. The residents of Roxbury, Mass., met on 20
March and agreed to draft a petition “to entreat that Congress will not allow the
Merchants to Arm their vessels by Public Authority.” Harrison Gray Otis presented
Roxbury’s petition to the House of Representatives on 30 March. In a letter to Cotton
Tufts of 30 March (Adams Papers),
AA wrote, “I am sorry very sorry to see Massachusetts commence Town
meeting government. how is it possible they should have sufficient information to
judge of measure which are best calculated for the benifit of so widely extended a
people as we are.” She also reported, “The Jacobins are all life spirit and triumph
upon this Roxbury meeting & petition.” Similarly, a town meeting held at Milton on
22 March resolved, “as citizens who must eventually feel
the distressing consequences of any measure tending to war, we most earnestly
deprecate the system of arming.” The petition was
presented in the House on 2 April by Joseph Bradley Varnum (Boston Independent Chronicle, 19–22 March; Dedham, Mass., Minerva, 29 March;
Annals of Congress
, 5th Cong.,
2d sess., p. 1357, 1367–1368).
AA possibly learned this information from Rufus
King’s dispatch to Timothy Pickering of 18 Nov. 1797, in which he reported: “The fate
of the late Treaty between France and Portugal would confirm this Truth, was it
doubtful. Portugal was also required to pay down a sum of money to be distributed as a
preliminary to Negotiation and she advanced it. By a secret article of the Treaty she
was bound to make a loan to France, a part of which was paid at the Signature of the
Treaty and was the money that enabled the Directory to march the Army which effected
the Revolution of the 18th Fructidor. You may depend on this information” (The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King, ed. Charles R.
King, N.Y., 1894–1900, 6 vols., 2:243).
On 23 Dec. King wrote to Pickering from London, “This Cabinet last night, after several days consideration, gave a decided negative to a proposal of Peace made by the Directory thro’ Talleyrand.” According to King, “the price was a Bribe of a Million Sterling to be divided among Directors, Ministers and others.” King noted that this information was “obtained in a way that forbids its publication in this shape or as received from me” (same, 2:261–262).
The Philadelphia Aurora General
Advertiser, 30 March 1798, printed “the spirited resolutions of Roxbury” and
believed that “Milton will follow their worthy example.” The Aurora also commented on the impact of town meetings on arming: “The contagion
of common sense will spread from town to town, from county to county, and from state
to state till the aristocracy throughout the Union, are scared into their senses.”
Enclosure not found. For Robert Goodloe Harper’s pamphlet, see AA to Mary Smith Cranch, 3 March, and note 3, above.
I write you a few lines this morning merely to inclose a Letter
which I will thank you to cover and forward to Atkinson.1 I have not time to write this morning to
Atkinson. inclosed I sent you a specimin of the Manners Religion & politeness of one
of the 44 Gentlemen, Who can come and Eat of my Bread, & drink of my Wine one 471
472 whom the Virginians consider as a Paragon of
politeness whom they have plumed themselves upon as a promising young Man, and a Man of Property, one of their best
Speakers.—2
I know not what can excite their Wrath to such a degree, but that they think there is yet some Religion left in the Country, and that the people will have some respect to it, & to those Rulers who acknowledge an over Ruling Providence— Baches you see is striving to render the Proclamation Ridiculous and With his Atheistical doctrines spreading French principles far and Wide—but I trust and hope we may as a people be of that happy Number, Whose God is the Lord, and never forget that it is Righteousness which exalteth a Nation, Whilst sin is their Reproach.3
adieu my dear sister / affectionatly Yours
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters); addressed: “Mrs Mary Cranch / Quincy.”
Not found.
AA was referring to the proclamation JA issued on 23 March declaring a fast day for 9 May and the heated response it generated from Democratic-Republicans, including Virginia representative Richard Brent. For both the proclamation and the backlash, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 9, above.
An article printed in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 30 March, decried the proclamation and blamed
JA and his administration for the present state of U.S. affairs: “The
crisis in which this country finds itself and the dangers that threaten it, have
principally arisen from our administration, and that of course it is it that ought to
fast, reform, and repent.”