Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
d1798
I thank you for your Letter of the 20th of march which I receiv’d yesterday & for the papers you sent mr otis & Harpers Speeches are much admir’d by one party & their Wit & Satire felt by the other.
474
they “have bar’d the Breasts of those villains who are doing their utmost to ruin & degrade their country & have Strip’d the gilding from the Principle which they wish’d to establish.[”] it had so dazzled the eyes of the multitude that they did not percieve to what it tended I do hope the people will be roused & united. As to the Presidents resigning. it must not be thought of. there is no body who takes the least pains to inquir can be deceiv’d the more Lies they publish the less credit they will gain tis Strange that they cannot place So much confidence in a man whom they have long found to be firm & faithful as to suppose he must have the best reasons in the world for not communicating all the dispatches receiv’d from our Envoys. they must know that it might be highly improper
I am glad the President has taken of the restriction which prevented our merchantmen defending their property it was like Standing Still & having ones house raz’d without Saying why do you So
It was Deianira Daughter of Oeneus king of Elolia whom Hercules won from the River Achelous & afterwards married who gave him the bloody poison’d Shirt or rather sent it to him by his Servant & which made him So mad that he threw himself into the fire as he was offering Sacrefice. when Hercules was returning with his new wife he prayed the centaure Nessus to carry her over the river Evenus. which he did—but afterwards endeavour’d to ravish her, for which Hercules wounded him with a poison’d arrow. Nessus finding himself dying gave his bloody Shirt to Deianira assuring her that if her Husband wore the same he would never love another woman. She believ’d it. & knowing him to be inamour’d with Iola very innocently Sent him the Shirt—but when She found how fatal it had prov’d She Kill’d herself this is the Story as I find it in Colliers Dictionary you may know it all already. but if you did not I know you would like to have it. I had forgot it—1
I wish there was a possibility of making the Chronicle & the other Jacobin printers publish a refutation of their own Storys the Poison & antidote Should go together
I am Sure you will be Shock’d & griev’d when you hear of the Death of Mrs Quincy. it was Sudden Mrs Greenleaf writes me She did not know She was sick till she heard She was dead She was in company with mrs Storer the Friday before & She did not mention her name. her Friends had not an Idea of her being dangerous Mr Quincys wife got to Bed at the Same time but was very ill & is So now. She does not know of his mothers death mrs Quincy was 475 bury’d from her Brothers upon the account of her Daughters illness. I have not had a Satisfactory account of the cause of Mrs Qs death. She has a very just character given her in the paper. She was a lovely woman & will be greatly mourn’d by her Freinds mr Quincy must be in great affliction. he was fond of his mother & knew her worth. her Sisters I greatly pity She has been a mother to them2
the death of mrs Gill was not unexpected She had almost accomplished her three Score years & ten & is gone to receive the reward of I hope a well spent life. her memory will be dear to her Friends. She has left no child to mourn for her & his honour is at liberty to Seek another rich wife3
I had Letters yesterday from nancy. the poor Girl was in great destress about her little Boy while my Son was absent Doctor May thought him very dangerous. I think by her description it must have been a Lung fever. he is now weak & feeble but recovering. She told me of your kindness to her & is very grateful the Book was very pleasing [to the] little Sick lamb.
I was to see uncle Quincy yesterday he thanks you for your present to him. but mrs Pope Says it will be found in his trunk after he is dead as good as it is now. I have not seen him since you was here till now— he has been very well all winter & does not look a day older than when I saw him last—
your Asparagus Beds are fork’d & Lettece Sown we have had a warm week but it was preceeded by two violent Storms of rain a little Snow & some hail
Mrs Pope told me She would lay you down some Butter if she could, but they were raising Six or seven calves & were oblig’d to Supply their work people with Buttler. you will have five or Six cows at home which will give you Butter for your Tea table if you get a milk Cellar— my paper bids me be concise. a great deal of Love can be put in a little place accept […] you for the President & your Self the tenderest affection of your Sister
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs / Abigail Adams / Philadelphia”; endorsed: “Mrs Cranch / April 1st / 1798.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
Louis Moréri, The Great Historical, Geographical, Genealogical and Poetical Dictionary, 2d. rev. edn., transl. Jeremy Collier, 2 vols., London, 1701.
Abigail Phillips Quincy died on 25 March. An obituary published in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 28 March, characterized her as “loved as a friend, trusted as a guide, prized as a companion and revered as a pattern” and noted that owing to an illness in her family the funeral would depart from the home of her brother William Phillips Jr., for whom see LCA, D&A
, 2:601. That illness was related to the birth on 15 March of Eliza
476
Susan Quincy, the first child of Eliza Susan Morton and Josiah Quincy III. Hannah Phillips Shaw (b. 1756) and Sarah Phillips Dowse (1756–1839) were the sisters of Abigail Phillips Quincy (Eliza Susan Quincy, “Memoir of Edmund Quincy (1681–1738) of Braintree, Massachusetts Bay,”
NEHGR
, 38:145 [April 1884]; Albert M. Phillips, comp., Phillips Genealogies; Including the Family of George Phillips, First Minister of Watertown, Mass., Auburn, Mass., 1885, p. 26–27).
Rebecca Boylston Gill died on 19 March (Boston Columbian Centinel, 24 March).
d.1798
Some lover of your nephews happiness, last thursday added something to the fragment of life, by placing in my hands your agreeable favor of March 20th. The pamphlet sent me, I give you my sincere thanks. Is not Mr. Pickering the author. As soon as I read it, I thought I could see in it his simple style and forcible reasoning. I had read both Scipio and Munroes view, before I received your letter, and think that the latter ought to be hung, even if he were guilty of no other crime than, that of thus betraying the secrets of our government.
I am sorry that my dear aunt should have so poor an opinion of the goodness of her nephews heart— I regret that she should think me so much of the Frenchman, as to suppose it were possible I could throw any sarcasm against the married state—a state which I have ever considered, as the foundation of community and the chief band of society, without which I sincerely believe there is no true solid happiness. I wanted to tell you, that my sister M was soon to be maried, the metaphor, to which you refer, came into my head— I was rather in a hurry, and immediately wrote it down, with out considering its propriety. I have since thought of it, and acknowledge it improper, but must beg of you to believe, that nothing was more opposite or distant from the sentiments of my heart, than any sarcasm against so holy, so sacred an institution.
Monday I went to the town meeting, called to take into consideration the allarming situation of publick affairs &c. You may easily believe that I was not a little provoked to see upwards of an hundred assembled, the most ignorant, unpricipled crew under Gods earth, to decide an interesting national question. I there heard men arraigning the administration of government, whom I knew did not understand half of the terms they used. Very few of the voters knew but little more than the boy of the jacobin, who after waiting on an entertainment of that society, & hearing their execrations against 477 Mr. Jays treaty being ordered in the evening to bring their carriages, burst into tears, begged of his master to excuse him from going, for he was afraid the treaty would catch him. There were lies there told which, would have ashamed even the devil himself. Dr. Hill, little in body and mind, and Judge Dana were the principle speakers. The latter spoke near an hour with elegance and energy. The former was very voluble in words, but as for his ideas, they were like needles hid in the hay. You may search all the day before you find them, & when you have them, they are not worth the search.1
Congress, as usual, seem to be doing little or nothing. They seem to forget that they are not the representatives of sansculotte Frenchmen, but of indepenent Americans. Why do they not put themselves in a defensive state? I believe the French would never have been such ravenous wolves, had they not seen so many of the Americans mere passive sheep. How can congress quetly set and see their country calumniated—their ministers insulted by an unprincipled, plundering, ferocious, bloody and tyranical nation,—a nation, whose government is anarchy, whose religion is atheism? This passive spirit is not confined to congress alone. The whole country seem to forget that they are men—that they have rights, which they ought to assert— which should not be violated with impunity. Every one ought to rise, indignant at the insults we have received. I should glory this moment, lame and weak as I am; in shouldering my firelock & swearing on the alter of my country, to fight the enemy, as long, as there was a particle of me left or a drop of blood to shed.
The federalists here do not sufficiently exert themselves to inform the people. We have very few good political pices in the Mercury or Centinel. We have not even the debates of congress. The chronicle, that speaking trumphet of the devel, is always filled with inflaming pieces, calculated to deceive ignorant people. Men of abilities ought not at the present time to live in retirement. I am an uninformed— unexperienced youth, but were “I a Fisher Ames or a Hamilton I should think myself almost a traitor to my country if I remained buried in my farm or spending my time pleading at the bar.”2
I suspect there are some jacobinical villains, postmasters between Boston & N.C. Williams from N.C. an intimate friend and classmate of mine, anxious that his father should read some of our Nothern papers, subscribed for the Mery. & Cenl. His father has written to him repeatedly, that the chronle. comes regularly twice a week, but that he does not receive more than a third of his papers. Russell & Minns botho say they send them regularly twice a week.3
Our frigate constitution, though crushed, like Hercules of old, in infancy in its cradle, is I am told almost ready for sail, and for strength & elegance is almost unequalled.4
I am very anxious to see the letters from our commissioners I suspect
Have you heard from my cousins abroad lately. How does Cousin John’s wife do? Where is Johnson? I sincerely pitty the poor fellow? He is very poorly calculated for his situation. His ideas were always too aristocratical, to please even me & I have told him so repeatedly.
We have now completed our college studies & are excused from all college exercises. The day (21st of June) will soon be present, when I shall leave this seat of science.6 To me that day will be a day of sorrow. To leave the tender and affectionate smiles of some of my worthy classmates is my aunt, melancholy in the extreme. The idea I love not to cherish, but it is an idea which often obtrudes on the social hour—which makes its appearance when unlooked for, & when combined with the future prospects of my life, makes me miserable indeed. It was not for man to anticipate evil, but it impossible to prevent it. I have been pecularly happy, during my college life, in selecting a worthy few for my particular friends. & the tie is now drawn so close, that to dissever it, will be like dissevering a limb. We have lived, my aunt, like a band of brothers and the only point we ever contended was, who loved the most.
I have read all the debates on foreign intercouse, except Mr. Harper’s, of which I have heard much said. If you have the paper by you, which contains it or any of Porcupines & it is not too much trouble I wish you would send them to me7
I wish my Aunt would write to me more frequently, I am sure she would, if she knew how much pleasure, her letters always give me.
Please to me remember me affectionately to Uncle & cousin.
I have written you a long unconnected letter—I feel almost ashamed to send it.
You must, my dear aunt, accept the little all I have to offer, as freely as I give it; my love, esteem & gratitude which are indeed sincerely yours.
mS Shaw8
I have just received a letter from my mother, all are well but my dear sister & she continues unwell yet.
479RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “William S Shaw / April 2. 1798.”
On 2 April a town meeting was convened in Cambridge “to take into consideration the alarming situation of Public Affairs.” The outcome was the adoption of several resolutions and a petition to Congress declaring that “the National Neutrality ought to be preserved inviolate; and that to this end, no merchant vessels ought to sail armed” because doing so would be viewed by the constituents as “tantamount to War.” Dr. Aaron Hill (1757–1830), Harvard 1776, was a former selectman for Cambridge and a current representative for Middlesex County in the Mass. General Court (Boston Independent Chronicle, 2–5 April;
Harvard Quinquennial Cat.
; Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630–1877, Boston, 1877, p. 461, 466; Mass., Acts and Laws
, 1796–1797, p. 490).
Shaw quoted from the Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette, 6 March 1798, which noted that “the French are at this moment busied in accomplishing the prostration of the Federal Government,” and that “every man of talents should contribute his mite” to prevent “another revolution.”
William Williams (1776–1862), Harvard 1798, was the son of Elisha Williams of Scotland Neck, Halifax County, N.C. (Alexander Mackay-Smith, The Colonial Quarter Race Horse: America’s First Breed of Horses, [Middleburg, Va.], 1983, p. 276; “Recollections of Eclipse and Coeur-De Lion,” American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, 1:274 [Feb. 1830]).
For the successful launch of the frigate Constitution on 21 Oct. 1797 and its eventual sailing on 22 July 1798, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 10, above. Two earlier attempts to launch the vessel had been unsuccessful. JA attended the initial launch on 20 Sept. 1797, when the frigate advanced 27 feet toward the water before becoming mired in mud. The entry ramp was raised, and two days later a second attempt was made, resulting in the vessel’s sliding only another 31 feet (Massachusetts Mercury, 22 Sept.; Charles E. Brodine, Michael J. Crawford, and Christine F. Hughes, Interpreting Old Ironsides: An Illustrated Guide to USS Constitution, Washington, D.C., 2007, p. 7).
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, scene v, lines 15–16.
Shaw was referring to the last meeting of the Harvard senior class prior to vacation and the 18 July 1798 commencement. Seniors gathered in the college chapel to hear valedictory exercises before retiring to the president’s house for refreshments with the faculty (“Class Day,” The Harvard Magazine, 4:313–317 [Oct. 1858]; Boston Russell’s Gazette, 19 July).
The Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette, 19, 29 March, 2 April, printed Robert Goodloe Harper’s 2 March speech on the foreign intercourse bill.
On 9 April AA wrote a brief letter to Shaw enclosing a pamphlet by Joseph Hopkinson and commenting on the literary achievements of Francis Hopkinson (DLC: Shaw Family Papers).