Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
th1798
The senate on thursday voted to have the dispatches from our Envoys made publick, and orderd them Printed, but not the instructions.1 I hope however that those too, will be published; the People will then be convinced that every word Containd in the Presidents message of the 19 of march can be justified both by the instructions given, and by the dispatches received, and that what Jugartha said of Rome is literally applcable to France.2 when the Instructions were read in the House, the words of milton might have been applied to the Jaco’s
not one of the clan have dared to say, that they themselves would have been willing to have conceided more; or that more could have been granted “consistant with the maxims, for which our Country has contended at every hazard; and which constitutes the basis of our National Sovereignty”4 Some of those who have been voters, more than speakers, came forward and declared their intire satisfaction in the conduct of the President and their conviction of his sincere desire to preserve Peace,—their astonishment at the profligate Demands of France, and an abhorence of her conduct. these are Some of those who have been decived and declare so, but their is yet a Number of a different sort, those whom the French boast of as their Partizens who will not leave them, very wicked men, who tho now convicted will only shift their ground, retreat for a little while seeing the current without doors sits so strongly against them; but return to the Charge again, as soon as their plans are concerted and matured. it is however come to such a crissis, that they will be adjudged Traitors to their Country. I shall not be able to send you the Dispatches untill twesday next. in the mean time I inclose you Fennos paper which will give you a few of the out lines.5 If the communications should have the happy effect which present appearences 490 lead me to hope, that of uniting the people of our Country, I shall not regreet that they were call’d for. out of apprehension what might prove the result of such communications to our Envoys, if they still remain in Paris, the President forebore to communicate them and in his Message was as explicit as was necessary for those who reposed confidence in him, but such lies and falshoods were continually circulated, and base and incendary Letters sent to the house addrest to him, that I really have been allarmd for his Personal safety tho I have never before exprest it.6 with this temper in a city like this, materials for a Mob, might be brought together in 10 minuts. when the Language in Baches paper has been of the most insolent and abusive kind when Language in the House of Rep’s has corresponded with it, and anathamas have been thunderd out by members without doors, and a call upon the people to Humble themselves before their maker, treated with open contempt and Ridicule, had I not cause for allam? but that which was meant for evil, I hope may terminate in good.
I am not without many fears for our Envoys. the wretches may imprison them and since they avow Algiers for their pattern, oblige us to Ransome them at an enormus price; they are like the three Children in the Furnace—7 I wish they may have as safe a deliverence, but none of these fears should transpire. poor mrs Gerry with such a family as she has, may be very misirable with the apprehension if she should know that it is feard they will not be permitted to leave France.
Let mrs Black know that my Little Ward has quite recoverd from the Small pox— I expect it here tomorrow.
I have received cousins Letter and have answerd it by a little Box which is to be put on Board a vessel going to Boston committed to the care of mr smith & addrest to him. I shall say more to her when I write to her upon the subject.8
I know not when I shall see you, but I exhort the Members to dispatch business so as to rise in May. I hope their will subsist more harmony & union Peace and good will in the House than has appeard this Session. may the people be united now they have before them such proof of the base veiws and designs of France to Plunder us of all we hold dear & Valuable, our Religion our Liberty our Government and our Property—
My kind Regards to mr Cranch to Mrs Welch to sister smith, and all others who interest themselves in the happiness of your / Ever affectionate sister
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters).
On 5 April the Senate voted to publish the commissioners’ dispatches. Thomas Jefferson, in describing the closed vote, wrote, “The votes for & against publication have been not at all party votes, but a perfect jumble. all see something they like & something they do not like.” The House of Representatives similarly voted for publication on 6 April, and a number of Philadelphia newspapers, including the Gazette of the United States and the Philadelphia Gazette, dedicated their 9 April issues to printing the dispatches and the commissioners’ letters of credence and full powers (Jefferson, Papers
, 30:252;
Annals of Congress
, 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 536–537, 1380). The papers were also soon published as pamphlets; see, for example, Message of the President of the United States, to Both Houses of Congress. April 3d. 1798, [Phila., 1798], Evans, No. 34812.
Before Jugurtha, leader of Numidia, came to Rome to stand trial, he sent emissaries to bribe the Roman senate. After his acquittal, Jugurtha reportedly stated that Rome was a city for sale and could be purchased by a rich buyer (vol. 5:284, 285; Sallust, The Works of Sallust, Translated into English, London, [1744], p. 166, 172, 193–194).
Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV, lines 846–848.
AA was quoting from JA’s 19 March message to Congress.
A brief summary of the instructions to and dispatches from the envoys to France was printed in the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 6 April.
In a letter dated [April 1798], “A Friend to America & Truth” informed JA of a 9 May plot that “all good men will shudder at,” warning, “Do not sleep in fearless security: the hour of danger is near at hand. … Have an eye to the Frenchmen. Look to that grandest of all grand Villains— That traitor to his country—that infernal Scoundrel Jefferson— he has too much hand in the Conspiracy” (Adams Papers).
A reference to the plight of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who were cast into the furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel, 3:12–21).
The letter from Elizabeth Smith has not been found, but the “square Box coverd with canvass” contained a dress “with the handkerchief Ruffels &c” valued at $30.00 and intended “for Betsys wedding dress.” Carried aboard the sloop Mary and Sally, Capt. Joshua Bradford, which sailed from Philadelphia on 11 April and arrived in Boston between the 18th and 21st, the box was not received by Cranch until 10 June, a fact that caused AA much anxiety (AA to Cranch, 4 June, MWA: Abigail Adams Letters; Cranch to AA, 10 June, Adams Papers; Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 11 April;
Boston and Charlestown Ship Registers
, p. 128; Boston Columbian Centinel, 21 April).
th1798
I wrote you on saturday that I would forward to you the Dispatches as soon as they were out. I accordingly inclose them.1 they exhibit a picture of National Degradation and unparalled corruption, which presents Burks picture of the French Nation, not as the product of a heated imagination, but as real Life. “out of the Tomb of the Murdered Monarchy in France, has arrisen a vast, tremendous, unformed spectre, in a far more terrific Guise than any which ever yet overpowerd the imagination, and subdued the fortitude of Man, Going strait forward to its End, unappalled by Peril, unchecked by remorse, despising all common maxims, and all common means. The poison of other states is the food of this Regiside Republic.[”]2 it would be happy for America to cut off all further
492
connection with her, and to repel her Arts her Arms and her wiles, by that fire and Brimstone to which her crimes destine her. They have repeld our advances for acommodation with scorn they are an Enemy to whose Virtues we can owe nothing. if we possess virtue, if we possess Union of sentiment, and Independance of spirit we Shall have little reason to dread the force of their Arms at the distance we are removed from them, and their resources are pretty well drained by their eagerness for Plunder, and their avowal to sacrifice all for money. even the Presidents speech at which they have the insolence to pretend they are offended, may be expiated by money!
In the records of Pride there does not exist so insulting a declaration. It is insolent in words, in manner but in substance, it is not only insulting but alarming. it is a specimen of what may be expected from the Masters. Some are disposed to give to our Humbled Country.
The senate have directed the instruction to our Envoys to be publishd. the World will then see that our advances were honorable candid and generous, and that nothing further can be done consistant with our National Independance, untill France changes her Rulers and her measures—3
We must prepare to defend ourselves.
My dear sister I turn from the painfull subject to the Rural delights which are just opening upon us here. the willow assumes its lost verdure and is cheering the prospect by its coulour so gratefull to the Eye. the peach blosom opens and the daisy and daffy adorn my Room. the brown hue of the Feild is changed to a bright Green, and the spring songsters assume a cheering note. my spirits are exhilirated by the Scene, and for a moment I forget the disturbers of our Peace, and the destroyers of our pleasures. I can ride out daily and enjoy the air of the Country, but my own state & cottage are the objects which I most wish to see. there are my Relatives & my Friends whom I can enjoy with out that ceremony attendant upon my Present station.
The Death of my Friends and acquaintance affcets me very sensibly. three succeeding weeks have each been the melancholy harbinger of some new breach. mrs Gill mrs Quincy and the Sudden stroke which has deprived the people of his Charge of the most valuable Life of Dr Clark, is amongst the unsearchable Ways of Providence. in the midst of his days, in the vigor of his usefullness, he is suddenly calld to a higher & superiour station, as the reward 493 we rationally hope of having been a good and Faithfull servant in the vineyard of his master.
The loss is to the survivors. that indeed is great. at such a period as the present, when the Ministers of Religion are amongst the firmmest supporters of our Government, We may justly adopt the words of Scripture and say
“]Help Lord, for the Godly Man ceaseth, and the
I intended to have written to cousin Betsy to day, but must omit it untill the next Post. I inclose a Receit for a small Box sent to Boston to mr smiths care. it is for cousin Betsy. be so good as to send to him the Receit. I forgot to inclose it to him yesterday.5 I have subscribed or rather mr Brisler has for Porcupines paper which will be sent by the next Post as directed, three Papers a week. I hope to get a Letter from you to day. I had the baby with me on sunday it is very well. it had a hundred Pock & for three days & nights was very sick, but is happily through. it is a quiet Little Creature. nothing would give me greater pleasure than myself to present it to the Arms of mrs Black. I feel what a Gaurdian and Parent the little orphan will find, and hope they will both live to be mutual blessings to each other.
with my kindest wishes for the Health happiness & Prosperity of all my Dear Friends / I am most affectionatly / your sister
pray my dear sister dispose of the inclosed for the use of miss Paine.
RC (private owner, 1957).
Enclosure not found. AA similarly sent the dispatches, along with the instructions, to Norton Quincy with a letter dated 12 April (Adams Papers).
Here, AA quoted two sections of Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace
, p. 5–6.
On 9 April the Senate voted sixteen to ten to print the instructions to the American commissioners, which were first printed in several Philadelphia newspapers; see, for example, the Philadelphia Gazette, 11 April. William Cobbett also published them in a separate pamphlet the same day. Subsequent pamphlet editions contained the dispatches, the commissioners’ full powers, and the instructions; see, for example, Message of the President of the United States, to Both Houses of Congress, April 3d. 1798, Philadelphia, 1798, Evans, No. 34814 (
Annals of Congress
, 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 538; Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette, 11 April).
Psalms, 12:1.
The enclosure has not been found. AA wrote to William Smith on 8 April lamenting both the recent deaths of several friends and the state of the nation. She enclosed the commissioners’ dispatches, remarking, “I pray God to unite all America against the most Dissolute & corrupt Nations I hope now existing” (MHi:Smith-Townsend Papers).