Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12

Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams, 20 April 1798 Cranch, Mary Smith Adams, Abigail
Mary Smith Cranch to Abigail Adams
Dear Sister Quincy April 20th 1798

I have read the dispatches from the Envoys with as much astonishment as the Jacobins in congress heard them but not with those twinges of conscience which some of them must feel. those who by their false representations to that nation of the designs of the Government here & the spirit of the People in General, those who have known the truth & have ly’d to the publick, those who have been all the Session abuseing the President in & out of the House— I envy not the feelings of the Vs. President—

I Question whether there will be a man in the united States who will not read them, & mr Otis exellent well tim’d Letter to Gen: Heath being printed in the Same paper will get read also—1 Dochester makes a Scrub figuer with their Petition & the article upon which they acted worded as it was in the warrent has afforded a Subject for much ridicule. I Charge the observations upon it in the centinal to mr [Otiss brevade?] & Suppose I am right. the Cobler is 514 williard Baxter. the Coll you know the Deacon mr How.2 the Abington Specimen of folly tho handsomly worded, is said to be the product of Parson Niles.3 but Shame will be the Portion of them all— I am told that the People who were against arming are now for fighting them wherever they can meet with a Frenchman— So true is the concluding Sentence of mr Hopkin’s observations in the Pamphlit you was So kind as to send Mr cranch, & for which he thanks you.

It will be seen that the american Spirit can yet be rous’d nothing could be better calculated to awake them from their political Slumber than the insolent demand of Talarand & the Directory for their money. the Sound of their dollars pouring into French Coffers is greatly Superior to any marchal Musick Tis curious to observe that, the British Treaty is not amonge their list of complaints & here all their depradations were ascrib’d to it

I inclose a Letter from Doctor Tufts— I went yesterday to see mr Soule, & found him much better. I think if he is careful he may recover your building was raising the paint on your rooms looks very well but he went away without doing your lower closet Floor notwithstanding I charg’d the Painter to do it. it was night before he had done the other parts & he wanted to return. he may be wanted to do more then he must do it. I was quite vex’d about it, because it ought to be well dry. your Bacon is brought home mrs Porter had boil’d a Shoulder of it & I think I never Saw better—

I have got a fine parcel of Garden Seeds for you & hope to see you abound in vegitables. but as yet it has been So cold & for a week So like winter that no Gardening could be done to advantage this day is a fine one but it will take many Such to warm the [groun]d

I find mrs Quincy had a complication of dissorders. she [had] been some time unwell but keept about house & was so well [. . . .] be with her Daughter when She was ill. mrs Dowsse was also very Sick at the same time in the house; & mrs Quincy did not attend to herself as she ought. but her dessorder Suddenly put on the appearence of a dropsey & she Sunk away instantly almost—

we are all as well as usual, & our children—

I must write a few lines to washington, & I am going to see Miss Paine this morning. So Must be brief. I hope to get a Letter from you tomorrow, & will write again by Mondays Mail. I wish Cousen Louissa would make a little drapery gown out of a pice of old 515 Linnen that we may form an Idea of it, & send me a pattern of one large enough for her & a pattern of a cap Such as I ought to wear. Cousen carried all hers Fashions to atkinson with her. a Hankerchief pattern also—

Love to all Friend from your ever affectionate sister

M. Cranch

RC (Adams Papers); addressed by Richard Cranch: “To / Mrs. Abigail Adams, / the President’s Lady, / Philadelphia.”; endorsed: “Mrs Cranch / 20 April 1798.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.

1.

The dispatches from the envoys were published in both the regular edition and a special supplement of the Massachusetts Mercury, 17 April, along with a long letter of 30 March from Harrison Gray Otis to William Heath. Heath, for whom see vol. 8:99, was one of the drafters of the Roxbury petition and had forwarded it to Otis on 21 March. In the letter Otis thanked his constituents for their sincere contemplation of the armament issue but suggested their opposition stemmed from a “sincere and laudable anxiety for Peace, rather than to a deliberate examination of the arguments relating to the subject.” He then justified his support for arming, beginning with the law of nature and law of nations, both of which “authorize the right of carrying arms for self defence.” Otis warned that should nothing be done the financial implications for Massachusetts commerce would be devastating and that of the three available courses of action—embargo, a public navy, and private armament—the last was the most expeditious route to protecting Americans and U.S. commerce. He further argued that French actions were tantamount to a maritime war, but that it could devolve into full-scale war only if “our American Hearts of Oak can be shivered and splintered” by French attempts to divide the American populace. Otis therefore beseeched his Roxbury constituents to “rouse from the enchantment of mistaken gratitude, from the dream of delusive friendship, from the indolence of peace, and the apathy of riches. It is time for them to realize that … Their liberties were never in such danger as at this moment.”

2.

A town meeting held in Dorchester on 2 April voted to petition Congress against armament, believing that “the late determination to take off the Restrictions for arming is pregnant with evils, which we apprehend will eventually involve the United States in a War, with our Sister Republic.” The meeting also voted to publish the petition, which accordingly appeared in the Boston Independent Chronicle, 2–5 April. In response, the Boston Columbian Centinel, 14 April, criticized the individuals who spoke during the meeting: “Rhetoric was rummaged, and exhausted of its tropes, fancy of its imagery, and falsehood and flummery drest in their most spacious garbs, to proclaim the wondrous love France still bears to America.” Further, the article mocked the public warrant calling for the meeting: “‘To see whether the town will allow the merchantmen to arm,’ and in fact, from the debates of the foregoing gentlemen it would seem as if they imagined the prerogative lay in Dorchester.” The “Cobler” was Edward Willard Baxter (d. 1819), a cordwainer and the son of Seth and Eleanor Allen Baxter of Braintree; the “Coll” almost certainly was James Swan; and the “Deacon” was John Howe (1740–1818), the current representative for Dorchester in the Mass. General Court. All three men were on the committee that drafted the petition (Sprague, Braintree Families ; Ellen F. Vose, comp., Robert Vose and His Descendants, Boston, 1932, p. 89–90; JA, Papers , 3:354; Anna Glover, Glover Memorials and Genealogies. An Account of John Glover of Dorchester and His Descendants, Boston, 1867, p. 304; Mass., Acts and Laws , 1796–1797, p. 493).

3.

Town meetings were similarly held on 2 and 6 April 1798 in Abington, Mass., the first to appoint a committee to draft a memorial opposing armament, and the second to approve its submission to Congress. The resulting report claimed that the arming of private merchants would “prove fruitless in the object, and destructive in the consequence.” 516 Rev. Samuel Niles (1744–1814), Princeton 1769, was the minister of the First Church at Abington and the grandson of JA’s early political mentor of the same name (vol. 4:126; Boston Columbian Centinel, 14 April; Sibley’s Harvard Graduates , 9:72; Sprague, Braintree Families ).

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 21 April 1798 Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy
Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams
my dear son Philadelphia April 21 1798

It was with a mixture of pleasure and pain that I read your Letter of December 25th from Berlin No 32—1 it gave me pleasure to see your Hand writing addrest to me, after a painfull interval of three months Some of your communications were attended with circumstances which gave me pain, and anxiety, for my dear Louissa, whose situation under the circumstances you describe; must have been peculiarly distressing to both, her, and you. Nurterd as she ever was, under the tender care and Fostering wing of the tenderest of Parents; unaccustomed to fatigue, and inconveniencies of travelling, either by Land or sea, she has had them all to encounter, in a situation less able to bear them, than usual. happy for you both that they did not prove fatal to her. you must have had your share of sufferings new terrors, and allarms, for new and dear Connections, “even where you had garnerd up your Heart.”2 all your sensibility must have been awakend by a species of anxiety and distress, before unknown to you, and as woes are seldom solitary, The dangerous sickness of your Brother must have enhanced your affliction; I have enterd fully into your domestic distresses, and gratefully acknowledge the kind Providence which has carried you safely through them.—

I wrote you largly by mr Thornton who saild from hence, in the British packet, or rather from N york; the Letters were addrest to the care of mr King. I have not omitted a month since October last, and have frequently written more than once. By this opportunity to Bremin, I send you a duplicate of the dispatches from our Envoys, and instructions to them, together with some News papers.3 By the latter you will see that our Countrymen are seriously allarm’d and are vigorously exerting themselves to put our Country in a proper State of defence. the effects of the communication which have been made in compliance with the request of the House of Rep’s, has made the blind to see and the Deaf to hear; it has been like an Electrical shock, as far as it has yet extended. The instructions which were communicated at the same time, were so candid so liberal, so 517 fully up to any thing which the Party themselves had ventured to a vow, that the words of Milton might justly be applied,

Abash’d the Devil stood, And saw virtue in her own shape, how lovely?

It would be difficult for you at the distance you are; to conceive the change which has taken place in this city; the center of foreign influence, and Jacobinism the Real French Men, the unprincipled Jacobin, the emissaries of France remain unchanged, but real Americans who have been deceived, and betray’d by falshood, and deception; are the mass of the lower class of the people. they are uniting & united, and I would fain hope that the Hydra monster of Jacobinism is crushd never to rise with such mischevious effects again. those in Congress who dare not now act, fearing the voice of the people will cry out against them, whom they have deceived, are falling off, and going home. Giles, Nicholas, Clayton Clopton from Virgina, are gone & going.4 old Findly has written a Letter to his Friends in the Western County, which has by some means got into Peters paper; it is one continued tissue of Lies from begining to end.5 the journals of congress & senate are proofs that it is so, and the old wretch could not but know it. he will get enough of it before Congress rises— the subtle jesuit Gallatin will turn, and twist, twist & turn, but the Indignation of the House rises against him so strongly that he is quite placed in the back ground, and must quit the feild or take a less conspicuous station.6 After the arrival of the dispatches the President sent to both Houses of Congress the Letter of Jan’ry 8th (in which the envoys say, that they have not been received neither do they expect to be,) accompanied with a message to them. a day or two after arrived the whole Bugget which being in cypher took some days to decypher. after reading and considering them, the President sent an other message which you will find in the pamphlet I send you; that Message contains the result drawn from a view of the dispatches, but which at that time the President thought might risk the safety of our Envoys if made publick. he therefore withheld them. This Message was openly & publickly call’d a War speech, and the Jacobin Party did not fail to make the allarm general. they attempted first to stir up the Quakers in this city, but a timely address to them the morning of their meeting, by Peter, who is held in much estimation by them prevented them from petitioning against war.7 having faild here, there next step was to 518 excite meetings in more remote parts of the Union; and to procure them in the Presidents own state accordingly through the influence of Gen’ll Heath a meeting was held in Roxbury, then in Milton Dochester Cambridge and Abington. but before any were received here, except those from Roxbury, the House calld for the dispatches, and instructions which being communicated, produced the effect I have described and now addresses are comeing in from all quarters expressive of the intire satisfaction of the addressors in the conduct of the executive and of their determination to support him, and to adhere to their Government. some you will find in the papers I send you, others are not yet made publick. N york & Baltimore are following this city & state. York Town Presented one yesterday, and the one inclosed was presented to day. I send it you to prove the change wrought—8

[]They seem already to have quench’d seditions Brand And zeal that burnt it, only warms the land The jealous Sect’s that durst not trust their cause So far from their own Will, as to the laws. Him for their umpire and their synod take And their appeal alone to Ceasar make”9

I heard last week from mr Johnston’s and Family. they were well. I mournd with you, and with all good people the loss of Your much esteemed Friend Dr Clark of Boston of whose sudden death I gave you an account in my last Letter10

To my dear Thomas I will write by the May packet. I am sorry he is so great a sufferer by his mother but the Rheumatism is an hereditary Gift I fear.

I wrote to mrs Adams in answer to her kind & joint Letter.11 I hope she has received it. I wrote to you and to Thomas whilst I was at East Chester, about the 6 or 7th of November— your sister also wrote to you at the same time— that your Father does not write you often, you can easily devine the cause— with Love to Mrs Adams and Thomas, I am my Dear son affectionatly / your Mother

A Adams

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed by TBA: “Mrs: A— Adams— / 21 April 1798— / June Recd. / 27 Do Answd:.”

1.

That is, JQA to AA, 28 Dec. 1797, above.

2.

A paraphrase of Shakespeare, Othello, Act IV, scene ii, line 55.

3.

Possibly the ship Eagle, Capt. Tate, which left Philadelphia on 22 April 1798 for Hamburg; JQA noted in his 27 June letter to AA 519 (Adams Papers) that he received the 21 April letter “not however by the way of Bremen, but from Hamburg” (Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 19 April; Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 25 April).

4.

Joshua Clayton (1744–1798), elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Vining, served as a senator for Delaware from 19 Jan. until his death on 11 Aug.; he appears to have been absent from the Senate between 13 and 23 April. John Clopton (1756–1816), University of Pennsylvania 1776, represented Virginia in the 4th and 5th Congresses and later in the 7th through 14th Congresses; on 11 April he received a leave of absence for three weeks. John Nicholas was excused from the House for the remainder of the session on 24 April ( Biog. Dir. Cong. ; U.S. Senate, Jour. , 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 471–477; U.S. House, Jour. , 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 257, 268–269).

5.

See AA to Robert Goodloe Harper, [13 April], and note 1, above.

6.

Albert Gallatin continued to represent Pennsylvania in Congress until 3 March 1801 ( Biog. Dir. Cong. ).

7.

The Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette, 26 March 1798, offered a “TIMELY CAUTION” to the city’s Quaker residents that a “Petition is hawking about” by local druggist and Free Quaker minister Samuel Weatherill (or Wetherill). While the petition would appeal to “your well known and amiable principles,” the article warned readers that Weatherill was more pro-French than antiwar, and the petition was likely the work of Democratic-Republicans. The Porcupine’s Gazette, 13 April, further commented on the petition’s disappearance: “Sammy was busy amongst his chemical matters, when a bottle of oil of vitriol accidentally broke; some of it got into his pocket and burnt up the petition” (Joseph W. England, ed., The First Century of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 1821–1921, Phila., 1922, p. 36).

8.

A meeting of the New York Chamber of Commerce on 20 April “unanimously” approved “the candid and honorable overtures of our executive” toward France. The citizens of Baltimore met on 18 April and resolved that “the conduct of the Executive of the United States, in relation to France, has been liberal, wise and just.” That same day the residents of York, Penn., presented an address to JA noting their satisfaction with “the most zealous exertions on the part of our Executive to conciliate the French, and restore that harmony and mutual confidence between the two Republics.” The enclosure has not been found but was possibly the address of the Philadelphia mayor and aldermen, who assured JA “of their perfect approbation of your administration, and their entire confidence in your wisdom, integrity and patriotism” (New York Commercial Advertiser, 24 April; Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 21, 23, 24 April).

9.

John Dryden, “To His Sacred Majesty. A Panegyrick on His Coronation,” lines 79–84.

10.

That is, AA to JQA, 8 April, for which see her letter to JQA of 13 April, note 5, above.

11.

See AA to LCA, 24 Nov. 1797, above.