Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
th1798.
I received your two Letters of June 18 & 22 yesterday.1 The expences upon the out House I wish to
have in a seperate account, the painting the dewelling House & any repairs made Else
where in 166 the General account. you will therefore Credit me
500 dollors upon account of the out Building, and what remains I will either remit or
Settle when ever I shall come, which I hope will be in the month approaching. Yet it
does not seem as if the President could be absent but a very little while. every day
brings up something He is now embarressed with Ship loads of French West Indian Blacks
& Molatoes as well as White People, who are now lying below at the Fort. they had
taken part with the English, against their Country, and have chosen to come here as a
place of safety. the citizens are allarmd, and justly they apply to the Govenour. he
finds he has not power to restrain their landing after their quaritine is perfomd; he
therefore applies to the President. Congress have given him no power. he therefore lays
the Letters before Congress—2 the Alien
Bill will not extend to them they say. we come as Friends, in distress— the Bill for
making void the Treaties, has not yet past the House. whilst that is not done, there is
no authority to restrain the landing of any Number of French people in any part of the
United States. we have in Congress very Good Men for calm & peaceable times, but not
one who is bold and intripid enough for the Present, who is a Federalist. they do not
get on so fast as the exigencies of the times, and the critical state of the Country
requires— if mr Fosters resolutions, had been committed when he offerd them instead of
postponed, these people could have been immediatly orderd away— they suffer no doubt, but under existing circumstances, to permit them to land
would endanger the peace of the Citizens, for such men are fit for any evil work—and we
have in this City & in N york, and I presume in all our Capitals, more or less of
the spirit of Revolution & insurgency You will see by the papers that Bache is at
length taken hold of. it was done by the Attorney General of the State, and not at the
Instance of the President who was not knowing to his arrest untill it had taken place,
but not a paper has he publishd for six month I believe a year, but what would subject
him to a commitment.3 Greenleafs paper, I
am told is worse than Bache, if that can be. I think the Attorney Gen’ll of the states
ought to procecute the constant libellous publications which issue from those fountains
of Corruption.4
you will see by mr Gerrys Letter the situation in which he is. if
the envoys had all returnd together they would have conducted like Men, like the Representitives of an independant Nation— now
the Jacobins circulate an Idea that mr Gerry will make a treaty. they do not doubt it. it is therefore madness
to persue measures which lead to
167
war Such language is held in senate in the House, in Baches
& Greenleafs paper, and I am told the President accused of wanting to have laws
enacted to make crimes, to erect the Goulitine, to destroy
the Liberty of the Press, and that nothing but the Militia
keeps him in any Awe— Such I hear was the contents of Greenleafs paper of this week.5 what can we expect should the French send
an Army here? the Body of the people are of different Sentiments I know but we cannot
have safety, or security whilst these things are permitted uncheckd
I am well acquainted with mr Goodrich and will make the inquiry you
desire. the Army & the Navy will give our Young Gentlemen an opportunity to display
their Love of Country. in the civil department, there are always more applications, 50
to one than offices— Worthy men whose circumstances are distresst, and whose property is
lost, are frequently urged upon the President for offices in which the publick Revenue
is concernd, but he has made it a rule against his personal feelings and wishes, to put
no such temptation or trust into their hands. upon this Principle he made an appointment
in this city of a collector for this port, yesterday, when a strong & powerfull
interest was made for an unfortunate Man whose Character was fair—but his circumstances
desperate— but the publick credit must not be hazarded for private friendships— it is
indeed a painfull task assignd the President, and his Patronage will not weigh against the pain and anxiety and responsibility of it—
we Have not yet see mr Soper—6
The President is rejoiced to hear any thing respecting his Farm— which he longs to see & walk over—
I mourn the death of dr Belknap as one of my worthy Friends, as a man of virtue piety & Religion Leaning & Science. it is a loss to our Country to which he was an honour and an ornament. in such times, as these to be deprived of one such Man is a calamity to be deplored many of our props are removed, and we have Cause for Sorrow lamentation & mourning and the inquiry, “wherfore we are thus contended with” should induce each individual to examine himself.—7
The season is becomeing very oppressive and sickly—but we must take our chance— I do not fear for myself so much as for the President, whose mind is over burdend with publick cares.
My kind Regards to mrs Tufts and to all other of our Friend
Yours &C
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs. Adams June 29th— 98”; notation: “14.”
In his letters to AA of 18 and 22 June, Tufts relayed local news and reported on the Adamses’ properties. He also repeated his patronage request for Turell Tufts and informed her of the death of Rev. Jeremy Belknap. He wrote again to AA on 30 June, praising the conduct of the American commissioners, noting the difficulty in managing the Adamses’ affairs, and offering suggestions for improvements (all Adams Papers).
On 27 June JA submitted to Congress a letter to him
from Thomas Mifflin on the subject of immigrants arriving from Port-au-Prince, St.
Domingue. Mifflin was concerned about potential dangers to the country, but his
ability as governor to act was limited. He believed the immigrants could try to enter
the country at another port and therefore wanted the federal government to address the
situation. JA, in his covering message to Congress, declared, “my opinion
coincides entirely” with Mifflin’s and urged Congress to act as their “authority alone
appears to me adequate to the occasion.” In response, the Senate on 30 June passed “An
act to authorize the President to prevent or regulate the landing of French
passengers, and other persons, who may arrive within the ports of the United States
from foreign places.” The House of Representatives took up the Senate’s bill the same
day. The House debate raised questions as to whether those coming into the country
from the West Indies were actually French, and, as the Alien Act had already granted
the president the power to expel foreigners, whether this addition was needed. The
House ultimately tabled the discussion until the next session (
Amer. State Papers, Foreign
Relations
, 2:201–202;
Annals of Congress
,
5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 592–594, 2063–2066, 2067).
On 26 June William Rawle (1759–1836), U.S. attorney for
Pennsylvania, secured an indictment of Benjamin Franklin Bache under the common law
offense of seditious libel. Appearing in chambers before Judge Richard Peters, Bache’s
counsel argued a lack of federal jurisdiction, as it was disputed whether the federal
courts could hear criminal cases under common law. Peters granted leave to counsel to
argue jurisdiction when the case came before the circuit court in the fall and
released Bache on bail in the interim. Bache defended himself in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 27 June, insisting he would be
vindicated on not just the technicality of jurisdiction but also because of freedom of
the press. He further pledged “that prosecution no more than persecution, shall cause
him to abandon what he considers the cause of truth and republicanism; which he will
support, to the best of his abilities, while life remains.” The case was ultimately
vacated due to Bache’s sudden death in September (Frank M. Eastman, Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania, A History, 1623–1923, 4
vols., N.Y., 1922, 4:56–57;
Doc. Hist. Supreme Court
, 8:116–117; Philadelphia
Carey’s United States’ Recorder, 30 June).
Thomas Greenleaf was not prosecuted for sedition prior to his
death in September. However, several newspaper printers were later indicted under the
Sedition Act, including Thomas Adams, James Thomson Callender, and Bache’s successor,
William Duane (Smith, Freedom’s Fetters
, p. 252, 277, 278).
The New York Journal, 27 June,
printed an article accusing Federalists of wanting “nothing but the courage of a
Robespierre to establish the same system of tyranny and terror. If they dared, a
guillotine would be erected in every town; forms of law would be thrown aside; crimes
would be created and punished at the will of the President; and the heads of
Jefferson, Madison, and many other patriots would be exhibited to the multitude.”
Edmund Soper carried Tufts’ 13 June letter to JA, in
which Tufts reiterated a previous request that Soper be considered for an appointment
(Adams Papers). Soper
(1759–1811), who was a son of Maj. Edmund Soper (1731–1776), for whom see vol. 2:136, held local offices in
Braintree and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the army by JA in March
1799 (Sprague, Braintree Families
; U.S. Senate, Exec.
Jour.
, 5th Cong., 3d sess., p. 322).
AA paraphrased Exodus, 17:2.