Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
th1798
The President received yesterday your obliging favour of May 29th: accompanied by two of your Fast Sermons.1 permit me sir to 90 be the organ of his acknowledgment to you for them; A Friend had Sent him one a week
before; which he read with pleasure and Satisfaction. It is indeed, a consolatary
reflection amidst the weight of cares which press upon him from every quarter and the
dangers which threaten our Country,2 that
in the Hand of Providence he may be renderd instrumental of
I had permission a week ago to transmit to you an extract of a Letter from my Son J Q A. Since which, the President has received from our youngest Son; the Letter which by his leave, I inclose, to you—
The intelligence which it contains may be usefull to the publick.
it is thought best that it should be publishd in a Boston paper, rather than in one at
this place for Reasons which your own mind will sujest. You will if you think proper,
begin the extract, with, “our intelligence from Home” substituting, America, for Home, and Friend, for Mother, the extract to go no
further, than the passage which closes, “Should it be disposed to pardon my
Herisies”4
You will be so good as to return the Letter to the President when you have done with it.
The subscription paper You will give me leave to retain to an other opportunity, and inclose me a few more.5 I shall take pleasure in aiding the prosecution of a Work which will undoubtedly be renderd valuable, and usefull to the World, particuliarly so to our Country.
With my Respects to Mrs Belknap / I subscribe myself, Your / obliged Friend and Humble / servant
RC (MHi:Jeremy Belknap Papers); endorsed: “Mrs
Abigail Adams / June 5 1798.” Dft (Adams Papers).
In the Dft, dated 3 June, AA noted that Belknap’s letter was received “this day” rather than 4 June as stated here. For Belknap’s 29 May letter to JA, see Belknap to AA, 30 May, and note 1, above.
In the Dft, AA wrote and then canceled here: “that he can look with confidence to the Great Ruler of Kingdoms & Nations, conscious that Truth and justice has been dealt out to those who array themselves against us as Enemies, and Seek our destruction, and.”
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man,
Epistle 1, line 16.
For AA’s request that Belknap have an extract printed of JQA’s 17 Feb. letter to JA, see Belknap to AA, 30 May, and note 5, above. For the publication of the extract of TBA’s 4 March letter to JA, see Belknap to AA, 14 June, and note 1, below.
Belknap sought subscribers for the second volume of his American Biography; or, An Historical Account of Those Persons
Who Have Been Distinguished in America, Boston, 1798, Evans, Nos. 26637, 33393. Belknap intended the work
to be a multivolume collection of essays on the “Adventurers, Statesmen, Philosophers,
Divines, Warriors, Authors” and others who influenced American history. The first
volume, published in 1794, covered Europe’s early exploration of the 91 Americas and relations with the native
populations. This second volume focused on the North American settlements of the
seventeenth century, in particular those of Virginia and Massachusetts, while a
planned third volume was to cover important New England individuals (Washington, Papers, Retirement Series
, 2:302–305, 400; Kirsch, Jeremy
Belknap
, p. 130–133).
th1798
I write you this Morning just to say that there are dispatches from our Envoys up to April by which it appears that they have had several conferences with Tallyrand, the subject of which was obtaining Money— they are just decupherd and will be communicated. no Reception from the directory, nor like to be any— I cannot but say to you, what will strike every one, that every hour they remain in France, degrades their Country, and embarrasses our counsels beyond conception—1
yours &c
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters); addressed by Samuel Bayard Malcom: “The Honorable
Richard Cranch / Quincy / near / Boston”; endorsed by Richard Cranch: “Letter from
Mrs / A Adams (Pha:) / June
5th. 1798”; notation by JA: “J. Adams.”
On 5 June JA delivered to Congress a dispatch dated
9 March from the American commissioners to France enclosing a lengthy report on two
recent meetings with Talleyrand. At these meetings Talleyrand insisted that the United
States prove its friendly disposition toward France by providing a loan, which he
assured them would be payable after the war and kept secret from Great Britain so as
to maintain the appearance of American neutrality. The commissioners reiterated that
agreeing to a loan violated their instructions and exceeded their powers. The
commissioners, with the Directory’s permission, decided that John Marshall and Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney would return to the United States for further instructions and
Elbridge Gerry would remain behind in France (
Amer. State Papers, Foreign
Relations
, 2:185–188). The dispatch and the enclosure were printed in
the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 6 June.
The next official dispatch from the commissioners, dated 3 April, did not arrive until
14 June, for which see AA to Mary
Smith Cranch, 19 June, and note 3, below.
I received a few days ago with great pleasure your favour of 5
March. the perusal of which affected me with various sensations, some pleasing and
others less so, but all, cordially participating in the circumstances affecting your
welfare and happiness, mentioned in it.1
Neither the length of time nor the distance at which I have been from my Country, nor
yet, any change in my own situation has effected any alteration in the sentiments of
attachment to my 92 friends, with which I parted from them, and
consequently I could not but share with full soul, the feelings, which the occurrences
of your life, whether fortunate or adverse occasion to you. Some of the most precious
comforts I know how to value, because I myself now enjoy the same in an eminent degree;
others I can estimate also for the contrary reason, because I have been disappointed in
the hope of possessing them.— The blessings of wedded love
have been mine, almost a year, but I have not the happiness of being a parent.— The
partner of my life, like your’s adds every day to the ties of affection which united us,
and but for a misfortune of which you will have heard before this time, I might have now
completed all the immediate relations of domestic life and participated in all the
sources of domestic felicity.
I had heard with much concern of Mr:
Greenleaf’s misfortunes, and I have been sincerely grieved upon finding in your letter,
that they have in some measure extended to you. I hope that a more favourable turn of
fortune, may relieve you from all embarassment, and should feel happy if it were in my
power to contribute to it.
At a time when the appearance of peace is returning to Europe,
every symptom announces that our own Country will be involved in unavoidable war. If any
thing could have prevented it before, it is now made impossible for us to escape it, by
the publication of the documents containing the negotiation of our Commissioners at
Paris. They unfold indeed a scene of corruption & venality, which Americans could
scarcely believe, but which is universally known in France, and frequently complained
of, but which cannot be remedied, because the most depraved men, are at the same time
those who hold unlimited power in their hands. They have an absolute controul even over
the press, and not a newspaper in France has dared to intimate the proposals, which our
commissioners rejected, of offering money to the members of the Directory. These facts
however, cannot be thoroughly concealed from the rest of Europe and they will carry the
resentment of the Directory to its utmost pitch of rage. Our Country must expect the
worst that they can inflict upon it, and I hope will be properly prepared for its own
defence. I said the appearance of peace was returning to
Europe, but it is nothing more; a real and permanent peace is yet very distant. It is
impossible that France should for years to come, either be at peace herself or leave her
neighbours so.
Hitherto there has been little done this season, besides making preparations. An immense armament has been gathering in France 93 these eight months, said to be destined for the invasion of England. A large force, forming part of it has embarked and probably sailed from Toulon, but as this is not a place from which an attack upon England can be directly made, there have been numerous conjectures as to the point of its direction. It is commanded by Buonaparte.
The English on their side have attempted a small expedition against Ostend and destroyed a sluice, which affords an internal communication between that place and Dunkirks, but it has cost them 1500 men, who were taken before they could again go on board their ships.2
I am, with the warmest wishes for your prosperity and happiness, ever affectionately your friend.
LbC in TBA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “W. Cranch Esqr:”; APM
Reel 133.
Vol. 12:440–442.
On 19 May the British Navy attacked a French naval installation
at Ostend, Belgium, that was expanding canals in order to admit larger vessels. The
British successfully destroyed the canal locks and sluices as well as several ships in
the harbor, but adverse weather prevented the troops from returning to the ships. The
entire British force of about 1,300 men was captured by the French after a short
battle (Great Britain, War Office, British Minor Expeditions,
1746–1814, London, 1884, p. 27–31).