Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13

John Adams to Abigail Adams, 13 January 1799 Adams, John Adams, Abigail
John Adams to Abigail Adams
My Dearest Friend Phyladelphia Jan. 13. 1799

I thank God, it is now in my power to give you the pleasure you desired of receiving from me a chearful Letter. This Moment they brought me from the Post Office a Letter from our dear Thomas dated the 12 informing me of his Arrival at New York. He will come on to Phyladelphia and only laments that he cannot have the pleasure of embracing both his Parents at once. His Passage has not been uncommonly long tho the Weather must have been turbulent enough. From the bottom of my heart I rejoice at this happy Event, which has dissipated a gloom which hung over and surrounded me. Both the N. York News papers announce his arrival in a pleasing Style, for which I give them credit.1 You must be patient and not be too much in Haste to embrace him. He must stay with me, sometime. We will write you all our Plans and Speculations. We have had a thaw and long rains for many days which must have injured the Roads so that I cannot foresee when he will arrive but I hope it will be soon enough to dance at the Ball, which will be on Wednesday night the 16th. 2

At a time when I am necessarily deprived of the Company of all the rest of my Family I consider this Arrival as a Choice Blessing and a great Consolation.

You will have recd a Letter from him no doubt before this will reach you,—think of Us and rejoice with Us.

I dont wonder that Mr Cranch is disposed to see his Interpretation of the Prophecies confirmed. The twelve hundred and thirteenth or fourteenth Year of the Hegira approches near the End of the 1260 days— Less than half a Century has Mahomet to be believed a Prophet, according to Mr Cranch.3 But I have not time. Yours / with unabated Affection

J. A

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”; endorsed: “J A Jan’ry 13 / 1799.”

1.

The New-York Gazette and the New York Daily Advertiser, 12 Jan., reported TBA’s arrival; the latter added, “We give him a cordial welcome to his native shores, and we congratulate our country on the return of one of her most promising Sons.”

354 2.

A ball in honor of JA was held on 16 Jan. at the New Theatre in Philadelphia. The theater was elaborately decorated for the occasion, with a temporary floor built over the orchestra pit to accommodate several hundred attendees. Upon JA’s arrival the band played the “President’s March,” and toasts were offered to “the Government and its supporters,” to the city of Philadelphia, and to the military, among others (Philadelphia Gazette, 17 Jan.; Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 17 Jan.).

3.

In a 4 Jan. letter to JA (Adams Papers), AA wrote that Richard Cranch’s “whole system is about to be fullfilld in Spight of Pater Wests predictions.” Rev. Samuel West believed that biblical prophecies pointed to the end of the pope’s reign in 1813. However, others calculated that the end of 1,260 years of rule by the Roman Catholic Church would occur at the end of the eighteenth century, and they believed that view was vindicated by the French victory over Rome and the exile of Pope Pius VI in Feb. 1798. JA was also referencing the Islamic year of 1213 and the belief that Islam would also fall in its 1,260th year (Sprague, Annals Amer. Pulpit , 8:43; Michael Lienesch, “The Role of Political Millennialism in Early American Nationalism,” Western Political Quarterly, 36:446–452 [Sept. 1983]; Cambridge Modern Hist. , 8:637–638; George Stanley Faber, A Dissertation on the Prophecies … Relative to the Great Period of 1260 Years, 2 vols., London, 1806, 1:iii–iv).

Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw, 14 January 1799 Adams, Abigail Shaw, William Smith
Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw
Dear William Quincy Jan’ry 14 1799

your Aunt Cranch received a Letter from your Mother of Janry 1st in which she makes mention of having received a Letter from you: I wrote to her soon after she returnd Home, and sent the Letter to Boston. it was given to some private hand, and never has reachd her.1 I have since written to her by the post. She and your sister were well, and Abbes Arm much better for the application of Hughes ointment.

I have read Logans Letter what reliance to place upon his statement, time must devolope. I believe his Letter does not agree with his professions abroad, for it was confidently asserted and that from an Authority who seldom writes at Random, that Logan did give himself out, as a person sent in a public Character, by individuals—2

The Jacobins make a great Bluster about the conduct of Capt Loring. one would suppose that our whole Navy had been captured. I agree with them that an insult ought not to be submitted to from any Nation, but I cannot see the propriety of Legislative inteference I may however be wrong in my opinion.—3 There are some Members of the House of Reps, who ought never to be admitted to the table of the President again—Findley, New, Clay, Clopton, these infamous Letter writers, ought to be singled out.4 you will ask me, why then should the Matzzie Letter writer be invited. I really do not know how to answer that Question, but by repliing that he is invited as vice President,—as an officer of the Government. o I forgot Blair the 355 Irishman he too ought to be excluded, and if I was there not a Liar wretch of them all should come:5

I request you to present my Love to Mrs otis.

From your affectionate

Aunt A Adams

Louissa request her uncle to Frank the Letter for her Brother the one not addrest is for you to superscribe for col smith and forward as soon as you can—getting it Frankd first6

RC (DLC:Shaw Family Papers); addressed: “Mr William S Shaw / Philadelphia”; endorsed: “Mrs Adams / Jan 14th recd 23d. 99. / Answered 24th Jan”; docketed: “1799 Jany 14 / 14.”

1.

In her 1 Jan. letter to Mary Smith Cranch, Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody noted her pleasure at the improved health of Richard Cranch and AA and commented on Elizabeth Palmer’s efforts to adjust to life in Atkinson, N.H. (DLC:Shaw Family Papers). The letter AA wrote to Peabody in the fall has not been found.

2.

AA was likely referring to JQA’s characterization of Dr. George Logan’s unauthorized mission to France in his letter to her of 14 Sept. 1798, above.

3.

In search of British subjects hiding on American vessels, Capt. John Loring (d. 1808) of the British ship of the line Carnatic stopped the American sloop Baltimore, Capt. Isaac Phillips, on 16 Nov. off the coast of Havana and impressed five sailors. Democratic-Republicans emphasized this breach of Anglo-American relations to counter Federalist discussion of French depredations on American shipping. After some debate, the House of Representatives resolved on 2 Jan. 1799 to request that JA present to Congress any information he had on the matter. JA complied on 8 Jan., sending pertinent correspondence and the circular orders sent to naval captains instructing them not to permit their detention by foreign vessels and permitting the use of necessary force to avoid such detention. The orders made clear that sailors were never to be given up unless the ship itself was being surrendered. JA also dismissed Captain Phillips (Stark, Loyalists of Mass. , p. 425–426; DeConde, The Quasi-War , p. 202–203; Annals of Congress , 5th Cong., 3d sess., p. 2546, 2554–2556, 2574–2577).

4.

For these circular letters, see AA to William Cranch, 16 May 1798, and note 2, above.

5.

Shaw had reported to AA on 9 Jan. 1799 (Adams Papers) that Thomas Jefferson would be among the company dining with JA that day. For Jefferson’s letter to Philip Mazzei, in which he criticized George Washington and other Federalists, and for Blair McClenachan’s attacks on Washington and JA, see vols. 10:312, 313; 11:451; 12:164–165.

6.

Not found.