Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
th1799 Tuesday Eve.
I have received your letters of Jan. 3d & 6th with all that pleasure & gratitude
which so much good counsel deserved. I do love to read your letters.
Before this reaches you, you must have heard of Cousen Thomas’s arrival at N York, from whence he wrote to you.1 He arrived in this city this afternoon, & is very well. It would do you good to see how happy it has made Uncle. I wish Aunt was here.
“The political green house” I have read and admired. You will see by the papers which I sent you this morn, that a part of it has been read in the house of Rep. by Nicholas and more by Mr Dana.2 Have you seen “Guillotina” for this year? It is much better than the last.3 In the green house, I think the description of the battle between Nelson & Buonaparte is equal to any of Homer’s battles.4
360I wish I could think with you with any reason “that congress seem disposed to do any thing” they have not I believe passed a single bill as yet.5 The bancrupt bill—the bill on Mr Griswolds motion & Blounts impeachment have occupied all their time. & neither of the bills have passed the house & it is very doubtful whether the bankrupt bill will pass the house.6 The Senate after spending nearly a fortnight on Blounts impeachment have declared it null & void—that a senator is not an officer of the United States & therefore unimpeachable. I tremble for my country if it has not energy enough to punish a man “guilty of crimes & misdebeanors.”7
The meeting of the president & his son was to me very affecting. He took him in his arms the tears all the while running down his cheeks and said I thank, my God, my son that you have returned again to your native country. I would not wish to live, if I could have seen such a scene and not have been moved.
Turell Tufts is apointed consul to Surrinam Please to mention it to Uncle T.
The dispatches are not yet published I have been to Mr—s office a number of times in order to get them to carry to the house & Senate, but he says he wishes to make some comments &c. There are some very hard things said against him. You must have seen G—ns motion requesting the president to send them in.8
I wrote to my mother by this mornings mail but will write in a few days again & send the letter to you. I have received no letters from her as yet.
Love to Louisa
Your
mS S—
There is no one who enquires after you with more affection than Mr Tracy Senator from Conn. I love to have him come & ask me.
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “W S Shaw Janry / 15th / 1799.”
Not found.
Shaw likely sent AA the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 14, 15 Jan., which covered the
10 Jan. debate in the House of Representatives over the Logan Act, where John Nicholas
and Samuel Whittlesey Dana both read from The Political
Green-House, For the Year 1798, Hartford, Conn., [1799], Evans, No. 36133.
The “Guillotina, For the Year 1799” was published in the Connecticut Courant, 7 January. The poem recapped the
previous year’s major political events from a Federalist viewpoint, in particular the
passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the appointment of George Washington as
commander in chief, and Dr. George Logan’s unauthorized mission to France. The poem
accused Thomas Jefferson of instructing Logan to go to France and in Jefferson’s name:
“‘Tell them, to make impression far, / That they would fain avoid a war; / Such demo
plans must surely thrive, / In spite of our Executive. / ’Tis thus they’ll raise our chop-fall’n party, / And gain a host
361 of friends full hearty— / Fly, speed your course,
and Satan bless, / Your Mission with complete success’” (lines 285–292).
The Political Green-House, For the Year
1798 described the Battle of the Nile, in part: “The Gallic navy foil’d and
torn, / With pale discomfiture forlorn, / Wide scatter’d o’er Rosetta’s bay, / In
prostrate ruin helpless lay; / Two shatter’d fly; the rest remain / To wear the
valiant victor’s chain; / While o’er the wreck-obstructed tide / The British ships in
triumph ride” (lines 721–728).
Shaw was quoting from AA’s letter to JA, 6 Jan., above.
Congress had tried throughout the 1790s to pass bankruptcy
legislation without success. The issue gained urgency, however, after the financial
failure and imprisonment of Robert Morris. Debate on the most recent bill, which dealt
with large commercial debtors, hinged on ideological differences between Federalists
and Democratic-Republicans over whether the country was primarily commercial or
agrarian. Despite a Federalist majority in the House, the bill failed by three votes
on 15 Jan. 1799 (Bruce H. Mann, Republic of Debtors:
Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence, Cambridge, 2002, p. 168–169,
205–214, 327).
For the Blount affair, see vol. 12:x–xi. William Blount refused
to appear at his trial before the Senate on 3 Jan. and instead was represented by
Jared Ingersoll and Alexander James Dallas, who argued that the Senate lacked the
jurisdiction to try him. James Asheton Bayard and Robert Goodloe Harper,the managers
from the House, argued that Blount was subject to impeachment as a civil officer as
the term was used in the Constitution; however, Ingersoll and Dallas prevailed, and
after three days of debate a motion to overrule Blount’s plea was rejected, and the
case was dismissed on 14 Jan. (William H. Masterson, William
Blount, Baton Rouge, La., 1954, p. 339, 341–342;
Annals of Congress
,
5th Cong., 3d sess., p. 2245–2319).
In his 8 Dec. 1798 speech to Congress, JA said he
would submit dispatches on French affairs that had been received since the close of
the previous session. Despite this assertion and JA’s repeated requests,
Timothy Pickering had been holding the papers, primarily Elbridge Gerry’s
correspondence with Talleyrand, ostensibly because he was drafting a report to
accompany the dispatches. Unaware of the reasons for the delay, Albert Gallatin on 8
Jan. 1799 introduced a resolution requesting the dispatches because he did not believe
the House should consider legislation on Franco-American relations without them. On
Harper’s belief that the information was forthcoming, the resolution was laid aside
until 16 Jan. when Gallatin repeated his motion but again agreed to postpone it. The
dispatches were finally submitted on 18 Jan. (
Annals of Congress
,
5th Cong., 3d sess., p. 2421, 2572–2573, 2677, 2725;
Amer. State Papers, Foreign
Relations
, 2:204–229; Elkins and McKitrick, Age of
Federalism
, p. 613–614). For Pickering’s report, submitted on 21 Jan.,
see Shaw to AA, 21 Jan., and
note 2, below.
ry16
th1799
I received yesterday your Letter of Jan’ry 6th, with the News papers to the 7th Clapole excepted; which usually has the first debates, so that I got no debate later than I received on saturday of the 5th However inaccurate the Printers may report the debates in Philadelphia: is best known to those who deliver, and those who hear them. when curtaild, and retaild by our Printers they are absolutely murderd. reading last Evening mr otiss speeh in replie to Gallatin, in Russels paper, I was as much provoked with the Printer, as I was pleasd with mr otis’s Wit & point, in the Allegory he drew respecting the War which Gallatin threatned to carry into our Borders1 Russel 362 has rob’d it of every Brillancy, and it brought to my mind a couplet written by some wit upon the translations of Virgil, by, Trap,
I thought I had regularly noticed to you the receipt of your
Letters. I have one of the 16 December 18th 20th 22 24
& 28th and of Janry 2d & 6th.3 all former ones I have acknowledgd. I begin to
be affraid that you will do so well without me at Philadelphia, that my company will
not be mist and there is nothing so mortifying as to be considerd of little or no
concequence, or importance in the world. I always knew that mr Brisler had no Geese,
and as it made him so happy, I was well satisfied that it should be so, for with all
his self satisfaction, he is very easily cowd or crampt and then he always means so
well, and really does so well, that it would be a pitty he should have a compettitor,
for as I just observed, it is very Humiliating to be thought of little or no
concequence—
whom amongst your acquaintance can you imagine to have gone
Chaplin on Board the constitution? but the Rev’d William
Austin! what an odd Genius? he is determined to see the world he says in all its
forms. he is to instruct the Boys on Board in reading &c there are said to be 50
of them. his pay is 40 dollors pr month4
Mr Black received mr Brislers Letter last Evening. he came this Morning to see me, exprest himself much obliged to the President, and to mr Brisler for his attention. he will write to mr Brisler. he thanks you for your offer. He says that he cannot conceive his Brother so reduced. when he was last spring at Philadelphia, His Brother requested him to take an inventary of what he had in his store that he had to the amount of a thousand dollors— he shew him Notes of Hand to the amount of two Hundred pounds & he told him he had 500 dollors by him in cash, and that he did not owe a Hundred. mr Black left in his Hands what belongd to mr Hall, and told him he should not call for it, but if he was like to do otherways than well, he must remember that it was the Childs property. mr Black doubts his Brothers marriage and thinks the application for to have him burried is a Scheme of the Womans, in order to secure or make way with what he has left. He wishes to have inquiry made of the person of whom mr Black hired his House, (the person lived opposite,) what were the real circumstances of his Brother and if he was really married, by whom & what evidence can be procured of it? the mr 363 Thomson who applied, in behalf of his Brother, he is desirious to procure some further intelligence respecting. He says if there are two Hundred pounds in Notes, and they are good for any thing, the expences of his funeral ought to be defraed from them or any thing which may be found. he will pay the expence, but cannot help thinking it is a fraud of the woman whom tis reported he has married.
three different times mr Black says he has sit his Brother up in Buisness: his death is rather a relief than a trouble to him, for he despared of reclaming him. if he was really married, he does not wish to take any property, if any he has left, from his wife, but he thinks her a bad woman, and capable of any thing—
I wrote you on monday.
I am your affectionate
if mr Bracket is yet in Philadelphia, I would wish him to be noticed— mention it to your uncle ask him to dine with you— tell me how the Ladies performd. mrs otis I hope was Lady Presidentess
RC (DLC:Shaw Family Papers); addressed: “Mr William s shaw / Philadelphia”;
endorsed: “Mrs Adams / Quincy Jan 16 / rec 24th Jan”;
docketed: “1799.”
AA was comparing Harrison Gray Otis’ 28 Dec. 1798
speech on the Logan Act as printed in the Boston Columbian
Centinel, 16 Jan. 1799, with a longer version that appeared in the Philadelphia
Gazette of the United States, 5 January. In the section
AA alluded to, the Gazette recorded Otis
as saying that while Albert Gallatin was renowned as a political warrior, “as the
gentleman has never yet succeeded in forcing our camp, nor defeated us either by storm
or surprise, there was no occasion to dread his return to the charge.” The Centinel, however, rendered it: “as we are not taken
unwarily, I hope we shall be able to sustain the attack.”
Rev. Abel Evans’ observation on Rev. Joseph Trapp’s 1731 blank
verse translation of Virgil’s works was quoted in Edward Young’s A Key to the Universal Passion, Satire 1 (
DNB
; The Works of Edward Young, 3 vols.,
London, 1798, 3:113).
For Shaw’s letters to AA of 22 and 24 Dec. 1798, see, respectively, AA to JA, 10 Dec., note 2, and AA to Shaw, 3 Jan. 1799, and note 3, both above. In his 2 Jan. letter, Shaw noted his approval of the Alien and Sedition Acts and reported that accounts of Napoleon’s defeat in Egypt had been received (Adams Papers).
William Austin (1778–1841), Harvard 1798, served as both chaplain
and schoolmaster aboard the frigate Constitution. Austin
then studied law in England before returning to Massachusetts in 1803 and serving in
the Mass. General Court (
ANB
).