Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13

Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw, 25 January 1799 Adams, Abigail Shaw, William Smith
Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw
Dear william Quincy Janry 25 1799

I thank you my dear Nephew for your last agreable Letter.1 you have too sensible and feeling a heart not to participate in the pleasure which the Return of your cousin gives to his Parents and Friends. your account of his reception from his Father was too tender and interesting to my Heart, not to flow to my Eyes; I hope you will derive both instruction and improvement from him. you have a mind formed for both.

376

I am surprized that mr should so long detain mr Gerrys correspondence. the world know that the President is not accustomed to be thus dilatory. yet the blame will fall upon him, by those who know not the cause; as the Senate have decided that they cannot impeach one of their own Body, they cannot have Authority to impeach a foreign minister I presume; the truth is that when these papers appear mr Gerry will not sink in the estimation of his Countrymen—for sick as I was I took a peep at them; we all condemn his seperating from his Colleagues, his remaining after they came away, and his submit ting to be once thought more yealding than the Honor of his country required. he is very tedious in making communications, but his honesty & his Integrity I cannot call in Question.

you did not give me any account of your Lady dinner, nor a word about the Ball, two subjects very interesting to our solatary fire side—

I have not seen this years Guillotina. send it me—

When you see mr Tracy present my Respects to him. I have a sincere esteem for him. mr Hillhouse too & plain honest Rough mr Goodhue Mr Foster the Rep. & mr Foster the senator. I think how ever that he ought to Change seats with his Brother but, the House would be the loosers: Mr dana, too.2 in short most of the Federalis of senate and House, I feel a relative attachment to, and once I esteemed and loved as a Friend, him, whom I have too much reason to fear is an apostate, so that his Change is a painfull reflection as il respects my self, but more so, as it affects my Country.

mr Peabody writes to inquire after Richard. I suppose his Friend wish to hear from him— I am my dear Nephew / your affectionate

Aunt A A—

Ps— mr Black desires you would tell mr Brisler, that if the Maderia wine from the House of Cumes is as good as his proves he hopes he will not let a Jacobin smak his Lips at it3

you forgot to have your uncles Letter Frankd. they chargd 60 cents for it4

RC (DLC:Shaw Family Papers); addressed: “Mr William S shaw / Philadelphia” endorsed: “Aunt Adams / Quincy 25th Jan / received 2d Feb. / Ansd 5th Feb.”; docketed: “1799.”

1.

Shaw to AA, 15 Jan., above.

2.

James Hillhouse (1754–1832), Yale 1773, a New Haven lawyer, served in the House of Representatives from 1791 to 1796 and in the Senate from 1796 to 1810. Dwight Foster began his legal practice in Rhode Island before serving as a justice of the peace in Worcester Co., Mass. He represented Massachusetts in the House from 1793 to 1800 and in the Senate from 1800 to 1803. His older brother Theodore Foster (1752–1828), Brown 1770, was a senator for Rhode Island from 377 1790 to 1803. Samuel Whittlesey Dana (1760–1830), Yale 1775, worked as a lawyer in Middletown, Conn., and served in the state general assembly. He was elected to the House in 1797 and served until 1810 when he was elected to the Senate, a position he held until 1821 ( Biog. Dir. Cong. ).

3.

AA was possibly referring to wine imported by William Coombs (1736–1814), a merchant of Newburyport, who had participated in the town’s effort to raise subscriptions for a warship (Currier, Newburyport , 2:211–213).

4.

These two sentences were written on the address page.

John Adams to Abigail Adams, 28 January 1799 Adams, John Adams, Abigail
John Adams to Abigail Adams
My dearest Friend Phila. Jan. 28. 99

In my solitude in Markett street, I find nothing so sociable as your Letters— those of 18 & 20th. are this moment recdd.— 1 Your health & Spirits are a great Improvement of mine.

I have avoided the Epithets perfidious and unprincipled as much as I could, but neither they nor any that could be borrowed from the Hebrew & the Greek would be too strong, for the House of Mass to Use.—

My Religion you know is not, exactly conformable to that of the greatest Part of the Christian World. It excludes superstition. But with all the superstition that attends it, I think the Christian the best that is or has been. I would join with those who wish ecclesiastical Tyranny abolished, and the frauds of the Priesthood detected: But in this Country We have little of this. If my feeble Testimony has done any good, I rejoice & have my reward.

The V. P was a poor Correspondent and the P. is a worse, but I cannot help it.

The salt Marsh you may buy but it is too dear. The Ceedar swamp too is vastly too dear. My Gout for Land is much abated.— They hold it at such a Price that it tastes too Silverish.—

I will be no part of Taxes of any kind, nor of Blacksmith’s Bills,—I will have a Rent clear of all deductions. It may be let for 3 years. But I must have the salt Marsh at the farms and Quincys Meadow & Belchers Place.— The Rent must be the less.

I am glad the 20 foot Posts are to be sent for.— I have made Turrell Tufts a Consul at surinam.

Thomas, to my sorrow, but for your Joy will sett out this Week for Quincy. He will stop [at] N. York sometime. He dont relish the Idea of settling at Quincy.

J. A2

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”; endorsed: “J A Janry / 25th / 1799.”

378 1.

In her letter to JA of 18 Jan., AA wrote that she was still awaiting word of TBA’s safe arrival. She also complained that JA did not write as “freely” to her as he had when he was vice president, and she noted that the answer of the Mass. house of representatives to the governor’s address included a compliment to JA (Adams Papers).

2.

In her brief reply of 8 Feb., AA noted her disapproval of TBA’s settling in Philadelphia: “I shall try to prevail with him to relinquish it. it will take him time here, but I do not doubt but he may get into Buisness with patience & perseverence”(Adams Papers).