Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
I received your N. 6. dated 3. June, about three weeks ago, at this
place, and should have replied to it sooner, but for a violent fever which seized me on
the first of this month, and confined me for about ten days—1 It was only an intermittent, and paid me no more
than five visits; but they were long and severe enough to leave me very weak.— I think
myself now altogether recovered, and can moralize, upon the difference between human
purposes and their issues.— I came here with the hope that the baths and waters would
restore my wife to health— The journey was certainly of great service to her; but it is
yet a problem whether the baths will eventually do her good or harm— Hitherto, they have
had no good effect upon her, and instead of making her well, the result has been to make
me sick.— Yet they tell us so much of the efficacy of these baths, that we shall give
them their full chance, and propose to remain here untill the 10th: of next month, after which we intend to pass three or four weeks at Dresden,
and return, about the middle of October to Berlin.2
Your account of the federal City, is by no means calculated to inspire confidence, in its progress, and does not tempt me to become a purchaser in it.— I had much rather you should employ the remainder of my money, as you had the first draught you made.— In general I wish you to be extremely cautious with regard to speculation; every day’s experience more firmly convinces me that it is incompatible with security, which is by far the most essential object to me.
The manner in which the public money has been squandered upon the federal city, is not surprizing, to those, who recollect how the building of the frigates was managed— Bulöw says in his book, after observing that Congress had granted 500,000 dollars towards building the city, that they must know such a sum, would effect very little in America—3 It appears that the grant has been trebled, and yet has effected very little.— It might be doubled again ten-fold, and still effect very little— All governments pay much dearer for the same thing, than individuals, and our Government pays three times more than any other
The day before I left Berlin, I wrote you that I had drawn upon
Mr: Pitcairn, for 2000 of your money, and I sent you at
the same time an order upon the Secretary of State for 1000 dollars, out of which I
desired you to pay yourself, according to the exchange at 539 par between Philadelphia, and Hamburg, and pass the remainder to my credit in
accompt.
I have already twice written you that I had concluded to keep my
obligations in Holland; and will take your’s at par; authorising you to draw on the
Secretary of State, for 2000 dollars, in my name, on the 1st: of January next; for which you will make over to me, your obligations.4
By a letter from my mother of 12. June, I learn that my books had then arrived from Lisbon, at Boston; but they had not reached Quincy.— I hope they were in good condition.
Your two muskets have been sent to Mr:
Pitcairn, who has already forwarded them, or will send them by the first good
opportunity.5
I am here not at all in the way of political news.— I can therefore
only tell you, that every day adds to the probability that the french will soon be
totally expelled from Italy.— Mantua capitulated on the 28th: of last Month— Alessandria in Piedmont had done the same about a week
earlier— All Tuscany, and Lucca, are in possession of the imperialists— Naples is
restored to its original sovereign; and there remain under Moreau and Macdonald,
scarcely 30,000 men, of at least 120,000 with which the campaign in Italy was begun at
the close of March.— The fortresses of Tortona and Coni in Piedmont still remain to be
taken.6
Your’s affectionately.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr: T. B.
Adams.”; endorsed: “J.Q. Adams Esqr: / 16th: August 1799 / 15th: October.
Recd: / 26 Do: Answd:”; notations by TBA: “No 5 private,” and “No
11. 12. 29. Decr.”
FC-Pr (Adams
Papers).
JQA wrote in his Diary that a severe headache on 1
Aug. was followed by ten days and nights of fever. On 3 Aug. he likened the fever to
“the heat of a furnace, with every pulse in my body beating as if they would burst
through,” that was followed by “a perspiration such as I never before experienced.
Every pore in me seemed turned into a fountain.” The illness gradually subsided until
he declared himself well on 11 Aug. (D/JQA/24, APM Reel 27). For LCA’s
description of JQA’s illness, see LCA, D&A
,
1:117.
JQA and LCA toured Töplitz, Bohemia
(present day Teplice, Czech Republic), and Dresden from 17 July to 12 October. In
Töplitz from 24 July to 9 Sept., JQA reported that LCA
bathed in and drank from the mineral springs several times but gave no indication that
he did so. In August he expressed skepticism about the benefits of the spas, but in
early September he wrote that LCA’s stamina on walks showed “how much her
health has improved since we left Berlin.” LCA later wrote that she
“derived much benefit from the Pyrmont Waters,” although she found them “disgusting to
the smell and taste” (D/JQA/24, 17, 24, 29, 31 July, 14, 15,
31 Aug., 4, 9 Sept., 12 Oct., APM
Reel 27; LCA, D&A
, 1:120).
Baron Dietrich von Bülow, Der Freistaat
von Nordamerika in seinem neuesten zustand, 2 vols., Berlin, 1797, 1:115–117.
For JQA’s study and translation of this work, see JQA to AA, 7 May, and note 9, above.
See JQA to TBA, 1 July, and note 3, above.
TBA acknowledged receipt of the muskets in a letter
to Joseph Pitcairn of 23 Oct. (Quarterly Publication of the
Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, 12:29 [Jan.–March 1917]).
Mantua, Italy, was besieged by the Austrians from 8 April and
captured on 28 July, with a loss of 3,100 French and approximately 2,100 Austrians,
while Alessandria fell to the Austrians on 22 July after a monthlong siege, with each
side suffering losses of about 400. Ferdinand IV of Naples, who had fled the city in
Dec. 1798, returned on 10 July 1799, thus ending France’s short-lived Neapolitan
Republic. French forces in Italy numbered approximately 134,000, with about 36,000
under the command of Gen. Étienne Jacques Joseph Alexandre Macdonald. Tortona would
fall to the Austrians on 11 Sept. and Coni (Cuneo) on 3 Dec. (Smith, Napoleonic Wars Data
Book
, p. 160–161, 165, 174;
Cambridge Modern Hist.
8:656–659).
th1799
I received with much pleasure your Letters of August 1st and 12th, for which accept my thanks.1 I read the papers as usual, and find the
Ethiope washed white by the Necromancing powers of dallas & co—but I was not a
little surprizd by the information which mr H G otis assured me, he received from a
correspondent in Philadelphia, viz that our Friend Dr Rush and Mr Hartley of York Town
were making interest for the Judge.2 as
to col Hartly, I do not know how he can reconcile it to sober federilism, but dr Rush! can it be possible? is not intemperance in one
Man as criminal as in an other? is not a determined opposition to Government as
criminal in a Judge as a Govenour? is not, but I forbear. by what system of Phissian
or Metaphysicks, he can reconcile his former Sentiments with his present conduct,
(admitting for truth, the report), I am at a loss to divine. indeed I must have
further evidence, before I can credit such inconsistancy of conduct. very much depends
upon the casting of the die, nothing less than the Character of the state.
I was amused with your History of the Aurorains. I wonder if they know what I do, and what in time you will. I dare
say they have it all in full Budget from Talleyrand—which gives them such raptures
that they were near disclosing the whole secreet, and that might not answer their
purpose; if it should not be communicated to congress as soon as they wish; then they
can tell tales to the good people—provided directory and all do not go to the d——l
before that time, which I think as matters are working, not an improbable event.
Barlow poor wretch, has been writing Letter to his dear fellow citizens which you will
soon see, tho not perhaps the private Letter which accompanied it, in which he says
that John Adams is mad for war, and the directory know it, and are determined to
dissapoint him; by this it seems that the Jaco’s here and in France do not agree in
judgment. “He had better think of making Peace then sending ministers to all corners
541 of the Earth, hunting up the Enemies of France to
make Treaties with them”—3 Joel seems
very wroth, very angry that we are like to have a Navy—but Joel is not so bad in his
Letter, as that vile English democrat, Cooper who should not breath, one more sweet
gale of American air (if I were Autocratess,) which he
has endeavoured to poison and contaminate by his frenchified principles—and the Philosopher should follow after—for it is an old adage,
the receiver is as bad as the Thief— no waters but troubled ones do they delight
in—4
th—
I designd to have had my Letter finished before this day but was interrupted, and have mist two posts. william desires me to ask you if you received T Pains oration accompanied with a long Letter. you have not acknowledgd either—5
I was pleasd with the poetical effusions of Sarah, but think you are wise, in not courting the Muses— A poor attempt would be worse than none in prose, you are elegant—
I inclose to you a paper which was drawn from Talbot after he sent back his commission, which commission placed him below Truxton, tho he stood in the original Nomminations the third upon the List, and certainly had not done any thing to forfeit his Rank— the certificate which he mentions, he left at N York, and Saild before he could procure it, but it stands I think upon the Journals of congress. his late services at Gaudalope in procuring from the British vessels our seamen, is recent in the memory of all who are attentive to public affairs— I think a short statement from these documents might be drawn to refresh the minds of some, and to Enlighten others, which would silence all those who think Truxton has been hardly dealt by.6 dale was before Truxton and would not serve under him. Truxtons services ought to be properly estimated, but I believe he was never in publick Service untill his late appointment.7 return this paper by the next post under cover to William—
I see by the paper the death of Mrs G Willing, said to be of a lingering illness—8 I have heard she had her infirmities, but did not suppose they had risen to such a height as to put a period to her Life—
adieu affectionatly yours
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs: A Adams / 17th: August 1799 / 26th: Recd / 26th: Ansd.”
AA was probably referring to TBA’s letter of 8 Aug., above, which is endorsed 1 August.
Col. Thomas Hartley of York, Penn., for whom see vol. 10:178, was not a vocal supporter
of Thomas McKean, but his son Charles W. Hartley (d. 1807) delivered a 4 542 July oration in support of the
Democratic-Republican candidate. Soon after McKean was elected governor he appointed
the younger Hartley to three concurrent clerical posts in the York County court system
and commissioned the elder as a major general in the Pennsylvania militia (Carlisle Gazette, 31 July, 21 Aug.; Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 16 May 1807; W. C. Carter and A.
J. Glossbrenner, History of York County, York, Penn.,
1834, p. 135–136, appendix p. 5). For the report that Benjamin Rush was electioneering
on McKean’s behalf, see TBA to AA of
16 Sept., below.
AA quoted from Joel Barlow’s 12 April letter to Dr.
Lemuel Hopkins (MHi:Pickering Papers),
asking that Hopkins undertake the U.S. publication of his pamphlet, Joel Barlow to His Fellow Citizens, of the United States of
America: Letter I, Paris, 1799. The pamphlet called for the United States to
mend “the present deplorable rupture with France” (p. 29) and sought to soften the
impact of Barlow’s 4 March 1798 letter to Abraham Baldwin, for which see Descriptive List of Illustrations,
No. 4, above. Barlow’s letter to Hopkins, which had been obtained by Stephen Higginson
in Boston, declared: “I shall say nothing of French politics, except that peace &
reconciliation with France on terms advantageous & honorable to the U.S. are
completely in the power and of the option of John Adams, & have been so for 18
months, and he has always known it. His taking French frigates, sending to every
corner of the earth to hunt up their enemies, in order to make treaties with them,
produces very little sensation here. The Directors see through his whole strategem.
They know he is mad for war, & that his object is to provoke them to declare it,
but they are determined to disappoint” (“Letters of Stephen Higginson, 1783–1804,”
Amer. Hist. Assoc., Ann. Rpt. for 1896
, 1:830–833).
“The Philosopher” was Joseph Priestly. For the prosecution of newspaper editor Dr. Thomas Cooper under the Sedition Act, see AA to TBA, 4 Sept. 1799, and note 1, below.
William Smith Shaw’s letter to TBA, dated 30 July,
has not been found. In his reply of 16 Aug., TBA panned the recent
oration by Boston printer Thomas Paine: “It has great merit as an hasty production,
but the style is stiff and seems to labor in several places.” TBA also
recommended JA’s Discourses on Davila and
commented on Pennsylvania politics (MWA:Adams Family Letters).
In a letter to JA of 13 July (Adams Papers), Capt. Silas Talbot enclosed a
summary of his naval service during the American Revolution in order to support his
contention that with the renewal of his naval commission he deserved to rank above
Capt. Thomas Truxtun. Talbot reported to JA that he was attempting to
locate a 17 July 1783 certificate written on his behalf by Gen. Horatio Gates, in
which Gates called him an “intrepid and enterprising officer” whose naval service had
“greatly assisted in driving the enemy from our coast.” The certificate could not be
located, but Talbot’s son George informed JA on 29 July 1799 that
Alexander Hamilton promised to forward a transcription (Henry T. Tuckerman, The Life of Silas Talbot, a Commodore in the Navy of the United
States, N.Y., 1850, p. 85–87; George W. Talbot to JA, 29 July, Adams Papers).
Capt. Richard Dale suffered a reduction of rank along with Talbot
when their suspended naval commissions were renewed. Dale tendered his resignation
rather than be ranked below Truxtun. Instead, he was granted a leave of absence and
embarked on a trade voyage to China before returning to active naval service in 1801
(
Naval
Documents of the Quasi-War
, 1:510, 4:35;
ANB
).
The 10 Aug. 1799 death of Maria Benezet Willing was reported in
the Philadelphia Gazette of the same date.