Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13

Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 4 September 1799 Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Boylston
Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
Dear Thomas Quincy sep’br 4th 1799

I received your two Letters together of August 26th. I have every day since designd to write to you, but have not been very well. I do not know the cause yet for many years, the Month of sep’br has depressed my Spirits more than any other. I believe it always brings with it, some dregs of the old Ague and fever—

I most sincerely mourn for the distressess of N york and Philadelphia; but know not how to succor them— Boston has yet escaped—and I hope will not be again visited.

In the Aurora of what [da]te I am unable to say, as the paper is lent, but in that [ar]ticle was publishd a farewell address to the Citizens of North thumberland, by Cooper, who it seems had been Editor of a News paper. whether the paper did not answer the views of the Author, or his customers did not pay, I know not. reasons are not assignd for laying it aside,—but the whole address is one continued libel upon the Government; artfully couchd. the Navy is ridiculed, and the President covertly attackd— the old story of employing none but those altogether subservient to his views is brought up again. this lets the cat out of the Bag for Cooper & Preistly for him, solicited to have him appointed one of the commissoners for settling British claims—and this not being complied with, has excited his Malovelence— it is a fire Brand, full of Mad french, and English democracy. it was printed in Hand Bills and circulated by dr Preistly amongst his parishoners—1 I suppose Peter will get hold of it— the N England Man was not the person peter supposes— peter is a tool; and a Black guard— his low vulgar stuff hurts his usefulness— he ought not to be Patronized by our Government; but if he had his deserts—he would be sent packing, but he could not live under his own Government unless he mended his manners—without cropt Ears—

I send you a poem which you may present to Miss Wistar if you please; the Lady Author ask’d permission to dedicate it to me— when I am not too laizy I may send you my replie to her— the poem has merrit you know she once wrote the virtues of Nature—2

when you see Mrs Powel present my Regards to her. she is one of your sentimental Ladies, always well satisfied with herself. Mrs Hare is not so loquasious, nor Mrs Francis whom I respect.3 they are all three sensible women. Miss Hare is a fine Girl

550

I did not fail to read the annecdote to your Father who remembers when he first left off his Wig and supposes that must be the time when he lookd like a crop

we have not any thing new—which may be Communicated— Peter you know says—he presumes assureances have been received— who & who may be in office, time must develope

I see by the papers Truxton cannot sit down quiet—4 If six officers are named and appointed to a similar service, three of which are employd, do the others forfeit their Rank—when it is not from any fault of theirs that they did not serve?— that he was named anew to the senate, and appointed to a command cannot invalidate his Prior Rank, for Rank is determind by the Age of the first commission— however Truxton must sputter away— the difference is that Talbot would have retired without uttering a word— I hope you will keep yourself out of Philadelphia, and mix as little as possible with persons from thence

I shall Sit out in october, tho not so early as I at first intended5 yours most / affectionatly

A Adams6

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs: A Adams / 4th: Septr: 1799. / 11th: Do: recd: / 16 Do Ansd.” Some loss of text due to placement of the seal.

1.

Dr. Thomas Cooper, for whom see vol. 9:493, practiced law and maintained close ties to the Priestley family following his emigration from England to Pennsylvania in 1794. From April to June 1799 he became the editor of the Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette and used the newspaper to espouse his Democratic-Republican beliefs. On 29 June, in his final issue before stepping down as editor, Cooper published an address to his readers accusing JA of stifling opposition, appointing only political supporters, and creating a standing army and navy for his own protection rather than that of the nation. The address was published as a broadside and also reprinted in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 12 July. Timothy Pickering enclosed a copy of the Aurora in a 1 Aug. letter to JA (Adams Papers), and in his 13 Aug. reply JA endorsed the prosecution of Cooper but not of Priestley (MHi:Pickering Papers). Cooper was not then indicted, but the issue persisted, and in the spring of 1800 he was prosecuted under the sedition law for a subsequent publication ( ANB ; James Morton Smith, “President John Adams, Thomas Cooper, and Sedition: A Case Study in Suppression,” MVHR , 42:439–445; Thomas Cooper, Mr. Cooper’s Address to the Readers of the Sunbury and Northumberland Gazette, Northumberland, Penn., 29 June 1799, MWA, Evans, No. 49483).

2.

AA sent Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton’s Virtues of Society, A Tale, Founded on Fact, for which see Morton to AA, [ca. 11 June 1799], and note 1, above. TBA’s reply of 16 Sept., below, suggests that AA neglected to send the poem, and it was instead forwarded with William Smith Shaw’s letter to TBA of 6 Sept., not found. Morton had earlier published Ouâbi; or, The Virtues of Nature, An Indian Tale, in Four Cantos, Boston, 1790, Evans, No. 22684.

3.

Dorothy Willing Francis (1772–1847), wife of Philadelphia merchant Thomas Willing Francis, was a niece of Margaret Willing Hare and Elizabeth Willing Powel (Charles P. Keith, The Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania, Phila., 1883, p. 89–93, 107).

4.

Capt. Thomas Truxtun’s letter explaining his reasons for resigning was reprinted in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 4 Sept., along with the comment: “This answer of the gallant Hotspur appears dictated by a native warmth of temper, not uncommon to spirits of his mould.”

551 5.

AA departed Quincy for Eastchester, N.Y., on 9 Oct., following JA’s 30 Sept. departure for Trenton, N.J. (AA to Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody, 1 Oct., DLC:Shaw Family Papers; AA to JA, 13 Oct., Adams Papers).

6.

AA again wrote to TBA on 8 Sept., reiterating her approval of JA’s handling of the dispute between Truxtun and Capt. Silas Talbot (Adams Papers).

Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 8 September 1799 Adams, Thomas Boylston Shaw, William Smith
Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw
Dear William. Germantown 8th: September 1799

I have your favor of the 31st: ulto: with an enclosure for R. Peters Junr: which shall be delivered as soon as an opportunity of sending it, presents— I have not yet found means to forward the last enclosure you made me—which is rather the effect of misfortune than neglect, though you doubtless will think I have no excuse for being nine weeks within 3 miles of the Bishops, without having made one single visit there.1 The fact is, I have been very little from the spot of my retreat in any direction except to Frankford, where I last week attended Court & took the oath as a practitioner therein. I hope that the money which a licence to practise costs, may be placed at good interest, but the prospect is barren—

I shall have to attend another Court next this week at Frankford, where a Cred Debtor of my brother is to avail himself of the cheating insolvent law of this State passed last year, and under which the most flagrant frauds & perjuries are practised. The debtor always gets out, unless you can convict him of perjury by discovering property which he has not disclosed. The man in question, is a swindling fellow, who borrowed money of my brother at the Hague, to prevent his going to Jail in Holland. It seems he has not been able to escape it here. His name, J P. Ripley. 2

This morning (the 10th: Septr) I got your favor of the 2d: with enclosures, for which accept my cordial thanks.3 The affray between Livermore & Lee, had fallen under my observation, but the pieces I had never seen, except Lee’s publication. Fisher Ames’s remark, that “a character, even unjustly aspersed, never appears so unsullied, as before,” occurs forcibly to my recollection on this occasion.4

One of my speculative letters to you of the latter end of July, remains, I think yet unacknowledged—I wont be sure however— The subject most descanted on was, my attempting to renew an acquaintance with School & College books— I notice this circumstance for no particular reason, though a doubt exists whether it reached you.—5 Several of my letters went to town by different private conveyances 552 and some of them might have miscarried naturally enough. At present we have a regular post Office established here during the fever.

The Aurora pronounces the letters which appeared a few days since in the papers, relative to the assassination of the frenchmen at Rastadt, a bare faced forgery.6 The story is so consonant to my own suspicions & to the appearances which struck our notice in the relation on the french side, that I think them genuine, though their coming here first from St Sebastian is against them. We shall soon know the fact.

The mortality in Philadelphia increases slowly—for many days the average was about 20. and has never exceeded 31. A long spell of rainy weather has prevailed and we hope checked the disease in a degree. Several useful men have fallen within a short time.

I have nothing of moment to say further than an assurance / of the esteem & friendship / of

T. B. A.

If you can obtain for me the words of the patriotic songs, written by Mr: Paine, I shall thank you— There are two or three.7 Quincy will ask for them of the Author, if you give him a hint with my best remembrance. Paine has a claim on me for a retribution, which on occasion I shall be happy to make. I think highly of his poetic talents, and wish he might meet as much admiration & encouragement as his genius merits. A professional poet cannot live here by his trade, & unluckily he is seldom fit for any other— I think, that when the Gods make a man poetical, it is a sure mark of their vengeance not their mercy.

RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “W S Shaw / Quincy”; internal address: “W S Shaw.”; endorsed: “Germantown 8th Sep / T B Adams / rec 15th / Ansd 20 / Sent 24th.”; docketed: “1799 / Sept 8.”

1.

These letters have not been found.

2.

For the origin of the debt John Phillips Ripley owed JQA, see JQA to TBA, 2 Oct. 1798, and note 6, above. Ripley published a legal notice in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 7 Sept. 1799, stating that the Penn. Supreme Court would hear his insolvency case in Frankford on 13 September. The case was apparently not resolved, as JQA still held the note from Ripley in Nov. 1801 (D/JQA/24, 13 Nov., APM Reel 27).

3.

Not found.

4.

On 17 July 1799 Judge Edward St. Loe Livermore of Portsmouth, N.H., delivered an address in which he suggested that William Lee had returned from France the previous summer with French passports obtained through a “species of bribery.” Those passports offered protection from French privateers, Livermore claimed, and were offered for sale to fellow merchants after Lee’s return. Responding in Boston newspapers, Lee charged Livermore with “a malicious and scandalous falsehood,” to which Livermore answered with a 14 Aug. letter stating that he meant no slight and cited the episode only to illustrate French corruption. After it was revealed that Lee had in fact purchased passports, Livermore published a 17 Aug. letter declaring his earlier statement proven. On 22 Aug. Lee assaulted Livermore in Portsmouth, and a physical altercation ensued between the 553 two men (Edward St. Loe Livermore, An Oration, in Commemoration of the Dissolution of the Political Union Between the United States of America and France, Portsmouth, N.H., 1799, p. 20–21, Evans, No. 35736; Boston Independent Chronicle, 8–12, 19–22 Aug.; Boston Columbian Centinel, 14, 17, 24 Aug.; Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 2 Sept.). For more on Lee’s time in France, see AA to William Smith, 9 June 1798, and note 2, above.

5.

TBA to Shaw, 29 July 1799, above.

6.

Details surrounding the assassination of French envoys by Austrian hussars at Rastatt, Germany, on 28 April remained unclear. In early September New York newspapers published letters allegedly written by a Prussian officer present at the assassination, which shifted blame from the Prussians to the French. The Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 7 Sept., called the letters an “impudent fabrication.” Later commentators considered the letters to be forgeries (New York Commercial Advertiser, 2 Sept.; New York Spectator, 4 Sept.; Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Essays on his Own Times, ed. Sara Coleridge, 3 vols., London, 1850, 1:279–280; Der Rastadter gesandtenmord, Vienna, 1874, p. 160–162; Cambridge Modern Hist. , 8:655–656).

7.

In addition to “Adams and Liberty” and “To Arms Columbia,” in 1798 and 1799, Boston printer Thomas Paine composed “Adams and Washington,” “The Green Mountain Farmer,” and “Rise Columbia!” (O. G. Sonneck, Bibliography of Early Secular American Music, Washington, D.C., 1905, p. 2–3, 62, 126, 155).