Spring–Summer: JA receives dozens of addresses from communities around the country indicating their support for his administration; more than 100 of them are printed as A Selection of the Patriotic Addresses, to the President of the United States. Together with the President’s Answers, Boston, 1798, Evans, No. 33345.

9 May: The fast day JA proclaimed on 23 March is held.

18 May: JA nominates Benjamin Stoddert to be the first secretary of the navy after George Cabot declines his appointment. The Senate confirms the nomination on 21 May; the Department of the Navy had been established by Congress on 30 April.

28 May: JA signs into law the act creating a provisional army; on 2 July he nominates George Washington to be lieutenant general and commander in chief. The Senate unanimously confirms the appointment the following day.

29 May: JA is reelected as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

4 June: William Cranch moves his family to Georgetown, D.C.

17 June: John Marshall arrives in New York City, the first of the U.S. envoys to return from France. At a 23 June congressional dinner celebrating his return, “Millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute” is given as the thirteenth toast.

18 June – 14 July: JA signs into law the four bills comprising the Alien and Sedition Acts.

21 June: JA submits to Congress additional dispatches relating to the first peace mission to France, along with the message that he will send no other minister to France without previous assurance that he will be properly received.

early July: William Cranch is assaulted by William Mayne Duncanson in Georgetown, D.C.

6 July: JQA and TBA attend the ceremony of homage paid to King Frederick William III of Prussia.

7 July: Congress abrogates the U.S. treaties with France.

14 July: JA signs into law a national direct tax.

17–19 July: The Senate convenes in a special session to consider JA’s nominations to the navy and provisional army. His nomination of WSS as adjutant general is rejected on 19 July.

18 July: William Smith Shaw graduates from Harvard College. He replaces Samuel Bayard Malcom as JA’s secretary later in the summer.

25 July: JA and AA depart Philadelphia for Quincy, arriving on 8 Aug., after visiting CA in New York City and stopping at Eastchester, N.Y., to bring AA2 and Caroline Amelia Smith with them.

1–2 Aug.: British rear admiral Horatio Nelson defeats the French Navy in the Battle of the Nile.

5 Aug.: Charles Cotesworth Pinckney leaves France, after spending more than a month in southern France because of his daughter’s ill health. He arrives in Elizabeth, N.J., on 12 October.

6–9 Aug.: JQA, LCA, and TBA tour Potsdam.

8 Aug.: Elbridge Gerry is the last of the U.S. envoys to depart France. He arrives in Boston on 1 October.

13–30 Aug.: TBA visits Dresden.

late Aug.–Nov.: A yellow fever epidemic breaks out in New York City and Philadelphia, eventually claiming more than 4,800 lives; 40 percent of Philadelphia’s population flees to the surrounding countryside.

4 Sept.: Elizabeth Quincy Shaw dies in Atkinson, N.H.

8 Sept.: Abigail Louisa Smith Adams, the second child of CA and SSA, is born in New York City.

28 Sept.: Thomas Welsh Jr. arrives in Berlin to succeed TBA as JQA’s secretary.

30 Sept.: TBA leaves Berlin on his return to the United States. He arrives in Hamburg on 10 Oct. and sails aboard the ship Alexander Hamilton on 15 Nov., arriving in New York City on 11 Jan. 1799. He is reunited with JA in Philadelphia on 15 Jan. and AA in Quincy on 12 February.

8 Nov. – 24 Dec.: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, written anonymously by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, respectively, are introduced and passed in the states’ legislatures.

12 Nov.: JA and William Smith Shaw depart Quincy for Philadelphia, arriving on 23 November. AA2 and Caroline Amelia Smith follow the next day, catching up with JA and Shaw in Stratford, Conn., on 16 Nov., and then traveling to Eastchester, N.Y. JA and Shaw visit CA in New York City on 20 November. AA remains in Quincy due to illness.

15 Nov.: Elizabeth Smith and James Hiller Foster marry in Quincy.

3 Dec.: The 3d session of the 5th Congress convenes in Philadelphia; it sits until 3 March 1799.

31 Dec.: JA nominates WSS as a lieutenant colonel in the army; his appointment is confirmed by the Senate on 7 Jan. 1799.

29 Jan.: TBA departs Philadelphia for Quincy, arriving on 12 Feb. after visiting CA in New York City and AA2 in Eastchester, N.Y.

30 Jan.: JA signs into law the Logan Act, prohibiting U.S. citizens from engaging in unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments. The law results from overtures to France made by Dr. George Logan in Aug. 1798.

17 Feb.: Thomas Boylston Adams Norton, son of Jacob and Elizabeth Cranch Norton, is born in Weymouth.

18 Feb.: JA nominates William Vans Murray as minister plenipotentiary to France. On 25 Feb. he also nominates Oliver Ellsworth and Patrick Henry to serve as special envoys to France. The Senate confirms the appointments on 27 February. William R. Davie is nominated on 1 June in the place of Henry; the Senate confirms the appointment on 10 December.

7 March: Fries’ Rebellion begins in Bethlehem, Penn. The protest, led by Capt. John Fries, is in opposition to the direct tax. On 12 March JA issues a proclamation ordering the protesters to disperse; on 21 March federal troops are mobilized to suppress the insurrection.

12 March: JA and William Smith Shaw depart Philadelphia for Quincy, arriving on 23 March.

29 March: Mary Carter Smith, daughter of William and Hannah Carter Smith, is born in Boston.

8 April: TBA departs Quincy for Philadelphia, arriving on 24 April after visiting AA2 and CA in New York.

mid-April: John Adams Smith and William Steuben Smith visit the Adamses in Quincy.

28 April: Anne Allen Cranch, daughter of William and Anna Greenleaf Cranch, is born in Washington, D.C.

7 May: Anna Quincy Thaxter, AA’s aunt, dies in Hingham.

9 May – 6 June: TBA visits Baltimore and Annapolis, Md., Washington and Georgetown, D.C., and Mount Vernon.

18 June: The coup d’état of An. VII, 30 prairial, in France transfers power from the Directory to the legislature, prompting the resignation of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord as French minister of foreign relations.

June: AA visits Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody in Atkinson, N.H.

Summer: Charles F. Foster, son of Elizabeth Smith and James Hiller Foster, is born.

11 July: JQA signs the second Prussian-American Treaty, in Berlin; it arrives in the United States on 16 September.

15 July: TBA leaves Philadelphia to escape yellow fever, relocating to Germantown, Penn., where he remains until late October.

17 July – 12 Oct.: JQA and LCA tour Dresden and Bohemia.

31 July: JA dedicates Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston Harbor.

30 Sept.: JA and William Smith Shaw depart Quincy for Trenton, N.J., where the government offices removed due to yellow fever in Philadelphia.