Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
th:October—99
I must beg you to congratulate the President &
yourself from me, on your safe arrival in our neighborhood. Your journey
was, I apprehend, more favorable in point of weather than my mother’s is
likely to be, for we have had very heavy rains & dull skies all the last
week more or less— Even on Tuesday, the all important 8th:, of October, big with the fate of
Pennsylvania, we had in the morning a very unpromising prospect of weather,
but it fortunately cleared away before noon & left a chance for a fair trial of strength on both sides. I was
present on the election ground a considerable part of the day, & retired
with stronger hopes of success than I went. The Demo’s however mustered
strong after dark & poured in their numbers beyond calculation, so that
we came off with only a small majority in the
City.1 It was however
larger than I expected, and the federal
candidate yet keeps his competitor at a respectful distance. I am in better
hopes than I was prior to the Election, but not by any means confident of success—
It will give me great pleasure to see you here, though I cannot promise to accompany you back to Trenton, very speedily. If it should be in my power however, without inconvenience to make the excursion, I will give you timely notice. If you meet, as you cannot fail, I 11 think, with the Lay preacher, return him my best thanks for his recent remembrance of me, communicated by my friends Ross & Simpson.2
Your letters of the 20th:
29th: ulto:
& 11th: instt:
came in course;3 If you could
have acquainted me with the time of your intended departure, it would have
been acceptable, as I wanted some books put into my trunk, which is coming
round by water. I shall not go into the City to stay sooner than the 1st: November, about which time we expect the
public Offices will return.
I have a letter from JQA, of July 16th: the latest from him, & but a few lines—
From Consul Pitcairn I got the precis des événemens
militaires No s 2 & 3. with a line
to the 10th: August; no, news—4
Present me kindly to my father & believe me / Your’s sincerely
PS. I have the key of the President’s house, remember!—
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed:
“William Smith Shaw / Secretary to the P U S / Trenton”; endorsed:
“Germantown 13th Oct / T B Adams / Ansd.”
On 8 Oct. between 10 A.M. and 1 P.M. the
citizens of Philadelphia gathered at the State House to vote for
governor and other state officials. Freemen aged 21 or over who had
resided in the state for at least two years and paid taxes for the
previous six months were eligible to vote, as were foreigners who had
been naturalized before 26 March 1790. The final city tally in the race
for governor was 1,611 for Federalist James Ross and 1,136 for
Democratic-Republican Thomas McKean, the statewide victor. In addition
to the governor’s office, Democratic-Republicans also took control of
the state house of representatives, winning 41 seats to the Federalists’
35. Federalists, however, maintained a majority in the state senate, 13
seats to 11. The results laid the groundwork for a deadlock in the
selection of presidential electors, for which see
TBA to JQA, 25
Feb. 1800, and note 8, below (Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 7 Oct. 1799; Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania, from the
Year One Thousand Seven Hundred, to the Sixteenth Day of June, One
Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty-Six, 5th edn., Phila., 1837,
p. 307–308; Philadelphia Universal Gazette,
10 Oct.; Newman, Fries’s Rebellion
, p. 194;
William Bruce Wheeler, “Pennsylvania and the Presidential Election of
1800: Republican Acceptance of the 8–7 Compromise,” Pennsylvania History, 36:424 [Oct.
1969]).
That is, Joseph Dennie Jr., author of the “Lay
Preacher” essays. TBA’s friends were Philadelphia merchants
Charles Ross and John Simson (ca. 1768–1818), who operated an imported
goods store at 121 South Front Street (vol. 12:69, 113–114;
LCA, D&A
, 1:54;
Philadelphia Directory
, 1799, p.
120, Evans, No.
36353; Philadelphia Gazette of the United
States, 7 Oct.; Philadelphia City Archives: Philadelphia Death
Certificates, John Simson, 1818).
Not found.
In a brief letter of 16 July (Adams Papers), JQA
thanked TBA for the oversight of his financial affairs and
enclosed an order to Timothy Pickering allowing TBA to draw
$1,000 upon his salary. Joseph Pitcairn’s letter to TBA has
not been found, but with it Pitcairn sent two numbers of Comte Guillaume
Mathieu Dumas’ periodical Précis des évènemens
militaires, Hamburg, 1799, which was published in two volumes
of six numbers each (
TBA to Pitcairn, 31 May 1800, and note 1,
below).
In a second letter to Shaw of 13 Oct. 1799, TBA wrote that he had forwarded letters to Quincy before learning that Shaw had already departed, and TBA noted that he might travel to Eastchester, N.Y., to escort AA to Trenton, N.J. (MWA:Adams Family Letters).