Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
d:October 1799.
Between the 8th: &
16th: instants I have been fortunate
enough to receive your several agreeable favors of July 6th: August 10th:
15th: 17th:
& 28th: with sundry pamphlets &ca: &ca: for
all which please to accept my thanks. The muskets by the Connecticut are
likewise recd: in good condition.1
By the speedy passages of the Hamburg traders this
season, we have been furnished with very recent European intelligence,
and the triumphant progress of the allied powers has afforded matter of
joy or regret, as the passions & feelings of individuals among us
happened to be favorable or adverse to the cause of universal Monarchy
for which they seem to be striving.2 It must always happen, so long
as America is an independent Republic or nation, that the balance of
power in Europe will always
continue to be of the utmost importance to her welfare. The moment that
either France is victorious & Great Britain with her allies
depressed, we have cause to be alarmed for ourselves. The same thing is
true when the reverse of this happens. We are of too much consequence in
the scale of nations, to be left in the peaceable enjoyment of our
Commerce, & gaining strength in proportion as others are losing it,
without a 32
struggle at least to draw us into the vortex of war & waste. We have
already resisted a single effort from each side since the commencement
of the War, and if rumor has any truth in the tales it tells, we are not
far removed from a fresh attempt to make us declare for one side or the
other. We are, or in my opinion, soon must be, in a state of hostility
with all mankind, and I swear as an American, that I had rather
encounter the united rage of every power in Europe, as the Barbary
States have formerly done, than be leagued, associated or allied with
any of them in a common system of defence. Either we can, or we cannot,
maintain our Independence, and I am of opinion that affairs in this
Country are drawing fast to this issue.
Our Commissioners to France are said to be on the eve
of departure in the frigate United States, to sail from Newport.3 This I believe, may be
relied upon. We hear that the British Minister has signified to the
Government that the departure of these Envoys will be considered by the Coalition as an act of hostility.4 You have this as I hear
it every day in public— I cannot vouch for the truth.
I submitted your letters of the 17th: & 28th:
August to the perusal of the Secy. of State,
who after reading returned them with no other remark than that he could
not advise me to enter into the speculation you propose, since the price
of those articles you mention, is much lower here than your
calculations. On the subject of the Ship to be sold & the article of
Copper, he said nothing, but when I see him, I will ask more on these
subjects.
By a letter from my brother of the 16th: July, I learn that agreeably to a
proposal I made him last May, he consented to take MB
5 2000 of the money I left in
your hands & had accordingly drawn for it on that day. I have
written you also a request to purchase certain articles for my Mother at
Hamburg, charging my account with the cost, which I presume would nearly
make a balance between us. Friend Brush, who you say undertook to send
my great Coat, has never been polite enough to give me notice of its
arrival, though he came safe himself some months ago.6 I had rather run the chance of
getting one from you, according to my request, though you should charge
it, than wait any longer for the other.
We are about to revisit the Capital after a long & unprofitable absence. The disease has subsided both here & at New York, but not yet disappeared; the danger however of contagion is nearly gone— The Banks have remained through the Season, in spite of the sickness, but the public offices removed to Trenton and are not yet returned. 33 I expect my parents will pass the winter among us, which will contribute much to my comfort. The P——t is already at Trenton.
I will write again ere long, & mean time remain
with esteem / Your very obedt: humble
Servt:
PS. Our Election for Governor gives us Thomas
Mc:Kean by a majority of about six
thousand votes— Numbers will always outvote property— Or in other
words the democrats will always beat the Aristocrats on a fair trial
of strength. If we are to fight G. B. this State will deserve a
third part of the burthen of the war.
Our Congress has a better reputation than I fear
it will merit when it comes together. The Session will be long &
stormy. I look for something great to save
the Country.
Philadelphia
26
th:I find a vessel ready to sail for Bremen and I shall make up my packet for you under cover to our Consul at that place.7
The departure of the Envoys will probably happen
about the 1st: of next month. The story of
the British Ministers representations on this subject is very doubtful—
I am disposed to discredit it, though I have no special authority for so
doing.
I am as above / Your’s
RC (OCHP:Joseph Pitcairn Letters); addressed:
“Joseph Pitcairn Esqr: / Consul of the
United States of America / Hamburg”; internal address: “Jo: Pitcairn
Esqr:”; endorsed: “Thomas Adams / 23
Octor 1799 / R. 15 April 1800 / And 30
May”; notation: “To the care of / F. J. Wichelhausen / Bremen” and
“Bremen the 14th. April 1800. / Recd: & f[or]warded by / [Yr] Mst Obdt. St:. / pr F[…] [J]acob Wichelhausen.” Some loss of
text where the seal was removed.
The letters and pamphlets sent by Pitcairn have not
been found. For the two muskets purchased for TBA by
JQA and shipped by Pitcairn, see vol. 13:498, 539. The ship Connecticut, Capt. Moore, arrived at
Philadelphia on 16 Oct. after a passage from Hamburg of 45 days (New-York Gazette, 18 Oct.).
Philadelphia newspapers had recently cited reports
from Hamburg detailing advances by Anglo-Russian invasion forces in the
Netherlands and the retreat of Napoleon from Syria to Egypt, for which
see vol. 13:468
(Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 23
Oct.; Philadelphia Universal Gazette, 17
Oct.).
For JA’s decision to initiate a second
peace mission to France, see vol. 13:416. Oliver Ellsworth and William R. Davie,
two of the three U.S. ministers plenipotentiary, departed Newport, R.I.,
on the frigate United States, Como. John
Barry, on 3 Nov., and arrived at Paris on 2 March 1800, where they were
met by the third minister, William Vans Murray. On 2 April negotiations
began with three French commissioners, Joseph Bonaparte; Pierre Louis,
Comte de Roederer; and Charles Pierre Clarét, Comte de Fleurieu.
Negotiations were slowed by contention over the Jay Treaty and the 7
July 1798 congressional act voiding all prior treaties between the
United States and France, for which see vol. 13:165. In Sept.
1800 the two sides finally agreed to “a firm, inviolable, and universal
peace,” whereby property not yet condemned was returned and most of the
provisions of the countries’ earlier treaties were restored. Commercial
relations also resumed, but 34
compensation for U.S. losses was deferred. The Convention of 1800 was
signed on 3 Oct. at Joseph Bonaparte’s Chateau Môrtefontaine, ending the
Quasi-War (DeConde,
The Quasi-War
, p. 223, 224,
227–228, 254, 256, 257, 443–444; Boston Russell’s Gazette, 7 Nov. 1799;
ANB
;
Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
; Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism
, p.
682–687). For the convention’s ratification, see
AA to Cotton Tufts, 15
Dec., and note 2, below.
See TBA to William Smith Shaw, 23 Oct. 1799, and note 2, below.
Mark banco, an internal noncirculating currency of
account of the Bank of Hamburg that had a higher value than the
circulating currency, the mark courant (John J. McCusker, Money and Exchange in Europe and America,
1600–1775: A Handbook, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1978, p. 61–63).
Ebenezer Brush (1763–1814), brother of
JA’s deceased acquaintance Eliphalet Brush, was a New
York merchant who in April advertised goods for sale lately imported
from Hamburg (vol. 7:153, 155–156; Conklin Mann, “Thomas and Richard Brush of
Huntington, Long Island,”
NYGBR
,
67:21 [Jan. 1936];
New-York Directory
, 1798, p.
113, Evans, No.
34012; New York Daily Advertiser, 13 April,
suppl.).
The Four Friends, Capt.
Hathaway, accepted mail for Bremen until 26 Oct. and likely carried
TBA’s packet to Frederick Jacob Wichelhausen, who
served as U.S. consul at Bremen from 1796 to 1833 (Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 22 Oct.;
Walter B. Smith II, America’s Diplomats and
Consuls of 1776–1865, Washington, D.C., 1986, p. 279).