Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
4 November 1799
Tomorow morning I expect to leave this place, and proceed on my way to Philadelphia—where I hope soon to hear from you. Frank and family had arrived before Brisler. they had only ten days passage.
our Envoys I presume are ready to sail. the P writes
me, that he hopes they are gone that there may no longer be room for
impertinent paragraphs fabricated by busy bodies who are forever meddling
with things they understand not.2 I inclose You a Letter from
William to me. be cautious however in your communications as the source will
be traced.3 I request mr
Cranch to have the inclosed communication publishd, taken from the N york
commercial advertizer of Nov’br 2d in the centinal, or J Russels paper— I also
inclose a paper which contains an answer to coopers address if it has not
been republishd in our papers, it ought to be. if you could send it to mr
Gardner Milton he will see that it is done. the Writer is T B A—as I have
good reason to believe—4
Mrs smith goes on with me. my Love and regards to all Friends— Mrs Adams and children went to N York to day. she had been in part of the last week. she returnd last Evening, and went again this morning
I read in the Centinal the death of Lilly Field.5 what was her sickness the quitting of mrs Foster was the ruin of that poor girl
adieu your ever / affectionate Sister
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters); endorsed by
Richard Cranch: “Recd Novr. 9th.
1799.”
The dating of this letter is based on AAs 5 Nov. departure from Eastchester, N.Y. (AA to Cotton Tufts, 13 Nov., Adams Papers).
JA to AA, 30 Oct., above.
The enclosures have not been found. The first was
probably an article from the New York Commercial
Advertiser, 2 Nov., which reported that Capt. Thomas Truxtun
had resumed his command of the frigate Constellation after waiving the question of rank, for 48 which see vol. 13:547–548. The
article was reprinted in the Boston Columbian
Centinel, 9 November. The second enclosure was likely the
Philadelphia Gazette of the United States,
23 Oct., which included an article by “A True American” written in
response to Dr. Thomas Cooper’s 29 June address attacking
JA, for which see vol. 13:550. This
response, which may have been penned by Pennsylvania lawyer Charles
Hall, was reprinted in the Boston Russell’s
Gazette, 18, 21 November. AA in her letter to Cranch, 26
Nov., below, stated that she was mistaken and the writer was
not TBA (vol. 10:227; James Morton Smith, “President John
Adams, Thomas Cooper, and Sedition: A Case Study in Suppression,”
MVHR
, 42:444 [Dec. 1955]).
The Boston Columbian
Centinel, 23 Oct., reported the death of Lilley Field (b.
1785), a daughter of Benjamin Field of Quincy (Sprague, Braintree Families
).