Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
brthe 22. 1799
Least you should not see many of the curiosities produced
in the Aurora; I shall now and then inclose You a choice morsal; in this,
54 which I now forward you you will find
a Letter, said to have been written by a Mr Crammond of this city, to Mr
Parish the former Consul at Hamburgh and printed in a Paris Paper. Mr
Crammond is a respectable English Merchant of this city, but by no means a
politician, not a creature any way acquainted with him suspects him of being
the writer. He says that he has not written a Letter of any kind for three
years past, to Mr Parish—and that the whole is a forgery—the impudent
comments of Duane are also a pack of Lies. no misunderstanding has ever
taken place between the President and the British Minister—it is even
suspected by some whether the french paper it self is not the production of
that the Aurora office; but if not,
the Letter must have been forged by some of their Tools.1 I also inclose You a part of
Browns paper which contains the true statement of Robbins’s case, about
which the Democrats make such a clamour—if it has not been printed in
Boston, the printers I think ought to do it.2
if our Northern Members are not all here, upon the Day when a clerk is to be Chosen, it is feard that Beckly will get in again, as a great struggle will be made for him.3 You will see also that the batteries are opening upon mr Sedwick.4 in short no people are so unwearied as the evil Doers— our goverment is such an uphill Machine that it requires no common force, to support it against all the underminers— so Many of its Friends have local and personal views and interests to serve, that they rather pass by, with a wish that it may stand, than lend their aid to strengthen it—
I pray you to remember me affectionatly to all our Friends and Relatives, and be assured that I am at all times / your Friend
RC (MHi:Smith-Townsend Family Papers); endorsed:
“Philaa. 22. Novr 99. / Mrs. Adams.”
The Philadelphia Aurora
General Advertiser, 21 Nov., featured an item it claimed to be
a reprint of a Paris publication of an intercepted letter from
Philadelphia merchant William Cramond (ca. 1755–1843) to John Parish
(1742–1829), who had served as U.S. consul at Hamburg from 1793 to 1796.
The letter alleged that Timothy Pickering sought to impair relations
between JA and the British minister to the United States,
Sir Robert Liston. Aurora printer William
Duane commented on the letter, claiming that a “serious and real”
dispute between JA and Liston already existed. In the same
issue, Duane printed a 20 Nov. 1799 letter from Cramond denying
authorship and calling the letter a forgery. Duane reprinted the
intercepted letter, an English translation, and a second letter from
Cramond in the Aurora General Advertiser,
25 Nov. (Philadelphia North American, 26
Oct. 1843; Washington, Papers, Presidential
Series
, 16:589).
Andrew Brown Jr.’s Philadelphia Gazette, 21 Nov., summarized the Jonathan Robbins
affair.
John Beckley of Virginia, who served as 55 the clerk of the House of
Representatives from 1789 to 1797, failed to unseat his successor,
Jonathan W. Condy of Pennsylvania, who was reelected on 2 Dec. 1799 by a
vote of 47 to 39. Beckley would reassume the post from 1801 to 1807
(Jeffery A. Jenkins and Charles Stewart III, Fighting for the Speakership: The House and the Rise of Party
Government, Princeton, N.J., 2013, p. 370–371).
Federalists Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts and
John Rutledge Jr. of South Carolina were under consideration as Speaker
of the House. The Philadelphia Aurora General
Advertiser, 12 and 21 Nov. 1799, opposed Sedgwick’s election.
Despite receiving moderate Federalist support, Rutledge conceded after
three caucuses and encouraged his colleagues to vote for Sedgwick, who
was elected on 2 Dec. (Patrick J. Furlong, “John Rutledge, Jr., and the
Election of a Speaker of the House in 1799,”
WMQ
,
24:435 [July 1967]).