Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
d.Dec
r.1799
Your favors of the 19th &
22d I have recd.
no Vessell at present is up for Philaa. If any
one offers, I will endeavour to procure the articles you wish to be sent. it
is now so late in the season, that I do not expect I shall forward them— I
am much oblig’d to you for the papers you inclos’d, such Mad Men, as Cooper
can never do any injury to the Government their mad zeal, defeats their own
purposes. if no other state suffer’d from such conduct but Pensylva. they richly deserve it, for giving such
encouragement for Mad Men from every quarter of the Globe to resort there—
the Business respecting Robbins is well
understood in this quarter. The Letter in the Aurora, without doubt is a
fabrication, & in my opinion the French Paper never cross’d the
Atlantic. Mr C. has clear’d himself compleatly
by 66 his two Letters. Our Envoys I hope
before this are safe landed in Europe & I hope they will meet with
success. they have the best wishes of a large Marjority in this Quarter.
even the Junto are now silent & begin to
doubt whether they have not been deceived in their opinion.— every arrival
from Europe brings Bloody News. By an arrival
Yesterday from Hamburgh We have accounts of several severe actions in
Holland on the 1st & 2d Oct. in which the Dutch & French were oblig’d to retreat
some distance. it is said that in another action after these the Duke of
York was defeated with the loss of 4 or 5000. Men—1 I hope the Elections in the House
of Reps. have terminated favourably— I was at Atkinson a few weeks since the
Fa[mily] were all well. I attended the Exhibit[ion] & was much pleas’d
with the performances. Wm. & John had
conspicuous parts & perform’d very well. John perform’d his part in such
a manner as to gain the applause of the whole assembly— the performances
were in the Meeting House which was as much crouded as Cambridge Meetg House
on Commencement Day.— Mrs. S & our Children
are well she joins me in Affec. Regards to you & the President.—
Yrs. Affecly
m.Smith
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs. Adams / Philadelphia”; endorsed: “Mr W
smith / Decbr 2d
1799.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
Anglo-Russian forces under Prince Frederick, Duke of
York and Albany, defeated Franco-Batavian troops under Gen. Guillaume
Marie Anne Brune in the Battle of Egmond aan Zee on 2 October. The
encounter was reported in the Boston press after the arrival of the ship
Argo, Capt. Howland, from Hamburg on 2
December. The two generals clashed again in the Battle of Castricum on 6
Oct., when Frederick’s army was defeated and 1,870 men under his command
were killed or wounded (Smith, Napoleonic Wars Data
Book
, p. 170–171; Massachusetts
Mercury, 3 Dec.).