Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 5

Acknowledgments

To William Tudor
xxxiv Guide to Editorial Apparatus Guide to Editorial Apparatus
Guide to Editorial Apparatus

In the first three sections (1–3) of the six sections of this Guide are listed, respectively, the arbitrary devices used for clarifying the text, the code names for designating prominent members of the Adams family, and the symbols describing the various kinds of MS originals used or referred to, that are employed throughout The Adams Papers in all its series and parts. In the final three sections (4–6) are listed, respectively, only those symbols designating institutions holding original materials, the various abbreviations and conventional terms, and the short titles of books and other works, that occur in volumes 5 and 6 of the Papers of John Adams. The editors propose to maintain this pattern for the Guide to Editorial Apparatus in each of the smaller units, published at intervals, of all the series and parts of the edition that are so extensive as to continue through many volumes. On the other hand, in short and specialized series and/or parts of the edition, the Guide to Editorial Apparatus will be given more summary form tailored to its immediate purpose.

Textual Devices

The following devices will be used throughout The Adams Papers to clarify the presentation of the text.

[...], [....] One or two words missing and not conjecturable.
[...]1, [....]1 More than two words missing and not conjecturable; subjoined footnote estimates amount of missing matter.
[ ] Number or part of a number missing or illegible. Amount of blank space inside brackets approximates the number of missing or illegible digits.
[roman] Editorial insertion or conjectural reading for missing or illegible matter. A question mark is inserted before the closing bracket if the conjectural reading is seriously doubtful.
<italic> Matter canceled in the manuscript but restored in our text.
Adams Family Code Names
First Generation
JA John Adams (1735–1826)
AA Abigail Smith (1744–1818), m. JA 1764
xxxv
Second Generation
AA2 Abigail Adams (1765–1813), daughter of JA and AA, m. WSS 1786
WSS William Stephens Smith (1755–1816), brother of Mrs. CA
JQA John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), son of JA and AA
LCA Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775–1852), m. JQA 1797
CA Charles Adams (1770–1800), son of JA and AA
Mrs. CA Sarah Smith (1769–1828), sister of WSS, m. CA 1795
TBA Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832), son of JA and AA
Mrs. TBA Ann Harrod (1774–1846), m. TBA 1805
Third Generation
GWA George Washington Adams (1801–1829), son of JQA and LCA
JA2 John Adams (1803–1834), son of JQA and LCA
Mrs. JA2 Mary Catherine Hellen (1807–1870), m. JA2 1828
CFA Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886), son of JQA and LCA
ABA Abigail Brown Brooks (1808–1889), m. CFA 1829
ECA Elizabeth Coombs Adams (1808–1903), daughter of TBA and Mrs. TBA
Fourth Generation
LCA2 Louisa Catherine Adams (1831–1870), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Charles Kuhn 1854
JQA2 John Quincy Adams (1833–1894), son of CFA and ABA
CFA2 Charles Francis Adams (1835–1915), son of CFA and ABA
HA Henry Adams (1838–1918), son of CFA and ABA
MHA Marian Hooper (1842–1885), m. HA 1872
MA Mary Adams (1845–1928), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Henry Parker Quincy 1877
BA Brooks Adams (1848–1927), son of CFA and ABA
Fifth Generation
CFA3 Charles Francis Adams (1866–1954), son of JQA2
HA2 Henry Adams (1875–1951), son of CFA2
JA3 John Adams (1875–1964), son of CFA2
Descriptive Symbols

The following symbols will be employed throughout The Adams Papers to describe or identify in brief form various kinds of manuscript originals.

D Diary (Used only to designate a diary written by a member of the Adams family and always in combination with the short xxxviform of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: D/JA/23, i.e. the twenty-third fascicle or volume of John Adams' manuscript Diary.)
Dft draft
Dupl duplicate
FC file copy (Ordinarily a copy of a letter retained by a correspondent other than an Adams, for example Jefferson's press copies and polygraph copies, since all three of the Adams statesmen systematically entered copies of their outgoing letters in letterbooks.)
Lb Letterbook (Used only to designate Adams letterbooks and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: Lb/JQA/29, i.e. the twenty-ninth volume of John Quincy Adams' Letterbooks.)
LbC letterbook copy (Letterbook copies are normally unsigned, but any such copy is assumed to be in the hand of the person responsible for the text unless it is otherwise described.)
M Miscellany (Used only to designate materials in the section of the Adams Papers known as the "Miscellany" and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: M/CFA/32, i.e. the thirty-second volume of the Charles Francis Adams Miscellany—a ledger volume mainly containing transcripts made by CFA in 1833 of selections from the family papers.)
MS, MSS manuscript, manuscripts
RC recipient's copy (A recipient's copy is assumed to be in the hand of the signer unless it is otherwise described.)
Tr transcript (A copy, handwritten or typewritten, made substantially later than the original or than other copies—such as duplicates, file copies, letterbook copies—that were made contemporaneously.)
Tripl triplicate
Location Symbols
Ct Connecticut State Library
DLC Library of Congress
DNA National Archives
DSI Smithsonian Institution
M-Ar Massachusetts Archives
MB Boston Public Library
MH Harvard College Library
MH-H Houghton Library, Harvard University
MHi Massachusetts Historical Society
MeHi Maine Historical Society
MiU-C William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan
xxxvii
N New York State Library
NBLiHi Long Island Historical Society
NN New York Public Library
NNPM Pierpont Morgan Library
NNS New York Society Library
NjMoHP Morristown National Historical Park
PHC Haverford College Library
PHi Historical Society of Pennsylvania
PPAmP American Philosophical Society
P.R.O. Public Record Office, London
PU University of Pennsylvania Library
PWacD David Library of the American Revolution
ScHi South Carolina Historical Society
ViU University of Virginia Library
Other Abbreviations and Conventional Terms
Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (see below). The location of materials in the Letterbooks and the Miscellany is given more fully, and often, if the original would be hard to locate, by the microfilm reel number. The portion of the Adams manuscripts given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Thomas Boylston Adams in 1973 and retained in the editorial office of the Adams Papers. Other materials in the Adams Papers editorial office, Massachusetts Historical Society. These include photoduplicated documents (normally cited by the location of the originals), photographs, correspondence, and bibliographical and other aids compiled and accumulated by the editorial staff. Adams manuscripts dating 1890 or later originally part of the Trust collection together with Adams manuscripts acquired from other sources, administered by the Massachusetts Historical Society on the same footing with its other manuscript collections. The corpus of the Adams Papers, 1639–1889, as published on microfilm by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1954–1959, in 608 reels. Cited xxxviiiin the present work, when necessary, by reel number. Available in research libraries throughout the United States and in a few libraries in Europe, Canada, and New Zealand. The present edition in letterpress, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. References between volumes of any given unit will take this form: vol. 3:171. Since there will be no overall volume numbering for the edition, references from one series, or unit of a series, to another will be by title, volume, and page; for example, JQA, Papers, 4:205. (For the same reason, references by scholars citing this edition should not be to The Adams Papers as a whole but to the particular series or subseries concerned; for example, John Adams, Diary and Autobiography, 3:145; Adams Family Correspondence, 6:167.) Archives Affaires Etrangères, Correspondance Politique, Etats-Unis, Paris. Koninklijk Huisarchief, The Hague. Papers of the Continental Congress. Originals in the National Archives: Record Group 360. Microfilm edition in 204 reels. Usually cited in the present work from the microfilms, but according to the original series and volume numbering devised in the State Department in the early I9th century; for example, PCC, No. 93, III, i.e. the third volume of series 93. Annie Haven Thwing, comp., Inhabitants and Estates of the Town of Boston, 1630–1800; typed card catalogue, with supplementary bound typescripts, in the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited
Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963– . John Richard Alden, General Charles Lee: Traitor or Patriot?, Baton Rouge, La., 1951. Gardner Weld Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vol. 77), Boston, 1927. Gardner Weld Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution, Boston and New York, 1913; 2 vols. xxxix James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, New York, 1887–1889; 6 vols. Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution: The Foundations of American Diplomacy, 1775–1823, New York and London, 1935. Edmund C. Burnett, ed., Letters of Members of the Continental Congress, Washington, 1921–1936; 8 vols. I. Minis Hays, comp., Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1908; 5 vols. Calendar of John Paul Jones Manuscripts in the Library of Congress, Washington, 1903. Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. Connecticut Historical Society, Bulletin, Collections. Letters and Papers Relating to the Cruises of Gustavus Conyngham, a Captain of the Continental Navy, 1777–1779, ed. Robert Wilden Neeser, New York, 1915. Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; 20 vols. plus index and supplements. Papers of Silas Deane, 1774–1790, in New-York Historical Society, Collections, Publication Fund Series, vols. 19–23, New York, 1887–1891; 5 vols. U.S. Navy Department, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Naval History Division, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Washington, 1959– Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements. Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: a Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787, Princeton, 1975. Lester J. Cappon and others, Atlas of Early American History, Princeton, 1976. Friedrich Edler, The Dutch Republic and the American Revolution, Baltimore, 1911. Charles Evans and others, comps., American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, 1903–1959; 14 vols. xl [Peter Force, ed.,] American Archives: Consisting of a Collection of Authentick Records, State Papers, Debates, and Letters and Other Notices of Publick Affairs, Washington, 1837–1853; 9 vols. The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Albert Henry Smyth, New York and London, 1905–1907; 10 vols. Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington: A Biography, New York, 1948–1952; 6 vols. Vol. 7, by John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth, New York, 1957. Despatches and Instructions of Conrad Alexandre Gérard, 1778–1780: Correspondence of the First French Minister to the United States with the Comte de Vergennes, ed. John J. Meng, Baltimore, 1939. The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, ed. Richard K. Showman and others, Chapel Hill, 1976–. Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, new edn., Washington, 1914. J. C. F. Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours, Paris, 1852–1866; 46 vols. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. Legal Papers of John Adams, ed. L. Kinvin Wroth and Hiller B. Zobel, Cambridge, 1965; 3 vols. Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor and others, Cambridge, 1977–. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols. Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd and others, Princeton, 1950–. Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn (Long Island Historical Society, Memoirs, vol. 3), Brooklyn, 1878, repr. N.Y., 1971. E. Alfred Jones, The Loyalists of Massachusetts: Their Memorials, Petitions and Claims, London, 1930. xli Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, Boston, 1829; 2 vols. The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, ed. James C. Ballagh, New York, 1911–1914; 2 vols. Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence, Boston, 1913. Journals of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts [1715– ], Boston, reprinted by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1919–. (For the years for which reprints are not yet available, the original printings are cited, by year and session.) The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols. Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Boston, 1896–1908; 17 vols. Maryland Historical Magazine. Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections and Proceedings. Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, Washington, 1931–1948; 8 vols. Daniel A. Miller, Sir Joseph Yorke and the Anglo-Dutch Relations, 1744–1780, The Hague, 1970. Samuel Eliot Morison, John Paul Jones, a Sailor's Biography, Boston and Toronto, 1959. William Bell Clark, William James Morgan (from vol. 5), and others, eds., Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Washington, 1964–. New England Historical and Genealogical Register. P. C. Molhuysen and others, eds., Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, Leyden, 1911–1937; 10 vols. New-York Historical Society, Collections. The Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford, 1933; 12 vols. and supplement. The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, London: Hansard, 1806–1820; 36 vols. xlii William S. Pattee, A History of Old Braintree and Quincy, with a Sketch of Randolph and Holbrook, Quincy, 1878. Pennsylvania Archives. Selected and Arranged from Original Documents in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–1935; 119 vols. in 123. Pennsylvania Colonial Records, 1683–1790, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1851–1853; 16 vols. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder seit dem Westfälischen Frieden (1648), ed. Ludwig Bittner and others, Oldenburg, &c., 1936–1965; 3 vols. Letters of Benjamin Rush, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Princeton, 1951; 2 vols. Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, with an Historical Essay, Boston, 1864; 2 vols. John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– Letters and Papers of Major-General John Sullivan, Continental Army, 1771–1795, ed. Otis G. Hammond (New Hampshire Historical Society, Collections, vols. 13–15), Concord, 1930–1939; 3 vols. Robert J. Taylor, ed., Massachusetts, Colony to Commonwealth: Documents on the Formation of Its Constitution, 1775–1780, Chapel Hill, 1961. Francis N. Thorpe, ed., The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters, and Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories and Colonies Now or Heretofore Forming the United States of America, Washington, 1909; 7 vols. Vermont Historical Society, Collections. “Papers of William Vernon and the Navy Board, 1776–1794,” Rhode Island Historical Society, Publications, new series, 8 (1901): 197–277. David Duncan Wallace, The Life of Henry Laurens, With a Sketch of the Life of Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens, New York and London, 1915. Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution, New York, 1952; 2 vols. Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence among John Adams, Samuel xliiiAdams, and James Warren (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vols. 72–73), Boston, 1917–1925; 2 vols. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, Washington, 1931–1944; 39 vols. Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. William and Mary Quarterly. xliv