Papers of John Adams, volume 18
r.8
th:1785.
I must apologize for delaying to acknowlege the honour of your letter of the 28th. of April which I received by the hand of your Son.2 I had the pleasure of an hour’s interview with him, & from the proofs he gave in that time of his native genius, his literary improvements, & his just observations on the various parts of Europe, thro’ which he has travelled, I could not but regret that I had not a farther opportunity of cultivating his acquaintance.
I feel myself highly flattered by your favourable opinion of the Pamphlet I sent you.3 As I have in contemplation a correction of that production, to accompany a miscellaneous publication of all my former poetical essays, if from your regard for the literary reputation of America, You can think the subject worth so much attention, I should esteem myself greatly obliged, if You would hint to me the passages, in which you have observed an inequality, which from the nature of the plan, can be amended by a correction.
I am still more flattered by your opinion, that I could succeed in the higher veins of Poetry; though I am conscious, that I could never support the Sublime or Pathetic Style, even to my own satisfaction, in any attempt of considerable length. But were my genius equal to such a performance, as You recommend, I am precluded from it by want both of leisure & health. My Father, though possessed of an Estate considered as independant in Connecticut, was never disposed to lessen his Inventory for the sake of my happiness:4 and I have ever been nearly as dependent on my profession for a support, as though I had no future expectations. A violent attack on my constitution about Six years ago, has left me ever since subject to nervous complaints—from which though I have been gradually recovering, I fear I shall verify the observation, that an 21 Hypocondriac, tho’ he may live till himself & all his friends are tired of his existence, can never regain a competent share of health or spirits.—
But tho’ from these & other reasons I must decline such a work, as your partial favour advises, I beg leave to recommend to your friendly attention, a production in a similar way, which, if not calculated on the Plan of a regular Epic Poem, is written in the same style. Mr. Joel Barlow, one of my particular Friends, with whose character, You must probably be acquainted, has for several years been employed in writing a Poem, entitled, The Vision of Columbus. The work is now finished for the press, & a Copy of it will be forwarded to Mr. Humphrys by the same Pacquet as this Letter.5 He proposes to publish the work in London. It is designed to do honour to our Country. It will be submitted to your Perusal, & I believe You will be of Opinion, that many parts of it have not been excelled in Sublimity since the days of Milton. The obvious difficulties in publishing such a work to advantage in America have determined him to send it to Europe. He will probably assign the Copy-right to some Gentleman in London to be sold after the publication of one Impression, a part of which he proposes to receive to satisfy his American Subscriptions. Colo. Humphrys will inform You of the measures that may be taken. I should be very happy, if in any manner, consistent with propriety, You could afford your assistance & encouragement to the Publication of the Poem, & your recommendation of it to the Public; as Mr. Barlow’s circumstances lay him under some disadvantages in procuring its publication, & render its success an object of consequence to his fortune, as well as his reputation.
Tho’ a stranger to the works of the celebrated Abbe de Mably, I cannot but lament the loss of a writer, so respectable for Independence of spirit, & literary reputation; & I feel from your reputation an increased curiosity to become acquainted with his writings—6 I am happy to hear of your favorable reception at the British Court, & with every friend of our Country, wish You the highest success in the objects of your mission, with every share of personal honor & felicity
With the greatest Respect, I have / the honour to be, / Sir Your most Obedient / humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Honble. John Adams / Esqr”; endorsed: “Mr Trumbull / Hartford Decr 8. 1786.” Filmed at 12 Dec. 1785.
This letter was enclosed with Joel Barlow’s of 12 Dec., below.
Vol. 17:70–72.
This was Trumbull’s M’Fingal: A Modern Epic Poem, in Four Cantos, Hartford, Conn., 1782. A main character, “Honorious,” is
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usually seen as modeled on JA (same, 17:71). No reply by JA to the letter printed here has been found.
Trumbull’s father was Rev. John Trumbull of Watertown, Conn. (
ANB
).
For Barlow’s The Vision of Columbus, see Barlow’s 12 Dec. letter, below. For JA’s advice to him on the poem’s revision and publication, see
JA’s 4 April 1786 letter, below.
JA had mentioned the Abbé de Mably’s death in his 28 April 1785 letter to Trumbull (vol. 17:71–72).
th:1785
I went to Court Yesterday Morning, if not in despair, with very faint hopes of ever receiving an Answer to any Letter or Memorial of mine to the British Ministry.— I went early, but found three of the foreign Ministers before me. The Rule is to admit them to his Lordship in the order in which they arrive. in my Turn I was Shewn into his Lordships Appartement received very politely as usual, and very much Surprized, to be accosted by him with “Mr Adams, I am about to write you officially: I have received a Letter from Lord Howe relative to your Communication concerning the Behaviour of a Captain of a Man of War at Boston. The Admiralty Letter is very long and I shall send you a Copy of it.— I am also to answer your Memorial concerning the Seamen. The ship is ordered and expected home from the East Indies and when she arrives the Man you applied for will be discharged. and orders are gone to Portsmouth to discharge the other, Sailor, whom you mentioned.”— This last, requires some Explanation as I have not mentioned it before to you. some time ago I received a Letter from a Man at Portsmouth, who called himself an American, and desiring me to apply for his discharge. but as I had no orders from Congress concerning him nor any other Information than his own Letter, I thought not safe to apply Officially in his behalf.— When I delivered my Memorial demanding the discharge of the Sailors in General, I Shewed this Mans Letter to his Lordship & left it with him. and it has had it seems a better fortune, than I expected.1
I replied to his Lordship that I was very happy to hear that I was soon to have an official answer, for that whenever We could come to communicate officially and freely, I hoped We might gradually remove all Difficulties. We fell then into some Conversation upon the other Points— But as nothing new was Said on either side, and I could learn nothing new from him, it would be fatiguing you to no Purpose to repeat it.— one Thing however his Lordship said in the
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Course of Conversation, vizt “that he could not yet give me any Satisfaction upon any other Points because nothing was yet determined; Mr Pitt had all my Papers under Consideration, and had not yet determined any Thing.”
At length I presented to his Lordship the Memorial of the 30th. of November, Copy of which is here inclosed.—2 I dont expect an Answer, till next Summer.— But I thought it safest for the United States to have it presented, because without it some Excuses or Pretences might have been Sett upp, that the Evacuations had not been formally demanded.
With great Esteem, I have the Honour to be / Sir your most obedient & most humble / Servant
RC (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 13–16); internal address: “His Excellency John Jay / Secretary of state for / foreign Affairs.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 111. For the enclosure, see note 2.
At his 20 Oct. meeting with the Marquis of Carmarthen, JA presented the foreign minister with documents, including a congressional resolution, regarding the Stanhope Affair, a 1785 dispute at Boston between Massachusetts governor James Bowdoin and Capt. Henry Edwin Stanhope of the British frigate Mercury. He also delivered a memorial calling for the release of Richard Low, an American captured during the Revolution, who had been impressed into the British Navy and was currently on board the British ship of the line Defence in the East Indies. As he indicates at the end of this paragraph, JA also left a 20 July letter from John Lyddiard, who found himself on the ship of the line Powerful at Plymouth in the same situation as Low (vol. 17:261–262, 323–325, 514–515, 524, 532–533). In a letter to JA written later on 9 Dec., Carmarthen indicated that he had submitted the materials given him by JA to the Admiralty and enclosed the Admiralty’s response of 7 Dec. (Adams Papers). There the Admiralty reported that it was investigating the Stanhope Affair, having written to the commander of the American station at Halifax requesting that he obtain Stanhope’s explanation for his behavior, and it also indicated that it would expedite the release of Low and Lyddiard. For the outcome of the Stanhope Affair, see
JA’s 15 July 1786 letter to Jay, and note 1, below. JA enclosed copies of Carmarthen’s 9 Dec. 1785 letter and the enclosed letter from the Admiralty with his to Jay of 12 Dec. (PCC, No. 84, VI, f. 17–30). There he wrote of the Admiralty’s letter: “Their Answer concerning the Sailors is more favourable than I expected, and that respecting Captain Stanhope is as much So.”
Not found, but likely another copy of JA’s [30 Nov.] memorial (vol. 17:624–625), which he had also enclosed with his 6 Dec. letter to Jay, for which see the descriptive note and note 2 to that letter, above. Despite JA’s pessimism concerning the memorial, William Pitt took it up with Carmarthen in a 16 Dec. letter (British Library, London: Egerton MSS. Leeds Papers). Pitt believed the demand in the memorial to be founded on the treaty but observed that “there are Articles to be performed on their Part which we must equally insist upon.— Particularly this seems to be an Opportunity for urging Satisfaction respecting the Debts due from America to our Merchants; And I should think the Answer to the Memorial ought to state that, and every other Point in which We have any Claim on them as necessary to go Hand in Hand with what they ask.” For the British response, which centered on the debt issue, see Carmarthen’s 28 Feb. 1786 letter, below.