Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
1785-08-03
Was all the morning writing for the Packet.1
Dined with the Delegates from Virginia. Coll. Monroe, was a little indisposed: he and Mr.
Hardy, intend in a short time to take a tour to Boston. In the afternoon I carried my
Letters to Mr. Church, who sails in the packet tomorrow morning. I then went and visited Mr.
Gerry and Mr. King. There, was a number of persons at Mrs. Mercer's. Two Miss Bostwick's and
Miss Alsop.2 Miss Mercer shew me, some lines
intended as a Satire upon the young Ladies in the City, but the receipt for a wife,3 has neither wit,
pleasantry, nor truth, in short it is not worth speaking of. Yet it has turn'd me poetaster.
I am trying to see if I can say something not so bad in the same way. And although I see I
have no talent at-all at versifying, yet like all fathers, I have a partiality for my own
offspring however ugly they may be.
Probably JQA to JA, 3 Aug. (Adams Papers).
Undoubtedly Mary Alsop, daughter of New York merchant and Continental Congress delegate
John Alsop; she married Rufus King the following year (The Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King: Comprising His Letters, Private and Official, His Public
Documents, and His Speeches, ed. Charles R. King, 6 vols., 1894–1900, 1:130–131;
JQA to AA2, 1–8
Aug., Adams Papers).
Parts of this poem are quoted in JQA's letter to AA2, 1–8 Aug. (Adams Papers).