Adams Family Correspondence, volume 8
th1788
The Mail is this day arrived, but not a Line have I got from you, nor have I heard a word from you since you left me. I hope you are well. I am anxious to learn when you expect to get back. I find by Letters received yesterday from France1 that mr Jefferson is gone to meet, you, which will render your visit in Holland much pleasenter to you. Callihan does not appear in any great Hurry, and I am full in the Mind that he had rather make it the middle of April before he sails than go sooner. he will not however have to wait for our things, as I hope they will all be on Board this week. I shall stay in the 243House as long as I possibly can, but if you do not get back before the 20th imagine I shall be in some Hotell.
We have had more Winter since you left London than the whole season before, and Terible Soar throats have been the concequence of the harsh March winds I have had my share of it I hope, which proved very obstinate for several days, & yesterday was the first of my getting out. Mr & Mrs Smith will leave London the 20th
I wrote you by last frydays Mail under cover to messiurs Willinks. my most Respectfull compliments to mr Jefferson. I rejoice in the Idea of your having met again before you leave Europe. the papers give us a magnificent account of preperations in Holland for celebrating the Birth day of the Stadtholder2
Nothing from America Since you left me; I find it very lonesome here & Should be more so if I was not so buisily employd in preperations for our departure—
adieu most affectionately / yours
after closing my Letter, yours of March the fourth is just brought me. I rejoice to hear you are well. compliments to mr d. & family if you had named the Hotell you were at, I Should not be obliged to Send my Letters to Amsterdam
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by AA2: “To / His Excellency John Adam's / &Cc&c &c / att the Hague / Bath Hotel / Piccadilly”; endorsed: “My dearest Friend / March 11 1788.”
Thomas Jefferson to JA, 2 March (Jefferson, Papers
, 12:637–638).
The Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser, 11 March, reprinted a letter from The Hague, dated 6 March, that stated, “The preparations making here for celebrating the anniversary of the birth of the Stadtholder surpasses every thing seen in this Republick on a like occasion; not only the greatest part of the houses, but all the principal streets, will be illuminated in a new taste, and the latter with pyramids and other ornaments.” The city also planned to build 100 arches, all “magnificently illuminated,” and a 100-foot obelisk facing the stadholder's palace. The celebration itself, with “eleven pieces of superb fireworks,” would take place on 8 March.
AA wrote the postscript on a separate sheet of paper.
I have past through the Ceremonies of taking Leave of the States General, the Prince and Princess &c to the Satisfaction of all Parties—and have been feasted at Court, and all that.— made my Compliments to the Prince on the 8. of March his Birth Day, and to the Princess at her Drawing Room &c &c &c. and should have been in 244London at this hour if you had not have laid a Plott, which has brought me to this Town.— Mr Jefferson at the Receipt of your Letter, came post to meet me, and he cutts out So Much Business for me, to put the Money Matters of the United States upon a Sure footing, that I certainly Shall not be able to get into the Packet at Helvoet before Saturday; and I much fear not before Wednesday the Nineteenth. This delay is very painful to me, and you must blame your self for it, altogether.
I thought myself dead, and that it most well with me, as a Public Man: but I think I shall be forced, after my decease, to open an additional Loan. at least this is Mr Jeffersons opinion and that of Mr Vanstaphorst.
I hope you will have every Thing ready that by the twenty first or second of March We may sett off together for falmouth from London.
My Love to Mr & Mrs Smith, and kiss my dear Boy.— Compliments to all Friends.— I am very impatient under this unforeseen delay, but our Bankers as well as Mr Jefferson think it absolutely necessary for the Public. I must therefore submit, but, if in Consequence of it you should meet South Westers on the Coast of America, and have your Voyage prolonged three Weeks by it, remember it is all your own Intrigue, which has forced me to open this Loan. I suppose you will boast of it, as a great Public Service.
Yours forever
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs Adams.”; docketed by JA: “J A to A A / March 11 1788.”