Adams Family Correspondence, volume 9

John Adams to John Quincy Adams, 15 February 1792 Adams, John Adams, John Quincy

John Adams to John Quincy Adams

My dear Son Philadelphia Feb. 15. 1792

Your Letter of the 4th, has given me as much Pain by opening the Sceenes of Ambition in your neighbourhood as it has pleasure by the Elegance of its composition and the Intelligence with which it devellopes the Maneuvres of Parties and the Passions of Individuals.1

Another Drama at New York has been acted with equal Spirit and of more Importance.

At Philadelphia too We have had our Curiosities but I have not so much Courage as you, to undertake to explain them. When first Places are the Objects of pursuit to clashing Grandees, and the means of obtaining them are popular Arts, you know very well from History and even from your Short Experience, what is to be expected. For my own part I wish myself out of the Scuffle at almost any rate.

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Your Mother is confined by rhumatick complaints complicated with others, but I hope will soon be better. The rest of the Family are well. Col Smith and your sister with their Children are to embark in the March Packet for England where they are to remain two Years upon his private affairs.

I hope to See you at Braintree before the first of May and there I shall live in tranquil retirement, Silently observing the Intrigues which may preceed and attend a great Election: and with more Indifference than you may imagine concerning their Effect.

Pray will not an Effort be made for Mr Jarvis, to take a Place in our Senate?2 Write me as often as you can.

yours with great Affection

John Adams.

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mr J. Q. Adams.” Tr (Adams Papers).

On 4 Feb., JQA wrote JA a lengthy letter on “the state of our parties in this State.” He recounted the divisions caused by the appointment of Thomas Dawes to sit on the Supreme Judicial Court and the controversy surrounding the suggested reforms of Boston's town government, concluding that “the result of all the plots and counterplots will probably appear in the course of three or four weeks” (Adams Papers).

Charles Jarvis was frequently mentioned in Boston newspapers as a possible candidate for the Mass. senate but was ultimately elected only to the lower house of the General Court (Mass., Acts and Laws , 1792–1793, p. 139–140); see, for instance, The Argus, 30 March; Independent Chronicle, 30 March; and Columbian Centinel, 31 March.

John Adams to Charles Adams, 19 February 1792 Adams, John Adams, Charles

John Adams to Charles Adams

Dear Charles Philadelphia Feb. 19. 1792

I wish you to take of Berry and Rogers as handsome a set of my Defence as you can find and packet them up handsomely and address them to The Reverend Joseph Priestley D. D. London, and send them by your Brother and Sister Smith. That Philosopher has made them so many Compliments in conversation as well as one in print; and as his sett was probably destroyed by the Rioters at Birmingham, I presume such a present will not be unacceptable to him.1

By a Letter from John,2 I find that Ambition and Adventure, are as active at Boston as you represent them to be at New York. The Gales I hope will be gentle and only waft the Vessell forward on her Voyage. The Storms I hope I shall either not live to see, or be on shore under my own Peartree, when they come on to blow.

Your Sisters Voyage will oblige you to look out for Lodgings. Let Us know what are your Prospects.

I am my dear Charles your / affectionate

John Adams 266

RC (MHi:Seymour Coll.); internal address: “Charles Adams.”

On 14 July 1791, a mob attacked the Birmingham home of Rev. Joseph Priestley, destroying all of his books and papers. The rioters mistakenly believed that Priestley had helped to organize a pro-French dinner marking the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. The attack on Priestley was widely covered in the U.S. press; see, for instance, Boston Columbian Centinel, 21, 24 September. JA sent him a set of the three-volume Defence of the Const. , which CA obtained from New York printers and booksellers Edward Berry and John Rogers. JA wrote to Priestley on 19 Feb. 1792, “I take an opportunity by part of my family bound to London, to remind you of a person who once had an opportunity of knowing you personally, and to express my sympathy with you under your sufferings in the cause of Liberty. Inquisitions and Despotisms are not alone in persecuting Philosophers. The people themselves we see, are capable of persecuting a Priestly, as an other people formerly persecuted a Socrates. . . . I am emboldened to hope that you will not be displeased to receive an other Coppy of my Defence, especially as that which was presented you formerly has probably had the honor to share the fate of your Library” ( DNB ; LbC, APM Reel 115).

JQA to JA, 4 Feb., for which see JA to JQA, 15 Feb., note 1, above.