Adams Family Correspondence, volume 9
th:Dec
r:1793—
I believe you are indebted to me for a letter or two, but as your late loss has been my gain, it is more incumbent on me to attempt 465to compensate in some measure by my communications the absence of my Father.
You have doubtless provided yourself with a comfortable supply of Winters Stores for a severe campaign, as there is reason to anticipate a long one— The Winter has but just commenced with us, but we hope its continuance will not be short, for much of our security against a return of the late disorder is thought to depend on this Season. Congress have commenced their Career with the interesting transactions of the Executive department during their recess— The budget was opened last week and has already occupied three or four days in the mere reading. They are to be published shortly, when you will have an opportunity to gratify your curiosity, which I can easily immagine is excited on the occasion.1 Altho’ the making public the heretofore private negociations of the Executive may wear the appearance of novelty, & excite alarm in those who are acquainted with former usage, as establishing a dangerous precedent, yet I trust the fairness, candor and liberality of our Government will be no more liable to imputations unfavorable for its reputation, than its character for firmness and decission can be impeached by Foreigners.
There seems to be a wish in the Executive that the letters which have passed between him & Foreign Ministers should meet the public eye at this time, and I believe it a very happy circumstance that the conduct of the Minister of France has called them forth. There are many people who think we shall be under the necessity of arming our Merchantmen, so as to protect our trade & make reprisal whenever it appears that our Vessels have been unjustly captured or detained. The Merchants complain of the defenceless state of our Commerce, of the imposibility of trading to advantage, or with so much Safety as if we were actually engaged in War. Congress will probably take these things into consideration in the course of the present Session, & I hope place us in a mo[re] respectable situation as to the means of defence in case of an actual rupture, than at present we are—
My Examination for the Bar is passed, and the Oath of Office administered to me—2 I am at liberty therefore to undertake the cause of the oppressed, & attempt to render justice to him that is wronged— I anticipate very little of this kind of business this winter—if it comes it will be more acceptable.
My Father was well when I saw him last; he had recd: no letter from you since his arrival & would have been anxious if my Brother 466
JQA had not quieted his apprehensions by a few lines—3 Believe me your son
RC (Adams Papers). Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
A Message of the President of the United States to Congress Relative to France and Great-Britain. Delivered December 5, 1793, Phila., 1793, Evans, No. 26334. Published by order of the House of Representatives, this pamphlet was initially released in two parts. The first part, which contained George Washington's message along with the papers that he had forwarded regarding relations with France, appeared by 5 Jan. 1794; the second part, which contained the papers relative to Britain as well as the original French versions of papers presented earlier in translation, appeared on 22 Jan. (JA to CA, 5 Jan., Adams Papers; Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 23 Jan.).
TBA was admitted to the Philadelphia bar on 7 Dec. 1793 (John Hill Martin, Martin's Bench and Bar of Philadelphia, Phila., 1883, p. 243).
JQA's letter to JA has not been found, but on 10 Dec., JA acknowledged a letter from JQA of 28 Nov., commenting that “considering your Mothers usual Goodness in writing to me in my too frequent Absences, I have been under some Anxiety for her health, because I have not received any News from her since I left her” (Adams Papers).
r12. 1793
This Day having been devoted to Thanksgiving by the Governor of Pensilvania, Congress have adjourned to Fryday.1 We have had a great Snow and afterwards a great Rain but not enough to carry off all the Snow. The Weather therefore is still cool, tho fair and pleasant. All Apprehension of the Fever Seems entirely departed, a Circumstance the more comfortable to me, as, having been among a few of the Earliest who came into Town, if any Thing unfortunate had followed I might have been reproached for Setting a precipitate Example.
our Son Thomas was examined approved and Sworn the last Week; so that We have three Lawyers upon the Theatre of Action. May they be ornaments to their Country and Blessings to the World.
Congress has a great Task and a very unpleasant one before them. With Indians and Algerines for open Ennemies and so many other Nations for suspicious Friends, besides so many appearances of ill Will among our own Citizens, who ever Envies a seat in that Body I believe the Members have no great reason to be delighted with theirs.2 My own is a situation, of Such compleat Insignificance, that I have Scarcely the Power to do good or Evil: yet it is the Station the most proper for me, as my Eyes and hands and Nerves are almost worn out.
467The two Houses have been tolerably unanimous in giving to the Presidents system a kind of rapid approbation: but what will be the Result of the Negotiations with France and England I know not.3 Mr Jefferson has regained his Reputation by the Part he has taken, and his Compositions are much applauded by his old Friends and assented to by others. The fresh depredations of the Algerines are so well calculated to prevent Emigration to this Country from England scotland and Ireland, that People are ready enough to impute their Truce with Portugal and Holland to British Interference. our Trade is like to suffer by the Arbitrary Decrees of England Spain and France as well as by the ferocious Pyracy of Affrica.4
This Winter will Shew Us the Temper of England as well as France. Americans cannot see with Pleasure the French Islands fall into English hands, nor will even French Emigrants be gratified with the Partition of their Country.5 But Foresight is impossible in such a Chaos. I am with great Anxiety for / your health, your
RC (Adams Papers).
On 14 Nov., Pennsylvania governor Thomas Mifflin declared 12 Dec. a day of thanksgiving to mark the end of the Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic. Four days later nineteen city clergymen signed an address encouraging participation in the observance (Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 11 Dec.).
The ongoing problem of U.S. relations with Algiers came to the fore again in late 1793 when Portugal—which had customarily protected U.S. ships from Barbary pirates around the Strait of Gibraltar to ensure continuing imports of American corn and flour—signed a peace treaty with Algiers. This new situation left U.S. ships vulnerable to piracy, and the Algerines immediately took advantage, capturing eleven vessels by December and enslaving their crews. Some in the United States also blamed the British for the situation, arguing that the British were allied with the Algerines, had encouraged the peace treaty with Portugal, and had possibly incited the Algerines to make their captures. These events pushed Congress to act on the crisis in early 1794, authorizing a million dollars to purchase peace and ransom captive sailors and additional money to establish a U.S. Navy (Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World, N.Y., 2005, p. 73–77).
George Washington's Neutrality Proclamation received the endorsement of the House of Representatives on 6 Dec. 1793 and of the Senate on the 9th in their respective replies to his annual address, even though neither body had completed its review of his intervening message respecting relations with France and Britain (
Annals of Congress
, 3d Cong., 1st sess., p. 17–18, 138–139).
After the outbreak of war in Europe in the spring of 1793, Britain and France each maneuvered to starve the other of provisions from the United States by unilaterally decreeing neutral trade with the enemy illegal and then seizing American merchant vessels caught in violation (
Cambridge Modern Hist.
, 7:318–319).
In the spring and summer of 1793, Britain expanded the war with France to the Caribbean. After capturing Tobago in April, British forces invaded St. Domingue, and the colony was divided between the warring armies. The French government of St. Domingue responded by freeing the colony's slaves and inviting them to join the army, a move that eventually turned the conflict in France's favor (Michael Duffy, “The French Revolution and British Attitudes to the West Indian Colonies,” in David Barry Gaspar and David Patrick Geggus, eds., A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean, Bloomington, Ind., 1997, p. 83–85).