Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
I was fearfull before I left Home of Such a Seige as has taken place. whatever else may be objected to the Treaty, that of a hasty decision cannot and ought not to be of the Number— as people are all alive upon the Subject, there are no doubt many Speaches put into the mouths of particular senators according to their former sentiments & opinions— one day we here of very warm Debates. an other, that there will be no decision, but the Treaty will be deferd to the next meeting of Congress— but What I fancy is more founded on Truth, is what a Gentleman wrote his Friend from Philadelphia “We know no more about the Treaty here, than if the Senate were sitting in Siberia”
I can have nothing to detain me here after you come. I am anxious to return & dread the Heat, both for you & myself—
Col smith has received Letters from his Agent at Halifax. after unlaiding the vessel clear to the bottom in serch of Some brass cannon which they were informd she had, & finding none nor any Naval stores, they reloaded her & sufferd her to sail after detaining her a Month in the buisness
461I was happy in the receipt of the Letters you sent me, and rejoiced that any of mine had at last got Safe to Hand
Boston Chronical goes on in its accustomed stile of abuse— G Knox has got his share—Lord of Maine &c &c1
We are all Well. I have not any intelligence from home I wrote last week that I was in hopes of sitting out on the wedensday of this
adieu yours affectionatly
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs A. June 22 / ansd 25 1795.”
On 16 June a feast honoring Gen. Henry Knox was held in Boston as the former secretary of war paused on his way to his home in Maine. Attended by local merchants, diplomats, and Federalist politicians, the event drew criticism from the Republican press. One satirical “Soliloquy” mocked, “Feast of Gratitude!—I must again inquire, where are the men who claim this exclusive notice? Are they those who revel in affluence, and whose luxury and dissipation have become proverbial? Whose fortune has been encreased a thousand fold. Who have retired from office, in all the splendor of Nabobs—not like Cincinnatus, to ‘till their acres,’ but like Lords of an immense territory” (Boston Independent Chronicle, 18 June).
Some Senators are confident We shall rise tomorrow or next day. if so, I shall be with you on Sunday— But these Conjectures are always uncertain. I shall write you every day so that you will be apprized of the time when you may expect me.
Both the public Dispatches and private Letters of our dear Boys are the delight of all who read them— No public Minister has ever given greater Satisfaction, than Mr Adams has hitherto. His Prudence Caution and penetration are as much approved as the Elegance of his Style is admired. Providence I hope and pray will make him a Blessing to his Country as well as to his Parents.
I went out to Lansdowne on sunday about half a mile on this Side Judge Peters’s where you once dined. The Place is very retired, but very beautiful a Splendid House, gravel Wallks shrubberies & Clumps of Trees in the English style—on the Bank of the Skuylkill— Jona. Williams’s House, which was once McPhersons is over the River.1 It is the first time I have trodden the new Turn pike Road which is a great Improvement.2
I am affectionately your
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Ms A.”
Mount Pleasant, built by the privateer John McPherson in 1761, was purchased by the Philadelphia merchant Jonathan Williams in 1792 (Thompson Westcott, The
462
Historic Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, with Some Notice of Their Owners and Occupants, Phila., 1877, p. 214, 229). For JA’s description of McPherson and his country home, see JA, D&A
, 2:176, 183.
For the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 3, above.
JA also wrote to AA on 24 June to inform her of the Senate’s likely adjournment within the next day or two and to express his wish to return immediately to Quincy without taking time to visit friends in New York (Adams Papers).