Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
ry8
th1794
I was very sorry to learn by your last Letters that you had little hopes of getting home till May. there are so many new Arrangments to make upon our places that I really feel unequal to the Task, but if it must be so, I will do the best I can according to my ability, and if I fail in the execution, you must at least allow for the intention. I would wish you to think what you would have done upon the several Farm’s: Humphries is gone into the Country, and I doubt very much, whether Porter will not be so quidling that I shall not be able to agree with him. his woman is so weakly, and Maids are so nice now, that they cannot drive a Cow to pasture, &c1 I mentiond to you in a Former Letter that I had offers of several persons, and I have seen the Son, & daughter, of the Richards Family, and told them my Terms. they have them under consideration; I have inquired their Characters of Dr Tufts and he apprves of them. he thinks I could not do better. they are an able Family and have been used to a dairy upon a large scale. the young Man is a Shoe Maker, but would like to let himself for 6 or 8 months the rest of his Time he would work at his trade. what his terms would be he could not tell, yet. Shaw came down last week to let me know that he and Alice had a mind to come and live upon one of the places.2 I told him my terms, not quite so liberal as those you agreed to Porter, and he will come if we chuse. he brought with him a Man by the Name of Joy, a smart looking man who wanted to go upon a place, whose wife Shaw Says, made 9 hundred weight of Cheese last year from six cows— as I considerd one of the places engaged to Porter, I did not converse with him only as I told shaw that he might mention the Terms to him. I am determind however that Porter shall give me his answer in the course of a few Days— Thayer removed this week, and shaw would come by the first of March. Faxon does not go of till sometime in 70 April which will be inconvenient on some accounts, as the Team would be useful to us for much business before that time. I had thoughts of letting shaw; if you approve come into Thayers House by the first of March, and as he will not have any stock to look after, to employ him here to Tar trees, and in such other business as we have to do, or I will put him off till the first of April if you think best. if we keep a dairy only upon Thayers place, it will be best to place the Family there, who are the most accustomed to a large dairy and will not think much of the work. if we divide and keep a dairy upon both places; Shaw may be fixt at either place, as he is now a good deal used to a Team. if you thought it best not to commit either place to Shaw, he would like to come down, and take part of the H[ouse] in which Faxon, is & let himself here by the Year upon this place to work occasionally upon either. I wish you to consider of all these matters here is Arnold and Copland, as jealous of each other as two ministers of State, each of them eager to be employd and watching the motions of each other. I have not had much occasion for either, but that their Rivalry might not be too great, have employd them alternatly.3 if Young Stock is to be purchased what Month will it be best to Send out for it? if cows the beginning of April will be the best season Dr Tufts gave 18 dollors last week for a cow to calf in March
do you propose to sow grass-seed with the Barley? and what kind suppose I could get it. I purchasd Thayer Cheese press—other things he took with him.
Cheeseman is in South Carolina instead of Boston. he has just escaped with his Life sufferd every thing both he his mate, and a Boy were washd over board. they recoverd the captain and mate, but lost the Boy. I fear your Trunk will be in bad plight if you ever get it. he lost every article of, of deck
I wish my dear Friend I could tell you that our parent was essentially better, but that would be flattering you further than I dare. her strength daily declines. her coughs is in some measure relieved. she does not suffer pain but I do not think she will ever go abroad again she may continue in this way, for some weeks, and she may sink in less than one I know you would not permit your Brother were you here to be at expences which sickness necessarily occasions in a Family, such as an extra fire, Candle Light, and other necessaries— I have attended to these things as well as to every comfort she May want, and would as far as in me lies, that she should not feel the want of an own daughter who has so well deserved from all her 71 children. her Granddaughters are very attentive and good4 I have been with her every day when I have been well enough to go out, and shall so long as her Life is spaired. I am however fearfull of this Month on my own account, as two years it has been very unfortunate to me adieu I am just going to your Brothers. col Thayer departed this Life yesterday.5 Mrs Brisler and child are well, but mrs Feild is very dangerously sick— I am my dear Friends / most affectionatly yours
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by JQA: “The Vice-President of the United States / Philadelphia.”; endorsed: “Mrs A. Feb. 8. ansd / 17th. 1794.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
Lydia Harmon (b. 1757) had married David Porter in 1777 (Sprague, Braintree Families; Joseph W. Porter, A Genealogy of the Descendants of Richard Porter, Bangor, Maine, 1878, p. 55).
Alice Packard had married Ezra Shaw in 1793 (Sprague, Braintree Families
).
Samuel Copeland (1758–1839) of Quincy (Warren Turner Copeland, The Copeland Family: A Copeland Genealogy, Rutland, Vt., 1937, p. 139).
Susanna Hall had three surviving granddaughters by her son Peter Boylston Adams—Mary Adams Turner, Ann Adams, and Susanna Adams—and one by Elihu Adams—Susanna Adams Hobart—as well as AA2. At this time, only Ann and Susanna Adams were still unmarried and living at home.
Ebenezer Thayer, the longtime town selectman and representative to the Mass. General Court, died on 7 Feb. (Sprague, Braintree Families
).
I have recd yours of the 30th. Ult. and given the inclosed to son Thomas, who will do with it what he can.1
Congress have been together, more than two Months and have done nothing, and will continue Sitting two Months longer, and do little.2 I for my part am wearied to death with Ennui— Obliged to be punctual by my habits, confined to my Seat, as in a Prison to see nothing done, hear nothing Said, and to Say and do nothing. Oh that my Rocks were here within a mile or two, and my little habitation and pretty littl Wife above all. Ah I fear that some fault unknown has brought upon me such Punishments to be Seperated both when We were too young and when We are too old.
I dont believe We shall adopt Mr Madisons Motions nor build a Navy: But if We do not purchase a Peace with the Algerines We shall all deserve to become their Captives.
The Genetians had a frolic on the 6th in commemoration of the Treaty and drank Toasts enough to get merry. so cordial so loving so
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fraternal, so neat and elegant, so sweet and pretty! have you read them. Franklin Bryant, Reed, Hutchinson & sargeant the Heroes. fit company for Dallas Mifflin & Genet.—3 No harm done however that I hear of.— a sharp shot or two at the President.
The Havock made in our Trade I fear will distress Us— I suspect that immense sums borrowed of Banks have fallen a sacrifice in France, as well as on the seas and When the day of Payment comes, more Credits must be given or Bankruptcies ensue. Borrowing of Banks for a trading Capital, is very unmercantile. However, We shall not go to War, and nothing is to be dreaded so much as that.
I fear The English will have all the West Indies leaving a little to Spain.4 This I dont like at all. We shall see what another Campain will do in Europe. If the English assist La Vendee, which if they had been cunning or wise they would have done last Year it is thought that Brittany Normandy and Pichardy will declare for a King: But of this there can be no certainty.
I am going to dinner at Mr Daltons with Judge & Mrs Cushing who will call on you on her return and tell you the News in the South.
My Mother I hope is growing better— Remember me to her tenderly
Tenderly says Eccho yours
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Febry 8 1794.”
On 30 Jan. AA wrote a brief note to JA primarily to enclose a letter from “Mr. Newcomb our Mason” to TBA with bills for TBA to loan. Mr. Newcomb was probably John Newcomb, for whom see vol. 8:372. The letter has not been found.
The first session of the 3d Congress sat from 2 Dec. 1793 to 9 June 1794 (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
).
Two gatherings occurred in Philadelphia on 6 Feb. to commemorate the sixteenth anniversary of the Franco-American alliance, one by “officers of the second regiment with a number of other officers of militia and a large and respectable number of democratic citizens,” and the other by “the French patriotic society of friends to liberty and equality.” Among the toasts of the evening was one to “The Virtuous republicans, Franklin, Reed Bryan, Hutchinson and Sargeant—may their memories be consecrated by every citizen who is a friend to the rights of man and may their services and their virtues ever live in the bosoms of the Freemen of America.” Besides commemorating the efforts of Benjamin Franklin, the toast also memorialized Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant and Dr. James Hutchinson, both ardent supporters of the French Revolution who had died in the recent yellow fever epidemic; George Bryan (1731–1791), a Pennsylvania judge and strong proponent of states’ rights; and Joseph Reed (1741–1785), a Revolutionary War general, member of the Continental Congress, and president of Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council (Philadelphia General Advertiser, 8 Feb.;
DAB
).
The Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 7, 8 Feb., reported that a large British naval force, along with some 12,000–13,000 troops, had sailed from Madeira toward Barbados on 22 Dec. 1793, ostensibly with the objective of taking Martinique from the French. The actual size of the fleet was considerably smaller (some 8,000 troops), but the information was otherwise accurate. The
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fleet reached Barbados by mid-Jan. 1794 and launched its attack on Martinique on 4 February. After a series of skirmishes, followed by a lengthy siege, the British took control of the island in late March (Michael Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar, and Seapower: The British Expeditions to the West Indies and the War against Revolutionary France, Oxford, 1987, p. 44, 56, 59–60, 67, 72, 87).
On 9 Feb. JA wrote another letter to AA, again reporting on British activities in the West Indies. He commented, “So! The Tables are turn’d on the French Faction! And The English Faction will exult in their Turn, in the Prospect of The West India Islands a Conquest to England: The French Navy wholly ruined: and Insurrection spreading from Province to Province. Alass I see no Cause of Joy in all these Exultations in either side. I am compelled to console my self as well as I can” (Adams Papers).