Adams Family Correspondence, volume 11
r27. 1795
Your favor of the 19th instant I have received1 I thank you for your congratulations upon an event which has united me to the woman of my affections Your kind invitation shall be accepted as soon as I can leave my business for a few weeks how soon this may happen I cannot tell, nor can I flatter myself it can be in a short time. Since our marriage we have been at a house the Colonel has bought for his mother about two miles out of the City2 Mrs Smith intends residing here all winter. I have taken a house in a very advantageous situation for my business near the Tontine Coffeehouse and shall remove to it on the first of November.3
r4
I have as yet been every day into the City The billious fever by most people called the yellow fever which prevails in this City has frightened the inhabitants exceedingly, though the mortallity has by no means been so great as to warrant it, more than seventeen thousand are said to have left the place. Terrified by the example of Philadelphia reason has but little effect when opposed to their apprehensions The greatest mortallity which was last week amounted to 89 in three days yet business is at a stand almost every house and store in Water street and Cherry Street where it has mostly raged is shut up. The inconvenience to our commerce is equal to that experienced in Philadelphia though our loss by the fever does not amount to more than a tenth part.4 Col and Mrs Smith with their children are on Long Island and have enjoyed remarkable good health during the summer. We had yesterday three ships arrived from England that bring late intelligence I have not yet seen any papers but by a private letter to a gentleman of my acquaintance I see the news that the treaty was ratified by The Senate arrived in England as early as the thirty first of July and was very acceptable.5 I had sent the Herald for my Brothers to Holland two days before the receipt of your last. I wrote to them by a Vessel which sailed yesterday for London.6
Sally joins with me in offers of respectful affection to her new parents. Remeber us also to Louisa her kind recollection gave me a pleasing proof of the esteem I sincerely wish she may always cultivate for one who loves her much for your dutiful and / affectionate son
sAdams
RC (Adams Papers).
Not found.
In March WSS had purchased 23 acres of land on the eastern side of Manhattan between what is now 60th and 61st Streets at First Avenue near the East River. On this property he began building a large mansion called Mount Vernon, after the estate of George Washington, under whom WSS had served in the Revolutionary War. The home was still under construction in Oct. 1796, when WSS was forced to sell it due to financial difficulties; it became known in some New York circles as “Smith’s Folly.” AA2 and WSS subsequently moved to Eastchester, N.Y. (Joseph Warren Greene, “Mount Vernon on the East River and Colonel William Stephens Smith,” The New-York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin, 10:115–116, 128 [Jan. 1927]). See also
AA to TBA, 16 Aug. 1796, below.
CA and SSA moved to 93 Front Street in November. The Tontine Coffeehouse was located about one block north, at the corner of Wall and Water Streets (
New-York Directory, 1796, p. 2, 7, Evans, No. 30706).
A virulent outbreak of yellow fever occurred in New York City beginning in late July 1795, probably carried via ships from the West Indies. On 14 Aug. Gov. John Jay issued an edict prohibiting vessels from the West Indies from docking on Manhattan Island until they could prove themselves free of
38
infection, and by September panic was spreading. People who could afford to left the city, and Columbia College ceased offering classes because of low attendance. By the time the disease abated toward the beginning of November, some 700 people had died from it (M. L. Davis, A Brief Account of the Epidemical Fever Which Lately Prevailed in the City of New York, N.Y., 1795, p. 14–20, 58–67, Evans, No. 28538). See also
AA2 to JQA, 26 Oct., below.
The New York Argus, 1 Oct., had already reported that news of the ratification of the Jay Treaty had reached London by 29 July. The three ships were likely the Susan and Polly, the Ocean, and the Ellis, all from London (New York American Minerva, 3 Oct.; New York Argus, 5 Oct.).
The letter has not been found but was likely carried on the Niagara, Capt. Black, which cleared for London on 1 Oct. (New York Argus, 1 Oct.).
ca. 28 September 1795]1
Mr J Quincy calld upon me Yesterday to let me know that a vessel of mr Higginsons was going to Amsterdam. I wrote by Way of Hamburgh both to you and your Brother about ten Days since.2 I have not much to say at present, because I dare not say much least some characters which are now criminated might be injured, when we would wish to find them Innocent. Time must Develope. the sudden Resignation of mr Randolph his journey to see Fauchett at Rhoad Island & the stories circulating respecting seecret Service Money are all Subjects of conjecture. I inclose you mr Randolphs Letter to the President3 I can only Say that the clamour respecting the Treaty has greatly subsided since it has been told that F——tt had like Jove descended in many a Golden shower and that to a costly amount.4 mr Pickering former post master is Secretary of State Lee of Virginna Secretary at War & a mr Marshel of Virginia Attorney General. Mr Bradford died greatly lamented by all who knew him.5 Thomas who knew him will regreet his loss— a Fever similar to that which raged in Philadelphia has swept off great Numbers in N york. it still continues very Mortal, and a great proportion of the city have moved out. Your sister & Family have been out of Town all summer they were well last week when I had a Letter from her. Charles I presume has fled from the city with his wife. I have not heard from him since his Marriage. a much more extrodonary Marriage has taken place in the Family Peggy is Married to a Young French man Monsieur St Hillair from one of the Iselands a match Mrs smith writes me of which she had not the least Idea a fort night before it took place.6 Young enough for her son besure and a to property! or any means of getting a living! his relations were all sacrificed as aristricrats— O Woman Woman, thy prudence is folly some times.
Dft (Adams Papers); notations by CFA: “1795.” and “Copy. J. Q. Adams.” Filmed at [Sept. 1795].
The dating of this letter is based on the Boston publication of Edmund Randolph’s letter to George Washington on 28 Sept., for which see note 3, below.
AA to JQA, 15 Sept., and to TBA, 17 Sept., both above.
Edmund Randolph was forced to resign in mid-August when a dispatch from Jean Antoine Joseph Fauchet to the French government came to light raising questions about Randolph’s loyalties and possible improprieties. Fauchet’s Dispatch No. 10, dated 31 Oct. 1794, was captured by the British, who eventually turned it over to the U.S. government in July 1795. While obscure in its language, it suggested that, at a minimum, Randolph had been improperly discussing internal U.S. governmental affairs with a representative of the French government. He may also have requested money from the French government, which he apparently planned to use to influence the outcome of the Whiskey Rebellion, though how this would have worked is not clear. When confronted with the letter by Washington on 19 Aug., Randolph asked for time to explain his actions but later that same day resigned his office.
In mid-September Randolph sent a letter to Washington, subsequently widely published in the newspapers at Randolph’s request, indicating he was still working on preparing an explanation of his activities. He claimed to have gone to Newport, R.I., to meet Fauchet to obtain information that would justify or at least clarify Randolph’s behavior. His letter noted that he had time for only a brief interview with Fauchet before the minister sailed for France. But Randolph also wrote, “I am in possession of such materials, not only from Mr. Fauchet, but also from other sources, as will convince every unprejudiced mind that my resignation was dictated by considerations, which ought not to have been resisted for a moment; and that every thing connected with it, stands upon a footing, perfectly honourable to myself.” The first Massachusetts printing of Randolph’s letter appeared in the Boston Gazette, 28 Sept., which was likely AA’s intended enclosure.
Randolph spent several months preparing his defense, which he published in December as A Vindication of Mr. Randolph’s Resignation, Phila., 1795, Evans, No. 29384. This work contains various documents purporting to justify Randolph’s actions, including extracts from other French dispatches and an affidavit from Fauchet. But it fails to explain adequately Randolph’s plans for the French money and ended up embarrassing Randolph and his supporters more than it vindicated him (Stanley Elkins and Eric McKitrick,
, N.Y., 1993, p. 425–431).
See Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IV, line 609–610.
The source of AA’s information was the Boston Columbian Centinel, 16 September. The article was, however, only partially correct. Washington named Secretary of War Timothy Pickering to the position of acting secretary of state (eventually making the post permanent) upon Edmund Randolph’s resignation. Gov. Henry Lee of Virginia did not become the next secretary of war; James McHenry was finally appointed to the position in Jan. 1796. To replace Attorney General William Bradford, who died on 23 Aug. 1795, Washington eventually named Charles Lee, after John Marshall declined (
ANB
;
DAB
).
Margaret Smith married Felix Leblond de St. Hilaire, a merchant originally from France, on 29 Aug., at the same time that CA married SSA. St. Hilaire served as French vice consul for the port of Alexandria, Va., in 1779, and in 1797 he spied for Secretary of War James McHenry on the activities of French general Victor Collot, after Collot’s reconnaissance of the Mississippi Valley raised U.S. suspicions about France’s designs on western territory. Between 1797 and 1810, St. Hilaire appears to have used several versions of his name in advertising his services as an art and dance instructor in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and upstate New York (“Records of the First and Second Presbyterian Churches of the City of New York,”
NYGBR, 13:87 [April 1882]; New York Argus, 18 Feb. 1796;
JCC, 14:759; Richard H. Kohn, Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783–1802, N.Y., 1975, p. 207, 383; Alexandria [Va.] Times, 9 Oct. 1797; Carlisle [Penn.] Gazette, 27 Jan. 1802; Erasmus Wilson, ed., Standard History of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Chicago, 1898, p. 878; Hudson, N.Y., Bee,
40
30 Dec. 1806; M. M. Bagg, The Pioneers of Utica, Utica, N.Y., 1877, p. 293). For St. Hilaire’s apparent imprisonment in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 1796, see
CA to JA, 21 March 1796, below. AA2’s letter to AA has not been found.