Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
8 May 1797]
I have written you three letters since my arrival here;1 this is the fourth, which I mention only for the sake of knowing whether you received them in order. It is very well known that I am here and some people might think it worth while to discover what I write to others
I have hitherto only one letter from you, and had not expected to have another until the last post, supposing you to have written as soon as you received my first letter from hence.2 The next I hope will bring one as I wish to learn what progress you have made in the accumulation of business and the state of preparation you are in for departure. My time is already half expired, and I have yet obtained no formal permission to remain here. I have however obtained a passport this day from the Minister of Police to return, and as it is valid for two decades only, you may calculate pretty nearly the time I shall set out.3
The weather has been so unfavorable for several days past that I
have in a great measure kept house, and therefore have seen little— Yesterday however I
visited the pantheon, ascended its majestic dome and from its summit beheld a spectacle
of grandeur & magnificence, surpassing all description. In point of Architecture the
building itself must be the first model of the universe. I descended also into the cave of honor and paid my homage at the tombs of Voltaire
& Rousseau—of the other worthies who once were thought
to merit such interment, there rests only the Coffins which contained their Corps
Mirabeau Le Peltier & Marat were not made for immortality. The miracle of justice, which condemned them to a pre mature
resurrection, consigned them in the opinions of many to endless infamy. There is a place
assigned for the General Dampiere, 109
110 but his pretentions have not yet stood the ten
years probation. It seems to me to be in some respects a wise, in others an erroneous
provision, which requires such a length of time to pronounce upon the merits of those
distinguished personages to whom the Country would testify its gratitude.4 The inscription on the façade of the Panthéon is
“Aux grands hommes, La patrie reconnoissante.” Real merit demands in my mind a speedier
recompense than after a ten years ordeal. On the other hand, the provision is calculated
to prevent improper intrusions, such as were perhaps those of the three persons above
named. Posterity will perhaps doubtless acknowledge
other great men than Voltaire & Rousseau. The History of France might perhaps
furnish such at this day— You remember that a deputy of the National Convention once
moved that honorable mention should be made of King John.
Upon the present plan the scale is much too partial.
From the pantheon I visited the “Jardin des plantes,” the same which Buffon improved & which improved Buffon. I am charmed with its arrangement, its order neatness and regularity. I could not get a sight of the Museum which is in it, but hope to some other day.5
I must not neglect to mention the National Museum at the Louvre. It
is some time since I saw it, but in my former letters I omitted speaking of it, in hopes
of seeing it again and being better able to describe it. The paintings are at present in
the utmost confusion; being placed from one end of the Gallery to the other upon the
floor & without frames, except a few— There is neither Catalogue or description of
them, which for a novice like myself in the art of a Connoisseur is particularly
unfortunate. The collection is magnificent already, though the gleanings of Italy have
not yet arrived; they are seen however at this moment under every disadvantage—6 The style of Claude Laurens is in my eye
the most pleasing of any I saw. It was with Mr: Rogers that
I saw the gallery, who unfortunately was as great a stranger as myself, and our
Conductor not being very expert at his trade we were unable to make up in any degree the
want of a Catalogue.
These are the principal objects that have as yet fallen under my
observation, except the Theatres, which I frequent regularly. I relish them much. The
Feydeau-Cidevant Théatre de Monsr: is my favorite
rendezvous. Molé & Fleury are I think superior to vestris; by this I mean only, that
I am more gratified by their performance than by his.7
Yesterday I discovered the dwelling of your old friend M. Arnoux.
It is the same as when you used to see him— He seemed much gratified at your remembrance
of him and expressed great attachment to our family— He introduced me to his kitchen
because there was no fire in his apartment. There I saw a female who was dressed in costume Cuisiniere, and to whom the old Gentleman mentioned
my name— She entered at once into conversation with me; asked me whe[re] you were, and
distinguished you by the name of M. le Gros. I told her you
were no longer the gros that you had been when she knew
you. She asked me a number of questions which seemed to me to partake much of naïveté; I
did not discover her relationship to the old man or in what capacity she is with him—
You will probably recollect her. M. A— offered me very politely his services and begged
me to mention any way in which he could be useful to me here. I told him that I knew of
none except it were to procure me the honor of his acquaintance. “He invited me to dine
with him,”8 as Yorrick says, and promised
at the same time to prepare a letter for you. During the reign of terror he past one
year in prison as he informed me.9
I have purchased some books and made a provisional bargain for Barboue’s edition of the classics—10 The price is 15 Louis; my finances will not admit of so great an expence at present, so that I shall leave this for a future negotiation.
The Councils of the Nation, which would naturally attract the curiosity of a traveller I have not yet seen, for two reasons: first because to gain admittance to one of them you must pay money; secondly, for the other you must have a card. I hope however to see the Directory tomorrow, being Decadé, whereon they are to receive some military trophies.11
I am as ever / your affectionate Brother
th:
P. S. I dined with our friend P— to day who delivered me your’s
of the 2d & 5th: currt: I hope to comply with your wishes for my return by the
25th: at least it will not be later than the 28th: according to my present calculation.12
I shall procure the books & laws you desire, if possible. P— tells me they can be had.
I observe in your letter to him that you notice the annunciation
of Mr: [M]——s arrival here as special envoy—13 I have mentioned the circumstance in one of my
letters. The report was published in the 112 Gazettes the day
previous to my arrival so that I did not give rise to it,
as was surmised by some of our friends. I have been positively assured that Mr M——s appointment is announced in a private letter from
Philada: but I could not learn to whom this letter came.
You will see how the Nouvelles Politiques speaks of the report and how it accounts for
it.14 My opinion on this subject I
try to keep to myself. The thing is generally wished, or pretended to be so.
Present me kindly to our friends, whom I thank for their civil enquiries. Tell Parker that he has an occasion to make an interesting groupe of the subjects under his hands.
I have been clearing off for ten days, my mass of Dutch bile— Imprimis purgare you know is the foundation of Medecine en France. I hope to return quite enlightened.
As before I am ever yours
RC (Adams
Papers); endorsed: “T. B. Adams. Paris. / 8–9. May. 1797. / 16. do: recd: / do: ansd:.” Some loss of text due
to a torn manuscript.
In addition to a letter of 26 April, above, TBA wrote letters to JQA on 30 April and 4 May, neither of which has been found (JQA to TBA, 5 May, LbC, APM Reel 130, and 9 May, below).
See JQA to TBA, 21 April, above.
For TBA’s French passport permitting his return to The Hague, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 1, above.
The Church of Sainte Geneviève in Paris was renamed the Panthéon
in 1790 and designated a civic temple and burial place for esteemed Frenchmen. From
April 1791 Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Honoré Gabriel Historical Dictionary of the
French Revolution, Lanham, Md., 2004, p. 246, 247; Avner Ben-Amos, “Monuments
and Memory in French Nationalism,” History and Memory,
5:62 [Fall-Winter 1993]; Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
).
The Jardin du Roi, also called the Jardin des Plantes, was
founded in 1626 by Louis XIII. In 1739 French writer and naturalist Georges Louis
Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707–1788), was appointed director of the gardens and the
Cabinet d’Histoire Naturelle therein. Under his stewardship significant additions were
made to the natural history collection, and the gardens were doubled in size. It
became a center for the study of the natural sciences and in 1793 was renamed the
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Toby A. Appel, The
Cuvier-Geoffroy Debate: French Biology in the Decades Before Darwin, N.Y.,
1987, p. 16; Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
). For JA’s visit
to the Jardin des Plantes in the spring of 1780, see vol. 3:332.
The main gallery of the Louvre closed to the public in 1796 in
order for the collection to be definitively arranged and a new floor to be installed.
During the closure temporary exhibitions were held in the museum’s Salon Carré and
Galerie d’Apollon. In April 1799 sections of the Grand Gallery reopened and were
devoted to the French and Northern schools. The sections with the confiscated Italian
collections were opened in 1801 (Andrew L. McClellan, “The Musée du Louvre as
Revolutionary Metaphor During the Terror,” Art Bulletin,
70:311 [June 1988]; Bette 113 W. Oliver, From Royal to National: The Louvre Museum and the Bibliothèque
Nationale, Lanham, Md., 2007, p. 48).
The Théâtre de Monsieur, a comic opera company in Paris, was
established by royal sanction in 1788 and operated from the Salle des Machines of the
Tuileries Palace until forced into temporary lodgings at the outset of the French
Revolution. The company opened a permanent theater in 1791 and changed its name to the
Théâtre Français et Italien de la rue Feydeau, or Théâtre Feydeau. François René Molé
(1734–1802) and Abraham Joseph Bénard (1751–1822), known by the stage name Fleury,
were two of the best known comedic actors of the period, both of whom were affiliated
with the Théâtre Feydeau in the mid-1790s. TBA was possibly comparing
Molé and Fleury to Marie Auguste Vestris (1760–1842), an Italian-French dancer with
the Paris Opera (F. W. J. Hemmings, Theatre and State in
France, 1760–1905, Cambridge, Eng., 1994, p. 69–71; Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
;
Debra Craine, The Oxford Dictionary of Dance, 2d ed.,
Oxford, 2010).
Likely, Laurence Sterne, A Sentimental
Journey through France and Italy. By Mr. Yorick, 2 vols., London, 1768,
2:158–159.
JQA had given TBA a letter of
introduction to the Abbé Guillaume Arnoux, who he fondly recalled from his time in
France with JA. Arnoux lived at No. 17 in the Place Vendôme, known as the
“Place des Piques” during the French Revolution. At the age of seventy in 1793 Arnoux
was imprisoned by the Revolutionary committee of the Place des Piques for favoring
aristocrats and spent over eleven months at St. Lazare prison (JQA to
Arnoux, [ca. 16 April 1797], LbC, APM Reel 130; R. Galliani, “Glanes,” Annales historiques de la Révolution française, 45:134
[Jan.–March 1973]). For the Adamses’ previous acquaintance with Arnoux, see vol. 5:440 and JA, Papers
, 16:329.
The Barbou publishing house in Paris was associated with an
edition of Latin classics comprising 76 volumes in 12, published under the Barbou
imprint from 1755 (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
).
Between Oct. 1795 and Nov. 1799 the French legislature met in the
Tuileries Palace, with the Council of Five Hundred occupying the Manège (riding
school) and the Council of Elders meeting in the Salle des Spectacles (theater). The
Directory met in the Luxembourg Palace (George L. Craik, Paris, and its Historical Scenes, 2 vols., London, 1831, 1:102–103).
TBA visited the French legislature and the Directory shortly before he
left Paris, for which see his 24 July
1797 letter to AA
, below.
In addition to asking TBA to return by the 25th, JQA in his letter of 5 May requested several publications on French maritime law, especially as it pertained to American navigation (LbC, APM Reel 130).
For JQA’s letter to Joseph Pitcairn, 2 May, see JQA to TBA, 2 May, and note 3, above.
The Paris Nouvelles politiques,
nationales et étrangères published two notices about James Madison’s supposed
diplomatic appointment to France. On 22 April, the day TBA arrived in
Paris, a notice was published that Madison had arrived the previous day as an envoy
extraordinary to settle the differences between France and the United States. On the
30th the newspaper confirmed Madison’s appointment but reported that he had yet to
arrive in Paris.
Your kind letter of the month of March last deserved an earlier answer. but my absence from this City must be my excuse.1 The Lay Preacher has not escaped the notice of any one who has a taste for fine writing and you may be assured it has afforded me great pleasure to hear my friend Dennie mentioned as one of the most charming writers of The age. Unfortunately I have mislaid The proposals you sent me, or I should have procured some more subscribers I 114 wish you had sent me the Museum without consulting me for whatever litterary production you may be concerned in will always be eagerly read and as far as in my power assisted by me: Nor have your writings passed unobserved by those who are much better judges than myself My father has requested me to subscribe for two setts of The Museum for him and mentioned you in a manner that were I to relate you would perhaps think flattering2
I wish you to send another subscription paper that I may give you what aid is in my power.
With sentements of sincere esteem I am / Your friend and huml Sert
RC (MH-H:Joseph Dennie Papers, MS Am 715 [55]); internal address:
“Joseph Dennie Junr.”
Not found.
Joseph Dennie Jr. (1768–1812), Harvard 1790, was the editor of
the Walpole, N.H., Farmer’s Weekly Museum and the author
of a regular column therein entitled “The Lay Preacher,” a collection of which had
been published as The Lay Preacher; or, Short Sermons, for
Idle Readers, Walpole, N.H., 1796, Evans, No. 30335. In 1797 Dennie sent a solicitation for subscribers among
booksellers, printers, and “Gentlemen, inclined to foster literary habits.” The
Adamses not only subscribed to this and Dennie’s later endeavor the Port Folio, both JQA and TBA
would also contribute as writers (Catherine O’Donnell Kaplan, Men of Letters in the Early Republic: Cultivating Forums of Citizenship,
Chapel Hill, N.C., 2008, p. 7, 117, 122, 137, 143, 144, 145–146; Dennie, An Established Literary and Political Paper. The Editor of the
Farmer’s Weekly Museum … Offers His Paper to the Publick, no imprint, 1797,
MWA, Evans, No. 49460).