Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12

Cotton Tufts to Abigail Adams, 8 June 1797 Tufts, Cotton Adams, Abigail

Cotton Tufts to Abigail Adams

Dear Madm Weymouth June 8. 1797

As you are now in a Sphere of Life that requires the Enjoyment of Health, the Exercise of Wisdom, Patience and every other Virtue, I wish you the Possession of these equal to its Exigences and that as is the Day so may be your Strength. I feel anxious for my Friends, but peculiarly so for the State of my Country, at the same Time can 152 chearfully leave it to the Care of Providence and those on whom our Constitution has devolved it— The Presidents Speech has met with the Approbation of the most sensible People and wherever Federalism prevails is applauded.

Since you left Quincy, I have found much to do, something turns up every Day or two, that calls for Advice, Direction &C— In Consequence of your Letter to Mrs. Hobart, Her Son Mr. Adams applied for the 200 Dollars, has received it & gave his & his Father Nortons joint Note1

In examing the State of your Farms, I have found much unprofitable Stock— The Bay Mare lame, the Bay Horse old & with the Heaves. the former I sold to Elisha Turner for 50 Dollrs. A Number of Persons have applied for the Horse but none as yet will give 50 Dolls for him—for less I should be loth to sell him— The Mare bought of Hobart, has a Colt. I have been told within a few Days that she has also the Heaves and exceeding breachy— if the Horse should be sold, it will be best to put her at Porter’s, She is Still with French. Porter is full stock’d— The Stock at French’s is unprofitable, one yoke of oxen too old to keep longer, Propose to sell the first oppy. & replace them with a younger pair— There are also 4 old Cows, two of which propose to fat, the other Two to sell or keep till they Calve, being too far advanc’d for fatting— One Two (or 3 yrs. old Heifer) which calvd last Winter and proves but of little Value for a Dayry (small also) have disposd off— These, 5, if sold or fatted will leave for the Dayry 14 Cows most of them young and will be sufficient for the Purpose—

on Thayers Farm, there is also a yoke of oxen too old to keep any Longer, shall sell them as soon as I can, not finding a Place on any of the Farms for fatting; there is, besides the 4 year old Steers, a pair of two year old which I propose Burrell shall work and that these two yoke shall suffice for him, there is also one old Cow and an unruly Heifer which must be disposed of, the Cow must be fatted & the Heifer also, or sold— Very little Sale for Cattle— Price fallen— I think it will be best to steer clear of a heavy bill at the End of the year for keeping Stock which the Tenant will demand by his Lease, (at least as far as may be) The Bill for keeping the Young Stock at Frenchs & Burrells was estimated at £45.16.0 one half of which I have to account for with them— Benj. Field, who applied to you for the Pasture bought of Jackson Field & Neddy Curtis is dead, have since let it to Jackson & Ebenr Field for the Season at 153 15 Dollrs. Salt Meadow at Milton to Elisha Turner @ 9 Drs. shall also let the Sedge Banks bought of Penniman Borlands Meadow offered to Jon. Baxter I found to have been contained in Frenchs Lease and claimd by him— In my Letter to the President I mentiond my letting the House Brisler removed from to Parson Clark, this let at 28 Dollrs. pr. Anm.— 2 The Wall between Richardson & the Cedar Pasture I engaged Lt. Veazie to make @ 6/ pr Rod—3 there will be a necessity of making a small Piece of Wall at Burrells on the Road against his Pasture, and also in several other Places besides those you mentiond, before you left Quincy, but these must be attended to when the People are at Leisure And as there will be frequent occasion for this Business it will be best to retain Billings if we can keep him sober— As Soale will not continue under 15 Dolls. pr. Month for 6 Months, I have concluded to discharge Him—and engage one at a lower Rate if possible— Our Season has been very wet the meadow behind your dwelling House could not be planted till the latter End of May by which Time all the sewing & planting was compleated— the Lane to the great Pasture on the Hill fencd out with Rails & stone Wall— Tax on the high Way worked out—4 Wall on Quincys Meadow now making. Our Prospects of Hay are promising—

Porter appears to be prudent industrious & trusty, rather too fearful of undertaking any Thing out of the common Track, without Advice—but a more general Acquaintance with the Business assigned him will remove his Diffidence— he keeps a particular Account of all Labour hird, of Articles deliverd of monies paid & received &C his wife fills her place well, that upon the whole I do not know where you could have been better suited— As there has been full employ for Porter Billings & Soale without attending to the Garden, Turrell has taken the Care of it principally— Porter has not as yet calld upon me for any Supplies of West India Articles &C— the Surplus of Butter & other Articles he sends to market, that I hope the Bill for these will not be so high as we expected, with the Oeconomy at present maintaind by them— I wish to hear from you as soon as may be relative to any Expences or other Matters—as I shall want to regulate Money Matters so as to answer every Exigency—

If the Value of my Letter is to be measured by the Length of it I shall have some Merit to claim, for be assured it is the Longest I have wrote this seven years and my Eyes tell me that the next must be shorter—

154

Mrs. Tufts joins me in Love to You & your Dear Husband and believe me to be with sincere Regard Yr. Very H Servt

Cotton Tufts—

not forgetting Miss Louisa—

RC (Adams Papers).

AA’s letter to Thankful White Adams Hobart has not been found, but see Hobart’s letter to AA of 24 March, above. In Jan. 1796 Elisha Adams had married Sarah Norton, daughter of Sarah Whitmarsh and John Norton (b. 1755), who cosigned Adams’ promissory note (Vital Records of Abington, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, 2 vols., Boston, 1912, 1:149, 150, 2:143).

Tufts to JA, 25 May 1797, above.

Possibly Lt. Elijah Veasey (1754–1827), who lived on Granite Street in Quincy, and his son-in-law John Pray Richardson (1773–1816) (Sprague, Braintree Families ).

In 1764 JA served on the town committee that formulated a plan for repairing the Braintree highways via a tax that residents could either pay or “work out.” On 2 Sept. 1796 JA noted in his Diary that he felt he had been taxed “more than my Proportion,” being required to do “between forty nine and fifty days Works on the Roads” (JA, D&A , 1:252; 3:246; Braintree Town Records , p. 397).

Abigail Adams to William Smith, 10 June 1797 Adams, Abigail Smith, William

Abigail Adams to William Smith

Dear sir Philadelphia June 10th 1797

Will you be kind as to see mr Frothingham and tell him that I wish him to have the Coachee cased, and put on Board the first vessel which sails for this place agreeing for the freight of it, before he puts it on Board I have a Leeding Brass Harniss at Quincy which I will write to have sent to mr Frothingham that the whole may come together.1 Dr Welch has in his Hands three hundred Dollors which he was to repay to mr Frothingham when he had done the Carriage. mr Frothingham will credit me that and send on his Bill for the remainder.

We hope that Congress will be Warm’d out of the city by the middle of July. I believe they will rise before, not by accomplishing the buisness, but by not doing it. this Dead weight of Pennsilvanna consisting of Quakers, who are always opposed to every arming proposition, of more Jacobins than any other city, who all wish to see our Government Prostrate, and a proportionable part of timid Men who fear offending the terrible Nation. all these causes have their influence upon a proportion of those members who wish for an excuse to rise without doing any thing more than negotiate these people however are very ready to advocate Convoys which may it is said be a protection to the trade of this state, and further southard, but will by no means be a sufficient shield to the trade of the Eastern states. these Members are willing that vessels should Arm for the East 155 Indias and for the Meditarranean but not for the west Indias.2 we want more Men of Deeds, and fewer of Words. a speech which shall take up ten Collums of a News paper and part of an additional supplement must contain very weighty and important matter indeed to induce people to hear it patiently, or read it afterward.3 there is no Man from our state, whose abilities talants and integrity are more highly spoken of than mr sewalls, and none who has more weight in the House. if his talants are not so striking as mr Dexters, he has qualities which are an adequate compensation mr otis too is highly spoken of, but it requires some time to be Way wise, and from reading his speeches, I think him too personal and too great a share of satire and Wit. he is a thorn to the antis, accordingly they abuse him—

I hope you had a pleasent journey home and found mrs smith and Family well. I do not despair of seeing you this summer if congress rise in any season the President says he must take a journey, and it seems quite necssary for him. the buisness accumulates, instead of lessning. the Dons are cutting out work for us,4 stimulated no doubt by our Dear Friends the French.

I hope as mr Frothingham is a Man of his Word, that the Carriage will not fail of being ready to come— My Love to cousin Betsy. mr otis and Family are well—

Yours affectionatly

A Adams

RC (MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers); addressed: “Mr William Smith / Boston”; endorsed: “Philaa. 10. June. 1797.”

For the Adamses’ previous discussion of purchasing a coach from Nathaniel Frothingham, see vol. 11:521, 522–523. AA wrote to Smith on 1 July, lamenting that Frothingham had not yet finished their coach, and then again on 19 July, stating that they still had not received the coach in Philadelphia and that it should be held until their return to Quincy (both MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers).

Privateers from the French West Indies had been plundering American ships in the Caribbean since 1796. After a House resolution was introduced on 5 June 1797 “for regulating the arming of the merchant vessels of the United States,” debate arose about specifying the East or West Indies. On 7 June Joshua Coit proposed inserting the phrase “bound to the East Indies and to the Mediterranean,” and Robert Goodloe Harper proposed further including the “West Indies.” Although William Loughton Smith, the resolution’s author, did not believe that arming U.S. vessels heading for the West Indies would lead to war, Samuel Smith argued that adding the phrase “brought them to an issue; for it was war or no war.” On 8 June a vote was taken on the two amendments; the addition of “West Indies” failed, but the “East Indies and the Mediterranean” passed. Ultimately, however, the House voted 45 to 37 against the entire resolution on 9 June (Alexander DeConde, The Quasi-War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France 1797–1801, N.Y., 1966, p. 124; Annals of Congress , 5th Cong., 1st sess., p. 253, 257, 259, 280, 281–282).

AA was referring to Edward Livingston’s 24 May speech, which required ten columns in the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States and was published over four issues, 30, 31 May and 1, 3 June. The Philadelphia 156 Porcupine’s Gazette, 27 May, noted that Livingston spoke “upwards of three hours. He did not address himself to the reason or the passions, but to the patience of his hearers, which he, at last, completely overcame.” The article further stated that if “the merits of an orator are to be measured by the page or the column, I do not hesitate to affirm that Mr. Livingston will be counted the Cicero of his day.”

In Sept. 1796 Andrew Ellicott left Philadelphia to survey the boundary line between the Spanish colonies of East and West Florida and the United States. Ellicott planned to meet his Spanish counterpart at Natchez, Miss., according to the arrangement made in the 1795 Pinckney Treaty. The men agreed to commence drawing the line on 19 March 1797, but while Ellicott waited for the Spanish commissioner to arrive, he received word from Gov. Manuel Gayoso de Lemos that Spain would maintain jurisdiction over the Floridas until the second article of the Pinckney Treaty (regarding withdrawing from posts) was further clarified. On 8 June Timothy Pickering received a report from Ellicott regarding the difficulties he encountered with the Spanish authorities in Florida. Pickering sent the report to JA on 10 June, and JA submitted it to Congress on the 12th ( Amer. State Papers, Foreign Relations , 2:20–21, 26; Robert V. Haynes, The Mississippi Territory and the Southwest Frontier, 1795–1817, Lexington, Ky., 2010, p. 13). For more on the correspondence between Ellicott and Gayoso de Lemos, see Amer. State Papers, Foreign Relations , 2:20–27.