Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12

William Smith to Abigail Adams, 13 July 1797 Smith, William Adams, Abigail

William Smith to Abigail Adams

Dear Madam. Boston. 13th: July. 1797.

Your several favors of the 1st & 9th Ins. I have recd. & am much oblig’d to you for the inclosures.1 the situation of the United States is indeed very critical, but in my opinion, every day strengthens the Union of the people in favor of the government. the Treason of Blount will confirm the sentiments of many, that all nations are equally friends to us so long as their interest is benefited by it. it is generally suppos’d that Mr Blount’s plan was projected by a very different Interest. from British.— if we can keep clear from a rupture on the Mississippi I have no dobt the dispute will be of service to the Government.2 & unite us more generally in putting the country in a state of defence.— I hope the warm air of Philaa. will not injure the Healths of the President & yourself. we shou’d be happy of seeing you this way, but hope you will take frequent excursions from the noxious air of the City.— your Couchee will be soon compleated & I will send it by the first good oppertunity.— Cap. Carter arriv’d here this week from Jamaica he was taken by a French Privateer on his passage home. they took out his Mate & part of his people. left Cap. C. on board with 2 Hands. put on board 8 frenchmen. after they had been in possession 10 Days—the prize Master fell overboard by accident. Cap. C. immediately drove the Frenchmen below & retook his Brig & after 12 Days bro’t her in here. he has suffer’d great fatague but is in good health.—3

Mrs. S & my Sister join me in affectionate regards to yourself &, the President.—

Yrs. Affecly

Wm. Smith.

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs. Adams / Philadelphia”; internal address: “Mrs. Adams.”; endorsed: “Mr W Smith / July 30 1797.”

In her letter to William Smith of 9 July, AA noted her satisfaction at Elbridge Gerry’s appointment to France and informed Smith that she was enclosing some correspondence and two issues of the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser (MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers).

Navigation of the Mississippi River was another complaint presented by the Spanish government to the United States in an effort to delay the turnover of East and West Florida. Spain argued that the Jay Treaty unfairly accorded the United States the right to allow British navigation of the river. On 6 May Carlos Martínez de Irujo (1763–1824), the Spanish minister to the United States, wrote to Timothy Pickering that the Pinckney Treaty stipulated that “the free navigation” of the Mississippi River “to the ocean belongs exclusively to the subjects of the King, and to the citizens of the United States.” Pickering responded on the 17th that “the United States were contending with Spain for the free navigation of the Mississippi for themselves” and 203 that “any declaration of His Catholic Majesty alone, to exclude other nations, was to them quite immaterial.” Pickering communicated this correspondence to Congress on the 19th (Abernethy, The South in the New Nation , p. 211; Amer. State Papers, Foreign Relations , 2:5, 14–17; LCA, D&A , 1:234; Gerard H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and American Diplomacy, 1795–1800, Columbia, Mo., 1969, p. 138, 139).

The brig Katy, Capt. Thomas Carter, was returning from Jamaica when it was taken by a French privateer on 18 June and sailed toward Havana. On the night of the 28th Carter learned that “the prize master, had got drunk, had fell over board and was drowned.” When Carter found all but one of the other privateers asleep on deck, he disarmed the “good republicans” and made the French sailors “assist in working the vessel” on the voyage to Boston ( Boston and Charlestown Ship Registers , p. 108; Newburyport Political Gazette, 13 July; Boston Price-Current, 13 July).

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 14 July 1797 Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams

my dear son Philadelphia July 14 1797

Gen’ll Marshal expects to sail tomorrow Several Days sooner than I expected, and the weather has been so very Hot, that I have not had resolution to touch my pen for several days past. you recollect what the Month of July is in this place, and how severely I feel, and suffer from the Heat.

I wrote to you about a fortnight since by the British Packet, Captain Cathcart, but I am so hamperd that I cannot write you with the freedom I wish.1 I shall therefore send you some publick papers and some Pamphlets and leave you to make your own comments.2 you will see that an whole Host are rising up in formal array against your Country and that too surely your Prophesys become History.

Mr W smith of south Carolina is appointed to Portugal, in your Room and will sail in the next week.3 your & my old Friend mr Gerry accepts his appointment, and will sail in a few days. amongst the papers inclosed you will find Some of your Friend and old school mate Bene Baches virtuous Auroras in one of which you will find remarks upon your mission to Berlin. a French production, all the writers in that paper are said to be foreigners, many of them fugitives from the Halter in their own Country, incendaries who kindle Flames where ever they go, and who for the peace of Mankind, might be very readily consignd to the Element they delight in, with their kindred Spirits4 you will find in Gen’ll Marshal a sensible upright honest Man you may be of great service both to mr Gerry and him by a free communication with them. by a pamphlet in which you will find a plot disclosed, you will see what Americans are capable of, but to your mortification, I am sure, too many instances occur within your daily observation.

204

you will be pleased to learn that amidst this War of parties and Nations the chief Majestrate preserves his spirits and his fortitude unshaken, and that he sustains the burden of his office with patience and magninimity, that the people are alive to the injuries they sustain, but patiently wait the issue of the Mission Extraordinary— but from which, viewing the state of publick affairs, in all their various connections and concequences, I can form but faint hopes—

I heard from your sister last week. she is at East Chester, and has been ever since last winter the col has been gone up with his Brothers to their new Lands for some time. I can say, She is a truly deserving woman whose lot is cast, not with the most fortunate of her sex—

Your Brother is doing well in N york— Louissa who is by desires me to present her Love to you. I hope mr Murry is arrived long e’er this— my Letters have been lost. I have written you 4 different times of which Letters we have no acknowledgment—5

I am my dear son / with every sentiment of Maternal affection your Mother

A Adams

RC (Adams Papers). Tr (Adams Papers).

Presumably AA’s letters of 15 and 23 June, both above, which JQA noted receiving in his letter of 29 July, below.

See JQA to AA, 7 Oct., below.

JA nominated William Loughton Smith to be minister plenipotentiary to Portugal on 6 July. The Senate gave its advice and consent on 10 July, and Smith served in the position until 1801 (U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. , 5th Cong., 1st sess., p. 248, 249; ANB ).

The Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 8 July 1797, published an article stating that JA “intends his eldest son, now gone to Berlin, to ride the whole of the northern circuit,” having JQA spend a year each in Prussia, Russia, Sweden, and Denmark, earning $13,500 dollars per residence for a total of $54,000. At this time the Aurora had at least two foreign writers: Scottish-born James Thomson Callender, for whom see vol. 10:277, and Irish-born Dr. James Reynolds, for whom see AA to Mary Smith Cranch, [1] Feb. 1798, and note 6, below ( ANB ; James Tagg, Benjamin Franklin Bache and the Philadelphia “Aurora,” Phila., 1991, p. 285).

Presumably AA to JQA, 3 and 15 March 1797, both above, another letter dated 28 Nov., for which see vol. 11:420–424, and possibly one dated in December, which AA mentioned in her letter of 3 March.