Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
d1797.
I last monday receiv’d your Letter of the 22d of october it was a long time coming.1 I wrote to you as soon as I thought you had arriv’d at your Daughters you have receiv’d a Letter from me & sister Peabody too I hope.2 I shall write, always about mrs Smiths little Boys when I can get any news from them. Willm Shaw did not go home this vacation but stay’d at cambridge to study I have not heard a word since Sisters Letter to you I had one at the Same time. I Should have heard if they had not been well. they could not have better care taken of them if they were with their mother & for her I really feel distress’d. tis dreadful to be left in such a state of suspence but it may be necessuty that obliges the Colln. to do it & it may be as distressing to him as to her I am glad you are with her she never felt the want of you So much. would She not suffer less to come here & go into your House than to go on with you to Philadelphia. tis true she needs the Soothings of her good mama, but the reterment she would find here would be more agreable to her feelings than the publick appearence She will be oblig’d to make with you. I would be every thing to her that a kind aunt coud be & She would have charming neighbours & be among those Friends who know that She had no hand in producing the difficulties She suffers—but you can judge better than I
I have had a Letter from washington which has given me great trouble mrs Cranch & her willm. have both been very sick She has not been well since miss Elliot left her. a slow fever with great relaxation of Body. She has griev’d herself almost to death. the troubles of her Family & the confinement of her Brother has sunk her spirits & injur’d her health to a great degree their own perplexities the return of her neice & the absence of her Husband joind to her fears that her Parents would Suffer real want had So taken hold of her mind that when my Son return’d from Philadelphia he found her very ill. I am very much alarm’d about her. She has lost her appetite her flesh & her Spirits & is very weak & has a great fat baby to nurse & tend— will is cutting his teeth & is cross & sick too— tis dreadful to have our children so far from us when they are sick that we cannot afford them any assistance. I write to her every week & comfort her all I can. I hope I have remov’d Some of her fears & aprehensions her Parents have broke up housekeeping & are gone
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to spend the winter with Coll. Pope at Bedford he is going to put mr Greenleaf into some business which will make him easy & mrs Bell has taken a house at charlestown & is going to open a Schoole & keep Boarders. what will be the event of all these things I know not— but tis a Sober reverse of fortune— they bear it with great chearfulness & pious resignation—3 I was at Boston on Saturday mrs Greenleaf & her baby were well it grows finely & is very quiet mrs welsh had a bad sore throat & was very Sick I thought
yesterday there was a Splendid ordination at Milton4 mr & mrs Smith & Cousen Betsy were there & half Boston besides. We were invited but did not go. I do not love Such a croud— mr & mrs Norton were there— I wish we may ever be as united here— we have given mr whitman a Call & made him a very handsome offer one which he would willingly accept—if there were not so many oppos’d to his Settling. I will not say who dislikes him for I do not believe they do: mr Black & wife really do—& Stand at the head of the opposition—but at the Same time Say they will always be Friendly to him—but that is not enough for mr whitman. he is fully sensible of mr Blacks worth & very highly esteems him & has been treatdd so handsomly by him that he should feel mesirable unless he can render himself acceptable to him as a preacher mrs whitman has been with us almost a week. She is a charming woman She is every thing we could wish for a minister. She is a Spritily Sensible affable industerous little woman. you would love her very much. She has been with him part of her time at Boston, since Saturday with mrs Beal & me. we all drank Tea & spent the evening of monday with mr & mrs Black mr Cranch too for a wonder we were there till half after ten & a very pleasent evening we had Capn. Beal’s Family & your Brother Adams were of the Party— Cousen Betsy is goi[ng] to spend a week with mrs whitman a week or two hence when we voted to give mr w a call he had the votes of all present 52 but mr Black & mr Seth Spear. but we hear many grumble. those who were warm for mr Flint have not got over their disappointment & feel cross would not attend the meeting they had no objection to mr w. but would have nothing to do with the business. they do not consider what a disagreable Situation it places a candidate. his Happiness & his usefulness depends upon his being their choice, so far at least as to be willing to treat him in a Friendly manner I veryly think if m w accepts we Shall be very peacable with him & that he will be more like’d as he is more known— he improves upon acquaintance & then his wife!— every Body will love her—5
my paper is full before I have had half my chat out but the hour as well as paper reminds me that tis time to assure you of the unalterable affection of your Sister
Love where due. the coat is come6
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by Richard Cranch: “Mrs Adams / the President’s Lady, at / New York.”; notations by Richard Cranch: “Quincy, Massts: Novr 3d, 1797. Free” and “To the Care of Charles Adams Esqr. Counsellor / at Law in the City of New York.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
In her 22 Oct. letter to Cranch, for which the extant MS appears to be incomplete, AA commented on AA2’s situation, reporting that letters had yet to be received from WSS and that AA hoped to bring AA2 and Caroline Amelia Smith to Philadelphia for the winter (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters).
Probably Cranch to AA, 15 Oct., and Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to AA, 6 Oct., both above.
William Greenleaf, for whom see JA, Papers
, 4:204, and Mary Brown Greenleaf (1728–1807) would spend the rest of their lives in New Bedford, Mass., where William opened a store near the customs house by 1799. Mary Greenleaf Bell (1752–1836) was their second-eldest surviving daughter and the widow of Daniel Bell (New-Bedford Mercury, 4 Dec. 1807; Greenleaf, Greenleaf Family
, p. 91, 207, 210, 213; New Bedford, Mass., Columbian Courier, 29 Nov. 1799).
Rev. Joseph McKean (1776–1818), Harvard 1794, was ordained as the pastor of the First Church of Milton on 1 Nov. 1797, serving until ill health resulted in his resignation in 1804 (Boston Columbian Centinel, 4 Nov. 1797; Col. Soc. Mass., Pubns.
, 6:152 [March 1899]; The Selected Letters of Mary Moody Emerson, ed. Nancy Craig Simmons, Athens, Ga., 1993, p. 105).
Discord in choosing a new minister continued to plague the Quincy town meetings. Rev. Jacob Flint had declined a call in August because he considered the salary insufficient, and in October an offer was made to Rev. Kilborn Whitman, a former minister at Pembroke who left due to financial concerns. Whitman also declined the call, citing a lack of unanimity among the town in choosing him. He ultimately pursued a legal career, and it was while he was studying law that he supplied the pulpit at Quincy, continuing until March 1799. His wife was Elizabeth S. Winslow (1769–1854), the daughter of Dr. Isaac and Elizabeth Stockbridge Winslow of Marshfield, Mass. (vol. 8:211; Pattee, Old Braintree
, p. 93–95, 224; AA to William Smith Shaw, 6 Jan. 1799, DLC:Shaw Family Papers; Maria Whitman Bryant, Genealogy of Edward Winslow of the Mayflower and His Descendants from 1620 to 1865, New Bedford, Mass., 1915, p. 133–134).
The postscript was written vertically in the margin.
br3
d1797
Since my residence at this place, now a Month, occasiond by the prevalence of the yellow fever in Philadelphia, I have had the pleasure to receive two Letters from you; one from the Hague june 26th, the other from London july 29th. the joint Letter you mention as having written, is not yet come to Hand.
The Newspapers before I left Quincy, which was on the 2d of the last Month, had informd us of the Marriage of Mr J Q Adams to
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Miss Louissa Johnson, upon which the Chronical made as usual, an ill Natured reflection. this induced some friendly Correspondent to place the subject in its true Light in the Centinal; from whence it made its way into the Albany Gazette, and from that into Porcupines paper, from which, as it become a subject of so much importance, I culld it and inclose it to you.1 For myself I sincerely congratulate you upon the Event, and I hope I may add, my dear Louissa too. I want not the Authority of Milton to pronounce the state, a perpetual fountain of Domestic Bliss “to those who like yourself, seek for happiness and pleasure in the Bosom of virtuous Friendship, endeard by those engageing ties, of delicate sensibility, and sweetness of disposition, beauty will forever remain attractive, and knowledge delightfull.[”]2
It has given me real pain to find that the Change in your Embassy does not meet your ready assent; or that it should be personally so inconvenient to you, as you represent.
I cannot but flatter myself you will find it more agreable than you anticipate; your Father has written you so fully upon the Subject, and in my mind, obviated every objection, that I think you will feel more satisfied, that you would not have been sent to Berlin at this Time; if mr Washington had continued in office, I fully believe, but I can tell you where you would have been employ’d, as one of the Envoys to France. this was the desire and opinion of all the Ministers, and nothing but your near connextion with the Chief Majestrate, prevented your being nominated. he had a delicacy upon the Subject, and declined it.3 I have one criterion to judge of the utility of the present mission it is the allarm the Jacobins took at it, but this did not lessen the confidence of the people who value and esteem you for what they know you are, and here I may mention an honour paid you by our Academy of Arts, who at their last meeting unanimously voted you a member. you was nominated at a previous meeting by the Rev’d Dr Belknap as I was inform’d.4
The spirit of union and Federalism pervades every part of New England, with very few exceptions. I have been assured from all quarters, that there is but one mind and that mind, is in support of our constitution and Government. they know no distinction between the People and the Government, on every occasion and opportunity they have shewn their attachment to the Government, by personal respect to the Chief Majestrate, both by civil and military exhibitions, which however contrary to the taste and inclination, of one, who through Life, has avoided every kind of show and parade;
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is now obliged to submit to the Will of the people Some specimins are inclosed.5 N york has endeavourd to Rival Boston. in my journey from Philadelphia in the summer I was a feeling witness to some of these scenes—where the sincerity of the Actors renderd it peculiarly interesting, and proved to me that the people will Love & respect their Chief Majestrate, if his administration is that of Wisdom and justice.
The unjust and piratical plunder upon our unarmed Commerce, has wrought conviction upon the minds of many of the former Idolaters of our Gallic Allies, even in the southern states.6 that Nation will find itself grosely deceived if they consider the nearly equal divission of votes at the Election of Chief Majestrate, as a criterion of the Voice of the people the people wish for Peace. they wish the happiness of all Nations and if no undue Methods had been practised, they would have generally given their suffrages to that person whom they supposed best qualified to promote and ensure the honour and dignity of the Government, without any respect to English or French partizens. The Letter writer is now more generally known, and the hollowness of his Principles better understood. there is an other tale of a more recent date, yet to be unfolded. you can Witness for me, how loth I have been to give him up. it is with much reluctance that I am obliged to look upon him as a Man whose Mind is so warped by prejudice, and so Blinded by Ignorance as to be unfit for the office he holds, however wise and scientific as a Phylosopher as a politician, he is a Child, and the dupe of party.7
on the 13 of this Month Congress are to meet, but I have not any expectation that they will make a Congress untill December.8 The yellow fever has been again Raviging that poor Devoted City. the mortality has not been so great as in the year 1793, but the city has been deserted 30 thousand inhabitants fled from it, very soon after it appeard. 5 Physicians have fallen sacrifices to it.9 it has so far abated as to be thought safe to return to it. I hope it is, as next week we go on—
You will see I date from hence, a Farm purchased by col S——h. prudence requires me to be silent. you will however understand me, when I tell you that I took William and John when I went on to Quincy in july, that I have placed them at an Academy in Atkinson and in the Family of your Worthy Aunt Peabody, whose kindness and benevolence are well known to you— Your sister is going with her little Daughter to pass the Winter with us.—
279In one of my Letters I acknowledgd the receipt of the Watch, but unaccompanied by any Bill of the cost. I requested some sattin, and mentiond sending Bills, but I found you had given orders to your Brother to draw for some money to be laid out for your use. I therefore thought it might be more Eligible to pay the sum to him as your Agent, or to any other person so employ’d I now request you to send me the amount, as your Brother writes me you have orderd the silk. I accepted formerly a cloak as a testimony of your filial regard, but I have no design to tax you with my commissions, nor can I send any more untill you comply with my request.10 without any disparagement to your Brother Whom I doubt not, will do the best he can with your property I would advise you to employ our old tried and Faithfull Friend Dr Tufts whose experience and judgment, will not permit him to run any risks. as I know what money you have must be saved by a rigid oeconomy, I wish you might have it placed in safe and productive funds. I have only room left to say to you & yours accept my Maternal / Blessing.
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed by TBA: “Mrs: A Adams / 3 Novr: 1797 / 24 Jany 1798 Recd: / 5 Feby Answd.” Tr (Adams Papers).
Enclosure not found. The Boston Independent Chronicle, 14–18 Sept., remarked that JQA’s “negociations, have terminated in a Marriage Treaty with an English lady. … It is a happy circumstance that he has made no other Treaty.” The Boston Columbian Centinel, 20 Sept., called the Chronicle squib “an imposition on the public, who ought to be informed, without derogating from the merits of the ladies of England, that Mrs. A. is an American lady” and added, “if every negotiation Mr. A. makes in Europe, terminates as happily for his country, as this will for him, we shall have additional cause to praise the wisdom of that illustrious character, who selected him from his fellow-citizens as one of the representatives of the United States, in the Eastern hemisphere.” The Centinel article was reprinted in the Albany Gazette, 6 Oct., and the Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette, 12 October.
A possible conflation of Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 4, line 728, which characterizes married life as bliss, and a paraphrase of Isaac Bickerstaff, The Tatler, 1 July 1710, reprinted in The Tatler by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esquire, 4 vols., London, 1794, 4:11.
On 21 April 1797 Oliver Wolcott Jr. responded to a request from JA for comment on a series of questions regarding French conduct. Wolcott noted, “For the reasons which have been stated, the expediency of uniting two of the Ministers now in Europe with Mr. Pinckney is respectfully suggested.— If the idea be admissable, it is believed that Mr. King & Mr. Adams are the most proper Characters” (Adams Papers).
JQA was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on 23 August. On 16 July 1798 Eliphalet Pearson, the corresponding secretary, wrote to JQA enclosing his membership certificate and apologizing for the tardiness of the letter, noting that the previous recording secretary had never prepared the document. This letter, and the certificate dated 23 Aug. 1797 and signed by JA, Pearson, Rev. Joseph Willard, and John Davis, are both in the Adams Papers.
Rev. Jeremy Belknap (1744–1798), Harvard 1762, formerly served as pastor of the Congregational Church in Dover, N.H., but had been the minister of the Federal Street Church in Boston since 1787 (vol. 7:183;
DAB
).
Enclosures not found.
The Albany Gazette, 16 Oct. 1797, commented that “the bold efforts of our fellow-citizens in the southern states, to enlighten
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their countrymen on their political interests … will be followed by very salutary effects. These efforts ought to have been made earlier, as they were in the northern states. But late as they are, they will be useful in preparing the public mind, either for peace or war.” An article questioning Thomas Jefferson’s conduct with regard to France was originally printed in a Virginia newspaper and republished in the New York Commercial Advertiser, 25 October.
In addition to Jefferson’s letter to Philip Mazzei, for which see
AA to JQA, 15 June, and note 8, above, AA was probably alluding to a letter Jefferson sent to Peregrine Fitzhugh on 4 June, in which he characterized JA’s convening Congress in May as “an experiment of the new administration, to see how far and in what line they could count on it’s support.” In a letter to JA of 23 June, Uriah Forrest, Fitzhugh’s nephew by marriage, summarized Jefferson’s letter: “It is extracted without exaggeration indeed not so strong in substance as the letter but as I put it to paper from memory (though immediately after twice reading) I chose to give it every degree of moderation it was susceptible of” (Adams Papers). JA replied to Forrest on 28 June, describing “the Paper inclosed” as “a Serious Thing. It will be a Motive in Addition to many others, for me to be upon my Guard. It is evidence of a Mind Sowered, yet Seeking for Popularity, and eaten to an honeycomb with ambition: yet weak, cofused, uninformed and ignorant” (private owner, 2009). Fitzhugh wrote to Jefferson on 15 Oct. informing the vice president that excerpts of the 4 June letter had been printed in the Baltimore Federal Gazette, 29 July; a paraphrased version appeared in the New York Minerva, 2 August. For more on Jefferson’s letter to Fitzhugh and its publication, see Jefferson, Papers
, 29:415–419, 555–561.
The 2d session of the 5th Congress was convened on 13 Nov., although a quorum was not achieved in the House until 15 Nov. and in the Senate until 22 Nov.; the session adjourned on 16 July 1798 (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
;
Annals of Congress
, 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 469–471, 625–626).
The New York Commercial Advertiser, 12 Oct. 1797, reported that a number of Philadelphia physicians had contracted yellow fever, and by 10 Oct. five had died: Benger Dobel, William Annan, Nicholas Way, Jacob Thompson, and Samuel Jones (Richard Folwell, Short History of the Yellow Fever, that Broke Out in the City of Philadelphia, in July, 1797, Phila., 1799, p. 26, 35, 54, 57, Evans, No. 32138).
For AA’s receipt of the cloak, see vol. 11:296.