Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
I thank you for your obliging Letter of the 31st Ultimo1 I do not know that I should have replied to it before the 5th. of next Month had not my Daughter receved a late Letter from you & in which you inform her that the Letters you had recived from America had
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determined you to proceed to Lisbon as soon as possible but that you was diserous of takeing London in your way,2 I need not tell you that I should be glad to see you on many Accounts, one amongst the rest is to shew you that I have arrainged all my old concerns & am now nearly ready to return to the Country that gave me Birth, with a hope of Settling my Family comfortably & then ending the remainder of my Days, prudence will in this, direct that I arrange my Worldy matters by Will & if I should be deprived of seeing you before I quit this Country I shall take the liberty to nominate you; my Son; & Nephew my Executors, being confident that you will exert your self to protect, the Fortunes & Morals of all my Children & under your advice & Instruction my Nephew will be enabled to Collect & arrange all my Merchantile affairs & which must produce a large Sum, to be divided amongst my Family, but I will refrain from saying any thing more to you at present on this gloomy Subject3
You mention your intentions of ingageing a Vessell to take you to Lisbon, that you intended to arrange with the Captain to touch in some Port & then wait for you until you could come to London & Join my Daughter whom you intend to take with you, as her Father I am anxious to see her happy & united to the Man, I am shure will make her so; & one whom I esteem, I would therefore do anything in my power to promote your intentions & was not the Schooner Mary rather two small to take you to Lisbon, I would send her immedeatly to Rotterdam & their wait your conveniency in comeing over, this Vessell is about 50 Tons Built in Virginia is fitted up for Passengers & remarkably handsome I wish that I could have known your intentions sooner,4 I certainly would have indeavored to accomodate you, I expect the Holland by the Fifteenth of next Month,5 she may be order’d to Rotterdam or Amsterdam if so she will afford you a good conveyance to London where I want her to take me & my Family out to Amica & from this I think you may always meet with Vessells bound to Lisbon, I however wish by the return of Post to hear from you & know your determenatin.
Your Successor I find is expected every Day, it is more than probable that he may come home in the Holland— It is said here that the Emperor has made his Peace, is it so, & if it is, what effect will it have on this & our Country,6 I am afraid & very much afraid that it will make the Directory very imperious & Insolent to us— I have the pleasure to inform you that Mrs. Johnson & the Ladies are all well, they unite in their most Affectionate good wishes to you & I am— / Dear Sir / Your truly Affecte. Friend
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “[. . . .]s Esqr. / [Minister Res]ident from the / [U. S.] A. / Hague”; endorsed: “J. Johnson. / 25. April 1797. / 10. May. do: recd: / 12. do: Ansd:.” Some loss of text due to a torn manuscript.
JQA to Johnson, 31 March, LbC, APM Reel 130.
See JQA to LCA, 13 April, above.
A copy of Johnson’s will has not been found for this period, although for JQA’s receipt of it, see his letter to Johnson of 11 Oct., below. In Johnson’s final will, dated 1801, JQA was named as an executor along with Thomas Baker Johnson and Joshua Johnson’s nephew and son-in-law, Walter Hellen (LCA, D&A
, 1:18, 167).
The Mary did not carry JQA from Rotterdam but remained in London. On 17 July 1797 JQA and LCA visited the schooner, which he described as “a vessel belonging to Mr: Johnson, and which he has offered to carry us to Lisbon.— We had a pleasant time, and the vessel is a very good one; but I am turned away from the Lisbon course” (D/JQA/24, APM Reel 27).
The ship Holland arrived at Eastbourne, England, during the first week of June. The vessel also traveled to Amsterdam, and in September it returned to the United States with the Johnson family aboard, arriving at Georgetown, D.C., on 25 Nov. (London Lloyd’s List, 6, 13 June, 12 Sept.; LCA, D&A
, 1:51).
Unofficial reports of the preliminary peace agreement between France and Austria were published in the London General Evening Post, 22–25 April, and the London Chronicle of the same date. For the official report in the London press, see
LCA to JQA, 3 May, and note 2, below.
This, I hope, is the last letter which you will receive from me at Quincy. The funeral rites performed, I prepare to set out on the morrow. I long to leave a place, where every scene and object wears a gloom, or looks so to me. My agitated mind wants repose. I have twice the present week met my friends and relatives, and taken leave of them in houses of mourning. I have asked, “Was all this necessary to wean me from the world? Was there danger of my fixing a too strong attachment upon it? Has it any allurements, which could make me forget, that here I have no abiding-place?”1 All, all is undoubtedly just and right. Our aged parent is gone to rest. My mind is relieved from any anxiety on her account. I have no fears lest she should be left alone, and receive an injury. I have no apprehensions, that she should feel any want of aid or assistance, or fear of becoming burdensome. She fell asleep, and is happy.
Mary, in the prime of life, when, if ever, it is desirable, became calm, resigned, and willing to leave the world. She made no objection to her sister’s going, or to mine, but always said she should go first.
I have received your letters of April 16th and 19th.2 I want no courting to come. I am ready and willing to follow my husband wherever he chooses; but the hand of Heaven has arrested me. 93 Adieu, my dear friend. Excuse the melancholy strain of my letter. From the abundance of the heart the stream flows.
Affectionately yours,
MS not found. Printed from AA, Letters, ed. CFA, 1848, p. 376–377.
AA was possibly paraphrasing Rev. John Tillotson’s “Sermon XCIII” (The Works of the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson, 12 vols., London, 1748, 6:113–114).
JA to AA, 16 April, has not been found, although AA likely meant JA’s letter of 18 April, for which see his letter of 19 April, note 4, above.