Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
I expected to have heard from you on Saturday, but no Letter came and on Wedensday but still no Letter. I was dissapointed, but knowing your many avocations I concluded it must arise from thence. I hope not from Sickness tho you wrote me you was not well. I who have more leisure, and no care of Family affairs but my order can and do devote almost every morning in writing to some Friend or other.
You will hear before this reaches you of the arrival of mr Marshall at Nyork. mr Pinckney is gone to the South of France, with a permit, for the Health of a daughter suposed in a consumption. mr Gerry stays untill he hears from our Government which as appears to me, is a very wrong step.2 The Government you will be informd received last week an other dispatch of a Letter from Talleyrand, and a very lengthy reply by our Envoys—which being in a press copy & part cypher, two copies being to be prepared of it, could not be got ready in one or two days— in the mean time Talleyrand had sent out to Bache his Letter, for to be publishd here, & without, the replie of our Envoys. this he exaltingly gave to the publick on saturday.3 it really appears a very fortunate circumstance that, our Government, should have received tho by an other conveyance the dispatches about the same time and so soon be able to counteract the villany intended by Talleyrand. it has an other good effect, that of convincing the most unbelieving—of the close connection between the Infernals of France & those in our own Bosoms, and in any other Country Bache & all his papers would have been seazd and ought to 136 be here, but congress are dilly dallying about passing a Bill enabling the President to seize suspisious persons—and their papers— we shall be favourd soon I suppose with the pamphlet written by the Clerk in Talleyrands office—4 all this however works for good, and will tend to work out our Salvation I hope. I will send the papers as soon as publishd. in the mean time I send you some pamphlets to be distributed for the publick Benifit, and Send one in my Name to mrs Webb with my compliments—5
We are all well but a servant who has been voilently attackd with an inflamitory Soar Throat, & very dangerously sick for several days. We hope he has past the worst.
the Season has not yet been uncommonly Hot. I am weary of conjectures, so shall say nothing of when it is probable Congress will rise. I believe they will decarle War against the French first.
Mr Marshalls arrival will hasten the buisness— o mr Gerry! mr Gerry, that You had but been wise enough, & resolute enough to have come too.
mrs Malony got home yesterday morning, in six days— I have not seen her, I have only heard that She is come— with a kind remembrance to all Friend yours
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters); addressed: “Mrs Mary Cranch / Quincy”; endorsed
by Richard Cranch: “Letter from Mrs / A: Adams, Quincy, /
June 19th. 1798.”
AA repeated the mistake she made in the dateline of her 13 June letter to Cranch, above.
New York and Philadelphia newspapers reported John Marshall’s
arrival in New York on the ship Alexander Hamilton, Capt.
William Wise, on 17 June; Charles Cotesworth Pinckney’s removal to the south of France
for his daughter’s health; and Elbridge Gerry’s decision to remain in Paris “to wait
the determinations of our government” (New York Daily
Advertiser, 18 June; Philadelphia Carey’s United
States’ Recorder, 19 June; Williams, French Assault on American Shipping
,
p. 49).
In a message to Congress of 18 June, JA submitted a
dispatch received on 14 June from the American commissioners to France dated 3 April
and two enclosures: a letter of 18 March from Talleyrand to the commissioners and the
commissioners’ 3 April response. The letter from Talleyrand argued that French
depredations against American shipping were made in retaliation for American actions,
namely the failure to observe the 1778 Franco-American Treaty, the conclusion of the
Jay Treaty, and the hostility of the Adams administration toward France. Talleyrand
concluded that the Directory would negotiate only with Gerry, the “one of the three,
whose opinions, presumed to be more impartial, promise, in the course of the
explanations, more of that reciprocal confidence which is indispensable.” In their 3
April 1798 answer, the commissioners offered a detailed rebuttal of French charges and
reiterated the justice and necessity of American actions in maintaining its
neutrality, as well as the government’s desire to resolve their differences with
France. Talleyrand’s letter without the commissioners’ reply appeared in the
Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 16 June (
Amer. State
Papers, Foreign Relations
, 2:188–199).
The Philadelphia Gazette, 18 June,
reported that a packet addressed to Benjamin Franklin Bache and bearing Talleyrand’s
seal 137 had been given to William Lee by one of
Talleyrand’s clerks to deliver. The same day, the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States reported that the letter from Talleyrand to the
commissioners was only part of what Bache had received, but they had not learned what
more the packet contained.
The enclosures have not been found but likely were Anthony
Aufrere’s The Cannibals’ Progress.
th1798
I received yours of the 11th
1 I think Thomas Welch should take his
degree at College before he goes. I hope to be in Boston in July. if any Vessel should
be going to Hamburgh, it would be best for him to embark for that port. I sincerely
regreet that you have had an other vessel captured. Captain Brooks is destined to it,
it should seem, from his having so often sufferd, but the President says to all those
who are loosers—Gentleman I am clear from blame.2 would you have attended to my advise at the
summer session, many many millions of Property, would have been saved to the citizens
of America. Can you tell me Sir what has become of the answer to the address from the
Students of Harvered College— I have not seen it publishd in any paper.3 mr Malcom lost the cover which containd the
Names of the Committe who inclosed it. it could only be recollected that Thomas Welch
was one, and that was the reason why the direction was not to all three of the
Committe. it was addrest to Thomas Welch as one of them & sent three weeks ago I
believe—
It seems Talleyrand is in close communication with his Friend Bache. he was furnishd with Talleyrands Letter, I presume at the same time that dispatches arrived to Government, but there are 70 pages of a Letter in replie from our Envoys, all in Letter press & scarcly legible. two Copies of this must always be made out to lie before the two Houses at the same time, and a translation of the Letter. this necessarily took up much longer time and Bache caught at the opportunity, and sent out his hand Bills on saturday by the thousand. it is a misirable perfermance & the old story over & over again with additional insolence. poor Gerry! will be a sacrifice to his Credulity I fear, but he can do nothing but wait. he says he shall consider himself as a cypher and without any power to act, but he should not stay. that artfull apostate, knows that by detaining him, he shall keep up a party here—and continue divissions amongst us—
I hope you will put your Castle in a proper state of defence—and have your militia well Armd. the vice President goes off on 138 wedensday— Langdon is returnd tho he askd leave for the remainder of the Session— Parker talks of Resigning. pray do not Send that Wretch Dearbourn. this country suffers beyond calculation, by such members—4
Send us Ames or Dexter in lieu of mr Sedwick, or Parsons— we have Birds enough here already, and some of the Bat kind, mongrels, neither one thing or an other. Send no Man who cannot stand fire and fight too if necessary—no half way people in such times as these. We want Martyrs.
I will send you the dispatches as soon as thy are out in the mean time I send you some pamphles to distribute.5 I wish every Member of Your House had one. be sure you give them to Jacobins—if they will read them
With a kind and affectionate / Remembrance to all Friends / I am your &C
I thought to have written only ten lines but my pen runs—
RC (MHi:Smith-Carter Family Papers); addressed: “Mr William Smith Esqr / Boston”;
endorsed: “Philaa. 19. June 98 / A Adams.”
The letter from Smith to AA of 11 June has not been found, but in
his letter of 15 June, Smith reported that Massachusetts had ceded Castle Island to
the United States and commented on progress in outfitting the frigate Constitution (Adams Papers).
The capture of the American Eagle,
Capt. Samuel Brooks, owned by Smith, was reported by the Massachusetts Mercury, 15 June. The ship was taken to Île de Ré, and Brooks
was not able to return to the United States until Jan. 1800. Brooks was previously
captured when another Smith-owned vessel, the Mercury,
was taken by the French in 1796 (Williams, French Assault on American Shipping
,
p. 123, 244; Baltimore Federal Gazette, 20 Jan. 1800; Massachusetts Mercury, 6 Dec. 1796).
JA’s answer to the address of Harvard students was
published in the Massachusetts Mercury, 5 June 1798.
Thomas Jefferson planned to leave Philadelphia on 20 June but
delayed his departure after receiving news of John Marshall’s arrival in New York. On
26 June he requested leave from the Senate for the remainder of the session and left
Philadelphia the following day, arriving at Monticello on 3 July. John Langdon’s
request for leave was not recorded, but he participated in Senate votes from 13 June
until 11 July. Isaac Parker (1768–1830), a lawyer and Federalist representative from
the district of Maine, served only one term, declining to stand for reelection. He was
succeeded by Silas Lee (Jefferson,
Papers
, 30:416–417, 435, 450;
Annals of
Congress
, 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 578, 591, 606–607;
Biog. Dir.
Cong.
; Massachusetts Mercury, 20
Nov.).
Enclosures not found.