Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
I have recd your Letters of 10. 15. and
16.1 Your solicitude for my Health may
subside. I am pretty well— I had a cold, not a bad one— and something of the
Inflammation in my face of last spring—but it is gone. Rush gave me such a Dose of Salts
that I thought it not fit to go out to Congress next day. But the day after I was well
enough.— I am Old—Old very Old and never Shall be very well—certainly while in this
office for the Drudgery of it is too much for my Years and Strength.
The Barn must not be a monument of Foppery. I should be content to have it 16 foot Post. But if it is thought Advisable I Suppose We can get at Boston or from the Eastward new Posts long enough for twenty feet. I protest against two Buildings—and all expensive ornament. My Fortune is small—Family large—and expensive—And shiftless Children and Grand Children enough to distract me.— A fine Barn coupled with my Hut would be a Womans head on a fishes shoulders. Let me Spin an even thread of Plainness thro Life.
It is Christmas and a fine Day. I rode Yesterday—fourteen miles and intend as much to day. Our Family is very quiet.— No Quarrells— No Complaints— an hundred and twenty Leagues in this cold season would be a terrible risque for you—and only to be here two Months and then a worse Journey home.— My Health would be no better for your being a Witness of any Pains or Achs I might have. I have had recourse to an old Medicine, Sulphur Cram of Tartar and honey which has done me more good than Lockier or Rush. I Sleep well—appetite is good—work hard— Conscience is neat and easy— Content to live and willing to die; So I Sincerely think.— Hoping to do a little good—able to do very little—perplexed and ambarrassed very often: by the Folly of some: the Intrigue of others—and the Selfishness & Ambition of many.
Our Neighbour Field I see is gathered at length to his Fathers.2 Away they all go, the old People; and the young ones come tottering on.
I write you nothing abt public affairs
because it would be Useless to copy the Newspapers which you read. and I can say nothing
more.
I am as ever
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”;
endorsed: “J A Dec’br 25 1798.”
AA’s letter to JA of 15 Dec. lamented the increasing likelihood that winter weather would make it impossible to travel to Philadelphia. She also reported that Gen. John Brooks had declined a commission in the provisional army and that she was enjoying writing frequently: “It is all my amusement. I want to know how the world passes, tho I can not gain admittance now into the Cabinet” (Adams Papers).
Ebenezer Field (b. 1722) died on 15 Dec. (Boston Russell’s Gazette, 17 Dec.).
JA wrote AA a second letter on 25 Dec.,
in which he discussed taking a Christmas coach ride with William Smith Shaw and told
AA not to worry if there was still no word of TBA’s
arrival. AA’s reply of 4 Jan. 1799 commented on the Adamses’ situation,
stating: “If we have not all we wish, we have perhaps as much as we ought.” She also
discussed domestic matters before remarking on the French Navy’s defeat at the Battle
of Donegal and Pommereul’s Campaign of General Buonaparte in
Italy (both Adams
Papers).
on twesday Evening I received the Mercury, and read in it, the
arrival of Capt Jenkins in the America, on sunday. you may well suppose I felt greatly
rejoiced expecting from Thomas’s Letter, that he was undoubtedly a passenger. no
mention was however made of him in the paper: I expected for two days to hear of him,
then I conjectured that not knowing of my being here, was the reason of my not
receiving a Letter to notify me. in this Suspence I write to mr smith requesting him
to get intellegence for me. I received an answer from him last Evening that he had
seen one of capt Jenks owners, but that he knew not of any passengers comeing in
her.1 he supposes mr Adams is on
Board the ship Barbara Capt Clark who saild at the same time for Boston, the 30 of
october, but I have not been yet able to learn any thing further—2 I can only pray for his safety. I watch’d the
weather all last week, and tho threatned with a snow storm, it past off, with a small
slight portion and ended in a Thaw, by which the travelling is again impeeded it had
just got passible, & the Roads were lively. the weather is now moderate and fine.
I last Evening received your Letter of December the 19th.3 I cannot say that it added
to my spirits, or Rest. the dissapointment from Thomas’s not comeing had already
depresst me, and the reflections and observations respecting our Children calls up so
many painfull Ideas, that I cannot be otherways than unhappy when I reflect upon them;
in silence I do reflect upon them daily. I wish it was other-ways with them. for mrs
smith I feel more keenly; because I know She is innocent of the cause of her
misfortunes; she is and always was a dutifull and affectionate Child. I hope better
days are 325
326 reserved for her, tho at present the prospect is
dark— with respect to what is past, all was intended for the best, and you have the
satisfaction of knowing that you have faithfully served your Generation, that you have
done it at the expence of all private Considerations and you do not know whether you
would have been a happier Man in private, than you have been in publick Life— the
exigencies of the times were such as call’d you forth. you considerd yourself as
performing your duty. with these considerations, I think you have not any cause for
regreet. what remains to us of Life, we must expect to have checkerd will good and
evil, and let us patiently endure the one, and rejoice in the other as becomes those
who have a better hope and brighter prospects beyond the Grave—
Much is said in the Philadelphia papers respecting the united Irishmen. is there any reason to think them so formidable as there represented?4 I know there is a banditty of unprincipeld wretches who are employd as emissaries to keep us at varience. a passage struck me in Fennoes paper last Evening, that the democratic society of N york were summoned to meet by one Davis, “when some communications of importance are to be made.”5
I took the more notice of it, from having read a preface, written
by one John Davis the translator as he calls himself; of General Buonaparte Campaign
in Italy, a work of 300 pages, printed in N york at the Argus office in 98—written by
a Genll officer of his Army— I am now reading it, but the
stile of the preface struck me as the most conceited Bombastical thing I ever read.
“he says he came to this Country the middle of last march, with no other recommendation than a Love of
literature. he had caught the Bliss of publication in England, which will ever
constitute my supreme felicity”
as a specimin of this superb translators work, he is transported with joy, to have executed the translation of a work that records the actions of one of the Greatest Warriours the World ever produced; compared to whom [“]Hannibal was a stripling, Alexander a holiday captain, and Cæsar a mere candidate for military Fame”
I would recommend to him to translate Buonaparty Campaign into Eygypt.6 query is not this the same fellow probably?
The Book belongs to Nat’ll Austin the
Brother of Honestus. you will wonder how I came by it. for the good of the publick it
was put into the circulating Library in Boston, taken out by mr d Greenleaf, and by
him lent to me7
Master Cleverly is still living. mr Burrel who was sick when you was here recoverd, but a younger Brother of his who lived, with him 327 took the fever and dyed with it. Mr Cranch is getting well I hope, so is B Adams—
I have not heard yet whether Richard dexter has arrived.
I had a Letter from mrs smith in which she expresses her anxiety at hearing you were unwell and fears you took cold in going on in the storm—8 she says she has been greatly afflicted with an Eruption upon her hands which the Dr pronounces the salt Rhume—the same which afflicts you. she complaind of its itching intollerably— sulpher and cream of Tarter she took. you have always found that of service to you, and I would again recommend it to you—
I inclose to you a sermon, Dr Eckley was so polite as to send me two.9 it is a good performance— I see that the yellow fever has not purified the Northern Liberties. what a wretched crew?
adieu ever / yours
Love to William
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs A / Decr. 28. 98.”
The ship America, Capt. Robert
Jenkins, was owned by William Farris (1753–1837) and Ebenezer Stocker (ca. 1753–1816)
of Newburyport. The vessel’s arrival in Newburyport on 23 Dec. was reported in the Massachusetts Mercury, 25 Dec., prompting AA
to write to William Smith on 26 Dec. (MHi:Smith-Townsend Family Papers) that TBA was expected to
travel on board the ship and to ask Smith for further information. Smith’s reply has
not been found (Ship Registers of the District of Newburyport,
Massachusetts, 1789–1870, Salem, Mass., 1937, p. 12; Benjamin W. Labaree, Patriots and Partisans: The Merchants of Newburyport,
1764–1815, Cambridge, 1962, p. 212; Madison, Papers, Secretary of
State Series
, 2:286).
The ship Barbara, Capt. Henry Clark,
departed Hamburg for Boston on 27 October. On 28 Dec. it ran ashore in Manchester,
Mass., but did not suffer substantial damage. It arrived in Boston on 15 Jan. 1799
(New London Connecticut Gazette, 5 Dec. 1798; Boston Russell’s Gazette, 31 Dec.; Boston Columbian Centinel, 19 Jan. 1799).
That is, JA to AA, 17 Dec. 1798, above.
The Philadelphia Gazette of the United
States, 18 Dec., printed multiple articles detailing the alleged “conspiracies”
of the Society of United Irishmen. One stated that the United Irishmen were
contributing to an “Age of Insurrection,” and another
speculated that all Irishmen in the United States were “wild, and untameable” and had “degenerated into the most brutal ignorance.” A
third suggested that it was the United Irishmen’s goal to “bring on a revolutionary
state in America,” and a fourth estimated that as many as 40,000 United Irishmen were
in the United States and listed seventeen members by name. The Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette, 21 Dec., claimed the objectives of the
United Irishmen were “of a rebellious nature” and reprinted the list of members.
Members of the Democratic Society of New York were summoned to a
meeting “by one Davis,” according to the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 18 Dec., which also
commented, “It is a pity the arm of justice is too feeble to communicate a halter to
them.” Matthew Livingston Davis (1773–1850) was a New York City journalist and
politician who edited several short-lived Democratic-Republican newspapers in the
1790s. During the 1798 gubernatorial election he organized a Democratic-Republican
debating society and in 1799 was named secretary of the Democratic Society (Jerome
Mushkat, “Matthew Livingston Davis and the Political Legacy of Aaron Burr,” NYHS, Quart.
, 59:123, 125–126 [April 1975]).
Napoleon’s third dispatches were intercepted by British forces
during the Egyptian campaign and were translated and printed in the Massachusetts
press in late Dec. 1798. The dispatches were printed as a pamphlet in 328 London on 11 Dec. and in Philadelphia in 1799
(Newburyport Herald, 25 Dec. 1798; Boston Independent Chronicle, 24–27 Dec.; Boston Columbian Centinel, 29 Dec.; London True Briton, 11 Dec.; Copies of Original Letters from
the Army of General Bonaparte in Egypt, Intercepted by the Fleet under the Command
of Admiral Lord Nelson, London, 1798, and Phila., 1799, Evans, No. 35496).
For Pommereul’s Campaign of General
Buonaparte in Italy, from which AA quoted from p. iii and iv, and
for translator John Davis and the loan of this book from the Boston Library Society,
see Descriptive List of
Illustrations, No. 5, above.
Not found.
In his 29 Nov. thanksgiving sermon Rev. Joseph Eckley criticized
“the very uncommon advancement of irreligion” in Europe
and “the attacks of foreign power and influence” in U.S. politics. He advocated prayer
and respect for “the institutions of the Gospel” and continued support for the federal
government to overcome these challenges (Eckley, A Discourse,
Delivered on the Public Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1798, Boston, 1798, p.
9, 18, 20, Evans, No.
33664).