Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
I too have taken my pen with the rising Sun. I have been so disturb’d with the account of the allarming riot before your Door on the fast day evening that I have not had a moments quiet sleep this night.1 I had no Idea the faction would have tried their Strength So oppenly I suppos’d the Letters which had been thrown into your house were mear threats. but I hope they have but Staid their time— had there been such an attempt before the Instructions & 39 dispatches had been published they might have found more Support. They are in the gall of bitterness— they have long been in the bonds of iniquity. our goverment are yet without walls & fences Sufficiently Strong to oppose with Spirit those gogs & magogs which the Divel has stir’d up against our Country. Their end however will be perdition they are permitted to Scourge us for our Sins. but their end will be destruction. darkness well over Shadows us for a time. but the Clips will I hope not be total light will arise & Mercy be remember’d for us my prospects would be brighter if I could see as great a morral as a Political change in this people but alass my dear Sister! tis easier to cure the errors of the head than the heart. congress must do something more effectual to Seperate the Sheep from the goats these Judas’s must be sent to their own place or we Shall never be safe. you ought to keep a Strickt watch—& if possible catch some of the people who are bringing those Letters. there is a Hellish plot I know by Some who yet keep themselves out of Sight— most ardently most fervently do I pray God to take the President into his holy keeping & may no weapon form’d against him prosper
I fear you have been much distress’d, more than you have been willing to own oh my Sister I wish you were in Quincy here you might Set under your own Vine & fruit Tree & have none to make you personally affraid
mr & Mrs Black have just left me. he get to Town last evening mr Cranch was in Boston & Say him mr Cranch told me of your kind present to Mrs Gr–nleafs little girl & Mr Black handed me yours to me. oh my Sister! the recording Angle will never never cease from labour while you have breath & ability to exeercise your benevolence— thanks is all I can offer. but a reward awaits you beyond what mortals can give I am Sorry you should think my head worthy So costly a clothing I fear none but my Sister will estimate it So highly2
Captain Beal wishes me to inform the President thro you that he expects his Son Richard from Sea every moment—3 I have ingag’d Mr Lane to do the painting on your House. would you have the Library paper’d? the Doctor proposes only white washing. we have got a horse & now I should be able to go oftener to see after your Affairs.
Betsy Shaw is something better but her cough has not left her nor her fever I am full of aprehension about her. the loss of her would 40 be almost too much for her Mother tis strange when we see what brittle thread our Lives hang upon that we Should plan for an hour but as tho the chance for executing it, was against us. this life is but the embrio of existance, & ought not rationally to be desirable at least long life with its attendant burthens only as it give us an opportunity to improve the noble powers with which we are endow’d, & to exerise the best affections of the heart in a manner by which we may be qualified for more exalted Stations in a more perfect State
thank you my dear Sister for sending your amiable Sons Letters the Picture of the contending nations which they draw is dark indeed the demorralizing System darkness which can & will be felt— will nothing rouse the neutral powers to make a common Stand— your Son must not Shrink back. he must not refuse his Fathers appointment his dignified republican manners fit him for the important Stations in which he is plac’d, & his accurate knowledge of men & the real designs of France & his unshaken integrity Will render him respected & fear’d I would return the Letter this post but I want to read them again & to let more of our Friends do the same, but I will not keep them long when you write tell them both we feel an encreasing affection for them—& your new Daughter that She has an aunt prepair’d to love her
Mrs Cranch has written me that mr Johnson has taken a Friendly & paternal interest in my Sons welfair, & had advised him not to lose a moment in debating the propriety of removing to Georgetown & Steping in to mr Cooks business— he has follow’d his advise; Mrs cranch is charm’d with the Family Mrs Johnson in particular She felt so depress’d before that She did not know how to assume courage to visit the Family. I know She is oblig’d to you for the first visit. nancy wants incouragement
we are delight’d with the Presidents answers to the numerous addresses— I do not know how he finds language to vary them as he does. that to the Boston address was not So Strikingly understood as I wish’d. In stead of discovering the high complement contain’d in those words: “It must be an unnatural State of things to make it necessary or even proper, &c” many Supposed that the President was not pleas’d & censurd rather than approbated their addressing him with their professions of Support— the complement was too delicate for their uneducated minds— tis dificult for a man of Science to form an Idea how hard it is for those unus’d to Letters to discover 41 those delicate Strokes in composition which charm a cultivated understanding4
adieu my dear Sister I must close the Stage will be upon me before I shall have time to say / I am at all times your affectionate / & grateful Sister
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs Cranch 18 / May / 1798.”
Although Cranch likely learned of this altercation from
AA’s letter of 10
May, above, the Boston Columbian Centinel, 16
May, reported that the clash between a group wearing the French cockade and nearby
bystanders took place directly outside the President’s House instead of in the State
House yard.
On 13 May AA wrote Cranch a brief letter accompanied by “a peice of Muslin for two Crowns of caps,” purchased for $6 per yard, and lace to border the caps (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters).
The ship Britannia, Capt. Richard
Copeland Beale, arrived in Boston on 22 May after a journey from Suriname of 22 days
(Boston Columbian Centinel, 23 May).
JA’s 7 May response to the address from Boston
residents was published in the Boston Columbian Centinel,
12 May, and concluded: “It must, however be a very unnatural, and peculiar state of
things, to make it necessary, or proper, in you, or any other American in your behalf,
to declare to the world, what the world ought to have known and acknowledged without
hesitation—that you are not humiliated under a colonial sense of fear, that you are
not a divided people, in any point which involves the honor, safety, and essential
rights of your country, that you know your rights, and are determined to support them”
(
Patriotic Addresses
, p. 33–34).
I received a few days past, Your obliging favour of May 7th, inclosing the Letters of my sons, and one from the God
Mother of Mrs Adams, which contains a pleasing and agreable picture of the mutual
regard, and affection of our Children.1
Mr Adams never writes me, but he expresses the satisfaction which he derives from his
connection long may they live in the full enjoyment of those domestick attachments which
sweeten the Cup of Life, and without which, Paridice itself would yeald no solid
pleasures.
Mr Adams’s mission to Berlin, tho much envyed by some of his countrymen, has never met his approbation, more however from the circumstance of his receiving the nomination from his Father, than from any other cause. If it had been an advancement of him, either as it respected Rank, or emolument; he would not have been advanced by his Father, but the President conceiving that he might render to his Country more essential Service at Berlin than Lisbon thought proper to change his destination, and for this single act, he has been caluminiated and abused, with all the bitterness of Party spirit the disorganizers of our Country, have represented it, as the 42 advancement of the Presidents own son to a pecuniary office, and a Member of Congress during the present session, has written a Letter to his constituents containing the grocest falshoods which he knew at the time to be such, saying that, the President appointed his son to Prussia, before he met Congress the Jounals of the Senate prove, that the appointment took place in June near the close of the Session. he then adds that he had, had a new outfit every year since he went abroad. I inclose you the Letter as publishd if you will give yourself the trouble to read it, as one specimin amongst ten thousand others, that the Jacobinic party stick at nothing to answer their own views.2
You must have noticed in one of those Letters which I sent you, an apprehension of mr Adams’s least an honorary distinction, conferd upon him by the Academy of Arts and sciences, originated from his Father. tell him, says his Father, that I say he is a very proud young Man, but that I had no hand in, or lot or part in his Election as a member of that academy, nor knew of it untill I saw his Name upon the Books.—3
I cannot however blame that spirit of independance, which chuses to rest upon its own merrits & individual foundation.
I presume my dear Madam, that you will not consider me acting an improper part, if I mention to you, that as mr Johnson has concluded to place his son at the college in Annapolis, it will be expected by the President, and mr T B Johnsons Tutor, that some notice should be given to them of it. The Age of the University; the Respectability of its institutions, the Number of its students, and the Character of the President, the Corporation and overseers, justly entitle it, to the first Rank amongst the seminaries of Learning in the United States.
Inquiries have been made of me, knowing the connection between our Families, whether mr Johnson was not soon expected to return, as no intimation had been received to the contrary and his Chamber is still held for him.
Mr Otis who is here as a Member of Congress, to whose care your son was confided, mentiond to me that he had not received a line from your son since he left this place4
If you should wish for information upon any point respecting the usages and customs of the University, mr Cranch can inform you— Mr Johnsons behaviour and conduct whilst at Cambridge not only endeared him to his fellow students, but engaged him the particular 43 regard of the President, as I have been informd. it is natural for me to have partialities towards the university where my Grandfather, Father Husband and Sons received their Education. You will pardon me then if I regreet that your son will not finish his Education there. it must however accord more with your feelings to have him near you & with your connection—
There is a publick Letter, from mr Adams to 12th Feb’ry there is nothing to the contrary of their being well
at that time.5
accept my dear Madam, my thanks for the obliging present inclosed in your Letter. it has an intrinsick value as the work of your own Hands, and on that account I shall value it much more, than if it did not possess that merit, even tho it had been ten times more costly.
your Letter to mrs smith, I forwarded to her, and I shall not fail to communicate to her, the favourable sentiments so obligingly exprest by you to me.6 The col has been unfortunate. Mrs smith has retired to a Farm about 20 miles from the city of N york— her spirits are not what they once were. her prospects are not pleasent.
alass my dear Madam, Who of us are without our troubles, and our anxieties, what ever our situation or lot in Life?
I pray you to make the Presidents and my respects to mr Johnson Mr Cranch had written us an account of Your Friendly visit, and of mr Johnsons Patronage towards him.7 I trust he will prove worthy of it. my Love to the young Ladies & to your son, from Madam your Friend and Humble servant
RC (Adams Papers); docketed by JQA: “Adams Abigail, my mother. / To
Mrs Catherine Johnson / Philadelphia 20. May 1798.”
Johnson’s 7 May letter to AA, not found, enclosed JQA’s letter of 7 Feb. to Johnson, for which see vol. 12:383–386. The second enclosure was a letter from LCA of 11 Jan., not found, which AA quoted extensively in her letter to Mary Smith Cranch of 13 June, below.
LCA did not name a godmother in her writings, and
the record of her 8 March 1775 baptism at St. Botolph Aldgate, London, does not name a
sponsor. The author of the letter was possibly Mrs. Court, a Johnson family friend who
dined with LCA and JQA on their wedding night and hosted
them in her London home to insulate them from Joshua Johnson’s creditors after he
departed for the United States in Sept. 1797. She was probably the same Mrs. Court who
served as godmother of LCA’s sister Nancy in London in 1773 (vol. 12:221; London Metropolitan
Archives:St. Botolph Aldgate, Register of Baptisms, 1753–1797, p. 368; LCA, D&A
, 1:34, 52).
AA was referring to the letter attributed to William
Findley that was published in the Philadelphia Porcupine’s
Gazette, 12 April 1798. For JA’s nomination of JQA as
minister to Prussia, see vol. 12:135, 136, 164, 212–214.
For JQA’s election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Aug. 1797 and his comments thereon, see vol. 12:279, 353, 373.
For Thomas Baker Johnson’s preparation for and attendance at Harvard College, see vols. 10:346; 12:230, 231.
No public letter from JQA dated 12 Feb. 1798 has been found. AA possibly meant his letter to JA of 17 Feb., for which see AA to Cranch, 26 May, and note 2, below.
No letters between Catherine Nuth Johnson and AA2 are extant.
See William Cranch to AA, 8 May, above.