Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13

William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 9 February 1799 Shaw, William Smith Adams, Abigail

William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams

Philadelphia Feb 9th [1799] Saturday Eve. My dear Aunt

Yours of the 2d of Feb. I received this morning— The president says he cannot blame you for not writing oftner because you write two to him to his one—but could he write as freely as you can and had he as much leisure he should write you every day.

Last Evening we went to the play. Secrets worth knowing & the children in the woods constituted the entertainment. The plays were good but the actors most miserable. Scenes, in which one would suppose the whole soul would be interested, were recited with all the sang froid of a Dutchman.1 The president had a very severe head ache all the time. You will not hear of my going agan very soon.

Congress have passed one more bill, the 2d only, further to suspend the intercourse between the U.S. & France &c. & the president’s aprobation of which, I shall go on monday to inform the house.2 They have but three weeks to sit from to day. On monday the petitions to repeal the Alien and sedition bills & which were referred to a committe of the whole house. will be called up and it is probable will occasion considerable debate in the house.3

With affection & esteem / your

Wm. S. S—

RC (Adams Papers).

Thomas Morton’s comedy Secrets Worth Knowing and farce The Children in the Wood were performed at Philadelphia’s New Theatre. Thomas Wignell and Rose Sydney were the leads in the comedy, which was panned in the Porcupine’s Gazette, 8 Feb.: “It has neither wit, elegance nor pathos; it has neither character, plot nor probability; it is a jumble of absurdities shocking to common sense, conveyed in language the most grovelling and spiritless.” JA’s expected attendance was announced by the Philadelphia Gazette, 8 Feb., along with the erroneous statement that AA would join him. The next day the same newspaper reported that John Darley sang a specially written ode to the president: “Let distant Wars their thunders roar, / And Europe’s plains be drench’d with gore; / Secure in Peace we firmly stand, / While Adams guards with you our Land.”

On 9 Feb. JA signed into law an act continuing the June 1798 prohibition of American ships from entering French ports and vice versa, which was set to expire at the end of the current congressional session. The president was given the power to suspend the law at any time and to grant special clearances while it was in effect. On 11 Feb. 1799 Shaw appeared in the House of Representatives and informed members that the bill had been signed ( U.S. Statutes at Large , 1:565–566; 613–616; U.S. House, Jour. , 5th Cong., 3d sess., p. 472).

Several petitions to repeal the Alien and Sedition Acts were introduced in the House beginning on 12 February. The first was from “a number of aliens, natives of Ireland, resident within the United States,” for which see Shaw to AA, [11] Feb., and note 4, and AA to JA, 25 Feb., and note 1, both below. This was followed by others from citizens of Pennsylvania and New York. These petitions were 399 referred to a select committee, which recommended on 25 Feb. that it was “inexpedient” to repeal the acts ( Annals of Congress , 5th Cong., 3d sess., p. 2884–2907, 2955, 2957–2959, 2985–2993).

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams, 10 February 1799 Adams, Abigail Adams, John Quincy

Abigail Adams to John Quincy Adams

my Dear son Quincy Febry 10th 1799

I will not let a vessel sail for Hamburgh that I know of, without taking a few Lines from me, if it be only to inform you of the State of my Health, which I know you are affectionately interested in. It is not what I wish it was, tho by no means so low as in the summer past.

your Brother is on his way to Quincy. I hope to see him in the course of the Week, and to disswade him from his present intention of settling in Philadelphia. the Plague, for I know not by what other Name to call it, must drive him annually from it, or what is more to be dreaded, he will fall a sacrifice to it, unless some measures are speedily discoverd to stop its progress. it becomes every year more destructive and horible. there is no doubt of its still being in the City, tho the winter checks its banefull influence. N york and Boston both sufferd the last Season. much pains is taking to investigate the causes. I hope the Reserches may prove successfull, and God grant a Remedy may be found. it has proved a soar judgment; and Calamity to the Country.

I send you by this opportunity the latest papers, and mr Gerrys correspondence with Talleyrand as communicated to Congress, and the Secretary of States Report upon it.

Whilst our Countrymen in General repell with, Indignation every attempt upon their Independance, there are to be found degenerate wretches, who Strive to create divissions and foment animosities. The Alien and sedition Bills are made their Agents, by grosely misrepresenting them, and the views and designs of Goverment.

you will see the poison working in Virgina & Kentucky. foreign influence is united with domestic intrigue. Blount the Impeached Blount is Elected President of the Kentucky assembly1

I Blush for my Country! yet their honesty and federilism is prevelant, for the Mad Resolutions of Virgina & Kentucky will be rejected by every Legislature in the Union. four have already done it.2

I inclose a Letter received last week from Mrs Johnson.3 it may arrive when no one of so late a date may come to hand. I wish the 400 contents were more consoling to her daughter. tell her she must write frequently to her Mother and keep up her spirits. my kindest Love to her

Adieu my dear son. God Bless and preserve You and yours prays your ever affectionate

Mother Abigail Adams

I wrote you by way of Hamburgh the latter end of Janry. 4 your Father was well on the 1st of this month. I had Letters from him

RC (Adams Papers).

The Boston Columbian Centinel, 9 Feb. 1799, mistakenly reported William Blount’s election as president of the Ky. senate, rather than that of Tennessee. The error was corrected by the Boston Independent Chronicle, 7–11 February.

The responses of other states to the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions varied. New Jersey and Pennsylvania refused to open debate on the resolutions, and on 1 Feb. the Del. General Assembly condemned them as “very unjustifiable interference” with the federal government. The Mass. General Court began debate on a similar resolve on 9 Feb. and approved it four days later, for which see AA to JA, 14 Feb., and note 2, below. By November the legislatures of Rhode Island, New York, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont similarly issued formal resolutions in opposition (New Bedford, Mass., Columbian Courier, 2 Feb.; Mass., Acts and Laws , 1798–1799, p. 257–263; Warren, R.I., Herald of the United States, 9 March; Jonathan Elliot, comp., The Debates in the Several State Conventions, on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 2d rev. edn., 4 vols., Washington, D.C., 1836, 4:532–539).

Not found.

AA to JQA, 1 Feb., above.