Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
ry.25 1799
I have not any Letter from you of a later date than the 9th; you
was then unwell. I have one from william of the 12th. as he does not mention your being
still indisposed I hope it was only occasiond by the Thaw, and the close air of the
Theatre. I have myself been confined for a week, but got down stairs yesterday, and hope
I have parted with some of my bad humours, by the
application of Blisters, and a soar finger— our weather is so variable that one day we
have it intencely cold, and the next a thaw. the Ground is again coverd with snow of a
foot depth. it is also very cold
French I believe will take the Farm at a hundred and 75 dollors and
pay all taxes. Burrel will remain— Quincy medow is given up by French— I suppose dr
Tufts will draw upon Genll Lincoln in March— in that Month
Brislers Wages will become due. you will recollect it and settle with him. I did the
last March— If Thomas returns to Philadelphia, should you be willing to leave him
Clinker a Horse seems necessary for his Health. he might be kept at a livery stable, and
if he should be obliged to flee, he will have it more in his power, to attend the courts
in the Country, or come on here on Horse back— I believe he will be determined more by,
who is like to be the future Gov’r of Pensilvanna, than any
thing Else. if the democratic Judge—he will seek some other place if Congress were to
sit as long this year as the last, I believe a Rebellion would break out in some of the
states; there is symptoms enough already of a daring spirit of out Law. I do not like
their complexion. Logan has brought home, perhaps a List of our Directory. I doubt not
they were equally attentive to us as to England Ireland and Scotland— the petition of
the Alien Irishmen speaks very plain language—1
I have not any Letters by the post of this day, tho the 25 of the month, and William has omitted Claypoles paper, by which means I do not learn what is doing. my papers are to the 15th— Congress appear to have done very little buisness. how much is in readiness I know not. I see the appointment of mr King, and smith, in Fennoes paper.2
I cannot but own that I feel some anxiety upon account of the Bloodhounds, the united Irishmen; if the account of their petition to Congress is any way accurate, no man possessd of honour or 418 honesty, virtue or integrity would have presented such a daring out rage to the Government; it was a fit office for Levingstone.
The Grand Jury have found a Bill against Adams the Printer, for publishing a Libel upon the senate & majority of the House, saying that every member who voted in favour of the answer to the Virgina Resolutions perjured himself, by acting against the constitution, which he had Sworn to support.3
I shall be anxious for tomorrows post. I am much better than when I wrote you last. the application of Blisters has restored to me more quiet sleep than I have had for a long time.
I am my dearest Friend / ever yours
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by TBA: “The President of the United
States / Philadelpa:.”; endorsed: “Mrs A. Feb. 25. 1799.”
The Philadelphia Gazette of the United
States, 12 Feb., called the 12 Feb. petition to Congress by Irish immigrants
seeking the repeal of the Alien Act an “impudent, seditious and inflammatory
memorial.” The newspaper took special exception to a passage in the petition about
JA that said “his mortality would occasion
a new standard of conduct,” a phrase the newspaper called
“a pretty direct allusion to the probably meditated assassination of the President.”
The newspaper disputed a contention by the petitioners that the Irish had been
insulted in the press as, among other things, “Irish blood-hounds.” The allegation of
insults, the newspaper concluded, was “trumped up merely to kindle the glowing heat of
weak minds into acts of assassination.”
The Philadelphia American Daily
Advertiser, 15 Feb., printed a congressional report on naval readiness. It also
reported a resolution by the House of Representatives requesting information from
JA on the possible suspension of a French decree regarding the
treatment of citizens of neutral nations found aboard enemy vessels. The appointments
of Rufus King and William Loughton Smith as ministers to Russia and the Ottoman
Empire, respectively, were reported in the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 14 February.
Thomas Adams of the Boston Independent
Chronicle, already named in an Oct. 1798 federal indictment under the Sedition
Act, was with his brother Abijah charged with libel by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts on 28 Feb. 1799. The charge stemmed from an editorial in the 14–18 Feb.
issue criticizing state legislators’ response to the Virginia Resolutions. Abijah was
convicted and sentenced to thirty days in jail. Poor health delayed Thomas’ trials,
and his death on 13 May ended both prosecutions (Clyde Augustus Duniway, The Development of Freedom of the Press in Massachusetts,
N.Y., 1906, p. 144–145; Patrick Novotny, The Press in American
Politics, 1787–2012, Santa Barbara, Calif., 2014, p. 18).
I have just recd yours of 14th.— it has laid in the Post office I suppose Since
saturday.
The subjects of Mr J. Q. A.s Agents are
horrible to me. I will therefore dismiss them.
Thomas’s Predilection for Phyladelphia, I suppose will determine 419 him.— Alass! Nelly is married poor Boy!1 and I suppose some of the Six sisters will catch the Child in the Trap without a Groat and without Connections! This is to be my fate, throughout.— Three are gone already that Way—the fourth will go. blind thoughtless, Stupid Boys & Girl—!
Frederic, Franklin and other Soidisant Phylosophers, insist that Nature contrives these Things with others to reconcile Men to the thought of quitting the World. If my Phylosophy was theirs I should believe that Nature cared nothing for Men, nor their follies nor their Miseries, nor for herself.— She is a mighty Stupid Wretch, according to them. a kind of French Woman, sometimes beautiful and clever but very often diabolical. A kind of French Republic, cunning and terrible: but cruel as the Grave and unjust as the Tempter and Tormentor.
I believe nothing like this of Nature; which to me is a Machine whose Author and conductor is wise kind and mighty. Believing this I can acquiesce in what is unpleasant expecting that it will work out a greater degree of good. If it were possible that I should be mistaken, I at least shall not be worse than these profound Phylosophers. I shall be in the same case hereafter, and a little, a great deal better here.
The Report, was not at last as it should have been: But it is very
different from the Report made to me. I Scratched out, a little.— I wanted no Report. in
short it is one of those Things, that I may talk of, when I see you.— After I sent that
Report to Congress, I recd a Letter, which has favoured Mr Gerrys opinion and made against the Report— I have
instituted a new Mission: which is kept in the dark, but when it comes to be understood
will be approved.2 Oh how they lament
Mrs Adams’s Absence!— she is a good Counseller! If she had
been here Murray would never have been named nor his Mission instituted! This ought to
gratify your Vanity enough to cure you. Love to Thomas, Brothers Cousins &c Louisa
especially
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A.”;
docketed: “JA to AA Feb 25th /
1799.”
Eleanor Parke Custis married Lawrence Lewis at Mount Vernon on 22
Feb., prompting JA’s playful elimination of her as a potential spouse for
TBA (Washington, Diaries
, 6:335).
Along with his 18 Feb. nomination of William Vans Murray,
JA submitted to the Senate a 28 Aug. 1798 letter from Talleyrand to
Louis Andre Pichon, the secretary of the French legation in the Netherlands, in which
Talleyrand unequivocally stated that a U.S. minister to France would be received.
Murray enclosed the letter with his private letter to JA of 7 Oct. (
Amer. State
Papers, Foreign Relations
, 2:239–240;
Repertorium
, 3:144;
Murray to JA, 7 Oct., Adams
Papers).