Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
Vanity of vanity! & the conseiquenc of it is vexation of Spirit— who ever is inclin’d to live beyond their income let them enter the House where plenty hospitality & an appearence of wealth used to be display’d at the moment the mask is fallen of, & they will behold a Scene of distress & woe enough to tear the heart of love & Friendship
I have long Suspected Doctor Welsh’s affairs were embarras’d but I knew his profession was a profitable one—& I hop’d he would work himself out of difficulty. Mrs welsh had desir’d me to bring her mother down to make them a visit & yesterday She thought proper to go in the Stage.1 I went in our chaise to see her safe there. but what was my astonishment when I arriv’d & found his doors were clos’d
mr Smith & Cousin Betsy came immidiately to mr Greenleafs to
me & beg’d me to go to the Doctors & take his mother aside & desire her
not to put her hand to a Single paper but to go out of Town again as soon as she had
rested herself, that he would come in a few days & see her & she might depend
upon him for the care of her. The House Firniture & all his Lands are made over to
Mr Smith & have been so all winter & mr Smith told he all would not make him
whole I never Saw mr S so agitated grieved & angry before.2 The Docr have been
like others catching at every thing to keep his head above water, but which has only
added to his weight & made him sink the deeper— without designing to do wrong, how
much injury we may do our Neighbours! I ask’d mr S if he was not hurt by his
brick-works he said he was, but it was beyond description. the Methods he had taken to
raise money to his own injury & he would not now have clos’d his doors if Mr S had
not push’d him in & oblig’d him to do it— I heard it first in the Street as I was
passing a Shop before I had seen mr S. & I veryly thought my legs would not have
Supported me to mr Greenleafs door— Mrs welsh had never suspected her Husbands
circumstances & does not know now, how past redeemtion he is, & indeed it does
not seem as if She could bear any more. I never Saw a person so distress’d— She could
Scarcly Speak to be hear’d it has unfitted her for every thing She has neither eat nor
sleeps for Several days & nights & is very weak. the 54 Daughters dear girls look’d distress’d for their
Parents but talk very properly. I did not see the Docr. he
had Gentlemen with him but mr S Said —— but he does not know his feelings. my heart
acks for him. I always thought he had quick & delicate feelings— this fine edge
must have been blunted by the violenc done to them in order to save appearences, if he
is now callous. The tears stream’d down the woe-worn channels of mr S face while he
talk’d to me upon his affairs & his conduct—& mrs Smith seem’d afflicted as if
She had bury’d another child. you may well think I had a dreadful day I felt when I
got home too fatigue’d to write a line & Shall not now be able to write you half I
wish
I had to tell his Mother My Self— dreadful tydings for a Parent to hear when she thought to come to a house of affluence & had promiss’d herself So much pleasure from visiting her Friends once more—but Such is the world we live in. we know not what a day or hour will bring forth. how you will be affected my Sister when you read this letter. they were all very dear to us. I brought Henry away with me to stay with me till the first Shock was over. Such children have no discretion & he distress them by runing in & out So often in the day. they were affraid he would not keep the door Shut3
mrs Brisler must be prepair’d to hear of the death of her Mother. She dy’d last night She has been very unwell all winter but has fail’d very fast about a week Since. old Mr Marsh was buried this week. whos turn will be next God only knows. may we all be found ready—4
I did not receive Your letter of the 10th till last Teusday the post mark was only put on 7 days before at Philadelphia it must have lain in that office all that time mr Blacks to his Wife did not arrive till the same day yours did
The Presidents answer to the Quincy address was so affectionate & tender we could not read it without tears & as so many of the youth at least do not read newspapers we thought it would not be amiss to have it read after Sermon a Sunday— accordingly Mr Whitman read it to a very full Meeting in the afternoon last Sunday evening—read it in a most pathetick manner, & the people were not a little affected. Deacon webb absolutely turn’d pale— I have not heard of a creatures objecting to its being read5
I thought Pheby wanted a Gown more than wood at this Season & I bought her one yesterday & Shall add the lining & matting my Self
mr Lane is painting your House & fences this week the other house is not far enough done for Mr Porter to move in tis a great 55 work. I have been hurrying them about it— the feeding Such an army of workmen is no small expence. I believe the doctor wants more money than I mention’d your Sending. he finds it necessary to purchase more Beef & Several things he did not expect to want— mrs Porter wishes to know if you would have her use all the chops & Shoulders of Bacon. She has Boild some of the chops & hands but I told her I thought She had better not dress any more till you were consulted
The mail is come for the Letter. I must only say Love to the President & Louisia from your ever / affectionate Sister
will you correct or finish half words in my last
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs Cranch / 25th May / 1798.”
Mary Mousell Welsh (1721–1804) was the widowed mother of Thomas
Welsh and lived in Braintree (
Sibley’s Harvard Graduates
, 18:183; Boston Gazette, 27 Feb. 1804).
For the transfer of property from Thomas Welsh to William Smith,
see Cranch to AA, [15] June 1798, and note 2, below.
That is, Welsh’s son Henry, who was ten years old at this time
and had what Welsh described as a “mental debility” (vol. 8:65;
Sibley’s Harvard
Graduates
, 18:188).
That is, Abigail Newcomb Field and Wilson Marsh. Marsh (b. 1711),
who resided on a large farm in Quincy, died on 20 May (Sprague, Braintree
Families
).
In his reply to the address from Quincy, JA
remarked, “Next to the approbation of a good conscience, there is nothing perhaps
which gives us more pleasure than the praise of those we love most, and who know us
the most intimately” (
Patriotic Addresses
, p. 78–79).
yours of the 18 I received on Thursday 23— and I rejoice to hear mr
Black got home so soon, as I think he could dissipate your anxiety on our account. I may
be too confident, but I do not feel as if any body wanted to hurt or injure us. bearing
neither malice or ill will towards any one, not even the most deluded, I cannot be
particuliarly apprehensive. I wish the Laws of our Country were competant to punish the
stirer up of sedition, the writer and Printer of base and unfounded calumny. this would
contribute as much to the Peace and harmony of our Country as any measure, and in times
like the present, a more carefull and attentive watch ought to be kept over foreigners.
this will be done in future if the Alien Bill passes, without being curtaild & clipt
untill it is made nearly useless— The Volunteer Corps which are forming not only of
young Men, but others will keep in check these people I trust. amongst 56 the many addresses have you particuliarly noticed one from the state of N Jersey with
the Govr at their head, as commander in chief. it is from
all the officers, and they are not vain and empty tenders for a deputation from their
Body is comeing to Present the address on monday next, and to tender their Services as a
volunteer Corps— I wish with you that I could see as great a Change for the better in
morals as in politicks, but it is a part of Religion as well as morality, to do justly
and to love mercy and a man can not be an honest & Zealous promoter of the
Principles of a Free Government, without possessing that Good will towards man which
leads to the Love of God, and respect for the deity, so that a proper appreciation of
our Rights & duties as Citizens, is a prelude to a respect for Religion, and its
institutions. to destroy and undermine Religion has been the cheif engine in the
accomplishment of this mighty Revolution throughout Europe. we have felt no small share
of the balefull influence, of the Age of Reason—but to have a through Idea of the deep
laid system, you must read a Work lately publishd calld
proofs of a conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, by John
Robison Professor of Natural Philosophy in the university of Edinburgh.1 this Book I have sent to dr Belknap with a
request that if he possesst a Copy, that he would send it to mr Cranch. if he has not,
he will lend it to him. you will read the Book with astonishment. What led me to send
the Book at this time, was from a Letter from my son at Berlin, who I know from his
manner of writing had not seen the Book. it was first publishd last sep’br in Edinburgh in his Letter he mentions a society calld a
Theo Philanthropick, and describes it as a Theological
& political mixture of deism, morality and Anti Christianity—that to propogate these
doctrines, Persons had been sent lately to Hamburgh; and that dupont de Nemours was talk’d of as comeing out to America to establish such
societies here—
I have made the extract from his Letter at length, and sent it to dr Belnap together with Robisons Work, which fully unfolds the whole scheme, and displays the effects of the Principles in the Revolutions in Europe to their full extent. I thought I could not do a better service than to put our Country men upon their Gaurd. the son of this dupont has just arrived in this city from Charlstown S C where he was Consul. he is now sent here in order to Superceed Le Tomb, as consul general.2 He told a Gentleman who mentiond it at the drawing Room last Evening that his Father was gone to Hamburgh in order to embark for America, which corresponds with the account 57 given by mr A— and he added that he found the spirit of the times such, that he should be very sorry to have his Father come out. the intention was that he should have come out to accompany the Marquiss La Fayett & Family. by this means you see, he would naturally have been cordially & kindly received, and have crept unsuspected into the Bosoms of Americans, untill he had bit like a serpent and stung like an Adder. was there ever a more basely designing and insidious people? Burk was right, when he described the French republick to be founded upon Regicide, Jacobinism and Atheism, and that it had joind to those Principles: a body of systamatick manners, which secured their opperation.3
Robisons Book will shew you how much the corruption of manners has aided in the destruction of all Religions and moral Principles— all the new institutions strike at the root of our social nature. mr Burk goes on to observe in his Letters upon the Regicide directory, “that other Legislators knowing that marriage is the origin of all Relations, and concequently the first Element of all duties: have endeavourd by every Art to make it sacred.” the following observation ought to be indelbly written upon every mind.
“The Christian Religion by confineing it to pairs and by rendering that Relation indissoluable, has by these two things, done more towards the peace, happiness, settlement and civilization of the world, than by any other part in this whole Scheme of divine wisdom”4
I objected to the answer to the Boston address upon the same Principle you mention. I did get an alteration in it, but between ourselves, I think the address itself as indifferent as most any one which has been sent, but this is confidential—
inclosed is a Letter for mr Black which I return as he requested— I hear nothing yet of the Box sent for cousin Betsy— I hope it is not lost
we have had some delightfull rains these two days past. I want to escape the cage & fly to Quincy but know not when to say it will be— I am my dear sister / affectionatly Yours
Ps Louiss desires me to inquire when you expect her sister back my Letter to you are first thoughts, without correction
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters).
John Robison, Proofs of a Conspiracy
Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe, Phila., 1798, Evans, No. 34477, originally
Edinburgh, 1797. Robison (1739–1805), University of Glasgow 1756, was a scientist and
inventor, who had been elected chair of natural philosophy at the University of
Edinburgh in 1773. His most popular work, Proofs of a
Conspiracy, argued that the French Revolution was the result of agitation by
“free 58 masons, illuminati, and reading societies” (
DNB
).
AA’s letter to Rev. Jeremy Belknap, dated 24 May 1798 (MHi:Jeremy Belknap Papers), included an extract from JQA’s letter to JA of 17 Feb. (Adams Papers), in which JQA discussed the establishment of a French theophilanthropical society at Hamburg intended to incite insurrection. JQA also reported the involvement of Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, who intended to come to the United States with similar plans. In her letter to Belknap, AA suggested that he have the extract printed and also forwarded a copy of Robison’s book. For the publication of the extract, see Belknap to AA, 30 May, and note 5, below.
Dupont de Nemours (1739–1817) was a French economist who despite
publishing a republican newspaper had narrowly escaped execution during the Reign of
Terror. A member of the legislature during the coup d’état of 18 fructidor, he was
briefly imprisoned before resigning his seat and deciding to emigrate. He arrived in
the United States in Jan. 1800, ultimately settling in Delaware. His eldest son,
Victor Marie (1767–1827), served as the attaché to the first French legation to the
United States and held several subsequent diplomatic posts before becoming the consul
at Charleston, S.C., in 1796. Through his father’s influence, he was named consul
general to the United States, but JA refused to receive him. He then
returned to France before emigrating with the rest of his family (
ANB
, entry on Eleuthère Irénée du Pont;
Cambridge Modern
Hist.
, 8:515; Washington, Diaries
, 5:418;
DAB
).
Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace
, p. 46–47.
Same, p. 49.