Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
I have received within these few days your letters of the 17th: and 29th: of March, together
with the books and pamphlets mentioned in the former.1 The last was forwarded to me from England by
Mr: King, and at the same time one from the Secretary of
State of the 10th: ulto:—2 I had long been without letters, and they
have now been pouring in by floods at once. I have written to you and elsewhere so often
by the way of Hamburg, Holland and England, that I think some of the Letters must have
arrived ere this
Mr: King to whom I am very much
indebted for the kindness with which he constantly forwards to me the most recent
intelligence From home, has sent me a pamphlet, republished in England from the
communications made to congress on the 3d: of April.—3 It is equally surprizing to me, as to you,
that our Envoys continued at Paris so long, after the transactions unfolded in their
dispatches, and it redoubles the mortification which I felt upon hearing, that one of
them consented to remain alone, after all the indignities to which they had been exposed
and had submitted, were crowned by an order commanding two of them to quit the Republic—
I rejoice to find that they have been formally recalled because I believe firmly, that
the one left could have done by remaining any longer, nothing but mischief.— I know not
how the Directory will conduct upon the publication of the dispatches in France;
probably they will exhibit a complication of perfidy and violence, attempting to cast
upon the American Government, and especially the President by name, the blame of the
rupture. Their newspapers, before the arrival of the last accounts announced, that
Messrs: Pinckney & Marshall, had shewn surliness, and an affectation of dignity in their
proceedings; appeared ignorant of the circumstances of the
Government, with which hey were sent to treat, and had upon rejecting the proposals made
o them by the Directory, received Passports to return home: while 69 Mr: Gerry, who was more
accommodating, remained to continue the negotiation.4
There has been lately published in England some intercepted
Letters, written by one Stone and Helen M. Williams at Paris, to Doctor Priestley and B.
Vaughan in America; I dare say you will see the pamphlet before this letter reaches you.
It is interesting on many accounts, and among other things you will find the writer
telling his friend that the Directory will hear of no reconciliation with America in John Adams’s time.— He urgently invites the Doctor back to
Europe, and I most heartily wish he may accept the invitation— If such are his intimate
correspondents, he is indeed misplaced in his present situation.— There is another fact
disclosed in these Letters which contributes to discover the real state of the french
Government.— The writer says that François de Neufchateau
was to go out of the Directory at the next election— The Letters were written in
February.— It is but a fortnight, since they met with great solemnity and drew their
lots with numerous precautions tending to shew their extreme caution to preserve the
constitutional decision of chance.— The member that went out was—François de Neufchateau.— The very same circumstance took place last year, when
it was announced several days before the lots were drawn, that Letourneur would go out,
as he accordingly did.— Such is the french constitutional rotation by lot.5
The elections for the Legislative Councils have been managed with a similar attention to representative principles.— They began by decreeing, two or three months ago, that the validity of the elections should be decided by themselves; that is, as if our present Congress should declare themselves the judges of the elections for the next.— They decreed likewise that the new Director should be appointed before the renewal of the Legislature.— In many of the primary assemblies, and electoral assemblies seissions occurred, and two setts of members were returned; among the rest in the Department of Paris. The Legislature acting constantly under the controul of the Directory have now passed a Law whereby they have declared null and void the elections of many departments; in several other instances have admitted the members chosen by the partial fragments of electoral assemblies, and in others have confirmed the elections but with individual exceptions, excluding persons by name, without giving any reason for so doing. In cases of seission where the choices were double, they paid little attention, where the majority of votes rested, but often received the choice of the minority, and rejected 70 that of the majority.— In the department of the Seine (Paris) the choice of more than two thirds of the electors was excluded; that of less than one third admitted.— This is representative democracy.6
The preparations and menaces against Great-Britain are still continued, and she on her part has taken every possible precaution to defend herself. The expedition is apparently to commence from Toulon where a large embarkation has taken place, the destination of which is kept secret, and concerning which the conjectures have been numerous. That, most prevalent is, the junction with the Spanish fleet at Cadix, and of both with the fleet preparing at Brest. The french papers announce, that the object is a point where England is altogether unprepared, and where all her defensive means will be unavailing.7
One 74 gun ship has lately been taken after a very obstinate action, and one has been burnt in the port of l’Orient— An attack has been made upon the little isles of Marcouf, only five miles from the french Coast, by fifty gun-boats, which were repulsed with a loss differently stated by the two parties.8
The little Republic of Geneva has been swallowed up at once by the
great Nation— The Swiss Cantons after a bloody contest, which their want of union alone
rendered fruitless have all submitted to the Constitution one and indivisible imposed on
them.— The Cisalpine Republic remains in what they call the statu quo: that is, the french generals under the orders of the Directory,
appoint all the members of its Government, Legislative and Executive, and displace them
at their pleasure— Two instruments called Treaties, the one of alliance offensive and
defensive, the other of Commerce, were prepared at Paris, and sent for ratification to
Milan.— Such was their character, that even the men who held their authority as rulers
of the Cisalpine Republic, under the appointment of Buonaparte, would not ratify them.—
The french Directory then declared that the ratification of these Treaties was a
preliminary without which the Cisalpines were to be considered, not as an Independent
Nation, but as a conquest, and General Brune, commanded and received the resignation of
two Cisalpine Directors, and appointed in their stead, two others more accommodating, or as he describes them himself “excellent subjects.”9
The proceedings in the Batavian Republic, are nearly of a similar
nature— Citizen Stone tells Doctor Priestley, that the Batavian Government has all along
shewn a most ill-timed spirit of Independence, and it is
certain that if they have ever shewn any spirit of 71 Independence since May 1795, it has been ill-timed,
because it could not be supported.— However on the 22d: of
January last the refractory party were turned out of
office, and the National Assembly purged of all its independent Spirits, reduced to half
its numbers, and as obsequious and submissive as the excellent Cisalpine subjects.— A
constitution was rapidly prepared, and presented to the adoption of that part of the
People, which approved the present order of things—and especially to the army and navy,
consisting almost entirely of foreigners. This constitution was adopted by a great
majority of the voters, and on the 4th: of this month the
assembly as it then remained, changed itself into a legislative Assembly under the
Constitution, and divided into two branches.— This has given some dissatisfaction to the
People, but it was avowedly done by the french Minister there, Charles Delacroix, who is
soon to quit that station, having been newly elected a member of the Council of
Elders.10
The new french Director is Treilhard, and a Paris newspaper, published by Poultier, hitherto a member of the Legislature, says that he will prevail upon his colleagues to reform, that monstrous corruption and venality, which prevail in every department of the administration, which is of public notoriety and well known to Treilhard, though the other Directors are not acquainted of it.11
I have here written you a long letter upon politics, which perhaps
would have been much more acceptable if it had given you a detail of our domestic
affairs, and mode of life here— You have already been informed how we passed the winter—
Since the approach of the fine Season, and especially after the king’s departure this
place is very much deserted, and we are left with as little society as we could wish.—
The residence of all large towns in the Summer is unpleasant, and this is attended with
more than usual inconveniences; but I cannot leave it.— We are all well. I endeavour to
persuade my wife to write you, and hope she will before long.— I am out of all Patience with my brother Charles, from whom
I have had not one line for near a twelve month, not one upon my business for nearly
two years.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs: A.
Adams.”; endorsed: “JQA May 30 1798”; notation by TBA: “No 37 / 36 May 4.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 133. Tr (Adams Papers).
For AA’s letter to JQA of 17 March and the books she sent, see vol. 12:448–451; for a summary of her letter of 29 March, see same, 12:482.
In his letter to JQA of 10 April, Timothy Pickering enclosed a newspaper containing the XYZ dispatches and described the resulting change in public opinion. He reported sweeping Federalist victories in the recent Massachusetts elections and said the Senate 72 had passed several defensive measures (Adams Papers).
Rufus King reported to JQA in a letter of 18 May the arrival of family letters for JQA carried by Edward Thornton and said he would send by private opportunities Pickering’s dispatch and a copy of the XYZ dispatches and instructions that had been recently published in London (Adams Papers).
The Paris Gazette nationale ou le
moniteur universel, 8 May, reported that John Marshall and Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney had opposed the French government’s propositions and received passports to
return to the United States. It claimed that Elbridge Gerry, however, had power to act
separately and would remain and continue the negotiation.
Several letters by John Hurford Stone and Helen Maria Williams to
Dr. Joseph Priestley and Benjamin Vaughan, for whom see vol. 7:156, were intercepted when the Danish ship
Christiana, which carried the letters, was captured by
the British frigate Diamond. The letters were then
published in a pamphlet, Copies of Original Letters Recently
Written by Persons in Paris to Dr. Priestley in America, London, 1798. Stone
(1763–1818), a radical and printer, and Williams (1759–1827), an author, were both
ardent supporters of the French Revolution and had been traveling together in
Switzerland and France. Their letters praised the progress of the French Revolution
and the extension of French control in Europe and reflected positively on the rumored
French invasion of England. In one letter, Stone reported that Nicolas François de
Neufchâteau (1750–1828) would be the next French director to be replaced even though
the letter preceded the selection of the next director (
DNB
; Copies of Original Letters, p. v, 32; Hoefer, Nouv.
biog. générale
).
Under the Directory, second-degree electors, chosen by assemblies
in the cantons, elected representatives to the French legislature. In an attempt to
manipulate results to favor the Directory, the French government inserted itself into
the elections of 1798 to an unprecedented degree and encouraged the use of electoral
schism, whereby segments of the primary assembly would withdraw in protest when the
results did not favor their position and claim that the result had been fixed. The
effort failed, however, as Jacobin candidates were elected over government candidates.
The Directory, using the number of schisms in the electoral colleges as a pretext,
nullified the results in the coup of 11 May (An. VI, 22 floréal), removing
unsatisfactory deputies and endorsing the selection of electoral minorities (Malcolm
Crook, Elections in the French Revolution: An Apprenticeship
in Democracy, 1789–1799, Cambridge, Eng., 1996, p. 146–150, 153, 158–159,
186–187).
JQA possibly read of the French fleet at Toulon in
the Paris Gazette nationale ou le moniteur universel, 8
and 17 May, which referenced the Mediterranean fleet that had embarked under Napoleon
for Egypt on 19 May, for which see JQA to AA, 11 June, and note 7, below.
On 21 April the British ship of the line Mars, Capt. Alexander Hood, pursued the newly launched 74-gun French frigate
L’Hercule, Capt. Louis l’Héritier, off the coast of
Brest. After a brief, close-range battle, the Mars
captured L’Hercule and the frigate was taken to England,
where after repairs it entered into British service. Prior to the launch of L’Hercule from Lorient, another 74-gun French frigate, Quatorze Juillet, had been burned in port. On 7 May a
French flotilla of over fifty vessels attacked the British-held Îles Saint Marcouf off
the coast of Normandy. Weak winds prevented the nearby British vessels from assisting,
but after a battle of a few hours the British garrison held and the French were forced
to retreat, having suffered heavy losses. While the Paris press reported that the
French had lost only four men and one vessel, in London it was reported that the
French had lost at least six vessels and hundreds of men (London Gazette, 24–28 April, 8–12 May; Paris Gazette
nationale ou le moniteur universel, 8, 12, 14 May; William James, The Naval History of Great Britain, From the Declaration of War
by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV, 6 vols., London, 1837,
2:107–110, 113–116).
For the conquest of Switzerland and the proclamation of the
Helvetic Republic, see vol. 12:348. Gen. Guillaume Marie Anne Brune (1763–1815) had risen through the
ranks during the French revolutionary wars and served as brigadier general under
Napoleon in Italy. In late April the Paris press reported that a letter from Milan
declared that two of the Cisalpine directors, Giovanni Paradisi and Pietro Moscati,
did not have the confidence of the people and would resign to be replaced by
“très-bons citoyens” (Hoefer, Nouv. biog. générale
; Paris Gazette nationale
73
ou le moniteur universel, 25 April).
Copies of Original Letters, p. 22.
For Charles Delacroix de Constant and his assistance in creating a new constitution
for the Batavian Republic, see vol. 12:505–506.
Jean Baptiste Treilhard (1742–1810) had been actively involved in
the French Revolution since the beginning, serving in a number of positions. He was
elected to the Directory on 15 May and served until 16 June 1799 when he was dismissed
because of an irregularity in his election. François Martin Poultier d’Elmotte
(1753–1826) was a French politician and soldier and in the mid-1790s began a journal
in Paris, L’Ami des lois, ou Mémorial politique et
littéraire, which he maintained until 1800 (Hoefer, Nouv. biog.
générale
).
Yesterday morning I had the honour of writing to the President
& enclosing my fast Sermon.1 At
noon, I had the very great pleasure of voting for him as President of the Academy to
which office he was re-elected unanimously;2 & before night I received your very
obliging favour of the 24th with the Books & the
extract, for which I return you my cordial thanks.3 As I had not seen Robinsons work (tho’ Dr morse had promised to lend it to me) I suppose I am at
liberty to consider it as my own; tho’ I will lend it to Mr Cranch. I hear there is a proposal of reprinting it here.4 The extract is copied & sent to John
Russell to be published in his Commercial Gazette tomorrow. I have titled it “Extract
of a letter from a Gentn of good information in Europe”
Russell knows tht it came from me & that I have a Correspondent at Hamburgh, which
is enough to satisfy him & any person who may make inquiry of him.5 Pray, Madam, is the Dupont mentioned in the Extract the same person who is sent to succeed
L’Etombe as Consul Genl? and is he or will he be received
in that Character?
The Confidence which you repose in me, & your kind wishes for my health & usefulness require my warmest gratitude. It is every one’s duty at this critical time to say & do all in his power to serve his Country in its religious & political Interests & I hope I shall not be backward to perform mine. Should there be any services in the Cause of truth, virtue, genuine liberty & the public safety which you or the man you love best can recommend to me I shall be very happy to receive your commands.
Notwithstanding the dark & threatning aspect of the political
hemisphere yet I do not think it equal to what we passed through in 1774 & 1775.
Under the present Executive Administration of our federal Government, I enjoy as much
tranquillity of mind as Eneas did when navigating the Streight between Sicily &
Italy under the 74 conduct of Palinurus, whilst Scylla &
Charybdis foamed & roared on either side & Etna thundred over his head.6 I pray most sincerely for the
preservation of the life, health & vigour of our
Palinurus & hope he will not think of a retreat till like our Friend Washington,
he shall have the prospect of a Successor to whom the helm may be safely committed.
Let his heart be fixed & his confidence be placed in that guardian power which
“rides in the Whirlwind & directs the Storm.”7 I think nothing would be a more proper subject
of contemplation & consolation for him that the Text of John Cotton’s Election
sermon in 1633. You may find it in the book of Haggai ch. ii. ver. 4.8
After our last Commencement I sent Governor Wentworth one of our College Catalogues & mentioned to him the pleasure it gave me to see the names of 2 Gentlemen so dear to me printed in Capitals in the Class of 1755. at the same time I repeated some expressions of affectionate regard toward him which I had heard from the President a little while before. I added respecting the latter that “I felt myself very happy in his advancement to the chief Magistracy of the Union, because I believed there was more political sagacity in his head than in all the crowned heads of Europe.” His answer, which was not designed for any eye but mine, I take the liberty of sending for your perusal together with two specimens of Nova Scotia Poetry, which may afford you some amusement.9
I am, Madam, with great respect, your friend / & humble
servt
I hear that Mrs Black is immoderately
fond of her baby!
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs Ab.
Adams.”; endorsed: “Dr Belknap.”
In his letter of 29 May Belknap informed JA that
Elbridge Gerry and Timothy Pickering would receive honorary degrees from Harvard
College at the next commencement (MHi:Jeremy Belknap Papers). He also enclosed a copy of his fast day sermon, in
the preface of which he defended JA’s proclamation, stating that it was
“not to be considered as an act of legislative or executive authority; because no
power is delegated, by the Constitution, to any person to direct us in matters of
religion,” but rather it was “a letter of advice, or a friendly call, from a man, whom
the people have placed at their head” (A Sermon, Delivered on
the 9th of May, 1798, the Day of the National Fast, Recommended by the President of
the United States, Boston, 1798, p. v, Evans, No. 33394). For the controversy surrounding
the fast day, see vol. 12:xiv–xv.
JA was reelected president of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences at a 29 May meeting held in the rooms of the Boston Library
Society on Franklin Place (Boston Columbian Centinel, 26
May, 20 June).
For AA’s letter to Belknap of 24 May, see AA to Mary Smith Cranch, 26 May, and note 2, above.
The Philadelphia edition of John Robison, Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All the Religions and Governments of Europe,
sent by AA to Belknap is presumably the copy in JA’s library
at MB signed “Jeremy Belknap, 1798,
from Mrs. A. Adams.” An advertisement 75 by Thomas &
Andrews for a proposed Boston subscription printing of the work appeared in the Boston
Columbian Centinel, 30 May, but it does not appear to
have gone to press. Manning & Loring later printed William Bentley, Extracts from Professor Robison’s “Proofs of a Conspiracy,”
Boston, 1799, Evans, No.
35181 (
Catalogue of JA’s Library
).
The extract from JQA’s 17 Feb. letter to
JA was printed in the Boston
Price-Current, 31 May. The newspaper’s editor was John Russell (b. 1761), a
brother of Boston printer Benjamin Russell (Oliver Ayer Roberts, History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts Now Called
The Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, 4 vols., Boston,
1895–1901, 2:281).
Virgil, Aeneid, Book III, lines
548–587.
Joseph Addison, “The Campaign, a Poem to His Grace the Duke of Marlborough,” line 292.
In Sept. 1634 a divided Mass. General Court was debating whether
to allow a group headed by Rev. Thomas Hooker to remove to Connecticut. Divisions
within the legislature were said to melt away after a sermon by Rev. John Cotton on
Haggai, 2:4: “Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and be strong, O
Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land,
saith the Lord, and work: for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts” (A. W. M’Clure,
The Life of John Cotton, Boston, 1846, p. 227–229).
JA’s Harvard classmate John Wentworth had been
appointed governor of Nova Scotia in 1792. In his reply to the letter Belknap
mentioned sending, Wentworth wrote about JA, “I rejoice in and am proud
of the affectionate remembrance of my old Friend … ‘I always loved John Adams,’ our
Youth was spent in confidence and intimacy, which discovered to me so many virtues;
and such pre-eminent abilitys, that they created an esteem which has not since been
estranged, and still affords me many hours of comforting reflection.” Wentworth agreed
that JA’s political wisdom “may exceed the endowments of those whom you
designate— The most of them I really believe it does,” to which Belknap added a note,
“meaning the crowned heads of Europe.” The poems enclosed by Wentworth have not been
found, but he described them as “some lines composed No.
1—by a Lady upwards of 70 years old—the other by a Lady of 25—both of them Natives of
this Province, and I believe never beyond New-Brunswic at farthest” (vol. 3:134;
Sibley’s Harvard
Graduates
, 13:650–681; Wentworth to Belknap, 15 Sept. 1797, MHi:Jeremy Belknap Papers).