Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
a:
d:august [
1800]
I have paid you all I owed in the article of letters, but I receive few communications from home. Please to tell my mother that I like to know, now & then, a little of the Cabinet secrets.
The Report that the negociation with France is broken
off, creates considerable sensation here & at New York— I think few
people actually believe the story, but it serves the turn of newspaper
Scriblers to abuse the Mission or the President— The Gazette of the U.S.
which is now in a great measure Edited by Mr:
Dennie, has, I think, spoken a different language with respect to this news
of Our Envoys, from that which it employed before the change—1 Tell me, if “Plutarch,” in the
Gazette of last night meet with approbation, & then I will tell you who
wrote it.2
You may see how the Aurora of this morning, speaks of the legal adjudication on the question whether America & France are at War or at peace—3 This decision of the Supreme Court is a very dreadful thing to the Jacobins— They talk, you see, of impeaching the Judges for violating the Constitution—
Duane says “the Report,” is likely to be a forgery—but if
accurate, then highly momentous for three
reasons—
I have no need to tell you, I presume that I was the Reporter, and can vouch for the correctness of the Statement.
I perceive by extracts from “the Centinel” how “Mister
Major Big Ben of Boston” goes on. He is one of the most Stupid fellows on
the Continent— A political Whirligig, moving
& twisting, turning & shifting with every pull of the string. Even
the Commercial Gazette is false at times—but how can it be otherwise when no
one man thinks in politics just like an other, nor like himself for a week
together, & every body will write.
4
I enclose you a letter from T W—5
I must have the Aurora back again, or my file will be broken— You say nothing of my Books—there are several Philadelphia Gentlemen to whom you might entrust that which I want most, if you have found it.
Give my love to all / & believe me / Your’s
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “W. S.
Shaw / Quincy”; internal address: “W S Shaw”; endorsement: “T B Adams /
Rec 28 Aug / Ansd 4th Sept”; docketed: “1802? / 1801.”
Reports surfaced in New York and Philadelphia in
August that Franco-American negotiations had stalled in June and that
France was to blame. The Gazette of the United
States, editorial control of which had been assumed by Joseph
Dennie Jr. in May, similarly reported the delay on 19 Aug. but offered a
correction on 21 and 22 Aug., denying a breach with France and claiming
that the negotiations “wear a very satisfactory appearance.” A delay in
the negotiations did occur from 17 May to 11 July owing to a need to
consult Napoleon, who was with the French Army in Italy (New York Mercantile Advertiser, 19 Aug.; New-York Gazette, 20 Aug.; Philadelphia Gazette, 19, 20 Aug.; Harold
Milton Ellis, “Joseph Dennie and His Circle: A Study in American
Literature from 1792 to 1812,” Studies in
English, 3:130 [15 July 1915];
Amer. State
Papers, Foreign Relations, 2:325, 327–328).
TBA wrote an essay under the pseudonym
Plutarch that appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 21 August. The piece was a
response to comments in the Philadelphia Aurora
General Advertiser, 20 Aug., which blamed the reported breach
with France on “anglo-federalists” and
called it “indispensibly necessary to place Mr. Jefferson in the chair,
because his desire for an universal peace is well known.”
TBA argued that “the jacobins democratic-republicans”
in the United States were working with emissaries in France to stifle
the talks and mobilize opposition to JA’s administration in
advance of the presidential election of 1800.
The Aurora General
Advertiser, 22 Aug., commented on the 15 Aug. U.S. Supreme
Court decision in Baas v. Tingey, which
implied that the United States and France were in a state of war. The
Aurora reprinted a report on the case
from the Philadelphia Gazette of the United
States, 20 Aug., and claimed that the Gazette’s article was possibly a fabrication, but if not that
it was “most important and momentous to this country,” for three
reasons: the justices violated the U.S. Constitution by preempting
congressional power to declare war, the ruling could adversely affect
Franco-American negotiations, and reparation claims of U.S. merchants
would be weakened by the decision.
The Philadelphia Gazette of
the United States, 21 Aug., extracted an article from the
Boston Columbian Centinel, 16 Aug., which
proposed the creation of three tickets for the presidential election,
one pairing JA and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a second
joining JA and any other candidate, and a third offering
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.
Not found.
d1800.
I received last night your favor of the 18th. I thank you for your account of the
proceedings of the Supreme court.— I really believe you are right & that
I was erroneous, in what we have said about the influence of politicks at
the bar in Pensylvania. Indeed any where affected politicks do a man no
good. I did not mean to prejudice you against your Quakers friends, who I
doubt not are sincerely so.
I have read your friend Horatius. But I confess to you it is an amazing mortification to me, to see my administration defended by the approbation of Washington. If I am not, I certainly ought to be a greater authority than Washington But popularity is as unjust a tyrant as Despotism. If my administration cannot be defended by the intrinsic merit of my measures & by my own authority, may it be damned. Burn this
LbC in William Smith Shaw’s hand (Adams Papers); APM Reel 120.