Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
br10 1800
I arrived in this city last Evening & came to the old House, now occupied by Francis as an Hotel.1 tho the furniture and arrangment of the House is changed I feel more at home here than I should any where Else in the city, and when sitting with my son & other friends who call to see me, I can scarcly persuade myself, that tomorrow I Must quit it, for an unknown & an unseen abode— My Journey has hitherto been as Propitious as I could have expected at this season. hearing by Louissa & from my Worthy Brother Cranch that You & Yours were regaining Your Strength, & gradually advancing I hope to Health, has given a new spring to My spirits; and I shall go on My Way rejoicing Mercy & judgment are the mingled cup allotted me. Shall I receive good and not evil. at N york I found my poor unhappy Son, for so I Must still call him, laid upon a Bed of sickness destitute of a home, the kindness of a friend afforded him an assylum. a distressing cough, an affection of the liver and a Dropsy will soon terminate a Life, which might have been Ma[de] valuable to himself and others. you will easily suppose that this Scene was too powerfull and distressing to me: Sally was with him but his Physician Says, he is past recovery— I shall carry a Melancholy report to the President, who passing through new york without Stoping knew not his situation—
I shall not say any thing to You upon political
subjects, no not upon the little Gen’ll
Letter but reserve it for a future Letter when I arrive at Washington
and you have more health to laugh at the folly, and pitty the Weakness
Vanity and ambitious views of, as very a sparrow as sterns commented
upon, in his Sentimental journey, or More describes in his fables—2
with My best wishes for your perfect restoration to Health and that of your Family, I am My ever / dear sister your affectionate
thank Mr Cranch for his kind Letters & Mrs Black for her sisterly attention—3 heaven reward her, May She never know the want of a Friend
RC (MWA:Abigail Adams Letters); addressed: “Mrs
Mary Cranch / Quincy”; endorsed by Richard Cranch: “Letter from Mrs / A Adams from / Washington Novr 10. / 1800.” Some loss of text due to wear
at the edge.
After the Adamses’ departure from Philadelphia,
innkeeper John Francis leased the President’s House and opened it as the
Union Hotel (Thompson Westcott, The Historic
Mansions and Buildings of Philadelphia, Phila., 1895, p.
271).
On 24 Oct., New York City newspaper editor John Lang
published the 54-page pamphlet Letter from
Alexander Hamilton, Concerning the Public Conduct and Character of
John Adams, Esq. President of the United States, N.Y., 1800,
Evans, No.
37566. Hamilton criticized JA’s administration as “a
heterogeneous compound of right and wrong, of wisdom and error” (p. 20)
and used as an unauthorized source James McHenry’s 31 May transcript of
his conversation with JA at the time of his resignation.
Federalists were upset by the pamphlet, believing it undermined their
chances of victory in the presidential election and laid bare the
party’s internal factions, while Democratic-Republicans were elated. In
a 1 Nov. letter to Thomas Jefferson, Bishop James Madison described the
pamphlet as a “Thunderbolt” and predicted that “Republicanism is likely
to be completely triumphant.” Though
JA drafted an undated 90-page reply to the pamphlet
(Adams Papers,
filmed at [1800–1801]), he did not publicly
respond until he used the Dft as the basis for a response
in the Boston Patriot, 7 June 1809, in
which he wrote that Hamilton’s pamphlet came “from his mere imagination,
from confused rumors, or downright false information.”
Zealous sparrows are featured in both Laurence
Sterne, A Sentimental Journey through France and
Italy. By Mr. Yorick, 2 vols., London, 1768, 2:55–56, and
Edward Moore, Fable XIV, “The Sparrow, and the Dove,” in Fables for the Female Sex, London, 1744
(Hamilton, Papers
, 25:169–185; Karen E.
Robbins, James McHenry, Forgotten
Federalist, Athens, Ga., 2013, p. 252, 306–307; Jefferson, Papers
, 32:239). For Hamilton’s
earlier electioneering activities, see
AA to AA2, 4
May 1800, and note 2, above.
No letter from Richard Cranch to AA besides that of 31 Oct., above, has been found.
r:10
th:1800.
I have the great Happiness of informing you that Mrs. Cranch remains better. Her Boyls, with
which she was much troubled, are broke and have discharg’d matter that I
hope will be salutary. She received your most kind and affectionate
Letter from New Haven of the 2d Instt:
1 We are glad to hear you
got so far safe, and hope our great Preserver will be with you still,
and keep you from every Danger and Accident, and preserve your Life and
Health as a Blessing to us and the World. As to the rest of our Family,
we are all getting better 436
except Ruthy, who has a relaps and is very sick, but I hope a little
better than she was two or three Days past. The young Woman that we
hired in her place, is taken sick, and went home on Saturday last. I
fear she has the Fever. Mrs. Miller, the
Major’s Lady, is Dead. She died of this Fever last friday Morng. and is to be buried tomorrows.2 Your dear Sister Peabody
returns from Boston this Day. she has not been here, as it was thought
to be unsafe on acct. of the prevailing
Sickness among us for her to come to Quincy. Your amiable and manly
Grand Son William, came from Atkinson to Boston alone on last Saturday
to wait upon his Aunt back to Atkinson. I was surprised at his venturing
so far alone; he left his Bror: and Uncle
Peabody & Family well. I wrote to the Honble: Mr. Nathan Read requesting
his interest in favour of my Son, who wishes to procure the Office of
Clerk of the House of Representatives in Congress, and received from him
the inclosed very friendly and polite Letter, which I wish you to give
to my Son when you have read it.3
The News of our Envoys having signed a Treaty of
Friendship a Commerce with France, you will doubtless see in the Publick
Papers before this comes to hand. It was signed at Paris on the Night
between the last of Sepr. and the first of
October.4 Mrs. Norton continues to gain Strength, and
sits up twice a Day for a little while. Mr.
Boylston Adams is got so well as to have taken a Ride to Bridgwater last
Week, and was out to Meeting on Sunday. We think the Prospect Brightens
with regard to the reelection of our honoured and dear Friend. Our
Genl: Court meets tomorrow on that
interesting Business.5 If
the Treaty with France should be agreeable to the Americans at large, I
think it will have a happy influence in favour of him whose Wisdom
plan’d the Measure. I wrote you on the 3d
Instt: inclosing a few lines to you from
my dear Mrs. Cranch, being the first and
utmost effort of her trembling hand. I sent it under Cover to your Son
T: B Adams Esqr., and hope you have received
it, as I know it will give you pleasure.6
Please to give our Parental Regards to our dear Children at Washington and Love to your Son T:B.A. I am, my dear Sister, with unfeigned thankfulness for your kindness to us in our Sickness, your ever affectionate & obliged Brother
Please to present my best Wishes for the
Health of my Hond: & dear Brother the
President.
RC (Adams Papers).
AA’s letter to Mary Smith Cranch of 2
Nov, voiced her anguish at leaving Quincy during Cranch’s illness and
apologized for not visiting before she left (AA, New
Letters
, p. 254).
Elizabeth Hamock Miller, the wife of Maj. Ebenezer
Miller, died on 8 Nov. (vol. 10:357–358; Boston
Gazette, 10 Nov.).
In a letter of 6 Oct. to Richard Cranch, William
Cranch noted that he had written to his former tutor, Nathan Read,
requesting his assistance in securing the clerkship of the House of
Representatives, a position then held by Jonathan W. Condy; on 29 Oct.
Richard Cranch wrote to Read on the same subject (both MHi:Christopher P. Cranch
Papers). Condy resigned on 4 Dec. because of ill health and was
succeeded by John Holt Oswald on 9 Dec. (vol. 7:92–93; U.S. House, Jour.
, 6th Cong., 2d sess., p.
736).
Franco-American diplomatic negotiations took place
between April and September, culminating in the Convention of 1800.
Negotiations were slowed by contention over the Jay Treaty and the 7
July 1798 act voiding all prior treaties between the United States and
France. Officially dated 30 Sept. 1800 but signed on 1 and 3 Oct., the
convention contained 27 articles that reaffirmed the “inviolable, and
universal peace, and a true and sincere Friendship between the French
Republic, and the United States of America” and addressed the recovery
of debts and restoring of ships, preferential commercial relations, and
privateering and piracy. The news was first published in the Boston
press in the Massachusetts Mercury, 7 Nov.,
a day after a special edition of the Philadelphia Gazette, 6 Nov., announced the arrival of news of
the signing and reprinted a newspaper report from Paris proclaiming that
“a strict and durable friendship is about to reanimate the mutual
commerce of the two nations.” Reaction in newspapers of both parties was
generally positive, with the Philadelphia Aurora
General Advertiser, 11 Nov., offering muted support: “No
possible advantage could have been derived from the consideration of
perpetuating the difficulties which had embarrassed and deranged the
national peace of France and America.” JA made his first
public comment in his address to Congress on 22 Nov., noting that the
U.S. envoys were received “with the respect due to their character” and
that while official confirmation had not arrived, “it is to be hoped
that our efforts to effect an accomodation will at length meet with a
success proportioned to the sincerity with which they have been so often
repeated.” The convention arrived in Washington, D.C., on 11 Dec. (vol.
13:165; Elkins and McKitrick,
Age of Federalism
, p.
682–687; Jefferson,
Papers
, 32:159–160;
Annals of Congress
, 6th Cong., 2d
sess., p. 724; Miller, Treaties
, 2:457–487).
For the ratification of the convention, see
AA to Cotton Tufts, 15
Dec., and note 2, below.
On 11 Nov. the Mass. General Court convened to
appoint electors for the presidential election of 1800. Sixteen men were
chosen, all of whom later voted for JA and Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney (Boston Columbian
Centinel, 12, 15 Nov.; A New Nation Votes).
The letter from Mary Smith Cranch was dated 7 Nov., above; for Richard Cranch’s cover letter, see note 2 to that letter.