Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
br21 1800
on fryday the 19th I returnd from mount Vernon, where at the pressing invitation of Mrs Washington I had been to pass a couple of day’s. the Shades of that solitude corresponded more with my present feelings than the company which I am obliged to See in the city of Washington— the sight of an old Friend, and the cordial reception I met With from every branch of the family, Served to sooth my Heart, wounded by a recent Grief, and penetrated with a sorrow which time may Soften, but cannot heal; I had been ill a Week or ten days, confined to my Room; before the event which I had daily 493 reason to look for, was made certain to me; tho I had strove for firmness & Submission, nature yealded, and bowed beneath the stroke.
I wished my dear sister to be able in all respects to
fulfill every Duty; and the expectation of soon taking a final adieu of this
city, prevaild with me to comply with the repeated requests of a much
respected Friend, and visit her whilst I had it, in my power I took Louissa,
and Young mr Johnson (Mr shaw upon account of public buisness could not
attend me) and crosstt the ferry to Alexandra where I past one night, and
the next day reachd Mount Vernon. in the summer it would only be a pleasent
ride, but at this season the Roads are so bad as to render it tedious— Mount
Vernon is a retired spot, beautifull as a summer residence, but not
calculated for any intercourse in winter there not being a single house or
Neighbour nearer than Alexandra which is nine miles distant. the House has
an ancient appearence and is really so. the Rooms are small & low, as
well as the Chambers— the greatest ornament about it, is a long piazza from
which You have a fine view of the River which
opens Potomac at the bottom of the Lawn. the grounds are disposed
in some taste, but they evidently Show that the owner was seldom an
inhabitant of them, and that possessing judgement, he lacked Guineys instead
of acres. it required the ready money of large funds to beautify and
cultivate the grounds so as to make them highly ornamental— it is now going
to decay; Mrs Washington with all her fortune finds it difficult to support
her family, which consists of three Hundred souls—one hundred and fifty of
them, are now to be liberated. Men with Wives & Young children who have
never Seen an acre, beyond the farm, are now about to quit it, and go adrift
into the world without house Home or Friend. Mrs Washington is distrest for
them. at her own expence, she has cloathd them all, and very many of them
are already misirable at the thought of their Lot. the aged she retains at
their request; but she is distrest for the fate of others. she feels as a
Parent & a wife. many of these who are liberated, have Married with what
are call’d the Dower-Negroes; so that, they quit all their connections. Yet
what could she do—in the state in which they were left by the General, to be
free at her death, she did not feel as tho her Life was safe in their Hands,
many of whom would be told that it was there interest to get rid of her— She
therefore was advised to sit them all free at the close of the year—1 if any person wishes to see
the banefull effects of slavery, as it creates a torpor and an indolence and
a spirit of domination—let them come and take a view of the cultivation of
this part of the United states— I 494 shall
have reason to say, that My Lot hath fallen to me in a pleasent place, and
that verily I have a goodly Heritage—tho limited & curtaild in future I
know,
I can truly and from my heart say, that the most mortifying
circumstance attendant upon My retirement from public Life is, that, my
power of doing good to my fellow creatures is curtaild and diminished, but
tho the means is wanting, the will and the wish will remain. for Myself—I
hope I have not neglected the lesson of the apostle, but that I May know how
to be abased and that without repining, for My Country—3 what is before that, God only
knows. that they were a happy and a prosperous people under a mild and
equitable Government is a truth they have experienced, but May they not be Made to experience a
sad reverse by tumults and convulsions, by Party spirit and bitter
animosity, by a total Change of all those Wise and benificial establishments
which have given us a Name and a fame amongst the Nations of the Earth— the
democratic Party are already divideing the loaves and fishes amongst
themselves, but it would require a miraculous multiplication of offices to
gratify all the hungry Cravers.—
for Myself I can most Sincerely join in the petition of Popes prayer
My Letter has lain unfinishd untill this day the 27th I have received Your Letter my Dear sister, and bless God that You have been Enabled to write to me again.5 may he in whose hands our days are mercifully be pleased to spair us to each other, mutual blessings to each other, sweeting our declining Years with the remembrance of the harmony which have ever reignd between all the Members of our families.— this Year it has pleased our heavenly Father to visit us with various Sorrows and afflictions, Yet he hath rememberd Mercy in the midst of judgement, and tho a Breach hath been made in My family—my dear sister has been spared to me, and she has not to mourn the death of a daughter who tho brought to extremity, hath been raised up—
495I have a long tedious Winter journey to encounter I dread it, but it must be encounterd. to repine would be weak to regreet it, would be folly—
My spirits you See are low— I am not very well— pray give My Love to mrs Black and thank her in My Name for all her sisterly kindness to You.
I will write You again soon I saw Mr Cranch yesterday he was well & so was his family. Mr Mason lodges with him & Major Pinckny.—6 he is to dine with me to day—
My best Love to mr Cranch. I rejoice that he has been carried through the fatigue & trouble he has had to encounter
adieu my dear sister / Your truly affectionate
RC (MHi:Adams-Cranch Family Papers); endorsed by
Richard Cranch: “Letter from Mrs / A: Adams.
Washington. / Decr. 21st. 1800—”
In his will of 9 July 1799, George Washington granted
immediate freedom to William Lee, his enslaved personal servant, and
provided for the manumission of the remaining 123 people enslaved by
him, after the death of Martha Washington. He explained the decision:
“To emancipate them during [her] life, would, tho’ earnestly wish[ed by]
me, be attended with such insu[pera]ble difficulties on account of
thei[r interm]ixture by Marriages with the [dow]er Negroes, as to excite
the most pa[in]ful sensations, if not disagreeabl[e c]onsequences.” The
will further designated funds for the continued support of any of the
former slaves who through age or infirmity might not be able to earn a
living. Martha Washington, however, moved for more immediate separation,
and they were freed on 1 Jan. 1801 (Washington, Papers, Retirement Series
, 4:480, 494; Marie Jenkins
Schwartz, Ties That Bound: Founding First Ladies
and Slaves, Chicago, 2017, p. 35).
Oliver Goldsmith, “The Hermit. A Ballad,” lines 31–32.
Philippians, 4:11–12.
Alexander Pope, “The Universal Prayer,” lines 45–48.
Cranch to AA, 7 Dec. 1800, above.
William and Nancy Greenleaf Cranch “hired a house
very near the Capitol,” where they intended to board “3 or 4 of the
members of Congress.” The boarders suggested here by AA
were Federalist members of Congress, Jonathan Mason of Massachusetts and
Thomas Pinckney of South Carolina. On 11 Jan. 1801 William Cranch
informed his mother that Mason was the only boarder then present but
that he soon expected William and Hannah Phillips Cushing and Richard
Soderström, the Swedish consul general to the United States, from all of
whom he hoped to earn $65 per week. He further reported that Dr.
Frederick May resided with the family at the rate of $6 per week
(William Cranch to Richard Cranch, 23 Nov. 1800; to Mary Smith Cranch,
11 Jan. 1801, both MHi:Christopher P. Cranch Papers; Jefferson, Papers
, 39:495).
st:Dec
r:1800
I have given an introductory letter for yourself and one for my father, to a young man by the name of Charles D Coxe; he will probably be at the federal City towards the last of this week. From himself I understand he intends making application for the 496 Consulship at the Isle of France, and his reason for applying during the present administration he avers to be, because he is a federalist & a friend to the government as hitherto administered. I know nothing to the contrary of this profession, but I have given him my opinion that the appointment he wants will not be immediately made, and farther that I believed there were competitors for the office already— This gentleman is a brother of Tench Coxe’s wife, but he is anxious to have it known that he thoroughly despises the political character of his brother in law, and wishes not to be involved in the disgrace which that fellows conduct has brought upon the name.1 I do not undertake to recommend him for the place he is about to seek, for I am too little acquainted with his character or qualifications to do it, and I have only given him letters of civility which he is not unworthy of receiving.
I thank you for the papers you sent me, containing the frivolous debates about the shorthand-writers— I had already seen their contents in our papers—2
The other debate respecting the Mausoleum excited
some indignant reflections in my bosom. I am angry that the legislature
of the Union should spend days & weeks in debating on a subject of
that nature, which cannot but revive painful thoughts in the mind of the
surviving friends & relatives of Washington, and reflect neither
honor or credit on themselves— I am in principle opposed to any thing
like a monument & or Mausoleum,
or Statue, commemorative of the life & services of that good man;
not from any wish to detract from the merit of them, but because I think
every device I have ever seen falls short of such a design— Moreover I
think, enough has already been done to perpetuate the name, by calling
the City which is to be the permanent seat of government, after him.
This was no trifling tribute, and if you measure respect by the money it
may cost, as some members of Congress seem to do, it will be found, that
few monuments of that kind, ever cost so much. I did not like the motive
which actuated Mr: Macon of N Carolina, in
the speech he made on this occasion, but I was amused with it more than
by anything uttered on the subject. Genl:
Lee, instead of his recollection of Statues erected by European noblemen
to the memory of their Mistresses, as a classic Scholar would have done
more credit to himself & more dignified his Subject, had he
remembered the remarkable instance of Demetrius Phalerous, who is said
by his eloquence & the purity of his manners to have gained such an
influence over the Athenians; that during the period in which he
exercised the 497
office of decennial Archon, 360 brazen Statues were erected to his
honor. This would have been an instance not unworthy to be cited, but
for the other, I blushed at the sight of it.3
Can you tell what plan our wise legislators are going to pursue hereafter to keep the drooping head of federalism from total depression. To whom can we look for a clue to our conduct, unless to them? I expect little concert hereafter in our national concerns, but I feel as if I had less inter[est in] the reputation of our Country than heretofore—
We are threatened here with rejoycing &
exultation upon the 4th: of March. There is
even a talk of illuminating the City. but I doubt whether any thing so
rash will be attempted—4
Riot & bloodshed would be the inevitable result of such a
measure—
I take the liberty to enclose you a paragraph which I
cut out of the Aurora a few days ago, expressly for your perusal— By it
you will see the great power & consideration of your Asiatic namesake
5
Adieu / Your’s
By Mr: Mason I sent you
some books which Dickens says you spoke for—6
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “W S
Shaw / Washington”; internal address: “W S Shaw”; endorsed: “Phila Dec
21st / T. B Adams Esq / rec 24 / Ans 8
Jan”; docketed: “1800 / Decr.” Some loss of
text where the seal was removed.
TBA’s letter to JA has not
been found. His letter to Shaw of 18 Dec. (MHi:Misc. Bound Coll.) introduced Charles
Davenport Coxe (d. ca. 1831) of Sidney, N.J. Coxe’s sister Rebecca Coxe
(d. 1806) was Tench Coxe’s second wife, the couple having married in
1782. Charles Coxe was not successful in securing a nomination by
JA; however, Thomas Jefferson appointed him U.S.
commercial agent at Dunkerque on 16 Oct. 1801, a temporary commission
that was reissued on 26 Jan. 1802 after Senate confirmation (Jefferson, Papers
, 35:65–66; Philadelphia
Aurora General Advertiser, 14 Feb.
1806;
ANB
, entry on Tench Coxe).
On 4 Dec. 1800, Samuel Harrison Smith of the
Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer
submitted a memorial to the House of Representatives requesting the use
of a desk on the floor during debates in order to compile more accurate
notes for reporting on House business. During lengthy debate Speaker
Theodore Sedgwick argued that reporters would inconvenience House
members, and he ultimately cast a tie-breaking vote to reject the
request. The National Intelligencer, 5, 10,
12 Dec., and the Philadelphia Gazette, 9,
15, 16 Dec., reported on the debates. Smith made a similar request to
the Senate in 1802 that was granted (
ANB
;
Annals of Congress
, 6th Cong., 2d
sess., p. 797–799, 806–817; Morris, Diaries
, 2:206).
On 5 Dec. 1800 a bill to erect a mausoleum in honor
of George Washington was reintroduced in the House of Representatives
after being tabled by the Senate in the previous session. Nathaniel
Macon of North Carolina opposed the plan because of the cost while Gen.
Henry Lee of Virginia spoke in favor, offering the justification
recounted by TBA. On 1 Jan. 1801 the House passed a revised
bill appropriating $200,000 to build the mausoleum, but on 3 March the
Senate again tabled the bill. In his discussion of Lee’s speech,
TBA referred to the Athenian governor Demetrius of
Phalerus (r. 317–307 B.C.). TBA also alluded to a 1791
decision by the commissioners of the capital city to name it Washington
(
Annals of Congress
, 6th Cong.,
1st sess., p. 181, 711–712; same, 6th 498
Cong., 2d sess., p. 758, 799, 801–803, 858, 874–875; Diogenes Laërtius,
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent
Philosophers, Book V, sect. 2;
Oxford Classical
Dicy.
; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series
, 8:506, 508).
Democratic-Republican leaders met in Philadelphia on
19 Dec. 1800 and voted to convene a general meeting at the State House
on 22 Dec. to discuss “arrangements for a Public Festival” following the
election of Thomas Jefferson (Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 20 Dec.).
The enclosure, which has not been found, was probably
an article from the Philadelphia Aurora General
Advertiser, 17 Dec., describing the territorial possessions of
Shah Zaman, ruler of the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan (William
Dalrymple, Return of a King: The Battle for
Afghanistan, 1839–42, London, 2013, p. xiv).
The postscript was written upside down on the fourth manuscript page. The books ordered from Asbury Dickins were likely carried by Jonathan Mason, en route from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C.