Papers of John Adams, volume 19
ante 2 April 1787
I am very much mortified to loose the Pleasure and Advantage of an Excursion to Windsor, to see Mr Herschell2 in Such Company: but the State of my Family is such that I cannot justify leaving it.— Mrs Smith is in Travel and the Anxiety occasioned by this Event has made Mrs Adams so much worse, that I should be very bad Company at Windsor, and what is more decisive, it becomes my Duty to stay at home.3 You will therefore be so good as to make my best Respects
31
to Dr Priestly and Compliments to Mr Wilkinsen,4 and to excuse the Trouble given you, by Dear sir your Friend & humble / servant
RC (PPAmP:Benjamin Vaughan Papers); addressed: “Benjamin Vaughan Esq. / Jeffries’s Court.”; internal address: “Benjamin Vaughan Esqr”; endorsed: “Adams.”
London merchant Benjamin Vaughan, who arranged an array of cultural visits and tours for the Adamses during their time in London, last wrote to JA on 21 March (Adams Papers). Vaughan asked JA to edit an unidentified friend’s pamphlet describing the Corporation Act (1661) and Test Act (1673), which barred all but practicing Anglicans from holding civil, military, and political offices. While there is no record of JA’s assessment of it, Vaughan took up the theme, writing A Collection of Testimonies in Favor of Religious Liberty, in the Case of the Dissenters, Catholics, and Jews. By a Christian Politician, London, 1790.
Hanoverian William Herschel (1738–1822), who discovered the planet Uranus six years earlier, had served unofficially as royal astronomer since 1782. Herschel set up his telescopes at Windsor Castle, the summer home of King George III (
DNB
).
In his 6 April 1787 reply to JA (Adams Papers), Vaughan advised visiting the Windsor observatory during the first quarter of the moon’s phase. JA had toured the grounds in July 1786, yet he made no mention of a return trip. Later, JA wrote of his “amazement” when “contemplating the heavens through the telescopes of Herschell” (
AFC
, 7:268–270; JA, Defence of the Const.
, 3:504).
JA was reluctant to leave AA, who was ailing from rheumatism, and AA2, who was in labor (travail). JA’s first grandchild, William Steuben Smith, was born on 2 April 1787 (
AFC
, 8:6, 12).
John Wilkinson (1728–1808), of Clifton, England, was an ironmaster and industrialist who manufactured blast furnaces, cylinders, and cannon. Wilkinson supplied the steam-engine cylinders for Matthew Boulton and James Watt’s Albion Mill, which JA and Thomas Jefferson toured in April 1786 (vol. 18:250;
DNB
).
r.Sir
d.April 1787
Since my last to you of 25th. February I have not been favored with any Letters from you.—1
Congress have made some Progress in my Report on your Letter of 4th. March 1786 and the Papers that accompanied it—2 they lately passed the Resolutions of which you will find a Copy herewith enclosed.3 Having been ever since and still being too much indisposed to prepare Instructions for you on these Subjects in Time for their being reported and agreed to by Congress and transmitted by this Opportunity, I send this Copy merely for your Information— perhaps it might be well to communicate it informally to the Minister. I think it would have a good Effect, and tend to abate the Irritation which long Delays & Silence may have occasioned.—
The Morocco Treaty has not yet arrived; and we are still in Suspence about the Fate of the one with Portugal.
32What Good will result from the Convention to be convened in pursuance of the Resolution of which I also enclose a Copy is uncertain.4 Something is very necessary to be done; for our Difficulties encrease Day by Day. I am too unwell to write much at this Time, nor do I expect to recover a tolerable Degree of Health until the Season admits of my taking Exercise. Although exceedingly temperate my Digestion is bad, and a lingering Fever hangs about me.5
I am Dear Sir / Your affe. friend & Servt
RC and enclosures (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Honorable / John Adams Esqr.”
Probably an inadvertence, since Jay’s last extant letter to JA was of 21 Feb., above.
With his 4 March 1786 letter, JA enclosed copies of his [30 Nov. 1785] memorial to the Marquis of Carmarthen, requesting that the British evacuate American frontier posts, as well as Carmarthen’s 28 Feb. 1786 reply and enclosures, which outlined the state laws, proclamations, and acts preventing British creditors from collecting prewar debts. In his 13 Oct. report to Congress, Jay included copies of JA’s memorial, along with Carmarthen’s reply and enclosures. Jay acknowledged that Carmarthen was correct that state governments had violated Arts. 4 and 6 of the Anglo-American peace treaty (vol. 18:190–192).
Jay enclosed three congressional resolutions, all of 21 March 1787, made in response to his 13 Oct. 1786 report. The first resolution declared that the states could not pass acts that violated the Anglo-American peace treaty, and the additional resolutions stipulated that any such acts were to be repealed (vol. 18:503–504). JA presented these resolutions to Carmarthen on 10 May 1787, reporting that the British minister was “Sincerely and highly pleased” (to John Jay, 14 May, below).
With this letter, Jay also enclosed a copy of Congress’ 21 Feb. resolution, for which see Jay’s letter of 21 Feb., and note 3, above.
On 9 May, Jay requested a formal leave of absence, informing Congress that his ill health required “an Excursion into the Country for ten Days or a Fortnight,” which it approved the same day (PCC, No. 80, III, f. 245; No. 122, I, f. 93). Jay returned to Congress in mid-July.