Papers of John Adams, volume 19
I received your friendly Letter last Evening,1 and thank you for your kind Remembrance, of your Old Friend.
To hear of your Success and Prosperity in Business; the Independence of your Circumstances, and the Contentment of your heart,2 gives me a Pleasure, the more exquisite, as it is so rare.— It is almost the Single Instance, that I have received Since my Return to America. My Correspondence has Served to little other purpose than to pour out before me the Griefs Complaints and Distresses of my Friends and the Friends of their Country, whose Ruin has been accomplished in Part by the turn of Affairs at the Revolution and in part by the bad Policy of our Country, Since the Peace.
The friendly disposition, which dictated your desire to come to New York, is very obliging: but I beg you would not come, till I have an house to receive you, and a dinner and a little Wine to share with you;3 for at present I have neither at my Command: so great a Thing 452 is it to be one, who is, Sir, your most obedient and / most humble servant: not without hopes / however of better times.
RC (NHi:Gilder Lehrman Coll., on deposit); internal address: “The Hon. James Searle Esqr.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 115.
Searle’s letter was of 11 May, above.
In the LbC, this word was rendered as “mind.”
By mid-May JA had rented Richmond Hill, a prominent house on the city’s west side facing the Hudson River (now the southern part of Greenwich Village), so that AA and their family could join him. JA described it in a 13 May letter to AA as “about a mile out of the City, in a fine situation, a good Stable, Coach House, Garden, about 30 Acres of Land.” At JA’s request, AA sent along trunks filled with carpets, bedding, and linen, which arrived on 30 May but without any keys to unlock them. At a cost of £33, WSS arranged for Capt. Thomas Barnard, New York Packet, to carry the rest of the Adamses’ furniture on his sloop, and on 20 June he delivered the household goods to within 100 yards of JA’s new home. On 12 July AA sent her sister Mary Smith Cranch a description of Richmond Hill: “the House is convenient for one family, but much too small for more, you enter under a Piazza into a Hall & turning to the right Hand assend a stair case which lands you in an other of equal dimensions of which I make a drawing Room. it has a Glass door which opens into a gallery the whole Front of the house which is exceeding pleasant. the Chambers are on each side. the House is not in good repair, wants much done to it, and if we continue here I hope it will be done” (
AFC
, 8:xv–xvi, 351, 354, 356–358, 364, 369, 375, 391).
Permit me join in the United Voice of America.
Accept my sincere Congratulation on the Nomination to the High Office Confer’d on you by the Choice of a free People An Honor superior to any in the Gift of Europe
I hope in a few days to receive the Journals of the Opening and proceedings of Congress much more interesting than the Mock scheens of present Assembled States General of many of the European Powers
Les Etats Generaux of France assembled the 4 Instant Open’d by a Speach from the Throne seconded by the State Officers, Les Tiers Etats have built Castles, nothing less than an entire change of Constitution and a Supression of Privaledges Exemptions and perrogatives, a system that its far from probable the other two Orders will uncondendedly give up1
I remain as when I had the Honor to see you at Bordeaux honor’d by the Gentlemen at Paris with their Correspondence and publick and private Commissiers & in my steddy attention to every thing in my power to serve the States. If in my Station my devoted Services 453 can at any time be to you Useful permit me to make my Respectful tenders,
With due Respect I have the Honor to be / Sir / Your most Obedient / Humble Servant
RC (Adams Papers).
Bondfield, the U.S. agent at Bordeaux, described the 5 May convening of the Estates General at the Hôtel des Menus Plaisirs in Versailles according to royal edict. On 4 May, Louis XVI and his chief ministers made a formal procession, then addressed the more than 1,200 noblemen, clergy, and elected citizens in attendance. Faced with provincial riots, political instability, and heavy debt, the groups organized into a national assembly. By late June, a sizable faction of noblemen and clergy joined with the third estate to draft a new constitution (Bosher, French Rev.
, p. 128–132).