John Adams to Abigail Adams, 15 November 1798
John Adams to Abigail Adams
Berlin Nov. 15, 1798
My Dearest Friend
You never recd a Letter from Berlin but with Pleasure: and this I dare say will not be the first.—
From Austins in a lowry Morning We proceeded to Hartford and dined at Bulls. A polite Invitation from the County Court to dine with them was declined, and We came on immediately to Squire Rileys.1 The Coachman thought it would be too hard upon the Horses to go to Wallingford
I have now read all the News from the Boston Paper of Monday and am more of a Pyrrhonest than I was when I read it parteally at Flaggs.2
We have been highly favoured in the Weather for four days and have done well to get as far as this Place. We have glided along unforeseen unexpected, and have avoided all Noise show, Pomp and Parade. This We could not have done if We had been favoured with the Company of a single Lady.
I want your society, Advice and Assistance however so much that I should be willing to ride but fifteen Miles a day, to obtain it. But alass! I hope You have recd a Letter from me every day for I have written one at least. I have none from your hand nor Mrs Smith nor Louisa.
By this time I hope I may wish Betcy Joy, which I do sincerely. Mr Foster will make her a happy Woman, if it is not her own fault, and She will make him a happy Man, if it is not his.
My Head has been a Nuisance to me ever since I left home. My 80d were laid out for a scourge. What I shall do I know not. I ride and live in pain.
I would give all my Teeth to know whether you slept last night or will sleep to night.
William is very attentive and obliging but like Dr Arbuthnot has his fault a slouch in his Gait, which however I intend to cure.3
Adieu, Morpheus bless you.
J. A
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A.”; endorsed: “J A / Berlin Nov’br / 15 1798.”
1. Seth Austin (1731–1806) was the proprietor of the Austin Tavern in Suffield, Conn., and Roger Riley (ca. 1737–1822) was a saddler who, with the exception of one year, served as town clerk of Berlin, Conn., from 1798 to 1816. His house was used as a hotel, and he hosted social events in its ballroom (Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Settlement of Suffield, Connecticut, Suffield, 1921, p. 175; Edith Austin Moore and William Allen Day, comps., The Descendants of Richard Austin of Charlestown, Massachusetts, repr. Salem, 2002, p. 48; Catharine M. North, History of Berlin, Connecticut, ed. Adolph Burnett Benson, New Haven, 1916, p. 190).
2. See JA to AA, 12 Nov. 1798, and note 1, above. Pyrrhonism was a Greek school of philosophical skepticism founded by Pyrrho of Elis, which advocated the impossibility of attaining certitude when determining the nature of things (, 1:408; ).
3. In April 1791 William Smith Shaw severely injured one of his ankles. Once it healed, Shaw walked with a limp, leading JA to reference a remark Jonathan Swift made to Dr. John Arbuthnot: “But really, Brother, you have a sort of shuffle in your gait” (vol. 9:238; Joseph B. Felt, Memorials of William Smith Shaw, Boston, 1852, p. 8–9; Swift to Arbuthnot, 25 July 1714, The Correspondence of Jonathan Swift, D.D., ed. F. Elrington Ball, 6 vols., London, 1910–1914, 2:197).