Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 23 September 1800
Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw
Philadelphia 23d: Septr: 1800
Dear William
I inclose you the Aurora of this morning which is pretty rich in contents. For some time past it has been too flat & insipid to compensate the trouble of sending it to you. I observe that the pieces under the signature of Decius are ascribed to H. G Otis— I have read but a few of the numbers, but I have no doubt the Author is clearly & rightly designated. The story he tells in his No 15 of the Caucus, is not quite correct— Mr: O—— should have dared to avow, that all except one agreed, “as far as their advice & influence would go,” to run Mr: Adams & Mr: Pinckney, both “fairly” as President, and that the one who differed from the rest discovered, that this fair proposition was both artful & insidious, because all the Gentlemen upon their return to their Constituents, “as far as their advice & influence would go,” might endeavor to undermine Mr: Adams for the purpose of promoting the choice of Mr: Pinckney. This he must have foreseen & although the gentlemen professed an intention of “supporting Mr. A—— fairly as President,” he well knew that very few of them had any intention of doing so; and the fact has since been amply verified— Mr: Dexter differed from all the rest of the federalists. Mr: D—— understood the party he was dealing with.1
The Jacobins here, & in Virginia are very sanguine in their expectations of success— They are very quiet & still about it, but their activity & zeal is unabating. Corresponding Committees exist in every State and information is regularly circulated from the extremities to the center. The grand Committee is at New York. This is no visionary thing I can assure you— They count upon Connecticutt or Rhode Island to give them votes by withholding them from Mr. Adams.2 I rather think it is Connecticutt. New Jersey & Maryland are yet doubtful, and some talk revives of convening the new Legislature of this State for the purpose of prescribing a mode of chusing Electors. If the complection of the Legislature should be more democratic than the present, it will be convened—otherwise I think not.
Why dont you find out who writes Chatham, Cato, Junius Americanus &ca:3 I should know if I were acquainted with the Printer. There were three papers under the signature of Matius Scavola, giving an history of the Aurora lately published in Wayne’s paper Gazette—4 Did you read them?
I am dear William / Your friend
T. B Adams.5
PS. I sent your letter to Peters—6
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “W. S. Shaw Esqr: / Quincy”; endorsed: “Phila 23 Sept / T B. Adams Esqr / rec 29th / Ans 30.”; docketed: “1800 / Sept 23.”
1. The Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 23 Sept., included the third of ten installments of a series by “A Constitutionalist,” identified by TBA as Dr. Thomas Cooper. Published between 19 Sept. and 13 Oct., the essays alleged that JA favored monarchies. TBA also quoted from the 15th installment of Decius’ “Jeffersoniad,” which was published in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 13 Sept. (TBA to AA, 5 Oct., below).
2. Aaron Burr visited New England in August and September to mobilize support for the Democratic-Republican presidential ticket. He met in Rhode Island with Gov. Arthur Fenner, who told Burr that he expected some of the state’s electoral votes to go to Thomas Jefferson (, p. 204; , 25:59). For Burr’s influence in the selection of electors in New York, see TBA to JQA, 11 May, and note 5, above.
3. The Boston Russell’s Gazette published two six-part essay series that defended JA’s presidency and criticized both the Democratic-Republican Party and Hamiltonian Federalists. The Chatham essays ran from 17 July to 6 Oct., and those by Cato appeared from 24 July to 15 September.
4. TBA authored three essays under the pseudonym Mutius Scævola in the Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 1, 3, and 6 Sept., in which he criticized the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser as “the official governmental paper of the French Republic.” The newspaper’s stance, TBA argued, traced back to founder Benjamin Franklin Bache, who spent his youth in France with his grandfather Benjamin Franklin and “saw his old—fond and amorous Grand Sire, in the habit of caressing, and being caressed by the seducing females of France.” TBA noted William Duane’s foreign birth and denounced the “diabolical zeal” with which he edited the Aurora. “I shall still cherish the hope,” TBA concluded, “that there is yet left among us, enough of virtue, honor, discernment and patriotism, to counteract the evils disseminated by it; enough attachment to the federal government and to those who administer it, to secure federal majorities at the approaching election.” The essays were a response to an article in the Aurora on 8 July entitled “British Insolence and Tyranny,” in which the changes in JA’s cabinet were criticized as an empty gesture having no effect on policy, John Marshall was labeled a Hamiltonian Federalist, and Samuel Dexter was said to have little regard for the U.S. Constitution. Caleb P. Wayne (1776—1849) was the publisher of the Gazette of the United States from 28 May 1800 to Nov. 1801 (TBA to AA, 3 Oct. 1800, below; , 38:406).
5. TBA also wrote to Shaw on 13 and 29 Sept. (MWA:Adams Family Letters), discussing essays by Junius Americanus, reporting rumors regarding Franco-American negotiations, and commenting on the forthcoming local elections. He also wrote on 15 Sept. (MHi:Misc. Bound Coll.), introducing Philadelphia lawyer Horace Binney, for whom see AA to TBA, 10 Oct., and note 14, below.
6. Not found.