William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 11 February 1799
William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams
Philadelphia Feb 21st [11] 1799 Monday Eve.1
My dear Aunt
With this I send you two more copies of the dispatches— A defence of the Alien & sedition bills Divernois letter, Giffords address to the Loyal association &c the pamphlet setting forth the pernicious effects of stage plays.2 The last mentioned pamphlet was sent to the president the night after he went to the theatre and another quaker sent two more the Evening after.— they are grieved to the soul that the president should go to balls & theatres.3
A most infamous fracas took place here yesterday. Reynolds and three or four more went to the Roman Catholic church in fourth street in the forenoon and placed themselves in conspicuous places— Reynolds on one of the monuments in the church yard and made an harangue against the two bills—the Alien & sedition and then invited the congregation to come and sign a petition to congress for their repeal. but he could not gain a single proselyte not even there. A young fellow went up to him & knocked him down Reynolds got up, took a loaded pistol from his pocket & pointed it at his breast, it was snatched from his hands. The rascals were taken up and caryed before the Mayor and were bound over for two thousand pounds for which they soon found bail. While they were at the Mayor’s office that infernal rascal of a democratic Judge went to the Mayor— treated him in a most scandalous manner—said the bail was excessive fifty dollars would have been enough and was oveheard telling them to take their hats & go out & he would bear them out in it.4 The president would insist on his being invited to dine here the other day.
Have you read Dr Morse’s thanksgiving sermon In the appendix he has published some things that never were published before.5 If you have not read it you will be gratifyed in perusing it. You will know the writer of the greater part of the letters.
Long before this will reach you Mr. T. A. will have arrived—to whom please to kindly remember me.
With affection / your
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “W Shaw Feb’ry 12 / 1799.”
1. The dating of this letter is based on the date of the St. Mary’s Church incident, for which see note 4, below.
2. The publications sent by Shaw were probably: Observations on the Alien & Sedition Laws of the United States, Washington, Penn., 1799, No. 36001; Francis d’Ivernois, D’Ivernois on the Downfal of Switzerland, [Phila.?, 1798?], No. 33929; John Gifford, A Short Address to the Members of the Loyal Associations, on the Present State of Public Affairs, London, 1798; and Lindley Murray, Extracts from the Writings of Divers Eminent Authors … Representing the Evils and Pernicious Effects of Stage Plays, and Other Vain Amusements, Phila., 1799, No. 35852.
3. British Quaker Mary Pryor was in Philadelphia on a tour of America when she wrote to JA on 8 Feb. to implore him “as far as may be in thy power to suppress every specie of Vice and immorality” so that “thou may by thy example be instrumental in the Lords hand to promote Righteousness wch exalts a Nation” (Adams Papers).
4. Dr. James Reynolds, the organizer of the American Society of United Irishmen, helped draft the petition from Irish immigrants that was submitted to Congress on 12 February. Echoing the language of Democratic-Republicans, the petition claimed that the Alien Act was unconstitutional and an infringement of states’ rights. It also declared the law particularly offensive to the Irish, who had supported the American Revolution. On 10 Feb. as Reynolds and others gathered signatures on the petition from parishioners exiting St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia, an altercation broke out with Federalist parishioners. The Irish petitioners were brought before the city’s mayor, Robert Wharton (1757–1834), who ordered them held for trial. Thomas McKean intervened later in the day, siding with the accused and expressing outrage at the arrests. Reynolds and his fellow petitioners were later acquitted of assault charges (Irish Immigrants in the Land of Canaan: Letters and Memoirs from Colonial and Revolutionary America, 1675–1815, ed. Kerby A. Miller, Arnold Schrier, Bruce D. Boling, David N. Doyle, N.Y., 2003, p. 594; , 5th Cong., 3d sess., p. 2884; Nigel Little, Transoceanic Radical, William Duane: National Identity and Empire, 1760–1835, London and N.Y., 2016, p. 139–141; ; Boston Columbian Centinel, 20 Feb.; ; Charleston, S.C., City Gazette, 16 March).
5. Jedidiah Morse, A Sermon, Preached at Charlestown, November 29, 1798, on the Anniversary Thanksgiving in Massachusetts, Boston, 1798, Nos. 34151, 34152. In a 51-page appendix, Morse reprinted excerpts of several 1782 and 1783 letters from French officials, JA and other U.S. diplomats, and members of Congress to show that the clergy had a moral obligation to oppose French influence: “Anarchy is fatal to the religion and morals, as well as to the political health and prosperity of a nation; and so, I believe, for the same reason, is French influence. To develope and oppose it, therefore, is to espouse the cause of the Church as well as of the State” (p. 30).