William Tudor to Abigail Adams, 9 January 1801
William Tudor to Abigail Adams
Jany. 9th. 1801
My dear Madam
It was with great Pleasure that I recognized the well known Hand writing, which it is so many years since I have seen. It was impossible not to avail myself of the Contents of the Note I found in the President’s Letter, in some prefatory Remarks which you will read in the Gazette, I have taken the Liberty to send you.1 Chagrined as I am with a late Event which has furnished so noble a Triumph to the Mad Enemies of the Constitution, I derive a sort of negative Satisfaction from it in the Mortification & total Defeat of Hamilton & the small but active & invenomed Faction which he stimulated & guided.
What is to become of the Government, our Finances, Commerce, Union, & Character, under the approaching New Order of Things, I shall patiently trust to the Developement of Time. But let who will command at home, I hope Mr. A. will have the Charge of our foreign Interests either at the Court of France or England.
I am with Sentiments of the most perfect Respect & Esteem / Dr Madam / your faithful Servant
Wm Tudor
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “[…] Adams / Washington”; internal address: “Mrs: Adams.” Some loss of text due to a cut manuscript.
1. AA’s note has not been found. After a pause of sixteen months, JA and his former law student William Tudor resumed their correspondence, exchanging a dozen letters between 25 Feb. 1800 and 13 Feb. 1801. In a second letter of 25 Dec. 1800 (MHi:Tudor-Adams Correspondence), JA enclosed “authenticated Copies of the Messages” relating to the “Negotiation with france” and requested that Tudor have them published. Tudor complied and in a letter to JA of 9 Jan. 1801 (Adams Papers) noted having added “a few prefatory Observations” that were printed in the Boston Commercial Gazette, 8 Jan., along with three of JA’s letters to the Senate, dated 18 Feb. 1799, 25 Feb., and 1 June, and a 28 Sept. 1798 letter from Talleyrand to Louis André Pichon. The preface to the letters praised JA: “Mr. Adams will retire with the mens conscia recti from high and honorable toil, to a station which envy cannot reach, nor jealousy undermine. Posterity will pay what the present age has denied; and vindicate virtues, which party policy dare not, and phrenzied faction, cannot appreciate.”