Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 8 May 1803
Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
Quincy May 8th 18003
my dear Son
Your Letter of April 30th put me into good Spirits.1 I had felt more upon your account. I can truly say, than upon my own, in the late misfortunes which have assailed us. I had pland a future Scene of domestic comfort for you; I had anticipated seeing a worthy woman rewarded for her steady attachment, and all that happiness given & received which So unstable a state of existance allows frail Mortals; I had pleased myself with having some share in effecting the object. but my plans are in a measure marred. Some real estate must be parted with; Shall it be the Quincy Farm or that upon which Brisler lives? the determination is in favour of the latter and Your Brother is to be the purchaser; he has Sold a House in Town and raised Seven thousand Dollors: Land will be sold him as an Equivelent the Whole at that end of the Town is to be apprized; and the Farm upon which Burrel lives; The Quincy estate is a noble one, and in the course of a few years Should we be so fortunate as to recover a part of the property now in Jeopardy your Father will have that place a very productive one, situated so advantageously as it is for obtaining manure.2 I do not know whether I wrote You that just previous to the failure of the House, Mr Tufts had sold out his part of the Farm to your Father for Seven thousand dollors, so that he was Lord of Mount W——n
the Severity of enormus Charges & Damages upon protested Bills: has been kindly mitigated, by the union of mr King Gore and Williams who took up the Bills, and paid them upon honour; which will be a saving of Some thousand of dollors to us;3 We shall See in the course of the year how matters will terminate. in the mean time any success of yours will give us great pleasure, and I will not, I cannot relinquish the pleasing Idea of having You near to us: Your Brother will let his House in Boston & remove here in August & remain with us untill the begining of October, when he will sit out for washington with his family—4 he proposes to reside in Quincy whenever he returns from thence.— I think You ought to come here upon a visit this Summer. tho there may be occasion for delay, there can be none for secrecy. if the Subject is ever mentiond to me, I shall not hesitate to avow it, and vindicate it—
I read the port folio with much interest. Who has been the Reviewer of Camillus? I have read them without having seen the Letters tho mr Shaw promissed them to me.5
We have as cold a spring, as we had mild Winter; this 8th of May, we have had quite a snow storm. it melted as it fell, but was quite picturisque to see the Blosoms & flowers drest in white ground
adieu my dear Thomas. let me hear often from you.
Your affectionate / Mother
A Adams.
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs: A Adams / 8th: May 1803 / 13th: Recd: / 15th: Answd:.”
1. Not found.
2. For JQA’s purchase of fourteen of JA’s Quincy properties, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 3, above.
3. Massachusetts attorney Christopher Gore, who was in London as a member of the Anglo-American claims commission, and Samuel Williams, the U.S. consul at London, joined Rufus King in temporarily covering JQA’s drafts on Bird, Savage, & Bird, which would have otherwise been returned for nonpayment (JQA to Rufus King, 8 July, NHi:Rufus King Papers; Gore to JQA, 4 July, Adams Papers; JQA to Williams, 30 April, LbC, APM Reel 135).
4. Contrary to the plan AA outlined here, JQA and LCA resided in the 39 Hanover Street property, selling it in September just before leaving for Washington, D.C.
5. Seven letters by William Duane as Camillus were printed in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 15 Feb.; 4, 8, 11 March; 1, 13, 15 April, and later published as a pamphlet. Duane countered Federalists calling for a declaration of war against Spain for its revocation of the right of American merchants to deposit goods at New Orleans. Diplomatic efforts of the Jefferson administration should proceed, Duane argued, rather than giving vent to “the madness of those who are so eager for hostility” (p. 6). TBA responded as Publius in four issues of the Port Folio in April, arguing that the United States should not demur in the face of “events of the most humiliating stamp,” adding of Camillus that “if there be among us, a remnant of national pride, he has torn it to tatters.” The suggestion that the United States acquiesce to an affront to national honor and interest, TBA wrote, was “the inspiration of a coward-heart obedient to the dictates of a treacherous head.” The issues debated by Camillus and Publius were rendered moot on 30 April when the U.S. envoys at Paris agreed to purchase Louisiana from France, for which see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 4, above (Camillus, The Mississippi Question Fairly Stated, and the Views and Arguments of Those Who Clamor for War Examined, Phila., 1803, , No. 4112; p. 475; Port Folio, 3:109–110 [2 April], 118–119 [9 April], 126–127 [16 April], 134–135 [23 April]).