301To John Adams from Robert Montgomery, 24 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
During the Plague at Algiers in July last Mr Barlow wrot me Several letters very pressingly requesting I would Send over some person of my confidence to attend to the buseness of the United States While he should return to Europe as was absolutely necessary for him at that period. I had then no person I could depend on but my own Nephew Mr George Clark, from whom I have Just received the...
302To John Adams from Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 24 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the honour of acknowledging the rect. of your favour of Oct. 20th.— What I have written respecting the state of the City has been my most sincere belief. I have fullfilled what I supposed to be the Presidents wish, by seeking for information of the most authentic kind—In proof that my opinion is not a singular one, I take the liberty to mention that the Custom House business is expected...
303To John Adams from John Parrish, 26 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
Observing in the public Prints under New York heads of the 17st instant that “the President of the United States intended honouring the Theatre in Johns Street with his presence, and that a Box was engaged for his reception”— My mind was led into serious reflection on the influence of Example so conspicuous as that the Chief Ruler filling the highest Station of Confidence and respect in...
304To John Adams from Charles Lee, 27 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
Yesterday I had the honor to receive your letter of the 15th. Supposing the cold of winter in the climate at Philadelphia to be an antidote to the Yellow Fever as the experience of 1793 seems to warrant, I am of opinion that Congress may hold its next session at Philadelphia without danger to the health or lives of the members. But if at this time it may be too hazardous yet a proclamation for...
305To John Adams from Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 27 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
I feel a sincere pleasure in representing to the President, that the Citizens are returning to their Homes;—the City resumes its usual appearance, & by the beginning of the next Week I believe most of the Houses will be opened, as usual. I hope to have the pleasure of paying my respects to yourself and family, some day the next Week. No news of much importance has been recd. by the William...
306To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 28 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
This morning I was honoured with your letter of the 26th. My opinion is, that by the second Monday in November, the members of Congress may assemble in Philadelphia with perfect safety. The repeated frosts which are to be expected will doubtless destroy the remnant of contagion, in the fifteen days to come. The faculty of the College & schools at Philadelphia have advertised that they will be...
307To John Adams from Charles Lee, 29 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
In compliance with your direction I shall endeavor now to communicate my ideas of the matters proper to be laid before Congress at the ensuing session. Within the United States all has been tranquil & nothing very remarkable seems to have occurred since the adjournment of Congress. From one and to the other of the western Frontier the indians remain at peace and continue to shew to us pacific...
308To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 30 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
By yesterday morning’s mail I received two letters, superscribed by you, one addressed to the Revd. Stephen Peabody, at Atkinson, N. Hampshire, which is inclosed; the other to your son Charles, which I now send to him. According to your directions, I am preparing the papers and business which I imagine you may think proper to lay before Congress. I have the honor to be / with great respect, /...
309To John Adams from William Vans Murray, 31 October 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the honour of enclosing for you some of the Annales Politiques. Those of past of August & September went under a blank some time since; others at different times I have done myself the honour of transmiting to you Sir—accompany’d by a few lines. By a letter which I have just received from Mr. Adams, the minister to Berlin, he was on the 26th. inst. at Hamburgh on his way to Berlin. On...
310To John Adams from William Vaughan, October 1797 (Adams Papers)
In case you should not have known Mr Masson the Gentleman who will be the Bearer of these lines permit me to request your attention and civilities to him and to his pursuits. He is Botanist to the King and has been sent out with the express desire of his Majesty for the purpose of Botanical pursuits in the interior parts of America that have been little frequented by professional men. He...
311To John Adams from Daniel McCormick, 2 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
This day I received a letter from Mr. Pitcairn dated at Paris the 24th of August which contains some political information. I therefore take the liberty to enclose you an abstract of his letter. And am with the Greatest Respect / Sir / Your Most Obedt. Servant The Commissioners will be at least decently received and have their reasoning examined and replied to— The Minister is polite and...
312To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 2 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
In observance of your directions, I do myself the honor to present to your view such matters as seemed to me proper to be communicated to Congress, at the opening of the approaching session. Some few others may perhaps be added: but in this case they will be prepared in such manner as to require little time to introduce them. If your address should be lengthy, even some of these may be...
313To John Adams from Joseph Willard, 3 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have taken the liberty of enclosing, for your Son at Berlin, a letter containing a vote of thanks passed by the Corporation of Harvard College, for a very valuable present of his to the Library. As I thought this the most safe and expeditious way of getting the letter to him, I have to request the favor of your transmitting it, and at the same time, must beg you to excuse this freedom. I...
314To John Adams from Jonathan Dayton, 5 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
I came to this place last evening under an expectation of having the honor to pay you my respects in person, and of learning from you the day, & as nearly as possible, the hour in which you proposed to enter Elizabeth town in your journey to Philadelphia. Allow me sir, to request of you this information, in which not myself alone, but many others of my townsmen & fellow citizens feel an...
315To John Adams from John Neilson, 6 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have been directed by the Inhabitants of the City of New Brunswick, to enclose the within Copy of an Address which they will beg leave to present to your Excellency on your arrival here— I have the honor to be with the most perfect regard / in behalf of the Inhabitants / of the City of New Brunswick / & its Vicinity— / Your Obedt. Servant MHi : Adams Papers.
316To John Adams from Rev. William Walter, 6 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
Your Excellency’s obliging Observations upon your own Letters in defence of the American Constitutions have added to my former satisfactions. If your Defence has not been so extensively read as it ought nor produced those happy Effects which were intended it is not because the work had not an intrinsic Value, but because the Great Events which Time has been unfolding have thrown the Minds of...
317To John Adams from John Neilson, 8 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Inhabitants of the City of New Brunswick and its vicinity, are highly gratified with this opportunity of expressing to you their Affectionate Esteem.— Happy in a Government of Laws, and happy in the Administration of it under the great & good Washington, we could not but sincerely rejoice, when the voice of our Country, upon his retirement, gave us, for a Chief Majestrate, a person whose...
318To John Adams from Maskell Ewing, 8 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
Inclosed I transmit you a copy of an Address, which has been ordered by the Legislative Council and General Assembly of New–Jersey, to be presented to you on your Arrival at Trenton, by the President of Council and Speaker of the House of Assembly. I have the honor to be / Sir / your most Humble servant The Legislative Council and General Assembly of the State of New-Jersey, with much...
319To John Adams from Thomas Mifflin, 9 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the honor to inform your Excellency, that I have concluded a contract with Messrs. Thomas and John Ketland, for supplying the State of Pennsylvania with ten thousand stands of arms; and to request that you will favor me with a letter to the American Minister at the Court of London, for the purpose of engaging his influence to obtain the necessary permit for exporting the arms from Great...
320To John Adams from George Mathews, 10 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
After I Left Philada. I posued my Jurney, through the wilderens to the Fawles of Ohio in Kintuck my Stay in that countary was but a Short time So that I cannot say mutch on the poleticks of that country but observed its will Stored with Democrats how Loose no opportunity to cavel at Govarment. I Left that plase on the 29th of August—and after a pashage of forty five days arived hear on the...
321To John Adams from William Vans Murray, 14 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Adams left Hamburgh, for Berlin, on the 31. Oct. & is I hope safely arrived there—I have not heard from him since the 26th Oct., when he had just landed at Hamburgh—as I had the honour of informing you Sir. Lepeaux, of whom no body heard before he got into a palace & his cap & feathers, says, America, Government and all, are Venal, & bought by Pitt!—This he announced in the midst of his...
322To John Adams from James Montgomery, 15 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
As I have not as yet received any Answer to mine of May 6 and June 4th soliciting the return of my vouchers I once more take the Liberty of requesting of your Excellency an answer to them and at the same Time to request you will determine from your own Sense of Justice whether the unmerited attack upon my Character does not call for redress I wish to receive it from you but I must look on it...
323To John Adams from Benajah Osmun, 15 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
The peculiarity of my Situation at the Extremity of the Empire I persuade my Self will Apolagize for my Addressing the Chief magistrate of my Cuntry Eight Absence from the actual Jurisdiction of the united States has nither lessend my Attachment for there wellfare nor my Reverence for there laws. It is with peculer pleasure therefore that I Anticipate the Actual Exercise of Goverment under...
324To John Adams from James McHenry, 22 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
The inclosed copy of a letter to the Accountant for the department of War, dated the 11th: instant, with his answer of the same date, is respectfully submitted for your consideration. I have been induced to make this representation from the Accountant’s having refused to countersign a Warrant drawn by me agreeably, as I conceived, to my powers, and the practice of the Office; of the general...
325To John Adams from Nathaniel Spooner, 26 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Box received from Mr. OBrion of Santandor; shall be forwarded to Boston or Elswhere aggreeable to your Direction by Your / Obdt Humb. Sert MHi : Adams Papers.
326To John Adams from United States Senate, 27 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
We have received, with much satisfaction The communications you have thought proper to make in your speech to both Houses of Congress on the opening of their present session— and find in there Afford additional proofs of the attention, integrity & firmness which have always marked your official character. We cannot but approve of the measures you had taken to ascertain the state & decline of...
327To John Adams from Arthur St. Clair, 28 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
My Commission of Governor of the Territory of the united States north west of the Ohio will expire on the 9th. day of next month. A considerable time ago, I informed the late President that it was my intention to decline being appointed again, which he may probably have communicated to You. Various causes (but particularly a broken Constitution and a broken Fortune, both of them expended in...
328To John Adams from Jacob Read, 28 November 1797 (Adams Papers)
The communications you thought proper to make in your speech to both Houses of Congress, on the opening of their present session, afford additional proofs of the attention, integrity, and firmness, which have always marked your official character. We cannot but approve of the measures you had taken to ascertain the state and decline of the contagious sickness, which has so lately afflicted the...
While our sympathy is excited by the recent sufferings of the citizens of Philadelphia, we participate in the satisfaction which you are pleased to express that the duration of the late calamity was so limited as to render unnecessary the expense and inconvenience that would have been incident to the convention of Congress in another place; and we shall readily attend to every useful amendment...
While our sympathy is excited by the recent sufferings of the citizens of Philadelphia, we participate in the satisfaction which you are pleased to express, that the duration of the late calamity was so limited as to render unnecessary the expense and inconvenience that would have been incident to the convention of Congress in another place; and we shall readily attend to every useful...
331To John Adams from Enos Hitchcock, November 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Citizens of the Town of Providence voluntarily assembled to tender their respects to the first Magistrate of the Union on his arrival in this Town, beg leave to approach you by their Committee with sentiments of Joy on the present occasion and with assurances of the sensible pleasure they feel in common with their Fellow-Citizens that the suffrages of this great community have met in a...
332To John Adams from Tench Coxe, 2 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the honor to make application to you upon the subject of two letters, which I have received from Oliver Wolcott Esquire, the Secretary of the Treasury. The first of those letters is dated on the 9th. of November last. Mr. Wolcott therein informed me, that he should make certain correspondence, which has lately passed between us the basis of a representation to you against me for...
333To John Adams from John Montgomery, 3 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
On your Ellection to the Presedentship of your Country at the most Critical moment of its existance since the Peace of 1783, your time must have been too precarious to be employed alone in receiving perticular congratulations from innumberable friends. Tho emanating from the first principles of Vertue and sincere attatchement, yet possessing as I do those Sentements in common with your other...
334To John Adams from Daniel McCormick, 4 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
Hopeing you will excuse my zeal to serve a Relation, who I flatter myself, will always proove worthy of every confidence reposed on him. I take the liberty to mention Mr. Pitcairn once more for your notice It has been sugested to me that there is a probability of remooveing Mr. Williams from Hamburgh to replace Mr. Johnston at London. should this be the case and there be a Vacancy for...
335To John Adams from James Montgomery, 6 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
As I conceive it to be but that Justice which every Citizen may claim as His Due to have his Character cleared from false aspersions I entreat your Excellency will afford me that Privilidge which I think I may lay Claim to I have been for Many Months expecting Your Excellency would have returned those vouchers which I had the Honour of Transmitting to You and which our Late Beloved President...
336To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 7 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the honor to return the papers received the 5th instant, which were laid before you by the Secretary of War, concerning a difference of opinions between him and the accountant of that department relative to their respective powers in the issues of monies appropriated to its use; and upon which you directed me to consult the Attorney General, and make report to you.—With those papers I...
337To John Adams from William Simmons, 11 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
In obedience to your desire, I have the honor to lay before you a few observations in reply to the letter of the Secretary of War to me of the 11 November Ult. by stateing to you the reasons for my conduct, which he seems to think reprehensible. The subject of his complaint is, my refusing or suspending to countersign a Warrant in favor of Samuel Lewis a Clerk in his Office for Two thousand...
338To John Adams from Oliver Wolcott, Jr., 13 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury in obedience to the command of the President of the United States respectfully submits the following Report upon the letter of the Secretary of War dated November 22d: 1797, and the papers accompanying the same. The principal question may be stated in either of the following modes. First—What are the powers and duties of the Accountant to the Department of War?...
339To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, Jr., 18 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
Agreeably to your directions, we have read and deliberately considered the correspondence between Mr. Wolcott, the Secretary of the Treasury, and Mr. Coxe, the Commissioner of the Revenue. This correspondence embraces the following complaints of Mr. Wolcott against Mr. Coxe. I. In the case of Leonard Jarvis’s delinquency as an Inspector of the Revenue in Massachusetts. Upon the first...
340To John Adams from Paul Dudley Sargent, 19 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
In reading your Speach to the two Houses of Congress I could not but notice the emphatical manner in which you impressed Congress with the necessity of Defending our Commerce; which led me to consider of our present mode of building our Ships on stocks above high water mark. I think we have had a full trial of the inexpediency of that way of building, in the difficulty, risk, and danger in...
341To John Adams from James Wilkinson, 20 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
To justify to our Country and to the world your protection of me at a moment when and powerful enemies were combined to destroy me by implications which dare not meet the light, I profess before God and Man is among the leading motives of all my acting— The death of General Wayne silenced an investigation which I had much at heart, because it would have unfolded Scenes and circumstances...
342To John Adams from James Wilkinson, 24 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
At the particular desire of the Bearer, the Miamis Chief called the little Turtle, I give Him this Letter of Introduction to you; His consequence among the Nations, approximate to one North Western frontier, gave Him pretensions to this distinction, I have deemed it political to indulge Him, and hope the Step may not be displeasing to you.— To the details which I have given the Secretary of...
343To John Adams from James Wilkinson, 26 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
To justify to our Country & to the World, your protection of me at a moment, when numerous & powerful Enemies were combined to destroy me, by implications which dare not meet the light, I profess before God & Man, is among the leading Motives of all my Actions. The Death of General Wayne silenced an investigation, which I had much at Heart, because it would have unfolded Scenes &...
344From John Adams to John Adams, 27 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
I nominate James Blake of Pensilvania to be Consul of the United States in the City of St. Domingo in the Island of St. Domingo. DNA : RG 46—Records of the U.S. Senate.
345To John Adams from John Lathrop, 27 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
Your very obliging favour of the 4th I recieved, together with the late professor Luzac’s very learned and elegant Oration concerning citizen Socrates. As it is read with great pleasure by those members of the Academy who have had an opportunity to see it, we have a desire to know why that great man left the chair of Rector Magnificent, and whether he now sustains any relation to the...
346To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 28 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
In pursuance of your direction founded on the Resolve of Congress passed the second of March 1797 I wrote to the Governors of the. . . . . states of Conversation in New-Jersey Pennsylvania Maryland, Virginia, Kentuckey Tennessee & South-Carolina. requesting to be informed whether those states respectively had “ratified the amendment proposed by Congress to the Constitution concerning the...
347To John Adams from William Goforth, 30 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
Altho I am far from haveing the honor of your personal acquaintance, and am perhaps but scarcely within the circle of your knowledge; yet being a citizen, I presume to address you. I was early and decidedly in the interest of my beloved country, and being involed, with a band of patriots in the New york company of granediers, I had the pleasure to escort you into that city when on your way, in...
348To John Adams from James McHenry, 30 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Secretary of War begs leave to sub mit to the president certain facts and considerations which respect the situation of his department. 1. That the appropriation for the Salary of Clerks in the War Office is Four thousand and forty Dollars. 2. That this Sum was for a certain time thought sufficient for Seven Clerks. 3. That finding it inadequate to their support it became necessary in...
349To John Adams from François Adriaan Van der Kemp, 30 December 1797 (Adams Papers)
It is Long ago, that I was honoured with your favour of Dec. 6 and April 18—in which your Excellency communicated with me the unhappy situation of the worthy Luzac, worthy indeed the high encomiums, which you have bestowed on him, and more so to have merited in such high a degree your Excellency esteem and adprobation. I should have sooner accused this favour, had I not feared to interrupt...
350To John Adams from Robert Worrall, 3 January 1798 (Adams Papers)
I hope your Goodness will not think me Troublesom in giving you this line, and Informing you of my being in the Building Branch of Buseness, and having nearly devoted all my Time, Since the begining of August last, with the Commissioner of Revenew, on the Light, and Beacon, House, Business, and makeing the best Plans, with Honest Estimates, delivered and fulley Approved of, with Bonds Men...