1. AA is paraphrasing from her letter to JQA of 25 May, above.

2. Not found.

3. On 27 Oct. Pierre Auguste Adet wrote to Timothy Pickering enclosing the Directory’s 2 July decree on neutral navigation, for which see TBA to JA, 6 Aug., and note 5, above. In his letter Adet justified the decree on the grounds that the U.S. failure to defend “the vexations imposed upon their commerce” by British encroachment disadvantaged France under the terms of the 1778 Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, especially in light of the fact that the British assault on American shipping continued even after the Jay Treaty was completed. Adet ignited a public exchange with Pickering by publishing the letter in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 31 Oct. 1796; it was reprinted in the 8 Nov. Massachusetts Mercury, which AA likely enclosed with her letter to TBA of the same date, above. Pickering’s reply of 1 Nov. was first published in the Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 3 Nov., and appeared in the Massachusetts Mercury, 11 November. His letter countered that the Franco-American treaty confirmed the policy that “free ships should make free goods,” and thus that France had no right to seize neutral American vessels trading with the British. Pickering also noted that the British had issued no new orders regarding the seizure of American ships carrying French goods, but that such seizures were within the law of nations. Pickering concluded by chiding Adet for making his original note public, arguing that “it was properly addressed to its government, to which alone pertained the right of communicating it in such time and manner, as it should think fit to the citizens of the United States.” The public debate continued with a long second letter from Adet, dated 15 Nov., in which the minister suspended his functions in the United States, charging that America had surrendered its rights as a neutral to Great Britain and had violated its treaty agreements with France. While summaries appeared earlier, the entire letter was first published in a special issue of the Philadelphia Gazette, 21 Nov., and would appear in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 3 December.

4. A contributor to the New York Herald, 29 Oct., asked, “Whence this extraordinary exertion in favour of Mr. Jefferson? and why are so many handbills in circulation villifying Mr. Adams? … and what is the object of Mr. Jefferson and his partizans?” Handbills condemning JA’s Defence of the Const. description begins John Adams, A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America, London, 1787–1788; repr. New York, 1971; 3 vols. description ends as a “Eulogium of Monarchy and the British Constitution” and JA as an “avowed MONARCHIST” had appeared in Boston as early as 24 Sept. but were most virulent in Pennsylvania, where prior to the state’s 4 Nov. election of presidential electors, John Beckley, a Virginia politician working on behalf of Thomas Jefferson, arranged for the distribution of thousands of handbills and sample ballots encouraging residents to vote for Jefferson. This was the first use of such tactics in a U.S. presidential election. Most often these handbills cited brief excerpts from the Defence to demonstrate JA’s “royalist” leanings. One reprinted part of a letter by Thomas Paine in which he equated JA’s preference for hereditary government to treason: “John Adams is one of these men, who never contemplated the origin of government, or comprehended any thing of first principles. If he had, he must have seen that the right to set up and establish hereditary government, never did and never can exist” because doing so was “of the nature of treason” (Americanus, Boston, 24th Sept. 1796. At This Important Crisis, Evans, description begins Charles Evans and others, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, 1903–1959; 14 vols. description ends No. 29982; Republican, Fellow Citizens! The First Concern of Freemen, Calls You Forth into Action, [Phila., 1796], Evans, description begins Charles Evans and others, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, 1903–1959; 14 vols. description ends No. 30411; Robert V. Friedenberg, Communication Consultants in Political Campaigns: Ballot Box Warriors, Westport, Conn., 1997, p. 4; Public Notice. Friday the Fourth Day of November Next … Extract of a Letter from Thomas Paine, [Phila., 1796], Evans, description begins Charles Evans and others, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, 1903–1959; 14 vols. description ends No. 30983).

5. The enclosure has not been found but was probably one of the Phocion articles, for which see JA to AA, 7 Dec., and note 2, below.