John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 15 March 1804
John Quincy Adams to John Adams
15. March 1804.
You will see by the folio sheet I inclose to you, that the House of Representatives have not yet done with the Government of Louisiana.—1 The fourth Section is the only one in which there seems much difficulty to the Legislators of the day— Many attempts were made to vary that here, and they are renewed in the House— They sport with Louisiana, as a Cat sports with a mouse— But to help our authority, it is already found necessary to send a military force— And in order to avoid the appearance of a standing army; they are recruiting here the corps of marines— One hundred of whom are to depart from […] next week to strengthen the garrison at New-Orleans—2 Mari[nes], to garrison New-Orleans! Oh! the breadth & the length & the depth of the learning of bifront denominations and specific appropriations.
I fear I shall not have it in my power to complete your set of journals; I have sent you all the spare numbers I can collect; but there are three of the House’s and several more of the Senate’s still wanting.
Your’s.
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “John Adams Esqr / Quincy. / Massachusetts.”; endorsed by TBA: “27th: Rec.” Some loss of text due to the placement of the seal.
1. Enclosure not found.
2. A small detachment of federal troops was in New Orleans by Jan. 1804, but fears about possible unrest by French residents and enslaved people prompted Gen. James Wilkinson to ask Secretary of War Henry Dearborn on 11 Jan. to send additional troops to support the government until a militia force could be organized, as later authorized under sect. 4 of the Louisiana government act. “Every Hour evinces more & more the necessity of a strong Garrison here,” he wrote, noting that “our puny force has become a subject of ridicule.” Additional reports of tensions between French soldiers and U.S. settlers prompted Dearborn to send a federal detachment of 110 marines commanded by Capt. Daniel Carmick from Norfolk, Va., which arrived in New Orleans on 5 May (Clarence Edwin Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers of the United States, 28 vols., Washington, D.C., 1934–1975, 9:59, 154, 159–160, 177–178, 221; , 2:284; Jared William Bradley, ed., Interim Appointment: W. C. C. Claiborne Letter Book, 1804–1805, Baton Rouge, La., 2002, p. 466).