Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 13 June 1802
Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw
Philadelphia 13th: June 1802
Dear William
I received your short note, accompanying the Oration delivered by my brother, before the charitable fire Association, and thank you for the promptness of your attention in transmitting it.1 The perusal of it was a rich repast, and though its merit did not surpass, it fully equalled my expectations.
I am yet to hear from you, in answer to some of my late communications. You have certainly lost that kakoethes scribendi,2 which was wont to beset you so easily. I remember to have predicted your recovery from the disorder, at no very remote period, but you were then incredulous. You ought not however, wholly to relinquish the habits of writing to your friends, for they sensibly feel the loss of your once frequent addresses. I beg of you, if you can give me any private information, to impart it speedily. What have you done with the charge, & the last letter? My destiny is hard & somewhat peculiar. If constancy & perseverance ever deserved to triumph, I think mine one of those cases, which has strong claims to favor and victory. God only knows when. Nil desperandum, is a good motto, in some cases, but nil sperandum is the destiny of a galley-slave.3 I know not which motto is most appropriate to me.
The newspapers will have informed you, that a work entitled the history of the Administration of John Adams, and an account of the suppression of the same, by Col Burr, are now selling at New York & at this place.4
I have submitted to the drudgery of wading through both of these productions, and I can aver, that I never met with so lame, bald & contemptible performances, on any subject. The Author, (if indeed he deserves the name of author, who has ransacked the Jacobin journals for materials, and no other source, and then dignifies them with the title history) was so well aware of the nothingness of his compilation, that he became the willing instrument of Col Burr who hired him to strangle his own bastard; but falling out, afterwards with his employer—he reveals the murder, which of course never took place, since the original history comes out at the same moment with the account of its death. Now this is a specimen of Irish logic; but the work was made to sell.
There are hundreds of libellous expressions & passages interspersed throughout, but what is a little singular is, that Col: Hamilton & General Pinckney are both extolled in character & person. Their Biography is taken from federal newspapers and interlarded, here & there with an abusive or scandalous anecdote. The utmost malignity & scurrility of the writer is directed at John Adams, but there is no word of it, that will be credited by a single human being.5 The newspaper of last night says, the noted John Wood, author &ca: has absconded.6
We have just entered upon summer-weather here, and we shall have enough before it leaves us—apprehensions of Yellow fever are stronger this year than ever, on account of the troops in the West Indies.7
Friends here are well; remember me kindly to all.
Your’s truly
T B Adams.8
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “William S Shaw / Boston”; internal address: “W. S. Shaw.”; endorsed: “13 June / T B Adams / Ans 23 June”; docketed: “1802 / June 13.”
1. Not found.
2. An irresistable urge to write ().
3. “Never despair” (Horace, Odes and Epodes, transl. C. E. Bennett, Cambridge, 1968, Book I, Ode 7, line 27). TBA’s alternate version translates to “Never hope.”
4. The Philadelphia Gazette, 8 June, advertised the publication of John Wood’s History of the Administration of John Adams, Esq., Late President of the United States, N.Y., 1802, , No. 3581, and A Narrative of the Suppression by Col. Burr, of the History of the Administration of John Adams, late President of the United States, N.Y., 1802, , No. 2021. Wood (ca. 1775–1822), a political writer and Scottish immigrant to New York in 1800, offered a scathing condemnation of JA as a “monarchical President.” The latter work, published anonymously by James Cheetham (1772–1810), a British expatriate and outspoken political commentator, documented Aaron Burr’s role in the suppression of Wood’s History between late 1801 and May 1802. Burr believed that Wood’s work would harm his faction of New York Democratic-Republicans by unraveling fragile alliances they had forged with Federalists. Thus, he convinced Wood that they needed to repurchase the book from its publishers, William Barlass and Matthias Ward. After protracted negotiations, by 12 May Burr’s associate William Peter Van Ness paid Barlass and Ward $1,000 for 1,250 copies of the work. A little less than two weeks later, Cheetham, who believed Burr was engaged in a determined effort to undermine Thomas Jefferson, advertised his Narrative in the New York American Citizen, 24 May, and published it five days later. With Wood’s History now widely publicized, efforts to suppress it ceased and it was put on sale on 3 June (, 2:641–648, 696–698, 725–726; Wood, History of the Administration of John Adams, p. 2; Narrative of the Suppression, p. 34; , 36:82–88, 228–229; Thomas N. Baker, “‘An Attack Well Directed,’ Aaron Burr Intrigues for the Presidency,” , 31:571–575 [Winter 2011]).
5. Wood drew from partisan sources for his History of the Administration of John Adams, including the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, letters from William Duane, the works of James Thomson Callender, and personal commentary from people in New York City and Philadelphia. Wood charged that JA’s “anglo-federal” presidential administration pursued a “system of persecution” against its opponents and argued that he should have been impeached following the implementation of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Wood also described JA as “vain” and with ‘a disposition both cruel and ungenerous.” In contrast, Wood praised Alexander Hamilton’s military service but lamented that “as a political character, he has been the greatest misfortune.” He also offered muted praise of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, opining that he had “at least some principles of honor” (, 2:642; Wood, History of the Administration of John Adams, p. 162, 208, 246, 323, 328, 346, 465).
6. Wood departed New York City in early June for Canada, where he hoped to investigate rumors of British infringements on the American fur trade. His departure prompted the Philadelphia Gazette, 12 June, to report that he had “absconded.” Wood returned to New York in early July (, 2:730–731).
7. Napoleon received Saint Domingue’s Constitution of 1801 in October, and believing that Gen. Toussaint Louverture had overstepped his authority, he sent a force of nearly 22,000 soldiers and 20,000 sailors in Jan. 1802 to reassert French control over the island. The French succeeded by May, but a yellow fever epidemic eventually claimed the lives of more than 10,000 French troops (, 37:27, 600; Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, Cambridge, 2004, p. 251, 253–254; Thomas O. Ott, The Haitian Revolution, 1789–1804, Knoxville, Tenn., 1973, p. 170).
8. TBA wrote again to Shaw on [ante 20] and 28 June, discussing publications they had exchanged and commenting on recent items in the Port Folio. TBA also discussed JQA’s activities in the Mass. senate (both MWA:Adams Family Letters).