Sarah Vaughan to Abigail Adams, 19 May 1800
Sarah Manning Vaughan to Abigail Adams
Hallowell May—19th. 1800
My dear Madam,
It was highly gratifying to Mr. Vaughan and myself to find by General Dearborn that we still retained a place in the memory of yourself & the President; tho’ we live retired we wish not to be forgotten by those we love & esteem.
I do not wonder that you & the President should be surprized at our being able to fill up our time without Politics or dissipation, but when you recollect that we have six Children to educate & to settle in the world your Surprize will abate;1 we have hitherto had but little assistance in our labours, but we hope that Masters of certain branches of education may be tempted to reside here & finish what we have endeavoured to begin: the leisure occupations of our boys being in the agricultural & gardening line, are incapable of being exhibited to our distant friends, but to convince you that we do not mean to become quite rustics & to neglect the elegant arts while we cultivate the useful ones, I shall take the liberty of sending for your acceptance a pair of little screens the work of our eldest daughter which may sometimes remind you of us. You will be pleased to signify where they shall be left in Boston, perhaps Mr. Hallowell’s may be a convenient place.2
Mr. Vaughan occupies himself solely with husbandry, gardening, medicine & philosophical pursuits; he never reads politics unless once in six months perhaps a slight pamphlet; & he never speaks on the subject with his neighbours, or takes an active part on either side. His change in this respect is such as surprizes even myself. He now & then indeed attends to divinity, but never to its controversies. By this means we live peaceably with all parties; as they seem less violent here than in the middle states, the attempt is more easy.
I shall be happy to enjoy a few of your moments of leisure & to hear of your health & family; Mrs. Smith has not I hope forgotten us, please to present our Compts. to her & Col. Smith. Mr. Vaughan unites with me in kind respects to yourself & Mr. Adams.
Mr. Vaughan does not find it easy in a new-settled place to renew those kinds of sensations which he formerly experienced in the society of your family, since this was difficult in the extensive cities of Europe. He sensibly regrets therefore his separation from you & his other antient American friends; & this with his separation from his friends in Europe, is almost the only regret he feels here.
He desires me to add, that he has lately & as from himself recommended to a certain friend to bid an eternal adieu to political controversies. He had before made attempts to this effect, particularly by reciting his own example. The late unpleasant step taken by the party himself might have made farther measures seem too late, had not the message through General Dearborn encouraged him to a new & vigorous effort. By various arguments, not forgetting some drawn from religion & the sentiments of certain of his friends, he has now again urged him to a final abandonment of party proceedings. He conceives that it would not assist his attempt to have any communication between himself & the President on this subject suspected. Mr. V— is yet without an answer; but he received a late promise from the party that he himself shall never again be named in his disputes.
I am my dear Madam, / with respect & esteem / Your Obedt. hum. Servt.
Sarah Vaughan3
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs Vaughans / Letter 19 May / 1800.”
1. Benjamin and Sarah Manning Vaughan (1754–1834) had known JA and AA since Benjamin served as a mediator between the American and British commissioners during the Paris peace negotiations in 1782. The Vaughans returned to London after the negotiations, and Benjamin established himself as a merchant and served as an M.P. from 1792 to 1794, when critical comments he had made about the Pitt ministry became public, and he fled Britain for France and Switzerland. In 1795 Sarah immigrated to the United States with their seven living children, Harriet (1782–1798), William Oliver (1783–1826), Sarah (1784–1847), Henry (1786–1806), Petty (1788–1854), Lucy (b. 1790), and Elizabeth (1793–1855), settling in Hallowell, Maine, and Benjamin joined them there in 1797 (vol. 7:156; , 3:53, 54, 57; ; John H. Sheppard, Reminiscences of the Vaughan Family, Boston, 1865, p. 26–27).
2. Robert Hallowell (1739–1818) was Benjamin Vaughan’s uncle and a Boston merchant who lived on Batterymarch Street (Robert Hallowell Gardiner, Early Recollections of Robert Hallowell Gardiner, 1782–1864, Hallowell, Maine, 1936, p. 4, 118; , 1800, p. 53, No. 37024).
3. AA’s reply to Sarah Manning Vaughan of [ante 8 Oct. 1800] commented on the family’s decision to settle in Maine and praised the artwork sent by Vaughan’s daughter Sarah as “both a Specimin of taste and elegance of execution” (Adams Papers).