Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw, 26 December 1797
Abigail Adams to William Smith Shaw
26 December 1797
my Dear Nephew
I received by the last post your kind Letter and the Poem of Mrs Mortens which the President had received a few days before from the Author “For the beloved President of a Free and enlightned People, the following Poem is gratefully and Respectfully offerd, by the Author” I would fain flatter myself that the fair Authoriss did not take a poetic lisence in this sentance; I send you in return Erskine speeches on the trial of Thomas Williams for Publishing the Age of reason and Giffords Letter to Erskine. I like mr Erskines Religious sentiments much better than his Politicks in the former he is a very good Christian, in the latter a very great Heritic. Gifford has proved himself a much more enlightned Politician, and places Erskine intirely in the back ground.1 I have lately been reading Letters of a Lady written in France during a residence there in the years 92 93 94 95 prepared for the press by this same mr Gifford they are admirably well written and corrobarate the facts which we received from other pens of most of the Horrours which stain this unparaleld Revolution in France intersperced with sentiments and reflections which do honour to the Head and heart of the writer. What is to be the fate of that devoted Nation no Humane foresight can determine. a more despotic act was never perpretrated by the most absolute of Tyrants, than banishing untried Such a number of citizens Legislators. I can not describe my sentiments on this subject better than quoting the words of this Lady in her Letter of June 3 1794 before the Death of Robespierre. The individual sufferings of the French may perhaps yet admit of increase: but their Humiliation as a people can go no further; and if it were not certain that the acts of the government are congenial to its principles one might suppose this tyranny a moral experiment on the extent of human endurance than a political system.2 the late tyrannical mandates of the directory, shew the weakness and instability of a form of government which is incapable of resisting opposition, and which knows no medium between yealding to its adversaries, or destroying them. force alone is Law.
I would send you Porcupine papers, sometimes if you do not see them. he is frantick with joy and exultation just now for the Victory obtaind by Admiral Duncan over the Dutch. he crows and claps his wings and says the English ought to have blown them all up. a good Haunch of a fat Dutchman would be worth more than the whole Body of a san cullot. he is a sad dog, but his Wit is without malice, tho he frequently decends to Blackguardism3
When you go to Atkinson do You write a Letter to mrs smith & tell her how her Sons are. she will receive it very friendly of you. cover it to me and I will forward it. Johnson kept sabbeth with me & went off on twesday last for George Town. write me again, and I will not omit replying to you. you mend in your Hand. your uncle says you will do very well in time. adieu your affectionate / Aunt
A A
Dft (Adams Papers).
1. Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton’s Beacon Hill. A Local Poem, Historic and Descriptive, Boston, 1797, No. 32512, was dedicated to the “citizen-soldiers” of the Revolution and took as its subject “the great events” of the war that “originated within the view of this interesting eminence.” Neither the letter from Shaw to AA, nor a communication from Morton to JA, have been found. The works AA sent Shaw in return were The Speeches of the Hon. Thomas Erskine … on the Trial the King versus Thomas Williams, for Publishing The Age of Reason, Written by Thomas Paine, Phila., 1797, No. 32093, and John Gifford, A Letter to the Hon. Thomas Erskine; Containing Some Strictures on His View of the Causes and Consequences of the Present War with France, Phila., 1797, No. 32191.
2. A Residence in France, During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794, and 1795; Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady, 2 vols., London, 1797, of which the letter dated 3 June 1794 describes several mass executions under Robespierre’s regime and declares, “Such are the horrors now common to almost every part of France.” The portion quoted by AA derives from the first paragraph of the author’s letter (2:116, 120).
3. Adm. Adam Duncan (1731–1804), commander of the British fleet in the North Sea, defeated the Dutch fleet in the Battle of Camperdown on 11 Oct. 1797, capturing nine ships of the line and two frigates. Between 18 and 23 Dec. the Philadelphia Porcupine’s Gazette gleefully reported the victory under titles such as “Drubbing the Dutch” (18 Dec.) and “Lambasting of the Dutch Confirmed” (19 Dec.). The editorial comments to which AA referred were published on 18 Dec.: “I imagine that the gammon of a fat Dutchman must at least be as good a dish as that of a care-worn prison-worn aristocrat” (; , 8:482–483).