William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 16 April 1801

William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams

Boston April 16th 1801

My dear Aunt

I have received the things you sent me by Townsend and my Aunt Cranch with your letter of this morning and the shirts, for which please to receive my thanks.1 I find this town so very noisy and the present situation in which I am so very different, on many accounts from any in which I have ever before been, that it will take some time before I shall become naturalized. This circumstance and not having any thing interesting to tell you are my reasons for not writing to you.

There has yet been no change of officers by Mr Jefferson in this state, excepting the appointment of Mr Brown, who does not except of the office, in the place of Mr. Higginson, Mr. Blake is not appointed to the exclusion of Mr Otis as was reported—although the probability seems to be that he will. Mr. J. reinstating Gardner and Whipple of N Hampsire is to me demonstrative proof of his determination to wage war against all the wise measures of the preceding administration. The marshall and district Attorney of Vermont have had their commissions taken from them. I am told they are both excellent men and that nothing can be alledged against them, than that they did their duty in the prosecution of the U States against Lyon2

The Galen arrived here yesterday—but brings papers to 7 of March only two days later than we had before received, nothing new.3

I send you Monday and todays paper—also Hardgraves law tracts, which the P.t asked me to purchase for him.4 I shall speak to Ben Russell as you request. He has always been like the Desdemona of Othello’s distempered immagination, “who could turn and turn and yet go on, and turn again.[”]5 I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at Quincy on Saturday

With every sentiment of respectful attachment / I am yours &c.

W. S. S.

RC (Adams Papers).

1. AA’s 16 April letter has not been found.

2. On 1 April Thomas Jefferson continued his program of removing Federalists from federal posts and replacing them with Democratic-Republicans, naming Boston merchant Samuel Brown as U.S. naval agent for the port of Boston in place of Stephen Higginson. Brown initially declined the position but was prevailed upon to accept and remained in the post until 1807. Harrison Gray Otis remained the U.S. district attorney for Massachusetts until 27 July 1801 when Jefferson replaced him with Boston attorney George Blake, a recess appointment confirmed by the Senate on 26 Jan. 1802.

New Hampshire commissioner of loans William Gardner (1751–1834) and collector of customs Joseph Whipple (1737–1816) were removed from their posts in 1798 at the behest of local political opponents. Jefferson reinstated them on 28 and 30 March 1801, respectively, recess appointments that were also confirmed by the Senate on 26 Jan. 1802. Vermont marshal Jabez Gale Fitch (1764–1824) and district attorney Charles Marsh (1765–1849) oversaw the 1798 sedition prosecution of Matthew Lyon, for which see vol. 13:334. Lyon lobbied Jefferson for the removal of both in letters of 1 and 3 March 1801. Jefferson complied on 5 March, describing each man as an “oppressor of Lyon” and adding of Fitch that he was “removed for cruelty” (Naval Documents of the Quasi-War description begins United States Office of Naval Records and Library, Naval Documents Related to the Quasi-War between the United States and France, Washington, D.C., 1935–1938; 7 vols. description ends , 7:167, 171, 208, 374; New York Commercial Advertiser, 22 April; Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 33:111, 125, 561, 668, 672, 674, 677; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., 1789– . description ends , 1:402, 403, 405; Jackson, Papers description begins The Papers of Andrew Jackson, ed. Sam B. Smith, Harriet Chappell Owsley, Harold D. Moser, Daniel Feller, Michael E. Woods, and others, Knoxville, Tenn., 1980– . description ends , 7:600; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, Jennifer Stertzer, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987– . description ends , 16:78; Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, Washington, D.C., 2005; rev. edn., bioguide.congress.gov. description ends ).

3. The ship Galen, Capt. Robert Hinckley, arrived at Boston on 15 April after a passage of 38 days from London (Boston Commercial Gazette, 16 April).

4. Francis Hargrave, ed., A Collection of Tracts Relative to the Law of England, London, 1787.

5. Shakespeare, Othello, Act IV, scene i, lines 264–265.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 16 April 1801
Author: Shaw, William Smith
Recipient: Adams, Abigail
Date: 16 April 1801

Reference

Cite as: “William Smith Shaw to Abigail Adams, 16 April 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-15-02-0022. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 15, March 1801 – October 1804, ed. Hobson Woodward, Sara Martin, Christopher F. Minty, Neal E. Millikan, Gwen Fries, Amanda M. Norton, Sara Georgini, and R. M. Barlow. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021, pp. 54–55.]

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