William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams, 7 January 1804
William Smith Shaw to John Quincy Adams
Boston 7th Jan. 1804
Dear Sir
On my return last evening from Atkinson where I have passed the last eight days in company with your brother Thomas I had the pleasure to receive your letters of the 23 & 24 ult: with Mr. Tracy’s speech for which I am much obliged to you
At present I have only time to say that Mr Stedman was the writer of the letter alluded to in mine of the 13th— Russel when he shew me the letter did not permit me to see the writers name but I knew the hand writing & Russel has since told John Gardner that the letter was from Mr. Stedman of Lancaster1
Very respectfully
W S Shaw—
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “John Q. Adams Esqr.”
1. In a letter to JQA of 12 [Dec.] 1803, Shaw enclosed the article criticizing JQA that appeared in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 10 Dec., for which see AA to JQA, 11 Dec., and note 3, above. Shaw further reported that prior to the article’s publication, Centinel printer Benjamin Russell had shown him a letter from a Massachusetts member of the House of Representatives that commented on JQA’s actions in the Senate with “several marks of admiration.” Shaw concluded that the printed version in the Centinel had been “vamped up” by Russell and was “the effusion of his own idle brain” (Adams Papers).
After learning of the Centinel piece, JQA made several efforts to identify the author. He wrote to Shaw on 23 and 24 Dec. (both MWA:Adams Family Letters), asking that Shaw seek the writer’s identity so that JQA could “make such explanations to him as will be entirely satisfactory to him and to me.” JQA wrote a similar letter to Russell on 24 Dec. (LbC, APM Reel 135). On 8 Jan. 1804 Russell replied that he would ask the writer’s permission to reveal his name, and on 29 Jan. he wrote again, noting the author’s refusal (both Adams Papers). In the 29 Jan. letter, Russell also informed JQA that he had printed the letter without the writer’s permission because he “lamented an error in your judgment, from whose influence I had expected important consequences” and wrote that JQA had disappointed his hope for “adding new strength and energy to the thin ranks of federalism.” On 18 Jan. JQA received Shaw’s letter, learning that the source of the published letter was Congressman William Stedman, for whom see vol. 13:157. JQA did not indicate whether he approached Stedman on the matter (D/JQA/27, 18 Jan., APM Reel 30).