Adams Papers
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John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 28 March 1801

John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

No. 2.

Berlin. 28. March. 1801—

My dear brother,

I now enclose together with a press copy of my last letter to you, the original of one addressed to your father, containing observations upon a french pamphlet, which I have sent him. This letter however is not to be sent to him, but to be published in the Port Folio, if the Editor thinks proper. Of course, without indicating either the writer, or the person, to whom it is addressed— My design is to follow it with others of a like nature, which the Editor of the Port Folio may publish under the discription of “Letters; from an American abroad upon various topics of foreign literature,” or some such title—1 I shall send the originals to you & only press copies to your father; my motives for which I have mentioned in a letter to him this day, & hope they will meet his approbation.

I have a piece of unpleasant news to communicate. Dr Brown’s family are in deep affliction. His second daughter, Bell, died on the evening of last Monday the 23rd: instt: after an illness of a very few days; the shock was indeed almost as sudden & unexpected as it violent.2 They scarcely apprehended danger, untill it was irremovable, & her mother, who went to bed at night with the flattering hope, that she was fast recovering, rose in the morning to the agonizing information, that she was no more. We sincerely share in the sorrows of this amiable family, upon a calamity so distressing, & I am persuaded, that you will be equally sensible to it.

I am in daily expectation of receiving your promised letter of the beginning of Feby:3 By the english newspapers we have accounts from New York to the 9th: of that month. They mention that the Convention with France had at length been ratified by our Senate with the omission of the second article.4 Whether the french government will acquiesce in this, or not, I am unable to say. But at any rate I have little hopes, that the omission will be of any service to us.

We are upon the point of losing here the family of the English Minister, Lord Carysfort. The Prussian regiments are already under orders to march & take possession of Hanover. They will likewise occupy the cities of Hamburg, & Bremen— My wife will meet with a great loss in Lady Carysfort, who has been to her as a mother. She is a sister of Lord Grenville, & a woman of a remarkable fine understanding.5

You will have heard before you receive this of the declaration of war between Spain & Portugal, & that a suspension of hostilities has been concluded between France & the king of the two Sicilies; by virtue of which, the Neapolitan ports are to be shut against the English—6

LbC in Thomas Welsh Jr.’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “T B. Adams. Esqr:”; APM Reel 134.

1JQA enclosed another letter to JA of 28 March (LbC, APM Reel 184), which comprised an essay on Jean André de Luc’s defense of Francis Bacon as a religious philosopher: Bacon tel qu’il est; ou, Dénonciation d’une traduction françoise des oeuvres de ce philosophe, Berlin, 1800. Luc’s object was to demonstrate that Antoine Lasalle’s Oeuvres de François Bacon, 15 vols., Dijon, France, 1799–1802, purposefully omitted Bacon’s favorable views on religion. JQA’s essay was printed in Port Folio, 1:179–180 (6 June), as the first in a series under the title “Letter from an American, Resident Abroad.” TBA informed JQA of the publication in his letter of 8 June, below. The press copy of JQA’s 21 March letter to TBA, above, has not been found (Nieves Mathews, Francis Bacon: The History of a Character Assassination, New Haven, 1996, p. 370, 371; DNB description begins Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1901; repr. Oxford, 1959–1960; 21 vols. plus supplements; rev. edn., www.oxforddnb.com. description ends ).

2For LCA’s account of the death of Isabella Brown, daughter of Dr. Charles and Mary Huthwaite Brown, and her comments on TBA’s fondness for the young woman, see LCA, D&A description begins Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams, ed. Judith S. Graham and others, Cambridge, 2013; 2 vols. description ends , 1:89, 153–154.

3In his letter of 15 Jan., for which see vol. 14:528, TBA pledged to update JQA on his investments the following month. The ensuing letter of 31 Jan. and an enclosed account have not been found; JQA acknowledged both on 29 March (FC-Pr), providing instructions on his investments and telling TBA that he was “very well satisfied” with his handling of his affairs. For an enclosure sent with the 29 March letter, see JQA to TBA, 4 April, and note 1, below.

4The London Times, 17 March, reported that letters and newspapers received from New York the day before announced the Senate’s 3 Feb. conditional ratification of the Convention of 1800.

5John Joshua Proby, Baron Carysfort (1751–1828), had been British minister to Prussia since 9 Aug. 1800. His second wife, Elizabeth Grenville (ca. 1756–1842), sister of William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, was a close friend to LCA. Baron Carysfort had been ordered to St. Petersburg, but declined the posting and returned to England when his service as British minister to Prussia ended on 24 Oct. 1801. Tensions were rising between Britain and Russia due to the renewal of the Armed Neutrality of 1780. The renewal was also a catalyst for Prussia to abandon its neutrality in March 1801 and occupy the independent states of Hanover and Bremen and shut the Weser and Ems Rivers to British trade. The Danes likewise occupied Hamburg on 29 March and closed the Elbe to the British, further escalating tensions with Britain (Repertorium description begins Ludwig Bittner and others, eds., Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder seit dem Westfälischen Frieden (1648), Oldenburg, 1936–1965; 3 vols. description ends , 3:171; LCA, D&A description begins Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams, ed. Judith S. Graham and others, Cambridge, 2013; 2 vols. description ends , 1:138; R. G. Thorne, ed., The House of Commons, 1790–1820, 5 vols., London, 1986; Walter Fitzpatrick, ed., Report on the Manuscripts of J. B. Fortescue, Esq., Preserved at Dropmore, 10 vols., London, 1892–1927, 6:437, 446, 456, 472–473; Elizabeth Grenville Proby Carysfort to LCA, 10 May 1803, below; Cambridge Modern Hist. description begins The Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge, Eng., 1902–1911; repr. New York, 1969; 13 vols. description ends , 9:48–49).

6On 28 March 1801 the Treaty of Florence between France and Naples was signed, compelling King Ferdinand IV of Naples to exclude British commerce from his territories (Cambridge Modern Hist. description begins The Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge, Eng., 1902–1911; repr. New York, 1969; 13 vols. description ends , 9:364).

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