Adams Papers
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John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 11 April 1801

John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

No: 5.

11. April. 1801—

You have here a triplicate of my letter respecting your account—a duplicate of the conversation between Frederic. 2. & Gellert. And the first number of a series, in which I purpose to review an important late french work, which I shall send to your father.1

It seems to me as if the frequency of writing shortened the distance between us. But you will not complain if it likewise sometimes shortens my letters. Or at least these their external covers.

I have undertaken to send your father twice a month a summary of the most important political events throughout Europe comprised in a single sheet at a time. The first number I have already forwarded.2 Perhaps I shall generally send the press copies to you.

You will probably be of the same opinion with most people here & in Russia, that the Emperor’s death on the 24th: ulto:—was not owing altogether to a natural apoplexy. But we have hitherto nothing explanatory of it, & perhaps shall not have, for a long time.3

The issue of Nelson’s first attack upon the Danes on the second of this month puts my prophecy to the blush— But remember I spoke of it dubiously. I never doubted but that whenever the contest should be purely naval, the English would prove victorious. Such was the case on that occasion— It was an assault only upon the first three lines of defence, & its success is by no means decisive of the final event— The armistice was for three days, & we are told the hostilities were renewed on the 5th:4 But to write you mere reports would be idle. Next week I will tell you more.

Your’s—

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

1JQA enclosed a triplicate of his letter to TBA, 29 March, and a duplicate of that to JA, 4 April, for which see, respectively, JQA to TBA, 28 March, and note 3, and 4 April, and note 1, both above. JQA also enclosed his letter to JA of 11 April, which comprised the first installment of his series on Alexandre Maurice Blanc de Hauterive’s De l’état de la France, a la fin de l’an VIII, for which see JQA to JA, 25 April, and note 1, below.

2JQA in a 7 April letter to JA (LbC, APM Reel 134) wrote that he was enclosing the first of a series of half-month gazettes on events in Europe, which would ultimately extend to five installments covering news between 1 March and 15 May. The first installment chronicled events from 1 to 15 March, including the illness of George III and the resignation of William Pitt, political upheaval in the Russian court, war between Spain and Portugal, and the proposed renewal of the Armed Neutrality of 1780. Only the RC of the first installment has been found (MWA:Adams Family Letters), which includes printer’s corrections for publication, for which see AA to TBA, 5 July 1801, and note 5, below. The remaining gazettes, copies of which are extant as LbC’s or FC-Pr’s, were enclosed with his letters to JA of 18 April, 1 May, 16 May, all below, and 1 June, for which see JQA to TBA, 30 May, and note 6, below.

3Paul 1 was assassinated by operatives of his son and heir Alexander on 23 March. The emperor’s death brought the negotiation of a Franco-Russian alliance to an end and thwarted Napoleon’s plan to use such an alliance to isolate Britain. The British press reported in early April that Alexander I had issued a proclamation announcing his father’s death “suddenly by an apoplectic stroke.” JQA discussed Paul’s death in the 16–31 March second installment of his gazette of European events (LbC, APM Reel 134), which was enclosed in his letter to JA of 18 April, below. “Paul died of a Russian apoplexy” that was “administered” by aides and guards, JQA wrote, adding that after the attackers attempted to force the “utterly defenceless” monarch to sign a letter of abdication, they “proceeded to strangle him, & finding him struggle more than was convenient, finished the work, with the butt end of a musket” (vol. 14:453; Roberts, Napoleon description begins Andrew Roberts, Napoleon: A Life, New York, 2014. description ends , p. 295; Cambridge Modern Hist. description begins The Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge, Eng., 1902–1911; repr. New York, 1969; 13 vols. description ends , 9:70; London European Magazine and London Review, 1 April).

4The British attack on the Danes was limited to the decisive Battle of Copenhagen, for which see JQA to TBA, 4 April, and note 8, above.

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