From John Adams to Elkanah Watson Jr., 16 December 1790
To Elkanah Watson Jr.
Philadelphia Decr 16. 1790
Sir
I have this moment received your favour of Nov. 30, and the Volume inclosed with it: an acceptable Present for which I thank you.1
I have not yet had the time to read it, and cannot therefore form any Opinion of its merits. By a kind of [Sortes virgiane] I Stumbled on the Anecdote of the Child drowning in [the Canal] at the Hague, which brought strongly to my Recollection the feelings We both experienced in that disstressing moment, which were abundantly compensated by the Joy at the unexpected deliverance of the little Urchin.
If upon reading the Book, any remarks should occur to me worthy your Attention I may at some leisure moment, communic[ate them to you.]
I am obliged to you for informing me where you are situated: and I hope your Prospects are there agreable, and will answer to your Expectations.
My Rambles abroad appear to me like a Dream: and if your Book had not recalled the Scene of the drowning Babe I might never have thought of it more. My Imagination is always refreshed with the Recollection of my Walks and rides about the Hague which are charming: and with those in the Bois de Boulogne, more than with the more Splendid Scenes at Courts or in Cities.
I am sir with Sincere regard / Your most obedient sert
John Adams.
P.S. I remember now that you once told me at the Hague “That the American Tories and refugees [in England] dreaded me more than any other or than all other men in the World.” These Expressions, although they are very Strong are of ambiguous Signification.— there were some forged Letters printed in my Name in the London Newspapers breathing Vengeance against that description of People which was never in my feelings nor consistent with my Principles. from these Counterfeits they might be led to expect from me vindictive measures against them, which I never dream’d of.2
The Refugees moreover, might entertain hopes, however weak and visionary, of again Seeing the Domination of Britain reinstated in America, and might think me their most determined opponent.— in Such a Guess as this they would not have been much out. however as you Said you knew their Sentiments from Conversations with them, I wish you would explain the matter to.
J A.
RC (N:Elkanah Watson Papers); internal address: “Mr Elkanah Watson Junr / [. . .] Albany.” Text lost due to a torn manuscript has been supplied from a FC (N:Elkanah Watson Papers).
1. Watson wrote to JA on 30 Nov. (Adams Papers), alerting him that he had resettled in Albany, N.Y., and enclosing a copy of his Tour in Holland, in MDCCLXXXIV. By an American, Worcester, Mass., 1790, No. 23039. There, Watson related JA’s 1784 attempt to rescue a child drowning in a Delft canal, for which see vol. 16:275.
2. The London Lloyd’s Evening Post, 11 July 1781, printed an extract of a 15 Dec. 1780 letter allegedly written by JA to Massachusetts lieutenant governor Thomas Cushing and discovered aboard a seized brigantine, the Cabot. In it, JA reportedly recommended “to fine, imprison, and hang” all loyalists, adding: “I would have hanged my own brother, if he had took a part with our enemy in this contest.” Several Massachusetts newspapers reprinted the forged letter on 8 Nov. 1781, but the Boston Independent Ledger, 12 Nov., labeled it “spurious,” noting that Cushing had not written to JA as the text claimed; that JA could not have known of Cushing’s political appointment as of the letter’s dateline; and, most significantly, that JA had publicly denounced the document as fake. Loyalist propaganda bedeviled JA during his diplomatic tenure in London, but the 1780 forgery remained a particular burr in his thought for many years. Writing to John Marshall on 10 Feb. 1801 (Adams Papers), JA reiterated that the views held therein were “inconsistent with the whole tenor of my life & all the feelings of my nature” (vol. 9:318; Boston Independent Chronicle, 8 Nov. 1781; Salem Gazette, 8 Nov.).