Adams Papers
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Abigail Adams to John Adams, 2 June 1800

Abigail Adams to John Adams

Quincy June 2d 1800—

my Dearest Friend

Mr Gore came out this afternoon to see me; and informd me that Mr Dexter proposed to sit out tomorrow for Washington. by him I embrace the earliest opportunity of informing you of my safe arrival at Quincy on Saturday the last Day of May; in good health tho Something fatigued I got on very well, met with no accident, Horses all in good order. I found our Friends here well. the Hill looks very well. mr Porter says those parts which were manured will have a good crop of Grass. we have had very plentifull rains grain & grass promise well, but our verdure here, is not So deep, nor our grain so forward by any means.— we are three weeks later— the building progresses, but not so fast as I wish.—

Mr Dexter can give you a More accurate statement of Parties & politicks than I am able to. I met with judge Hobart upon a visit at Fairfield. he came and spent the Evening with me at Penfields.1 upon the subject of a late removal he said there had been some considerable sensation in that state at first, but that thinking people agreed that the President was certainly right in calling to his aid Men who would act with him— the Jacobins in Boston say: or rather certain persons who call themselves federilists say, that it is an Electioneering measure others say that the federilists as well as Jacobins want to get a Man whom they can Manage— Burr means to be voted for in N york and Says that it will be of no use to Sit up Pinckney— several people are disgusted with Harpers letter to his constituents. they consider it as a luke warm buisness—that part of it wherein he appears to think it quite a Matter of indifference whether Mr A or Mr Pinckney is elected—2 I have not got a line from you or mr shaw since I left new york— I hope to hear from You this week.— I say to every body who inquires, that Gen’ll Marshall will accept his appointment I should sorry to believe that he would not deserve as well of his Country as mr Dexter— good old Gen’ll Lincoln call’d on saturday Evening to inquire, if they had not kill’d you yet. I told him no that you would live to kill half a dozen more politically, if they did not stear steady—

our old Neighbour and tennant Elijah Belcher dyed yesterday morning—3 a kind remenbrance to all Friends

affectionatly / Yours &c

Mrs Smith is at Nwark with the cols Mother. she could not come on when I did having arrangements to make, and being uncertain what the col would do this summer.4 if he goes up to the Miami with his Brother, she would be glad to come with You when You return to Quincy— mr shaw can take the stage

RC (Adams Papers); notation by JA: “If ever there was uninspired Prophecy, this is it. / Decr 14. 1818 J. A.”

1AA met with Fairfield, Conn., native and New York federal judge John Sloss Hobart, for whom see vol. 10:354. Samuel Penfield (1734–1811) was the proprietor of the Sun Tavern, where the meeting took place (Florence Bentz Penfield, comp. and ed., The Genealogy of the Descendants of Samuel Penfield, Reading, Penn., 1963, p. 8–9).

2Robert Goodloe Harper in a 15 May circular letter to his constituents endorsed neither JA nor Charles Cotesworth Pinckney for president, saying that “if both are supported together, there will be more probability of securing one of them.” The letter was printed in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 24 May, and the Boston Russell’s Gazette, 26 May (Noble E. Cunningham Jr., ed., Circular Letters of Congressmen to Their Constituents, 1789–1829, 3 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., 1978, 1:215–223).

3Elijah Belcher (b. 1729) died on 1 June (Sprague, Braintree Families description begins Waldo Chamberlain Sprague, comp., Genealogies of the Families of Braintree, Mass., 1640–1850, Boston, 1983; repr. CD-ROM, Boston, 2001. description ends ).

4WSS wrote to AA on 12 June, reporting that he would complete his military duties by the 14th and that AA2 was still in Newark, N.J. (Adams Papers).

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