Adams Papers
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John Quincy Adams to John Adams, 20 March 1804

John Quincy Adams to John Adams

20. March 1804.

A letter is now reading from Captain Bainbridge, with an account of the loss of the frigate Philadelphia, wreck’d on rocks on the coast of Tripoli—the last week in October— They were in pursuit of a Tripolitan Cruizer, and struck on rocks, not laid down in any Chart they had on board— Captain Bainbridge and 307 men, are prisoners in Tripoli.— I have already seen an account of this misfortune in the Boston Centinel—1 Of course it will be no news to you.

The House of Representatives have made sundry amendments in the Louisiana Government Bill, which amendments are now under discussion in the Senate— They are received somewhat cavalierly— All rejected, but two— One making an appropriation of 15000 dollars to remove the Indians on the Western side of the Mississippi— And the other to limit the bill to [two] years, which was before attempted in the Senate and failed— But now two years is thought too long, and the Senate have shortened it to one year—2

My children both continue quite unwell— We were up almost all the last Night with the youngest— They have coughs and whoop— But the Doctor says they have not the whooping cough—3 There is a sort of catarrh, resembling the whooping-cough, very prevalent abroad, and the Doctor says my children have it.— I am my self much recovered.

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “John Adams Esqr / Quincy. / Massachusetts.”; endorsed by TBA: “20th: April March 1804 / April Recd.” Some loss of text due to the placement of the seal.

1After taking command of the U.S. squadron blockading Tripoli in Sept. 1803, Como. Edward Preble attempted to tighten the blockade, but the frigate Philadelphia, Capt. William Bainbridge, proved too large for the shallow waters. The Boston Columbian Centinel, 10 March 1804, reported that Bainbridge, after running aground while chasing a Tripolitan cruiser on 31 Oct. 1803, surrendered the Philadelphia and its crew. The newspaper confirmed the report on 17 March 1804. Thomas Jefferson, in a 20 March letter to Congress, enclosed a copy of Bainbridge’s 1 Nov. 1803 letter to naval secretary Robert Smith, in which the captain reported the loss of the ship and the subsequent imprisonment of himself and his crew. During his captivity, Bainbridge devised a plan to destroy the Philadelphia and sent encrypted instructions in a letter to Preble. In a night raid on 16 Feb. 1804, a party led by Lt. Stephen Decatur slipped into the harbor, set fire to the frigate, and escaped back to the squadron. Bainbridge and his crew eventually were liberated through the 1805 treaty with Tripoli that included payment of a $60,000 ransom (Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 43:63; United States Office of Naval Records and Library, Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, 6 vols., Washington, D.C., 1939–1944, 3:171–173; Frank Lambert, The Barbary Wars, N.Y., 2005, p. 139, 140, 142–144, 154).

2The House of Representatives took up the Louisiana government bill on 20 Feb. 1804 and from 14 to 17 March debated several amendments, including those described by JQA and others on the governor’s salary, prerequisites for government service, frequency of elections, naturalization, and property claims made prior to the transfer of the territory. The Senate took up the amended bill again on 20 March, and JQA joined large majorities in rejecting all of the House amendments except provisions that extended to Louisiana existing regulations of Native Americans, authorized the president to remove Native Americans from the eastern to western shores of the Mississippi River, and appropriated $15,000 for these purposes. They also proposed limiting the legislation to one year, to which the House agreed on 21 March. The bill was enacted on 26 March (Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States [1789–1824], Washington, D.C., 1834–1856; 42 vols. description ends , 8th Cong., 1st sess., p. 1038, 1185–1189, 1196–1199, 1206–1208, 1229–1230; U.S. Senate, Jour. description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., 1789– . description ends , 8th Cong., 1st sess., p. 384–385, 390–391; U.S. Statutes at Large description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, 1789– , Boston and Washington, D.C., 1845– . description ends , 2:289).

3Georgetown physician John Weems (ca. 1770–1808), University of Edinburgh 1792, was the Adamses’ physician (JQA to LCA, 9 April, below; Madison, Papers, Secretary of State Series description begins The Papers of James Madison: Secretary of State Series, ed. Robert J. Brugger, Mary A. Hackett, David B. Mattern, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1986– . description ends , 10:127; Harrison Dwight Cavanagh, Colonial Chesapeake Families: British Origins and Descendants, 2 vols., [Thorofare, N.J.], 2014, 2:229).

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