Adams Papers

Jeremy Belknap to Abigail Adams, 14 June 1798

Jeremy Belknap to Abigail Adams

Bo June 14 1798

Dear Madam

As the extract which you marked in yr Son’s letter was too long for one paper I divided it & gave one half to Benjn & the other half to John Russell, the latter part appears in the Commercial Gazette of this day, the former I hope will come out on Saturday.1

I have read Robisons Conspiracy with astonishment, it contains the seeds of all the mischiefs which we have been tormented with for years past— God grant we may be able to stop the progress of this worse than mortal pestilence. Thinking men are very much alarmed about the matter— The book is getting into repute notwithstandg the acco wh the Analytical Reviewers have given against it— Are not they probably among the illuminati?

Pray who or what is General Eustace? & what is his errand to this Country?2

Will you be so good as to ask the Presidt whether he has in his Library Thurloe’s State papers?3 & if so whether he will allow me the inspection or loan of such part of the work as I may want?

I send you another & the only Subscription paper wch I have. I am much obliged by your very kind offer of assistance— I wish to have both returned by the beginning of next month. The book is now at the press & will probably be published in all July.

If you are not tired, Madam, with my Queries I beg to know one thing more, & that is Whether any of our armed Vessels will be employed to convoy trading vessels to the W. Indies this Summer— The reason of my asking is that one of my Sons who has had a mercantile Education & is now of age has some prospect of making a Voyage thither as Super cargo, but it will depend on the prospect of safety either by insurance or convoy & the latter may sensibly affect the former.4

I will not trouble you with another Word but only to assure you of my readiness to do you or the public thro’ your means any Service in my Power.

Mrs B reciprocates your obliging Salutations & joins me in respectful & cordial compliments to the Presidt & yourself—

I am madam / yr obliged friend & / hbl servt

Jeremy Belknap5

Mr Appleton the Loan Commissioner lies dangerously ill of a putrid fever & will probably not recover.

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs Abigail Adams”; endorsed: “Dr Belknap 14 / June 1798.”

1As Belknap notes, the extract that AA had sent of TBA’s 4 March letter to JA was broken into two parts and published in the Boston Russell’s Gazette, 14 June, and the Boston Columbian Centinel, 16 June.

2Gen. John Skey Eustace, a frequent political agitator, was arrested in the Netherlands in 1794 and then expelled from France and England in 1797. William Vans Murray wrote to Timothy Pickering on 8 March 1798 (MHi:Pickering Papers) that Eustace planned to renounce his American citizenship but changed his mind after reading Robert Goodloe Harper’s Observations on the Dispute between the United States and France, Phila., 1797, Evans, description begins Charles Evans and others, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, Mass., 1903–1959; 14 vols.; rev. edn., www.readex.com. description ends No. 32226, for which see vol. 12:257. In her reply to Belknap of 25 June (MHi:Jeremy Belknap Papers), AA explained that Eustace had been arrested again in the Netherlands and ordered to leave the country. He arrived in New York on 30 May. AA further reported that Murray had written in support of Eustace as a “man of tallents & much general information,” but AA thought he might be “classd, in the List of Adventurers” (vol. 10:402; Madison, Papers, Congressional Series description begins The Papers of James Madison: Congressional Series, ed. William T. Hutchinson, William M. E. Rachal, and Robert Allen Rutland, Chicago and Charlottesville, Va., 1962–1991; 17 vols. description ends , 17:182–183; Hamilton, Papers description begins The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Harold C. Syrett, Jacob E. Cooke, and others, New York, 1961–1987; 27 vols. description ends , 22:213; New York Argus, 1 June).

3A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe … Containing Authentic Memorials of the English Affairs from the Year 1638, to the Restoration of King Charles II, 7 vols., London, 1742. In her letter of 25 June, AA reported to Belknap that JA did not own a copy of the work (MHi:Jeremy Belknap Papers).

4This was probably Belknap’s youngest son, Andrew Eliot (1779–1858), who had just turned nineteen. He served as supercargo on the schooner Samuel, Capt. Williams, in 1801, and became a prominent merchant in Boston during the nineteenth century (Kirsch, Jeremy Belknap description begins George B. Kirsch, Jeremy Belknap, New York, 1982. description ends , p. 11; Boston Independent Chronicle, 13–16 April 1801; Boston Weekly Messenger, 27 Jan. 1858).

5On 18 June 1798 AA wrote a short letter to Belknap (NhD:Ticknor Autograph Coll.) enclosing two pamphlets: John Dennis, An Address to the People of Maryland, Phila., 1798, Evans, description begins Charles Evans and others, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, Mass., 1903–1959; 14 vols.; rev. edn., www.readex.com. description ends No. 33626, and Anthony Aufrere, The Cannibals’ Progress; or, The Dreadful Horrors of French Invasion, Phila., 1798, Evans, description begins Charles Evans and others, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States of America [1639–1800], Chicago and Worcester, Mass., 1903–1959; 14 vols.; rev. edn., www.readex.com. description ends No. 33334.

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