John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 November 1794

John Adams to Abigail Adams

Nov. 14. 1794

My Dearest Friend

By the Post of Yesterday I received your kind Letter of the 4th. of this month, and, by it, was relieved from a great Anxiety on Account of your health and that of Louisa. The News from the orchard is also very pleasant, I wish I could hear as good News from Hancocks Meadow. A Covering would keep it warm But I leave all to your better Judgment.

No senate Yet.—

Mrs Morris by her son has received “a Gallery of Fashion” i.e. Prints of Ladies Dresses in all the Months of the Spring & summer—1 The House goes on rapidly.— Speculation always ends in Extravagance— I love these People too well to be an uninterested Spectator, of what I fear is not Wisdom— But it is indeed properly Speaking as you’l say, none of my Business.

Mr M. declines the Election as Senator— Tenche Cox or Fitzsimmons or Bingham will it is said be chosen.—2

Our senate is under a Cloud— Two Members Frelinghuysen & Ross are with the Army vs the Rebels—3 Butler Bur & Bradley are absent no body knows why— Several are sick and there are several Vacancies &

Adieu

Col Smith is in Town— He breakfasted with me two days ago & dined with me & the Ps. yesterdy

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Novbr 14 / 1794.”

1. Niklaus Wilhelm Innocentius von Heideloff’s The Gallery of Fashion, published in London from 1794 to 1803, was the first English magazine focused solely on fashion and contained hand-colored aquatint plates (Alice Mackrell, An Illustrated History of Fashion: 500 Years of Fashion Illustration, London, 1997, p. 100–102).

2. William Bingham was elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania in place of Robert Morris, who declined reelection (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989, Washington, D.C., 1989. description ends ).

3. Sen. Frederick Frelinghuysen (1753–1804) of New Jersey served as a major general in the militia sent to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. Sen. James Ross of Pennsylvania acted as a federal commissioner appointed by George Washington to negotiate with the insurgents (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–1989, Washington, D.C., 1989. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson, Dumas Malone, and others, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; repr. New York, 1955–1980; 10 vols. plus index and supplements. description ends ).

JA further bemoaned the situation in the Senate to AA in another letter the next day, writing, “My Vote I believe will never be again given for an Adjournment of Congress to an earlier Day, than that which is designated by the Constitution, because I find that Gentlemen cannot conveniently leave their Plantations and Professions in Season to be here Sooner. a Fortnight has been already lost, and We have no Certainty of making a Senate on Monday” (Adams Papers).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 November 1794
Author: Adams, John
Recipient: Adams, Abigail
Date: 14 November 1794

Reference

Cite as: “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 November 1794,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-10-02-0160. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 10, January 1794 – June 1795, ed. Margaret A. Hogan, C. James Taylor, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, Sara B. Sikes, Gregg L. Lint, and Sara Georgini. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011, pp. 258–260.]

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