Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 22 April 1801
Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
Quincy April 22 1801—
my dear Thomas
I have read Your Brothers Letters, with much pleasure; that part of them; in which he so dutifully, affectionatly, and generously tenders all his property for the use of his parents, affected both your Father and me most tenderly; thank God, we have not any occasion for it; our desires are moderate, our oeconomy strickt, our income, tho moderate, will furnish us with all the necessaries, and many of the comforts of Life; and if it bears not any proportion to 40 years of Labour, hazard and fatigue, of risk of Life; and character—who is there to accuse? we shall go down to our Graves, certainly not in debt to the public; I hope you will publish that part of his your Brothers Letter which accuses his Country men, of a sordid Spirit of gain; and an Infamous spirit of party.— of a deficiency of taste, for the fine arts, and literature, in a degree unworthy of a people who are so apt to be vain of their acquirements, and boast themselves, “as the freest and most enlightned” people upon the Globe;1 This State have given an honorable Majority to Govr Strong, the votes are near 5000 Majority—so that Jacobinism has not triumphd as was designed; in every
instance in this State; tho it has shown it self too powerfull in many instances— I See the little General has been Spouting in NYork, but notwithstanding his proffers; he will mar the cause he wishes to defend, in vain may he strive to tread back the path he has wandered from; he and his associates have merritted all they feel and all they fear; the changes which have taken place create murmers but dumbness itself reigns upon the past, and one would imagine the last four years of the administration annihilated, the writers who proclaim daily the wisdom of Washington’s, scarcly deign to notice that he had a successor— at a late federal feast in N York, where the memory of Washington is celebrated and Jay justly toasted, Hamilton is Eulogized, whist Adams is passed by in total neglect.2
I Mention this as one proof amongst a thousand, which daily occur, to show the unjust spirit of party, and the determination that a President shall be Subject to their controul, or be sacrificed by them, and this is, as evident a struggle for power in the federilist, as can be manifested by their opponents— I feel thankfull that Your Father bears, and sees all these things with a total indifference towards them; that he is not embitterd by them, but Views them with Calmness, pitty and compassion— there is no temper of mind which I wish to strive harder against, than a sour discontented complaining disposition; if Benifits have been rendered, to which those are insensible who have received them; are we not all more or less Guilty of the same offence; against that Being who impartially makes the Rain to desend, and the Sun to shine upon the Evil, and unthankfull, as well as upon the most gratefull and upright of his creatures?3
You will observe by an Extract of some late dispatches from mr King, how much disposed Great Britain is to preserve a harmony and civility towards the United States—4 Would this have been the case, if we had not made a convention with France? Yet no man asks this Question. the writers in Ben’s paper were no longer than last week, calling it a disgracefull Humiliation, and abuseing Jefferson for ordering the Bearceau to be given up.— the feds injure their own cause, when they complain of just and honest measures.5
my dear Thomas I have a word to say to you, if upon any exigency you have occasion for a little money 50, or a hundred dollars, let me know. I have a little fund from which I can draw it, and You shall repay it me again when you are able So do not feel yourself embarressed at requesting it— I wish you was Settled in the County of Worster, there is said to be a good opening now Lincoln, provided for. Strong a judge & Spraige dead—but I must leave you to your own judgement—6 I have found here a pr of Your black Silk Stockings which You said You missd— I suppose they were brought here last summer— Let me know when the Coachee is Shipt. I see dagget is up for Philadelphia; he can take it I Suppose if not already sent; I want it.7 Your sister inquires after You and Says she hears nothing from You; the Boys are not yet returnd but are to come in May—
we have had one of the sourest coldest Springs I have known for many years, the trees Scarcly show a leaf and the ground is brown; they call it Jeffersonian Weather here he may produce warmth enough for them: before the end of the year however
a kind remembrance to all inquiring Friends / affectionatly Your Mother
A Adams
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs: A Adams / 22d: April 1801, / 29th: Do Recd: / 2d: May answd:.”
1. JQA’s letter to TBA of 27 Dec. 1800 was enclosed in TBA’s to JA of 10 April 1801, above. In the letter to his brother, JQA lamented the rise of party in the United States, writing that “an exclusive abandonment of the human mind to the sordid pursuits of avarice & the rancorous passions of party politics, has an unquestionable tendency to contract & debase it.” A focus on idle pursuits and party rancor left little time for Americans to engage in more edifying activities, he wrote: “Hence it is that our countrymen have incurred the imputation of a barbarous contempt for literature, science & the arts.” In commenting on JQA’s argument, AA quoted a Dec. 1796 draft reply of the House of Representatives to an address of George Washington that gained popular currency after consuming two days of debate about whether the reply should call the country “the freest and most enlightened in the world.” The phrase was changed to “a free and enlightened nation” when it was delivered, and Washington repeated the revised line in his response (vol. 14:368; , 4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1612–1653, 1674; New York American Citizen, 19 Nov. 1800).
2. On 31 March 1801 in Utica, N.Y., seventy Federalists honored their former congressional representative Jonas Platt. JA was left out of the proffered toasts, which included those to Washington—“May a double portion of his spirit invest the Presidential Chair to the latest posterity”—to a “capable” and “just” John Jay, and to Alexander Hamilton, “whose tried patriotism, talents and integrity, entitle him to our highest confidence” (New York Daily Advertiser, 15 April).
3. Matthew, 5:45.
4. U.S. minister to Britain Rufus King reported to Secretary of State John Marshall on 23 Jan. that his repeated protests about British depredations against U.S. shipping in the West Indies had at last been addressed. King wrote that orders had been dispatched the day before that would result in the recall of British privateers and the reform of the Vice-Admiralty Courts overseeing West Indian captures. The Boston Commercial Gazette, 20 April, reported the news and claimed that George III had conveyed a message to the U.S. minister that he did not authorize the attacks and had no wish “to interrupt the good understanding engaged between the two countries” (, 3:375–377).
5. The U.S. frigate Boston captured the French corvette Berceau off Guadeloupe on 12 Oct. 1800. The French vessel was condemned as a prize and acquired by the U.S. government in Jan. 1801, but Thomas Jefferson ordered it returned to France under the terms of the Convention of 1800. On 1 April 1801 acting naval secretary Samuel Smith asked Boston naval agent Samuel Brown to restore the vessel to its condition at capture in preparation for the transfer. The vessel was restored at a cost of $32,800 and turned over to the French at Boston on 22 June. The Boston Columbian Centinel, 15 April, excoriated the order to refit the vessel, claiming it was now clear “that the Treaty with the French Republic would involve this country in expence, as it had already entailed upon us disgrace” (vol. 14:456; , 34:548–549; , 7:171). For the September court-martial of several Boston officers, see JA to JQA, 12 Sept., and note 1, below.
6. The ranks of central Massachusetts attorneys thinned when Worcester, Mass., resident Levi Lincoln began the dual duties of U.S. attorney general and acting U.S. secretary of state on 5 March. In addition, Simeon Strong (1736–1805) of Hadley, Mass., was appointed to the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court, taking his seat in March, and John Sprague, a judge of the Worcester County Court of Common Pleas, died in 1800 (; William T. Davis, Bench and Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2 vols., Boston, 1895, 1:73, 246; 2:152, 280–281; , 1:cx; Brookfield, Mass., Political Repository, 17 March 1801).
7. An advertisement in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 18 April, stated that the schooner Sylvia, Capt. Seth Daggett, would soon sail for Philadelphia. For the shipment of the coachee on another vessel, see TBA to AA, 26 April, and note 1, below.