Adams Papers

From Stephen Higginson to John Adams, 5 September 1795

From Stephen Higginson

Boston Sepr. 5: 1795

Sir

I mention’d to Mr. Pickering, Secretary at War, the Letter from your Son, which I saw, & recommended his reading it with attention, as I thought the information it contained would be very useful to him in Judging of political questions &c which might fall in his way. he writes me that he enquired for it & found it had been returned a few days before, & no copy of it was retained.1 mr. Woolcot & he are very desirous of seeing it, & I think it may be of great Service for them to see & to have it by them—it will explain & elucidate many things which they do not now well understand, & will correct some Ideas which they may now entertain.—

If you think so too & have no objection I will thank You to let me have the Letter to copy, leaving out the name & the place if you think best. I wish indeed to have a copy to show to mr. Cabot mr. Gore mr Lowell & a few others, for it gives information which they can not elsewhere get, & exhibits a View of European politics & persuits that is new & instructive.—

With much respect I am Sir / Your very huml Serv

Stephen Higginson

RC (Adams Papers).

1. Timothy Pickering (1745–1829), of Salem, Mass., Harvard 1763, served as secretary of war from 2 Jan. to August, when he was named secretary of state, a post that he held until JA dismissed him in May 1800. Higginson urged him to read JQA’s accounts as “a clear & correct view of European politics, of the state & pursuits of the contending nations,” particularly concerning French reactions to the Jay Treaty (vol. 16:92; ANB description begins John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes, and Paul Betz, eds., American National Biography, New York, 1999–2002; 24 vols. plus supplement; rev. edn., www.anb.org. description ends ; AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 10:291; Higginson to Pickering, 16 Aug. 1795, MHi:Pickering Papers).

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    Source Project
    Adams Papers
    Title
    From Stephen Higginson to John Adams, 5 September 1795
    Author
    Higginson, Stephen
    Recipient
    Adams, John
    Date
    5 September 1795

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From Stephen Higginson to John Adams, 5 September 1795,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-21-02-0298. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 21, March 1791–January 1797, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Gwen Fries, Amanda M. Norton, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022, p. 413.]

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