Adams Family Correspondence, volume 8
I have procured the Books for you, and Captain Folger not sailing quite so soon as I
expected, I have sent them to mr Boylstones Store requesting him to send them for
me.1 I think it would be worth while to
inquire at the post office in Boston with regard to the other Books which were put into
the Bag with the Letters, & must have gone to the post office, or have been taking
out, before they went from the NewEngland coffe House. I cannot think they were, because
I allways carry or send what ever Letters or packages are going by any of the captains
to that House; & leave them in the care of the Waiter, & I never lost any thing
before. if you should find them give one Set to your cousin Cranch— your sister has not
received any Letter from you, tho in yours to me, you mention writing her.2 the Younger captain Folger is just arrived &
with him mr Gill, whom I have not yet seen.3 he was asked to dine with us yesterday, but
being prengaged could not come. Cushing Barnard & Scot who have all sailed; had
letters for you; I hope you got one which I wrote you by way of Nwyork during the winter.4 Col
Smith by order of 12congress is going to Pourtugal upon Buisness as soon
as your sister gets to Bed which I expect she will the begining of April.5
Callihan will sail in April by whom I hope to write you agreeable intelligence with respect to her—
I have written to your Brothers by mr Martin who sails with captain Folger.6 I quite long to return to America. pray how does my old friend mrs dana? give my Love to her when you see her & my respects to Madam Winthrope. I fear you will grew too Indolent. I very Seldom hear of you at Boston or any where out of colledge your Blood will grew thick & you will be sick. your Pappa is sure of it. he is always preaching up excercise to me and it would be a very usefull doctrine if I sufficiently attended to it. I was afflicted last fall with a slew nervous fever attended with Rhumatick complaints, and I am now labouring under the same disorder for several days past, except that it is not attended with the Rhumatism. as soon as I can get the better of it I am determined to be very punctual in daily walking— your pappa enjoys better Health than I believe he has for many years, reads & writes every Evening; which you know he could not do in France before this reaches you, his Book will have arrived. I should like to know its reception.7 I tell him they will think in America that he is for sitting up a King. he says no, but he is for giving to the Governours of every state the same Authority which the British King has, under the true British constitution, balancing his power by the two other Branches—
I only intended you a line, but how I have spun—adieu your affectionately
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by AA2: “To / Mr John
Quincy Adams / student at Cambridge / Near Boston”; endorsed: “My Mother 20. March
1787” and “Mrs: Adams March 20th: 1787”; notation: “pr captain / Folger.”
Thomas Boylston, a merchant and sugar refiner, operated out of Paul's Wharf, 25 Upper Thames Street, London (MHi:Boylston Family Papers, Box 18, letters of 20, 27 March).
In JQA's letter to AA of 30 Dec. 1786, he expressed an intention to write to AA2. He wrote the letter on 14 Jan. 1787, but AA2 did not acknowledge it until 10 June (vol. 7:417–420, 433–440; AA2 to JQA, 10 June, below).
There were two Captain
Folgers plying the waters between Boston and London in 1787, George Sr. of the brig
Diana and George Jr. of the ship Rebecca. Possibly they were George Folger Sr. (1730–1813)
and his son George Jr. (1756–1809) of Nantucket and Dartmouth. George Sr. left Boston
for London in the Diana on 10 Feb.; George Jr. returned
to Boston from England in the Rebecca on 21 May (Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts, to the Year
1850, 5 vols., Boston, 1925–1928, 1:480, 5:263; Vital
Records of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, 3 vols., Boston,
1929–1930, 2:184–185; Massachusetts Centinel, 10 Feb.;
Boston Gazette, 21 May).
Moses Gill (1762–1832), Harvard 1784, was a son of Boston printer John Gill. He had
come to London to study law at the Middle Temple (vol. 7:459;
AA2 to JQA, 10
June, below; Francis Everett Blake, History of the
Town of Princeton, Massachusetts, 2 vols., 13Princeton, 1915,
1:272, 2:116;
Harvard Quinquennial Cat.
; Mayflower Families
through Five Generations, 16 vols., Plymouth, 1975–2004,
16.3:39–41).
AA to JQA, 28 Nov. 1786, vol. 7:405–406.
The primary purpose of
WSS's mission to Portugal was to deliver a letter from the Continental
Congress to the queen of Portugal thanking her for her protection of American vessels
in the Straits of Gibraltar against the Barbary pirates. Congress passed the
resolution confirming his mission on 3 Feb. 1787, and he was formally notified of his
diplomatic commission on 11 April (JA to
WSS, 11 April, LbC, APM Reel 113; Rufus King to
JA, 9 Feb., Smith,
Letters of Delegates
, 24:84–85). See also
AA to Lucy Cranch, 26
April, and
WSS
to AA2, 26 April, both below.
Only AA to TBA, 15 March, above, has been found.
On 20 April the Massachusetts Gazette carried an advertisement for the sale
of JA's
Defence of the Const
. The same issue carried the
first of many positive reviews, calling the work “a very valuable book . . . well
worthy the attention of every American at this important crisis of our publick
affairs.” The Defence also received negative press,
beginning on 31 May when the Gazette of the State of
Georgia reprinted a London review that attacked JA for advocating
“any check upon the voice of the people.” While the work was widely quoted in the
press, it was never mentioned during the debates of the Constitutional Convention and
ultimately had little effect on the framing of the U.S. Constitution (
Doc. Hist. Ratif.
Const.
, 13:81–90; C. Bradley Thompson, “John Adams and the Science of
Politics,” John Adams and the Founding of the Republic,
ed. Richard Alan Ryerson, Boston, 2001, p. 257–259).
th.87
I have the happiness to inform you that we are again settled, in Charleston, we had a
Passage of seven weeks, it was as you may suppose, disagreeable, it blew a heavy gale
for ten days, & the patience of every person on Board, was exhausted, except our
little Boy, who is both, by Sea, & Land, an excellent traveller.1 When we left London, you intended a visit to
Bath, I hope nothing happened to prevent that agreeable excursion, there can be no
doubt, of your admiring, that part of the World, as it affords a most pleasing variety—
at present you are in a more desirable Country, than we are, Carolina wears a gloomy
face, nothing looks as it did twelve years ago, our inhabitants, are much to be pitied,
for they are in reality extremely poor, yet have an anxious desire, to appear other
wise. My Brother is one of the Delegates (appointed by this State) for the Federal
Convention,2 many people are very
sanguine, in their expectations, from that assemblage, of wise Men, for my part, I shall
hold myself in readiness, to give them all that they may merit, but my hopes, have so
frequently fallen to the ground, that I have learned from experience, to wait patiently
for the event. If I am right in my conjecture, before this arrives, you will be a
Grand-mother, if so, you have my warmest congratulation, on the occasion, & I will
only say, that I most sincerely wish, that your amiable Daughter, may be as happy a
Parent, as she deserves to be— Caroline intends writing 14
l. Smith, as she
promised, & she cannot suppose, that he has forgot so important a matter,3 Be pleased
to present our united respects, to Mr. Adams, My Compliments
also, to those friends that we passed, many happy hours with under your hospitable Roof, where we received repeated acts of
kindness—for which I shall ever think myself indebted, & only regret, my dear Madam,
that, I can do no more than feel the obligation—but be
assured, it will ever be kept in remembrance—
I am my dear Madam / with the utmost esteem / Your very sincere friend
RC (Adams Papers).
Seven children of Roger Moore
Smith and Mary Rutledge Smith had accompanied their parents to Europe in 1785. The
“little Boy” was likely their youngest son, ten-year-old Benjamin Burgh Smith
(1776–1823) (vol. 6:385, 389; Maurie D. McInnis, ed., In Pursuit of Refinement: Charlestonians Abroad, 1740–1860,
Columbia, 1999, p. 33; South Carolina Genealogies: Articles
from the South Carolina Historical (and
Genealogical) Magazine, 5 vols., Spartanburg,
S.C., 1983, 4:5, 10–11, 20, 21, 132). See also Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 1,
above.
John Rutledge, former
governor of South Carolina and JA's colleague in Congress, 1774–1777
(
DAB
).
No letter from Caroline Smith
(1773–1862) to WSS or any other member of the Adams family has been found
(South Carolina Genealogies, 4:11).