RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs Adams.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.

AA to JA, [21 Feb.] (vol. 14:575–577).

On 27 Feb. Congress passed an act establishing county governments within the District of Columbia and creating its circuit court, for which see vol. 14:513. The act created three new federal judicial posts, which JA filled in the closing days of his administration. On 28 Feb. JA nominated as chief judge LCA’s uncle Thomas Johnson, a former Maryland governor and U.S. Supreme Court justice. As assistant judges JA nominated William Cranch and James Markham Marshall, a Virginia attorney who was the brother of U.S. chief justice John Marshall. On 3 March the nominations were confirmed by the Senate, prompting JA to send his nephew a 2 commission, which Cranch accepted the same day. Johnson declined to leave retirement, while James Marshall accepted and served until Nov. 1803 (vol. 10:426; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. , 6th Cong., 2d sess., p. 387; LCA, D&A , 1:21–22; JA to Cranch, 3 March 1801, DNA:RG 59, Misc. Permanent and Temporary Presidential Commissions, 1789–1962; Cranch to JA, 3 March, Adams Papers; Jefferson, Papers , 33:675; Madison, Papers, Secretary of State Series , 6:56–57).

JA nominated Delaware representative James Asheton Bayard as minister plenipotentiary to France on 13 Feb., and the Senate confirmed the appointment on the 19th. On 2 March JA informed the Senate that Bayard declined the post and no alternative nomination would be made before the close of his administration (U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. , 6th Cong., 2d sess., p. 380, 382, 388).

In a 22 Feb. letter to Philippe André Joseph de Létombe, French consul general to the United States, Thomas Jefferson sought assistance in hiring a steward for the President’s House, writing, “I find as great difficulty in composing my household, as I shall probably find in composing an administration for the government.” On Létombe’s recommendation, Jefferson hired Philadelphia maître d’hotel Joseph Rapin, who headed his household staff until September (Jefferson, Papers , 33:43, 97–98, 531).

JA vacated the President’s House at 4 A.M. on 4 March, the day of Jefferson’s inauguration. He traveled to Baltimore on the stage run by Georgetown, D.C., innkeeper Charles McLaughlin and reached Philadelphia on 7 March. JA left there on the 9th and arrived in Quincy on the 18th, writing to WSS on 24 March, “We all arrived safe & are once more domesticated at Stony field” (LbC, APM Reel 118).

For his inauguration as the third president of the United States, Jefferson wore plain dress and in midmorning was escorted by militia from Conrad and McMunn’s boarding-house to the U.S. Capitol, where the Senate chamber was crowded with more than a thousand spectators. Discharge of cannon outside bracketed John Marshall’s swearing in of the new chief magistrate. After giving his inaugural address, for which see AA to TBA, 22 March, and note 3, below, the new president returned to his boardinghouse and spent the evening greeting members of Congress, foreign dignitaries, and local residents. JA’s early morning departure, planned since 25 Feb., was seen as a slight by some Democratic-Republicans. George Meade wrote to Jefferson from Philadelphia that “it was a Pity Mr. Adams had not learnt by his Travels abroad some little manners—as we were told he left the Capital at 4 in the Morning. when You were to be Proclaimed President at 12—” The former and current presidents exchanged letters in March, the last time they did so for more than a decade. Jefferson wrote a brief note to JA on 8 March, enclosing a private letter for JA that arrived at the President’s House after his departure. JA thanked Jefferson on 24 March, reporting, “This part of the Union is in a state of perfect Tranquility and I See nothing to obscure your prospect of a quiet and prosperous Administration, which I heartily wish you” (vols. 10:105, 14:578; Jefferson, Papers , 33:134–135, 153, 213, 367, 426; 37:50; Baltimore Telegraphe and Daily Advertiser, 6 June; Philadephia Gazette of the United States, 9 March; JA to Samuel Dexter, 23 March, LbC, APM Reel 118).