Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
I enclose you for Mr: Oldschool a
letter commencing the review of a new publication of Mr:
Gentz—1 You will perhaps enquire, why I
begin upon this before I have finished the examination of the Etat de la France— The reason is that this last book was lent to me; that the
owner called upon me to return it and that I have been unable to procure me a copy of it
either in this town or at the Leipzig fair, where I sent to get one— I was obliged
therefore to postpone the 83 further
consideration of that work for the present; but I shall I hope in due time furnish you
two or three more letters upon it— Gentz is publishing an answer to it, of which I shall
request Mr: Oldschool to take notice upon a proper
occasion.2
My wife recovers very slowly from the illness which was consequent
upon her delivery. Till within these four days she has not been able to walk across her
chamber.— We hope however in about three weeks to leave Berlin, and I write this day to
our friend Pitcairn requesting him to bespeak us a passage on board the Catherine, Captain Ingersoll, of New-york, and thither
bound.3 We shall probably sail about
the last of July, and in two months from that time, with the favour of the winds we
flatter ourselves we shall stand on the same Continent with you. I shall give you
immediate notice of our arrival, and if your convenience will permit, we indulge
ourselves with the expectation that you will meet us there before we proceed to Boston,
or Quincy.
Young Mr: Adams, as Captain Wallach
would call him, is in good health, and when milk is plenty in good spirits.4 It is not yet definitively settled, who he is
like, or rather he is by turns like all his pappa’s and mamma’s dearest friends— You
have your turn among the rest; but Louisa is sorely perplexed to ascertain how he came
by his blue eyes
Your client Mr: Engel has at last
obtained a small office which will support his family and which removes him from Berlin—
He requests therefore that whatever information you may wish to give him in future
concerning his affairs in your hands you would direct it to his brother in law, a
merchant, residing in this town, and bearing the name of Anton Frederic Palmié5
Mr: Welsh left us a fortnight since,
for Amsterdam where he purposes to embark if he finds a good opportunity— I shall send
this letter to him but know not whether it will reach Amsterdam in Season
My last letters to you were of 5. and 9. May— Being without a Secretary and having packed up my letter books, I know not exactly how this letter should be numbered; but I have put it 9. at a guess.6
Yours ever
FC-Pr (Adams
Papers); internal address: “T. B. Adams Esqr.”;
APM Reel 131.
JQA enclosed his letter to JA of 30 May
(LbC, APM Reel 131), which
wholly comprised the first installment of a review of Friedrich von Gentz, Ueber den Ursprung und Charakter des Krieges gegen die
Französische Revoluzion, Berlin, 1801, analyzing opposition to the French
Revolution. Gentz claimed that neighboring countries had a right to intervene in
French affairs because the French Revolution threatened their own well-being, a
position JQA called “so plain, so strong, so fair, that not a doubt can
be left upon an honest 84 mind.” The review appeared in Port Folio, 1:266–268, 301–302, 307–308 (22 Aug., 19, 26
Sept.).
For JQA’s earlier review of Alexandre Maurice Blanc
de Hauterive, De l’état de la France, a la fin de l’an
VIII, see his letter to
JA of 25 April, and note 1, above. Gentz responded to Hauterive
with Von dem Politischen Zustande von Europa vor und nach der
Französischen Revoluzion, Berlin, 1801, arguing that French imperialism had to
be countered to maintain a balance of power in Europe and to thwart the inherent chaos
of the French Revolution (Murray Forsyth, “The Old European States-System: Gentz
versus Hauterive,” Historical Journal, 23:522–524 [Sept.
1980]).
In his 30 May letter to Joseph Pitcairn (OCHP:Joseph Pitcairn Letters), JQA requested
that he book them passage to Boston or New York and reserve lodging for them in
Hamburg prior to their departure. On 17 June JQA, LCA, and
GWA departed Berlin for Hamburg, where they arrived on the 21st.
Instead of traveling aboard the ship Catharine, Capt.
Josiah Ingersoll, the Adamses sailed on 8 July for Philadelphia on the ship America, Capt. Wills. JQA found the voyage
difficult: “The sea affects my head—disqualifies me for all application of
mind—insomuch that all the time I pass upon the sea is in a manner lost time—”
LCA similarly described the voyage as “long and wearisome,” while
GWA was ill for much of its early stages. The trio arrived in
Philadelphia on 4 Sept. (D/JQA/24, APM Reel 27; New York Commercial
Advertiser, 1 Sept.; New York Mercantile
Advertiser, 19 Sept.; JQA to TBA, 7 July, NN:Lee Kohns Coll.; LCA, D&A
, 1:157).
Probably Capt. Moses A. Wallach (ca. 1756–1836), a Boston armorer
and militia commander (Ann Smith Lainhart, “John Haven Dexter and the 1789 Boston City
Directory,”
NEHGR
, 140:257 [July 1986]; City of Boston Registry:Boston Deaths and
Burials, 26:167).
For JQA and TBA’s assistance to Carl
August Engel in pursuing a claim against Jacob Mark & Co. of New York, see vols.
13:460; 14:187, 190. Antoine Frédéric Palmié
(1770–1852) was a Berlin merchant (Manfred A. Pahlmann, Anfänge des Städtischen Parlamentarismus in Deutschland, Berlin, 1997, p. 306;
J. P. Erman, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des réfugiés
françois dans les états du roi, 9 vols., Berlin, 1782–1799, 6:108–109).
JQA was incorrect and should have marked this letter No. 10. His 5 May letter to TBA has not been found, but see AA to TBA, 12 July, and note 4, below. In letters to TBA of 28 April (LbC, APM Reel 134) and 9 May (Adams Papers), JQA restated his travel plans and his expectation that he, LCA, and GWA would not reach the United States before October. He also wrote to JA on 1 June (MWA:Adams Family Letters) of the family’s departure plans and the health of LCA and GWA, enclosing the 1–15 May fifth and final installment of his twice-monthly gazette of events in Europe (FC-Pr, APM Reel 131).