Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 12

Acknowledgments

From Francis Coffyn
Guide to Editorial Apparatus Guide to Editorial Apparatus
Guide to Editorial Apparatus

In the first three sections (1–3) of the six sections of this Guide are listed, respectively, the arbitrary device used for clarifying the text, the code names for designating prominent members of the Adams family, and the symbols describing the various kinds of manuscript originals used or referred to, that are employed throughout The Adams Papers in all its series and parts. In the final three sections (4–6) are listed, respectively, only those symbols designating institutions holding original materials, the various abbreviations and conventional terms, and the short titles of books and other works that occur in volume 12 of the Papers of John Adams. The editors propose to maintain this pattern for the Guide to Editorial Apparatus in each of the smaller units, published at intervals, of all the series and parts of the edition that are so extensive as to continue through many volumes. On the other hand, in short and specialized series and/or parts of the edition, the Guide to Editorial Apparatus will be given more summary form tailored to its immediate purpose.

Textual Devices

The following devices will be used throughout The Adams Papers to clarify the presentation of the text.

[. . .], [. . . .] One or two words missing and not conjecturable.
[. . .]1, [. . . .]1 More than two words missing and not conjecturable; subjoined footnote estimates amount of missing matter.
[ ] Number or part of a number missing or illegible. Amount of blank space inside brackets approximates the number of missing or illegible digits.
[roman] Conjectural reading for missing or illegible matter. A question mark is inserted before the closing bracket if the conjectural reading is seriously doubtful.
<italic> Matter canceled in the manuscript but restored in the text.
[italic] Matter editorially inserted.
||roman|| Matter editorially decoded.
Adams Family Code Names
First Generation
JA John Adams (1735–1826)
AA Abigail Adams (1744–1818), m. JA 1764
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Second Generation
JQA John Quincy Adams (1767–1848), son of JA and AA
LCA Louisa Catherine Johnson (1775–1852), m. JQA 1797
CA Charles Adams (1770–1800), son of JA and AA
Mrs. CA Sarah Smith (1769–1828), sister of WSS, m. CA 1795
TBA Thomas Boylston Adams (1772–1832), son of JA and AA
Mrs. TBA Ann Harrod (1774?–1845), m. TBA 1805
AA2 Abigail Adams (1765–1813), daughter of JA and AA, m. WSS 1786
WSS William Stephens Smith (1755–1816), brother of Mrs. CA
Third Generation
GWA George Washington Adams (1801–1829), son of JQA and LCA
JA2 John Adams (1803–1834), son of JQA and LCA
Mrs. JA2 Mary Catherine Hellen (1806?–1870), m. JA2 1828
CFA Charles Francis Adams (1807–1886), son of JQA and LCA
ABA Abigail Brown Brooks (1808–1889), m. CFA 1829
ECA Elizabeth Coombs Adams (1808–1903), daughter of TBA and Mrs. TBA
Fourth Generation
JQA2 John Quincy Adams (1833–1894), son of CFA and ABA
CFA2 Charles Francis Adams (1835–1915), son of CFA and ABA
HA Henry Adams (1838–1918), son of CFA and ABA
MHA Marian Hooper (1842–1885), m. HA 1872
BA Brooks Adams (1848–1927), son of CFA and ABA
LCA2 Louisa Catherine Adams (1831–1870), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Charles Kuhn 1854
MA Mary Adams (1845–1928), daughter of CFA and ABA, m. Henry Parker Quincy 1877
Fifth Generation
CFA3 Charles Francis Adams (1866–1954), son of JQA2
HA2 Henry Adams (1875–1951), son of CFA2
JA3 John Adams (1875–1964), son of CFA2
Descriptive Symbols

The following symbols will be employed throughout The Adams Papers to describe or identify in brief form the various kinds of manuscript originals.

D Diary (Used only to designate a diary written by a member of the Adams family and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: D/JA/23, i.e. the twenty-third fascicle or volume of John Adams' manuscript Diary.)
Dft draft
Dupl duplicate
FC file copy (Ordinarily a copy of a letter retained by a correspondent other than an Adams, for example Jefferson's press copies and polygraph copies, since all three of the Adams statesmen systematically entered copies of their outgoing letters in letterbooks.)
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Lb Letterbook (Used only to designate Adams letterbooks and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: Lb/JQA/29, i.e. the twenty-ninth volume of John Quincy Adams' Letterbooks.)
LbC letterbook copy (Letterbook copies are normally unsigned, but any such copy is assumed to be in the hand of the person responsible for the text unless it is otherwise described.)
M Miscellany (Used only to designate materials in the section of the Adams Papers known as the “Miscellany” and always in combination with the short form of the writer's name and a serial number, as follows: M/CFA/32, i.e. the thirty-second volume of the Charles Francis Adams Miscellany—a ledger volume mainly containing transcripts made by CFA in 1833 of selections from the family papers.)
MS, MSS manuscript, manuscripts
RC recipient's copy (A recipients copy is assumed to be in the hand of the signer unless it is otherwise described.)
Tr transcript (A copy, handwritten or typewritten, made substantially later than the original or than other copies—such as duplicates, file copies, letterbook copies—that were made contemporaneously.)
Tripl triplicate
Location Symbols
CtY Yale University
DLC Library of Congress
DNA The National Archives
MB Boston Public Library
MHi Massachusetts Historical Society
MQA Adams National Historical Park, Quincy, Mass.
MiU-C University of Michigan, The Clements Library
NHi New-York Historical Society
NN New York Public Library
NNC Columbia University Library
OClWhi Western Reserve Historical Society
PHi Historical Society of Pennsylvania
PPAmP American Philosophical Society
PU University of Pennsylvania
PWacD David Library of the American Revolution
Other Abbreviations and Conventional Terms
Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (see below). The location of materials in the Letterbooks and in the volumes of Mis-xxvicellany is given more fully and, if the original would be hard to locate, by the microfilm reel number. Other materials in the Adams Papers editorial office, Massachusetts Historical Society. These include photoduplicated documents (normally cited by the location of the originals), photographs, correspondence, and bibliographical and other aids compiled and accumulated by the editorial staff. The portion of the Adams manuscripts given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by Thomas Boylston Adams in 1973. The corpus of the Adams Papers, 1639–1889, as published on microfilm by the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1954–1959, in 608 reels. Cited in the present work, when necessary, by reel number. Available in research libraries throughout the United States and in a few libraries in Canada, Europe, and New Zealand. The present edition in letterpress, published by The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. References to earlier volumes of any given unit take this form: vol. 2:146. Since there will be no over-all volume numbering for the edition, references from one series, or unit of a series, to another will be by title, volume, and page; for example, JA, Diary and Autobiography, 4:205. Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague. Koninklijk Huisarchief, The Hague. Papers of the Continental Congress. Originals in the National Archives: Record Group 360. Microfilm edition in 204 reels. Usually cited in the present work from the microfilms, but according to the original series and volume numbering devised in the State Department in the early 19th century; for example, PCC, No. 93, III, i.e. the third volume of series 93. Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress. Originals in the National Archives: Record Group 360. Microfilm edition in 9 reels. Cited in the present work from the microfilms by reel and folio number.
Short Titles of Works Frequently Cited
Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1963– . xxvii Thomas R. Adams, The American Controversy, A Bibliographical Study of the British Pamphlets about the American Disputes, 1764–1783, Providence and New York, 1980; 2 vols. Gardner Weld Allen, Massachusetts Privateers of the Revolution (Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections, vol. 77), Boston, 1927 City of Boston, Record Commissioners, Reports, Boston, 1876–1909; 39 vols. I. Minis Hays, comp., Calendar of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin in the Library of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1908; 5 vols. The Cambridge Modern History, Cambridge, Eng., 1902–1911; repr. New York, 1969; 13 vols. Catalogue of the John Adams Library in the Public Library of the City of Boston, Boston, 1917. Worthington C. Ford, ed., A Catalogue of the Books of John Quincy Adams Deposited in the Boston Athenaeum. With Notes on Books, Adams Seals and Book-Plates, by Henry Adams, Boston, 1938. Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; 20 vols. plus index and supplements. Documents of the American Revolution, 1770–1783 (Colonial Office Series), ed. K. G. Davies, Shannon, Ire., 1972–1981; 21 vols. Isabel de Madariaga, Britain, Russia and the Armed Neutrality of 1780, New Haven, 1962. Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, with Annals of the College History, New York, 1885–1912; 6 vols. Letters of Thomas Attwood Digges, ed. Robert H. Elias and Eugene D. Finch, Columbia, S.C., 1982. Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, eds., The Dictionary of National Biography, New York and London, 1885–1900; 63 vols. plus supplements. Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787, Princeton, 1975. Friedrich Edler, The Dutch Republic and the American Revolution, Baltimore, 1911. xxviii The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, William B. Willcox (from vol. 15), Claude A. Lopez (vol. 27), Barbara B. Oberg (from vol. 28), Ellen R. Cohn (from vol. 36), and others, New Haven, 1959– . The Papers of Nathanael Greene, ed. Richard K. Showman, Dennis Conrad (from vol. 8), and others, Chapel Hill, 1976–?. Francis B. Heitman, comp., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, new edn., Washington, 1914. J. C. F. Hoefer, ed., Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, 1852–1866; 46 vols. Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield and others, Cambridge, 1961; 4 vols. Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor, Gregg L. Lint, and others, Cambridge, 1977–?. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, ed. Charles Francis Adams, Boston, 1850–1856; 10 vols. Worthington C. Ford and others, eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1904–1937; 34 vols. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen (from vol. 21), John Catanzariti (from vol. 24), Barbara B. Oberg (from vol. 29), and others, Princeton, 1950–?. Diary of John Quincy Adams, ed. David Grayson Allen, Robert J. Taylor, and others, Cambridge, 1981–?. The Papers of Henry Laurens, ed. Philip M. Hamer, George C. Rogers Jr., and David R. Chesnutt (from vol. 5), David R. Chesnutt and C. James Taylor (from vol. 11), and others, Columbia, S.C., 1968–2003; 16 vols. Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775–1783, Cambridge, 1965. Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence, Boston, 1913. Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1780–1805], Boston, 1890–1898; 13 vols. Massachusetts Historical Society, Collections and Proceedings. Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, New York, 1982. xxix Hunter Miller, ed., Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, Washington, 1931–1948; 8 vols. The Papers of Robert Morris, 1781–1784, ed. E. James Ferguson, John Catanzariti, and E. James Ferguson (from vol. 6), Elizabeth M. Nuxoll and Mary A. Gallagher (from vol. 8), and others, Pittsburgh, 1973–1999; 9 vols. Richard B. Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence, New York, 1965. The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, London, 1806–1820; 36 vols. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Ludwig Bittner and others, eds., Repertorium der diplomatischen Vertreter aller Länder seit dem Westfälischen Frieden (1648), Oldenburg &c., 1936–1965; 3 vols. Jan Willem Schulte Nordholt, The Dutch Republic and American Independence, transl. Herbert H. Rowen, Chapel Hill, 1982. The Armed Neutralities of 1780 and 1800: A Collection of Official Documents Preceded by the Views of Representative Publicists, ed. James Brown Scott, New York, 1918. John Langdon Sibley and Clifford K. Shipton, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873–. Paul H. Smith and others, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, Washington, 1976–1998; 25 vols. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, Washington, 1931–1944; 39 vols. Francis Wharton, ed., The Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, Washington, 1889; 6 vols. William and Mary Quarterly.