Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
th.April 1798
I am much oblig’d by your favors of the 30 Ult. & 6th Inst. with the inclosures1 the communications from our Commiss. will,
when publish’d, have the most happy effect. Many who were zealous friends to French, not
long since, are now as zealous friends to their own country. I hope our Commiss. will be
able to make good their retreat, before the contents of their dispatches arrive.— we
have had for a few days a rumor of an Embargo I hope this measure will not be adopted if
the Merchants are allow’d to consult their own interest, they may embargo themselves or
not as their feelings dictate this measure is only advocated by those who are unfriendly
to their 507 country, who wish to throw a great number of Men
out of employ, to give them an oppertunity to excite their feelings & passions to
obstruct the measures of Government—2
To the number of our friends whose deaths we have lately lamented,
we must add Mr Carter, Mrs S.
Father. he was taken with a faintness Yesterday Morning abt.
4 oClock and died in half an hour.3 we are now setting out to attend the funeral. he
has supported thro’ life an unblemished character as a Christian & an honest Man. he
was in his 83d. Year.— this event tho’ expected for some
time, (added to the death of our late worthy Dr.) is almost too much for Mrs. S. I trust that time & a christian resignation to the
will of Providence will restore her sperits.—
Mrs. S. joins me in affectionate
regards to you & the President.
Yrs.
m.Smith.
RC (Adams
Papers); addressed: “Mrs. Adams / Philadelphia”;
internal address: “Mrs. Adams—”; endorsed: “Mr smith /
April 14th / 1798”; notation: “per Post.”
In her 6 April letter to Smith, AA enclosed a pamphlet by Joseph Hopkinson and noted that JA had submitted the envoys’ dispatches and instructions to Congress. She also commented that the recent town meetings in Massachusetts “only Sit the minds of the people in a ferment, at a time when we want coolness in deliberation, calmness in opperation union and decisions in counsel” (MHi:Smith-Carter Papers).
On 27 March the Senate voted 22 to 5 against adopting a
resolution “that it is expedient to lay an embargo, for a limited time, on all ships
and vessels owned wholly or in part by citizens of the United States.” The Boston Gazette, 9 April, advocated an embargo in order to
prevent showing “our partiality to Great Britain, and our dislike to the people of
France,” further noting that the “distress such a step would produce … would not bear
comparing with the horrors of war” (U.S.
Senate, Jour.
, 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 463).
The death of Nathaniel Carter Sr. on 13 April was reported in the
Newburyport Herald, 17 April, which summarized his loss
to the community: “His family have lost in him a kind and
affectionate parent, the poor and the distrest a patron and benefactor, and religion
a steady friend and supporter.” On 22 April AA wrote to Hannah
Carter Smith offering her condolences, writing, “Whilst we experience the loss of our
Earthly Props, may it lead us to fix our hopes, and our attention, upon that Being,
whose duration is not limited, and whose tender Mercies are over all the Works his
hands hath formed” (MHi:Smith-Carter
Papers).
gApril 15 1798
The sooner mr Black comes to Philadelphia, the better it will be
for the Child; as I was yesterday dressing for dinner the Nurse desired to see me. she
came up, but not as usual with the Baby which allarmd me. I instantly inquired how it
was, to which she replied very well and burst into Tears. I inquired what had happend?
she 508 replied that mr Black had been the Evening before
and taken the child from her. she said she expostulated with him, and begd him not to
take it, untill he had informd me; it was of no avail; [“]let it then stay till the morning. No it should go directly. but why? have I not
taken good care of it have I not watchd it night & day through the Small Pox, and
now it is just recovering its strength, you take it from me, to kill it. she says she
was Angry.” no persuasion would prevail. she says, mr Black told her, he was determined
to take it away out of spight, for that the doctor had brought in his Bill the day
before of 30 dollors for innoculating the Baby, her child, and one in the house
belonging to a woman whose child would have been exposed by the others, and which child
I had told the doctor I would myself be answerable for, and that he had pay’d the Bill.
I was sure it could not be so. I supposed, what was really the case, that the doctor
might have Sent his Bill in, for his attendance upon mr Hall during his sickness as dr
Cox & he were jointly concernd. I immediatly wrote to the dr I inclose you his
answer1 I then wrote to mr Black, and
told him I was sorry he should think it necessary to take the child away as it appeard
to me to be very well taken care of, and I hoped he would be so kind as to restore the
child to the Nurse again, that if any Bill had been presented him for the innoculation
of the Children it was through mistake, as no charge was ever intended to be made to
him. I thought I would let him know, that I knew he had given this as a Reason. I added
that if any misfortune of sickness or death should happen in concequence of his
depriving the child of its nurse just as it was recovering its strength, I thought he
could not answer it either to mr Black or to you— with this Billet I sent mrs Brisler
and Betsy in the carriage with orders to take the child if they could obtain his
consent, and carry it back to the Nurse, and to tell her that I would be answerable to
her for its Nursing untill mr Black should come for it. they accordingly went, and were
told by his Housekeeper, that he was not at home. however mrs Brisler was not content;
she went to the store where she found him, and deliverd my Note, and requested his
permission to take the child to the Nurse. he said it was so expensive keeping it at
Nurse that he thought to have it weand, and then he had such a Bill to pay for
innoculating the children. Mrs Brisler replied it could not be for that, as I had just received it, from under the doctors Hand
that no Bill had been offerd him on that account. he said no more on that subject; but
went into the House and consented to let it go for a fortnight longer. the woman who
ever she is, appeard very 509 Angry & said she
would carry it herself the next day. Mrs Brisler said she had come in the carriage on
purpose to take it, and she should be glad to report to me that she had deliverd it to
the Nurse the House keeper tried to get an opportunity to speak to mr Black, but mrs
Brisler followd him so close that she would not let her. after some delay to find the
Bonnet and Cloak, she deliverd the Child to them and they carried the Baby to the Nurse,
to the great joy of the dear little orphan who stretchd out its Arms and cryd as bad as
the Nurse.
mr Black told mrs Brisler that he did not know whether he should
let it go if his Brother came for it. she replied; that, was a subject which she had
nothing to do with, that I certainly could have no interest in the Matter, but what I
felt for an orphan child, whose parents Mother I
knew, and whose Friends had requested my attention to it— Both Betsy and mrs Brisler
think mr Black was governd in this matter by the Housekeeper—as he appeard to be affraid
of her resentment.
I received the Bundle you sent for it, and had sent it to the Nurse. they were exactly the things she told me last sunday that she wanted for it, only that you had been more liberal than her request. this was an other source of Resentment to mr Black, that so much attention should be paid to the child, and So little to him.
I think the sooner mr Black can sit out the better. if this Letter reaches you by saturday next, it will be a fortnight or 20 days before mr Black can get here from this time. that will bring it into May when the roads will be well setled, and if he should take the child away again, it will not be in my power to do any thing more.
my kind Regards to mrs Beal, who I am sorry to learn is unwell again. I cannot say when I shall see you but hope it may be in June. when you see mrs Lamb my compliments to her.
Be assured my dear Friend of the / Regard of
RC (NcD:Trent History of Medicine Manuscript Coll., David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library).
Letters not found. Dr. John Redman Coxe (1773–1864) was the
grandson of Dr. John Redman, for whom see JA, Papers
, 3:245. Coxe’s medical education began in Britain, but he
returned to the United States for further study under Dr. Benjamin Rush, receiving his
medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1794. In 1798 he was the
physician for the port of Philadelphia (
ANB
).
On 12 April AA had also written to Moses Black, sending him the envoys’ dispatches and instructions and commenting, “Publishing them, is like to produce here, a most desirable effect, that of union and harmony. I sincerely wish it may become general” (private owner, 1988).