Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13

28 George Cabot to Abigail Adams, 11 May 1798 Cabot, George Adams, Abigail

George Cabot to Abigail Adams

Dear Madam Brookline May 11th. 1798—

I feel too sensibly the obligations you have laid me under by the letters you had the goodness to write on the 3d & 4th.— they deserve a better return than it is possible for me to make; while I can only offer the effusions of a grateful heart I see too plainly that those alone wou’d not be acceptable— you require a Serious engagement on my part which I am forbidden to make by motives that cannot be resisted.— it is impossible for me to make a different determination & yet it is with infinite pain I declare it.—1

no one can estimate more highly than I do the importance of a naval force as connected with the safety of our commercial property & as forming an essential ingredient in the national Defence— if the restless ambition which is destroying Europe shou’d bring us visitors we ought to be prepared to receive them on our coasts & to take advantage of those accidents to which all Fleets are liable, but the creation arrangement & direction of a force for this purpose cannot proceed from feeble hands— if my friends cou’d have endowed me with the requisite energies, I wou’d have made every sacrifice to the public service, but you must allow me to judge exclusively on this point & I will always yield every other.—

Mrs. Cabot desires to be rememberd with every sentiment of esteem & respect in which I pray to be united.—

I remain Dear Madam / Your most humble & obliged servant

George Cabot.

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs. Adams—”

AA’s letters to Cabot have not been found, but presumably were notes congratulating Cabot on his appointment as secretary of the navy. JA made the nomination on 1 May, and the Senate gave its advice and consent on 3 May. In addition to this letter to AA, Cabot wrote to Timothy Pickering on 11 May to decline the appointment, citing poor health and a lack of maritime experience (U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. , 5th Cong., 2d sess., p. 272, 273; Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., Life and Letters of George Cabot, Boston, 1878, p. 156–158).

Hannah Adams to Abigail Adams, 12 May 1798 Adams, Hannah Adams, Abigail

Hannah Adams to Abigail Adams

Madam Medfield May 12th— 1798.

My knowledge of your condescension and goodness emboldens me to address you at present. I have at length prepared my History of New-England for the press, in which I have mentioned your 29 illustrious partner as one of the first and most active promoters of the declaration of Independence. I have given a sketch of his speech on that important occasion from Ramsay. the whole is not inserted in any of the Histories of the American Revolution. I should be exceedingly gratified could I publish it entire, this induces me to request that you Madam, would be so good as to mention my desire to the President, and, if he could find time, amidst a variety of important avocations, to faver me with the speech for publication, it would lay me under the highest obligations.1 I wish to make the public sensible that the same illustrious character who is now engaged in supporting the dignity and independence of the United States was the most active instrument in procuring our emancipation from Britain.

I would also request information respecting the share the President had in forming the Federal Constitution.

I expect my book will be put to the press on the 16th of May, this induces me to request the faver of early entilligence on the above mentioned subjects.2

Be pleased, Madam to present my profound respects to the President. My desire of contributing one mite to the just tribute of praise from a grateful country will, I trust, exculpate me from arrogance in this address.

I have the honer to be with the highest sentiments of admiration and esteem, / Madam, / Your much obliged, / and very humble servant.

Hannah Adams.

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Hon— Mrs Adams.”

David Ramsay in his History of the American Revolution, 2 vols., Phila., 1789, 1:340–341, Evans, No. 22090, summarized JA’s June 1776 speech in the Continental Congress in support of the motion to declare the colonies independent. Although Thomas Jefferson recorded some partial notes on the arguments made by JA and others in favor of independence, no copy of JA’s speech is extant, nor did JA mention it in his Diary or correspondence (Jefferson, Papers , 1:311–313).

Hannah Adams’ A Summary History of New-England, from the First Settlement at Plymouth, to the Acceptance of the Federal Constitution was published in Dedham, Mass., in early 1799 (Massachusetts Mercury, 8 March).