Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
On Tuesday Mr T. B. Adams left Us, at
Eleven in the stage for New York & Boston and consequently Quincy.— I should have
been glad to have held him till I could carry him with me: but I thought it my Duty to
comply with his desire, both for his sake and yours.— He Seems determined to settle in
Phyladelphia.— He would have a happier Life, and be a more important Man in Quincy: But
I must do & say as My Father did to me: leave him to his own Inclination and
acquiesce in it as a dispensation of Providence. You will find him very agreable and
pleasant.
By the time he returns, I expect the Plague will drive him out, again.— It is undoubtedly here lurking about the City all this Winter. Tazewell did not die of it: but I suppose of an Appoplexie tho they call it a Pleurisie.
We had Yesterday a large Company: C. J. McKean and the Judges & Lawyers of Pensylvania with some Members of Congress:
all very agreable. I am reading the K. of Prussias Correspondence with Voltaire
D’Alembert &c He is forever talking of his Age Infirmities, Decline & Decay. His
Memory is going. His Imagination is gone— His Teeth fail— His Limbs are stiff &
goutty— He is broken— He is old— &c &c &c—1 Yet at last When he was really old and broken he
could not bear to hear of it.
His Phylosophy was bad enough: tho not so bad is that of others then & since. His Wit is to me a little dull— His humour heavy—391There is an Affectation of Gaiety, which however does not make the Reader very gay.—2 Frank waits for my Lettr.
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs A”;
endorsed: “J A Febry 1 / 1799.”
JA was reading and annotating Frederick II’s
correspondence with Voltaire and Jean le Rond d’Alembert in volumes 8 through 12 of
Oeuvres posthumes de Fréderic II, 16 vols., Berlin,
1788, 1789; the comments on the effects of aging appear on 10:71, 86–87, and
12:45.
JA also commented on Frederick II’s writings in a 25 Jan. letter to AA: “I shall never imitate his Idolatry for Voltaire. His Materialism appears to me very Superficial. He insists upon being all matter, without knowing what matter is. The Monades, the Etres Simples, the Atoms, the Molecules organniques, all these Grupes & Fictions are as nonsensical as the Occult qualities— Human Knowledge cannot penetrate so deep.— I was profoundly learned in all that Jargon at twenty Years of Age— But found it all Useless; and renounced it, for Fee simple and Fee tail” (Adams Papers).
st:February 1799
The morning I left Philadelphia I had not an opportunity of making
the necessary arrangement with the Secretary of State for the payment of my Brother’s
salary, which the Secretary of the Treasury had promised to advance. I should be sorry
that this circumstance should defeat my intention of subscribing to the Loan on behalf
of my Brother, the sum of 4000 Dls: which each person who
subscribes, will be entitled to without deduction. I take the freedom therefore to beg
of you Sir, to advance the first payment of 500 Dls: upon
the sum of 4000 Dls, which I have desired Mr: Otis Senior to Subscribe in my
name to the loan. For this sum I will be responsible accountable to you immediately after my return from Massachusetts,
which will be in season to answer the second payment, in person. Mr: Otis is only conditionally engaged to subscribe for me, so that if you should
have any objection to making the advance, you will please to destroy the enclosed line
to Mr: Otis which was to be his authority for making the
subscription, & for calling on you for the first payment. But if you should consent
to the advance, you will be so good as to hand the letter to Mr: Otis.1
I had a pleasant journey to this place, where I arrived on Wednesday evening. The roads were better than I expected to find them. I shall, if possible, set off for Boston on Monday next. My Brother & Sister are well & desire to be remembered.
Present me kindly to Mr: Shaw &
believe me / Your Son
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The President.”
TBA received from Timothy Pickering payments on JQA’s salary of $450 in January and $4,000 on 4 May, followed by additional payments totaling $9,000 in July and November (DNA:RG 53, Records of Bureau of Public Debt, Accounts of Ministers and Consuls, 1793–1813, vol. 93, account 14.951). For the $5 million loan that would open on 28 Feb., see AA to JQA, 2 Dec. 1798, and note 7, above.