Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
I cannot send you a duplicate without adding a line to it; for there is a pleasure in knowing that our distant friends are well, though but one day later than we have already heard from them1
We have been spending several days at Charlottenburg with
Dr Brown’s family, and Louisa’s health which
never fails to droop at Berlin in the summer, has derived benefit from it—
To morrow morning we set out upon our tour into Silesia, where you shall
accompany us if you please— But then you must have your map upon the table
before you, or you will certainly lose your way.
Count Brühl and all his family are at Carlsbad— His daughter Mary is maid of honour to the queen-mother—2 William Brown you perhaps know is at Coventry with his regiment, and is already a lieutenant.— Your friend Perponcher has been very ill, though I know not exactly the nature of his complaint— He has not yet fully recovered.
301The corp diplomatique here has undergone almost a total change since you were here.3 I wish it could undergo one more— I am heartily tired and ashamed of staying here any longer to be of no public service; and upon my word if I were asked of what service I am, I should not have a word to answer— I hope I shall not be kept here longer than untill next spring; for with my wife I cannot undertake a winter voyage to America— But when I get home, what am I to ——— no! I am not the independent man I was once— We must pay a price for every blessing— However, be it as it will, I prefer almost any thing to living at the cost of my country, without being of any use to her—
Yours ever.
FC-Pr (Adams Papers); internal address:
“T. B. Adams Esqr.”
JQA’s enclosure has not been found but
was a duplicate of his 15 July letter to TBA, in which he
provided instructions on his investments and said that he wished to
purchase “a good, habitable, and profitable, brick house in Boston” (Adams Papers).
Maria Sophia (Mary) von Brühl, the eldest child of
Count Karl von Brühl, was a lady-in-waiting to Frederica Louise of
Hesse-Darmstadt, Frederick William III’s mother, serving in the position
from Jan. 1798 until the queen mother’s death in Feb. 1805 (Vanya
Eftimova Bellinger, Marie von Clausewitz: The
Woman behind the Making of “On War,” N.Y., 2016, p. 40–41, 54).
See also LCA, D&A
, 1:79.
See JQA to TBA, 22 Oct. 1799, and note 5, above.
th1800
I received Your kind Letter by mr Peabody and thank
You most Sincerely for it;1 I did not know that You had been so very sick untill I saw a Letter
from You to mrs Foster: You my Dear sister certainly take too great a
charge upon you; I know that You delight in doing good, and
communicating, that as our good Father used to Say, he had rather be
worn out, than rust out; but your constitution is so feeble that You
should Spair it, as much as possible. Your Life is too precious to Your
Family and Friends, for you to be any way lavish even in well doing; I
think it is your Duty to take some relaxation and change of Air &
scenes will tend to invigorate you, and give a new Spring to your
spirits. a Cheerfull Heart does good like a Medicine; your Spirits have
supported carried your feeble
frame through many a trying scene aided by the best supporter, and the
only Sure and stable prop upon which We can rely with security.
“Religion bears our spirits up” whilst we trust that the Supreem Ruler
of the Universe knows what is best for his creatures—2 I have had a very Sick turn. a
302 fever confined me to My Bed for
Several Days—just before the Presidents return. he found me confined to
My Chamber, but thanks to a kind Providence, I am restored again. Mrs
Norten is better than I feared She ever would be again. She is a mere shadow. her
Situation is a very precarious one; a very little matter would turn the
balance against her— She is returnd to her Family Sister Cranch has the
two Youngest Children Still with her, and mr & mrs Greenleaf &
her two Children are with her now; Mrs Smith returnd with the President,
and was very happy last night to see her two Sons, who are grown fine
Boys—
Your son has made the tour to Washington with the President. he would have immediatly visited you upon his return, but hoped You would have come at Commencment, but when I found how large a Family You have, I did not wonder that you could not both be absent at once I think You had better resolve to come when the Children return which will be in about a fortnight.—
You kindly inquire after my Family. I had a Letter
from Berlin about a fortnight since. it was an old Date 18 Febry— it however informd me of a new
misfortune to which mrs Adams had again been subject. Her Health had
been much mended by her excursion to Dresden the last Year—and she was
some way advanced in her Pregnancy: attending one of the Assemblies at
Court, the Lady of the Spanish Minister who had recently arrived, was
standing by her, when the Lady in turning round caught her foot in the
carpet, fell & broke her Leg short of, the agitation & hurry of
Spirits this accident occasiond, and the assistance which Mrs Adams
endeavourd to render her; through her into a fainting fit; and She was
carried home when a renewal of the Misfortune to which She had three
times before been subject, took place and left her again upon the verge
of Dissolution when he wrote, two Months had elapsed, and she was but
slowly recovering
Thomas is in Philadelphia where I hope he will succeed in buisness. he is good amiable and virtuous, a comfort to his Parents. God grant him Life and Health;
I will send the Linnen you request by William—and will write by him
adieu my Dear sister / affectionatly Your
The President desires to be affectionatly rememberd to you. Mrs smith will write to you— Louissa sends duty. Remember me to Miss Palmer—
RC (DLC:Shaw Family Papers); addressed: “Mrs
Elizabeth Peabody / Atkinson”; endorsed: “July 18th: 1800.”
Peabody wrote a letter to AA on 14 July (Adams Papers), in which she said she had suffered from fever and a sprained ankle and reported on the clothing needs of William Steuben and John Adams Smith. The letter was in reply to one from AA of 22 June, in which AA noted having returned to Quincy with Susanna Boylston Adams and her anticipation of a visit from AA2. She also commented on the poor health of Elizabeth Cranch Norton and invited Peabody to visit (DLC:Shaw Family Papers).
Isaac Watts, Hymns and
Spiritual Songs in Three Books, Book I, Hymn 132, line 13.