Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14

Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams, 23 September 1800 Peabody, Elizabeth Smith Shaw Adams, Abigail

Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody to Abigail Adams

Dear Sister. Atkinson Sep 2d. 3d [23] 1800.—1

Miss Palmer has given me hopes of your coming, & Mrs Smith to our Exhibition, & says, you say, you will be so good as to carry me home with her— We have a Ball the next night after Exhibition & I suppose my Boarders will not leave me till Friday— We have a charming harmonious family, & are as still, as could be supposed where there are so many Young ones— But if at this time You should see some confusion, I hope you would excuse it—

Your being present, may keep off many that might otherways intrude, & I hope you will come whether I return with you, or not— I fear as the Exhibition will not be till a month from tomorrow, I shall not have the pleasure of seeing the President, (I use no adjective because here, I am sure it would lessen the Idea) before he leaves Quincy, but he will have my fervent petitions to heaven, 404 that he may have “wisdom, as an Angel of God,”2 to conduct this [“]gainsaying generation”— My dear Son I hope shall see— If he was in any ~~other~~ family, where moral & religious Precepts, had not a double weight given them by Example, I should feel more anxious to see him; knowing that these alone can make us happy in prosperity, & avail in the day of sickness, & adversity. I pray heaven to preserve him, & make him useful in life—

When William & John came home I was very lame, it hurt me to go up Stairs exceedingly, & I did not look over their things at first— I have since found that William has some new half hankerchiefs—three new shirts— He had four half hankerchiefs when he went away, I should think by the marks you had made four new ones— I wish you would look & see, if he has not left some at home—pecies of check, & yellow striped I find, but none of nankeen, or of the silk coats— I find three new pocket han. a peice for them, which Lydia brought me, & I put them by, because they had poorer ones, & it is not best to have many about at once, they would lose, & stain them at this season—

Two young Gentleman by the name of Peabody, left us yesterday to enter Colledge at Dartmouth—3 By their attentions, & amiable manners they have endeared themselves to us, & we feel quite sober now they are gone— Mr Peabody’s Nephew was a beautiful player upon the flute—perhaps you will say this is incompatible with study, but Alfred the Great, was extremely fond of the harp, & the lute— Yet those instruments I acknowledge—are dangerous in the hands of youth— I should have been very glad to have visted Quincy before Exhibition upon some accounts, but as my boarders will leave me then, I can go easier afterwords—for I have a young Lady that is a proper Mothers Girl, she calls me Mamma, & cannot bear to think of my going, scarcely out, in an afternoon, & if you can believe it, I have not been to Haverhill since last November— I am sorry Miss Betsy did not take a line from you, I should have known then better what arrangements were necessary— Mr N—— Peabody is our assistant till Exhibition— I have not time now to write to my Sister— believe me ever / your affectionate

E Peabody

Excuse the scrawl as Mr Peabody is going immediately to Haverhill— I intended to have requested you to have seen, if My William had not a pair of old black silk Stockings, that would do for to make me a pair of mittens, & sent them by Miss Betsy— If he has, I shall be much obliged if Mrs Smith would make them for me, & bring 405 them when she comes—long ones if you please—thats the ton I suppose—

Please to look if & see, if your Grandson William did not leave one of his cravats at Quincy—

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs A Adams”; endorsed: “Mrs Peabody’s / Rect.”

Peabody first wrote “4” as the second numeral, then rubbed off the ink and wrote “3d.”

2 Samuel, 14:20.

Augustus Peabody (1779–1850), of Andover, Mass., and Samuel Peabody (1775–1859), of Boxford, Mass., were Rev. Stephen Peabody’s nephew and cousin, respectively. Both graduated from Dartmouth College in 1803, and both went on to practice law (Selim Hobart Peabody, comp., and Charles Henry Pope, ed., Peabody Genealogy, Boston, 1909, p. 20, 24, 25, 34, 37, 38, 59–60, 71).

Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 26 September 1800 Adams, Abigail Adams, Thomas Boylston

Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams

Dear Thomas Quincy Sepbr 26 1800

I received Yours of Sep’br 18th.1 I have Melancholy intelligence to communicate to you respecting poor B Adams. last week of an Evening he had put a Horse into a Waggon for the purpose of conveying three quarters of Beaf to a Neighbours. the Horse was restiff, and he gave him a whip upon which he started, threw him down, and the wheel went over one Side of his face so as to break the jaw bone, and across the neck So as to deprive him of his senses; he was taken up in that state and tho immediate assistance was had, he remains delirious and very little hopes remain to his Friend’s that he will Survive the [sh]ock— his poor Father is inconsolable. all of us are greatly distrest he was a Most Worthy Young Man, and the support and comfort of his Father, a kind and affectionate Brother. I have every reason to fear that my next Letter must inform you of his Death— Mrs Foster lost her Baby last week, a little more than a year old, by the Dysentery2 I never knew Quincy so sickly as it has been for the summer past. more than 30 persons have been down with a slow Billious fever—some have lain six and seven weeks— it has not proved mortal in any instance. it originated in the Neighbourhood of Newcombs & Baxters Slaughter Houses, and has been generally confined there—

Your Father will leave me for the federal city in the course of ten days. Brisler sits out on Wednesday next— he will call upon you as he passes—3 I inclose to You the money paid by you for the wine.4 present your Bill to mr shaw for further Charges when he passes—

Decius has closed with a farewell to his Enemies and Friend’s— His last Number is a sausy insolent overbearing, dictatorial 406 usurpation upon the understanding of his readers—5 he is followd by a Massasoit, and by Junius Americanus—in a stile and Manner, which will make the little frog Swell to an ox—not with Vanity, but Ire.—6 as the Gazzett of the united states has published Decius, “and no Jealous Rival,” it would be but consistant to with his avowed impartiality to publish Junius— but your printers are all soulless, and nerveless, since the Death of poor Fenno—whose asshes Would not rest in Peace, did he know what a Varlet his Boy is— this Chap You recollect undertook to abuse the Marine society of Boston last winter—a society composed of many respectable Merchants as well as literary Characters, a society who had raised from their own purses a thousand Dollors for the benifit of Mr Fennos Family upon the Death of his Father— Mr Charles Sigourney, a kind and benificent Friend to the family, sent on to J W Fenno a list of the names of the Gentleman who had been the benefactors to the Family and the sums Subscribed by them, after he read the Wanton abuse of the Marine Society. Yet did not the insolent Boy Blush—or make the least acknowledgment.7 these are facts and May be depended upon. mr sigourney related them to your Father—

I have not heard from N york Since I wrote you last—

Remember me kindly to all inquiring Friends—

William will send the papers

your ever / affectionate

A A—

RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mrs: A Adams / 26 Septr: 1800 / 3 Octr: Recd: / Do Answd:.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.

Not found.

Charles F. Foster, the first child of Elizabeth Smith and James Hiller Foster, died on 19 Sept. (vol. 13:562).

JA departed Quincy on 13 Oct. for Washington, D.C. After stopping in Philadelphia to visit TBA, he arrived in the federal city on 1 Nov. (Boston Columbian Centinel, 15 Oct.; Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 27 Oct.; Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 3 Nov.).

See TBA to AA, 1 June, above.

The final installment of Decius’ “Jeffersoniad” appeared in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 20 September. In a section directed to his enemies, he claimed that “no political writer ever experienced abuse in nature and degree, more violent, more contradictory, or more unremitted” and labeled his published critics “the blind herd of Jefferson’s followers.” To his friends he urged that they take up his cause, proclaiming, “This is a duty which you owe to yourselves—to your children—to your country, and to your God!”

Massasoit published a second essay in the Boston Russell’s Gazette, 22 Sept., which criticized the “Jeffersoniad” essays and commented on the split in the Federalist Party between supporters of JA and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Junius Americanus’ final essay in the Boston Russell’s Gazette, 25 Sept., also criticized Decius’ essays, claiming their goal was “to run Mr. Adams fairly out of office.” AA was referring to Aesop’s fable “The Frog and the Ox,” the moral of which is, “Men are ruined by attempting a greatness to which they have no claim.”

The Boston Marine Society was established in 1754 to improve sailors’ safety and provide assistance to ships’ captains and their families. Charles Sigourney (1748–1806) was a Boston merchant and sometime partner in 407 the Amsterdam mercantile firm of Sigourney, Ingraham & Bromfield (William A. Baker, A History of the Boston Marine Society 1742– 1967, Boston, 1968, p. 5, 11; Henry H. W. Sigourney, Genealogy of the Sigourney Family, Boston, 1857, p. 10; JQA, Diary , 1:76).