Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
th.1801.
We came to the City on the 4th. The
weather & roads were as favorable as could be expected for the season. At New-York
we had the pleasure to hear from Mrs Smith, that your
health was much better than when we were at Quincey. Judge Cranch was so good as to
engage us lodgings; they are as agreeable as any here, although not so pleasant to us
as the last winter. I have been twice to see Mrs Cranch
She looks exceeding well & also the children, except the infant. Her heart is set
much upon going to New England the coming summer, I hope she will not be
disappointed.
Mr Tracy is a lodger here. He had
been confined to the house three months prior to leaving home. We think he has been on
the mending hand since he arrived, & I have great hopes of his recovery, 150 although his cough is yet troublesome. He has
found the greatest relief from letting blood about once a week, 12 oz at a time, but
the necessity becomes less frequent. We have 13 members here, all good Fedts,1 Mr Griswold is one, who by the way pleaded a cause in Court
with so much weight & argument that Mr C was highly
pleased with him. It might be the more so as it was in support of an opion which my
Friend had given at Heartford.2 In the
next house adjoining us where the Vice President lodged last winter are gentlemen of
another sect The Att’ Genl.
&c Dr Eustis whom I always have had hopes of;3 whether they were founded in reason or
not is with them; but I have hea[rd] it whispered that he is not satisfied with his
company nor with the majority. I fear that we shall leave the City without my having
seen the President. The day that Mr C dined with him when
the carriage come to the door for us it was raining so violently that my timidity
overpowerd my inclination & I let him go without me. When my respects were offered
to the President He pleasantly said that he had rather that I had presented them
myself. I went with Mrs Maddison to hear the Speech read
as She called it I have heard but little said upon the Message.4 However between you & me The C J observed,
that it reduced the strength of the Government to the old Confederation. About 20
Members waited on the P on Tuey, supposing that of all the
days in the week would be the least acceptable. Mr Dana
purposed keeping it up. His dinner parties are small 8 or 10 Persons at a time.5 On the 11th.
we dined at the Secrey of State’s where we had the
pleasure of meeting Mr & Mrs Murray, who arrived a few days before, after a tedious passage of 11 weeks.
The Ship put back to England twice, & had almost constant gales.6 Mr & Madam
Pichon was of the party. She has a sweet interesting countenance but 21 years old.7 The Court have this day passed a rule
upon the Secry. of State to shew cause next term, why
certain commissions for Justices of Peace for Columbia duly authanticated under the
late Admõn, but which remained in the Office, should not be deliverd to the Person
appointed.8 Before this Mr Gi. had given them the appellation of the six Directory I
do not know what he will call them now.9
Congress have done but little except to cut out work; it is said
enough of that has been done to keep them imployed till April. The Speaker has
conducted to the approbation of the Fedts. hitherto. The
Senate have enough to employ them six months, The appointments, will take up much
time, Mr Greens Comn. will be
largely dwelt upon, & also The Sy of The T——10 But what will all that avail if the
Judy.
151 system is destroyed. Mr Griswold is confident it will be attemped, but some of the Ans reject the idea.11 Dr E went “to the
other side of the house & asked Mr Dana why they did
not take a part in debate, & not sit laughing at hearing us dispute but you will
not be silent any longer than it is for your intrest”
st.
Court has finished to day12 On the morrow we intend to set our faces to
the North. Judge & Mrs Cranch called on us this
morning their little Girl is better. Mr Dexs. grand cause comes on the 28th.
13 He has just been in to
see us & confidently said “that he is more & more convinced that nothing
effectual will be done this session; there are three parties in the May & they must crumble to pieces; the Fedts. have little to do but to keep silent.” My own conscience
would condemn me in writing thus freely to any other Friend. I was lately told that
the Fedts. had agreed not to write any thing of a
political nature to their friends. If they for the two years prior to the last had
conducted with so much judgment & prudence the Newhaven Remonstrance &C would
have been unnecessary.14 Since the best
part of the community have got into limboe they must unite heart & hand in geting
out again.
rd.
The weather & roads were fine yesterday & to day we are
stoped here by a N-E storm.15 We left
Mrs Otis & family well also Mrs Dalton & family They moved last week upon Capl. hill.16
ythe 4
th
We arrived here on the 31st. the
roads were much injured by the rain at the same time they were uncommonly good for the
season. Mr Rutledge arrived at Wasn. from R I the day before our leaving it.17 He said he never knew the travelling finer at
any time Mart. Street appear’d to great advantage when we
entered it about sunset. The houses have progressed much further from the Presidents
house than I had apprehended & all of them elegant; But the beauty of the street
must always appear greater to a person, coming from the southward, than from the
Northward. I was highly diverted an evening or two prior to our leaving Wasn. Mr Upham was reading the
Message paragraph by paragraph, & Mr Tracy criticising
upon them.18 He said that he had not
read it, nor heard it read, since in the Senate, & it then put him in a fever,
which lasted 48 hours, & now he should have to be bled. We dined yesterday at Mr Boudinots 152 Each individual
enquired affecy. after you & yours & wished me to
remember them to you. In a day or two we intend to proceed to Midn. but are undetermined whether to remain there till the
first of June May or return to Scituate. Mr Cushing unites with me in affectionate regards to our
friends in Quincy. A letter informing of their welfare will be gratefully received by
your Friend
RC (Adams Papers). Some loss of text due to wear at the edge.
In Washington, D.C., Hannah and William Cushing and Connecticut
senator Uriah Tracy lodged at the residence of justice of the peace Amariah Frost on
New Jersey Avenue, along with at least eleven other Federalist congressmen (List of Members of the Senate and House of Representatives with
their Places of Abode, [Washington, D.C., 1801], p. 4, Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 1507; Washington Federalist, 19 June 1801;
Biog. Dir. Cong.
; Jefferson, Papers
, 33:319–320).
On 14 and 17 Dec. representatives Roger Griswold of Connecticut
and James Asheton Bayard of Delaware represented the crew of the U.S. frigate Trumbull, Capt. David Jewett, in United States v. Schooner Peggy before the
U.S. Supreme Court. The Trumbull captured the French
merchant vessel Peggy, master Joseph Buisson, on 24 April
1800. On 24 June it was libeled in the U.S. District Court at New London, Conn., but a
day later the court ruled that the Peggy was not a lawful
prize because it was an unarmed trading vessel. The U.S. government appealed the
decision to the U.S. Circuit Court at Hartford, Conn., and on 23 Sept. William Cushing
reversed the decision, ruling that the vessel and its cargo should be condemned and
the proceeds divided between the U.S. government and the crew of the Trumbull. Buisson appealed the decision to the Supreme
Court. On 21 Dec. 1801—the same day that Thomas Jefferson proclaimed the ratification
of the Convention of 1800—the court reversed the lower court decision citing Art. 4 of
the Convention, which stipulated the restoration of property that had been captured
but not “definitively condemned.” In writing the majority opinion John Marshall added,
“The constitution of the United States declares a treaty to be the supreme law of the
land” (Marshall, Papers
, 6:99–100; Hamilton,
Papers
, 25:430; List of
Members, p. 4).
Conrad and McMunn’s Boarding House in Washington, D.C., was
located at the corner of New Jersey Avenue and C Street. Jefferson stayed there
between 27 Nov. 1800 and 19 March 1801. In addition to Jefferson,
Democratic-Republicans lodging there included Levi Lincoln, Dr. William Eustis, Albert
Gallatin, John Langdon, Samuel Smith, and Joseph Bradley Varnum (Jefferson, Papers
, 32:260; Richard Mannix, “Albert Gallatin in Washington,
1801–1813,” Columbia Hist. Soc., Records
, 71–72:61 [1971–1972];
Biog. Dir.
Cong.
).
The 1st session of the 7th Congress met from 7 Dec. to 3 May
1802. On 8 Dec. 1801 Jefferson broke with the precedent set by George Washington and
JA of personally delivering the president’s annual message to Congress.
Instead, he instructed his secretary Meriwether Lewis to deliver a written address to
each chamber, where it was read aloud. Jefferson’s message discussed U.S. actions
against Tripoli, the results of the recently completed U.S. census, and his efforts to
reduce federal spending. The address was printed in the Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 8 Dec., and drew Federalist
criticism. Alexander Hamilton as “Lucius Crassus” published an eighteen-part series
entitled “The Examination” from 21 Dec. to 8 April 1802 in the New York Evening Post, in which he condemned the message as “a most
prodigal sacrifice of constitutional energy, of sound principle, and of public
interest, to the popularity of one man.” The essays were republished as a pamphlet,
and as JQA later reported to Rufus King, they “find great approbation
among the federalists” (U.S. House, Jour.
, 7th Cong., 1st sess., p. 3–5, 240; U.S. Senate, Jour.
, 7th Cong., 1st sess., p. 155, 235; Jefferson, Papers
, 36:52–68;
Hamilton, Papers
, 25:444–457, 458–468, 469–474, 476–480, 484–489, 491–496,
500–511, 514–520, 529–535, 539–544, 546–558, 564–576, 589–598; [Hamilton], The Examination of the
153
President’s Message, N.Y., 1802, Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 2363; JQA to Rufus King,
18 Jan. 1802, NHi:Rufus King
Papers).
Jefferson held three or four dinners each week. The gatherings
were smaller and less formal than those held by Washington or JA, and the
third president often hosted Federalists and Democratic-Republicans separately.
Jefferson also did not hold levees, balls, birthday celebrations, or the drawing rooms
that AA had previously hosted (Merry Ellen Scofield, “The Fatigues of His
Table: The Politics of Presidential Dining during the Jefferson Administration,”
JER
,
26:461, 465, 468 [Fall 2006]; Jefferson,
Papers
, 36:xlvi–xlvii).
On 1 June 1801 James Madison recalled William Vans Murray from
his post as U.S. minister to the Netherlands. Murray received Madison’s letter on 27
July, and on 16 Sept. departed with his wife, Charlotte Hughins (Hughens) Murray, on
the ship Paulina, Capt. Borrowdale. The vessel reached
Alexandria, Va., on 2 Dec. (Madison, Papers, Secretary of State Series
, 1:246, 480;
Peter P. Hill, William Vans Murray, Federalist Diplomat: The
Shaping of Peace with France 1797–1801, Syracuse, N.Y., 1971, p. 217;
Alexandria, Va., Daily Advertiser, 3 Dec.).
Louis André Pichon (1771–1854) was French chargé d’affaires to
the United States. His wife was Alexandrine Émilie Brongniart Pichon (b. 1780), whom
he had married in Dec. 1800 (Jefferson, Papers
, 38:376; Morris, Diaries
, 2:203).
In its Dec. 1801 term the U.S. Supreme Court heard the case of
Marbury v. Madison. The plaintiffs, William Harper,
Robert Townsend Hooe, William Marbury, and Dennis Ramsay, were nominated by
JA as justices of the peace for the District of Columbia’s Washington
County on 2 March and were confirmed by the Senate the next day. After entering
office, however, Jefferson instructed acting secretary of state Levi Lincoln to
withhold their commissions. After several unsuccessful attempts to acquire their
commissions, Marbury informed Madison on 16 Dec. that they planned to appeal to the
U.S. Supreme Court. The following day former U.S. attorney general Charles Lee filed a
case on their behalf. On 18 Dec. the court accepted the case and ordered Madison to
show cause why a writ of mandamus should not be issued against him. The court also
directed that the arguments be held during the court’s next term, then scheduled for
June 1802. The case was not heard until Feb. 1803, however, due to the reorganization
of the U.S. judiciary. Marshall delivered the court’s landmark opinion on 24 Feb.
1803, finding Jefferson’s actions to be illegal but without remedy because the law
under which the appointments were made conflicted with the U.S. Constitution. In
declaring the law unconstitutional, the court established the court’s power of
judicial review (Madison, Papers, Secretary of State Series
, 2:319–320; Marshall, Papers
, 6:160–165).
“Mr Gi.” was probably George Gilpin, who had already received a
commission as a justice of the peace for Alexandria County, D.C., when Jefferson took
office, and whose commission was not challenged (Jefferson, Papers
,
36:314).
On 7 Dec. 1801 the House of Representatives elected Nathaniel
Macon (1757–1837) of North Carolina as Speaker and during its first two weeks
discussed naturalization laws, import duties, and the apportionment of congressional
representatives. As Hannah Cushing predicted, the Senate spent considerable time
considering presidential appointments. On 6 Jan. 1802 Jefferson submitted a list of
ninety recess appointments to replace Federalist candidates appointed at the close of
JA’s administration. One of those replaced was Ray Greene (1765–1849),
Yale 1784, a senator who had been appointed as U.S. district judge for Rhode Island in
Feb. 1801. Greene resigned from the Senate on 5 March, but his commission
inadvertently named him to the U.S. Circuit Court rather than the district court. Due
to this technicality, Jefferson voided the commission and made a recess appointment of
David Leonard Barnes on 30 April. Barnes was confirmed by the Senate on 26 Jan. 1802
and remained in the post until 1812. The 14 May 1801 recess appointment of Albert
Gallatin as secretary of the treasury was also confirmed on 26 Jan. 1802 (
Biog. Dir.
Cong.
;
Annals of Congress
, 7th Cong., 1st sess., p. 9–19, 309–342; Jefferson, Papers
, 33:553; 34:132; 36:310, 318, 323, 331–336;
AA to TBA, 16 May 1801,
and note 2, above).
For the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801, see TBA to William Cranch, 30 Jan. 1802, and note 2, below.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings in three additional cases
during its Dec. 1801 session. An 11 Dec. unanimous decision in Resler v. Shehee permitted judges’ discretion 154 in accepting or disallowing late filings.
Marshall delivered the decision in Wilson v. Mason on 15
Dec., settling competing land claims in Kentucky. On 21 Dec. Marshall also delivered
the court’s decision in Turner v. Fendall, which ruled
that creditors did not have legal right to assets acquired from insolvent debtors
unless they were obtained by court order (Cranch, Reports of Cases in the Supreme Court
,
1:45, 102–103, 110–111, 117–119, 129–137; Marshall, Papers
, 6:538; Erwin C. Surrency,
“Minutes of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1806,” American Journal of Legal History, 8:336–338, 342 [Oct.
1964]).
Hannah Cushing was likely referring to a case filed in December
by Joseph Hodgson against former secretary of war Samuel Dexter in U.S. Circuit Court.
Hodgson, a hatter, had leased a building to Dexter as a new location for the War
Office on the 2100 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, but on 8 Nov. 1800 the structure was
destroyed by fire. A congressional committee investigated the case and in a 28 Feb.
1801 report declared it an accident. Hodgson sued Dexter, alleging that he had broken
the terms of their lease by not keeping the property in good repair and taking steps
that would have prevented the fire. Dexter attempted to head off the suit by asking
the House to indemnify him based on the report, but his request was referred to a
committee on 4 Jan. 1802. The court case was continued to the Dec. 1802 session of the
U.S. Circuit Court and decided by William Cranch on 17 Jan. 1803 in a ruling that
found Dexter not liable for damages. Hodgson appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme
Court in February; Marshall delivered a unanimous opinion on 2 March, affirming the
lower court’s decision (Elaine C. Everly and Howard H. Webmann, “The War Office Fire
of 1800,” Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and
Records Administration, 31:26, 29–31 [Spring 1999]; Jefferson, Papers
, 36:418;
Marshall, Papers
, 6:539; U.S. House,
Jour.
, 7th Cong., 1st sess., p. 30).
For the New Haven Remonstrance, see JQA to TBA, 16 Sept. 1801, and note 2, above.
A tavern in Vansville, Md., owned by Gabriel Van Horne (
Jefferson’s Memorandum
Books
, 2:879–880).
The family of Ruth Hooper Dalton and Tristram Dalton recently
moved from a house on Capitol Hill to a nearby dwelling owned by Daniel Carroll
(William Cranch to Mary Smith Cranch, 15 May, MHi:Christopher P. Cranch Papers; Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 30 Dec.).
Representative John Rutledge Jr. (1766–1819) of South Carolina
sometimes spent time in Rhode Island while Congress was not in session (
Biog. Dir.
Cong.
; James H. Broussard, The Southern
Federalists, Baton Rouge, La., 1978, p. 19).
George Baxter Upham (1768–1848), Harvard 1789, was a lawyer and
Federalist representative from New Hampshire (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
).
th1801
I have not written you a Letter for a long time, yet I have not
been unthoughtfull of you.1 my mind is
often anxiously engaged for the welfare of my children. when my tongue is silent, and my
pen inactive; Your Brother and Family have been with me ever since their arrival, untill
last week when they got into their House in Boston; Mrs Adams has had a very allarming
cough & pain in her Breast which confined her almost the whole time she was here,
and it has not left her yet, tho she has been both Bled and Blisterd; her frame is so
Slender & her constitution so delicate that I have many fears that she will be of
short duration; the constant state of anxiety which has harrassed his mind upon her
account, have added a weight of years to his Brow, which time alone could not have
effected in double the 155
Time Space— commencing anew the practise of the
Law, is very far from being agreable to him after a period of seven years in which his
attention has been altogether occupied by other objects— yet what is to be done a
Helpless Family to provide for; all public employment in its best estate precarious,
uncertain, unthankfull, and now disgracefull to a Man of Honour & principle— to dig
he cannot; to beg—he disdains.— to what but the profession in which he was bred can he
turn his attention? humiliating as the circumstances are, under which he must commence
anew the buisness— very little buisness of a profitable nature is to be found in Boston
where the practise is less lucrative than in most of the other States; I know very well
that it has been in compliance with the wishes of your Father that all my sons studied
Law—but it was contrary to my judgement, and I know it was so to your inclination; I
think you would have been more Successfully employd in a mercantile Line, but that is
now out of the question; the present state of our Country offers no great encouragement
to talents integrity or Patriotism; where we are to be whirled how tossed and Buffetted
Time will unfold, but that we are to experience a reverse in the prosperous situation of
our country is too evident; Have you read in the Washington Federilist some papers under
the Signature of a “Friend of the Constitution” upon the contemplated System of
attacking the Judiciary. they are ably and handsomely written, and are from the pen of
W. C.2
I do not know whether I have thanked you for procuring my Ring,
which was executed quite to my mind; you will see by the papers that your Father
accepted an invitation to dine with those who celebrate Saint Forefathers day the feast
of the Pilgrims—and that upon this occasion, they were all “Republicans all Federilists”
the Lyon & the Lamb sit down together. the Son placed upon the right Hand, and the
ex Secretary Tim, upon the left; whilst Stephen presided as
President of the day, with perfect degage (you must make
out the meaning) that brazen effrontary which like Judas could say Hail Master and
betray with a kiss. not so poor Cabot whose conscience accused him of defection &
desertion, who saw and felt how wrong a part he had acted;3 I am sometimes wholy at a loss to know what we
are made for? So inconsistant, so proud arrogant & selfish as Mankind are; and I
draw this conclusion, if in this Life only we have hope, then are we of all Beings the
most misirable—
The Worscester Farmer has in his tenth Number basely and falsly attackd our NE clergy, but he has pulld a Hornets nest about his Ears, that will Sting him in, or out of his senses—he is the most of a Slavering Sycophant of any in the pack, or Sect.5
avaunt Politicks— Well pray inform [me] of the price current of flower. it has much fallen here, [if] the best kind is to be had with you at Seven or Eight dollors or will fall to that, request the Baker, to send me two Barrels more—
We all desire to be rememberd with Love respect &c to all our kind Friends— most affectionatly / Your Mother
RC (Adams
Papers); endorsed: “Mrs: A Adams / 27th: 1801 / 4th: Jany 1801 / 5th: ansd:.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
AA’s most recent extant letter to TBA
was of 22 Nov., in which she reported on local attitudes toward the conflict between
Britain and France and criticized a mutual acquaintance. TBA replied on
[7] Dec., discussing prospects for Anglo-French
relations and describing a Philadelphia thanksgiving day celebration (both Adams Papers).
William Cranch as “A Friend to the Constitution” authored five
essays in the Washington Federalist between 7 and 12
Dec., in which he argued that Democratic-Republicans were pursuing a partisan agenda
in Congress that threatened the U.S. Constitution. Cranch claimed that members of the
party were motivated by a “spirit of revenge” and argued that their attempts to
restructure the judiciary were designed to make it “dependent on the will of the
legislature.” Cranch’s essays were later published in the Port
Folio, 2:4–5 (16 Jan. 1802), 2:12–15 (21 Jan.), 2:19–22 (23 Jan.) and as a
pamphlet (Linda K. Kerber, Federalists in Dissent: Imagery and
Ideology in Jeffersonian America, Ithaca, N.Y., 1970, p. 142–144; A Friend to the Constitution, [Washington, D.C., 1801],
Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 538).
Forefathers’ Day was held annually on 22 Dec. to celebrate the
anniversary of the arrival of English settlers at Forefathers’ Rock in 1620. The
Boston Columbian Centinel, 23 Dec. 1801, reported that
JA and JQA were among more than 100 citizens who gathered
for the event at Boston’s Concert Hall. Timothy Pickering, Stephen Higginson, and
George Cabot were also in attendance. The newspaper reported a toast to “The President of the United States and the Constituted
Authorities of the Nation.— May they, like their predecessors, justly merit the
confidence and gratitude of their country” (vols. 4:43; 14:68, 394). For
JQA’s oration marking the day delivered at Plymouth in 1802, see
TBA to JQA, 5
Jan. 1803, and note 9, below.
Alexander Pope, Essay on Man,
Epistle 1, lines 91–92.
U.S. attorney general Levi Lincoln defended Thomas Jefferson and
promoted Democratic-Republican ideals in a series of fourteen essays under the
pseudonym “A Farmer,” which appeared in the Massachusetts
Spy from 19 Aug. 1801 to 25 Nov. and continued in the Worcester, Mass., National Aegis from 2 Dec. to 27 Oct. 1802. In the tenth
essay in the series, which appeared in the National
Aegis, 2 Dec. 1801, the Worcester resident charged Federalists with using
clergymen to advance their political interests, believing, “political wranglings, and
party strife, will give a fatal blow to their reputation.” The essays were later
published as a pamphlet (Massachusetts Spy, 19 Aug., 9,
16, 23 Sept., 21, 28 Oct., 11, 25 Nov.; Worcester National
Aegis, 2 Dec., 25 Aug. 1802, 29 Sept., 13, 27 Oct.; Jefferson, Papers
, 35:305–306;
Letters to the People, by a Farmer, Salem, Mass., 1802,
Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 2541).