Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
th:June 1802
I received your short note, accompanying the Oration delivered by my brother, before the charitable fire Association, and thank you for the promptness of your attention in transmitting it.1 The perusal of it was a rich repast, and though its merit did not surpass, it fully equalled my expectations.
I am yet to hear from you, in answer
to some of my late communications. You have certainly lost that kakoethes scribendi,2 which was
wont to beset you so easily. I remember to have predicted your recovery from the
disorder, at no very remote period, but you were then incredulous. You ought not
however, wholly to relinquish the habits of writing to your friends, for they sensibly
feel the loss of your once frequent addresses. I beg of you, if you can give me any private information, to impart it speedily. What have you
done with the charge, & the last letter? My destiny is
hard & somewhat peculiar. If constancy & perseverance ever deserved to triumph,
I think mine one of those cases, which has strong claims to favor and victory. God only
knows when. Nil desperandum, is a good motto, in some cases, but nil sperandum is
the destiny of a galley-slave.3 I know
not which motto is most appropriate to me.
The newspapers will have informed you, that a work entitled the
history of the Administration of John Adams, and an account of the suppression of the same, by Col Burr, are now selling at New
York & at this place.4
I have submitted to the drudgery of wading through both of these
productions, and I can aver, that I never met with so lame, bald & contemptible
performances, on any subject. The Author, (if indeed he deserves the name of author, who
has ransacked the Jacobin 213 journals for
materials, and no other source, and then dignifies them with the title history) was so
well aware of the nothingness of his compilation, that he became the willing instrument
of Col Burr who hired him to strangle his own bastard; but falling out, afterwards with
his employer—he reveals the murder, which of course never
took place, since the original history comes out at the same moment with the account of
its death. Now this is a specimen of Irish logic; but the work was made to sell.
There are hundreds of libellous expressions & passages
interspersed throughout, but what is a little singular is, that Col: Hamilton &
General Pinckney are both extolled in character & person. Their Biography is taken
from federal newspapers and interlarded, here & there with an abusive or scandalous
anecdote. The utmost malignity & scurrility of the writer is directed at John Adams,
but there is no word of it, that will be credited by a single human being.5 The newspaper of last night says, the noted John
Wood, author &ca:
has absconded.
6
We have just entered upon summer-weather here, and we shall have enough before it leaves us—apprehensions of Yellow fever are stronger this year than ever, on account of the troops in the West Indies.7
Friends here are well; remember me kindly to all.
Your’s truly
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “William S Shaw / Boston”; internal address: “W. S. Shaw.”; endorsed: “13 June / T B Adams / Ans 23 June”; docketed: “1802 / June 13.”
Not found.
An irresistable urge to write (
OED
).
“Never despair” (Horace, Odes and
Epodes, transl. C. E. Bennett, Cambridge, 1968, Book I, Ode 7, line 27).
TBA’s alternate version translates to “Never hope.”
The Philadelphia Gazette, 8 June,
advertised the publication of John Wood’s History of the
Administration of John Adams, Esq., Late President of the United States, N.Y.,
1802, Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 3581, and
A Narrative of the Suppression by Col. Burr, of the History
of the Administration of John Adams, late President of the United States, N.Y.,
1802, Shaw-Shoemaker, No. 2021. Wood
(ca. 1775–1822), a political writer and Scottish immigrant to New York in 1800,
offered a scathing condemnation of JA as a “monarchical President.” The
latter work, published anonymously by James Cheetham (1772–1810), a British expatriate
and outspoken political commentator, documented Aaron Burr’s role in the suppression
of Wood’s History between late 1801 and May 1802. Burr
believed that Wood’s work would harm his faction of New York Democratic-Republicans by
unraveling fragile alliances they had forged with Federalists. Thus, he convinced Wood
that they needed to repurchase the book from its publishers, William Barlass and
Matthias Ward. After protracted negotiations, by 12 May Burr’s associate William Peter
Van Ness paid Barlass and Ward $1,000 for 1,250 copies of the work. A little less than
two weeks later, Cheetham, who believed Burr was engaged in a determined effort to
undermine Thomas Jefferson, advertised his Narrative in
the New York American Citizen, 24 May, and published it
five days later. With Wood’s History now widely
publicized, efforts to suppress it ceased 214 and it was put on
sale on 3 June (Burr, Political Correspondence
, 2:641–648, 696–698,
725–726; Wood, History of the Administration of John
Adams, p. 2; Narrative of the Suppression, p. 34;
Jefferson, Papers
, 36:82–88, 228–229; Thomas N. Baker, “‘An Attack Well
Directed,’ Aaron Burr Intrigues for the Presidency,”
JER
, 31:571–575 [Winter
2011]).
Wood drew from partisan sources for his History of the Administration of John Adams, including the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, letters from William Duane, the
works of James Thomson Callender, and personal commentary from people in New York City
and Philadelphia. Wood charged that JA’s “anglo-federal” presidential
administration pursued a “system of persecution” against its opponents and argued that
he should have been impeached following the implementation of the Alien and Sedition
Acts. Wood also described JA as “vain” and with ‘a disposition both cruel
and ungenerous.” In contrast, Wood praised Alexander Hamilton’s military service but
lamented that “as a political character, he has been the greatest misfortune.” He also
offered muted praise of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, opining that he had “at least
some principles of honor” (Burr, Political Correspondence
, 2:642; Wood, History of the Administration of John Adams, p. 162, 208,
246, 323, 328, 346, 465).
Wood departed New York City in early June for Canada, where he
hoped to investigate rumors of British infringements on the American fur trade. His
departure prompted the Philadelphia Gazette, 12 June, to
report that he had “absconded.” Wood returned to New York in early July (Burr, Political
Correspondence
, 2:730–731).
Napoleon received Saint Domingue’s Constitution of 1801 in
October, and believing that Gen. Toussaint Louverture had overstepped his authority,
he sent a force of nearly 22,000 soldiers and 20,000 sailors in Jan. 1802 to reassert
French control over the island. The French succeeded by May, but a yellow fever
epidemic eventually claimed the lives of more than 10,000 French troops (Jefferson, Papers
, 37:27, 600; Laurent Dubois, Avengers of
the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, Cambridge, 2004, p. 251,
253–254; Thomas O. Ott, The Haitian Revolution,
1789–1804, Knoxville, Tenn., 1973, p. 170).
TBA wrote again to Shaw on [ante 20] and 28 June, discussing publications they had exchanged and
commenting on recent items in the Port Folio.
TBA also discussed JQA’s activities in the Mass. senate
(both MWA:Adams Family Letters).
m:
d1802.
The solicitude you express’d to have your little Susan learn dancing, has induced me to make some inquiries, and has consequently led me to reflect more on the subject than I ever before had done; the result of those inquiries, and these reflexions is, a decided opinion against introducing either music or dancing (as an Art) into this little seminary.1
My daughter will give you my reasons, which I flatter myself will appear sufficiently strong, all circumstances considered.]2
With regard to our little pupil (Susan) I presume th[at the] awkwardness of her air, and gait, arises more from […] than body, and a remidy properly and effectually app[lied] to the former, would soon irradicate the defects of the latter.
She wants in my opinion one year’s close attention; to instill
right principles, and proper motives for conduct; before the natural Volatility of her
temper is encreased, by those necessary but dangerous 215 excitements, musick
and dancing. She should not be indulged in going home, except in the Vacations, if you
would wish her to make any improvement; I find it has a decided affect against their
being able to fix to any point— and without this Power, the
mind will continue Unstable as water and cannot Excell.
3 Pardon, my dear and much honour’d Madm: the freedom of these incorrect and hasty observations, and
do me the justice to believe that it mortifies me not a little, to find it out of my
power to comply with your wishes—which would at all times give the sincerest / Pleasure
to your / ever obliged friend and / Obt: Servt:
RC (Adams
Papers); addressed: “Madam Adams / Quincy.”; endorsed: “[Mr]s Cranch /
Milton.”; notation by Cranch: “Milton July 2d 1802.” Some
loss of text where the seal was removed.
Susanna Boylston Adams attended Elizabeth Palmer Cranch’s Ladies’
Boarding School in Milton until at least 1804. She was later tutored by
JA in arithmetic and educated under Elizabeth Smith Shaw Peabody’s care
in Atkinson, N.H. (Megan Marshall, The Peabody Sisters: Three
Women Who Ignited American Romanticism, Boston, 2005, p. 53; A. K. Teele, ed.,
The History of Milton, Mass., 1640 to 1887, Boston,
1887, p. 324; D/JQA/27, 19 July 1804, 3 Sept. 1808, APM Reel 30; AA to
SSA, 20 Jan. 1808, NIC;
AA to Susanna Adams, 12 Sept., private owner, 1957).
Genesis, 49:4.