Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
th:1803.
I reached Boston on Saturday Evening the 10th: inst: and came out to Quincy on Sunday afternoon, with Cousin Shaw—1 Our parents are well; my Mother is
wonderfully recovered, and seems to me to be as active & busy as ever about her
family— this is a great comfort to me, and will help to render solitude in some measure
supportable. to me. I feel, that there will be
ample time to reflect on my future course of conduct, but all my thoughts seem to begin
& terminate with the practice of law. I dont know but it haunts me like a Spectre,
for I some times start with terror from a profound reverie 313 on writs & attachments. Your advice to keep up a show of my profession, I have already determined to follow, and this is all I
should be likely to do for some time, with the best intentions of doing more. In short,
I must not be idle & without an object of pursuit, and what at this season is to be
done in the Country, without it be reading & study? I can think of nothing else, and
I design to buckle to with some earnestness, to keep off the Blue Devils. When Spring
approaches I will do something at farming, that I may learn a little of practical
husbandry, before I undertake to assume the management of a farm. Thus, you see my
thoughts have taken a kind of hum-drum-turn in the space of four or five days. I shall
look with some earnestness for your return, though I have no expectation of seeing you
much before April. In the mean time, if I can make for your convenience any
arrangements, preparatory to your return, I shall give my attention with pleasure.
The fame of your Resolution laid on the table of Senate has reached
us, and excites conversation; some of which we shall not be in the way of hearing. I
believe, that you have seized the right reading of the Treaty and have pointed out the
only mode of reconciling it with the Constitution, as it should
be.
2 It is doubted here whether
the Government folks will second the measure, as they have all endeavoured to support
the Treaty on Constitutional grounds; not one among them has had the honesty or the
courage to pursue the principles, which some articles of the treaty involve, to the end
of the chapter; if they had, they must have arrived precisely at the point, which
brought up the Honb̃le member from Massachusetts. The appeal to the people, will not be
without its terrors to the Administration; though I concur with you in thinking, that no
obstacle would be opposed to the ratification of the proposed amendment, by the
Constitutional majority of the States. But, suppose a majority should not consent to the
addition? The Treaty will stand at least on as firm a basis as it does now. Your friends
anticipate for you a plentiful harvest of abuse & Slander from both parties; but
they also presume, that you are prepared to meet & to disregard it. I do not intend
to be much in Boston and therefore can promise you few details of the sentiments of your constituents.
The conduct of the descendent of the house of Ormond is thought to be rather extraordinary by some people, tho’ others think they can discover the secret movements of disappointed ambition in his meditated exclusion of the present chief magistrate, from the chance of a second Election.3
314The projected amendment to the Constitution, seems to linger in Senate, and doubts are entertained whether it will pass. The requisite number cannot, they say, be made up, without the absentees; but Gen: Armstrong has gone on, and Sumpter may probably arrive, so that the resolution may not eventually depend upon your vote, as some people have been heard to say it [will.]4 I claim the privilege of writing politicks to you, [but] do [not ex]pect a return in the same coin.
My Books and furniture have reached this place, in good condition, but the embarrassment is for want of a room to hold them. I am rejoiced that my fathers Law Books, which were loaned to me, are returned in as good condition as I received them.
Our friends are all well; I saw yesterday our good Uncle & Aunt Cranch, and my redoubtable namesake T. B. A Norton, who is a pretty lad.
Present me kindly to your wife and the whole family, in which you reside.
sincerely your’s
RC (Adams
Papers); addressed: “John Q Adams Esqr: / City of
Washington”; internal address: “J Q Adams Esqr:”;
endorsed: “T. B. Adams. 15. Decr: 1803. / 25. Decr: recd: / 27. do:: Ansd:.” Some loss of text
where the seal was removed.
After laboring with only modest success as an attorney in
Philadelphia since April 1799, TBA returned to Quincy to reside. In a 5
Nov. 1803 letter to William Smith Shaw, he reported that he had sent a shipment of
books to Boston, and in a note to William Smith of the 21st (both MHi:Misc. Bound Coll.) he reported that a
second shipment consisting of furniture and baggage was also on its way.
TBA lived with his parents at Peacefield until 1810, maintaining a law
office in a farm building behind the house (vol. 13:440, 488; Laurel A. Racine, Historic Furnishings Report:
The Birthplaces of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, Charlestown,
2001, p. 47).
Despite voting to fund the Louisiana Purchase, JQA
agreed with his fellow Federalists that the acquisition of the territory required
constitutional authorization, although he argued that congressional action could
eventually address the deficiency. To that end, on 25 Nov. 1803 he discussed the idea
with James Madison, showing the secretary of state a draft constitutional amendment
and reporting his intention to introduce a resolution calling for a committee to study
the question. Madison told JQA that many in Congress disagreed about the
necessity of such action, not disclosing that earlier in the year Thomas Jefferson had
likewise argued that a constitutional amendment was needed but agreed to remain silent
on the question after members of his cabinet convinced him that seeking one would
jeopardize the purchase. JQA introduced the motion as planned on 25
November. The measure was tabled and then rejected on 9 Dec., after the
Democratic-Republican majority had proceeded as if the constitutional question were
settled (HA, New-England Federalism
, p. 53–55, 157–158; Jefferson, Papers
, 40:681–685,
41:viii; JQA, Writings
, 3:19–21;
Annals of Congress
, 8th Cong., 1st sess., p.
105–106, 211, 213; King, Life and Corr.
, 4:361). For JQA’s role
in drafting a plan of government for the new territory, see his 14 Jan. 1804 letter to TBA
, and
note 1, below.
Senator Pierce Butler, who frequently noted his descent from
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, was a notable opponent of the 12th Amendment. The
South Carolinian opposed the amendment as detrimental to his state, although it was
politically 315 advantageous for Democratic-Republicans and for
Jefferson (Terry W. Lipscomb, The Letters of Pierce Butler,
1790–1794: Nation Building and Enterprise in the New American Republic,
Columbia, S.C., 2007, p. xxxv; Grier Hersh, “The Scotch-Irish in York and Adams
Counties, Pennsylvania,” The Scotch-Irish in America:
Proceedings and Addresses of the Scotch-Irish Congress, 8:342 [4–7 June 1896];
Annals of
Congress
, 8th Cong., 1st sess., p. 207–209).
John Armstrong Jr. of New York was elected to fill the vacancy
caused by DeWitt Clinton’s resignation in Nov. 1803. Armstrong took his seat in the
Senate on 7 Dec., while Thomas Sumter of South Carolina did not arrive for the session
until 6 Feb. 1804. Both missed the 2 Dec. 1803 vote on the 12th Amendment. Vice
President Aaron Burr ruled that the vote met the required two-thirds majority,
overruling Uriah Tracy’s objection (U.S.
Senate, Jour.
, 8th Cong., 1st sess., p. 321, 350;
Biog. Dir.
Cong.
;
Annals of Congress
, 8th Cong., 1st sess., p.
209).
JQA replied to this letter on 27 Dec. (Adams Papers), congratulating TBA on his decision to settle in Quincy and criticizing Democratic-Republicans for rejecting JQA’s proposed constitutional amendment regarding Louisiana. “They liked my principle when it gave them my vote,” he wrote, “but they dared not look its consequences in the face.” JQA had previously written to TBA on 7 Dec. (MHi:De Windt Family Papers), seeking an update on Carl August Engel’s claim against Jacob Mark & Co., and TBA responded on 21 Dec. (Adams Papers), reporting that the pursuit of the claim was likely to be protracted but he hoped it would be successful.
r:1803.
I received last evening with much pleasure your favour of the 5th: instt:—1 I had been so long without any intelligence from
home that I began to be uneasy— And even now, I cannot but wish you had said something
about the family at Quincy— I believe it is more than a month since I have heard from
thence, at-all— I am anxious particularly to know the state of health of my dear
mother.
I am much obliged to you for the care you have taken of my business; and have already written to you about the tenth assessment on the Neponset Bridge Shares— As the Middlesex Canal assessments have ceased, I presume Whitcomb’s rent in January with what you have left in your hands will suffice to meet the bridge assessment.2
We have done a great deal of business here this session, and are
like to have much more to do— I have some pamphlets for you from Mr: Wagner which I will take with me when I come home—3
Mr: Gurley and Mr: R. Sullivan are here— The former makes slow progress in his tour to
Louisiana.4
Your’s faithfully
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “Mr:
William S. Shaw. / Boston. / Massachusetts.”; internal address: “Mr: W. S. Shaw.”; notation by JQA: “Free / John Quincy Adams. / Senr: U.S.”
Not found.
JQA wrote to Shaw on 5 Dec. (MWA:Adams Family Letters), requesting that he pay a $38
assessment on each of JQA’s six shares in the Neponset River Bridge
Corporation. He instructed Shaw to draw upon 316 rent due on 1 Jan.
1804 from Tilly Whitcomb, who was leasing for $200 per quarter a house in Half-Court
Square that JQA purchased on 6 Nov. 1802. The Neponset River Bridge
Corporation was established by the Mass. General Court on 11 March 1802 to construct
and maintain a toll bridge on a new highway from Quincy to Boston. JQA
was a founding shareholder, purchasing five shares initially, adding two more on 10
Sept. 1803, then selling one a week later. He retained the remaining six shares for
more than four decades, a lucrative investment that yielded shareholders a combined
profit of $145,272 by 1841. JQA also referred to his longer held
investment in the Middlesex Canal, recording on the day he wrote this letter that he
received from Shaw a receipt for the payment of the 88th assessment on the shares
(vols. 13:51, 248, 545–546; 14:175–176;
M/JQA/12, APM
Reel 209; D/JQA/24, APM Reel 27; D/JQA/45, 8 July 1845, APM Reel 48; Pattee, Old Braintree
, p.
71).
Jacob Wagner (1772–1825) was chief clerk of the U.S. State
Department from 1794 to 1807 and assisted both JA and JQA
with administrative matters (Marshall, Papers
, 4:30;
Doc. Hist. Supreme Court
,
1:167; Wagner to JA, 12 July 1800; to JQA, 11 Sept. 1801,
both Adams Papers).
Attorney John Ward Gurley (1778–1808), Yale 1799, of Lebanon,
Conn., leased JQA’s Court Street house in Boston early in 1803.
JQA recorded in September that Gurley had “forfeited the lease, by a
breach of its agreements,” and had announced his intention to remove to New Orleans.
Gurley was residing in New Orleans by 1804, and Thomas Jefferson appointed him land
office register for the Eastern District of Orleans Territory in March 1805. Boston
lawyer Richard Sullivan (1779–1861), Harvard 1798, of Groton, Mass., was the son of
Massachusetts attorney general James Sullivan (Albert E. Gurley, The History and Genealogy of the Gurley Family, Hartford,
Conn., 1897, p. 70–71; M/JQA/12, APM Reel 209;
Boston Directory, 1803, Shaw-Shoemaker 3862;
D/JQA/24, 20 April, 21 Sept., APM Reel 27; Madison, Papers, Secretary of State Series
,
9:123, 125; Thomas C. Amory, Memoir of Hon. Richard
Sullivan, Cambridge, 1885, p. 3, 7, 8;
Harvard Quinquennial
Cat.
).