Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
On Thursday, I went into Boston, for the first time this month
past, and there received at once your two letters of 14th:
and 20th: of June.1 They alleviated in part, and only in part the
heavy anxiety which has weighed on my Spirits for the health of the dear child— I hope
the fine weather has return’d with you, so that you have been able to give him the
benefit of the air and exercise— I cannot avoid misgivings for you all as the trying Season approaches— God Grant 403 you may all go through it without inconvenience
or illness.— For the last fortnight our weather here has been generally cold, and
great part of it rainy— But the preceding week at the very time when by your letters
it appears to have been the worst, we had only to complain of the heat, which was
excessive, and which occasioned some drought, while you were in such a drenching.
My lettered, and silent companion of the Office, whom I mentioned
to you in my last, soon after departed; and yesterday Mrs:
Foster and her two children left us, so that we are now reduced to the family alone—
But Susan is in vacation, and here— She grows tall and slender—And continues to make
rapid improvement at School— She already writes a very tolerable hand.
We have many reports in circulation from Europe, and you have
doubtless seen them in the newspapers, that Genl: Smith’s
nephew’s brother (as Mr: Breckenridge called him) is not
to be satisfied with the vapid denomination of first-Consul— But is soon to swell into
an Emperor—2 Should this take effect
the recognition of Citizen Jerome’s marriage, will prove more difficult than ever—
However, I presume that it will thoroughly reconcile the Smith’s and the Nicholas’s
and the Patterson’s, and all the fifteenth Cousins, who felt so radiant at their
affinity to the wife of the first Consul’s brother—it will thoroughly reconcile them I
think to the disavowal of the Connection on the french
side of the water—3 For stern
republicans as they are, however flattered they might be by kindred to a first-Consul,
they must hold in utter abhorrence all relationship to an Emperor—
After all there is a very rational ground of hope upon which they may with some confidence rely— The rocket blazes just before its fall— In the mutabilities of this world nothing is more probable than that the citizen Jerome will at no very distant period be indebted for life and support, to this very despised alliance— Richard Cromwell by changing his name and plunging into the deepest obscurity, was suffered to live all his days, and attained a great age—4 Jerome was no more born to wield Empires than Richard— But both may be much wiser men than their towering relatives—
I delivered both your letters to Mrs:
Whitcomb—5 The key and bill of lading
came safe to hand but the vessel has not yet arrived— Mrs:
Whitcomb will procure, and I will forward the Articles for which you write— They are
to leave our house to-morrow— He goes to Concert-Hall— I am not determined what to do
with the house, but think of selling it.— I shall duly attend to your request in a
late 404 letter, and if possible with any convenience,
will make an addition to the house at the foot of Penn’s hill— Dr: Phipps is building an house close in that neighbourhood, and on the other
side of the road.6
Adieu, my dearest friend; I count as anxiously as you the moments as they roll, with impatience, waiting for that which shall unite you once more to your ever faithful and affectionate husband
I enclose you a minute of the costs of the Articles sent you—as you requested—7
RC (Adams Papers). Tr (Adams Papers).
In her letter of 14 June, LCA reported that Anthony and Elizabeth Death Leathes Merry would not visit Boston and that Jerome and Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte had left the capital determined to travel to France despite the fact that Napoleon did not acknowledge his brother’s marriage. Continuing the letter on 17 June, LCA described a severe storm and the resulting property damage. No letter from LCA to JQA of 20 June has been found. LCA wrote again on 26 June reporting the returned good health of their sons but her increasing “impatience” with her and JQA’s separation. She also requested that he bring raspberry and currant seedlings when he returned (both Adams Papers).
The Boston Democrat, 30 June, in
reporting news from London at the start of May claimed, “The Senatus Consultum, by
which Bonaparte is expected to be proclaimed Emperor of the Gauls, will, according to
the last accounts from Paris, very shortly make its appearance.” The event took place
on 18 May (An XII, 28 floréal), when the French senate proclaimed the French Empire
and established Napoleon as emperor, endowing him with hereditary succession (Philip
Dwyer, Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power, New Haven,
2013, p. 127–128).
Elizabeth Bonaparte was related to the Smith and Nicholas
families through her mother, Dorothy Spear Patterson. Patterson’s sister Margaret
married Samuel Smith, the longstanding member of Congress from Maryland who was then
serving in the Senate, and the sisters’ niece, Mary Spear Nicholas, was the wife of
Virginia attorney general Philip Norborne Nicholas (Louise Pecquet du Bellet, Some Prominent Virginia Families, 4 vols., Lynchburg, Va.,
1907, 2:320;
Biog.
Dir. Cong.
).
Richard Cromwell (1626–1712), son of Oliver Cromwell, succeeded
his father as lord protector of England in Sept. 1658. With his authority questioned
by both the army and Parliament, the younger Cromwell’s tenure was brief; he resigned
in May 1659. He fled abroad, living in Paris under various pseudonyms (
DNB
).
Not found.
Dr. Thomas Phipps resided on Franklin Street in Quincy near the
John Quincy Adams Birthplace (Sprague, Braintree Families
).
The enclosure has not been found.
th.1804
I recieved your last very kind letter two days since and return you
many thanks for your verses1 the idea is
extremely beautiful and I should be much delighted to see it dressed in some other form
by you I do not admire the versification at precent whatever you do write must be more grateful to me than the best
piece that ever was pened—
I followed the multitude to day and went to pay my respects to the President every body attended that remain’d in town and we had as much Ice Cream and cake as we could eat the President is so alter’d I scarcely knew him he is grown very thin and looks very old—2
Poor Pichon is in great distress their little Lewis is dangerously
ill3 Dr May
attends him but he is fearful he has been called in too late Mrs. Pichon is very much to be pitied she will not believe her Child is Sick she
has however consented to the Childs being Cloathed in Flannel I sincerely hope it will
recover but I very much fear it is in the last stage of a decline—
There have been five attempts made to destroy Mount Vernon Mrs. Washington dare not Sleep there when Mr. Washington is from home a few days since a servant went
into the Cellar for something in the evening and found it in a blaze they put it out
with difficulty and on searching the Cellar discover’d a Barrel filled with Tar Shaving
&c. prepared to set fire to the Gardener an Irishman is supposed to have done it and
has been confined in consequence but this last attempt has been made since his
imprisonment—4
I see by the papers Col. Trumbull is returned it is here said Mr. Pinckney is to have the place of Attorney General in lieu
of Mr. Lincoln in the hope of his becoming one of the
reigning party he returns early in the Spring—5
Adieu my beloved friend remember me affectionately to your friends the are much as usual I intend going to Bladensburg tomorrow by way of changing the air I shall write you as soon as I return with the tenderest sentiments of esteem and love I remain your faithful
P.S. The President asked after you and was very anxious to know when you returned
RC (Adams Papers).
JQA to LCA, 17 June, above.
The “Anniversary of an empire’s birth” began in the nation’s
capital with an artillery salute from the Navy Yard. John Peter Van Ness, a major in
the district’s militia, gave an oration at 11 A.M., and the President’s House opened for a “large assemblage” of
well-wishers. Several public dinners were held in the evening, including one at
Stelle’s Hotel where in addition to toasts to the president and American prosperity,
the “martyrs of American freedom” and “accession of Louisiana” were celebrated
(Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 2, 6 July;
Biog. Dir.
Cong.
).
The infant son of Louis André and Alexandrine Émilie Brongniart Pichon, identified by LCA as his father’s namesake, died by 5 July (LCA to JQA, 9 July, Adams Papers; Anna Thornton Diary, 6 July).
Bushrod Washington inherited a large portion of George
Washington’s Mount Vernon estate following his uncle’s death in 1799. He and his wife,
Julia Ann (Nancy) Blackburn Washington (1768–1829), resided at Mount Vernon when
Bushrod was not 406 traveling for his service as a U.S. Supreme Court
justice. In May 1804, while in court in Philadelphia, Bushrod learned of a fire at the
estate, triggering the court’s adjournment and the judge’s swift return to Virginia.
Several newspapers reported the fire in May, and news of subsequent fires were
discussed within Washington society (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series
, 1:101;
Bushrod Washington to Richard Peters, 21 May, ViMtvL:Bushrod Washington Manuscripts; Philadelphia
Gazette, 9 May; New York Commercial Advertiser, 11
May; Baltimore Telegraphe and Daily Advertiser, 12 May;
Dolley Payne Todd Madison to Anna Payne Cutts, [June] 1804,
Dolley Madison Digital
Edition
).
The Washington, D.C., National
Intelligencer, 2 July, reported the return to the United States of Col. John
Trumbull after serving on the Anglo-American claims commission. Trumbull’s fellow U.S.
commissioners, Christopher Gore and William Pinkney, also returned in 1804. Gore
returned in the spring, for which see
JQA to LCA, 24 April, and note 3, above, and
Pinkney in late October. Rather than U.S. attorney general, Thomas Jefferson intended
to nominate Pinkney (1764–1822) as a judge at New Orleans. Levi Lincoln continued to
serve as the attorney general throughout Jefferson’s first term, although he voiced
his determination to retire from the post about this time (vol. 11:385; Jefferson, Papers
, 44:180,
531, 659;
Biog.
Dir. Cong.
).