Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
th.1804
Your kind favour of the 23d arrived
in due time and afforded me sincere pleasure as it contained the pleasing intelligence
of the health of yourself & friends and I unite with you in prayers for its long
continuance—1
Our dear children I hope & trust are recovering from the
effects 417 of the Season although we have had little or no
hot weather it has been unusually sickly & the Summer
complaint has proved very fatal— George has entirely recover’d & John is much
better though there appears to be two more teeth in a state of forwardness which still
occasion a degree of irritability that prevents him from gaining either health flesh or strength—
The Alert has been here & sailed again but I have not yet got the things owing to the Captain having left them at Alexandria I believe they are safe but begin to be a little anxious about them as it is more than a week since the Alert arrived here I intended to have sent my mangle & Table home but the Vessel was so full Captain Smith could not take them—2
Mr. J. T. Mason has resigned his
place of Attorney general of the District he is coming into Congress in the room of
Mr. Heister who died here last Winter—3
I do not doubt Otis’s having acquitted himself with applause on such a subject one would think it was impossible to fail Governeur Morris falls very far short of what I expected4 I wonder you were not there whatever a mans faults may have been we should not carry resentment beyond the Grave remember my beloved friend that as we forgive so shall we be forgiven5 & the opinion of the World must be favorable when we act up to the true principles of our religion—
Adieu my best friend you must have understood my last letter I therefore need not repeat my cautions present my best respects to all I fear your Mother is offended indeed it was not my intention to offend and I hope you will try to make my appology and ever believe me your most sincere and affectionate Wife
I will thank you to send me some money
It is here said Col. B. is expected in Baltimore to fight General
S. for some insult offer’d last Winter
RC (Adams Papers).
No letter from JQA to LCA of 23 July has been found; LCA was probably referring to JQA’s letter of 19 July, above, which concluded on the 22d and which she had received by 30 July (LCA to JQA, 31 July, Adams Papers).
JQA placed a small parcel of goods for
LCA in the care of Capt. Azariah Smith of the schooner Alert, which cleared Boston on 12 July and arrived in
Alexandria, Va., on 1 Aug. (JQA to LCA, 13 July, Adams Papers; Boston
Commercial Gazette, 7 May; Boston Democrat, 14
July; Alexandria Expositor for the Country, 1 Aug.).
Maryland representative Daniel Hiester (b. 1747) died on 7 March.
Roger Nelson filled his seat in Congress, serving from 6 Nov. until his resignation on
14 May 1810. John Thomson Mason resigned his position as the U.S. attorney for the
District of Columbia on 418 5 Aug. 1804 owing
to his recent move to Maryland (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
; Jefferson, Papers
,
44:189).
On 14 July Gouverneur Morris delivered “an extemporary Oration”
at the funeral of Alexander Hamilton at Trinity Church in New York City. “I fear that
instead of the language of a public speaker, you will hear only the lamentations of a
bewailing friend,” Morris said. “But I will struggle with my bursting heart, to
pourtray that Heroic Spirit, which has flown to the mansion of bliss.” The oration and
an account of the funeral were published in the Washington, D.C., National Intelligencer, 25 July (Hamilton, Papers
,
26:324–25).
Matthew, 6:14.
st.12
th.1804
Since your favor of the twenty third I have not had the pleasure of
hearing from you and I suffer the most dreadful anxiety lest illness should be the cause
of your not writing. Oh God of Heaven forbid I cannot support the idea of your being
sick and I so far from you the thought is torture and I shall know no peace untill I
hear Oh this separation life is not worth having on such terms rather than continue this
distressing way of passing our time lives I would
chearfully relinquish it. Form’d for domestic life my whole Soul devoted to you and my
children yet ambitious to excess my heart and head are constantly at war my affection is
stronger the most powerful and at this moment
when every fear is rouzed I would willingly give up every future hope of your attainaing
the highest honors your Country admits to be assured we never should part more—
Our dear little ones are pretty well though John still continues weak I fear he will not recover his strength during the warm weather he has eight teeth—
Adieu my dearest friend To heaven I offer my most fervent prayers
for your health and prosperity and remain with the hope sweet anticipation of our reunion your very very / affectionate wife
RC (Adams Papers).
st:14
th.1804
I recieved your very kind letter of the 3d on Sunday evening & was inexpressibly shocked at the melancholy news it
contain’d11 Poor Mrs: Sargent. I most sincerely sympathize with you my beloved
friend in grief for her early death amiable & lovely as she was every ene who 419 has seen her must
deplore her loss but you my best friend who have known her so long and once loved her so
well must indeed mourn her untimely fate and bury her faults (if faults she had) in
eternal oblivion I never saw her but twice but the last time I had that pleasure I was
fully convinced that she still retain’d her affection for you which she could not
conceal and I pitied her from my Soul convinced as I am she never ceased to lament the
folly she was urged to commit and to deplore the blessing she had lost She is now
translated to those realms of Bliss where no sorrow can intrude to happiness unchanging
& eternal2
Our Sweet Boys are both perfectly well John has another large double tooth through indeed I was not the least angry about the vermillion therefore do not accuse me when there is really no necessity excuse my last letter I was so low spirited I scarcely know what I wrote it was prompted by the most anxious solicitude and an excess of tenderness which must be a plea for any absurdity of which I may have been guilty—
Adieu my dearest friend I unceasingly pray that some fortunate occurrence may hasten your return to the arms of your / Very affectionate Wife
RC (Adams Papers).
In his letter of 3 Aug. JQA reported the death of
Mary Frazier Sargent. He also expressed his concern for JA2 and assured
LCA that he had attempted to fulfill her request for goods from Boston.
He reported that the “vermilion” cloth she wanted was not available and that he might
not be able to send cheese via the schooner Alert because
its itinerary was in question. JQA’s letter was in reply to one from
LCA of 27 July, in which she reported JA2’s illness from
teething and noted her disappointment that she had not yet received the requested
items (both Adams Papers).
Mary Frazier Sargent of Newburyport, whom JQA had
courted more than a decade earlier, was thirty years old when she died of consumption
on 28 July. LCA learned of JQA and Sargent’s courtship while
sailing to the United States in 1801, and the two women met during the summer of 1802
and again in early 1803, before and after Sargent’s Dec. 1802 marriage to Daniel
Sargent (Vital Records of Newburyport, Massachusetts, to the
End of the Year 1849, 2 vols., Salem, Mass., 1911, 1:148; Boston Repertory, 31 July 1804; LCA, D&A
, 1:157, 172, 185). For more on JQA’s relationship with
Sargent, see vol. 9:41–44 and
11:61–62, 195.