Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
April 1801
th:I have your letter of the 17th:,
which travelled, from Boston hither, in very agreeable company.1 I can readily conceive, the novelty of your
situation in a lawyers office, joined to other novelties of quite as pleasant a
nature, would tend to distract your thoughts, for some time.
Without undertaking to advise you on the subject of your recent
pursuit, I will barely say, that the Office of my principal, were I to be again a
student, should be my place of dwelling, almost uninterruptedly during the first
twelve or fifteen months of my apprenticeship; during this time, you ought to read
Blackstone, Cooke on Littleton, the two first vol’s of Hume’s England; Robertson’s
Charles 5th: & Reeve’s history of the Eng: law.2 What course your patron will advise I
know not, but all other advice ought to be subservient to his direction. As a general
memento, you may learn from me, that the best time to study law, is while you are in
the Office of another person, for after you have one of your own, your attention &
time must be occupied, chiefly by attendance upon Courts &ce:. It was not until I had considerable experience, that I could look upon a
Client in any other light than an intruder into my Office, and nothing but his fee
could persuade me to the Contrary. Jo: Dennie says he used to lock his office door to
keep Clients out. This is no violence to the truth, in his case, as I can readily
conceive.
I shall be obliged to you, for occasional memoirs of town & Country occurrences, and will give you similar coin in return.
I am glad you have a chief magistrate, of your choice, and hope this may always be your lot, as it is mine, never to have been gratified in this particular.
The Shee Genl: after all, would not
be Marshall, & therefore a far more ignoble man, has been appointed in his room—a
man of crimes; if report be true. I do not know the man, even by sight; his reputation
is much of a piece with that of many of our State Officers; indeed, I think it a pity,
that the President, in appointing this man, has, so far, diminished the list of
Candidates for the patronage of our Governor.3
I have nothing new to offer— Present me kindly to all friends,
and particularly to Mr: & Mrs: Foster—
Your’s
Tell Mr: Callender, if you please,
that the lottery in which he is interested has commenced & nearly finished
drawing— I leave the examination of his tickets ’till the last.4
RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “William S Shaw / Boston”; internal address: “W. S. Shaw”; endorsed: “T B Adams Esqr / rec 11 May”; docketed: “1801 April 27.”
Not found.
In addition to the standard texts by William Blackstone, Edward
Coke, and David Hume, TBA recommended William Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles V, 3 vols., London, 1769,
and John Reeves, History of the English Law, 2 vols.,
London, 1783–1784.
Thomas Jefferson on 28 March commissioned Philadelphia merchant
John Smith as marshal of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after Col. John Shee
declined to serve. Jefferson submitted to the Senate a nomination for Smith’s
reappointment on 6 Jan. 1802, which the Senate confirmed on the 26th. Smith, an
officer in the city militia, helped organize a Philadelphia celebration of Jefferson’s
inauguration. In an 11 March 1801 letter to the president, Smith denied “a Cruel
report by some ill disposed person” that he supported Gen. John Peter Gabriel
Muhlenberg over Thomas McKean for governor. The “ill disposed person” may have been
Philadelphia sheriff Israel Israel, a political opponent of Smith and a confidant of
TBA (vol. 14:482; Jefferson, Papers
, 33:246–247, 675; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour.
, 7th
Cong., 1st sess., p. 403, 405).
The Easton Delaware Bridge Lottery was authorized by the
Pennsylvania legislature to raise money for the construction of a covered bridge
across the Delaware River between Easton, Penn., and Phillipsburg, N.J. Tickets cost
$10 each and prizes ranged from $10 to $5,000, with a series of drawings begun on 3
April and set to end on 25 May. TBA monitored the lottery on behalf of
Harvard College classmate and Boston attorney John Callender (vol. 9:236; Steven M. Richman, The Bridges of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J., 2005, p.
97–98; Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 27
April, 1 May).
I have received, and communicated to this Government, my recall from the mission here—1 I shall hasten my departure as much as possible; but the situation of my wife who is still confined to her bed, renders it uncertain when she will be able to travel at-all, and yet more when to undertake the voyage. If a favourable opportunity from Hamburg for Boston occurs I shall give it the preference— But I can scarcely flatter myself with the hope of seeing you before the month of October.
Possibly some of my late letters to my mother, may lead you to the apprehension that this recall has proved personally unwelcome and unexpected to me—2 But I beg you to be assured that considering it as a measure dictated by a sense of the public interest, your 66 determination has not only my cheerful acquiescence, but my hearty approbation— It has indeed appeared to me that from the peculiar situation of affairs in the North of Europe, the expediency of having some public character from the United States upon the spot, was stronger than it had been at any former period: but even if you should now concur in that opinion, you might reasonably not have entertained it when you concluded to recall me;—nor do I apprehend the public service will suffer, from my removal.
With respect to my own prospects, upon returning home, as they involve the dependence of my family, (for in every other point of view I feel them to be perfectly indifferent to me) it is natural I should not be without concern; but I have no reason to distrust the bounties of Providence, and I hope my own exertions will never be wanting, for the fulfilment of my duties— If I were capable of shrinking from a measure of public benefit, because it is a private damage to myself, I should be unworthy to bear the name of your son.
RC (Adams
Papers); internal address: “John Adams Esqr.”
FC-Pr (Adams Papers).
On 26 April JQA received a 3 Feb. letter of recall from Secretary of State John Marshall enclosing a 31 Jan. letter from JA to Frederick William III (both Adams Papers). JQA traveled to Potsdam to take leave of the king and queen on 5 May, writing of their meeting that Frederick William III “told me he had been pleased at my residence here, and was well satisfied with my conduct.” He met with Queen Louise Auguste Wilhelmine of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in a separate audience, writing, “She repeated neatly what the king had said, with less appearance of saying mere formalities. Talk’d about Silesia, Switzerland, Sea-voyages and so forth” (vol. 14:555–556; D/JQA/24, APM Reel 27). For JQA and LCA’s voyage home, see JQA to TBA, 30 May, and note 3, below.
JQA wrote to AA on 11 July 1800 that if recalled by JA he would decline appointment to any other public office offered by his father, and in his letter of 10 March 1801, above, he further reported that he expected his recall to be one of Thomas Jefferson’s first actions as president (vol. 14:240).
With this letter, JQA enclosed the third installment
of his gazette, dated 2–15 April (D/JQA/24, 1 May, APM Reel 27; FC-Pr, filmed at
[April 1801], Adams Papers).