Diary of John Quincy Adams, volume 1
Was all the morning writing for the Packet.1 Dined with the Delegates from Virginia. Coll. Monroe, was a little indisposed: he and Mr. Hardy, intend in a short time to take a tour to Boston. In the afternoon I carried my Letters to Mr. Church, who sails in the packet tomorrow morning. I then went and visited Mr. Gerry and Mr. King. There, was a number of persons at Mrs. Mercer's. Two Miss Bostwick's and Miss Alsop.2 Miss Mercer shew me, some lines intended as a Satire upon the young Ladies in the City, but the receipt for a wife,3 has neither wit, pleasantry, nor truth, in short it is not worth speaking of. Yet it has turn'd me poetaster. I am trying to see if I can say something not so bad in the same way. And although I see I have no talent at-all at versifying, yet like all fathers, I have a partiality for my own offspring however ugly they may be.
Probably JQA to JA, 3 Aug. (Adams Papers).
Undoubtedly Mary Alsop, daughter of New York merchant and Continental Congress delegate John Alsop; she married Rufus King the following year (The Life and Correspondence of Rufus King: Comprising His Letters, Private and Official, His Public Documents, and His Speeches, ed. Charles R. King, 6 vols., 1894–1900, 1:130–131; JQA to AA2, 1–8 Aug., Adams Papers).
Parts of this poem are quoted in JQA's letter to AA2, 1–8 Aug. (Adams Papers).