Adams Family Correspondence, volume 6
Mr. Adams has already written you that we arrived in London upon the 27 of May.3 We journey'd slowly and sometimes silently. I think I have somewhere met with the observation that nobody ever leaves Paris but with a degree of tristeness. I own I was loth to leave my Garden because I did not expect to find its place supplied. I was still more Loth on account of the increasing pleasure, and intimacy which a longer acquaintance with a respected Friend promised, to leave behind me the only person with whom my Companion could associate; with perfect freedom, and unreserve: and whose place he had no reason to expect supplied in the Land to which he is destinied.
170At leaving Auteuil our domesticks surrounded our Carriage and in tears took leave of us, which gave us that painfull kind of pleasure, which arises from a consciousness, that the good will of our dependants is not misplaced.
My little Bird I was obliged, after taking it into the Carriage to resign to my Parissian Chamber Maid, or the poor thing would have flutterd itself to death. I mourn'd its loss, but its place was happily supplied by a present of two others which were given me on Board the Dover pacquet, by a young Gentleman whom we had received on Board with us, and who being excessively sick I admitted into the Cabin, in gratitude for which he insisted upon my accepting a pair of his Birds. As they had been used to travelling, I brought them here in safety, for which they hourly repay me by their melodious Notes. When we arrived we went to our old Lodgings at the Adelphia,4 but could not be received as it was full, and almost every other hotel in the city. From thence we came to the Bath hotel where we at present are, and where Mr. Storer had partly engaged Lodgings for us, tho he thought we should have objections upon account of the Noise, and the Constant assemblage of Carriages round it, but it was no time for choice, as the sitting of parliament, the Birth Day of the King, and the celebration of Handles Musick5 had drawn together such a Number of people as allready to increase the price of Lodgings near double. We did not however6 hesitate at keeping them tho the four rooms which we occupy costs a third more than our House and Garden Stables &c. did at Auteuil. I had lived so quietly in that Calm retreat, that the Noise and bustle of this proud city almost turnd my Brain for the first two or three Days. The figure which this city makes in respect to Equipages is vastly superiour to Paris, and gives one the Idea of superiour wealth and grandeur. I have seen few carriages in Paris and no horses superiour to what are used here for Hackneys. My time has been much taken up since my arrival in looking out for a House. I could find many which would suit in all respects but the price, but none realy fit to occupy under 240 £. 250, besides the taxes, which are serious matters here. At last I found one in Grovenor Square which we have engaged.7
Mr. Adams has written you an account of his reception at Court, which has been as gracious and as agreeable as the reception given to the Ministers of any other foreign powers. Tomorrow he is to be presented to the Queen.8
Mr. Smith appears to be a Modest worthy Man, if I may judge from 171so short an acquaintance. I think we shall have much pleasure in our connection with him.9 All the Foreign Ministers and the Secrataries of Embassies have made their visits here, as well as some English Earls and Lords.10 Nothing as yet11 has discoverd any acrimony. Whilst the Coals are coverd the blaize will not burst, but the first wind which blows them into action will I expect envelop all in flames. If the actors pass the ordeal without being burnt they may be considerd in future of the Asbestos kind. Whilst I am writing the papers of this day are handed me. From the publick Advertiser I extract the following. “Yesterday morning a Messenger was sent from Mr. Pitt to Mr. Adams the American plenipotentiary with notice to suspend for the present their intended interview.” (absolutely false.)12 From the same paper.
“An Ambassador from America! Good heavens what a sound! The Gazette surely never announced anything so extraordinary before, nor once on a day so little expected. This will be such a phenomenon in the Corps Diplomatique that tis hard to say which can excite indignation most, the insolence of those who appoint the Character, or the meanness of those who receive it. Such a thing could never have happened in any former Administration, not even that of Lord North. It was reserved like some other Humiliating circumstances to take place
From the morning post and daily advertiser it is said that “Mr. Adams the Minister plenipotentiary from America is extremly desirious of visiting Lord North whom he Regards as one of the best Friends the Americans ever had.”14 Thus you see sir the begining Squibs.
I went last week to hear the Musick in Westminster Abbey. The Messiah was performd, it was Sublime beyond description. I most sincerely wisht for your presence as your favorite passion would have received the highest gratification. I should have sometimes fancied myself amongst a higher order of Beings; if it had not been for a very troublesome female, who was unfortunately seated behind me; and whose volubility not all the powers of Musick could still.15
I thank you sir for the information respecting my son from whom we received Letters.16 He desires to be remembered to you to Col. Humphries and to Mr. Williamos. My Daughter also joins in the same 172request. We present our Love to Miss Jefferson and compliments to Mr. Short. I suppose Madam de la Fayettee is gone from Paris. If she is not be so good sir as to present my Respects to her. I design writing her very soon. I have to apoligize for thus freely scribling to you. I will not deny that there may be a little vanity in the hope of being honourd with a line from you. Having heard you upon some occasions express a desire to hear from your Friends, even the Minutia respecting their Situation, I have ventured to class myself in that number, and to Subscribe myself, Sir Your Friend and Humble Servant
Sanois/Nightingale/journal55/Pilatre/Houserent/Wealth of Lond./Squib.” This was a list of topics that Jefferson discussed in his reply of 21 June, below (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:181). Dft (Adams Papers). Material in the Dft that does not appear in the RC will be noted below.
With this letter, AA begins a rich correspondence that extended, with long interruptions, to 1817. She and Jefferson eventually exchanged over fifty letters, over two thirds of which were written from 1785 to 1788.
The Adamses resided in the Bath Hotel in Picadilly from 26 May until 2 July; see notes 3 and 7. Both the performance of Handel's Messiah, and JA's conference with Lord George Gordon mentioned in the enclosure to this letter, occurred on 8 June, indicating that part of the letter was written sev-173eral days subsequent to the dateline; see also note 8.
JA wrote two letters to Jefferson on 27 May, both saying that the Adamses reached London on the 26th (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:166–167). JA recounts the family's journey from Auteuil to Calais in his letters of 22 and 23 May to Jefferson (same, 8:159–161).
AA and AA2 had stayed at Osbourne's Hotel in the Adelphi Buildings in the Strand when they first arrived in London in July 1784 (AA to Mary Cranch, 6 July 1784, and note 24, above).
Parliament had been in session since 25 January. George III's birthday was on Saturday, 4 June, and occasioned a massive levee which JA attended, and which he described to Jefferson on 7 June (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:183). Handel's Messiah was performed in Westminster Abbey on 8 June, with AA in attendance (see The London Chronicle, 4–7 June and 7–9 June; and AA to Elizabeth Cranch, 2 Sept., below).
The draft has “therefore.”
On 9 June, JA signed a lease for this house for twenty-one months with its owner, John Byron of Purbright. The late eighteenth-century structure, standing at the northeast corner of Grosvenor Square, became the Adams' home, and the first American legation in Britain, when the family removed to it from the Bath Hotel on 2 July. See JA, Diary and Autobiography
, 3:xii–xiii, 180–181 note 1, and illustration facing p. 288. A copy of the lease, dated 9 June, is in the Adams Papers.
At this point in the draft AA adds: “after which I suppose I must pass through a similar ceremony.” JA was received by George III on 1 June; he described that moving occasion quite briefly to Jefferson on 3 June (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:176), and in detail to John Jay on 2 June (LbC, Adams Papers; PCC, No. 84, V, f. 469–484;
Dipl. Corr., 1783–1789, 2:367–371; JA, Works
, 8:255–259). JA was presented to Queen Charlotte on 9 June, thereby dating this section of the letter at 8 June (see JA to Jefferson, 7 June, Jefferson, Papers
, 8:183). JA's remarks to George III, and his reply, are recorded in JA's hand in the Adams Papers (1 June), as are his remarks to Queen Charlotte, and her brief reply (9 June).
AA noted the appointment of Col. William Stephens Smith as secretary of the American legation in her letter to Cotton Tufts of
Papers
, 8:167).
See JA's list of visitors,
Diary and Autobiography
, 3:178–180. This list of about three dozen names is certainly not a complete record of those who called on the new minister, but it does include envoys from Prussia, Sardinia, and Russia, the earls of Abingdon and Effingham, Lord Mahon and Lord Hood, two generals, several other prominent Englishmen who were well disposed to America, and a few of JA's old friends.
The draft adds: “in the publick papers.”
The draft adds: “for as the forms of presentation are not yet past with her Majesty, no application has yet been made to any minister upon Buisness,” and omits “From the same paper.”
“Under Jove, but Jove not yet barbaric.”
This exact passage appeared in the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser, 7 June 1785. The Morning Post was one of the most anti-American of London papers at this time.
The draft adds: “for she had such a general acquaintance throughout the whole abbe that not a person enterd but what she knew and had some observation to make upon their dress or person which she utterd so loud as to disturb every person who sat near her.”
Jefferson sent word of JQA's arrival in Lorient in his letter of 25 May to JA (Adams Papers; printed in Jefferson, Papers
, 8:163). From Lorient JQA had sent the letters of
The publick Advertiser—
Yesterday Lord Gerge Gordon had the Honour of a long conference with his Excellency John Adams, (honest John Adams) the Ambassador of America, at the hotel of Mons. de Lynden Envoye extraodinaire de Leurs Hautes Puissances.1
This is true, and I suppose inserted by his Lordship who is as wild and as enthusiastic as when he headed the Mob. His Lordship came here but not finding Mr. Adams at home was determind to see him, and accordingly follow'd him to the Dutch Ministers. The conversation was curious, and pretty much in the Stile of Mrs. Wright2 with whom his Lordship has frequent conferences.
An other paragraph from the same paper—“Amongst the various personages who drew the attention of the drawing-room on Saturday last, Mr. Adams, minister plenipotentiary from the States of America was not the least noticed. From this Gentleman the Eye of Majesty and the Court glanced on Lord—; to whose united Labours this Country stands indebted for the loss of a large territory and a divided and interrupted Commerce.”3
Sanois/Nightingale/journal55/Pilatre/Houserent/Wealth of Lond./Squib.” This was a list of topics that Jefferson discussed in his reply of 21 June, below (Jefferson, Papers
, 8:181). Dft (Adams Papers). Material in the Dft that does not appear in the RC will be noted below.
An almost identical paragraph appears in The Daily Universal Register of 9 June, dating the conference at 8 June. Lord George Gordon first came to prominence when, as a member of Parliament and president of the Protestant Association, he had petitioned the Commons to reimpose certain disabilities recently lifted from Roman Catholics. This led quickly to London's massive “Gordon Riots” of June 1780, which were only quelled by twenty thousand troops. Gordon was imprisoned in the Tower for several months, and tried for high treason in Feb. 1781, but was acquitted. He remained a Protestant hero for several years, and by 1784 was at the center of national and international controversy involving the Dutch and Emperor Joseph II. By 1786 Gordon's polemical targets included the French court. About 1787 he converted to Ju-174daism. In 1788 he was convicted of two counts of libel, one against Marie Antoinette, and was sent to Newgate Prison, where he died in 1793.
DNB
. Dirk Wolter Lynden van Blitterswyck was the Netherland's minister to Great Britain. JA, Diary and Autobiography
, 3:180, note 1.
See AA to Mary Cranch, 6 July 1784, above, under 25 July, and note 46.
Lord North is probably intended here.