Adams Family Correspondence, volume 7

441 Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams Smith, 15 January 1787 Jefferson, Thomas AA2 Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams Smith, 15 January 1787 Jefferson, Thomas Adams, Abigail (daughter of JA and AA)

Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams Smith

Paris Jan. 15. 1787

Mr. Jefferson has the honour to present his compliments to Mrs. Smith and to send her the two pair of Corsets she desired. He wishes they may be suitable, as Mrs. Smith omitted to send her measure. Times are altered since Mademoiselle de Sanson had the honour of knowing her.1 Should they be too small however, she will be so good as to lay them by a while. There are ebbs as well as flows in this world. When the mountain refused to come to Mahomet, he went to the mountain. Mr Jefferson wishes mrs Smith a happy new year, and abundance of happier ones still to follow it. He begs leave to assure her of his esteem and respect, and that he shall always be happy to be rendered useful to her by being charged with her commands.

FC (MHi: Jefferson Papers); notation: “Smith mrs.”

A reference to AA2's pregnancy, which WSS had confirmed in his correspondence with Jefferson in Nov. (Jefferson, Papers , 10:479, 518).

Abigail Adams Smith to Cotton Tufts, 16 January 1787 AA2 Tufts, Cotton Abigail Adams Smith to Cotton Tufts, 16 January 1787 Adams, Abigail (daughter of JA and AA) Tufts, Cotton

Abigail Adams Smith to Cotton Tufts

Sir Grosvenor Square London Jany 16 1787

By a Letter to my Mother from you, I Learnt that you had in your Possession the Letters and Picture which I requested you to take the Charge of.1 I now must once more trouble you upon the Subject, and request the favour of you, to address the Picture to Miss Margaret Smith at Jamaica on Long-Island New York,2 and forward it by some safe Conveyance, under Cover to Mr. Daniel Mc.Cormick3 No 39 Wall Street New York.

All the Letters I will request you Sir to Burn with your own Hands, after which I hope you will receive no further trouble on the Subject.

With much respect I am Sir your Humbl servt A Smith

RC (ViU: Special Collections, Adams Family Letters #7231-A); addressed: “The Honble Cotton Tufts Esqr. Weymouth Massachusetts”; endorsed: “Mrs. A. Smiths Lettr. recd April 19. 1787.”

Of 15 Aug. 1786, above. See also Tufts to AA, 6 July, above.

Margaret Smith, named after her mother, was WSS's eldest sister. She later married Felix de St. Hilaire, the French vice consul for the port of Alexandria, Va. ( JCC , 14:759; AA2 to Elizabeth Cranch Norton, 7 Feb. 1791, MHi: C. P. Cranch Papers).

442 3.

Daniel McCormick (d. 1834), born in Ireland, was a New York merchant and one of the first directors of the Bank of New York (Walter Barrett, The Old Merchants of New York City, 2d series, N.Y., 1863, p. 249, 252–253, 264–265).