Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
r22 1794
My books arrived in good order and well conditioned the day after I last wrote to my father.1 By some mistake the 28th volume of The Dictionaire Diplomatique was left behind.2 Though I have not seen an account of the departure of my brothers I suppose from my father’s last letter that e’er this they must have sailed One half of your children are called away from you and though seas do not divide you from the others yet necessity obliges them to be absent but wherever they are I trust they never can forget the maternal tenderness you have ever exercised toward them. You have indeed been a mother to us and such a one as we never can too highly value. My sister wishes you to pass the winter with her but I fear you will not again venture from home. Mrs Fitch has been very civil to me they appear to have a great affection for our family She says one of the principal inducements that Mr Fitch has for coming to settle in America is the friendship he has for my father3 The opinions of people here are very various respecting the success of Mr Jay’s mission. We have accounts that Genl Wayne has taken several British subjects in a late engagement with the Indians and hung them upon the trees4 I do not vouch for the truth of this but the conduct of the officers of the British Government towards this Country bear not a very favorable aspect. The antifederalists here predict that the whole power of the United S[tates] cannot quell the insurrection in Penn[sylvania] that open hostilities must be commenced there is no doubt for the indignities offered to the Commissioners cannot be overlooked The volunteers from N Jersey and Pennsylvania are very numerous In the former State they would not agree to the regular draft but insisted upon drafting for those who should not go. There has been as yet no requisition from this State if there should be one I shall take my musket and march in the ranks as I have been drafted as one of the minute men: this will not be altogether so convenient for me.5
On the fourteenth of October I shall set out for Albany The earnest solicitations of the Baron have drawn a promise from me to spend a few days with him at his solitude after I have passed my Counsellors examination. I have always lamented that you have so little acquaintance with this excellent man I never have know a 232 more noble character and his affection for me calls forth every sentiment of gratitude which can exist in my breast. I hope you will write to me frequently I feel as if every day some friend and I have not many was taken from me to those who remain I am more strongly attached but the affection to my Mother can never suffer any alteration I shall ever remain as heretofore I ever have been yours with the sentiments of the purest filial tenderness
sAdams
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: Mrs Abigail Adams. / Quincy”; endorsed: “C Adams / 22 Sepbr / 1794.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
Not found.
Jean Baptiste Robinet, Dictionnaire universel des sciences morale, économique, politique et diplomatique, 30 vols., London, 1777–1783.
For Eliphalet Fitch of Jamaica, see vol. 5:173.
George Washington had appointed Gen. Anthony Wayne commander-in-chief of the U.S. Army in the wake of Gen. Arthur St. Clair’s defeat at Fort Recovery, Ohio, in Nov. 1791. Wayne rebuilt the army and successfully defeated a coalition of Native Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers on 20 Aug. 1794. Following the battle, Wayne also approached the British-held Fort Miami but refrained from attacking it, instead burning the crops and leveling the ground around it (
DAB;
Harry Emerson Wildes, Anthony Wayne: Trouble Shooter of the American Revolution, N.Y., 1941, p. 343, 349, 422–425).
A report in Philadelphia, based on an undated letter from New York, suggested that in the wake of the battle, “several British subjects (said to be Canadians) were left wounded among the Indians, and my information states that Wayne hung two of them” (Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 22 Sept.).
For more on Wayne, see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 7, above.
The army raised to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion comprised citizens from Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. New York State did not enact a draft. Under the federal law establishing a uniform militia, enacted on 8 May 1792, “each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years” could be enrolled in the militia (Slaughter, Whiskey Rebellion,
p. 212;
Annals of Congress,
2d Cong., 1st sess., p. 1392–1395).
a.16
thOct
r1794
Agreeable to intimation I have been enquiring for accommodations for you but to no purpose unless you should like rooms in Francis’s house. It is not easy to know exactly what will be agreeable to our friends tho we may sometimes please ourselves— I have gone so far however as to engage with Francis on condition you like & wish for your immediate answer—
Francis’s house is in 4th Street near Indian Queen.
He will let you have a genteel room, front, one pair of stairs for a drawing room, & A convenient & contiguous lodging room on the same floor— Breakfast & Coffee in the afternoon in your own
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appartments, dine with the Gentlemen lodgers, to number of nine or ten, to be all members of Congress— To accommodate Mr Brasler with a lodging room & board—you to find your own liquor fire and Candles and pay twenty
1 dollars the week for self & Sert accommodated as above to wit: Two rooms for yourself & a lodging room for Mr Brasler. You will please to observe, If you ask company to dine transiently you pay consideration pr Man. If you make a dinner specially, for which by the way there will be no occasion, you agree specially— The price & large company will be objectionable, but I suppose the members of Congress for a single room must pay 10 dollars a week & 4 or 5 for servant— You have two rooms & Valet de Chambre a lodging room. As to the Company they will be all members of Congress. If you go to private logings you will perhaps be obliged to sit down with some tradesman & wife or both— And Iz——d who is breaking up house keeping & sending off the baggage says he’ll be d——ned if he sits down to dine with a hairdresser— However I have endeavored to state matters to your view minutely and to add, tis not black Sam but the other Francis, who with wife appear to be decent kind of people, that I am in negotiation.2
The fever and ague has prevaled at New York New Jersies & thro this State and City. Intermittents also prevail, And there have been a few cases of yallow fever. People however are now pretty easy. No cases have happened of yallow fever above 2d Street, and fever & ague abates—3
Fitzsimmons will be run hard if he dont lose his election. Tis hoped however that the army will bring him in. The Legislature having provided for their voting by special statute.—4 The accounts are favorable from the west— The President being expected prior to the Session— Mrs Otis & Miss S join me in best remembrances to yourself & the ladies—5
I am / Sir / Respectfully / yours
RC (Adams Papers).
Otis emphasized this word by writing it significantly larger.
John Francis (d. ca. 1807), a Frenchman, ran a hotel on South Fourth Street with his American wife; members of Congress frequently resided there (Robert B. Ludy, Historic Hotels of the World, Past and Present, Phila., 1927, p. 115–117; Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 27 April 1807).
The other Francis was Samuel “Black Sam” Fraunces (ca. 1722–1795), a Philadelphia tavern keeper best known as a steward for George Washington and the one-time proprietor of Fraunces Tavern in New York City (John N. Ingham and Lynne B. Feldman, African-American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary, Westport, Conn., 1994).
That is, most of the city west of the Delaware River and the Philadelphia waterfront.
On 22 Sept. the Pennsylvania state
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assembly approved and Gov. Thomas Mifflin signed into law a measure “to enable such of the militia of this commonwealth as may be on service, and absent from their respective countries, to vote at the next general election.” Army returns were not enough, however, to secure Thomas Fitzsimons’ reelection to Congress nor to have a significant impact in the Philadelphia area generally: “About 900 citizens of Philadelphia are with the militia; of these perhaps one third are under voting age or are otherwise disqualified to exercise the right of suffrage. Besides many disapproved of the law which authorized citizens in arms to exercise that right, and will not take the benefit of it. so that probably not more than 500 city votes may be expected from that quarter. It would require a very great proportion of that number indeed to be thrown in the scale of the unsuccessfull candidates, to change the result” (Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Passed at a Session, Which Was Begun and Held at the City of Philadelphia, on Monday, the First Day of September, in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four, Phila., 1794, p. 633–636, Evans, No. 27477;
Biog. Dir. Cong.
; Philadelphia General Advertiser, 16 Oct.).
That is, Betsy Smith, Mary Smith Gray Otis’ sister.