Adams Family Correspondence, volume 12
I never visit or pass your house but I think of that beautiful & simple Song in the Spectator
”] &c—1
The Rose Bush under your window is as full of bloom & fragrance I suppose as formerly. your Garden florishes & your Clover Field is delightful—but Should I tell you how the view of them affected me before I recieved your last Letter you might call me romantick— I pass’d them yesterday—went into your Garden—tasted of the Strawberrys—they will be Sweet said I to Cousin Betsy by the time my Sisters returns, & this rose bush—how beautiful it is to day. the melancholy shade which was cast upon every thing around your House & Fields was Vanish’d— I anticipated the pleasure the President and you & my gentle Cousin will feel if you should be permit’d to behold those rational Sources of pleasure the rewards of cultivation & industory. this I will retreat where the formalities attendant upon your Station may be dispenced with in some measure, & the dear delights of facing & conversing with your old Friends & Neighbours will I hope restore & preserve the health of you all— we are all rejoicing at the prospc of your return—
I thank you my dear Sister for your Letter I thank you for all your kind designs.2 we are doom’d to always be the oblig’d. I was unwilling mr Cranch Should make the application to you he did— we know not what is in the womb of Providence— While our children deserve well & maintain there integrety I feel as if they would have always Bread to eat & Raiment to put on— their prospect are clouded for the present but in this changable world, the next appearence may be brighter— it affects mr Cranchs health & Spirits very Sensibly. he Says but little about it: but he cannot Sleep without groaning you too my Sister have your troubles & indeed we have our difficulties but what if known are felt in common by both of us. yours are mine, & mine yours— will you give my Love to mrs Smith & her dear Boys & tell her I feel as interest’d for her welfair as for my own Daughter’s & wish it was in my Power to sooth an anxious hour Cousin Charles & Family will accept my good wishes also
181what we are going to do about a minister I do not know many are very desirous of having mr Flint. above a hundred have manefsed their desire in writing. Capt Adams & Capt Hall & Deacon Bess are the only People of any consequence who are oppos’d I beleive.3 I wish We may not get into Strong parties. there is Something disagreable to me in mr Flint’s voice but we may not get a better man upon the whole. we wish we knew the Presidents mind. the young mr Hillard would have pleas’d you both. if he lives he will make a figure
Mrs Beal is return’d & is better mr & mrs Black are well. we are quite Sociable. She Sends her Love to you & is in Spirits, at the thought of your visit tho we Suppose it must be short— mr Apthorp has had a dreadful turn of Fits & is confin’d & very weak—
I hear there is a large Packet from mr Adams gone on to Philadelphia. I hope it will reach you before you Set out4
I had a Letter from Sister Peabody last week. her little Girl has been very bad with the canker rash but is recoverd. the rest of the Family are well mr Cranch joins in every sentiment of Love & respect to the President & you—express’d by / your affectionate Sister
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mrs / Abigail Adams / Philadelphia”; endorsed: “Mrs Cranch / June. 1797.”
John Byrom, “Colin and Phoebe,” lines 1–2, The Spectator, No. 603 (6 Oct. 1714).
Probably AA to Cranch, 6 June 1797, above.
Capt. John Hall Jr. (1739–1822), the stepson of Susanna Boylston Adams Hall, served as a selectman for several years (vol. 1:356; Sprague, Braintree Families
). For Deacon Benjamin Bass, see vol. 8:106.
On 15 July JA wrote to JQA acknowledging letters of 30 March and 3 April and thanking him for several publications, some of which JQA mentioned forwarding in his letter to JA of 16 Feb. (all Adams Papers).
th28 1797
It gives me great pleasure to know you are so near me and I should have told you so and condoled with you and our good Friend the President before this time on the loss of his good Mother had I not been much ingaged in moveing into the City.1 by what I have heard your loss must be much her gain I think She had lived till She could sing the song of good old Simeon2
I was flattered by the kind assurances of Freindship expressed to me and my Family in your much esteemed favour of Feb. 203 give 182 me leave to say you think too highly of the attention I paid you when sick in Philadelphia I hope the like occasion will never happen again if it should and in my power I shall be ready to shew how much you may depend upon my Friendship.
when I left Philadelphia it was with regret I feel it now in full force as your being there would be a source of pleasure to me I do look forward to the time that it may please God we may have a happy meeting in this City at the time appointed for Congress. before that we hope to see our good President here and wish you may be able to accompany him. a Visit from him is at this time looked on as of very great importance to this City. I do assure you and much wished for. I have been at Mount Vernon Mrs Washington made me promise I would pay her a Visit this Summer I did not think the old Lady was in good health when she passed through this City in her way home She really had been much fatigued in her Journey the great attentions that were paid them however pleasing were tiresome to her.
I rejoice with you that our Country has done enough to convince the Enemies of it that we have but one heart and one mind in the Veneration we feel for our Illustrious Benefactor. my dear Friend let me say to you that it also gives me the greatest pleasure to find all classes of people unite in approbation of the late Choice of the President it is really much more than at so short a period I dared hope I have great reason to think we shall be as much United as ever we were in his Whorthy Predecessor.
It gave me and my good Girls great pleasure to hear their Papa read the proceedings of the fourth of March it was Solemn and affecting and we felt all the Friendly sensations for you. it gave us great Sattisfaction to find the proceedings so much approved of by every body this way which I hope will continue through a long administration.
my Daughters beg me to present their respects to you and love to Louisa and to say your being at Philadelphia would indeed be an additional motive to them in Visiting it I felt so much in their absence that I cannot think of parting with them very soon again it would give me pleasure to spend a few Mounths with them there at present I see no prospect of it
the account you give of your health pleases me very much I think the cold Winter must have been of service to you and I wish you would try the cold bath this Summer I am sure you would find 183 great Benefit from it I use it every day through the year in this fine Climate
Mrs Deblois lives at the other end of the City four miles from me injoys great health Unites with me in respects to the President and yourself begs when you write to Mrs Smith you will not forget our love to her.
Polly Tailor has received her things safe She left me in May I was very glad to get rid of her. her temper I think is worse than ever and in some other things no better than She Should be nothing can tempt me to take her into my Family again
I fear I am takeing too much of your time beg leave to subscribe myself / with respect your / Very affectionate and Sincear / Friend
I have just heard of Mrs Cranch being well abed with another Son
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Mrs Adams”; endorsed: “Mrs Dalton / June 28 1797.”
The Dalton family moved from Georgetown to Washington, D.C., in March (Tristram Dalton to JA, 26 March, Adams Papers).
Luke, 2:25–32. The Holy Ghost promised Simeon that he would not die until he had seen Christ. When Mary and Joseph first brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, Simeon picked up the baby and exclaimed, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation.”
Not found.
AA replied to Dalton [ca. 18 July] thanking her for the condolences and reporting that they would leave the following day to return east. She also noted that she hoped to visit the new capital soon and that she had “no particular attachments to one City more than an other & should certainly relinquish this without any regreet for that of Washington if I should be calld to it” (Dft, Adams Papers).