Abigail Adams to John Adams, 13 February 1795
Abigail Adams to John Adams
Quincy 13 Febry 1795
My Dearest Friend
It is peculiarly unfortunate that the Treaty has not yet reachd Ameria. on the 19 November it was sign’d, and the vessel which brings the King of Englands speach left London 5 Jan’ry in that he announces the conclusion of a Treaty with America, and that the States General of the united Provinces were carrying on negotiation with France for Peace.1 I believe he will find however dissagreeable that his Ministers must enter into negotiations with the ruling powers—or have the whole Force of France leveld against his kindom
I inclose our Sons Letters to you [I wo]uld have done it before, but I thought as JQA mentiond publick [dis]patches by this vessel from Rotterdam, that it was likly he had written to you, and then I wishd to keep them to answer them by a vessel going to Hamburg which I have done. just as you are about to rise a flood of Buisness will pour in upon you. Col Humphries’s arrival portends some matters of concequence
I should have been exceeding happy to have had you here at the time mentiond, but think your reason just, and judicious for remaining at a Time of such expectation as you will not be here, I shall go to Town, and accept one or other of the pressing invitations I have received from thence to keep thanksgiving there. You cannot but remark that each of our Thoughts run in the same channel. in many instances we have been expressing the same sentiments at the same time as may be calld the Tellegraph of the Mind— if it were not for the altercation which the Jacobin clubs occasion, we should have an unruffeld scene throughout the united states. all our Country growing Rich, except the publick Drudges, and the Ministers of the Gospel.
I have so little interesting to communicate to you in my Letters, that your anxiety to receive them, can arise from no other Scource than a desire to know weekly that I am not Sick. even the canker worm and Caterpillar do not yet furnish a Subject. I believe our present Tennants mean to remain an other Year I have directed them to cut & cart to each House two cords of pine wood which they have nearly compleated. that with the Brush they may get will supply them for the Dairy Buisness
Dr Tufts meets with difficulty in procuring the fenceing stuff, as the Swamps have not been sufficiently frozen to get it out. there is a vessel now going to Philadelp[hia] the Abbe captain Davis, by which mr Brisler may ship such things as I wrote for2
I yesterday received yours—29 Janry Febry 1 & 2 together with mr Jays Letter. the contents are agreable
The Weather here is mild the Ground Bare. Febry has been a cloudy Month ever since it came in. my Love to mrs otis cousin Betsy &c—and my Respects to Mrs Washington
Your ever affectionate
A Adams
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by Louisa Catharine Smith: “The Vice President of the / United States / Philadelphia / Quincy / near / Boston”; endorsed: “Mrs. A. Feb. 13. 1795.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed. This is the first of two letters originally addressed to JA in Philadelphia but redirected to Quincy, presumably after JA left Philadelphia on 19 February.
1. AA’s information derives from the Boston Federal Orrery, which on 9 Feb. printed news from London to 5 January. The newspaper reprinted George III’s speech to Parliament on 30 Dec. 1794, in which the king reported that negotiations between the Dutch and French had begun but would not alter England’s intended course. He further announced the successful conclusion of treaty negotiations with the United States, albeit without specifying details of the treaty itself.
2. The sloop Abby, Capt. Obediah Doane, arrived in Philadelphia on 9 March after a voyage of twenty days (Boston Columbian Centinel, 7 Feb.; Philadelphia Gazette, 9 March).