15301To John Adams from Elbridge Gerry, 3 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
The information communicated by the Secretary of State, of my appointment to the office of an envoy extraordinary & minister plenipotentiary to the French republick, afforded me the highest gratification: inasmuch as it manifested the confidence of that political character, for whom, from my first acquaintance, I have ever had the highest respect. judge then, Sir, of my feelings when I inform...
15302From John Adams to United States Senate, 6 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I nominate William Smith of Charleston South Carolina to be Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at the Court of Portugal vice John Quincy Adams removed to the Court of Berlin Thomas Bulkely to be Consul General in Portugal vice Edward Church Superseded. Richard O’brian to be Consul of the United States, to the Dey and Regency of Algiers Charles Hall of Pensilvania to be an Agent for...
15303From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 7 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I know not when I have received So much pleasure from a Letter as from yours this Moment brought in, to to me of the 3d. The Circumstances of your family are Such as to Excite the tenderest feelings & anxieties and Mrs: Gerrys Resolution does her great honor. She never will repent of it, I fully beleive. Mr: Marshall is here and will Sail next week for Amsterdam, It will be adviseable for you...
15304From John Adams to United States Senate, 7 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I nominate Jeremiah Smith of New Hampshire to be Attorney of the United States for that district, in the room of Edward St. Loe Livermore resigned William Willis a Native Citizen of the United States, to be their Consul for the Republic of Venice Frederick H. Wallaston of a mercantile House established at Genoa to be Consul of the United States for that Republic James Leander Cathcart a...
15305From John Adams to William Eaton, 10 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
Know Ye, That reposing special Trust and Confidence in the Abilities and Integrity of William Eaton a Citizen of the United States, I have nominated and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate do appoint him Consul of the United States of America for the City and Kingdon of Tunis, and do authorize and empower him to have and to hold the said office according to Law, and to exercise...
15306From John Adams to United States Senate, 10 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I nominate the following persons for promotions and appointments in the Army of the United States. Dragoons. Stephen G. Simmons Lieutenant vice Slough resigned Charles Warfield Cornet vice Ball promoted William Tharp ditto vice McDermot promoted. First Regiment of Infantry. William H. Harrison Captain vice Kingsbury promoted 15. May 1797 Nicholas Rosencrantz Lieutenant vice Harrison ditto
15307To John Adams from Elbridge Gerry, 10 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
It was always my sincere intention, but you have made it my indispensible duty, to support your administration. a good disposition is requisite, & so is ability. diplomatic politics I am not much versed in, & my inexperience will demand assiduity. If I should err then, you must not impute it to the want of attachment; for in such a case I would certainly retire: conceiving as I do, that the...
15308To John Adams from Lewis Mengher O’Brien, 13 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I crave your permission for to offer You this mark of my respect, which, at once displays my confidence, and congratulates your Excellency on being chosen President of the American Congress.—Who ever is acquainted with your vigorous, and efficacious exertions in the Support of your Country, during its hard struggle for Independence, must applaud the choice, and still admire in your invariable...
15309From John Adams to Wilhem Willink, 14 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I embrace the opportunity by General Marshall one of our Envoys Extraordinary to France to acknowledge the receipt of your kind Letter of the 31st. March. For your kind congratulations on my Election to a new office: and for your friendly wishes for my Success in it I most heartily thank you. Permit me to reciprocate your obliging wishes for the prosperity of our Country , the prosperity of...
15310To John Adams from Elbridge Gerry, 14 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I am honored by your letters of the 7th and 8th instant. The satisfaction which you are pleased to express at my acceptance of the mission, is the most flattering circumstance of my political concerns. I have taken passage in the ship Union for Rotterdam, & expect to sail in ten days; having notified Mr Pinckney by two vessels which are to sail this day & tomorrow, of this circumstance, & of...
15311To John Adams from William Vans Murray, 15 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
The News papers which I do myself the honour of enclosing are the remains of Mr. Adams’s subscription. Mr. Adams left this place on the twenty eighth of June for Rotterdam, (with Mr. T. B. Adams) whither I had the pleasure of accompanying them. He requested me to send to you, Sir, the “Nouvelles Politiques” and I rejoiced in the opportunity of at once following his wishes and of paying to you...
15312From John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 17 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have this moment your Letter of the 10th. That Man must have more Skill in Intrigue than any that I have been acquainted with who can Sap the foundation of the Confidence I have in Mr Gerry....No Such Attempt has been made. All have confessed to me your honour and Integrity—Some have expressed doubts of your orthodoxy in the Science of Government—others have expressed fears, of an...
15313To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 17 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
Judge Sullivan has sent me the inclosed copy of a letter he wrote to Governor Jay, requesting him to give his testimony personally to the board of Commissioners to sit at Boston the 1& of August on the St. Croix Boundary. He (Judge Sullivan) conceives your personal testimony alike necessary. But the Commissioners can never think of declaring your presence, or Govr. Jay’s, indispensable, seeing...
15314To John Adams from James McHenry, 18 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
The President is requested to return the inclosed letter &c after having perused it to the Secy. of War. Israel Chapin is agent for Indian Affairs. With great respect I have the honor to be Sir / Your most obt. DLC : James McHenry Papers.
15315To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 18 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Secretary of State incloses the rough draught of the Instructions to Mr. Adams and a sketch of additional instructions which if approved by the President may be forwarded to-day with the former to Mr. Gerry’s care. An express is engaged to go in the mail stage this day to Cambridge. The Secretary will call presently to take the President’s orders. MHi : Adams Papers.
15316To John Adams from James Greenleaf, 19 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
It was intimated to me the last evening that You had expressed an intention of making a change in the present imperfect system of administration in regard to the federal City—if such is your intention, & you have no one in view whom you may deem more capable than myself, I would with pleasure undertake the guidance of that difficult & important trust; and hope I may not incur the charge of...
15317Proclamation, 22 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
Whereas an act of the Congress of the United States was passed on the 9th day of February, 1793, entitled “An act regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes,” in which it was enacted “that foreign gold and silver coins shall pass current as money within the United States and be a legal tender for the payment of all debts and demands” at the several and respective rates therein stated;...
15318To John Adams from Elbridge Gerry, 23 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I am honored by your letter of the 17th, & sincerely thank you for the information it contains. Nothing is more essential to a public officer, than to be apprized of the imputations against him; for if well founded, he will thus have a fair opportunity of correcting his errors, & if unfounded, he will by the same means be better prepared for self defence. in addition to the great difficulties...
15319To John Adams from Elbridge Gerry, 23 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to inform you, that I have just received, by Capt Eaton, the dispatches from the department of State; containing two large & two Small packets—I have the honor / to be my dear Sir with / perfect respect—your sincere friend / & very huml. serv MHi : Adams Papers.
15320To John Adams from David Ogden, 26 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
Impressed with a high sense of the important services you have rendered your country in the various stations you have so honorably filled since the commencement of our glorious revolution, untill the present day, we take the liberty to congratulate you on your arrival and transient stay, in our village, and to express our sincere wishes for your welfare and happiness, and likewise at a time...
15321To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 28 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
To day the inclosed arrived from Mr. Gerry. By his letter to me I find he received the dispatches which I sent him, on Sunday the 23d instant. Nothing remarkable has happened since your departure. I am with great respect / sir, your obt. servant MHi : Adams Papers.
15322To John Adams from John Steele, 31 July 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Secretary of the Treasury respectfully transmits to the President of the United States a Letter from the Commissioner of the Revenue dated the 12th. instant covering two proposals made to the Collector of Boston, one by Asa Killam and the other by Solomon Blake for building a Light House on Bakers Island near Salem. As Blake’s terms are by far the most favorable, the Secretary is of...
15323To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 1 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
By this day’s mail I send three packets, containing, together, 80 Mediterranean passports, for your signature; which I shall wish to have returned as soon as you can find time to dispatch them. David Howell Esqr. Commissioner on the St. Croix business, expressed to me, last winter, his expectations that his salary of £ 1000. Sterling a year, would continue from the day he accepted the...
15324To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 3 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The letter and deposition of which the inclosed are copies, were received from Judge Sitgreaves the first instant. I answered the Judge, that the papers would be submitted to your consideration; and that perhaps you might think it proper to issue a proclamation to check the evil, and warn the people of their danger. In the mean time, that the measure he proposed for apprehending offenders...
15325To John Adams from Enos Hitchcock, 4 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Citizens of the Town of Providence voluntarily assembled to tender their respects to the first Magistrate of the Union on his arrival in this Town beg leave to approach you by their Committee with sentiments of Joy on the present occasion, and with assurances of the sensible pleasure they feel in common with their Fellow Citizens that the suffrages of this great community have met in a...
15326To John Adams from William Vans Murray, 4 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
Though I have neither the right nor the power of filling that space which Mr. Adams left here in his pleasing relation of a correspondent, I indulge myself from feelings of respectful personal attachment in at least one duty which I know he always was attentive to, and shall continue to send to you the “Nouvelles Politiques,” as was his custom. As soon as I saw Mr. Adams’s appointment to the...
15327To John Adams from Benjamin Lincoln, 5 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The inclosed will be presented to you by a committee from a number of Citizens on Monday next at half fast ten oClock should you at that time be at Quincy and in a situation to receive them—Our mutual friend Mr. Jonathan Jackson is with me & proposes to return here to meet our brethren Vzt. Colo: Daws Dr. Mason Mr Higginson Judge Wendal J Jackson B Lincoln With sincere wishes for your...
15328From John Adams to Benjamin Lincoln, 7 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
Your kind Congratulations on my return to my Family and Friends are very obliging. Your polite Invitation is accepted with Pleasure. At this Period, when Disorder, Indiscipline and Disobedience of every kind fashioned into a kind of Science, are vindicated as Rights and inculcated as Duties, it is not to be expected that our Country should wholly Escape their contagious Effects. Although many...
15329To John Adams from William Vaughan, 7 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
I beg to introduce to your acquaintance and civilities Mr Masson the Kings Botanist who is taking the Tour of America in order to increase our Knowlege in one of the most extensive and most useful pursuits in Nature. From your situation and your disposition to encourage all undertakings of public Utility I am persuaded you will anticipate my wishes in shewing those attentions to a man of worth...
15330To John Adams from John Avery, Jr., 8 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have received a Letter from my Son this day, dated the 30th. of May who was then in France and concluding the intelligence, he has given me, would be pleasing to your Excellency; I have taken the Liberty to give you an Extract from it.—“The Manly and spirited Letter of Mr. Pickering to Mr. Pinckney is considered by the first advocates in Paris as a Master peice and unanswerable. It has been...
15331To John Adams from Charles Hall, 8 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
It is not without the deepest regret, that I am compeled by a combination of imperious circumstances, to forego the honor of endeavouring by the exertion of my poor abilities, to justify the distinguished favor confered on me by you in the appointment of Agent to defend the United States against the British debts, under a law of the late congress, in relation to the sixth Article of the...
15332To John Adams from James McHenry, 8 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the pleasure to inform you that the Indians on the North Western frontier give indications of their desire to remain at peace and under the protection of the U. States, notwithstanding the various efforts that have been made to debauch them. They have consented that the line of limits should be run, (with an exception by Little Turtle) agreeably to the Treaty of Greenville and the...
15333To John Adams from Tench Coxe, 9 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
I have the honor to communicate to you the substance of a note, without his signature, which I received last Night from a person of considerable abilities , now in private life , in Paris. After expressing his expectations, that “an Envoy extraordinary is on the way to France.” he adds “ It would renew at once the happy former good understanding between the two Countries. His words are...
15334To John Adams from Benjamin Lincoln, 9 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The enclosed address stands as first written. When you shall have both before you you will greatly oblige the Committee by selecting which shall the most fully comport with your own feelings.—The alterations between the Copy I left on Saturday and the address delivered on monday were the result of ideas highly respectful; which I will more fully explain when I shall call on monday next in the...
15335To John Adams from the Selectmen of Boston, 11 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Selectmen present their most respectful Compliments to the President of the United States, & request the Honour of his Company on a Visit to Rainsfords Island on Fryday the 18th. of August Inst.—The Company proceed from Faneuil Hall 8’. o’Clock in the Morning— MHi : Adams Papers.
15336To John Adams from William Vans Murray, 11 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
I yesterday had the pleasure of a letter from Mr. Adams dated the 20. July at London—Since that date by English papers I perceive he enjoy’d the happiness which we here anticipated for him—He was marry’d to Miss Louisa Johnson on the 26th. July. Probably this may be no news to you sir & Mrs. Adams before this letter arrives, but the intelligence of so very pleasing an event as the marriage of...
15337To John Adams from Joseph Priestley, 11 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
It was far from being my wish to trouble you with the request of any favours, tho it is now in your power to grant them, and it is not probable, that I shall ever take a second liberty of the kind; but circumstances have arisen which, I think, call upon me to do it once, not for myself, but for a friend. The office of Agent for the American claims was offered, I understand, to Mr Hall of...
15338To John Adams from Thomas Cooper, 12 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
On my expressing to Dr. Priestley an Inclination to fill the appointment mentioned in his Letter, he was so obliging as to offer his Interest such as it was in my behalf. Probably ‘ere this reaches Philadelphia, the Situation may have been obtained by some other person: probably there may fair reasons of objections to a person not a native of the Country: probably too the objection alluded to...
15339To John Adams from Stephen Peabody, 12 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
With pleasure we are informed in the public prints of your safe return from the seat of government. The present critical state of the affairs of our country, has undoubtedly produced pressing anxieties in your mind, of which we have all in some measure been partakers. But the public mind appears to be relieved and satisfied, with the cool, deliberate, and spirited measures recommended in your...
15340To John Adams from John McCrackan, 12 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
At the request of the widow of the late revd Elhaman Winchester I take the liberty of enclosing to you, proposals for publishing by Subscription his much admired Course of Lectures an American Edition Mr Winchester died rejoicing in his religion & in his last moments viewd his past life & professions with extatic pleasure—He leap’t from this tenement of Clay to one not made with hands with a...
15341To John Adams from Tench Coxe, 14 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
I had the honor to communicate to you by a late mail a few important lines concerning a foreign topic. In this separate letter, I pursue the duty which always accompanies such communications that of furnishing the name to you in such manner & as early as circumstances permit. My letter was from Mr. la Forest, whose residence in America in the Employment of France, and correspondence with its...
15342To John Adams from Capt. Thomas Thompson, 16 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
Presuming it may be satisfactory to you; I do myself the honor to inform you of the forwardness and present State of the Algrine Frigate. Every exertion on my part has been made to get her ready in good season—She is now every way Compleate; with Ballast and water on board ready to bind sails, and receive her Crew & Stores. But must unavoidably be delay’d on acct. of Cannon; of which I have...
15343To John Adams from William Vans Murray, 17 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
A few days since I did myself the honour of enclosing a few of the Nouvelles Politiques—& now have the pleasure of sending a few more. The papers afford a prospect of politics, of party & of events that gives me little to add. From all I can collect from private sources I certainly expect very soon a great explosion at Paris. The Directory have appealed in a degree to the Armies, & the armies...
15344To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 17 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The day before yesterday I received by the way of Alexandria a letter from General Pinckney dated at the Hague the 5th of June, from which I have made the enclosed extracts for your information. Some time ago I mentioned to you my opinion that it would be expedient to send the United States brigantine Sophia to the West Indies, to receive and bring home such of our seamen as were detained in...
15345To John Adams from John Weddleton, 17 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The Subscribers having by their labour and Industry & at a great expence, errected Machinery &c, at the North part of Boston, in order to carry on the Woolen Manufacture, & in consequence of said expence they find themselves unable to procure Stock sufficient to carry on the said Manufacture, humbly solicit the aid & patronage of the President of the United States, & such other Gentlemen, who...
15346From John Adams to Rufus King, 18 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
This Letter will be presented to you, by Mr Peter Cunningham a Relation and an old Acquaintance of mine, for whom I have a good regard. He is going to London, with an honest American Soldier as well as Citizen, who is a fortunate Legatee to a good Estate in England. His Papers are very Authentic and he can I presume have no Difficulty. If he should however, your Advice and Countenance to him,...
15347To John Adams from Robert Liston, 18 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
The bearer of this Letter, Mr. Athill, Speaker of the House of Assembly of the Island of Antigua, is desirous of paying his respects to the President of the United States, and still more anxious to have the honour of becoming acquainted with Mr. Adams; and as I cannot have an opportunity of presenting him to your Excellency in person, I have taken the liberty of furnishing him with an...
15348To John Adams from John Vaughan, 18 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
I hope you will not think it presumptive of me to add a word to the Subject of the enclosed letters— The Talents of M Cooper are highly Spoken of (in the law) which he practises in Northumberland—I have had an intimate acquaintance with him since his residence in this Country, & whatever His Speculative opinions may have been, he has never rendered himself a party; & even those speculative...
15349To John Adams from Timothy Pickering, 18 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
This morning I recieved a letter from Mr. Charles Hall, declining the office of Agent of the United before the Board of Commissioners sitting here in relation to British debts; and covering a letter to you, which I have the honor to inclose. I also inclose a letter from Mr. Coleman to Collinson Read Esqr. advising him that his son-in law, Mr. Hall, had declined the appointment of Agent. This...
15350To John Adams from Charles Lee, 19 August 1797 (Adams Papers)
Mr. Charles Hall having declined accepting the office of Agent for the United States respecting british debts under the treaty of 1794, I have in obedience to your direction signified to Mr. John Read your determination to appoint him and have requested him to enter upon the duties of the office, which he has readily agreed to do. A claim has been for some time past before the commissioners...