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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 8.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.

East Chester, 26 October, 1797.

Dear Sir,—

I have to thank you for your summary, in your letter of the 23d, of the despatches from Mr. Pinckney, Mr. Murray, Mr. Bulkely, &c.

Mr. Murray arrived in season to renew his old friendship with his predecessor. They had spent some weeks together at the Hague, more than a dozen years ago. Mr. Adams had an opportunity to introduce Mr. Murray to his friends, and to communicate to him the train of affairs; an advantage which Mr. Murray earnestly wished before he sailed from Philadelphia.

Mr. Pinckney has been well acquainted with Mr. Gerry. They have always been upon terms of friendship, and I doubt not he will be as well pleased as if Mr. Dana had accepted.

Poor Portugal has been intimidated into concessions, as humiliating to herself as pernicious to the world. I am not surprised that M. Marbois should wish that Colonel Pickering had not pushed the point of gratitude so far.1 He may well be surprised, and ought to be grateful that his own letter to Vergennes was not quoted at full length. Nothing could have better illustrated the question of gratitude.

My youngest son, Thomas Boylston Adams, has been in Paris, and instead of being ordered out of France, as our Jacobinic papers boasted, he accepted, the day before he returned, a polite invitation to dine with one of the Directors, Citizen Carnot, by whom he was civilly treated, and urged to endeavor to reconcile the two countries. He was admitted, and had a convenient seat assigned him, at the ceremony of drawing the lot, for the director who was to rote out. In short, he was treated with great distinction. I am disappointed in my hopes of seeing him this season. His brother, who is a little disconcerted at his removal to Berlin (which he says is in the heart of Germany, where he shall not see an American in a year), has taken advantage of it to insist upon his company so earnestly, that I think he will prevail, and I must remain, another year at least, forlorn.

We must prepare as exact a statement as our intelligence will justify, of the position of our agents, civil and military, on the Mississippi, and of the disposition of the Spaniards and inhabitants towards them, to be inserted in the speech.

And pray, give me your opinion, explicitly, whether, from the prevalence of contagious sickness in Philadelphia, or the existence of any other circumstances, it would be hazardous to the lives or health of the members of Congress, to meet in that city on the second Monday in November.

If I should not issue a proclamation convening Congress at New York, I shall take you by the hand in Trenton, the first week in November, in my way to Philadelphia.

I am, dear Sir, with great regard, yours,

John Adams.

P. S. I return you guardian Noel’s speech to his helpless ward.1

[1 ]This alludes to a passage in Mr. Pickering’s letter touching the translation and publication of his despatch to General Pinckney of the 16th of January preceding. He says:

“All the members of the legislature were furnished, and officers of government. M. Ségur and some others wish the case of gratitude had been touched more lightly. General Pinckney, however, thinks all that is said upon it was necessary. “The friends of Vergennes (says Mountflorence) do not like the facts laid to his charge. M. Marbois would have wished Colonel P. had not so deeply pressed that matter.”

[1 ]This was an address from Noel, the minister of the French Directory, in Holland, to the Batavian Convention, designed to influence the adoption of the Constitution by the people.