Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE. - The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Return to Title Page for The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

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

TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

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. 9.

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

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Trenton, 16 October, 1799.

Sir,—

I request you to order fair copies of the instructions, as corrected last evening, to be prepared and delivered to Judge Ellsworth and Governor Davie, with another for Mr. Murray, without loss of time, and to write a letter to those gentlemen, as envoys extraordinary to the French republic, expressing, with the affectionate respects of the President, his desire that they would take their passage for France on board the frigate the United States, Captain Barry, now lying at Rhode Island, by the 1st of November, or sooner, if consistent with their conveniences. Captain Barry will have orders to land them in any port of France which they may prefer, and to touch at any other ports which they may desire. The President’s best wishes for their health and happiness, as well as for an honorable termination of their mission, will attend them. As their visit to France is at one of the most critical, important, and interesting moments that ever have occurred, it cannot fail to be highly entertaining and instructive to them, and useful to their country, whether it terminates in peace and reconciliation, or not. The President sincerely prays God to have them in his holy keeping.1

I am, Sir, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]Thus terminated the long continued struggle of the three cabinet ministers to overrule the President; and from this date commences their secret cabal, darkly alluded to in Mr. Stoddert’s letter of the 13th September, in conjunction with Mr. Hamilton, to set him aside at the next election. The first movement which was to call out General Washington, had been under consideration by them for some time, awaiting this decision. Mr. McHenry says that Mr. Stoddert and Mr. Lee were now prepared to “advise the dismission, at least of one.” Gibbs’s Federal Administrations, vol. ii. p. 243, p. 245, p. 282.