by James Traub
101The leading historian of the period concludes: de Conde, The Quasi-War, 89.
102gave his father letters: David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Touchstone, 2001), 523.
102“plundering and barbarous decrees”: JQA to AA, June 12, 1800, in Writings.
102tartly asked his younger brother: JQA to Charles Adams, August 1, 1797.
103He asked Charles: JQA to Charles Adams, January 24, 1798.
103“The Samaeens were a Sect: Charles Adams to JA, March 12, 1794, in L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, and Margaret A. Hogan, eds., Adams Family Correspondence (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963).
103“I renounce him,”: McCullough, John Adams, 529.
103“no man’s enemy: Ibid., 555.
103“regular, formal accounts: JQA to TBA, April 29, 1799.
104Adams set himself the task: Diaries, November 10, 1799.
104who sat by his wife’s bedside: Ibid., March 21, 1798.
104blamed the loss: Graham et al., Diary and Autobiographical Writings, vol. 1, 110.
104“a continual succession: Diaries, December 4, 1799.
104“I can only pray: Ibid., January 9, 1800.
104It is possible: Ibid., July 23, 1800. Subsequent citations from Diaries, July 23–August 27.
105the so-called Silesian Letters: Adams’ letters were collected as a book, Letters on Silesia, Written During a Tour Through That Country 1800, 1801 (London: Printed for J. Budd, 1804).
105The queen sent messengers: Graham et al., Diary and Autobiographical Writings, vol. 1, 154.
106Adams decreed that his name: JQA to TBA, May 5, 101.
106“The day before yesterday: JQA to AA, April 14, 1801.
106In July 1799, he had concluded: Samuel Flagg Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy (New York: Norton, 1949), 93–96.
106“party bitterness and rancor”: JQA to AA, July 11, 1800.
106“It is too long: AA to JQA, September 1, 1800.
106On July 17: Diaries, July 17, 1801.
CHAPTER 9: I FEEL STRONG TEMPTATIONS TO PLUNGE INTO POLITICAL CONTROVERSY (1801–1803)
110The ocean voyage had left her: Judith S. Graham, Beth Luey, Margaret Hogan, and James C. Taylor, eds., Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams (Boston: Belknap, 2013), vol. 1, 158.
110He saw them into: The Diaries of John Quincy Adams (hereafter Diaries), September 12, 1801, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php.
110“inexpressible delight”: Ibid., September 21, 1801.
110imaginatively rechristened the boy: Abigail Adams (hereafter AA) to John Quincy Adams (hereafter JQA), September 13, 1801, in Adams Papers Microfilm (APM), Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. All letters cited in this chapter are from APM.
110“I am sure your brother: AA to Thomas Boylston Adams (hereafter TBA), July 12, 1801.
110He spent $6,000: Diaries, October 1, 1801.
110He bought shares: Ibid., October 10, 1801.
110she had written to her husband: Louisa Catherine Adams (hereafter LCA) to JQA, September 16, 1801.
111“very, very much broke.”: LCA to JQA, October 4, 1801.
111“He has been unfortunate: Diaries, October 26, 1801.
111Adams paid calls: Ibid., October 21–27, 1801.
111Catherine advised her: Graham et al., Diary and Autobiographical Writings, vol. 1, 160.
112Stagecoach travel at the time: Henry Adams, The United States in 1800 (Ithaca, NY: Great Seal Books, 1955), 7–9.
112As the Adams party: Jack Shepherd, Cannibals of the Heart: A Personal Biography of Louisa Catherine and John Quincy Adams (New York: McGraw Hill, 1980), 106.
112Louisa arrived half-frozen: Graham et al., Diary and Autobiographical Writings, vol. 1, 162.
112“Had I stepped into: Ibid., vol. 1, 164.
113“so slender and her frame: AA to TBA, December 27, 1801.
113John Adams took an immediate liking: Graham et al., Diary and Autobiographical Writings, vol. 1, 165. (“The old gentleman took a fancy to me, and he was the only one.”)
113“The footways or sidewalks: Adams, The United States, 14–15.
113Boston was in the midst of transforming: Thomas H. O’Connor, The Hub: Boston Past and Present (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2001).
113In 1795, the painter: Caleb Snow, The History of Boston (Boston: Abel Bowen, 1828).
113Otis and his team: Samuel Eliot Morison, Harrison Gray Otis, 1765–1848: The Urbane Federalist (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), 218–226.
114Once completed three years later: Edward Stanwood, “Topography,” in Memorial History of Boston 1630–1880, vol. 4, ed. Justin Winson (Boston: Ticknor, 1880–1881).
114he added to his inventory: Diaries, January 13, 1802.
114An 1802 list: Samuel Flagg Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy (New York: Norton, 1949), 111.
114The Boston bar teemed: See James Spear Loring, The Hundred Boston Orators Appointed by the Municipal Authorities and Other Public Bodies, from 1770 to 1852 (Boston: J. Jewett, 1852).
114“I feel strong temptation: Diaries, January 28, 1802.
115“Thus you see: JQA to TBA, June 13, 1802.
115“by way of conciliatory procedure.”: Diaries, May 28, 1802.
115Josiah Quincy: Robert McCaughey, Josiah Quincy, 1772–1864: The Last Federalist (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 20. Quincy also refused to run until he had made a fortune in real estate.
115“This is one of a thousand: Diaries, November 3, 1802.
115In early 1803: Ibid., February 4, 1803.
116Adams joined a group: Ibid., March 12, 1802; also May 21, 1802.
116“a maudlin hysterical fine Lady.”: Graham et al., Diary and Autobiographical Writings, vol. 1, 173.
116“all that she had been described.”: Ibid., vol. 1, 172.
117“The Amory’s,: Ibid., vol. 1, 168.
117“They were both,”: Ibid., vol. 1, 189.
117A French visitor in 1788: David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Touchstone, 2001), 391.
118John Quincy received a letter: Diaries, April 1, 1803.
118John Adams had patriotically: Bemis, John Quincy Adams, 114.
118“They felt it severely: Diaries, April 3, 1803.
118“If I cannot keep: AA to TBA, April 26, 1803.
118“I feel myself: Diaries, April 3, 1803.
118He tried to sell his: Ibid., April 2, 1803; April 14, 1803.
118Peter came back: Peter Boylston Adams to John Adams, June 23, 1803.
118His parents would have: Diaries, August 16, 1803.
119the annual oration celebrating the Pilgrims’ landing: For the text of an oration delivered at Plymouth on December 22, 1802, see https://archive.org/details/orationdelivered00ada.
119In late 1802, Jonathan Mason: Bemis, John Quincy Adams, 113–114.
CHAPTER 10: CURSE ON THE STRIPLING, HOW HE APES HIS SIRE (1803–1804)
121“Around the Capitol: Nicholas Dungan, Gallatin: America’s Swiss Founding Father (New York: New York University Press, 2010), 67.
121The Capitol, like the city: “History of the United States Capitol: A Chronicle of Design, Construction and Politics,” Government Printing Office, S. Doc 106–29.
122forced to adjourn for three days: The Diaries of John Quincy Adams (hereafter Diaries), November 7, 1803, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php.
122“their admission introduced noise: William Plumer, William Plumer’s Memorandum of Proceedings in the United States Senate, 1803–1807 (New York: Macmillan, 1923), 92–93.
122The entire city of Washington had: James Sterling Young, The Washington Community, 1800–1828 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), 22.
122“The City not being laid: Judith S. Graham, Beth Luey, Margaret Hogan, and James C.
Taylor, eds., Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams (Boston: Belknap, 2013), vol. 1, 204.
123Jefferson decided that: Henry Adams, History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Antiquarian, 1962), vol. 2, 363.
124“The entertainment was: Graham et al., Diary and Autobiographical Writings, vol. 1, 204.
124“Mr. Jefferson tells: Diaries, January 11, 1805.
124“The President said that: Ibid., November 3, 1807.
125“to know him,”: Theophilus Parsons Jr., The Memoir of Theophilus Parsons (Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1859), 108.
125“The great object of Jacobinism: Adams, History of the United States, vol. 2, 170–171.
125Timothy Pickering, who bunked: Gerard H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and the American Republic (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1969), 221.
125The Federalists were, increasingly: Adams, History of the United States, vol. 2, 353.
126Jefferson’s acquisition of: Ibid., vol. 2, 246ff.
126“Should this precious treaty: Robert McCaughey, Josiah Quincy, 1772–1864: The Last Federalist (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974), 30–31.
127“I am in favor: Plumer, William Plumer’s Memorandum.
127But Adams foresaw: Diaries, January 14 and 18, 1804; John Quincy Adams (hereafter JQA) to Thomas Boylston Adams (hereafter TBA), January 14, 1804, in Adams Papers Microfilm (APM), Massachusetts Historical Society. All letters cited in this chapter are from APM.
127He wrote to Tom: JQA to TBA, January 27, 1804.
128“All power in a republican: Annals of Congress, 8th Congress, 1st session, February 18, 1804.
128“it will be safe and desirable: Report of the Philippine Commission to the President, January 31, 1900 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1900), vol. 1, 109.
128he registered the sole opposing vote: Diaries, November 18, 1803.
128“Of the errors, impudences, and follies: Ibid., December 4, 1803.
128“He is a man of much information: Plumer, William Plumer’s Memorandum, 643.
129“Curse on the stripling: Samuel Flagg Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy (New York: Norton, 1949), 123.
129“insanity, sickness, any trivial error: Diaries, March 2–12, 1804.
129He wrote her to point out: JQA to Louisa Catherine Adams (hereafter LCA), April 9, 1807.
130“My life ever has been: LCA to JQA, May 12, 1804.
130Send me the money: Diaries, May 9, 1804.
130John Quincy planted: Ibid., June 9, July 14, August 8, 1804.
130“One remark I made: Ibid., September 11, 1804.
130Didn’t any of them: Ibid., October 13, 1804.
130he sent her a quatrain: JQA to LCA, June 17, 1804.
130he wrote that he was terrified: LCA to JQA August 12, 1804; JQA to LCA, August 26, 1804.
131“lamented her loss: JQA to LCA, September 2, 1804.
131“to me the most beautiful: Diaries, November 18, 1838.
CHAPTER 11: THE BOYLSTON PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ORATORY (1804–1807)
132“The same bad roads: Henry Adams, The United States in 1800 (Ithaca, NY: Great Seal Books, 1955), 4.
132“The revolution of 1800”: In Henry Adams, The History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Antiquarian, 1962), vol. 1, 208.
133the process really began: See Joyce Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2000).
133His election ushered in: See Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (New York: Norton, 2009).
133“Federalism was already: Adams, The History of the United States, vol. 1, 353.
133“The people of the East: Ibid., vol. 1, 411.
133“We feel that we are: William Plumer Jr., Life of William Plumer (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1857), 288.
134he wrote a series of broadsides: Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Writings of John Quincy Adams (hereafter Writings) (New York: Macmillan, 1913), vol. 3, 46–77.
134“immediately after: Henry Adams, Documents Relating to New England Federalism, 1800–1815 (Boston: Little Brown, 1905), 147.
135Plumer publicly admitted: Plumer, Life of William Plumer, 283ff.
135In an open letter: Adams, Documents Relating, 147.
135Pickering and others had approached: Plumer, Life of William Plumer, 295.
136“Virtuous and studious: John Adams (hereafter JA) to John Quincy Adams (hereafter JQA), November 9, 1804, in Adams Papers Microfilm (APM), Massachusetts Historical Society. All subsequent letters cited in this chapter are from APM unless otherwise noted.
136“For fifteen years: Ibid., January 8, 1805.
136“you had a great consolation: JQA to JA, January 24, 1805, in Writings.
136“But you are too much: JA to JQA, February 7, 1805.
136“contracted a reserve: Abigail Adams to JQA, December 18, 1804.
137“Your dijestion is: Ibid., February 9, 1806.
137“Now I hope you never: Ibid., March 24, 1806.
137She was mortified: Judith S. Graham, Beth Luey, Margaret Hogan, and James C. Taylor, eds., Diary and Autobiographical Writings of Louisa Catherine Adams (Boston: Belknap, 2013), vol. 1, 225.
138a bolt of good news: The Diaries of John Quincy Adams (hereafter Diaries), June 26, 1805, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php.
139“With the most perfect deference: JQA to Samuel Dexter, August 6, 1805, in Writings.
139Adams undertook a study: Diaries, August 24 and September 15, 1805.
140“Sometimes,”: Ibid., January 15, 1805.
140The British navy had responded: George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 116.
141Adams himself was asked: Diaries, February 1, 1805.
141“would not refuse it: Ibid., November 25, 1805.
141“taken the lead.”: Ibid., January 31, 1806.
142“with his all talents: Ibid., February 1, 1806.
142rejoined “with warmth”: Ibid., February 3, 1806.
143“Sons of Harvard!”: John Quincy Adams, Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory: Delivered to the Classes of Senior and Junior Sophisters at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA: Hilliard and Metcalf, 1810), Inaugural Oration.
144“Eloquence is the child: Ibid., 76.
144One of his students: Edward Everett, Eulogy on the Life and Character of John Quincy Adams (Boston: Dutto and Wentworth, State Printers, 1848).
144“I send you: JQA to Louisa Catherine Adams (hereafter LCA), May 10, 1806.
144a lyrical description: Ibid., June 22, 1806.
144“and there yielded: Diaries, June 30, 1806.
145“No French: JQA to LCA, December 8, 1806.
145“For your sake: JQA to LCA, January 7, 1807.
145“I was a little surprized: LCA to JQA, January 18, 1807.
145Oh! Nancy! be that solace: JQA to LCA, January 12, 1807.
146How shall I express: LCA to JQA, January 21, 1807.
146Dear Sally!: JQA to LCA, February 6, 1807.
147Thus, in succession: Ibid.
CHAPTER 12: IF WE MUST PERISH, LET IT BE IN DEFENSE OF OUR RIGHTS (1807–1809)
148news reached Washington: The Diaries of John Quincy Adams (hereafter Diaries), March 3, 1807, Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, http://www.masshist.org/jqadiaries/php.
149News of this humiliation: Henry Adams, History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson (New York: Antiquarian, 1962), vol. 2, 946ff.
149He was asked: Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Writings of John Quincy Adams (hereafter Writings) (New York: Macmillan, 1913), July 16, 1807.
149“I should have: Diaries, July 11, 1807.
150trying to referee a confrontation: Ibid., April 3–24, 1807.
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br /> 150“the labors of Sisyphus.”: Ibid., June 13, 1807.
150feared that he would lose: Ibid., September 2, 1807.
150“I have met with: Ibid., October 30, 1807.
151“My general consideration: Ibid., Year End, 1807.
151Jefferson was following a policy: Adams, History of the United States, vol. 4, 138–151.
151“I observe among: Diaries, November 17, 1807.
151“the greatest failure: Samuel Eliot Morison, The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, vol. 1 (Boston: Houghton and Mifflin, 1913), 323.
151When Josiah Quincy asked: Diaries, December 14, 1807.
152Adams fumed: Ibid., January 7, 1808.
152“You are supported: John Adams (hereafter JA) to John Quincy Adams (hereafter JQA), January 8, 1808, in Adams Papers Microfilm (APM), Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. All subsequent letters cited in this chapter are from APM unless otherwise noted.
153“I, who perhaps ought: JA to JQA, January 17, 1808.
153He later explained: JQA to Thomas Boylston Adams (hereafter TBA), March 12, 1808.
153When, the following week: Diaries, February 2, 1808.
153“inconsistent both with: Abigail Adams to JQA, February 15, 1808.
154“contain a test: Diaries, February 24, 1808.
154“were too pure: Ibid., February 1, 1808.
154He introduced a resolution: Ibid., April 13, 1808.
154“By false policy: Timothy Pickering, A Letter from the Hon. Timothy Pickering, a Senator of the United States from the State of Massachusetts (Boston: Greenough and Stebbins, 1808).
154Several leading Republicans approached: Diaries, March 3, 1808.
154On March 15: Ibid., March 15, 1808.
155“will be to me of: Ibid., March 31, 1808.
155Adams’ response to Pickering: Writings, vol. 3, 189ff.
155his father even wrote: JA to JQA, April 12, 1808.
156Federalist journals tore: Samuel Flagg Bemis, John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy (New York: Norton, 1949), 148.
156“one of the transactions: Writings, vol. 3, 224.
156It fell to Adams: Diaries, April 7, 1808.
156Adams once again called: Ibid., April 13, 1808.
156“it was the wish of several: Ibid., April 23, 1808.
156“attacked me in a rude: Ibid., May 18, 1808.