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The almost 300 letters in volume 13 of Adams Family Correspondence
were written during seventeen tumultuous months of John Adams's
presidency. Consumed with executive duties, he depended on
surrogates for much of his correspondence with family members. From
Quincy, an ailing Abigail Adams wrote frequent letters to
Philadelphia and received lively responses from son Thomas Boylston
and the president's secretary, nephew William Smith Shaw. These
letters attest to John's popularity in the wake of the XYZ Affair.
However, they also chronicle passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts
and the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which laid the
groundwork for future debates on the relative roles of state and
federal governments. Following the break in diplomacy with France,
John sensed a change in the footing of the French, acted
unilaterally in ordering a second mission to seek a negotiated
settlement of the Quasi-War, and faced widespread skepticism about
his foreign policy as his envoys departed for Europe. John and
Abigail lamented yet another absence from each other. After
completing service in Berlin as secretary to diplomat John Quincy,
Thomas Boylston established himself as a Philadelphia lawyer,
offering thoughtful commentary on political life in the capital.
From his post in Prussia, John Quincy struggled with his brother
Charles's mismanagement of his financial affairs, but his letters
also provide detailed updates on developments in Europe, including
Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. The candid letters of John and
Abigail Adams and their children offer a rich perspective on life
in America during its infancy.
Volume 12 of Adams Family Correspondence, with 276 documents
spanning from March 1797 through April 1798, opens with the
inauguration of John Adams as president and closes just after
details of the XYZ affair are made public in America. Through
private networks of correspondence, the Adamses reveal both their
individual concerns for the well-being of the nation and the depth
of their public and political engagement with the republic.
Abigail's letters to friend and foe demonstrate the important role
she played as an unofficial member of the administration. John
Quincy and Thomas Boylston's letters from The Hague, Paris, London,
and finally Berlin offer keen observations about the political
turmoil in France and its consequences, the shifting European
landscape as a result of the war, and court life in Berlin
following the coronation of Frederick William III. In the midst of
crisis, the family's domestic life and personal connections
challenged and sustained them. The marriage of John Quincy and
Louisa Catherine Johnson in London in July 1797 gave the family
cause for celebration, while John's appointment of John Quincy as
U.S. minister to Prussia created a minor rift as the scrupulous
younger Adams struggled with concerns about nepotism. Visits
between the elder Adamses and their children Nabby and Charles in
New York provided welcome distractions, even as John and Abigail
worried about Nabby's domestic situation. With the characteristic
candor and perception expected from the Adamses, this volume again
features forthright commentary from one family at the center of it
all.
John and Abigail Adams' reflections on an emerging nation as they
move into the new President's House in Washington, D.C., are a
highlight of the nearly 280 letters written over seventeen months
printed in volume 14 of Adams Family Correspondence. The volume
opens with the Adamses' public and private expressions on the death
of George Washington and concludes with John's defeat in the
contentious presidential election of 1800. Electoral College
maneuvering, charges of sedition, and state-by-state strategizing
are debated by the Adamses and their correspondents as the election
advances toward deadlock and finally victory for Thomas Jefferson
in the House of Representatives. John's retirement from public life
had some sweet mixed with the bitter. The U.S. mission to France
resulted in the Convention of 1800 that ended the Quasi-War and the
so-called midnight appointments at the close of his presidency
ushered in the transformative U.S. Supreme Court era of John
Marshall, a coda anticipated in Abigail's request to John in the
final days of his administration-"I want to see the list of
judges." The domestic life of the Adamses was equally dynamic.
Abigail and John endured the crushing loss of their son Charles,
whose struggle with alcohol ended in repudiation and death in New
York. Son Thomas Boylston and daughter Nabby spent the period in
relative stability, while John Quincy chronicled a tour of Silesia
in letters home from Europe. At the volume's close, the
correspondence between John and Abigail comes to an end. As they
retired to Quincy, their rich observations on the formation of the
American republic would continue in letters to others if not to
each other.
John and Abigail Adams remained fully engaged in American political
life after they left Washington, DC, for retirement in Quincy. A
highlight of Volume 15 of Adams Family Correspondence is a series
of letters between Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson that debated
fundamental questions of the nation’s tumultuous early years. A
new generation rose in prominence in the period covered in the
volume, with John Quincy Adams returning from abroad to take a seat
in the United States Senate just in time to break with the
Federalists and support the Louisiana Purchase. The family
commented on other events of the era—Jefferson’s dismantling of
John Adams’s judicial reforms, the mobilization of the US Navy
for the Barbary wars, the growing bane of British impressment, and
the duel that killed Alexander Hamilton. Equally compelling family
stories emerge in the volume’s 251 letters. The failure of a
British banking firm proved calamitous to the family’s finances,
compelling John Quincy to quietly finance his parents’
retirement. Thomas Boylston Adams, acting as an occasional editor
of the Port Folio, carved out his public persona as a man of
letters. Louisa Catherine Adams wrote of motherhood and adjusting
to a new country of residence while providing a spirited
perspective on Washington society. As always, the heart of Adams
Family Correspondence is Abigail Adams, who survived a near-fatal
fall to continue providing letters of insight and wit that once
again show why the correspondence of the Adams family is a national
treasure.
John Adams's shaping of the vice presidency dominates this volume
of the Papers of John Adams, which chronicles a formative era in
American government spanning June 1789 to February 1791. As the
first federal Congress struggled to interpret the US Constitution
and implement a new economic framework, Adams held fast to
federalist principles and staked out boundaries for his executive
powers. Meeting in New York City, Adams and his colleagues warred
over how to collect revenue and where to locate the federal seat.
They established and staffed the departments of state, treasury,
and war. Adams focused on presiding over the Senate, where he broke
several ties. Enduring the daily grind of politics, he lauded the
"National Spirit" of his fellow citizens and pledged to continue
laboring for the needs of the American people. "If I did not love
them now, I would not Serve them another hour-for I very well know
that Vexation and Chagrine, must be my Portion, every moment I
shall continue in public Life," Adams wrote. He plunged back into
writing, using his Discourses on Davila to synthesize national
progress with republican history. Whether or not the union would
hold, as regional interests impeded congressional action, remained
Adams's chief concern. "There is every Evidence of good Intentions
on all sides but there are too many Symptoms of old Colonial
Habits: and too few, of great national Views," he observed. Once
again, John Adams's frank letters reveal firsthand the labor of
nation-building in an age of constitutions.
The letters in this volume of Adams Family Correspondence span the
period from July 1795 to the eve of John Adams's inauguration, with
the growing partisan divide leading up to the election playing a
central role. The fiery debate over funding the Jay Treaty sets the
political stage, and the caustic exchanges between Federalists and
Democratic-Republicans only grow as rumors surface of George
Washington's impending retirement. From Philadelphia, John's
equanimity in reporting to Abigail and his children on the
speculation about the presidential successor gives way to
expectation and surprise at the voracity of electioneering among
political allies and opponents alike. Although remaining in Quincy
throughout this period, Abigail offers keen, even acerbic,
commentary on these national events. From Europe, John Quincy and
Thomas Boylston shed light on the rise of the French Directory, the
shifts in the continental war, and the struggles within the
Batavian government. Their letters also testify to the broader
scale of the U.S. presidential election by chronicling French and
British attempts to influence American politics. On a more personal
note, John Quincy's engagement to Louisa Catherine Johnson in
London opens the next great collection of correspondence
documenting the Adams family saga.
"Once more after an Interruption of ten Years, I pronounce myself a
happy Man, and pray Heaven to continue me so." Thus wrote John
Adams in late August 1784 after the arrival in Europe of his wife
Abigail and daughter Nabby. Adams and his family were living
together in the pleasant Paris suburb of Auteuil. There Adams, with
Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, formed a joint commission
to conclude commercial treaties with the nations of Europe and
North Africa. For the first time since he had left America in 1778
on his first diplomatic mission, Adams was no longer engaged in
"militia diplomacy." Volume 16 of the Papers of John Adams
chronicles fourteen months of Adams' diplomatic career. As minister
to the Netherlands he raised a new Dutch loan to save America from
financial ruin. As joint commissioner he negotiated a commercial
treaty with Prussia, proposed similar treaties with other European
nations, and prepared to negotiate with the Barbary states. The
commissioners also sought to resolve Anglo-American differences
left over from the peace negotiations and arising from the two
nations' burgeoning trade. Volume 16 thus forms a prelude to the
next phase of John Adams' diplomatic career, for his February 1785
appointment as minister to the Court of St. James meant that the
management of Anglo-American relations would be his responsibility
alone.
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Papers of John Adams, Volume 19 (Hardcover)
John Adams; Edited by Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda Mathews Norton, …
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R2,367
R2,061
Discovery Miles 20 610
Save R306 (13%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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"Huzza for the new World and farewell to the Old One," John Adams
wrote in late 1787, wrapping up a decade's worth of diplomatic
service in Europe. Volume 19 of the Papers of John Adams chronicles
Adams's last duties in London and The Hague. In the twenty-eight
months documented here, he petitioned the British ministry to halt
impressment of American sailors, toured the English countryside,
and observed parliamentary politics. Adams salvaged U.S. credit by
contracting two new Dutch loans amid the political chaos triggered
by William V's resurgence. Correspondents like Thomas Jefferson and
the Marquis de Lafayette mulled over the Anglo-American trade war
that followed the Revolution and reported on the French Assembly of
Notables-topics that Adams commented on with trademark candor. He
wrote the final two volumes of his work, A Defence of the
Constitutions of Government of the United States of America. Adams
yearned to return home and see the American republic take shape.
"For a Man who has been thirty Years rolling like a stone," Adams
wrote, the choice was whether to "set down in private Life to his
Plough; or push into turbulent scenes of Sedition and Tumult;
whether be sent to Congress, or a Convention or God knows what."
Back on his native soil of Massachusetts in June 1788, Adams
settled into rural retirement with wife Abigail and watched the
U.S. Constitution's ratification evolve. By volume's end, John
Adams again resumes public life, ready to serve as America's first
vice president.
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