Abigail Adams to Cotton Tufts, April 19, 1800

Philadelphia April 19 1800

Dear sir

I received Yesterday Yours of April 11th. I wrote to you
upon the 17th and inclosed You an order upon the Bank for 5000 Dols 1 You will be so good as to
give me the earliest information of Your having received it. I rejoice to
learn that the building is like to go on with dispatch and hope it will not
take up so Much time as to make it necessary to have Carpenters after the
last of May. Mrs Cranch has written me that mr Black has offerd to store mr
J Q Adams’s Books in a Chamber which he has no use for. 2 Some of the Boxes were broken
& some of the Books lie lose upon the table. those which are in that
situation had best be packd again in a New Box, or the Boxes repaird. I will
have all the remaining furniture removed as soon as I return, & have
Room to take it in—

I am solisitious for the measure of the hearth as the
marble must be made to fit. I would have a wide hearth brick work as far as
will look well;

we had much rain upon saturday and sunday the 13 & 14
of this Month, and a curious appearence in the Mor’g of sunday upon the tubs
of water, & in the yard paved with brick. upon the top of the water and
upon the Edge of the tubs was a substance resembling flower of Brimstone in
the yard where the water had run of. it had left streaks of it, as thick as
window glass— it felt like the powder of sulpher it was observed in Many
other parts of the city, and I see by the Nyork papers that the same
appearence occured there & at the Same time. it was very dark through
the night, but I did not hear any Thunder or see any lightning. upon sunday
we had both, and have had an unusual share of it for the Season. we dryd
some of the powder it burnt, but did not smell— 3

I can most sincerely say that I hope Mr strong will be
Govenour— not that I think mr Gerry will be a McKean, or that he is what is
call’d a Jacobin, but if he should be Elected, the use which would be made
of it, by the Jacobins of virgina & this state would be for their
purposes exactly the same— they know that he has been brought forward by
their Party—and that in opposition to a decidely federal candidate; , Start deletion, that , End, tho a man of real integrity, he is
not correct in his Ideas of Government, and would very like be guilty of
many injudicious measures—which makes me hope that he will not be Elected. I
was conversing with the Vice President upon the subject a few day ago—when the Majority was
much in favour of mr Gerry— he observed that he believed mr Gerry would be
Elected, for this Reason, that the new England
people always stood by & supported their old and tried
Friends —that mr Gerry had been long a faithfull public Servant, and for
that reason he believed he would receive very great Support. 4 I replied that I had long known mr
Gerry, and had a personal friendship for him, that I respected him for his
honesty and integrity, but that he had a wrong twist or bias in his Head,
and was very obstinate when he once took up an opinion—but I was very
certain that he was no Jacobin— thus ended a conversation at which mr Lyston
the British Minister happend to be present, and I think no other person—
Congress have determined to rise upon the 2 d Monday in May—

I am quite satisfied with your arrangment respecting the
shipleys— So is the President. we have the weather very warm now for the
season

I will inclose to you Mr Marshalls speech if I can get it
to day, if not the next opportunity— I think you had better take possession
of our House & live at Quincy. I do not see but you must be there very
constantly—

My kind Regards to mrs Tufts / affectionatly Yours

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