Abigail Adams to John Adams, March 9, 1799

Quincy March 9 th 1799

my Dearest Friend

Such extreem cold Weather I do not recollect to have felt in March,
as it has been this week, and it has laid Thomas up with one of his Soar Throats &
Rhumatism I hope however tho very threatning, that it will not be lasting; I am so well
as to ride out, when the weather will permit, and able to look after my poor Lad, who I
regreet has so much of his Mothers constitution & infirmities—

Captain Brooks dyed yesterday of a Lung fever, with which he had
been sick about ten days; the loss to his Family will be heavily felt. 1

I am anxious to hear from Philadelphia the result of a nomination,
which has agitated the public, much more than a declaration of War could have done. the Report of the senates having negatived the Nomination
which gave me so much pain & anxiety, was I find, not founded. I presume much of the
Clamour has arrisen from the mortification of a certain Gentlemans not being intrusted
with the secreet. it was hardly fair, or in Character to write upon the first day of the
nomination, to S—— H——n such a Letter as I have heard was written; it may however be
misrepresented—but of one thing we are certain, no Man has been so high, and so
Clamourous against the measure, as mr Higgisson. 2 some persons say he ought to be indited upon the
sedition act. he is much blamed for his conduct, I was told, but I do not vouch for the
truth, that he went to Ben Russel to get him to insert the peices from Porcupines paper,
which has drawn upon Porcupine the Philipic you will see in the same paper— the peices
were however rejected with disdain—and not any peice censuring the Measure, has appeard
in any Boston paper, but several in justification. you will see one in J Russels under
the signature of Consistancy. — 3 the measure no doubt dissapoints, the views of
many persons; nor does [it] in the least flatter my vanity, to have the public Imagine
that I am not equally pacific with my Husband, or that the same Reasons and motives,
which led him to take upon his own shoulders the weight, of a measure, which he knew
must excite a Clamour, would not have equally opperated upon my mind, if I had been
admitted a partner in the Counsel. I never pretended to the weight they asscribe to
me:

The additional nomination will tend perhaps to give more general
satisfaction—

I congratulate you upon the Capture of the Insurgent , and wish all insurgents, might share the same fate.—

I hope to learn when I may expect you home by your next Letter.

I am most affectionatly / your

A Adams—