Abigail Adams to Mary Smith Cranch, June 23, 1798

Philadelphia June 23 d 1798

my dear sister

The weather has been so oppressively Hot for this week—and the
streets of the City so nausious that I expect the concequences which must follow. they
already begin—complaints of the Bowels are frequent & an inflamitory soar throat.
Frederick has got below after 5 bleedings Blistering &c Becky is now sick with
it. 1 hers is less upon her throat, more
in her Bowels, not much fever— I hope hers will not prove very Bad. Several of the rest
of us have had a touch. it comes with a stifness & pain in the neck & back part
of the Head. in some parts of the city the old fever is making its appearence. Congress
are anxious to rise, but will not sooner than they did last year I fear— O how much
precious time did they waste this winter, in that dirty affair of Lyons, and disputing
whether mr smith & JQA should be ministers Resident, or Plenipos: With which they
had no buisness—any more than who should be of the directory in France.

I have put under cover to mr Cranch a Letter for William Shaw,
supposing he might be at Quincy & the papers and handkerchiefs are for him. 2 you will send them if he is gone home. you
will find in them what mr Marshal brings and the state in which things are in
France.

I received your Letters of the 10 & 15 th . the President is delighted with your account of the Clover and Barley
Fields— he most sincerely pines after them—but he is tied to his table 9 Hours of the
day— some of the addressers complain that his answers are too short. they do not consider nor know how numerous they are, or what other buisness
there is to attend to. some fore noons, he is calld from his Room 20 times in the course
of it, to different persons, besides the hours devoted to the Ministers of the different
departments, the investigations necessary to be made of those persons who apply for
offices or are recommended, the weighing the merrits, and pretentions of different
Canditates for the same office &C &C &C His Eyes which you know used to be
very troublesome to him, are quite well, and he is enabled to read and write with ease
to himself which is a great favour.—

I am glad you have got the Box. Betsy did not say to me that she
was going to be married directly, but she wrote what I took to be her determination
soon. Poor dear Betsy Shaw, must she too follow our dear Mary, Charles and Suky Warner?
my heart aches for our sister. I know not how she will Sustain the shock— I think our
Physicians are too fearfull of Bleeding in early complaints of the Lungs—

I shall be Satisfied with the kitchen floor as it is. I hope all
will be done by the beginning of July—for I shall want all the Room I can find and, more
than all. I do expect mrs smith will come with me to make her Children a visit. as I
have sent the papers I need say nothing about politicks. our Legislature have done nobly
in Massa— 3 What Life & vigor does a
good Patriot give to a whole state when placed at the Head of it— I wish our Legislature
would set the example & make a sedition act, to hold in order the base Newspaper
calumniators. in this state, you could not get a verdict, if a prossecution was to be
commenced

My pen is bad I know not whether you can read it, and the damp air
spoils the paper.—

I am in haste. the post will leave me before I assure you of what
my sister knows and believes, that I am allways her affectionate / Sister

A Adams