Abigail Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, June 12, 1800

Quincy June 12th 1800

my dear Thomas

I have not taken my pen to write you a line before since
my return, tho I have daily intended it. You know I Must necessarily have
many avocations upon first comeing home, beside the constant interruptions
from company; I was happy to learn as I did a few days since by Your Letter
of June the 1 st that You had returnd in safety
to the city improved in health. God grant that it May be continued to you.
when I was at N York, I found the Books Boxed up Still standing in your
Brothers office. I sent Richard, found a vessel & had them put on Board.
I hope they will reach You safe; 1 my visit to N York Did not
brighten my domestick prospects any more than my previous one to the camp,
tho different causes opperated. it decided me however to bring home Susan
with me, which I have done. She is a fine child, any thing further it will
not be proper to say; my journey was safe and as it respected the appearence
of the Country pleasent; and if my mind had not received too Many unpleasent
Sensations, I should have delighted in the view. as it was, I could bless
the Bountifull Dispencer of all that I saw, good fair and fruitfull, and
rejoice in the prosperity which was so universally Spread arround me.

The Day after I reachd my own Habitation which was the 31
May, I lost an old and valuable Neighbour, Mr Belcher. three Days after him
Mr Wibird finished his course, and on Saturday last was burried. 2 to the world he has been long
since dead he declined very fast after the warm weather commenced. these
were old Men, and had lived out their Days of three score & ten; but a
more gloomy scene than this I have daily upon my Heart and mind. Mrs Norten
who has been 8 or ten weeks at her Fathers, is apprehended to be in a rapid
decline. She has lost the little flesh she had and is litterally the shadow
of a shade. the Doctor has but little very little expectation that she can
recover— she is now so weak as to be unable to walk more than once, or twice
in a day across her Room— she leaves five Sons the eldest not more than
Eleven Years old— three of her children are with her—and My dear valuable
and beloved Sister appears almost borne down, tho her spirits have been her support— your uncle is well for
his Years— Uncle Quincy too, looks very well for a Man so far advanced, is
eagar and inquisitive, about public affairs: I get not any papers from
Philadelphia Since I left it. there were but one or two which I wished to
see Duane Made great use of Your direction to him, to send the paper to the
House During Your absence. he carried about with him your note, and showed
it as a direction from the President to take his paper— 3 col B——r circulated reports both
in Philadelphia and NYork, that he was admitted into the cabinet and
consulted upon Many subjects, that a coalition had taken place, and matters
were all setled— reports of a similar nature are extracted from the Southern
papers and they have not failed to make the whole arrangment in the Trenton
federilist from which our stupid Ben Russel has extracted it, into his
paper; heading it with a paragraph tending to give a currency to it, tho I
know every word and syllable to be false, and so Might every Man in the
least acquainted with the Preside[nt] 4

The removal of xxxxxxx caused Some sensati[on] for a
time, but when people began to think and reason, they concluded the mo[ve]
Proper— ill humours break out in Some people, and finds it their way into the common sink of
News paper publication— Gov’ r strong is very
popular and Boston folks like him better than
they expected— he is wise judicious prudent calm and discreet, and all this,
tho he was not born in Boston or its Neighbourhood— You will see mr Foster
is sent to senate in the Room of mr Dexter. Mr Ames could not be persuaded
to be put up, for which I am very wroth with him— sewall prefered being made
a judge. we have to replace judge N Cusshing & to have three new ones,
agreable to the late arrangement of our Legislature: Minot could not be
spaired from the State, nor afford to Serve, so we have sent Mr Foster, an
honest Worthy Man—a good federalist but we wanted a Man from this State of
the first tallents, a Man like mr Dexter or Ames whose weight of character
would be respected and revered.— our ablest Men from a variety of
circumstances choose to remain at home. 5

I have heard much Since my return of the coalition as it
is termed. Mr Otis told me that he had a Letter from Philadelphia in which
he was informed that the President had dinned with the Govr and that I had
twice visited the Lady of the spanish minister, but that She had never
returnd the visit. now the writer whom mr otis calls a Friend to the
President might very easily have assertaind the truth by inquiry, before he
had written Such a Letter. the truth is I visited Mrs McKean, as I did every
other Lady with whom I had an acquaintance, before I left the city as I presumed for the last time. She
returned the visit, as did his excellency. I also left a card at the spanish
ministers after the removal of a certain obstical. the visit was returnd the
next day but one, by Madam , and by the Don the
day after. Le Tombe accompanied him—it was however on a sunday when we were
all at church. I knew the spanish Minister was recalld and a successor
appointed in his room but as his conduct had been without exception for a
long time, and his court had continued him untill that period, I thought it
proper to make the visit— 6 it
is also reported here that McHenry is very wroth and bitter and threatnes to
publish. 7 this I take to
be mere report, for what can he publish. his own incapacity for the office
he held, were long known and experienced, the subject of constant complaint.
indeed I have never heard a regreet expressed. he was always a polite &
civil Man, and a candid one I esteemed him: I know the President loved him,
and acknowledged both his ingenuity & good sense, yet he knew he was not
equal to So important an office— write to Me My son and direct to the
President, in his absence to be deliverd to Mrs Adams at Quincy— I have not
heard from Your Father since he left Quincy Philadelphia: let Me hear by you as he cannot write when
travelling—

Mr & Mrs Brisler got home on the 9th

adieu Yours &c &c