John Adams to Abigail Adams, January 10, 1799
Phyl. Jan. 10. 1798 [ 1799 ]
My Dearest Friend
We have the Pleasure of your Letters to the 3 d . 1 I think it is not worth while
to bid for M rs Veseys four Acres. The Price will be twice or
thrice the Worth and I have no desire to enlarge my Borders by purchasing Such scraps.
Indeed I have land enough and too much, unless I could attend to its cultivation.— In
that Situation Land is an Object of Envy. And I am willing that some Tradesman should
have it, who may build an house upon it.— If M rs Veseys
Place was to be sold all together, I would give a good Price for it: but not such a
Price Pr Acre. But to buy it in scraps is what I dont incline to do. My Intention is to lay out something in manuring what I have: but I am not anxious
for more. Besides We have an expensive Project of building before Us in the Spring and I
dont choose to Streighten my self.
To Day We have a large Company of foreign & Domestic Ministers
&c &c &c to the N o . of 35. What We shall do with
them all, and they all have accepted I know not.
Judge Cushing dined with me yesterday. M rs Cushing as well— They have had a Campain in Virginia and have returned in
good health. I have not seen the Judge look better.
The Judge had a Visit in Delaware from Mr John Dickinson, the old
Farmer of Pennsylvania. 2
We must wait with Patience for the ship Alexander Hamilton Cap t. Clark to arrive at New York, with her Passenger.
But an important Question arrises. Ought he to visit Father or
Mother first?— I believe he must come here before he goes to Quincy.— But I shall leave
it to him, to decide.
Cracky Logan has answered his own End by obtaining an Election. But
Talleyrand Seems ashamed of him. In the Dict. Historique, Article Bayle is a Case in
Point. M r Halwein Burgomaster of Dort, without the Knowledge
of the State entered into a kind of Negotiation with Amelot, Ambassador of France in
Switzerland, to make Peace. He was arrested for this Misdemeanor and condemned to
Imprisonment for Life and the Confiscation of all his Estate. And Bayle the Pyrrhonian
Dictionary Man was expelled from his Professors Chair at Rotterdam & deprived of his
Pension because he was Suspected of perswading many Persons to fall in with the Views of
the Pseudo Peacemaking Burgomaster. 3 In
our Day John De Neuville and M r Pensionary Vanberckell, were
terribly threatned, for a similar Folly with William Lee. And nothing but the War with
England probably Saved them. 4
J. A