BIB_ID
102515
Accession number
MA 157.18
Creator
Adams, John, 1735-1826.
Display Date
1813 Oct. 21.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1907.
Description
1 item (1 p., with address) ; 23.5 cm
Notes
Address panel "Quincy M. Oct'r 22'd / His Excellency / Elbridge Gerry Esquire / J. Adams / Vice President of U.S. / Cambridge."
Docketed on verso.
Part of a collection of autograph letters signed of Elbridge Gerry and others relating to the French Commission and the XYZ Affair. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection-level record for more information.
The letter refers to the death of Mr. Adams' daughter, Abigail, and to a Congressional assignment for her husband, Colonel William Stephens Smith.
Docketed on verso.
Part of a collection of autograph letters signed of Elbridge Gerry and others relating to the French Commission and the XYZ Affair. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection-level record for more information.
The letter refers to the death of Mr. Adams' daughter, Abigail, and to a Congressional assignment for her husband, Colonel William Stephens Smith.
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from J.F. Sabin in 1907.
Summary
Expressing his concerns over the "Principles of honour and integrity" of a Mr. Hyer(?); saying "I have since heard so little in favour of his discretion that I think Gov't ought to be cautious of the Trusts they commit to him;" thanking him for his family's sympathy "in our great Affliction...The final Event has been so long expected; it was the termination of a life of Crosses, disappointments, vicissitudes and Misfortunes almost without example; all sustained to the last moment with unexampled fortitude : So that a [illegible] murmour in any of her friends would have been reproved by her whole life. Col. Smith received your friendly remembrance with gratitude;" questioning why "this Gentleman" [William Stephens Smith] is "not on the general Committee of military Affairs. How could the Speaker commit such an oversight? There is not a member of the house nor a man in the nation, who has more knowledge of the Theory or practice of War; nor one who knows the Geography of all the Theatres and Scenes of the war in minuter detail. An Officer who was in two and twenty battles, was twice wounded and once taken up for dead in the revolutionary War, ought not to be totally neglected."
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