First Family

by Joseph J. Ellis

  ABBREVIATIONS

  TITLES

  AFC Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds., Adams Family Correspondence, 9 vols. to date (Cambridge, Mass., 1963–).

  AJ Lester G. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters, 2 vols. (Chapel Hill, 1959).

  AP The Microfilm Edition of the Adams Papers, 608 reels (Boston, 1954–59).

  DA Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds., The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 4 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1961).

  EDJA Lyman H. Butterfield, ed., The Earliest Diary of John Adams (Cambridge, Mass., 1966).

  HP Harold Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 26 vols. (New York, 1974–92).

  JCC Worthington C. Ford, ed., The Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 34 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1904–37).

  JM James Morton Smith, ed., The Republic of Letters: The Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, 1776–1826, 3 vols. (New York, 1995).

  JP Julian Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 28 vols. to date (Princeton, 1950–).

  NEQ New England Quarterly

  PA Robert J. Taylor et al., eds., The Papers of John Adams, 11 vols. to date (Cambridge, Mass., 1983–).

  UFC Unpublished correspondence of the Adams family transcribed by the editors of the Adams Papers.

  WMQ William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series.

  Works Charles Francis Adams, ed., The Works of John Adams, 10 vols. (Boston, 1850–60).

  PERSONS

  AA Abigail Adams

  AA(2) Abigail Adams Smith

  AS Abigail Smith (before marriage to John)

  CA Charles Adams

  CFA Charles Francis Adams

  JA John Adams

  JQA John Quincy Adams

  LCA Louisa Catherine Adams

  TBA Thomas Boylston Adams

  TJ Thomas Jefferson

  WSS William Stephens Smith

  CHAPTER ONE. 1759–74

  1. DA 1:108.

  2. DA 1:109, for the derogatory quotation about the Smith sisters.

  3. JA to AS, 4 October 1762, AFC 1:2.

  4. JA to AS, 14 February 1763, AFC 1:3.

  5. AS to JA, 11 August 1763, AFC 1:6.

  6. JA to AS, 30 December 1761, AFC 1:1; AS to JA, 12 September 1763, AFC 1:8.

  7. AS to JA, 19 April 1764, AFC 1:44–46; JA to AS, 9 May 1764, AFC 1:46–47.

  8. AS to JA, 4 October 1764, AFC 1:50–51.

  9. DA 3:256–61, for John’s autobiographical account of his family history and childhood.

  10. All of John’s biographers cover these early years, but see David McCullough, John Adams (New York, 2001), 37–53, for the most recent and comprehensive account.

  11. DA 3:272–76, for the start of his legal career and the decision to delay marriage.

  12. Phyllis Lee Levin, Abigail Adams: A Biography (New York, 1987), 3–9.

  13. DA 1:21.

  14. DA 1:26–27, 57.

  15. DA 1:63, 95.

  16. DA 1:6–8.

  17. DA 1:13–14.

  18. DA 1:25.

  19. DA 1:33.

  20. EDJA, 73; John Ferling and Lewis E. Braverman, “John Adams’s Health Reconsidered,” (January 1998), 82–104.

  21. Edith B. Gelles, “The Abigail Industry,” WMQ 45 (October 1988), 656–83, for a cogent assessment of the scholarly literature on Abigail’s primary identity as a traditional wife and mother.

  22. For Abigail’s upbringing, I find Lynn Withey, Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams (New York, 1981), 1–10, most sensible. The “wild colts” quotation is from a letter to John Quincy in 1804, when Abigail recalled her grandmother’s advice.

  23. JA to AA, 20 April 1763, AFC 1:4–5, for John’s clearest acknowledgment that Abigail possessed a personal serenity that he envied and would never be able to match.

  24. Editorial note on the smallpox epidemic in Boston, AFC 1:14; JA to AS, 11 April 1764, AFC 1:22.

  25. AS to JA, 12 April 1764, AFC 1:25–27.

  26. AS to JA, 8 April 1764, AFC 1:19.

  27. The best and most recent synthesis of the scholarship on the constitutional crises is Gordon S. Wood, The American Revolution: A History (New York, 2002), 3–62.

  28. AA to JA, 14 September 1767, AFC 1:62; JA to AA, 23 May 1772, AFC 1:83; JA to AA, 29 June 1774, AFC 1:111.

  29. PA 1:46–48, for the moralistic essays; DA 1:172–73, for John’s diary account of tavern life.

  30. PA 1:58–94.

  31. DA 3:284, for the composition of Dissertation.

  32. PA 1:103–28.

  33. PA 1:132–35, 152.

  34. DA 1:263.

  35. JA to AA, 6 July 1774, AFC 1:128–29; AA to Mary Smith Cranch, 31 January 1767, AFC 1:60–61.

  36. DA 3:294–95.

  37. AA to Isaac Smith Jr., 20 April 1771, AFC 1:76–77.

  38. DA 3:276.

  39. PA 1:155–73.

  40. PA 1:174–211.

  41. PA 1:252–309.

  42. DA 1:324, JA to William Tudor, 15 May 1817, AP, reel 123. For a more sympathetic portrait of Hutchinson, see Bernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (Cambridge, Mass., 1974).

  43. DA 3:287–88; JA to AA, 9 July 1774, AFC 1:135.

  44. JA to AA, 1 July 1774, AFC 1:119.

  45. DA 3:291–94; the authoritative study is Hiller B. Zobel, The Boston Massacre (New York, 1970); on the role of Sam Adams behind the scenes, see Mark Puls, Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution (New York, 2006), 99–111.

  46. JA to AA, 7 July 1774, AFC 1:131; DA 3:292.

  47. JA to Isaac Smith Jr., [1771?], AFC 1:82.

  48. JA to AA, 12 May 1774, AFC 1:107.

  49. JA to AA, 6 July 1774, AFC 1:126–27, for John’s sense that there was no turning back.

  50. JA to AA, 2 July 1774, AFC 1:121; also JA to AA, 12 May 1774, AFC 1:107.

  51. Editorial note, AFC 1:136–37.

  52. JA to AA, 23 June 1774, AFC 1:108–9.

  53. Editorial note, AFC 1:140.

  CHAPTER TWO. 1774–78

  1. AA to JA, 22 October 1775, AFC 1:310; JA to AA, 23 October 1775, AFC 1:311–12.

  2. AA to JA, 29 August 1776, AFC 2:112–13.

  3. JA to AA, 28 April 1776, AFC 1:400; JA to AA, 22 May 1776, AFC 1:412.

  4. JA to William Tudor, 7 October 1774, PA 2:188.

  5. AA to JA, 16 July 1775, AFC 1:247, 250.

  6. JA to AA, 2 June 1776, AFC 2:3.

  7. JA to James Warren, 25 June 1775, PA 2:99. See also, in the same vein, DA 2:134–35.

  8. DA 2:150.

  9. DA 2:121, 173, 182; JA to AA, 25 September 1774, AFC 1:163. See also JA to AA, 9 October 1774, AFC 1:166.

  10. JA to William Tudor, 29 September 1774, PA 2:177.

  11. On Macauley’s view of English history, see Lucy M. Donnelly, “The Celebrated Mrs. Macauley,” WMQ 6 (April 1949), 173–207.

  12. On Mercy Otis Warren, see Katherine Anthony, First Lady of the Revolution: The Life of Mercy Otis Warren (New York, 1958).

  13. AA to Catharine Sanbridge Macauley, [1774], AFC 1:177–79; AA to Mercy Otis Warren, 2 May 1775, AFC 1:190–91. See also AA to Mercy Otis Warren, 14 August 1777, AFC 2:313–14.

  14. JA to AA, 17 June 1775, AFC 1:216.

  15. See the editorial note on John’s role in the First Continental Congress, PA 2:144–52. For his own somewhat melodramatic version of his role, see DA 2:124–54. His contribution to the Declaration of Rights and Grievances is recorded in JCC 1:54–55.

  16. See the editorial note on Novanglus, PA 2:216–26. For the thirteen essays, see PA 2:226–387.

  17. JA to AA, 2 May 1775, AFC 1:192; JA to AA, 8 May 1775, AFC 1:195–96.

  18. AA to JA, 18 June 1775, AFC 1:22–24.

  19. See the editorial note on John Quincy’s latter-day recollections in 1843, AFC 1:224; JA to AA, 7 July 1775, AFC 1:242; AA to JQA, 13 March 1802, UFC.

  20. AA to JA, 8 September 1775, AFC 1:276–78; AA to JA, 16 September 1775, AFC 1:278–79. See also Elizabeth A. Fenn, Pox America
na: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775–82 (New York, 2001).

  21. AA to JA, 3 June 1776, AFC 2:4; AA to Mercy Otis Warren, January 1776, AFC 1:422.

  22. JA to AA, 26 September 1775, AFC 1:285–86; JA to AA, 19 October 1775, AFC 1:302.

  23. JA to AA, 7 October 1775, AFC 1:295.

  24. AA to JA, 12 November 1775, AFC 1:324.

  25. Paul C. Nagel, Descent from Glory: Four Generations of the John Adams Family (New York, 1983), is the best survey of the subject, though I find his treatment of Abigail unduly harsh. See also David F. Musto, “The Youth of John Quincy Adams,” American Philosophical Society Proceedings 113 (1969), 269–82.

  26. JQA to JA, 13 October 1774, AFC 1:167; AA to JA, 5 November 1775, AFC 1:322.

  27. AA to JA, April 1777, AFC 2:229.

  28. JA to TBA, 6 May 1774, AFC 1:234; AA to JA, 7 May 1776, AFC 1:403.

  29. JA to AA, 22 May 1776, AFC 1:412–13.

  30. JA to AA, 8 July 1777, AFC 2:277.

  31. DA 3:355; the fellow delegate was none other than Thomas Jefferson, quoted in my American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1997), 242.

  32. JA to Moses Gill, 10 June 1775, PA 3:21.

  33. JA to AA, 1 October 1775, AFC 1:290.

  34. JA to AA, 17 June 1775, AFC 1:215; AA to JA, 16 July 1775, AFC 1:246.

  35. JA to AA, 15 April 1776, AFC 1:383.

  36. JA to John Trumbull, 13 February 1776, PA 4:22; for the arrival of news about the Prohibitory Act, see Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress (New York, 1979), 91–92.

  37. AA to JA, 27 November 1775, AFC 1:329–30.

  38. PA 4:65–73, for the text and an editorial note on John’s later comments on Thoughts. I have discussed the significance of Thoughts at greater length in American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic (New York, 2007), 46–49.

  39. AA to JA, 31 March 1776, AFC 1:370.

  40. JA to AA, 14 April 1776, AFC 1:382.

  41. AA to Mercy Otis Warren, 27 April 1776, AFC 1:396–98; AA to JA, 7 May 1776, AFC 1:402.

  42. AA to JA, 14 August 1776, AFC 2:94; JA to AA, 25 August 1776, AFC 2:108.

  43. JA to James Sullivan, 26 May 1776, PA 4:208–12.

  44. For the style and message of Common Sense, see Eric Foner, Tom Paine and Revolutionary America (New York, 1776). For Paine as the ultimate advocate for implementing the radical implications of the revolutionary agenda, see Harvey J. Kay, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (New York, 2005).

  45. AP 4:185; JA to James Warren, 15 May 1776, AP 4:186.

  46. JA to AA, 17 May 1776, AFC 1:410.

  47. AA to JA, 2 March 1776, AFC 1:352–56; AA to JA, 16 March 1776, AFC 1:358.

  48. JA to AA, 3 July 1776, AFC 2:27–31. He wrote Abigail two separate letters on this day.

  49. For a longer exegesis of this point, as well as the primary sources on which it was based, see my Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams (New York, 1991), 64.

  50. JA to AA, 3 July 1776, AFC 2:30.

  51. For the best synthesis of this crowded moment, see Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (New York, 1997), 97_153.

  52. JA to Benjamin Rush, 21 June 1811, quoted in Ellis, Passionate Sage, 64.

  53. For John’s appointment as chair of the Committee on War and Ordnance and the difficult logistical and strategic problems he faced, see JA to AA, 26 June 1776, AFC 2:23–24.

  54. AA to JA, 20 September 1776, AFC 2:129.

  55. JA to AA, 16 July 1776, AFC 2:50–51.

  56. AA to JA, 29 July 1776, AFC 2:65–67; AA to JA, 14 August 1776, AFC 2:93; AA to JA, 17 August 1776, AFC 2:98.

  57. AA to JA, 19 August 1776, AFC 2:101; JA to AA, 27 July 1776, AFC 2:63.

  58. JA to AA, 28 August 1776, AFC 2:111.

  59. AA to JA, 1 August 1776, AFC 2:72–73; AA to JA, 25 August 1776, AFC 2:106.

  60. JA to AA, 30 August 1776, AFC 2:114–15; JA to AA, 8 October 1776, AFC 2:140.

  61. AA to JA, 2 September 1776, AFC 2:116; AA to JA, 29 September 1776, AFC 2:134–36.

  62. JCC 5:723–35, for the conference with Howe. See also the editorial note in AFC 2:124–25.

  63. John’s latter-day recollection of the episode with Franklin is in DA 3:414–30.

  64. PA 4:260–302, for the Plan of Treaties.

  65. Ira D. Gruber, The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution (New York, 1972), 127–57, and Kevin Phillips, The Cousins’ Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America (New York, 1999), 291–99, provide different but compatible interpretations of Howe’s fateful decision.

  66. JA to AA, 7 October 1776, AFC 2:139; JA to AA, 11 October 1776, AFC 2:141.

  67. JA to AA, 10 February 1777, AFC 2:159; JA to AA, 3 February 1777, AFC 2:152–53.

  68. AA to Mercy Otis Warren, [January?] 1777, AFC 2:150–51; all previous accounts are superceded by David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing (New York, 2004).

  69. AA to JA, 8 February 1777, AFC 2:157; JA to AA, 3 April 1777, AFC 2:199–200.

  70. AA to JA, March 1777, AFC 2:173.

  71. JA to AA, 22 May 1777, AFC 2:245; JA to AA, 21 February 1777, AFC 2:166.

  72. JA to JQA, 16 March 1777, AFC 2:177–78; JA to TBA, 16 March 1777, AFC 2:178; JA to AA, 17 March 1777, AFC 2:178–79; JA to CA, 17 March 1777, AFC 2:179–80.

  73. JA to AA, 13 April 1777, AFC 2:209.

  74. JA to AA, 16 March 1777, AFC 2:175–77.

  75. JA to AA, 15 May 1777, AFC 2:238–39.

  76. AA to JA, 1 June 1777, AFC 2:250–51.

  77. AA to JA, 30 July 1777, AFC 2:295.

  78. JA to AA, 6 April 1777, AFC 2:201; JA to AA, 10 July 1777, AFC 2:278.

  79. AA to JA, 9 July 1777, AFC 2:278.

  80. JA to AA, 18 July 1777, AFC 2:284–85; JA to AA, 30 July 1777, AFC 2:296–97.

  81. AA to JA, 10–11 July 1777, AFC 2:278–80; AA to JA, 16 July 1777, AFC 2:282–83; AA to JA, 23 July 1777, AFC 2:287.

  82. JA to AA, 28 July 1777, AFC 2:292.

  83. AA to JA, 5 August 1777, AFC 2:301; JA to AA, 25 October 1777, AFC 2:360.

  84. JA to AA, 30 September 1777, AFC 2:349–50.

  85. JA to AA, 14 November 1777, AFC 2:366.

  CHAPTER THREE. 1778–84

  1. Mercy Otis Warren to AA, 8 January 1778, AFC 2:379.

  2. AA to James Lovell, 15 December 1777, AFC 2:370–77.

  3. AA to John Thaxter, 15 February 1778, AFC 2:390; see also the editorial note on the question of Abigail’s thinking prior to John’s departure.

  4. DA 4:6–35, for John’s diary account of the voyage.

  5. AA to Hannah Quincy Lincoln Storer, 7 March 1778, AFC 2:397–98; AA to JA, 8 March 1778, AFC 2:402; AA to JA, 18 May 1778, AFC 2:22–24; AA to JA, 18 June 1778, AFC 3:46–47.

  6. AA to JA, 30 June 1778, AFC 3:51–53.

  7. This is a very rough guess. More letters were lost during the early stage of their separation than during the latter.

  8. JA to AA, 2 December 1778, AFC 3:124–26; AA to JA, 30 June 1778, AFC 3:51–53; AA to JA, 12–23 November, AFC 3:118–20.

  9. AA to JA, 15 July 1778, AFC 3:59–62; AA to John Thaxter, 19 August 1778, AFC 3:76–77; AA to JA, 29 September 1778, AFC 3:94–96; AA to JA, 21 October 1778, AFC 3:108–9; AA to JA, 27 December 1778, AFC 3:139–40.

  10. AA to JA, 25 October 1778, AFC 3:110–11; AA to JA, 2 January 1779, AFC 3:146–47.

  11. DA 1:288, for a sketch of Lovell. There is some evidence that Lovell’s quarters in Philadelphia were located in a brothel.

  12. On the correspondence between Abigail and Lovell, see the editorial note in AFC 3:xxxiv; James Lovell to AA, 13 June 1778, AFC 3:43–44.

  13. AA to James Lovell, February-March 1779, AFC 3:184–86.

  14. DA 4:36, for the Adam and Eve story.

  15. DA 4:47.

  16. JA to AA, 25 April 1778, AFC 3:17.

  17. DA 4:69–71; for John
’s assessment of Arthur Lee and Silas Deane, DA 4:86–87; see the correspondence John generated while performing all the mundane diplomatic duties in DA 4:36–172.

  18. JA to AA, 9 February 1779, DA 2:347.

  19. See Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York, 2003), 333–36, for the most recent account of the spy nest in Franklin’s household. His documentation of Bancroft’s inspired duplicity (ibid., 550–51) includes an unpublished case study done by the CIA.

  20. JA to AA, 27 November 1778, AFC 3:122–23, where John recounts his recommendation to the Continental Congress; for the debate in the congress, see JCC 12:908.

  21. JA to AA, 21 February 1779, AFC 3:176–78; the “wedged in the Waiste” quotation is from AFC 3:229.

  22. Three recent biographies of Franklin have informed my interpretation: Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin; Edmund S. Morgan, Benjamin Franklin (New Haven, 2002); and Gordon S. Wood, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 2004).

  23. DA 4:69, 77, 118.

  24. AA to JQA, 10 June 1778, DA 4:37.

  25. JQA to AA, 20 February 1779, DA 4:175–76.

  26. For the voyage home, see the editorial note in DA 4:183, and JA to AA, 14 May 1779, DA 4:195–96.

  27. See the long editorial note on John’s role in drafting the Massachusetts Constitution in DA 4:225–33. The quotation is in DA 4:228.

  28. Another lengthy editorial note, in PA 8:228–36, provides more context on the contents of the document, which is reproduced in PA 8:237–61. The quotation is in PA 8:237.

  29. JA to Elbridge Gerry, 4 November 1779, PA 8:276.

  30. These are my interpretive conclusions, indebted to the work of earlier scholars, most especially Robert J. Taylor, “Construction of the Massachusetts Constitution,” American Antiquarian Society Proceedings 90 (1980), 317–46.

  31. JCC 13:487, for the official reprimand of Dean and the absolution of Franklin and John; Henry Laurens to JA, 4 October 1779, PA 8:188–91.

  32. PA 8:199–201, for letters urging speed from James Lovell and Benjamin Rush.

  33. JA to Henry Laurens, 4 November 1779, PA 8:279.