 Section 9 of Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jane Martin. Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume 1. Section 9. Letters to Her Sister by Abigail Adams. To Her Sister. Auteville, 5 September 1784. My dear sister. Auteville is a village four miles distant from Paris and one from Passy. The house we have taken is large, commodious, and agreeably situated near the woods of Belong, which belong to the king, and which Mr. Adams calls his park, for he walks an hour or two every day in them. The house is much larger than we have need of. Upon occasion, forty beds may be made in it. I fancy it must be very cold and winter. There are few houses with the privilege, which this enjoys, that of having the salon, as it is called, the apartment where we receive company upon the first floor. This room is very elegant and about a third larger than General Warren's Hall. The dining room is upon the right hand and the salon upon the left of the entry, which has large glass doors opposite to each other, one opening into the court, as they call it, the other into a large and beautiful garden. Out of the dining room you pass through an entry into the kitchen, which is rather small for so large a house. In this entry are stairs which you ascend, one of which is a long gallery fronting the street, with six windows and opposite to each window you open into the chambers which all look into the garden. But with an expanse of thirty thousand levers and looking glasses, there is no table in the house better than an oak board nor a carpet belonging to the house. The floors I have whore made of red tiles in the shape of Mrs. Quincy's floor cloth tiles. These floors will by no means bear water, so that the method of cleaning them is to have them waxed and then a man's servant with foot brushes drives round your room, dancing here and there like a Mary Andrew. This is calculated to take from your foot every atom of dirt and leave the room in a few moments as he found it. The house must be exceedingly cold in winter. The dining rooms of which you make no other use are made with small stones like the red tiles for shape and size. The servants' apartments are generally upon the first floor and the stairs which you commonly have to ascend to get into the family apartments are so dirty that I have been obliged to hold up my clothes as though I was passing through a cow yard. I have been, but little abroad. It is customary in this country for strangers to make the first visit. As I cannot speak the language, I think I should make rather an awkward figure. I have dined abroad several times with Mr. Adams' particular friends, the abbeys who are very polite and civil, three sensible and worthy men. The abbey de Mabley has lately published a book which he has educated to Mr. Adams. This gentleman is nearly eighty years old. The abbey shallow seventy-five and are no about fifty, a fine, sprightly man who takes great pleasure in lodging his friends. Their apartments were really nice. I have dined once at Dr. Franklin's and once at Mr. Barclays, our counsel, who has a very agreeable woman for his wife and where I feel like being with a friend. Mrs. Barclays has assisted me in my purchases, gone with me to different shops, etc. Tomorrow I am to dine at Mr. Grants but I have really felt so happy with indoors and am so pleasantly situated that I have had little inclination to change the scene. I have not been to one public amusement as yet, not even the opera, though we have one very near us. You may easily suppose I have been fully employed, beginning housekeeping anew and arranging my family to our no small expense and trouble, for I have had bed linen and table linen to purchase and make, spoons and forks to get made of silver, some of each, besides tea furniture, china for the table, servants to procure, etc. The expense of living abroad I always supposed to be high but my idea was no wise adequate to the thing. I could have furnished myself in the town of Boston with everything I have, 20 or 30% cheaper than I have been able to do it here. Everything which will bear the name of elegant is imported from England and if you have it, you must pay for it, duties and all. We need a dozen handsome wine glasses under three guineas nor a pair of small decanters for less than a guinea and a half. The only gauze fit to wear is English, at a crown a yard, so that really a guinea goes no further than a copper with us. For this house, garden, stables, etc. we give two hundred guineas a year. Wood is two guineas and a half per cord, coal, six levers and the basket of about two bushels. This article of firing we calculate at least one hundred guineas a year. The difference between coming upon this negotiation to France and remaining at the Hague where the house was already furnished at the expense of a thousand pound sterling will increase the expense here to six or seven hundred guineas at a time too when Congress has cut all five hundred guineas from what they have here to foregiven. For our coachmen and horses alone Mr. Adams purchased a coach in England, we give fifteen guineas a month. It is the policy of this country to oblige you to a certain number of servants and one will not touch what belongs to the business of another, though he or she has time enough to perform the whole. In the first place there is a coachman who does not an individual thing but attend to the carriages and horses, then the gardener who has business enough, then comes the cook, and the matra del hotel his business is to purchase articles in the family and oversee that nobody cheats but himself of Allée de Chambre. John serves in this capacity a femme de Chambre. Esther serves for this and is worth a dozen others. A profuse for this place I have a French girl about nineteen whom I have been upon the point of turning away because Madame will not brush a chamber. It is not the fashion, it is not her business. I would not have kept her a day longer but found upon inquiry that I could not better myself and hairdressing here is very expensive unless you keep such a madame in the house. She says tolerably well so I make her as useful as I can. She is more particularly devoted to Madame Moselle. Esther diverted me yesterday evening by telling me that she heard her go muttering by her chamber door before she had been assisting Abby in dressing. Ah, mon deut is provoking. She talks a little English. Why, what is the matter, Pauline? What is provoking? Why, Madame Moselle looks so pretty. I so marvellous. There is another indispensable service who is called a frotture. His business is to rub the floors. We have a servant who acts as matra de hotel whom I like at present who is so very gracious as to act as footmen too to save the expense of another servant upon condition that we give him a gentleman's suit of clothes in lieu of livery. Thus, with seven servants and hiring a charwoman upon occasion of company we may possibly make out to keep house with less we should be hooded at as ridiculous and could not entertain any company. To tell this in our own country would be considered an extravagance if they send a person here in a public character to be a public jest. As lodgings in Paris last year during Mr. Adams' negotiation for peace it was as expensive to him as it is now at housekeeping without half the accommodations. Washing is another expensive article. The servants are all allowed theirs besides their wages, our own costs are again a week. I have become steward and bookkeeper determined to know with accuracy what our expenses are to prevail with Mr. Adams to return to America if he finds himself straightened as I think he must be. Mr. Jay went home because he could not support his family here with the whole salary. What then can be done curtailed as it now is with the additional expense? Mr. Adams is determined to keep as little company as he possibly can but some entertainments we must make and it is no unusual thing for them to come out to 50 or 60 guineas at a time. More is to be performed by way of negotiation many times at one of these entertainments than at 20 serious conversations but the policy of our country has been and still is to be penny wise and pound foolish. We stand in sufficient need of economy and in the curtailment of other salaries I suppose they thought it absolutely necessary to cut off their foreign ministers. But my own interest apart the system is bad for that nation which degrades their own ministers by obliging them to live in narrow circumstances cannot expect to be held in high estimation themselves. We spend no evenings abroad make no suppers, attend very few public entertainments or spectacles as they are called and avoid every expense that is not held indispensable. Yet I cannot but think it hard that a gentleman who has devoted so great a part of his life to the servants of the public who has been the means in a great measure of procuring such extensive territories to his country who saved their fisheries and who is still laboring to procure them further advantages should find it necessary so cautiously to calculate his pants for fear of overrunning them. I will add one more expense there is now a court morning and every foreign minister with his family must go into mourning for a prince of eight years old whose father is an ally to the king of France. This morning is ordered by the court and is to be worn eleven days only. Poor Mr. Jefferson had to his way for a tailor to get a whole black silk suit made up in two days and at the end of eleven days should another death happen he will be obliged to have a new suit of mourning of cloth because that is the season when silk must be left off. We may groan and scold but these are expenses which cannot be avoided for fashion is the deity everyone worships in this country and from the highest to the lowest you must submit. Even poor John and Esther had no comfort among the servants being constantly the subjects of ridicule to watch to direct them to have their hair dressed. Esther had several crying fits upon the occasion that she should be forced to be so much of a fool but there was no way to keep them from being trampled upon but this and now that they are à la mode de Paris they are much respected. To be out of fashion is more criminal than to be seen in a state of nature to which the Parisians are not averse. 10 May 1785 Did you ever, my dear Betsy, see a person in real life such as your imagination formed of Sir Charles Grandison the Baron de Stal the Swedish ambassador comes nearest to that character in his mannerist and personal appearance of any gentleman I ever saw. The first time I saw him I was prejudiced in his favor for his countenance commands your good opinion. It is animated, intelligent sensible, affable and without being perfectly beautiful is most perfectly agreeable. Add to this a fine figure and who can fail in being charmed with the Baron de Stal. He lives in a grand hotel and his suite of apartments, his furniture and his table are the most elegant of anything I have seen. Although you dine upon plates in every noble house in France I cannot say that you may see your face in it. But here the whole furniture of the table was burnished and shown with regal splendor. Seventy thousand litres in plate will make no small figure and that is what his Majesty gave him. The dessert was served on the richest china with knives, forks and spoons of gold. As you enter his apartments you pass through files of servants into his antechamber in which is a throne covered with green velvet upon which is a chair of state over which hangs the picture of his royal master. These thrones are common to all ambassadors of the First Order as they are immediate representatives of the King. Through this antechamber you pass into the Grand Salon which is elegantly adored with architecture. A beautiful luster hanging from the middle. Satees, chairs and hangings of the richest silk embroidered with gold marble slabs upon muted pillars round with wreaths of artificial flowers in gold and twine. It is usual to find in all houses of fashion, as in this several dozens of chairs all of which have stuffed backs and cushions standing in double rows around the rooms. The dining room was elegantly beautiful being hung with gobien tapestry, the colors and figures of which resemble the most elegant painting. The dining room were hair-bottom mahogany-backed chairs and the first I have seen since I came to France. Two small statues of a venus dimeticus and a venus d eschemus paint for the other name were upon the mantelpiece. The latter, however, was the most modest of the kind having something like a loose robe thrown partly over her. From the Swedish ambassadors we went to visit the Duchess by the Duke de Rochefoucault. We found the old lady sitting in an easy chair, around her sat a circle of academics and by her side a young lady. Your uncle presented us and the old lady rose and as usual gave us a salute. As she had no paint I could put up with it, but when she approached your cousin I could think of nothing but death taking hold of Hebe. The Duchess is near 80, very tall in a silk chemise with very large sleeves coming half way down her arm, a large cape, no stays, a black velvet girdle round her waist, some very rich lace in her chemise, round her neck and in her sleeves but the lace was not sufficient to cover the upper part of her neck which old time had harrowed. She had no cap on but a little gauze bonnet which did not reach her ears and tied under her chin, her white hairs in full view. The dress of all women and young girls in this country is detestable to speak in the French style, the latter at the age of seven being clothed exactly like a woman of twenty and the former have such a fantastical appearance that I cannot endure it. The old lady has all the vivacity of a young one. She is the most learned woman in France, her house is the resort of with whom she converses upon the most true subjects. She is of one of the most ancient as well as the richest family in the kingdom. She asked very archly when Dr. Franklin was going to America upon being told, says she, I have heard that he is a prophet there. Alluding to that text of scripture a prophet is not without honour, etc. It was her husband who commanded the fleet which once spread such terror in our country. London, Friday the 24th July 1784 My dear sister I am not a little surprised to find dress, unless upon public occasions, so little regarded here. The gentlemen are very plainly dressed and the ladies much more so than us. It is true you must put a hoop on and have your hair dressed, but a common straw hat, no cap is sufficient to go into company. Muslins are much in taste, no silks but lute strings worn, but send not to London for any article you want, you may purchase anything you can name much lower in Boston. I went yesterday into Cheapside to purchase a few articles but found everything higher than in Boston. Silks are in a particular manner so they say when they are exported there is a lot upon them, which makes them lower with us. Our country, alas, our country, they are extravagant to astonishment in entertainment compared with what Mr. Smith and Mr. Storer tell me of this. You will not find at a gentleman's table more than two dishes of meat, though invited several days beforehand. Mrs. Atkinson went out with me yesterday and Mrs. Hay to the shops. I returned and dined Mrs. Atkinson by her invitation the evening before in company with Mr. Smith, Mrs. Hay, Mr. Appleton. We had a turbo, a soup, and a roast leg of lamb with a cherry pie. The wind has prevented the arrival of the post. The city of London is pleasanter than I expected, the buildings more regular, the streets much wider and more sunshine than I thought to have found but this, they tell me, is pleasant to season to be in the city. At my lodgings I am as quiet as at any place in Boston, nor do I feel as if I could be any other place than Boston. Dr. Clark visits us every day, says he cannot feel at home anywhere else, declares he has not seen a handsome woman since he came into the city that every old woman looks like Mrs. H and every young one like the D slash I. They paint here nearly as much as in France, but with more art. The headdress disfigures them in the eyes of an American. I have seen many ladies but not one elegant one since I came. There is not, to me, that neatness in their appearance which you see in our ladies. The American ladies are much admired here by the gentlemen, I am told, and in truth I wonder not at it. Oh, my country, my country! Preserve, preserve the little purity and simplicity of manners you yet possess. Believe me, they are jewels of inestimable value. The softness, peculiarly characteristic of our sex and which is so pleasing to the gentlemen is wholly laid aside here for the masculine attire and manners of Amazonians. End of Section 9 Recording by J. Martin Section 10 of Library of the World's Best Literature Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by J. Martin Library of the World's Best Literature Ancient and Modern, Volume 1 Section 10 Letters to Her Sister and Neese Nail Adams London Bath Hotel Westminster 24th June 1785 My dear sister, I have been here a month without writing a single line to my American friends. On or about the 28th of May we reached London and expected to have gone into our old quiet lodgings at the Aldelfi but we found every hotel full. The sitting of Parliament, the birthday of the King and the famous celebration of the music of Handel at Westminster Abbey had drawn together such a concourse of people that we were glad to get into lodgings at the moderate price of a guinea per day for two rooms and two chambers at the Bath Hotel Westminster, Piccadilly where we yet are. This being the court end of the city it is the resort of a vast concourse of carriages. It is too public and noisy for pleasure but necessity is without law. The ceremony of presentation upon one week to the King and the next to the Queen was to take place after which I was to prepare for mine. It is customary upon presentation to receive visits from all the foreign ministers so that we could not exchange our lodgings for more private ones as we might and should had we been only in a private character. The foreign ministers and several English lords and earls have paid their compliments here and all attitude is civil and polite. It was a fortnight all the time I could get looking at different houses but could not find anyone fit to inhabit under two hundred pounds beside the taxes which amount up to fifty or sixty pounds. At last my good genius carried me to one engross of her square which were not let because the person who had the care of it could let it only for the remaining lease which was one year and three quarters. The price which is not quite two hundred pounds the situation and all together induced us to close the bargain and I have prevailed upon the person who let it to paint two rooms which will put it into decent order so that as soon as our furniture comes I shall again commence housekeeping. Living at a hotel is I think more expensive than housekeeping in proportion to what one has for his money. We have never had more than two dishes at a time upon our table and have not pretended to ask any company and yet we live at a greater expense than twenty five guineas per week. The wages of servants horse hire house rent and provisions are much dearer here than in France. Servants of various sorts and for different departments are to be procured their characters are to be inquired into and this I take upon me even to the coachman. You can hardly form an idea how much I miss my son on this as well as on many other accounts but I cannot bear to trouble Mr. Adams with anything of a domestic kind who from morning till evening has sufficient to occupy all his time. You can have no idea of the petitions, letters and private applications for assistance which crowd our doors. Every person represents his case as dismal. Some may really be objects of compassion and some we assist but one must have an inexhaustible purse to supply them all. Besides there are so many gross impositions practiced and we have found in more instances than one that it would take the whole of a person's time to trace all their stories. Many pretend to have been American soldiers some have served as officers a most glaring instance of falsehood however Colonel Smith detected in a man of these pretensions who sent to Mr. Adams from the King's bench prison and modestly desired five guineas a qualified cheat but evidently a man of letters and abilities but if it is to continue in this way a galley slave would have an easier task. The Tory venom has begun to spit itself forth in the public papers as I expected bursting with envy that an American minister should be received here with the same marks of attention, politeness and civility which are shown to the ministers of any other power. When a minister delivers his credentials to the King it is always in his private closet attended only by the minister of foreign affairs which is called a private audience and the minister presented make some little address to his majesty and the same ceremony to the Queen whose reply was in these words Sir, I thank you for your civility to me and my family and I am glad to see you in this country then she very politely inquired whether he had got a house yet the answer of his majesty was much longer but I am not at liberty to say more respecting it than that it was civil and polite and that is majesty said he was glad the choice of his country had fallen upon him the news liars know nothing of the matter they represented just to answer their purpose last Thursday Colonel Smith was presented at court and tomorrow at the Queen's Circle my ladieship and your niece make our compliments there is no other presentation in Europe in which I should feel as much as in this your own reflections will easily suggest the reasons I have received a very friendly and polite visit from the Countess of Effingham she called and not finding me at home left a card I returned her visit but was obliged to do it by leaving my card to as she was gone out of town but when her ladieship returned she sent her compliments and word that if agreeable she would take a dish of tea to me and named her day she accordingly came and appeared a very polite sensible woman she is about forty a good person though a little masculine elegant in her appearance very easy and social the Earl of Effington is too well remembered by America to need any particular recital of his character his mother is first lady to the Queen when her ladieship took leave she desired I would let her know the day I would favor her with a visit as she should be loath to be absent she resides in summer a little distance from town the Earl is a member of parliament which obliges him now to be in town and she usually comes with him and resides at a hotel a little distance from me I find a good lady's belonging to the southern states here many of whom have visited me I have exchanged visits with several yet neither of us have met the custom is however here much more agreeable than in France for it is as with us the stranger is first visited the ceremony of presentation here is considered as indispensable there are four minister plenty potentiaries ladies here but one ambassador and he has no lady in France the ladies of ambassadors are only presented one is obliged here to attend the circles of the Queen which are held in summer once a fourth night but once a week the rest of the year and what renders it exceedingly expensive is that you cannot go twice the same season in the same dress and a court dress you cannot make use of anywhere else I directed my man to a maker to let my dress be elegant plain as I could possibly appear with decency accordingly it is white loot string covered and full trimmed with white crepe festooned with lilac ribbon and mock point lace over a hoop of enormous extent there is only a narrow train of about three yards in length to the gown waist which is put into a ribbon upon the left side the Queen only having her train born ruffle cuffs for married ladies treble lace lapettes two white plumes and a blonde lace handkerchief this is my rigging I should have mentioned two pearl pins in my hair earrings and necklace of the same kind Thursday morning my head is dressed for St. James's and in my opinion looks very tasty while my daughters is undergoing the same operation I set myself down compositely to write you a few lines I hear Betsy and Lucy say what is Cousin's dress white my dear girls like your aunts only differently trimmed and ornamented her train being holy of white crepe and trimmed with white ribbon the petticoat which is the most showy part of the dress covered and drawn off in what are called festoons with light wreaths of beautiful flowers the sleeves white crepe drawn over the silk with a row of lace around the sleeve near the shoulder another half way down the arm and a third upon the top of the ruffle a little flower stuck between a kind of hat cap with three large feathers and a bunch of flowers a wreath of flowers upon the hair thus equipped we go in our own carriage than Mr. Adams and Colonel Smith and his but I must quit my pen to put myself in order for the ceremony which begins at two o'clock when I return I will relate to you my reception I will not let it circulate as there may be persons eager to catch at everything and as much given to misrepresentation as here I would gladly be excused the ceremony Friday morning congratulate me my dear sister it is over I was too much fatigued to write a line last evening at two o'clock we went to the circle which is in the drawing room of the queen we passed through several apartments visual with spectators upon these occasions upon entering the anti-chamber the Baron de Linden the Dutch minister who had been often here came and spoke with me account Sarsfield a French nobleman with whom I was acquainted paid his compliments as I passed into the drawing room Lord Comarthen and Sir Clement Cattrell Dormer were presented to me though they had been several times here I had never seen them before the Swedish and the Polish ministers made their compliments and several other gentlemen but not a single lady did I know until the countess of Effingham came who was very civil there were three young ladies daughters of the Marquis of Lothien who were to be presented at the same time and two brides we were placed in a circle around the drawing room which was very full I believe 200 persons presence only think of the task the royal family have to go round to every person and find small talk enough to speak to them all though they very prudently speak in a whisper so that the only person who stands next to you can hear what is said the king enters the room and goes around to the right queen and princesses to the left the lord in waiting presents you to the king the lady in waiting does the same to her majesty the king is a personable man but my dear sister he has a certain continence which you and I have often remarked a red face and white eyebrows the queen has a similar continence and the numerous royal family confirm the observation persons are not placed according to their rank in the drawing room but promiscuously and when the king comes in he takes persons as they stand when he came to me Lord Oslo said Mrs. Adams I drew off my right hand glove and his majesty saluted my left cheek then he asked me if I had walked today I could have told his majesty that I had been all the morning preparing to wait upon him but I replied no sire why don't you love walking says he I answered that I was rather indolent in that respect he then bowed and passed on it was more than two hours before it came to my turn to be presented to the queen the circle was so large that the company were four hours standing the queen was evidently embarrassed when I was presented to her I had disagreeable feelings too she however said Mrs. Adams have you got into your house pray how do you like the situation of it while the princess royal looked compassionate and asked me if I was not much fatigued and observed that it was a very full drawing room her sister who came next princess Augusta after having asked your niece if she was ever in England before and her answering yes inquired of me how long ago and supposed it was when she was very young all this is said with much affability and the ease and freedom of old acquaintance the manner in which they make the tour round the room is first the queen the lady in waiting behind her holding up her train next to her the princess royal after her princess Augusta and their lady in waiting behind them they are pretty rather than beautiful well shaped fair complexions and a tincture of the king's continents the two sisters look much alike they were both dressed in black and silver silk with silver netting upon the coat it's full of diamond pins the queen was in purple and silver she is not well shaped nor handsome as to the ladies of the court rank and title may compensate for want of personal charms but they are in general very plain, ill shaped and ugly but don't you tell anybody that I say so if one wants to see beauty one must go to runali there it is collected in one bright constellation there were two ladies very elegant at court, Lady Salisbury and Lady Taubo but the observation did not in general hold good that fine feathers make fine birds I saw many who were vastly richer dressed than your friends but I will venture to say that I saw none neater or more elegant which praise I ascribed to the taste of Mrs. Temple and my mantua maker for after having declared that I would not have any foil or pencil about me they fixed upon the dress I have described enclosure to her niece my dear Betsy I believe I once promised to give you an account of that kind of visiting called a ladies route there are two kinds one where a lady sets apart a particular day in the week to see company these are held only five months in the year it being quite out of fashion to be seen in London during the summer when a lady returns from the country and leaves a card with all her acquaintance and then sends them an invitation to attend her routes during the season the other kind is where a lady sends to you for certain evenings and the cards are always addressed in her own name both to gentlemen and ladies the rooms are all set open and card tables set in each room the lady of the house receiving her company at the door of the drawing room where a set number of curtsies are given and received with as much order as is necessary for a soldier who goes through the different evolutions of his exercise the visitor then proceeds into the room without appearing to notice any other person and takes her seat at the card table nor can the muse her aid in part unskilled in all the terms of art nor inharmonious numbers put the deal, the shuffle and the cut go Tom and light the ladies up it must be one before we sup at these parties it is usual for each lady to play a rubber as it is termed when you must lose or win a few guineas to give each affair a chance the lady then rises and gives her seat to another set it is no unusual thing to have your room so crowded that not more than half the company can sit at once yet this is called society and polite life they treat their company with coffee, tea, lemonade or gay and cake I know of but one agreeable circumstances attending these parties which is that you may go away when you please without disturbing anybody I was early in the winter invited to Madame de Pintos the Portuguese ministers I went accordingly there were about 200 persons present I knew not a single lady but by sight having met them at court and it is an established rule though you were to meet as often as three nights in one week never to speak together or know each other unless particularly introduced I was however at no loss for conversation Madame de Pinto being very polite and the foreign ministers being the most of them present who had dined with us and to whom I had been early introduced it being Sunday evening I declined playing cards indeed I always get excused when I can and heaven forbid I should catch the manners living as they rise yet I must submit to a party or two of this kind having attended several I must return the compliment in the same way yesterday we dined at Mrs. Paradises I refer you to Mr. Storer for an account of this family Mr. Jafferson Colonel Smith the Prussian and Venetian ministers were of the company and several other persons who were strangers at eight o'clock we returned home in order to dress ourselves for the ball at the French ambassadors to which we had received an invitation a fortnight before he has been absent ever since our arrival here till three weeks ago he has a levy every Sunday evening at which there are usually several hundred persons the hotel de France is beautifully situated fronting St. James Park on one end of the house standing upon Hyde Park it is a most superb building last night we went and found some company collected many very brilliant ladies of the first distinction were present the dancing commenced about ten and the room soon filled the room which he had built for this purpose is large enough for five or six hundred persons it is most elegantly decorated hung with a gold tissue ornamented with twelve brilliant cut lusters each containing twenty four candles at one end there are two large arches these were adorned with wreaths and bunches of artificial flowers upon the walls in the alcoves were cornucopia loaded with oranges, sweet meats and other trifles coffee, tea, lemonade or gay and so forth were taken here by every person who chose to go for them there were covered seats all around the room for those who chose to dance in the other rooms, card tables and a large ferro table were set this is a new kind of game which is much practiced here many of the company who did not dance retired here to amuse themselves the whole style of the house and furniture is such as becomes the ambassador from one of the first monarchies in Europe he had twenty thousand guineas allowed him in the first instance to furnish his house and an annual salary of ten thousand more he has agreeably blended the magnificence and splendor of France with the neatness and elegance of England your cousin had unfortunately taken a cold a few days before and was very unfit to go out she appeared so unwell that about one we retired without staying for supper the sight of which only I regretted as it was in style no doubt superior to anything I have seen the prince of Wales came about eleven o'clock Mrs. Fitzerbert was also present but I could not distinguish her but who is this lady let me think I hear you say she is a lady to whom against the laws of the realm the prince of Wales is privately married as is universally believed she appears with him in all public parties and he avows his marriage whenever he dares they have been the topic of conversation in all companies for a long time and it is now said that a young George may be expected in the course of the summer she is a widow of about thirty-two years of age whom he a long time persecuted in order to get her upon his own terms but finding he could not succeed he quieted her conscience of matrimony which however valid in the eyes of heaven is set aside by the laws of the land which forbids a prince of the blood to marry a subject as to dresses I believe I must leave them to be described to your sister I am sorry I have nothing better than a sash and a van dyke ribbon the narrow is to put round the edge of a hat or you may trim whatever you please with it end of section 10 recorded by jay martin section 11 of the library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Joshua Paul Johnson library of the world's best literature ancient and modern volume 1 section 11 selections from the history of the United States by Henry Adams Henry Adams 1838 to 1918 the gifts of expression and literary taste which have always characterized the Adams family are most recently represented by this historian he has also its great memory, power of acquisition intellectual independence and energy of nature the latter is tempered in him with inherited self-control the moderation of judgment bred by wide historical knowledge and a pervasive atmosphere of literary good breeding which constantly substitutes elusive irony for crude statement the rapier for the tomahawk Henry Adams is the third son of Charles Francis Adams Sr the able minister to England during the Civil War and grandson of John Quincy Adams he was born in Boston February 16, 1838 graduated from Harvard in 1858 and served as private secretary to his father in England in 1870 he became editor of the North American Review and professor of history at Harvard in which place he won wide repute for originality and power of inspiring enthusiasm for research in his pupils he has written several essays and books on historical subjects and edited others essays on Anglo-Saxon law 1876 documents relating to New England federalism 1877 Albert Gallatin 1879 John Randolph 1882 in the American statesman series and historical essays but his great life work and monument is his history of the United States 1801 to 1817 the Jefferson and Madison administrations to right which he left his professorship in 1877 and after passing many years in London in other foreign capitals in Washington and elsewhere studying archives family papers published works shipyards and many other things in preparation for it published the first volume in 1889 and the last in 1891 it is in nine volumes of which the introductory chapters and the index make up one the work in its inception though not in its execution is a polemic tract an act of pious duty it's subtitle might be a justification of John Quincy Adams for breaking with the federalist party so taken the reader who loves historical fights and seriously desires truth should read the chapters on the Hartford convention and its preliminaries side by side with the corresponding pages of Henry Cabot Lodge's Life of George Cabot if he cannot judge from the pleadings of these two able advocates with briefs for different sides it is not for lack of full exposition but the history is far more and higher than a piece of special pleading it is in the main both as to domestic and international matters a resolutely cool and impartial presentation of facts and judgments on all sides of a period where passionate partisanship lies almost in the very essence of the questions a tone contrasting oddly with the political action and feeling of the two presidents even where as toward the New England Federalists many readers will consider him unfair in his deductions he never tampers with or unfairly proportions the fact the work is a model of patient study not alone of what is conventionally accepted as historic material but of all subsidiary matter expert discussion of the problems involved he goes deeply into economic and social facts he has instructed himself in military science like a west point student in army needs like a quarter master in naval construction equipment and management like a naval officer of purely literary qualities the history presents a high order of constructive art in amassing minute details without obscuring the main outlines luminous statement and the results of very powerful memory which enables him to keep before his vision every incident of the long chronicle with its involved groupings so that an armory of instructive comparisons as well as of polemic missiles is constantly ready to his hand he follows the latest historical cannons as to giving authorities the history and return advances many novel views and converts many accepted facts the relation of napolean's warfare against Haiti and Twisant to the great continental struggle and the position he assigns it as the turning point of that greater contest is perhaps the most important of these but almost as striking are his views on the impressment problem and the provocations of the war of eighteen twelve to the most unexpected deduction, namely that the grievances on both sides were much greater than is generally supposed. He shows that the profit and security of the American merchant service drew thousands of English seamen into it, where they changed their names, and passed for American citizens, greatly embarrassing English naval operations. On the other hand, he shows that English outrages and insults were so gross that no nation with spirit enough to be entitled to separate existence ought to have endured them. He reverses the severe popular judgment on Madison for consenting to the war on the assumed ground of coveting another term as President, which every other historian and biographer from Hildreth to Sidney Howard Gaye has pronounced, and which has become a stock historical convention, holds Jackson's campaign ending at New Orleans, an imbecile undertaking redeemed only by an act of instinctive pugnancy at the end, gives Scott and Jacob Brown the honor they have never before received in fair measure, and in many other points redistributes praise and blame with entire independence, and with curious effect on many popular ideas. His views on the Hartford Convention of 1814 are part of the Federalist controversy already referred to. The Auspices of the War of 1812 from the History of the United States, 1890 The American Declaration of War against England, July 18th, 1812, annoyed those European nations that were gathering their utmost resources for resistance to Napoleon's attack. Russia could not but regard it as an unfriendly act, equally bad for political and commercial interests. Spain and Portugal, whose armies were fed largely if not chiefly on American grain imported by British money under British protection, dreaded to see their supplies cut off. Germany waiting only for strength to recover her freedom had to reckon against one more element in Napoleon's vast military resources. England needed to make greater efforts in order to maintain the advantages she had gained in Russia and Spain. Even in America no one doubted the earnestness of England's wish for peace, and if Madison and Monroe insisted on her acquiescence in their terms, they insisted because they believed that their military position entitled them to expect it, the reconquest of Russia and Spain by Napoleon, an event almost certain to happen, could hardly fail to force from England the concessions, not in themselves unreasonable which the United States required. This was, as Madison to the end of his life maintained, quote, a fair calculation, end quote. But it was exasperating to England, who thought that America ought to be equally interested with Europe in overthrowing the military depotism of Napoleon, and should not conspire with him for gain. At first the new war disconcerted the feeble ministry that remained an office on the death of Spencer Percival, they counted on preventing it, and did their utmost to stop it after it was begun. The tone of arrogance which had so long characterised government and press disappeared for the moment. Obscure newspapers like the London Evening Star still sneered at the idea that Great Britain was to be, quote, driven from the proud preeminence which the blood and treasure of her sons have attained for her among the nations by a piece of striped bunting flying at the mast heads of a few fur-built frigates manned by a handful of bastards and outlaws, end quote. A phrase which had great success in America. But such defiances expressed a temper studiously held in restraint, previous to the moment when the war was seen to be inevitable. The realisation that no escape could be found from an American war was forced on the British public at a moment of much discouragement. Almost simultaneously a series of misfortunes occurred which brought the stoutest and most intelligent Englishmen to the verge of despair. In Spain, Wellington, after winning the Battle of Salamanca in July, occupied Madrid in August, and obliged Seoul to evacuate Andalusia. But his siege of Burgaux failed, and as the French generals concentrated their scattered forces, Wellington was obliged to abandon Madrid once more. October 21st he was again in full retreat on Portugal. The apparent failure of his campaign was almost simultaneous with the apparent success of Napoleon's, for the Emperor entered Moscow September 14th, and the news of this triumph, probably decisive of Russian submission, reached England about October 3rd. Three days later arrived intelligence of William Hull's surrender at Detroit, but this success was counterbalanced by simultaneous news of Isaac Hull's startling capture of the Gary Air and the certainty of a prolonged war. In the desponding condition of the British people, with a deficit harvest, bad weather, wheat at nearly five dollars a bushel, and the American supply likely to be cut off, consuls at fifty-seven and a half, gold thirty percent premium, a ministry without credit or authority, and a general consciousness of blunders, incompetence and corruption, every new tale of disaster sank the hopes of England and called out whales of despair. In that state of mind, the loss of the Gary Air assumed portentous dimensions. The Times was especially loud in lamenting the capture, quote, we witnessed the gloom which that event cast over high and honourable minds. Never before in history of the world did an English frigate strike to an American, and though we cannot say that Captain Dakers, under all circumstances, is punishable for this act, yet we do say there are commanders in the English navy who would a thousand times rather have gone down with their colours flying than to have set their fellow sailors so fatal an example, end quote. No country newspaper in America, railing at Hull's cowardice and treachery, showed less knowledge or judgment than the London Times, which had written of nothing but war since its name had been known in England. Any American could have assured the English press that British frigates before the Gary Air had struck to American, and even in England men had not forgotten the name of the British frigate Serapis, or that of the American Captain Paul Jones. Yet the Times' ignorance was less unreasonable than its requirement that Dakers should have gone down with his ship. A cry of passion, the more unjust to Dakers, because he fought his ship as long as she could float, such sensitiveness seemed extravagant in a society which had been hardened by centuries of warfare, yet the Times reflected fairly the feelings of Englishmen. George Canning, speaking in open Parliament not long afterward, said that the loss of the Gary Air and the Macedonian produced a sensation in the country scarcely to be equalled by the most violent convulsions of nature. Quote, Neither can I agree with those who complain of the shock of consternation throughout Great Britain, as having been greater than the occasion required. It cannot be too deeply felt that the sacred spell of the invincibility of the British navy was broken by those unfortunate captures." Of all spells that could be cast on a nation, that of believing itself invincible was perhaps the one most profitably broken, but the process of recovering its senses was agreeable to no nation, and to England, at that moment of distress, it was as painful as Canning described. The matter was not mended by the courier and morning post, who, taking their tone from the admirality, complained of the enormous superiority of the American frigates, and called them, quote, line of battleships in disguise, end quote. Certainly the American forty-four was a much heavier ship than the British thirty-eight, but the difference had been as well known in British navy before these actions as it was afterward, and Captain Dakers himself, the Englishman who best knew the relative force of the ships, told his court of inquiry a different story, quote, I am so well aware that the success of my opponent was owing to fortune that it is my earnest wish and would be the happiest period of my life to be once more opposed to the constitution with them, the old crew, under my command, in a frigate of similar force with the guerrier, end quote. After all had been said, the unpleasant result remained that in future British frigates like other frigates could safely fight only their inferiors in force. What applied to the guerrier and Macedonian against the Constitution and United States, where the British force was inferior, applied equally to the frolic against the wasp, where no inferiority could be shown. The British newspapers thenceforth admitted what America wished to prove, that ship for ship, British were no more than the equals of Americans. Society soon learned to take a more sensible view of the subject, but as the first depression passed away, a consciousness of personal wrong took its place. The United States were supposed to have stabbed England in the back at the moment when her hands were tied, when her existence was in the most deadly peril, and her anxieties were most heavy. England never could forgive treason so base and cowardice so vile, that Madison had been from the first a tool and accomplice of Bonaparte was thenceforth so fixed an idea in British history that time could not shake it. Indeed, so complicated and so historical had the causes of war become that no one, even in America, could explain or understand them. While Englishmen could see only that America required England as the price of peace, to destroy herself by abandoning her naval power, and that England preferred to die fighting rather than to die by her own hand, the American party in England was extinguished, no further protest was heard against the war, and the British people thought moodily of revenge. This result was unfortunate for both parties, but was doubly unfortunate for America, because her mode of making the issue told in her enemy's favor. The same impressions, which silenced in England, opened sympathy with America, stimulated in America acute sympathy with England. Argument was useless against people and a passion, convinced of their own injuries. Neither Englishmen nor Federalists were open to reasoning. They found their action easy from the moment they clasped the United States as an ally of France, like Bavaria or Saxony, and they had no scruples of conscience, for the practical alliance was clear, and the fact proved sufficiently the intent. The loss of two or three thirty-eight gun frigates on the ocean was a matter of trifling consequence to the British government, which had a force of four ships of the line and six or eight frigates in Chesapeake Bay alone, and which built every year dozens of ships of the line and frigates to replace those lost or worn out. But although American privateers wrought more injury to British interests than was caused or could be caused by the American navy, the pride of England cared little about mercantile losses, and cared immensely for its fighting reputation. The theory that the American was a degenerate Englishman, a theory chiefly due to American teachings, lay at the bottom of British politics. Even the late British minister at Washington Foster, a man of average intelligence, thought it manifest good taste and good sense to say of the Americans in his speech of February 18th, 1813 in Parliament, that quote, generally speaking, they were not people we should be proud to acknowledge as our relations, end quote. Decatur and Hull were engaged in a social rather than in a political contest, and were aware that the serious work on their hands had little to do with England's power, but much to do with her manners. The mortification of England at the capture of her frigates was the measure of her previous arrogance. Every country must begin war by asserting that it will never give way, and of all countries England, which had waged innumerable wars, knew best when perseverance cost more than concession. Even at that early moment Parliament was evidently perplexed and would willingly have yielded had it seen means of escape from its naval fetish impressment. Perhaps the perplexity was more evident in the commons than in the lords, for Castle Ray, while defending his own course with elaborate care, visibly stumbled over the right of impressment. Even while claiming that its abandonment would have been, quote, vitally dangerous if not fatal, end quote. To England's security, he added that he, quote, would be the last man in the world to underrate the inconvenience which the Americans sustained in consequence of our assertion of the right of search, end quote. The embarrassment became still plainer when he narrowed the question to one of statistics, and showed that the whole contest was waged over the forcible retention of some 800 seamen among 145,000 employed in British service. Granting the number were twice as great, he continued, quote, would the house believe that there was any man so infatuated, or that the British Empire was driven to such straits, that for such a paltry consideration as 1700 sailors, his Majesty's government would needlessly irritate the pride of a neutral nation, or violate that justice which was due to one country from another, end quote. If Liverpool's argument explained the causes of war, Castle Ray's explained its inevitable result, for since the war must cost England at least ten million pounds a year, could Parliament be so infatuated as to pay ten thousand pounds a year for each American sailor detained in service, when one tenth of the amount, if employed in raising the wages of the British sailor, would bring any required number of seamen back to their ships? The whole British Navy in 1812 cost twenty million pounds, the payroll amounted to only three million pounds. The common sailor was paid four pounds bounty, and eighteen pounds a year, which might have been troubled at half the cost of an American war. End of Section 11. Section 12 of the Library of the World's Best Literature. Ancient and Modern. Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Joshua Paul Johnson. Library of the World's Best Literature. Ancient and Modern. Volume 1. Section 12. Selections from the History of the United States by Henry Adams. What the War of 1812 demonstrated. From the History of the United States 1890. A people whose chief trait was in typathy to war, and to any system organized with military energy, could scarcely develop great results in national administration, yet the Americans prided themselves chiefly on their political capacity. Even the war did not undercede them, although the incapacity brought into evidence by the war was undisputed, and was most remarkable among the communities which believed themselves to be most gifted with political sagacity. Virginia and Massachusetts by turns admitted failure in dealing with issues so simple that the newest societies, like Tennessee and Ohio, understood them by instinct. That incapacity in national politics should appear as a leading trait in American character was unexpected by Americans, but might naturally result from their conditions. The better test of American character was not political but social, and was to be found not in the government, but in the people. The sixteen years of Jefferson and Madison's rule furnished international tests of popular intelligence upon which Americans could depend. The ocean was the only open field for competition among nations. Americans enjoyed their no natural or artificial advantages over Englishmen, Frenchmen, or Spaniards. Indeed, all these countries possessed navies, resources, and experience greater than were to be found in the United States. Yet the Americans developed, in the course of twenty years, a surprising degree of skill in naval affairs. The evidence of their success was to be found nowhere so complete as the avowals of Englishmen, who knew best the history of naval progress. The American invention of the fast-sailing schooner, or clipper, was the more remarkable because, of all the American inventions, this alone sprang from direct competition with Europe. During ten centuries of struggle, the nations of Europe had labored to obtain superiority over each other in ship construction, yet Americans instantly made improvements which gave them superiority and which Europeans were unable immediately to imitate, even after seeing them. Not only were American vessels better in model, faster in sailing, easier and quicker in handling, and more economical in working than the European, but they were also better equipped. The English complained as a grievance that the Americans adopted new and unwarranted devices in naval warfare, that their vessels were heavier and better constructed, and their missiles of unusual shape and improper use. The Americans resorted to expedience that had not been tried before, and excited a mixture of irritation and respect in the English service until, quote, Yankee smartness, end quote, became a national misdemeanor. The English admitted themselves to be slow to change their habits, but the French were both quick and scientific, yet Americans did on the ocean what the French, under strong inducements, failed to do. The French privateer preyed upon British commerce for twenty years without seriously injuring it, but no sooner did the American privateer sail from French ports that the rates of insurance doubled in London, and an outcry for protection arose among English shippers, which the admirality could not calm. The British newspapers were filled with assertions that the American cruiser was the superior of any vessel of its class, and threatened to overthrow England's supremacy on the ocean. Another test of relative intelligence was furnished by the battles at sea. Instantly, after the loss of the guerrier, the English discovered and complained that American gunnery was superior to their own. They explained their inferiority by the length of time that had elapsed since their navy had found on the ocean an enemy to fight. Every vestige of hostile fleets had been swept away, until, after the Battle of Trafalgar, British frigates ceased practice with their guns. Doubtless the British navy had become somewhat careless in the absence of a dangerous enemy, but Englishmen were themselves aware that some other cause may have affected their losses. Nothing showed that Nelson's line of battleships, frigates, or sloops, were, as a rule, better fought than the Macedonian and Java, the Avon and Reindeer. Sir Howard Douglas, the chief authority on the subject, attempted in vain to explain British reverses by the deterioration of British gunnery. His analysis showed only that American gunnery was extraordinarily good. Of all vessels, the sloop of war, on account of its smallness, its quick motion, and its more accurate armament of thirty-two-pound caronades offered the best test of relative gunnery, and Sir Howard Douglas, in commenting upon the destruction of the Peacock and Avon, could only say, quote, In these two actions it is clear that the fire of the British vessels was thrown too high, and that the ordnance of their opponents were expressly and carefully aimed at and took effect chiefly in the whole, end, quote. The Battle of Hornet and Penguin, as well as those of Reindeer and Avon, showed that the excellence of American gunnery continued till the close of the war, whether at point-blank range or at long-distance practice, the Americans used guns as they had never been used at sea before. None of the reports of former British victories showed that the British fire had been more destructive at any previous time than in 1812, and no report of any commander since the British navy existed showed so much damage inflicted on an opponent in so short a time, as was proved to have been inflicted on themselves by the reports of British commanders in the American war. The strongest proof of American superiority was given by the best British officers, like Broke, who strained every nerve to maintain inequality with American gunnery. So instantaneous and energetic was the effort that according to the British historian of the war, quote, a British 46-gun frigate of 1813 was half as effective again as the British 46-gun frigate of 1812, end quote, and as he justly said, quote, the slaughtered crews and the shattered hulks, end quote, of the captured British ships proved that no want of their old fighting qualities accounted for their repeated and almost habitual mortifications. Unwilling as the English were to admit the superior skill of Americans on the ocean, they did not hesitate to admit it in certain respects on land. The American rifle in American hands was affirmed to have no equal in the world. This admission could scarcely be withheld after the lists of killed and wounded which followed almost every battle, but the admission served to check a wider inquiry. In truth, the rifle played but a small part in the war. Winchester's men at the River Raisin may have owed their overconfidence as the British 41st owed its losses to that weapon, and at New Orleans five or six hundred of coffee's men who were out of range were armed with the rifle, but the surprising losses of the British were commonly due to artillery and musketry fire. At New Orleans, the artillery was chiefly engaged. The artillery battle of January 1st, according to British accounts, amply proved the superiority of American gunnery on that occasion, which was probably the fairest test during the war. The battle of January 8th was also chiefly an artillery battle. The main British column never arrived within fair musket range. Pakenham was killed by a grapeshot, and the main column of his troops halted more than one hundred yards from the parapet. The best test of British and American military qualities, both for men and weapons, was Scott's Battle of Chippawa. Nothing intervened to throw a doubt over the fairness of the trial. Two parallel lines of regular soldiers, practically equal in numbers, armed with similar weapons, moved in close order toward each other across a wide open plane, without cover or advantage of position, stopping at intervals to load and fire, until one line broke and retired. At the same time, two, three gun batteries, the British being the heavier, maintained a steady fire from positions opposite each other. According to the reports, the two infantry lines in the center never came nearer than eighty yards. Major General Rayell reported that then, owing to severe losses, his troops broke and could not be rallied. Comparison of official reports showed that the British lost and killed and wounded four hundred and sixty-nine men, the Americans two hundred and ninety-six. Some doubts always affect the returns of wounded, because the severity of the wound cannot be known, but dead men tell their own tale. Rayell reported one hundred and forty-eight killed. Scott reported sixty-one. The severity of the losses showed that the battle was sharply contested and proved the personal bravery of both armies. Marksmanship decided the result, and the returns proved that the American fire was superior to that of the British in the proportion of more than fifty percent, if estimated by the entire loss, and of two hundred and forty-two to one hundred, if estimated by the deaths alone. The conclusion seemed incredible, but it was supported by the results of the naval battles. The Americans showed superiority, amounting in some cases to twice the efficiency of their enemies in the use of weapons. The best French critic of the naval war, Girien du La Gervière, said, quote, an enormous superiority in the rapidity and precision of their fire can alone explain the difference in the losses sustained by the combatants, end, quote. So far from denying this conclusion, the British press constantly alleged it, and the British officers complained of it. The discovery caused great surprise, and in both British services much attention was at once directed to improvement in artillery and musketry. Nothing could exceed the frankness with which Englishmen avowed their inferiority. According to Sir Francis Head, quote, Gunnery was in naval warfare in the extraordinary state of ignorance we have just described, when our lean children, the American people, taught us, rod in hand, our first lesson in the art, end, quote. The English textbook on naval gunnery, written by Major General Sir Howard Douglas immediately after the peace, devoted more attention to the short American war than to all the battles of Napoleon, and began by admitting that Great Britain had, quote, entered with too great confidence on a war with a marine much more expert than that of any of our European enemies, end, quote. The admission appeared, quote, objectionable, end, quote, even to the author, but he did not add what was equally true that it applied as well to the land as to the sea service. No one questioned the bravery of the British forces, or the ease with which they often routed larger bodies of militia, but the losses they inflicted were rarely as great as those they suffered. Even at Bladensburg, where they met little resistance, their loss was several times greater than that of the Americans. At Plattsburg, where the intelligence and quickness of McDonough and his men alone won the victory, his ships were in effect stationary batteries, and enjoyed the same superiority in gunnery, quote, the Saratoga, end, quote, said his official report, quote, had fifty-five round a shot in her hole. The confcience, one hundred and five. The enemies shot past principally just over our heads, as there was not twenty hole hammocks in the nettings at the close of the action, end, quote. The greater skill of the Americans was not due to special training, for the British service was better trained in gunnery, as in everything else than the motley armies and fleets that fought at New Orleans and on the lakes. Critics constantly said that every American had learned from his childhood the use of the rifle, but he certainly had not learned to use cannon in shooting birds or hunting deer, and he knew less than the Englishmen about the handling of artillery and muskets. The same intelligence that selected the rifle and the long pivot gun for favorite weapons was shown in handling the caranade and every other instrument, however clumsy. Another significant result of the war was the sudden development of scientific engineering in the United States. This branch of the military service owed its efficiency and almost its existence to the military school at West Point, established in 1802. The school was first much neglected by the government. The number of graduates before the year 1812 was very small, but at the outbreak of the war the Corps of Engineers was already efficient. Its chief was Colonel Joseph Gardner Swift of Massachusetts, the first graduate of the Academy. Colonel Swift planned the defenses of New York Harbor. The Lieutenant Colonel in 1812 was Walker Keith Armistead of Virginia, the third graduate who planned the defenses of Norfolk. Major William McRae of North Carolina became chief engineer to General Brown and constructed the fortifications at Fort Erie, which cost the British General Gordon Drummond the loss of half his army, besides the mortification of defeat. Captain Elaser Derby Wood of New York constructed Fort Megs, which enabled Harrison to defeat the attack of Proctor in May 1813. Captain Joseph Gilbert Trotten of New York was chief engineer to General Izard at Plattsburgh, where he directed the fortifications that stopped the advance of Prevost's great army. None of the works constructed by a graduate of West Point was captured by the enemy, and had an engineer being employed at Washington by Armstrong and Widener, the city would have been easily saved. Perhaps without exaggeration the West Point Academy might be said to have decided, next to the Navy, the result of the war. The works at New Orleans were simple and character, and as far as they were due to engineering skill, were directed by Major Latour, a Frenchman. But the war was already ended when the battle of New Orleans was fought. During the critical campaign of 1814 the West Point engineers doubled the capacity of the little American army for resistance, and introduced a new scientific character into American life. The battle between the Constitution and the Guerriere, from the history of the United States 1890. As Broke squadrons swept along the coast it seized whatever it met, and on July 16th caught one of President Jefferson's 16 gun brigs, the Nautilus. The next day it came on a richer prize. The American Navy seemed ready to outstrip the army in the race for disaster. The Constitution, the best frigate in the United States service, sailed into the midst of Broke's five ships. Captain Isaac Hull, in the command of the Constitution, had been detained at Annapolis shipping a new crew until July 5th, the day when Broke's squadron left Halifax. Then the ship got underway and stood down Chesapeake Bay on her voyage to New York. The wind was ahead and very light. Not until July 10th did the ship anchor off Cape Henry Lighthouse, and not till sunrise of July 12th did she stand to the eastward and northward. Lighthead winds and a strong current delayed her progress until July 17th, when, at two o'clock in the afternoon, off Barnaget on the New Jersey coast, the lookout at the masthead discovered four sails to the northward, and two hours later a fifth sail to the northeast. Hull took them for Roger's squadron. The wind was light, and Hull being to windward determined to speak the nearest vessel, the last to come in sight. The afternoon passed without bringing the ships together, and at ten o'clock in the evening, finding the nearest ship could not answer the night signal, Hull decided to lose no time in escaping. Then followed one of the most exciting and sustained chases recorded in naval history. At daybreak the next morning, one British frigate was asterned with five or six miles, two more were to Leeward, and the rest of the fleet summed ten miles asterned, all making a chase. Hull put out his boats to tow the constitution. Broke summoned the boats of the squadron to tow the Shannon. Hull then bent all his spare rope to the cables, dropped a small anchor half a mile ahead, in twenty-six fathoms of water, and warped his ship along. Broke quickly imitated the device, and slowly gained on the chase. The guerrier crept so near Hull's lee beam as to open fire, but her shot fell short. Fortunately the wind, though slight, favored Hull. All night the British and American crews toiled on, and when morning came the Belvedere, proving to be the best sailor, got in advance of her consorts. Working two Kedge anchors, until at two o'clock in the afternoon, she tried in her turn to reach the constitution, with her bow guns, but in vain. Hull expected capture, but the Belvedere could not approach nearer without bringing her boats under the constitution's stern guns, and the wearied crews toiled on, towing and Kedgeing, the ships barely out of gunshot, till another morning came. The breeze, though still light, then allowed Hull to take in his boats, the Belvedere being two and a half miles in his wake, the Shannon three and a half miles on his lee, and the three other frigates well to the leeward. The wind freshened, and the constitution drew ahead, until, toward seven o'clock in the evening, of July 19th, a heavy rain squall struck the ship, and by taking skillful advantage of it, Hull left the Belvedere and Shannon far astern, yet until eight o'clock the next morning they were still in sight, keeping up the chase. Perhaps nothing during the war tested American seamanship more thoroughly than these three days of combined skill and endurance in the face of the irresistible enemy. The result showed that Hull and the constitution had nothing to fear in these respects. There remained the question whether the superiority extended to his guns, and such was the contempt of the British naval officers for American ships, that with this expedience before their eyes they still believed one of their thirty-eight gun frigates to be more than a match for an American forty-four, although the American, besides the heavier armament, had proved his capacity to out sail and outmaneuver the Englishman. Both parties became more eager than ever for the test. For once even the Federalists of New England felt their blood stir, for their own President and their own votes had called these frigates into existence, and a victory won by the Constitution which had been built by their hands was in their eyes a greater victory over their political opponents than over the British. With no half-hearted spirit the sea-going Bostonians showered well-weighted praises on Hull when his ship entered Boston Harbor, July twenty-sixth, after its narrow escape, and when he sailed again New England waited with keen interest to learn his fate. Hull could not expect to keep command of the Constitution. Bainbridge was much his senior and had the right to preference in active service. Bainbridge then held and was ordered to retain command of the Constellation, fitting out at the Washington Navy but Secretary Hamilton, July twenty-eighth, ordered him to take command also of the Constitution on her arrival in Port. Doubtless Hull expected this change and probably the expectation induced him to risk a dangerous experiment for without bringing his ship to the Charleston Navy Yard, but remaining in her outer harbor after obtaining such supplies as he needed, August second, he set sail without orders and stood to the eastward. Having reached Cape Race without meeting an enemy, he turned southward until, on the night of August eighteenth, he spoke a privateer which told him of a British frigate near at hand. Following the privateer's men's directions, the Constitution the next day, August nineteenth, eighteen-twelve, at two o'clock in the afternoon, latitude forty-one degrees, forty-two minutes, longitude fifty-five degrees, forty-eight minutes, cited the Garrier. The meeting was welcome on both sides, only three days before Captain Deckers had entered on the log of a merchant man a challenge to any American frigate to meet him off Sandy Hook. Not only had the Garrier for a long time been extremely offensive to every seafaring American, but the mistake which caused the little belt to suffer so seriously for the misfortune of being taken for the Garrier had caused a corresponding feeling of anger in the officers of the British frigate. The meeting of August nineteenth had the character of a pre-conserted duel. The wind was blowing fresh from the northwest, with the sea running high. Deckers backed his main top sail and waited, whole shortened sail, and ran down before the wind. For about an hour the two ships wore and wore again, trying to get advantage of position, until, at last, a few minutes before six o'clock, they came together side by side, within pistol shot, the wind almost discerned, and running before it. They pounded each other with all their strength, as rapidly as the guns could be worked. The Constitution poured in broadside after broadside, double-shotted with round and grape, and without exaggeration the echo of these guns startled the world. Quote, in less than thirty minutes from the time we got alongside of the enemy, reported whole, she was left without a spare standing, and the whole cut to pieces in such a manner as to make it difficult to keep her above water. End quote. That Deckers should have been defeated was not surprising, that he should have expected to win was an example of British arrogance that explained and excused the war. The length of the Constitution was one hundred and seventy-three feet, that of the Gary-air was one hundred fifty-six feet. The extreme breadth of the Constitution was forty-four feet, that of the Gary-air was forty feet, or within a few inches in both cases. The Constitution carried thirty-two long twenty-four pounders, the Gary-air thirty long eighteen pounders, and two long twelve pounders. The Constitution carried twenty thirty-two pound caronades, the Gary-air sixteen. In every respect and in proportion of ten to seven, the Constitution was the better ship. Her crew was more numerous in proportion of ten to six. Deckers knew this very nearly as well as it was known to whole, yet he sought a duel. What he did not know was that in a still greater proportion, the American officers and crew were better and more intelligent seamen than the British, and that their passionate wish to repay old scores gave them extraordinary energy. So much greater was the moral superiority than the physical, that while the Gary-air's force counted as seven against ten, her losses counted as though her force were only two against ten. Deckers' error cost him dear, for among the Gary-air's crew of two hundred and seventy-two, seventy-nine were killed or wounded, and the ship was injured beyond saving before Deckers realized his mistake, although he needed only thirty minutes of close fighting for the purpose. He never fully understood the causes of his defeat, and never excused it by pleading, as he might have done the great superiority of his enemy. Hull took his prisoners on board the Constitution, and after blowing up the Gary-air sailed for Boston, where he arrived on the morning of August 30th. The Sunday silence of the Puritan city broke into excitement as the news passed through the quiet streets that the Constitution was below in the outer harbor, with Deckers and his crew prisoners on board. No experience of history ever went into the heart of New England more directly than this victory, so peculiarly its own, but the delight was not confined to New England, and extreme though it seemed, it was still not extravagant. For however small the affair might appear on the general scale of the world's battles, it raised the United States in one-half hour to the rank of a first-class power in the world. Paul Johnson. Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Volume I, Section XIII. Selected works by John Adams. John Adams, 1735 to 1826. John Adams, second president of the United States, was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, October 19th, 1735, and died there, July 4th, 1826, the year after his son, too, was inaugurated president. He was the first conspicuous member of an enduringly powerful and individual family. The Adams race have mostly been vehement, proud, pugnacious, and independent, with hot tempers and strong wills, but with high ideals, dramatic devotion to duty, and the intense, democratic sentiment so often found united with personal aristocracy of feeling. They have been men of affairs first, with large practical ability, but with a deep strain of the man of letters which in this generation has outshone the other faculties, strong-headed and hard-working students, with powerful memories and fluent gifts of expression. All these characteristics went to make up John Adams, but their enumeration does not furnish a complete picture of him, or reveal the viral, choleric, masterful man, and he was far more lovable and far more popular than his equally great son, also a typical Adams. From the same cause which produced some of his worst blunders and misfortunes, a generous impulsiveness of feeling which made it impossible for him to hold his tongue at the wrong time and place for talking, but so fervid, combative, and opinionated a man was sure to gain much more hate than love, because love results from comprehension, which only the few close to him could have. While hate, toward an honest man, is the outcome of ignorance, which most of the world cannot avoid. Admiration and respect, however, he had from the majority of his party at the worst of times, and the best ecumenium on him is that the closer his public acts are examined, the more credit they reflect not only on his abilities, but on his unselfishness. Born of a line of Massachusetts farmers, he graduated from Harvard in 1755, after teaching a grammar school and beginning to read theology. He studied law and began practice in 1758, soon becoming a leader at the bar and in public life. In 1764 he married the noble and delightful woman whose letters furnish unconscious testimony to his lovable qualities. All through the germinal years of the revolution he was one of the foremost patriots, steadily opposing any abandonment or compromise of essential rights. In 1765 he was counsel for Boston, with Otis and Gridley to support the town's memorial against the Stamp Act. In 1766 he was selectman. In 1768 the royal government offered him the post of Advocate General in the Court of Admiralty, a lucrative bribe to desert the opposition, but he refused it. Yet in 1770 as a matter of high professional duty he became counsel, successfully, for the British soldiers on trial for the Boston Massacre. Though there was a present uproar of abuse, Mr. Adams was shortly after elected representative to the general court by more than three to one. In March 1774 he contemplated writing the history of the contest between Britain and America. On June 17th he presided over the meeting at Fanule Hall to consider the Boston Port Bill, and at the same hour was elected representative to the First Congress at Philadelphia, September 1, by the Provincial Assembly held in defiance of the government. Returning thence he engaged in newspaper debate on the political issues till the Battle of Lexington. Shortly after he again journeyed to Philadelphia to the Congress of May 5, 1775, where he did on his own motion to the disgust of his northern associates, and the reluctance, even of the Southerners, one of the most important and decisive acts of the revolution, induced Congress to adopt the forces in New England as a national army and put George Washington of Virginia at its head, thus engaging the southern colonies irrevocably in the war and securing the one man who could make it a success. In 1776 he was a chief agent in carrying the Declaration of Independence. He remained in Congress till November 1777 as head of the War Department, very useful and laborious though making one dreadful mistake. He was largely responsible for the disastrous policy of ignoring the just claims and decent dignity of the military commanders, which lost the country some of its best officers, and led directly to Arnold's treason. His reasons, exactly contrary to his want, were good abstract logic but thorough practical nonsense. In December 1777 he was appointed commissioner to France to succeed Silas Dean, and after being chased by an English man of war, which he wanted to fight, arrived at Paris in safety. There he reformed a very bad state of affairs, but thinking it absurd to keep three envoys at one court, Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee were there before him. He induced Congress to abolish his office and returned in 1779. Chosen a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, he was called away from it to be sent again to France. There he remained as Franklin's colleague, detesting and distrusting him, and the French Foreign Minister, Fair Gens, embroiling himself with both, and earning a cordial return of his warmest dislike from both, till July 1780. He then went to Holland as volunteer minister, and in 1782 was formally recognized as from an independent nation. Meantime, Fair Gens intrigued with all his might to have Adams recalled, and actually succeeded in so tying his hands, that half the advantages of independence would have been lost but for his concomitious persistence. In the final negotiations for peace, he persisted against his instructions in making the New England Fisheries an ultimatum, and saved them. In 1783 he was commissioned to negotiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain, and in 1785 was made minister to that power. The wretched state of American affairs under the Confederation made it impossible to obtain any advantages for his country, and the vindictive feeling of the English made his life a purgatory, so that he was glad to come home in 1788. In the first presidential election of that year, he was elected vice president on the ticket with Washington, and began a feud with Alexander Hamilton, the mighty leader of the Federalist Party and chief organizer of our governmental machine, which ended in the overthrow of the party years before its time, and had momentous personal and literary results as well. He was as good a Federalist as Hamilton, and felt as much right to be leader if he could. Hamilton would not surrender his leadership, and the rivalry never ended till Hamilton's murder. In 1796 he was elected president against Jefferson. His presidency is recognized as one of the ablest and most useful on the roll, but its personal memoirs are most painful and scandalous. The cabinet were nearly all Hamiltonians, regularly laid all the official secrets before Hamilton, and took advice from him to thwart the president. They disliked Mr. Adams' overbearing ways and obtrusive vanity, considered his policy destructive to the party and injurious to the country, and felt that loyalty to these involved and justified disloyalty to him. Finally, his best act brought on an explosion. The French directory had provoked a war with this country, which the Hamiltonian section of the leaders and much of the party hailed with delight, but showing signs of a better spirit Mr. Adams, without consulting his cabinet, who he knew would oppose it, almost or quite unanimously, nominated a commission to frame a treaty with France. The storm of fury that broke on him from his party has rarely been surpassed, even in the case of traitors outright, and he was charged with being little better. He was renominated for president in 1800, but beaten by Jefferson, owing to the defections of his own party, largely of Hamilton's producing. The Federalist Party never won another election. The Hamilton section laid its death to Mr. Adams, and American history is hot with the fires of this battle yet. Mr. Adams' later years were spent at home, where he was always interested in public affairs and sometimes much too free in comments on them, where he read immensely and wrote somewhat. He heartily approved his son's break with the Federalists on the embargo. He died on the same day as Jefferson, both on the fifteenth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. As a writer, Mr. Adams' powers show best in the work which can hardly be classed as literature, his forcible and bitter political letters, dietribes, and polemics. As in his life, his merits and defects not only lie side by side, but spring from the same source, his vehemence, self-confidence, and impatience of obstruction. He writes impetuously because he feels impetuously. With little literary grace, he possesses the charm that belongs to clear and energetic thought and sense transfused with heart emotion. John Fisk goes so far as to say as a writer of English, John Adams in many respects surpassed all his American contemporaries. He was by no means without humor, a characteristic which shows in some of his portraits, and sometimes realized the humorous aspects of his own intense and exaggerative temperament. His remark about Timothy, pickering that, under the simple appearance of a bald head and straight hair, he conceals the most ambitious designs, is perfectly self-conscious in its quaint naivete. His life and works, edited by his grandson, Charles Francis Adams Sr., in ten volumes, is the great storehouse of his writings. The best popular account of his life is by John T. Morse, Jr., in the American Statement Series. At the French Court From His Diary, June 7, 1778 Went to Versailles, in company with Mr. Lee, Mr. Izard, and his lady, Mr. Lloyd, and his lady, and Mr. Francois, saw the grand procession of the knights, du Saint-Espire, in du Cordon Bleu. At nine o'clock at night went to the Grand Covert, and saw the king, queen, and royal family at supper, had a fine seat and situation close to the royal family, and had a distinct and full view of the royal pair. Our objects were to see the ceremonies of the knights, and in the evening and public supper of the royal family, the kneelings, the bows, and the courtesies of the knights, the dresses and decorations, the king seated on his throne, his investiture of a new created knight, with the badges and ornaments of the order, and his majesty's profound and reverential bow before the altar as he retired, were novelties and curiosities to me, but surprised me much less than the patience and perseverance with which they all kneeled. For two hours together upon the hard marble of which the floor of the chapel was made, the distinction of the blue ribbon was very dearly purchased at the price of enduring this painful operation four times in a year. The court to Vergen's confessed to me that he was almost dead with the pain of it, and the only insinuation I ever heard that the king was in any degree touched by the philosophy of the age was that he never discovered so much impatience under any of the occurrences of his life as in going through these tedious ceremonies of religion, to which so many hours of his life were condemned by the Catholic Church. The queen was attended by her ladies to the gallery opposite to the altar, placed in the center of the seat, and there left alone by the other ladies who all retired. She was an object too sublime and beautiful for my dull pen to describe. I leave this enterprise to Mr. Burke, but in his description there is more of the orator than of the philosopher. Her dress was everything that art and wealth could make it. One of the maids of honour told me she had diamonds upon her person to the value of eighteen million livres, and I always thought her majesty much beholden to her dress. Mr. Burke saw her probably but once, I have seen her fifty times perhaps, and in all the varieties of her dress. She had a fine complexion indicating perfect health, and was a handsome woman in her face and figure. But I have seen beauties much superior, both in countenance and form, in France, England, and America. After the ceremonies of this institution were over, there was a collection for the poor, and that this closing scene may be as elegant as any of the former. A young lady of some of the first families in France is appointed to present the box to the knights. Her dress must be as rich and elegant, in proportion as the queens, and her hair, motions, and courtesies must have as much dignity and grace as those of the knights. It was a curious entertainment to observe the easy air, the graceful bow, and the conscious dignity of the knight in presenting his contribution, and the corresponding ease, grace, and dignity of the lady in receiving it were not less charming. Every muscle, nerve, and fibre of both seemed perfectly disciplined to perform its functions, the elevation of the arm, the bend of the elbow, and every finger in the hand of the knight. In putting his ludor into the box appeared to be perfectly studied, because it was perfectly natural. How much devotion there was in all this I know not, but it was a consummate school to teach the rising generation the perfection of the French air, and eternal politeness and good breeding. I have seen nothing to be compared to it in any other country. At nine o'clock we went and saw the king, queen, and royal family at the Grand Covert, whether M. Francois, a gentleman who undertook upon this occasion to conduct us, had contrived a plot to gratify the curiosity of the spectators, or whether the royal family had a fancy to see the raw American at their leisure, or whether they were willing to gratify him with a convenient seat in which he might see all the royal family, and all the splendors of the place I know not. But the scheme could not have been carried into execution, certainly without the orders of the king. I was selected, and summoned, indeed, from all my company, and ordered to a seat close beside the royal family. The seats on both sides of the hall arranged like the seats in a theater were all full of ladies of the first rank and fashion in the kingdom, and there was no room or place for me but in the midst of them. It was not easy to make room for one more person, however room was made, and I was situated between two ladies, with rows and ranks of ladies above and below me, and on the right hand, and on the left, and ladies only. My dress was a decent French dress becoming the station I held, but not to be compared with the gold and diamonds and embroidery about me. I could neither speak nor understand the language in a manner to support a conversation, but I had soon the satisfaction to find it was a silent meeting, and that nobody spoke a word but the royal family to each other, and they said very little. The eyes of all the assembly were turned upon me, and I felt sufficiently humble and mortified, for I was not a proper object for the criticisms of such a company. I found myself gazed at, as we in America used to gaze at the satchams who came to make speeches to us in Congress, but I thought it very hard if I could not command as much power of face as one of the chiefs of these six nations, and therefore determined that I would assume a cheerful countenance. Enjoy the scene around me, and observe it as coolly as an astronomer contemplates the stars. Inscriptions of fructus belly were seen on the ceiling and all about the walls of the room, among paintings of the trophies of war probably done by the order of Louis XIV, who confessed in his dying hour, as his successor and exemplar Napoleon will probably do, that he had been too fond of war. The king was the royal carver for himself and all his family, his majesty ate like a king and made a royal supper of solid beef, and other things in proportion. The queen took a large spoonful of soup and displayed her fine person and graceful manners in alternately looking at the company in various parts of the hall, and ordering several kinds of seasoning to be brought to her, by which she fitted her supper to her taste. The Character of Franklin From Letter to the Boston Patriot, May 15th, 1811 Franklin had a great genius, original, sagacious and inventive, capable of discoveries in science no less than of improvements in the fine arts and the mechanic arts. He had a vast imagination, equal to the comprehension of the greatest objects, and capable of a cool and steady comprehension of them. He had wit at will. He had a humor that, when pleased, was delicate and delightful. He had a satire that was good-natured or caustic, hoarse or juvenile, swift or wobbly at his pleasure. He had talents for irony, allegory and fable, that he could adapt with great skill to the promotion of moral and political truth. He was master of that infantine simplicity which the French call naivete, which never fails to charm in fadress and le fontaine, from the cradle to the grave. He had been blessed with the same advantages of scholastic education in his early youth, and pursued a course of studies as unembarrassed with occupations of public and private life as Sir Isaac Newton. He might have emulated the first philosopher, although I am not ignorant that most of his positions and hypotheses have been contraverted. I cannot but think he has added much to the massive natural knowledge, and contributed largely to the progress of the human mind, both by his own writings and by the controversies and experiments he has excited in all parts of Europe. He had abilities for investigating statistical questions, and in some parts of his life has written pamphlets and essays upon public topics with great ingenuity and success. But after my acquaintance with him, which commenced in Congress in 1775, his excellence as a legislator, a politician, or a negotiator most certainly never appeared. No sentiment, more weak and superficial, was ever avowed by the most absurd philosopher than some of his. Particularly the one he procured to be inserted in the first constitution of Pennsylvania, and for which he had such a fondness as to insert it in his will. I called it weak, for so it must have been or hypocritical unless he meant by one satiric touch to ridicule his own republic or throw it into everlasting contempt. I must acknowledge, after all, that nothing in life has mortified or grieved me more than the necessity which compelled me to oppose him so often as I have. He was a man with whom I always wished to live in friendship, and for that purpose omitted no demonstration of respect, esteem, and veneration in my power until I had unequivocal proofs of his hatred, for no other reason under the sun, but because I gave my judgment in opposition to his in many points which materially affected the interests of our country, and in many more which essentially concerned our happiness, safety, and well-being. I could not and would not sacrifice the clearest dictates of my understanding and the purest principles of morals and policy in compliance to Dr. Franklin.