Adams Family Correspondence, Volume 15, March 1801–October 1804 ed. by Hobson Woodward et al. (review)

The previous Volume 14 of the peerless Adams Family Correspondence concludes with the departure of John Adams from Washington after his defeat for a second term as president in 1800 and prior to the inauguration of his successor. Volume 15 takes up the Adams family saga from the years 1801 until 1804. For the first time in the entire series, there are no letters between Abigail and John Adams; they would spend the final eighteen years of their marriage living together. There are many letters from John Adams to his surviving sons, John Quincy and especially Thomas Boylston; however, the majority of letters in this volume were written by Abigail. These letters recount plenty of family drama.

To the great relief of Abigail, John Quincy Adams returned to America after living seven years abroad, lately in England. Retuning with him were his British-born, yet American (her father was an ex-pat during the Revolutionary War) wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, and two young sons, George and John. This volume introduces the charming voice of Louisa Catherine, whose arrival in America could not have been more shocking to her. John Quincy floundered briefly as he considered setting up a law practice in Boston, before he was elected to become a United States senator from Massachusetts.

Abigail's voice prevails in this volume; hers is a voice that has become thoroughly matriarchal. Her writings reflect the politics of the era, including the new administration that she resented, while maintaining a nostalgic affection for its leader. A highlight of these letters is her famous exchange with President Thomas Jefferson after the death of his daughter Polly. (The free-standing edition of these fifteen letters edited by Lester Capon highlights this exchange.) Volume 15 begins with a first publication of an unusual and never before published essay on current politics—unique because Abigail typically wrote letters rather than political tracts.

Released from the demands of his professional life, John Adams turned his energies to farming. He, furthermore, spent time guiding his surviving sons in their future careers, especially Thomas. Perhaps this was compensatory, following the recent death of his second son, Charles, at the age of 30, from the effects of alcoholism. He still nursed the wounds of being replaced by his close associate and now adversary, Jefferson. "His ambition and his cunning," he vented his resentment, "are the only Steady qualities in him" (xxiii). It would take a decade before the two former presidents overcame that breach to resume their historic epistolary friendship.

The letters of Thomas Boylston Adams, the youngest Adams, anchor this volume in the second generation. Thomas, having returned from Europe where he served as his brother's secretary, struggled to establish his professional life in Philadelphia, his preferred residence, dabbling in unremunerative literary life before conceding to his parents' wishes for his to return to Boston to practice law. Talented, charming, and ambitious, he also devoted attention to finding a suitable marriage partner, exchanging letters on the topic with his mother, who was anxious about his future.

The voice of Abigail Adams Smith, the only daughter of Abigail and John, is the least heard in this volume, and then mostly through exchanges between her parents and siblings. They fret about the behavior of her husband William Stephens Smith, who had quickly shown himself to be a wastrel and sycophant, although charmingly so. John Adams rightly feared for the future of his daughter's family.

While few letters in the volume focus on Abigail's and John's great financial catastrophe, this disaster was clearly of great concern to the family. During these years, they lost their fortune in the failure of a bank in England...