The latest interview episode is now available!
Jan. 27, 2019

2.14 – The Plausible Probability of Preserving the Peace

2.14 – The Plausible Probability of Preserving the Peace

Year(s) Discussed: 1798-1799

Adams throws the American political landscape into a frenzy with a special message to Congress announcing that he was appointing a new Minister to France to negotiate peace. While exploring what this all means for Adams, his administration, and the nation, we also take a step back in this episode to look at the influence of American policy in Saint-Domingue and South America on the realities and future of Franco-American relations in 1799.

Special thanks to Noah Tetzner of the Stories of the Second World War and The History of Vikings podcasts for providing this episode’s intro quote!

  • Adams, John. “February 18, 1799, Special Message.” Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/202463. [Last Accessed: 10 Jan 2019]
  • Brown, Gordon S. Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2005.
  • Brown, Ralph Adams. The Presidency of John Adams. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1989 [1975].
  • Chernow, Ron. Alexander Hamilton. New York: Penguin Press, 2004.
  • Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. New York: Penguin Press, 2010.
  • DeConde, Alexander. The Quasi-War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France, 1797-1801. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1966.
  • Dubois, Laurent. A Colony of Citizens: Revolution & Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
  • Duncan, Mike. Revolutions. https://www.revolutionspodcast.com/.
  • Ernst, Robert. Rufus King: American Federalist. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1968.
  • Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010 [1992].
  • Hamilton, Alexander. “To Francisco de Miranda, 22 August 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0062. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 22, July 1798 – March 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 155–156.] [Last Accessed: 19 Jan 2019]
  • Hamilton, Alexander. “To Rufus King, 22 August 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0061. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 22, July 1798 – March 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 154–155.] [Last Accessed: 19 Jan 2019]
  • Hamilton, Alexander. “To Harrison Gray Otis, 26 January 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0257. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 22, July 1798 – March 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 440–442.] [Last Accessed: 19 Jan 2019]
  • Hamilton, Alexander. “To George Washington, 16 February 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-03-02-0282. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 3, 16 September 1798 – 19 April 1799, ed. W. W. Abbot and Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 383–384.] [Last Accessed: 10 Jan 2019]
  • Hamilton, Alexander. “To Theodore Sedgwick, 21 February 179[9],” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0295. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 22, July 1798 – March 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 493–494.] [Last Accessed: 13 Jan 2019]
  • Hill, Peter P. William Vans Murray, Federalist Diplomat: The Shaping of Peace with France 1797-1801. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1971.
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “To James Madison, 19 February 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-31-02-0029. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 31, 1 February 1799 – 31 May 1800, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. 44–46.] [Last Accessed: 10 Jan 2019] [Last Accessed: 10 Jan 2019]
  • Kohn, Richard H. Eagle and Sword: The Beginnings of the Military Establishment in America. New York: The Free Press, 1975.
  • Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2018-2019. http://presidencies.blubrry.com.
  • “Letters of Toussaint Louverture and of Edward Stevens, 1798-1800.” The American Historical Review. 16:1 [Oct 1910] 64-101.
  • Perkins, Bradford. The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795-1805. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1955.
  • Pickering, Timothy. “To Alexander Hamilton, 25 February 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0299. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 22, July 1798 – March 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 500–503.] [Last Accessed: 13 Jan 1799]
  • Robbins, Karen E. James McHenry: Forgotten Federalist. Athens, GA and London: University of Georgia Press, 2013.
  • Sedgwick, Theodore. “To Alexander Hamilton, 19 February 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0291. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 22, July 1798 – March 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 487–490.] [Last Accessed: 13 Jan 2019]
  • Sedgwick, Theodore. “To Alexander Hamilton, 22 February 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-22-02-0296. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 22, July 1798 – March 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1975, pp. 494–495.] [Last Accessed: 13 Jan 2019]
  • Smith, Page. John Adams, Volume II 1784-1826. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co, 1962.
  • Toth, Michael C. Founding Federalist: The Life of Oliver Ellsworth. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2018 [2011].
  • Washington, George. “To James McHenry, 13 December 1798,” Founders Online, National Archives, last modified June 13, 2018, http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-03-02-0178. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 3, 16 September 1798 – 19 April 1799, ed. W. W. Abbot and Edward G. Lengel. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 250–265.] [Last Accessed: 19 Jan 2019]

Featured Image: “Atlantic or Western Ocean” by John Thomson [c. 1814], courtesy of Wikipedia