A new Madison presidency episode is now available!
Feb. 24, 2019

2.16 – High Noon in Trenton

2.16 – High Noon in Trenton

Year(s) Discussed: 1798-1799

New unrest in the government of France in 1799 presented President Adams with an important decision as to whether to continue with his peace overtures. Meanwhile, competing agendas within his own administration prompt one of Adams’s Cabinet members to urge him to end his sojourn in Quincy as yet another yellow fever epidemic strikes Philadelphia.

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Season 2 02 - John Adams

Special thanks to David Montgomery of The Siècle for providing this episode’s intro quote!

  • Adams, John. “To Timothy Pickering, 8 May 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3490. [Last Accessed: 3 Feb 2019]
  • Adams, John. “Proclamation 10—Suspending, as to St. Domingo, the Restraints of the Act of 1799.” Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/202813. [Last Accessed: 10 Feb 2019]
  • Adams, John. “To Timothy Pickering, 6 August 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3852. [Last Accessed: 30 Jan 2019]
  • 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.
  • Clarfield, Gerard H. Timothy Pickering and American Diplomacy 1795-1800. Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1969.
  • DeConde, Alexander. The Quasi-War: The Politics and Diplomacy of the Undeclared War with France, 1797-1801. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1966.
  • Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
  • Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010 [1992].
  • Golinski, Jan. “Debating the Atmospheric Constitution: Yellow Fever and the American Climate.” Eighteenth-Century Studies. 49:2 [2016] 149-165.
  • Henry, Patrick. “To John Adams, 16 April 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3441. [Last Accessed: 3 Feb 2019]
  • Hill, Peter P. William Vans Murray, Federalist Diplomat: The Shaping of Peace with France 1797-1801. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1971.
  • Kornfeld, Eve. “Crisis in the Capital: The Cultural Significance of Philadelphia’s Great Yellow Fever Epidemic.” Pennsylvania History. 51:3 [July 1984] 189-205.
  • Perkins, Bradford. The First Rapprochement: England and the United States, 1795-1805. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1955.
  • Pickering, Timothy. “To John Adams, 15 May 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3513. [Last Accessed: 3 Feb 2019]
  • Pickering, Timothy. “To John Adams, 18 May 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3534. [Last Accessed: 3 Feb 2019]
  • Pickering, Timothy. “To John Adams, 23 August 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3916. [Last Accessed: 12 Feb 2019]
  • Pickering, Timothy. “To John Adams, 9 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3960. [Last Accessed: 12 Feb 2019]
  • Timothy. “To John Adams, 10 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3961. [Last Accessed: 12 Feb 2019]
  • Pickering, Timothy. “To John Adams, 11 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3964. [Last Accessed: 12 Feb 2019]
  • Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: HarperCollins, 1998 [1997].
  • Stoddert, Benjamin. “To John Adams, 3 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3941. [Last Accessed: 13 Feb 2019]
  • Stoddert, Benjamin. “To John Adams, 13 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3971. [Last Accessed: 12 Feb 2019]
  • Toth, Michael C. Founding Federalist: The Life of Oliver Ellsworth. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2018 [2011].
  • US Department of State. “State House, Trenton August-November 1797, 1798, 1799.” Buildings of the Department of State. https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/buildings/section18. [Last Accessed: 12 Feb 2019]

Featured Image: “Drawing of the New Jersey state capitol at Trenton” [c. 1879], courtesy of Wikipedia