Monthly Archives: March 2019

2.18 – Source Notes



Special thanks to Alex for providing the intro quote for this episode!

  • Adams, John. “To Cotton Tufts, 1 January 1800,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0548. [Last Accessed: 8 Mar 2019]
  • 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.
  • Ford, Worthington Chauncey, ed. Writings of John Quincy Adams, Vol. II 1796-1801. New York: The MacMillan Co, 1913.
  • Hill, Peter P. William Vans Murray, Federalist Diplomat: The Shaping of Peace with France 1797-1801. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1971.
  • Lambert, Frank. The Barbary Wars: American Independence in the Atlantic World. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007 [2005].
  • Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2018-2019. http://presidencies.blubrry.com.
  • McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
  • McDonald, Forrest. The Presidency of George Washington. Lawrence, KS; Manhattan, KS; and Wichita, KS: The University Press of Kansas, 1974 [1974].
  • Miller, Hunter. “The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816, Tunis 1797: Hunter Miller’s Notes.” Avalon Project. Yale University. Source: Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America. Edited by Hunter Miller, Volume 2, Documents 1-40 : 1776-1818, Washington : Government Printing Office, 1931. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/bar1797n.asp#n5 [Last Accessed: 8 Mar 2019]
  • Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: HarperCollins, 1998 [1997].
  • Toll, Ian W. Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy. New York and London: W W Norton & Co, 2006.
  • Toth, Michael C. Founding Federalist: The Life of Oliver Ellsworth. Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, 2018 [2011].

Featured Image: “USS Constellation engaging la Vengeance” by Irwin John Bevan, courtesy of Wikipedia


2.18 – New Year, New à Vous



Year(s) Discussed: 1797-1800

The French Directory falls, and the three US peace commissioners are left with many questions as to how to proceed before they even arrive in Paris. Meanwhile, the US government considers a change in its policy towards the Barbary States, and the USS Constellation engages French naval forces once more in the Caribbean. Source information for this episode can be found at http://presidencies.blubrry.com.

Featured Image: “Les trois consuls de la Constitution de l’an VIII (de gauche à droite : Cambacérès, Bonaparte, Lebrun)” by Henri-Nicolas Van Gorp [c. 1803], courtesy of Wikipedia


2.17 – Source Notes



Special thanks to James Early for providing the intro quote for this episode! Be sure to check out Presidential Fight Club and Key Battles of the Civil War!

  • Adams, Abigail. “To Mary Smith Cranch, 18 December 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0531. [Last Accessed: 23 Feb 2019]
  • Adams, John. “To Timothy Pickering, 21 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3991. [Last Accessed: 17 Feb 2019]
  • Adams, John. “To Oliver Ellsworth, 22 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3997. [Last Accessed: 17 Feb 2019]
  • Adams, John. “To Abigail Smith Adams, 12 October 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-03-02-0471. [Last Accessed: 17 Feb 2019]
  • Adams, John. “Third Annual Address to Congress [3 Dec 1799].” Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/200624. [Last Accessed: 20 Feb 2019]
  • Adams, John. “To United States Senate, 23 December 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4100. [Last Accessed: 24 Feb 2019]
  • Brown, Ralph Adams. The Presidency of John Adams. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1989 [1975].
  • Buchanan, James. “Alfred Moore.” The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995, Second Edition. Clare Cushman, ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc, 1995. p. 56-60.
  • 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.
  • Edvinsson, Rodney. Historical Currency Converter (test version 1.0). http://www.historicalstatistics.org/Currencyconverter.html. [Last Accessed: 23 Feb 2019)
  • Ehrman, John. The Younger Pitt Volume III: The Consuming Struggle. London: Constable & Co, 1996.
  • Ellis, Richard E. “Moore, Alfred.” The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Kermit L Hall, ed. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. p. 560.
  • Ellsworth, Oliver. “To John Adams, 18 September 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3983. [Last Accessed: 17 Feb 2019]
  • Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2010 [1992].
  • Hall, Kermit L, etc, eds. The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
  • Hamilton, Alexander. “To George Washington, 21 October 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-23-02-0492. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 23, April 1799 – October 1799, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, pp. 544–547.] [Last Accessed: 17 Feb 2019]
  • Hamilton, Alexander. “To Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, [22] December 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-24-02-0103. [Original source: The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, vol. 24, November 1799 – June 1800, ed. Harold C. Syrett. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976, pp. 116–117.] [Last Accessed: 24 Feb 2019]
  • Holton, Woody. Abigail Adams. New York and London: Free Press, 2009.
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “Memorandum on Attendance of the Vice President, [after 29 December 1799],” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-31-02-0238. [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. 280–282.] [Last Accessed: 24 Feb 2019]
  • Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2018-2019. http://presidencies.blubrry.com.
  • Lee, Charles. “To John Adams, 6 October 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-4011. [Last Accessed: 17 Feb 2019]
  • Malone, Dumas. Jefferson and the Ordeal of Liberty: Jefferson and His Time, Volume Three. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1962.
  • McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
  • Moody, Danny. “James Iredell.” The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789-1995, Second Edition. Clare Cushman, ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc, 1995. p. 26-30.
  • Newman, Paul Douglas. Fries’s Rebellion: The Enduring Struggle for the American Revolution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005 [2004].
  • Pickering, Timothy. “To George Washington, 24 October 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0312. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 4, 20 April 1799 – 13 December 1799, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 362–364.] [Last Accessed: 18 Feb 2019]
  • Smith, Jean Edward. John Marshall: Definer of a Nation. New York: Henry Holt & Co, 1996.
  • Stone, Geoffrey R. Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime, From the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism. New York and London: W W Norton & Co, 2004.
  • 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]
  • Washington, George. “To James McHenry, 17 November 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, version of January 18, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0348. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 4, 20 April 1799 – 13 December 1799, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 409–410.] [Last Accessed: 17 Feb 2019]
  • Whichard, Willis P. Justice James Iredell. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2000.
  • White, Leonard D. The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History. New York: Macmillan Co, 1948.
  • Withey, Lynne. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams. New York & London: Simon & Schuster, 2002 [1981].

Featured Image: “George Washington Mourning Tableau” by Pember & Luzarder [c. 1800], courtesy of Wikipedia


2.17 – Some Awful Crisis



Year(s) Discussed: 1798-1799

In Trenton, Adams confronted his Cabinet as well as Gen. Alexander Hamilton over the peace mission to France before the government moved back to Philadelphia for one last winter. After the new session of Congress began in December 1799, news arrived which was described as a national tragedy and had many wondering what lay in store for the US as a new century dawned. Source information for this episode can be found at http://presidencies.blubrry.com.

Featured Image: “Representation of the great fire at New York” by Franz Xaver Habermann [c. 1776], courtesy of Wikipedia