Item 16: Letter from John Quincy Adams to Sarah H[ollenbach] Butler, (removed to Legal Box #1), 1844 May 18
Item — Box: 9, Folder: 16
Dates
- Created: 1844 May 18
Creator
- Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 (Person)
Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities
Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
Letter and copy of letter
Condition Note:
Fair. Slight discoloration and the seam has been taped at some point in time.
Measurements:
9 ¾ in. x 7 ¾ in. (closed); 15 ½ in. x 9 ¾ in. (open)
Description:
The following item depicts a letter by John Quincy Adams, the 6th president of the United States, to Sarah Hollenbach Butler, the president of the Ladies Wyoming Monumental Association, dated May 18, 1844. In the letter, Adams is writing to thank Butler for her invitation by the Monumental Association, to partake in their anniversary of the Battle of Wyoming. The anniversary is to commemorate the men, women, and children who fell during a siege on the valley by a militia of British loyalists and members of the Iroquois Confederacy on July 3, 1778. The attack was commanded by John Butler, a British general and officer of the British Indian Department, whose campaign killed over 300 people in the valley. Adams continues to express his deep admiration of the Association’s work in prioritizing, recording, and celebrating the history of their people. He writes that he could think of no more fitting inducement for him to attend the event than to consider hearing of the history from people such as his friend and historian, Charles Miner, who rouses sympathies and admiration of those who came before them. However, he concludes his letter with regrets that he will most definitely not be able to attend the events himself, either for work in Congress or his ailing health. He shares that he will make his children aware of the history and wishes success for the Association's continued work and people’s prosperity.
The Battle of Wyoming was tied in with the unfolding conflict of the Yankee Pennamite Wars, a three part land conflict between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. The fighting began after King Chalres II granted tracts of land to both states, first to Connecticut in 1662, and then to Pennsylvania in 1681. As both colonies attempted to settle themselves within the land, they faced conflicts between one another, existing indigenous populations, and the oncoming Revolutionary War. The three wars would be fought throughout the eighteenth century, with the first in 1769-1770, the second in 1774, and the third in 1784. Ultimately, the right of jurisdiction would be granted to Pennsylvania in 1782, under the Decree of Trenton.
There is a photostat of the letter created by Gilbert Stuart McClintock created by Gilbert Stuart himself, present in the McClintock Family Series II, 1.43H Item 43H: A Printed Copy by [Gilbert Stuart McClintock], [1958 June 24], of a Letter by John Quincy Adams to Sarah H[(ollenbach)] Butler, 1844 May 18. In that collection, we see that he once offered this letter in order to broker a trade with Mary A. Benjamin, an autograph collector, for items that pertain to influential and presidential candidates of the Wilkes Barre, Northeastern Pennsylvanian region, of which McClintock expressed interest within her collection.
Location:
Washington, D.C.
Transcription:
Mrs. Sarah H. Butler. President of the United Ladies Wyoming
Monumental Association - Wilkesbarre Pa
Washington 18. May 1844
Honoured Lady,
I have received with deep and grateful
emotions your Letter of the 4th. Inst[an]t inviting me on the
part of the Executive Commission of the Ladies Wyoming
Monumental Association, to attend at the anniversary
celebration of the Massacre at that place on the 3[r]d of July
1778. One of the ever memorable events of the War for
Independence - Besides the profound interest, which the
melancholy glory of that day, has stamped on the memory
of every American heart of age to have received its first
impression when it occurred, your Letter presents other
motives not less urgent to the impulses of filial affection, and
of cherished friendship, in its gracious allusions to both
my parents, and to their participation in many of the
great transactions of that age in which it was their destiny
to live, and in the attractive promise which it holds out
of an opportunity to meet once more a cordially venerated
friend, in the person of Mr. Charles Miner, and of hearing
Page 2:
from his lips the deeply interesting and authentic details of that historical epoch, which for a period of years he has been so indefatigably treasuring up for the instruction of aftertimes-nor are the genial influences of the flowery season without their stimulants to visit that happy portion of Pennsylvania, where the fascinating beauties on the surface of the soil, are but the index to the mineral of riches beneath. My imagination can scarcely conceive a more copious aggregate of inducement to accept with more than cheerful eagerness the tender of your congenial hospitality, and to secure for the enjoyment of my remaining days the actual vision of your Paradise upon earth and the charm of personal interviews with its amiable inhabitants. But it is yet uncertain whether the session of Congress will not be protracted beyond the anniversary day, and if it should be, an indispensable attendance upon public duties will detain me here. If it should not, a precarious state of health and increasing infirmities, enjoin upon me to return as speedily as possible to the retirement and repose of my own resistance at the North. But on the day of the celebration I will be with you in the Spirit. I will leave your invitation as a precious
Page 3:
legacy to my children, and on that day, and to the end of my life, I will invoke the father of mercies that the lot of the ladies of the Wyoming Monumental Association, and of all the dwellers in that region, may hereafter be as prosperous and happy, as the day of their commemoration was calamitous and afflictive. John Quincy Adams
Page 2:
from his lips the deeply interesting and authentic details of that historical epoch, which for a period of years he has been so indefatigably treasuring up for the instruction of aftertimes-nor are the genial influences of the flowery season without their stimulants to visit that happy portion of Pennsylvania, where the fascinating beauties on the surface of the soil, are but the index to the mineral of riches beneath. My imagination can scarcely conceive a more copious aggregate of inducement to accept with more than cheerful eagerness the tender of your congenial hospitality, and to secure for the enjoyment of my remaining days the actual vision of your Paradise upon earth and the charm of personal interviews with its amiable inhabitants. But it is yet uncertain whether the session of Congress will not be protracted beyond the anniversary day, and if it should be, an indispensable attendance upon public duties will detain me here. If it should not, a precarious state of health and increasing infirmities, enjoin upon me to return as speedily as possible to the retirement and repose of my own resistance at the North. But on the day of the celebration I will be with you in the Spirit. I will leave your invitation as a precious
Page 3:
legacy to my children, and on that day, and to the end of my life, I will invoke the father of mercies that the lot of the ladies of the Wyoming Monumental Association, and of all the dwellers in that region, may hereafter be as prosperous and happy, as the day of their commemoration was calamitous and afflictive. John Quincy Adams
Creator
- Adams, John Quincy, 1767-1848 (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu