1. Not found. In the Adamses’ absence, the Knox family spent the summer at Bush Hill (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, Jennifer Stertzer and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987– . description ends , 8:203).

2. For the newspaper squibs, see JA’s 29 July letter to Thomas Jefferson, and note 1, below.

3. Jefferson wrote to Philadelphia merchant Jonathan Bayard Smith on 26 April, enclosing the London edition of Thomas Paine’s newly issued Rights of Man for Smith’s son Samuel Harrison Smith, who planned to publish a U.S. edition. The young printer extracted and twisted Jefferson’s words to salacious effect, praising Paine and condemning JA for the “political heresies” at work in his 1790–1791 Discourses on Davila. Above the book’s dedication to George Washington, Smith inserted Jefferson’s private comments, hinting broadly that the author was a “character equally eminent in the councils of America, and conversant in the affairs of France, from a long and recent residence at the Court of Versailles in the Diplomatic department.” One week later, Jefferson received his copies and was “thunderstruck” to read the unauthorized preface.

The backlash to Paine was swift on both sides of the Atlantic. Under the pseudonym Publicola, JQA wrote eleven newspaper essays attacking Paine’s full-throated support of the French Revolution, which appeared in the Boston Columbian Centinel, 8 June – 27 July 1791. Jefferson initially believed that JA was behind the work, observing on 28 June: “Nobody doubts here who is the author of Publicola, any more than of Davila.” Early British editions of the Publicola essays listed “John Adams, Esq.,” as the author, conflating JA with the true author, JQA, and stoking the debate. Subsequent British editions deliberately repeated the error, for which see John Stockdale’s 16 March 1793 letter, and note 2, as well as JA’s 12 May reply, both below. The ensuing public controversy pitted JA and Jefferson against each other in the highly partisan press, for which see JA’s reply to Knox of 19 June 1791, and Jefferson’s 17 July letter to JA, both below (vol. 20:338; Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 20:268–290, 582; AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 9:291, 433).

4. Shortly after his election in 1789, Washington asked JA if it would be “advantageous to the interests of the Union for the President to make the Tour of the United States, in order to become better acquainted with their principal Characters, & internal circumstances.” As a sequel to his New England sojourn of 1789, Washington left Philadelphia on 21 March 1791 and embarked on a tour of the southern states. He made stops in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. Enduring bad roads and rough weather, he was met with cheering crowds and lavish toasts. Washington, who documented the trip in his diary, returned to Philadelphia on 6 July (vols. 19:457, 20:179; Washington, Diaries description begins The Diaries of George Washington, ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, Chalottesville, Va., 1976–1979; 6 vols. description ends , 6:96–169; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, Jennifer Stertzer and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987– . description ends , 7:472–476).

5. This was Gen. Arthur St. Clair’s expedition to Ohio, for which see JA’s 2 March letter to Henry Marchant, and note 3, above.

6. WSS departed for England in Dec. 1790 to pursue business ventures. He returned to the United States via the British packet on 5 June 1791 (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 9:508).