Adams Papers
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Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams, 26 July 1800

Thomas Boylston Adams to John Adams

Philadelphia 26 July 1800.

Dear Sir.

Your kind favor of the 14th: has been some days in hand— I thank you for your tender solicitude for my health & success— As to the first I can say, with thankfulness that it is better than usual at this melting season— To the second, I can reply, that my professional success, is sufficient to keep me above despondency, though far short of my necessities. On Tuesday last I argued a cause of considerable consequence in the District Court— The claim was by a Master & one of the Marriners of a Ship, against the Owners, for Salvage, having rescued the ship & Cargo from the hands of nine frenchmen, and navigated her safe into Charleston S. C. The Ship & Cargo were insured as was also a part of the Cargo which was on freight— The Captain in hopes of being handsomly compensated for his services & those of his associates, neglected to libel in the Admiralty— The Cargo is sold, the Ship goes upon a new voyage— The french prisoners are released & dispersed, without proving by their testimony, the recapture, and when the Master arrives a twelvemonth afterwards at Philadelphia with the Ship, he libels in the Admiralty for salvage— The ship is seized, but the Cargo was gone we were therefore under the necessity of hazarding a process in personam, because we could not proceed in rem. This brought forth a plea to the jurisdiction, which was argued on tuesday; by Ingersoll, Dallas & myself, against Moylan— After taking up the whole forenoon the Judge overruled the plea to the jurisdiction, and ordered the argument on the merits to be adjourned till next Court day, which was yesterday— When we appeared in array before his Honor and I proceeded to open the cause of the Libellants and to offer the testimony upon which we relied to make out our claim— Lewis & Rawle appeared on behalf of the Owner of the ship & part of the Cargo, & Moylan for the Owner of the other part— They attempted to sever in their defence— One had plead to the jurisdiction the other had not— One had issued a Commission to take depositions at Charleston, in which the other had not joined, & therefore contended that the evidence & proof developed by that Commission, should not be made use of against him— They opposed in every stage the proofs & exhibits offered by us, but the Judge generally overruled in our favor, & suffered the testimony to be read, where he thought proper— But neither the protest of the Captain & his associate nor their depositions were permitted to be read, so that we were hard pushed to prove the recapture, being obliged to rely, rather on presumption, from a comparison of dates, than any positive testimony— There was a charge of Barratry also against our Clients, which we were constrained to repel, & for which we were unprepared, except by casting the presumption of spoliation upon the Captors, & putting the adverse party to the proof of the fact—1

These are the principal features of the case, and they will doubtless appear to you, various—but whether that the relation will excite any interest, further than as a cause in which I was concerned, is more than I could wish or expect—

We are yet in limine, after wasting two Court days, in the discussion, but my portion of the duty is discharged, and I feel relieved from a very oppressive burthen, especially for hot weather— The Judge would have been better satisfied if the cause had come on last winter, when it was first instituted, and when the delights of Belmont, were not so seductive & inviting as at this season—

I have nothing new to offer, unless it be the enclosed Gazette, which contains the first number of an Electioneering series, written as I dare vouch by L. Haratio Stockton—District Attorney of N Jersey, a warm, grateful & zealous friend of yourself & family—2 The tincture of religious enthusiasm, is characteristic of the writers mind—

I have not seen Dr: Rush since the receipt of your favor— I wish he had less profession & more sincerity—but as the french say, á son age, on ne peut pas se corriger.3

I am dear Sir with love & duty to / my Mother & the family, Your Son

Thomas B Adams

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The President—”

1TBA served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs in Brevoor v. Fair American in U.S. District Court for Pennsylvania before Judge Richard Peters. The case stemmed from the 8 Oct. 1798 capture of the ship Fair American, Capt. John Christian Brevoor, by the French privateer L’Enfant de la Grande Revanche. Brevoor and crew members John Schier and Anthony Fachtman managed to retake the ship on 16 Oct., prompting them to claim a portion of the cargo as salvage. The owners of the vessel, Stephen E. Dutilh and John Gourjon, argued that the cargo remained their property. TBA was joined by Jared Ingersoll and Alexander James Dallas in representing Brevoor, Schier, and Fachtman, while William Lewis and William Rawle represented Dutilh, and Pennsylvania attorney Jasper Alexander Moylan (ca. 1759–1812) represented Gourjon. Peters rendered a verdict on 8 Aug. 1800 that favored the plaintiffs, although the award was less than TBA and his colleagues had hoped it would be; Brevoor received $2,176 and Schier and Fachtman $725 each (Admiralty Decisions in the District Court of the United States, for the Pennsylvania District, 2 vols., Phila., 1807, 1:87–103, Shaw-Shoemaker description begins Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker, American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819, New York, 1958–1966; 22 vols.; supplemental edn., Early American Imprints, www.readex.com. description ends , No. 13364; Doc. Hist. Supreme Court description begins The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800, ed. Maeva Marcus, James R. Perry, and others, New York, 1985–2007; 8 vols. description ends , 1:189).

2Lucius Horatio Stockton, who campaigned for the Federalist Party throughout New Jersey prior to the presidential election of 1800, was probably the author of eight essays under the pseudonym Horatius that appeared in the Trenton Federalist between 22 July and 16 Sept., the first of which criticized the appearance of “the dreadful hydra of jacobinism” in the United States and claimed that the goal of Democratic-Republicans was “the subversion of our government, the division of our property, and the shedding of our blood.” In a 27 Feb. 1805 letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, JA wrote of Stockton, “I will never forget him, because he was the only Man in America who understood my Administration and had the spirit to avow it and explain it in print” (Trenton Federalist, 22, 29 July 1800; 5, 12, 19, 26 Aug.; 9, 16 Sept.; Princetonians description begins James McLachlan, Richard A. Harrison, Ruth L. Woodward, Wesley Frank Craven, and J. Jefferson Looney, Princetonians: A Biographical Dictionary, Princeton, N.J., 1976–1991; 5 vols. description ends , 4:239; Biddle, Old Family Letters description begins Old Family Letters: Copied from the Originals for Alexander Biddle, Series A, Philadelphia, 1892. description ends , p. 65).

3At his age, we cannot mend our ways.

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