183401Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In January 1766 John Adams, signing himself Clarendon, published three letters in the Boston Gazette in reply to William Pym, who had published four letters in the London Public Ledger , 13, 19, 26, 30 August 1765. Only the second of Pym’s letters was reprinted by a Boston newspaper, the Boston Evening-Post , 25 November. Adams’ was not the earliest reply, for Hampden had taken up the...
183402Enclosure: Account of Cash Paid to the Credit of John Barker Church, [25 January 1794] (Hamilton Papers)
Account of Cash paid & arising from Notes of hand to come to the credit of John Barker Church Esquire (thro the hands of Alexander Hamltion Esqr.) one half to be credited to account for three parcels of Lands purchased by Tench Coxe for the joint & equal account of sd. Church & said Coxe—AD. 1793 1793 By a Payment of Apl. 9 500 Dollars one half to be a loan to sd. Coxe on lawful interest...
183403Navy Department: Summaries of Dispatches from the Voyages of the Constellation and the Chesapeake, on or before 8 April … (Jefferson Papers)
Capt. Murray . Constellation 1802 14 March Off Cape Henlopen 30 April Off Malaga—shall proceed to Carthagena & endeavour to procure Anchors—if unsuccessful then shall proceed to Toulon—thence off Tripoli. 7 May Has procured an Anchor at Gibraltar. 1 June Tunis Bay. Took on board at Gibraltar Presents for the Bey, sent by Mr King—on his way stopped at Algiers, & had an interview with Mr...
183404Subscription for Christ Church Steeple, 18 March 1751 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Benjamin Dorr, A Historical Account of Christ Church, Philadelphia (New York and Philadelphia, 1841), pp. 98–9. The vestry of Christ Church, Philadelphia, unanimously voted, March 11, 1751, to erect a steeple and hang a chime of bells. The next week the subscription book was opened, Governor James Hamilton’s name leading the list of about three hundred signers with...
183405Editorial Note: Search for a European Concert on Navigation Law (Jefferson Papers)
In March 1791 the anxiety that Hamilton and his supporters felt about the threatened enactment of a navigation bill at the next Congress was matched by Jefferson’s fear that the sheet anchor of the commercial connection with France was about to give way. On both sides the apprehensions were fully warranted. Also on both sides preparations for the coming contest were under way. For his part,...
183406Volume 1 of John Adams’ A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America: Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In early September 1786, John Adams returned to No. 8 Grosvenor Square from a whirlwind summer trip to the Netherlands with wife Abigail ( John Adams Visits the Netherlands, 3 Aug. – 6 Sept. , above). Mulling over his political conversations with old friends in the Dutch Patriot Party, which seemed on the verge of victory over the pro-stadholder Orangist Party, Adams plunged into researching...
183407From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, [12 September 1766] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; extract reprinted from [Jared Sparks, ed.] A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin; Now for the First Time Published (Boston, 1833), pp. 275–7. I have just received Sir William’s open letter to Secretary Conway, recommending your plan for a colony in the Ilinois, which I am glad of. I have closed and sent it to him. He is not now in that...
183408Editorial Note on Franklin’s Accounts, 1782 (Franklin Papers)
During the period of this volume, Franklin attempted to settle his accounts with his landlord, le Ray de Chaumont. We publish the successive versions of these accounts, and we provide an overview of the dispute in a headnote to the first of them, [before April 26]. The following previously identified accounts still apply: VI and VII ( XXIII , 21); XII ( XXV , 3); XVII ( XXVI , 3); XIX and XXII...
183409[April 1754] (Adams Papers)
Then, Mr. Winthrop began a Course of Experimental Written in JA ’s experimental hand of 1754–1756, with this fragmentary line canceled and the date heading certainly intended to be. This false beginning of JA ’s notes on Winthrop’s lectures heads p. {7} of the MS and was lined out, presumably at once, because JA supposed that he would need more space than he had left for his (unwritten)...
183410The Embargo and New England: A Presidential Dilemma, 15 March 1809 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The winter months of 1808–9 witnessed extreme discontent in New England, with loyal Democratic Republicans trying to contain opposition to the Embargo and outraged Federalists insisting that the Embargo was unconstitutional, unenforceable, and even tyrannical. At Welles, in the Maine district, angry freeholders assembled on the first anniversary of the Embargo enactment and said the day marked...
183411Enclosure: Notes on the Advantages of a National Bank, [27 March 1791] (Hamilton Papers)
The Report to the House of representatives proposing the plan of a Bank, enters fully into the advantages attending institutions of this nature. They are summarily these. 1. They tend to increase the active or productive capital of a country by keeping it in more constant employment and by adding to the real, an artificial capital in the credit of the Bank which answers equally with specie the...
183412Abigail Adams to William Cranch, ca. April 1799 (Adams Papers)
If you was not a firm believer in that Holy Religion which comforts in affliction & Solaces us under every adverse occurrence in Life, I Should think it useless to quote to You that Scripture which says I have been young & now am old, yet have I never seen the Riteous Man forsaken or his seed begging Bread.— Your Mother put into my Hand the other day a Letter which I read with pain, and have...
183413Madison’s Response to John Armstrong’s Review (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The memorandum of documents printed below is the first indication that JM was beginning to gather material to answer allegations made by John Armstrong in an essay entitled “Appendix—Negotiation for Louisiana,” published in the New York Literary and Scientific Repository, and Critical Review in October 1821. The task would ultimately result in a compilation, entitled “Review of a Statement...
183414Introductory Note: Report on the Balance of All Unapplied Revenues at the End of the Year 1792 and on All Unapplied … (Hamilton Papers)
Republican leaders in Congress were determined to demonstrate that Hamilton’s administration of the Treasury Department was at worst corrupt or at best irregular. His opponents in Congress thought that they could discredit him by investigating the way in which he had handled the proceeds from two loans which Congress had authorized in 1790. “An Act making provision for the (payment of the)...
183415To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, [ca. 12 April] 1813 (Madison Papers)
This looks like seperation Jimmy the thing is ripening, and if the War continues 6 months it will be Matured. RC ( NN ). Postmarked New York, 12 Apr. Undated; date assigned here on the basis of the postmark. Docketed by JM, with his note: “Anonymous / Apl. 13. 1813 / Celebration of Russian Vicry. at Boston.” Damaged by removal of seal. On 13 and 27 Feb. 1813, the Boston Columbian Centinel...
183416Enclosure: [Amount Expended in Purchases of the Domestic Debt], [26 December 1794] (Hamilton Papers)
Amount expended in purchases of the domestic debt of the United States, pursuant to the fourth section of the Act of August, 12, 1790, entitled “An Act making provision for the reduction of the public debt,” viz . By Jonathan Burrall, per warrant, No. 2454, dated February 4, 1793, 50,000. By Samuel Meredith, 2482, dated Feb. 19, 1793, 234,901.89 By ditto, 3085, dated Sept. 2, 1793,...
Pursuant to the act, entitled “An act making provision for the reduction of the public debt,” the following persons named therein, on Thursday, the 26th day of August, 1790, at the city of New York, met and proceeded to business, viz. John Adams , Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate, John Jay , Chief Justice, Thomas Jefferson , Secretary of State, Alexander Hamilton...
183418To James Madison from John Armstrong, 14 February 1805 (Madison Papers)
Your letter of the 10th of November had a long passage, and the duplicate copy by the way of Marseilles, was the first to reach me. With the exception of one of the 4th. of September, this is the only letter I have received from you. The claims are now nearly brought to a close, and my next dispatch will probably present a final report with regard to them. Of all the business I have ever had...
183419Editorial Note on Promissory Notes, 1781 (Franklin Papers)
The supply of promissory note forms that Franklin had printed in February, 1780, was depleted as of mid-April, 1781, when L’Air de Lamotte resumed writing notes by hand. On May 8, Lamotte wrote a set for “Jno” Kerlin, who signed for five louis (120 l.t. ). This is the only recorded payment to a prisoner for the month of May. By June 9, a new set of forms had been printed. Samuel Snow, Nicholas...
183420Treasury Department Circular to the Collectors of the Customs, 25 June 1792 (Hamilton Papers)
As it is probable that doubts may arise, in regard to the construction of the fifth section of the Act, entitled, “An Act for raising a farther sum of money for the protection of the frontiers, &c.” that is, whether the additional Ten per centum, mentioned in the said section, relates only to the former rates of duties, laid by the Act “making farther provision for the payment of the debt of...
183421Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
German lieutenant general Wilhelm von Knyphausen temporarily commanded at New York while British general Henry Clinton directed the siege of Charleston, South Carolina. Believing that GW’s main army was weak, Knyphausen decided to launch an attack into New Jersey. In a letter written to George Germain nearly a month after his expedition, the German general explained his thinking: “Having...
183422Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
Prescott v. Keep, in which Keep, Adams’ client, was the original plaintiff, began with a complicated argument on a pleading point. The defendants sought to bar the action on the ground that the plaintiff had failed to join (bring in) his cotenants as coplaintiffs. The issues which seem to have been argued were whether defendants should have raised the point at the outset (that is, by plea in...
183423To Benjamin Franklin from Amelia Evans, [18 February 1766] (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society This morning I have had my difinitive answer from the family I am in, and am to go with them. The Ship in which they are to sail is now ready at Portsmouth and they only wait for the Consuls Credential letters which are hourly expected. The reason therfore Sir for my troubling you in this manner is to beg you will endeavour to have some estimation put on...
183424To Benjamin Franklin from [William Franklin], [December 1766] (Franklin Papers)
AL (fragments): American Philosophical Society [ Top part of first surviving sheet is missing. ] Side the Water. But, if we [ torn ] late Publications in Virginia [ torn ] still remains a considerable Spirit [ torn ] and Opposition. They have been told, and [ torn ] must know, that tho’ the Parliament have solemnly [dec]lar’d their Right to tax America, they do not mean to exercise it in...
183425Treasury Department Circular to the Commissioners of Loans, 29 October 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Mistakes have been frequently made by the Commissioners of Loans, in the certificates directed to me for the purpose of transferring stock from one office to another; either by erroneously indenting the marginal Check, or otherwise. And whenever inaccuracies of this kind have occurred, it has been thought adviseable to return such certificates to the holders, with some indefinite intimation,...
183426Republican Ascendancy in 1800: Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
For much of his tenure in office, Jay benefited from working alongside a state legislature and two presidential administrations that shared his Federalist leanings and facilitated his efforts to develop and implement policies for improving New York’s public health, economy, finances, and defenses. The state legislative elections and the subsequent presidential election of 1800, however,...
183427From Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Fox, 24 February 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Princeton University Library I have now the Pleasure of informing you, that on Friday last, in a Committee of the whole House, Mr. Secretary Conway mov’d that it should be recommended to the House to give leave to bring in a Bill for repealing the American Stamp Act, which Motion was seconded by Mr. Cooper: But an Amendment to the Motion being propos’d by the late Ministry, viz. instead...
183428To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, [1766?–1768] (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society P Collinson very Respectfull Inquires after his Dear Friends Health hopes to See him next Thurday. The Inclosed Letter Shows the purpose of the Ingenious Mr. Moors waiting on You to Show his Curious Types. Addressed: To / Benn. Franklin Esqr / at Mrs Stephensons in / Craven Street This note cannot have been written later than Aug. 11, 1768, the date of...
183429Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
This is a companion case to Bancroft v. Lee , No. 10 . John Crowningshield was one of the underwriters on the marine insurance policy taken out by Lee in 1762 upon one half the cargo of the schooner Merrill. He had submitted to the arbitration of Lee’s claim, and in 1765 he finally paid his share of the Merrill ’s loss after Lee had recovered judgment against him upon the arbitration award in...
183430Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
“A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” published unsigned and untitled in the Boston Gazette , 12 , 19 August, 30 September, 21 October 1765, was at once John Adams’ first effort to determine the significance of New England in American history and his initial contribution to the literature of the American Revolution. Seen from the first perspective, this work belonged to a genre...
183431Message to the New York State Senate, 22 February 1798 (Jay Papers)
I think it my duty to lay before you a petition and a number of affidavits, from which it appears, that in the town of Livingston, combinations of disorderly person have been formed to obstruct the course of justice and by force to exclude certain proprietors from the possession of lands which have been adjudged to them by the courts, and laws of the land; that the service of legal process is...
183432Ratification Of Tunis Treaty, 10 January 1800 (Adams Papers)
Sicome un Trattato de Pace ed’Amicizia fu definitivamente accomodato e conchiuso, tra li Stati Uniti d’America representati da William Eaton e James Leander Cathcart Esquires Commessari specialmente deputati per tal oggetto ed illustrissimo ed Excelentissimo Il Bey ed il Gioverno di Tunis Il quale Trattato é come segue, cio é a dire … Conoscere Facciamo sapere Qualmente io John Adams...
183433To John Adams from Benjamin Lincoln, 30 May 1789 (Adams Papers)
I am fully in sentiment with you respecting the danger of an established aristocracy and had I fully explained my self when I mentioned the subject in my letter of the 22 Ult o. there would not I suppose have been even a “seeming” difference in opinion thereon. The words slavery and aristocracy have been used here for political purposes as synonymous— They have been equally terrifying to Many...
183434Introductory Note: From Robert Morris, [7 June 1795], with enclosures (Hamilton Papers)
This letter is one of many which Morris wrote to Hamilton concerning a debt which Morris owed to John B. Church. Hamilton was directly involved in this transaction because he handled Church’s business affairs in the United States while Church, who had married Elizabeth Hamilton’s sister Angelica, was in his native England. Any student attempting to understand Morris’s numerous and involved...
Present Massachusetts, Rhodeisland, Connecticut New York, New Jersey, Pensylvania, South Carolina and Georgia. & from Maryland M r Ramsay from Virginia M r Lee.— Resolved Unanimously That whenever it shall appear to the Secretary of the United States of America for the department of foreign Affairs that their safety or interest require the inspection of any letters in any of the post Offices...
183436Editorial Note: Jefferson’s Letter to Philip Mazzei (Jefferson Papers)
On 24 Apr. 1796, Jefferson wrote a lengthy epistle to his former neighbor Philip Mazzei, who was by then living in Pisa ( Document I ). While the letter primarily discussed Mazzei’s lingering business affairs in Virginia and relayed news of his old friends, a single paragraph transformed this piece of private correspondence into the notorious “Mazzei letter” that plagued Jefferson for the...
183437Extract from the Journal of the New York Ratifying Convention, 26 July 1788 (Jay Papers)
[ JJ reads the circular letter that he drafted. It is agreed to unanimously. Ratification is formally voted, 30 to 27.] The Convention met pursuant Adjournment. Duplicate copies of the engrossed Declaration of Rights, and form of a Ratification of the Constitution for the United States, and explanatory Amendments, and of the Amendments recommended to be made therein, were read. Mr. President...
183438To Benjamin Franklin from James Parker, 11 November 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society Yours of Sept. 1. by Way of Philadelphia, I duly received, which is all I have been favoured with a great While: I congratulate you on your safe Return from Germany. I will do what is possible with B Mecom. With Respect to a new Supply of Types, I should either have been more explicit at first, or wrote again about them: But amidst the Manifold Distresses,...
183439To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Wharton, 12 June 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I wrote thee on the 9th which sent by Express after Capt. Egdon, but He not reaching the Vessell have deliverd them to Capt. Falkner, by whom thou’l receive this. We on the 10th. had the Pleasure of finding thou had wrote a Letter to the Commitee of Correspondence, which at once Stoppd the Virulence of the P--ry P--ty and gave them reason to Apprehend, that...
183440Editorial Note: Resolutions on Private Debts Owed to British Merchants (Madison Papers)
Among the leading public men of revolutionary Virginia JM’s rising eminence is the more noticeable because of his youth and the advantages attending it. As a man in his mid-twenties when the war began, unmarried and under no obligation to provide for a family, he had not been upon the scene long enough to become encumbered with the prewar debts that were the constant fret of almost all...
183441To Benjamin Franklin from George Wythe, 23 June 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS (mutilated): American Philosophical Society If our attorney gen[eral shall become speake]r of the house of burgesses, and thereby h[is post is vacant, as in] all probability will be the case, the govern[or will propose me] to succeed him; and that recommendation, I [am very sure] will be more effectual, were some of those great per[sons] to whom it must be addressed, to know that such a...
183442Introductory Note: Second Report on the Further Provision Necessary for Establishing Public Credit (Report on a National … (Hamilton Papers)
In preparing his “Second Report on the Further Provision Necessary for Establishing Public Credit,” Hamilton relied heavily on European precedents and theories of banking. The Bank of England and Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations undoubtedly influenced Hamilton’s thinking in varying degrees. It is more difficult, however, to generalize on the effect of earlier American experiments in banking on...
183443John Jay Proposes Altering Richard Oswald’s Commission Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
Discussions held prior to Jay’s arrival in Paris in June and subsequent changes in the British ministry set the stage for Jay’s efforts to insure Britain’s recognition of American independence before treaty negotiations began and to insist on a commission that would provide its representative at the peace table with powers comparable if not equal to those of his American counterparts. Jay’s...
183444Madison and “Americanus”, April-May (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
The letters of “Americanus,” addressed to JM and printed in the Philadelphia Democratic Press in April and May 1816, occupy a significant place in the history of white-Indian relations and in the politics of the 1816 and 1824 presidential elections. The immediate impetus to the publication of the letters was the report on Indian affairs submitted to the Senate by Secretary of War William...
183445Introductory Note: To George Washington, [14 April 1794] (Hamilton Papers)
The threat of war with Great Britain in the spring of 1794 was met in the United States with proposals for reprisals, for strengthening American defenses, and for negotiation. Most individuals who urged negotiation also advocated that the task be entrusted to a special envoy. Secretary of State Edmund Randolph stated on April 6 that he was “among the first, if not the first, who suggested this...
183446Editorial Note: Reports on Mediterranean Trade and Algerine Captives (Jefferson Papers)
For two and a half centuries after the brothers Barbarossa of Algiers had ceased to terrorize the Mediterranean, the great powers of Europe stood silent and subservient before their petty successors, allowing and even encouraging them to carry on their piracies because, as makeweights in the grand scales of politics, their usefulness seemed to counterbalance their cost in lives, tribute, and...
183447The Foreign Affairs Committee to the Commissioners, 30 April 1778 (Adams Papers)
By the Gazettes which accompany this letter you will see that the Enemy are entering upon a plan which must shortly perplex us much, unless we receive dispatches from you to enlighten us as to your Situation and Transactions of which we have had no information since the latter end of May. As we have heard of the loss of Capt. Johnston and Capt. Wickes and know that John Folgier was robbed, we...
183448Franklin’s Case, [c. 1 March 1784] (Franklin Papers)
D and incomplete press copy of D : American Philosophical Society The Patient is now in his 79th. Year. When a Young Man he was sometimes troubled with gravelly Complaints; but they wore off without the Use of any Medecine, and he remained more than Fifty Years free from them. In the Autumn of 1782, he had a severe Attack accompanied with what was thought to be a Gouty Pain in the Hyp, and...
183449Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
In the spring of 1774, when Adams was kept busy helping to draft the impeachment articles against Peter Oliver and reviewing the historical basis for Massachusetts land claims against New York, the Town of Boston found uses for him as well, particularly as passions mounted over the Port Act and, later, the Massachusetts Government and Administration of Justice Acts. The precise contribution...
183450Schedule A: [Estimate of the Funds Proposed in the Annexed Report], [13 December 1790] (Hamilton Papers)
Dollars 4000.000 Gallons of distilled spirits imported from foreign Countries at 8 Cents ⅌ Gallon } 320 000 3500 000 Gallons of spirits distilled in the United States from foreign Materials at 11 Cents ⅌ Gallon } 385 000 3000 000 ditto distilled from Materials of the United states at 9 Cents ⅌ Gall. } 270 000 Total Dollars 975 000 This schedule is in the writing of a clerk.