Adams Papers
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Charles Adams to John Adams, 31 January 1799

Charles Adams to John Adams

New York Jany 31st 1799

My dear Sir

Mr Francis Baretto has as he informs me applied for the Consulate at Madeira and has requested me to mention you to him as an acquaintance. He is a Native of that Island though for many years a Citizen of this Nation He has been known to me for more than ten years and his misfortunes of various kinds have excited my compassion and esteem as I beleive he did not merit them.1 If I should err with respect to my sentiments of what are here called Hamilton’s appointments I hope you will not impute it to any wrong motive He has become the Universal Recommendator Many of the appointments made as I have reason to beleive at his request are spoken of as extremely improper I could mention many Daubeny for instance as first Leutt of the Navy when there is not a single Merchant who would trust him with the Command of a Sloop of Twenty tons

Nay he even went so far as to say at his own Table when I was present; that he had, in his own words “Been that day appointing a Son of the Notorious Bill Livingston’s a Midshipman in our Navy” This modest speech was addressed to Church whose reply was you have then I find weaknesses not confined to the female sex: which produced a laugh and perhaps was not thought of by any person but myself afterwards.2

We are all well and happy in the company of my brother Thomas who I think is less altered than any person who has resided so long in Europe. Little pratler Susan says, she must go to Philadelphia to see Grandpapa who loved her so much and told her to come She looks at the picture and says Grandpapa will have me go to him he told me so himself

With sincere affection and respect / I am Yours

Charles Adams

RC (Adams Papers).

1Francis Baretto (Barretto) had been working as a wine merchant in New York since at least 1790. He was not appointed consul at Madeira, although he was considered for the post in 1800 and 1806 (New York Daily Gazette, 10 April 1790; John Marshall to JA, 25 Aug. 1800, Adams Papers; Samuel Latham Mitchill to James Madison, 21 April 1806, DNA:RG 59, Letters of Application and Recommendation).

2Alexander Hamilton’s Dec. 1798 correspondence with James McHenry frequently offered recommendations for appointments. No recommendation for Lloyd S. Daubeny, however, has been found. Daubeny had been appointed a lieutenant in the navy by JA during the congressional recess and would be confirmed by the Senate on 5 Feb. 1799. Benjamin Stoddert wrote to Hamilton on 6 Feb. expressing his hope “that Daubeny should continue to deserve your good opinion.” William Mallet Livingston received a commission as a midshipman on 31 Dec. 1798. He was the son of Col. William Smith Livingston (1755–1794), Princeton 1772, an officer during the Revolutionary War, who had been shunned after he shifted his political allegiance away from the Federalists in the early 1790s (Hamilton, Papers description begins The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, ed. Harold C. Syrett, Jacob E. Cooke, and others, New York, 1961–1987; 27 vols. description ends , 22:378, 380, 468–469; U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour. description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, Washington, D.C., 1789–. description ends , 308, 310; Register of Officer Personnel United States Navy and Marine Corps and Ships’ Data 1801–1807, Washington, D.C., 1945, p. 32; Maturin Livingston Delafield, “Judge William Smith, of the Supreme Court of the Province of New York,” Magazine of American History, 6:277 [April 1881]; 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 , 2:236, 239–240).

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