Adams Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0283

To John Adams from William Smith, 21 January 1791

From William Smith

Boston. 21st. Jany. 1791

Dear Sr.

I take the freedom to introduce to your notice Major Kent. a Grandson of the late Cap Kent of Charlestown. he goes to Philadelphia, to procure from Congress the same compensation for his services as the other Officers of the late Army receiv’d.—1 He enter’d the Army as a private in Col. Henry Jackson’s Regt. by his good conduct was soon promoted as an Officer and continued in the service ’till the Fall of the Year 1782. when his Health was so impair’d from continued attention to his Duty, that by advice of his Physician & consent of the Commander in Chief he resign’d his Commission. unfortunately abt. two Months before the Resolve of Congress was passd. allowing five Years pay.— as he faithfully perform’d his duty & retir’d with honor to recover his Health impair’d in the service of his Country. his Friends have recommended his applying, as his case is singular no other Officer being in the same situation. some Officers recd. this Allowance who had been in the service but a few Months—

I observe by the Papers that the Report of the Secy. for an additional Duty on Rum & the Excise wou’d probably be adopted.2 the present Duty is now exceeding high & principally falls on the Importer I think it wou’d be just to pospone the commencement of the New Duty on Imported Rum to the 1st. July to give those who have sent their Vessells on Rum Vo. an oppertunity to return. as it was expected when their Vessells sail’d to pay only the present Duty & had calculated their Vo. on that duty. this delay can be of no detriment to the publick, as the Interest does not commence for a Year for which these dutys are said [. . . .] of payment of the Duty on Rum shou[. . . .] extended to 6 or 9 Ms.

Mrs. S. joins me in our best regards to you & Mrs. Adams—

I am with great Respect / Yr Most H Sert

Wm. Smith

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “The Vice-President / of the / United States.”; internal address: “His Exy. John Adams Esqr:”; endorsed: “Mr Smith”; notation: “Major Kent.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.

1Former Continental Army major Ebenezer Kent Jr. (1759–1812) was the grandson of Capt. Ebenezer (1700?–1776) and therefore a distant relation of AA’s by marriage. Major Kent, who served in Col. Henry Jackson’s artillery regiment from Feb. 1777 to Jan. 1781, appealed to Congress for a pension because he had “injured his constitution by great exertions” at the Battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778. Kent’s claim and those of many more veterans were laid before Congress on 15 Oct. 1792. Progress on their requests was hindered by a lack of muster rolls and a dearth of clear record-keeping during the Revolutionary War (Heitman, Register Continental Army description begins Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army during the War of the Revolution, rev. edn., Washington, D.C., 1914. description ends ; 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 , 1:220, 10:360; Amer. State Papers description begins American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1832–1861; 38 vols. description ends , Claims, p. 57, 63, 111).

2Congress was still working to enact legislation based on the terms and duties proposed in Alexander Hamilton’s 14 Jan. 1790 report on the public credit, for which see Stephen Higginson’s letter of 1 March, and note 2, above. Six days after Smith wrote this letter, the House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 35 to 21, the Whiskey Act, a controversial piece of legislation that laid an excise on domestic and imported liquors. Farmers in western Pennsylvania, who reaped extra revenue by distilling surplus grain into liquor, were incensed that the heavy federal tax fell on small producers. Their outrage gave rise to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 (U.S. House, Jour. description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1789–. description ends , 1st Cong., 3d sess., p. 364–365; 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 , 9:320, 10:index).

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