To John Adams from William Vaughan, 12 July 1788
From William Vaughan
London 12 July 1788—
Dear Sir
Our worthy friend Dr. Price has requested me to forward to you the last Volume of Gibbons’s History, and the appendix, to compleat your Sett.1 Mr Moore a gentleman returning back to Boston in the Nathaniel Capt Downe has been kind enough to take charge of a parcel for you2 I have to request your delivering a Pamphlet for the Boston Philosophical Society, and one for Cutler which comes through the hands of Sir Joseph Banks. You will also find a pamphlet respecting the principles of commerce; the novelty and liberality of its opinions gave me great pleasure.3 It has but just made its appearance here, and I think will not fail to give you some satisfaction.
I have just had some conversation with Mr T. Boylston who is a great advocate for the freedom of commerce. I learn he some Years ago committed his sentiments to paper. he has not these hints by him, and believes that Mr Bowdoin has them, could you obtain me a sight of them without much difficulty4
I hope you arrived safe out, and found the spirit of the new confederation gaining ground I beg you will present my best respects to Mrs Adams, your Son, & to Col & Mrs Smith when you write them. Our Ladies are all in the Country, my mother is quite recovered from her severe illness the last Winter.5 I am with respect / Dear Sir / Your most obedient / humble Servant
Wm Vaughan
RC (Adams Papers).
1. Vaughan sent the sixth volume of Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London, 1788, a copy of which is in JA’s library at MB ().
2. Mr. Moore has not been further identified, but the brig Nathaniel, Capt. Downes, arrived in Boston from London on 14 Sept. after a voyage of 58 days (Boston Gazette, 15, 22 Sept.).
3. Rev. Manasseh Cutler (1742–1823), Yale 1765, was an Ipswich, Mass., botanist. The pamphlet for Cutler from Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society, was likely Thomas Barker’s account of the annual growth of oak, ash, and elm trees, which was read at the society on 12 June. The pamphlet on commerce was presumably Benjamin Vaughan’s New and Old Principles of Trade Compared; or, A Treatise on the Principles of Commerce between Nations, London, 1788 (vol. 18:331; , 7:366; , 2:52; Thomas Barker, “Abstract of a Register of the Barometer, Thermometer, and Rain at Lyndon in Rutland, with the Rain in Hampshire and Surrey, in 1787. Also some Account of the Annual Growth of Trees,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 78:408–413 [1788]).
4. London merchant Thomas Boylston, a cousin of JA’s mother, was a sugar refinery owner who developed several schemes for the importation of whale oil from America to France and the subsequent exportation of sugar to the American market, for which see vols. 17:387–388; 18:220–221; , 4:342–343.
5. Sarah Hallowell (1727–1809), daughter of Benjamin Hallowell of Boston, married Samuel Vaughan on 1 Feb. 1747 (Emma Huntington Nason, Old Hallowell on the Kennebec, Augusta, Maine, 1909, p. 75).