John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams, 2 April 1803
John Quincy Adams to Thomas Boylston Adams
Boston 2. April 1803.
My dear Brother
The House of Bird, Savage and Bird have stop’d payment, and probably the bill I drew upon them which you negotiated last November, will come back protested—1 In that case, settle the amount to be paid, with the indorsee duly entitled to it, who may call upon you; let me know the amount and I will send you a post note for it— Be careful to see that the protest and proceedings have all been regular, and take a receipt for the full amount you pay as it will be necessary to establish my claim upon the house— I hope they will eventually pay all demands against them— Inquire whether they have any debtors in Philadelphia, and if you find any property and can take hold of it, by process of foreign attachment in my name, do it immediately.
Your’s faithfully.2
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Thomas B. Adams— Philadelphia.”; APM Reel 135.
1. Before departing Europe in 1801 JQA had placed $13,000 of his own money and $18,000 of proceeds from his father’s investments in the Netherlands in the London firm of Bird, Savage, & Bird, depending on its reputation as the British banking house of the U.S. government. The 21-year-old firm was actually in a precarious position, weakened by the poor performance of investments in the United States and the East Indies and losses from French attacks on British shipping during the previous decade. The firm stopped paying drafts on 7 Feb. 1803, and its principals Henry Bird and Benjamin Savage declared bankruptcy in a British court on 12 June. JQA learned of the failure in a circular letter he received on 1 April and the next day traveled from Boston to Quincy where he informed his parents of the “misfortune,” for which see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 3, above (D/JQA/27, APM Reel 30; R. B. Bernstein, The Education of John Adams, N.Y., 2020, p. 208; , 1:263–264; , 4:317–318; , 5:41–42; Stephen K. Williams, Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, rev. edn., 60 vols., Rochester, N.Y., 1917–1920, 3:293; , 1:185–186, 196). For the New York bankruptcy of Robert Bird, principal of the firm’s U.S. subsidiary Robert Bird & Company, and the ultimate disposition of the case, see JQA to WSS, 2 Jan. 1804, and note 1, below.
2. JQA followed this letter with four more to TBA in April and May 1803. On 8 April he reported that Rufus King had agreed to temporarily cover the drafts JQA had drawn on Bird, Savage, & Bird. Then on 10 May he asked TBA to research lawsuits relating to the bank failure (both LbC’s, APM Reel 135). JQA also wrote on other topics, describing his literary endeavors and commenting on Pennsylvania politics on [18 April] (private owner, 1961) and on 22 May (Adams Papers) reporting on shipments of books and other items sent and received (JQA to Rufus King, 8 July, NHi:Rufus King Papers).