Adams Papers
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Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 30 March 1801

Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw

Philadelphia 30th: March 1801.

Dear William

I had not time to write before the departure of the post to day, to both you & my mother, and having received a letter from her she was best intitled to my earliest regards, though, if I rightly remember, you favor written at Suffield has not yet been acknowledged—1

Watsons Bill is enclosd as you desire— Dickins is not your debtor But you are his to the amount of four or five dollars, as I wrote you before.2 How shall I pay you for the Book you brought me?

I exhibited the order for the three remaining vol’s of the journals of Congress to Hyde, who says only the 11th: is yet printed and that the others will not be ready these two months—3

What interest is making for a new Governor in your State? Will Gerry run again for the seat?4 We hope to create a diversion in favor of Genl: Muhlenberg here—the Republicans are divided as to him, & if he would consent to run, the Germans would nearly all vote for him; the federalists, I fear, will let slip this only chance of getting rid of the old rascally tyrant, who goads & vexes them without mercy—5 I would vote for any united Irishman, as soon as I would for McKean— Hear a fact of recent date. Col: John Shee who held the office of Inspector of flour, under the Governor was appointed to supercede the Marshall— He declined the honor intended him, prefering less honor & more profit in the place he held— The Governor signified to him his pleasure, that he should accept the proffered appointment, since he could no longer continue as inspector of flour, the office having been bestowed on his son Mr: Robert McKean—6 We must say of Mr: Mc:Kean, that he acts independently, for in spite of all that his party can do, he will provide snug birth’s for his family—

I enclose you a paper, which I wish you to exhibit to the Clerk of the Circuit Court, and to ascertain whether the costs in any of the enumerated cases, have been received—7 If so—whether he is disposed to pay them over to you, when you shall be authorized to receive them?

When do you begin your studies? With whom & where?

I am, Dear Shaw, / Your friend

T B Adams

RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “William S Shaw / Quincy”; internal address: “W S Shaw”; endorsed: “rec 9th April / An 17—”; docketed: “T B Adams / Ansd. 17.”

1Not found.

2The enclosed bill from Philadelphia tailor Charles C. Watson has not been found. In letters of 13 Jan. and 9 Feb. (both MWA: Adams Family Letters), TBA informed Shaw that he had shipped him several copies of JQA’s translation of Friedrich von Gentz’s Origin and Principles of the American Revolution to sell in Washington, D.C., reporting in the second letter that publisher Asbury Dickins was demanding payment for the pamphlets in excess of $9 (vol. 14:291, 292).

3George Hyde operated a bookbinding business at 149 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Hyde was binding printer Richard Folwell’s publication of a thirteen-volume edition of the proceedings of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1788, Journals of Congress, Phila., 1800–1801, the final four volumes of which were printed in 1801 (Philadelphia Directory, 1801, p. 23, 90, Shaw-Shoemaker description begins Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker, American Bibliography: A Preliminary Checklist for 1801–1819, New York, 1958–1966; 22 vols.; supplemental edn., Early American Imprints, www.readex.com. description ends , No. 1347).

4For the Massachusetts gubernatorial election, see JA to TBA, 6 April, and note 1, below.

5Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746–1807) was a Democratic-Republican who advised Thomas McKean in his successful 1799 campaign for Pennsylvania governor. Muhlenberg was elected to the Senate in Feb. 1801, and rather than oppose McKean in the upcoming gubernatorial election he resigned his seat in March to accept an appointment as supervisor of U.S. customs for the port of Philadelphia (ANB description begins John A. Garraty, Mark C. Carnes, and Paul Betz, eds., American National Biography, New York, 1999–2002; 24 vols. plus supplement; rev. edn., www.anb.org. description ends ).

6On 18 March Thomas Jefferson recorded a recess appointment of Col. John Shee to succeed John Hall as marshal of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Shee (d. 1808), an officer in the Pennsylvania militia and a Democratic-Republican stalwart, declined the post. Thomas McKean had actively sought employment for his son Robert (b. 1766), asking Jefferson on 10 Jan. to consider him for federal posts because an appointment as Philadelphia city auctioneer “was all I could do for him.” No federal appointment was forthcoming and the younger McKean resigned the auctioneer post on 2 Feb., apparently serving as Philadelphia inspector of flour from that time until his death on 3 June 1802, the same day the senior McKean appointed Shee to the flour inspector post (Jefferson, Papers description begins The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Julian P. Boyd, Charles T. Cullen, John Catanzariti, Barbara B. Oberg, James P. McClure, and others, Princeton, N.J., 1950– . description ends , 32:434, 435; 33:219, 247, 664, 674; 35:102; W. A. Newman Dorland, “The Second Troop, Philadelphia City Cavalry,” PMHB description begins Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. description ends , 49:185 [1925]; Roberdeau Buchanan, Genealogy of the McKean Family of Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Penn., 1890, p. 126–127; “Executive Minutes of Governor Thomas McKean 1799–1808,” Penna. Archives description begins Pennsylvania Archives, Selected and Arranged from Original Documents in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–1935; 119 vols. in 123. description ends , 9th ser., 3:1712). For the appointment of John Smith as marshal in Shee’s place, see TBA to Shaw, 27 April 1801, and note 3, below.

7Enclosure not found. Nathan Goodale (1741–1806) had been clerk of the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts since 1789 (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates description begins John Langdon Sibley, Clifford K. Shipton, Conrad Edick Wright, Edward W. Hanson, and others, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– . description ends , 14:427, 429; Baltimore Federal Gazette, 3 Aug. 1801).

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