Adams Papers
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Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw, 27 April 1801

Thomas Boylston Adams to William Smith Shaw

Philadelphia 27th: April 1801

Dear William

I have your letter of the 17th:, which travelled, from Boston hither, in very agreeable company.1 I can readily conceive, the novelty of your situation in a lawyers office, joined to other novelties of quite as pleasant a nature, would tend to distract your thoughts, for some time.

Without undertaking to advise you on the subject of your recent pursuit, I will barely say, that the Office of my principal, were I to be again a student, should be my place of dwelling, almost uninterruptedly during the first twelve or fifteen months of my apprenticeship; during this time, you ought to read Blackstone, Cooke on Littleton, the two first vol’s of Hume’s England; Robertson’s Charles 5th: & Reeve’s history of the Eng: law.2 What course your patron will advise I know not, but all other advice ought to be subservient to his direction. As a general memento, you may learn from me, that the best time to study law, is while you are in the Office of another person, for after you have one of your own, your attention & time must be occupied, chiefly by attendance upon Courts &ce:. It was not until I had considerable experience, that I could look upon a Client in any other light than an intruder into my Office, and nothing but his fee could persuade me to the Contrary. Jo: Dennie says he used to lock his office door to keep Clients out. This is no violence to the truth, in his case, as I can readily conceive.

I shall be obliged to you, for occasional memoirs of town & Country occurrences, and will give you similar coin in return.

I am glad you have a chief magistrate, of your choice, and hope this may always be your lot, as it is mine, never to have been gratified in this particular.

The Shee Genl: after all, would not be Marshall, & therefore a far more ignoble man, has been appointed in his room—a man of crimes; if report be true. I do not know the man, even by sight; his reputation is much of a piece with that of many of our State Officers; indeed, I think it a pity, that the President, in appointing this man, has, so far, diminished the list of Candidates for the patronage of our Governor.3

I have nothing new to offer— Present me kindly to all friends, and particularly to Mr: & Mrs: Foster—

Your’s

T. B. Adams.

Tell Mr: Callender, if you please, that the lottery in which he is interested has commenced & nearly finished drawing— I leave the examination of his tickets ’till the last.4

RC (MWA:Adams Family Letters); addressed: “William S Shaw / Boston”; internal address: “W. S. Shaw”; endorsed: “T B Adams Esqr / rec 11 May”; docketed: “1801 April 27.”

1Not found.

2In addition to the standard texts by William Blackstone, Edward Coke, and David Hume, TBA recommended William Robertson, History of the Reign of Charles V, 3 vols., London, 1769, and John Reeves, History of the English Law, 2 vols., London, 1783–1784.

3Thomas Jefferson on 28 March commissioned Philadelphia merchant John Smith as marshal of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania after Col. John Shee declined to serve. Jefferson submitted to the Senate a nomination for Smith’s reappointment on 6 Jan. 1802, which the Senate confirmed on the 26th. Smith, an officer in the city militia, helped organize a Philadelphia celebration of Jefferson’s inauguration. In an 11 March 1801 letter to the president, Smith denied “a Cruel report by some ill disposed person” that he supported Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg over Thomas McKean for governor. The “ill disposed person” may have been Philadelphia sheriff Israel Israel, a political opponent of Smith and a confidant of TBA (vol. 14:482; 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 , 33:246–247, 675; 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 , 7th Cong., 1st sess., p. 403, 405).

4The Easton Delaware Bridge Lottery was authorized by the Pennsylvania legislature to raise money for the construction of a covered bridge across the Delaware River between Easton, Penn., and Phillipsburg, N.J. Tickets cost $10 each and prizes ranged from $10 to $5,000, with a series of drawings begun on 3 April and set to end on 25 May. TBA monitored the lottery on behalf of Harvard College classmate and Boston attorney John Callender (vol. 9:236; Steven M. Richman, The Bridges of New Jersey, New Brunswick, N.J., 2005, p. 97–98; Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 27 April, 1 May).

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