Adams Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0215

To John Adams from William Smith, 12 June 1790

From William Smith

Boston. 12th. June. 1790.

Dear Sr.

I have to acknowledge the Rect. of your esteem’d favor of the 20 Ulto. Our Genl. Assembly are now in Session.1 their Conduct thus farr has been perfectly Fœderal, how long it may continue is uncertain. I am sorry that the assuming the State Debts & funding the Continental Debt are so long delay’d. so long as we are kept in suspence we are a prey to Speculators as most of our circulating Cash is employ’d in trading in paper.— ’till the Debt is fix’d but very little other Business can be carr’d on.— I do not find in the funding Bill any provision made for the New Emission Money, which runs on Interest & which Congress pledg’d their Faith to redeem & pay the Interest annually, provided the States neglected to make provision.2 One Years Interest only has been paid. I have a considerable sum in this kind belonging to my father’s Estate, which has lain for a number of Years.—3 Our Court has given up the Light Houses in this State to Congress, it will be necessary for Congress, soon to make the Law regulating Pilots. &c at present the Pilots of this port are under no controul. shou’d this Law be bro’t forward, the Marine Society of this port, wou’d be happy to render their services to put the Pilots on a proper footing.4

Mrs. Smith joins me in respects to Mrs. A— & yourself.—

Yrs. Most Respectfully

Wm. Smith.

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “The Vice-President / of the United States / New-York.”; endorsed: “Mr W. Smith / 12. June 1790.”

1. The Mass. General Court met from 26 May to 25 June (Mass., Acts and Laws description begins Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1780–1805], Boston, 1890–1898; 13 vols. description ends , 1790–1791, p. 91; Stockbridge, Mass., Western Star, 6 July).

2. On 18 March 1780 Congress replaced Continental currency with a “new emission” that was guaranteed as national legal tender and earned 5 percent interest (Ferguson, Power of the Purse description begins E. James Ferguson, The Power of the Purse: A History of American Public Finance, 1776–1790, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1961. description ends , p. 51).

3. Isaac Smith Sr., who died three years earlier, had suffered several financial setbacks from the depreciation of public securities and the loss of two merchant ships (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 , 8:196, 210).

4. The Mass. General Court passed an act on 10 June 1790 transferring all ownership deeds and maintenance duties of several public lighthouses to the U.S. government. Federal oversight, however, remained murky. The Lighthouse Act of 7 Aug. 1789 stipulated that pilots would be supervised by the states until Congress made new legislation. Although Congress amended the Lighthouse Act on 19 July 1790, and George Washington signed it into law three days later, it contained no guidelines for pilot regulation (Mass., Acts and Laws description begins Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1780–1805], Boston, 1890–1898; 13 vols. description ends , 1790–1791, p. 7–9; U.S. Statutes at Large description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, 1789–, Boston and Washington, D.C., 1845–. description ends , 1:53–54, 137; First Fed. Cong. description begins Documentary History of the First Federal Congress of the United States of America, March 4, 1789 – March 3, 1791, ed. Linda Grant De Pauw, Charlene Bangs Bickford, Helen E. Veit, William C. diGiacomantonio, and Kenneth R. Bowling, Baltimore, 1972–2017; 22 vols. description ends , 1:422, 440).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    To John Adams from William Smith, 12 June 1790
    Author
    Smith, William
    Recipient
    Adams, John
    Date
    12 June 1790

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To John Adams from William Smith, 12 June 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0215. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 20, June 1789–February 1791, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Gwen Fries, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020, pp. 380–381.]

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