To John Adams from Jabez Bowen, 14 June 1790

From Jabez Bowen

Providence June 14. 1790

Sir

I most sincearly Congratulate you on The accession of Rhode Island to the Union. by this event the Chain seems compleat. may our publick deliberations be conducted with that wisdom as shall insure Happiness to this great Nation.

I have just return’d from attending our Genl Assembly, Convened on purpose to Elet Senators and prescribe the mode of Choosing the Representative. Your Humble Servant was a Candidate for a Senator, but was not able to obtain; the whole of the Paper Money and Antifederal Intrest being oposed to him. Theodore Foster Esqr. who is appointed is and has been Federal. but being Brother in Law to Govr Fenner we fear will be totally against the Assumption. Joseph Stanton the other Senator is a full blooded Anti and a strong advocate for paper Money. hope they will both be for promoting the General good when deteached from their old Connections.1

I have wrote the President of the United State praying him to appoint my Son Oliver Bowen to the place of Navel Officer for the District of Providence he is about Twenty two Years of Age has had a Liberal Education and at present attends an Apothecarys Shop. the U. States owe me nearly Twenty Thousand Dollars which I lent them in the Years 1776 & 77, which puts it out of my power to provide for him at present. Theodore Foster Esqr was the Navel Officer. by his appointment as a Senator it will become vacant. if you will be so kind as just to second my application to the President shall esteem my self under many Obligations to you therefor.2

I Remain with sentiments of the / highest Esteeme your Excellencys / most Obedient Humb. Servant

Jabez Bowen

P.S. The Bill which originated in the Senate for stopping intercourse with Rd Island & the demand for 27. thousand Dollars. were the procuring Causes of the Adoption of the Constitution.3

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “~~Honble~~ Excellency John Adams”; endorsed: “Jabez Bowen / 14. June. 1790.”

1. Antifederalist Arthur Fenner (1745–1805) was the clerk of the Providence Court of Common Pleas. The Rhode Island legislature elected him governor on 5 May, and he served until his death (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 , 14:299; DAB description begins Allen Johnson, Dumas Malone, and others, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, New York, 1928–1936; repr. New York, 1955–1980; 10 vols. plus index and supplements. description ends ). For the election of Rhode Island’s members of Congress, see Henry Marchant’s letter of 29 May, and note 2, above.

2. Bowen had written to George Washington a day earlier, soliciting a post for his son Oliver (1767–1804), Brown University 1788, but he was unsuccessful (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987–. description ends , 5:516, 517).

3. For the Rhode Island trade bill, see JA’s 19 May letter to William Ellery, and note 2, above.

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: To John Adams from Jabez Bowen, 14 June 1790
Author: Bowen, Jabez
Recipient: Adams, John
Date: 14 June 1790

Reference

Cite as: “To John Adams from Jabez Bowen, 14 June 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0216. [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. 381–382.]

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