To James Madison from William Bradford, 4 April 1775
From William Bradford
April 4th. [1775]1
My dear Sir
Though the business that at present surrounds me on every side, makes writing inconvenient, yet I cannot let Mr. Hoops2 return without a few Lines to one I value so much.
[Mr Dunlap’s paper &c]3 I send with this Furguson which I could not get for less than 12/ tho’ you will perceive it is somewhat soil’d. I also send the friendly address &c. & The other side of the Question.4 I dare not add more for fear of encumbering Mr. Hoops.
The Supream & Oyer & Terminer Courts5 which are just a[t] hand will keep me closely employed for some time. They begin the tenth day of this month when Young McAllister, (who you may remember was expelled from college) is to be tried in conjuntion with one Stewart a printer for counterfeiting the 50/. bills of Credit of this province. Clymer, with whom McAllister was studying Law, & several others are to be council for them but the fact is so plain, that the Eloquence of Gabriel could not prevent their conviction: whether their Youth, join’d to the intercession of their friends may induce the Governor to pardon them I cannot say.6
Adieu
W B Jun
1. Bradford left out the year in his notebook copy.
2. David Hoops.
3. Bradford’s brackets probably signify that he had expanded upon this subject in the original copy of this letter.
4. See Bradford to JM, 4 January 1775, n. 5. In his file copy, Bradford denoted the italicized word by a shorthand symbol.
5. An “oyer & terminer” (to hear and decide) court in Pennsylvania was a tribunal with criminal jurisdiction.
6. John M’Allister and Andrew Stewart (or Stuart). See Bradford to JM, 2 June 1775. M’Allister’s name does not appear on any undergraduate roster of the College of New Jersey known to the editors. Clymer was probably Daniel Cunyngham Clymer (1748–1819), College of New Jersey, ’66, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer who entered state politics after moving to Reading, Pa., in 1782 (Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, III [1879], 287, n. 3).