183481The Captivity of William Henry, 23–28 June 1768 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The London Chronicle , June 23–25, 25–28, 1768; autograph fragment in American Philosophical Society. The following essay poses a problem of authorship that cannot be conclusively solved. The essay itself is almost beyond doubt a hoax. Its ostensible purpose is to introduce the reader to a book which, insofar as negative evidence can be trusted, was never written. Its real purpose...
183482To Benjamin Franklin from James Parker, 15 July 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society On a Supposition that this may find you not embarked yet, on your Return home, I adventure to write once more: to acknowledge the Receipt of yours of May 9th. I think I told you in my last per Capt. Davis, my Reasons for delaying yet to print a News-paper, that is in Hopes of getting a Settlement with Holt, which he has promised to get done in three Months,...
183483Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
editorial note : The following weather diary for the first five months of 1780 was kept at Morristown, N.J., during GW’s second winter encampment there during the Revolution. It is one of the two surviving diaries for the war period. It represents one of the earliest instances of GW’s interest in keeping a weather record while away from Mount Vernon. The manuscript is neat, uniform, showing...
183484Editorial Note on the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 30 June 1775 (Franklin Papers)
On June 30, 1775, in response to a recommendation from the Philadelphia committee of inspection and observation, the Pennsylvania Assembly created a committee of safety. Twenty-five members were named, Franklin among them. The committee’s function was military: to call into service as many associators as it thought necessary, to pay them, and to supply their necessities; to encourage the...
183485Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
On 14 May 1782, two days after John Adams moved into the new American legation, John Thaxter inventoried the household furnishings. On 16 Oct., the day before Adams left The Hague for Paris and the peace negotiations, Thaxter likely reviewed his inventory, focusing on the glass- and dinnerware, to determine what had been added since 14 May or was missing or broken (see No. I, note 1 , below)....
183486Settling the Spanish Accounts Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
Not knowing when he left Madrid in May of 1782 whether or not he would return after completing his assignment in Paris, Jay decided to keep for the time being the rented home his family had been occupying. He departed for France before either his personal accounts in Spain or those of the government could be settled, leaving such matters in the charge of William Carmichael, secretary of the...
183487Editorial Note on Remedies for the Stone, 1782 (Franklin Papers)
Franklin received dozens of remedies for the stone during his stay in France, from friends and strangers alike. Most were unsolicited and many are undated. We have determined that most of the undated remedies were sent in response to later episodes; they will be noted in future volumes. The rest we describe here at their earliest possible date, following Franklin’s first attack. All of them...
183488Introductory Note: Outline for George Washington’s Fifth Annual Address to Congress, [November 1793] (Hamilton Papers)
In the period immediately preceding George Washington’s Fifth Annual Address to Congress on December 3, 1793, the President and the members of his cabinet held a series of meetings at which the contents of the message were discussed. Thomas Jefferson’s accounts of these meetings in the “Anas” indicate that he and Edmund Randolph disagreed with Hamilton on several occasions and that the...
183489Enclosure A: [List of Petitions for Compensations for Supplies], [16 April 1792] (Hamilton Papers)
Petition of Lewis Van Woert, Petition of John Holbrook, Jacob Green and others surviving partners of Nathaniel Green & Co. Ludwig Kuhn, Levy Bartleson, Abiel Smith, William Harris, Webb and White, Benjamin Van Fossan, Administrator of Peter Van Fossan. John Crumpton, and Griffith Jones.
183490Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
In crafting his response to James Fishback’s letter of 5 June 1809, Jefferson completed a draft that argued passionately and at length against intolerance and forced conformity in religion. Possibly reflecting that his letter was outspoken enough to create controversy and that he knew very little about Fishback or his discretion, Jefferson then substituted a briefer and less revealing version,...
183491From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwalader Evans, 9 May 1766 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Samuel Hazard, ed., Hazard’s Register of Pennsylvania xvi, No. 5 (August 1, 1835), 65. I received your kind letter of March 3, and thank you for the Intelligence and Hints it contained. I wonder at the Complaint you mentioned. I always considered writing to the Speaker as writing to the Committee. But if it is more to their Satisfaction that I should write to them...
183492Biographical Data (Washington Papers)
Information on the persons mentioned by GW during his stay on the island is in most instances scant. What follows is data obtained both from standard biographical references and from documents in the Barbados Department of Archives at Black Rock. The archives have suffered much from the ravages of time and climate, and identifications are made more difficult by GW’s customary use of surnames...
183493From Benjamin Franklin to Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, [10 May 1766] (Franklin Papers)
Extract: reprinted from Clarence W. Alvord and Clarence E. Carter, eds., The New Régime 1765–1766 , in Collections of the Illinois Historical Library, xi (Springfield, Ill., 1916), 338. This is the first of three brief extracts from letters by Franklin, the originals of which cannot be found, expressing approval of the proposed western settlement. All three have been tentatively dated May 10,...
183494Editorial Note: Reply to a Cherokee Delegation, 3 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
On Tuesday, 30 June 1801, “a Deputation from the Cherokee Nation of Indians on behalf of the said Nation” met with Henry Dearborn at the War Office. The delegation consisted of five Cherokee chiefs, their interpreter, Charles Hicks, and an assistant interpreter. The chief clerk of the War Department, John Newman, apparently kept the minutes of the conference. A chief called The Glass was the...
183495Notes on a Cabinet Meeting, 8 October 1804 (Jefferson Papers)
1804. Oct. 8. Present the 4. Secretaries. Yrujo’s and C. Pinckney’s communicns submitted. Cevallos’s 1st. condn as to giving time for commencement of Commissn. all agree we may fix a day with Yrujo not exceeding 6. months hence. say nothing which shall weaken our claims under the 6th. article, and repeat the explanation of the 4th. & 11th. article of the act of Congress already given him, and...
183496“Homespun”: Further Defense of Indian Corn, 15 January 1766 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser , January 15, 1766. This is the first of two letters Goddard reprinted in the Pennsylvania Chronicle , March 16–23, 1767, the authorship of which William Franklin later also attributed to his father. On January 2, writing as “Homespun,” he had replied briefly to aspersions on Indian corn by “Vindex Patriae” (above, pp. 7–8), and that writer had...
183497Request for Bids, 4 November 1789 (Hamilton Papers)
NOTICE is hereby given, that Proposals will be received at the office of the Secretary of the Treasury to the 5th day of December next, inclusively, for the supply of all rations which may be required for the use of the United States at the posts of West-Point, on Hudsons River, and of Springfield on Connecticut River, from the first day of January to the last day of December, 1790, including...
183498Enclosure: Silvanus Walker to Daniel Stevens, 1 September 1791 (Hamilton Papers)
Agreeable to your request I am to inform you that there is no manufactories carried on in the interior parts of this State only in private families; and they in general manufactor as much as they commonly wear a few samples of which I have enclosed you but am convinced from the small knowledge I acquir’d of that business and situation of that part of the country if the people could meet with...
183499To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 5 October 1813 (Madison Papers)
There is most shamefull conduct going on here. One John Tappan a verry religious man—and others—say B & C. Adams Tappan & Searle—Israel Thorndike—David Hinkley—a base sett of Tories—do enter Goods at Bath under Judge Sewall and Bond them by Apraisement in the most corrupt manner—there is now a cargo in their valud. at $300.000. I am told from good authority that John Tappan claimd 50 pacages...
183500Congress Debates the Commissioners’ Conduct Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
The General Washington reached Philadelphia on 12 March with the preliminary articles of peace and the accompanying dispatches, among them Jay’s long letter to the secretary for foreign affairs of 17 November 1782 . Captain Barney had sailed from France three days before the general peace had been concluded, thereby removing the commissioners’ substantial achievements from the context in which...
183501Petition of Thomas Jefferson and Others to the Virginia General Assembly, [before 13 December 1810] (Jefferson Papers)
To The General Assembly of Virginia , the Petition of the Subscribers, Inhabitants of the Counties of Albemarle , Louisa & Fluvanna , Sheweth: that the navigation of The Rivanna river from the Point of Fork to Milton , free from the obstacles, which at present impede it, is an object of great and general public utility, and would be particularly beneficial to all that tract of country...
183502Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
The constable of Roxbury had conveyed John Chaddock (alias Chadwick, Chattuck, or Shattuck), his wife, three children, and assorted household goods, to Brookline in January 1767, pursuant to a warrant of removal issued by a Roxbury justice of the peace. In 1760 the selectmen of Roxbury had warned a John Chaddock, or Chadwick, and family, out of the town after a two months’ stay. They now...
183503Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
James Madison was on poor terms with James Monroe after the latter’s abortive bid for the presidency in 1808 and accompanying flirtation with the Richmond Junto and the Tertium Quids led by John Randolph of Roanoke . Ever since his final departure from Washington , Jefferson had been anxious to see an end to this rift. He assured Madison on 30 March that Monroe had severed most of his ties to...
183504Editorial Note: Jefferson’s Opinion on the Treaties with France (Jefferson Papers)
Thomas Jefferson’s carefully qualified opinion in favor of the continued validity of the 1778 treaties of alliance and commerce with France was designed to resolve a neutrality question of fundamental importance raised by Alexander Hamilton in response to the arrival in Philadelphia early in April 1793 of reliable intelligence of the French Republic’s declaration of war on Great Britain and...
183505Editorial Note: The Case of Mace Freeland (Jefferson Papers)
This case, along with others that came to him during 1782, reveals Jefferson as turning seriously to the practice of the law. Perhaps the fact that the case of Mace Freeland seemed to offer an opportunity to reinforce those “principles of moderation and justice which principally endear a republican government to it’s citizens” may have induced him to accept it. At any rate on 12 Feb. 1782,...
183506An Address of the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York to Their Constituents Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
Lord Cornwallis took Fort Lee on 20 November 1776, and for the next five weeks the Continental army retreated across New Jersey closely pursued by an enemy seemingly on the verge of final victory. In that dark hour, two major spokesmen for the American cause, Thomas Paine and John Jay, penned inspirational essays rallying disheartened Patriots to the defense of the nation. Although Paine’s...
183507To Benjamin Franklin from ———, [on or after 14 October 1783] (Franklin Papers)
AL : American Philosophical Society Je crois devoir vous prévenir que Confiér les affaires de Mr Chaffert a de Baumont C’est a proprement dire donner la Brebis a garder au Loup ce dernier ayant fait cent Coquinneries dont quatre l’ont conduit en prison la derniére a la fin de juillet sans compter le courant Et notament des billets quil s’est fait faire par Chaffert soit disant pour Nouriture....
183508From Benjamin Franklin to William Franklin, [30 September 1766] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from extract in [Jared Sparks, ed.,] A Collection of the Familiar Letters and Miscellaneous Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1833), p. 279. I have just had a visit from General Lyman, and a good deal of conversation on the Ilinois scheme. He tells me, that Mr. Morgan, who is under-secretary of the Southern department, is much pleased with it; and we are to go...
183509To James Madison from Boston Fishermen, [ca. 21 February 1814] (Madison Papers)
The Petition of the Subscribers, Fishermen of Boston and its vicinity, humbly sheweth, That many of them have, inadvertently and without due reflection, signed a petition to the Legislature of Massachusetts, praying for relief from the restrictions imposed upon them by the “Act laying an Embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States.” They have since learnt,...
183510To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 17 August 1814 (Madison Papers)
As it appears you are wholly insensible of what is doing here, or intirely disregard the consequences of having such immense quantities of British goods brought into market, even under the eyes of the Custom House officers, and their Deputy’s who disregard there oaths, and are bribed to hold there tongues, and be out of the way—do you not know the effects—that it dreans the vaults of all the...
183511Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
Redevelopment of Boston’s North End is not a wholly modern phenomenon or problem. In the case which follows, Adams represented two housewrights and two bricklayers in an action of trespass brought by Jacob Emmons, alleging that on 30 April 1767 they “with force and arms . . . broke and entered the plaintiff’s Close” and “did then and there break down and erase to the foundation the brick walls...
183512To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 16 December 1809 (Abstract) (Madison Papers)
16 December 1809, Portland. JM’s remarks in his annual message to Congress regarding the militia prompted this letter, which might have been sent to Ezekiel Whitman, the Maine district congressman, but “he might not be so sensible of the importance of the subject as you appear to be.” Every man should attempt to qualify himself for militia duty, but there is an aversion stemming “from the...
183513Editorial Note (Adams Papers)
Today we would probably call this action tort for loss of consortium by seduction. In 18th-century England and Massachusetts, the cuckold’s remedy was an action of trespass for an assault on his wife, better known as “criminal conversation,” or just “crim. con.” Adams represented the defendant Little in the Inferior Court, and the testimony recorded in his minute fairly states the story....
183514To Benjamin Franklin from Mary Owen: Bill and Receipt, 8 October 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ADS : American Philosophical Society Before Franklin sailed from Pennsylvania in November 1764 his son William probably asked him to assume the immediate responsibility for the care and education of William Temple Franklin, the small son of an unidentified mother William had left in England two years before. The two men seem to have agreed that Benjamin would charge to William’s account all...
183515To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 28 October 1812 (Madison Papers)
We have heard today, the capture of another part of our Army, under Gen. Van Ranselear the death of 400 brave men in the field is nothing; but the surrender of one army after another, is Extreamly distressing to the people of this country; they remember with exultation to this day, the surrender of Genl Burgoine and Lord Cornwallis with two considerable british Armeés; and they can not...
183516Madison’s Detatched Memoranda, ca. 31 January 1820 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
This document presents a number of puzzles for the editors of James Madison’s papers. The manuscript is in Madison’s hand and it appears to have been written over the course of a relatively short period of time. The paper is of good quality and of uniform appearance, suggesting that the pages came from a single source. There are numerous emendations, deletions, and additions, most of which are...
183517Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
By the latter part of the 1790s Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had become bitter political opponents. The friendship they had forged as congressional and diplomatic colleagues, fellow revolutionaries, and members of George Washington’s administration did not survive the strain of Jefferson’s victory in the 1800 presidential election. Adams left the nation’s capital just before Jefferson’s...
183518Vergennes’s Response to News of the Preliminaries Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
On the evening before the signing of the Preliminaries, Franklin wrote to inform Vergennes that the preliminary articles had been drawn up and to express the hope that he would soon be able to send him a copy. The news could not have come as a complete shock to the French foreign minister, but he was pleased neither with the content of the articles nor the clandestine manner of their...
183519Jefferson’s Translation of Extracts from Destutt de Tracy’s Reflections on Montesqueiu’s First Twelve Books, [ca. 12 … (Jefferson Papers)
Extracts from the author’s r R eflections on Montesquieu’s 12. first books. ‘I have divided governments into two classes, to wit, those founded on the general rights of man, and those pretending to be founded on the rights of particular individuals. Montesquieu classes governments from the accidental circumstance of the number of men who are the depositories of the public authority: and he...
183520Madison on “The Earth Belongs to the Living” (Jefferson Papers)
I. TEXT AS RECEIVED BY JEFFERSON, 1790 II. TEXT AS REVISED BY MADISON LATE IN LIFE EDITORIAL NOTE In the well-known exchange between Jefferson and Madison on the concept that one generation cannot bind another in perpetuity, both men adhered in substance to the views as first expressed and then later revised the form of this expression (see Vol. 15: 384–99). Madison’s rephrasing, however, took...
183521John Jay Opens Negotiations with Aranda Editorial Note (Jay Papers)
Stricken by influenza soon after his arrival in Paris, Jay was unable until 3 August to begin discussions for a treaty of alliance with Spain with the Conde de Aranda, Spain’s ambassador to France, to whom Floridablanca had assigned this responsibility. Their initial conversations occurred without an exchange of powers. They are described by Aranda in his notes of 3 and 19–30 August, and by...
183522Editorial Note (Washington Papers)
After GW and his officers had made their decision to return to Great Meadows and prepare their defense against the French, they began preparations for the 12–mile march from Gist’s Settlement. The mountainous rocky terrain presented great difficulties particularly for the nine swivels brought up from Great Meadows. The teams of horses that had drawn the guns from the Meadows had been sent...
183523To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 16 March 1813 (Madison Papers)
I cannot be silent any longer when I find how liable, and how often you must be imposed upon by recommendations, petitions &ca signed by persons who call themselves Republicans. Great exertions are making in this Place in behalf of those aliens who are ordered to the back part of this state & Many letters, and petitions with such signatures as I have before stated will be sent to you,...
183524Cabinet Meeting. Notes Concerning the Conduct of the French Minister, [2 August 1793] (Hamilton Papers)
I Discussion of the points in controversy I fitting out privateers—1 as it stands on the general law of Nations—2 upon the Treaties ☞ Inlistment of our Citizens as connected with it with reference to his observations . II Exercise of consular Jurisdiction. I as it stands on general law of Nations II
183525Sentence in the Court-Martial of John Spence: Editorial Note (Jefferson Papers)
I. HENRY DEARBORN’S PRELIMINARY DRAFT [10 MCH. 1802] II. HENRY DEARBORN’S SECOND DRAFT, WITH JEFFERSON’S REVISIONS [20 APR. 1802] Among the myriad duties that devolved on Jefferson as president of the United States was the periodic review of general courts-martial proceedings. According to federal law, such proceedings were to be forwarded to the president in times of peace if the...
183526Madison’s “Helvidius” Essays, 24 August–18 September 1793 (Editorial Note) (Madison Papers)
A mixture of morality and political expediency was brewing on the American political scene during the summer of 1793. A full-strength potion known as the two-party system was about to emerge, giving form and content to the contests first fought in the ratification struggle of 1787–88. The catalytic agent was the French Revolution and its aftermath, for President Washington’s Neutrality...
183527To James Madison from an Unidentified Correspondent, 12 January 1815 (Madison Papers)
The subject of the enclosed extract is of such importance that I must beg leave to invite your Excellencies early attention to its contents. I am very Respectfully your Excellencies most obdt. humble Servt. RC and enclosure ( DLC ). The enclosed newspaper clipping contained an extract of a letter dated 22 Dec. at New York, written to “one of the sufferers by illegal captures at Naples,” urging...
183528From Benjamin Franklin to Charles Thomson, 27 February 1766 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Library of Congress I forget whether I before acknowledg’d the Receipt of your kind Letter of Sept. 24. I gave an Extract of it to a Friend, with an Extract of mine to which it was an Answer; and he printed both in the London Chronicle, with an Introduction of his own: and I have reprinted everything from America that I thought might help our common Cause. We at length, after a long and...
183529Minutes of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia, 30 November 1821 (Madison Papers)
November 30. Present Thomas Jefferson, Chapman Johnson, James Madison & John Hartwell Cocke. The board being informed that of the 60,000.D. permitted to be borrowed from the Literary fund by the act of the last General assembly, the sum of 29.100.D. only has as yet been obtained, and that there is uncertainty as to the time when the balance may be obtained they deem it expedient that the...
183530To Benjamin Franklin from Joseph Priestley, [February 1766] (Franklin Papers)
ALS (fragment): American Philosophical Society [ First part missing ] myself so much as to think I am able to [carry to completion] this large plan. I only propose to do it [if I can leave] it to you and my other friends in Lon[don readily to sup]ply my deficiencies. In the mean time I should be glad to have your sentiment of it. [Asking your pardon for] trespassing so long upon your patience...