John Quincy Adams to William Stephens Smith, 2 January 1804
John Quincy Adams to William Stephens Smith
Washington City 2. January 1804.
Dear Sir.
I find by the newspapers that a Commission of bankruptcy has issued against Robert Bird, and as it is impossible for me to attend personally before the Commissioners to make proof of my debt, and demand my claim, I take the liberty of inclosing them to you, with an earnest request that you would present them for me, at the next meeting of the Commissioners which I think is to be on the 10th: of this month— I send you also a letter of attorney to vote for me in the choice of an Assignee, unless he should already be chosen— It is an object of great importance that he should be a man of commercial and law knowledge of talents and of integrity— I wish particularly for a man who will dispute and try at Law, the validity of certain assignments heretofore made by Robert Bird to Mr: Harrison—1 If you have any reason for not choosing to act in my behalf on this occasion, I have included in the letter of Attorney, a power to substitute any other person you may judge expedient; and have only to beg you in such case, to let it be a person of great discretion, and perfectly trusty— I expect to pass through New-York in February or March, when I can exhibit to the Commissioners or at their office, the proofs of my debt, and the grounds of my claim.
With my best love to my Sister, and your children I remain, Dear Sir, your’s sincerely.
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Coll: W. S. Smith. New-York.”; APM Reel 135.
1. Enclosures not found. The New York Bankruptcy Commission on 5 Dec. 1803 declared New York merchant Robert Bird bankrupt and ordered him to surrender to authorities by the 27th. Bird was the principal of Robert Bird & Co., the U.S. subsidiary of the failed London firm Bird, Savage, & Bird, for which see JQA to TBA, 2 April, and note 1, above. In a notice in the New York American Citizen, 14 Dec., the commission asked Bird’s creditors to appear before it on 10 and 24 Jan. 1804 to prove their debts and recommend an assignee to oversee his assets. In a reply of 15 Jan., WSS reported attending the 10 Jan. hearing and recommended that JQA attempt to join his claim with that of the U.S. Treasury (Adams Papers). JQA responded on 23 Jan., thanking WSS for the suggestion but expressing skepticism about its feasibility and noting that he had begun the process of filing a claim in London against Bird, Savage, & Bird (LbC, APM Reel 135).
The Robert Bird & Co. case was not resolved until 1809. Creditors challenged Bird’s 31 Jan. 1803 assignment of assets to merchant Richard Harrison, claiming that the assignment a week before the failure of its parent company, Bird, Savage, & Bird, was an attempt to compensate some creditors at the expense of others. Chief Justice John Marshall upheld their contention in a 15 March 1809 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that vacated the assignment and ordered the firm’s assets divided equally among its creditors. The bankruptcy settlement for Bird, Savage, & Bird took until 1830; the company’s liabilities totaled £280,000 while assets were £69,000. Creditors, including the U.S. Treasury, received restitution of about five shillings on the pound (, 4:317; Stephen K. Williams, Cases Argued and Decided in the Supreme Court of the United States, rev. edn., 60 vols., Rochester, N.Y., 1917–1920, 3:289, 293, 298–302; Stefan A. Riesenfeld, “The Status of Foreign Administrators of Insolvent Estates: A Comparative Survey,” American Journal of Comparative Law, 24:290–292 [Spring 1976]).