From John Adams to Thomas Welsh, 7 March 1796
To Thomas Welsh
Philadelphia March 7. 1796
Dear Dr Welsh
After having made all the Enquiries I can, the Result is that Clover seed is so dear at this Place that it will not answer to buy it. Twenty Dollars a Bushell is the lowest Price at which it can be obtained, besides the Risque of buying New England seed instead of Pensilvania seed at this enormous Price. The Second Crop of Clover from which they chiefly thresh the seed, failing in this Neighbourhood the last Season, has occassioned Such a scarcity and such a Price that the Traders have written to New England for a supply and the Price will not diminish till that arrives. I shall not therefore think it prudent to purchase any for you, and Mr Dexter till I have further Advice from you. It may be bought cheaper and better at Boston.
I shall write to have my own purchased at home. Two or three shillings a Pound will not be good Œconomy, especially if We should chance to buy New England seed and have it to export to its native Country again.
The Senate have ratified three more unconstitutional Treaties, Unanimously.1 There has not been a virtuous ten nor even a virtuous one, in either Case: and yet every one of the three contains Articles as questionable by the Constitution, as any in the British Treaty.2 oh Ye good People! how long will ye be deceived
I am, dear sir as ever your good / Friend
John Adams
RC (private owner, 1970); internal address: “Dr Welsh.”; endorsed: “Vice President of US / March 7. 1796.”
1. Two of these treaties were intended to settle lingering disputes but all, as JA noted, posed conflicts to the free intercourse terms of the Jay Treaty. On 22 Dec. 1795 senators had consented to the 3 Aug. Treaty of Greenville, negotiated with twelve Native American nations in the Northwest Territory. The Senate consented to the Treaty of Peace and Amity with Algiers on 2 March 1796, and to Pinckney’s Treaty the following day (, 4th Cong., 1st sess., p. 197, 201–202, 203; Address from the Senate to George Washington, 11 Dec. 1795, and note 3, above).
2. The Senate voted to consent to the ratification of all but one article of the Jay Treaty on 24 June, by the minimum two-thirds margin of twenty to ten. The “virtuous ten” who opposed the treaty were widely mocked in the U.S. press (, 10:451, 11:25). See also Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 8, above.