Adams Family Correspondence, volume 9
br9
th1790
yesterday mr Howard arrived here and brought me Letters from your Brother Thomas, and one from you to Charles—1 I was rejoiced to find that he was on his way here, as the delay had been the source of a good deal of uneasiness. I am fully of your mind with regard to Thomas, and know that if he studies Law it will be a force to his inclinations. the want of capital I Suppose is one great objection to Merchandise, but I think a young man who is dilligent and attentive to Buisness may make his way very [wel]l in a country like this, or suppose your Father was to send him to Holland & place him with the Willinks.2 I think as far as I can judge, that it would be the best method to promote his interest. you and I know Thomas so well, as to feel satisfied that he would be steady industerous and indefatigable in his persuits, but at the same time you know that advising to a measure against which some objections arise, in case 108of failure the adviser must bear the blame. I have sometimes found great address necessary to carry a point, and much prudent caution to effect my scheme, yet I am sure your Father would do every thing in his power to promote the interest of his children— that they must labour for themselves is pretty plain, how foolishly so ever the world judge—and one shilling earned by their own industery is worth a pound in the publick Service. it is not grudged you may spend it, or save it without a murmer, but the people who are continually Clamouring may rest satisfied that instead of lower salleries there will be higher, and the further the Southern Gentlemen can get from the North So in proportion will there salleries be increasd, and if they Send an intire New delegation, they will very soon be converted, or what is more likly out voted. at Philadelphia they will have higher Salleries soon, than at N york, and higher still when they go to Potomack I reason from the Nature of things, and from the probable flourishing state of the Country, the burdens of which will be greatly lessned by the funding of the debt, and the measures taken to sink it.3
is Sullivan the inve[nome]d Snake that lifts up his head and bites, then squirms about & sneaks into the Grass? I suppose he wants a sop you must expect to feel your share of envy.
Mr Bourn wrote to your Father in favour of mr Woodard as a proper person to employ to purchase publick securities, if any Agents were employd by the commissioners—but the act does not appear to have been attended to, which says they shall be purchased openly and at the market price. the Loan officers of the several states will do the buisness—4
adieu yours / affectionatly
Thomas is not yet arrived owing I suppose to contrary winds
RC (Adams Papers). Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
Probably Rev. Simeon Howard or his elder son, John Clarke Howard. The letters have not been found.
For Jan and Wilhem Willink, see JA, Papers
, 13:ix–x.
When the Salaries—Legislative Act first passed the House on 10 Aug. 1789, establishing generous salaries for members of Congress, all of the representatives from southern states voted for it. By contrast, the Massachusetts and New Hampshire congressmen uniformly voted against the bill, joined by several representatives from New Jersey and New York.
Newspapers throughout the nation, but especially in New England, bitterly denounced the new level of compensation for congressmen as excessive and unnecessary. The subject of federal salaries remained a frequent topic in the opposition press for over a year, and Antifederalist writers particularly emphasized it during the election campaign in the fall of 1790. A highly critical piece by Rusticus in the Boston Independent Chronicle, 2 Sept., recently had argued that “extravagant compensations, will, independent of the waste of money, have a pernicious tendency upon the people. There are very 109few men, who have an annual income equal to the wages of Congress. And there are not twenty persons, in the three millions, which compose the United States, who have an income equal to the Vice President, and to the Judges. But their stile will be imitated if they spend their salaries, and if they do not, the farmer at the plough, the mechanic in his shop, and the fisherman on the water, will stand still to enquire, why they are toiling to hoard up wealth for the children of these men?” (
First Fed. Cong.
, 3:141–142; Stewart, Opposition Press
, p. 71–75).
“An Act Making Provision for the Reduction of the Public Debt,” also known as the Sinking Fund Act, was signed into law on 12 August. It provided for the appropriation from the nation's treasury of any surplus earned from duties on imported merchandise, as well as the acquisition of two million dollars in loans, all to be invested in public securities. The president of the Senate was one of five commissioners designated to handle these purchases (
First Fed. Cong.
, 6:1890–1891). In his letter to JA of 15 Aug., Sylvanus Bourne suggested Joseph Woodward as a possible agent to act on JA's behalf, noting Woodward's integrity and “thourough acquaintance in this kind of buisness” (Adams Papers).
br12. 1790
I received by your Brother on fryday last your kind Letter; he did not get here, oweing to contrary winds untill the tenth. he appears to think of the Law, but I fear it is rather from necessity than inclination, and because he finds that his Father is fond of having him study it, and that he does not See any opening in any other buisness. I shall be better able to judge when your Father returns from Philadelphia, upon what terms he can be received there. my advice to Charles is to remain here tho tis probable mr Lawrence will be a great deal absent for he is rechosen a member of Congress. Newyork being [se]nsible when they have good & able Men, are not so swallowd up with the Idea of Rotation as Massachusetts. That I am very anxious for your sister, and Family is most certain. I do not see any present prospect which bids fair for their support. an increasing Family is sufficient to make a Man look about him and if the same degree of prudence had been persued three years ago that is practised now, I believe a Gentleman would not have been so long unemployd as he has been. the Revenue Laws are too faithfully adhered to, and too punctually obey'd for the office of Marshall to be in any degree profitable in this State. the President has said, that it his intention to give him an appointment of more consideration, as soon as the publick Service will admit of it, but had col smith persued the advise of your Father whilst in England & since his return, he need not have lookt to any Government for employ. as he had been regularly enterd into an office and studied some time before he left the Country, your Fathers advise to him, was to enter himself at the Temple, & to attend the courts at Westmister reading Law at 110home, then upon his return to be sworn into court and practise in this state, which he might have done to great advantage when he first returnd from England. but what Signifies looking back—let us look forward, and with regard to yourself I do not doubt you will do very well only have patience, and I will prophesy for you, that you will be able by the close of one year to pay your own Board, and if you do that tis as much as you ought to expect, and if you do not why dont worry your face into wrinkles about it. We will help you all we can, and when you are better off than those who assist you, you shall help them again if they want it, so make yourself easy and keep free from entangelments of all kinds. Thomas says you are in Love. so far as it will serve to make you attentive to your person, for you are a little inclined to be neglegent, so far it may be of service to you, besides it may keep your Head from rambling after other objects, but it if it makes you anxious & uneasy, and when you are reading, Slides in between your subject and you then you have Cause to be allarmed, so take heed—
as to your Horse I believe you had better write to your Father yourself. I think if you can get two or 3 load of Hay from your uncle Adams, it will be as well for you to keep him in Town upon the terms you mentiond, but you will be safer to have your directions from your Father. he told me sometime ago to write to you to sell him, but as I did not suppose at the time, that the order was the result of mature deliberation, I ventured to omit it, but you had better ask his advise whether you shall sell him, or keep him as you proposed in Town as we are not like to come to Braintree to use any of the Hay this year, I suppose your uncle must have more than he will want to spend there.
Sunday Noon
Your Father is just returned and has taken Bush Hill, the seat of mr Hamilton, so that matter is decided.1 I presume we must remove next month write to me as often as you can and let me hear from time of your success & prospects. I am my dear son affectionatly / Yours
PS your sister asks if you have forgotten her she wrote you long ago by charles storer. her son she calls Thomas Hollis—
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “Mr / John Quincy Adams / Boston”; endorsed: “My Mother. 12. Septr: 1790.” and “Mrs: Adams. Septr: 12. 1790.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
For William Hamilton and his house, Bush Hill, see JA, D&A
, 3:184, and Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 4, above.
