Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
th1798
yours of May 18 received on saturday.1 the President says, he will be obliged to you to chuse him a good pipe of wine, and inform dr Tufts who will take measures to get it to Quincy; you may either forward the Bill of it here, or the person of whom you purchase may wait our comeing, which I hope will be in about a month from this time, I fear not sooner— we know not what a day may bring forth—
you will see, that the Bill for the more effectual protection of
commerce, past on saturday, & yesterday received the Presidents signature a packet
Boat was sent off with it, to Captain Dale, who went down on saturday to Newcastle.2 the st Albans it is reported captured the
French Privateer which has infested our coast for several weeks She is come in to Nyork,
and I believe most of the vessels have arrived Safe which came out with her— a dreadfull
fate befell the Sloop of War, the Broak, Captain Drew, on fryday last. after she had got
within the Cape, and was just about to cast Anchor, a suddon flow of wind, laid her down
upon her beam ends. She immediatly filld, and went down with Captain Drew—his
leiuetenant and 38 officers seamen and marines—the rest 23 in Number escaped in the long
Boat. the Capt and officers were at dinner in the Cabbin.—3 this unfortunate event is most Sincerely
lamented here. The President is in much anxiety to find a suitable Character for
Secretary of Marine. I cannot parden mr Cabbot He should have acccepted, if only for a
short Period. no body but himself that I can 67 learn, doubted his
abilities. a mr Stodard of Maryland, has since been appointed.4 he too refuses—a very strong proof of dangerous Patronage, when Some of the first offices go a
begging—but the half starved sallery which is given to Men whose labour, is not only of
the utmost importance to the publick, but unwearied and incessent will not induce men
who have families to provide for, to resign them to poverty and indigence. a southern Man will not most certainly but I must lay the
charge where it justly belongs with respect to the failure of an increase of sallery for
the officers of Government, and that is with the Northern Members— they now see that
they have done wrong—but this perhaps is not the time to do right, as least it would be
so urged—5
we have had some fine rains. I hope our state has shared in the same blessing. the Grain & Grass were Sufferng exceedingly from drought here.
I hope my Friends have not sufferd any great anxiety from the reports which have been circulated with some foundation. I do not apprehend danger at present the publick mind is all alive and awake here— we shall become the most federal state in the union— You may tell me, that none North of the Deleware had so much occasion to change— this I believe was true.
My kind Love to mrs Smith & Children, and to all other Friends— From Your ever affectionate / Friend
RC (MHi:Smith-Townsend Family Papers); addressed by Samuel Bayard Malcom:
“William Smith Esquire / Merchant / Boston”; endorsed: “Philaa. 29 May 98 / Mrs. Adams”; notation by
JA: “J. Adams.”
Not found.
U.S. Navy captain Richard Dale (1756–1826) served under John Paul
Jones during the Revolutionary War. After a decade as a merchant, he resumed naval
service in 1794 when George Washington appointed him one of six founding captains of
the U.S. Navy (
DAB
).
The Saint Albans, Capt. Francis
Pender was a 64-gun British ship of the line traveling in convoy to New York. The ship
captured the French privateer La Vengeance, which had
seized the American commercial brig Betsey, and the
French vessel was libeled for salvage in Halifax. The British sloop of war De Braak, Capt. James Drew (b. 1751) was lost off the coast
of Lewes, Del., on 25 May 1798. While it was 33 sailors who survived, not 23 as
AA reported, the captain and 46 others perished (Philadelphia Porcupine’s
Gazette, 28 May; Williams, French Assault on
American Shipping
, p. 81; Donald G. Shomette, Shipwrecks, Sea Raiders, and Maritime Disasters along the Delmarva Coast,
1632–2004, Baltimore, 2007, p. 109, 110, 115–116).
After George Cabot refused the post, JA nominated
Benjamin Stoddert to be secretary of the navy on 18 May. The Senate confirmed the
appointment on 21 May, but Stoddert delayed his acceptance, telling a friend that he
was worried about neglecting his business interests and reluctant to take on the
demands of the office. He assumed his duties on 18 June. Stoddert (1751–1813), a
Maryland merchant who served as secretary to the Board of War during the American
Revolution, was also instrumental in acquiring land on behalf of the U.S. government
for the nation’s capital (Harriot Stoddert Turner, “Memoirs of Benjamin Stoddert,
First 68 Secretary of the United States Navy” Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 20:150–153
[1917];
DAB
).
In the act establishing the Department of the Navy, the secretary
was granted a salary of $3,000 per year, the same amount as the secretary of war, as
established in 1789. In Jan. 1797 Congress considered a proposal to raise the
secretary of war’s compensation by $500 to match that of the secretary of state and
secretary of the treasury, but it was rejected as unnecessary in a 51 to 39 vote that
included the support of eight representatives from New England. Congress increased the
salary to $4,500 in March 1799 (
U.S. Statutes at Large
, 1:67, 554, 730;
Annals of
Congress
, 4th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1987–1999, 2010–2011).