Adams Family Correspondence, volume 14
N
o13.
y1
st:
th:February 1800.
I received on the 18th:
instant your favor of the 7th. & 17th. November, Original & Dup: with sundry
enclosures relative to the affair between Mr:
Engel & Messrs: Mark of New York. I have
forwarded to them the letter to their address, with one from self,
acquainting 151 them with my Authority to demand
payment of the debt, and desiring them to make speedy arrangements to that
effect.1
If, contrary to my expectations, they should offer to pay the interest, which has accrued, without a suit at law for it, I shall give you information of it as soon as possible; but if they put us to our compulsory remedy, I shall employ faithful Counsel at New York to conduct it, as I could not do it myself.
I wrote you pretty fully by Mr: Sitgreaves, who sailed a fortnight ago, for England, & by
the last British packet, I sent my Accompt with you for the last year.
Herewith I send a Duplicate.2
Nothing of a very interesting nature has occurred in our
public affairs, since I wrote you last. The Supreme Court of the United
States held its ordinary session here since the beginning of this month, but
little business was done. The new Judge appointed in the room of Iredell,
deceased, is a Mr: Moore of North Carolina, but
he has not yet taken a seat on the bench.
Congress have been occupied with various objects, more or less
important, but hither to, few laws have been passed. The general Bankrupt
Bill is now before the Senate, with a prospect of its being passed— In the
house of Reps: there was an equal division &
the Speaker decided the fate of it. A Bill to amend the Judiciary System
will be shortly reported, and from the reputation & talents of the
Committee, considerable expectation may be indulged, that the alterations
they shall propose will be worthy of adoption.3 But there is an evident reluctance
in many gentlemen towards these great national acts, because they tend to
strengthen the bonds of union & give an influence to the general
Government, that interferes with their malignant designs. Notwithstanding
the general complection of our national Councils at this period, there is
wanting that unity of object & concurrence of design, which constitute
real strength. The State Legislatures are in several instances, hostile
towards the general Government— In Virginia the Legislature, at their late
Session, undertook to vindicate their inflamatory & intemperate
resolutions, which at their preceding session they had transmitted to the
legislatures of the Sister States, and which met with the decided censure of
a great majority of them.4
Pennsylvania has assumed a character which imitates indicates in some degree the same temper. Our
legislature is about to adjourn, without having performed a single salutary
act during their convocation—indeed their time has been wasted altogether,
in the indulgence of factious animosity & petty 152 squabbles between the different
departments— The Governor is supported by a very small majority in the house
of Reps:—he is at open variance with the
minority & with a majority of the Senate, and all social intercourse
between them has been suspended, from the commencement of the campaign. The
whole picture is humiliating, but to make it more completely so, a scene
took place a few days since, which equals the affray between Lyon &
Griswold, which occurred in a sanctuary of higher note. One of the members
from this City & the far famed Dr: Logan,
were the principal actors in this late affair, which as it is too
insignificant to merit detail, I shall dispense with further notice of
it.5
Dallas is about to give place to a man by the name of
Cooper, of whom you may have lately heard. He is an English Jacobin, whom
Priestley recommended to the P. U.S, as Agent to the Commissioners for
settling the claims under the 6th: Article of
the British Treaty, on our behalf, and being disappointed in obtaining this
Office, he commenced Opposition writer, & writer for Governor McKean, and now he is to be rewarded with the
Secretaryship of this Commonwealth, which in consequence of the removal of
the Seat of Government to Lancaster, Dallas finds it unprofitable to
exercise.6
Mr: McKean has recommended to the Legislature to appropriate funds for
the establishment of an Accademy in the County where Dr: Priestly resides and suggests a wish at the same time, that the
learning & talents of this benevolent & disinterested philosopher
may be invited to superintend the institution.7 Thus you see, the faithful are to
be rewarded, of whatever condition, character, religion or nation. Such is
practical philanthropy.
A severe contest may be expected at the approaching election for President of the U.S. should the two persons, now highest in Office, be Candidates. Secret manœuvres are practised to prevent the Legislatures of individual States from making any provision for the mode of chusing Electors, or to regulate it so, that the Election may be by a general vote in those States, where it is presumed a majority would be unfriendly to the present chief. Our Legislature have not been able to agree in any mode, and as the last was a general election in this State, the Governor intends to convoke the people by proclamation, under the former law. His authority to do this is questioned, but he will meet the responsibility of such a proceeding with his usual fortitude. It is said that, New Jersey will alter the mode of Election, likewise, after the same fashion.8
153It ought, by this time, to be fully understood, by the
people in office under the present Administration, that upon the issue of
this trial depends the station they hold, for I am persuaded beyond a doubt,
after what has so recently taken place in this State, that if the man of the people, succeeds to the Chief
Magistracy, not one federalist will be retained; all, without distinction
will be turned out, who do not make their peace before the event is decided,
by some mean sacrifice of their independence. The struggle is no longer
between Candidates, professing & practising the same principles, but it
is reduced to a contest for victory & power between the outs & the in’s. I shall endeavor to fashion my mind to the least favorable
result, that can arrive.
Massachusetts sets up Mr:
Strong for her next Governor— He will be supported by a powerful interest,
and will probably succeed to the chair, though Mosey has his points too.9
I am, with the greatest truth / Your brother
PS. Captn: Truxtun has
had a severe fight in the West Indies with a french frigate of superior
force—said to be a 54. The engagement lasted five glasses, in the night
of the 2d or 3d:
Feby.— The Constellation was badly
treated, though it is apprehended the french man was greatly disabled
also; they certainly both got off—10
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “J. Q.
Adams Esquire / Minister plenipotentiary &ca: &ca: / Berlin.”; internal
address: “J Q Adams Esqr:”; endorsed: “13. /
T. B. Adams. 25. Feby. 1800. / 25. May
recd: / 28. May. Ansd:.”
For JQA’s letters to TBA of 7 and 17 Nov. 1799 and TBA’s actions on behalf of Carl August Engel in his dispute with Jacob Mark & Co., see TBA to JQA, 1 April 1800, and note 1, below.
The letter carried by Samuel Sitgreaves was TBA to JQA, 1 Feb., above. The second letter and enclosed account and the duplicate enclosed in this letter have not been found.
On 9 and 12 Dec. 1799 the House and the Senate,
respectively, appointed Federalist-led committees to craft legislation
to overhaul the U.S. judicial system. On 11 March 1800 Robert Goodloe
Harper introduced a bill in the House that proposed reducing the number
of U.S. Supreme Court justices from six to five, expanding the
jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and organizing the United States into
nine federal circuits. The bill sparked fierce debate, and on 31 March
an amended version was proposed that reduced the number of circuits to
six. The amended bill was tabled on 14 April. It was reintroduced and
passed in the next session of Congress, for which see William Smith Shaw to
TBA, 8 Jan. 1801, and note 7, below (Kathryn
Turner, “Federalist Policy and the Judiciary Act of 1801,”
WMQ
, 22:10–15, 19–21 [Jan. 1965];
Annals of Congress
, 6th Cong.,
1st sess., p. 665–666;
U.S. Statutes at
Large
, 2:89–100). For the Bankruptcy Act, see
TBA to
JQA, 29 Dec. 1799, and note 4, above.
James Madison moved on 23 Dec. that the Va. House of
Delegates respond to “certain answers from several of the states”
regarding the Virginia Resolutions, for which see vol. 13:316–317.
Madison chaired a committee that issued a report on 24 Dec., defending
the resolutions and reiterating the 154
argument that the Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional and the
federal government had impinged on state sovereignty. The legislature
approved the report in Jan. 1800 and 5,000 copies were printed, reaching
Philadelphia in February, after which Thomas Jefferson oversaw its
republication and distribution (Madison, Papers,
Congressional Series
, 17:303–306; Report of the Committee to Whom Was Committed
the Proceedings of Sundry of the Other States, Richmond, Va.,
[1800], Evans,
No. 38961).
On 20 Feb. Federalist Samuel W. Fisher assaulted Dr.
George Logan on the floor of the Penn. house of representatives after
Logan allegedly called a speech by Fisher “damned nonsense.” Logan
submitted a complaint to the house speaker the next day, and Fisher
countered with a complaint of his own. A committee investigated the
incident, and the house voted to publicly reprimand Fisher (Tolles, George Logan
, p. 213–214).
Dr. Thomas Cooper was not named Pennsylvania
secretary of the commonwealth. Alexander James Dallas remained in the
post until 1801 even though the state capital moved from Philadelphia to
Lancaster in late 1799. Cooper was instead named by Gov. Thomas McKean
in 1801 a state commissioner to settle land claims (
ANB
; Leonard J. Sneddon, “From
Philadelphia to Lancaster: The First Move of Pennsylvania’s Capital,”
Pennsylvania History, 38:349, 358–359
[Oct. 1971]). For JA’s refusal of a request by Joseph
Priestley to provide Cooper with a patronage appointment, see
AA to
William Smith, 19 Nov. 1799, and note 2, above.
On 7 Feb. 1800 McKean delivered to the Penn. General
Assembly a petition from the trustees of Northumberland Academy to
establish the school and provide funds for construction of a building.
McKean argued that “a few thousand dollars” of public money invested in
education would “be the means of saving millions in terrors and in
punishments, in insurrections and in wars.” McKean also cited “the
disinterested services of the learned and benevolent Priestley” who
proposed the school. The assembly took no action at that time, but in
1804 it approved $2,000 in initial expenditures and $3,000 more
contingent upon the establishment of a library. The academy opened in
1813 and operated until 1831 (Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 25 Feb. 1800; Robert E.
Schofield, The Enlightened Joseph Priestley: A
Study of His Life and Work from 1773 to 1804, University Park,
Penn., 2004, p. 330–331, 339–340).
McKean issued a proclamation on 18 Oct. 1799 calling
for the Pennsylvania legislature to convene in a special session on 5
Nov., during which Federalists and Democratic-Republicans sought to gain
an advantage in the selection of presidential electors. Federalists, who
held a slim majority in the Penn. senate, favored choosing electors
through concurrent votes of the two branches of the legislature, while
Democratic-Republicans, who controlled the Penn. house of
representatives, advocated a joint vote. On 1 Dec. a compromise was
reached in which eight electors were nominated by each branch and
fifteen were selected jointly, resulting in the selection of seven
Federalists and eight Democratic-Republicans. In New Jersey, the
legislature had the option of choosing state electors or directing that
they be selected by popular vote. Federalists controlled the legislature
and favored the first option, prompting Democratic-Republicans to
mobilize throughout the state in an attempt to win a legislative
majority. The Federalists were ultimately successful, winning 38 of 50
seats and casting all the state’s electoral votes for JA
and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Harry Marlin Tinkcom, The Republicans and Federalists in Pennsylvania,
1790–1801, Harrisburg, Penn., 1950, p. 247–252; Carl E. Prince,
New Jersey’s Jeffersonian Republicans: The
Genesis of an Early Party Machine, 1789–1817, Chapel Hill,
N.C., 1967, p. 41–42, 54, 57–61).
That is, Lt. Gov. Moses Gill, who was then acting governor.
The U.S. frigate Constellation, Capt. Thomas Truxtun, engaged the French
frigate La Vengeance on 1 and 2 Feb. 1800
near Guadeloupe. During the five-hour battle, Truxtun was prevented from
capturing the French vessel because the Constellation’s mainmast collapsed. On 26 March Josiah Parker
of Virginia proposed a resolution in the House of Representatives
requesting that JA present Truxtun with a congressional
medal to honor his service. The resolution was approved the same day,
and the Senate approved it on 27 March. Four days later JA
instructed Benjamin Stoddert “to take immediate measures” to present
Truxtun with “a golden medal emblematical of the late action,” the first
of its kind. Truxtun was presented with his medal in Feb. 1802 (
ANB
; 155
Annals of Congress
, 6th Cong.,
1st sess., p. 122, 640–642; JA to Stoddert, 31 March 1800,
LbC, APM Reel 120; Chris Neuzil, Lenny Vaccaro, and Todd Creekman,
“Captain Truxtun’s Congressional Medal,” Numismatist, 120:34, 35 [Feb. 2007]).