Papers of John Adams, volume 17
The Appointment of a Secretary of foreign Affairs, interrupts the Official Correspondence, with your Excellency, and I know too well the constant Employment of the Time of the President of Congress to flatter myself with hopes of many private Letters.
I may not however Suffer my son to return home, as he must go by the Way of New York without a Letter of Introduction to the President especially as so old a Friend of his Father and so great a supporter of the Rights of his Country is at present in the Chair.1 it is now near Eight Years Since I left you in Congress, and I have not found the Service abroad less hazardous or more pleasing than at home. I am so little in love with it, that instead of breeding my son to the Diplomatic Trade and Expectations, he is going to Colledge and the Bar, where he cannot fail to find more Pleasure and Profit and less Interruption than his Father did. at least Such are my Wishes and Hopes.
I perceive, I have lately received a trouncing in Congress, and perhaps not wholly unmerited. When Astronomers are calculating the Motions of the heavenly Bodies, they are often obliged to neglect les infiniment petites, that their Results may be the more certain.— I do not reckon however, the “Debts” and the “slaves,” among those infiniment petites. They are great and important Quantities, and Shall have a proportional Attention paid to them. let me beg of you Sir, to urge the Necessity of sending me every Information upon these and all other subjects committed in any measure to my Care, which can be obtained. the Numbers and Value of the Negroes and other Property carried off, in violation of the Treaty the quantity and Circumstances attending the Debts the Measures taken by the states to prevent the Oppression of the Citizens by too Sudden Execution and the necessity of them, and the probable Advantages even 73to the Creditors themselves, from the delay.— Coll Smith who the Marquis informs me is to assist me in England, will no doubt bring with him much Information upon these subjects. I have not the Pleasure to know that Gentleman, but he shall have all the respect and regard from me which the Relation between Us requires.
With great and Sincere Esteem and / Respect I have the Honour to be / Sir your most obedient and / most humble servant
RC (PPAmP:Richard Henry Lee Papers); internal address: “His Excellency Richard Henry Lee Esqr / President of Congress.”; endorsed: “Apl 29. 1785 / John Adams.” LbC (Adams Papers); APM Reel 107.
For JQA’s delivery of this letter and his reception in New York, see Lee’s 1 Aug. reply, and note 1, below.
We take the Liberty to solicit every possible Assistance you can give on the Subject of the enclosed Copy of a Letter which Samuel Chase Esquire Agent for this State while in England addressed to the Minister Mr Pitt. the Bills in Chancery are still depending and We have instructed Mr. Chase to make the Attorney General a Party if the Crown will not disclaim it’s supposed Interest.
The State of Maryland will be much obliged by your Friendship and attention in this National and very interesting Concern and we flatter ourselves that with your Influence and Exertions a Disclaimer may be obtained from the Crown, and every Obstacle removed which lies in the way of a speedy Determination in Chancery.—1
We have the Honor / to be / Sir / Your most obedient humble servants
m.Paca
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); addressed: “His Excellency / John Adams Esquire / Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America / to the Court of / London”; internal address: “His Excellency / John Adams Esqr / Minister &ce”; endorsed by WSS: “Maryland April 29th. 85 / from Govr. Paca enclosing / Copy of a Letter from Mr. Chase to Mr. / Pitt—”; and by JA: “Ansd. 9. Septr. 1785.” The enclosure is dated 3 Aug. 1784 and was filmed at that date.
Paca’s letter and the enclosure concern Maryland’s effort, begun in 1779, to retrieve stock held first by the colony and then by the state in the Bank of England, for which see vols. 9:131; 15:206. Samuel Chase’s letter to William Pitt laid out the state’s case in considerable detail. Chase wrote that the colony of Maryland acquired considerable stock in the Bank of England prior to the Revolution and had entrusted its management to three trustees: Osgood Hanbury, Sylvanus Grove, and James Russell. In 1783 the Md. general 74assembly revoked the trustees’ powers and appointed Chase its agent to retrieve the state’s funds. When Chase reached England and demanded the stock, Russell refused unless a portion, £12,000, was paid to reimburse him for his property confiscated by the state of Maryland. Chase then filed suit against the trustees in the court of chancery and entered a motion to transfer to himself “the Surplus of the Stock not claimed by any of the Defendants.” His request was refused, and it was intimated that the “Attorney General of the Kingdom” should become party to the suit. Chase argued to Pitt that the inclusion of the attorney general was unwarranted because Great Britain could have no claim to or interest in the bank stock under either the law of nations or the terms of the Anglo-American definitive peace treaty. JA received the letters by Paca and Chase on 16 June 1785 and he took up the matter on the following day during a conference with the Marquis of Carmarthen, British secretary for foreign affairs (to John Jay, 17 June, below). No progress had been made by the time JA replied to Paca on 9 Sept., below, and, in fact, the issue was not resolved until 1806, for which see vol. 15:206.