Papers of John Adams, volume 19
a
ndApril. 1789.
Accept of my sincere Congratulations upon your arrival in new york, and upon your advancement to the second honor in the United States.—
Your influence in the Senate over which you have been called to preside, will give you great weight (without a vote) in determining upon the most suitable Characters to fill the first offices in goverment. Pennsylvania looks up with anxious Solicitude for the commission of Chief Justice for Mr Wilson. It was from an expectation of this honor being conferred upon him, that he was left out of the Senate, and house of representatives. His Abilities & knowledge in forming the constitution, & his zeal in promoting its establishment, have exposed him to a most virulent persecution from the Antifederalists in this state. With these our president General mifflin has joined. You know the man—and therefore I shall make no comments upon his conduct, further than that he has detatched himself from all the genius of the State, and placed himself at the head of a few men who are in our city what your Col: Sims’s & Balchs are in Boston. Should Mr Wilson be left to sink under this Opposition, I shall for ever deplore the ingratitude of republics.1
much will be said of the deranged state of his Affairs. But where will you find an American landholder free from embarrassments?— Our funding System has reduced all our wealthy men to the utmost distress, & has thrown a great part of their wealth property into the hands of quartermasters—Amsterdam Jews, & London brokers Mr Wilson has an immense & valuable estate in lands—much more than eno’ to discharge all his engagements, provided Congress does not by funding alienated certificates, put an extinguisher upon all the hopes of America from industry in Agriculture—manufactures—& commerce. Under all the disappointments which he has met with, he has preserved a fair character, & a dignified line of Conduct. His principles are the counterpart of your own, upon the subject of goverment, & his influence in a high station will always be in favor of a vigorous—ballanced, and triple powered Constitution.— To the facts,
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I have mentioned, I shall only add that You had not a more zealous friend, nor massachussets a firmer Advocate in the late election of Vice president in this state, than Mr Wilson.
With Compts: to your dear Mrs: Adams, I am my dear friend, yours sincerely
n.Rush
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Dr Rush. 22 Ap. / 1789 / ansd. 17. May.”
Former congressional delegate James Wilson (1742–1798), originally of Carskerdo (now Ceres), Scotland, was a Federalist leader in Pennsylvania and a principal author of the state constitution of 1790. On 24 Sept. 1789 George Washington nominated John Jay to preside as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, with Wilson, John Blair, William Cushing, Robert Harrison, and John Rutledge to serve as associate justices; all were confirmed by the Senate two days later (U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour.
, 1st Cong., 1st sess., p. 29).
Thomas Mifflin, who served as both Pennsylvania’s last president and its first governor, was linked with the state’s Antifederalist faction. Col. Andrew Symmes (1735–1797) and Nathaniel Balch (1735–1808), both of Boston, had been Sons of Liberty and were supporters of Massachusetts governor John Hancock (vol. 2:2;
ANB
; G. Arthur Gray, “George Holmes of Roxbury, Mass., and Some of his Descendants,”
NEHGR
, 58:145 [April 1904]; Galusha B. Balch, Genealogy of the Balch Families in America, Salem, Mass., 1897, p. 66, 67).
I had not the Pleasure of bidding You a personal Adieu on the Monday of your leaving this Town, because I could not have done it without being at a House, which I never will enter.1 And to the same Cause was it, as I have been requested to tell you, that you did not Meet so many of your Friends & the Friends to dignified Government as would otherwise have crowded about you to have paid that sincere Tribute of Respect and affectionate Gratulation which our Country owes You, and which Posterity must continue to pay to the Memory of your important public Energies.
Our People here are much alarmed at the high Duty proposed to be laid on Molasses in the Committee of the lower House of Congress.2 The Consumption of this Article in it’s raw State, is much greater in Massachusetts than in any other Part of the Union. A Barrel of Pork, one of Molasses & twenty Gallons of Rum composes the provisional outfits of each Codfisherman, & double the Quantity makes up the Stores of our Whalemen. Salt & Molasses are considered by New England Men in common with Bread, to be the Stuff of Life. And although perhaps they ought with every Thing else to contribute something towards that Revenue which is the Sinews of every Nation, they must at first be gently attacked or great Heartburnings will assuredly arise. Situated as this Country is, &
425
Congress without a single Cutter to aid the Revenue, Smuggling will prevail generally. Perhaps Nothing will more effectually prevent this mean Subterfuge, than the federal Imposts & Duties being moderate. By this Means Smuggling will not be begun. And it has been remarked that this Employment once being engaged in is for the most part continued even after the Cause of it has been removed in a great Degree. And it will be better, if not easier to raise Duties, than after they are laid to reduce them. There was a Meeting of the Distillers & a few Merchants yesterday & they agreed that one of their Number should write a Letter to Mr. Ames on this Subject which I understand he is to communicate if he thinks proper, & they then broke up.3 The other proposed Duties are thought reasonable enough as far as they are known—
I have thus early opened the Correspondence You were kind enough to engage me in, & shall with the sincerest Pleasure pursue it whenever I shall find any Thing that can contribute to your Information. That you may long possess Strength & Spirits to support the arduous Task assigned to You by our Country is the fervent Wish / of your faithful Friend & Servant
mTudor
The within hasty Sketch is rather given as the Language of our Strict Politicians, than intending to suggest Ideas, which to You Sir must be obvious—
RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “His Excellency / John Adams Esquire / Vice President of the United States / New York”; endorsed: “Mr. Tudor / 22. Ap. 1789. / ansd May 3.”
That is, John Hancock’s house. Massachusetts attorney William Tudor had been JA’s law clerk (vol. 18:25).
Acting at the behest of Virginia congressman James Madison and others who were eager to raise revenue and encourage American manufactures, on 28 April the House of Representatives proposed new duties on spirits, wines, sugar, nails, tea, and fish, in the amount of 25 cents per gallon on Madeira wine, one to three cents per pound on sugar, and six cents per gallon on West Indian molasses. Writing to JA on 1 May, AA reported that news of the House debates was unpopular in New England, and she asked JA about the possibility of lowering the duties on molasses. “Be sure it is a little hard for us Yankees who Love it so well & make such liberal use of it, it has already raised the price of it here,” AA wrote (Fergus M. Bordewich, The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government, N.Y., 2016, p. 38–42;
First Fed. Cong.
, 3:35–37;
AFC
, 8:339). For the debate’s resolution, see William Smith’s letter of 19 May, and note 1, below.
Massachusetts congressman Fisher Ames (1758–1808), Harvard 1774, argued against the higher molasses duties, linking affordable molasses to the future of New England’s fisheries. Ames asserted that the new federal government needed to finalize a method to collect revenue, pleading that he was “sick of fluctuating counsels, of governing by expedients. Let us have stability and system.” On 2 July 1790 the House agreed to reduce by half nearly all of the proposed rates, including the controversial molasses duty (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
; Bordewich, The First Congress, p. 73–75;
First Fed. Cong.
, 3:486–487).