Papers of John Adams, volume 20
r19
th.1789.
Though I know your extreme Delicacy as to any Interference in the
executive Affairs of the U.Ss. yet to you I must apply; for, Heaven &
Secretary Jackson know I may be chagrined in an Attempt to address the President.
I am in Dread least an Action should take Place which will renew
the Vigour of the Opponents & damp the Spirit of the Friends of Government: And, it
will be out of Time to await the Motions of a deliberate
Legislature
The enclosed Copy of a Letter will explain my Dread.1 If it appears well-founded and of sufficient
Importance to call for a speedy Remedy, a very mild but efficacious one may be
suggested. The President may see the circular Instruction
of Octr 31st. and advise that it
be immediately followed by another stating the Point “to
appear, upon Review, to be of such a Kind as to need, perhaps, Legislative Attention”;
and therefore proposing to the Collectors to stay all Proceedings therein “till they
hear again from the Treasury.[”]
I am totally rong in my Conceptions of the Business, or else it may be expected that one single Suit commenced in each of the States would produce a Multitude of News paper Suggestions of a very unpleasant Sort both respecting the General Government and its new Law Courts.
Am I consummately impudent in this
Application? Whatever may be your Judgement of it, you may be assured I will attribute
so much of that Charge to myself as to keep my Doings herein a profound Secret.—
I am endeavouring to break the Neck of some Enemies to the french
Consulate here. You must know I admire that Institution, because by the Kings
Ordonnances it’s Chancery has all the Spirit & Essence of our Jury of Equals.
The Herald inclosed proclaims my first
Onset, as the Printer of it 191 did not feel my sly
Knock at his Licentiousness so sensibly as to refuse me the
Use of his Types.2
Here, I am aground: For, as your Lady has all my Regards, what have I left for You? The Jus Mariti3 must relieve me. Demand your Quantum from the
Bone of your Bone or as RTP Esquire would quaintly gallicize it—from that Bonne of You Bon.
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency /
John Adams”; endorsed: “Mr Lovel 19. Decr. / 1789.”
Lovell enclosed a copy of his 17 Dec. letter to Benjamin Lincoln,
expressing reluctance to comply with the collector’s 16 Dec. request for a record of
Boston imports from 1 to 10 August. Once the Tariff Act took effect on 1 Aug.,
importers were required to pay certain customs, but they were allowed a grace period
until local collecting houses were established; in Boston, they were formally created
on 10 August. Lovell argued that an interim collection was unfair to importers who had
sold their goods and that it targeted ports with better records. Responding to
critics, Alexander Hamilton sent a circular letter on 31 Oct. to the nation’s port
collectors stipulating that while customs must be collected to fund the debt,
moderation was key. The backlash continued, and on 30 Dec. Hamilton again issued a
circular letter. There, the treasury secretary admitted that the new policy was
problematic, and he recommended that Congress revise the plan in its second session
(Hamilton, Papers
, 5:478–479; 6:39, 290).
Despite his lack of an appointment, Lovell continued to monitor
the politics of the port. When Philippe André Joseph de Létombe, the French consul at
Boston, was suspected of forcing a French intendant to sign for supplies that may not
have been delivered, Lovell intervened in the press. He trained his criticism on
Létombe’s accuser, Louis Baury de Bellerive. Originally from St. Domingue, Bellerive
(1754–1807) was a French officer who fought in the Continental Army and aided in the
suppression of Shays’ Rebellion. Claiming that the charge was “false in the
groundwork,” Lovell issued a four-letter defense of Létombe, which began appearing in
Edmund Freeman’s Herald of Freedom the day before Lovell
wrote this letter to JA. Bellerive fired back via the same newspaper,
replying that Lovell had “too much of my contempt to merit further notice” (vol. 14:159; Boston Herald of Freedom, 18, 22, 25 Dec. 1789, 5 Jan. 1790; Reports of Committees of the House of Representatives Made
during the First Session of the Thirty-second Congress, Washington, D.C., 1852,
147:1;
AFC
, 9:173).
On the mounting significance of fraud in New England ports, see Stephen Higginson’s
letter of 21 Dec. 1789, and
note 1, below.
The legal right of a husband to acquire his wife’s estate by
virtue of marriage (Black, Law Dictionary
).