Papers of John Adams, volume 20
I have received your favor of the 13th,
as I did that of march in due season—1
One wishes to be informed of all facts in which the public is interested: but the detail
of Rhode Island manœuvres is distressing. The Senate yesterday passed a bill, which
cutts off all communication with Rhode Island, if she chooses such a solitary selfish
and unsocial system. The bill passed by a great majority, and the Senators appear very
decided in this business. I would send you a copy of the bill, if I had one, but it is
not necessary to send to town to get one, because the newspapers have already contained
the substance of the bill, and the true bill as it passed will be with you in the
gazetts before this letter.2
If the inland part of your people are so abandoned as to refuse
still to ratify the Constitution, there will be no part left for the Seaports, but to do
what I think they ought to have done long ago, meet and adopt the Constitution for
themselves and petition congress to be received and protected. Your views, and wishes I
have communicated to several gentlemen in confidence, but not to the President. He has
been very ill and unable to attend to business.3 It is a rule with me to meddle as little as
possible in appointments; and I know not who are candidates for the office you speak of
at New Port. Whenever my opinion is asked concerning any candidates within my
acquaintance I always give it according to my best judgment— I presume that the
applications of your Antis, are made to other men, to such as they have consulted with
already too long.— Your convention meet next monday— Our bill cannot pass the house soon
enough to reach you till many days after. I sincerely hope that your people will adopt
the Constitution and send us an account of it before the bill passes the house.— I know
not the character of the Govenors friend Mr Thompson: but
possession you know is eleven points and if there is not any pointed objection against
him, it would not I presume be difficult to gratify the Governor.
LbC in CA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Hon Willm Ellery / New-Port”; APM Reel 115.
Of [ca. 6] March, above. Ellery’s letter of 13 May
(Adams Papers) informed
JA that Rhode Island legislators favored ratification of the
Constitution with amendments but that Gov. Arthur Fenner’s support of ratification
hinged on whether his ally Ebenezer Thompson (1735–1805) kept his post as port
collector of Providence. Ellery also solicited JA for the 355 collectorship of Newport. On 14 June George
Washington nominated Ellery for the position, and his appointment was confirmed the
same day. Ellery held the post until his death on 15 Feb. 1820. Thompson remained in
his position from 1789 to 1790 and then served as naval officer from 1790 until his
death in 1805 (U.S. Senate, Exec. Jour.
, 1st Cong., 2d sess., p. 51;
Biog. Dir.
Cong.
; Washington,
Papers, Presidential Series
, 5:414–415).
The question of how the U.S. government should handle Rhode
Island’s outlier status took a turn on 28 April 1790, when Maryland senator Charles
Carroll moved to form a committee to address the issue. Members Carroll, Oliver
Ellsworth, Robert Morris, Ralph Izard, and Pierce Butler drafted the Rhode Island
trade bill, which prevented “bringing goods, wares and merchandizes from the State of
Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, into the United States; and to authorize a
demand of money from the said State.” It was read in the Senate on 13 May and passed
five days later in a vote of 13 to 8. William Maclay led the opposition, claiming it
was meant to “impress the People of Rhode Island, with Terror,” in “the same Way That
a Robber does a dagger or a Highwayman a pistol.” Newspaper accounts of the debates
nurtured a new groundswell of Federalist sentiment. The Providence United States Chronicle, 20 May, reported that senators
were weighing a bill to restrict the state’s trade as of 1 July and demanding a
$27,000 payment due 1 August. The bill was read in the House of Representatives on 19
and 20 May but referred to committee. Rhode Island’s brinkmanship with the federal
government ended with ratification of the Constitution on 29 May (
First Fed.
Cong.
, 1:294–295, 309, 311, 312 313–314; 9:225, 271).
Struck by the influenza epidemic in New York, Washington battled
a nearly fatal case of pneumonia from 10 to 20 May. He resumed his duties on 30 May
but remained weak. AA was sensitive to the political implications of
Washington’s second grave illness in a few months, observing that “most assuredly I do
not wish for the highest Post. I never before realizd what I might be calld to, and
the apprehension of it only for a few days greatly distresst me” (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series
5:393, 394, 395, 396, 398;
AFC
, 9:62).