Papers of John Adams, volume 16
You wished, sir, to be informed about the merchandise and products that might be the objects of a reciprocal trade between the states of His Prussian Majesty and those of the United States of America.1 I am too flattered to establish these new commercial ties in concert with you not to hurry to communicate the ideas that I have collected, either from the information that my court has previously supplied me, or from information that I have received through other channels. The picture that I am setting before your eyes will be, however, very abbreviated. Limiting myself to the most essential goods, I am offering you the following, sir, pending clarifications that you might desire, and which perhaps will be necessary when the negotiations with which we are entrusted are on more solid ground:
- Imports to the dominions of His Prussian Majesty:
- a. Virginia tobacco.
- b. Rice. 100
- c. Indigo.
- d. Whale oil.
- Exports from the king’s dominions for the possessions of the United States of America:
- a. Linens from Silesia, marketable throughout the American continent and the West Indies.
- b. Prussian hemp, one of the best known.
- c. Porcelain from Berlin, of a finer workmanship than that of Saxony, and less expensive.
- d. Various products of Prussian industry, such as the hardware of the County of the Mark, which up to now have passed, like Silesian linens, through the hands of the English, and which therefore increased in price when they entered America.
- e. All sorts of cloth, camlets, and other merchandise of this sort.
I might add, sir, that the king leaves it to Congress to choose one or another port of his states as the most convenient for the exchange of goods or for the deposit of merchandise. Emden, located near the North Sea, opens the door to business with the western part of Germany; Stettin, a maritime locale on the shores of the Baltic, to the interior of this vast region, by means of the Oder.2 Finally, the ports of the two Prussias establish a close business connection with the kingdom of Poland, where American fish products, in particular cod, could be retailed to great advantage.
I have the honor of being with the greatest esteem, sir, your very humble and very obedient servant
Mr. Christian Ravenhorst, Lutheran pastor in Ebenezer, Georgia, passed away there several years ago, and his widow, Anne Barbarine Krafftin, died in the same place on 1 July 1779.3 By means of a joint will set up by those two, the husband bequeathed as a preference legacy the sum of 300 pounds sterling to his three sisters, residing in the dominions of His Prussian Majesty, and the wife stipulated the same legacy for her family domiciled in Ravensburg. The rest of the estate was to fall in equal portions to the heirs of each of the testators, with funds taken out for two legacies, each in the amount of 40 pounds sterling to be settled on religious missions in India, and on the orphanage in Halle. Messrs. Joseph Schubtrin and Jacob Waldhauer of Ebenezer were named testamentary executors, and in that capacity they took possession of all of the estate, as it appears from the letter they wrote dated 4 May 1780 to a woman named Marie Hoppin, residing in Daber in Pomerania, one of the sisters of the late Ravenhorst. According to their own declaration, the personal property of 101 the estate was taxed at the rate of 487 pounds and 19 shillings; there were 400 pounds in outstanding debts, the recovery of which was committed to the lawyers. In addition there was real estate in the amount of 1300 arpents4 of land, provisionally administered by the testamentary executors. During the turmoil of the American war the heirs received no news at all about the arrangements made regarding the estate; but the latest word is that Professor Freylinghausen, one of the directors of the orphanage in Halle, was just informed in a letter from Pennsylvania, that one of the executors, Mr. Schubtrin, has since passed away, and that the second, Mr. Waldhauer, was robbed by a band of thieves of all the ready money and of all the effects from the estate entrusted to his administration. Supposing that this event is attested to by legal proofs, the just claims of the heirs to the outstanding debts would continue to exist in their entirety, as the recovery does not seem to have taken place, much less so in the case of the real estate, the alienation of which was declared impossible during the course of the war. The interested party, Sophie Neumann, née Ravenhorst, residing in Berlin and sister of the deceased pastor in Georgia, has requested the protection of her sovereign, and it is in consequence of the orders of the king that the undersigned special envoy of His Majesty has been authorized to place the particulars of this case before Mr. Adams, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at The Hague. He flatters himself that this minister will be so kind as to use his good offices to procure for the heirs an authentic copy of the will and of the inventory of the estate, and to make the necessary protests where it is pertinent in order that the executor is made to account for the proceeds of the estate, for the funds that he administered, and for the capital goods and real property whose liquidation might remain to be settled.