Papers of John Adams, volume 19
th.May. 1789.
I persuade myself that even surrounded as you are with the Plaudits of a gratefull & Sensible Country, you will not be displeased to receive the heartfelt expressions of respect and esteem of an old friend, of one who has never ceased to love and admire you from the time he first saw you in Europe in the Service of his Country.1
I am my dear Sir now happily settled in business in this City in the Madeira line, and I am confident it will give you pleasure to hear that I am doing as well as my heart coud wish, and that I feel myself as independent as an honest man can be, or ought to be.
I had determined to have gone to New York soon after your arrival there purely to have paid my respectfull compliments to you, but I have postponed it for the present, because as I said above I feel myself perfectly independent, and I was fearfull that if I went to New York at the time the Streets of that City were Crouded with Office Hunters, I might peradventure be reckoned one among them, which woud hurt my honest feelings, So I concluded to pay my tribute of respect by letter, which upon principles of public Oeconomy I also 450 think, best, as by doing it in Person it might perhaps Cost one Dinner & some Wine.—
I am with every Sentiment of respect & Veneration / Dear Sir / Your most obliged and most faithfull / friend & Servant
RC (Adams Papers).
Philadelphia merchant James Searle (1730–1797), a former delegate to the Continental Congress who fruitlessly sought loans for Pennsylvania in Europe, first met JA in Amsterdam in 1780. JA found Searle to be “the only Man I ever met in Europe, who tells, what I know about the State of our Affairs. It is a Comfort to have one Witness.” Searle began working as an agent for a Madeira trading company in 1788 (vols. 10:301, 16:28;
Biog. Dir. Cong.
;
DAB
).
th.1789.
I have just received a letter from Dr Price, enclosing one to your Excellency, which he desires me to convey to you, and I now transmit it.1
Your Excellency may remember the application to you, respecting Dr Minto.—2 So many and weighty are the national affairs, in which you are engaged, that the Corporation can hardly expect that you should have opportunity to attend to the matter yourself; but if your son Col. Smith has made any enquiries upon the subject, I should take it as a favor, if you would let me know the result of his enquiries, the first opportunity, as the Corporation are obliged to come to the choice of a Professor, by the 23d day of the next month.
As your Excellency’s time must be greatly taken up with the affairs of the Public, I will not infringe upon it; but ardently praying that you may have the divine blessing, in all your exertions to serve your Country, I beg leave to subscribe, / with sentiments of the highest esteem / and respect, / Sir, / your Excellency’s most humble / and obedient servant
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency / John Adams LL.D.”
Richard Price’s letter to JA was of 5 March, above.
Born in Coldingham, Scotland, Walter Minto (1753–1796) studied with David Hume at the University of Edinburgh, served as a tutor in Pisa, Italy, and returned to his alma mater to teach mathematics in 1783. He immigrated to New York City in 1786, and from 1787 until his death Minto was a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Princeton College (William C. Alexander, “Walter Minto, LL. D.,” The Princeton Magazine, 1:38–47 [1850]).