Papers of John Adams, volume 19
th1787.
Dr Rush returns his thanks to Mr: Cutting for the elegant & agreeable manner in which he conveyed Mr Adams’s acceptable treatise on Goverment to him. The Dr begs Mr Cutting would inform
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Mr: Adams that his work has been received & read with universal Satisfaction, & that a new edition of it is now in the press in Boston—new York & Philadelphia.—
The principles & facts contained in this excellent publication have already had an influence in our Country, & from thier arriving at the time of the setting of our fæderal convention, it is expected they will be very useful in establishing such a fæderal Goverment as Mr Adams has proved to be most safe—most free, and most durable in all countries.
Dr Rush conveyed Mr Cuttings Compliments to the family at morven, who are all in good health. Mr Richard Stockton is in extensive business, & bids fair to be at the head of his profession in new Jersey.2
Tr in John B. Cutting’s hand (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Mr Cutting. / Mr Coxe.”; notation by CFA: “1787.”
In his letter to JA of the same day (Adams Papers), Cutting enclosed Rush’s letter, adding that he would send Tench Coxe’s new work, An Enquiry into the Principles on Which a Commercial System for the United States of America Should be Founded, Phila., 1787, Evans, No. 20306.
Morven, in Princeton, N.J., was the family estate of Richard Stockton (1730–1781), Princeton 1748, who was a prominent lawyer and Rush’s father-in-law. Stockton’s son, Richard (1764–1828), Princeton 1779, was a New Jersey lawyer who had served as a justice in the Somerset County Court of Common Pleas since 1785 (
AFC
, 2:60;
Princetonians
, 1:7–11, 3:277–284).
r.Sir—
th.1787.
I am under the disagreable necessity of informing you that Mr: Barclay is in Prison at this place—at the suit of Messrs: V & P. French & Nephew, Merchants established here, for the sum of 75.000t Livers—which arrises from Cash advanced & Goods shiped on his account & by his order—near 4 years past— the Gentlemen seem much attached to the Idea, that Mr. Barclay being in a public capacity—his Country will interpose, pay the debt and sett Mr. B. at liberty— I have done all in my power to convince them, of the impropriety of their expectations—for tho’ I will readily grant, that the holding of a public office, ought in every case to induce a Gentleman to be doubly cautious and guarded in his private conduct—still I think the Idea perfectly novel and rediculous—that in case a public officer should involve himself in difficulties, in consequence of his private negotiations—that his Country should be supposed bound to extricate him—1
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I have visited him and find him miserably lodged & apprehensive that his difficulties will encrease—upon his situation being made public—for from what I can learn—this is not the only debt— I shall take leave of him this afternoon & pursue my duty in the morning and with affectionate regards for the Ladies & the little Gent. / I have the honor to be Dr. Sir—Your Excellency’s most Obt. / sv
RC (Adams Papers).
For the debt that triggered Thomas Barclay’s arrest in Bordeaux, see his 3 April letter, and note 2, above. Louis XVI’s attorney, Pierre Jules Dudon, replied to Barclay’s petition for release, arguing that, according to the law of nations, Barclay’s status as a foreign minister prohibited incarceration. Barclay was freed on 19 May. In a 20 May letter to AA2, WSS mentioned dining with Barclay a day earlier, but WSS worried about the consequences of an American agent running afoul of the French authorities. “It has made a great talk; both his imprisonment and his release; I am apprehensive it will not end here,” WSS wrote. Eager to avoid further legal trouble, Barclay sailed secretly from Bordeaux on 1 July (Roberts and Roberts, Thomas Barclay
, p. 235–250; Jefferson, Papers
, 11:493–500, 538; AA2, Jour. and Corr.
, 1:152).