Permit me overwhelmed with grief & chagrined at disappointment to beg your kind attention for a minute. I am grieved, because my pretensions to the Office I sollicited were certainly far better 131 grounded than his, who holds the Appointment: I am chagrined, because my expectations were with reason high.1

I think it not vanity to say I have some degree of personal merit; and some publick Seals of Government, with papers (even complimentary) accompanying, which I have on file, witness some small Services I have rendered the publick.

In the year 1779 I served them, at my own Expence, as Commander of the Troops at Falmouth, and met with the approbation, & received even the Compliments of the Government of the Massachusetts. In the year 1780 I again voluntarily served them as Secretary to General Wadsworth, Commander in the eastern Department.2 Altho’ there was no establishment originally made for a Secretary in that Department; yet the State saw fit to offer me handsom Compensation; but I chose to enjoy their gratitude, rather than accept their pay farther than to reimburse my expences. I continued my endeavours to serve the publick without remission to the end of the war; and then confined my self to my domestick affairs, pleased with the reflection that I had contributed my mite to the service of my Country.— With such pretensions, incouraged by the friendship of some of the most eminent Gentlemen in Congress, I flattered my self that Government would favor me with some degree of attention. But when I experienced your Goodness and Condescention in favoring me with a line, I tho’t my self certain of success; especially as Mr. Wingate had informed me that the President himself had not forgotten me since he knew me at Cambridge: And I think success must have attended me, had it not been for Mr. Thatchers very great zeal in serving his particu[lar] friends; for whom I find provision is made at every Port in this eastern part of the Government, where he had them.— If Mr. Thacher has endeavoured to serve them merely because they were his friends, and not because of their deserts, & of their capacity to serve the publick, I think he has done wrong: If he has made use of a certain Recommendation in favor of Mr. Fosdick (of which Mr. Wingate can particularly inform You, and also how it was obtained) I think he has imposed upon the President, and personally injured me.

Had others, who have pretensions similar to mine, been appointed; I should only have been disappointed; but should not have been grieved: But to see the appointment conferred upon a person, to whom his most zealous friends cannot with truth ascribe any peculiar personal merit, and he himself would not pretend to any services he had ever rendred the publick, is truly aggravating.

To say he sustained the Office before, is not true: He was only a Naval Officer; and that Office he had not long sustained; and the manner in which he obtained it from those much more deserving reflects no great honor upon him.— But so it is.— It is done— He has obtained his appointment— He has practiced, & has prospered.— I am not envious; but I am grived. The cause of my grief I think would have been prevented, had things been known as they really are: But perhaps it cannot now be removed. I think however it will shortly be found that a Naval Officer will necessary at this Port; as I think there is, and I am told so by Gentlemen in trade, much more business to be done in this District, than in either of the Districts of Portsmouth, or of Newbury-Port: or there may be some other agreeable Appointments to be made that I know not of. I should suspect the Collection-Bill suggests an intervening Officer between the Collectors & the Treasury; as I find the Collectors are to settle their Accounts once in three months, or oftener.

I still wish for an agreeable Employment under Government; and shall most gratefully acknowledge your kindness in befriending me, if any should present.— Relying upon your Goodness to excuse the freedom I have taken, & the trouble I have given You, permit me to subscribe my self with every sentiment of Respect & Gratitude, / Your Excellency’s / most obedient and obliged, / humble Servant;

Mr. Sherman returns his respectful compliments to the Vice-President, and would have done himself the honor of Waiting on him to Dine on Thursday next but he was previously engaged.1

I have received your kind and obliging letter of the 16 of July, and am sorry that the extream heat of the weather, and a constant attendance on the duties of an office which is somewhat laborious and fatiguing, have prevented my giving it an earlier answer. The approbation you are pleased to express of my public conduct, is a great satisfaction to me. It is true that I have run through a course of dangers, hardships and fatigues by sea and land, and a series of perplexed negotiations among various nations, and at different Courts, which have never fallen to the lot of any other American, and scarcely to any other man. But although I may flatter myself that under the favor of heaven, I have had as much success as could have been rationally expected; Yet I find myself obliged with you to lament; that our Countrymen have not availed themselves of the advantages, which Providence has placed in their power. After a generous contest for liberty of twenty years continuan[ce] Americans forgot wherein liberty consisted— After a bloody war in defence 134 of property, they forgot that property was sacred—after an arduous struggle for the freedom of commerce they voluntarily shackled it with arbitrary trammels, after fighting for justice as the end of government, they seemed determined to banish that virtue from the earth. Rhode Island has carried all these errors to their extreams: but there is not any State in the union, which is wholly free from the same mistakes. I should denominate this conduct guilty as well as erroneous, if I were not sensible that it has been owing to the loss of that ballance in our governments which can alone preserve wisdom or virtue in society— The whole continent seems at present sensible that much has been wrong, and desirous of reformation But there are obstacles in their way, among which the unatural conduct of Rhode Island is not the least— You will add greatly to your merits towards your Country by your exertions to bring your fellow Citizens into a right way of thinking in this Respect— It is very true, that several of those loose conjectures of an imagination wandering into futurity, which you are pleased to dignify with the magnificent appellation of prophetic declorations have been brought to pass in a singular manner, for some of which I had much less reason to offer, than for that which has not been accomplished, relative to youself. This however is still not impossible, nor perhaps improbable.

The solemn declaration which you call prophetic, and say has come to pass, made on the floor of Congress, respecting the late confederation, just as we had closed it, I do not distinctly recollect— I should be much obliged to you if you would write me, as particular an account of it as you can recollect. Hæc olim meminisse juvabit.—1

I must now thank you for your polite and friendly attention to my family when at New Port. They speak with much gratitude of the civilities they received both there and at Providence—and we live in hopes of seeing you in senate before another year is compleated.

I am Sir Your friend