Papers of John Adams, volume 20
a.
th.1790
Since writing you, on the 7h. Instant,
by this Conveyance I have delivered to Captn. Peters, of the
Marianne, a Barrell of Sugar and a Barrell containing One dozen of old Rum and Two dozen
of old Madeira Wine.— The Sugar and Rum were made on my Estate and the Wine is from my
Cellar— Let me therefore present them to you.— I have requested my Mother to Send you a
Packet with Some Papers relative to the Slave-Trade; and if you approve of Sending
Copies to the President I would avail myself of your kind Attention therein; as 348 you will See by the inclosed Copy of my
Letter.—1 With Sincere Esteem— / I am,
Dear Sir / Yr. Mo. Obedt. Servt
tFitch
PS
I do not know what Title to give to Men in America; and beg your Candour in that respect.—
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Honble. John Adams / &c. &c. &c.”; notation:
“Please to turn over.”
Boston native Eliphalet Fitch (1740–1810), second cousin to
JA, was a sugar merchant. Fitch wrote to JA on 7 May (Adams Papers), announcing his plans to
retire from his post as receiver general of Jamaica. Fitch sent his gift to
JA via the Marianne, Capt. Peters, which
arrived in Boston on 22 June. No letter to JA from Jerusha Boylston Fitch
(1711–ca. 1799) has been found.
JA forwarded Fitch’s enclosure, which contained a 10
May letter to George Washington and several pamphlets on the African slave trade. The
publications were Debates in the British House of Commons,
Wednesday, May 13th 1789, Phila., 1789, which included a key speech by
abolitionist and Yorkshire M.P. William Wilberforce and A
Speech Delivered at a Free Conference between the Honourable the Council and
Assembly of Jamaica Held the 19th of November, 1789 on the Subject of Mr.
Wilberforce’s Propositions, Kingston, Jamaica, 1790, which was the opposition’s
response, made by Jamaican merchant and slave owner Bryan Edwards (Boston Columbian Centinel, 23 June; New York Evening Post, 4 Sept. 1810;
AFC
, 5:173; Ezra S. Stearns, comp.,
“The Descendants of Dea. Zachary Fitch of Reading,”
NEHGR
, 55:400 [Oct.
1901]; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series
, 5:391–392; François
Furstenberg, “Atlantic Slavery, Atlantic Freedom: George Washington, Slavery, and
Transatlantic Abolitionist Networks,”
WMQ
, 3d ser., 68:266,
270 [April 2011];
DNB
).
th:1790
I hope you will pardon me for my presunption to you, but the
Subject being so Interesting to the Public, I take the liberty to Write you. I had the
Honour to dine with you in Grosvenors square about Four Years ago, and then some
conversation passed about the Manufactorys of America.1 I acquainted you that I imported some Machiens
for Carding and Spinning of Wool and Cotton, and had left them in my absence in the
posssion of a person in Philadelphia and some British Faitors contrived to get them out
of his possesion and sent them back to England. the Public being alarmed caused an
enquiry to be made, and finding it to be an object to be noticed, and my Brother haveing
been Instructed in England, how to make the different Machines for Manufactoring, the
Cityzens of Philadelphia engaged him to make them a Carding Ingine and a Spinning
Machine, for which he received a very Insiderable Premium, from that State, and my
Brother contrary to my directions entered into an agreement with one Butlar of
Philadelphia, who has made several Machines and 349
350 not complied with is agreement I am late from
England and have it in my Power to make the Machines on a more compleat plan besides
several other Machines that has never been Introdust, in this country provided I can
have the benifit of the Same. I understand from a late paper that patents will be
granted to any of the first Introdusers of Machienery, and as me and my Brother are the
Only persons that are intitled to lay the Claim, for the same Machines of Manufactoring
of Wool & Cotton We can perfect the following Machines One that will Break 100 ld
Wool twice over Per day which can be worked either by Water or Horse. Another that will
card 30 ld Wool Per day. Another that will Spin from 9 to 12 ld wool Per day as fine as
can be prodused which we dye any coular fit for the loom and then wove by Spring
Shuttles.— Also the following Machine for Manufactoring of Cotton, One that will card 40
ld Per day by hand a horse or Water. Another With 40 Spindles that will draw from the
roll 40 ld Per day by the Assistance of 3 Small Boys or girls and a grown person.
Another with 84 Spindles that will Spin from 6 to 8 ld of Cotton Per day of a Sufficient
Quality for Calicoes Jeans, Or Corduroys, and which we can also riduce so fine as to
make good muslin.— I have also to inform you that I made a Spinning Mashine for Wool
& Cotton as early as the year 1775 for which the records will Shew that I received a
premium of £15 from the State of Pensylvania but was destroyed by the British Troops. I
carried on a considirable Manufactory in the time of War and Suplied Mess Mays and
Caldwell with a great Quantity of goods I have rote to One Mr John Brown who is a Member of Congress for the district of Kenticke, and crave
your Aid and assistance to know how to get my Patent if I am Intitled to, Any.2 if you pleas to favour me with your Answer,
direct for me at Mr Jacob Sampson Baltimore3 I am your Hbl Servt
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “John Adams Esqr.”
For the mechanical operation of Hague’s machine, see Descriptive List of Illustrations,
No. 5, above. During the Revolutionary War, Hague supplied Pennsylvania merchants
James Mease and Samuel Caldwell with textile goods. In 1783 Hague acquired several
carding and spinning machines for resale, which were likely smuggled from Liverpool.
Owing to difficulties with their assembly, the machines were sent back to England in
1787. Unwilling to cede or share control of the new technology, members of the
Pennsylvania Society’s manufacturing committee petitioned the state legislature to
forbid the export of the machines and to discourage the emigration of trained workmen.
Hague’s brother, John, moved to Virginia and in 1790 established a cotton factory near
Nashville, Tenn. Another Philadelphia partner in their business, John Butler, was a
carpenter (David J. Jeremy, “British Textile Technology Transmission to the United
States: The Philadelphia Region Experience, 1770–1820,” Business History Review, 47:33, 40, 50 [Spring 1973]; Washington, Papers, Revolutionary
War Series
, 13:166; Samuel C. Williams, “The South’s First 351 Cotton Factory,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 5:213, 216–217 [Sept. 1946];
Philadelphia
Directory
, 1785).
Hague’s appeal to JA likely stemmed from the
publication of the 10 April Patent Act, which appeared in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, 15 April. For the many inventors who
sought JA’s aid in obtaining patents and for his responses, see, for
example, Thomas McKean’s 20 Jan.
letter, above, and
JA’s 19 May reply to Benjamin Lincoln, below.
Staunton, Va., lawyer John Brown (1757–1837) served as the
Virginia representative for Kentucky from 1789 to 1792 and opened a textile factory in
Danville, Ky. (
Biog. Dir. Cong.
;
First Fed. Cong.
,
14:890).
Jacob Sampson (1752–1822), a speculator from Sheffield, England,
moved to Baltimore in 1775 and there sold slaves, land, and livestock (Lilla Briggs
Sampson, The Sampson Family, Baltimore, 1914, p. 192; Maryland Journal, 11 Jan. 1780, 27 Aug. 1790).