Papers of John Adams, volume 21
st.1794.
Your Favor of the 20th. I
have received. and the same Evening of the 29th.
1 The Resolution
of Congress laying an Embargo reached this Town. they meet almost universall
Approbation. and should it be thought best to continue it for a longer Time
it will be strictly complyed with.2
Peace is the prevaling and general Object of the People of all Ranks and which they hope their Rulers will be able to continue to them and will therefore chearfully acquiesce in any Measures which the Government may think proper to adopt for this Purpose.
The Merchants who have suffered either by the Detention &c. of the French and the Condemnations of the English promise themselves Compensation on the Part of the French and payment on that of the English; with respect to the first they build their hopes upon the Promises of the Members of the Convention that they shall not be loosers by the Embargo. As to their Losses by the British they seem to place Dependance on their property or rather the property of British Merchants in the hands of the Merchants of this Country and upon their Stocks in the Funds for remuneration. with Respect to the Legitimacy of such Expectations I pretend to make no remark but only content myself with the mere relation of them and to observe that at present these Considerations serve a temporary purpose of restraining their Resentments within bounds but ’tho’ the Wishes and hopes of the Great Mass of the People both in and out of Trade are for Peace yet they do not wholly rely on its continuence. The Encreasing demand for our shipping before the Captures Detention and Injuries took place stimulated the Merchants to set up new Vessells but these have since things have taken this turn been directed to be constructed in a Manner proper for Vessells of force. and I believe some are now building with this Intention.
This Day Weeks will be the first Monday in April when I
expect their will be great Exertions made by the Friends of the different
Candidates Mr Cushing is put up as a Candidate
against Mr Adams. and I believe will have as
many Votes as Mr Adams. your old Friend Sullivan
says he expects to have all the Votes in the lower Counties and in Berkshire
and Hampshire
This State has been districted anew for the Choice of
Senators during the last Session of the General Court by this Means Boston Hingham Hull and Chelsea are to choose four Senators. There will be every exertion
made to get Honestus out. to effect this Object the Candidates set up by the
fœderalists will be.
| Thomas Russell |
| Thomas Dawes |
| Oliver Wendell |
and for the Country Theophilus Cushing (of Hingham)3
If after this Exertion Austin
can keep his Seat at the Senate I shall despair of his ever being
removed.4
I am Sr with great respect
your Friend and Humble / st
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “Dr
Welsh 31. March / ansd 7 April.”
Not found.
As Welsh indicated, a growing storm of British
depredations on U.S. vessels led Congress to impose the 26 March embargo
of British trade. Orders in Council, issued on 6 Nov. 1793 and 8 Jan.
1794, supported the seizure of neutral vessels bound for France but
exempted those traveling to the West Indies. The British Navy captured
several American ships near the West Indies, and sailors experienced
poor treatment in the admiralty courts. In the eyes of JA
and others, this was a direct provocation to U.S. neutrality and it
contravened the “free ships make free goods” doctrine that pinned
together increasingly strained Anglo-American relations. Congress went
back and forth over the president’s authorization of the embargo and its
time limits, fixing it at thirty days. JA worried that the
embargo, while necessary, tilted the United States toward immersion in a
new war. To AA he wrote: “I have one comfort; that in
thought, word, or deed I have never encouraged a war. I will persevere
in doing all in my power to prevent it. If it is forced on us by
England, or even if it is brought on us by our own imprudence, I must
stand or fall with my country” (
AFC
, 10:125; JA, Works
,
1:469).
Closing parenthesis has been editorially supplied.
Massachusetts citizens cast their votes for governor
on 7 April, and the General Court read the formal count on 29 May. The
Adamses’ favored candidate, U.S. Supreme Court justice William Cushing,
lost to Samuel Adams. No clear majority emerged in the lieutenant
governor’s race, so the house turned to consider the next three top
vote-getters—Elbridge Gerry, Moses Gill, and Nathaniel Gorham—and
eventually selected Gill, who served in the post until 1799.
JA was not as surprised as his fellow New Englanders
that party support was on the wane. JQA kept his father
closely informed of local politics throughout the election season,
observing: “Our federalists droop the head and think all is lost.— They
know not so much of the human heart, or of the American character as you
do” (
AFC
, 10:133, 137,
140, 141,
149).
d.1794.
[. . . .] the Vice President—sends him a memoir which is
the work of a Mr. La Rocque a French Gentleman
who is said to be charged with exploring the ground for extensive
speculations in our vacant lands &c and which the Author is desirous of
having placed under 271 the
eye of the Senate— How this can be done the Vice President can best judge or
whether at all.1
RC and enclosure (DNA:RG 46, Records of the U.S.
Senate); docketed: “Legis: 1st: Sess: 3d: Cong: / Communication / to the Vice
President / from the Secy of the / Treasury
relative to a / work of Mr. La Rocque /
April 2d: / 1794.” Some loss of text due to
a torn manuscript.
Hamilton enclosed André Jean La Rocque’s unpublished essay “Mémoire sur la situation politique des Etats Unis, relativement à leur dette publique et leur agriculture.”