Papers of John Adams, volume 21
d1795
Your favours of Jany 23 &
Feb 4 enclosing a Certificate from the Secretary’s office & Mr Madison’s answer, with the History of Geneva
have been duly recd & I thank you for them;
I am now waiting for Mr Thomson’s answer which
must be decisive, tho’ enough may be said
without it to satisfy every person not excepting Dr Kippis himself. When I shall have recd this I will draw up something & send it to you for your
revisal, before it goes any further.
Inclosed is a set of queries sent to me by a Mr Tucker, Professor of Law in the College at
Williamsburg— I had a few Copies struck off & have distributed them
among such Gentn. as I think can give me the
requisite Information.1 Is it
in your power to assist me? Was you as a Lawyer concerned in any Causes
where Negroes sued for freedom before the Revolution? What arguments were
used on either side? & how did the matter terminate? Do you remember a
Petition in 1773 for the liberation of all the
blacks? How was it supported & treated in the Genl Court?2
The two Proclamations which
we had for the late Thanksgiving have made some noise among us. Some of my
Brethn read the President’s only, others
read it with the Govr’s endorsement I was among
the former & have had the honor of being pointed at in the Chronicle for
it; but I have not tho’t it worthy of an answer. A Mr Bradford of Rowley has printed a democratic Sermon as a Contrast to Osgoods. I am told he is
Brother to David Bradford the Pittsburg Shays.3
I suppose the placing of the State’s arms & those of the U.S. was a fancy of the Printer’s—but I cannot say which is so placed as to have the superiority.
382The Castle flag was not
hoisted nor the Guns fired on the President’s birth day!4
What I said of the Zodiac was intended for no one’s inspection but your own.
I am sir with great Respect your / most obed Servt
PS. Any little pamphlet that you may have to spare will be acceptable—
I send you one of J Winthrop’s which is more popular than his first5
RC and enclosure (Adams Papers).
The enclosure listed questions about the history and
practice of slavery in Massachusetts. Belknap sent it on behalf of the
Bermuda-born St. George Tucker (1752–1827), a College of William and
Mary law professor who was at work on A
Dissertation on Slavery: With a Proposal for the Gradual Abolition
of It, in the State of Virginia, Phila., 1796, Evans, No. 31319 (
DAB
; Washington, Papers, Presidential
Series
, 13:140).
Black citizens presented a signed petition to
colonial governor Thomas Hutchinson and the Mass. General Court in Jan.
1773, seeking emancipation and formal recognition of their adherence to
Christianity (Mia Bay and others, eds., Toward
an Intellectual History of Black Women, Chapel Hill, N.C.,
2015, p. 43). For JA’s views on the institution of American
slavery during the Revolutionary War, see vol. 3:xvi–xvii.
These two works were Rev. David Osgood’s The Wonderful Works of God Are to Be Remembered:
A Sermon, Delivered on the Day of Annual Thanksgiving, November 20,
1794, Boston, 1794, Evans, No. 27456; and Rev. Ebenezer Bradford’s The Nature and Manner of Giving Thanks to God,
Illustrated: A Sermon, Delivered on the Day of the National
Thanksgiving February 19, 1795, Boston, 1795, Evans, No. 28339. David
Bradford (b. ca. 1760), a lawyer and deputy attorney general for
Washington County, Penn., eluded arrest for his leadership of the
Whiskey Rebellion (
AFC
, 10:320).
The details of Belknap’s sermon have not been found.
Boston residents did not organize a formal event, but
Philadelphia society celebrated George Washington’s birthday with a
“splended ball.” JA was careful to note that the French
minister, Jean Antoine Joseph Fauchet, was placed “on the right hand of
the President, which gave great Offence to the Spanish Commissioners”
(
AFC
, 10:87, 89, 95).
Belknap likely sent A Journal
of the Transactions and Occurrences in the Settlement of
Massachusetts and the Other New-England Colonies, from the Year 1630
to 1644 by John Winthrop, Hartford, Conn., 1790, a copy of
which is in JA’s library at MB (
Catalogue of JA’s
Library
).
The President of the United States to the Vice President of the United States, and President of the Senate.
Certain matters touching the public good, requiring that
the Senate shall be convened on Monday the 8th.
of June next; you are desired to attend at the Senate Chamber in
Philadelphia on that day, then and there to receive and deliberate on such
communications as shall be made to you on my part1
o:Washington
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed: “recd 12
March 1795 / ansd The Secretary of / State
16th. 1795.”; docketed by
JA: “Summons. 3. March / ansd 16. 1795.”
The president convened a special session of the Senate to debate ratification of the newly arrived Jay Treaty, for which see JA’s 5 Feb. letter to Thomas Jefferson, and note 2, above.