Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 2
This morning Mr. Greenleaf Set out for N. York. Here I am very lonely if you have an Opertunity I wish you wou'd let Sister know that I Shou'd be very Glad of her Company and her horse's for I am left destitute of one for Mr. Greenleaf has Sold his horse & Chair for a fine Nag & by it made an addition to his venture so that he has Carried a pretty sum. Since this has happen'd I Can't be willing the Chaise Shou'd go of at So low a price as has been offer'd for we must have Some Carriage & Shall not get another at so low a rate. Therefore by his Consent I desire it may rest till his return, and if Sister Comes to me I Shall Send for it home by the first Good Opertunity. Can't you bring it when you come this way? If you dont object to its Coming, I Cant but Expect Some benefits by his journey and am loth to give up anything so nessesary to our Comfort as well as profit till I See without receiveing its near its value until the last pinch. I have no humour & I think pride has no Share in this resolution but till your brother returns I am a prisoner even with a horse. Your advice upon this will be acceptable to your Oblidg'd Friend & Sister
PS in margin – Nov 20so don't E and is much hurt so dont Expect to see her but find I Can do without a horse, I want your Company at thanksgiving tis very lonely when the Shop is not to be tended. I know not how to Convey this perhaps it may have another adition Farwel
Dr. David Jones (1715/6–1783).
Lt. Nathaniel Pratt (1702–1779).
Thomas Flucker (1719–1783), Boston merchant, served on the Council, 1761–1783; was commissioned treasurer of the Province, Nov. 12, 1770; and was appointed a mandamus councillor on Aug. 9, 1774. His daughter Lucy married Henry Knox, later one of the Washington's generals, against family wishes in 1777. A staunch loyalist, Flucker left Boston with his family at the evacuation for Halifax and later sailed to England. He died there on Feb. 16, 1783 (James H. Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts [Boston, 1910], 402–404).
Greenleaf was apparently seeking a government commission of some sort. He was unsuccessful in the venture.
Pray delr. the Bed to the Bearer & also the piece of a Pannel door that I mention'd and (if there be no danger of its freezing) the jam
I1 was too much gratified with the Proposal you made me of writing to you, to neglect it long. For as Nature and Fortune have conspired to strip me of all other means of Pleasure I cannot think it either Vanity or Virtue to acknowledge, that the Acquisition and Communication of Knowledge are the sole Entertainment of my Life. I should therefore be inattentive to my object, and stupidly forget my own designs, if I neglect the Liberty you gave me of opening this Correspondence.2
Such is the social Constitution of our Nature, that Conversation arouses Passions in our Breasts, which give a new Vigour and Freedom to our Thoughts, raises Hints and Arguments which we should never find in solitude, and is at least the best scene to gather Ideas, if not to compare and seperate them, and finally to settle a difficult Enquiry. Conversation may promote Benevolence in general, as well as Friendship to Individuals, raises a Spirit of Industry and Emulation, and evaporates the Spleen which we are all too apt to contract, by long and close attention to Business or study.
But as we are seldom so happy as to find Company much inclined to Speculation, and as some of us, can find no Company at all, the only Method left, is that of Correspondences, which, in my Opinion have all the Advantages of Conversation, with the Additional ones of searching157deeper into subjects, of crushing many vain and more offensive Thoughts, and of perpetuationg such as are useful and judicious.
How well or ill qualified you may be to maintain a Correspondence on the wisest Principles and Motives you have forbidden me to tell you, and I had much rather say to other People. If you condemn this as a Compliment I will not mention your Name in my next, in the mean time I will conclude this (after requesting your Answer to the Underwritten Questions) with the Name of your honest Friend,
A mortgages an House to B, conditioned for the Payment of a certain Sum. A dies insolvent. The House is apprisd at £500 less than it was mortgaged for. Q., In this Province can B come in as a Creditor for the £500, and claim his proportional share, in the Division with the other Creditors?
A mortgages an House in N to B. conditioned for the Payment of £1300, and another House in O, conditioned for the Payment of £1000 and dies insolvent. The House in N. is appraised at £500 less than it is mortgaged for; and the House in O is appraised at £500 more than it is mortgaged for. Q, Is the Administrator of A entituled to his Right of Redemption of the House in O, without paying the £500 deficient in the other Mortgage?
These two Questions will fill a very sizeable Letter, without leaving Room for one Compliment.
John Adams (1735–1826), RTP's long-time colleague at the bar; later a delegate to the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence; chief framer of the constitution for Massachusetts of 1780 and second President of the United States. See "Robert Treat Paine and John Adams: A Colonial Rivalry," by Stephen T. Riley, in Sibley's Heir (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 59: 415–469); and references to RTP in John Adams's Diary and Autobiography, his Legal Papers and Papers.
There is only the slightest evidence to show that this correspondence on legal subjects continued. On the cover page of William Crawford to John Adams, Jan. 13, 1760, was the following undated fragment by Adams: "To Bob Paine, Since you will oblige me to spin a Web out of my own Bowells take this, which has entaThe Papers of John Adams, ed. Robert J. Taylor et al., 8 vols. [Cambridge, Mass., 1977–1989], 1:32).