Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
My dear, I recd. yours1 last week, & hope this will reach you before you Leave Worcester.2 I am Sorry that the Soreness of your ancle continews I fear you Try to be young & So dont take proper care of it. I have recd. a Small Box of Goods from Mr. Allen I Suppose but no Letter nor invoice they came with Mr. Sherburn the Box is fild with Gauze & Ribbins & Gloves I have put them with the rest till you return which I hope will be Soon. What need you go to Northampton Court—peace was declar:d to day I wish you was at home if their should be any publick rejoycings I hope youll be at home to Bair a part.
Robert & Tommy has had the mump but are Better Harry is coming down with it King3 has been unwell the three days but is Geting Better the rest of our family are well. In haste your affectionate,
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RTP was in Worcester for a session of the Supreme Judicial Court. Among the cases which were heard at this sitting was Commonwealth v. Nathaniel Jennison, for an assault against Quok Walker. Although this 258 case would have greater ramifications later because it effectively voided slavery within Massachusetts, it made little impact at the time and warranted only one scanty page within RTP’s notes on testimony. For further references to this case and the broader subject of slavery and emancipation in Massachusetts, see RTP to Robert Luscombe, Aug. 21, 1779, n.1 (above).
RTP noted in his diary on Oct. 4, 1782: “King came to live with me”; June 7, 1783: “King went away & Frances Clever came to live with me”; July 23, 1783: “Yesterday Frank Clever went away & King came to live with me.” There were no further diary references to King.
Zebedee Sprout, Agent on the Estates of
Peter Oliverand
Peter Oliver, Jr., Absentees
.July 4, 1783
Whereas it appears to this Court, that Zebedee Sprout, Agent on the estates of Peter Oliver and Peter Oliver, jun.,
1
Absentees, unreasonably neglects to pay into the Treasury of this Commonwealth, the proceeds of the sales of the personal estates of the said Peter Oliver and Peter Oliver, jun:
Therefore Resolved, That the Attorney General be, and he is, hereby directed to commence an action on the bond given by him, the said Zebedee Sprout, for the faithful discharge of his said agency, and to pursue the same to final judgment and execution.
Acts and Laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts [1782–1783] (Boston, 1890), 713.
Peter Oliver, Jr. (1741–1822), graduated from Harvard in 1761 and began training as a physician. As the son of Chief Justice Peter Oliver and son-in-law of Gov. Thomas Hutchinson, he was deeply entrenched in the loyalist oligarchy and followed them into English exile in 1776. He finished his medical studies with an M.D. from Marischal College, Aberdeen, and established a practice in England (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, 15:82–87).
Yesterday I had the honor to receive your favor of the 14th instant,1 and immediately directed the men for whom you wrote, should be 259 sent to Boston. But upon examination it was found that Phineas Austin, and Robert Cormack, were with a detachment of the Army under General Howe at Philadelphia. Thomas Austin is here but so sick as to be unable to proceed directly. Perhaps in one week he may be sufficiently strong to commence his journey. I have written to Genl. Howe requesting him to forward the other Austin, and Cormack to you, but the operation will require so much time that I can scarcely indulge the hope they will arrive in season, for your purpose.
I sincerely reciprocate your congratulations upon the happy termination of a doubtful conflict. The prize is indeed infinitely valuable, and has been obtained with small exertions in proportion to its high worth. How happy an object should we be at the present moment, for the contemplation of mankind, were our prosperity ornamented, with the virtues of humanity, Justice, and patriotism. But your letter and other information, contain too just a detail of the temper and disposition of the illiberal, and unprincipled part of the community, to deceive ourselves with the belief of virtues which do not exist in an extensive degree. There are men in America who would have added lustre to the brightest age of the human race. But they do not constitute the multitude. Nor is it necessary they should, provided the multitude could be charmed by the voice of wisdom. But when Injustice Envy avarice, revenge and the other black passions insist upon holding the reigns of Government, adieu to happiness. Wisdom has no direction of affairs. Perhaps she may assume the form of her degenerate sister in Law Prudence and take a sleepy dose in some snug corner untill the tempest be past by. However prudence and Caution did not effect the revolution. If we had attended only to their dictates we should never have gone into it. Nor will timorous sentiments now establish an Empire. The foundations of the new Fabrick, must be layed in the immutable principles of Justice, or it will totter with every wind. The wise and good of all classes must unite and by their magnanimity save their country. Fraud and vice must be compelled to fly.
An equal, just, and energetic Government is the principal engine by which the manners of the people can be influenced. If the Laws are good, and well enforced, property will be secure, industry stimulated, and vice and idleness discouraged.
I beg your pardon, I was running into disquisitions upon a subject of which (Secluded as I am amidst the mountains) I am not perhaps sufficiently informed. I shall soon mix with my countrymen when perhaps I 260 may obtain better materials, and imbibe a more favorable opinion of their dispositions than I am able to do at present.
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