Adams Family Correspondence, volume 10
I have recd your favour of April 22 and am pleased with your Observations on the Doctrine of Reprisals on Choses in Action.1 As it is a Subject, which is likely to be discussed among Mankind for many Years to come, England France and Spain having lately attempted something of the kind, every Book which can throw any Light on it, ought to be looked up. Spain is Said to have confiscated or Sequestered French Shares in the Bank of st. Charles. The National Convention of France has lately attempted to compel Creditors of British Subjects if not of the British Nation to draw for their dues and Mr Pitt is employed in Parliament in making Retaliation. These Authentic Acts should all be collected and collated in order to see the Principles and form a system.— If the whole is not to be considered as Anarchic and Revolutionary. If it is We must have a little Revolutionary Retribution or Retaliation I suspect, before all is over, if Mr Jay cannot obtain Satisfaction in a more honourable Way. The Southern Debtors dont Seem to pant after Sequestration nor Confiscation, for this destroys not the Obligation of payment, so much as after War, which would suspend Payment at least. But with constant Declarations in Public for Peace, they frequently suffer to escape them in private Ardent Wishes for War and never fail to vote for every Measure that can provoke it.
The Executive and the Senate have preserved Us from War hitherto in opposition to the Ardour of the Majority of the H. of. R.
Whether Jay will make the Figure of Rabbi Monis’s Man in Heaven, who understood no Hebrew, stand behind the Door with his Finger in his Mouth I know not.—2 But one thing I know John Bull had better be very civil to him. John has many Ennemies, and no Friends but Such as his Guineas purchase for him in Europe and his Purse will be exhausted in a Year or two. Thomas is gone the Circuit of Chester Lancaster York Carlisle &c
yours
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “J. Q. A.” Tr (Adams Papers).
JQA’s letter to JA of 22 April (Adams Papers) replied to JA’s of 5 April, above, and JA’s discussion of the sequestration of debts. JA’s interest in the subject was no doubt prompted by congressional debate over it, for which see JA to AA, 31 March, and note 1, above. JQA agreed with JA that any sequestration of British debts by the United States would be seen as an act of hostility but also argued that “the depredations committed upon our commerce, by their privateers and West India judges” were equally a form of hostility. Nonetheless, JQA deplored the congressional response, claiming, “It is a 161 dishonourable resentment, which would afford a gratification to our enemies, because it would make us accessary to our own infamy, the instruments of our own shame. It is a rod which can only tickle our adversaries, but which may be turned into a deadly scourge upon ourselves. It is an expedient suggested by our Passion to our Weakness, and which nothing but our real Impotence can in any degree extenuate. Yet what else can we do? If they will assail us as highway robbers, we must pilfer from them as pickpockets. We cannot fight, and therefore we must cheat them. This appears to me, to be the real state of the argument, and all that can be said in favour of the sequestration.”
Probably a reference to “Rabbi” Judah Monis (1683–1764), an Italian-educated Jew who settled in Boston around 1720. That same year he became the first Jewish person to receive a degree from Harvard College, and in 1722 he was made Harvard’s first instructor in Hebrew, a position he held until 1760. Around the time of his appointment at Harvard, Monis converted to Christianity and became a member of the First Church of Cambridge (Lee M. Friedman, “Judah Monis, First Instructor in Hebrew at Harvard University,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, 22:2–3, 19, 20 [1914]).
d1794
I received your two kind Letters of April 19th & 22d I was much gratified by the appointment of mr Jay as Envoy extrodanary. I know not how the President could have made a more judicious choice, but there are Some evil spirits who would fault the measure of heaven & quarrel with the Angle Gabrial were he sent even to declare Peace on Earth, and good will to Men. the Jacobine clubs who watch over the measures of Government, sent their clue to Honest[us], hence the Chronical teams with abuse upon the exe[cut]ive, and clamours against the appointment of [the Chi]ef Justice.1 I have been credibly informd that Austin [li]ves Principally in the Printing office & has seldom quitted it, upon thursdays & Mondays till 12 at Night, or rather upon the Night preeceeding the publishing of the paper— I presume if the senate act with consistancy the Negative upon the non importation resolve will be as full as the vote in favour of sending mr Jay abroad, for I do not see upon what Principal they can vote for the one, and agree to the other. you will see before this Lord Lansdowns & Earl Wycombs speaches in the House of Lords, from which we may gather, that they are consious of the evils committed, and anxious for the concequences—2 after ways and means are devised I hope Congress will rise directly. their resolve respecting the Prohibition of British Manufactors, has already taxd the consumers twenty & thirty pr cent. the rise of all foreign Articles has been very rapid— many failures must be the concequence of the detention of our vessels & the depredations upon our Trade—
upon the 12 of this Month a peice of land upon which the widow 162 vesey formerly lived is to be sold at Auction, 6 Acres. tis expected that you will purchase it. the owner talks [of] a hundred and Eighty pounds for it. as it is to be sold at Auction, I have conversd with dr Tufts who does not think it worth more than ten pounds pr acre. yet to avoid bad Neighbours, he thinks I had better allow it to be bid up to 15 pounds but beyond that he would not advise me to go. I wish I kn[ew] your mind upon it and, whether you will think me distracted [by the] price. the buildings are good for nothing, the land worne out but still I should be loth to have a bad Neighbour there.3 I wish you would inclose to me a card to Gen’ll Lincoln, and ask him to send me the Money if I should purchase it
The trees are very forward & we are like to have upon many of them a full blow, but the Season is dry.
tell Brisler his wife and Family were well to day. I am my most tenderly and affectionatly / Yours
RC (Adams Papers); addressed by JQA: “The Vice-President of the United States / Philadelphia.”; endorsed: “1794 Mr Adams.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
The Boston Independent Chronicle, 28 April, reported the news of John Jay’s nomination while simultaneously declaring that it “cannot be reconciled to those principles which seem necessary in a republican government.” In particular, Jay’s position as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court meant a violation of the separation of branches. The newspaper further accused George Washington of giving “certain characters … a monopoly of favour,” comparing the situation to British “Court favourites.” The article concludes by hoping “that the Senate will have firmness enough to reject a nomination absurd in itself, and which is contrary to the true intent and spirit of our constitution.”
Both William Petty, 2d Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquis of Lansdowne, and his son, John Henry Petty, Earl Wycombe (1765–1809), spoke on 21 Jan. during the debates over the response to King George’s address in the Houses of Lords and Commons, respectively (Namier and Brooke, House of Commons,
3:270–271;
Parliamentary Hist.,
30:1082–1083, 1098–1100). The Boston Columbian Centinel, 30 April, reprinted portions of these debates, but see
AA to JA, 10 May, below. For more on the parliamentary debates, see
AA2 to JA, 29 April, and note 3, above.
The Adamses did not purchase the land; see AA to JA, 11, 27 May, both below.