Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Pitcairn, 23 October 1799
Thomas Boylston Adams to Joseph Pitcairn
Germantown 23d: October 1799.
My dear Sir.
Between the 8th: & 16th: instants I have been fortunate enough to receive your several agreeable favors of July 6th: August 10th: 15th: 17th: & 28th: with sundry pamphlets &ca: &ca: for all which please to accept my thanks. The muskets by the Connecticut are likewise recd: in good condition.1
By the speedy passages of the Hamburg traders this
season, we have been furnished with very recent European intelligence,
and the triumphant progress of the allied powers has afforded matter of
joy or regret, as the passions & feelings of individuals among us
happened to be favorable or adverse to the cause of universal Monarchy
for which they seem to be striving.2 It must always happen, so long
as America is an independent Republic or nation, that the balance of
power in Europe will always
continue to be of the utmost importance to her welfare. The moment that
either France is victorious & Great Britain with her allies
depressed, we have cause to be alarmed for ourselves. The same thing is
true when the reverse of this happens. We are of too much consequence in
the scale of nations, to be left in the peaceable enjoyment of our
Commerce, & gaining strength in proportion as others are losing it,
without a
struggle at least to draw us into the vortex of war & waste. We have
already resisted a single effort from each side since the commencement
of the War, and if rumor has any truth in the tales it tells, we are not
far removed from a fresh attempt to make us declare for one side or the
other. We are, or in my opinion, soon must be, in a state of hostility
with all mankind, and I swear as an American, that I had rather
encounter the united rage of every power in Europe, as the Barbary
States have formerly done, than be leagued, associated or allied with
any of them in a common system of defence. Either we can, or we cannot,
maintain our Independence, and I am of opinion that affairs in this
Country are drawing fast to this issue.
Our Commissioners to France are said to be on the eve of departure in the frigate United States, to sail from Newport.3 This I believe, may be relied upon. We hear that the British Minister has signified to the Government that the departure of these Envoys will be considered by the Coalition as an act of hostility.4 You have this as I hear it every day in public— I cannot vouch for the truth.
I submitted your letters of the 17th: & 28th: August to the perusal of the Secy. of State, who after reading returned them with no other remark than that he could not advise me to enter into the speculation you propose, since the price of those articles you mention, is much lower here than your calculations. On the subject of the Ship to be sold & the article of Copper, he said nothing, but when I see him, I will ask more on these subjects.
By a letter from my brother of the 16th: July, I learn that agreeably to a
proposal I made him last May, he consented to take MB5 2000 of the money I left in
your hands & had accordingly drawn for it on that day. I have
written you also a request to purchase certain articles for my Mother at
Hamburg, charging my account with the cost, which I presume would nearly
make a balance between us. Friend Brush, who you say undertook to send
my great Coat, has never been polite enough to give me notice of its
arrival, though he came safe himself some months ago.6 I had rather run the chance of
getting one from you, according to my request, though you should charge
it, than wait any longer for the other.
We are about to revisit the Capital after a long & unprofitable absence. The disease has subsided both here & at New York, but not yet disappeared; the danger however of contagion is nearly gone— The Banks have remained through the Season, in spite of the sickness, but the public offices removed to Trenton and are not yet returned. I expect my parents will pass the winter among us, which will contribute much to my comfort. The P——t is already at Trenton.
I will write again ere long, & mean time remain with esteem / Your very obedt: humble Servt:
PS. Our Election for Governor gives us Thomas Mc:Kean by a majority of about six thousand votes— Numbers will always outvote property— Or in other words the democrats will always beat the Aristocrats on a fair trial of strength. If we are to fight G. B. this State will deserve a third part of the burthen of the war.
Our Congress has a better reputation than I fear it will merit when it comes together. The Session will be long & stormy. I look for something great to save the Country.
Philadelphia 26th:
I find a vessel ready to sail for Bremen and I shall make up my packet for you under cover to our Consul at that place.7
The departure of the Envoys will probably happen about the 1st: of next month. The story of the British Ministers representations on this subject is very doubtful— I am disposed to discredit it, though I have no special authority for so doing.
I am as above / Your’s
RC (OCHP:Joseph Pitcairn Letters); addressed: “Joseph Pitcairn Esqr: / Consul of the United States of America / Hamburg”; internal address: “Jo: Pitcairn Esqr:”; endorsed: “Thomas Adams / 23 Octor 1799 / R. 15 April 1800 / And 30 May”; notation: “To the care of / F. J. Wichelhausen / Bremen” and “Bremen the 14th. April 1800. / Recd: & f[or]warded by / [Yr] Mst Obdt. St:. / pr F[…] [J]acob Wichelhausen.” Some loss of text where the seal was removed.
1. The letters and pamphlets sent by Pitcairn have not been found. For the two muskets purchased for TBA by JQA and shipped by Pitcairn, see vol. 13:498, 539. The ship Connecticut, Capt. Moore, arrived at Philadelphia on 16 Oct. after a passage from Hamburg of 45 days (New-York Gazette, 18 Oct.).
2. Philadelphia newspapers had recently cited reports from Hamburg detailing advances by Anglo-Russian invasion forces in the Netherlands and the retreat of Napoleon from Syria to Egypt, for which see vol. 13:468 (Philadelphia American Daily Advertiser, 23 Oct.; Philadelphia Universal Gazette, 17 Oct.).
3. For JA’s decision to initiate a second peace mission to France, see vol. 13:416. Oliver Ellsworth and William R. Davie, two of the three U.S. ministers plenipotentiary, departed Newport, R.I., on the frigate United States, Como. John Barry, on 3 Nov., and arrived at Paris on 2 March 1800, where they were met by the third minister, William Vans Murray. On 2 April negotiations began with three French commissioners, Joseph Bonaparte; Pierre Louis, Comte de Roederer; and Charles Pierre Clarét, Comte de Fleurieu. Negotiations were slowed by contention over the Jay Treaty and the 7 July 1798 congressional act voiding all prior treaties between the United States and France, for which see vol. 13:165. In Sept. 1800 the two sides finally agreed to “a firm, inviolable, and universal peace,” whereby property not yet condemned was returned and most of the provisions of the countries’ earlier treaties were restored. Commercial relations also resumed, but compensation for U.S. losses was deferred. The Convention of 1800 was signed on 3 Oct. at Joseph Bonaparte’s Chateau Môrtefontaine, ending the Quasi-War (, p. 223, 224, 227–228, 254, 256, 257, 443–444; Boston Russell’s Gazette, 7 Nov. 1799; ; ; , p. 682–687). For the convention’s ratification, see AA to Cotton Tufts, 15 Dec., and note 2, below.
4. See TBA to William Smith Shaw, 23 Oct. 1799, and note 2, below.
5. Mark banco, an internal noncirculating currency of account of the Bank of Hamburg that had a higher value than the circulating currency, the mark courant (John J. McCusker, Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600–1775: A Handbook, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1978, p. 61–63).
6. Ebenezer Brush (1763–1814), brother of JA’s deceased acquaintance Eliphalet Brush, was a New York merchant who in April advertised goods for sale lately imported from Hamburg (vol. 7:153, 155–156; Conklin Mann, “Thomas and Richard Brush of Huntington, Long Island,” , 67:21 [Jan. 1936]; , 1798, p. 113, No. 34012; New York Daily Advertiser, 13 April, suppl.).
7. The Four Friends, Capt. Hathaway, accepted mail for Bremen until 26 Oct. and likely carried TBA’s packet to Frederick Jacob Wichelhausen, who served as U.S. consul at Bremen from 1796 to 1833 (Philadelphia Gazette of the United States, 22 Oct.; Walter B. Smith II, America’s Diplomats and Consuls of 1776–1865, Washington, D.C., 1986, p. 279).