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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 9.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Quincy, 3 August, 1799.

Sir,—

I have received a long letter from Mr. Gerry of the 24th of July, with papers inclosed, numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, besides another paper of extracts of letters. I inclose extracts of his letter, together with all the numbers, and his paper of extracts. These numbers and last extracts I pray you to return to me, when you have made all the uses of them you wish.

These papers, I think, will convince you as they have me, of three points.

1. That Mr. Gerry’s stay in France, after the receipt of your letter by Mr. Humphreys, and especially after the publication of the despatches, was not gratuitous, but of indispensable and unavoidable necessity under the paws of arbitrary power, and therefore that his salary ought to be allowed him according to his account.

2. That Mr. Gerry ought not to be charged with the ships’ stores, or any part of them. I am ashamed to make any remarks on this head, and shall not do it unless driven to the necessity of it. If the necessities of our country require that we should order our ambassadors to take passages in small vessels, with all the sea captains and mariners that can be collected, I think a generous provision of articles in case of sickness and putrid fevers ought not to be charged to the ambassador.

3. That the guilders ought not to be charged at forty cents. This point, however, I may mistake. I should be obliged to you for information. I wish right may be done according to law at the time the debt was contracted. Upon the whole, it is my opinion that Mr. Gerry’s account, as stated by himself, ought to be allowed.1

I am, Sir, with all due respect, &c.

John Adams.

[1 ]Mr. Adams’s interference was necessary to check the petty vexations to which Mr. Pickering’s hostility was subjecting Mr. Gerry. It was not, however, effective until Mr. Marshall came into office. Austin’s Life of Gerry, vol. ii. p. 277, note.