Adams Family Correspondence, volume 13
y31
st1799
Mr Francis Baretto has as he informs me
applied for the Consulate at Madeira and has requested me to mention you to him as an
acquaintance. He is a Native of that Island though for many years a Citizen of this
Nation He has been known to me for more than ten years and his misfortunes of various
kinds have excited my compassion and esteem as I beleive he did not merit them.1 If I should err with respect to my
sentiments of what are here called Hamilton’s appointments I hope you will not impute it
to any wrong motive He has become the Universal Recommendator Many of the appointments
made as I have reason to beleive at his request are spoken of as extremely improper I
could mention many Daubeny for instance as first Leutt of the Navy when there is not a
single Merchant who would trust him with the Command of a Sloop of Twenty tons
Nay he even went so far as to say at his own Table when I was
present; that he had, in his own words “Been that day
appointing a Son of the Notorious Bill Livingston’s
a Midshipman in our Navy” This modest speech was addressed to Church whose reply was you
have then I find weaknesses not confined to the female sex: which produced a laugh and
perhaps was not thought of by any person but myself afterwards.2
We are all well and happy in the company of my brother Thomas who I think is less altered than any person who has resided so long in Europe. Little pratler Susan says, she must go to Philadelphia to see Grandpapa who loved her so much and told her to come She looks at the picture and says Grandpapa will have me go to him he told me so himself
With sincere affection and respect / I am Yours
RC (Adams Papers).
Francis Baretto (Barretto) had been working as a wine merchant in
New York since at least 1790. He was not appointed consul at Madeira, although he was
considered for the post in 1800 and 1806 (New York Daily
Gazette, 10 April 1790; John Marshall to JA, 25 Aug. 1800, Adams Papers; Samuel Latham Mitchill to James
Madison, 21 April 1806, DNA:RG 59, Letters of Application and Recommendation).
Alexander Hamilton’s Dec. 1798 correspondence with James McHenry
frequently offered recommendations for appointments. No recommendation for Lloyd S.
Daubeny, however, has been found. Daubeny had been appointed a lieutenant in the navy
by JA during the congressional recess and would be confirmed by the
Senate on 5 Feb. 1799. Benjamin Stoddert wrote to Hamilton on 6 Feb. expressing his
hope “that Daubeny should continue to deserve your good opinion.” William Mallet
Livingston received a commission as a midshipman on 31 Dec. 1798. He was the son of
Col. William Smith Livingston (1755–1794), Princeton 1772, an officer during the
Revolutionary War, who had been shunned after he shifted his political allegiance away
from the Federalists in the early 1790s (Hamilton, Papers
,
22:378, 380, 468–469; U.S. Senate,
Exec. Jour.
, Register of Officer Personnel United States Navy and Marine Corps and Ships’ Data
1801–1807, Washington, D.C., 1945, p. 32; Maturin Livingston Delafield, “Judge
William Smith, of the Supreme Court of the Province of New York,” Magazine of American History, 6:277 [April 1881];
Princetonians
, 2:236, 239–240).