Adams Family Correspondence, volume 15
The House of Bird, Savage and Bird have stop’d payment, and probably the bill I drew upon them which you negotiated last November, will come back protested—1 In that case, settle the amount to be paid, with the indorsee duly entitled to it, who may call upon you; let me know the amount and I will send you a post note for it— Be careful to see that the protest and proceedings have all been regular, and take a receipt for the full amount you pay as it will be 284 necessary to establish my claim upon the house— I hope they will eventually pay all demands against them— Inquire whether they have any debtors in Philadelphia, and if you find any property and can take hold of it, by process of foreign attachment in my name, do it immediately.
Your’s faithfully.2
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Thomas B. Adams— Philadelphia.”; APM Reel 135.
Before departing Europe in 1801 JQA had placed
$13,000 of his own money and $18,000 of proceeds from his father’s investments in the
Netherlands in the London firm of Bird, Savage, & Bird, depending on its
reputation as the British banking house of the U.S. government. The 21-year-old firm
was actually in a precarious position, weakened by the poor performance of investments
in the United States and the East Indies and losses from French attacks on British
shipping during the previous decade. The firm stopped paying drafts on 7 Feb. 1803,
and its principals Henry Bird and Benjamin Savage declared bankruptcy in a British
court on 12 June. JQA learned of the failure in a circular letter he
received on 1 April and the next day traveled from Boston to Quincy where he informed
his parents of the “misfortune,” for which see Descriptive List of Illustrations, No. 3, above
(D/JQA/27, APM Reel 30; R. B. Bernstein, The Education of John
Adams, N.Y., 2020, p. 208; JQA, Memoirs
, 1:263–264; Madison, Papers, Secretary of State
Series
, 4:317–318; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series
,
5:41–42; Stephen K. Williams, Cases Argued and Decided in the
Supreme Court of the United States, rev. edn., 60 vols., Rochester, N.Y.,
1917–1920, 3:293; LCA, D&A
, 1:185–186,
196). For the New York bankruptcy of Robert Bird, principal of the firm’s U.S.
subsidiary Robert Bird & Company, and the ultimate disposition of the case, see
JQA to
WSS, 2 Jan. 1804, and note 1, below.
JQA followed this letter with four more to
TBA in April and May 1803. On 8 April he reported that Rufus King had
agreed to temporarily cover the drafts JQA had drawn on Bird, Savage,
& Bird. Then on 10 May he asked TBA to research lawsuits relating to
the bank failure (both LbC’s, APM Reel 135). JQA also wrote on other topics, describing his
literary endeavors and commenting on Pennsylvania politics on [18 April] (private owner, 1961) and on 22 May (Adams Papers) reporting on shipments of books and other
items sent and received (JQA to Rufus King, 8 July, NHi:Rufus King Papers).
The House of Bird, Savage and Bird, in London, had, when they
failed, property, to the amount of nearly £4000 sterling, belonging to my father in
their hands; for which I had drawn bills in October and November last— These bills are
now returning protested for me to take up, with all the costs and charges upon them— I
now write you, not with an expectation that you will find any property of theirs at
New-York, upon which you can lay your hands, because I presume their creditors there
have taken care of that; but to request you to obtain and communicate to me all the
information you can respecting the state of their affairs, and of the House of Robert
Bird and Co: at New-York— I am informed they have made
very large shipments 285
286 to England this Spring— If that should be the
case you will probably have some knowledge of it— If it should happen that you know of any property upon which an attachment can be
laid in my name, do me the favour to have it done instantly— Robert Bird, I suppose
will not be now to be found— Or if he is, he will before this have a Commission of
Bankruptcy out— Please to answer me as speedily as possible: as not only my father’s
interest, but that of us all is at stake.
I am, Dear Sir, your’s faithfully.
If R. Bird, is accessible in
New-York, I will thank you to send him the enclosed letter.1
LbC (Adams
Papers); internal address: “Coll: W. S. Smith— New
York.”; APM Reel 135.
JQA enclosed a 4 April letter to Robert Bird of Robert Bird & Company in which he cited the “extreme inconvenience” of covering bills protested for nonpayment and demanded an immediate accounting under the threat of legal action. On 10 May JQA asked WSS to research lawsuits relating to the bank failure, duplicating his request to TBA of the same date (both LbC’s, APM Reel 135).