Papers of John Adams, volume 21

185 Stephen Hall to John Adams, 2 March 1793 Hall, Stephen Adams, John

From Stephen Hall

My hond. friend, Portland 2 March 1793.

Permit me once more to ask your friendship on so probable a prospect of success, as I think I now have.— Genl. Dearborn is chosen a Representative to Congress from the District of Maine. The Office of Marshal of consequence becomes vacant. I should like to fill the Office; and I think the President would willingly nominate me, if he should think of me. Your friendship therefore in the case will singularly oblige me.1

I most cordially congratulate You, and felicitate my Country on your being rechosen Vice President of the United States.

I have the honor to be, with the greatest Respect, your obliged friend, and very humble Servt.

Stephen Hall

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “Excy. John Adams, Esq.”

For Hall’s previous requests for JA’s patronage, see vol. 20:130–133. Gen. Henry Dearborn (1751–1829), of North Hampton, N.H., represented the district of Maine in the House of Representatives from 1793 to 1797. Hall again fell short of his goal. The post went to Capt. John Hobby ( Biog. Dir. Cong. ; from Francis Dana, 2 April 1792, and note 1, above).

John Stockdale to John Adams, 16 March 1793 Stockdale, John Adams, John

From John Stockdale

Sir Piccadilly, London 16th March 1793

You have most probably heard long before this, that I have printed “Letters to Paine,” by your son.—

A Copy was given to me by a Gentleman high in Government, to print as your production, with your name affixed, and I actually advertised it as such; but fortunately had information of its being written by your Son, and of course cancelled the Title before a Copy was seen by any one except the Printer and myself.—

The work does the highest honour to the writer, be he who he may.— The Attorney General assured me that it was the ablest work of the kind he had ever read.—1

The Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr. Pitt, and many other Gentlemen of the first abilities spoke of it in the same terms.— It was printed as your Work several times in Scotland before it came into my hands.—2

Your work on Government has never yet had fair play. I wish you would give me a corrected Copy, with any additions that you may 186 have; and, at the same time, an Order upon Mr. Copley for your Picture to engrave a Frontispiece.—3 I would with pleasure risque any sum in bringing out an Edition of the Work, and that in a much more reputable stile than the former.— The Picture would be returned to Mr Copley in two Months.—

Sincerely wishing that this may find you and your Family well, / I am / Dear Sir / With great respect, / Your Much Obliged and / Very Humle. Servt

John Stockdale

P. S. Mrs. Stockdale desires her kind respects.4 I shall be glad to receive an Answer by the first Ship.—

RC (Adams Papers); addressed: “John Adams Esqr. / Vice President of the / United States, &c / Boston. / N. America.—”; endorsed: “Mr Stockdale / March 16. ansd / May 12. 1793.” Tr (Adams Papers); APM Reel 327.

Scottish jurist Archibald Macdonald (1747–1826), Oxford 1768, successfully prosecuted Thomas Paine for seditious libel stemming from his publication of Rights of Man in 1792. Macdonald, then serving as the British attorney general, quoted heavily from JQA’s Publicola writings during the trial ( AFC , 9:413, 414; DNB ).

J. Dickson published a compilation of JQA’s articles as Observations on Paine’s Rights of Man, in a Series of Letters, by Publicola, Edinburgh, 1792. Several British editions listed “John Adams, Esq.” as the author, possibly blurring the line between father and son for profit’s sake, for which see JA’s 12 May 1793 reply to Stockdale, below.

For the 1794 London edition of JA’s Defence of the Const. , Stockdale chose a cropped engraving made by Mr. Hall after John Singleton Copley’s 1783 oil portrait ( AFC , 5:xvii; Oliver, Portraits of JA and AA , p. 24, 30).

That is, Mary Ridgway Stockdale, originally of Cheshire, England ( DNB , entry on John Stockdale).