quarto, two pages, plus stamp less address leaf, in very good, clean, and legible condition.
Strong writes:
Dear Sir,
There has not been a Word of Objection
to the Claime of Mr. Cotton but it was professed that a number of these cases
should be provided for in the Bill some of which were very doubtful and have
occasioned as lengthy Debates in the Senate as any Subject during the present
Session, the Consideration of the Bill has been put off several times that
Evidence might be obtained concerning those cases, but I hope it will pass in
some form or other in a few days.
It is agreed on all hands that the
Indian War is a very unfortunate Business, the Sentiments concerning it in
Congress are almost as variant as among the People at large.
So then there is to be no Theatre in
Boston I am afraid the newly acquired fortunes can’t now be spent in
Massachusetts and that the Possessors will be obliged from that Consideration
to leave the State – but there is one considering Circumstance the old Police
of the Town is to be preserved and that will afford considerable relief to the
married men.
I am much obliged to Miss B. for her
Complaisance in postponing the Ceremony until the Beginning of March but as it
is uncertain whether I can return before the latter part of that month and it
would be extreme Cruelty to Suggest a further Postponement I must request you
to present my compliments to her and in my name at the wedding to wish her
according to the ancient form, much Comfort in her new Boundings.
I am
dear Sir with
Much
Regard your friend & Servt Caleb Strong
I have just had a Letter from Sedgwick
which says that he proposed setting off from Stockbridge for this place today –
“
Caleb Strong (1745-1819) was a
lawyer, Federalist Statesman, Massachusetts legislator and official. He graduated
from Harvard in 1764; studied law under Joseph Hawley; was admitted to
Massachusetts bar, 1772. Served on committee for drafting the Massachusetts
constitution, 1779. He represented Massachusetts in the Federal Constitutional
Convention in Philadelphia, 1787, advocating annual elections of
representatives and choice of a president by Congress, also making the
successful motion that the House alone should originate spending bills although
the Senate might amend them. He served as U. S. Senator from Massachusetts,
1789-1796, he formed, with Oliver Ellsworth and Rufus King the bulwark of the
administration in the Senate. He contributed to the drafting of the Judiciary
Act of 1789, espoused the Hamiltonian financial plan, and introduced the bill
for the chartering of the first Bank of the United States. At the beginning of
the two-party system he associated himself with the Washington administration
and the Federalists, supported the ratification of the Jay Treaty, and deplored
the excesses of the French revolutionary government. As Federalist governor of
Massachusetts, 1800-1807, he was an able administrator; during his second
period as governor, 1812-1816, he was in continuous opposition to the national
administration and the War of 1812. He approved both the calling of the
Hartford Convention in December 1814 and its subsequent report.
American National Biography, vol. 21 pp., 39-41