Prelude to Glory, Vol. 7

by Ron Carter

  Jefferson raised a finger to Matthew.

  “You are in Boston. May I recommend that you inquire until you know if such a committee has been yet formed? If it has not, you create it. Tell the public what has happened to your ship. About the quarrels between the states over borders. Rivers. Tariffs. Tell them about the weakness in the Articles of Confederation. About the new states that are being mapped. About freeing a man’s conscience to worship the Creator as he sees fit. Strike out against the laws that maintain the aristocratic rich at the expense of the desperate poor. Enlighten your people. Inform them. Stir them. Raise them. Promote healthy debate. Locate the Committees of Correspondence in other states and exchange ideas with them.”

  Jefferson stopped and leaned forward in his chair. For a long time both men maintained silence, and then Matthew spoke.

  “I will, sir.”

  Jefferson stood, and Matthew knew the interview was over. He also rose and stood facing Jefferson, who said, “I am profoundly sorry I cannot help you with your ship.”

  “I understand, sir. I believe you would if you could.”

  “Be assured.”

  “I want to thank you for your time. And your effort.”

  “It was my pleasure.” Then he looked at Matthew, and Matthew felt him reaching deep inside as he spoke.

  “Will you investigate the Committee of Correspondence in Boston?”

  “I will, sir. I will.”

  Jefferson nodded once, and Matthew saw the shine in his eyes. “Then our time has been profitable. I want to recall your statement at the outset. You said you believed the Almighty had an interest in the outcome of the war. With the passing of time and experience, I become more convinced that our cause of liberty has received divine intervention and sanction.”

  “I understand.”

  It was clear Jefferson considered their time together finished. “Please give my regards to your partner. And your wife.”

  “I shall.”

  The men shook hands and walked together from the room, down the staircase, and out into the streets of Annapolis, where they separated. The gray overcast still held, but Matthew’s mind was absolutely awash in thoughts never before considered and horizons never before seen. Humbled, moved to the bottom of all understanding, sensing things as never before, he walked the cobblestone street to the Sunrise Inn, and up the stairs to his small room. He sat on the bed, staring at the floor, shocked by the realization of how limited his vision and grasp of the chaotic condition of the country had been. He was awed by the depth and sweep of the awakening that Jefferson had wrought in him. Never had he seen the nature of human beings, and of the principles of government which must bind them if they were to exist in peace, as he saw them now. That one human being should possess such a profound depth and range held Matthew in awed silence as he sat in his room, uncaring of time, aware only that each passing minute brought new thoughts that lifted him to heights and depths he had never known.

  Without conscious effort, the words of Jefferson came echoing in his brain.

  Associate yourself with the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence.

  Matthew’s voice was scarcely audible as he murmured, “We shall see. We shall see.”

  Notes

  In support of the biographical history of Thomas Jefferson as herein set forth, including his tutoring with George Wythe to study law, see Bernstein, Thomas Jefferson, chapter one. In support of his political history, beginning with his election to the Virginia House of Burgesses, see chapters two and three. For a succinct explanation of Jefferson’s views on the legal principles of entail and primogeniture as described in this chapter, his views on the separation of church and state, as well as his monumental efforts in redrafting the code of laws in the state of Virginia, see chapter three; see also Bernstein, Are We to Be a Nation?, pp. 67–73. For the history of the attempts of the Americans to create a self-government, beginning with the New England Confederation formed in 1643 as herein described, see Bernstein, Are We to Be a Nation?, pp. 12–16; for a perceptive explanation of the Committee of Correspondence as described by Thomas Jefferson in this chapter, see Bernstein, p. 17, and pp. 88–90.

  The states of Virginia and Maryland were in open dispute, with each claiming navigation and shipping rights to the Potomac and Pocomoke Rivers. See Bernstein, Are We to Be a Nation?, p. 97; for a description of the efforts of England, Spain, and France to damage the Americans economically, see Bernstein, pp. 83–85; for the facts regarding the attempts of the Congress to correct the fatal flaw of having no authority to establish interstate laws, or to enforce judgments entered against states as a result of disputes, or to levy taxes to raise revenue, and the fact that Rhode Island defeated the effort despite the fact the other twelve states voted in favor, see Bernstein, pp. 90–91; in March of 1784, Congressman James Madison approached Thomas Jefferson with a proposal that Virginia and Maryland each send representatives to form a committee with authority to meet and resolve the conflicting claims of the two states to the Potomac and Pocomoke Rivers, see Bernstein, p. 97. For a perceptive statement of the stratification of societies in Europe, including the nine definable social layers in the country of Denmark, see Bernstein, p. 3.

  Virginia imposed an export tariff on tobacco (Nevins, The American States 1775–1789, p. 559). For an extensive and in-depth recital of the chaotic economic affairs of the states, and of their rivalries and disputes, including the ongoing battle regarding the state of Vermont and the Great Wyoming Valley bordering Pennsylvania, see Nevins, pp. 470–605; see also Bernstein, Are We to Be a Nation?, p. 87.

  For the maps delineating proposed new states in the vast territory west of the original thirteen states, with extended discussion, including the ongoing and conflicting claims of various states for the prized Wyoming Valley land adjoining Pennsylvania, see Boyd, Volume 6, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, pp. 581–668; see also Bernstein, Are We to Be a Nation?, p. 87.

  For the participation of Matthew Dunson in the battles of Concord, Lake Champlain, the Bahamas, and the epic sea battle with John Paul Jones twelve miles off the English coast at Flamborough, as well as a definition of Letters of Marque, see volume 1 of this series, Our Sacred Honor, chapters 14, 15, 18, 24, 26, 28. For the pivotal battle at Saratoga in which Benedict Arnold was the most spectacular hero, see volume 4, The Hand of Providence, chapter 31. For the sea battle between the French and British fleets on the Chesapeake, see volume 6, The World Turned Upside Down, chapter 32.

  The United States Congress convened in Annapolis, Maryland, December 13, 1783, with Congressman Thomas Jefferson present. He remained there until his appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to negotiate treaties of amity and commerce, and left Annapolis on his new duties on May 11, 1784. See Boyd, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, volumes 6 and 7, the Jefferson Chronology page, facing page 3.

  Boston

  April 1784

  CHAPTER XXX

  * * *

  The door into the Boston waterfront office of DUNSON & WEEMS SHIPPING swung open. Billy raised his head to look into the brilliant midmorning April sunlight flooding in, saw the tall, black silhouette and the Pennsylvania rifle, and gaped. His heart leaped as he jerked from his chair and came trotting to the counter.

  “Eli!” he exclaimed. “Eli! How . . . what . . . ?”

  Eli laid the rifle clattering on the counter and the two men reached to clasp hands while Billy ran on. “How did you get here? Find us? It’s so good to see you. What brings you?”

  Eli was smiling as he spoke. “I asked in town. Seems you and Matthew are in the shipping business. Didn’t take long to find you.”

  Billy was beaming. “Are you all right? How did you get here?”

  “I’m fine. Walked. Canoe. How are you?”

  “I’m fine.”

  Eli grinned. “I’ve never seen you on that side of a counter in an office before. Looks good.”

  Billy laughed. “I’ve never seen you in an office on that side of a counter, either
. And it looks good. Come in.” He swung the gate open and Eli followed him inside. Billy turned and gestured.

  “Eli Stroud, I would like you to meet Thomas Covington. He sold this carrying company to Matthew and me and agreed to stay on to help for a while.”

  The white-haired Covington stood, slightly stooped, and offered his aging hand, and Eli noticed the swelled knuckles as he shook it gently. “It is good to meet you, sir.”

  “It is mine to meet you. Billy’s talked about you.”

  Eli nodded as Billy took his arm. “Come sit over here. This is my desk.”

  Eli glanced about the plain walls of the austere, unpretentious office, and sat down facing Billy. “Matthew?” he asked.

  “Away at Annapolis on business.”

  “Shipping?”

  “No. Thomas Jefferson.”

  Eli straightened. “Jefferson! In Annapolis? You have business with him?”

  “No, but we have business with the state of Virginia. Jefferson was governor there. And he’s now in Congress in Annapolis. We thought he could help with a bad problem.”

  “You’re a Boston company. What trouble do you have in Virginia?”

  “We have a ship down there. But that will wait. How are things at home, with Ben and Lydia? The children?”

  “Good. All healthy and strong. Most of the spring work is done. No trouble that I know of.”

  “The Iroquois? Mohawk?”

  “Both quiet. We have no quarrel with them.”

  “Laura?”

  Billy saw the flash of pain in Eli’s eyes as he answered. “She’s four now. Looks more like Mary every day. Growing. Good girl. Good child.” Eli settled back in his chair. “What’s this trouble in Virginia?”

  Billy leaned forward, forearms on his desk, fingers interlaced. “It’s the Potomac River. It divides Virginia and Maryland. Both states claim the right to regulate navigation and levy taxes. They’ve both seized one of our ships and neither one will release it until we pay the tariff. We can’t afford to pay both states. We thought Jefferson might tell us what to do.”

  “Matthew’s not back yet?”

  “Due any time.”

  “Did Caleb come home?”

  “Yes. He’s working with us. That’s another story.”

  “Tell me.”

  Billy paused to gather his thoughts. “We picked up three hundred tons of tobacco in Jamestown, Virginia. Virginia has an export tax on their tobacco. It was five percent until lately, when they raised it to eight percent. We were prepared to pay the five percent we knew about, but not the other three we didn’t know about. They seized the ship. Caleb wouldn’t stand for it. He and Captain Pettigrew sailed the ship out one night. Just cut the mooring ropes and sailed her out. Took ten Virginia militia who were guarding the ship with them. After they unloaded the tobacco in New York, they paid the militiamen wages and their passage home and sent the additional three percent tax with them.”

  Eli smiled through his beard. “Caleb’s still the rebel.”

  “Scared us. We didn’t know if we’d started a war between Massachusetts and Virginia or not. As it turns out, there is no process, no law, we could find that covers this situation. So with one ship still under seizure, and the Jamestown taxing authority mad at us over another one, Matthew went to get advice from Thomas Jefferson.”

  Eli’s eyebrows raised. “It will be interesting to hear what Jefferson says.” He paused for a moment. “How is business? We hear hard things up in Vermont.”

  “You’ll hear worse down here. No hard money. Paper money worthless. Banks in trouble. Businesses closing all over. Farmers being foreclosed. Good men out of work. Courts flooded with bankruptcies. Dismal.”

  Concern came into Eli’s face. “How is your business doing?”

  Billy shook his head slowly. “In trouble. The bank has told us they’ll have to call in their note if we don’t get the ship on the Potomac released. The Jessica. I’m waiting now to hear what Matthew learned, because if Jefferson doesn’t have an answer, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

  “Can’t you get business? Cargo to carry for a profit?”

  Billy shook his head. “Not easy. It’s the money. The French and the British and the Spanish have closed down a lot of ports around the world where American ships used to deal. Nobody in this country has hard money. Gold. Silver. And the foreign ports still open to us won’t take American paper money. We have to guarantee payment in hard money, and that’s nearly impossible to do.”

  He gestured to Covington, who was listening intently. “Mr. Covington had been in the business for forty years. He never saw times like these.”

  Covington called, “The whole business of ships carrying cargo is in trouble. All over. Everywhere. When my sons left, I couldn’t do it alone.”

  Billy picked it up. “We’ve got two other contracts waiting, but we can’t take them up until our bank is satisfied. If we can’t satisfy the bank, we’ll probably have to close our doors.”

  “How much to pay the bank?”

  “About sixteen thousand pounds, British.”

  Eli started. “For two ships?”

  “Six ships.”

  “You’ve still got five. Can’t you use them?”

  “Not without hard money. We can’t get hard money without the bank, and the bank won’t move until we get the Jessica.”

  Eli blew air and shook his head but remained silent.

  Billy asked, “What brings you here?”

  “Business. I had a visit about four weeks ago from a New York lawyer. Good man, so far as I can tell. Name’s Randall Weatherby. His father was Lawrence Weatherby. You remember the British doctor—Purcell—who befriended Mary back in New York?”

  Billy nodded.

  “That doctor wrote a will before he died. He gave everything he owned to Mary. She took the will to the barrister Lawrence Weatherby. He took her case. Worked on it for four or five years. The American courts finally decided in Mary’s favor a year or so after Yorktown. Lawrence Weatherby died, but his son Randall kept on with it. He discovered Mary and I were married and came north to find us. He didn’t know Mary had died, and when we told him, he said the things Purcell left to Mary were now legally mine. But to claim it I had to find someone who could sign a sworn paper saying they saw the marriage, and that Mary had died. I brought a paper from the midwife who birthed Laura and was there when Mary died, but I need you to sign a paper saying you saw the marriage. Can you do that?”

  “I can. I gave her in marriage.”

  “I told him that. I’m to take these papers to New York and find this man Weatherby, and he’ll get a court order giving me what’s there.”

  “What did he say was there?”

  Eli opened the leather pouch and drew out the wrapped papers. “There’s a copy of the whole thing. It says there are just short of twenty-nine thousand British pounds sterling waiting in the New York bank.”

  Billy jerked erect, and Covington half rose from his chair, stunned. For five seconds the only sounds were the seagulls squawking as they wheeled overhead on the waterfront, and the hollow thumping of dock hands moving freight on the docks.

  When he could, Billy exclaimed, “Twenty-nine thousand pounds sterling?”

  “That’s what he said. It’s all there in the papers.”

  “Hard coin?”

  “Sterling. Silver.”

  Billy’s voice was subdued, nearly a whisper. “A fortune!”

  Covington sank back in his chair.

  Eli raised a hand in caution, palm toward Billy. “We better take this one step at a time. I think Weatherby told the truth, but that is yet to be seen. We need a court order that we don’t have yet. The money’s supposed to be in that New York bank, but who knows? And the bank is supposed to release it to me on the court’s order, but we don’t know what they’ll do yet. So we better be careful.”

  Billy nodded. “I agree. If I’m supposed to sign a paper, what is it to say?”

  “That yo
u were there when Major Waldo legally performed the marriage between Mary and myself. That was July 8, 1778. You should state who else was there, and that both Mary and I were in sound mind and health. That’s about all.”

  “How soon do you need it?”

  “Soon. When you can.”

  “How are you traveling to New York?”

  “Ship. There’s one leaving about four o’clock in the morning.”

  “Maybe we can get an attorney to write the paper this afternoon. It has to be right. There’s one with an office right here on the waterfront. Handles contracts for the shipping firms.”

  Eli gestured to his satchel. “I have a little money. I’ll pay for it.”

  “Want to go see if he can do it?”

  Eli rose, and Billy turned to Covington. “We’ll be gone a while, down to the attorney. You take care of the office?”

  Covington nodded and Eli asked, “Should I leave the rifle here?”

  Billy pointed to a narrow closet in the corner, Eli stood the rifle inside, closed the door, and the two men walked out into the sun and the ships and seagulls and the dockhands working the ships and cargo. A few slowed to watch Eli pass in his beaded buckskin shirt and leggings and moccasins, with his weapons belt about his middle and the tomahawk thrust through. The leather satchel hung at his side on its leather loop over his shoulder.

  The attorney’s name was Robert Strand, and he was younger than Eli expected. Thin, small, with eyes that never stopped moving, it was obvious that his mind worked like a machine. He understood what was needed within three minutes. Five minutes later he had the essential facts for the statement—Mary Flint—Eli Stroud—adults of sound health and mind—July 8 1778—Major Waldo—Billy Weems—marriage solemnized according to law.

  Strand wasted no time. “The statement will be ready by one o’clock this afternoon. Is that agreeable?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who will pay the fee, and how will it be paid?”

  Eli answered, “I will pay, in gold.”

  Surprise showed in Strand’s face. “The fee will be one dollar.”