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Church Bought By Touro Synagogue Heir Letter From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams and Other Content Papers During Monroe Doctrine
Church Bought By Touro Synagogue Heir Letter From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams and Other Content Papers During Monroe Doctrine
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Rhode Island
Providence, RI, November - December 1823
Church Bought By Touro Synagogue Heir Letter From Thomas Jefferson to John Adams and Other Content Papers During Monroe Doctrine
Newspaper

[RHODE ISLAND.] Providence Patriot, November 26, December 6, 17, 20, 27, 1823. Providence, RI: Jones and Wheeler. 4 pp. each, for total of 20 pp., 13.5" x 20.5". Each issue has one or two clippings removed from pp3-4; disbound; browning.

These issues of the Providence Patriot newspaper from Rhode Island discuss a variety of issues from pirates in the Caribbean to the Greek independence movement to the election of a speaker of the House of Representatives and a Jewish philanthropist in New Orleans. The final issue includes a wonderful letter from former President Thomas Jefferson to former President John Adams, written fewer than three years before they both died on July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Excerpts
[November 26:]
"Pirates—Recent arrivals have furnished reports of several acts of piracy committed in the West-India seas, since Commodore Porter's return; but he will soon be among them again. The British and French have powerful squadrons in the West-Indies, but they are not so efficient as they might be rendered." (p2/c2)
"Georgia.—George M. Troup, formerly a distinguished republican member of Congress, has been elected Governor of the State of Georgia." (p2/c3)
"Mahogany.—The British have an establishment in the Bay of Honduras, called Belize, with the privilege of cutting and exporting the largest mahogany trees for a term of years." (p2/c3)

[December 6:]
"CONGRESS—The National Intelligencer of Saturday last says: On no former occasion have we seen so many Members of Congress on the ground so early as at present. This early repair to the seat of government may be, to a good degree, attributed to the probability (which we understand will be realized) of a contested election for the Speaker's chair, and to the desire of the members to represent their constituents on that question, certainly not the least important which will arise during the session. The persons generally spoken of, within our range of information, as likely to be voted for to fill the Speaker's chair, are Mr. [Philip P.] Barbour [of Virginia], Mr. Clay, and Mr. [John W.] Taylor [of New York], each of whom have heretofore occupied that honorable station, which is beneath the ambition of no man." (p3/c1)
Henry Clay of Kentucky served as Speaker of the House of Representatives, for the third time, from December 1, 1823, to March 3, 1825.

[December 17:]
"THE GREEKS.
"Mr. [Daniel] Webster, of Massachusetts, submitted, for consideration, the following:
"Resolved. That provision ought to be made, by law, for defraying the expence incident to the appointment of an Agent, or Commissioner, to Greece, whenever the President shall deem it expedient to make such appointment.
"In offering the resolution, Mr. Webster stated, it was far from being his wish, in any manner, to commit the House, in this or any of the political contests of Europe; but the President of the United Sates having, in his Message to Congress, not only expressed a belief that the Greek nation in its present struggle with its oppressors had the good wishes of the whole civilized world, but also advanced the opinion that the Turkish dominion over that country, was lost forever, he thought that if such were the fact, it was important that Congress should act upon the subject." (p2/c1)
From 1821 to 1830, Greeks waged a successful war of independence against the Ottoman Empire. During that time, however, Greece experienced two civil wars and suppression by an Egyptian army allied with the Ottomans. Only when Russia, Britain, and France decided to intervene and defeated an Ottoman-Egyptian fleet at Navarino in 1827 did Greek independence become a strong possibility. The London Protocol of February 1830 finally recognized Greece as an independent nation. In his Annual Message to Congress of December 1823, President Monroe reflected early optimism for Greek independence based on the passage of the Greek Constitution of 1823, which made direct reference to the Constitution of the United States.

[December 20:]
"The Students of Yale College, New-Haven, have remitted five hundred dollars to the New-York Committee, for the Greek Fund." (p2/c3)
"President's Message—It is worthy of remark, that one Editor only in the Union has had the hardihood to condemn the principles laid down by Mr. Monroe in relation to the designs of the Holy Alliance upon the Republics of America; and that one was the Secretary of the Hartford Convention—now the Editor of the New-York Daily Advertiser. It is true that two or three of the old federal editorial corps have squinted a little at oppugnation, but none have had the boldness openly to denounce the President's sentiments, excepting the redoubtable Secretary." (p2/c4)
"A letter from New-Orleans, dated Nov. 23, says—‘The Presbyterian Church in this city was sold, last week, at auction, by the Sheriff, to pay the debts owed by the Trustees. Mr. Judah Touro was the purchaser, for about $20,000. Although of the Jewish Persuasion he bought the house that it might not be converted to any other use than that for which it was intended. The same society worship in it. This is a very liberal act, honorable alike to Mr. T. to this city, and to N. England, whose son he is.'" (p3/c1)
Merchant and philanthropist Judah Touro (1775-1854), in addition to purchasing the building, kept it until its destruction by fire in 1854, allowing the income from the pew rents to support the minister and maintaining the building at his own expense.

[December 27:]
"THE EX-PRESIDENTS.
"The following letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Adams appeared in the Boston Patriot of Wednesday last.
"‘Monticello, Oct. 12, 1823. Dear Sir—I do not write with the ease which your letter of Sept. 18 supposes. Crippled wrists and fingers make slow and laborious: but, while writing to you, I lose the sense of these things, in the recollection of ancient times, when youth and health made happiness out of every thing. I forget for a while the hoary winter of age, when we can think of nothing but how to keep ourselves warm, and how to get rid of our heavy hours, until the friendly hand of death shall rid us of all at once. Against this tedium vitae, however, I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which indeed I should have better managed some 30 or 40 years ago, but whose easy amble is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an octogenary rider. This is the establishment of an University, on a scale more comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept in a state of languor and inefficiency. But the tardiness with which such works proceed may render it doubtful whether I shall live to see it go into action.
"Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now attempted to be poisoned, when too late in life to be replaced by new affections. I had for some time observed, in the public papers, dark hints and mysterious inuendos of a correspondence of yours with a friend, to whom you had opened your bosom without reserve, and which was to be made public by that friend, or his representative; and now it is said to be actually published. It has not yet reached us, but extracts have been given, and such as seemed most likely to draw a curtain of separation between you and myself. Were there no other motive than that of indignation against the author of this outrage on private confidence, whose shaft seems to have been aimed at yourself more particularly, this would make it the duty of every honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by opposing to its impression a seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. With me however no such armour is needed. The circumstances of the times in which we have happened to live, and the partiality of our friends, at a particular period, placed us in a state of apparent opposition, which some might suppose to be personal also: and there might not be wanting those who wished to make it so, by filling our ears with malignant falsehoods; by dressing up hideous phantoms of their own creation, presenting them to you under my name, to me under your's, and endeavoring to instill into our minds things concerning each other, the most destitute of truth. And if there had been at any time a moment when we were off our guard, and in a temper to let the whispers of these people make us forget what we had known of each other for so many years, and years of so much trial, yet all men who have attended to the workings of the human mind, who have seen the false colors under which passion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of others, have seen also these passions subsiding with time and reflection, dissipating like mists before the rising sun, and restoring to us the sight of all things in their true shape and colors. It would be strange indeed if at our years we were to go an age back, to hunt up imaginary or forgotten facts, to disturb the repose of affections so sweetening to the evening of our lives.
"Be assured, my dear sir, that I am incapable of receiving the slightest impression from the effort now made to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth and wisdom, and to sow tares between friends, who have been such for near half a century. Beseeching you then not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by this wicked attempt to poison its peace, and praying you to throw it by among the things which have never happened, I add sincere assurances of my unabated and constant attachment, friendship and respect.
"TH: JEFFERSON
"John Adams, former President of the U. States.'" (p2/c3-4)
The correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson began in 1777 but ended when Jefferson succeeded Adams as President in 1801. It resumed in 1812 and continued until their deaths. One of the most intriguing coincidences of American history is the fact that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson—founding fathers, authors of the Declaration of Independence, successive Presidents of the United States, rivals, enemies, and friends—died on the same day, July 4, 1826, fifty years to the day after the public declaration of the independence they worked so hard to make possible. Adams was 90 years old, and Jefferson was 83.

Providence Patriot (1814–1832) was a Democratic weekly newspaper published in Providence, Rhode Island, by Josiah Jones and Bennett Wheeler, as a continuation of their Columbian Phenix: or, Providence Patriot, which they began publishing in 1807. In 1819, they took Barzillai Cranston into the partnership and began publishing semi-weekly. Cranston left the firm after one year, and Jones and Wheeler continued editing it until May 1823. Eaton W. Maxcy succeeded Wheeler and was in turn succeeded by William Simons a year later. James O. Rockwell was editor from November 1829 until June 1831. The newspaper returned to a weekly format from June to December 1832, when it published its last issue.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 13.5" x 20.5"
  • Medium: Newspaper

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