1775 Septr. 18. Monday.
This Morning John McPherson Esq.2 came to my Lodging, and requested to speak with me in Private. He is the Owner of a very handsome Country Seat, about five Miles out of this City: is the Father of Mr. McPherson, an Aid de Camp to General Schuyler.3 He has been a Captain of a Privateer, and made a Fortune in that Way the last War. Is reputed to be well skilled in naval Affairs. ー He proposes great Things. Is sanguine, confident, positive, that he can take or burn every Man of War, in America. ー It is a Secret he says. But he will communicate it to any one Member of Congress upon Condition, that it be not divulged during his Life at all, nor after his Death but for the Service of this Country. He says it is as certain as that he shall die, that he can burn any Ship.4
1. L. H. Butterfield, ed., The Adams Papers, Series 1, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (Cambridge, Mass., 1961), II, 176. Hereafter cited as Butterfield, ed., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams.
2. Captain John Macpherson, an eccentric, who in his later years lost his fortune and became a pensioner of the Society for the Relief of Poor and Distressed Masters of Ships, their Widows and Children. He died in 1793.
3. John Macpherson, Jr., killed in the attack upon Quebec, December 31, 1775.
4. See Journal of Congress, October 16 and 20, 1775.
