Adams Papers
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From John Adams to Arnold Welles, 21 May 1789

To Arnold Welles

New york May 21 1789—

Sir—

I have received the letter you did me the honour to write me, on the fifth of this month and thank you for your obliging congratulation on the event of the votes of the Electors.1 as far as I am personally concerned in this Event it was not a subject of much congratulation: it was rather a mortification to me to see that in our first great Election, so great a portion of our Fellow Citizens had been artful and that so many more had been Dupes. It is only on the supposition that such Knavery and such Folly. may be guarded against in future that I can congratulate you on the prospect of happiness under the new Government— I thank you Sir for introducing to me Capt Gustavus Fellows, whom for the sake of your recommendation, as well as on his own Account I should be glad to serve. but as I am not as yet acquainted with his particular Views—am not able to judge what prospect he has of success—

With great Esteem I have the honour to be Sir / your most Obedient & most humble Servant

John Adams—

LbC in an unknown hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Arnold Welles Esquire— / Boston—”; APM Reel 115.

1. Boston merchant Arnold Welles (1727–1802), Harvard 1745, obtained wheat and food for city inhabitants during the Revolutionary War, and in 1797 he was named president of the Boston branch of the Bank of the United States (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates description begins John Langdon Sibley, Clifford K. Shipton, Conrad Edick Wright, Edward W. Hanson, and others, Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge and Boston, 1873– . description ends , 11:606–608).

On 5 May 1789, Welles wrote to JA (Adams Papers), congratulating him on his election and recommending Capt. Gustavus Fellows (1736–1818), a Boston merchant and former privateer, for a federal post (Washington, Papers, Revolutionary War Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, ed. Philander D. Chase, Frank E. Grizzard Jr., Edward G. Lengel, David R. Hoth, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1985– . description ends , 4:162).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to Arnold Welles, 21 May 1789
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Welles, Arnold
    Date
    21 May 1789

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to Arnold Welles, 21 May 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0329. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 19, February 1787–May 1789, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016, pp. 470–471.]

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