Adams Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-13-02-0285

Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch, 24 September 1799

Thomas Boylston Adams to William Cranch

Germantown 24 September 1799.

Dear William,

Your favor of the 19th: instt: is before me, with the enclosure for Judge Cushing, which I shall forward with my next letters to Quincy, with request to have it sent on.1 The terms & expressions of your application, strike me as perfectly apt & proper. Judge Cushing, was taken ill on his journey to Philadelphia, and returned home, but the Court met & dispatched business as usual.2 I waited on the Chief Justice, and mentioned to him what I had heard, of the intended resignation of Mr: Bayard, of the Clerkship of the Supreme Court, on the removal of Government to the federal City, & at the same time named you as a competent, well qualified & convenient, Successor to the Office, requesting his influence to promote your appointment. He received the application with flattering deference and promised to lay it before his colleagues, so that if priority of intercession should have an influence on pretentions of equal degree, your’s should claim its rank, which I presume is unquestionably the first. I thought further interference on my part superfluous; nevertheless if occasion should offer, I will follow up the affair yet further, for I am desirous you should obtain this appointment, though its advantages & emoluments may be remote. There is no doubt in my mind that Bayard will resign after the next term, in February.

I am still an exile from Philadelphia & expect to be so at least another month— Within a few days past the fever has increased the number of its victims & the extent of its ravages. The mortality however is not comparable to that of the last season.

We are full of electioneering for Governor in this State; the trial will take place on the 9th: of next month, & I think the Chief Justice will carry the day.

I owe my namesake Tom: Johnson a letter, & intend payment ere long— Present me kindly to the family & tell them that my brother & Sister at Berlin were well on the 13th: July.3

With best regards to Mrs: Cranch & the little ones I am, &ca

T. B. Adams.

RC (OCHP:William Cranch Papers); addressed: “William Cranch Esqr: / George town / Ptmk”; internal address: “W. Cranch Esqr:”; endorsed: “T. B. Adams Sep 24 / 1799— / recd. Octr. 1st.— / Ansd. Novr. 15th.”; notation: “12 1/2.”

1Not found.

2Owing to a respiratory illness, William Cushing was unable to attend the federal circuit court sessions in New York and Connecticut in the summer and fall. Cushing returned to duty on 3 Oct. in Rutland, Vt. (Doc. Hist. Supreme Court description begins The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800, ed. Maeva Marcus, James R. Perry, and others, New York, 1985–2007; 8 vols. description ends , 3:380, 381, 385–388).

3On 13 July JQA wrote to TBA with further direction on his financial affairs. He also announced plans to travel to Dresden and reported signing the Prussian-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce on 11 July (LbC, APM Reel 131).

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