Adams Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Bowdoin, James" AND Recipient="Adams, John"
sorted by: date (descending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0175

To John Adams from James Bowdoin, 24 March 1790

From James Bowdoin

Boston March 24. 1790

Dear sir

The Gentleman, by whom this will be delivered to you, is Nathaniel Appleton esqr the Commissioner of the Loan Office for the State of Massachusetts.1 At the first institution of the Office in the Year 1776 he was appointed to it, and has been continued in it by the Several Boards of Treasury to the present time. Besides the approbation of those, to whom he was immediately accountable, his Conduct in the Office has met with universal acceptance; and places him in the first line of notice, should Administration think proper to continue the Office; or in its Stead establish any Similar one. His capacity for business, his application to it, and the rectitude of his character, with which you must be fully acquainted, will be considered by those, who now so worthily direct the helm, as the best recommendation.

With great respect, I have the honour to be, Sir—Yr most obt. hble servt.

James Bowdoin2

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excy. The Vice President.”

1. Boston merchant Nathaniel Appleton (b. 1731) served as Massachusetts commissioner of the Continental loan office until his death in 1798 (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 7:425).

2. This is Bowdoin’s last extant letter to JA, who learned of his old friend’s illness and paralytic stroke in a letter from JQA of 9 Aug. 1790. Bowdoin died of dysentery on 6 Nov. (AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 9:105).

Index Entries

    You Are Looking At

    Source Project
    Adams Papers
    Title
    To John Adams from James Bowdoin, 24 March 1790
    Author
    Bowdoin, James
    Recipient
    Adams, John
    Date
    24 March 1790

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To John Adams from James Bowdoin, 24 March 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0175. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 20, June 1789–February 1791, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Gwen Fries, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020, p. 289.]

    More between these correspondents