From John Adams to Perez Morton, 15 September 1788
To Perez Morton
Braintree Sept: 15th 1788.
Sir
On saturday night, I received your letter of the tenth of this month, and with it a letter inclosed to you from his excellency Mr Bowdoin of the same date.1 The late misfortune in a family for which from my earliest infancy, I have entertained a particular respect, the charges and suspicions against you, for whom I have long had a particular regard, have affected me so very sensibly, that I could wish to avoid so painful an examination, as that to which you invite me. But as Mr and Mrs Apthorp have agreed with you in the choice, and you have done me the honor to join me with a gentleman in whose justice and humanity as well as judgment, I have an entire confidence, I will not hesitate to accept the trust: Hoping that the late misfortune may be alleviated, and the happiness of the two families promoted, by such an investigation as you propose—2
I cannot however conclude without concurring with Mr Bowdoin in his advice, “that the parties with a spirit of candor and mutual condescention, and without exterior aid, will endeavor to reestablish the harmony and good will that once so happily subsisted between them”
Mr Bowdoins letter, and a copy of this I shall convey as you desire to Mr Apthorp. I have the honor / to be Sir your most obedient, humble servant.
LbC in an unknown hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Perez Morton Esqr”; APM Reel 93.
1. Not found.
2. JA referred to the scandal that occurred when Frances Theodora Apthorp, sister-in-law of Perez Morton (1750–1837), Harvard 1771, and sister of his wife, the poet Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton (1759–1846), committed suicide in August after giving birth to Perez Morton’s illegitimate daughter. Following a coroner’s inquest, Perez Morton was implicated in her death. JA and James Bowdoin stepped in to act as intermediaries between Morton and Frances’ parents, James (1731–1799) and Sarah Wentworth Apthorp (1735–1820). On 8 Oct. the Massachusetts Centinel published a letter by JA and Bowdoin exonerating Morton. They suggested that contrary to the “the verdict of the jury of inquest … the extraordinary conduct of the deceased, had been early attributed to the only accountable cause, an insane state of mind.” The Boston Herald of Freedom, meanwhile, dismissed this theory in issues published on the 9th and 13th. In 1794, when Morton was elected as one of Boston’s representatives to the Mass. General Court, JA commented in a 17 May letter to AA: “Well! Boston comes on! Mr Morton is now to be its Leader! How changed in Reputation Since 1788.!” (, 1:141; 7:174; 10:180, 182; 12:263; , entry on Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton).