Adams Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Adams, John" AND Period="Confederation Period"
sorted by: date (descending)
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0250

From John Adams to Theophilus Parsons, 2 November 1788

To Theophilus Parsons

Braintree Nov. 2. 1788.

Dear Sir

From the Conversation that pass’d, between you and me, when I had the Pleasure to See you for a few moments at this place, I am apprehensive that you may think of me for a Senator, as I find that Some other Gentlemen have, done and continue to do.1

You know very well how ungracious and odious the Non Acceptance of an Appointment by Election is, and therefore let me beg of you, not to expose me to the Necessity of incurring the Censure of the Publick and the Obloquy of Individuals by so unpopular a measure.

I have long revolved in an anxious mind the Duties of the Man and the Citizen, and without entering into Details, at present, the Result of all my Reflections on the Place of a Senator in the New Government is an unchangeable Determination to refuse it.

With much Respect and Sincere Affection / I am, Dear sir, your most obedient / and most humble servant

John Adams

Dft (Adams Papers); internal address: “Theophilus Parsons Esqr”; notation by CFA: “To Theophilus Parsons.”

1. Parsons, who served with JA in the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1780, supervised JQA’s legal training in Newburyport (vol. 13:148; AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, and others, Cambridge, 1963– . description ends , 8:461).

Index Entries

    You Are Looking At

    Source Project
    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to Theophilus Parsons, 2 November 1788
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Parsons, Theophilus
    Date
    2 November 1788

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to Theophilus Parsons, 2 November 1788,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-19-02-0250. [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, p. 350.]

    More between these correspondents