Adams Papers
Documents filtered by: Author="Adams, John" AND Recipient="Mifflin, Thomas" AND Period="Washington Presidency"
sorted by: recipient
Permanent link for this document:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0045

From John Adams to Thomas Mifflin, 14 July 1789

To Thomas Mifflin

New York July 14 1789

Dear Sir

I have received the letter you did me the honor to write me on the third of this month, and I thank you for giving me an opportunity of renewing a friendly intercourse which has continued I beleive with some interruption for these seventeen years.1

I was early acquainted with the activity, Zeal, and Steadiness of Capt: Falconer in the cause of his country: but as the number of competitors for employment in your city, is greater than that of the offices to be bestowed, and the merits of many of them are considerable; The President will no doubt think himself obliged to seek information from all quarters and carefully weigh the merits and qualifications of every one.

In order to preserve and improve the Ballance of our constitution, it is so necessary that the nominations of the President should be revered, that I shall generally support to the utmost of my power the men of his choice, and it must be a very strong case indeed that would justify me to myself in venturing to differ from him.

I congratulate you on the prospect we have that our countrymen will by degrees recover their original national character, and thier native veneration for the wisdom and virtue of those institutions of our Ancestors, which have been so long obscured and misrepresented by passion, prejudice, ignorance, and error.

With great esteem &

John Adams

LbC in CA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “His Excellency Thomas Mifflin / President of Pensylvania.”; APM Reel 115.

1The Pennsylvania governor wrote to JA on 3 July to recommend Capt. Nathaniel Falconer for a customs post in Philadelphia. Falconer appealed to JA on 30 June (both Adams Papers), citing his past service in outfitting the Continental fleet and issuing loan certificates. JA replied to Falconer on 4 July (LbC, APM Reel 115), explaining that the president, “as the common father of the people, is wisely entrusted with authority to weigh all the pretensions of every competitor, is personally so well acquainted in Pensylvania, and has so many able and faithful men within his call to consult upon such matters, that my testimony in your favour, can add little weight.” Falconer applied to George Washington on 8 July and was named master warden of the port in 1792 (Washington, Papers, Presidential Series description begins The Papers of George Washington: Presidential Series, ed. W. W. Abbot, Dorothy Twohig, Jack D. Warren, Mark A. Mastromarino, Robert F. Haggard, Christine S. Patrick, John C. Pinheiro, David R. Hoth, and others, Charlottesville, Va., 1987–. description ends , 3:147–148).

Index Entries