John Adams’ Credentials to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, 10 August 1779

John Adams’ Credentials to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention

Braintree Augst. 10th, 1779

The Inhabitants of the Town of Braintree, being Legally Assembled on the Ninth day of August instant, pursuant to Legall Warrants, made choice of the Honble. John Adams Esqr. to Represent them in a State Convention, appointed to be convened and held at Cambridge on the first day of September next, for the purpose of Framing a New Constitution.1

Attest Ebenr. Thayer junr Town Cler[k]

MS (M-Ar: vol. 160, p. 190); docketed: “Braintree.”

1. This attestation of JA’s election to the forthcoming state constitutional convention is on the verso of the broadside of 15 June calling for the election of convention delegates from each of the towns entitled to representation in the General Court. Elected by freemen 21 years and over who were inhabitants of a town, the delegates could equal in number the representatives proportioned to each town according to a formula adopted in 1776 (Mass., Province Laws description begins The Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, Boston, 1869–1922; 21 vols. description ends , 5:502–503).

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Source Project: Adams Papers
Title: John Adams’ Credentials to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, 10 August 1779
Authors: Braintree, town of
Thayer, Ebenezer Jr.
Date: 10 August 1779

Reference

Cite as: “John Adams’ Credentials to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, 10 August 1779,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-08-02-0082. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 8, March 1779 – February 1780, ed. Gregg L. Lint, Robert J. Taylor, Richard Alan Reyerson, Celeste Walker, and Joanna M. Revelas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, p. 121.]