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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 8 (Letters and State Papers 1782-1799) [1853]

Edition used:

The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1856). 10 volumes. Vol. 8.

Part of: The Works of John Adams, 10 vols.

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TO T. PICKERING, SECRETARY OF STATE.

Dear Sir,

I have received your letter of September 20th, and return you the commission for a Judge of the Supreme Court, signed, leaving the name and date blank. You will fill the blank with the name of Marshall, if he will accept it; if not, with that of Bushrod Washington. I cannot blame the former, if he should decline; of the latter, I have always heard the most agreeable accounts.1

I have also received your letter of the 21st, with its inclosures and the extract from General Marshall’s letter. I am of his opinion, that the world has seldom seen more extraordinary letters than those of Talleyrand.

[1 ]Mr. Washington was appointed. Mr. Marshall declined. In his letter to the Secretary of State, dated 28 September, he says:

“I pray you to make my respectful and grateful acknowledgments to the President for the very favorable sentiments concerning me, which are indicated by his willingness to call me to so honorable and important a station as that of a Judge of the United States. The considerations, which are insurmountable, oblige me to decline the office. I can assure you, that I shall ever estimate properly, both the dispositions of the President, and the polite and friendly manner in which you have communicated them.”