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

TO THE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF MASSACHUSETTS. - John Adams, The Works of John Adams, vol. 9 (Letters and State Papers 1799-1811) [1854]

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. 9.

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

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TO THE DEPUTY SECRETARY OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Philadelphia, 25 July, 1776.

Sir,—

I find myself under a necessity of applying to the honorable General Court for leave to return home. I have attended here so long and so constantly that I feel myself necessitated to ask this favor, on account of my health as well as on many other accounts.

I beg leave to propose to the honorable the General Court an alteration in their plan of delegation in Congress, which, it appears to me, would be more agreeable to the health and convenience of the members, and much more conducive to the public good than the present. No gentleman can possibly attend to an incessant round of thinking, speaking, and writing upon the most intricate as well as important concerns of human society, from one end of the year to another, without injury to his mental and bodily health. I would, therefore, humbly propose that the honorable Court would be pleased to appoint nine members to attend in Congress, three or five at a time. In this case, six or four might be at home at a time, and every member might be relieved once in three or four months. In this way you would always have members in Congress who would have in their minds a complete chain of the proceedings here, as well as in the General Court, both kinds of which knowledge are necessary for a proper conduct here. In this way the lives and health, and, indeed, the sound minds of the delegates here would be in less danger than they are at present, and in my humble opinion, the public business would be much better done.

This proposal, however, is only submitted to the consideration of that body whose sole right it is to judge of it. For myself, I must entreat the General Court to give me leave to resign, and immediately to appoint some other gentleman in my room. The consideration of my own health and the circumstances of my family and private affairs would have little weight with me, if the sacrifice of these was necessary for the public; but it is not. Because those parts of the business of Congress for which, if for any, I have any qualifications, being now nearly completed, and the business that remains being chiefly military and commercial, of which I know very little, there are multitudes of gentlemen in the province much fitter for the public service here than I am.

With great respect to the General Court, &c.