Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 3
I arrived at this place the 28th. ult. where I found a Letter of Octr. 28 ult. from Mr. Morton Dpty. Secry.1 wrote by the direction of the Major part of the honble. the Council of the Province of Massa: Bay by wch. I am acquainted that they have honored me with an appointment as one of the Justices of the Supr. Ct. of Judicature &c. for that Province. I am also favored with a List of the other Gentlemen appointed to the Supr. Bench and of our Arrangment in Rank. I am also requested to Signify to the honble. Board as soon as may be my acceptance or Refusal in Writing.2
I am sorry That my Answer has been so long delayed from the arrival of this Letter has been intirely owing to my Absence on a Cmsn. to the Northward, so that I have really been notified but a few days of my appointment to that important Office, & have not had that time & opportunity to Consider & advise upon the matter which I could have wished, but as yr. Honrs. have thought it expedient that a Supr. Court Should be appointed, & the Appointmt. is of so long a standing, I think 123it necessary to give my answer by this first Oppo. well knowing that however indulgent & candid your Honrs. might be if I should take some further time to consider it, there are not those wanting in our province to put injurious Constructions on it least the matter remaining any longer undetermined might prevent the accomplishment of yr. Honours determinations.
After expressing my Sincere thanks for the Honor you have Conferred upon me by this appointmt. I find my self constrained to decline accepting it, & witht. troubling yr. Honrs. with a detail of Reasons wch. are not required I beg leave to observe that I have the highest Sence of the importance of that Office, & am Satisfyed, that if sufficiently qualified, I could not attend to the due execution of it, while the Attacks made by our Enemys on every thing we hold dear appear to me to demand our constant Attention.3
I heartily wish the Establishment of Peace & the Due Admn. of Justice in our Province Success to yr. Honors Endeavours to effect those valuable purposes & happiness to yr. persons & am with unfeigned Respects yr. Honors most Obedt. & obliged & devoted hble. Sert.,
Perez Morton (1751–1837) served as deputy secretary from August 1775 to June 1776.
RTP did not note his letter to Warren in his diary for Jan. 1. The entry reads: “fair moderate, wrote to Majr. Hawley, Col Palmer Dr Cobb & uxr. by Mr. Cushing, & also an answer to the hble. Council of Massa. signifying my non Acceptance of their Appointment as a Justice of the Supr. Court, din’d Mr. Reads.”
The letters to his wife and to Dr. Cobb have not been located.
Abigail Adams wrote to her husband on Apr. 21: “you have perhaps heard that the Bench is fill’d by Mr. Foster and Sullivan, so that a certain person is now excluded. I own I am not of so forgiveing a disposition as to wish to see him holding a place which he refused merely from a spirit of envy” (
Adams Family Correspondence
, 1:389). On June 9, 1776, John Adams wrote to William Cushing: “Paine has acted in his own Character, tho scarcely consistent with the public Character, which he has been made to wear. At this, however, I am not much mortified, for the bench will not be the less respectable, for having a little less Wit, Humour, Drollery, or Fun upon it, very different Qualities being requisite in that Department” (Cushing Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society).
I arrived here the 28th. of this mo. & found one of our delegates Viz JA1 returned home; many are the Conjectures here of the Occasion, tho to argue from Circumstantial Evidence I can discern a Cause; I understand 124that the last years Delegation is Lengthned to the End of Jany. Currt. I suppose a new sett in part at least will be chosen. To this I shd. acquiese if conductd on a generous political plan, but to be under mined discarded & displaced by the Secret Machinations, Slanders & Tyranny of a Faction & represented as unfit for or unfaithful in the Service, must give Vexation its keenest Edge; it is exceeding melancholly that in a Scituation like that of ours who have put our Selves in the fore front of the Battle, one shd. have Occasion, or what is worse, be necessarily driven to Observations like this, but so it is, in Addition to the Cold haughty disrespectful behaviour of the two Adams toward me & their other Brethryn for a long time past. Since my return I have come at the Sight of an Extract of a Letter wrote by James Warren to the honble. JA. in which I am treated in such a manner as I flatter my Self I deserve from nobody I am sure I dont from him. This added to the Information I had of his Conduct respecting me at the Election of Councellors, satisfys me, that there are a set of men among us who set up their own Opinion as the Standard of Political Rectitude & who will Stick at no measure, to break every thing that will not bend to their despotic determination: dispositions of this kind are not uncommon toward different & clearly determined partys, but that the Defenders of Life Liberty and property should practice a faction which must Stabb the Vitals of their defence; that they shd. machinate & Traduce for the Bearskin when it is uncertain whether it will be saved is to me more astonishing than Sleeping on the Top of a Mast, & must Shew a disposition so dangerous as to require immediate restraint; when I see Seeds of so noxious a nature so early shooting their Roots in our new Admn. it gives me the most alarming Prospects & I am ready to cry out in the words of the Spanish Proverb “Good Lord deliver us from our Selves.” What a Scituation am I in, to expose my Life & fortune & the happiness of my family, & at the best to waste my Estate in Exertions for my Countrys Safety & at the same time to be Slandered & degraded by those with wm. I thought I was Struggling Side in the Commn. Cause.
You may remember when I was wth. you in the Summer that I expressed an uneasiness that Mr. JA was ranked above me at the Council Board. I never could discover any reason but the Sovereign good Will of his Freinds; Since my Return here I have recd. from the Dpty. Secy. a notification of the Appointmt. of a Set of Judges of the Supr. Court & that JA is Cheif Justice. I want exceedingly to know whether any besides himself has Accepted, & how the matter is relished by Judges Cushing 125& Read. This Mr. Adams is the youngest man & youngest Lawyer at the Barr Save Mr. Sarjent. Mr. C has been a Judge of the Supr. Ct. to good acceptance & Mr. Read has been a Lawyer of long Standing & Reputation & many Years as Judge of the Cmmn. Pleas. If we were not qualified for the Post why were we chosen? If we were why had we not our Rank? How these observations will affect you I dont know, but I think the Cause of them bodes no good. For my part when I consider my reasonable pretensions of Rank & how much I have exposed my Self when that Gentn. was out of Sight, or witht. Drawing any Comparison to this Seeming disadvantage in this matter I will say that wn. I consider that from the begginning of this Controversy I have advanced my self in the most exposed Situations that have fallen in my Way, I am much alarmed to find my self degraded from my just Rank in my Profession & this alone if I had no other Reason would be sufficient to induce me to give my answer in the negative.
Excuse me Sr. that I write thus freely to you. I feell a satisfaction to unbosom my mind to a person in whom I can place Confidence. I have no desire to irritate you against persons but if you think their measures are wrong you will conduct accordingly & give me that Support you may think I deserve. Inclosed I send you a Copy of the Extract referred to. It came to light in this manner. Mr. JA on his way home met the person who had it for him & after reading it delivered it unsealed to the Bearer & directed him (as the Bearer said) to deliver it to our Delegates,
John Adams.
Samuel Adams