TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS.
NOVEMBER 24, 1796.
[Independent Chronicle, November 28, 1796 , a text is in the
Massachusetts Archives, and a draft is in the Samuel Adams Papers,
Lenox Library.]
Gentlemen of the Senate,
and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives.
BY a Message, which I yesterday laid before the Senate, I gave a full, free and candid account of my proceedings respecting a Resolve of the two Houses, for filling up vacancies which may possibly happen in the Electors of President and Vice-President of the United States.
My mode of conduct on this occasion, I know is, and I flatter myself, will be considered, to be as well the result of an ardent wish to preserve free, important and secure the Elections of those very important Officers, as a desire to dispatch the business at this juncture before the Legislature.—I wish to promote the true interest of my country—I have no other object in view; and therefore, it can be of no consequence to me, in what mode this question is discussed nor in what form your opinions shall be expressed. I am not, at present, for supporting the idea that after the Resolve had been signed by me, and delivered to the Secretary, that it was not a formal act of government. Be that as it may—the question is now properly before the General Court, and if the Resolve, to which I have made an objection, was, under all considerations an Act of the Government upon my signing the same, the only question now is whether it ought to be repealed, and another provision made for the same object?
My objection to the Resolve, or my reason why it should be repealed, (if it is one) is, that a delegation by the Legislature to the Electors appointed by the Citizens in their individual capacity for the Election of President and Vice President, to fill up vacancies in their own number, by death or resignation, is a dangerous power, and tends to the establishing a dangerous Precedent; but should my fellow citizens of the Senate and House, think differently from me, while I shall feel quite contented with your decision, I shall be happy, that I have candidly acknowledged an error in signing that Resolve, and yet done, with firmness, what has appeared to me as the true interest of the State of which I am a Member, and of a Nation of which I am a Citizen.
SAMUEL ADAMS.
1797