Adams Papers

From John Adams to John Laurance, 19 September 1789

To John Laurance

New York Septr: 19 89

Sir

My second son the bearer of this letter as soon as he was out of College was entered as a student at Law in the office of Colo: Hamilton upon certain conditions, one that if I should remove from New York, he should be at liberty to remove with me, and another was that if Hamilton should be made a minister of State his pupil should look out another patron. The latter condition being now realized, I send my son to you sir in order to know upon what conditions you will take him into your office.1

If it should not be inconvenient to you to receive him I should be obliged to you for your answer. I must still make a condition that I may be at liberty to take him with me wherever I may go. He will board with me, and attend your office as he did Col Hamiltons, from ten in the morning till three in the afternoon.

John Adams.

LbC in CA’s hand (Adams Papers); internal address: “Honble John Lawrance Esqr.”; APM Reel 115.

1. Once Alexander Hamilton assumed his new duties as first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, CA transferred his clerkship to the law firm of John Laurance (1750–1810), a former judge advocate general who had served as a New York delegate in the Continental Congress. CA opened his own practice on 20 Aug. 1792 in Hanover Square (Biog. Dir. Cong. description begins Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, Washington, D.C., 2005; rev. edn., bioguide.congress.gov. description ends ; AFC description begins Adams Family Correspondence, ed. L. H. Butterfield, Marc Friedlaender, Richard Alan Ryerson, Margaret A. Hogan, Sara Martin, Hobson Woodward, and others, Cambridge, 1963–. description ends , 9:300).

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    Adams Papers
    Title
    From John Adams to John Laurance, 19 September 1789
    Author
    Adams, John
    Recipient
    Laurance, John
    Date
    19 September 1789

    Reference

    Cite as
    “From John Adams to John Laurance, 19 September 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-20-02-0106. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 20, June 1789–February 1791, ed. Sara Georgini, Sara Martin, R. M. Barlow, Gwen Fries, Amanda M. Norton, Neal E. Millikan, and Hobson Woodward. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020, pp. 160–161.]