Adams Papers Digital Edition

Papers of John Adams, volume 21

To Frederick Bull

To the American Philosophical Society
the American Philosophical Society to John Adams, 22 January 1793 American Philosophical Society Adams, John
From the American Philosophical Society
Sir. Philadelphia Jan. 22. 1793.

It is with particular satisfaction that, in Obedience to the Orders of the American Philosophical Society established at Philadelphia for promoting usefull Knowledge, We announce your Election into that Body, on the 18th Inst.1

Your Certificate of Membership will be presented as soon as it can be compleated, in the mean time We hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at their meetings as often as may be convenient, and 163 to be honoured with such Communications from Time to Time as may tend to promote the laudable Objects of the Institution.

We have the honor to be / With the greatest Respect / Sir / Your most obedient & / most humble servants

James Hutchinson Jona Williams Corresponding secretaries

RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Honble Jno Adams Vice President of the United states &c.”; endorsed: “James Hutchinson / Jonathan Williams / Jan. 22. ansd. 24. 1793. / Certificate of Member / Ship of the Philosophi / cal Society.”; docketed by JA: “answered 24. January 1793.”

 1.

JA was previously elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society on 21 Jan. 1780, but poor recordkeeping evidently necessitated this action thirteen years later. The corresponding secretaries were Dr. James Hutchinson (1752–1793), former surgeon general of Pennsylvania, who died during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic; and Philadelphia merchant Jonathan Williams Jr. (1750–1815), who became the first superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1802 ( AFC , 3:299–300; Amer. Philos. Soc., Procs. , 56:xv–xvi, xvii; Washington, Diaries , 5:184; Washington, Papers, Presidential Series , 11:249).