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only question now is whether it ought to be repealed, and another