Papers of John Adams, volume 3
I have but a moments Time to write and nothing of Importance to say.
Mr. Randolph, our former President is here, and Sits very humbly in his Seat, while our new one, continues in the Chair, without Seeming to feel the Impropriety.1 Coll. Nelson, a Hunter, Mr. Wythe, a Lawyer and Mr. Francis Lightfoot Lee, a Planter, are here from Virginia, instead of Henry, Pendleton and Bland. Henry is General 161of Virginia. The other two are old and infirm. I am well pleased that Virginia, has Set the Example of changing Members, and I hope that Massachusetts will follow it, and all the other Colonies.
I Should be glad upon a new Election to be relieved from this Service. This Climate does not agree with my Constitution, so well as our own: and I am not very well fortified you know against the Inclemencies of any.
This Congress, I assure you, feels the Spirit of War, more intimately than they did before the Adjournment. They set about Preparations for it, with Seriousness, and in Earnest.
In JA's eyes, Hancock's tenure as president was temporary in that he had been elected to fill the vacancy Peyton Randolph made by returning to Virginia to preside as speaker over a session of the House of Burgesses a few days after his re-election in May as president of the Continental Congress. JA's criticism of Hancock suggests the hostility that had grown up between them (
JCC
, 2:12, 58–59;
Adams Family Correspondence
, 1:323).