Thoughts on Government and Selected Letters

To John Taylor (part 4)

Quincy, 2 March, 1816.

I cannot be serious ! I am about to write you the most fri- volous letter you ever read. Would you go back to your cradle, and live over again your seventy years ? I believe you would return me a New England answer, by asking me another ques- tion, " Would you live your eighty years over again? "f^If I

his interference ; and he rests the final decision upon the fact, that neither the lieutenant nor his superior officer was acting by any warrant or special authority from the lords of the admiralty. This avoided the question of their power to give such authority. History of Massachusetts, vol. iii. p. 232, note.

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am prepared to give you an explicit answer, the question in- volves so many considerations of metaphysics and physics, of theology and ethics, of philosophy and history, of experience and romance, of tragedy, comedy, and farce, that I would not give my opinion without writing a volume to justify it. J/1 have lately lived over again in part, from 1753, when I was junior sophister at college, till 1769, when I was digging in the mines as a barrister at law for silver and gold in the town of Boston, and got as much of the shining dross for my labor, as my utmost avarice at that time craved. At the hazard of the little vision that is left me, I have read the history of that period of sixteen years, in the six first volumes of the Baron de Grimm. In a late letter to you, I expressed a wish to see a history of quarrels, and calamities of authors in France, like that of D'Israeli in England; I did not expect it so soon, but now I have it in a manner more masterly than I ever hoped to see it. It is not only a narrative of the incessant great wars between the ecclesiastics and the philosophers, but of the little skirmishes and squabbles of poets, musicians, sculptors, painters, architects, tragedians, comedians, opera singers, and dancers, chansons, vaudevilles, epigrams, madrigals, epitaphs, sonnets, &c.

No man is more sensible than I am of the service to science and letters, humanity, fraternity, and liberty, that would have been rendered by the encyclopedists and economists, by Vol- taire, D'Alembert, Buffon, Diderot, Rousseau, La Lande, Fre- deric and Catherine, if they had possessed common sense. But they were all totally destitute of it. They seemed to think that all Christendom was convinced, as they were, that all religion was "visions judaiques" and that their effulgent lights had illuminated all the world ; they seemed to believe that whole nations and continents had been changed in their principles, opinions, habits, and feelings, by the sovereign grace of their almighty philosophy, almost as suddenly as Catholics and Cal- vinists believe in instantaneous conversion. They had not con- sidered the force of early education on the minds of millions, who had never heard of their philosophy.

And what was their philosophy ? Atheism, — pure, unadulte- rated atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, Frederic, De La Lande, and Grimm, were indubitable atheists. The universe was mas- ter only, and eternal. Spirit was a word without a meaning.

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Liberty was a word without a meaning. There was no liberty in the universe; liberty was a word void of sense. Every thought, word, passion, sentiment, feeling, all motion and action was necessary. All beings and attributes were of eternal neces- sity ; conscience, morality, were all nothing but fate. This was their creed, and this was to perfect human nature, and convert the earth into a paradise of pleasure.

Who and what is this fate ? He must be a sensible fellow. He must be a master of science ; he must be a master of spheri- cal trigonometry, and great circle sailing ; he must calculate eclipses in his head by intuition ; he must be master of the science of infinitesimals, " la science des infiniment petitsP He must involve and extract all the roots by intuition, and be familiar with all possible or imaginable sections of the cone. He must be a master of the arts, mechanical and imitative ; he must have more eloquence than Demosthenes, more wit than Swift or Voltaire, more humor than Butler or Trumbull ; and what is more comfortable than all the rest, he must be good- natured ; for this is upon the whole a good world. There is ten times as much pleasure as pain in it.

Why, then, should we abhor the word God, and fall in love with the word fate ? We know there exists energy and intel- lect enough to produce such a world as this, which is a sublime and beautiful one, and a very benevolent one, notwithstanding all our snarling ; and a happy one, if it is not made otherwise by our own fault.

Ask a mite in the centre of your mammoth cheese, what he thinks of the "t6 ndv." I should prefer the philosophy of Timaeus of Locris, before that of Grimm, Diderot, Frederic, and D' Alem- bert. I should even prefer the Shaster of Indostan, or the Chal- dean, Egyptian, Indian, Greek, Christian, Mahometan, Teuto- nic, or Celtic theology. Timseus and Ocellus taught that three principles were eternal: God, matter, and form. God was good, and had ideas ; matter was necessity, fate, dead, without form, without feeling, perverse, untractable, capable, however, of being cut into forms of spheres, circles, triangles, squares, cubes, cones, &c. The ideas of the good God labored upon matter to bring it into form ; but matter was fate, necessity, dulness, obstinacy, and would not always conform to the ideas of the good God, who desired to make the best of all possible

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worlds, but matter, fate, necessity, resisted, and would not let him complete his idea. Hence all the evil and disorder, pain, misery, and imperfection of the universe.

We all curse Robespierre and Bonaparte ; but were they not both such restless, vain, extravagant animals as Diderot and Voltaire ? Voltaire was the greatest literary character and Bona the greatest military character of the eighteenth century ; there is all the difference between them ; both equally heroes and equally cowards.

When you asked my opinion of a university, it would have been easy to advise mathematics, experimental philosophy, na- tural history, chemistry, and astronomy, geography, and the fine arts, to the exclusion of ontology, metaphysics, and theology. But knowing the eager impatience of the human mind to search into eternity and infinity, the first cause and last end of all things, I thought best to leave it its liberty to inquire, till it is convinced, as I have been these fifty years, that there is but one being in the universe who comprehends it, and our last resource is resignation.

This Grimm must have been in Paris when you were there. Did you know him or hear of him ?

I have this moment received two volumes more ; but these are from 1777 to 1782, leaving the chain broken from 1769 to 1777. I hope hereafter to get the two intervening volumes.

■m

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 3 May, 1816.

Yours of April 8th has long since been received.

J. Would you agree to live your eighty years over again ?

A. Aye, and sans phrase.

J. Would you agree to live your eighty years over again for ever ?

A. I once heard our acquaintance, Chew, of Philadelphia, say, he should like to go back to twenty-five, to all eternity. But I own my soul would start and shrink back on itself at the prospect of an endless succession of boules de savon, almost as

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much as at the certainty of annihilation. For what is human life ? I can speak only for one. I have had more comfort than distress, more pleasure than pain, ten to one ; nay, if you please, a hundred to one. A pretty large dose, however, of distress and pain. But, after all, what is human life ? A vapor, a fog, a dew, a cloud, a blossom, a flower, a rose, a blade of grass, a glass bubble, a tale told by an idiot, a boule de savon, vanity of vanities, an eternal succession of which would terrify me almost as much as annihilation.

J. Would you prefer to live over again rather than accept the offer of a better life in a future state ?

A. Certainly not.

J. Would you live again, rather than change for the worse in a future state, for the sake of trying something new ?

A. Certainly, yes !

J. Would you live over again once or forever rather than run the risk of annihilation, or of a better or worse state at or after death?

A. Most certainly I would not.

J. How valiant you are !

A. Aye, at this moment and at all other moments of my life that I can recollect ; but who can tell what will become of his bravery, when his flesh and his philosophy were not suffi- cient to support him in his last hours. D' Alembert said, Happy are they who have courage, but I have none. Voltaire, the greatest genius of them all, behaved like the greatest coward of them all, at his death, as he had like the wisest fool of them all in his lifetime. Hurne^ awkwardly affects to sport away all sober thoughts. Who can answer for his last feelings and reflections, especially as the priests are in possession of the custom of making the great engines of their craft, procul este profani.

J. How shall we, how can we, estimate the value of human life?

A. I know not ; I cannot weigh sensations and reflections, pleasures and pains, hopes and fears in money scales. But I can tell you how I have heard it estimated by some philosophers. One of my old friends and clients, a mandamus counsellor against his will, a man of letters and virtues, without one vice that I ever knew or suspected, except garrulity, William Vassal,

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asserted to me, and strenuously maintained, that pleasure is no compensation for pain. A hundred years of the keenest de- lights of human life, could not atone for one hour of bilious colic that he had felt. The sublimity of this philosophy my dull genius could not reach. I was willing to state a fair account between pleasure and pain, and give credit for the ^ balance, which I found very great in my favor. -Another philo- n~ sopher who, as we say, believed nothing, ridiculed the notion of a future state. One of the company asked, " Why are you an enemy to a future state ? Are you wearied of life ? Do you detest existence ? " " Weary of life ! Detest existence ! " said the philosopher, " no, I love life so well and am so attached to existence, that to be sure of immortality, I would consent to be pitched about with forks by the devils among flames of fire and brimstone to all eternity." I find no resources in my courage for this exalted philosophy. I would rather be blotted out. II fant trancher le mot. What is there in life to attach us to it, but the hope of a future and a better ? It is a cracker, a bouquet, a firework, at best.

I admire your navigation, and should like to sail with you either in your bark or in my own, alongside with yours. Hope, with her gay ensigns displayed at the prow ; fear, with her hob- goblins behind the stern. Hope remains. What pleasure ? I mean, take away fear, and what pain remains ? Ninety-nine hundredths of the pleasures and pains of life are nothing but hopes and fears. All nations known in history or in travels have hoped, believed, and expected a future and a better state. The Maker of the universe, the cause of all things, whether we call it fate, or chance, or God, has inspired this hope. If it is a fraud, we shall never know it ; we shall never resent the impo- sition, be grateful for the illusion, nor grieve for the disappoint- ment; we shall be no more.

Credant Grimm, Diderot, Buffon, La Lande, Condorcet, D'Holbach, Frederic, Catherine, non ego. Arrogant as it may be, I shall take the liberty to pronounce them all ideologians. Yet I would not persecute a hair of their heads; the world is wide enough for them and me.

Suppose the cause of the universe should reveal to all man- kind at once a certainty, that they must all die within a cen- tury, and that death is an eternal extinction of all living powers,

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of all sensation and reflection. What would be the effect? Would there be one man, woman, or child existing on this globe twenty years hence ? Would every human being be a Madame Deffand, Voltaire's " aveugle clairvoyante" all her life- time regretting her existence, bewailing that she had ever been born ; grieving that she had ever been dragged without her consent into being? Who "would bear the gout, the stone, the colic, for the sake of a boule de savon, when a pistol, a cord, a pond, a phial of laudanum, was at hand ? What would men say to their Maker ? Would they thank him ? No ; they would reproach him, they would curse him to his face.

Voild , a sillier letter than my last ! For a wonder, I have filled a sheet, and a greater wonder, I have read fifteen volumes of Grimm. Digito compesce labellum. I hope to write you more upon this and other topics of your letter. I have read also a history of the Jesuits, in four volumes. Can you tell me the author, or any thing of this work ?

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 6 May, 1816.

Neither eyes, fingers, nor paper held out to despatch aU the trifles I wished to write in my last letter.

In your letter of April 8th, you wonder for what good end ' the sensations of grief could be intended. You wish the patho- logists would tell us what is the use of grief in our economy, and of what good it is the cause, proximate or remote. When I approach such questions as this, I consider myself likd one' of those little eels in vinegar, or one of those animalcules in black or red pepper or in the horseradish root, that bite our tongues so cruelly, reasoning upon the to wav. Of what use is this sting upon the tongue ? Why might we not have the benefit of these stimulants without the sting ? Why might we not have the fragrance, the beauty of the rose, without the thorn ?

In the first place, however, we know not the connections be- tween pleasure and pain. They seem to be mechanical and inseparable. How can we conceive a strong passion, a sari-

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guine hope, suddenly disappointed, without producing pain or grief? Swift, at seventy, recollected the fish he had angled out of water when a boy, which broke loose from his hook, and said, " I feel the disappointment at this moment." A merchant places all his fortune and all his credit in a single India or China ship. She arrives at the Vineyard with a cargo worth a million, in order. Sailing round the Cape for Boston, a sudden storm wrecks her ; ship, cargo, and crew all lost. Is it possible that the merchant, ruined, bankrupt, sent to prison by his cre- ditors, his wife and children starving, should not grieve ? Sup- pose a young couple, with every advantage of persons, fortune, and connection, on the point of an indissoluble union. A flash of lightning, or any one of those millions of accidents which are allotted to humanity, proves fatal to one of the lovers. Is it possible that the other, and all the friends of both, should not grieve ? It should seem that grief, as a mere passion, must necessarily be in proportion to sensibility.

Did you ever see a portrait or a statue of a great man, with- out perceiving strong traits of pain and anxiety ? These fur- rows were all ploughed in the countenance by grief. Our juvenile oracle, Sir Edward Coke, thought that none were fit for legislators and magistrates but sad men; and who were these sad men ? They were aged men who had been tossed and buffeted in the vicissitudes of life, forced upon profound reflection by grief and disappointments, and taught to command their passions and prejudices.

But all this, you will say, is nothing to the purpose ; it is only repeating and exemplifying a fact, which my question supposed to be well known, namely, the existence of grief, and is no answer to my question, what are the uses of grief? This is very true, and you are very right; but may not the uses of grief be inferred, or at least suggested by such exem- plifications of known facts ? Grief compels the India merchant to think, to reflect upon the plan of his voyage. " Have I not been rash to trust my fortune, my family, my liberty to the caprice of winds and waves in a single ship ? I will never again give loose to my imagination and avarice. It had been wiser and more honest to have traded on a smaller scale, upon my own capital." The desolated lover^and disappointed connec- tionSv are compelled by their grief to reflect on the vanity of

vo2. x. 19

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human wishes and expectations ; to learn the essential lesson of resignation, to review their own conduct toward the deceased, to "correct any errors or faults in their future conduct towards their remaining friends, and towards all men ; to recollect the virtues of their lost friend, and resolve to imitate them; his follies and vices, if he had any, and resolve to avoid them. Grief drives men into habits of serious reflection, sharpens the understanding, and softens the heart ; it compels them to rouse their reason, to assert its empire over their passions, propensi- ties and prejudices, to elevate them to a superiority over all human events, to give them the felicis animi immotam tran- quilitatem; in short, to make them stoics and Christians.

After all, as grief is a pain, it stands in the predicament of all other evil, and the great question occurs, what is the origin and what the final cause of evil.. This, perhaps, is known only to Omniscience. We poor mortals have nothing to do with it, but to fabricate all the good we can out of all inevitable evils, and to avoid all that are avoidable ; and many such there are, among which are our own unnecessary apprehensions and ima- ginary fears. Though stoical apathy is impossible, yet patience, and resignation, and tranquillity may be acquired, by considera- tion, in a great degree, very much for the happiness of life. /

I have read Grimm in fifteen volumes, of more than five hun- dred pages each. I will not say, like Uncle Toby, " you shall not die" till you have read him, but you ought to read him, if possible. It is the most entertaining work I ever read. He appears exactly as you represent him. What is most of all remarkable, is his impartiality. He spares no characters, but Necker and Diderot. Voltaire, Buffon, D'Alembert, Helvetius, Rousseau, Marmontel, Condorcet, La Harpe, Beaumarchais, and all others are lashed without ceremony. Their portraits are faithfully drawn as possible. It is a complete review of French literature and fine arts from 1753 to 1790. No politics. Criti- cisms very just. Anecdotes without number, and very merry ; one, ineffably ridiculous, I wish I could send you, but it is immeasurably long. D'Argens, a little out of health and shiver- ing with the cold in Berlin, asked leave of the King to take a ride to Gascony, his native province. He was absent so long that Frederic concluded the air of the south of France was likely to detain his friend, and as he wanted his society and services,

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he contrived a trick to bring him back. He fabricated a mandement in the name of the Archbishop of Aix, commanding all the faithful to seize the Marquis d' Argens, author of Ocellus, Timseus, and Julian, works atheistical, deistical, heretical, and impious in the highest degree. This mandement, composed in a style of ecclesiastical eloquence, that never was exceeded by Pope, Jesuit, Inquisitor, or Sorbonnite, he sent in print by a courier to d' Argens, who, frightened out of his wits, fled by cross-roads out of France and back to Berlin, to the greater joy of the philosophical court for the laugh of Europe, which they had raised at the expense of the learned Marquis.

I do not like the late resurrection of the Jesuits. They have a general now in Russia, in correspondence with the Jesuits in the United States, who are more numerous than everybody knows. Shall we not have swarms of them here, in as many shapes and disguises as ever a king of the gypsies, Bampfylde Moore Carew himself, assumed ? In the shape of printers, edit- ors, writers, schoolmasters, &c. ? I have lately read Pascal's letters over again, and four volumes of the History of the Jesuits. ^ If ever any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell, according to these historians, though, like Pascal, true Catholics, it is this company of Xioyola. Our sys- tem, however, of religious liberty must afford them an asylum ; but if they do not put the purity of our elections to a severe trial, it will be a wonder.

TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Quincy, 26 May, 1816.

Reverend, Honorable, Learned, Venerable, and Dear Sir, — As I stand in need of a casuist in philosophy, morality, and Christianity, to whom should I apply but to you, whom I consider as the best qualified of all my friends ?

The stoics, the Christians, the Mahometans, and our North American Indians all agree that complaint is unmanly, unlaw- ful, and impious. To bear torment without a murmur, a sigh, a groan, or a distortion of face and feature, or a writhe or con- tortion of the body, is consummate virtue, heroism, and piety.

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Mr. Lear has completed the glory of great and good Washing- ton, by informing us that he suffered great distress without a sigh or a groan. Jephtha's daughter, Agamemnon's Iphigenia, the Hindoo widows, who roast and broil and fry with their husband's bones, probably utter no shrieks. The son of Alno- mac never complained. Brissot and some of his colleagues are said to have pronounced " Vive la repub — ," when the guillotine has cut off the head, which hopping and bouncing and rolling has articulated the syllable " lique" after it was sundered from the shoulders.

I can almost believe all this. The history of the Christian martyrs, and the French clergy on the 2d of September, seem to render it credible. Indeed, in the course of my strange life I have had at times some feelings of a like kind ; but I do not give so much weight to all these as to the cool declaration of our excellent and blessed, though once passionate, Dr. Chauncy, that he had found by experience that a man could lie all night upon his pillow under the most excruciating torment of tooth- ache, headache, rheumatism, or gout, unable to sleep a wink, without uttering a groan, sigh, or syllable. Now, Sir, please to tell me what virtue there is in all this ? A common man, as 1 am informed, was lately asked what he meant by the word resignation. His answer was, " I cannot help UP Could So- crates have given a better reason ?

Resignation is our own affair. What good does it do to God ? Prudence dictates to us to make the best we can of inevitable evils. We may fret and fume and peeve, and scold and rave, but what good does this do ? It hurts ourselves, and may hurt our neighbors by the weak, silly, foolish example, but does no good in the universe that we can imagine.

Voltaire, for the last ten years of his life seemed to adopt as a kind of motto, " vieux et malade" and I might adopt for mine, " vieux et malade, paralytique et presque aveugie" My wife has been sick all winter, frequently at the point of death, in her own opinion. I have been sick in the beginning of winter and the beginning of spring, and good for nothing all the year round. 1 have lost the ablest friend I had on earth in Mr. Dexter. Is all this complaint ? If I say I have the toothache, the headache, the earache, the colic, the gout, the gravel, the stone, or the rheumatism, is this complaint ? As I have alluded

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to Washington, I may quote Franklin. The aged philosopher alighted from his coach at my door, at Auteuil, on an invitation to dinner. I never saw a more perfect picture of horror, terror, or grief than his countenance. I was shocked with surprise and compassion. He turned to his coachman and said, " You need not come for me. I will walk home " (to Passy, about two miles). He then turned to me and said, " I will never enter the door of a coach again, at least if I cannot find a coachman who has the stone." I believe he kept his word ; but was this complaint?

I see nothing but pride, vanity, affectation, and hypocrisy in these pretended stoical apathies. I have so much sympathy and compassion for human nature, that a man or a woman may grunt and groan, screech and scream, weep, cry, or roar, as much as nature dictates under extreme distress, provided there be no affectation ; for there may be hypocrisy even in these expressions of torture. I have not alluded to the crucifixions of the convulsionnaires of Paris. Pray enlighten my conscience.

Now for the travels on and about the Oneida lake, which I read with more interest than Scott's monument of clannish fable, " The Lady of the Lake." Receiving it without any letter, I concluded it was to be returned to you. Wishing Mr. Johnson might have the pleasure and advantage of reading it, I requested him to return it to you. I no more suspected it to come from Dewitt Clinton than from the prophet of Wabash or the prophet of Oneida, or the up and down philosopher and hero of Elba and St. Helena. Had Mr. Clinton condescended to drop me a line, I should have delivered the manuscript to Mr. Q,uincy, as you intended.

I lament the misfortunes of friend Gyselaer's family, as I do those of my friend Gerry's, and many others of the most vir- tuous and meritorious men I have known. I cannot say I have never seen the seed of honest men begging bread ; but I be- lieve equity as well as goodness will prevail in the universe throughout. This is a fundamental article in the faith of your friend.

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THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, 1 August, 1816.

Your two philosophical letters, of May 4th and 6th, have been too long in my carton of " letters to be answered." To the question, indeed, to the utility of grief, no answer remains to be given. You have exhausted the subject. I see that with the other evils of life it is destined to temper the cup we are to drink.

Two ums by Jove's high throne have ever stood, The source of evil one, and one of good ; From thence the cup of mortal man he fills : Blessing to these, to those distributes ills ; To most he mingles both.

Putting to myself your question, Would I agree to live my seventy-three years over again forever, I hesitate to say. With Chew's limitations, from twenty-five to sixty, I would say yes ; and I might go further back, but not come lower down. For at the latter period, with most of us, the powers of life are sen- sibly on the wane ; sight becomes dim, hearing dull, memory constantly enlarging its frightful blank, and parting with all we have ever seen or known, spirits evaporate, bodily debility creeps on, palsying every limb, and so faculty after faculty quits us, and where, then, is life ? If, in its full vigor, of good as well as evil, your friend Vassall could doubt its value, it must be purely a negative quantity, when its evils alone remain. Yet I do not go into his opinion entirely. I do not agree that an age of pleasure is no compensation for a moment of pain. I think, with you, that life is a fair matter of account, and the balance often, nay generally, in its favor. It is not, indeed, easy, by calculation of intensity and time, to apply a common measure, or to fix the par between pleasure and pain ; yet it exists, and is measurable. On the question, for example, whether to be cut for the stone, the young, with a longer pros- pect of years, think these overbalance the pain of the operation. Dr. Franklin, at the age of eighty, thought his residuum of life not worth that price. I should have thought with him, even taking the stone out of the scale. There is a ripeness of time for death, regarding others as well as ourselves, when it is

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reasonable we should drop off, and make room for another growth. When we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another. I enjoy good health. I am happy in what is around me ; yet I assure you, I am ripe for leaving all, this year, this day, this hour. If it could be doubted, whether we would go back to twenty-five, how can it be, whether we would go forward from seventy-three ? Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect ; but of all human contemplations, the most abhorrent is body without mind. Perhaps, however, I might accept of time to read Grimm before I go. Fifteen volumes of anecdotes and incidents, within the compass of my own time and cognizance, written by a man of genius, of taste, of point, an acquaintance, the measure and traverses of whose mind I knew, could not fail to turn the scale in favor of life during their perjisal. I must write to Ticknor, to add it to my catalogue, and hold on till it comes.

There is a Mr. Vanderkemp, of New York, a correspondent, I believe, of yours, with whom I have exchanged some letters, without knowing who he is. Will you tell me ?

I know nothing of the History of the Jesuits you mention, in four volumes. Is it a good one ? I dislike, with you, their restoration, because it marks a retrograde step from light towards darkness. We shall have our follies without doubt. Some one or more of them will always be afloat, but ours will be the follies of enthusiasm, not of bigotry, not of Jesuitism. Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds ; enthu- siasm, of the free and buoyant. Education and free discus- sion are the antidotes of both. We are destined to be a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism. Old Europe will have to lean on our shoulders, and to hobble along by our side, under the monkish trammels of priests and kings, as she can. What a colossus shall we be, when the southern continent comes up to our mark ! What a stand will it secure as a ralliance for the reason and freedom of the globe ! I Like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. So good night. I will dream on, always fancying that Mrs. Adams and yourself are by my side marking the progress and the obli- quities of ages and countries.

Thomas Jefferson.

224 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 9 August, 1816.

The biography of Mr. Vanderkemp would require a volume, which I could not write if a million were offered me as a reward for this work. After a learned and scientific education, he en- tered the army in Holland, and served as a captain with repu- tation ; but loving books more than arms, he resigned his commission, and became a preacher. My acquaintance with him commenced at Leyden, in 1780. He was then minister of the Mennonist congregation, the richest in Europe, in that city, where he was celebrated as the most elegant writer in the Dutch language. He was the intimate friend of Luzac and De Gyselaer. In 1788, when the king of Prussia threatened Holland with invasion, his party insisted on his taking a com- mand in the army of defence, and he was appointed to the command of the most exposed and most important post in the seven provinces. He was soon surrounded by the Prussian forces ; but he defended his fortress with a prudence, fortitude, patience, and perseverance, which were admired by all Europe, till, abandoned by his nation, destitute of provisions and am- munition, still refusing to surrender, he was offered the most honorable capitulation. He accepted it, was offered very ad- vantageous proposals, but despairing of the liberty of his coun- try, he returned to Antwerp ; determined to emigrate to New York, he wrote to me in London, requesting letters of intro- duction. I sent him letters to Governor Clinton and several V others of our little great men. His history in this country is equally curious and affecting. He left property in Holland, which the revolutions there have annihilated, and I fear is now pinched with poverty. His head is deeply learned, and his heart is pure. I scarcely know a more amiable character. A gentleman here asked my opinion of him. My answer was, " he is a mountain of salt to the earth." He has written to me occasionally, and I have answered his letters in great haste. You may well suppose that such a man has not always been able to understand our American politics. Nor have I. Had he been as great a master of our language as he was of his own, he would at this day have been one of the most conspicuous characters in the United States.

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mch for Vanderkemp. Now for your letter of August [our poet, the Ionian, Y suppose^ ought to have told us,

whether Jove, in the distribution of good and evil from his two urns, observes any rule of equity or not ; whether he thunders out flames of eternal fire on the many, and power, glory, and felicity on the few, without any consideration of justice. Let us state a few questions tsub ros12.r „

1. Would you accept a life, if offered you, of equal pleasure and pain, i.'g{ one million of moments of pleasure and one million of monu nts of pain ? tjOOO,000 pleasure = 1,000,000 paill. Suppose the pleasure as exquisite as any in life, and the pain as exquisite as any, e. g-. stone, gravel, gout, headache, ~ earache, toothache, colic, -&<}> I would not. I would rather

be blotted out.

2. Would you accept a life of one year of incessant gout, ti» headache, &c, for seventy-two years of such life as you have

enjoyed ? I would not.M li_year of cholic = 72 of boule de sa- von. Pretty, but unsubstantial. I would rather be extinguished. You may vary these algebraical equations at pleasure and with- out end. All this ratiocination, calculation, call it what you will, is founded on the supposition of no future state. Promise me eternal life, free from pain, though in all other respects no better than our present terrestrial existence, I know not how many thousand years of Smithfield fires I would not endure to obtain it.ii,xIn fine, without the supposition of a future state, mankind and this globe appear to me the most sublime and beautiful bubble and bauble that imagination can conceive. Let us, then, wish for immortality at all hazards, and trust the ruler with his skies. I do, and earnestly wish for his commands, which, to the utmost of my power, shall be implicitly and piously obeyed. ,—

It is worth while to live to read Grimm, whom I have read. And La Harpe, and Mademoiselle d'Espinasse, the fair friend of d'Alembert, both of whom Grimm characterizes very dis- tinctly, are, I am told, in print. I have not seen them, but hope soon to have them.

My History of the Jesuits is not elegantly written, but is sup- ported by unquestionable authorities, is very particular and very horrible. Their restoration is indeed " a step towards dark- ness," cruelty, perfidy, despotism, death and — ! I wish we

o

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were out of danger of bigotry and Jesuitism. May we be " a barrier against the returns of ignorance and barbarism." What a colossus shall we be ! But will it not be of brass, iron, and clay ? Your taste is judicious in liking better the dreams of the future than the history of the past. Upon this principle I prophesy that you and I shall soon meet better friends than ever. So wishes

J. A.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

—

Quincy, 9 September, 1816.

I thank you for your kind letter of the 5th of this month, which our meritorious friend, Mr. Shaw, put into my hand yesterday. I had before seen the paragraph in the Daily Advertiser. The Baron de Grimm himself, in a subsequent volume, sufficiently explains and confutes the error of the rumor which had been propagated, I know not by whom, in 1782.1 You will find at the end of the first volume of the " Defence of our Constitutions," a postscript and a letter, in French, which will explain, somewhat too cavalierly and vul- garly, the whole matter. If you think it of any importance, however, as soon as the weakness of my eyes and the trem- bling of my hands will permit, I will give you a more decent statement of the facts, and the letter to the Abbe, in our lan- guage, I never saw the Baron till 1785, when I left Paris, never to see it more. He was then only a secret correspondent of the empress of Russia, and some of the sovereigns of Ger- many. He was sopn appointed a public minister, admitted into the diplomatic corps, and consequently became known to Mr. Jefferson. The Baron's great work in fifteen volumes will be read with different views. The lovers of romance, founded on truth, will find it an exquisite entertainment. I need not tell you how the amateurs and connoisseurs of the fine arts, of architecture, painting, sculpture, statuary, music, poetry, elo- quence, &c, and every species of theatrical instruction and

1 That the Abbe <le Mably had been applied to by the United States, f aid to form a code of laws. Baron de Grimm corrected the error in 1784. Vol. v. Appendix, p. 491.

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amusement will be delighted with it. I own to you, I admire it as_the best history of the causes, the rise, and progress of the { French revolution, to 1790, that I have seen.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 30 September, 1816.

The seconds of life that remain to me are so few and so short (and they seem to me shorter and shorter every minute) that I cannot stand upon epistolary etiquette ; and though I have written two letters yet unnoticed, I must write a third, because I am not acquainted with any man on this side Monticello who can give me any information upon subjects that I am now analyzing and investigating, if I may now be permitted to use the pompous words now in fashion.

When I read Dr. Priestley's remarks upon " Dupuis," I felt a curiosity to know more about him. I wrote to Europe, and engaged another to write. I had no idea of more than one or two volumes in octavo or duodecimo ; but lo ! I am overwhelmed with eight or ten volumes, and another of planches !

Sixteen years of research the author acknowledges ; and as he quotes his authorities, I would not undertake to verify them in sixteen years, if I had all his books, which surely are not to be found in America. If you know any thing of this Monsieur Dupuis, or his Origine de tons les Cultes, candidus imperii.

I have read only the first volume. It is learned and curious. The whole work will afford me business, study, and amusement for the winter.

Dr. Priestley pronounced him an atheist, and his work the " ne plus ultra of infidelity." Priestley agrees with him, that the history of the fall of Adam and Eve is an " allegory," a fable, an Arabian tale, and so does Dr. Middleton, to account for the origin of evil, which, however, it does not. Priestley says that the Apocalypse, according to Dupuis, is the most learned work that ever was written.

With these brief flStrissures, Priestley seems to have expected

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to annihilate the influence of Dupuis's labor, as Swift destroyed Blackmore with his

" Undid Creation at a jerk, And of redemption made damned work."

And as he disgraced men as good, at least, as himself by his

» Wicked Will Winston " And

" Good Master Ditton."

But Dupuis is not to be so easily destroyed. The contro- versy between spiritualism and materialism, between spiritual- ists and materialists, will not be settled by scurrilous epigrams of Swift, nor by dogmatical censures of Priestley. You and I have as much authority to settle these disputes as Swift, Priestley, Dupuis, or the Pope ; and if you will agree with me, we will issue our bull, and enjoin it upon all these gentlemen to be silent till they can tell us what matter is, and what spirit is, and in the mean time to observe the commandments, and the sermon on the mount.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 4 November, 1816.

Your letter of October 14th has greatly obliged me. Tracy's Analysis I have read once, and wish to read it a second time. It shall be returned to you ; but I wish to be informed whether this gentleman is one of that family of Tracys with which the Marquis Lafayette is connected by intermarriages.

I have read not only the Analysis, but eight volumes out of twelve of the " Origine de tons les Cultes" and, if life lasts, will read the other four. But, my dear Sir, I have been often obliged to stop and talk to myself, like the reverend, allegorical, hiero- glyphical, and apocalyptical Mr. John Bunyan, and say, " so- brius esto, John, be not carried away by sudden blasts of wind, by unexpected flashes of lightning, nor terrified by the sharpest crashes of thunder."

We have now, it seems, a national Bible Society, to propa-

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229

gate King James's Bible through all nations. Would it not be better to apply these pious subscriptions to purify Christendom from the corruptions of Christianity than to propagate those corruptions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America? Suppose we should project a society to translate Dupuis into all lan- guages, and offer a reward in medals of diamonds to any man or body of men who would produce the best answer to it.

Enthusiasms, crusades, French revolutions, are epidemical or endemical distempers, to which mankind is liable. They are not tertian or juartan agues. Ages and centuries are some- times required to cure them.

It is more worth your while to read Dupuis than Grimm. Of all the romances and true histories I ever read, it is the most entertaining and instructive, though Priestley calls it " dull"

Conclude not from all this that I have renounced the Christ- ian religion, or that I agree with Dupuis in all his sentiments. Far from it. I see in every page something to recommend Christianity in its purity, and something to discredit its corrup- tions. If I had strength, I would give you my opinion of it in a fable of the bees. The ten commandments and the sermon on the mount contain my religion.

I agree perfectly with you that " the moral sense is as much a part of our condition as that of feeling," and in all that you say upon this subject.

My History of the Jesuits is in four volumes in twelves, under the title of " Histoire Generate de la Naissance et des Prog-res de la Compagnie de Jesus, et V Analyse de ses Constitutions et ses Privileges" printed at Amsterdam in 1761. The work is anony- mous, because, as I suppose, the author was afraid, as all the monarchs of Europe were, at that time, of Jesuitical assassina- tion. The author, however, supports his facts by authentic records and known authorities which the public may consult.

This society has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or Napoleon's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed the progress of reformation and the improve- ment of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally.

The situation of England may be learned from the inclosed letter, which I pray you to return to me. Little reason as I have to love the old lady, I cannot but dread that she is going

J

VOL. X.

20

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after France into a revolution, which will end like that of England in 1660, and like that of France in 1816. In all events our country must rise. England cannot.

We have long been afflicted with a report, that your books, and Harvard College books, and John Quincy Adams's Uranolo- gia were lost at sea. But lo ! the Astronomy has arrived in one ship and College books in another. We hope your books are equally safe, but should be glad to know. It seems that father and son have been employed in contemplating the heavens! I should like to sit down with him and compare Dupuis with his TJranologia.

I have been disappointed in the review of Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia. Those cunning Edinburgh men break off at the point of the only subject that excited my curiosity, the ancient and modern religion and government of Persia. I should admire to read an Edinburgh or Quarterly review of Du- puis's twelve volumes. They have reviewed Grimm, who is not of half the importance to mankind. I suspect the reviewers evaded the religion of Persia for fear they should be compelled to compare it with Dupuis.

A scrap of an English paper, in which you are honorably mentioned, and I am not much abused, must close this letter from your friend.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 16 November, 1816.

Your favor of the 11th has conjured up in my imagination so many ghosts, that I am in danger of being frightened as much as the old lady of Endor was at the sight of Samuel.

Many are the years in which I have seriously endeavored to strip from my mind every prejudice, and from my heart every feeling, unfavorable to Mr. Hutchinson. The subject is so familiar to my thoughts that I could draw his character faster than my pen could fly. I feel no animosity against his memory. I could write his life as coolly as that of Alexander or Cassar. But on a deliberate second view of my own portrait of him, I should feel doubts of my own impartiality.

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He was a memorable and an awful example of disappoint- ment in the career of ambition. Cromwell and Napoleon will be more known, but neither was a more distinct example.

You may form some conjecture of my feelings, when I tell you, or, perhaps, I might more properly say, when I remind you, that he seduced from my bosom three of the most intimate friends I ever had in my life, Jonathan Sewall, Samuel Quincy, and Daniel Leonard. Every one of these had been as ardent and explicit a patriot as I was, or ever pretended to be. By means more artful, but as corrupt as any ever employed by Sir Robert Walpole, did that Jesuit seduce three of the most amiable young men from the cause of then- country to their own ruin. He practised all his arts upon me. My constant answer was, " / cannot in conscience." I would give the whole history in detail, but you would say, and the world would say, John Adams is an old Pharisee, thanking God that he is not like other men. I had rather they would say, he is a publican, praying God to be merciful to him, a sinner. But in either case, poor John would be accused as a fanatic or a hypocrite.

I could not write the character of Hutchinson without de- scribing my three friends, Sewall, Quincy, and Leonard, and many others that would harrow up my soul ; among the rest myself, and this would make me blush. If you desire it, how- ever, and will give me your honor they shall not be published, I will give you a few anecdotes, of the probability of which you shall judge from your own recollections.

You say Hutchinson's moral character was good. This must be understood with great exceptions.

You say his judicial character was good. This must be con- strued with great limitations.

You say his private character was good. Of this I know not enough to say any thing.

Of his literary character the world will judge by his writings. They are valuable. He had great advantages from his birth, and hereditary collections of pamphlets and manuscripts, and especially from his family connections with the Mathers, and his neighborhood to Mr. Prince, for writing the history of Massa- chusetts Bay.

There was much affectation, much dissimulation, and, I must add, deep hypocrisy in his character. Though his father

232 CORRESPONDENCE.

had made a fortune by speculations in a depreciating paper currency, he had great merit in abolishing that instrument of injustice in 1750.

But who, my friend, who shall do justice to the characters of James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, who breasted a torrent of persecution from 1760 to 1775, and ever since ?

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 12 December, 1816.

I return the Analysis of Dupuis, with my thanks for the loan of it. It is but a faint miniature of the original. I have read that original in twelve volumes, besides a thirteenth of plates. I have been a lover and a reader of romances all my life, from Don Quixote and Gil Bias to the Scottish Chiefs, and a hun- dred others. For the last year or two I have devoted myself to this kind of study, and have read fifteen volumes of Grimm, seven volumes of Tucker's Neddy Search,1 twelve volumes of Dupuis, and Tracy's Analysis, and four volumes of Jesuitical History ! Romances all ! I have learned nothing of importance to me, for they have made no change in my moral or religious creed, which has, for fifty or sixty years, been contained in four ! short words, " Be just and good." In this result they all agree with me.

I must acknowledge, however, that I have found in Dupuis more ideas that were new to me, than in all the others. My conclusion from all of them is universal toleration. Is there any work extant so well calculated to discredit corruptions and impostures in religion as Dupuis ?

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 18 December, 1816.

Your kind letter of the 13th contains much truth, and nothing but the truth. I may return to it hereafter, but at present, with

1 TI e Light of Nature Pursued, by Edioard Search, the well known work of Abraham Tucker.

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your leave, I will continue a few hints on the judicial character of Chief Justice Hutchinson. I pass over that scenery, which he introduced, so showy and so shallow, so theatrical and so ecclesiastical, of scarlet and sable robes, of broad bands, and enormous tie wigs, more resembling fleeces of painted merino wool than any thing natural to man and that could breathe with him. I pass over, also, the question, whether he or his court had legal authority to establish a distinction be- tween barristers and attorneys. Innovations, though often necessary, are always dangerous.

But to return to writs of assistance. In February term, 1761, the new Chief Justice and his court ordered Chief Justice Sew- all's question to be argued in the council chamber, and that argument produced the American Revolution. Otis demon- strated the illegality, the unconstitutionality, the iniquity and inhumanity of that writ in so clear a manner, that every man appeared to me to go away ready to take arms against it. No harangue of Demosthenes or Cicero ever had such effects upon this globe as that speech. Such was the impression, that the court dared not give judgment in favor of it.1 Curia advisare voluit. After many days, the Chief Justice arose, and, with that gravity and subtilty, that artless design of face, which will never fade in my memory, said, " the Court could not, at pre- sent, see any foundation for the writ of assistance, but thought proper to continue the consideration of it till next term, and, in the mean time, to write to England, and inquire what was the practice and what were the grounds of it there."

The public never was informed, what was the correspondence with England, what was the practice or the grounds of it there. The public never was informed of the judgment of the Court. No judge ever gave his opinion, or discussed the question in public. After six or nine months, we heard enough of custom- house officers breaking houses, cellars, shops, ships, casks, and bales, in search of prohibited and uncustomed goods, by virtue of writs of assistance. Is this the conduct of " a good, judicial character " in a free country, and under a government of laws ? Jeffreys himself was never more Jesuitical nor more arbitrary.

1 Hutchinson himself admits that, " if judgment had then been given, it is uncertain on which side it would have been." History of Massachusetts, vol. iii. p. 94.

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234 CORRESPONDENCE.

In my next, I may give you more proofs of his " good judicial character," in the trial of Michael Corbet and his three mess- mates, for killing Lieutenant Panton, the commander of a press- gang from the Rose frigate.^ When courts of justice dare not speak in open air, nor see the daylight, where is life, liberty, or property ?

Were I writing history, I should not write in this style. I should study a language of more philosophical moderation and dignity. But I now express to you the feelings of my friends and myself at those times, and our opinions too.

TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Quincy, 27 December, 1816.

I do declare that I can write Greek better than you do, though I cannot say, so well as you can if you will. I can make no- thing but pothooks and trammels of the frontispiece of your amiable letter of the 15th. If you had quoted your authority, I might have found it.

Jesus is benevolence personified, an example for all men. Dupuis has made no alteration in my opinions of the Christian religion, in its primitive purity and simplicity, which I have entertained for more than sixty years. It is the religion of reason, equity, and love ; it is the religion of the head and of the heart.

It would be idle for me to write observations upon Dupuis. I must fill thirteen volumes. If I was twenty-five years old, and had the necessary books and leisure, I would write an an- swer to Dupuis ; but when, or where, or how should I get it printed ? Dupuis can be answered, to the honor and advantage of the Christian religion as I understand it. To this end I must study astrology as well as astronomy, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit.

But to leave Dupuis to be answered or reviewed in Edin- burgh or London, I must inquire into the attributes given by

1 This letter is printed in vol. ii. p. 224, note.

CORRESPONDENCE. 235

the ancient nations to their divinities ; gods with stars and new moons in their foreheads or on their shoulders ; gods with heads of dogs, horns of oxen, bulls, cows, calves, rams, sheep, or lambs ; gods with the bodies of horses ; gods with the tails of fishes ; gods with the tails of dragons and serpents ; gods with the feet of goats. The bull of Mithra ; the dog of Anubis ; the serpent of Esculapius ! ! ! !

Is man the most irrational beast of the forest ? Never did bullock, or sheep, or snake imagine himself a god. What, then, can all this wild theory mean ? Can it be any thing but alle- gory founded in astrology ? Your Manilius would inform you as well as Dupuis.

The Hebrew unity of Jehovah, the prohibition of all simili- tudes^ appears to me the greatest wonder of antiquity. How could that nation preserve its creed among the monstrous theo- logies of all the other nations of the earth ? Revelation, you will say, and especial Providence ; and I will not contradict you, for I cannot say with Dupuis that a revelation is impos- sible or improbable.

Christianity, you will say, was a fresh revelation. I will not deny this. As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody reli- gion that ever existed ? How has it happened that all the fine arts, architecture, painting, sculpture, statuary, music, poetry, and oratory, have been prostituted, from the creation of the world, to the sordid and detestable purposes of superstition and fraud ?

The eighteenth century had the honor to discover that Ocel- lus of Lucania, Timseus of Locris, Aristotle, Tacitus, Quinti- lian, and Pliny, were in the right. The philosophy of Frederic, Catharine, Buffon, De la Lande, Diderot, d'Alembert, Condor- cet, d'Holbach, and Dupuis, appears to me to be no more nor less than the philosophy of those ancient men of science and letters, whose speculations came principally from India, Egypt, Chaldea, and Phoenicia. A consolatory discovery, to be sure ! Let it once be revealed or demonstrated that there is no future state, and my advice to every man, woman, and child would be, as our existence would be in our own power, to take opium.

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For, I am certain, there is nothing in this world worth living for but hope, and every hope will fail us, if the last hope, that of a future state, is extinguished.

I know how to sympathize with a wounded leg, having been laid up with one for two or three months, and I have felt the delightful attentions of a daughter. May you have the felicity to celebrate as many more lustres of Madam Vanderkemp as human nature can bear.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 24 January, 1817.

Bernard, Hutchinson, Oliver, the commissioners of the cus- toms, and their satellites, had an espionage as inquisitive as zealous, and as faithful as that in France, before, during, or since the revolution, by which the Tories were better informed of the anecdote which I am about to relate to you, than the Whigs themselves were in general. That the Tory histories may not hereafter misrepresent it without detection, I will now state the facts in writing, that they may remain in your ar- chives and mine, to be used as an antidote to the poison that may hereafter appear.1

The public had been long alarmed with rumors and predic- tions that the king, that is the ministry, would take into their own hands the payment of the salaries of the Judges of the Su- preme Court. The people would not believe it ; the most think- ing men dreaded it. They said, " With an executive authority in a Governor possessed of an absolute negative on all the acts of the legislature, and with Judges dependent only on the Crown for salaries as well as their commissions, what protection have we ? We may as well abolish all limitations, and resign our lives and liberties at once to the will of a prime minister at St. James's." You remember the controversy that General Brattle excited concerning the tenor of the Judges' commissions, and the universal anxiety that then prevailed on this subject. The des-

1 The substance of this letter appears in another form in this work, but as there is an interval of fifteen years in the date of the two compositions, it may be interesting to the curious to compare them. See vol. ii. pp. 328-332.

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patches at length arrived, and expectation was raised to its highest pitch of exultation and triumph on one side, and of grief, terror, degradation, and despondency on the other. The Legislature assembled, and the Governor communicated to the two houses his Majesty's commands.

It happened that I was invited to dine that day with Samuel Winthrop, an excellent character, and a predecessor in the respectable office you now hold in the Supreme Court. Arrived at his house in New Boston, I found it full of counsellors and representatives and clergy. Such a group of melancholy coun- tenances I had rarely, if ever, seen. No conversation, except some insipid observations on the weather, till the great topic of the day was introduced, and at the same time a summons to the feast. All harps upon the willow, we sat down to a triste dinner, which all the delicacies before us could not enliven. A few glasses of good wine, however, in time brought up some spirit, and the conversation assumed a little vigor, but it was the energy of grief, complaint, and despair. All expressed their detestation and horror of the insidious ministerial plot, but all agreed that it was irremediable. There was no means or mode of opposing or resisting it.

Indignation, and despair too, boiled in my breast as ardently as in any of them, though, as the company were so much supe- rior to me in age and station, I had not said any thing ; but Dr. Winthrop, the professor, then of the council, observing my i silence, and perhaps my countenance, said, " Mr. Adams, what is your opinion ? Can you think of any way of escaping this snare ? " My answer was, " No, Sir ; I am as much at a loss as any of the company. I agree with all the gentlemen, that petitions and remonstrances to king or parliament will be in- effectual. Nothing but force will succeed ; but I would try one project before I had recourse to the last reason and fitness of things." The company cried out, almost or quite together, "What project is that? What would you do?" A. "I would impeach the judges." " Impeach the judges ! How ? Where ? Who can impeach them ? " A. " The House of Representatives." " The House of Representatives ! Before whom ? Before the House of Lords in England ? " A. " No, surely. You might as well impeach them before Lord North alone." " Where, then ? " A. " Before the Governor and

238 CORRESPONDENCE.

Council." " Is there any precedent for that ? " A. " If there is not, it is now high time that a precedent should be set." " The Governor and Council will not receive the impeachment." A. " I know that very well, but the record of it will stand upon the journals, be published in pamphlets and newspapers, and perhaps make the judges repent of their salaries, and de- cline them; perhaps make it too troublesome to hold them." " What right had we to impeach anybody ? " A. " Our House of Representatives have the same right to impeach as the House of Commons has in England, and our Governor and Council have the same right and duty to receive and hear impeachments as the King and House of Lords have in Parliament. If the Governor and Council would not do their duty, that would not be the fault of the people ; their representatives ought neverthe- less to do theirs." Some of the company said the idea was so new to them, that they wished I would show them some reasons for my opinion that we had the right. I repeated to them the clause of the charter, which I relied on, the constant practice in England, and the necessity of such a power and practice in every free government.

The company dispersed, and I went home. Dr. Cooper and others were excellent hands to spread a rumor, and before nine o'clock half the town and most of the members of the. General Court had in their heads the idea of an impeachment. The next morning early, Major Hawley, of Northampton, came to my house under great concern, and said he heard that I had yesterday, in a public company, suggested a thought of impeach- ing the judges ; that report had got about and had excited some uneasiness, and he desired to know my meaning. I invited him into my office, opened the charter, and requested him to read the paragraphs that I had marked. I then produced to him that volume of Selden's works which contains his treatise on Judicature and Parliament ; other authorities in law were pro- duced to him, and the State Trials, and a profusion of impeach- ments with which that work abounds. Major Hawley, who was one of the best men in the province, and one of the ablest lawyers and best speakers in the legislature, was struck with surprise. He said, " I know not what to think. This is in a manner all new to me. I must think of it." You, Mr. Tudor, will not wonder at Major Hawley's embarrassment, if you

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recollect that my copy of Seidell's works, of the State Trials and the Statutes at Large, were the only ones in Boston at that time. I think, also, Mr. Tudor, that you must know that I imported from England Selden, State Trials, and Statutes at Large. Now, Sir, will the editor of the North American Review, will the Athenseum Shaw, will the Historical Society, will the Society of Antiquarians, please to investigate this important point? My opinion is that there was not another copy of either of those works in the United States. Let them convict 1/ me of error, if they can.

My strange brother, Robert Treat Paine, came to me with grief and terror in his face and manners. He said he had heard that I talked of an impeachment of the Judges ; that it had excited a great deal of conversation, and that it seemed to pre- vail, and that, according to all appearances, it would be brought forward in the House ; he was very uneasy about it, &c. I knew the man. Instead of entering into particular conversation with him, I took him into my office, and showed him all that I had before shown to Major Hawley, He had not patience to read much, and went away with the same anxious brow. This man had an upright heart, an abundance of wit, and upon the whole a deeper policy than I had. He soon found, however, that the impeachment was popular and would prevail, and prudently acquiesced. Major Hawley, always conscientious, always deliberate, always cautious, had not slept soundly. What were his dreams about impeachment, I know not. But this I know ; he drove away to Cambridge to consult Judge Trowbridge, and appealed to his conscience. The charter was called for ; Selden and the State Trials were quoted. Trow- bridge said to him what I had said before, that " the power of impeachment was essential to a free government ; that the char- ter had given it to our House of Representatives as clearly as the Constitution, in the common law or immemorial usage, had given it to the House of Commons in England." This was all he could say, though he lamented the occasion of it.

Major Hawley returned full in the faith. An impeachment was voted, a committee appointed to prepare articles. But Major Hawley insisted upon it in private with the committee, that they should consult me, and take my advice upon every article before they reported it to the House. Such was the

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state of parties at that moment, that the patriots could carry nothing in the House without the support of Major Hawley. The committee very politely requested me to meet them. To avoid all questions about time and place, I invited them to my house in the evening. They came, and produced a draft of articles, which were examined, considered, and discussed, article by article and paragraph by paragraph. I objected to some, and proposed alterations in others ; sometimes succeeded, and often failed. You know the majority decide upon such occa- sions. The result, upon the whole, was not satisfactory to me in all points, but I was not responsible.

Next day I met Ben Gridley, who accosted me in his pom- pous style, " Brother Adams, you keep late hours ! Last night I saw a host of senators vomit forth from your door after mid- night." Now, brother Tudor, judge you whether this whole transaction was not as well known at head-quarters, and bet- ter too, than in the House of Representatives. This confidence of Major Hawley in me became an object of Jealousy to the patriots. Not only Mr. Paine, but Mr. Adams and Mr. Han- cock could not refrain from expressing, at times, their feeling of it. But they could do nothing without Major Hawley. These little passions, of which even the Apostles could not wholly divest themselves, have in all ages been small causes of great events ; too small, indeed, to be described by historians, or even known to them or suspected by them.

The articles were reported to the House, discussed, accepted ; the impeachment votedj and sent up in form to the Governor and Council; rejected, of course, as everybody knew before- hand that it would be; but it remained on the journals of the House, was printed in the newspapers, and went abroad into the world. And what were the consequences ? Chief Justice Oliver and his Superior Court, your Supreme Judicial Court, commenced their regular circuit. The Chief Justice opened his court as usual. Grand Jurors and Petit Jurors refused to take their oaths. They never, as I believe, could prevail on one Juror to take the oath. I attended at the bar in two coun- ties, and I heard Grand Jurors and Petit Jurors say to Chief Justice Oliver to his face, " The Chief Justice of this Court stands impeached, by the representatives of the people, of high crimes and misdemeanors, and of a conspiracy against the char-

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ter privileges of the people. I therefore cannot serve as a Juror, or take the oath." The cool, calm, sedate intrepidity with which these honest freeholders went through this fiery trial, filled my eyes and my heart.

In one word, the royal government was from that moment laid prostrate in the dust, and has never since revived in sub- stance, though a dark shadow of the hobgoblin haunts me at times to this day.

1/

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 4 February, 1817.

Your worthy son, William, in a kind letter of the 2d, has asked my opinion of " Pownall's Administration of the Colo- nies, and of its author." It is nearly forty years since I read the work, and I cannot read it again ; but I would advise Mr. Tu- dor to read it, and his Memorial to the Sovereigns of Europe, and another to his own Sovereign, and a third to the Sovereigns of the United States of America, not forgetting a small tract concerning the Gulf Stream.

A reader who has patience to search for good sense, in an uncouth and disgusting style, will find in those writings proofs of a thinking mind, and more sagacity than in any thing that remains of his two more celebrated successors, Bernard or Hutchinson.

I am sorry that the name of Pownalborough has been changed to that of Dresden, that of a virtuous and sensible man to that of a scene of frivolity. Pownall was a Whig, a friend of liberty, a lover of his country, and he considered North America a part of his country as much as England, Scotland, or Ireland.

Your son has requested my " opinion of the man as well as of his administration." What an explosion of reminiscences has this question excited in me ! To answer this question, I must draw the character of Chief Justice Pratt, of Colonel and Judge John Tyng, of Hutchinsons and Olivers, as well as Samuel Waterhouse.

There is an overweening fondness for representing this coun- try as a scene of liberty, equality, fraternity, union, harmony,

vol. x.

21

242 CORRESPONDENCE.

and benevolence. But let not your sons or mine deceive them- selves. This country, like all others, has been a theatre of par- ties and feuds for near two hundred years. m Look into all our memorials, histories they cannot be called, Winslow's, Winthrop, Morton the first, Morton the second, Hubbard, Mather, Prince, and even Hutchinson himself, and then judge how sweetly harmonious our ancestors have been. There is one morsel which I beg leave to recommend to the deliberate perusal of your sons and mine. It is my friend Emerson's " History of the First Church." See there elements that have been fermenting, frothing, and foaming ever since.

There was always a court and country party in the province. The town of Boston had been, almost invariably, at the head of the opposition, that is, of the country party. If, at any time, it had coincided with a Governor, it had always been by a small majority against a numerous, powerful, and formidable minority in opposition.

Under Shirley's administration, which had been supported by Hutchinson, Oliver, Otis, Trowbridge, Leonard, Chandler, Stoddard, Choate, &c, there had been a formidable opposition in Boston, that very much embarrassed the government. Pow- nall, when he came into administration, thought there ought to be a good understanding between the capital and country, and a harmony between both and the government. This conciliatory and comprehensive system was too refined and too sublime for human nature in this contentious, warring world. In pur- suance of it, however, he sometimes consulted Pratt and Tyng ; and their advice did not always coincide with that of Hutchin- son and Oliver. These aspiring spirits, who had been the prime ministers and principal agents of Shirley, excepting a constant understanding of Church of England influence that would cost a volume to explain, could not bear the competition of Pratt and Tyng, much less to be overruled and supplanted by them.

Accordingly, they and their adherents blew them up, as many others, before and since, have been blown up, and many others supported, by profligate scribblers. Not a quaint expression in his speeches, writings, or conversations, escaped satire and ridicule. Every thing he said or did was perverted. When Whiggism, under Pitt, declined, and when Toryism, under Bute, revived, Pownall faded, and Bernard flourished.

CORRESPONDENCE. 243

If the plan of subjugating America did not originate in Shir- ley's administration, it was meditated, and matured, and di- gested, and there Hutchinson learned it. Pownall did not favor it, and therefore displeased Hutchinson, and his friends in America, and his patrons in Scotland and England. Pownall was the most constitutional and national Governor, in my opinion, who ever represented the crown in this province. He engaged in no intrigues, he favored no conspiracies against the liberties of America. Hinc Wee lacrimce.

I have been deeply afflicted with a mixture of pity, grief, and indignation, on reading in Dr. Eliot's Biographical Dictionary the slurs on the character of Mr. Pratt. His malignity was hereditary. His father was Hutchinson's parish priest, and his devoted idolater. Pratt was a man, in talents, learning, and integrity, too, far superior to Hutchinson and his priestly dis- ciples.

The most magnanimous vote that ever was passed in North America, was that of a statue to Lord Howe. Pratt exerted all his eloquence, and I never heard eloquence more impressive, except from James Otis, Junior, in support of that vote. Hutch- inson's party put that statue in motion. It marched through the province, and knocked down all before it. Not only De Witt, of Marlborough, who had never before, for twenty years, voted for a grant of money, but Pratt and Tyng, in our noble town of Boston, fell a sacrifice, and with them Pownall' s admi- nistration. It "was an affair of five hundred pounds. I have heard Brigadier Ruggles say, " that statue strided through the streets of Marlborough, and, roaring like a lion, shook down old De Witt." Our nation have this year, according to Mr. Randolph, discarded " their watch-clogs " for a per diem.1

It must be acknowledged, that our good people are steady to one principle, when they think they understand it. They will contend for dollars, sometimes ; but suffer themselves to be pil- laged for ages by old tenor, continental currency, and banks as numerous as the stars, of millions of eagles. I saw Pownall ir public as other people did, during his administration ; but

1 This alludes to an act of Congress, passed at this period, changing the com- pensation of the members from the old mode of payment, according to the days of service, to a fixed annual sum. Almost all those who voted for it lost their seats, and the law was repealed.

244 CORRESPONDENCE.

he never saw me, and, probably, never heard of me. I never met him, and was not even presented at a dinner that he gave to the bar. But in 1783 he made me repeated visits with his lady at Auteuil, near Paris, and dined with us more than once. Near the end of the same year, he visited me again at Stock- dale's in Piccadilly. In 1785, 1786, 1787, he visited me occa- sionally, and I returned his visits, and, at his invitation, went out and dined with him at his seat on Richmond Hill. He was very reserved on all the events of his administration, and on all the characters of his friends and enemies. Though manifestly a disappointed man, he was less dejected and less embittered than most men I have known in such circumstances. The loss of his wife affected him most. I heard him make a candid and conciliatory speech in the Royal Society, on a heated contest, when Horseley displayed a very different spirit. He voluntarily relinquished his seat in parliament, and appeared no more in public affairs.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 29 March, 1817.

Is your daughter, Mrs. Stuart, who I am credibly informed is one of the most accomplished of ladies, a painter ? Are you acquainted with Miss Lydia Smith, who, I am also credibly informed, is one of the most accomplished ladies, and a pain- ter? Do you know Mr. Sargent? Do you correspond with your old companion in arms, Colonel John Trumbull? Do you think Fisher will be an historical painter ?

Whenever you shall find a painter, male or female, I pray you to suggest a scene and a subject for the pencil.

The scene is the Council Chamber in the old Town House in Boston. The date is in the month of February, 1761, nine years before you entered my office in Cole Lane. As this was five years before you entered college, you must have been in the second form of master Lovell's school.

That council chamber was as respectable an apartment as the House of Commons or the House of Lords in Great Bri- tain, in proportion, or that in the State House in Philadelphia,

CORRESPONDENCE. 245

in which the declaration of independence was signed, in 1776. In this chamber, round a great fire, were seated five Judges, with Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson at their head, as Chief Justice, all arrayed in their new, fresh, rich robes of scarlet English broadcloth ; in their large cambric bands, and immense judicial wigs. In this chamber were seated at a long table all the barristers at law of Boston, and of the neighboring county of Middlesex, in gowns, bands, and tie wigs. They were not seated on ivory chairs, but their dress was more solemn and more pompous than that of the Roman Senate, when the Gauls broke in upon them.

In a corner of the room must be placed as a spectator and an auditor, wit, sense, imagination, genius, pathos, reason, pru- dence, eloquence, learning, and immense reading, hanging by the shoulders on two crutches, covered with a great cloth coat, in the person of Mr. Pratt, who had been solicited on both sides, but would engage on neither, being, as Chief Justice of New York, about to leave Boston forever. Two portraits, at more than full length, of King Charles the Second and of King James the Second, in splendid golden frames, were hung up on the most conspicuous sides of the apartment. If my young eyes or old memory have not deceived me, these were as fine pictures as I ever saw; the colors of the royal ermines and long flowing robes were the most glowing, the figures the most noble and graceful, the features the most distinct and characteristic, far superior to those of the King and Queen of France in the Senate chamber of Congress — these were worthy of the pencils of Rubens and Vandyke. There was no painter in England capable of them at that time. They had been sent over without frames in Governor Pownall's time, but he was no admirer of Charles or James. The pictures were stowed away in a garret, among rubbish, till Governor Bernard came, who had them cleaned, superbly framed, and placed in council for the admiration and imitation of all men — no doubt with the advice and concurrence of Hutchinson and all his nebula of stars and satellites.

One circumstance more. Samuel Quincy and John Adams had been admitted barristers at that term. John was the young- est ; he should be painted looking like a short thick archbishop of Canterbury, seated at the table with a pen in his hand, lost

21 *

246 CORRESPONDENCE.

in admiration, now and then minuting those poor notes which your pupil, Judge Minot, has printed in his history,1 with some interpolations. I will copy them from the book, and then point out those interpolations.2

You have now the stage and the scenery ; next follows a narration of the subject. I rather think that we lawyers ought to call it a brief of the cause.

When the British ministry received from General Amherst his despatches, announcing the conquest of Montreal, and the consequent annihilation of the French government in America, in 1759, they immediately conceived the design, and took the resolution, of conquering the English colonies, and subjecting them to the unlimited authority of Parliament. With this view and intention they sent orders and instructions to the collector of the customs in Boston, Mr. Charles Paxton, to apply to the civil authority for writs of assistance, to enable the custom- house officers, tidewaiters, landwaiters, and all, to command all sheriffs and constables, &c., to attend and aid them in breaking open houses, stores, shops, cellars, ships, bales, trunks, chests, casks, packages of all sorts, to search for goods, wares, and merchandises, which had been imported against the prohibi- tions or without paying the taxes imposed by certain acts of Parliament, called the acts of trade ; that is, by certain parlia- mentary statutes, which had been procured to be passed from time to time for a century before, by a combination of selfish intrigues between West India planters and North American royal governors. These acts never had been executed as re- venue laws, and there never had been a time, when they would have been or could have been obeyed as such.

Mr. Paxton, no doubt consulting with Governor Bernard, Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, and all the principal crown officers, thought it not prudent to commence his operations in Boston. For obvious reasons, he instructed his deputy collector in Salem, Mr. Cockle, to apply by petition to the Superior Court, in November, 1760, then sitting in that town, for writs

i Vol. ii. pp. 89-99.

2 The extract is omitted, as the same speech is printed, with the omission of the interpolations, in vol. ii. of this work, Appendix, p. 523. It was not in the letter as first published.

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of assistance. Stephen Sewall was then Chief Justice of that Court, an able man, an uncorrupted American, and a sincere friend of liberty, civil and religious. He expressed great doubts of the legality of such a writ, and of the authority of the Court to grant it. Not one of his brother judges uttered a word in favor of it; but as it was an application on the part of the crown, it must be heard and determined. After consultation, the Court ordered the question to be argued at the next February term in Boston, namely in 1761.

In the mean time Chief Justice Sewall died, and Lieute- nant-Governor Hutchinson was appointed Chief Justice of that Court in his stead. Every observing and thinking man knew that this appointment was made for the direct purpose of deciding this question in favor of the crown, and all others in which it should be interested. An alarm was spread far and wide. Merchants of Salem and Boston applied to Mr. Pratt, who refused, and to Mr. Otis and Mr. Thacher, who accepted, to defend them against the terrible menacing mon- ster, the writ of assistance. Great fees were offered, but Otis, and, I believe, Thacher, would accept of none. " In such a cause," said Otis, " I despise all fees."

I have given you a sketch of the stage, and the scenery, and the brief of the cause, or, if you like the phrase better, the tra- gedy, comedy, or farce.

Now for the actors and performers. Mr. Gridley argued with his characteristic learning, ingenuity, and dignity, and said every thing that could be said in favor of Cockle's peti- tion ; all depending, however, on the " if the Parliament of Great Britain is the sovereign legislature of all the British em- pire." Mr. Thacher followed him on the other side, and argued with the softness of manners, the ingenuity and cool reasoning, which were remarkable in his amiable character.

But Otis was a flame of fire! — with a promptitude of clas- sical allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eye into futurity, and a torrent of impetuous elo- quence, he hurried away every thing before him. American | independence was then and there born ; the seeds of patriots and heroes were then and there sown, to defend the vigorous youth, the non sine Diis animosus infans. Every man of a

248 CORRESPONDENCE.

crowded audience appeared to me to go away, as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the arbi- trary claims of Great Britain. Then and there the child Inde- pendence was born. In fifteen years, namely in 1776, he grew up to manhood, and declared himself free.

The Court adjourned for consideration, and after some days, at the close of the term, Hutchinson, Chief Justice, arose and said, "■ The Court has considered the subject of writs of assist- ance, and can see no foundation for such a writ ; but, as the practice in England is not known, it has been thought best to continue the question until next term, that in the mean time opportunity may be given to write to England for information concerning the subject." In six months the next term arrived, but no judgment was pronounced, no letters from England were produced, and nothing more was ever said in Court con- cerning writs of assistance ; but it was generally reported and understood that the Court clandestinely granted them, and the custom-house officers had them in their pockets, though I never knew that they dared to produce them or execute them in any one instance.

Mr. Otis's popularity was without bounds. In May, 1761, he was elected into the House of Representatives by an almost unanimous vote. On the week of his election, I happened to be at Worcester, attending the Court of Common Pleas, of which Brigadier Ruggles was Chief Justice, when the news arrived from Boston of Mr. Otis's election. You can have no idea of the consternation among the government people. Chief Justice Ruggles, at dinner at Colonel Chandler's on that day,

said, " Out of this election will arise a d d faction, which

will shake this province to its foundation." Ruggles's foresight reached not beyond his nose. That election has shaken two continents, and will shake all four. For ten years Mr. Otis, at the head of his country's cause, conducted the town of Boston, and the people of the province, with a prudence and fortitude, at every sacrifice of personal interest, and amidst unceas- ing persecution, which would have done honor to the most vir- tuous patriot or martyr of antiquity.

The minutes of Mr. Otis's argument are no better a re- presentation of it than the gleam of a glow-worm to the

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meridian blaze of the sun. I fear I shall make you repent bringing out the old gentleman. Ridendo dicere verum quid vetat ?

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 15 April, 1817.

I have received your obliging favor of the 8th, but cannot consent 1o your resolution to ask no more questions. Your questions revive my sluggish memoiy. Since our national legislature have established a national painter, — a wise mea- sure, for which I thank them, — my imagination runs upon the art, and has already painted, I know not how many, historical pictures. I have sent you one ; give me leave to send another. The bloody rencounter between the citizens and the soldiers, on the 5th of March, 1770, produced a tremendous sensation throughout the town and country. The people assembled first at Faneuil Hall, and adjourned to the Old South Church, to the number, as was conjectured, of ten or twelve thousand men, among whom were the most virtuous, substantial, independent, disinterested, and intelligent citizens. They formed themselves into a regular deliberative body, chose their moderator and secretary, entered into discussions, deliberations, and debates, adopted resolutions, appointed committees. What has become of these records, Mr. Tudor ? Where are they ? Their reso- lutions in public were conformable to those of every man in private, who dared to express his thoughts or his feelings, " that the regular soldiers should be banished from the town at all hazards." Jonathan Williams, a very pious, inoffensive, and conscientious gentleman, was their Moderator. A remonstrance to the Governor, or the Governor and Council, was ordained, and a demand that the regular troops should be removed from the town. A committee was appointed to present this remon- strance, of which Samuel Adams was the chairman.

Now for the picture. The theatre and the scenery are the same with those at the discussion of writs of assistance. The same glorious portraits of King Charles II. and King James II., to which might be added, and should be added, little miserable

250 CORRESPONDENCE.

likenesses of Governor Winthrop, Governor Bradstreet, Go- vernor Endicott, and Governor Belcher, hung up in obscure corners of the room. Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson, com- mander-in-chief in the absence of the Governor, must be placed at the head of the council table. Lieutenant- Colonel Dairy mple, commander-in-chief of his Majesty's military forces, taking rank of all his Majesty's counsellors, must be seated by the side of the Lieutenant-Governor and commander-in-chief of the province. Eight-and-twenty counsellors must be painted, all seated at the council board. Let me see — what costume ? What was the fashion of that day, in the month of March ? Large white wigs, English scarlet cloth cloaks, some of them with gold-laced hats, not on their heads, indeed, in so august a presence, but on the table before them, or under the table beneath them. Before these illustrious personages appeared Samuel Adams, a member of the House of Representatives and then clerk, now at the head of the committee of the great assembly at the Old South Church. Thucydides, Livy, or Sallust would make a speech for him, or, perhaps, the Italian Botta, if he had known any thing of this transaction, — one of the most important of the revolution, — but I am wholly incapable of it; and, if I had vanity enough to think myself capable of it, should not dare to attempt it. He represented the state of the town and the country ; the dangerous, ruinous, and fatal effects of standing armies in populous cities in time of peace, and the determined resolution of the public, that the regular troops, at all events should be removed from the town. Lieutenant-Governor Hutch- inson, then commander-in-chief, at the head of a trembling council, said, " he had no authority over the king's troops ; that they had their separate commander and separate orders and instructions, and that he could not interfere with them." Mr. Adams instantly appealed to the charter of the province, by which the Governor, and in his absence the Lieutenant-Go- vernor, was constituted commander-in-chief of all the military and naval power within its jurisdiction. So obviously true and so irrefragable was the reply, that it is astonishing that Mr. Hutchinson should have so grossly betrayed the Constitution, and so atrociously have violated the duties of his office by asserting the contrary. But either the fears or the ambition of this gentleman, upon this and many other occasions, especially

To John Taylor (part 5)

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251

in his controversy with the two houses, three years afterwards, on the supremacy of Parliament, appear to have totally disar- ranged his understanding. He certainly asserted in public, in the most solemn manner, a multitude of the roundest false- hoods, which he must have known to be such, and which he must have known could be easily and would certainly be de- tected, if he had not wholly lost his memory, even of his own public writings. You, Mr. Tudor, knew Mr. Adams from your childhood to his death. In his common appearance he was a plain, simple, decent citizen, of middling stature, dress, and manners. He had an exquisite ear for music, and a charming voice, when he pleased to exert it. Yet his ordinary speeches in town meetings, in the House of Representatives, and in Congress exhibited nothing extraordinary ; but, upon great occasions, when his deeper feelings were excited, he erected himself, or rather nature seemed to erect him, without the smallest symptom of affectation, into an upright dignity of figure and gesture, and gave a harmony to his voice which made a strong impression on spectators and auditors, — the more lasting for the purity, correctness, and nervous elegance of his style.

This was a delicate and a dangerous crisis. The question in the last resort was, whether the town of Boston should become a scene of carnage and desolation, or not ? Humanity to the soldiers conspired with a regard for the safety of the town, in suggesting the wise measure of calling the town together to deliberate. For nothing short of the most solemn promises to the people that the soldiers should, at all hazards, be driven from the town, had preserved its peace. Not only the immense assemblies of the people from day to day, but military arrange- ments from night to night, were necessary to keep the people and the soldiers from getting together by the ears. The life of a red coat would not have been safe in any street or corner of the town. Nor would the lives of the inhabitants have been much more secure. The whole militia of the city was in requi- sition, and military watches and guards were everywhere placed. We were all upon a level ; no man was exempted ; our military officers were our only superiors. I had the honor to be sum- moned, in my turn, and attended at the State House with my musket and bayonet, my broadsword and cartridge-box, under

252 CORRESPONDENCE.

the command of the famous Paddock. I know you will laugh at my military figure ; but I believe there was not a more obe- dient soldier in the regiment, nor one more impartial between the people and the regulars. In this character I was upon duty all night in my turn. No man appeared more anxious or more deeply impressed with a sense of danger on all sides than our commander, Paddock. He called me, common soldier as I was, frequently to his councils. I had a great deal of conver- sation with him, and no man appeared more apprehensive of a fatal calamity to the town or more zealous by every prudent measure to prevent it.

Such was the situation of affairs, when Samuel Adams was reasoning with Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson and Lieute- nant-Colonel Dalrymple. He had fairly driven them from all their outworks, breastworks, and entrenchments, to their cita- del. There they paused and considered and deliberated. The heads of Hutchinson and Dalrymple were laid together in whispers for a long time ; when the whispering ceased, a long and solemn pause ensued, extremely painful to an impatient, expecting audience. Hutchinson, in time, broke silence ; he had consulted with Colonel Dalrymple, and the Colonel had authorized him to say, that he might order one regiment down to the castle, if that would satisfy the people. With a self- recollection, a self-possession, a self-command, a presence of mind that was admired by every man present, Samuel Adams arose with an air of dignity and majesty, of which he was sometimes capable, stretched forth his arm, though even then quivering with palsy, and with an harmonious voice and decisive tone said, " If the Lieutenant-Governor or Colonel Dalrymple, or both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority to remove two, and nothing short of the total evacuation of the town by all the regular troops, will satisfy the public mind or preserve the peace of the province."

These few words thrilled through the veins of every man in the audience, and produced the great result. After a little awkward hesitation, it was agreed that the town should be evacuated, and both regiments sent to the castle.

After all this gravity, it is merry enough to relate that Wil- liam Molineux was obliged to march side by side with the

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commander of some of these troops, to protect them from the indignation of the people, in their progress to the wharf of em- barcation for the castle. Nor is it less amusing that Lord North, as I was repeatedly and credibly informed in England, with his characteristic mixture of good humor and sarcasm, ever after called these troops by the title of " Sam Adams's two regiments."

The painter should seize upon the critical moment, when Samuel Adams stretched out his arm, and made his last speech.

It will be as difficult to do justice as to paint an Apollo ; and the transaction deserves to be painted as much as the sur- render of Burgoyne. Whether any artist will ever attempt it, I know not.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 19 April, 1817.

/ My loving and beloved friend, Pickering, has been pleased to inform the world, that I have " few friends." I wanted to whip the rogue, and I had it in my power, if it had been in my will to do it, till the blood eaine. But all my real friends, as I thought them, with Dexter and Gray at their head, insisted that I should not say a word ; that " nothing that such a per- son could write, would do me the least injury ; " that " it would betray the constitution and the government, if a President, out or in, should enter into a newspaper controversy with one of his ministers, whom he had removed from his office, in justifi- cation of himself for that removal or any thing else." And they talked a great deal about " the dignity " of the office of President, which I do not find that any other persons, public or private, regard very much.

Nevertheless, I fear that Mr. Pickering's information is too true. It is impossible that any man should run such a gauntlet as I have been driven through, and have many friends at last. This " all who know me, know," though I cannot say "who love me, tell." I have, however, either friends, who

von. x. 22

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wish to amuse and solace my old age, or enemies, who mean to heap coals of fire on my head, and kill me with kindness, for they overwhelm me with books from all quarters, enough to obfuscate all eyes, and smother and stifle all human un- derstanding — Chateaubriand, Grimm, Tucker, Dupuis, La Harpe, Sismondi, Eustace, a new translation of Herodotus, by Beloe, with more notes than text. What shall I do with all this lumber ? I make my " woman-kind," as the Anti- quary expresses it, read to me all the English ; but, as they will not read the French, I am obliged to excruciate my eyes to read it myself. And all to what purpose ? I verily believe \J I was as wise and good seventy years ago, as I am now. At that period Lemuel Bryant was my parish priest, and Joseph Cleverly my Latin schoolmaster. Lemuel was a jocular and liberal scholar and divine, Joseph a scholar and a gentleman, but a bigoted Episcopalian of the school of Bishop Saunders and Dr. Hicks ; a downright, conscientious, passive obedience man in church and state. The parson and the pedagogue lived much together, but were eternally disputing about govern- ment and religion. One day, when the schoolmaster had been more than commonly fanatical, and declared, " if he were a monarch, he would have but one religion in his dominions," the parson coolly replied, " Cleverly ! you would be the best man in the world, if you had no religion." Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, " this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there was no religion in it ! ! ! " But in this exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company — I mean hell. So far from believing in the total and universal depravity of human nature, I believe there is no indi- vidual totally depraved. The most abandoned scoundrel that ever existed, never yet wholly extinguished his conscience, and, while conscience remains, there is some religion. Popes, Je- suists, and Sorbonnists, and Inquisitors, have some conscience and some religion. So had Marius and Sylla. Cassar, Catiline, and Antony, and Augustus, had not much more, let Virgil and Horace say what they will. What shall we think of Virgil and Horace, Sallust, Quintilian, Pliny, and even Tacitus ? And even Cicero, Brutus, and Seneca ? Pompey I leave out

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of the question, as a mere politician and a soldier. Every one of these great creatures has left indelible marks of conscience, and, consequently, of religion, though every one of them has left abundant proofs of profligate violations of their conscience, by their little and great passions and paltry interests.

The vast prospect of mankind, which these books have passed in review before me, from the most ancient records, histories, traditions, and fables that remain to us, to the present day, has sickened my very soul, and almost reconciled me to Swift's travels among the Yahoos. Yet I never can be a misanthrope. Homo sum. I must hate myself before I can hate my fellow- men, and that I cannot and will not do. No, I will not hate any of them, base, brutal, and devilish as some of them have been to me. From the bottom of my soul I pity my fellow- men. Fears and terrors appear to have produced a universal credulity. Fears of calamities in life, and punishments after death, seem to have possessed the souls of all men. But fears of pain and death here do not seem to have been so unconquer- able as fears of what is to come hereafter. Priests, hierophants, popes, despots, emperors, kings, princes, nobles, have been as credulous as shoe-blacks, boots, and kitchen-scullions. The former seem to have believed in their divine rights as sincerely as the latter. Auto-da-fes in Spain and Portugal, have been celebrated with as good faith as excommunications have been refused1 in Philadelphia. How it is possible that mankind should submit to be governed as they have been, is to me an inscrutable mystery. How they could bear to be taxed to build the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the pyramids of Egypt, Saint Peter's at Rome, Notre Dame at Paris, St. Paul's in London, with a million et ceteras, when my navy yards and my quasi army made such a popular clamor, I know not. Yet my peccadilloes never excited such a rage as the late compen- sation law ! ! !

I congratulate you on the late election in Connecticut. It is a kind of epocha. Several causes have conspired ; one, which you would not suspect Some one, no doubt instigated by the devil, has taken it into his head to print a new edition of the " Independent Whig," even in Connecticut, and has scattered

1 So in the copy, but evidently an error.

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the volumes through the State. These volumes, it is said, have produced a burst of indignation against priestcraft, bigotry, and intolerance, and, in conjunction with other causes, have pro- duced the late election. When writing to you, I never know when to subscribe

John Adams.

TO JAMES MADISON.

Quincy, 22 April, 1817.

As I can make no apology for so long forgetting to return the volumes inclosed, I must, without qualification, beg your pardon. This work, though it bears the name of Condorcet alone, was understood to be written in concert between him and his great patron, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, as well as the " New Haven," and several other publications in favor of a government in one centre, — genuine disciples of M. Turgot. I was personally treated with great kindness by these three great and good men. But I lamented and deplored, notwithstanding their profound science and learning, what appeared to me their blind infatuation to a chimera. I shuddered at the prospect of what appeared to me inevitable consequences of their theory, of which they made no secret. I wondered the more at this, because the Abbe de Mably was their intimate friend, their social and convivial companion, whose writings were familiar to them.

The truth is, that none of these gentlemen had ever had any experience of a free government. It is equally true, that they had never deliberately thought, or freely spoken, or closely reasoned upon government, as it appears in history, as it is founded in nature, or as it has been represented by philosophers, priests, and politicians, who have written upon the subject. They have picked up scraps, but digested nothing. Condor- cet's Observations on the twenty-ninth book of the Spirit of Laws ; Helvetius, too, in his Letters to Montesquieu, printed in Mr. Jefferson's translation of Tracy ; Condorcet' s Life of Turgot ; his Progress of the Human Mind, and even Necker's Executive Power, appear to me the most pedantical writings that ages have produced. Every one of these writers must be an original

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genius. He must discover something that no man had ever conceived before him. Genius with them is a more privileged order than ever existed among men.

Is not despotism the simplest of all imaginable govern- ments ? Is not oligarchy the next, aristocracy the third, and a simple democracy of twenty-five millions of men the fourth ? All these are simple governments, with a vengeance. Erect a house of a cubic form, one hundred feet square at the base, without any division within into chambers, parlors, cel- lars, or garrets ; would not this be the simplest house that ever was built? But would it be a commodious habitation for a family ? It would accommodate nothing but a kennel of hun- ter's hounds. These gentlemen all affect to be great admirers of nature. But where in nature do they find the models of their adored simplicity ? Is it in the Mynheer Lyonnet dissec- tions and microscopic observations on the willow caterpillar, in which he has found more veins and muscles and fibres than in the human body ? No. The real wisdom, the genuine taste, the correct judgment consists in adapting necessary means to necessary ends. Here too much simplicity cannot be applied. I am not an implicit believer in the inspiration or infallibility of Montesquieu. On the contrary, it must be acknowledged, that some of these philosophers have detected many errors in his writings. But all then: heads consolidated into one mighty head, would not equal the depth of his genius, or the extent of his views. Voltaire, alone, excels or equals him. When a writer on government despises, sneers, or argues against mixed governments, or a balance in government, he instantly proves himself an ideologian. To reason against a balance, because a perfect one cannot be composed or eternally preserved, is just as good sense as to reason against all morality, because no man has been perfectly virtuous. Not only Montesquieu, but the Abbe de Mably, who, some of them said, never wrote any thing but "choses communes en style commun" might have taught them more sense, though he, too, indeed, was not always steady nor correct in his opinions. Scattered here and there, in his_ writings, are correct sentiments. Accidentally his Phocion is on my table. In the second conversation, pages 45 and 46, he says, " Plato censured monarchy, pure aristocracy, and popular govern- ment. The laws are not safe under these administrations, which

22 * Q

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leave too free a career to the passions. He dreaded the power of a prince, sole legislator, sole judge of justice and law. He was terrified, in aristocracy, with the pride and avarice of the grandees, who, believing that every thing is theirs, will sacrifice, without scruple, the interests of society to their private advan- tages. He shuddered, in democracy, at the caprices of a multi- tude, always blind, always extreme in their desires, and who will condemn to-morrow with fury that which they approve to-day with enthusiasm." What is the security against these dangers ? According to Plato, Phocion, and De Mably, " an able mixture of all these governments ; the public power should be divided into different parts, capable of overawing, of balancing, and of reciprocally moderating each other." In the Abbe's own re- marks upon this second conversation, page 204, he says, " all the ancient philosophers thought like Plato, and the most cele- brated statesmen have always wished to establish in their cities a mrxed policy, which, by confirming the empire of the laws over the magistrates, and the empire of magistrates over the citizens, should unite the advantages of the three ordinary go- vernments, and have none of their vices," &c. " To ask which is the best government, monarchy, aristocracy, or democracy, is to ask what greater or lesser evils can be produced, by the pas- sions of a prince, of a senate, or of a multitude. To ask whether a mixed government is better than any other, is to ask whether the passions are as wise, as just, and as moderate as the laws." The accidental discovery of your books in my library, and the name of Condorcet, have drawn my thoughts to a subject, which I had long since endeavored to forget, as wholly desper- ate. I fear, Sir, you will wish that I had feloniously appro- priated your books to my own use, rather than have returned them with so impertinent a letter. I return them with thanks for the loan of them, and with thanks for your long, laborious, able, and successful services to your country.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 1 June, 1817.

That Mr. Hutchinson repented as sincerely as Mr. Hamilton did, I doubt not. I hope the repentance of both has been ac-

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cepted, and their faults pardoned.- And I hope I have repented, do repent, and shall ever repent of mine, and meet them both in another world, where there will need no repentance. Such vicissitudes of fortune command compassion ; I pity even Na- poleon.

You " never profoundly admired Mr. Hancock. He had vanity and caprice." I can say, with truth, that I profoundly admired him, and more profoundly loved him. If he had vanity and caprice, so had I. And if his vanity and caprice made me sometimes sputter, as you know they often did, mine, I well know, had often a similar effect upon him. But these little flickerings of little passions determine nothing concerning essential characters. I knew Mr. Hancock from his cradle to his grave. He was radically generous and benevolent. He was born in this town, half way between this house and our congregational temple, son of a clergyman of this parish, and grandson of a clergyman of Lexington, both of excellent cha- racters. We were at the same school together, as soon as we were out of petticoats. His father died when he was very young. His uncle, the most opulent merchant in Boston, who had no children, adopted him, placed him in Mr. Lovell's school, educated him at Harvard college, and then took him into his store. And what a school was this ! Four large ships con- stantly plying between Boston and London, and other business in proportion. This was in 1755. He became an example to all the young men of the town. Wholly devoted to busi- ness, he was as regular and punctual at his store as the sun in his course. His uncle sent him to London, from "whence, after a residence of about a year, he returned to his store, with the same habits of business, unaltered in manners or deportment, and pursued his employments with the same punctuality and assiduity, till the death of his uncle, who left him his business, his credit, his capital, and his fortune ; who did more — he left him the protector of his widow. This lady, though her hus- band left her a handsome independence, would have sunk into oblivion, like so many other most excellent widows, had not the public attention been fastened upon her by the fame of her nephew. Never was a nephew to an aunt more affectionate, dutiful, or respectful. No alteration appeared in Mr. Hancock, either from his travels in England, or from his accession to the

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fortune of his uncle. The same steady, regular, punctual, in- dustrious, indefatigable man of business ; and, to complete his character with the ladies, always genteelly dressed, according to the fashions of those days.

What shall I say of his fortune, his ships ? His commerce was a great one. Your honored father told me, at that time, that not less than a thousand families were, every day in the year, dependent on Mr. Hancock for their daily bread. Con- sider his real estate in Boston, in the country, in Connecticut, and the rest of New England. Had Mr. Hancock fallen asleep to this day, he would now awake one of the richest men. Had he persevered in business as a private merchant, he might have erected a house of Medicis. Providence, however, did not in- tend or permit, in this instance, such a calamity to mankind. Mr. Hancock was the delight of the eyes of the whole town. There can be no doubt that he might have had his choice, and he had his choice of a companion ; and that choice was very natural, a granddaughter of the great patron and most revered friend of his father. Beauty, politeness, and every domestic virtue justified his predilection.

At the time of this prosperity, I was one day walking in the mall, and, accidentally, met Samuel Adams. In taking a few turns together, we came in full view of Mr. Hancock's house. Mr. Adams, pointing to the stone building, said, " This town has done a wise thing to-day." " What?" " They have made that young man's fortune their own." His prophecy was lite- rally fulfilled; for no man's property was ever more entirely devoted to the public. The town had, that day, chosen Mr. Hancock into the legislature of the province. The quivering anxiety of the public, under the fearful looking for of the ven- geance of king, ministry, and parliament, compelled him to a constant attendance in the House ; his mind was soon en- grossed by public cares, alarms, and terrors ; his business was left to subalterns ; his private affairs neglected, and continued to be so to the end of his life. If his fortune had not been very large, he must have died as poor as Mr. S. Adams or Mr. Gerry.

I am not writing the life of Mr. Hancock ; his biography would fill as many volumes as Marshall's Washington, and be quite as instructive and entertaining. Though I never injured or justly offended him, and though I spent much of my time, and suffered

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unknown anxiety, in defending his property, reputation, and liberty from persecution, I cannot but reflect upon myself for not paying him more respect than I did in his lifetime. His life will, however, not ever be written. But if statues, obelisks, pyramids, or divine honors were ever merited by men, of cities or nations, James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, deserved these from the town of Boston and the United States. Such adulations, however, are monopolized by profligate libel- lers, by cringing flatterers, by unprincipled ambition, by sordid avarice, by griping usurers, by scheming speculators, by plun- dering bankers, by blind enthusiasts, by superstitious bigots, by puppies and butterflies, and by every thing but honor and vir- tue. Hence the universal slavery of the human species. Hence a commentary on the well known and most expressive figure of rhetoric, " It grieved the Almighty, at his heart, that he had made man." Nevertheless, this is a good world, and I thank the Almighty that he has made man.

Mr. Hancock had a delicate constitution. He was very in- firm ; a great part of his life was passed in acute pain. He inherited from his father, though one of the most amiable and beloved of men, a certain sensibility, a keenness of feeling, or, in more familiar language, a peevishness of temper, that some- times disgusted and afflicted his friends. Yet it was asto- nishing with what patience, perseverance, and punctuality he attended to business to the last. Nor were his talents or attainments inconsiderable. They were far superior to many who have been much more celebrated. He had a great deal of political sagacity and penetration into men. He was by no means a contemptible scholar or orator. Compared with , Washington, Lincoln, or Knox, he was learned. So much, fori the present, of Mr. Hancock.

When, in the beginning of this letter, I agreed with you in your opinion of Mr. Hutchinson's repentance, I should have added, he had great reason for repentance. Fled, in his old age, from the detestation of a country, where he had been beloved, esteemed, and admired, and applauded with exaggera- tion — in short, where he had been every thing, from his in- fancy— to a country where he was nothing; pinched by a pen- sion, which, though ample in Boston, would barely keep a house in London ; throwing round his baleful eyes on the exiled com-

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panions of his folly ; hearing daily of the slaughter of his coun- trymen and conflagration of their cities ; abhorred by the greatest men, and soundest part of the nation, and neglected, if not despised, by the rest, hardened as had been my heart against him, I assure you I was melted at the accounts I heard of his condition. Lord Townsend told -me that he put an end to his own life. Though I did not believe this, I know he was ridiculed by the courtiers. They laughed at his manners at the levee, at his perpetual quotation of his brother Foster, searching his pockets for letters to read to the king, and the king turning away from him with his head up, &c. A few words concerning S. Adams in my next.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 5 June, 1817.

You " never profoundly admired Mr. Hancock." I have sug- gested some hints in his favor. You " never profoundly ad- mired Mr. Samuel Adams." I have promised you an apology for him. You may think it a weak one, for I have no talent at panegyric or apology. " There are all sorts of men in the world." This observation, you may say, is self-evident and futile ; yet Mr. Locke thought it not unworthy of him to make it, and, if we reflect upon it, there is more meaning in it than meets the eye at the first blush.

You say, Mr. S. Adams "Jiad too much sternness and pious bigotry." A man in his situation and circumstances must pos- sess a large fund of sternness of stuff, or he will soon be anni- hilated. His piety ought not to be objected to him, or any other man. His bigotry, if he had any, was a fault ; but he certainly had not more than Governor Hutchinson and Secre- tary Oliver, who, I know from personal conversation, were as stanch Trinitarians and Calvinists as he was, and treated all Arians and Arminians with more contempt and scorn than he ever did. Mr. Adams lived and conversed freely with all sec- tarians, in philosophy and divinity. He never imposed his creed on any one, or endeavored to make proselytes to his reli-

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gious opinions. He was as far from sentencing any man to perdition, who differed from him, as Mr. Holley, Dr. Kirkland, or Dr. Freeman. If he was a Calvinist, a Calvinist he had been educated, and so had been all his ancestors for two hundred years. He had been, from his childhood, too much devoted to politics to be a profound student in metaphysics and theology, or to make extensive researches or deep investigations into such subjects. Nor had any other man attempted it, in this nation, in that age, if any one has attempted it since* Mr. Adams was an original — sui generis, sui juris. The variety of human characters is infinite. Nature seems to delight in showing the inexhaustibility of her resources. There never were two men alike, from the first man to the last, any more than two pebbles or two peas.

Mr. Adams was born and tempered a wedge of steel to split the knot of lignum vitcc, which tied North America to Great Britain. Blunderheaded as were the British ministry, they had sagacity enough to discriminate from all others, for inexorable vengeance, the two men most to be dreaded by them, Samuel Adams and John Hancock ; and had not James Otis been then dead, or worse than dead, his name would have been at the head of the triumvirate.

James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock were the

three most essential characters ; and Great Britain knew it,

though America does not. Great and important and excellent characters, aroused and excited by these, arose in Pennsylva- nia, Virginia, New York, South Carolina, and in all the other States ; but these three were the first movers, the most con- stant, steady, persevering springs, agents, and most disinterested sufferers and firmest pillars of the whole Revolution. I shall not attempt even to draw the outlines of the biography of Mr. Samuel Adams. Who can attempt it ?

" Quce ante conditam condendamve urbem, po'cticis mag-is decora fabulis, quam incorruptis rerum gestarum monumentis traduntur, ea " : nee possum refellere. Quia non tempus, nee oculos, nee ma- nus habeo. But, if I had time, eyes, and fingers at my command, where should I find documents and memorials ? Without the

1 Livy finishes the sentence thus, nee affirmare nee refellere, in animo est. The addition in the text is bv the •writer.

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character of Samuel Adams, the true history of the American Revolution can never be written. For fifty years, his pen, his tongue, his activity, were constantly exerted for his country without fee or reward. During that time, he was an almost incessant writer. But where are his writings ? Who can col- lect them ? And, if collected, who will ever read them ? The letters he wrote and received, where are they ? I have seen him, at Mrs. Yard's in Philadelphia, when he was about to leave Congress, cut up with his scissors whole bundles of letters into atoms that could never be reunited, and throw them out of the window, to be scattered by the winds. This was in summer, when he had no fire ; in winter he threw whole handfuls into the fire. As we were on terms of perfect inti- macy, I have joked him, perhaps rudely, upon his anxious cau- tion. His answer was, " Whatever becomes of me, my friends shall never suffer by my negligence." This may be thought a less significant anecdote than another. Mr. Adams left the letters he had received and preserved in possession of his widow. This lady, as was natural, lent them to a confidential friend of her husband, Mr. Avery, who then "was, and had been secretary of the commonwealth under the administration of Mr. Adams and Mr. Hancock. Mr. Avery informed me, that he " had them, and that they were a complete history of the Revolution." I will not say into whose hands they fell, after Mr. Avery's death, and I cannot say where they are now ; but I have heard that a gentleman in Charlestown, Mr. Austin, undertook to write the life of Mr. Adams ; but, finding his papers had been so garbled that the truth could not be discovered, he abandoned his design. Never will those letters, which Secretary Avery possessed, be brought together again ; nor will they ever be found. So much for Mr. Adams, at present. Now for Mr. Otis.

I write no biographies or biographical sketches ; I give only hints. James Otis was descended from our most ancient fami- lies. His education was the best his country afforded. He was bred to the bar under Mr. Gridley, the greatest lawyer and the greatest classic scholar I ever knew at any bar. His appli- cation was incessant and indefatigable. Justice Richard Dana has often told me, that the apartment in which Otis studied, when a pupil and a clerk of Mr. Gridley, was near his house ; that he had watched him from day to day, and that he had

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never known a student in law so punctual, so steady, so con- stant and persevering. Accordingly, as soon as he was admitted to the bar, he became a conspicuous figure. And among whom ? Gridley, Pratt, Trowbridge ; and he was much admired, and as much celebrated as any of them. His generous, manly, noble character, as a private gentleman, his uncommon attainments in literature, especially in the law, and his nervous, com- manding eloquence at the bar, were everywhere spoken of. The government soon discerned his superiority, and commis- sioned him Advocate- General. He married a lady, who, in that day, was esteemed a fortune. From 1755 to 1758, 1 heard my master, Colonel James Putnam, of Worcester, who was a critical judge, and Mr. Trowbridge, the then Attorney-General, and his lady, constantly speaking of Otis as the greatest, the most learned, the most manly, and most honest young man of his age. All this was before I had ever seen Mr. Otis. I never saw him till late in the autumn of 1758, nor Mr. Samuel y/ Adams till after that year.

To sum up in a few words, the two young men, whom I have known to enter the stage of life with the most luminous, unclouded prospects, and the best founded hopes, were James Otis and John Hancock. They were both essential to the Revolution, and both fell sacrifices to it. Mr. Otis, from 1760 to 1770, had correspondences in this province, in New England, in the middle and southern colonies, in England, and in Scot- land. What has become of these letters and answers ?

Mr. Otis, soon after my earliest acquaintance with him, lent me a summary of Greek Prosody of his own collection and composition, a work of profound learning and great labor. I had it six months in my possession, before I returned it. Since my return from Europe, I asked his daughter whether she had found that work among her father's manuscripts. She answered me with a countenance of woe that you may more easily ima- gine than I can describe, that she " had not a line from her father's pen ; that he had spent much time, and taken great pains, to collect together all his letters and other papers, and, in one of his unhappy moments, cojnjnitted them all to the flames." 1 have used her own expressions.

Such has been the fate of the memorials of Mr. James Otis and Mr. Samuel Adams. It was not without reason, then, that

vol. x. 23

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I wrote to Mr. Niles, of Baltimore, that the true history of the American Revolution is lost forever. I could write volumes of other proofs of the same truth, before, during, and since the Revolution. But cui bono ? They would be read by very few, and by very few of those few would be credited, and, by this minimum of a few, would be imputed to the vanity, egotism, ill humor, envy, jealousy, and disappointed ambition of your sincere friend, John Adams ; for the character of this nation is strangely altered.

TO HENRY COLMA.N.

Quincy, 13 June, 1817.

When I have heard you say, and you have repeatedly said it to me, that you were determined to read " The Origin of all Worships," I certainly sympathized with you ; but whether that sympathy had in it more of congratulation or of compas- sion, I cannot say.

When you have once read Dupuis, you will find yourself irresistibly impelled to read Court de Gebelin's Primitive World, and then Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, and then Sir William Jones's works, and then Herodotus, and all the Greek historians, and then over again your Eustace, and Si- mond, and last, not least, Hugh Farmer's four volumes, con- taining all his works, namely, his Temptation and his Worship of Human Spirits, his Miracles, and his Demons. To these you will wish to add Sir John Malcolm's recent History of Persia, and the millions of authorities quoted by all these writers.

And, when you shall have done all this, you will find your- self precisely where you are now, an adorer of the Christian religion in its purity, mourning over the knavery and folly of your species, and, above all, deploring the corruptions and heathenish superstitions and idolatries introduced into the reli- gion of Jesus by his professed disciples and " most holy priests."

Were your life as useless as mine, which, I am confident, it never can be, you might waste your time, as I have done agreeably enough, in these enigmatical amusements. It is

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curions that Gebelin, Bryant, Jones, and Dupuis, and Farmer should have composed their systems without any knowledge of each other. Had they been united in a council, they might have been agreed ; for, it seems to me, that a consistent plan might be extracted from them all, compared together.

That you may be long continued in your benevolent studies and labors, is the prayer of your friend.

TO JAMES MADISON.

Quincy, 17 June, 1817.

Accept my thanks for your favor of last month. The safe arrival of your books has quieted my conscience.

There is nothing within the narrow compass of human know- ledge more interesting than the subject of your letter. If the idea of a government in one centre seems to be everywhere " exploded," perhaps something remains undefined, as danger- ous, as plausible, and pernicious as that idea. Half a million of people in England have petitioned Parliament for annual parliaments and universal suffrage. Parliament is unanimous against them. What is this state of things short of a declara- tion of war between the government and people ? And is not this the picture of all Europe ? Sovereigns, who modestly call themselves legitimate, are conspiring, in holy and unhallowed' leagues, against the progress of human knowledge and human liberty.

War seems on the point of breaking out between govern- ment and people. Were the latter united, the question would be soon decided ; but they are everywhere divided into innu- merable sects, whereas the former are united, and have all the artillery and bayonets in their hands ; and what is most melan- choly of all, an appeal to arms almost always results in an exchange of one military tyranny for another.

The questions concerning universal suffrage, and those con- cerning the necessary limitations of the power of suffrage, are among the most difficult. It is hard to say that every man has not an equal right ; but, admit this equal right and equal

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power, and an immediate revolution would ensue. In all the nations of Europe, the number of persons, who have not a penny, is double those who have a groat ; admit all these to an equality of power, and you would soon see how the groats would be divided. Yet, in a few days, the party of the pennies and the party of the groats would be found to exist again, and a new revolution and a new division must ensue.

If there is anywhere an exception from this reasoning, it is in America; nevertheless, there is in these United States a major- ity of persons, who have no property, over those who have any. I know of nothing more desirable in society than the abolition of all hereditary distinctions. But is not distinction among voters as arbitrary and aristocratical as hereditary distinctions ? You will remember that, between thirty and forty years ago, the Irish patriots asked advice of the Duke of Richmond, Dr. Price, Dr. Jebb, &c. These three great statesmen, divines, and philo- sophers, solemnly advised a universal suffrage. Tracy, in his review of Montesquieu, adopts this principle in its largest ex- tent. A party among mankind, countenanced, at this day, by such numbers and such names, is not to be despised, neglected, nor easily overborne.

There is nothing more irrational, absurd, or ridiculous in the sight of philosophy than the idea of hereditary kings and nobles ; yet all the nations of the earth, civilized, savage, and brutal, have adopted them. "Whence this universal and irresistible propensity ? How shall it be controlled, restrained, corrected, modified, or managed ? A government, a mixed government, may be so organized, I hope, as to preserve the liberty, equality, and fraternity of the people without any hereditary ingredient in its composition. Our nation has attempted it, and, if any people can accomplish it, it must be this ; and may God Al- mighty prosper and bless them !

I have seen the efforts of the people in France, Holland, and England. You have read them in all Europe. We both know the result. What is to come, we know not.

My personal interest in such disquisitions can last but a few hours; but, still, homo sum, and homo I shall be.

May you live to a greater age than mine, and be able to die with brighter prospects for your species than can fall to the lot of your friend.

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TO JOHN M. JACKSON.

Quincy, 30 December, 1817.

In 1774, I became acquainted with McKean, Rodney, and Henry. Those three appeared to me to see more clearly to the end of the business than any others of the whole body. At least, they were more candid and explicit with me than any others. Mr. Henry was in Congress only in 1774, and a small part of 1775. He was called home by his State to take a mili- tary command. McKean and Rodney continued members, and, I believe, I never voted in opposition to them in any one in- stance. When, as it happened, I was appointed to draw the plan of a treaty to be carried to France by Dr. Franklin, and proposed by him, Mr. Deane, and Mr. Lee, to the French court, I carefully avoided every thing that could involve us in any alliance more than a commercial friendship. When this plan was reported to Congress, my own most intimate friends, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee, differed from me in opinion. They thought there was not sufficient temptation to France to join us. They moved for cessions and concessions, which implied warranties and political alliance that I had stu- diously avoided. My principle was perpetual peace, after that war should be concluded, with all powers of Europe, and per- fect neutrality in all their future wars. This principle I was obliged to support against long arguments and able disput- ants, and, fortunately, carried every point ; and, in every point, McKean and Rodney adhered to me, and supported me with inflexible perseverance. And, for four years, I know not that Mr. McKean ever differed from me in a vote. Mr. McKean, however, was not constantly in Congress. He was soon ap- pointed Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, and, afterwards, Chief Justice ; and the duties of those offices, though he was always a member of Congress, often necessarily prevented his attendance in the House. While I was in Europe, nothing passed between Mr. McKean and me, except, now and then, a few lines of introduction for a travelling friend abdfit to cross the Atlantic ; and except that my bookseller, by my advice, sent a quantity of those dull volumes, called "A Defence," to Mr. McKean, who committed them to Mr. Dobson for sale.

23*

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Mr. McKean often expressed to me his entire approbation of the system, and concurrence in all the sentiments in that work.

"When I met Mr. McKean again in person at Philadelphia, which was in 1790, after a separation of eleven years and more, I found him, as well as President Washington and all his family, and all his ministers, both Houses of Congress, the city of Philadelphia, and all mankind, for I know not one exception, glowing with sanguine hopes and confident expectation of a revolution in France that should produce a free, democratical republic, as sister to ours, in the first nation in Europe. I stood alone, would agree with nobody in opinion upon that subject. I could foresee nothing but calamities to France and to the world, and the French constitution of 1789 confirmed all my fears. I saw a disposition everywhere to enter into closer connections with our sister republic, and unite with her in a war against all her enemies. Mr. McKean was arranged with Mr. Mifflin, Mr. Sergeant, Dr. Hutchinson, Mr. Kittenhouse, Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Findlay, Mr. Swan wick, and even my bosom friend, Dr. Rush, in this enthusiasm for the French Revolution, and a closer connection, and an alliance, offensive and defen- sive, with our young sister democratical republic at the head of all Europe.

This appeared to me not only a total departure from our old system, " Friendship with all nations, but entangling alliances with none," as fully understood and determined by Congress ; but a policy which must be ruinous and destructive to our country. From this source arose, I will not say a separation or an alienation between Mr. McKean and me, for we still continued on terms of mutual civility ; but a cessation of that intimacy which had formerly subsisted between us. But it was impossible that either of us should ever forget the other.

I wish I could extend this letter ; but it is impossible. If I regret the infirmities of age, it is not because they announce the rapid approach of the end of my life, but because they dis- able me to associate and correspond with my friends according to their wishes and my own. And this must be my apology for the shortness of this letter.

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TO WILLIAM WIRT.

Quincy, 5 January, 1818.

Your sketches of the life of Mr. Henry have given me a rich entertainment. I will not compare them to the Sybil conduct- ing iEneas to see the ghosts of departed sages and heroes in the region below, but to an angel conveying me to the abodes of the blessed on high, to converse with the spirits of just men made perfect. The names of Henry, Lee, Bland, Pendleton, Washington, Rutledge, Dickinson, Wythe, and many others, will ever thrill through my veins with an agreeable sensation. I am not about to make any critical remarks upon your work, at present. But, Sir,

Eraut heroes ante Agamemnona multi.

-£>"

Or, not to garble Horace,

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona Multi ; seel omnes illacrimabiles Urguentur, ignotique longa Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.

If I could go back to the age of thirty-five, Mr. Wirt, I would endeavor to become your rival ; not in elegance of composition, but in a simple narration of facts, supported by records, histo- ries, and testimonies, of irrefragable authority. I would adopt, in all its modesty, your title, " Sketches of the Life and Writ- ings of James Otis, of Boston," and, in imitation of your ex- ample, I would introduce portraits of a long catalogue of illustrious men, who were agents in the Revolution, in favor of it or against it.

Jeremiah Gridley, the father of the Bar in Boston, and the preceptor of Pratt, Otis, Thacher, Cushing, and many others ; Benjamin Pratt, Chief Justice of New York; Colonel John Tyng, James Otis, of Boston, the hero of the biography ; Ox- enbridge Thacher, Jonathan Sewall, Attorney- General and Judge of Admiralty ; Samuel Quincy, Solicitor- General ; Daniel Leonard, now Chief Justice of Bermuda; Josiah Quincy, the Boston Cicero ; Richard Dana, and Francis Dana, his son, first minister to Russia, and afterwards Chief Justice ; Jonathan Mayhew, D. D., Samuel Cooper, D. D., Charles Chauncy, D. D.,

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James Warren and his wife; Joseph Warren, of Bunker's Hill; John Winthrop, Professor at Harvard College, and a member of council ; Samuel Dexter, the father ; John Worth- ington, of Springfield; Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, and James Lovell, of Boston ; Governors Shirley, Pownall, Bernard, Hutchinson, Hancock, Bowdoin, Adams, Sullivan, and Gerry; Lieutenant-Governor Oliver, Chief Justice Oliver, Judge Ed- mund Trowbridge, Judge William Gushing, and Timothy Ruggles, ought not to be omitted. The military characters, Ward, Lincoln, Warren, Knox, Brooks, Heath, &c, must come in, of course. Nor should Benjamin Kent, Samuel Swift, or John Read, be forgotten.

I envy none of the well-merited glories of Virginia, or any of her sages or heroes. But, Sir, I am jealous, very jealous, of the honor of Massachusetts.

The resistance to the British system for subjugating the colo- nies, began in 1760, and in the month of February, 1761, James Otis electrified the town of Boston, the province of Massachu- setts Bay, and the whole continent, more than Patrick Henry ever did in the whole course of his life. If we must have pane- gyric and hyperbole, I must say, that if Mr. Henry was Demos- thenes and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, Cicero, James Otis was Isaiah and Ezekiel united.

I hope, Sir, that some young gentleman of the ancient and honorable family of the " Searches," will hereafter do impartial justice both to Virginia and Massachusetts.

After all this freedom, I assure you, Sir, it is no flattery, when I congratulate the nation on the acquisition of an Attorney- General of such talents and industry as your " Sketches " de- monstrate.

TO JOHN JAY.

Quincy, 9 January, 1818.

« Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry," by

William Wirt, of Richmond, Virginia, has been sent to me by

Mr. Shaw, of the Athenaeum. My family are reading it to me,

every evening, and though we have not finished it, we have

CORRESPONDENCE. 273

proceeded far enough to excite an earnest desire to know your opinion about it.

There is, in section fourth, page 108, a passage which no man now living but yourself can explain. I hope you have read the volume ; but as it is possible you may not have seen it, the pa- ragraph is this.

"A petition to the king, an address to the people of Great Britain, and a memorial to the people of British America, were agreed to be drawn. Mr. Lee, Mr. Henry, and others were appointed for the first ; Mr. Lee, Mr. Livingston, and Mr. Jay for the two last. The splendor of their debut occasioned Mr. Henry to be designated by his committee to draw the petition to the king, with which they were charged ; and Mr. Lee was charged with the address to the people of England. The last was first reported. On reading it, great disappointment was expressed in every countenance, and a dead silence ensued for some minutes. At length it was laid on the table for perusal and consideration till the next day ; when first one member, and then another, arose, and, paying some faint compliment to the composition, observed, that there were still certain consider- ations not expressed, which should properly find a place in it. The address was, therefore, committed for amendment ; and one prepared by Mr. Jay, and offered by Governor Livingston, was reported and adopted, with scarcely an alteration. These facts are stated by a gentleman, to whom they were communicated by Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Harrison, of the Virginia delegation (except that Mr. Harrison erroneously ascribed the draught to Governor Livingston), and to whom they were afterwards con- firmed by Governor Livingston himself. Mr. Henry's draught of a petition to the king was equally unsuccessful, and was recommitted for amendment. Mr. John Dickinson (the author of the Farmer's Letters) was added to the committee, and a new draught, prepared by him, was adopted."

This passage is not so luminous as many parts of the book ; but, as I understand it, I think it is not correct. There is no man now living who is able perfectly to correct it but yourself, and, in my opinion, it is your conscientious duty to do it.

The question, who was the draughtsman of the address to the people of England, however unimportant to the public it may appear at this day, certainly excited a sensation, a fer-

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mentation, and a schism in Congress, at the time, and serious consequences afterwards, which have lasted to this hour, and are not yet spent. I fear, but I do not know, that this animo- sity was occasioned by indiscretions of R. H. Lee, Mr. Samuel Adams, and some others of the Virginia delegates, by whom Adams was led into error. I never had a doubt that you were the author of that manly and noble address. But, as the sub- ject is now brought before the public by Mr. Wirt, and will excite speculation, you, who alone are capable of it, ought to explain it, and, as I know you will, if at all, without favor or affection.1

TO H. NILES.

Quincy, 14 January, 1818.

In a former letter I hazarded an opinion, that the true history of the American Revolution could not be recovered. I had many reasons for that apprehension, one of which I will attempt to explain.

Of the determination of the British cabinet to assert and maintain the sovereign authority of Parliament over the Colo- nies, in all cases of taxation and internal policy, the first demon- stration which arrived in America was an order in council to the officers of the customs in Massachusetts Bay, to carry into execution the acts of trade, and to apply to the Supreme Judicature of the province for writs of assistance, to authorize them to break and enter all houses, cellars, stores, shops, ships, bales, casks, &c, to search and seize all goods, wares, and merchandises, on which the taxes imposed by those acts had not been paid.

Mr. Cockle, of Salem, a deputy under Mr. Paxton, of Boston, the collector of the customs, petitioned the Superior Court in Salem, in November, 1760, for such a writ. The Court doubted its constitutionality, and consequently its legality ; but as the king's order ought to be considered, they ordered the question

1 Mr. Jay's clear and convincing reply, which set the question at rest forever, is printed in his Life by his son, William Jay, vol. ii. p. 881.

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to be argued before them, by counsel, at the next February- term in Boston.

The community was greatly alarmed. The merchants of Salem and of Boston applied to Mr. Otis to defend them and their country against that formidable instrument of arbitrary power. They tendered him rich fees ; he engaged in their cause, but would accept no fees.

James Otis, of Boston, sprang from families among the ear- liest of the planters of the Colonies, and the most respectable in rank, while the word rank, and the idea annexed to it, were tolerated in America. He was a gentleman of general science and extensive literature. He had been an indefatigable student during the whole course of his education in college and at the bar. He was well versed in Greek and Roman history, philo- sophy, oratory, poetry, and mythology. His classical studies had been unusually ardent, and his acquisitions uncommonly great. He had composed a treatise on Latin prosody, which he lent to me, and I urged him to print. He consented. It is extant, and may speak for itself. It has been lately reviewed in the Anthology by one of our best scholars, at a mature age, and in a respectable station. He had also composed, with equal skill and great labor, a treatise on Greek prosody. This he also lent me, and, by his indulgence, I had it in my posses- sion six months. When I returned it, I begged him to print it. He said there were no Greek types in the country, or, if there were, there was no printer who knew how to use them. He was a passionate admirer of the Greek poets, especially of Homer ; and he said it was in vain to attempt to read the poets in any language, without being master of their prosody. This classic scholar was also a great master of the laws of nature and nations. He had read Pufendorf, Grotius, Bar- beyrac, Burlamaqui, Vattel, Heineccius ; and, in the civil law, Domat, Justinian, and, upon occasions, consulted the Corpus Juris at large. It was a maxim which he inculcated on his pupils, as his patron in profession, Mr. Gridley, had done be- fore him, " that a lawyer ought never to be without a volume of natural or public law, or moral philosophy, on his table or in his pockety In the history, the common law, and statute laws of England, he had no superior, at least in Boston.

Thus qualified to resist the system of usurpation and despot-

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ism, meditated by the British ministry, under the auspices of the Earl of Bute, Mr. Otis resigned his commission from the crown, as Advocate- General, an office very lucrative at that time, and a sure road to the highest favors of government in America, and engaged in the cause of his country without fee or reward. His argument, speech, discourse, oration, harangue — call it by which name you will, was the most impressive upon his crowded audience of any that I ever heard before or since, excepting only many speeches by himself in Faneuil Hall and in the House of Representatives, which he made from time to time for ten years afterwards. There were no stenographers in those days. Speeches were not printed ; and all that was not remembered, like the harangues of Indian orators, was lost in air. Who, at the distance of fifty-seven years, would attempt, upon memory, to give even a sketch of it ? Some of the heads are remembered, out of which Livy or Sallust would not scruple to compose an oration for history. I shall not essay an analysis or a sketch of it at present. I shall only say, and I do say in the most solemn manner, that Mr. Otis's oration against writs of assistance breathed into this nation the breath of life.

Although Mr. Otis had never before interfered in public affairs, his exertions, on this single occasion, secured him a commanding popularity with the friends of their country, and the terror and vengeance of her enemies, neither of which ever deserted him.

At the next election, in May, 1761, he was elected, by a vast majority, a representative in the legislature, of the town of Boston, and continued to be so elected annually for nine years. Here, at the head of the country interest, he conducted her cause with a fortitude, prudence, ability, and perseverance, which has never been exceeded in America, at every sacrifice of health, pleasure, profit, and reputation, and against all the powers of government, and all the talents, learning, wit, scurri- lity, and insolence of its prostitutes.

Hampden was shot in open field of battle. Otis was basely assassinated in a coffee-house, in the night, by a well-dressed banditti, with a commissioner of the customs at their head.

During the period of nine years, that Mr. Otis was at the head of the cause of his country, he held correspondence with gentlemen, in England, Scotland, and various colonies in Ame-

CORRESPONDENCE. 277

rica. He must have written and received many letters, collected many pamphlets, and, probably, composed manuscripts, which might have illustrated the rising dawn of the revolution.

After my return from Europe, I asked his daughter whether she had found among her father's manuscripts a treatise on Greek prosody. With hands and eyes uplifted, in a paroxysm of grief, she cried, " Oh ! Sir, I have not a line from my father's pen. I have not even his name in his own handwriting." When she was a little calmed, I asked her, " Who has his papers ? Where are they ? " She answered, " They are no more. In one of those unhappy dispositions of mind, which distressed him after his great misfortune, and a little before his death, he collected all his papers and pamphlets, and committed them to the flames. He was several days employed in it."

TO WILLIAM WIRT.

Quincy, 23 January, 1818.

I thank you for your kind letter of the 12th of this month. As I esteem the character of Mr. Henry an honor to our coun- try, and your volume a masterly delineation of it, I gave orders to purchase it as soon as I heard of it, but was told it was not to be had in Boston. I have seen it only by great favor on a short loan. A copy from the author would be worth many by purchase. It may be sent to me by the mail.

From a personal acquaintance, perhaps I might say a friend- ship, with Mr. Henry of more than forty years, and from all that I have heard or read of him, I have always considered him as a gentleman of deep reflection, keen sagacity, clear foresight, daring enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted integrity ; with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the honor, and felicity of his country, and his species. All this you justly, as I believe, represent him to have been. There are, however, remarks to be made upon your work, which, if I had the eyes and hands, I would, in the spirit of friendship, attempt. But my hands and eyes and life are but for a moment.

When Congress had finished their business, as they thought,

vol. x. 24

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in the autumn of 1774, I had, with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar -conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction, that our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of wrongs, petitions, remonstrances, and addresses, associations, and non-importation agreements, how- ever they might be expected by the people in America, and however necessary to cement the union of the Colonies, would be but waste paper in England. Mr. Henry said, they might make some impression among the people of England, but agreed with me that they would be totally lost upon the government. I had but just received a short and hasty letter, written to me by Major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, containing " a few broken hints," as he called them, of what he thought was pro- per to be done, and concluding with these words, " after all, we must fg'ht." 1 This letter I read to Mr. Henry, who listened with great attention ; and as soon as I had pronounced the words, " after ail, we must fight," he raised his head, and with an energy and vehemence, that I can never forget, broke out with " By G — d, I am of that man's mind." I put the letter into his hand, and, when he had read it, he returned it to me with an equally solemn asseveration, that he agreed entirely in opinion with the writer. I considered this as a sacred oath, upon a very great occasion, and could have sworn it as religiously as he did, and by no means inconsistent with what you say, in some part of your book, that he never took the sacred name in vain.

As I knew the sentiments with which Mr. Henry left Con- gress, in the autumn of 1774, and knew the chapter and verse from which he had borrowed the sublime expression, " we must fight," I was not at all surprised at your history, in the 122d page, in the note, and in some of the preceding and following pages. Mr. Henry only pursued, in March, 1775, the views and vows of November, 1774.

The other delegates from Virginia returned to their State, in full confidence that all our grievances would be redressed. The last words that Mr. Richard Henry Lee said to me, when we parted, were, " We shall infallibly carry all our points. You will be completely relieved; all the offensive acts will be repealed;

1 This letter is printed in full in the Appendix to vol. ix. of this work.

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the army and fleet will be recalled, and Britain will give up her foolish project"

Washington only was in doubt. He never spoke in public. In private he joined with those who advocated a non-exporta- tion, as well as a non-importation agreement. With both, he thought we should prevail ; without either, he thought it doubt- ful. Henry was clear in one opinion, Richard Henry Lee in an opposite opinion, and Washington doubted between the two. Henry, however, appeared in the end to be exactly in the right.

Oratory, Mr. Wirt, as it consists in expressions of the coun- tenance, graces of attitude and motion, and intonation of voice, although it is altogether superficial and ornamental, will always command admiration ; yet it deserves little veneration. Flashes of wit, corruscations of imagination, and gay pictures, what are they ? Strict truth, rapid reason, and pure integrity are the only essential ingredients in sound oratory. I flatter myself that Demosthenes, by his " action ! action ! action ! " meant to express the same opinion. To speak of American oratory, an- cient or modern, would lead me too far, and beyond my depth.

I must conclude with fresh assurances of the high esteem of your humble servant.

TO BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.

Quincy, 30 January, 1818.

As " the accurate Jefferson " has made the Revolution a game of billiards, I will make it a game of shuttle-cock. Henry might give the first impulse to the ball in Virginia, but Otis's battle- dore had struck the shuttle-cock up in air in Massachusetts, and continued to keep it up for several years before Henry's ball was touched. Jefferson was but a boy at college, of fifteen or sixteen years of age at most, and too intent on his classics and sciences to know, think, or care about any thing in Boston. When Otis first fulminated against British usurpation, I was but twenty-five years and three months old. Jefferson is, at least, nine, I believe teu_years younger than I, and, conse- quently, could not be more than fifteen or sixteen. He knew

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more of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites than he did of what was passing in Boston.

You presume that I " am certain as to the date." You need not take my word. Look into Judge Minot's History of Mas- sachusetts Bay, anno 1761 ; search the records of the Supe- rior Court of Judicature, Court of Assize and General Gaol Delivery, at Salem term, 1760, and Boston term, 1761 ; look up the newspapers of 1761 ; ascertain the time when Chief Justice Stephen Sewall died; call for Dr. Mayhew's printed sermon on his death ; search the date of Chief Justice Thomas Hutchinson's commission as Chief Justice ; ascertain the time when the bench and the bar assumed their scarlet and sable robes, and you will not find much reason to call in question my veracity or memory. If ever human beings had a right to say,

" Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores ; Sic vos, non vobis, mellificatis apes,"

they were James Otis and Samuel Adams ; and to them ought statues to be erected, and not to

John.

TO BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE.

Quincy, 6 February, 1818.

Waterhouse, — You ought to tell me the name of that ani- mal who " faced you down " against dates and Otis ; he must have been an inveterate, indurated old tory, with an iron heart, and a brazen face, or, at least, a son or grandson of such a one, who has inherited all his ancestor's envy, malice, hatred, mor- tified pride, and demoniacal revenge.

" James Otis had no patriotism ! ! ! " Had the adored Hutch- inson patriotism, when he mounted to the head of the supreme judicature, on purpose to sanctify the most odious chain that ever was forged to fetter the hands and feet of a free people, as the writs of assistance would have been, in the hands of an executive power and a supreme, sovereign, unlimited, un- controllable legislative authority, three thousand miles distant ?

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Had any of his idolaters patriotism, when they excited a bloody war of eight years against their country, to enslave it to a foreign sovereignty ?

Would Mr. Otis, because his father had been disappointed of an office, which had been promised him by two successive governors, worth one hundred and twenty pounds sterling, at most, have resigned an office, which he held himself, worth two or three hundred pounds sterling, at least ? If he had no patriotic feelings, his filial affection must have been very strong !

It has been, in all times, the artifice of despotism and super- stition to nip liberty, truth, virtue, and religion, in the bud, by cutting off the heads of all who dared to show a regard to either. But when a process so summary could not be effected, the next trick was to blast the character of every rising genius, who excited their jealousy, by propagating lies and slanders to destroy his influence.

Jews and Pagans imputed the conversion of St. Paul to dis- appointment in love. They said that he courted the daughter of his master, Gamaliel, but the learned Pharisee thought him too mean in person and fortune for a match with the beautiful and accomplished young lady, and forbade his addresses. Re- venge for this affront excited a mortal hatred against all Phari- sees, and Paul became an apostate from Judaism, and a convert to Christianity, from spite. And this calumny has lasted more than seventeen hundred years ; and, I hope, the defamation of Otis will last as long, because it will be an immortal proof of the malice and revenge of the scurrilous, persecuting tyrants, against whom he had to contend.

The Romans, and all of their communion, say that " the Re- formation owed its origin, in Germany, to interest, in England, to love, and in France, to novelty ; that all the kings and princes who favored it, were seduced by the temptation of the confisca- tion of lands, and gold, and diamonds of the churches, monas- teries, and convents."

Is Christianity the less divine, is the Reformation less glo- rious, is the American Revolution less beneficial, for these enve- nomed slanders ?

I must know who that ugly fellow is, whom you quote with so little disapprobation. Do you not abhor him ? If you .had loved James Otis in your youth, as much as I did in mine, and

24 *

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if you had smarted as often as I have, under the hornet stings, the chew-balls, the serpent's teeth, and the poisoned arrows of these old tories, you would hate him with a perfect hatred.

TO H. NILES.

Quincy, 13 February, 1818.

The American Revolution was not a common event. Its effects and consequences have already been awful over a great part of the globe. And when and where are they to cease ?

But what do we mean by the American Revolution ? Do 'we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious senti- ments of their duties and obligations. While the king, and all in authority under him, were believed to govern in justice and mercy, according to the laws and constitution derived to them from the G6d of nature and transmitted to them by their an- cestors, they thought themselves bound to pray for the king and queen and all the royal family, and all in authority under them, as ministers ordained of God for their good ; but when they saw those powers renouncing all the principles of author- ity, and bent upon the destruction of all the securities of their lives, liberties, and properties, they thought it their duty to pray for the continental congress and all the thirteen State congresses, &c.

There might be, and there were others who thought less about religion and conscience, but had certain habitual senti- ments of allegiance and loyalty derived from their education ; but believing allegiance and protection to be reciprocal, when protection was withdrawn, they thought allegiance was dis- solved.

Another alteration was common to all. The people of Ame- rica had been educated in an habitual affection for England, as their mother country ; and while they thought her a kind and tender parent, (erroneously enough, however, for she never was such a mother,) no affection could be more sincere. But when

CORRESPONDENCE. 283

they found her a cruel beldam, willing like Lady Macbeth, to " dash their brains out," it is no wonder if their filial affections ceased, and were changed into indignation and horror.

This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.

By what means this great and important alteration in the religious, moral, political, and social character of the people of thirteen colonies, all distinct, unconnected, and independent of each other, was begun, pursued, and accomplished, it is surely interesting to humanity to investigate, and perpetuate to poste- rity-

To this end, it is greatly to be desired, that young men of letters in all the States, especially in the thirteen original States, would undertake the laborious, but certainly interesting and amusing task, of searching and collecting all the records, pamph- lets, newspapers, and even handbills, which in any way con- tributed to change the temper and views of the people, and compose them into an independent nation.

The colonies had grown up under constitutions of govern- ment so different, there was so great a variety of religions, they were composed of so many different nations, their customs, manners, and habits had so little resemblance, and their inter- course had been so rare, and their knowledge of each other so imperfect, that to unite them in the same principles in theory and the same system of action, was certainly a very difficult enterprise. The complete accomplishment of it, in so short a time and by such simple means, was perhaps a singular example in the history of mankind. _T^hirteen clocks were made to strike together — a perfection of mechanism, which no artist had ever before effected.

In this research, the gloriole of individual gentlemen, and of separate States, is of little consequence. The means and the measures are the proper objects of investigation. These may be of use to posterity, not only in this nation, but in South America and all other countries. They may teach mankind that revolutions are no trifles ; that they ought never to be un- dertaken rashly ; nor without deliberate consideration and sober reflection ; nor without a solid, immutable, eternal foundation of justice and humanity ; nor without a people possessed of intelligence, fortitude, and integrity sufficient to carry them

284 CORRESPONDENCE.

with steadiness, patience, and perseverance, through all the vicissitudes of fortune, the fiery trials and melancholy disasters they may have to encounter.

The town of Boston early instituted an annual oration on the 4th of July, in commemoration of the principles and feelings which contributed to produce the revolution. Many of those orations I have heard, and all that I could obtain, I have read. Much ingenuity and eloquence appears upon every subject, except those principles and feelings. That of my honest and amiable neighbor, Josiah Quincy, appeared to me the most directly to the purpose of the institution. Those principles and feelings ought to be traced back for two hundred years, and sought in the history of the country from the first plantations in America. Nor should the principles and feelings of the English and Scotch towards the colonies, through that whole period, ever be forgotten. The perpetual discordance between British principles and feelings and of those of America, the next year after the suppression of the French power in America, came to a crisis, and produced an explosion.

It was not until after the annihilation of the French dominion in America that any British ministry had dared to gratify their own wishes, and the desire of the nation, by projecting a for- mal plan for raising a national revenue from America, by par- liamentary taxation. The first great manifestation of this design was by the order to carry into strict executions those acts of parliament, which were well known by the appellation of the acts of trade, which had lain a dead letter, unexecuted for half a century, and some of them, I believe, for nearly a whole one.

This produced, in 1760 and 1761, an awakening and a revival of American principles and feelings, with an enthusiasm which went on increasing till, in 1775, it burst out in open violence, hostility, and fury.

The characters the most conspicuous, the most ardent and influential in this revival, from 1760 to 1766, were, first and foremost, before all and above all, James Otis ; next to him was Oxenbridge Thacher; next to him, Samuel Adams; next to him, John Hancock ; then Dr. Mayhew ; then Dr. Cooper and his brother. Of Mr. Hancock's life, character, generous nature, great and disinterested sacrifices, and important services, if I

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had forces, I should be glad to write a volume. But this, I hope, will be done by some younger and abler hand. Mr. Thacher, because his name and merits are less known, must not be wholly omitted. This gentleman was an eminent barrister at law, in as large practice as any one in Boston. There was not a citizen of that town more universally beloved for his learning, ingenuity, every domestic and social virtue, and con- scientious conduct in every relation of life. • His patriotism was as ardent as his progenitors had been ancient and illustrious in this country. Hutchinson often said, " Thacher was not born a plebeian, but he was determined to die one." In May, 1763, I believe, he was chosen by the town of Boston one of their representatives in the legislature, a colleague with Mr. Otis, who had been a member from May, 1761, and he continued to be reelected annually till his death in 1765, when Mr. Samuel Adams was elected to fill his place, in the absence of Mr. Otis, then attending the Congress at New York. Thacher had long been jealous of the unbounded ambition of Mr. Hutchinson, but when he found him not content with the office of Lieute- nant-Governor, the command of the castle and its emoluments, of Judge of Probate for the county of Suffolk, a seat in his Majesty's Council in the Legislature, his brother-in-law Secretary of State by the king's commission, a brother of that Secretary of State, a Judge of the Supreme Court and a member of Coun- cil, now in 1760 and 1761, soliciting and accepting the office of Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Judicature, he con- cluded, as Mr. Otis did, and as every other enlightened friend of his country did, that he sought that office with the deter- mined purpose of determining all causes in favor of the ministry at St. James's, and their servile parliament.

His indignation against him henceforward, to 1765, when he died, knew no bounds but truth. I speak from personal know- ledge. For, from 1758 to 1765, I attended every superior and ' inferior court in Boston, and recollect not one, in which he did not invite me home to spend evenings with him, when he made me converse with him as well as I could, on all subjects of reli- gion, morals, law, politics, history, philosophy, belles lettres, theology, mythology, cosmogony, metaphysics, — Locke, Clark, Leibnitz, Bolingbroke, Berkeley, — the preestablished harmony of the universe, the nature of matter and of spirit, and the

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eternal establishment of coincidences between their operations ; fate, foreknowledge absolute ; and we reasoned on such un- fathomable subjects as high as Milton's gentry in pandemo- nium ; and we understood them as well as they did, and no better. To such mighty mysteries he added the news of the day, and the tittle-tattle of the town. But his favorite subject was politics, and the impending, threatening system of parlia- mentary taxation and universal government over the colonies. On this subject he was so anxious and agitated that I have no doubt it occasioned his premature death. From the time when he argued the question of writs of assistance to his death, he considered the king, ministry, parliament, and nation of Great Britain as determined to new-model the colonies from the foun- dation, to annul all their charters, to constitute them all royal governments, to raise a revenue in America by parliamentary taxation, to apply that revenue to pay the salaries of governors, judges, and all other crown officers ; and, after all this, to raise as large a revenue as they pleased, to be applied to national purposes at the exchequer in England ; and further, to establish bishops and the whole system of the Church of England, tithes and all, throughout all British America. This system, he said, if it was suffered to prevail, would extinguish the flame of liberty all over the world ; that America would be employed as an engine to batter down all the miserable remains of liberty in Great Britain and Ireland, where only any semblance of it was left in the world. To this system he considered Hutchinson, the Olivers, and all their connections, dependents, adherents, shoelickers, &c, entirely devoted. He asserted that they were all engaged with all the crown officers in America and the understrappers of the ministry in England, in a deep and trea- sonable conspiracy to betray the liberties of their country, for their own private, personal, and family aggrandizement. His philippics against the unprincipled ambition and avarice of all of them, but especially of Hutchinson, were unbridled; not only in private, confidential conversations, but in all companies and on all occasions. He gave Hutchinson the sobriquet of " Summa Potestatis," and rarely mentioned him but by the name of " Summa." His liberties of speech were no secrets to his enemies. I have sometimes wondered that they did not throw him over the bar, as they did soon afterwards Major

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Hawley. For they hated him worse than they did James Otis or Samuel Adams, and they feared him more, because they had no revenge for a father's disappointment of a seat on the superior bench to impute to him, as they did to Otis ; and Thacher's character through life had been so modest, decent, unassuming ; his morals so pure, and his religion so venerated, that they dared not attack him. In his office were educated to the bar two eminent characters, the late Judge Lowell and Josiah Quincy, aptly called the Boston Cicero. Mr. Thacher's frame was slender, his constitution delicate ; whether his physi- cians overstrained his vessels with mercury, when he had the smallpox by inoculation at the castle, or whether he was over- plied by public anxieties and exertions, the smallpox left him in a decline from which he never recovered. Not long before his death he sent for me to commit to my care some of his business at the bar. I asked him whether he had seen the Virginia resolves : " Oh yes — they are men ! they are noble spirits ! It kills me to think of the lethargy and stupidity that prevails here. I long to be out. I will go out. I will go out. I will go into court, and make a speech, which shall be read after my death, as my dying testimony against this infernal tyranny which they are bringing upon us." Seeing the violent agitation into which it threw him, I changed the subject as soon as possible, and retired. He had been confined for some time. Had he been abroad among the people, he would not have complained so pathetically of the " lethargy and stupidity that prevailed ; " for town and country were all alive, and in August became active enough ; and some of the people pro- ceeded to unwarrantable excesses, which were more lamented by the patriots than by their enemies. Mr. Thacher soon died, deeply lamented by all the friends of their country.

Another gentleman, who had great influence in the com- mencement of the Revolution, was Doctor Jonathan Mayhew, a descendant of the ancient governor of Martha's Vineyard. This divine had raised a great reputation both in Europe and America, by the publication of a volume of seven sermons in the reign of King George the Second, 1749, and by many other writings, particularly a sermon in 1750, on the 30th of January, on the 'subject of passive obedience and non-resistance, in which the saintship and martyrdom of King Charles the First are con-

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sidered, seasoned with wit and satire superior to any in Swift or Franklin. It was read by everybody ; celebrated by friends, and abused by enemies. During the reigns of King George the First and King George the Second, the reigns of the Stuarts, the two Jameses and the two Charleses were in general dis- grace in England. In America they had always been held in abhorrence. The persecutions and cruelties suffered by their ancestors under those reigns, had been transmitted by history and tradition, and Mayhew seemed to be raised up to revive all their animosities against tyranny, in church and state, and at the same time to destroy their bigotry, fanaticism, and incon- sistency. David Hume's plausible, elegant, fascinating, and fallacious apology, in which he varnished over the crimes of the Stuarts, had not then appeared. To draw the character of Mayhew, would be to transcribe a dozen volumes. This trans- cendent genius threw all the weight of his great fame into the scale of his country in 1761, and maintained it there with zeal and ardor till his death, in 1766. In 1763 appeared the con- troversy between him and Mr. Apthorp, Mr. Caner, Dr. Johnson, and Archbishop Seeker, on the charter and conduct of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. To form a judgment of this debate, I beg leave to refer to a review of the whole, printed at the time and written by Samuel Adams, though by some, very absurdly and erroneously, ascribed to Mr. Apthorp. If I am not mistaken, it will be found a model of candor, sagacity, impartiality, and close, correct reasoning.

If any gentleman supposes this controversy to be nothing to the present purpose, he is grossly mistaken. It spread an uni- versal alarm against the authority of Parliament. It excited a general and just apprehension, that bishops, and dioceses, and churches, and priests, and tithes, were to be imposed on us by Parliament. It was known that neither king, nor ministry, nor archbishops, could appoint bishops in America, without an act of Parliament;- and if Parliament could tax us, they could establish the Church of England, with all its creeds, articles, tests, ceremonies, and tithes, and prohibit all other churches, as conventicles and schism shops.

Nor must Mr. Cushing be forgotten. His good sense and sound judgment, the urbanity of his manners, his universal good character, his numerous friends and connections, and his

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continual intercourse with all sorts of people, added to his con- stant attachment to the liberties of his country, gave him a great and salutary influence from the beginning in 1760.

Let me recommend these hints to the consideration of Mr. Wirt, whose Life of Mr. Henry I have read with great delight. I think that, after mature investigation, he will be convinced that Mr. Henry did not " give the first impulse to the ball of independence," and that Otis, Thacher, Samuel Adams, May- hew, Hancock, Gushing, and thousands of others, were laboring for several years at the wheel before the name of Henry was heard beyond the limits of Virginia.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 25 February, 1818.

As Mr. Wirt has filled my head with James Otis, and as I am well informed, that the honorable Mr. Benjamin Austin, alias Honestus, alias Old South,1 &c, roundly asserts, that Mr. Otis had no patriotism, and that " he acted only from revenge of his father's disappointment of a seat on the Superior Bench," I will tell you a story which may make you laugh, if it should not happen to melt you into tears.

Otis belonged to a club, who met on evenings, of which club William Molineux, whose character you know very well, was a member. Molineux had a petition before the legislature, which did not succeed to his wishes, and he became, for several eve- nings, sour, and wearied the company with his complaints of services, losses, sacrifices, &c, and said, " That a man who has behaved as I have, should be treated as I am, is intolerable," &c. Otis had said nothing, but the company were disgusted and out of patience, when Otis rose from his seat, and said, " Come, come, Will, quit this subject, and let us enjoy ourselves. I

1 Benjamin Austin was a voluminous writer under these signatures, in the Boston Chronicle, in the early part of the present century, and an active leader of the republican side in politics. He was known during the rest of his life as Honestus, or rather Hony Austin.

VOL. X. 25 " S

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also have a list of grievances; will you hear it?" The club ex- pected some fun, and all cried out, "Aye ! aye ! let us hear your list."

" Well, then, Will ; in the first place I resigned the office of Advocate- General, which I held from the crown, which pro- duced me — how much do you think?" "A great deal, no doubt," said Molineux. " Shall we say two hundred ster- ling a year?" "Aye, more, I believe," said Molineux. " Well, let it be two hundred ; that for ten years is two thousand. In the next place, I have been obliged to relinquish the greatest part of my business at the bar. Will you set that at two hundred more ? " " Oh ! I believe it much more than that." " Well, let it be two hundred. This, for ten years, makes two thousand. You allow, then, I have lost four thousand pounds sterling." "Aye, and more too," said Molineux.

To John Taylor (part 6)

" In the next place, I have lost a hundred friends, among whom were the men of the first rank, fortune, and power in the province. At what price will you estimate them ? " " Damn them," said Molineux, " at nothing. You are better without them than with them." A loud laugh. " Be it so," said Otis. " In the next place, I have made a thousand enemies, amongst whom are the government of the province and the nation. What do you think of this item ? " " That is as it may happen," said Molineux.

" In the next place, you know I love pleasure. But I have renounced all amusement for ten years. What is that worth to a man of pleasure ? " " No great matter," said Molineux, " you have made politics your amusement." A hearty laugh. " In the next place, I have ruined as fine health and as good a constitution of body as nature ever gave to man." " That is melancholy indeed," said Molineux. " There is nothing to be said upon that point."

" Once more," said Otis, holding his head down before Moli- neux, " Look upon this head ! " (where was a scar in which a man might bury his finger.) " What do /ou think of this ? And what is worse, my friends think I have a monstrous crack in my skull." This made all the company very grave, and look very solemn. But Otis, setting up a laugh, and with a gay countenance, said to Molineux, " Now, Willy, my advice to you is, to say no more about your grievances ; for you and

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I had better put up our accounts of profit and loss in our pockets, and say no more about them, lest the world should laugh at us."

This whimsical dialogue put all the company, and Molineux himself, into good humor, and they passed the rest of the eve- ning in joyous conviviality.

It is provoking, it is astonishing, and it is mortifying, and it is humiliating, to see how calumny sticks, and is trans- mitted from age to age. Mr. Austin is one of the last men I should have expected to have swallowed that execrable lie, that Otis had no patriotism. The father was refused an office worth twelve hundred pounds old tenor, or about one hundred and twenty pounds sterling ; and the refusal was no loss, for his practice at the bar was worth much more, for Colonel Otis was a lawyer in profitable practice, and his seat in the legisla- ture gave him more power and more honor ; for this refusal the son resigned an office which he held from the crown, worth twice the sum. The son must have been a most dutiful and affectionate child to the father ; or rather, the most enthusias- tically and frenzically affectionate.

I have been young, and now am old, and I solemnly say, I have never known a man whose love of his country was more ardent or sincere ; never one, who suffered so much ; never one, whose services for any ten years of his life were so important and essential to the cause of his country, as those of Mr. Otis from 1760 to 1770.

The truth is, he was an honest man, and a thorough taught lawyer. He was called upon in his official capacity as Advo- cate-General by the custom-house officers, to argue their cause in favor of writs of assistance. These writs he knew to be illegal, unconstitutional, destructive of the liberties of his coun- try, a base instrument of arbitrary power, and intended as an entering wedge to introduce unlimited taxation and legislation by authority of Parliament. He therefore scorned to prostitute his honor and his conscience, by becoming a tool. And he scorned to hold an office which could compel him or tempt him to be one. He therefore resigned it. He foresaw, as every other enlightened man foresaw, a tremendous storm coming upon his country, and determin^l to run all risks, and share the fate of the ship, after exerting all his energies to save her,

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if possible. At the solicitation of Boston and Salem, he ac- cordingly embarked, and accepted the command. To attribute to such a character sinister or trivial motives, is ridiculous.

You and Mr. Wirt have " brought the old man out," and, I fear, he will never be driven in again till he falls into the grave.

TO WILLIAM WIRT.

Quincy, 7 March, 1818.

Be pleased to accept my cordial thanks for the present of an elegant copy of your Sketches of Mr. Henry. I know not whether I shall ever have time to make you any other return than thanks ; but, as I see you wish to investigate the sources of the American Revolution, if you will give me leave, I will give you such hints as my memory affords, to assist you.

In 1764 was published, in Boston, a pretty little pamphlet, " The Sentiments of a British American," the motto of which ought to have warned Great Britain to desist from her tyran- nical system of taxation.

Asellum in prato tiroidus pascebat senex. Is, hostium clamore subito territus, Suadebat asino fugere, ne possent capi. At ille lentus : quseso, num binas mihi Clitellas impositurum victorem putas ? Senex negavit. Ergo quid refert mea Cui serviam ? clitellas dum porteni meas !

Phcedrus.

Considering "An Act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America," of the 4 G. III., he says ; " The first objection is, that a tax is laid on several commodi- ties, to be raised and levied in the plantations, and to be remit- ted home to England. This is esteemed as a grievance, inas- much as they are laid without the consent of the representatives of the colonists. It is esteemed an essential British right, that no person shall be subject to Miy tax, but what, in person or by his representative, he has a voice in laying."

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I am indebted to you, Sir, for the reperusal of this pretty little thing. I had never seen it for fifty-four years, and should never have seen it again ; but your book has excited me, having no copy of it, to borrow it as a great favor for a short time. It was written by Oxenbridge Thacher, a barrister at law in Bos- ton. There is so much resemblance between this pamphlet and Mr. Jay's address to the people of England, written ten years afterwards, that, as Johnson said of his Rasselas and Vol- taire's Candide, one might be suspected to have given birth to the other.

In 1764 was published, in Boston, " The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved," by James Otis, Esq. This work was read in the House of Representatives of Massa- chusetts, in manuscript, in 1764, and, though not ordered by them to be published, it was printed with their knowledge. In it these propositions are asserted as fundamental.

" 1. That the supreme and subordinate powers of legislation should be free and sacred in the hands where the community have once rightfully placed them.

2. The supreme, national legislative cannot be altered justly till the commonwealth is dissolved, nor a subordinate legislative taken away without forfeiture or other good cause. Nor then can the subjects in the subordinate government be reduced to a state of slavery, and subject to the despotic rule of others.

3. No legislative, supreme or subordinate, has a right to make itself arbitrary.

4. The supreme legislative cannot justly assume a power of ruling by extempore arbitrary decrees, but is bound to dispense justice by known, settled rules, and by duly authorized, inde- pendent judges.

5. The supreme power cannot take from, any man any part of his property, without his consent in person, or by re- presentation.

6. The legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands.

These are their bounds which, by God and nature, are fixed ; hitherto have they a right to come, and no further.

1. To govern by stated laws.

2. Those laws should have mo other end ultimately but the good of the people.

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3. Taxes are not to be laid on the people, but by their consent in person, or by deputation.

4. Their whole power is not transferable.

These are the first principles of law and justice, and the great barriers of a free State, and of the British Constitution in particular. I ask, I want no more ! "

This work, which in 1764 was as familiar to me as my alpha- bet, I had not seen for fifty-four years, and should never have seen it again, if your Sketches, for which I again thank you, had not aroused me. With some pains, and as a great favor, I have obtained the loan of it for a short time. In page 73 is an elaborate and learned demonstration, that all acts of Parlia- ment, laying taxes on the Colonies, without their consent, are void.

In an appendix to this work is a copy of instructions, given by the city of Boston at their annual meeting, in May, 1764, to their representatives, Royal Tyler, James Otis, Thomas Cush- ing, and Oxenbridge Thacher, Esqrs. These instructions were drawn by Samuel Adams, who was one of those appointed by the town for that purpose. These instructions are a sample of that simplicity, purity, and harmony of style, which distin- guished all the productions of Mr. Adams's pen. I wish I could transcribe the whole ; but the paragraph most directly to the present purpose is the following.

" But what still heightens our apprehensions is, that these unexpected proceedings may be preparatory to new taxations upon us. For, if our trade may be taxed, why not our lands ? Why not the produce of our lands, and every thing we possess or make use of? This, we apprehend, annihilates our charter right to govern and tax ourselves. It strikes at our British privileges, which, as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our fellow-subjects, who are natives of Britain. If taxes are laid upon us in any shape, without our having a legal representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the character of free subjects to the miserable state of tributary slaves ? "

This whole work was published more than a year before Mr. Henry's resolutions were moved. Excuse the trouble I give you, and believe, &c.

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TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 11 March, 1818.

Your pupil, Mr. Minot, was a young gentleman of excellent character, pure, spotless in morals and manners, loving truth above all things. Agreed. But can you accuse me of preju- dice or malignity, when I perceive a tang of the old cask of toryism in his History ? He studies, he labors for impartiality ; but does he always hit it ?

In page 142, of his second volume, he says, " There was a pause in the opposition to the measures of the Crown and Par- liament!" "A pause," indeed, there was! & hiatus valde de- flendus ! I never could account for it, and I cannot, to this day, account for it, to my own entire satisfaction. There was an appearance of coalition between Otis and Hutchinson, which had wellnigh destroyed Otis's popularity and influence forever. The rage against him in the town of Boston seemed to be without bounds. He was called a reprobate, an apostate, and a traitor, in every street in Boston. I have heard sober, substantial, independent householders lament, with tears in their eyes, the fall of Otis, and declare that they never had so high an opinion of any man before, and they never would have so much confidence in any man again. The indignation of all his political friends against him was universal. His colleague, Mr. Thacher, was, in private, as explicit as anybody in con- demning him. If I may, without or with vanity, mention myself in such company, I must acknowledge that I was stag- gered and inflamed. I said, " What ! is a controversy between two quarters of the globe become a dispute between two petty names of office and seat on the bench of Common Pleas at Barnstable, on the other ? " 1 A meeting of the bar was called, upon some critical point connected with politics.2 Otis did not

1 The copies made of these late letters are often exceedingly defective. There is obviously an omission of some words in the first part of this sentence, which makes the whole of it unintelligible.

2 As the dates exactly coincide, it seems not unlikely that this is the same bar- meeting described in the Diary, vol. ii. p. 142. But that was not connected with politics. The indignation excited against Mr. Otis, who was present and opposed the bar rules there agreed upon, may have been much increased by his vacillation in politics. It was violent enough, at all events. Thacher shared in it largely.

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appear. Though several messages were sent for him, he would not come. I suspected him of skulking, and was so provoked that I rashly said, and publicly to all the bar, young as I was, " Otis is a mastiff that will bark and roar like a lion one hour, and the next, if a sop is thrown in his way, will creep like a spaniel." Horresco referens I I shall never forgive myself for this wild sally. Thacher beckoned me to come to him. He whispered in my ear, "Adams, you are too warm." Happy would it have been for me, if I had always had so faithful a monitor! But I then suspected and believed that Otis was corrupted and bought off, and expected that Otis and Hutchin- son would in future go hand in hand, in support of ministerial measures and parliamentary taxation, and that all the ministe- rial people would, at the next election, use all their influence to secure his reelection into the legislature. And this was the general opinion. But, when the election drew near, it was found that all this was an artful stratagem to turn Otis out. The old calumnies were revived, that Otis's sole motive had been vengeance for his father's disappointed ambition ; and, but a few days before the election, appeared an envenomed song,1 in which Otis was abused more virulently than the elder Pitt was, on his acceptance of a pension and a peerage. This con- vinced the people that Otis had not committed the unpardon- able sin against them, and he was again elected, though by a small majority. I heard him afterwards, in the House, attempt a vindication of himself, but it was not to my entire satisfac- tion. He represented the clamor that had been raised against him ; said that he had thought himself ruined ; but he added, " the song of the drunkard saved me." Samuel Waterhouse, an old scribbler for Hutchinson against Pownall, was supposed to be the author of the song, and Samuel Waterhouse was reported to be intemperate.

Mr. Otis cannot be exculpated from the charge of wavering in his opinions. In his " Rights of the Colonies Asserted and Proved," though a noble monument to his fame, and an im- portant document in the early history of the Revolution, there are, nevertheless, concessions in favor of authority in Parlia- ment inconsistent with the ground he had taken, three years

' Jemmybullero.

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before, in his argument against the sugar act, the molasses act, and writs of assistance, and with many of his ardent speeches in the legislature, in the year 1761 and 1762. Otis had ploughed, harrowed, and manured a rich, strong soil, and sown the best seeds ; but, as the worthy farmers in my neighborhood express themselves, " there was a slack after planting." A light cloud passed over the province, which diminished its lustre ; but not over the town of Boston, for that still glowed with light and heat. Who could account for this phenomenon? Otis, the son, had no conceivable object. Colonel Otis, the father, was the undisputed head of the bar in the three counties of Barnstable, Plymouth, and Bristol, besides occasional- engage- ments in other counties. His profits must have been much greater than the pitiful emoluments of the office to which he was appointed. Besides, he was supposed to be rich, and he was rich for those times. Certainly, he was rich in connections, in popularity, in power, and in property.

But the strange, unaccountable election of Hutchinson to the agency was an astonishment and a cruel mortification to all the inflexibies. It was committing the tender kid to the cus- tody and guardianship of the hungry lion. There was little confidence in any of the agents, De Berdt, Mauduit, or Jackson. They could know nothing with certainty of London characters, but it is certain they had better have appointed Will Molineux or Dr. Young than Hutchinson. The legislature was, indeed, to be pitied. They knew not whom to trust.

To account for Hutchinson's election to the agency, look to your pupil's second volume, pages 144, 145, 146, &c.

In page 146, Hutchinson is employed " in draughting instruc- tions to Mr. Mauduit, against the several acts of Parliament so detrimental to the trade and fishery of the province." But your pupil does not inform us who were united with Hutchinson in draughting these instructions. He ought to have given us the instructions, word for word. No historian ought to be trusted in abridging state papers so critical as this. The only con- struction I can put upon this whole transaction is, and was, that Hutchinson was intriguing with all his subtilty and simu- lation, to get himself elected agent ; that he assumed so much the appearance of an angel of light as to deceive the very elect. There are moments when the firmest minds tremble, and the

)

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clearest understandings are clouded. Who would believe that Catharine de Medici could deceive the Admiral Coligni, the profoundest statesman, the honestest man in Europe, to his own destruction, and that of the Protestant religion in France ?

In the Boston Gazette of the 4th of April, 1763, Mr. Otis published a vindication of himself, with his name. Where can you find a more manly morsel ? Charles Paxton, the essence of customs, taxation, and revenue, appears to have been Go- vernor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary, and Chief Justice. A more deliberate, cool, studied, corrupt appointment never was made than that of Hutchinson to be Chief Justice. It was done for- the direct purpose of enslaving this whole continent, and, consequently, Britain and man ; and, if Otis did say he would set the province in a flame, it was one of the sublimest expressions that ever was uttered, and he ought to have a statue of adamant erected in honor of it. But, I believe, he only said, " Hutchinson's appointment will set the province in a flame." But I care not a farthing for the difference ; in either case it was a glorious prophecy, equal to any in Daniel, and as perfectly fulfilled.

It never was pretended that Otis voted for Hutchinson to be agent, and it soon appeared that he was no traitor. He again appeared the life and soul of the Revolution, and continued such to his assassination. Hutchinson was soon excused from his agency.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 5 April, 1818.

In Mr. Wirt's elegant and eloquent panegyric on Mr. Henry, I beg your attention to page 56 along to page 67, the end of the second section, where you will read a curious specimen of the agonies of patriotism in the early stages of the Revolution. " When Mr. Henry could carry his resolutions but by one vote, and that against the influence of Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Wythe, and all the old members, whose influence in the House had till then been unbroken ; and when Peyton Randolph, after-

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wards President of Congress, swore a round oath, he would have given five hundred guineas for a single vote ; for one vote would have divided the House, and Robinson was in the chair, who he knew would have negatived the resolution."

And you will also see the confused manner in which they were first recorded, and how they have since been garbled in history. My remarks, at present, will be confined to the anec- dote in page 65. '"Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George the Third ' — ' Treason,' cried the speaker, — 'Treason, treason,' echoed from every part of the House. Henry finished his sentence by the words, ' may profit by their example.' If this be treason, make the most of it."

In Judge Minot's History of Massachusetts Bay, volume second, in pages 122 and 123, you will find another agony of patriotism. In 1762, three years before Mr. Henry's, Mr. Otis suffered one of equal severity in the House of Representatives of Massachusetts. Judge Minot's account of it is this.

" The remonstrance offered to the Governor was attended with aggravating circumstances. It was passed after a very warm speech by a member in the House ; and at first con- tained the following offensive observation :

' For it would be of little consequence to the people whether they were subject to George or Louis, the King of Great Bri- tain or the French King, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if both could levy taxes without Parliament.' "

Though Judge Minot does not say it, the warm speech was from the tongue, and the offensive observation from the pen of James Otis. When these words of the remonstrance were first read in the House, Timothy Paine, Esq., a member from Wor- cester, in his zeal for royalty, though a very worthy and very amiable man, cried out, " Treason ! Treason ! " The House, however, were not intimidated, but voted the remonstrance, with all the treason contained in it, by a large majority ; and it was presented to the Governor by a committee, of which Mr. Otis was a member.

Judge Minot proceeds, " The Governor was so displeased at this passage, that he sent a letter to the speaker, returning the message of the House, in which, he said, the King's name, dig- nity, and cause were so improperly treated, that he was obliged to desire the speaker to recommend earnestly to the House, that

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it might not be entered upon the minutes in the terms in which it then stood. For, if it should, he was satisfied they would again and again wish that some parts of it were expunged ; espe- cially if it should appear, as he doubted not it would, when he entered upon his vindication, that there was not the least ground for the insinuation, under color of which that sacred and well-beloved name was so disrespectfully brought into question.

Upon the reading of this letter, the exceptionable clause was struck out of the message."

I have now before me a pamphlet, printed in 1762, by Edes & Gill, in Queen street, Boston, entitled "A Vindication of the Conduct of the House of Representatives of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, more particularly in the last Session of the General Assembly, by James Otis, Esq., a member of said House," with this motto : —

" Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor, Who dare to love their country and be poor ; "

" Or good, tho' rich, humane and wise, tho' great; Jove give but these, we 've nought to fear from fate."

I wish I could transcribe the whole of this pamphlet, because it is a document of importance in the early history of the Revo- lution, which ought never to be forgotten. It shows, in a strong light, the heaves and throes of the burning mountain, three years, at least, before the explosion of the volcano in

Massachusetts or Virginia.

Had Judge Minot ever seen this pamphlet, could he have given so superficial an account of this year, 1762 ? There was more than one " warm speech " made in that session of the legislature. Mr. Otis himself made many. A dark cloud hung over the whole continent; but it was peculiarly black and threatening over Massachusetts and the town of Boston, against which devoted city the first thunderbolts of parliamentary omni- potence were intended and expected to be darted. Mr. Otis, from his first appearance in the House in 1761, had shown such a vast superiority of talents, information, and energy to every other member of the House, that in 1762 he took the lead, as it were, of course. He opened the session with a speech, a sketch of which he has given us himself. It depends upon no man's memory. It is warm ; it is true. But it is

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warm only with loyalty to his king, love to his country, and exultations in her exertions in the national cause.

This pamphlet ought to be reprinted and deposited in the cabinet of the curious. The preface is a frank, candid, and manly page, explaining the motive of the publication, namely, the clamors against the House for their proceedings, in which he truly says : " The world ever has been, and will be pretty equally divided between those two great parties, vulgarly called the winners and the losers; or, to speak more precisely, be- tween those who are discontented that they have no power, and those who never think they can have enough. Now, it is absolutely impossible to please both sides either by temporizing, trimming, or retreating ; the two former justly incur the cen- sure of a wicked heart, the latter, that of cowardice ; and fairly and manfully fighting the battle out, is in the opinion of many worse than either."

On the 8th of September, A. D. 1762, the war still continu- ing in North America and the "West Indies, Governor Bernard made his speech to both Houses, and presented a requisition of Sir Jeffery Amherst, that the Massachusetts troops should be continued in pay during the winter.

Mr. Otis made a speech, the outlines of which he has recorded in this pamphlet, urging a compliance with the Governor's recommendation and General Amherst's requisition ; and con- cluding with a motion for a committee to consider of both.

A committee was appointed, of which Mr. Otis was one, and reported not only a continuance of the troops already in service, but an addition of nine hundred men, with an augmented bounty to encourage their enlistment.

If the orators on the 4th of July really wish to investigate the principles and feelings which produced the Revolution, they ought to study this pamphlet, and Dr. Mayhew's sermon on pas- sive obedience and non-resistance, and all the documents of those days. The celebrations of independence have departed from the object of their institution as much as the Society for the Pro- pagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts have from their charter. The institution had better be wholly abolished than continued an engine of the politics and feelings of the day, instead of a memorial of the principles and feelings of the Revolution half a century ago — I might have said for two centuries before.

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This pamphlet of Mr. Otis exhibits the interesting spectacle of a great man glowing with loyalty to his sovereign, proud of his connection with the British empire, rejoicing in its prosper- ity, its triumphs, and its glory, exulting in the unexampled efforts of his own native province to promote them all ; but at the same time grieving and complaining at the ungenerous treatment that province had received from its beginning from the mother country, and shuddering under the prospect of still greater ingratitude and cruelty from the same source. Hear a few of his words, and read all the rest.

" Mr. Speaker, — This province has upon all occasions been distinguished by its loyalty and readiness to contribute its most strenuous efforts for his Majesty's service. I hope this spirit will ever remain as an indelible characteristic of this people," &c. &c. " Our own immediate interest, therefore, as well as the general cause of our king and country, requires that we should contribute the last penny and the last drop of blood, rather than by any backwardness of ours his Majesty's measures should be embarrassed, and thereby any of the enterprises that may be planned for the regular troops miscarry. Some of these con- siderations, I presume, induced the Assembly upon his Majes- ty's requisition, signified last spring by Lord Egremont, so cheer- fully and unanimously to raise thirty-three hundred men for the present campaign ; and upon another requisition, signified by Sir Jeffery Amherst, to give a handsome bounty for enlisting about nine hundred more into the regular service. The colo- nies, we know, have often been blamed without cause ; and we have had some share of it. Witness the miscarriage of the pre- tended expedition against Canada, in Queen Anne's time, just before the infamous treaty of Utrecht. It is well known, by some now living in this metropolis, that every article, that was to be provided here, was in such readiness, that the officers, both of the army and navy, expressed their utmost surprise at it upon their arrival. To some of them, no doubt, it was a dis- appointment ; for in order to shift the blame of this shameful affair from themselves, they endeavored to lay it upon the New England colonies. I am therefore clearly for raising the men," &c. &c.

" This province has, since the year 1754, levied for his Ma- jesty's service, as soldiers and seamen, near thirty thousand men,

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besides what have been otherwise employed. One year, in particular, it was said that every fifth man was engaged in one shape or another. We have raised sums for the support of this wrar, that the last generation could hardly have formed any idea of. We are now deeply in debt," &c. &c.

On the 14th of September, the House received a message from the Governor, containing a somewhat awkward confession of certain expenditures of public money with advice of council, which had not been appropriated by the House. He had fitted out the Massachusetts sloop-of-war, increased her establishment of men, &c. Five years before, perhaps, this irregularity might have been connived at or pardoned ; but since the debate con- cerning writs of assistance, and since it was known that the acts of trade were to be enforced, and a revenue collected by authority of Parliament, Mr. Otis's maxim, that " taxation with- out representation was tyranny," and that " expenditures of public money, without appropriations by the representatives of the people, were unconstitutional, arbitrary, and therefore tyrannical," had become popular proverbs. They were com- monplace observations in the streets. It was impossible that Otis should not take fire upon this message of the Governor. He accordingly did take fire, and made that flaming speech, which Judge Minot calls a " a warm speech," without informing us who made it or what it contained. I wish Mr. Otis had given us this warm speech, as he has the comparatively cool one, at the opening of the session. But this is lost forever. It concluded, however, with a motion for a committee to consider the Governor's message and report. The committee was ap- pointed, and Otis was the first after the speaker.

The committee reported the following answer and remon- strance, every syllable of which is Otis.

" May it please your Excellency, —

" The House have duly attended to your Excellency's mes- sage of the eleventh instant relating to the Massachusetts sloop, and are humbly of opinion that there is not the least necessity for keeping up her present complement of men, and, therefore, desire that your Excellency would be pleased to reduce them to six, the old establishment made for said sloop by the General Court. Justice to ourselves and to our constituents obliges us io remonstrate against the method of making or increasing establishments by the Governor and Council.

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" It is, in effect, taking from the House their most darling privilege, the right of originating all taxes.

" It is, in short, annihilating one branch of legislation. And when once the representatives of the people give up this privi- lege, the government will very soon become arbitrary.

" No necessity, therefore, can be sufficient to justify a House of Representatives in giving up such a privilege ; for it would be of little consequence to the people, whether they were subject to George or Louis, the King of Great Britain or the French King, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if both could levy taxes without parliament.

" Had this been the first instance of the kind, we might not have troubled your Excellency about it; but lest the matter should go into precedent, we earnestly beseech your Excellency, as you regard the peace and welfare of the province, that no measures of this nature be taken for the future, let the advice of the Council be what it may."

This remonstrance being read, was accepted by a large ma- jority, and sent up and presented to his Excellency by a com- mittee, of whom Mr. Otis was one.

" The same day the above remonstrance was delivered, the town was alarmed with a report, that the House had sent a message to his Excellency, reflecting upon his Majesty's person and government, and highly derogatory from his crown and dignity, and therein desired that his Excellency would in no case take the advice of his Majesty's Council."

The Governor's letter to the Speaker is as Judge Minot repre- sents it. Upon reading it, the same person who had before cried out, " treason ! treason ! " when he first read the offensive words, now cried out, " rase them ! rase them ! " They were accordingly expunged.

" In the course of the debate, a new and surprising doctrine was advanced. We have seen the times when the majority of a council, by their words and actions, have seemed to think themselves obliged to comply with every thing proposed by the chair, and to have no rule of conduct but a Governor's will and pleasure. But now for the first time it was asserted that the Governor, in all cases, was obliged to act according to the advice of the council, and consequently would be deemed to have no judgment of his own."

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In page 17, Mr. Otis enters on his apology, excuse, or justi- fication of the offensive words, which, as it is as facetious as it is edifying, I will transcribe at length in his own words, namely :

" In order to excuse, if not altogether justify the offensive passage, and clear it from ambiguity, I beg leave to premise two or three data. 1. God made all men naturally equal. 2. The ideas of earthly superiority, preeminence, and grandeur, are educational, at least acquired, not innate. 3. Kings were, and plantation governors should be, made for the good of the people, and not the people for them. 4. No government has a right to make hobby-horses, asses, and slaves of the subject; nature having made sufficient of the two former for all the lawful purposes of man, from the harmless peasant in the field to the most refined politician in the cabinet ; but none of the last, which infallibly proves they are unnecessary. 5. Though most governments are de facto arbitrary, and, consequently, the curse and scandal of human nature, yet none are de jure arbitrary. 6. The British constitution of government, as now established in his Majesty's person and family, is the wisest and best in the world. 7. The King of Great Britain is the best as well as most glorious monarch upon the globe, and his subjects the happiest in the universe. 8. It is most humbly presumed, the King would have all his plantation governors follow his royal example, in a wise and strict adherence to the principles of the British constitution, by which, in conjunction with his other royal virtues, he is enabled to reign in the hearts of a brave and generous, a free and loyal people. 9. This is the summit, the ne plus ultra of human glory and felicity. 10. The French King is a despotic, arbitrary prince, and, consequently, his subjects are very miserable.

"Let us now take a more careful review of this passage which by some out of doors has been represented as seditious, rebellious, and traitorous. I hope none, however, will be so wanting to the interests of their country, as to represent the matter in this light on the east side of the Atlantic, though recent instances of such a conduct might be quoted, wherein the province has, after its most strenuous efforts during this and other wars, been painted in all the odious colors that avarice, malice, and the worst passions could suggest.

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" The House assert, that ' it would be of little consequence to the people, whether they were subject to George or Louis, the King of Great Britain or the French King, if both were arbi- trary ; as both would be, if both could levy taxes without Par- liament.' Or, in the same words transposed, without the least alteration of the sense, ' it would be of little consequence to the people, whether they were subject to George, the King of Great Britain, or Louis, the French King, if both were arbitrary, as both would be, if both could levy taxes without Parliament.'

" The first question that would occur to a philosopher, if any question could be made about it, would be, whether the posi- tion were true. But truth being of little importance with most modern politicians, we shall touch lightly upon that topic, and proceed to inquiries of a more interesting nature.

" That arbitrary government implies the worst of temporary evils, or, at least, the continual danger of them, is certain. That a man would be pretty equally subjected to these evils, under every arbitrary government, is clear. That I should die very soon after my head should be cut off, whether by a sabre or a broadsword, whether chopped off to gratify a tyrant, by the Christian name of Tom, Dick, or Harry, is evident. That the name of the tyrant would be of no more avail to save my life than the name of the executioner, needs no proof. It is, there- fore, manifestly of no importance what a prince's Christian name is, if he be arbitrary, any more, indeed, than if he were not arbitrary. So the whole amount of this dangerous proposition may, at least in one view, be reduced to this, namely : It is of little importance what a king's Christian name is. It is, indeed, of importance, that a king, a governor, and all other good Christians, should have a Christian name, but whether Edward, Francis, or William, is of none, that I can discern. It being a rule to put the most mild and favorable construction upon words that they can possibly bear, it will follow that this pro- position is a very harmless one, that cannot by any means tend to prejudice his Majesty's person, crown, dignity, or cause, all which I deem equally sacred with his Excellency.

" If this proposition will bear a hundred different construc- tions, they must all be admitted before any that imports any bad meaning, much more a treasonable one.

" It is conceived, the House intended nothing disrespectful to

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his Majesty, his government, or governor, in those words. It would be very injurious to insinuate this of a House, that upon all occasions has distinguished itself by a truly loyal spirit, and which spirit possesses at least nine hundred and ninety-nine in a thousand of their constituents throughout the province. One good-natured construction, at least, seems to be implied in the assertion, and that pretty strongly, namely, that in the present situation of Great Britain and France ; it is of vast importance to be a Briton rather than a Frenchman, as the French King is an arbitrary, despotic prince, but the King of Great Britain is not so de jure, de facto, nor by inclination. A greater difference on this side the grave cannot be found than that which subsists between British subjects and the slaves of tyranny.

" Perhaps it may be objected, that there is some difference even between arbitrary princes in this respect, at least, that some are more rigorous than otners. It is granted; but, then, let it be remembered, that the life of man is a vapor that soon vanisheth away, and we know not who may come after him, a wise man or a fool; though the chances before and since Solomon have ever been in favor of the latter. Therefore, it is said, of little consequence. Had it been no instead of little, the clause, upon the most rigid stricture, might have been found barely exceptionable.

" Some fine gentlemen have charged the expression as inde- licate. This is a capital impeachment in politics, and therefore demands our most serious attention. The idea of delicacy, in the creed of some politicians, implies, that an inferior should, at the peril of all that is near and dear to him, that is, his interest, avoid every the least trifle that can offend his superior. Does my superior want my estate? I must give it him, and that with a good grace ; which is appearing, and, if possible, being really obliged to him, that he will condescend to take it. The reason is evident ; it might give him some little pain or uneasi- ness to see me whimpering, much more openly complaining, at the loss of a little glittering dirt. I must, according to this system, not only endeavor to acquire myself, but impress upon all around me, a reverence and passive obedience to the senti- ments of my superior, little short of adoration. Is the superior in contemplation a king ? I must consider him as God's vice- gerent, clothed with unlimited power, his will the supreme law,

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and not accountable for his actions, let them be what they may, to any tribunal upon earth. Is the superior a plantation go- vernor? He must be viewed, not only as the most excellent representation of majesty, but as a viceroy in his department, and quoad provincial administration, to all intents and purposes, vested with all the prerogatives that were ever exercised by the most absolute prince in Great Britain.

" The votaries of this sect are all monopolizers of offices, peculators, informers, and generally the seekers of all- kinds. It is better, say they, to give up any thing and every thing quietly, than contend with a superior who, by his prerogative, can do, and, as the vulgar express it, right or wrong, will have whatever he pleases. For you must know, that, according to some of the most refined and fashionable systems of modern politics, the ideas of right and wrong, and all the moral virtues, are to be considered only as the vagaries of a weak or dis- tempered imagination in the possessor, and of no use in the world, but for the skilful politician to convert, to his own pur- poses of power and profit. With these,

' The love of country is an empty name ; For gold they hunger, but ne'er thirst for fame.'

" It is well known that the least ' patriotic spark ' unawares 'catched' and discovered, disqualifies a candidate from all further preferment in this famous and flourishing order of knights-errant. It must, however, be confessed that they are so Catholic as to admit all sorts, from the knights of the post to a garter and star, provided they are thoroughly divested of the fear of God and the love of mankind ; and have concen- trated all their views in dear self, with them the only ' sacred and well-beloved name ' or thing in the universe. See Cardi- nal Richelieu's Political Testament, and the greater Bible of the Sect, Mandeville's Fable of the Bees. Richelieu expressly, in solemn earnest, without any sarcasm or irony, advises the discarding all honest men from the presence of a prince, and from even the purlieus of a court. According to Mandeville, ' the moral virtues are the political offspring which flattery begot upon pride.' The most darling principle of the great apostle of the order, who has done more than any mortal towards diffusing corruption, not only through the three kingdoms, but

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through the remotest dominions, is, that every man has his price, and that, if you bid high enough, you are sure of him.

" To those who have been taught to bow at the name of a king with as much ardor and devotion as a Papist at the sight of a crucifix, the assertion under examination may appear harsh ; but there is an immense difference between the sentiments of a British House of Commons remonstrating, and those of a courtier cringing for a favor. A House of Representatives here, at least, bears an equal proportion to a Governor, with that of a House of Commons to the King. There is, indeed, one differ- ence in favor of a House of Representatives. When a House of Commons addresses the King, they speak to their sovereign, who is truly the most august personage upon earth. When a House of Representatives remonstrate to a Governor, they speak to a fellow-subject, though a superior, who is undoubt- edly entitled to decency and respect, but I hardly think to quite so much reverence as his master.

" It may not be amiss to observe, that a form of speech may be in no sort improper, when used arguendo, or for illustration, speaking of the king, which same form may be very harsh, indecent, and ridiculous, if spoken to the king.

" The . expression under censure has had the approbation of divers gentlemen of sense, who are quite unprejudiced by any party. They have taken it to imply a compliment rather than any indecent reflection upon his Majesty's wise and gracious administration. It seems strange, therefore, that the House should be so suddenly charged by his Excellency with impro- priety, groundless insinuations, &c.

" What cause of so bitter repentance, ' again and again,' could possibly have taken place, if this clause had been printed in the journal, I cannot imagine. If the case be fairly repre- sented, I guess the province can be in no danger from a House of Representatives, daring to speak plain English, when they are complaining of a grievance. I sincerely believe that the House had no disposition to enter into any contest with the Governor or Council. Sure I am, that the promoters of this address had no such view. On the contrary, there is the high- est reason to presume that the House of Representatives will, at all times, rejoice in the prosperity of the Governor and Council, and contribute their utmost assistance in supporting those two

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branches of the legislature in all their just rights and preemi- nence. But the House is, and ought to be, jealous and tena- cious of its own privileges ; these are a sacred deposit, intrusted by the people, and the jealousy of them is a godly jealousy" Allow me now, Mr. Tudor, a few remarks.

1. Why has the sublime compliment of " treason ! treason ! " made to Mr. Henry, in 1765, been so celebrated, when that to Mr. Otis, in 1762, three years before, has been totally forgotten ? Because the Virginia patriot has had many trumpeters, and very loud ones ; but the Massachusetts patriot none, though false accusers and vile calumniators in abundance.

2. I know not whether Judge Minot was born in 1762. He certainly never saw, heard, felt, or understood any thing of the principles or feelings of that year. If he had, he could not have given so frosty an account of it. The " warm speech " he mentions, was an abridgment or second edition of Otis's ar- gument in 1761 against the execution of the acts of trade. It was a flaming declaration against taxation without representa- tion. It was a warning voice against the calamities that were coming upon his country. It was an ardent effort to alarm and arouse his countrymen against the menacing system of parliamentary taxation.

3. Bernard was no great things, but he was not a fool. It is impossible to believe, that he thought the offensive passage treason, sedition, or of such danger and importance as he repre- sented it. But his design was to destroy Otis. " There is your enemy," said Bernard, (after a Scottish general,) " if ye do not kill him, he will kill you."

4. How many volumes are concentrated in this little fugitive pamphlet, the production of a few hurried hours, amidst the continual solicitations of a crowd of clients For his business at the bar, at that time, was very extensive and of the first im- portance, and amidst the host of politicians, suggesting their plans and schemes, claiming his advice and directions.

5. Look over the declaration of rights and wrongs issued by Congress in 1774. Look into the declaration of independence in 1776. Look into the writings of Dr. Price and Dr. Priestley. Look into all the French constitutions of government ; and, to cap the climax, look into Mr. Thomas Paine's Common Sense, Crisis, and Rights of Man. What can you find that is not to

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be found in solid substance in this " Vindication of the House of Representatives ? " •

•6. Is it not an affront to common sense, an insult to truth, virtue, and patriotism, to represent Patrick Henry, though he was my friend as much as Otis, as the father of the American Revolution and the founder of American independence ? The gentleman who has done this, sincerely believed what he wrote, I doubt not ; but he ought to be made sensible that he is of yesterday, and knows nothing of the real origin of the Ameri- can Revolution.

7. If there is any bitterness of spirit discernible in Mr. Otis's vindication, this was not natural to him. He was generous, candid, manly, social, friendly, agreeable, amiable, witty, and gay, by nature and by habit ; honest almost to a proverb, though quick and passionate against meanness and deceit. But at this time he was agitated by anxiety for his country, and irritated by a torrent of slander and scurrility, constantly pouring upon him from all quarters.

Mr. Otis has fortified his vindication in a long and learned note, which, in mercy to my eyes and fingers, I must borrow another hand to transcribe in another sheet.1

" This other original, Mr. Locke has demonstrated to be the consent of a free people. It is possible there are a few, and I desire to thank God there is no reason to think there are many among us, that cannot bear the names of liberty and property, much less that the things signified by those terms should be enjoyed by the vulgar. These may be inclined to brand some of the principles advanced in the Vindication of the House, with the odious epithets, seditious and levelling. Had any thing to justify them been quoted from Colonel Algernon Sidney, or other British martyrs to the liberty of their country, an outcry of rebellion would not be surprising. The authority of Mr. Locke has therefore been preferred to all others, for these fur- ther reasons. 1. He was not only one of the most wise as well as most honest, but the most impartial man that ever lived. 2. He professedly wrote his discourses on government, as he himself expresses it, 'to establish the throne of the great re-

1 Here follow quotations from Locke on Government, Part II. Cli. iv., Ch. xi., Ch. xiv., B. I. Ch. ii. and B. II. Ch. ii., touching the origin of government, which are omitted.

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storer, King William ; to make good his title in the consent of the people, which being the* only one of all lawful governments, he had more fully and clearly than any prince in Christendom, and to justify to the world the people of England, whose love of liberty, their just and natural rights, with their resolution to preserve them, saved the nation when it was on the brink of slavery and ruin.' By this title, our illustrious sovereign, George 3d (whom God long preserve), now holds. 3. Mr. Locke was as great an ornament, under a crowned head, as the Church of England ever had to boast of. Had all her sons been of his wise, moderate, tolerant principles, we should pro- bably never have heard of those civil dissensions that have so often brought the nation to the borders of perdition. Upon the score of his being a churchman, however, his sentiments are less liable to those invidious reflections and insinuations, that high-flyers, Jacobites, and other stupid bigots, are apt, too libe- rally, to bestow, not only upon dissenters of all denominations, but upon the moderate, and, therefore, infinitely the most valuable part of the Church of England itself."

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 29 May, 1818.

As Holly is a diamond of a superior water, it would be crushed to powder by mountainous oppression in any other country. Even in this he is a light shining in a dark place. His system is founded in the hopes of mankind, but they delight more in their fears. When will man have juster notions of the uni- versal, eternal cause ? Then will rational Christianity prevail. I regret Holly's misfortune in not finding you, on his account, to whom an interview with you would have been a lasting gratification.

Waterhouse's pen, " labitur et labetur." He has let it run on with too much fluency. I have not a tenth part of the vivacity, activity, memory, or promptitude and punctuality in corre- spondence which he ascribes to me. I can answer but few of the letters I receive, and those only with short scratches of the pen.

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I think, with you, that it is difficult to say at what moment the Revolution began. In my opinion, it began as early as the first plantation of the country. 1 (dependence of Church and Parliament was a fixed principle of jur predecessors in 1620, as it was of Samuel Adams and Christopher Gadsden in 1776 ; and independence of Church and Parliament was always kept in view in this part of the country, and, I believe, in most others. The hierarchy and parliamentary authority ever were dreaded and detested even by a majority of professed Episco- palians. I congratulate you upon your " canine appetite " for reading^ I have been equally voracious for several years, and it has kept me alive. It is policy in me to despise and abhor the writing-table, for it is a bunch of grapes out of reach. Had I your eyes and fingers, I should scribble forever such poor stuff as I have been writing by fits and by starts for fifty or sixty years, without ever correcting or revising any thing.

Helluo as I am, I hunger and thirst after what I shall never see, — Napoleon's publication of the report of his Institute of Cairo. Denon's volumes have excited an inextinguishable curiosity for an unattainable object.

Mr. Coffee 1 has been mentioned to me by my son ; he will be welcome. But though Robin's alive, he is not alive like to be. Mr. Coffee must be very quick, or Robin may die in his hands. Mr. Binon, a French artist, from Lyons, who has studied eight years in Italy, has lately taken my bust. He appears to be an artist, and a man of letters. I let them do what they like with my old head. When we come to be cool in the future world, I think we cannot choose but smile at the gambols of ambition, avarice, pleasure, sport, and caprices here below. Perhaps we may laugh as the angels do in the French fable. At a convivial repast of a club of choice spirits, of whom Gabriel and Michael were the most illustrious, after nectar and am- brosia had set their hearts at ease, they began to converse upon the mecanique celeste. After discussing the Zodiac, and the constellations of the solar system, they condescended to this speck of dirt, the earth, and remarked some of its inhabitants, the lion, the elephant, the eagle, and even the fidelity, gratitude, and adroitness of the dog. At last, one of them recollected

1 This gentleman was a sculptor, to whom Mr. Jefferson had given a letter of introduction.

VOL. X. 27

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man. What a fine countenance! What an elegant figure! What subtilty, ingenuity, versatility, agility, and, above all, a rational creature ! At this, the whole board broke out into a broad ha! ha! ha! that resounded through the vault of heaven, exclaiming, " Man a rational creature ! How could any rational being ever dream that man was a rational creature ? "

After all, I hope to meet my wife, and friends, ancestors and posterity, sages, ancient and modern. I believe I could get over all my objections to meeting Alexander Hamilton and Tim Pick, if I could see a symptom of penitence in either.

My fatigued eyes and fingers command me, very reluctantly, to subscribe abruptly.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 1 June, 1818.

No man could have written from memory Mr. Otis's argu- ment of four or five hours, against the acts of trade, as revenue laws, and against writs of assistance, as a tyrannical engine to execute them, the next day after it was spoken. How awkward, then, would be an attempt to do it after a lapse of fifty-seven years ! Nevertheless, some of the heads of his discourse are so indelibly imprinted on my mind, that I will endeavor to give you some very short hints of them.

1. He began with an exordium, containing an apology for his resignation of the office of Advocate- General in the Court of Admiralty ; and for his appearance in that cause, in opposition to the Crown, and in favor of the town of Boston, and the mer- chants of Boston and Salem.

2. A dissertation on the rights of man in a state of nature. He asserted that every man, merely natural, was an independ- ent sovereign, subject to no law, but the law written on his heart, and revealed to him by his Maker in the constitution of his nature and the inspiration of his understanding and his conscience. His right to his life, his liberty, no created being could rightfully contest. Nor was his right to his property less incontestable. The club that he had snapped from a tree, for a staff or for defence, was his own. His bow and arrow were

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his own •, if by a pebble he had killed a partridge or a squirrel, it was his own. No creature, man or beast, had a right to take it from him. If he had taken an eel, or a smelt, or a sculpion, it was his property. In short, he sported upon this topic with so much wit and humor, and at the same time so much indis- putable truth and reason, that he was not less entertaining than instructive. He asserted that these rights were inherent and inalienable. That they never could be surrendered or alienated but by idiots or madmen, and all the acts of idiots and lunatics were void, and not obligatory by all the laws of God and man. Nor were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a Quaker in Phila- delphia, or Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, ever asserted the rights of negroes in stronger terms. Young as I was, and ignorant as I was, I shuddered at the doctrine he taught; and I have all my lifetime shuddered, and still shudder, at the consequences that may be drawn from such premises. Shall we say, that the rights of masters and servanls clash, and can be decided only by force ? I adore the idea of gradual abolitions ! But who shall decide how fast or how slowly these abolitions shall be made ?

3. From individual independence he proceeded to association. If it was inconsistent with the dignity of human nature to say that men were gregarious animals, like wild horses and wild geese, it surely could offend no delicacy to say they were social animals by nature, that there were mutual sympathies, and, above all, the sweet attraction of the sexes, which must soon draw them together in little groups, and by degrees in larger con- gregations, for mutual assistance and defence. And this must have happened before any formal covenant, by express words or signs, was concluded. When general counsels and delibe- rations commenced, the objects could be no other than the mutual defence and security of every individual for his life, his liberty, and his property. To suppose them to have surrendered these in any other way than by equal rules and general consent was to suppose them idiots or madmen, whose acts were never binding. To suppose them surprised by fraud, or compelled by force, into any other compact, such fraud and such force could confer no obligation. Every man had a right to trample it under foot whenever he pleased. In short, he asserted these rights to be derived only from nature and the author of nature ;

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that they were inherent, inalienable, and indefeasible by any laws, pacts, contracts, covenants, or stipulations, which man could devise.

4. These principles and these rights were wrought into the English constitution as fundamental laws. And under this head he went back to the old Saxon laws, and to Magna Charta and the fifty confirmations of it in Parliament, and the execrations ordained against the violators of it, and the national vengeance which had been taken on them from time to time, down to the Jameses and Charleses ; and to the petition of rights and the bill of rights, and the Revolution. He asserted, that the security of these rights to life, liberty, and property, had been the object of all those struggles against arbitrary power, temporal and spiritual, civil and political, military and ecclesiastical, in every age. He asserted, that our ancestors, as British subjects, and we, their descendants, as British subjects, were entitled to all those rights, by the British constitution, as well as by the law of nature, and our provincial charter, as much as any inhabitant of London or Bristol, or any part of England ; and were not to be cheated out of them by any phantom of " virtual representation," or any other fiction of law or politics, or any monkish trick of deceit and hypocrisy.

5. He then examined the acts of trade, one by one, and demonstrated, that if they were considered as revenue laws, they destroyed all our security of property, liberty, and life, every right of nature, and the English constitution, and the charter of the province. Here he considered the distinction between " external and internal taxes," at that time a popular and commonplace distinction. But he asserted there was no such distinction in theory, or upon any principle but " neces- sity." The necessity that the commerce of the empire should be under one direction, was obvious. The Americans had been so sensible of this necessity, that they had connived at the distinction between external and internal taxes, and had submitted to the acts of trade as regulations of commerce, but never as taxations or revenue laws. Nor had the British go- vernment, till now, ever dared to attempt to enforce them as taxation or revenue laws. They had lain dormant in that character for a century almost. The navigation act he allowed to be binding upon us, because we had consented to it by our

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own legislature. Here he gave a history of the navigation act of the first of Charles II., a plagiarism from Oliver Cromwell. This act had lain dormant for fifteen years. In 1675, after repeated letters and orders from the king, Governor Winthrop very candidly informs his Majesty, that the law had not been executed, because it was thought unconstitutional, Parliament not having authority over us.

I shall pursue this subject in a short series of letters. Provi- dence pursues its incomprehensible and inscrutable designs in its own way and by its own instruments. And as I sincerely believe Mr. Otis to have been the earliest and the principal founder of one of the greatest political revolutions that ever occurred among men, it seems to me of some importance that his name and character should not be forgotten. Young men should be taught to honor merit, but not to adore it. The greatest men have the greatest faults.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 9 June, 1818.

I have promised you hints of the heads of Mr. Otis's oration, argument, speech, call it what you will, against the acts of trade, as revenue laws, and against writs of assistance, as tyran- nical instruments to carry them into execution.

But I enter upon the performance of my promise to you not without fear and trembling, because I am in the situation of a lady, whom you knew first as my client, the widow of Dr. Ames, of Dedham, and afterwards as the mother of your pupil, the late brilliant orator, Fisher Ames, of Dedham. This lady died last year, at 95 or 96 years of age. In one of her last years she said, she "was in an awkward situation; for if she related any fact of an old date, anybody might contradict her, for she could find no witness to keep her in countenance."

Mr. Otis, after rapidly running over the history of the con- tinual terrors, vexations, and irritations, which our ancestors endured from the British government, from 1620, under James I. and Charles I. ; and acknowledging the tranquillity under the

27*

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parliament of Cromwell, from 1648, to the restoration, in 1660, produced the navigation act as the first fruit of the blessed restoration of a Stuart's reign.

This act is in the twelth year of Charles II., chapter 18,

"An act for the encouraging and increasing of shipping and navigation." " For the increase of shipping and encouragement of the navigation of this nation, wherein, under the good Providence and protection of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of this kingdom, is so much concerned, be it enacted, that from and after the first day of December, 1660, and from thence forward, no goods or commodities, whatsoever, shall be imported into, or exported out of, any lands, islands, plantations, or territories, to his Majesty belonging or in his possession, or which may hereafter belong unto or be in the possession of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, in any other ship or ships, vessel or vessels, whatsoever, but in such ships or vessels, as do truly and without fraud, belong only to the people of England or Ireland, dominion of Wales, or town of Berwick upon Tweed, or are of the build of, and belonging to, any of the said lands, islands, plantations, or territories, as the proprietors and right owners thereof, and whereof the master, and three fourths of the mariners, at least, are English ; under the penalty of the forfeiture and loss of all the goods and commodities which shall be imported into, or exported out of any of the aforesaid places, in any other ship or vessel, as also of the ship or vessel, with all its guns, furniture, tackle, ammunition, and apparel ; one third part thereof to his majesty, his heirs and successors ; one third part to the governor of such land, plantation, island, or territory, where such default shall be committed, in case the said ship or goods be there seized ; or, otherwise, that third part also to his Majesty, his heirs and successors ; and the other third part to him or them who shall seize, inform, or sue for the same in any court of record, by bill, information, plaint, or other action, wherein no essoin, jjrotec- tion, or wager of law shall be allowed. And all admirals and other commanders at sea, of any of the ships of war or other ships, having commission from his Majesty, or from his heirs or successors, are hereby authorized, and strictly required to seize and bring in as prize all such ships or vessels as shall have offended contrary hereunto, and deliver them to the Courts of Admiralty, there to be proceeded against ; and in case of condemnation, one moiety of such for- feitures shall be to the use of such admirals or commanders, and their com- panies, to be divided and proportioned among them, according to the rules and orders of the sea, in case of ships taken prize ; and the other moiety to the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors."

Section second enacts, all governors shall take a solemn oath to do their utmost, that every clause shall be punctually obeyed. See the statute at large.

See also section third of this statute, which I wish I could transcribe.

Section fourth enacts, that no goods of foreign growth, pro- duction, or manufacture shall be brought, even in English ship-

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ping, from any other countries, but only from those of the said growth, production, or manufacture, under all the foregoing penalties.

Mr. Otis commented on this statute in all its parts, especially on the foregoing section, with great severity. He expatiated on its narrow, contracted, selfish, and exclusive spirit. Yet he could not and would not deny its policy, or controvert the necessity of it, for England, in that age, surrounded as she was by France, Spain, Holland, and other jealous rivals ; nor would he dispute the prudence of Governor Leverett, and the Massa- chusetts legislature, in adopting it, in 1675, after it had lain dormant for fifteen years ; though the adoption of it was in- finitely prejudicial to the interests, the growth, the increase, the prosperity of the colonies in general, of New England in parti- cular, and most of all, to the town of Boston. It was an im- mense sacrifice to what was called the mother country. Mr. Otis thought that this statute ought to have been sufficient to satisfy the ambition, the avarice, the cupidity of any nation, but especially of one who boasted of being a tender mother of her children colonies ; and when those children had always been so fondly disposed to acknowledge the condescending tenderness of their dear indulgent mother.

This statute, however, Mr. Otis said, was wholly prohibitory. It abounded, indeed, with penalties and forfeitures, and with bribes to governors and informers, and custom-house officers, and naval officers and commanders ; but it imposed no taxes. Taxes were laid in abundance by subsequent acts of trade ; but this act laid none. Nevertheless, this was one of the acts that were to be carried into strict execution by these writs of assist- ance. Houses were to be broken open, and if a piece of Dutch linen could be found, from the cellar to the cock-loft, it was to be seized and become the prey of governors, informers, and majesty.

When Mr. Otis had extended his observations on this act of navigation, much farther than I dare to attempt to repeat, he proceeded to the subsequent acts of trade. These, he contended, imposed taxes, and enormous taxes, burdensome taxes, oppres- sive, ruinous, intolerable taxes. And here he gave the reins to his genius, in declamation, invective, philippic, call it which you will, against the tyranny of taxation without representation.

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But Mr. Otis's observations on those acts of trade must be postponed for another letter.

Let me, however, say, in my own name, if any man wishes to investigate thoroughly, the causes, feelings, and principles of the Revolution, he must study this act of navigation and the acts of trade, as a philosopher, a politician, and a philanthropist.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 17 June, 1818.

The next statute produced and commented by Mr. Otis was the 15th of Charles II., that is, 1663, chapter 7, —

"An act for the encouragement of trade." Sec. 5. "And in regard his Majesty's plantations beyond the seas are inha- bited and peopled by his subjects of this his kingdom of England, for the main- taining a greater correspondence and kindness between them, and keeping them in a firmer dependence upon it, and rendering them yet more beneficial and advantageous unto it, in the further employment and increase of English ship- ping and seamen, vent of English woolen and other manufactures and commo- dities, rendering the navigation to and from the same more cheap and safe, and making this kingdom a staple, not only of the commodities of those plantations, but also of the commodities of other countries and places, for the supplying of them ; and it being the usage of other nations to keep their plantations trades to themselves."

Sec. 6. " Be it enacted, &c, that no commodity of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, shall be imported into any land, island, plantation, colony, territory, or place, to his Majesty belonging, or which shall hereafter belong unto or be in possession of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, in Asia, Africa, or America, (Tangier only excepted,) but what shall be bona fide, and without fraud, laden and shipped in England, Wales, or the town of Berwick upon Tweed, and in English built shipping, or which were bona, fide bought before the 1st of October, 1662, and had such certificate thereof as is directed in one act, passed the last session of the present Parliament, entitled, "An act for preventing frauds and regulating abuses in his Majesty's customs ;" and whereof the master and three fourths of the mariners, at least, are English, and which shall be carried directly thence to the said lands, islands, plantations, colonies, territories or places, and from no other place or places whatsoever; any law, statute, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding ; under the penalty of the loss of all such commodities of the growth, production, or manufacture of Europe, as shall be imported into any of them, from any other place what- soever, by land or water ; and if by water,_ of the ship or vessel, also, in which

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they were imported, with all her guns, tackle, furniture, ammunition, and ap- parel ; one third part to his Majesty, his heirs, and successors ; one third part to the governor of such land, island, plantation, colony, territory, or place, into which such goods were imported, if the said ship, vessel, or goods be there seized or informed against and sued for ; or, otherwise, that third part, also, to his Majesty, his heirs, and successors; andj^ie otherjthirdpart to him or them who shall seize, inform, or sue for the same in any of his Majesty's courts in such of the said lands, islands, colonies, plantations, territories or places where the offence was committed, or in any court of record in England, by bill, inform- ation, plaint, or other action, wherein no essoin, protection, or wager of law shall be allowed."

Sections 7, 8, 9, and 10 of this odious instrument of mischief and misery to mankind, were all calculated to fortify by oaths and penalties the tyrannical ordinances of the preceding sections.

Mr. Otis's observations on these statutes were numerous, and some of them appeared to me at the time, young as I was, bit- ter. But as I cannot pretend to recollect those observations with precision, I will recommend to you and others to make your own remarks upon them.

You must remember, Mr. Tudor, that you and I had much trouble with these statutes after you came into my office, in 1770, and I had been tormented with them for nine years be- fore, that is, from 1761. I have no scruple in making a con- fession with all the simplicity of Jean Jacques Rousseau, that I never turned over the leaves of these statutes, or any sec- tion of them, without pronouncing a hearty curse upon them. I felt them as a humiliation, a degradation, a disgrace to my country, and to myself as a native of it.

Let me respectfully recommend to the future orators on the 4th of July to peruse these statutes in pursuit of " principles and feelings that produced the revolution."

Oh! Mr. Tudor, when will France, Spain, England, and Holland renounce their selfish, contracted, exclusive systems of religion, government, and commerce ? • I fear, never. But they may depend upon it, their present systems of colonization can- not endure. Colonies universally, ardently breathe for inde- pendence. No man, who has a soul, will ever live in a colony under the present establishments one moment longer than necessity compels him.

But I must return to Mr. Otis. The burden of his song was '•'•writs of assistance." All these rigorous statutes were

u

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now to be carried into rigorous execution by the still more rigorous instruments of arbitrary power, " writs of assistance."

Here arose a number of very important questions. "What were writs of assistance? Where were they to be found? When, where, and by what authority had they been invented, created, and established? Nobody could answer any of these questions. Neither Chief Justice Hutchinson, nor any one of his four associate judges, pretended to have ever read or seen in any book any such writ, or to know any thing about it. The court had ordered or requested the bar to search for precedents and authorities for it, but none were found. Otis pronounced boldly that there were none, and neither judge nor lawyer, bench or bar, pretended to confute him. He asserted farther, that there was no color of authority for it, but one produced by Mr. Gridley in a statute of the 13th and 14th of Charles II., which Mr. Otis said was neither authority, precedent, or color of either in America. Mr. Thacher said he had diligently searched all the books, but could find no such writ. He had indeed found in Rastall's Entries a thing which in some of its features resembled this, but so little like it on the whole, that it was not worth while to read it.

Mr. Gridley, who, no doubt, was furnished upon this great and critical occasion with all the information possessed by the governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary, custom-house officers, and all other crown officers, produced the statute of the 13th and 14th of Charles II., chapter eleventh, entitled, "An act to prevent frauds, and regulating abuses in his Majesty's customs," section fifth, which I will quote verbatim.

"And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in case, after the^ clearing of any ship or vessel, by the person or persons which are or shall be appointed by his Majesty for managing the customs, or any their deputies, and discharging the watchmen and tidesmen from attendance thereupon, there shall be found on board such ship or vessel, any goods, wares, or merchandises, which have been concealedJ*rom the knowledge of the said person or persons, which are or shall be so appointed to manage the customs, and for which the custom, subsidy, and other duties due upon the importation thereof have not been paid ; then the master, purser, or other person taking charge of said ship or vessel, shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds : and it shall be lawful to or for any person or persons authorized by writ of assistance under the seal oj ]tis~Majcst,/'s court of exchequer, to take a constable, headborough, or other public officer, inhabiting near unto the place, and in the daytime to enter and go into any house, shop, cellar, warehouse or room, or other place: and in case

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of resistance, to break open doors, chests, trunks, and other packages, there to seize, and from thence to bring any kind of goods or merchandise whatsoever, prohibited and uncustomed, and to put and secure the same, in his Majesty's storehouse in the port, next to the place where such seizures shall be made."

Here is all the color for " writs of assistance," which the officers of the crown, aided by the researches of their learned counsel, Mr. Gridley, could produce.

Where, exclaimed Otis, is your seal of his Majesty's court of exchequer ? And what has the court of exchequer to do here ? But my sheet is full, and my patience exhausted for the present.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 24 June, 1818.

Mr. Otis said, such a " writ of assistance " might become the reign of Charles II. in England, and he would not dispute the taste of the Parliament of England in passing such an act, nor of the people of England in submitting to it ; but it was not cal- culated for the meridian of America. The court of exchequer had no jurisdiction here. Her warrants and her writs were never seen here. Or if they should be, they would be waste paper. He insisted, however, that these warrants and writs were even in England inconsistent with the fundamental law, the natural and constitutional rights of the subjects. If, how- ever, it would please the people of England, he might admit that they were legal there, but not here.

Diligent research had been made by Mr. Otis and Thacher, and by Gridley, aided, as may well be supposed, by the officers of the customs, and by all the conspirators against American liberty, on both sides the water, for precedents and examples of any thing similar to this writ of assistance, even in England. But nothing could be found, except the following : An act of the 12th of Charles II., chapter 22. "An act for the regulating the trade of Bay-making, in the Dutch Bay-hall, in Colchester." The fifth section of this statute, " for the better discovering, finding out, and punishing of the frauds and deceits, aforesaid, be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for the governors of the Dutch Bay-hall, or their officers, or any of them, from

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time to time, in the daytime, to search any cart, wagon, or pack, wherein they shall have notice, or suspect any such de- ceitful bays to be ; and also from time to time, with a constable, who are hereby required to be aiding and assisting them, to make search in any house, shop, or warehouse, where they are informed any such deceitful bays to be, and to secure and seize the same, and to carry them to the Dutch Bay-hall ; and that such bays so seized and carried to the said hall, shall be confis- cate and forfeit, to be disposed in such manner as the forfeitures herein before mentioned, to be paid by the weavers and fullers, are herein before limited and appointed."

The Dutch Bay-hall made sport for Otis and his audience; but was acknowledged to have no authority here, unless by certain distant analogies and constructions, which Mr. Gridley himself did not pretend to urge. Another ridiculous statute was of the 22d and 23d of Charles II., chapter 8th, "An act for the regulating the making of Kidderminster Stuffs."

By the eleventh section of this important law, it is enacted, " That the said president, wardens, and assistants of the said Kidderminster weavers, or any two or more of them, shall have, and hereby have power and authority to enter into and search the houses and workhouses of any artificer under the regulation of the said trade, at all times of the day, and usual times of opening shops and working ; and into the shops, houses, and warehouses of any common buyer, dealer in, or retailer of any of the said cloths or stuffs, and into the houses and workhouses of any dyer, shearman, and all other workmen's houses and places of sale, or dressing of the said cloths or stuffs, and yarns, and may there view the said cloths, stuffs, and yarns respectively ; and if any cloth, stuff, or yarns shall be found defective, to seize and carry away the same to be tried by a jury."

The wit, the humor, the irony, the satire played off by Mr. Otis in his observations on these acts of navigation, Dutch bays and Kidderminster stuffs, it would be madness in me to pretend to remember with any accuracy. But this I do say, that Horace's " Irritat, mulcet, verts terroribus implet" was never exemplified, in my hearing, with so great effect. "With all his drollery, he intermixed solid and sober observations upon the acts of navigation, by Sir Joshua Child, and other English

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writers upon trade, which I shall produce together in another letter.

It is hard to be called upon, at my age, to such a service as this. But it is the duty of

John Adams.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 9 July, 1818.

In the search for something in the history and statutes of England, in any degree resembling this monstrum horrendum ing-ens, the writ of assistance, the following examples were found.

In the statute of the first year of King James the II., chapter 3d, "An act for granting to his Majesty an imposition upon all wines and vinegar," &c, section 8, it is enacted, " That the officers of his Majesty's customs, &c, shall have power and authority to enter on board ships and vessels, and make searches, and to do all other matters and things, which may tend to secure the true payment of the duties by this act imposed, and the due and orderly collection thereof, which any customers, col- lectors, or other officers of any of his Majesty's ports can or may do, touching the securing his Majesty's customs of ton- nage and poundage," &c, &c, &c. I must refer to the statute for the rest.

In the statute of King James II., chapter 4, "An act for granting to his Majesty an imposition upon all tobacco and sugar imported," &c, section 5th, in certain cases, " the com- missioners may appoint one or more officer or officers to enter into all the cellars, warehouses, store cellars, or other places whatsoever, belonging to such importer, to search, see, and try," &c, &c, &c. I must again refer to the statute for the rest, which is indeed nothing to the present purpose.

Though the portraits of Charles II. and James II. were blaz- ing before his eyes, their characters and reigns were sufficiently odious to all but the conspirators against human liberty, to excite the highest applause of Otis's philippics against them and all the foregoing acts of their reigns, which writs of assist-

vol. x. 28

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ance were now intended to enforce. Otis asserted and proved, that none of these statutes extended to America, or were obli- gatory here, by any rule of law ever acknowledged here, or ever before pretended in England.

Another species of statutes were introduced by the counsel for the crown, which I shall state as they occur to me without any regard to the order of time.

1st of James II., chapter 17, "An act for the revival and con- tinuance of several acts of Parliament therein mentioned," in which the tobacco law, among others, is revived and continued.

13th and 14th of Charles I'L, chapter 13, "An act for prohibit- ing the importation of foreign bone-lace, outwork, embroidery, fringe, band-strings, buttons, and needlework." Pray, Sir, do not laugh ! for something very serious comes in section third.

" Be it further enacted, that for the preventing of the importing of the said manufactures as aforesaid, upon complaint and information given to the justices of the peace or any or either of them, within their respective counties, cities, and towns corporate, at times reasonable, he or they are hereby authorized and required to issue forth his or their warrants to the constables of their respective counties, cities, and towns corporate, to enter and search for such manufactures in the shops being open, or warehouses and dwelling-houses of such person or persons, as shall be suspected to have any such foreign bone-laces, embroideries, outwork, fringe, band-strings, buttons, or needle-work within their respective counties, cities, and towns corporate, and to seize the same, any act, statute, or ordinance to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding."

Another curious act was produced, to prove the legality of writs of assistance, though it was no more to the purpose than all the others. I mean the statute of the 12th of Charles II., chapter 3d, "An act for the continuance of process and judicial proceedings continued." In which it is enacted, section first, " That no pleas, writs, bills, actions, suits, plaints, process, pre- cepts, or other thing or things, &c, shall be in any wise dis- continued," &c.

But I must refer to the act. I cannot transcribe. If any antiquarian should hereafter ever wish to review this period, he will see with compassion how such a genius as Otis was com- pelled to delve among the rubbish of such statutes, to defend the country against the gross sophistry of the crown and its officers.

Another act of 12 C. II., ch. 12, "An act for confirmation of judicial proceedings," in which it is enacted, &c, " that nor any

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writs, or actions on, or returns of any writs, orders, or other proceedings in law or equity, had, made, given, taken, or done, or depending in the courts of chancery, king's bench, upper bench, common pleas, and court of exchequer, and court of exchequer chamber, or any of them, &c, in the kingdom of England, &c, shall be avoided, &c." I must refer to the statute.

In short, wherever the custom-house officers could find in any statute the word " writs," the word " continued," and the words " court of exchequer," they had instructed their counsel to pro- duce it, though in express words restricted to " the realm." Mr. Gridley was incapable of prevarication or duplicity.

It was a moral spectacle, more affecting to me than any I have since seen upon any stage, to see a pupil treating his master with all the deference, respect, esteem, and affection of a son to a father, and that without the least affectation ; while he baffled and confounded all his authorities, and confuted all his arguments and reduced him to silence.

Indeed, upon the principle of construction, inference, analogy, or corollary, by which they extended these acts to America, they might have extended the jurisdiction of the court of king's bench, and court of common pleas, and all the sanguinary statutes against crimes and misdemeanors, and all their church establishment of archbishops and bishops, priests, deacons, deans, and chapters ; and all their acts of uniformity, and all their acts against conventicles.

I have no hesitation or scruple to say, that the commence- ment of the reign of George III. was the commencement of another Stuart's reign ; and if it had not been checked by James Otis and others first, and by the great Chatham and others afterwards, it would have been as arbitrary as any of the four. I will not say it would have extinguished civil and reli- gious liberty upon earth ; but it would have gone great lengths towards it, and would have cost mankind even more than the French Revolution to preserve it. The most sublime, profound, and prophetic expression of Chatham's oratory that he ever uttered was, " I rejoice that America has resisted. Two mil- lions of people reduced to servitude, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest."

To John Taylor (part 7)

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Another statute was produced, 12 C. 2, cap. 19.

"An act to prevent frauds and concealments of his Majesty's customs and subsidies." " Be it enacted," &c, " that if any person or persons, &c, shall cause any goods, for which custom, subsidy, or other duties are due or payable, &c, to be landed or conveyed away, without due entry thereof first made and the customer or collector, or his deputy agreed with ; that then and in such case, upon oath thereof made before the lord treasurer, or any of the barons of the exchequer, or chief magistrate of the port or place where the offence shall be committed, or the place next adjoining thereto, it shall be lawful to and for the lord-treasurer, or any of the barons of the exchequer, or the chief magistrate of the port or place, &c, to issue out a warrant to any person or persons, thereby enabling him or them, with the assistance of a sheriff, justice of the peace, or constable, to enter into any house in the daytime, where such goods are sus- pected to be concealed, and in case of resistance to break open such house, and to seize and secure the same goods so concealed ; and all officers and ministers of justice are hereby required to be aiding and assisting thereunto."

Such was the sophistry ; such the chicanery of the officers of the crown, and such their power of face, as to apply these statutes to America and to the petition for writs of assistance from the superior court.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 14 July, 1818.

Mr. Otis, to show the spirit of the acts of trade, those I have already quoted, as "well as of those I shall hereafter quote, and as the best commentaries upon them, produced a number of authors upon trade, and read passages from them, which I shall recite, without pretending to remember the order in which he read them.

1. Sir Josiah Child, "A new Discourse of Trade." Let me recommend this old book to the perusal of my inquisitive fel- low-citizens. A discerning mind will find useful observations on the interest of money, the price of labor, &c, &c, &c. I would quote them all, if I had time. But I will select one. In page 15, of his preface, he says, " I understand not the world so little as not to know, that he that will faithfully serve his country, must be content to pass through good report and evil report." I cannot agree to that word, content. I would substitute instead of it, the words, " as patient as he can."

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Sir Josiah adds, " neither regard I which I meet with." This is too cavalierly spoken. It is not sound philosophy. Sir Joshua proceeds : " Truth I am sure at last will vindicate itself, and be found by my countrymen." Amen ! So be it ! I wish I could believe it.

But it is hisfh time for me to return from this ramble to Mr. Otis's quotations from Sir Josiah Child, whose chapter 4, page 105, is " Concerning the Act of Navigation." Probably this knight was one of the most active and able inflamers of the national pride in their navy and their commerce, and one of the principal promoters of that enthusiasm for the act of naviga- tion, which has prevailed to this day. For this work was written about the year 1677, near the period when the court of Charles II. began to urge and insist on the strict execution of the act of navigation. Such pride in that statute did not become Charles, his court, or his nation of royalists and loyalists at that time. For shall I blush, or shall I boast, when I remem- ber, that this act was not the invention of a Briton, but of an American. George Downing, a native of New England, edu- cated at Harvard College, whose name, office, and title appear in their catalogue, went to England in the time of Lord Claren- don's civil wars, and became such a favorite of Cromwell and the ruling powers, that he was sent ambassador to Holland. He was not only not received, but ill treated, which he resented on his return to England, by proposing an act of navigation, which was adopted, and has ruined Holland, and would have ruined America, if she had not resisted.

To borrow the language of the great Dr. Johnson, this " dog " Downing must have had a head and brains, or, in other words, genius and address; but, if we may believe history, he was a scoundrel. To ingratiate himself with Charles II., he probably not only pleaded his merit in inventing the navigation act, but he betrayed to the block some of his old republican and revo- lutionary friends.

George Downing! Far from boasting of thee as my coun- tryman, or of thy statute as an American invention, if it were lawful to wish for any thing past, that has not happened, I should wish that thou hadst been hanged, drawn, and quar- tered, instead of Hugh Peters and Sir Henry Vane. But no ! This is too cruel for my nature! I rather wish, that thou

28*

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hadst been obliged to fly with -thy project, and repent among the rocks and caves of the mountains in New England.

But where is Downing's statute ? British policy has sup- pressed all the laws of England, from 1648 to 1660. The statute book contains not one line. Such are records, and such is history!

The nation, it seems, was not unanimous in its approbation of this statute. The great knight himself informs us, page 105, " that some wise and honest gentlemen and merchants doubted whether the inconveniences it has brought with it be not greater than the conveniences." This chapter was, therefore, written to answer all objections, and to vindicate and justify Downing's statute.

Mr. Otis cast an eye over this chapter, and adverted to such observations in it, as tended to show the spirit of the writer, and of the statute ; which might be summed up in this com- prehensive Machiavelian principle, that earth, air, and seas, all colonies and all nations were to be made subservient to the growth, grandeur, and power of the British navy.

And thus, truly, it happened. The two great knights, Sir George Downing and Sir Josiah Child, must be acknowledged to have been great politicians !

Mr. Otis proceeded to chapter 10 of this work, page 166, " Concerning Plantations." And he paused at the 6th proposi- tion, in page 167, " That all colonies and plantations do en- damage their mother kingdoms, whereof the trades of such plantations are not confined by severe laws, and good execu- tions of those laws, to the mother kingdom."

Mr. Otis then proceeded to seize the key to the whole riddle, in page 168, proposition eleventh, " that New England is the most prejudicial plantation to the kingdom of England." Sir George Downing, no doubt, said the same to Charles II.

Otis proceeded to page 170, near the bottom.

" We must consider what kind of people they were and are that have and do transport themselves to our foreign plantations." New England, as every one knows, was originally inhabited, and hath since been successively replenished by a sort of people called Puritans, who could not conform to the ecclesiastical laws of England ; but being wearied with church censures and persecutions, were forced to quit their fathers' land, to find out new habitations, as many of them did in Germany and Holland, as well as at New England ; and had there not been a New England found for some of them, Germany and Holland, pro-

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bably, had received the rest; but Old England, to be sure, had lost them all.

" Virginia and Barbadoes were first peopled by a sort of loose, vagrant people, vicious, and destitute of means to live at home (being either unfit for labor, or such as could find none to employ themselves about, or had so misbehaved themselves by whoring, thieving, or other debauchery, that none would set them on work), which merchants and masters of ships, by their agents (or spirits, as they were called), gathered up about the streets of London, and other places, clothed and transported, to be employed upon plantations ; and these, I say, were such as, had there been no English foreign plantation in the world, could probably never have lived at home, to do service for their country, but must have come to be hanged, or starved, or died untimely of some of those miserable diseases that proceed from want and vice ; or else have sold themselves for sol- diers, to be knocked on the head, or starved, in the quarrels of our neighbors, as many thousands of brave Englishmen were in the low countries, as also in the wars of Germany, France, and Sweden, &c, or else, if they could, by beg- ging or otherwise, arrive to the stock of 2s. Qd. to waft them over to Holland, become servants to the Dutch, who refuse none.

" But the pi-incipal growth and increase of the aforesaid plantations of Vir- ginia and Barbadoes happened in, or immediately after, our late civil wars, when the worsted party, by the fate of war, being deprived of their estates, and having, some of them, never been bred to laboi-, and others made unfit for it by the lazy habit of a soldier's life, there wanting means to maintain them all abroad with his Majesty, many of them betook themselves to the aforesaid plantations ; and great numbers of Scotch soldiers of his Majesty's army, after "Worcester fight, were by the then prevailing powers voluntarily sent thither.

"Another great swarm or accession of new inhabitants to the aforesaid plan- tations, as also to New England, Jamaica, and all other his Majesty's plan- tations in the West Indies, ensued upon his Majesty's restoration, when the former prevailing party being by a divine hand of Providence brought under, the army disbanded, many officers displaced, and all the new purchasers of public titles dispossessed of their pretended lands, estates, &c, many became impoverished and destitute of employment; and, therefore, such as could find no way of living at home, and some who feared the reestablishment of the eccle- siastical laws, under which they could not live, were forced to transport them- selves, or sell themselves for a few years to be transported by others, to the foreign English plantations. The constant supply that the said plantations have since had, hath been such vagrant, loose people as I have before mentioned, picked up especially about the streets of London and Westminster, and male- factors condemned for crimes, for which, by the law, they deserved to die ; and some of those people called quakers, banished for meeting on pretence of reli- gious worship.

" Now, if from the premises it be duly considered what kind of persons those have been, by whom our plantations have at all times been replenished, I sup- pose it will appear, that such they have been, and under such circumstances, that if his Majesty had had no foreign plantations, to which they might have resorted, England, however, must have lost them."

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Any man, who will consider with attention these passages from Sir Josiah Child, may conjecture what Mr. Otis's obser- vations upon them were. As I cannot pretend to remember them verbatim and with precision, I can only say that they struck me very forcibly. They were short, rapid ; he had not time to be long ; but Tacitus himself could not express more in fewer words. My only fear is, that I cannot do him justice.

In the first place, there is a great deal of true history in this passage, which manifestly proves, that the emigrants to Ame- rica, in general, were not only as good as the people in general, whom they left in England, but much better, more courageous, more enterprising, more temperate, more discreet, and more industrious, frugal, and conscientious. I mean the royalists as well as the republicans.

In the second place, there is a great deal of uncandid, unge- nerous misrepresentation, and scurrilous exaggeration in tins passage of the great knight, which proves him to have been a fit tool of Charles II., and a suitable companion, associate, and friend of the great knight, Sir George Downing, the second scholar in Harvard College catalogue.

But I will leave you, Mr. Tudor, to make your own observa- tions and reflections upon these pages of Sir Josiah Child.

Mr. Otis read them with great reluctance ; but he felt it his duty to read them, in order to show the spirit of the author, and the spirit of Sir George Downing's navigation act.

But, my friend, I am weary. I have not done with Mr. Otis or Sir Josiah Child. I must postpone to another letter.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 17 July, 1818.

Mr. Otis proceeded to page 198, of this great work of the great knight, Sir Josiah Child.

" Proposition eleventh. That New England is the most prejudicial plantation in this kingdom."

" T am now to write of a people whose frugality, industry, and temperance, and the happiness of whose laws and institutions, do promise to themselves long life, with a wonderful increase of people, riches, and power ; and although no

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men ought to envy that virtue and wisdom in others, -which themselves either cannot or will not practise, but rather to commend and admire it, yet I think it is the duty of every good man primarily to respect the welfare of his native country. And, therefore, though I may offend some whom I would not willingly displease, I cannot omit, in the progress of this discourse, to take notice of some particulars, wherein Old England suffers diminution by the growth of those colonies settled in New England, and how that plantation differs from those more southerly, with respect to the gain or loss of this kingdom ; — namely,

" 1. All our American plantations, except that of New England, produce com- modities of different natures from those of this kingdom, as sugar, tobacco, cocoa, wool, ginger, sundry sorts of dying woods, &c, whereas, New England pro- duces generally the same we have here, namely, corn and cattle. Some quantity of fish they do likewise kill, but that is taken and saved altogether by their own inhabitants, which prejudiceth our Newfoundland trade ; where, as hath been said, very few are, or ought according to prudence to be employed in those fish- eries but the inhabitants of Old England. The other commodities we have from them are some few great masts, furs, and train oil, whereof the yearly value amounts to very little ; the much greater value of returns from thence being made in sugar, cotton, wool, tobacco, and such like commodities, which they first receive from some other of his Majesty's plantations in barter for dry codfish, salt mackerel, beef, pork, bread, beer, flour, peas, &c, which they sup- ply Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c, with, to the diminution of the vent of those com- modities from this kingdom ; the great expense whereof in our West India plantations would soon be found in the advance of the value of our lands in England, were it not for the vast and almost incredible supplies those colonies have from New England.

" 2. The peojsle of New England, by virtue of their primitive charters, being not so strictly tied to the observation of the laws of this kingdom, do sometimes assume a liberty of trading contrary to the act of navigation, by reason whereof many of our American commodities, especially tobacco and sugar, are trans- ported, in New England shipping, directly into Spain and other foreign coun- tries, without being landed in England, or paying any duty to his Majesty, which is not only loss to the king, and a prejudice to the navigation of Old England, but also a total exclusion of the old English merchant from the vent of those commodities in those ports where the new English vessels trade ; be- cause there being no custom paid on those commodities in New England, and a great custom paid upon them in Old England, it must necessarily follow that the New English merchant will be able to afford his commodity much cheaper at the market than the Old English merchant ; and those that can sell cheapest, will infallibly engross the whole trade, sooner or later.

" 3. Of all the American plantations, his Majesty hath none so apt for the building of shipping as New England, nor none comparably so qualified for breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural industry of that people, but principally by reason of their cod and mackerel fisheries ; and, in my poor opinion, there is nothing more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous to any mother kingdom, than the increase of shipping in her colonies, plantations* and provinces."

" 4. The people that evacuate from us to Barbadoes, and the other West

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India plantations, as was before hinted, do commonly work one Englishman to ten or eight blacks ; and, if we kept the trade of our said plantations entirely to England, England would have no less inhabitants, but rather an increase of people by such evacuation ; because that one Englishman, with the ten blacks that work with him, accounting what they eat, use, and wear, would make employment for four men in England, as was said before ; whereas, peradven- ture, of ten men that issue from us to New England and Ireland, what we send to, or receive from them, doth not employ one man in England.

" To conclude this chapter, and to do right to that most industrious English colony, I must confess, that though we lose by their unhmited trade with our foreign plantations, yet we are very great gainers by their direct trade to and from Old England ; our yearly exportations of English manufactures, malt, and other goods, from hence thither, amounting, in my opinion, to ten times the value of what is imported from thence; which calculation I do not make at random, but upon mature consideration, and, peradventure, upon as much experience in this very trade as any other person will pretend to ; and, therefore, whenever a reformation of our correspondency in trade with that people shall be thought on, it will, in my poor judgment, require great tenderness and very serious circum- spection."

Mr. Otis's humor and satire were not idle upon this occasion, but his wit served only to increase the effect of a subsequent, very grave, and serious remonstrance and invective against the detestable principles of the foregoing passages, which he read with regret, but which it was his duty to read, in order to show the temper, the views, and the objects of the knight, which were the same with those of all the acts of trade, anterior and poste- rior to the writing of this book. And those views, designs, aud objects were, to annul all the New England charters, and they were but three, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut ; to reduce all the colonies to royal governments, to subject them all to the supreme domination of parliament, who were to tax us, without limitation, who would tax us whenever the crown would recommend it, which crown would recommend it, when- ever the ministry for the time being should please, and which ministry would please as often as the West India planters and North American governors, crown officers and naval com- manders, should solicit more fees, salaries, penalties, and for- feitures.

Mr. Otis had no thanks for the knight for his pharisaical compliment to New England, at the expense of Virginia and other colonies, who, for any thing he knew, were equally merit- orious. It was certain, the first settlers of New England were not all godly. But he reprobated in the strongest terms that

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language can command, the machiavelian, the Jesuitical, the diabolical, and infernal principle that men, colonies, and nations were to be sacrificed, because they were industrious and frugal, wise and virtuous ; while others were to be encouraged, fostered, and cherished, because they were pretended to be profligate, vicious, and lazy.

But, my friend, I must quit Josiah Child, and look for others of Mr. Otis' s authorities.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 27 July, 1818.

Another author, produced by Mr. Otis, was, " The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Considered," by Joshua Gee, " a new edition, with many interesting notes and additions, by a mer- chant," printed in 1767. This new edition, which was printed, no doubt, to justify the ministry in the system they were then pursuing, could not be the edition that Mr. Otis produced in 1761. The advertisement of the editor informs us, that " this valuable treatise has for many years been very scarce, though strongly recommended by the best judges and writers on trade, and universally allowed to be one of the most interesting books on that subject." " The principles upon which it was written, continue, with little variation." But I am fatigued with quo- tations, and must refer you to the advertisement in the book, which will show, past a doubt, that this "was a ministerial republication. The " feelings, the manners and principles, which produced the revolution," will be excited and renovated by the perusal of this book, as much as by that of Sir Josiah Child. I wish I could fill sheets of paper with quotations from it ; but this is impossible. If I recommend it to the research, and perusal, and patient thinking of the present generation, it is in despair of being regarded. For who will engage in this dry, dull study ? Yet, Mr. Otis labored in it. He asserted and proved, that it was only a reenforcement of the system of Sir Josiah Child, which Gee approved in all things, and even quoted with approbation the most offensive passage in his book, the scurrilous reflections on Virginia and Barbadoes.

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Another writer, produced by Mr. Otis, was, " Memoirs and Considerations concerning the Trade and Revenues of the Brit- ish Colonies in America; with Proposals for rendering those Colonies more beneficial to Great Britain. By John Ashley, Esq."

This book is in the same spirit and system of Josiah Child and Joshua Gee.

Mr. Otis also quoted Postlethwait. But I can quote no more.

If any man of the present age can read these authors and not feel his " feelings, manners, and principles " shocked and insulted, I know not of what stuff he is made. All I can say is, that I read them all in my youth, and that I never read them without being set on fire.

I will, however, transcribe one passage from Ashley, painful as it is. In page 41 he says,

" The laws now in being for the regulation of the plantation trade, namely the 14th of Charles IL ch. 2, sec. 2, 3, 9, 10 ; 7 and 8 William III. ch. 22, sec. 5, 6 ; 6 George II. ch. 13, are very well calculated, and, were they put in exe- cution as they ought to be, would in a great measure put an end to the mischiefs here complained of. If the several officers of the customs would see that all entries of sugar, rum and molasses were made conformable to the directions of those laws ; and let every entry of such goods distinguish expressly, what are of British growth and produce, and what are of foreign growth and produce ; and let the whole cargo of sugar, penneles, rum, spirits, molasses and syrup, be inserted at large in the manifest and clearance of every ship or vessel, under office seal, or be liable to the same duties and penalties as such goods of foreign growth are liable to, this would very much balk the progress of those who carry on this illicit trade, and be agreeable and advantageous to all fair traders.

"And all masters and skippers of boats in all the plantations should give some reasonable security, not to take in any such goods of foreign growth from any vessel not duly entered at the custom-house, in order to land the same, or put the same on board any other ship or vessel, without a warrant or sufferance from a proper officer."

But you will be fatigued with quotations, and so is your friend,

John Adams.

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TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 30 July, 1818.

Another passage, which Mr. Otis read from Ashley, gave occasion, as I suppose, to another memorable and very curious event, which your esteemed pupil and my beloved friend, Judge Minot, has recorded. The passage is in the 42d page.

" In fine, I would humbly propose that the duties on foreign sugar and rum imposed by the before-mentioned act of the 6th of King George II. remain as they are, and also the duty on molasses, so far as concerns the importationMnto the sugar colonies ; but that there be an abatement of the duty on molasses imported into the northern colonies, so far as to give the British planters a reasonable advantage over foreigners, and what may bear some proportion to the charge, risk, and inconvenience of running it in the manner they now do, or after the proposed regulation shall be put in execution. Whether this duty shall be one, two, or three pence, sterling money of Great Britain, per gallon, may be matter of consideration."

Gracious and merciful indeed ! The tax might be reduced and made supportable, but not abolished. Oh, no ! by no means.

Mr. Hutchinson, however, seized this idea of Ashley, of reducing the tax on molasses from sixpence to threepence, or twopence, or a penny ; and the use he made of it you shall learn from your own pupil and my amiable friend, Judge Minot.1

"About this time there was a pause in the opposition to the measures of the crown and parliament, which might have given some appearance of the conciliation of parties, but which was more probably owing to the uncertainty of the eventual plan of the ministry, and the proper ground to be chosen for counteracting it. The suppressing of the proposed instructions to the agent by a committee of the House of Representatives indicated that this balance of power there was unsettled. Several circumstances showed a less inflexible spirit than had existed among the leaders. The governor appointed the elder Mr. Otis a justice of the court of common pleas, and judge of probate for the county of Barnstable. The younger wrote a pamphlet on the rights of the British colonies, in which he acknowledged the sovereignty of Parliament, as well as the obligations of the colonies to submit to such burdens as it might lay upon them, until it should be pleased to relieve them, and put the question of taxing America on the footing of the common good."

I beg your attention to Mr. Minot' s history, vol. ii., from page 140 to the end of the chapter in page 152. Mr. Minot has

1 Volume ii. page 142. VOL. X. 29 V

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endeavored to preserve the dignity, the impartiality, and the delicacy of history. But it was a period of mingled glory and disgrace. But as it is a digression from the subject of Mr. Otis's speech against writs of assistance, I can pursue it no further at present. Mr. Hutchinson seized the idea of reducing the duties. Mr. Otis and his associates seemed to despair of any thing more. Hutchinson was chosen agent, to the utter astonishment of every American out of doors. This was committing the lamb to the kind guardianship of the wolf. The public opinion of all the friends of their country was decided. The public voice was pronounced in accents so terrible, that Mr. Otis fell into a dis- grace, from which nothing but Jemmibullero saved him. Mr. Hutchinson was politely excused from his embassy, and the storm blew over. Otis, upon whose zeal, energy, and exertions the whole great cause seemed to depend, returned to his duty, and gave entire satisfaction to the end of his political career.

Thus ended the piddling project of reducing the duty on molasses from sixpence a gallon to fivepence, fourpence, three- pence, twopence, or a penny. And one half penny a gallon would have abandoned the great principle as much as one pound.

This is another digression from the account of Mr. Otis's argument against writs of assistance and the acts of trade. I have heretofore written you on this subject. The truth, the whole truth, must and will and ought to come out ; and nothing but the truth shall appear with the consent of your humble servant,

John Adams.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 6 August, 1818.

" Mid the low murmurs of submission, fear and mingled rage, my Hampden raised his voice, and to the laws appealed."

Mr. Otis had reasoned like a philosopher upon the navigation acts, and all the tyrannical acts of Charles II. ; but when he came to the revenue laws, the orator blazed out. Poor King William ! If thy spirit, whether in heaven or elsewhere, heard James Otis, it must have blushed. A stadtholder of Holland,

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by accident or by miracle vested with a little brief authority in England, cordially adopting the system of George Downing, Josiah Child, and Charles II., for the total destruction of that country to which he owed his existence, and all his power and importance in the world ; and, what was still worse, joining in the conspiracy with such worthy characters to enslave all the colonies in Europe, Asia, and America, and, indeed, all nations, to the omnipotence of the British Parliament and its royal navy ! The act of Parliament of the 7th and 8th of King William III. was produced, chapter 22d: "An act for preventing frauds, and regulating abuses in the plantation trade." I wish I could transcribe this whole statute, and that which precedes it: "An act for the encouragement of seamen." But who would read them ? Yet it behoves our young and old yeomen, mechanics, and laborers, philosophers, politicians, legislators, and merchants to read them. However tedious and painful it may be for you to read, or me to transcribe any part of these dull statutes, we must endure the task, or we shall never understand the Ameri- can Revolution. Recollect and listen to the preamble of this statute, of the 7th and 8th of William III. chapter 22d.

" Whereas, notwithstanding divers acts made for the encouragement of the navigation of this kingdom, and tor the better securing and regulating the plan- tation trade, more especially one act of Parliament made in the 12th year of the reign of the late King Charles II., intituled an act for the increasing of shipping and navigation; another act, made in the loth year of the reign of hi-s said late Majesty, intituled an act for the encouragement of trade ; another act, made in the 22d and 23d years of his said late Majesty's reign, intituled an act to prevent the planting of tobacco in England, and for regulation of the plantation trade ; another act, made in the 25th year of the reign of his said late Majesty, intituled an act for the encouragement of the Greenland and East- land fisheries, and for the better securing the plantation trade, great abuses are daily committed, to the prejudice of the English navigation and the loss of a great part of the plantation trade to this kingdom by the artifice and cunning of ill-disposed persons ; for remedy whereof for the future," &c.

Will you be so good, Sir, as to pause a moment on this pre- amble ? To what will you liken it ? Does it resemble a great, rich, powerful West India planter, Alderman Beckford, for example, preparing and calculating and writing instructions for his overseers ? " You are to have no regard to the health, strength, comfort, natural affections, or moral feelings, or intel- lectual endowments of my negroes. You are only to consider what subsistence to allow them, and what labor to exact of them

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will subserve my interest. According to the most accurate calculation I can make, the proportion of subsistence and labor, which will work them up, in six years upon an average, is the most profitable to the planter. And this allowance, surely, is very humane ; for we estimate here the lives of our coal-heavers upon an average at only two years, and our fifty thousand girls of the town at three years at most. And our soldiers and seamen no matter what."

Is there, Mr. Tudor, in this preamble, or in any statute of Great Britain, in the whole book, the smallest consideration of the health, the comfort, the happiness, the wealth, the growth, the population, the agriculture, the manufactures, the com- merce, the fisheries of the American people ? All these things are to be sacrificed to British wealth, British commerce, British domination, and the British navy, as the great engine and in- strument to accomplish all. To be sure, they were apt scholars of their master, Tacitus, whose fundamental and universal prin- ciple of philosophy, religion, morality, and policy was, that all nations and all things were to be sacrificed to the grandeur of Rome. Oh ! my fellow-citizens, that I had the voice of an archangel to warn you against these detestable principles. The world was not made for you; you were made for the world. Be content with your own rights. Never usurp those of others. What would be the merit and the fortune of a nation that should never do or suffer wrong ?

The purview of this statute was in the same spirit with the preamble. Pray read it ! Old as you are, you are not so old as I am, and I assure you I have conquered my natural impa- tience so far as to read it again, after almost sixty years acquaintance with it, in all its horrid deformity.

Every artifice is employed to ensure a rigorous, a severe, a cruel execution of this system of tyranny. The religion, the morality, of all plantation governors, of all naval commanders, of all custom-house officers, if they had any, and all men have some, were put in requisition by the most solemn oaths. Their ambition was enlisted by the forfeiture of their offices ; their avarice was secured by the most tempting penalties and for- feitures, to be divided among them. Fine picking, to be sure ! Even the lowest, the basest informers were to be made gentle- men of fortune !

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I must transcribe one section of this detestable statute, and leave you to read the rest ; I can transcribe no more.

The sixth section of this benign law of our glorious deliverer, King William, is as follows :

Section 6. "And for the more effectual preventing of frauds and regulating abuses in the plantation trade in America, be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all ships coming into, or going out of any of the said plantations, and lading, or unlading any goods or commodities, whether the same be his Majesty's ships of war or merchant ships, and the masters and commanders thereof, and their ladings, shall be subject and liable to the same rules, visitations, searches, penalties, and forfeitures, as to the entering, landing, and discharging their respective ships and ladings, as ships and their ladings, and the commanders and masters of ships, are subject and liable unto in this kingdom, by virtue of an act of Parliament made in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Charles II., intituled an act for preventing frauds and regulating abuses in his Majesty's customs. And that the officers for collecting and managing his Majesty's revenue, and inspecting the plantation trade, and in any of the said plantations, shall have the same powers and authorities, for visiting and searching of ships, and taking their entries, and for seizing and securing, or bringing on shore any of the goods prohibited to be imported or exported into or out of any the said plantations, or for which any duties are payable, or ought to have been paid, by any of the before mentioned acts, as are provided for the officers of the cus- toms in England by the said last mentioned act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Charles II. ; and also to enter houses or warehouses, to search for and seize any such goods ; and that all the wharfingers, and owners of keys and wharves, or any lightermen, bargemen, watermen, porters, or other per- sons assisting in the conveyance, concealment, or rescue of any of the said goods, or in the hindering or resistance of any of the said officers in the per- formance of their duty, and the boats, barges, lighters, or other vessels employed in the conveyance of such goods, shall be subject to the like pains and penalties, as are provided by the same act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of King Charles II., in relation to pi'ohibited or unaccustomed goods in this king- dom ; and that " the like assistance " shall be, given to the said officers in the execution of their office, as by the said last mentioned act is provided for the officers in England; and, also, that the said officers shall be subject to the same penalties and forfeitures, for any corruptions, frauds, connivances, or conceal- ments, in violation of any the before mentioned laws, as any officers of the customs in England are liable to, by virtue of the last mentioned act ; and, also, that in case any officer or officers in the plantations shall be seized or molested for any thing done in the execution of their office, the said officer shall and may plead the general issue, and shall give this or other custom-acts in evidence, and the judge to allow thereof, have and enjoy the like privileges and advantages, as are allowed by law to the officers of his Majesty's customs in England."

Could it be pretended, that the superior court of judicature, court of assize, and general gaol delivery in the province of

29*

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Massachusetts Bay, had all the powers of the court of exchequer in England, and consequently could issue warrants like his Majesty's court of exchequer in England ? No custom-house officer dared to say this, or to instruct his counsel to say it. It is true, this court was invested with all the powers of the courts of king's bench, common pleas, and exchequer in England. But this was by a law of the province, made by the provincial legis- lature, by virtue of the powers vested in them by the charter.

Otis called and called in vain for their warrant from " his Majesty's court of exchequer." They had none, and they could have none from England, and they dared not say, that Hutchinson's court was " his Majesty's court of exchequer." Hutchinson himself dared not say it. The principle would have been fatal to parliamentary pretensions.

This is The second and the last time, T believe, that the word " assistance " is employed in any of these statutes. But the words, "writs of assistance," were nowhere to be found; in no statute, no law-book, no volume of entries ; neither in Rastell, Coke, or Fitzherbert, nor even in Instructor Clericalis, or Burn's Justice. Where, then, was it to be found ? Nowhere but in the imagination or invention of Boston custom-house officers, royal governors, West India planters, or naval commanders.

It was indeed a farce. The crown, by its agents, accumu- lated construction upon construction, and inference upon in- ference, as the giants heaped Pelion upon Ossa. I hope it is not impious or profane to compare Otis to Ovid's Jupiter. But

misso perfregit Olynipum Fulmine, et excussit subjecto Pelion Ossae.

He dashed this whole building to pieces, and scattered the pulverized atoms to the four winds ; and no judge, lawyer, or crown officer dared to say, why do you so ? They were ail reduced to total silence.

In plain English, by cool, patient comparison of phraseology of these statutes, their several provisions, the dates of their enactments, the privileges of our charters, the merits of the colonists, &c, he showed the pretensions to introduce the revenue acts, and this arbitrary and mechanical writ of assist- ance, as an instrument for the execution of them, to be so irra- tional ; by his wit he represented the attempt as so ludicrous and ridiculous, and by his dignified reprobation of so impudent

CORRESPONDENCE. 343

an attempt to impose on the people of America, he raised such a storm of indignation, that even Hutchinson, who had been appointed on purpose to sanction this writ, dared not utter a word in its favor ; and Mr. Gridley himself seemed to me to exult inwardly at the glory and triumph of his pupil.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 11 August, 1818.

The "Defence of the New England Charters" by Jer. Dummer, is both for style and matter one of our most classical American productions. "The feelings, the manners, and principles which produced the Revolution," appear in as vast abundance in this work as in any that I have read. This beautiful composition ought to be reprinted, and read by every American who has learned to read. In pages 30 and 31, this statute of 7th and 8th of King William, chapter 22, section 9th, is quoted, "All laws, by-laws, usages, or customs, at this time, or which here- after shall be in practice, or endeavored or pretended to be in force or practice in any of the plantations, which are in any wise repugnant to the before mentioned laws or any of them, so far as they do relate to the said plantations, or any of them, or which are any wise repugnant to this present act, or any other law hereafter to be made in this kingdom, so far as such law shall relate to and mention the plantations, are illegal, null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever." This passage Mr. Otis quoted, with a very handsome eulogium of the author and his book. He quoted it for the sake of the rule established in it by Parliament itself for the construction of his own statutes. And he contended that by this rule there could be no pretence for extending writs of assistance to this country. He also alluded to many other passages in this work, very applicable to his purpose, which any man who reads it must perceive, but which I have not time to transcribe.

If you, or your inquisitive and ingenious son, or either of my sons or grandsons or great-grandsons, should ever think of these things, it may not be improper to transcribe from a marginal

344 ' CORRESPONDENCE.

note at the end of this statute, an enumeration of the " Further provisions concerning plantations." *

The vigilance of the crown officers and their learned counsel on one side, and that of merchants, patriots, and their counsel on the other, produced every thing in any of these statutes which could favor their respective arguments. It would not only be ridiculous in me, but culpable to pretend to recollect all that were produced. Such as I distinctly remember, I will endeavour to introduce to your remembrance and reflections.

Molasses, or melasses, or molosses, for by all these names they are designated in the statutes. By the statute of the second year of our glorious deliverers, King William and Queen Mary, session second, chapter four, section 35. " For every hundred weight of molosses, containing one hundred and twelve pounds, imported from any other place than the English plan- tations in America, eight shillings over and above what the same is charged with in the book of rates."

The next statute that I recollect at present to have been introduced upon that occasion, was the 6th of George II., chap- ter 13, "An act for the better securing and encouraging the trade of his Majesty's sugar colonies in America."

Cost what it will, I must transcribe the first section of this statute, with all its parliamentary verbiage. I hope some of my fellow-citizens of the present or some future age will pon- der it.

" Whereas, the welfare and prosperity of your Majesty's sugar colonies in America are of the greatest consequence and importance to the trade, naviga- tion, and strength of this kingdom ; and whereas, the planters of the said sugar colonies have of late years fallen under such great discouragements, that they are unable to improve or carry on the sugar trade upon an equal footing with the foreign sugar colonies, without some advantage and relief be given to them from Great Britain : For remedy whereof, and for the good and welfare of your Majesty's subjects, we, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the com- mons of Great Britain, assembled in Parliament, have given and granted unto your Majesty the several and respective rates and duties hereinafter mentioned, and in such manner and form as is hereinafter expressed ; and do most humbly

1 II. W. 3, c. 12 ; 3, 4 of An. c. 5 and 10 ; 6 of An. c. 30, 8 of An. c. 13 ; 9 of An. c. 17; 10 An. c. 22 and 26 ; 4 Geo. 1, c. 11 ; 5 Geo. 1, c. 12 and 15; 13 Geo. 1, c. 5 ; 3 Geo. 2, c. 12 and 28 ; 4 Geo. 2, c. 15 ; 5 Geo. 2, c. 7 and 9 ; 6 Geo. 2, c. 15; 8 Geo. 2, c. 13; 8 Geo. 2, c. 19; 12 Geo. 2, c. 30; 15 Geo. 2, c. 31 and 33 ; 24 Geo. 2, c. 51 and 53 ; 29 Geo. 2, c. 5 and 35 ; and 30 Geo. 2, c. 9.

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beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and with the consent of the lords spiritual and tem- poral, and commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the twenty-fifth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three, there shall be raised, levied, collected, and (73 paid, unto and for the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, upon all rum or spirits of the produce or manufacture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, which at any time or times, within or during the continuance of this act, shall be imported or brought into any of the colonies or plantations in America, which now are, or hereafter may be, in the possession or under the dominion of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, the sum of niiiepence, money of Great Britain, to be paid according to the proportion and value of five shil- lings and sixpence the ounce in silver, for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any greater or lesser quantity ; and upon all molasses or syrups of such foreign produce or manufacture, as aforesaid, which shall be imported or brought into any of the said colonies of or belonging to his Majesty, the sum of sixpence of like money for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any greater or lesser quantity ; and upon all sugars and paneles of such foreign growth, produce, or manufacture, as aforesaid, which shall be imported into any of the said colonies or plantations of or belonging to his Majesty, a duty after the rate of five shillings of like money for every hundred weight avoirdupois of the said sugar and paneles, and after that rate for a greater or lesser quantity."

Now, Sir, will you be pleased to read Judge Minot's History, vol. ii., from page 137 to 140, ending with these words ; " But the strongest apprehensions arose from the publication of the orders for the strict execution of the molasses act, which is said to have caused a greater alarm in the country, than the taking of Fort William Henry did in the year 1757." This I fully believe, and certainly know to be true ; for I was an eye and an ear witness to both of these alarms. Wits may laugh at our fondness for molasses, and we ought all to join in the laugh with as much good humor as General Lincoln did. General Washington, however, always asserted and proved, that Vir- ginians loved molasses as well as New Englandmen did. I know not why we should blush to confess that molasses was an essential ingredient in American independence. Many great events have proceeded from much smaller causes.

Mr. Otis demonstrated how these articles of molasses and sugar, especially the former, entered into all and every branch of our commerce, fisheries, even manufactures and agriculture. He asserted this act to be a revenue law, a taxation law, made by a foreign legislature without our consent, and by a legisla-

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ture who had no feeling for us, and whose interest prompted them to tax us to the quick. Pray, Mr. Tudor, calculate the amount of these duties upon molasses and sugar. What an enormous revenue for that age ! Mr. Otis made a calculation, and showed it to be more than sufficient to support all the crown officers.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 16 August, 1818.

We cannot yet dismiss this precious statute of the 6th of George II. chapter 13.

The second section I must abridge, for I cannot transcribe much more. It enacts, that all the duties imposed by the first section, shall be paid down in ready money by the importer before landing.

The third section must be transcribed by me or some other person, because it is the most arbitrary among statutes that were all arbitrary, the most unconstitutional among laws which were all unconstitutional.

Section 3d. "And be it further enacted, that in case any of the said com- modities shall be landed, or put on shore in any of Ins Majesty's said colonies or plantations in America, out of any ship or vessel before due entry be made thereof, at the port or place where the same shall be imported, and before the duties by this act charged or chargeable thereupon, shall be duly paid, or with- out a warrant for the landing and delivering the same, first signed by the col- lector or impost officer, or other proper officer or officers of the custom or excise, belonging to such port or place respectively, all such goods as shall be so landed or put on shore, or the value of the same, shall be forfeited ; and all and every such goods as shall be so landed or put on shore, contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, shall, and may be seized by the governor or commander-in-chief, for the time being, of the colonies or plantations, where the same shall be so landed or put on shore, or any person or persons by them authorized in that behalf, or by warrant of any justice of the peace or other magistrate, (which warrant such justice or magistrate is hereby empowered and required to give upon request,) or by any custom-house officer, impost, or excise officer, or any person or persons him or them accompanying, aiding, and assisting ; and all and every such offence and forfeitures shall, and may be prosecuted for and recovered in any court of admiralty in his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America, (lohich court of admiralty is hereby authorized, impowered, and required to proceed to hear, and finally determine the same,) or in any court of

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record in the said colonies or plantations, where such offence is committed, at the election of the informer or prosecutor, according to the course and method used and practised there in prosecutions for offences against penal laics relating to customs or excise; and such penalties and forfeitures so recovered there shall be divided as follows, — namely, one third part for the use of his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to be applied for the support of the government of the colony or plantation, where the same shall be recovered, one third part to the governor or commander-in-chief of the said colony or plantation, and the other third part to the informer or prosecutor, who shall sue for the same."

Section 5th contains the penalties on persons assisting in such unlawful im- portation.

Section 6th. " Fifty pound penalty on molesting an officer on his duty. Officer, if sued, may plead the general issue. Fifty pound penalty, an officer conniving at such fraudulent importation.

Section 7th. " One hundred pound penalty, on master of ship, &c, permit- ting such importation.

Section 8th. " The onus probandi in suits to lie on the owners.

Section 1 2th. " Charge of prosecution to be borne out of the king's part of seizures, forfeitures, and penalties."

George II. was represented and believed in America to be an honest, well-meaning man ; and although he consented to this statute and others which he thought sanctioned by his pre- decessors, especially King William, yet it was reported and understood that he had uniformly resisted the importunities of ministers, governors, planters, and projectors, to induce him to extend the system of taxation and revenue in America, by say- ing, that " he did not understand the colonies ; he wished their prosperity. They appeared to be happy at present; and he would not consent to any innovations, the consequences of which he could not foresee."

Solomon, in all his glory, could not have said a wiser thing. If George III. had adopted this sentiment, what would now be the state of the world? Who can tell, or who can conjecture?

The question now was concerning the designs of a new reign and of a new prince. This young king had now adopted the whole system of his predecessors, Stuarts, Oranges, and Hanoverians, and determined to carry it into execution, right or wrong ; and that, by the most tyrannical instruments that ever were invented — writs of assistance. What hope remained for an American who knew, or imagined he knew, the character of the English nation and the character of the American people ? To borrow a French word, so many reminiscences rush upon

348 CORRESPONDENCE.

me, that I know not which to select, and must return for the present to Mr. Otis. By what means this young inexperienced king was first tempted by his ministers to enter with so much spirit into this system, may be hereafter explained.

Mr. Otis analyzed this statute, 6 George II. c. 13, with great accuracy. His calculations may be made by any modern mathe- matician who will take the pains. How much molasses, for example, was then subject to this tax? Suppose a million gal- lons, which is far less than the truth. Sixpence a gallon was full one half of the value of the article. It was sold at market for one shilling ; and I have known a cargo purchased at a pis- tareen. The duties on a million gallons would then be twenty- five thousand pounds sterling a year ; a fund amply sufficient with the duties on sugars, &c, and more than sufficient, at that time, to pay all the salaries of all the governors upon the conti- nent, and all judges of admiralty too.

Mr. King, formerly of Massachusetts, now of New York, in a late luminous and masterly speech in Senate, page 18, informs us, from sure sources, that " we import annually upwards of six million gallons of West India rum." The Lord have mercy on us ! " More than half of which comes from the English colonies. We also import every year nearly seven millions of gallons of molasses ; and as every gallon of molasses yields, by distillation, a gallon of rum, the rum imported, added to that distilled from molasses, is probably equal to twelve millions of gallons, which enormous quantity is chiefly consumed, besides whiskey, by citizens of the United States." Again, I devoutly pray, the Lord have mercy on us !

But calculate the revenue, at this day, from this single act of George II. It would be sufficient to bribe any nation less knowing and less virtuous than the people of America, to the voluntary surrender of all their liberties.

Mr. Otis asserted this to be a revenue law ; a taxation law ; an unconstitutional law; a law subversive of every end of society and government ; it was null and void. It was a viola- tion of all the rights of nature, of the English Constitution, and of all the charters and compacts with the colonies ; and if car- ried into execution by writs of assistance and courts of ad- miralty, would destroy all security of life, liberty, and pro- perty. Subjecting all these laws to the jurisdiction of judges of

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admiralty, poor dependent creatures, to the forms and course of the civil law, without juries, or any of the open, noble exa- mination of witnesses or publicity of proceedings of the com- mon law, was capping the climax, it was clenching the nail of American slavery.

Mr. Otis roundly asserted, that this statute, and the preced- ing statute, never could be executed. The whole power of Great Britain would be ineffectual ; and by a bold figure, which will now be thought exaggeration, he declared that if the King of Great Britain in person were encamped on Boston common, at the head of twenty thousand men, with all his navy on our coast, he would not be able to execute these laws. They would be resisted or eluded.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 21 August, 1818.

Mr. Otis quoted another author, " The Political and Commer- cial Works of Charles Davenant, LL. D." vol. ii. Discourse 3. " On the Plantation Trade." I cannot transcribe seventy-six pages, but wish that Americans of all classes would read them. They are in the same strain with Downing, Child, Gee, Ashley, Charles II., James II., William and Mary, William III., Anne, George II., and George III. ; all conspiring to make the people of North America hewers of wood and drawers of water to plantation governors, custom-house officers, judges of admiralty, common informers, West India planters, naval commanders, in the first place ; and, after all these worthy people should be amply supported, nourished, encouraged, and pampered, if any thing more could be squeezed from the hard earnings of the farmers, the merchants, the tradesmen, and laborers in America, it was to be drawn into the exchequer in England, to aggran- dize the British navy.

Mr. Otis proceeded to another species of statutes, relative to our internal policy, even our domestic manufactures and fireside comforts ; I might say, our homespun blankets and woollen sheets, so necessary to cover some, if not all of us, in our slum- bers in the long nights of our frozen winters. I shall refer to

vol. x. 30

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these statutes as they occur, without any regard to order, and shall not pretend to transcribe any of them.1

I cannot search for any more of these mincing laws. Mr. Otis alternately laughed and raged against them all. He said one member of Parliament had said, that a hobnail should not be manufactured in America; and another had moved that Americans should be compelled by act of Parliament to send their horses to England to be shod. He believed, however, that this last was a man of sense, and meant, by this admirable irony, to cast a ridicule on the whole selfish, partial, arbitrary, and contracted system of parliamentary regulations in America.

Another statute there is, and was quoted by Mr. Otis, by which wool was prohibited to be water-borne in America ; in consequence of which a fleece of wool could not be conveyed in a canoe across a river or brook, without seizure and forfeit- ure. But I am wearied to death by digging in this mud; with searching among this trash, chaff, rubbish of acts of Parliament;

of that Parliament which declared it had a right to legislate for us, as sovereign, absolute, and supreme, in all cases whatsoever. But I deny that they ever had any right to legislate for us in any case whatsoever. And on this point we are and were at issue before God and the world. These righteous judges have decided the question ; and it is melancholy that any Americans should still doubt the equity and wisdom of the decision.

Such were the bowels of compassion, such the tender mercies of our pious, virtuous, our moral and religious mother country towards her most dutiful and affectionate children ! Such they are still, and such they will be till the United States shall com- pel that country to respect this. To this end, poor and destitute as I am, I would cheerfully contribute double my proportion of the expense of building and equipping thirty ships of the line, before the year 1820.

1 " Furs of the plantations to be brought to Great Britain. 8 Geo. I. c. 15,

ss. 24."

" Hats not to be exported from one plantation to another. 5 Geo. II. c. 2 2." " Hatters not to have more than two apprentices. 5 Geo. II. c. 22, ss. 7." " Slitting mills, steel furnaces, &c, not to be erected in the plantations. 23

Geo. II. c. 29, ss. 9."

" No wool, or woollen manufacture of the plantations shall be exported. 10

& 11 Wm. III. c. 10, ss. 19."

" Exporting wool, contrary to the regulations, forfeiture of the ship, &c. 1 2

Geo. H. c. 21, ss. 11."

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Mr. Otis asserted all these acts to be null and void by the law of nature, by the English constitution, and by the Ameri- can charters, because America was not represented in Parlia- ment. He entered into the history of the charters. James I. and Charles I. could not be supposed to have ever intended that Parliament, more hated by them both than the Pope or the French King, should share with them in the government of colonies and corporations which they had instituted by their royal prerogatives. " Tom, Dick, and Harry were not to cen- sure them and their council." Pym, Hampden, Sir Harry Vane, and Oliver Cromwell did not surely wish to subject a country, which they sought as an asylum, to the arbitrary jurisdiction of a country from which they wished to fly. Charles II. had learned by dismal, doleful experience, that Parliaments were not to be wholly despised. He, therefore, endeavored to asso- ciate Parliament with himself in his navigation act, and many others of his despotic projects, even in that of destroying, by his unlimited licentiousness and debauchery, the moral character of the nation. Charles II. courted Parliament as a mistress ; his successors embraced her as a wife, at least for the purpose of enslaving America.

Mr. Otis roundly asserted this whole system of parliamentary regulations, and every act of Parliament before quoted, to be illegal, unconstitutional, tyrannical, null, and void. Neverthe- less, with all my admiration of Mr. Otis, and enthusiasm for his character, I must acknowledge he was not always consistent in drawing or admitting the necessary consequences from his principles, one of which comprehended them all, to wit, that Parliament had no authority over America in any case whatsoever.

But at present we must confine ourselves to his principles and authorities in opposition to the acts of trade and writs of assistance. These principles I perfectly remember. The author- ities in detail I could not be supposed to retain ; though with recollecting the names, Vattel, Coke, and Holt, I might have found them again by a diligent search. But Mr. Otis himself has saved that trouble, by a publication of his own, which must be the subject of another letter.1

1 The next letter contains nearly the whole of Mr. Otis's memorial, drawn up and sent to Jasper Mauduit by the House of Representatives, in June, 1 7G-i, the substance of which has been given by the younger Tudor in his Life of Otis, pp. 166 - 169. It is omitted here for want of space.

352 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 10 September, 1818.

The charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr. Otis frequently in the whole course of his argument ; but he made them also a more distinct and more solemn head of his discourse. And here, these charters ought to be copied verbatim. But an im- mense verbiage renders it impossible. Bishop Butler somewhere complains of this enormous abuse of words in public transac- tions, and John Read and Theophilus Parsons, of Massachu- setts, have attempted to reform it. So did James Otis. All with little success. I hope, however, that their examples will be followed, and that common sense in common language will, in time, become fashionable. But the hope must be faint as long as clerks are paid by the line and the number of syllables in a line.

Some passages of these charters must, however, be quoted ; and I will endeavor to strip them, as well as I can, of their use- less words. They are recited in the charter of King William and Queen Mary, dated the seventh day of October, in the third year of their reign, that is, in 1691.

" Whereas King James I., in the eighteenth year of his reign, did grant to the Council at Plymouth, for the planting and governing New England, all that part of America, from the 40th to the 48th degree of latitude, and from sea to sea, together with all lands, waters, fishings, and all and singular ether commo- dities, jurisdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, and preeminences, both within the said tract of land upon the main, and also within the islands and seas adjoining, to have and hold all, unto the said council, their heirs and successors and assigns forever, to be holden of his said Majesty as of his manor of East Greenwich, in free and common socage, and not in capite, or by knights' ser- vice ; yielding to the king a fifth part of the ore of gold and silver, for and in respect of all and all manner of duties, demands, and services whatsoever."

But I cannot pursue to the end this infinite series of words. You must read the charter again. For although you have and I have read it fifty times, I believe you will find it, as I do, much stronger in favor of Mr. Otis's argument than I expected or you will expect. I doubt whether you will take the pains to read it again ; but your son will, and to him I recommend it.

The Council of Plymouth, on the 19th of March, in the third year of the reign of Charles I., granted to Sir Henry Rosewell

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and others, part of New England by certain boundaries, with all the prerogatives and privileges.

King Charles L, on the 4th of March, in the fourth year of his reign, confirmed to Sir Henry Rosewell and others, all those lands before granted to them by the Council'of Plymouth. King Charles I. created Sir Henry Rosewell and others, a body cor- porate and politic. And said body politic did settle a colony, which became very populous.

* In 1684, in the 36th year of King William and Queen Mary's dearest uncle, Charles II., a judgment was given in the court of chancery, that the letters-patent of Charles I. should be can- celled, vacated, and annihilated.

The~ligeuts— petitioned to be reincorporated. I can easily conceive their perplexity, their timidity, their uncertainty, their choice of difficulties, their necessary preference of the least of a multitude of evils, for I have felt them all as keenly as they did.

William and Mary unite Massachusetts, New Plymouth, the Province of Maine and Nova Scotia into one province, to be holden in fee of the manor of East Greenwich, paying one fifth of gold and silver ore.

Liberty of conscience to be granted to all Christians, except papists. Good God ! A grant from a king of liberty of con- science! Is it not a grant of the King of kings, which no puppet or roitelet upon earth can give or take away ?

The general court empowered to erect judicatories and courts of record. The general court empowered to make laws, " not repugnant to the laws of England." Here was an unfathomable gulf of controversy. The grant itself, of liberty of conscience, was repugnant to the laws of England. Every thing was repugnant to the laws of England. The whole system of colo- nization was beyond the limits of the laws of England, and beyond the jurisdiction of their national legislature. The gene- ral court is authorized to impose fines, &c, and taxes.

But the fell paragraph of all is the proviso in these words : —

" Provided always, and it is hereby declared, that nothing herein shall extend or to be taken to erect or grant, or allow the exercise of any admiralty court jurisdiction, power, or authority ; but that the same shall be, and is hereby re- served to us and our successors, and shall from time to time be erected, granted, and exercised by virtue of commissions to be issued under the great seal of England, or under the seal of the high admiral, or the commissioners for exe- cuting the office of high admiral of England."

30* w

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The history of this court of admiralty would require volumes. Where are its records and its files ? Its libels and answers ? Its interrogatories and cross-interrogatories ? Ail hurried away to England, as I suppose, never to be seen again in America, nor probably to be inspected in Europe.

The records and files of the court of probate in Boston were transported to Halifax. Judge Foster Hutchinson had the honor to return them after the peace of 1783. But admiralty records have never been restored, as I have heard.

The subject may be pursued hereafter by your servant,

John Adams.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 13 September, 1818. It is some consolation to find in the paragraph of the char- ter, next following the court of admiralty, that nothing in it

" stall in any manner enure, or be taken to abridge, bar, or binder any of our loving subjects whatsoever, to use and exercise the trade of fishing upon the coasts of New England, but that they and every of them shall have full and free power and liberty to continue and use their said trade of fishing upon the said coast, in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any arms of the said seas, or salt water rivers, where they have been wont to fish ; and to build and set upon the lands within our said province or colony, lying waste, and not then possessed by particular proprietors, such wharfs, stages, and work -houses, as shall be necessary for the salting, drying, keeping, and packing of their fish, to be taken and gotten upon that coast ; and to cut down and take such trees and other materials there growing or being upon any parts or places lying waste, and not then in posses- sion of particular proprietors, as shall be needful for that purpose, and for all other necessai'y easements, helps, and advantages, concerning the trade of fishing there, in such manner and form as they have been heretofore at any time accustomed to do, without making any wilful waste or spoil-, any thing in these presents to the contrary notwithstanding."

Fellow-citizens ! Recollect that " this our province or colony " contained the whole of Nova Scotia as well as the " Province of Maine, Massachusetts Bay, and New Plymouth." Will you ever surrender one particle, one iota of this sacred charter right, and still more sacred right of nature, purchase, acquisition, pos- session, usage, habit, and conquest, let the thunder of British cannon say what it will ? I know you will not. I know you

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cannot. And if you could be base enough to surrender it, which I know you cannot and never will be, your sons will reclaim it and redemand it at the price of whatever blood or treasure it may cost, and will obtain it, secure it, and command it forever. This pretended grant is but an acknowledgment of your antecedent right by nature and by English liberty. You have no power or authority to alienate it. It was granted, or rather acknowledged to your successors and posterity as well as to you, and any cessions you could make would be null and void in the sight of God and all reasonable men.

Mr. Otis descanted largely on these charters. His observa- tions carried irresistible conviction to the minds and hearts of many others as well as to mine, that every one of those statutes from the navigation act to the last act of trade, was a violation of all the charters and compacts between the two countries, was a fundamental invasion of our essential rights, and wras consequently null and void ; that the legislatures of the colo- nies, and especially of Massachusetts, had the sole and exclusive authority of legislation and especially of taxation in America.

The indecision and inconsistency, which appears in some of Mr. Otis's subsequent writings is greatly to be regretted and lamented. They resemble those of Colonel Bland, as repre- sented by Mr. Wirt. I wish I had Colonel Bland's pamphlet that I might compare it with some of Mr. Otis's.

I have too many daily proofs of the infirmity of my memory to pretend to recollect Mr. Otis's reasoning in detail. If, indeed, I had a general recollection of any of his positions, I could not express them in that close, concise, nervous, and energetic lan- guage, which was peculiar to him, and which I never possessed.

I must leave you, Sir, to make your own observations and reflections upon these charters. But you may indulge me in throwing out a few hints, rather as queries or topics of specu- lation than as positive opinions. And here, though I see a wide field, I must make it narrow.

1. Mr. Bollan was a kind of learned man, of indefatigable research, and a faithful friend to America ; though he lost all his influence when his father-in-law, Governor and General Shirley, went out of circulation. This Mr. Bollan printed a book very early on the " Rights of the Colonies." I scarcely ever knew a book so deeply despised. The English reviewers

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would not allow it to be the production of a rational creature. In America itself it was held in no esteem. Otis himself ex- pressed in the House of Representatives, in a public speech, his contempt of it in these words : " Mr. Bollan's book is the strangest thing I ever read. Under the title of ' Rights of the Colonies,' he has employed one third of his work to prove that the world is round ; and another, that it turns round ; and the last, that the Pope was a devil for pretending to give it to whom he pleased."

All this I regretted. I wished that Bollan had not only been permitted, but encouraged to proceed. There is no doubt he would have produced much in illustration of the ecclesiastical and political superstition and despotism of the ages when colo- nization commenced and proceeded. But Bollan was dis- couraged, and ceased from his labors.

What is the idea, Mr. Tudor, of British allegiance ? And of European allegiance ? Can you, or, rather, will you analyze it ? At present, I have demands upon me, which compel me to close abruptly.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 18 September, 1818.

The English doctrine of allegiance is so mysterious, fabulous, and enigmatical, that it is difficult to decompose the elements of which it is compounded. The priests, under the Hebrew economy, especially the sovereign pontiffs, were anointed with consecrated oil, which was poured upon their heads in such profusion that it ran down their beards, and they wei;e thence called " the Lord's anointed." When kings were permitted to be introduced, they were anointed in the same manner by the sovereign pontiff; and they, too, were called " the Lord's anointed." When the pontiffs of Rome assumed the customs, pomps, and ceremonies of the Jewish priesthood, they assumed the power of consecrating things by the same ceremony of " holy oil." The Pope who, as vicar of God, possessed the whole globe of earth in supreme dominion and absolute pro- perty, possessed also the power of sending the Holy Ghost

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wherever he pleased. To France it pleased his holiness to send him in a phial of oil to Rheims, in the beak of a dove. I have not heard, that my friend, Louis XVIII. has been consecrated at Rheims, by the pouring on of this holy oil ; but his worthy elder brother, Louis XVI., was so consecrated at a vast expense of treasure and ridicule. How the holy bottle was conveyed to England, is worth inquiry. But there it is, and is used at every coronation ; and is demurely, if not devoutly, shown to every traveller who visits the tower. These ideas were once as firmly established in England as they were in Rome ; and no small quantity of the relics of them remain to this day. Hence the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and the duties, in subjects, of unlimited submission, passive obedience, and non-resistance, on pain (oh, how can I write it ?) of eternal damnation. These doctrines have been openly and boldly asserted and defended, since my memory, in the town of Boston and in the town of Quincy, by persons of no small consideration in the world, whom I could name, but I will not, because their posterity are much softened from this severity.

This indelible character of sovereignty in kings and obedience in subjects still remains. The rights and duties are inherent, unalienable, indefeasible, indestructible, and immortal. Hence the right of a lieutenant or midshipman of a British man-of- war to search all American ships, impress every seaman his judgeship shall decree, by law, and in fact, to be a subject of his king, and compel him to fight, though it may be against his father, brother, or son. My countrymen ! Will you submit to those miserable remnants of priestcraft and despotism ?

There is no principle of law or government, that has been more deliberately or more solemnly adjudged in Great Britain than that allegiance is not due to the king in his official ^capa- city or political capacity, but merely in his personal capacity. Allegiance to Parliament is nowhere found in English, Scottish, or British laws. What, then, had our ancestors to do with

Parliament? Nothing more than with the Jewish Sanhe- drim, or Napoleon's literary and scientific Institute at Grand Cairo. They owed no allegiance to Parliament, as a whole or in parts ; none to the House of Lords, as a branch of the legislature, nor to any individual peer or number of individuals ; none to the House of Commons, as another branch, nor to any individual

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commoner or group of commoners. They owed no allegiance to the nation, any more than the nation owed to them ; and they had as good and clear a right to make laws for England, as the people of England had to make laws for them.

What right, then, had King James I. to the sovereignty, do- minion, or property of North America ? No more than King George III. has to Georgium sidus, because Mr. Herschell dis- covered that planet in his reign. His only color, pretension, or pretext is this. The Pope, as head of the church, was sove- reign of the world. Henry VIII. deposed him, became head of the church in England, and consequently became sovereign master and proprietor of as much of the globe as he could grasp. A group of his nobles hungered for immense landed estates in America, and obtained from his quasi holiness a large tract. But it was useless and unprofitable to them. They must have planters and settlers. The sincere and conscientious Protestants had been driven from England into Holland, Ger- many, Switzerland, &c, by the terrors of stocks, pillories, crop- pings, scourges, imprisonments, roastings, and burnings, under Henry VIII., Elizabeth, Mary, James L, and Charles I. The noblemen and gentlemen of th~ council of Plymouth wanted settlers for their lands in America, set on foot a negotiation with the persecuted fugitive religionists abroad, promised them liberty of conscience, exemption from all jurisdiction, ecclesiastic, civil, and political, except allegiance to the king, and the tribute, moderate, surely, of one fifth of gold and silver ore. This char- ter was procured by the council at Plymouth, and displayed off as a lure to the persecuted, fugitive Englishmen abroad ; and they were completely taken into the snare, as Charles II. con- vinced them in the first year of his actual, and the twelfth of his imaginary reign. Sir Josiah Child, enemy as he was, has stated, in the paragraphs quoted from him in a former letter, fairly and candidly the substance of these facts.

Our ancestors had been so long abroad, that they had ac- quired comfortable establishments, especially in Holland, that singular region of toleration, that glorious asylum for persecuted Huguenots and Puritans, that country where priests have been eternally worrying one another, and alternately teasing the go- vernment to persecute their antagonists, but where enlightened statesmen have constantly and intrepidly resisted their wild fanaticism.

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The first charter, the charter of James I., is more like a treaty between independent sovereigns than like a charter or grant of privileges from a sovereign to his subjects. Our ancestors were tempted by the prospect and promise of a government of their own, independent in religion, government, commerce, ma- nufactures, and every thing else, excepting one or two articles of trifling importance.

Independence of English church and state, was the funda- mental principle of the first colonization, has been its general principle for two hundred years, and now, I hope, is past dis- pute.

Who, then, was the author, inventor, discoverer of inde- pendence ? The only true answer must be the first emigrants, and the proof of it is the charter of James I. When we say, that Otis, Adams, Mayhew, Henry, Lee, Jefferson, &c, were authors of independence, we ought to saythey were only awakeners and revivers of the original fundamental principle of colonization.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 23 September, 1818.

If, in our search of principles, we have not been able to inves- tigate any moral, philosophical, or rational foundation for any claim of dominion or property in America, in the English na- tion, their Parliament, or even in their king; if the whole appears a mere usurpation of fiction, fancy, and superstition, what was the right to dominion or property in the native In- dians?

Shall we say that a few handfuls of scattering tribes of savages have a right of dominion and property over a quarter of this globe capable of nourishing hundreds of millions of happy human beings? Why had not Europeans a right to come and hunt and fish with them ?

The Indians had a right to life, liberty, and property in com- mon with all men ; but what right to dominion or property beyond these ? Every Indian had a right to his wigwam, his armor, his utensils ; when he had burned the woods about him,

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and planted his corn and beans, his squashes and pompions, all these were his undoubted right ; but will you infer from this, that he had right of exclusive dominion and property over immense regions of uncultivated wilderness that he never saw, that he might have the exclusive privilege of hunting and fish- ing in them, which he himself never expected or hoped to enjoy ? These reflections appear to have occurred to our ancestors, and their general conduct was regulated by them. They do not seem to have had any confidence in their charter, as con- veying any right, except against the king who signed it. They considered the right to be in the native Indians. And, in truth, all the right there was in the^case lay there. They accordingly

j^spected the Indian wigwams and poor plantations, their clam- banks and muscle-banks and oyster-banks, and all their pro- perty.

Property in land, antecedent to civil society, or the social compact, seems to have been confined to actual possession and power of commanding it. It is the creature of convention, of social laws and artificial order. Our ancestors, however, did not amuse, nor puzzle themselves with these refinements.

• They considered the Indians as having rights ; and they entered into negotiations with them, purchased and paid for

^their rights and claims, whatever they were, and procured deeds, grants, and quitclaims of all their lands, leaving them their habitations, arms, utensils, fishings, huntings, and planta- tions. There is scarcely a litigation at law concerning a title to land that may not be traced to an Indian deed. I have in my possession, somewhere, a parchment copy of a deed of Massasoit,1 of the township of Braintree incorporated by the legislature in one thousand six hundred and thirty-nine. And this was the general practice through the country, and has been to this day through the continent. In short, I see not how the Indians could have been treated with more equity or humanity

than they have been in general in North America. The histo- ries of Indian wars have not been sufficiently regarded.

When Mr. Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay first

1 Slight inaccuracies occur here. The deed is a deed of release, in 1665, from Wampatuck, the son of Chickatabut, deceased, of all lands in Braintree, with certain exceptions therein named, granted by his predecessors. The township •was incorporated in 1640.

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appeared, one of the most common criticisms upon it was the slight, cold, and unfeeling manner in which he passed over the Indian wars. I have heard gentlemen the best informed in the history of the country say, " he had no sympathy for the suffer- ings of his ancestors. Otherwise he could not have winked out of sight one of the most important, most affecting, afflict- ing, and distressing branches of the history of his country."

There is somewhere in existence, as I hope and believe, a manuscript history of Indian wars, written by the Reverend Samuel Niles, of Braintree. Almost sixty years ago, I was an humble acquaintance of this venerable clergyman, then, as I be- lieve, more than fourscore years of age. He asked me many questions, and informed me, in his own house, that he was endea- voring to recollect and commit to writing a history of Indian . wars, in his own time, and before it, as far as he could collect information. This history he completed and prepared for the press ; but no printer would undertake it, or venture to pro- pose a subscription for its publication. Since my return from Europe, I inquired of his oldest son, the Honorable Samuel Niles, of Braintree, on a visit he made me at my own house, what was become of that manuscript. He laughed, and said it was still safe in the till of a certain trunk ; but no encouragement had ever appeared for its publication. Ye liberal Christians ! Laugh not at me, nor frown upon me, for thus reviving the memory of your once formidable enemy. I was then no more of a disciple of his theological science than ye are now. But I then revered and still revere the honest, virtuous, and pious man. Fas est et ab hoste doceri. And his memorial of facts might be of great value to this country.1

What infinite pains have been taken and expenses incurred in treaties, presents, stipulated sums of money, instruments of agriculture, education, what dangerous and unwearied labors, to converl these poor, ignorant savages to Christianity! And,

alas! with how little success! The Indians are as bigoted to their religion as the Mahometans are to their Koran, the Hin- doos to their Shaster, the Chinese to Confucius, the Romans to their saints and angels, or the Jews to Moses and the Prophets. It is a principle of religion, at bottom, which inspires the Indians

i

A part of this history has been published by the Historical Society of Mas- sachusetts, in their Transactions, vol. vi. of the third series. VOL. X. 31

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with such an invincible aversion both to civilization and Christ- ianity. The same principle has excited their perpetual hostilities against the colonists and the independent Americans.

If the English nation, their Parliaments, and all their kings, have appeared to be totally ignorant of all these things, or at least to have vouchsafed no consideration upon them; if we, good, patriotic Americans, have forgotten them, Mr. Otis had not. / He enlarged on the merits of our ancestors in undertaking so perilous, arduous, and almost desperate an enterprise, in disforesting bare creation, in conciliating and necessarily con- tending with Indian natives, in purchasing rather than con- quering a quarter of the globe at their own expense, at the sweat of their own brows, at the hazard and sacrifice of their own lives, without the smallest aid, assistance, or comfort from the government of England, or from England itself as a nation ; on the contrary, constant jealousy, envy, intrigue against their charter, their religion, and all their privileges. Laud, the pious tyrant, dreaded them, as if he foresaw they would overthrow his religion.

Mr. Otis reproached the nation, parliaments, and kings, with injustice, ungenerosity, ingratitude, cruelty, and perfidy in all their conduct towards this country, in a style of oratory that I never heard equalled in this or any other country.1

THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, 13 November, 1818.

The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event,3 of which your letter of October 20th had given me ominous

1 By comparison of this sketch of Mr. Otis's speech with that taken at the time, vol. ii. pp. 521 -525, as well as with Mr. Otis's published writings, it is difficult to resist the belief that Mr. Adams insensibly infused into this work much of the learning and of the breadth of views belonging to himself. It looks

a little as Raphael's labor might be supposed to look, if he bad undertaken to simw how LVrug'mo [minted. h has a historical value independently of the generous endeavor to do justice to a man who had, at the moment, fallen into discredit and oblivion, most undeservedly. Later historians are giving him his fittino; position. ~ the death of Mrs. Adams.

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foreboding. Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have taught me that, for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the only medicines. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more, where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both that the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same cerement our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love and never lose again. God bless you and support you under your heavy affliction.

To John Taylor (part 8)

Thomas Jefferson.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 8 December, 1818.

Your letter of November 13th gave great delight, not only by the divine consolation it afforded me under my great affliction, but as it gave me full proof of your restoration to health.

While you live, I seem to have a bank at Monticello, on which I can draw for a letter of friendship and entertainment , when I please.

I know not how to pro ve^ physically- that we shall meet and know each other in a future state ; nor does revelation, as I can find, give us any positive assurance of such a felicity. My rea- sons for believing it, as I do most undoubtedly, are Nthat I can- not conceive \ such a being could make such a species as the rl human^merely to live and die on this earth. If I did not be- lieve a future state, I should believe in no God. This universe, this all, this to tv&v, would appear, with all its swelling pomp, a boyish fire-work. l AncL.if there be a future state, why should the Almighty dissolve forever all the tender ties which unite us so delightfully in this world, and forbid us to see each other in the next?

••

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■

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Trumbull, with a band of associates, drew me, by the cords of old friendship, to see his picture, on Saturday, where I got a great cold. The air of Faneuil Hall is changed. I have not been used to catch cold there.

Sick or well, the friendship is the same of your old acquaint- ance.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR,

Quincy, 9 February, 1819.

In your last letter you consider me in debt, and I will not dispute it.

You seem to wish me to write something to diminish the fame of Sam Adams, to show that he was not a man of pro- found learning, a great lawyer, a man of vast reading, a com- prehensive statesman. In all this, I shall not gratify you.

Give me leave to tell you, my friend, that you have conceived prejudices against that great character ; and I wonder not at it. At present, I shall make only one observation. Samuel Adams, to my certain knowledge, from 1758 to 1775, that is, for seven- teen years, made it his constant rule to watch the rise of every brilliant genius, to seek his acquaintance, to court his friendship, to cultivate his natural feelings in favor of his native country, to warn him against the hostile designs of Great Britain, and to fix his affections and reflections on the side of his native country. I could enumerate a list, but I will confine myself to a few. John Hancock, afterwards President of Congress and Governor of the State ; Dr. Joseph Warren, afterwards Major- General of the militia of Massachusetts, and the martyr of Bunker's Hill; Benjamin Church, the poet and the orator, once a pretended, if not a real patriot, but, afterwards, a monument of the frailty of human nature ; Josiah Quincy, the Boston Cicero, the great orator in the body meetings, the author of the Observations on the Boston Port bill, and of many publications in the newspapers. I will stop here for the present. And, now, I will take the liberty of perfect friendship to add, that, if your Judge Minot, your Fisher Ames, or your honorable senator, Josiah Quincy the third, had been as intimately acquainted

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with Samuel Adams, as Hancock, Warren, and Josiah Quincy the second, they would have been as ardent patriots as he was. If Samuel Adams was not a Demosthenes in oratory, nor had the learning of a Mansfield in law, or the universal history of a Burke, he had the art of commanding the learning, the oratory, the talents, the diamonds of the first water that his country afforded, without anybody's knowing or suspecting he had it, but himself, and a very few friends.

I have much more to say concerning Samuel Adams, but I cannot write, and I am exhausted with dictating, and must content myself with adding that I am, and, I believe, ever shall be, your affectionate friend.

TO WILLIAM WILLIS.

Quincy, 21 February, 1819.

I thank you for your address to the New Bedford Auxiliary Society for the suppression of Intemperance, which I have read with pleasure and edification. It abounds in ingenuity and in- formation ; it is eloquent and pathetic, it is pious and virtuous ; it addresses itself to the understanding and the heart. A drunk- ard is the most selfish being in the universe ; he has no sense of modesty, shame, or disgrace ; he has no sense of duty, or sympathy of affection with his father or mother, his brother or sister, his friend or neighbor, his wife or children, no reverence for his God, no sense of futurity in this world or the other. All is swallowed up in the mad, selfish joy of the moment. Is it not humiliating that Mahometans and Hindoos should put to shame the whole Christian world by their superior examples of temperance ? Is it not degrading to Englishmen and Ameri- cans that they are so infinitely exceeded by the French in this cardinal virtue ? And is it not mortifying beyond all expres- sion that we, Americans, should exceed all other and millions of people in the world in this degrading, beastly vice of intem- perance ?

31*

366 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 23 February, 1819.

As you were so well acquainted with the philosophers of France, I presume the name and character of Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse is not unknown to you.

I have almost put out my eyes by reading two volumes of her letters, which, as they were printed in 1809, I presume you have read long ago. I confess I have never read any thing with more ennui, disgust, and loathing; the eternal repetition of mon dieu and mon ami,je vous aime,je vous aime eperdument, je vous aime d lafolie,je suis au desespoir, fespere la mort, je suis morte, je prend V opium, &c, &c.

She was constantly in love with other women's husbands, constantly violating her fidelity to her own keepers, constantly tormented with remorse and regrets, constantly wishing for death, and constantly threatening to put herself to death, &c, &c, &c. Yet this great lady was the confidential friend of M. Turgot, the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, the Duchess d'En- ville, M. Condorcet, the only lady who was admitted to the dinners which Madame Geoffrin made for the literati of France and the world, the intimate friend of Madame Boufilers, the open, acknowledged mistress of the great D' Alembert, and much admired by Marmontel.

If these letters and the fifteen volumes of De Grimm are to give me an idea of the amelioration of society, and government, and manners in France, I should think the age of reason had produced nothing much better than the Mahometans, the Ma- melukes, or the Hindoos, or the North American Indians have produced, in different parts of the world.

Festina lente, my friend, in all your projects of reformation. Abolish polytheism, however, in every shape, if you can, and unfrock every priest who teaches it, if you can.

To compensate, in some measure, for this crazy letter, I in- close to you Mr. Pickering's1 Essay on the Pronunciation of the Greek Language, which, very probably, you have received

1 Mr. John Pickering, distinguished for his learning and his literary pursuits in paths little explored in America, in his day.

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from various quarters before now, and with it, I pray you to accept assurances of the unabated friendship of your humble servant.

TO WILLIAM TUDOR.

Quincy, 7 March, 1819.

On the 20th of January, 1768, the House of Representatives appointed a committee to prepare a petition to the king, and letters to his ministers, and a letter to the agent. Knowing that such a committee was appointed, and that they were busily employed in preparing those representations, and meeting Mr. Otis one morning, I asked him, " How do you proceed with your petitions and letters ? " He answered, " I have drawn them all up, and given them to Sam to quieu whew them." Whether this word is Arabic or Seminole, I know not. I believe it was an oddity of his own invention. These letters were printed in London, by Almon, in 1768, in a pamphlet. These letters, from beginning to end, demonstrate the rough cast of James Otis and the polish and burnish of Samuel Adams. The first is a petition to the king. In every sentence of this petition the hand of Otis is visible ; in page 8, in this paragraph, particu- larly.

" With great sincerity permit us to assure your Majesty, that your subjects of this province ever have and still continue to acknowledge your Majesty's high court of Parliament the supreme legislative power of the whole empire ; the superintending authority of which is clearly admitted in all cases that can con- sist with the fundamental rights of nature and the constitution, to which your Majesty's happy subjects in all parts of your empire conceive they have a just and equitable claim."

The next letter is to the Earl of Shelburne. This letter, also, in every paragraph, demonstrates the hand of Mr. Otis. In page 15 : —

" It is the glory of the British constitution that it has its foundation in the law of God and nature. It is essentially a natural right, that a man shall quietly enjoy and have the sole disposal of his own property. This right is engrafted into the British constitution, and is familiar to the American subjects; and your lordship will judge whether any necessity can render it just and equitable in

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the nature of things, that the supreme legislative of the empire should impose duties, subsidies, talliages, and taxes, internal or external, for the sole purpose of raising a revenue, upon subjects that are not and cannot, considering their local circumstances, by any possibility be ecmally represented, and consequently whose consent cannot be had in Parliament. The security of right and pro- perty is the great end of government. Surely, then, such measures as tend to render right and property precarious, tend to destroy both property and government ; for these must stand or fall together. Property is admitted to have an existence in the savage state of nature; and, if it is necessary for the sup- port of savage life, it becomes by no means less so in civil society. The House entreat your lordship to consider whether a colonist can be conceived to have any property which he may call his own, if it may be granted away by any other body without his consent; and they submit to your lordship's judgment, whether this was not actually done, when the act for granting to his Majesty certain duties for paper, glass, and other articles, for the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue in America, was made. It is the judgment of Lord Coke, that the Par- liament of Great Britain cannot tax Ireland quia milites ad parliamentum non mittant; and Sir William Jones, an eminent jurist, declared it as his opinion to King Charles II., that he could no more grant a commission to levy money on his subjects in Jamaica, without their consent by an assembly, than they could discharge themselves from their allegiance to the crown."

1 have selected this paragraph merely as a specimen ; but every other sentence in the letter carries demonstrative marks of the hand of James Otis. The next letter was to General Conway, dated February 18th, 1768. This letter, also, bears indelible marks of the hand of James Otis. Page 22d: —

" The House is at all times ready to recognize his Majesty's high court of Parliament, the supreme legislative power over the whole empire. Its superin- tending authority in all cases consistent with the fundamental rules of the con- stitution, is as clearly admitted by his Majesty's subjects in this province as by those within the realm."

This paragraph is an infallible stamp of the then character of James Otis's opinions. This opinion was not mine. I could not and would not have consented to it, for long before this^

time I was fully convinced that Parliament had no legal and constitutional authority over us, in any case whatsoever. T>age 23 : ^~

" It is the glory of the British prince and the happiness of all his subjects, that their constitution hath its foundation in the immutable laws of nature, and as the supreme legislative, as well as the supreme executive, derives its authority from that constitution, it should seem that no laws can be made or executed that are repugnant to any essential law in nature. Hence, a British subject is hap- pily distinguished from the subjects of many other States, in a just and well- grounded opinion of his own safety, which is the perfection of political liberty."

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This whole paragraph is James Otis in perfection ; the sense of every line of it is his. It may be thought a minute criticism, but it is characteristic and infallible. Otis and the majority of the committee derived all authority from the constitution. Samuel Adams would have derived it only from the people; the people with him were every thing, and constitutions nothing. Otis and Adams, however, might have agreed in expression, for it is certain that no constitution can be made by any other power than the people. The letter proceeds, page 23 : —

" It is acknowledged to be an unalterable law in nature, that a man should have the free use and sole disposal of the fruit of his honest industry, subject to no control. The equity of this principle seems to have been too obvious to be misunderstood by those who framed the constitution, into which it is engrafted as an established law. It is conceived that this principle gave rise, in early time, to a representation in Parliament, where every individual in the realm has since been and is still considered by acts of Parliament as present by himself or by his representative of his own free election ; consequently the aid afforded there to the sovereign is not in the nature of a tribute, but the free and voluntary gift of all."

All the subsequent paragraphs of this letter carry indelible marks of Otis's hand, smoothed with the oily brush of Sam Adams. The next letter is to the Marquis of Rockingham, "January 22d, 1768. Page 28 : —

" Your lordship is pleased to say, that you will not adopt a system of arbitrary rule over the Colonies, nor do otherwise than strenuously resist, where attempts shall be made to throw off that dependency to which the Colonies ought to sub- mit. And your lordship, with great impartiality, adds, ' not only for the advan- tage of Great Britain, but for their own real happiness and safety.' This House, my Lord, have the honor heartily to join with you in sentiment ; and they speak the language of their constituents. So sensible are they of their happiness and safety, in their union with and dependence upon the mother country, that they would by no means be inclined to accept of an independency, if offered to them."

This was the sentiment of James Otis and of a majority of that committee and of their constituents ; but whether it was cordially the sentiment of Sam Adams at that time, I submit to the judgment of his grandson. I could not have consented to that paragraph without limitations and explanations. If we could have been sure of continuing our old connection, 1 should have preferred it to independence ; but rather than submit to the sovereign authority of Parliament, I would not only have

x

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accepted independence, if offered, but would have fought for it, if refused. Page 29th : —

"My Lord, the superintending power of that high court" (the Parliament) " over all his Majesty's subjects in the empire, and in all cases which can consist with the fundamental rules of the constitution, was never questioned in this province, nor, as the House conceive, in any other. But, in all free States the constitution is fixed. It is from thence that the supreme legislative, as well as the supreme executive, derives its authority ; neither, then, can break through the fundamental rules of the constitution without destroying their own founda- tion. It is humbly conceived, that all his Majesty's happy subjects, in every part of his wide extended dominions, have a just and equitable claim to the rights of that constitution, upon which government itself is formed, and by which sovereignty and allegiance are ascertained and limited. Your lordship will allow us to say, that it is an essential right of a British subject, engrafted into the constitution, or, if your lordship will admit the expression, a sacred and unalien- able natural right, quietly to enjoy and have the sole disposal of his own pro- perty."

This and all the subsequent paragraphs in this letter are but abridgments of the sentiments uttered by Otis in 1761, in his arguments against the execution of the dormant acts of trade^ The next letter is to Lord Camden, page 33 : —

"If in all free States the constitution is fixed, and the supreme legislative power of the nation from thence derives its authority, can that power overleap the bounds of the constitution without subverting its own foundation ? If the re- motest subjects are bound by the ties of allegiance, which this people and their forefathers have ever acknowledged, are they not by the rules of equity entitled to all the rights of that constitution, which ascertains and limits both sovereignty and allegiance ? If it is an essential, unalterable right in nature, engrafted into the British constitution as a fundamental law, and ever held sacred and irre- vocable by the subjects within the realm, that what is a man's own is absolutely his own and that no man hath a right to take it from him without his consent, may not the subjects of this province, with a decent firmness, which has always distinguished the happy subjects of Britain, plead and maintain this natural constitutional right ? The superintending authority of his Majesty's high court of Parliament over the whole empire, in all cases which can consist with the fundamental rights of the constitution, was never questioned in this province^ nor, as this House conceive, in any other."

Here, Mr. Otis, Mr. Adams, and the whole committee, are undoubtedly in an error • they made too ample a concession. The authority of Parliament had always been questioned and always disputed until the year 1675, when it was denied not only by Governor Leverett, but the legislature of the colony, and it was ever after questioned by the best informed

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and thinking men both in this province and in many others, if not in all : —

" But they entreat your lordship's reflection one moment on an act of Parlia- ment passed the last session, and another in the fourth of his present Majes- ty's reign, both imposing duties on Ins subjects in America, which, as they are imposed for the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, are, in effect, taxes. The position, that taxation and representation are inseparable, is founded on the immutable laws of nature ; but the Americans had no represent- ation in the Parliament, when they were taxed ; are they not then unfortunate in these instances, in having that separated, which God and nature had joined V "

Every other paragraph in the letter is demonstrative of the hand of Otis. Page 36 : —

"A power without a check is always unsafe, and in some future time may introduce an absolute government into America. The judges of the land here do not hold their commissions during good behavior; is it not, then, justly to be apprehended that, at so great a distance from the throne, the fountain of national justice, with salaries altogether independent of the people, an arbitrary rule may take effect, which shall deprive a bench of justice of its glory and the people of their security ? "

The next letter is to the Earl of Chatham, February 2d, 1768. This is principally a letter of compliment, but it may not be amiss to quote a sentence or two. Page 38 : —

" It must afford the utmost satisfaction to the distressed colonists to find your lordship so exjjlicitly declaring your sentiments in that grand principle in na- ture, that ' what a man hath honestly acquired, is absolutely and uncontrollably his own.' This principle is established as a fundamental rule in the British constitution, which eminently hath its foundation in the laws of nature ; and consequently it is the indisputable right of all men, more especially of a British subject, to be present in person, or by representation, in the body where he is taxed. But, however fixed your lordship and some others may be in this car- dinal point, it is truly mortifying to many of his Majesty's free and loyal subjects that even in the British Parliament, that sanctuary of liberty and justice, a different sentiment seems of late to have prevailed."

The rest of the letter is but a repetition of the complaints in former letters, and a representation of the merits of the colonies in all former times in the public service. The next is a letter to the commissioners of the treasury. This, in general, is a repetition of the substance of the former letters, a little varied in expression. Page 45 : — They complain of the duties levied by the offensive acts of Parliament, as imposed with the sole and express purpose of raising a revenue, and to be applied in the first place for the making a more certain and adequate provision

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for the charge of the administration of justice and support of civil government, &c, &c.

The next letter is a circular letter " to the speakers of the respective Houses of Representatives and Burgesses on this continent ; a copy of which was also sent to Dennis de Berdt, Esquire, their agent, by order of the House, that he might make use of it, if necessary, to prevent any misrepresentation of it in England." This letter is but a kind of recapitulation of the former letter.

The letter to the Earl of Shelburne, which follows, is dated January 22d, 1768. This letter relates to proceedings between Governor Bernard and the House, relative to a letter of his lordship which the House had been permitted to hear, but not to see, and relative to charges against them, which had been supposed to have been preferred by Bernard himself. 1 shall quote but one paragraph from their vindication of themselves for having left out the judges from their legislative council.

" The non-election of several gentlemen of distinguished character and station -was by no means the effect of party prejudice, private resentment, or motives still more blamable, but the result of calm reflection upon the danger that might accrue to our excellent constitution and the liberties of the people from too great a union of the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers of govern- ment, which, in the opinion of the greatest writers, ought always to be kept separate ; nor was this a new opinion, formed at a certain period, but it has been the prevailing sentiment of many of the most sensible and unexception- able gentlemen in the province for many years past, upon principles which your lordship's thorough knowledge of the constitution and the just balance of the several powers of government, this House is assured, will justify."

The last letter, dated January 12th, 1768, is to Dennis de Berdt, Esq., agent for the House. Page 59 : —

" The fundamental rules of the constitution are the grand security of all British subjects ; and it is a security, which they are all equally entitled to, in all parts of his Majesty's extended dominions. The supreme legislative in every free State derives its power from the constitution, by the fundamental rules of which it is bounded and circumscribed. As a legislative power is essentially requisite, where any powers of government are exercised, it is conceived the several legislative bodies in America were erected, because their existence and the free exercise of their power, within their several limits, are essentially im- portant and necessary to preserve to his Majesty's subjects in America the advantages of the fundamental laws of the constitution. When we mention the rights of the subjects in America, and the interest we have in the British con- stitution, in common with all other British subjects, we cannot, justly be suspected of the most distant thought of an independency on Great Britain. Some, we

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know, have imagined this of the colonists; and others, perhaps, may have indus- triously propagated it, to raise groundless and unreasonable jealousies of them; but it is so far from the truth, that we apprehend the colonies would refuse it, if offered to them, and would even deem it the greatest misfortune to be obliged to accept it. They are tar from being insensible of their happiness in being connected with the mother country, and of the mutual benefits derived from it to both," &c. &c.

Here, Mr. Tudor, let me pause. Whatever Mr. J. Otis or Mr. S. Adams, or Colonel Otis, or Major Hawley, or Mr. Sa- muel Dexter, the illustrious committee who sanctioned these letters, thought at that time, I could not have given my unquali- fied assent to the foregoing paragraph, for I certainly had dis- tant thoughts of an independency of Great Britain, long before I ever saw the face of any one of that committee, even as long ago as the years 1755, 56 and 57. When living at Worcester, and knowing the miserable conduct of Shirley, Braddock, Lou- don, Webb, and others, in conducting the war and managing American affairs, I ardently wished that we had nothing to do with Great Britain, and firmly believed that the American colo- nies, if left to themselves, and suffered to unite, might defend themselves against the French, much better without Great Britain than with her. Now we will proceed with our quota- tions from the letter.

" It is the glory of the British constitution that it hath its foundation in the law of God and nature. It is an essential natural right that a man shall quietly enjoy and have the disposal of his own property. This right is adopted into the constitution. This natural and constitutional right is so familiar to the American subjects, that it would be difficult, if possible, to convince them that any neces- sity can render it just, equitable, and reasonable, in the nature of things, that the Parliament should impose duties, subsidies, talliages, and taxes upon them, internal or external, for the sole purpose of raising a revenue. The reason is obvious ; because they cannot be represented, and, therefore, their consent can- not be constitutionally had in Parliament."

They then remark upon the declaratory act, and the subse- quent revenue acts, which I pass over, to page 63 : —

" It is observable, that though many have disregarded life and contemned liberty, yet there are few men who do not agree, that property is a valuable acquisition, which ought to be held sacred. Many have fought and bled and died for this, who have been insensible to all other obligations. Those who ridicule the ideas of right and justice, faith and truth among men, will put a high value upon money. Property is admitted to have an existence, even in the savage state of nature. The bow, the arrow, and the tomahawk, the hunting VOL. X. 32

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and the fishing ground, are species of property as important to an American savage, as pearls, rubies, and diamonds are to the Mogul, or a Nabob in the east, or the lands, tenements, hereditaments, messuages, gold and silver of the Euro- peans. And, if property is necessary to the support of savage life, it is by no means less so in civil society. The Utopian schemes of levelling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the crown, are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional. Now, what property can the colonists be conceived to have, if their money may be granted away by others, without their consent ? "

To do justice to this letter, I must transcribe every word of it ; but I have already, you will think, transcribed too much, though every line is a diamond. We will pass to page 65 : —

"Our ancestors were in one respect not in so melancholy a situation as we, their posterity, are. In those times, the crown and the ministers of the crown, without the intervention of Parliament, demolished charters, and levied taxes on the colonies, at pleasure. Governor Andros, in the time of James II., de- clared that wherever an Englishman sets his foot, all he hath is the king's. And Dudley declared at the council board, and even on the sacred seat of justice, that the privilege of Englishmen not to be taxed without their consent, and the laws of England, would not follow them to the ends of the earth. It was also in those days declared in council, that the king's subjects in New England did not differ much from slaves, and that the only difference was, that they were not bought and sold. But there was even in those times an excellent attorney- general, Sir W. Jones, who was of another mind, and told king James that he could no more grant a commission to levy money on his subjects in Jamaica, though a conquered island, without their consent, by an assembly, than they could discharge themselves from their allegiance to the English crown. But the misfortune of the colonists at present is, that they are taxed by Parliament without their consent. This, while the Parliament continues resolved to tax us, will ever render our case, in one respect, more deplorable and remediless, under the best of kings, than that of our ancestors was, under the worst. They found relief by the interposition of Parliament ; but, by the intervention of that very power we are taxed, and can appeal for relief from their final decision to no power on earth ; for there is no power on earth above them."

For the rest of this admirable letter, I must refer you to the printed volume in which it is found, rich as it is, both in style and matter. Upon an attentive and careful review of all these letters, I can find nothing to ascribe to Mr. Adams. Every sentence and every word of them appears to me to be Mr. Otis's. They are but an abridgment, a concise compendium of Mr. Otis's argument against the execution of the acts of trade in 1761, seven years before these letters were written. If Mr. Otis himself had not informed me that he had given them all to Mr. Sam Adams to be revised, I should not have

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suspected that Mr. Adams had any thing to do in the compo- sition of them ; for Mr. Otis was as severe a critic, and as ca- pable of writing well, as any man of that time. He only did not love to revise, correct, and polish. If Mr. Adams had really any share in these compositions, it must have been only in the collocation of words. " Proper words in proper places," is a definition of style. Swift, in these four words, has expressed the essence of a learned, acute, and celebrated treatise of Dio- nysius Halicarnassensis concerning the arrangement of words. This arrangement of words is indeed a matter of great conse- quence. Hume, Robertson, and Gibbon, owed more their fame to this than to their accuracy or impartiality ; woe to the writer in this age of the world, who is rash enough to despise or neg- lect it !

TO JOHN TAYLOR, OF CAROLINE.

Quiney, 12 March, 1819.

Worthy Sir, — The painful difficulty of holding a pen, which has been growing upon me for many years, and now, in the middle of the eighty-fourth year of my age, has become insupportable, must be my apology, not only for terminating my strictures upon your Inquiry, but for the necessity I am now under of borrowing another hand to acknowledge the receipt of your polite and obliging letter of February 20th.1 I have never had but one opinion concerning banking, from the institution of the first, in Philadelphia, by Mr. Robert Morris and Mr. Gouverneur Morris, and that opinion has uniformly been that the banks have done more injury to the religion, morality, tran- quillity, prosperity, and even wealth of the nation, than they can have done or ever will do good. They are like party spirit, the delusion of the many for the interest of a few. I have always thought that Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Locke, a, hundred years ago, at least, had scientifically and demonstratively settled all questions of this kind. Silver and gold are but commodities, as much as wheat and lumber; the merchants who study the necessity, and feel out the wants of the community, can always

1 This letter is printed in vol. iii. p. 58, note.

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import enough to supply the necessary circulating currency, as they can broadcloth or sugar, the trinkets of Birmingham and Manchester, or the hemp of Siberia. I am old enough to have seen a paper currency annihilated at a blow in Massachusetts, in 1750, and a silver currency taking its place immediately, and supplying every necessity and every convenience. I cannot enlarge upon this subject; it has always been incomprehensible to me, that a people so jealous of their liberty and property as the Americans, should so long have borne impositions with patience and submission, which would have been trampled under foot in the meanest village in Holland, or undergone the fate of Wood's halfpence in Ireland. I beg leave to refer you to a work which Mr. Jefferson has sent me, translated by him- self from a French manuscript of the Count Destutt Tracy. His chapter " of money " contains the sentiments that I have entertained all my lifetime. I will quote only a few lines from the analytical table, page 21. " It is to be desired, that coins had never borne other names than those of their weight, and that the arbitrary denominations, called moneys of account, as <£, s., d., &Ci, had never been used. But when these denomi- nations are admitted and employed in transactions, to diminish the quantity of metal to which they answer, by an alteration of the real coins, is to steal ; and it is a theft which even injures him who commits it. A theft of greater magnitude and still more ruinous, is the making of paper money ; it is greater, be- cause in this money there is absolutely no real value ; it is more ruinous, because, by its gradual depreciation during all the time of its existence, it produces the effect which would be produced by an infinity of successive deteriorations of the coins. All these iniquities are founded on the false idea, that money is but a sign." Permit me to recommend this volume to your attentive perusal. •

Although an intimacy and a friendship existed between Mr. Patrick Henry and me in 1774, and continued till his death, yet I would not strip the laurels from other men to decorate his brows. Indulge me, Sir, in the vanity of inclosing to you a copy of an original letter from Mr. Henry to me, now in my hand, dated May 20th, 1776.1 I had sent him a copy of that

1 Printed in vol. iv. page 201.

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marble-covered pamphlet, which I once sent to you, entitled " Thoughts on Government," and it is of that he acknowledges the receipt, and expresses his opinion.

If you can contribute any thing, Sir, to convince or persuade this nation to adopt a more honest medium of commerce, you will have my most cordial wishes for your success.

TO J. H. TIFFANY.

Quincy, 31 March, 1819.

Your political chart is a happy thought, and an invention as useful as it is ingenious. Accept my best thanks for the pre- sent you have made me of it, and for your obliging favor of March 18th, which came to my hand but yesterday.

As I have always been convinced, that abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division in society, the time has been when I would have attended you with pleasure in your pursuit of correct de- finitions. Liberty and republic are two words which you have judiciously chosen ; but my forces are exhausted, and my days wellnigh spent. I therefore can be of no service to you.

Dr. Price has denned civil liberty, as distinguished from phy- sical, moral, and religious liberty, to be the power of a civil society to govern itself, by its own discretion, or by laws of its own making, by the majority in a collective body or by fair representations.

I would define liberty to be a power to do .as we would be done by. The definition of liberty to be the power of doing whatever the laws permit, meaning the' civil laws, does not appear to be satisfactory. But I would rather refer you to other writers than to any thing of my own. Sidney, Harrington, Locke, Montesquieu, and even Hobbes, are worth consulting, and many others.

Custom is said to be the standard of the meaning of words ; and for the purposes of common parlance it may answer well enough ; but when science is concerned, something more tech- nical must be introduced. The customary meanings of the

32*

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words republic and commonwealth have been infinite. They have been applied to every government* under heaven ; that of Turkey and that of Spain, as well as that of Athens and of Rome, of Geneva and San Marino. The strict definition of a republic is, that in which the sovereignty resides in more than one man. A democracy, then, is a republic, as well as an aris- tocracy, or any mixture of both.

The Federalist is a valuable work, and Mr. Madison's part in it as respectable as any other. But his distinction between a republic and a democracy, cannot be justified. A democracy is as really a republic as an oak is a tree, or a temple a build- ing. There are, in strictness of speech and in the soundest technical language, democratical and aristocratical republics, as well as an infinite variety of mixtures of both.

TO J. H. TIFFANY

Quincy, 30 April, 1819.

Of republics, the varieties are infinite, or at least as nume- rous as the tunes and changes that can be rung upon a com- plete set of bells. Of all the varieties, a democracy is the most natural, the most ancient, and the most fundamental and essen- tial.

In some writing or other of mine, I happened, currente calamo, to drop the phrase, " The word republic, as it is used, may sig- nify any thing, every thing, or nothing." For this escape, I have been pelted, for twenty or thirty years with as many stones as ever were thrown at St. Stephen, when St. Paul held the clothes of the stoners. But the aphorism is literal, strict, solemn truth. To speak technically, or scientifically, if you will, there are monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical republics. The government of Great Britain and that of Poland are as strictly republics as that of Rhode Island or Connecticut under their old charters. If mankind have a right to the voice of expe- rience, they ought to furnish that experience with pen and paper to write it, and an amanuensis to copy it.

I should have been extremely obliged to you, if you had

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favored me with Mr. Jefferson's sentiments upon the subject. As I see you have an inquiring mind, I sincerely wish you much pleasure, profit, and success in your investigations. I have had some pleasure in them, but no profit; and very little, if any, success.

In one of your letters, you say that my Defence has become rare. This is strange. Mr. Dilly published an edition of it in London. An edition of it was published in Boston, another in New York, another in Philadelphia, before the adoption of the present constitution of the national government, and before one line of the Federalist was printed. Since that, Mr. Cobbet, alias Porcupine, printed a large edition of the whole work in Philadelphia, and Mr. Stockdale, of Piccadilly, has published another large edition in London. It has been translated into the French and German languages. And what has become of all these copies ? Have they been torn up, or thrown away, to line trunks ?

TO ROBERT J. EVANS.

Quincy, 8 June, 1819.

I respect the sentiments and motives, which have prompted you to engage in your present occupation, so much, that I feel an esteem and affection for your person, as I do a veneration for your assumed signature of Benjamin Rush. The turpitude, the inhumanity, the cruelty, and the infamy of the African com- merce in slaves, have been so impressively represented to the public by the highest powers of eloquence, that nothing that I can say would increase the just odium in which it is and ought to be held. Every measure «*f prudence, therefore, ought to be assumed for the eventual total extirpation of slavery from the United States. If, however, humanity dictates the duty of adopting the most prudent measures for accomplishing so ex- cellent a purpose, the same humanity requires, that we should not inflict severer calamities on the objects of our commisera- tion than those which they at present endure, by reducing them to despair, or the necessity of robbery, plunder, assassination, and massacre, to preserve their lives, some provision for furnish-

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ing them employment, or some means of supplying them with the necessary comforts of life. The same humanity requires that we should not by any rash or violent measures expose the lives and property of those of our fellow-citizens, who are so unfortunate as to be surrounded with these fellow-creatures, by hereditary descent, or by any other means without their own fault. I have, through my whole life, held the practice of slavery in such abhorrence, that I have never owned a negro or any other slave, though I have lived for many years in times, when the practice was not disgraceful, when the best men in my vicinity thought it not inconsistent with their character, and when it has cost me thousands of dollars for the labor and sub- sistence of free men, which I might have saved by the purchase of negroes at times when they were very cheap.

If any thing should occur to me, which I think may assist you, I will endeavor to communicate it to you ; but at an age, when

" From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show,"

very little can be expected from, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

H^ ^ f\ Quincy, 22 June, 1819.

May I inclose you one of the greatest curiosities and one of the deepest mysteries that ever occurred to me ? It is in the Essex Register^ of June 5th, 1819. It is entitled the Raleigh Register Declaration of Independence. How is it possible that this paper should have been concealed from me to this day ? Had it been communicated to me in the time of it, I know, if you do not know, that it would have been printed in every whig newspaper upon this continent. You know, that if I had possessed it, I would have made the hall of Congress echo and reiicho with it fifteen months before your Declaration of Inde- pendence, it What a poor, ignorant, malicious, short-sighted, crapulous mass is Tom Paine's " Common Sense^' in compa-

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rison with this paper! Had I known it, I would have com- mented upon itffrom the day you entered Congress till the fourth of July, 1776.c3f^The genuine sense of America at that moment was never so well expressed before^nor since. Richard Caswell, William Hooper, and Joseph Hewes, the then repre- sentatives of North Carolina in Congress, you knew as well as I, and you know that the unanimity of the States finally de- pended on the vote of Joseph Hewes, and was finally deter- mined by him, ^nd yet history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine ! Sat verbum sapienti.1

TO WILLIAM BENTLEY.

Quincy, 15 July, 1819.

A few weeks ago I received an Essex Register, containing resolutions of independence by a county in North Carolina, fif- teen months before the resolution of independence in Congress. I was struck with so much astonishment on reading this docu- ment, that I could not help inclosing it immediately to Mr. Jefferson, who must have seen it, in the time of it, for he has copied the spirit, the sense, and the expressions of it verbatim, into his Declaration of the 4th of July, 1776. Had I seen that declaration at the time of it, it should have been printed in every whig newspaper on this continent. Its total concealment from me is a mystery, which can be unriddled only by the timidity of the delegates in Congress from North Carolina, by the influence of Quakers and proprietary gentlemen in Penn- sylvania, the remaining art and power of toryism throughout the continent at that time. That declaration would have had more effect than Tom Paine's " Common Sense," which ap- peared so long after it. I pray you to intercede with the print- ers to transmit me half a dozen copies of that Register, which contains it, and I will immediately transmit the money for them, whatever they may cost. That paper must be more universally made known to the present and future generation.

1 Mr. Jefferson's answer is printed in Mr. Randolph's collection, vol. iv. p. 314. He called the Mecklenburg paper " a very unjustifiable quiz."

382 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO RICHARD BLAND LEE.

Quincy, 11 August, 1819.

I thank you for your oration on the red letter day in our national calendar, which I have read with mingled emotions. An invisible spirit seemed to suggest to me, in my left ear, " nil admirari, nil contemner e ; " another spirit, at my right elbow, seemed to whisper in my ear, " dig-ito compesce labellum" But I will open my lips, and will say that your modesty and deli- cacy have restrained you from doing justice to your own name, that band of brothers, intrepid and unchangeable, who, like the Greeks at Thermopylae, stood in the gap, in defence of their country, from the first glimmering of the Revolution in the horizon, through all its rising light, to its perfect day.

Thomas Lee, on whose praises Chancellor Wythe delighted to dwell, who has often said to me that Thomas Lee was the most popular man in Virginia, and the delight of the eyes of every Virginian, but who would not engage in public life; Richard Henry Lee, whose merits are better known and acknow- ledged, and need no illustration from me; Francis Lightfoot Lee, a man of great reading well understood, of sound judg- ment, and inflexible perseverance in the cause of his country ; William Lee, who abandoned an advantageous establishment in England from attachment to his country, and was able and faithful in her service; Arthur Lee, a man of whom I can- not think without emotion ; a man too early in the service of his country to avoid making a multiplicity of enemies ; too honest, upright, faithful, and intrepid to be popular ; too often obliged by his principles and feelings to oppose Machiavelian intrigues, to avoid the destiny he suffered. This man never had justice done him by his country in his lifetime, and I fear he never will have by posterity. His reward cannot be in this world.

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TO WILLIAM BENTLEY.

Quincy, 21 August, 1819.

I thank you for the Raleigh Register and National Intelli- gencer. The plot thickens.

The name of the Cato of North Carolina, the honest, hoary- headed, stern, determined republican, Macon, strikes me with great force. But here is an accumulation of miracles.

1. The resolutions are such as every county in the thirteen colonies ought to have taken at that moment.

2. -The Suffolk resolves, taken about the same time, were sufficiently famous, and adopted by Congress.

3. I was on social, friendly terms with Caswell, Hooper, and Hewes, every moment of their existence in Congress ; with Hooper, a Bostonian, and a son of Harvard, intimate and fami- liar. Yet, from neither of the three did the slightest hint of these Mecklenburg resolutions ever escape.

4. Is it possible that such resolutions should have escaped the vigilant attention of the scrutinizing, penetrating minds of Patrick Henry, R. H. Lee, Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Gadsden, Mr. Rutledge, Mr. Jay, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Samuel Adams ? Hand credo. I cannot believe that they were known to one member of Congress on the fourth of July, 1776.

5. Either these resolutions are a plagiarism from Mr. Jeffer- son's Declaration of Independence, or Mr. Jefferson's Declara- tion of Independence is a plagiarism from those resolutions. I could as soon believe that the dozen flowers of the Hydran- gea, now before my eyes, were the work of chance, as that the Mecklenburg resolutions and Mr. Jefferson's Declaration were not derived the one from the other.

6. The declaration of one of the most respectable of the inha- bitants of this city, Raleigh, ought to be produced.

7. The papers of Dr. Hugh Williamson ought to be searched for the copy sent to him, and the copy sent to General W. R. Davie. The Declaration of Independence made by Congress on the fourth of July, 1776, is a document, an instrument, a record that ought not to be disgraced or trifled with.

8. That this fiction is ancient and not modern, seems to be

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ascertained. It is of so much more importance that it should be thoroughly investigated.1

I know not whether I have written the tenth part of the reflections that have occurred to me ; but I have written more than my eyes and nerves can well bear.

TO WILLIAM E. RICHMOND.

Quincy, 14 December, 1819.

I have received your polite favor of the 10th, the subject of which is of great importance.

I am old enough to remember the war of 1745, and its end ; the war of 1755, and its close ; the war of 1775, and its termi- nation ; the war of 1812, and its pacification. Every one of these wars has been followed by a general distress ; embarrass- ment on commerce, destruction of manufactures, fall of the price of produce and of lands, similar to those we feel at the present day, and all produced by the same causes. I have wondered that so much experience has not taught us more caution. The British merchants and manufacturers, immediately after the peace, disgorged upon us all their stores of merchan- dise and manufactures, not only without profit, but at certain loss for a time, with the express purpose of annihilating all our manufacturers, and ruining all our manufactories. The cheap- ness of these articles allures us into extravagance and luxury, involves us in debt, exhausts our resources, and at length pro- duces universal complaint.

What would be the consequence of the abolition of all re- strictive, exclusive, and monopolizing laws, if adopted by all the nations of the earth, I pretend not to say. But while all the nations, with whom we have intercourse, persevere in cherish- ing such laws, I know not how we can do ourselves justice without introducing, with great prudence and discretion, how- ever, some portions of the same system.

1 This subject has been since very formally investigated by a committee of the General Assembly of North Carolina. Their report made in 1830-31, is printed in Force's American Archives, fourth series, vol. ii. c. 855, note. A copy of the_ paper has also been found in the archives of the British government. No his- . toxical fact is better established.

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The gentlemen of Philadelphia have published a very import- ant volume upon the subject, which I recommend to your care- ful perusal. Other cities are cooperating in the same plan. I heartily wish them all success, so far as this at least, that Con- gress may take the great subject into their most serious delibe- ration, and decide upon it according to their most mature wisdom. The publications upon this subject in this country, within the year past, have been very luminous, and I recom- mend them all to your careful investigation. Upon the subject of political economy at large, I know of nothing better than a volume lately printed at Washington, written by Senator Tracy, in France, but never published there ; well translated from a manuscript, by Mr. Jefferson. It contains the pith and marrow of the science ; the great works of Sir James Stuart, of Adam Smith, and the lesser work of the Chevalier Pinto, are well worth your study, though I believe you will not agree with them in all things. The writings of Dr. Quesnay, and his dis- ciples in France, may be worth your research and perusal, be- cause some ideas may be collected from them, though I con- fess I could never perfectly understand them, nor agree with them in many things which I thought I did understand.

Your prospectus of a manufacturer's journal promises to be useful, and you appear to be very well qualified to conduct it ; but I would not advise you to sacrifice your profession to it, because a man of talents and integrity at the bar is a character of great respectability and utility among his fellow-citizens.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 18 December, 1819.

I must answer your great question of the 10th in the words of D'Alembert to his correspondent, who asked him what is matter; " Je vous avow que je vUen sais rienP In some part of my life I read a great work of a Scotchman on the court of Augustus, in which, with much learning, hard study, and fa- tiguing labor, he undertook to prove that, had Brutus and Cas-

vol. x. 33 y

386 CORRESPONDENCE.

sius been conquerors, they would have restored virtue and liberty to Rome. Mais je n'en crois rien. Have you ever found in history one single example of a nation thoroughly corrupted, that was afterwards restored to virtue ? And without virtue, there can be no political liberty.

If I were a Calvinist, I might pray that God, by a miracle of divine grace, would instantaneously convert a whole contami- nated nation from turpitude to purity ; but even in this I should be inconsistent, for the fatalism of Mahometans, Materialists, Atheists, Pantheists, and Calvinists, and Church of England articles, appears to me to render all prayer futile and absurd. The French and the Dutch in our day have attempted reforms and revolutions. We know the results, and I fear the English reformers will have no better success.

Will you tell me how to prevent riches from becoming the effects of temperance and industry ? Will you tell me how to prevent riches from producing luxury ? Will you tell me how to prevent luxury from producing effeminacy, intoxication, ex- travagance, vice and folly?

When you will answer me these questions, I hope I may venture to answer yours. Yet all these things ought not to discourage us from exertion, for, with my friend Jebb, I believe no effort in favor of virtue is lost, and all good men ought to struggle, both by their counsel and example.

The Missouri question, I hope, will follow the other waves

under the ship, and do no harm. I know it is high treason to express a doubt of the perpetual duration of our vast American empire and our free institutions ; and I say as devoutly as father Paul, " Esto perpetual" but I am sometimes Cassandra enough to dream that another Hamilton, another Burr, might rend this mighty fabric in twain, or, perhaps, into a leash, and a few more choice spirits of the same stamp might produce as many nations in North America as there are in Europe.

To return to the Romans. I never could discover that they possessed much virtue or real liberty. Their patricians were, in general, griping usurers and tyrannical creditors in all ages. Pride, strength, and courage, were all the virtues that composed their national character. A few of their nobles affecting sim- plicity, frugality, and piety, perhaps really possessing them, acquired popularity among the plebeians, extended the power

CORRESPONDENCE. 387

and dominions of the republic, and advanced in glory till riches and luxury came in, sat like an incubus on the republic, " vic- tamque ulciscitur orbem"

Our winter sets in a fortnight earlier than usual, and is pretty severe. I hope you have fairer skies and milder air. Wishing your health may last as long as your life, and your life as long as you desire it, I am, &c.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 17 January, 1820.

When Harris was returned a member of Parliament, a friend introduced him to Chesterfield, whom he had never seen. " So, Mr. Harris," said his lordship, " you are a member of the House of Commons. You have written upon universal and scientific grammar; you have written upon art, upon music, painting, and poetry ; — and what has the House of Commons to do with art, or music, or painting, or poetry, or taste ? Have not you written upon virtue and happiness ? " "I have, my lord, in- dulged myself in speculations upon those subjects." "And what the devil has the House of Lords to do with either hap- piness or virtue ? " This idle tale, which I had from the mouth of Sir James Harris, now Lord Malmesbury, I repeat to you for a preface to another idle tale, which I am about to relate to you, namely — Too much confined by the cold weather, I have for a few' days past whiled away the time in reading these pieces of Harris, and another, entitled Philo- sophical Arrangements. The Dialogue upon Happiness is one of the first pieces of morals I ever read. The Hermes is acknowledged a masterpiece; the others, under the appear- ance of immense learning and much ingenuity, contain little information, and few ideas that are new. But I have read them with the fond delight of a young lady reading a romance, on account of the investigation of the sentiments of ancient philosophers, poets, and orators, and the quotations from them in their own words — such as are by David Williams called the beautiful rags and tatters of antiquity.

By Philosophical Arrangements, he says, he means categories

1

388 CORRESPONDENCE.

or predicaments, or general or universal truths, or the first phi- losophy ; but I have been most amused with his endeavors to find the meaning of the ancient philosophers concerning the first principles or elements of matter, which they reduce down to particles so nice and minute as to become geometrical points ; and this seems to me to be much more orthodox philosophy and mathematics, too, than Buffon's " Molecules organiques" or Epicurus's atoms. With such games at push-pin have the child- ish philosophers of all ages diverted and distracted themselves, not once considering that neither human sense, nor imagination, nor intellect, was ever formed to comprehend all things. /Harris's Dialogue on Happiness is worth all the metaphysical researches of philosophers, from the beginning of the world, into the nature of matter and spirit, of energy, of power, of activity, of motion, or any such thing. When we say God is a spirit, we know what we mean, as well as we do when we say that the pyra- mids of Egypt are matter. Let us be content, therefore, to believe him to be a spirit, that is, an essence that we know no- thing of, in which originally and necessarily reside all energy, all power, all capacity, all activity, all wisdom, all goodness./'

Behold the creed and confessionof faith of your ever affec- tionate friend.

TO ELIHU MARSHALL.

Quincy, 7 March, 1820.

Friend Marshall, — I thank you for the honor you have done me by your letter of the 16th of last month, and for the valuable present of the American Tutor's Assistant, which I believe to be a valuable book. At the moment I received these favors, I was deeply engaged in reading Cato Major, and I could scarce help thinking that I was reading Tillotson, Sher- lock, Butler, or our Buckminster or Everett ; for there are few Christian theologians who teach better doctrines or express more ravishing feelings. I can read Cicero de Senectute, be- cause I have read him for almost seventy years, and seem to have him almost by heart ; but he never appeared so delightful to me as on this last reading, which may be partly owing to

CORRESPONDENCE. 389

Cato's age so near my own ; he was in his eighty -fourth, and I in my eighty-fifth year.

I never delighted much in contemplating commas and colons, or in spelling or measuring syllables ; but now, while reading Cato, if I attempt to look at these little objects, I find my ima- gination, in spite of all my exertions, roaming in the milky way, among the nebulae, those mighty orbs, and stupendous orbits of suns, planets, satellites, and comets, which compose this incomprehensible universe ; and, if I do not sink into no- thing in my own estimation, I feel an irresistible impulse to fall on my knees, in adoration of the power that moves, the wisdom that directs, and the benevolence that sanctifies this wonderful whole.

As to writing a review of your volume, it is out of the ques- tion. My eyes are not able to read, nor my hand to write it ; but as IJiayeJbur grandchildren gone to school this morning where there are between one and two hundred scholars, I have given it to them to carry to their master, who is very capable of appreciating its value.

TO SAMUEL MILLER.

Quincy, 8 July, 1820.

You know not the gratification you have given me by your kind, frank, and candid letter. I must be a very unnatural son to entertain any prejudices against the Calvinists, or Calvinism, according to your confession of faith ; for my father and mother, my uncles and aunts, and all my predecessors, from our com- mon ancestor, who landed in this country two hundred years ago, wanting five months, were of that persuasion. Indeed, I have never known any better people than the Calvinists. Nev- ertheless, I must acknowledge that I cannot class myself under that denomination. My opinions, indeed, on religious subjects ought not to be of any consequence to any but myself. To develop them, and the reasons for them, would require a folio larger than Willard's Body of Divinity, and, after all, I might scatter darkness rather than light. Before I was twelve years of age, I necessarily became a reader of polemical writings of

33*

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religion, as well as politics, and for more than seventy years I have indulged myself in that kind of reading, as far as the wan- dering, anxious, and perplexed kind of life, which Providence has compelled me to pursue, would admit. I have endeavored to obtain as much information as I could of all the religions which have ever existed in the world. Mankind are by nature religious creatures. I have found no nation without a reli- gion, nor any people without the belief of a supreme Being. I have been overwhelmed with sorrow to see the natural love and fear of that Being wrought upon by politicians to pro- duce the most horrid cruelties, superstitions, and hypocrisy, from the sacrifices to Moloch down to those of Juggernaut, and the sacrifices of the kings of Whidah and Ashantee. The great result of all my researches has been a most diffusive and com- prehensive charity. I believe with Justin Martyr, that all good men are Christians, and I believe there have been, and are, good men in all nations, sincere and conscientious. That you

and I shall meet in a better world, I have no more doubt than

I have that we now exist on the same globe. If my natural reason did not convince me of this, Cicero's dream of Scipio, and his essays on friendship and old age, would have been sufficient for the purpose. But Jesus has taught us, that a future state is a social state, when he promised to prepare places in his father's house of many mansions for his disciples.

By the way, I wonder not at the petition of the pagans to the emperor, that he would call in and destroy all the writings of Cicero, because they tended to prepare the mind of the people, as well as of the philosophers, to receive the Christian religion.

My kind compliments to Mrs. Miller, and thanks for the obliging visit she made me. I interest myself much in her family. Her father was one of my most intimate friends in an earlier part of his life, though we differed in opinion on the French Revolution, in the latter part of his days. I find that differences of opinion in politics, and even in religion, make but little alteration in my feelings and friendships when once con- tracted.

I have not received Mr. Sergeant's speech, nor the sketch.

CORRESPONDENCE. 391

(

TO CHARLES' HOLT.

Quincy, 4 September, 1820.

The universal vanity of human nature must have obtruded itself on your observation, in the course of your experience, so forcibly, that you will easily imagine that your letter of August 27th has been received and read with much pleasure ; besides, you know that the just always rejoiceth over every ^ sinner that repenteth. Your letter,1 however, did not surprise me, because I had received many such testimonials from other persons. For example, Mr. Matthew Carey has, in letters to me, acknowledged the same error, and has lately repented to me, in person and in conversation, and, moreover, has repeat- edly printed handsome encomiums on my Defence of the Ame- rican Constitutions, which he had many years vilified, before he had read it. And, what is more agreeably surprising to me, Judge Cooper, the learned and ingenious friend of Dr. Priestley, has lately published, in the Portfolio, a very handsome eulogium of that work. And what, perhaps, will be considered more than all, the learned and scientific President Jefferson has, in letters to me, acknowledged that I was right, and that he was wrong.2

My plain writings have been misunderstood by many, misre- presented by more, and vilified and anathematized by multitudes who never read them. They have, indeed, nothing to recom- mend them but stubborn facts, simple principles, and irresistible inferences from both, without any recommendation from ambi- tious ornaments of style, or studied artifices of arrangement; notwithstanding all which, amidst all the calumnies they have occasioned, I have the consolation to know, and the injustice I

1 Mr. Holt, in 1800, was editor of the Bee, a partisan newspaper, published in Connecticut, and was imprisoned, under the sedition law, for a libel. In his letter he says: "I then wrote and published much against you, Sir, as an aristocrat in principle or royalist at heart, no friend to the " rights of man," and hostile to the " republicanism " of the United States. I had not read your " Defence of the American Constitutions," nor much of any political history, and but very little in the book of living experience. But, Sir, I have since, although publisher of a political gazette sixteen years after, seen and felt abun- dant cause for discarding the impressions I then entertained, and adopting opinions gathered from all observation and confirmed by all experience."

a Perhaps this is too general a statement. The allusion is to the opposite opinions entertained of the probable results of the French Revolution.

A

392 CORRESPONDENCE.

have suffered ought to excuse me in saying, that they have been translated into the French, German, and Spanish languages; that they are now contributing to introduce representative go- vernments into various nations of Europe, as they have before contributed to the introduction and establishment of our Ame- rican Constitutions, both of the individual States and the nation at large ; and that they are now employed, and have been, in assisting the South Americans in establishing their liberties, from the days of Miranda to this hour. I may say, with Lord Bacon, that I bequeathe my writings to foreign nations, and to my own country, after a few generations shall be overpast.

This letter has so much the appearance of vanity, that I pray you not to publish it in print ; though calumny, with her hun- dred cat-o'-nine-tails, has lashed me so long, that my skin has become almost as hard and insensible as steel, and her severest strokes would scarcely be felt. After all, I sincerely thank you for your frank and candid letter, which does you much honor, and is a full atonement for all your errors in relation to me, who am, Sir, your sincere well-wisher and most humble servant.

TO HENRY CHANNING.

Quincy, 3 November, 1820.

I have received your favor of the 26th of October, with the copy of the Connecticut constitution. This is the second copy which I have received from you, and I am afraid it is the first that has been acknowledged. For this negligence I beg your pardon, and pray you to accept my cordial thanks for both these valuable favors.

The cantilena sacerdotis will be sung as long as priesthood shall exist. I mean not by this, however, to condemn the article in our Declaration of Rights. I mean to keep my mind open to conviction upon this subject, until I shall be called upon to give a vote.1 An abolition of this law would have so great an

1 Mr. Adams had been chosen a member of the convention about to be held for the revision of the Constitution of Massachusetts. The third article is the one referred to. See vol. iv. p. 221.

CORRESPONDENCE. 393

effect in this State that it seems hazardous to touch it. How- ever, I am not about to discuss the question at present. In Rhode Island, I am informed, public preaching is supported by three or four wealthy men in the parish, who either have, or appear to have, a regard for religion, while all others sneak away, and avoid payment of any thing. And such, I believe, would be the effect in this State almost universally ; yet this I own is not a decisive argument in favor of the law. Sub judice lis est. The feelings of the people will have pomp and parade of some sort or another, in the State as well as in the Church. In the Church they have risen from the parson's band and the communion plate up to the church of St. Peter's and the Vati- can library. In the State they have risen from oaken crowns and olive branches up to thrones, sceptres, and diadems, gold, ivory, and precious stones to the amount of millions. In Pliny's Natural History you may see the gradual rise and progress for seven hundred years of luxury and ceremony, from iron rings upon the fingers, to the splendors of Lucullus, Antony, and Crassus.

I have great reason to rejoice in the happiness of my country, which has fully equalled, though not exceeded, the sanguine anticipation of my youth. God prosper long our glorious coun- try, and make it a pattern to the world !

As a member to the convention, I can be but the shadow of a man. An election, however, to this situation, at my great age and feeble condition of body and mind, I esteem the purest honor of my life, and shall endeavor to do as much of my duty as my strength will permit. I presume it will not be made a question now, as it was forty years ago, whether we should have a governor, or a senate, or judges during good behavior. What questions will be moved, I cannot say ; but I hope that no essential flaw will be found or made in the good old forty- two pounder, though it should be tried over again after forty years usage, by a double charge of powder and ball.

394 CORRESPONDENCE.

mj^ysle

TO GEORGE ALEXANDER OTIS.

Monticello, 9 February, 1821.

I thank you for your favor of the 29th of January, and your translation of Botta. r have not yet read it, for I receivedit out yesterday, and reading is to me so laborious and painful an occupation, that it requires a long time. But I cannot refrain from expressing the pleasure 1 have received from the reasoning of Mr. Jay upon the passage in Botta, " that anterior to the Revolution there existed in the Colonies a desire of independ- ence." There is great ambiguity in the expression, "there existed in the Colonies a desire of independence." It is true there always existed in the Colonies a desire of independence of Parliament in the articles of internal taxation and internal policy, and a very general, if not a universal opinion, that they were constitutionally entitled to it, and as general a determina- tion, if possible, to maintain and defend it. But there never existed a desire of independence of the crown, or of general regulations of commerce for the equal and impartial benefit of all parts of the empire. It is true, there might be times and circumstances in which an individual, or a few individuals, might entertain and express a wish that America was inde- pendent in all respects, but these were "ran nantes in gurgilc vastoP For example, in one thousand seven hundred and fifty- six, seven, and eight, the conduct of the British generals Shirley, Braddock, Loudon, Webb, and Abercrombie was so absurd, disastrous, and destructive, that a very general opinion pre- vailed that the war was conducted by a mixture of ignorance, treachery, and cowardice ; and some persons wished we had nothing to do with Great Britain forever. Of this number I distinctly remember I was myself one, fully believing that we were able to defend ourselves against the French and Indians, without any assistance or embarrassment from Great Britain. In 1758 and 1759, when Amherst and Wolfe changed the for- tune of the war by a more able and faithful conduct of it, I again rejoiced in the name of Great Britain, and should have rejoiced in it to this day, had not the King and Parliament committed high treason and rebellion against America, as soon as they had conquered Canada and made peace with France.

CORRESPONDENCE. . 395

That there existed a general desire of independence of the crown, in any part of America before the Revolution, is as far from the truth as the zenith is from the nadir. That the en-

croaching disposition of Great Britain would one day attempt to enslave them by an unlimited submission to Parliament and rule them with a rod of iron, was early foreseen by many wise men in all the States ; that this attempt would produce resistance on the part of America, and an awful struggle, was also foreseen, but dreaded and deprecated as the greatest cala- mity that could befall them. For my own part, there was not a moment during the Revolution, when I would not have given every thing I ever possessed for a restoration to the state of things before the contest began, provided we could have had any sufficient security for its continuance. I always dreaded the Revolution, as fraught with ruin to me and my family ; and, indeed, it has been but little better.

I could entertain you with many little trifling anecdotes, which, though familiar and vulgar, would indicate the temper, feelings, and forebodings among the people, that I cannot write.

I see at the end of the biography of the author, that Botta has written the biography of John Adams. I never saw or heard of it before ; but if he means me, it must be a curious mass, for he can certainly have no authentic information on the insignificant subject.1

TO RICHARD H. LEE.

Quincy, 24 February, 1821.

You have conferred an obligation upon me by your kind let- ter of February the 6th. In former years of my life I reckoned among my friends four gentlemen of your name; Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, William Ludwell Lee, and Arthur Lee, — all gentlemen of respectable characters for capa- city, information, and integrity. With your grandfather, Richard Henry Lee, I served in Congress from 1774 to 1778, and after- wards in the Senate of the United States in 1789. He was a

1 It is inserted in the large French work, entitled Biographie UniverseUe.

396 CORRESPONDENCE.

gentleman of fine talents, of amiable manners, and great worth. As a public speaker, he had a fluency as easy and graceful as it was melodious, which his classical education enabled him to decorate with frequent allusion to some of the finest passages of antiquity. With all his brothers he was always devoted to the cause of his country. I am glad you are about to com- mence a memoir of that illustrious patriot.

I cannot take upon me to assert, upon my own memory, who

were the movers of particular measures in Congress, because I thought it of little importance. I have read in some of our histories, that Governor Johnson, of Maryland, nominated Mr. Washington for commander-in-chief of the army ; Mr. Chase made the first motion for foreign alliances ; Mr. Richard Henry Lee for a declaration of independence. As such motions were generally concerted beforehand, I presume Mr. Johnson was designated to nominate a general, because the gentlemen from Virginia declined, from delicacy, the nomination of their own colleague. Mr. Richard H. Lee was preferred for the mo- tion for independence, because he was from the most ancient colony, &c. Mr. .Chase for foreign alliances, that too many motions may not be made by the same member, &c, &c. It ought to be eternally remembered, that the eastern members were interdicted from taking the lead in any great measures, because they lay under an odium and a great weight of unpopu- larity. Because they had been suspected from the beginning of having independence in contemplation, they were restrained from the appearance of promoting any great measures by their own discretion, as well as by the general sense of Congress. That your grandfather made a speech in favor of a declaration of independence, I have no doubt, and very probably more than one, though I cannot take upon me to repeat from memory any part of his speeches, or any others that were made upon that occasion. The principles and sentiments and expressions of the Declaration of Independence had been so often pronounced and echoed and reechoed in that Congress for two years before, and especially for the last six months, that it will forever be impossible to ascertain who uttered them, and upon what occasion.

I applaud your piety in recording the fame of your ancestor, and heartily wish you success in the enterprise.

CORRESPONDENCE. 397

TO RICHARD RUSH.

Quincy, 14 May, 1821.

Dear Mr. Rush, — I have been tenderly affected by the kind expressions of your friendship, in your letter of the 9th of Fe- bruary.

In the course of forty years I have been called twice to assist in the formation of a constitution for this State. This kind of architecture, I find, is an art or mystery very difficult to learn, and still harder to practise. The attention of mankind at large seems now to be drawn to this interesting subject. It gives me more solicitude than, at my age, it ought to do ; for nothing remains for me but submission and resignation. Nevertheless, I cannot wholly divest myself of anxiety for my children, my country, and my species. The probability is, that the fabrica- tion of constitutions will be the occupation or the sport, the tragedy, comedy, or farce, for the entertainment of the world for a century to come. There is little appearance of the prevalence of correct notions of the indispensable machinery of a free go- vernment, in any part of Europe or America. Neither Spain, Portugal, or Naples can long preserve their fundamental laws under their present constitutions. But I must recollect that I am not reading a lecture.

But, hazardous as it may be, I will venture one remark upon our National and State institutions.

The legislative and executive authorities are too much blended together. While the Senate of the United States have a nega- tive on all appointments to office, we can never have a national President. In spite of his own judgment, he must be the Pre- sident, not to say the tool, of a party. Ih Massachusetts, the legislature annually elect an executive council, which renders the Governor a mere Doge of Venice, a mere " testa di legno? a mere head of wood.

Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to liberty, and few nations, if any, have found it.

vol. x. 34

398 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

(U Quincy, 19 May, 1821.

Must we, before we take our departure from this grand and beautiful world, surrender all our pleasing hopes of the progress of society, of the improvement of the intellect and moral condi- tion of the world, of the reformation of mankind ?

The Piedmontese revolution scarcely assumed a form, and the Neapolitan bubble is burst. And what should hinder the Spanish and Portuguese constitutions from running to the same ruin ? The Cortes is in one assembly vested with the legisla- tive power. The king and his priests, armies, navies, and all other officers, are vested with the executive authority of govern- ment. Are not here two authorities up, neither supreme? Are they not necessarily rivals, constantly contending, like law, physic, and divinity, for superiority ? Just ready for civil war ?

Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catho- lic religion ? The art of lawgiving is not so easy as that of . architecture or painting. New York and Rhode Island are struggling for conventions to reform their constitutions, and I am told there is danger of making them worse. Massachusetts has had her convention ; but our sovereign lords, the people, think themselves wiser than their representatives, and in several articles I agree with their lordships. Yet there never was a cooler, a more patient, candid, or a wiser deliberative body than that convention.

I may refine too much, I may be an enthusiast, but I think a free government is a complicated piece of machinery, the nice and exact adjustment of whose springs, wheels, and weights, is not yet well comprehended by the artists of the age, and still less by the people.

I began this letter principally to inquire after your health, and to repeat assurances of the affection of your friend.

CORRESPONDENCE. 399

TO DAVID SEWALL.

Quincy, 22 May, 1821.

How do you do ? As we have been friends for seventy years, and are candidates for promotion to another world, where I hope we shall be better acquainted, I think we ought to inquire now and then after each other's health and welfare, while we stay here. I am not tormented with the fear of death, nor, though suffering under many infirmities, and agitated by many afflic- tions, weary of life. I have a better opinion of this world and of its Ruler than some people seem to have. A kind Providence has preserved and supported me for eighty-five years and seven months, through many dangers and difficulties, though in great weakness, and I am not afraid to trust in its goodness to all eternity. I have a numerous posterity, to whom my con- tinuance may be of some importance, and I am willing to await the order of the Supreme Power. We shall leave the world with many consolations. It is better than we found it. Super- stition, persecution, and bigotry are somewhat abated ; govern- ments are a little ameliorated ; science and literature are greatly improved, and more widely spread. Our country has brilliant and exhilarating prospects before it, instead of that solemn gloom in which many of the former parts of our lives have been obscured. The condition of your State, I hope, has been improved by its separation from ours, though we scarcely know how to get along without you.

Information of your health and welfare will be a gratification to your sincere friend and humble servant.

TO JOHN MARSTON.

Quincy, 1 September, 1821.

The Roman dictator was Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus. His master of the horse was Caius Servilius Ahala, whose daring and dangerous exploit was killing Spurius Maelius for aiming at royalty. The story is in Livy, book 4th, chapter 13th ; in Rol-

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lin's Roman History, vol. ii. p. 46 ; in Adams's Defence, vol. iii. p. 242.1 The Roman Antiquities of Dionysius Halicarnassensis come not down so low. His account is lost, but I presume the anecdote is to be found in every general Roman history.

Is it not remarkable, that this most memorable of all the ap- plications of the phrase, "Made virtute esto," is omitted in all the dictionaries ? Stephens, Faber, Ainsworth, amidst all their learned lumber, have forgotten this. They have quoted Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, and even the wag Horace, but overlooked Livy.2

Horace, the rogue, in his first book of satires, satire second, lines 31 and 32, puts these words into the mouth of Cato, and applies them for a very curious moral purpose, —

" Macte Virtute esto, inquit sententia dia Catonis. Nam siraulac venas inflavit tetra libido, Hue juvenes asquum est descendere, non alienas Permolere uxores."

Virgil, in his ninth iEneid, has made Apollo say to Ascanius, after his noble juvenile exploit in killing Numanus, —

" Macte nova virtute, puer ; sic itur ad astra, Dis genite, et geniture deos."

He afterwards descends from his cloud, in the shape of old Butes, the armor-bearer and janitor, and gives lulus good ad- vice.

" Sit satis, iEneada, telis impune Numanuru Oppetiisse tuis ; primam hanc tibi magnus Apollo Concedit laudem, et paribus non invidet armis. Cetera parce, puer, bello."

TO RICHARD RUSH.

Quincy, 28 November, 1821.

I love to see a young man, who, in the language of Montes- quieu, is capable de s'estimer beaucoup ; but in an old man this

1 Vol. vi. p. 27 of the present work.

2 In an address to the corps of military cadets from West Point, who paid a visit to Mr. Adams at hlsliouse, Mr. Adams had used these words. Mr. Mars- ton, who was a townsman and constant visitor, had asked for some account of them. The address itself, as coming from a man, then in his eighty-sixth year, is sufficiently remarkable to be preserved in the appendix (A) to this volume.

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is rather odious than amiable. The kind compliments in your letter of the 30th September make me too proud for a man in his eighty-seventh year ; but your idea of a picture overcame all my gravity, and made me laugh outright. What would the lords of the gentlemen's seats in England say to a picture of my house of eight rooms, as Fearon said, though he has diminished the number nearly one half? However, my ima- gination was soon seized with other questions. What point of time would a painter seize, and what particular scene would he select ? That in which the young gentlemen were at breakfast, under an awning, after a march of nine miles in a very hot morning ; or that, in which after breakfast they prostrated them- selves on the ground, under shades of trees, and went to sleep as decently and as soundly as if they had been at church; or that, in which they were drawn up on a small round elevation of green grass, opposite the house, on the other side of the road, going through their exercises and manoeuvres ? Or, when they were drawn up in a body, before the piazza, listening to an old man, melting with heat, quaking with palsy, tormented with rheumatism and sciatic, and scarcely able to stand, utter- ing a few words by way of commentary on their two mottoes, " Scientia ad gloriam" and " Paremus ? " After mature reflec- tion, I rejected all these, and fixed upon the last, when the whole body marched up in a file, taking the old man by the hand ; taking a final leave of him forever, and receiving his poor blessing.1

Never before, but once, in the whole course of my life, was my soul so melted into the milk of human kindness ; and that once was when four or five hundred fine young fellows appeared before me in Philadelphia, presenting an address and receiving my answer. On both occasions I felt as if I could lay down a hundred lives to preserve the liberties and promote the prosper- ity of so noble a rising generation. But enough, and too much, of this. No picture will ever be drawn ; indeed, the subject is too slight.

Is all Europe going together by the ears about the Turkish province of Albania ? • Are the Greeks rising, like the phoenix, from their ashes ? Is Britain sending forces to the Ionian islands to check the empires ?

1 This alludes to the same event mentioned in the preceding note. 34* *

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The South Americans have translated the clumsy book you hint at into Spanish, but whether they will derive any benefit from it, I know not.

TO RICHARD PETERS.

Quincy, 31 March, 1822.

If you have brought upon yourself the garrulity of old age, you must blame yourself for it. Theophrastus at ninety, as some say, and at one hundred and fifteen, as others, in his last moments is recorded to have said, it was hard to go out of the world, when he had just learned to live in it. I am so far from his temper and his philosophy, that I think myself so well drilled and disciplined a soldier as to be willing to obey the word of command whenever it shall come, and in general or particular orders. Nevertheless, your letter has excited feelings somewhat like his. I agree with you in your recollection of the suffer- ing, the sacrifices, the dangers, distresses, and the disinterested character of the principal actors in the Revolution, but I have lately plunged into a new sea of reading. The collections of our Massachusetts Historical Society have lately attracted my attention, and though I am too blind to read thern^ I have put in requisition sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, grand- sons and granddaughters, or occasional friends, to perform the office of reader. In this way, I have heard read Hubbard's His- tory of New England, Johnson's Wonder- Working Providence, Morton's Memorial, the original writings of Winslow, Bradford, Gookin, Eliot, and twenty others, the most ancient memorials of emigrations to America. All the superstition, fanaticism^ quaintness, cant, barbarous poetry, and uncouthness of style have not prevented this reading exciting in me as ardent an interest as I ever felt in reading Homer or Virgil, Milton, Pope, or Shakspeare.

To John Taylor (part 9)

Silence, then, ye revolutionary heroeaf patriots, and sages! Never boast of your superiority for services or sufferings or sacrifices ! Our Hancocks and Washingtons never exceeded in disinterestedness dozens of emigrants to America two hun-

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dred years ago. In short, the whole history of America for two hundred years appears to me to exhibit a uniform, general tenor

of character for intelligence, integrity, patience, fortitude, and public spirit. One generation has little pretension for boasting over another.

I will add one other extraordinary. I have heard read the proceedings of the New York convention. They have been as entertaining to me as a romance. The gentlemen have saga- ciously and profoundly searched their own and one another's hearts, and very frankly, candidly, and penitentially confessed their sins to one another, like good Christians. A great num- ber of enlightened men have distinguished themselves by their information and by their eloquence. The new constitution is an improvement, upon the whole, upon the old, though a ten- dency to the extreme of democracy is apparent in that State, as in all the others in the Union.

If I have wearied your patience, I shall endeavor to be shorter for the future. I am, Sir, and will be, your friend, forever.

TO WILLIAM THOMAS.

Quincy, 10 August, 1822.

The grounds and principles on which the third article of the treaty of 1783 was contended for on our part, and finally yielded on the part of the British, were these.

1. That the Americans, and the adventurers to America, were the first discoverers and the first practisers of the fisheries.

2. That New England, and especially Massachusetts, had done more in defence of them than all the rest of the British empire. That the various projected expeditions to Canada, in which they were defeated by British negligence, the conquest of Louisburg, in 1745, and the subsequent conquest of Nova Scotia, in which New England had expended more blood and treasure than all the rest of the British empire, were principally effected with a special view to the security and protection of the fisheries.

3. That the inhabitants of the United States had as clear a

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right to every branch of those fisheries, and to cure fish on land, as the inhabitants of Canada or Nova Scotia ; that the citizens of Boston, New York, or Philadelphia had as clear a right to those fisheries, as the citizens of London, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, or Dublin.

4. That third article was demanded as an ultimatum, and it was declared that no treaty of peace should ever be made with- out it ; and when the British ministers found that peace could not be made without that article, they consented ; for Britain wanted peace, if possible, more than we did.

5. We asked no pardon, we requested no grant, and would accept none. We demanded it as a right, and we demanded an explicit acknowledgment of that as an indispensable condi- tion of peace ; and the word right was in the article as agreed to by the British ministers, but they afterwards requested that the word liberty might be substituted instead of right. They said it amounted to the same thing, for liberty was right and privilege was right; but the word right might be more unpleas- ing to the people of England than liberty ; and we did not think it necessary to contend for a word. To detail the confer- ences and conversations which took place for six weeks on this subject, would require volumes, if they could now be remem- bered. Mr. Jay is the only person now living, who was offi- cially concerned in that negotiation, and I am not afraid to appeal to his memory for the truth of these facts. Lord St. Helens, then Mr. Fitzherbert, though not officially concerned in the negotiation, was instructed by the British minister to assist at our conferences, and he was freely and candidly ad- mitted by us. I dare appeal to his lordship's memory for the truth of these facts. There is another excellent character still living, Mr. Benjamin Vaughan, of Kennebec, who was then a confidential friend of Lord Shelburne, and an intimate friend of the British negotiators, and I dare appeal to his recollection of the representations made to him of the conferences concern- ing the fisheries, by Mr. Oswald, Mr. Fitzherbert, and Mr. Whitefoord.

6. We considered that treaty as a division of the empire. Our independence, our rights to territory and to the fisheries, as practised before the Revolution, were no more a grant from Britain to us, than the treaty was a grant from us of Canada,

CORRESPONDENCE. 405

Nova Scotia, England, Scotland, and Ireland to the Britons. The treaty was nothing more than mutual acknowledgment of antecedent rights.

If there is any other question that you wish me to answer, 1 shall be happy to do it, so long as my strength may last. I had omitted what follows.

7. We urged upon the British ministers that it was the in- terest of England herself that we should hold fast forever all the rights contained in that article, because all the profits we made by those fisheries went regularly to Great Britain in gold and silver, to purchase and pay for their manufactures ; that if it were in her power, which it was not, to exclude us from or abridge these rights, they would be the dupes of their weak policy.

8. That if we should consent to an exclusion, the stipulation would not be regarded ; our bold and hardy seamen would trespass ; they must keep a standing naval force on the coast to prevent them ; our people would fight and complain, and this would be speedily and infallibly the source of another war between the two nations.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 9 March, 1823.

The sight of your well-known handwriting in your favor of February 25th last, gave me great pleasure^ as it proved your arm to be restored, and your pen still manageable. May it continue till you shall become as perfect a Calvinist as I am, in one particular. Poor Calvin's infirmities, his rheumatism, his gout, and sciatica, made him frequently cry out, " Mon dieu ! jusqu'ci quand ? " " Lord ! how long ? " Pratt, once Chief Jus- tice of New York, always tormented with infirmities, dreamed that he was situated on a single rock in the midst of the At- lantic ocean. He heard a voice,

" Why mourns the bard V Apollo bids thee rise, Renounce the dirt, and claim thy native skies."

The ladies' visit to Monticello has put my readers in requisi- tion to read to me " Simond's Travels in Switzerland." I

406 CORRESPONDENCE.

thought 1 had some knowledge of that country before, but I find I had no idea of it. How degenerated are the Swiss ! They might defend their country against France, Austria, and Rus- sia, neither of whom ought to be suffered to march armies over their mountains. Those powers have practised as much tyranny and immorality, as ever the Emperor Napoleon did, over them, or over the roitelets of Germany or Italy. Neither France, Austria, or Spain, ought to have one foot of land in Italy.

All conquerors are alike. Every one of them, "jura negat sibi lata, nihil non arrogat armis" We have nothing but fables concerning Theseus, Bacchus, and Hercules, and even Sesostris, but I dare say that every one of them was as tyran- nical and immoral as Napoleon. Nebuchadnezzar is the first great conqueror of whom we have any thing like history, and he was as great as any of them. Alexander and Caesar were more immoral than Napoleon. Genghis Khan was as great a conqueror as any of them, and destroyed as many millions of lives, and thought he had a right to the whole globe, if he could subdue it. What are we to think of the crusades, in which three millions of lives, at least, were probably sacrificed. And what right had St. Louis and Richard Coeur de Lion to Palestine and Syria, more than Alexander to India, or Napoleon to Egypt and Italy ? Right and justice have hard fare in this world, but there is a Power above who is capable and willing to put all things right in the end, " et pour mettre chacun a sa place dans Vimivers ; " and I doubt not he will.

Mr. English, a Bostonian, has published a volume of his ex- pedition with Ismael Pasha up the river Nile. He advanced above the third cataract, and opens a prospect of a resurrection from the dead of those vast and ancient countries of Abyssinia and Ethiopia; a free communication with India, and the river Niger, and the city of Timbuctoo. This, however, is conjecture and speculation rather than certainty ; but a free communica- tion by land between Europe and India wTill ere long be opened. A few American steamboats and our Quincy stone-cutters would soon make the Nile as navigable as our Hudson, Potomac, or Mississippi.

You see, as my reason and intellect fail, my imagination grows more wild and ungovernable, but my friendship remains the same. Adieu.

CORRESPONDENCE. 407

TO F. A. VANDERKEMP.

Quincy, 9 March, 1823.

In one of your letters, if I remember right, you expressed a desire to see my letters to Mr. Calkoen. The history of those letters is this. At a dinner with a large company, I met with that learned civilian, who came to me, and seated himself by my side, and expressed an ardent curiosity to converse with me upon the subject of the American war. He asked me many questions in French, in which language he was very imperfect; he had no English, and I had no Dutch. I was about as clumsy In French as he was ; however, he asked me many questions, to which I gave him prompt answers. Some of the gentlemen present, who understood the language better, helped us a little to interpret; but at the conclusion of the conversation I said to him I feared I had not fully understood his questions, and not clearly expressed my answers, but if he would do me the honor to commit his questions to writing, I would give him the answers in writing. Accordingly, in a very short time I received from him twenty-six questions in Dutch. Mr. Le Roy (now, I presume, one of the most opulent merchants in New York) was then a young gentleman, very amiable, very intelligent, always very friendly to me, as was his aunt, Madame Chabanelle, and all her family. Mr. Le Roy offered to translate them for me into English, and he did so, in a very correct and literal sense. I immediately commenced writing answers, and I wrote him twenty-six letters, one letter every day. Mr. Calkoen acknow- ledged that I had comprehended his questions, and given him perfectly intelligible answers. Mr. Calkoen composed out of these letters a dissertation upon the question, whether the Ame- ricans would maintain their independence or not. He composed a comparison between the Dutch revolution and the American, and concluded by this observation, " as it was a miracle that the Dutch revolution succeeded, it would be, in his opinion, a greater miracle still if the American did not." This composi- tion he read to a society of men of letters, who met periodically at Amsterdam, and it consequently became a subject of much conversation in the city. But these letters had much less effect in opening the eyes of the Dutch nation, than two other mea-

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sures. I had received from London two large pamphlets ; one from General Burgoyne, an apology for his conduct and ill suc- cess in America ; another from General Howe, containing his justification of his conduct in America and his want of success. Both these works represented the British cause in America as more forlorn and desperate than even I had done in my letters to Mr. Calkoen. I employed Cerisjex, to get these translated into French, and he had it done in so short a time as amazed me. I had a large edition of them printed, and scattered as many as 1 could, and they were scattered by others, and read by everybody who had given any attention to the war, and pro- duced a general conviction that the game was up with England. When you have kept this pamphlet as long as you please, and read it as much as you please, return it to me, as I have no other copy.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 15 August, 1823.

Watchman ! what of the night ? Is darkness that may be felt, to prevail over the -whole world, or can you perceive any rays of a returning dawn ? Is the devil to be the " Lord's anointed " over the whole globe ? or do you foresee the fulfil- ment of the prophecies according to Dr. Priestley's interpreta- tion of them ? I know not but I have in some of my familiar and frivolous letters to you told the story four times over ; but if I have, I never applied it so well as now. Not long after the denouement of the tragedy of Louis XVI., when I was Vice- President, my friend, the Doctor, came to breakfast with me alone. He was very sociable, very learned and eloquent on the subject of the French Revolution. It was opening a new era in the world, and presenting a near view of the millennium. I listened, I heard with great attention, and perfect sang-froid ; at last I asked the Doctor, " Do you really believe the French will esta- blish a free, democratic government in France ? " He answered, " I do firmly believe it." " Will you give me leave to ask you upon what grounds you entertain this opinion ? Is it from any thing you ever read in history? Is there any instance of a

CORRESPONDENCE. 409

Roman Catholic monarchy of five-and-twenty millions of people, at once converted into intelligent, free, and rational people ? " " No. I know of no instance like it." " Is there any thing in your knowledge of human nature, derived from books or expe- rience, that any empire, ancient or modern, consisting of such multitudes of ignorant people, ever were, or ever can be, sud- denly converted into materials capable of conducting a free government, especially a democratic republic? " " No. I know of nothing of the kind." " Well, then, Sir, what is the ground of your opinion ? " The answer was, " My opinion is founded altogether upon revelation and the prophecies. I take it that the ten horns of the great beast in Revelations mean the ten crowned heads of Europe, and that the execution of the king of France is the falling off of the first of those horns ; and the nine monarchies of Europe will fall, one after another, in the same way." _Such was the enthusiasm of that great man, that reasoning machine ! After all, however, he did recollect himself so far as to say, " There is, however, a possibility of doubt, for I read yesterday a book, put into my hands by a gentleman, a volume of travels, written by a French gentleman in 1659, in which he says he had been travelling a whole year in England, had travelled into every part, and conversed freely with all ranks of people. He found the whole nation earnestly engaged in discussing and contriving a form of government for their future regulation. There was but one point on which they all agreed, and in that they were unanimous, that monarchy, nobi- lity, and prelacy never would exist in England again." The Doctor then paused, and said, " yet in the very next year the whole nation called in the king, and ran mad with monarchy nobility, and prelacy.

I am no king killer, merely because they are kings. Poor creatures! they know no better; they sincerely and conscien- tiously believe that God made them to rule the world. I would not, therefore, behead them, or send them to St. Helena to be treated like Napoleon ; but I would shut them up like the man in the mask, feed them well, and give them as much finery as they please, until they could be converted to right reason and common sense.

vol. x.

35

410 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 17 September, 1823.

With much pleasure I have heard read the sure words of prophecy in your letter of September 4th. It is melancholy to contemplate the cruel wars, desolations of countries, and oceans of blood, which must occur before rational principles and ra- tional systems of government can prevail and be established ; but as these are inevitable, we must content ourselves with the consolations which you from sound and sure reasons so clearly suggest. These hopes are as well founded as our fears of tlfe contrary evils. On the whole, the prospect is cheering. I have lately undertaken to read Algernon Sidney on Government There is a great difference in reading a book at four-and-twenty and at eighty-eight. As often as I have read it and fumbled it over, it now excites fresh admiration that this work has excited so little interest in the literary world. As splendid an edition of it as the art of printing can produce, as well for the intrinsic merits of the work, as for the proof it brings of the bitter suffer- ings of the advocates of liberty from that time to this, and to show the slow progress of moral, philosophical, political illumi- nation in the world, ought to be now published in America.

It is true that Mr. Jay, as well as Mr. Dickinson and Mr. Johnson, contributed to retard many vigorous measures, and particularly the vote of independence, until he left Congress ; but I have reason to think he would have concurred in that vote when it was taken, if he had been there. His absence was accidental. Congress, on the 15th of May preceding, as I remember, had recommended to all the States to abolish all authority under the crown, and institute and organize a new government, under the authority of the people. Mr. Jay had promoted this resolution in New York, by advising them to call a convention to frame a new constitution. He had been chosen a member of that convention, and called home by his consti- tuents to assist in it, and as Duane told me, he had gone home, with my letter to Wythe in his pocket, for his model and foun- dation; and the same Duane, after the Constitution appeared, asked me if it was not sufficiently conformable to my letter to Wythe. I answered him, I believed it would do very well.

CORRESPONDENCE. 411

Mr. Jay was immediately appointed Chief Justice of the State, and obliged to enter immediately on the duties of his office, which occasioned his detention from Congress afterwards. But I have no doubt had he been in Congress at the time, he would have subscribed to the Declaration of Independence. He would have been neither recalled by his constituents, nor have left Congress himself, like Mr. Dickinson, Mr. Willing, Governor Livingston, and several others.

As you write so easily and so well, I pray you to write me as often as possible, for nothing revives my spirits so much as your letters, except the society of my son and his family, who are now happily with me after an absence of two years.

P. S. Warmly as I feel for the Spanish patriots, I fear the most sensible men among them have little confidence in their constitution, which it appears to me is modelled upon that in France of the year 1789, in which the sovereignty in a single assembly was every thing, and the executive nothing. The Spaniards have adopted all this, with the singular addition that the members of the Cortes can serve only two years? What rational being can have any well-grounded confidence in such a constitution ?

JOHN TAYLOR TO JOHN ADAMS.

Washington, 8 April, 1824.

During a long illness, from which I am not yet recovered, the reveries which usually amuse sick people visited me ; and among them the idea of writing a farewell letter to you pre- sented itself so often as to leave an impression, which I have not been able to subdue. In yielding to it, my free style will, I hope, be pardoned, in consideration of its being the last trouble I shall give you ; and also on account of its chief motive, namely, to make an humble addition to the multitude of testimonials which exist of your patriotism and integrity, from one who has been a spectator of political scenes, from a period some years anterior to the revolutionary war; from one who has often

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differed with you in opinion, but has never ceased to be im- pressed with a conviction of your exalted merit.

So early, I think, (for at this place I must speak merely from memory,) as the year 1765, you braved the British lion, when his teeth and claws were highly dangerous, in a series of essays, containing principles which I have lately reperused with de- light; and, considering the early period at which they were written, with admiration. And I believe that in the progress of the struggle for the liberty of our country, your efforts in speaking and writing were a thousandfold more efficacious than those of many individuals of great celebrity — of our Henry, for instance. These designated you for a long series of the most important negotiations, conducted with a diligence, integrity, and capacity, universally admired by your countrymen; and the hopes which your early merits had inspired, being fulfilled, they placed you next to Washington.

When your Presidency commenced, party spirit was highly inflamed, and its capabilities may be conjectured by those who were not witnesses of its effects then, by contemplating its effects now, in carrying men into unpremeditated excesses, even though it is invigorated by nothing but a love of power. Yet during its bitterest prevalence, you soared above its prejudices, and saved your country from a ruinous war with France. This magnanimous act awakened the vengeance of an erroneous zeal, and your reelection was probably prevented by a pamphlet, subscribed "Alexander Hamilton," then beheld by those of us who advocated the election of Mr. Jefferson, as well calculated to advance our object ; but which, upon reading it lately, seems to me to be the most malicious, foolish, and inexcusable com- position, which was ever produced by a tolerable mind.

You will readily perceive that this letter is intended only for your own ear, as an additional excuse for its familiar and un- disguised style. As the last, at my age it will not be suspected of adulation. For this, no motive exists. My design is to file among your archives some facts, which may meet the eye of a historian, as well as to give some pleasure to a patriot, who I believe has served his country faithfully, and has done what man can do to please his God.

With ardent wishes for your happiness, &c.

John Taylor.

CORRESPONDENCE. 413

TO JOHN TAYLOR.

Quincy, 12 April, 1824.

I have received with kindness and thankfulness your learned work upon the Constitution. I have had as much read to me as I have been able to hear, but intend to have it all read to me, if I live.

It is long since I have ceased to write, read, speak, or think upon theories of government, and now, at half way on my eighty-ninth year, I am incapable of either. I see you have treated me with honor and respect enough, but I think you have not correctly comprehended the intentions of my poor book. That work was written under the old confederation, and had no relation at all to the General Government. It respected only a State Government, and particularly the Constitution of Massachusetts, and others that resembled it, as against Mr. Turgot, who had censured them all. There is but one allusion to the GeneraljGoyernment in the whole work ; in that, I ex- pressly say that Congress is not a representative body, but a diplomatic body, a collection of ambassadors from thirteen sove- reign States. A consolidated government was never alluded to, or proposed, or recommended in any part of the work ; nor in- deed, in any moment of my life, did I ever approve of a conso- lidated government, or would I have given my vote for it. A consolidated government under a monarchy, an aristocracy or democracy, or a mixture of either, would have flown to pieces like a glass bubble under the first blow of a hammer on an anvil. Nor had I any thoughts of recommending any hereditary branch of any State Government. But I am incapable of think- ing clearly, or pursuing any train of thought. Of the present Constitution I can only say, with father Paul, "Esto perpetua." I sincerely wish it ; but I cannot see how it can be converted into a consolidated government. But I cannot enlarge. Again I thank you for your present, and wish you may contribute to preserve the present Constitution.

35*

414 CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 22 January, 1825.

Your letter of the 8th revived me. It is true that my hearing has been very good, but the last year it has decayed so much, that I am in a worse situation than you are. I cannot hear any of the common conversation of my family, without calling upon them to repeat it in a louder tone.

The Presidential election has given me less anxiety than I myself could have imagined.1 The next administration will be a troublesome one, to whomsoever it falls, and our John has been too much worn to contend much longer with conflicting factions. I call him our John, because, when you were at the Cul de sac at Paris, he appeared to me to be almost as much your boy as mine. I have often speculated upon the conse- quences that would have ensued from my taking your advice, to send him to William and Mary College in Virginia for an education.

As to the decision of your author,2 though I wish to see the book, I look upon it as a mere game at push-pin. Incision- knives will never discover the distinction between matter and spirit, or whether there is any or not. That there is an active principle of power in the universe, is apparent; but in what substance that active principle resides, is past our investiga- tion. The faculties of our understanding are not adequate to penetrate the universe. Let us do our duty, which is to do as we would be done by ; and that, one would think, could not be difficult, if we honestly aim at it.

Your university is a noble employment in your old age, and your ardor for its success does you honor ; but I do not approve of your sending to Europe for tutors and professors. I do be- lieve there are sufficient scholars in America, to fill your profes- sorships and tutorships with more active ingenuity and inde- pendent minds than you can bring from Europe. The Euro-

1 " I have had one advantage of you. This presidential election has given me few anxieties. With you this must have been impossible, independently of the question whether we are at last to end our days under a civil or military government?" Extract from Mr. Jefferson's letter.

2 Flourens's Experiments on the functions of the nervous system in vertebrated animals.

CORRESPONDENCE. 415

peans are all deeply tainted with prejudices, both ecclesiastical and temporal, which they can never get rid of. They are all in- fected with episcopal and presbyterian creeds, and confessions of faith. They all believe that great Principle which has produced \ this boundless universe, Newton's universe and HerschelTs uni- verse, came down to this little ball, to be spit upon by Jews. And until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world.

I salute your fireside with best wishes and best affections for their health, wealth and prosperity.

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Quincy, 23 January, 1825.

We think ourselves possessed, or, at least, we boast that we are so, of liberty of conscience on all subjects, and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment in all cases, and yet how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact 1/ There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world, a law which makes it blasphemy to deny or to doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelations. In most countries of Europe it is punished by fire at the stake, or the rack, or the wheel. In England itself it is punished by boring through the tongue with a red-hot poker. In America it is not much better ; even in our own Massachu- setts, which I believe, upon the whole, is as temperate and moderate in religious zeal as most of the States, a law was made in the latter end of the last century, repealing the cruel punishments of the former laws, but substituting fine and im- ! prisonment upon all those blasphemers upon any book of the Old Testament or New. Now, what free inquiry, when a writer must surely encounter the risk of fine or imprisonment for adducing any argument for investigation into the divine authority of those books ? Who would run the risk of trans- lating Dupuis ? But I cannot enlarge upon this subject, though I have it 'much at heart. I think such laws a great embarrassment, great obstructions to the improvement of the

416 CORRESPONDENCE.

human mind. Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws. It is true, few persons appear desirous to put such laws in exe- cution, and it is also- true that some few persons are hardy enough to venture to depart from them. But as long as they continue in force as laws, the human mind must make an awkward and clumsy progress in its investigations. I wish they were repealed. The substance and essence of Christianity, as I understand it, is eternal and unchangeable, and will bear examination forever, but it has been mixed with extraneous ingredients, which I think will not bear examination, and they ought to be separated. Adieu.

TO JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

Quincy, 18 February, 1825.

My dear Son, — I have received your letter of the 9th.1 Never did I feel so much solemnity as upon this occasion. The multitude of my thoughts, and the intensity of my feel- ings are too much for a mind like mine, in its ninetieth year. May the blessing of God Almighty continue to protect you to the end of your life, as it has heretofore protected you in so remarkable a manner from your cradle ! I offer the same prayer for your lady and your family, and am your affectionate father.

John Adams.

TO JOHN WHITNEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE OF ARRANGE- MENTS FOR CELEBRATING THE APPROACHING ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOURTH OF JULY, IN THE TOWN OF QUINCY.

Quincy, 7 June, 1826.

Your letter of the 3d instant, written in behalf of the com- mittee of arrangements for the approaching celebration of our

1 The day of his election as President of the United States.

CORRESPONDENCE. 417

National Independence, inviting me to dine on the 4th of July next with the citizens of Quincy at the Town Hall, has been received with the kindest emotions. The very respectful lan- guage with which the wishes of my fellow-townsmen have been conveyed to me by your committee, and the terms of affectionate regard towards me individually, demand my grate- ful thanks, which you will please to accept and to communicate to your colleagues of the committee.

The present feeble state of my health will not permit me to indulge the hope of participating with more than my best wishes in the joys and festivities and solemn services of that day, on which will be completed the fiftieth year from the birth of the independence of these United States. A memorable epoch in the annals of the human race ; destined in future history to form the brightest or the blackest page, according to the use or the abuse of those political institutions by which they shall in time to come be shaped by the human mind.

I pray you, Sir, to tender in my behalf to our fellow-citizens my cordial thanks for their affectionate good wishes, and to be assured that I am very truly and affectionately, your and their friend and fellow-townsman.

John Adams.

TO MESSRS. JACOB B. TAYLOR, JOHN YATES CEBRA, STUART F. RANDOLPH, R. RIKER, AND HENRY ARCULARIUS, A COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS OF THE CITY CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

Quincy, 10 June, 1826.

Gentlemen, — Your very polite and cordial letter of invita- tion, written to me in behalf of the city corporation of New York, has been gratefully received through the kindness of General J. Morton.

The anniversary you propose to celebrate, " with increased demonstrations of respect," in which you invite me to partici- pate in person, is an event sanctioned by fifty years of expe- rience, and it will become memorable by its increasing age, in proportion as its success shall demonstrate the blessings it im-

2A

418 CORRESPONDENCE.

parts to our beloved country, and the maturity it may attain in the progress of time.

Not these United States alone, but a mighty continent, the last discovered, but the largest quarter of the globe, is destined

to date the period of its birth and emancipation from the 4th of July, 1776.

Visions of future bliss in prospect, for the better condition of the human race, resulting from this unparalleled event, might be indulged, but sufficient unto the day be the glory thereof; and while you, gentlemen of the committee, indulge with your fel- low-citizens of the city of New York in demonstrations of joy and effusions of hilarity worthy the occasion, the wonderful growth of the State, whose capital you represent, within the lapse of half a century, cannot fail to convince you that the indulgence of enthusiastic views of the future must be stamped with any epithet other than visionary.

I thank you, gentlemen, with much sincerity for the kind in- vitation with which you have honored me, to assist in your demonstrations of respect for the day and all who honor it. And in default of my personal attendance, give me leave to pro- pose as a sentiment for the occasion,

Long and lasting prosperity to the City and State of New York !

I am, &c.

John Adams.

APPENDIX

(A.)

In the month of August, 1821, the Cadets of the United States Military Aca- demy, under the command of Major Worth, paid a visit to Boston. One day was devoted by them to an excursion to|he seat of Mr. Adams at Quincy. They were received by him, drawn up before the portico in front of his house, and in a voice then much broken with age, he made them the following address : —

My young Fellow-Citizens and Fellow-Soldiers, —

I rejoice that I live to see so fine a collection of the future defenders of their country in pursuit of honor under the auspices of the national government.

A desire of distinction is implanted by nature in every human bosom, and the general sense of mankind, in all ages and countries, cultivated and uncultivated, has excited, encouraged, and applauded this passion in military men more than in any other, order of society. Military glory is esteemed the first and greatest of glories. As your profession is at least as solemn and sacred as any in human life, it behooves you seriously to consider, what is glory ?

There is no real glory in this world or any other but such as arises from wis- dom and benevolence. There can be no solid glory among men but that which springs from equity and humanity ; from the constant observance of prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. Battles, victories, and conquests, abstracted from their only justifiable object and end, which is justice and peace, are the glory of fraud, violence, and usurpation. What was the glory of Alexander and Caesar? " The glimmering" which those " livid flames " in Milton " cast, pale and dreadful," or " the sudden blaze," which " far round illumin'd Hell."

Different — far different is the glory of Washington and his faithful colleagues ! Excited by no ambition of conquest or avaricious desire of wealth ; irritated by no jealousy, envy, malice, or revenge ; prompted only by the love of their coun- try, by the purest patriotism and philanthropy, they persevered, with invincible constancy, in defence of their country, her fundamental laws, her natural, essential and inalienable rights and liberties, against the lawless and ruthless violence of tyranny and usurpation. The biography of these immortal cap- tains, and the history of their great actions, you will read and ruminate night and day. You need not investigate antiquity, or travel into foreign countries, to find models of excellence in military commanders, without a stain of ambition or avarice, tyranny, cruelty, or oppression towards friends or enemies.

In imitation of such great examples, in the most exalted transports of your military ardor, even in the day of battle, you will be constantly overawed by a

420 APPENDIX.

conscious sense of the dignity of your characters as men, as American citizens, and as Christians.

I congratulate you on the great advantages you possess for attaining eminence in letters and science, as well as in arms. These advantages are a pi'ecious de- posit, which you ought to consider as a sacred trust, for which you are respon- sible to your country and to a higher tribunal. These advantages, and the habits you have acquired, will qualify you for any course of life you may choose to pursue.

That I may not fatigue you with too many words, allow me to address every one of you in the language of a Roman dictator to his master of the horse, after a daring and dangerous exploit for the safety of his country,

" Made viriule esto."

INDEXES

VOL. X.

36

INDEXES.

No. I.

Letters, written by John Adams.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

A.

Adams, Mrs. Abigail,

Abbema, B. E.

21 June, 1795,

I.

479

11 April,

1782,

VII.

568

23 — —

—

480

Adams, Mrs. Abigail,

24 — —

—

—

12 May,

1774,

I.

143

26 — —

—

—

16 September,

—

II.

368

7 January, 1796,

—

483

24 July,

1775,

—

412

20 — —

—

484

17 September,

—

I.

182

31 — —

—

485

7 October,

—

—

190

1 March, —

—

486

11 February,

1776,

—

198

13 — —

—

487

19 March,

—

—

205

1 April, —

—

489

3 July,

—

IX.

417

12 December, —

—

495

— —

—

—

419

5 March, 1797,

—

506

6 September,

—

I.

238

22 February, 1799,

—

544

5 December,

1793,

—

458

25 — —

—

545

19 —

—

—

459

Adams, Benjamin,

2 January,

1794,

—

460

22 April, 1799,

VIII.

636

9 —

—

—

461

Adams, Miss Hannah,

4 February,

—

—

462

10 March, 1791,

IX.

574

8 —

—

—

465

Adams, John Qoinct,

9 —

—

—

466

31 March, 1797,

VIII.

537

23 —

—

—

—

2 June, —

—

545

12 March,

—

—

467

18 February, 1825,

X.

416

15 —

—

—

468

Adams, Samuel,

27 —

—

—

469

8 September, 1776,

IX.

441

1 April,

—

—

—

17 — —

—

443

7 —

—

' —

470

21 May, 1778,

III.

159

15 —

—

—

471

27 April, 1785,

IX.

532

19 —

—

—

—

12 September, 1790,

VI.

411

22 —

—

—

472

• 18 October, —

—

414

5 May,

—

—

—

Adams, Zabdiel,

10 —

—

—

473

21 June, 1776,

IX.

399

17 —

—

—

474

Adiiemar, Count d',

19 —

—

—

—

3 June, 1786,

VIII.

399

27 —

—

—

475

Ailesbdrt, Earl of,

9 June,

1795,

—

477

28 February, 1788,

VIII.

481

11 —

—

—

478

Angier, Oakes,

20 —

—

—

479

12 June, 1776,

IX.

394

424

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

Avery, John, 21 March,

Vol. Page. 1777, IX. 457

B.

Bentley. William,

15 July, 1819, IX. 381

21 August, — — 383 Be'renger,

8 June, 1781, VII. 426 Bergsma,

5 March, 1782, VII. 535 Bicker, H.

6 November, 1780, VII. 324

10 — — — 327

20 February, 1781, — 369 1 March, — — 371

Biddle, Edward,

12 December, 1774, IX. 348 Bidwell, Barnabas,

27 August, 1800, IX. 79 Boston Gazette,

11 January, 1773, III. 519 18 — — — 524

25 — — — 536

1 February, — — 540

8 — — — 551 15 — — — 558

22 — — — 568

BOUDINOT, ELIAS,

26 January, 1801, IX. 93 Bourn, Silvanus,

30 August, 1789, IX. 561 Bowdoin, James,

9 May, 1786, VIII. 389

2 June, — — 397 Bowens,

7 November, 1780, VII. 326 Bullock, Abciiibald,

1 July, 1776, IX. 414 Burgh, James,

28 December, 1774, IX. 350

C.

Cabinet of the President,

14 April, 1797, VHI. 540

24 January, 1798, — 561

13 March, — — 568

21 September, 1799, IX. 34 24 April, 1800, — 50 20 May, — — 57

Calkoen,

October, 1780, VII. 266 Carmarthen, Marquis of,

14 July, 1785, VIII. 276

27 — — — 284

29 — — — 286 6 February, 1786, — 371

18 May, — — 392

27 January, 1787, — 426

22 September, — — 453

Vol.

Page

Carmarthen, Marquis of,

3 October, 1787,

VIII.

455

Carmichael, William,

8 April, 1780,

VII.

144

12 May, —

—

162

Castries, Marechal de,

9 December, 1784,

VIII.

215

Cerisier, A. M.,

22 February, 1784,

IX.

522

Channing, Henry,

3 November, 1 820,

X.

392

Chardon, Peter,

1761,

II.

114

Chase, Samuel,

14 June, 1776,

IX.

396

24 — —

—

412

1 July, —

—

415

9 — —

—

420

Chaumont, M. le Ray de,

15 September, 1778,

VII.

31

Churchman, George, and Jacob

LlNDLEY,

24 January, 1801,

IX.

92

Colman, Henry,

13 June, 1817,

X.

266

Committee of Commerce,

24 May, 1778,

VII.

14

Committee of Foreign Affairs,

24 December, 1777,

VII.

8

13 February, 1779,

—

81

Congress, President of,

23 December, 1777, 27 July, 1778,

3 December, — 27 February, 1779,

3 August, —

4 — — 10 September, —

4 November, —

15 February, 1780, 20 — — 12 March, —

24 — — 30 — —

18 April, — 2 June, —

26 — —

29 — — 23 July, — 14 August, —

5 September, —

16 — —

19 — —

27 October, . —

16 November, —

17 — —

30 — — 14 December, —

25 — —

31 — —

5 January, 1781, 1 9 March," —

VII.

7 21

70 86 97 99 110 120 121 127 131 136 138 148 180 207 208 233 244 249 256 258 320 329 330 338 341 346 348 352 380

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

425

Vol.

Page, i

Vol.

Page.

Congress, President of,

Dana, Francis,

6 April, 1781,

VI.

385

14 December,

1781,

VII.

493

3 May, —

—

409

15 March,

1782,

—

543

—

412 j

13 May,

—

—

583

16 — —

—

417

17 September,

—

—

632

— —

—

—

10 October,

—

—

649

15 June, —

—

427

8 November,

—

—

665

23 — —

—

427

6 December,

—

VIII.

17

11 July, —

—

433

1 May,

1783,

—

56

15 — —

—

440

4 November,

1784,

IX.

526

3 August, —

—

453

Dartmouth College Trustees,

16 — —

—

457

25 February,

1783,

viu.

44

15 October, —

—

471

Davis, John,

4 December, —

—

487

19 June,

1799,

VIII.

658

18 — —

—

497

Dexter, Samuel

7

14 January, 1782,

—

504

25 July,

1800,

IX.

65

5 September, 1783,

VIII.

143

13 August,

—

—

76

8 — —

—

146 i

30 September,

—

—

86

—

—

148

9 October,

—

—

88

10 — —

—

150

31 January,

1801,

—

95

9 November, —

—

156

23 March,

—

—

580

13 — —

—

158

Digges, Thomas

10 February, 1784,

—

177

13 May,

1780,

VII.

167

9 March, —

—

189

24 June,

—

—

203

27 — —

—

I'll

14 October,

—

—

315

10 April, —

—

195

21 March,

1782,

—

551

22 —

—

197

DUBBLEDEMUTZ,

1.3 May, —

—

200

22 March,

1782,

VII.

551

7 June, —

—

201

7 April,

—

—

566

22 — —

—

204

Dumas, Charles Wm. F

3 November, —

—

211

4 October,

1780,

VII.

263

10 January, 1785,

—

221

9 November,

—

—

327

Cooper, Samuel,

25 January,

1781,

—

.'560

30 May, 1776,

IX.

381

2 February,

—

—

364

4 September, —

—

439

6 —

—

—

366

28 February, 1779,

—

478

1 March,

—

—

372

Cranch, Richard,

8 —

—

—

—

2 September, 1755,

I.

27

17 —

—

—

379

29 August, 1756,

—

32

19 —

—

—

382

15 January, 1787,

—

432

7 May,

—

—

412

CRANcn, William,

19 —

—

—

420

3 March, 1815,

X.

131

1 June,

—

—

423

Cushing, Charles,

6 December,

—

—

489

1 April, 1756,

I.

29

13 March,

1782,

—

542

19 October, —

—

36

2 May,

—

—

578

Cushing, Thomas,

1 January,

1783,

VIII

22

25 October, 1784,

VIII.

209

19 —

—

—

25

Cushing, William,

29 —

—

—

30

9 June, 1776,

IX.

390

5 February,

—

—

40

23 —

—

—

43

D.

16 April,

—

—

55

1 May,

—

—

57

Dallas, Alexander J.

3 November,

1784,

—

214

2 December, 1799,

IX.

42

11 May,

1785,

—

246

Dana, Francis,

12 June, 1776,

IX.

395

E.

16 August, —

—

429

18 January, 1781,

VII.

353

Ellery, William, and

1TIIERS,

8 February, —

—

368

12 November,

1783,

VIII.

157

12 March, —

—

377

Ellsworth, Oliver,

22 — —

—

383

22 September

1799,

IX.

34

18 April, —

■M

392

*

-

426

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

Evans,, Robert J

Genet,

8 June,

1819,

X.

379

18 February,

1780,

VII.

124

24 —

—

—

129

F.

29 April,

—

—

155

3 Mav,

— -

—

159

Fagel, H.

9 —

—

—

160

19 April,

1781,

VII.

396

15 —

—

—

170

10 June,

1785,

VTII.

266

17 —

—

—

172

25 January,

1788,

—

470

Gerry, Elbridge,

12 February,

—

—

472

18 June,

1775,

IX.

357

Forbes, John Murray,

5 November,

—

—

362

6 February,

1798,

VIII.

565

6 December,

1777,

—

469

Forrest, Uriah,

9 July,

1778,

III.

177

28 June,

1797,

VIII.

546

10 September,

1779,

IX.

483

18 May,

1799,

—

645

4 November,

—

—

505

Franklin, Benjamin,

13 February,

1797,

VIII.

522

22 September,

1778,

VII.

43

6 April,

—

—

538

13 April,

1779,

—

91

20 June,

—

—

546

23 June,

1780,

—

203

8 July,

—

—

547

26 —

—

—

205

17 —

—

—

549

29 —

—

—

211

15 December,

1798,

—

617

17 August,

—

—

247

30 —

1800,

IX.

577

14 October,

—

—

316

7 February,

1801,

—

97

24 —

—

—

320

28 January,

1813,

X.

29

24 November,

—

—

333

11 February,

—

—

30

30 —

—

—

337

14 April,

—

—

36

15 February,

1781,

—

369

Gill, Moses,

10 April,

—

—

386

10 June,

1775,

IX.

356

16 —

—

—

389

Gillon, Alexander.

23 May,

—

—

421

12 November,

1780,

VII.

328

25 August,

—

. —

459

Gordon, William,

4 October,

—

. —

465

8 April,

1777,

IX.

461

26 November,

—

—

485

Greene, Nathanael,

25 January,

1782,

—

508

22 June,

1776,

IX.

402

20 February,

—

—

519

4 August,

—

I.

251

26 March, "

—

—

554

Guest, Henry,

16 April,

—

—

569

^3 January,

1799,

IX.

575

2 May,

—

—

580

13 June,

—

—

596

H.

1 November,

—

—

654

3 December,

—

VIII.

15

Hamilton, Alexander,

5 —

1783,

—

164

25 April,

1791,

VIII.

500

24 January,

1784,

—

170

4 September,

1798,

—

591

11 February,

—

—

179

17 October,

—

—

608

29 June,

—

—

206

29 —

— *-

—

614

27 July,

—

—

207

22 May,

1800,

IX.

61

Franklin, Benjamin, and JonN Jay,

20 June,

—

—

63

2 April,

1784,

VIII.

193

Hartley, David,

10 —

—

—

195

12 September,

1780,

VII.

253

20 —

—

—

196

Hawley, Joseph,

Franklin, Benjamin, and Thomas

25 November,

1775,

IX.

366

Jefferson,

25 August,

1776,

—

433

20 March,

1785,

VIII.

229

Heath, William

11 May,

1807,

—

594

G.

Henry, Patrick,

3 June,

1776,

IX.

386

Gadsden, CnRiSTornER,

Hichborn, Benjamin,

16 April,

1801,

IX.

584

29 May,

1776,

IX.

378

Galitzin, Prince de,

27 January,

1787,

—

550

8 March,

1781,

vn.

373

Hodshon, John,

Gates, Horatio,

26 April,

1782,

VII.

575

23 March,

1776,

i.

206

13 June,

—

—

595

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

427

Vol.

Pago.

Vol.

Page.

Hollis, TnoMAS Brand-,

Jay, John,

3 December,

1788,

IX.

557.

,10 August,

1785,

VHI.

298

1 June,

1790,

—

568

25 —

—

—

302

11 —

—

—

569

30 —

—

—

310

Holt, Charles,

15 October,

—

—

320

4 September,

1820,

X.

391

17 —

—

—

322

IIoltzhey, Jean George,

21 —

—

—

325

2 November,

1782,

VH.

655

4 November,

—

—

335

2 January,

1783,

VHI.

23

5 —

—

—

337

Holyoke, Edward A.

11 —

—

—

343

10 June,

1783,

VTH.

68

24 —

—

—

345

Hughes, Hugh,

- — —

—

—

347

4- June,

1776,

IX.

388

3 December,

—

—

350

6 —

—

—

356

I.

9 —

—

—

358

4 January,

1786,

—

360

Izard, Ralph,

— —

—

—

361

20 September,

1778,

VII.

42

21 —

—

—

368

25 —

—

—

46

17 February,

—

—

372

2 October,

—

—

53

20 —

—

—

374

22 —

—

—

377

J.

26 —

—

—

380

27 —

—

—

381

Jackson, John M

16 May,

—

—

391

30 December,

1817,

X.

269

25 —

—

—

394

Jackson, Jonathan,

16 June,

—

—

401

2 October,

1780,

IX.

510

30 July,

—

—

409

17 November,

1782,.

—

514

27 October,

—

—

415

Jardine, Alexander,

24 Januarv,

1787,

—

421

1 June,

1790,

IX.

567

25 —

—

—

424

Jay, John,

3 February,

—

—

428

13 May,

1780,

VH.

166

1 9 April,

—

—

438

15 —

—

—

169

8 May,

—

—

—

28 March,

1781,

—

384

16 June,

—

—

441

26 November,

—

—

484

22 September,

—

—

450

28 —

—

—

486

— —

—

—

451

28 February,

1782,

—

531

23 —

—

—

453

10 August,

—

—

606

1 5 November,

—

—

459

13 —

—

—

609

30 —

—

—

462

17 —

—

—

612

16 December,

—

—

466

7 October,

—

—

645

14 February,

1788,

—

475

7 December,

1783,

VIII.

165

16 —

—

—

478

13 February,

1784,

—

180

21 —

—

—

4S0

15 December,

—

—

217

30 August,

1798,

—

590

9 March,

1785,

—

226

17 October,

—

—

607

13 April,

—

—

233

24 November,

1800,

IX.

90

24 —

—

—

236

19 December,

—

—

91

4 May,

—

—

239

9 January,

1818,

X.

272

5 —

—

—

240

Jebb, John,

8 —

—

—

242

21 August,

1785,

IX.

532

13 —

—

—

248

10 September,

—

—

538

30 —

—

—

252

25 —

—

—

543

1 June,

—

—

254

Jefferson, Thomas,

2 —

—

—

255

26 May,

1777,

IX.

466

6 —

—

—

259

29 June,

1780,

VII.

210

10 —

—

—

265

27 May,

1785,

VIII.

251

17 —

—

—

268

18 July,

—

—

278

26 —

—

—

273

24 —

—

—

283

19 July,

—

—

279

7 August,

—

—

291

29 —

—

—

288

18 —

—

—

300

6 August,

—

—

289

23 —

—

—

801

8 —

—

—

293

16 September,

—

—

314

428

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

Jefferson, Thomas,

18 September,

1785,

2 October,

—

5 —

—

19 January,

1786,

23 May,

—

6 June,

—

3 July,

—

31 —

—

1 1 September,

—

1 March,

1787,

25 August,

—

28 October,

—

6 December,

—

10 —

—

18 —

—

12 February,

1788,

29 July,

1791,

24 March,

1801,

28 June,

1812,

10 —

1813,

14 —

—

28 —

—

30 —

—

9 July,

—

13 —

—

17 —

—

18 —

—

August,

—

2 September,

—

14 —

—

15 —

—

22

—

4 October,

—

12 November,

—

25 December,

—

14 March,

1814,

16 July,

—

24 August,

1815,

13 November,

—

2 March,

1816,

3 May, 6 — 9 August,

—

30 September,

—

4 November,

—

12 December,

—

19 April,

1817,

29 May,

1818,

8 December,

—

23 February,

1819,

22 June,

—

18 December,

—

1 7 January,

1820,

19 May,

1821,

9 March,

1823,

15 August,

—

17 September,

—

22 January,

1825,

23 —

—

Jenings, Edmuni

,

23 September,

L780,

Tol.

Page.

Johnson, Thoma

3,

Vol.

Page.

rrn.

315

26 April,

1798,

VIII.

572

—

316

11 —

1800,

IX.

49

—

318

Jones, Skelton,

rUL

365

11 March,

1809,

IX.

610

—

393

—

399 406

K.

—

410

Kent, Benjamin,

414

22 June,

1776,

IX.

401

433

Keteltas, William,

446

25 November,

1812,

X.

22

457

King, Rufus,

—

464

16 October,

1798,

VIII.

606

—

465

468

2 December, Knox, Henry,

1814,

X.

106

473

2 June

1776,

IX.

384

IX.

506 581

[29 September,] - 28 February, 1780,

I.

VII.

255 129

X.

17

30 March,

1797,

VIII.

535

—

40

10 —

1800,

IX.

46

—

42

—

43 46

L.

—

49

Lafayette, General,

—

52

3 February,

1778,

VII.

12

—

54

21 —

1779,

—

84

—

56

18 —

1780,

—

123

58

20 —

1782,

—

520

—

64

10 March,

—

—

536

66

6 April,

—

—

564

—

69 71

75

21 May,

29 September,

28 March.

1784.

VIII.

593 642 192

—

78

6 April,

1801,

IX.

583

—

82

Lamb, John,

89

29 June,

1786,

VIII.

405

—

100

Landais, Captai

«i

—

172

8 March,

1780,

VII.

130

174

Langdon, John,

—

210 213

24 January, Lathrop. John,

1813,

X.

27

216

22 March,

1813,

X.

33

224

Laurens, Henry

«.

—

227

25 October,

1779,

IX.

503

—

228

15 August,

1782,

VII.

611

—

232

18 —

—

—

612

253

6 November,

—

—

658

312

12 March,

3,783,

VIII.

49

363

Laurens, John.

—

366

8 May,

1781,

VII.

415

—

380

Lear, Tobias,

—

385

24 December,

1799,

IX.

44

387

Lee, Arthur,

398

10 October,

1778,

VII.

56

—

405

5 June,

1779,

—

95

—

408

31 March,

1780,

—

142

—

41(1

25 May,

—

—

177

—

414

12 April,

1783,

IX.

517

—

415

6 September, Lee, Charles,

1785,

536

IX.

509

1(1 October,

1798,

VIII.

602

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

429

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page

Lee, Charles,

Livingston, Robert R.

29 March,

1799,

VIII.

629

18 July,

1783,

VIII.

107

17 May,

—

—

648

23 —

—

—

110

21 —

1800,

IX.

60

25 —

—

—

115

Lee, Richard,

28 —

—

—

116

4 June,

1776,

IX.

389

31 —

—

122

Lee, Richard Bland,

1 August,

—

—

120

11 August,

1819,

X.

382

2

—

—

128

Lee, Richard Henry,

3 —

—

—

130

15 November,

1775,

IV.

185

10 —

—

—

132

Lee, Richard Hi

:sry,

13 —

—

—

135

24 February,

1821,

X.

395

— —

—

—

138

Lee, William,

15 —

—

—

141

2 April,

1780,

VII.

143

Lloyd, James,

20 July,

—

—

231

January,

1815,

X.

108

Lincoln, Benjam

IN,

6 February,

—

—

114

10 March,

1800,

IX.

46

11 —

—

—

in;

Livingston, Robert R.

14 —

—

—

120

14 February,

1782,

VIT.

510

17 —

—

—

123

19 —

—

—

513

21 —

—

—

126

21 —

—

—

521

6 March,

—

—

134

11 March,

—

—

537

12 —

—

—

136

22 April,

—

—

571

26 —

—

—

139

23 —

—

—

572

27 —

—

—

143

— —

—

—

573

29 —

—

—

146

24 —

—

—

574

30 —

—

—

149

16 May,

—

—

587

31 —

—

—

152

15 June,

—

—

598

5 April,

—

—

155

5 July,

—

—

599

24 —

—

—

162

18 August,

—

—

613

Lovell, James,

22 —

—

—

614

24 December,

1777,

IX.

471

4 September,

—

—

616

2.7 November,

1778,

—

473

6 —

—

—

626

20 February,

1779,

—

476

17 —

—

—

633

17 October,

—

—

499

— —

—

—

635

25 —

—

—

501

23 —

—

—

638

1 September,

1789,

vm.

403

8 October,

—

—

646

Lowell, John,

31 —

—

—

652

12 June,

1776,

IX.

392

6 November,

1782,

—

659

Luzac, John,

8 —

—

VIII.

3

5 September,

1780,

VII.

248

11 —

—

—

5

15 —

—

—

255

18 —

—

—

11

20 November,

—

—

332

21 —

— .

—

14

13 December,

1781,

—

490

4 December,

—

—

16

20 March,

1782,

—

548

22 January,

1783,

—

25

Luzerne, M. de ]

LA,

23 —

—

—

26

17 October,

1779,

VH.

117

5 February,

—

—

33

Lyman, Joseph,

14 April,

—

—

54

20 April,

1809,

IX.

619

24 May,

—

—

60

30 —

—

—

64

M.

16 June,

—

—

70

23 —

—

—

74

Mably, Abbe de

27 —

—

—

75

1782,

V.

492

3 July,

—

—

77

Macaulay, Catharine,

7 —

—

—

83

9 August,

1770,

IX.

331

9 —

—

—

86

McHenry, James

)

10 —

—

—

89

6 July,

1798,

VIII.

573

11 —

—

—

93

14 August,

—

—

580

13 —

—

—

95

18 —

—

—

582

14 —

—

—

97

29 —

- —

—

587

16 —

—

—

99

3 September,

—

—

591

17 —

—

—

103

13 —

—

—

593

430

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

McHbney, James

Marshall, John,

13 September,

1798,

VIII.

594

31 January, 1801,

IX.

95

22 October,"

—

—

612

4 February, —

—

96

29 March,

1799,

—

629

Marston, John,

13 April,

—

—

631

1 September, 1821,

X.

399

16 April,

1799,

—

632

Mason, Jonathan,

7 May,

—

—

640

II.

93

16 —

—

—

647

18 July, 1776,

IX.

422

,

—

648

21 August, —

—

432

5 June,

—

654

Mazzei, Philip,

13 —

—

656

12 August, 1782,

VII.

608

19 —

659

12 June, 1787,

IX.

552

24 —

__

660

Mifflin, Thomas,

7 July,

—

—

662

3 March, 1797,

VIII.

531

13 —

—

665

22 May, —

—

544

19 —

—

—

666

19 July, 1799,

—

667*

—

667

Miller, Samuel,

27 —

—

IX.

4

8 July, 1820,

X.

389

18 September,

—

—

30

Monroe, James,

31 March,

1800,

—

48

23 February, 1813,

X.

32

15 May,

_

—

56

Morris, Robert,

McKean, Thomas

,

6 November, 1782,

VII.

656

20 September,

1779,

IX.

484

7 — —

—

663

2 Juue,

1812,

X.

12

21 May, 1783,

VIII.

59

21 —

—

—

15

5 July, —

—

81

31 August,

1813,

—

• 62

10 — —

—

91

6 July,

1815,

—

166

11 — —

—

92

30 —

—

—

171

28 — —

—

119

26 November,

—

—

180

Morse, Jedidiah,

Madison, James,

4 March, 1815,

X.

133

28 November,

1814,

X.

105

20 November, —

—

178

22 April,

1817,

—

256

29 — —

—

182

17 June,

—

—

267

2 December, —

—

185

Malcom, Samuel

B.

5 — —

—

188

6 August,

1812,

X.

20

22

—

192

Marbois, Barbe,

I January, 1816,

—

197

17 October,

1779,

VII.

118

5 — —

—

201

Marchant, Henry,

20 — —

—

204

18 August,

1789,

III.

70

—

IX.

559

N.

Marshall, Elihu,

Neufville, John he, and sons.

7 March,

1820,

X.

388

2 February, 1781, 11 March, —

VII.

365

Marshall, John,

^_

376

11 July,

1800,

IX.

63

27 — —

—

383

30 —

~~~~

■

66

Niles, Hezekiah,

31 —

'

■

67

14 January, 1818,

X.

274

— —

— .

^— "

13 February, — 10 May, 1819,

—

282

1 August,

2

_

_

68 69

II.

334

*j

—

—

71

O.

— —

—

—

72

11 —

73

Ogden, Dr.

13 —

—

—

76

3 December, 1800,

IX.

576

14 —

—

77

Oswald, Richard,

26 —

—

78

14 February, 1783,

VEIL

41

30 —

—

80

Otis, George Alexander,

4 September,

—

—

—

9 February, 1821,

X.

394

5 —

—

—

82

Otis, James,

9 —

23 November, 1775,

IX.

365

18 —

—

—

84

29 April, 1776,

—

374

27 —

—

—

—

Otis, Samuel Allyne,

3 October,

—

—

S6

26 January, 1802,

IX.

585

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

431

P.

Palmer, Joseph,

26 September, 1774,

Parsons, Samuel H. 22 June, 1776,

19 August, —

Parsons, Theophilus,

2 November, 1788, Pauli, J. U.

11 April, 1782,- Penn, John,

January, 1776, Perlet, Samuel,

19 June, 1809,

Peters, Richard;

M March, 1822,

Pickering, Timothy,

25 August, 1797,

26 — —

12 October, — 14 — — 26 — — 31 — —

7 July, 1798,

4 September, — 10 - ,

14 — —

16 — —

26 — —

28 — —

30 — —

3 October, —

14 — —

15 — —

16

—

20

—

26

—

29

—

2

November

15 January,

18

—

13

April,

17

—

1

May,

8

—

13

—

17

—

21

—

25

—

28

—

7 June,

15

—

19

—

2

July,

19

—

20

—

1 August,

3

—

4

—

5

—

1799,

Vol.

Page.

1

Vol.

Page.

Pickering, Timothy,

6 August,

1799,

IX.

10

13 —

•.

—

13

I.

154

14 — 16 —

— u

15

IX.

405

24 —

—

16

—

431

29 —

—

18

16 —

—

29

VIII.

483

19 —

—

31

21 —

—

33

VII.

568

23 —

—

35

16 October,

—

39

IV.

203

18 —

—

-10

12 November,

—

41

IX.

621

7 December,

—

42

10 May,

1800,

—

53

X.

402

12 —

—

—

55

6 August,

1822,

II.

512

VIII.

550

Pinto, Chevalier de,

—

551

10 September,

1787,

VIII.

449

—

552

Plumer, William,

—

553

28 March,

1813,

X.

35

556

Price, Richard,

559

8 April,

1785,

VIII.

232

—

576

20 May,

1789,

IX.

558

—

592

19 April,

1790,

■

563

—

595 596

Q-

—

597

QUINCY, JOSIAH,

—

598

29 July,

1775,

IX.

360

—

—

QUINCY, JOSIAH,

—

600

9 February,

1811,

IX.

629

—

604

18 —

—

—

633

—

605

Quincy, Samuel,

—

—

22 April,

1761,

I.

645

—

606

—

609

R.

—

614

—

—

Rayneval, Gerard de,

—

615

9 July,

1781,

VII.

432

—

621

Richmond, William E.

—

14 December,

1819,

X.

384

—

631

Robinson, Matthew,

—

634

2 March,

1786,

VIII.

383

—

639

Rush, Benjamin,

—

641

8 February,

1778,

IX.

472

—

646

4 November,

1779,

—

507

—

649

2 December,

1788,

—

556

—

651

18 April,

1790,

—

565

—

652

30 September,

1805,

I.

200

—

654

1 May,

1807,

IX.

591

—

655

21 —

—

—

596

—

657

23 —

—

—

599

—

658

3 September,

1808,

—

600

—

661

27 —

—

—

602

—

668

12 April,

1809,

—

616

—

—

21 January,

1810,

—

626

IX.

5

28 August,

1811,

—

635

—

7

25 December,

—

X.

10

—

8

Rush, Richard,

—

9

30 May,

1814,

X.

90

432

LETTERS EROM JOHN ADAMS.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

Rush, "Richard,

Stoddert, Benjamin,

5 April, 1815,

X.

159

3 July,

1799,

VIII.

661

14 May, 1821,

—

397

8 —

—

—

664

28 November, —

—

400

23 —

—

—

669

5 August,

—

IX.

8

S.

8 —

—

—

12

23 —

—

—

16

St. Clair, Arthur,

4 September,

—

—

19

17 May, 1799,

VIII.

649

14 —

—

—

29

St. Saphorin, Baron de,

21 —

—

—

33

22 April, 1784,

VIII.

199

26 September,

—

—

37

Sarsfield. Count,

16 October,

—

—

39

21 January, 1786,

VIII.

369

31 March,

1800,

—

47

3 February, 1786,

IX.

546

26 May,

—

—

62

Sartine, M. de,

23 July,

—

—

64

16 February, 1779,

VII.

82

3 August,

r

—

70

6 October, —

—

117

31 March,

1801,

—

582

Sergeant, Jonathan D.

15 October,

1811,

X.

3

21 July, 1776,

IX.

424

Sullivan, James,

Sevier, John,

26 May,

1776,

IX.

375

6 March, 1798,

VIII.

568

17 September,

1789,

—

562

Sewall,1 David,

2 August,

1796,

vin.

519

29 January, 1811,

IX.

627

Sullivan, John,

22 May, ' 1821,

X.

399

23 June,

1776,

IX.

407

Sewaix, Jonathan,

22 February,

1777,

i.

258

October, 1759,

n.

79

Sumner, Increase,

February, 1760,

i.

51 55

20 August,

1798,

VIII.

583

Sharp, Granville,

T.

8 March, 1786,

VIII.

387

Sherman, Roger,

Talbot, Silas,

17 July, 1789,

VI.

426

8 July,

1799,

VIII.

663

18 — —

—

429

Taylor, John,

20 — —

—

432

15 April,

1814,

VI.

447

Sidi Hadji, Ben Abdelleck Fennish,

27 January, 1787, Smith, Isaac,

1 June, 1776,

Smith, Robert,

6 December, 1811, Smith, Samuel,

25 November, 1811, 13 December, — Smith, William S

VIII. 427 IX. 382

11 April, 16 February, 2 March, 19 December, 22 May,

26 — Spener, Charles

24 March, Stockton, Richard,

27 January, 1801, Stoddert, Benjamin,

1787, 1798,

1799, 1800,

1784,

VIII.

IX.

7 9

435 566 567 617 652 61

IX. 523 IX. 94

1 Octobei-,

7 April, 22 — 27 —

8 May, 19 —

7 June,

1798, 1799,

VIII.

599 630 636 637 642 650 655

9 — —

12 March, 1819,

12 April, 1824, Thomas, Joshua, James

William Jackson, 20 December, 1802, Thomas, William,

10 August, 1822, Thulemeier, Baron de. 9 April, 1784,

5 May, —

13 February, 1785, Tiffany, J. H.

31 March, 1819,

30 April, —

Treasury Board,

19 September, 1779,

Trumbull, John,

23 January, 1791, 12 August, 1800, 10 September, —

Truxtun, Thomas, 30 November, 1802,

Tudor, John,

23 July, 1774, Tudor, William,

29 September, 1774,

24 June, 1776,

X. 94

— 375

— 413 Thacher, and

IX. 587

X. 403

VEIL 195

— 200

— 224

X. 377

— 378

VII. Ill

IX. 572

— 74

— 83

IX. 586

IX. 340

IX. 346

— 411

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

433

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

Tudor, William

Vanderkemp, Francis Adrian,

29 August,

1776,

IX.

436

28 December,

1800,

IX.

576

2 September,

—

—

438

3 March,

1804,

—

588

20 —

—

—

439

5 February,

1805,

—

589

26 —

—

I.

254

16 —

1809,

—

608

22 March,

1777,

IX.

459

15 December,

—

—

624

9 September,

1816,

X.

226

13 July,

1815,

X.

168

16 November,

—

—

230

26 May,

1816,

—

219

18 December,

—

—

232

27 December,

—

—

234

30 —

—

II.

224

9 March,

1823,

407

24 January,

1817,

X.

236

Van Vollenhoven,

4 February,

—

—

241

2 September,

1780,

VII.

260

29 March,

—

—

244

Varnum, Joseph B.

15 April,

—

—

249

26 December,

1808,

IX.

604

1 June,

—

—

258

5 January,

1813,

X.

24

5 —

—

—

262

Vaughan, Benjamin,

25 February,

1818,

—

289

12 March,

1783,

VIII.

48

11 March,

—

—

295

Vauguton, Due de la,

5 April,

—

—

298

8 March,

1781,

VII.

374

1 June,

—

—

314

16 April.

—

—

388

9 —

—

—

317

1 May,

—

—

409

17 —

—

—

320

14 —

—

—

416

24 —

—

—

323

24 November,

—

—

481

9 July,

—

—

325

25 —

—

—

483

14 —

—

—

328

19 December,

—

—

498

17 —

—

—

332

1 March,

1782,

—

532

27 —

—

—

335

10 April,

—

—

567

30 —

—

—

337 1 Vergennes, Count de,

6 August,

—

—

338

11 February,

1779,

vn.

79

11 —

—

—

343

16 —

—

—

82

16 —

—

—

346

27 —

—

—

86

21 —

—

—

349

12 —

1780,

in.

259

10 September,

—

—

352

19 —

—

—

263

13 —

—

—

354

25 —

—

—

266

18 —

—

—

356

21 March,

—

—

266

23 —

—

—

359

30 —

—

VII.

140

9 February,

1819,

—

364

25 April,

—

—

154

7 March,

—

—

367

12 May,

—

164

Tufts, Cotton,

19 —

176

26 May,

1786,

IX.

548

16 June,

—

187

2 June,

—

—

549

20 —

—

—

188

22 —

—

—

193

V.

1 July,

213

Van Berckel, Engelbert Franc

IS,

2 —

—

214

8 March,

1781,

vn.

374

13 —

218

23 July,

1782,

—

601

17 —

—

228

10 August,

—

—

605

21 —

_

233

Van Berckel, P.

J.

26 —

I.

322

11 March,

1783,

VIH.

46

27 —

VII.

241

Van Bleiswtck,

Peter,

7 —

1781,

431

19 April,

1781,

VII.

395

13 —

436

31 March,

1782,

—

560

16 —

441

Van Blomberg, Hendric

tj

18 —

444

3 November,

1780,

VII.

323

19 —

446

Vander Capellen tot de

Pol, Baron,

21 —

450

John Derk,

Vicq d'Azyr, Felix,

22 October,

1780,

VII.

319

28 February.

1783,

VIII.

69

20 November,

—

—

332

9 December,

—

—

339

W.

21 January,

1781,

—

355

Walton, George

)

14 —

1782,

—

502

25 September,

1789,

vin.

495

VOL. X.

3-

B

2

434

LETTERS FROM JOHN ADAMS.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

Waed, Joseph,

Weems, Mason,

10 July,

1776,

IX.

422

3 March,

1784,

VIII.

185

6 April,

1797,

—

574

Welsh, Thomas,

4 February,

1801,

—

96

13 September,

1790,

IX.

571

Warren, James,

White, William

7

17 December,

1773,

IX.

333

28 February,

1786,

VIII.

382

22 —

—

—

334

Wilkinson, James,

9 April,

1774,

—

336

4 February,

1798,

VIII.

563

25 June,

—

—

338

Willinks and others,

3 January,

1775.

—

352

13 May,

1782,

VII.

585

15 March,

—

—

354

17 —

—

—

591

24 July,

—

I.

179

24 —

—

—

594

— —

—

II.

411

11 August,

—

—

608

1 6 June,

1776,

IX.

398

19 November,

—

VIII.

13

27 July,

—

—

427

14 December,

1783,

—

166

17 August,

—

I.

253

29 January,

1784.

—

172

8 September,

—

IX.

440

1 February,

—

—

174

3 February,

1777,

—

450

5 —

—

—

176

12 —

—

—

452

14 —

—

—

183

15 March,

—

—

455

10 January,

1785,

—

219

18 —

—

—

456

16 February,

—

—

225

27 April,

—

—

462

Willis, William

;

29 —

—

—

463

21 February,

1819,

X.

365

6 May,

—

—

464

Winthrop, John,

1 7 June,

1782,

—

511

23 June,

1776,

IX.

409

G September,

—

—

513

Wirt, William,

27 August,

1784,

—

524

5 January,

1818,

X.

271

Warren, Mercy,

23 —

—

—

277

25 November,

1775,

IX.

368

7 March,

—

—

292

15 December,

1778,

—

474

Wolcott, Oliver,

13 —

1784,

—

528

20 October,

1797,

VIII.

554

15 July,

1814,

X.

98

26 —

—

—

555

Washington, George,

27 —

—

—

558

June,

1775,

IX.

359

13 September,

1798,

—

595

6 January,

1776,

—

370

24 —

—

—

601

17 May,

1789,

VIII.

491

17 May,

1799,

—

650

29 August,

1790,

—

497'

15 June,

—

—

657

22 June,

1798,

—

572

21 —

—

—

660

7 July,

—

—

575

23 July,

—

IX.

3

9 October,

—

—

600

15 November,

—

—

41

19 February,

1799,

—

624

17 May,

1800,

—

57

Washington, Martha,

6 August,

—

—

71

27 December,

1799,

IX.

45

27 —

—

78

Waterhouse, Benjamin,

4 October,

—

—

87

24 April,

1785.

IX.

530

8 November,

—

—

88

5 June,

1813,

X.

38

10 —

—

—

89

30 January,

1818,

—

279

6 April,

1801,

—

100

8 February,

—

—

280

Woodfall, William,

Watson, Marston,

14 May,

1774,

IX.

337

7 November,

1789,

IX.

562

Wright, Daniel, and

Erastus

Webb, Nathan,

Lyman,

12 October,

1755,

I.

23

13 March,

1809,

IX.

613

LETTERS TO JOHN ADAMS.

435

No. II. LETTERS ADDRESSED TO JOHN ADAMS.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

A.

Chaumont. M. le Ray de,

Abbema, B. E.

18 September,

1778,

VII.

32

11 April,

1782,

VII.

567

Committee of Foreign Affairs,

Adams, Abigail,

3 December,

1777,

VII.

6

24 May,

1775,

I.

169

28 October,

1778,

—

60

18 June,

—

—

176

11 July,

1780,

—

217

8 September,

—

—

184

12 —

—

—

218

February,

1794,

—

464

1 August,

—

—

8 February,

1797,

—

496

28 October,

—

321

Adams, John Quincy,

12 December,

—

—

341

9 February,

1825,

I.

632

21 July,

1781,

—

453

Adams, Samuel,

1 September

—

—

465

II.

311

Congress, Presi

DENT OF,

15 January,

1776,

IX.

371

28 November,

1777,

VII.

5

16 —

—

—

373

3 December,

__

16 September,

—

—

441

22 January,

1778,

—

11

30 —

—

—

446

20 October,

1779,

—

119

9 January,

1777,

—

448

30 July,

1780,

—

243-

4 November,

1783,

—

519

18 December,

—

343

13 April,

1786,

—

547

1 January,

1781,

—

349

4 October,

1790,

VI.

412

10 —

—

—

353

20 November,

—

—

420

20 June,

456

Adet, P. A.

16 August,

—

482

13 March,

1797,

VIII.

532

1 November,

1783,

VIII.

153

Anonymous,

Cooper, William,

May,

1799,

VIII.

652

18 December,

1765,

II.

157

Avery, John,

Crafts, Thomas,

6 June, .

1788,

VIII.

483

15 February,

1766,

II.

184

Cranch, Richard,

B.

26 April,

1780,

VII.

187

Berenger,

D.

5 June,

1781,

VII.

423

Beyma, 0. L.

Dallas, Alexander J.

16 July,

1782,

VII.

600 i

30 November,

1799,

IX.

42

Bicker, H.

Dana, Francis,

6 October,

1780,

VII.

313

8 September,

1780,

vn.

251

7 November,

—

—

325

1 January,

1781,

—

349

11 —

—

—

327

18 April,

—

—

391

21 February,

1781,

—

370

28 August,

—

—

461

Bowdoin, James,

H October,

—

—

468

12 January,

1786,

VIII.

:;i;:i

15 —

1782,

650

16 March,

1783,

VIII.

51

C.

1 June,

—

—

65

6 —

—

67

Cabinet of the President

J

29 July,

—

120

20 May,

1800,

IX.

59

Digges, Thomas,

Carmichael, William,

14 April,

1780,

VII.

146

22 April,

1780,

VII.

152 |

2 May,

__

158

[without date]

—

157 ,

[20 March,

1782,|

549

Cerisier, M.

2 April,

562

1 October,

1782,

VII.

643

Dumas, Charles

W. F.

Chase, Samuel.

1 November,

1 780,

VII.

322

28 June,

1776.

III.

:>4

**

—

324

43G

LETTERS TO JOHN ADAMS.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

Dumas, Charles W. F.

1 Franklin, Benjamin,

28 January,

1781,

VH.

362

21 April, 1781,

VII.

407

9 March,

—

—

375

16 August, —

—

456

10 —

—

—

—

31 — —

—

463

17 —

—

—

379

5 October, —

—

466

14 April,

—

—

387

7 November, —

—

475

18 —

—

—

394

12 February, 1782,

—

509

26 —

—

—

408

3 November, —

—

656

6 May,

—

—

411

5 February, 1784,

VIII.

176

18 —

—

—

419

16 April, —

—

196

6 June,

—

—

424

4 July, —

—

206

25 —

—

—

430

6 August, —

—

208

24 February,

1782,

—

530

Franklin and Jat,

26 —

—

—

531

28 February, 1784,

VIII.

183

10 March,

—

—

536

1 29 April, —

—

199

. 12 —

—

—

539

i x

—

—

540

16 —

—

—

545

G.

— —

—

—

54f,

Gadsden, Christopher,

20 —

—

—

548

11 March, 1801,

IX.

578

22 —

—

—

552

Genet,

23 —

—

—

553

24 October, 1778,

VII.

59

28 —

—

—

557

29 — —

—

61

29 —

—

—

—

20 February, 1780,

—

126

30 —

—

—

558

S May, —

—

159

30 April,

—

—

576

17 — —

—

172

26 December,

—

VIII.

21

26 — —

—

179

14 January,

1783,

—

24

31 — —

—

—

24 —

—

—

29

Gerry, Elbridge,

30 —

—

—

31

29 September, 1779,

IX.

491

4 February,

—

—

32

5 May, 1780,

VII.

188

15 —

—

—

41

14 January, 1784,

IX.

' 521

18 —

—

—

42

4 March, 1789,

VIII.

484

6 March,

—

—

45

3 February, 1797,

—

520

7 June,

1785,

—

261

20 October, 1798,

—

610

8 —

—

—

263

Griffith, David,

26 June, 1 786,

VIII.

403

E.

Griffith, David, and others,

28 June, 1786,

VIII.

404

Ellery, William, and

OTHERS,

Gyselaer, C. de,

26 May,

1783,

VIII.

61

6 April, 1 782,

VII.

565

Ellsworth, Oliver,

18 September,

1799,

IX.

31

H.

5 October,

—

—

37

Hamilton, Alexander,

F.

25 June, 1792,

VIII.

514

9 September, —

—

—

Fagel, H.

20 October, 1798,

—

608

14 June,

1785,

VIII.

267

Hartley, David,

12 February,

1788,

—

472

17 July, 1780,

VII.

227

Forrest, Uriah,

14 August, —

—

246

28 April,

1799,

vni.

637

19 February, 1782,

—

518

Franklin, Benjamin,

11 March, —

—

550

26 September,

1778,

VII.

48

Hawley, Joseph,

3 April,

1779,

—

89

25 July, 1774,

IX

342

21 —

—

—

92

14 November, 1775,

—

364

24 —

—

—

93 ,

Henry, Patrick,

[June,

1780,]

—

204 1

20 May, 1776,

IV.

201

2 October,

—

—

262 |

Holt, Charles,

8 —

314

12 February, 1825,

I.

630

20 —

—

—

318 1

Holtziiey, Jean George,

22 February,

1781,

—

371 •

20 October, 1782,

VII.

652

LETTERS TO JOHN ADAMS.

437

Yol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

Holtzhet, Jean George,

L.

23 December,

1782,

Yin.

20

-

Holtoke, Edward A.

Lafayette, General,

6 November,

1783,

VIII.

155

9 January,

1778.

VII.

10

9 April,

177'J,

—

90

I.

19 February,

1780,

—

125

27 March, "

1 782,

—

556

Izard, Ralph,

7 May,

—

—

581

24 September,

1778,

VII.

44

6 October,

—

—

644

28 —

—

—

50

8 March,

1784,

VIII.

187

25 June,

—

—

205

J.

22 February,

1786,

—

376

-

18 September,

1787,

—

449

Jay, John,

12 October,

—

—

456

26 April,

1780,

VII.

154

Langdon, John,

15 December,

1781,

—

495

27 January,

1813,

X.

28

2 August,

1782,

—

602

Lassone, M.

28 September,

—

—

641

3 June,

1783,

VIII.

69

15 March,

17S5,

VIII.

229

Laurens, Henry

)

31 —

_ «

—

231

4 October,

1779,

IX.

496

26 August,

—

—

310

27 August,

1782,

VII.

614

1 November,

—

—

334

12 November,

—

VIII.

10

25 July,

1787,

—

445

26 March,

1783,

—

52

14 February,

1788,

—

477

Lee, Arthur,

3 January,

1799,

—

619

6 October,

1778,

VII.

56

10 November,

1800,

IX.

89

12 —

—

—

58

Jefferson, Thomas,

5 June,

1779,

—

94

16 May,

1777,

IX.

465

15 March,

1780,

—

133

11 October,

1785,

vin.

318

26 —

—

—

138

30 May,

1786,

—

397

3 October,

1787,

rx.

554

9 July,

—

—

407

Lee, Charles,

27 August,

—

—

412

5 October,

1775,

ii.

414

6 February,

1787,

—

430

Lee, Charles,

20 —

—

—

431

14 March,

1799,

VIII.

628

23 —

—

—

432

28 May,

—

—

653

17 July,

—

—

443

6 October,

—

IX.

38

20 February,

1788,

—

479

Lee, Richard,

10 May,

1789,

—

488

18 May,

1776,

IX.

374

20 April,

1790,

—

496

Lee, Richard Henry,

17 July,

1791,

—

504

24 October,

1785,

VIII.

333

30 August,

—

—

509

12 December,

—

IX.

544

6 February,

1795,

—

516

■'1 September,

1787,

—

553

28 —

1796,

—

517

Lee, William,

8 March,

1S01,

IX.

581

17 March,

1780,

VII.

134

1 August,

1816,

X.

222

30 —

—

—

140

13 November,

1818.

—

.'162

8 July,

—

—

215

Johnsox, Thomas,

Leeuwarden Society.

8 April,

1800,

IX.

48

29 April, Lovell, James,

1783,

VIII.

55

K.

13 June,

1779,

IX.

480

27 September,

—

—

486

Kalb, Baron de,

28 —

—

—

489

27 December,

1777,

VH.

9

Luzac, John,

Kent, Benjamin,

14 September.

1780,

VII.

253

24 April,

1776,

II.

291

16 April,

1782,

—

569

King, Rufus,

Luzerne, Chevalier de

LA,

26 January,

1799,

VIII.

623

29 September,

1779,

VII.

115

Knox, Henry,

10 June,

1791,

VIII.

503

M.

19 March,

1797,

—

532

5 —

1799.

37

626 *

Mvuly, Abue de,

1783,

V.

496

438

LETTERS TO JOHN ADAMS.

Vol.

Page.

Vol.

Page.

Mably, Abbe be,

Pickering, Timothy,

25 February, 1785,

IX.

529

5 November, 1798,

VIII.

616

McHenrt, James,

10 May, 1799,

—

643

6 May, 1800,

IX.

51

24 July, —

IX.

3

McKean, Thomas,

1 August, —

—

5

13 June, 1812,

X.

14

9 September, —

—

21

20 August, 1813,

—

60

11 — —

—

23

28 September, —

—

73

24 — —

—

36

15 November, —

—

80

12 May, 1800,

—

54

January, 1814,

—

87

Pinckney, Thomas,

20 November, 1815,

—

176

10 July, 1787.

VIII.

442

Madison, James,

Pinto, Chevalier de,

17 December, 1814,

X.

107

7 September, 1787,

VIII.

448

Marbois, Barbe,

29 September, 1779,

VII.

116

R.

Marchant, Henry,

1789,

III.

70

Rayneval, Gerard de,

Marmontel, John Francis

>>

9 July, 1781,

VII.

432

8 March, 1783,

V.

496

Rush, Benjamin,

Marshall, John,

28 April, 1 780,

VII.

214

4 February, 1801,

IX.

96

Massachusetts Council,

S.

28 October, 1775.

III.

23

24 November, —

—

24

St. Sabhorin, Baron de,

25 July, 1776,

IX.

426

21 April, 1784,

VIII.

198

Massachusetts Medical Society,

Sartine, M. de,

(Resolves,)

28 February, 1779/

VII.

88

15 October, 1783,

VIII.

156

Sayre, Stephen,

Mifflin, Thomas,

15 October, 1773,

II.

325

3 March, 1797,

VIII.

530

Sergeant, Jonathan D.

12 May, —

—

542

15 June, 1776,

III.

55

Miranda, Francisco de,

Sevier, John,

24 March, 1798,

VIII.

569

6 February, 1798,

VIII.

565

17 August, —

—

581

Sewall, Jonathan,

Morris, Robert,

29 September, 1759,

II.

80

27 September, 1782,

VII.

641

13 February, 1760,

I.

49

20 — 1783,

VIII.

151

Sherman, Roger,

5 November, —

—

154

20 July, 1789,

VI.

437

16 June, 1784,

—

203

— —

—

440

Murray, William Vans,

Smith, Robert,

1 July, 1798,

VIII.

677

30 November, 1811,

X.

8

17 — —

—

680

Smith, Samuel,

22 — —

—

685

1 December, 1811,

X.

8

3 August, —

—

686

Sons of Liberty,

20 — —

—

688

5 February, 1766,

n.

183

7 October, —

—

—

Stoddert, Benjamin, ..

Mylius, M.

29 August, 1799,

IX.

18

29 September, 1780,

VII.

261

13 September, —

—

25

26 May, 1800,

—

62

N. Nolet, Jacob,

19 April, 1782,

27 October, 1811,

X.

4

VII.

576

Sullivan, James,

30 July, 1796,

VIII.

518

O.

Osgood, Samuel,

14 November, 1786,

VIII.

418

T.

Taylor, John,

20 February, 1819, 8 April, 1824,

III.

X.

58 411

P.

Thulemeier, Baron de,

9 April, 1784,

VIII.

194

Pickering, Timothy,

24 Januarv, 1785,

—

222

21 August, 1798,

VIII.

5S3

3 May, —

—

238

LETTERS TO JOHN ADAMS.

439

Treasury Board,

7 March, 1786,

6 April, —

31 October, —

25 July, 1787,

Vol. Page.

VIII. 386

— 388

— 417

— 444

Van Berckel, Engelbert Francis, 22 July, 1782, VII. 601

8 August, —

Van Berckel, P. J.

5 March, 1783, VIII

Van Blomberg, Hendrick,

25 September, 1780, VII

26 — — 4 November, —

— 604

45

261

— 323

Vergennes, Count de,

24 May, 1780, 21 June, — 30 — — 20 July, —

25 — —

I- -I

29 — —

18 — 1781,

Vernon, William,

9 February, 1778, Vicq d'Azyr, Felix,

3 February, 1783,

W. Washington, George,

Vol Page.

VII. 177

— 190

— 212

— 232

— 235

— 236

— 243

— 443

III. 96

VIII. 68

Vander Capellen tot de

Pol, Baron,

22 October,

1781,

VII.

475

John Derk,

17 May,

1789,

VIII.

489

16 October, 1780,

VII.

317

27 August,

1790,

—

496

28 November, —

—

333

8 January,

1794,

—

515

24 December, —

—

343

20 February,

1797,

—

529

6 January, 1782,

—

501

Weems, Mason,

31 March, —

—

560

[without date]

1784,

VIII.

184

6 April, —

—

566

White, William

1

Van Staphorst, N. and J.

26 November,

1785,

VIII.

349

26 December, 1783,

VIII.

168

28 June,

1786,

—

404

Vaughan, Benjamin,

WlLLINK, AND OTHERS,

25 February, 1783,

VIII.

44

11 May,

1782,

VII.

583

11 March, —

—

47

16 —

—

—

586

VAUGUYON, DUC DE LA,

17 —

—

—

592

14 March, 1781,

VII.

378

16 October,

1783,

VIII.

152

17 April, —

—

390

2 December,

—

—

161

1 6 May, —

—

416

23 —

—

—

166

7 December, —

—

490

31 January,

1784,

—

173

20 — —

—

500

4 February,

—

—

175

30 — —

—

—

—

181

4 March, 1782,

—

534

2 —

1785,

—

223

9 April, —

—

566

18 May,

1787,

—

440

Vergennes, Count de,

25 December,

—

—

469

13 February, 1779,

VII.

80

Wilson, Thomas,

21 — —

—

83

21 September,

1773,

II.

325

15 — 1780,

in.

261

Wolcott, Oliver,

24 — —

—

264

11 May,

1799,

VIII.

644

30 March, —

VII.

139

11 November,

1800,

IX.

90

30 April, —

—

157

28 March,

1801,

—

99

10 May, —

—

162

Wythe, George,

11 — —

—

—

5 December,

1783,

III.

384

440

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.

No. III.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.

A.

Adams, John Quincy, to Abigail Adams, .

Vol. Page. VIII. 529

B.

Brattle, William, to the Printers of the

Massachusetts Gazette, . . . 4 January, 1773, to the Printers of the Boston Gazette, 18 — —

III. 516 — 531

Caro, Pedro Josef, to the Secretary of

State, ....

. .

10 May,

1798,

VUI.

584

Commissioners to France, to John Ross,

13 April,

1778,

III.

128

to Jonathan Williams,

— —

—

—

—

to John Bondfield,

— —

—

—

129

to John P. Mcrckle, .

— —

—

—

—

to M. Bersolle,

3 May,

—

—

151

to Mr. Moylan,

— —

—

—

152

to Mr. Ross,

— —

—

—

—

to M. de Sartine,

14 —

—

VII.

12

to John Paul Jones

. 25 —

—

in.

163

to Jonathan Williams,

— —

—

—

165

to Mr. Schweighauser,

— —

—

—

166

to John Bondfield,

— —

—

—

—

to M. de Sartine,

15 June,

—

VII.

16

to the President of Congress,

20 July,

—

—

18

to the Committee of Foreign

Affairs,

29 —

—

—

22

to M. de Sartine,

13 August,

—

—

23

to Count de Vergennes,

28 —

—

—

25

to M. de Beaumarchais,

10 September,

—

—

28

to Count de Vergennes,

— —

—

—

29

to M. de Sartine,

17 —

—

—

34

to the President of Congress,

— —

—

—

37

to the American Prisoners

in Forton

Plymouth, or elsewhere

in Greal

;

Britain, ....

20 —

—

—

40

to William Lee, .

26 —

—

—

49

to John Ross,

30 —

—

—

51

to Count de Vergennes,

1 October,

—

—

52

to M. de Sartine,

30 —

—

—

63

to M. Schweighauser, .

4 November,

—

—

65

to the President of Congress,

7 —

—

—

66

to M. de Sartine,

12 — .

—

—

68

to Count de Vergennes,

— —

—

—

70

to Richard Price,

7 December,

—

—

71

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.

441

to John Ross,

to Count de Vergennes,

to John Lloyd and others,

to Francis Dana,

to Secretary Livingston,

to Mr. Hartley, .

to M. Grand,

to Messrs. Willink and others,

to John Jay,

Commissioners of the Navy Board,

to Samuel Tucker, Cranch, Richard, to Mary Smith,

D.

Duane, William, to Victor Collot, Dumas, Charles W. F., to the city of Schiedam,

F.

Franklin, Benjamin, to Edmund Quincy, to Thomas Cushing, .... to James Lovell,

Vol.

Page.

29 December,

1778,

VII.

72

1 January,

1779,

—

—

26 —

—

—

77

12 December,

1782,

vm.

17

14 —

—

—

18

21 May,

1783,

in.

372

22

—

—

373

2 October,

1785,

VIII.

316

27 January,

1787,

—

425

February,

1778,

in.

94

30 December,

1761,

ii.

133

3 November,

1800,

i.

588

8 May, '

1782,

VII.

579

10 December,

1761,

n.

82

[2 December,

1772,]

i.

647

17 October,

1777,

IX.

468

H.

Hawley, Joseph, to the Committee of Con- gress, for the Massachusetts, to Abigail Adams, .... Henry, Patrick, to the Secretary of State,

1774, 23 September, 1775, 16 April, 1799,

IX. 641

II. 336

VIII. 641

K.

Kalb, Baron de, to Count de Broglie, .

to M. Moreau, ....

King, Rufus, to the Secretary of State,

to John Quincy Adams, Knox, Henry, to the Secretary of War,

27 December, 1777,

VII.

26 February,

1798,

VHI.

585

6 April,

—

—

586

9 February,

1825,

I.

632

5 August,

1798,

VHI.

578

L.

Lacepede, Count de, President of the Senate, to the Emperor Napoleon,

Lee, Charles, Attorney-General, to T. Pick- ering, Secretary of State,

Luzerne, Chevalier de la, to Captain Chavagnes,

M.

Morris, Robert, to the Governor of Massa- chusetts,

20 December, 1812, 2 September, 1799, 29 — —

VI. 400

VIII. 21

VII. 115

20 September, 1783, VIII. 152

442 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS.

Vol. Page.

N.

Napoleon, Emperor, to Count Lacepede,

President of the Senate, . . . 20 December, 1812, VI. 401

Nolet, Jacob, to M. Dumas, . . .29 April, 1782, VII. 577

O. Oswald, Richard, to Henry Strachey, . 8 January, 1783, I. 381

R.

Rosencrone, Count de, to M. de St. Saphorin,

S.

Sartine, M. de, to the Commissioners, . 6 June, 1778,

29 July, — 16 September, —

to Benjamin Franklin, . . .20 April, 1779,

Secretary or War, to General Washington, July, 1798,

Sewall, Jonathan, 1787,

•

T.

Talleyrand, C. M. to M. Pichon, . . 9 July, 1798,

28 September, — Turgot, M., to Richard Price, . . . 22 March, 1776,

Vergennes, Count de, to the Commissioners

to France, 4 May, 1778, III. 153

W.

Washington, George, to the Secretary of

War, 14 July, 1798, VIII. 577

To John Taylor (part 10)

VIII.

198

VII.

15

—

23

—

33

—

94

VIII.

576

I.

57

VIII.

684

—

690

IV.

278

SPEECHES AND MESSAGES.

443

No. IV.

SPEECHES AND MESSAGES TO CONGRESS.

1. Speeches to Congress.

Vice-President's Speech to the Senate, Vice-President's Speech on retiring from the

Senate, ......

Senate's Answer,

Vice-President's Reply, .... President's Inaugural Speech to both Houses

of Congress,

Speech to both Houses of Congress, Reply to the Answer of the Senate, Reply to the Answer of the House of Repre

sentatives, .....

Speech to both Houses of Congress, Reply to the Answer of the Senate, Reply to the Answer of the House of Repre

sentatives, ......

Speech to both Houses of Congress,

Reply to the Answer of the Senate,

Reply to the Answer of the House of Repre

sentatives, ......

Speech to both Houses of Congress, Reply to the Answer of the Senate, Reply to the Answer of the House of Repre

sentatives,