Production Note
Cornell University Library pro-
duced this volume to replace the
irreparably deteriorated original.
It was scanned using Xerox soft-
ware and equipment at 600 dots
per inch resolution and com-
pressed prior to storage using
CCITT Group 4 compression. The
digital data were used to create
Cornell's replacement volume on
paper that meets the ANSI Stand-
ard Z39.48-1984. The production
of this volume was supported in
part by the Commission on Pres-
ervation and Access and the Xerox
Corporation. Digital file copy-
right by Cornell University
Library 1991.Physical Description Note
Pages 233-240 are lacking
Replacements are not availableLETTERS
FROM THE
HON. JOHN ADAMS,
TO THE
ifoN. WM. TUDOR, AND OTHERS,
05 THE
EVENTS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE WEEK&? REGISTER.
Quincy^ January 14, 1818.
Mr. Niles,
IN a former letter I hazarded an opinion, that the true his-
tory of the American revolution could not be recovered. I had
many reasons for that apprehension ; one of which 1 will attempt
to explain.
Of the determination of the British cabinet to assert and main-
tain the sovereign authority of parliament over the colonies, in
all cases of taxation and internal policy, the first demonstration
which arrived in America was an order in council to the officer
of the customs in Massachusetts Bay, to carry into execution the
acts of trade, and to apply to the supreme judicature of the prp-
vince for writs of assistance, to authorise them to break and enter
all houses, cellars, stores, shops, ships, bales, casks, &c. to search
and seize all goods, wares, and merchandizes, on which tfye 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 Sa-
lem, 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 to be ar-
gued before them, by counsel, at the next February term in
Boston,230
The community was greatly alarmed. The merchants of Sa-
lem 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, sprung 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 tole-
rated in America. He was a gentleman of general science, and
extensive literature. He had been an indefatigable student dur-
ing the whole course of his education in college, and at the bar.
He was well versed in Greek and Roman history, philosophy or-
atory, poetry, and mythology, His classical studies had been un-
usually 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 Authoiogy by one of
our best scholars, at a mature age, and in a respectable station.
He had also composed, with equal skill and great labour, a treatise
on Greek prosody. This he also lent me, and, by his indulgence,
I had it in my possession six months. When I returned it, I beg-
ged 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, es-
pecially 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 Puffendorph, Grotius, Barbeyrac, Bur-
lamaqui, Vattel, Heineccius; and, in the civil law, Domal, Jus-
tinian, 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 before him, “that a lawyer
ought never to be without a volwne of natural or public law, or moral
philosophy, on his table, or in his pocket.” In the history, the com-
mon law,and statute laws of England, he had no superior, at least
in Boston.
Thus qualified to resist the system of usurpation and despotism,
meditated by the British ministry, under the auspices of the earl
of Bute, Mr. Otis resigned his commission from the crown, as ad-
vocate general, an office very lucrative at that time, and a sure
road to the highest favours of government in America, and enga-
ged in the cause of his country without fee or reward. His ar-
gument, speech, discourse, oration, harangue—call it by which
name you will, was the most impressive upon his crowded audi-
ence of any, that I ever heard before or since, excepting only ma-
ny speeches by himself in Fanuiel Hall, and in the House of Rep-
resentatives, which he made from time to time, for ten years after-
wards. There were no stenographers in those days. Speeches
were not printed; and allthat was not remembered, like the har-231
angues 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 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 ora-
tion, 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 Bos-
ton, 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, scurrility and insolence of its
prostitutes.
Hampden was shot in open field of battle. Otis was basely as-
sassinated in a coffee house, in the night, by a well dressed ban-
ditti, 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 gentle-
men in England, Scotland and various colonies in America. 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 hand writing.” When she was
a little calmed, I asked her, u Who has his papers? Where are
they ?” She answered, u 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 pa-
pers and pamphlets and committed them to the flames.—He was
several days employed in it.”
I cannot enlarge. I submit this hint to your reflections. En-
closed is a morsel of verse, written soon after Mr. Otis’s death, by
a very young gentleman, who is now one of our excellent magis-
trates. If you do not think fit to print this letter and that verse.
I pray you to return them to	JOHN ADAMS.232
On the death of James Otis, killed by lightnings at Andover, soon after the
peace of 1783* written at the time.
WHEN flush’d with conquest and elate with pride,
Britannia’s monarch Heaven’s high will defy’d;
And, bent on blobd, by fast of rule inclin’d,
With odious chains to vex the freeborn mind ;
On these young shores set up unjust command,
And spread the slaves of office round the land;
Then Otis rose, and, great in patriot fame,
To list’ning crowds resistance dar’d proclaim.
From soul to soul the bright idea ran,
The fire of freedom flew from man to man ;
His pen, like Sidney's, made the doctrine known,
His tongue, like Tully's, shook a tyrant’s throne*
Then men grew bold, aild, in the public eye,
The right divine of monarchs dar'd to try ;
Light shone on all, despotic darkness fled—
And for a sentiment a nation bled.
From men, like Otis, independence grew;
From such beginnings empire rose to view.
Born for the world, his comprehensive mind
Scann’d the wide politics of human kind :
Bless’d with a native strength and fire of thought,
With Greek and Roman learning richly fraught,
Up to the fountain head he push’d his view,
And from first principles his maxims drew.
’Spite of the times, this truth he blaz’d abroad ;
u The people’s safety is the law of God.”*
For this he suffered ; hireling slaves combin’d
To dress in shades the brightest of mankind.
And see they come, a dark designing band,
With Murder’s heart and Execution’s hand.
Hold, villains ! Those polluted hands restrain ;
Nor that exalted head with blows profane l
A nobler end awaits his patriot head ;
In other sort he’ll join the illustrious dead.
Yes ! when the glorious work which he begun,
Shall stand the most complete beneath the sun—
When peace shall come to crown the grand design,
His eyes shall live to see the work divine.—
The Heavens shall then his generous spirit claim,
u In storms as loud as his immortal fame.’*+
Hark !—the deep thunders echo round the skies l
On wings of flame the eternal errand flies.
One chosen, charitable bolt is sped,
And Otis mingles with the glorious dead.
* Salus populi, was the motto of one of his essays,
t Waller, on the death of Cromwell.241
thought was proper to be done, and concluding with these words,
44 afttr all we must fight” This letter i read to Mr, Henry, who
listened with great attention ; and as soon as I had pronounced the
words, 44 after all we must fight,” he raised his head, and with an
energy and vehemence that I can never forget, broke out with
44 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 congress,
in the autumn of 1774, and knew the chapter and verse from
which he had borrowed fhe sublime expression, 44 we must fight,”
I was not at all surprised at your history, in the I22d 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 No-
vember, 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, 44 we shall infallibly carry all our points. You will be com-
pletely relieved ; all the offensive acts will be repealed ; 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-exportation, as
well as a non-importation agreement. With both he thought we
should prevail; without either, he thought it doubtful. Henry
was clear in one opinion, Richard Henry Lee in an opposite opin-
ion, 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 counte-
nance, 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, coruscations 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 44 action ! action ! action !” meant to express
the same opinion. To speak of American oratory, ancient 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,
JOHN ADAMS.
William Wirt, Esq.	0
Attorney General of the United States,
31
*
#242
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy r February 25, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
As Mr. Wirt has filled my head with James Otis, and as I am
well informed, that the honourable Mr. ******** *****? alias
********, aiias *** *****, &c. roundly asserts, that Mr. “ Otis had
no patriotism,” and that“ he acted only from revenge of his father’s
disappointment of a seat at 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 evenings
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 also have a list of griev-
ances, will you bear it ? The club expected some fun, and all
cried out, u Aye ! Aye ! let us hear your list.”
u Well, then, Will; in the first place I resigned the office of
advocate general, which I held from the crown which produced
me ; how much, do you think ?”	“ A great deal, no doubt,” said
Molineux. u Shall we say two hundred sterling a year?” “ Aye,
more I believe,” said Molineux. w Well, let it be 200; that for
ten years is two thousand. In the next place, I have been obli-
ged to relinquish the greatest part of my business at the bar.
Will you set that at 200 more ?” “ Oh 1 believe it much more than
that. u Well let it be 200. This for ten years makes two thous-
and. You allow, then, I have lost 4000/. sterling.” “Aye, and
more too,” said Molineux.
“ In the next place, I have lost an 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, 1 have made a thousand enemies; amongst
whom are the government of the province and the nation. What
do j'ou think of this item ?” u That is as it may happen,” said Mo-
lineux.
“ 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.243
u In the next place, I have ruined as fine health and as good a
constitution of body, as nature ever gave to man.” u This is mel-
ancholy indeed,” said Molineux. “ There is nothing to be said
upon that point.”
u Once more, said Otis, holding his head down before Molineux,
look upon this head! (where was a scar in which a man might
bury his finger.) What do you think of this ? And what is worse,
my friends think I have a monstrous crack in my scuil. This
made all the company very grave, and look very solemn. But
Otis setting up a laugh, and with a gay countenance, said to Moli-
neux, u Now, Willy, my advice to you is, to say no more about
your grievances; for you and 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 humour, and they passed the rest of the eve-
ning in joyous conviviality,
It is provoking, and it is astonishing, and it is mortifying, and it
is humiliating to see, how calumny sticks, and is transmitted from
age to age. Mr. ****** is one of the last men I should have expect-
ed to have swallowed that execrable lie, that Otis had no patri-
otism. The father was refused an office worth 1200/. old tenor,
or about 120/. 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 legislature gave him
more power and more honour; 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, most enthusiastically and frenzically affec-
tionate.
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 essen-
tial 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 advocate
general by the custom house officers, to argue their cause in fa-
vour of writs of assistants. These writs he knew to be illegal,
unconstitutional, destructive of the liberties of his country ; a base
instrument of arbitrary power, and intended as an entering wedge
to introduce unlimited taxation and legislation by authority of par-
liament. He therefore scorned to prostitute his honour 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 ocher enlightened man foresaw,
a tremendous storm doming upon his country, and determined to
run all risques, and share the fate of the ship, after exerting all244
his energies to save her, if possible. At the solicitation of Boston
and Salem, he accordingly embarked and accepted the command.
To attribute to such a character sinister or trivial motives is
ridiculous. You and Mr. Wirt have u brought the old man out,”
and I fear he will never be driven in again, till he falls into the
grave.	JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincyi March 29,1818.
PEAR SIR,
IS your daughter, Mrs. * * * * * *, who I am credibly informed,
is one of the most accomplished ladies, a painter ? Are you ac-
quainted with Miss ***** *****, who 1 am also credibly informed
is one of the most accomplished ladies, and a painter ? Do you
know Mr. Sargent ? Do you correspond with your old companion
in arms, Col. John Trumbull ? Do you think Fisher will be an
historical painter^
Whenever you shall find a painter, male or female, I pray yoif
to suggest a scene and subject.
The scene is the council chamber of the old town house in Bos-
ton. The date is the month of February, 1761, nine years before
ydu came to me in Cole lane. As this is 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, and
more so too, in proportion, than the house of lords or house of
commons in Great Britain, or that in Philadelphia in which the
declaration of independence was signed in 1776.
In this chamber, near the fire, were seated five judges, with
lieutenant governor Hutchinson at their head, as chief justice ;
all in their new fresh robes of scarlet English cloth, in their broad
bands, and immense judicial wigs. In this chamber was seated at
a long table all the barristers of Boston, and its neighbouring coun-
ty of Middlesex, in their gowns, bands and tye-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 wit,
sense, imagination, genius, pathos, reason, prudence, eloquence,
learning, science, and immense reading, hung by the shoulders on
two crutches, covered with a cloth great coat, in the person of
Mr. Pratt, who had been solicited on both sides but would engage
on neither, being about to leave Boston forever, as chiefjustice of
Newr York.
Two portraits, at more than full length^of king Charles the
second, and king James the second, in splendid golden frames,245
were hung up in the most conspicuous side of the apartment. If
my young eyes or oljl memory have not deceived me, these were
the finest pictures I have seen. The colours of their long ilow-
ing robes and their royal ermines were the most glowing, the fig-
ures the most noble and graceful, the features the most distinct
and characteristic : far superior to those of the king and queen of
prance in the senate chamber of congress. I believe they were
Vandyke’s. Sure I am there was no painter in England capable
of them at that time. They had been sent over without frames,
in governor Pownal’s time. But as he was no admirer of Charlses
or Jameses, they were stowed away in a garret among rubbish,
till governor Bernard came, had them cleaned, superbly framed,
and placed in council for the admiration and imitation of all men,
no doubt with the concurrence of Hutchinson and all the junto ;
for there has always been a junto. One circumstance more.
Samuel Quincy and John Adams had been admitted barristers at
that term. John was the youngest. He should be painted, look-
ing like a short thick fat archbishop of Canterbury, seated at the
table, with a pen in his hand, lost in admiration, now and then min-
uting those despicable notes which you know that ********
******** stole from my desk, and printed in the Massachusetts
Spy, with two or three bombastic expressions interpolated by him-
self; and which your pupil, judge Minot, has printed in his history.
You have now the stage and the scenery. Next follows a nar-
ration 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 his conquest of Montreal, and the conse-
quent annihilation of the French government and power in Amer-
ica, 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 in-
tention, they sent orders and instructions to the collector of the
customs in Boston, Mr. Charles Paxton, to apply to the civil author-
ity for writs of assistance, to enable the custom house officers,
tide waiters, land waiters, and all, to command all sheriffs and con-
stables 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 merchandizes, which had
been imported against the prohibitions, or without paying the tax-
es imposed by certain acts of parliament, called u The Acts of
Trade,” i. e. by certain parliamentary 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, and there never had been a time when they would have
been, or could have been, obeyed.
Mr. Paxton, no doubt consulting with governor Bernard, lieu-
tenant governor Hutchinson, and all the principal crown officers,246
and all the rest of the Junto, 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 of assistance. Stephen Sewall was then chief justice of that
court, an able man, an uncorrupted American, and a sound whig, 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, i. e. in 1761.
In the mean time chief justice Sewall died, and lieutenant gov-
ernor Hutchinson was appointed chief justice of that court in his
stead. Every observing and thinking man knew that this appoint-
ment was made for the direct purpose of deciding this question, in
favour of the crown, and all others in which it should be inter-
ested.
An alarm was spread far and wide. Merchants of Salem and
Boston applied to Mr. Pratt, who refused, and to Mr. Otis and Mr.
Thatcher, who accepted, to defend them against this terrible me-
nacing monster, the writ of assistance. Great fees were offered,
but Otis, and I believe Thatcher, would accept of none. u In
such a cause,” said Otis, u I despise all fees.”
I have given you a sketch of the stage and the scenery, and a
brief of the cause ; or, if you like the phrase better, of the trag-
edy, 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 favour of Cockle’s petition, all depend-
ing, however, on the u If the parliament of Great Britain is the
sovereign legislator of all the British empire.”
Mr. Thatcher followed him on the other side, and argued with
the softness of manners, the ingenuity, the cool reasoning which
were peculiar to his amiable character.
But Otis was a flame of Fire I With a promptitude of classical
allusions, a depth of research, a rapid summary of historical events
and dates, a profusion of legal authorities, a prophetic glare of his
eyes into futurity, and a rapid torrent of impetuous eloquence he
hurried away ail before him. American independence was then
and there born. The seeds of patriots and heroes to defend the
A oji Sine Diis Animosns Infans; to defend the vigorous youth were
then and there sown. Every man of an immense crowded audi-
ence 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 arbitrary claims of Great Britain.
Then and there the child Independence was born. In fifteen
years, i. e. in 1776, he grew up to manhood aad declared himself
free.247
The court adjourned for consideration, and after some days at
the close of the term, Hutchinson chief justice arose and said,
u The court has considered the subject of writs of assistance, and
can see no foundation for such a writ; but as the practise in Eng-
land is not known, it has been thought best, to continue the ques-
tion to 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 pronoun-
ced ; nothing was said about writs of assistance; no letters from
England, and nothing more was said in court concerning them.—
But it was generally reported and understood that the court clan-
destinely granted them ; and the custom house officers had them
in their pockets, though I never knew that they dared to produce
and 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 unani-
mous vote. On that week I happened to be at Worcester attend-
ing a court of common pleas of which, brigadier Ruggles was
chief justice. When the news arrived from Boston, 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,
u Out of this election will arise a damn’d faction, which will shake
this province to its foundation.”
For ten years afterwards Mr. Otis, at the head of his country’s
cause, conducted the town of Boston and the people of the prov-
ince with a prudence and fortitude, at every sacrifice of personal
interest and amidst unceasing persecution, which would have done
honour to the most virtuous patriot or martyr of antiquity.
I fear I shall make you repent of bringing out the old gentleman.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR*
Quincy, April 5, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
IN Mr. Wirt’s elegant and eloquent panegyrick on Mr. Henry
I beg your attention from page 56 to page 67, the end of the
second section, where you will read a curious specimen of the ag-
onies of patriotism in the early stages of the revolution. u 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 afterwards president
of congress swore a round oath, he would have given 500 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.”248
And you will also see the confused manner in which they we*e
first recorded, and how they have since been garbled in history.
My remarks at present will be confined to the anecdote in page 65.
Csesar 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, u 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 page 102 and 103, 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 contained the fol-
lowing offensive observation.
“ For it will 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.” Though judge Minot
does not say it, the warm speech was from the tongue, and the of-
fensive observation, from the pen of James Otis; when these
words of the remonstrance were first read in the house, Timothy
Pain, Esq. a member from Worcester, 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 major-
ity ; and it was presented to the governor by a committee of which
Mr. Otis was a member. „
Judge Miuot proceeds—u The governor was so displeased with
the passage, that he sent a letter to the speaker, returning the
message to the house ; in which he said, that the king’s name,
dignity and cause, were so improperly treated that he was obliged
to desire the speaker to recommend earnestly to the house, that
it might not be entered upon the minutes in the terms in which it
then stood. For if it should, he was then satisfied they would
again and again, wish that some part of it were expunged, espe-
cially if it should appear, as he doubted not it would when he en-
tered upon his vindication, that there was not the least ground for
the insinuation* under colour of which, that sacred and well belov-
ed name was so disrespectfully brought into question.
Upon the reading of this letter, the exceptionable clause was
struck out of the message.
1 have now before me a pamphlet printed in 17G3, by Edes &
Gill, in Queen street, Boston, entitled a vindication of the conduct
of the house of representatives of the province of the Massachu-
setts Bay, more particularly in the last session of the general as-
sembly, by James Otis, Esq. a member of said house, with this
motto—249
Let such, stich 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.
t wish I could transcribe the whole of this pamphlet, because
it is a document of importance in the early history of the revolt
tion, 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 Mas-
sachusetts and the town of Boston, against which devoted city the
first thunderbolts of parliamentary omnipotence were intended and
expected to be darted. Mr. Otis, from his first appearance in the
house in 1761, had shewn such a vast superiority of talents, in*
formation and energy to every other member of the house, that
in 1763 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 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 fed deposited in the cabi-
net of the curious. The preface, is a frank, candid and manly
page, explaining the motive of the publication, viz : the clamours
against the house for their proceedings, in which he truly says.—*
w The world ever has been, and ever will be pretty equally divi-
ded, between those two great parties, vulgarly called the winners
and the losers ; or to speak more precisely, between those who
are discontented that they have no power, and those who think
they never cart have enough.” Now it is absolutely impossible
to please both sides either by temporizing, trimming or retreating ;
the two former justly incur the censure of a wicked heart; the
latter that of cowardice, and fairly and manfully fighting the bat-
tle, and it is in the opinion of many worse than either. On the
8th of September, A. D. 1762, the war still continuing 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 the pamphlet, urging a compliance with the governor’s recom-
mendation and general Amherst’s requisition ; and concluding with
a motion for a committee to consider of both.
A committee was appointed, of whom Mr. Otis was one, and
reported not only a continuance of the troops already in service,
37250
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. Mavhew’s sermon on passive obe-
dience 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 propagation of
the gospel in foreign parts have from their charter. The insti*
tution 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.
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 prosperity, 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 prov-
ince 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 dis-
tinguished by its loyalty and readiness to contribute its most stren-
uous efforts for his majUty’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 otir king and country requires, that we should contribute
the last penny and the last drop of blood, rather than by any back-
wardness 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 considerations 1 pre-
sume, induced the assembly upon his majesty’s requisition, signi-
fied last spring by lord Egreinont, so cheerfujly 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 colonies, we know, have often been blamed
without cause ; and we have had some share of it. Witness the
miscarriage of the pretended expedition against Canada, in queen
Ann’s time, just before the infamous treaty of Utretcht. It is well
known by some now living in this metropolis, 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 disap-
pointment ; for in order to shift the blame of this, shameful affair
from themselves, they endeavoured to lay it upon the New Eng-
land colonies.
u I am therefore clearly for raising the men,” &c. &c. “This
province has, since the year 1754, levied for his majesty’s service251
as soldiers and seamen, near thirty thousand men, 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 war, that the last gen-
eration could hardly have formed any idea of. We are now deep-
ly in debt,” &c. &c.
On the 14th of September, the house received a message from
the governor, containing a somewhat awkward confession of cer-
tain 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 concerning writs
of assistance, and since it was known that the acts of trade were
to be enforced, and a revenue collected by authority of parlia-
ment, Mr. Otis’s maxim, that “ taxation without representation was
tyranny,” and “that expenditures of public money,without appro-
priations by the representatives of the people, were unconstitu-
tional, arbitrary and therefore tyrannical,” had become popular
proverbs. They were common place 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 thai
flaming speech which judge Minot calls “ 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 appointed,
and Otis was the first after the speaker.
The committee reported the following answer and remon-
strance, every syllable of which is Otis:
u May it please your Excellency:
u The house have duly attended to your excellency’s message
of the eleventh inst. 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 to remonstrate
against the method of making or increasing establishments by the
governor and council-
u It is in effect, taking from the house their most darling privi-
lege, 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 to252
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 re-
gard the peace and welfare of the province, that no measures of
this nature be taken for the future, let the advice of council be
what it may.”
This remonstrance being read, was accepted by a large majori-
ty, and sent up and presented to his excellency by a committee of
whom Mr. Otis was one.
But here, Mr. Tudor, allow me, a digression, an episode* Lord
Ellenborough in the late trial of Hone, says u the Athanasian
Creed is the most beautiful composition that ever flowed from the
pen of man.”
1 agree with his lordship, that it is the most consummate mass
of absurdity, inconsistency and contradiction that ever was put to-
gether. But I appeal to your taste and your conscience, whether
the foregoing remonstrance of James Otis is not as terse a morsel
of good sense, as Athanasius’s Creed is of nonsense and bias*
phemy ?
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 on his majesty’s person and government,
and highly derogatory to his crown and dignity, and therein desir-
ed, 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 heard the offensive words,
now cried out, urase them! rase them 1” They were accord-
ingly 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 them-
selves 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 council, and
consequently would be deemed to have no judgment of his own*
In page 17, Mr. Otis enters on his apology, excuse or justifica-
tion of the offensive W'ords : which, as it is as facetious as it is edi-
fying,! will transcribe at length in his own words, viz :
u In order to excuse, if not altogether justify the offensive pas-
sage, and clear it from ambiguity, I heg leave to premise two or
three data. 1. God made all men naturally equal. 2. The ideas
of earthly superiority, pre-eminence and grandeur, are educa-
tional, at least acquired, not innate. 3u Kings were, and plants-253
tion 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 subjects; nature having made
sufficient of the 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 na-
ture, 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 the 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 adher-
ence to the principles of the British constitution, by which in con-
junction 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 conse-
quently his subjects are very miserable.
u Let us now take a more careful review of this passage, which
by some out of doors has been represented as seditious, rebellious,
apd traitorous. I hope none, however, will be so wanting to the
interest 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 colours, that avarice, malice, and the worst passions
could suggest.
u 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 arbitrary
as both would be, if both could levy taxes without parliament.
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 it were true ?
But truth being of little importance, with most modern politicians,
we shall touch lightly on that topic, and proceed to inquiries of a
more interesting nature.
u 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 subject 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 broad sword,254
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 therefore manifestly of no
importance what a prince’s Christian name is, if he be arbitrary,
any more indeed if he were not arbitrary. So the whole
amount of this dangerons proposition, may at least, in one view
be reduced to this, viz:	It is of little importance what a king's
Christian name is. It is, indeed, of importance, that a king, a gov-
ernor, 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 favour-
able construction upon words, that they can possibly bear, it will
follow, that this proposition 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.
u If this proposition will bear an hundred different constructions,
they must all be admitted before any that imports any bad mean-
ing, much more a treasonable one.
“ It is conceived the house intended nothing disrespectful to his
majesty, his government, or governor, in those words. It would
be very injurious to insinuate this of a house, that upon all occa-
sions 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, viz: that in the present situation of Great Britain
and France, it is of vast importance to be a Britain 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 in-
clination ; 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 vigorous than others. It is granted ; but, then, let it be re-
membered, that the life of man is a vapour, that shall soon van-
ish away, and we know not wrho may come after him, a wise man
or a fool; though the chances before and since Solomon have
ever been in favour 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 exception-
able.
u Some fine gentlemen have charged the expression as indeli-
cate. This is a capital impeachment in politics, and therefore
demands our most serious attention. The idea of delicacy, in the
creed of some politcians, implies, that an inferior should, at the
peril of all that is near and dear to him, i. e. his interest, avoid
• every the least trifle that can offend his superior. Does my su-255
perior 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 uneasiness to see me whim-
pering, much more openly complaining, at the loss of a little glit-
tering dirt. I must according to this system, not only endeavour
to acquire myself, but impress upon all around me, a reverence
and passive obedience, to the sentiments of my superior, little
short of adoration. Is the superior in contemplation a king, I
must consider him as God’s Vicegerent, cloathed with unlimited
power, his will the supreme law, and not accountable for his
actions, let them be what they may* to any tribunal upon earth.
Is the superior a plantation governor ? He must be Viewed, not
only as the most excellent representation of majesty, but as a vice-
roy 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.
44 The votaries of this sect, are all monopolizers of offices, pec-
ulators, 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 and distempered imagination in the
possessor, and of no use in the world, but for the skilful politician
to convert to his own purposes of power and profit. With these
44 The love of country is an empty name ;
u For gold they hunger, but ne’er thirst for fame.’'
44 It is well known, that the least 44 patriotic spark” unawares <
44 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 ad-
mit 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 concentrated all their views in dear
self, with them the only 44 sacred and well beloved name” or thing
in the universe. See Cardinal Richlieu’s Political Testament, and
the greater Bible of the Sect, Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees.
Richlieu 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, 44 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 through the remotest dominions, is, that every man has his
price, and that if you bid high enough you are sure of him.256
46 To those wbo have been taught to bow at thfc naftie of*
king, with as much ardor and devotion as a papist at the sight of
a crucifix, the assertion under examination may appear harsh J
but there is an immense difference between the sentiments of a Brit-
ish house of commons remonstrating, and those of a courtier cring-
ing for a favour. 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 difference in favour of a house
of representatives ; when a house of commons address the king,
they speak to their sovereign, who is truly the most august per-
sonage upon earth. When a house of representatives remonstrate
to a governor, they speak to a fellow subject, though a superior
who is undoubtedly entitled to decency and respect; but I hardly
think to quite so much reverence as his master.
u It may not be amiss to observe, that a form of speech may be
in no sort improper, when used arguendo, or for illustration, speak-
ing 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 ot sense, who are quite unprejudiced to any
party. They have taken it to imply a compliment, rather than
any indecent reflection upon his majesty’s wise and gracious ad-
ministration. It seems strange, therefore, that the house should
be so suddenly charged by his excellency, with impropriety,
groundless insinuations,” &c.
u VV hat cause of so bitter repentance, u again and again,” could
possibly have taken place, if this clause had been printed in the
journal, I cannot imagine, ff the case be fairly represented, I
guess the province can be in no danger from a house of represen-
tatives daring to speak plain English when they are complaining
of a grievance. I sincerely believe that the house had no dispo-
sition 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 highest 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 assist-
ance in supporting those two branches of the legislature in all
their just rights and pre-eminence. But the house is, and ought
to be, jealous and tenacious of its own privileges ; these are a sa*
crcd deposit, entrusted 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 u 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 calum-
niators in abundance.
2. I know not whether judge Minot was born in 1762. He cer-
tainly never saw, heard, felt, or understood any thing of the prin-25?
ciples or feelings of that year. If he had, he could not hate
given so frosty an account of it. The a warm speech” he men*
tions, was an abridgment or second edition of Otis’s argument in
1761, against the execution of the acts of trade. It was a flaming
declaration against taxation without representation* It was a
Warning voice against the calamities that were coming upon hi9
country. It Was an ardent effort to alarm and arouse his coun-
trymen against the menacing system of parliamentary taxation*
3. Bernard was no great thing, but he was not a fool. It is
impossible to believe, that he thought the offensive passage trea-
son or sedition, of such danger and importance as he represented
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 con*
tinual solicitations of a crowd of clients; for his business at the
bar at that time was very extensive and of the first importance;
and amidst the host of politicians, suggesting their plans and
schemes, claiming his advice and directions !
5.	Look over the declarations 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. Priestly.
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 be found in sol-
id substance in this u vindication of the house of representatives ?’*
6.	Is it not an affront to common sense, an insult to truth, vir-
tue, and patriotism, to represent Patrick Henry, though he was
my friend as much as Otis, as the father of the American revolu-
tion, and the founder of American independence ? The gentle-
man who has done this, sincerely believed what he wrote l doubt
not; but be ought to be made sensible, that he is of yesterday,
and knows nothing of the real origin of the American revolution.
7.	If there is any bitterness of spirit discernible in Mr. Otis’s
vindication, this was not natural to him. He was generous, can-
did, 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 scurrillity, 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.
[Here follow quotations from Locke on government, Part II.
Ch. IV. Id. Ch. XI. Id. Ch. XIV. B. 1. Ch. II. and B. II. Ch. II.]
“ This other original Mr. Locke has demonstrated to be the
consent of a free people. It is possible there are a few; and I
33258
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 enjoy-
ed by the vulgar. These may be inclined to brand some of the
principles advanced in the vindication of the house, with the odi-
ous epithets seditious and levelling. Had any thing to justify them
been quoted from colonel Algernon Sydney, or other British mar-
tyrs 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 further reasons. 1st. He
was not only one of the most wise as well as most honest, but the
most impartial man that ever lived. 2d. He professedly wrote his
discourses on government, as he himself expresses it, u to estab-
lish the throne of the great restorer 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 illustri-
ous 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 proba*
bly never have heard of those civil dissentions, 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, jaco-
bites, and other stupid bigots, are apt too liberally 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.”
Pardon the trouble of reading the letter, from your habitual
partiality for your friend.
JOHN ADAMS
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, April 15, 1 SI 8.
DEAR SIR,
I HAVE received your obliging favour of the 8th, but cannot
consent to your resolution to ask no more questions. Your ques-
tions revive my sluggish memory.- Since our national legislature
have established a national painter—a wise measure, for which I
thank them, my imagination runs upon the art, and has alreaty
painted, I know not how many, historical pictures. 1 have sent
you one, give me leave to send another. The bloody rencontre159
between the citizens and the soldiers, on the 6th of March, 1770*
produced a tremendous sensation throughout the town and coun-
try. 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, delib-
erations and debates, adopted resolutions, appointed .commit-
tees. What has become of these records, Mr. Tudor ? Where
are they ? Their resolutions in public were conformable to those
of every man in private, who dared to express his thoughts or his
feelings, w that the regular soldiers should be banished from the
town, at all hazards.” Jonathan Williams, a very pious, inoffen-
sive and conscientious gentleman, was their moderator. A remon-
strance to the governor, or the governor and council, was ordain-
ed, 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 like-
nesses of Gov. Winthrop, Gov. Bradstreet, Gov. Endicott and Gov.
Belcher, hung up in obscure corners of the room. Lieut. Gov.
Hutchinson, commander in chief in the absence of the governor,
must be placed at the head of the council table. Lieut. Col. Dal-
rymple, 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 pro-
vince. 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 a table
before them. Before these illustrious personages appeared Sam-
uel Adams, a member of the house of representatives and their
clerk, now at the head of the committee of the great assembly at
the old South church. Thucidydes, Livy or Sallust would make
a speech for him, or, perhaps, the Italian Bota, if he had known
any thing of this transaction, one of the most important of the rev-
olution ; but I am wholly incapable of it; and, if 1 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 dan-
gerous, ruinous and fatal effects of standing armies in populous
cities in time of peace, and the determined resolution of the pub*
lie, that the regular troops, at all events, should be removed from
the town. Lieutenant governor Hutchinson, then commander in
chief, at the head of a trembling council, said, “ he had no author-260
ity over the king’s troops, that they had their separate comman-
der and separate orders and instructions, and that he could not
interfere with them.” Mr. Adams instantly appealed to the char-
ter of the province, by which the governor, and in his absence the
lieutenant governor, was constituted u commander in chief of all
the military and naval power within its jurisdiction.” So obvi-
ously true and so irrefragable was the reply, that it is astonishing
that Mr. Hutchinson should have so grossly betrayed the constitu-
tion, 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 in
his controversy with the two houses, three years afterwards, on
the supremacy of parliament, appear to have totally disarranged
his understanding. He certainly asserted in public, in the most
solemn manner, a multitude of the roundest falshoods, which he
must have known to be such, and which he must have known
could be easily and would certainly be detected, if he had not
wholly lost his memory, even of his own public writing. 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 rep-
resentatives 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 fig-
ure 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 pre-
served its peace. Not only the immense assemblies of the people,
from day to day, but military arrangements 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 requisition, and military watches and
guards were every where placed. We were all upon a level; no
man was exempted ; our military officers were our only superi-
ors. I had the honor to be summoned in my turn, and attended at
the state house with my musket and bayonet, my broadsword and
cartridge box, under the command of the famous Paddock. 1261
know you will laugh at my military figure ; but I believe there
was not a more obedient soldier ih the regiment, nor one more im-
partial 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 1 was, frequently to his councils. I had a great deal of
conversation 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 lieutenant colonel Dalrymple. He had fairly driven them
from all their outworks, breastworks and entrenchments, to their
citadel. There they paused and considered and deliberated. The
heads of Hutchinson and Dalrymple were laid together in whis-
pers for a long time : when the whispering ceased, a long and sol-
emn pause ensued, extremely painful to an impatient and expect-
ing audience. Hutchinson, in time, broke silence ; he had con-
sulted 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 har-
monious voice and decisive tone, said, u 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 awk-
ward 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 William
Molineaux, was obliged to march side by side with the command-
er of some of their troops, to protect them from the indignation
of the people, in their progress to the wharf of embarcation for
the castle. Nor is it less amdsing that lord North, as I was re-
peatedly and credibly informed in England, with his characteristic
mixture of good humour and sarcasm, ever after called these
troops by the title of u Sam Adams’s two regiments.”
The painter should seize upon the critical moment when Sam-
uel 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 surrender of
Burgoyne. Whether any artist will ever attempt it, I know not.
JOHN ADAMS.262
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, April 23, 181$.
DEAR SIR,
YOUR letter of the 5th has been received. Your judgment
of Mr. Wirt’s biography of my friend, Mr. Henry, is in exact uni-
son with my own. I have read it with more delight than Scott’s
romances in verse and prose, or Miss Porter’s Scottish Chiefs, and
other novels.
I am sorry you have introduced me. I could wish my own name
forgotten, if I could develope the true causes of the rise and pro-
gress of American revolution and independence.
Why have Harmodius and Brutus, Coligni and Brederode,
Cromwell and Napoleon failed, and a thousand others ? Because
human nature cannot bear prosperity. Success always intoxicates
patriots as well as other men; and because birth and wealth al-
ways, in the end, overcome popular and vulgar envy, more surely
than public interest.
The causes of our parties during and since the revolution, would
lead me too far.
You cannot ask me too many questions. I will answer them all
according as strength shall be allowed to your aged and infirm
friend,	JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, May 12, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
IN my letters to you, I regard no order. And I think, I ought
to make you laugh, sometimes : otherwise my letters would be too
grave, if not too melancholy. To this end, I send you Jemmi-
bellero, “ the song of the drunkard” which was published in
Fleet’s 46 Boston Evening Post,” on the 13th of May. 1765. It was
universally agreed to have been written by Samuel Waterhouse,
who had been the most notorious scribbler, satyrist and libeller, in
the service of the conspirators, against the liberties of America,
and against the administration of governor Pownal, and against the
characters of Mr. Pratt and Mr. Tyng. The rascal had wit. But
is ridicule the test of truth ? You see the bachanalian ha ! ha! at
Otis’s prosodies Greek and Latin ; and you see the encouragement
of scholarship in that age. The whole legion, the whole phalanx,
the whole host of conspirators against the liberties of America,
could not have produced Mr. Otis’s Greek and Latin prosodies.
Yet they must be made the scorn of fools. Such was the char-
acter of the age, or rather of the day. Such have been and such
will be the rewards of real patriotism in all ages and all over the
world.—I am, as ever, your old friend and humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS.263
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, June 1, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
NO man could have written from memory Mr. Otis’s argument
of four or five hours, against the acts of trade, as revenue laws,
and against writs of assistants, 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 endeavour to give you some
very short hints of them.	# ■
1.	He began with ail exordium, containing an apology for his
resignation of the office of advocate general in the court of ad-
miralty ; and for his appearance in that cause in opposition to the
crown, and in favour of the town of Boston, and the merchants 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 independent
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 con-
test. Nor was his right to his property less incontestible. The
club that he had snapped from a tree, for a staff or for defence,
was his own. His bow and arrow were his own; if by a pebble
he had killed s*partridge or a squirrel, it was his own. No crea-
ture, 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 humour,
and at the same time so much indisputable 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 ideots or madmen, and all the acts
of ideots and iunatics were void, and not obligatory by all the laws
of God and man. Nor were the poor negroes forgotten. Not a
Quaker in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson, of Virginia, ever assert-
ed the rights of negroes in stronger terms. Young as I was, and
ignorant as 1 was, I shuddered at the doctrine he taught; and I
have all my life time shuddered, and still shudder, at the conse-
quences that may be drawn from such premises. Shall we say,
that the rights of masters and servants 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 abolitio ns 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 animate264
by nature ; that they were mutual sympathies ; and, above all, the
sweet attraction of the sexes, which mu9t soon draw them together
in little groups, and by degrees in larger congregations, for mu-
tual assistance and defence. And this must have happened
before any formal covenant, by express Words or signs, was
concluded. When general counsels and deliberations commenced,
the objects could be no other than the mutual defence and secu-
rity 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
ideots or madmen, whose acts were never binding. To suppose
them surprised by fraud, or compelled by force, into any other
compact, spoil 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; that they were inherent,
inalienable, and indefeasible by any laws, pacts, contracts, cove-
nants, 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 strug-
gles against arbitrary power, temporal and spiritjpd, civil and po-
litical, 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 wTell 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 u virtual representation,” or any other fiction of law
or politics, or any monkish trick of deceit and hypocrisjr.
5.	He then examined the acts of trade, one by one, and demon-
strated, that if they were considered as revenue laws, they de-
stroyed all our security of property, liberty, and life, every right
of nature, and the English constitution, and the charter of the pro-
vince. Here he considered the distinction between “external
and internal taxes,” at that time a popular and common-place
distinction. But he asserted there was no such distinction in the-
ory, or upon any principle but “ necessity.” 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 in-
ternal taxes, and had submitted to the acts of trade as regulations
of commerce, but never as taxations, or revenue laws. Nor had
the British government, till now, ever dared to attempt to enforce265
them as taxations or revenue laws. They had laid 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 own
legislature. Here he gave a history of the navigation act of the
first of Charles 2d. a plagiarism from Oliver Cromwell. This
act had laid dormant for fifteen years. In 1675, after repeated
letters and orders from the king, governor Winthrop very can-
didly 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 1 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 char-
acter should not be forgotten. Young men should be taught to
honour merit, but not to adore it. The greatest men have the
greatest faults.	JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, June 9$ 1818.
OEAtt sir,
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 assistants, as tyrannical instru-
ments to carry them into execution.
But 1 enter cm 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, any body might contradict her, for she could find
no witness to keep her in countenance.”
Mr. Otis, after rapidly running over the history of the contin-
ual terrors, vexations, and irritations, which our ancestors endured
from the British government, from 1620, under James 1st. and
Charles 1st. ; and acknowledging the tranquility under the par-
liament and Cromwell, from 1648, to the restoration, in 1660, pro-
duced the navigation act, as the first fruit of the blessed restora-
tion of a Stuart’s reign.
This act is in the 12th year of Charles 2d. chapter 18, u An
act for the encouraging and increasing of shipping and navigation.’1
u For the increase of shipping, and encouragement of the nav-
igation of Ibis nation, wherein, under the good providence and
ru266
protection of God, the wealth, safety, and strength of this king-
dom, 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 aie of
the built of, and belonging to, any of the said lands, islands, plan"
tatiens 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 ex-
ported out of any of the aforesaid places, in any other ship or ves-
sel, 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 oth-
erwise, 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, protection, 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 au-
thorized, 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 court of admiralty, there to be proceeded
against; and in case of condemnation, one moiety of such forfeit-
ures shall be to the use of such admirals or commanders, and their
companies, 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 suc-
cessors.”
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, produc-
tion or manufacture, shall be brought, even in English shipping,
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 its267
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 pru-
dence of governor Leverett, and the Massachusetts legislature,
in adopting it, in 1675, after it had laid dormant for fifteen years;
though the adoption of it was infinitely prejudicial to the interests,
the growth, the increase, the prosperity of the colonies in gen-
eral, of New England in particular; and most of all, to the town
of Boston. It was an immense 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 assistance. 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 nav-
igation, much farther than I dare to attempt to repeat, he pro-
ceeded to the subsequent acts of trade. These, he contended,
imposed taxes, and enormous taxes, burthensome 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.
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.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, June 17, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
THE next statute produced and commented by Mr. Otis was the
15th of Charles the second, i. e. 1663, ch. 7. “An act for the en-
couragement of trade.”Sec. 5.—t4 And in regard his majesty’s plantations, beyond the
seas are inhabited and peopled by his subjects of this his kingdom
of England, for the maintaining a greater correspondence and
kindness between them, and keeping them in a firmer dependanct
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 commodities, 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 be-
ing the usage of other nations to keep their plantations trades to
themselves,”
Sec. 6.—u 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 Ameri-
ca, (Tangier only excepted) but what shall be bona fide, and with-
out 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 df October, 16C2, and had
such certificate thereof as is directed in one act passed the last
session of the present parliament, entitled 46 Jin act for presenting
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, is-
lands, plantations, colonies, territories or places, and from no other
place or places whatsoever; any law, statute or usage to the con-
trary 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 they were imported, with all her guns, tackle, fur-
niture, ammunition and apparel; one third part to his majesty, hie
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 ; and the other
third part 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 otfence was
committed, or in any court of record in England, by bill, informa-
tion, 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, all calculated to fortify by oaths and penal-
ties, the tyrannical ordinances of the preceding sections.269
Mr. Otis’s observations on these statutes were numerous, and
some of them appeared to me at the time, young as I was, bitter.
But as I cannot pretend to recollect those observations with pre-
cision, I will recommend to you and others to make your own re*
marks 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 before, i. e-
from 1761.
I have no scruple in making a confession with all the simplicity
•f Jean Jac Rosseau, that I never turned over the leaves of these
statutes, or any section of them, without pronouncing a hearty
curse upon them.
I felt them, as an 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
fourth of July, to peruse these statutes in pursuit of principles and
feelings that produced the revolution.
Oh ! Mr T>dor, when will France, Spain, England and Hol-
land renounce their selfish, contracted, exclusive systems of reli-
gion, government and commerce ? I fear, never.
But they may depend upon it, their present systems of coloniza-
tion cannot endure. Colonies universally, ardently breathe for
independence. "No man, who has a soul will ever live in a colo-
ny, under the present establishments, one moment longer than
necessity compels him.
But I must return to Mr. Otis. The burthen of his song was
** Writs of assistance.”	All these rigorous statutes were now to
be carried into rigorous execution by the still more vigorous in-
struments of arbitrary power, M 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 w'ere
none, and neither judge nor lawyer, bench or bar, pretended to
confute him. He asserted farther, that there was no colour of
authority for it, but one produced by Mr. Gridley in a statute of
the 13th and 14th of Charles the second, which Mr. Otis said was
neither authority, precedent or colour of either, in America. Mr.
Thatcher said he had diligently searched all the books, but could
find no such writ. He had indeed found in Rastalls Entries, a
thing which in some of its features resembling this, but so little
like it in 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 govern-270
or, lieutenant governor, secretary, custom house officers, and all
other crown officers, produced, the statute of the thirteenth and
fourteenth of Charles the second, chapter eleventh, entitled, An
Act to prevent frauds, and regulating abuses in his majesty’s cus-
toms.” 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 merchandizes, which have
been concealed from 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 import-
ation 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
his majesty^ court of exchequer, to take a constable,- headborough,
or other public officer, inhabiting near unto the place, and in the
day time to enter, and go into any house, shop, cellar, warehouse
or room, or other place ; and in case of resistance, to break open
doors, chests, trunks, and other package, there to seize, and from
thence to bring any kind of goods or merchandize whatsoev-
er prohibited and uncustomed, and to put and secure the same, in
his majesty's storehouse in the port, next to the place where such
seizure shall be made.”
Here is all the colour 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.
JOHN ADAMS,
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, June 24, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
MR. OTIS said such a “ writ of assistance” might become the
reign of Charles 2d. in England, and he would not dispute the
taste of the parliament of England, in passing such an act, nor the
people of England in submitting to it; but it was not calculated
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 in271
England inconsistent with the fundamental laws, the natural and
constitutional rights of the subjects. If, however, it would please
the people of England, he might admit, that they were legal there,
but not here.
Diligent research had been made by Otis and Thatcher, 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 2d. chapter 22. u An act for the regulating the trade of
Bay-making, in the Dutch Bay-hall, in Colchester.” The fifth
section of this statute, u 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 time to time, in
the day time, to search any cart, waggon or pack, wherein they
shall have notice, or suspect any such deceitful 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 confiscate 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 2d. chapter 8th, “ An act for the regulating
the making of Kidderminster Stuffs.”
By the eleventh section of this important law, it is enacted,
6C That the said president, wardens, and assistants of the said Kid-
derminster 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,
sheerman, 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 humour, 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 to272
remember with any accuracy. But this I do say, that Horace1*
w Irritat, mvlcet, veris terroribus implet,” was never exemplified
in my hearing- with so great effect. With all his drollery, he in-
termixed solid and sober observations upon the acts of navigation
by Sir Joshua Child, and other English writers upon trade, which
l 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 THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Qilincy, July 9, 1818.
t>£AR SIR,
IN the search for something, in the history and statutes of
England, in any degree resembling this monstrum horrendum ingens9
the writ of assistance, the following examples were found.
In the statute of the first year of king James the second, chap-
ter third, u An act for granting to his majesty an imposition upon
all wines and vinegar,” &c. Section 8, it is enacted, uThat the
officers of his majesty’s customs &c. shall have power and author-
ity 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, collectors or oth-
er officers of any of his majesty’s ports can or may do, touching
the securing his majesty’s customs of tonnage and poundage,” &c.
&c. &c.	1 must refer to the statute for the rest.
In the statute of king James the second, chapter four, w An act
for granting to his majesty an imposition upon all tobacco and su-
gar imported,” &c. Section fifth, in certain cases, u The commis-
sioners may appoint one or more officer or officers to enter into
all the cellars, warehouses, store cellars, or other places whatso-
ever, belonging to such importer, to search, see and try,” &c. &c.
kc. I must again refer to the statute for the rest, which is indeed
nothing to the present purpose.
Though the portraits of Charles the second and James the
Second were blazing before his eyes, their characters and reigns
were sufficiently odious to all but the conspirators against human
liberty, to excite the highest applauses of Otis’s philippics against
them and all the foregoing acts of their reigns, w'hich Writs of as-
sistance were now intended to enforce. Otis asserted and proved,
that none of these statutes extended to America, or were obliga-
tory 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 1 shall state as they occur to we without any273
regard to the order of time. 1. of James the second, chapter 17,
44 An act for the revival and continuance of several acts of parlia-
ment therein mentioned,” in which the tobacco law among others
is revived and continued.
13th and 14th of Charles 2nd, chapter 13. 44 An act for prohibit-
ing the importation of foreign bone-lace, cutwork, embroidery,
fringe, band-strings, buttons and needle work.” Pray sir, do not
laugh ! for something very serious comes in section third. 44 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 dwel-
ling houses of such person or persons, as shall be suspected, to
have any such foreign bone-laces, embroideries, cut-work, fringe,
band-strings, buttons or needle work within their respective coun-
ties, cities, and towns corporate, and to seize the same, any act,
statute or ordinance to the contrary thereof in any wise notwith-
standing.”
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 the second,
chapter third, 44 An act for the continuance of process and judicial
proceedings continued.” In which it is enacted, section first,
14 That no pleas, writs, bills, actions, suits, plaints, process, pre-
cepts, or other thing or things, &c. shall be in any wise continu-
ed,” &c.
But I must refer to the act. I cannot transcribe. If any anti-
quarian should hereafter ever wish to review this period, he will
see with compassion how such a genuis as Otis was compelled 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. 2d, ch. 12, 44 An act for confirmation of
judicial proceedings,” in which it is enacted, &c. 44 that nor any
writs, or actions on, or returns of any writs, orders or other pro-
ceedings in law or equity, had made, given, taken or done, or de-
pending 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 44 writs”, the word 44 continued” and the words
44 court of exchequer,” they had instructed their counsel to pro-
duce it, though in express 44 words restricted to the realm,” Mr.
Gridley was incapable of prevaricating or duplicity.
35274
It was a moral spectacle, more affecting to me than any 1 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 fath*>
er, 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,
©r 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 midemeanors, 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 conven-
ticles.
I have no hesitation or scruple to say that the commencement of
the reign of George the third 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 religious liberty upon earth ;
but it would have gone great lengths towards it, and would haye
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, u I rejoice that
America has resisted ; two'millions of people reduced to servi-
tude, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.”
Another statute was produced, 12 C. 2. cap. 19, “ An act to
prevent frauds and concealments of his majesty’s customs and sub-
sidies.” 4< Be it enacted,” &c. w 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 exche-
quer, or chief magistrate of the port or place where the offence
shall be committed, or the next adjoining thereto, it shall be law-
full, to and for the lord treasurer, or any of the barons of the ex-
chequer, or the chief magistrate of the port or place, &c. to issue
out a warrant to any person or persons, thereby enabling him of
them, with the assistance of a sheriff, justice of the peace or con-
stable, to enter into any house in the day time where such goods
are suspected to be concealed, and in case of resistance, to break
open such houses, and to seize and secure the same goods so con-
cealed ; and all officers and ministers of justice are hereby requir-
ed 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 stat-
utes to America and to the petition for writs of assistance from
the superior court.	JOHN ADAMS.215
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, July 14, 1818.
t>ear Sir,
MR. OTIS, to show the spirit of the acts of trade, those 1
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 fellow
citizens. A discerning mind will find useful observations on the
interest of money* the price of labour, &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 faithfally serve his country, must
be content to pass through good report, and evil report.” 1 can-
not agree to that word, “ content.” I would substitute instead of
it, the words, “ as patient as he can.” 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 high time for me to return from this ramble to Mr.
Otis’s quotations from Sir Joshua Child, whose chapter four, 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 pro-
moters of that enthusiasm for the act of navigation, which has
prevailed to this day. For this work was written about the year
1677, near the period when the court of Charles 2d. 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 remember, that this act was not the in-
vention of a Briton, but of an American. George Downing, a
native of New England, educated at Harvard College, whose
name, office, and title appear in their catalogue, went to Eng-
land in the lime of lord Clarendon’s civil wars, and became such
a favourite 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 scouts-276
drel. To ingratiate himself with Charles 2d. he probably not
only pleaded his merit in inventing the navigation act, but he be-
trayed to the block some of his old republican and revolutionary
friends.
George Downing ! Far from boasting of thee as my countryman,
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 quartered, instead of Hugh
Peters, and Sir Henry Vane. But no! This is too cruel for my
nature ! I rather wish, that thou hadst been obliged to fly with thy
project, and report among the rocks and caves of the mountains in
New England.
But where is Downing’s statute ? British policy has suppress-
ed 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,
u 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 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 comprehen-
sive Machiavelian principle, ihat 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,
44 concerning plantations.” And he paused at the 6th proposition,
in page 167, u That all colonies and plantations, do endamage
their mother kingdoms, whereof the trades of such plantations
are not confined by severe laws, and good executions of those
laws, to the mother kingdom.”
Mr. Otis then proceeded to seize the key to the whole riddle,
in page 168, proposition eleventh, u that New England is the most
prejudicial plantation to the kingdom of EnglandSir George
Downing, no doubt, said the same to Charles 2d.
Otis proceeded to page 170, near the bottom, 66 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 there277
not been a New England found for some of them, Germany and
Holland probably had received the rest : but Old England, to be
sure, would have lost them all.
u Virginia and Barbadoes were first peopled by a sort of loose,
vagrant people, vicious, and destitute of the means to live at home,
(being either unfit for labour, or such as could find none to em-
ploy themselves about, or had so misbehaved themselves by whor-
ing, thieving, or other debauchery, that none would set them at
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 employ-
ed 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 soldiers, to be knocked on the head, or starv-
ed in the quarrels of our neighbours, as many thousands of brave
Englishmen were in the low countries, as also in the wars of Ger-
many, France, and Sweden, &c. or else, if they could by begging
or otherwise, arrive to the stock of 2s. 6d. to waft them over to
Holland, become servants to the Dutch, who refuse none.
u But the principal growth and increase of the aforesaid plan-
tations of Virginia 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 labour, and others of them made unfit for it by
the lazy habit of a soldier’s life, their wanting means to maintain
them all abroad, with his majesty, many of them betook them-
selves 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 the new inhabitants to
the aforesaid plantations, as also to New England, Jamaica, and
all other his majesty’s plantations 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. m^ny became
impoverished, and destitute of employment; and therefore such
as could find no way of living at home, and some who feared the
re-establishment of the ecclesiastical laws, un^ j, which they could
not live, were forced to transport thernseh os, or ?ell themselves
fora few years, to be transported by others, to the foreign Eng-
lish plantations. The constant supply, that the ^aid plantations
have since had, hath been such vagrant, loose people, as I have
before mentioned, picked up especially about the streets of Lon-
don and Westminster, and malefactors condemned for crimes, for
which by law they deserved to die; and some of those people278
called quakers, banished for meeting on pretence of religious
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 suppose 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.”
Any man, who will consider with attention these passages from
Sir Josiah Child, may conjecture what Mr. Otis’s observations up-
on them were. As I cannot pretend to remember them verbatim,
and with precision. I can only say, that they struck me very for-
cibly. 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 America,
in general, were not only as good as the people in general,
whom they left in England, but much better, more courageous,
more enterprizing, more temperate, more discreet, and more in-
dustrious, frugal, and conscientious : I mean the royalists as well
as the republicans.
In the second place, there is a great deal of uncandid, ungen-
erous misrepresentations, and scurrilous exaggeration, in this pas-
sage of the great knight, which prove him to have been a fit tool
of Charles 2d. and a suitable companion, associate and friend of
the great knight, Sir George Downing, the second scholar in Har-
vard College catalogue.
But 1 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
*he 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 from your
friend,	JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, July 17, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
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 preju-
dicial plantation in this kingdom.^’
u I am now to write of a people whose frugality, industry and
temperance, and the happiness of whose laws and institutions do279
promise to themselves long life, with a wonderful increase of peo-
ple, riches and power: and although no men ought to envy that
virtue and wisdom in others, which themselves either cannot or
will not practice, but rather to command and admire it ; yet I
think it the duty of every good man primarily to respect the wel-
fare of his native country; and therefore, though 1 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, viz.
u All our American plantations, except that of New England,
produce commodities of different natures from those of this king-
dom, as sugar, tobacco, cocoa, wool, ginger, sundry sorts of dying
woods, &p. Whereas, New England produces generally the same
we have here, viz: corn and cattle : some quantity of fish they
do likewise kill, but that is taken and saved altogether by their
inhabitants, which prejudiceth our Newfoundland trade ; whereas,
as hath been said, very few are or ought, according to prudence,
be employed in those fisheries 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 cod fish, salt mackerel, beef, pork, bread, beer,
flour, peas, &c. which they supply Barbadoes, Jamaica, &c. with,
to the diminution of the vent of those commodities from this king-
dom ; the greatest 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.
u 2. The people 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, contra-
ry to the act of navigation, by reason whereof many of our Amer-
ican commodities, especially tobacco and sugar, are transported 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 merchants from the vent of those commodities in those
ports where the new English vessels trade ; because 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 commo-
dities 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.280
^ 3. Of all the American plantations, his majesty hath none, so
apt for the building of shipping as New England, nor none so com-
parably qualified for breeding of sea men, 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 noth-
ing more prejudicial, and in prospect more dangerous to any moth-
er kingdom, than the increase of shipping in her colonies, planta-
tions and provinces.”
u 4. The people that evacuate from us to Barbadoes, and the
other West India plantations, as was hinted, do commonly work
one Englishman to ten blacks ; and if we kept the trade of our
said plantation 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 em-
ployment for four men in England, as was said before ; whereas,
peradventure, of ten men that issue from us to New England.
u To conclude this chapter, and to do right to that most indus-
trious English colony; I must confess, that though we lose by
their unlimited 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 up-
on 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 circumspection.”
Mr. Otis’s humour 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 detesta-
ble principles of the foregoing passages, which he read with re-
gret, but which it was his duty to read, in order to shew the tem-
per, the views and the objects of the knight, which were the same
with those of all the acts of trade anterior and posterior, to the
writing of this book : and those views, designs and objects were, to
annul all the New England charters, and they were but three,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Gonnnecticut; to reduce all the
colonies to royal governments, to subject them ail 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, whenever 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 commanders should solicit more fees, salaries,
penalties and forfeitures.
Mr. Otis had no thanks for the knight for his pharisaical com-
pliment to New England, at the expense of Virginia and other colo-281
nies who for any thing he knew were equally meritorious. It
was certain the first settlers of New England were not all godly.
But he reprobated in the strongest terms that language can com-
mand, the machiavrlian, the Jesuitical, the diabolical and infernal
principle that men, colonies and nations were to be sacrificed, be-
cause 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.
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM, TUDOR.
Quincy) July 27, 1818.
BEAR SIR,
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 pursu-
ing, could not be the edition that Mr. Otis produced in 1761. The
advertisement of the editor informs us that “ This valuable trea-
tise has for many years been very scarce, though strongly recom-
mended by the best judges and writers on trade, and universally
allowed to be one of the most interesting books on that subject.”
u The principles upon which it w7as written continue, with little
variation.” But I am fatigued with quotations, and must refer
you to the advertisement in the book,which will shew,past a doubt,
that this was a ministerial republication. The u 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 gen-
eration, it is in despair of being regarded. For who will engage
in this dry, dull study ? Yet Mr. Otis laboured in it. He asserted
and proved that it was only a reinforcement 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 scur-
rilous reflections on Virginia and Barbadoes.
Another writer produced by Mr. Otis was “ Memoirs and consid-
erations, concerning the trade and revenues of the British colo-
nies 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-
36282
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, u The laws now in being, for the reg-
ulation of the plantation trade, viz. the 14 of Charles the second,
ch. II. sec. 2, 3, 9, 10 ; 7 and 8 William III. ch. 22. sec- 5, 6; 6
George II. ch. 13, are very w ell calculated, and were they put in
execution 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 Brit-
ish growth and produce, and what are of foreign growth and pro-
duce ; and let the whole cargo of sugar, penneles, rum, spirits,
molasses and syrup, be inserted at large in the manifest and clear-
ance of every ship or vessel, under office seal, or be liable to the
same duties and penalties as such goods of foreign growth are lia-
ble to.
u This would very much baulk the progress of those who carry
on this illicit trade, and he agreeable and advantageous to all fair
traders.
u 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 prop-
er officer.”
But you will be fatigued with quotations, and so is your friend,
JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, July 30, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
ANOTHER passage which Mr. Otis read fromUshley 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 pro-
pose that the duties on foreign sugar and rum imposed by the be-
fore mentioned act of the 6th of king George the second, remain as
they are, and also the duty on molasses, so far as concerns the im-
portations into the sugar colonies ; but that there be an abatement283
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,
risque and inconvenience of running it, in the manner they now do,
or after the proposed regulation shall be put in execution : wheth-
er this duty shall be one, two or three pence, sterling money of
Great Britain per gallon, may be matter of consideration.” Gra-
cious 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 redu-
cing the tax on molasses, from six pence to three pence or two
pence or a penny, and the use he made of it you shall learn from
your own pupil and my amiable friend judge Minot.
Volume 2d. page 142. u 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 for counter-
acting 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 circum-
stances shewed a less inflexible spirit, than had existed among the
leaders.”
u 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 the
British 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 Amer-
ica upon the footing of the common good.”
I beg your attention to Mr. Minot’s history, vol. 2, from page
140 to the end of the chapter in page 152. Mr. Minot has en-
deavoured to preserve the dignity, the impartiality and the deli-
cacy 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, 1 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. Hutch-
inson was chosen agent, to the utter astonishment of every Amer-
ican out of doors. This was committing the lamb to the kind guar-
dianship of the wolf. The public opinion of all the friends of their
country was decided. The public voice was pronounced in ac-
cents so terrible that Mr. Otis fell into a disgrace from which
nothing but Jemmibullero* saved him. Mr. Hutchinson was polite-
ly excused from his embassy, and the storm blew over. Otis, upon
# Jemmibullero—This was a silly and abusive song, written by a Mr. S. Wa-
terhouse, a stanch tery j but with so little wit, that it only exposed the writer
to contemptwhose 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 molas-
ses from six pence a gallon, to five pence, four pence, three pence,
two pence 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 argu-
ment 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 ADAMSc
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, August 6, 1818.
u Mid the low murmurs of submission, fear and mingled rage9 my
Hampden raised his voice, and to the laws appealed.”
dear sir,
MR. OTIS had reasoned like a philosopher upon the navigation
acts, and all the tyrannical acts of Charles 2d. ; 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, by
accident, or by miracle, vested with a little brief authority, in Eng-
land, cordially adopting the system of George Downing, Josiah
Child, and Charles 2d. 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 conspi-
racy, with such worthy characters to enslave all the colonies in
Europe, Asia, and America ; and indeed all nations, to the omnip-
otence of the British parliament, and its Royal navy.
The act of parliament of the seventh and eighth of king Wil-
liam 3d. was produced, chapter 22d. u 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:
u An act for the encouragement of seamen,” but who would read
them ? Yet it behoves our young and old yeomen, mechanics,
and labourers, 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 American
revolution. Recollect and listen to the preamble of this statute,
of the 7th and 8tb of William 3d. chapter 22d.285
“ Whereas,notwithstanding diverse acts made for the encourage
ment of the navigation of this kingdom, and for the better securing
and regulating the plantation trade, more especially one act of
parliament made in the 12th year of the reign of the late king
Charles 2d. intituled, an act for the increasing of shipping and
navigation. Another act made in the 15th year of the reign of
his 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 Eastland 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 pream-
ble ? 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 over-
seers ? u You are to have no regard to the health, strength, com-
fort, natural affections, or moral feelings, or intellectual endow-
ments of my negroes. You are only to consider what subsistence
to allow them, and what labour to exact of them, will subserve
my interest. According to the most accurate calculation 1 can
make, the proportion of subsistence and labour 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 popula-
tion, the agriculture, the manufactures, the commerce, the fishe
ries of the American people ? Ail these things are to be sacri-
ficed to British wealth, British commerce, British domination, and
the British navy, as the great engine and instrument to accomplish
all. To be sure, they were apt scholars of their master, Tacitus,
whose fundamental and universal principle of philosophy, reli-
gion, morality, and policy, was, that all nations and all things were
to be sacrificed to the grandeur of Rome. Oh! my fellow citi-
zens, 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
fortunes 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 as286
I am ; and l assure you I have conquered my natural impatience
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 inlisted by the forfeiture of their officers ; their ava-
rice was secured by the most tempting penalties and forfeitures,
to be divided among them. Fine picking to be sure ! Even the
lowest, the basest informers were to be made gentlemen of
fortune !
I must transcribe one section of this detestable statute, and
leave you to read the rest; 1 can transcribe no more.
The sixth section of this benign law, of our glorious deliverer
king William, is as follows :
Section 6. u 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 un-
lading any goods or commodities, whether the same be his majes-
ty’s ships of war, or merchant ships, and the masters and com-
manders 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 2d. 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 in-
specting 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 customs in England by the said last mentioned act, made in the
fourteenth year of the reign of king Charles 2d. ; 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 persons 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 performance of their duty, and the boats,
barges, lighters, or other vessels employed in the conveyance of
inch goods, shall be subject to the like pains and penalties as are287
provided by the same act made in the fourteenth year of the
reign of king Charles 2d. in relation to prohibited or unaccustom-
ed goods in this kingdom ; 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 he subject to the same penalties
and forfeitures, for any corruptions, frauds, connivances, or con-
cealments, 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 evi-
dence, and the judge to allow thereof, have and enjoy the like priv-
ileges 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 goal delivery in the province of Mas-
sachusetts 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 a
law of the province, made by the provincial legislature, by virtue
of the powers vested in them by the charter.
Otis called and called in vain for their warrant from u his ma-
jesty’s court of exchequer.” They had none, and they could
have none from England, and they dared not say, that Hutchinson’s
court was u his majesty’s court of exchequer.” Hutchinson himself
dared not say it. The principle would have been fatal to parlia-
mentary prentensions.
This is the second and the last time, I believe, that the word
a assistance” is employed in any of these statutes. But the words
u writs of assistance” were no where to be found; in no statute,
no law book, no volume of entries; neither in Rastall, Coke, or
Fitzherbert, nor even in Instructor Clericalis, or Burns’s Justice.
Where, then, was it to be found ? No where, but in the imagi-
nation or invention of Boston custom house officers, royal govern-
ors, West India planters, or naval commanders.
It was indeed a farce. The crown, by its agents, accumulated
construction upon construction, and inference upon inference, as
the giants heaped Pelion upon Ossa. I hope it is not impious or
profane to compare Otis to Ovid’s jupiter. But “ misso fulmine
perfregit Olympum, et excussit Subjecto Pelio Ossam.” 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 all reduced to total silence.
In plain English, by cool, patient comparison of phraseology of
these statutes, their several provisions, the dates of their enacts288
merits, the privileges of our charters, the merits of the colonists,
&c. he shewed the pretensions to introduce the revenue acts, and
these arbitrary and mechanical writs of assistance, as an instru-
ment for the execution of them to be so irrational ; by his wit he
represented the attempt as so ludicrous and ridiculous ; and by his
dignified reprobation of an impudent attempt to impose on the peo-
ple 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 favour; and Mr. Gridley himself
seemed to me to exult inwardly at the glory and triumph of his
pupil.
This, I am sure, must be enough, at this time, and from this
text to fatigue you, as it is more than enough to satisfy your most
obedient, &c.	JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, August 11, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
THE u Defence of the New England charters by Jer. Dum-
mer,” is, loth for style and matter, one of our most classical
American productions. “ The feelings, the manners and princi-
ples which produced the revolution,” appear in as vast abundance
in this work, as in any, that I have read. This beautiful compo-
sition 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, ch. 22. sec. 9th, is quoted, u All laws, by-laws, usa-
ges or customs, at this time, or which hereafter shall be in prac-
tice, or endeavoured or pretended to be in force or practice in
any of the plantations, which are in any wise repugnant to this
present act, or any other law hereafter to be made in this king-
dom, 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 es-
tablished in it by parliament itself for the construction of its own
statutes. And he contended that by this rule there could be no
pretence for extending writs of assistance to this country. He al-
so 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 grand sons, should ever think of these
things, it may not be improper to transcribe from a marginal note
at the end of this statute, an enumeration of the u Further pro-
visions concerning plantations.” II. W. 3, c. 12 ; 3, 4 of An. c. 5
and 10; 6 of An. c. 30 ; 8 t>f An. c. 13 ; 9th of An. c. 17; 10 Art289
c. 22 and 26 ; 4Geo. 1, c. 11; 6 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
Q; 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, 9.
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 ri-
diculous in me, but culpable to pretend to recollect all that were
produced. Such as I distinctly remember 1 will endeavour to in-
troduce 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. u For every hundred weight of
molosses, containing 112 pounds, imported from any other place
than the English plantations in America, eight shillings over and
above what the same is charged within the book of rates.”
The next statute that I recollect, at present, to have been intro-
duced upon that occasion, was the sixth of George the second, ch.
thirteen, “ An act for the better securing and encouraging the
trade of his majesty’s sugar colonies in America.”
Cost what it will, 1 must transcribe the first section of this statute,
with all its parliamentary verbiage. 1 hope some of my fellow
citizens of the presentor some future age will ponder it.
u Whereas, the welfare and prosperity of your majesty’s sugar
colonies in America, are of the greatest consequence and impor-
tance, to the trade, navigation 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 G. 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 commons of Great Britain, as-
sembled 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 dp
most humbly 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 temporal, 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 thou-
sand seven hundred and thirty-three, there shall be raised,-levied,
collected, and paid, unto and for the use of his majesty, his heirs
and successors, upon all rum or spirits of the produce or manufac-
ture of any of the colonies or plantations in America, not in the
possession or under the dominion of his majesty, his heirs and suc-
37290
cessors, which at any time or times, within or during the continu-
ance of this act, shall be imported or brought into any of the colo-
nies 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 nine pence, money of Great Britain,
to be paid according to the proportion and value of five shillings
and six pence 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 six pence of
like money for every gallon thereof, and after that rate for any
greater or lesser quantity; and upon all sugars and pancles 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 su-
gar and pancles, and after that rate for a greater or lesser quan-
tity.”
Now, sir, wili you be pleased to read judge Minot’s history, vol.
2d, 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 Wil-
liam Henry did in the year 1757.” This 1 fully believe, and cer-
tainly 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 molas-
ses, and We ought all to join in the laugh with as much good hu-
mor as general Lincoln did. General Washington, however al-
ways asserted’ and proved, that Virginians loved molasses as well
as New Ehglandmen did. I know not why we should blush to
confess that molasses was an essential ingredient in American in-
dependence. 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 as-
serted this act to be a' revenue law, a taxation law, made by a for-
eign legislature without our consent, and by a legislature 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 shewed it to be more than
sufficient to support all the crown officers.
JOHN ADAMS.291
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, August 16, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
WE cannot yet dismiss this precious statute of the 6th of
George 2d. chapter 13.
The second section 1 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. u And be it further enacted, that in case any of
the said commodities shall be landed, or put on shore in any of
his 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
without a warrant for the landing and delivering the same, first
signed by the collector, 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 magis-
trate, (which warrant such justice or magistrate is hereby empow-
ered 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 oj admiralty in his majesty's colonies or plan-
tations in America, (which court of admiralty is hereby authorized,
impowered and required to proceed to hear ,and finally determine the
same) or in any court of 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 laws relating to cus-
toms or excise ; and such penalties and forfeitures so recovered
there, shall be divided as follows, viz: one third part for the use
of his majesty, his heirs and successors, to be applied for the sup-
port of the government of the colony or plantation, where the
same shall be recovered, one third part to the governor or com-29%
mander 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 five contains the penalties on persons assisting in such
unlawful importation.
Section 6th. “ Fifty pound penalty on molesting an officer on
his duty. Officer, if sued, may plead the general issue. Fifty
pound penalty, on officer conniving at such fraudulent importation.
Section 7th. u One hundred pound penalty , on master of ship,
&c. permitting such importation.
Section 8th. “ The onus probandi in suits to lie on the owners.
Section 12. <c Charge of prosecution to be borne out of the
king’s part of seizures, forfeitures and penalties.”
George 2d. 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 predeces-
sors, especially king William, yet it was reported and understood,
that he had uniformly resisted the importunities of ministers, gov-
ernors, planters, and projectors, to induce him to extend the sys-
tem of taxation and revenue in America, by saying, that u 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 glor}', could not have said a wiser thing. If
George 3d. 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 young prince. This young king had now adopted the
whole system of his predecessors, Stuarts, Oranges, and Hano-
verians, and determined to carry it into execution, right or wrong ;
and that, by the most tyrannical instruments, that ever were in-
vented ; writs of assistance. What hope remained for an Amer-
ican, who knew, or imagined he knew, the character of the Eng-
lish nation, and the character of the American people ? To bor
row a French word, so many reminiscences rush upon 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 sys-
tem, may be hereafter explained.
Mr. Otis analyzed this statute, 6. George 3d. c. 13, with great
accuracy. His calculations may be made by any modern mathe-
matician who will take the pains. How much molasses, for exam-
ple, was then subject to this tax; suppose a million gallons, which
is far less than the truth. Six pence 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 pistareen. 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 of293
all the governors upon the continent, 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 u we import annually upwards of six
million gallons of West India rum.” The Lord have mercy on us !
w More than half of which come? from the English colonies. We
also import every year, nearly seven millions of gallons of molas-
ses ; and as every gallon of molasses yields, by distillation, a gal-
lon of rum, the rum imported, added to that distilled from molas-
ses, is probably equal to twelve millions of gallons, which enor-
mous 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 2d. It would be sufficient to bribe any nation, less know-
ing 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 violation of all
the rights of nature, of the English constitution, and of all the
charters and compacts with the colonies ; and if carried into exe-
cution by writs of assistance, and courts of admiralty, would de-
stroy all security of life, liberty, and property. Subjecting all
these laws to the jurisdiction of judges of admiralty, poor depen-
dent creatures; to the forms and course of the civil law, without
juries, or any of the open, noble examination of witnesses, or pub-
licity of proceedings, of the common law, was capping the climax,
it was clenching the nail of American slavery.
Mr. Otis roundly asserted, that this statute, and the preceding
statutes, 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.	JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, August 21, 1818.
BEAR SIR,
MR. OTIS quoted another author, u The political and com-
mercial works of Charles D’Avenant, L.L. D. vol. 2. discourse 3.
On the plantation trade.” I cannot transcribe seventy six pages,294
but wish that Americans of all classes would read them. They
are in the same strain with Downing, Child, Gee, Ashley, Charles
2, James 2, William and Mary, William 3, Ann, George 2, and
George 3 ; 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, nour-
ished, encouraged and pampered, if any thing more could be
squeezed from the hard earnings of the farmers, the merchants,
the tradesmen and labourers in America, it was to be drawn into
the exchequer in England, to aggrandize 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 of us, if not all of us, in our slumbers
in the long nights of our frozen winters. I shall refer to these
statutes as they occur, without any regard to order, and shall not
pretend to transcribe any of them.
“ Furs of the plantations to be brought to Great Britain. 8 Geo.
I. c. 15. ss. 24.”
u Hats, not to be exported from one plantation to another. 5
Geo. 2. c. 22.”
u Hatters in America, not to have more than two apprentices.
5 Geo. 2. c. 22. ss. 7.”
“ Slitting mills, steel furnaces, &c. not to be erected in the plan-
tations. 23 Geo. 2. c. 29. ss. 9.”
uNo wool, or woollen manufacture of the plantations shall be
exported. 10 & 11 Wm. 3. c. 10. ss. 19.”
w Exporting wool, contrary to the regulations, forfeiture of the
ship, &.c.	12 Geo. 2. c. 21. ss. 11.”
I cannot search for any more of these mincing law's. Mr. Otis
alternately laughed and raged against them all. He said one mem-
ber of parliament had said, that a hobnail should not be manufac-
tured in America ; and another had moved that Americans should
be compelled by act of parliament, to send their horses to Eng-
land 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 par-
liamentary 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 forfeiture.
But I am wearied to death by digging in this mud ; with search-
ing 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 case295
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, to-
wards her most dutiful and affectionate children! Such they are
still; and such they will be, till the United States shall compel
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.
Mr. Otis asserted all these acts to be null and void by the law of
nature, by the English constitution, and by the American charters ;
because America was not represented in parliament. He entered
into the history of the charters. James the first and Charles the
first, cojild 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 corpo-
rations which they had instituted by their royal prerogatives—
u Tom, Dick, and Harry were not to censure them and their coun
cil.” Pym, Hambden, sir Harry Vane and Oliver Cromwell did
not surely wish to subject a country, which they sought as an asy-
lum, to the arbitrary jurisdiction of a country from which they
wished to fly. Charles the second had learned by dismal, doleful
experience, that parliaments were not to be wholly despised. He,
therefore, endeavoured to associate parliament with himself, in
his navigation act, and many others of his despotic projects, even
in that of destroying, by his unlimited licentiousness and debauch-
ery, the moral character of the nation. Charles the second court
ed 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 ille-
gal, unconstitutional, tyrannical, null and void. Nevertheless, with
all my admiration of Mr. Otis, and enthusiasm for bis character, I
must acknowledge he was not always consistent in drawing or ad-
mitting the necessary consequences from his principles, one of
which comprehended them all, to wit, that Parliament had no au-
thority 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 authorities in de-
tail 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 from your humble servant,
JOHN ADAMS,296
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, August 31, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
I HAVE before mentioned the instructions of the city of Bos-
ton to their representatives, in May 1764, printed in an appendix
to Mr. Otis’s “ Rights of the colonies.” In obedience to those in*
structions, or at least in consequence of them Mr. Otis prepared a
memorial to the house of representatives, which was by them vo*
ted to be transmitted to Jasper Mauduit, Esq. agent for the prov-
ince, only as a statement drawn up by one of the house, to be
improved as he may judge proper.”
In this memorial Mr. Otis has preserved and immortalized his
own arguments and authorities to prove the acts of trade null and
void, which he had advanced and produced three years before in
his oration against those acts and their formidable instrument,
writs of assistance. This is a fortunate circumstance for me, be-
cause it relieves me from the trouble of recollection, and the more
painful task of research in old books.
u The public transactions”, says Mr. Otis, u from William the
first, to the revolution, may be considered as one continued strug-
gle, between the prince and the people, all tending to that happy
establishment, which Great Britain has since enjoyed.
“ The absolute rights of Englishmen, as frequently declared io
parliament, from Magna Charta, to this time, are the rights of per-
sonal security, personal liberty and of private property.
“ The allegiance of British subjects being natural, perpetual
and inseparable from their persons, let them be in what country
they may ; their rights are also natural, inherent and perpetual.
u By the laws of nature and of nations ; by the voice of univer-
sal reason, and of God, when a nation takes possession of a desart,
uncultivated, uninhabited country, or purchases of savages, as was
the case with far the greatest part of the British settlements; the
colonists transplanting themselves and their posterity, though sep-
arated from the principal establishment, or mother country, nat-
urally become part of the state with its ancient possessions, and
entitled to all the essential rights of the mother country. This is
not only confirmed by the practice of the ancients, but by the mod-
erns ever since the discovery of America. Frenchmen, Spaniards,
and Portuguese are no greater slaves abroad than at home ; and
hitherto Britons have been as free on one side of the Atlantic as on
the other: and it is humbly hoped that his majesty and the par-
liament will in their wisdom be graciously pleased to continue the
colonies in this happy state.”
44 It is presumed, that upon these principles, the colonists have
been by their several charters declared natural subjects, and en-
trusted with the power of making their own local laws, not re
pugnant to the laws of England, and with the power of taxing
themselves.ӣ97
“ This legislative power is subject to the same charter to the
king’s negative as in Ireland. This effectually secures the depen-
dence of the colonies on Great Britain. By the 13th of George
2. ch. 9. even foreigners having lived seven years in any of the
colonies are deemed natives on taking the oaths of allegiance, &c.
and are declared by the said act to be his majesty’s natural born
subjects of the kingdoms of Great Britain, to all intents, construc-
tions and purposes, as if any of them had been born within the
kingdom. The reasons given for this naturalization in the pre-
amble of the act are, that the increase of the people is the means
of advancing the wealth of any nation or country. And many for-
eigners and strangers, from the lenity of our government, the pu-
rity of our religion, the benefit of our laws, the advantages of ou%
trade, and the security of our property, might be induced to come
and settle in some of his majesty’s colonies in America, if they were
partakers of the advantages and privileges, which the native born
subjects there enjoy.
“ The several acts of parliament and charters, declaratory of
the rights and liberties of the colonies, are but in affirmance of
the common law and law of nature in this point. There are, says
my lord Coke, regularly three incidents to subjects born; 1. Pa-
rents under the actual obedience of the king ; 2. That the place
of his birth be within the king’s dominions ; 3. The time of his
birth to be chiefly considered.
46 For he cannot be a subject born of one kingdom, that was born
under the allegiance of a king of another kingdom. See Calvin’s
case and the several acts and decisions on naturalization, from Ed-
ward the third to this day. The common law is received and
practised upon here and in the rest of the colonies; and all an-
cient and modern acts of parliament, that can be considered as part
of or in amendment of the common law, together with such aGtS
of parliament, as expressly name the plantations, so that the pow-
er of the British parliament is held sacred and as uncontroulable
in the colonies, as in England. The question is not upon the gen-
eral power or right of the parliament; but whether it is not cir-
cumscribed within some equitable and reasonable bounds ? It is
hoped it will not be considered as a new doctrine, that even the
authority of the parliament of Great Britain is circumscribed by
certain bounds, which, if exceeded, their acts become those of
mere power without right, and consequently void. The judges
of England have declared in favour of these sentiments, when they
expressly declare, that acts of parliament against natural equity
are void. That acts against the fundamental principles of the
British constitution are void. A veFy important question here
presents itself. It essentially belongs to the society, both in rela-
tion to the manner, in which it desires to be governed, and to the
conduct of the citizens. This is called the legislative power.—
The nation may entrust the exercise of it to the prince or to an
assembly ; or to an assembly and the prince jointly; who have
38298
then a right of making new and abrogating old laws. It is here
demanded whether, if their power extends so far, as to the funda-
mental laws, they may change the constitution of the state ? The
principles we have laid down lead us to decide this point with cer-
tainty, that the authority of these legislators does not extend so far,
and that they ought to consider the fundamental laws as sacred, if
the nation has not in very express terms given them the power to
change them. For the constitution of the state ought to be fixed ;
0 and since that was first established by the nation, which afterwards
trusted certain persons with the legislative power, the fundamen-
tal laws are excepted from their commission. It appears that the
society had only resolved to make provision for the state’s being
%lways furnished with laws, suited to particular conjunctures, and
gave the legislature for that purpose, the power of abrogating the
ancient civil and political laws, that were not fundamental, and of
making new ones. But nothing leads us to think that it was wil-
ling to submit the constitution itself to their pleasure.
u When a nation takes possession of a distant country and settles a
colony there, that country though separated from the principle
establishment or mother country, naturally becomes a part af the
state equally with its ancient possessions. Whenever the political
laws or treaties make no distinction between them every thing
said of the territory of a nation ought also to extend to its colo-
nies. An act of parliament made against natural equity, as to make
a man judge in his own cause, would be void, Hob. 87. Trin. 12.
Jac. Day v. Savage, S. C. & P. cited Arg. 10. Mod. 115. Hill 11.
Ann C. B. in case of Thornby & Fleetwood, “ but says that this
must be a clear case, and judges will strain hard rather than inter-
pret an act void, ab initio.” This is granted, but still their author-
ity is not boundless, if subject to the controul of the judges in any
case. Holt, chief justice, thought what lord Coke says in Dr.
Bonham’s case a very reasonable and true saying, that if an act of
parliament should ordain the same person both party and judge,
in his own case, it would be a void act of parliament, and an act of
parliament can do no wrong, though it may do several things that
look pretty odd ; for it may discharge one from the allegiance he
lives under, and restore to the state of nature, but it cannot make
one that lives under a government both party and judge, per Holt
C. J. 12 Mod. 687. 688. Hill 13. W. 3. B. R. in the case of the
city of London v. Wood. It appears in our books, that in several
cases, the common law should controul acts of parliament, and
sometimes adjudge them to be utterly void ; for when an act of
parliament is against common right and reason, or repugnant and
impossible to be performed, the common law shall controul it, and
adjudge it to be void, and therefore, 8 E. 3., 30. Thomas Tregor’s
case upon the statute of W. 2. cap. 38. and Art. Chart. 9. Herle
said that sometimes statutes are made contrary to law and right,
which the maker of them perceiving will not put them into execu-
tion. This doctrine' is agreeable to the law of nature and nations,299
and to the divine dictates of natural and revealed religion. It is
contrary to reason that the supreme power should have a right to
alter the constitution. This would imply that those who are in-
trusted with sovereignty by the people, have aright to do as they
please. In other words, that those, who are invested with power
to protect the people and support their rights and liberties, have a
right to make slaves of them. This is not very remote from a
flat contradiction. Should the parliament of Great Britain follow
the example of some other foreign states, Sweden, Denmark,
France, &c. and vote the king absolute and despotic; would such
an act of parliament make him so ? Would any minister in his sen-
ses advise a prince to accept of such an offer of power ? It would
be unsafe to accept of such a donation because the parliament or
donors would grant more than it was in their power lawfully to
give, the law of nature never invested them with a power of sur-
rendering their own liberty, and the people certainly never intrus-
ted any body of men with a power to surrender theirs in exchange
for slavery. But if the whole state be conquered if the nation be
subdued, in what manner can a victor treat it without transgressing
the bounds of justice ? What are his rights oyer the conquest ?
Some have dared to advance this monstrous principle, that the con-
queror is absolute master over this conquest, that he may dispose
of it as his property, treat it as he pleases, according to the com-
mon expression of treating a state as a conquered country, and
hence they derive one of the sources of despotic government.—
But enough of those that reduce men to the state of transferable
goods, or use them like beasts of burden, who deliver them up as
the property or patrimony of another man. Let us argue upon
principles countenanced by reason, and becoming humanity. The
whole right of the conqueror proceeds from the just defence of
himself, which contains the support and prosecution of his rights.
Thus when he has totally subdued a nation with whom he had
been at war, he may without dispute cause justice to be done him,
with regard to what gave rise to the war, and require payment for
the expense and damage he has sustained ; he may, according to
the exigency of the place, impose penalties on it as an example;
he may, should prudence so dictate, disable it from undertaking
any pernicious design for the future. But in securing all these
views the mildest means are to be preferred. We are always to
remember, that the law of nature permits no injury to be done to
an enemy, unless in taking measures necessary for a just defence
and a reasonable security. Some princes have only imposed a
tribute on it; others have been satisfied in stripping it of some of
its privileges, dismembering it of a province, cfr keeping it in awe
by fortresses; others, as their quarrel was only with the sovereign
in person, have left a nation in the full enjoyment of its rights, on-
ly setting a sovereign over it. But if the conqueror thinks prop-
er to retain the sovereignty of the vanquished state, and has such
a right; the manner in which he is to treat the state still flows300
from the same principles. If the sovereign be only the just object
of his complaint, reason declares, that by his conquest he acquires
only such rights as actually belonged to the dethroned sovereign ;
and on the submission of his people he is to govern it according to
the laws of the state. If the people do not voluntarily submit, the
State of war subsists. When a sovereign, as pretending to have
the absolute disposal of a people whom he has conquered, is for
enslaving them, he causes the state of war to subsist between this
people and him. M. De Vattel, B. 3. c. 10. sec. 201.
“ It is now near three hundred years since the continent of North
America was first discovered, and that by British subjects; the
Cabots discovered the continent before the Spaniards. Ten gen-
erations have passed away, through infinite toils and bloody con-
flicts, in settling this country. None of those ever dreamed, but
that they were entitled at least to equal privileges with those of
the same rank born within the realm.
“ British America has been hitherto distinguished from the slavish
colonies round about it, as the fortunate Britons have been from
most of their neighbours on the continent of Europe. It is for
the interest of Great-Britain that her Colonies be ever thus dis-
tinguished. Every man must wilfully blind himself that does
not see the immense value of our acquisitions in the late war; and
that though we did not retain all at the conclusion of peace, that
we obtained by the sword, yet our gracious sovereign, at the same
time that he has given a divine lesson of equitable moderation to
the princes of the earth, has retained sufficient to make the British
arms the dread of the universe, and his name dear to all posteriy.
u To the freedom of the British constitution, and to their increase
of commerce, it is owing, that our colonies have flourished with-
out diminishing the inhabitants of our mother country, quite cpn-
trary to the effects of plantations, made by most other nations
which have suffered at home, in order to aggrandize themselves
abroad. This is remarkably the case of Spain. The subjects of
a free and happy constitution of government, have a thousand ad-
vantages to colonize above those who live under despotic princes.
u We see how the British colonies on the continent have out-
grown those of the French; notwithstanding, they have ever
engaged the savages to keep us back. Their advantages over us
in the West Indies, are, 1st. A capital neglect in former reigns, in
suffering them to have a firm possession of so many valuable isl-
ands, that we had a better title to than they. 2. The French, una-
ble to push their settlements effectually on the continent, have bent
their views to islands, and poured vast numbers into them.	3. The
climate and business of these islands is by nature much better
adapted to Frenchmen and to Negroes, than to Britons. 4. The
labour of slaves, black or white, will be ever cheaper than that
of freemen, because that of individuals among the former, will
never be worth so much as with the latter; but this difference is
more than supplied, by numbers under the advantages above mep-301
tioned. The French will ever be able to sell their West India
produce cheaper, than our own islanders ; and yet, while our own
islanders can have such a price for theirs, as to grow much richer
than the French, or any other of the king’s subjects in America,
as is the case ; and what the northern colonies take from the
French, and other foreign islands, centers finally in return to
Great Britain for her manufactures, to an immense value, and with
a vast profit to her. It is contrary to the first principles of policy
to cloy such a trade with duties; much more to prohibit it, to the
risque, if not certain destruction of the fishery.
“ It is allowed by the most accurate British writers on commerce,
Mr. Postlethwait in particular, who seems to favour th^pause of
the sugar islands, that one half of the immense commerce*wf Great
Britain is with her colonies. It is very certain, that without the
fishery, seven eighths of this commerce would cease. The fish-
ery is the centre of motion, upon which the wheel of all the Brit-
ish commerce in America turns. Without the American trade,
would Britain, as a commercial state, make any great figure at
t)iis day in Europe ?
u Her trade in woollen and other manufactures is said to be less-
ening, in all parts of the world, but America, where it is increas-
ing, and capable of infinite increase, from a concurrence of every
circumstanee in its favour. Here is an extensive territory of dif-
ferent climates, which, in time, will consume, and be able to pay
for as much manufactures as Great Britain and Ireland can make,
if true maxims are pursued. The French, for reasons already
mentioned, can underwork, and consequently undersell the English
manufactures of Great Britain, in every market in Europe. But
they can send none of their manufactures here ; and it is the wish
of every honest British American, that they never may ; it is best
they never should. We can do better without the manufactures
of Europe, save those of Great Britain, than with them. But
without the West India produce we cannot; without it our fish-
ery must infallibly be ruined. When that is gone, our own isl-
ands will very poorly subsist. No British manufactures can be
paid for by the colonists. What will follow ? One of these two
things, both of which it is the interest of Great Britain to prevent.
1st. The northern colonists must be content to go naked, and turn
savages. Or 2d. become manufacturers of linnens and woollens,
to clothe themselves; which, if they cannot carry to the perfec-
tion of Europe, will be very destructive to the interests of Great
Britain. The computation has been made, and that within bounds ;
and it can be demonstrated, that if North America is only driven
to the fatal necessity of manufacturing a suit of the most ordinary
linnen or woollen, for each inhabitant, annually, which may be
soon done, when necessity, the mother of invention shall operate,
Great Britain and Ireland will lose two millions per annum, besides
a diminution of the revenue to nearly the same amount. This
may appear paradoxical; but a few years experience of the exe-302
cution of the sugar act, will sufficiently convince the parliament,
not only of the inutility, but destructive tendency of it, while cal-
culations may be little attended to. That the trade with the colo-
nies has been of a surprising advantage to Great Britain, notwith-
standing the want of a good regulation, is past all doubt. Great
Britain is well known to have increased prodigiously, both in num-
bers and in wealth, since she began to colonize. To the growth
of the plantations, Britain is, in a great measure, indebted for her
present riches and strength. As the wild wastes of America have
been turned into pleasant habitations and flourishing trading towns;
so many of the little villages and obscure boroughs in Great Brit-
ain, have put on anew face, and all suddenly started up and become
fair markets and manufacturing towns, and opulent cities. Lon-
don itself, which bids fair to be the metropolis of the world,
is five times more populous than it was in the days of queen Eliz-
abeth. Such are the fruits of the spirit of commerce and liberty.
Hence it is manifested how much we all owe to that beautiful form
of civil government, under which we have the happiness to live.
u It is evidently the interest, and ought to be the care of all those
entrusted with the administration of government, to see that every
part of the British empire enjoys to the full, the rights they are
entitled to by the laws, and the advantages which result from their
being maintained with impartiality and vigour. This we have
seen reduced to practice in the present and preceding reigns; and
have the highest reason, from the paternal care and goodness that
his majesty, and the British parliament, have hitherto been gra-
ciously pleased to discover to all his majesty’s dutiful and loyal
subjects, and to the colonists in particular, to rest satisfied, that
our privileges will remain sacred and inviolate. The connection
♦	between Great Britain and her colonies is so natural and strong,
as to make their mutual happiness depend upon their mutual sup-
port. Nothing can tend more to the destruction of both, and to
forward the measures of their enemies, than sowing the seeds of
jealousy, animosity, and dissention, between the mother country
and the colonies.
“ A conviction of the truth and importance of these principles,
induced Great Britain, during the late war, to carry on so many
glorious enterprises for the defence of the colonies; and those on
their part to exert themselves beyond their ability to pay, as is
evident, from the parliamentary reimbursements.
“ If the spirit of commerce was attended to, perhaps duties would
be every where decreased, if not annihilated, and prohibitions
multiplied. Every branch of trade, that hurts a community,
should be prohibited for the same reason, that a private gentle-
man would break off commerce with a sharper, or an extensive
usurer. It is to no purpose to higgle with such people ; you are
sure to loose by them. It is exactly so with a nation, if the bal-
ance is against them ; and they can possibly subsist without the
commodities as they generally can in such cases, a prohibition is303
the only remedy; for a duty in such a case, is like a composition
with a thief, that for five shillings in the pound returned, he shall
rob you at pleasure ; when, if the thing is examined to the bottom*
you are at five shillings expense in travelling to get back your
five shillings; and he is at the same expense in coming to pay it.
So he robs you of but ten shillings in the pound, that you thus
wisely compound for. To apply this to trade, 1 believe every du-
ty, that was ever imposed on commerce, or in the nature of things
can be, will be found to be divided between the state imposing the
duty, and the country exported from. This, if between the sev-
eral parts of the same kingdom or dominions of the same prince,
can only tend to embarrass trade, and raise the price of labour
above other states, which is of very pernicious consequence to
the husbandman, manufacturer, mariner and merchant, the four
tribes that support the whole hive. If your duty is upon a com
modity of a foreign state, it is either upon the whole useful and
gainful; and therefore necessary for the husbandman, manufac-
turer, mariner or merchant, as finally bringing a profit to the state,
by a balance against your state. There is no medium that we
know of. If the commodity is of the former kind, it should be
prohibited ; but if the latter, imported duty free, unless you would
raise the price of labour by a duty on necessaries, or make the
above wise composition for the importation of commodities, you
are sure to lose by it.
u The onlyVitest of a useful commodity is the gain upon the whole
to the state; such should be free; the only test of a pernicious
trade is the loss upon the whole or to the community; this should be
prohibited. If therefore it can be demonstrated, that the sugar
and molasses trade from the northern colonies to the foreign plan-
tations, is, upon the whole, a loss to the community, by which
term is here meant, the three kingdoms and the British dominions
taken collectively, then, and not till then, should this trade be
prohibited. This never has been proved, nor can be; the con-
trary being certain, to wit: that the nation upon the whole hath
been a vast gainer by this trade, in the vend of and pay for its
manufactures; and a great loss by a study upon this trade will finally
fall on the British husbandman, manufacturer, mariner and mer-
chant ; and consequently the trade of the nation be wounded, and
in constant danger of being eat out by those who can undersell her.
“ The art of underselling, or rather of finding means to undersell,
is the grand secret of thrift among commercial states, as well as
among individuals of the same state. Should the British sugar
islands ever be able to supply Great Britain, and her northern col-
onies with those articles, it will be time enough to think of a total
prohibition ; but until that time, both prohibition and duty will be
found to be diametrically opposite to the first principles of poiicy.
Such is the extent of this continent* and the increase of its inhab-
itants, that if every inch of the British sugar islands was as well
cultivated as any part of Jamaica or Barbadoes, they would not304
now be able to supply Great Britain, and the colonies on this con-
tinent. But before such further improvements can be supposed
to take place in our islands, the demands will be proportionably
increased by the increase of the inhabitants on the continent.
Hence the reason is plain, why the British sugar planters are
growing rich, and demands on them, ever will be greater than
they can possibly supply, so long as the English hold this continent,
and are unrivalled in the fishery.
u We have every thing good and great to hope from our gracious
sovereign, his ministry and his parliament; and trust, that when
the services and sufferings of the British American colonies are
fully known to the mother country, and the nature and importance
of the plantation trade more perfectly understood at home, that
the most effectual measures will be taken for perpetuating the
British empire in all parts of the world. An empire built upon
the principles of justice, moderation and equity, the only princi-
ples that can make a state flourishing, and enable it to elude the
machinations of its secret and inveterate enemies.”
Excuse errors, for I cannot revise and correct. I hope your
patience will never be put to the trial of another letter so long
and dry. One or two more, much shorter, will close the subject
of writs of assistance, and relieve you from ennui, as well as your
friend,	JOHN ADAMS,
TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, September 10, 1818.
DEAR SIR,
THE charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr. Otis fre-
quently in the whole course of his argument: but he made them
also a more destined and more solemn head of his discourse. And
here, these charters ought to be copied verbatim. But an immense
verbiage renders it impossible. Bishop Butler somewhere com-
plains of this enormous abuse of words in public transactions, and
John Reed and Theophilus Par-ons of Massachusetts have at-
tempted 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 fashion-
able. 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
1 will endeavour to strip them as well as I can, of their useless
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, i. e. in 1691.
u Whereas king James the first, in the 18th year of his reign,
did grant to the council at Plymouth, for the planting and govern-♦
305
mg New England, all that part of America, from the 40th to the
48;th degree of latitude, and from sea to sea, together with all
sands, waters, fishings, and all and singular other commodities,
jurisdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises abd pre-eminences,
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 abd successors and assigns forever: to be hoi-
den of his said majesty as of his manor of East Greenwich, in free
and common socage, and not in capite, or by knights’ service.—
Yielding to the king a fifth part of the ore of gold and silver. For
and in respect of all dnd 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 and I have read
it fifty times, I believe you will find it, as 1 do, much stronger in
favour of Mr. QUsY argument than 1 expected or you will expect,
1 doubt whether you will take the pains to read it again ; but your
son will, and to him 1 recommend it.
The council*of Plymouth, on the 19th of March, in the 3d year
of the reign of Charles the first, granted to sir Henry Roswell and
others, part of-New England by certain boundaries, with all the
prerogatives and privileges.
King Charles the first, on the 4th of March, in the fourth year
of his reign confirmed to sir Henry Roswell and others, all those
lands before granted to them by the council of Plymouth. King
Charles the first, created sir Henry Roswell and others, a body
corporate and politick. And said body politick, did settle a colo-
ny which became very populous.
In 1684, in the 36th year of king William and queen Mary’s
dearest uncle*, Charles the second, a judgment was given in the court
of chancery, that the letters patent of Charles the first, should bC
cancelled, vacated and annihilated.
The agents petitioned to be re-incorporated 5 1 can easily con-
ceive 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 hol-
deninfee of the manor of East Greenwich, paying one fifth of
gold and silver ore.
Liberty of conscience to be granted to all Christians, except pa-
pists. Good God ! A grant from a king of liberty of conscience I
Is it not a grant of the King of Kings, which no puppet or royalist
bpon earth can give or take away ?
The general court impowered to erect judicatories and courts
of record. The general court impowered to make laws,46 not re-
pugnant to the laws of England.” Here was an unfathomable
gulf of controversy. The grant itself, of liberty oj conscience, was
repugnant to the laws of England. Everv thing was repugnant to
3P306
the laws of England. The whole system of colonization was be-
yond the limits of the laws of England, and beyond the jurisdiction
of their national legislature. The general court is authorized to
impose fines, &c. and taxes.
But the fell paragraph of all, is the proviso in these words :—
u Provided always* and it is hereby declared that nothing herein
shall extend or 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 reserved to ns 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
executing the office of high admiral of England.”
The history of this court of admiralty would require volumes.
Where are its records and its files ? Its libels and answers ? Its in-
terrogatories and cross interrogatories ? All hurried away to Eng-
land, a# I suppose never to be seen again in America, nor proba-
bly 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 honour
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 THE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, September 13, 1818.
Oeail sir,
IT is some consolation to find in the paragraph of the charter,
next following the court of admiralty, that nothing in it u shall in
any manner enure, or be taken to abridge, bar, or hinder 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 tiade 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 sett,
Upon the lands within our said province or colony, lying waste,
and not then possessed by particular proprietors, such wharfs, sta-
ges, 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 mate-
rials there growing or being upon any parts or places lying waste,
and not then in possession of particular proprietors, as shall be
needful for that purpose, and for all other necessary easments,
helps and advantages, concerning the trade of fishing there, in
such manner and form, as they have been heretofore at any time307
accustomed to do, without making* any willful waste or spoil, any
thing in these presents to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Fellow citizens! Recollect that w This our province or colony”
contained the whole of Nova Scotia as well as the u 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, possession,
usage, habit and conquest ? Let the thunder of British cannon say
what it will, I know you will not. I know you cannot. And if
you could be base enough to surrender it, which I know you can-
not 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 na-
ture, and by English liberty. You have no power or authority to
alienate it. It was granted, or rather acknowledged to your suc-
cessors 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 observations
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 funda-
mental invasion of our essential rights, and was consequently null
and void; that the legislatures of the colonies, and especially of
Massachusetts, had the sole and exclusive authority of legislation
and especially of taxation in America.
The indecision and inconsistency which appear in some of Mr.
Otis’s subsequent writings is greatly to be regretted and lamented.
They resemble those of colonel Bland, as represented by Mr. Wirt.
I wish I had Col. Blands’s pamphlet, that 1 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 ex-
press them in that close, concise, nervous and energetic language,
which was peculiar to him, and which 1 never possessed.
I must leave you, sir, to make your own observations and re-
flections upon these charters. But you may indulge me in throw-
ing out a few hints, rather as queries or topicks of speculation,
than as positive opinions. And here, though 1 see a wide field,
I must make it narrow.
1. Mr. Bollan was a kind of learned man, and 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 yery
early on the u rights of the colonies.” I scarcely ever knew a
book so deeply despised. The English reviews would not allow
it to be the production of a rational creature. In America itself308
it was held in no esteem. Otis himself, expressed in the hoitee 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 ofc Rights of 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 was no doubt he
would have produced much in illustration of the ecclesiastical and
political superstition and despotism of the ages when colonization
commenced end proceeded. But Bollan was discouraged and
ceased from his labours.
What is the idea, Mr, Tudor, of British allegiance ? And of Eu-
ropean allegiance ? Can you, or rather will you analize it ? At
present, I have demands upon me, which compel mo to close ab*
rnptly, with the usual regard of your friend,
JOHN ADAMS.
TO TRE HON. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, September 18, 1818.
PE4R sm,
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 econ-
omy, especially the sovereign pontiffs, were anointed with conse-
crated oil, which was poured upon their heads in such profusion,
that it ran down their beards, and they were thence called u the
Lord’s anointed,” When kings were permitted to be introduced,
they were anointed in the same manner by the sovereign pon-
tiff ; and they too were called ^ the Lord’s anointed.” When
the pontiffs of Rome assumed the customs, pomps and cere-
monies of the Jewish priesthood, they assumed the power of
consecrating things, by the same ceremony of u holy oil.” The
pope, who, as vicar of God, possessed the whole globe of earth
in supreme dominion and absolute property, possessed also the
power of sending the holy ghost 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
my friend, Louis 18th. has been consecrated at Rheims by the
pouring on of this holy oil; but his worthy elder brother, Louis
16lh, was so consecrated at a vast expense of treasure and ridicule.
How the holy bottle was conveyed to England, is worth inquiry,
JJut there it is, and is used at every coronation ; and is demurely,
if not devoutly shewn to every traveller who visits the tower.
'These ideas wTere once as firmly established in England, as they
were in Rome; and no small quantity Of the relicks of them remain
to this day, Hence the doctrines of the divine right Of kings, and309
the duties in subjects of unlimited submission, passive obcdienbe
and non-resistance, on pain (Oh, how can I write it) ot eternal dam-
nation. 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, un-
alienable, 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 these 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 capacity or
political capacity, but merely to his personal capacity. Allegiance
to parliament is no where found in English, Scottish or British
laws. What, then, had our ancestors to do with parliament ?
Nothing more than with the Jewish Sanhedrim, or Napoleon’s
liteVary and scientific Institute at Grand Cairo. They owed no
allegiance to parliament as a whole, or in part. None to the
house of lords, as a branch of the legislature, nor to any individ-
ual peer or number of individuals. None to the house of com-
mons, as another branch, nor to any individual 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.
W hat right, then, had king James 1st. to the sovereignty, do-
minion, or property of North America ? No more than king
George 3d. has to the Georgium Sidus, because Mr. Herschell
discovered that planet in his reign. His only colour, pretension
or pretext is this. The pope, as head of the church, was sove-
reign of the world. Henry 8th. deposed him, became head of
the church in England ; and consequently became sovereign mas-
ter and proprietor of as much of the globe as he could grasp. A
group of his nobles hungered for immense landed estates in Amer-
ica, 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, Germany, Switzerland, &c. by the
terrors of stocks, pillories, croppings, scourges, imprisonments,
roastings and burnings, under Henry 8th. Elizabeth, Mary, James
1st. and Charles 1st. The noblemen and gentlemen of the council
of Plymouth wanted settlers for their lands in America, and set on
foot a negotiation with the persecuted fugitive religionists abroad.310
promised them liberty of conscience, exemption from all jurisdic-
tion, ecclesiastical, civil and political, except allegiance to the
king, and the tribute, moderate surely, of one fifth of gold and
silver ore. This charter 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
2d. convinced 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 acquired
comfortable establishments, especially in Holland, that singular
region of toleration, that glorious asylum for persecuted Hugunots
and Puritans 5 that country where priests have been, enternally
worrying one another; and alternately teazing the government
to persecute their antagonists, but where enlightened statesmen
have constantly and intrepidly resisted their wild fanaticism.
The first charter, the charter of James 1st. is more like a treaty
between independent sovereigns, than like a charter of 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, manufac-
tures, and every thing else, excepting one or two articles of tri-
fling importance.
Independence of English church and state, was the fundamental
principle of the first colonization, has been its general principle
for two hundred years, and now I hope is past dispute.
Who then was the author, inventor, discoverer of independence ?
The only true answer must be the first emigrants; and the proof
of it is the charter of James 1st. When we say, that Otis, Adams,
Mayhew, Henry, Lee, Jefferson, &c. were authors of indepen-
dence, we ought to say they were only awakeners and revivers of
the original fundamental principle of colonization.
I hope soon to relieve you from the trouble of this tedious cor-
respondence with your humble servant,	JOHN ADAMS.
TO THE IION. WM. TUDOR.
Quincy, September 23, 1818.
dear sir,
IF, in our search of principles, we have not been able to in-
vestigate any moral, philosophical or rational foundation for any
claim of dominion or property in America, in the English nation,
their parliament or even of 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 Indians ?
Shall we say, that a few handfulls of scattering tribes of savages
have a right to dominion and property over a quarter of the globe,311
capable of nourishing hundreds 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 common
with all men; but what right to dominion or property beyond these ?
Every Indian had a right to his wigwam, his armour, his utensils;
when he had burned the woods about him, and planted his corn
and beans, his squashes and pompions, all these were his undoubt-
ed right: but will you infer from this, that he had right of exclu-
sive dominion and property, over immense regions of uncultivated
wilderness, that he never saw, that he might have the exclusive
privilege of hunting and fishing in them, which he himself never
expected or hoped to enjoy ?
These reflections appear to have occurred to our ancestors ;
end their general conduct was regulated by them. They do not
seem to have had any confidence in their charter, as conveying
any right, except against the king, who signed it. They consid-
ered the right to be in the native Indians. And in truth all the
right there was in the case, lay there. They accordingly respect-
ed the Indian wigwams and poor plantations ; their clambanks and
musclebanks and oysterbanks, and ail their property.
Property in land, antecedent to civil society, or the social com-
pact, 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
themselves, nor puzzle themselves with these refinements. They
considered the Indians as having rights ; and they entered into ne-
gotiations with them, purchased and paid for their rights and
claims, whatever they were, and procured deeds, grants, and
quit claims of all their lands, leaving them their habitations, arms,
utensils, fishings, huntings and plantations. 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 parch-
ment copy of a deed of Massasoit 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 coun-
try, and has been to this day through the continent. In short, 1
see not how the Indians could have been treated with more equity
or humanity, than they have been in general in North America.
The histories of Indian wars have not been sufficiently regarded.
When Mr. Hutchinson’s history of Massachusetts bay first ap-
peared, 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, u he had no sympathy for the sufferings of his
ancestors,” “ otherwise he Could not have winked out of sight,
one of the most important, most affecting, afflicting and distressing
branches of the history of his country.”
There is somewhere in existence, as I hope and believe, a man-
uscript history of Indian wars, written by the Rev. Samuel Niles of
Braintree. Almost sixty years ago, I was an humble acquaintance312
of this venerable clergyman, then, as 1 believe more than four
score years of age. He asked me many questions, and informed
me, in his own house, that he was endeavouring to recollect and
commit to writing an history of Indian wars, in his own time, and
before it, as far as he could collect information.	This history lie
completed and prepared for the press : but no printer would un-
dertake it, or venture to propose a subscription for its publication.
Since my return from Europe, I enquired of ht9 oldest son, the
Hon. Samuel Niles of Braintree, on a visit he made me atary own
house, what was become of that manuscript ? He laughed) and
said it was still safe in the till of a certain trank ; but no encour-
agement had ever appeared for its publication. Ye liberal Chris-
tians ! 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 thau ye are now. But I then
revered and still revere the honest, virtuous and pious man. Fas
est et ab hoste docerL And his memorial of facts might be of great
value to this country.
What infinite pains have been taken and expenses incurred in
treaties, presents, stipulated sums of money, instruments of agricul-
ture, education 1 What dapgerous and unwearied labours to con-
vert the poor ignorant savages to Christianity ? And alas! with
how little success ? The Indians are as.bigotted to their religion as
the Mahometans are to their Koran, the Hindoos 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 reli-
gion, at bottom, which inspires the Indians with such an invincible
aversion both to civilization and Christianity. 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 patri-
otic Americans havC forgotten them, Mr. Otis had not. He enlar-
ged on the merit of our ancestors in undertaking so perilous, ar-
duous, and almost desperate an enterprize, in disforresting bare
creation ; in conciliating and necessarily contending with Indian
natives; in purchasing rather than conquering 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 jeal-
ousy, envy, intrigue against their charter, their religion and all
their privileges. Laud, the pious tyrant dreaded them, as he fore-
saw they would overthrow his religion.
Mr. Otis reproached the nation, parliaments and kings with in-
justice, 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.
JOHN ADAMS.230
The community was greatly alarmed. The merchants of Sa-
lem 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, sprung 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 tole-
rated in America. He was a gentleman of general science, and
extensive literature. He had been an indefatigable student dur-
ing the whole course of his education in college, and at the bar*
He was well versed in Greek and Roman history, philosophy, or-
atory, poetry, and mythology. His classical studies had been un-
usually 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 Authology by one of
our best scholars, at a mature age, and in a respectable station.
He had also composed, with equal skill and great labour, a treatise
on Greek prosody. This he also lent me, and, by his indulgence,
I had it in my possession six months. When 1 returned it, 1 beg-
ged 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, es-
pecially of Homer ; and he said it was in vam 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 Puffendorph, Grotius, Barbeyrac, Bur-
lamaqui, Vattel, Heineccius; and, in the civil law, Domal, Jus-
tinian, 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 before him, u that a lawyer
ought never to be without a volume of natural or public law, or moral
philosophy, on his table, or in his pocket.” In the history, the com-
mon law,and statute laws of England, he had no superior, at least
in Boston.
Thus qualified to resist the system of usurpation and despotism*
meditated by the British ministry, under the auspices of the earl
of Bute, Mr. Otis resigned his commission from the crown, as ad-
vocate general, an office very lucrative at that time, and a sure
road to the highest favours of government in America, and enga-
ged in the cause of his country without fee or reward. His ar-
gument, speech, discourse, oration, harangue—call it by which
name you will, was the most impressive upon his crowded audi-
ence of any, that I ever heard before or since, excepting only ma-
ny speeches by himself in Fanuiel Hall, and in the House of Rep-
resentatives, which he made from time to time, for ten years after-
wards. There were no stenographers in those days. Speeches
were not printed ; and all that was not remembered, like the har-