Chapter XV: Preface (14)

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and loyalty derived from their education; but believing allegiance and protection to be reciprocal, when protection was withdrawn, they thought allegiance was dissolved.

Another alteration was common to all. The people of America had been educated in an habitual affection for England as their mother country; and while they thought her a kind and tender parent (erroneously enough, however, for she never was such a mother) no affection could be more sincere. But when they found her a cruel Beldam, willing like lady Macbeth, to "dash their brains out," it is no wonder if their filial affections ceased and were changed into indignation and horror.

_This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments and affections of the people, was the real American revolution._

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

To this end it is greatly to be desired that young gentlemen of letters in all the states, especially in the thirteen original states, would undertake the laborious, but certainly interesting and amusing task, of searching and collecting all the records, pamphlets, newspapers, and even handbills, which in any way contributed to change the temper and views of _the people_ and compose them into an independent nation.

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

In this research, the glorioles of individual gentlemen and of separate states is of little consequence. The _means and the measures_ are the proper objects of investigation. These may be of use to posterity, not only in this nation, but in South America and all other countries. They may teach mankind that revolutions are no trifles, that they ought never to be undertaken rashly; nor without deliberate consideration and sober reflection; nor without a solid, immutable, eternal foundation of justice and humanity; nor without a people possessed of intelligence, fortitude and integrity sufficient to carry them with steadiness, patience, and perseverance, through all the vicissitudes of fortune, the fiery trials and melancholy disasters they may have to encounter.

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

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

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

The characters, the most conspicuous, the most ardent and influential in this revival, from 1760 to 1766, were, first and foremost, before all and above all, James Otis; next to him was Oxenbridge Thatcher; next to him, Samuel Adams; next to him, John Hancock; then Dr. Mayhew; then Dr. Cooper and his brother. Of Mr. Hancock's life, character, generous nature, great and disinterested sacrifices, and important services, if I had forces, I should be glad to write a volume. But this I hope will be done by some younger and abler hand. Mr. Thatcher, because his name and merits are less known, must not be wholly omitted.--This gentleman was an eminent barrister at law, in as large practice as any one in Boston. There was not a citizen of that town more universally beloved for his learning, ingenuity, every domestic and social virtue, and conscientious conduct in every relation of life. His patriotism was as ardent as his progenitors had been ancient and illustrious in this country. Hutchinson often said, "Thatcher was not born a plebeian, but he was determined to die one." In May, 1763, I believe, he was chosen by the town of Boston one of their representatives in the legislature, a colleague with Mr. Otis, who had been a member from May 1761, and he continued to be re-elected annually till his death in 1765, when Mr. Samuel Adams was elected to fill his place, in the absence of Mr. Otis, then attending the congress at New York. Thatcher had long been jealous of the unbounded ambition of Mr. Hutchinson, but when he found him not content with the office of lieut. governor, the command of the castle and its emoluments, of judge of probate for the county of Suffolk, a seat in his majesty's council in the legislature, his brother in-law secretary of state by the king's commission, a brother of that secretary of state, a judge of the supreme court and a member of council, now in 1760 and 1761, soliciting and accepting the office of chief justice of the superior court of judicature, he concluded, as Mr. Otis did, and as every other enlightened friend of his country did, that he sought that office with the determined purpose of determining all causes in favor of the ministry at St. James's, and their servile parliament.

His indignation against him henceforward, to 1765, when he died, knew no bounds but truth. I speak from personal knowledge. For, from 1758 to 1765, I attended every superior and inferior court in Boston, and recollect not one, in which he did not invite me home to spend evenings with him, when he made me converse with him as well as I could, on all subjects of religion, morals, law, politics, history, philosophy, belles lettres, theology, mythology, cosmogony, metaphysics,--Lock, Clark, Leibnits, Bolingbroke, Berckley,--the pre-established harmony of the universe, the nature of matter and of spirit, and the eternal establishment of coincidences between their operations, fate, foreknowledge, absolute; and we reasoned on such unfathomable subjects as high as Milton's gentry in pandemonium; and we understood them as well as they did, and no better. To such mighty mysteries he added the news of the day, and the tittle tattle of the town. But his favourite subject was politics, and the impending threatening system of parliamentary taxation and universal government over the colonies. On this subject he was so anxious and agitated that I have no doubt it occasioned his premature death. From the time when he argued the question of writs of assistance, to his death he considered the king, ministry, parliament and nation of G. B. as determined to new model the colonies from the foundation; to annul all their charters, to constitute them all royal governments; to raise a revenue in America by parliamentary taxation; to apply that revenue to pay the salaries of governours, judges and all other crown officers; and, after all this, to raise as large a revenue as they pleased, to be applied to national purposes at the exchequer in England; and further to establish bishops and the whole system of the church of England, tythes and all, throughout all British America. This system, he said, if it was suffered to prevail, would extinguish the flame of liberty all over the world; that America would be employed as an engine to batter down all the miserable remains of liberty in Great Britain and Ireland, where only any semblance of it was left in the world. To this system he considered Hutchinson, the Olivers and all their connections, dependants, adherents, shoelickers, &c. entirely devoted. He asserted that they were all engaged with all the crown officers in America and the understrappers of the ministry in England, in a deep and treasonable conspiracy to betray the liberties of their country, for their own private, personal and family aggrandizement. His philippicks against the unprincipled ambition and avarice of all of them, but especially of Hutchinson, were unbridled; not only in private, confidential conversations, but in all companies and on all occasions. He gave Hutchinson the sobriquet of "Summa Potestatis," and rarely mentioned him but by the name of "Summa." His liberties of speech were no secrets to his enemies. I have sometimes wondered that they did not throw him over the bar, as they did soon afterwards major Hawley. For they hated him worse than they did James Otis, or Samuel Adams, and they feared him more, because they had no revenge for a father's disappointment of a seat on the superior bench to impute to him, as they did to Otis; and Thatcher's character through life had been so modest, decent, unassuming; his morals so pure, and his religion so venerated, that they dared not attack him. In his office were educated to the bar, two eminent characters, the late judge Lowell, and Josiah Quincy, aptly called the Boston Cicero. Mr. Thatcher's frame was slender, his constitution delicate; whether his physicians overstrained his vessels with mercury, when he had the small pox by inoculation at the castle, or whether he was overplied by public anxieties and exertions, the small pox left him in a decline from which he never recovered. Not long before his death he sent for me to commit to my care some of his business at the bar. I asked him whether he had seen the Virginia resolves: "Oh yes--they are men! they are noble spirits! It kills me to think of the lethargy and stupidity that prevails here. I long to be out. I will go out. I will go out. I will go into court, and make a speech which shall be read after my death, as my dying testimony against this infernal tyranny which they are bringing upon us." Seeing the violent agitation into which it threw him, I changed the subject as soon as possible, and retired. He had been confined for some time. Had he been abroad among the people, he would not have complained so pathetically of the "lethargy and stupidity that prevailed," for town and country were all alive; and in August became active enough, and some of the people proceeded to unwarrantable excesses, which were more lamented by the patriots than by their enemies. Mr. Thatcher soon died, deeply lamented by all the friends of their country.

Another gentleman, who had great influence in the commencement of the revolution, was doctor Jonathan Mayhew, a descendant of the ancient governor of Martha's Vineyard. This divine had raised a great reputation both in Europe and America, by the publication of a volume of seven sermons in the reign of king George the second, 1749, and by many other writings, particularly a sermon in 1750, on the thirtieth of January, on the subject of passive obedience and non-resistance; in which the saintship and martyrdom of king Charles the first are considered, seasoned with wit and satire superior to any in Swift or Franklin. It was read by every body; celebrated by friends and abused by enemies. During the reigns of king George the first and king George the second, the reigns of the Stuarts, the two Jameses and the two Charleses, were in general disgrace in England. In America they had always been held in abhorrence. The persecutions and cruelties suffered by their ancestors under those reigns, had been transmitted by history and tradition, and Mayhew seemed to be raised up to revive all their animosities against tyranny, in church and state, and at the same time to destroy their bigotry, fanaticism and inconsistency. David Hume's plausible, elegant, fascinating and fallacious apology, in which he varnished over the crimes of the Stuarts, had not then appeared. To draw the character of Mayhew would be to transcribe a dozen volumes. This transcendant genius threw all the weight of his great fame into the scale of his country in 1761, and maintained it there with zeal and ardor till his death in 1766. In 1763 appeared the controversy between him and Mr. Apthorp, Mr. Caner, Dr. Johnson and archbishop Secker, on the charter and conduct of the society for propagating the gospel in foreign parts. To form a judgment of this debate I beg leave to refer to a review of the whole, printed at the time and written by Samuel Adams, though by some, very absurdly and erroneously, ascribed to Mr. Apthorp. If I am not mistaken, it will be found a model of candor, sagacity, impartiality, and close, correct reasoning.

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

Nor must Mr. Cushing be forgotten. His good sense and sound judgment, the urbanity of his manners, his universal good character, his numerous friends and connections, and his continual intercourse with all sorts of people, added to his constant attachment to the liberties of his country, gave him a great and salutary influence from the beginning in 1760.

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

If you print this, I will endeavour to send you something concerning Samuel Adams, who was destined to a longer career, and to act a more conspicuous, and perhaps a more important part than any other man. But his life would require a volume. If you decline printing this letter, I pray you to return it as soon as possible to,

Sir, Your humble servant,

JOHN ADAMS.

TO MR. WIRT.

_Quincy_, _January_ 5, 1818.

SIR,

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

Erant heroes ante Agamemnona multi.
Or, not to garble Horace,
Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi: sed omnes illacrimabiles
Urgentur, ignotique longa
Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.

If I could go back to the age of thirty five, Mr. Wirt, I would endeavour to become your rival; not in elegance of composition, but in a simple narration of facts, supported by records, histories, and testimonies, of irrefragable authority. I would adopt, in all its modesty, your title, "Sketches of the life and writings of James Otis, of Boston." And, in imitation of your example, I would introduce portraits of a long catalogue of illustrious men, who were agents in the revolution, in favor of it or against it.

Jeremiah Gridley, the father of the bar in Boston, and the preceptor of Pratt, Otis, Thatcher, Cushing, and many others; Benjamin Pratt, chief justice of New-York; colonel John Tynge, James Otis, of Boston, the hero of the biography; Oxenbridge Thatcher, Jonathan Sewall, attorney general and judge of admiralty; Samuel Quincy, solicitor general; Daniel Leonard, now chief justice of Bermuda; Josiah Quincy, the Boston Cicero; Richard Dana and Francis Dana, his son, first minister to Russia, and afterwards chief justice; Jonathan Mayhew, D. D. Samuel Cooper, D. D. Charles Chauncey, D. D. James Warren and his wife; Joseph Warren, of Bunker's Hill; John Winthrop, professor at Harvard college, and a member of council; Samuel Dexter, the father; John Worthington, of Springfield; Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, and James Lovel, of Boston; governors Shirley, Pownal, Bernard, Hutchinson, Hancock, Bowdoin, Adams, Sullivan, and Gerry; lieutenant governor Oliver, chief justice Oliver, judge Edmund Trowbridge, judge William Cushing, and Timothy Ruggles, ought not to be omitted. The military characters, Ward, Lincoln, Warren, Knox, Brooks, Heath, &c. must come in of course. Nor should Benjamin Kent, Samuel Swift, or John Reed, be forgotten.

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

The resistance to the British system, for subjugating the colonies, began in 1760, and in the month of February, 1761, James Otis electrified the town of Boston, the province of Massachusetts bay, and the whole continent, more than Patrick Henry ever did in the whole course of his life. If we must have panegyrics and hyperboles, I must say, that if Mr. Henry was Demosthenes, and Mr. Richard Henry Lee, Cicero, James Otis was Isaiah and Ezekiel UNITED.

I hope, sir, that some young gentleman, of the ancient and honourable family of "The Searchers," will hereafter do impartial justice, both to Virginia and Massachusetts.

After all this freedom, I assure you, sir, it is no flattery, when I congratulate the nation on the acquisition of an attorney general of such talents and industry as your "Sketches" demonstrate.

With great esteem, I am, Sir,

Your friend and humble servant,

JOHN ADAMS.

_Mr._ WIRT, _Attorney General of the United States._

TO THE SAME.

_Quincy_, _January_ 23, 1819.

SIR,

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

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

When congress had finished their business, as they thought, in the autumn of 1774, I had, with Mr. Henry, before we took leave of each other, some familiar conversation, in which I expressed a full conviction, that our resolves, declarations of rights, enumeration of wrongs, petitions, remonstrances, and addresses, associations, and non-importation agreements, however they might be expected [Errata: respected] in America, and however necessary to cement the union of the colonies, would be but waste water in England. Mr. Henry said, they might make some impression among the people of England, but agreed with me that they would be totally lost upon the government. I had but just received a short and hasty letter, written to me by major Joseph Hawley, of Northampton, containing "a few broken hints," as he called them, of what he thought was proper to be done, and concluding with these words, "_after 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, "after all we must fight," he raised his head, and with an energy and vehemence that I can never forget, broke out with "BY G--D, I AM OF THAT MAN'S MIND." I put the letter into his hand, and when he had read it, he returned it to me, with an equally solemn asseveration, that he agreed entirely in opinion with the writer. I considered this as a sacred oath, upon a very great occasion, and could have sworn it as religiously as he did, and by no means inconsistent with what you say, in some part of your book, that he never took the sacred name in vain.

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

The other delegates from Virginia returned to their state in full confidence, that all our grievances would be redressed. The last words that Mr. Richard Henry Lee said to me, when we parted, were, "_we shall infallibly carry all our points. You will be completely relieved; all the offensive acts will be repealed; 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 opinion, and Washington doubted between the two. Henry, however, appeared in the end to be exactly in the right.

Oratory, Mr. Wirt, as it consists in expressions of the countenance, 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 "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.
_Attorney General of the United States._

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

_Quincy_, _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 ********, alias *** *****, &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 grievances, will you hear it?" The club expected some fun, and all cried out, "Aye! Aye! let us hear your list."

"Well, then, Will; in the first place I resigned the office of advocate general, which I held from the crown which produced me; how much, do you think?" "A great deal, no doubt," said Molineux. "Shall we say two hundred sterling a year?" "Aye, more I believe," said Molineux. "Well, let it be 200; that for ten years is two thousand. In the next place, I have been obliged to relinquish the greatest part of my business at the bar. Will you set that at 200 more?" "Oh I believe it much more than that." "Well let it be 200. This for ten years makes two thousand. You allow, then, I have lost 4000_l._ 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, I have made a thousand enemies; amongst whom are the government of the province and the nation. What do you think of this item?" "That is as it may happen," said Molineux.

"In the next place, you know I love pleasure. But I have renounced all amusement for ten years. What is that worth to a man of pleasure?" "No great matter," said Molineux, "you have made politics your amusement." A hearty laugh.

"In the next place, I have ruined as fine health and as good a constitution of body, as nature ever gave to man." "This is melancholy indeed," said Molineux. "There is nothing to be said upon that point."

"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 scull." This made all the company very grave, and look very solemn. But Otis setting up a laugh, and with a gay countenance, said to Molineux, "Now, Willy, my advice to you is, to say no more about your grievances; for you and 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 evening 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 expected to have swallowed that execrable lie, that Otis had no patriotism. The father was refused an office worth 1200_l._ old tenor, or about 120_l._ 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 affectionate.

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

The truth is, he was an honest man, and a thorough taught lawyer. He was called upon in his official capacity as advocate general by the custom house officers, to argue their cause in favour 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 parliament. 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 other enlightened man foresaw, a tremendous storm coming upon his country, and determined to run all risques, and share the fate of the ship, after exerting all 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 "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.

_Quincy_, _March_ 29, 1818.

DEAR SIR,

Is your daughter, Mrs. ******, who I am credibly informed, is one of the most accomplished ladies, a painter? Are you acquainted with Miss ***** *****, who I 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 you to suggest a scene and subject.

The scene is the council chamber of the old town house in Boston. The date is the month of February, 1761, nine years before you 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 county 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 chief justice of New York.

Two portraits, at more than full length, of king Charles the second, and king James the second, in splendid golden frames, were hung up in the most conspicuous side of the apartment. If my young eyes or old memory have not deceived me, these were the finest pictures I have seen. The colours of their long flowing robes and their royal ermines were the most glowing, the figures the most noble and graceful, the features the most distinct and characteristic: far superior to those of the king and queen of France in the senate chamber of congress. 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 Charleses 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, looking like a short thick fat archbishop of Canterbury, seated at the table, with a pen in his hand, lost in admiration, now and then minuting 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 himself; and which your pupil, judge Minot, has printed in his history.

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

When the British ministry received from general Amherst his despatches, announcing his conquest of Montreal, and the consequent annihilation of the French government and power in America, in 1759, they immediately conceived the design and took the resolution of conquering the English colonies, and subjecting them to the unlimited authority of parliament. With this view and intention, they sent orders and instructions to the collector of the customs in Boston, Mr. Charles Paxton, to apply to the civil authority for writs of assistance, to enable the custom house officers, tide waiters, land waiters, and all, to command all sheriffs and constables 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 taxes imposed by certain acts of parliament, called "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, lieutenant governor Hutchinson, and all the principal crown officers, 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 governor Hutchinson was appointed chief justice of that court in his stead. Every observing and thinking man knew that this appointment was made for the direct purpose of deciding this question, in favour of the crown, and all others in which it should be interested.

An alarm was spread far and wide. Merchants of Salem and Boston applied to Mr. Pratt, who refused, and to Mr. Otis and Mr. Thatcher, who accepted, to defend them against this terrible menacing monster, the writ of assistance. Great fees were offered, but Otis, and I believe Thatcher, would accept of none. "In such a cause," said Otis, "I despise all fees."

I have given you a sketch of the stage and the scenery, and a brief of the cause; or, if you like the phrase better, of the tragedy, 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 depending, however, on the "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! 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 all before him. American independence was then and there born. The seeds of patriots and heroes to defend the _Non Sine Diis Animosus Infans_; to defend the vigorous youth were then and there sown. Every man of an immense crowded audience appeared to me to go away as I did, ready to take arms against writs of assistance. Then and there was the first scene of the first act of opposition to the 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 and declared himself free.

The court adjourned for consideration, and after some days at the close of the term, Hutchinson chief justice arose and said, "The court has considered the subject of writs of assistance, and can see no foundation for such a writ; but as the practise in England is not known, it has been thought best, to continue the question 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 pronounced; 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 clandestinely 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 unanimous vote. On that week I happened to be at Worcester attending 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, "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 province 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 agonies of patriotism in the early stages of the revolution. "When Mr. Henry could carry his resolutions but by one vote, and that against the influence of Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Wythe and all the old members whose influence in the house had till then been unbroken; and when Peyton Randolph 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."

And you will also see the confused manner in which they were first recorded, and how they have since been garbled in history. My remarks at present will be confined to the anecdote in page 65.

Cæsar had his Brutus, Charles the first, his Cromwell, and George the third. Treason cried the speaker--treason, treason, echoed from every part of the house. Henry finished his sentence by the words, "may profit by their example." If this be treason make the most of it.

In judge Minot's history of Massachusetts Bay, volume second, in 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 following 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 offensive 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 majority; and it was presented to the governor by a committee of which Mr. Otis was a member.

Judge Minot proceeds--"The governor was so displeased 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, especially if it should appear, as he doubted not it would when he entered upon his vindication, that there was not the least ground for the insinuation, under colour of which, that sacred and well beloved name was so disrespectfully brought into question."

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

I have now before me a pamphlet printed in 1763, by Edes & Gill, in Queen-street, Boston, entitled a vindication of the conduct of the house of representatives of the province of the Massachusetts Bay, more particularly in the last session of the general assembly, by James Otis, Esq. a member of said house, with this motto--

Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor,
Who dare to love their Country and be poor;
Or good, tho' rich, humane and wise, tho' great,
Jove give but these, we've nought to fear from fate.

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

Had judge Minot ever seen this pamphlet, could he have given so superficial an account of this year, 1762? There was more than one "_warm speech_" made in that session of the legislature; Mr. Otis himself, made many. A dark cloud hung over the whole continent; but it was peculiarly black and threatening over Massachusetts and the town of Boston, against which devoted city the first thunderbolts of parliamentary 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, information 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 and deposited in the cabinet 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.--"The world ever has been, and ever will be pretty equally divided, 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 can 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 battle, 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 recommendation 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, but an addition of nine hundred men, with an augmented bounty to encourage their enlistment.

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

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 province had received from its beginning from the mother country, and shuddering under the prospect of still greater ingratitude and cruelty from the same source. Hear a few of his words, and read all the rest.

"_Mr. Speaker_--This province has upon all occasions been distinguished by its loyalty and readiness to contribute its most strenuous efforts for his majesty's service. I hope this spirit will ever remain as an indelible characteristic of this people," &c. &c. "Our own immediate interest therefore, as well as the general cause of our king and country requires, that we should contribute the last penny and the last drop of blood, rather than by any backwardness of ours, his majesty's measures should be embarrassed: and thereby any of the enterprises that may be planned for the regular troops, miscarry. Some of these considerations I presume, induced the assembly upon his majesty's requisition, signified last spring by lord Egremont, so cheerfully 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 Utrecht. 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 disappointment; for in order to shift the blame of this shameful affair from themselves, they endeavoured to lay it upon the New England colonies.

"I am therefore clearly for raising the men," &c. &c. "This province has, since the year 1754, levied for his majesty's service 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 generation could hardly have formed any idea of. We are now deeply in debt," &c. &c.

On the 14th of September, the house received a message from the governor, containing a somewhat awkward confession of certain expenditures of public money with advice of council, which had not been appropriated by the house. He had fitted out the Massachusetts sloop of war, increased her establishment of men, &c. Five years before, perhaps this irregularity might have been connived at or pardoned; but, since the debate 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 parliament, Mr. Otis's maxim, that "taxation without representation was tyranny," and "that expenditures of public money, without appropriations by the representatives of the people, were unconstitutional, arbitrary and therefore tyrannical," had become popular proverbs. They were 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 that 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 remonstrance, every syllable of which is Otis:

"_May it please your Excellency_:

"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.

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

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