Novanglus, And Massachusettensis - free ebook by John Adams

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Novanglus, And Massachusettensis

John Adams

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NOVANGLUS, AND MASSACHUSETTENSIS;

NOVANGLUS, AND MASSACHUSETTENSIS;

OR POLITICAL ESSAYS, PUBLISHED IN THE YEARS 1774 AND 1775 , ON THE PRINCIPAL POINTS OF CONTROVERSY, BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND HER COLONIES. THE FORMER BY JOHN ADAMS, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; THE LATTER BY JONATHAN SEWALL, THEN KING’S ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE PROVINCE OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. TO WHICH ARE ADDED A NUMBER OF LETTERS, LATELY WRITTEN BY PRESIDENT ADAMS, TO THE HONOURABLE WILLIAM TUDOR; SOME OF WHICH WERE NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED. BOSTON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY HEWS &amp;

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TO THE PUBLIC.

TO THE PUBLIC.

FOR the last twenty years, our political opinions have partaken so much of feeling, in the contest between the two great European rivals, that the happiness, the interests, and even the character of America seem to have been almost forgotten. But the spirit of party has now most happily so far subsided, that a disposition to look into, and examine the history of our own dear country, and its concerns, very generally prevails. Perhaps there is no part of that history, that is more interesting, th

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PREFACE.

PREFACE.

JONATHAN SEWALL was descended from Mitchills and Hulls and Sewalls, and I believe Higginsons, i. e. from several of the ancient and venerable of New England families. But, as I am no genealogist, I must refer to my aged classmate and highly esteemed friend Judge Sewall of York, whose researches will, one day, explain the whole. Mr. Sewall 's father was unfortunate; died young, leaving his son destitute; but as the child had discovered a pregnant genius, he was educated by the charitable contribu

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, January 23, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, January 23, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, A WRITER, under the signature of Massachusettensis, has addressed you, in a series of papers, on the great national subject of the present quarrel between the British administration and the Colonies. As I have not in my possession, more than one of his Essays, and that is in the Gazette of December 26, I will take the liberty, in the spirit of candor, and decency, to bespeak your attention, upon the same subject. There may be occasion, to say very severe things, before I shall have f

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, January 30, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, January 30, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, I HAVE heretofore intimated my intention, of pursuing the tories, through all their dark intrigues, and wicked machinations; and to shew the rise, and progress of their schemes for enslaving this country. The honor of inventing and contriving these measures, is not their due. They have been but servile copiers of the designs of Andross, Randolph, Dudley, and other champions of their cause towards the close of the last century. These latter worthies accomplished but little; and their

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 6, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 6, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, THE history of the tories, began in my last, will be interrupted for some time; but it shall be reassumed, and minutely related, in some future papers. Massachusettensis, who shall now be pursued, in his own serpentine path; in his first paper, complains, that the press is not free, that a party has gained the ascendency so far as to become the licencers of it; by playing off the resentment of the populace, against printers and authors: That the press is become an engine of oppressio

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 13, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 13, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, MASSACHUSETTENSIS, whose pen can wheedle with the tonge of king Richard the third, in his first paper, threatens you with the vengeance of Great Britain, and assures you that if she had no authority over you, yet she would support her claims by her fleets and armies, Canadians and Indians. In his next he alters his tone, and soothes you with the generosity, justice and humanity of the nation. I shall leave him to show how a nation can claim an authority which they have not by right,

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 20, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 20, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, WE are at length arrived at the paper, on which I made a few strictures, some weeks ago: these I shall not repeat, but proceed to consider the other part of it. We are told, "It is an universal truth, that he that would excite a rebellion, is at heart, as great a tyrant, as ever wielded the iron rod of oppression." Be it so. We are not exciting a rebellion. Opposition, nay open, avowed resistance by arms, against usurpation and lawless violence, is not rebellion by the law of God, or

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 27, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, February 27, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, SUCH events as the resistance to the stamp act, and to the tea act, particularly the destruction of that which was sent by the ministry, in the name of the East India Company, have ever been cautiously spoken of by the whigs, because they knew the delicacy of the subject, and they lived in continual hopes of a speedy restoration of liberty and peace. But we are now thrown into a situation, which would render any further delicacy upon this point criminal. Be it remembered then, that t

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, March 6, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, March 6, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, OUR rhetorical magician, in his paper of January the 9th continues to wheedle . "You want nothing but to know the true state of facts, to rectify whatever is amiss." He becomes an advocate for the poor of Boston! Is for making great allowance for the whigs. "The whigs are too valuable a part of the community to lose. He would not draw down the vengeance of Great Britain. He shall become an advocate for the leading whigs." &amp;c. It is in vain for us to enquire after the sincerit

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, March 13, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, March 13, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, IT has been often observed by me, and it cannot be too often repeated, that colonization is casus omissus at common law. There is no such title known in that law. By common law, I mean that system of customs, written and unwritten, which was known and in force in England, in the time of king Richard 1st. This continued to be the case, down to the reign of Elizabeth, and king James 1st. In all that time, the laws of England were confined to the realm, and within the four seas. There w

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, March 27, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, March 27, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, MASSACHUSETTENSIS in some of his writings has advanced, that our allegiance is due to the political capacity of the king, and therefore involves in it obedience to the British parliament. Gov. Hutchinson, in his memorable speech, laid down the same position. I have already shewn, from the case of Wales, that this position is groundless, and that allegiance was due from the Welch to the king, jure feodali , before the conquest of Lewellyn, and after that to the crown, until it was ann

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, April 3, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, April 3, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, GIVE me leave now to descend from these general matters, to Massachusettensis. He says "Ireland, who has perhaps the greatest possible subordinate legislature, and sends no members to the British parliament, is bound by its acts when expressly named." But if we are to consider what ought to be, as well as what is, why should Ireland have the greatest possible subordinate legislature? Is Ireland more numerous and more important to what is called the British empire, than America? Subor

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, April 10, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, April 10, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, THE cases of Wales and Ireland are not yet exhausted. They afford such irrefragable proofs, that there is a distinction between the crown and realm, and that a country may be annexed and subject to the former, and not the latter, that they ought to be thoroughly studied and understood. The more these cases, as well as those of Chester, Durham, Jersey, Guernsey, Calais, Gascoine, Guienne, &amp;c. are examined, the more clearly it will appear, that there is no precedent in English

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, April 17, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, April 17, 1775.

MY FRIENDS, WE now come to Jersey and Guernsey, which Massachusettensis says, "are no part of the realm of England, nor are they represented in parliament, but are subject to its authority." A little knowledge of this subject will do us no harm; and as soon as we shall acquire it, we shall be satisfied how these islands came to be subject to the authority of parliament. It is either upon the principle that the king is absolute there, and has a right to make laws for them by his mere will; and th

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, December 12, 1774.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, December 12, 1774.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, WHEN a people, by what means soever, are reduced to such a situation, that every thing they hold dear, as men and citizens, is at stake, it is not only excuseable, but even praiseworthy for an individual to offer to the public any thing, that he may think has a tendency to ward off the impending danger; nor should he be restrained from an apprehension that what he may offer will be unpopular, any more than a physician should be restrained from prescribing a salutary medicine,

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, December 19, 1774.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, December 19, 1774.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, I ENDEAVOURED last week to convince you of our real danger, not to render you desperate, but to induce you to seek immediately some effectual remedy. Our case is not yet remediless, as we have to deal with a nation not less generous and humane, than powerful and brave; just indeed, but not vindictive. I shall, in this and successive papers, trace this yet growing distemper through its several stages, from the first rise to the present hour, point out the causes, mark the effe

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, December 26, 1774.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, December 26, 1774.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, TO undertake to convince a person of his error, is the indispensible duty, the certain, though dangerous test of friendship. He that could see his friend persevering in a fatal error, without reminding him of it, and striving to reclaim him, through fear that he might thereby incur his displeasure, would little deserve the sacred name himself. Such delicacy is not only false, but criminal. Were I not fully convinced upon the most mature deliberation, that I am capable of, tha

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 2, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 2, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, PERHAPS by this time some of you may enquire who it is, that suffers his pen to run so freely? I will tell you; it is a native of this province, that knew it before many that are now basking in the rays of political sunshine, had a being. He was favored not by whigs or tories, but the people, with such a stand in the community, as that he could distinctly see all the political manœuvres of the province. He saw some with pleasure, others with pain. If he condemns the conduct o

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 9, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 9, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, SOME of you may perhaps suspect that I have been wantonly scattering firebrands, arrows, and death, to gratify a malicious and revengeful disposition. The truth is this. I had seen many excellent detached pieces, but could see no pen at work to trace our calamity to its source, and point out the many adventitious aids, that conspired to raise it to its present height, though I impatiently expected it, being fully convinced that you wait only to know the true state of facts, t

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 16, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 16, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, HAD a person, some fifteen years ago, undertaken to prove that the colonies were a part of the British empire or dominion, and as such, subject to the authority of the British parliament, he would have acted as ridiculous a part, as to have undertaken to prove a self-evident proposition. Had any person denied it, he would have been called a fool or madman. At this wise period, individuals and bodies of men deny it, notwithstanding in doing it they subvert the fundamentals of

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 23, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 23, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, IF we carry our researches further back than the emigration of our ancestors, we shall find many things that reflect light upon the object we are in quest of. It is immaterial when America was first discovered or taken possession of by the English. In 1602 one Gosnold landed upon one of the islands, called Elizabeth islands, which were so named in honor of queen Elizabeth, built a fort, and projected a settlement; his men were discouraged, and the project failed. In 1606, kin

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 30, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, January 30, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, AS the oppugnation to the king in parliament tends manifestly to independence, and the colonies would soon arrive at that point, did not Great Britain check them in their career; let us indulge the idea, however extravagant and romantic, and suppose ourselves for ever separated from the parent state. Let us suppose Great Britain sinking under the violence of the shock, and overwhelmed by her ancient hereditary enemies; or what is more probable, opening new sources of national

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 6, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 6, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, WHEN we reflect upon the constitutional connection between Great Britain and the colonies, view the reciprocation of interest, consider that the welfare of Britain, in some measure, and the prosperity of America wholly depends upon that connection; it is astonishing, indeed, almost incredible, that one person should be found on either side of the Atlantic, so base, and destitute of every sentiment of justice, as to attempt to destroy or weaken it. If there are none such, in t

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 13, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 13, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, I OFFERED to your consideration, last week, a few extracts from the law books, to enable those that have been but little conversant with the law of the land, to form a judgment, and determine for themselves, whether any have been so far beguiled and seduced from their allegiance, as to commit the most aggravated offence against society, high treason. The whigs reply, riots and insurrections are frequent in England, the land from which we sprang; we are bone of their bone, and

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 20, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 20, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, IT would be an endless task to remark minutely upon each of the fancied grievances, that swarm and cluster, fill and deform the American chronicles. An adeptness at discovering grievances has lately been one of the principal recommendations to public notice and popular applause. We have had geniuses selected for that purpose, called committees upon grievances; a sagacious set they were, and discovered a multitude before it was known, that they themselves were the greatest gri

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 27, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, February 27, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, BY an act of parliament made in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of Charles 2d. duties are laid upon goods and merchandise of various kinds, exported from the colonies to foreign countries, or carried from one colony to another, payable on exportation. I will recite a part of it, viz: "For so much of the said commodities as shall be laden and put on board such ship or vessel; that is to say, for sugar, white, the hundred weight, five shillings; and brown and Muscovados, the

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 6, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 6, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, NOVANGLUS, and all others, have an indisputable right to publish their sentiments and opinions to the world, provided they conform to truth, decency, and the municipal laws, of the society of which they are members. He has wrote with a professed design of exposing the errors and sophistry which he supposes are frequent in my publications. His design is so far laudable, and I intend to correct them wherever he convinces me there is an instance of either. I have no objection to

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 13, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 13, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, OUR patriotic writers, as they call each other, estimate the services rendered by, and the advantages resulting from the colonies to Britain, at a high rate, but allow but little, if any, merit in her towards the colonies. Novanglus would persuade us that exclusive of her assistance in the last war, we have had but little of her protection, unless it was such as her name alone afforded. Dr. Franklin when before the house of commons, in 1765, denied that the late war was enter

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 20, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 20, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, THE outlines of British commerce have been heretofore sketched; and the interest of each part, in particular, and of the whole empire conjointly, have been shewn to be the principles by which the grand system is poized and balanced. Whoever will take upon himself the trouble of reading and comparing the several acts of trade, which respect the colonies, will be convinced, that the cherishing their trade, and promoting their interest, have been the objects of parliamentary att

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 27, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, March 27, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, OUR patriots exclaim, "that humble and reasonable petitions from the representatives of the people have been frequently treated with contempt." This is as virulent a libel upon his majesty's government, as falshood and ingenuity combined could fabricate. Our humble and reasonable petitions have not only been ever graciously received, when the established mode of exhibiting them has been observed, but generally granted. Applications of a different kind, have been treated with

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ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, April 3, 1775.

ADDRESSED To the Inhabitants of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, April 3, 1775.

MY DEAR COUNTRYMEN, THE advocates for the opposition to parliament often remind us of the rights of the people, repeat the Latin adage vox populi vox Dei , and tell us that government in the dernier resort is in the people; they chime away melodiously, and to render their music more ravishing, tell us, that these are revolution principles. I hold the rights of the people as sacred, and revere the principles, that have established the succession to the imperial Crown of Great Britain, in the line

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TO THE EDITOR OF THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

Quincy , January 14, 1818. Mr. Niles , IN a former letter I hazarded an opinion, that the true history of the American revolution could not be recovered. I had many reasons for that apprehension; one of which I will attempt to explain. Of the determination of the British cabinet to assert and maintain the sovereign authority of parliament over the colonies, in all cases of taxation and internal policy, the first demonstration which arrived in America was an order in council to the officers of th

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TO THE SAME.

TO THE SAME.

Quincy , February 13, 1818. Mr. Niles , THE American Revolution was not a common event. Its effects and consequences have already been awful over a great part of the globe. And when and where are they to cease? But what do we mean by the American revolution? Do we mean the American war? The revolution was effected before the war commenced. The revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people. A change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations. While the king, and all in

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TO MR. WIRT.

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 agree

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TO THE SAME.

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

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

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 *** *****, &amp;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 w

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

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 scen

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

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 Pey

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , April 15, 1818. DEAR SIR, I HAVE received your obliging favour of the 8th, but cannot consent to your resolution to ask no more questions. Your questions 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 already painted, I know not how many, historical pictures. I have sent you one, give me leave to send another. The bloody rencontre between the citizens and the

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , April 23, 1818. 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 unison 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 progress of American revolution and independence. Why have Harmodius and Brutu

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , May 12, 1818. 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 Jemmibellero, "the song of the drunkard" which was published in Fleet's "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, agains

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , June 1, 1818. 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 be

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , June 9, 1818. DEAR 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 instruments to carry them into execution. But I enter on 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

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

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 encouragement of trade." Sec. 5.—"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 dependance upon it , and rendering them yet more beneficial and advantageous

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

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 warr

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , July 9, 1818. DEAR SIR, IN the search for something, in the history and statutes of England, in any degree resembling this monstrum horrendum ingens , the writ of assistance, the following examples were found. In the statute of the first year of king James the second, chapter third, "An act for granting to his majesty an imposition upon all wines and vinegar," &amp;c. Section 8, it is enacted, "That the officers of his majesty's customs &amp;c. shall have power and authority to

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , July 14, 1818. DEAR SIR, MR. OTIS, to show the spirit of the acts of trade, those I have already quoted, as well as of those I shall hereafter quote, and as the best commentaries upon them, produced a number of authors upon trade, and read passages from them, which I shall recite, without pretending to remember the order in which he read them. 1. Sir Josiah Child, "A new discourse of trade." Let me recommend this old book to the perusal of my inquisitive fellow citizens. A discerning mi

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

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 prejudicial plantation in this kingdom." "I am now to write of a people whose frugality, industry and temperance, and the happiness of whose laws and institutions do promise to themselves long life, with a wonderful increase of people, riches and power: and although no men ought to envy that virtue and wisdom in others, wh

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , July 27, 1818. DEAR 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 merchant," printed in 1767. This new edition, which was printed no doubt to justify the ministry in the system they were then pursuing, could not be the edition that Mr. Otis produced in 1761. The advertisement of the editor informs us that "This valuable treatise has for many years been ve

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , July 30, 1818. DEAR SIR, ANOTHER passage which Mr. Otis read from Ashley gave occasion, as I suppose, to another memorable and very curious event, which your esteemed pupil and my beloved friend judge Minot has recorded. The passage is in the 42d page. "In fine, I would humbly propose that the duties on foreign sugar and rum imposed by the before mentioned act of the 6th of king George the second, remain as they are, and also the duty on molasses, so far as concerns the importations int

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , August 6, 1818. " Mid the low murmurs of submission, fear and mingled rage, 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 li

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , August 11, 1818. DEAR SIR, THE "Defence of the New England charters by Jer. Dummer," is, both for style and matter, one of our most classical American productions. "The feelings, the manners and principles which produced the revolution," appear in as vast abundance in this work, as in any, that I have read. This beautiful composition ought to be reprinted and read by every American who has learned to read. In pages 30 and 31, this statute of 7th and 8th of king William, ch. 22. sec. 9th

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

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 I must abridge, for I cannot transcribe much more. It enacts, that all the duties imposed by the first section, shall be paid down in ready money by the importer, before landing. The third section must be transcribed by me or some other person, because it is the most arbitrary among statutes, that were all arbitrary, the most unconstitutional among laws, which w

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , August 21, 1818. DEAR SIR, MR. OTIS quoted another author, "The political and commercial works of Charles D'Avenant, L.L. D. vol. 2. discourse 3 On the plantation trade." I cannot transcribe seventy six pages, but wish that Americans of all classes would read them. They are in the same strain with Downing, Child, Gee, Ashley, Charles 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 wate

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , August 31, 1818. DEAR SIR, I HAVE before mentioned the instructions of the city of Boston to their representatives, in May 1764, printed in an appendix to Mr. Otis's "Rights of the colonies." In obedience to those instructions, or at least in consequence of them Mr. Otis prepared a memorial to the house of representatives, which was by them voted to be transmitted to Jasper Mauduit, Esq. agent for the province, only as a statement drawn up by one of the house, to be improved as he may j

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , September 10, 1818. DEAR SIR, THE charters were quoted or alluded to by Mr. Otis frequently in the whole course of his argument: but he made them also a more 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 complains of this enormous abuse of words in public transactions, and John Reed and Theophilus Parsons of Massachusetts have attempted to reform it. So did Jame

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , September 13, 1818. DEAR SIR, IT is some consolation to find in the paragraph of the charter, next following the court of admiralty, that nothing in it "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 trade of fishing upon the said coast, in any of the se

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , September 18, 1818. DEAR SIR, THE English doctrine of allegiance is so mysterious, fabulous and enigmatical, that it is difficult to decompose the elements of which it is compounded. The priests, under the Hebrew economy, especially the sovereign pontiffs, were anointed with consecrated oil, which was poured upon their heads in such profusion, that it ran down their beards, and they were thence called "the Lord's anointed." When kings were permitted to be introduced, they were anointed

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TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

TO THE HON. WM. TUDOR.

Quincy , September 23, 1818. DEAR SIR, IF, in our search of principles, we have not been able to investigate 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 domini

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