If there should be any Danger of it, would not the leading Gentlemen do eminent Service to the Publick, by impressing upon the Minds of the People, the Necessity and Importance of encouraging that System of Education, which in my opinion, is so well calculated to diffuse among the Individuals of the Community, the Principles of Morality, so essentially necessary for the Preservation of publick Liberty. There are Virtues and Vices which are properly called political. "Corruption, Dishonesty to one's Country, Luxury and Extravagance tend to the Ruin of States." The opposite Virtues tend to their Establishment. But "there is a Connection between Vices as well as Virtues, and one opens the Door for the Entrance of another." Therefore "Every able Politician will guard against other Vices" and be attentive to promote every Virtue. He who is void of Virtuous Attachment in private Life, is, or very soon will be void of all Regard to his Country. There is seldom an Instance of a Man guilty of betraying his Country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral Obligation in his private Connections. Before C[hurch was detected of holding a criminal Correspondence with the Enemies of his Country, his Infidelity to his Wife had been notorious. Since private and publick Vices, though not always apparently, are in Reality so nearly connected, of how much Importance, how necessary is it, that the utmost pains be taken by the Publick, to have the Principles of Virtue early inculcated on the Minds even of Children, and the moral Sense universally kept alive, and that the wise Institutions of our Ancestors for those great Purposes be encouragd by the Government. For no People will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can they easily be subdued, where Knowledge is diffusd and Virtue preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own Weight, without the Aid of foreign Invaders. There are other things which, I humbly conceive, require the most serious Consideration of the Legislative. We have heretofore complaind, and I think justly, that bad Men have too often found their Way into places of publick Trust. "Nothing is more essential to the Establishment of Manners in a State, than that all Persons employd in Places of Power and Trust be Men of exem plary Characters. The Publick cannot be too curious concerning the Characters of Publick Men." We have also complaind, that a Plurality of Places incompatible with each other have sometimes been vested in one Person. If under the former Administration there was no Danger to be apprehended from vesting the different Powers of Government in the same Persons, why did the Patriots so loudly protest against it? If Danger is always to be apprehended from it, should we not by continuing the Practice, too much imitate the degenerate Romans, who upon the Fall of Julius set up Augustus? They changd indeed their Masters, and when they had destroyd the Tyrant sufferd the Tyranny to continue. Tell me how a Judge of Probate can consistently sit at the Council Board and joyn in a Decision there upon an appeal from his own Judgment? Perhaps, being personally interested in another Appointment, I may view it with a partial Eye. But you may well remember that the Secretary of the Colony declind taking a Seat at the Council Board, to which he had been elected prior to his Appointment, until, in the House of Representatives he had publickly requested their opinion of the Propriety of it, and there heard it explicitly declared by an eminent and truly patriotick Member as his Opinion, that as the Place was not then as it formerly had been, the Gift of the Crown but of the People, there was no Impropriety in his holding it. The rest of the Members were silent. Major H[awle]y has as much of the stern Virtue and Spirit of a Roman Censor as any Gentleman I ever conversd with. The Appointment of the Secretary and his Election to a Seat at the Board were both made in the Time of his Absence from the Colony and without the Solicitation of any of his Friends that he knew of—most assuredly without his own. As he is resolvd never wittingly to disgrace himself or his Country, he still employs his Mind on the Subject, and wishes for your candid and impartial Sentiments. I fear I have trespassd on your Leisure, and conclude, with assuring you that I am with sincere Regards to Mrs. Warren, your very affectionate Friend I See Proceedings, XLIX. 79. S. A. 2 Referring to himself. November 7th Your kind Letter of the 26th of October by Coll. Read was brot to me last Evening. Our Friend Mr. J. A. and myself were highly entertaind with the Papers inclosd in your Letter to him. It is wonderful to me that there should be any Difficulty about the Expulsion of Church. I intend to write to you by Doctor Morgan who will leave this City in a few days. Adieu. S. A. JOHN ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN Nour. 5, 1775 DEAR SIR, The Committee have returned, and I think well pleased with their Reception as well as with what they saw and heard. Impressions, have been made upon them either by the New England Gentlemen, or at Head Quarters, much to the Advantage of our Cause, I assure you. Their Return has contributed much to Harmony and Unanimity, in all smaller Matters, in the great material Questions there was enough of them before. I am under great obligations to you for your Attentions to me. Shall answer your Letters as soon as Time will admit, but I assure you I am very busy. I am obliged to trouble you with Enquiries concerning Subjects which you understand very well and I know nothing of. I want to know what is become of the Whalemen, Codfishers, and other Seamen belonging to our Province, and what Number of them you imagine might be inlisted into the service of the Continent, or of the Province, or of private Adventurers in Case a Taste for Privateering and a maritime Warfare should prevail, whether you think that two or three Battalions of Marines could be easily inlisted in our Province. What Ships, Brigantines, Schooners, suitable for armed Vessells might be purchased or hired, and at what Prices in our Province, what their Burthen, Depth of Water, Length of Keel, Breadth, hight between Decks, Age, etc., and to whom they belong? What Places are most suitable, that is safest and best accommodated, for building new Vessells, if any should be wanted; and what shipwrights may be had, and in what Time Vessells compleated? But above all, what Persons, their Names, Ages, Places of Abode and Characters, may be found in our Province who might be qualified to serve as Commanders and Officers, etc. These are necessary Enquiries, and I am very ill qualified to make them, yet to tell you a secret in Confidence, it has become my Duty. There is a Disposition prevailing to spare no Pains or Expence, in the necessary Defence of our Rights by sea or Land. The News you will see in the Papers, give you Joy of the good Prospect to the Northward. New Hampshire has Permission to establish what Form of Government they like best, and so has S. Carolina and so will every other Colony which shall ask for it which they all will do soon, if the Squabble continues. New England will now be able to exert her Strength and if I ken it right, it will be found to be that of a full grown Man, no Infant. Who expected to live to see the Principles of Liberty Spread and prevail so rapidly, human Nature exerting her whole Rights, unshackled by Priests or Kings or Nobles, pulling down Tyrannies like Sampson, and building up, what Governments the People think best framed for human Felicity. God grant the Spirit, success. My best Respects to your good Lady, will write her as soon as possible. [No signature.] JAMES WARREN TO JOHN ADams. The prices of European and West India goods are, notwithstanding our resolves, much advanced. Trade will have its course. Goods will rise and fall in proportion to the demand for them, and the quantity at market, etc., in spite of laws, honor, patriotism, or any other principle. The people however seem to have forgot their expectations, and the injunctions laid on the merchant, and little is said about it. The non-exportation is sacredly observed, and I believe [has] never been violated in a single instance; and such is the spirit here, that it cannot be violated with any degree of safety. Provisions are plenty and cheap, beef is a drug, and our people complain much that the Commissary sends to Connecticut for all his beef. I think it but fair that he should give this Colony a chance in that article at least, especially as we are to supply the army with hay and wood, which our people say they can't do and keep their cattle now fat over the winter. This has occasioned great difficulty here. The General has offered 5/ per [cwt] for hay, and 20/ per cord for wood, and cannot be supplied. This he imputes to a monopolizing, avaritious spirit, and perhaps not wholly without foundations.1 The prices are indeed high, but the people have much to say, and among other things ask why that spirit should be confined to those articles, and why cyder is to be had at 4/ per barrel. In the meantime the army has suffered much for want of wood, and the officers have not been able to restrain them from cutting down the fine groves of Cambridge and threatning to pull down houses for fuel. The General has made repeated applications to us. We at last set ourselves seriously to remedy the evil, which perhaps might terminate in breaking up the army. We spent the whole of last Fryday and evening on the subject. We at last chose a committee in aid to the Quartermaster general to purchase those articles and impowered them to enter the wood lots of the Refugees, cut, stack, and procure teams to carry to the camp wood as fast as possible, and hay as soon as they can get it. The teams are passing all day, and I hope this step will be a radical cure. Your next question is with regard to trade, a subject complicated, vast and unsounded. When I consider the great abundance we have of the necessaries and conveniences of life, that we want nothing but salt petre and I hope we are in a way to get that, I could wish a total stop was put to all trade. But when I consider the temper and genius of the people, the long habits they have been used to, I fear it would produce uneasiness and bad conse 1 See his letter to Joseph Reed, November 28, 1775, in Writings of Washington (Ford), III. 246. 2 journals of the House of Representatives (Mass.), November 3, 1775. |