vaild that tomorrow there will be an attempt to land this weed of Slavery. I will then write further till then my worthy friend adieu. December II Since I wrote the above a whole week has elapsed and nothing new occurred concerning the tea. Having met with no opportunity of sending this I shall trespass further upon your patience. I send with this the I volm of Molière and should be glad of your oppinion of them. I cannot be brought to like them. It seems to me to be a general want of Spirit, at the close of every one I have felt disappointed. There are no characters but what appear unfinished and he seems to have ridiculed vice without engageing us to Virtue; and tho he sometimes makes us laugh, yet tis a Smile of indignation. There is one Negative Virtue of which he is possess'd, I mean that of Decency. His Cit, turnd Gentleman, among many other has met with approbation. Tho I can readily acknowledge that the cit by acting so contrary to his real character has displayed a stupid vanity justly deserving ridicule, yet the fine Gentleman who defrauds and tricks him is as much the baser character as his advantages are superior to the others. Molière is said to have been an Honest Man, but Sure he has not coppied from his own Heart. Tho he has drawn many pictures of real life, yet all pictures of life are not fit to be exibited upon the Stage. I fear I shall incur the charge of vanity by thus criticising upon an author who has met with so much applause. You, Madam, I hope will forgive me. I should not have done it if we had not conversd about it before. Your judgment will have great weight with your Sincere Friend 1 ABIGAIL ADAMS SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN BOSTON, Decr 28, 1773 MY DEAR SIR, I had the pleasure of receiving your Letter of the 16th Instant, but not till Eleven Days after it was written. The pressing Invitation you have repeatedly given me, to your 1 Letters from John Adams to James Warren, December 17 and 22, 1773, in this collection, are printed in Life and Works of John Adams, IX. 333, 334. annual Festivity, is very obliging. My Heart was much set upon it; and I had prepared to go, with one of my Neighbors, a very worthy Man, but was the Evening before prevented, not to say forbid, by some of our Common Friends. You are sensible that I am the Servant of all. It is a great Consolation to find, that our Friends in the Country approve of the Conduct of this and the Neighboring Towns at the late Meetings. We are assured of this by the Letters we almost daily receive. I think we have put our Enemies in the wrong; and they must in the Judgment of rational Men, be answerable for the Destruction of the Tea, which their own Obstinacy had rendered necessary. Notwithstanding what your Tories have given out, the People here are universally pleas'd, excepting the disconcerted Hutchinson and his few, very few Adherents. The Plymouth Letter and Resolves are highly applauded by all the Friends of Liberty.1 The Protest,' as you will of Course easily perceive, is the subject of Contempt. One of the Signers has already cryed, peccavi! and publishd his Recantation; and between you and me, if the others whom they have pressd, or rather coaxd into their Service, have no more to say for themselves than it seems he has, the Party have Nothing to boast of. We had yesterday the Return of Mr Revere who at the Request of the Committee of Correspondence carried the important News of the Fate of the Tea to New York. By him we are informed, that a Tea Ship with 270 Chests had arrived at Charlestown, South Carolina. The Inhabitants were determined she should return with her detested Cargo. Before the Arrival of this and the News from Boston, the Citizens of New York had got to be divided; many of them being for storing the Tea. But immediately they became united and determined that it should not be landed; and Governor Tryon made a Virtue of Necessity and promisd that it should be sent (when it arrivd) directly back to London. This will operate much against Hutchinson; who, I think, in every part of his Conduct, discovers the Want of those Abilities, which his too liberal Countrymen have supposd him to have. The Ministry I See Massachusetts Gazette, December 20, 1773. 2 Ib., December 27. It was presented by Edward Winslow. could not have devisd a more effectual Measure to unite the Colonies. Our Committee have on this Occasion, opend a Correspondence with the three New England Colonies, besides New York and Philadelphia. Old Jealousies are removed, and perfect Harmony subsists between them. The Committee of the House seems to be the only inactive Body. I am sorry to say it, tho to you only. The General Assembly, I am informd will meet on the 26th of next month. There is much to be done by the House and much will be done, if Timidity does not prevent it. You must not fail, with Mr. Lothrop1 to attend. The Cause will suffer by your Absence. The House will forfeit their Honor and the Confidence of the virtuous Part of their Constituents, if they do not conduct the Affair of the Judges in particular, with Dignity. I must recommend your retracting Townsman to your Favor. I dare say you can furnish us with some Anecdotes, respecting the Protest. I hear that many Towns in the Country are calling Meetings. The Instituting Committees of Correspondence will as you predicted be attended with great and good Consequences. I conclude in haste, with due Regards to Mr. Lothrop and other honest Men. Your assured friend, S. ADAMS We are concernd that we hear nothing of the Tea at Cape Cod. It is thought by some of our friends in London, that our Petition against the great Delinquents will not be brot to a Hearing unless they desire it, but that they will be removed, that Lord Dartmouth will resign and Weymouth succeed him. JOHN ADAMS TO MERCY WARREN BRAINTREE Jan 3 1774 MADAM, I remember that Bishop Burnet in a letter he once wrote to Lady Rachell Russell, the virtuous Daughter of the great Southampton, and unfortunate wife of Lord Russell who died a Martyr to English Liberties, says, "Madam I never attempt to write to you but my Pen conscious of its Inferiority falls out of my Hand." The polite Prelate did not write to that excellent Lady in I Isaac Lothrop. so bold a figure with half the Sincerity that I could apply it to myself when writing to Mrs. Warren. I will however strive to grasp my Pen hard enough to write one Line in answer to her kind Billet [of] December 30. Mr. Adams assures Mrs. Warren, that nothing would have given him greater Pleasure than a Visit to Plymouth at the late Anniversary, but it was out of his Power. He thanks Mr. and Mrs. Warren however most heartily for their very kind and repeated Invitations. He shall think himself happy if he can find an opportunity, before the Month of May to make a Visit to his Friends at Plymouth, but it has been his Misfortune to have been so often and so long absent from home for these twelve months past, that he really thinks his Duty to his family oblige him to leave it as little as possible. Mrs. Warren is pleased to mention Mr. Adams's “needfull application to public, and his close Attention to private Business." His private Business, Madam, has been totally annihilated these twelve months past and more by the inauspicious course of public affairs, and he has no kind of Prospect of its ever coming into Existence again. He has therefore, learnt the important Lesson of Resignation to what he cannot alter and should be very happy the remainder of his Days to get his Bread by his Labour and Attention to a Farm. He thinks he could shine as an industrious Farmer, but he is too old to make a Figure in Arms the Profession to which we must for the future perhaps be obliged for our Safety and our Liberty as much as formerly we were to that of the Law. If the Standards should be erected and a Camp formed, however, ten to one but he flies to it, but whether it will be for Shelter or as a Volunteer, Time alone must discover. He thanks Mrs. Warren most kindly for her friendly Wishes for his Peace, Health, and Prosperity, and especially, when she wishes that he may return Laden with the Applauses of his Country, but most of all when she wishes he may return with a self approving Mind. Of the last he is sure, if plain, direct, simple and sincere Intentions to do what the cause of Truth, Justice Liberty and Humanity according to his Conceptions require of him, at whatever Hazard it may be can insure it, and as long as he shall act upon these Principles he does not doubt of enjoying that sweetest Music to an honest Ear the approbation of his Country, for this is seldom refused to Integrity of Heart, how inconsiderable soever the abilities that direct it. I am, Madam, with more esteem than I have Power or Words to express your Friend and Servt JOHN ADAMS JAMES WARREN TO JOHN ADAMS.1 ADAMS MSS. DEAR SIR, I received your last,2 and am to acknowledge that the Contents of it gave me great pleasure. Have for some time thought it necessary that the People should strike some bold stroke, and try the Issue. They have long enough submitted to Oppressions and Insults following one another in a rapid Succession without finding any Advantage. They have now indeed passed the River, and left no Retreat, and must therefore abide the Consequences. What those will be seems to be the great matter of Speculation, and as People are determined by Reason, or by the frightful List of Scarecrows and Bug bears (mentioned in your last, and which are employed on this Occasion) their speculations will differ. As your Judgment will be regulated by the first I should be glad to hear it. I think the Ministry have one way at least to avoid the necessity of advancing or retreating at this time, and that is by laying the Blame of the whole on their own, and East India Company's Officers, which have drove the People to this desperate step, and this Justice and Truth (Company they have not been used to) will countenance them in. In what proportion this Blame is to be laid to each may be adjusted among them, and if they quarrel in the settlement of that matter, we may avail ourselves of the old Proverb. I admire Doane's reasoning, and if he was not assisted by the Author of the Letter in the Methodical Arraignment of his Propositions I think he reasoned better on this, than any other Occasion. I made good use of your Letter without mentioning the Author's Name, to encounter the Tory Bugbears 1 At Boston. "Per favour of Mr. Crosswell." 2 Letter of December 17, 1773. Printed in Life and Works of John Adams, 1x. 333. |