and allay the frightful Apprehensions they had raised in some minds, otherwise firm. I congratulate you on the Union of Sentiment and Spirit prevailing through the Continent, which makes even our Tory Protestors hang their Ears, and may in Time affect the obdurate Heart and inveterate Resolution of H[utchinso]n himself, especially when he finds himself forsaken by a Tryon. The recantation made in Boston by one of our Protestors has sickned some others. Divers of them intending to Boston last week are still at home. I am inclined to think many or several others here will follow his Example, tho' great Pains are taken to prevent it....1 SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN BOSTON, March 31, 1774 MY DEAR SIR, - I have for some time past been waiting for the arrival of a Ship from London, that I might have some thing of Importance to communicate to you. No Ship has yet arrivd. I cannot however omit writing to you by our worthy Friend Mr. Watson, by whom I receivd your obliging Letter of the 27 Instant. Although we have had no Arrival from London directly to this Place, we have heard from thence by the Way of Philadelphia as you have doubtless observd in the Newspapers. The account they first received of our Opposition to the East India Act as it is called, particularly the Transactions at Liberty Tree, they treated with Sneer and Ridicule, but when they heard of the Resolves of the Body of the People at the Old South Meeting house the Place from whence the Orders issued for the Removal of the Troops from this Town in 1770, they put on grave Countenances. No Notice is taken of America in the King's Speech. Our Tories, as you observe, tell us to expect Regiments to be quartered among us. What Measures an injudicious Ministry, (to say the least of them) will take cannot easily at present be foreseen, it will be wise for us to be ready for all Events, that we may make the best Improvement of them. It is probable that Mr. Hutchinson will make the Death of I A letter from Samuel Adams to James Warren, January 10, 1774, in this collection, is printed in 1 Mass. Hist. Soc. Proceedings, XIII. 205. I his Brother Oliver a plea for postponing a Voyage to London, and if troops should arrive it may be best that he should be [absent]. I never suffer my Mind to be overmuch [cut] prospects. Sufficient for the Day is the Evil thereof. It is our Duty at all Hazards to preserve the Publick Liberty. Righteous Heaven will graciously smile on every manly and rational Attempt to secure that best of all his Gifts to Man from the ravishing hand of lawless and brutal Power. Mr. Watson will inform you what Steps our Committee of Correspondence have taken with Regard to the Establishment of a Post Office upon constitutional Principles. Mr. Goddard 2 who brought us Letters from New York, Newport and Providence relating to that Subject, is gone with Letters from us on the same Subject to the principal trading Towns as far as Portsmouth. I will acquaint you with the state of the Affair when he returns, and our Committee will, I doubt not, then write to yours. The Colonies must unite to carry through such a Project, and when the End is effected it will be a pretty grand Acquisition. 3 I refer you also to Mr. Watson, who can inform you respecting one of your Protesters who has been in Town. The Tryumph of your Tories as well as ours I hope is short. We must not however boast as he that putteth off the Harness. H[utchinson is politically sick and I fancy despairs of returning Health. The "lacklearning" Judge I am told is in the Horrors, and the late Lieutenant1 (joynt Author of a late Pamphlet intitled Letters etc.1) a few Weeks ago "died and was buried." Excuse me from enlarging at Present. I intend to convince you that I am "certainly a Man of my Word." In the Mean time with assurance of unfeigned Friendship for Mrs. Warren and your agreeable Family in which Mrs. Adams joyns me, I remain Yours Affectionately I Andrew Oliver, lieutenant governor, died March 3, 1774. S. ADAMS 2 William Goddard (1740-1817), who made a petition on the subject to the Continental Congress, October 5, 1774. 3 Peter Oliver (1713-1791), a brother of Andrew. 4 His letters, with those of Hutchinson and others, had been sent over from London by Franklin, and published in Boston. SAMUEL ADAMS TO JAMES WARREN MY DEAR SIR, -I beseech you to implore every Friend in Boston by every thing dear and sacred to Men of Sense and Virtue to avoid Blood and Tumult. They will have time enough to dye. Let them give the other Provinces opportunity to think and resolve. Rash Spirits that would by their Impetuosity involve us in unsurmountable Difficulties will be left to perish by themselves despisd by their Enemies, and almost detested by their Friends. Nothing can ruin us but our Violence. Reason teaches this. I have indubitable Intelligence, dreadful, as to the Designs against us; consolatory, if we are but prudent. These are the Sentiments of a man, who, you know, my dear Sir, loves the People of Boston and that Government, with the Tenderness of a Brother. I am your affectionate Friend. PHILADA, May 21, 1774. JAMES WARREN TO JOHN ADAMS. [No signature.] ADAMS MSS. PLYMOUTH, July the 14th, 1774 DEAR SIR, 1 - Yours of the 25th of last month 1 never reached me till yesterday. It would have given me great pleasure to have seen you when I returned from Salem,2 and I was really greatly disappointed to find you and Family gone, and more especially as I was apprehensive I should have no other Opportunity of seeing you, till the Time called for your Attendance at the Grand Council of America, an Assembly in my Opinion of as great Dignity and Importance as any, either ancient or modern, that ever met. However, as I am deprived of the pleasure of seeing you, I shall sincerely wish and pray, that your satisfaction and pleasure on this Journey may fully equal the Honour of being a Member of so august a Body. Which is in Effect wishing that you may conduct Matters in a way the most Honorable to yourselves, and advan 1 Printed in Life and Works of John Adams, IX. 338. tageous to the publick. Great are our Expectations, and great will be the Expectations in Europe; and therefore great and difficult is the Task assigned you. With these Sentiments my Friendship to you had no Interest in your Appointment further than to promote your Honour. My Friendship to my Country engaged me to it, and when I knew it was at the Expence of your Ease, and so well satisfied am I with the Major Part of our Committee,' and such Expectations have I from the Zeal and firmness of the other Colonies in this measure, that I have not given myself the Trouble to think much about the measures they will take. I presume the greater part of you will be Masters, learned in politicks and the true Interest of your Country, not Scholars yet to learn them. Prophets replete with the true Spirit of Prophecy, and Statesmen both wise and upright. From you therefore we shall look for streams that shall gladden all the Cities and Towns in North America, and confound the Barbarous Politicks of Britain. With these Sentiments of your Body, it certainly would be presumtion in me, to advise to measures, or conduct. However to a Friend I will venture to say, I apprehend much greater danger from the Timidity and narrow Plans of some of your Body, than I do from the Spirit and enlarged views of the rest of you. My Opinion is, that the Confidence of the People in the Congress is such that they will support whatever Plan you adopt, however spirited, and be in danger of resting satisfied with the Terms you may be contented with, however inadequate to their rights and Interests. And besides Administration be from the first more encouraged to go on with their System than provoked by the last. That we have nothing to expect from their Justice, but every thing to hope from their fears, is a maxim as true, and perhaps as wise as any of Solomon! Therefore if I was enquired of, what I thought should be done with the Claim of Exemption from Parliamentary Legislation, as well as Taxation, and some other Grand Questions that have been agitated here, I should answer that it was proper, practicable, expedient, wise, just, good, and necessary, that they should be held up in I The Delegation to the Congress from Massachusetts consisted of Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, John Adams and Robert Treat Paine. Bowdoin was named, but declined to serve. The credentials speak of them as "a committee." their full extent in the Congress at Philadelphia, and that means should be devised to support them. To determine on an annual Congress I think very important, both for the purpose of depressing the Scheems of our Enemies and raising the Spirits and promoting the Interest of our Friends.1 A Rotation I am very fond of in most Cases, but in this at present should be for confining it only to a new election annually. A scarcity of men fit to govern such mighty Interests clashing in the present Contests, is a sufficient Objection to a further Limitation, and that reason will likewise prevail to alter your determination not to engage in politicks on any other System. The want of Gratitude in Mankind, their little Attention to their true Interest, and the consequent Fate of many of their friends, are really disagreeable reflections. But if Brutus and Cassius, Hampden, Sydney, Harrington, etc. had lived in inglorious Ease, they might have died in a few months after, in languishing and painful Sickness, without Fame, without the Applause of the vertuous of all ages. I have strong faith that the now rough and perilous paths of politicks will soon be smoothed, and that our sons may walk in them without danger, especially if we submit the Instruction of them to our two Friends 2 you mention, who will certainly form them to Vertue, and establish that Integrity that will secure them at least good Consciences. The Cause of Liberty, Truth and Vertue, must be supported, and in the present degenerate Situation of Mankind, that must be done by the few, even under the mortifying Circumstances of seeing the many who reap the Benefit attentive to private matters, and enriching themselves and families, even at the Expence of their Friends. And I presume you will never fail to be among the few, at a time when your Character, Circumstances, and Education, etc conspire to call you out. . . . [Mrs. Warren adds:] Though Mr. Adams has condescended to ask my sentiments in conjunction with those of a person qualified (by his integrity and attachment to the interest of his Country) to advise if it were 1 "I am for making it annual, and for sending an entire new set every year, that all the principal geniuses may go to the university in rotation, that we may have politicians in plenty." John Adams to Warren, June 25, 1774. 2 Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Warren. |