Elizabeth von Arnim - "The Solitary Summer"

Sir Walter Scott - "The Betrothed"

William Allen White - "The Martial Adventures of Henry and Me"

Gaston Leroux - "The Secret of the Night"

The Writings of Samuel Adams, vol. III.

H >> Harry Alonzo Cushing >> The Writings of Samuel Adams, vol. III.




The Inhabitants being met, and for the Purpose aforesaid, the
Points determind, his Excellency says, "were such as the Law
gives the Inhabitants of Towns in their CORPORATE Capacity no
Power to act upon." It would be a sufficient Justification of the
Town to say, that no Law FORBIDS the Inhabitants of Towns in
their corporate Capacity to determine such Points as were then
determined. And if there was no positive legal Restraint upon
their Conduct, it was doing them an essential injury, to
represent it to the World as ILLEGAL. Where the Law makes no
special Provision for the common Safety, the People have a Right
to consult their own Preservation; and the necessary Means to
withstand a most dangerous attack of arbitrary Power.4 At such a
time, it is but a pitiful Objection to their thus doing, that the
Law has not expressly given them a Power to act upon such Points.
This is the very language of Tyranny: And when such Objections
are offerd, to prevent the Peoples meeting together in a Time of
publick Danger, it affords of it self just Grounds of Jealousy
that a Plan is laid for their Slavery.

The Town enterd upon an Inquiry into the Grounds of a Report, in
which the common Safety was very greatly interested. They made
their Application to the Governor, a fellow Citizen as well as
the first Magistrate of the Province; but they were informd by
his Excellency, that "it was by no means proper for him" "to
acquaint them whether he had or had not receivd any Advices
relating to the publick Affairs of the Government of the
Province." Their next Determination was, to petition the
Governor, that the General Assembly might be allowd to meet at
the time to which it them stood prorogud: But his Excellency
refused to grant this Request, lest it should be "encouraging the
Inhabitants of other Towns to assemble" "to consider of the
Necessity or Expediency of a Session of the General Assembly."
Hitherto the Town had determind upon no Point but only that of
petitioning the Governor. And will his Excellency or any one else
affirm, that the Inhabitants of this or any other Town, have not
a Right in their corporate Capacity to petition for a Session of
the General Assembly, merely because the Law of this Province,
that authorizes Towns to assemble, does not expressly make that
the Business of a Town Meeting? It is the Declaration of the Bill
of Rights, founded in5 Reason, that it is the Right of the
Subjects to petition the King: But it is apparent in his
Excellencys Answer, that the Inhabitants of this Town were in
Effect, denied, in one Instance at least, the Right of
petitioning his Majestys Representative. Which was the more
grievous to them, because the Prayer of their Petition was
nothing more, than that the General Assembly might have
the Opportunity of enquiring of the Governor into the Grounds of
the Report of an intollerable Grievance, which his Excellency had
before strongly intimated to them, it was not in his Power to
inform THEM of, "consistent with Fidelity to the Trust which his
Majesty had reposed in him."

We have been the more particular in reciting the Transactions of
that Meeting thus far, in order that the Propriety and Necessity
of the further proceedings of the same Meeting may appear in a
true Point of light.

His Excellency having thus frownd upon the reasonable Petitions
of the Town; And they, having the strongest Apprehensions, that
in Addition to, or rather in Consequence of other Grievances not
redressd, a mortal Wound would very soon be given to the civil
Constitution of the province; and no Assurance of the timely
Interposition of the General Assembly, to whose Wisdom they were
earnestly sollicitous to refer the whole Matter, The Town thought
it expedient to state as far as they were able the Rights of the
Colonists & of this Province; to enumerate the Infringements on
those Rights, & in a circular Letter to each of the Towns &
Districts in the province, to submit the same to their
Consideration: That the Subject might be weighd as its Importance
required, & the collected Wisdom of the whole people as far as
possible obtaind. At the same [time], NOT "calling upon" those
Towns & Districts "to adopt their Principles" as his Excellency
in one of his Speeches affirms, but only informing them that "a
free Communication of THEIR Sentiments to this Town of our common
Danger was earnestly sollicited & would be gratefully receivd. We
may justly affirm that the Town had a Right at that Meeting, to
communicate their Sentiments of Matters which so nearly concernd
the publick Liberty & consequently their own Preservation. They
were matters of "publick Concernment" to this & every other Town
& even Individual in the province. Any Attempt therefore to
obstruct the Channel of publick Intelligence in this way, argues
in our opinion, a Design to keep the people in Ignorance of their
Danger that they may be the more easily & speedily enslaved. It
is notorious to all the World, that the Liberties of this
Continent & especially of this province, have been systematically
& successfully invaded from Step to Step; Is it not then, to say
the least justifiable, in any Town as PART OF THE GREAT WHOLE,
when the last Effort of Tyranny is about to be made, to spread
the earliest Notice of it far & wide, & hold up the INIQUITOUS
SYSTEM in full View. It is a great Satisfaction to us, that so
many of the respectable Towns in the province, and we may add
Gentlemen of figure in other Colonies, have expressd, & continue
to express themselves much pleasd with the Measure; and we
encourage ourselves from the MANIFEST DISCOVERY of an Union of
Sentiments in this province, which has been one happy fruit of
the Measure, there will be the united Efforts of THE WHOLE in all
constitutional & proper Methods to prevent the entire ruin of our
Liberties.

His Excellency is pleasd to say in one of his Speeches, that the
Town have "denied in the most express Terms the Supremacy of
Parliament." It is fortunate for the town that they made Choice
of the very Mode of Expression, which the present House of
Representatives in their Wisdom made use of in stating the Matter
of Controversy between the Governor & them: And after what they
have advanced upon the Subject, it appears to us impossible to be
shown that the Parliament of Great Britain can exercise "the
Powers of Legislation for the Colonists in all Cases whatever"
consistently with the Rights which belong to the Colonists as Men
as Christians & as Subjects, or without destroying the foundation
of their own Constitution.--If the Assertion that the Parliament
hath no right to exercise a Power in cases where it is plain they
have no right, hath a direct Tendency to alienate the Affections
of the People from their Sovereign, because He is a constituent
part of that parliament, as seems to be his Excellencys Manner of
reasoning, it follows as we conceive, that there must never be a
complaint of any assumption of power in the Parliamt, or petition
for the repeal of any Law made repugnant to the Constitution,
lest it should tend to alienate the Affections of the People
from their Sovereign; but we have a better Opinion of our fellow
Subjects than to concede to such Conclusions. We are assured they
can clearly see, that a Mistake in Principle may consist with
Integrity of Heart; And for our parts we shall ever be inclined
to attribute the Grievances of various Kinds which his Majestys
American Subjects have so long sufferd, to the Weakness or
Wickedness of his Ministers & Servants, and not to any
Disposition in HIM to injure them. And we yet perswade our selves
that could the Petitions of his much aggrievd Subjects be
transmitted to his Majesty thro the Hands of an honest impartial
Minister, we should not fail of ample redress.

His Excellencys Argument seems to us to be rather straind, when
he is attempting to show, that we have "invited every other Town
& District to adopt our Principles". It is this. The Town says If
it should be the general Voice of the Province that the Rights as
stated do not belong [to] them, trusting however that this cannot
be the Case, they shall lament the Extinction of Ardor for civil
& religious Liberty; THEREFORE says his Excellency The Town
invited them to ADOPT their principles. Could it possibly be
supposd that when his Excy had declared to the whole Province
that we had invited every other Town and District in the province
to adopt the same Principles he intended to avail himself of such
an Explanation! Much the same Way of reasoning follows, (though
it would not be to the Reputation of the other Towns if it should
have any Weight). That because THEIR consequent Doings were
similar to those of this Town THEREFORE they understood that they
were invited to ADOPT the same Principles, & therefore they were
thus invited to adopt them.

Upon the whole, There can be no room to doubt but that every Town
which has thought it expedient to correspond with this on the
Occasion have acted their own Judgment & expressd their own
principles: It is an unspeakeable Satisfaction to us that their
Sentiments so nearly accord with ours, and it adds a Dignity to
our Proceedings, that when the House of Representatives were
called upon by the Governor to bear their Testimony against them,
as "of a dangerous Nature & Tendency," they saw reason to declare
that "they had not discoverd that the Principles advanced by the
Town of Boston were unwarrantable by the constitution."6

The foregoing Report was accepted in the Meeting, Nemine
Contradicente, and ordered to be recorded in the Town's Book, as
the Sense of the Inhabitants of this Town.

It was also Voted, That said Report be printed in the several
News-Papers, and that the Committee of Correspondence be directed
to transmit a printed Copy thereof to such Towns and Districts as
they have or may correspond with.

Attest.

WILLIAM COOPER, Town-Clerk.
_________________________________________________________________

1The preceding portion is in the Gazette, but not in the
manuscript draft.

2Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, vol. i.,
pp. 64, 68.

3Ibid., p. 30.

4At this point the draft originally included the words: "when
they see it approaching them with hasty Strides."

5At this point the draft originally included the words: "Nature
and."

6The following portion, from the Gazette is not in the autograph
draft by Adams.



TO JOHN DICKINSON.

[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

BOSTON, March 27 1773

SIR,

I take the Liberty of inclosing an Oration delivered by Dr
Benjamin Church on the Anniversary of the 5th of March 1770,
which I beg the favor of you to accept.

The Proceedings of our General Assembly at their last Session,
you may perhaps have seen in the News papers. Our Governor in a
manner forcd the Assembly to express their Sentiments of so
delicate though important a Subject as the supreme Authority of
the Parliament of Great Britain over the Colonies. The Silence of
the other Assemblies of late upon every Subject that concerns the
joynt Interest of the Colonies, renderd it somewhat difficult to
determine what to say with Propriety. As the Sense of the
Colonies might possibly be drawn from what might be advanced by
this Province, you will easily conceive, that the Assembly would
rather have chosen to have been silent till the Sentiments of at
least Gentlemen of Eminence out of this province could be known;
at the same time that Silence would have been construed as the
Acknowledgment of the Governor's Principles and a Submission to
the fatal Effects of them. What will be the Consequence of this
Controversy, Time must determine. If the Governor enterd into it
of his own Motion, as I am apt to believe he did, he may not have
the Approbation of the Ministry for counteracting what appears to
me to have been for two years past their favorite Design, to keep
the Americans quiet & lull them into Security. Could your Health
or Leisure admit of it, a publication of your Sentiments on this
& other Matters of the most interresting Importance would be of
substantial Advantage to your Country. Your Candor will excuse
the freedom I take in this repeated Request. An Individual has
some Right, in behalf of the publick, still to urge the
Assistance of those who have heretofore approvd themselves its
ablest advocates.

I shall take it as a favor if you will present the other inclosed
Oration to Mr Reed, whom I once had the pleasure of conversing
with in this place, & to whom I would have wrote by this
unexpected Opportunity, but am prevented by the Hurry of the
Bearer.

I am Sir with sincere Regards
Your most humble servt

Mr J[osiah] Q[uincy] a young Gentl but eminent here in the
profession of the law is soon expected to arrive at Philadelphia
from South Carolina. Could he be introducd into the Company of Mr
Dickinson & Mr Reed he would esteem himself honord and his
Conversation mt not be unentertaining even to them.



THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO THE COMMITTEE OF
CORRESPONDENCE OF LITTLETON.1

[MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.]

BOSTON, March 31 1773


GENTLEMEN

The Committee of Correspondence of the Town of Boston gratefully
acknowledge your Letter of the 2 Instant accompanied with the
declared Sentiments of the Town of Littleton at a legal meeting
on the first of February.

The Sense which that Town has expressd of the Excellency of the
British Constitution of Government, which appears eminently to
have its foundation in nature, and of the Rights which are
secured to the Inhabitants of this province by the Charter, is an
evident token of their readiness "always to joyn in every regular
& constitutional method to preserve the common Liberty."

We are perswaded that the Town whom we have the Honor to serve,
although calumniated by the virulent Enemies of the province and
of America, have nothing in view but to assist in "endeavoring to
preserve our happy civil Constitution free from Innovation &
maintain it inviolate" and we esteem our selves happy that the
Town has receivd the Approbation of so many of their respectable
Brethren in the Country, & particularly the Inhabitants of
Littleton. The agreable manner in which you have communicated to
us their Sentiments lays [us] under great obligation. We heartily
joyn with you in wishing that Peace & Unity may be established in
America, upon the permanent Foundations of Liberty & Truth.
________________________________________________________________

1Adressed "To Deacon Oliver Hoar Cap Jonathan Reed & Mr Aaron
Savit a Come of Correspondence of the Town of Littletown."



THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO NATHAN SPARHAWK.1

[MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.]

BOSTON, March 31 1773


SIR

Your attested Copy of the proceedings of Rutland District has
been receivd and read by the Come of Correspondence for the Town
of Boston. It affords us an unspeakeable Satisfaction to find so
great a Number of the Towns & Districts in the province
expressing a just Resentment at the repeated Attacks that have
been made on the publick Liberty by a corrupt Administration and
their wretched Tools & Dependents. Your District, in the Opinion
of this Committee has very justly held up the publick Grievances
of America in one short but full View; first the power assumed by
the British parliament (in which we cannot be represented) to tax
us at pleasure; and then their appropriating such taxes, to
render the executive power of the province independent of the
Legislature, or more properly speaking absolutely dependent on
the Crown. It was impossible for the Conspirators against our
invalueable Rights, with all their Art & Assiduity, to prevent
our sensible Brethren in the Country from seeing the fatal
Tendency of so dangerous an Innovation: And in a Virtuous Country
it requires only a Sight of such daring Incroachments, to produce
a manly & effectual Opposition to them. We applaud the patriotick
Determination of the District of Rutland "that it is of the
utmost Importance that the Inhabitants of this province stand
firm as one man to support & maintain all their just Rights &
Privileges." Such a resolution when general among the people can
seldom fail to reduce the most haughty Invaders of the common
Rights to a Submission to Reason.
________________________________________________________________

1Clerk of the District of Rutland, Worcester County.



THE COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE OF BOSTON TO THOMAS MIGHILL.1

[MS., Committee of Correspondence Papers, Lenox Library.]

BOSTON, April 7 1773


SIR

We the Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Boston,
acknowledge the very obliging Letter to said town, signd by
yourself & transmitted to us by order of the Town of Rowley.

It gives us great pleasure to find that the proceedings of the
Town we have the Honor to serve, have been so acceptable to our
worthy & much esteemed Brethren of Rowley. This cannot fail to
animate the Metropolis in every laudable Exertion for the common
Cause of Liberty. The ardent Zeal of your Town for that all
interresting Cause, expressd in their Letter and their judicious
Instructions to their Representative which accompany it, afford
us a very strong Assurance of the high Esteem they have of our
invalueable Rights & their deep Sense of the Grievances we labour
under. We joyn with them in supplicating Almighty God for his
Direction Assistance & Blessing in every laudable Effort that may
be made for the securing to our Selves & posterity the free &
full Enjoyment of those precious Rights & privileges for which
our renowned forefathers expended so much Treasure & Blood.
_________________________________________________________________

1Addressed as "late Moderator of a Meeting of the Freeholders &
other Inhabitants of the Town of Rowley held by Adjournment the
third of February 1773."



TO ARTHUR LEE.

[MS., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library; a text with
modifications is in R. H. Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, vol. ii., pp.
197-203; printed also in the Boston Gazette, May 23, 1774.]

BOSTON, 9 April 1773


MY DEAR SIR

I must by no means omit to request you to present my most
respectful Complimts to the Society of the Bill of Rights and
return them my hearty Thanks for the great Honor they have done
me in admitting me one of their Members. The Gentlemen may be
assured that this unexpected mark of their Respect adds to the
Obligation which I have ever held myself under, to employ the
small Share of Ability which God has given me, in vindicating
the Rights of my Country & Mankind.

I can now assure you, that the Efforts of this Town at their
Meeting in November last, have had Effects which are extremely
mortifying to our petty Tyrants. Every Art & every Instrument was
made use of to prevent the Meetings of the Towns in the Country
but to no purpose. It is no Wonder that a Measure calculated to
promote a Correspodence and a free Communication among the
people, should awaken Apprehensions; for they well know that it
must detect their Falshood in asserting that the people of this
Country were satisfied with the Measures of the British
parliament and the Administration of Government. Our Governor has
in my Opinion merited greatly of the Ministry by his constant
Endeavors, though in vain, to sooth & quiet the people & perswade
them to think there were no Grievances that might "be seen felt
or understood." And when the House of Representatives in the last
May Session, by almost a unanimous Vote remonstrated against his
Independency, he, without the least Foundation in Truth, & for no
other Reason that I can conceive but to give Countenance to his
Patron Hillsborough, or to establish himself in his Governmt
which he recd with so great RELUCTANCE, did not scruple in his
Speech at the Close of that Session, to insinuate that the House
was under the Influence of a few factious members. No Speech of
Bernards ever gave greater Disgust to the People, nor with more
reason.

There has been another Session of the Genl Assembly, wch began
unexpectedly on the 6th of Jany last. It is my Opinion that it
would have been postponed, as usual of late, till near the Close
of our political Year, had it not been for the Boston Town
Meeting; I mean to prevent the designd Effects of it, by giving
an occasion to the small Jobbers in the Country to say, that
"however expedient it might have been for them to have had their
meetings before, it now becomes unnecessary & improper since
their representatives are soon to meet in Genl Assembly." This
had an Influence in some Towns; and his EXCELLENCY, I suppose
judgd it more probable that he should be able to mannage the
Members of the House and prevail upon them "to joyn with him in
bearing Testimony against the UNWARRANTABLE Proceedings of
Boston," if they came together without having the explicit
Sentiments of their Constituents.

At the Meeting of the Assembly, he thought proper to open a
Controversy with the two Houses, for which I think Hillsbro would
not thank him; for he has thereby defeated the favorite Design of
the Ministry, which was to lull the people into Security, and for
the effecting of which Design, he had before thought himself, or
endeavord to make Administration believe he was entitled to so
great a Share of Merit. It has been publishd in most of the
Newspapers in the Continent & engages much of the Attention of
the other Colonies. This, together with ye proceedings of a
CONTEMPTIBLE Town meeting, has awakned the Jealousy of all, & has
particularly raised ye Spirit of the most ancient & patriotick
Colony of Virginia. Their manly Resolves have been transmitted to
the Speaker of the House of Representatives in a printed Sheet of
their Journals; and our Come of Correspondence have circulated
Copies of them into every Town & District through the Province.1

I wish I could hear more of Lord D. to qualify him for his high
office, than merely that he is a GOOD Man. Goodness I confess is
an essential, tho too rare a Qualification of a Minister of
State. Possibly I may not have been informd of the whole of his
Lordships Character. Without a Greatness of Mind adequate to the
Importance of his Station, I fear he may find himself embarrassd
with his present Connections. It can easily be conceivd what
principle induced Lord North to recommend to that Department a
Nobleman characterized in America for Piety; but what could
prevail on his Lordship to joyn with such Connections, unless he
had a Consciousness that his own Abilities were sufficient to
defeat the plans of a corrupt Administration, I am not able to
conceive. It might be well for his Lordship to be assured, that
there is now a fairer prospect than ever of an Union among the
Colonies, which his predecessor did & had reason to dread, tho he
affected to despise it. Should the Correspondence proposd by
Virginia produce a Congress; and that an ASSEMBLY OF STATES, it
would require the Head of a very able Minister to treat with so
respectable a Body. This perhaps is a mere fiction in the Mind of
a political Enthusiast. Ministers of State are not to be disturbd
with Dreams.

I must now acknowledge your agreeable Letter of the 24 of Decr.2
I cannot wonder that you almost depair of the British Nation. Can
that people be saved from Ruin, who carry their Liberties to
market & sell them to the highest Bidder? But America "shall rise
full plumed and glorious from her Mothers Ashes."

Our House of Representatives have sent a Letter to Lord
Dartmouth. This must without Question be a wise measure, though I
must own I was not in it. I feard it would lead the people to a
false Dependence; I mean upon a Minister of State, when it ought
to be placed, with Gods Assistance, upon THEMSELVES. You cannot
better prepare him for the representatives of the House, than as
you propose, by giving him a proper Idea of Hutchinson. I am much
obligd to you for your Intention to hold up to the publick the
Generosity of my esteemed friend Mr. Otis. I wish I could assure
you that he is perfectly recoverd.

April 12.

This day I have the pleasure of receiving yours of the 25 of
Jany.3 Your putting me in mind of the Honor done me by the
Society of the Bill of Rights is very kind. I ought sooner to
have acknowledgd it. My omitting it was owing to being in a Hurry
when I last wrote to you. I am sensible I am not one of the most
regular Correspondents; perhaps not so as I should be. I duly
recd tho I think not by Mr Storey, the Letter which inclosed the
Answer to the Resolution of the Govr & Council against Junius
Americanus, which I immediately publishd in the Boston Gazette.
It was read with great Satisfaction by Men of Sense & Virtue. I
am heartily glad to find that the proceedings of this Town are so
pleasing to you. I have heard that Ld Dartmouth recd one of our
pamphlets with Coolness & expressd his Concern that the Town had
come into such Measures. His Lordship probably will be much
surprizd to find a very great Number of the Towns in this
province(& the Number is daily increasing)concurring fully in
Sentiments with this Metropolis; expressing Loyalty to the King &
Affection to the Mother Country but at the same time a firm
Resolution to maintain their constitutional Rights & Liberties. I
send you the proceedings of one town, which if you think proper
you may publish as a Specimen of the whole, for the Inspection of
an Administration either misinformd & credulous to the greatest
Degree of human Weakness, or Obstinate in wilfull Error. They
have lately employd Eight Regiments of British Troops to bring an
handful of unfortunate Carribs to a Treaty dishonorable to the
Nation. How many Regiments will be thought necessary to penetrate
the Heart of a populus Country & subdue a sensible enlightned &
brave people to the ignominious Terms of Slavery? Or will his
Lordships superior Wisdom direct to more salutory Measures, and
by establishing Freedom in every part of the Kings extensive
Dominions, restore that mutual Harmony & Affection which alone is
wanting to build up the greatest Empire the World has ever yet
seen.

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